Review: Age of Sigmar Starter Set

Fun times ahead.

So I'm aware that at this point, it is rather late of me to be reviewing this starter set, what with it coming out nearly two years ago at the time of writing. But still, for those out there like me just now dipping their toes into Age of Sigmar and the miniature battles of glory that occur within, this may yet prove to be useful. As a disclaimer, I never played the fantasy battles variant of Warhammer, nor have I touched 40k outside of the excellent Dawn of War series. My early views of the Warhammer world were that it was the edgy and dark take on fantasy with an excessive amount of skulls, so I never touched the stuff, for I was neither edgy nor dark. Enter Total War. 

I love the Total War series. So when I heard that the folks at Creative Assembly would take a crack at the fantasy world of Warhammer, I was intrigued. After playing through the game as the various races, from the stunty dawi to the Warriors of Chaos, I was hooked onto the lore. I knew that there was a miniatures game attached, and with the fact that I enjoyed other tabletop games such as Pirates CSG and Star Wars, I decided to give the game a go. Naturally, I got the starter set, because where else would you start? 

Tempting....

Another disclaimer: I've never had a Games Workshop product before this point. I'm aware of the reputation they've garnered, but for the time I've been buying things from them they seem to have turned a new leaf. So there's that. Anyways, I open up this big box, and I'm greeted with tons of plastic. The miniatures are wonderfully sculpted, and the plastic holds detail beautifully. The sprues are well labeled, and as inexperienced as I was with this kind of miniature I found the process to be very easy. Underneath the plastic, thankfully protected by a thin cardboard insert, were the rules and guide to the game, as well as the assembly instructions. Naturally, I proceed to ignore that and go straight for what I thought were the coolest minis in the set: the Stormcast Prosecutors. 

Look at that angelic goodness. Look at it!

Removing these from the sprues was a pain, and no matter how hard I tried to be precise, I still damaged the wings (yes, I used clippers). For an experienced hobbyist, this may be a non-issue, but this is a starter set aimed towards novices like myself, so for something like this to occur can be discouraging. Other miniatures like this included the Korgorath, the large beast of Khorne, so for anyone new to the hobby, I would recommend extra patience while working with these particular models. You will also hate building reavers after you realize that there are 20 of them in the box and that there are only 10 unique models. Overall though I found assembly to be a joy, particularly the Celestant on Dracoth. 

As for looks, I know some people take issue with the Stormcast Eternals, but to be fair they do their job while looking quite good really. I opted for a different paint scheme than the blue and gold presented on the box, and that's part of the appeal of this group: they're easy to paint. But more on that later. The goretide half of the set, while excellently produced, are not my cup of tea (so many skulls everywhere), but with some creativity I'll be painting them to look more like the standard fare of vikings. The dynamic posing of each miniature is wonderful, with each one seemingly ready to leap out and plunge their weapon into their enemy. So at the end of the day, high marks for the quality of the miniatures. Onward to the rules then. 

More to it than that.

Ignoring what is available in the General's Handbook, the rules that come with the game are fun to use. The game plays in different phases: the hero phase, movement phase, shooting phase, charge phase, attack phase, and battleshock phase. The hero phase will see the titular heroes using their abilities to influence the battlefield. Movement is comprised of, you guessed it, moving, and the shooting phase is equally obvious. The charge phase allows  a unit to gallivant across the field into the embrace of an enemy unit to give them hugs of death. Combat works in a clever give and take fashion. Instead of one player resolving all of their combat actions at once, players alternate with the player's whose turn it is going first. This allows for some counterplay and really gives the game more depth, especially with other mechanics and synergies between units. In the battleshock phase, you'll see whether or not your units are cowards and roll to see if any flee the battle. These units are removed from the game, with no mechanic to rally your men back into the fray, which I personally would have preferred. I find that I very much enjoyed the rules, and the simplicity made for easy gameplay while the depth of play is certainly there. 

Finally, as to the painting. The models are easy to paint with lots of simple colors such as gold and blues should you choose to paint them that way. I went for a cream color on the pauldrons which gives them a more muted appearance. The starter set does not come with any paints or tools though, so it should be noted that you will need to get these beforehand. A set of nice paints will be a good investment for painting, although the cheap craft paints can be serviceable. 

I like it. 

I would say that the starter set is an excellent value for the price that you pay, and comes with lots of miniatures for you to build, paint, and play with. I would definitely recommend this to anyone interested in Warhammer tabletop.

A Primer on Custom Pirates CSG

Although the game has been out of print for many years now, Pirates of the Spanish Main and its associated expansions, collectively known as Pirates CSG, is a wonderful game with delightful pieces that can still be found on ebay. Even if you don't want to play the game with the original rule set, each miniature can easily be adapted for other naval games. Occasionally, one may want to customize a ship to meet a particular need or simply for visual appeal, and this can range from simply swapping out masts (kit-bashing essentially) to completely changing the paint scheme or even physically modifying the hulls and sails.

A relatively simple kit-bash and repaint.

A much more involved re-design.

Overall I would say there are two main ways of changing the outward appearance of a ship.

1. Paint directly onto the miniature.

2. Create a design on paper and then glue the design directly onto the hull.

In method 1, the painting can be as detailed as you would like, but several things must be made clear. The finish that these models have do not take paint well, and any coat that you paint on will scratch off very easily. If you do not want to remove the design already on the ship, you will have to prime the model. Otherwise, you must remove the design that the ship came in with a fine sandpaper. The plastic will remain slightly rough after this, which usually has enough of a texture to hold onto some paint, although priming here wouldn't hurt. In either case, always spray your finished design with a finish to protect the final coat. A gloss finish is recommended to as closely match the original ships as possible. 

A painted design with lots of detail. 

With method 2, you have much more control over how the design will look as paint takes to paper very well. However, unless you are using a very glossy paint the models will never have the same glow as the original models. The extra paper will also bulk up the model a bit, but this can be hidden somewhat by darkening the edges of the paper.

A paper design. 

Whichever method you decide on, remember to have fun and start simple. Overtime as you become more comfortable, your designs can become more complex and soon you will find clever ways to make your models that much more unique.

Happy Modeling!

Custom Star Wars Miniatures

I finally got around to fixing up my Republic Commandos, who looked altogether too clean for the job they would be doing. It's amazing what some black wash can do, and adding small details here and there can really spruce up the appearance of a miniature.

Republic Commandos

Use of Terrain

So I put the building on one of the maps I own, and it blends into the map very well. I tried this on a variety of the maps, and the color scheme really lends itself to being on a wide swath of maps. I'm glad that I was able to meet that particular goal.

Star Wars Miniatures battle.

My next goal for now is cleaning up a few of the miniatures that I find to be poorly painted or could be made to look even cooler, so once those are done I will post them onto here!

Completion of Painting and Detailing

I've now completed the dry brushing of the building, and I must say I am satisfied with the way the colors came out. Adding the reddish hues gave the brown a nice warmth to it while adding some rusting effects, overall creating a nice tone. At the back of the building I added some tubing using a good old fashioned drinking straw, the remaining piece of the zip-tie, and some wiring. Using wine red mixed with orange gave a nice corroded look to the pipe, ensuring that it did not look too new.

The pipe. 

Eventually I felt that the back needed one more touch, so I painted a discarded felt tip marker cap to look like a chemical barrel of some sort, using the same paint scheme as the pipe and some wiring to give shape.

Much of the detailing is now very visible, with some clones for scale.

I'm glad this project turned out so well, and I'm looking forward to using it in some battles! I've gone ahead and posted some staged shots to showcase the look of the thing.

Clones enter the building to perform some scouting. 

The building gives them a great view of the battlefield, as well as slight cover.

An AT-ST attacks!

Painting Continues

After the texturing finished drying, I began layering on the base coat with a deep brown. The acrylic paint had to be watered down in order to preserve the texture, as I found that brushing it on normally tended to obscure the work I had done earlier. This took about three coats, and even though the building looked very dark with the occasional patchiness, that would be remedied with dry brushing. I also gave the interior of the hall and upper story some splotches of brown so that the next coating of grey would have some variation to it.

The base coat. 

For dry brushing, I opted to use tan with successively brighter layers by mixing in a light coral for warmth.

With highlights.

I decided to leave the top floor/roof a deeper color to provide contrast, and in some cases I drybrushed a small amount of orange to represent rust. If you look closely, there is also a door control panel to break up the color of the front a bit. I like how this looks, and I feel that it can blend into more types of environments using this color scheme. The next step is to add finishing touches and to seal the paint.

Details and Texturing

So I decided to clean up the upper story a bit as I decided it looked too square, so I added a top bar and some triangles to break up the appearance.

The improved upper story.

If you look closely around the door, I also cut some zip-tie strips to glue around the door, and with some dry brushing it should come out to look like grating. I've also done some scoring on the walls and edges to give the terrain a used look. The tower in the back has also gotten a few details in the form of wiring. 

Texturing!

After the detailing, I used filler to create texturing and too fill in the gaps, mostly around edges where individual foamboard pieces were glued together. Another key area was the dome, as I wanted to avoid the appearance of just having it be glued on. Using some filler the edges the sharp change was gradually converted to a sort of fillet. Next I'll have to let this dry and then get on to the base coat, which I'm thinking of using a dark brown so that the building can fit into more worlds than the Mos Eisley vibe I was thinking of originally. 

SciFi Building Work-in-Progress

After hashing out a few plans to finally make some terrain for my Star Wars miniatures game, I decided to go with a foamboard building that had a Star Wars feel to it but could be easily swapped into any other science fiction game. I still need to do some detailing, but overall I'm pleased with the way the piece has come out. For my first attempt at large terrain sets I think it went well.

Some Clone Troopers explore a newly created building. Inexplicably supported by an Imperial AT-ST (for scale). 

The Space Dinosaur Welcomes You

So far I have had a fair amount of success making custom miniatures for a number of games such as Wizkids Pirates of the Spanish Main and Wizards of the Coast Star Wars Miniatures. When trying to find inspiration for these games online I found that there weren't very many pictures of custom items, so I decided to make this blog to help anyone who might be in the same boat. Although both these games are out of print, many of the same techniques and ideas should carry through to other miniatures. I'm also an avid model fan, and will occasionally make posts about the hobby. I also draw and paint, and I have a heavy bias towards Sci Fi. From time to time, I will post how-to's along with example pictures.

Here are just a few samples:

A custom 5 mast ship from Pirates CSG.

Some background pieces under construction. Pirates CSG.

A game of Mech Warrior with Friends

I hope that to anyone who finds this blog that you find the information within useful, and if there are any questions, comments, or requests to feel free to send me a message!