Public Service Announcement #3

Man, are May and June busy months, or what?

First up, I need to remind everyone who can make it out, that the Dropzone Games One Year Birthday party is fast approaching! On the weekend of 7-9 June, Tom, Dan, Terry and the guys will be hosting another massive shindig at the best FLGS on the East Coast! Click on the link to find out more about the fun they have planned.

I wish I could be there, but work commitments are dragging me across the country to another big wargaming event - WarGames Con! This will be my third time attending this excellent event in Austin, TX, and run by none other than Jon Wolf!

Make sure you're at one event or the other (or that you at least get to do some painting that weekend), as I know I'll be having fun photographing toy soldiers for Wargames Illustrated! : )

Cheers
Dave

Artillery Train of Nuln in WD (and a list)

Image from the GW website, used without permission.

Well, I was quite delighted to find my Artillery Train of Nuln army (from last year's Armies On Parade) made it into the "6th Edition Release" issue of White Dwarf. After 103 pages of non-stop 40K action, my humble army gets to be the Warhammer speed bump. I was also amused when a friend pointed out that it was the only Warhammer content in the issue. So, rush out and grab yourself a copy ; )

While at War Games Con over the weekend (which was very good, by the way), I managed to start and finish off Leitpold the Black. I even got him entered in the painting comp, but I'm not sure how he did as I had to leave crazy early on Sunday morning. If anyone knows, feel free to drop the info into a comment below.

So that leaves just a few pieces to go. Here they are in the order I expect I'll try to get them done:

• Finish painting the Skullvane Manse
• Finish off the board by adding Silfor tufts, flocking, and some Secret Weapon Miniatures leaves 
• Paint the Morr Altar
• Paint the Doomsayer for the Morr Altar
• Paint the Amethyst wizard for the top of the Skullvane Manse
• Assemble and paint five "plague doctor" types to help push the Morr Altar
• Finish assembly of the Morr Altar (with chain provided by Dragon Forge Design).

If I have anytime after that it'll be all about adding grave diggers and so on to fill out the scene.

Cheers
Dave

Off to Austin, TX!

Just a quick post to show you all there has been progress on the display (and other elements). I'm now packing to head out to WarGamesCon in Austin, Texas, where I'll be covering the 2012 Flames of War Early War Nationals on Friday and Saturday. I get home on Sunday. I'm sure I'll be exhausted after a lot of hard work and hard play, but it'll be less than a week to work on getting it all sorted, before the big in-store Armies On Parade day (June 30 here in the US).

Wish me luck!

Cheers

Dave

The Admirable Humility

So, at the end of last Thursday's post, I promised to tell you about the final day of gaming at WarGamesCon.

Apocalypse game four! After racking up a satisfying total of 1-1-1 for the first day, we entered the second with great enthusiasm. Despite losing our Plague-ridden friend Cargill, we gained two allies in the form of Andrew and his Kroot Mercenaries, and Ben and his Eldar. This created perhaps the most motley of collections manning that final Vraksian "palace" - Traitor Guard, Orks, Eldar, and Kroot. Our opponents (Dan, Eric, and Jason) were joined by Rex and his vast amount of mechanized Blood Angels.

We were allocated a Warhound and a Reaver Titan, whilst the Imperials were able to add a Reaver and a Thunderhawk to their arsenal.

To make things a little easier, we divided our forces to defend each end of the palace complex, my Blood Pact focused on the North Gate, and Pat's Ork Walker Horde focused on the South Gate. Ben's rapid Eldar played the counter-attack role, while most of Andrew's Kroot hunkered down on the objectives.

Despite a slow grind of really abysmal shooting at the North Gate, we held quite well, as the Imperial shooting was just as cursed. Outside the South Gate, Pat had to deal with plenty of IG and fiendish Black Templars, and things looked grim for a few minutes there.

The crowning moment of the battle though was when the Thunderhawk, that had just deployed Templar Terminators, was chopped up by a Kroot Shaper Council, and apocalyptically exploded (Strength 9, AP2, 15" radius)! Despite the bold move by the Imperials, this devastation prevented them from seizing any of the objectives and it was called a victory for the anarchic forces of destruction!

Sorry, no pics : )

What I do have though, are pics of a terrain piece I built for a friend of mine for a big Apocalypse game he ran on his birthday recently. Built from 3 Bastions, 1 Shrine of the Aquila, 1 Citadel Hill, 3 cool weapons from Quantum Gothic in the UK, and a bunch of plasticard and some bitz from Cities of Death buildings.

Named "Admirable Humility", the structure really is anything but, standing two stories tall, with a dozen heavy bolter emplacements, three massive weapons of destruction, parapets to shield other defenders, and the blessing of both the Emperor and the Omnissiah.

The striking paint job was aided immeasurably by John Shaffer, who helped me out by laying down the fade from black to red, building up airbrushed layers from Scab Red through to Blood Red. A beautiful effect.

I know my friend really liked the piece (using it to claim victory in his birthday bash), and I hope you do too.

More updates later this week.

Cheers

Dave

Back from WarGamesCon!

It has been a busy week since returning from my first trip to WarGamesCon! Quite a bit of work, a lot of catching up with my now-willful daughter : ), and plowing on with my Golden Demon entries and commissions (more on those in a later post).

Anyway, back to the show. Simply put, it was great. Bigred, JWolf, Bushido Red Panda, and all the crew from BoLS were great guys to hang out with, chatting about toy soldiers and conventions and the mysteries of the world.

On the Friday, I ran the first of hopefully many Hobby seminars at the Con. It was a three class day, with participants signing up for all three. You can check out my post here to see the blurbs about each class. They were well attended and well received, wish made me quite happy and helped me relax for the rest of the weekend.

One great thing that is run at WarGamesCon something they call their Narrative Track. Three different Apocalypse campaigns running at the same time : ) We had 18-20 players participating, split over the three tables. My Blood Pact made their appearance on the Siege of Vraks table.

In this shot you can see my to teammates: Patrick on the far left with his Ork Stompa list (two Stompas and what seemed like dozens of Deff Dredz and Killer Kanz) and Cargill on the far right with his Nurgle Daemon Engine list (Scabieathrax, 2 Plague Hulks, 6 Blight Drones, and I think there were 4 Dreads too).

After having a Datasheet for just over a year now, I was finally able to field my Stalk Tank. Was it effective? It certainly drew a lot of fire : )

We were looking good in the first game, but our opponent Jason's Hades Breaching Drill arrived in our backfield just in time to contest the deciding objective. Game One was a draw.

In Game Two, Patrick and I defended an airfield while Cargill's Daemon Engines raced forward to keep our opponent Dan's IG at bay. Patrick and I worked well together and held on with some great backfield defence. Even though we pushed it an extra turn, we walked away victors in Game Two.

In Game Three we had to break through the breach in the curtain wall and hold the central objective. Each side was given a Reaver Titan, nice!

Our opponents raced forward and stood tall in the breach, giving most of our firepower plenty of opportunity to target the Reaver. In the second turn Patrick managed to take it down with a shot from one of his Stompa. With a wonderful series of rolls, the Reaver went into Apocalyptic Meltdown. A Strength D hit on all models within 20"!!! Our opponent Eric took the brunt of it as his Black Templars were well and truly gutted. We figured that was the right time to start buying the beers, which flowed for the rest of the evening. Despite seeing half their army disappear, the Imperials fought back and eeked out a victory.

Anyway, it's getting late. More tales in the next post.

Take care!

Cheers

Dave

WarGamesCon is VERY nigh!

By this time tomorrow I'll be frantically pacing a small room (somewhere in Austin, TX), making sure my presentations are ready and that I have all the handouts and giveaways sorted, and generally wondering how I'll screw up my first true "hobby teaching" test. If I'm lucky, I'll have had a Texas-shaped waffle for breakfast - to calm my nerves of course.

If I get a chance I'll post a post or two from the show. I know the guys running the show are looking to grow the event to mammoth proportions, not to rival Adepticon, but to complement it as another jewel in the crown of indy events. I'm all for that.

Until next we speak I thought I'd show you a piece that I'm working on for a friend's upcoming Apocalypse extravaganza.

Three Bastions, one Shrine of the Aquilla, one Citadel hill, and three weapons from Quantum Gothic in the UK.

Cheers

Dave

War Games Con is Nigh!

It is just under a week until War Games Con (formerly BoLSCon). You still have a chance to sign up for some of the events and "get your ass to Austin!"

Bigred, JWolf, and the team there have some great stuff planned for the entire weekend.

One of the things planned is the first stab at some hobby seminars. This time around they have asked me to talk about toy soldiers, and you know I love to do that : )

I think there are still a few slots left for the Friday Hobby Day, so hit up the website and register!

Session One: 10am - 12pm

Dave Taylor presents Joe Orteza's "Lose the Fear: Working with Greenstuff" class.

This class will focus on figure conversion and the use of green stuff. Students will learn different aspects of figure conversion, from basic to advanced. The class will touch on the pose of the figure, basing, and the theme of model. I’ll discuss different techniques from singular display models to large units. Students will learn to utilize green stuff for figure embellishment and sculpting.

Session Two: 1pm - 3pm

"Back to Basics: Streamling Techniques to get your Army Painted"

This class will focus on painting models efficiently and effectively, allowing you to get your armies painted that much faster. Students will learn different "tricks" to cut down on the time spent deliberating on color choices, correcting mistakes, and enhancing the "pop" of an army.

Session Three: 4pm - 6pm

"Building that Centerpiece: The Jewel in the Crown of your Army"

Each army you build really deserves to have a standout, unique model that stands in the center of the display board. This class will focus on the use of plasticard (and plasticard related materials) to enhance existing models/vehicles, or create completely new vehicle shapes and ideas. Students will learn the correct ways of handling plasticard, as well as plenty of ideas and tips for embellishing their centerpiece models.

Cheers

Dave