Prepare for The Island of Blood
The Island of Blood will be here in three days and excitement has reached level 11 (you know, one more than maximum). On Saturday, every Games Workshop Hobby Centre will be celebrating the games release and running all manner of hobby activities, and over the last couple of weeks they've been enthusiastically painting High Elves, Skaven and new terrain pieces in preparation. Here's a look at the sorts of things you'll find down your local Hobby Centre.
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The guys in Nottingham Games Workshop decided to make a new gameboard to celebrate the launch of The Island of Blood. All Games Workshop Hobby Centres will have a gameboard set up with the contents of The Island of Blood set, which means you can pop in anytime and play a game.
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My favourite thing about the Hobby Centre's gameboard is the river, which has been modelled directly onto the gameboard. The guys built the riverbanks up using filler and pieces of stone from the Warhammer Basing Kit. They then covered the banks with plenty of Modelling Sand. The riverbed was painted with Adeptus Battlegrey, highlighted with Fortress Grey and coated with six thin layers of Water Effects.
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The board's converted Temple of Skulls adds the 'blood' to the Island of Blood. The eye has been cut out of the middle of the Chaos icon and then had an upside down 40mm round base glued under it. The gloopy blood was added using Green Stuff before being painted Red Gore, washed with Baal Red and Leviathan Purple, and highlighted with Blood Red. Finally, the hole was filled with Water Effects running into the basin created by the upturned 40mm base.
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The guys have also added a Scree Slope to their gaming table using trees from the Citadel Wood set and slate from the Warhammer Basing Kit. Models charging, marching, fleeing, pursuing or overrunning up, down or through a scree slope must take a Dangerous Terrain test.
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The staff in the Bordeaux Hobby Centre sent me this picture of the gameboard they've made to run demonstration games of The Island of Blood on. After painting the box contents, the Bordeaux staff were keen to expand the High Elf and Skaven armies and painted some extra units for each.
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The Island of Blood makes for the perfect setting for a campaign and many Hobby Centres are using it as the backdrop for gaming events. Alex and the guys in Games Workshop Palma de Mallorca made their map of the Island of Blood using the Mighty Empires set. Their island follows the outline of Mallorca.
I was also going to pop into Warhammer World to see what they have planned for Saturday but was frightened off by the giant staff member (look at the size of him!) and hid behind one of the pillars. Luckily, said pillar had a nice big information poster on it.