In the service of greatness

It's been a busy start to the year as you may have gathered from my previous post. On top of Prospero's finest I've also got a new job (start soon), ran December's End (my first Malifaux tournament of the year), got guinea pigs and planned the tournament calendar for the events I'll be running in Aberdeen.
This post is a chance to reflect upon these (maybe not the job and pets) and talk about the big Mo-that's right, Forward Momentum.
December's End was a big success, albeit with a couple of hiccups. It was an 18-player, best of three, 1 day event, and the one big thing I'd taken from the last event was to be really prepared ahead of time. I felt I was, with score sheets and blank league tables printed. I had secured prizes from various sources. So naturally all I needed was something to go wrong.
What happened was every tournament organiser's nightmare: a last minute drop-out. As a result I had to take part. Now, I love playing Malifaux, that's why I'm Wyrd's north of Scotland henchman, but what I don't love is playing Malifaux whilst keeping tabs on 17 other gamers, answering rules/logistics queries and keeping a tight eye on the time. I also don't like the horrid realisation that half your prizes haven't arrived as the company who've agreed to do prize support haven't dispatched them (several weeks later, still nothing). The tournament ran well, there were many happy gamers, no complainers (or Proclaimers... da dum da dum da dum...) and naturally lessons were learned.
Firstly, prizes. Thankfully I've got enough soul stones through the henchman programme to afford an official Wyrd prize pack. This gives 16 people prizes, comes with spot prizes in the form of Mystery Boxes and some nice certificates for 1st-3rd places. This eases the strain a little, as it comes with something for every participant as well, so the need to get custom stuff made is not as high. I will likely still get something small for every player anyway but at least it's one less stress. Relying on the goodwill of companies to supply prizes is not something I really want to do again after the disappointment of Sarrisa not sending the promised prizes.
Secondly, 16 players will be my limit. 18 is too tight for ABZ in my opinion, plus 16 neatly fits the prize pack. In a small enclosed area with small windows less is best. I like the idea that everyone gets an official prize as I feel it gives the player a bit more of an experience and the thought of regular attendance 'unlocking' rewards on the web store is a big draw.
Thirdly. Playing in your own tournament is bad! Obviously winning it is a no-no, but you can't play so badly you effectively hand out a bye each round. The logistics of running and playing are hellish as it's so easy to lose track of something, either in-game or at an organisational level (like someone's score) which can have huge repercussions later on. Thus there needs to be a better system in place to deal with this, most likely a dedicated 'ringer' who can be relied on to step in.
Hopefully these lessons will make A Scottish Som'er (a true one-day event on 20th May) my best yet, and I am very excited for what should be a great day.
http://themostexcellentandawesomeforumever-wyrd.com/topic/125373-a-scottish-somer/
I also have a small (12 places) 2-day Infinity tournament planned for the start of April which will be an exciting experience and something a bit different. It's been trickier to find support for this so I'm a little apprehensive about how it will actually run. Currently I think it's only going to be local gamers as there hasn't been the same level of interest from further afield.

So, what else? I assembled Magnus the Red last night and base coated him this morning before work. I'm using a black base as there's a lot of gold/bronze which I find struggles on a white base. The skin n is going to be red with some cadian(?) mixed in for a more 'realistic' look. The copper hair is going to be a challenge, I can't recall the last time I painted copper, and I want it to look like hair and not actual metal. The force weapon is something I'm agonising over as there's so many choices of colours it could be, and I'm not sure what would best compliment the reds and golds that will make up the rest of the models. I'm leaning towards a classic green but I'll do it last to get a feel for what the model is missing. The outstretched hand might have some OSL glow in it to suggest the start of a spell, yet again for a splash of colour, and because it fits for him to be casting rather than just gesticulating. The scarabs with have a green hur to them, maybe even painted as jade for some more colour, and I'm fairly sure the robes will be white. I'm not sure how I'll paint the Book of Magnus yet, I'll need to hit Google and see if there's a description of it. For once my internet search history will feature pictures of a large one-eyed monster... I am really looking forward to painting him, I'm thinking I'll start on him tonight whilst finishing my first Tactical Squad. And playing The Witcher: Enhanced Edition. And Gwent (although I've won my six rounds so not as much of an issue). Oh, and paying attention to Danielle and the Guinea Pigs....

So, the Big Mo... Going forward it's going to be a busy year. I've got the two aforementioned tournaments I'm running, there's the Scottish Malifaux GT ran by Kai (60 players?!?) on the 22nd-23rd of July, various real life commitments like work, a holiday with Danielle, trips to London for the NFL, and hopefully a couple more tournaments. I'd like to do a 30k one be I know I'd need expensive Forgeworld kits (Spartan being #1 amongst these)and practice. I'm a wee bit dubious about a 40k one as I would need a fair bit to make the Sons an effective 40k force. My intention is to get a Storm Raven and use plasticard to make it into a Storm Eagle. As they use the same base it's not as much of an issue as to its size,  and the extra guns can be ascetic. I will just need to ensure I've got the main guns present and correct. I will try to crunch the Thousand Sons into Codex: Spage Marines and see what the end product resembles and take it from there.
There's also a few new Malifaux things I'd like. The Guild Mounted Guard, Alison Dade, cards for my Emissary (got the Perdita Avatar), plus the Queen's Return (complete with Doctor Dufresne) are the current 'must-haves', but the other new Guild models and some Arcanist constructs including Joss to get Hoffman properly running would be nice too. Then there's the small matter of getting it all painted in time for the next tournament. There's nothing worth than having two thirds of your crew painted up, preferably in a matching colour scheme, then your key model in bare plastic or a nearly-there base coat. I always feel I'm cheating my opponent somewhat, especially when said model goes on a rampage, killing off their best stuff (admittedly this was not the case with my Yan Lo crew!). At least my usual culprit, the Peacekeeper, is painted.
Until next time, take care and I hope you enjoyed reading this.

Location, location, location

So let me apologise for my lack of blogs, I have many excuses, well 4 really, namely my wife, dog, son and daughter (33 and 17 months respectively, no wait 16 months, my wife is next to me correcting me, now you see why I don't get much done).

No in all honesty the new job has been keeping me busy, but I will try to keep you a bit more updated on gaming issues in Aberdeenshire.

So today I thought I'd talk to about scenery, many of us will rush out and buy multiple armies (Ben AND Martin, don't believe the protestations in Martins blog) and then play over the great battlefield of the kitchen table, maneuvering our units between piles of books, DVD cases and packing from the latest Amazon/ebay purchase. We drool over the glossy photos of armies fighting over beautiful boards in White Dwarf or on various companies websites, the problem for many of use is cost, to get nice scenery is often very expensive (my Flames of War scenery has cost me about £300 and still doesn't fill a 6' x 4' table, it is my guilty indulgence though), so I thought I'd share with you some of my scenery from my Infinity scenery collection and how I've managed to cut a few corners on cost.

So when it comes to scenery you can either go one of 2 ways,
1) beautiful scenery, perfect for your battlefield and costing an extortionate amount,
2) affordable scenery, which doesn't quite match what you want,
so we compromise with a lot of cheap scenery to bulk out the one or two prize pieces we have.

Well here is a third option for you, are you ready, here it is......... buy the cheap scenery and pimp it up.

Here is some of my improved scenery.....

So is my Tram from TTcombat, a lot of TT's stuff is very 20th/21st century, so I need to future it up a bit, added a few bits and pieces to the top (including a tiny radar dish you can just see at the front of the tram), I used some card to line the inside of the windows, a wee paint job, some arabic scrawled on the sides and I have a slightly futuristic tram (no need to make it too sci-fi, the Infinity universe is not that much ahead of us now at times).  A simple conversion using scrap card and microwave parts (our microwave died so I took it to pieces and am slowly finding uses for it all, the main body is now a storage/display case for Ben, he may even show you a picture of it at some time if you ask him nicely, on the front is a picture of a Mag Train breachbound, it seemed appropriate, he did come up with the blog name after all), anyway total cost of additional parts - £0, number of people in the world who have a similar piece of scenery - 0

So this is the top story from TT's theatre, whilst the theatre is an awesome building, it is very large, both in its length/depth and height, whilst I can't change it's length and depth I was able to change its height as the model comes in 2 parts.  The top part I have used for a Civilian Nuclear Bunker, I attached the rooftop doorway from the rooftop pack to the side, used some grating from the billboards pack on top and some more scraps from the old picrowave to create the gold painted siren on top, Painting labels in arabic and chinese on the front in different colours (yellow and red respectively) helped finish it off.  The door is covered with Aluminium (or if your american Al-ooh-mi-num, say it out loud, you'll get it) effect paper for a shiny and distinctive effect, again no additional cost, but have got a unique building which required a bit of thinking time to create.



Finally my second tram, well I decided that TT's fixed weapon emplacements looked badass, but not quite appropriate for my infinity board.  So why not take a TT Missile platform and strap it onto a Tram base, result a mobile Missile Battery (I plan to make a military towing tram in the future, as well as a troop carrying carriage so I will have a fully military Tram/Train).  I built up the body of the tram using thick cards and used some bits and pieces to add some little details and flourishes. Again, this conversion took no financial cost, but allowed to create something bespoke and quirky for my gaming board.

At the moment I am working on a Mosque (made from the rest of the old theatre/cinema) which will have working lights inside (taken from a small lamp I disassembled as we didn't actually use it), a power station and a few other small bits and pieces.  I hope I have managed to inspire you to try your own hand at scenery conversion to create your own bespoke battlefields.  If you do this one very important thing to remember, buy big tubs of kids poster paint, its dirt cheap, comes in huge containers as so is perfect for doing the majority of your scenery, meaning you don't have to buy dozens of pots of Vallejo/Games Workshop/Humbrol paints at several quid a pop! Oh and do not do your conversion work in your living room as it doesn't generally go down well with the wife, instead use your man cave, if you don't have one then use your living room, when your significant other complains about the mess tell them this wouldn't happen if you had a room/shed/loft/garage for you to use...

Amidst the spires of Prospero

*please note that statements within this post are solely the opinion of the author and not those of Magtrain Breachbound as a whole*

Happy New Year everyone and welcome to my first post of 2017. So what is new I hear you cry? Well dear reader, make a hot beverage,, sit back, make yourself comfortable and allow me take a short period of your time to bring you up to speed...
It has frequently been stated by my friends and family how good I am with my money and how restrained I am when purchasing my miniatures. Case in point is my PanOceania where I collected one moderately-sized force in the time it took Ben to buy four, or my sensible sticking at Malifaux whilst Stephen branched out into Infinity and multiple Warhammer 40,000 armies. As a result this year I felt I had some catching up to do.
As you all know I am not impulsive at all, and it took me a great deal of time to decide on what to collect/clutter up the house with next. Thus I was as surprised as the next man when Ben announced he wanted to collect pre-heresy Ultrama-
Ok, so.... the hobby bug hit me, I had Christmas money and saw the new shiny Thousand Sons models. I bought them, convinced Ben to get some marines and then went crazy from there.... fuck me, the truth hurts!
In 7 weeks I've amassed about 4000 points of Prospero's finest, with most of the non-tank options covered. Despite the naysayers casting doubt (looking at you Bowden) I've thoroughly enjoyed building and painting them and every model apart from my vindicator is converted in some way. I've ordered Wargamesexclusive's limited edition Chaos the Red (*honestly* not Magnus) to stand in until May when Forgeworld unleash him, he arrived today so I am chomping at the bit to get home and build him. I was bitten by the bug so hard I even named my new Guinea Pig Magnus (he has a red mane...)!
So, why the return to GW models? Well, it's a combination of factors. Firstly I've always loved converting my models. However I'm only a red belt at greenstuffing (karate not judo) so resculpting/scratch-building has always been out of my league. As a result kit-bashing is my preferred method of conversion and (regardless of opinion) no company has a range that is as complete as GW's Space Marines. Then there's ease of painting. There's a lot you can do with Marines without needing a black belt (karate or judo) in airbrushing or having to spend hours on them. I love that Horus Heresy-era Marines properly look like knights with guns. On top of that I want to go to tournaments this year; the more the merrier, and there are a lot of GW-based tournaments. I'll admit I'm a little apprehensive as to whether it's a case of he with the biggest pseudo-titan will win/shield generator equals victory but I will only find out by trying.
It was always going to be Thousand Sons when it came to marines. I've always loved their story with the tragic fall from grace, their obsession with knowledge and the fact they *still* aren't true villains, rather misunderstood, embittered individuals in a system that rejects them. The colour scheme is snappy, the look is unique and the rules are brutal. In 40k I'll use them as loyalists (of course) as I've got the options to change the squad content to make them legal. I like the option of having the codexes on my phone, it makes reading on the go so much easier (and crossing busy roads so much more exciting). I must put a shout out to the 30k Thousand Sons Players (the original) who've been very helpful and informative as well as being possessed of a level of patience worthy of Magnus himself in handling my rules/modelling queries.
Below are some photos of my Force. In unrelated news I recorded the aforementioned (in another post) Ghosts of Mars from the Movies4men channel (yeah...) so that's tonight's viewing sorted!