Crane Model - Sarissa Precision

This is the Small Treadwheel Crane - a really nice, good value mdf model kit from Sarissa Precision in the UK. It was easy to build... and it works!! 

I made the platform part myself from some thin scrap wood from a vegetable crate from work. It's initial use will be for an up-coming Rangers of Shadowdeep scenario, where a lift platform that descends into a large pit is required... but it's a great scenery piece.. so I'm sure it will find a lot of use in up-coming Frostgrave and other skirmish games...

UK Games Expo 2019

 

Here are just a few of my highlights from this years UK Games Expo at the NEC in Birmingham...

I went for all 3 days this year. For accommodation we did the same as last year and filled a large local AirB&B house with friendly gamers from Sheffield.

 

I took quite a lot of "old" games to sell at the Bring and Buy sale this year, so most of Friday morning was spent queuing to put stuff in, then queuing to get in to have a look around, then queuing to pay. It was crazily busy, but it was worth it... I managed to get cheap copies of City of Iron II, Lancaster, Guilds of London and Shadows over Normandie... which are all games I was on the look out for.

 

The rest of the weekend entailed a lot of wandering around the trade halls looking at stuff, demoing games, meeting up with friends in the open gaming area to play games... then going back to the house in the evenings to play more games. A great time was had.

 

Architects of the West Kingdom - really nice worker placement euro style boardgame.

10mm scale mdf sci-fi scenery from TTCombat suitable for Dropzone Commander...

What a great idea! - Ready to play miniatures from Flatpack Forces...
They do army packs specifically for Dragon Rampant... plus they are working on other ranges too

Jupiter Rescue - (not one of the better games I played over the weekend)

Century: A New World - The latest boardgame in the "Century" series..
I really enjoyed this nice worker placement style game.

Porta Nigra

Just about to demo "Space Gate Odyssey"

A display of some of the upcoming Fantasy terrain that will be available via Kickstarter from Battle Systems later on this month. The buildings were indeed fantastic! - I will be following with interest when more information is released.

Ticket to Ride London was released at the Expo this year - a few of us Sheffield Boardgamers had a game on the oversized demo copy.

My haul of games from this year... the top two were new, and the bottom four were all bargains from the bring and buy sale.

Dungeon Scenery - Mantic Terrain Crate

When I was at the Hammerhead wargames show, I bought a reduced priced box of scenery from the Mantic Games stall... This was some stuff from their Kickstarter they did a year or two ago.. The box said "Dungeon Crate" and had a bunch of relevant "Dungeon" Terrain in... some really nice bits - I especially like the Wizards study stuff... The mine carts and tracks will look nice as part of Shadows of Brimstone games... Good stuff, I wouldn't have paid full price for it, but I got a good deal.

 

 

 

Rievaulx Abbey - North Yorkshire

 

On a slightly rainy day at the beginning of May we decided to visit Rievaulx Abbey on the way back from an East coast holiday. I hadn't heard of it before, but we like to visit English Heritage sites that we're unfamiliar with.... What a fantastic place - originally a huge elaborate Abbey, reduced to ruins by Henry VIII, and now preserved by English Heritage. Nice café too!

Scenery for DBA 3.0

DBA is played on 24" x 24" battlefield... and various bits of scenery are needed... I've been making various bits over the last few months. I've made two MDF boards - one for Desert, and one for all other battles.

 

24 x 24 MDF Board... covered with PVA glue and sand... and dry brushed with cheap tester pots of house paint...

PLOUGHED FIELDS... house filler on MDF boards covered in PVA and sand, then painted...

MARSH... polystyrene pizza base, PVA and sand... plus some resin water effect and a few basing tufts...

ROAD.... 3 x 8" straight pieces of thin MDF, PVA and sand... and painted to look like roads..

RIVER... 3 x 8" pieces of thin MDF... sand and PVA just along the edges and painted to look like a river...

A RIVER / ROAD crossing place - I made one of these 8" x 8" sections with a bridge from Leven miniatures...

WATERWAY - 2 x 12" pieces of thin MDF, with PVA and sand beach/edge...

A selection of HILLS - Pizza bases with PVA and Sand...

I made a few plain one level bases like the hills -
to put different removable items on to represent different things -
here we have a stone circle EDIFACE for the Ancient British.

WOODS with removable trees..

SCRUB - small pieces of green scouring pads chopped up and covered in PVA before painting...

A FORT for the Ancient British. Huts from Leven Miniatures... fencing from coffee stirrers.

A CITY for the Romans. Buildings from Leven Miniatures... wall and gatehouse made from thick cardboard.

A FORT for the Romans. Tents from Leven Miniatures. Coffee stirrer fences...

The Roman CAMP.

The Ancient British CAMP.

An example of the board set up and ready to play..
 

24" x 24" MDF Desert board

Desert CITY - a couple of bits from Leven Miniatures - the rest made from cardboard...

OASIS with removable trees...

ROCKY ground...

DUNES / DIFFICULT HILLS made from polystyrene pizza bases...covered in sand and PVA...