Vallejo Texture Acrylic - Rough White Pumice

During my latest hobby hiatus I came across Vallejo Diorama Effects, and thought it would be a great way to base miniatures quickly and efficiently.

I finally got around to trying out their Rough White Pumice, which I chose because I thought it could be used to represent a number of different scenic bases (with the right paint job of course), and I was happy with the result.

There are some great reviews on the range of products on YouTube, but I thought I would share my results here anyway :)

Medium layer applied to the bases for
 Ork Kommando Kill Team bases

Left in the sun to dry for a little while...

End result - expected outcome achieved,
with minimal effort

Sync out.

Bandua Wargames Q-Buildings Pack - Review

I’ve now got the Bandua Wargames Q-Building Set assembled, so this will be a continuation of the unboxing post I put up earlier.
Overall, the buildings were very easy to assemble. After I had watched the assembly video during my unboxing (all of Bandua's assembly videos for the Alpha Series can be found here) all the buildings followed the same assembly format, so I didn't need to refer to any assembly instructions to put the other buildings together.
The pieces all slot together smoothly and the joins between each piece are quite snug, and after a bit of PVA are very secure.

Here is the completed set, with some 28mm miniatures for scale

A close-up of the doors, which fit into their tight in their frames and don't fall out

Here are the buildings stacked on top of each other to make a three story structure

My only gripe is that the L Building, once stacked on the XL Building,
has a door leading to nowhere. In this photo I've taken the doors out to
emphasise the design flaw

The L Building stored inside the XL Building

The S Building stored in the L Building, which is still inside the XL Building

Conclusion

Overall I'm very happy with the product, and I'm very glad I picked up two other sets to fill out my Infinity table with.

• The simplistic design elements of the buildings made for quick and easy assembly, and the basic geometric shapes of the buildings will make determining LOS/LOF during play very straight forward.
• Apart from 'the door to nowhere' created by stacking the L Building on the XL Building (which I won't be doing for my tables!) the stacking works quite well - I can still stack the S Building on the L Building or the XL Building, giving me a bit more variety in my tabletops
• Storage for the pieces is great, and works as I had expected from videos and reviews I had seen online

The major complaint I read online about this set is that the buildings were quite plain, which I do agree with. But given my preference for simple, geometric and functional terrain, I actually see this a positive feature. I like my terrain to have clear-cut corners - Infinity has enough surprises with AD Jump Troops and TO Camo models that the last thing I need to hear is "Oh, actually this Total Reaction Spitfire guy has LOF on that order".
If you don't mind the simple design, then I'd highly recommend this set.

Sync out.

Warsenal Barricades - Unboxing

Earlier in the year, a friend of mine was doing an order from Warsenal, for their awesome Infinity Templates. I took the opportunity to order up five sets of their Barricades to add to my terrain collection.

At USD$3 for the set of four walls, I couldn't resist! I thought they would make a great-looking, cheap option for cover.


Unboxing

The sets come in a snap-seal plastic bag, which seems pretty standard for MDF terrain these days.

Here are the contents of each set. Two long walls, two short walls and six stands.

And here they are assembled, which took the better part of one minute to snap the stands to the walls. The snap fits aren't very snug, so I'll need to glue them together for the pieces to be solid.

And here is a shot for scale against a 28mm miniature for scale.

Conclusion

I really like these pieces of terrain - simple to assemble, cheap and look great on a sci-fi table. Not really much more to say, but here are some thoughts:

• At USD$3 for four walls they are very well priced, and a solid option for some table filler terrain
• The designs, while basic, will fit in with many other ranges of MDF terrain available
• It would be nice if the stands 'snap-fit' snuggly into the wall pieces so that I didn't have to get the glue out, but that comment probably speaks more to my laziness than any fault in the product

I've decided not to follow up this Unboxing Post with a Review, simply because there isn't much more to say - it's simple, functional and great looking sci-fi terrain.

Sync out.

Bandua Wargames Q-Buildings Pack - Unboxing

I recently picked up three sets of the Q-Buildings Pack (for a total of nine buildings) from Bandua Wargames official Designed for Infinity Alpha Series.

What initially attracted me to the product was the way the individual buildings could be stacked on top of each other, giving the option for multi-storied buildings, and the way that the buildings could be stacked into each other for easy storage.

After a few months of being unable to track down the product in Australia, I discovered Slave to Painting, and put an order through for three of the Q Building Sets. So let's get to the unboxing!


Unboxing

The Q-Buildings Pack comes in a sealed plastic bag.

Opening the bag I find two smaller bags (which have the Q-Building S and Q-Building L), the parts for the Q-building XL, and a sheet of paper.

On closer inspection, the paper doesn't have any instructions, just the contents of the set. After a quick online search, I found that Bandua Wargames have provided some great assembly videos on their website. Here's the one I looked at for the Q-Building S
http://www.banduawargames.com/en/designed-for-infinity/4431-q-building-s.html

So I get to work on the Q-Building S, laying out all the pieces to ensure everything is there, and to make it easier to find everything during assembly (this is what I do for IKEA furniture as well).

After about 5 minutes, referring to the online assembly video, I had the pieces dry-fit together. I hadn't used any glue at this stage, just to ensure I got the assembly right and that the pieces fit together as shown on the video.

Here's a photo with a 28mm miniature for scale. It would have been better if I used an Infinity model, but we're currently moving house and my Infinity models are in one of the many unlabelled boxes somewhere.

Here are some close up shots of the detailing on the MDF.

Conclusion

I'll post up a full review of the product after I've got all the whole Q-Buildings set assembled, but for now here are a few thoughts after unboxing and playing around with the product:

• Online assembly videos are awesome, and I found them much better than following instructions on a piece of paper
• I think the detailing on the MDF is quite good, but I guess this is subjective. I prefer simple looking terrain for Infinity, to make LOF issues easier to resolve and to keep the focus on the beautiful Infinity models
• The plastic bag packaging seems a bit flimsy, but I guess as long as the order comes boxed it shouldn't be an issue. I had three sets in a single order, so that was sent together in a box

So that's the unboxing done - so far I'm quite happy with the product but I'll do a full review of the Q-Buildings set once I've got all the buildings glued and assembled. I'm keen to see how they stack on top of each other, and how they go stacking into each other too.

Sync out.

Back 2 Base-ix Paint Rack Review

Last night, the replacement parts for my Back 2 Base-ix Paint Rack arrived! The original shipment arrived heavily damaged, but Back 2 Base-ix's brilliant customer service prevailed and I've now got my completed Paint Rack, and I couldn't be happier with the product. Totally worth the wait!

That's product, and I paid AU$55 including postage. There are a bunch of reviews online available already, all of which have been positive (which lead me to my purchase), and this will be more of the same. If you need a paint storage solution, look no further!

The acrylic pieces come with a peel-off protective coating on both sides (to protect from scratching), which is little tricky to get off if you keep your fingernails short - but the wife and I managed to get them peeled and ready for assembly in 10 minutes.

Now, it was just a simple (and somewhat fun) assembly process, following the instructional videos that Back 2 Base-ix provides. The videos are VERY clear and concise, and they build the product in real-time. The music is quite soothing as well, which rounds off the whole construction experience.
The design of the product is brilliant, considering all the pieces are flat-packed sheets of acrylic.

After about 15 minutes (18 minutes if you include receiving a phone call from Mom) my Paint Rack was complete! Sturdy, functional and stylish. It's the pride of my desk, and I've been glowing everytime I look over at it.
No more rummaging around a drawer for my paints like a chump!

Oh, when I purchased the product, there were options for different styles of paint pot - I prefer painting with the Formula P3 paints, but there are also options for your Paint Rack to fit Citadel, Vallejo and other major paint ranges. You also had the choice of different colours for your acrylic pieces too - I chose clear shelves, with a dark grey translucent chassis (although in the photos it comes out looking black).

I think that's all there is to say really - a fantastic product, from a customer-driven company. I couldn't recommend this product more - if you need a paint pot storage solution, grab one of these bad boys (or another stylish variant from their wide range) today! This was actually a birthday present from my two awesome brothers, so of course a special thank you to them!

Sync out.