A Journey through the Gates of Antares (or how to build and play your first game)
Welcome, I’m Jon and over the next few weeks I’m documenting my entry in the world of Antares. I’ve been in and out of Wargaming for many years starting back in the mid 1980s with a fantasy army and moving into 40k when that was first released. After a substantial break my eldest Son showed interest in wargaming (approximately 2 years after I had sold all my original figures) and together we built and painted a couple of 28mm armies.
Coming forward to the present day a chance discussion with the Warlord team (thanks RichC) ended with me visiting the inaugural Red on Blue in Nottingham event where I picked up the “Strike on Kar’A Nine” set. There is a dedicated starter set for Antares as well as the Kar’A Nine set. Both include everything required to play but I was after a set with two infantry based units rather than the Concord and heavily armoured Ghar.
After ripping open the box with enthusiasm I had a good look through what it contained. Rules, scenarios, dice, pins and most importantly the plastic sprues.
This series of articles will chart the building, painting and playing of this set, aiming to demonstrate the various stages to wargaming newcomers. I’ll diverge briefly into terrain building as well but there’s no need to do this before playing because included in the box are card templates to represent the terrain features.
Stage 1: Building the figures.
After ripping open the box with enthusiasm I had a good look through what it contained. Rules, scenarios, dice, pins and most importantly the plastic sprues.
Normally I’d start building straight away but with a choice of weapons for the figures I wanted to ensure I had the optimum mix. Asking a question on the Beyond the Gates of Antares (IMTel) Facebook page I was gently pointed back at the scenario descriptions which tell you exactly what to build.
So two lessons learned; 1. The Facebook group is genuinely friendly and 2. at least attempt a quick flick through the included book first!
I decided to build a single Algoryn AI squad as I always learn lessons when I build so better to make five models then work out what I should have done than build everything at the same time. Using a sharp knife to remove the parts from the sprue and a little piece of sandpaper to smooth off any burrs I prepared and laid out the parts.
Using a plastic cement I glued the legs to the bases and made up the torso. The figures went together easily although it was a bit fiddly to line up arms when both hands were holding a weapon. The end result of 10 minutes work was a 5 person squad.
As you can see I like to grit my bases before the primer coat so that the paint helps to secure the grit but this is personal, you may prefer to build the figures then add the bases later. I also add a little extra to the bases such as a stone or old weapon. I’ll add any tufts of grass once the painting is finished.
See you for the next update. Jon
Download this article as Jon’s original PDF here.
View part two here
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Start your army with these Algoryn!
Sam Phillips
