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| "Ah, good, that's all settled. And now we shall open these doors." |
This excellent felt-lined MDF Flip Card Box is made by "N-FX Game Design Studio" and "is specially designed to hold and protect your deck of cards whilst you’re gaming." Sold unassembled as part of their Stands/Holders range, the Flip Box has been designed to help easily "pick your next card up without all the hassle of your stacked deck sliding around" and comes in nine unpainted parts.
As I was very keen to additionally use this 'gaming device' as a piece of scenery for my "Doctor Who: Exterminate" wargames, I super-glued one of my spare resin air-locks onto one of its ends, and decided to try and turn it into some sort of Cyber-vault by under-coating it in its entirety with two layers of "Citadel" Ironbreaker.
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| "Doctor Who" WIPs - A Dalek, a Sontaran and Professor Kettlewell's Robot |
I then liberally washed the ensemble with Nuln Oil and dry-brushed it with more Ironbreaker. Before 'picking out' some of the details on the "Second City Games" futuristic door with some "Vallejo" Heavy Red, "Citadel" Carroburg Crimson and Abaddon Black. Finally, I applied some (pre-supplied) felt to the holder's base and interior in order to help prevent it from damaging either my gaming mats and the cards.
With my latest "N-FX Game Design Studio" scenic piece finished, I have added a few more of my "Doctor Who" miniatures by "Black Tree Design" to my painting queue. I've been pottering around on my Sontaran Warrior for a while already, but a recent "Warlord Games" sneak peek of their blue-themed modern day 'Nu-Who' versions has inspired me to try and get the militaristic clone finished before I find myself buying a load of theirs.
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| Black Templar WIPs - A tenth space marine for my first squad, and a Scout Sergeant |
Similarly, whilst progressing a few of the Nottingham-based company's plastic gold Daleks, I have fortunately unearthed an entire bag of classic sculpts which I now want to paint so as to re-enact the Skaro mutants' civil war. As a result I've finished basing one piece and primed over its silver partial-paint-job with the admittedly more lack-lustre grey colour scheme of the Imperial faction's opponents. In addition I've set to work on an old miniature of J.P. Kettlewell's Experimental Prototype Robot K1; the Fourth Doctor's very first monster from his debut 1974 BBC Television story "Robot".
Lastly, I've set to work on a pair of plastic "Warhammer 40K" figures, in order to help 'bulk out' my old Black Templar army. To be honest though, I'm presently rather 'out-of-love' with "Games Workshop" after they suddenly announced the cancellation of their weekly modelling magazine "Warhammer Conquest" before I'd even so much as seen an issue. I had been hoping the prospect of a few miniatures and bite-sized rule chunks would help me get into the Eight Edition of their tabletop miniature wargame, but now fear I'll have to preserver into the "dystopian science fantasy universe" unaided... and demotivated.
Nice work on the painting and modelling front Simon, but sad news about the GW 'part work' - not enough subscribers??
ReplyDeleteThanks Greg. Its funny the way one's mojo can be affected by something as simple as a cancelled magazine. But I was really looking forward to "Warhammer Conquest" personally.
DeleteIt has been suggested on another Forum that "GW" pulled it when they realised lots of people were going to buy multiple-issues of the cheap stuff (and grab some subscription gifts) and then cancel before everything became full-price. If that's the case then I'm surprised "GW" didn't see it coming, as that seems to happen with every one of these sorts of publications from what I can gather...
Great work on the card holder, Simon, and I'm looking forward to seeing the three "Doctor Who" figures finished.
ReplyDeleteRegarding the cancellation of the "Warhammer Conquest" magazine, I saw an interesting article of YouTube about it. GW have certainly annoyed a lot of people. Apparently copies were sent out to retailers, with some lucky people picking up copies from the likes of W.H.Smith. But anyone who put in a subscription for the mag has not received a copy. It has been speculated that GW underestimated the demand for it. It may resurface in the future or it may be dropped entirely. Either way, shoddy work by the company so many people love to hate. I feel sorry for you and others who were looking forward to buying it.
Cheers Bryan. Simple stuff on the card holder tbh, but it has re-energised my mojo for "Doctor Who", as has my discovery of an entire drawer full of old "Black Tree Design" minis.
DeleteI was very tempted to email "GW" back and impolitely inform them what they could so with their magazine should they decide to reinstate it. I appreciate my simply re-basing and dusting down my Black Templars wasn't particularly time-consuming, but I only did it because of the magazine offer - so to then 'take that away' is infuriating - hence my "GW" mojo being dented.
I also view them selling the mag in stores and not sending it to subscribers as something akin to a Kickstarter going out on sale but not being sent to its backers. And don't want to even think about all the customer/bank details they've acquired...
Sadly I've also discovered my "Necromunda" tiles, which have harmlessly been sat upon my tabletop since my "Star Trek" "Heroclix" BatRep have badly warped for some reason - so "GW" are really in the doghouse in my books currently :-(
I like the card holder it looks like it does what it says on the tin. The sontaran is coming along nicely and I'm looking forward to seeing it finished.
ReplyDeleteHaving owned and sold a Back Templar's army they can be very boring as black just doesn't `pop' on the tabletop compared to their more primary colour counterparts. The only way I found to bring mine to life was weathering with dust on the lower half and chipping oh and plenty of chains and purity seals.
Thanks Phil. The Flip Box is indeed a straightforward gaming device, but the felt-lining etc is a nice touch, imho. I was hoping to do a Space Marine Army filled full of different chapters etc, Imperial Guard contingents etc. But I'm not so sure now...
DeleteI have a few of the Black Templar additional bitz to hand, and do plan on using them if I expand my force, but frankly until my mojo returns they're probably now just going to go back into their drawer...
Oh and there is a special place reserved in hell for those who don't drill out their bolter barrels !!!! ;-)
ReplyDeleteWell at least I'll be warm, and can have my marshmellows toasted ;-)
DeleteI do like a piece of versatile MDF, especially if it has multiple uses. Nice additions with thee airlock doors Simon.
ReplyDeleteCheers Michael. I was very grateful to "N-FX Game Design Studio" for sending it to me, and know they like the idea of people adding to their basic design to turn it into scenery.
DeleteGood to see you 'converting' a simple bit of kit into a terrain feature, even if I think it a it extravagent.
ReplyDeleteGW has continued to upset its customers throughout its history, from discontinued lines of figures to games and so on.
Thanks Joe. It's meant to be a Cyber-vault so hopefully my silver giants don't view it as being "extravagant" as they're supposed to be emotionless ;-)
Delete"Games Workshop" have certainly 'ticked me off' with this move, and completely deflated my "Warhammer 40K" bubble. Only the thought of their imminent Sea Alves for "Age Of Sigmar" is keeping my interest in them currently.
Great work on the card holder giving it a double use, the who models are coming on well, as are your Templars.
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear how GW have dropped the ball for you Simon, but you have found your way into a whole new hobby of GW hating ! LOL seriously it's not good, but you either leave well alone or dabble with the bits you like and ignore the rest
Cheers Dave. I always like to try and make my stuff usable for other things too, as it makes the effort taken to assemble/paint doubly worth it. Lots of "Doctor Who" to come I assure you.
DeleteApart from frustrating my plans to learn "Warhammer 40K" piecemeal, the biggest annoyance is that I thought a weekly review of each issue and how I'm progressing with the minis/paints etc would be of interest to people. Spookily I'm now just chatting through some ideas with "Warlord Games" about some regular postings regarding their "Doctor Who" range instead; sneak peeks of models, cards etc.
It's nice to see you've taken a standard bit of kit and improved on it, will you create a roof?
ReplyDeleteThanks Vagabond. No roof as I'll still use it for the cards in-game and it'll simply be an inaccessible vault or maybe objective.
DeleteGreat job on the card holder your additions certainly increase its usefulness. Lots being added to the paint table it seems. It sucks to hear about the magazine being pulled. They seem to have underestimated the popularity of many things recently.
ReplyDeleteCheers Simon. I'm hoping to refloat my painting mojo by focusing on some more "Doctor Who" minis; a ploy which normally seems to work. "GW" seem to be underestimating a lot of things recently, and sadly that is now starting to undermine my enjoyment of their products.
DeleteI love the idea of making the card holder into useable scenery!
ReplyDeleteOn the Conquest front, it's not GW, it's Hachette - from what I gather, GW sold the rights to produce the partwork, which is why it wasn't on sale in GW stores. Ha Bette did a trial release up north, before pulling it to relaunch later (although if they will remains to be seen). Apparently something similar happened with the 40K novels repackaging partwork they did a year or two back...
Dammit autocorrect, why would I want to type Ha Bette?
DeleteThanks very much indeed, Myincubliss. Interesting stuff about "Hachette"; albeit their name alone is far from comforting, imho and doesn't inspire confidence that this project will ever see the light of day. I will of course though, be absolutely delighted to be proved wrong :-)
DeleteClever re-working idea with the card holder Simon, and sorry to hear about the GW magazine debacle, I was hoping to have a look at the first couple of issues (and possibly buy multiply copies, if they were of use but don't tell Bryan sshhh!). But the Dr Who stuff...well you have pulled out three of my all time fav's there, a proper coloured Dalek (only bettered by the white and gold versions), a proper Sontaran, and the excellent K1 Robot, smashing stuff!!
ReplyDeleteCheers Roger.
Cheers Roger. Much appreciated. I'm hoping to do some Imperial (White) Daleks too so I can actually have a mini Skaro Civil War campaign, so plenty for you to enjoy I'd hope. Plus the Sontaran could be the start of many a clone, and even the K1 Robot could lead to bigger things ;-)
DeleteAnother diverse post. Using the card holder as scenery is a great idea. Are you doing a roof for it? The classic Dr Who minis look great, although I do like the modern versions of the Sontarans and think they were superb. I would love to see some Warlord previews on the blog, that would be awesome! Try and get some Antares in there to as it would be great to see some new Boromite minis that you could expand your force with. Sorry about the GW magazine, but I am sure you will find something to get your mojo back.
ReplyDeleteThanks Undercoat. No roof as I plan to use the Flip Box as a card holder, or dice/token holder even when its being used as scenery. Plenty of "Doctor Who" minis etc to come and hopefully that'll help get the mojo back with a vengeance :-)
DeleteI really like what you’ve done with the card box. Really helps to de-clutter the table and hide the cards in plain sight.
ReplyDeleteCheers Kieron. Much appreciated :-)
DeleteCard holder came out just loverly mate. Can be terrain AND useful.
ReplyDeleteGW strikes again! *sigh* And they had been doing so average too (Which is better than bad at least).
Thanks Dai. Couldn't be crosser with "GW" currently, talk about a mojo killer. Still "GW" lost is "Warlord Games" gain in my books - as I'll be focusing on their "Doctor Who" range instead.
Delete