Hotwheels Batman "Bat" toy

I picked up this Hotwheels "Bat" speeder from Batman to use as an air speeder for my Hell Knights army.  The cockpit area is just barely large enough to be considered for a 28mm scale pilot but I may paint over it anyway and just use this thing as a kind of drone.  I think either would work reasonably well for this design.  One weird thing about the toy is that the army mounts are positioned asymmetrically which isn't so bad because they are clearly designed to be able to sweep back and forth to track targets.  It does come with a flying stand which is nice but it is awfully short for an air speeder type craft.  I will probably upgrade it eventually.

 Another thing about that model that is kind of strange are these roto blades on the bottom.  They are however made of soft plastic so they were easy to clip off.

This is a pretty good model as is.  It's a bit on the Iconic side of things but I think painting it up in Hell Knights cammo will make look different enough to make it work.  I may add a missile launcher above the cockpit areas to change it up a bit and add a bit of fire power but that's something I can do anytime or even as an upgrade.

Hell Knights Armored Assault Squad "Troop" selection

A Hell Knights Armored Assault Squad engages a squad of N.O.V.A. Securities troopers on Titania during the Station 42 War

Armored Assault Squad

Trooper: AC 9/ RA 6/ CC 5/ ST 4/ T 4/ W 1/ CO 7/ AR 5 (+47)

Sargent: AC 9/ RA 6/ CC 6/ ST 4/ T 4/ W 1/ CO 8/ AR 5 (+52)

Composition: 1 Sargent and 4-9 Troopers

Equipment: Medium Carapace Armor, Heavy Blaster, Pistol

Options:

*The squad may be equipped with fragmentation grenades for +8 points per member.

*The squad may be equipped with thermal grenades for +9 points per member.

*The squad may be equipped with nova bombs for +11 points per member.

*One in five members of the squad may exchange their light laser rifle for one of the following options:

*Plasma Carbine +6 points

*Flamer +3 points

*Frag Grenade Launcher +14 points

*The squad may be assigned a heavy transport from the motor pool.

Notes:  Another troop selection for my Hell Knights Mercenary Company army list for the No Limits free wargame rules.  

Hell Knights Scout Squad "Troop" selection.

Two Hell Knights Scout Squads prepare to assault a communications bunker defended by renegade Titania Planetary Guard members during the Station 42 War

Scout Squad

Scout: AC 8/ RA 5/ CC 4/ ST 4/ T 4/ W 1/ CO 6/ AR 2 (+29)

Sargent: AC 8/ RA 5/ CC 5/ ST 4/ T 4/ W 1/ CO 7/ AR 2 (+33)

Composition: 1 Sargent and 3-5 Scouts

Abilities: Infiltrate

Equipment: Battle Uniform, Light Laser rifle.

Options:

*The squad may be equipped with fragmentation grenades for +8 points per member.

*The squad may be equipped with thermal grenades for +9 points per member.

*The squad may be equipped with nova bombs for +11 points per member.

*One member of the squad may exchange their light laser rifle for one of the following options:

*Heavy Blaster +3 points

*Plasma Carbine +6 points

*Flamer +3 points

*Frag Grenade Launcher +14 points

*The squad may be assigned a transport from the motor pool.

Notes:  Another entry for my Hell Knights army list for our home setting using the No Limits free wargame rules.  Squads with the "infiltrate" ability may only have a maximum of 6 members.  

Hell Knights Veteran Rifle Squad "Troop" selection

A Hell Knights Veteran Rifle Squad defends a supply depot from and insurgent attack during the Station 42 war on Titania

Veteran Rifle Squad

Trooper: AC 9/ RC 6/ CC 5/ S 4/ T 4/ W 1/ CO 7/ AR 3 (+35)

Sargent: AC 9/ RC 6/ CC 6/ S 4/ T 4/ W 1/ CO 8/ AR 3 (+41)

Composition: 1 Sargent and 4-9 Troopers

Equipment: Flack Armor, Light Laser Rifle

Options:

*The squad may be equipped with fragmentation grenades for +8 points per member.

*The squad may be equipped with thermal grenades for +9 points per member.

*The squad may be equipped with nova bombs for +11 points per member.

*One in five members of the squad may exchange their light laser rifle for one of the following options:

*Heavy Blaster +3 points

*Plasma Carbine +6 points

*Flamer +3 points

*Frag Grenade Launcher +14 points

*The squad may be equipped with bayonets for +2 points per model.

*The squad may be assigned a transport from the motor pool.

*The squad may be assigned a single detachment from the detachment list.

Hell Knights Regular Rifle Squad "Troop" selection

A Hell Knights Regular Rifle Squad secures a militia compound on Titania during the Station 42 War

Regular Rifle Squad

Trooper: AC 8/ RA 5/ CC 4/ ST 4/ T 4/ W 1/ CO 6/ AR 3 (+25)

Sargent: AC 8/ RA 5/ CC 5/ ST 4/ T 4/ W 1/ CO 7/ AR 3 (+29)

Composition: 1 Sargent and 4-9 Troopers

Equipment: Flack Armor, Light Laser Rifle

Options:

*The squad may be equipped with fragmentation grenades for +8 points per member.

*The squad may be equipped with thermal grenades for +9 points per member.

*The squad may be equipped with nova bombs for +11 points per member.

*One in five members of the squad may exchange their light laser rifle for one of the following options:

*Heavy Blaster +3 points

*Plasma Carbine +6 points

*Flamer +3 points

*Frag Grenade Launcher +14 points

*The squad may be equipped with bayonets for +2 points per model.

*The squad may be assigned a transport from the motor pool.

*The squad may be assigned a single detachment from the detachment list.

Notes:  This is the first entry my my Hell Knights Mercenary Company army list using the No Limits free wargame rules set.  The Regular Rifle Squads form the core of most Hell Knights armies.  

X-WING "Courier Escort" game report

We picked up a copy of Fantasy Flight's X-WING game a few months ago but never got around to playing it despite the fact that we have been buying ships for it.  After going down to the FLGS today for a quick demo I purchased 5 more ships then came home unboxed all my ships and painted up a star field table.

My wife and I decided to play a 75 point escort mission.  The Rebel goal was to escort a Y-wing courier off the far corner of the sector.  The Imperial goals was to stop them.  My wife played the Rebels and I played the Imperials.

The Imperial force consisted of:
Two TIE Fighters from Black Squadron
One TIE Interceptor from Alpha Squadron
Maarek Stele in a TIE Advanced with "Swarm Tactics"

The Rebel force consisted of:
Two X-wing Starfighters from Red Squadron.  Red 2 had R5-K6 astromech droid and Red 3 had R2-F2.
One Y-wing Starfighter from Gold squadron with an Ion Canon Turret and R2 Astromech.

  By turn 3 we were already in a heavy furball.  The Alpha Squadron Interceptor was hit by the Y-wings Ion Canon.  Red 2 lost it's shields to combined fire from the Black Squadron TIEs and Maarek Stele.

As the Interceptor drifted the Black Squadron TIEs and Stele took out the Y-wing's shields.  The Y-wing scored another Ion hit on the Interceptor.  The X-wings ended up completely outmaneuvered.

As the Rebel ships came about Red 2 destroyed Black 27 scoring three hits against no evades.  The Y-wing took a couple hits this turn as well.

The Interceptor preformed Koiogran Turn (Immelman?) and scored an impressive long range critical hit on the Y-wing doing double damage.

 The Y-wing scored an Ion hit against Stele after taking another hit from the Black Squadron TIE who had preformed another Koiogran.

Black 26 scored the final hit against the Gold Squadron Y-wing dashing the Rebels hope for victory.

This game ran very smoothly and all the ships preformed as expected.  The Rebel ships were hard to damage with their shields while the imperials were weaker but highly maneuverable and evasive.  The Imperials scored a lot of critical hits that only served to weaken the Rebel shields.  We played this game in just a couple of hours and I had only played one session of the game if that gives you any indication of how simple the rules are and yet they did not seem all that simplistic.

Hell Knights Army Book coming soon for No Limits

Hey folks I'm working on getting a Hell Knights army book written for the No Limits free war game rules system.  As we have been playing the Station 42 War campaign I have been developing this army and I have enough material to star putting together a more formal book.  I not only be including the army list but also pictures of every unit in the book as well as information about how I built and painted the miniatures and models.  I hope to release the book as a free PDF on the No Limits web site.
This will be a major undertaking so I plan to provide samples of the content here as I put the army list together.

Pegasus Sandbags and my Improvised Military Base

I picked up a couple packs of Pegasus Hobbies Sandbag packs to create an improvised military base for an Episode of Maxed Out my science fiction Savage Worlds game.  I picked up a set of "Straights" and a set of "Corners".  Each set was $20.00 a piece.  I really like these.  They are nicely detailed and finished and they are ready to use out of the box.  I think they worked well in this situation.

Infinity Terrain Challenge: Apartment Building WIP

Last night I glued corrugated cardboard rectangles inside two of the plastic crates then I glued the crates together to make one apartment building.  I used Aleen's Tacky Glue which seems to have bonded fairly well.  I would suggest a tacky craft glue over a regular PVA glue or perhaps some wood glue for this.  The cardboard will provide a base for me to glue details on like doors, windows, and tech bits.  Normally I would try and make a building like this playable and use clear plastic for windows and add floors and doors but this is suppose to be a simple and cheap terrain project aimed at new players so I decided that would be too complicated.    

 I picked up a few more supplies at Dollar Tree.  Six plastic crates, some floral wire, and two packages of plastic hair curlers for bits.  This cost another $5.41 so I am now up to a grand total of $53.49 on the project so far.  I still want to pick up a package or two of ping pong balls but after this I think the rest of my budget will be paint.

 I glued some rectangles of poster board inside the green crates.  This will be a penthouse or equipment storage area on the roof of the apartment.

 I constructed the roof from the foamcore I picked up at Dollar Tree.  I left enough of the lip so I could position miniatures on the roof and give them some cover.

 Here is a shot of the whole building as it is right now.  I only have 3-4 hours of work in it so far and since this is my prototype I expect the others to go much faster.

Here is a closeup shot of the roof with my Ariadna.  I got a little close on the sides but they still fit just fine.  My goal is to get this building done tomorrow and also get the other apartment buildings to this level.

Infinity "How low can you go?" terrain challenge: Layout and stuff

 I'm working on the Layout of my main buildings for my infinity terrain challenge table.  I think I'm going to go with two factories instead of the strip mall The boxes I'm using just as a general guideline.  There will be streets and the factory yards will be fenced in and there will be a lot of things in them.  I'm also going to fence in a "parking area behind the workers dormitories and I'm going to have advertisements and planters running down the middle of the streets to break up those large kill zones.
 

Here is a shot of some of my minis next to the crates to show their scale.  Not all of the openings will be windows.  I'm going to block some of them off and add some tech bits and doors of course.

I picked up a couple packages of cheap razors and plastic cloths pins at the Dollar General for adding details.  They were each a dollar so it was about $4.20 with tax which brings my total up to $48.08.  That's almost half of my target goal and I still have some other expenses to look at.  Hopefully I'll stay on target.  

Infinity "How low can you go" terrain challenge. Supplies!

I've started my Infinity Terrain “How low can you go?” challenge and I'm already at $43.88 US For my supply cost. I do however have most of the things I plan to use for the table that I am not going to make from recycled junk. I'm trying to keep the terrain set under $100.00 and I hope to go lower if I can manage it. I'm going to need to leave some budget for some more paint and a few other bits.

I went to three stores today and this is how it broke down:

Lowe's: I picked up a 4'x8' sheet of 3/16^th inch masonite (MDF) board which they cut into two 4'x4' sections for $13.99. I am planning on using one section for my table top and one section for basing some of my other terrain elements and possibly for streets.

Walmart: I picked up four cans of cheap store brand spray paint. Two cans of primer grey cost $1.38 each and two cans of flat black cost $0.96 each. I also bought a package of cork tiles that cost $5.94 and some plastic canvas “Granny Grating” for $2.97. The total at Walmart with tax was $14.76.

Dollar Tree: Everything at Dollar Tree cost a dollar except the two sheets of poster board that cost $0.50 each so I'm not going to break down the prices. I picked up two sheets of poster board, two packets of alphabet and number stickers, eight plastic crates, and four sheets of foamcore even though I was only charged for three. My total cost was $15.13.

I'm going to use the foamcore to build a small factory or two and a three or four building strip mall as well as using it for other details on the crate buildings. If I can work it in I'm going to go for a small park as well.

As I pointed out I'm going for an Ariadna industrial city look. I'll probably draw from Russian sources for my inspiration.       

Infinity Terrain Challenge "How low can you go?"

I posted this terrain challenge on the Infinity terrain forum just a little bit ago.
********

I was thinking about the recent thread “Terrain as a hindrance to new players?” which is about how hard it is to set up an economical table full of terrain and I was thinking that making a simple 4'x4' table full of terrain that is as economical as possible would be a good forum challenge.

If you would like to participate here are the rules:

Contest ends on the last day of November.

You must start with nothing. Not even a table surface. Pretend you are not a miniature gamer. No finished buildings or even a finished table top. No finished hills ect.

Track the cost of everything you spend putting the table together. You can use existing materials and bits if you can show the cost of those materials and bits.

Using free bits like recycled junk from packaging is perfectly acceptable and encouraged.

Use simple techniques. Please no resin casting or techniques requiring complicated tools. Exacto knives, rulers, tape, glues, paints and other easy to find and use tools are encouraged.

At the end of the challenge the table must be finished. Everything must be painted and ready to play on.

Post pics of your progress in this thread or link your progress thread or blog.

Starting Now! Good luck!

********

Here is a link to my thread if you wish to participate:

http://www.infinitythegame.com/forum/showthread.php?tid=13786

The City of Tomorrow

I don't hate Warhammer 40,000 but I do hate what it has done to 28mm science fiction gaming.  Everywhere I look on line I see the "Dark Gothic" aesthetic passed off as futuristic or sci-fi.  To me there is nothing less futuristic than a 12th century design style.  I'm planning on starting a new category on this blog where I feature actually futuristic looking 28mm gaming products and gamer projects that I plan to call "The City of Tomorrow".

Primitive Tech Buildings

 We finished up some of our primitive tech buildings this weekend.  We plan to use them for several locations around Station 42.  We have been using them in some of our Station 42 War games but they weren't done yet.  We added doors and finished the "tech" bits.  We have at least four more of the hose size buildings and a larger factory sized building for this set that still have quite a bit left to be done.  We also plan to make more tech bits to go on the outside and on top of the buildings.  The idea is that we can switch the bits up and get some good variety out of the set up.

Titania City perhaps?

I hate to keep posting pics of things I'm going to work on but here are some simple crates I picked up at the Dollar Tree store a couple of days ago.  I think we are going to use them for some of the buildings in Titania City.  They aren't big enough for sky scrapers but they might make good shops and apartment buildings.  Right now we are trying to decide how to make interiors for them to make them playable.  The packing trays on top are ideas for roofs.  These are the same things we used for roofs on Station 42 and a number of other buildings in the setting. I think it will help tie them in with the other projects.

In The Future There Will Be Robots!

I just wanted to show off some of the toys we have amassed for our Mecha project for Station 42.  I've already shown one of the mechs with the Titania Planetary Guard update.  Here are some of the others.  Many if not all of these will make and appearance in our "Station 42 War" campaign.
We will still be using "No Limits" as our rules which will make it easy to create stats for these models but we will also be adding several house rules and some new equipment which I will publish as the project progresses.  Eventually I would like to pick up some nicer models but for now we are using these to kind of test out our rule ideas.

20 Angry Questions from The Angry Lurker!

 The Angry Lurker posted these 20 angry questions on his blog.  I decided they were so angry I would have to post some shots from my photography portfolio so as not to scare people off.

1.  Favorite Wargaming period and why?
Science fiction which should be pretty obvious from my blog here.  I like Science Fiction because I like space exploration and space ships and even though it sounds cheesy space really is the final frontier.

2.  Next period, money no object?
I would love to do a Viking Saga game with good ships and minis.  Really take the time to do them nicely.

3.  Favorite 5 films?  Snatch, Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Serenity, The Lord or the Rings Trilogy, Empire Strikes Back.

4.  Favorite 5 TV series?
Firefly, Star Trek TOS, Eureka, Game of Thrones, Battlestar Galactica

 5.  Favorite Book and Author?
H. P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu Stories

6.  Greatest General?
Sir James "The Black" Douglas or more properly "Good" Sir James Douglas.

7.  Favorite Wargame Rules?
I loves me some classic Battle Tech.

8.  Favorite Sport and Team?
SCA heavy combat.  Calontir.

 9.  If you had a use once only time machine when and where would you go?
The Future.

10.  Last Meal on Death Row?
Bacon and beer.

11.  Fantasy Relationship and why?
Rachel Weisz.  Lets not be stupid here.  She's hot and I love when British chicks say "knickers" like it's the naughtiest word in the English language.

12.  If your life were a movie who would play you?
Jack Black

 13.  Favorite Comic Super Hero?
Conan.  Because Fuck You that's why.

14.  Favorite Military Quote?
"He who does more is more worthy"  Geoffroi De Charny

15.  Historical destination to visit?
Rome.

16.  Biggest Wargame regret?
I wish I could get back some of the miniatures I have sold over the years.

17.  Favorite Fantasy Job?

Editorial Fashion Photographer.

18.  Favorite Song?  Top 5?

No Quarter by Led Zeppelin, Nothing Else Matters by Metallica,  Hold the Heathen Hammer High by Tyr, Cry of the Black Birds by Amon Amarath, Float by Flogging Molly 

19.  Favorite Wargaming Moment?

The "Station 42 War" home campaign my wife and I are playing.  The best combination we have had of finished terrain and minis.  Even though it's narrative we have tried to keep it realistic.    

20.  The miserable git question.  What upsets you?

Working a crappy night job that gets in the way of gaming, photography, and family.    

Hell Knights Regulars Rifle Squad

I just finished assembling a Hell Knights rifle squad.  This is the third squad I have put together with the pig Iron heads which I chose for this army.  These guys take quite a while to assemble because I have to shave off all the Imperial symbols and fit the heads.  I'd say they take almost an hour each.
This squad I am going to paint as a squad of "regulars".  The other rifle squad I have painted and the one I have base coated are veteran squads.  In order to tell the difference I am going to base these in olive green instead of dark brown and I don't think I will be doing these with a camouflage pattern.  Their web gear and other equipment will stay the same color as the other squads which should tie them in.
Eventually I want to have a whole platoon of three Regular squads and three Veteran squads.  I have enough models to do one more rifle squad so I will have two squads of each until I can afford to pick up a couple more squads and at GWs prices that may be a while.  

Titania Planetary Guard Update

I just wanted to post a pic of the Titania Planetary Guard army that we have been working on for the "Station 42 War".  I just finished up a Battle Mech and a tank for it and the command squad as well.  I think we are going to try and add one or two more tanks and some APCs or transport vehicles as well as some support artillery next.
This army is pretty cool for us in the fact that it cost us about $50.00.  

More Titania Planetary Guard Reinforcements

Hey I'm working on another tank for the Titania Planetary Guard and a new Battle Mech as well.  The Mech is a M.A.R.S. toy that I got at Walgreens.  It is about 7 inches tall and I got three different mechs for about $14.00.  They are a little on the chunky and static side but I like their styling.  I still have weathering, a wash, and final details to go on both of these.