Poldercon 2017

Last weekend was the 3rd edition of Poldercon. The first two years I organised a Bolt Action Demo there and that was a lot of fun. (you can have a look at the video here)You get a lot of players to your demo table that are interested in playing the game and you get to go through the game mechanics and rules for 1,5 hours. At the end the players will have a good grasp of the game.

This year I planned on doing the Bolt Action demo again but only a month in advance my employer organised a weekend activity for the whole company. Exactly in the Poldercon weekend…. I was gutted I couldn’t go myself and meet up with the Poldercon crew again but I was able to get two club members from my gaming group to organise the Bolt Action demo for me. One of them already helped me last year so he knew what to expect.

I did manage to make a very quick visit though. I took a small detour on the way home and had half an hour at the show to look around, shake some hands and talk to some people. If you were there and you didn’t see me I’m very sorry.

The tables looked stunning as ever and there were a few that really stood out. Another thing worth mentioning was the Imaginative miniatures stand. These guys have build up there wargaming store from the ground up and it looked really professional this year, well done. Unfortunately I didn’t bring any money so I didn’t buy anything.

Hopefully I’ll be able to make it again next year.

Enjoy the pictures!

   

Emiel Scheier provided a "Gates of Antares" Demo. I didn't get a look at the miniatures unfortunately. GoA isn't really my cup of tea but this table looked like a lot of fun. Emiel knows how to organise a good game and the table looked great. The purple Styrofoam and bright blue painted starfish made it look like a real alien planet.

This was Jan Willem van der Pijl's table. It had a massive tower in the middle and some funky spaceships floating around it. From what I got in the short time I was there was that an evil dictator took hold of the planet's Atmosphere factory and threatened to shut it down killing everyone on the planet.

This was a beautiful Infinity table. I don't know who was running it but it looked really great. The fantastic terrain and scenery really makes it come to life. The little details like "Mexico will pay" had me laughing.

 A fellow blogger, Johan van Ooij from the "20mm and then some" blog was there as well with a cool looking game. I don't know exactly what it was but I think one day I will turn some old toy cars in these cool looking death machines.

Cheers,
Seb

Projects in between

Battle for macragge downed pilot

When you're recovering from a hobby burn out it's nice to pick up some small projects that won't take you too long from start to finish. I have a couple of those projects in a special box and have painted up this model now. Like the other models in the box it is a bit more exclusive model. The downed pilot from the "battle for Macragge" box set. It took me just a couple of hours and it is good to get something finished again. I really like the glowing effect on the model. This was why I wanted to paint up this model anyway. I don't really like the skin tone, too pinkish for my liking.

Cheers,
Seb

Back from the dead!

It's ALIVE !!!

I've been in the wargaming hobby for quite a few years now and it was back in 2010 that I started this blog. I started mainly with Games Workshop models and articles but over the years my interest for other gaming systems grew. On my blog I wrote quite a few articles but in 2014 the number of articles dwindled fast. I also started to post on my facebook page and I also started a new blog to keep my Bolt Action posts separate from my Games Workshop posts.

Now I'm pulling it all back together and I will add more old content from the other platforms and post them here.

The blog now has some post that have bad links and some pictures that are missing. I'll have to go through all the old posts and see if they need fixing. What can't be fixed will be deleted unfortunately.

I have rearranged the blog here and there and I'll add new pages and content over the next few weeks. I have also updated my blogroll. Every blog that wasn't updated in the past 6 months was deleted. If you have a blog and you want to be on the blogroll then please drop a message. I'm also asking other bloggers again if I can be on their blogroll.
With all the patchwork and restoration work the blog will look a bit like the Frankenstein monster but I hope you can forgive me. Hope to get things sorted out soon.

Cheers,
Seb

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