Dwarven Gaming Table

Yesterday I posted about following the inspiration when it hits you. I have played a couple of games that use a combination of Warhammer and Mordheim rules to make a fun little skirmish game. Most of the missions are played on a 24"×24" playing area. I had this crazy idea to build a single Dwarven tile that could be used just for these games and also double as a display board for my friend Brad who plays Dwarves. I guess it has a 3rd use with its 1"×1" grid and that would be to play Pathfinder/D&D on it.

What really ended up happening was that I convinced Brad that he really needed a gaming table of his own, and I set about the task of designing an underground city.

As I am wont to do, I took things to far. Originally the plan had been to make 8- 2'×2' modular tiles, but I ended up making 10 as I used scraps and pieces to make 2 ruined tiles. I made underground "forests" using mushrooms made of kitchen door knobs and ruined Dwarven statues. All in all I am extremely pleased with the finished product and I'm happy to see how it went from an idea, to paper, to a reality.

A new year and a new plan

Yes,  I fully recognize that I haven't posted lately. Truth is that I put some much effort into my Daemons and my Marines that I've kinda burnt out a bit. I've also backed off of blogging because I have been trying to focus on what I would like to accomplish in 2015.

1) I want to get my Daemons painted up to 3000 points so that I have lots of options for list building. This includes modelled movement trays and a display board. I would really like to get more involved in the local WFB tournament scene.

2) I want to finish my winter table terrain including 2 centerpieces and some more 40kish terrain. I really need to come up with a snow technique.

3) I want to start and finish the terrain for my Urban Combat FaT Mat. In my opinion, the Urban mat is the best one that they have produced thus far and I would really like to use mine.

4) I picked up a small Beastmen army for less than 7% of its retail price. I spent 6.5hrs on stripping the models and now they're ready for the reassembly. I don't want a huge army but enough for small games that I can use for Megabattles, Narratives, and as a lender army. I expect that they'll be speed painted and based to match my Warriors of Chaos army. Maybe I can play around with some End Times fun.

5) I want to grow the Nerdmas events to have more participants and more fun gaming. We'll be running another one in late February or early March. I realize that this is fairly hard to track but so far our best turnout has been 8 players.

How about you? What are your hobby goals for 2015?

Disgraced Terrain Builder

So if you read Campaign Game #2 you may have noticed the poor quality  (read none) paint job on my terrain. At first glance this may not seem like that big of a deal,  but I was hugely embarrassed by it. You see,  in the last 12 months I have cranked out a tonne of terrain,  built and painted. In fact,  I have made enough terrain to run a 10-12 player tournament without worrying about sparse terrain deployment.

Now,  terrain building is always the most time consuming part. As I already had some hills and forests and scatter barricades,  it was quick to paint everything. I spent maybe an hour over the course of the evening painting this stuff because drybrushing is just too easy.
-Is it finished?  No
-Is it the best I can do?  No
-Does it look way nicer than it did before? Yes

It still needs loads of work,  but hey it's a start and I can now use this terrain without feeling like an idiot.

Hints of things to come

With our map based campaign finally starting on Saturday,  I am extremely excited and antsy to get it started. To kick off the event,  we're playing a big game with everyone. The teams have been selected and will be announced day of the event. Each player is bringing 1200pts. It is a far cry from a serious event with some silly bonuses(regeneration bonus for having the general painted AND named) and is just a chance for all the players to meet one another. The scenario is set and everything is ready to go. For my part,  my 1200pts of Daemons are fully painted and based.

I made these little terrain markers for fun because I was bored. I didn't want to paint any of the models from my KanBan. A little bit of Lava rock,  cork,  and kitty litter glued to a 60mm base. And I toyed around with some OSL off of the lava. Not bad for a first attempt,  but I definitely have loads of room for improvement. Now,  I wonder what I can do with these markers. Maybe I need some inspiration from the Masters of the Forge Podcast.