Review: Games and Gears Pro Series 7

Image property of Games and Gears

 

Two reviews in a row, this is madness! Or maybe just convenient timing. This time I will be reviewing the Pro Series 7S set of brushes from Games and Gears, for those of you unfamiliar with this company they are the same people behind the recent and highly successful studio ichiban line of brushes that launched on kick starter a few months back. I’ll provide a link at the end of the article so you can check out their full range of products if you’re interested (they make other stuff as well) Please keep in mind I have only had these brushes for a week, so I am writing the article on a daily basis and recording my impressions as I go along to try to provide a more accurate review.

Unboxing:

This experience was not optimal, now this is not to say I had any issues with the quality of the product, but when I opened the shipping bag and unwrapped the bubble sheet that the brushes came in I noticed that a number of the protective plastic tubes that cap the ends of the brushes had been bent. Again I will state that this is not a reflection on G&G’s product, I am well aware the horrors of shipping things and sometimes even the most carefully packed items suffer battle damage in transit, but I did find it a little surprising that they did not pack the brushes in a small box to prevent this sort of thing from happening. As you can see below, the tubing bent a little and forced the brush tip at an angle during its long trip across the pond, my heart almost stopped when I saw this but after a little TLC I managed to coax the bristles back into line, but there is still a little slant. After the initial shock passed everything set up nicely, and assembling the stand (yes you will need a screw driver) was a snap, and I didn’t find any cracks or blemishes on any of the brushes, so no complaints there.

 

 

Quality:

The most obvious thing to note about these brushes is that they are sable air (read Chinese mink) awesome mustelidae hairs aside, there were some quirks. Right off the bat I had a kinked hair in one of the larger brushes, sadly I think this was related to the bending in the plastic tubing that occurred during shipping, after a rather tense moment with a pair of surgical shears the problem was resolved, I did not see any other brushes in the set with this defect thankfully, now back to the brush heads. As I mentioned above these are sable hair brushes, they performed exactly as one would expect a good sable brush to preform, I was able to consistently draw a nice fine point each time I loaded the brush and there is a good “snap" to the bristles and no foxing in any of the tips. Time will be the real test here though and I am no slouch when it comes to brush maintenance, so I do plan on a follow up review after a few months of use. No complaints about quality at this point though

 

The feel of these brushes in hand cannot be understated. That being said the weight and balance on the brushes (even the larger ones) feels just right, they have a nice light core, probably cedar or maybe pine or another non hardwood that provides a light center. The focus of the weight of each brush is split pretty evenly at both ends and doesn't feel like either side is setting the other off balance. The subtle bulge that runs through the middle of each handle has been tooled evenly between each ferule and even on the smallest brush the PSST1 it does not feel stunted or off center. However, if there were one concern I had about the design it would have to be those dual brush ends, I have to admit I have yet to try to do the dual blending technique, or for that matter taken the plastic cap off of the other end for fear of accidentally smacking, stabbing, fwapping or otherwise damaging the opposite tip in some absent minded manner, this may not be a major concern for everyone, my painting method tends to combine the best elements of flair bartending and miniature painting, my brushes tend to find themselves partially airborne now and then (or just get away from me after a long painting binge) For now the back ends stay capped unless I am doing any blending work. For normal people though I don’t see this being an issue so 10/10 on build quality and feel.

Flow & Control:

 Flow control is something I rarely see talked about in brush reviews when it comes to miniature painting, which is a little odd, but hey, I figure I might as well include it in mine. Ok so what is flow control, easy, it’s the way a brush absorbs and distributes paint, some brushes are over absorbent and some are less so or not very good at wicking paint at all. My experience has been above average to excellent so far. The larger brushes (I used the 3XL in this case) held a decent amount of paint per load and I found myself going to the pallet a lot less than I do with my other generic brushes of similar size. The smaller brushes were a little trickier, I had to clear and thin a couple of times with the GW paints to keep them from getting over saturated, the Vallejo’s were a little more forgiving though. Moral of the story if you’re not already thinning down your paints you might want to hold off investing in high end brushes. Over all they performed quite well, nice even coats and keeping a nice fine tip in between clearing and loading, I actually got a bit adventurous with the 3XL brush and tried some highlighting with my Ork boy which you can see above, the results were pretty promising, almost no run overs on the edges and it didn’t take much pressure to get the paint where it needed to be in some of the tighter areas on the arms, this is in contrast to using the GW or generic brushes that I have used that tend to have a rather below average endurance when it comes to holding a point, I have also noticed that the cheaper brushes tend to be a little to absorbent and you have to pay more attention when loading and clearing them. This is not the case with G&G’s pro series, the bristles are tightly bound and they wick at a nice even rate and I never felt like I was fighting with the brush to get the paint where it needed to go, easily a 10/10 experience.  

starting on the first highlight layer on a irk boy.

For this these brushes worked fantastically.

Cost:

Wait that’s not on the list, but I know you probably want to know how this stacks up to the Newton’s and Raphael’s on the market. The pro series set that I got would set you back $85 USD (not counting shipping) You get 16 brushes in the set (two for each brush) which breaks down to about $5.50 per brush which is about $2 cheaper than the cheapest GW brush if you are talking msrp. How does that compare to the big dogs? Well your most basic set of Windsor Newton’s will set you back roughly $100 for six brushes that would offer you the same range as the G&G’s, that’s an average cost of $16 per brush for one third the amount of brush’s, now the tradeoff here is that those series 7’s are practically guaranteed to last you for life if you treat them right, I can’t say yet weather that is true of G&G’s, but I don’t see why these wouldn’t last me a good while with proper care. Bottom line you are getting plenty of bang for your buck with G&G.

 

Final Thoughts:

What's good:

-Affordable.

-High quality.

-Double the amount of brushes for the price.

-Good feel in hand and in use.

-Unique design.

-Comes with awesome stand (seriously I love the sword rack style)

The less good:

-Not that portable out of the box

I didn't touch on this in the article, but that dual end design and a slight tendency for the plastic caps to slip off some of the smaller brushes makes it a tad nerve wracking to put in my hobby kit, this set of brushes really begs for a nice custom clip in hard case to transport them safely.

-Shipping packaging.

Not totally their fault, but worth noting.

 

My final impression after a week or so with these brushes is a positive one, I can see myself using these brushes well into the future and would recommend them to anyone who is looking to upgrade to Kolinsky on a budget, they have some minor but ultimately forgivable quirks, but over all they performed solidly. Over all score 9.5/10.

Go Check out Games and Gears full line up.

http://www.gamesandgears.co.uk/index.aspx

Wait, there's more! How about some finished pics of those Orks I kept showing up top, naturally painted using G&G brushes :)



 

Cheers

-Scott

BH Senior WaaaaGGGHH

 

New TSoL episode up.

Episode 11 of "The Stuff of Legends" is now live. You can grab it off iTunes or get a direct download from the link below.

This week I joined Chuck, Ian and fellow guard player Bill for an overview of the new Astra Militarum/Tempestus comedies that came out over the last few days/weeks. We also go over Zone Mortalis and what Chuck has been up to behind the scenes for the escalation league.

iTunes
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-stuff-of-legends/id832274658?mt=2
Download
http://traffic.libsyn.com/stuffoflegends/SOL_11_1.mp3

Thoughts, comments and general feedback are always welcome.

Cheers

-Scott
BH Senior Paddler

New IG release extras.

There are a few un announced (but kinda obvious) goodies that are launching with the general Astra Militarum release, nothing to mind blowing, see below for a quick breakdown.

Astra Militarum Catachan Defense Force $165
Officio Prefects Commissar $21
Bullgryns $47
Astra Militarum Cadian Defense Force $165
Astra Militarum Hammer of Cádia $330

So a few interesting bits to walk away with from this one, looks like battle forces are done with, now we get defense forces or other similarly themed box sets(again not a shocker as they have already done this with other armies) Looks like the rumors about a plastic commissar are playing out (god help them if its finecast) Bullgryns are a little pricey, but for the supposed punch they pack it might be well worth it, and you probably are getting 4-5 per box. Hammer of Cádia is more than likely another mega force full of bullgryn, scions and plane Jane guard with tanks and chimeras. Everything looks pretty par for the course and in line with GW's latest release scheme, I am a little intrigued by the new commissar blister, as so far its the only model that hasn't seen much face time, customization options out of the box would be nice, but we shall see.

Cheers

-Scott
BH Senior Space Lord

Breaking! New IG Release dates.

Update: It looks like 'Orders' cards will be coming out around the same time as well.

I have gotten my hands on a few small tidbits on what the release schedule for IG might look like for the next couple of weeks, take with a grain of salt as always, but since we are basically at the release stage I don't see why GW would change things.

-Plastic Hydra April 12-14
-Cadian Armored fist (tank squad) April 12-14
-IG Codex (Astra Militarum) April 12-14

So it looks like the next two weeks are going to be back to back guard, I think there is a novel launching along with the regular kit and codex, but I don't have any details on that.

Cheers

-Scott
BH Senior Evil Twin

GW Technicals

I shot out a quick blast on the Facebook group about this stuff, but I really cant state how much I love GW's new'ish technical line of paints and washes. Most of these are geared towards insta grunge.

Fact:
I Love grunge


Having access to instant grunge effect is perfect for me, I can safely say I am now addicted, I did up a quick objective piece/demo when I was over at Legends today for their escalation league night, so dirty and corroded, the cracked earth stuff is also brilliant if not a little fragile.

 

 

I cant wait to play around with these a more in the coming weeks, 'D' still has a ton of tanks for me to paint up, so expect a lot more "distressed" metal in the coming weeks. Oh one more thing before I punch out. Nothing big, just cranked out two more chimeras for D's IG and yes I am aware of the two bolters (don't look at me I am just a painter) it came to me in that odd  configuration.

 

 

 

Special shout out to Chuck who just got back from Mecca (England)

 

 

-Scott

BH Senior Coat Fluffer

 

A knight in off-white armor

Image credit Bell of Lost Souls

 

 

It would appear that Forgeworld has gone and made the decision of weather or not to convert my plastic Knight to one of the new FW kits when they eventually come out by producing their own made entirely of resin(at least I think that body is pure resin) I can't say enough how much I (and everyone and their mother) love Forgeworld pieces, they are like the JW Blue label of the hobby. The lancer of course is no exception, I love that they added interior details (I have to assume since no top down shots were give, but it dose have a hatch) One thing I will say is that I am not 100% sold on that shield, yeah I get it, energy fields and such, but it looks a tad flimsy when paired with the venerable bulk of the Knights frame.

 

 

BoLS also has more pics of some of the other up an coming stuff from FW, mostly SM and Mechanicum (neither of which are on my Trello atm) I will say those staypuff terminators have my eye though. Check out the rest of the photos from the original post here

GW Finecast release backhands retailors

Just a little tidbit I picked up this week. For the initial release of finecast GW is basically handing out table scraps to all the independent retailers (they can order up to three models for each item out a of a list of 50 sku's) Most of the inventory allocation is going to be for GW's own retail stores and the web store. Not to far out of the ordinary, however the little nasty part kicks in here. Independent retailers wont be able to order any of the new finecast models for at least 3-4 months based on what I am hearing, so you can look forward to empty rack spaces and no juicy web retailer markdowns (though I hear WCC has manged to get their hands on some)

Comparatively this is not as bad as the euro embargo or that Australia business but it dose hurt retailers in the short run, and in some ways hurts GW aswell, those of us who want to buy on the cheap will wait the 3-4 months for retailers to get them, slashing GWs initial launch numbers if only by a little. The biggest problem I have though with this is that your FLGS is left hanging in the wind on carnifexs, incubi, and basically every cool badass you would want in your army for the next few months which means...you have to go through GW to get your fix, at retail price. It would seem that GW is taking back the reins rather brutally and this may be setting a precedent for future release practices.

I ask myself, are the corporate overlords to blame, or was it our own desire for cheap web deals that eventually did us all in. The answer probably lies somewhere in the gray area just off screen. That aside the moral of the story is, if you want that Tharka to head up your kan mob grab him now before the zero hour, or be stuck in HQless limbo till Christmas.

Cheers

Scott

BH Senior Editor.

P.S.

This is not of course confirmed so take it as you will, I have not spoken with anyone from GW directly on the matter and things do change.

Stormraven: Is it a game changer?

As of late all the buzz at GW (and the community at large) has been split between the Skaven death machines and a quirky little shoebox full of guns called the Stormraven. Yes when this big uggo was released to the blogosphear articles sprang up left and right proclaiming there love or hate for the new model. But where is the tactica? Certainly there where more then a couple people who chose to kitbash the then mysterious flying box including this handsome devil made by Brent, but there was only a smattering of actual tactics related posts. Now I will again state that I do not play Blood Angels, that's Ian's bat. Why then would I talk about this unit in battle. While I may not field the "that time of the month" marines I have watched this unit get thrown about and smashed time and time again (I also read the codex but thats not really an important point.) So let us regard this as my thoughts on the unit based upon observation.

Where to start, how about the size? Ahh yes the size, the Stormraven is not a small piece, its roughly the same size as the Valkyrie, add to that it is stuck atop a tall flying base and thus making it one tough bastard to hide "but Scott it gets its own cover save for moveing flat out" You have a point there imaginary heckler. While it dose gain the 4+ save for moving flat out its not practical to use it, especially if you are currently transporting a unit. Flatout saves where effectively castrated in the last FAQ, thus making it a rather risky proposition to chance several hundred points worth of units and up to three possible kill points on a 4+ cover save "but what about the ceramite plating, that's gotta count for something right?" Why yes it does, it discounts one weapon from the massive arsenal of anti armor based units. Don't get me wrong, flipping the bird to melta based weapons is all good in my book but its no eldar energy field (I hate those damn things) Fancy armor aside you are essentially fielding a beefier Valkyrie, this means that like the Valkyrie your opponent is going to throw every anti armor unit he has at it (well the ones within range anyways)

How would I field it in combat? Well lets look at what its designed for, which naturally is clubbing baby seals at close range (baby seals being guard, tau, eldar, nid gaunts) It also has fairly decent anti armor capability but we will get to that later. Hurricane bolters and nose mounted rocket launchers say this bad boy is good at wracking up a high body count with light infantry (baby seals) Compound that with the ability to drop off a squad of rather ornery Deathcompany and there Big black armored buddie gives you a pretty good picture as to why I see this more as a striker unit then a blocker or a hunter. The ability to drop in on an objective point and unleash a crate full of raged up armored killing machines makes the Stormraven an ideal unit for objective clearing, and after its done unleashing hell it can go on its merry way to harass other would be threats to your precious blasted out husk/holy shrine that you currently do not wish to share with the other player/s.

Ok so deep striking shoebox with assault vehicle rules makes it an awesome striker, but how about that anti armor I mentioned earlier. Lets start off with the first and for some reason most popular choice, TL lascannons. Ok these bad boys are pretty much at the top of the heap when it comes to popping heavy armor, and twin linked makes them even more potent, but here's the trade off, your almost guaranteed at the very least one glancing shot, the down side is you get one glance/pen, one. Call me greedy but I would like a little bit more out of my shooting phase when I am dealing with those pesky template chucking bastards that are currently blasting the new finish off my tac marines. This is the reason I prefer the assault cannon, sure its only strength 6 but that will hole most anything short of a Landraider (and yes I have a plan for that to) and instead of banking on one solid shot from the lascannon you now have three twin linked possible glances that your opponent is now forced to divy up amongst his squad (or forced to take all three on his precious command squad rhino/carnifex/unicorn) Let us then add a little power of the machine spirit to the mix, when opening up a transport (insert which ever soup can you are currently facing) you now have that lovely possibility of squeezing those units out into the open, then forcing saves with your trusty hurricane bolters/typhoon missile launcher. Barring some truly terrible (and very possible) rolls you can in theory have your cake and eat it to (the cake in this instance being the slagged remains of your enemy's ride and the eating it part refers to said units inside sucking the business end of your bolters) Of course kitting your raven out with some fangs (nose mounted tl multi melta) and tl lascannons can also be a nasty prospect for any armored unit so really its up to you weather you want to punch hard or land more hits.

So using the above statements one can see that the Raven dose indeed have the capability to be both gunship and transport and still manage to balance the two. As a rule of thumb though you might want to take two. Using the same logic applied from lessons learned with the landraider its usually a good idea to split your opponents target priority, this also gives you the ability to outfit one unit as a striker and one as a hunter.

I have yet to formulate any pardigrams (fancy word for another word that means organization I think) for the Ravens use with the Grey Knights. This is mostly due to the fact that I cant see into the future and don't have many solid facts about the new composition. That aside though I see the greatest value in the Stormraven being it's ability to drop off all the kids at the pool (even the chubby one) A full unit of infantry plus a dred is great, and saves the need to throw that big bastard in a drop pod. That and the cornucopia of weapons options available also add a little extra spice to the mix. I still feel though that this unit is more suited as an infantry blender then part time tank hunter. There are also a few reasons that make the Raven a less then optimal choice when it comes to points and the force org, making the Raven a heavy support rather then a fast attack really limits its potential as a game changer, you have to choose between mobility and fire power when you field this thing.

Over all I don't see the Stormraven as a big game changer, I have seen it in action and I have read the reports, most of the time it's shot down shortly after deployment. In the land of IG mech lists and razor spam its hard to weather the storm of firepower being thrown around, at best you can really pummel a dug in unit That's been eyeing up that objective point. I have been wrong before though (so we entered an abandoned mine shaft instead of the gift shop big whoop) so I am fully prepared to eat crow on this one should things turn out different.

Cheers

Scott

BH Senior Editor.

GW Glue: The sillines continues

So the other day the shop received its weekly order and while rummaging around the latest shipment of plastic crack I happened to notice something a bit odd. GW appears to have changed the plastic glue bottle to the old super glue bottle, why they did this is beyond me as the previous bottle already had problems with clogging so anything with a narrower tip just screams wasted minutes spent with a tac nail trying to de gunk the damn thing. The reason I bring this up is because Jawaballs posted a rather decent blurt about GW glues, I myself use them mostly because I just seem to acquire them while working on projects or commissions but I have to say that I do not care for them or the price. I have not tried the new bottle out but one might assume that the new bottle and narrow aperture may mean they thinned down the mix to be less like 4 day old hair gel. What do you think about the numerous design changes GW has gone through with there hobby supplies this year?

Cheers

Scott

BH Senior Editor

Undercoat Black: The straight dope

I was reading the comments on warseer about the new GW paint sets, and I noticed a trend in the comments, the amount of confusion over what exactly undercoat black is. Alright so let me start off with a little factoid that most people are not aware of, in the past and including the last paint set GW did not actually include chaos black, the black in the old paint set was actually a much thinner brush on primer. Ok so keeping that in mind, undercoat black is actually that brush on primer in a new bottle, it is not chaos black, the actual chaos black paint is a thicker mix and has a bit of a gloss finish, undercoat black is a thinner black matte paint. And indeed if you look on some of the older model boxes it shows the diagram of how to brush on the primer layer.

Well I hope that clears everything up.

Scott
BH Senior Editor.

WFB Island of Blood Unboxing Video

Bay Hammer Exclusive.
GW really takes the mystery out of upcoming releases with their advanced order page, but all the same I still felt it necessary to share this. Through my various contacts we managed to get our hands on an advance store copy of the box set and I being the progressive type that I am decided to do this un boxing on video. Mind my ineptitude with some of the unit names.




Cheers

Scott
BH Senior Editor

Rough coat coming back?

So I was perusing the latest GW North American Trade Catalog when what do I spot listed in with the GW sprays "Rough Coat" at $17.00. Now as we all know this spray was discontinued without reason or notice about two years ago, a shame since it was such a course even coat in comparison to off the shelf sprays. But that aside its re appearance has sparked a bit of interest around the Bay Hammer office (we actually have one now) so rest assured we will be getting to the bottom of this. If anyone else has any info on this feel free to email us.

This listing also comes on the heels of GW's major paint overhaul, which may soon see the removal of all bundled paint box sets if the rumblings from GW's inner circle prove true. Could we be looking at a much more conservative Games Workshop in the coming years? Let us examine the facts. First GW pulls almost all blister sales from retailers and then move a big chunk of their metal sets into the collectors range, then they reduce the amount of product per box, in some cases as much as 50%. Then of course we have the price hikes followed by the massive wave of layoffs at their retail stores and the closing of a fair amount of those stores. With smaller companies trying to take a piece of the greater war gaming pie and a economy in limbo, we may very well see the giant stumble in the next few years.

Cheers

Scott
BH Senior Editor

Seeing Double at GW

Ok so this could be a number of things, could be incompetence, could be a sign of new products to come that have not yet been properly listed. But as of this morning the GW America site had several of their 40k game books double listed, among these where Dark Eldar and Necrons, could this be a sign that these books will soon be pulled to make way for the updated versions? possibly not but interesting all the same.

if they have not yet fixed it see the double listings here

http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/armySubUnitCats.jsp?catId=cat440313a&rootCatGameStyle=

Cheers

Scott