Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Quick and Dirty Power Generator and Miners

A couple weeks ago I posted some quick and dirty com stations where I used the tops of cheap razor handles for the arms supporting the dish. Well I took the rest of the handles glued them together and sanded the bottoms flush then mounted that on a soda bottle cap to make this small power generator.
Here it is painted up. I think this will make a nice power generator for small farm or outpost. The project took less than two hours to complete and went together fairly simply.

I also finished the Venture Star miners. These minis were giving me trouble due to a bad primer job but I'm fairly happy with the way they turned out especially since they are basically NPC types.

Friday, June 17, 2011

Ork Shadowrunners WIP

I've been working today on some Ork Shadowrunners. The frist two are the characters my wife and I have been playing in our Shadowrun group for the past 3 years. The last one is just one I did for fun.
The first one is Jager my Street Samurai depicted here in his "business" suit wielding his Ceska Black Scorpion submachinepistol. I'm planning on making another combat version of this character. This figure was made using the head of a Reaper Halforc Monk with the body of one of Juno's Crew from the Foundry Street Violence line. The gun is from the Malifaux Modern Weapons pack.
The lovely image of beauty on Jager's right is Jo my wife's Ork Street Samurai. The figure is a Halforc Pirate figure from reaper with an AK-47 taken from a RAFM terrorist. I need to do a fair amount of putty work in the back of this figure where we cut the cutlass that the figure was holding away. The hand will need some touch up as well.
The final guy is just some Ork. I have an Ork character in limbo named Bulldog who this mini would work well for but I have no idea if I'm ever going to play in that game again so for now he's just a spare Ork. He's made by swapping a Reaper halforc barbarian head with a Starship Trooper Mobile Infantry body. When I get these guys a bit further along I'll show them compared to some typical height sci-fi humans. These are all big minis perfect for Orks.


Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Klancy's General Store WIP and Station 42 setting notes.

We haven't posted any WIP shots of the spaceport project buildings lately because they are all in a state of progress. Here's a shot of Klancy's General Store and fuel station. The Clinic and bar are pretty far along as well but the security station still has a ways to go. Hopefully we can finish up the smaller buildings soon then put our full focus on the security station. With any luck we will have all the main buildings done enough to used for games as soon as the end of the month.

In addition to the main spaceport we are also looking at what kinds of things exist in the surrounding area. We plan to expand into other settlements and locations as soon as we get the main station playable. This will be a long term project.


Station 42 Overview


This is an overview of some of the locations surrounding Station 42 which is a part of my 3031 science fiction setting.




Station 42: The station itself is on Titania the largest moon of Uranus. It is a small space port servicing mostly shuttles and light freighters. The station has only been running for about 10 years although it looks like it has been around longer due to general neglect and the fact that most of the buildings have been transported to the site from other locations as is common on the outlying planets. There is no real government for the station. It is not a township but there is a Nova Corp. security station which has been contracted by the government of Titania to provide security at the station. The Station consist of a Klancy's fuel station and general store, a clinic, a bar called “The Close Encounter”, The Nova Corp security station, Rosie's repair shop, and an office of the Venture Star prospecting company.






Pleasant Valley: “The Valley” as it is often called is a small village consisting of about 20 homes with a small school and a couple of light industrial companies that lies about a kilometer Northwest of Station 42. It is also home to Billings construction company. There is a marshal's station and the militia group “Boon's Irregulars” also consider it part of their territory as some of their members live there.




Rat Trap Junction: A small station that lies 5 kilometers north of Station 42. Rat Trap Junction consist of only two businesses. The local MFA Biodiesel station which serves the many hydroponic and livestock farms in the region and Clifford's Farm and Home which sells farming equipment and supplies as well as used vehicles.




Ramshackle and Hardscrabble: These two tiny villages lie on the banks of the Westson Reservoir which is a small reservoir created from filling an impact crater with water. Many of the people who live here work either at Station 42 or in Pleasant Valley or as farm hands. Most of the buildings are built from the native stone although they have some modern amenities. Boon's Irregulars patrol the area and draw several members from the population. The reservoir lies 3 kilometers northeast of Station 42.




Boon's Outpost: Carson Boon has a small garage and junk yard about 6 kilometers northeast of Station 42. About 3 years ago Boon became disgruntled with the Titania government because of their constant failure to provide security for the farmers and other settlers who live in the region around Station 42 so he formed “Boon Irregulars” a militia group who patrol the region looking for pirates, raiders, and other trouble makers. The outpost consist of Boon's garage and a few shipping containers that have been converted into a “base” for his militia group.




The Pit: “The Pit” doesn't even put on the pretense of being a “gentleman's club”. This strip joint and bar lies about a half a kilometer east of Station 42. The clientele consist of biker gangs, raiders, and the roughest spacers in the region. Almost anything illegal can be bought and sold here. Nova Corp and Boon Irregulars regularly raid the club looking to cut down on illegal activity but neither group seems to be able to shut the place down.




The Bloodborn Compound: The Bloodborn Pirates use an abandoned military base as their “hideout” although everyone in the region knows where it is. Built years ago during a war between the Confederacy and the Jovian Empire the base is more of a fort consisting of several hardened bunkers and low defensive walls. The compound is defended by several light artillery pieces and anti aircraft guns as well as a few aerospace fighters, a couple of armed shuttles, and usually several dozen pirates. The compound lies 10 kilometers east of Station 42.




Junktown: This shanty town lies only a few hundred meters from the Bloodborn compound. Home to some of the most desperate settlers on Titania the people of Junktown live here mostly because they can't live anywhere else although a few depraved individuals thrive here. Junktown is controlled by gangs of raiders and the Bloodborn pirates. More dangerous even than “The Pit” very few people would dare to venture here without the protection of either the pirates or one of the local gangs.




The M.S.S.R. Base: During the last war between the Confederacy and the Jovian Empire the M.S.S.R. Allied itself with the Confederacy as an such they have been allowed to maintain a small military presence on a number of Confederate worlds to deter Jovian aggression. The base is small and houses only about a platoon of soldiers but it is heavily fortified and well defended with weapons emplacements and attack craft. The base lies about 8 kilometers South Southeast of Station 42 and not too far from the Bloodborn Compound. Patrols from the base frequently engage pirate and raider patrols. No one really knows what goes on at the base and the M.S.S.R. Isn't advertising it's activities but many locals have noted that there is are an awful lot of Martian transport shuttles frequenting the base. More than would be expected for a small outpost.




The Colony: Over a century ago when Titania was still in the process of early teraforming a massive colony ship crash landed about 20 kilometers Northeast of the location Station 42 occupies. Of the thousands of colonist aboard only a few hundred survived. Life on a moon that barely had more than a sustainable atmosphere was harsh and many of the survivors perished in a few short months. Those that did survive slowly turned more and more savage over the years. Now the decedents of those survivors live in the wreckage of the massive ship as cannibal raiders. It is rumored that there are untold riches to be found among the wreckage of the ship which is scattered across the wasteland for several miles but the “colonist” seem to hold these areas as sacred and fiercely attack any intruders.

Monday, June 13, 2011

AE Bounty Battle Report "Valkyrie Ambush"

The Bloodborn pirates under the command of Captain Cyclopse had been causing problems for the citizens of Station 42 and the surrounding area. Eventually their victims decided to do something about it. Pooling their resources they hired the well known bounty hunting team known as "The Valkyrie".

The
Valkyrie


(Standard Crew)





Valarie (Gunsel Individual Elite
Hero)


M/3 RC/3+ CC/3 A/3(4) S/2 DR/6 W/4


Equipment: LRF Slugthrower, Shock
Grenades, Light Armored Suit


Abilities: *Solo *Hunter (Human)


Hero Type:Unkillable


Traits: Impervious (5+), Unstoppable


Action Points: 4





Kara (Bounty Killer Individual
Regular)


M/3 RC/4+ CC/3 A/3(4) S/3 DR/5 W/3


Equipment: LRF Slugthrower, Adrenal
Booster, Light Armored Suit


Abilities: *Solo *Hunter (Human)


Traits: Berserk


Action Points: 2





Vera (Bounty Killer Individual
Regular)


M/3 RC/4+ CC/3 A/3(4) S/2 DR/5 W/2


Equipment: LRF Slugthrower, AP rounds,
Light Armored Suit


Abilities: *Solo *Hunter (Human)


Action Points: 2





Alecia (Lurker Individual
Regular)


M/3 RC/4+ CC/3 A/3 S/2 DR/5 W/2


Equipment: Shock Gloves, Electrolaser
Pistol, Cloaking Field


Abilities: *Solo *Hidden Deployment
*Hunter (Human)


Action Points: 2




The Bloodborn Pirates


Standard Crew





Captain Cyclopes (Human Veteran
Blooded Warrior Hero)


M/3 RC/3+ CC4 A/5(7) S/3 DR/5 W/3


Equipment: Particle Beam Rifle, Light
Armored Suit, Personal Magnetic Field


Ability: Apathetic, Command, Get up and
shoot!








Quartermaster Grimm (Human
Regular Individual)


M/3 RC/4+ CC/3 A/5(7) S/2 DR/4 W/2


Equipment: Particle Beam Rifle, Light
Armored Suit, Personal Magnetic Field


Ability: Apathetic, Issue Equipment





Quartermaster Vinnie (Human
Regular Individual)


M/3 RC/4+ CC/3 A/5(7) S/2 DR/4 W/2


Equipment: Particle Beam Rifle, Light
Armored Suit, Personal Magnetic Field


Ability: Apathetic, Issue Equipment





The Ductrats (Human Green Squad)


M/3 RC/5+ CC/2 A/3 S/2 DR/3 W/1


Equipment: LFR Slugthrower, Light
Armored Suit


Ability: Apathetic, Random Equipment








Da Gurlz (Human Green Squad)


M/3 RC/5+ CC/2 A/3 S/2 DR/3 W/1


Equipment: Slugthrower Pistol, Light
Armored Suit


Ability: Apathetic, Random Equipment



Knowing that pirates can't pass up a free ship the Valkyrie use their own ship as a decoy to draw out Captain Cyclopes and his gang. The pirates close in to inspect their new prize.
The Valkyrie spring their trap. Early in the fighting one of "Da Gurlz" is shot down by Valarie's LRF slugthrower. Grim and Vinnie take cover in a rocky outcropping while the Captain and the Ductrats make a long flanking maneuver.
The fighting gets serious. Da Gurlz rush forward and shoot at Vera on the hill but they are gunned down in turn by the Valkyrie. Captain Cyclops, completely unfazed takes two shots at Vera on the hill and she falls. Kara and Alecia trade shots with Vinnie and Grimm the two pirate quartermasters. Kara takes a would and the Valkrie quickly discover that both pirates have personal magnetic fields. "That's going to make them hard as hell to kill in that position! Flank em!" shouts Valarie.
Captain Cyclopse takes up a positon in the rock after his own personal magnetic field fizzled out and he took two wounds. Valarie fires a hail of lead into his position and the Captain goes down. "Die Scum!" she exclaims.
Kara and The Duct Rats shoot it out on the other side of the hill. "I'm hit...again" Kara says as the she guns down the last of the crewmen. Vinnie and Grimm snap off several shots with their particle beam rifles but for the most part miss their targets. "Guess we shouldn't have drank the Captain's rum eh Grimm!" says Vinnie.
Vinnie and Grimm attempt to move into better positions seeing that they are getting flanked. Kara and Alecia charge Vinnie who puts up a stronger than expected defense. Alecia is wounded in the exchange but they take the pirate down. "Take that Sucka'" Alicia stays as she kicks Vinnie in the head.
Kara then moves up to get in a better position to take out Grimm but Valarie shoots the last pirate down with a barrage of fully automatic fire.
"Damn that was a hard win" says Valarie. "Those people better pay up" replies Kara.
Note: I ran the Bloodborn Pirates who suffered their first loss in this fight. My wife and Daughter ran the Valkyrie. This is the first time we have played with the Bounty Hunter crew and it's a nasty crew to face. The scenario was "Ambush". The Pirates has Tertiary objective as a dirty trick with Assassination and Delaying action as their secondary objectives. The achieved both of these objectives by Assassinating Vera and lasting for over 6 rounds. The Valkyrie had "Faulty Technology" as a dirty trick which they used on Captain Cyclopes's Personal Magnetic Field and their secondary objective was also delaying action. The Valkyrie won the primary objective as well and their faction objective and their secondary objective. A clear victory for this bounty hunting crew.

Saturday, June 11, 2011

AE Bounty Battle Report " Boon's Irregulars assault a smuggler's hideout

A truck pulls up outside the hideout of the crew of the "Hotrod Pricess"
Whisper the crew's hacker points out the window. "Hey boss these must be the guys my contact back at Statin 42 told me about". Vincent the crews pilot looks out the window "Alright Lisa and I will go see what they want You guys stay here and cover us". "Hey it's going to be hard for us to cover you with this storm blowing in" replies Tommy.
Several men and women get out of the truck and spread out. They seem to be armed and they start making their way towards the old abandoned com bunker that the smugglers are using as a base. Vincent and Lisa take cover behind some rocks. "They don't look friendly" Lisa says.
The Storm is making it hard to see very far ahead. Redjack scans the field in front of him and sees some movement over near some old fuel barrels. "Got you" he says under his breath. A shot rings out and Lisa is struck in the arm by a high caliber bullet. Moments later another shot hits Vincent in the leg.
Vincent and Lisa flee away from the sniper. "Damn that guy is good!" Vincent says as he ducks behind an old crate.
Vincent hears the sound of boots splashing through the mud behind him. He spins around and brings his boosted particle beam pistol "Betty" to bear on a large target. Chuck goes down screaming and clutching his leg as the beam burns through his thigh.
Vincent and Lisa reach the bunker as the intruders close in. Tommy and Mike spot Carson Boon the leader of the militia group "Boon's Irregulars" moving up along the edge of an old crater. The pair opens fire and several shots ping off Boon's personal magnetic field although one shot gets through. "Damn it!" Whisper yells. "I was trying to hack that idiot's field but it's defense software kicked in and gave me a virus!"
From inside the bunker the smugglers put up a strong defense as the militia members move in. The bunker was built for a full scale war and most of the militia members shots are in vain. Whisper continues to try and hack Carson Boon's personal magnetic field. "I got it!" he exclaims.
At almost that exact moment Boon appears in the doorway of the bunker and open fires on the first target he sees. Whisper goes down in a hail of fire before he is even aware of his attacker. Tommy and Mike are both gunned down moments later by Redjack.
The fight turns desperate. Boon and Vincent tangle briefly in hand to hand but Vincent give boon the slip and makes a break for the door. He turns and snaps off another shot which hits Boon in the shoulder. Lisa guns down two militia members hiding near some rocks but more close in.
Vincent takes another shot at Boon and hits him in the arm then turns and runs but Red lifts his rifle and takes a whot. Vincent goes down shot in the back by a green militia member. "That's for Chuck you bastard!" Red yells. Bleeding from several wounds Boon opens up on Lisa and takes the last smuggler down. Bonnie walks into the bunker and looks around at the carnage. "Hey Boon isn't that the hacker we were suppose to capture?" Boon just shrugs.
Note: This is the first game of AE bounty I have run with my home brew smugglers list. Even though they were wiped out to the man I felt the list did exactly what it was suppose to do. I did forget that Vincent the crew's pilot has a personal magnetic field which would have helped him resist the wounds he took but I don't think that would have changed things in the end. I'll be posting the crew stats for the smugglers and my rules for this in the next day or so. We were afraid that the hacker rules would be too powerful but they seemed quite balanced. The hacker got two viruses trying to hack and only managed to hack one piece of gear although he did fry Boon's field.
I think we are about ready to begin an actual AE Bounty campaign based in our Spaceport setting. We just need to finish a couple more projects and play a few more practice games.

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Holy Gamer Pals Batman!

Apparently the gods want me to play Warhammer 40K. Or at least my friends do. Anyhow one of my gamer friends came up with a brand new 5th edition rule book that he couldn't account for. He also had a Terminator Assault Squad with Thunder Hammer and Storm Shield and a spare Librarian so he just gave them to me. Over a hundred bucks worth of stuff for nothing.

So the same friends girlfriend also paints minis and she gave me a great tip for mold line removal. This is an electric manicure tool and it's like a dremmil with a very low power motor. It's perfect for removing mold lines and light flash without damaging the figure you are working on. It was about $7.00 at Walmart.

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Got Fist?

Well I've done it. I've started painting Warhammer 40K figs again. Here are some Marines from the "Assault of Black Reach" boxed set I'm painting up as the Crimson Fist chapter. I'm in the process of heavily weathering them at the moment. I used a lot of drybrushing and cheap craft paints. Suck it GW! I'm pretty happy with the way they turned out.

Here's a shot of them prior to the weather and wash.



Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Quick and Dirty Com Stations

Here's another "Evening Project". These actually took me a couple of nights but that's mostly because I dropped one during basecoating and had to put it back together. I also started them late the first night I built them. These only took a couple hours to build none the less and they are made almost entirely from junk.



Here you can see the parts. The antena are made from a couple of wooden beads and a toothpick. The dish is from the guts of a deodorant dispenser. The arm holding the dish up is the top of a plastic disposable shaving razor handle. The white part is a soda bottle cap and the clear part is a tub from a powdered drink mix container. The hardest part was using a razor saw to cut the plastic razor handles down. Very simple.

Sunday, June 5, 2011

Quick and Dirty Bunker

We needed a bunker for the AE Bounty Scenario "Hold the Fort" and despite 20+ years of miniature gaming I didn't really have one. My wife made this one out of foam core and I painted it. It only took a couple hours most of which as waiting for glue and washes to dry.

A lot of the time I will sit around thinking that I need to build some piece of terrain for a game or scenario I'd like to run but then I start over thinking the project and it doesn't even get started. A lot of the time these are simple projects that I just need to get stuck in on and do start to finish in a few hours like we did with this bunker.

I've decided I want to try a new project called "Evening Projects" based on simple terrain projects that can be finished in a few hours. Hopefully I will have at least one of these projects a week so keep an eye out.