August Motivational.

 

Until next time, have nice day...

Hobby Spending - August 2024.

 

With the long school summer holiday period over, it's time to take stock and get back to some proper hobby. Not that I dislike spending time with the family, holiday, days out, nice weather, lovely stuff, but with my shift pattern at work, once my son goes back to high school its back to business as normal at home.

One thing I have noticed, and the Mrs said in particular, was that I often shy away from big purchases for myself in one go.

There's been the odd thing here and there, but mostly small purchases which later add up together to a project.

So after getting wind that the Nam'68 rulebook was up for preorder on the Plastic Soldier Company website I decided to jump on it.

The Vietnam war isn't something I've really had much interest in if I'm honest.

I know there were other nations involved, but it's always portrayed as an American war in the media and it's not something that you really get exposed to in the UK unless you go searching through history.

When Nam'68 was first mentioned in the news section of the Plastic Crack Podcast, it intrigued me. The notion of taking a platoon of soldiers through a year long campaign in country and seeing how well you can do was interesting.

Myself and Cardboard Fortress both jumped on the Hardback preorder and it should turn up towards the end of September.

A few citadel paints were purchased for a Space Marine project, but more on that when I start it.

The other purchase for the month was a tan colour polar fleece from B&M for £3.

I've seen people make gaming mats out of these and wanted to have a bash. If it doesn't work, it's only £3...less then the cost of a prepacked sandwich in most places!

I'll be chopping this down to 3' by 4' to fit inside the table I'm building as a ground option, if it works I will go back and purchase a couple more to make different theatre ground sheets with.

The numbers for August:

Nam'68 Hardback Rulebook - £38.

Ultramarines Blue Contrast Paint - £4.30.

Caledor Sky Base Paint - £2.50.

Polar Tan Fleece blanket - £3.00.

Total for August: £.47.80.

Budget for August: £50.

Over/Under Yearly Budget: under budget by £47.90.

Just about a month under budget for the year, not too shabby, that should give me some leeway when purchasing the Vietnam miniatures for Nam'68 when it arrives and I can see what I need.

No point purchasing now as some of it may be surplus or not enough purchased.

Until next time, have nice day...

Building a better Master of Executions.

 

Eyes gritty with cyclic blown dust opened and stared at the blood covered hands held before them. Knuckles bleeding and raw, blood spatter up to the elbow, beyond them the ruined form of an opponent littered the floor. Almost unrecognisable in it's destruction, only the ports of the Black Carapace gave away it's Astartes heritage. 

As the adrenaline subsided, senses began to rush back. The smell of a large group of people, sweat, bile, blood from the corpse. The clanging of metal upon metal, and chanting roared through the air.

"Kail, Kail, Kail" 

The unarmoured World Eater stood tall in the pool of offal he had created. The fighting pits were used to displays of violence, but this had drawn a larger crowd then most as of late. They could all feel the immaterium pulsing closely nearby, straining at the veil to push through and revel in the carnage unfolding.

Kail turned and marches from the pit, snatching up his stormcoat at the entrance, his left eye began to tick as the Butchers Nails began to take hold again and pulse their migraine rhythm into his brain.

"The matter is settled ?" A growled voice asked from the corridor.

"The fool is dead, what do you think Skaldast? If there are any who would challenge for Master of Execution, they will meet the same fate" Kail snapped back, ignoring the squeak from his bronze plated teeth as he spoke.

"There are no more challenges to your rank, maybe one to the warband though. There is noise of a Black Legion upstart gathering forces to raid the Imperium. There is a call for all warbands to attend a meeting at the Veiled Locus" Skaldast said. Now that the thrill of violence had subsided, the Nails in his own head sympathetically pulsing along with Kail's.

"Black Legion" Kail practically spat the words, "As long as they bring slaughter, I don't care".

***** 

So the last time I visited Fraser we played a game of 10th Edition 40k in which I borrowed his World Eaters force.

Now ANGRON, Kharn and company are all cool World Eaters models, but there is one character in his collection which can be used across multiple armies* from the get go, and that is the Master of Executions.

He's a cool character who is a character hunter and has the ability to always fight first, regardless of people charging him.

However, personally I am rather underwhelmed by the official model. He's a bit too generic bad guy for my liking, and wanting to get back into the swing of things and build up my own Black Crusade force, I decided to kitbash my own character to join the Khornate warband.

The starting point for the build, with the parts laid out;

• Old Chaos Backpack.
• Old Berzerker Shoulder Plate.
• New Khorne Berzerker Head.
• New Khorne Berzerker Shoulder Plate.
• Chaos Raptor Bolt Pistol and Arm.
• New Khorne Berzerker Chainaxe.
• Skull details from new Khorne Berzerkers.
• Space Marine Judiciar Body.
• Various Spikes and Skulls.

Reasoning that the backpack would be easiest to begin with, I wanted to add this spiked armour panel taken from the Traitor Guard Killteam box:

The Circle shows one of the cables which has had to be cut away and scraped down to make room. I don't mind doing this, as I think that Chaos models look better without symmetry:

Once I had the front and back of the body glued together and cleaned up, I cut away the dangling details from the Judiciar's belt in order to make room for the skull/chain decoration:

Some test fitting later and it was glued in place, already looking less loyalist for it:

Happy with the other details, I glued on the Chainaxe arm, as this would dictate the flow of the model. I wanted him to be brandishing the axe in a challenge and looking past it to his target.

This meant cutting down the next joint but by bit to get the angle needed:

He's beginning to look like a champion of the Blood God.

I didn't photo it, but I added another skull to the rosary chain on the other side of his belt, as the space Marine symbol there was one which I missed on my first pass over the model:

With that done, it was just a matter of adding the Bolt Pistol arm in a complementary fashion and then the Shoulder Plates. I also took pains to carve out the pistol handle on his holster, as the model has his pistol on his hand!

Now onto the base, and a suitable base can make or break a figure.

The Judiciar has a very determined forward step to him, so leaning into that I built up a cork "rock" platform, ensuring that I got good contact between his feet and the cork to keep him stable. I always like to mount my characters a little higher then the rank and file to show off their status.

Builders sand was lastly glued onto the base and the base edge cleaned up to leave me with the following model:

His backpack has been left separate for painting.

Speaking of painting, I'm not entirely sure how to paint him yet. He's primed, but I'm not sure whether I want to go with the classic Red and Brass, the 30k Blue and White, Black Legion Black and Gold or some other colour scheme.

Leave a comment if you have any idea?

Until next time, have nice day...

*Yes I know technically Berzerkers can be used in a normal Chaos army, I am talking specifically about the character models.

ANGRON, Kharn and the Lord Invocatus are World Eaters only choices. 

The Master of Executions is a generic chaos character in comparison, much like a Chaos Lord or Sorcerer.

A Little Place at Home, Building a Gaming Table - Part 2.

 

So the next part of the table build has.now taken place, and some serious progress has been made.

I began with the 4' sides, these had been built the previous weekend, but I took the time to sand then down neatly:

I also tried to eliminate any sharp edges/corners in order to make this more livable with:

Next it was back inside and the top finishing layer of boards was started to be tackled.

The first 3' section, which has the legs attached to it was used as a test piece.

A piece of 144mm sanded and cut timber was used with an opposing 45 degree angle cut at each end, making a very long trapezoid shape.

And using the offcuts I checked how it would look on the corner eventually:

Evostik heavy duty wood glue and some dowels places into drilled holes was the next step before the top plank was added finishing off this section:

As well as the dowels, I wanted a bit extra support and pulling into shape, so decided to use screws at the corners into each leg, and place a screw through the top and down into each strengthening piece of the shelves.

This gave an opportunity to use the countersink drill bits and the screw covers I'd picked up:

Testing on a scrap piece of wood was definitely a good idea, as the first test just glided through the wood and definitely sunk the cover too far!

With a few practice runs on offcuts, I tackled the main board build and after a little trial and error managed to get a decently formed countersunk hole for the screw:

The chromed cover screws onto the top of the screw with it's own threads underneath the head. They're about 1-2mm proud of the surface as I can live with that, but also it allows access to unscrew them for disassembly for moving the table to my house (we're building it at a friend's):

After both 3' ends were complete, we moved into his living room and attached one of the 4' sides.

I also took the opportunity to check things were square and true by putting a set square into each corner and pulling the table in order to get the dill holes for the legs in the correct position.

Then I dropped in the main gameboard to check the fit:

Things were exciting at this point as the build was really coming together and all the measurements and cuts fitted up neatly with each other.

A common question about the size of the board led to the following photo, with an Imperial Knight, a mk.3 Space Marines and a GW building all being shown. This gives some indication of the gaming surface available, more then I actually thought at the start to be honest:

With the table lifted clear again, I got the other 4' side on the basic frame, everything was screwed and checked for levelness:

During this test rhe shelving units on the side had already proved themselves a brilliant feature, holding drinks and various tools around the table:

And the game board was dropped back on to check that it fit, and I discovered that it needs about 2mm trimming off one of the 3' edges to fit comfortably:

And to demonstrate the sound difference, I rolled some dice on the plain wooden sides and ontop of the foam covers board:

As time was marching on, and dinner was almost ready (proper Sunday roast chicken), I tried to tackle ONE of the 4' sides and discovered that the board had warped to buggery and back leaving me with this huge problem...:

Deciding that it could not be saved I ripped it up and make a little note about that piece of wood:

And then work had to stop, dinner was ready and it was getting a bit late for power tools.

There probably won't be an update on this for a few weeks now, as real life with the kid going back to school and work for me are going to make it hard to get back over to his to continue building.

The plan for the next stage is already in place though:

The felt needs glueing down first and will be wrapped around each edge nearly tucking away, meanwhile a supporting frame is being assembled to fit underneath it and hopefully I can also trap the very loose edge of the felt underneath it to prevent any tearing or fraying of the edge.

Onwards and Upwards, things have gotten exciting seeing the build start to come together and look like a table was really rewarding.

Until next time, have nice day...

(Edit: don't post whilst tired and with autocorrect turned on...so many edits this morning).

A Little Place at Home, Building a Gaming Table - Part 1.

 

*Warning: actual blood and injury photo further down this post*

So, this whole project came about because of my friend Fraser buying a pre built gaming table from Model Railway Baseboards and it's what we've used to game on at his on the few occasions I've managed to make it over to Stockport this year.

Now when you convert the price from Euro to Pounds it works out at over £750! And that's not including shipping and customs fees... obviously far too much money to spend.

The other constraint is size, as a gaming table would have to live in my living room, my house not having a basement like Frasers does.

So a 6' by 4' table is out straight away as it would just take up far too much room and ideally I would like to keep the room useable for the rest of the family when the table isn't in use.

An inspirational scrolling of the Facebook Wargaming tables groups led to these photos, and plans began to form:

I shared these with Cardboard Fortress and remembered his reply of "They make it look so easy".

Well, with a bit of planning and some basic woodworking skills, I set out to build my own little place, determined to see it through before my birthday at the end of September.

I don't have a photo of the entire rough sketches plan based upon the photo's above, but once completed my table will have a gaming surface of 3' by 4', which is reasonable, and you can play some good games in that size.

Lion Rampant, Saga, MESBG, small AoS/40k or One Page Rules, etc.

I wanted to include a shelf around the outer edge, so I could put drinks and other supplies on there during games and not risk them being spilled onto the game surface.

So a rough design for the sides was drawn up, as well as experimenting with the height as I wanted to replace the old dinner table we had, so it has to be a comfortable height when sitting at it.

Another constraint I put on myself was that I wanted a "topper" which would cover the gaming part of the table when not in use.

As intend to add a layer of felt to the bottom, both to soften noise of dice rolling and to make a nicer look, I didn't want these fury little bastards tearing it up by clawing at it:

So I've got a second layer of the MDF I'm using for the gaming baseboard and will be adding a batten around to support this cover when I'm not gaming.

Forearmed with this plan, a trip was had to B&Q as that is my closest DIY shop, and nearly an hour and a half later the trolley was filled with supplies.

An hour and a half, not because I couldn't find what I was looking for, but because I was busy checking the timber I was buying to make sure I got good lengths.

One of the things about woodworking like this is that you don't want any obvious twisting pieces of timber. If possible you want it straight and true and ideally without many knots in the wood.

I also picked up a sheet of 8' by 4' by 12mm MDF for the baseboard and topper sections and had B&Q's cutting service quickly cut them to size for me. In my case two 3' by 4' boards and two 1' by 4' boards for my other hobby of model railway building (eventually).

A lesson was learned about handling boards in windy weather however as I slipped loading the car and looked like this when I got home:

Emo music intensifies!

The other parts picked up from B&Q were aesthetic in nature, being some filler for any gaps, a good stain so that it will match the rest of the furniture in the room and a nice handle for the topper: 

Lastly, the other bits I either already had on hand or ordered from Amazon, all used to strengthen joints or to make the build look nice at the end:

Cracking on with the build, I started with one of the 3' sides and forgot to add a photo, so here is a 4' side in progress, with the Mason Jar there as a test subject as that's what would be placed upon the shelf mostly:

The shelf unit started at Pint Pot size, but it was deemed through experimenting that the table would be too tall overall if I used them, so a compromise was made...plans can be adjusted on the fly after all.

Onto the legs, which have been cut from 70mm by 70mm cut and planed timber and are 34 inches high:

If I can just go on a tangent here, I absolutely hate how some things are measured in Imperial measurements and some are Metric here in the UK. I can buy timber by the door length, but millimeter widths.

Cupboard doors are measured in inches, but listed as millimeters when buying them...drives me insane.

Moving on as the first Saturday of the build marches on and I managed to get the first edge section built, securing the leg to the 3' shelf via these three screws. The brass rings will have a burnished steel effect cap on them which will hide the screw heads, there will be another three from the right hand plane of this photo, as well as a pair of top boards to go on further securing the thing and making it look nice:

Next, with it being late on and my son being in bed, I turned to the baseboard itself.

As well as the felt I'm going to add, I also had these soft play squares left over from when my son was very small, so figured I'd make use of them and spray glued them down to the playing area, this should create a nice surface upon which to add a future gaming mate and terrain:

And just as I was thinking "everything is going swimmingly" I slipped with the knife I was using to trim the foam and went into my finger on my left hand...FUCK!

I went deep into my finger, as it took about fifteen minutes to stop the bleeding before I could apply some antiseptic cream and a plaster/bandage to my finger.

I didn't seem to get anything major as I still have full feeling and movement in it, but it was concerning for a few moments, a trip to A&E was not on my plans!

Annoyingly, being back at work after I did this was the actual killer, as the wound is in just the right place where I couldn't grip anything properly for a couple of days.

Things like securing pins/straps on loads, wagon handbrakes, carrying a taillamp to the rear of the train, all stung like hell.

Cardboard Fortress asked if the build was on hold when I told him about my "Slip of the Knife".

"No, we ride for glory" I replied, meaning to carry on.

At the end of the day, I had these built and waiting for the next steps:

I've gotten all of the side panels, legs and the baseboard done, including the soft play foam glued down, which I didn't think was bad overall.

Work on the table did have to stop there for a few days however, as actual work groundstaffing trains in and out of the railyard where I work.

One thing I am hoping is that by being able to game at home, rather then having to drive nearly 2 hours to get a game (don't worry Fraser, I'll still head over and have a game at yours!), i will have the motivation to get some painting projects finished and more gaming done.

Who knows I may convince the Mrs to play!

Next up are the bottom frame which the baseboard will sit on.

I am not screwing this down as for one or will tear up the felt and for two, I want this table to be fully portable, in that I can take it to pieces in order to transport it, just incase we ever move (never say never).

So I'll do an update on the build in a few days, so...

Until next time, have nice day...