Hail fellow Hobby Zoners!

I have a small update, I was working on a custom Dark Angels Specialist Unit. They are my Deathwing Stormguard and can be used as *counts as* DA Company Veterans.

They will be armed with pistols or special weapons and on the left hand holding the firearms they will have a small Spartan style shield. The right arms are brandishing a double chain glaive. A very potent and dangerous weapon from the Horus Heresy. These shock assault troops are directed to the most desperate and dangerous war zones and are used to break through lines and assassinate Enemy Leaders.

In my DA back story they are recruited from the Deathwing formation so all are members of the Inner Circle Command structure within the DA hierarchy. Sometimes they accompany high ranking DA Leadership as Honour Guard or are assigned on other sensitive missions.

I was going for the same bone white colour scheme of the Standard DA with these guys.

I used Army Painter Skeleton Bone Spray, then touched up the models later with the bottle version of the same colour. Then a wash of AP Soft Tone was applied as a single coat over the whole model. This created the depth I was looking for and then I will either build up the highlights by blending or using layers of progressively lighter dry brushing.

I really am looking forward to seeing these various projects through to completion in the hope of bringing together a fully painted Dark Angel 3rd Battle Company combining elements of the Ravenwing and the Deathwing as well as Heavy Support such as Land Raiders, Predators and my ace the Ancient Relic Deredeo Sniper Dreadnought.

He is quite formidable in games and has single handedly taken on multiple enemy units including flyers and bikes as well as heavy tanks and prevailed. 

so till next time Hobby Zoners farewell... :] 

Ave Imperator -][-

Welcome Hobby Zoners to the Uplink... and I mean the Netrunner players among you...

Season 3 Organised Play for 2018 has been announced from FFG today! Rejoice, the game we love so dearly has not been completely abandoned just yet... (we still have until mid October this year when all support for Netrunner by FFG ceases but till then lets keep running!)

FFG Season 3 Netrunner Organised Play 2018

Till next time Hobby Zoners! and remember Netrunners... always be running...

Welcome once again my dear Hobby Zoners!

So I was restless tonight and wanted to build another kit. So I went through my unbuilt kit stash and found some Tartarus Terminators from the Games Workshop 30K/40K range.

The kit is pretty easy to build and components are laid out in GWs usual logical manner.

One thing I will note is the legs come in two pieces and each set of legs goes together a certain way. 

So when you clip the parts out and put them on the worktop make sure you group them according to how they were on the sprue. This will help you put them together without mistakes later. The detail as I am used to with GW kits is crisp and precise with zero warping or defects.

You will need to prep them in the usual way (using a file/clippers and a sharp modelling knife, i also used superglue to facilitate a faster build), as there will be flash and some minor mould lines. 

These kits are some of the more recent from GW so exhibit more options on sprue.

Otherwise these were a pretty easy build and I put them together without instructions.

I tend to go for more dynamic or realistic poses and I feel that with multi part plastic kits, specifically infantry you need to take some time to ensure your models look realistically posed.

I feel it spoils the model to simply slap them together with no thought as to how a model should be standing and how it is holding any weapons and equipment.

I thought I would include a brief description from the GW site on these particular models.

Tactical Dreadnought Armour, or Terminator Armour as it is more usually known, is the most resilient form of personal protection available to the Adeptus Astartes. Originally developed during the closing years of the Great Crusade, and adapted from the heaviest of industrial gear, several types and patterns were developed concurrently. Perhaps the most advanced form is the Tartaros pattern, allowing for greater mobility than other examples of Terminator armour with no loss in durability or protection. (Copyright Games Workshop 2018)

Tartarus Terminators from GW

Till next time Hobby Zoners!

Hello Hobby Zoners!

I hope you all have been enjoying the summer weather of late. But now onto some hobby news, I had been working on those Anvil Industry Kalarchi 17th Airborne and have since added tactical pouches and suppressors to them. I also made some custom suppressors using cue tips for the MG42s.

It has been fun working on this project, and earlier today I managed to get them sprayed and washed ready for the next stage which will be several layers of drybrushing to add highlights.
They are starting to come together quite nicely.

I used the Army Painter Angels Green spray on these then I touched up any areas I missed with the AP acrylic Angels Green, then I washed them with Games Workshop Biel-Tan Green wash.

I will have more updates after the weekend.

Till next time Hobby Zoners!

So this is part 2!

I am a huge fan of Anvil Industries and utterly love their Regiments range of 28mm sci-fi compatible infantry. They have expanded the range yet again however my absolute favourites are the Kalarchi 17th Airbourne with Ops Core heads.

Kalarchi 17th Airborne

I was busy assembling the rest of my July order this afternoon. Once my Army Painter sprays arrive I can get started on painting these up.

They were an absolute pleasure to build and to be honest they were all perfect, no mould slippage or any defects I could see and barely no flash. Some of the best resin 28mm models in the industry!

Here are mine which I will probably use for Warhammer 40K/Kill Team or perhaps Ospreys Black Ops. To be honest they would fit in most modern/near future or sci-fi 28mm systems.

So farewell for now! Till next time Hobby Zoners! :]

Welcome Hobby Zoners!

It has been some weeks since my last post. I have some hobby news to relate. 

I am soon to be running a Kill Team League for my friends at my local Hobby Club (First Founding Gaming) and am in the process of writing up a players pack and the league guidelines. 

My Kill Team order from MJR Hobbies & Models arrived earlier this afternoon. So without further to do I will share some unboxing photos for your viewing pleasure!

Primarily I will be going through the Kill Team Core Manual to help write my players pack for the league, then over the next week or two I intend to build the 2 Kill Teams included in the boxset and the terrain as long as I can make space for it somewhere in my apartment!

So stay tuned for my next post, I have been busy building some Anvil Industries infantry to use as Atramis Spec Ops for W40K & Kill Team or perhaps the Osprey Black Ops ruleset.

Hello Hobby Zoners!

This is another update for those of you who follow the Netrunner Game by FFG.
I saw a post tonight which made me think about the current situation regards to Netrunner. 

FFG owns all related themes connected with the Android Universe. The setting and all of the ideas and concepts that make up that as well as the characters therein. 

This means going forwards FFG could release a game not unlike "Netrunner" but perhaps under another guise also removing any reliance on the aspects of the game which were used under license from Wizards of the Coast, namely certain mechanics and operations. 

This would free FFG to develop a game from the ground up which could be similar yet different enough from the old Netrunner to have its own identity.

I do feel this could be a good thing and though I love the old FFG version of Netrunner a whole new game set in this Universe would be something I really would want to see.

This is just a theory but I hope that FFG are working on something using the Android Universe themes.

#alwaysberunning

Check back for my updates soon!

Remembering Gene Simko

Hello my dear Hobby Zoners...


It has taken nearly two weeks to fully process but I am typing this on my laptop tonight, I am remembering a Hobby Hero of mine. Someone who I only knew through Facebook (FB).

I would often check those Hobby related FB Groups for inspiration. There were many talented kit builders on a couple of those Groups. One night I received a FB friend request from a Chap called Gene Simko. It made me grin when I got the notification as I had been following his work on various FB Groups. This incredible man was a kit building genius. He would often build 1/35 military model kits then cut away parts of them and custom build interior detail. His skill was astounding and I could see he had a real love for what he was doing in his work.


For almost 2 years I was able to follow Gene and his journey through Life. He was a Scholar and an ex-military man. (Gene attended the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, received a BBA in Economics from Temple University, an MBA in Management Science from Temple University, and a PhD in Strategic Management from Baruch College of the City University of New York. Simko held a commission in the United States Army Reserve, Adjutant General's Corps, 1/309 78DIV(TNG). His retirement dreams included returning to his beloved West Point to teach for a semester (and don't you forget: GO ARMY, BEAT NAVY!). 


(Gene Simko had been an avid scale military historic modeler since he first wandered at the age of 10 into his neighborhood Marsh Hobby Shop in his hometown of Trenton. He amassed an extensive collection of both built and unbuilt model kits and enjoyed scratch building armored cutaways. His first model kit was the Aurora Panther Tank in 1963. When he wasn't teaching or out to eat at his favorite restaurants, you could find him lurking the aisles at Red Bank's Hobbymasters, chatting with his dear friend Steve. Some of his model builds were featured in Scale Model Builders Book in Black and White. In the book, he described his model-building avocation.)



He was also a family man and loved dearly by his Son and Daughter and his Wife Patricia. 

Seeing Gene's FB posts was always a privilege and a great joy to me. He would often visit eateries and ordered pizza many many times, and sometimes bars where he would often have a photograph taken with his signature drink, a Bloody Mary. Gene really lived Life to the full and all could see his sincerity and kindness. People loved him and he seemed to make fast friends easily.

I often left messages in comments on his posts and interacted with him like that for almost 2 years.
The saddest thing for me is we did not actually sit and talk online ever. Though he passed away suddenly on June 12th 2018, the echoes of his Life linger on and I can still see his sincere smile in my minds eye. 


It was the love of kit building that allowed our paths to cross and for that I am truly grateful. 
I now will no longer see his vibrant and cheerful posts on my Facebook feed.
I now will no longer see his progress on various complex kit projects he was working on. 
His Hobby space is empty of his presence. Such is the way of Life, things end as all things must.


In my own way I want to honour Gene, so I am going to start the build on a military kit I had picked up several years ago. I will take plenty of progress photos as the build goes along. It will be my farewell to a Legend among kit builders.


One of Genes quotes really stuck with me, so here it is.


"Building a model for me is a return to my carefree, halcyon days of my boyhood. It is an errant wish that sometime, somewhere on a summer night as I build, that I may not have to grow old. And I smile, even for a moment, as I finish the kit and relive the sheer joy of holding history in my hands. Of course I will grow old, but I will have a lot of fun as I journey along." Gene Simko.

Eugene Stephen "Gene" Simko


In closing I will say this. Live like you only have a day left. Hug the people you love and make it clear you care. Dont be afraid to reach out to someone. You never know how long they will be around.

It is the things you dont do that you regret the most. 

Till next time Hobby Zoners... Farewell!

Hello Hobby Zoners! 

I have some news for the Netrunner Players who read my Blog. 
Sadly FFG announced on the 8th of June that their flagship LCG format card game Netrunner would no longer be supported after October 2018 due to the licensing terms with Wizards of the Coast (WotC) not being renewed. 

jacking out

state of LCG

This leaves all of us players in a position where the game we love and have played since 2012 will no longer have any new releases by the original Netrunner Design Team at FFG. Also this means official Tournament support ceases too. 

It is quite heartbreaking to hear this news as all of us felt the game would be around for a long time. The news was sudden and not expected at all. Whatever the circumstances of the failure to renew the license are, well they probably will not be known. 

The game holds a special place in my heart, the Android Universe with its Cyber Punk Noir themes gave it a unique look and feel. The asymmetric play style and very original mechanics and the rich diversity in playable Factions from both the Corp. side and the Runner meant you could build a deck and play how you wanted.

Netrunner proved to be very skill intensive and had deep strategy making it a very satisfying game to play. As well as this there was just such a huge choice in how you could build a deck for your chosen Faction ID. 

NetrunnerDB proved a frequent port of call for me to look at new builds and get ideas for my own deck builds. The resource has been invaluable to Netrunner players for over half a decade. 

netrunnerDB

We had just had a release of the revised Core Set version 2.0 and Cycles 1 and 2 were rotated out to make way for new updated cards to take their place. This did happen with the last Cycle to be released. Now also a Deluxe expansion is out soon  to round out our Netrunner collections. 

This will be the last release for the game. Retailers are already listing much of the previous Netrunner Data Packs and Deluxe Expansion as out of stock as people panic buy to complete their collections. Additionally I have seen quite a few Netrunner collections pop up on Ebay.

In closing all I can say is though this is terrible news, Netrunner has had a large and varied amount of releases since inception back in 2012. So to end the games Life after having so much released makes it easier to live with as a player. The game, if you looked at all that is available is pretty much complete. 

There have been 8 Cycles released with the latest Kitara Cycle being the final one. Also there is one more Deluxe Expansion (Reign and Reverie) which is out very soon, this rounds out the game. 

Personally though frustrated and saddened by the news I also will say this. I will not quit the game or sell off my collection. I intend to keep playing and carry on enjoying this amazing card game with my friends for the foreseeable future.

With this sort of thing it is best to be pragmatic. Not everything lasts. Not everything stands the test of Time. The game ends on a high note. The Community is alive and well. 

I hope to see some of you in the future to play Netrunner in the London area. 

Netrunner is dead... Long Live Netrunner...

*click* x 3, credit, credit, credit, *click* run...


till next time Hobby Zoners!