Rotating bridge - part 1

I've been browsing a UK terrain site (TerraGenesis - http://www.terragenesis.co.uk/ ) lately, and was inspired to begin a new terrain piece for my necromunda collection. Thanks go to Gary James for the brilliant Toll Bridge he built, which I am now attempting my version of using the Bitz and materials I have lying around at home.

The basic materials for this project are shown below. Brass rod, Plastic Card, 20 mm dowel, custom wood, a large washer, and a piece of plastic tube.

This is the main shaft that supports the bridge, without the piece of plastic tubing that sits on the washer to allow the bridge movement.

The pieces of brass rod have been glued to the lower piece of the bridge itself, and some card detailing has been added to the upper surface.

That's as far as the project reached on the first session of making it. I will post more as I continue with the bridge.

Wednesday's Necromunda

I got involved in a vicious scanvengers game of necromunda at the club las wednesday (25/3/09). with John. He had an orlock gang that was just starting out, going up against my large, experienced Dark Roughnecks gang from my own House Lanfear (shameless ripoff of the name from Robert jordan's Wheel of Time series).
With a large open platform in the center of table, courtesy of Worldworks Platform Command:Red Sector package, Johns Heavy Stubber had a commanding view of my setup. Luck was with him, as his heavy starting hosing down my gangers from my second turn. John used the Overwatch rule to great effect, dropping my marksman in my second turn, and surviving four turns of ammo rolls through the game. The stubber inflicted seven hits all up through the course of the game before running out of ammo.
At ground level John didn't fare quite so well, as the roughnecks two plasma guns methodically cut down his Orklocks (as he decided to call them).
The first close combat began on turn six, as the Roughnecks leader, Derrick, and the gang's only juve (Stev) charged the two Orklocks attempting to flank them. Derrick got dropped due to his loweres weaponskill from a hand wound, while Stev dropped his target. Second round of combat saw a standoff between Stev and the Orklock ganger, with the Orklock juve getting back to his feet. with the third round of combat Stev showed his true combat skills (WS 4), dropping the ganger, then the juve in a single turn.
After advice from others John wisely decided to bottle, leaving us both with two loot counters each.
We ran out of time to carry the post game duties, so we will complete them next week, after which Ash will come looking to reclaim the ganger I captured from his Eschers a week ago.
The picture below is the oustanding Stev, who will become a full ganger once experience is added on.

Project Menoth

I'm almost ready to begin assembling my Menoth Army for Warmachine. In the picture above you can see what I now have for my army. The three blisters in the midle are a repenter warjack, The Wrack and Kreoss. The four in the middle painted white a re the Menoth starter box. The two black figures on the right are mercenary solos, while on the left are Severius and the exemplar seneschal. The two boxes are flameguard cleansers, and knights exemplar.

Random Conversion

Ideas for conversions can come at the strangest time. I've been mulling over entering TAG's Bloodbowl league for over month, trying to decide which of my teams I'm going to use. I'm an accomplished player with lizardmen, but I don't like the new rules for the stunty skill, which now limits the effectiveness of my skinks.

I finally decided that I would take my Orc team into it, with the intention of rupturing the opposition with brute force, rather than winning through skill. Two weeks after deciding on the orcs, and idea came to me in the shower. Why not include a model of the teams coach. I thought a bit about what an Orc Bloodbowl coach should have, and decided that a whip to encourage the team would be appropriate. Being cheap when it comes to things like that, I knew I had some old hero quest Orcs around (bought cheap off trade me), and old wire is in abundance around the house.


After work the following day, I hunted out the figures, found the wire, and got to work. I decided to make three.One for myself, and two for the other Orc players in the league. The biggest issue is that the three original figures all stood in identical poses, regardless of weapon. (two with mace, one with an axe.)


The first one I made, I removed the weapon hand, and reduced the mace to just the wooden handle. The shaft of the handle was drilled out with my pin vice. Approximately 5 cm of multi strand wire was stripped, and the wire twisted at one end, then super glued into the hole. After giving the glue time to set, I cemented the hand back on the orc's arm at ninety degrees to the original position, with the wire whip behind the orc. The loose strands of the wire were spread out, and angled down, so the coach appears to be ready to bring the whip forward to lash one his players.


The second coach used the same method, except I took the entire arm off, and repositioned it in front of the orc. This orc now looks like he is holding the whip in front of himself, possibly as a threat to one of his players.


The third coach took a little more work, as I wanted a different pose again. I removed the arm, and then the hand. The arm was then glued back on, with a rotation of about forty five degrees forward of the original. The hand (with new whip completed) was glued on at ninety degrees to its original position. The strands of the whip were than placed so it appears the coach is actually in the act of flogging a player (or a fan; lets face it, he is an orc).

Romans

I finally got back to painting my 15 and 20 mm figures today, finishing some of the roman troops . The first picture is the eight 15mm romans that are now ready for basing.







The second is the 20mm that I plan to use for warmaster ancients.

What to do with leftover pieces from old kits

I recently found a pair of tow ropes from a Tamyia kit I built years ago, and started thinking about what I was going to do with them. 24 hours later, the idea took shape in my mind, with the tow ropes being used as a loose rail for a hastily built bridge between two platforms for necromunda. As I was at work at the time, I couldn't do much about it, but when I got home, I found the pieces I needed - a sheet of plastic flooring cut into strips, 2 pillars from GW's cityfight sprues, and a tow rope from a GW Rhino sprue.

The first step was to cut a length of plasticard that was the full length of the bridge. The cable from the Rhino was next, just the shackles were kept. I then glued the three strips of pastic flooring in place, with spacers to prop the ends up, after leaving sufficient space to slide the bridge over the card platforms of my necromunda terrain. The cityfight pillars were added in the corners of one side, with the shackles wedged in position and glued.

The smaller shackles on the tamiya tow ropes were carefully cut at the peak of the shackle, and first the two were carefully joined together, followed by even more care easing the remaining ends over the larger shackles on the posts. The safety cable has not been glued to the shackles, and still swings free, even after painting. a day later I realised that I needed something to make it look like it had been put together hastily, with materials lying around. After a bit of thought, I decided to use the hubs I had left over from Space Marine bike squadrons.

I haven't tested it in a game yet, and when I do, I'll need to work out some rules for it, as I consider it to an unstable structure as far as the game goes.