Tabletop Knights Gaming Day 2019

Posted on May 3, 2019 by grumpyoldtin

I really should have written this much sooner, as always laziness overtook me.
For a far more eloquent account of this event I will direct you to
https://www.battlebrushstudios.com/2019/04/show-report-tabletop-knights-games-day.html
I decided to forgo Walter’s Austrian Salute this year. Walter has no intention of expanding and with last years event with a lack of sales and culinary disaster I wasn’t keen to attend.
Christoph’s event, Tabletop Knights, was a bigger event and he is keen to expand.
Preparing for this event has taken a couple of months making two display boards, Nessus and Gone?
Two days beforehand i was struck down with the lurgy, cold, tired runny nose. Great!
First day of the school holidays, which would normally be spent sleeping in, we got up extra early so we could drive to Germany and set up for nine.
There were a couple of traders there.
Obviously Christoph with his lasercut Roostermodels products. Which reminds me to get a banner made up.

Roll The Dice. I had made some little give-aways for them and Martin appreciated them. I had hoped that he would bring some paint along as I have a few gaps with need filling. Sadly no.
Spiele Cafe had a tombola, which my Son’s happily indulged in, and some demo games.
Spellebrette (can’t read my writing) had discount GW.

My table set up

The day was started by and address by Korbi.

View of the hall

There was a 40K tournament running downstairs

So on to the tables and games.
Roll the Dice had two demo games. Wild West Exodus and the Warlord Games ripoff of Wings of War.

GW Night Vault.
Unpainted figures.

Summoners
Interesting models.
But not another rule set?

A Song of Ice and Fire

Gates of Antares
Interesting cardboard scenery

Last Days
Yet another zombie apocalypse!

Test of Honour

Frostgrave
With Christoph’s scenery

Dead Man’s Hand
Something that potentially of interest to me.
Christoph’s scenery

Freebooter’s Fate
Nice scenery from 4Ground

Guildball
Bloodbowl anybody?

Age of Sigmar
‘Nuff said

WH30K
Nice scenery from Deathray

WH40K
With added Tyrannids, a lot of them!

Walter playing Saga

The usual Star Wars
Legion and Armada

Painting competition

Trade was very slow. Until lunchtime my biggest sellers were some coffee mats that I’d made with scraps of wood from the Happylab recycle bin. I managed to sell my entire box of scrap off-cuts from laser cutting. I had a couple of enquiries about making some custom token trays. Sadly nothing has come of this. Martin from Roll the Dice bought some of my static grass to test out the waters.
I did enter the painting competion, and got a third place in the single figure catagory with my Earth Warden.
There was no culinary disasters and the food was hot, plentiful and reasonably priced.
Overall the day was a bit of a disapointment. Low sales, a supposed gaming opponent didn’t show and a long wait due to the 40K tournament for the awards ceremony. If I do attend next year I will not be putting such an effort into a display board.

Part Deux London

Posted on November 12, 2018 by grumpyoldtin

SELWG itself.
The memories are now hazy, blurred by a trip to Legoland and a week in Vienna setting up an eSports event.
Laughingly called a sport, in my opinion, as most of the contestants would have problems touching their toes let alone running for the bus. I did leave the event feeling slim and socially capable. So that was a nice plus.
Anyway I digress.
Again it was a beautiful autumnal morning and I arrived in time to hand out some of my business cards to the queue. It did result in a spike of viewings but not a lot else. After that I got a little overwhelmed by everything.
I looked at all my indicated places of interest and said, “Hello” to a friend from my reenacting days. He now runs Early War Miniatures, specialising in 20mm World War One.

Home

Luckily I was rescued from my bewilderment by two Oldhammerers. There was a loose plan to meet at the Foundry stand at midday. Mark Stevenson of Asgard Collectors.
http://www.deartonyblair.co.uk/2017/03/asgard-miniatures-1979-catalogue.html
And Ian Smedley. They took me to a nearby hostelry and regaled me with tales from the early history of miniature gaming over a nice pint.
I wandered back, slightly more relaxed, and made a few purchases. Not as many as planned though. Some of the figures were a little disappointing to view in the flesh and some bits I should have preordered as traders don’t always bring their full stock. Then I got into a fluster about what I should or shouldn’t buy. Probably the best plan is to make a plan and buy as I go.
I did manage to get in a game of Gaslands. Another interesting set of rules from Osprey. This one is car combat set in an apocalyptic background.

This game was a Zombie Bash presented by Essex Warriors
http://www.essexwarriors.org/
As I was overwhelmed by everything I didn’t manage to take photos of the event. However this blog did.
https://wargaminggirl.blogspot.com/2018/10/selwg-show-2018-games.html
Afterwrds back to my gaming buddy’s place and up at sparrow’s fart to get the early plane back home.
https://mugodice.wordpress.com/

Off to London

Posted on October 30, 2018 by grumpyoldtin

Spoiler alert, this doesn’t contain much about SELWG.

It is a beautiful sunny morning here in Austria and it is hard to take in while I do my walk to the farm to get milk and gazing at hazy mountains that in less than five hours I’ll be in London.

The main purpose of this visit was to attend SELWG. The South East Wargames Group annual show held at Crystal Palace. The show is far smaller than the London Salute but much bigger than the Austrian Salute. I’d looked at the list of traders and there were a few of interest. I then went to each trader’s website and made a note of anything that interested me. Then I downloaded a plan of the venue and highlighted anything of interest.

selwgplan As the show is so small I plan to walk around first and then decide what I want to spend my money on. I did a couple of jobs recently where cash was “in hand” and this was to be my spending money. So I have a plan and a budget.

I’d packed a few bits and pieces as gifts for people I was seeing. One, a jar of mustard, was not allowed. I had mistakenly misunderstood that Ryanair would take my hand luggage at check-in, not after security. Luckily my Wife was on the other side of the barriers and was able to retrieve it from security. While I was waiting for boarding I spotted a bag with an Electric Love lanyard. I got chatting with the owner, Chris, and found out that he worked in the media side of the festival. He was going to London to see Chelsea play. The first thing he had planned to do when he hit London was have a pint.

The plane was late and we arrived after an unevenful flight forty five minutes behind schedule. I met Chris again as we waited almost an hour for our luggage. The coach into London was clean, such a relief after my last trip. There was a beautiful autumnal light shining through golden leafed trees and it made me quite homesick. Of course being behind schedule I didn’t have the time to eat at C&R Cafe which I had been looking forwards to.

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2014/jun/15/c-and-r-restaurant-review

I managed to get issue 2 of Warhammer Conquest magazine at Warhammer. Sadly no copies of issue 1. They evaporated the minute they hit the shelves, mostly to scalpers. No wonder, for £1.99 you got three space marines, three full pots of paint, a brush and a magazine. I had hoped to pick up a couple of copies for the Boys. Warhammer was pleasant, no hard sell and a chatty Red Shirt. A nice change from a couple of years back when it was sell, sell, sell.

I swung by 4D Models to pick up a few things that I couldn’t get cheaply in Austria. Then I hit Poundland for superglue and epoxy glue. Something I found was a halloween bird skeleton which might come in handy for scenery.

Then on to my old house where I spent a pleasant hour or so chatting to Simon, the new owner.

https://shop.2000ad.com/catalogue/XB639

https://forktail.bandcamp.com/music

Finally off to spend the first night of my trip with an ex-student and her architect husband. Their garden was full of concrete castings for the house they were building.

We ate at Vijay’s Chawalla

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/mar/21/this-weeks-best-food-and-drink

and it was as good as I remembered.

plural My friends good news was that she had got Arts Council funding so she could work on her graphic novel.

https://issuu.com/sabbakhan/docs/pluralism_preview_issuee

Saturday was a bit of a panic as the cashpoint ate my card. Aaaargh! Another full day of running about and meeting my Daughter. Forbidden Planet for the final book (no it isn’t!) of the Expanse series and a look around. The London Graphic Centre, a traditional sweet shop and something I had been looking forwards to for a very long time, traditional fish and chips.

https://www.timeout.com/london/restaurants/fryers-delight

Gorgeous.

This will be concluded in Part Deux. I’ve jost got a phonecall asking if I want to spend a week in Vienna working on an eGames event. Starting in a couple of hours.

https://www.redbull.com/at-de/events/planet-one?utm_source=Revolution+Event+Jobb%C3%B6rse&utm_campaign=e0742d0c21-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_04_11_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_ddd37678af-e0742d0c21-297104985&mc_cid=e0742d0c21&mc_eid=c274541db7

SELWG 2018

Posted on October 18, 2018 by grumpyoldtin

I really do have stacks to talk about, but the prevarication beats me. And of course the longer you leave it the worse it gets.
Anyway, I’m flying off to jolly ‘Ol Blighty tomorrow to attend this show.

I’m hoping this will be a better trip than when I last visited the UK. Sadly my gaming buddy Seb, https://mugodice.wordpress.com/ can’t visit with me due to work commitments.
Lots of photos and news when I return on monday.

Not Imperial Guard Beastmen

Posted on October 2, 2018 by grumpyoldtin

I think I have found some ideal figures to represent Abhuman Beastmen in my Not Imperial Guard army.
Moonraker Miniatures Phagons were in the running, but these popped up in my news feed this morning.

This comes from Albedo Combat Patrol Miniatures Game
http://acp164.com/
There will be a Kickstarter later this month so I will keep updating with more information.
So now the search is on for this miniature to be the squad Leader.

Open(ish)

Image

A little Kickstarter that may be of interest

Posted on April 5, 2018 by grumpyoldtin

poster May I recommend this Kickstarter from The OS Miniatures Company?

Time for a new logo

Posted on April 4, 2018 by grumpyoldtin

Just as my business cards were running out up pops an offer for more at 50% off. I would be rude to refuse wouldn’t it?

My first review

Posted on March 28, 2018 by grumpyoldtin

Tonight, at around six (GMT) I’m getting my first review. Hopefully a positive one.

http://tabletopgamesuk.co.uk/2018/03/28/grumpy-old-tin-review/

Gathering moss for Salute

Posted on March 21, 2018 by grumpyoldtin

I’ve been thinking about this project for the last three months and the best way to present a table.

I had a table coutesy of Electric Love and I had the game, Frostgrave Ghost Archipelago.

ga4

I wanted islands for the game. What was the best way to approach this? The initial thought was to create some irregular shapes and make the contours with foam. Although they would look realistic there was only one drawback, they would not fit together to create other shapes.

What to do?

I went back to the roots of gaming and thought about hexagons. Looking at how other people had made hex terrain I made a jig to cut the foam.

ga3

Things would have been set, albeit with some hard work, to have a table ready for Salute. Then two things conspired against this.

My Wife’s Grandfather died last year. 93 with a full (SS on the Eastern Front, travels to Africa in a minibus, mountaineering, greatgrandchildren and good-health) life, before you ask. The family wanted to clear his house, including his workshop.

And at the same time we got a new neighbour who after moving in decided she didn’t like the wooden floor in her lounge. So it was ripped out and thrown in a skip. It was 20mm engineered, if that means anything to anyone, solid wood. Ever since doing the floor in the hobby room I’ve wanted a nice floor in the workshop. I’ve never had the money (can you hear those violins?) but now was my chance.

One view of how the workshop used to look.

Another view

The optimum time to strip out the workshop, lay the floor ready for shelving and tools was now.

Trimming wood with my new circular saw. I still have all my fingers BTW

First iteration of furniture arrangement

Possibly final arrangement

This obviously cut into the preparation time for Salute. Through previous Salutes and laser cutting I had met another gamer, Christoph. Previously of the Grune Horde and now the Tabletop Knights. He was also planning to run a table with GA. I proposed we join forces.

During this time I also started a couple of money making (success so far €4) projects. When I have time and unrestricted access to YouTube, not very often as The Clone Wars and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air are wayyy popular, I have been watching Mel’s Terrain Tutors channel. One personal project this year is to make a large amount of hedgeing for Flames of War/Tanks. To do this I would need a large amount of clump foliage. Mel showed how to make it relatively cheaply.

The main expense was purchasing the foam and over half of this cost was postage.

Don’t get me started on postage!

My Mothers old Kenwood came in handy

And you end up with a cup of foam

Mixing with PVA and Poundshop acrylic paint

A by-product of the manufacturing process was moss and litchen. Ground up even finer it was ideal for this.

Different colours to be blended when dry

The second money making project was a flockbox. I was not very happy with the quality of the grass tufts I had been making. It was OK but I knew I could do better. Mel’s channel had a video showing how he made static grass tufts. In it he used a flockbox.

I considered buying one but I couldn’t justify the forty quid PLUS the postage.

Luckily YouTube came to the rescue.

So with the help of eBay and my genius neighbour I made one.

The results are great.

flockbox

Once all these jobs were done there was just about time to paint some scenery and paint my crew. See previous post.

Planning how to display my stock

The day of Salute arrived. The car had been packed the night before so we could set off without any panic or hesitation. Austrian Salute was at a new location, in Germany. The previous venue was looking for new owners, I wonder why? Christoph arrived and we set up. My heart fell a little. Although his modular terrain was a good concept the execution was not as good. No win for the best table then.

Walter giving his customary greeting speech

My tiny display table

Our gametable

The day went quickly although marred by another disasterous lunch. Why do culinary mishaps only happen to me?

On the plus side I did win second prize for the fantasy painting competition.

For the usual more eloquent description visit Sigur’s Battlebrush Studios site

http://www.battlebrushstudios.com/2018/03/show-report-austrian-salute-2018.html#more

I spent the next day wracked with a crisis of confidence. I make high quality products but nobody wants to buy.

Why bother?

Because I love doing it!

Frostgrave Ghost Archipelago

Posted on March 16, 2018 by grumpyoldtin

I have a cunning plan. Maybe?

Posted on January 18, 2018 by grumpyoldtin

Somebody yesterday on the Oldhammer Community page in Friendface posted an interesting question.
“Has anybody made replacement doors for the Mighty Fortress?”
The Mighty Fortress was a polystyrene castle made by Games Workshop in the mid-eighties.

Due to the age of this many of the plastic doors have disappeared or have been broken.
The-Doors
Some people on the Oldhammer page suggested 3D printing. This got me thinking.
Why can’t I laser cut replacements?
I dug my Mighty Fortress out and I used a piece of scrap 3mm MDF to guage sizes.
scrap
It fitted perfectly.
Next project.
group

First off the block

Posted on January 13, 2018 by grumpyoldtin

A really quick and dirty job. These are from Dreamforge Games and I’ll be using them as Storm Troopers in my Not-Imperial Guard Army. It was a quick hose with the airbrush and a few little brush additions. Not my best work, but I just wanted to knock one out and have something on the table in a couple of days.
These figures actually deserve a bit more time and attention as they have some lovely detail.

Reflections on 2017

Posted on January 11, 2018 by grumpyoldtin

I’m somewhat late on this one as I’ve been laid low with a rather unpleasant flu-like lurgy.
A quick catch-up on a couple of pieces from my last post.

Here is the Barbarian from the OS Miniatures Company. This was a challenge that I undertook to have him painted before Christmas. Nobody else took up the challenge which was a pity.
santa
This was from Warmonger Miniatures, again painted up for Christmas.
There is one more figure which was supposed to be my last figure of 2017, but the lurgy stopped that. I’ll post when it is finished.
Old age seems to have telescoped the year. Blink and I’ll miss it.
The first three months were taken up with making the Rogue Stars display board. April/May I did some landscaping in the garden converting a be-shrubbed steep slope into a flat grassy terrace.
June/July/August were at Electric Love. I had a great time and it gave me enough money to buy my own small laser cutter.
The rest of the year seemed to evaporate, lttle jobs around the house and making bits with my loot from the summer.
2017
Here is a group shot of what I finished painting. There is a lot more half finished and the 2018 goal is to finish all the half started jobs from the past few years, the Heresy Dragon being the main target, get all that out of the way so I have a clean slate. Then one project at a time, start it and finish it.
Yeah right!
Product of the Year 2017
On reflection it has to be the laser cutter. It’s small and slow but it has enabled me to prototype ideas and to make stuff on the fly. Christmas cards, party invites, party bag goodies, cake icing molds and gift tags just to name a few bits and bobs.
Heroes and Zeroes
Firstly the Heroes.
At the top of the list are the Facebook friends; EvH, DW, SR, ME and CF. They have been a constant source (sauce?) of inspiration, advice and encouragement. I might actually meet some of them in RL oneday.
Then comes the figure manufacturers who have gifted me with lovely toys this last year.
Ramshackle Games
http://shop.ramshacklegames.co.uk/index.php
The OS Miniatures Company
https://www.facebook.com/OldSchoolMinis1985/
Avatars of War
http://www.avatars-of-war.com/eng/web/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=59&Itemid=51
Warmonger Miniatures
https://www.warmongerminiatures.com/
Finally Revolution Events
https://www.revolutionevent.com/
For fun, education and loot.
Now to the Zeroes
Wayland Games for lengthy delays, poor communication and their unwillingness (or inability) to combine orders.
TNT for their lack of customer service and making life just that little bit harder.
Games Workshop for tantalising me with the new rules for 40K, promises of fewer books and then conveniently forgetting about all that.
The new plastics are beautiful though.

The OS Miniatures Company

Posted on December 19, 2017 by grumpyoldtin

Recently I got a parcel containing some miniatures from The OS Miniatures Company.
https://www.facebook.com/OldSchoolMinis1985/
This is a company aiming to fill the gaps in the Warhammer Fantasy Battle army books. Obviously with an old school feel.
So here are some images of what I have managed to paint so far.