Infinity scenery packs

A couple of weeks ago I posted about a new terrain set that I had purchased and last week I posted a few pictures and ideas on alternative layouts. The set in question was the Infinity Scenery Packs, Navajo Outpost. This set comes with four building and six containers plus the mat and all for the princely sum of 8 English pounds.

Navajo Outpost

Well, after having it a few weeks and playing a few games, including my first two full games of kill team, on the set, I have come to really like it. It is simple and cheap but provides everything you need for gaming. Yes you can get better looking set but they are also a lot more expensive, like a LOT more expensive. There are a couple of downsides, which I shall get to in a moment but overall I highly recommend the set, which is why I decided to bite the bullet and bought another.

Kurage Station

The Kurage Station is a slightly different set, with a different aesthetic to the outpost but one that I think will work for my kill teams. I did ponder going completely different and very "alien" but in the end I settled for a more human\imperial vibe. There are several reason I bought a second set, for variety and playing options, so that I'm not always using the same board but also cos there's bridges and who doesn't like bridges. Yep, that's pretty much the main reason I bought a second set, cos it's got bridges, two of them in fact. It comes with 4 buildings, 6 small containers (about half the size of the other set) and the two bridges plus the mat as well. Again this lot cost me 8 pounds, so for around 20 pound (ncluding all the postage) I have two boards with scenery, not bad really.

Now I did say there was some negatives, two really, both of which I could solve easily, probably with just one solution. The trouble is that the building and crates are very light and are easily knocked during the game, as happened several times in my kill team games. Secondly, the big building get a bit wobbly and deform when loaded with models, especially big ones like the new plague marines or a couple of deathwatch. There seems to be a simple solution to all this and it's to fit MDF frames inside. Now, I got the idea from eBay, where someone was selling sets of MDF frames, which were basically two lengths of wood in an X shape that fit across the insides of the building from corner to corner, bracing the set and also adding some rigidity of the center, stopping deformation I noticed when the models were on top. Unfortunately I can't seem to find them anymore, which isn't a problem as I wasn't going to buy them but I wanted to show another club member, who has a laser cutter, to see if he could knock a bunch up for me. I probably could do it myself with the MDF sheets I already have but getting them laser cut would be better. I'll just have to rely on my descriptive powers instead, what could possibly go wrong! I can't imagine it will cost much for a few bits of MDF, so even after I get them the scenery sets will still be excellent value for money.

Edit: found the after writing the post and and a bit of an internet trawl.

X braces

Kill Team: battle zone

In a previous post, I mentioned that I had an idea for a battle zone and terrain but I needed to do a bit more research before I took the plunge and brought stuff. Well after a few hours surfing the internet I did indeed take the plunge and brought one of Corvus Belli'' Infinity Scenery Packs, more specifically the Navajo Outpost Scenery Pack.

The pack contains a poster type paper mat, 4 card buildings and 6 card containers.

The mat is a single sided poster type paper mat with a full colour poster on the other side, presumably so you can stick it on your wall when you've finished using it as a gaming mat. The mat is also slightly to big, measuring 34x24, as opposed to the Kill Teams 30x22. The extra inches can easily be dealt with by adjusting deployment zones if needs be. I am unsure how long lasting the mat will be, as I'm sure repeated folding will wear the fold quite quickly and it doesn't seem as robust as the GW types.

The builds are reasonably thin but decent card, think cereal packet card board. They are pretty nicely detailed and the roof section is slightly sunken, giving cover when on the roof, which is nice for kill team. While they may not match 100 percent with the GW aesthetics they are a close match, close enough that they won't look out of place.

The containers that come in the set are made of the same material as the buildings and are again nicely detailed. They are just plain square boxes and some of the graphics are out of place but again, nothing that would stop you using the set for Kill Team. The containers are slightly smaller than the GW munitorum armoured containers but they are still big enough to block line of sight and such. There is no doubt that the GW containers are better, both in detail and robustness, but then they are significantly more expensive as well.

As we're mentioning price, let's just put it out there, if you haven't looked at this stuff, I would suggest you check it out, as this set cost me the princely sum of £8, including postage. Yes, that's it, £8. It might not be perfect and may not last forever, but for 8 quid I can get around 6 for every Kill Team Battle Zone. Not bad really.

The mat can also be used for other layouts, such as with the pipe lines from GW and Mantic. Plus I could probably put some of my MDF building on here for something different but I've yet to try that. 

With the price of these things, I've been looking at the other options, there seems to be 4 other scenery packs available. The Hephaestus pack look like it could work for Tau, the Moto.tronica pack could possibly do Tau as well. The Neon Lotus I'm less sure about, maybe Eldar or Harlequins? Lastly the Kurage station pack, which would do Imperium or maybe Eldar at a stretch. None are going to be a straight fit, the best seems to be the Hephaestus for Tau but even then it's quite angular for Tau construction. Having said that, I'm looking at the Kurage Station pack as a possibility, mostly as it's different to the Navajo Outpost and it has walkways, which look cool. I think I could get away with the aesthetics by calling it a high tech Imperial world or even rough planet, hence the Imperial military presence and beside who doesn't like walk ways?

Wargaming mat

So a while ago I got a war games mat for Christmas. It is a Micro Art Studios Grassland's mat in the standard 6' by 4', alongside this I also received some MDF buildings. I have only played a couple of games of the mat so far, also using the buildings, although only the first two sets (A and B) formed of the smaller buildings. I cant vouch for how hard wearing the mats and buildings are, but from what I have seen of them so far they are at least as good as any of the other mats I've used in the past. I will do another review in the future after i have had a chance to use both more, and also how it gets on being stored, as I usually have a long time between games and the mat will spend a lot of time rolled up in its case. This leads me to the only issue I have found so far. While the bag it comes with is of a good quality, its very basic. Ok, so its a free bag, but there is no handle on it at all. I would have liked just a simple handle on the case, just for manoeuvring it around more than anything. I may well look at getting a proper carrying case at some point, but for the moment the basic case will do.

Mat ready for battle

The table above was used in a game against Orks, and it really makes the difference to the experience and I really want to get all the buildings up and running and also get some paint on them, just a very basic colours scheme just to finish off the visuals.

Another view

The next plan is to get some foliage, to this aim, I have got hold of some cheap plastic plants for creating some tropical plants. I'm just trying to find some suitable MDF bases.

2017 the plan

So having looked back over 2016, its time to look forward to 2017. The question is what do i want to achieve this year? Well, lets have a look shall we?

1) the main painting objective this year will be the Eagle Knights. I would like to get all the models based orange at the very least.

2) table terrain and gaming surface. Having just got a mat and mdf terrain for Christmas, I need  to get on with building and painting the terrain!

3) base my finished models in relation to my new mat. So some sort of green flock is needed.

4) defend my title at Northern Invasion 5.

5) sell off models. Mainly my extra guard models and most of the Emperors Diciples.

6) finalize a list for the Dark Guardians

7) model up the dark guardians

8) crack out the airbrush and prime some models! Goes with (1)

9) sort out my storage, I have cases but no storage trays. Empty cases are pretty useless.

10) when/if I sell off models (5), I will use the money to purchase new transport for the Dagr Ormr and extra models for the dark guardians, if needed.

11) add to the fluff. This applies to all my forces. I've got plenty of ideas, just need to get pen to paper.

All in all, I think that I should be able to complete a lot of these by next year. Painting is always a challenge, but I want to try and get my Knights done to a standard that I can take them to NI5. This might not be the best army for defending my title, but I don't want to take the same army two years in a row and it would be a fun force to play with.

I'm really looking forward to getting my mat and terrain sorted, this will make my games that much better and the pictures look that much nicer on the blog. It also means that I can build towards the fluff and have a little campaign going on. On that front, my blog has been mentioned a few times on other sites over the last year and one of the things that's been picked up on is the fluff that I've got going on. It will be one of the main aims this year to really try and push that part of the blog and get some more in-depth stories for the characters and add to the various armies fluff.

I'm looking forward to a new year of hobbying!

2016 review

So its that time of year again, and I thought I would start off looking at last years resolutions and see if I actually achieved anything?

For my 2016 plan I kept things pretty simple in an attempt to ensure that I actually achieved some of my goals! Is what did I manage to achieve?

1) Try and model up all the missing models from the various army lists - I've been fairly successful with this one, as I've finished the Hjaltland LI, modeled up the Hrossey MV, the Dagr Ormr and the Emperors Diciples, and have just started painting up the Eagle Knights. The Dark Guardians are still in limbo with only a few models done.

2) Sell models I don't need! I really need to do this! - Er, no, didn't manage this at all, I even gained more models this year with the Betrayal of Calth. Lucky the Burning of Pospero has mk3 Iron armour in which i don't like, otherwise I'd have even more models!

3) Try and base coat some of the models, so at least I can place them on the table together with out getting confused with what model belongs to what army. - This one would be a no, as I said above Hjaltland LI are done but nothing else has seen paint apart from a few Dagr Ormr models that were already primed.

4) Play some games! - got this one done! Played a few games this year, even won a tournament.

So overall I'm at about 50/50, which isn't great! I think I may have gone to general with the plan, so I'm going to try again this year and see what I can achieve.

I thought that I would also look back further to 2015 and see whether i have achieved anything from that year yet!

1) Finish painting my Hjaltland LI, I'm slowly but surely getting there but I need to go faster. - Done! Only took a year longer than I had hoped!

2) Base coat all vehicles, should be easy with an air brush! I've got a few done, but need to get the rest sorted. I'll try and get some of the details done as well. - Nope, still not completed this one!

3) Start on Eagle Knights, I'll probably start with one of the formation, as they'll be easier to complete and I want to use them anyway- This one is done! And there getting ready for painting.

4) Not buy any more models I don't really need! Not sure this one will last but I'll try and it'll link in with the next resolution. - not really relevant but fail anyway with the purchase of Betrayal at Calth

5) Sell off models I don't need, there only taking up space and will provide money towards supplies and paint. - Still failing to achieve this one.

6) Get some pictures up here, its all very nice talking about my models and army fluff, but it'd be nice to get some pics up here. - I think I have been doing pretty well with this one again this year.

So 2 years down the line and I'm still failing at half of these! This means that I'm at 50/50 with my aims for that last two year, I think I'm going to have to sept up my game for this year!

Terrain options

There ate still a few more battle reports to write up but I thought I'd have a little break and look at a few other bits,namely terrain and Deathwatch, and possibly some other bits and pieces. Anyway, in case you missed the title, this post is about the various terrain options I've been looking at.

Firstly the battle mats. Now there are several companies out there that do mats, some ofthemore known ones are gamematz.eu and urbanmatz, as well as deepcut studios, terrain mats and battleboards and the there are some of the less well known (well less well known by me anyway) such as tiny war games and cigar box battle mats, plus a friend down my club has just received his kraken battle mats,which are still shipping their Kickstarter stuff before general release. With so many different mats out there its hard to decide which to buy! However I recently came across Javis mats. Javis seem to have started as a model railway scenery producer but have expanded a little.

Javis don't do a standard 6x4 mat, but do 4x2 instead, and this got me thinking. They do urban, desert and field, all in the 4x2 sixe, so with 3 mats I can make a 6x4 mat, but one that I can change around for every game and terrain. The idea is like this, say 2 desert and a urban plus a few buildings and trees, equals town on edge of desert, or two urban with a field in between, equals a large open park area between the buildings. with say 2 of each, I could create a number of different situations, so every game would be different. The down side? Well, the mats are not nearly as robust looking or as nice to look at, as they are not printed like many of the others but are cloth. I don't know how this will impact of wear and tear factors, but I think that they should hold up fairly well to the amount of use that they will be getting. I don't know anyone who has them, so I cant go and have a look, and I don't really trust the online stuff, as you only every seem to get the two extremes, those that love things and cant praise them highly enough or those that hate them and want to burn every single one.

But a mat doesn't make a battlefield. So what of terrain. Well, after looking at several options and also getting my hands on a few different types, namely some plastic Mantic terrain, some very nice scratch build stuff and some MDF building, I'm going with the MDF stuff. There are several good packages on eBay. It can be hard to choose which building to go for as there are some really nice looking ones, and they range from old west to ultra modern and sci-fi. But I want something to fit in with the fluff of my armies, mainly the IG ones, so I've been looking at single story type building, build in a kinda middle eastern type style. I eventually came up with this lot (picture just in case the link doesn't work):

Ok, so not quite what I was looking for, but it covers every angle. Single story buildings plus some ruins, for making the little villages fitting the fluff of my IG worlds, some big buildings, mostly ruins for some off world action. They will also fit in with my plans for the mats, painting up the single story building to mostly fit the desert and grass areas and the bigger ruins for the urban areas, obviously I could chop and change a bit, but on the who I think that its going to be good. In addition, the same seller is selling off cuts/miss cuts that can be used to base other items, namely the trees/plants that will accompany the buildings. Again, these will be themed to the IG worlds and will there for be mostly made of fist tank plastic grass. Based up in small clumps, they will represent scrub and bushes and scattered around the board they can be used to represent the greener side to the planets, lots in the grass areas or just a few scattered around in the desert and urban areas.

All in all, I'm quite excited by this project and i'm hoping to get it underway soon. However, I may have to wait until funds are more available, which may well be after Christmas, when I've had all my present money (yes, no ones buys me present these days, I just get money and told to "buy something nice", so that would be little men stuff then.