New hobby on the way

Military Simulation Paintball. Since 2011 been for me a big change in every thing,  the start of the year felt like a BOOM! Having a desk job now i thought that leaving 40K for those rainy days would be good, having a hobby to move around, socialize , team work, learning and shoot paint on my pals sounds good to me. Now still getting ready with buying the equipment i need for a good start and be ready for mid spring. I hope all goes for the better in this new adventure. I won't let down my minis since none of them are based and some paint job is needed here and there but winter won't be forever and i do want to enjoy the sunny days having fun with my pals outside.

Necrohammer Signing Out !

Holidays in the Dark

Happy Holidays to all !

Now that the new Dark Eldars hit us with a updated codex, they rise again and i do have to say it's a good thing. Interesting new book with lots of flavors and the new line of minis is great ( just Urien's new mini is a total lack of inspiration ) I do hope that 2011 will be even better for 40k armies update. As a mono player/collector ( collecting only one faction ) i do wish for a chaos marine new codex but some other armies are in more much need of a update, Rumors so far points to Necrons and Grey Knights, that would be great but the dates for seeing those to come out are quite far, so the beginning of  the new year will be pretty quiet. On my side still thinking of finishing updating my Black Legion. In the grim darkness of the far future there is only painting and basing !!!!!!

Necrohammer Signing out !

Terra Nova, Here i turned back !

After finishing building my Deamon Pinces and updating a few Chaos Space Marine squads i stumble on old heavy gear miniatures, those mecha minis gave me the itch to start off Heavy Gear Blitz!.

I do need a major change, while Warhammer 40k has a great fluff and great minis, the turn base system is quite slow and time to play can get quite long. Heavy Gear is more fast pace and way less minis are needed, major turn off is that for 100.00CAD i only get roughly 10 minis. Well i sent a email to DP9 since i felt i had to share my feeling that Heavy Gear Blitz! price tag was far from competitive. DP9 is known to care about the fans so once i get an answer i'll share the news.

                                            !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! UPDATE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 Contacted DP9, got an answer same day,  was happy that the service towards the clients has not changed a bit. Seriously those guys are dedicated to the bone for the fans, even if i do not agree with every thing they do, i respect the team and still have a big soft spot for the products they offer. Okay now the answer i got from the President of DP9 himself.

The prices are higher because we actually cast the metal and package the miniatures here in Canada and not over in China. Our books are now printed in the USA, so all of our products are still made in North America, not China. We have made a decision to keep the jobs here and support the local economy not ship jobs over to China as other companies have done. That's the reason.

Honorable Stand, But my pockets do dictate my spending on the hobby. A real sorry since i just love DP9 stuff and minis, all in all, less minis it takes to play and the fact is more dynamic than GW turned based system make still worth it, but to play a decent size 750-1000pts army is still roughly a 200.00CAD to 250.00CAD and there is not tons of minis.  i do agree that it may be all metal and if i do compare with a GW all metal collection, it's way cheaper but the absence of plastics it's really a bugger.

only time will tell if i try to venture on Terra Nova again

40K updating to 5ed slowly, for cheap

Been a while dear readers, so now Island of blood is out for Warhammer fantasy and it's a blast for the WFB community, on 40K side been very quiet if not almost dead so i thought that showing off my projects would be nice.

Since my Chaos Space Marines army still had a strong 3.5 codex feel to it, some humiliating defeats and a big lack of  monstrous creatures features, i was in a urge to bring my collection in line to have a better chance to get a win.

After more than a full years of having the dready chest built in my bitz box i finally finished it ! so now i got two useless Chaos Dreadnoughts but  those were very fun projects. i think we can make wonders only with bitz.
this dready cost me 3 buck to complete, good price considering it won't see much action.

So my latest work in progress, the much needed Chaos Daemon Prince. For all Chaos Spaces Marine army it's a must to have one and yet i didn't have, silly but true. so those two were not two actual kits, in fact it's only one kit and the second model on the right is made of left overs and bitz i got at my local game store. Investment was worth it, 45$ CAD for two princes of the warp, i tend to think it's a fair deal. Only a pair of wings missing which might cost around 10 bucks and a nice paint job for both and they will be ready for battle.

hope you like my WIP :)

signing out !

The Island of Blood starter box confirmed

                                                              
Big thanks to Nesbet for sharing the news,

he shared on his blog that the new box is due for September, means an all brand new box filled up with awesome minis plus the updated rules. Ok with all new with games workshop means also a downside. Looks like the match up rumored is High Elves VS Dark Elves, well all in all if you are an elven fan rejoice plus the history behind the elven civil war is your cup of tea well you are more than served, but seriously as fantastic the minis can be an Elves VS Elves box  is a real turn off. In my opinon i was wishing a more exotic starter set, like Skaven ( rat humanoides) VS Ogres, Wood Elves VS Chaos Daemons or Tomb Kings VS Chaos Warriors. I invite you strongly to visit http://nesbetminiatures.blogspot.com/ a great source for info and this guy  has even more to help you out in a venture in wargaming.

UPDATE, like every rumor, it can go up in smoke in seconds, looks like it will be the Skaven VS High Elves

Warhammer Fantasy battles 8th Ed

That's it folks,
                      Games Workshop did it again, Warhammer Fantasy 8th Ed is released,  all pros and cons are pouring out all over the internet via blogs, forums, the fantasy wargamer community is on fire. I always had a thing for this game before ( the minis are so fantastic ) This new edition is also a sign of a new starter box, really good news but those looking to start in this game with dwarfs or goblins I suggest to grab the Battle for skull pass starter box. The rules in the box may be from previous edition but just for the minis it's still a great deal. See for yourself on the picture below. Of course all those pretty things come unpainted.

 To be honest with you dear readers I got to tell you "the why" I didn't started yet. This game has a reputation that does harm to it, sadly this is half true and don't get me wrong Warhammer Fantasy is a great game, just let me point it out. Initial investment for the starter box is around 100.00 Canadian dollars, pretty standard for a games workshop starter box ( 100 amazing minis, it's worth it in my book ) as seen on the photo above, the buyer or buyers ( in case of a splitbox purchase ) gets two skirmish sized forces, there is a catch...the game itself is not about skirmish, it's about armies, the itch for having a collection big enough to call an army will come over quickly and it requires more miniatures than most wargames out there. Let me do an example, a basic unit or squad in Warhammer 40000 is most of the time 10 guys to be fully functional and get the job done, Warhammer fantasy is 20. Double investment, between you and me, we better really, really, REALLY want to play that game. Warhammer fantasy been for a long time tagged to be the veteran's wargame, true to point that there is a learning curve less forgiving than other games, but that doesn't mean it's only for vets. Like everything else, practice makes perfect.

8th Edition, what for? What's new? The guys at the game studio did resolved many issues of previous edition and changed some mechanics to get the game a faster pace. For the new part, I can only say that some actions are now allowed to be pre-measured, kind of unusual and pretty nice at same time. Core rules changing all the time, personally I find it annoying and Warhammer Fantasy been revised 3 times in 10 years, not very stable core rule set in my opinion but business dictate that new rules is profits. What ever we say or argue about, Warhammer Fantasy, it still one of the most popular fantasy wargame out there if not THE most popular.
                   

Wargaming at what cost ?

Hello to all,
                Yesterday while building my second scratch Dreadnought, the neighbor's kids popped in the house and inevitably went to see what I was doing and had the reaction of wanting their own collection to build and paint. I had a thought, how much I did invest into the wargaming hobby. Looking in my inventory I got like .. whoooo I got way more stuff than I thought, yes the mini count is staggering, I did sold some miniature collections and gave away some too as they were of no use to me at the time. Thousands of dollars ( CAD ) have sunk in the hobby, the minis them selves, rule books, paint, glue and so on.  For starters it's quite tricky,
a starter box is always good and later on the possibility to expand is there, may happen that the series of miniatures desired is not available in a starter package, either way the cost at starting can hurt.

Asking guidance from some one already involved in the hobby is somewhat ideal, and for those like me who didn't or don't have a guide PLEASE OH PLEASE read about it. In fact get the most info you can about the game, the background, the factions and the the tactics. I am aware that it's not all of us who like reading but it's a vital part, the time spending reading instead of jumping right to the building do save time and money, never forget it's a hobby so time don't count and in wargaming preparation is also part of the pleasure. My view on preparation is like getting the battle plan ready and getting the best out of my faction.  My start in wargaming was like stepping in the unknown, I did many mistakes and my wallet suffered from it. Lacking the knowledge from the reading, the access to feedback from players themselves was really limited at the time and of course I was in a jungle of minis without a veteran to help in my choices. All those were serious factors and did cost greatly.

So how to start? How to not sink all those precious dollars? First advice I'd say would be, are you alone interested by the wargaming hobby, is there any friends to join you? Is there a club or somewhere to play on a regular basis? Otherwise all those minis might be just some dust collectors. Now for another advice, would be what ever the game, go for the minis you like. Yeah it's all about the minis. A third one would be to READ ALL THE RULES, background and all info you can get on the chosen faction ( can be race, army or warband, what ever the name is given to the miniature series chosen by the future player ) to be honest I do lack in this area, this did cost me lots of victories. Last would be in fact in two parts, first: when starting putting your newly acquired miniatures, ensure that they are rule legal. Second: play skirmish sized games for a while to get a good grasp of the rules and gameplay. These advices are of course to put a minimal investment in starting in the hobby.

Expanding, that's where is the money issue. When expanding, it's easy to get lost in all those options, new miniatures, warmachines, buildings and on and on. To start, depending on budget, I'd say for miniatures; hunt for used stuff, of course this don't apply for all wargames out there but many of the most popular ones do have a second hand market for the miniatures. The local gaming store or comic shop usually offer that kind of service. Naturally second hand miniatures need extra work to restore them to a satisfying level but saving close to 50% off regular price is always worth it to gain two mini instead of one. For those players wishing to expand their collection to epic proportions, molding and resin is a good alternative, this requires some reading. Practice to get it right but the investment it represents and the number of miniature created this way saves so much money that I think is the way to go. There is online auctions sites but those can be tricky so as a last resort it's okay, shipping fees can kill the intended savings or the buyer can get ripped off, better keeping that for the connoisseur.

Scratch building, for the big pieces that may be part of a series, collection or buildings this is the best. I recommend strongly using plasticard ( sheets of white plastic 2mm / 0.0787 inches US thick ) plasticard can be found in arts and craft shops, school art supplies. Cardboard, paper, wood and the recycle bin of the house can do.. OH !!!!! also never get rid of the plastic sprues ( rack where all the parts of your plastic minis or model comes on ) Sprues are very useful to make so many things it's too long to list here. The big picture is that you can build your own model and the cost will be ridiculously low. Just as a reminder that if you build a model to emulate a existing one, be sure that they got same dimensions, weaponry and statistics, no one likes cheaters.

Sculpting, well for those with talent or just wishing to try it, be my guest. The most used is called green stuff, in fact it's a pretty similar to the one used on cars to fix minor damage on the body. Great material for mini sculpting and is relatively cheap, those not afraid of long term project, it's perfect to create a truly unique collection. Talented or not, read about the subject and give it a try, it's very fun to do. Another side to green stuff,  great material to repair or replacing missing a part by doing your own. Again my second favorite reminder...if you build a model to emulate a existing one, be sure that they got same dimensions, weaponry and statistics, no one likes cheaters.

There is many ways to save, to get a really nice collection and have fun with friends, don't hesitate to ask me anything to help you start. Just leave a comment and ask your questions. I'll be more than glad to answer.

Necrohammer signing out !