The Iron Sky City HAB Unit A was designed to provide a modular and versatile way to setup your Sci-Fi gaming table, whether that be for a futuristic city like the ones seen in Corvus Belli’s Infinity or in a much darker future setting like that seen in Warhammer 40k or the upcoming Necromunda game.

Each HAB Unit features removable / swappable doors and windows which come with both MDF and acrylic options.

Paint the MDF doors/windows to your liking to signify armored doors / windows or just a simple closed door setup.  Swap them out for the fluorescent acrylic windows / doors to signify a force-filed type door setup, or remove any of the doors/windows completely to make line of sight into the building.

The interior of the Hab Unit features two holo-display consoles on each side of the building.

Combine multiple Hab Units to create unique stacked combinations of terrain (the Hab Units were designed to be fully stackable).

The Hab Units are made from high quality MDF wood and Acrylics for durability and precision laser-cut to these dimensions:

• Width: ~136 mm ( Approx 5 inches )
• Length: ~200 mm ( Approx 7.75 inches )
• Height: ~74 mm (
•  Approx 3 inches )

The Iron Sky City HAB Unit A is now available on our store as a single unit here, or as a three pack here.

Pyramid 9, set on Earth in the distant future, captures a time period where the survival of the human race on Earth and in the galaxy is once again in jeopardy, as factions with opposing viewpoints rage battle against one another.

Martin, a genetically self-enhanced super-human, is the leader of one of those factions.

More details on the Pyramid 9 universe and Martin himself will be released in the future.

You can now be one of the first to own a 32mm scale miniature of Martin, sculpted and 3D printed in a resin plastic to an amazing level of detail.

Martin is currently available as a single mini in the Pyramid 9 – Martin – Standard Edition, as well as in a Pyramid 9 – Martin – Collector’s Edition (Limited to 125 copies only) which includes two Martin miniatures and a Collector’s Edition display box.

Click here to order Pyramid 9 – Martin – Standard Edition.

Click here to order Pyramid 9 – Martin – Collector’s Edition. 

In my previous stream I assembled and reviewed the Cybertronic faction from Warzone Resurrection, and in this stream I assemble and review the Dark Legion army.

Here’s a replay video of the stream:

As with the Cybertronic minis I’m very impressed with these Dark Legion ones as well.

The level of detail is amazing, and the quality of the resin they use for their minis is awesome.

So, once again I have to say I’m very impressed.

On an upcoming LIVE stream I’ll be doing a giveaway of a 2 player set of both the Cybertronic and the Dark Legion armies absolutely free.

The best way to make sure you don’t miss the giveaway stream is to follow me on Twitch as well as Twitter.

Here are some pics from Prodos of what the Dark Legion minis I built on the stream look like in hi-res:

If you’d like to participate in the giveaway, you can do so by following my Twitch channel and tuning in during my live stream giveaway.

When you click here and follow my Twitch channel, you can set it to notify you of future streams when I go live so that you don’t miss out on this and other future giveaways I’ll be doing.

What do you think of these miniatures so far?

The demo set they sent me has two starter armies for the Cybertronic and the Dark Legion factions of the game.

In last night’s live stream on my Twitch channel I assembled the miniatures for the Cybertronic faction and announced that I’ll also be giving away a second set of these two armies in one of my next live streams on Twitch.

Here’s a replay video of the stream:

After assembling the miniatures I have to say I’m pretty impressed with Prodos Games.

The level of detail of the miniatures is absolutely amazing, and the resin they use to make them is super easy to work with.

The casts are very well done, with very little in the way of mold lines or flashing.

I have to say I’m very impressed.

On my next stream I’ll be assembling the Dark Legion miniatures they sent me and then I’ll be giving away a 2 player set of both the Cybertronic and the Dark Legion armies absolutely free.

Here are some pics from Prodos of what the Cybertronic minis I built on the stream look like in hi-res:

If you’d like to participate in the giveaway, you can do so by following my Twitch channel and tuning in during my live stream giveaway.

When you click here and follow my Twitch channel, you can set it to notify you of future streams when I go live so that you don’t miss out on this and other future giveaways I’ll be doing.

What do you think of these miniatures so far?

We’re offering a variety of rewards for our Patreon supporters at different pledge levels starting at just $1/month.

Check out the video below for more information, and pop by our Patreon Page to check out the different rewards you can qualify for.

Click Here to Visit our Patreon Page

Have you been thinking about starting a new Hordes army for the new Mk3 rules?

If so, you might want to check out this unboxing video I just recorded for the Skorne Battlegroup for Hordes Mk3.

This set includes:

• 4 Highly Detailed Miniatures
  • Beast Master Xekaar
  • Titan Gladiator
  • Cyclops Raider
  • Cyclops Savage
• Basic Training Tutorial Guide
• Battle Map & Obstacle Card
• Introductory Guide
• HORDES: Primal Rules Digest
• 18” Ruler
• 4 Six-sided Dice
• 15 Fury & 3 Spell Tokens

What do you think of this set?

-Paul

If you haven’t heard, Privateer Press just released a new version of their rules, re-working and streamlining the entire game and all of the stats for all the models, and they’ve also released a whole bunch of new Battlegroup boxes which are really awesome – especially for new players.

Here’s an unboxing of the new Trollbloods Battlegroup I just picked up the other day:

What do you guys think of this new set?

The other day I picked up a new Khador Battlegroup for Mk3 and I just recorded an unboxing video showing what’s inside.

The new Khador Battlegroup comes with 3 miniatures:

• Lord Kozlov (Warcaster)
• Jaggernaut (Heavy Warjack)
• Decimator (Heavy Warjack)

This is a bit different from the old Khador Battlegroup which came with Kommander Sorscha as the Warcaster and a Jaggernaut and Destroyer Heavy Warjacks.

These new Battlegroups actually come with a LOT of extra goodies packed in the box.

Check out the video to see what’s inside:

What do you think of the new Battlegroup boxes for Mk3?

In today’s video I do an unboxing of the Ork Battlewagon set for Warhammer 40k.

The Ork Battlewagon is an armored attack vehicle / transport for the Orks, able to carry between 12-20 Orks into battle while leaving a path of destruction in it’s wake.

Here’s the unboxing video:

After filming this video I did get a chance to start building the Battlewagon, and almost have it finished.

I just have a few more things that I want to magnetize and then it will be ready for painting.

What do you think of the Ork Battlewagon?

Do think think it’s good with this build or would the Deff Rolla upgrade kit be better to add on?

The Ork Trukk is the fast transport vehicle for the Orks.

Each Trukk can transport 12 models so I picked up two of these for my army.

Here’s the unboxing of the set:

What do you guys think of this kit?

How many Trukks do you have for your Ork Army?

I actually ended up getting two of these kits as I wanted to have more than one type of jet as part of my Ork Army collection.  I might actually get a third one, but I’m not sure yet.

Here’s the unboxing of the kit:
What do you guys think of this kit?

Let me know in the comments below.

-Paul

This is yet another set of Orks I bought to add to my army collection.

This set allows you to build three Meganobz with your choice of Power Klaw & Twin-Linked Shoota, 2 Killsaws, or a Big Mek.

Here’s the unboxing video:

What do you guys think of these?

Do you use the Big Mek option or just the MegaNobz?

-Paul

The set contains 5 Ork Stormboyz which, as with most Ork kits, can be assembled in a variety of different ways.

As I’ve mentioned in previous blog posts, I’m building out my Ork army collection right now mainly based on which models look good to me and when I saw these Stormboyz I thought they were awesome.

I mean… they’re Orks… with Jetpacks!  How cool is that!?

Here’s the unboxing video:

What do you think of the Stormboyz?

This set comes with one Ork Mek Gun and five Gretchen.

I might need to pick up a few more of these eventually for my army once I learn a bit more about how they work and what they’re good for, but for now I just bought one set to build to see how I like them.

Here’s the unboxing video:

What do you guys think of the Ork Mek Gunz?

The Ork Warbiker Mob comes with three Ork Warbikers.

I picked up the set at my local store to add to my Ork collection as the idea of Orks on choppers speeding down the battlefield at break-neck speeds, making enough noise to strike fear into the hearts of my opponents just sounded like fun.

As with all the rest of the Orky goodness I picked up in the last week, which I’ll be unboxing this week (stay tuned), I’m mainly just buying a kind of “one of each” Ork thing for now until I figure out which units I actually want to expand out on for my actual Ork army.

Here’s the unboxing video.

If you’re an Ork player, I’d love to hear your opinion on these Warbikers.

Do you use them?  Will they just look good in my display case, or should I go pickup 10 more boxes for my actual army?

I’m totally addicted to collecting Orks.

This addiction started years and years ago when I bought an Ork vs Space Marines starter set – for the Space Marines, but ended up having more fun painting the Orks than the Space Marines!

By then though I had already invested into starting to build a Blood Angels army so I finished painting the Orks that came with that starter set and put them aside.

A few weeks ago, however, I was at my local gaming store and saw the Start Collecting Greenskinz set for Age of Sigmar and decided to get that to build out some Greenskins for AoS and I got re-addicted to Orks!

They’re just so much fun to build and I can’t wait to start painting them as well, but in the meantime I also decided to get into collecting Orks for Warhammer 40k, so I went and picked up a bunch of Orky goodness and got started.

The first set I picked up was the “Start Collecting Orks” starter set which I’ll be building out first.

Here’s a video I shot where I unbox the set and show you what you get with it:

This starter set is actually a really good deal as it comes with a set of Ork Boyz, a set of Ork Nobz, an Ork Painboy and an Ork Deff Dread.  If you were to buy all of those separately, you’re looking at around $130 USD for all those Orks, but in this set you get all that for about $85 USD which is about $45 off retail.

Very sweet deal in my opinion considering it’s about 300 points of Orky goodness.

What do you think of this new set?

I’ve got a bunch of other Ork stuff I bought which I’ll be uploading the unboxing videos for over the next few days, but I’m curious to hear what your favorite Ork units, weapons and vehicles are.

Leave a comment below and let me know what you think of this starter set and your opinion on either collecting or playing against the Orks.

-Paul

I’ve wanted to get this set for months now, but even though we sell Infinity miniatures at our store, this set has been totally sold-out at all of my suppliers so I haven’t been able to get a hold of it until now.

Since I’ve decided to go with Nomads as my main Infinity army, this is a perfect starter set to get started with, and having the extra PanO army as well will make it easier to play the game with any of my friends who want to play but don’t have an army started.

Here’s the unboxing video:

Although we don’t currently stock this particular set at our store, you CAN get the Nomads and PanO starter sets at our store at TabletopGamerStore.com.

-Paul

In today’s post I’ll be doing an unboxing of the IronJawz Orruk Ardboyz which is another set I picked up for my new Greenskinz army.

This box comes with 15 miniatures which include:

• 1 x Ardboy Boss
• 1 x Waaagh! Drummer
• 1 x Standard Bearer
• 12 x Orruk Ardboys

Let’s dive in and see what’s inside the box:

The front and the back of the box shows the IronJawz in all their painted glory.

Next I took some pictures of the sprues.

This set has 6 sprues total, and it appears that there at two types of sprues and three copies of each type.

Here’s a picture of the first type of sprue which is a bit larger than the other one.

I took a picture of one of them one way, and the other one flipped to the other side.

So for these larger sprues (shown above) there are a total of three of them in the box.

Next we have the smaller type sprues.

For these smaller types sprues (shown above), there is a total of three of these as well.

Next we have a couple of baggies with 15 round bases inside (above), and of course the instructions (below):

The instruction booklet is just 4 pages long and they look really easy to put together.

There’s also a couple of warscrolls included with the instruction booklet for the Orruk Ardboys.

These guys look like they’re going to be a lot of fun to paint, although I think I’m going to discipline myself and not allow myself to start on painting these until I get the Greenskins Starter Set done first.

What do you guys think of these IronJaws?

In today’s post I want to do an unboxing of one of the new Ironjawz releases – the Ironjaws Orruk Maw-Krusha kit which can be used to build either Gordrakk, The Fist of Gork – or – Megaboss on Maw-Krusha!

This is an absolutely GORGEOUS model from GW.

I just love the way it looks and I’m super excited to be adding this bad-boy to my collection.

Even if I wasn’t building a Greenskinz army I think I would buy this just because it’s such an amazing piece of art.

Let’s dive inside and see what’s inside the box.

The back of the box shows the second option for the set.  You can build it to look two different ways – the way shown on the front of the box, and the way shown on the back.

Here we see what’s actually inside the box – a bunch of big sprues with HUGE parts on them.

This is the first sprue.  As you can see, tonnes of detail on the scales.  Can’t wait to paint this!  The sprues are actually pretty big, although I realize it’s hard to tell scale from the photos I took.

This is the back side of the same first sprue.

This is the second sprue, again with more big pieces.

And the back side of the second sprue.

This is the third smaller sprue in the box.

And the back side of it.

This is the huge base it comes with.  The paint of citadel paint is just shown for scale, and obviously did not come inside the box.

Now this is the really interesting part.  I’m so used to seeing black and white instruction manuals from GW, but this one came in full color which I think is awesome.

The front of the manual shows the two options of building either Gordrakk, The Fist of Gork – or – Megaboss on Maw-Krusha.

The instructions are actually full color inside as well, not just on the cover.

And on the last page they show the color scheme you can follow with the Citadel Paint Range if you want to paint it like in the pictures.

I didn’t take photos of every page in the instruction manual as I’m not sure if GW frowns on that, but the instruction manual is 20 pages long and includes the Warscrolls for Gordrakk, The Fist of Gork and Megaboss on Maw-Krusha.

What do you guys think of this model?

I had no idea what I was doing, as far as painting goes, but I found it a lot of fun painting that little green Orks.

Shortly after that I moved onto starting a bunch of Warhammer 40k armies, but I always had an affinity for Orks for some reason.

Even when I got a starter set for Warhammer 40k which came with Space Marines and Orks, I found that I enjoyed painting the Orks more than the Space Marines.

After starting a few 40k armies, and then getting into other games I actually didn’t get back into Warhammer Fantasy until the new Age of Sigmar starter set came out.

And then when I saw that GW just recently released a whole bunch of new updates for Greenskinz, I decided it was time to jump back into painting some Greenskinz so I bought the new “Start Collecting Greenskinz” starter set for Warhammer Age of Sigmar.

The Start Collecting Greenskiz set comes with:

• Orruk Warboss & Orruk Big Boss
• 10 x Orruk Boyz
• 5 x Orruk Boarboyz
• 1 x Orruk Boar Chariot

Altogether that’s 18 miniatures, and here are some pictures of what’s inside the box:

As you can see there’s quite a few sprues that come in this set and the price you pay for this set is really good considering how many GW miniatures you get.

Here’s an unboxing video I shot as well:

I also picked up a few other Greenskinz boxes which I’ll do an unboxing of soon and then I’ll start building them all out.

Do you play Greenskinz?

What do you think of this set as a starting point for building a Greenskinz army?

I have now finished assembling all the puppets and in today’s blog post I wanted to share some pictures of what the puppets look like, as well as my impressions after having assembled them all.

First, let’s start with some pictures of what the puppets look like assembled:

This first picture is of Seamus, who is one of the three Masters that are included in this set.  He was pretty easy to assemble and I think he looks great.

Next we have Lady Justice, another Master Puppet from the set.  Pretty easy to assemble, and I think she also looks great.

Next, we have Pokey Viktoria, who is the third and final Master Puppet included in the set.  A pretty straight forward build, and she looks like she’ll be fun to paint.

Next we have Rusty Alyce, who is one of the sidekicks that comes in the set.  I actually had a bit of a tough time assembling her hair, getting the pieces to line-up properly.

After numerous attempts to make them fit properly, shaving down a little bit of plastic here and there to find a way to get the hair to sit flush, I just decided to do glue the pieces as you see above and move on.  In some of these situations I don’t quite understand why Wyrd makes certain small pieces separate pieces from the rest.  They must have their reasons though.  Unless they just want to be sadistic and to torture us with tiny pieces that don’t quite fit 100%.

Anyway, I think the miniature still looks great, even if the hair line doesn’t align 100%.

Next we have The Hooded Rider, another Sidekick you get with the set.  I found him a little challenging to assemble as well, trying to get the two halves of the “horse” to line up perfectly.

I have a bit of flashing / mold line cleanup to do on this guy still, and maybe I’ll throw some green stuff in that gap… or maybe I’ll just paint it as is.  I mean these are puppets that are made from mismatched scrap parts, right?  So maybe that mold like adds to the character.

Next we have Bete Noire, yet another Sidekick in the game.  She was pretty easy to assemble.

Next we have Judge, another Sidekick.  He looks like he’ll be fun to paint!  Creepy looking dude.

Next, we have Misaki, the final Sidekick in the set.  She was easy to assemble as well.

Next we now move onto the Pawn Puppets that are included in the set.  There are 12 sets of three Pawn Puppets each.

So for example, for this Executioner Puppet, there are three of them included in the set.

He was easy to build, and will be fun to paint as well!

Next up we have the Guild Austringer.  This dude has a crow on his head!  The little tiny feet on the crow were separate pieces and they were a little challenging to glue into place.

I had to use tweezers to hold them in place.  Once put together though, he looks really cool.

Next we have the Razorspine Rattler – another Pawn Puppet from the set.  This guy was pretty easy to assemble as far as the top part of the Puppet goes, but the electrical cord at the end of his tail was a separate piece and that thing was really tough to hold in place while waiting for the glue to set.

The cord kind of curves around and goes into the gap between the bottom of his jaw and the body, and the angle that it’s on makes it really difficult to hold that little piece in place.  I used tweezers once again, but even with tweezers it was not easy.  Once I got it to stay though, I did a little dance of joy for each one.

Next we have the Death Marshal, another Pawn Puppet in the set.  This guy was pretty easy to put together except for one part.

See that little Sherrif’s star on his belt?  Wyrd made that a separate piece.

C’MON, really Wyrd?  It’s like this TINY little circle that measures like 2 millimeters in diameter and half a millimeter in depth!

This is one of those pieces where if you cut it off the sprue the wrong way, it just shoots across the room never to be seen again.

I had to CAREFULLY separate it from the sprue and then try to attach it using a pair of tweezers.

The challenge is that while holding it with tweezers, if you don’t squeeze the tweezers enough you won’t grab onto it.  But if you squeeze the tweezers just a little bit too hard, it can once again shoot that little piece across the room or worse – right in your eye!

I was very careful and I managed to build the Death Marshal without shooting his Sherrif’s Star across the room.

However, I was horrified to learn that by the next day, when I looked at one of the three Death Marshals, one of them was missing his star.

So either Wyrd used some kind of disappearing trick plastic on me, or the glue didn’t catch and I didn’t notice and dropped the piece somewhere.

Which kinda sucks because now I have a Death Marshal without his Sherif’s star.  Oh well, the other two still have theirs and chance are that I will most likely only be playing this game with two players anyways.

Next we have the Nurse.  What can I say about her… hmmm… well, she was easy to build, and she has a HUGE needle!

I’m pretty sure that’s the same sized needle that dentists use.  At least that’s how big they SEEM!

Next we have Ronin, another Pawn Puppet.  She was also easy to build.

Now we move onto the Malifaux Cherub, another Pawn Puppet.  Very easy to build this one as well.  I like the cool little wings this dude has.

What’s creepier than a Zombie?  A Punk Zombie, which is who this next Pawn Puppet is.

Here we’ve got the December Acolyte.  She’s another Pawn Puppet.  Easy to build and she looks like she’ll be a lot of fun to paint as well!

This is Silurid.  Basically some kind of sea-creature in what looks like a bowl.  Another Pawn Puppet in the game. Pretty easy to put together too.

Here we have Rotten Belle.  I love her parasol.  Another Pawn Puppet which was pretty easy to put together.

This is Convict Gunslinger, the last of the Pawn Puppets.  He was easy to put together, and yes I do believe those are GUNS he has for arms.  LOL.

Here’s another picture I took of all the Masters and Sidekicks together.

And here’s a pic of one of each of the 12 Pawns.  And finally…

Here’s a picture of ALL the Puppets included in the Puppet Wars Unstitched set!

As you can see it’s a LOT of miniatures.  It’s going to take me some time to get them painted up, but I’m looking forward to it.

What do you guys think of the minis that come in this set?  Which Puppet is your favorite?

As part of my ongoing research into tabletop miniature / board game type hybrid games, I recently picked up Puppet Wars Unstitched from Wyrd Games.

I know this game is NOT new.  It’s been out for a while, but I still picked it up along with another few games as I think it’s a great place to start my research and also because it looks like it might be a lot of fun to play!!!

I’m doing this research because as I mentioned in my Developers Journal blog post last week, I want to eventually design my own tabletop miniatures game, and I haven’t totally decided yet but I’m leaning towards first launching it as a tabletop mini / board game hybrid and then re-investing any profits I make from that launch (if any) into building out an actual full sized game universe.

In the past I haven’t really been into these tabletop miniature / board game hybrid type games.  I preferred to spend my money on buying more miniatures for my tabletop armies as I love the hobby side of building and painting them.

However, since I have been thinking of coming out with my own miniatures game and realizing that I may need to start with a tabletop / board game type hybrid I figured it would be really dumb to even attempt such a thing without first playing a bunch of the games that have already come out in the last few years and getting a feel for what they offer.

One of the first games I picked up was Puppet Wars Unstitched from Wyrd Games and in this post I’ll show you guys some pictures of what’s inside the box and my first impressions so far.

What’s In the Box

First, let’s start with the most important part, which is the miniatures!

In the box you’ll find four sprues.

The first sprue contains three Masters – Seamus, Lady Justice and Pokey Viktoria, and five Sidekicks – Misaki, Judge, Bete Noire, The Hooded Rider and Rusty Alyce.

Here is the sprue show below – front and back.

The production quality and detail of these miniatures looks identical to Malifaux.  It looks like the same type of plastic, and the miniatures are sculpted with the same level of detail as any other Malifaux miniature.

The second sprue in this set contains all twelve of the Pawns included in this set – Nurse, Ronin, Malifaux Cherub, Convict Gunslinger, Rotten Belle, Silurid, December Acolyte, Punk Zombie, Death Marshall, Razorspine Rattler, Executioner and Guild Austringer.

Here’s the sprue shown below – front and back.

There are three sets of these Pawn sprues, which gives you a total of 36 Pawn miniatures.

Combine that with the 8 miniatures on the Master / Sidekick sprue and you’ve got yourself 44 high quality plastic miniatures to build, paint and play with!

Next we have a 43 page rule book which explains exactly how to play the game and an assembly sheet showing you how to assemble the minis.

Next we have all the stat cards for all the Masters, the Sidekicks and the Pawns.

Each of the Pawn cards also double as upgrade cards on the back, as is explained in the rule book.

Although I haven’t played the game just yet I have read through the rule book and my understanding is that when a Pawn puppet gets killed (or Torn Apart in Puppet Wars lingo) – it’s possible to take parts of that Puppet and use them to upgrade another Puppet.

How fun!

Next, included in the set are also two full Fate Decks!

I’m not sure if all of the sets are like this, but my Fate Decks came as plastic covered cards which is really awesome as they’ll make a nice set of durable Fate Deck cards I can use not only in this game but also for playing Malifaux.  Sweet!

Next, we have a bunch of tokens, markers and of course a 44 plastic bases for the miniatures.

You’ll notice that the bases have holes in them, which are there for mounting the Puppets to the bases once you build them, as each Puppet is designed to have a round cylindrical peg on the bottom of it which fits into one of those holes to make them easier to mount to the bases.

And then finally we have the actual game board itself which you play Puppet Wars on which is really bright and colorful!

As far as my initial impressions on this game, I’m actually really impressed with the amount of value they include in this box.

If you’re mostly into the hobby side of tabletop gaming, you get a nice set of 44 high-quality miniatures to build and paint to your liking…

… and you get everything else you’d need in the box to actually start playing the game…

… and you get two Fate Decks that you can use for Malifaux as well.

Speaking of Malifaux and how it relates to this game, after reading through the rule book in Puppet Wars I realized that this game is basically like a simplified path to learning how to play Malifaux.

Meaning, the rules are similar to Malifaux, but just simplified.

Some of the mechanics and dynamics of how the game is played are identical to Malifaux, except maybe a bit more simplified, so if you’re just getting started with Malifaux, this game might be a great way to jump in and to get a feel for what the Wyrd / Malifaux universe of games is like.

I’ll do another post once I’ve had a chance to actually build all of the miniatures as well.

Have you played Puppet Wars Unstitched yet?

If so, what did you think about it?

What other tabletop miniature / board game hybrid type games have you played and do you have any recommendations for any that I might want to jump into and add to my list of games to research?

It’s a Victorian Steampunk themed modular tabletop terrain system that I hoped I’d be able to sell $1,000 – $2,000 worth of on Kickstarter.

The campaign ended up selling just over $17,000 worth in 30 days, and it totally blew my mind how much support the terrain system got and how much fun it was to go through the process.

With the design, marketing and funding phases of the Kickstarter now completed, I’m now in the production phase which actually gives me quite a bit of time to think about potential future Kickstarter campaigns I might want to do.

The reason why is because unlike the design and marketing phases of the Kickstarter which really required a very active, and mentally focused effort on my part, the production phase really just involves me spending time in my laser workshop for 10-12 hours a day, and the majority of that time is spent waiting for the laser cutting and engraving process to complete for each sheet of MDF, in between swapping and sorting sheets.

The cool thing is that this affords me some time during this production phase to think about and plan out my future Kickstarter projects.

One project that I’ve been dreaming about and wanted to launch for years and years now is my own miniatures game with my own line of miniatures.

I’ve been researching and quite frankly daydreaming / fantasizing about this for years, but it wasn’t until I saw the support that my current Kickstarter received that really made me start thinking that it might be time to stop daydreaming and to start making it a reality.

Why I Delayed Pursuing This Dream in the Past

Creating my own miniatures game has been a dream of mine for a long time, but I’ve put it off until now for a number of reasons which I think some of you might able to relate to.

I know that I’m not the only tabletop gamer out there who dreams about creating their own miniatures game.  It’s a dream that quite a few of us have, but most of us quickly dismiss it once we do enough research to realize the actual scope and magnitude of taking on such a project.

I’ve looked into the viability of launching a project like this in the past a few times but as soon as I did even just a bit of in-depth research I ran into some road blocks which put the idea on hold.

In fact, this is what happens to most people who want to create a miniatures game.  At first the idea sounds awesome, exciting and like a lot of fun to explore, but most people never get the project past the idea phase.

Why?

Well, part of the reason is because creating your own miniatures game requires a massive investment of time, money and energy to execute on that idea.

On the surface, it appears that the tabletop miniatures gaming model could be quite lucrative.  I can’t count how many times I’ve been to a local gaming store and overheard people discussing how much money Games Workshop must be “raking in” based on the prices they charge.

Visions of Scrooge McDuck swimming in a vault of gold coins enter their minds as they look at a boxes of miniatures priced at $80 and think to themselves “There’s what?… $10 in plastic here?  They must be making a killing on this stuff!!!”

In reality though, a careful study of the GW annual report paints a totally different picture.  All of a sudden, the fantasy of what on the surface may seem like an “ultra lucrative” business model starts to now be overshadowed by the reality behind running a miniatures company and all the expenses associated with it.

Of course Games Workshop is not the only player in town.  There are dozens of tabletop gaming companies out there, but I  mention Games Workshop because they’re one of the oldest, most established companies and because they are publicly traded which means we get a glimpse at what their financials look like.

Although management philosophies vary from company to company, I’d venture a guess that for the most part, most tabletop miniatures companies have similar financials albeit just not as big as Games Workshop.

But let’s put all of that aside for a moment.

Let’s assume that once a tabletop gaming company reaches a certain point in growth and size there is enough money to be made for the company to not only survive but to thrive in the current economy.

The first and biggest challenge is not so much in how to manage a company of that size and to keep it sustainable and growing.

The first and biggest challenge lies in actually GETTING THERE in the first place and the biggest challenge with that is what I’ll refer to as the “Chicken / Egg Factor” in this tabletop gaming market of ours.

The Chicken / Egg Factor

What do I mean by the “Chicken / Egg Factor”?

The “Chicken and Egg” factor is simply this…

Tabletop Gaming Market Reality #1 (The Chicken Factor)

In order for a tabletop miniatures game company to be able to afford to launch a successful miniatures game, it needs the support of the tabletop gaming community to actually “buy into” that game and the miniatures range on a large enough scale for it to be viable.

Coming up with a concept for a game, the “fluff”, the rules and a unique game play experience, and then designing the miniatures, creating sketches, sculpts and producing a line of miniatures, as well as all the other aspects of producing a game adds up to a LOT of up-front expenses, and it doesn’t matter whether you then sell 10,000 copies, 1,000 copies, 100 copies or 1 copy of the game – those up front expenses are still there.

Meaning, when producing a game, there are certain up-front expenses that have to be met which can cost tens of thousands of dollars or more in addition to the cost of actually manufacturing the actual miniatures in whatever quantity that is sold and it doesn’t matter whether you sell ONE copy of a game or ONE THOUSAND copies of that game, those up front expenses still have to be paid.

Gaming companies with an already established client base and distribution channels know that when they put up the up-front costs of producing an expansion pack to their existing game, those up-front costs will be covered by the volume of sales that they generate.

Launching a game from scratch, however, you have no idea whether a thousand, ten thousand or even if even ONE person will buy your game.

Now of course things like Kickstarter have been a huge help in helping new companies to bridge that gap, but even getting a concept for a game to the point of it being ready for a Kickstarter launch can be very expensive…

… and there is no guarantee that you’ll ever recover any of those costs because that is where “The Egg” factor comes in…

Tabletop Gaming Market Reality #2 (The Egg Factor)

The “Egg Factor” in tabletop gaming is simply this…

Most people will only part with their hard-earned money and actually spend money on a game IF the following are true:

• IF the game is already proven to be successful in the community overall
• IF the game already has an established player base that is LOCAL to that player
• IF the game is unique and different enough to warrant them spending money on IT as opposed to a game they’re already playing

In other words, for the most part, even if people are excited about a game and it’s miniatures and think it could be awesome, they don’t buy in right away and instead WAIT for a bunch of other people to buy in first.

The challenge with that is that while THEY are waiting for everyone else, everyone else is waiting for THEM!

Hence the “Chicken and Egg” reference.

A new tabletop miniatures gaming company needs a large enough buy-in from players up front to make the economics work in terms of producing a game without going bankrupt in the process (The Chicken Factor), and most players don’t really want to spend their money up-front even if the game and the miniatures are awesome, because they’re waiting to see if everyone else buys in first so that they have a bunch of people to play against (The Egg Factor).

What This Means From a Business Perspective

What this basically means is that even though the idea of launching your own tabletop miniatures gaming company sounds awesome, fun and exciting, from the business perspective it’s a very risky business model with a lot of challenges that have to be overcome in order to get the idea off the ground.

In fact, I’d venture a guess and say that most business analysts would look at the idea of launching your own tabletop miniatures gaming company as too risky and not worth the hassle based on a purely “logical” analysis of the model.

And this is precisely why such an idea remains nothing more than a dream for the vast majority of people, with only a handful of companies that successfully pulled it off in the last 30 years.

I applaud each and every single one of them for overcoming the odds and breaking through into the market despite the “Chicken and Egg” factor.

So what made these companies different?

How did they overcome the odds?

From my research and understanding, the main differentiating factor between those companies that succeeded and those which didn’t or didn’t even bother attempting comes down to one thing…

… PASSION to make their dream come true, and the support of the community.

I don’t care if you’re talking about Games Workshop, or Privateer Press, or Corvus Belli or CMON or Wyrd or any of the other tabletop gaming companies that have made it – the driving factor behind all of their successes comes down to the PASSION the founders of these companies had for their dream of creating a tabletop gaming company, and the support that they received from the community.

They beat the odds and overcame the “Chicken and Egg Factor” because their passion was bigger than the challenges that they had to overcome, and because the tabletop gaming community rallied behind that passion and supported each of those companies when they needed it most.

Building on Passion

Even though I’ve been an entrepreneur for over 20 years now and have quite a bit of experience in building successful businesses, the main reason why I want to build a tabletop miniatures gaming company is because I have a passion for it, not because I think it’s the easiest and most lucrative business model to pursue.

I have some of my own ideas on how to overcome the “Chicken and Egg Factor” and I’m looking forward to the challenge.

I don’t think for one second that it’s going to be easy competing in a marketplace where the big companies have a huge advantage over anyone just starting out, due to the their access to resources like manpower and money, as well as due to the support of the tabletop community and their already established player base – BUT I think it will be a fun challenge to see if I can do it.

As crazy as the idea may sound looking at it purely from a “logical” business perspective, I think that fueled by a passion and a dream, and with proper planning, a lot of patience, a crap-load of hard work, and the support from the tabletop gaming community, I may just be able to pull this off.

The worst case scenario would be that I try and fail miserably, losing a lot of time, energy, and money in the process, and not getting the support from the community that will be needed to get the project off the ground.  That is definitely a possibility.

But hey, as an entrepreneur, betting on myself and my crazy ideas is what I’ve been doing for over 20 years now, and so far it’s paid off.  Even when I’ve failed (so many times), I’ve always learned something and leveraged what I learned into success later on.

Sharing My Journey

When I decided to start working on this project, investing my time, energy and money into it, one decision I knew I needed to make was how much of this journey I should share with the world.

Meaning, traditionally when someone decides to create a new miniatures game or project, they keep everything top secret and “hush hush” until the big reveal when the game is ready for launch.

A few details might be shared here and there and a few teasers might be leaked out to generate interested before an official launch, but for the most part people keep everything hidden from public view.

The reasons behind keeping everything “hush hush” are very valid, as most people are afraid of having their ideas stolen or copied with a few minor differences by another company which has bigger resources at their disposal to execute on those ideas faster.

Also, there’s something to be said about a big reveal where something is already at the “OMG that looks awesome!” stage of the creation process, as opposed to releasing information over a period of time as the development process unfolds.

I think both angles have their advantages and disadvantages and I think it’s a gamble either way.

If you DO share more information during the development process, you can get feedback from the community and gauge support for the game early on and as it develops.  If you can make the process interesting and fun, you can get people invested in your project mentally and emotionally long before the game is even ready for release, which can be a great benefit when the game actually launches.

However, you do open yourself up to scrutiny, criticism, idea and concept thieves, which could negatively affect your enthusiasm for developing a game, as compared to just keeping things “hush hush”.

The other downside to being to open about your project and getting community feedback is that it is completely impossible to take everyone’s ideas and implement them into your project.  Everyone loves to offer feedback, suggestions and their opinions, but in most cases those ideas don’t fit within the overall vision of the entire project itself.

Also, in a lot of situations, people’s ideas conflict and contradict each other, and for the most part, everyone maintains a strong belief that THEIR idea is the best idea in such a situation.  So then, what ends up happening is that even if you DO take such an idea and implement it into your project because it DOES fit within the overall vision you have in your mind, as you implement that idea and make that ONE person happy because you listened to their opinion/idea, you are simultaneously rejecting all the other people who had the exact opposite in mind.

When I was working on the designs and stretch goals for my last Kickstarter, as an example, I would receive emails, private messages and comments from people who sometimes wanted the complete opposite of what another person was suggesting.

And of course in some situations there were people who wanted the same thing, but that thing didn’t fit in with the vision I had for the overall project.  So in situations like these, that “community feedback” can be very distracting and it’s not always easy to effectively communicate to someone that their idea is valid and great, or that their idea stinks, or that their idea might be great but just not for your project, without that person feeling rejected.

I mean, just imagine taking 100 Star Wars fans, locking them in a room and asking them to come up with an idea for what should happen in the next Star Wars movie.  GOOD LUCK getting even a few of them to agree on one thing.  You’ll have 100 people with 100 different ideas, and all of them convinced that THEIR idea is the best idea.

Essentially you inadvertently create the “too many chefs in the kitchen syndrome”.

So the on the other side of that coin, if you DON’T share too much information besides maybe a teaser, you can keep the “too many chefs in the kitchen syndrome” out of the picture, you can keep critics out of your energy field and allow your idea to incubate long enough to produce something exciting to then finally be ready to be revealed and shared with the world once it’s all ready to go.

However, the down side of this is that you are then developing something with no feedback at all, essentially in a “vacuum” which is your own mind and imagination, which might end up meaning that when your idea finally is revealed it could either be totally brilliant or a complete FLOP.  In either case, by the time you learn which of those things it is, you’ve already gone past the point of no return in terms of investing time, energy and capital into making it a reality so you’ll most likely just try to PUSH the game into the market regardless whether or not it’s a flop or not.

As you can tell, I’ve thought about all this quite a bit.

So what’s the best option?

The Early Adopters Tribe

Earlier on I stated that one of the biggest challenges of creating your own game is what I called the “Chicken and Egg Syndrome”.

I stated that what this syndrome basically means is that for a game to launch successfully it needs the support of a large enough group of tabletop gamers to make it viable to produce the game in the first place – AND – that MOST tabletop gamers will not support a game until it is already successful.

If this is true, then how can it be possible to launch a successful game?

Well, what I said is that MOST tabletop gamers will not buy into a game until later on, once the game is already successful, BUT that doesn’t mean that EVERYONE falls into that category.

There is a group of tabletop gamers out there, who are the “Early Adopters and Supporters Tribe” of our tabletop gaming community.

These people are the free-thinkers, the ones who are willing to take a risk on a new game that they think is awesome and to support a project right from the start regardless whether it eventually becomes a mass-scale success or not.

They’re the people who are willing to invest in a great concept and a great line of miniatures because they want to MAKE it successful with their support, instead of just waiting to see what the rest of the crowd does.

They’re happy to own the first release of a game even if all that it becomes is a cult classic they can enjoy with their friend.

Of course if the game does become successful and accepted by the rest of the masses of tabletop gamers, the “Early Adopters and Supporters Tribe” can take great pride in knowing that they were right there in the beginning, as the founding members and supporters of a game which later became a huge success.

I consider myself a member of this tribe, and am just as likely to spend my hard earned money into a brand new game that looks awesome that is just being launched and has hardly any supporters, as I am to spend it on a game that’s been around for 30+ years.

The reason I decided to write this Blog post and to start sharing my journey of developing my own game and line of tabletop miniatures is because I want to connect with others who are also a part of this tribe.

If you too consider yourself a part of this tribe, I want to offer you a front-row seat in seeing exactly how I go through this process of creating a game from scratch, as I think that maybe one day, if it is a dream of yours as well, learning from some of the successes and failures that I will share here on my Blog could help you to launch your own game as well.

At the very least, you’ll get a front row seat at seeing a game develop from concept to actual reality, which I know for me is always something I find completely fascinating.

If you consider yourself a part of this “Early Adopters and Supporters Tribe“, and you want to follow my journey, I’d recommend signing up for my free newsletter (fill out the form below) , as well as hitting the LIKE button on my Facebook page (click here) so that you are notified of future blog posts and updates on this topic.

And in the meantime, I welcome your questions, comments and suggestions in the comments below.

For The Early Adopters and Supporters Tribe

Consider yourself a part of our tribe? Enter your name and email address below to sign up for our free newsletter and be the first to be notified of our progress in developing our game, get access to private sneak-peaks and more!

Of course it’s free, there is no obligation to ever buy anything and you can unsubscribe at any time.

The starter set comes with 2 faction crews (8 miniatures), which include:

• Guild crew
  • Nurse Heartsbane
  • Dr. Grimwell
  • 2 Orderlies
• Neverborn crew
  • Scion of Black Blood
  • Angel Eyes
  • 2 Bloodwretches

The box set also comes with 6 x 30mm bases, 8 stat cards, 2 upgrade cards, 2 quick reference cards, quick start booklet, free digital rules manual, 2 fate decks, and 2 measuring tapes.

Full Unboxing Video

Box – Front

Box – Back

Sprue

Quick Start Booklet

Stat Cards

Fate Decks (Guild / Neverborn)

Measuring Tapes (Front / Back)

Instructions – Neverborn Crew

Neverborn Crew – Assembled

Instructions – Guild Crew

Guild Crew – Assembled

How to Buy

Looking to pickup your own Malifaux M2E Starter Set?

Click here to visit our store.

The box set comes with 7 miniatures which include:

– Kirai
– Lost Love
– Ikiryo
– 2 Onryo
– 2 Seishin

The box set also comes with 6 x 30mm bases, 1x 50mm base, 7 stat cards and 6 upgrade cards.

Full Unboxing Video

Box – Front

Box – Back

Sprue – Front

Sprue – Back

Stat Cards

Instructions

How to Buy

Looking to pickup your own “Vengeful Spirits” Box set?

Click here to visit our store.

What’s even more exciting is the positive response we’ve gotten from the backers in the conversations we’ve had on Kickstarter.

It’s so exciting to launch a project which is well received by the community and to have the opportunity to design and deliver something people will enjoy using.

This is our first ever Kickstarter, and our goal was to simply hit $500 – $1,000 in funding, so seeing it get funded in less than 8 hours and now to go past the $10k mark has been a very exciting experience.

If you haven’t had a chance to check out our Kickstarter yet, pop by and take a look by clicking here or visiting this link:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2144623801/victorian-steampunk-modular-tabletop-terrain

The campaign was launched early this morning around 1am, and was fully funded within 8 hours which we are super excited about!

Here’s a short video clip showing off some of the many layouts possible with this modular terrain:

CLICK HERE TO VISIT OUR KICKSTARTER PAGE

As of the writing of this post the campaign has already raised over $2,000 in pledges.

Considering our funding goal was just $1,000, we couldn’t be more excited for the support the campaign is getting.

Pop by our Kickstarter page, check it out and leave your comments.

If you haven’t had a chance to pop by our Tabletop Gamer Store in the last few days, we have just completed uploading our inventory lists for 3 games we are going to be selling on our store in addition to our terrain.

Malifaux

The first game we’re now going to be stocking at our store is Malifaux from Wyrd Miniatures.

If you haven’t heard of Malifaux, it’s a small scale / skirmish type miniatures game with the unique twist of being a really weird and twisted looking game.

One of the first things that many people say when they first see a set of Malifaux miniatures is “These look weird!”, which is no surprise since the company who creates them is called Wyrd, so I’m sure creating weird looking miniatures is part of their plan.

Some people love the fact that these miniatures are different looking, and have that unique, slightly twisted look to them, while others don’t care for them.

I find them rather fascinating which is why I’ve decided to stock them on our store, and to start designing terrain for the game very soon as well.

Check out Malifaux at our store here.

Infinity

The second game we’ve decided to stock is Infinity from Corvus Belli.

Similar game size to Malifaux, Infinity is a smaller scale / skirmish type game which takes place in the not too distant future.

Although the game has been around for more than 10 years, it has seen a recent surge of growth in the last few years which is really exciting because I love their miniatures.

I always found their artwork and miniature design awesome, and I’m super excited to start stocking their miniatures on our store and to start producing terrain for Infinity very soon as well.

Check out Infinity at our store here.

Wrath of Kings

The third game we’ve decided to stock at our store is called Wrath of Kings from Cool Mini or Not.

Unlike Malifaux and Infinity, which have been around for quite some time now, Wrath of Kings is a newcomer to the market.  It was originally released as a very successful Kickstarter campaign in 2013 and has continued to grow in popularity ever since.

I actually didn’t hear about the game until this year, but as soon as I heard about the game and saw the miniatures I instantly fell in love with them.

I love the unique designs and the types of characters that the game brings to the table.

We are now stocking the full range of Wrath of Kings miniatures at our store and I am planning on designing and releasing some terrain for Wrath of Kings as well.

Check out Wrath of Kings at our store here.

Why We’ve Decided to Support These Games

One of the questions that I have been asked by a few people is why did I  decide to stock and sell tabletop miniatures on our store as a terrain designer / producer.

Meaning, why am I not just focusing 100% on producing terrain and that’s it?  Why tie up resources, and time into carrying these miniatures?

Well, here’s my reasoning on this topic…

Reason #1 – Showing Support For the Games

My first reason for carrying these miniature games at our store is to show my support for these games.

I’ve been around this industry, on and off, for 10+ years and and last year I came back from a bit of a hiatus I took from tabletop gaming for a few years.

A lot of stuff has changed in the industry, but many other things have remained the same.

One of the things that I noticed that hasn’t changed is the lack of support for these smaller / skirmish type games at the local brick-and-mortar store level.

With the market becoming more and more competitive, and margins shrinking, most brick-and-mortar retailers are continuing to shrink their inventory levels and range of products that they carry and deciding to put their focus on games that they know will perform such as 40K and maybe Warmahordes.

Meaning, from their perspective why take a chance and tie up $5k – $10k in inventory of let’s say a game like Wrath of Kings, which may or may not sell for them locally, when they can take that same money and put it into carrying more Space Marines which they know will sell.  This makes sense for them, business wise, but it sucks for us as a community who want variety!

Don’t get me wrong, I love my Space Marines, but I also like NEW and DIFFERENT things as well.

Not only that, but most stores have had to shift focus to supporting other products such as collectible cards and/or comics or kids toys in order to survive.

One local hobby store I walked into, which seems to carry at least 10,000 items of inventory such as models, paints, hobby supplies etc., I asked them if they stock any tabletop miniatures and they promptly said “No!  We don’t bother because then you have to setup a table and a place for people to play the game and we can’t afford to waste that much space.  We’d rather use the space for other things.”

Even GW stores have been shrinking down to one-man operations.

In the 10+ years or so that I’ve been in this hobby, I’ve heard countless opinions on whose fault it is that this type of thing is happening, with everyone blaming someone else.

Some people say it’s all GW’s fault for being greedy and profit driven and completely disconnected from understanding how the Internet works and the communities online.

Others blame online communities and online retailers who sell miniatures for taking people out of the brick-and-mortar stores and onto the Internet to conduct their tabletop socializing and shopping activities.

Others still blame the global economy, technology, the Internet itself, video games, or “kids today” as the problem.

You’ll hear a million opinions from a million people, and in a way I think that everyone has a valid point and an opinion to add to the discussion.

From my perspective, here’s how I see things…

I’m the type of person who doesn’t like to spend ALL his time complaining or blaming people, companies, technology or other external factors for ruining things.

I’ll complain a little bit, but then I catch myself and stop and then I prefer to focus on what I think could be one solution to the problem, and see how it works.

If it doesn’t work, I learn from it, and adjust / evolve to something better.

One of the problems I’ve seen when I’ve visited the local gaming stores in my area for the last 10 years is a lack of support for the smaller type games like Malifaux, Infinity and Wrath of Kings.

For example one of the stores I have shopped at for years has an overabundance of GW stuff, a little bit of Malifaux stuff, no Infinity and no Wrath of Kings miniatures.

I, as a consumer, would like to buy Infinity and Wrath of Kings miniatures but my local stores don’t carry them.

Again, this is totally understandable as they have to do whatever they have to do in order to survive, and if they can only afford to carry and support GW products, that’s fine with me.

Even though I know that some people are lucky enough to live in areas where their local stores do support one or more of these smaller type games, and not just GW products, I believe that there are a LOT of people in the same boat as I am, and that is one of the reasons I’ve decided to carry these miniatures at our store.

I think that companies like Wyrd, and Corvus Belli and Cool Mini or Not deserve to have their games supported, even if it doesn’t make sense for most brick-and-mortar stores to carry their ranges in their inventory.

Reason #2 – Diving in and Making Better Terrain

Secondly, the other reason I decided to carry these miniatures is for me and my friends locally to dive into these games in much more depth so that I can design better, more awesome terrain for the games.

By having the inventory in stock, it makes it much easier to get all of my friends into the games, and for us to play together and to learn the ins-and-outs of the games.

Since our local stores don’t really carry these games, most of my friends have been building their GW armies, but haven’t really gotten into these other games.  That is now changing with them getting started with Infinity and Malifaux and Wrath of Kings.

Reason #3 – Producing Video Content and Growing the Community

Thirdly, another reason I decided to start selling these miniatures is so that I would have access to the games and their miniatures to produce video content such as unboxings, reviews, building and painting tutorials, battle reports and any other types of content which would help the tabletop gaming community to attract newcomers, grow and flourish in the digital age we live in.

I was originally introduced to this hobby by walking into a board game store and seeing some GW miniatures in a glass case, but what really got me addicted to this hobby was the online content, videos and resources that other online content producers created.

I enjoy creating videos and other types of content / resources as well as a way to give back to the community and to help newcomers and to attract new people to the hobby.

Reason #4 – Introducing New Players to These Games

Fourthly, another reason I want to carry these games in our inventory is because I want to help introduce people to these games who may not have heard of them otherwise.

When someone arrives at our online store looking for some new terrain for their 40k table, for example, they might see Wrath of Kings in my inventory and might fall in love with the miniatures like I did and may not have even heard of the game otherwise.

Seeing those games supported by our store and in our online content and videos will hopefully attract more new players to these games which will be win/win for everyone including the game producers.

Reason #5 – More Convenience and Cost Savings For My Customers

And finally, probably the most important reason I decided to carry these miniatures is because I think it’s in the best interest of my customers who buy terrain from me.

What I mean by that is that when a person goes onto my online store and purchases some terrain for a game like Infinity or Malifaux or Wrath of Kings, as an example, before completing their purchase they are now presented with an opportunity to also purchase some miniatures for those games that they play.

This offers them the convenience to do all of their shopping for that game in one place, and also saves them money on shipping costs, since we charge a flat rate shipping fee.

So, for example, if someone was looking to buy 3 new miniatures for Infinity this month and to also buy some terrain for it as well, instead of buying their Infinity terrain from us and then having to shop for their miniatures at a different online retailer and paying shipping twice, they can now purchase their terrain AND their miniatures at our store and save some time and money on shipping!

I see this as a win/win scenario for both my customers and my store since we also make a small margin on the miniatures as well which we can then take and re-invest into creating more terrain.

Of course there are some risks involved from my side, in terms of stocking inventory, tying up capital into it, and the risk that my customers will continue to shop for their miniatures elsewhere purely out of habit and just being used to ordering their minis from another online store.

Even though there is that risk, I’ve decided to go ahead with this idea anyways, and I hope that you, as my customer, give me a chance to be your preferred supplier for the miniature games we carry in addition to the terrain we design and sell.

If this works out, I would like to expand our inventory further and carry more items in stock, as well as possibly expand to other games which might not be getting the support they deserve at the brick-and-mortar local stores.

So if you are into games like Infinity, Malifaux or Wrath of Kings, or you’d like to get into them, I encourage you to give our store a chance to become your terrain AND miniatures supplier for these games!

You can check out the full range of miniatures we have in stock right now at our store here – http://www.tabletopgamerstore.com

This time around my friend Jabeel does an unboxing of his Malifaux Shenlong / Temple of the Dawn box set from the Ten Thunders faction he is going to be playing.

As you’ll see in the video, Jabeel also managed to get his hands on a limited edition box which included an extra miniature inside.

Although I don’t think the limited edition version of this box set is available anymore, we are going to be stocking the regular set along with other Malifaux miniatures at our store very soon.

We’re just waiting for the inventory to arrive, so keep an out for that over the next week or so.

Once we dive into the game a bit more, and once I learn more about it I’m planning on releasing a line of tabletop terrain /scenery which will be compatible with Malifaux and that will also be available for sale at our store.

I’m starting with the Kaeris box set – Burning Revelation – and today I decided to do a quick unboxing video to show you guys what comes it the box.

I’m very new to Malifaux, and the only miniatures I previously had way back in 2011 was the old metal Rasputina starter set.

I’m really excited to dive into this game, learn it and to get these minis assembled and painted very soon.

What do you guys think of the new Malifaux M2E?

If you play, which faction do you play?

What made you choose that faction?

I’ve been extremely busy for the past few months with the launch of the TabletopGamer line of miniature terrain / scenery so I haven’t had a lot of time to make new videos or blog posts, but now that I’ve caught up with the rush of orders that came in over Christmas, I want to get back to posting more regularly.

In this video I share what’s new, and where I’d like to take TabletopGamer.com in 2016 and beyond:

I wanted to write a quick blog post to keep you all up to date with the latest releases in our Scarred City line of tabletop terrain scenery.

If you haven’t checked them out yet, here are our latest releases:

#1 – Scarred City Battle Ruins – Building #1

This is our first building in our Scarred City Battle Ruins series.

You can check it out by clicking here -> http://www.tabletopgamerstore.com/scarred-city-battle-ruins-building-1/

#2 – Scarred City Battle Ruins – Building #2

This is the second building we now have available in our Scarred City Battle Ruins series.

You can check it out by clicking here -> http://www.tabletopgamerstore.com/scarred-city-battle-ruins-building-2/

Scarred City Defensive Barrier – Walls and Gate Kit

Next in our lineup is our Scarred City Defensive Barrier sets.

This first set includes one gate and two defensive walls to start a perimeter fence anywhere on your terrain.

You can check it out by clicking here -> http://www.tabletopgamerstore.com/scarred-city-defensive-barrier-walls-and-gate-kit/

Scarred City Defensive Barrier – Walls Kit

Our Scarred City Defensive Barrier set continues with this wall set which includes three walls to add to your perimeter.

You can check it out by clicking here -> http://www.tabletopgamerstore.com/scarred-city-defensive-barrier-walls-kit/

Tabletop Tank Traps

Finally, the last item in our new line of products is a set of Tabletop Tank Traps!

You can check out these beauties by clicking here -> http://www.tabletopgamerstore.com/tank-traps-4-pack/

Phew, it’s been a busy week!

Hope you guys enjoy our new lineup of products, and keep an eye out for more coming soon!

If you haven’t already, pop by our Tabletop Gamer Facebook Fan Page and click the LIKE button to get updates on Facebook as well!

-Paul

I’m especially excited about this project as it’s the first piece of scenery that I’m releasing for future based sci-fi games as opposed to the previous products I’ve created which were more aimed at fantasy games.

This new terrain piece is called the Scarred City Battle Ruins – Building #1.

Here are the first few pictures of it:

This battle ruins building is now available for sale at our store.

You can find it by clicking here.

The Realmgate will be battery powered and feature two back-lit engraved acrylic windows.

The windows are back-lit by 24 colored LEDs and it will be possible to swap them out for others that I will be producing.

The front and back face of the Realmgate will also be able to be changed to other faces I will be producing.

Here is a quick video showing the latest prototype.  The LEDs are actually MUCH brighter in real life than they appear in the video, but you’ll get the idea.

What do you guys think?

I started the army a few weeks ago and started by painting some Skinks and this weekend I painted some Seraphon Saurus Knights.

Here are some pictures of my completed knights:

How do you like my Saurus Knights?

Do you have a Lizardmen army?

Or what army do you play in Warhammer Fantasy / AoS or 40K?

This latest project is the Great Pyramid Temple of the Serpent Lizard.

It’s a massive 18 inch x 18 inch (450mm x 450mm) terrain piece that will look great on any table.

I designed the pyramid to be fully modular so that you can use it in a variety of different ways on your gaming table or display case.

The first way the pyramid can be utilized is as one full piece on your gaming table.  For example you could use it for a “King of the Hill” scenario or place an objective marker at the top etc.

Another way the pyramid can be utilized is as a half-pyramid on your gaming table.  You can setup the modular pieces to form two half-pyramids on each side of the board or just one half-pyramid.

Another way the pyramid can be utilized is as a quarter-pyramid on your gaming table.  You can setup one, two or four of the corner pieces on your game board to play out various scenarios.

Yet another way the pyramid can be utilized is as a display piece for your display case.  Use the corner pieces to display your minis in your display case!

The pyramid is made from laser precision cut 3mm MDF fiber board which can be painted.

It has been laser engraved with a brick pattern which will show through even when painted (as long as the paint is not too thick).

Each side of the pyramid can be left bare, just showing the brick pattern, or square glyphs can be added.

This picture shows one side customized with the square glyphs, while the other side is shown without them.

The pyramid comes with 100 dual sided glyphs.  One side of each glyph has a custom designed pattern and the other side is blank, so you can either use the provided patterns or use the blank side to create your own symbology.

For example you could use the blank sides and glue on or paint any iconography, bits, symbols etc.

The pyramid comes unassembled and unpainted so that you can customize it to your army.

If you have any questions leave a comment below or click here to see the pyramid for sale on our store.

You can pop by and check out some of our initial inventory releases by clicking here.

We’d also like to off you a 50% off voucher by completing a very short survey and telling us what kind of scenery and terrain you’d like to see us produce first!

Click here to complete the survey today and claim your 50% off voucher!

Thanks!

The reason for this is because I’ve been in my the bat-cave working on a new plan to launch a line of tabletop gaming terrain and accessory products!

It’s been a while now since I’ve had this idea and it has taken me a bit more time that I excepted to do all the necessary research and preparations, and to setup my new workshop and purchase the equipment I need to produce the products I want to produce.

Now that all of that is done though, I’m really excited to start creating some amazing terrain and accessories for your tabletop gaming addictions.

I’ve started this journey by working on my first prototype piece which is a simple 28mm scale, medieval / fantasy house model.

Here are some pictures of the prototype:

It’s been a dream of mine to get into designing products in the tabletop gaming industry for quite some time, so I’m really excited that it’s finally coming into fruition.

I know there are a few other companies in the marketplace doing amazing things with laser cut, 3D printed or resin pieces but many of these companies are overseas, in places like Europe or Australia, which makes it a lot more expensive for people in the North American market to get access to the products at reasonable prices.

Because I’m based out of Canada, I plan on predominantly serving the North American market and offer a more local alternative for people in Canada and the United States.

Eventually I plan on designing a line of both medieval / fantasy terrain pieces set in the past for games like Warhammer Fantasy / Age of Sigmar, as well as more futuristic terrain for games like 40k and Infinity etc., as well as a line of accessories for the different time periods as well.

If you have any suggestions for any type of wargaming terrain pieces you’d like to see produced, I welcome your suggestions in the comments below.

Thanks!

If you’d like to see some of the other modules in this modular system, I did a video for the Three Drawer Module here, the Six Drawer Module here and the Paints Module here.

Here’s the video of the unboxing and assembly of the Corner Drawers Module:

Enjoy!

In yesterday’s video I showed the three drawer module, and today it’s the six module one.

They are similar, but slightly different.

Here’s the video of the unboxing and assembly:

The more pieces of this system that I assemble, the more excited I get about all of them as it’s starting to look nicer and nicer.

What do you guys think of this modular system?

I bought a few of these three drawer modules as part of the whole workshop system I’m setting up for my desk.

Check out the video here:

What do you guys think of this modular system?

Did you win?

Check out the contest drawing video to find out:

Once again, congratulations to the winner and thanks everyone for participating.

If you guys enjoyed this contest, let me know in the comments below.

If you’re not familiar with the HobbyZone Modular Workshop System, here’s what it can look like.

Of course each of the pieces are modular so you can set it up to look any way you like.

The first box I grabbed just happened to be the Paints Module, which looks like this:

Here’s the video of the unboxing and assembly of the paints module:

What do you think?

What kind of system do you use to keep your work space organized?

I’ve also been buying a few other accessories for my airbrush setup, as well as some airbrush paints from Minitaire.

One of the accessories I purchased recently is the Iwata Medea Airbrush Cleaning Station.

I ended up getting this cleaning station from Amazon, as they had the best pricing on it.

I’ve never used one of these before, but a lot of people recommend getting one so I did.

Apparently these stations make it easy to clean your airbrush without overspray or making a mess on your desk.

The station also comes in with a built-in filter as well.

The other benefit of it is that you can use it as an airbrush holder as well since it’s heavy enough to stay on the table with the airbrush in it, as shown in this pic.

My first impression of this cleaning station is that it’s made well, with high quality materials.

Once I’ve had a chance to use it and test it out for a while I’ll do a follow-up post reviewing it in more detail.

Do you use a cleaning station for your airbrush?

If so, which one?  And how do you like it?

After doing some extensive research, I decided to compile a guide of the various options available on the market right now.

(July 2018 – ARTICLE UPDATE: I now design and sell my own range of Modular Acrylic Paint Racks for tabletop miniature paints.  If you’d like to check them out, click on the image above.  Now back to the original article…)

The Paint Rack – Back2Base-IX

One of the first acrylic paint storage racks I came across was from a company called Back2Base-IX.com.

Back2Base-Ix carries a selection of different types of paint storage rack solutions made from either Coloured Acrylic or Medium Density Fibre Board.

Here’s an example of one of their Coloured Acrylic racks:

And here’s another one of their racks made from the Medium Density Fibre Board.

The Back2Base-IX paint racks range in price from around $35 for a single rack to around $200 for a full rack system.

For a full listing of the various paint racks available from Back2Base-Ix, check out their website by clicking here.

Inverted 72 Dropper Bottle Paint Rack – Ironheart Artisans

The next paint rack solution I took a look at was from a company called Ironheart Artisans.

Here’s a picture of the solution they offer:

This paint rack holds 72 dropper bottles, facing dowards, and costs about $30.

To learn more about this product, check out the Ironheart Artisans website by clicking here.

Workstation Combo – Hobby Tools Australia

The next pain rack solution I found was from a company called Hobby Tools Australia.

Here’s a picture of their Workstation Combo solution:

This product sells for about $100, and you can find it by clicking here.

They also have another one called the Master Workstation Combo which you can see here:

This one sells for about $220 and you can find it by clicking here.

Mini and Full Monty – TGJ Hobbies

The next paint rack solution I took a look at is from TGJ Hobbies who carries a range of customizable high-end paint racks.

Here’s one of their products, called the Mini Monty:

This paint rack cost about $125 and you can learn more about it by clicking here.

Here’s another one of their solutions, called the Full Monty:

The Full Monty sells for around $175, and you can learn more about it by clicking here.

Modular Paint Stand System – HobbyZone.pl

Finally, the last modular paint rack system I found was from a company called HobbyZone.pl based out of Poland.

This is a picture example of their modular system assembled in various different ways.

These sets cost anywhere between $25 – $75, depending on what combination of racks you want to purchase.

The only challenge I found with ordering from HobbyZone.pl is that shipping to Canada / US is about $50, which is too bad because outside of that their product pricing is really good.

To learn more about their products, click here.

Summary

After doing my research I still haven’t decided which paint storage rack solution is going to be the best for me.

I definitely want to get something to organize my paints, but I’m not 100% sure yet if I want a system that holds a lot of paints on my painting table or if I want to purchase or build a wall-mounted paint rack system instead.

There are some pretty simple wall-mounted system designs that I think I could build myself for relatively cheap, but that would mean that I would have to get up out of my seat and walk over to the wall to pick the paints that I will be painting with before or during each painting session.

This may not be a big deal since I will most likely only be painting with a select set of paints at any given time, but I still have to think about it some more to figure out the best solution for my hobby room.

I do like the convenience of having the paints on a paint rack sitting on my painting table, but then that would also mean that it is taking up space on my table.

Ultimately I may need to combine the two types of systems, building a wall-mounted rack to store the majority of my paints, and then just take the 5 or 10 or 15 paints that I will be using during a session down to the table and keep those organized in some sort of desk paint rack organizer.

What do you think is the best way to keep your paints organized?

What sort of system are you using?

(July 2018 – ARTICLE UPDATE: I now design and sell my own range of Modular Acrylic Paint Racks for tabletop miniature paints.  If you’d like to check them out, click on the image above. )

I’ve never used an airbrush before but have really wanted to get into it for painting my miniatures.

Once I got my basic airbrush setup I started doing some research for what types of paints are best to use for airbrushing miniatures.

I basically found out there are a few different paths a person can take.

The first way to start using your airbrush is to simply use whatever paints you already have (Citadel, P3 etc.) and just figure out how to thin them out properly for optimal use with the airbrush.

Although this seemed like the fastest path for me since I already have a whole range of Citadel paints, I didn’t really like the idea of constantly messing around with thinning paints.

Secondly, the other reason why I didn’t like this idea is because Citadel and P3 paints are pretty expensive for the amount that you get, and since I got my air brush so that I can start painting some of my larger models like vehicles, titans etc., I wanted to see if there was a more economical path I could take.

After a bit of research I found the second option – getting paints specifically designed for air brushing.

The two brands of paint that I found for airbrushing miniatures are Vallejo and Minitaire from Badger.

I heard good things about both lines of paint, but ultimately I ended up going with the full range 84 pack of paint from Minitaire.

Here’s what the entire pack looks like:

As you can see, the range is quite extensive.

There’s a whole array of yellows, orange/reds, some purple and pinks, fleshtones, blues, greens, earth tones, whites, shades of grey to black, metalic silvers and golds, as well as a range of “ghost tints” as well.

So far I’ve only had time to unbox the set, and to organize them by paint number/color as shown in the picture above so that I could see all the different colors.

I’m super excited to actually start using these colors and learning how to airbrush with them.

Here’s a chart from Miniatire showing all the colors in the range:

Have you used this line of paints with your airbrushing?

If so, what has your experience with them been?

If not, what paints do you use?

Since it took me about 4-5 hours to paint these, I sped up most of the painting parts to keep the video length reasonably short, while still showing enough detail of how I painted them and what colors I used.

Check out the video here:

What do you think of my red color scheme?

I started with my two Liberator Primes, and managed to get them almost entirely done.

I have a few more details to fix up, but overall they’re almost 100% completed.

I recorded a painting video while painting them, so I’ll be getting that up on YouTube within the next few days.

Here are some pictures I took of the two Liberator Primes with the red armor look I’m going with for my Sigmar army.

What do you think?

Do you like the red look?

I’m giving away a USD $100 gift certificate to Games Workshop to one lucky winner, as my way of saying thank you to all of my fans on Facebook and my newsletter subscribers.

If you’d like to enter the contest, simply go to this link and register your entry:

http://woobox.com/8nd42o

You can also get an additional 5 bonus entries by sharing the contest with another tabletop gaming fan using the link you receive when you register your entry.

Once you’ve registered your entry, leave a comment on my Facebook fan page and let me know what you’ll buy from Games Workshop if you win.

(Leaving a comment is not mandatory.  It’s just for fun.)

The contest ends at 11:59pm on September 5th, and the draw will happen on September 6th or shortly thereafter.

Good luck!

Since getting back into tabletop gaming in the last few months, I’ve been watching a LOT of YouTube videos from various creators just to see what has been going on in the hobby and what is new.

I’ve seen a lot of Kickstarter projects over the last few years, even when I was away from the hobby, but I didn’t actually know about Patreon until just a few weeks ago.

So What Is Patreon?

Patreon is a website which allows YouTube content creators to gain financial support from their fans.

Essentially it’s like a tip jar but a lot more automated so that the content creators can gauge the support they’re getting from their audience more consistently.

It’s easier to explain it with an example, so here is one example of a content producer that I am now supporting through Patreon.

If you haven’t heard of them, Painting Buddha is a content producer who creates high-quality painting tutorial videos for tabletop miniatures.

In the past they’ve tried to make an income selling painting DVDs, but I don’t think that model was producing the results they were hoping for which is why they’re now trying out the Patreon system.

So how it works is that they setup a Patreon campaign, and ask people to sponsor their videos with a patronage of anywhere from $1 to any amount you want.

As you can see from the image above, as of this evening they have gathered 352 patrons who are supporting them with $1,538.62 per video that they produce.

I’m one of those patrons as I really like the high-quality caliber of their videos.

So Is Patreon a Paid Subscription Service for YouTube Videos?

Well, not really.

Patreon is not really a subscription service for videos, where you pay to see content, because the actual videos are still uploaded and available on YouTube for free for everyone to watch.

So anyone who can’t afford to “sponsor” a Patreon campaign producer can still watch their content on YouTube for free…

… so really all Patreon does is it allows FANS of the content producers to support their favorite content producers with a monthly or per-video “tip” if you’d like to call it that.

By supporting your favorite channels, for as little as $1 per day, if enough people get together and help out, the content producers can focus more time on creating more awesome content, instead of having to do some other job to put food on the table.

So as an example, if 5,000 people support a content producer at $2/month each, that means that content producer would have a $10,000/month budget to do nothing but produce more awesome content for those 5,000 people.

Personally I think this is an AWESOME model because it means that talented people in our industry will have MORE TIME to focus on doing what they’re awesome at, and passionate about, instead of slaving away at some stupid job that they hate, just to pay rent, and then TRY to produce some content in their spare time.

It becomes a win-win all around because the content producers get to do what they love, and we as patrons supporting them get access to awesome content of a high caliber which wouldn’t necessarily be produced otherwise.

Who I’ve Decided to Sponsor So Far

So far I’ve decided to pledge / sponsor three channels.

Kenny Boucher from Next Level Painting, Sorastro and Painting Buddha.

I’ve decided to sponsor these channels because I like their content, and I’m a big believer in “what goes around, comes around”…

… and perhaps one day when my YouTube channel content gets to a high enough level of caliber I might decide to launch my own Patreon campaign as well.

What Do You Think of Patreon?

What do you think of Patreon?

Do you think it’s a good way for people in our industry to gain the support of the community to be able to produce high-quality content full time?

Have you supported any Patreon channels so far?  If so, which ones?

These models were really easy to assemble as they’re only a few pieces each.

I decided to leave the shields off of the miniatures so that I can paint them separately and then attach them later on.

Can’t wait to get these primed and then to start paining them and the rest of the models in this set.

Up until now my glass case had some of my painted miniatures, intermixed with a whole bunch of assembled but unpainted miniatures as well and this meant that I didn’t have enough room for my painted minis.

So today I decided to clear out space and move anything that is not at least 90% painted out of the case to make room for what I’ve already painted.

As you can see I have a lot of different armies started in various games, but nothing really fully finished.

This is mostly due to the fact that back in 2011 when I launched TabletopGamer.com, my plan at that time was to run an online store selling miniatures and so I was painting a variety of different miniatures from a variety of different games to showcase all the different categories of products I would be selling.

Since I’m no longer pursuing that, I’m planning on focusing my attention a lot more on painting larger sets of just a few different armies – mostly from Games Workshop.

By displaying my minis in a nice display case, protected from dust, I think it will motivate me to paint more and get more armies completed.

Here are some pics from my display case as it is today.

As you can see in the picture above, I’ve got quite an eclectic collection of various armies starter – LOL.  Time to FOCUS more on one at a time.

In this pic you can see my mostly completed Ork army from Assault on Black Reach, and the start of my Age of Sigmar army.

These to pictures represent the majority of the miniatures I’ve painted so far but not all of them.

I still have a few others that I painted years ago, which I’ve got to track down in my various boxes.

But at least getting these ones displayed in my glass case feels rewarding and is motivating me to start painting a lot more.

What do you think of my collection so far?

I ended up picking one up at an art supply store locally, and today I did a quick unboxing video to show you guys what’s inside the box.

Check it out here:

What do you think?

Have you used an airbrush before?

What are your thoughts on the Badger 105?

The first picture caught the top part of the miniature in better focus, and the second one caught the base in better focus.

I still have yet to do some dry-brushing / highlighting on the base but besides that what do you guys think of the model so far?

These next two pictures show the second Prosecutor and then both of the together, side by side.

The two small “boulders” on the base are actually just two small pieces of gravel from my front driveway.

I put them there because I think they look good, but also because the weight of the gravel rocks weighs down the base of these miniatures so that they don’t fall over so easily since they’re so tall and they have that wide wingspan.

Once I put the gravel rock there, they don’t fall over as easily anymore.

I wasn’t sure whether I wanted to go with the gold / red color scheme, or if I should go with gold / blue like they’re show on the GW website, but I think I’m going to stick to the red.

What do you guys think?

The models were the easiest models to put together in the set so far.

Check out the video here:

What do you think of this model?

My nephew Kamil, my brother Bart from BartsWorkshop.com, and my friend Jabeel from BlueLionStudios.com joined me for a day of building and painting our Warhammer 40k / Age of Sigmar miniatures.

My newphew Kamil was painting his Dark Angels, my brother Bart was painting some Tyranids, my friend Jabeel was building first Warhammer 40k set of Ultramarines.

For this session I decided to start painting my Age of Sigmar Prosecutors.

Here are some pics I took during the painting session of my Prosecutor in progress.

The Age of Sigmar set comes with three Prosecutors, but I only worked on painting two of them.

I was thinking that I might save the third one for a painting video I record instead.

What do you guys think?

I’m still working on getting the first two completed, but they’re about 90% done now.

I honestly wasn’t too sure about the whole “gold” thing when I got the Age of Sigmar set, but when I painted these two miniatures I REALLY liked how the gold turned out.

The pictures don’t do it justice at all.

The gold looks way better in real life.

What do you guys think so far?

The first Prosecutor I assembled was posed differently from these two.

These two were posed very similarly to each other, so I changed the positioning of one of the hammers as shown in the manual to add some variety in the look.

These are my favorite looking models in the starter set, and I can’t wait to get started on painting them!

What do you think of these?

There are three Prosecutors in the box.  This video shows the first one I put together and in a future video I’ll show the other two.

These Prosecutor models are by far my favorite models in the Age of Sigmar Starter Set.

I just love these!

What do you think of these?

There was one part during the assembly which was a bit tricky, but I got it figured out.

As you can see in the video, I left one piece off on his back and I also didn’t glue his base yet as I want to be able to get in from the bottom to paint the model.

I might also do something a bit more fancy on the base this time.

What do you think of this model?

I decided to try it out by recording a video of me assembling the Lord Celestant model from the Age of Sigmar starter set.

What do you guys think?

I decided to shoot a video to just go through the book and show you what’s inside.

Most stores which carry this book have it shrink wrapped and sealed, so it’s hard to know how detailed the book is, and I figured a video like this might help some of you decide whether you’d like to pickup this book.

Enjoy!

If you enjoyed this video, give me a thumbs up, leave a comment and don’t forget to subscribe to my channel for the latest updates!

It’s a beautifully illustrated book, full of artwork and hi-resolution photos of the new line of minis, and when I saw it at my local gaming store it was the thing that made me decide to get this starter set.

So I decided to record a video which showcases just the book itself.

Enjoy the video:

I wasn’t sure if I wanted to get it or not, and I was hoping that they game store would have a set there to look at in more detail.

Luckily, they had an open box where I was able to see what the sprues look like as well as the gaming guide that comes with it.

I was so impressed I decided to buy the set.

Today I decided to do an unboxing video to show you what’s inside the set, and maybe that’ll help you decide if you want to buy it or not.

Here’s the unboxing video:

If you enjoyed the video, hit the thumbs up button and subscribe to my channel for updates.

I’m still figuring out what the best way to setup a small table and camera setup in there so that I can do product unboxing videos, review videos, painting videos and maybe a few other types of videos related to tabletop gaming.

This is a picture of my setup so far…

Yes, that is a brand new box of the Warhammer Age of Sigmar starter set.

I haven’t opened it up to play with it yet as I want to do an unboxing video first.

Tomorrow I’ll shoot a video unboxing and see how well the setup works in terms of getting the right camera angle and perspective from the camera location.

Stay tuned, lots of new videos coming soon!

As I walked around the store I saw a glass display case where a whole bunch of Warhammer miniatures were displayed.

I was completely blown away by how awesome they looked in that display case and I showed my wife who was with me at the store.

Then I went home and didn’t really think about them again until a few months later my wife bought me a Warhammer Fantasy starter set for Christmas.

I was hooked from the moment I painted my first miniature.

Very soon after that I went to a Games Workshop store with my younger brother to show them how cool the miniatures looked and while we were there we saw a whole wall of Warhammer 40k miniatures!

I didn’t even know those existed until that point in time as the other store only had Warhammer Fantasy in stock.

Once we saw the Warhammer 40k minis I decided to get some of those as they looked even cooler than the Warhammer Fantasy ones.

Since that day I’ve never gone back to Warhammer Fantasy as I just think the 40k minis look so much better!

Well, as of today that might be changing.

I just saw the official trailer for the Warhammer Age of Sigmar minis and they look really cool!

If you haven’t seen it yet, here it is:

What do you think of the Warhammer Age of Sigmar release so far?

Her brother (our nephew) Kamil has gotten into painting Warmachine and Warhammer miniatures with me, and Tessa wanted to try it out as well.

I wanted to get her a battlegroup starter set that none of us have yet so that she could have her own army to build, and after going through all the different options she picked the Retribution of Scyrah Battlegroup starter set.

She’s still a bit too young to be gluing things with superglue so I’ll be building the set and priming it for her, and then she’s going to paint the rest all by herself.

The Retribution of Scyrah Battlegroup set comes with four miniatures including:

• Warcaster Kaelyssa – Night’s Whisper
• Chimera Light Myrmidon
• Griffon Light Myrmidon
• Manticore Heavy Myrmidon

Here’s some pictures of what’s in the set.

Once I’ve had a chance to build the set and maybe after my niece paints them I’ll ask her if it’s okay for me to post some pictures on my Blog.

This is your ultimate guide and chart for converting the old citadel paint line into their new names.

Firstly, let’s start with the conversion chart directly from citadel.

Citadel Paint Conversion Chart

This is a very useful chart if you just want to quickly look up a color to see what the new color name is.

However, if you want the ability to print out a chart this is not ideal as it will eat up a lot of your toner with all those colors.

(By the way, if you’re looking for a way to organize your Citadel Paints, check out our TTG Modular Hobby Organizer System)

Now, because the chart is not sorted alphabetically, it makes it more difficult to find the right color you’re looking for.

So what I’ve done is I’ve created two charts that are easy to print out, and which are sorted in alphabetical order.

Old Citadel Paint to New Citadel Paint Conversion Chart – Alphabetical

The first chart is a convenient alphabetical listing of all the old citadel paint colors and their corresponding new colors.

Click on the chart to enlarge it.

If you’d like to download a PDF version that you can print out, you can download it by clicking here.

New Citadel Paint to Old Citadel Paint Conversion Chart – Alphabetical

Now, if you need to know what the OLD citadel paint color was for a corresponding NEW citadel color, this is the chart you’ll want.

Click on the chart to enlarge it.

This chart can be especially useful if you’re looking at a codex or a box showing the required new color of paint, and you want to check to see if you have that same color already at home but under the old name.

If you’d like to download a PDF version that you can print out, you can download it by clicking here.

Now if you just want a quick alphabetical listing, here they are:

Old Citadel Paint to New Citadel Paint Alphabetical Listing of Colors

• Adeptus Battlegrey is now Mechanicus Standard Grey
• Astronomican Grey is now Celestra Grey
• Asurmen Blue is now Deakenhof Nightshade
• Baal Red is now Carrobug Crimson
• Badab Black is now Nuln Oil
• Bestial Brown is now Mournfang Brown
• Blazing Orange is now Troll Slayer Orange
• Bleached Bone is now Ushabti Bone
• Blood Red is now Evil Sunz Scarlet
• Boltgun Metal is now Leadbelcher
• Bubonic Brown is now Zamesi Desert
• Burnished Gold is now Auric Armour Gold
• Calthan Brown is now Mournfang Brown
• Camo Green is now Elysian Green
• Catachan Green is now Castellan Green
• Chainmail is now Ironbreaker
• Chaos Black is now Abaddon Black
• Charadon Granite is now Strmvermin Fur
• Codex Grey is now Dawnstone
• Dark Angels Green is now Caliban Green
• Dark Flesh is now Doombull Brown
• Desert Yellow is now Tallarn Sand
• Devlan Mud is now Agrax Earthshade
• Dhenab Stone is now Rakarth Flesh
• Dwarf Bronze is now Hashut Copper
• Dwarf Flesh is now Ratskin Flesh
• Elf Flesh is now Kislev Flesh
• Enchanted Blue is now Caledor Sky
• Fenris Grey is now The Fang
• Fortress Grey is now Administratum Grey
• Goblin Green is now Warboss Green
• Golden Yellow is now Yriel Yellow
• Graveyard Earth is now Steel Legion Drab
• Gretchin Green is now Deathworld Forest
• Gryphonne Sepia is now Seraphim Sepia
• Hawk Turquoise is now Sotek Green
• Hormagaunt Purple is now Daemonette Hide
• Ice Blue is now Lothern Blue
• Khemri Brown is now Baeblade Brown
• Knarloc Green is now Loren Forest
• Kommando Khaki is now Karak Stone
• Leviathan Purple is now Druchii Violet
• Liche Purple is now Xereus Purple
• Lyanden Darksun is now Averland Sunset
• Macharius Solar Orange is now Jokaero Orange
• Mechrite Red is now Mephiston Red
• Mithril Silver is now Runefang Steel
• Mordian Blue is now Macragge Blue
• Necron Abyss is now Kantor Blue
• Ogryn Flesh is now Reikland Fleshshade
• Orkhide Shade is now Caliban Green
• Red Gore is now Wazdakka Red
• Regal Blue is now Kantor Blue
• Rotting Flesh is now Nurgling Green
• Scan Red is now Khorne Red
• Scorched Brown is now Rhinox Hide
• Scorpion Green is now Moot Green
• Shadow Grey is now The Fang
• Shining Gold is now Gehanna’s Gold
• Skull White is now White Scar
• Snakebite Leather is now Balor Brown
• Snot Green is now Warpstone Glow
• Space Wolves Grey is now Fenrisian Grey
• Sunburst Yellow is now Flash Gitz Yellow
• Tallarn Flesh is now Cadian Fleshtone
• Tausept Ochre is now Balor Brown
• Thraka Green is now Biel-Tan Green
• Tin Bitz is now Warplock Bronze
• Ultramarines Blue is now Altdorf Guard Blue
• Vermin Brown is now Skrag Brown
• Vomit Brown is now Tau Light Ochre
• Warlock Purple is now Screamer Pink

And if you want a listing of all the new colors and what they previously where, you can find it here:

New Citadel Paint to Old Citadel Paint Alphabetical Listing of Colors

• Abaddon Black previously was Chaos Black
• Administratum Grey previously was Fortress Grey
• Agrax Earthshade previously was Devlan Mud
• Altdorf Guard Blue previously was Ultramarines Blue
• Auric Armour Gold previously was Burnished Gold
• Averland Sunset previously was Lyanden Darksun
• Baeblade Brown previously was Khemri Brown
• Balor Brown previously was Snakebite Leather
• Balor Brown previously was Tausept Ochre
• Biel-Tan Green previously was Thraka Green
• Cadian Fleshtone previously was Tallarn Flesh
• Caledor Sky previously was Enchanted Blue
• Caliban Green previously was Dark Angels Green
• Caliban Green previously was Orkhide Shade
• Carrobug Crimson previously was Baal Red
• Castellan Green previously was Catachan Green
• Celestra Grey previously was Astronomican Grey
• Daemonette Hide previously was Hormagaunt Purple
• Dawnstone previously was Codex Grey
• Deakenhof Nightshade previously was Asurmen Blue
• Deathworld Forest previously was Gretchin Green
• Doombull Brown previously was Dark Flesh
• Druchii Violet previously was Leviathan Purple
• Elysian Green previously was Camo Green
• Evil Sunz Scarlet previously was Blood Red
• Fenrisian Grey previously was Space Wolves Grey
• Flash Gitz Yellow previously was Sunburst Yellow
• Gehanna’s Gold previously was Shining Gold
• Hashut Copper previously was Dwarf Bronze
• Ironbreaker previously was Chainmail
• Jokaero Orange previously was Macharius Solar Orange
• Kantor Blue previously was Necron Abyss
• Kantor Blue previously was Regal Blue
• Karak Stone previously was Kommando Khaki
• Khorne Red previously was Scan Red
• Kislev Flesh previously was Elf Flesh
• Leadbelcher previously was Boltgun Metal
• Loren Forest previously was Knarloc Green
• Lothern Blue previously was Ice Blue
• Macragge Blue previously was Mordian Blue
• Mechanicus Standard Grey previously was Adeptus Battlegrey
• Mephiston Red previously was Mechrite Red
• Moot Green previously was Scorpion Green
• Mournfang Brown previously was Bestial Brown
• Mournfang Brown previously was Calthan Brown
• Nuln Oil previously was Badab Black
• Nurgling Green previously was Rotting Flesh
• Rakarth Flesh previously was Dhenab Stone
• Ratskin Flesh previously was Dwarf Flesh
• Reikland Fleshshade previously was Ogryn Flesh
• Rhinox Hide previously was Scorched Brown
• Runefang Steel previously was Mithril Silver
• Screamer Pink previously was Warlock Purple
• Seraphim Sepia previously was Gryphonne Sepia
• Skrag Brown previously was Vermin Brown
• Sotek Green previously was Hawk Turquoise
• Steel Legion Drab previously was Graveyard Earth
• Strmvermin Fur previously was Charadon Granite
• Tallarn Sand previously was Desert Yellow
• Tau Light Ochre previously was Vomit Brown
• The Fang previously was Fenris Grey
• The Fang previously was Shadow Grey
• Troll Slayer Orange previously was Blazing Orange
• Ushabti Bone previously was Bleached Bone
• Warboss Green previously was Goblin Green
• Warplock Bronze previously was Tin Bitz
• Warpstone Glow previously was Snot Green
• Wazdakka Red previously was Red Gore
• White Scar previously was Skull White
• Xereus Purple previously was Liche Purple
• Yriel Yellow previously was Golden Yellow
• Zamesi Desert previously was Bubonic Brown

Summary

I hope you find these charts useful.

I printed mine out so that I can use them as a “cheat sheet” and I can mark off which ones I already own so that when I go to the store I know not to buy the same paints again just because they have a new name.

If you enjoyed this post, leave a comment below!

(By the way, if you’re looking for a way to organize your Citadel Paints, check out our TTG Modular Hobby Organizer System)

I find this hobby very meditative and I use it to clear my mind and to think about my goals and dreams while I put together and paint these miniatures.

The new army I’m staring is called the Skitarii and they’re one of the newest armies from Games Workshop in the Warhammer 40k universe.

This evening I started my build with an Adeptus Mechanicus Kataphron Destroyer.

Here are some pictures of the build prior to priming and painting.

I have to say that I’m VERY impressed with the detail and the quality of these new miniatures from Game Workshop.

Every piece fit in place perfectly and with ease.

Everything was aligned perfectly and the detail on everything is amazing.

I can’t wait to start painting this bad-boy!

What do you think of it so far?

I have been meaning to get back into it for quite some time now, but my focus has been on building my blog income online and helping my team-mates to build up their incomes as well.

For the last month or two though I’ve been really getting the intuitive nudge to get back into paining miniatures as I find it a very fun and relaxing hobby that really helps me to quiet my mind after a day of building my businesses.

When I got sick with the flu the last few weeks I once again got the intuitive nudge to slow down and make time in my schedule to unplug from the online world and to have some fun with this hobby.

So today I took a trip down to my local gamin store and picked up my new Warhammer 40k army that I’ll be building and painting – The Skitarii.

I’ve been away from anything Warhammer for a few years now, so I’ve got some catching up to do on the new Codexes and all the new changes they’ve introduced, but it all sounds like a lot of fun!

Codex Adeptus Mechanicus – Skitarii

The firs thing I picked up is the Codex for the Adeptus Mechanicus – Skitarii so I can learn all about this new army.

Adeptus Mechanicus Ironstrider

As I haven’t yet read through the Codex and I don’t really know which units I want in my army yet, I decided to just pick up a couple of units that look really cool that I know I’ll enjoy painting.

The first one was the Adeptus Mechanicus Ironstrider.

This thing looks awesome.  Can’t wait to start painting it!

Adeptus Mechanicus – Kataphron Battle Servitors

The other units I picked up for this army are the Adeptus Mechanicus Kataphron Battle Servitors.

These guys are awesome looking as well.

Half man, half tank?  How can you go wrong!?

Skitarii Datacards

Finally, the last thing I picked up was the Skitarii Datacards.

Can’t wait to start building this army.

I opened up a few of the boxes and looked at some of the units and the detail is amazing.

What about you?

What’s your hobby?

What do you do to relax your mind and to relieve some stress after work or outside of building your business?

Colors used:

Blood Red
Chaos Black
Skull White
Boltgun Metal
Adeptus Battlegrey
Blazing Orange
Badab Black (Wash)
Devlan Mud (Wash)

I’m not a Skarrd player myself, but this model does look pretty nice. What do you guys think?

I made a video showing how I paint and build the model, including how I did the base as well. Sorry about the camera angle, I didn’t realize that I was somewhat out of frame during some parts of the painting process.

I didn’t realize that I hold my models in so many different positions and distances away from my body while painting. I’ll try to improve my camera angles and zoom in future videos, but I think you still get the general idea of what I was doing in this video.

It really sucks getting dust on your miniatures as it makes them look dull and it’s not very easy to get the dust off. When you put a lot of work into painting an army of miniatures, the last thing you want to happen to them is to see them get covered with a layer of dust.

That’s why earlier this week I finally decided to get rid of the aquarium I had in my room to make room for a glass display case for my miniatures. Today I got rid of the aquarium, and went to Ikea with my brother to pickup a glass display case. Here’s what it looks like:

As a way to celebrate getting my first 10,000 views on the TabletopGamer YouTube channel, I’m going to be giving away a Military Orders Starter Pack from the PanOceania faction of Infinity games in tomorrow’s video.

In order to enter the contest, all you have to do is the following:

Make sure you are YouTube subscriber on our TabletopGamer channel.
Leave a comment on today’s video telling me what is your favorite Infinity miniature.
That’s it. In tomorrow’s video I will do an unboxing of the Military Orders Starter Pack, and then give it away to a random subscriber who left a comment.

The Forsaken Warband comes with the following models:

1x Warwind
3x Bane
2x Coil

This time I throw the Outcast Warband box under the camera to see what kind of goodies await us inside.

The Outcast Warband box includes the following miniatures:

1 x Brute
1 x Bully
3 x Wasteland Warriors
3 x Scuts

The Slave Taskmaster is an awesome looking model and I can’t wait to paint him.

Of course the Soul Warden is going to be even more fun to build and paint, but for now in this video I just built out all the slaves. I’m saving the Soul Warden build for a future video.

The Dark Age Warband starter set includes these 15 miniatures:

• Soul Warden x1
• Taskmaster x1
• Spearslaves x6
• Slingslaves x4
• Shardslaves x3

Inside the box you will also find 5 unit cards as well as the Basic Rules to play the game.

Paul:  Let’s start with some of the most basic questions about Dark Age.  Could you share a little bit of background on Dark Age. When was it conceived, a bit about its history and the most recent changes to the game.

Ross:  The current game of Dark Age has it’s beginnings in the CCG Dark Age: Feudal Lords.

Using Brom’s art we turned the CCG into a Table Top miniatures game, this was in 2000. The game existed for a long time as a free for download game until the first print of Dark Age: Genesis in 2005.

Since then three more books were released under those rules, Exodus, Evolution and Essence. In 2009 we decided to collect all the books into one rulebook, at first it was just going to be an Omnibus, but we took a step back and decided to make some changes to the game. Two of the major changes were moving to inches, and making LoS 360 degrees instead of having a front and back arc.

Today we have two, full color, hard back rulebooks, a 96 page book that has all the basic rules to play the game, plus advanced rules, the Core Rules book. And the Forcelist book, a 356 page book that contains all the rules to play forces from five different factions.

Paul: What makes Dark Age different from other tabletop miniature games?

Ross: The setting for Dark Age is what makes it unique. With its Post-Apocalyptic universe and concept inspired from Brom’s Art. Dark Age is a skirmish game that allows you to tailor your faction to play style and look.

Paul: Dark Age is played with just one D20 die, is that correct? How is that facet of the game unique?

Ross: The way that Dark Age uses a D20 is the D20 gives you a wider range of variables to work with, two extremes with an average die roll of 9-12.

Paul:  Let’s dive into the five factions in the game. How would you summarize the main theme / story of each of them?

Ross:  Before I talk about of the five factions let’s look at the setting: The Empire of mankind has reached to the stars, planets are colonized, and business is what runs the worlds.

Powerful corporations and governments have their own agenda. Samaria due to it’s harsh conditions, could support life but not very well. Governments and corporations saw this planet as a means to do their illicit activities without any oversight. Over time huge cities sprang up to support the factories and laboratories that sprang up over the planet. The planet not really being a planet supported at all is left to fend for itself. Civilization declines on the planet and over a course of 500 years the planet itself has declined into a Dark Age.

Forsaken – The Forsaken were founded by the combination of ancient religious text and modern leaders of society. Led by Saints, who command vast armies with their charismatic power and will, these Forsaken represent society of Samaria trying to find their way in the world and survive.

Dragyri – The original inhabitants of Samaria before the corporations came. The Dragyri embraced the elements and are defined by their Castes. They lived in vast underground caverns and are now exploring the surface world and finding that they don’t like what they see. They value honor over everything and find that these aliens on their world are without honor.

Skarrd – Are the dredge and scum that lived in the Forsaken cities. They were forced out of the cities and had to march the wastelands for survival. After encountering warehouses of radioactive weapons, which they thought was a food source. They mutated into the Baniss and later they joined forces with a fallen Saint and becoming the Skarrd, a group of cannibalistic cyborg mutants.

Brood – One of the laboratories on the planet was working on living bio-weapons, when it came time to abandon the laboratory the scientist simply turned of the labs and left, hoping that their horrific creations would just simply die off. One of the experiments turned the labs back on, and over the course of 500 years went insane and started experimenting on her own. The Broodmere tends to her children like any mother would dote on her favorite child.

The Brood are horrible scientific experiments gone horribly wrong, and they are curious why their Creator-Gods abandoned them.

Outcast – Tribes that live outside the Forsaken cities, they have learned to live of the land to meek out a meager survival. They do not subscribe to the Prevailers use of Religion for enforcement. They are so small in numbers they are tolerated, mainly because they do bring trade to the Forsaken cities. They are your atypical apocalyptic looking warriors.

Paul:  Are the models based on points? If so, what’s a typical size army people play?

Ross:  Each Unit, an individual miniature, has a Point Value (PV). Dark Age is a fast paced table top miniature skirmish system. Not too many models are needed to play the game.  Anywhere from 5-15 models are needed for one force depending on the faction. A typical 500 point game takes anywhere from 30 -45 minutes to play and a 750 point game takes one hour to an hour and a half to play.

Paul:  One of your taglines is “Everything Dies!”. Could you explain what that tagline means?

Ross:  Dark Age is a brutal game where nothing is safe. The perfect game of Dark Age boils down to the last turn and there are only two models left on the board. Big nasty monsters can be taken out just as easily by the little scrub troops.

Paul:  What is Dark Age “Apocalypse”? Is it a new version of the game, an expansion pack?

Ross:  Dark Age: Apocalypse is the new Edition of the game.

Paul:  For a brand new player wanting to start playing the game today, what would they need to pick-up to get started?

Ross:  A new player would want to pick up both Rule books and a Warband Box for a faction.

Paul:  You guys have some really amazing photos of your new miniature lines. Who paints those models?

Ross:  The majority of our line has been painted by James Wappel, Jen Haley, and Natalya.

Paul:  Are the miniatures plastic, resin or metal? Are the miniatures in the Warband boxes same as the others?

Ross:  We have both metal and resin miniatures. The models in the warbox are the same as the ones in the blisters.

Paul:  Approximately how many miniatures are out right now for Dark Age?

Ross:  Over 100 unique SKUs, with 150 unique miniatures.

Paul:  What’s on the horizon for Dark Age in the near future?

Ross:  Expanding into the story of Dark Age, launching an organized play program and exciting new models are always on the horizon.

Paul:  Is there anything else you’d like to add in that you’d like to share about Dark Age with my TabletopGamer readers?

Ross:  We have a lot of exciting things coming in the next year, be sure to check out our Web Page to stay up to date on news. With a new faction on the horizon, and organized play program, there are new things on the way. If you have any more questions about the game or would like to be a part of the volunteer program contact us there!

Paul:  Awesome.  Thank you Ross for taking the time to do this interview and share the world of Dark Age with my readers.

The quality of these models is really high. I think Privateer Press did a really good job with these. What do you guys think?

The Two Player Battle Box includes the following:

• Khador Warcaster Kommander Sorscha
• Khador Juggernaut Heavy Warjack
• Khador Destroyer Heavy Warjack
• Khador Man-O-War Shocktrooper Unit (5 Models)
• Menoth Warcaster High Exemplar Kreoss
• Menoth Crusader Heavy Warjack
• Menoth Vanquisher Heavy Warjack
• Menoth Repenter Light Warjack
• Menoth Exemplar Cinerators Unit (5 Models)
• Complete Prime MKII Rules (Travel Size – 86 Pages)
• Introductory Guide
• Set of 4 Dice

I know a lot of people have been waiting for this set to come out.

Now that it’s out, what do you guys think?

More than anything, I got him because he looks like a complete maniac on a mission to obliterate anything that stands in his way.

The thing that makes Karchev unique is that he is a Warcaster that is basically inside the body of a Warjack. Kommander Karchev’s story is that during the Battle of the Tongue, he was ambushed and later badly injured in a duel against Colonel Drake Cathmore.

Karchev managed to kill Cathmore but not before sustaining horrible injuries to his body and limbs. Any other Kommander would have “retired” from the Khador Army with such injuries but Karchev demanded that a Warjack body be built around him, and that is basically how he ended up being this unique monstrosity – half man, half machine.

I can’t wait to build and paint this guy, but before I do that I decided to do a quick unboxing video for you guys so you can see what’s inside the box. – See more at:

What do you guys think of Karchev?

Then, as I was looking at the way that Privateer Press designed the arm socket, I realized that the hole in the main body looked pretty much to be the perfect size for a 3/8″ magnet.

I wasn’t originally going to magnetize my Warjacks, but when I saw that I wanted to experiment with it. In this video I show you guys how I magnetized one of my Khador Heavy Warjacks.

See more at:

She’s been working on her Menoth Battlegroup. In this video I just recorded a short update to show you guys what I’ve done so far with the paint job.

They are not finished yet, but they’re getting there. Once I have these two Warjacks done, then I just have my Warcaster left. –

See more at:

The other night at around 2am in the morning, my Internet cut out while I was working on some improvements to the forum and without the Internet I couldn’t really do anything else on the site.

I took that as a sign that I should take a break and actually spend some time painting so I grabbed the Blood Angels tactical squad of 3 that I had primed earlier in the week and decided to start painting them.

I love painting models. It’s so much fun. Anyway, today I pretty much finished the first three models so I shot a quick video to show you guys my progress so far.

What do you think?

See more at:

After looking around at a bunch of different models from both Games Workshop and Privateer Press she decided to try out the Protectorate of Menoth army because she liked the way the models looked. In this video, I do an unboxing of the Menoth Battlegroup so you guys can see what’s inside. So far my wife and I have finished building our battlegroup’s and we have primed them, but haven’t started painting them yet.

See more at:

As with the rest of the videos I’ve uploaded so far, these were originally posted on my personal Blog before I launched this site.

I’m re-posting them now because I re-uploaded the videos to my new YouTube channel.

Here they are:

This video was recorded earlier this year and was originally posted on my personal Blog. Since I have moved all my videos to my new YouTube channel, I am also posting the video here to make it easy to find for my readers.

This video was shot in February of this year, and the three new things that were released were:

• Blood Angels Battleforce
• Blood Angels Furioso Dreadnaught
• Blood Angels Stormraven Gunship

This video was originally posted to my personal Blog, but I am reposting it here since I have now moved the video to my new YouTube channel.