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The Weekender XLBS: Club Life, Meet-Ups & Painting!
November 17, 2013 by dignity
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Hm, the video doesn´t work. Only for me?
Great video again guys.
I like everything Romain does regardless, always learn something from his videos, even when it’s subjects that do not really interest me.
However, an interesting subject assuming the timing works would be the deadzone scenery, anyone can spray and drybrush for a quick but simple effect, but I’m thinking more the weathering and so on to create atmosphere on the table.
For the forums, personally I’d go with the smaller number of forums, I think people are more likely to get involved in forums that have a lot of activity, seeing the last post was say a couple of weeks ago puts people off posting anything, but with fewer forums you will have more activity per forum from the start which in turn will drive more participation.
I’d second the weathering idea. Some added-value techniques that are quick to do but have the potential to lift a miniature (or piece of terrain) from decently painted to really eye-catching.
So I’m from Canada, but I’m visiting England for the first time in 8 years. Not only are you not in Essex anymore, but now you’re offering a get together next week, after I leave. Typical.
WRT Romain, I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again, SmartMax’s Smog. Even you said it, Warren, they are the nicest figures out there.
Happy Sunday all!
On the subject of forums I like the idea of a smaller number of “genre” based hubs, but I’d like to be able ti create my own within my profile where if this is possible be able to subscribe to the topic tags that i’m interested in. id still be able to see the top level tagged subjects but if I go to my profile hub then I can see threads based on the tags I want to see all in one place even if they are spread across all of the top level groups.
As to the moderating would you not be able to ask for community volunteers to do some of the more specific tag checking, spam detecting etc moderation of the forums? I know I’d volunteer some time a week to do that. And hey if frees you guys up for more content making we all win 🙂
anyhoo Waffle ends great weekender as always and good to see Warren raiding the pound shops, but now have to go out get that spray paint and try it on some of my scrap minis 🙂 just for the giggle!
Thanks for the show.
Thinking about the forum thing. The broader hubs along the lines of your content hubs, maybe adding a general for news, updates and events, along with a hobbiest, ( painting, modeling, etc.) I think would make things seem more active. As long as people tag their posts accurately, it should curtail some peoples complaints about have to read through things they are not interested in. With almost 29k members, someone will bitch regardless. Good luck.
Nice work guys.
Thanks for the lava rock tip for asteroids, I’ll pop down B&Q later and check it out.
The forums being reworked into genres fits in well with what I’ve come to love about BoW. When I found this community I was only really into GW stuff but now I’m sat on a Flames of War collection, a mercs collection, xwing stuff and soon Deadzone.
It just seems like a really great way of opening gamers eyes to a broad range of games.
Personally I love all of Romains work, always interesting and well worth a look so whatever he comes up with is good by me.
One last thing, I would be more that happy to see Justin PVA’d and flocked.
Yeah, I just recently built flight stands pretty much like that. Drop me a line if you like, I can send you the details.
Interesting, another Monday club eh? Sadly I’m about to move away from mine which gives me about two more meetings to wrap up my Star Wars RPG campaign.. and funnily enough I need to run a space battle tomorrow so the X-Wing board info was highly relevant if a little late lol.
If you have access to a good colour printer, the Sathrican Homeworld print and play set from WWG (http://www.worldworksgames.com/store/index.php?view=product&product=91) is also a good option for your space board (though holy cow is it going to eat up all your black ink!).
On the forum side, if you give the users a genre-appropriate drop-down list of tags to pick from when creating a post and make it mandatory then it will make the administration of the ‘thread filtering’ a lot easier. If somebody wants to create a post about a game which has no tag, the post can be be submitted for approval and when it IS approved, the administrator can add the game to the tag list for that genre.
Similarly, if all forum posts are tagged then you should also have the same drop down list visible from the top level of each forum section (fantasy, sci-fi, historical etc) which would allow the users to quickly filter the forum posts to show only the ones for the game they are interested in. That way if you do have someone who only wants to read about – and talk about – Infinity, he can still do that.
Guys I’m not local to Nottingham but I’m always up for a drink or 3 would be great to have a few with you all. once a date is comfurmend I will endeavor to make the trip up.
The current categories on the forums not only mean that many see very little traffic, if you want to post on a game that doesn’t have an existing category it’s very difficult to place it. I encountered this problem last night trying to place a Batman post. I definitely would like to see much broader forum categories. It may be the case that the most popular games get enough traffic to warrant their own section, that would have the added benefit of allowing for some additional filtering of content for users, but even if not, I’d much rather be part of a forum getting heavy traffic than many forums getting very little traffic.
If your trip to Nottingham extends that far, Jake Thornton is running a God of Battles narrative campaign day at Foundry on Saturday 7th. It’s set up so people can dip in and out of it and it requires no prior experience of the game. Ideally, I hope to be at both that and the Mantic open day, though finances may dictate I can make only one. With regards to a BoW meet-up, I won’t be there on the Fridays as that would involve a hotel, but could do a meal early on a Saturday evening.
It might not be the best use of his time, but I’d really like to see Romain paint a mini as he normally would. He’s often said he has to cut a lot of corners in the tutorials to make them fit the time available. I wouldn’t mind seeing a pinning tutorial as well. I know the theory, but the practice often leaves me floundering.
If broader-based forum groups require more moderating, would it be worthwhile asking for a couple of volunteers from the community to help out?
Yes I think community moderators are a must for what were going to try and do here.
*blush, blush, blush*…
The difficulty with forums is finding the appropriate place to put or look for your specific question. Take for example “What colour should I paint my dwarfs?”. Would I post that in the fantasy, Mantic, Warhammer, Dwarf or painting forum? And what if that has been posted before but is on page 18 of forum topics? I like idea of generic headings, but with a very effective search facility that relies on keywords or tags. So if I search for “dwarf” I get 100 hits, and if I search for “dwarf and colour” I get 10 hits and can quickly find an appropriate forum topic. But I also the advantage of specifc forums for those who have very niche interests only, just as long as the discussion topic is tagged properly.
Great ideas for incorporating household items into your gaming. Maybe this should have its own forum, or dedicated series of videos? I like using buttons for shields. They come in all sorts of shapes, sizes and patterns, and adds a bit of variety to my troops. 🙂
If you want height adjustable bases with tilt:
http://corseceng.com/omni-stand/
They also do the acrylic templates and tokens 🙂
I’m going to hunt down some lava rocks.
Personally I think reducing the forums is a great idea. Ill admit Ive been lost in them more than once and I usually find forum browsing easy enough.
I think that the smaller forums are a fantastic idea really, fewer forums pulling the different topics together would work well and as long as people can see the game they relate to they can still decide if they want to go in and read it or not and it may just encourage more people to take those steps in to the newer games they are seeing around.
Loving the tips for setting up a Star was board as this is a game i have a few bits to but nothing major yet. The same fore groups/meet ups, i used to go to a store and play games there, but now hardly anyone plays down there and when they do its not something i have been interested in. So me and some other who felt the same now meet up and play games somewhere else.
Also is the meet on/ around the 29th November? as i don’t live too far from Nottingham and it sounds like it could be really fun.
Great vid chaps.
I for one would be interested in seeing some DZC tutorials; Dave’s Youtube vids are good for quick and dirty getting the models on the table techniques, but I would appreciate seeing a more detailed process (for the Shaltari for example), from @elromanozo ‘s talented hand(s) 😀 I know a lot of the models in the rulebook were airbrushed, so maybe a series on quality airbrushing techniques?
Aye I loved @elromanozo ‘s PHR ship tutorial.
Great show guys. The forums definitely should be easier to use and more topics! As for what Domain should paint I’d love to see him paint a First Gen Plague from Deadzone with a none pink paint job. It’d be nice to see a different version painted buy a master.
Use the swing to the side! Is just great, i can see a lot of x-wing fans here buying those antennas for it. maybe you can use the movement sticks for sidemovement
Great vid. Love the lava rocks and Dollar Store hunting idea’s. I’ve seen things in there from time to time myself and thought “that would make a great alternative …”.
Forums? You have a forum?
Hehe never been on your forum but I know that seeing a forum with no recent posts is what stops me contributing. As Warren said, quiet forums are of no use.
Broaden the categories. Enough people here play more than one system that genre based forums (sci-fi/fantasy/historical etc…) should be sufficient. I DO think a forum specifically geared to painting and one for terrain building is a must.
Now to check the errr… alleged forums.
About the forums issue , there is a kinda middle ground :
You could subdivide each forum ( sci-fi, fantasy, pulp, horror, historical ) into the same subsections, like the following : Wargames, Boardgames, Terrain, Painting, Conversions, etc.
And maybe add some specific to each forum, for example horror will certainly needs a Cthulhu Mythos section, Sci-fi will have near and high sci-fi. Historical will have a ton of different sections :P.
I like the idea because i’m a massive fan of Sci-Fi, Steampunk and Horror in general, so i always like to see new games related to it but is kinda complicated because they are many games that fit two or three categories. For example, Kingdom Death ( yes i’m not gonna stop talking about them 😛 ) is clearly Fantasy but also Horror and if you have a Sexy forum it will fit in there too! So you might probably need to be able to do a many2many relationship between forums and threads in order to classify them correctly, loosing one game that you might love just because some of you felt is more Fantasy than Horror is not a good thing…
Another solution is to be able to subscribe to tags rather than forums that way you can subscribe to the very specific or a general thing, and that is for me the best solution because it gives both choices, those that want a broad view will subscribe to more general tags and others will do to specific games or topic tags.
I sort of feel that the forums operate fine however it is rather daunting to surf it not because of operation as mentioned but because of how it is organized…
Meaning that people who play multiple armies within one game system have to do tricks due to every army being separate from the other.
End result is most war gamers will not bother following all things within that game system due to it being too spread out.
Moderators is cool but it would attract more activity if BoW would maybe condense the forums for example…
All things being “games workshop” on one page 40k fantasy armies ETC….
Listed in one section.
All things “mantic” another section
All things “Privateer Press” another section ETC…
Develop sections by game maker, and let the gamers develop the topics, and post whatever as opposed to the spreading thin.
I mean I play several things and other games within each game makers list.
This alone would create more activity and more chances for all of us to connect with each other who share the same interests regardless of army choice or particular game.
…and what I want for Christmas is Beasts of War to give the Hobbit games out there some love in support of the upcoming release of second Peter Jackson movie.
That would make my holiday season almost perfect 🙂
It might be high time to relook at the idea of painting competitions. If that doesn’t get paint flowing then we can do a community painting challenge. We all have a sin bin, that unending void of half painted projects that we’ve lost interest in, so a good challenge to push everyone into finishing would be fun.
If you remodel the forums please don’t forget about the hobby side. Painting, terrain, and conversions are the other means into getting people into gaming.
That front temp studio is fine, especially for the winter gives everyone a warm feel 🙂
That was a pretty packed 1/2 hour. I like the non slip protection on the table toppers. I need a play surface for X Wing and have been planning on making a new 4 x 3 for Saga. I reckon I’ll be using it on both.
The possible meet up sounds as good as the venue, although anything this side of Christmas could prove difficult for me.
If Romain is taking requests I’d like to see a tutorial on painting Tattoos. like the ones on some of the Bushido figures they are awesome.
Great news about the trip to Gripping Beast in the New year I really can’t wait for that. I suspect we will not just be seeing Saga but also new Gladiator game “Jugula” which I posted about on the historical forum the other day.
On the subject of the forums the main sticking point for me is some are not that easily found. Whereas forums for games like 40K have quite visible links posted along side relevant articles.
Nice one as usual fellas, I think you should do a diorama on Justin’s head using the xwing game, few tie fighters and xwings flying around on your telescopic aerials with lava rocks 😛 I’m quite happy to have a trip upto Nottingham on that Friday to meet up for a drink as well. as for the forums, as you have said, you won’t be able to please everybody, so flip a coin, try one, if it ends up being a dead horse, change it.
Is the BOW team attending the mantic open day?
From what Warren says in the video it seems that he and Lloyd will be there.
Yes Me and Lloyd will be there 🙂
Going to be filming?
And what time you going to be at the YOTTJ? Some horn action is on order!
I would love to see Romain paint a nice pink noise marine as I really really struggle with painting a good pink.
First, great video.
Second, I am working on a design for a game table for X-Wing that uses LEDs underneath with pinholes for star light with a fogged acrylic top so the minis don’t slide.
As far as the forums, I think going smaller with general categories is the way to go with sub headings for each genre or game.
Nice Armageddon reference. I dunno if this would work but what about a RSS feed type deal that you subscribe to and updates you on the things you have subscribed to? I like the idea of bring people together though. Too much space is a bad thing if there aren’t the people to fill it. Keep up the good work boys 🙂
Night out preference for me would be Saturday 30th after the Mantic Open day as I am travelling up that morning (James has already said they’ll be heading to the local pub). Warren I’ve not forgotten that you owe me a pint as a prize for winning at Citadels at International Tabletop Day 😛
As far as the forums goes, fewer main categories makes it much less daunting when new people come in.
Loving the lava rock idea, I’m going to raid the BBQ now.
Will be good to see you at Mantic
I have to say I have liked the current forums because I have been able to find the areas I wanted to discuss. I have actually never been big on on forums because I had never been able to find anything on forums because of the broad categories.
A painting technique I’ve been wanting to tryout after I read it on Forge World’s pdf Legion painting guide, is using sponge to build up the colour and create a subtle texture to it (they used this on their World Eaters). This has also inspired me to tryout using the make-up style sponge applicators in the Tamiya weathering kits to make smooth gradations of colours (and to buy a whole load of cheap sponge applicators off ebay – well I’m not going to go buying them in the shops, lol!).
I’m going to try it out myself, but since I take a while to get things painted, it might be nice for others to see what Romain comes up with after a bit of practise with it himself.
The more concise forums are a good idea; it’ll make things easier to find, and for people to join in too. I’ve become a bit estranged from the forum stuff, mostly because there’s a tonne to look at and I don’t have the time to wade through it all.
Great idea on the non-slip space boards! Instead of angling the ships using the joint on the extendable aerials and having to counterbalance the bases, why not get some ball bearings and glue a magnet on the aerial and push the bearing into the ships slot? Try it with a spare piece of tubing the same diameter as the slot on the ship first, just in case the ship’s too prone to falling off. But if it works, it would act as a simple gimble with no counterbalancing issues. 🙂
The backstage painting segments have been great. I am new to the world of painting or, more accurately I am getting back into it after a 20 year hiatus. A painting show that goes through and starts at scratch and is level based would be great. I know the achieves have a lot here already it may just be an idea to have a online classroom setting from beginner to expert. Explaining techniques and showing them while working on a few projects. They can show that with a few things the pieces get better and better looking.
Odd thing their was a queue outside the local pound shop this morning.. weird
If you would really like to restyle Justin I suggest you go with a latex cap. It’s still funny, but you can be sure he can still edit and post videos after the experience.
As for the forums, I’m not much of a forum warrior. But I am a generalist and mostly curious about anything. So I would go with the less is more approach of having fewer categories with more content. In that case you should have the following things:
– good tags (and perhaps color-coding)
– a solid search function
– the ability to subscribe per thread
On the painting front, I’d love to see some painting vids on the Alien Vs Predator minis at some point 🙂 they look really cool. On the forum side of things, I’d say to have the more general option, the reason being, the thing I love about BeatsOfWar and MiniWarGaming is that you open the world of war gaming to the viewer. We know the overall style that we like (Sci-Fi) and it would be cool to get a little more info. on games with that style, that we wouldn’t normally look at.
Just my thoughts + it would be cool to have a meetUp in Belfast or somewhere in N.I. for us lot, just a thought.
Don’t you “folks” me you bastards. 8-x
Nice idea on using lava rocks….
I may try and drag my backside up from Wales for the Mantic Open Day…
Another good chat guys,
on the forums I’d go for the strip back, makes it nice and easy to mooch around in and you might see a topic that intrests you that you wouldn’t have seen before,
on the painting front airbrush techniques following up on the anarchy models masking stuff or weathering techinques using powders and the like.
Thanks Warren, blowing my morning coffee out my nose following your enjoy some crack and play with your ring and horn comment. Don’t know if you realize how funny that sounded to an Aussie, but hey, your Irish, it’s in your blood.
A simple cheap idea for basing your asteroids (lava rocks) would be to glue a nail to a fender washer and spray paint them black. You would likely not even notice them on the black tabletop. Also you could get them on the trip to buy the lava rock at the same store.
Another quick thought is you could get different length nails or cut them down so the asteroids are at different heights.
One comment I have on reorganising things is more at videos then forums. Under the TV option there are some series but not other, perhaps updating this in to the series (battle-box and beyond, Flame of war for the win, unboxings) and then group them by game its a little easier for people to find what they are after. Would this be possible?
Hey Guys, great video once again, Just wanted to say that Myself and my friends are all out in Notts Friday night for my Birthday so we’l make sure we’l swing on by =D
Started a thread for those interested on having a drink with @warzan and Brother Lloyd
http://www.beastsofwar.com/groups/backstage-green-room/forum/topic/backstager-meet-up-the-ye-olde-trip-to-jerusalem-and-mantic-open-day/#post-92252
Aerodrome Accessories have magnetic gimbal that attach to the flight stands and the airplane or spaceships. They make storage easy. They also allow you to bank the models on the flight stands. I imagine they would work fine on your antenna flight stands.
Look here: http://www.aerodromeaccessories.com
Good looting Warren, this is gonna save me a whole bunch of teef! Poundland will feel the full force of my WAAAAGH!
Oh and on a side note chaps I think the broad based forum approach would work best. One for sci-fi, one for fantasy etc etc
super excited about Romain coming back, love his tutorials.
I would like to see Romain paint either a Dreadball MVP or else a Deadzone character.