Painting

Well despite the shop opening and working full time there I've managed to do a reasonable amount of painting of late but I'm still very very behind :) Sorry!!

I entered Golden Demon Australia again this year and made the finals with two entries and won a Silver Demon in Warhammer Fantasy Regiment for a unit of Bretonnian peasant bowmen. This was a delight but I was very disappointed for the first time in 7 years to not be able to attend the GD finals in Sydney and see the awesome array of Aussie painting talent.

My other painting and gaming passion is Flames Of War... this scale (15mm) is a real challenge to paint in and a delight to play. I was honoured to be a featured artist in Battle Front's magnificent magazine Art of War II. By far this is the best publication of its type, chock block full of great articles, interviews, pictures and information... if you are interested in WWII, painting or modelling then this for the price is a must buy :)

So what will i do in 2009...well I'm keen to paint up a new army for the ETC championships and sell it in Europe or home, to help pay for my trip... if this interests anyone who is reading... please feel free to contact me for details...it will be a very special project.

I have a few client projects to finish ASAP and then...well hopefully I can really do something ambitious for GD in 2009.... only time; or the lack there of will tell :)

So here are some Tau that Glenn and I have been working on... difficult to paint these stealth suits but we tried to have the dirt/ground effect working its way up the legs of the Tau ... hope you like.

Cheers

Gav :)

Long Time...no post :)

Well it has been a very long time since my last post so I'll try and update you all on a few of the happenings in my playing and painting of late.

PLAYING

Well the Australian/New Zealand tourney season culminates in the Irresistible Force Australasian Masters Tournament. It's in its 5th year and I am only one of 3 players to have played in all 5 masters along with friends Jeff "Tirrith" Galea and Lachlan MacWhirter. Just to make the masters is a wonderful achievement...to win it is like climbing the highest peaks ;)

It was a fantastic event won by good friend and co-owner of Irresistible Force Andrew "guns" Galea.. you can read more about the Masters and the Oz rankings here:

http://www.irresistibleforce.com.au/Masters/Default.aspx

You'll see me , after being number 1 for most of the year way, way, way, down the list heheheheh Oh well I can only do better next time around :) I had a blast though and hung out and played games and had a laugh with some of the best players and blokes in the OZ/NZ tourney scene. When it comes down to it tourneys are only as good as the blokes you play and I am fortunate to play in a vibrant tourney scene in Australia that is full on bonza mates.

This year I played in a remarkable 14 tourneys across 3 states in Australia winning 5 events and coming in the Top 10 in 12 of these 14. I'm keen to try and do the OZ Grand Slam next year... IE win the BIG 3...Dogcon, Convic and Orktoberfest. This year saw me win Dogcon, 2nd at Convic and 7th at Orkfest....close but no bannana...maybe 2009??? Who knows???? I definitely played below par towards the end of the year and my results showed this...perhaps the slide might continue and Dodgy Dave might overtake me on the rankings??? Doubt it though hahahahah

The ETC

2009 sees Team Australia compete for the first time in the European Team Championships in Germany... and boy I just can't wait. What an honour to play in such a prestigious event... as it draws nearer I'll be posting reports and details of the teams preparations in the "Force Field" which is Irresistible Force's ezine... make sure you register on the website to get this free ezine chock block full of articles, information and special deals for customers of IF.

Anyway... its been a fantastic year for me as a player..I've had a ball and look forward to defending my Dogcon title on the Australia Day Long weekend in Sydney.

Slardy ;)

NEW IRRESISTIBLE FORCE OPENING 24 October 2008

Well my blog posts have been few and far between lately due to my heavy involvement in the creation and launcing of my new buisiness venture with good friend and buiness partner Andrew Galea.

The new store opens midnight (AEST) Thursday 23 October.

We ship all over Australia and the WORLD... with the Aussie dollar taking a beating lately being down to as little as 66 cents to the US dollar overseas buyers cannot only get a 20% discount in our opening sale but as much as 34 cents in the dollar due to exchange rates. That makes the IF STORE one of the cheapest places online to buy a range of great products.

Anyway.... if you live in Brisbane Australia come down and say hello!!

Gav "slardy" Clarke

Irresistible Force is proud to announce the grand opening of its first retail hobby store in South East Queensland. The store and a state of the art ecommerce web site will be opening for business midnight this Thursday the 23rd October 2008.

To celebrate this momentous occasion we are kicking things off with a grand opening sale offering 20% off the recommended retail price for every item across all our ranges! Irresistible Force Miniature Games & Hobbies stocks the best product lines across the major gaming systems including Warhammer, Warhammer 40K, Lord of the Rings and Flames of War. We also stock Gale Force 9 and Silfor scenery products, as well as Casino Dice, Rare Earth Magnets and more.

Irresistible Force has long been associated with running premier Warhammer events including Fortunes of War and the Masters, as well as running the Warhammer Fantasy Rankings and producing a world renowned e-zine. Our vision is to extend our services to the gaming community by providing a fantastic hobby centre in South East Queensland and a professionally run online store for everyone to get their hands on quality products and services at competitive prices from people who understand and are actively involved in the hobby.

Any orders received from midnight on Thursday to midnight on Friday will receive 20% off the RRP of all items. This includes the Warhammer Warriors of Chaos Spearhead which has already hit our shelves. This is your chance to save a massive 20% off the RRP of the spearhead, a saving of $84.20! And on top of that we will ship it anywhere in Australia for free! So for $336.80 you will have your hands on the brand new Warriors of Chaos Spearhead if you order within the first 24 hours of the shop opening.

40K more your style? Well don’t fret as you can get in on the action as well with the Ultramarines Captain Sicarius, the Space Marine Sternguard Veterans & Space Marine Vanguard Veteran Squad box sets also in available under the 20% off sale.

Orders can be done either via the web site, in the store or via phone. If we don’t have your order in store we will add it to the Grand Opening Sale stock order and get it in and then to you ASAP.

Friday the 24th is an open day for anyone to attend the retail store. Over half a dozen Sydney gamers are making the trip up to Orktoberfest a day early and will be playing games all day and evening on our brand new gaming tables. So if you can get off work early come on down and play a game or two, check out the store and prepare yourself for Orktoberfest in the best possible way!

We hope to see you there but if not then Irresistible Force will have a stall onsite during Saturday at Orktoberfest so be sure to say hello.

The Irresistible Force Team.

Irresistible Force Miniature Games & Hobbies
Shop A 147 Bryants Rd
Shailer Park QLD 4128

Phone: (07) 3458 4324
http://www.irresistibleforce.com.au
sales@irresistibleforce.com.au

Now..This is Sparta :)

Painting buddy Glenn and I have just finished this army for a mate and client Stan "sparticus" Vaneros in WA . It was a very interesting, exciting and time consuming project with a lot of converting and greenstuffing to create a Highelf army from a range of different miniatures and companies from around the globe.

Glenn is the master builder and made some wonderful atmospheric conversions from some very very diverse figure ranges.

I think it turned out wonderfully. The "jumping vignette" was inspired by 300 and was created to add a centrepiece/eye catcher for the three main infantry blocks.

The complete army includes a dragon converted from a 5th ed zombie dragon, mtd bsb and lord, bolt throwers and other mis items.

We kept to the classic scarlet of the spartiates but made it "brighter" in line with the movie 300 and for the eye catching quality on the table top.

The bases were sculptured and cast by Glenn and if anyone is interested in ordering/purchasing these fantastic bases then send me an email.

Click on the pictures for larger / better views.

Gav :)

Dwarfs... cute little fellas :)

I've pretty well finished this army for good mate and QLD WHF player Luke van Kyck. Luke had a hand in the finished product building the vast majority of the bases and putting the little suckers together. It's a great army to play with and a bugger to play against... i look forward to borrowing it off Luke to play in a tourny soon.
I'll add pictures of the various characters shortly when I get the camera out again.

On a side note the movment trays are all made by myself (hand carved) and are available for sale... just send me an email at battleink@hotmail.com

MOVEMENT TRAYS FOR SALE

I've made sculptured movement trays for a few armies and have had a number of enquires about them lately so I've produced a few and have them for sale.

They are made from quality plastic styrene and are all hand carved. The worn stone is perfect for a range of different warhammer armies and bases.

Currently I have the following available but I can make other sizes to suit:

5 x 5 (20mm square bases) $15 each
5 x 5 (25mm square bases) $15 each
6 x 1 (25x50mm cavalry bases) $15 each
3 x 1 (40mm square bases) $11 each
5 x 2 (20mm square bases) $11 each

All trays come primed black ready to paint.

Email me at battleink@hotmail to order :) or check them out on ebay under my account battle_ink

Busy Times :)

Well once again it's been a very busy last couple of weeks. I am paintbrush deep in a number of projects including Tau, Napoleonics, Spartans, FOW, Dark Elves, Deamons etc etc etc phew!! Lots of fun though!!

The pictures below are of an extensive and exciting collaborative project undertaken by great mate and painting buddy Glenn Lamprecht and myself. Glenn and I had a chat one day about making FOW objectives... probably the best modelling and painting opportunities for players and lovers of figures in 15mm.

So Glenn and I came up with the idea of a Eastern front blown out building with some Germans holding on while the Russians sneak around their flanks. Glenn built this magnificent building out of plastic, greenstuff etc and I had the joy of painting it. All up, this piece took about 20 hours but I think it is worth it :)

If you are interested, Glenn and I will be making this piece and other objectives in coming months... please note though they probably won't be as elaborate as this one but they will be mind blowing no the less.

Click on the pictures below to see larger views.