Blog – Page 39 – Steve’s Hobby Blog

Super glue is great….but there are other adhesives!

I was very excited to receive a new consignment of stock last week. It wasn’t that the delivery had lots of shiny new releases but that, at last, I could offer a reasonable range of glues to my customers. The funny thing was that I was the only one that was excited, the other guys at the unit seemed to think that glue is just glue and one glue is the same as another. I suppose that it’s because I grew up making models before the invention of super glue and I’ve also been influenced by my dear Dad who was a superb model maker and always had the right tool for the job in hand. I’ve had experience of ‘improper use of glue’ ( I don’t think that this is actually an offence yet, but only because the Govt doesn’t appear to believe in making things, so they wouldn’t know…..) when I recently bought some second hand stuff from ebay. It was quite obvious that the plastic model that I had bought, had been glued with super glue and far from being the best glue for the job, it was a disaster. Fortunately, this meant that I could strip it down and re build it, but that’s another story.

So here’s a list of my four favourite glues and when best to use them!

If you are making a Plastic kit, then the glue to use is Polystyrene Glue. I recomend the Revell Contacta glue shown below. It comes with a fine needle applicator so the glue goes where you want it to. In the rare event that the Needle becomes clogged (usually because the top has been left off for a while ) simply pull the needle applicator out, reverse it, give the whole thing a good shake and it will clear. If all else fails, leave the bottle hanging, needle down for an evening ( with the top on) and the glue applicator will clear. So why use Polystyrene glue on plastic? Well, the glue works by melting the plastic that it comes into contact with, so you get a really strong joint. This also means that there is a degree of filling that happens, so even if the joints aren’t perfect, as long as the two pieces to be glued are held firmly together they will ‘weld ‘ together. This does require a bit of patience, particularly for large joins but your patience will be well rewarded by a strong joint that can be carefully sanded to become invisible. I like the Revell glue because of the consistency ( it’s like water) and combined with the fine applicator, it will go exactly where you want it too without the danger of spilling or running over fine detail.

Finally, as far as Polystyrene glue goes, there are other brands and you can buy it in tubes or with a brush. The tube of glue is great for big joins but has a tendency to be thicker and you generally end up with more glue on your model than you wanted. The Glue with a brush applicator is good but it doesn’t beat the needle applicator for accuracy in getting the glue where you want it!

Next up is Epoxy resin. This is a glue that has fallen from grace ever since the arrival of super glue but it still has it’s uses and I wouldn’t be without it. My favourite brand is Devcon, although I will happily use Araldite Rapid ( but dont carry it in stock). Why Devcon? Well, most importantly it dries to a really clear finish, so much so, that you can use it to make the lenses for model headlights, glass effects and even water. It also has great filling qualities and dries quickly to a hard finish. True, it is a nuisance to mix, and you don’t get the fast grab of super glue but the finished joint is far stronger. I use epoxy to fix my metal models to their bases and for gluing the larger metal components, particularly when I am pinning them. Epoxy beats super glue for strength, particularly when it comes to shearing strength which is why when you drop super glued figures they have a tendency to break at the joints. If you use epoxy, you will find that your models are far more resilient on the gaming table. As epoxy will glue most materials, it is also useful for fixing small rocks & scenery pieces to your models as well.

Talking of basing your models, I couldn’t do without white PVA glue. It was designed to glue wood & paper products and it also dries to a clear finish. Even better, it can be thinned with water so it is ideal for fixing sand, scatter, static grass and other small scenic products to the bases of your figures. I usually water it down to make it go further. It’s very easy to use and gives a good bond and if you do get some on your model, simply wash it off with a damp brush before the glue dries. I sell the White PVA Speed bond which is good quality and dries quickly but any white PVA glue will do the job!

And so at last to Super glue, or as it’s sometimes known, cyanoacrylate. There’s no doubt that this is a great innovation in the world of adhesives and it seems to stick practically anything, including your skin, so be careful. As if super glue wasn’t good enough, it’s even better now that you can get superglue accelerators or activators. The activator ensures an instant bond once it is sprayed onto the super glue and has the added bonus of providing some ‘fill’ element to the join. So If you are glueing small metal components, using a thicker version of super glue and an activator gives great results. I’ve seen the guys at Ibis studios put together a set of metal figures in less time than it takes me to open the packet…..OK, I exagerate slightly but this stuff is fast! For really small components, there is a brush on activator but I tend to use the pump action stuff. I know that once I press spray, the component will stay where exactly I put it. Since I’ve been using this I have had not one case of glueing the model to my finger…….

I tend to use the thicker version of super glue as it has a slightly slower drying time which lets me adjust the bits to the position that I want until I am ready to zap them with the accelerator. The thinner super glue is more suited to invisible repairs, particularly where the joint is a clean break. So I have a bottle of the thin stuff ready for any repairs needed after a battle!

So there it is,

Use Polystyrene Glue for plastics,

Use Epoxy for big metal joints & fixing your figures to bases

Use PVA for scenery & basing products

Use Super glue & accelerator for whatever else you like……Shimples!

Coming soon from Italeri…..

Just to whet your appetite, here are the latest releases due from Italeri. I have already placed orders for stock and hope to receive the new sets soon. If you see anything that you would like to pre order, please contact me through the shop email. All orders received through my independent shop will be supplied post free and you will not be invoiced until I have the stock. Once I have the stock, I will contact you with the confirmed price and you can choose to proceed or not…simple! As usual, once you have paid , I will despatch via first class post within 1 working day. The retail prices that are shown are provisional and where possible I will beat these.

So here are the new sets:

1/72 Scale World War Two German Paratroops in Tropical Dress. Retail

New From Mantic! Skeletons and more!

New kids on the block, Mantic continue to expand their impressive range of Fantasy miniatures. Having established their Elves range, they have now moved on to the Undead with a great range of Skeletons, Ghouls and Revenants troops. The Revenants are heavily armoured Skeletons and would be the equivalent of the Grave Guard that Games Workshop produce.

The Picture above shows the Revenant Regiment which contains 20 figures, including a Command Troop and retails for just

NECRON APOCALYPSE!

I can’t believe that it’s nearly a month since my last Blog entry. It has been a very busy time, both in my ebay shop and on the hobby front, so it’s not as though I haven’t got plenty to write about. I should really catch up with all the new releases that I been listing and those that are due to be released, but instead I thought that I would tell you about my latest exploits with the Necrons!

I had been invited to play in an Apocalypse size game over at a friends house. Pete had a ‘free’ weekend as his Missus was away and given the choice of tiling the Bathroom or playing toy soldiers he did what any sensible person would do and organised a battle! We had decided to play 4000 points per person, so with 4 players, there would be 16000pts of figures in the game. Our opponents, John & Ritchie were playing with a mixture of Dark Angels Space marines, Imperial Guard & Sisters of Battle. Pete & I had 8000 points of Necrons.

The evening before the Battle I laid out my entire Necron force to decide exactly what I would take. The Kitchen Table isn’t exactly the most glamorous of setting for the army but it allowed me to see exactly what I had. The Blue Monolith is awaiting a repaint job, I’ve been meaning to do this for a while but the Wife found the Fairy Power spray that I use to strip paint and used it all cleaning the kitchen…….

I digress, back to the Army selection. In the end I went with the advice that I had been given by Rob, an experienced 40K player, and kept things fairly simple. The basic force was the Necron Pylon, 2 Monoliths, 80 warriors in four big squads, two Lords & res orbs, the Wraith Wing plus a tooled up Destroyer Lord, 5 Tomb Spiders, 4 Heavy Destroyers and lots of Scarabs. Pete went for a slightly more exotic force and included plenty of Immortals, Destroyers, Heavy destroyers, a Monolith and The Night Bringer. He also had a few units from a Tempus Fugitive rules set (and I will return to these in a later blog) but for now, the units were Dark Destroyers and Tomb Guard.

I don’t have the details of John & Ritchie’s army but suffice to say that there were 2 super heavies to contend with as well as plenty of other Tanks & Special Characters…it was going to be a tough game. The board was set up in Petes lounge and was about 8 foot by 16 foot with plenty of scenery. To make life simple we agreed on a pitched battle deployment with an 18inch deployment zone on each table side. We lost the roll off for deployment and so set up first. The pictures that accompany the article are all of the initial deployment. Unfortunately, I had flat batteries in the camera…Doh! Again, to simplify the battle, we didn’t use either stratagems or strategic assets. We thought that there was enough going on with the size of the forces deployed. As it turned out, this was a good idea, as it was my first apocalypse battle and I really wasn’t up to speed with all of the special rules. In fact, before the game had started I had made a serious mistake. I had allocated 700 points for the Necron pylon….stupid boy! The Pylon is actually only 420 points, I could have had another squad of Immortals!

So with the deployment completed the Battle started at around 10. 30 ish. Once again, we managed to loose the roll off for first turn, so the Imperial Army started to move & fire….and fire…..and fire! I won’t go through every turn in detail, it would take far too long, but here are some of the highlights & low lights from a necron point of view.

Actually, the first turn was fairly low key with much long range shooting, even more movement but little in the way of casualties. Most of the big Guns were either shooting at the Pylon, which eventually took a hit and lost a structure point, or targeting the Monoliths, which seemed equally resilient. The biggest threat to my side of the battle came from two drop pods containing dreadnoughts, one of which was an Iron clad. That said, my first experience of an Apocalypse battle turn was scary. For about half an hour I was just taking fire from those big pie plate templates and making saving throws. At last it was our turn to shoot back and with a Hellhammer threatening the Centre of our Line, a Stormblade to the right and the Dreadnoughts to the left,there was plenty to aim at. The Pylon hit the Hellhammer and joy of joys, blew it to pieces with its first salvo! I also managed to kill one of the dreadnoughts and attacked the Iron clad with my Destroyer Lord & the Wraith wing. A big mistake, as although they didn’t get killed, they stayed locked in combat with the Dreadnought for the next 5 rounds! The Lord managed to chop off the dreadnoughts’ combat arms but he just could not kill it, even when a Tomb spyder joined the fight! Over on the right wing, Pete’s Necrons were delivering a huge volume of fire but were either missing, or seeing their hits saved. It was a case of fire & fall back.

Turn 2 started again with a huge volume of fire from the Marines, the Storm Blade was keeping it’s distance though. Having seen what happened to it’s fellow super heavy, the Stormblade lurked far out on the right of the battlefield, out of LOS. That apart, the onslaught continued with the Marines in rhinos & landraiders advancing to fill the gap in the centre and another wave of drop pods to my left. Just to add to our woes, 5 large squads of bikes were turbo boosting at us, threatening to over run our lines. The Necron Pylon was disabled for a turn and this time , even with the ‘we’ll be back rolls’ the casualties started to mount. Our Monoliths were absorbing a huge amount of fire and despite using the Particle whip, were ineffective at inflicting hits on the opposition. The necrons were also suffering from the short range of the Gauss weapons and so were unable to deal with the long range Las Cannons & Devastator squads. Shooting again was ineffective on the right and apart from suppressing the Drop pod attack on the left, the Necrons made little progress.

If Turn 2 was all about shooting, the Turn 3 saw the start of the assault phase of the battle. However, before the close combat started the Necron Pylon was blown to pieces by a well placed lascannon strike. Just to add insult to injury, about 20 Necrons were blown up in the ensuing explosion…..that hurt! The right wing was also beginning to cave in from the pressure from the Stormbalde and the huge bike squad. In the centre, the Landraider had reached our lines and had discharged a huge Squad of tooled up assault Terminators who were ready to inflict grevious damage on the defending Necron Warriors. However, they had failed to spot that concealed behind the nearest Monolith was none other than the NightBringer. Just as they declared their charge, he used his Etheric Tempest to push them back 2D6. They were now sitting targets for the majority of the Necron army! Meanwhile elsewhere on the board combat was raging between Flayed ones & Sisters of Battle, Wraiths & Marines and Scarabs and Marine Bike squads. The Imperial side won most of the fighting, but at a cost. The exception was the scarabs, who managed to hold up two squads of Marine bikes for a turn!

Turn 4 saw the Necrons making some progress on the left wing with the first wave of marines and their drop pods now battlefield debris. The Necrons had also realised that the most effective use of the Monoliths was to use the portal to transport any threatened squads out of harms way. This also had the added bonus of giving casualties a second we’ll be back roll and re -deploying the squad to enable them to rapid fire the nearest threat. Add to this the fire from the Gauss Flux arc and the Monoliths were earning their keep. They had also absorbed a fearsome amount of incoming fire without even a scratch. Even better, in the Centre the Nightbringer had polished off the Terminators and was munching his way through the following squads. However, there was still the small matter of the Stormblade on the right wing that was beginning to rumble forward and smash everything in it’s path.

The game finished at Turn 5, simply because we had run out of time. The threat on the right wing had continued to grow and by now our Necrons in this this sector had collapsed into the centre and were being ground down by the Storm Blade & the accompanying bike squad. The good news was that the Centre was holding and led by the Nightbringer, our formations were beginning to advance having destroyed all of the major units that had attacked here. The left wing was in the balance. The Necrons had caused as many casualties as they had taken but the next wave of bikes were about to hit. If the Necrons could hold in combat, then they would carry this sector, as Ritchie was running out of troops. The question was never answered….

So who won the battle? On balance it felt like an Imperial victory was likely, although it would be a close run thing. John & Ritchie still had a super heavy on the table and seemed to hold the initiative on both wings of the battlefield. They also held more territory. That said, the Necrons had held out under a ferrocious onslaught and still had a potent fighting force on the table. If they could reorganise their centre and stop the advance on the right wing, the day would be theirs!

My first Apocalpse Battle had been great fun. Apocalypse feels more like the 40K universe as decribed in the background books. This is no place for individual soldiers, this is a battle of heroic characters, battle formations & huge tanks and engines of war. The whole feel of the game is different to a standard 40k game. I think the size and duration of the game lets you forget about winning or losing and allows you to focus on just playing and enjoying the game and of course the Company of your fellow gamers!

Necrons appear to be well suited to the game. Their durability means that they are capable of standing up to most of the weapons that they will encounter (so long as there is a res orb close by). The only shortcoming is the lack of range of the weapons available. The one exception to this is the Necron Pylon, so a note to myself, next time I wont deploy it right in the middle of the battlefield but somewhere else where the 120 inch range will be useful……

So thank you to Pete for his hospitality and letting us use his house for the Battle and for supplying the superb battlefield and scenery. Thank you to John and Ritchie for being such great opponents and making the game such a pleasure to play. I can’t wait for the rematch…..WE’LL BE BACK!

A Review of the year – My Top Ten, Part Two!

Well, it’s a funny old world. Just when you think that everything is under control and organised, life reminds you that you’re not really in control at all and that even with the best plan, some events can’t be forseen. I was writing the next part of my Top Ten list, back in January. The snow was laying thickly on the ground and the ‘Big Freeze’ or Winter, as we used to call it in the olden days, was at it’s coldest. There I was, thinking that the best thing about snow was that my garden looked just as good as anyone elses in the street and dreaming about the next kit I that was going to make, when the phone went and I received more bad news about my Father. He had been taken into Hospital again and was seriously ill. Just for the record, despite all the dire reports in the press, the main roads around here were kept open, so I was able to get down to the West Country to visit Dad, so thank you to the guys driving the gritter lorries up & down the A52 & A46.

The upshot of it all was that I have spent about 2 weeks down in Torquay helping to get Dad home and I have had very little time to think about model soldiers, kits, blog writing or any sort of hobby, hence the big gap in my blog. The good news is that thanks to some superb care and support from the NHS, Dad is back home and doing OK for the moment. Also a big thank you to my wife Julie and her sister, Hayley, who between them have kept the business going while I have been away. My head is a bit clearer now and I thought that I would continue where I left off, even though we are a bit further into the year than I planned when I started this article.

So on with the rest of my top Ten for 2009. These next five are all brilliant products and there is very little to seperate any of them.

At Number 5 is a product that I have already reviewed but think that it is a great addition to the genre and bodes well for the possibilities of creating a Napoleonic War game Army in 54mm. I am refering to the new Victrix 1/32nd scale or 54mm set of British Penninsular Infantry Flank Company. I’ve already covered this product in detail in a previous Blog article so if you would like to see more then scroll back……

Number 4 in my top ten is by no means a new kit but I really like everything about the period of History that this range comes from. This was a time of Technology outstripping the ability of the Generals to come to terms with the new developments that were turning warfare into an industrial process. I’m talking about the Great War or the First World War. The War started with Armies still with one foot in the era of Infantry & Cavalry charges supported by Artillery and finished with full scale aerial warfare, Chemical weapons and of course TANKS!

The Emhar 1/35th scale model of the WW1 Male tank has been tempting me for some time now and if I dont give in and buy this kit, it will be the Mk V version that Emhar also make. It’s a super kit, simple to put together and looks as though it will make a lovely replica of the great British Invention, the Tank. Oh! and before anybody writes in to correct me and tell me that Leonard Da Vinci had previously come up with the idea, just bear in mind that as far as I know he only drew a picture of a tank and never built one. Well I’ve drawn lots of inventions in my time, including the portable Jack Daniels producing, solar powered whisky still, but thinking of it is one thing and building it is a whole different ball game!

Anyway I digress, if you are looking to build a World war One tank, look no further than the Emhar Range!

At Number 3, not only a superb set of soldiers but one of my best selling lines last year as well. It is Perry Miniatures French Napoleonic Heavy Cavalry 1812. The figures are sculpted by the Perry Twins, Alan & Michael, who are at the top of their profession. The set contains 14 cavalrymen, including 1 officer, 1 trumpeter, 1 standard bearer. Although you can substitute the trumpeter and standard bearer for troopers giving you 13 rank and file if you like. All of the figures come with both Cuirassier and Carabinier heads, to allow you to build up units of either of these famous Heavy cavalry types. Also included are a dead British Infantryman, as well as a French one and some battlefield debris. As with all the Perry miniatures plastic boxed sets, the instructions are very straight forward and clear, enabling you to complete and paint your models accurately. This set is another reason why I have resolved to start Historical war gaming this year.

At Number two in my list of the Top Ten of last year is not a kit but a rule book. I remember this product arriving at Warlord Games last year. There was a great deal of excitement, with Warlords very own BFG (that’s Big Friendly Gareth) and Big Dave charging up and down the corridors of the business unit with pallets of brown boxes. Being a nosey sort, I had to ask what they were up to. ‘It’s the new Black Powder Rule Book’ they said. ‘Lets have a look then’ I said thinking that I would be shown the standard type rule book full of charts and statistics. Well, what a nice surprise. This wasn’t just another rule book but a Homage to the hobby of Wargaming. I should have known that anything produced by Rick Priestly, Jervis Johnson, John Stallard & Paul Sawyer was going to be a quality production and add contributions from the Perry twins and you have the cream of the wargaming hierarchy. Well, in this part of the world you do!

The book is just beautifully produced in hardback and full colour and isn’t simply a rules book but a superbly illustrated introduction to the hobby of wargaming. The rules allow you to refight battles from the Napoleonic era through to the American Civil war and later Victorian colonial wars. It’s beautifully printed on top quality paper and written in a most accessable and aimable style by two of the best rules writers in the industry. Just to add to the value of this work, it is full of historical fact and information so you will be an armchair expert on this period of history once you have absorbed this easily readable volume. Of course, it is also packed full of superb photo’s of model soldiers fighting on beautifully modelled scenery and wargames tables.

And back to the rules themselves. Underlying the rules system is the constant reminder of the spirit in which the game should be played; that of good humour and fairness, where the game is the vehicle for a couple of hours of good humoured socialising with like minded friends. This book is a must for all enthusiasts!

And so to number One in my list. To be fair, this choice is as much about the range and what it represents as about the individual kit. For me, thanks to a little help from Mr James May, the number one kit of the year is the humble Airfix Spitfire! This iconic brand ( Airfix) and Aeroplane (Spitfire) combine to make the perfect introduction to the hobby of model making. I’ve covered the topic before in my blog, so I’ll try not to repeat myself but I think that the modelling hobby owes a great debt to the Airfix brand. Airfix pioneered consistently scaled models when other manufacturers designed kits to fit a box size or a price point. The Airfix range grew to be the best in the world. The good news is that Airfix have now been taken over Hornby and Hornby are reinvigorating the range. The coming year will see the re release of some real classic kits as well as a good smattering of brand new topics, all with new toolings on the mouldings so expect Airfix to be back as a force in the hobby. The exciting point of all this is that hopefully many more people will either rediscover or discover for the first time the pleasure that can be had from building a model kit and that means more people enjoying the hobby than ever before. Hurrah for Airfix!

So that’s it, those are my favourite 10 items from 2009. Now it’s time to get back to the present and on track with my Blog and model making!

A Review of the Year-My Top Ten

Now that the dust has settled from the holiday period I though that I would list my top ten kits and products from the last year. Normally these lists are published at the end of December but I thought that now is as good a time as ever. Of course trying to pick just Ten items from all of the super new releases that we had last year is almost impossible for me so I have cheated a bit and sometimes chosen a kit to represent a whole range rather than just the kit itself.

So at Number ten I have chosen The Hobby Boss 1/35th Scale M4 High Speed Tractor. I first came across Hobby Boss when they released their range of 1/48th scale tanks, mainly Russian T34’s and KV1’s. Although these weren’t great sellers in my Ebay shop I have persevered with them because the kits are just brilliant. The M4 High Speed Tractor is typical of the quality that you get from them. The kit contains some 286 pieces including some beautifuly produced photo etched parts. The attention to detail in the kit even includes self adhesive spray masks for the canopy! The kit received a superb review in the January 2009 edition of Military Modelling so please be reassured that if you are not familiar with the Hobby Boss brand you will not be disapointed if you decide to have a go and build one of their kits.

At Number nine, are the new comers to the fantasy figure market, Mantic Games, with their Elves war Host. At

Happy New Year! Resolutions & Predictions…….

Wow! What a Christmas! I can’t believe how quickly time has flown since my last blog post. I had intended to write at least one more blog entry before the new year but I was caught out by just how busy Christmas turned out to be. This of course, is good news, so a big thank you to the record number of customers that visited my ebay shop. I can now pay the rent for another month! It wasn’t just business that was occupying me. Thanks to some really hard work on my part, I now have the body of a god…unfortunately it’s Buddha…so no more mince pies for me for a while.

It’s strange how in such a short period you can experience such highs & lows. One minute I was enjoying the perfect family Christmas at my Daughters (thank you again Victoria & Ed!), being waited on hand & foot, the next I am on the phone worrying because my Father had been taken into Hospital 240 miles away and was trying to establish that he was OK…He was, thank goodness and is now back home safely ( Thank you to the nurses at Torbay Hospital).

In between times, I have managed to get to see James Cameroons ‘Avatar’, which was absolutely brilliant in 3D, been to the pantomime with my young nieces Lucy & Hannah, celebrated New Year at a great party, read Antony Bevoirs book on the downfall of Berlin, watched too much TV ( The Gruffalo was the TV highlight for me), played numerous weird board games, usually under the influence of alcohol, got totally hooked on Generation Kill ( a DVD boxed set….’stay frosty people’ ….’Hitman Alpha to Godfather actual’…you’ve got to watch it if you remotely enjoyed Three Kings or Band of Brothers) and as I have already alluded to, eaten and imbided far too many calories.

So here I am on a quiet, snowy Saturday Morning, hangover now cured and ready to face the New Year. So it’s New Years resolution time. I actually enjoy setting New Years resolutions because I tend to think of them as an opportunity to dream about what I would like to do over the coming year rather than the things that I am going to stop doing. The whole New years resolution thing seems to have been hijacked by the anti fun brigade and the health police. Well I’m not going to worry about the odd half a stone that I’ve put on. It will tend to disappear over the next month now that I’m not surrounded by sausage rolls,mince pies, Pork pie (mmmm…proper Melton Mowbray pork pie & Cranberry jelly…stop it!), tins of Quality Street, Cold turkey, Cold Ham, Home made Chips, Bubble & Squeak, Christmas Cake and other such temptations. And the chances are that I will get slightly more exercise than popping the ring pull off the next can of Carling now that I am back at work so lets think about the important things in life, making model soldiers and model kits.

A good place to start with these things is to look at where you are now. In case you haven’t noticed,I really like making models of Necrons and this will continue. So my first New Years resolution is to complete my Necron Apocalypse army. I currently have around 6500 points of Necrons but there are a couple of areas where I am short. I have managed to get hold of a cheap Monolith as well as buying another new Monolith kit. My plan is that I will refurbish the second hand Monolith in the same style as my existing one and the other kit will also have the same paint scheme but will have LED lighting in it. I will then have 3 monoliths to field and just for fun, I will ambush one of my regular 40k opponents with a 3 monolith army list….hurrah!

I am also working on a Doomsday Monolith, here’s a sneak preview of the work in progress. Once finished, I intend to ensure that I organise a proper Apocalypse Battle so watch out for the battle report later in the year.

Also on the WIP list is a piece of scenery that I have put to one side. It’s meant to be an abandoned Imperial outpost that is part of a campaign that I completed last year. As it was, we fought the battle by improvising with the scenery that we had, so this piece was not used. I’m in the process of re writing the campaign and I will organise a re fight of the campaign so the Outpost will be finished.

The next piece that I’m working on is a mini diorama using the limited edition Necron Scarab on a dissecting table. I had sort of finished it….here it is. scarab disection

However, I’m not happy with it and I am going to add an Imperial scribe/scientist & a couple of Skull servos from the Inquisitor boxed set that I have had in the loft for some years. I think that this will then make a nice display piece along with my Necron Santa diorama!

As far as other Necron models go, I still have plenty of ideas yet so these will not be the only Necron projects. Now that I have strength in depth on the basic units I will ease up on these and only build conversions or scratch built projects, unless of course GW release a new codex, although my inside sources seem to indicate that this is unlikely, at least in the first half of the year. In the meantime, there is plenty of source material on the C’tan Forum and elsewhere on the web to keep me busy.

Finally, as far as the Necrons go, I have obtained some Battle field Gothic Necron Ships. I will definitely paint these and I hope to learn to use them in the game itself. I have grand ideas about combining all the 40k formats into one huge campaign and to this end I have also bought the Planetary Empire set. I’ll paint this to match my imagined world of Akhenaten III and modify some of the tiles to look like Necron outposts & cities. I also think that these tiles will make interesting bases fo the Battlefield Gothic Ships so I’ll give that a go as well.

I still enjoy playing 40K more than any of the other GW systems so although I am tempted to start a Fantasy army I think that my other GW project for the year is more likely to be another 40K army. I already have space marines and Imperial Guard so another Xenos army beckons……Tyranids! I don’t intend to build a massive army but it would be nice to alternate between tyranids and Necrons at the club so I’m going to paint a 2000pt Tyranid army once I catch sight of the new codex.

One of the other highlights of Christmas was that just before we broke up for the holidays, I was invited to Warlord Games Christmas get together and was lucky enough to get involved in a huge war game played with Napoleonic Armies using the new Black Powder Rules. It was great! The Black Powder rules are very playable and give just the sort of relaxed, enjoyable game that make you want to play again and again. I really enjoy rules sets that allow you to play without getting hung up on the rules themselves and Black Powder does just this. With this in mind, I am going to start my own Napoleonic Army. I have a set of Victrix Waterloo British Infantry that I have started to make & paint:

This really will be a long term project as at the rate that I paint it will take a month just to get this box finished but I will persevere and keep you updated with my progress.

My final New Years Resolution for my modelling projects is to start my own miniature version of Bovington Tank Museum. I visited Bovington in October last year and I thought that it was brilliant! I have many pictures and I will do a more thorough review at a later date. However, it was for me an inspiring visit and I would really like to start my own Tank Museum in miniature. I’ve always been fascinated by armoured warfare and I have in the past, built many a model tank. I became slightly disillusioned with this side of the hobby following an encounter with one of the pedantic ‘know it alls’ that you occasionally come across in the hobby. Unfortunately, I was young enough and impressionable enough to be upset by him criticising my work. It wouldn’t happen these days, l have thicker skin and if I ever do meet this sort ( fortunately, it’s very rare) I can just walk away smiling at their ignorance. However, the scale model scene can be daunting and although modellers such as Steve Zaloga can be inspirational, trying to produce something that looks half as good as their models seems to be beyond my ability. That said, I’m going to start again and start with a simple build from the box kit and see how I get on. So you can expect to see my Tank Model collection start this year. I plan to start at the beginning with one of the Emhar WW1 Tanks……

So all of the above should mean that I am kept busy with plenty of modelling projects, lots to learn, books to read, internet to research, games to play, it looks like 2010 is going to be great!

So what are my predictions for 2010.

Well for me, the recession will mean that we will spend more time at home, so I can build more models. I will look for ways to do this as cost effectively as possible and pass these ideas on through my Blog, so keep reading.

The improvements in technology will mean that more model soldiers become available in Plastic rather than metal, so it will become cheaper to build bigger armies. I think that Napoleonics will come back into fashion and the rise of historical & Factual wargames will lead the suits at GW to start thinking a bit more about their customers rather than their share price.

28mm scale will dominate wargaming and smaller scales will fall out of fashion as some gamers start to turn to 54mm. The exception to this will be Flames of War, which will continue to grow.

The continuing growth in the cottage industry side of the modelling business will mean more choice than ever for modellers and the internet will be the increasing place to buy your model supplies and do your research.

There will be a revival of Airfix thanks to the James May effect and their re tooled models will start to gain the respect of Modellers that Airfix used to have. This will help the continued growth of the grey haired brigade of modellers re entering the hobby.

Watch out for the first 3D printers to produce model soldiers to order.

More model kits will contain brass etched parts, resin extras, aluminium & metal gun barrels and non plastic extras under the influence of the growth of Chinese & Korean kit manufacturers.

Oh, and England will win the World Cup….No, I’m serious!

Happy New Year and enjoy your modelling!

Merry Christmas from the Necrons!

Just a note to wish all my Customers a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

If you like the model, I will be uploading a guide to making it nearer to Christmas, just so that I can show it again! In the meantime, I hope that your Christmas preparations are slightly more organised than mine!

What’s in the Box: Victrix 54mm Napoleonics

I have already mentioned that I was very impressed with the recently released Victrix 54mm British Peninsular Infantry Flank Companies Boxed Set. So I thought that I would show you the contents of the set.

There are 4 sprues in the box. Two sprues of Heads, Bodies and Arms:

One of the torso’s is for the Officer and one is for the Drummer, so this means that each box will contain 2 Officers and 2 drummers, leaving 12 torsos to make your rank and file. As there are 14 ‘non’ Drummer arms it will be fairly straight forward to convert one of the Drummers to another Rifle man if you would like the extra man. The officer has a choice of two sword arms so producing two different officers is quite straight forward by using the components supplied.

The other two sprues are weapons and packs:

Simply by mixing and matching the different arms, heads, torsos and packs you will be able to make a huge number of different poses. The box art is a great source for colour schemes and there are assembly instructions but even the most inexperienced modeller should be able to put these figures together successfully.

The set that I had will need the minimum of cleaning up. A quick scrape along the mould lines and sand along the sprue attachments and you will soon have a model ready for painting. All in all a superb addition to the range of 54mm figures available and by mixing with the other sets available from other manufacturers you should be able to produce your own Napoleonic wargaming army in 54mm.

Losing a Battle isn’t all bad.

You often learn more from your defeats than you ever do from your victories. Lets be fair, if you are anything like me, when you win you are too busy celebrating, taking the aplause from onlookers, and patronising your vanquished opponents with phrases like ‘well you did have some really unlucky dice rolls’ to remember anything other than the fact that you won. I mean, let’s be fair about it, keeping the smug look of your face whilst your opponent packs up his defeated army is tough enough.

But when you lose, that’s when you learn and that’s when you find the energy to change your Army list or think about new tactics. That’s when you vow to think a bit more about your troop deployment before the battle starts or to figure out the best tactics for each unit in your army. How do I protect the more vulnerable units and how do I commit the big hitters?

Well my results of late have taken a bit of a dip. I’ve had a draw against Chaos Space Marines that I should have won. ( My necron Lord flew into a building and killed himself….not his finest hour); a draw against Space Marines, (that was a good result, a very tough battle); a loss against Dark Eldar ( the rot had set in, curse those Talos); a victory against Imperial Guard ( flattering, it was a new army, still in development) and the most recent battle, a loss against Chaos Marines. It was the most recent battle that has prompted me to revise my list again. Here’s why.

I was playing against Studge at the Warhammer World Club and he had brought along 1500 points of Chaos Space Marines, consisiting of 3 large Squads of tooled up possessed Space Marines in three Rhinos, 2 Defilers, A Demon Prince ( with lash of course) and Fabius Bile. The set up was Dawn of War and we were fighting over 4 objectives. As Studge only had 1500 points, I had to trim my army, so out went the Pariahs, 2 Immortals & a Scarab swarm. For the rest of my army, see my previous battle reports. I had first turn and so deployed two squads of Necron warriors to defend the two objectives on my side of the table. Studge went for a very aggressive set up with 2 squads of possessed marines & the Demon Prince as close in as he could get.

Learning point number one. Why was I so concerned to defend the objectives from turn one? I’ve got at least five turns to get to the objectives. Turn one should be about getting in position to cause the enemy the most problems, not give him a clear target! What was I doing committing both troops choices that I had so early?

Just to rub the point in, Studge rolled a six to steal the initiative and immediately sent his chaos horde rampaging forward. The Demon Prince lashed the nearest necron squad straight into combat with the biggest Possessed Marine squad. The necrons lost combat and were wiped out. I now only have one squad of Troops left and they’re next on Studges hit list. It was fair to say that I was rattled. In my turn, I had some luck with my Heavy destroyers. They rolled an eleven to give them night fighting range to see the demon prince and then rolled 3 hits and three wounds, none of which were saved. The Immortals also opened up on the Demon Prince and that was the end of that bad boy! However, my triumph was short lived. I then charged his Marines with the Necron Lord and two wraith squads. Just for good measure I piled in with the scarabs as well. This was a great way to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. I had forgotten that his Marines were drugged up to strength 6, so they gained instant kills on the scarabs, which put me three wounds down for every base killed. The result being that I lost combat with three of my Waiths down, all of my scarabs dead and my Necron Lord running away. It would seem that rather than drinking from the cup of Victory I would be enjoying a taste of that infamous American whine….’it’s game over, man’!

Learning point(s) Number two: Don’t panic, if things have gone wrong the worst thing that you can do is commit units for the sake of it. Choose your targets, The scarabs are to be used against units to either tie them down , draw fire or divert the enemy. They may be a cheap unit but don’t throw them away. Of course, it goes without saying that charging against a unit that will instant kill you is just a waste of time.

Studge then started his turn two. With no Demon Prince to lash my necrons he had to foot slog it towards them ( I forgot to mention that in the last turn, the surviving necron squad had made a tactical withdrawal, AKA ‘run like hell, there’s a monster coming’!) Fortunately, his defilers were on the other side of the table, so they were alternating between firing & running and not hitting much. His rhino’s were also still at the back of the table and worried about the Heavy destroyers shooting them up and so were moving cautiously towards my side of the board. The real action was back with the Possessed marines. They piled into the Necron Lord again and wiped out the remaining Wraith squad. However, all this was at a cost and gradually they were being whittled down by combat and dying from O.D.’ing on combat drugs.

By the end of turn four I had wiped out the two squads of possessed marines in the centre through combat and fire from the immortals, destroyers and the remaining Necron squad. The Necron Lord was the real hero. He was at his tubthumping best doing his Chumbawamba chant ‘I get knocked down, but I get up again……’ The Flayed ones had made an appearance and were threatening the Chaos Rhinos with the last Marine squad and Fabius Bile and one of the defilers was blown to pieces. The end game was going to be tight!

Learning Point number Three: The battle isn’t over until the last man is down! Keep fighting with what you’ve – focus on knocking out his best units and ignore the rest.

So the last squad of Chaos marines had to charge the Flayed ones. They just couldn’t ignore the threat that the Flayed ones posed, which meant my last squad of troops were in the clear. Well nearly, Fabius Bile charged into them but joy of joys, they not only held but valiantly fought back. The Flayed ones died under the attack from the chaos Marines but caused enough damage to allow the Heavy destroyers to wipe them out in the next round aided, once again, by the Necron Lord. The last Defiler had raced across the table and engaged the immortals. They were always going to lose that fight but they held for a turn.

If things were tight at turn four they were right on a knife edge at turn six. By now the necrons had killed every thing in the Chaos Army except the last defiler. The battlefield was littered with the wreckage of three rhinos’ , a defiler, the bloated drug ridden bodies of some 30 Chaos Marines and even Fabius Bile was history. I had taken one of the objectives with my necron squad and the enemy had nothing left to threaten it. The problem was that I was two necrons away from phase out and I had let my Heavy destroyers get too close to the defiler. With one last charge, it ambushed the destroyers and killed two. Fortunately, they were within range of the Lords Res orb and so on my turn I was able to roll the we’ll be back save & both got back up. Hurrah! I then charged the Necron lord into Combat. Surely with his warscythe he would save the day….He rolled one penetrating hit and one glancing hit….I just needed a 5 or a 6 to win the game. I rolled a 1….bugger! I was more fortunate with the glancing hit and immobilised the Defiler but with his last attack he killed three destroyers and this time there was no ‘we’ll be back’.

The Necrons went into phase out and the game was lost. To be fair, they took the view that their job was done and it was time to get back to the Tomb for some Necron R&R. Well, that’s the way I saw it.

Learning point number Four: Destroyers have got a range of 36 inches. Keep them out of combat, they’re for moving and shooting!

So the game was lost but in a most enjoyable way. Studge was a great opponent and we had a lot of laughs through the game as it ebbed and flowed. I also enjoyed the narrative that the game played out. Even the ending seemed appropriate. How am I going to revise my list? Well you’ll have to wait for the next battle…

Learning point Number Five: The best games are the ones that are fun regardless of who wins.

From Timpo to Victrix…54mm scale figures

As a youngster of about 9 years old, I had a large collection of 1/32 or 54mm scale figures. Of course they were toy soldiers really, but they were also lovely models and would stand comparison to much that is available today. The model soldiers or toy soldiers were made by Britains and they were beautifully posed and had all sorts of accessories. I had a small army of Second world war soldiers, a detatchment of Confederates, including cavalry, artillery and infantry, from the American Civil War and a large force of Medieval Knights and Ancients. I think the way it worked was that each Christmas my Brother and I would decide which soldiers appealed to us and we would put them on our Christmas list. We usually ended up having a swop up on Boxing day as our Parents didn’t always appreciate that we wanted opposing armies. So Pete had his own armies, usually different to mine, to ensure that there was no disputes over who had what.

That was all quite straight forward when it came to the American Civil war. Pete was the Union and I was the Confederates. I think the Second World War was fairly straight forward as well, I was happy to take the Axis Troops and Pete the Allies. The negotiations over the Medieval knights was a much more protracted affair and revolved around who would have the longbowmen ( the English!) and who would have the crossbowmen (the French….). Matters were resolved when Pete decided that he would have the Crossbow men as he prefered William Tell to Robin Hood. I think he was a bit sneaky as well, as the crossbowmen were kneeling down, so they were harder to hit with lego bricks. Yes, that was how we played our first war games. We would stand up our armies at opposite ends of the room and throw Lego at them until they were all knocked over. Last man standing won…..not much dispute over the rules here!

Our collections of Britains figures were supplemented by other manufacturers like Herald, Lone Star and of course Timpo. The Timpo figures weren’t quite as good as the Britains but they were cheaper and we could afford to bulk out our armies with these. So I when I saw that one of my suppliers had obtained a range of Timpo figures I had to have them in my shop. It’s true that they’re are a bit closer to toy soldiers than model soldiers but there are some interesting subjects that as far as I know just aren’t available elsewhere in 54mm scale and they’re still cheap! So if like me, you fancy going back to your childhood, take a look at my shop and see if there are any Timpo toy soldiers that you remember. They’re still worth having in a collection or why not see if a younger member of the family can be tempted into the world of toy soldiers with a few packs!

confederayes

Just as I received my delivery of Timpo soldiers, Victrix released their new 54mm Napoleonic Peninsular British Infantry set. It contains 16 superb models moulded in hard plastic with optional weapons, arms & heads to enable you to produce your own army in unique poses. I’ll provide a complete review in a later blog, but this set me to thinking just how many soldiers I now have available in 54mm scale. There are ready painted Knights from Deagostini, Sets from A Call to Arms, HaT, Italeri and of course Airfix. You can now buy soldiers from the Roman wars, such as Hannibals Numidian Cavalry right through the ages to the Second World War to Timpo’s ANZAC infantry. As a child I would have been spoilt for choice with such a huge selection to collect. Fortunately, I still am……

Royal Mail: Britain’s worst company…..Actually it’s not…it’s very good

I’m sorry if you were expecting one of my usual kit reviews but I just wanted to take the opportunity to give another view of whats going on in the postal industry. This article is in response to the column in Saturday’s Times by Andrew Ellson, the Personal finance editor, who having had a very important document lost in the post, decided to go into print with his personal tantrum and write a vitriolic article about service provided by the Royal Mail.

I know a bit about the service provided by the Royal Mail and so I thought that I would give my perspective on the issue. If you haven’t already figured it out, I write this Blog in support of an online Model shop and an growing ebay business. I absolutely rely on the Royal mail to deliver to my customers and the stats from where I am sitting are as follows.

I have dispatched approaching 10,000 parcels in the last few years (check out my feedback on ebay, this isn’t a made up stat or unconfirmed urban myth that journalists like). Of those, no more than 12 have gone astray. That is the actual number of customers that have said that they have not received their item and investigation has confirmed that this is the case. To be fair, there are probably a similar number who, for various reasons, have never contacted me. There are also about half that number who said that they hadn’t got the parcel but it turned out that the parcel was at the local sorting office and either they couldn’t be bothered to collect it or the postie hadn’t put the required card through the customers door.

Now here’s the thing that fascinates me. Of the 12 missing parcels that I have claimed for, 8 were overseas. I wont go into specific countries other than to say the hotter the country, the more likely your parcel is to be late or lost. The exception being Australia, because they seem to be good at everything. Italy is particularly bad and the South of France is worse than the North. I base those views purely on the number of e mails and claims that I have to deal with.

As for late delivery’s, I suspect the Royal Mails’ record isn’t quite so good but take a look again at my feedback and the customer comments thanking me for fast delivery. Well, it’s thanks to the Royal Mail. My commitment is to post all paid for orders within one working day of receipt of payment and that’s what I do. The Royal Mail does the rest.

I too had a special delivery go astray this weekend. It was very annoying for my customer, who was relying on receiving the item and had paid

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