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The best game ever!!!(?)

26th März 2023 modeloperator Kommentare 0 Kommentare

Well, some people call Heroquest like that. Surely in one or the other way it is the role model for all modern dungeon crawler boardgames and the nostalgia around it can not be denied. A gamer’s expertise would somehow be incomplete if you had never played it at least once. Nevertheless, I think, you don’t have to like it! But it’s cult!

In the days of high political incorrectness

This 1ed. box was another gift from a fellow gamer. Intended as a Christmas present, it went on its own quest. Delivery services were so busy in December that the service person put a wrong name on the delivery card (We weren’t home that moment.) and that simple mistake made it impossible to retrieve the parcel from the post office. So it went back to sender, was resend and, finally, weeks after Christmas arrived safely at my place. That taught me a lesson about Heroquest: You may not love it but you don’t want to lose it!

As it came after a long and suffering journey

Dating back from 1989 it is in great condition. Nearly nothing is broken and what is, can easily be repaired. Even the furniture is complete with all the small parts, mice and skulls, that are much sought after on Ebay, I was told. With it came the add-on Karak Varn with some of the figures still on sprue. This box was long forgotten in a barn full of many good games, the story goes on, only to be found by a true believer in the best game ever!

When heroes were still heroes – no detail bloating here

Now, what to do with this rediscoverd treasure? Certainly it is going to be painted one day though that might be in the far or very far future. The other plan is to play it via internet as my benefactor and me are far away from each other and meet only rarely nowadays. The machinations of the game make it easy to play it via camera and microphone. Time will come!

Dude, where’s my mini?

18th März 2023 modeloperator Kommentare 0 Kommentare

As of today, I’m an active contributor to the Lost Minis Wiki. For a reason I do not remember I stumbled across this site a few day ago and immediately fell in love with it. At the beginning it was great fun to look at old minis I wanted to have as a youth but could never afford in the early days. Nevertheless, at certain points, I realized I own some stuff that is not pictured or even listed on LMW. So I wrote to the admin this week that I wanted to contribute and got my login details within a day. Originally I had only planned to upload some pictures but then I spent this whole afternoon and early evening on creating a complete new page. And this is the result:

I was quiet surprised not to find this 33-years old legendary box there on LMW although there are thousands of minis from over a 1000 manufacturers listed. But, I guess, metal minis last much longer and most of the plastics went down the garbage chute in the past decades. So, probably, nobody really posseses a representable example to show on a wiki anymore.

I never did a wiki page before and I had to spend some hours before (almost!) everything was fine. Luckily, the admins left some useful tutorials for editing pictures and the the code could easily be adopted (copied and edited!) from other contributors. Nevertheless, it took me some time to figure it out how it all works.

These old Space Orks weren’t always mine. Again, a certain old gaming mate gave them to me about a year ago after resting for more than 20 years in his place. And it is complete! No piece is missing or broken. These unharmed sprues are likely to become an Ork warband for a scifi skirmish game. I had planned to write a blog entry about this box before but only today was the day and here are the pics:

36 minis in a box! And we did not even pay (what is now!) 15€ for these boxes, may it be Orks, Imps or Squats. While writing these lines, a box of 11 Ork boyz is 35€! Ok, agreed, a lot has changed since then. Nevertheless, let see what we can make of them!

One post a week

12th März 2023 modeloperator Kommentare 0 Kommentare

Only one post! Shouldn’t be too much as there is much going on on the hobby front. Today I got these two wonderful boxes from an old gaming mate full of gaming memories. This is stuff from our earliest tabeltopping days with some surprises I didn’t know about.

The Titans are the ones I missed earlier in the Adeptus Titanicus unboxing. The metals came as a real surprise to me, including the Ratling sniper. I always wanted to have one! The first-edition Imps are the first tabletop army I battled against with my old Squats who still rest in boxes upstairs. Maybe there is some new battle ahead in the future.

Adeptus Unboxicus

2nd Juni 2022 modeloperator Kommentare 0 Kommentare

Earlier this year an old gaming buddy gave me his first-edition Adeptus Titanicus from 1988. This box rested longer with him than I know him. We never played it together but, as far as I know, it saw a lot of action.

Today was the day that I opened the box for deeper inspection. However, I was already warned that there wasn’t much left in the box, namely the rulebook and the Titan models.

Strangely, when looking at the Titan models in the scenery on the back, you can see they are different from the usual old plastic Warlord models. Recognizable especially when looking at the legs‘ armor plates where you can find much more detail on the models in action. This difference is also true for the unpainted model in the circle which shows the standard model. Even in the old Citadel catalogues I couldn’t find a model that is exactly the same as in the scenery. An „unseen“ Titan?

The big prize was the seven polystyrene buildings which are still in good condition. They will go nicely with the new AT buildings. I can’t see any difference in size despite the smaller scale of the old edition.

Only one Titan model was still in the box and I’m not really sure what to make of it. The bases can be restorated and there are a lot of heads and weapon options. No idea where all the Titans went but I have about ten of the old plastic Warlord models in my collection, in addition to some metal Reavers and Warhounds. Enough for epic battles!

Next step is to finish some of my Titans already under painting and play some solo games to learn the rules.

Cheers from here to an old gaming buddy who let me have his old stuff! The AT box was not the only thing. So more to come.

Not what I had planned but it stinks

14th Dezember 2021 modeloperator Kommentare 0 Kommentare

As an early Christmas present I treated myself to an old Märklin starter set I found on ebay. And guess what? It’s incomplete! Three curves are missing and no word about in the description. But at least it works.

Oh,boy! I remember that smell of burned iron from my childhood days. Gladly the set was cheap enough not to complain too much and I ordered the missing rails for a really decent price.

This antique controller though frightens me a bit. So when I tested it (Very carefully!) I was prepared for the worst and to react in an instant if necessary. But it works fine. Even the switch for going into revers. (Is there a proper word for that in English?) I will not lose a word about these cable/ plug connections here.

So, whereforefore? The idea is to teach myself a little bit more about maths, physics and electronics with the help of a book that uses model trains as demonstration material. Ok, that’s only a pretext. I just wanted a model train!

Nice to be here again

5th September 2021 modeloperator Kommentare 0 Kommentare

Today I visited the scale model exhibition in Rheine, Modellbauwelt 2021, for the first time in years. This time together with my brother. This exhibition is in no way not as big as the one in Bünde (Baden-Württemberg) but the entrance is free.

As a bonus I found some nice cheap additions to my Cold War collection.

I also had the chance to talk to the club’s chairman, the GFWC Rheine. Unfortunately he had to tell me there isn’t much club activity going on anymore. Still there were some clubs from Brandenburg and Duisburg exhibiting their pieces and I hope for 2022 event in which I might take part.

First things done in 2021!

1st Januar 2021 modeloperator Kommentare 0 Kommentare

Today I finished painting four cargo loads for the Zvezda Ural 4320 Truck in 15mm. Not really much to do on them but it’s a good feeling to get something done this early in the year.

These pieces are a very nice addition to an already great model suitable for many different settings.

I already had four of the truck models, ordered in around 2015, when I found these loads on sandsmodels.com. In addition they offer a conversion kit for an office body which makes a very nice comand vehicle. At that time, in 2017 or 18 maybe, they also sold models of the Ural and so I snatched four loads, the office body and a fifth Ural in one order.
The four cargo trucks and the comand truck were already finished one or two years ago.

A very nice convoy ready to get ambushed by some partisans or special forces teams! 🙂

2020 Old year’s clean up

31st Dezember 2020 modeloperator Kommentare 0 Kommentare

The last few weeks I managed to finish four units of 40k minis, 34 figures as a whole. That was only possible due to the extensive use of Citadel Contrast paints. Otherwise that would have taken me years!

These 12 Hormagaunts are my first Tyranids ever and were completely done with Contrast paints – with a very good result considering the effort. I have no intention of collecting a ’nid army which is my least favourite of all 40k factions. My plan is to use them for Space Hulk-like scenarios in Kill Team. Maybe some Tyranid warriors will join their ranks later.

The next three units are all Orks that I wanted for KT.

I really like the idea of a big bunch of Snotlings as a kill team. These 10 were painted up nearly in zero time so I might add some more in the future if they turn out to be fun in the game. Most was done with Contrast paints. The Runtherd is a mixture of contrast and traditional method.

Burna Boyz is what I wanted most for KT Arena. Their area effect fire template should do good use in the narrow passages. Only the skin was done with contrast paints, the rest is traditional method.

These Nobz were painted the same way as the Burnas. Painting Ork skin the contrast way gives very nice results. Until now I only had Nobz with sluggas and choppas. Now I also have options for kombi-weapons but what I really wanted was the boss with the big choppa… Good noone can hear me talking! 😉

A good and healthy 2021!!!

Edinburgh Hobby Wonderland

13th September 2020 modeloperator Kommentare 0 Kommentare

This year our summer holiday led us on a trip around Scotland and we also spent a night in the city of Edinburgh. During our first stroll through the city we passed by Wonderland Models just by coincidence, as they call themselves: the „largest model specialist in the country and one of the largest in the world“.

Wonderland Models storefront. Picture taken from their website.

Of course I had to go there and I can say this is definitely the largest exclusive model shop I have ever been to. Wonderful not only to look at pictures but taking boxes into your hands, feeling the weight and reading the texts. The sheer amount of models was mind-blowing.
A modelshop doesn’t have to be this big but I wish there would still be more model shops around. Very often even the big department stores don’t offer scale models anymore. Wisely enough Wonderland Models also has an online shop: https://www.wonderlandmodels.com/

Of course I could have ordered there online but buying in store just felt so good. These three just had to be. 🙂

Cheers, Scotland! I love it! 🙂

A Retro-Gaming Weekend

31st August 2020 modeloperator Kommentare 0 Kommentare

While the world keeps debating about sustainable living, recycling and reusing, we are bringing this concept to the gaming world. Nothing we played with last weekend was younger than 20 years… and it still works! 😉

Amazingly this was the first time we met face-to-face for gaming this year. First our timetables were against us and later lockdown struck – though we played several scenarios of Descent via Skype during this time.

We started this gaming weekend with some 1989 SpaceHulk. I had never played this classic before and I felt there was a gap to be filled. However, my mate had lost the rules but now he brought them from his parents‘ place… along with some other stuff and we played an introductory mission twice.

First time I ended up with the choice between blowing my flamethrower Termi myself or going into close combat. I opted for close combat and lost it… expectingly! Second time, the same mission, I had learned my lesson and managed to fulfill the objective in short time.

Still a nice game but before going into SpaceHulk any deeper I’d rather go for KillTeam. However, I like the idea of moving blips which turn into groups of ‚Nids and I was surprised how much the whole concept reminded me of Descent which came some 15 years later.

Next morning we started out with BattleTech which we hadn’t played for over a year. Shameful! However, to keep it short(er), we decided for one Recon-Lance each. An encounter I lost bitterly! I hate a crazy Spider in my back!

Along with the SpaceHulk rules my mate brought some other gaming stuff from his parents‘ attic and one of his old gaming friends who wanted to clear his cellar. First thing was a group of old FASA tanks for BattleTech. I purchased these for a fair price for my growing BattleTech army.

Something else that was on offer was an old 2nd edition SpaceMarine-box, today better known as Epic.

Epic is on my list for building an army since a long time but I did not have much hope it would ever come true. At least as long as GW does not release a new edition. Now, this offer came quite as a surprise and could be the first step of a long gaming dream come true. Though there will be a lot of work ahead and as the minis are all oop, this could become expensive when finding additional troops on ebay.

However, a great bonus: While my mate rummaged through his left-overs in his parents‘ attic, he found an old box of BattleTitans with five Warlord Titans still on sprue which he gave me for free! A bottle of gin was the least I could give him for this. Cheers! 🙂

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