Games Day 2013

Games day 2013 or as it quickly became known Retail Day was a bit of a let-down after excellent shows the last two years. I found like many gamers that by the time the afternoon came around I had ran out of things to do and really felt the absence of the gaming boards.

The store area was no less manic despite the reduced numbers and larger store floor space. Sadly Forgeworld was pretty much sold out by the time I got there and the main store was also largely what you would expect to find in any high-street store, unsurprising following the death of specialist games this year.

My best purchase of the day was insignium Astartes, which has some really detailed pictures of the company banners and a range of ideas for the squad designation's.

There were some excellent miniatures and boards on show which did make up part of the ticket price but all in all I came away jaded, with only a couple of limited edition books to show for my trip down to the Birmingham NIA.

Astartes Ultra

So after a few years of collecting, putting together something that resembled the fluff, with a lot of self-scrutiny about the choices I was making, GW have brought out the largest 1 click deal they have ever done; a whole Chapter in one click, off the shelf, and knocked my collection for six.

Looking through the very impressive content there is a lot in there, with some real diversity, but less apocalypse ready formations than I expected. Outside of Landraiders it also feels a little light on armour.

One of the more interesting points is the mixed in Landspeeders and Centurions. Their squad sizes have caused me a headache, as I dislike fielding part squads. After thinking through the contentious issue of supernumeraries combined with the apocalypse formations on the table and the cost of the Centurions and speeders I have decided to lump them into the expanding division of the armoury.

I hope that when I am done Games Workshop will be kind enough to give me all the fantastic extras they are throwing in with it.

Airbrush Work

This is my first attempt at painting with an airbrush. I had been toying with the idea of getting one for a while and the big flat areas of the Storm Raven felt like the ideal test subject. It is my usual Chaos Black undercoat and then my usually Ultramarines blue watered down with thinner. I have a pretty even coat and I am happy with the result, but I fond that setting up the brush, mixing the paint and cleaning the brush means that this is only going to save me time doing very large miniatures or batch jobs.