Saturday, February 22, 2014

Frontline Gaming's TableWar Mats - awesome

  Yes!!!  Finally I have the second (in my life) kickstarter that has actually worked!  Frontline Gaming's Tablewar Mat Alpine  arrived yesterday (Friday 22 Feb).  I have to tell you, I am so damned impressed it's crazy.  This things is way better than I imagined.

  I have heard about this thing since Reecius announced it on a podcast I was listening to (I think the Independent Characters, but don't quote me).  It sounded like a great idea then, so I jumped on the Kickstarter as quick as I could.  As always, I have some trepidations with kickstarters, since a lot of them seem to start out really well, then kind of fizzle out.  Not so with Reece and Frontline gaming.  Awesome communication through the whole process, I NEVER felt like my money was gone.

  But back to the Mat itself.  This thing is the cat's meow, the bee's knees, the serious shit for anyone who plays miniature games!!!  If you went to the LVO, you played on these mats, or at least saw them.  I couldn't go, so I was pretty green with envy toward the folks that did.  But true to their word, as soon as the Frontline guys got back from LVO, they hustled all these mats to the shippers and now I have mine.

  Imagine a HUGE, 4 foot by 6 foot mouse pad and you have the idea.  They are not super thick, but they are very sturdy feeling.  The graphics are just gorgeous, they look amazing on the table.  Trust me when I tell you, you will be proud of owning these things.  I only have the Alpine board, but I can guarantee I will be getting others.  Let me load up the pictures and describe them to you... hang on...

   So, here is a quick look at what the terrain looks like.  They are truly a sight to see.  The top is the kind of cloth that you see on mouse pads, very thick and durable.  A sharp piece of terrain or a few dropped minis are not going to rip or tear this thing, no way.  It also makes a GREAT surface to roll dice on.  Very quiet, but the dice roll, they don't just stop.

Thursday, February 20, 2014

Software Report: PaintMyMinis A+

  Every once in a while, you find an app that you never thought you needed, but the minute you see it, you say... Why didn't I have that before???  PaintMyMinis from Scriblab Products is just that software!

  If you have painted minis for any length of time, you probably have a small art book, a notepad or some collection of notes that shows you just how you mixed that awesome color for your favorite mini.  You make those notes so that you can go back and duplicate the effect or color any time you need to.  Well, PaintMyMinis is that book, except that it resides on your iPhone, and it becomes your notebook on steroids, with some serious awesomesauce thrown in.


  What does it do, you ask?  Very good, you're paying attention!

  It allows you to make annotations, record paint mixtures, record the layers you use on a particular mini or group and way more than that too.  You can even use the app to help you determine the color scheme for your army, squad or single mini, it has a built in color wheel...  It does so many things that you never realized would be helpful, that it is WAY worth the $2.99 price tag!  Right now, it's on the apple app store, there is no other version I know of.

  The interface takes some getting used to, so I highly suggest going through the tutorial on the website and readying the manual, also on the website here.  Once you get the idea of how the author uses the different steps/layers, it becomes very easy to define your basecoat, layers, highlights, washes and the like.  Entering the information for your paints and washes is laborious the first time, but once it is in there, you can use it all the time.  If you use the full range of Citadel, Reaper and Valejo and badger (and so on...) paints, you're in for a treat :)  But once they are in there, you can define your own mixtures, define layers, make custom washes to your hearts content.  Oh, and you can do some other GREAT things like export your formulas to share with friends (or paste into a notebook??) AND... this is cool, you can export labels for your newly created formulations of washes, paints and use those to label the jars you keep all over the place.  How handy is that????

  This app really does so much, I can only touch the surface.  Suffice to say that is great app, made by a painter for other painters!  Check it out, for less than the price of a pot of GW paint, you can buy a tool that you will have for life!  This is really a great tool, and you won't regret it!! 

  After the jump I'll have screenies (Stolen from the website!) and some thoughts about the program's functions.


Saturday, February 8, 2014

The latest Forgeworld order arrives

  Yipee!  The new Forgeworld order came in and boy am I jazzed.  This order was highlighted by The Land Raider Achilles.  Wowza...  Just imagine, Land Raider with Thunderfire cannon awesomesauce on top.  As long as there are no enemy AT equipment out there, this will RULE!!!  (So, I will never play against the hellturkey!!)  But really, I think if used right, this will be a nice, and very fluffy addition to my Templars Sanguine Army.  Right next to the Reaver Titan, raining fiery, hot death on all enemies of the Imperium!!!!



  It makes no sense to have a cool piece of armor like that and no rules, so I had to get...  Imperial Armour Volume Two – Second Edition: War Machines of the Adeptus Astartes.  This book is so very cool, it hurts.  The art is fantastic, and a lot of it is never before seen stuff.  Some of the pictures are, of course, photoshop mash-ups that put the gear into war scenes, but they are so well executed that you really feel like you are reading a historical piece on a real vehicle.  Virtually every vehicle also has a full page sheet of "Adeptus Mechaniucus Vehicle Specifications", all fluff here but so well executed.  You get, of course, all the rules and where they fit into the scheme of 40k, be it a tank, heavy, super heavy, lord of war, etc.  The book also has Sisters of Battle equipment and Grey Knigh/Inquisition chapters as well.  Dreadnoughts, Air vehicles, you name it' it's here.  The fluff is beautifully done and the rules are all incorporated from the GW/FW sources.  Yes, it is a "compendium" of other sources, but it does keep you from having to lug around 6 books, in favor of this one.  This is a MUST have if you play/plan to play with any FW stuff.


  And because I am futzing around with the Templar Sanguine fluff again, I had to get one of these and his little buddies...  It is the old Air Defense Command Platform along with it's buddy, the Air Defense Missile Launcher forming everyone's favorite Hyperios Air Defense System.  Now who just doesn't love that?




These were picked up for a scenario I am thinking about in my head for an all out defense against an all out attack, Apocalypse style.











 More, after the jump...