Finished Urban Base

I put the final later of paint on the room if my urban base this morning, then dropped it off in the shop. Yes, is still two weeks until the actual competition, but I figured I've rather have it our of the house and therefore at little risk of me accidentally breaking it in the next fortnight.

I forgot to take a picture before I packed it all up though, so here is one of it on one of my local store's gaming tables.

Apart from minimising risk, I also wanted to make space for my next project: Cryx.

I started painting then yesterday, well, the starter set, any way. I'm doing an alternate paint scheme to the traditional get one. I'm going for a rusty, weathered, swampy look, inspired by a scheme in the mini issue of No Quarter that came with the models. It goes on really quickly as I'm using a lot if washes and only two basic colours.

Right now I'm really wishing I had built the bases first though. I found some really inspiring looking swamp bases this morning. I figure I could do something almost as goods looking, but I'll be a little hampered now that I have glide the figures in place.

Whatever happens with the bases though, I'm happy about how the models are turning out. I will publish some pictures and a step by step of sorts later in the week.

First Impressions - Cryx Army Deal

I mentioned recently about taking the plunge and buying a Cryx army from Privateer Press's Summer Sale store. It was a great deal - 25 points and a free rulebook. I'll admit that, having ordered the thing, I was a little anxious this week about the possibility of losing all my savings to a big customs bill. It seems HMRI may have been asleep when my box arrived in the UK though as it was delivered today and no extra charges :)

So, I've been totally free to enjoy the contents. And there is a lot in there too.

As well as the plastic Cryx Battlegroup, you get, in metal, a Skarlock thrall, a Warwitch Siren, and a Necrosurgeon and Stitch Thralls. I also got a boxed set of five Mechanithralls and two more blister packs, each with two more metal Mechanithralls. Although that and a really nicely put together softback copy of Warmachine Prime MKII.

As I really have no idea what use the metal mini's will actually be in a Cryx army yet, I have been able to indulge my phobia of metal mini's and dived straight into the plastic starter set.

In comparison to GW product, assembly is generally easier and faster with PP's plastics. Each model-type comes in its own plastic baggie, already clipped from the sprues. There is a little cleanup necessary before you can begin gluing though. Some of this is to file down some fairly obvious marks where pieces appear to have been yanked off their sprue, rather than carefully clipped. There is also more flash around some of the smaller details, teeth, claws and such, than I am used to seeing on comparable GW models. But this is easy to trim off and, considering the fact the parts come bagged and ready-clipped, the PP models are easier and quicker to put together than a GW model.

Apparently other miniatures games are available.

That said, I have had some problems this evening making glue, well, glue things together. The plastic PP uses is different to GW's. It feels more like a traditional toy manufacturer's plastic, its glossy, almost as if it needs to be washed before assembly. I used GW's thin plastic glue, Humbrol Poly Cement, and Loctite Powerflex superglue. The latter was used largely out of frustration when certain parts just didn't seem to want to stay stuck together using the other glues. The plastic glues do seem to work - eventually - but, for the jaws of the Bonejacks and the blades on Deneghra's back in particular, sometimes I just needed something guaranteed to stick hard and fast.

Anybody knocks this guys jaw off, I knock your jaw off

One other slight anomaly I found when putting the models together was that the smaller jacks all come with slotted bases - slots they just don't need. I have greenstuffed those gaps up now, but, let me tell you, it is not easy getting that thin strip in there, underneath the jack and between its legs, when you're worried about the thing falling because it was so hard to glue them down. My pro-tip here - fill the gaps before you stick the model down :)

It kinda looks like they're taking a leak down there...

All in all, a nice evening's work to put together the beginnings of my Cryx force. Now I just have to decide whether I should have sprung for the P3 paint set to go with them when I was at the Wayland warehouse yesterday....

These boots are made for hiking

Well, the latest GW price sheets are out and there are some corkers on the spreadsheets. A lot of the rises are what one might refer to as incremental. Some would even say reasonable. But check out the hikes on Razorbacks and the Space Marine Battleforce and tell me that's not GW milking the old cash cow a little too much...

Any way, all this makes me very glad I bought a Cryx army from Privater Press last night. I've no idea if half the units are any good, but the worst case scenario is I end up ebaying the surplus units once I get to grips with the game.

I also enlisted as a supporter of Studio McVey's Kickstarter campaign and bought a copy of Sedition Wars. Well, I will have bought a copy whenever they actually cast and box the thing. (Still not happy about paying a UK studio to ship me a game from the States though...)

I did, however, decide against the Mantic Kickstarter though. As much as I want to support UK studios, and promote diversity in the industry in general, I really am unlikely to ever play the game or paint all the miniatures they would send me. Plus there's my experience at Salute, where people where happy to push me towards the sales stand, but not exactly champing at the bit to show me how to actually play the game.

There's one other thing about Mantic that worries me too. For all their talk about innovation, my read of the rules for Warpath, Mantic's sci-fi game, is that it's basically a simple version of 5th edition 40k. Same turn sequence, same rolls to hit and wound. The only difference seemed to be the absence of armour saves. The factions in both Warpath and Kings of War are recycled from GW's games too. So... is Mantic's mission statement basically to make the same games as GW - only cheaper?

Given the massive market share GW has, it's perhaps not the worst business model. It's just not - inspiring. Plus given that 6th edition 40k is just around the corner, isn't Mantic at risk of looking even less inventive and agile, selling a copy of an old game the market leader doesn't even make any more? But then again, Warpath isn't even officially released yet so perhaps the finished product really will be an innovative and novel take on tabletop sci-fi.

Moving to Privateer Press?

I've been talking about it for a long time, but this might be when I finally jump on to the PP bandwagon (or us it a ship?).

It's coming up to that time of the year when Games Workshop bumps up all it's prices and, if the figures that have been published for American sets are to be believed, this year is going to be a whopper.

I'm not even going to bother trying to understand why they do it. I know it's about making profit and the final prices are decided on by people far removed from the actual costumers. But it's just getting ridiculous.

A couple of years ago, when I walked back into a GW for the first time in twenty years, a boxed starter set cost £50. Now some of them cost £65. It is likely then that these same boxes well cost over £70 in a month's time. Warhammer is now approaching absolutely laughable, insane, prices for a hobby product intended for a mass market.

There is a tipping point for the price if these models, after which, it is no longer sensible to buy them. The value-added which GW beings to it's products - the great background lore, the supplementary products (books and CD's), it's retail network and associated gaming clubs, will just be outweighed by the fact noone can say with a straight face they paid nearly a hundred pounds for twenty models and a vehicle and then another twenty for a crappy finecost commander, and forty more for the rulebook.

I think we are there, or thereabouts. The competition is circling, waiting to snap up all the customers. I bet they can't believe how easy GW is making it.

On that note, PP is doing a 'summer sale' thing. Importantly for EU customers, there is free worldwide shipping on Warmachine and Hordes starter sets (if you live in Essex, it's still slightly cheaper to collect it from Wayland Games though). They are also doing army bundles for around £75. Each one is, the site says, 25 points and you get a rulebook too. I did a quick comparison of the contents of the Cryx and Retribution sets and their prices at Wayland and it looks like you basically get the rulebook for free - a saving of around £20.

So, my only real dilemma is which to go for -Cryx or the Retribution?