40K: My Son's (age 7) Dark Eldar and my Daughter's (age 4) Necrons

My children were always very interested in dad's hobby's. They both started painting miniatures at the age of about 2. On that age they just slammed paint on the miniatures (marines and empire), regardless of colour and drying times.

My Son
A couple of months ago my son (then 6 years old) asked if he could start a real army...and while on holiday, exploring an unfamiliar city, we came across a hobby store. In holiday-mood, the kids could pick a toy for the rainy days. My son stopped at the Games-Workshop shelf and asked "Can I have one of these ?". "Sure, but only one small box." was my answer. So he was, with dad's help, exploring the different army's.
I suggested Space Marines and Imperial guard to him (as dad already has a nice collection of the emperor's finest), but he said "Dad, which of these are enemies of your armies ?". I was shocked, why not the righteous path of the Imperium like his dad ? Well, shocked as I was I pointed out the enemies of the imperium...and he chose the Dark Eldar, because they looked the vilest of all.
My own son.....a traitor.....(sigh)

Well, two weeks ago he finished his first Dark Eldar miniature:

Last month we started painting. Then my daughter asked if she could paint some of his miniatures, but he said no, because he wanted to paint his whole army. Having witnessed the whole ordeal with his army, she naturally asked if she could have an army of her own. Hoping for someone following the footsteps of the Imperial creed, daddy said "Yes, ofcourse". 

Next we searched the website of GW so she could choose an army. Browsing the armies, she chose Necrons, because they were robots and had scorpion-like ships in the arsenal. Maybe I could turn her to the good-side if we would go to the local GW-store, so she could see some miniatures in real. Well, that wasn't the brightest idea of daddy either. She managed to select the three  most expensive boxes of the Necrons altough we agreed she would only get one box of infantry. She held on to her choice of Necrons and I managed to reduce the amount of boxes to two. The only requirement she had was that these Necrons could be coloured purple and/or pink.....Well, here is her first finished model.

Maybe you would think that dad had a great hand in these miniatures, but that wasn't entirely the case.

With my son, the assembly and painting went as followed;

- Son chose figure and weapons.

- Dad checked the codex for legality and removed the mold-lines

- Son glues the mini together, only the difficult arms with weapons are done by dad.

- Dad does the cleaning and undercoat (black).

- Son drybrushes two layers of green and the basic skintone, basic hair, basic  metallic parts of the weapons and the base for the blue parts (skull-white)

- Dad does the washes for the skin, metallics and the blue parts (transparant blue) and does some retouching and lining in the face.

- Son does the sand and the grass.

With my daughter, the assembly and painting went as followed.

- Dad checked codex and removed mold-lines

- Daughter glues the body-parts, dad the head and arms.

- Dad does the cleaning and undercoat (black), and mixes the metallic purple and metallic pink.

- Daughter does the drybrushing of purple and pink and the metallic part on the gun.

- Dad does the eyes and weapon (white and transparant green) and the wash on the metallic part of the gun.

- Daughter does the sand and grass.

Well, although they are both enemies of their father, daddy is quite proud of what they have achieved with these miniatures.

The only problem now is the rules, maybe the standard 40K rules are a bit too complex for them to have a fun game.......

Any great ideas are more then welcome.

Scenery for a skirmish game, Part 1

I'll first explain which materials I have used (so far) and how I've used them. In the upcoming parts there will be more how-to's.

The materials are selected for a desert-like theme. As I never before painted a desert, I had to get some groceries for paint.

Posts on this subject:
Scenery for a skirmish game, Preview
Scenery for a skirmish game, Introduction
Scenery for a skirmish game, Part 1

Materials used

Materials used, in addition to the 'normal' materials a gamer has (vallejo paints, detail brushes etc). As I'm trying to make scenery as low-budget as possible with recycled materials, I have bought most materials in a bargain store (Action) and in a DIY store (Hornbach).I'll mention the prices (estimated totals) in Euro's.

The materials are listed from left to right, top to bottom. 

3x roll kitchenpaper (1,50) 

1x household filler (4,00)

1x Bird pearlsand (3,50) - for filling and basing

1x Future floorwax (6,00)  - for diluting paints for washes

3x PVA glue (10,50)

1x Hairspray (3,00) - for rust and wear and tear effects

1x Primer (automotive) grey (2,50) - for concrete effects

1x Gloss (automotive) (2,50) - for sealing

3x Primer (automotive) black (7,50) - for priming

1x acrylic paint 200ml viridian green (2,00) - for green shades in brown paints and washes

1x acrylic paint 200ml middle yellow (2,00)

1x acrylic paint 200ml middle yellow (2,00, not shown) - for blue shades in grey paints and washes

1x acrylic paint 400ml burnt umber (3,50) - basecoat

1x acrylic paint 400ml sienna brulee (3,50) - for rust effects

1x acrylic paint 400ml black (3,50) - for shades in all paints and restauraion of the primer-color

1x acrylic paint 400ml black (3,50) - for highlights in all paints

1x acrylic paint 500ml raw sienna (10,00 - high grade paint) - for midtone desert color

1x fishing line (3,00) for wiring and barbed wire effects

3x cardboard box - for signs and other effects (don't use this brand, its bad for your children)

1x pack of satay sticks (1,00) - for pinning foam and poles etc

1x pack of toothpicks (0,75) - for pinning foam and small poles etc

1x pack of rectangular party-sticks (1,50) - for rectangular poles and signs

1x pack of straws (1,00) - for piping

1x gardners wire (3,50) - for barbed wire
1x masking tape (2,00) - for the chimney
6x caps from bottles (0,00) - for fluid storage tanks
1x cardboard tube (photo-transport) (0,00) - for the chimney
2x caps from drinkyoghurt (0,00) - for aircleaning vents
1x mesh wire (9,00) - for fences
3x foamboard XPS (7,50) - for all the bases


Furthermore;
Scissors, sandingpaper, measuring devices, knives, different glues and cheap and simple brushes.
I have also used some tubing from an old tent (not shown) for piping.


So for about 100 euro's I have bought all what's needed to build the scenery.
You may think that it is a lot of money, but most of the glue, paint and materials will not be used.
My estimate is that the genuine scenery cost will be under 50 euro's. That's acceptable when it turns out right.

Scenery for a skirmish game, Introduction

Together with a friend I was organising the next Ronfest game. Ronfest is a monthly game and/or event that I and some friends attend.

Posts on this subject:

Scenery for a skirmish game, Preview

Scenery for a skirmish game, Introduction

This scenery was planned on the Ronfest in early February, but I felt ill and skipped. The guys decided that they would play another game (...they didn't play at all...). That was a lucky thing for me, because the scenery wasn't finished (I was only 1 step further than the basecoat). I'll tell the whore story, as far as I can for the Ronfest game in early March.

As we play a pitched battle most of the time, or make up a mission on the Ronfest day itself,  we had the idea of actually preparing a mission for the next Ronfest. 

I should be a 28mm skirmish game (as we are playtesting our own set of action based rules, called 'scrimmage'), with a few miniatures which should be in play a long time. In the past we did a 'Call Of Duty'-like battle with respawning of the miniatures. So the idea was born for a kind of paintball-like mission. So, the mission 'Capture the flag' was born. We did throw in some extra's to (hopefully) make the game more ecxiting.

Extra rules:

There are four players, each with a flag and a team of four soldiers, which he can use to cause murder and mayhem, and/or to capture the flag of an opponent.

Random turn sequence:

For the random turn sequence a deck of cards will be used, without the aces but with the jokers. Every player will be assigned a symbol (clubs, diamonds, hearts and spades). This deck will determine which player gets the turn. Every turn a card will be picked from the deck and the symbol dictates which player has the turn.

If the card is a joker, a special rule will be used for a given number of turns (see 'The Joker')

Capturing flags

Flags will be captured when a model comes in base-to-base contact with it. The catch is that the player has to bring the flag back to his own homebase to earn some points. Flags can be (re)captured by knocking them down, injuring them or killing them. A flag can be given to friendly model if the models or the flag are in base-to-base contact. Taking a flag doesn't cost an action, but it will end any movement action (for instance; A model can move 6". After walking 3" inch, the model captures a flag. It cannot move the other 3" of its current movement phase). This resriction does'nt count for letting go of the flag. As the model needs one hand to carry the flag, the model can only use one-handed weapons while carrying the flag.

Respawn

Models that are ou of play (killed) kan respawn at the end of the owning players turn. A respawn can occur anywhere on the table as long as it meets the following criteria:

- Minimal 30" away from any flag.

- Minimal 10"" away from any homebase.

- Minimal 10" away from an enemy model

The Joker

There are two Jokers in the game. When a Joker is drawn, roll a D6, check the special rules below. The rolled rule is in effect immidiatly:

• 1: No more ammo! (all ranged weapons are out of ammo, this rule is in effect for 8 turns)
• 2: Fog of War! (all models have a maximum movement and line of sight of 5", this rule is in effect for 8 turns)
• 3: Flag reset! (all flags return to their homebase, no points will be awarded)
• 4: Incoming! (some lunatic has decided to shell the entire playing area with heavy artillery, all models are Knocked down)
• 5: World of Pain! (all models that get Injured or are Knocked down are automaticly Killed, this rule is in effect for 8 turns)
• 6: (un)Holy Handgrenade! (Ranged weapons are useless, instead every model with a ranged weapon has now Holy Handgrenades: 5 AM, SC, TH, MB) (The stats mean a range of 5", template, the effect of a 40K frag grenade with the damage of a krak grenade and a scatter which makes it possible for the model to blow itself to smithereens)

Teams

Every team consists of 4 models: 1 Squad leader, 1 SAW (Squad Automatic Weapon) and 2 Soldiers. All teams are equal in stats.

Points

Every enemy flag a player brings back is worth 5 points. Every friendly (own) flag a player brings back, without it ever reaching the homebase of an enemy, is worth 3 points. If a flag reaches an enemy homebase, the points are awarded and the flag immediatly respawns at the homebase of the owning player.

End of extra rules.

Well, my pal Jase has done his job, by creating 4 equal teams (see his blog http://quodmanica.blogspot.com/2011/01/capture-flag-teams-done.html) ;

Red team, Diamonds - Jase 

Black team, Clubs - Andy

Green team, Spades - Ron

Blue team, Hearts - Lenno

As the gamerules were set, I had some toughts about the scenery to be used.

First I needed some ideas for some nice scenery pieces. I started with a theme. I liked to go in the vinicity of pulp. It would fit the capture the falg principle and I could go over the top with the details on the scenery.

As I recently purchased a new printer, I could also make some nice looking signs.

For the size and placement of the scenery there should be some things to take in account. As the table is about 2.5-3 feet by about 4 feet, and the homebases would probably be positioned at the corners, there should be some scenery to prevent the fights only happening at the players nearest to eachother, which would make the game split in two seperate games of 2 players. Also there had to be a centrepiece for the game where most of the fighting can take place, preferrably a maze-like thing with 2 levels. A homebase for every player was also needed, and it should be easy to recognise to which player it belongs. The scenery should also be able to direct the fight to the centre of the table for some proper murder and mayhem. 

To sum it up, the requirements are;

- a homebase for each player with markings of the owning player

- a centrepiece for the looks and the centrepiece of the fighting

- scenery to influence the direction the models will take

- themed: 'over the top pulp'

- as the miniatures are on a desert-like base, it should be a desert-like scenery.

I made a drawing (on paper) how the scenery should be arranged. Specially for you I made a digital version.

Below the drawing of the minimum number of scenery pieces needed. As I don't know the exact size of the table I guessed the scenery pieces in general to the size of  1 foot and for the centrepieces somewhat bigger.

So I would minimal need the following scenery pieces:

4x Homebase, approx 1'x1'

4x Directional, approx 1'x 1-2"

2x Centrepiece, approx 1.5'x1'

Well, next post I'll go into the materials and the building.

Scenery for a skirmish game, Preview

Well, I promised to someone to post a preview of my scenery-in-a-week project. So below some pictures of the progress. I don't have a lot of time at the moment, so the extended explanation will come in a few days.

Posts on this subject:

Scenery for a skirmish game, Preview

Scenery for a skirmish game, Introduction

What am I building:
4x home bases
1x Hazardous research facility
and some other pieces of terrain

Maybe I'll throw in a 'house of horror' but I don't know if I've got the time for that. It has become busy at work.......

The desk

That's about the game !

Homebases

a wall section

More signs, ther will be 50+ signs.

What's that ?!

A homebase.

If you smell it, you'll be sick !

Well, that's it for now.

40K: Ork Trukk building part 3, the Engine

I personally think that the engine is quite nice. With a little effort you can change it and/or dress it up with some wiring.

Posts on this subject:

40K: Ork Trukk building part 1, introduction

40K: Ork Trukk building part 2, the Chassis

40K: Ork Trukk building part 3, the Engine

Related posts:

40K: Orks WIP part 1, the stock

40K: Orks WIP part 2, some pictures

Exhaust piping.
First thing I wanted to do was to make one engine with the short exhaust pipes (like a racing engine) and one with the longer exhaust pipes, which end behind the cabin. I started with the short exhaust pipes so the engine would look like the photo below.

The engine with the short exhaust pipes on both sides.

To do this was fairly easy. Just cut the both outer ends, which are to be connected to the engine, exchange them and glue the parts together. I advise you to pin them together with some kind of rod. You don't have to be that accurate (otherwise you wouldn't build the Ork-way). In my case I drilled the hole of one pin-connection wrong, so the join wasn't perfectly aligned. As you can see on the photo I eliminated the problem the Orky-way by wrapping a wood-glue soaked piece of paper around it. (Later I think I'll paint it a leather colour or so). For the engine, I just drilled two holes in the side for the pins of the exhaust.

Making a pair of exhausts the easy way.

For the long piping I still haven't got a clue. But I will when I'll be able to properly test-fit the piping with the cabin in place.


The wiring.
Another easy job. I examined the engine and made the decision that it's a 6 cylinder multi-million Hp engine (I'll take the red paintjob). As the spark plugs on such an engine need some serious electrical current, the wiring should be thicker than the rest of the wiring. In elderly cars the spark-plug wiring came from a coil....there are two things that can resemble a coil, but they are on the wrong place for some proper wiring. So I took some plastic sprue, drilled some holes in it and glued it on the end of the engine and named it "coil". Now I could properly contruct the spark-plug wiring.

As I feel the spark-plug wiring makes the engine better-looking, I wanted to really connect the engine to its other parts and to the cabin. So I drilled some holes where I thought it would be appropriate and wired it together.
One important thing was the booster pressure cylinder. It needed to be electrical connected to open the valves (otherwise I would need to model a Grot mechanic to open the valves when needed).
The other important thing was to connect the engine to the cabin. I kept two wires disconnected and bend them to fit between the cabin wall and the cockpit.

Below some photos of the result of the wiring.

Note: The thick wiring on the photo's I purchased in a Model Train shop, for the thin wiring I scavenged the broken down electrical toys at my loft.

The engine is connected to the cabin.

Until next post :)

Futuristic 28mm scenery with recycled material

(October 2010)

As I had to come up with a game plan for the Ronfest, I quickly had an idea for the game. I planned a futuristic treasure-hunting (a relic actually) game with GW 40K miniatures. In the game I planned, I wanted to use the Space Hulk board game for the treasure-dungeons. I was only lacking an entrance on the surface.

As I am notoriously weak-hearted at throwing away things, I took a time out at the loft (my personal miniature, scenery and 'usable stuff' repository), and found a nice looking obsolete infrared remote control (RC is another hobby).
Using some XPS foam board, a knife, screwdriver, glue and some paint and flock, I did manage to produce 2 very accebtable pieces of terrain in a short time.

Doom lies beyond the entrance !

The top of the RC transmitter with two 40K bases. 

The battery lid (top) and the PCB (front).

Again, the PCB was a 'Scotty, beam me down !"-device.

Before disassembly.

After disassembly.

Till next post !

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.

Posts on this subject:

40K: Ork Trukk building part 1, introduction

40K: Ork Trukk building part 2, the Chassis

40K: Ork Trukk building part 3, the Engine

Related posts:

40K: Orks WIP part 1, the stock

40K: Orks WIP part 2, some pictures

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.

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)

Posts on this subject:

40K: Ork Trukk building part 1, introduction

40K: Ork Trukk building part 2, the Chassis

40K: Ork Trukk building part 3, the Engine

Related posts:

40K: Orks WIP part 1, the stock

40K: Orks WIP part 2, some pictures

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.

40K: Orks WIP part 2, some pictures

Ah, I made some photo's (well, it were some quick shot's, hope you like them)

Posts on this subject:

40K: Orks WIP part 1, the stock

40K: Orks WIP part 2, some pictures

Related posts:

40K: Ork Trukk building part 1, introduction

40K: Ork Trukk building part 2, the Chassis

40K: Ork Trukk building part 3, the Engine

HQ
No models made yet, nor decided which models to use.

Elites
Nobz
Well, I plainly assembled some Nobz out of the Black Reach box. I still don't know what I'm going to do with the rest.

Nobz on mixed bases

Burna Boyz
I like the Burna Boyz, especially for the fluff (background). I like the story about these arconists, making even other Orks doing 'da burny dance'. The models do not fit very well. According to the GW site, you can twist  the straps, but I don't like to do that. I will make a unit of about 15 Burna's including 2 Mek's.

Burna Boyz on tech scrap bases

Tankbusta's
There are 4 tankbusta's and one Nob in the box. I haven't got a clue why GW have done this, if you want more tankbusta's, you'll get 4 usable tankbusta's an 1 unusable Nob, certainly no value for money.
I haven't assembled them yet. I'll make the other tankbusta's with some Bits and Forge World parts. No pictures yet.

Loota's
As I have got enough Loota parts, I am thinking about making some, but haven't decided yet. No pictures.

Kommando's
Well, it's the same story as the tankbusta's. No pictures yet.


Troops
Da Choppa Boyz.
I will start with the boyz out of the Black Reach box. I haven't made changes to them, I only tried to keep them all different by varying the pose, heads and arms. The assembly is very straightforward.
I'm making 3 basic units of 20 Orks (18 shown as the heavy weapons aren't build yet). 1 unit will have blue arm bandages with Tyranid bases, 1 unit will have another colour arm bandages with technical scrap bases and 1 unit will have an equal mix of blue and other arm bandages with plain bases. that way I can choose to make 3 untis of 20 (by the different bases) or 2 units of 30 (by the coloured arm bandages)

Boyz with Tyranid bases

Boyz with Tech scrap bases

Boyz with plain bases

Da Shoota Boyz.
Here again some Boyz, but this time out of the battalion box. I also didn't made much changes to them. It will become a unit of about 20-30 shoota boyz.

Shoota Boyz with tech scrap bases

Very 'Ard Boyz (Hur Hur).
I have used the Warhammer Fantasy Black Orcs as 'Ard Boyz. I think they will stand out more than the 'normal' Boyz with some armour plates glued on. I had to make some seriuos changes, especially the helmeted heads (which are huge). I have given them slugga's and some will get 'normal' heads. The poses of the Black Orcs doesn't make them ideal conversion material, but it will do. The unit will be 20 boyz strong including 1 Nob.

'Ard Boyz with plain bases

Gretchin
I like these little critters. I've assembled only 3 of them, but I would like to share the picture.
I will make a unit of 20 Gretching with 2 Runtherds.

Gretchin on tech scrap bases

Trukk's
These belong to the most likable models that GW has made.Altough they have some serious assembly problems, small conversions are quick to make. I would suggest that you buy them per 2, because you can easily swap some parts and make them unique. I will make another thread in which I'll show what I did and do with these vehicles. Here are some 'teasers'.

Ramshackle Trukk's

Fast attack

Deffkopta's.

The models are very nice, but they do not have many easy ways of making them unique. Therefore I have tried to make the bases somewhat unique. I have assembled only 3 until I have decided how to make the rest. I certainly want to make some with shoota's instead of rokkit launcha's.

Defkkopta's maneuvring

Heavy support

Battlewagons

I have started to assemble a battlewagon, but I stopped. The kit is too bare. I want to see the interior of the cab. I want to see engine workings. I need to buy a Trukk for parts making the Battlewagon look really good.

I will make 1 plain wagon and 1 showcase model. I have to let it rest until another Trukk arrives.

Battlewagon waiting for parts

Well, that was it for now. Hope to post some progress soon.