Welcome To The Deadzone Pt 3

This weekend I started to have ago at building the terrain in the Deadzone box set. I have heard that this will need a little care when clipping and cleaning the pieces as the hard plastic can be a bit tough.





















After cutting all the parts an cleaning I went about dry fitting the pieces together. I can tell you that the connectors that come with the kit can be tricky to fit and sometimes they did not connect properly so you do have to do some jigging and cutting. Also another fact is that you don't get that many of the connectors which is a shame as it does limit build options and if they snap which some did it can be a little frustrating.

Luckily before I started to build this terrain I made this landing pad which gave me lots of spare corner joints.



As you can see it's massive! Unfortunately even with this kit like the Deadzone terrain it did not come with enough straight connectors. I had to use some of the feet connectors and super glue to strengthen it in the end.
The picture on the bag made it looked like it should have came with more wall parts to make the barricade where the gun sits behind. I am not sure if I am missing a sprue or not as there are no instructions with any of the kits from mantic at present to check this.

After dry fitting everything I decided to go for this lay out. It has a tower and a few single block buildings and walls to give as much cover as I can get.




As its advertised as modular terrain it does the job but I would not recommend keep changing it around as un doing what you have made can cause the connectors to snap so defiantly plan then dry fit a little and use supper glue.



I do have another box of this terrain so this has been a good test run. I am going to plan out a design before I start work on that as it has a lot more goodies so I will try and add to what I have made so far.


So the terrain is now built, models are primed and ready all that's needed is to enter the Deadzone.

2015 In Review.

Happy New Year!

Another year of gaming has passed by and just at the end papa Nurgle decided to give me the lurgy. Thanks.

Before the year was out I finished these two Warmachine models. Saxon Orrik and my Christmas present from Ed Ogrun Bokur.




I tried a different undercoat this time using bone by Army Painter as I was getting tired of using black and finding it difficult to see some of the details in the models. After doing this I might have to start using this a bit more often or a lighter coat of white or grey at least as it really seemed to make things a lot easier.

Talking of Christmas presents I was a very lucky boy. Following on from my games of X wing at the Essex Legion I got a load of Star Wars X wing ships even the new starter set. So I now have lots to choose from (not as many as Ed though ;) ) After seeing the film twice I want some more T90's and look forward to what new ships Fantasy Flight bring out. (Ghost...cough....)

So on to the year that was 2015.

The year started by coming back to gaming again after a brief spell away and headed straight in at the deep end with Warmachine.



I really added to my army during these months working on what units I liked and introduced some new casters, solos and jacks to my collection.

During the months that followed I was able to get some good experience playing Ret thanks to Ed.



Sylys with his Leroy Jenkins moment... yes he did hit but only scratch the paint work..


2015 was also a year of trying out some new board games.

I had fun playing as a smuggler in Firefly.

Also on the table was AvP which I feel in love with due to the minis and had to grab a copy.

unfortunately I am known as the worst Predator player according to Riot having played them once in an Alien heavy mission.. Should not have split them up sigh.. This will change in 2016!

I also went on a few trips this year.  My first trip was in April where I went to Salute and it was packed with toys. I walked away with new terrain,  Warmachine minis even some free Terminators..





In october a group of us headed down to Warhammer World and our minds were blown. Lets just say grown men were acting like kids. We even got a kill team game in where my Nugrle marines were victorious.

 

During October I made my first visit to the Essex Legion and played a few intro games of Warmachine.

Over the last months since going along to the club I even got back into X wing playing in a league which finished up in a huge epic battle.





At the tail end of the year the last project I started was to work on my Deadzone figures.




Phew 2015 was packed full of gaming goodness. It was great to get back into some old games as well as discovering some new ones to. Most of all it was great to reconnect with some gaming mates old and new again and find a new club that is buzzing with ideas and lots of access to play different games each week. It was also great to get out the brush and work on some minis.

So on to the new year. My gaming plans for 2016 are to try and play as many games as I can and get some more Warmachine games in before the upcoming journeyman league at the Essex Legion as I have not played in months. Also I need to build my AvP models and finish my Deadzone project.

At the start of this year I have had a quick look at the Frostgrave rule book and it  looks like a fun game. I have not really delved into any fantasy games so this could be a good place to start. Another good part is it should not cost me anything to start playing as I have some Lord of the Rings figures that I am sure I can use.

So what's your plans for 2016?


To finish off I thought I would post some of the minis I have painted or things I have made this year. I hope to be able to keep chipping away at that pile of plastic and metal.

Welcome To The Deadzone PT2.... Here Comes The Pain

In a box set the models are the main event for me so I was looking forward to begin building theses minis for Deadzone.

I started with the Plague faction. As I started to open the packets of minis I could see that my first inspection regarding the models needing a lot of cleaning came true. The models are made of a hard plastic a lot different from the normal GW materials I am used to.

The usual mold lines were present on them as well as some rough bits of plastic hear and there that needed snipping off.

I've Got Some Work To Do

With out any instructions it took me a little bit of time to figure out which arms fit to what model as some have pre made joints which made it a little easier to work. 

I would advise using super glue to stick these together as plastic glue did not seem to work.

On one of the models I had to repose jumping over the wall as his arm was to close to his knee.

I used some hot water and reposed the arm and fingers so it was out of the way of the way and managed to change it to a more dynamic pose by pinning the hand to the wall.

BOO!

I also changed the position of the arms on the model below from facing down which made it like a Hulk Hogan muscle pose and now its more of a bezserker rage pose.

Come At Me Bro!

The Gang

Next up were the Enforcers.

Again these needed the same treatment as the Plague with cleaning of mold lines and random bits of plastic. They seemed to need a lot more of a clean up then the Plague for some reason.

These models took a while to find all the right parts to fit especially the main troops as you had two arms that fitted a gun which need to be the correct length to work. Unlike GW plastics where they tend to stick in place with glue quickly these would not stay in place. They fell off before you could pose them in a shoulder socket and there was no real clue how far apart they needed to be to fit the gun in place.

So I had no choice but had to roll out the green stuff.  I had to use this for the arm joints as well as to help attach the body to the hip joints as the plastic did not connect right so glue would not work.

Thank You Green Stuff

The rocket launcher Enforcer was another challenge as I had to attach the arms in a way that left a huge gap.  I had to fill under the arm with green stuff.

Here Come The Boys

Well it was more difficult than I thought getting these made.  I have made lots of models before but with out instructions especially in a starter set made this less straight forward then it should be. I think even if Mantic could do a PDF guide this could be a big help. It became a case of trying to fit things a couple of times and then having to referrer to box art and the rule book to try and figure out the correct components for each model. 

There May Be Trouble Ahead.

I also just put these on to the bases and found some of them did not slot into the pre made holes which again needed to have some green stuff to help stick them in place.

I don't want it all to sound negative as the models once they are made look good.

The Plague models are what I am looking forward to painting as they do have a lot of character and I'm looking forward to playing a game with them.

It was just little things that could have been done to help make things go a little more smoothly.

So I am off now to start undercoating...

                               

Welcome to The DeadZone Pt 1

A few weeks ago it was black friday. The usually emails and adverts flew into my email in box and I browsed through for any good deals.

One email came to my attention was from Mantic games. Mantic's special offer was their board game come skirmish game Deadzone for more then half price off.
I have played the game once at a salute a few years ago and have some of the Mantic terrain already so I decided I would take the plunge.

2 weeks later it arrived.....

The Big Box

Apon opening the box I could see all the lovely shiny toys but the one thing I noticed was the box contents was not packed with any foam or bubble wrap to protect any of the contents.

I found some tokens all ready pooped out and a part of some the terrain already lose from the sprue in the box.


I am more used to a well packed product like the AvP game so I am not to sure why this did not include any protective packing especially when sending it through the post.

Lots In The Box

The contents includes:

1 Full Colour A4 Rulebook

6 Eight sided dice

130+ counters

54 Card Enforcers Faction Deck

54 Card Plague Faction Deck

Urban Battlezone

2’x2’ Durable Urban Gaming Mat

28 Modular Plastic Scenery tiles

20 Piece Plastic Accessory Sprue

48 Piece Connector Sprue

12 Plastic Enforcers Miniatures

1 Enforcer Peacekeeper Captain

4 Enforcers with Heavy Rifle

2 Assault Enforcers

1 Enforcer Engineer

1 Enforcer Sniper

1 Enforcer Missile Launcher

Lots Of Terrain

2 Enforcer Sentry Guns

11 x 25mm Round Bases

1 x 40mm Round Base

11 Plastic Plague Miniatures

1 Plague Stage 1A

3 Plague Stage 2A

4 Plague Stage 3A

1 Plague Stage 3A with HMG

2 Plague Stage 3D “Hellhounds

7 x 25mm Round Bases

4 x 40mm Round Bases

Phew........

The rule book looks good and not to long in length which hopefully will mean it wont take long to learn and get playing.

Lots Of Minis!

The models look like they will need a lot of clean up and one thing I am a little worried about is building them as there is no instructions.. So for beginners getting into this board game/skirmish game may be a little put off by this. There are pictures in the rule book and on the box so I will see how I get on later.

The 2X2 gaming mat is nice and heavy duty just like the playmates that are now readily available that use mouse matt material.

One element I am a little disappointed in is the quality of the print on the mat. It looks a little grainy and blurred and some of the colours look green like the printer has run out of ink. It may be the design but its hard to tell due to the print quality.

I am not sure if its a faulty product but if it is I would have thought QC would have checked this but it could be the technology has also advanced since the release of the game.

Did The Ink Run Dry?

All in all I am happy with what I received especially at the price I got it for. I have seen lots of videos on game play and terrain builds  using the contents of this box.
I can see this is going to be a fun game that can be picked up and played with little fuss and as its only on a 2X2 it wont take up to much table space.

The other factions look interesting ( The Rebs look cool) and as the new update of Deadzone and new terrain coming out soon due to another successful Kickstarter by Mantic this year it could be just the right time to start playing.

Now off to start building the models...