woensdag 28 juli 2010

LoTR RPG: Building terrain part 2

I have been working on the Shelob's Lair board, wich also will function as the Badlands board.
I have been busy with the second stage, making removable roofs for the cave's and building the top layer.

This board measures 115 cm wide, 125 cm long and approximatly 18cm high.








LoTR RPG: The book of Mazarbul quest

I am writing a campaign with a rules set for LoTR. The scenery I'm making is to be used for this role playing game.

As I have been busy with the scenery last week (update will follow soon), I want to share some more information.

I'll show the first pages, I converted them to black for easy reading.
It can take a while before I post further pages, because I want to keep certain things secret for the players.


Page 1

Page 2

Page 3

Page 4

vrijdag 16 juli 2010

Note: Price rise Flames of War

Aargh ! The products from Battlefront will have their prices increased on Monday 9 August 2010.

For more information, see http://www.flamesofwar.com/hobby.aspx?art_id=2067

Well, at least they are very open and honest about it.

maandag 12 juli 2010

40K: Ork Trukk building part 2, the Chassis

I won't go through the part explaining that one should cut out parts and remove the mouldlines.
I won't glue all of the kit together. I want to create sub-assemblies that I can paint with ease. After the painting I'll glue the sub-assemblies together and then finish the kits with details, weathering etc.


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First I assembled the axles and shafts, except for the one from the engine. I also assembled the fuel tank. Nothing special yet.
Chassis and axles assembled


Test fitting the wheels. This is the first reason to buy two kits. By swapping some of the wheels there is already an individualistic look of the vehicles, the easiest 'conversion' you can make. I didn't glue the wheels on to the axles for painting purposes.
Wheel swapping


Next step was to test-fit the engine, cabin and flatbed (deck). The cabin didn't fit properly, on one side it didn't rest on the chassis, but on one of the straps holding the fuel tank (see image below).
The cabin rests on the fuel tank instead of the chassis (the problem location is circled)


The solution is to remove the rivets on the underside of the cabin (see the circled part in the image), and to file down the top of the strap holding the fuel tank until the cabin fits (less then 1mm). You cannot see anything of the filing after assembling the cabin.
Rivets removed and fuel tank strap filed down (both encircled)


It felt like there were some parts missing on the fuel tank, a fill cap for instance. I made one from the shaft of a choppa. I also made a fuel line from electrical wire (normally used for train modelling).
Added fill cap and fuel line for the fuel tank

Looks ok !


That was the chassis, I will still have to smooth out the moldlines, glued edges and irregularities, but the basic work is done.

Next part will be the building and dress-up of the engine.

zondag 11 juli 2010

GK: My new orders for July

As I said before, I duly try to order no more than 1 Garage Kit each month.
Okay, I couldn't resist and ordered two kits. 

Marie Mamiya
I was interested before in this kit, but I thought her chest was to much pronounced, so I didn't put her on my wishlist. After a few weeks when I surfed the 'last one' pages on E2046, she reappeared (only 1 in stock left). I did have another look at her, and do think she is classy and stylish. So I ordered her. I did have my regrets about it because I shouldn't buy more than one Garage Kit each month. However, these regrets lasted only about 5 minutes...
The kit has arrived in the mean time and she more beautiful then on the pictures. The chair is included in the kit. I think she will be a pleasure to build and paint. 
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Human Mage
Well, this kit was already on my wishlist, but I wouldn't buy her this month if it wasn't for a friend I had to order a kit for. I think she fits well with the magician. I don't like her pose that much, but the face and hairstyle appeal to me. I like her.

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Well that's it for this month now.



zaterdag 10 juli 2010

Event: Happy day out, WWI Ypres/Ieper Part 1

Normally we play a (miniatures) game every month. But to avoid making it a monthly routine, we decided last year to have a day out once in a while instead of a game.
Last year we did historical, the Varus battle, or battle at the Teutoburgers forest, in Germany where three roman legions (17th, 18th and 19th) 'disappeared' in 9 ad.
This year the day out would be WW1 or the Great War in Belgium.


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Event: Happy day out, WWI Ypres/Ieper Part 1
Event: Happy day out, WWI Ypres/Ieper Part 2


The trip was last sunday (4 july 2010). I went with a couple of friends (maybe you recognise most of them from the Salute event). Here a list of our group.

- Umfufu, the butt-naked Zebra killer
- Janus, a stranded alien, hitchhiking from Venus to Uranus
- Bokito, the double-action lapdancer
- 'Nee hoor !" Endie-pendie
- 'The Amish'
Who's who on the pictures is for you to guess and for me to know :)


A brief introduction to Ypres:
Ypres was one of the battlefields of WW1, there were three major battles;


On these fields some 500.000 to a million soldiers were wounded or died, and who knows how many civilians.


As the drive to Ypres would be about 2,5 hours, we agreed to leave quite early. The time was set at 07:30, but one of the group was late (the bastard, he should be flogged). We finally left at 08:30.
The first visit would be to the Ypres Cloth halls, which houses the In Flanders Fields museum.

The route to Ypres


Because the group consisted of 5 people, it wouldn't fit in the Mini, so we drove with two cars. One new and one classic Mini :)

Assembly at 8:30


About 10:30 it was time for a stop...err...second breakfast. The Belgian restaurant offered an english breakfast (well, something like an english breakfast, but without the mushrooms, scrambled eggs, beans and toast...)

The restaurant

The 'english breakfast' is yet to arrive


Finally at 12:30 we arrived at the Cloth halls, from which I took a nice picture, later this week I found a photo of the cloth halls in WW1 (below). Quite something different.

The cloth halls, In Flanders Fields museum

The building on the right side is the Cloth halls, 
look for comparison to the small tower on the corner.
(photo from Wikipedia)

The scale of the devastation of Ypres
(photo from Wikipedia)


In the halls there was an exhibition about the hundreds of thousends chinese workers, who were brought to Belgium to labour for the War effort. They didn't get what was promised (except for the labour). Some made art-work from the shell-casings to make some money.

Some stuff the chinese laboured

Shell-casings with art engravings


After the exhibition we went to the museum, which had an impressive entrance. We also got a card, with which you could follow the personal story of someone who was there in WW1. Sadly the story was factual (only places and times) and the timline consisted of only three terminals. There were a lot of personal stories in writing and some were quite thrilling.
I took a lot of pictures, below are a few of them. If you want to see more, you should visit the museum.

Entrance

Various material

Various material II

Machine gun

Shell casings

Diorama, left side

Diorama, right side

Diorama of a dugout at the front (in reality some 10 metres below ground)


Around 14:00 we were finished in the museum and quite in for a 'bite'. Next to the Cloth halls there were some nice little restaurants which hopefully could serve us well.

The place where we ate a snack (in the red circle)

All the guys


After the feeding, one of the guys had to do his Jiggly Dance, arousing a lot of people (men and women) on the square (sometimes with desastrous results).

The Jiggly Dance

One that's got aroused. 
A boner with too little room in the pants results in peculiar facial expressions

The only edible remains after the feeding....chocolate sauce.


For the next stage of our visit to the battle fields, we discussed where to go. So I went back to the museum to get a map. I left my camera on the table, so in the mean time the guys made some interesing pictures of the rebuilded Ypres centre, the Belgian architecture and the layout of the town.

Rebuild Belgian architecture etc.


Finally we decided to go to Passchendaele, where to largest battle took place. Around 15:30 we left Ypres and headed for Passchendaele. When entering or leaving Ypres we came trough the Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing, a very impressive sight.

Menin Gate Memorial to the Missing



Well that's it for now. Passchendaele will be continued in part 2.

zondag 4 juli 2010

40K: Ork Trukk building part 1, introduction

I have purchased my Ork Trukks in 2009. Articles in the white Dwarf on 01-2009 made me like the new Trukks, so I went and bought two (they have been 'resting' until a month ago)



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Well, first we'll take a look what's in the box and what you can do with it.

Product description by GW in the White Dwarf  on 01-2009 (you know, Janu-waaagh!-ry);
"This incredible multi-part plastic kit contains 1 Ork Trukk, and includes a bolt-on big shoota, rokkit launcha, boarding plank, wrecker ball and reinforced ram.".

As I opended the boxes I found out that one of the items I wanted to use was missing; the rokkit launcha.
So I got to the GW-site to check it and there was another product description:
"This box set contains one multi-part plastic Ork Trukk, and includes a bolt-on big shoota, boarding plank, wrecker ball and reinforced ram.".

So that was it, certainly no rokkit launcha. Didn't they knew this in January ? The box set was already out then ! Now I have to wait for the Forge World parts or make them myself from bits. A bit of a dissapointment.

Let's see which options from the codex you can make from the kit:

  • Big shoota.............................................Yes
  • Rokkit Launcha......................................No (why ?)
  • Red paint Job.........................................n/a (only if you have red paint)
  • Grot riggers...........................................No
  • Stikkbomb chukka.................................Yes (there is one chukka include in the kit)
  • Armour plates........................................Yes
  • Boarding plank.......................................Yes (two)
  • Wreckin' ball..........................................Yes
  • Reinforced ram......................................Yes

Next, GW states on the website;
"The Ork Trukk sprue allows you to build a single fighting vehicle that you can kustomize as you see fit with all the cool extra bitz.".
Let's see what would be left on the frame left when you had build the standard kit (with the options shown above).
Well, 5 glyph plates. On the pictures they are the square plates shown on the left frame.

Here are the frames. (My frames were already used, so I have used pictures from Librarium online).


You may think the kit isn't much, because of only two frames and more promises than delivery, but I think the contrary is true. I think it's one of the best kits from GW yet. I like it more than the Battlewagon or any other GW kits I own (and I own a lot).

However I do think it's a shame that there's no rokkit launcha on the frame. When you're getting kits from the Space Marines or Imperial Guard, GW almost kills you with the amount of missile launchers in the kits. And with the Orks, rokkit launcha's are very scarce, and badly needed because the Orks have very few long range anti-tank.

If you like them, you should buy at least buy two of these kits, because then you can easily make two individual or different Trukks. I'll buy another two, because I want to pimp one of my Battlewagons and the Trukk has almost all the parts to do the trick. Furthermore, I want to make one with traks.

If you like warbuggies, the Trukk is also the place to be, with two Trukks, you could make 3 buggies (but that's another story).


Value for money ?
As the prices have gone up lately, i have heard many talking about the value for money for the GW products.
At the time I bought this kit, the price was £18.00 and now it is £20.00.
When you compare it to other plastic manufacterers, it is very expensive. But if you compare it to other kits for GW, I believe you get more building pleasure with this kit for less money than many other, evenly or higher priced GW kits.
The bottom line is, I like this kit, so I'll buy it.

Next part I will start with the actual assembly.