Unleash the Flames of War

After running a long 40K campaign, I am ready for a warhammer (40K and Fantasy) vacation. So I've set up a trade for some of my chaos warriors for Flames of War Germans and Russians. So Obviously the goal now is to save on hobby supplies. I had to order german late war armor spray from flamesofwar.com at full retail, as I couldn't find it anywhere else, but I am determined to use craft paints for most of my models because a) I already have a ton and b) anything I need is half the price of Vallejo or GW. So with a bit of digging I found this chart, which has the Folkart conversion for every fow color.
http://wargames.nordalia.com/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=34

Finished First Section Of My Wall of Martyrs

I decided I'm going to use this blog to keep track of the formulas I use for painting stuff. 

First up is this section of my wall of martyrs defense line that I just finished, this was done by stipling  10 or so colors (from both the folkart and the GW range) onto the main body, and another 3 colors for the fiery parts. Recipe can be found in the recipes page: 

Why I Like Shogun Miniatures Trays

I had an article earlier about magnetizing your miniatures, but I talked mainly about your bases, this one talks about the trays. For Warhammer fantasy...to me, there is really no debate to be had, Shogun Miniatures is by far the best choice, here's why:

1. They are very reasonably priced, compared to GF9 or Litko Aero
2. They seem to provide just the right level of adhesion compared when paired with my favorite base magnetizing solution (magnetic rubber base bottoms from Litko Aero
3. They come in ANY reasonable size you want, which means the tray can fit whatever formation and base size combo you have so you never have to glue movement together
4. The lip of the tray is very thin, meaning it blends in with your base and it avoids arguments about with to measure distance from lip or tray.
5. They are metal which means there is no rubber sheet that might fall detach from the tray.
6. They are very durable (which is less of a problem now that finecast is prevalent , but if you have entire large units old metal miniatures like I do, your tray wont break like some of the plastic ones you glue together.

Pictures of my Vampire Counts Army

Long time no post, but I finally finished my army and want to share it with the world

Converted GraveGuard

Converted Hex Wraiths

Whole Army

My Ghouls Painted With Folkart and Americana Paints (mostly)

I keep running into nay-sayers with regards to "craft store paints" on the various boards, so I thought I'd show my ghouls, which were painted with mostly Folk Art and Americana paints to help show that craft store paints work just fine . The only non "craft store paints" are the darkest coat of teal (hawk turquoise) and the more yellowish bone base coat (GWs Bubonic Brown).

The recipe for the skins, which I am particularly proud of:

Brown Prime (army painter)

Americana's:Cranberry Wine base coat then going up in half steps through (i.e. cranberry+heritage brick then heritage brick then heritage brick + Georgia clay...):

Americana's Heritage Brick

Americana's Georgia Clay

Folk Art's Terra Cotta

For those who care... that's an 8 dollar savings just for the skin. All in all I used 4 more Americana and Folk Art paints...saving me enough to buy an extra 10 ghoul bodies and legs from Hoard O Bits, and using my leftover arms and legs to make 10 more ghouls for free.

The whole tribe:

A Few Closeups:

Next up...unit fillers

The Ghoul Kings Court

The first part of my VC army will be the ghoul kings, pictures coming soon

Ghoul King (2500pts)

2500pt Vampire Counts 8th Ed (2012) Roster (Standard)

Selections:

Lords (615pts)

• Master Necromancer (240pts)
  Extra Level (35pts), Lore of Vampires, Nightshroud (40pts)
• Strigoi Ghoul King (375pts)
  Aura of Dark Majesty 6in -1 LD (25pts), Dark Acolyte- Nehek Cast+D3 to roll (25pts), Fear Incarnate- Enemy Reroll Fear Test (20pts), Fencer's Blade (40pts), Potion of Speed (5pts)

Heroes (410pts)

• Necromancer (125pts)
  Book of Arkhan (25pts), Extra Level (35pts), Lore of Death
• Tomb Banshee (95pts)
• Tomb Banshee (95pts)
• Tomb Banshee (95pts)

Core (630pts)

• Crypt Ghouls (630pts)
  62x Crypt Ghouls (620pts), Ghast (10pts)

Special (380pts)

• Crypt Horrors (190pts)
  5x Crypt Horrors (190pts)
• Crypt Horrors (190pts)
  5x Crypt Horrors (190pts)

Rare (465pts)

• Terrorgheist (225pts)
• Terrorgheist (240pts)
  Rancid Maw (15pts)

Profile Summary:

• Name	M	WS	BS	ST	T	W	I	A	LD
  Crypt Ghoul	4	3	0	3	4	1	3	2	5
  Ghast	4	3	0	3	4	1	3	3	5
  Strigoi Ghoul King	6	6	3	5	5	3	8	5	9

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Who Runs Bartertown???

Originally this post was going to be titled Lessons Learned while acquiring my Vampire counts miniatures, but then I realized that most of what I was going to say was about bartertown anyway so I figured I'd turn this post into an ode to the greatest warhammer site of all time!


What is bartertown:
bartertown is an online flea market for nerds! Whatever gaming related items you want to buy,sell or trade bartertown has them, usually at prices 30+% below retail. Obviously, 40K and WFB dominate, but it is not hard to find items for the other major games: MTG, WM, Hordes and so forth.

How bartertown works:
The site is organized as a discussion forum, rather than an online store or an auction. The major boards are divided into different categorys of gaming: i.e. a board for WFB, a board for 40K, a board for Privateer Press and so forth.When someone wants to sell something the create a post on the appropriate board with titles like: "H: orc boyz, skaven slaves W: empire spearmen". With the H: standing for "have" and the W: standing for "want", and more details in the message body.  You can start creating posts as soon as you create a free account, mine was created years ago, so I don't know if they make you jump through more hoops now, but it seemed fairly straight-forward at the time. I won't bother to go over the various posting rules (as the forum is well moderated, and they are clearly explained there), except to say that advertising commercial services (painting...), bumping posts, and posting to often are frowned upon.

Once you find a deal you like or someone finds a deal of yours they like, you exchange PMs and work something out...the negotiation points usually are:

• What are the items/money being exchanged-expect to get equivelant value for newer kits, trading "in someones favour" for older for newer kits, and at least a 30% discount on goods exchanged for money (remember even the newest kits are generally available for 25% off on eBay)!
• What condition the items are in- some common terms are:
• NIB- New In Box (may have been opened)
• NOS- New on Sprue
• Off Sprue- Be careful here ask for photos, as often even the seller may not know what he has
• Assembled/Primed/Painted- Always find out if you are getting the extra bits or not!
• Stripped

• What version of the items they are: clan rats can be from 3rd, 4th,6th or 7th edition and it is important to know which.

Lessons learned:
 
Always take pictures:One thing that you should always do to avoid misunderstandings is take pictures...its possible you think you have all the bits but something is missing that you clipped and forgot, its possible you thought the box was 12 men, when it really should have been 16...even if your error was in good faith, and even if you can work it out...shipping can eat into your savings fast...so the best thing to do is to trade pictures (good ones) of whatever it is you are selling

There are plenty of fish in the sea: Give yourself time to make a good deal, and be prepared to walk away if you feel you are not being treated fairly...there are always more traders!

If your going for the flavor of the month be prepared to pay a premium: want the new vamps coming out this week? Guess what, you are not the only one, be prepared to pay a premium or wait a month.
While waiting for demand for a particular army to cool down, use it as an opportunity to play some games with proxies to figure out what you should and should not get, or even if you want the army at all!
If you must start painting right away, get a new kit first as those are not likely to come out on bartertown right away anyway, and paint it before moving on.

Always check seller ratings, and references: You can do this by clicking on the number next to each profile's name and reading what past trading partners had to say.


Even highly rated sellers can disappoint: Suppose you need a unit for a tournament that is coming up in a month, and the seller is notoriously slow shipper...that lives on the other side of the country!

Watch out for weasel words: They can be honest misunderstandings, or a way to get over on you. I once traded for a converted ogre butcher...which, to me, meant->Ogre butcher converted in some way. To my trade partner it meant: Ogre holding the slab of ribs. Again pictures often take care of these kinds of misunderstandings before they happen.

Use common sense for the: Higher rating ships first rule. You get two points for a good review..so a guy with 100 rating and no bad reviews is probably safe, but if someone has a rating of say... 12 and you have a 2...and they insist you ship first I would find some higher rated people to deal with...especially if they are offering a really good deal. I personally have never been ripped off but it has happened.

One thing to consider if you and your partner can't agree is splitting up really big lots into phases, so 
maybe instead of sending a 500 dollar army all at once you split it into 3 shipments each.

Before contacting a trader:

• Make sure you are okay with their ratings, 
• You know what country they are in (shipping goods between countries may be really expensive)
• You look at their profile to see how they prefer to be contacted- some may prefer to be contacted by private message, some may prefer email, some may prefer to talk on the board itself.

And finally:
Follow the golden rule, be honest and forthright in describing what you have, communicate frequently and openly, most people will

12.25 for one mounted yeoman is outrageous, here's how I stuck it to the man!

At tournaments, when we discuss armies and I have my Brets with me, my yeomen are what I am most proud of, because I used less than 30 dollars worth of miniatures total on a unit that cost over 55 dollars retail at the time.

It all started when I wanted some yeomen as cheap redirectors to fend of death-stars for a few turns, and as squig kamikazes, but 55 bucks was too rich for my blood. Searching the various historical ranges available at the time didn't yield any satisfactory results either and I held off buying, until it occurred to me thatjust because a unit is cavalry doesn't mean the riders have to be actually mounted on their horses. The rest was easy.

I had remnants from my peasant infantry and archers, and I simply combined that kit with a few horses I had from renegade miniatures. and then I made these:

Components:

1. 1 pack of  5 medieval horses, I used some old horses from renegade miniatures I had, but GW's or finding your own by googling "28mm horses" will also work. I think they are 3 bucks a piece from GW.
2. 5 men at arms bodies, heads and arms (you do have peasants in your army, right?)
3. 1 Set of archers arms with bows,I think I had some from an old empire sprue, but I think almost any arm with a bow will work.

Altogether this should come to about 5.50 a miniature, and in IMHO looks better than the real thing.  If you don't have some/all of the bodies/bits, and don't need the full kit you can use bitzbarn or hoard o'bits or black dagger games, or bartertown.com or ebay to get them.

Basing Your WFB Models the Cheapskate Way

This article is not about making your bases look good, but how to do it as efficiently as possible in whatever color and texture you want. I believe that magnetizing your Warhammer miniatures is well worth the extra expense and one of the reasons is that magnetized bases are extremely efficient to texture and paint. The recipe should be apparent from the pictures but basically it goes like this:

1. Buy and magnetize your bases and their movement trays

2. Buy a medium sized piece of sheet-metal at home depot for about a dollar.

3. Pour your base texture onto the sheet metal

4. Arrange the bases flush on your tray

5. Brush some glue onto the bases (I like Gorilla Glue because it dries faster than PVA, but slower than super glue). Note that in the pic I have only dripped the glue (I then used an old base to spread it over each base)

6. Dip the tray of bases into the texturing material (in this case flock, but sand, dirt or whatever will work just as well)

7. Paint as desired (you may want to paint before you dip into the texturing material depending on if you want to paint the texture material or not)

8. When you paint, you can use the sheet-metal tray to hold the bases for you, that way you don't have to go back over where your fingers were

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A better way to magnetize your fantasy miniatures

This won't be of use to 40K players as for the most part you magnetize different weapon options
but for those of us playing with movement trays... there are a few options.
With the recent price hikes buying rare earth magnets and gluing is the most expensive option...when I looked on amazing magnets site, even the tiniest cheapest magnets were going for $.24 each. Way too much when you need a hundred or more. Fortunately there are two other ways to go. If you need bases as well as magnets Amazon is selling Gale Force 9 magnetized bases for $7.74 for $36 a decent price considering you you get a 20mm base. If you don't need bases though, the only way to go is litko aero. Not only are they much cheaper than magnets they are better.

• No Glue which means no messy hands and no waiting for glue to dry, they are applied like stickers to the bottom of your base
• Magnets seem to always be too strong or too weak with these stickers you have but two choices regular strength for plastics, and heavy duty for metals
• No polarity issues (placing magnets the wrong way can case minis to repel each other on the tray)

Once you get your minis magnetized there are a few alternatives for getting magnetic movement trays (in all cases cheaper than Games Workshop movement trays) going at about 2 bucks a tray.

• Since your minis are now magnetized, your movement trays no longer need a lip to keep them from going off the tray you can get Litko's flex steel movement tray inserts and simply stick them onto pieces of balsa that you cut out
• Custom metal movement trays from a company called Shogun Miniatures these attract magnets very well (obviously) and there is no cutting involved. Price is very competitive.
  
• They also sell flex steel steel trays at craft stores, but they do not work very well, they are just not very receptive to magnets
• I also found this site which has better prices than Litko but I have never used them so I have no idea if the rubber steel is more like Litko's or more like Micheal's/Home Depot's

Lessons Learned While Getting My VC Army Together Part 1

Well, the last of the packages came today...the one containing the Varghulf I bought...and this completes my latest foray into bartertown.com (for now at least). I am still trying to get rid of a few miscellaneous things but the are more to clear my garage and to get some money for the 3 or four GTs I plan to attend this year than to get what I need to build my army. In all I have around 60 skeletons, 60 Ghouls, 40 Zombies, 60 Grave Guard, a couple of Varghulfs and a bunch of characters. I already had a really nice bsb from Rackham, and I plan to use chaos knights with more appropriate heads as blood-knights (ghouls or possibly daemonettes would work I think).

So what lessons can I pass on to my fellow cheapskates? Well, I think the most important thing is that my foray onto barter town proves Law #3 quite nicely, it is better to have less of what you want than more of what you don't! Specifically in my last post...note that I tracked money spent and the retail value of what I got...I didn't really care that I was giving away a fortune in Skaven, because to me they were nearly worthless. It meant deals were easy to find as I was giving way more than I was getting. Lets consider what I got rid of (some of this stuff is old so estimates of what it would cost retail follow)
1 Box of Storm Vermin (41)
18 Metal Plague Monks (80)
170 Clanrats (350)
1 IOB Set (90)
4 Books (36)
1 Box of new clanrats (25)
1 Vermin Lord (50)
1 Warp Lightning Canon (20)
2 Assasins (20)
1 Ratling Gun (10)
1 MK I SM Vets (41)
1 Box Marauder Knights (25)
2 Pegasus knights (30)
4 Phoenix Guard (18)
8 Bret KOTR (35)
2 Metal Rat Ogres (20)

So the total value of what I gave up is 861 +109 (what I spent) to get less than 800 dollars worth of stuff. A bad deal to some... a great deal if the 861 is stuff you wont miss!