2012 Project "Shadowrun" in miniature.

Our big project for 2012 is going to be "Shadowrun". I think it's pretty fitting because the end of the Mayan calendar in 2012 marks the beginning of the 6th world. I've been playing in a consistent Shadowrun campaign since 2008 and for the first few years we either didn't use miniatures or we used the GMs 1990s style Ral Partha Shadowrun figures. In the last year I've started working on a few Shadowrun minis in 28/30mm scale by converting minis from existing modern and sci-fi lines.

Here are some runners I converted and painted in the last year. Most of these are from our team although not all are current.

From left to right:

Brass: Female Elf "Face". This is simply a Foundry miniature from their Street Violence line with elf ears sculpted from green stuff.

Edward: Male Elf "Technomancer". This figure is is made from the body of a Militia miniature from the Void miniature game and a plastic head from the old Games Workshop Dark Eldar line. He has red skin because the character had to have his natural skin replaced with synthetic skin after being engulfed by a Spirit of Fire.

Bear: Male Human "Street Samurai". This figure is made from various Games Workshop plastic kits and an AK-47 from Reaper's modern weapons pack. Bear is actually an NPC dependent.

Jo: Female Orc "Street Samurai". Joe is made from a Reaper Half Orc. The AK-47 comes from a RAFM figure and the extra gear on her belt came from a Games Workshop plastic kit. Jo is my wife's character.

Jäger: Male Orc "Street Samurai". Jäger is made using the body from a Foundry Street Violence miniature and a Reaper Half Orc monk. His machine pistol is from the Malifaux modern weapons pack. Jäger is my character.

Parker: Female Orc "Face". This figure is made from the body of a RAFM USX miniature and the head of a Reaper half orc.

Elf female: This figure is made from a Foundry Street Violence figure with some elf ears made from green stuff. She is currently serving as a stand in for a player character until we find something better.

Squirle: Male Elf "Technomancer". This figure is made from a Militia figure from the Void miniature game with elf ears made from green stuff.

We are also planning to build; more runners, security forces, organized crime factions, gangs, spirits, drones, awakened critters, civilians, vehicles, and sprawl terrain.

Of course we already have a large number of modern and sci-fi humans which we will be making extensive use of.

Station 42: Works in Progress

We worked on quite a few projects today for the Station 42 setting. This is a simple stage I made from a Platformer kit from Pegasus Hobbies http://pegasushobbies.net/catalog/. The kit is not as easy to put together as it appears and the schematics are really poor but it's a neat kit with lots of potential and it's not too expensive for what you get. This is only a small test piece and it took some time for me to put it together. Also the kit is suppose to be able to be assembled without glue so you can tear it apart and use it for whatever design you want. In theory that makes sense but I'm gluing mine into permanent models. This stage will be useful for a number of scenarios. I primarily designed it for slave auction Seniors in "Junktown".

Also I converted a sniper for my Wolfhound Freikorps mercenary unit using a sniper rifle out of the Malifaux Modern Weapons pack from Wyrd Games http://wyrd-games.net/. It took a lot of cutting to get the rifle to fit but I'm pretty happy with it. I just need to seal up a couple gaps where his arm meet his torso in the back and I'll be ready to start painting him.

Over the Thanksgiving break I also finished three more pirates for my "Bloodborn" pirate gang who have already been involved in a number of encounters in the setting. This makes 11 pirates painted and about 9 more ready to be painted. I still have more on the way. I plan to have at least 30-50 pirates for this force. These are entirely kitbashed from various GW kits.

This is a work in progress shot of the main command bunker that will make up the Bloodborn Pirates main base of operations. In addition to this larger bunker there will be three smaller bunkers and perhaps a few outbuildings and landing pads. We will also be using our underground facility which we plan to expand on in conjunction with these bunkers for the base complex. It should work very nicely when we are finished.

Here is a top down shot of the command bunker. We are considering adding a floor using window screen and a supporting structure. This is going to be a nicely playable piece that is going to be heavily weathered and trashy looking. Should make a great base for pirates!

for some reason blogger is screwing up and I can't highlight txt to create hyperlinks. I'll fix this

M.S.S.R. short range patrol unit

I picked up a few Pig Iron Productions Kolony militia from The Warstore just a few days ago. I've been eyeballing these guys for quite some time for my spaceport project. In my 3031 Sci-Fi setting the M.S.S.R. have a base near Station 42 on Titania. These guys will represent a unit of garrisoned troops at the base.

I really like the comblock look of these figures which was clearly what the folks at Pig Iron were going for. They have really expanded their Kolony range as well so I have several options for expanding this force. The figures were cast really cleanly. Very light mold lines and no serious miscast. They are sculpted in a very nice "English" style. Simple but very nice looking figures that really have a lot of character similar to figures from Wargames Foundry, Copplestone Casting, or older Games Workshop figures.

I based these figures on Renedra 25mm plastic bases. I also got these from The Warstore a few months ago. 50 bases for $4.00 was a deal I couldn't pass up. The bases are perfect for minis with cast bases since they are only half the height of a standard "slotta" base. I simply used some Elmer's Carpenter's Wood Filler to blend them in.

Wolfhound Friekorps painted!

Way back in August 2010 I put together a group of Wargames Factory Shock Troopers as my "first" crew for AE bounty. Then they set on my shelf for over a year. We played several games of AE bounty and we even painted up crews for the game but I didn't get these guys painted up until a couple days ago. I painted them up with combination of drybrushing and washes mostly. I wanted them to look dark and germanic. I decided to muddy up their boots and coats which I think worked pretty well to add some interest to an otherwise grey/green paintjob. Over all these arn't fantastic paintjobs but they get the job done and I think they make a decent looking crew.

New Project: "Underworld" game

I'm starting a new project and RPG campaign based on the Underworld series of movies. Underworld Revolution will focus on the time period just after the events in "Rise of the Lycans". I will be using the Savage Worlds Deluxe edition rules. The player characters will be a party of "Death Dealers" the warrior cast of the Vampires. "Revolution" will be the first chapter of what I hope becomes a Death Dealer campaign that will run up to and beyond the events portrayed in "Evolution".

I'm pretty excited that I will be able to use so many different historic miniatures with of course some fantasy, science fiction, steam punk, and pulp adventure thrown in.

Making the best of cheap Battlemechs!

A couple of months ago I picked up the new Battletech Introductory Boxed set for Classic Battletech produced by Catalyst Games. Now I have Battletech "Total Warfare" and a number of my own Mechs but the boxed set came with really nice board game style map sheets made from heavy cardboard as well as 26 Battlemechs. 24 Inner Sphere mechs (that's two companies) and 2 Clan Omnimechs. It also came with a slimmed down rulebook and even some quick start rules as well as record sheets and some other odds and ends.
The Mechs in the boxed set are really poorly made. They are cast out of cheap plastic. I'm talking toy army soldier cheap. This is nothing new. The plastic mechs that came with the old boxed set put out by FASA were pretty much the same quality and I would much rather have 3D plastic mechs than 2D cardstock flats that FASA used in a few versions on the introductory set.
Still they are pretty bad so I've come up with a way to paint them quickly and make them look nice. Nothing stellar but nice enough for my table.
I've chosen to paint all my mechs in camo paint schemes. The box comes with two companies so I'm going to paint the two companies in two different camo patterns although I am going to paint all of the mechs to represent units of the Hanseatic Leauge Regional Defense Forces. That's really not that important. I chose to do a camo paint job because not only are they fast and easy they also look the best on these crappy mechs. The camouflage pattern mask the flaws in casting and the fact that I did a rather hasty job of cleaning these mechs up before painting. The soft plastic also makes removing lines a pain. As you can see in the picture I started by painting this Assualt Lance with primer grey then I added a simple brown camo pattern.

Next I took some light sand colored paint and drybrushed the entire mech. This is a great way to paint figures using camo quickly and easily. I've even used this technique on 28mm military figs.

Next I painted in markings and added some weathering using some dark metallic paint to add damage to the mechs paint jobs.

Next up I added a wash of Burnt Umber with some Dark Blue mixed with water and Future Floor Wax. This was done to add detail to the recessed areas and tone down and blend the drybrushing.

After the Wash dried I detailed the Mechs adding cockpits and bringing out some of the scratches in the paint job with a bright silver. After that I finished the bases and gave the lance a matte varnish. These Mechs only took a few hours to paint a good hour of that was waiting for the wash to dry. I think they are a pretty effective looking unit despite the fact that the minis themselves are pretty poor in quality.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Statio 42: More Venture Star Vehicles

Just making a quick post to show off a couple new vehicles for the Venture Star prospecting company from my space station project. First up is the company shuttle which is a G.I. Joe Shark Tooth submarine toy. It's basically just a re-paint. I did basically nothing to the model in terms of conversion. There was already a plastic ridge in the canopy that was about where I would have put one to re-scale it so all I really did was paint it up. I'm really quite happy with the way it turned out and I'll likely be picking up a few more Shark Tooth toys for the project.

Next up is this flying car I picked up at Wal-Mart. It's a Hot Wheels kit car that is about 1/43rd scale I would assume. I think it makes an awesome air speeder/flying car. Check out my previous post for more details.

This car will be the personal vehicle of Mr. John J. Biggs the CEO of Venture Star. It is pictured here with two Copplestone "Babes"

Station 42 Mr. Biggs gets a flying car!

I picked up this Hotwheels "Custom Motors" flying car today while at Wal-Mart. I'm using it as the personal vehicle of Mr. Biggs the CEO of the Venture Star corporation. It looked like the kind of over the top ride a CEO going through a mid life crisis would call his dream car. The scale of the car itself is closer to 1/43rd so it's a bit large but it is after all a "flying car" so I suppose eyeball scale is good enough. I look at it more like an air speeder than a sports car anyway.

Here's the packaging it came in. There are a couple spots on the roof that need some putty work because they are places you could attach customizable bits. This set cost about $9.00 with tax and there were several other kits that could work for 28mm vehicles. Some of the larger sets cost about $16.00 but I didn't want to try them out until I had worked with a smaller kit.

Station 42 a couple of painted War Droids

I finished a couple of my cheap war droids! The one above is for my "Bloodborn" space pirates.

This is one I painted up in a generic cammo to use as a mercenary war droid. I'm going to be doing another in this cammo scheme. I've got all the rest of the droids primed and ready to paint up so stay tuned!

Station 42 BIG STOMPY ROBOTS!!!!

Anyone who follows this blog has probably figured out that I spend way too much time browsing the toy isles at the local stores. I love toys. I think most miniature gamers are just big kids anyway playing with big kid toys. The best thing about toys though is that they are cheap. Or at least cheap when compared to miniatures. My budget for miniature gaming is tight. Really damn tight. I barely have the money to buy the minis and that leaves almost nothing for terrain and vehicles and larger models. Fortunately I have toys.
Take a look at these guys. I found these packs of robots at a local Dollar General. They stand 3.5 inches tall (9cm) and cost $5.00 (not a lot of money in your currency either) a pack. That's right $5.00 for three "BIG STOMPY ROBOTS". That's about $1.66 each. I can't remember when I last paid under $2.00 for a brand new 28mm mini. Space Marine Dreadnoughts cost $45.00 each. I can get 27 of these guys for $45.00. That's a lot of bang for the buck. I can't think of that many sci-fi settings where you couldn't use these guys as heavy war droids. They are a bit small to be mecha but my next project is to track down some larger cheap robot toys for that purpose.

Here are three of the droids and some 28mm miniatures from various companies for a scale reference.

Here's another three with the miniatures. You can't see the green droids arms but they are a pair of Gatling cannons. I plan to use this model for my M.S.S.R. force. It just has that Commie Tech look to it.

These droids are all possible because they are constructed with ball joints. As toys these joints are really loose. The legs come apart at the knees way too easily. However I'll be gluing these guys into static poses. The nice thing is that if I get other copies of these droids no two will have to be in the same pose.

Here's a shot of the same droid in another pose. The detail on these are very nice. Fairly crisp and deep which should really come out with a better paint job.

Here's another shot of a more dynamic pose. I think I'm going to use this pose for this guy when I set him up. I also think he's going to be part of my N.O.V.A. security company. He just has a nice clean "cop" look to him and I think he will look great with the Reaper minis I'm using.

Here's the really cool thing about them. Not only are they multi poseable but they also come apart. In fact you can use any part from any one of the models on any other model. All the weapons and wargear are interchangeable too! That makes for quite a few combinations. These guys are a kit bashers dream.

Here's a shot of the scenic bases that come with the droids and some extra weapons and wargear. It's almost like the people who designed these things were wargamers themselves.

I'm going to work these guys into the forces of several of the factions in my sci-fi setting. I'm even planning on converting a few as industrial droids since you can remove the weapons from them and add other tools.

I've made a lot of high value toy purchases for wargaming but I thing these are some of the best. Not only are these going to make great war droids but they could just as easily be made into objective markers and terrain bits. Big robots are found in all kinds of science fiction settings and these guys can be converted into many variations quite easily!

Station 42 more vehicles

I'm always on the lookout for things I can use to improve the realism of my spaceport. One of the things that is important to making any type of city or village or what have you look realistic is the extra details. Having great buildings just isn't enough. You have to have all kinds of other things that would exist in any settlement anywhere at any time. Having Vehicles is a very important part of my spaceport project. Not just vehicles for people to drive around in but utility vehicles as well.
The vehicles pictured above are examples of utility vehicles. One is a tractor toy I picked up at Dollar General and the other is a dump truck I picked up at Walmart. The tractor will be part of my fuel station. I'll probably be picking up a few of them. The idea is that not all shuttles and ships will be able to land at the fuel stations so these tractors would be able to service other ships at and outside the spaceport. With the truck I'll probably modify the bed and make it look like a regular truck and less like a dump truck. I'll be doing a heavily weathered pant job on both of these vehicles.

Station 42 building layout!

Well we managed to finish building all the buildings for the main part of the station. Of course we still have a lot of detailing to do. In stead of setting them up on a 4x4' or 4x8' table we used four of our 2.5x6' tables which make a 5x12' playing surface. This will allow us to put some other things on the outskirts of the buildings. At the moment we've got some larger ships set up on the extra space but we are talking about adding some residential buildings to at least one side. of the station but we may build them on another section entirely.

Here's a shot of the Venture Star base on the left and Rosie's Workshop on the right. We've used this section for a game of A.E. bounty already.

Here's another shot of the Venture Star base. This facility is the most complete of the buildings in the space port so far. Venture Star has these three mining vehicles as well as a small shuttle and a flat bed truck. I also plan to add a prospecting vehicle or two and 14-20 employees.

Here's the shot of some of the newer buildings. The black on in the foreground is going to be the new clinic. The building directly across from it will be a cantina and the building the the two attached platforms will be the fuel station. The platforms will have fuel tanks on them.

The other new building is the Nova Corp Security Station up in the top right of this picture. There are two landing pads for Skysweeper Patrol Ships and they will have four light patrol vehicles as well as a riot APC and some sort of paddy wagon.