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After the fun we had last year we obviously couldn’t pass up attending Barrage for a second year, once again held at the Blessed William Thingy-Mc-what’s-it school in Stafford. A mighty chariot was purloined for the purposes (well, a mediocre little car was hired anyway) and off we pottered with our MDF product racks and matching t-shirts.

Last year we were in the cafeteria area next to the playing fields which was comfy if a little bit, erm, furnacey. Thankfully this time ’round that area wasn’t used and instead the highlighted areas below were used; spreading the show over three large halls. Where did we find ourselves setup? Right next to the entrance! Wow! See, there’s a little Fox glyph to indicate where and everything.

As with most shows we tried to make sure we had some new stuff and after the success of the Tiny Tank last year, well, we couldn’t resist doing another one:

We got the stall setup and I nipped to the toilets only to find we’d already sold a set by the time I got back! That definitely put a smile on our faces and that was before John got his chance to buy one, which resulted in enormous smiles. That said, whilst John is excellent a big thank you has to go out to all the Barrage crew. They looked after us and even acquired ice and bottled water at the end of the day to stop us from melting in the sweltering heat.

Speaking of which at one point I was having a chat with someone about their game system and noticed the sunlight hitting the wall above them, casting a shadow. The reason that’s worth mentioning is that amongst the shadows I could literally see the heat wafting off the building! We’re not used to that sort of thing in Britain!

That conversation was rather memorable in and of itself as it was with the excellent Connor who I know as Drake Andrews from the Reddit Warhammer Discord. My phone made noises at me and it turned out we were at the same event – small world! He demoed some of the elements of a space combat game he’s been working on, Solar Dominion, and told me of his plans for it. With any luck it’ll soon be available and you lot should exchange currency for it as it sounded elegant and fun, even if you can’t currently shoot yourself by combining light-speed weaponry and FTL travel!

This was also the first time we decided to try something a bit mad. We had a sale at the show. Yeah, we probably should have announced that beforehand but we only decided the night before. Various things got a major show discount – as much as 50% off in some cases. We might have to try that again when we’re at ChillCon Derby (22nd September 2018) – if only to avoid having to remove the sale stickers Jenny spent several hours applying (Go to bed! You’re driving tomorrow!).

Lastly there’s our show purchases to cover, I mean, what’s the point in making a profit if we don’t start spending it before the day’s over?

I grabbed some stuff I didn’t know Vallejo made that Sleeping Dragon were selling as well as an “effect” paint that Army Painter do. With any luck it’ll allow me to show off translucent armour on a certain Orc Warlord model. I also swung by Barwell’s airbrush stand to grab some lubricant stuff and airbrush-ready varnish. Not all that exciting but also not something I could pick up anywhere local either!

Jenny on the other hand found a set of Jack the Ripper themed minis over at Black Pyramid Gaming. I think she’s planning on making a Cluedo set based on the museum she works at – how cool is that?

Anyway, there’s still boxes of stuff on the living room floor so I’d best go deal with that. Hope to see lots of you at ChillCon Derby in a few months!

Phew, some breathing room. This time two weeks ago we were supposed to be packing up stock for ChillCon 2018 (Sheffield) but it turns out getting Jenny’s hair dyed took most of the working day. We arrived at the salon at 11 and left at about half past four. Yep. Well she seems pleased and I got some work done too to get myself nice and psyched up for meeting you lot!

ChillCon was at Ecclesfield School again this year and was nicely packed, even more so than last year. Given that it was utterly horrid outside the venue I’m really impressed by how many of you braved the elements to reach us.

We did our best to reward as many as possible with thematic chocolate. I’m reliably informed that it was Easter so eggs were deployed by the bowl full. I’m proud that neither of us ate too many during the day… the leftovers we were less well behaved about though…

Anyway, before we get into the specifics of our stall let’s talk about some of the other awesome stuff that was there. I mean, you can already look at most of our stuff – you’re on our site!

The Fox Box stall was stationed opposite the wall of miniatures and glorious painted miniatures of Crooked Dice and their 7TV game system. I’m ashamed to say that I only recently had the concept explained to me at which point I couldn’t stop gushing about it. It’s about running TV shows and allows for all sorts of amazing creativity. Hopefully I can get a suitable board setup when I move next as I love the idea. I find it hard to justify buying random cool miniatures without a game to use them in – see where I’m going with this..?

Other highlights – this gargant:

I do love a good scratchbuild, especially when it’s massive!

Then there’s these charming chaps:

Lovely lads – several of them stopped by the stall for a chat. We had a nice natter with loads of folks (and occasionally persuaded them to take some minis home!) and as always it was great. I spend most of my time working in either a small work room or a casting shed – getting to be allowed out to talk minis with other people is wonderful!

Now you might expect photos of our stall in here but you’ll have to settle for one taken from behind the scenes!

Several people were creating videos of the event this year and I was interviewed by two of them. You can see me there having a chat with Wargamer Online‘s camera – I say that because Phil was using a wide angle lens meaning he could get rather close. From where I was standing everything but the lens was peripheral vision!

Who else? Why the rather smashing Paul from EnterTheWolftime, that’s who!

Right, back to the salt mines for me. Good news though – ChillCon are having another event in Derby in September!

I should probably check if we have a stall booked…

(Want to know how last year went? Jenny wrote that one up – here)

It should come as no surprise to you that I like wargames. I’ve played a lot of Gorkamorka, Necromunda, a fair bit of Shadow War: Armageddon, and some Mordheim too. What you might not know is that I’ve not played Warhammer 40,000 since third edition, way back in about 2001. I probably played less than five games of it back then as it was far too much for young me to handle, model-wise.

Last night I played my first game of 40K since then. I play at the Rogue Gamers wargaming club here in Rotherham and whilst not everything was painted (on either side) it was great to finally have a playable force on the board!

I’m part of an escalation league and we’re starting at 750 points. I knew I was in a bracket with various power armour clad armies and equipped myself based on that (a substitution at the last minute meant I was a bit over-equipped on the tank hunting side when facing Tempestus Scions but more on that in a minute).

1. Big Gav and Kranky Frank (Big Mek, Kustom Force Field, and Headwoppa’s Killchoppa)
2. Tezza’z Tin Openaz (5 Tankbustas +Boss Nob & 2 Bomb Squigs)
3. Spores of Anarchy Glowin’ Dunez Charter (10 Slugga Boyz + Boss Nob)
4. Dakar’z Boyz(10 Slugga Boyz + Boss Nob)
5. Rutger’z Raiderz (3 Grot Tanks with Rokkit Launchas and Shootas + 1 Kommanda with Rokkit Launcha, Big Shoota, and Shoota)
6. ‘Arper (Skorcha)
7. Olga (Battlewagon with Deff Rolla – open topped)

If you’re familiar with the Fox Box catalogue there’s probably a few things jumping out at you from that photo but there’s some things in there that you won’t recognise because they’ve not been released yet. Biggest of all would be Big Gav himself!

I only finished sculpting him on Monday, created a mould of him that evening, cast him the next morning, primed him that afternoon, and had him on the board by Tuesday evening!

Tezza and his lads are also new – their arms are new and so are their torsos:

There’s some older stuff in the list too – the Soa charter in there is made mostly of plastic GW parts but the torsos are our rather venerable Orc Biker torsos! Similarly the tanks are our Tiny Tanks and the Skorcha is one of our Piecemaka’ Scout Tank.

I’m afraid that you can’t buy Olga though – she’s a scratchbuild with a few other bits and pieces here and there. There’s only one Olga! (Oh gods, at some point I’ll probably need to create another…)

Anyway last night saw Big Gav’s crew whittled down by intense fire from Kev’s Tempestus Scions but despite not having enough in the way of Big Shootas they put up quite a decent showing.

The Deff Rolla I’d recently fitted to Olga proved rather effective (only 6 attacks but hitting on 2+ at S8 for most of the game) and having Kranky Frank onboard kept her safe until the Scions really focussed fire on her.

“No! No! No! You ‘oomiez leave ‘er alone!”

On the other hand the Slugga Boyz on foot were gunned down incredibly easily. Far too squishy. Clearly without their bikes that outlaw MC charter is no good at all. The Grot Tanks similarly mostly just soaked up fire (and despite the number of wounds inflicted I couldn’t save a single one with their “Rolling Scrap Pile” 6++ save). They’d have been more useful if I’d brought Big Shootas as there were a lot of infantry in front of them but hey, the list was locked in long before the game was scheduled.

Another positive – the Tankbustas happily rained rockets on whatever they could see and did plenty of damage, easily blowing up the other Taurox before it could do much damage. Their Bomb Squigs went to waste though as I didn’t quite understand how they worked until after the game. I could have chucked them out as a shooting attack at any point but I didn’t really figure that out. Oops. Better luck next time!

I couldn’t really find a suitable juicy target for the other Slugga Boyz inside Olga but they did mop up one little squad with their truly ridiculous number of hand to hand attacks (2 per boy, +1 for having a Choppa – and that’s without fancy modifiers!).

The Skorcha was similarly supposed to serve as a distraction but wasn’t all that helpful really. It was rubbish at torching things!

Eventually it came down to Big Gav (and Kranky Frank of course), and two of Tezza’z Tankbustas. They were sheltered from most ranged fire except for a ruddy great Taurox Prime. Two Rokkit Launchas did their best but only knocked a few wounds off the thing. With a great sigh and quite a lot of Joe Pesci-style muttering Gav himself waddled over to deal with the problem.

Two autocannons, frag rockets, and a storm bolter opened up on him as he approached but from the smoke emerged an unharmed and very pissed off Mek.

“You’z in trubbl’ now…“

Headwoppa’z Killchoppa went through the Taurox Prime like a blow torch through particularly warm butter. Making his way back to cover it became clear that he’d best hunker down with the two other lads and his force field generator. The others didn’t last long and eventually his number was up too.

All in all a good game. Big Gav is going to be on the board again next week taking on some Orks. We’ll see how well that goes for him, given that he’s setup for dealing with armour. Erk. Ah well, hopefully Kranky Frank will continue to be helpful!