About Time Table

Here’s me, the Boy Slug and Captain Stinky at the grand opening of our table, with Blondi as special untertischehund. Well it’s not the grandest of gaming tables, but it’s a start and about time too given how we moved in August.  I’ve decided to base mine on a dining table and one of Daring Dan’s old chums offered up one which was taking up patio space. After a short trip to the city we then had a lovely oak table which was better than our pine table, so the pine table is set to become the basis of the games table. So yes it’s just a table with a game sheet on it at the moment, but soon a large sheet of MDF will be added to complete the illusion.

Wreck and Ruin

After the wildly positive private feedback on the ruins I made recently I decided to make a full set. Rather obviously this involved three times as much work to make it up to a set of four. Not so much a chore as a joy.

All joy has to be tempered by the gods so having boxed up the masters I opened up the twenty kilo drum of rubber to find I didn’t have enough to complete all three moulds. I scraped the bottom of the barrel to get as much done as possible and phoned through an order for new supplies and waited eagerly for delivery.

Lo and behold the completed set, which is available here, which I’m chuffed with and actually excited about getting some paint on. Hurrah!

Tray Bon

Exciting isn’t the best way to describe the photo above, but it’s a cracking product from the ever brilliant Fenris Games, namely irregular movement trays. I’ve never used movement trays before because I don’t play the rank and file periods, and there’s not much scope in playing Nuremburg. Originally I bought these for zombie games as moving the eighty odd living dead became the biggest part of the game. On the left I’ve glued the two laser cut pieces together, and the next stage on the right was to put a little filler on it.

Now they’ve been spray undercoated in brown, PVA’ed and sprinkled with flock.

Then some longer static grass.

Finally a small sprinkle of flower flock.

Once a few miniatures have been added it’s apparant how versatile these actually are, these bases stand slightly proud because of my basing on a tuppence with a magnet on the bottom, and I’m really happy with them.

They’re also very handy for defining units, and keeping them together so games can be more about the play than the organisation -something which aways irritates me. I highly recommend them not only for price and quality but also for their damn-useful-for-gaming factor.

It’s all Greek John to Me

Having moved back to my home town last year I’ve started bumping into old chums who never managed to travel the vast distance involved to see me where I lived previously. One of these is Greek John who I’ve known from when we were all skinny, lithe limbed and stupid. We were both adorers of Art,  both high and low, including table top gaming. To cut a waffle short he said he hadn’t painted a figure for decades, so I chucked him a couple and what he came up with was pretty appalling. Being the eager otter he is he asked for more to try, so I gave him some more and they were appalling again. Neither of us were daunted by this so I slipped John the figures here, mainly Blue Moon Manufacturing gangster ones which are great for VBCW civvies.I do think he’s cracked it, aside from the girl with the opthalmic disorder, so a big “HURRAH!” for that. What he’d really like to know is what you think of them, especially as he’s interested in painting figures for folk but obviously not if you think he’s awful at it. S0 please oh please oh please leave a comment on this one.

Rack and Ruin

There’s not many console games which I ever play for very long, typically five minutes in I decide it’s not for me. Most often it’s the content, sometimes the double declutching controls and rarely, but increasingly so, it’s just too damn fast for my bones. Fallout 3 is one of a trinity of games which I adore, the subject  entertains while it’s style is outstanding and the level of detail is stunning. So to make a piece for table top gaming inspired by a game is a first for me with the ruin piece above. It was a fun build, especially in trying to replicate the 1001 grains every pile of rubble in Fallout has.

To get a castable model was slightly more long winded, as all the holes in the 1001 grains had to be filled. This actually took longer than the original build. I added to the delay by not adding quite enough hardener to the rubber so instead of an 8-12 hour set it took some four days. However I think from the casting above it was worth it.

The detail starts to stick out with a coat of paint. Excuse the glossly look but it’s still wet. I’m thinking of doing three pieces to add to this – to make a complete ruin. Then we’re offer it up for sale. Although it’s originally influenced by the Post-Apocalyptic it’s suitable for a wide range of periods.