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Plans for 2014 and a new home for MadBeardMan

Posted by :madbeardman On : January 25, 2014
0

Category: Home life, Wolsung

So 2014 is here, didn’t take long did it? Doesn’t feel like 2013 lasted 12 months, I know I was going to be busy but wow, didn’t play much Wargaming of RPGing or even my Xbox/PC/PS3, well a bit of the Xbox/PS3 but only when my brain needed to have a rest.

And Crumbs, I started to write this a few weeks back.

Anyway I’ll be quick about this.

Moved hosting I have, gone from the hosting my own WordPress site and worrying about updating stuff, and the various spam and so on, and then I followed TGC (http://tabletopgamingcentral.com/) and seen they have blog hosting. So after an evening transferring stuff and setting up a new theme (as my old theme didn’t like the new WordPress) and here I am!

So plans for 2014….

Well I plan on playing more. Yes, more Relics, more WHFB, more Warmachine, SAGA, Black Powder and all, more I say!

More posts as well, even though I’m super busy still and my own Wargame continues to go forward, more on that next month I think.

Post wise though?

Whatever I want. I have a lot to catch up on, so expect a number of posts in the near future…

W10000_Wolsung_rulebook_cover_1

Wolsung Steampunk Skrimish Rulebook

But here’s something I just ordered, from Element Games (btw if you order from them please Quote my referral code, which is COL464).

The game is Wolsung (a Steampunk Skirmish game). I can remember a KickStarter project about it, I think, but the rules are out now (you can download them if you wish from their site). So I’ve ordered and hope to use the models that I bought for other Steampunk games with it. Hope to get it soon, and when I do I’ll write up a post about it.

Anyway need to sort the kids out, bedtime in a few for them.

Oh yes, I’ll be modding this theme, so that the home page shows more from the off, this header is far toooo big and the colours are wrong 🙂

Cheers

Selling miniatures and all the hassle…well not the hassle but the cost

Posted by :madbeardman On : October 6, 2013
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Category: Home life, MiniatureBids.com, Wargaming

Been a good while since I’ve posted anything.

I’ve been rather busy post work time on my web skills as I’m looking to move my career into that realm.  Lucky really that I’ve been asked to help write a whole new website for some friends who want to launch an online wargaming webstore, but also a local friend who needed some help.

I’ve never tried to sell my miniatures online.  The closest I suppose is advertising some on the clubs forum or selling them when visiting people, either way I’ve never had to put up with taking pictures, typing in details, paying a fee and then if successful, paying a sale fee.

I’ve used a certain online auction site before but not within the last year.  I did log into my account and read the latest changes, and it seems that they’re quite happy that we lose around 15-20% of our sales total through fee’s to sell/post and fees when using PayPal.  We don’t need to use PayPal mind you, but almost everyone does, it’s the defacto standard I would think.

Anyway I digressing a little.

There’s a much easier way to sell your wargaming/rpg related goods that you no longer want…

MiniatureBids Logo

It’s an auction site that has no fee for posting or selling… so besides what PayPal steal from you, the rest is all yours..

It’s a fledgling site that needs attention.  Attention to get people to visit, people to post, people to bid/buy it now so that we the wargame/roleplayers of the world get top money for out goods.

The site itself is super secure (as secure as you can be) and we don’t have any details about the users (bar their email address and a location/shipping address – which doesn’t really need to be ‘real’ as PayPal require all the legit information not us.

So what’s my part in this?

Very basically a while ago this idea was discussed and recently when the large online auctioneer then said it was charging final fees on shipping (we can see why – but still unfair the masses that don’t inflate their shipping fees to bypass selling fees).  So the idea was taken a step forward.  A good friend bought a domain, some software and….. well then found the software had bugs, some nasty nasty bugs (despite the fact it was sold as a turn-key solution).

I stepped in (or should say was contacted and agreed to help) and in the last month or so have addressed all the niggles.  Now that they’ve been sorted, we’ve started to add extra features to the site.  These features are not just what we wanted to do/add, but also what the users are asking us for… just look here and you’ll see.  What that page/post doesn’t tell you is that I’ve already finished the next ‘sprint’ and he’s a sneak preview (pun intended).

The next push of development is to work on the shipping.  This is update 1 of 2 for shipping.  The first update will allow multiple rates to be entered per auction.

Now even though we’re a small team and don’t earn any money on the auctions, we do require advertising revenue to recover our costs.  So if you’re the kind of person who runs a business in this realm or wants someone to know that they have a service to offer (such as painting) then take out an advert please 🙂  Not only will it help with the running costs but may also help cover the cost of some biscuits for our tea (some way to go before there’s spare money!).

Please follow this link and have a look and spread the word.

Right I think I’ve waffled enough. I’ll sign off now.

Go to our Facebook page and like us.  Tell you friends.  Post in forums and erm spread the word some more.

Cheers

Models left to build and paint in 2013 – Part 1

Posted by :madbeardman On : February 13, 2013
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Category: Home life, Projects

Evening Folks,

On Tuesday night I started to make a list of all the figures I have still to build let alone paint as I was tempted to buy yet more!

So let’s see, and this list isn’t complete as I couldn’t get to some of the boxes (smaller boxes though luckily!).

Pike & Shotte

Black Powder – all to build and paint

  • 144 Perry British Line Infantry
  • 14 mounted Hussars.
  • 90 Victrix Highlanders

Black Powder – Other

  • 24 other Perrys metal cavalry to paint

40K – all to build and paint

  • Space Marine
    • 2 Drop pods
    • Preadator
    • Land Raider
    • Vindicator
    • 2 Rhinos
    • 2 Boxes Death Wing Terminators
    • Terminators
    • Command Squad
    • 3 Boxes of Scouts
    • 2 Land Speeders
    • 1 Attack Bike
    • 2 Dreadnaughts
    • Dark Vengeance Box
    • Battleforce
  • Eldar
    • 2 Boxes of Dire Avengers
    • Guardians
    • 2 Grav Tanks
    • Harlequin Troupe + Death Jester and Shadowseer
    • Farseer and Warlocks
    • Battleforce
    • Shining Spears
    • 2 War Walkers
    • Striking Scorpions
    • Banshees
    • 2 Wraithlord
  • Necrons
    • 2 Boxes Warriors
  • Forge World
    • Horus Heresy
      • 2 Comtemptor Dreads
      • 60 Mark II marines
      • 10 Mark II marines
      • 1 Mark 4 command pack
      • 1 Legion Commander pack
      • 1 Medic pack
      • Eldar Wraithseer

40K – to paint (all built)

  • Space Marine
    • Approx 40 Marines
    • Approx 20 Scouts
    • 3 Rhinos
    • 5 Terminators
    • 1 Land Speeder
    • 1 Attack Bike
    • 1 Dreadnaught
  • Eldar
    • Approx 130 figures (misc)
    • Guardians
    • 1 Grav Tank
    • 2 War Walkers
    • 1 Wraithlord

So that will do for the moment, about 50% shown above.

Coming in Part 2:

  • Relics
  • Vikings
  • The Hobbit
  • Warhammer Fantasy
  • War of the Rings
  • Warmachine
  • Empire of the dead

and more….

But I have started to paint my Vikings 🙂

Cheers

 

 

End of the year post, the bad wargaming points, well 5 of them…

Posted by :madbeardman On : January 3, 2013
0

Category: Home life

Afternoon,

Further to my post this morning here are the low points of 2012 for Wargaming for me personally.

1.  Empire of the Dead (Westwind Games)

I bought the rule book and some starter sets on the basis of some reviews and pictures.  When I picked up my rulebook I was very happy with the style and quality but amazed at the price and the short page count.

The rules were simple enough and seemed good at first read (only one reading session needed) plus they include campaign rules.  Well let’s just say that on first play we spent more of the night discussing what a rule meant rather than having fun.  Cut to the campaign and it proved that no-one bothered to play test it, as for the Hellfire club (who are masters of magic) the chances of them getting a spell is 1 in 5…

The miniatures are very basic and not as good as some of the older miniatures, the Gentlemens Club for example is not bad but the figures aren’t that great.

With work on the rules and the campaign this could prove to be a good game, sadly in its current state its a waste of time and Westwind seem to not like any critical posts on their forums…

2.  Clash of Empires

Not a bad point about the rules, but being told our local gaming club would have a campaign during 2012 which meant I bought the rules (and the Viking expansion) and then bought a full army and spent ages building up the figures only to find out that the campaign wasn’t going to happen.

I hope one day to resurrect this project, but at the moment it’s moot for Clash of Empires, but around 1/3 of the figures will work with the Saga rules…

3. Vikings Spears

Just a general complaint.  Perhaps due to me buying GW’s dwarfs with spears etc I actually expected when I bought some Crusader Miniatures Viking Spearmen to actually have spears in with the models.

Alas I was wrong and I had to purchase a separate pack of spears.

Now I don’t mind buying the spears BUT I would have hoped at time of purchase the Spearmen would have warned me that they didn’t have spears…

4.  Citadel Paints – New Release

Personally I prefer Vallejo paints over Citadels, but to make things easier with my 40k/Horus stuff I tend to use Citadel paints when necessary.

So which great mind at Games Workshop thought it was a great idea to copy Vallejo and have shading colours for all the colours (ie a lighter and darker version of all colours).  Good idea as that’s what I really like about Vallejo, no need to ever mix.

However who then decided to change the names even though some of the colours are identical?  Who then made sure the retailers had to send back all the ‘older’ paints so they had to shell out for the newer paints and paint rack.

Oh well, the Giants are free to continue their reign, depends on how long they keep top of the hill, which brings me to…

5.  Warmachine

What was billed to me as a simple game to pick up, alas I started to build an army and BAM!  Played someone (good bloke) who played a new caster and that made my army useless.

I had my 2 player starter set since 2011 but not unpacked it until Jan of 2012 and which point I knew I wanted to go Cryx but I’d learn the rules via the Menoth faction.

Not returned since but will do at some point to get value out of all the models I have and the lovely rulebooks.

And so that’s it from the gripes of 2012

Next post will be best and biggest let downs on the Xbox/PC games of 2012.

Until then, Huzzah!

End of the year post, the good wargaming points, well 5 of them…

Posted by :madbeardman On : January 3, 2013
0

Category: Home life, Wargaming

Morning,

So that’s it for 2012.  I’m about to head off to work today (3rd Jan) and over the last week or so I’ve been thinking about what to do for 2013 and how 2012 did.

First the good stuff from 2012 for me and my world regarding Tabletop Wargaming (

1. Relics (TOR Gaming)

I finally got into Relics via an IndieGoGo project during the early summer of 2012.

Relics is a tabletop wargame based in a world that’s very dark.  The miniatures are excellent and for the first time in years I found the rules to have something very different to others out there even though the rulebook was very hard to read.

For example, I tend to roll a lot of 1’s and in Relics pairings are what decides how many ‘hits’ you have.  So a pair of 1’s can someones be just as helpful as a pair of 6’s.

I’ve followed the goings on and it seems that 2013 is going to be a good year as my favourite faction (Britanans) has the ‘Bomber’ unit being released at some point.

2.  Horus Heresy (Forgeworld/Games Workshop)

Hard to decide where to begin.  Forgeworld are not cheap for figures, the make Games Workshop look good value (lies) but their work is top, nothing better I feel.

The first HH book is a work of art and well worth the money and it’s done its job of getting me to buy more of the Forgeworld minis as they’re the only ones who make the figures for the HH timeline.

3.  Maurice (Maurice/Honour)

Released in 2011 but I didn’t get into it until 2012.

A game written by Sam Mustafa (who also wrote Lasalle) that allows you to play ‘Gentlemen’ war games based in history.  Unlike other large history based games this is a lot of fun at times as it uses cards to allow you to change the game.  The big difference with the game system is that you can only move one formation each turn and only if you have the ‘points’ that allow your Armies Leader to send the order.

For this game I bought 2 armies and had 1 painted (the French).  I’ve sadly not played too many games as I’ve been too busy.

However Sam is writing a new game for Honour system about the American Civil War called ‘Longstreet’ and I look forward to playing that, just need to get an army…

4.  War of the Ring (Games Workshop).

Been around for a good while, but I finally picked up a copy (second hand) of the rulebook and proceeded to read away.  It is a very simple version of WHFB but works very quickly and rewards good tactics as it makes perfect sense that if you put a unit of swordsmen in range of a unit of archers, the archers will cause casualties.

No armour saving throw so if you hit, they fall.  I like this, makes for large battles in a short period of time.

The worst element of this is the need to pay daft prices for your models if you want the official figures, £20 for 12 is cheap for GW but still…

5.  Artmaster Studio Painting Services (Artmaster Studio)

I took a bit of a risk with outsourcing my British napoleonic army as my army is very large, but I knew I wouldn’t have time to build and paint, so I built them and got Artmaster Painting to well, paint them.

I found these chaps via searching around on the web, looking at figures that were painted and then I emailed them asking many questions and in the summer they painted my Rifles and they did an ace job.

So now they’re painting some Highlanders for me, and I hope in 2013 they can do more, it’s just the cost that’s not a friend of mine but you have to pay for good work.

And that’s it for the good points.  I have more but these are the 5 that I think are the top points of the year.

Next post it will be the worst 5 points of 2012.

Until then, huzzah!

 

What I won’t get for Christmas 2012

Posted by :madbeardman On : December 24, 2012
4

Category: Death Guard, Forgeworld, Home life, Horus Heresy, Manufacturers

Evening All,

I had to do this.

Christmas isn’t a time that I myself find exciting. The pressure of being ‘happy’ and all that jazz just doesn’t do it for me. This is also the first in many years where I’ve not been in the pub with my friends drinking our way to our graves only to be kicked out at 2am and told to ‘go home’.

So a quick post.

Recently I’ve treated myself to a load of Forgeworld models, quite a sizeable amount in fact as I’m planning on building a Horus Heresy force for the near future.

But as it’s Christmas I’m hoping I get some more stuff, but the chances are that it won’t happen.

Spartan Assault Tank

Spartan Assault Tank

An armoured transport of truly massive proportions, the Spartan is a heavy assault tank previously all but unknown outside of the revered Space Marine Chapters and the secretive Adeptus Mechanicus. The Spartan is a huge armoured conveyer whose purpose is to carry a large body of troops into the very heart of an enemy’s battle lines, weathering weapons fire that would be the death of any lesser vehicle.

Its design bears clear connections with that of the mighty Land Raider, and its genius is such that the greater proportion of its interior space is given over to a transport capacity greater than any other Imperial vehicle save the super-heavy Gorgons – being capable of carrying twenty-five power armoured Space Marines into battle. It is, however, considerably faster on the battlefield thanks to potent reactor-driven motive drives, and it boasts an equally potent armament in the form of sponson-mounted quad lascannon batteries and secondary heavy bolters.

It’s expensive at £95, but you only need 1 (well I hope so).

I am looking at picking up some other vehicles, doing some research at the moment to see what’s worth picking up as I don’t want to at that price pick up something that won’t be used!

Thunderhawk Gunship

If madness strikes me this will be a purchase, its very very expensive and the model is huge…

Thunderhawk Gunship

This is a massive model of the famous Space Marine Thunderhawk Gunship. This mighty engine of destruction is armed with a pair of wing-mounted Lascannons, 4 twin-linked Heavy Bolters, a Thunderhawk Cannon that can be upgraded to a Turbo Laser, and wing mounts for up to 6 Hellstrike Missiles. Capable of carrying up to 30 Space Marines in various combinations, the Thunderhawk Gunship measures 19 inches/480mm longand 17 inches/440mm wide.

This model comes in at £399 and I really really do hope you need just 1.  However it’s a massive model looking at the size and so I’d need to make sure I got myself a new airbrush for the job!

Next up comes some more Infantry to fit alongside my Mk II and Mk III squads

Deathshroud Terminators Squad

Deathshroud Terminators

Forgeworld recently ran a little Jigsaw competition (with no prizes to be won) and at the end of it revealed the result.  Death Guards Legion Deathshroud Terminators.

So it looks like in the new year that we’ll be seeing these beauties up for sale.

Have a look at that picture, they look amazingly excellent and the Scythes they use do sweeping attacks allowing you to attack any figure in base to base contact.  These guys should be lethal if they’re dispatched from an assault vehicle.

Last we come to an assault Vehicle

Caestus Assault Ram

Caestus Assault Ram

Look at this model, doesn’t it look bloody impressive.  Yep I agree.  Picture that with the Death Guard colours and insignia and what we have is a vehicle able to send 10 of the Deathshroud Terminators down the throat of pretty much any enemy they choose to want to kill.

This vehicle has invulnerability save from frontal attacks including when it rams things of 5+, has excellent armour and well, it gets there and deploys whatever it’s carrying.  Talking of which, it can carry upto 10 Marines in Power Armour, Artificer Armour or Terminal Armour, perfect for the Deathshroud chaps above.

Anyway this is enough for me not to expect, one lot because they’re not available, another because it’s expensive and the other two because, well we spent enough on the extension, I will treat myself though.

So until next time, have a great Christmas if that’s your thing and I hope Santa brings you all the goodies you wanted!

Cheers
Col

Greetings!

Posted by :madbeardman On : August 5, 2012
0

Category: Home life

Greetings and welcome,

This is my new home, my very own domain and hosting.

I’ve now transferred over all the old posts, but the images are being a pain, so slowly I’m updating the older posts…. bear with me whilst normal service resumes.  I could just ignore them and work on newer blogs, we’ll see.

So pull up a chair and have a sit and catch up, plus don’t forget to book mark this site and not my old one.

However if you feel the need to read an older post, go right ahead, you can still access my old site here.

Until next time,
Cheers

It’s been months

Posted by :madbeardman On : May 18, 2012
0

Category: Home life, SW:ToR, Wargaming

Tags:

Crumbs, months it’s been since I posted here after my initial flurry of posts.

Let’s see what’s going on.

Picked up wargamming again – dropped OU.  OU was just proving to be too boring, and so decided to swap the time.  I also picked up Star Wars: The Old Republic and am currently playing that a lot until we’re all bored and move over to the next game.

Anyway more on that later on, got a solid days work to get through.

Cheers

The day after….

Posted by :madbeardman On : January 15, 2012
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Category: 40k, Beer, Home life

It’s Sunday, I should be doing other stuff, but alas I feel like not.

Went out yesterday with a good  friend up from Peterborough.  Wasn’t anything special couple of pints at the Kelham Island Tavern and then a trip to the Devonshire cat when my better half joined us.  A few more drinks consumed, nothing much but a few Pale Riders as Jaipur was not on (damn them!).

I then produced to come home when they went off clubbing , speak to the baby sitters for a little while before they went home.  A brief spat on the xbox and then bed as its me who has to get up with the girls.

Little did I know what was going to happen though, missus stumbles into the bedroom at 3:30, tells me the room is spinning then proceeds to spend the next 3 hours getting in and out of bed at one point she left to ‘evacuate’ her stomach into the bathroom sink, nice.

Then of course my angels got up at 7:45 so that’s a grand 4 hours sleep, split into 3 hours and then just over 1.  I am not tired, two cups of Typhoo! are doing a sterling job.

Received delivery of my 40k Tyranid force though from this friend who transported it from the chap whos house we play.  It’s now tidied away in the respective battlefoam boxes, I should paint them – but not sure.

Looking online now for my 40th birthday that’s coming soon. I’m being tasked with a ‘what do you want?’ and the trouble I find is that I tend to buy myself everything I need….. anyway family stuff to do now, need to replace the leaky fishtank.

Cheers

An ‘idol’ for my girls when they grow up?

Posted by :madbeardman On : January 12, 2012
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Category: Home life

Tags:, , ,

Recently I found an article on a woman in Linux Format.  That womans name was Ariel Waldman, someone of whom I’d never previously heard of.

What was it about her that I took an interest in the article?  Sure it had a nice picture of a nice looking woman but it had the keywords for me ‘Space’ and ‘Exploration’.previous to that.

I’ve always been interested in space and recently have loved talking to my 7 year old about it where at school they’ve been learning about the planets (now that Pluto is no longer regarded as a planet).

So I read it, sadly a lot of the Linux Format articles are very thin and it didn’t take too long before I’d finished it up but I had to go and view her website and read up about her, you dear reader should do likewise, i’ll save you the trouble though just click here and you’ll find her website loading in your preferred browser.

She’s the creator of the website ‘SpaceHack,org‘which is a wonderful place to hide yourself for a good few hours finding out about many a project going on bringing space exploration to the average home user.

She was also involved in Science Hack Day in San Francisco.  It’s sad that I missed the London one back in 2010, I would be sooo interested in their being another this year please.  These ‘hack’ days are places where it seems a lot of geeks arrive and make stuff.  Splendid.  Add some Ales to that and I’d be quite happy, oh yes throw in a pizza.

Anyway Ariel is switched on, full of ideas, loves cupcakes and (to me) is a great idol for my girls for when they grow up.  I’m not sure Idol is the correct word, perhaps ‘Role Model’?  I do hope my girls aspire, who cares if they’re geeks, geeks can be pretty, geeky, cool and fun to be with, I know as my better half is all of that and more!

Cheers
Colin