2014 - The year of miniatures

So here we are.. We are up to date and this post is about the plan for the new year.

It's the end of January (Probably February by the time this goes to print) and it's my year of miniatures. 

This is the plan

1) buy stuff

2) play more

As you can see it's quite an easy two step plan, a plan that anybody could adhere to.. You would think!

Up until now I have only mentioned my 40k exploits and have kept you readers out of the loop when it comes to the man behind Cuban Trog

I'm Gary, I'm 30 years old, married and a father to two wonderful children and there you see is my spanner in the works

I work full time, doing shift work so as you can imagine between work and the kids it's hard to get a game. 

The wife has also been reviewing the bank statements and has seen that I have spent an obsene amount of money in the short seven months to date!! 

So after a heart to heart this is what has been decided! (By her)

1) I can play once a week - this is either at the club on a Friday night or on a Saturday. (Work permitting)

2) I can spend a maximum of £50 a month on little men (her words not mine) this is so that we can still afford to feed the children (apparently you have to do this or social services become involved and it all gets a little messy)

3) I can paint when one of two situations arise a, the kids are both out or b, the kids are asleep and she wants to watch something on the tele!

As you can see I am quite under the thumb but this keeps the whole house in a state of equilibrium. 

So when January payday came I really impressed the wife by only buying a squad of terminators that cost £12 from eBay (bring on the brownie points) unfortunately due to all the other stuff they are still in their box awaiting some much needed undercoat!!

So there we are. We are up to date and you know lots about me. I'm going to tray and find out how to get people to read this stuff

Up to date

November saw in my first apocalypse battle, to date I have not seen as many models on the table! I got to Miniaure Empire at 0930 sharp as instructed by Damon, I had my stack a box in my arms ready to play... The shutters were down!! 

A few minutes later Damon arrived and opened the store.. The table was up and the deployment was completed with space in the imperial lines for me to place the Dark Angels. 

Tyranid lines

Imperial line

Imperial fortifications

The game was epic, unfortunately I could play only until turn four as I had to work the day that 5 and 6 were played. The first four were awesome though. Turn one for the marines was purely about picking off anything that was in range. The first turn for the nids was about the advance onto the fortification as that was where the objectives were placed. Turn two for the marines was again fairly poor on the nid killing front and the nids turn two smashed the entrenched marines on the front line!!

Re-enforcements

Marine turn three - the deathwing smashed down into the rear of the nids as did a fists dropped containing an ironclad dreadnought. The ravenwing also came on the back of the table as did Sammuel!! Let the carnage begin!! 

Nids turn three was much the same with nids smashing in The back of the fortress this would get interesting 

Turn 3 saw the destruction of the baneblade only for it to re appear (thanks to and asset card) inside the fortress in an attempt to smash the nids

My deathwing somehow (to lano's amazement) survived an absolute smashing. 

I'll have to get lano to fill you in in 5 and 6 coz as I said I wasn't there. 

December saw the purchase of my deathwing knights - my god they are beautiful models and were painted quite quickly for me (see below) they are probably the nicest models I have painted to date. 

Christmas came and went an saw me with more cash that needed to be spent!! I decided with a scout squad and a ravenwing dark talon* 

These again were painted quite quickly but with better results than my first attempts at painting

* now the Ravenwing Dark Talon is a stunning model and probably the prettiest of all the fliers - unfortunately being the first codex released for v6 it is god awful. I was warned against getting it by the lads but I said I dont care I want to paint it!! And I did... And it's awful... The first game I played with it it came on killed a Tyranid harpie and promptly got smacked out of the air like it was nothing!!

January - a new year - a new start 

This will be a whole new post

Dettol the stuff of champions

So I left you a few days ago with my minis going for a bath in Dettol...

Now Dettol as this post is entitled is the stuff of champions. Now I thought that it may take some of the paint off. Never in my wildest dream did I believe that it would strip it back to plastic!!

The results was amazing.. I decided to celebrate with even more buys!! I bought myself a Dettol present of a landraider and the old assault on black reach set - there's a dreadnought and termies!!! So again started the painstaking task of undercoat and base coat!!

Now the test really began.. Can I paint like a pro?!?!?!

We'll let me assure you the answer is a resounding NO!! 

I don't know what I was thinking but I can say that from my first to second attempts I was getting better. 

Now I've been told already on Instagram that there is to much highlighting and that there is a green glaze that can tone it all down, and I've said thanks for the advice because I do wish to be better at painting but you know what... I was and still am proud of these little guys. I really am pleased with them, yes I can probably do better now, in fact I know I can but I like them and that's how they are staying.

Now I know I haven't mentioned many games but as you can imagine I wasn't playing much because my minis were in a state if disarray however I was attending the Miniature Empire Gaming Club (who have a forum, a Facebook page and a blog - I will post the links soon but I don't know how to do that so I will have to ask Lano the groups 21 year old maths and technical genius!! ) I met some really nice guys there who play many games and I have sample some of these for myself! 

Warhammer 40000 - it's obvious I played this a few times 

Warmachine - for those who haven't played I suggest you do the game can be really quick as demonstrated by Damon! But is an awesome game that can be played reletivly cheap. 

Flames of war - it's good probably not for me at the moment

They play many more it's just I haven't sampled these. 

eBay I've found is an untapped source of cheap minis. I picked up three squads of tactical marines and a predetor tank for about £25!! These too got a Dettol bath and have slowly been under coated and painted. 

I didn't realise how quick I would get through seven months!! My next post will bring you right up to date. 

For now.. I'll leave you with a picture of a based and finished terminators. 

The journey continues...

Yesterday I left you with me heading home with my new stuff.

I headed home by bus raring to go. I'm on the bus looking through my new codex: dark angels, getting weird looks from people as to why I was smiling.. I was thinking to myself.. I was ok at painting before.. Now with more knowledge I will be as good as the pros!! WRONG!! But I'll get to that part later.

When I went in the first thing I did was open up Dark Vengeance and pulled the sprues out.. All plastic.. Wow what quality.. Never in my day etc etc.

I get out the land speeder and set up my box in the back garden like a spray booth and under coat the lot with my brand new can of chaos black undercoat!!

Once dried I start taking the models off of the sprues and gluing them together. Only the dark angels though.. I take care in removing all the crap (sprue joins and mould lines) once all the dark angels were together I gave the models a nice healthy coat of calaban green for the tactical squad and ushbati bone for the Deathwing terminators!! WRONG!! 

So then I gave the guns and eyes a touch of the old red treatment and a bit of lead belcher for the metal parts. Then I mixed a lighter green and dry brushed the tactical squad and sat back and thought wow I ain't lost a bit of technique in my old age... Pablo Picasso himself would marvel at this spectical. WRONG!!

Below is an image of my first painted mini

I put myself back on Instagram (having taken myself of a few years previously because of the fact they can use you photos anyware and you can do a thing) and waited for the likes to rack up!! WRONG!!

What I found was that actually I can't paint at all and that there are people out there that put eavy metal painters to shame!! 

So basically with my tail well and truely between my legs I finished my pants painting and cried a little inside. Returning to the shop I bought an attack bike to go with my raven wing and a devastator squad so I could blow stuff up!!

Getting back home I painted these models, again to a standard that can only be described as SUB. See below for a shot of this carnage

I played another game and as I didn't know the rules all that well. Damon at the shop told me that my army was not legal as I had only one troop choice and that devastators were heavy support!! So it was then I decided eBay was the way forward!!

Looking on eBay I saw that the cheapest tactical squads were the ones that were painted.. I thought buying this would be a bad idea as my bad painting on top of painting that is described as tabletop but actually as bad as mine would be a rubbish idea! 

It was at this point I started thinking 'nail varnish remover removes acrylic paint' looked it up on YouTube and found that it would melt my figures.  I researched some more and found simple green! YES the answer to all my dreams I could buy ch... Wait a minute.. Simple green is a US product!! S&@T that don't work! Another hour of searching the internet or as people north of the Watford gap call it t' tinternet I found that good old fashioned dettol would do the trick!!

Nb.. Although I have been doing this only seven months I have learned one pivotal fact.. Well two

1. Dettol should be in every wargamer's box

2. Don't use the said dettol without wearing gloves.. It makes your hands so dry so that they look like the hands of an eighty year old.

When the dettol arrived I decided that I really weren't happy with my painting and decided that the tactical squad, the devastators and Deathwing could go for a bath!!

Now I had only ever seen this technique completed on the internet and had no idea if it was going to ruin my models or not!

I'll leave it there for today.. I think my kids are going to try and fight mortal combat style if I don't see to them soon! For now.. As the cool kids say*.. Laterz

* I don't think it's cool but you need to be.. As they say.. Down with the kids don't you!!!

The start of things to come

In the beginning there was the Emperor...

This blog is about 7 months late.. In reality I thought blogging was just uncool!! How wrong was I!!

The basics of this will be a journey of my rebirth as a tabletop Wargamer. My original journey was at 13 to 14 years old when I had a modest 1200 point imperial guard army for Warhammer 40,000. I was at 15 when I found women, beer and cigarettes, and so my 40k life finished for good.

It all started again shortly before my thirtieth birthday when I was speaking to my best friend on the blower about blood bowl, how this conversation got started I can't remember but I do remember the end... It went a little like this...

BF: ..... 40k

Me: yeah dude I would love to get I to that again

The wife: Gary.. What are you talking about??

Me: (to the wife) nothing love (To BF) dude if I get some cash for my birthday I'm gonna go and buy something, I'll catch you later dude.

And so a new monster inside me was born..

So my thirtieth came and went and loaded with cash I started researching some stuff online.. I watched loads of YouTube stuff especially the guys from Beasts of War (those guys are legends) and I was sold on the 40k starter set Dark Vengeance.. But damn Games Workshops is expensive so started looking at internet/independent shops.. Found a store near me in Gants Hill in Essex and called them.

I spoke to the manager Damon who states that every GW product (except direct order items) were 20% off... SOLD... I was there the next day!! 

At the store.. Oh it's called Miniature Empire... I went in with my then 16 year old brother and spoke to Damon. He talked me through the DV set and I mentioned that I hadn't played for a long time and he helpfully offered me a game so that I could get a clue on the rules again. Now this conversation went something like this...

Me: .... And I haven't played for years

Damon: well I have Dark Angels and Necrons here... as you are getting Dark Vengeance and want to play Dark Angels you play them and your son can play my Necrons.

Me: (a bit offended that this nice man could possibly make me old enough for my 16 year old brother to be my son) that's my brother.. And thanks it would be lovely!!

So.. After a game and a bit of cash spent I walked to the bus stop with Dark Vengeance, a land Speeder and a bit of paint and brushes..

And so it began.. This my new hobby that I believe is one of the best in the world and also one where there are not many kids.. 

Well that's enough for now, don't want to tell you guys everything all in one night.. I hope to put some pictures of my painting on here and some of the reports from the battles I've had but for now.. Goodbye.