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 Victory 2.0 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 Victory 2.0 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 Victory 2.0 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 Victory 2.0 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-Case’s Victory 2.0 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. Coming at a price of around 180€ Victory 2.0 is also 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, around 180€ seems like a small 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 Victory 2.0 is the thing. It looks great, it is very comfortable to use, made of high quality materials and with utmost care for detail. On top of it the case is reasonably priced. 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 deem this product awesome! 10/10 Victory 2.0 totally revolutionized my approach to Magnetic transportation and ended twenty years of my foam addiction.
Victory 2.0 is currently being produced after a successful kickstarter campaign. If you suddenly crave for your own Carrying Case, head to:
A-Case website,
A-Case Facebook,
If you’re more of a patient type and want to save some buck – wait for the next A-Case kickstarter campaign, which is sure to take place at some point in the future.
Victory 2.0 and other Carrying Cases from the Hybrid series will be available to purchase in December 2019! Stay tuned!
Brushes and Tools Roll Bag is another product of A-Case that I really like. This smart solution of brushes and modelling tools transportation might come in handy when you plan to take your hobby on a trip, or engage in hobby activities at a local store. Personally I’ve used it to transport my tools to airbrush workshops I ran. Also took it to hotels couple of times. It’s great and I can’t figure out why it ain’t that popular with hobbyists?
Either way – I have three of these and currently use two – this leaves me with one spare Roll Bag. You’ve made it through the entire article and deserve a reward – so here’s where the surprise starts:
The top right Brushes and Tools Roll Bag (Orange) can be yours!
To join the raffle simply:
* Like Scarhandpainting Facebook profile,
* Like this facebook post and comment on it with a #gimmerollbag,
Results will be posted at Sunday 10th of November. Good luck!
Every year I try to put painting miniatures aside, even if just for a bit, to bring to you a Battle Report. Infinity the Game is still my favorite miniatures game and once again I participate in a yearly online campaign. Keeping the story short – it’s that time of the year and to uphold to tradition – I’m back with this year’s Infinity the Game Battle Report. (Apologies to all those who have no idea about Infinity and it’s lore).
After berely surviving ALEPHS incursion at Wotan blokade the Dong Peyote repurposed freighter fled to deep space for vital repair. It took a year to fix the ship, during which it’s crew kept a low profile, gathering reasources necessary to rejoin Nomad military operations. Couple of weeks ago DeePee’s long range radio scanner picked up a call for help from Johhny-5 Arachne Node, based on planet Dawn. The ship and it’s crew burned their engines dry to finally arrive at planet Dawn just in time. Battered yet unbroken, Dong Peyote entered the atmosphere of Dawn using a meteor shower to disquise it’s signature from Ariadna low-tech scanners, the same night as Vince McMahogany news of conflict erupting at Novyy Cimmeria shocked public media of the Human Sphere.
It was Zhàn Huó Firebase that picked Dong Peyote’s approach before it’s mighty load could be dropped at J-5 Node. To avoid being shot down, captain of the ship decided to fall back to low orbit. This did not sit well with the crew, eager to aid their Nomad brethren in defense of the node. Small elite squads were formed and then dropped over entire island in assault pods. Each squad was to carry it’s own mission, to then converge at the J-5 node, all the while Dong Peyote would support them from orbit…
Team ‘Kraken’ ,named after Kriza Borac suit of power armour that formed it’s core, crash landed at the no man’s land between Panoc-23 Multi-Base and the outskirts J-5 installation. Their secret mission doomed to fail, the team received orders to head north and intercept a heavy armoured Panoceania kill-squad. Guided by the all seeing eye of the Dong Peyote, team Kraken layed the trap…
After setting up the trap Nomads layed in wait. [Won the roll-off and kept the Initiative, which resolved in setting up first.] The plan was to take Panoceanians by surprise, going in loud and hard, Full-Auto to cover Wraith (Spectre) advance and enable him to deploy Repeaters. That in turn would allow team’s Interventor to turn the tables on top of approaching Panoceania Heavy Infantry. Kitty, the Chimera was kept in reserve – being a fast runner, capable of crossing long distances and taking the enemy by surprise. A good simple plan. Exactly the type that might go wrong…
Critko was barely able to contain Kraken’s lust for blood. The big man was breathing heavily over the comms and Critko knew all to well that the time he had to cover a firelane with area of White Noise was counted in merely seconds. No one said that being LT was easy, especially when commanding a group composed of individuals from all three mothersships. He closed his eyes, counted to five and screamed loud ‘NOW!’ over the comms. (LT order and 4 regular orders for the White Noise to succeed. Like WTF?!)…
Entire team reacted almost instantly, springing into action. Kraken led the charge opening up with a wide salvo from his heavy mashine gun. Hot ultra-sonic rounds zipped through the air and over the heads of surprised Magister Knights, who tossed themeselves sideways and into cover. Blinded by the area of White Zone, a Black Friar reacted too late and was shredded to pieces. ‘First blood!’ roared Kraken, just as enemy panzerfaust missiles started exploding around him…
Enemy shock lasted less than five seconds. Just enough for Wraith to throw himself forward and behind cover. ‘These Pano Knights are a real deal’ he murmured to his team, deploying first of the repeaters. ‘They surely are’ whispered a voice behind him. The Spektr noded, more to himself than to Mighty Dong Peyote shadowing him, still being Camoed. ‘Allright Dong, one more repeater and you can go in. Oh, the sweet surprise these guys are about to get.’ He cackled…
Heavy mashine gun shots peppered the air around Magister Knights yet they regained composure in a matter of seconds. With a loud ‘Deus Vult’ booming from their helmet speakers, they threw themeselves in the direction of incomming fire, swords raised high. The leading knight was first to fall into the trap. Critko Isolated him with ease, denying leadership to the entire squad. One more knight got Gotcha!’ed before the rest realised what’s going on and backed away…
An Order Sergeant de-camoed on a rufftop and opened fire at aRGee (Riotgrrl ML) damaging her armour. She ducked for cover, AP rounds bouncing off her armoured shoulder guard. That’s when comms exploded with a scream of agony. Kitty, the Chimera got shot in the back by a rapidly decelerating AD troop. Crusader Brethren landed in a cloud of dust and sent another volley from his spitfire. He then switched to supressive fire, blocking entire fire lane and covering the howling Chimera against any attempts of Nomads trying to aid her…
Except for immobilized leader, knights were falling back behind cover. That was an opening Kraken waited for. He rushed in, taking the statue-like Panoceanian out of his misery with a short, well placed series of HMG fire. He gained momentum and steered his heavy armour to a new direction, moving around a low building and outflanking remaining knights. ‘Bullseye’ he murmured to himself, once his armour’s targeting lenses caught new signatures. Crouched behind cover and protected by a Magister Knight was Panoceania’s Leutenant. Kraken pulled the trigger and the world around was set ablaze by the light of high-speed tracking rounds. Both Panoceanians returned fire, but it was too late. Smoke rising from the holes in their blooded armour, Panoceanias barely touched the ground when Kraken exploded into action once again. He covered half the distance between them and jumped onto a ladder, holstering the HMG on his back. Strong pulls from his massive hands saw him emerge on a rooftop across Panoceanian Sniper. Termo Optic Camo haze danced all over sniper’s silhouette, while he pumped round after round pinning aRGee and Aby behind cover, across the battlefield. Kraken had just the right tool for the job. Full-Automatic fire cut poor Panoceanian in half…
At the other side of the battlefield a nameless Zero shimmered into being. Spitfire wielding Crusader Brethren was unlucky enough to find himself at the receiving end of Zero’s Combi Rifle. Kitty was barely alive but not beyond reach of heavy drugs mixed with some Aby’s magic…
Sudden redeployment of Kriza Borac allowed the two remaining knights to attack through empty firelane. As one, they threw themeselves out into the open and charged. The first knight to emerge from behind corner, in hope of rounding up on Wraith, had a nasty surprise waiting for him. The Mighty Dong Peote (Bran DoCastro) dropped Camo and Engaged the knight, moving under the barrel of his shotgun and closing the distance in a blink of an eye. The knight took a wide swing with his sword, but the Mighty Dong Peyote parried it easily and put the knight down with a strong punch of his energised brass knuckles. Second knight joined the fight eager to drew Nomad blood. Mouth opened, Wraith watched in ave as the Mighty Dong Peyote whirled and danced around the knights, using one of them to throw himself into air and laying a devastating punch on another knight’s helmet. For a moment there, it looked like a strange mix of blue armour, Nomad mask, smoke and blood. Entire fight lasted less than half a minute and then it ended just as suddenly as it begun…
Kraken allowed himself to be distracted by close combat that took place below. Energy discharges and blood dropplets seem to slow down before his eyes. This was a sign that the suit pumped a fresh coctail of drugs into his bloodstream just to keep him standing. He turned to survey the battlefield, just in time to see a boarding Shotgun wielding Crusader comming at him from behind. He squeezed the trigger hard but a rain of bullets never came. The display showed ’empty’. Kraken had no time to reflect on this, cause a Borading Shotgun slug hit him square in the chest and sent his heavy suit to the ground. Another round blasted a huge gap in his thigh, blood and nano-oil exploding in every direction. Kraken roared like a wounded animal. With inhuman effort he unholstered his pistol and sent few rounds in the direction of the assailant, but it was already too late – his vision blurred, he let himself be embraced by blackness…
Kraken woke up suddenly, surrounded by chaos. Screams of the wounded and the dying were accompanied by constant gunfire somewhere in the background. High walls decorated with ‘J-5’ signs surrounded a vast hall, filled with makeshift beds, each being occupied by a wounded soldier. Aby stood over him arguing passionately with what seemed to be one of the cat-eared Daktaris. ‘Where are we?’ he wanted to say, but a short, rough gasp was all that managed to leave his dried lips. ‘Shh big boy, you lost a lot of blood’ said Aby and put her hand on his bare, muscled shoulder. The touch of her warm hand made him realize he’s been stripped of his armour and this sent a burst of adrenaline into his brain. He tried to sit straigh but couldn’t. Something was wrong. Something was very, very wrong. He looked down his body. ‘Where’s my fucking leg?!’ he roared through cracked lips. Aby just smiled at him gently. ‘Don’t worry big guy. We’ll get you a new one’…
This battle of Firefight was fought between me and my dear friend Astharis. At the end of turn two, Panoceania retreated, but not before earning a honourable one Victory Point, by taking out Nomad Data Tracker with two well placed Boarding Shotgun rounds.
The end result was 8 for the Nomads who managed to:
*kill more Lieutenants than the adversary (2 Objective
Points).
*kill more Army Points than the adversary (3 Objective
Points).
*kill the enemy DataTracker (1 Objective Point).
*accomplish two Classyfied Objectives (Extreme Prejudice & Secure HVT).
against 1 for the Military Orders who :
*killed the enemy DataTracker (1 Objective Point).
We had a lot of fun as the game was plagued by rolls that broke stathistics, some really cinematic moments and funny situations.
Highlights:
* I totally lost faith in Critko (Interventor) who up to now was always a reliable, almost godlike hacker. 5 rolls to place a single White Noise was just beyond rotfl.
* Kraken (Kriza Borac HMG) was vital to achieving vistory. The HMG beast is fast and was able to outflank Panoceanians and take out some vital targets. He was ultra badass, even tho last Pano effort to earn some OP’s actually took him out (Unconscious).
* In this game Intruder HMG done literally nothing, except providing orders XD
* Double Repeater trap combined with Kriza’s AROs was a bullseye, that allowed me to keep the Magister Knights at bay.
* The Mighty Dong Peyote (Bran DoCastro) was insane in this match, overcoming two Magister Knights in a glorious and brutal CC.
* I expected to see more TO: Camo. Imagine my surprise when first Crusader entered the board behind my troops and killed the Chimera. Imagine my surprise when second Crusader entered the board and took out the Kriza XD If my forces weren’t spread wide or if I lost the Initiative – these guys would be devastating.
“The Colony” – an Infinity gaming board project that streaches in time and space.
Yes – The Colony Special Project lives on and dayum! I almost run out of space to store it! Last time (“THE COLONY” SPECIAL PROJECT part nine) I was pretty sure that once I airbrush a bit here and there, The Colony would finally be completed. Imagine my surprise when I saw how the project expanded since last article. So, let’s dive straight into it…
It finally happened – The Colony is now fully painted with no MDF, be it white or regular, visible. The project was set aside for few months, when all of a sudden I got new buildings from Gingermane and painted them to match my existing set. I then followed through with all the rest including bridges, food booths, walls and ad stands. Fortunatelly for me, Bocian from Gingermane is a cool bruh of mine and he cut thin paper pieces to cover all illustrations adorning his designs. I only had to take care to cover plexi elements by myself. Once done – my work went fast and easy. Few evenings was all it took.
The Colony is vast already, but there’s always room for some extra terrain pieces. With new Gingermane designs appearing every month it’s difficult to stop expanding . It gets even harder, as he let’s me peek on work in progress designs and I sometimes get to buy some before release. Obviously when I saw ‘SF024 The Tower’ I freaked out and demanded these be handed to me emmediately. Gosh how I love these two…
Another addition to The Colony – ‘SF010 Cargo Crates’. Slowly my own designs and scrap-built scenery are forced off the gaming board. I don’t mind it, cause at this point I’m already hooked on Gingermane’s stuff either way 😛
With ‘SF024 The Tower’ I intorudced black/grey colour to The Colony’s overall scheme. It seem to compliment the board so I followed up on this, going back to older scenery pieces. I wander if these, once paper box, buildings will ever rest…
One day ‘The Colony’ will be finished, but seeing how it changes time and time again I can only say TO BE CONTINUED…
Six months is a lot of time to gather material for another project related article, and thus The Colony Special Project is back with entire new installment about this Infinity gaming board. I just couldn’t leave this project unattended for much longer.
Let me start by telling you this: I love my gaming board. That being said, at some point I felt like something didn’t quite bangt right. The board was finished, I got a lot of awesome, positive feedback about it, still deep down I felt something is off. There’s always place for improvement so my inner artist raged while being unable to pinpoint the exact reason of my discomfort. It took a while for me to understand that the board looked too chaotic to absorb. All the yellow, blue and deep clear-red did not work well with White-Sand-Orange-Green colour scheme.
I started introducing changes by dumping the obvious source of unfitting colours – the Holo Ads, and adding more green to the board with brand new set of Antenocitis Ad Stands. It partially worked but I wasn’t fully satisfied with the result…
The real change sweeped throughout The Colony quite suddenly. Everything, and I can’t stress this enough, because of the Gingermane Studio and it’s scenery. Long story short – there is this guy for whom I paint some Infinity miniatures, and one day he is like ‘I’m designing some scenery pieces, what you think?’ and I’m like ‘OMG I love this shit!’ and he’s like ‘Wanna grab some?’ and I’m like ‘Duuh! Shut up and take my money!’… All of the sudden I find myself knee deep in Gingermane’s scenery pieces which not only look amazing, but also fit right into my gaming board’s theme. They seem to be plucked straight out of my deepest desires – both in case of looks and playability.
This was the exact point at which I decided to finally ‘repair the damage’ I done to my gaming board and contain the colour palette of all the stuff that appears on it…
The final decision was made: Coloured Plexi Ads adorning the buildings had to go. Upon reaching this conclusion I instantly contacted my besties from Micro Art Studio and ordered a huge pile of replacement pieces. I’ve figured that a bigger version of ’rounded orange piece’ would work the best for the theme and overall looks. Soon after, I got a delivery of more than a hundred pieces necessary to finalize the ‘grand change’…
Preparing these was harsh. Had to clean them all of soot leftovers and remove small pieces left inside some of the laser-cut holes. Once done I painted all the pieces in a single go, then swaped Plexi Ads with them. The result is exactly how I hoped for.
The road to perfect gaming table streches before me and it’ll take some time till I get there, but I can see the destination. What’s left for me to do is to add dots of Vallejo’s Sandy Yellow here and there to tone down the Gingermane’s white a bit. Afterwards The Colony should be finally complete… at least for some time. I promis to bring you more of The Colony in next installment – probably six months from now :P.
For those of you who follow my articles it would be of no surprise that on top of being a painter I also am a gamer. That being said – As much as I strive to provide valuable painting related articles for this blog, I sometimes find myself in face of a need to write about something related to that second part of my hobby. Right now I happen to be in such a grave need – a box of something truly awesome has been delivered to me just few days ago! Who am I to shackle inspiration? That’s why today I bring to you a review of Gingermane Studio’s wargaming Sci-Fi terrain.
My story with Gingermane Studio started recently, as I was asked to paint some Infinity miniatures by a ‘friend of a friend’. Between many e-mails and hours spent on chat I got to know that aside from being an Infinity the Game fan, my customer designs wargaming terrain. He showed me some pics of early products and I simply fell in love with them. Time passed, miniatures got painted and Gingermane offer grew. Finally I was able to visit the friendstomer in his base of operations at the other end of the country, and we gave his scenery a spin. Soon after that I was ordering my first parcel…
Gingermane Studio’s products are one of the best I met on the market. The MDF is cut perfectly, everything fits and follows a certain design theme. Products are thinked through, from the designs through playability to choice of material. I was shocked to see graphics for the ad-stands in form of self adhesive stickers, instead of the usual ‘you need to cut it by yourself’ prints. Everything has a nice ‘exclusive’ feel to it.
Visual aspect of Gingermane’s scenery is responsible for stealing my heart. Smooth white surfaces joined by clear orange plexi and magnificent grapfic designs work like a charm. What stands out is the depth of different layers of MDF that creates a very original look. It’s like a mix of industrial facility with high-tech, exclusive feel o a clean, futuristic city. It is a bullseye right into my personal taste.
I already tested these on more than one occasion. As an experienced player I can only say that they fit Infinity the game perfectly. It is clear that the designs were tested and adjusted with gaming in mind. Hard angles, partial covers, access and proper dimensions make these terrain pieces very playable. It is also important to point out that due to specific colours, the Gingermane Studio’s scenery pieces make miniatures and tokens clearly visible on the game board. Another small win for the playability.
On top of that some terrain pieces are stackable and hold each other firmly. This works for Containers and Buildings…
Gingermane scenery comes pre-painted, or rather pre-coloured and does not require any paint job to look awesome. It all comes pre-cut and ready to be assembled, following a simple and well made manual. Working with these was a real pleasure.
With buildings between 16 – 20€ and Ad-stands varrying from less than 10€ to some about 15€ Gingermane Studio’s products seem to follow the price trends. Sure – they might have been cheaper, and that would probably made everyone happy – but they are well priced for what they offer.
+ PACKAGING
Everything came in one piece, secured thoroughly and – as I was assured – hand checked before it was packed. Plexi and stickers got additional protection. Each individual product came packed separately. Yes – overall packagind does not look as nice as fabrically packed products, but is thorough and well protected.
+ CUSTOM DESIGNS
A cherry on the cake – Gingermane Studio does some individual projects and custom designs. If I was granting a ‘Fuck Yeah!’ awards in my reviews – Gingermane Studio would get one right now!
Seemingly simple and yet very stylish, the Gingermane Studio’s scenery stole my heart at first glance. I’m sitting here looking at these and just cannot stop smiling to myself. Maybe I’m overhyped. Maybe I am not being impartial in my evaluation. What can I say? I love these so god damn much! I want more and I want it now! 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 hereby grant 10 and a ‘Fuck Yeah!’ award to the Gingermane Studio’s wargaming terrain.
It took me more than a year to bring to you another Gaming article, but here I am and with something special none the less! Infinity the Game is still my favorite – that did not changed. Once again I’m knee deep in an online Campaign. This years hotness is called Strikezone: Wotan and it is a truly crazy ride! So, time to put your brushes down and supplement painting with some good oldschool gaming!
Having recently finished the ‘Dong Peyote’ Special Project I was eager to try out the miniature. It craved blood, watching me intensely from the scenic plinth – like if trying to force me to field it! Not that I tried to resist – in the contruary, I used the weekly gaming meetup with a friend to bring some action to the Mighty Dong Peyote!
Location: The Dong Peyote, Wotan Blockade
Time: day twenty nine of the Strikezone: Wotan campaign
Theater: Dong Peyote Repurposed Freighter
Mission: Annihilation
Special Rules: ‘The Dong Peyote’
Game size: 250pts.
For this fine battle I decided to dump the usual Intruder + smoke combo in favour of a new trick. I asked my opponent if he let me use the ‘Dong Peyote’ miniature, prepared just for the sake of Strikezone: Wotan and was granted a ‘go for it’. I restrained myself from building a list around the new character and decided to cut out enough of my usual 300pts. list to be able to field him, leaving the feel of the list intact.
So, there was the usual stuff like Interventor LT, which I find to work miracles, especially as a potent HD+ hacker. Be it defensive, secured Cybermasked LT, support with LT orders at his disposal, or even offensive hacker with chunky WIP and BTS, not to mention an arsenal of very good programs at his disposal.
Total Reaktion Zond is also a simple choice with it’s low points cost, Climbing Plus and ability to be Marksman L2 buffed by a hacker. Mobile HMG to snipe enemy targets – a very potent offensive piece.
A single Moran Maasai Hunter is new to me, as I usually field two of these. Still in this particular case I dumped one in favour of a cheaper Zero Minelayer, fielding two of the latter to deal with potential enemy Camo and spam the map with my Camo Markers, playing mind games with my opponent.
Single Chainguar as a potent corner ARO piece or a good, reliable counter.
Some Transductor Zonds to provide cheap orders and Mimetised, high BS (WIP) ARO pieces.
A Daktari with a Zondbot on top, to keep most of these guys afloat.
MSR Spektr in second group to be used as a surprise ARO piece, and then maybe to eliminate easy targets in active turn.
Three Morlocks to provide smoke cover and exploid openings in enemy defenses.
This left me with 41 points to be used on the Dong Peyote – a surprise attack piece, that had to outperform it’s big cost in order to help me achieve victory.
“Fear not Human Sphere – Dong Peyote is here!” Is a phrase that the Dong Peyote uses to announce himself, once he plunges balls deep into enemy lines! He strikes from behind, but not like a shadow – No! He goes hard, guns blazing, fists dealing punches and cock-rocket trailing clouds of smoke as it launches itself to deal tremendous damage! He cares not for the outcome, but for the performance itself! To adorn the Nomad mask and die in a blaze of glory is the ultimate reward!
In my experience Karol grasps the ‘tricks’ of the game very well. He loves to use shenanigans like TO Camo to surprise me. He tends to reveal his TO Camoed troops in unpredictable spots to deal major damage to my list. Then, just as I feel secure and drop my guard, he pops out another TO Camoed troop and prooves me wrong. On top of that he usually goes heavy on his deployment zone, keeping troops far away from my Nomads and then unleashing them in waves, using Coordinated Orders. Aaaand he likes snipers.
His list, which I know now, is just that. Two Tuaregs to mess me up. One Janissary HMG Heavy Hitter, some versatile troops to be coordinated with him. Lasiq sniper. Some orders to fuel this. A Doctor Plus on top cause it’s just awesome and tends to come back to live with his Auto Medicit time and time again.
I asked Karol to add a note about his list himself – he will do this in time and I will edit the Batrep with it – am curious of his point of view XD
I won the roll off with a Critical pass of the LT’s WIP of 15. Needless to say that the gods of dice were just as eager to see me using the Dong Peyote as I was myself. Still I decided to forfeit the initiative in favour of luring my opponent to spread his troops, thus enabling me to use the Dong to his full potential and carve a deep path to gloory.
HAQQISLAM TURN ONE:
I used a Command Token to deny Karol the use of more than one of these at his first turn. No more rushing at me with half his troops with the damned Coordinated Orders.
Haqqislam forces opened up with just that – a Coordinated Order, which saw a Janissary, two Ghulams and Khawarij advance. (It took me a while before I decided to reveal a TO Camoed trooper in first order of the first turn… but…) Out of thin air a Spektr MSR appeared to put a bullet through the head of the leading Ghulam. The latter fell to the ground, bleeding and unconcious.
Just like in the ‘Enemy at the gates’ a Lasiq sniper sprang instantly from behind cover to try and deal with this new ARO threat. Unfortunatelly for Lasiq he failed in three attempts in a raw. With his final shot he managed to hit the Spektr, who shrugged the bullet off and used a failed Guts Roll to hide behind solid cover, thus denying the kill.
Zhayedan Doctor+ saw the opening, rushed to try to heal the fallen Ghulam but his medikit sent the poor guy into overdose – the Ghulam died.
In meantime a Camo token (Farzan, which was not known to me at the time) moved closer to Nomad lines in preparation for future outflank options…
NOMADS TURN ONE:
The Haqqislam’s ‘behind’ was pretty well defended, thus the Mighty Dong Peyote withheld his entrance for just one more turn. Instead a Moran Maasai Hunter advanced forward to sneak close to enemy troops rounded up on top and behind a small building. A Repeater and a Crazy Koala in range of both a Lasiq and Janissary meant a potentially good outcome for the Nomads in this part of the table.
A Morlock burst into action, using his 8-4 Metachemistry move to cover entire battlefield, jump out from around a corner and basked both the Zhayedan Doctor Plus and the HMG Janissary in a warm light from his flashlight, cause for unknown reason – he took a flashlight instead of a Chainrifle. The sassy targets stood there, mouths agape, then peppered the Morlock with enough bullets to turn him into a strainer.
A loud facepalm announced the Spektr comming out of his cover just in time to witness the Morlock’s demise. With no targets in sight he just prepared for another turn of ARO.
A Transductor Zond moved in, closed on the enemy HVT and let it’s Repeater be used by Interventor LT’s Order to Spotlight the Civilian.
The turn closing to an end, a Zero Minelayer, moved forward, mined the area and then went back to being Camoed, just to mess the Haqq’s up with the ammount of Camo Markers laying around.
Last order of the turn was spent on a Morlock, who advanced through the middle of the board, just to be stopped by an appearance of a Tuareg AHD’s shot. If not for a splendid reflex of the Morlock and a Smoke Grenade throw that smoked the entire area around him – he might got killed…
HAQQISLAM TURN TWO:
With a Moran and a Crazy Koala covering the Lasiq, a Janissary opened up in a try to deal with both of these threats at once. On top of Crazy Koala bursting into action, the Moran replied with a Boarding Shotgun blast, all the while Interventor LT Oblivioned the Janissary through the Moran’s Repeater. Janissary reacted, sending four HMG bullets in Moran’s direction. Bad luck befell him, as he ate up all three ARO’s and failed to do any damage to the Moran. He was as good as done, going to Unconcious.
Crazy Koala gone, a Tuareg Sniper appeared over the spot where the Lasiq was hiding and shot the shocked Spektr to unconcious. He then continued trying to take out a Transductor Zond from HVT’s range, but failed spectacularly in four orders. He took out a Morlock standing nearby the Zond instead, this one falling to Unconcious without complaints.
AHD Tuareg moved forward, avoiding the Mines nearby, by moving prone. He slowly closed in on the Nomad Interventor LT and hacked to isolate him, but in typical ‘against an Interventor’ situation, he got Sucker Punched to unconcious in return…
NOMADS TURN TWO:
The last of the Morlocks rushed in the direction of the closest enemy. A Camoed Farzan withheld his ARO not to eat up a mine, that layed nearby and basked in the sun. The Morlock, being the last one of his entire group, spent his Irregular Order, Discovering then Shooting the Farzan, who to his surprise, Dodged both the pistol shot and a mine on a Crit…
That triggered me. With a loud announcement of “Fear not Human Sphere – Dong Peyote is here!” I put my ‘dong’ on the board…
In a whirlwind of blasts, punches and a cock rocket shots The Mighty Dong Peyote entered the board…
With a kill count worth of four enemy troops and 78 total points, entire order pool spent, the Mighty Dong Peyote finally succumbed to his wounds and died, but not before he screamed #Hoooodoooong! in a Braveheart style, with his last breath…
Wiping the teatrs from his eyes, the Interventor LT used his order to Spotlight the enemy HVT, thus honoured the fallen hero, ensuring a fulfillment of the Classyfied Objective…
HAQQISLAM TURN THREE:
Loosing four troops, LT among them, was a blow to Haqqislammers. Farzan took over command and advanced to enact revenge. He shot the versatile Transductor Zond in the back and closed in on the Nomads.
Just as usual, the Zhayedan Doctor Plus got up with an auto-medikit (he always does!) and took a defensive position, along with Lasiq and Tuareg Snipers.
Haqqislam troops braced for the last Nomad turn to come…
NOMADS TURN THREE:
Last Nomads turn was a real massacre. Interventor LT buffed the Total Reaktion Zond with Marksman L2 and let it loose on the enemy.
The berzerk Zond moved right through the Nomad Deployment Zone, taking out Zhayedan Doctor Plus from behind a cover. Next to fall was the Farzan, peppered with bullets, instantly dead. Lasiq followed short. Tuareg sniper – last to face the Zond – performed a bit better, goping through the first wave of shots without a scratch. He fell down in next order tho. Being the last Haqqislam warrior on the board, Tuareg delivered the last points to the Nomads score…
Once the dust settled down the remaining Nomad forces swiped the area. This was a fine victory of 9:1 for the Nomads, but not without a cost. The mighty hero who appeared on the battlefield at the time of the direst need and turned the tables on the Haqqislammers got killed. Strangely, his body was not found among the dead…
This was a very interresting game. I had a blast, while some of Haqqislam units got blasted XD At this point the Strikezone: Wotan is still on the roll and I hope this Battle Report helped Bromads in achieving their goal to keep the Dong Peyote afloat!
It has been six months of peace for The Colony Special Project. I’ve mentioned before that such grand projects are never fully complete – so here I am, adding even more stuff to the already vast collection of scenery. The reason for this is obviously the restless muse, but also I grew up to a decision to expand my scenery collection. On top of more variety I will be able to cover two gaming boards and that might come in handy from time to time…
Not so long ago I have attended a big Infinity the Game event. About 40 participating players, including some of my friends. As a co-organizer I took The Colony with me, so that along with Micro Art Studio, Zen Terrain and After Hours Workshop, there were more fully painted tables at the event. I even streched my terrain set to cover two gaming tables, thus was hyped by the vision of creeping onto another 48×48″ board. At that point I already had some new stuff purchased at Antenocitis, so it’s not like I was ever going to stop anyway 😛
Still, once the dust settled and I had a moment to thik about it, I realized that more terrain was inevitable if I was to do it again in the future…
The idea was to build more interresting stuff to fill all the empty spaces between buildings. At that point more buildings were rather out of question as I’d rather produced terrain pieces to improove single gaming table, with an option to allow me to eliminate vast empty spaces if I went double…
The obvious choice was to produce more sculptures, as these look nice, are awesome LOF blockers and work pretty well with the theme of The Colony.
For this purpose I used a hard box and some random leftovers provided by friendly Terrain making companies and my wife.
This one was a totally new approach to the ‘sculpture’ idea. The exclusive Winsor & Newton brush box was an inspiration on it’s own and summed with my newly acquired experience in using clear resin – a fountain or a pond was a must go. I decided to use wooden balls as a sculpture to compliment the water theme with their smooth oval shapes. Now I feel like a second Winsor & Newton box is soon to follow…
Plant compartments from THE COLONY – part seven: BEYOND are by far one of the best Infinity scenery pieces I have created. They have the looks but are also very playable, providing a lot of cover and breaking long shooting corridors. Yves Saint Laurent cosmetics plug and couple more drill covers, that I received from a friend, and an I was ready to build another Plant compartment. This time tho I lacked some of the MDF pieces, necessary to build an exact copy of the previous template. I decided to do some magic and tinker a bit with the design – using materials I actually had.
I also redesigned the plant to add variety on the table. These were made using a method from THIS TUTORIAL. It is simple and very effective and can be used to create many awesome shapes and textures. It took me around ten minutes to prepare three of these, so if you ever wandered if you should try the tutorial out – just go for it 😉
These three were inspired by boredom and awesome looking Orbit Gum pendants. Upon seeing the pendants I grabbed a bunch of them, knowing well that they will come in handy in the future. Did not took much time to try and use them for Infinity scenery and a set of Food Mashines (closed and secured cause ‘Nomads are in town’) are now complete. On top of three Orbit pendants I mostly used trash and leftovers, but there also are some special MDF pieces which you probably reckognize by now.
Another weekend well spent. Now I can’t stop to think about other ways of using clear resin, wooden balls, basing-super glue made plants and all the new stuff. Might also want to shift my attention to designing the actual MDF scenery as recently I’ve entered into an arrangement with Every Little War which will tweak some of my stuff, including Objective Room and provide it in the online offer. A lot of stuff to wait for XD
It’s been almost four months since I have ‘finished’ The Colony Special Project. Such grand endavours are the reason I’m into painting and miniatures wargaming. That wondrous feel of completion once a huge project hits the finish line. It always comes with a great satisfaction but once the dust settles, a void starts to grow inside my heart. I’m happy with results, yet long for the ‘process of creation’. That is why I consider every major project to be alive for at least as long as I am. In case of The Colony – well, a gaming table could always be improoved or use some more scenery. That is the exact way of thinking which led me to writing another part of this article…
That being said I must confess that I wasn’t able to invest much time into The Colony in the last few months. Other artistic projects fell on me from all around the globe and I lived a prosperous life by lending my brush to all those in need of decent painting. Still, once in a while I stumbled upon some cool looking items that just screamed to be unleashed onto my gaming board in form of some sweet looking terrain. Many sources provided me with items of great value, among them my girlfriend (cosmetics), my friend Garran (his personal collection of ‘cool stuff’) and even some of befriended companies like Micro Art Studio, or Ekograf, who (knowing my tastes) sent me some of their leftovers. I sincerly thank all of you, my beloved providers, and proudly announce that I couldn’t resist the temptation and used all the items, you so willingly parted with, to further expand my scenery collection and bring The Colony’s theme beyond the bounds of my early predictions.
Anyone remembers that picture? It was published at the end of “THE COLONY” SPECIAL PROJECT part six article. Some of this stuff still awaits being used, but more than half of it has already reincarnated in a form of these scenery pieces:
A futuristic sculpture made out of a Maybelline eyelashes mascara. Once I stole this precious item from my GF’s secret stash I had a real wrinkle with how to use it. So many ideas, including an antenna, a column, a laser tube – in the end I couldn’t decide so I got back into a well known territory of futuristic sculpures. It is only fair to use items stolen from my GF as pieces of art, otherwise she might not be swayed to turn a blind eye on my theft 😛
I got that awesome Dactari from my Girlfriend somewhere along two years of gaming. Untill now I hadn’t had use for it, as I was more into Corregidor-like miniatures, but finally I got the idea, made up what MDF pieces I will need to ‘cage’ this chick and ordered them from a friendly company. Once I got the stuff I just build the cage and here’s the result. It makes foir a nice rooftop piece or a great standalone scenery piece.
These can be used as objectives or just some random scenery pieces. I made them out of HDF pieces, leftovers and small plastic tubes* filled with shower gell. The tubes were given to me by Garran with which I tend to play Infinity, but also exchange concepts during our long painting/modelling talks. The guy is so nice as to share some of his stuff with me and I try hard not to let this gesture go to waste.
This is another source of endless inspiration. These are some throwbacks from Micro Art Studio’s production. MAS is very serious about their products – each and every one is checked for defects before it proceeds to packing. Once a defect is discovered, all imperfect products are kept as samples to avoid same kind of mistake in the future. In case of large quantities tho – some items may be sent to a friendly modeller to be used for awesome scenery building! One might even say that these can be used in a variety of crazy ways…
Six bridges are a bit too much on a 48×48″ table so I designed these scenery pieces to help me setup and then keep the gaming board in order. Simple yet effective, adding depth to streets and a nice futuristic note to the overall visual effect.
Made with playability in mind, these low planters are perfect to fill my choosen theme of white/orange/green scenery. They fit both at the ground level and in the rooftops. I made these using pleksi rulers to provide detail, while the rest is just plasticard cut to fit the empty spaces. The visuals vere enchanced by plants and HDF ‘orange’ pieces.
This plant compartment module is a pearl among the scenery pieces I’ve created lately. I’m really happy with how it came out. To think that I struggled for almost a year before I decided how to use two Yves Saint Laurent caps. But let’s get to the way these items (there are actually two identical scenery pieces) came to life. Some time ago I got a set of used up cutter casings from Ekograf to use in my quest of bringing imagination to reality. My friend Garran was the one to dig these out specially with me in mind (Once again thanks mate!). Once I layed my hands on these fine pieces I knew that something wondrous will come out of them. So I started planning and was quickly drawn to still unused Yves Saint Lauren caps. Their hexagonal shape fit perfectly to The Colony’s theme so I based the entire construction on them. After adding couple of PCV pieces to make the construction higher I used plexi rulers to add detail, then used cutter casings and some HDF leftovers to build particular compartments and mounted them around the central column. For the plants I used a fake Bonsai tree made out of gum. It was to fragile to be used as a standalone scenery piece, but inside the compartments it could easily outlive all the other terrain pieces. So I used glue and some tricks of my own to enchance the vicualts of tree stupms, added fake greenery and mounted these fine looking plants inside the compartments. ‘Orange’ elements followed and themed paint job done the rest. Now I have two LOF blocking pieces of scenery, that provide a lot of cover, fill empty spaces between the buildings and go along with the theme.
One thing still stood out of The Colony’s theme. The Micro Art Studio’s gaming mat (which I just love and don’t want to ever switch for anything else) was screwing with my colour scheme too much. I’ve figured to try and paint it, using sprays and airbrush. For this purpose I’ve airbrushed the entire mat with Vallejo’s German Red Brown, then used Vallejo’s white primer to lighten some spots and finished with Games Workshop’s Zandri Dust primer spray. Once the last layer was dry I moisted the gaming mat and used a piece of cloth on it to ensure that no paint will leave marks on my terrain, miniatures and accessories. Must say that MAS’s gaming mat holds the paint perfectly, while keeping it’s previous properties. The picture does not entirely cover the hue but rest assured that now the gaming mat fits perfectly to The Colony.
Last four months might not seen me The Colony-centered, still I’ve managed to improove the inicial concept of this gaming table. I’m really glad to be able to transform this:
Into this:
Are more upgrades incomming? As long as I live and am into Infinity – that’s not a matter of if, but when. Stay tuned for more of The Colony.
You want to learn more about The Colony? Check out the entire series using THIS TAG
If you are reading this blog regularly, then you already know that my life is not entirely composed of painting – some gaming is also involved! Here and there a more gaming-centered article pops out and today’s review is just such an article. If you came here for a painting article, please do not be discouraged and still give thise one a try – who knows, maybe you will end up ordering a bunch of miniatures along with some cool looking terrain, or at least see something new?
I stumbled upon Right Arm Labs during Polish National Championships of Infinity the game. This friendly, wargaming terrain producing, company visited the event, providing awesome looking terrain pieces for couple of gaming boards. Many times have I gasped with admiration seeing how cool looking and playable their gaming boards were. Unfortunatelly for me, back then I didn’t play a single game on their terrain, but in the end I won a painting competition and received some gifts funded by guys from Right Arm Labs. (Lucky me!). So I took my spoils of war back home and gave them a try in couple of games. Here’s my thoughts on them…
If I’m to categorise Right Arm Labs products I’d say they are of a good quality. The material used to construct them is durable and the parts fit perfectly to one another. They are easy to put together which is uncommon in the market of wargaiming terrain. Another uncommon thing is that they come pre-painted and not in some dismissive way, but a totally nice looking, precise and ready to play one. Sure, the colours could use some juice, but it’s better than regular HDF!
Right Arm Labs took an interresting approach to visual aspect of their terrain. Exteriors are a bit crude and some features were clearly left out to make these terrain pieces more playable. At the same tame there’s a lot of detail and pre-painting. Sure it’s not Zen Terrain complex design or Micro Art Studio’s fine style, but still it appeals to the eye isn’t it? We must remember that there are plenty one-man-companies that produce flat walled cubic buildings and don’t even bother to add detail. Right Arm Labs proudly stands above the latter.
Along with nice looks the Right Arm Labs Terrain comes with high playability. Flat surfaces and sharp angles are perfect for Infinity and will fit in many different games including Warhammer 40,000. Height and dimensions of the objects and terrain pieces goes well with 28mm scale, providing enough cover and options for our miniatures to explore. While smaller scenery pieces can be mounted on bases and used as objectives, the buildings are designed in a way that lets you manipulate their features between games! Just take a look at this interresting Control Room:
Now let’s break it into particular pieces…
Each of these pieces, even the floor, is two sided, with one side being more military themed and the other more industrial…
Walls can be switched at a whim and go smooth into special sliders designed to accomodate them…
I see many different uses for this kind of building, including but not limited to: Objective Room, bunker, regular building, urban platform…
They come pre-painted and let you manipulate features for more re-playability, but most of all they are well designed with particular pieces being held in place by sturdy elements. Even doors are made of two layers – one fitting perfectly into the wall, while the other is holding it firmly in place. Also, due to the clever construction, the walls seem much thicker than they actually are. The key feature is that the entire construction can be easily assembled/disasembled in a matter of seconds.
Price is the only thing setting me on edge when thinking about these splendid terrain pieces. A complex objective room along with a roof that must be purchased separately will see you spend around 50€ to obtain. I’m not suggesting it is not worth the price – I’m saying it’s just a lot for a single building. In comparisson for this price you will get not one but between two to seven Micro Art Studio’s buildings! It is a well known fact that most of us would rather spend majority of their hobby cash on miniatures instead of a gaming board. Still if you count in the time and resources required to paint a single building – the initial price of Right Arm Labs terrain does not look so bad.
Personally I think that Right Arm Labs does a nice job with their terrain. Their products are not ‘designed for Infinity’ but rather designed for Wargaming, but ideal for Infinity. I’m willing to forget the price issue due to awesome playability and unprecedented solutions. I can only recommend you to try some of their stuff yourself. I’m sure that you won’t regret it. To contact Right Arm Labs check out their Facebook page, Instagram profile or write’em an e-mail. (This is their preffered way of providing you with particular prices.)
If you have some experience with Right Arm Labs products – I’ll be glad to read your opinion in the comments 😉
Half a year of waiting, two months of working and four days of painting have finally seen “THE COLONY” SPECIAL PROJECT finished. Last week, after adding some final detail which you can check out in “The Colony” Special Project part FOUR and FIVE, I was engaged with painting all the terrain. It was a hell of a hard work, as the enormity of surface being painted overwhelmed me to a point where I slept around three to four hours each day, woke up to paint, made a break, then got back to painting etc. Still, my work has paid off – as right now my gaming table for Infinity is complete!
Or so I have thought till the moment of taking first pictures came by. Not only the ‘GO GO NOMADS!’ night club looked like if painted by a three-years old, (Which my beloved GF announced just as soon as she layed eyes on my masterpiece…) but also some key colour wheel synergies were missing. Here and there I overkilled colours or just made plain mistakes. Couple of improovements had to be done ASAP, as otherwise I’ve risked my mind being overheated with self-directed anger. So I’ve started working on things that triggered my self-loathing, eliminating them one at a time.
‘GO GO NOMADS! Night Club’ was the first one to undergo a small redesign. I’ve dimmed the pink, and ‘browns’, adding much more white to consolidate colour scheme and black to set a strong, but natural contrast. This change did the trick of dimming the effect of “child’s dream”… It’s still ugly as fuck, but my concious is clear – it was planned from the beginning to make this one into a nice easter egg.
Next thing to add was “detail” as my buildings clearly lacked it. The simplest way to do it was to use some already existing, tiny wall features, paint them using a variety of colour and also add more plexi-glass holos.
In the end I also harmonized the main colour scheme by adding much more green. I used aquarium plants and some MDF leftovers for this. Green plants broke the flat colour scheme of the walls, and complemented the overall colour scheme – now all the Holos were once again moved to the visual background.
Inbetween all these changes and upgrades, I was able to made a short photo session. You can view the entire GALLERY HERE, while below is a small sample:
Also as a bonus – I’ve already played one battle on the table – taking some in-game pictures and preparing a short video about how terrain was set up for it.
Is this the end of The Colony? Judging by how necessity is the mother of invention I think that we will see some more of The Colony in the future. Especially with such kind of things around… just be sure to visit this site from time to time 😉
