Salute 2014: Scenery Companies

I know, I know. I have a scenery problem. So, whose stuff did I see this Salute around?

First up are some new pieces by Antenocitis Workshop, which aren't for sale just yet. This one is interesting, because Antenocitis Workshop are currently dropping some of their "Governance of Technology" range. They seem to be moving towards designing things for other people, like Mantic and Infinity. They are going for the laser cut MDF, but adding to that with resin accessories to add extra detailing. That's a really smart move, because the risk of the MDF is that it can be obviously large, flat areas, and the greebles add to the look.

This is a piece that was on Oshiro Model Terrain's stall. This is actually a mix of scratch built and Games Workshop pieces. I loved the overly tall and thin look to it. Most of Oshiro's non commission stuff is either Japanese or Victorian right now, so would be a good choice for Malifaux stuff.

This was a board from 4Ground, who do pre-painted, easy assemble MDF stuff. Previously, I wasn't too interested in their WWII stuff, but they're starting to stray into areas that I find interesting. The magic words "pre-painted" also help!

I only got a quick shot of these at the time, because my darling wife threatened me quite a lot when she saw me getting distracted by MDF terrain. That then meant I needed to do a teensy bit of detective work, looking at whose stalls were between the photos on either side of this one! So, it turns out that the stall belonged to Minibits, who are actually a retailer. The MDF is by a company called Wargame Model Mods. I have seen these before (I suspect Tabletop Fix of being responsible for that). The stuff is a bit hit and miss - some I really love, other bits I couldn't care less for. But that's all down to taste, I suppose.

This board was intended as a display board for Bandua's Infinity terrain. You may remember I've already picked up a few of their shipping containers, and I may be back later depending on how the assembly of them goes.

The sign is not a mistake. Wargames Tournaments were selling all that scenery for £50. That is a lot of terrain for your money. So much, in fact, that Sim bought it. Yup. She of the "dragging me away from laser cut terrain only twenty minutes earlier" bought it on the spot when I was holding back on getting it because I was wanting to see what other stalls had before I committed.

I foresee some skirmish games in our future - quite possibly Necromunda...

Sarissa Precision were showing off some railway arches that they are going to be releasing soon. I remain a massive fan of Sarissa, but I still have such a backlog of their stuff, I didn't pick up any more this year!

More Sarissa buildings...

So, who did I abjectly fail to get photos of on the scenery front? Fenris Games do miniatures as well, but it's their scenery that interests me. Their "Arkham Avenue" range is just amazing, and I really want a Griffin House at some point. I also have all the time in the world for Tablescape, whose pre-painted stuff is the saviour of most of my current model pictures.

Salute 2013: Just Shut Up Already: The Final Salute Post

I know, I know. I've been going on about Salute a lot. But there was a huge ton of stuff I saw, and there's just not been enough time to type it all up.

For the last bit of gossip, Mike McVey told me that a site redesign for Studio McVey is in progress, and it will no longer include Flash. Given that I keep on trying to show people Studio McVey stuff on the iPad and end up getting nothing, this will make me really rather happy.

The business card and flyer rundown

I did not loot as many business cards as I usually do! I already knew a lot of the companies there, so didn't think take every bit of cardboard and paper that wasn't nailed down.

First up, we have JoeK Minis, who are a part of British Indie. He has a bunch of nice models, including a range of creepy Wizard of Oz inspired stuff.

I was not as impressed with Urban Construct as I remember being. Don't get me wrong, the scale of their stuff is impressive, and they have a good range. Yet despite this, I am not a fan of their rough and ready approach, but it seems pretty affordable for what it is.

Dark World Creations are at the other end of the scale. This stuff is breath-takingly pretty, and highly detailed. They are putting together 70mm models, with a 2000AD license, the odd bust, and a lovely post apocalyptic zombie range. Their upgrade kits for cars and trucks are particularly impressive. One of the display models looked familiar, until I remembered that I'd seen it being worked on at a Platoon Britannica painting day...

My final flyer is from Battleboards, who do a few bits of terrain but really specialise in boards - and in particular, remarkably affordable custom made boards to order. If only I was swimming in money...

A few more people I like

These are a few more stalls I like where I managed to take photos. There are a ton more companies I love and adore, but didn't manage to get photos for whatever reason. Not being mentioned here doesn't mean I hate you - just that I failed utterly in taking any nice photos.

Hold on, I hear you cry - that stuff looks familiar. Yes, it is familiar because I bought a massive bag of it. These are the lovely people from Tablescape. They do a wide range of pre-painted pieces of terrain in a pretty robust foam, and its great to go straight from the box and onto the table.

While being able to buy terrain that doesn't add to my massive painting backlog is already a massive plus, what really endears them to me is the thoughtfulness of their designs. I had a rather hilarious moment in 2012 when they were saying terrible, terrible things about what 40K players were like before they found out I was one. It would have hurt less if my wife hasn't been agreeing with them so much. ;-)

The reason behind the anecdote is because all of their walls and scatter terrain are carefully designed to either be at 28mm chest height or obscure a model completely. They've been careful not to put in too many designs where it wouldn't be clear whether or not a model had line of sight - thus cutting down the arguments between those terribly competitive gamers who are often so associated with the 40K scene.

Next, we have the people who will be getting all of my money at next year's Salute: Warmill. They are another laser cut terrain manufacturer, similar to Sarissa, but they focus almost entirely on the Sci Fi end of things.

They have a nice coherent range, with much of the different pieces being part of this crazy little comedic dystopian sci fi setting they've come up with. Their fortresses and barricades are modular, compatible with other bits, and have upgrades which change in clever ways what they do.

They've also accessorised their smaller shop pieces nicely, so there are different brands of food retailer, or, should you feel brave, a cosmetic surgery booth!

This is, for example, the noodle booth. The plastic signs are the bits you can vary with your order to make different franchises.

All the buildings I saw had removable roofs so you can open them up to place models inside.

Their modular "Portable Utility Pod" had some nice demonstrations as to how you could use them differently - you'll see in the first picture a wonderful set of them in white with surrounding walkways that look very civilian, while in this picture, they dirty grimy yellow looks very much like some industrial or construction building.

They've also started a massive modular set which could be easily used for Zone Mortalis in 40K, or even Space Hulk or similar. It could be an underground lab, a space ship, or who knows what.

There's some lovely detail pieces, like these industrial waste bins. They're nestled in between some of their road terrain and one of their compound pieces.

This is an awesome elevated roadway, which can either sit close to the ground, or really raise up into a high flying piece.

This is one of the other PUP scenery pieces with the roof removed. Notice the alternatively painted PUP on the right, and the little watch tower and security fence at the bottom of the shot.

Here are the accessories - I love the communication towers and the process unit in the middle (I didn't get a good zoomed in shot of it). The barricades are all "quick deploy" fold up barricades, which is a nice touch. They also have an assortment of strange little portal things you can get.

A company that got a lot of the wife's money was Zinge Industries. They are a company with tons of awesome little ideas which are really cool.

Zinge do an amazing array of bits and bobs. Their tires and tracks are definitely useful, but nothing that gets me really excited. Unfortunately, I got no good pictures of their really clever stuff - flexible resin with an embedded wire that means you can carefully pose your chains, power cables and ammunition belts.

They've just released their first model, a tank bike. It's kind of adorable, but I don't really have much use for it.

They also had some lovely examples of what you could do with their stuff - this demon prince was a nice example of showing off what LEDs could do.

This is, of course, the money shot - showing that you can get a glowing light in behind a terminator helmet or head.

There's also scenery options, too - like this light up option for a command and control display.

Arcworlde is a new game being worked on by Warploque Miniatures. They are planning a Kickstarter (who isn't), and are currently beta testing their rules.

They have some lovely detailed models already available, and I picked up a couple of them at Salute.

There is an entire Halfling faction, which should keep people happy.

He had a whole ton of his greens on display to show people what was coming in the Kickstarter in August.

And now, the final company who impressed me, who are Model Mates. You can't buy this stuff direct from their website - they only sell direct at shows. But go and have a look at their website, as it lists the people who stock it.

They have a range of different sprays and brush on rust effects - some see through, some opaque. The metal plate is all effect - it genuinely looks like real rush in person, as well as in the pictures, but every bit of it is the stuff off the brush and out of the can.

They had quite a few examples of what you can do with it, from tanks to model railway cars to rusting to scenery.

They were also very proud of their verdigris...

Sim did get herself a few bottles of this stuff, although I am unsure if I will have any chance of getting any of it off her...

The week after Salute . . . and future plans

So, how has my week gone? I've made a few posts about Salute, with the pics of the Forge World display unsurprisingly doing well, but with a surprising amount of interest in my post about Troublemaker Games. I'm guessing this is because I got a shout on the Tactical Command forum. God knows what will happen if I actually start playing Timeline 300 rather than just the wife.

ClauseIV1918's Grey Knights

On Wednesday I pottered down to Dark Sphere and saw that things have been getting busier on 40K nights since I was last there. ClauseIV1918 has been expanding his Grey Knights, and his blog is mentioning he's also branching out with some Imperial Guard allies.

Ravenwing, about to massacre some Chaos

I got in a game against the Ravenwing on a cityscape board, and got comprehensively beaten - although it wasn't, on reflection, the massacre I first thought it to be.

Which leads on to my upcoming posts! I still have one more Salute 2013 post to do, which will be a general summary of how the event went for me. I should write up a battle report about what happens when Sammael and Mephiston decide to hang out together and shoot some Guardsmen. I've also been tinkering about with Sarissa kits to add some extra detail to them.

Look at those beautifully recessed doors!

Finally, I've booked in for some events. I will be at Grumpy Old Wargamers Con in June, and Enter the Citadel at Warhammer World in July. They will likely, in turn, lead to some more blog posts of their own...

I'm going to shelve the aborted attempt to paint the Salute Mayan for now, try and finish off the Scribe and Vindicare, and really knuckle down on the Tzeentch Herald, Malifaux Collodi Crew and Sarissa Buildings, with any spare time going into getting a little more progress with my currently stalled Imperial Guard.

Sa-lewt 2013: Return Of the Shopping

As promised, here is a post listing my purchases from this year's Salute, in a similar vein to last year's post.

I feel I should confess my "get things finished from last year's Salute" failed abysmally, and I didn't even finish the Mayan. Still, I intend to get him done eventually...

My blogging has come a long way since this time last year, so this time, you get pictures!

So, it being Salute, there was a free figure...

This year, it is Jason, as in "Jason and the Argonauts". It's a nice plastic cast with an alternative hand (holding a hydra head or a shield), and maybe this one will actually get painted in time for the competition next year.

I had pre-ordered Imperial Armour Volume One: Second Edition, so I could look at all the pretty pictures of the tanks.

I intend to do a bit of a review / ideas post when I've done more than scan read it. It is a weighty, pretty tome that I am spending a lot of time gazing at adoringly.

I also picked up some etched brass for some friends who are involved in a 40K LARP and who wanted some more symbols to convert their Nerf guns with.

Despite my incredibly slow painting speed, I am getting more confident, so I decided it was time for me to invest in my first Studio McVey piece. After a bit of umming and ahhing, Mike warned me that Ruby was starting to run low, so I decided to buy her. My darling wife had been trying to persuade me to get Zeeona, as I have a tendency to darker colours in my painting and I should do something out my comfort zone. I'm feeling reasonably out of my comfort zone with a cowgirl riding a dinosaur, but I do take her point about brighter colours - I should find something along those lines to try out...

It isn't as impressive as the finished model...

I hadn't been planning to get many more minatures, but I may have kind of slipped a little bit when chatting with the chap responsible for Arcworlde - who runs Warploque Miniatures. He is still at University, but is planning his first Kickstarter.

I picked up a little swamp critter of some kind and an elf war chief. They were good value for money, excellent and different sculpts, and I'm really interested to see how his rules beta testing goes.

Then, we hit the 'big' purchases... My main objective this weekend was to improve the stock and quality of my available terrain.

Given that I already have a painting backlog that stretches back years, I was heavily drawn to Tablescape. They do good quality, reasonably priced terrain that most importantly for me comes pre-painted. Money spent, and no additions to the backlog!

This stuff is ridiculously good value. The industrial stuff, shipping containers, crates and barricades all came to less than £100. Here's a top down shot so you can see how much of a footprint this stuff has.

The chap who makes this has also thought it through - all the terrain is done to either be at chest height for a 28mm figure, or much taller than them, to cut down on the potential for arguments. Well done, robust and affordable. I can't sing their praises enough.

Finally, with time ticking down, we headed over to Sarissa Precision to spend my remaining money. With a little bit of chatting, I picked up five buildings in total (and Sim saw one she had to have, also pictured).

I also put some money in the tin for Goblin Aid - which is something very close to my heart for a variety of reasons. I look forward to the goblins being finalised and made available, as I will be putting some serious money down when they are all done.

Anyway, this is enough of me wallowing in materialism! I'll leave you with a different angle of the awesome Tablescape scenery.