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Product Review – Fortified Tower (Tabletop World)

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I hear the cry of male hobbyists the world over – ‘I’m disappointed in the size of my tower’, well, if your erections just aren’t quite piercing the clouds, fear not as I have a product review for you.

I recently picked up the Fortified Tower from Croatia based Tabletop World and tried it out, so you can see if it meets your needs.

This is a five piece resin kit (three of the pieces being the flag, pole and base). The main tower consists of just two pieces, with a little bit of internal detail which might be nice for D&D etc but not enough to do too much with as you only have that level plus the roof.

This kit can also be incorporated into Tabletop Worlds Town Walls kits, these look pretty interesting but for my purposes I only wanted the singular tower.

Tabletop World states that the resin comes pre-cleaned but I didn’t want to risk it and gave the beast a good wash and brush up with some washing up liquid. I was pleased and surprised to find no bubbles or problems with the product to repair, given the material (!), I don’t know if this is their usual quality but I was very pleased. The irregular stone effect of the sculpt looks great and I think you could really put as much or as little effort as you wanted into painting this and it will reward you.

I #slapchopped up the tower very simply and it took the paint very well. I then added some spots of Dirty Down moss on the odd ledge here and there.

The kit is a bit pricey at €65, or £54.90 from Element Games. This beast is absolutely rock solid though and feels like it will last as long as if it really were made of stone. Terrain always is a bit of an investment and I can use this for the Warhammer Fantasy Watchtower scenario objective, in Age of Sigmar or even in 40k for a feudal world.

I’ve added a few pics, with a little green friend, so you can see the scale and how mine turned out

All in all, I’m a fan and might pick some more up…. I’ll let you know!

Games Workshop

Product Review – Vallejo Thick Mud

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Basing Materials for Miniatures

With Games Workshop making some changes to their range and removing some of the basing products, I wanted to try something new for my Horus Heresy Blood Angels.

So I spoke to some friends about what they use and Vallejo Thick Mud was recommended. So I went onto Element Games to have a look at the options and decided that Brown Mud was the one I would try. This is because I’ve used light basing before and it caused me issues when I came to drybrush. I hoped that the Brown Mud would be dark enough that a single highlight would be enough.

It retails at £12.50 which is the cost of 2 GW pots and you get a lot of bang for your buck. There’s no way this will run out soon – it’d be perfect for a display board.

It goes on easily – just make sure you use enough (don’t spread it too thin or it won’t work well). The more the better.

The finished product with XV-88 highlight

Overall I like it; it’s easy to use, looks great with a simple highlight and you get lots. Definitely recommended.

market as well.

— Declan & Eeyore

Peter Holland, Reviews

Duclus Photographic Light Box – Review

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With my older lightbox being very cheap and nasty, I thought it was time to upgrade. I wanted a lightbox with good space, adjustable lighting and easily stored. Step in the Duclus Photographic Light Box!

This lightbox is available from Amazon (affiliate link) in two sizes 30cm or 40cm. The version I purchased and reviewed is the 30cm.

Delivery and Packing

The box

Available on Amazon, the lightbox can be ordered through Prime for next day delivery, and so delivery is always good.

The lightbox itself comes inside its own case which is no more then 4-5cm thick allowing it to be stored very easily. The case itself feels good quality as well with a zip to make sure everything stays inside.

The storage case, and my kitchen hob

What’s Inside?

Inside the case you’ll find six coloured backgrounds, a light diffuser (an excellent addition), lighting controls and the lightbox itself.

Coloured backgrounds

Most photography will only require you to use the white and black backgrounds but the other four could be useful as well, just perhaps not as widely used.

Lighting controls

The lighting controls are simple with three buttons, on/off, increase and decrease for the light intensity. One downside is that the lightbox does not come with any plug so you’ll have to use a phone charger or a USB port to plug the lightbox into.

Set up

The lightbox is relatively easy to set up, unfolding nicely, with a back panel that lifts up to hold its shape. The diffuser attaches using velcro around the edges, then you simply slip in the coloured background you want to use.

The box with the diffuser attached
The light ring

Working on a series of led lights, these are perfectly placed at the top of the box, you also have a port hole which allows you to photograph objectives through from above.

Port Hole view
The complete set up with the white background

Results

As you can see below, using my DSLR camera you can get professional looking shots from what is a relatively cheap piece of equipment.

Opinion

For £37.99 I’m impressed by the quality of the lightbox, I am disappointed in the lack of a plug and the requirement to be near some kind of ISB port but otherwise it ticks all the boxes.

Games Workshop

Product Review – TT Combat Sprays

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I recently attended Board Games Expo and TT Combat were there with an impressive stall, and a great offer on spray paints. As I’m always in need of spray and I knew I had a Horus Heresy box set on the way

I had not previously used their spray paints but had heard good things, so picked up some black primer which is always needed. I also wanted to get some red/orange for my Blood Angels and so I checked out their extensive range.

Seriously Red

Helpfully TT Combat have sprayed some MDF models with their spray so I could see the different colours and I went for Seriously Red.

Generic cans, so be careful to check the barcode and top!

Black Primer

As a rattle-can you’ll need to shake it before use and make sure temperature and humidity aren’t going to cause you problems, so after a bit of shaking I got to this!

Horus Heresy with Black Primer

Black is difficult to photograph, but hopefully you can see from above that the paint has gone on very crisply and clear, with no bobbling or variations in the paint. It’s a great primer and I’ll definitely be happy to pick this up in the future.

Seriously Red

Onto the red, I did this over the Black Primer, although this is a primer spray so should be able to go straight over grey plastic as well.

Seriously Red, over Black Primer undercoat

Again, a nice clear colour coverage. The colour does come out with a slightly ‘glossy’ finish, but this doesn’t cause me too many issues as I will going over this with Mephiston Red in order to bring it into line with the ‘standard’ colour scheme and to allow me to correct any errors I make when I start to apply the details.

Overall I’m impressed with both colours and would be happy to buy and use them in the future. At £8.50 each they are well priced within the market as well.

— Declan

Peter Holland, Reviews

Neat and Handy Airbrush Review

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I’ve never actually owned an airbrush despite wanting one for many years. With the birth of my first child in 2019 I decided to postpone this purchase further as I was concerned that an airbrush would wake any children in the house when I used it (myself being a late night painter).

Recently however I had seen the YouTube advert for the neat and handy airbrush. The main draw was the fact that this was a cordless airbrush and no louder than an electric razor.

Delivery

I ordered the product on 21st February via their website, when ordering you’re given three locations for the airbrush to be despatched from. These are the UK, USA and Australia. I was given updates throughout the week on the progress of my order until it arrived on my doorstep on 23rd February. 3 working days! Impressive!

The box
Note I purchased the pack with the additional battery.

The airbrush came very well wrapped inside a bubble wrap envelope, the airbrush itself sits in a foam tray as shown above, very little opportunity for this to be damaged on route.

Batteries

Being an eager beaver I charged up the batteries immediately with the USB connector supplied. There is no plug with this, so you will need to plug the USB either into a computer or a phone charger plug with a USB port. The batteries were charged within 40 minutes each and they both provide 30 minutes of non-stop use.

Note that you can also use this while connected to the power supply if you wish through a power inlet on the compressor shown below. So if you do run out of battery you can still continue using the airbrush.

Noise

So how was the noise? Was it really as quiet as an electric razor? Actually, it was quieter! I recorded this on my phone (phone is approx 15cm from the airbrush).

AirbrushDownload

But the true test of this, was my infant son of 5 months was sleeping in his cot in the next room and he didn’t even stir! Exactly what I need so far!

First Use

Here I had a problem. I had connected the charged battery, screwed the cup in and filled the cup with a little diluted Abaddon Black. I went to use the airbrush and only air was ejected from the nozzle. After playing around for sometime and becoming increasingly frustrated I emailed neat and tidy using their contact us page.

Bear in mind that I emailed them at 23:30 GMT, with this in mind I had a response within half an hour from a nice chap called John. John asked me how I had used it so far and if I could provide a video for them to view. After saying that I had cleaned the brush and tried it with water alone I was provided with a link to a quick fix.

Yup, that did the job!

I used citadel paints on my first go and immediately found that these needed diluting for them to work, but once they had a little water added to them the airbrush worked a treat.

There is very little in the way of over spray from what I can tell and the airbrush is extremely easy to control.

Conclusion

It’s obviously not a high end airbrush but it’s a perfect tool for undercoating your miniatures indoors as well as giving you an easier way to paint OSL if you wish.

Plus with the support I received I can’t recommend this brush enough!

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Games Workshop

Product Review – Etsy Warmaster Models

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From MGS, Etsy and from WM & Things, Etsy

I really like Warmaster. Seeing the 10mm units and models on the board gives a real sense of the scale of the ‘rank & flank’ battles. It allows for sweeping cavalry advances, heroic defences of massive woods and sacrifices of critical units… for the greater good!

I have an Empire army (since the release of Warmaster) and a Goblin army (built and painted last year) and am always on the lookout for some new toys. I’m not really interested in learning resin printing at the moment, so buying resin toys is a great way to see what it out there and what is available.

I recently picked up 2 new units from Etsy – a Goblin Pump Wagon (from MGS Painting) and Empire Sisters of Sigmar (from WM&Things). Both models came well wrapped and safely through the post, with the Goblin Pump Wagon needing some supports cut off, but no supports on the Sisters of Sigmar.

I tend to go for simple painting schemes on Warmaster as I can’t paint eyes and detail on models this small, but instead aim for battle ready!

Goblin Pump Wagon – MGS Painting

A fun little model, definitely clear what it is!
Finished!

Great model, and they do another version of the model as well, so I’ll likely be picking this up in the future – there are also some other great models in the shop – oooo temptation!

Empire Sisters of Sigmar – WM & Things, Etsy

Sisters of Sigmar – 6 strips and some casuality bases
Finished!

As with the Pump Wagon, I wanted a scheme that was easy to do, but tied the unit together – much like the Sisters of Sigmar would be! They are also great models, with lots of different poses, and weapons and simple robes which is where I spent most of my painting time … picking out the grey & silver of the weapons for accents.

WM & Things do lots of other toys as well, so another shop favourited to look at later. I don’t know yet what I’ll use them for but as alternative Halberdiers in Empire (perhaps with a magic weapon) or in a Witch Hunters army would work. We’ll see.

— Declan

Games Workshop

Product Review – Thermic Plasma Regulators

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I love scenery, especially for games I don’t play enough of – Kill Team and Necromunda, so I was very happy to pick up a box of Thermic Plasma Regulators from Games Workshop recently.

At £20 for 2 they are a little expensive, but may appear in a future Imperium Magazine so keep an eye out there

These are suitably silly terrain features but they do block line of sight to at least one model and have different levels on them. Perfect for a game of Kill Team. Plus you get to do cool source lighting (or if you are me, a bit naff source lighting). Terrain / Scenery is always fun for me because it is easy to paint, you can do as much or as little work on it as you like and – importantly – it can make the boards we play across look great.

So what did I do with my set:

Who doesn’t like Red & Blue!

Mine is a simple paint scheme with Leadbelcher and Ironbreaker for the silver, Mephiston Red for the red and Talassar Blue over a Corax White undercoat for the coil. There is also a little bit of highlighting following a tutorial from Duncan Roades when he was still working for GW.

They are great, and I hope to get them on the table top soon for my Genestealers to invade or my Guardsmen to hide behind!

— Declan

Fantasy, Games Workshop, Peter Holland, Reviews, Warmaster

A Budding Warmaster II

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Following on from last week’s article, A Budding Warmaster, I received today my order from excellentminiatures.com. These are Forest Dragon dwarfs printed by excellent miniatures.com, you can get these from other printers in the UK and around Europe.

The minis came very well packaged with plenty of padding around them.

The parcel
A close up of the troop bag.

Before even opening the bad you can tell that these miniatures are very detailed for their scale. Excellent miniatures has printed these off at an extremely high standard, you’re unable to see any of the usual print lines you can get from 3D prints.

The prints

The models come with the supports from printing still attached, but it’s simple work to remove these before washing and undercoating.

I’m very pleased with the order and I will be going back again once these are painted.