Laughing Jack

Data Sphere went to Spiel, and there we met Laughing Jack!

Laughing Jack is a small team of dedicated terrain builders hailing from Germany. Spiel seemed to be their first public appearance and they had been spotted on the German forums already. They are a bunch of friendly guys and we had a small chat at their booth.

The Laughing Jackies had a small booth at the Con, allowing them to showcase their products and even a big terrain piece of MDF; a gigantic Mining Crane! Those things that look like they can chew on mountains.

Their showcase had all kinds of products; trees and mushrooms made out of MDF, board game accessories, and a beautiful line of MDF terrain suitable for Infinity. We were also pointed to their spraycans and paint-markers, which we’ll come to later!

Laughing Jack’s products

Laughing Jack’s website isn’t really finished yet, but they have set up their shop! They have a wide range of products, but we’ll focus on two lines; their MDF terrain, suitable for Infinity, and their paint-markers, which are really awesome!

First, let’s talk terrain!

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Laughing Jack’s line has a large collection of container-buildings, which we haven’t seen in the lands of Infinity before! I spotted them from a distance during Spiel, and it was the reason why I went to see their booth!

Beautiful, compact and brightly coloured containers! They sure are an eye-catcher! 😉 Thanks to the Laughing Jackies we got our hands on the Security Station and two of the Snackbars! The line also features Living units, Storage units and Utilities like the Sickbay. I think this is a really cool line for a more ‘industrial’ and ‘temporary settlement’ kind of table, especially the storage and living units.

Assembly

One word… wow! I have yet to experience such a blast when assembling MDF terrain. The pieces came out like a hot knife through butter, almost ‘sliding’ out of their sheets. Loved it!

The assembly itself was a bit harder to do, as the instructions were black and white photos which didn’t show the details. Nothing too serious though. Laughing Jack’s designs aren’t mindblowingly complex, so with a bit of insight, and the photos you’ll get there without any trouble. Still, it could have gone easier if the photos had been more clear. From what I understood from Data Sphere forums, they already took care of the manual, and created a more clear manual for future products!

When I said that Laughing Jack’s designs weren’t complex, I did not say they weren’t clever! They are extremely effective and show a lot of detail. The Snackbars both have a stove and a espresso machine, or perhaps a Kebab-heater? Whatever you fancy! They even have two taps of.. beer? Yes, German product, it must be beer! 😉

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The Snackbars come in different flavours: Arabian, Asian, Hamburgers, and each set has its own Acrylic banners with a design on it! I went for the Arabian and Asian, as I play Haqq and Yu Jing a lot.

The Security Station goes next level on the details! It has a small prison, chairs, desks, computers, even security cameras! I am seriously impressed by Laughing Jack’s eye for detail! The manual wasn’t really clear on those details, though. It actually took me a look at the pictures on their Facebook to understand the fiddly bits I had left were to become a security camera. But Laughing Jack already took care of that issue! 😉

What I like about their MDF sheets is the amount of extras they come with. You’ll be left with lots and lots of spare pieces, with which you can fill the closets, the desks and the tables with stuff. Paint them like bottles of ketchup or an alarm clock if you want.

Product Review

Two great products, with lots of details and a surprising amount of furniture on the inside of the buildings! I love them and they are surely going to spice up any table with these neat container-buildings! I’d recommend them full heartedly to anyone looking to build a industrial of temporary settlement kind of table! The products allow for Infinity Infantry to stand on top of the roofs, which shows the eye for detail of Laughing Jack, not only in the extras but also for playability!

 

Now, to something else entirely!

Markers

Paint Markers. Now, this is entirely new for me, but the Laughing Jackies gave me a paint pen to try out. Paint Pen? Whotsdat? Exactly my thoughts. So the Jackies demonstrated one for me.. and it is really amazing!

The idea is you want to bring some highlights to your tiles. Take a brush, be at it for a couple of hours, drawing all the thin lines in the hope you won’t slip and you’re done. Now, the pen allows you to just draw those tiny lines, making them the same width everywhere, and you’re probably done in 20 minutes.

Laughing Jack’s housepainter demonstrated it the day before I went to Spiel, and he told me he did two roofs of the small units, one with the brush, another with the pen. The brush took him a couple of hours, the pen a couple of minutes.

This thing is awesome! It comes in many different shapes and sizes, different widths and such, so you can find one to your liking!

The pen can be used many times, as you can fill it yourself. Clean it thoroughly  afterwards and it’s good as new, ready to be used again for another colour. It has a tip and a container, with a little ball inside. The ball is used to shake the paint good before applying, so the pigments will be spread evenly throughout the paint. Take off the tip, drip your paints in, now put the tip back on, shake and you’re ready to go.

The pen doesn’t give lefties any trouble! I know from experience some pens can cause problems for left-handed people. I wanted to note that this isn’t one of them! 😉

The Jackies told me the Air lines of Vallejo were good to go, but I use Vallejo Game Colors and add a thinner to it myself. Same result in my experience.

Now, for testing.. I didn’t have much to highlight, but seeing it was a pen, I tried writing something with it. We all know the dirty graffiti on the walls in the alleys you don’t want to be at night. Why not do it with a pen? 😉

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The chinese characters written with a Paint-Marker

I would advise against using a pen if you just use it for some little writing like I did. Cleaning the pen is tiresome and a lot of work, and like an airbrush, you should clean the pen as soon as you finished. Don’t let any paint get dry inside the pen! However, if you are going to work through multiple floors of tiles the pen is a great product and I would highly recommend it!

 

Thijs "Scorch" van Tienen

Infinity enthusiast and longtime cyberpunk fan. Also enjoys some good quality tea and Thai food. Runs Data Sphere together with Arachas.

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