September 2023 review
The last month started with the last mile of the Limesmarsch 2023, and we went to the RömerWelt Rheinbrohl to see the group arrive on their final milestone. Evelien and Tobias of Team Würfelkrieg / Ancient Tracks joined the project and documented a lot along their journey along the Limes.
Our kids had fun, as the Römerwelt covers a playground as well and it was interesting to see the people in roman clothing.
Necromunda – Guild Hall Pt. 2
We left of with the Guild Hall at this stage, but I had the chance to continue the build. I did some mock up drawing about the direction that I wanted to go for. And it was clear, I needed some additional parts.
I tinkered about a roof in the first post, but first of all I needed to create the supporting structure for that. I went through my terrain sprues and gathered the toppers and need at least 3/4th of a circle to close this. But as they are raised to have a pin for the second floor, I needed to cut those down. I did that using my hobby saw and to strengthen the octagon even further, I glued in some struts, that I repurposed from larger sprues / frames.
Battlefleet Gothic – Chaos Fleet Pt 3
With the miniatures set and mostly here, it is time to assemble my Chaos Fleet.
I got myself a drill and created inserts on those models, who didn't have any right away from the stl. If you're familiar with some editing programs like mesh mixer for example, you could modify your stls in a way, that they come with this right from the start. I intend to glue the flight bases to the models. If you use metal miniatures or heavier resin kits, using magnets might be an option. From my research there are multiple views on that topic, some players replace the plastic rods from their flight stands completely with brass rods.
GrimDarkTerrain – Hermes Class Light Salvage Titan
Returning with my attention to Adeptus Titanicus, I am happy about the size of my maniples (so far) and the "only" thing, that I want to add to is the terrain. I have a subscription of GrimDarkTerrain for a while now, but my Anycubic Mono 4K is not the ideal hardware for printing terrain - at least not larger items and larger batches. This is one of the reasons, why I am happy that there are printing service with a merchant license for GrimDarkTerrain like Winterdyne (UK), MegaSonicPunch (Germany/EU) or Hangar81 (US).
Luckily, not every set Bronco designs is that large, and in February 2022 the Hermes Ripley was released as a monthly package.
Stargrave – A Star Wars Story Pt 2
As mentioned in the first article, I bought the first models online on Etsy and printed the later ones at home, so let us see, what you get for your money online.
If you're not a patreon but buying the files individually (especially if you joined later) the question for make or buy was - especially without a printer - not that big of a decision. At 5,20 USD for STLs versus 10,99 EUR printed and shipped it is a close call (in low numbers).
Stargrave – A long time ago on a gaming table far, far away…
I covered my initial rant about StarWars as a tabletop wargaming IP, and where it works and where it does not. And in the mean time, between having ordered 3d printed models for this setting and printed my own as a patreon of Skull Forge Studios, I have narrowed down the rule set(s) and time frame.
As mentioned in the initial post, this is not going to be Star Wars Legions - for multiple reasons - but a skirmish on a troop / squad level and for that, in my opinion among other systems, Stargrave works quite well.
This idea started last year, that prior to me owning a 3d printer on my own, but I already fancied the 3d sculpts by Skull Forge Studios back then. With the models being outside of the patreon around 5-6 USD per sculpt on Gumroad and Wargames3D offering them for 9 to 11 EUR incl. free shipping from Spain via Etsy, I chose to order some. Among others I got myself these:
Battlefleet Gothic – Chaos Fleet Pt 2
The Chaos Fleet is set, and now it is time to choose the models. My "demand" are the following models.
- 1x Chaos Battle Barge
- 1x Grand Cruiser
- 6x Cruisers
- 3x Idolators Class Raider
- 3x Infidel Class Raiders
- 4x Iconoclast Class Destroyers
The closest option would be to try and go for second-hand market, but with the pricing that would quickly move the overall costs for this fleet above 200 EUR - if I get lucky. The either go for alternative models or get them printed. For Chaos Fleets there are two major creators, who cover the range. That would be Soul Forge Studio and ItalianMoose. With Soul Forge Studio coming up for about 50 USD just for the STLs to print these, with ItalianMoose offering the files for free.
All of what I needed was on cults3d. I used the Battleship file for the Battle Barge, the Grand Cruiser for the Grand Cruiser and what is pretty amazing, ItalianMoose offers the (Heavy) Cruisers either as complete models, or modular, so you can magnetize them, or use the weapons batteries files, that are available on their own.
Troublemaker Games – 6-8mm Terrain
We revisit the range of Troublemaker Games after covering their building and ruins range, it received an elaborated update with a couple new plastic sprues, stls and even printed items. As I'm heading into 6-8mm with my Epic 30k project (and the adjacent topics of Adeptus Titanicus and Aeronautica Imperialis) this was good reason, to give these new additions another look.
The Troublemaker range is sold via Vanguard Miniatures and shipped from the UK. Currently the don't offer IOSS for EU customers, but they offer a shipping cost cap of maximum 10 GBP.
Imperial Fists – A beginning into the Horus Heresy with EpicAU
First of all - don't be irritated, you'll see Imperial Fists in different scales on here. In 28mm for the Warhammer 40k 2nd Edition retro project as recently introduced, and in 6/8mm for EpicAU, as introduced in the Horus Heresy article. For "easier" differentiation, the 28mm on is the 3rd Company of the Imperial Fists, and the epic scaled one the Imperial Fists of the Third Sphere.
And we have to start somewhere, we will do that today with a first draft of a 2,000 point list build with Departmento Munitorum. I am aware that about 4,000 points is a common size, but as said, you have to start somewhere and according to some battle reports I found on YouTube (Tabletop Standard for example) it seems like a reasonable choice to begin with.
Adeptus Titanicus – Warmaster Iconoclast
The variant of the Warmaster Titan, the Iconoclast with different weaponry was released in Winter '21, and actually the first of the Adeptus Titanicus plastic kits, that I didn't cover as a review - until now!
The Warmaster keeps it very similar to the Warlord Titan, where only a single sprue is swapped to cover the alternative variant of the titan. And for that reason, this is more of an add-on along with some further add-ons, to the initial review of the Warmaster variant with the plasma destructors. As well as making use of my newly access to 3d printing.
The kit wasn't supplied by the manufacturer this time, but more of a casual chance at a trade, and I added a few bits that I found online (more in detail below). The RRP of the Warmaster is now 130 EUR since April '22 (compared to 125 EUR when it was released last year) and it covers four large sprues, an oval base, decals, a rather unflattering black and white assembly instruction, along with the cards and terminals made from card board, covering the rules and information for gameplay.