X-wing mat

So I love terrain. He blog has shown that. I love it when games look cool. X-wing is an awesome game and space is an amazing place to do battle, deserving of an awesome backdrop. 

I had looked at lots of ways of making a great gaming surface and had a ton of ideas for different things, from sprayed cloth and felt to hard table surfaces. One idea that had caught my fancywas vinyl   mats. I could find an image and have it printed out in a way that would give me a cool graphic fast and make something that was easily transportable. 

I costed it out at a few local places and got everything from an $80 to a $300 dollar quote. That wasn't happening. A lot of places also had either weird time constraints or image restrictions. It was kind of a nightmare. 

I was sad about it and started to go back to looking into other alternatives when I found a place online and everything changed. 

http://www.bannersonthecheap.com/

These guys have a ton of options for cheap and I think have some really cool options for epic size games but I was looking for a 3 x 3.

Long story short I uploaded an image, sized my play area and 30 dollars later including shipping to Canada I had this.

Pretty cool stuff. I downloaded the image from NASA, they have all the best toys to get those pics.

I'm planning out two other mats now, one with large asteroids in an asteroid belt to get that never tell me the odds feel (plus it will let me incorporate big space worms trying to eat ships) and a Death Star surface table. 

Cool thing I didn't realize until after ordering from these guys was they do double sided printing, so you can get two mats in one for a pretty good savings. 

Now I just have to get more asteroids up and going for a better 3D feel. 

There is a little curl to the mat but that's vinyl, I'll add some washers and it'll be gold.

The white border is in addition to the size I ordered so it gives you some room to hold ships and the like. 

Until next time.

May the Fourth be with you.

It's a fun day for those who love Star Wars today. Between light sabers, blasters and the force its a good time to remember three awesome movies and pretend like three others were just bad dreams.

I've had a great time playing X-Wing of late, it's the game I've been waiting for since I saw the movie as a child. If you sat through A New Hope and didn't walk away dreaming of piloting one of those ships, dog fighting and speeding down that trench, I don't know what to tell you other than you're dead inside.

Few things were greater than opening up the Falcon and having my wife stare at me as I flew it around the living room making ship sounds and telling the kid not to get cocky.

So for the day instead of a battle report (which I would have loved to do up) I've collected a few of my favorite fan fic movies.

Also for the future of the franchise, we really REALLY need to just get video game designers to write it out. They've shown they can write a cooler story, with more believable and enjoyable graphics time and time again.

But remember when it comes down to it,

Until next time.

A couple cool kickstarters

So with the advent of things like kickstarter we've seen a lot of really cool ideas brought to life. And for miniature gamers that's been a pretty big deal.

More cool ideas, products and figs have hit the markets in the last few years and consumers have really driven what they want. And I think more than anything they wanted options.

So whats cool of late? At least to me that is.

Modern Pinup Miniatures, Bawidamann Style!

 Bawidamann has been a big deal to me for a long time. I'm a big fan of pinup art and militaria. This man put them together and the effect is in a word AMAZING.

From WWII pinups to more modern adaptations, they are sweet.

Love this one.

And a zombie hunter for good measure. Again, love it. Not as big on her face but maybe it'll look better painted.

So yeah. they're amazing, I want them, I have no idea what to do with them but I don't care and my wife likes them so they're basically pure win.

Second on the list are some really cool moderns.

Spectre Miniatures

So modern combat mini's set in Africa. Cool. Super cool. It really sets up what I think is an under represented genre in mini gaming. And these guys do it really well.

Over the head is how to hit things.

Love the RPG, live the RPG.

I HAVE TO HAVE THESE! Seriously these guys look awesome and would be amazing in modern and sci-fi settings for sure. Again amazing. Love the EO-Techs.

Gotta have big wigs and or some spooks.

And from Canada, my own homeland

Creature Caster: First Wave 

If amazballs were to ever become a word it would be over these demons. Straight up. 

AMAZING.

So I'm pretty pumped about all the cool gaming options coming out of late. Really awesome stuff that is inspiring us to break out of gaming slumps, try new things and have a ton more fun.

Until next time.