Wednesday - October 22, 2008

Second Wave

Old Guard hobbies is shutting down.

This saddens me greatly. Old Guard was the only real reliable local game shop around. They had tons of 40K stuff, as well as a lot of other miniature games like Warmachine and Flames of War. You could find all sorts of roleplaying books there, from GURPS to D&D to Paladium, and all sorts of obscure stuff you'd never think to look for. Their paints and modeling supplies were always well stocked, they carried primer and green epoxy putty. And if they didn't have any of that stuff, they'd order it for you. They even offered a 20% discount on Games Workshop stuff as an incentive to buy there, rather than at the official GW store. I was more than happy to oblige.

I think the thing that saddens me the most, though, is that I've been going there for my gaming needs since high school - that was where I got my first Battletech miniatures. I continued to go there for D&D books and the like, then Reaper miniatures when I got heavily into painting, and then 40K when I started playing that a year or two ago. I suppose I'll miss the memories.

One good thing did come from this though : Their 40% off fire-sale during which I procured (narrowly) their last Necron Battleforce. I gained 28 Warriors and 3 Destroyers in that box, and one extra Destroyer for a total of 4. Add those to the 30 Warriors I have painted, and the 2 extra I cobbled together from left-over sprues, and I'm standing 60 warriors strong, and 9 Destroyers strong.

I got them assembled and based pretty quickly - more quickly than I thought I would. I suppose when you buckle down and really press to get it done, it's not so bad. Once everything was all assembled, I did a little experiment. Instead of my usual priming black and painting codex grey, I primed grey and used the new black wash to put all my shadows in. It worked remarkably well. I noted a few problems with it, but nothing that's impossible to solve. I took a comparison picture with my phone's camera since the digital camera's on the fritz, but it didn't come out good at all. I'll be doing the rest like that, I think, due to the ease of use.

I also got my Heavy Destroyers 100% finished off.

Unfortunately, crappy camera phone is crappy. But you get the general idea. If I can get ahold of a better camera, I'll snap some better pictures.

Next up, 30 warriors and a TON of Destroyers... I might actually do the Destroyers first, since I don't think I'll have occasion to field more than 30 Warriors any time soon. I'm not sure when I want to paint my Monoliths, also. More later on that.