I'm back...

Hi Everyone...

So my no hobby for old men turned out to be quite prophetic...   especially considering how long it's been since I posted...

I haven't quite had "no" hobby...  but I haven't had as much...

Still...  with a new year comes new challenges and, the Independent Characters are doing another hobby progress challenge...  

So without much ado, here is my entry...

Emperor's Children, Phoenix Guard Terminator's with Minotaurs Shoulder pads

Two Weeks 'til Gencon!

Alright, so it's not 2 weeks until Gencon, just yet, but it is 2 weeks until I fly to New York, then onto the 'Con so close enough...

There was lot's of stuff anounced this week so I'll see if I can do a proper re-cap...

 

 

Palladium have announced that they will be selling copies of Robotech Tactics at the 'con and they will be showing of some of the expansion boxes...   hopefully they will be sending it to Kickstarter backers soon as I'm waiting for a ton of stuff to come....  linky: http://www.palladiumbooks.com/

 

 

 

Corvus Belli have announced the contents of their new 2 player starter set...   everywhere but on their actual website...   a bit of a pain really, but it looks like it and a couple of exclusive mini's will be available at the 'con. Beasts of War have an unboxing video up on their website: http://www.beastsofwar.com/infinity/unboxing-operation-icestorm/ looks cool...

 

Bushido the game will be making an appearance at Gencon, GCT Studios are calling on reviewers to check out Rise of the Kage and they've listed a couple of deals on their website, check it out here: http://www.bushido-thegame.com/content/gen-con-calling-all

 

Catalyst game labs have announced that they will be selling their new co-operative deck building game Shadowrun: Crossfire at Gencon and have it listed up for pre-order with an expected release of 27th of August. details here: http://www.catalystgamelabs.com/2014/07/22/shadowrun-crossfire-street-date-of-august-27th/

Onyx Path Publishing, current publishers of World of Darkness products have quite the blog post up, which I won't bother reviewing, looks like they're going to be doing all their upcoming product announcements, there, at the con...   http://theonyxpath.com/all-gen-con-all-the-time/

 

 

Mantic Games haven't put up any Gencon specific news but they have announced they've got a Kickstarter launching on Monday, Dungeon Saga, looks interesting, check it out here: http://manticblog.com/

 

 

Games and Gears will be selling an exclusive resin terrain piece at the con. You must pre-order it though and it will be available for pick up there. http://www.gamesandgears.co.uk/ I would also expect we'll be seeing some of the new battle boards that they Kickstated earlier this year. 


 

 

 

 

Hawk Wargames, makers of Drop Zone commander, unfortunately don't have any big con announcements, they will be running a tournament though, details here: http://hawkwargames.cmail2.com/t/ViewEmail/j/D8A49692BC263A6E#toc_item_5

 

 

 

 

Plaid Hat Games don't have too much to announce just yet by the looks of things but they did say that their new meta-cooperative game Dead of Winter will be availbale in limited quantities at their booth, details here: http://www.plaidhatgames.com/news/392

 

 

 

 

 

Smirk and Dagger games will be showcasing their latest, Student Bodies at the con. Apparently they will only be bringing 150 copies so it'll be get in quick before they all sell out. https://www.facebook.com/pages/SmirkDagger/310592125355

I couldn't find any interesting news from Soda Pop miniatures, however they did announce that Relic Knights was available for retail sales from the 10th of July so expect to see lots of those there. To be honest, I think the most interesting thing to see at their booth will probably be all the fights breaking out from angry Kickstarter backers, they've had a few less than stellar Kickstarter campaigns recently...   http://sodapopminiatures.com/

Dream Pod 9 have announced their Gencon exlusive miniature for this year, it will be a Northern Headhunter gear holding a CNCS Banner, check out their website for more details: http://www.dp9.com/content/sneak-peek-our-gen-con-2014-miniature

And that's it for the moment....   still haven't heard from Wyrd yet but they did say they'll do an anouncement just prior to the con, http://wyrd-games.net/community/topic/101922-wyrd-at-gen-con-2014/page-1.

 

I'll try for one more update before I fly out but no guarantees....   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gencon is coming - what to expect.

1 month to go until Gencon!

So to celebrate only being one month until the largest table-top convention in the world kicks off I thought I would summaries both where to find some good lists and some of the things I've found myself.

This is mainly going to be a lot of click bait so you have all been warned...


First major place to go and look is here: Board Game Geek.
There you will see a lot of the expected releases for the 'con, there may be a few surprises and to be honest there is quite a bit of wish-listing.





Next, worth checking out is: Board Game Quest they put a bunch of effort into finding out what's going on. Way more than I've done... 








Lastly Tabletop Gaming News has started to get some news on their site as well...



Now, less summary, more actual, and these are all things I'm quite interested in:

The biggest announcement is probably the new version of Dungeons and Dragons, with the starter set expected to be available for sale: http://www.wizards.com/dnd/Product.aspx?x=dnd/products/dndacc/starterset

 

And some more info on events here: http://www.wizards.com/DnD/Feature.aspx?x=dnd/feature/gencon

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fantasy Flight games have a big pile of stuff on they're upcoming release schedule: http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_upcoming.asp including a reprint of "Hey That's my Fish" !!! so they'll definitely have some stuff at the 'con....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Privateer Press have a bunch of things happening at Gencon including taking over "The Ram

Restaraunt and Brewery" and they'll be selling exclusive t-shirts there, you'll also be able to grab hold of the two exclusive mini's:  Bombardier Bombshell or Druid Gone Wilder!  full event listing here: http://privateerpress.com/gencon-privateer-events 

 

I can't seem to find any info on Wyrd yet, but I'm sure they'll have something special for Gencon, they've really made it they're own over the last few years...






Onyx Path, the current publishers of World of Darkness and other old White Wolf properties have a preview of the preview up on they're blog: http://theonyxpath.com/from-gen-con-onyx-path-release-schedule-aug-2013-aug-2014/ and it looks like they'll have a big pile of stuff going on at Gencon. Those guys are definitely something I'll be checking out...

Gale Force Nine will have the new Sons of Anarchy game there so that should be fun, and I'm sure their other products like Firefly will also be available for purchase: http://www.gf9.com/

Corvus Belli will be there this year, with a lot more presence than previous years. They will also be offering up for sale an exclusive Cosplay mini, to go along with the Cosplay woman that will be gracing their booth: http://infinitythegame.com/forum/index.php?/topic/23529-booth-modelprofessional-cosplayer-poll/ more details can be found on Bolls: http://www.belloflostsouls.net/2014/05/the-dirt-gencon-2014-infinity-prep.html



Paizo will of course be there as well with a couple of new products available for Pathfinder which will be perfect for the campaign I'm planning to start towards the end of the year: http://www.icv2.com/articles/news/26587.html




And finally Games Workshop will also be making a prescence and bringing along Forgeworld, which will probably be my last opportunity to pick up this years convention exclusive models, luckily one of them is a Minotaurs miniature which should fit in perfectly with the rest of the army...   http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/Events

Let the count down begin....   :)

 

More Minotaurs and a little stripping

So, I've come to the realisation that I'm not going to get 1000 points completed by the end of the month. But, no problem, I may have lost the battle but I can still win the war...  

I am going to try and get a unit complete by the end of the month:

Some Devastators!

And, in preperation for the next 6 months of the project, I'm going to repurpose some old mini's, which means...

STRIPPING MINIATURES!!!

Or in this case old Emperor's Children vehicles.

I went to a tournament a few years ago, based around the Horus Heresy, tons of fun, and I put together an EC army for the occasion. This was also before Forge World had pumped out all there stuff...

Anyways on to the stripping...  

You need:

Some models to strip and some chemicals.

I like to use this stuff:

Simple green.

I also like to spice up the process, with a little of this:

Dettol

I am lucky enough to live in a country that has both available, either one on their own will work just as well.

Next is a simple process of popping them in a plastic container:

Bye, bye, Land Raider and Rhino!

 

And filling up the container with the simple green and adding in a dash of the dettol:

And then you wait.....

The chemical is actually deep enough to submerge them, they just want to float to the top.

I'll turn them a couple of times until I'm ready to paint them. I have an old toothbrush that I use to clean away the paint and it should bring it back to the original primer. It will take a little while to strip probably a few weeks, but I'm in no hurry and these will probably sit for the next couple of months at least.

I tend to use GW black for most of my stuff and that tends to stick, really, really well...

All gone well it should end up looking something like this:

An old EC Vindicator, no longer purple.

It's still a little wet from being washed under the tap and stuff, but once it's dry it should be good to go...

And there you have it, stripping, it works on Resin and Metal miniatures as well...

 

Hecaton Aikos - Complete!

I finally managed to get it finished...

I was hoping to have this posted on the weekend, but a bit of surgery I had done last Friday, knocked me around a lot more than I would have thought....

Anyways, on to the pics:

Minotaurs - continuing...

Still managing to hobby...  this blog appears to be working...

Next on the docket, The Contemptor Dreadnought Hecaton Aiakos, sporting a plasma cannon and a dreadnought close combat weapon, should be fun to play. I'll probably run him as a venerable dreadnought for the most part, see how I go and a Tech Marine who will work as my Master of the Forge...  

Some pics:

Group shot for the The Independent Characters Challenge

Close up of the Master of The Forge

The Contemptor Dreadnought

And whats that in his hand, a Dark Angel?...   

I need to learn how to list build... X-Wing Edition

I went to my first x-wing tournament and spoilers: I lost spectacularly...   managed to go 0-5 for the day, thus cementing my place as worst x-wing player in the world...

 

I took 3 X-Wings, Wedge Antiles with R2-D2, Marksmanship and Advanced Proton Torpedoes; Biggs Darklighter, with an R2-F4 unit; and Luke Skywalker with  Veteran Instincts and an R5 Astromech. 

 

First game was against Vader and his cronies, a Tie Advanced, 2 Tie interceptors and a regular Tie Fighter...

 

There was a bit of swarm tactics shenanigans with  the Advanced and the Interceptors but I did manage to take out one of the Interceptors and nearly put paid to the Tie Fighter but my opponent manage to kill Wedge and Biggs thus depriving me of my first win of the day....

 

Next to lose against was 4 Tie Fighters and a Firespray-31...   the Fire-Spray puts out more fire power than I would have thought....     lost Wedge and Biggs again....

 

The Third match up of the day was against Tie Advanced and some Tie Fighters? possibly, lost all 3 x-wings in this game, did manage to do the Marksmanship+Advanced Proton Torpedoes and took out the Tie Advanced with one salvo......

 

Followed by the fourth, a mirror match of sorts, 3 X-Wings; Luke, Wedge and Biggs only with slightly different equipment, managed to lose Wedge and Biggs, which by this point was becoming a theme...

 

It should be pointed out, and this is obviously clutching at straws, but at this point I had managed to kill some of the opposing force in each game and only once did I lose all of my ships.

 

This all changed with my worst, and most ignominious loss  of the day and this I will put down to bad luck....

 

This was against 2 Rookie X-Wing Pilots and Chewbacca in the  Millenium Falcon, I managed to lose Wedge and Biggs as usual  but this time it was in one round of shooting. Things were going reasonably well I had taken some shields of the enemy and he had taken a couple of me. I was lining up for the kill 3 abreast when the Millenium Falcon and one of the X-wings had range of me. He rolled to hit on Biggs and scored 2 Hits and a Crit, I rolled to save and came up empty. With only 1 shield to go, that was taken followed by a face down damage card then the face up take 2 damage critical card. With that Biggs was out. His X-Wing shot next, this time at Wedge and managed to do exactly the same thing and again I pulled the 2 Hit critical card and there went Wedge....

 

Luke went soon after and that was the end of the tournament for me...

 

Oh well, he was very appoligetic but some days these things just happen...

 

So that is how I became "The Worst X-Wing Player In The World"