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

Blogger changes - Cookies!

© dreamstime.com

Maybe you wondered why now a strange message box in the head of many blogs appears: That is because of some recent changes in blogger's cookie policies. In the EU there are some legal restriction for dealing with cookies and at some point you as user have to accept the usage of cookies. With those cookies you enable the website to track your behavior and, depending on the kind of cookie) your interests and stuff.

As always in the WWW there are good and bad cookies. Some are really needed for websites (like session management and stuff) others are somewhat neutral (tracking your likes and thus providing ads which fit to you) others are clearly harmful. 

For  my part, I have a cookie blocker which kills hopefully most of the harmful stuff. Other side of the coin is, I have to whitelist everything I want to allow. But that is up to your decision how you want to deal with all this :) 

I would be happy if you would allow me to track your visit for my statistics and also to display some ads (even if not personalized). If enough people choose to click on ads and have analytics track them, the more one gets for an ad. I will not get rich by this, but maybe (at some point) there is enough there that I can buy some paints or stuff, which I could make a review on or so ;)

So far for this more technical update. If you have questions about cookies and stuff, feel free to comment, maybe I can help you (if it gets not too far). 

So long,

Paradox0n

MMM - No system is safe! Who am I O.S.T

A wonderful morning to everyone. After a weekend of fun and party (yes it was my birthday, so I had a reason!) I return to my Monday Morning Music and Musings series with the playlist of an O.S.T of a movie I recently watched: Who am I - No system is safe a German movie about a hacker group who wants global fame.

The film struck me a) because of the fitting music and b) because there was much stuff in there which I (as "professional") had do acknowledge the makers of doing their research, which (sadly) isn't done too often.

As you may know, normally electronic music is not my thing, but this O.S.T is quite nice especially since it really suited the movie.

And for some musings today: While watching the latest Age of Sigmar reports and the growing interest for Kings of War here in Germany, I am more and more excited about the arrival of the first wave from the 2nd Kings of War Kickstarter. Also the weather gets nicer (temperatures below the 38°C mark). So maybe this could be the turning point for my motivation :)

Have a good start into this week!


So long,
Paradox0n

Kings of War 2nd Edition is out

Mantica

Mantic Games continue their more aggressive promotion of the new Kings of War edition and released the core rules and the nine base army lists as free download.

If you didn't follow the massive amount of blog posts they did and are not sure if Kings of War is something for you, you should risk a look. The articles are really great and have lots and lots of information in them:

Everything You Need To Know About Kings of War… But Were Too Afraid To Ask! P1

Explains what the game is about and the basics of gameplay.

Everything You Need To Know About Kings of War… But Were Too Afraid To Ask! P2

Tells you a bit about the different armies and their style of play.

Discover the World of Kings of War

Tells you a bit of the background of Mantica (the world of Kings of War).

To be honest, I am quite excited and can't wait for the rulebook and all the stuff to arrive. With the demise of Warhammer Fantasy Battles and Age of Sigmar not really being and alternative for me so far, this really comes to the right time. Especially since I already backed the first Kickstarter of Mantic Games and thought the first edition was quite nice and on the right track.

The only thing which I think one shouldn't do is to try to compare the game to the old Warhammer Fantasy or Age of Sigmar. They are different games, with a different focus. Kings of War is clearly based around armies with units and not so much on the single heroes which could kill nearly everything on the field on themselves. And to be honest: I prefer the first variant (why I started to like WHFB 8th edition). So let's see what the future brings for Mantic Games and especially Kings of War.

So long,

Paradox0n

The End has come - Farewell old friend!

I am so sad. Really! As it seems I finally have to say "Goodbye!" to an old friend, which was part of my gaming life (even if it was with big breaks) in the midst of the 90tis: This night the rules for Age of Sigmar, the so called successor of Warhammer Fantasy Battles came out. At least the first official glimpse with the free rules and the Warscrolls...
Even with all the rumors and those pictures of the Sigmarines I had a bit of hope left. But this is destroyed now.

I don't know what those guys/girls did take for drugs but honestly, the rules souond as if my godchild had written them, while taking some of the Space Marines from my old Starquest and doing "Pew Pew Chhhhhhhh" sounds. Honestly how can you call that a game with rules like "the count of models defines the army size you play" (as if 30 Skaven are as strong as 30 Sigmarines) and special rules like "If you do as if you ride and imaginative horse you get rerolls and if you even talk to this imaginative horse you get this and that bonus".

And the translations are also as if they where put through Google Translate or something (at least the German ones). Fluent reading not possible. Not that I would require German rules but nonetheless...

There is so much wrong in all this that I can't find words for it. Either it is a (very) late April Fool hoax or I don't know...

How convenient that the Mantic rules will be presented this week and they started a Kings of War offensive some time ago. Maybe this will be the new ruleset for all kind of Fantasy Battles in the future. I am already on that train and eagerly waiting for the Kickstarter stuff to be shipped. Maybe I then can convince my old gaming partner to give it a try, because for him WHFB was aleady dead some time ago. Otherwise my thousands of points of Dark Elves and Skaven will find a dark and silent grave again in my cellar.


What are your thoughts on the new rules? Are you happy with them? Or as disappointed as I? Please feel free to leave a comment below.


So long,
Paradox0n

Lock & Load: Outpost Germany

Last weekend the first Lock & Load event in Germany was hosted in Frankfurt. For me as Warmachine/Hordes noob this event was clearly positioned in another world. Both in costs and players level :) Nonetheless I followed the discussion on the german Warmachine/Hordes forum and it really sounded as if the German distributor and the especially the organisers put in a lot of heart-blood to make the first of its kind a big bang and show that it pays out to do something like this in Germany :)
If you are interested in the games, they made a playlist of the main games which they also streamed on Twitch:

To give you a little impression of the event, Dominic from Phantasos Studio made a short video:

And on the German Brückenkopf Online, you can also find an article with some impressions of the event.

The only thing I am a little bit sad about is that you couldn't get the limited stuff on the shop from Privateer Press because as soon as they went online, the shop went down for 2 hours or so. Seems like too many people wanted to have this insane plush shredder:

As said, this is only collecting various stuff I found concerning the event, but I thought that maybe some of you missed it and are interested.


So long,
Paradox0n

MMM - So many things I got to do

"Gotta keep my sanity" is the first line of today's song and this should be my daily motto at the moment :) I already missed so much great new issues of the magazines I normally read and all your great posts of the last weeks. But hey first life, than work, than blogging :)

So I can finally yell: Jippieiaeeeeh! Vacation is coming. Next week I will travel near the border of Germany/Austria to hopefully get some nice hiking days in the Alps.

So while listening to the song "So many things" from Macka B I wish you a good start into your week:

So long,
Paradox0n

Warmachine/Hordes: Batrep Nr.3 - Legion vs. Khador

New day, new game, new opportunities. After my lucky win in the Claws & Fangs game the day before, we decided to play a bigger game this time. Since I only had the contents of the 2-Player-Box and a Spawning Vessel, we decided to play a ~25 points match. We also took another scenario from the rulebook, this time the Killing Fields scenario, where you have to conquer and hold 3 objectives on the map for victory points. And we decided to use a chess clock for timing our game, although not counting it as win condition by Deathclock. Just for information how long we use for turns and stuff. Nonetheless we set it to the standard tournament timer of 60 minutes per player.

Khador Epic Kommander Sorsha Kovnik Jozef Grigorovich Juggernaut Kodiak Battlemechaniks Winterguard with Bazookas, Officer and Standard

Legion of Everblight Lylyth, Herald of Everblight Carnivean 2 x Shredder Full Blighted Ogryn Warspears Small Spawning Vessel

My plan was to move one Shredder to the objective on the left, contest the middle one with my Ogryn and fight for the right one with the rest of my army.
In Turn One not too much happens, everything moves forward, my Ogyrns Assault the Winterguard, which is nearly unkillable through Tough, Bob&Weave and Iron Flesh. My left Shredder frenzies and runs to the Winterguard and my Carnivean contests the right objective and kills the Juggernaut. The Spawning Vessel spawns a Stinger but the spray does nothing.
That is already 2 victory points for Khador

Turn Two brings even more death. The Winterguard happily kills all of my Ogryn without me able to do anything against it. My left Shredder advances against the left objective and contesting it. The Spawning Vessel spawns another Stinger, and the Kodiak battles against my Carnivean. Everything pretty tough so far.

In Turn Three I decide to Feat because I see no other possibility to win the game as to go for a caster kill. The Winterguard is at the moment not killable for me and dominates the center of the field.

So I poke Sorscha with Lylyth to get the mark on her, but have not enough Fury to cast Parasite. Nonetheless I have to go all in.
After some rule clarification, I make an Assault with my Carnivean which allows him to spray onto Sorscha. Also my Stingers spray and try to do as much damage as possible. Not enough, but the Carnivean gets into contact and pumps himself up to its maximum fury and kills Sorscha.

If you say now: Uh the charge wasn't possible, that is because the right image is a bit misleading. It was taken AFTER the kill when we discussed who it could have been prevented. NumbDice made the error to move his Mechaniks because he thought his Kodiak needs the support. Otherwise I only could have sprayed which would not have been enough here.

Victory through caster kill (again). If this all or nothing wouldn't have worked, I would have lost the game through scenario. On the left you can see the remaining time (although we played no Deathclock) and the victory points.

Lessons learned this game:
- Again: Time your Feat correctly!
- Fury management -> Couldn't cast an important spell because of missing Fury
- You can wound yourself for Fury in your upkeep!
- Ogryn are no match for the Winterguard deathstar
- Play with enough points! I played with 4 points left as allowed (which I just realized while writing this down)

I also should have played some things differently. First I should have put my Ogryn on the left flank, completely contesting the objective. With no fury management needed, the would have been the much more stable option. Second: The only way in this setup to get the Winterguard is to kill Kovnik Jo. And/Or to bypass the armor (e.g. Spine Explosion on a Shredder).

Hope you enjoyed this battle report. The battle was fought some time ago, some things were only roughly in memory so I could have forgotten something. But in the main it should be OK. If something is unclear, please ask ;)


So long,
Paradox0n

Calming down

Wohooo! Seams like slowly the spambot attacks are going down. That is a good sign, so I will start posting again and see whats happening :)

Hobbywise things do calm down even more, since soon we will rebuild our complete working/hobby area.That will also mean more space for storing stuff and hopefully a bit more room and cleanliness. ATM its just a pain to start painting or stuff because my desk is full with other stuff and I have to clean everything up and also store the paint stuff again. That really sucks because I am more the slow painter and if you always have to store your stuff you will never make progress...

And I just saw I have a new follower. So :Welcome aboard Dan! Hope I found out the correct blog for you :) Search yourself a seat, the airship slowly fills up.


So long,
Paradox0n

Still in the trenches

If you wondered why it is so quite on this blog: No I did not quit writing or trying to do some hobby stuff. I just had some "active" weeks with travelling to Romania for work and more private stuff.
Also I am still pretty p***ed about whats going on with all those spambots. Looks like Russia does a cyberwar against my blog, three days ago I had more than 500 hits only with those spambots. But it seems that this was the last spike and things are calming down now...

So cross your fingers that this stupid wave is finally over please :)

See you soon!
Paradox0n

Calming the waves

Nichiren Calming the Seas by Kuniyoshi

Yes, I am still alive. I did take a short break to (hopefully) calm down the spambot waves a bit. Through my latest posting and pushing rhythm it seems I got quite the attention of a lot of spambots. I could see a LOT of doubtable referer URLs in my statistics and also got some spam in the comments.On the one hand, attention is nice but on the other hand only if its from real readers and not just sutpid bots.

Meanwhile I did change my about page a bit, to reflect the latest changes in the hobby.

Finally I got the pictures from the shipmodels convention I visited a week ago. Just scanning through them and finding the best for a short report :)

Also my Warmachine/horde battle report is still waiting. One ie preproduced and the other one is in the making.


So stay tuned,
Paradox0n

Hobby Magazines: Wyrd Chronicles Issue #17

And another magazine I nearly missed! Wyrd Chronicles Issue No. 17 is out since beginning of April. And I can only say: Fear the Bunny! Really awesome cover here ;)

Wyrd Chronicles No. 17

In this issue you can find among others:

• Festival Day: It's a Wyrd Earth Day story
• Building a Park: Learn how to assemble some fantastic terrain!
• Smuggler's Run: A one-shot adventure for Through the Breach
• Luther the Pascha Hare: A hare raising tale full of cuddly (and nod so cuddly) bunnies
• Tyrannus' Tutelary: A guide to painting the War Wabbit
• Painting Contest Winners: Frozen Moments
• Painting Contest Winners: Crystal Brush

My favorite article this time is the tutorial for building the park. Very good ideas and tips in there and it looks really cool!
So even if you are not playing Malifaux, you can find some interesting stuff in here.


So long,
Paradox0n

Hobby Magazines: Ironwatch Issue #32

Issue #32 of Ironwatch Magazine, the Mantic Games Fanzine has arrived in the beginning of April. I nearly missed it so with a bit delay my post.

Ironwatch Issue #32

As usual it contains a nice mixture of Kings of War, Warpath and all Mantic related topics like:

• Iron Forge
• The Battle of Gawick Upon Tibble
• The Bloodstone of Cerillion
• Tutorial: How to Paint Dreadball Xtreme Convicts
• Building it Up for Those Damn Martians to Tear Down
• and many more

I especially like the Mars Attacks tutorial from Terrain Tutor, since I also followed the process on his Youtube channel.

If you haven't checked already, take a look, its free and fanmade and totally supported by Mantic. I like this pretty much therefore I to spread the word as usual :)


So long,
Paradox0n

MMM - Anyone alive out there?

Another episode of my Monday Morning Musings (and Music). Today I am asking myself if anybody is still reading the stuff I post. There was not much feedback on the last stuff I posted which dampens my motivation for posting a bit at the moment.
As you all know, comments are a bloggers best friend (also like/shares etc.pp. help to keep a good mood). So if you still read my stuff, I would be happy if you find some time to post a small comment from time to tome, even a "sucks" or "great" if you have not much time.
I see that I have lots of visits (increasing from month to month) and sometimes up to nearly 300 a day but no active participation like comments or likes/shares in the social media.

Therefore I shout out in the blogosphere: Is anybody out there?! with some hardcore music from Neophyte:

Warmachine/Hordes battlereport Nr. 3 is already done and will be posted this week. I also had a fourth game last Monday. Sadly I took no pictures but I will give you a short summary nonetheless.


So long,
Paradox0n

P.S.:
And another new follower. A warm "Welcome!" to Alejandro Lii. Take a seat, grab some tea and enjoy the ride. If you have a blog, please tell me, that I can add you to my blogroll.

Warmachine/Hordes: Batrep Nr.2 - Legion vs. Khador

Since my Legion of Everblight 2-Player-Box arrived some time ago, Numbdice and Me met for a gaming session and sent our wives on a party :) After scanning through the rulebook and all my stuff, we decided to start with a Mangled Metal match so that I can learn the rules a bit more and get a feeling for the Legion of Everblight.

We grabbed some terrain pieces from my board, got 4 pieces of my modular table and created a terrain which we thought would be nice to play on.

Since Mangled Metal is normally only played with the contents of a battle box, I played pLylyth, 4 Shredders and a Carnivean. My opponent had eSorsha, Juggernaut, Berserker and a Kodiak. Not exactly a battle box but in the points limit and so we played exactly that :)

First round wasn't really spectacular, everything moved forward and we stared each other into the eyes (or whatever Lylyth has). I had to be careful with my Fury since Lylyth can only soak 5 points so with running I was already at the limit.

The second round was a bit more interesting since I didn't run anymore but used the Animus of my lesser beasts to make tough Lylyth and the Carnivean a bit more durable. Lylyth moved into the woods do hide herself and get a bit of shooting into the Jacks.

The Berserker moved in direction of the woods, the other two Jacks charged my Shredders (exactly what I hoped they would do).
On the picture you can see my selfmade tokens in action :)

In the third round the fighting really began, the Berserker battled against my Carnivean, the Kodiak and Juggernaut killed my Shredders and Lylyth bushwacked into safety. At the end of the round, the Berserker exploded and left a pile of garbage in the woods.

All in all I was pretty lucky that nothing more happened to me and the bit of damage I got could be either mitigated or soaked.

So I prepared for the last round of battle, because my Lylyth stood in a good shooting position on Sorsha. And with an Assault order I could also spray on her with my Carnivean. And exactly that I did. The result of: 2 boosted shots on her -> Witch Blood and Parasite and a Carnivean spray you can see on the left picture :)

Win through caster kill. I was really happy with the result, because if that wouldn't have worked, I would have been dead in this or the next round. All my Shredders were killed and my Carnivean can not stand up against 2 Jacks. So it was all or nothing at this point.

Lessons learned in this game:

- Don't forget when to Feat!
- Shredders are nice cannon fodder and can annoy but will not win you a game. Take one for the Animus on your caster
- Lylyth's ability to shoot and move out of the way and THEN cast her stuff is great
- Carnivean is not so bad as thought. Spraying and then close combat is quite effective, especially on feat turn

And we had some spectators on the game. Loki, one of my cats, took a seat and had a suspicious look what we are doing :)

Was a really nice evening, with lots of talking and beer drinking and stuff. Sadly I couldn't convince Labschi from the game. Otherwise I would have playing mate directly in reach.
The second game awaited us then on the next day.

Hope you enjoyed this short battle report. The game was already some time ago, so I also could have forgotten something. But in the main it should be OK. If something is unclear, please ask ;)


So long,
Paradox0n

Hordes: Reinforcements arrived

Doppelpost today! Okay so I still have my big package flying around with lots of fancy stuff I want to use in the future for my Legion of Everblight force.

In this picture you not only can see the All-in-One army box. But also the UAs (unit attachements) for my Ogryn Warspeers and my Strider Rangers. Also you can see two more Acolytes for the Spawning Vessel to make it a big unit, a Forsaken and a Swamp Gobber crew.
Plus there is the official template set.

Aaand I was running out of or missing washes. Especially a blue and a purple one is needed, so I opted for the Warpaints Inks because I heard lots of positive stuff from them. Let's see if they are really this good.

And I am still owing you some Warmachine/Hordes battle reports. But I had too much on my mind and nearly no motivation to really blog. If you follow me on the social medias you may have seen that I am still alive because I made some advertisement for the Wasteman kickstarter which was successfully funded this weekend. Very happy that someone can make his hobby to his work :)


So long,
Paradox0n

Happy Easter to everyone

Today only a very short post: I wish all of you a Happy Easter. Hope you can party with your family and have some nice free days.

And a warm welcome to Kodos der Henker. Have a seat, take some tee and cookies. And enjoy the ride.


So long,
Paradox0n

MMM - Farewell T.P. and Melting the Ice

© The Smiling Grouch

Welcome back to another Monday Music and Musing episode! Before I really want to start my musing, I have to start (again) with some mourning: Last week one of my favored authors of fantasy (comedy) novels died: Terry Pratchett.

“DON'T THINK OF IT AS DYING, said Death. JUST THINK OF IT AS LEAVING EARLY TO AVOID THE RUSH.”

Many artists made drawings and paintings to honor the creator of the Discworld and writer of many many fantastic novels. The picture shown by me is from The Smiling Grouch. On the Tumblr page you can also find some other interesting pictures.


But now let's continue with something not so sad: On the weekend I had the chance to play two Warmachine/Hordes matches with my Legion of Everblight against NumbDice's Khador. First a Mangled Metal with only one battlegroup to learn the rules and then a 25pts scenario game with the complete content of the 2-players box. I don't want to spoil too much because I will try to write down some short battle reports. But since I am still owing you some music:

Power of the Dragonflame by Rhapsody of Fire (formerly Rhapsody), an Italian metal band.

The games where lots of fun and really, really thrilling. I found it absolutely interesting how the game changes in scenario play. Can't wait for my other stuff to arrive to build a more balanced list.

Have a good start into your week!


So long,
Paradox0n

Hobby Magazines: Irregular Magazine back again!

Irregular Magazine No.1 Vol.2

Seems like the hobby magazines stream doesn't stop at the moment. Today I can tell you that an old acquaintance returned: Irregular Magazine. After more than 2 years the just published their first issue of the so called Volume 2 of the magazine. Really cool if you ask me.

The contents of this issue are the following:

• Editor's Challenge: Army on the Cheap
• Strange Aeons - A Short Story
• Salute to Marc Miller
• Star Destroyer Scratch Build
• DnD 5th: Rise of Tiamat
• Creating Alien Landscapes

The article about the scratch build Star Destroyer is really really awesome and the Alien Landscape tutorial shows with which unbelievable stuff we can build terrain.

If you haven't done it yet, go risk a look. It is free and they desire every support for a good relaunch.

So long,

Paradox0n

Hobby Magazines: The Campaigner Issue #11

The Campaigner Issue No. 11

Another Hobby Magazine I stumbled over is The Campaigner (thanks to Terrain For Hippos). So what is it all about? Maybe I just let the magazine speak for itself and quote something of the approach they have:

The Campaigner hopes to offer hobbyists content that both interests and educates them. To provide them with the right tools to sensibly and realistically approach any challenges that come their way.

So without any further chit-chat the contents of this issue (which you can download here):

• Interview: Chris Avellone
• Worlds of Roleplay: He Did It With His Staff!
• Euphoria: Build a Better Dystopia
• Terrain Crusade: A Song of Blades and Scenery
• The Game Mechanic
• Featured Hobbyist: Liam Honan
• Plus: News

If you don't know the magazine already, give it a chance. I really love that they approach many different aspects of our hobby, not only tabletop but also RPGs, board games and lots of other stuff.


So long,
Paradox0n

Hobby Magazines: Figure Painter Magazine Issue #22

FPM Issue #22

The Hobby Magazine madness continues: Figure Painter Magazine Issue No. 22 is out. This time its not a free magazines like before but it is absolutely affordable with its price of 1.30£ and I think you can't go wrong with spending that one.

To be honest I didn't buy the magazine for the last couple of issues because I am waiting for the bundled version of the last 10 issues. But as far as I know the older issues and the reading examples who were out, the quality even improved and its a real awesome magazine for that price.

If you have the possibility, check it out.


So long,
Paradox0n

Hordes 2-Player box arrived

Finally it is here! The Hordes 2-Player Box arrived. After some (to be honest extremely long) waiting because our LGS had trouble getting the German box, I have it now in my hands. So I can start with building and painting the stuff and see how much I like the miniatures before the All-in-one-Box will arrive (which should be somewhere around middle of the month, depending how long postage and customs take)..

Sadly my gaming mate, who took the German rules of the box, is sick, so the first match(es) with my newly found Legion of Everblight army will have to wait a bit longer :( At least I now have time to assemble and maybe paint them before the first game.


So long,
Paradox0n

MMM - Live long and prosper

Today I want to start my Monday Music and Musings with some grief and loss: On Friday Leonard Nimoy died. Most of you will know him as Spock from the original Star Trek series. May he rest in piece or as he always said: "Live Long and Prosper!"

I think nearly noone coined a character so much as Mr. Nimoy did with Mr. Spock. Fun fact: He also wrote two books, one called "I am not Mr. Spock" and one "I am Mr. Spock".

I personally was very happy that he showed up in the newer movies of Star Trek and clearly he will never be forgotten by his fans.
Fitting to that the intro of the original series:

In terms of the hobby nothing new. I am still waiting for my Hordes stuff. Slowly I get pretty pissed because now its two months waiting. At least my epoxy stickers arrived. Surprisingly not from Hong Kong but from Singapore :)

So stay tuned. I hope soon some stuff happens again (e.g. Hordes Battreps).


So long,
Paradox0n

Milestone reached: 60.000 hits

So its another milestone which this blog breached: 60.000 hits since I am tracking. Maybe you ask yourself why I am not waiting for the 100k mark for making a happy dance. That's easily explained: I just count this mark more like 50.000 hits because recently I have lots of search engine traffic (but no exact values sadly) so I have to give a best guess.

It seems to pay off that I tried to be a bit more present in Social Media (please check them out if you don't habe already) and in blog/community rolls of big hobby sites (like BoLS or Faeit).

And I was lucky and just hit the blog and was greeted with the perfect number ;-)

So what are the plans for the future? Most likely there will be more Warmachine/Hordes content (as soon as I got my stuff) and also a bit more of Shadows of Brimstone. If everything works fine I may also have a bit more time and I can play some bigger games of Kings of War which my system of choice will most likely be since ATM I see my future not with Warhammer Fantasy. But who knows, maybe the new edition will be excellent.

I also hope that I find more time to paint there are many many miniatures waiting. But that also depends a bit in which games I will play the next months.

I wish you all a food time and thanks for reading this blog!


So long,
Paradox0n

MMM - Long time, no see

Wow nearly two weeks since my last post... Time to start posting again with some Monday Music and Musings!

The last weeks where pretty insane. Not only did we do some great winter hiking trips, but I also was overwhelmed with work and had some health issues concerning my back. Thus painting wasn't so much on my table, because if you can't sit for too long, you can't really paint.
I am still waiting for my Hordes stuff (shame on you PP for having thus bad delivering issues). And I have achieved some milestones for the blog, but that I will write down in its own post :)

So this is more a life sign and some motivation music. Johnny Cash - I won't back down:

Enjoy and have a good start into your week.


So long,
Paradox0n

Hobby Magazines: Wyrd Chronicles Issue #16

Wyrd Chronicles Volume 16

And another Hobby Magazine this week! Today its the Wyrd Chronicles Volume 16 from (who would have thought it) Wyrd Games (producer from Malifaux if you didn't know).

This issue contains, among other stuff:

• The Bone Stag Cometh: A Malifaux scenario.
• All Work, Cosplay: Become your favorite Master!
• Hazardous Material: In Malifaux, terrain eats you.
• Peaceful Malifaux: Can you win without fighting?
• Death of Metal: A Sabertooth Cerberus gets painted.
• and much more 

As far as I understood it, it is an official magazine from Wyrd Games. Therefore its layout and content is in my opinion pretty well done and I was very surprised while reading it. It even has some more geeky stuff (the Cosplay article) in it, which I really liked because sometimes its good to see some other stuff outside our tabletop box.


So long,
Paradox0n

Hobby Magazines: Wargame Bloggers Quarterly Issue #3

Issue #3 of Wargame Bloggers Quarterly a purely community made magazine is out. If you don't know it yet, a short introduction from their Google+ page:

The Wargame Bloggers Quarterly (WBQ) is a FREE community driven electronic magazine (PDF e-Zine) composed of the best wargames and miniature painting content from the collective blogosphere.

It is more based on historical wargaming and thus I can't tell you too much about the contents but the two tutorials are most certainly interesting for all tabletop hobbyists:

• A tutorial about painting faces
• A tutorial about basing
• A rant about 28mm not being a scale

If you haven't checked already, take a look! It is totally free, community made and in my opinion deserves some attention.


So long,
Paradox0n

Hobby Magazines: Ironwatch Issue #30

Ironwatch Magazine Issue #30

Issue #30 of Ironwatch Magazine, the Mantic Games Fanzine has arrived.

As usual it contains a nice mixture of Kings of War, Deadzone and all Mantic related topics like:

• Q&A with Chris Palmer
• Humans in the Endless Keep, a Dwarf Kings Hold scenario
• The Trouble at Gawick upon Tibble, a Kings of War scenario
• The Battle for Goat Sector 58, a Deadzone batrep
• and many more

If you haven't checked already, take a look, its free and fanmade and totally supported by Mantic. I like this pretty much therefore I try to spread the word :)


So long,
Paradox0n

Sunday evening WIP

Just a quick WIP shot from my painting table: My first Slasher from Shadows of Brimstone. I played a bit around with my airbrush and tested a bit of (pre)shading. In the end it was a bit too orange and I had to glaze it down.
As base I like it so far, have to think how I will continue with that one (thinking about either black claws or more natural ones pending to a nearly eggshell color). And yes there are some moldlines which I didn't see while prepping the miniature. But to be honest I just don't care anymore at this stage for a plain test/gaming miniature. That's why I also saved me from stuffing all the holes and stuff.

And I want to give a short shout-out to Quidam Corvus who once again gave a back link to me which gives me today some nice traffic and visitors :)


So long,
Paradox0n

Hobby Basics - Gaming Tools

Its quite a long time since I wrote something for my Hobby Basics series. With my latest purchase I thought this would be a good time to do another article here, this time covering some of the tools you will need for war-gaming (my experiences are mostly for WHFB, KoW, Warmachine/Hordes and similar games). I have no experience in historical war games, but I don't think that they differ so much that my points will be invalid :)
I again warn you: Big chunks of text incoming! So be prepared if you follow me after the jump :)

MMM - Random musings

After a long time I do again a MMM but switching from Monday Morning Music to Monday Morning Musings :) At least for today. I just don't want to post some music today (which I will do nonetheless) but also do some ranting and musing. Seems fitting at the moment because I just can't find the needed time for the hobby and even the blog is not traded as well as it should be (despite all the good intentions for this year). So I will at least start with blog care!

But as usual I will start this post with some music!
Woodkid - Conquest of Spaces:

Shadows of Brimstone: Hellbat

Just a short shot from my workbench: My first Hellbat from Shadows of Brimstone. I tried out a color scheme which I may use for my Legion of Everblight if they arrive finally. And I also tried out some wetblending (the tongue) just to get a feel for paint consistency and stuff. Must be improved but at least I did some painting again :)

More to the miniatures if I painted the complete batch of them.


So long,
Paradox0n

End Times is near! Rumors about 9th

Today I do something which I normally don't do: I jump on the rumor train and give my opinion to the gossip factory which is working overtime at the moment. With myself getting deeper into the Warhammer Fantasy universe again and having played the games in the 90ies I am deeply rooted in the background of the game(s) and had to see how complete games were shot down from GW over the years (Necromunda, Mortheim etc. pp.) so I am pricking my ears on the newest rumors. And I have to admit that the newest rumors from Faeit and Warseer really worry me.

Disclaimer: This article will contain spoilers and rumors! If you aren't interested in them, please don't read the full length article.
It also contains some personal views and heavy exaggeration on the current rumors and how I will deal with that. But rumors are just rumors. Maybe everything will come completely different and we all are happily playing 9th edition in the summer.

Warning: Big wall of text incoming!

A kind of review: My 2014

2014 has ended some days ago, I came over those bridge days where I had to work and slowly I am getting in the hobby mood again (besides needing some vacation). Therefore I thought a view back to last year would be something nice to do on the blog and a somehow nice thing to start the hobby season with.

2014 started really slow concerning blogging. My real life kept me from doing anything fancy on the blog. First Papa Nurgle put his arms around me and afterwards I had a pretty tough project on work which kept my complete attention. Lots to learn and test out. But in the end this trouble paid off and we delivered a great product and among others are now listed 2nd place on a pretty relevant listing in our  field after a very very big company (starting from place 5). So lots of happy faces here :)