Pay the piper...

In spite of the witty title, there are no pipers on the painting desk. There is however a few revaluations. The first one is said without any real venom, it's just a statement of fact. As far as Games Workshop goes, I'm done.

They just don't have a product that appeals to me anymore. All the stuff I've got, all it's going to do is sit in cases and gently gather dust. Time to let it go and sell it on, put the money into stuff that I'm actually interested in now.

First off is going to be my imperial guard, I never even finished building them. The rest will follow shortly after.

So where is my focus now then? Well obviously Malifaux is my priority, I have The Ortegas based and under coated and ready to get done.







I also have Ten Thunders, the Railway Crew, to be painted, Lady J's crew to be built and painted. Sonia's crew is to be built and the same. Who knows, if my internet is out long enough, maybe I will get them all done.

Progress reports will hopefully follow :D


Marc

Time on my hands...

 Recently I've been having a nightmare in regards to my internet. Major FUBAR between the ISP and the phone company and all that fun stuff. My computer has essentially been reduced to a very large, very expensive MP3 player.   

However, it did get me thinking (shush Bear) I've often considered the question of where did I find the time when I was younger to paint a whole army. Admittedly it wasn't painted very well, but it was painted.   

Well, the answer came to me today. It's all the internets fault, when I was younger we didn't have internet at first and when we did, we had the raw power of a 36k (or whatever it was) modem. Feel the speed.   

Not.  

  Anyone that remembers dial up knows you could start the process and then go do something else for half an hour.   As a result, having faster and faster internet over time and access to more and more diversions online ( Twitter I'm looking at you) I've found it very easy to ignore stuff just to play silly buggers online.  

  As a result and as I am apparently going to be lacking internet until at least the 21st of May I will be getting lots of hobby done.   I have already started this by getting the green stuffed bases made and my Ortegas pinned onto them.  

  Pictures will be forth coming. Honest.   

  Anyway, that's all for now, I'm signing off.   

This is killing my phones data. :P  Marc 

And now our service is interrupted further...

Thanks to an EPIC Charlie Foxtrot with my ISP and the phone lines, I have no internet access other than through m phone for the next 3 to 4 weeks. 

Funtimes. Fun times. 

Bet you thought...

I'd forgotten about the blog again. No such luck I'm afraid. I've had a death in the family so updates will be erratic for a while. 

Thanks for your patience, 

Marc. 

Salute Highlight Gallery (Warning - Picture heavy!)

In no particular order,  these are just some shots from the show that took my fancy.

On a side note, photographing through perspex is tricky. Would also have helped if I hadn't tried to take every shot with my macro lens.

You can have it in any colour you like, as long as it's brown...

Hello!

I thought today I'd do a quick run down of another Salute purchase I made.

Now, let me be honest here. I've tried a great many miniature cases over the years from many different manufactureres. 3/4 generation of cases from Games Workshop, (Anyone remember the single clam shell version?)  cases from the now defunct battlepack people (Charon Industries, crying shame) aluminium flight cases, Figures in Comfort cases, KR Cases, and I'm sure there's a few that I've forgotten that I can't remember who makes the damn things any more.

This is about the Malifaux branded case from Battlefoam. 

Tools, trees and trash..

Hello again!

Contrary to popular belief, I'm not blogging just to wind up @DocBungle I know it's hard to believe, but it's true.

So I'm sitting here wondering, what on earth should I blog about today, there's bound to be something.

Well, Games Workshop has got a new tool set out, limited Edition (Ooooooh....shiny)  and at the risk of being classed a naysayer, I'm not terribly impressed.

For £90 I think you can buy better quality, that will last you a lot longer. As an example of that, I've had a pair of Xuron micro shears that I've been using regularly for getting towards 15 years that are still as good a tool now as they were then, with just a little care.

Price wise, you can buy a pair of these for the same or less than you would for a pair of Games Workshop clippers.  I'll let you make your own decision on that. 

And now a little update on The Dreaded Trees!

As you can see.. hopefully... they are starting to come along. I've made several changes, I've striped all the wire for starters, sometimes I use 8 strands, sometimes I use 6 or 7. I think Trees usually only bifurcate  but hey, they are twisted mutant trees. Just go with it.

And this is just a photo of my workbench in it's current state. (Which is messy but hey, that's the way I work at times.)

Anyway, catch you later!

Meanwhile, in the wild west....

Hello again!

5 days running? Must be the end of the world.

Those of you that know me, or have listened to the podcast that I do with @DocBungle, @KevinBryant76 and @TheBlueHeretic  on twitter, might be aware of the fact that I am a total Maliwhore ™.

To this effect I have decided to try and build an old west board to play on, because my first choice of crew has and likely always will be, the Latigo Posse as lead by Perdita Ortega.

Back To Basics... Again...

o.k, o.k, I know I used that pun yesterday, but bear with me.
Today I'm talking about the Basus Basing System from Wargamesbakery.co.uk and available for sale from zinge.co.uk.

Lets go back to basics..

Or maybe that should be back2base-ix.

So who are they for starters? Well, they are an Australian company that makes paint racks and work top organisers and the like out of laser cut MDF and laser cut acrylic.

It's really quite nice. This is going to be the first of 4 reviews for their products that I own. To day I'm going to be talking about their R.A.F stand.

R.A.F in this case stands for Rank And File (Clever, eh?)

When it's built, it should look, something like this.

Each of those stands has a magnet at top and bottom and is magnetically attached to the base itself. So if you are one of those mad magnetisers (you know who you are) then this kit is a little bit of a wet dream for you.

O.k, This was the last of their kits that I built, so I'd say I'm fairly experienced with their style by now. This is by and far the fiddliest kit I've built by them. The frame everything stands on is easy peasy, but it took me several false starts on the stands.  Be careful, think it through, watch the videos. 

Advice- Lay the kit out first, and pair the magnets up. Also, when you're tightening the screws, to tighten them too much where the magnets are or you run the risk of cracking them. Like I did.

Here's a really neat thing about it. Once assembled (correctly) you can do this with it.

I gave it a good shake and none of them dropped off, so I can definitely recommend the thinking that went into that.

So I suppose, if you're using all plastic models, once attached to the bases and everything is properly magnetised, you could turn them outside down and nothing will fall off. (Although way you would want to do that, is beyond me.

So all in all:-
Ease of build - 6/10
Practicality 9/10

Overall rating A solid 8/10. I would definitely recommend this to die hard painters that like things orderly.

TREES! AKA- The Way Of The Bear

So after much taunting of @DocBungle on Twitter for the mess he made of his house with model  trees and the grief he got for it from Mrs Bear (Alex to her friends, Mrs Bear to you lot :P) I've decided to have a go.

As I was Wickes earlier buying some of that elusive pink foam  (Space Board Eco being it's real name, apparently) I decided to pick up what I thought I needed.

Proof that it does exist outside of the wilds of Nottingham!

Anyway, I grabbed the wire, some spray adhesive (Protip- Use outdoors, make sure anything you value is covered up) steel wool and some cork tiles, because, hey why not.

I had a go, my first attempt (before painting, because it's well established that I don't know one end of a paintbrush from the other) looks...well... put it this way, I should finally be able to get those really tough tea stains out from my mug.

Yeah, it's not exactly genius. I finally found this tutorial, which just showed me how off base I was, for starters, I need different wire entirely. Oh well, that's next on the shopping list!

I haven't forgotten the promised reviews, they are coming! Hell, it's not like I've got any followers left anyway, lol.

Marc

Holy Shit...

Has it really been 3 ish years since I bothered to update this?
Wow, that's just...lame. :D

Anyway, here's an update.

Salute 2014 has just been and gone. It was awesome, no Bring And Buy this year though. No idea why.

We're getting ready to record episode 15 of the Flock And Awe podcast tomorrow, can't believe it myself. How we're still going is anybodies guess.

Since my last blog I have turned into a real maliwhore ™  especially with the new plastics, which are awesome. If you haven't seen them already head on over to just about any LGS or just google Malifaux or M2E.

My desk has undergone yet moor evolutions, as it is want to do over time. I've replaced a lot of the hardware that held my paints, changing back to paintiers for the most part. As is the norm, that's not to say that things will stay that way, but... it will do for now.

O.k. So more news on the podcast.  You can check us out here   flockandawepodcast.wordpress.com or go looking for us on itunes.  We've got some great guests lined up for the coming months,  it's going to be a blast, so please tune in and enjoy.

Also, there will be some reviews coming. I don't get a lot of painting done, but I do like to buy shinies, so expect reviews to become a common thing :D

That's all for now folks!

Marc

Skyping and painting..

As anyone that does it knosw, painting can end up being a very isolated hobby. You spend hours on your own, concentrating on little toy soldiers that in spite of your dreams( or possibly your nightmares) will never tell you how they feel about  your work on their paint job.

              So the other day I saw a random tweet that was a brilliant idea. Being on skype, while you paint with others that are doing the same thing.  You've got a headset, so your hands are free, you're talking to other people that are doing the same thing. If you have a problem or a genius idea, you can share it straight away.

It's genius, and it's so simple.

Wish I'd thought of it.

If anyone wants to try it, drop me a msg.

Marc

Well hello there... long time no see..

O.k, I admit it. Just lately I have been utterly crap at making blog posts.

I could make a long lists of all the things that have gotten in the way of me making posts, but the bottom line is that I've just been procrastinating left right and centre.

That being said, I would like to speak about something I think is vital for any business.

Customer Service.


We all know what customer service is, what's good customer service, what's bad customer service, what's outstanding customer service. 


There are some companies out there that have a record for outstanding customer service, I personally would count Privateer Press among them.


There are some companies that are notoriously bad, who I won't name here, because I'm not going to turn this into a poo flinging contest.  You know who they are, they know who they are, no sense in giving them free publicity.


O.k, now to the meat of this post. 

Sometimes I see a product online that I just have to give a try,  sometimes this involves ordering from a company I haven't ordered from before.
In this case it was Warlord Games. They have a rather nice new paint rack solution that I wanted to try out.

It looks pretty good to me,with a good price. I chose two for large pots and one for small pots. 

So I happily placed my order and started to wait, thinking" Well, If I'm really lucky, I'll see it on saturday morning, or tuesday morning if I'm not" So cut to Wednesday and still no arrival. "Hmm," Say I. "Surely something has gone amiss? 

So I grab the phone and place a call to a rather charming fellow by the name of Steve at Warlord. 

I explain the problem and he promises to look into it and call me back. Which he promptly did less then  five minutes later. 

Apparently they were out of stock of one of the trays.

Now don't get me wrong, I don't mind waiting for stuff, if it's out of stock it's out of stock.

However,  if  you are out of stock and it is causing orders to be backlogged, then it would be really nice to let the customers know in some way, shape or form. a note on the website, an e-mail, a quick phone call, hell, I'd accept a carrier pigeon.

Needless to say, I was a bit non-plussed to find out that it would be friday to monday before I received my order, but that was mostly because I hadn't been notified. I'm still holding faith with Warlord for now,  but it was hardly a glowing start.

If you want to chance your own arm and buy a rack like this yourself, you can get them here.

Until then, keep them brush's flailing!

Marc 

Cardstock and scalpels

 Hello again, presuming you've been here before, if not, hello and welcome to the blog!
                                                    I've spent today building tiles and things for Worldworks Games latest product, the Oubliette of Peril. 
                          Like all of worldwork's products, it's well thought out and produced, excellently done at a great price, however, the economy of price comes with a cost that while not hidden, you might not think of immediately. 
  While you're building this you're going to need a lot of cardstock at a specific weight, you're also going to hammer the ink on your printer and go through a LOT of scalpel blades, the last isn't really a problem, as I buy them by the box anyway :)
  Oh, you're also going to need a fair amount of adhesive and foam board. 

So while it can be great, and once you've made a lot of bits up, all very labour intensive, I might add, then you can build some very nice, very adaptable gaming boards that you can configure to just about any gaming purpose you wish.

 For me, I'm now looking towards one of the automated cutters that they do, shame it's £240 after VAT, but hey, talk about time saving :D

That's all for now folks, tomorrow I might actually show you some minis, go figure :D

Rabbit Holes..

      Well, after my statement of being an antisocial bastard the other day, I decided to head into town and check out a couple of things, so among my wanderings through the spaghetti map that is the london undergrounn, across the river Thames and it's surrounds I managed to make my way to Dark Sphere Games.
  The first thing I noticed is the fact that this shop, despite being there for at least 12 months, has got no large sign on the top. That's it, no banner, nothing. If you weren't keeping a sharp eye, it's easy to miss.
 Fortunately, if you're looking, the posters and such like can be most helpful in finding it, although the large amount of Magic: The Gathering  posters was off putting. (Personal grudge, I don't like CCG's)
  Anyway, once you find it and get in there, forget your normal browsing patterns, there are no visible prices, anywhere on anything other then the P3 paints. Oh, and it's less browsing, more like an archeological dig,  it's roughly the size of a  shoebox and the walls are covered, absolutely covered with stock, and stock stacked on top of stock . It's a massive selection of stuff, a really great selection, IF you can find what you want. Don't be afraid to ask, you will need to ask regardless because nothing is stickered with prices, oh wait, I already mentioned that, can you guess how annoyed I was by that?
     Oh, and diminishing the space even more, I chose the day when they had just had a delivery.

 On a totally different note, I had my first experience with a wet shave when someone else is holding the blade.
  While the pampering was nice, the hot towels, the slap,  certain other of the services were a little odd. The hand and arm massage for example, what on earth was that about? And the ear singeing? Really, really strange.
 Sadly, for all that, it was a lousy shave, as a blonde I usually only need to shave every 2-3 days,  I'm currently sporting evening stubble. Well, that was 15 quid  that would have been better spent on paint.

Right, I'm hoping to get back on the brush tomorrow, I've got a group of 5  Reservoir Dogs-esque figures I've been slapping around with the brushes.

Laters,
 Marc

Books Books Books!

              Some of you may be aware, but I'm a compulsive reader, it's one of the reasons I have problems  getting stuff done,  but I just found out about a really great contest for some signed books that I want to win on a friends blog, heres the link.

   I've been meaning to read this series for a while now, but I just haven't got around to it, so fingers crossed  for me on this!

Marc

Who do you think you are kidding Mr Hitler, if you think we are on the run,

we are the boys who will stop your little game.
 To many Brits of a certain age, that will immediately bring to mind this.

You may have noticed I've added a progress bar to the right, the code for that came courtesy of @RTGamer on Twitter, so big thanks to him.

The mini's currently in that are an unlikely bunch of chaps, character from a BBC comedy series called Dad's Army. Dad's Army was the nick name given to the units that made up the Home Guard during  World War Two,  so called because they were all soldiers past their prime and unable to enlist in the regular forces, often veterans from the previous world war.

Anyway, enough of a history lesson, these are the figures in their current state.

I've had them knocking around for about 8 years or so, I finally figured out what colour to go for with the uniforms. (Please don't tell me about the different dye batches and variations in the uniform colour, I know, I don't care, I just want the damn things painted)

So there you go :)

Just a quickie...

While round a friends a noticed a rather smart little idea for organising your tools and brushes, bonus points here for doing it rather cheaply.




What you can't tell clearly from this rather dodgy image is that it's a sink organiser, as in something that usually lurks around the basin in your kitchen. Not too shoddy eh?

PS. wow, that's one hell of a pixilated image, but if you click through, it gets much better.

Wow.. a week already since I posted?

 Um yeah, it's been a big fat fail lately, lol.

 But I have made some recent purchases, so I'll talk about those.

 First up, rather mundane, but I needed them. I was having a problem with  the flip top lids on a fair few of my paints, they seem to have developed some kind of crumbling nurgle's rot,

No, I haven't been chewing on them.

So, yes, with the seals now being less then great, it was time to do some research, see if I couldn't get some lids.

I found several sources, but the best price I found was here. The problem as such is that you have to buy the lids and pots as one unit, so I know have a whole bunch of  empty pots with no use for them.

Other purchases, include some more Warmachine, some more Infinity and a dipping of toes into a new horror skirmish game called Malifaux (well, new to me)

For Warmachine, I ordered the new resin/plastic Heavy warjack and the Triumph upgrade kit.

So that's going to be a lot of fun putting those together, magnets ahoy!

For  Infinity, I decided to go with the Yu Jing Su Jian  Immediate Action Group, in other words, Transformers!

Finally, for Malifaux, I couldn't resist some Hilbilly Gremlins :D

I mean who could resist these sweet little fellows?
So I guess I'll be painting a fair bit of green in the future, of course, it's all dependant on when the gamestore of choice decides to deliver them.

So yes, that's what's coming up next.

Oh, and I hurt both my legs trying to swim today, I say swim, but judging by the splashing I was making, I think that  the lifeguard may have thought I was having some sort of seizure. I do know how to swim, I'm just out of practise, way out of practise. :D
That's all for now folks, catch ya later!