Tag Archives: hobby

Plastic Crack of Choice

Posted by Phil on

Another guest post from Chris (@Darth_Crumble) who was inspired by a post from a fellow warmonger on their blog. This time Chris muses on his GW hobby or lack thereof and the path it will take…

This post was inspired by this post by Erin, aka @sixeleven, on the difficulty of fully breaking away from Games Workshop:

SixEleven’s Warhammer 40,000 – I Just Can’t Stop Myself

My experience of trying to make a clean break is similar to Erin’s in that I am also haunted my the lure of the GW despite my better judgement. Like him, I feel the lure of the familiar rules, setting and toys. I started really looking at other game systems just under a year ago and I must admit that precious little has appealed to me the way GW – and 40k in particular – have.

I was briefly fascinated by Firestorm Armada and Dystopian Wars by Spartan Games, but after while I lost interest. I think although Spartan Games have a lot going for them they don’t score well enough on the three branches of background, rules and models to hold my interest. Of the two, I think Dysto has the bigger residual appeal and so far I am opting to keep my Britanian fleet with its HMS Warrior-inspired colour scheme.

Likewise, Warmachine and Hordes don’t quite grab me. Partly because there is no one model range that I like enough to collect an army, as and unfortunately I find a lot of the Warjacks and Warbeasts that are the focus of the games to be the least interesting models to me personally.

The only other game that has really grabbed me recently is Warzone Resurrection by Prodos. This is the first game that has grabbed me the way 40k used to. At least partly this is probably due to their similarities, both being 28mm sci-fi battle games set in a dark future. Though WZR is a very different game, not least because it is a D20 based skirmisdh game. Sadly WZR isn’t released until June though.

A lot of my nostalgia for the grim darkness of the 41st millennium is probably due to my continuing to read Black Library novels. I continue to read the Horus Heresy series, as well as Gaunt’s Ghosts, Ciaphas Cain, Space Marine Battles and one day I might get round to reading the Salamander trilogy. To be honest though, I was already steeped in 40k lore and it would no more cease to be part of my mental landscape than Star Wars, Batman, Transformers, Babylon 5 or any of the other fictional universes which I have enjoyed and have influenced me over the years.

It has been nearly six years since I last played 40k. Since then I have made some abortive attempts to collect and paint up news armies though I have never got as far as rolling any dice in anger. This has had a lot to do with the various distractions and other demands on my time the last six, extremely eventful, years.

The other issue has always been resentment of the cost. The thing about GW being not just the price of individual models, but the number you have to buy. I try not to be too irrational about this. I don’t want to be one of those people who object to a business as acting as such. But the question hanging over any transaction involving GW is whether I will get enough enjoyment to justify the cost. Of course a lot of the answer to that question is actually my responsibility to determine, and relates to how I go about my hobby and make the most of it.

I must acknowledge that GW’s behaviour has been pretty questionable, but there are lots of companies whose behaviour I find questionable but which I haven’t found myself feeling the need to boycott them, so that could just be a convenient excuse. Perhaps it’s just that GW’s brand of evil is a particularly cartoonish one, acting more like a parody of an evil organisation than the real thing.

So I have to ask myself whether I am not going back to GW because I genuinely don’t want to or if I am just being stubborn. Any hypothetical return to GW would involve me identifying an army that I genuinely wanted to collect and paint and play with. It would also need to to commit to collecting sensibly. Not buying so much stuff as to overwhelm myself but not dragging my feet either. It would also require me to not procrastinate and manage my time a bit better. Being a husband and father does make genuine demands on my time, but it can also serve as a convenient excuse to not do things sometimes.

I am of course tempted by the Space Marines, perhaps doing the Salamander or Crimson Fist army I’ve always thought of doing – possibly as #forgeworldonly project. I like the Imperial Guard, but that is genuinely an expensive force to collect and I’m not sure the ‘cheap’ all-veteran armies are actually all that viable. I like some of the shiny new Tau stuff, but I’m disappointed the Crisis Suit has not been updated and I have found Fire Warriors very painter-unfriendly in the past. Any army I do pick would need to have a codex up to date for sixth edition, I’m OCD like that.

Thanks to Erin for inspiring me to get this all of my chest. Maybe some of you other #warmongers have had similar thoughts?

Cutting Through the Static

Posted by Phil on

It’s time for another guest post. This one is brought to you by Ashley, aka @LilThunderLiz who I got to know recording ODAM#4. If it ever airs *pokes Adam*. As she’s a rather clever and articulate sort – something this blog lacks most days – I asked her if she’d write a post. Ever up for a challenge, she took on the topic of the state of communication between Games Workshop and its customers. A brave topic but a good one to talk about. Oh and should you feel so inclined, spare us the fanrage, it won’t get put up.

With any business/customer dynamic, no matter the context, effective communication is a key part of creating and maintaining a good relationship. But with some of the things Games Workshop has been up to lately, I feel that we’re getting left out in the cold. 

With the announcement that GW has closed its HQ Facebook page to utilize their individual store pages for customer interaction, a frothy response ensued. That coupled with (caused by) the “Spots the Space Marine” debacle really left me scratching my head. On one hand, they look like a child sticking their fingers in their ears while simultaneously coming off as school yard bullies.

Shutting down their Facebook page really bothers me a lot more than the “Spots” issue. I liked the content of the HQ page, and I’m much less pleased with each store’s Facebook page, as it is managed by them individually and so they vary widely in content, quality, and relevance to my interests. The HQ page, at least, was consistent in quality and kept me abreast of new releases with photos and links and all those nice things. 

Historically, they’ve not been great about keeping us informed, even with simple release schedules. Now, GW’s not the only company in history to try to keep some mystery about a product *cough*Xbox*cough* but when you’re choosing between two armies, it’s handy to know if one of them is getting new models or book in the next 3-6 months. Rum ors alone are often wrong and the secrecy is not conducive to sustaining a healthy and happy hobbysphere.

As a whole, we clamour for an open and honest dialogue from GW, but when given opportunities to communicate with them, such as their FB page or Twitter account, we tend to abuse it. It’s one thing to voice your opinion and another entirely to do so rudely. When we act like a pack of rabid dogs at each announcement that makes us unhappy, is it really any wonder that they have chosen to shut down the FB page or block Twitter accounts? 

It’s not just the online interaction that lacks, but also the in-store one. I routinely avoid my local GWs unless they have something I can’t find elsewhere. Why? Partially because I’d rather support my local gaming store (and GW makes money either way), but mostly because the experience is usually lengthy and annoying. You know what I’m talking about— the hard sell. This isn’t an experience that you routinely receive at other stores. You don’t walk into a clothing store and have sales persons pressuring you to buy their fanciest jacket.

I popped into my local store to play the Hobbit when it was released. I asked for the demo, but instead I was told how great of a game it is, how nice the miniatures are, and how I definitely want to buy the Very Expensive Box Set. He went on and on before I finally had to stop him and say I’ve already sworn fealty the Emperor—I mean that I’m already a customer—and I don’t need the sales pitch. The whole experience is rather unsatisfying (I never did get that demo game) and it doesn’t make me feel more inclined to spend money there. 

It’s painfully clear that both sides need to learn how to interact with one another, because we’re getting nowhere with the way things stand currently. It’s frustrating as a consumer not having a way to have our voices heard, but it’s also frustrating for the average employee who has to deal with these irate people. It can be hard to remember, but whoever you’re communicating with (through phone, email, Twitter, etc) isn’t the Faceless-Company-Entity but just a person trying to do their job.

Neither side is to blame, but both sides need to take a step back, re-evaluate, and breathe a little. What’s good for business? What’s good for the hobby? What’s good for our blood pressure? Us screaming at them from afar about the way they treat their customer base is no way to invite positive change. Conversely, shutting down communication is an excellent way to anger and alienate your customer base. 

There needs to be a more effective system in place for us to communicate our issues and concerns in a way that makes us feel like we’re being taken seriously. But, we need to communicate our grievances in a respectful way that deserves attention. We have to remember that this is a hobby and we’re here to paint, play games, and have fun and that often gets lost in the angry rabble. We have an unusually close relationship to GW that most companies don’t need to worry about. The relationship you have with the company that made your television isn’t their top priority.

That puts a lot of pressure on GW, but that’s not an excuse to simply fold and call it a day. Shutting down communication is the quickest way to disintegrate good will. Combine that with price hikes and problems with the products (Finecast, typos in books, etc.) and you’ve got a recipe for decline. GW is without a doubt the powerhouse of the miniatures industry, but with so many well-established and up and coming companies out there, they can’t simply keep treating their customers in such a manner and expect them to stick around. 

The things GW did to foster a community in the past was fantastic, but that’s all but dead. With all this negativity, I can’t help but feel that heyday of the hobby has passed. Gone are the days where each year they sponsored several tournaments across the country (in the US) and other events like Games Day. Now the company feels like a greedy bully trying to squeeze every penny and it cares more about getting new players than maintaining their veterans. With a slight shift of their gaze back towards the community, rather than shareholders and profits, everyone would win.

What GW has that no other company can boast is a huge, diverse, and worldwide devoted fanbase. The worlds they created are evocative, the games are solid, and their miniatures are top-notch. The product is what drew us all into the hobby and it’s what keeps us here despite the problems we may have with their business model. There are so many things they do right that we can’t keep getting hung up on the things they do poorly.

What Kind of Year Has it Been?

Posted by Phil on

As we stare down the barrel of 2013 I thought I’d take the opportunity to do a bit of a Year in Review for The Shell Case. And I thought I’d start with the resolutions I wrote just over a year ago…

The first was to paint something. This I have managed. I had a fully painted Covenant fleet then my mother gave me even more sodding cruisers for Christmas so technically it’s not fully painted, but I got the whole lot down over 3 weeks (spread out over two painting sessions). I’ve partially painted other stuff, but that was the big achievement for me. A little lame that that’s the only stuff I managed to put brush to model to over the last 12 months, but it’s that or blog…

I was also supposed to finish Project Awesome this year. This I didn’t achieve. This was partly due to me getting involved with a separate project (which has also stalled due to time and me being lazy). But, to be honest, I’ve had far too much fun working on The Shell Case and the associated projects – such as Of Dice and Men – that I’m not too worried. That said, I really must be strict with myself in 2013 and crack on and get things finished.

And speaking of projects, Super Mega Awesome Shell Case Project died a death. Through no fault of my own however. I was let down so completely by a third-party that I decided to can the project until further notice. It still may happen hence it remaining secret but for now this resolution can be scrubbed off.

But, and it appears I’m inadvertently working this like a criticism sandwich, the Shell Case Shorts did become a regular features. It made it to the full year. Sadly it will be the last ever Shell Case Shorts as trying to source prizes and maintain the community’s interest has proven too great a challenge and still allow me to focus on other things. I’m gutted to be honest but if the interest isn’t there it isn’t there. I may do short story competitions again, but nothing like SCS.

I did, however write more reviews. Lots in fact. And more than a few opinion pieces. I suspect I’m becoming as well-known for my rants as I am anything else. But one thing that has become apparent these last 12 months is that all the companies I’ve been in touch with consider The Shell Case to be honest and impartial which means a great deal. This of course has led to me falling out with a few people along the way. And when I say people I mean companies and I’m sure regular readers can take a stab at who they are. But I didn’t start the blog to brown nose the companies. Actually I started it to make me paint stuff, but you know what I mean.

On to number 6, the Shell Case Beatdown. This didn’t happen. Not even close. To be honest, I was naive to have even suggested it as I had no clue how to organise it or where to hold it. It won’t be happening this year either but I am working on something with a fellow #warmonger that may see a few of us getting together. But I did get to meet a few of the #warmongers at Salute 2012 and all systems are go for a similar meet up again this year, although I suspect it’ll be a little bit more hanging out en masse rather than meeting up for a picnic in the middle of the lobby.

And I did forgive the Games Workshop. At least as much as I could. And I’ve even started a new 40k army and gotten back into Adeptus Titanicus 2. Both projects are slow burn and I don’t see the Chaos army being completed next year between time, money and impending fatherly commitments. But I shall enjoy it and not worry about the prices. Despite them going up again in the New Year…

And I did manage to play more games than play Xbox. That was until Halo 4 came out… However through one thing or another the games have fizzled out a bit as The Chaps as a gaming entity doesn’t really exist any more. There are reasons for this that won’t be discussed here but one of my resolutions for 2013 is get The Chaps back on track and get at least one game in a month.

Although I am thinking about starting a games club you have to interview for to weed out the beardy and unwashed.

All in all, it’s been a great year as I’ve got to do far more of the stuff I like with the blog and cut out the shit I didn’t that I was doing to try to keep pace with BoLS and Tabletop Gaming News. My enjoyment and The Shell Case’s success is in no small part down to my sponsor, Firestorm Games who have allowed me the luxury of reviewing games and models that my finances would not normally permit me to explore. This has been a significant shift in The Shell Case as a blog and hopefully gone some way to making it a credible source wargaming reviews and opinion.

Since the blog went live I’ve written 588 posts, 441 this year. Assuming I write 500 words on average – which low balling it massively – I’ve written roughly 300,000 words. Although the reality is closer to half a million. Please don’t point out that it’s a novels worth of words, it’ll just make me cry. The record for most hits was smashed several times this year. The most recent was almost double the previous best, reaching 2,600 hits and the average number of visitors creeping ever closer to 700 a day. The busiest month for The Shell Case exceeded 20,000 hits. This of course is down to you guys – you awesome bunch of readers and followers so a massive thanks goes out to you.

So what of 2013 and what resolutions can you expect of me? Well…

1. Publish the Shell Case Shorts Anthology. This will be an absolute priority for me in January; getting all the winners’ work together in a free to download PDF for the world to share. Those winners that are reading this, there may be some editorial tweaks. Don’t be offended, you still got free shit and you’re still being published.

2. Continue to fucking paint something! I think my lack lustre approach to painting is as much to do with the fact that an increasing number of my paints are knackered and I resent paying GW prices for something that dries out too damn fast. So perhaps a part of this resolution needs to be to research a new paint system.

3. Seriously get a writing project finished. Part of this resolution will be to get a bit more organised with blog posts, plan out content a bit more than I have been so I have more free time to write rules for toy soldiers rather than just reviews for toy soldiers. Again, this will mean a little less Xbox, but that’s not a hardship.

I also need to decide what the best route to market will be when it’s finished, be it either pitch to a developer or go with a crowd funding scheme…Watch this space.

4. Keep going with ODAM. The first two episodes were a huge amount of fun and all being well episode 3 will be recorded this week. It’d be great to make it through the year and get as many bloggers and Twitterers as possible on to the show.

5. Play some games. As mentioned above, I’d really like to get The Chaps back together and get gaming again with some regularity. I think campaigns may well be out for the time being, but I don’t care it’ll just be great to hang out with my mates, play toys, roll fist gulls of dice, drink sugary drinks and eat far too many snacks.

6. Improve content across the board on The Shell Case which includes getting back into my musing posts, sort out some of the pages and revisiting the contributors part of the site. This project has been somewhat of a failure as contributions have been practically nil. I think I need to start this from scratch and bring people on board who are local to me so that I can beat them with a stick until they write something.

7. Make it to Salute 2013. Simple enough, needs no more explanation.

8. Run another #warmongersSecretSanta. Overall it was a resounding success with #warmongers from all over the world taking part. Although one participant couldn’t be bothered to send a gift and has avoided all attempts at contact regarding the matter. I won’t name names but they know who they are and my disappointment is absolute. For a member of our community to take and not give back, especially at Christmas is low and they won’t be permitted to take part in any future competition, give away or community project I’m involved with.

9. Be a Dad. My first-born is due in March and I couldn’t be more excited. That said, if I drop off the face of the Interwebs during that month don’t be alarmed, it’s just my sanity unspooling as the kid cries me into early senility.

There’s other stuff I could put on the list but these are the big ones. And with that I wish you all a fantastic 2013 with all the healthy, happiness and good fortune you deserve.

Woodland Scenics – A Review

Posted by Phil on

Many many (many many) months ago I got in touch with Woodland Scenics to write a review of some of their starter kits having seen pictures of scenery made by their products on the interwebs and was, generally, quite impressed.

The kits arrived and I was, if I’m honest, intimidated by the level of work that would be needed to build something. Not because it’s hard but because I lacked the (a) time, (b) patience & (c) the ability. However, I’m very fortunate to know a Chap who is a bit of scenery building guru. A certain Chap who worked for the Games Workshop around the same time as I did and was responsible for building some truly awesome boards in his store.

I refer, of course, to Lee of The Chaps. Passing him the two starter kits just prior to a game of Dystopian Wars a couple of days after getting the kits whilst I muttering; ‘Here, a present. All you have to do is build something awesome and write a review. But don’t take too long.’ Well 9 months isn’t that long I suppose. So, without further a do I hand the reigns of this post over to Lee and his review of Woodland Scenics.

I was happily plodding away with getting my FSA fleet (slowly) painted when Phil gave me two boxes of ‘scenery stuff’ and asked me to ‘build something awesome’ and write a review on how I got on.

The ‘stuff’ in question was two of the Learning Kits from scenery masters Woodland Scenics, specifically the Rock Face and Landscaping kits.  Being firmly in the Dystopian Wars groove, I thought building a nice big island to sail around/hide behind/crash into (Jeremy) would be the ideal piece to demonstrate the contents of the two kits quite nicely.

I’m fairly experienced at building scenery so I pretty much jumped straight into the Rock Face kit after a quick glance at the basic instructions on the box.  There are far more detailed guides on their website – but what can I say, I’m a cowboy.  Casting the faces from the mould was simplicity itself, just mix the correct ratio of powder with  water and hey presto; you’ve got a paste that dries fairly quickly to produce a good-sized slab like rock face and a smaller, more versatile, rocky strip.

Doing this first meant I could crack on producing the basic island structure while it dried.  I settled for a fairly standard largish island made from a hardboard base and polystyrene landmass, and figured I’d try and get two of the rock face moulds along one of the sides for the cliff.  Once I’d produced the second set of faces I played around with how they’d fit together without making it clear they were identical.  I ended up cutting one diagonally in half and a placing each ‘triangle’ either side of the intact rectangle piece. They were very easy to cut using a modelling saw which gave enough precision to keep the detail intact. The smaller strips from the mould came in very handy adding smaller height faces and fallen rock sections around the main cliff section.

You are also provided with a roll of plaster cloth to fix the cliffs in place and there is a very good reason for this – do not use glue, trust me. More on this in a moment.  After using up all the plaster cloth around the cliffs and over other areas of the island, I decided to add some areas of sand around the base of the cliffs to represent shingle using PVA glue (see what I did there?)

With the construction complete I moved on to the paints you also receive in the Rock face kit (it’s like they thought of everything) but these work in quite a specific way.  You dilute the paint to an almost wash like consistency and apply it directly to the Rock face which is made of Hydrocal.  Hydrocal is kind of like chalk and it soaks up the washes like a sponge giving a very realistic stone effect.

However, it doesn’t work if there’s something like glue preventing this from happening, and this was when I realised that gluing the sand on perhaps wasn’t the best way to go. I sorted it in the end, but the short of it is:  Do not use glue anywhere near Hydrocal. Ever.

It was now I dug into the landscape kit and discovered a green base coat paint with which to cover what would be the green areas of the island.  This stuff was great and gave a very nice muddy green tone with which to glue my choice of flock over afterwards.  And what a choice! There’s a flock for every occasion in there.  Along with a big bag of standard green you get another four types in various colours plus a bag of larger clumps to represent bushes or trees depending on your scale.

After a liberal coating of Scenic Cement using the spray gun included in the kit, I covered the muddy green base in the generic green and then added some of the lighter and darker shades to represent shadows, foliage etc.  It was here I ran into my second problem.  Make sure you shake the bottle of scenic cement thoroughly before using, and I do mean thoroughly.  I thought I had done this, but half way through covering the first layer of green flock in a sealing coat of cement a blob got clogged in the nozzle turning the fine mist into messy jet.  Needless to say, the flock did not stay where it was supposed to and a bit of a mess ensued.

Anyway, once this obstacle had been overcome, it was quite fun adding all the different shades and clump foliage pieces to create an effect as realistic as you want to achieve. A quick bit of paint on the hardboard to create the lapping ocean and the island was complete.

All in all the kits were great, and aside from the piece of hardboard and some polystyrene, provided all the materials you needed.  Plenty of them too, I only used barely a third of the bag of Hydrocal so there was easily enough to build another 4 moulds worth and only a fraction of the flocks included in the Landscaping kit.  The box says enough to do a 2’x2’ section and this would most definitely be the case.  The mould from the Rock face kit can be used repeatedly too so is actually a sound investment.

Just watch out for odd stumbling block that I ran into – or better yet, simply watch the videos on the website.

Storm Talon Conversion

Posted by Phil on
Whilst browsing Bell of Lost Souls I saw an awesome tutorial for converting the Space Marine Stormtalon into something other than a front heavy mess of nonsense (just my opinion please hold the bilious hate filled comments). In this case, turning it into a way cool mech. This tutorial is written by Man Boy Genius.
Parts List
Soulgrinder Kit (or a torso and front legs set from the defiler)
Optional Parts 
Whirlwind Rocket pods
Commander Chapter Symbols (for joint caps)
Dreadknight armor platings
GF9 Plastic Variety Pack (super convenient for pre-sized tubing)

It may be more econmoical to just buy the Dreadknight outright, than just ordering the bits.

Also since you have to destroy the Defiler torso for the couplers to use for the arms, (now legs) it may be worth it to buy a Soulgrinder instead of a Defiler. That way you can at least maybe resell or trade-off the Soulgrinder upgrade sprue and recoup some cash.

It may also be a good idea to use the weapon pods that come with the Stormtalon instead of the Whirlwind Rocket Pods to save a little scratch as well.

The Conversion

First off I made the feet first. I think on projects like this it’s good to work from the “ground up”.  So I took the Dreadknight feet and sheered them flat a bit and mounted the arm couplers I cut off the front of the defiler torso.

As you can see I glued one with the main support facing forward, and one backwards to help brace the leg assemble. The pose for the legs was striding, but if you want to make it just standing there you may not have to do that, as there will be no additional stresses on the feet besides gravity.

Next I went about assembling the legs. As you can see from the side shots, it’s a little intense. Lets break it down some.

First off I inverted the legs from the arm poses. Meaning the “claws” would be attaching to the hip of the Stormhound.

You have to actually trim the claws flush near their joint to make a mount to attach to the Dreadkight weapon bit that forms the hip. I also put a piece of plasticard across the two stubby claw halves to glue the DK Heavy Weapon Mount to. This allows the two claws to pivot together, forming a hip joint of sorts.

The rest of the hip joint is formed by adding tubing from the GF9 Variety pack to the two recess in the Lower Dreadknight Torso.

Picture shows the bottom of the torso, to which the legs are attached.

There is one piece of tubing in that pack that fits the holes in that torso, and perfectly fits over the nub on the weapon (now hip) mount and allows for perfect movement and support.

Now you should be have two legs and two feet, as well as a lower torso hip joint.  This assembly should be free standing at this point, so try our some poses before you glue the legs into their final positions.

I waited until the final positioning with the cockpit to attach the armor plates. While the legs are loose, now is a good time to de-spikey them, as there is quite a bit of chaos icons plastered all over these legs.

In place of the chaos stars on the joints you can use some of these Commander Chapter Symbols or even some of the small aquilas that come with the Stormtalon itself.

Cockpit Assembly

Assemble up the Stormtalon fuselage per normal and let dry.  After drying you can see from the picture where I cut down the rear of the cockpit. I had some help with this, as a friend was itching to lend a hand.  In hindsight I may have left just a little bit more of the fuselage on the back, as this assembly tends to lean forwards a tad. Lesson learned for my next one?

After you make your rear cut, patch up any openings with plastic card, and liquid green stuff (which is perfect for filling gaps like this).  I keep a small desktop fan around for projects that need quick drying so make sure to dry up any Green Stuff quick and then sand it flush.

I cut down one the thrusters from the main engine and attached that to the rear. I actually ended up going back and adding lead shot into the thruster hole to get it to balance better on the legs.

The front weapon mount had to go, as two sets of weapon pods would just not work.  I clipped off that mounting nub, and exposed the recess under it.  This is a great place to place a magnet for magnetizing any weapon options (or arms) you may desire.

Here are a few articles on magnetizing things if you need extra help there.

Then I assembled the Whirlwind rocket pods, and after cutting them down at the brackets shown, magentized them to the mounts for the engines. (you have to cut flush the engine axle that juts our from both sizes though).

I used that same diameter tube from the lower torso to form the swivel for left and right movement of the cockpit assembly as well. Just enlarge the “cross” opening for the flying stand enough to insert that tube, and trim flush at the base. The GF9 variety pack is neat because all of the pieces of tubing insert into each other, and can telescope outward if you wish.

We don’t need all that, just the piece that fits into the tube that was just placed and will attach down into the new lower torso assembly. Again the picture shows the bottom of the torso, to which the legs are attached. The middle tubing is for attaching to up into the cockpit.

You should now have a completed upper body assembly with weapon options.  Go ahead and play around with leg poses, and when you find something that works for you, glue it down and make it permanent.

I wouldn’t recommend gluing down the top to the legs however, keep that on a swivel for machine gun noise makings!

Checkout my video walk through and close up pictures below, and see how it stacks up to the “real” Stormtalon!

Six Month Review

Posted by Phil on

At the beginning of the year I wrote a post laying out my wargaming resolutions. As we’re now half way through the year, or near as dammiy, I thought I’d revisit them and see how I’m doing. So, here we go…

1. Paint fucking anything!

Hmm, not doing too well on this front. I partially painted a venerable dreadnought and a chaplain. I’ve managed to undercoat my Covenant of Antarctica fleet but I wouldn’t say that really counts. Although I have another scenery review in the pipeline so I shall have to paint that. Plus I’m hoping to organise a hobby day with The Chaps to paint Dystopian Wars stuff. But, to be honest, that’s a resolution to do a resolution, which is a little weak.

2. Finish Project Awesome.

Now this is actually going quite well. The core rules are pretty much finished which means it should be ready for playtesting in the next couple of months. I’m giving myself a slight extension on this so as long as I have Project Awesome completed within my 30th year of being on God’s green Earth I’ll call it a win.

3. Complete the Super Mega Awesome Shell Case Project.

This sadly has been canned. For reasons that are too tedious to go into it’s not happening. Sad but not the end. I hope that I can come back to it one day but we’ll see. On the upside; the time can be put into The Shell Case and Project Awesome instead. So it’s not all bad.

4. Make the Shell Case Shorts a regular feature and put togethe an anthology for Christmas release.

Well so far so good on this front. It won’t be a Christmas release for the anthology as the competitions are monthly (didn’t think that one through) but the Shell Case Shorts have become a regular feature. It’s been tough finding prizes, or even getting the community to take part but I shall keep at it.

5. Write more reviews.

Well I’ve certainly been doing that! And I’ve got 3 in the pipeline at the moment.

6. Organise the first, and hopefully not the only, Shell Case Beatdown for all my #warmonger chums.

This didn’t really pan out. Again the uptake in the community wasn’t what I had hoped. I might try and arrange a smaller, invite only, version as a starter and then see what might happen after that.

7. Forgive the Games Workshop.

I was doing so well on this one! And then they put their prices up again. To be honest I think I have forgiven, as far as I can. I still play 40k and the Specialist Games range and I love the fiction. I’m just not going to give them my money any more. Not directly at least. With stockists like Total Wargamer offering their stuff at as much as 25% off why by Bonaparte’s balls would I go direct?

8. And finally play a little less xbox and a little more toy soldiers.

This is actually going quite well. With the exception of Mass Effect I’ve been all about the toys. That’s been helped in no small part by the reviews I’ve been doing and The Chaps getting into Dystopian Wars. That’ll change when Halo 4 comes out but I’ll worry about that in November.

So that’s where I am. My big drive is Project Awesome but fear no The Shell Case will continue on its merry course. And, if anything it’ll be getting a lot busier on the blogging front, but more on that another time.

Starting from Scratch

Posted by Phil on

I threw the topic of this post open to the community on Twitter and amongst the suggestions were three very worthy topics;

Advice on starting a new army

Fluff armies vs Wanky armies

Painted armies vs Unpainted armies

The more I thought about it the more I realised that all three were inexorably linked together as usually one will beget the others.

So here’s my thoughts on collecting an army be it your first time with a new system or you’re a seasoned gamer and just want a new challenge.

Step 1 – Choosing an Army

This seems a tad obvious but over the years I have seen more than a few gamers start collecting something because;

A) Their mates collect them

B) They’re the models that came in the boxset

C) That’s the army the guy in the shop told them to collect

There are no doubt dozens of other reasons but those are the three I’ve heard the most over my 23 years of gaming. All I can say is ignore everyone but what your guy tells you. The best piece of advice I can give you is choose the army that excites you. This has to be  both the models and, to a degree, the background.

So many people underestimate the fluff at this embryonic stage of collecting a hobby. Understanding why we fight is crucial to you embracing the army as well as understanding why units are or are not available. It doesn’t matter if you don’t buy into the fluff as much as I do or if you’re strictly a tournament gamer, I challenge anyone to get any real enjoyment out of a game purely by reading the core rules and the army list.

There has to be a degree of union between the models and the fluff. I love the Tyranid models but I just can’t get excited about being an army that wants to exterminate all life. The part of my inner child that wants to grow up to be a space marine or a Spartan just won’t allow it. And I’ve tried twice.

This principle, I swear, will serve you in good stead for whatever game you’re collecting. Certainly some games will have more fluff than others and so in those cases the decision will be more dictated by the models but that’s okay too. Take Firestorm Armada, for example. I love the Directorate models. I also love the Sorylians. There wasn’t a massive amount of fluff to go on so it was down to, when I really looked at them, which models do I like the most?

Now, at this point I have to acknowledge that the way a force plays has to be considered but I find that if you’re into the army and into the models you’ll quickly adapt how they work because you’ll want to play with them. There are, of course, exceptions, but generally speaking I’ve found this to be the case.

Step 2 – Read and Understand the Army & Army Lists

Again it seems pretty obvious but as mentioned it’s important to helping you understand not only how an army plays but the kind of army you want to collect. Understanding the army from a background point of view will really help you select the units that reflect that character, or facet of the character you like in the army, as well as what colour schemes you like and would be comfortable painting. Sometimes the character and colour scheme are linked – such as Space Marine chapters. Liking a background but not feeling comfortable painting the models is a tough decision but ultimately you have to focus on the end result and seek as much help as you can. Hobby stores, the community on Twitter, You Tube, hell even emailing me. There’s help out there.

I talked above about fluff armies vs wanky armies. Everyone knows a wanky gamer. They’re the ones who hang out in a hobby store, of any stripe, a little more than is healthy. They’re often unemployed. They almost always of dubious personal hygiene. And they all take a perverse delight in simultaneously tearing the hobby down and spending huge amounts of time and money trying to develop the wankiest, codex/army list breaking army possible.

A wanky army is the army you go up against in local gaming club tournements. It’s an entire army of Slave Rats with a few Plague Monks thrown in so you can infect your own forces and then charge them in. It’s taking 15 Land Raiders as dedicated Transports in a Blood Angels army. There are countless examples of wanky armies. But sadly far too common. As games develop and new rules and units come out to try to make games more cinematic it opens up rules to abuse. The wanky gamer is the person that does the abusing.

My problem with wanky armies isn’t the army, but the person using it because they’ve not cultivated the army to be strategically brilliant or because they love this the army. They seize upon the army because of a loop-hole. They take pleasure from crushing their opponent for the sake of doing so. Not to have a good game. Their pleasure is found in making their opponent feel crap. In an undeserving sense of superiority because they took the time to ruin what should have been a fun couple of hours for their opponent.

Some gamers play solely tournaments and that’s fine and are usually the other side to the fluff gamer. I can’t stand the bloody things personally. Far too competitive, the spirit of the game often doesn’t get an invite and it can be a breeding ground for wanky gamers but you know what? Each to their own. Tournament armies are very impressive if for no reason than the careful consideration that goes into them. Tournament gamers go to a huge amount of trouble to make sure their force/s are balanced and every tactical situation is covered. Which is real skill in its own right.

Sharing your hobby with a Tournament Gamer is extremely worthwhile because they will have an abundance of tactical knowledge to share. And equally you can get them psyched about the fluff which they can neglect in their mission to get the right force worked out. They will give you some valuable pointers about army selection and tactics. It’s a rare thing to find a Tournament Gamer who is just as passionate about the fluff. I’ve only met one and, aside from being a bit fanatical, was very enjoyable to talk to and it was very enlightening.

Fluff armies are the exact opposite of wankey armies. They are dogmatically themed around the background or a specific event in the background. Fluff Gamers deny themselves certain units and/or heavily overdose on others. This can often make them appear a little wanky in their own right but it comes with such significant handicaps that any beardyness is quickly outweighed by the staggering tactical disadvantages. Take the fluff-tastic Space Wolves army I briefly had.

Logan Grimnar

Arjac Rockfits with 7 Wolf Guard in Terminator Armour in a Land Raider Crusader

7 Wolf Guard in Terminator Armour in a Land Raider Crusader

1 Venerable Dreadnought

10 Wolf Guard in a Land Raider

10 Wolf Guard in power armour in a Rhino

10 Wolf Guard in power armour in a Rhino

10 Wolf Guard in power armour in a Rhino

That’s 3,000 of Logan Grimnar, Master of the Space Wolves, and his personal retinue. On the surface beardy in reality a do or die army that would lose just as often as it would win. Very thematic, very specialist, very expensive (in points and coin) and far too elite. It was a lot of points tied up in very few models and every loss was a significant impact on performance. But it was fun. Fun to collect, fun to build, fun to play and fun to play against. Most of the time.

Reading and understand the army you’re collecting is vital to not only making the right unit choices for the game but for you as a gamer. Don’t by a Land Raider because they’re cool. £40 is a lot of money to waste on a model that you hardly use. And I should know, I’ve had 11 over the years.

In reality gamers should try to find the middle ground between fluff and wankiness. Often the more bonkers rules are left in on purpose to counteract a heinous rule in another army list. Sometimes it’s just cool to do. Other times it’s a mistake but you’re well within your rights to exploit it. But whatever you choose for the army, the question should always be; ‘does this fit with the style and feel of my army?’ If you have to grudgingly admit; no, then you should leave it out. You may have to change how you play but that’s all part of the challenge.

Step 3 – Collect at a Steady Pace

This is the pot calling the kettle black because I am the worst for buying in bulk, undercoating and then not doing anything more than that. But that kinda gives me the right to say this. The one and only time I have ‘finished’ an army (because we all know they’re never really finished) was back when my Ultramarines was a meagre 3,000 points. And this was entirely down to the fact that I had very little free cash when I started collecting it so I had plenty of time to build and paint the units when I was able to buy them.

The other advantage is that as your force hits landmark point sizes and you start to game with them you can see what units work for you and which don’t. This allows you to tweak your army list and therefore purchase different units. Buying and building in bulk eliminates that choice altogether.

Plus, from a GW point of view, be wary of Battle Force and Battalion boxes. Yes they save you money but only if you actually wanted all of the contents to begin with. Otherwise you’ll spend the money you saved on buying the extra bits. And let’s be honest, we don’t do this hobby because it’s cheap so accept it’s going to cost you a fucking fortune and just buy what you want.

This brings me on to the third point. Painted vs unpainted. This is often a real point of contention between gamers. There are those that will only field painted armies. There are those that have no interest in painting at all and are quite happy pushing grey plastic and pewter around a board. And you know what? Both ways of thinking are absolutely fine. As long as they’re willing to play each other. Sadly that’s not always the case though. Often the ‘must paint everything’ hobbyist won’t play the ‘fuck off and let me play my game’ hobbyist. This is usually associated with the misplaced sense of entitlement we as gamers can develop over time. It’s the thinking of ‘I’ve gone to the effort of painting my army so they should too’. It’s a reasonable point but misguided and far too simplistic.

I like painting my models. I like gaming. I like writing games. I like writing campaign packs. I like writing this blog. I like spending time with my wife. I like spending time with friends and family. I like eating, going to the cinema, sitting in the garden on a sunny day with a cold beer, and walking to the river 10 minutes from my house and watching the sunset on the boats. Out of all of those things, and many more interests and obligations I have in my life, like working to pay for my plastic crack habit, there is, realistically only one of things that can be neglected that won’t directly impact on the others. And that, is, sadly, painting. I don’t need a painted army or fleet. It’s awesome to have a fully painted force and I get a real sense of achievement every time I finish a well painted unit but I rarely have the time.

But you know what? It’s fine. Don’t put pressure on yourself because it’s supposed to be fun, and busting your apple bag because some bell end at the local club is giving you a hard time about your tin army isn’t fun. It’s shit. So pace your army collection and make sure you only paint when you feel like it.

Step 4 – Enjoy Yourself

That’s really the point at the end of the day. You could have disagreed with half of this 2,000+ word rant but hopefully the important thing to take away is that however you like to collect your army that you enjoy doing it. Don’t let others push you into doing something or buying something that isn’t right for you. Avoid the members of the community that aren’t supportive or just want to make your hobbying a miserable, soul crushing defeat.

Love the toys, embrace the community and roll fist fulls of dice.

The Snidey Gamer

Posted by Phil on

Just lately I’ve had a rash of comments on the blog and Twitter bad mouthing the models and games I’ve been reviewing, as well as my general like for those products. One or two comments have valid points but the vast majority are from, what I’d call, Snidey Gamers.

I should address one comment which is; why do I, generally, like the things I review. There’s two reasons. The first is that I try to review things that interest me. As a veteran gamer I try to find stuff that’s original and therefore a different experience. The second is that nothing is without worth. A game may not always be my bag but I can see the what the writers were trying to achieve or a rule that works really well. I don’t have to want to play the game to see that it’s good. Regardless, so long as someone enjoys the game then writers can sleep easy in their beds knowing that they’ve given enjoyment to a member of the wargaming community. Success is not an acumen of profit. And for those two reasons I will defend games and games developers to the hilt because:

Writing a game is hard.

Writing a good game is extremely hard.

Writing a good game that gets published is almost impossible.

Writing a good game that gets published and that people actually buy & play makes you as Gods in my book.

Everyone knows at least one Snidey Gamer if they visit any hobby store or gaming club with any regularity. They’re the kind of gamer that just doesn’t dislike something, they hate it, viscerally, almost irrationally. Yet, unlike Haters, they seem to dislike things because they’re different. When challenged their arguments are based on generalities and if you attempt to challenge them they quick to make it personal or pass comment that you’re beneath their notice. A Snidey Gamer will hate you because you collect armies they hate.

The Snidey Gamer will write off a game because it isn’t as polished as the games they already play.

The Snidey Gamer will claim that no one plays the games they don’t like. This is usually based on no one he knows playing it.

The Snidey Gamer will criticise a model range because they all look a little similar whilst at the same timing failing to acknowledge that most model ranges follow the same design trends.

The Snidey Gamer will think they can do a better job yet has no way of backing it up.

The Snidey Gamer will think they’ve won a personal victory if you give up and leave them to a sad facsimile of our hobby.

Snidey Gamers are such a problem because they will vocally criticise members of our community without every looking at the positives. Their arguments are entirely weighted towards the negative and they will never listen to reason. And don’t kid yourselves, writers, sculptors, designers etc are all part of our community too because without them we wouldn’t have a community. I’m not saying we shouldn’t have opinions or they shouldn’t be voiced but the Snidey Gamer is, well, snide, spiteful and superior in their opinions and utterly blinkered with it. Yes it’s their opinion but some opinions are just, simply, wrong.

There’s little we can do to tackle a Snidey Gamer. Their need to be right makes them impossible to debate the hobby, which is normal and healthy, so all we can is try not to be one. We have the best hobby and community in the world with plenty of models and games to choose from so there’s no need to tear downs the ones we don’t want to play.