When I made the decision to move The Shell Case away from just me writing about my painting antics – mainly because there weren’t any to write about – one of its mandates was to find independent companies and shine a light on whatever they were working on be it rules, models, scenery or all of the above.
Whilst looking at snaps of a particularly messy game of 40k on Facebook I spotted some fantastic looking Explosion Markers. Explosion Markets which had lights inside and made by Lemon Painting who very kindly sent me some to take a look at.
And here they are…
Considering this was taken on my iPhone (other – better – smartphones are available) you have to admit they do look pretty awesome.
The construction isn’t sophisticated – what looks like wadding from a soft toy, a flickering LED candle and paint. But why does it need to be more sophisticated than that? They look ace and at £2 each they’re mind bogglingly cheap as well.
The nice thing is that Lemon Painting get the paint ratio spot on so they look like dirty, black, oily fires. Which is exactly as it should be. And because of what they’re made from they’re light, easy to place and won’t damage any of your toys.
Now were this any other blog, that’s where the story would end. Awesome explosion markers that look like actual fires that won’t damage your toys and that are fantastically cheap. But oh no. We, at The Shell Case, have big old brains that have many gears. Some of the them forward. And as it’s scenery week…
It occurred to me as I lusted over the photo on Facebook as the markers battled their way through the thieving pikeys at my local Royal Mail sorting office that these markers have so much more to bring to the…ahem…table than just explosion markers.
Allow me to paint you a word picture. I play a lot of Mordheim. This is a fact well documented on this humble site. Mordheim is a city that’s literally been blown to buggery. Which means things are on fire. Which means there’s absolutely no reason why you wouldn’t populate your board with these explosion markers. It would look utterly fantastic. But it doesn’t need to stop there. These de-facto fire markers can have rules assigned to them. For example, being impassable, blocks line of sight and sets alight to anyone daft enough to get too close.
Equally a game of city fight becomes crazy atmospheric when you start dotting these bad boys beneath platforms or behind low walls. Use them on your tanks as well and by the end of your games you’ll have entire city sectors ablaze. And you’ll love it.
In reality the application of the markers is huge. Most games could accommodate the markers as well as rules for the effect they could have in the game. Arguably you wouldn’t need to bother, they could just sit there looking awesome but personally I’d opt for the special rules.
Bottom line? They look great, they’re light, they’re robust and easy to store and all for £2 a pop. Lob £20 at it and you’ll have enough markers to set any good-sized city fight board ablaze…and possibly play with the lights off.
You can order the explosion markers from @LemonPainting or the Lemon Painting Facebook page.
