Zarbag’s Gitz paying it forward sort of

It’s always good to start with a plan. In this case I will try to explain my train of thought then get to the plan. If you cant be bothered reading the half satire rabble then skip to the bold plan bellow.

Before a start a disclaimer here I don’t have a great opinion of games workshop at the moment. I started with them and it will always hold a place in my heart but take my less kind comments as an opinion and with a little pinch of salt.

For my works secret Santa this year I received a Warhammer Underworlds Night Vault Zarbag’s Gitz. I presume the conversation went as follows… “I don’t know what I am doing here. Secret Santa. Budget £20…” 10 seconds later “here have this self contained army where he doesn’t need anything else but this is a complete product that you don’t need to know what he is into” [I AM INTO INFINITY OR BOLT ACTION ETC ETC] but that’s beside the point it was very sweet of my secret Santa to even attempt to get e something that I like.

So it sat in the box. The models were quite fun but I had other fish to fry. Then I seen on OTT that Sam was thinking of starting to play this (I don’t know anyone that doesn’t work in games workshop that wishes to try this or play). I though send it to him as a gift.

Pay it forward came along and I sat on my bum for to long and forgot to put it up for this. I also felt kind of bad for my Santa who probably wouldn’t care anyway and just wanted to fulfil there sacred Santa oath, but I still felt bad.

I missed the boat on that one and everyone was already paired off like a high school disco with me the pleb by himself with no one to forward this too.

Then Sam cheated on me! He couldn’t wait any longer for the box of yellow plastic he didn’t know about, he got his own coloured (probably) plastic!! Then I though of who else I could palm this onto. One to get my revenge on Sam so I came up with a cunning plan.

I would send this to Gerry. It probably wasn’t chosen as black would not come out on camera. I also seen that Gerry didn’t include himself in this. This was due to a number of reasons I can speculate on. (I didn’t wish to try and share any of this with anyone at any stage)

Supposed reasons:

• Has better taste in games ( I have not played this but with a 3 names it cant be that great).
• Does not like the others. (I think Gerry just tolerates most people only met him once so hard to tell).
• Cant take on another project (the mountain of stuff we keep hearing about).

Despite the above the plan was born.It would make me happy if Sam the cheating swine was beaten by Gerry with the force he didn’t participate in putting together off camera and sent me a vile of his tears. (not really I don’t care at this point but it was a fleeting thought)

To address the issues above:

• Painting the models and enjoying this part would give my secret Santa some closure to know (or not) I enjoyed some part of their gift even in my own way it didn’t feel right to through that lovely thought out the door.
• If he didn’t like the game he can re-gift it. I would like this idea as a nice gift for someone who is either totally into the game or cant get to own a part of it to join in. I would also hope if not one individual it would be passed around like a. [stopped myself I cant think of a PC way to end this]
• If he didn’t like the other people at OTT he would take great pleasure in beating them and being the poor winner the community talked about some time ago.
• Issue is I knew if I sent this to Gerry unpainted he would either pay it forward (which I want him to do anyway) or it would sit in a cupboard neglected an unfulfilled like most of his crying collection. (revenge would not be mine 🙁 )

So I needed to paint it and to make Sam jealous as well I would make it in a magic box of smugness! (I can see Gerry’s face just now, however horrifying it is to think about).

So I had a plan, paint some models and put them in a box and send it to someone who may use them or give them to someone else to use who actually wants them!

God that was a lot of words. So first I wanted to paint the models. I started to watch the GW painting tutorial and fell asleep after looking for the correct colour of paint. They don’t seem to say orange or yellow. So I decided to make my own path. (Just to note I did both side my side and not painted then boxed just makes it a bit clearer here.

Shame I am going to be making up names here. I think they may all be named. This is Zarbag (I think)

So Now for the exciting part. The Box.

So I has a few ideas for this. I think someone was told this is everything you need to play. I now don’t think that’s right and you need dice or something. As I am writing this I can assure you I made no room for dice.

I designed the box without thinking of everything. I would always make sure if you are measuring something measure it the right way. I went ahead and measured the cards to sit vertically. and made the box to have them sit horizontally. DOH!

I wanted to make this the box to end all boxes. A lovely bit of bespoke gaming glamour. I failed in all accounts but it is functional.

I wanted to have a card holder and a place for the models to be protected. I also wanted something engraved on the box.

The box and card holder would be made in plywood and I wanted to try and laser cut felt so I found some.  to line the box.

I also thought when I found out you use dice in this game it would be good to have somewhere to roll them so I made the lid into a dice tray.

I wanted the models protected they will be sent to Ireland in the most disturbingly cheap way possible so it needs to hold up. I also wanted to try and laser cut some infinity foam (ironically) to fit the models into positions. But I am not as good as Battle Foam I found out.  So I got to work!

I designed the box first and cut them with a laser cutter. I felt as though I didn’t want any burn marks showing so all the joint parts were made 0.2mm longer so I could glue then sand later.  I made the holes oversize to take into account the 0.5mm thickness in felt for the inside and I wanted the lid to be snug so made a lip inside the box for the lid to friction fit onto.

Here is the very overcomplicated box but it took about 45 minutes. (an hour if you include my mistake)

I then went ahead and didn’t take any other photo’s until done. The laser cutting of the felt was easy high speed and the only issue was shrinking.

I done lots of coats of gloss varnish that messed up a bit but hopefully not enough to annoy anyone but me. more bloody sanding in-between coats and failed coats. I left the inside of the box unfinished as a contrast and also for fit as I didn’t take into account varnish thickness.

I cut the foam with the laser something I was planning to buy a lot of foam for. I wont as I am unsure if it’s laser safe but the laser was only on for 20 seconds per cut times this by 3 for the 3 pieces. (also didn’t leave a very good finish)

I glued the felt down where possible with contact adhesive. Where not with PVA. as it was too fiddley.

I glued the foam down with Gerry’s favourite  UHU glue. I used off brand to not please him to much it’s called multi purpose glue.

I then smashed everything together with more UHU glue which it now as a satisfying chemical smell and took some photo’s

So that’s it a short project. It is now packed and I realised I didn’t put in a letter. So just read above Gerry or OTT. I will be popping it in the post today.

Quite enjoyable more of a major prototype feel to it all. But Gerry does like hand crafted in his models so why not in his boxes.

The paint jobs are not the best but passible and better then yellow plastic.

Now I cant hide anymore I need to update a real project.

Hope someone enjoys it.

Now on thinking of this I should have created this project first and laser engraved the QR code for the project on the bottom so in years to come people could look back on this.

F*)%£(*”K

Oh well.

Quick entry saying this has arrived. So no doubt this will have caused some confusion So thought I better make this public. (on thinking of this it would have been visible to the OTT team so perhaps should have just published it)

oh well this is short so may be best viewed from start to finish. Please click here to do that or use the link at the top.