" A MULTI FACETED JEWEL "

" Dave what does this mean " I hear you say ! Well this week`s post has many sides to it not just one particular theme.

" ALAS POOR SY I KNEW HER WELL "

Originally this week I was hoping to post up a lot of Star Wars painting, but Sy met with an accident after almost being finished, and I lost my mojo to keep painting the rest. Having spent the week working on other stuff I felt the need  to paint some Star Wars bits again, so my mojo has returned.

A sad and sorry state of affairs

" THESE ARN'T THE DROIDS YOUR LOOKING FOR ! "

These R5 Units were painted before Sy met her demise, I wanted to paint some more unusual colour schemes than the regular white with the odd colour. Was pleased with how these turned out and I like the grimy look on them, and think the conversion turned out well.

" I SHALL REACH VALHALLA ALL SHINY AND CHROME "

Last week I managed to finish these two post apocalyptic cars, I wanted a very rusty colour scheme with faded paint. 

 Here is how to achieve this look :

Step 1. Basecoat the panel work with Rhinox Hide

Step 2. When dry, sponge on Skrag Brown, don't go too heavy as you want to see some of the base colour showing through. To achieve this, once I have got the paint loaded on the sponge, I dab it on the pallet until it starts to leave the right amount of paint.

Step 3. Repeat the process of step 2 with Fire Dragon Bright ( orange) but go a lot lighter than in step 2.

Step 4.  Pick a contrasting colour to the brown ( You can see I've used a light blue and light green) And dab the paint on in patches with the point of the brush, you can add as much as you want, I've gone quite minimal as I didn't imagine having much time to maintain their paintwork, and chemicals in the atmosphere would probably eat into it.

Step 5. Using brown and black washes dab over the paintwork, this will give you a good weathered look to the paint and also it will look like there is more rust coming through.

" WHAT MAKES YOU TICK ?"

In a recent article by Steve he talked about what gaming meant to him, and how the gaming was the most important part. I can fully appreciate and understand his point of view, however for me it was always about the painting and modelling first and gaming second. So who is right and who is wrong ? Both and neither, as it is down to the individual on what makes them happy, if you're happy to play with unpainted models, then don't worry about what anyone else is saying and enjoy your gaming. If you want to take your time and get all the models painted , then enjoy this part of the hobby as you like. We are all different in our approach, as long as we can accept our differences there is no problem!

Now, knowing I like to play with nicely painted miniatures, this was why I came up with the game "Death Match" as you didn't need a lot of models to be able to play, so gave the best of both worlds I could do some nicely painted figures and game my heart out, without taking up a massive amount of time . . . . . . . . . . . . 

" LET THE GAMES BEGIN "

Recently I sent my display models for Death Match to Steve and Hils, details on this will come to light in a later post. This means I needed to paint up another set for my upcoming show, the first of which is Vallatrix the alien in charge of the games commission and his two concubines. Now in gaming terms he doesn't have anything to do with the gaming but is a background model, and when the 3D arena is finished can be used as one of the many crowd models to sit around the arena or on his own floating dais.

All three models were painted with a glazing technique over strong contrasting colours. I'm planning to add to these models with a whole entourage, " WHY" I hear you say, well that leads me into this next part where I will hand you over to Steve to tell the tale.....

Dave

Thanks Dave.

Oh gosh, where to begin.

At the start I suppose. I first heard of Dave through a situation that made me smile.  Another person I knew had recently befriended him (and Dave, being the good chap that he is, ended up making a few custom miniatures for him), and in a private conversation I had, it was sort of like "shhhh, confidential", and this in turn caused a memory to surface.. which made me smile, because it reminded me of one time (years earlier in my life), when I lived with a girlfriend in a permanent mobile home; we had a neighbouring couple living in a falling apart van who used to argue like cat and dog, all hours of the night and day. Oh Lord, the times I used to have to bang on their door and all would go quiet within while I`d yell at them through the closed portal to "BE QUIET," and I`d see the female half of the couple next day and she`d pass me on the trailer park road and put her finger to her lips and whisper: "shhhhhh, its confidential." 

So the whole connection just appealed to my warped sense of humour for some reason.

So I kept hearing the name Dave Stone, Dave Stone, who is this Dave bloody Stone, I kept asking myself. He sure didn`t come into TGC and I wasn`t seeing him about on most of the blogs I visited. When he did comment on posts I spotted, he seemed ordinary enough, friendly, talkative. But the name rang a bell, but I didn`t know from where. It was only after Hillers started talking to this guy (or maybe he started talking to her?) that I finally made the connection. I knew him from working at Games Workshop, years before. I was a lowly writer and a shadow promotions (blurb) designer and freelance magazine article writer.. as well as Editor of "Wargames Journal" at the same time. While Dave was a GW manager executive.. and got to tread the green carpet at GW Nottingham HQ along with all the nobs and fawning hoi major polloi LOL. We both knew the industry and through successive conversations, by now taken to the phone, where we would engage in the most amazingly long multi hour phone chatsabout everything under the sun,  and bit by bit, through natural progression a plan was formed: what Dave would call, "our mad scheme to take over the world." 

me...

... and the indomitable Hillers

I think it was back then that it was first decided I was going to create a new pro website for his business ~ Wargames Terrain Workshop. It also soon became clear to me that twinning my humble efforts at TGC with Dave was a desirous thing to do, and thus the nucleus of what was to follow started to take shape.

I was to work with Dave and his lovely wife Sarah, on turning his brainchild (an unpolished game  called Death Match) into a tidy and professional game. Now, the game as it was... truly had nothing terribly wrong with it, it simply lacked spit and polish... and I KNEW the scope for turning the game blurb... the in game background and history... was immense. and I was impressed by what was already presented, mostly cool original ideas created by Dave`s wife, supplemented by cool interior artwork from Dave`s Mother ~ Brenda.

So when Dave asked me to check the game out, I said "sure," and assured him I would get the guys at our local clubs to play test it all properly, and meanwhile I started taking copious notes, and watching the many, manyplay-testing sessions with a seriously keen eye. A month later I got back to him with a long, long list of findings, and he said  "great, would you like to re-write the book and add all these cool new ideas to the rules, and turn it into more than the current sum of its parts. So I said "yes, love to."

But I knew it wouldn't just be a re-write. Death Match needed to maintain its integrity, and so using what was already written, I just needed to create a scaffold... a foundation if you like, around an existing main frame, and voila! The new Death Match game was conceived, slowly over the following weeks and months.

It was faithful to all the hard work Dave, Sarah and their team had put into the thing, yet new enough, and with a face lift just cool enough to turn the whole thing into a vibrant new experience.

But there was just one problem. I didn't have any of the Death Match models. All our play testing had been done using facsimiles (simply not the same), so guess what: Dave sent over his entire range of show case cabinet models, so that Hils and I could carry on playing and fine tuning the rules. I later discover the models were not only his special showcase ones, but also his own personal set *gulp*  and oh man, these models are simply to die for. Dozens and dozens of pro painted Death Match miniatures (some of the best painting I`ve ever seen), and on top of that, he included a duplicate set of - everything.. in unpainted state, so I could `ave a go` myself and equip, pose, and paint duplicate additions in any way I liked... at my leisure. This huge parcel was a kingly gift, and a sign of the commitment we had forged, and the pledge to work together to try make this game as great as we both felt is could and should be.

a pair of intrepid hunters track down a Pitilliad and attempt 

to capture it for the arena.

Progress has proceeded so well in fact, it's gone well beyond the expected bounds, and already we are planning the layout and sculpting fresh designs for a new range of Death Match miniatures for an expansion, which will be due out at.... shhhh its confidential. Dave and Hils have been beaver-ing away making concept art, sketches and so forth, and emails have been shooting back and forth as the first of the new designs are being conceived, artistically framed, and thrown back and forward and up the flag pole to see who salutes it. 

Lord Vallatrix, two female concubines (a Traventi and a purring feline alien) , and a servant `goader` watch the court below.. from upon their floating dais high overhead.

Dave then has the horrendously hard job of rendering everything to actuality, and thus da daaa!!! the first new expansion Death Match Miniatures will hit the preview shelf. No not a kickstarter, but (by then) no doubt, properly displayed on a new and yummy looking Wargames Terrain Website.

The living proof. Dave working away on new moulds and new figure sculpts, at his company Wargames Terrain Workshop.

But there`s more. Dave and Sarah rather like the idea of creating another `sister` game to run alongside this one. The background for Death Match is too detailed and (quite frankly) too good just to be left as `fluff,` and so I am designing a brand new game... a skirmish game, which utilises all the miniatures and components from Death Match, and then takes the adventure in an entirely new direction, in the form of an integrated table top miniatures game. This project will also be supported and supplemented by a full range of new miniatures, which will allow the gamer to immerse fully into the amazing world of Dave and Sarah`s unique creation. One of the things I was keen to get them to allow me to do, was to take the very world specific material that existed (before I got my hands on it all) and turn the thing into a generic experience, which any gamer could fit into his existing game... whether that be Star Wars, Doctor Who, Judge Dredd, John Carter From Mars, Mad Max, Resident Evil, or even a Dungeons and Dragons type world, and literally use the game as a sandbox for creating your own gaming needs. The original background (invented by Sarah Stone) revolving around Lord Vallatrix and the planet Traventi  still exists in full. But anyone reading the (much expanded) rule book is free to set their own games up in any world or place or time they choose... in other words, its left open for them to decide how they want to play.

The Skirmish game will most likely be officially released at Salute next year, where Hils and myself  will be attending and demonstrating the game in the main arena.. showcasing Death Match, plus the first proper Death Match expansion (which I can tell you, is really shaping up to be something rather special) . But also we will be announcing the new Skirmish game (title still under wraps) on the same day: so it will be an exciting time for sure. So maybe Dave actually will have the Wargames Terrain Workshop t-shirts designed for us all by then after all which is sort of a running joke among us at the moment *wink*

Best of all, the special dice used for Death Match will double up for use with the skirmish game: Dave's been talking of making these for ages (but everyone has always had to make do with ordinary dice with straight numbers to represent the many unique symbols used in the game OR place sticky labels onto the faces of the dice themselves... not an ideal solution). Well I`m a moan-y pushy git, and I have never once let up on him; and da daaaa!!! yep, tired of my campaigning and bellyaching, Dave`s actually designed..made.. and cast the first of these rather cool dice sets: so the game enhancement is now easier to immerse into than ever before.

A Lava Salamander... kinda hot, right!

All in all there`s never been a better time to jump onto the wagon and join a great game, which is currently being developed, updated, and improved for even smoother play: with extensive new ranges of miniatures and cool interactive terrain being created all the time, for that ever immersive table top feel and enjoyment.

Some of my painted Death Match beauties, sitting in one of my two prize possession showcase glass cabinets.

I have heard the game being described as resembling Roman Gladiators in space. Hmmmm, this would certainly be a rather limiting view of a game with a far wider potential than that: a bit like those terrible you tube reviews on Dice Tower, where Tom Vasel and Sam Healey buy a game and play it once, yet feels qualified to deliver a 40 minute speech about how the game works and why people should either buy it or not buy it. As anyone knows, to understand a game properly takes many, many, many play throughs as players learn to understand and digest the many components and nuances which comprise the thing. And Death Match has so many options for skilful and tactical play, it would take a lot of playing to understand its labyrinthine complexities (you can even equip each hero miniature individually.. allowing for great modelling customisation in a campaign game, as you watch your hero(es) grow through continuous adventuring). There`s also full rules for playing the game entirely solo, so that`s a seriously cool addition - I truly believe, nowadays, any game which doesn't allow for direct solitaire mode of play, is missing the mark by a full measure.

Two Pitilliads, one with passive blue markings, the other showing (angry state) red attack mode markings. 

No, Death Match can be played as a simple gladiator type arena skirmish. But if you expand that image just a little bit, suddenly you have Clone Wars era Princess Amidala, Anakin Skywaker, and Obi-Wan Kenobi.. chained to the pillars in the Petranaki Arena with wild beasts and terrible monsters let loose to hunt them down and gobble them up. Or you might like to imagine a game set in the terrible harsh world of "Mad Max and the Thunder Dome," or the arena scene in Edgar Rice Burroughs "John Carter From Mars." What about the cool post apocalyptic world of Rutger Hauer`s "Salute of the Jugger" or.... oh wow, yesssss..... this whole thing would fit seamlessly into Judge Dredd`s Cursed Earth: somewhere out in the endless toxic wastelands maybe?  So you see, the possibilities really are boundless. You just have to use your imagination, and fit the game into your own preferred world ethos. Death Match would even fit into Dungeons and Dragons ("Empire of the Petal Throne" ... "Dwimmermount" ... "Gamma World" ... "Dark Sun" or "Journey to the Barrier Peaks" spring immediately to mind).

Two human (a male and a female) gladiators.

Hopefully see you guys at Salute, where Hils and I will be demonstrating everything (on the stand next to Dave) including all the new WTW goodies to be announced that day (we`ll be running public participation games at stages throughout the day(s) as well). And I`m still hoping to rope Dave`s wife into joining us on the table for a few table top adventures: though she`ll most likely have slipped off somewhere.. shopping with Hillers on Bond Street haha.

In the evening.... Curry mmmmmm. **looks at Dave and Jez**

A Scabendi and a Ceratid, two alien hunter gladiators from the unique range of Death Matchminiatures.

.... there be monsters

... and flying frickin` sky sharks

But I`m flying over in a few weeks to see himself and Mrs herself, to exchange goodies and ideas, and generally conquer the galaxy for a few days... well, at least on the gaming table.

I plan to beat him at Death Match **grins**

"Beast Hunt"

a teaser snippet from the still unfinished.. still being play tested Death Match Skirmish game.

The beast ran... ran as it had never run before. Broad sticks splintered beneath its heavy feet, driven deep into gritty soil. Branches whipped its face; scrub scraped at its calves above its claws, raising welts that remained all but invisible against skin tough enough to suggest an agonizing cracked sunburn. Or at least it would have, had he been human. The beast was a  Horned Hominid: an aggressive male of the species: and the skilled group of hunters pursuing the beast through the forest undergrowth... wanted it for Vallatrix`s grand arena!

 The creature`s eyes darted frantically left and right, seeking any possible escape, and its huge pudgy claws snagged on overhanging boughs and left a rain of dismembered leaves falling in his wake. He crashed directly through the trees where he could, snapping branches and saplings without slowing, darting around the larger trunks where even his prodigious  strength proved insufficient to clear his path. And still he heard the sounds of pursuit,  drawing ever nearer.

The trees were not tightly packed here, and those who followed him could fit between and flit around far more easily than he. Damn it all, he hadnʼt even wanted this! Heʼd done nothing wrong...  wanted to live, and live free.

Finally, too tired to run any further the hulking beast spun, putting his back to the thickening copse: a narrow forest trail.. little more than a track, separated the trees on either side. A split rail fence further obstructed anyone from reaching him at a full tilt, and in the distance, an old derelict settlement could just be made out through a clearing in the trees. Even if the creature couldn`t keep this enemy from coming up behind, the difficult ground would at least make sufficient noise to warn of their approach. The beast flexed his fingers. It was a hideous thing, all bulk and bulging grey muscles: and massive jagged teeth, designed less for battle than for butchery.

He didn’t have to wait long. The first of the hunters crashed from the sparser foliage in a tangle of leaves and steel. With a wild bellow of fear and anger, the Horned Hominid  hauled himself in a desperate charge. The Ceratid hunter (first to reach its hunt) flailed wildly with its sleep drug dripping blade.. hoping to score a slash across the beasts rump. But the Horned beast was quick, perhaps quicker than it had ever been before in its life terror and anger egging it on to desperation. The Honinid avoided the hunter` swipe with death defying speed, and smashed the alien aside like a rag doll.

 The Ceratid hunter crashes into a wall, and is out of the fight: mewing pitifully at its many broken bones.

But it was no use! The beast was now cut off, as the rest of the hunters closed in on all sides.

An Exuvium hunter climbed a high tree, and stood swaying in the treetop canopy for a moment. Then leapt with all its might, right onto the back of the beast below.

My heavy metal D20 saw the hunted beast out manoeuvred, out initiatived, and out run by its hunters.

if the creature could only have managed to get to the safety of the ruins, it would have had a fair chance of engaging its pursuers peace-meal, and might even have managed to escape and flee the fight relatively unmolested. A rolled natural 20 - sealed the monster`s fate.

Within a minute, the beast was slowing, entangled in mesh webs; and came crashing to the ground, where it was quickly subdued by the hunter`s mind numbing electro prods.

The hunters had a new beast for Lord Vallatrix`s games.

Article by Dave & Steve