DUBAI // In the miniature world of Warhammer, meticulously hand-painted armies of orks, eldars and space marines engage in table-top warfare.
Earth in the year 40,000 is known as Terra, and it is a small, resin-coated world.
But Warhammer is a small-scale hobby that consumes big chunks of time among Abu Dhabi and Dubai's man-boys. Professionals who love the fantasy game come home from their grown-up offices to huddle over paint trays, spending hours crafting tiny plastic figurines from bits in a box.
Trevor Van Cleave shows off the "conversions" ? also known as upgrades ? he has made to a mean-looking, demon-mounted warrior the size of his thumb. "Right here, you've got components of about four different models," he said. "I took this demon, threw the original rider away, took a 40K model, cut his body, I took another Fantasy model sword, put that in."
Mr Van Cleave, an American project developer for Emaar Properties in Dubai, said his co-workers are accustomed to seeing him with daubs of paint on his palms.
The 38-year-old insists that his souped-up soldier is still legal for play, as it is described in the official eighth edition of the Codex, an encyclopedia for Warhammer players.
To the uneducated, the figure looks like a soldier on a dragon. But to Mr Van Cleave, it is a "Chaos Lord on a Daemonic Steed with a Power Weapon and Needle of Desire with Combat Drugs". Mr Van Cleave, who also runs Friday Warhammer workshops for children in Dubai, pointed out that the figure was "exactly represented" in the guidebook.
Armchair artisans such as Mr Van Cleave love crafting their Warhammer sets as much as the game itself, and like him, will use all manner of instruments to modify an out-of-the-box warrior in any way they can. He paints chevrons on air squadron wing tips to denote rank. Weapons such as guns and battle axes can be swapped and glued onto other characters or vehicles. "Regular knives, X-Acto knives, some people use fingernail clippers," Mr Van Cleave said.
For his armies, Mr Van Cleave uses close to 30 paint brushes and special inks, letting secondary coats trickle into cracks to enhance the definition on an ork's musculature.
"Some people spend as much as three months on one model, with like 23 layers of paint," he said. "I'll just go for tabletop quality. If it's sitting at the table, you go, 'Wow,' but when you get up close, you go, 'Oh, it looks pretty good'."
The hobby is not cheap. He priced one of his completed armies, the Crimson Fist fleet, as worth around Dh6,000. And that excludes the costs for paint primers and acrylics, said Raymund Velasco, the cofounder of WarGazelle, the official Warhammer club in the capital.
Mr Velasco, 29, from the Philippines, can spend between four and six hours painting models at home. He estimates he has spent Dh5,000 assembling his set.
"Sometimes I'm just staying up late at night until 1am, just painting. In the kitchen when you're cooking or doing laundry, you just lay out newspapers so the paint won't splatter."
Marcin Kowalski, 40, who is from Poland and usually plays with his teenaged son, and Chen Hang, 33, who are also WarGazelle co-founders, compete in a group of seven players every Friday using a ping-pong table at Al Jazira Club. They employ aquarium plants and home-made miniature terrain made out of yogurt trays recycled into imaginary petrol refineries and painted cardboard scraps built to resemble abandoned farmhouses, for cover. Mr Velasco, an architect, also brings a scale model of the Kuala Lumpur Tower.
"It's supposed to look like ruins," said Mr Hang, a Malaysian engineer, setting up his Dark Angels side.
Before the match even began, however, Mr Hang had committed a fatal error.
After gauging the distance with measuring tape to teleport his Deathwing marines to a spot where he could launch a sneak attack, a roll of the dice sent them instead deep into Mr Velasco's enemy territory. That meant they were terminated instantly.
"That's the risk of teleportation," observed Mr Kowalski.
After more than 10 minutes of rolling dice, consulting the Codex, contemplation and tape-measuring, the first turn ended. The game went on to last two hours, an anticlimactic draw. Neither party regretted it.
"It's not a waste of time at all," Mr Velasco said. "Sometimes if it's a draw, you go for another round. But it's not a waste of time if you enjoy playing."
@Email:mkwong@thenational.ae
Indoor cricket in a nutshell
Indoor cricket in a nutshell
Indoor Cricket World Cup - Sept 16-20, Insportz, Dubai
16 Indoor cricket matches are 16 overs per side
8 There are eight players per team
9 There have been nine Indoor Cricket World Cups for men. Australia have won every one.
5 Five runs are deducted from the score when a wickets falls
4 Batsmen bat in pairs, facing four overs per partnership
Scoring In indoor cricket, runs are scored by way of both physical and bonus runs. Physical runs are scored by both batsmen completing a run from one crease to the other. Bonus runs are scored when the ball hits a net in different zones, but only when at least one physical run is score.
Zones
A Front net, behind the striker and wicketkeeper: 0 runs
B Side nets, between the striker and halfway down the pitch: 1 run
C Side nets between halfway and the bowlers end: 2 runs
D Back net: 4 runs on the bounce, 6 runs on the full
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
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The five pillars of Islam
If you go
Where to stay: Courtyard by Marriott Titusville Kennedy Space Centre has unparalleled views of the Indian River. Alligators can be spotted from hotel room balconies, as can several rocket launch sites. The hotel also boasts cool space-themed decor.
When to go: Florida is best experienced during the winter months, from November to May, before the humidity kicks in.
How to get there: Emirates currently flies from Dubai to Orlando five times a week.
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The%20specs
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CRICKET%20WORLD%20CUP%20LEAGUE%202
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Meydan card
6.30pm: Al Maktoum Challenge Round-1 (PA) Group 1 US$65,000 (Dirt) 1,600m
7.05pm: Conditions (TB) $100,000 (Turf) 1,400m
7.40pm: UAE 2000 Guineas Trial (TB) $100,000 (D) 1,600m
8.15pm: Handicap (TB) $175,000 (T) 1,200m
8.50pm: Al Maktoum Challenge Round-1 (TB) Group 2 $350,000 (D) 1,600m
9.25pm: Handicap (TB) $175,000 (D) 1,900m
10pm: Handicap (TB) $135,000 (T) 1,600m
Porsche Taycan Turbo specs
Engine: Two permanent-magnet synchronous AC motors
Transmission: two-speed
Power: 671hp
Torque: 1050Nm
Range: 450km
Price: Dh601,800
On sale: now
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
How to watch Ireland v Pakistan in UAE
When: The one-off Test starts on Friday, May 11
What time: Each day’s play is scheduled to start at 2pm UAE time.
TV: The match will be broadcast on OSN Sports Cricket HD. Subscribers to the channel can also stream the action live on OSN Play.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Honeymoonish
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The Sand Castle
Director: Matty Brown
Stars: Nadine Labaki, Ziad Bakri, Zain Al Rafeea, Riman Al Rafeea
Rating: 2.5/5
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Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
