Oathmark Dwarves, a review and some thoughts.

As a long time dwarf afficionado -- the fantasy literature kind of dwarf -- I was very curious when Northstar brought out a set of plastic dwarves. The set is in the same vein as their Frostgrave plastics, but geared towards unit building rather than skirmish warband. Thus it contains a whopping 30 miniatures (compared to the 20 in a Frostgrave box) but with more limited equipment options.

The box art. Nice innit?

Apparently the nice Mr McCullough of Frostgrave fame is writing a set of fantasy battle rules for Osprey, due out later this year, but the figures were released in 2018 already. There are also goblins, elves and human sets out already.

DarkOps townhouse build and review

Hi gang! As I said in my last post I ordered the What a Tanker! dashboard from DarkOps. Now they have a lot of MDF buildings as well, so I thought I'd try one out as I hadn't heard of them previously.

All the parts for the house except the base (which didn't fit into the picture).

The townhouse comes on 7 sheets of MDF, one of which is the base. Four are 2mm MDF and three are 3mm thick; upon closer inspection the base and outer walls (and the inside partitioning wall) are all on the thicker sheets. Now, here's the first drawback: there weren't any instructions included! I searched on the DarkOps site but couldn't find any downloads. But how hard can it be? I decided to crack on.

The Plague Brethren

... or Stink bros?

I couldn't resist this "limited" boxed set with three more plague marines. I love the new plague marines, and despite knowing that a proper plastic boxed set is on the horizon, and despite having about 50 old and semi-old metal plague marines, these were a must buy. Prize-wise they are 25 quid (or 300 Swedish Krona) for three ordinary plastic figures which is a bit steep. But who cares, money will be worthless when the Trumpocalypse comes anyway.

They come in this snazzy box. Can I please have this as a giant poster, pretty please with sugar on top?

The first thing you see when you open the box is a booklet with the same illustration on.

There are actually two booklets. One is the designer's notes and the other is the building instructions.

...underneath the booklets is a flap that lifts up to reveal some art cards.

All feature art by John Blance, but none is actually of any of the models in this box.

Ok, a quick break here, I have to get something off my chest. I'm a big fan of John Blanche's visions and style, but some of his art is actually very bad. I like the plague marine and the pox walker on the art cards above, they are quite evocative and disturbing. If you look closer though, you realise John's method of colouring his art is just drawing some swathes of water colours in the general area he wants colour, hoping most of it will be inside the lines he drew. One is actually of Mortarion, the great Death Guard primarch, but you couldn't tell if the picture didn't have the caption. I stared at the picture for like five minutes without being able to tell where his head is. I suppose it's a case of the Emperor's new clothes syndrome, nobody dares criticise John Blanche at GW and just prints whatever he produces.

Back to the box though, are there actually any minis inside?

The Walking Dead: All Out War review

As you may have noticed earlier I backed the TWD: AOW kickstarter (if you read that out aloud it sounds like when you stub your toe in the middle of the night -- "Twudd! Aowww!"). If you didn't know, you can read a slight rant about the kickstarter and look at my first painted figures here with some more figures here.

Anyway, if you haven't been living under a rock for the last ten years you can't have missed The Walking Dead -- either the TV show or the comic. There have been boardgames based on both, and there's a cooperative miniatures game in the works based on the TV show. Like the LotR and Hobbit franchise, there are licenses for both the books and the movies. Hence the long title, The Walking Dead: All Out War, to set the game apart from the other games. This game is not cooperative, instead groups of survivors clash against each other with the zombies as sort of moving hazardous terrain.

The comic. The TV show is slightly more colourful. Slightly.

I must confess that I haven't read the comic and only watched a couple of episodes of the TV show. But who doesn't love a good zombie game? Well I do, and I liked how the game looked in the kickstarter. I didn't go all in like most people, but I got the base game and quite a lot of stretch goals for the princely sum of 75 dollars. I think I got a good deal. For the purposes of this review though, I'm only going to look at the core game.

Warning, lots of rambling and pictures ahead! (Maybe also some spoilers, I don't know.)

Lots of loot! Part one: The Dice Bag Lady delivers!

At the beginning of the summer Koen put in an order from the Dice Bag Lady for some of her female soviet figures, and I joined in to save postage. Because of reasons (life, the universe and everything) we didn't manage a hand-over until just recently. 

Anyway, not wanting to start a full-blown Soviet force, I bought a pack of tank riders and a sniper team. Since I have an Italeri Sherman that is the wrong version for my brits I'm thinking of painting it up as soviet and making a diorama out of it.

DiceBagLady soviet female tank riders.

Kneeling Sniper team.

Muddy Waters -- Modelmates Weathering Wash review

Hi gang!

The Model Railroad hobby is a bit strange to be honest (and I've been a part of it so I'm not bashing somebody elses hobby BTW), but we can still learn a lot from them. The thing is that model railroaders spend a lot of time and money on building very realistic backdrops for their trains, yet most want their trains pristine and unweathered. So Model Railroad rolling stock (that's locos, wagons, etc.) are sold prepainted and in perfect shape. This goes for figures too, they are prepainted but not shaded. Again, I'm not bashing someones hobby, Model Railroaders are often collectors too (unlike Wargamers which are hoarders) and display their trains in special cabinets.

Case in point. Lovely scenery, squeeky clean locomotive and lorry.

But not all Model Railroaders are collectors, and there are lots of tips and tricks for weathering locomotives. Usually they are of the DIY kind, but there are also some special products available, like the weathering sprays from Model Mates. Since I live in Sweden I haven't been able to order one of those, but I recently discovered that they are also available in regular paint pots. Instead of trawling Model Railroad shops you can steer your web browser to Great Escape Games that stocks them.

Different cans, but the same product apparently.

Delivery was swift and secure with the jars of weathering liquids in separate ziplock bags inside the package in case of leaks (there were none). The Weathering Liquids functions like a wash, but are water soluble after they have dried. The idea is you take your spanking brand new boxcar, diesel engine or whatever you want to weather, and slather the liquid on it. When it has dried you remove as much or as little you want with a cotton bud, damp cloth or brush. If you remove too much you can always apply some more. I think it will look very nice as grime and dirt on tanks for instance. However, I plan to use it to Nurgle-ise a lot of figures for Warhammer 40k, hence my choice of Moss Green...

My brave volunteer. Hey, the 80's called and wanted their paint job back!

As I didn't have any vehicles ready for weathering, I took a figure to test it on instead. I had this 80's classic Nurgle Chaos Warrior I bought on eBay. While not a bad paint job per se, it was a bit too clean for Nurgle really.

Ugh, that shield has to go...

Ready for action... love that murky greenish colour of the weathering liquid.

Weathering liquid applied and still a bit wet, hence the glossiness. It dries matt.

Most of it wiped off with a damp brush. Notice how it leaves some grime and stain on the original surface.

I tried the Rusty Red on the sword as well, but I didn't like the effect. Probably the sword is too flat and silvery to retain much of the effect. I suspect it will work much better on a tank with all those rivets and panel lines.

At £4.50 it costs about the same as the new big cans of GW washes, although it only contains 18ml. However the effect is not the same as regular washes and I find that they are well worth the price and will definitely order some of the other colours.

Kickstarter loot! W00t!

The thing with kickstarters is that when they arrive you hardly remember what you ordered or even what kickstarter you backed! I do know some big campaigns have longer production times and some kickstarters get delayed, but it's starting to get to the point where every little scrap you get feels like a victory! I'm looking at you, Shadows of Brimstone with your "Wave 1.5 shipping" shenanigans.

It's almost like opening christmas presents, except you know it's not socks.

Well, a package slip arrived a couple of days a go but I didn't have time to pick up the parcel until saturday. So, what is in it?

Horizon Wars and Polyversal stuff

Inspired by pictures in the Horizon Wars rulebook I decided to try out some of the new 6mm companies out there. Well, new since I last played any 6mm S/F game at least.

First I jumped onboard an order my mates Håkan and Mats placed to Vanguard Miniatures, sampling a couple of different ranges they carry. I ordered some vehicles and walkers from the Defeat in Detail range.

Top: Novan Scout buggies: Bottom Cybershadows Warcrabs.

I ordered some acrylic explosions and an MDF landing pad as well, but I don't have any good pictures of them yet.

In Horizon Wars the crabs will be P1 Mechs and the scout buggies will be Light Cavalry and Recon.

Size comparison with an EM-4 Mech

I then also placed a small order from Brigade Models to try out their stuff. I chose units from the Pacific Federation and the South African Confederation factions, because they looked very distinct from eachother. The PacFed uses gravtanks while the SAC uses lots of wheeled vehicles. I also ordered generic powered armour infantry.

PacFed infantry, 24 models, 6 diffrerent poses.

Power Armour infantry, 24 models, four different poses.

PacFed Cougar gravtank, Tanami SPG and Kakadu Rocket Artillery

SAC Wildebeest APC's. The middle has an AA turret and will function as a HQ element.

A closer shot of the Wildebeests.

If you compare the Defeat in Detail miniatures with the Brigade Models stuff, Defeat in Detail has more detailed sculpts. Yet I'm not sure that's a good thing, since it's 6mm after all and I want the models to be quick to paint. Lots of details will take more time. On the other hand, good relief will take washes better so it's a fine line to walk. But if we look at the wheels for example, I thought the Brigade Models APC's looked a bit boring with their smooth tires, but then I realised that at this scale you shouldn't be able to pick out any thread details. The scout cars also has a finely sculpted rear door with hinges and locks and stuff, but they are attached to the sprue right on that door, making it impossible to cut them loose from the sprue without damaging the details on the door.

Size comparisons. The Tamami gravtank is on a 40mm base, while the Warcrab is on a 60mm base!

By coincidence, right after I placed these orders the new Polyversal Kickstarter came live, and one of the battlegroups featured in the Kickstarter game uses models from the PacFed faction, but not any of the ones I ordered. The powered infantry is the same though, but that's ok, I was probably going to order more someday anyway.

One of the battlegroups in the Polyversal Kickstarter. Anything look familiar?

 Furthermore, a couple of freebies exclusive to the kickstarter are small walkers not yet relased from Brigade Models, and a Spaceport terrain piece that will go along nicely with the landing pad I ordered... it's almost as if I'm psychic.

A nice big chunk of resin... excellent. Looks big enough to hide a mech behind too!

I'm glad to say the kickstarter has funded now, so I will be able to slot those models right into my existing collection when they arrive sometime next year. (And if I don't like the game I can use the miniatures for Horizon Wars.)

Go check it out if you haven't done so yet, at the time of writing it's eight days left so plenty of time to throw some money at it. What are you waiting for?

Heroines in sensible shoes size comparison

Lasgunpacker asked to see comparison shots so I grabbed some figures I had lying about. No Age of Sigmar stuff though... I've put the Heroines on suitable bases to get them to stand on the same level as the other figures, some of which have integral bases, some have slottabases and some have both.

First the Warrior heroine next to a Frostgrave cultist, then a GW drunken dwarf and the Dwarf heroine, last the Elf Heroine next to a Frostgrave soldier. 

As you can see the Oathsworn figures are of a similar size but more realistically proportioned.

I also found this Hasslefree figure and couldn't resist putting him with the Soldier's Wife from Warlord Games and the freebie Villager.

"How can I get out of this!"

Apologies for the murky pictures!

Happy Gaming!

Heroines in Sensible Shoes review

Ok, so this is the second kickstarter from Oathsworn I pledged to, and boy do they not know how to run a kickstarter.

• They included an extra figure and a resin Dragon's nest as a "Thank You" to the backers -- not a stretch goal, but just as extras. Ok, functionally it's the same as a stretch goal but they didn't have to include them since they never said "Everyone gets extra stuff when we reach so and so much money."
• Despite the extra stuff included I recieved my pledge in time. Unacceptable. The first time they were a month late, even that was ridiculous. It's simply not how Kickstarters are done.
• The figures looked exactly like the pictures we were shown during the kickstarter. No change of design, no change of material. Surprise!
• Clear communications during the casting and sending out processes so everyone knew what was going on.

I'm joking of course, but it's refreshing to see a company using Kickstarter as it was originally intended and then actually delivering what was promised and on time.

For those of you who don't know what it's all about the figures are depicting female adventurers wearing sensible and practical adventuring gear. No chainmail bikinis, no high heeled boots, no slashed dresses revealing shapely thighs... just what women would wear if they had to go explore a dungeon and fight monsters. I don't want to make this into a feminist debate, but the thing is that these figures are needed. Have you ever roleplayed with a bunch of your male friends and suddenly a girl wants to join? Yay, you think! Awesome! But the only female figures you have are a half-naked barbarian and an evil elf sorcess with high heels striking that Angelina Jolie at the Oscars 2012 pose?

Yes that pose.

Sure, I like a bit of eye-candy. But there has to be ordinary figures too. And there are, they are coming, but those cheese-cake pin-up models are still the majority of female figures out there. So the Oathsworn Heroines in Sensible Shoes kickstarter was very welcome and fills a niche that's not yet full. Which about a 1000 backers also thought, as they backed the project. Compare that to their earlier kickstarters which gathered the interests of about 300 backers at most -- 207 for the Dwarf Brewers that I backed previously.

Enough soap-boxing, on to the miniatures.

EM4 cheap-ass mechs and spaceships

Inspired by Horizon Wars I decided to get some battlemechs to try out the rules. As I wrote in my previous post I have ordered some cheap plastic mechs from EM-4 miniatures. They are molded in a hard silvery plastic on two sprues. The plastic takes ordinary model glue fine and five 25mm round slottabases are included.

The first sprue

The second sprue. The two standing mechs are identical to the first sprue.

To summarize the parts there are two identical smaller bodies, two identical slightly larger bodies, and a large body with large hind legs. Weapon-wise we get two right arms, two left arms, a pair of double lasercannons, three autocannons and two missile pods. I thought the missile pods were a bit large, but otherwise the designs are nice.

A quick dry-fit of weapons and bodies. All arms fit all mechs, but some look better on certain bodies.

What I really fancy is some real Battletech figures since I played the boardgame a lot during the early 90-ies. The best looking mechs were those that really were copies of the Robotech anime designs; The Marauder, Warhammer, Rifleman and others I can't remember anymore. Unfortunately the metal Mechs are quite costly and -- I think -- that the classic designs are no longer available due to the blatant copyright infringement. But in the mean time five mechs for the princely sum of £2.55 will do nicely.

The cheap Spaceships/Flyers.

Twelve different sculpts, quite impressive.

Along the same vein, you can get 12 different spaceships and/or flyers for £2.55. Also included are 12 flight stands, which is insanely good value since often just flight stands cost more than that if you buy them separately. Not all designs look like airplanes, some look more like the spaceships they are sold as, but hey, at 21 pence a pop who's complaining?

EM-4 I'm told are mainly doing pieces for boardgames, and you can buy a lot of dice, counters and other accessories on their site. These models were originally designed for boardgames, but they will do nicely for Horizon Wars or Polyversal. 

To summarise I give EM-4 Mechs and Flyers 4 out of 5 heat-seeking nuklear missile salvos.

Sure they look cheap, but they are even cheaper. For the price you can afford to sacrifice the occasional odd model or iffy sculpt to the bits box. Check them out.

Some thoughts about Horizon Wars

Horizon Wars by Robey Jenkins is the new set of wargames rules from Osprey publishing. This time it's all about big stompy robots and tanks in a not all too distant future -- albeit in 6mm or 1:285 scale. The game is designed to be generic which means you can use all the 6mm S/F stuff you already have, be it Battletech or Epic40k stuff, or maybe even Hammer's Slammers or other figures. [Edit: as someone pointed out you can use 10 or 15mm troops too!] There's a setting and a background included for those of us who need a little bit of inspiration for our games. It's quite funny actually. There's a Youtube video explaining how to play via a short battle report, I'm sure you can find it if you search on Youtube.

The pre-release blurb from Osprey

Before I go into the my thoughts about the game, lets take a detour shall we.

Basius 2 review

Another Kickstarter pledge that finally arrived. Kickstarter is a bit like getting Christmas or birthday presents -- sometimes it takes so long that you have forgot that you backed the project in the first place. Even if you do remember you are not sure exactly what you plegdged for, how much money did you sink into the project and what options did you finally choose? Exactly like opening Christmas presents, you sort of know what you wished for but not exactly what you are getting. And since it was so long ago that you paid for your pledge, it feels like you are getting the stuff for free...

"BASIUS 2 - Deluxe Miniature Wargame Base Stamp Pad System" is the full name, and as it implies it's a sort of stamp that you can use to imprint a detailed texture onto a base using green stuff. It sounds more complicated than it is, at least in theory. The Stamps themselves are big chunky squares of resin, textured on both sides.

The two pads used to impress the texture. As you can tell by my glasses in the picture they are big.

WarColours paints review. In other words, I got new paints!!!

Hi gang. I'm in the middle of vacation, which involves dragging the family around Sweden to various tourists traps. When we're home I'm hoping for bad weather to get some hobby time in, because otherwise I have to paint the house... yep, 1:1 scale painting.

Speaking of paints I have been trying out a new manufacturer named WarColours, based in Cyprus.

Don't you just love trying out new paints?

This new range of paints are supplied in dropper bottles with child-proof caps. The consistency is smooth and they should be suitable for airbrushing as well -- the website claims that but I haven't tried it myself.

Rubicon and Warlord Games 28mm Panzer IV, a comparative review

Warning, long post!

After getting back from Gothcon (still need to do a photo report I know) I decided to reinforce my Deutsche Afrika Korps with another box of Perry figures and a Panzer IV. Having received the Warlord Panzer IV from my Secret Santa I ordered the Rubicon Models' kit which is a more recent release. Rubicon models are 3D designing their kits as I think almost everyone are nowadays, but they share the design drawings on their forum, which gives a lot of people the chance to chip in their view and expertise. I have been frequenting it for a time and was really interested in trying of their kits. I will be comparing it to a Warlord Games Panzer IV which I realise I haven't done a proper review of yet, but you can find my first thoughts about it here.

The first sprue of Rubicon's Panzer IV. Note the tracks assemblies.

The Rubicon Panzer IV comes in a standard sized box with three sprues; one smaller than the others, along with a set of decals and a comprehensive assembly guide. The kit does not feature a crew or commander figure. The plastic seems a bit slicker and of a different kind than the ones used by Warlord games, Italeri and Renedra for example.

Warlord Games German Pioneers open box review (sort of)

Continuing from yesterday's post, here is the last item in my self-gratulatory shopping splurge:

German Pioneers, or assault engineers.

A box of German assault engineers, pioneers, or Sturm Pionier.

Opening the box reveals a lot of plastic frames and two zip-lock bags with metal bits.

The box contains 31 plastic and metal miniatures, allowing you to build german assault or combat engineers. These were highly trained, highly motivated and heavily equipped assault troops as well as regular field craft specialists. They operated in their own platoons or companies within an infantry regiment, often spearheading an assault.

For some reason I only got 20 Renedra bases and five Warlord bases... for 31 figures!

So what do I think about this set? You get a lot of stuff, right? No... not quite. Or yes you do, but most of it is not stuff that is useful for pioneers. Useful for regular infantry yes. Incidentally the price difference is only £2 between the sets and they contain the same number of sprues, making the Pioneer set a very good buy if you are after regular infantry because of all the extra bits you get.

Mean green grassing machine

Being at home with man-flu (mucus seeping from my skull) gave me a chance to try out my new static grass applicator without endangering any other family members. Since this is a highly advanced electrical device, deadly in the wrong hands and not to be used by or on children and those of frail health, you can understand my worries.

No Beatles were harmed while testing the device.

The design is simple: the static grass is electrically charged by an electric source, one pole connected to the grass container, the other pole connected to surface you want to glue the grass to. In the old days you put the grass in a plastic container and shook it violently before pouring the grass out hoping that it would generate some static electricity. Another way which functioned marginally better was a "puffer bottle"; same thing, you shook the bottle and then pressed on it to blow the grass out. Anyway, the electricity makes the grass fibers stand on end while the glue dries and thus looking more realistic.

The wire inside the container is also connected to the metal mesh, charging the grass as it passes through.

A couple of years ago Noch unleashed their electronic grass applicator on the model railway market for a cost of about a couple of hundred euros or about hundred and fifty pounds. Other companies quickly followed suit, but the more ingenious railway modellers made their own from electric flyswatters. Now the fad has reached the wargames market. There are several different designs, but they all work on the same principle and yes, you can build your own, just google it. Being somewhat lazy I decided to buy a cheap Chinese version on eBay for 25 dollars including shipping.

It even has a "NO" switch. Luckily I'm a highly trained engineer with a specialty in "engrish".

A closer inspection revealed that it was indeed, a rebuilt electric fly swatter. No worries, it's not as if I paid a hundred pounds for it. I even got a small bag of unrealistically green static grass. So did it work? Read on to find out.

Perry Miniatures DAK Kübelwagen Review and WIP

I decided to shape up and actually start painting some stuff for this years convention game, so I turned my attention to Perry Miniatures' Kubelwagen in recce role. For those who didn't know, the Kübelwagen was the German equivalent of the Jeep and also the first Volkswagen model.

The little kübel and it's crew.

The kübelwagen was used on all fronts both as personnel transport and as a reconnaissance vehicle. It could go as fast as 80 km/h and had good cross country performance even though it didn't have four-wheel drive. Some 50.000 were built during the war, and even an amphibious version called Schwimmwagen was made.

You can see the rough texture and flash on this picture.

The model looks the part, capturing the particular shape of the kübel. The model is mostly a one piece resin affair, only the windshield and folded roof are separate metal parts. Also included are three crew which is nice, and some stowage along with two jerry cans, a tropical helmet, a mauser rifle and an MP40 to further customise it. (All these items are separate though) The crew are all individual sculpts in lifelike and realistic poses, but I feel the stowage could be more thought out. We get some weapons and two helmets, yet all the crew are wearing their helmets. A couple of water bottles and gasmask cases would have been better.

"Hans, I vant to go zat vay!"

I feel that the model would have benefited having more separate metal parts, the wheels and shovel for example could gain a lot by being separate. Now the details of those are a bit bland and the shovel is misshapen and I fear the handle is going to break off any time. The headlights and notek light are also parts that could have been better detailed if they were separate items. The cast is relatively good but with some flash and a bit of a rough texture here and there.

"I'll race you to Tobruk!"

It looks a bit on the small side, but on the other hand the kübel was a small vehicle, so I think it's ok scalewise. It's always hard with vehicles for 28mm figures because they are bulkier than regular people. The two gerry cans though look a tad bit overscale, I suspect that they simply copied some 1:48 bits. If you compare it to the Warlord kübelwagen the Perry model is slightly more expensive (£15.50 vs £14.00) but as you only get a driver with the Warlord model I think the Perry one is a better buy.

I'm a bit hesitant about how to rate this one. I like the sculpt and the fact that you get three crew figures is a plus. On the other hand I feel that the quality of the sculpt is let down a bit by the cast, both the metal and resin were not top quality really. I was surprised by this because Perry Miniatures WW2 range is quite recent, so the molds should still be ok.

I give Perry Miniatures' Kübelwagen 3 out of 5 stars.