In a first for the dark lands overshadowed by the Lead Mountain, the grimy northern town of Doncaster recently acquired it’s very own Boardgame Cafe.
Unsurprisingly, given her affinity with caffeinity the Widow has begun to weave a web-away-from-web here, and carried her brood and her faithful manservant with her.
Whilst rooting through the various offerings, we discovered an unopened and unassembled copy of 1st strike, the training wheels ‘MyFirstGrimdark’ introductory set for WH40k. ‘Unpainted miniatures! What heresy is this?’
You can pick up a copy of your own here for a fair discount
Invited by the proprietors to rectify this heresy, this archivist set about the task with gusto. Thus the Unexpected Commission was born.
In a break from our usual somewhat haphazard, vaguely blanchitsu approach, we chose instead to try and repeat some of the styles and techniques propounded by Duncan on Warhammer TV, which predominantly involves 3 colour edge highlighting. This is a bit of a shift from our usual style and technique, and a little time-consuming in comparison, but not unsatisfying in outcome.
The relatively shine is not an after-effect of our variable photography skills. Rather, we decided that as these guys would be serving as playing pieces with multiple users of many ages, it would be best to go heavy on the varnish. They now have a 3+ Save vs. Children.
In a slight departure from the suggested scheme, the bolter-armed marine was given a grotty orange loin-cloth, pairing thematically with the torn, disheveled and suspiciously stained overalls of the Pox Walkers.
Bases were kept simple, drybrushed astrogranite, again to minimize wear-and-tear.
Although some painters dislike the edge-highlighting technique (and Emperor knows, it takes some serious time), it is pretty effective when done carefully, and does make the miniatures stand out from a distance.
We gave the set its inaugural playthrough 
This might be the first time we have ever played 40k with a fully painted, based and varnished army..in ANY edition. We lost though…
Despite the seemingly endless pustules, little brass fly-icons and edges, not to mention the arduous torture of applying decals to rounded surfaces, we rather enjoyed bashing out this little box. If you happen to be in sunny Doncaster, and would like to give Warhammer 40,000 a no-pressure, no hard-sell test whilst supping caffeinated beverages, then Bake, Battle and Roll can satisfy this need, or a multitude of others. Tell them the Widow sent you.
Other games may be available. If they come with ‘Little War People’, LMW may well paint them..
The Widow, in her chitinous wisdom, has declared that we must also offer the same service to you, humble reader. With some trepidation then, we will do so. If you have a Lead (or plastic) Mountain of your own, be it GW or any other range, and feel a yearning to get someone else to grind through some of it, drop us a line using the site contact details, send us a message or a DM or a PM or a Snail with a hologram on Twitter or Facebook, and we will give it due consideration. Prices and available styles/techniques/standards will be negotiable, but might be something like x2 RRP of the kit in question. By unit, by army, by individual, we just don’t know yet. Watch this (or similar spaces) for more information on that. This is a casual sideline, rather than a full-blown business venture, at least whilst we can avoid the whips and scourges of the Widow herself, or delve the knowledge of people who do this as a business.
If you enjoy the content I generate, feel free to show your appreciation using the link below. It’s not actually coffee, but it might end up being. (Or I can upgrade WordPress and make this whole show more shiny.)
http://ko-fi.com/leadmountainwidow
Lead Mountain Widow 