Brick by Brick

Tuesday Tutorials

This is How I build things... WITH EYE LASERS!

I was puttering about other day when, with sudden terror, I realized something shocking: Other than my trusty green flocked mat, I have absolutely NO terrain to play wargames on. NONE. Zip. Zero. Ziltch.
My gorge rose into my throat.
My stomach fell out.
I broke into a cold sweat.
I'll even admit... there were tears... teeny tiny bitter tears of a sad sad man.

What caused this sudden realization?
A clutch of my friends were coming out to play said wargames at my apartment THE NEXT DAY.
There was only one answer:
Cancel games night  Oh NAY NAY!
TO THE DIY STORE! (Staples, natch~)

Warning! Warning! Warning! Warning! Warning!

What follows is but one mans ill-conceived and fevered attempts to build a 4'x4' tables worth of terrain in 6 hours! MADNESS WILL ENSUE! (also backpain)

Base Instincts

Tutorials Tuesday

I've been asked by a friend to show off how I go about basing my models. There are naturally a few ways of doing this, but I'll outline my favorite (which is also the easiest) below.

What you'll need:
However many bases you intend to prepare.
Tape
White Glue. Elmers or whatever grade regular school glue you want. (I use GW because I have lots of it left over from my GW days, and it seems to break down really well in water.)
Sand, ballast or whatever you want to use to texture your bases (I use a few different grades of ballast: Fine, regular and large. This provides nice variation in size and texture but also guarantees total coverage)
Water
An old Paint brush
various random bitz from the bits box (below I've used some sprue chopped up into bricks, some skulls and some army painter razor wire)

Scrub-a-Dub-Dub Part 2: The Cleanening

Tutorial Tuesday

Welcome back for part 2 of the Simple-Green review slash how to (which is, in no way, a cheap attempt to take a sub-par article and split it into two articles so i can be lazy this afternoon... no... not at all...)!

When last we met our intrepid Chemi-man he had just given his models the sweet sweet minty green dunk!

It's so.... green.....

Scrub-a-dub-dub Part 1: THE SECRET OF THE OOZE

Tutorial Tuesday

We've all got one of those miniatures. You know the ones I'm talking about. That model you painted umpteen years ago while half blind from your 9th double rum and coke after painting all the way through all of the Lord of the Rings extended Editions (Natch!). That model(s) you look at now and actually hope they'll burst into flames so no-one can see your secret shame.
Or maybe that's just me.... and how most of my Saturday nights go....
Anyways, here's my guide to absolving you of your painting sins and washing away those unsightly paint jobs.
Until the next one...

The Answer to your failures. $15.00 from Canadian Tire... or whatever your DIY store is.

Painting Flesh: Quick Study

Tuesday Tutorial

 

Lots of Pictures ahead!

So I've been asked how I paint my Skin tones. Due to a lack of a good camera and due to my inability to make a decent painting video (because, honestly, that's the best way to show how it's done), I've been loath to do any painting tutorials. WELL, today that changed... If only cause it was a gorgeous day outside and I had nothing really to do. So I gave it a shot.

Choosing the Correct Army for your Playstyle

Tutorial Tuesday

Player One Select

When it comes to choosing the correct army in Warhammer 40k, new players are often at a loss. Of course there are as many different answers to this question as there are people to ask. Do they buy the models that look coolest to them? Do they buy the strongest army? Do they start small? Or  buy it all in one go? Just where in the world IS Carmen Sandiego*?

Luckily I have the answer... OR rather you do, You just don't know it yet.

Allow me to explain.

Classical Literature

Tutorial Tuesday

Once upon a time I ran a Dungeons and Dragons game. It was Awesome. I spent hours and hours coming up with evil villains to fight, fantastical locations to plunder, and devious puzzles to solve. I drew map after map, developed governmental systems, and created realistic ecosystems for the flora and fauna. For weeks and months I worked on this campaign, devoted myself to it, all for the enjoyment of my players. With unbridled excitement I brought it to the gaming table....and it fell apart. The players pulled it apart, piece by piece, shat on my maps and wiped their mouths with its tears (I admit that's not entirely true. They drank it's tears).
I was gutted.
I was absolutely shattered. All that work for nothing. Months of my life gone to waste... And it was for a stupid stupid reason.

Weathering Forcast

Tutorial Tuesday

So I bought some weathering powders from Vallejo recently. I've been eyeing them for a while now and during my last visit to my FLGS I thought to meself "Meself... Time to shit or get off the pot". Well after I got out of the bathroom I finally plunked down and bought a few of them. I purchased:

1. Green Earth
2. Carbon Black
3. Dark Slate Grey
4. Burnt Sienna
5. Natural Sienna
6. Light Sienna

 As well as the Vallejo Winter Weathering Set (as it said weathering on the cover, showed a tank and looked neat).
WARNING: THIS PRODUCT CONTAINS NO PIGMENTS. I'm just stupid and was all "BUYBUYBUY". On the plus side it does have Sandy Paste, which is awesome fun, and assorted useful paints... So it was not a waste.
In addition I purchased some assorted other products of a "ooh shiny" status that I had never used before but wanted to try out :

• Liquid masque
• Micro set and Micro Sol
• Army Painter battlefields tufts, razorwire, meadow flowers (!), ivy, Grass Green Flock

As well as a few other sundry items of a hobbyist nature (Plastic Card, Knife Blades, Green stuff, Paints, etc.)

I shall endeavor to tell you all how all of these things have gone for me, possibly in review style. For now...
The WEATHING POWDERS.

How to make a Wet Palette for next to nothing

Tuesday Tutorials

Word to the wise: Don't google-image search the word WET with safe search off.... Or do.

HIYO!

SO, today I've decided to do you all a solid and teach you how to make a Wet Palette for dirt cheap. Like I'm talking "Oh my god, I already have all of this stuff!!" cheap. It's something I learned from a wonderful chap named Mathieu Fontaine. You may recognize that name as coming from a guy who's won dozens upon dozens of awards for his painting... Golden Daemons, Euro Opens, the works. Great Guy, super nice, and an excellent teacher, especially if you want to learn to blend better.

ANYWAYS, this really is an incredibly simple process and it'll only take up a couple minutes of your time...
Wait...
What's that?
You don't know what a Wet Palette is?

FOR SHAME!!!

Spock is unimpressed.

I have +10 in my Demo lesson skill...

Tuesday Tutorials

Listen up!

So Once upon a time I wrote a little post about Demo games and how to keep them simple. Now I'm going to put my money where my mouth (typing fingers?) is and give you a little tutorial on how to run a demo game. Now teaching a new game is like taking a test with a hangover.  You know what to cover (dice, models, rules, opponent), but OH MY GOD HOW DO I DO IT?? (*Vomit noises*)

Follow the leader and we'll get you there safe and sound.


First order of the day. What not to do:

Now, one major mistake people often make is jumping in with both barrels blazing, spouting advanced rules left and right, with no concern given to the newbie player. THIS DOES NOT WORK. The newbie player is like a baby, they can learn how to play, but it takes perseverance and practice, and above all, patience to teach them the ropes. While advance rules like alternate ammo types, TO Camouflage (TO Camo), Scouting moves, Outflanking maneuvers and Aerial Deployment (AD) are awesome, trying to throw those rules into your demo games of 40k, Warhammer Fantasy, Infinity (or whatever) is just asking for trouble. You need to teach the newbie how to move before they can outflank, which end of the gun fires worry about what kind of ammo does what (other than make their opponent dead).
In essence, they need to get a strong idea of the basic rules (movement, shooting, assault, Orders, AROs, short and long orders) before they can even begin to worry about all the cool stuff.

Hey mister... How do i roll the dices??

The other major mistake players often make is playing "tough" against newbies.  This is a huge no no. The newbie could very well get turned off as they get their butts stomped into the ground and just give up then and there. Don't Club the baby seals. It's just bad form.

Effective Army Building Part III: Son of Army builder

Tutorial Tuesday

Support.

Welcome back!
This week I want to talk about the most vital part of an army, one that is, curiously, often ignored.

Effective Army Building Part 2: Follow the Leader

Tutorial Tuesday

Welcome back!
Today is part 2 of my attempt  to explain how to build an effective Army for wargaming. BEGIN IS NOW!

In last weeks Tutorial Tuesday I espoused the importance of solid leadership and a couple different types of leader type I am rather fond of. Now we're moving onto the "Meat and Potatoes" of an effective army:


Effective Army Building: Strong core elements of troop type infantry (light, medium, and heavy)

Well, one can't really have an army without soldiers, and that's what I want to talk about today. Of course there are many types of infantry in any game we play. Sappers, Assault Troops, Heavily armored Ape-men in mobile tank suits... But when all is said and done, they all boil down into 3 different types:

• Light Infantry
• Medium Infantry/Line Troops
• Heavy Infantry
• Specialist Troops

Effective Army Building Part THE FIRST!

Tutorial Tuesday

Welcome to the first installment of  Tutorial Tuesday!

Today I want to talk a little about a topic near and dear to the Wargamers heart (or possibly groin...): Army Building.  Simply put, Army building is the idea of taking the various bits and pieces of your collection together to create a cohesive, functional, whole.
Now obviously you (and everyone else) is going to want the best units in their army always. The best armor, the best equipment, the best moral, the best everything at all times, because, of course, if everything is the best in your army, you will always win. Alas, this is not the truth at all.
Think about it. No matter the game you are restricted by 3 things. Money, availability, and cost. Not everyone has the MONEY to buy only the best units. Companies purposely make the most powerful units the most costly, cash wise, because they know people will buy them. It's just good business (unless you're Games Workshop, in which case it's witchcraft and pure, unadultered, hatred for humanity that drives your prices up... or so the internet would have us all believe)... On that same note, not everyone can take only the best units in their army, even if they do have the cash to buy them (lucky bastards... you should donate money to me instead!), because many of the best units in the game are subject to low unit caps, restricting their AVAILABILITY in peoples armies.
Naturally I'd love to take only Veteran Kazaks and Chasseurs in my Ariadna force for infinity, or only Ghost knights in my grey knights army (shut up, I like them... come on, they are led by GHOST ARAGORN FOR FRIKSAKES!!), but I have a limit on those units availability in my army list.
Lastly, the best units in the game are always rather high in COST in regards to points spent on the models, or slots occupied, or whatever. To get the best units, you need to give up on other, necessary evils like medics or support weaponry or other units that can make you're operate as a cohesive whole.
So, as you can see, you can't only take the best units. You need to support them, and this is the subject of my article (took me a while, but I got there eventually).

To build an effective army you need a few essential elements:

• Effective leadership
• Strong core elements of troop type infantry (light, medium, and heavy)
• Proper support for your engaged elements (artillery, counter assault/stop-gap, ancillary support units such as medics, engineers, etc.)