Review: Dark Millennium Playing Cards

Good morning/afternoon/evening everyone!

Games Workshop have re-released the Dark Millennium playing card set. This set was on a limited release previously and has now been made available again, but for how long they will be available is anybody's guess.
The card set (not to be confused with the old CCG of the same name) is a set of 52 cards, plus a pair of jokers, in four suits, are of standard bridge size, and come in a card box.
So far, so normal.


What makes these cards stand out is that each one features a unique piece of John Blanche 40k art, spread over the suits Imperium, Chaos, Adeptus Mechanicus and Xenos. The artwork is in Blanche's loose, line and wash concept sketch style and each piece was painted exclusively for this set.
Obviously, the desirability of this set depends entirely on what you feel about John Blanche's art, particularly this style, and there's no doubt his work is very divisive. Some love it, others not so much but, whatever your personal tastes regarding his art style, there's no denying the influence his work has had. Simply put, his work has defined the GW style for more than thirty years, and no-one has had more creative input in the look and feel of GW's products in that time. Personally, I'm a big fan of his work (my signed copy of Ratspike is still amongst my most treasured possessions...) I admit I prefer his fully-painted work, but this style appeals in a different way, showing individual inhabitants of the grimdark 40k universe. As pieces of art they are a worthwhile collection in their own right but they also serve a greater purpose as inspiration for miniature conversions, or even to inspire other artists to create their own characters.
Also, you can play card games with them.
I really like this set. I like the design, I like the artwork and I like the way that each suite has it's own typeface for the numbers.
There are some that may balk at paying £10 for a set of playing cards (after all, they are just standard playing cards, when it all comes down to it) and I have to admit it would have been nice if they'd taken the time to present a few 40k-style rules, even if they were for traditional card games, presented in a 40k fashion but, as a collectible, I don't think the price is over the top. This is a quality set of cards, on good stock and I recommend them to collectors and fans of John Blanche's art. Fingers crossed for a set of Imperial Tarot to follow along soon!

The Dark Millennium Playing Cards are available here, but I recommend you don't wait too long...

Thanks for reading!
-Stu

Painting Guide: Cadian Infantry Trooper

Good morning/afternoon/evening everyone!

The other day, after a session of Die Rolling, Ollie (Nolus in the campaign) announced his interest in getting into Warhammer 40,000. I agreed that would be a thoroughly excellent idea. Two days later, he messaged me to say he'd bought a squad of Cadians and a Chimera. Not wasting any time, then...
I thought it would, therefore, be the perfect time to do up a quick painting guide, to help my friend get his models ready for playing...
This one's for you, Ollie!

CADIAN INFANTRY TROOPER

I've mostly stuck with the colours used in the Citadel Paint App, except I've used Wraithbone instead of Grey Seer for the primary basecoat as I think it'll be a better match for the predominantly sand and green colour scheme, and I've used Militarum Green, rather than Creed Camo, on the armour.
So, the colours you will need are:

Wraithbone Spray
Wraithbone
Grey Seer
Contrast Medium
Aggaros Dunes
Militarum Green
Apothecary White
Basilicanum Grey
Black Templar
Leadbelcher
Guilliman Flesh
Gore-Grunta Fur
Astrogranite
Abaddon Black


1. After priming the whole minature with Wraithbone Spray, all the fatigues were painted with a single coat of Aggaros Dunes. If you spill over to other areas, don't worry too much. Large spills can be lifted out by using a dry brush, smaller ones can be painted over later. The important thing is to make sure you get a good, even coverage over the whole area, with no missing spots as, with Contrast paints, it's really difficult to go back and get any bits you've missed, once they're dry.


2. The next stage is to paint all the armour areas with Militarum Green. I'd suggest adding a little bit of Contrast medium (maybe 5:1 paint:medium) to the paint here, as the darker Contrast Paints can be a little too opaque sometimes. You will need to be a little more careful that you don't get any paint on the bits you've already painted, as it'll be a right pain to correct any mistakes after. If you do need to correct any mistakes, re-apply the Wraithbone base using the Base Paint before re-applying the Aggaros Dunes.


3. Now you're going to want to put a coat of Grey Seer on all the bits that are going to be black, grey or white. This will give a better base for the following colours to work over. Paint a coat of Apothecary White over the insignia, Basilicanum Grey over the metal areas and Black Templar (again, you may want to add a touch of Contrast Medium to the paint) over the boots and belt. Metal areas are then given a coat of Leadbelcher.


4. To do the face and hands, you may need to re-establish the undercoat of Wraithbone using the Base paint. Once that has dried, paint over it with a coat of Guilliman Flesh, a coat of Gore Grunta Fur on his hair, and you're done.


5. Finally, to finish off, I've painted the base on this one with Astrogranite and edged it with Abaddon Black. I recommend giving the finished miniature a coat (or two) of varnish to protect the paintwork, as contrast paints rub off easily.

And there you have it. Just an hour, including assembly time, and he's done, ready to be used on the battlefield. It won't win any Golden Demons, but it's perfectly good to play games with. Only another 399 to do and you have the entirety of what remains of the Cadian Army ready to go...*

I have more painting guides planned and, if you have any other miniatures you'd like me to do a similar guide for (or more detailed guides), please let me know.
Thanks for reading!
-Stu



*Sorry, couldn't help myself...

Warcry Diary: Day 4

DAY 4: Friday 23rd August

Good morning/afternoon/evening everyone!
FINALLY, with the completion of the last main pieces (and a couple of little ones I'd previously overlooked), the terrain is all assembled.


I have to say, having got this far, how impressed I am with the terrain pieces in this set. Pictures don't do justice to the level of detail, how the finished kits look, or just how much there is in the box. Never mind a good Warcry set up, there's nearly enough here for a good setup for a full-scale Age of Sigmar battle. Even unpainted, it looks awesome on the game board, and I can't wait for my first game.


However, it must be said that there is one big issue with this set. The instructions. They're rubbish. They don't give a complete guide to assembling all the pieces and they completely fail to mention that, for some of the missions in the book, you will need to use some of the pieces separately, when the instructions tell you to glue them. This is a huge oversight. This is a starter set, designed to bring new people in to the hobby, and be a standalone product. You should not need to go online and find video guides in order to find out how to pt the terrain pieces together. I'd have been absolutely furious if I'd stuck these pieces together right away, without knowing of the issues and the online solutions. This sort of error is not good enough if you're a new startup. In a product from the the world's most experienced manufacturer of this type of thing it's unforgivable. Slap on the wrists, GW.

Anyway, having got that off my chest, I am happy to report that all the terrain in the set, once assembled, fits neatly into the box. Excellent news for those (like me) who have limited storage space at home.
Right, on with the warbands!

Total time so far: 5 hours

Thanks for reading!
-Stu

Warcry Diary: Day 3

DAY 3: Tuesday 20th August

Good morning/afternoon/evening everyone!
A slight variation from my usual Warcry entry today. Instead of reporting on my usual (lack of) progress I thought I'd mention a couple of Warcry-related products that arrived today. First up are these resin bases from Gladius Game Arts. There's two styles to choose from, and sets available for all the current warbands, as well as the chaos beasts from the starter set. I bought the ones for the Raptoryx and Furies, to see what they were like and I have to say I'm impressed. I'll be ordering a set for the Iron Golems and Untamed Beasts too, and I'll give a full review of them once I've got them painted. I wouldn't mind seeing a set for the scenery pieces too (subtle hint...). The current sets can be ordered here.



Garfy Etherington, he of Garfy's Get A Grips, Tale of Painters and regular contributor to the Warcry Facebook page I run, has released his latest product, the Initiative Tracker. This useful little gadget has slots for all the dice you need to play the game. As with all Garfy's designs, it is simple, elegant and does exactly what it says on the tin. The Tracker can be bought from here. I highly recommend his grips too, they're fantastic.

Okay, that's it for this supplemental entry. I'll be back soon, hopefully with all the terrain finished!
Thanks for reading-Stu

Warcry Diary: Day 2

DAY TWO Wednesday 14th August

Good morning/afternoon/evening everyone!
Ugh, has it really been over a week? That sucks. Well, at least I managed to sneak an hour's worth of assembly in today, and got all the barricades and little loose pieces of scenery done. It's not much, I'll admit, but it's something and, honestly, with the last few weeks I've had, I'm glad for that something. Anyway, the plan is to try and get all the scenery put together by the end of the weekend, then get the figures stuck together by the end of the month so that The Better Half and I can get a game in on one of the rare occasions we get an evening off together. I'll leave you with some not entirely exciting pictures of the bits I did today...

Total time so far: 3 hours
Thanks for reading!
-Stu

Warcry Diary: Day 1

Good morning/afternoon/evening everyone!

With everyone and their dog doing posts about Warcry, I was wondering what I could do to bring something different to the table. Then it occurred to me, there's all these posts by pros who got the set in advance of release, had days in which they could devote themselves to getting it all ready and built and painted and photographed, etc. etc. So I thought, "How about looking at it from the perspective of an everyday gamer, with limited hobby time, and how he/she would get on with getting the set ready for play." So that's what I'm going to do. And the thing is, I don't have to make anything up. I am an everyday gamer with limited hobby time. I genuinely bought Warcry as a way to get some proper gaming done with The Better Half, so I have real reasons to get in done as quickly as possible, but with only one or two hours some nights in order to do it. So I'm going to be documenting the build, from sprue to first game and beyond, in the form of my Warcry diary.
The Eightpoints beckon. Have at it!

DAY ONE Monday 5th August.
So, I bought Warcry on Saturday, and managed to have a good look at it and do a bit of an unboxing review of the contents, which you can see here. On Sunday I didn't manage to get any hobby time, due to Real World Stuff, but I have managed to get some done today. I decide I'd begin by assembling the terrain. I've never put together any terrain kits before, so I was really interested to see how this lot was going to go together. The first bits I tackled were the bell tower and the state. I utilised the guide to sticking the terrain together from Waywalker Studios and the video from Blackjack Legacy, to make sure I wasn't sticking any bits down that I shouldn't be. I left the skeletons from the alcoves in the bell tower unglued as well, for ease of painting later. A bit of Blu-Tak keeps them in place for now. As suggested, I've kept the steps on both, and the platform on the statue separate.
Total time spent: 2 hours.

The Best Laid Plans...

Good morning/afternoon/evening everyone!
A word of advice. When planning new ventures (say, for instance, a radical reworking of your work blog...) it's a good idea to not do this around the time of a major change in your personal life. It's even less of an idea to do it when you have two such life-changing situations going on.
In my defence, when I decided to relaunch the blog and produce more regular content for it, I wasn't planning on changing my job within a month of doing so (although, with hindsight, the fact that I had applied for the new job and there was the possibility of the change happening was something I maybe could have factored in...) I certainly wasn't expecting to suddenly have to deal with all the implications of the death of my dad, and all that goes along with such an event. But, the simple fact is, life rarely goes as smoothly as you would expect (or hope). Certainly, I'd like to avoid anything like the kind of stress I've had to deal with over the last couple of months happening again any time soon, thank you very much.
Still, I have managed to maintain some level of ongoing posts here, which is something. Mostly this has been because it's not been something that I've had to think too hard about. My concentration and ability to focus on such things as sitting and painting for hours on end has been hopelessly lacking and, frankly, the blogging has been a comfortable way of at least feeling like I'm doing something constructive during the recent vicissitudes.
But it's all over now, aside from wrapping up dad's effects, moving stuff into storage and other tasks which, while needing to be done, aren't going to have quite the same impact on my time or focus. I can, at last, put all my energies into getting into a rhythm with the job and my work here in the shed. I can catch up with the huge backlog of work. There's painting to be done, reviews to be written, parcels to be sent...
I must just say a huge thank you for all your messages of support over the last few weeks, and for the understanding of those who are waiting for work that was supposed to be delivered ages ago. My idea of "Woop woop, nowI can get all caught up and make everybody happy!" went right out the window. I now need to get my head down and see what I can do about making all those very patient people happy.
I'll leave you with some pictures of Madge, from Hasslefree. The only miniature I've managed to finish to a decent standard in the last two months...


Thanks for reading!
-Stu