What GW should do - "Think Different"

In case you didn't know I've bought Citadel Miniatures and GW products since the late 80's. I also have a blog, it's quite cool you can view it here. Those two facts alone qualify me to make 'suggestions' to Games Workshop and their subsidiaries in how they can grow their company/improve their products. So, free of charge I will be sharing some of my sage business advice to them and just you wait as 'we're bound to see them take forward my ideas with gusto. Of note though is that I started this article way back when and may have begun to disagree with myself along the way but I'm loathe to delete it, especially when I've nothing hobbywise worth sharing at the moment thus you must endure my ramblings.

By all accounts GW believes it's hit upon the most successful formula for their stores - the one staffer run shop. They seem to think it offers the best returns for their investment and I can see why but I think they need to look at a retailer with massive success, a similar fanatical customer base and similar 'drop-in' sensibility to their stores - Apple no less. Of course their markets are wildly different but in some respects Apple has made the stores greater than their wares. 100s of people go in, not necessarily to buy but just to be in store. GW has less 'footfall' but with the added dimension of getting people inside to participate in hobby aspects for potentially longer periods of time.

However, as you can see this:

or this:

Seems a very different prospect to this:

Obviously Apple has a lot less stock to sell and as filled as the GW store looks back in the 80s/90s this would have been practically empty of stock given the rack upon rack of blister packs. But surely there is something they can do to try and lift the look and feel? A quick look around google images shows a variety to their stores, with some having faux castle battlements but the predominant motif seems to be black. Now black is cool, all the kids will tell you and maybe black is the perfect colour for GW and it fits their logo better than anything else but there's an oppressive and dated feel to it [maybe even that iconic logo too for that matter] that I think could be improved. But it may be ideal for their 12-25 male target audience.

However, recent changes to their books have shown a shift to white in places to make some of the artwork standout and it's not like Star Wars Stormtroopers or White Scars for that matter get a raw deal for not being black.

Maybe it's the lack of space, but square footage comes at a premium and despite the healthy returns on a Finecast I can't see GW investing in bigger premises with one guy overseeing quite the way Apple does. However, this image by Dave Jessup from the G+ TableTop Fan Community shows that you CAN make a game store look not entirely unlike an Apple Store. This looks quite stylish, quite cool, a place I'd not only happily hang out in but be intrigued to go into.

One other issue is the Disney Store greeting that you get from the staff. Don't get me wrong, I like having a chat with the store managers but I think that "how can I help you today?" or "so, what brings you here?" faux American service industry needs to reassert it's own British identity that can engage with customers but not be immediately in your face with fake sincerity.

They need to create a more enticing atmosphere that will draw curious and nerdy onlookers inside. Maybe they even need to look again at their food/bevarage policy and have their own coffee facilities on site. Lets face it another couple of quid here and there from someone who may spend the day just painting in a corner and nipping out for their drinks is a couple of quid in GW's pocket that they didn't have. And it's not like they couldn't market that either!

 

Like I say, some random thoughts there, some contradictory but I think they perhaps need to look at  other retailers. They do sell a unique product and it has been noted that even with economic problems there have been times where GW has bucked the trend but equally there are some indications that sales are down. By looking at other shops, and with Apple they didn't even have any stores 13 years ago and now they're almost ubiquitous in major cities, they can see if there's anything new they can do. This isn't a 'we've always done it this way' moment, they need to reinvigorate the brand, stores and potentially diversify to build the customer base.

What ho Space Hulk

When I started getting interested again in the hobby [read falling off the wagon] it was right at the last release of Space Hulk. I saw that it was a limited edition and I tried to weigh up getting it as it only had a few miniatures that my son and I needed to paint and would be an easy entrance into gaming for him. Alternatively I could get 5th Edition 40k which I knew I would ultimately want too.

In the end I waited and missed the boat. I always regretted that decision. I desperately wanted the cool Genestealers [although I have since got many of the more generic ones from the set] and the Terminators, though Blood Angels could have been converted to their Fallen brothers. Not to mention the many fond memeories I have of playing it with my mate Chris, back in First Edition. And it's a cool game to boot. Eventually my Mother-in-law gifted me 40k for Christmas and so my descent into hobby bliss continued. Obviously since then I've looked at many ebay auctions with envy and regret so to hear a re-issue of this edition was imminent was very exciting to me...

...and then it wasn't.

I'm pretty sure the reason I've lost interest is the price. From what I recall the previous limited edition was £60 [or £65] this new re-issue is £75, so we're talking a 25% increase on something that already exists, something that's unlikely to require new molds, thereby making better value of those already made. Now that's not to say that that's not still a bargain compared to ebay prices but those prices are only inflated due to the limited run from 5 years ago.

So that new price has gone over my tipping point, and that's baring in mind I didn't buy the hardback copy of 7th Edition or Stormclaw that I intended to, so I could argue I have the funds. Granted I bought other things instead but I just can't justify to myself that price, not at the moment, despite wanting it so badly.

Now ERIOCHROME posted this article the other day that echoes many of my own feelings but I can only reiterate the single biggest mistake in this is a limited run. It will make the ebay market a little more competitive, that's all. If it was still £60-65 and it was available all year I would definitely be able to plan ahead to take advantage of that but given the tiny lead-in time of a weeks notice then I can't shoehorn in a purchase of that scale. Sure I'm having a loft conversion done and that isn't cheap either but that is part of the problem, I'm seeing £100's and £1000's going out on a daily basis and I look at my office chair in the 'hobby room' that's been broken for about 3 months now which I've delayed replacing and in all good conscience I'd rather have that done, so I can paint/browse the internet in comfort than fork out for more plastic.

Oh and Mrs 40kaddict said no!

Anyway I do have some new Genestealers to paint and these are they. The funny thing is I never bought them, erm I didn't steal them either, although I thought I might have. What happened was they arrived in the post from Triple Helix Wargames, via what I believe is their ebay trading arm which is aa-wargames [or something like that]. I opened it and was really excited, had I won something only to forget? But I didn't remember paying for it either. Now I immediately though 'Free Stealers' but then I thought no, these aren't mine and someone would be expecting them and the sellers ebay rating would be affected. So I searched for completed listings and found the auction, found the seller and knew then that it was in error. So I rang Triple Helix and left a message and then also sent a message via their contacts page but never got a response so actually forgot about them over the last fortnight.

The funny thing is I started getting some cryptic messages from an old Kendo buddy Tom Widdows about bitey things and claws and teeth. Tom is an actual British Kendo Squad member and practices in Manchester. He's the guy on the left in the picture below with my friend Joe Willmott. This was taken at a fund raising event for the victims of the Japanese earthquake where we put on a demonstration and I first discovered Tom also had a passion for 40k, when I saw he had a copy of Gaunt's Ghosts with him.

When I was able to practice kendo I was a little in awe of Tom. Although I had a few years more experience on him he'd clearly crammed in a lot of training which had accelerated his learning and meant he graded quicker than I. When you add in youth, enthusiasm and a bucketload of talent I found myself learning an awful lot from those practice sessions. An absence of ego is a key element to kendo, something I continue to struggle with but believe in and seeing someone better at something you've spent longer doing is a humbling experience but ultimately rewarding. Since I had to give kendo up we've kept in touch and he's shared quite a few of his hobby related activities on my Facebook group these Eldar being the most recent but there's some crazy tru-scale shenanigans from way back too.

Anyway, he'd asked for my address recently and I'd thought it was something to do with a recent North West Kendo Competition that Manchester, Liverpool and the other local clubs had arranged/supported. But it turns out it was to deliver these Genestealers and it was a genuine gift, no doubt to help fuel my own hobby and the blog. Tom is struggling with his hobby mojo so I guess at the moment I'm doing what he can't and he's doing the kendo I no longer can. He mentioned starting a hobby blog, which no doubt would be cool but personally I'd rather see him do a Kendo blog. If I could still participate I would, whether that would mean I would not be doing this, or maybe just in a reduced capacity I don't know but Kendo is a way of life. As much as I love my hobby I'm aware that it's a passion, an obsession, an addiction, it may control me but it does not define me. 

So this is a big thanks to Tom for the unexpected gift, I can now paint them without any guilt attached knowing they were for me all along and I'll look to try and add some of my spare Stealer bits so they're more interesting. So in a week where I felt marginalised by the excess of the new Space Hulk it is an act of generosity from a friend that reminds me of the spirit of the community, the meeting people and sharing experiences that are the core of what we do. So I will admire the Space Hulk as it returns and hope that in 5 years time it will come back this again, but for now I'll stick to the 10 first generation Stealers that emerged from hibernation unexpectedly but most gratefully.

Support your local blogger - www.feedyournerd.com/greggles-tabletop

Greg Hess has been a regular supporter and commenter on this blog for quite a while now, he's even taking part in this years Hobby Season, but he also has his own blog on the Feed Your Nerd website, here: www.feedyournerd.com/greggles-tabletop

He's just come back from the NOVA open, his first visit to gaming event and there are a gazillion pictures available from that event. Why I think you should pop on over is it's clear that not only is he supporting my own blog but he is commenting on lots of others. Every time I nip to one of my favorite blogs I find Greg's words of wisdom somewhere. I talked a while back about how blogging networks aren't as effective as you'd think and how you really need to put the mileage in promoting your own blog yourself. Greg was the first person to comment and state his own views, in particular his first tip was

1) Actually visiting other peoples blogs and commenting on them. (That's the whole point really, meeting new people and learning tips and tricks to the hobby!)

And he does just that! He's joining in in the community and trying to foster that spirit. from the looks of the NOVA open he got to meet up with some of my other favorite bloggers and I think that's further testament to the spirit of the hobby. Its not always about having the latest miniature or win at all cost list, it's about entering your first painting competition or attending a gaming event just to see what it was like and take pictures, even if you're not competing, I love that!

But there's other stuff on his blog too, plenty of painting and with quite a To Do List for the 2014/15 Hobby Season there will be more to come. I particularly like his Black Templars, there's an understatedness about them that is enhanced by the little touches of the grass tufts, and scenic bases.

There's also a really good tutorial on painting brown rock bases that's worth taking a look at.

And a tutorial on magnetising a Techmarine that I wished I'd found sooner, doh! :(

So nip on over and support Greg the way he's been supporting us all over the past few months.

'nids part 151 - Project Z?! Another mystery project

Just a quick one. Project Z was one of my mystery projects on my Hobby Season To Do List, but what is Project Z - well, it's a mystery! The funny thing is that although these very early magnetizing shots reveal very little no doubt there will be some who know or can deduce what this is.

To be honest it shouldn't be difficult to work out but where is the fun in that ;) I had not intended to touch Project Z until well after Armies on Parade but given the inability to do that scale of modelling but the possibility to do this amount I thought I'd get it out of the way. Latest news on AoP is that according to my local GW the new rules suggest a board is no longer necessary/part of the rules. It's the army itself that will be paraded and should fit on a 2'x2' board but the board is not necessary...

Anyway, as you can see some pinning is also going on, I had a nasty moment were I dry fit some of the magnets and despite being careful still managed to mix the magnetic poles up! Lucky some drilling and digging about with pliers got them out.

This one also manages to bare no relation to it's counterparts but so far the various parts seem snug and strong enough. I'm debating why I'm doing this, it may well be sheer madness to undertake such a magnetising project but I can always Milliput it should everything go horribly wrong.

There are in fact a couple of perfectly valid common sense reasons to magnetise but I'll get into that later on as and when the scope of Project Z is revealed. Just an interesting note that the blue paint was used to try and indicate where to drill and has combined with the super glue. This was all over my fingers and somehow I didn't bond them together. However right in the midst of all this my new phone turned up. Can you imagine the monumental self control required to not open such a thing because of the mess that needed to be tidied up first and to ensure I didn't bond Bahama Blue paint permanently to my One+ One!

This is what I call an upgrade!

The 2014/15 Hobby Season Alumni Update.

I just got a new entry for the Hobby Season 2014/15 To Do Lists so I've updated the Alumni post and I'll duplicate my overview here for Mr Tardy ;)


Liam Ainscough http://bluewarpstudios.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/the-201415-hobby-season-alumni.html
Liam arrives late to the party, which reminds me of the Throne of Skulls before last when we arrived to pick him up only to find him playing his game console, still better than Scott last time, he was still working and sat in his underpants! He's been on holiday though, so we'll let him off. He's got a massive list of 17 items but some of the individual items alone could fill an entire To Do List. I do feel a little guilty as he's taken the Armies On Parade challenge I set him to heart but reports suggest AoP, though active, which I thought wouldn't happen, will be scaled down. No National Competition and there's no requirement to create a board, just that your army will fit on a 2'x2'. So he's spent good money and time building something he didn't need to. Still it'll look good no doubt and I can't wait to see what he comes up with, so go check his list and offer up your support.

Dark Angels - Techmarine - TO DONE!

This is almost embarrassing, just a few days into my Hobby Season and I've completed something and already it's 'off list'. If I'm honest it was mainly done in 2013/14 season and in actual fact was completed 4 days before the new season rolled over but due to the unique way the blog is scheduled it'll get the 2014/15 stamp. 

It's also a bit weird because this guy seems to have appeared from nowhere. He's only really been seen here. What's happened is that after a Red Oxide undercoat and assorted washes and Vermilion drybrushes his armour has pretty much painted itself. Whatever I did it just happened organically so there was little to indicate when I should take interim pics.

When I finished the Devastator squad I looked at the Dark Vengeance Tactical Squad and was slightly disheartened at the 10 marines that needed to be green and this red fella just called out to me. All I needed to do was get to a point where is backpack was ready to go on and I could tackle the metal elements. The build/paint order got messed up and I had to do a number of separate sets of bronzing and red armour but over the course of two or three days during the loft conversion he got complete.

I did have a bit of a disaster near the end where I big blob of VerniDas gloss varnish went all over his face, instead of the tiny dot in his bionic eye! Must remember - use a cocktail stick in future. Thankfully a second coating of Anti-Shine solved that.

I'm a little concerned that the yellow pipes seem to have the same level of highlighting as the plasma glow from his backpack, or Power Field Generator as I'll probably run it. Also the Chapter symbol is a bit wonky, or perhaps it's a bit 'tribal' the wings are rustic at the least and that sword blade is more like a kipper tie but I like it. He has few litanies, just the dots on his Dark Angel shoulder pad and these are meant to be written out as 'binary cant' - his Astartes oaths written in the language of the Ad-Mech.

I didn't want any other markings as he's already a bit busy. I added more Bronze/Verdigris in the joints because when it was all red it was a bit dull but it certainly 'punctuates' the red... a lot!

The glow effect isn't quite as successful as the Dark Vengeance Plasma but I'm happy with it

Even trying to cast the OSL onto the servo arms, it's a bit hit and miss but overall I'm really chuffed. This is an awesome model and relatively cheap for what he brings. Even if you don't take the Servo Harness this model rocks. 

I did have a Rogue Trader Techmarine that my mate Liam gave me a Zinge Industries Robotic Servo Arm for. I was super keen to get on with the conversion until the 'no 3rd party parts' rule came up for Warhammer World, which prompted this purchase.

I'll still go ahead with my old guy at some point, but until then this will fulfil my Techmarine needs. Hopefully I'll share that with you, the Techmarine needs to be stripped as its currently metallic green! Just of note is the Auspex on this guy, it turned out a bit pants, but at least some Tamiya Clear Orange X-26 and coating of Vernidas helped salvage it, as with all the other lenses.

If I'm honest I wish I'd got the one with the helmet as it's bad a$$ but we make do with what we've got.

And thus I get the first deserved/undeserved [you choose] off list red stamp of approval for 2014/15. Fact is I'll be completing a lot started in the previous season so, as Dr Sheldon Cooper B.S., M.S., M.A., Ph.D., Sc.D. once said "Cathedra mea, regulae meae. That's Latin for 'my chair, my rules'". Hope you enjoyed the pics at least :) another 70 to 100pts at least for the Dark Angels.

Dark Angels - 5th Company Ferron Task Force Deployment

I now have 760pts of Dark Angels complete and despite the creative problems from the beginning with Dark Angels green I think I've managed to create a cohesive force. There's all sorts going on colour wise but I think overall they've managed to at least be consistently coloured.

I'm still not digging the Librarians and Sergeant's loin cloth chapter symbol. I may repaint the Sergeant's loin cloth as a quartered company badge, in the mean time I'll suck it up.

Thankfully the Tacticals and Devastators match up nicely.

And they even fit in well with Brother Cask.

And the little Watcher too takes a place of honour amongst my 'green wing'.

Together with the Deathwing they make a compelling force.

A subtle difference in the colours of the bases but I think that's to do with the later adoption of my Pumpkin highlight which I can easily add just a little to the older bases to make them current. At least the bronze patina and reds, both on the models and base edges tie the remaining colour elements together in this force.

Still not happy with his green loin cloth and lack of markings on the scroll on his chest. I'm thinking of making his heraldry badge pure white [or a 'field of silver' as it's officially known, I think] with some more extra markings on

Just what is that Sergeant pointing at? I never realised until now how daft that pose was.

Decent sized Storm Bolter barrels!

Oh yeah, the new missile launchers have so much character...

Cask needs his name on his shin guard. I have a fine technical pen but when I added Army Painter Anti Shine to seal it it did the opposite and made the archive ink run! I wonder if I should have had a glow effect on Casks vision slit? And you can also see the vagaries of Army painter Anti-shine in that Cask's base edges are super matt, while some of the other bases are almost satin. I may whip over the edge with another coat of Vallejo Extra Opaque Heavy Red. I've said before, it is in no way similar in opacity to the old Mechrite Red but three or four coats and it has a gorgeous richness that Mechrite never had.

 Now I basecoat the edges with Mechrite, for coverage and then add the Heavy Red. My various pots of Mechrite have weird properties too, some are matt as my original pot was, some are glossy. I think this is down to them needing a proper mix which unfortunately given the dwindling supplies makes that harder to achieve, hence why I now Mechrite and then Heavy Red.

So, next up is the Dark Vengeance Tactical Squad, that's at the green highlights stage. Its laborious but I've found my cack-handed attempts at wet blending relatively simple. I can get one or two highlighted a night and then it's all the fun elements of adding details. I'm not sure why I've got these on my To Do list, they're not even part of my basic Army List. But they look cool and green wing is both interesting and less offensive to me [creatively] than the Ravenwing. 

I've also got my Dark Vengeance Deathwing on the go and I'm up to the same point - main armour highlights, only Bonewhite this time, not Caliban Green. Again, not something I can afford in my list but having ten terminators gives me options, I just need to decide who gets the Cyclone Missile Launcher - on e of these guys or one of the less dynamic but more in need of making them look individual Assault on Black Reach termies...?

Then it's Ravenwing :( and also a look at some transports which thankfully are on both my lists, or at least some of them are ;) I can't believe I'm actually getting some of these done