Kings of War Vanguard at Hammerhead

We had a successful day playing Vanguard participation games at Hammerhead today. Quite a bit of interest in both the game and the boards.

We'll be at Chilcon in Sheffield on 23rd March running Vanguard participation games again. Come along and say hello...

And now for the obligatory photos...

Terra-Formers Skirmish Board - Complete

Phew... done! And I love it!

The first game on this will be a game of Vanguard on Monday night at COGS.

Right now I have to get ready for the Four Foot Snake Kings of War Grand Tournament, tomorrow!

Terra-Formers Skirmish Board - Update 4

So... the boards themselves are complete!

The flocking is all down, the river has water and ripples and the bridge is sorted. So, now it's on to scatter terrain... buildings, trees, hedges, etc.

I looked through my terrain collection and found that since this board is much darker than the ones I usually have I'm going to have to re-base or make a lot of new terrain. I found a couple of buildings that I liked and have started making some new trees and hedges using rubberised horse hair, which was a lot easier than I thought it would be!

I'm using some of the Mantic Terrain Crate stuff I got with the Vanguard Kickstarter, which seems appropriate since the first thing this new board will be used with is Vanguard. I also found some old Gale Force Nine Rocky Outcroppings that have the advantage that they don't look silly on the hillside. Finally there's a prison cart from Irongate Scenery. And of course there are the Renedra Tents that I showed previously.

I have a couple of days off work now to get this, and the 6mm Napoleonics well under way... wish me luck!

Edit: I just noticed this is my 200th blog post!

Terra-Formers Skirmish Board - Update 3

I've got loads going on at the moment. 6mm and 28mm Napoleonics, special model for the upcoming Four Foot Snake Kings of War Tournament and of course the Terra-Formers boards I'm making. The latter is what I'll concentrate on with this update.

All nine boards are now at the same stage, or they were when I took photos this morning. Basically all the scatter is now in place and dried. This has taken a lot longer than I hoped for basically because it's been January for most of the time I've been doing it. Drying times for PVA are so much, much longer during the winter. Thank goodness it's starting to warm up a bit now we're into February.

The stream bed is made from bird grit from Wilkos. It gives a nice texture, but is a bit starkly white. It's made from broken up sea shells and I've added a dark brown wash to it to tone it down. See further down

The bridge was not glued in place when I took this photo, it now is and I've removed some of the middle planks to help with when I'll pour the resin for the water later in the week.

The tents have been based in a similar manner to the rest of the boards. I've also tried out some static grass on them. I'll be using a similar effect on the boards, though not all over, just in some specific locations.

Since the photos above the river has had it's brown wash and the bridge is glued in place. I've used putty to blend it in with the road. I'll have to reapply scatter to that later.

Terra-Formers Skirmish Board - Update 2

It's been over a week since I posted the initial photos of my Terra-formers based skirmish boards so I thought it about time I posted an update.

Things have progressed well, with one board just about complete. This definitely needs the sides painting black, but maybe also I'll add some static grass, though I'm not sure about that yet. I certainly will be adding static grass to the edges of the roads and the rivers.

Of the other boards, most now have their ground covering on them. I've been watching the videos on the Lukes APS YouTube channel which is full of helpful hints and the ground covering I've used is one straight from there: "Cheap And Easy Realistic Ground Covers That Dont Need Painting" It is very cheap and in fact cost me nothing at all since the grout was a gift.  I'm very happy with it and it lives up to Luke's recommendations.

I've been using techniques I already knew for some parts, but the flocking is very much again taken from Luke. Though rather than using his range of flocks I've had to resort to using Woodland Scenics flock since he appeared to be out-of-stock on his website whenever I looked.

The one white tile is where I have a bridge crossing the river. This will be the most complex tile so I've left it until last. I may get around to working on it next week, maybe...

My recipe for flocking has been:

1. Base covering of slightly thinned PVA. Concentrating on the edges as Luke recommends.
2. Add some clumpy bits of Medium Green Coarse Turf.
3. Shake on Green Blended Turf, making sure to cover the edges well in particular.
4. Spray 50/50 isopropyl alcohol/water all over
5. Spray watered-down PVA all over
6. Add some clumpy bits of Dark Green Coarse Turf, lower areas
7. Spray watered-down PVA all over
8. Shake a fine coating of Burnt Grass Fine Turf, high areas
9. Scatter a bit of my earth mixture on top.
10. Spray watered-down PVA all over

A couple of notes:

1. I think I may have overdone it with the watered-down PVA a bit. It's taken 2 days to dry out properly. I might perhaps drop step 7.
2. I talk about lower and higher areas above, but really on this board it's pretty flat. It'll be more important on the other boards.

Edit: After posting this blog entry I went on and did some more. A bit more work on the ground covering on the two river boards and the flocking on the other three plain boards including the hill pieces. 

The PVA is still rather wet and white! I'm sure after I come back from my weekend away it'll have dried.

Terra-Formers Skirmish Board - In Progress

When Kings of War Vanguard came along I realised a problem, it a requires 3ft x 3ft square board. All my terrain tiles (apart from my medieval city boards are in 2ft x 2ft pieces. If I was going to make a non-city board for the game I'd have to do something new.

I considered making a single 3ft x 3ft board, but decided it would be a bit big for the car. I wanted something with some three-dimensional aspects anyway. I had noticed the Sally 4th Terra-formers system a while ago and had been impressed. The laser-cut accuracy and use of real earth magnets was something I'd noticed in a US based product years ago, but this UK based product would be even better for what I needed.

I decided to order the "Contested Crossing" starter set for Christmas with the intention of having it ready for the Vanguard participation games we'll be running at Hammerhead and Chilcon this year. Then comes along my sudden interest in Napoleonic Skirmish games in the form of Songs of Drums and Shakos and I have yet another reason to have this board.

Well with the 6mm Napoleonics stalled for the moment awaiting an order and needing to get these boards done soon, I thought I better get on with them!

I've built them up and cut and glued the polystyrene. Next step will be to hit the polystyrene with a heat gun to apply some interesting undulations and then it's on to filler...

Kings of War Vanguard - Portal

The Kings of War Vanguard skirmish game has quite a few scenarios and most required specific terrain. The terrain pack that come with a few useful items a few that I've shown before and a few more in the photos that follow.

One that isn't included in the pack is the "Portal", a doorway to another dimension or world. We used a Wizard's Pentangle when we played the scenario last time, but since the portal counts as being height 3 and that is flat, it wasn't ideal. Mantic do include a suitable portal in another set but I thought I'd have a go at creating my own.

I've had the archway that I've used for a very long time. It's a resin model from Grendel. I've even had it painted as well. What it needed was a swirly bit to count as the actual portal itself. That I've made from a printed out graphic on inkjet transparency paper with Water Effects used to glue it in place and supply a suitable texture. It looks even better with a bit of backlighting.

I also made a pedestal for it for use with my medieval city since it's supposed to be on a small hill. I'm hoping that will also prove useful as a base for the crane I have, though I've not tried that yet.

Kings of War Vanguard - City Game and Hellequins

When I first heard about the Vanguard I was thinking of playing it in my medieval city, even though it was intended to be played in more open countryside or a small village. Anyway, on Monday we decided to try it out on the city boards.

This was my second game and we made the city a little less dense than we usually do, also using buildings without internals so as not to complicate things. The game went a lot smoother than the first despite both me and Jeff arriving late to the club.

Anyway, we got the game finished this time and both agreed that the city worked just fine in Vanguard. I'll be taking it to the Cry Havoc tournament in the new year.

I had started the Hellequins for use in the game on Monday, but it wasn't to be. I just got them finished tonight...

Vanguard - Abyssals and Terrain - plus Blaine and Priest

A few weeks ago now the Kings of War Vanguard Kickstarter landed. A lot of it has been put away for Christmas, but I managed to keep the Abyssal Warband, rules and terrain to paint this month.

I've been busy at it and have completed quite a few items. These have already been seen with the photos of the Kings of War display at the Mantic Open Day, but I thought I'd get a few close-up snaps of them on my new display board.

There's also a couple of photos at the end of the new miniatures for my Kings of War Wars of the Roses army. Those being Blaine on dinosaur and an Perry Italian priest I'll be using as a wizard.

The Despoiler

Abyssal Guard

Flamebearers

All the models I have available for my Warband right now including some from Kings of War and Dungeon Saga

Ronnie the Bard

The Beacon.
(The flames can be removed)

Standing stones and road sign.

Blaine on dinosaur

Wizard... ;)