Miniaturepeddler

Robert Kingery, the President and Creative Director for Darkson Designs will be speaking at a Strategicon Gaming Convention on February 14th.

He is scheduled for a one hour seminar/lecture on miniature game design and model design.

Robert and Darkson Designs is the producer of AE WWII, an alternative World War II Miniature Game, set at 28mm scale.  Robert is also the author of a series of painting guides: “Darkson Designs publishes a series of Painting Guides for fantasy, sci-fi, and historical miniature wargaming. Our books also include techniques on painting and building scenery, terrain and dioramas. Our books are a compilation of techniques, tutorials and how-to articles from various artists around the world.”

Darkson Designs is developing a series of expansions and releases utilizing their unique system as part of expanding their series of AE WWII books and genres.  Further expansions are expected at Gencon Indianpolis this summer.

Mechanics of his current game will be also demonstrated at the convention.

Strategicon is a three times a year 4 day event held in Los Angeles, CA:  Orccon (Presidents day weekend), Gamex (Memorial day weekend), Gateway (Labor Day weekend).

Darkson Design, the makers of AE WWII, has been working on many expansion miniatures for its line of AE WWII.  This is a skirmish based 28mm system set in the 1930s and 1940s European Theater of World War II.

Part of the design of AE WWII is that it is not a point based system like many other game systems out there, but rather is based on a Force Allocation chart.  The system allows for modification of your force by trading in units of your force for alternative configurations or upgrades.  This allows for players to build elite strike forces or units of grunt troops, depending on the scenario and the mission decided on by the players, allowing for balanced games, while still promoting variability.

I was able to talk with Robert, the major designer and owner of Darkson Designs yesterday.  Part of the conversation talked about this unique force allocation and design, and Robert indicated that while this past year has been great for AE WWII, that he expected 2009 to be even better.  Darkson Designs is finishing up another book, set for release this Summer at Gencon 2009.  The focus of this new book will add or expand the Darkson Force Allocation system to another Genre, that will expand Darkson Design into Outer Space.  While he was justifiably tight lipped, about whether this was a simple expansion to the current AE WWII story line or a whole new system or expansion of his current system into a new story line, it sounded like things are very much on track to deliver this summer.

So be on the look out for this new expansion this summer.

Further comments from Robert indicated that the further strength of AE WWII has been its inclusive nature that allows players to utilize 28mm WWII figures from other companies to play the game.  Darkson Designs has continued to concentrate on producing new and unique figures that add the additional features and unique attributes of the Storyline promoted by the main rule book.

Dennis Bolin and FABBL presented and hosted an outstanding Bloodbowl tournament at the LA Battlebunker on the weekend of January 17th - January 18th.

This two day tournament attracted a good group of players to celebrate and play one of GW’s best Specialist games.

A Special Gaming Board was made for this tournament along with a Limited Edition Skaven Rat Manager Figurine:

Quake City Rumble Gaming Board

A Trophy and other Prize support was provided for the participants:

QCR Prizes

Skaven Bloodbowl Team Manager

Scenes from the Tournament

GW has also released a new Plastic WH40k Ork Battlewagon. This completed one was sighted at the LA Battlebunker display case:

Ork BattlewagonThis Plastic kit can be built into multiple configurations and GW has already announced that upgrade kits to add a front roller will be available this summer from their Direct Order Department to further enhance or modify the Battlewagon

Lizardmen new models have begun to show up at local Gamesworkshop stores.

A fully painted and complete Lizardman Engine of the Gods was on display at the LA Battle Bunker.

Lizardmen Engine of the Gods

Lizardmen Engine of the Gods

These new models are completely plastic, so are very light and easy to convert. The box actually allows you to build it in two different configurations: Engine of the Gods and Classic Heavy Bolt Thrower.

This is a very nice addition to any new or existing Lizardmen army.

The Land Raider Crusador requires an Assault Cannon rather than twin linked Heavy Bolters.

I picked up a Crusador box and combining this with a previous Chaos Land Raider I am building two LR Crusadors:  One with Heavy Flamers and one with the Heavy Bolters.  Both need the top mounted Assault Cannons rather than the Heavy Bolters.

So I converted the assault cannons I had left over from my Dark Angels Sprue and converted my Chaos LR top mounted HB to a new twin linked Assault cannon.

Here are photos of an orginial along with my conversion:

I’ve begun redoing a Space Marine Terminator Captain that I had previously painted Ultramarine Blue.

After stripping the model, I also realized that this captain was based wrong (it was on a 25mm base) and armed wrong with a single lighting claw and a storm bolter.

So two things were done.

One get a plastic lighting claw from the new terminator set and two re-base the captain onto a 40mm base.

Have you ever just wanted to see all those wonderful winners of past years golden daemon from past Games Workshop Grand Tournaments?  Well know you can.  I recently was directed to this french site http://demonwinner.free.fr/ and have been completely blown away:

The Golden Demon is a 28mm models painting contest, organized by Games Workshop company all around the world in addition of their annual big show : the Games Day. After more than 18 years, this rendez vous has become the reference on this particular scale and attracts more and more international painters.
This website’s objective is to gather a maximum of winner pictures, by year and location. You will also find additional galleries with misc pictures of former winners, like Jeremie Bonamant, who won 22 awards and initiated this site’s idea.

I hope that the site stays active and ongoing as it is a teasure that all miniature enthusiasts can enjoy!

My only wish (complaint) is that I truly wish that they were able to bind and publish this as a tabletop book that I could place on my shelf.