Build Party

...so I got together with lars4life & another friend not too long ago for a night of "non-specified gaming related activity" - meaning, we knew we were going to do something hobby related, but we didn't know what.  I threw my Army Transport, a few unbuilt models, and my portable tool kit in the truck and headed over to his place.

What we wound up doing: first, we checked out a local shop that I haven't visited before.  We recently got the unfortunate news that our FLGS is closing down, and this shop is the next-closest one - unfortunately, they don't stock any Games Workshop products, being mostly a Privateer Press / M:tG / comics store.  We spoke to one of the employees who said they were seriously considering picking up GW products, but the main problem is space - namely, they have none.  They are still considering getting the "basic" GW product setup, with the freestanding rack of products like you see in a lot of franchised hobby shops.  They were actually very friendly, offering to accommodate us with playing space for 40k games even though it's not a product line they carry right now, even going so far as to say they would set up extra tables in the basement of the store if necessary.  The three of us were also looking for various models for our Warmachine armies and they didn't have anything we were looking for, so we jumped back on the highway and drove to the other side of the city to another game shop, with much better results - I picked up some books & models and other assorted stuff (more to come on that in the next few days).  After that, we got some dinner, stopped and picked up some beer, and headed back to lars4life's place to build some models and BS.

How do you know you're an "old" gamer?  You buy your beer in pints, and they cost as much as the twelve-packs you used to buy in college...

...Overall it was pretty productive, I got most of my Khador Battlegroup assembled:

...one thing I wish I would have known BEFORE starting assembly:  The plastic that Privateer Press uses for their models is much harder than GW plastics, and plastic glue won't do a thing.  Nada.  After trying to get the 'jacks assembled for the better part of two hours, I got sick of it and busted out the pin vise and super glue - as a result, EVERY joint on the warjacks is pinned, except the heads & legs.  After searching some forums the next day and figuring out that plastic glue is worthless, I popped off the few pieces that weren't pinned and re-glued them - no harm, no foul, I guess...

One extra touch I added was to drill out the bombard cannon on the Destroyer warjack with my rotary tool:

...overall they're very cool models - I dig the steampunk/dreadnought aesthetic, and I'm looking forward to painting them.