Interview with Custom Minis' Michael Sanford

Custom Minis, which operates out of Dallas, Texas, is the brainchild of Michael Sanford.  He is one of a small group of Warhammer fans making accessories using 3D design and printing.  Here we talk with Mike about his little operation.

1)  How did you get started in wargaming?

I started wargaming when I was introduced Battlefleet Gothic about 12 years ago.  From there I started playing Warhammer 40k where I played 3rd edition Chaos Space Marines.

2)  What games do you play mostly now?

Now a days I'm a big player of Warhammer 40k, with a Chaos Space Marine, Eldar, and Grey Knight Army, and an avid tournament player enjoying many of the local Texas events such as Alamo GT, Wargames Con, Wastelands Wars, and The Railhead Rumble.  I've also started getting into Warmachine/Hordes with a Legion of Everblight force that reminds me of my Eldar Army.

3)  How did Custom Minis start?

I started Custom Minis when I was in the need for some bits with my Grey Knight army.  I wanted to do some custom Rhino Hatches and Guns for Dreadnaughts so I went ahead and did some design work in 3D.  And was introduced to a printing company online and decided to give it a try.  After the success of the guns I decided to offer my 3D skills to use for those who wanted to have unique bits for their armies.

4)  Is it safe to assume that there would be no Custom Minis if it were not for 3D modeling?

That is definitely safe to say.  There is something about an undo button that has always made me more comfortable as an artist. 

5)  What is the state of 3D printing right now?

3D printing has come a very long way since I was first introduced to it 8 years ago.  It has become much more cheaper then it was before, and there are now companies popping up offering the use of their printers that make it easier for start-ups

6)  Is Shapeways the best place for a 3D modeler to have his wares produced for sale?

Shapeways is currently the best place for mass producing 3D prints.  They offer their services to anyone and handle all of the payment and shipping.  However if you're looking to do prints for masters for casting purposes there are other companies out there that can give better quality prints at a higher cost.

7)  How long is it until every 3D Modeler has his own printer in his home/office and prints everything himself.

3D printers are still pretty expensive these days.  Good quality ones can run you the cost of a car, and the cheaper personal ones are still in the $2,000 - $3,000 grand range but can't handle the quality a miniature company would want.  But I think in the next 5 - 10 years we should be very close to having 3D printers at amazing quality and price.

8)  You focus on shoulder pads and heads it seems, but are your autocannons your best seller?

The autocannons are by the the best cross-customer seller right now.  But the Shoulder Pads are by far the most commonly custom commissioned.  Shoulder pads are one of the best and easiest ways to customize an army, and they are a cheap way of making an army stand out.

9)  You started casting items in resin.  Why is that?

The cost of printing for larger items can get quite expensive.  For the Autocannons I wasn't really making any money off of them, just a couple bucks.  And then when the British pound dropped compared to the dollar it became cheaper for people to go through other methods, and I just couldn't drop the price below the printing cost. 

Because of that I went ahead and started experimenting with resin, to provide cheaper products for my customers.

10)  What is the future of Custom Minis?

As I expand into resin I'm hoping to be able to provide larger quantities of custom bits at cheaper costs.  I'm also looking into the 15mm game range, where I can do entire sets of vehicles and infantry.


Thanks to Michael for his time.  Visit his site at www.custom-minis.com.  And next week we will be featuring two pair of his Dreadnaught Autocannon arms for our give-away!

Loken

Quantum Gothic - An Interview with Founder Rob Cirillo

Probably my favorite resin accessory and scenery companies is Quantum Gothic. Their scenery is simply amazing and shows real design sense. Well, no wonder, their founder, Roberto Cirillo is a professional artist who has worked extensively in the gaming industry. He is a super guy and he agreed to be interviewed.

So here is a bit about him:

Roberto, who was born in Pompei, Italy, started his carrier in 1992 when joined Core Design Ltd ( UK ), as an in-game lead 2d-3d artist/animator.  In March 2004, Roberto joined Games Workshop Studio Design Team as Conceptual Artist.  He was lead on concept art for Tyranids, Tau, Cities of Death, Space Orks and vehicles, LOTR, and more.  Since leaving GW in January 2007 Roberto has freelanced for various clients including : Privateer Press, GW, FW, Nival Online, Mantic, Studio Mc Vey and as the owner and designer of the Quantum Gothic scenery range resin kits.

''I Live for the Sci-Fi and Fantasy and those projects which will let my skills and imagination do all the talking!''

And now the interview:

1. How long have you been gaming and how did you start?  How did Quantum Gothic start?

It started as hobby and almost a bet.

Before joining Games Workshop I was quite simply a videogame artist/player addict!

Although I had always admired the level of skills gone into creating a physical miniature nothing would ever compete – in my head and heart of course - with the fact that I could create virtual characters, give them life and interact with…on a TV screen!...RELOAD!

It’s only after I started working at Games Workshop that I begun developing a great interest in miniatures and tabletop war-gaming kits. What’s more is that during that time at GW I was also given the chance to make muck-ups of Ork vehicles and what more that sparked a wild fire from within!

On top of all that I was heavily involved with the making of the Cities of Death concept work of building/scenery and so when later I left GW to go freelance I begun thinking to perhaps let all this ‘fire’ out and see what I could really make of all that, and so Quantum Gothic was born!

3. The look of Quantum Gothic terrain is unique and clearly from a more artistic angle. It rivals anything on the market. Is that because of your design background?

I have always been attracted by a more clean and high-end sci-fi style like you often see in Star Wars: beautiful futuristic clean and functional sci-fi structures and vehicles.

However getting to know better Medieval and Gothic architectures gave me the chance and the excitement to mix the ‘new’ and ‘old’ together to really appreciate a new level of sci-fi style generating an almost perfect balance between my clean artistic sci-fi side to my more technical and mechanical down-to-earth school/study backgrounds ( yes I have studied mechanics, technical drawing and Industrial automation back at high school! ).

4. What is the process you use to design and execute your models? Do you start with sketches and then move to 3D design?

It always starts with an idea or more like a flash or a vision which then I try to put it down on paper to see and study the feasibility not only from an artistic point of view but also practical. Usually if the idea stays exciting for longer than a few quick sketches then it’s worth developing it further.

Sketching the ideas on a piece of paper it can quickly show me the possible issues I could incur in to during prototyping and even production of the final kit. Once I’m happy about the overall key design and the virtual number of parts I then proceed in building it into 3D. Here I have to take into consideration the limitations of the tools which will mill the various parts: sometimes a larger part must be made into two or more pieces and then put back together before moulding it.

5. Do you outsource the actually casting of your pieces and if so, where is all the work done?

All the work is done ‘in-house’: from conception-design to casting, it’s really a lot of hard work but worth it when you see it all nicely packed and ready to be shipped to the next customer!

It’s almost like a ‘print on demand’ process but this will also allow us to Quality Check the kits before shipping them out, hence high quality kits: no warped parts, no miscasts and no annoying air-bubbles ( or at least not on visible areas ).

6. What is the process you use to come up with new models? Do you look at the market or is it more what strikes your fancy?

I tend to think on my own: I usually work out on what the Quantum Gothic range really could benefit from and then make it into a profitable/marketable product. I look around at what’s new out there but I only do what I feel is most appropriate for the range.

There are hundreds of ideas lined up ready for consideration and most of them will get made regardless of the game trends or what everybody else will release: the beautiful thing about owning your own business is that you get to make your own mistakes and not someone else’s!

7. What is coming down the pipe for Quantum Gothic?

Well, lots of new stuff, can’t tell more about it also because more often than not various reasons projects will be switched around or held up, so would not be wise to be too specific at this stage. What I would like to say is that now I feel like making something really BIG!

So, it may take a while but it’ll be well worth the wait. Meanwhile there should be some small add-ons for some of the Sentries and the Wall sections,….but it could all change ;)!

Power Generator

Armoured Bunker & Gun

Sentry Gun

Kirk Damman - Siegeworld Founder

Since starting the Apocalypse40K forum, I have met a lot of great people who pioneered Apocalyptic battles before there was Apocalypse.  The guys at Siegeworld are at the forefront of the mega-apocalypse insanity.  And Kirk Damman was the guy who really brought it all together.  Here is a conversation with Kirk.

1)  How did you get into 40K?

I’d been a role-player for a lot of years in high school and into college.  All sorts of games, but mostly Shadowrun.  The amusing thing is that I really played them more as a games developer than as a player.  I found it much more fun to write scenarios (and to GM them) than I ever found in playing in them.  I’d bumped into Games Workshop as my very first role-playing book (given as a Christmas gift by an English cousin) was the “Call of Cthulu” Role-playing game that GW produced at that time.

In college I got heavily into Magic: the Gathering.  However, I really loved to collect the cards more than to play the game.  My first exposure to Games Workshop tabletop games was when I spent a semester abroad in England.  British cousin (again) had been heavily into Blood Bowl and had a whole shelf of White Dwarf.  He was away, but I spent a week with relatives where I got his room and ended up reading way too many articles from them.  I particularly remember the article on Space Marine medics (and a particular piece of art where a medic provides the emperor’s peace to a poor guardsman).  I loved the concept of the game system and the fluff, and even went to a local GW store (where I got a five minute intro to EPIC).  However, I knew nobody that played, the painting massively intimidated me, and I continued with MtG.

In Law School, I ended up losing interest in MtG.  The game was getting too competitive and the collecting aspect has simply become “buy the singles you need.”  I was therefore looking to get involved in a new type of game and that summer, while interning, I found myself at DragonFire games in Boulder, CO.  They had a very active WFB group and so I decided to try this tabletop wargaming idea.  I picked up Bretonnians (because they didn’t require a coherent paint scheme so I figured they would be easier to paint).

I’d bought the original starter paint set (that had a chaos warrior and a space marine) to see what it was like to paint.  I quickly started writing storylines for space marines from reading the current White Dwarfs and developed my own chapter.  At the time, third Edition 40K was just being initially talked about, so I continued to play fantasy and waited for it.  I got the 3rd ed. big box, and that was it.  I was a 40K player.  I still play fantasy, but not nearly as much as 40K.

2)  What armies do you play? 

I still play Brettonians in Fantasy, however my true love there is the Dark Elves.  I also have a full Dogs of War force.

In 40K, I play what I call “Imperium.”  Although amusingly when I was getting ready to play 40K, I’d figured I’d play the ‘Nids.  My original army was the space marines.  I’ve always played my own custom Chapter (“Midnight’s Spectres”) and my army today still includes my original space marine from that starter paint set.  A lot of the reasoning was because the Marines were easier to paint and I figured I should learn what I was doing on stylized armor before tackling the organic Nids.  I also really liked the idea of painting “heraldry in space.”  However, like in Role-Playing, I loved the fluff and couldn’t stand the idea of having to play a force with characters and history I couldn’t create.  My marines are now to over 30K in points and comprise one Grand Company (or basically half a chapter).  That’s about as big as it’s going to get.  One part of my Chapter fluff that hasn’t changed since the very beginning is that my chapter was broken apart by their master early in their history (due to events that almost resulted in their destruction), and the parts shall never meet.

I got into the Guard because of Forge World.  Specifically, I got the very original Leman Russ Conqueror kit (with the mail away coupon in Citadel Journal).  I wanted to have a color scheme and someway to mark it, and thus the Saharrian XLV was born.  A desire to pick up the Armorcast superheavies (which had just been discontinued, I’d actually gotten the Nids before they stopped producing, but got the tanks later) also led to further refinement of the XLV.  I never figured I’d be a guard player, but slowly fell in love with them over the years.  Now the Saharrian XLV is my biggest army over 30K in points) and I’ve added three more guard armies.

I’ve also added a pretty heafty Ordo Malleous force, two titan legion (Legio Astraman - the Morning Stars and Legio Victorum), and have a good sized SoB force sitting around waiting for paint.
 

3)  Are you more into the modeling or the playing?

I’m more into the storytelling (fluff).  I spend far more time writing history and background (and refining the army makeup) for my armies than I spend building them or playing with them.  However, with that in mind I am definitely a modeler.  At the same time, even with 10 years of playing, I’m still not what I would call an accomplished painter.  Mostly because I don’t want to be.  I’ve wanted my armies to stay consistent over the years and thus haven’t really changed techniques since when I started.  This means my marines aren’t highlighted or shaded since I didn’t do those techniques ten years ago.  Part of the reason I added new forces is to allow me to actually play a bit with painting more advanced techniques.  My Grey Knights allowed me to actually use highlighting and shading and to do some real freehand work as well.

I do, however, consider myself to be a very good converter.  I rarely truly scratchbuild anything, but my army is full of conversions all the way from simple part swaps, to reposing, to completely custom tank variants.  Most of my scratchbuilding is confined to big models (such as my Leviathan, Imperialis, and titans).

 4)  How did Siegeworld Start?

I got started in large scale “mega-gaming” early.  The first 40K event I ever organized was a two table game with 4 players where we each brought 2000 points.  I’d also played in some fantasy mega battles probably 12-13 years ago now.

Basically, my hobby interests have always had me interested in megagaming because I don’t ever sell anything.  Once its part of my army, it basically stays there, forever.  I can count on one hand the number of models I’ve painted that I don’t still have and use.  Thus, I always want to actually put all these models on a game table.

I consider the genesis of Siegeworld to actually be the third “Hjork.”  If you’ve heard of Hjork, I’ll be impressed, but it was a floorhammer 40K game in New Hampshire.  It was sort of loosely associated with Dakka Dakka (back when it was a club w/ a website as opposed to a website).  I lived in Boston at the time and already liked to play big games, so I drove up carting around 8K in marines with me and a bunch of Forgeworld and Armorcast models (and the first units of the Saharrian XLV an Armorcast Shadowsword and Forgeworld Baneblade).  This was the age of the VDR (and Imperial Armor - the Softcover), so we had rules written for all the nasty war machines and had a blast.  The Hjork quietly died a few moths later without a further event, my understanding is due to internal disagreements between sponsors.

Meanwhile, I’d moved to Saint Louis and wanted to get a “Hjork” type event going in Saint Louis.  I had gotten hooked up with Adeptus Basementus (or AB as it was commonly called) as a game club here in Saint Louis as it was founded.  AB had a philosophy of fun gaming events.  Tournaments were often part of it, but the point was to have fun.  For example, at AB tournaments the last award given (and the most important) was sportsmanship.

AB’s philosophy took off and we had spun off a number of sister clubs (Adeptus Kansas City, Adepetus Windy City, Adeptus Twin Cities, and Adeptus Toronto to name a few) which were all consolidated on the AB website.  The core of us in Saint Louis, having run some fairly major events here, were looking to do a major event to bring everyone together.  A national event that could compete with Games Workshop’s Games Day while being organized by fans.

I decided to actually organize the floorhammer game I’d wanted to do while the other organizers looked to create a Convention type event with modeling workshops, tournaments, and other types of events that all the Adeptus clubs’ members could attend.   The convention organizers found a cheaper venue in Chicago than they could get in Saint Louis (due to a familial connection and some help from our Chicago sister club and GW Chicago where AB’s club president now worked).  Both events went forward, however, and both have been going on ever since.  Siegeworld is still in Saint Louis doing mega games while the convention is also still in Chicago under the same name, a shortening of “The Adeptus Convention” -- “Adepticon.”

5)  What is the purpose of Siegeworld?

Siegeworld has always been about being a showcase and simply having fun.  A lot of aspects of “the hobby,” to use the words of Jervis, have their championships.  Tournaments, obviously showcase the ability to build an effective army (and play it well) within certain predefined criteria.  The Golden Daemon rewards outstanding painting and (to a lesser extent) modeling ability.  Yet, I have always felt that these awards miss the point of “the hobby” as a whole.  Slayer Sword winners often don’t play the game at all (or even have an army) and tournament players regularly denigrate requirements of painting or background as unimportant.  I see “the hobby” as being something more immersive than those who are champions of these pieces will likely ever obtain.

Siegeworld is designed for the gamer who bleeds ultramarines blue and couldn’t imagine not playing their army simply because the codex is 10 years old (and horribly outclassed).  This is the person who has named all their sergeants and have rolls of honor for them, even though the miniature is rarely used.  It’s designed to be a showcase.  I think it far less impressive to paint one hero to a standard to win the Slayer Sword, as it is to simply paint, by hand, 500 lesser troopers.

On thing Seigeworld is not is competitive.  As is announced every year at the start of the game, this year’s Siegeworld will end in a draw.
  

6)  But if it ends in a draw, what’s the motivation.

Siegeworld has an ongoing storyline, written by the troops and players that write it.  Each year various objectives are presented and who captures what effects the story for the next year.  The very first Siegeworld involved troops making landfall on Artemis IV, the massive planet of war which is the site for all Siegeworlds.  In the following years, players revealed that Artemis IV was covered with a series of fortresses of unknown construction, each housing an incredibly rare (and very powerful) crystal deposit.  For years, they have fought for those.  They have also encountered some weird anecdotes on Artemis IV itself, including the strange disappearance of some troops exploring below the surface (now more than 8 years ago)…

In 2010, Siegeworld: Storm the Citadel advanced the world significantly as players got to attack the unique fortress called the Citadel (a chaos bastion) discovering an extermiatus cannon preparing to fire at Artemis IV’s largest moon.  The attacker’s managed to stop the shot from going off, but all that means is that in 2011, the players will be fighting on that very moon to try and figure out why the Dark Gods were trying to destroy it in the first place.

If the attacker’s had failed and the gun had fired.  That was a different storyline.  One now that hasn’t been revealed (and may never be).  What happens on the moon will also effect the storyline.  In this respect it doesn’t matter what forces win or lose, its effectively a “choose your own adventure” novel where I only give you the pages after the battlefield has decided where you’re going.

7)  How did Apocalypse affect Siegeworld and the big games you play?

It finally gave us a couple of things.  The first was legitimacy.  Prior to Apocalypse, a lot of people looked at big games as a bit freakish.  You were using the rules, but yet you were doing so much beyond the rules that a lot of  more narrow minded players would question if you were even playing 40K.

The second thing it did was finally give a better framework for custom models.  Up until that time, the Forgeworld rules were the only guidepoints as to what custom (big) models should be and they were very limited.  While most of us had used the VDR (and still had books providing it) the VDR lacked options due to it always being existing weapons with specific modifiers, it also just forced cheesy choices at times.  When Apocalypse came out, suddenly the doors blew off what was possible.  Flyers now had rules that were more universal (as did bigger guns).

The best thing it did was allow me to not have to write as many rules.  I’d written hundreds of pages of rules to deal with things like the available weapons for a Warlord titan to how an Imperial Guard Recon section worked.  With the release of Apocalypse, much of this became “official” (a word I hate) allowing me to focus on rarer aspects and eliminating debate on whether a certain house rule at Siegeworld was “fair.”

 

8)  Will Siegeworld continue to be played on a huge floor, or will you guys move to tables?

For the foreseeable future we’ll stay on the floor.  It’s much easier to reach models on the floor allowing the battlefield to have more depth.  Large table battles always seem to end up as just massive lines of troops shooting as they march.  This to me feels more like the Revolutionary War than science fiction.  Logistically, tables are also just to expensive and hard to deal with.  We don’t have a local battle bunker (we don’t even have a local GW store anymore) so we have to rent out everything in the location.  As Siegeworld always has been (and is intended to always remain) a free event, the cost to get tables (and to store the terrain) would just get out of control.
  

9) There is a huge arms race going on with serious Apoc players.  How does this affect Siegeworld?

We’ve definititly seen the escalation in forces.  The good thing is that for our size and style, the arms race is going in a lot of directions at once which is serving to help balance things.  We regularly have 20+ titans at our games but they are far from overpowering (very few survive the whole game).  Most players have discovered that large forces with any type of focus tend to work well.  Some players are building titan legions, while others will soon be fielding their chapter’s entire first company of terminators, other have tank hordes, and others are starting to feel the pull of aircraft.  We have found, because of the flexibility offered by a very large battlefield, that there is very little that is truly overpowered or unstoppable.

Basically, most of our games are balanced by size.  A large titan is scary, but it can’t stand up alone to 20 deep striking dreadnoughts harrying it with multimeltas.  Because we don’t use tables, players are less confined in how they use their forces, which means that specialists are sent where they are needed and basically everything can be stopped.  What this means is that our arms race is more one of sheer quantity.

10)  What is the future of Apocalypse and what is the most glaring aspect that needs attention?

I think Apocalypse needs to become a part of “mainstream” 40K.  Like Kill Team (or Cities of Death), it needs to have its main rules made part of the main rulebook.  Right now, the problem is that the Apocalypse main rules are slowly falling out of date.  With that there comes necessary rules interpretations and house rules.  Basically, Apocalypse needs to become less of an alternative way to use 40K models, and simply “the official” rules for large games of 40K.  As such it needs to be updated at the same time as all the other rules to make sure everything stays workable.  That means the main rules in the main rulebook and data sheets in the codex (or everything in a living rulebook on the website) simply to make sure it stays current.

The biggest challenges in Apocalypse right now are threefold.  One is simply dealing with the fact that the Apocalypse datasheets were often written prior to the current edition codex (and 5th ed. rules) and therefore refer to rules and units that simply don’t exist anymore.  90% of rules debates in Apocalypse games relate to how a rule that hasn’t been updated for changes to its parts should be handled in the current edition which is frustrating.

The second issue is STR D weapons.  It was a good idea, but was simply made too good too fast.  There needed to be another tier between STR 10 and STR D when the rules were first written and STR D really needed to be a pinnacle which very few models have.  This oversight on GWs part (probably becuase they really geared Apoc for 40,000 point games, not 400,000 point games) meant that STR D weaponry has become a universal go-to for every purpose by players looking to play Apocalypse a little more competitively.  This often makes players irrationally fear playing against titans and feel that Apocalypse isn’t fun.  Alas, STR D is so entrenched now there may be no way to really deal with it (except house rules), but it is something that ideally needs to be addressed at the highest level of the rules.

The last issue is simply getting players to understand that Apocalypse is not tournament 40K.  I’ve said that everything you need to know about playing in an Apocalypse game you can learn from watching the movie “Gladiator” because Apocalypse is the gladiator ring while tournament 40K is a WWI trench.  In a tournament, tabling your opponent is good because it ensures a top level win.  In Apocalypse, “a quick kill is boring.”  Similarly, there is no honor in crippling your opponents by your “skill” before they ever enter the ring.  Like in the movie, the audience doesn’t like it, it makes for a dull combat, and you often end up on the wrong side of your original allies.  Finally, the purpose of the event is to please the crowd.  Gladiators who have a bad day (read: thumbs down) are generally those that didn’t put on a good show.  You can still have a good day (read: thumbs up) even if you lose the fight.  Apocalypse is best when treated as what it is, a war game, not a war.

Greg Patterson - Interview with an Apocalypse Apostle

Greg Patterson is a big time Apocalypse gamer and one of the guys behind Siegeworld.  I took some time to interview Greg because he is an active part of the Apoc community.

How and when did you get into 40K?  

My older brother bought the Rouge Trader book way back when it first came out i don't remember how long ago. My two older brothers started playing with some friends and they got out of it pretty quickly. My first miniature was a Chaplin on a jet bike when I was 11 I think, I still have parts of that jet bike laying around somewhere in my bits box.  Oh and Space Hulk, My older brothers played that and I begged them to let me play all the time. Space Hulk is a great game, I have had every edition and all the expansions at one time or another.

What was your first army?  

Chaos marines were my first army. They didn't have cult armies back then but mine were all Khorne. I was buying most of my stuff second hand from one of my brothers friends at a dollar a model. I quickly bought up all his Chaos and moved on to space marines. I started up a Dark Angles army back when they were still black not green, I was pretty pissed when they changed the colors.\

When did you start playing really big games?  How did Siegeworld start?

My armies really got big when I started building an Imperial Armoured Company from the old White Dwarf article. I already had a playable Imperial Guard Army with a few Leman Russ and I always liked mechanized infantry. Building he Armoured Company got me into thinking in terms of squadrons of Leman Russ instead of single tanks. I had picked up an old Armourcast Baneblade from a store going out of business for super cheap so I already had a superheavy all those years ago. At the time I was playing with a regional group called Adeptus Basementus they had groups here in St. Louis, Kansas City and Chicago. I did some traveling to Kansas City and played in some of the Chicago Grand Tournaments. Kirk was one of the other members of the group and he is the one who really started the idea of Siegeworld. I played in the very first Siegeworld event back in 2003. I then promptly left town for several years. I kept playing in Buffalo NY and Omaha NE but I didn't make it back to Siegeworld until 2008. By then Kirk, Josh, Pat, Ray and several had kept the game going. I always kept up with the game and tried to come several times but it was always at a bad time of the year or I was in another state. While in Buffalo I did run into Psypath (Gerald Wincek, who ran The Big Game out of Treefort Games in Fayetteville, GA) and we did play a game or two of floorhammer at my apartment. Funny enough this was before either of us were on forums online and when I saw his stuff on forums he was doing Imperial Guard instead of the Space Marines he was playing back then. I was later reunited with Psypath last year when he showed up at Siegeworld. By 2008 the Siegeworld group was running regular events mostly in basements sometimes in stores.

How has the release of Apocalypse changed those games?

Kirk had already developed his own set of rules for Mega games as we called them back then we had all the forge world rules back then so we were pretty well set. The games ran smoothly thanks to Kirk's rules we didn't really need Apocalypse. When Apocalypse was released we were glad that someone reckoning what we were doing as a legitimate part of the game and that we were weren't just a bunch of loons with ridiculously huge armies. We adopted the full rule-set immediately we kept some of the old Siegeworld concepts like movement trays and I think we still use the original movement for roads and things like that but more and more we use the Apocalypse rules as is.  Really the biggest change we have seen is a rise in popularity of big games. Kirk moved the games out of the large meeting room at a local collage to an empty ice hockey rink for several reasons but mainly for more room. Apocalypse40k has done a good job of improving the visibility of the games and broadened the discussion of the game and how it works. There is really a lot of momentum here for this years Siegeworld.  The Big Game reset the bar pretty high and we don't really have the player base locally to beat that record but with the popularity of Apocalypse on the rise I hope we can come close, if nothing else it is a great time.

Siege world is known for mastering "floorhammer" as people like to call it, huge games on the floor of a really big place.  Tell us the pluses and minuses of this and is Siegeworld moving towards table-based games?

Floorhammer allows for a more complete battlefield. It allows every player to fight for a common objective and intermingle across the battlefield. When you look at what the SoCal Battle bunker did for the Big Game you will see that what you really have there is really one huge long 4' wide table and the guys on the opposite ends of the table wont end up interacting very much if at all. I am not trying to put down that event at all that is just the limitations of tables. On the other hand floorhammer involves a lot of bending over and you have to walk around all those very expensive models. I have only ever stepped on my own miniatures and only once. I would love to see us get away from the floor but we don't have a facility that has enough tables to accomplish this and I am afraid it would drastically change the flavor of the game we play. That being said We have been playing on tables 6' deep a lot lately and we are all getting older. That being said I really love the table set up the guys in Canberra, Australia used for their location. I drew up a plan like this (only much bigger) , but my problem was I was basing it on 4' x 8' tables and that ends up with tables too deep. I think we will eventually move away from the floor but we will have to find a way to make and store a lot of tables to make the game happen the way we want it to.

You make a lot of models for other people, scratchbuilds and conversions.  Tell us about what you like building and why.

I really love scratch building I have been doing it since I started playing, and the only tanks for 40k were the old Land Raider and the old Rhino. I made a ton of models that are long gone to use in games. I used to do a lot of kit bashing, melding 1/48 scale model kits with GW models. I really like many of those conversions but I have in the last few years decided that it was not getting the best results in terms of getting a 40k look out of my models and have moved to almost strictly scratchbuilding using strictly GW parts and Plasticard. I do still pull things like wheels and vents and other 1/48 scale bits out of my box but I have gotten away from slapping a Sherman turret on a Leman Russ hull. Not that you cannot make some great models out of things like this but I really wanted to challenge myself more to make unique models.

Then one day the company I worked for bought a CAD router. I looked at this thing for over a year thinking about the possibilities. I then got my hands on a copy of the folded paper Warhound templates out there and spent several hours converting it into something I could cut out on the router. Warhounds are great but the real models that make Apocalypse more than regular 40k are bigger. The Warlord is really the the best application for the process I use. There are just not enough Warlords out there. 

Now before you go and think I am proposing that Apocalypse is just a game where giant superheavies destroy a bunch of smaller armies I'm not. What I am saying is if there are more Warlords out there more people will understand that they are just big cool looking targets. As for things I like building, well my next big project is the Emperor Titan. What I love about this one is I got my hands on a Epic model and a set of calipers and scaled the whole thing up in AutoCAD. It should be cut out here in a bit and I cannot wait to see how it comes out, it is a direct copy in many areas. I am quite fond of simply and faithfully scaling up Epic models to use in Apocalypse. My Leviathan turned out really well, it was simple to build and I think fits very well on the table top. But I have recently rediscovered my real true love in scratchbuilding, Orks. I really love the freedom of not having to cut straight lines and the cobbled together feel of Ork vehicles. This is not to say that I don't love the massed produced STCs of the Imperium but sometimes I like to put down the straightedge and have some fun building an Ork Vehicle with nothing but a crazy dream and a pile of plasticard and bits.

What is the thing that most attracts you to Apocalypse and really big games?

Tanks, I love tanks and big tank battles. I have over 100 guard infantry that rarely get out of their transports. I am working to better use my infantry but the tanks are just more fun.

What is the biggest challenge in Apocalypse games?

Playing with your whole army. This is what I meant in saying I want to use my infantry more. I have a big Imperial Guard army that I use in most Apocalypse games, but like I said my troops rarely get out of their Chimeras. They end up wasted as they rarely get to shoot with their Meltas which would really help in a lot of cases as Battlecannons really have a hard time with armour 14. I need to work on getting my Chimeras moving towards objectives earlier and utilizing them more. I find it hard to get my 12 Chimeras to fit between my 18 Leman Russ variants plus the 6 Baneblades and variants I usually field, this is not even mentioning the Titans or artillery that I bring. My deployment areas are usually looks like a giant Imperial Guard parking lot.

What is the future of Apocalypse?

I hope to see GW put out more models like the Stormraven. There are rumors of a huge spider for Fantasy goblins so I don't think these large plastic kits are going away any time soon. 

Also I think more and more players should be, and are, building more units geared directly for Apocalypse. For instance I recently converted all 20+ of my Crimson Fists Terminators to carry Chain Fists. Titanhammer formations are cute and all but Vortex grenades are not reliable enough to take down Warlords. The Hades Breaching Drill with Melta Vets is another good example of this. 

I also have hopes for this Summer of Flyers thing that GW has going. I really don't think that Flyer rules really work well. I feel that it is an area that was never expected to be as important as it is and I feel that the rules are kind of tacked on the the rest of the Apocalypse rules. A dedicated set of rules would help the game a lot. I still want Flyers to be a valuable and powerful part of Apocalypse armies I just want them to interact better with the rest of the rules.