Waystone by Tectonic Craft Studio

One of the easier to punch out and assemble pieces from Tectonic Craft Studio is the Waystone. I picked this up because while I haven't actually played any Hordes, I do love the Druid Faction in that setting and figure, "Hey, one day man! One day!"

The only thing I'd tell you do to is be careful if you have multiple kits because some of the small pointy pieces can easily be mixed up for actual debris if you're not paying attention. I didn't have that problem as I'd already put together almost everything. Only the crane at this point is really making me scratch my head as I've got the two different pieces of it assembled, I just for the life of me can't figure out how those two pieces go together. Glad to hear that he'll be putting some instructions and other bits together soon.

I used some of my old Games Workshop foundation paints on this. Trying to get rid of them and test out the new ones that I bought for Thanksgiving with a good deal from my local FLSG, Games Plus.

 

I was thinking about putting some blood splatters on the center of it as the druids in the Hordes setting are not kindly individuals. You might also be able to see those limitations I've spoken of before with the methodology used here where the cutting of the non-straight parts is fairly grid or step like between movements. The other limitation is the flat surface. Mind you, it cuts a perfect symbol into the stone but no variation on the surface of the stone itself.

 

 

And another shot with a Games Workshop dwarf just for some so you can get an idea of the scope of the thing. This one isn't necessarily that large a piece but it makes a nice addition to the table.

Tectonic Craft Studios: Well and Barbed Cage

After putting the suckers together yesterday, I realized I put the barbed cage together wrong. The clue didn't hold on the top where I threw the small piece but it did on the bottom and I know from previous experience on similar material that the glue will hold past the product's tolerance so that's okay. It is still a barbed cage without it.

So taking that and the well outside this morning at a little after five AM, I used some black matte army primer. I knocked the nozzle off when I opened the can. Done that a thousand times. Put it back on and it started spraying all over the place in a radius around the can. The nozle fell off and it continued! Thankfully I was on the back porch and had a garbage bag nearby and quickly threw it in there.

I then decided to follow this folly with some grey primer which went off without too much trouble and spent the rest of the day washing the black primer off my hand.

When I got home, I hit the cage up with tin, boltmetal, chainmail, mithril silver, all the old GW colors which I was trying to finish off. Then a splattering of the last of my old GW black wash.

If I ever order from them again, I might actually get the cage again. While parts of it were a PIA to punch out because of the narrow pieces, especially at the top of the cage, I do like the way it looks at the 'three foot rule' and it has a good size. It would make a good prop for the Shackled City even.

The well was easier to assemble and easier to paint. It has a good size, the base is a good size and while up close you can see the various ridges cut into the 'stone', even in this pics unless you view the originals up close, it looks like a standard piece of gaming terrain.

I also put together the sundial and yup, just as I predicted, part of the lower part of the sundial where the reaper and his scythe is, didn't hold. Also glued together the chaos portal. Think I'm going to go with some Purple Primer on that sucker and see how it paints up from there.

Tectonic Craft Studios: Kickstarter Rewards Part One

So many moons ago, Tectonic game out with a kickstarter to come out with some inexpensive terrain. It looks interesting and I'm always a sucker for terrain that's not too much of a PIA to put together and use.

According to my pledge level, those rewards were due in June. Didn't happen. Then the online store opened. I figure that yeah, the machinery is there and it needs to run but at the same time, where's the backer's stuff? Didn't happen. Then a Thanksgiving sale happened and I asked if we could have the stuff already done sent out. Too expensive in terms of shipping. Then I asked, "Hey man, I know you don't have everything ready but how about if I order some stuff can you send me the other stuff I already paid for?" It wasn't a problem on his end and it was delivered very quickly. If I like the stuff after all is said and done, I might order from him again for stuff that's already done.

So the things here are the chaos portal, barbed cage, and the stone well.

I have a bit of other stuff to put together...

So... I think I screaed up the cage by putting that grate on top. I think it was supposed to go on the bottom or on the inside or something along those lines.

I haven't glued the Chaos Portal together yet.

The well was interesting for a few reasons.

Overall, not bad but some of the material is so fine that it breaks. Some of it is so close together, you you better be very good with your hands. The material feels cheap, and not in a good way. I don't know how well its going to hold up to heavy use or play. I've still got to assemble some more stuff and paint it up.

But...

No instructions. Checked the website and didn't see anything. I could be missing it and I'm not saying that this is brain surgery, but having a quick video for each piece probably wouldn't be a bad idea. As a matter of fact, since the kickstarter updates have pretty much come to a crawl, putting them up might give people something to look forward too.

Heck, for some things, like the Sundial, it might be a great visual. I'm sitting there playing with it and didn't realize one piece with with another and was like, "How does this thing go together" before I realized that I didn't have the all the pieces together. Big d'oh on my part I"m afraid but if you only look at the one picture on the website, you don't see the bottom piece. Without that bottom piece, it really doesn't work because that pointer does not have a slot while the sundial has one. Thankfully that bottom piece has that.

And of yeah, that bottom piece with the reaper and the scythe? Good luck punching that out. You'll have the patience of a siant by the time you do it if you're a better man than I.

Big Update: Ex Illis, Games Workshop, Hasslefree, Fenris and Confrontation

So when I started the blog, I was just getting started with my airbrush. I'm still in that phase. See, after basecoating, I still have to paint the damn things. However, it's been going fairly quick as with some of these figures I bought them mainly to test the airbrush and haven't done much more than a quick base coat of other colors and then a quick dip or wash.

Somewhere along the way I missed uploading a photo or two of this set but it's the Games Workshop Walls and Fences. It's actually a nice set with a lot of different pieces that can be painted up in a variety of ways. Sad when their scenery is actually more affordable then most of their miniatures.

During one of my shopping binges on Miniature Market, I picked up a pack of Hasslefree Zombie Hunters. It was a little over $10. For four modern figures? Even though modern RPGing and table top is my least favorite aspect of gaming, I can use them for super heroes or something.

As I work through my new minis, I also try to sneak in some of my older ones. I'm not real picky in terms of having to have company 'X' figures. In this case, it's a Fenris resin figure. It's a little off in proportions, you have to attach the sword, the base is 20mm but... clean up was a snap, it'd look much better if I could dot the eyes properly and it was a 'clean' figure. This figure is one of three warrior women. Fenris looks like they've changed quite a bit since I last bought anything from them with a larger e-bay presence and a lot of bases.

This looks weird, but it's on a huge base and is a nice chunk of metal. It's another one I picked up from Miniature Market on clearance for another like... $10. It's a Confrontation Cthonian Larva. I figure I can use it for some weird horrible monster in a variety of games. They still have a few of them.

Sixteen figures for $12 from Miniature Market. Mind you, the game Ex Illis looks pretty dead. The figures are of the 'skinny' type. Their weapons are also thin. They have a lot of glued components. The pikers especially since their arms are separate and you have to glue them to the hands and you're using plastic glue and it's a PIA to get that type of join right.

But if you're testing out some new paints? If you're testing out a new airbrush? If you need to fill out some town guards for your D&D or Warhammer game? Yeah, it's a solid deal.

On the top, I used Vallejo's basing material, grey earth or something, with a black wash and a highlight over that. I did a different color than the pikers because I wanted some variance, I wanted to show the difference between Vallejo and Games Workshop basing materials, and the brown probably would blend too much with the figures themselves. The top I used the last of my old Sepia Wash from Games Workshop. On the bottom, it was a dip in Army Painter strong. The problem with the bottom figures that you may or may not be able to see, is that when I hit them with the dull coat, it frosted several of them. I guess that's to be expected in Chicago.

Being plastic, they do have a lot of mold lines. Being plastic, those lines are very easy to remove if you're not as lazy as I am. There are actually a lot of details in the figures that I didn't bother to pick out so don't let my simple paint job fool you.

So there we go. While I still have some figures not painted from that first or second go round, my workspace is now clear enough that I can prep another batch and see how that works out in terms of getting more done. Wish me luck!