Secret Weapon Town Square Bases

Earlier this year I took a look at some of the resin bases that are available to wargamers in this post here. A couple of weeks ago the good guys at Slave To Painting had a nice sale and I purchased some of the Secret Weapon Miniatures Town Square bases. I’ve been eyeing these up for a few months but been reluctant to commit thus far, so with the option of a discount I finally weakened! Below are some sample images from their range.

30mm Bases (10 different designs)

40mm Bases (5 different designs)

50mm Bases (4 different designs)

120mm Bases (2 different designs)

For those of you that have never heard of Secret Weapon Miniatures, it was started a few years ago by Justin "misterjustin" McCoy and has grown to have quite a range of cool products including bases, pigments and washes. They also ran a very successful Kickstarter (who isn’t these days) for injection molded plastic table tiles which just look fantastic and I cannot wait to get my hands on the Urban Streets set!

After seeing the quality of these first bases I am seriously tempted to head back to pick up some of their Trench Works and use them for either my Khador or Rhulic army.

Wargaming Resin Bases

Like many gamers my creative streak only runs so far, so since getting in to Warmachine I've been paying a lot of attention to the various companies producing resin bases, with the aim of overcoming some of my own modelling deficiences by drafting in someone elses skills to help give my miniatures a little more "pop" on the tabletop.

Resin bases come in two varieties (for the "rolled shoulder" Privateer Press style that is) - full bases, and inserts. A full base is exactly what is says on the box, you replace your existing plastic PP base with a sculpted resin version. Inserts on the othe rhand are small circles that you glue on to your base before attaching the figure. In both cases you are going to be pinning the figure to the base, rather than using the "slotta-tab".

I've looked at a lot companies online, and bought a few samples along the way. Rather than looking at the manufacturers initially, here are some of the things that I considered whilst assessing the offerings on screen.

1. Quality of the range. We are buying their bases because they have the skills (or time) that we do not have, so they must have a nice enough looking product that it is worth buying.
2. Number of ranges. If you find a company that you like, it is nice if they make more than one range of bases so you can stick with them.
3. Variety of the bases inside the range. A unit including UA can be 12 figures, so having 4 types of 30mm base in the range means a lot of repetition. In a perfect world there would be 3+, 6+ and 8+ base designs (50mm, 40mm and 30mm bases respectively) as this reduces the repetition inside a unit and across heavy Warjacks of Warbeasts (where 2 different designs will become very apparent).
4. Do they make a 120mm base? Chances are you are going to want a Collossal or Gargantuan (or Battle Engine) in your force at some point, nice to have it look the same.
5. Price. This one needs no explaination
6. Layout of the bases. Your figures will generally be standing in the middle of the base so big raised surfaces (such as logs) where you want to stick your figure can be a pain.

Links to manufacturers (not a complete list, just the companies I have been looking at) that make PP style rolled shoulder bases (or inserts).
Back 2 Base-ix
Fenris Games
Kerr and King
Iron Halo
Micro Art Studio
Tabletop-Art

So far I have bought bases from all of these companies with the exception of Micro Art and Tabletop-Art. In the case of Micro Art it is because they do not have something suitable for what I am looking for, and the same more or less goes for Tabletop-Art (although I am interested in having a look at their trench bases for my Khador).

Back 2 Base-ix: I've bought bases from their Slate (for my Rasputina gang), Forest (Kara's Cygnar), Dirt (earmarked for my Cygnar) and Dungeon Stone. I really like their Forest bases, although some of the bases are a challenge to mount the figures if you do not pose them with a specific base in mind. They do have some really nice sculpted detail are are good value for money. I am a little dissapointed that one of the bases (the left one in the picture below) appears to be a 40mm or 30mm base with a little extra added. If you look carefully you can see the extra putty that has been added to the detail starting at "1 o'clock" and going round to "9 o'clock" and it does not quite match the original design.

Back 2 Base-ix Forest bases (50mm)

Fenris Games: I only came across these guys very recently and picked up their Rubble City (planning on using these for my Trolls) and Woodland Path (Circle) bases. They are very competitively priced and have the best quantity of variants in each size that I have seen. They look easy enough to pose figures (have not tried yet) and have enough detail that they should paint up well. Quality of the sculpting is not as good as B2B but still significantly better than I can achieve. They are also the only people (out of the ones I have bought samples from) to make 120mm bases.

Fenris Games: Rubble City bases (50mm)

Fenris Games: Woodland Path bases (50mm)

Kerr and King: I've bought their Flames Of War bases in the past and thought that there were some cool design elements in them so I gave their 28mm bases a shot. They had some of the nice elements that I expected (the sharks fin in the water is a good touch) but were not all I hoped for. They range was also quite small which would lead to a lot of duplication if you have more than a couple of 50mm based models.

Kerr and King: Forest bases (left) and Dockside bases (right) (all 50mm)

I don't have images of my Iron Halo bases as I have only bought square bases from them (for a Warhammer army). Rachel's stuff is nice though, although her painting skills far (far far far) outweigh mine so no surprises that they look good on her website. Plus it is nice to deal with another kiwi. My preference is for full resin bases rather than inserts which is the main reason I have not picked any up.

Going through this process I have managed to (hopefully) nail down my basing style for my Trolls and Circle, my Cygnar were already sorted of course, leaving Khador and Rhulic. I am keen to check out the Tabletop-Art trench range for my Khador but their lack of variation in the 50mm size is a problem for me. So far I am lacking inspiration for my Dwarves, but am contemplating the Back 2 Base-ix Slate bases with a very different colour scheme compared with the dark greys for Rasputina. Of course another option that is open to me is to try my hand at making my own and casting them, but that is another story - assuming I am crazy enough to go down that route!

If you have not looked at the resin bases on the market, or are looking for some non-PP style bases have a look at this article on Dakka Dakka for some more links to manufacturers.

You can find me at THE CLEURB!

In New Zealand yesterday it was Waitangi Day, a national holiday where we celebrate having a day off work. There is a bit more behind the celebration but since this is not a blog about NZ politics the less said the better. I managed to convince my wargaming-widow (wife) that since Waitangi Day was midweek we should treat it like any other day and I should head to work (and play games!).

My main objective was to get a couple of games in with my Ides Of March list(s), with both Sean and Victor volunteering to take on the eIrusk and Man-O-War challenge. Wayne and Casey rolled out the Hungarian Assault Guns and T-34/85 Battalions, whilst James strapped on his six-shooter and played a couple of games of Legends Of The Old West as other games finished. 

Both of my games were very enjoyable and have given me a little more reason to get the list painted. I am 100% un-convinced about its lethality, however I cannot see why that should stop me from looking at giving it a run. Part of me is however wondering if I should look for some other options for casters, although eIrusk's ability to let models pass through each other and giving most of my army Tough is pretty damn useful!

Nemo3 with a proxied lightning force (Sean) vs a very unpainted Khador force - 4 weeks till Ides, not a problem!

Both sides close in

Big scrum in the middle - I managed to win leaving Nemo in the sights of a boosted Destroyer

James and Victor setting up for some LotOW action

Another big scrum

Action shot of Casey (and Wayne). Casey's T-34/85 horde running into Wayne's Hungarians

T-34/85 firing line!

Zyrinis holding their own on the left flank

Victors Skorne - this is a really nice looking army up close!

First turn advancing towards each other

It was looking so good for me... and then Victor crushed my Demo Corp freeing his Immortals up to win the game!

Long Weekends are for Hobby Time?

This past weekend was a long one thanks to Auckland Anniversary Day. Being the eternal optimist that I am I was hoping that I would get a few things done

• Get the base colours on my 10 Khador Man-O-Wars
• See The Hobbit, Skyfall and Jack Reacher
• Get in a little X-Wing
• Take some photos of the T-34 army I am meant to be painting for the website over the course of next month
• Move a small pile of top soil so that I can turn 20 square metres of stones into grass
• Look after my son whilst my wife went off to a concert and a movie

If you seed it, they will grow!

And in typical Chris style, I achieved about half of it seeing The Hobbit (which was good - no Two Towers but a good way to start the trilogy) and Skyfall (I like the Bond reboot, but I miss some of Bond's cool gadgets with the exception of the "invisible car from Die Another Day which I truly hate to this day!). Obviously I managed to spend a great amount of quality time with my son, who pretty much single-handed stopped me achieving any painting this weekend - I think I can put that down to a combination of teeth starting to make an appearance and me looking for other things to do rather than painting. However I did manage to get my back yard sorted out with a pile of soil moved, grass seed sprinkled and watered. I considered this a major achievement as I do hate gardening.

However it does mean I am in bad shape for Ides of March coming up in about 6 weeks. I have decided to take a list of things that I want to paint rather than things that will work on the tabletop as a way to get me to paint these units.

Supreme Kommandant Irusk
- War Dog (painted)
- Juggernaut (painted)
- Destroyer (painted)
 
Man-O-War Bombardiers - Leader & 4 Grunts
Man-O-War Demolition Corps - Leader & 4 Grunts (painted)
Man-O-War Shocktroopers - Leader & 4 Grunts

A messy painting desk (dining room table)

My theory is that Irusk giving Tough out to the infantry and allowing them to walk through each other will make a fairly un-maneuverable force a little more spring. We are also playing Deathclock so not having to move or shoot a heap of figures should make life a little easier. In the one test game I have played I did learn how squishy Irusk is though and need to keep in mind that his job is to lurk well back and let me spam AOEs from the Destroyer and Bombardiers. Now should I fail to get all these bits painted I might need to come up with a fallback list, but that can wait a few weeks. Ideally though I will get the Man-O-Wars done as that will just make me feel good to have them knocked off, leaving me with a couple of units of IFP and a Winter Guard "Deathstar" as my big units of figures to paint.

Of course I do have 21 T-34s and an extra 21 turrets to paint next month so perhaps I should start thinking of my contingency plans sooner rather than later!

I think we will call it...BrimbleCon!

Luke "BrimbleCon"Brimblecombe

A few days ago I was discussing the state of Auckland gaming and making the observation that our gaming bretheren in Wellington do not know how lucky they have it (at least from the outside looking in). The Warmachine crowd is filled with good blokes, the FOW guys are great, and the rest seem organised and on the same page. Sometimes I wonder what that must be like..... Over the weekend one of Auckland members of the Warmachine community ran the first of what will hopefully be a regular event - Auckland Steamroller 2012, or as we all now know it, BrimbleCon 2012 - in an attempt to get our local gaming scene all back on the same page.

My plan was simple, I'd find a force that I wanted to take to Ides of March next year (another new tournament happening in Auckland) and use BrimbleCon as an opportunity to see if I liked the list. I settled on the new pButcher tier list from NQ:
The Butcher of Khardov
- War Dog
- Juggernaut
- Juggernaut

Uhlan Kovnik Markov
Manhunter
Manhunter

Great Bears of Gallowswood
Iron Fang Pikemen - Leader & 9 Grunts
- Black Dragon Officer & Standard
Iron Fang Pikemen - Leader & 9 Grunts
- Iron Fang Officer & Standard
Battle Mechaniks - Leader & 3 Grunts

REINFORCEMENTS
Iron Fang Uhlans - Leader & 2 Grunts 

Yep, it was Irong Fang-tastic! We played four games over the course of the day which was more than enough given my newborn baby addled brain was really suffering by the end of the day...

Round 1: Chris Baker with Ossyan and a kitchen sink of infantry and solos. Chris is a master of board positioning and the game ended up with Butcher standing in the scoring zone with dead Mage Hunter Assassins, waiting for the next enemy to come and play when he found himself pushed out the scoring zone. Whoops!

Round 2: Jason Brown with pSkarre, a Kraken and Wraith Engine. We had a great fight - Kovnik Markov let the side down badly by missing the Wraith Engine (double 1's) on the charge. The Wraith Engine would later find itself dining on Butcher...

Round 3: Daryl Painter with Venethrax, Bile Thralls and friends. Daryl's list seemed like a great counter to mine, clearing out my IFP with corrosion, my Manhunters were the stars on the day killing a 'jack and working their way round into the backfield. Daryl unfortunately forgot that the Butcher was a tough nut to crack and threw Vene in to him, needless to say Butcher same out on top!

Round 4: Glenn White with wall to wall Dwarves. For once I actually felt like I understood my opponents army (having run very similar lists in the past. This game was a real grind-a-thon as I felt like I was on top the entire time, which resulted in me playing fairly cautiously to try to make sure I did not end up losing it. In the end my IFP's managed to grind down his 'jacks and opened the way for a Juggernaut to introduce his axe to Gorton's face!

Two wins, two losses - better than most of my efforts. The games were great for getting to understand my list, as well as pointing out that pButcher with Iron Flesh and a bucket of focus is a tough nut to crack!

For the results check out the Thrallblacks site...

Before game on1

Jacks are for big girls!

A Collosal and a Battle Engine... yowzers!

"Take that" - Kovnik Markov shortly before his demise

The bigger they are, the harder they fall! or not....

Sorsha and Karchev go to NATCON

Over the past weekend we had the New Zealand National Wargaming Convention in sunny Hamilton (and for once I am not being facetious about the sunny part). I had an absolute blast and played about 12 games, many of which were real nail biters. Whilst there was way too much fun to remember everything I actually felt like some of the games were close (i.e. a couple of different dice rolls would have resulted in a reversal), some were completely at the other end of the spectrum, but overall I look back and think that if I made a couple of better decisions I would have done a little better.

Couple of highlights:
eMorghoul running into Karchev and a Juggernaut and hitting Flashing Blade a bunch of times. With 19 and 20 armour respectively you would expect that both Karchev and his friend would get equally damaged... no... the Juggernaut took a total of 2 points whilst the big man himself took around 20 (bear in mind he was not boosting ANY of the damage rolls).

A lone Man O War Demo Corp surviving attacks from a Shredder, Harrier and a ranged attack from an Angelius to contest a scoring zone and give me a scenario win. I actually asked my opponent why he was tying to kill the DC figure as I could not understand his strategy - once he explained it to me I almost apoligised for winning as I never saw his plan coming and if it was not for a string of bad dice he would have probably won.

Couple of lowlights:
Wading through a pile of Fennblades and Warriors to get my hands on eMadrak, only to fall 4 points short of killing him - thats after knocking off a couple of free transfers to nearby warrior models and a pile of transfers to beasts. Given that I was about to lose on the scenario it was my only play but still... sooooo close!

Forgetting to pop Sorsha's feat in my last game.... this was a real lowlight for me. Up against Xerxis and his Cataphract friends I felt like it was going to be a hard matchup for me - then I forgot to pop the feat in turn two and it went from being a bad match up to one where I had no chance. This was one of the few games I have ever played where I was seriously annoyed at myself.

Bottom line:
Did not come last in either of the events, won more games than any previous tournament... thats a great result as far as I am concerned. Had some great games, caught up with some good people and painted some more figures. Speaking of which, here they are!

Iron Fang Uhlans

Kovnik Markov

Sunday Gaming

This coming weekend is the New Zealand National Convention and there will be around 150 people from all over the country coming together for a weekend of gaming, covering everything from Ancients to Napoleonics to Flames of War, Warhammer and Warmachine. Its definitely one of the highlights of the gaming year as you get to catch up with people you have not seen since the last Nationals.

As I mentioned in the last post I am taking Karchev out for a spin, but I realised that my list was not entirely legal for the Highlander event so I have had to make a few amendments. It now looks a little more like this:

Karchev the Terrible

Wardog

Destroyer

Juggernaut

Iron Fang Uhlans (x3)

Kovnik Markov

Not entirely sure that the Wardog is legit but I will worry about that on the day. On Sunday I took the force out for a run against Victor's Skorne list - an Immortals/Zaal force that I have real problems knocking over. This game looked like no exception as I pushed forward across a broad front, he did the same, my Cav charged in a killed a few of the Immortals and then were swamped and killed (along with my Juggernaut). Luckily the dice were on my side as Karchev popped his feat, 'towed' the Destroyer up field and in the process killed one his Cyclops, then the Destroyer charged into Zaal and despite having a couple of transfers managed to put him down.

What did I learn... Tow is awesome (but I knew that already), Cavalry hit hard but don't really like being hit back and that Karchev is still the man! Of course this may be my last win with the list based on previous tournament performance  :D

Ulans Work in Process on Sunday

As for painting the Cav, I've finished the horses and are now working on the riders with two nights to go. Should not be a problem as long as no-one looks too closely at them.

Either way it will be a fun weekend especially since I will have added another finished unit to my Khador army.

Lazy Sunday Gaming Club

On Sunday I got together with some friends and had a quiet afternoon of gaming. It was nice to get out of the house for a little while in the weekend and have some "bonus" gaming. Managed to fit in two games before I got a call from my wife telling me that power to our house had been lose and that power lines were down (Sunday afternoon callout.... so much for this months gaming budget!).

Anyway.... had a quick intro game of Legends of the Old West (LotOW) with Victor, more to give him a basic idea of the rules rather than anything else. This game ROCKS! and despite having not played it in a few years, I remembered some of the rules - thats a good sign in my opinion that the rules are fun. Victor's band of four guns managed to run me out of town (beginners luck). I would have taken some pictures but we were using 15mm European Buildings as stand-ins whilst I build me Perry's plastic buildings.

We then switched over for a 25 point Warmachine game. Victor put his Skorne on hold and pulled out his Dwarves: Gorton, Steinhammer, 4 Gun Bunnies (2 marshalled by Thor), a Driller and Brun and Lug. I put the Butcher on the table for the first time (he is pretty awesome), two Juggers, 5 Demo Korps, 2 Manhunters and Widowmakers. The game was heaps of fun with Victor putting me under early pressure cleaning out alot of my figures for just the loss of Steinhammer, but on the feat turn I was able to put down the Driller, Brun & Lug and a Gun Bunny (with 1 and bit Juggers and Butcher), essentially leaving Gorton with no choice but to go in and try and finish off the two damaged Juggers.... it did not end well for him!

Demo Korps and Manhunters lead the charge

The battle lines hit each other

The demise of Gorton!

Sadly the efforts on Sunday have now given me another Christmas project to do - put together my Wild West houses and put together a small town for some gaming fun!

P.S. - Congrats to Dave Taylor for adding another future gamer to this world!

Guardcon Day 2

Day two of Guardcon started off well. Since we were playing a Battlebox event and got through 6 rounds on day one, we had a late start (which was a new thing to me... a nice cooked breakfast and a sleep in whilst friends playing Warhammer and Flames of War had a much earlier start!) and a relaxed morning.

I played Gorton, Madrak and Gorton. Each of the games were great fun, but I was putting myself under some pressure as I was floating near the top at the start of the day. In the first game I made a couple of reasonably crucial mistakes resulting in three Gunners turning Sorsha into a fine mist. Against Madrak it was a more even contest (although Chris B did have to point out that we had misread the mission).... Madrak found himself on the end of a Wind Rushing Sorsha who put him down with her last attack. The last game of the day was against my old nemesis Victor who had already mentioned that his weekend would be complete if he could beat me! We had a fantastic game where once again Chris needed to point some obvious parts of the scenario... This time Sorsha made her Wind Rush but fell 1 point short of killing Gorton (that will teach me for leaving my dice at home and borrowing Victors!). Gorton tried to put Sorsha down and failed, however a lone Gunner casually wandered over to the flag and scored the final point required for a scenario win!

In the final wash up though I managed a very respectable third which was significantly higher than my placings in the previous four events I'd played.... mind you top half would have been significantly higher too!

Check out ThrallBlacks for more photos.

Sorsha Wind Rushing fake Sorsha on Day 1 (thanks to Chris B for the photo)

Guardcon Day 1... and the People of Southreach

Its been a great day at Guardcon with Sorsha and her two friends coming out with more wins than losses! Thats a new experience for me at a tournament... With one loss to Lylith, but wins against Sorsha (obviously not the real one), Kaya, Stryker and Gorton (thanks to some tips from Victor who is also running Gorton this weekend).

On an unrelated note, we had a great DnD session this week with our characters taking a short break since James is off in Australia (hopefully winning a Golden Daemon), instead taking over a group of people in the town of Southreach during a zombie attack. Barman Humphrey was particularly adept with a frying pan!

Sean (our DM) also has a cool online comic where he showed off our characters this week.... (check it out... its pretty awesome!)

Sorsha goes to Guardcon?

Okay, so many many weeks ago I thought I would paint up a Menoth Battlebox to take to Guardcon (which is a Battlebox tournament) but things conspired against me and a general lack of enthusiasm on the brushes (at least for anything bigger than very small ships - more on that later) resulted in the Kreoss and his boys being assembled, undercoated, and some base colours put on before I decided to call it quits. So up stepped Sorsha.... given the fact that I have a Juggernaut and Destroyer already done this was definitely the easy option and I completed her over the course of a weekend. I'm not happy with how the face turned out so I will have another crack at that next week, but for now she is heading to Guardcon.

Sorsha in her natural environment

Meanwhile I have also been distracted by a pile of little ships (although this turned up in the post today!). I am just waiting for some decals to arrive from Dom's Decals so I can finish off my first batch of Dystopian Wars ships (that an I need a favour from a friend with a laser cutting machine!), but I'll have pictures of them up next week assuming the decals arrive. 

Metzger Class Robot

I also played a very quick test game of Force on Force yesterday. Predictably the US Marines played by Phil managed to clean up the small unit of insurgents hiding in the town, but a lucky burst of fire caught one fire team moving in the open, killing 1 marine and heavily wounding another. It was a good lesson in how quick and nasty the game can be... definitely enthused to get some figures painted over the Christmas break - although there are way too many things that I am planning to paint over this period already so it might be a bit of a rough time on the paint brushes.

A Big Weekend?

Had many plans of getting stuff done this weekend... had being the operative term... but it looks like some unforeseen issues have thrown a spanner in the works. Oh well, maybe tomorrow if I am lucky.

On the good side, I was sent this rather funny cartoon by a friend... I want one!

I think I am in LOVE!

A pile of nice spoilers for Wrath (Warmachine expansion)

And more importantly a great new Khador Caster that not only looks good, but has a tier list of all the cool things I already like to play...  :)

Karchev on Tour!

Finally got around to cleaning up the photos of Karchev and his army that I took to Nicon last weekend...

The man himself!

Every Khador Warcasters favourite companion!

Man-O-War Demolition Corps

Destroyer

Juggernauts

Manhunters

Yuri the Axe