Matt Gee Minis

Having knocked out a few more Deadzone models (I may stick a blog up about them too at some point) I thought it would be fun to delve into the box of scenery that I picked up a while ago. It was a combination of some ebay purchases and a box of bits from a great local guy at a Kings of War Event. I didn't really know where to start so grabbed whatever bits came to light first and started chucking them together. Within a few hours I  concocted the idea I was building a hide out for the rebs in an abandoned mining complex. It meant I could use some of the odds and ends I had laying around from Star Saga and Ramshackle Games' resin parts. Now with some big lumps done I took a couple of plates and thought I would try out some test paint pieces. Ever since seeing Nick Williams doing some on his Orks I'd had in the back of my mind trying the salt and hairspray method of painting. This was brought even further to life with one of my clubmates showing me some of the pics he'd ...

 Game one down and it was nuts as expected.  Here's the list I took. The plan was to take hunters to jam up the inevitable frostfangs and sit in the terrain with some boomers to supplement the warlock shooting. Siege Breakers to just wander up and sit there. Nomagarok had sent his apprentices to the opening skirmishes to test the enemy's strength and blood his acolytes in battle.  Troop Red Goblin Scouts 2 Boomer Hordes Warriors with 2 handed weapons 2 Hunter Hordes Berzerker Brave Regiment 3 Ogre Warlocks with DL, one with conj staff, one with Amulet of fireheart, one insp Talisman A army standard with the Lute Kuzlo and Mad fall The Varangur eschewed the use of a mage in favour of hordes of northmen both mounted and on foot. Units of Cavalry marshalled by a Lord astride a mighty frostfang deployed on either flanks. The unruly infantry accompanied by their hunting foxes held the middle ground and advanced.   The ogres deployed to the East of the tap house and s...

Despite there being little in person gaming going on these days the guys at Table top Conflict and Mantic have joined up to allow a global campaign for the new Halpi's Rift Supplement . I've signed up with Jock and the Ogres and have been assigned into The College as my sponsors from a choice of 4. I am not sure what it means in the long term but hopefully we'll find out. It gives a great chance to provide more fluff to the band of pirates and what they'll get up to.  Focus for this will really be on using the models I have and expanding their personalities as units. I won't be going for daft skew lists just because it is being played on Universal Battle . The first scenario is Dominate which I think is a great one for Ogres with their scoring heroes and good ratio of footprint to US. It's also being played on the Material Plane and means I have access to a lot of interesting Artefact choices. The material plane also gives some pretty tasty buffs to spell caster...

 Intro After a couple of false starts over the years I finally made it to an event hosted by Bexley Reapers. chucking my freshly painted Ogre pirate units into the car I set off for 4 games of Kings of War accompanied by access to a slightly insane event only Special Character in the form of Davy Jones.  If you want an expert   assessment of the lists on offer look no further than one provided by Troll Cast here .  I took the usual mix of an infantry block in the form of two siege breakers supported by a pair of warlocks and some boomers to help manage the back field and clear chaff. These also had the insurance policy of a blaster to hide behind them. Then a bunch of hard hitting things that could operate on their own, provide a threat and generally look for flanks or just go and die.  Accompanying this rat tag bunch of pirates and to fit in with the theme of the Davy Jones and pirates I took a regiment of pirate scarecrows and a shade represented by an animate...

With some base layers down it was time to put some mid tones in and then start the process of adding some volume by Glazing. As it was the biggest area and the lightest colour I took the Spacewolf Grey and went over all of the Blue Grey leaving some base coat only in the recesses. This took a heck of a time to get a consistent colour and a fair few coats. The end result was pretty startling and far from the "grey" I associate space wolves with. As instructed, the flesh was given a coat of bronzed flesh/bestial brown mix and I highlighted up a couch more with just bronzed flesh. The red parts got a coat of blood red and they started to get a bit of life and pop. At this point I was a bit worried that the end result was going to look way too stark.  The Space Marine Painting guide suggested using dry brushing t build up depth on on the flat armour plates. I will admit at this I deviated from the true path (don't let the inquisition know). I am awful at dry brushing and have...

The Drawing I presume the model is based on Second post so I will try and talk a bit about the paints that I am using, how they have lasted and how I think they differ from the more modern Citadel or other brands. In keeping with the instructions I base coated in Blue Grey over the armour panel. The paint was still pretty liquid but I am not sure it was completely mixed up. Coverage was good but it ended up a little glossier than I expected! It'll be interesting to see how the lighter colours go over the top of it. Other details such as the chainsword and eagle were given a coat of shining gold/brown ink as instructed. This was a new concept to me and actually worked really well to depend the colour of the gold paint. I usually go for a brown base coat and then bronze or gold over the top. The coverage was impressive and it's something that I will experiment with in the future.  The infamous Bolter pots, thankfully a flip top not a screw There was no instruction for painting fa...

The first ever paint set I got at the entrance to this rabbit holewas the Space Marine Paint set and the small booklet that came with it always captured my attention. The images in it, the background and level of detail was fascinating and seemed so exciting back then.  Looking through the pages and not actually having a lot of the colours led to some interesting paint jobs on the Squat and Imperial Guard Minis I got at the same time. Blood Angel's Orange skin with no undercoat and painted straight from the pot was my first ever foray into mini painting and I still remember the time fondly being supervised by my dad.  Ever since I got back into the painting game I fancied giving the models in the booklet a crack and see what I could do with them. I assembled the pieces I needed for the Leman Russ character and had a delve about my paint collection to see if I could try something a little different. To see what small child me could have achieved if I had a bit more patience and...

Intro  When you deconstruct wargaming it can be seen as moving bits of plastic/lead/resin around on a table and rolling dice. Theoretically (and I have done a few times) you can play with proxies and use piles of books for hills, cut out pieces of card for forests etc. What really drives the engagement for me though is two or more beautifully modelled sets of toy soldiers arrayed for battle on an equally complementary battlefield of rolling hills, rocky outcrops buildings and lush forests. Having a well presented battlefield is just as important to me as the armies battling over it. There are plenty of horror stories out there of people paying for events only to turn up and be presented with tables of brown cardboard or white polystyrene.  Whilst these events hit the headlines what doesn't seem to get as much attention are the events with a good mix of well themed terrain that's been lovingly constructed. A great example of this is  Kings of War:Military Encounte...

Well, this is a little awkward. Still no content from me but Mat's put together a battle report using the Universal Battle online application. It's a great way to learn new things, play lists that you've dreamt up and generally make your mistakes. It'll never replace pushing toy soldiers about and rolling dice but it's sometimes a more convenient thing. As luck would have it there are a couple of "how to" guides for UB here: from Matt at Hobby Sauce : HERE and a link on how to play by email from Steve at Death By dragons: HERE Pitting Mat's Berzerker heavy, historicals themed list against Elliot's Wave of Elemental fuelled Trident Realm. they're playing a 1495 point game of Kings of War 3ed ed and the scenario is invade Lists Mat's gone heavy on attacks and low defence with plenty of supporting fast cav chaff. Elliot's put a whole heap of eggs into a surge based list with a Kraken for staying power.     W...