Another Pleasant Valley Sunday......

Hey folks we have started working on Pleasant Valley which is a small town near Station 42 for our generic Sci-Fi setting.  This is a basic "test" layout.  We are going to build a raised shuttle landing pad in the bare front corner of the table.  Of course we will be using vehicles, barrels, crates, and other scatter terrain to fill in as needed.  I hope we can wrap this one up in the next couple of weeks so we can use it for our Station 42 War campaign.  

100 bottle cap barrels

Sometimes we do something completely insane for our games.  This last weekend we put together and finished 100 bottle cap barrels.  Before we had about 35-40 so this will provide us with a lot more scatter terrain for our games which is important because our Station 42 table is 5'x12'.

Our other barrels are all generic so we decided these should have corporate labels as well as warning labels. Cutting out and pasting on the labels was by far the hardest part of the project.  We cut and pasted literally hundreds of them.

You might recognize some of the fictional corporations we used.  Not bad for a weekend project I guess.  These are part of a larger supply depo project we are working on.  Next up will be some other containers and we hope to have some large shipping crates as well.  We already have a lot of labels printed out.

The Advantages of Playable Terrain

 One of the things we have been doing with the Station 42 project is that we are making all of the buildings as playable as we can.  That is we have buildings that can be opened up and furnished so we can put miniatures inside.  We've found this is extremely helpful in making the terrain more useful for different types of games. 

 There are a lot of excellent terrain products and scratch built projects that look amazing but are not very playable.  For some items that is ok but for larger buildings especially that can make a beautiful piece of terrain far less useful.  I've got a number of buildings on my terrain shelves that look cool but aren't that fun to game on because they just become big blocking pieces of terrain.  Like square cliffs. 

 Big non-playable buildings are especially frustrating when you are playing skirmish games or role playing games.  Having interiors can be a lot more dynamic and fun when you are doing small scale battles.  If the heroes duck inside a building you can just open it up and continue to play rather than move to a map or try and just position the minis on top of the building. 

 However even in larger scale battle having buildings that can open up for play can provide for my interesting situations for snipers, scouts, and skirmishers. 

 There are some things to keep in mind when designing playable buildings.  For one thing you need to make sure you can get enough miniatures in them and that the interior details and furnishings allow enough room for a reasonable number of miniatures to move around in.  A good thing to do is to keep most of the furniture up against the wall in smaller buildings.  Doorways should be larger than is realistic to better accommodate based models although sometimes you will just have to pick a model up and place them on the other side of the door if the have too large a base. 

 Multi story buildings get pretty complicated.  The upper floors need to be more simply furnished than the lower floors because you will have to move them around more.  Also on very large buildings you may want to only make the lower and upper floors playable or perhaps every few floors.  It can be assumed that the floors in between are of a similar layout. 

Remember to keep your construction simple and durable.  Playable buildings are going to be handled a lot more and they aren't going to be as supported as a non-playable building.  Furnishings and interior details need to be small enough that they don't hinder play.  If you keep your interiors simple you can change out finishing to change the look of the building.  Wall details can be held in place with sticky tack as well as floor details like rugs. 

More Sci-Fi signs now at Station 42

 Well I made several more signs from trading card holders and I put them up around Station 42 since I was setting it up for a game anyway.  I even made some signs for some of the buildings which I think turned out pretty good. 

 Here's a close up shot of some of the advertisements and a building sign.  Hopefully I'll have stage 2 of Station 42 done soon.  We are trying to get all the signs done and finish all their interiors.

Speaking of interiors here is a shot of Rosie's Workshop with furniture and some data screens I made using the same method as the signs. 

Here's another shot.  I tried to make the displays look as if they had several windows open on them.  I'll try and get better shots of the screens up soon.  I'm really happy with the way they turned out. 

Sci-Fi Billboard update!

 I knocked out a couple billboards from the trading card display protectors I picked up.  I glued the protectors to some cheap shaving razor guards to make bases for them.  I'm even thinking about gluing them to magnets so I can stick them to metal railings and signpost.  I've used parts from these cheap razors in a number of projects. 

 I found some "Futurist Fashion" images from a quick google search then made a simple logo for the fake fashion design company "Alejandro of Titan" in photoshop.  This isn't my most futuristic set of buildings and I know that these ads in particular look a bit out of place but you get the idea. 

I printed these out on some luster photo paper then cut them out and slid them into the protectors.  I made two "posters" for each billboard.  In the future I plan to glue the images together to make them a little easier to deal with and look a little cleaner but These are just test subjects.

One word of warning.  You need to be very careful that you keep your work surface clean when using these card display protectors or any other clear plastic items.  I messed up one of my heavy duty protectors because I accidentally laid one of the pieces in a small drop of super glue that I got on my work table.  I think I can salvage it as a distressed display or I might set it up to be one sided and mount on the side of a building or something. 

Sci-Fi Terrain bits

 The Station 42 project has all but spiraled out of control which was to be expected.  Instead of doing one big spaceport project we are doing one big spaceport project and a number of other locations around the spaceport creating a mini setting.  I guess this is to be expected and it's kind of a cool thing.  After all the big project is coming along nicely but it's still a 5x12' table so it's not the most practical thing to have regular games on.  Still because of the modular nature of the designs we are working with it is providing us with a lot of use.  One of the things we have been needing to work on though are detail bits.  We have managed to put together a lot of buildings but we don't have a lot of smaller detail bits or furniture for those buildings.  We have some that we have purchased and scratch built but we need more.  The goal is to make these bits as modular as possible too. 

 We have a number of these smaller adobe structures we built out of cork tile we are working on.  We plan to use them for a lot of different locations.  They are very plain however and we were looking to spice them up with some tech bits.  Here is an example of some tech bits made from junk.  We built little platforms that we can slide right up against the building so it will look integrated and be highly modular.  Also we can put these pieces out as stand alone terrain bits.  On larger buildings they can even be set on top. 

 Here are four that I made that have identical construction.  I often use the design principle of unity and variety when thinking about miniatures and terrain. 

 Here is a shot of a number of our adobe buildings with some work in progress modular tech bits as well as some of the other storage/chemical tanks and other smaller terrain bits we have been working on. 

 Stage one of the painting.  I hope to make a large number of these for use with my terrain sets.  I want to make some larger and some smaller sets to add to the versatility of my terrain.  Little projects like these can add a lot of detail without adding a lot of storage problems.  It's easier to make one building with several modular bits than make 10 buildings that only look one way when you set them on the table. 

 Here are some simple wooden tables we made.  All of our buildings open up for play so we need a lot of furniture.  There are several lines of pre-made furniture out there but we are going to need a large volume of furniture so we are going to have to resort to scratch building to fill in the gaps.  These are for a sci-fi setting even though they are wood.  They could represent either nicer actual wood furniture or fake wood furnishings.  That brings up another thing.  Don't discount any fantasy or historic furniture you might have in your collection for Sci-Fi settings.  You can find uses for it because furniture designs have a long life span.

 Another detail I'm working on is signage and billboard advertisements.  I was looking for a way to make them highly modular and easy.  I got the idea to pick up some cheap acrylic photo frames and some plastic trading card sleeves.  I plan to make adds using photoshop and them sliding them into the frames.  I'm going to use different methods to attach them to my buildings and also make some stand along billboards.  Being able to change out the art will make them highly modular. 

Here is a detail shot of the two types of card protectors.  The one of the left came in a pack of 35 for less than $3.00 and the acrylic one was $1.29.  They are designed to hold collector cards like sports cards. 

Legends of the Gold Sea Costal town tavern WIP

 We started working on the "Legends of the Gold Sea" project.  The first project will be a small costal town.  This is the tavern we are working on.  It will have a small staff. 

 It measures about 8x6" and it's about 3" tall.  Most of the buildings in the town will not be overly large.

Next up will be a small temple. 

Reaper Dwarf Fighter

This is the first fantasy miniature I've painted in quite some time.  The figure is a dwarf fighter from Reaper Miniatures.  I took a little more time on him since he is going to be a well known npc in the region we are starting out fantasy campaign project in. 

Fantasy Project "Legends of the Gold Sea"

We are starting a new Fantasy project similar to the Station 42 project.  We are going to focus on a geographic area called "The Gold Sea".  Our first project will be a small coastal village but we will also be building up to a large port city.  This is going to be a pretty generic fantasy setting with a very Mediterranean feel. 

The Gold Sea is named not for it's color but for the massive amount of trade that goes on along it's coast.  It is the richest area in the world and a cultural melting pot.  All manner of fantasy races and monsters will be a part of the setting.  It will be a place of wealthy city states, pirate kingdoms, and clashing empires. 

We plan to create the setting in several different ages.  We will have an Ancient Age, a Dark Age, a Medieval Age, a Renaissance, and an Age of Exploration.  We will accomplish this by making terrain that can be changed out in each location to show the changing times.  We will likely start in the late Dark Age or early Medieval Age. 

This will of course be a long running project so we are starting with a coastal town terrain set that we plan to fit on a 4x4' or 4x6' table. 

Look at the size of that thing! Is this toy too big?

 I recently picked up a "Victorious Mission" military play set from a local Dollar General for $8.00.  Actually I got a couple different ones.  One of them had this large AFV which looks a bit like a Stryker.  I want to used this for 28mm games but it's pretty large.  About 8 inches long and 3and a half inches wide.  It's clearly meant for larger scale figures.  The figures that came in the set were the typical 54mm sized army men. 

It doesn't really look that bad to me and there are larger sized tanks and troop transports on the market right now like the new Land Raider from Games workshop.  Also "Super" tanks and AFVs are common in many sci-fi settings.  I'm pretty sure I'm going to end up using it because it's just such a good deal even though it's a bit on the large side.  I'm just looking for some feedback from other gamers. 

Maxed Out Episode 4 "Hopless Causes"

 

Late May 3031

There have been a number of strange things going on around Station 42 in the last few months. A number of hydroponics farms near the station have been attacked by well armed mercenaries. The government of Titania seems to be backing their claims that their farms have been purchased by an unnamed buyer who has every right to evict them. Many of the farmers and other locals have banded together to form a militia to fight these mercenaries. The “Militia” is being lead by Carson Boon. A well known local militia leader and trouble maker.

General Drake the leader of the Planetary Guard has resigned his commission and a number of Planetary Guard members have gone missing with their equipment including a few tanks. It is believed that at least a company of men have gone missing. General Drake was reported to have said that he “Can not let this kind of thing stand” as he departed the capitol building in Titania City.

In other news Mr. Biggs of the Venture Star Prospecting company was kidnapped a few weeks ago along with his Secretary and one of his scientist. Rosie from Station 42 salvaged the mercenary hover tank that was destroyed during an recent battle between the mercenaries and the militia near the Ghost Compound. Vinnie, one of the Blood Born pirate leaders, was also recently captured by Rocky Tomson and Jennie Tam and turned in for a bounty.

After capturing Vinnie Jennie Tam and Rocky Tomson hadn't had much work. They were doing alright for themselves but they were starting to run short on funds. The “Hell Knight” mercenaries had put out a bounty on Carson Boon for $4,000 and Rocky was tempted to start looking for him despite his recent status as a local hero. Boon was certainly not her favorite person and he didn't care for her much either. Still he was fighting the mercenaries who had been attacking the locals so now wouldn't be a good time to go after him.

As they were having lunch in the “Close Encounter” Rocky received a com from a man who identified himself as Lt. Jefferies formally of the Planetary Guard who had a job for them.

Meeting Lt. Jefferies

 

Rocky and Jennie decided to check the offer out so they traveled out to the meet coordinates. The meet was at some ruins outside of the Station. Lt. Jefferies was there with nine other men who were clearly members of the Titania Planetary Guard.

Lt. Jefferies explained that his men had arms and equipment but very little ammo. They needed some crates of ammo that had been given to Carson Boon at Bunker #1138 that had been lost when the mercenaries took that bunker over from the militia. The mercenaries had destroyed most of the Militia's supplies but the ammo was labeled “Property of the Government of Titania” so they mercenaries hadn't destroyed it. The renegade planetary guardsmen needed that ammo before they could mount an offensive to take back the bunker.

Jefferies had a file of false information about Carson Boon that they were to turn over to the mercenaries to gain their trust. He also wanted Jennie and Rocky to find out what kind of forces the mercenaries had at the bunker and what they were up to. The pay would be $2,000. Jennie and Rocky accepted the offer

Jennie decided to “muck up” the engines on the Maxed Out a bit so that they might have an excuse to stick around they bunker while she “repair” their ship.

Bunker #1138 under the control of the "Hell Knights" mercenaries.

 

As the Maxed Out approached Bunker #1138 a warning beacon on their instrument panel lit up warning them that a battery of anti aircraft missiles had locked onto their ship. “Maxed Out you are entering a restricted air space. What is your business for being here?” came a voice over their com system. Jennie explained that they had information on Carson Boon. They were allowed to land but were advised not to make any unusual maneuvers or power their weapons on their approach.

As they landed they noticed the anti aircraft missiles as well as another “Sky Sweeper” class attack craft similar to the “Maxed Out”.

Unfortunately Jennie had mucked up the engines a bit too well and they damaged one of their landing struts when they touched down too hard. Now they really did have a need for repairs.

The well guarded bunker.

 

Jennie and Rocky entered the well guarded bunker and met with Sargent Jones who seemed to be in command. Jones was impressed with the file on Carson Boon but said that they were have to wait around for a while so his men could check out the information. Jones also told them he would pay them $500 for the information if it was worth anything. He also offered them work providing air support for the mercenaries if they could get their ship fixed up.

Rocky chats with the mercenaries.

 

While Jennie worked on the ship Rocky decided to chat with some Mercenaries resting near some tents. One of the mercenaries was quite chatty and told Rocky a number of interesting things about their operation. His friends were upset with him but didn't seem too concerned.

Jennie meets Freddy the pilot of the other Sky Sweeper.

 

Jennie was working on the ship when a man approached her. He wasn't dressed like the mercenaries and he introduced himself as “Freddy” the pilot of the other Sky Sweeper. Jennie had heard of Freddy. She had seen him a few times at the “Close Encounter” back at Station 42. Freddy told her how the mercenaries hadn't expected any resistance so they hadn't really brought a lot of air support on this operation. They were paying him well to enforce their no fly zone around the bunker and the farms.

Jennie's map of the bunker.

 

Jennie and Rocky were at the bunker for several hours. Jennie managed to repair the landing strut but she wasn't sure how long it would hold without a better repair. In that time she managed to draw up a map of the bunker and camp as well as put together a report with the information they had gathered.

The two could not however figure out a way to steal the ammo crates. They decided to head back to Lt. Jefferies and give him the report.

Sargent Jones came out to talk to them before they left. He said their information had turned out to be helpful. They had even captured a few suspects. Jones payed them and again offered them a job after they got the ship patched up.

Lt. Jefferies was pleased with the report. He told Jennie and Rocky that the people the mercenaries had captured were plants who would be spying on the mercs and feeding the resistance information. He also suggested that they take up the mercenaries offer to fly patrols as a way to get back in and steel the ammo.

Jennie and Rocky came up with a plan. They went back to Station 42 and has Rosie help them repair their ship. They also purchased 200 ft. of cable and a wench from her which the attached to the bottom of their ship. While they were there they saw the hover tank Rosie had salvaged from the Ghost Compound. When they asked her what she was going to do with it she responded that she would most likely sell it back to the mercenaries. She didn't care about a bunch of “dirt farmers who didn't pay their bills”.

Back at the bunker.

 

The Maxed Out returned to the bunker. Jennie and Rocky again met with Sargent Jones to sign a contract with the mercenaries to provide air support. Jones told them that it would take a while to process their contract but that he would soon have an assignment. He told them to make themselves comfortable at the base.

Having "lunch" at the ammo crates.

 

Jennie and Rocky decided to take the opportunity to go check out the crates of ammo. The crates looked heavy and they knew it would take some time to hook them up. They decided to “take lunch” using the crates as a table. Jennie went back to the ship and carefully reached under to pull the cable out from the wench. As they were having lunch they hooked up the cable to the crates. A couple of the mercenaries noticed what they were doing but didn't say anything because there were now “part of the team”. When they finished lunch they went back to the ship and waited.

Sargent Jones came out a bit later with their first patrol assignment. Jennie and Rocky made their pre-flight prep.

The heist!

As the Maxed Out lifted off they slowly wound the cable back in with the wench. When the cable became taught the crates of ammo began to lift off the ground. Sargent Jones screamed at them over the com to land their ship or they would be shot down. The take off was rough with the extra weight of the ammo crates but Rocky didn't have much trouble with it. Again the warning beacon for a weapons lock flashed on the panel. An anti aircraft missile barely missed the ship.  Jennie returned fire and damaged the battery.  Another warning beacon lit up. The mercenary mech shot at them with it's AC5 Autocannon. The mech did not miss. Two rounds hit the ship. One tore through a wing and another damaged engine number one. Several other small arms shots came up as few of them deflected off the armoured hull of the craft. Rocky “punched it” and they made their escape!

They met Lt. Jefferies at the ruins again and dropped off the ammo. The guardsmen loaded the ammo into their truck. Jefferies paid Jennie and Rocky and directed them to a location where they could get their ship repaired. The heist had been a success but they would have to lie low for a while especially since the mercenaries had almost immediately taken out a bounty on them.

   

Notes: What happened to Episode 3? Good question. We played that session before our last move and lost our notes. I have pics of the action but I can't remember the details. I may post the pics and what we do have soon but I wanted to get this episode up since it leads into the next battle in our Station 42 War campaign.

There wasn't a whole lot of fighting in this session. Mostly a bunch of information gathering and role playing. That's okay some times. Of course we used the Savage Worlds role playing rules for this game as we have for the other “Maxed Out” episodes. Using the different systems is really working out well especially since we aren't trying to over lap them much. Each game provides another chapter to what is going on around Station 42 which is just the way we planned it.

Defiance Games UAMC Marines painted

Here are the first two fire teams of Defiance Games UAMC Marines painted.  My wife is working on a set of these as well.  We are trying to get them ready to be the Titania Planetary Guard for an upcoming battle. 

Kitbashed Medium Hover Tank part 1

 I picked up a couple of these Matchbox "Rev Rigs" tanks today at Walmart.  I didn't like the wheels but I figured that I could convert them into hover tanks for my Hell Knights.  They are slightly chunkier than my light hover tank so I thought they would be good as medium hover tanks.

 I had to locate the screws that held the wheels and drive on so I could take the tank body off which was the only part I was looking to use.  There were four screws on the side of the drive part but I had to remove the tires to get at two of them.  After that I was able to pry the drive apart to get at the screws holding the tank body on.  This pretty much wrecked the drive part but at least I got some nice gears I can use for other projects from it.  I figured I would make the hover drive from cheap disposable razor handles exactly like I did on the other hover tank. 

The one really bad thing about this toy is that the turret doesn't turn.  It's fixed in place with screws and post and even when you remove those it doesn't turn because the hole on the body is smaller than the hole in the turret.  Makes you wonder why they even put a hole in the body.  On almost every tank toy or model I have ever seen the turret had a simple key attachment system that allowed it to turn and held it in place.  I have no idea why they didn't use that on this toy.  There is no way a kid could get the turret in his mouth so it isn't a choke hazard.  I'm planning on figuring out a way to make the turret turn.  I'm going to have to put a bottom in the body anyway so I think I can rig something that should work.  Also the pintel mounted gun is really ugly and huge.  I will likely switch that out with a better looking weapon.  I have some cheapo machine guns in mind that aren't that special but they look way better than that thing. 

I'm pretty happy with the toy over all though.  I think it will be no harder to put together than my other hover tank project way.  Each kit bash has it's own little issues.  Unfortunately it will probably be next week before I get to this project because I'm going to an SCA event over the weekend. 

Cheap Toy Tank Painted

 Well here is the painted tank I posted a couple days ago.  This is one of those "Army Men" tanks that I got out of a pack that had two tanks and a bunch of toy soldiers.  It basically cost about two dollars.  I think it painted up pretty well.  I may have over done the dirt on the skirting.  It's not as nice as a high quality resin or plastic tank kit but I'm pretty happy with it. 

Cheap toy tank "upgraded"

I picked up a pack of cheap army men that came with two equally cheap tanks.  These are the typical army men tanks based loosely on the M48 Patton Tank.  I used to use these as Predator tanks for my Space Marine army way back during 2nd edition 40k. 

We added a laser cannon made from a automatic pencil and a coaxial scatter laser from a Dark Eldar Heavy weapon.  The armoured skirting and reactive plates are made from thin cardboard cut from a box of crackers and the hinges are made from spare sprue.  We also plated up the bottom so it wasn't just a hollow cavity.

This is a pretty cheap attempt to make a "futuristic" tank.  I think it will paint up well enough to suit our needs.  We plan on using these as the MBT of the Titania Planetary Guard. 

Defiance Marines Assembled

Well we got our Defiance Games UAMC assembled.  Or rather I should say my wife got them assembled.  I did four of them.  She put these together while I was assembling a squad of Cadian Imperial Guards from Games Workshop.  In fact she got 22 assembled while I'm still working on a 10 man squad.  In my defence I'm cutting all the skulls and wings off the IG gear and that is slowing me down but I still feel inadequate. 

I guess you could say these guys went together well but there were some issues.  Many of the parts are very small.  The web gear pouches are tiny.  Like 1/16thx1/8th inch square.  The shoulders are small and hard to line up and you have to be careful getting the arms to line up with the guns.  I would say they are slightly harder to assemble than a box of Imperial Guards or any other GW kit besides Fantasy Undead. 

The guns are probably the highlight of this particular set of minis.  They are very nicely sizes and designed.  It's nice to see some plastic Sci-Fi troopers that aren't armed with over sized guns.  I also like the fact that these are not just stand in Imperial Guards.  They aren't armed with some variation of las guns but instead bullpup assault rifles and SAW style machine guns.  This makes them actually not Imperial Guardsmen instead of not/Imperial Guards if you follow.  I actually like the helmet design.  I've seen similar concepts in articles about "future soldiers".  I can see why some people don't like them but there are lots and lots of conversion heads out there to work with.  The armour is not awful.  It's clunky but a lot of modern body armour is as well and these are suppose to be "near" future troopers.  I would have liked it if it was a bit more sleek looking but it doesn't put me off.  The leg armour is the most questionable.  It is thick at the ankles.  Armour design is one of those aesthetic choices that is very subjective.  I've seen worse and far more impractical designs than this but it does have a slightly clunky feel.  Proportionally they are more correct than the "husky" Imperial Guard designs. 

As far as detail goes I would have to say that they aren't GW yet.  I don't care for a lot of GW concepts but their models are nicely detailed.  These are softer in detail.  Similar to Wargames Factory "Shock Troopers".  I wish the entire model was a sharp as their guns.  The guns are fairly sharp and detailed but in places the detail falls off on the rest of the model.  Hopefully they will get better at this with future releases. 

The place these guys really win is in value.  Purchased from Defiance they are a bit over a dollar a fig and purchased from thewarstore.com they are a bit less than a dollar a fig.  Considering that Imperial Guardsmen are now about $3.00 a fig that is a very nice value.  Lets put it this way.  For a platoon of plastic Imperial Guardsmen you can buy a Company of these guys.  When you are putting little boots on the table top instead of models in the display cabinet that makes a big difference.  These guys are good enough to make decent troopers to game with.  No I wouldn't expect to win a painting contest with them but I don't enter a lot of those.  I'm looking forward to having big battles in 28mm scale again without having to run up a credit card or pick up a second job.

We will be using these guys as the Titania Planetary Guard for our Sci-Fi games.         

The War Effort!

 Our game budget is pretty slim at the moment so we have to make do with what we have.  Her is a pic of some hover tanks and apcs we are building up out or corrugated cardboard.  We will plate them with lighter cardboard and detail them with bits. 

Here are some more vehicles we picked up for the militia.  We have less than $15 in all of these.  We got the weapons out of some little toy soldier packs. 

I know they don't look as nice as highly detailed resin and plastic models but the cost pennies on the dollar and when we get them detailed up and painted I think they will work quite nicely.