KR Multicase Review

Good evening children of Grandfather Nurgle and thank you for joining us again in our corner of his necrotic paradise. Today I am offering up a review of KR multicases Kaiser 4 case. As you can imagine with me picking up the Kaiser 4 this is not an unbiased reviewed as I already own a Kaiser 2, a Skirmish case and 5 additional card cases.

The Kaiser 4 is the largest in the Kaiser series and holds 4 of the cardboard cases to allow you to switch out what you bring rather than having to change the foam as you do in the aluminium cases. This case was bought for my Necrons though I originally planned to use my Kaiser 2 case with some new custom foam unfortunately I use a few flyers and barges and with  them not being as boxy as Imperial forces they take up significantly more room.

With the realisation I would need 4 card cases to hold what I owned and planned to purchase to expand my force I initially looked at buying 4 cases and a second Kaiser 2 bag but the difference was quite small cost wiseso for ease of transport I went with the larger bag. However I can only recommend this if you are moving about in a car as the case is 20" tall, 16.5" wide and 11" deep so is a bit bulky for walking or public transport. Luckily with the case being a tough fabric rather than solid plastic and being filled with card, foam and models it is still light enough to move once you get used to it being a giant lump of a case ( think two large GW cases taped together).

The material is hard wearing even with regular use, I picked up a Kaiser 2 when KR first started as a one man operation and it is still as good as new. It is waterproof and even protected the contents from a large chilli sauce covered kebab being dropped on it without a stain.

The card cases I was wary about at first but after years of being used the only sign of wear is on the hinge and this remains solid. The foam is much softer than what you find in GW's cases which lets you manipulate it to get large models such as Necron Overlords, Kroot and Saurus in without damaging their weapons.

You can take the pick and pluck rather than the custom foam to try and squeeze more in and while I did this with my Black Templars I felt more comfortable with the custom foam for Necron vehicles.

Overall I am a fan of these cases and do think they are worth the money, don't get me wrong they are not cheap but when you are transporting hundreds of pounds worth of models you have built and painted yourself I think it is better to invest in making sure they get to their destination safely.

Until next time keep spreading his gifts to the four corners of the universe.

O'Shashar

The Master's Brush Cleaner Review

Good evening and thank you for joining us once again in our dark corner of paradise. This week my offering to our Lord Nurgle is a review on the brush soap that was recommended to me after I reviewed my Winsor & Newton brushes.

I picked up a pot but until now I hadn't felt my brushes has seen enough action to deserve some special attention so this post has been a long time coming.

Recently I have been working on an Aegis Defence line I picked up in anticipation of sixth edition and the changes to the FOC, it also worked out well as a test for my airbrush. The terrain is coming along nicely and should hopefully have it done over the weekend ready to share with all you followers of Nurgle.

As I have been adding the reinforced areas by hand I noticed my brush was starting to lose the shape of its tip so I broke out the cleaner from my trusty paint chest and decided to have a cheeky read of the instructions to prevent me damaging my brush.

The instructions were pretty straight forward and consisted of rinsing your brush, working the block of soap into a lather and then repeating the process until clean. My only concern with this is the brush recommends to only clean with cold water so I used more of a tepid water to be on the safe side. I am not sure if it was due to this or if it was the because this was the first time I had used the soap but the lather just did not seem to form for a good minute or two.

After it being slow to form I wasn't expecting much from it however it quickly started to strip the red hue my brush that had acquired over time from my over use of Burnt Cadre Red. Once I repeated this a few times and gave it a proper rinse I was pleased with how much it had removed, most of which I hadn't even noticed had built up. The tip is also back with a strong tip and ready to be put back into the fray.

Overall I am happy with the results the soap gave and will be using it again, though I don't think it will be needed after every session it should prolong the life of my brushes. If you have treat yourself to a decent set of brushes I would recommend picking up this up to keep your brush in tiptop condition.

As for using it with cheaper brushes, such as my dry brushes I don't think any amount of soap can save them from the horrors they endure but that shouldn't deter you from trying.

Until next time spread his blessings to everyone you meet and all shall you know shall fall under his domain.

O'Shashar

Necron Night Scythe Kit Review

Good afternoon and thank you for joining us again in the dank darkness that is the Cupboard of Nurgle. Today I am reviewing the latest addition to the Necron forces that have made available to enslave the mortal races.

From the moment I saw the first pictures I knew that I would be adding one to my collection, as this is the first model that has made me want to avoid logging onto Diablo 3 and slaying demons to steal their treasure ( any saving of innocent lives is merely a side effect of my greed ). With this in mind I took a trip to the local game store in the hope they had one left for me to get my mitts on. I was glad to see that they had ordered in twice as many Necron ones as they had the Ork or Marine variety ( maybe they guessed I would be wanting at least one ).

The first thing I noticed was that the box of the Night Scythe is the same size as a Rhino but the other two are Landraider box size which I understand for the Ork plane as it looks like you get a nice sized model for your money but the Storm Talon just doesn't seem meaty enough to warrant it.

I cannot say how happy it made me to see that this kit only came on two large sprues rather than the three the Ghost Ark came on. As I looked over it I knew this was more like the kits I want, by this I mean while I like variety and the odd extra piece is nice I hate it when you can get exactly the same end result in 5 pieces but it is done in 50 ( separate necks on Necron models I am looking at you ).

This model was a breeze to build and more surprisingly I actually enjoyed it rather than the uphill struggle that was the Ghost Ark. I was so engrossed in my work that rather than keep it in separate parts to paint ( which I would recommend as you can see below the pilot is well caged in ) I just kept going and before I knew what was happening I was at the stage were I needed to magnetise the guns.

Now I could show you how I did it but the method I used was the excellent work done by Nick over at IDICBeer 40k who has done this and others which I recommend having a look at if you are looking at magnetising Necron Vehicles. The only change I would recommend is to make the cut on the tabs of the Tesla Destructors down to the height of both magnets to give a better fit as the plastic in the groove is quite thin which makes it hard to sink the magnets.

I understand that people seem split on its usefulness in games and I admit I haven't tried one yet as they do seem a touch fragile with them being denied the +2 Av shields. Though with all the rumours of sixth edition coming it may become a true flyer and its popularity change and see everyone rolling out six of these reasonably priced models out in games.

My only complaint is with the large flying stand and it is that it needs a little encouraging to be put in or taken out. However as I don't have any other models on the large flying stand I couldn't say if this is by design or not.

Overall I love this model and I am currently waiting for my primer to dry as I type this post up. Now this isn't usually the case for me so I want to strike while the iron is hot before my motivation to paint lulls. Hopefully I should have a progress report on this shortly and have another model completed towards my goal for the year before too long.

Until next time spread the blessings of our Lord Nurgle to everyone you encounter in these times of strife.

O'Shashar

A Necron Ghost Ark Model Review

Good evening minions of the pestilent one and thank you for joining me once again in the dark recesses of his domain. I apologise that we have not made many offerings of late, this is down to playing 40k & Warhammer Quest as well as working on my Thunder Wolf Cavalry model for the 9th.

As part of building my Necron force I have recently confronted the Ghost Ark model and it is a beast. This is a review on my experience of building the Ghost Ark kit and not a review of its use in game.

When I unboxed the kit it came on three large sprues that were crammed with parts and each part was numbered which concerned me a little as while I like large amount of parts I personally feel the Necrons seem to have gone the path of "forced dynamic poses" where if you only have 5 models then it is ok as they all have a different pose. Though when you get a few kits together you have the same 5 poses repeated unless you spend time converting them to be different as part A must go with part B and never mixed with C.

Now as I got into it my fears were confirmed as while there were some repeat parts things such as the Warriors in the racks had different harness numbers which didn't look any different at a casual glance though at least their necks were attached unlike the pilot. This may seem a small thing but why have a 3mm cubed piece of plastic not attached to body?

I was impressed with the amount of parts and the clear instructions it came with which have improved significantly from the warrior instructions on the side of the battle force. However these improved instructions have the warning signs that this is a model first and a game piece second as there are multiple stop points which suggest you paint what you have assembled so far.

They are sensible places to stop such as painting the warriors before placing on the ship though one is part way through building the helm. So you need to make a decision as to if you want to make sure this is painted up while you have ease of access or if you want to use the £30+ transport. This way lead to a new era of buying one model and painting it before using it and I sincerely hope it does but I for one kept I have mine in two sections to paint while still being usable in the mean time.

Please do not get me wrong this is not a bad thing as on models such as Rhinos if it said "stop to paint the inside before glueing the roof on" there would be less glued shut in anger are not being able to paint the console how they wanted.

Overall this is a very good model kit and unfortunately I feel that means you do need to treat it as you would any other model rather than a game piece and paint it before you use it otherwise you'll have difficulty getting to the fiddly parts and there are a lot of them. Also it comes on the old style flying bases which break too easily and it is not a small model being closer to a Land Raider than a Rhino foot print wise due to length and the outward facing flayers.

Until next time drink deep from the cauldron of Nurgle and accept his blessings into your life.

O'Shashar

Winsor & Newton Series 7 Brush Review

Good evening faithful followers of the Plague Father and thank you once again for joining us in the darkest reaches of Nurgle's garden. As I am sure you are all aware we are currently in the midst of a challenge to paint up three Nurgle chaos lords for our 50th follower give away and if you have been cut off from the warp and missed this please click here.

For those of you familiar with my dedication to painting miniatures I am sure you all expected me to keep putting this off until I really had to. To get around this I built this model up pretty much as soon as I got it and left it with a can of primer at the top of my painting pile for the first sign of decent weather. That wasted about a week of my painting time. However this did give me the chance to use Army Painter black spray as my previous can when I tested it before spraying the model was spraying clumps of paint so was binned.

Now the army painter spray goes on well but is very high gloss and would say more just a paint like Games Workshop than an actual primer. After that I filled in the block colours and he was left to relax on my desk.

Last night however I decided that instead of continuing another story on SWTOR I had to get some paint on the model as I was being teased by Mighty Simo & Dorn's Arrow with pictures of their models approaching completion.

As I planned to paint for an hour or two I reached for my brushes and remembered about my Series 7 size 1 brush and how it still looked brand new ( no it wasn't actually just brand new it has had a fair bit of use ). So with my trusty work horse in hand I was off and managed a good three hours of painting and have almost finished the model minus the base.

I tried these brushes out as I was sick of synthetic brushes from Games Workshop going frizzy and having bristles stick out at funny angles as found a basing brush quickly went to the size of a detail brush after sorting it out. Don't get me wrong these are not cheap but I have been using this for the last 6 months and it still looks new ( apart from some paint on the handle and is holding its shape ).

Using guides I found with different suggestions on how to use the brush has helped to minimise damage but I am not a particular delicate painter and keep it flowing in the right direction at the right angle rarely happens. However it hasn't collapsed into a heap of dead bristles or had the all too common lean to the left my previous brushes developed.

I thought it would be too big to use but so far I have only used this on my Nurgle lord from base coating to detail and it has performed well as it has a nice strong point and lets me use the pressure I want. It seems to suck up a lot of paint without developing a ball of paint on the tip either so is a nice bonus.

It is recommended to use these with brush soap however I have only cleaned it with water as I hadn't tried the soap before. I wasn't sure if it was worth the money and if anyone has experience with brush soap please let me know.

Overall I am very happy with these brushes, I have a size 1 & 0 and both perform very well and while they won't make you turn into a professional painter I do believe they have improved my painting by giving me greater control.

Until next time keep spreading the message of Nurgle throughout the warp.

O'Shashar

Into the New Year...

Hello and welcome back. I hope over the holiday period Papa Nurgle blessed you and you got everything you asked for! I have to say I feel pretty by blessed by Papa Nurgle this year as I got excellent gifts from my girlfriend and her brother. They are so good in fact I thought I would share a review of them with you.

OK, first up is something you may have seen Games Workshop release a couple of months back. It's the paint Station Plus. Direct from GW this comes in at £32. Now it is excellent for someone like me who doesn't have a desk to paint their models on or have a proper desk setup, but it is a little too pricey in my opinion. If your able to get it cheaper by shopping around I would say its worth a try or if you can get it as a gift from someone then all the better! The design is pretty good all the components fit in snugly and the quality feels pretty good. The water pots and paint palettes are better then I thought they would be.

The paint pots have different sized holes around the inner rim allowing you to suspend your brush within the water meaning you can leave it there while doing other stuff and it will get a good clean. The paint palettes have a dimpled surface, which makes it great for mixing paints as it keeps it all in the same area and when you loading your brush up you cna use the contour of the dimple to shape your brush! Some other handy features of the paint station is that your can stand your brushes up along the sides meaning that you done have to worry about them rolling around your desk and there are slots for your pots of paint to keep them in place. With this thing my painting area has never been so organised!

The present I got off my future brother in law was probably my favourite gift this Christmas. He bought me the game Zombies!!! Basically a game of making your way through a zombie infested city to a helipad to escape. The rules are really simples and not long at all, about a sheet of A4 in length. The figures are about 12mm scale, but are pretty well detailed. You get 6 different colours 'shotgun guys' and about 50 male and 50 female zombies. The figures are unfortunately exactly the same. You also get 32 city tiles and a 50 event cards. The art work in this revised edition has been revised and is really good.

Now on the game itself you can get hold of this for about £20 - 25, which I have to say is fantastic value. It allows between 2- 6 players so no one should feel left out and to be honest the more players you have the better, but remember there can be only one survivor! A game will last between 45 minutes to 2 hours depends on the number of players. There are also a number of expansions for this game as well, which I am already looking at doing seeing as the original has been so much fun to play.

And that's it from me this week, I hope you are all good this coming year and spread the blessings of our Plague Father. If you are he will look kindly upon you.

Heroica - Draida

Good evening children of the Plague father, I hope in this time of excess you have grown fat and are cultivating his diseases as we speak. I apologise that I have not posted much of late but the poor weather has stopped me spraying my Necrons so I have been playing Star Wars: The Old Republic and I have to say it is amazing.

Today I offer you my experience with the first in Lego's Heroica games. As part of my Christmas box my wife gave me the four currently available on the sly. Without me playing them before hand or even reading any reviews this was a bit of a gamble ( but who doesn't love Lego and gaming ).

The port city of Draida under vicious Goblin occupation

Heroica - Draida is set in Draida Bay, a port town currently occupied by Goblins in an effort to keep the heroes from aiding the land. Out of the box it was almost exactly what I was expecting with standard Lego pieces and easy to follow instructions on how to set it up. The rule book was similarly easy to get to grips with as it only had 4 pages and a lot of that is illustrations and dice tables.

The Heroes of the day line up against the Goblin horde

When I finished building the board it was smaller than I expected as had assumed the Lego Heroes / Monsters would be the standard sized Lego models. They have been designed to be placed on one stud rather than the traditional two studs. This has been done by making them shorter, thinner and removing the arms. On the upside the board was small enough to put back in the box fully constructed.

It suggests 5-10 minutes per game though I am always wary of these timings as they are normally off by a country mile, however this was pretty much spot on. It took 10 minutes for the first game while I made sure I was using the rules right and 5 minutes for the follow up games. The rules are very simple which allows them to hold up well as there is very little to be manipulated. The goal of the heroes is to kill the area boss or reach a set marker on the board, any other monsters killed on the way is just to help you get there without getting ganged up on in the last section.

The Goblin General stands watch over his mystical Artefact

The monsters on the other hand have to defeat any two heroes or one hero twice though with them being considerably weaker than the heroes this isn't as unfair as it first sounds. After 5 or 6 games it was pretty even between the sides win/lose ratio. It came down to dice rolls a lot of the time as the monsters can kill themselves on a bad dice roll ( even the area boss ), while the heroes only take one point of damage out of the 4 starting wounds for a bad roll.

The game is designed for ages 7+ but with a little patience I'm sure you could teach younger children how to play. It is a wonderful introduction to wargaming with it being quick and simple to learn but is still fun. In the next games it has rules for buying new weapons to take with you through the other dungeons or playing it all as one ( it even suggests making up your own rules and the forums have some nice ideas on this )

Beware the die forged in the ninth circle of hell

My only criticism is the rubber bound die provided, I imagine this is to protect the plastic sections you add when building it but it causes two issues when rolling;

i) The rubber sticks and it doesn't roll it just stays on whatever it landed on immediately
ii) The rubber decides it let us all down with sticking last time and will atone for it by attempting to bounce itself through your roof like it is possessed by the spirit of Icarus.

In the end I would recommend this game for people who remember Lego fondly, people who want an easy way into table top gaming or want to try and bring the next generation into table top games without dropping a four hundred page tome of rules on the them to read by candle light in a gloomy dungeon until they understand the horror that has been unleashed on the land and how they as a halfling bard are the only one who can stop the Dragon Queen's tyrannical rule.

Until next time continue to freely give out his gifts to anyone who is willing to help usher in his latest dire creations.

O'Shashar

Winter is coming...

Welcome back to Papa Nurgle's favored cupboard. This week I wanted to share with you something a little different. I recently picked up my copy of Game of Thrones 2nd Edition board game. After watching the first Season I have to say I am extremely looking forward to having a game of this. I got it from Wayland Games for £43.19 and with free postage and packaging, which I think is pretty good to say its RRP is £47.99 for a game that can be played out of the box for 3 - 6 players.

Last night I decided to unwrap the game and have a look at it and I have to say the quality is very good. The board is pretty big and very clear. The printing quality is excellent and even has some details to make some parts look like worn leather. The Cards are Plastic coated and are similar to Bicycle Cards so they feel very nice. The counters for the units are made of plastic in 6 different colours and are done in a Pearl style so that they look marbled. The colours are bright and they stand out nicely from the darker colour of the board. The tokens are made of about 5mm thick pressed card and feel like they wont fall t obits any time soon.


I'm looking forward having a game of this as it seems you have to forge and break alliances to win the game and be very 'tricksy'. You place order tokens upside down and have a screen to keep all your tokens hidden. I'm impressed that the game manages to pack up in suck a small box for the amount of stuff and the size of the board. I do however have two gripes with this. One is that there are no bags for the tokens, luckily I had some zip bags I used to save me sifting through about 150 different tokens. The other is that they provide two reference sheets. It would be more practical to supply one for each player. To sort this out I am going to get them scanned and possible laminated.

I did take a lot of pictures, but I had think and decided to get hold of the video below as I thought it was better and to be honest today I am just being plain lazy.

And that's it for this week I hope Nurgle Claus brings you something nice for Christmas.

Review of Space Marine demo

Hello again and welcome back to our beloved Father Nurgle's cupboard. Now I wonder if any of you can guess what I was up to yesterday rather then painting my Warhammer Orc horde? Yes, you've guessed right. Like any other fanatically (don't get too giddy though the inquisition might come after you!) devoted fan of GW you will (or should) have downloaded and tried the demo for the up and coming game Space Marine.




Now I will admit we fan boys of the 40k universe can be pretty hard to please, but I have to say Relic have absolutely nailed this game. The look, the feel, the sounds, everything is how I would imagine the 40k battlefield would be like. I think Relic have taken a lot of inspiration from the hobby. I would say they have pulled thing from various parts of the hobby, from Black Library books, to GW's scenery and miniatures. Even to the actual game of 40k itself.

There are two levels to try out in the demo. One where you are on foot and you get to try out some of the weapons that you will have at your disposal and another that give you a go with a jump pack.

OK when the game loads up you get to get your self familiarised with the controls, the graphics and the sounds. The graphics are brilliant. They're very crisp and clear. The textures of the surfaces are especially good. The sounds are believable, from the space marine boots clanking on metal, to the industrial ambience.




The weapons you get to use are the bolt pistol, which is a semi automatic pistol. You use this with your chain sword in close combat. There's the Bolter, which as you can imagine is an automatic rifle a bit like the Assault Rifle from Halo or the Lancer Assault Rifle from Gears of war. You get a grenade launcher, which fires miniature grenades and lastly there is the Stalker pattern Bolter, which is like a sniper rifle version of the Bolter. It can take an Ork down in two shots or with one well placed head shot that causes the Orks head to explode.




The controls can be a little tricky to get used to at first, I found the jump pack especially difficult to get used to. The game play itself is extremely fluid and this certainly helps as your character responds to your commands instantaneously. The change from ranged combat to close combat is brilliant and can certainly help you get out of a pickle. This is the first thing you need to get the hang of quickly if you are to cope with the hordes of Orks and I do mean never ending hordes.

The combat system is easy to get used to and is very swift as you hack and chop through Ork after Ork. There are 3 normal combos for each weapon and 3 stunning combos. The stunning combos are important as you can then use finishing moves on enemies and this replenishes your health and you need this as you are constantly under fire and be hacked and chopped at yourself!

Speaking of Orks the enemies you come across in the demo are Choppa Boyz, some Shoota Boyz, Gretchin, Bomb Squigs and a couple of Loota Boyz on the Jet pack level. There are also a couple of 'Uge Choppa Nobz laying around and these guys are deadly as they tower over you!




I was really looking forward to this game and it certainly did not disappoint me. It really reminds me of Gear of War with the gore, weapons, the characters (you can't say a C.O.G marine doesn't look like a Space Marine) and the game play. I would suggest anyone who like the Gears of War series who is not a fan of the hobby to give this game a go and to all those fellow hobbyists out there you have to try this out. If you haven't then I hope the emperor's finest hunt you down.

Until next time my Plagueling friends.

Matt Black Spray Primer Reviews

Hello and welcome back our fellow faithful followers of the lord of decay. Now I will be honest I have been slacking off as late with the hobby, its taken me far too long to finish the 4 Orcs on my painting table and they are literally nearly done (pictures of these will come soon).

Anyway with apologies aside a couple of weeks back when I was browsing eBay for cheap Chaos Black spray I thought, "Who says you have to use GW's spray primer?" Nothing against GW's spray primer, I personally really like it, but let be honest £9.50 is an awful lot for what it is, so I thought I would go on the hunt for a cheaper alternative.

Now I have used Army Painters black spray primer, not too my liking to be honest. I felt it went on thicker and after 3 quarters of the can the spray wouldn't come out properly and I had this with 3 cans of of the stuff. Before anyone asks I shook the can each time for the recommended amount of time and I turned the can upside down and sprayed to clear the last bit out of the nozzle.

I had a browse through a variety of forums and I found a couple of spray that people recommended so I thought I would get hold of them and test them out for you guys. I came across Halfords Matt Black spray, which a lot of people swear by and I saw some good reviews on Simoniz Matt Black Acrylic spray.

To test each product I thought I would use it on a piece of GW's plastic sprue and paint on 5 foundation colours. I opted for Dhenab Stone, Iyanden Darksun, Mordian Blue, Orkhide Shade and Mechrite Red. I watered each paint down slightly and did a single coat in a 'test stripe'. After the paint was dry I would try and scratch the paint off.

The instructions on both seemed to be the usual shake for an allotted time and spray about 15 - 20 cm away in a well ventilated area. After spray turning the can upside down and holding the nozzle until the spray becomes clear. Compared to GW's Chaos Black, the recommended shaking time is doubled to two minutes, so it gets a very good mix up before use.

Halfords Matt Black Spray Paint

OK, first up is the very popular matt black spray from Halfords. This is an automotive store here in the UK and they produce their own range of spray paints. The can itself comes in at £7.49 so we are already saving £2.01 per can of spray, but wait the can is also 100ml bigger. That means you are getting 20% more then GW's Chaos Black. This appears to be a bargain already!

As you can hopefully see from the picture above the spray seems to coat quite well. It does look a little bumpy for some reason in the picture, but it looked smooth to me. The paint went on well and when it was dry there was no sign of any markings when I tried to scratch the paint off.

So this brings me to the conclusion of this fine product. Now as far as I'm aware you can only purchase this item in store, as Halfords do not post this item. This will mean it will depend on locality to a Halfords store. It also says on the can that this cannot be used directly on metal and will require a primer, but for plastics (and I assume resin) it is OK. Because of this and the fact that you can only purchase it in a Halfords store I am giving this product an 8 out of 10. This is still a good score and I would suggest to any hobbyists out there to try it.

Simoniz Matt Black Acrylic Spray Paint

I came across this particular spray searching for sprays on eBay. I put its name in Google to see what some people where saying on the net about the product. It seemed to have good reviews, so I thought I would give it a try. I bought it from a Top Rated Seller, they seem to have a good rep. You can find the item here. This came in at £6.89 including postage and packaging. The can was 500ml again, so an even better bargain then the Halfords Spray.

Similar to the Halfords spray, this spray seemed to go on nice and smoothly. The only odd thing with this spray as it has no 'ball' inside when you shake it up. This spray also says it can be used directly on plastics and metals, but it does suggest using a grey primer for best results. The paint went on well and when it was dry there was no sign of any markings when I tried to scratch the paint off.

Now my conclusion of this product is going to be 9.5 out of 10. This is purely because no product can be perfect in my eyes. Until I have problems with this spray I think this is the black primer I am going to use from now on. It's nearly a third cheaper then GW's spray and contains 20% more inside. Wildly available as it bought and shipped from a seller on eBay. It arrived within a couple of days. It goes on well and foundation paints seem to go on well. The only downside I would say is that the seller does not seem to ship internationally and the lack of the mixing ball inside may cause issues. On a plus side you can sand the paint after spraying, so that shows it should be very durable.

And there we have it a couple of reviews on some sprays. If anyone has any other suggestions or comments please post them below. If you see any spray out there you want to try. Always try on a test mode you don't care about or spare piece of sprue before you spray them on you precious models. Until next time may the blessing of the Plaguefather be with you.

Dragon Forge Broken Wasteland Review

Good evening children of the Plague Father thank you for taking the time to peer once again in to the cupboard of our Father. This week was suppose to be me trying to magnetise a pair of Land Speeders for my Black Templar army ( I swear it's real not just a lot of talk ), unfortunately I ordered these online as my LGS didn't have any in and was going to be a 10 day wait for their next delivery. So we got an order together between four of us ( splitting the postage to make me save £3 per Speeder ) and sent it off to Wayland Games and then waited.

Now after a week these were still in processing and raising a ticket just got a generic response of we are having delays which pointed to a notification that they were having delays and the only information about delays on the site referred to delays in May, had it been May and not July this would have been fine ( even an updated notification to say they were delays of over two weeks would have given us fair warning ) but we gave it a few more days and still no change so we requested a refund. I always find it funny how whenever you request your money back there is suddenly a real person looking in to it and wouldn't you know the order was dispatched moments before we asked and would now need to return it after delivery if we still wanted a refund.

Luckily for me I ordered thirty 25mm & ten 40mm Broken Wasteland bases from Dragon Forge on the 5th of July expecting to get them some time in August with them having to cross the ocean and feel the wrath of the Post Office. However my experience with Dragon Forge was like night & day compared to Wayland ( see my rant did have a purpose ). The site was very easy to navigate and use and the only problem I had with it was when I clicked the images to enlarge them they opened in the same page rather than a new tab (that and choosing which bases to buy as they all look fantastic).

The front page of the store had a clear message advising that due to a recent offer ( which typically ended before I made my order ) had caused a delay, along with the 4th of July which had caused the US postal service to be shut but kept this updated when more information as it was available and I never felt like I had to chase Jeff for information on my order which amazingly arrived at my local Post Office on the 21st ( not sure if it was a local mistake by my new Postie or something to do with the amount I ordered but I wasn't charged import tax or a handling fee which made these about £20 cheaper than I was expecting ) and to say I was impressed is an understatement, especially considering Dragon Forge is a one man operation.

Fresh from the sink

Now on to the review itself, they arrived nicely packed in a cardboard box stuffed with newspaper with each individual set in separate bags, which surprised me considering the orders are cast as required but I won't complain at free bags for my bits.

Ready to make a TDA wearer very happy

 
When I unpacked them the first thing I noticed was the weight, these are solid resin casts and are heavier than the resin used in both Finecast & Forgeworld products making them feel tough and not like one dirty look will lead me to having shards of base in my eye. The detail was very crisp and with very little in the way of mould lines and only 3 out of 40 bases to have any flash on them clean up was a doddle. One thing I did notice is a I left them in the sun to dry on a stone bench and they didn't even give the slightest indication they were about to melt like the Finecast models.

After giving them a quick wash and leaving them to dry over night I gave them a coating of Army Painter Desert Yellow and plan to do the recessed dirt a darker colour to try and match them in my board which is a rocky desert ( even though I can't stand the heat for some reason I like my Bobs to fight desperately for a bit of desert mostly populated with ruins )

 
Price: 9 / 10
While they seem expensive for something you are using to replace the ones you have already paid for when you buy the models they are reasonably priced, ones that cost more or less are available but the reviews speak for themselves these aren't your run of the mill mass produced unloved bases you need to spend a fortnight making usable.
In the end I just had to consider I pay a lot for this hobby and every time I have tried to cheap out it has bitten me in the face like a daemonic spider of vengeance wanting to know why I thought it was OK to buy cheap second hand models and expect to not have to work on them till they were recognisable again ( not to mention for ten Black Templar Marines using the upgrade pack they are £40 another $10 for bases can't be argued with unless you are on a budget ,in which case you probably won't be using an upgrade pack per squad ).

Daemonic Spider demands you either buy new or don't moan

Quality 9 / 10
The quality is outstanding, crisp detail with little clean up required and the only blemishes I found were air bubbles less than 1mm across and deep which could be filled easily with some glue ( I left mine as were as it's broken ground and the extra diversity is always nice ). The bases are well thought out to be used as a base, I know it sounds obvious but a lot I've looked at while deciding which to go with had rocks/skulls/chickens stuck up everywhere and I couldn't imagine how I would even get a model on the base let alone have it look like it wasn't squashed on there as an after thought.
As I said earlier I managed to prime these yesterday and with the primer on they lose none of the detail unlike a lot of models were the primer seems to kill it until you pick it back out.

Delivery 10 / 10
What can I say 16 days for one man to make and post my bases half way around the world to me has to be a 10 in anyone's book. I just hope that not paying the import tax & handling fee sticks around.

Overall 9.5 / 10
In the end I am glad I bought the Dragon Forge bases as these are the first resin bases I have used and for the extra cost I had my doubts it was going to be worth it but I couldn't be happier with the bases themselves and just hope I do the bases and the models I eventually put on them justice.


One final note these are for my Black Templars and this is one of the terminators I started assembling who will be using the Forgeworld shields & pads to try and make them look as Templaresk as I can ( I have tried using C:SM & thumbed through C:BA / C:SW but if I am going to play a marine chapter it will be Templars and if I'm going down that path they will look the part as best as I can do it ). As a conversion to add that crusading feel I plan to use Dug-a-tron's Thunderhammer conversion, though maybe with Tomb King spear heads instead of chaos spikes and adding a normal marine head instead of the regular terminator one. Now this second conversion I have already done on Bob the test model and would love to get your feedback on if it works or just looks out of place.

Bob took a nasty hacking to the back of the head to bring you this picture

Until next time accept the blessings of Nurgle in to your life and you shall never know death only eternal life in all its forms.

O'Shashar

THQ's Kill Team and me

THQ's Warhammer 40,000 Kill Team

Good afternoon children of the Plague Father and welcome once again to the Cupboard of Nurgle. Firstly apologises for not posting yesterday however after speaking with a friend he suggested that by posting on Sunday I am not reaching as wide an audience as I could ( not that I expect thousand of willing sacrifices to Nurgle to surface just by a changing the day ) if I posted on a Monday, so this week I am testing out his theory and you get me today you lucky devils.

I had planned to post the next instalment of my Sanctum of the Aquila, however I got a text on Wednesday evening letting me know Kill Team was out. My xbox hadn't seen any action since Fallout New Vegas so I decided to dust it off and download it for a mere 800 points ( which lovely old Microsoft made me buy in 500 or 1000 increments and now have 200 left over ).

After loading it up I decided a Black Templar Sword Brethren or something close enough for me to be happy was the way to go, sadly this was not meant to be as when choosing my chapter to my horror the Crusaders were not one of the 6 chapters available and instead had to go for an Imperial Fists Vanguard Veteran ( wielding a plasma pistol that is weaker than a Librarian's bolt pistol ).

In single player this guy is good but has problems if you get overwhelmed as it appears to occasionally get stunned ( maybe just my "leet skillz" failing me ) though in co-op the melee boost really helps keep your Sternguard backup shooting. Without a doubt the main issue I had with the Vanguard was certain parts of the game you need to shoot a turret whch is out of range of your sword and with a weak pistol it is slow going.

I bought this game to see if I would like Space Marine as watching one marine killing hordes of Orks made something in me say it was just GW trying to make Marines look cool and nothing more. If Kill Team is any indication of the way Space Marine plays then yes it is just hero worship of the marines however ( and this is important ) it took me back to many a game from my youth where you had one guy and his sole purpose was to butcher an entire country with a tooth pick after being forced out of retirement for "one last mission" which always seemed very flaky on why he needed to go on an epic killing spree, and it was amazing. The plain and simple kill them all while we pretend to have a "story" which is so linear it would make Gordon Freeman blush just worked.

Of course I want to moan, I'm English after all

I did have a few problems with it, as I already said no Black Templars and the Combat guys not being quite on par with their shooting counter parts was a small drawback but nothing huge. I do have two things that did annoy me.

1, Cut Scenes - While I love to watch the cut scenes and get the story in a game, with a game that encourages online leader boards with times & scores I want to be able to skip these when I'm playing through again and not being able to got frustrating.

2, Shooting with the right stick - This was the main course of my annoyance, what's wrong with the old point and shoot method. It's simple, easy to do and more importantly it is common throughout games, why try to reinvent the wheel by letting me face left with my left stick while sprinting away from death, press the right "fire" stick and end up sprinting right at the hungry Orks who want to eat my flesh and wear my face as a mask?

Hopefully these won't be in Space Marine but if they are I just hope the combat guys are able to kill everything without having to resort to a 10 minute pistol barrage at a ranged target.

Overall I really liked this game and for an arcade game it was good fun which has got me looking forward to Space Marine ( even if I have to be a Smurf and not a Zealot ) and has even got me painting one of the Orks that live in my bits box ( nothing like a game and a random model to derail your painting plans ).

Until next time apologies for no modelling pictures but I hope you enjoyed my ramblings on a funky little game

O'Shashar

A Further venture into Citadel Finecast

Good afternoon, daemonic spawn of the great unclean one. I have been very busy of late and have got one or two terrain tutorials lined up for you next week. I was going to post a battle report from a game we had on Tuesday, but after about turn 3 the content severely dropped, so we are still working the bugs out of that, the pictures where not great either. Needless to say O'Shashar gave me and my friend Liam a butt whooping. Anyway onto my post on Citadel Finecast.

As you can see above is a box of new Citadel Finecast Eldar Rangers. They look pretty good, although they are not mine :( They are for a friend of mine, who unfortunately is a bit slack when it comes to modelling. At first glance they look really good and I thought I would continue where O'Shashar left off, you will understand why later on.

Now as you can see this model had a slightly bent gun, now with a metal model you could have bent this back into shapes. Wit h the resin if you not already aware is to pop the part you want to fix in hot water for about 10-20 seconds and then bend back into shape. Then plunge it into cold water to set the resin and there you go, fixed!

Now, hopefully you can see the contrast in quality on the two models above. The one at the left is a perfect cast, with little cleaning up needed. However the right model looks a little 'rough' and not as crisp.

Again a close up of one of the models, as you can see I have circled a huge bubble almost the size of the foot. In the most recent White Dwarf it says there may be a few small bubbles that can be fixed with glue, I don't want to sound funny, but I doubt this would work here and green stuff is the only option.

In summary, I really really want to like the Citadel Finecast range, I really do, but the consistent quality unfortunately lets the product down. Now I have handled 11 Finecast miniatures and there is a clear inconsistency. The Chaplain I won on the Blog Wars raffle is of outstanding casting quality, but as you can see above I found casting quality and bubbles on nearly half of the miniatures and to me if this is going to be the case it does not justify the price increase, so GW if you see this please increase your Quality Control to avoid disappointed customers!

I will admit though that Finecast is alot easy and quicker then metal, but due to the quality problems I have outlined you can end up doing more work then needed, especially for the price hike! I would suggest to anyone out there that if you are buying finecast, try and do it in a shop so you cna look at the miniatures before you buy them to avoid dissappointment.