Short tip: Care for your brushes!

Damaged brushes

Since I am into painting stuff again (the temperature isn't something around 40°C anymore) I have a really important tip for you guys out there: Care for your brushes!
I could throw four brushes away because they didn't keep their tip anymore. The first picture here shows what can happen if you don't care or just throw your brushes around. OK ok, those here are more than 10 years old by now, but if you paint a lot, this could happen much, much faster.

So my tip is: Give your brushes from time to time some love. Rinse them in clean water, then soap with whatever you have in your reach e.g. shampoo and rinse them again. After that, form a nice tip again and let the bristles dry (best with the tip down so that the water doesn't collect in the ferrule and weakens the glue).

Brush soap

If you want to go a step further, use some special brush soap. They come from different manufacturers. Mine was part of my DaVinci brush set but there is also a special one from "The Masters" which was a long time not so easily to buy in Germany. Only know that from videos on Youtube and everyone seems quite happy with it.

But whatever you do: Curd Soap, Shampoo, special Brush Soap... Show your brushes from time to time some love and clean them :)


So long,
Paradox0n

Farming "wife points"

Perhaps you can remember my post about using a laptop cushion as mobile working station for preparing my minis? If not, I gladly provide you a dip into the past with a link back to the review.

As I get slowly back into the flow of doing hobby stuff again, the cushion now also gets into use and I can only say: Yes, it is working. At least for preparing the miniatures like clipping them from sprues or removing mold lines or gluing your stuff together.

That means I can also farm some "wife points" :) Its pretty cool, watching your favorite TV series together, while doing preparation works or sitting together while she is learning french and I scratch away mold lines. Nothing better to keep one going than sharing time instead of being separated in different rooms...

So today I was priming a whole lot of minis (and getting a strong dislike for my brown Army Painter Sprayprimer). I hope I can also paint some stuff up. Kings of War is calling!


So long,
Paradox0n

ReRoll-Weekend!

Today only a short promotional post :) On the first November weekend (All Hallows), the Tabletop Network does held a charity weekend: The ReRoll Weekend. The rules are pretty simple:

• In every game you play at this weekend, you can buy rerolls. 
• Every reroll costs 50ct 
• The reroll has to be accepted

The money you raise will be collected by the TTN and be donated to the Weisser Ring e.V.

So warm up your dices and play games at that weekend :)
More information about that charity event you can find on the delivered links. Warning: All in German :)

So long,

Paradox0n

P.S.:

And some shoutouts to new followers. Welcome to The Responsible One and Morikun. Take one of the free seats and enjoy the flight.

Review: WarMage MDF bases - Part I

Yesterday the postman brought me a small package which surprised me because I didn't expect one. As he gave me the package with the comment: "This is no package, this is a letter" i was really curious what is in there. But as soon as I opened it and smelled the odor of burnt wood, I did know immediately what awaited me there :)

So today I will show you the MDF leaflets from WarMage, a German company which somehow specialized in lasercut MDF pieces. I first saw the stuff on Brückenkopf and as it was not added to the shop after a week I got into contact with them. I got a very fast reply on my questions and Nils (the owner) seemed to be a nice guy. And since there was not only the small base version but also two other ones (as he told me, the salesman he seems to be), I opted for a bigger version, containing 3 leaflets and having place for roughly 31 pieces of  trees and rocks.

For me it is the first time that I have some lasercut stuff though I have already some experience with MDF pieces :) So I will describe my impressions I got from the product from here on.

The leaflets are bigger than a DIN A4 paper and the cuttings are very clean and as far as I have seen precise. There are no leftovers in the cuts, therefore the pieces are secured with crepe tape to hold everything in place.

The MDF is ~3mm thick and therefore sturdy enough for even the roughest gameplay. If you count in that the design is a layered one, where you have a base and glue on a second layer with the slots for your trees, that should be more than enough.

As you can see in the pictures, there are 3 types of bases and with my chosen package you can build: 

- 2 times a big 5 slot base with 40mm slots

- 3 times a small 3 slot base with 40mm slots

- 4 times a small 3 slot base with 2x40mm and 1x30mm slot

I primarily bought the stuff for creating some nicer and more flexible wood pieces, but it looks as if I can play around a bit and do also some rough terrain with rocks or something completely different (since I only have 9 ugly old trees).

But that will be something for another part :)

Hope you liked the first impression.

So long,

Paradox0n

Disclaimer: This post is not sponsored by WarMage in any kind, I bought the stuff myself, it was not given to me for a review.

Review: Army Painter Warpaints Inks

Finally some hobby time again. And to start off I will do a review which I postponed now quite a long time. With my slow switch away from Citadel paints, I was also looking into something which could replace my washes which slowly dwindle away. Since I didn't like the Vallejo Smokey Ink (and thus stepped away from all their inks), I ordered me some Army Painter Inks, because I heard only good of them. And whoop here they are :)

The Inks (or Shades) come inside those handy dropper bottles and contain 18ml of fluid. That is 1ml more than the Vallejo bottles (17ml) and 6ml more than the Citadel pots (12ml). Price-wise I can't really tell the difference, because I got them in a set and with a discount but a short look at one of my shops its ~2.75€ for AP vs. ~3.20€ for GW. For completion, Vallejo Inks are roughly at 2.50€. So there is a huge difference here. But price is not all, thus I switched into painting mode and prepared a test.
Fun fact: I also have some very old paints left (Chestnut Ink anyone?) which had 17.5ml bottles and where around 3 Deutsche Mark (today something around 1.60€). And that was already an expensive price at that time because I bought them at my LGS without discount or anything :)

For testing the paints, I took a very old Skaven shield sprue and primed it with my trustworthy Vallejo Gray Primer (a review you will find here). After that had dried I just applied a coat of each color to one shield. No diluting, no wet palette, nothing. Straight out of the bottle. And to be honest: I liked it. I have the feeling that they are a bit more diluted than my old Citadel Inks.
If they have less pigments, that could also explain the price difference, but I can't evaluate that. The Inks dry out dull, no shine to see, also not on the Strong/Soft/Dark tones.

With a special eye on the Soft/Strong/Dark tone I tried to compare them with the old Devlan Mud and stuff. They come pretty close, maybe event a perfect replacement. The only thing I see is that if you want to replace old Gryphonne Sepia with the Soft Tone you will miss the slight reddish tone of Gryphonne Sepia. But that could also be because of the gray primer (and no metal basecoat). Dark Tone is a good replacement for Badab Black and Strong Tone for Devlan Mud. Please don't ask me how these colors are named in the new Citadel range, I honestly have no clue and I don't care anymore :)

Following a more detailed view of the colors, without the bottles:

Green | Red | Blue | Purple | Strong | Soft | Dark | Pure Primer

Conclusio

To make it short: I like the Army Painter Inks. For me they have just the right consistency to play with. If you want to have it stronger, you can always shade twice. With the dropper bottles and the right price, I think they are the perfect solution for me. And if you use already Army Painter paints they match perfectly to this color range (and colored spray primers).
There if you are in search for a new Ink, give them a try.
Hope you liked that review, I am interested if you share my opinion, have different experiences or use completely different paints.


So long,
Paradox0n

ETC in Prague

www.etc-events.eu

Last week ended for me quite surprisingly with watching the livestream of the European Team Championship event in Prague. The event consists of 3 team tournaments in Flames of War, Warhammer 40K and most likely the last time this year Warhammer Fantasy Battles. It is paired with the ESC (the Singleplayer Championship) which I didn't follow.
"Bastion" or "Saper" had a really big bulk of equipment in Prague and made an awesome coverage of the event on Twitch. At the moment it looks like he is uploading the matches and stuff on his Youtube channel, so if you are interested please pay him a visit.

I was quite fascinated because I already lost interest in the GW games but the presentation of the event and the nice mixture in the reporting kept me looking and returning to the stream.

The Flames of War table which was shown was absolutely fantastic and looked more like a diorama than a gaming table. It is only shown partially on the picture stream of the events Facebook page but you can guess how the whole thing looked like:

Flames of War

The stream itself is full of random geekiness and tournament impressions so it is worth a look.

This year Germany dominated in Warhammer 40K and achieved a new points record and  took home the first place. Also in Warhammer Fantasy Battles the team placed first (after some unbelievable close final matches) and in Flames of War they achieved a respectable 9th place. Congrats to all of the players and also kudos for playing in those rough conditions. It was extremely loud and roughly 40°C without working AC.

For the next year there is already a discussion taking place what game they will take instead of WHFB. Kings of War is handled here as follow up, which would be quite cool.

Hope you enjoyed and have a good start into your week!


So long
Paradox0n

Short tip: Paint compatibility chart

Just a very short tip, because I see this question in lots of threads in painting forums or hobby related forums or even in tutorials and very very often it is something like: "I don't own this and that color what should I use?" or "I don't like this and that brand which color can I use to replace it?".

Maybe most of you already know but if not here is maybe an answer to questions like that: The Paint Range Compatibility Chart from DakkaDakka.
This chart is really helpful to get the matching tones from different brands. Even if they are not exactly the same, it really helps (I also used that one in the past).


So long,
Paradox0n