- contact@scarhandpainting.com
Today is a special day. The Army Painter – a worldwide supplier of hobby products, such as paints, colour primers, glues, brushes, tufts and more, is now twelve years old! It’s hard to believe that the company which entered the market in 2007th introducing a medium sized offer of hobby products grew to be a giant we know today. I remember when Army Painter appeared for the first time in a hobby store I ran. Easy to say I fell in love with some of their products and stuck with AP to this day.
So, let’s celebrate Army Painter’s 12th birthday with a review of my favorite AP product of all time – the Army Painter Super Glue!
The Army Painter Super Glue comes at a suggested price of 4,99€. Compared to a small tube of glue this might come across as expensive, but taking into account how much stuff you’ll be able to glue with a single bottle of AP’s glue and the fact it will stay functional long after first use – it’s totally worth it! Not to mention Games Workshop glue, which comes in four 5ml tubes, that once opened don’t stand a chance against Army Painter’s king of a glue!
I simply love this glue. I use it for twelve years now and used up more than a hundred bottles. I prefer it over any other Cyanoacrylate glue and I totally recommend you to try it out. I just can’t imagine hobbying without it. For me it’s essential.
Best to ask in your local hobby store, but if you want to support the great company Army Painter had become – head to Army Painter Website and order from them directly.
Moving painted miniatures to a tournament or painting competition can be a real challenge. I bet that every single miniatures painter had one or more miniatures damaged while being transported. Sad truth is that no matter what we do, situations like these happens. Still, when it comes to safe transportation of our beloved miniatures, we’re not completely helpless.
In the world of miniatures painting there are two well established ways of professional miniatures transportation, both with their own pros and cons: Foam Bags and Magnetic Bags. Today I would like to talk a bit about the latter and present to you the A-Case Hybrid Series from A-Case, one of the leading companies in the market.
During my years as a hobby store manager and a hobbyist, I’ve seen my share of transportation bags. This imho allows me to say that when it comes to quality A-Case is king. Everything fits, everything is smooth, no thread going wild along the stitches, inner metal casing of great quality plus the overall feel of an exclusive product.
New A-Case Hybrids saw a lot of improvements compared to previous series, such as a much sturdier construction, reinforced trays, strapped side pins to keep the trays in place and more.
I know this part is totally subjective, but Dayum! The new case looks so good! Everything from design, through quality makes it feel prestigious, both in the inside and the outside. To be fair the sole look is what made me crave a Magnetic Case of my own when I scrolled through facebook and saw it time and time again. Just couldn’t resist. At least now you know why I’m so hyped about it.
Coming from a position of an orthodox foam fan I have thoroughly tested this carrying case during last month. Apart from obvious features like light weight, comfort of use, adjustable strap with a shoulder pad, handle, large pocket and removable trays the Hybrid has some cool features that improve on the case’s functionality. A Velcro strap on top and at the front allows to attach badges, while water resistant material will keep your miniatures safe in case of bad weather. My favorite though are side pins to immobilize the trays in place. In previous series these might get lost but now attached with flexible straps they will follow the trays around.
It’s not easy to compare A-Cases to other transportation cases as there’s really no high tier competition in the market. Yes, there are some magnetic cases out there (Battle Foam, Tablewar etc.) but most is just out of this league. The A-Case is more expensive than foam counterpart, but it offers a totally different method of miniatures transportation. One that does not involve your paint job touching anything, even as soft as foam. One that allows you to transport large quantity of miniatures in a rather small bag. Most importantly one that is durable and will last for years to come. In addition A-Case offers free shipping around the world and in some cases (like US) that means huge savings.
For me the pricing of this exclusive product seem fair. Taking the cost of miniatures and time/money spent on painting into consideration, it seems like a reasonable price for solid, comfortable and very aesthetic protection.
To summarize, if you’re looking for a solid and comfortable way to transport your miniatures – A-Case is the thing. It looks great, it is very comfortable to use, made of high quality materials and with utmost care for detail. A bit on the expensive end of the hobby, although still reasonably priced. Personally I love it, as A-Case totally revolutionized my approach to Magnetic transportation and ended twenty years of my foam addiction.
A-Case Hybrid Series is available at:
A-Case website,
A-Case Facebook,
I hope you find this review interesting. Be sure to let me know your thoughts in the comments at Facebook or Instagram. I would also appreciate if you considered sharing this content with your friends, who might find it useful. Finally if you are looking for a professional miniatures painting service, be sure to contact me with this contact form. I always reply within 24 hours, after which please check out your spam folder.
“175 Years into the future, humankind has reached the stars. As the hyperpowers vie for influence in the shadows, citizens use their permanent connection to Maya, the Interplanetary Data Network, to revel in a bespoke deluge of thrills. Of course, no form of entertainment is as sought after as ARISTEIA!, the Human Sphere’s favorite extreme bloodsport.”
Aristeia! is a game of futuristic gladiatorial combat set in the universe of Infinity the Game. As far as I’m aware this is the first board game released by Corvus Belli, Infinity the Game’s producer. I was raised by a board game industry thus once in a while, if a miniatures filled board game happens to appear in my collection, I use this opportunity to review it. I decided to share my feel of Aristeia! with you. As with all my reviews this one will be totally subjective, so – you have been warned 🙂
The reason I bought the game in the first place – a set of eight metal Aristeia! characters. I knew what to expect from plastic miniatures, thus decided to spend more and get the best quality product. Metal miniatures are standard for Infinity the Game players, but are something totally new for regular board game muggles. To all of you who might not know Infinity the Game quality – these are one of the best miniatures in the market. They require a lot of preparation and must be put together before use, but would reward all the work put into them with great quality of detail.
Now, let’s leave awesome miniatures behind and see what’s inside the game…
The ‘Box’,
The box is solid, standard board game quality. Hard paper, smooth with no grating. It is not the quality that some of the most popular board game producing companies (FFG, CMON) spoil us with, but is still acceptably durable. In comparison to Corvus Belli’s usual front designs like Operation Icestorm which literally screams ‘Fuck yeah! So much action inside!’, Aristeia front is kind of dull. There seem to be a lot colours with not much coherency whatsoever, which is further emphasized by white background. My reaction to the box is that it would have difficulty catching my attention in a board game store – but hey – totally subjective.
‘How to Play’ ergo Rules,
A 15 pages long, ‘How to Play’ booklet. This one will lead you through game components and then a pre-setup game with pre-defined rolls and actions. Going through this should make you understand the game’s mechanics and feel comfortable going into your first ‘serious’ game. The booklet is designed to introduce some rules at certain point. If you are a seasoned board game player you would probably get bored in the middle and skip ahead to a real deal game… Seem nice for less experienced players tho.
‘Access Guide to the Human Sphere’ ergo Fluff book,
An interresting addition. Corvus Belli is well known for providing a deep background for their products. Aristeia! is not an exception. With this 14 pages long booklet we get to know the setting and the characters of Aristeia! A really nice way to get a bit more into the game and ‘feel’ the characters. Here’s also where you will find the best graphics of the game in high resolution.
Two-sided Gaming Board,
Made out of hexes and looking like a giant hex is the Hexadome board! Usual board game quality. After setup it lays flat on the table. It is rather clear to understand. I am a bit dissapointed that both sides have identical layout with only difference being the visual design. Hoped for two totally different gaming areas that would provide much more variety and replayability.
2 Control Panels,
When I look at these I want to quote Dutch from Predator poronouncing “What the hell are *you*?” with utter distaste. Supposedly fancy shaped to fit the board at the start of the game – utterly retarded once you realize that instead of helping they do the opposite. On top of that these look like out of entirely different game – they just don’t fit the visual layout of Aristeia! and mess up entire futuristic sci-fi feel of the game.
If you haven’t read the rules of the game – I advise to skip the list of issues below, not to get confused too much.
Overall Control Panels are a waste of resources, needless gadget – I am trashing my own and adding a ‘Aristeia! Control Panel’ to the list of words that trigger me.
A shitload of Tokens, including Obstacles, Damage, States, Victory Points, Frags, Green/Orange, Blue/Orange, Red/Blue, Red/Green, and Underdog.
When it comes to quality, once again this is just a regular board game quality. No grating, regular hard paper stuff. Gameplay wise these are clear to understand and easy to use, except for the pain in the ass tiny droplets, which really might have been the same size as ‘Damage 3’ tokens. Visually tokens present themeselves poorly. Once again a feature that doesn’t feel right and is far from fitting the supposedly futuristic aspect of the game. Tokens look like from some poor, booring game without theme. Quite dissapointing – and that’s actually strange comming from Corvus Belli, known for caring about visual and theme aspect of their products.
8×8 Stickers, because reasons…
I don’t want to talk about this. I know what they are for. I think they look poor as fck. I get why they are designed in this simple manner. Still look poor as fck.
‘Reference Guide’,
I am used to Reference Tables placed at the back of rules. This one is much more interresting, with 30 pages filled with answers, examples, rules claryfications, Scenarios and a list of about 90 topics and key words. There’s a Quick Reference Sheet at the back of this small size booklet and once you are done with ‘How to Play’ you can switch to ‘Reference Guide’ for life. I find this one to be a really great idea, even if it’s not entirely user friendly and rules redirect us to other rules, which then redirect us to other rules – classic ‘Spanish style’. Fear not! You’ll get used to it at some point.
I would still like to get a proper Rulebook and then use ‘Reference Guide’ as an ingame help.
14 custom D6 Dice,
A set of custom, easy to understand dice. Symbols are concave which transtales to almost infinite lifespan of such dice.
52 Tactics Cards,
Standard size cards with ‘Tactics’ – special actions players can use during the game. This piece is the one that could really use grated paper to provide much more durability. Gameplay friendly, with clear areas and strongly exposed rules section. Visually – I have mixed feelings. A lot is going on in the cards with Aristeia! characters jumping, kicking, shooting, hacking. There’s a comic like expression, suspense and feel to the pictures and yet pastel colours render it a bit silly and flat.
Visuals aside – what I would like to see is a mark in top left corner for all ‘Standard’ Tactics. This would quicken the process of finding Standard Tactics among other cards. Adding two colours distinction between these marks would also make a ‘How to Play’ part of our experience more pleasant, like ‘give orange dot cards to your opponent, take green dot cards yourself – now dig for cards numbered… whatever’.
8 Character Cards,
At first might seem a bit overwhelming, but in truth these are simple and easy to understand. Pretty nice design. Quality of paper is the same as Tactics Cards with an exception of visible cut markings on top. A pack of sleeves would render this irrelevant anyway.
8 Initiative Cards,
These are just awesome looking 42/63mm cards. Visually they present themeselves really cool. I think that adding a textured background and more edges is what makes these graphics outshine the rest.
8 Plastic Miniatures,
Bag’o’miniatures – a set of 8 miniatures, made out of soft ‘board game’ plastic. These come already put together (by some Chinese prisoners) and ready to play. Some have issues and all seem to be improperly glued onto the bases. If not for that then quality is almost the same as in Zombicide or most of FFG’s games. If you hoped for quality and detail simmilar to Infinity the Game – these would be a huge dissapointment, otherwise they are a regular board game miniatures and would serve their purpose perfectly.
Oops! So this is how one of the miniatures came in. It is not uncommon among board games – not a faulty design or production, just an accident in transportation. Complaint placed – will await a replacement.
Thin plastic box organizer,
So, the Organizer is a great thing that I come to appreciate, if delivered properly. This one is clearly made for the purpose of holding a factory issued game untill it get’s unpacked.
Could have been a cool feature, would go to trash instead.
Aristeia! has a well designed engine, that offers a lot of options to competitive players. Most of the time it made me think about which option to choose from rather than how rules work. Alternate character activation, Tactics Cards and special ‘Switch’ activated effects kept me occupied throughout the round, all the while rotating Scoring Zones and planning my characters Activation sequence pleasantly stimulated my brain cells. I appreciate that Aristeia! has some elements of deck and team building, providing options to construct a deck of Tactics Cards and a team of selected characters. This is yet another feature that competitive players might find interresting. Once I got to know the key words and rules mechanisms of the game seem simple and enjoyable. I especially appreciate a fast and not complicated end phase of every round, which does not disturb action.
The way in which rules are served is a bit of a downside. Some things that are meant to be intuitive ended up being confusing and entire process of being led hand in hand with a pre-designed turn from ‘How to Play’ was exhausting and not very pleasant. In the other hand everything is there in the booklet and many in-game situations are covered so once through it – I quickly knew how to proceed.
Some crunchy mechanics are:
If you hope to bring this game to a friendly meeting and just start playing with your Settlers of Catan friends – I strongly recommend not to. Corvus Belli did a fine job of introducing symbols and intuitive elements, but the game is still full of key words, special skills, triggered mechanisms that might confuse board game muggles. This game is a fine piece for two seasoned players who would like to clash against one another and win eternal glory in the Hexadome!
In my opinion gameplay-wise Aristeia! is very similar to World of Warcraft Miniatures Game, which at some point I enjoyed a crazy lot! This makes me look at Aristeia! from a friendly perspective and I have some hopes for the future of the game.
In a straight out of a box ‘How to Play’ way – nope. Some ballance comes with Experience but you won’t be able to achieve perfect ballance untill you and your opponent both have a box of your own. Once there, you will be able to build a Team and Tactics Deck from among all available components and the game would become ballanced. For less competitive ‘one box’ play I see potential in drafting heroes or just switching teams with gaming buddy from time to time, so that no one would end up feeling like his team is underpowered in certain aspects.
Yes and it is a gargantuan, Pacific Rim sized difference. Just take a look at the pictures and see for yourself…
From what I am aware there are some big plans for Aristeia! Organized Play. We already know what to expect from the first expansion ‘Soldiers of Fortune’, and these are meant to be introduced every seazon. Seasonal expansions would make for good replayability and should keep players interrested. In my opinion Aristeia! has some potential and is certainly much more suitable for competitive play than Infinity the Game. Would it become as popular as X-Wing? I hope not, cause this would mean cancerous individuals soiling community built and cared for by Corvus Belli. Still I keep my fingers crossed for CB’s success, even tho they seem to diverse some of their attention from my favorite game.
Even tho I spent almost half of my life in a Hobby Store Aristeia! is a conundrum to me. In one hand it is clearly an interresting game and I enjoyed the gameplay. Aristeia’s mechanisms aren’t anything that I haven’t seen before, but the way they work with each other translates to a really thinked through set of rules. On top of that the game has a lot of potential both in competitive and hobby aspects. In the other hand some components are just fucking ugly and it hurts my eyes to look at them. Taking Metal Miniatures out of the equation, for me Aristeia! is totally gameplay over looks. Would I purchase this game if not for trust Corvus Belli earned from me? Nope. Would I purchase this game if not for Limited Collector’s Edition miniatures I want to add to my Infinity the Game collection? Nope. Yet this is due to my prefferences, not the game itself and once I actually got Aristeia! I must say it is a nice game. Price also seem legit and I bet that with 59,9€ starting price there will be ways to get the basic set for less than 50€ – and that is not bad for a game set enabling you to participate in Organized Play. On a scale where 10 is awesome, 8 is good, 6 is ok, 5 is mediocre, 3 is bad and I don’t want to even mention 1 I would say Aristeia! is somewhere between 6 and 7, and that’s only because of some ugly components that drag the note down.
If you don’t care about the looks of Tokens and ‘Trigger Word’, if you like illustrations on the cards and feel like going through a bit spanish’ish rules – you should totally give this game a try. If my expectations for visual aspect of the game were met I would totally rate this game an 8. Im sure that Aristeia! will reward you with a fine and interresting gameplay, so long as you approach it with a proper mindset.
Agree/Disagree? There’s a comment section below where you can stand for your opinion 😉
The Army Painter – a worldwide supplier of hobby products, such as paints, colour primers, glues, brushes, tufts and well… fck’n barbaric ‘Quickshades’. The company entered the market in 2007th introducing a medium sized offer of hobby products meant, as the name suggests, to paint entire armies. My personal adventure with Army Painter started pretty early, as I was a hobby store manager back in the days they’ve appeared. Easy to say that throughout ten years I had a pleasure of getting to know their entire range to a point, where Army Painter’s products had no secrets from me. Since 2007 the Army Painter’s offer had grewn potentially expandindg their paints range more than thrice and introducing some revamped products as well. This brings even more opportunities to get to know some new cool stuff.
When it comes to my opinion about entire AP’s range – I have mixed feelings. AP do have some fantastic products like:
Still, they also produce stuff like:
Atop of all the above they also produce Hobby Tools, different glues, paints, Licensed Warpaints and Battlefields XP Tufts – and today I would like to take a closer look at the latter.
For me the most important trait of a product is the quality. There’s plenty of products priced closely in the market, but among them there are some which exceed in quality. That’s where I aim, when deciding if I should purchase a range of particular products or not. In case of Army Painter’s Battlefield XP Tufts I used them for a very long time due to easy access and limited competition. Back in the days I wasn’t entirely happy with the AP’s tufts, as their quality varried between good and very bad. Old tufts were applied randomly, rendering a significant part of the product useless, be it due to not enought material being used or some tufts being applied to the fold in the foil, they came attached to. New tufts in the contruary, are applied selectively, numbering the exact 77 ideal pieces in a straight raws and varrying in shapes and sizes. This makes the new tufts superior to their previous incarnation and most of the current competition in the market. One might say that they are as close to being perfect as possible.
They come in a variety of colours and designs. I really dig the entire range. One thing that set’s me on edge and lowers my rating from ‘awesome’ to ‘very good’ is the number of differently coloured blades mixed with the main colour. Oh’ Army Painter – why, for the love of God, you do things like this? These black hair are more horrific than your graphic layout and it is ‘a thing’…
Jokes (or not) aside, I miss the old Swamp Tuft’s strong green colour, not to mention old Winter Tuft. I do hope that with all the new designs and revamps you will bring more tufts to the fold and fill the void in my heart. Either way – be it mixed or solo, all the new Tufts look very good.
I have the exact zero issues with new Army Painter Battlefield XP Tufts. They come in perfect shapes, hair held firmly in the adhesive base. All hair are pointed upwards and on the sides. Colours are mixed well and in some cases different colours are also of a different length. Being arranged in straight raws makes these tufts easy to grab, while adhesive base has enough glue to keep them in place once used.
I have a little fetish of mine, tending to apply tufts over Super Glue and AP’s tufts behave very good when done so.
Army Painter’s Battlefield XP Tufts are very well priced. They are priced close to previously reviewed Paint Forge products, offering 77 pieces in a variety of sizes, including big ones. Would be awesome if they were cheaper, but that would be just too good, to say the least.
Army Painter’s Battlefields XP Tufts look cool, are very user friendly, easy to apply, of solid quality and come in a variety of colors – and the price is exactly what I would expect of these. Solid stuff.
All in all I’m happy to finally be reviewing the Army Painter, with which I spent like ten years of solid painting by now. In my opinion some of their products are totally undervalued by hobbyists around the globe. I plan to bring more AP’s products on to the review table in the future. Mostly, the ones I like to use and have plenty of, like Washes or the best of the best Miniature & Model Super Glue.
Where to purchase? If you are lucky, then your local hobby store has some, but if not – go straight to the source at Army Painters Online store. If you happen to be managing a hobby store in Poland, then I strongly recommend you to contact THESE GUYS, they are very friendly distributors based here in Rzeczpospolita Polska.
Static Grass or Tufts? That is a question that each painter has to answer by himself before going commando with basing miniatures. My personal favorites are off course Tufts as they offer a great visual effect. Sure, tufting entire base can be a bit expensive in comparisson to using Static Grass, but isn’t the looks what truly matters? So Tufts it is – and during many years of miniatures painting I used a variety of them. Recently I work with Army Painter’s, Citadel’s and MiniNature’s but when I want to pop the visual effect of a base with something more colorful or just fancy – I bring Paint Forge to the table!
From what I know Paint Forge is a Polish painting studio, that produced tufts and Flowers for own use, then seeing how popular they are – started mass production. I first encountered their products by accident, just scrolling through online offer of a friendly hobby store – seeking something to fill my shoping cart with. After seeing the offer I grabbed a handful of different Tufts and Flowers to test them. Since then I already had to resupply as I used up couple of packages during INFINITY: TOHAA project. Must say that most of the time I’m happy with Paint Forge’s stuff but let’s take a closer look at how their products present themeselves…
Both Tufts and Flowers are of fine quality. Once you work with them you will quickly notice the lack of the flaws that most of the nowadays Tufts and Flowers have. There will be no huge, random chunks of Tufts that require you to tear them into smaller pieces before usage. There’s almost no need to prepare either Tufts nor Flowers before use as they go in shapely groups – self adhesive and ready to be glued onto the base. When I say ‘adhesive’ I mean – like really, really adhesive – these are based on some sort of goo that really sticks to the surface. Upon opening the package there won’t be hundreds upon hundreds of loose grass blades – only few of these. There’s also no Games Workshop-like shine of the grass blades. Some flaws are still present but it is common with this kind of products.
What can I say? Paint Forge’s Tufts ands Flowers just kick ass when it comes to Visuals. I know that it is a matter of taste but hell – I’ll just drop some pictures of the miniatures that I used Paint Forge’s stuff on:
Paint Forge’s Tufts and Flowers are rather functional. Most of the time the only preparation they require would be to pick them with tweezers and just put them on the base. Some things that I have issues with are:
These are not some huge flaws, still once they appear – they tend to consume time, and time (at least for me) is the most important factor in miniatures painting. Either way these are rare while the overall functionality of the products is really high. No need to remove a rough grass blade – it’s easier to stick the Tuft on the base so that this flaw will stay hidden. You can also try to reposition such grass blade into the goo. There are many quick ways to fix any encountered bug – while using the Tufts with ease.
Paint Forge’s products are well balanced when it comes to price. Not too expensive with price gauge placed somewhere around Army Painter. It wouldn’t hurt if they were a bit cheaper, thus competitive, but considering the quality – pricing is really ok.
Not too expensive, great looking and user friendly – Paint Forge’s products are a great choice to compliment the arsenal of Tufts and Flowers used to base the miniatures. Personally I fell in love with them and will expand my collection. I only wish I got to know them a bit sooner so that many fine projects would benefit from it – still there’s a lot of projects before me and you will notice Paint Forge’s Tufts and Flowers appearing in a lot of them.
Where to purchase? The best way is to contact Paint Forge directly via Facebook or to visit Vanaheim.pl/eu and order some!
Many names are given to this place. We call it a workshop, a working desk, a hobby spot. Each of us has his own nickname with which he adreses this special place, and it is special cause no two are alike! Filled with brush stands, cans, mini-organizers, boxes, shelves, holders, cutting mats, pads and a variety of tools – working spaces come in many different shapes and forms. Still one vital trait stands out and is common among working spaces – they all are temples of our hobby and as such are treated with love and care.
For me a Workbench is an altar. Each time I add a small detail – be it a single accessory holder, a new brush can, or a new addition to my modular workshop system – I feel like a builder expanding an antic temple to stand even higher and wider – all to the glory of the gods. And just as such I tend to hire the best architects and artists from around the globe to lend me their skills…
The bulk of my personal altar is mostly made out of HobbyZone’s ‘Modular Workshop System’. I have expanded this set three times by now and am sure to purchase even more pieces, just as the opportunity presents itself. As it happened, couple of days ago I felt the need to expand my Workbench a bit and ordered two new pieces of HZ ‘Modular Workshop System’. So as a happy customer and a total fanboy of HobbyZone I wanted to share with you some insight into their fantastic offer.
One of the two most important things about HobbyZone’s products is quality. It can be seen in every detail, starting with how these items are packed, how they look like, with nice, almost stylish combination of white and plywood. Add to it the width of all the outer casings and inner ‘holding’ walls which makes these things durable and reliable in many crisis situations. Also each piece is designed to withstand stress of moving them around with additional weight on top. Walls are clamped together providing a sturdy structure and on top of that there are actual magnets inserted into the construction to help you keep everything in place.
Second most important thing about HobbyZone’s Modular Workshop is functionality. OK, I haven’t tested all the different parts of ‘Modular Workshop System’, but hey – the entire point is to pick a set that would suit your needs best! Right now my set consists of three drawer modules, one paint module, one showcase module and one brushes and tools module with an addition of eight paint hangers. Each of these items proved to be useful to me and I don’t see a way it can be further improved. And I am a guy who tends to redesign stuff to better suit his needs – It’s just that HobbyZone’s stuff is cool as it is.
I believe that the way an item is packed corresponds directly to it’s quality and the way a customer will perceive it. I appreciate when an Item I spent my money on is well packed (cared for). That being said – I just love the way HobbyZone stuff is packed. Each item has it’s own box, filled with bubble wrap. Inside you will find an instruction and all the pieces required to ‘build’ particular item (except for glue, but which hobbyist does not have that already?). By now I know exactly what I would see inside a new HobbyZone box – even so each unpacking is still a pleasant experience.
Each piece of HobbyZone ‘Modular Workshop System’ is designed to be user friendly and easy to assemble. No tools are required to put these things together. With a nice and easy to understand instruction (that comes with each set), I was able to put this module together in less than five minutes. Half an hour later when glue was dry, I was able to use this piece.
Each hobbyist is probably going to see the matter of price differently. For me the quality and functionality of HobbyZone’s ‘Modular Workshop System’ is well balanced with a price oscillating between 10-20€/medium piece. Purchased items are shipped within 72hrs from purchase (during working days). HobbyZone is well stocked in it’s stuff. Don’t know how about you, but I totally appreciate it. If you still not into it – just check out this MIND BLOWING STICKER!
For me HobbyZone’s stuff is great. If you struggle to keep your workbench organized do not waste your time – head on to HobbyZone.pl/en(EU) / HobbyZone.biz(USA) and change your hobbying for the better. Zapisz
Hey guys! Some of you may find this interresting. Recently I bought a hot stuff: AVP The Hunt Begins boardgame and what I found inside the box forced me to write this review.
About Aliens vs Predator franchise: I personally love AVP. The retro futuristic setting and it’s owerwhelming dark mood keeps my heart burning with desire for more and more AVP stuff to buy. In AVP universe human is reduced to the role of prey. Even tho Colonial Marines are tough bastards equipped with deadly Smartguns and Pulse Rifles they still fall to Alien predation and are no match against masters of the hunt, the Predators. Hunted for sport or means of breeding they must cooperate to survive the inevitable doom.What I find the most important in all AVP products is for them to be based on Aliens (2nd movie) and Predator (1st movie). So we have some armed to the teeth Colonial Marines, being thrown between an angered Aliens hive and dreadful Predator hunters. They try to survive, while their number dwindles slowly. All the time the terror is multiplied, but still badass Marines cheer up the mood with good, oldschool oneliners. This is how I see it. That’s the way I love it.
So when I found out about AVP board/miniature game being released I was extatic! I jumped right onto Kickstarted and was taken aback by the information of who releases it: Prodos Games. After seeing the difference between Prodos’ Warzone Kickstarter and Warzone final products I wasn’t sure if I wanted to spend some cash in advance. I’d held my hand and awaited KS campaign results. After it came to an end Prodos surprised me with an option to buy the game via their site. That was unexpected and bothered me a little so once more I held my hand and didn’t made the purchase. Finally the AVP The Hunt Begins hit the stores and this time, being sure that I will get my copy, I made the purchase.
The box looks amazing and weights a lot so once you will hold it in your hands, you’ll probably buy it 🙂
THE BOX: The way with which game elements are packed is mediocre. Cards packed in small paper boxes. Miniatures packed in zip bags. All zip bags packed into a medium cardboard box. A huge foam square glued still inside the cover of the box (what the fuck?! Why have you damaged my beautiful box Prodos?). Regardless of the foam my Rulebook was already damaged so this sole fact halted some of my enthusiasm. It was balanced with an easy but clever move with which Prodos prepared Cardboard Sprues to be taken out of the box. A small hole big enough for a finger was cut in the sprues. (Why haven’t I seen anything similar in other board games – I don’t know, but it’s a nice idea).
MINIATURES: Miniatures are amazingly detailed and kept to the scale. Look at these Colonial Marines. These look amazing!
Still some molding solutions are just idiotic. Take a look at this Alien miniature. It has mold channels inside it’s hands! I work with miniatures for more than fifteen years now and I’ve rarely seen such stupid way of placing the mold channels. Some of the hobbyists may have a real problem dealing with these.
And now the worst thing. My Disc Predator was a miscast and looked like this. Yeah Chinese – you fucked up my Predator Miniature and then packed it into my copy of the game. What do you think I feel like right now? This miniature is trash. Instead of painting it and playing the game I placed a complaint to my local store and await a new miniature.
I thought that Prodos Games evolved a bit after Warzone. A lot of mistakes in production process there. As it stands I was wrong – Prodos seems not to learn from it’s failures.
CARDS: In my opinion Cards are the biggest disappointment in the whole product. The material with which they are made is bad. Boardgame Cards where made this way like ten years ago. The differences between Prodos Cards and Fantasy Flight Games’s ones are huge. The quality is light years away. Still it gets worse. The cards lack all the climate that made AVP what it is. For example: there are no quotes from the movies, no one liners that built the Alien and Predator franchises. Not a single ‘theme’ motive on the objective cards. Even card backs are devoid of thought through theme. These looks like if Prodos Games forced the product at speed and without taking theme and AVP mood into consideration. “Just print the rules”. Here, take a look:
[This looks ok,]
[These are faction cards and they look ok,]
These are faction cards backs and I can’t help myself not to wander – where the Fuck are Colonial Marines cards? Was it so difficult to make them look more like card fronts?
These are Enviromental Cards. Wow Prodos Games – so much climate, so strong AVP theme… How have you planned to build the atmosphere of the game without a plot/story/setting motive?
[Predator and Alien stat cards look nice.]
And now the worst shit ever: Colonial Marines stat cards look ALL THE SAME! Hey grunts, which one of you is an awesome Smartgunner? Anyone called for a Medic? Really? Couldn’t these be done differently? It’s not that there’s plenty of graphics in the game with not more then a dozen in the Rulebook and half a dozen on the stat cards…
And where are all the Marines? I’ve looked through the Rules and there’s only a single Colonial Marines picture (well not exactly as it depicts a Weyland Yutani commando) and like two or three pictures with a Colonial Marine being a background. It seems Prodos forgot about Human species being the epicenter of the AVP theme. Sure I like a feel of the call of the hunt as a Predator or to stalk the dark corridors as the Alien, but as a human the faction I feel the most related to is Colonial Marines.
CARDBOARD TOKENS: I have mixed feeling about these. The cardboard material is bad still the visual aspect is quite nice. Take a look at this:
Looks good doesn’t it? And now let’s do the things Prodos style, with as much minimalism as one may have. Sentry, Hidden, Activated tokens all look like shit. Devoid of climate and pathetic in design. Other tokens look ok but not awe worthy.
[I just can’t understand the reasoning behind designing Acid Damage token to be one sided. It was childishly easy to copy/paste the same graphic to the other side.]
THE RULES: The final part of this Review – the Rules are BAD. I’ve played a lot of games both miniature and board games in the past years. I love Space Hulk for it’s simplicity, Rune Wars for many strategies and easy to learn rules, Zombicide, Catwallon: City of Thieves, Super Dungeon Explore, Warhammer 40,000, Infinity, Mordheim and more. All these games are more than playable and rewarding. I find AVP The Hunt Begins rules rather easy but written in such a way that I was forced to jump between the pages and search for some rules all the while these were formed in a way that my Wargaming hardened mind couldn’t comprehend. AVP rules are just unreadable, full of missing letters, idiotic key words and above all – they are totally devoid of flavor. Prodos Guys – just see to Zombicide rulebook and you will know what I mean by climate!
So in the end I give this game a 5 out of 10 and am very, very disappointed in the product I have waited so long for. If nothing changes in the way Prodos Games designs their products I will reconsider spending my cash on their products in the future. If not for the miniatures – this game would’ve been a stain on the AVP franchise as big as PC Aliens – Colonial Marines was.
And Prodos – this is a 10 out of 10 and it’s a fucking mascot. You were owned by a Facehugger mascot! Let it be a warning to you – that purchasing a copyright to a franchise does not mean you can blew all the rest up. You should’ve made sure that your rules and game components would stand to the great AVP franchise and you have failed in that. Shame!
Agree/Disagree? There’s a comment section below where you can stand for your opinion 😉
