Oldhammer Weekend 2015

This weekend gone was the third Bring Out Your Lead event, otherwise known as the Oldhammer weekend, Amy and myself have been looking forward to this one for some time and we weren't disappointed.  We drove down on a fine Friday morning and managed to check in early at the Deincourt at around 11am which meant we could leave all our bags in the room and then grabbed a taxi down to Stoke Hall.

Bag packed and old hammer in hand, ready for the journey down to Newark

Amy outside the Deincourt

The first thing we did upon arriving at Foundry was take in the new displays, there are now many more miniatures out than on our previous visit so we took some time to look over them all while the first games were being set up.

 The new cases in the main room and below some of my favourite miniatures on display, top of the list has the be the genestealer army

Amy then partook in a little bit of shopping and picking up an Earth Elemental, some Water Nymphs and another couple of packs or Mer-Folk for here nature army.  We decided to head outside and bask in the glorious weather while as the games were still being set up.

We then went to mingle with the growing number of people who were now turning up and bumped into Drew who was over from the states and had brought some Troll sculpts for some people as well as a Rogue Trader Space Marine force which you'll see later.

I then got chatting to Curtis from Ramshackle Games (a top bloke) who asked what we were here to play, which was nothing (at least planned), as being in the process of a house move meant almost everything was packed away.  However he had brought along plenty of miniatures and wanted to know if we wanted a game of 3rd Edition Warhammer to which the answer was absolutely yes though it would be our first game of 3rd Ed!
I can't remember how many points were were playing but I took his old Chaos army while he played is own Ramshackle Orc army (which was very impressive looking).

Here's me cheering on my Giant who easily deserved man (or monster) of the match by either flattening or scaring off most of the Orc line.

We then spent the rest of the day taking in the various games which were being played including Warhammer Ahoy!, Chainsaw Warrior and Judge Dredd/Necromunda.

My favourite ship on show though they were all very impressive

Also in residence during the event were Tony Ackland and Kev Adams, Tony had brought some of his work with him which he was happy to discuss while Kev was working on some new greens during Friday.

Friday night then saw a trip the the Organ Grinder (otherwise known as the Monkey Pub) where they served a mighty fine pint, Gorilla being the choice for Amy and myself, and we had a game of Skull with Stew, João and Garth.

Picture from João

After recovering from a slight headache on Saturday morning we grabbed a taxi with Drew and rolled up at Foundry for day two.
Kev Adams was doing something a bit different today and was sculpting faces on miniatures for a donation to a charity of his choice.  Amy took advantage of this and had a little customisation added to a treeman she'd picked through trading.

I didn't get many more pictures for today as I was involved in an epic game of 3rd Ed Warhammer which Garth had organised where I was playing an incredible Slann army who were allied with a Wizard and halfling/Dwarf army against an army of Chaos.  Though we lost it was a pleasure playing with such fantastic miniatures (the Chaos army really was something else).

During a break in the game I did mange to run over to the Fallout game a grab a few shots and take in some of the action as well as taking a snap of Drew's Space Marine force.

Tony Yates was also present on the Saturday with some of his artwork and miniatures on show and was a pleasure to speak to.  He also had a 'what do you want me to draw' list so Amy put down a Water Spirit riding a Sea Serpent and she is so happy with her sketch she's thinking of getting an actual miniature made for her Nature army!

After having an excellent Chilli tea (and a doughnut) we decided to crash at the hotel on Saturday night and regain some vigour for the following days activities.

On Sunday we managed to catch a glimpse of the Warhammer Ahoy! game in action and it looked like a everyone was having plenty of fun.

I also managed to take some pictures of a Rogue Trader game between the forces of the Imperium and the Eldar, a real treat to see for me, along with another game of Rogue Trader which was going on in one of the smaller rooms.

There was also a painting competition taking place, which we didn't get to see the end of though these were the entrants just before we had to leave.

However the highlight of the day and quite possible the weekend was the game of Deathrace 40,000.  It was an absolute barrel of laughs to watch and the vehicles that had been put together for this were fantastic. Here are some of the highlights which we caught.

 The race course above and then below some of my favourite vehicles (though the nurgling car didn't take part)

 Cheating Orks going the wrong way to pick up the powerups

Ramming time from the Squats 

 Carnage in the first proper corner

 More cheating Orks! However this was followed by the first lava jump

Curtis' Ramshackle vehicle a little worse for wear being pushed by it's crew 

At this point we had to head home however we've had a superb weekend in great company and I'd just like to thank everyone who was involved in the organising and running of the event and the games, the Ansell's for having us all, and everyone we had a game or shared a pint with over the weekend including Curtis, Garth, Stew and João.

The next post will probably be the last for a while as we prep for the aforementioned house move but hopefully that won't take too long and I can get back to it as my hobby zeal has been well and truly been topped up after this weekend.

Terminator Miniatures Game - The Resistance and Aerial Hunter Killer

Well it's been longer than I wanted since the last post due to a busy home life recently however I have been soldiering one with the hobby, more particularly the Terminator Miniatures Game, and have quite a few things to show today.

First up we have the Resistance fighters and Kyle Reese.

On first inspection of the unpainted Resistance miniatures they don't exactly look mind blowing but for non-gamers the coloured plastic and snap fit arms are great.  However as soon as you get those first layers of paint on them they start to look really good.  As I was working to a deadline with these, in order to have them fully painted for are first scheduled game, I decided to to keep them to a tabletop standard with perhaps a little extra work on the faces.

For the colour scheme I tried to keep as close to what we had seen in the trailers and in the rulebook but without the actual camo design on their outfits (again a time restraint decision).  As I have now seen the film I'm quite happy with how they've turned out out.

Once I'd finished the troops it was time to tackle Kyle Reese and boy what a miniature he is, Michael Perry has done a superb job with this sculpt as it is instantly recognisable as Jai Courtney.  Obviously I couldn't just give him a tabletop standard paint job so I put a bit of extra effort into him which I think has paid off nicely.

With Kyle painted up that was all my miniatures done for the game (and completed literally an hour before our first game took place) yet I still had the Terminator itch to scratch so onto eBay I went and a few short days later this fellow arrived (though not painted of course):

This was a great kit to put together and paint and is perfectly scaled for the miniatures game.  The real challenge actually came in painting the base as I wanted it to match the game mat and the miniatures' bases as close as possible.  The first thing I had to do was get out the Dremel and remove the T2 logo from the base and then cover where it had been with some of Vallejo's Black Lava, which I also used to add some further texture onto other areas of the base.  Once that was done it was easy enough to colour match the base to the game mat and with a quick spray of mat varnish later it was done.

Finally here is a shot of the Hunter Killer with some T-800s, though the Hunter Killer isn't Genisys movie accurate it still looks great with the other miniatures.

Next up the Resistance are going to need some extra fire-power so I'll be putting together two of the Mantic pickup trucks with HMGs from the Mars Attacks range and at the time of writing the first three characters have just been released for Terminator so they'll be making there way into my collection soon.

Phil

Terminator Miniatures Game - Endoskeletons

Just a short post today with a few pictures as I managed to complete all the Terminators over the weekend.

These were very easy to put together as well as do some minor converting to add a little (but not too much) variety.

I've read here and there that people weren't impressed by the miniatures and I must say that the coloured plastic doesn't do them any favours in that respect however for those who don't paint it allows them to use them straight out of the box (along with the fact they are snap fit as well).  Once you've got a lick of paint on these the details really start to become apparent and they look spot on.

Finally I was also lucky enough to get hold of a set of resin master of the C3 set of Terminators.  Obviously the detailing on these is outstanding though they are rather fragile for gaming purposes so I'll be picking up their metal equivalents upon their release.

Next time I'll hopefully be putting up some pictures of the Resistance fighters who are currently on my painting table.

Phil

Terminator Miniatures Game - Preparing the Terrain

As I received my shipping notice for the Terminator Miniatures Game on Friday I thought I'd best get a move on and get some terrain sorted and ready for action.  The game comes with 2D terrain and some 3D barricades (designed by Battle Systems) which although great for quick out of the box games or people new to the hobby I like to have full table of fitting terrain whenever possible.  Now quickly going back to Battle Systems for a moment, when it comes to fighting inside of Skynet facilities you can bet I'll be getting some use out of their Sci-Fi kit (as seen in my Doctor Who games earlier in the blog) which is absolutely perfect for this however for the post Judgement Day outside world I'd need something new.  I do have quite a bit of the 40k ruined buildings which I tried to paint subtly and though they will work well with something like the Batman Miniatures Game due to all the Gothic styling it just wouldn't look right for something that is supposed to be in the near future like Terminator.

Luckily I happened to back the Mars Attacks Kickstarter which included some of the new 20th Century intact and ruined Battlezone kits.  I ripped open the bags to have a better look at them as they had been at the bottom of a box since they had arrived and they were just what I was after.  Now these kits come in a red plastic so that you can play with them 'straight out of the box' and all the examples I had seen up until this point had been painted as red brick as well but this didn't match up to the images we had seen of a post Judgement Day world.  So I decided to try and paint them up to match what we had seen in the films; grey, bleak and if I could manage it painted to look like it was night (important as the buildings come with intact windows).

First up I had to put the kits together and in a way that would not only reflect the look I was after but also one that would game well.  I decided early on that having any intact buildings wouldn't look right so I ended up mixing the intact and ruined kits together, which I think worked out quite well as it is still very easy to see where the areas of dense terrain are and which pieces just act as barricades.

The next step was an easy one, the black undercoat.  Luckily the weather held out for me on the day so I was able to get them sprayed up without an issue.  As usual it was the good old pound shop car spray that I used.

Next up I gave everything a heavy over-brush of a 50/50 mix of Cold Grey and Black.  Already the terrain was looking how I'd hoped.

Once the last layer had dried I started to add dry brush layers of pure Cold Grey first and then an uneven layer of Fortress Grey to add some texture.

Now that the buildings were nearly finished it was time to weather them up a little to give them a truly ruined feel.  First I had to paint the doors, I selected a gun metal colour which I then sponged with Warplock Bronze to give them a rusted look.  Then I drybrushed Flat Brown around the bottom quarter of the buildings which was then followed by a drybrush of Earth which covered the bottom third of them.  I then sponged black onto the buildings at various points to look like blast marks.  To finish this stage off a wash of 50/50 Strong Tone and water was applied over everything except the windows (which up until now had been included in all the paint stages).

It was at this stage that I gave the buildings a spray of Liquitex matt varnish which not only adds a layer of protection but also takes away any streaks that the wash might have caused in the previous stage.  Once the varnish had dried (again thank you weather) it was time to tackle the windows.  Initially I had thought that I would be base coating the windows again and then painting some effect to make it look dark/night however I actually liked how the windows looked as they were and after a suggestion from one of the TMG Facebook group I simply painted over them with Tamiya's Clear Smoke.  This darkened the windows off while giving them a reflective quality which worked wonderfully to give the impression of night time and hopefully you can see a little of this in the photo below.  For the photo of this last stage I also gathered up all the other pieces of scenery which I plan on using for the game to get an idea of how everything would look together and though I'm very happy with it all I would like to expand on this with things like rusted/ruined cars and the like.

And with that I had managed to do something I had not done before, start on a hobby project and complete it in one day!  It shows what a good incentive can do for you.

Phil