Simple Encounter Board

I've been kicking around the idea of doing a small encounter board for my D&D and other RPG games.  Most of my RPG encounters take place over a small area compared to the amount of space needed for a war game.  Most of the time I set up my RPG encounters on a 4x4 foot war game table or larger.  I wanted something smaller that I could place on my gaming table instead of off on another table.
 

I picked up a 33x50" Ready Grass Vinyl Mat from Woodland Scenics and a 20x30" poster frame from Walmart.  I think I spent about $20.00 U.S. on the project but I don't have the exact figures. 

 I laid the cardboard poster backing from the frame on the grass mat then traced the size.  After cutting the mat I was mostly done. 

I used some tacky glue to glue the mat down to the cardboard backing then placed some heavy books on and let it set for a couple hours.  I recommend against using a water based glue for this to prevent warping.  I did have some slight bubbling with this but that worked out okay because the board looked more natural with the slight rolling surface rather than if it was perfectly flat.   

Looks pretty good with terrain and figures on it.  Just exactly what I was hoping for.  The frame separates it nicely from the table and I think it might prevent dice from rolling onto the board so easily. 

I plan to make several more of this for different types of terrain including one with a flat black surface for laying down dungeon tiles.   

Miniature Update 11-30-17

 Just posting some miniatures I've painted lately.  I'm trying to get some monsters painted up for my D&D games.  First up is this Reaper Bones large fire elemental.

A Reaper; Rust Monster, Clay Golem, and Efreet as well as a Dungeon Delvers Basalisk.  I'm hoping to get more done soon. 

Random Miniature Update 11-9-17

I painted this Reaper Bones Griffin based on a Bateleur eagle.  

These Reaper Crusaders will be "The Drowned Templars" in an upcoming game.

Three Reaper Orcs I painted up to represent Half Ogres.

I painted this Reaper dark elf sorceress as a Drow.  She will be "The Twilight Queen" in my campaign.

The Tree of Shame

I made this tree for an up coming Dungeons and Dragons game.  It's based on a tale from Arthurian legends.  The skeletons are shown for scale.  I was really happy with the way it turned out since it was fairly simple to make.

Years ago I made three wire frame trees from bailing wire.  They sat unfinished in a box for over a decade.  One of them was covered in green floral tape which is something I had used in the past on wire frame trees.  I mounted the tree on a cork board base then used Gorilla Glue hot glue to create texture on the structure.

I didn't want to use plastic shields for the tree because now that Games Workshop has stopped making Warhammer it's harder to find good shields cheap so I picked up a package of fake finger nails from the Dollar tree and cut them into shield shapes with a pair of scissors.  I had to mark the shield shapes by scoring into the nail with an Xacto knife because I could not draw on them. 

I dipped them in very hot water to help flatten them out.  This distorted some of them a bit but that was okay since they were suppose to look battered and distressed anyway.  I then mounted them on square dowels and painted them with black spray paint. 

I painted the shields with some quick and dirty heraldry.  I didn't get too precise with the painting since I planned to weather these.  It's handy to look up the rules of heraldry if you wish to depict it realistically.  I've studied it since I was very young.  My interest in medieval armor and knighthood led me into Dungeons and Dragons and the Society for Creative Anachronisms. 

If you have less knowledge of heraldry you should Google "Heraldic rolls" or "Rolls of Arms" which are medieval records of Coats of Arms.  These are a great reference not only for ideas but also the medieval style heraldry is easier to depict than modern versions that you might find if you just Google Heraldry. 

Here are the shields weathered up.  I wanted them to look pretty battered and a bit moldered from hanging on a tree for long periods of time.  

I can't wait to use this project in my next D&D game.  It should prove to be an interesting encounter.  

       

Random miniature update.

I haven't really posted any painted miniatures lately so I thought I would post the last few miniature painting projects I have worked on. 

The three barrels are from WizKids new unpainted plastic miniature line.  They were very cheap and very nice to paint. 

The archer is from Reaper.  One of their army packs that have been around forever.  This is for my son's very first D&D game.  His character has leather armor so I painted the scale armor as leather scale.  I think it works pretty well.  He's got a bow, arrows, sword, and a shield.  The shield is an old GW shield from my bits box.  My son's favorite color is red so that is why he has a bright red tunic. 

The rat swarms are from Reaper bones line.  I basically dry brushed the entire swarm and base grey then used glazes of different colors to paint the rats.  I added flesh tone to the tails and a dot to their noses.  I think they turned out pretty nice.  I just need more of them. 

Battletech City

We've made quite a bit of progress on our Battletech City in the last few days.  The buildings in the middle of the picture here are the ones we have built recently.  The more basic skyscrapers are made from Dollar Tree gift boxes while the others are scratch built from various objects.

We've got a lot more buildings in progress but I think things are looking good so far.  My goal is to have enough to make three 4x4 foot tables which I will need when our Port Krin campaign kicks off.

X-wing Satellite

Just thought I would post this large satellite/station that my wife and I built.  She actually built it and I painted it.  It's made mostly from two baby bottle caps and some junk from mechanical pencils.

Hover Truck

So I ask my wife if she could scratch build me a simple little hover truck or skiff for our Star Wars campaign and this is what she came up with which is far more than what I was expecting.  She painted this one too.

KP-767 Dewback Spice Freighter

I scratch built some freighters from some a couple of Old Spice deodorant bottles and random plastic bits for my Star Wars Shards of the Empire game.  These are in X-wing scale and they are a bit larger than the YT-1300 model from that game so they are large ships.  I'm using the Hound's Tooth stats but I'm giving the ship a 360 degree firing arc with it's primary weapon and a single missile slot.  I'm not worried about points because these are not going to be used outside my campaign.  the one on the left is slightly larger so it's a slightly heavier variant.  

They turned out a little plain and I would like to have plated them up a bit more but I only had a couple evenings to get them put together and painted so I'm happy with them.    

Star Wars X-Wing asteroid terrain.

I finished up a project I've had on the back burner for quite a while now.  These asteroids are made from Styrofoam chunks that I melted with spray paint then painted up.  I think they turned out okay but they are somewhat fragile and don't weigh enough to hold themselves down well.  Still I think they will serve the purpose for the time being.

I'm hopefully going to be playing some more X-Wing games soon.  I plan to integrate the Fantasy Flight skirmish game into my new Star Wars roleplaying game that I will probably use Savage Worlds for.  

More Solar Empires Pirates. The Ex-patriots!

Here is a WIP shot of some new Pirates for my Solar Empires setting.  These guys are former Jovian Imperial Troopers who went renegade during the last System War.  To distinguish them from other Imperial troops I have painted a crude X on their right shoulders and helmets.  Hopefully I will have them done soon.

Back from outer space with new easy tables and stools!

 Well it's been a while since I posted.  Guess I just got burned out on blogging.  I've still been playing all this time I just have not been posting much about it.

Anyway I found some wood bits at the local Lowles in their hobby section that I thought would make good tables and stools for some of my sci-fi terrain.  I got a package of wooden disk with some turned vases and some small spools.  I glued the vases upside down on the bottom of the disk to make tables then used thumb tack to make seat cushions for the stools.  Assembly took only a little while.  I had enough bits for 10 table and stool sets with a couple tables left over.
 

 I then primed the tables with primer grey.  Here you can see them compared with several random 28mm miniatures.

 After priming I dry brushed the tables white them painted the cushions and highlighted them.  I then added a wash made from burnt umber, dark blue and a bit of floor polish.  Although you can see some of the wood grain in the finished product I just chalked this up to the concept that this is cheap mass produced plastic furniture made with a wood grain pattern.  One thing I really like about the tables and stools is that you can still get four miniatures around each table with the stools in between which makes them look occupied without having to have sitting models.  

Here is a shot of the bottom of the tables so you can see how easy they were to construct.  In the future I may make a few tables with things on them for specific terrain sets like a diner or bar.

6 Month Challenge: More Scrap Dog Raiders in progress!

Well I didn't make a lot of progress on the 6 month challenge this week.  I've been spending most of my hobby time working on some campaign rules for my next Solar Empires, No Limits campaign.  I did manage to work a bit on another unit of Scrap Dog Raiders but I still have quite a bit to do on them.

6 Month Challenge: Ghost Legion Pirates!

Well I finally finished the first few squads of my Ghost Legion pirate crew for the Solar Empires setting.  These are all Reaper IMEF and NOVA troopers because this pirate force split off from the Star Guard mercenary company.

6 Month Challenge: Battlesuits and Riflemen.

Okay so I haven't had the best start to the 6 month miniature painting challenge.  All I have managed to do in the last week was assemble some new stuff for my Hell Knights mercenary army.  I didn't pick up a single brush this week in fact mostly I just went to work and slept.  I've really been wanting to get both of these squads put together for a while now.  I've only been running with one Battlesuit in my Hell Knight army and that character was taken out of the action for our home campaign so I don't plan to filed that one any time soon.  Also these are converted from toys made from some type of vinyl material and when I painted the first Hell Knight battlesuit I used a clear coat that caused it to off gas.  I plan to strip it down and repaint it soon.

The riflemen are pretty important because I will have a full platoon of these troops when I finish them and that has been a goal for a while now.  I have over 50 troops in the Hell Knight army but they are mixed between several types of squads.  I want to have a platoon of core troopers then expand to a platoon of veterans, heavy infantry, and scouts.  This will finish up the first platoon.

6 Month Lead Mountain Challenge!

Okay I've joined a 6 month lead mountain painting challenge to help me clear some of my project backlog.  You can find the rules here:  http://wastelandminiatures.blogspot.com/2014/08/the-6-month-mountain-reduction-painting.html

They have a facebook page if you are interested in joining here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ConqueringTheLeadMountain/

This one will be kind of difficult for me because I was planning on starting two new forces and I won't be able to buy those figs during the challenge.  I'll just have to do some heavy hint dropping around my birthday and the holidays.  :)

On the Paint Table: Space Pirates and Wasteland Vehicles

 I've been working on some projects this week.  My Ghost Legion Dogs (veterans) are about 75% finished.  They will all have white hair which is why they all have grey hair now.

 I'm also working on some Raiders (regular troopers) for the Ghost Legion based on Reaper N.O.V.A. troopers from their Chronoscope line.  The Ghost Legion are former mercenaries from the Star Guard mercenary company.  They operate more like a military unit that most other space pirates.

Finally here is a WIP shot of the painting I'm doing for the wasteland vehicles I have been working on my my Dystopia post apocalyptic ptoject.  Hopefully I'll have these guy finished and on the table soon.

Dystopia: More Wasteland Vehicles from the "Cars" Movie.

 Got another "Cars" movie car kitbashed today for my post apocalyptic project.  I added a crazy ram thing to the front and a massive autocannon.  I also added some stowage.  I intend to call this one "Longhorn".

Here are a couple of dune buggies from the "Cars Radiator Springs 500 1/2" collection.  I hope to pick up the other four off road models in this collection but I am taking my time since these things cost 6 dollars each.  I plan to add a lot of stowage to these guys but they are already more suited for the post apocalypse than the regular vehicles.

Dystopia: Wasteland Vehicles WIPs

 I got some progress made of  my "Cars" wasteland vehicles.  I've got two of them built up and I working on the third one.

I'm really happy with the way they are turning out. Hopefully I will have enough of these in a few weeks to do a debut game for my new setting.

Dystopia: Wastlands and Empires "Sweet Rides!"

I picked up some Pixar "Cars" movie cars today for my post apocalyptic project.  I considered some more regular die cast cars for the project but that would mean using either 1:43 scale or 1:64 scale which are too big and too small respectively.  The "Cars" toys seem to be right in the middle of those scales and they look pretty good next to 28mm miniatures.  Price wise they are not too bad.  They run 3-6 dollars each which is reasonable.  O course I plan to go all kinds of Mad Max on these things and add armored plates and weapons as well as bits to stowage to make them look appropriate for the desolate wastelands of the near future.