D.I.Y. 40k Desert Battle War Game Table using Sand

Desert Battle War Game Table

Ben has been hard at work in his Christmas Break building a Desert Game Table for 40k. Ben had this to say.

I’ve been wanting a desert game board for a long time. The news that Gaz had to give his desert mat back to his brother convinced me it was time to stop wanting and commit some time to the desire.

To start of I wanted to try out and cost up a few alternatives. First in my mind was the GW Realm of Battle Game Board. Certainly the easiest way to go but also the most expensive and way beyond my budget and storage capacity.
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The other alternative was F.A.T’s Urban Combat’ F.A.T. Mat. While it’s a lovely design and also a much cheaper alternative to GW realm of battle board, it’s beyond my budget due to international shipping cost almost doubling the price.

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So the only option I had left was to upgrading my trusty old hardwood 6 by 4 board.

I looked at a few alternatives for how to create the sand effect. My hope was to use a few cans of spray sand. While the finish was promising the coverage of 1/6 of a table per can meant it was going to cost £60 to get the basic sand covered before even looking at additional paints and rocks.

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I then looked at simply glueing sand to my game board or painting it with the GW sand effect paint. While this would have provided an acceptable solution it would have been very boring to create and more importantly to game on. I wanted something that better justified the amount of effort I was going to put into the project. I went to a local model railway shop and bought a number of different grades of sand as well as some larger rocks, about £20 worth in all. I tryed out different combinations mixed in a cup until I found a mix I was happy with.
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I then had a dig around my own base making kit to see what else o could add to the board to make it more visually interesting. I came across some slate which I though I could use for small scatter rocks.

Before applying the sand I gave the whole board a spray with GW Zandry dust, sand coloured paint.

After giving this just about enough to time to dry, I used a sponge to damp down the wood and applied PVA neat. I used a plastics ruler to spread out the PVA around each board section. Some one who had done a textured board told me bush would have created brush marks in the PVA. I started the texture application by sprinkling on my largest basing slate, then smaller slate pieces, then rocks and then worked I worked down the coarseness of my different sands to create natural patterns, I tried to represent two craters on one section of the board and a rock ridge on another, but this ended up looking more like a path. Most of the sands where applied by dropping them on to the board from about 30cm, this to reduces man made patterns in the rocks. Once all the larger rocks and sand were applied I created wind effects by dropping on the smallest grade of sand from about 15cm away. This all took about 3 hours.

Once the sand has had a bit of time to dry on, I sprayed sections with GW Zandry dust paint to break up the sand pattens.

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I then applied the same sand a paint to some old buildings and hills. I also edged some of my craters with sand and called it a day. All this had taken around 5 hours. Although there are a few patches Witch needs a second application I’m very happy with the results.

And the cost?
Sand (model shop) £30
Spray paint and purity seal (GW) £30
Sand spray (HomeBase) £10
Sand pants and 1.5l of PVA (GW and pound land) £10
48x72x6mm Hard board (estimate wicks) £25
Polystyrene (skip) free.

Total build time inc hills and buildings 10 hours.

Total £105

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Did 7th Edition Make 40k Cheaper

Have you noticed how Games Workshop are putting out these extremely cheep two army battle sets in addition to the Dark Vengeance starter set? You probably tried to order Storm Claw and are currently thinking about ordering Shield of Baal, if you can be bothered to stay on the website on Friday pressing the refresh button. Although the sets comprise of some of the less popular units in the game they do represent great value for money and also contain limited edition models as well as a small rule book which has a resale value of 1/3 of the total set price. More to to the point the sets contain two, all be it very small armies. Both weigh in at around the 400 point mark similar to Dark Vengeance and just like Dark Vengeance neither would have been legal in 6th edition as one of the squads is an elite unit not a troop choice. Due to unbound armies under 7th edition it is possible to buy smaller armies using units which have higher points to goblin unit (dollar, pound, euro) values. For example Vanguard Veteran Squads which can be tooled up to over 300 points using all the wargear in the box, while the unit only costs the same amount as a tactical squad which only gets you around 150 points.

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Don’t get me wrong I’m not saying this is a good idea from a competitive point of view, but Games Workshop don’t often throw us a bone. At the moment they appear to be throwing out many. Cheap army starter sets, more flexible army construction, no basic price rise for two years in a row, soft cover codex. (allegedly – disgusting rumours spit hiss). I think some times we get so up in arms at the blunders made by games workshop, the increasing expense of their books, which lets face it we feel obliged to purchase for fear of looking cheap and their increasingly expensive new models, when the cost of plastic and moulding techniques have been falling, the accelerated release pace of army books and the core rules which again are enforced purchase items if you want to keep gaming and let not forget that big old Nurf Bat, which I think is the single biggest reason gamers quit the hobby (you mean this army I’ve spent 2000 bucks on isn’t any good now what? Why would anyone want to keep playing your hobby which continues to kick you in the face for being dedicated. Let’s not forget the rules for playing large games, which actually make the games slower??? In the face of all this, do we miss some of the good stuff? Are we seeing a new strategy from Games Workshop in the face of their falling sales numbers and share price? Have Games Workshop started to understand they are not operating in a monopoly or global economic boom? It appear they may have.

Chapterhouse Studios Open for Business

The Chapterhouse Studios web site has reopened. From the products available for sale, it appears the original court judgement is being upheld. For example the Dark Elf and power glove are still not available.

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Chapter house Dark Eldar – No longer available.

The good news is many of their other products are still there. If it wasn’t for the withdrawal of the court appeals you would be forgiven for thinking Chapterhouse Studios paid their fine and have just started trading again. What has changed on the Chapterhouse site is the use of Games Workshop trademarks. Phrases such as “compatible with” and “designed for” Space Marines are still being used. This legal cases outcome has certainly opened the way for other companies to make products for Warhammer and to use the Games Workshop trademarks in the marketing of their products.

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Chapterhouse Necron defence line. http://chapterhousestudios.com

In related news Games Workshop appear to have forced some of the Chinese remoulding business to stop advertising on some of the better know auction and shopping sites. I would imagine these remoulding business are having a much worse impact on Games Workshop’s bottom line than Chapterhouse Studios were. If someone wants a landraider they have to buy it from Games Workshop or get a remould. They can’t buy it from Chapterhouse Studios. It appears Games Workshop have learnt some important lessons from the Chapterhouse Law Suit and are now bring them to bear on those who are clearly breaking Trademark Law rather then those who might be. The question remains of wether Games Workshop are able to close down the Chinese counterfeiters faster than new ones open.

We probably all know the problem with counterfeiters, they can produce inferior versions of a product and do cost the intellectual property owner money, this can result in fewer new products and jobs at Games Workshop. The benefit of counterfeiter is they open up products to those who might not otherwise be able to afford them. They also force the intellectual property owner to consider their pricing strategy at bit more closely. Given the current barrier to entry in the 40k hobby, could this be a good thing?

All in all this may have been a good day for 40k. And to paraphrase the outgoing CEO, if you ignore the numbers it’s been a good day for Games Workshop.

Is 40k Really Too Expensive?

A couple of years back Ben wrote an article looking at how much it costs to collect a number of the armies in the 40k universe. Given Games Workshops recent changes in pricing strategy you might wonder how the cost of the armies have changed. I was recently looking through an old rouge trader era White Dwarf, which is always a recipe for a trip down nostalgia lane and a sure way to be shocked at the change in the prices. How does £60 for a 2000 point Space Wolves army sound? What would be your guess at the price of a 2000 point force today, £300, £400?
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Well the 1st thing you have to bear in mind is the points values were completely different in rogue trader and this army also contained 3 special characters. The rest of the army comprises a single Grey Hunter, Blood Claw, Long Fang pack along with four Wolf Guard in Terminator armour. It hardly sound like 2000 pints by today’s standards does it? So out of interest I’ve added up the points for this army using Gareth’s 7th edition Space Wolves codex, the points cost comes in at just over 1400 points (if you only take the available upgrades, e.g. one power fist for the blood claws). I’ve also totalled this up using the 5th edition codex. It comes in at about the same amount. Including all the power fists and cost the hand flamers as flamers add another 100 points to the total. So this is about 1500 points of space wolves.

So what would the purchase price now be?

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Ragnar Blackmain £12 (Rouge Trader price £5)
Njal Storm Caller £12 (Rouge Trader price £5)
Ulrik the Slayer £12 (Rouge Trader price £5)

Grey Hunter Pack £23 (Rouge Trader price £12.99)
Blood Claw Pack £23 (Rouge Trader price £12.99)
Long Fang Pack £22.50 (Rouge Trader price £9.99)
Wolf Guard Terminators £28 (Rouge Trader price £11.96)

Total Price
£132.50 (Rouge Trader price £62.90)

The battle report in question is from 1993 over 21 years ago. So in 20 years Games Workshops prices have gone up by over 100 percent. I don’t know about you but I was a bit surprised it wasn’t more than that. If I had managed to invest £62 in a 8%pa investment bond over the last 20 year the investment would now be worth £280.

The current Global economic climate makes Games Workshops prices look totally unreasonable, but it appears the truth is the core model range hasn’t gone up that much.

Chapter House Studios and UK Counterfit Laws

If there was any doubt over who won the Chapter House vs Games Workshop court fight the outcome is now very clear. No one did. Chapterhouse were forced to move their business’s focus to a law suit instead of plugging holes in Games Workshops product range. They were then forced to stop selling a number of their products and are currently unable to do any trading as their owner had had his assets frozen, as in he can’t legally spend or take money from people and has no access to banking facilities.

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Similarly Games Workshop were forced to shift there focus to a law suit, they have had to withdraw intellectually property from their books in the form of rules and artwork, they have had to delay or abandon certain products. No one but Games Workshop know what has fallen in to this category.
Games Workshop collectors have had to buy thinner rule books, have had to wait longer for products to be released and now can’t buy any of Chapterhouse’s products. In this lawsuit the lawyers didn’t even win. Games Workshops lawyers are internal to the business so made no more money. Chapter House’s Lawyers haven’t revived a single dollar in fees, as they did the work no win no fee.

So all around this thing was a total waste of everyone’s time and effort. If anything the only thing that has become clear to GW is what they need to do to protect their products, register all their Trademarks. It’s also clearer to other miniature makers what they can and can’t do without Games Workshops permission, and what the outcome will be if they go beyond these boundaries at least inside the USA.

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I really think this whole debate has been a storm in a tea cup, when you consider there are businesses in China who are busy remoulding GW products and selling them at about half the price GW charge. Games Workshop can’t do anything about these businesses as intellectual properties laws are very different in China. Make no mistake this is hurting GW’s bottom line. Possibly far more than Chapter House ever have done. UK law offers GW very little protection because up until recently they had been no laws to stop people buying counterfit goods. The law only prevents the selling of counterfit goods. http://www.theguardian.com/law/2013/may/08/counterfeit-goods-criminal-offence
The European courts have recently introduced laws which allow customs to detain suspected counterfeit goods at the boarder. They can email Games Workshop and invite them to inspect the goods, however if Games Workshop decline or don’t respond within 10 days customs have to release the goods again. http://www.out-law.com/page-10457 then there is the question of if customs and GW have time to check on a small parcel full of resin. I don’t think your average customs officer knows what colour resin Forge World are using.

Of course if you decide to buy these fakes from China you better not try to resell them yourself as you would be breaking the law. When you are done with them you can only give them away or throw them in the bin. If you do buy a lot of these you run the risk the police could take the view you intend to resell them and prosecute you any way. So you better paint them fast.

A few Internet Gurus were calling out for GW to drop the Chapterhouse lawsuit and focus on plugging the holes in their own product range rather than waste time on other activities. In hindsight may they have been right?

With a new CEO at the helm, who could have had at lot of input in to this decision as CFO I don’t think GW will call off their Wolves. So those thinking GW have no appetite for these court cases better think again.

What ever way you go about increasing your collection without going bankrupt, good luck.

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GW price around £500. Approximate resale value £300
Remoulded price £250. Approximate resale value £0 or £250 with a possible jail term.