Christmas Surprise

I logged in to The Miniatures Page this morning to find out some kind soul has anonymously gifted me a free year of Supporting Membership. I've no idea who did this or why, so in case you read this blog I'd just like to say thank you. You've given me the first genuine Christmas surprise in many years.

Merry Christmas one & all

P.S. Real life is still getting in the way of posting but I hope to get something posted before the New Year

A little aside.

For those of you expecting another Deadzone figure review, sorry. Real life has intervened so there will be a delay. So as a quick interlude here's a couple of things that might make nice stocking fillers.

I came across this by accident. It's a 2-player expandable card game, not my usual kind of thing but after a little research I decided to buy a copy. Look for a review sometime. They also have a Kickstarter going (who doesn't these days) for an expansion if you're interested.

Another card game that's piqued my interest is Field of Glory the card game by Martin Wallace.

From the website:

The game is split into two parts. You first decide which units you will fight with, constructing a deck of twenty-four unit cards. You then fight out a battle across a battlefield made up of five terrain cards. To win the game you must take control of three of these terrain cards. The army cards represent the main troop types of the period, such as heavy infantry, light cavalry and elephants., each having its own strengths and weaknesses. To be able to play units on to the battlefield you must discard other cards to pay the movement costs involved, giving you a number of difficult decisions to make.

The game is supposed to be of medium complexity and should take around twenty to thirty minutes to play. I'm a big ancients fan so I'm thinking about getting this as a Xmas present to myself.

Lastly is another card game Frontline General: Spearpoint 1943 Eastern Front which is, of course, another kickstarter. The original game looks interesting again from their website:

Frontline General: Spearpoint 1943 is a fast-paced two-player tactical card wargame set in WWII. Spearpoint focuses on WWII frontline combat, chaos, tension, and fun. 100 Unit Cards feature an assortment of historical German and US squad level infantry, artillery, armor, and aircraft. 50 Command Cards give support and intel to players. 25 Damage Cards apply unique Damage Effects if a unit becomes damaged. Combat is quick and tense and resolves using four included D10 dice. Standard and Situation games play in about 30 minutes including setup.

If you're interested there's a great review here.

So three quick games that might make nice stocking fillers. Hope Santa brings you something nice.

Quick Review: Deadzone Plague Troopers & Specialist

Today's random pick is two Troopers and a Specialist for the Plague faction. All the minis come packed as shown below with no indication of what the models are or any instructions of how the pieces go together.

 

All the parts have different shaped lugs and sockets even the small heads so it's obvious which part goes with which figure. This is the worst set I've had for mould lines and flash which will be obvious from a look at the photos below.

 

Even with some cleaning up I can see from the photos that's there's lots of bits I've missed. I'm also disappointed with the sculpting of the weapons. They lack detail and look too 'toy soldierish' for my tastes. Maybe they'll look better painted up.

 

On the plus side the models all went together very easily and the sculpts look great. I'm finding it hard to choose between Plague and Marauders as my favourite faction. As usual a Mantic ghoul is added as a size comparison.

Too many mould lines for my taste but still my favourite pack of minis so far.

Tune in tomorrow for another random pick from the box. Hopefully with no more badly fitting pieces.

Quick Review: Deadzone Marauder Pyro

Today's random pick is the Pyro for the Marauders faction. All the minis come packed as shown below with no indication of what the models are or any instructions of how the pieces go together.

 

As there's only one mini in the pack there's no confusion about which parts go with which model. All the parts have different shaped lugs and sockets so it's obvious which part goes where.

 

There are minimal mould lines in only a couple of places but there is a bit of flash on a couple of the parts on the sprue. The parts cleaned up okay, just be careful trimming the lugs on the arms.

 

I dry fitted all the pieces individually and they went in with no problems. However as you can see in the photo below once assembled there's a big problem where the left arm should join the flamethrower. As the position of the arms is fixed by the lugs and sockets they're obviously in the right place so I tried trimming off some of the plastic on the weapon where it meets the chest but it made no difference. In the end I filled the gap with green stuff. Whether this is a one-off, some mistake I made or a design flaw we'll have to see once others build their Pyros.

 

Nice figure, I especially like the tank on his back. Gap aside I'm looking forward to painting this up. As usual a Mantic ghoul is added as a size comparison.

 

Tune in tomorrow for another random pick from the box. Hopefully with no more badly fitting pieces.

Quick Review: More Deadzone Marauders

Today's random pick are different Trooper and Goblin Sniper sculpts for the Marauders faction. All the minis come packed as shown below with no indication of what the models are or any instructions of how the pieces go together.

 

With the size difference between the two models there is no problem working out which part goes with which model. The sprue contains heads for both models, a backpack for the sniper and a knife for the Trooper.

 

There was a bit of flash on the weapons but hardly any mould lines on these models. Everything went together easily except for the Troopers right arm where the lug needed some trimming to get a good fit. The only other issue was with the sniper rifle which was bent but that was easy to fix.

 

Here's the assembled models, as usual a Mantic ghoul is added as a size comparison.

 

For Orcs these Marauders look a lot like gorillas, not that that's a bad thing. In fact space gorillas would be a cool faction.

 

Tune in tomorrow for another random pick from the box.

Quick Review: Deadzone Rebs Faction minis

Today's random pick is two Human troopers and a Yndij Sergeant for the Rebs faction. All the minis come packed as shown below with no indication of what the models are or any instructions of how the pieces go together.

 

All the pieces for these models have different shaped lugs and sockets so it's obvious which part goes with which model. The sprue remnants were easy to trim off except for the backpack which being so small made it tricky. Watch your fingers! There was some flash on these models, particularly on the weapons and some minimal mould lines were visible in a few places.

 

Assembly was straightforward after a bit of dry fitting to make sure parts were the right way round, particularly with the tail. Nice enough figures but nothing special. Although the billowing coat is a nice touch. As usual a Mantic ghoul is added as a size comparison.

If I decide to sell any of my strike teams it will probably be the Rebs. Nice enough figures but nothing that grabs me.

Tune in tomorrow for another random pick from the box.

Quick Review: Deadzone Plague Stage 3A

Today's random pick is a couple of Plague Stage 3A for the Plague faction. The models are the General and a Trooper. All the minis come packed as shown below with no indication of what the models are or any instructions of how the pieces go together.

 

All the pieces for these two models have different shaped lugs and sockets so it's obvious which part goes with which model. The sprue remnants were easy to trim off except for on the heads which being so small made it tricky. Watch your fingers! There was no flash on these models but there were minimal mould lines visible in a few places.

 

Assembly was a doddle and the final models look really nice although the detail on the rifles is a bit meh. As usual a Mantic ghoul is added as a size comparison.

 

Stage 3A 'General'

Stage 3A trooper

I like the poses on these models and look forward to assembling more Plague. It looks like Marauders and Plague will be my factions of choice.

Tune in tomorrow for another random pick from the box.

Quick Review: Deadzone Marauder Commando

Today's random pick is a Commando trooper for the Marauders faction. All the minis come packed as shown below with no indication of what the models are or any instructions of how the pieces go together.

 

This is a four piece model with shaped lugs on the various parts so everything is easy to fit together. The sprue remnants were easy clean up but there were very visible mould lines on all parts of this model. Of the eight models I've assembled so far this is the first one with bad mould lines so we'll have to see if this is a one-off or not.

 

I think these models may be made with something called restic which I gather is sort of a plastic/resin combination. The detail seems fine but cleaning up the mould lines seemed trickier than on plastic models I've made before. You seem to have a white line left where the mould line had been so you're not sure if you've removed everything. We'll have to see how well I've done once it get painted up.

 

The finished model is quite nice with lots of detail like treads on the sole of the boots so should look good when painted up. As usual a Mantic ghoul is added as a size comparison.

Quick Review: Deadzone random MVP

Today's random pick is the random MVP for Dreadball that's included with your Kickstarter as a bonus figure. I gather this one is called Riller. All the minis come packed as shown below with no indication of what the models are or any instructions of how the pieces go together.

 

There's only three parts to this model and the sprue remnants were easy to trim off.

 

So assembly was a doddle. But I must say I'm totally underwhelmed by the model. Its tiny and appears to be in a rather weird position. How they can normally charge £4.99 for what is basically a single 20mm plastic figure is beyond me. No wonder they have a load of these in the warehouse to throw in with the Kickstarter packs.

Hopefully tomorrows random pick will be more inspiring.

Quick Review: Deadzone Marauder Ripper Suits

Today's random pick is two Ripper Suits and a Goblin sniper for the Marauders faction. All the minis come packed as shown below with no indication of what the models are or any instructions of how the pieces go together.

 

Here's all the pieces from the pack. Again hardly any visible mould lines but I did find a little bit of flash on the legs of the Ripper Suit models but it's not very noticeable.

 

Here's all the parts allocated to the various models. Again with no instructions it was hard to work out what went with what as there seemed to be spare pieces. So I found the models in the rulebook but couldn't find a clear shot of the close combat Ripper. The close combat Ripper has two saws and looking at the model it was obvious you could only fit one of them. So I was worried that picking one of them one would affect its points cost or combat ability. I had a flick through the rulebook and couldn't find anything about points or weapon choice affecting combat so I decided to have a look at the cards for this faction.

 

Each faction has it's own card deck. This deck has three types of card Mission cards, Battle cards and Stat cards. As you'd expect the mission cards tell you what you need to do to win but they also give you deployment zones. The Battle cards are used during the game and do things like giving you an a bonus in combat etc. The Stat cards though not only give you the stats for the model with their weapons but also have a picture of the model. I'll do a fuller look at the cards and rules once I've assembling the figures.

 

So looking at the stat card for the close combat ripper suit I can see that it doesn't matter which Saw I use as it's just cosmetic.

 

So on to the assembly of the models. The first thing to say is clear your work area of everything except the bits you need for that particular model as it's easy to pick up the wrong part by mistake. I was assembling parts for both models while the glue dried on one part and ended up gluing the wrong arm/weapon combo. Luckily I spotted the mistake before the glue set. Next thing is that the parts don't fit together well. I had to trim some pieces and even then there wasn't a perfect flush fit. I'm not saying the finished model looks bad, in fact I love how they look, just that you need to be aware that you'll have to do some prep work to improve the fit.

 

Dry fit all the pieces so you know where everything goes. This is particularly true for the chain gun as the ammo belt needs to be positioned correctly to make it line up well.

 

There are  alternate parts like the chainsaws and heads plus there are flavour pieces like the mini radar dish you can add to add to customise the finished model. One part that had me confused was the one shown above the goblin in the photo below. The close combat ripper has a hydraulic ram on his left arm and I worked out later that it was an alternate part that showed the ram retracted.

 

The last model in the pack is the Goblin Sniper. Easy to assemble as you just have to glue the head into place. However on my model the gun barrel was slightly bent but that's an easy fix.

 

The finished models with a Mantic ghoul for size comparison. Also included in the box are some 40mm bases to mount these on.

 

The pictures don't really give you a true impression of the size of the finished models. These Ripper Suits look massive, bristling with all kinds of weapons. I was going to go with Plague as my main faction but after building these I'm going Marauder all the way.

 

Tune in tomorrow for the next random pack.