Oldhammer Weekend USA - Rogue Trader Board update!

This is great, Chris Lopez (Darrin) just put up some WIP shots of the board he is bringing to the Oldhammer Weekend! I haven't gotten a chance to talk to him about it, but if memory serves he had a terrain guy building it. But until he can get me more info, I just wanted to post up the pictures here in case they slide off the page on facebook.

EDIT- the terrain guy is Jamie Dixon, who is doing a great job! Jamie is hoping to open a gaming store in the southwest Virginia area! Who would not want to game in a store with terrain like this. So keep a lookout, I'm sure it will be on facebook and on here if Jamie lets us in on the details!

Great looking terrain - lots of texture and a real RT tank!

Can't wait to see the tower up close!

4th time looking I finally figured out there is a bog in the corner....

Great looking start to some terrain that will look fabulous on USA Oldhammer Weekend! Cannot wait to see it - just under 4 weeks folks - make your final plans. And remember we will be doing late night stuff at Days Inn in Glen Burnie!

Thanks so much for sharing Chris Lopez (Darrin) and Jamie Dixon, terrain maker master! And if you want to  play on this awesome board, make sure to get to Baltimore! We will return to my regular posts on Wednesday!

Rusty's Corner - Rivers and Churches for Warbands game at Oldhammer Weekend!

Well, been a weird week for me. Want to thank everyone for helping out a friend of mine. I know some of the items I listed up on the trading were a little new, but it was easy to grab and sell stuff. Also happy to say that I donated some stuff that sold, and one very nice gentleman called and matched what I was able to raise, so we covered two months and even had a little extra. So - solid thanks, to a great community. If we need to get him some more, he will now be able to take some time and sort and prepare. But thanks! Apart from one special package (you know who you are!) and the few bits I am bringing to Oldhammer Weekend for you guys, everything is now on its way!

Rusty has been very, very busy of late. But as we pass the one month to go mark, he has sent me some new pics of the final piece of the Warbands board, the River section and the monastery. These are some WIP shots, but I gotta say - I can NOT wait to play on this table with everyone! Get your warbands together, and get ready to throw down! I do have some pics I'll put up Wednesday of some more villagers, monks, and dignitaries. But on to Rusty's Boards!

The board begins. The river/stream is made with careful use of spray paint and digging with a knife. Then sand and texture is added. Glad this worked out so well for you Rusty, see a hobby mistake I made years and years ago paid off!

The interior of part of the monastery. Great construction!

Monastery joining to the wall section. I do think that the one in the third book that Rusty is basing this off was basically a version or modification of La Haye Sainte. Warlord make a great one of these. Rusty's is going to look more "Oldhammer" of course, and is scratch built. So what do you guys think? - Comment Below!

I'm wondering if anyone is going to clash in that space on the board! Or are you going to run into a monk coming out of that door? Get your warband ready - and get those names on the bases!

The Great Spined of Rusty's makes a return as he gets ready to go over the bridge.

Incredible use of the terrain stuff. Rusty is always good at mixing it in. Can you believe that is only part of a bridge kit? Rusty used just one part of a bridge and built it in with mounds and odds and ends of terrain materials. To me the bridge looks older and more worn in. And no, I don;t think that Jugger is gonna stop the Dragon - no matter how he is painted!

More - and note the water is not in the river yet. Rusty puts all this detail in and then adds the extra stuff. Layered detail like this makes your terrain seem more real to me.

Rusty's Warband is trying to steal the initiative on us all.

Ok, very WIP, this is the first layer of the Woodland Scenics water effects. Thin layers dry quicker and give you a bit more control on all of the effects (and you can even paint in details on the different layers. This probably won;t be deep enough, but I know the terrain guru at GW taught me that a long time ago.

So, that is the work up to about a week ago. He's making more progress, and waiting for the water effects to dry! If you haven't made your plans to get to Baltimore yet, this is the type of game you will miss out on!

Other notes - Orclord from Stuff of Legends is going to be hosting a BIG game - a siege. Was glad to talk to him on the phone the other night and he sorted out some of the details. Its going to be 10' by 20'! Lots of stuff, and he is basing more Empire to make it extra special! You are going to want to see this or play in this one - That means you BlueinVT ;)!

This is a Siege game that Stuff of Legends did at a Games Day event! You can read a bit more on it here. Stuff Of Legends Siege Game - The Siege of Karak Azul.Ours won't be Warmaster, and is being Gamemastered by Orclord himself. I know I'm going to spend a lot of time over there! Hope you do too!

I know it was mentioned before on Facebook and RealmofChaos80s, but I want to play it down until after BOYL 2014. But yes we are going to have the limited Event Oldhammer figure that Kev Adams, Foundry and the Ansell's have created and supplied. So if you are as jealous of me of the events in the UK - here is your chance to get something extra special from 2 incredible guys - Kev and Bryan. THANK YOU both - its been years of my life working on and enjoying your figures and the worlds you helped created or define. Martin at Foundry has confirmed that our Boyldrick models are on the way to us as we speak. Unless we get crazy numbers, we are going to have one for everyone. So make sure you get there to get yours!

As most of you know, Kev is also recovering from his treatment. I understand it will still be a while until he can get back to sculpting at the Foundry. Bryan has been sharing some incredible pictures and details on all of this, and I can not wait for them to become available! But here's hoping that you recover well and quickly Kev - We want more! And thanks again for the awesome Boyldrick!

I'll have my hobby update on Wednesday this week I hope. And next weekend I hope to have a bit more news and some more info on some special stuff at Oldhammer Weekend USA. Just know you do not want to miss this!

Oldhammer USA - Warband Game Update

So the local mall put in a new playground for kids, and it is Garfield Pirate themed, which suits my girls just fine. The oldest jumped in Garfield's boat, looked at other kids, and said, the "monster had the ship...Abandon Ship!", at the top of her lungs. ;) Kids jumped everywhere and we parents had a nice chuckle. Regardless, I don't do anything unless these girls are taken care of first......

This is my littlest one wrestling a shark! Of course her mother did not approve (she's afraid of sharks after watching Shark Week one too many times), but she and I had fun with it! This is why I figure these girls will be gamers!

My Oldest one surfing on a turtle - she called him Sheldon. While the youngest wrestles Odie this time....maybe I might have a bit of a problem with that ;)? Now Their older brothers are into DnD, Heroquest, and Warhammer. More of that later!

Alright, here is a hobby update for our warbands table. In our scenario several townsfolk, monks and others are going to be walking around and getting captured by our erstwhile warbands! Rusty is making several monks and villagers, and I am making monks and some other farmers.

I wanted to put up some early WIP shots from earlier so you can see the progress that I have made on these. A long time ago, a very much younger version of me started them off with a incredibly bright red. For my sensibilities now, I started much darker and worked my way up - still have more to go, but you can get the idea.

These were Simple Greened with a bunch of my Orcs and Gobbos. You can see some of the other projects I am working on in the background. I have another hobby update tonight on the start of the Wyvern project - an old-skool repair job! But here are some pics of the monks:

This was the look I was going for on these guys. One of my favorite images from the old school stuff. Making buildings like that was always one of my goals. First though, after Oldhammer Weekend, I'm going to try to recreate the statuary jsut to the right of this banner bearer.

This is the group - All WIP, and not done in these photos. I'll have more pics of them and their progress soon. I did notice look a bit too red still, despite starting off dark brown. Inks may have to save this bit.

Still trying to figure out the masks on these guys - Silver or Gold? Weapons silver and black, so which would be better?

Command type figures

Another group shot, but you can see the "additional projects" right behind these guys.

The lead figure, and what I was trying to base my standard on...

With My standard, I am going tan/bone color, more because without the backdrop it is just too much red. Kept red text though. The chain bit made it hard, but do you guys like it?

Anyway, so these are some of the figs for the Warband Game, sure hope you guys can make it!

Anniversary – OITNW 1 year on!

It has officially been a year since my first post on this blog. It of course has been a bit longer for my gaming, but I did just want to write a brief review of the year. I have had some highlights and lowlights, of course. So to get it out of the way, I had some severe medical issues that needed taken care of, and the heat induced allergic reaction is finally fading, after 9 months! So except for that extended period of time (Which was 22+ weeks - Over 5 months) where I was not posting, I have been trying to get at least a post up every week.  With30 posts and 22+ missed weeks, I’d be at 52 with this post! Anyway here are the basic stats:

Posts: 30 (Or about once a week except for 11/8/2014-4/14/2014 where I was in the hands of the mad-docs!)

Pageviews: 13,634

Most visited month – August 2014 -3,044

Most visited post: Aurumina Demonicus – The David Soper interview (2^nd – Warband Creation for Oldhammer Days in the US!)

Most visited series: Rusty’s Corner, Building the Warbands table

Entry points: #1 Realmofchaos80s.blogspot.co.uk, #2 Google (.com and .co.uk), #3 Facebook

Common Search words: all Oldhammer + in the old world (#1), + blog (#2), + in America (#3)

Audience: 50.2% from USA, 12.9 from UK Surprise here was 3.3% from China and Turkey, larger than Canada, Spain, Australia and Germany! Either I’m getting hacked or we need more blogs from there!

Followers: – Direct 27  and Google+ 33 followers

Comments: 75

Of course, stats are always interesting, and China and Turkey did surprise me, but I figure that is not too bad for a first year (really half a year blog). Most important of course is our upcoming Weekend in Baltimore on Oct. 25^th. Rusty’s corner and the Warband creation posts being the biggest driver of views for the last two months is no surprise with all of the people who are letting us know they are coming. Thank you very much to Rusty – I can’t wait to get on that board and throw-down! I promise lots of pictures! Also, Rusty and I have been talking over the phone for over a year and a half about the Oldhammer Weekend (and great deals for Oldhammer stuff, of course). It’s been a heady time, and this blog is really kinda both Rusty’s and mine! So thanks, buddy! And get me the river and monastery pics – everyone wants to see em ;)

Lets hope someone solves this mystery this year!

Also, a big thanks to Orlygg at Realm of Chaos 80s fame, for the mentions of my blog and our event! I know probably half my views are because of his mentioning my blog. I know he does this for many others as well (And I follow them all!). His views and posts are huge and help people find our little community, not to mention preserve some incredible stories and information on our favorite era. His biggest contribution actually centers on this blog and our Oldhammer event. For the blog, he continually encourages us to start our own. This is to see out community grow of course, but I think it is also driven by a large want that most of us share: seeing great minis, great games and great collections around the world. For our event, he told me to just pick a date and run with it. We cannot schedule “perfect” for all of us, but once we have an established date, then we can just try to get as many there as possible. So after checking with a core group I knew could help out, we established our day. Whatever happens on that weekend, or however many people can show up and game, without that great advice the answered would be no one and nothing!

Also, thank you to the whole Oldhammer Community, it has been great just talking to all of you on facebook, your trades (followed normally by a healthy dose of jealousy), reading about your games (again, some jealousy…), and seeing bits of your collections (of course, even more jealousy ;) ). It is just fun to be somewhere, even if online, where most people “get” your passion. If I only have one request (besides staying the great community that you are) it would be that more of our friends in the US would start up blogs, showcasing their hobby. So please do, I promise if you let me know. I’ll follow, and get you mentioned on here! Orlygg’s advice is awesome here as well. Both for your gaming – just set a date and do it, and your blogging – just share it!

Come, our church is cool, so start blogging and share your views with us all!

A lot of the views are coming in just before the Oldhammer USA event, whether that is more people getting ready, more people discovering it, or what, I am not sure. I can tell you that the Warband Creation post is the most viewed over the recent months, and should be my most viewed post (passing David Soper interview) sometime before the Oldhammer Weekend! So that is exciting. We still need more pics of your warbands though!

Future's so bright, we gotta wear shades.....

For the future? Well, The biggest event this coming year is the Oldhammer Event in Baltimore, but as soon as that is done (and the flurry of posts that I will be doing starting tonight), I am going to dedicate myself to some old-fashioned battle reports, as well as some posts on Heroquest, the boys favorite new game! We are even going to break out all of the expansions! But number one is to get more hobby in. Now that my health issue is hopefully behind me, and life is settling down into the normal chaos of the kids, I want to get more painted. To a better standard than I normally rush to. And I want to build some old-school terrain out of the mountains of odds and ends I have for that purpose (Some of which I have dragged from college till now!) I’m encouraged by Erny to do my mighty fortresses justice, and Steve’s challenge to paint better. So hopefully that will be shown over the next year.

But my firm goal is to upgrade to 2 posts a week, 1 gaming, 1 hobby every week from November on. Hopefully it will all be of interest to all of you!

Oldhammer Day Update - Rusty's Corner - Warband Table New Photos!

Well, Rusty has been hard at work on the Warbands table for Oldhammer Day! He sent along a few images to share, which is another section, another building, and a cornfield! He's also working on another part to this table which has the river and monastery - which I cannot wait to see! So It should give us a huge amount of space to see who is most favored by the chaos gods!

I got this a few days ago, just to tease!

And this one.....not bad, in fact would love to have this one......but for Rusty....

You just keep going.

Hoping sometime we can get a bit on the vegetation from Rusty. Look for a future Hobby Update - but after Oldhammer Day - hes busy right now ;)

Original Table with two sections - like I said, river and monastery are forthcoming!

Now we add the new building and the corn field - another thing we need a hobby update on!

Everything looks great in Warband Ville!

There has to be a story behind the hat.....

Now that is a huge battlefield - hope you are planning on throwing down with your warband.

Just about every gamers dream - can't wait to play and see it in person!

Of course, we should also thank Rusty's lovely wife, who not only puts up with late night calls from me, but also puts up with his hobby to this extent! So Thank You - we all greatly appreciate it! ;)

And another thing. As Rusty is out and about, when he is not building, he tried calling a current GW store (In Philly I think). Now that would normally not be a problem, as Rusty was checking on something, like could he bring his Oldhammer models to the store for an event. What he was told actually surprised him, and then upset him (and then me). He was actually told that while the staff would love to see it, and would even do pickup games with him, for the scheduled events, he had to use "only current models". When asked if that even meant old 6th edition spearmen from Empire were off limits, he was told again "only current models". I'm hoping they make exceptions for parts on new models, otherwise all of the creativity of the game would be gone.......oh wait. If you haven't go back and read one of my first posts here (just skip to the Epiphany part- we can wait)

Welcome back - so yeah. Another bit of the sameness taking over, is it any wonder that we are growing (more on that later) on the Oldhammer front. Just remember, try to post some pics of projects - not more stuff to sell (we do have a trading area for that!). Or even better, create your own blog (and let me or RealmofChaos80s know!) I have a large amount of them somewhere on the right side of this page - so visit them, get inspired and share more (and I can add your blog to the list)! One thing I need to add of course, to make mine an official blog will be battle reports. I'm going to have some from Oldhammer Day, but the 15 yr old sprog is working on some figs for a 3rd ed game (probably won't be until after soccer season....mhmm, wonder who in the premier league is willing to pay for a young goalie now ;) ). And I just can't take anymore on....with 4 kids, believe me I have enough! But I am going to make it my Before New Year's resolution to put up some cool Battle Reports (one each of Warhammer, Rogue Trader, and EPIC!).

I also just found out there were a group of guys in New York who did not know about our Oldhammer Day - and now looks like they are going to journey down, so there are still those out there who don't know we are all meeting up, just remember, the more you tell, the more that will show up for Trade and Auction night at the hotel! ;)

Once again, Thanks Rusty for the pictures, and the awesome work, and Thanks to Rusty's better half, we all know he wouldn't be half the man without you!