Kill Team Again. HoR Rules

Played some good ol' fashion 40K kill team this weekend with the Heralds of Ruin rules. Played two games both against Eldar. I was running a Princeling with 16 Purestrains and two with strange mutations. The cult ambush rule was more of a punishment to me than it dit me any good. My forces were spread and only 2 6's were roled over two games and that also the amount of 6's I got on my rending claws. Pretty meh... I kept failing my cover and invulnerable saves. Had a hard time getting to the enemy which were huddled up on the second floor of buildings. I even fell down twice and lost a purestrain when it fell to it's death...Had a really hard time and lost the first match and won the second. I hadn't touched 40K for 3 years but wow, I'm hooked again. This small scale battles are a lot of fun and I'm looking for a new list, something that will fit 250 points with some shooty units in it. C&C/advise is very welcome!

Cheers,

Seb

Crisis Antwerpen 2016

Ivan Lysanders Spectre table

I went to the Crisis Miniature wargaming show in Antwerp this weekend and had a really good time. It's always good to get inspired by other people's awesome tables and beuatiful models. I got some goodies again from Warlord Games, a lot of great scenery bits and bobs for my next big project and the new Spectre : Operations rulebook. Best bit of the show was talking to Ivan Nylander about his stunning demo table and he gave me quite a few tips, Also great to speak to Matt Adams from Spectre. Thanks a lot for the rulebook guys, expect to see a game of spectre in Zangali soon.

Here are some pictures of the day, enjoy!

Stunning Spectre table

Me and the boys from Spectre

Cheers,

Seb

Biohazard Model

Some time ago I won a Sigma corps pre release Biohazard miniature and now I have painted it up. I really like the pose and detail of the figure and I was quite happy how it turned out. Unfortunately I used a different matt varnish then normal and the whole thing came out ultra shiny. I tried to restore the paintjob but it's kind of messed up. dissapointed with the result but excited about the new range of models that is coming out for the newBiohazard Game that is coming out soon. make sure to check out their page.https://www.facebook.com/BiohazardGame/

Bolt Action V2 Article in WS&S

You've probably heard all about the new Bolt Action rules by now or maybe you've even read the article in the latest WS&S edition... I'm proud and feel honored I was asked to write this article and the biggest plus was I got the rules early. 
The new rules play very nicely and are a lot of fun. I'm looking forward to more games.
This was my very first published article and included pictures of my models and gaming table so I feel very proud. It being my first I can see now where I can improve if I would write another article but I'm very happy with how it turned out.
Make sure you subscribe to this great magazine or download the digital copy:http://www.karwansaraypublishers.com/pw/wss/

Cheers,

Seb

Dog eat dog world

One of the things in this hobby I really enjoy is the little side projects that tie in with the project you're working on but isn't one of the core models for the game. I have painted a lot of uniforms and a couple of vehicles in the past months so doing something completely different is a welcome change.

Warlord Games Mastiff Packmaster

When I was going through my bitz box and other boxes of unpainted miniatures looking for bits to use for my IED's (see article here) I found a blister of Warlord games' Hail Caesar dogs with a handler which I bought some time ago when I was going to do a Frostgrave project but I completely forgot I had it. Somehow that project never started so I can use the dogs for the Zangali project.

I plan to use them for my own wargaming rules that I'm still working on (slowly). They can have a sort of simplified sentinel role. I see them on a gaming table as guard dogs that patrol an area and can raise the alarm  and/or perform an assault with specific rules for attack dogs. Either way it will be fun to incorporate them in the games and scenarios.

As you can see I painted them up differently from the ones on the Warlord's webshop, I have drawn my inspiration from the dog pictured in the "Gola Park Rangers" article that you might have seen. If not you can find the link here.

Modifying laser cut MDF scenery

I love using laser cut MDF buildings. They are relatively cheap, easy to build and plenty to chose from. When I build my WW2 French Normandy table I used 6 4Ground building but more about those at the bottom of this page, this is the zangali blog remember.

For Zangali I have thus far only used Sarissa Precision buildings. I'm using the "Far East" buildings. I have 2 houses, a watch tower and a small radar station. The laser cut buildings come quite plain and are unpainted but they are a nice base to start off with. 

First I add some sand to the bases and then paint all the buildings in various brown tones. You can be a bit messy at this stage, it will even make it more realistic. Once the paint is dry I used some shades of ink and washed the whole model. You can lengthen your ink with a bit of water. Once that was dry I dry brushed the whole thing with some light brown / grey paints. Of course I also painted the base with the same colors as I used for my gaming table to match it. That was basically all the painting I did.
To the tower I made some major changes. I didn't really liked the walls of the original so I cut those out and green stuffed some sand bags. I also painted up a bit of bandage in some camo colors and torn the bottom off to make it look ragged.
All the roofs in this far east set are quite plain and simple and look a bit off to me so I bought a bamboo sweeper at the local pound store and cut some of the bristles off and used that for the roofing. You can see it makes a big difference. If I would do it again I would make it look more like two small layers instead of one big one but hey...

This building has just been re-roofed and painted, nothing major but it makes a big difference

At the start of this article I also said I have used 4Ground buildings in an earlier project and even though it has nothing to do with the Zangali project I do want to show you them here as it is just another example of how you can add your own creativity to a pre painted building. 

4Ground French Garage

The problem I had with the 4ground buildings is that they look really polished, plain and all look the same. Also if you put them on a grass matt like most of us do they look out of place and usually don't fit in with the gaming table.

To tackle those things I did a couple of things. First of all I googled for tiled flooring, carpets and wallpapers, just printed them on paper and glued them inside the rooms. They all look different now but not from the outside so I added some climbing plants to the walls and again printed some posters and such. I didn't go for the war propaganda posters that you often see but tried to make it look like a normal small French country village with a cafe, Garage and a bombed house (although the bomb just missed the house 

The whole thing is on a MDF base, the cobble stones are just textured wall paper and then painted and washed. I added a little shed made of coffee stirring sticks some walls, 2 gas pumps from my son's old garage set and some lose bits and pieces that fit in this setting. And YES, that is Mater from Cars. everybody always asks me that. I did repaint and changed him a bit but somehow he is still recognisable.

For this destroyed house I just put the whole thing on a MDF base again. The wall paper cobble stone is also the same and blends in with my road sections of the gaming table. I just used a Games Workshop crater to create the impact point just next to the building. Even though it missed the following explosion still destroyed most of the house. A direct hit would have destroyed it completely. With all the lose debris sprinkled loosely on the base it creates the feeling of total destruction a a heavy bomb

4Ground destroyed detached house

And lastly no French village can do without a Café. I can just envision René Artois from "allo allo" there going round with some drinks while planning how to get his hands on the fallen Madonna with the big boobies.

I think you get the idea now of how I made this. I must say that the chairs are from 4Ground also but the tables are made by me.

The last tip I have really is that I flocked the edges of the MDF bases with the same flock as my gaming table so the buildings blend in perfectly

4Ground French Cafe

Here's a shot of the Normandy table in action:

4Ground Normandy gaming table

Cheers,
Seb

Toyota Technical .50cal painted (Empress Miniatures)

Eureka Miniatures Toyota Technicals with .50cal

I have ordered a couple of Toyota Technicals with a .50cal and gunner from Imaginative Miniatures a couple of weeks ago. The Empress Miniatures Toyota technical can be bought with and without a 50.cal for the same price which is odd but doesn't include a gunner so I bought that additional model as well. The gunner looks a bit middle eastern to me because of the head scarf. But my militia rebels have the eureka Masked Somalis so next to them he doesn't look out of place. And even though he doesn't show much skin the bits that are visible are painted up with a dark brown skin color to make him look African.

I have painted the first one white,...well white with a lot of dust and mud and some damage. I wasn't sure about the windows, go safe and paint them black or paint them up in a blue gradient. I chose the latter and like the sky reflection.
I really wanted this to be a "Toyota" and was thinking about painting the letters on the back but that was quite daunting because I can't paint that straight. In the end I just printed the Toyota logo on paper, cut it out, soaked it in watered down PVA glue and stuck it on the back. Then with the sponge technique I weathered the back like the rest of the truck and used pigments for mud.Now you can't tell it's not painted on.

And then the Gunner. I didn't want to glue it to the car but I wanted to be able to take it off whenever needed. I cut a small piece of thin plastic card to fit in the back and as you can see in the picture above both options look nice. I 'd like to add some empty shell casings around the gunners feet but I couldn't find my ultra thin plastic string. I might do that later or just with the other Toyota I still have to paint up. I think that one will be painted red, what do you think..?

Cheers,
Seb