I'm Opening a Gaming Store Update 2!!!

Hey!

Been a while since I updated. The last post was very early idea stage! Now I have been clearing, painting and the like - I'm almost ready to start work on the gaming tables!! woot!!

Its been a long hard slog so far as I'm also working full time, I do feel however, like I'm seeing the start of the end of all this... I really want to be up and cooking before Christmas and I think I'm probably two weeks behind what I originally wanted. I underestimated how much work needed to be done front end!

Also I'm have a little website.....  Just a teaser for now...

MY NEW WEBSITE!

The work on the gaming tables is going to be intense. In my mind if I'm charging people to play on them they have to be of the quality a lot of people wont have at home. I have planned what I am doing and as of next week I'm going to be pulling out all the stops to get the tables done and looking awesome!

I have decided the companies I'm supplying, etc.. its a question of putting my money where my mouth is when the time comes!

Cheers... next update the place will look like a hobby shop!!

Thanks for looking!

Im opening a gaming store! Update 1

Hi

Yup, the plans are underway... now before I get the neighsayers telling me of the lack of profit etc, etc.. I already own a shop.. in the centre of a very busy market town... I have a full first floor empty (or at least I need to empty it!). It pretty much just needs painting/cleaning and a small counter making. Oh yeah and all the boards making etc. I already have all the shelving and display stuff... so Im pretty much set... or am I? I came to a crossroads, as I do have a budget to kick this off, a pretty small budget as it happens and I have made what in my mind is a brave (hopefully not stupid) decision not to stock GW. This for me is a difficult thing to do as Im trying to create a store in a way that I feel a GW should be.

Ok theres not a lot I can do about the price of the product all companies minis are expensive its just how it is. I'll offer a discount naturally, but what I want to do is sell the hobby and then hopefully the hobby will sell the product and customer loyalty to me. These days the GW alternatives are actually pretty good and by all accounts popular... with potential to reach out to new gamers or gamers already embroiled in the usual systems. Other company sculpts are no longer worse (lets be honest GW have had that in the bag for a long old time!) and Im not going to say better, because their is good and bad things about every range so to start saying all the products are so much better would be wrong.

I would have liked to have had the chance to stock some 40k stuff, but the way GW wholesale isnt as mainstream as usual distributors and I feel I would be tied to buying dead stock so I could reap the benefits of stocking their product. Now I could be wrong and I may change my mind, but for me to make the store into what I want my budget wont cover everything. It has come down to just GW or the other ranges, not both which is ideally what I wanted...

That said customers will be welcome to use the gaming boards, paint bar etc to paint GW products so actually it may not end up being such an anti establishment vibe...

Anyway here are my start pics... I have a lot of work to do so I will keep adding the pics to the blog.

I have enough room for 3-4 6x4 boards and 3-4 4x4 boards the paint/model bar is already installed... Im both nervous and excited by the venture. I have no competition for this in the town and unlikely to get any knowing how much rent is. I am in a unique position here I hope I can use it!

Winter is coming, time to dust off the Raven Guard!

Yello! whats poppin?

Well, I have been so distracted with Infinity that my Raven Guard have pretty much been ditched. I was looking at the pics last night and realised I had some nice Forge World stuff. Now I'm not going to lie, I watched a few 40K bat reps on Mini Wargaming last night, and, MAN, the game is SLOW, even when played at a fast pace! I hate the turn sequence, its so boring compared to the reaction based shooting in Infinity!! So the game is not drawing me in, and actually neither are the standard Marines... the models are meh compared to the magic that Corvus Belli can produce with metals. Unfortunately I'm a completionist and  I feel they are there at the back of my mind, constantly niggling me to get them done... so I think I'm going to blast on and get them shifted! I hopefully have a desert FAT mat arriving over the next week or so, so I may be able to talk someone into a game in the next month or so.

I want to try something out I saw on Beasts of  War... basically completely nicking the turn sequence off Bolt Action.You place tokens in a bag for the amount of units you have and randomly activate a unit once you have drawn it out of the bag. The units then complete the move shoot - or whatever the hell the sequences are now. I don't think it will alter the balance of the game and actually might make it more tactical. The bat reps I saw were pretty much rolling a lot of dice!! I haven't actually played since 5th ed and only tried 6th once and I found it to be totally bogged down with rules.. We shall see. 

Oh a quick tip on standard Marines, to make them look more anatomically correct use a small amount of green stuff to create a spacer for the abdomen off the legs and the same for the helmet... only needs a few mm but it takes that squashed look away... it looks better IMO...

Infinity, I'm almost fully painted and can whack paint jobs together as I need them now without to much bother. I have a Pan 0 force, but I'm going to wait until next year before I set to on that. My Combined army including the Morats can be added to and painted as and when. 

So updates soon...!

EDIT***

I have been digging around my cupboard and I think I have decided, Im not going to concentrate efforts in one area, instead do a little of everything. So this week im planning to get a couple of Raven Guard donw, and some Pan Oceania glued up... thats the plan...

Back from the Torny! Bagged Best Army :)

Hi

Sorry for the delay not posting this earlier I was waiting for the pics to come out...

Anyway had a great day in Leeds. The boards and terrain were amazing. I can safely say there wasn't one single board I would have wanted to avoid. The event was set up by the Northern Alliance (based in the UK, Leeds) but feel free to join the facebook group to talk about Infinity, even if your not based locally! Friendly bunch and a busy group!

Infinity Northern Alliance


Back to the torny, I bagged 3 wins and a loss, not bad for me. I should have worked harder to gain more objective points to place higher than mid table, but to be honest I had 3 really enjoyable games. The last game was against Morats, but I white washed them with my Anathematic and really the game didnt have any tense moments really. The other three games were great, PanO up first and I thought I was doing reasonable well until I got my core army flamed by an airdropper... just couldn't kill it with any ARO's. The next army i was against Combined and my Charontid hacker had a hacker stand off against an Anathematic. I was a touch lucky in that my Sapper knocked 2 wounds off him when he came out of camo... that probably won me my game to be honest. The third game was against Aleph and my Sapper was having another field day through a fire lane, he just couldn't miss! My Charontid hacker loving the -3 to claim objectives with the high WIP. My opponent had a ton of orders soaked up trying to claim the bloomin things!

Painting, I managed to bag best army! Really pleased and the prize were some sable Rosmery Co brushes and the ITS winners pack with sniper bounty hunter (just started painting her, will have her done next week!). I have to say, the guys made up a really cool party bag for everyone that included an awesome paint rack, cheers!

Anyway pics of the day. Guess who I am in the pics! (unless you know me, that would be pointless!)


My army...

This was a really spiffing Haq force... lovely blending (photo not quite showing it...)

Prize haul!

Some scenery highlights!

Guess me...

I'm on here as well somewhere..

A big thanks for the event guys! My good friend Chris Jarrett is setting up a torny at the end of January at our LGC Hulls Angels headed by our group Hulls Infinity... looking forward to that.

My future Infinity plans include... back to board building I have a FAT mat that should be arriving next week (used in this bat rep..) cant wait, going to build a 6x4 board to lay it on. Will give me the option to play 40k being 6x4 if that ever comes up again!

Also its Pan O next. I'm going to give this force my full painting attention, no rushing! hopefully will use that at Chris's torny end of Jan...

Again thank for looking - more updates soon!

FINISHED!!! Now I can have my life back....

Wotcha....

Took up every evening for the last week, two days holiday off work and three late nights... Finally finished this ready for the tournament in Leeds on Saturday (setup by the Northern Alliance). Oh and I had a late scare with frosting varnish that I managed fix with some black wash... Will take individual pics of things next week with pics from Sat!


Oh and I haven't play tested either, my efforts could be wasted. :s

Thanks for looking!

Tournament Painting - Update 2! I'm getting tired now!

Hoooooooo!

First up I apologise for the quality of photos I'm showing you.. Taken on my ipad in crappy light... I have been cramming my paint jobs in the last week... I haven't even got a pic of everything... Put it this way, I painted this weekend alone an Anathematics, Charontid, Skiavoros and an Anyat! I was up until 1am this morning finishing that... woke up this morning an remembered I choose blue for her hair colour!

The Torny is in Leeds on Saturday and has been set up by the Northern Alliance, based in Leeds (Leeds Battle Bunker). Nice group of lads should be a good day, I'll take plenty of pics. I'm looking forward to it, but I haven't tested my list. Its completely different to my Morats lists, which actually can only be a good thing! I can only do as bad... Alot of scope for improvement. Maybe I can squeak an army nomination, you never know!

I haven't completed the bases yet.. I'll do some more and better pics when that is done...

Noctifier and Spitfire... I went with the green blue as I thought it looked camo, but suited the Infinity style imo.. pretty pleased with this and all the Shasvastii I have done... I didn't love the models so much, but in the flesh they are really good. I think when you take a pic of some Infinity stuff you loose the fact its really teeny and small...

Anathematic (with this stuff its not as dark in the flesh... Ipad camera not picking up the detail...)

Skiavoros (blood and gore to be done after varnish, also I added more detail to the helmet)

Charontid (looks very dark in the mid area, but its actually red, his pose is casting a shadow my ipad cant deal with!!)

My Anyat (Miss blue hair!!)

Tonight will see me paint up the amazing Ko Dali model... tired, but am looking forward to this model, it looks ace

Back to it :(

I haven't pictured everything I have done... I reckon I'm going well though... 

Q Drone

Ikadron

Ikadron

Mid Tech

Slaves

Seed soldier

Shrouded combi

Malgnos sniper

Haiduk

Noctifier

Ko Dali

Skiavoros

Charontid

Anathematics

added

Anyat

2x Imetron

Even when done I have to base everything.... gah this is taking forever!!

Thanks for looking...

Tournament Painting - Update 1!

Word....

Well I had a slow start to my emergency painting sessions... The thing is I have started off with the background guys, the ones that are harder to motivate yourself to paint... so I was up until 12.30 last night finishing off Dr Worm and his servants, I'm pretty pleased with him actually... I think I'm going to shift to the Shasvastii tonight - break it up as it were. Then the back end of the week I can start doing the business end models! I actually like it when you have a bit of pressure on!! Bring it!

I have adopted the new scheme seen on this preview of the new Combined Army set... its very flipping cool esp with that Sith type guy at the front and the evil Tohaa Air drop guy. I also love those trooper model they are like small Anathematics!!

Actually looking at that i need to incorporate more red in my next models...

And I got the big guys glued...

Update again soon... Thanks for looking!

Infinity Tournament - 20th Sept, massive backlog!!

Hi

Sorry for the lack of Infinity pics or painted minis... but that is about to change! I have a tourny in Leeds (set up by the Northern Alliance) in TWO WEEKS. I have totally lost all faith in my Morats in the current ITS missions 2014. So I need to switch to Combined Army which pack a mighty punch!! I will aim to update everyday as motivation with newly painted stuff.

My List! (snivels...)

Q Drone
Ikadron
Ikadron
Mid Tech
Slaves
Seed soldiers x2
Shrouded combi
Malgnos sniper
Haiduk
Noctifier
Ko Dali
Skavoros
Charontid
Anathematics

Finger Disengaged!

Thanks for looking!!

Is Infinity beating Warhammer 40k on aestetics?

Hi

I'll start off by saying this isn't a GW bash post, but a simple question. I have played 40K for many years up to 5th ed and a couple of 6th ed. I'm not the best of gamers, but I did enjoy going to the odd tourny as a fun thing. My point is its the looks that draw me to a game, not the rules. Obviously the game has to be good as well for me to continue investment! I'll even pick a dud army because 'it looks better' - by mistake usually as I get a rush of blood and hit buy before looking into how an army functions!

First up I will say that the whole Gothic 40k thing is cool, very cool. But I'm starting to think its becoming GWs shiny gold pen, over used and over exaggerated. Sometimes just because you can doesn't mean you should. I'm talking about a lot of the newer releases that have been coming out. Mainly the Space Wolf stuff. The dred with an axe and shield, the shoe barge and the Santa sled. There are a ton of other models as well, and I'm including the Imperial knight in that... I know its an old classic concept, but its just dumb. IMO GW should be evolving 40k in a way that's suits a more current taste. I think they should keep the Gothic touches, but make things look more slick, more believable. I wince when I see a Space Marine walking around in a computer game especially the new Space Hulk game, it looks off. The plastic kits are great, but they are putting to much into the ornate pieces instead of concentrating on the actual look with little sense... it'll be fine just chuck a few crests and army badges... its fine... Here are some examples...

Now I'm sure this is a taste preference, but Infinity are getting there models right! They are metal for a start, but it holds detail so much better than plastic, even compared to today's standard of plastic kits. Look at this new PanO knight... it looks futuristic, Gothic (you could paint in a more gritty way) and looks like it can move around in a realistic way. There is no reason why space marines couldn't look more like this concept.

Now their are some dogs in the Infinity range - don't get me wrong and everything is not all better over here. But the old sculpts are being renewed fast!! From this...

To this.. (Hell of an upgrade!)

I think now Covus Belli have toned down the Manga look to what I would call a more video game look... to me its current. I'm also preferring the skirmish sized game, less models does not mean less of a battle, in fact I think it makes a game richer as individual models can do so much more... basically one model is like controlling a unit in 40k...

Maybe I just needed a break from 40k, maybe I just needed a change. But I know that if I was just getting into the hobby, 40k does not not look as cool as Infinity...

Started my Borderlands inspired board!

Hi

I finally started to build up my Borderlands themed board! I didn't think it was going to be quite as time consuming as it has been so far. This is the progress so far....

The materials:

Building the first structure, i want sniper positions, but so they are limited to certain lanes of fire:

So far: (the corrugated card is xmas stuff that was on offer... everything will be painted!!)

Unfortunately I had to put it on the back burner as I need to get cracking with the paints as my first ITS tourny is coming up in September and Im really struggling with Morats so I need to paint loads of stuff while I test lists out and hopefully find a winningish formula. I know when the new rules come out in a few months my guys will be getting some good boosts so im not going to whinge (to much) for now. Kind of lost the confidence in the game its now reflecting in my tactics where im hiding stuff to much and not setting of enough automatic reactions... but I love the minis and the setting, and the game! - its just grating on me a bit at the mo...

BUT, more fun wise Im making a senario! A borderlands campaign pack. I will be basing missions from the game, but making it fit with Infinity fluff etc... Its going to be fun looking for models to represent the wildlife and characters... referred to as civvies in this system... see i think these will make great Bullymogs...!

Oh here are some pics of me playing badly!!

Thanks for looking guys!!

I made myself an Infinity backlog!

Hi

This isn't supposed to happen in a skirmish game, but a combination of Corvus Belli releasing awesome models and the Morats lacking a few tricks in 2nd ed I have bought a lot of models. I want these clear for my long over due infinity board, and the release of Icestorm where i will be making a Pan Oceania force. I have have seem some of the updates in 3rd and they look great, but i will wait until The Beasts of War release a full 3rd es bat rep on Friday before I make comment. I think this edition is going to tidy up a lot of things and (fingers crossed) make Close Combat more viable! My Morats strengths would be blown wide open if that were the case!

This is my shame for all to see!

With a few more to add! :( Damn Corvus Belli and the HMG Suryat model - to cool not to get!!!
This is defo the last purchase for Combined Army!

I will certainly be adding some painted updates soon!!

Thanks for looking!!