And the month's winner is . . .

Terrain

After looking through the images of Infinity terrain on google, terrain is the project for the month. Rock outcroppings and pillars, a raised walkway/roadway, and multilevel hab buildings. It's probably a bit ambitious for a month's work, but if the bug bites I may get through a fair bit.

Almost a year of silence

I've been silent for almost a year on this blog, and even though I haven't done lot in that time I have managed a few things.

With my interest in the Ambush Alley family of games I have mostly been working on projects for this. As I already have a set of buildings and a board for desert action I decided to make a modular board for urban warfare. So far it stands at 9 30 x30 cm sections, all double sided.

To go with this, I've started making some buildings.

After a trip to Christchurch in April I have also added modern British infantry, and Modern Russian paratroops.

More recent is a foray back into role-playing, as we put a new group together. I agreed to DM this group for a start, and as a result have returned to the design of an RPG world that has been brewing in my mind for years. Trying to find a time period for this, I started thinking about how things could have come about for my world (A fantasy version of the Roman Empire rules most of the world). retreating almost a thousand years from that time I was able to co-opt an idea from the series I was reading. So many thanks got to Anne McCaffrey for creating Pern, and both Anne and Todd for the plagues that ravaged Pern. Therefore, a Plague had ravaged my world, changing borders, reducing the size of nations, and allowing an obscure nation to profit from the disaster, and expand to become a mighty empire. The setting for the campaign is a recovering kingdom, that is finally able to reclaim lost areas, and the PC's are right in the middle of it.

More will follow on  the D&D campaign, and some of the events that occur, along with some notes on my world design process.

AA building updates

I've begun to texture the buildings, by first adding pieces of the card shown in a previous post, then coating the walls in plaster. Once the plaster dried the first building was given a coat of Vallejo Iraqi Sand. I followed that with a heavy dry brush of white poster paint, so that some of the Iraqi sand shows through in the recesses.

The two pictures below show this. One is taken with the flash on, and the other under normal lighting. I'm not sure which is better as the flash shows the white as very bright.

I put the fire team in front to show the building size. The figures are modern US soldiers in 1:72 scale.

I've still got to plaster the roof, which I think I will require mixing the plaster rather than using a premixed tub. Also on the list of things to do on the building is painting the roof trapdoor, and adding texture to, and painting the base.

New boards

Following on from my last post, and my desire to return to Ambush Alley on a 3 x 3 board, I dug out a 3mm MDF sheet (Of which I have a large number) with the intention of painting it on both sides. The Idea behind this was to have a reversible board which could be used for both Ambush Alley, and Firestorm Armada.

Both sides were base-coated, one with black, the other with brown.

On the black side I followed it with a splatter effect of white (shake the brush at the board). This produced some streaks in places, rather than the straight spotting I wanted, so I had to go over the streaks with black to eliminate them. I was happy with the final result, as seen below

The other side I attacked with a sandy colour obtained from Resene ($2.00 Obsolete test pot), using the brush with a rough approach so that the paint was smeared, leaving traces of the basecoat showing. I hope this makes it look like windblown sand, and not just  mess, but it should look better with terrain on it.

Focus, Focus,Focus

I've decided that for the rest of this year I'm going to narrow my focus on wargaming, and concentrate on only a few things.

Right now, my thoughts seem to be aimed at the Ambush Alley games (AA, Force on Force, Tomorrows war, and eventually Ambush Z), and building up my collection of terrain for it.

As you can see, the buildings are currently at the bare foamcore stage. I plan to add some damage to them with some card I picked up a long time back, with brickwork and stonework on it. That will be followed by a coating of plaster to allow me to work cracks and possibly some weapons damage.

More pics and updates later as i continue to work on these buildings

I'm a hopeless blogger

It's been quite some time since I updated this blog.

To be honest, I haven't done a lot with my miniatures in that time, just some sporadic painting, and working on terrain. I'm finding it hard to get motivated to work on anything at the moment.

Since the last update I have participated in the Kiwithralls Nation at War league, finishing around the middle of the field. Although the idea was to start a new army, I continued with my Menoth force, using the league as a means to learn more about my units,and caster. I started the league strong, with a win for my first game, using Kreoss to take out Resnick, and learned the value of Exemplar Seneschals. My seneschal assaulted Troys heavy jack, smiting it directly onto Resnick. It was then loss/win/loss and so on to  the end of the league. Another highlight of the league for me was taking out John's Special K at the Longest Night tournament - multiple hits from jacks leaving him on one box, and me casting around the table, looking for something to deliver the final blow (Sunburst for the win).

I've also looked at Ambush Alley, and played a couple of games of this. I find it to be an enjoyable game. Playing the quickstart scenario both ways left me with two losses. As the insurgent, I got slaughtered, as expected. Turn around and Nigel hammered me when I took the marines, despite my tactics scaring him at the start. Damn his luck with my dice.

The most recent game I've played was back to warmachine - 25 points vs Nigel. The usual debate over his list started the game."My list changes, I'm always changing it." Maybe the caster changes, but almost every time I've faced him it's been two hunters and a defender. Anyway, he took eHaley, two hunters, defender, squire, gunmage captain. to oppose him, I took pKreoss, two devouts, revenger, knights exemplar, exemplar seneschal, and wracks.(yes, all light jacks) Nigels dice were against him, and I capitalised on this. I also played badly, by not moving as fast as i could with the knights. In the end, Kreoss held out through Haleys feat and set fire to her twice before she fell, and once the game was over, I realised that I forgot my feat. oh well, I 'll remember it when I play Owen next week.

Worldworks

I've added the link for Worldworks to Come Play in my worlds.

They are a web based company that specialize in cardboard terrain. And their terrain works, It's sturdy, and can stand up to some fairly heavy miniatures. With all their products as download PDF files, you can print as much or as little as you want to assemble your terrain.

I've recently bought Thoumont's TLX edition (thousands of buildings) and Terrainlinx Himmelveil Streets as part of my modular city plans.

Check them out.

From ship to shore

My plans to build Osgiliath have altered slightly. Osgiliath will now be incorporated into a more ambitious project - a modular city. A city that includes intact and ruined Osgiliath, an imperial sector, and a harbour/dock section. My intention is to use this project as a battlefield source for a variety of games. Warmachine/Hordes, Warhammer, 40K, Necromunda, and Lord of the Rings/War of the Ring.

I've looked at starting this project several times since I got some tiles cut for it (63 so far), but had no clear idea of where to start. After providing a friend with the materials to build the Worldworks kit Maiden of the High Seas, and having visions of Necromunda Gangers running riot below decks I had the starting point. Sea tiles, and the dock for the maiden. Of course this also works well for Warmachine, with either Cryx or pirates raiding a port.

All tiles are 1 foot square for this undertaking, and I began with 8 of them. 4 were painted with a blue poster paint that I've used for water before, as it tends to run to slightly different shades of blue depending on the thickness brushed on. I deepened the blue by adding a wash of Tamiya Smoke (X19).

The other 4, I didn't give a full coat, but left 1 edge unpainted. These tiles will form the dock frontage. To build up the dock I trimmed popsicle sticks for planks and glued them in place. I still need to add an edge to the dock, which will probably be made from balsa, and sit slightly higher than the planks. And of course I still have to come up with something for bollards

For those who are interested, I'll add a link for Worldworks in the side bar.

Finally back to this

It's been a while.
In the time between this post and the last I have ventured into TAGCon with my uruk-hai.

My best result in that was a draw (due to time) trying to break into Helm's Deep. Despite all the losses I still walked out with two prizes from the LoTR tournament - Sportsmanship, and (big surprise to me) Painting.

Both prizes were $20 gift certificates from Comics Compulsion in Christchurch, and I spent them recently, expanding my Menoth army by a Reckoner, a Devout, and Amon Ad-Raza.

Just over a week ago I started a new terrain project, which can be applied to most of my heroic 28mm armies. From the LoTR magazines I am building Osgiliath, with a mix of ruins and intact buildings. The way I see this, it serves as - Osgiliath for LoTR and the War of the Ring (if I decide to get into that), - 40K as a ruined Imperial City, - Fantasy as a ruined city (if I continue my VC army and fantasy becomes a game at TAG, and finally - Necromunda, as part of my own campaign setting (Cutters Canyon)

Steady Progress

My Uruk's are coming along nicely, and should be ready by TAGcon. Scouts are finished, most of the Uruk infantry also. The Crossbows have had their first coat of paint, and the last of the Wargs and riders are based and ready to begin. I just have one more figure to make - a Warg Rider standard bearer.
My LoTR terrain hasn't moved much in the last couple of weeks, but I will get back to that after the minis are painted.

Uruk forces are growing

After a slack month, where I've just been touching up the already painted Isengard forces I have I've finally begun to paint the other pieces I own. After my first game of LoTR I came to the conclusion that what my Uruks really need are more ranged weapons.
One trip to toyworld later, and just getting in before they sent their order to GW, I was waiting for 3 packs of uruks with crossbows. Two weeks later, and the order arrives from GW australia, with everything but my uruks. Another two weeks, and my uruks are now at toyworld, waiting for me to pay for them.
In the meantime, I went browsing though trademe, looking at LoTR auctions, and found a load of Uruk scouts going cheap. $26.50 inc. postage, and I have 38 scouts in my possession. Hmmmm, crossbows and bows with my uruks?, and uruks hit on a 4+ instead of the 5+ of normal orcs? Might just have to stand back, and see if my ranged attacks can take those pesky Elves, Men and Dwarves down before committing my melee troops to action.
Of course, half the scouts were already painted, which means I need to get them stripped down to restart the painting, and have them match the rest of my uruks. They've been sitting in simple green for just over a day, and I've tested one them with an old toothbrush. Some of the paint is coming off, but not all, so I'll leave them for another day and revisit them. If that doesn't work, I'll leave them over the weekend, and take them out on monday.
I'm also planning on providing terrain for three or four tables at TAGcon, and currently have enough for two, with two more being worked on. I dug out the Mines of Moria terrain I started along time ago, and began to rework that, adding more workings, and raised mounds.
And just to prove that my insanity streak is growing, I began working on a Weathertop terrain piece, which, when it's finished, will be almost enough to be a 4*4 table in itself.

Another unproductive week

I haven't accomplished much in the way of work on my miniatures in the last week or so.

I usually rinse my brushes under the tap in the bathroom when I'm painting, as it's only a couple of steps away from my work area, and it saves having containers of water within flailing distance, but the drainpipe on the basin split last week. A new pipe is in place, but is not connected to trap outside as it is 300mm of concrete to drill through, and the plumber cant lean on the end of a dynadrill at present due to a damaged shoulder.


My main work has been planning out some new terrain for Necromunda, to be made from MDF (due to acquiring a large supply of it).

It's taken a while to get this photo. My three year old daughter loves to watch me paint, and if she gets the chance she'll grab a brush, and a painted mini, and pretend to paint.

Rescue Mission x2

Two rescue missions in one night. The first when Ash tried to rescue his lost Escher, the second with John trying to recover a captured Juve.

The first game against Ash took longer to set up than to play. Two turns in luck was with one of my sentries, as he stepped to edge of a platform, and the random direction roll left him facing the the two Eschers below him. the dice roll for spotting distance left him staring straight down at the Escher leaders head. Being a good member of the gang he promptly raised the alarm - by putting a boltshell from his shotgun through the Escher's head. The ground level sentry was staring in the right direction, and reacted to the shot, by levelling his autogun, and blowing a hole in the chest of the leader's companion.

Ash began the next turn by making a bottle test. Disapointment reigned around the table as everybody groaned at the result. End of game. One well-used Escher ganger sold into slavery, and a free shotgun in my stash.

John steps up, and prepares to recover his lost juve. Two hours of solid gunfire follow, and John wins, taking his juve back. His only bottle test was immediately before winning, and he passed.
A very tough game, whose highlights included two three story plunges to ground. My particular favourite part of the game was John's heavy stubber. After scoring seven successful hits with it in the previous game, it was ineffective this time, with only one or two hits. My Marksman was stood in the open for a long time, taking round after round of sustained fire from the stubber, but not one wound. Four turns of fire, pinned every turn until his leader turned up, and never falling to the heavy stubber. A real hero, until he ran out of ammo after two turns of shooting.

On another note, my rotating bridge had been built by this time, and was ready to use, although not fully painted. It received a lot of ooh's and aah's when it was placed on the table. I'll post some more photos, with an article on the next stage of it's construction soon.

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.

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.