Battletech Terrain

 Hey guys sorry for the lack of updates recently.  I've been playing a lot of Battletech but I didn't really want to post much here because it has all be map based until now.  We've finally managed to get some good terrain together.

Also myself and a friend of mine have started a new campaign for our local group.  It is set on the planet Antallos during the 2nd Succession War.  I have a blog for it up here:  http://antallosshadowfeed.blogspot.com/

Anyhow I just wanted to post some pics of what we are using in the next game.  Most of it is scratch built from junk except the buildings in the top photo.

Ancient Ruins WIP

Hey it's been a while since I posted anything but I have been working on a lot of projects.  This is a set of generic "Ancient" ruins I'm working on for my Conan project but really they could be used for a number of settings.  I'm sure they will get used in Call of Cthulhu and other fantasy and pulp games as well.  As you can see we have mostly covered a 4x4' table with ruined building made from cork tile.  Cork is a great material for making ruins.  If you want a comprehensive guild to building with cork check out Matakishi's Tea House.

I'm really looking to add at least one centerpiece building to the set.  Probably a temple of some sort.  We are also going to be adding some more ruins.  We are planning on making some jungle bases to add to the table including some to add to the buildings to look overgrown.  The buildings will probably be painted dark stone and we will use flocking and turf for moss.

Hyborian Adventurers

I've been going through my miniature collection looking for miniatures to use for the Conan game we are putting together.  I've been so focused on Sci-Fi and Pulp over the last few years that my fantasy collection has really suffered and only some of what I have painted is really good for a Hyborian setting.  I did manage to pull quite a few unpainted minis out of my collection that I though would work well.  This is the first batch I have painted up so far.  All four of these are from Reaper's Dark Heaven line.  

Cthulhu and Conan

I work nights and it's really hard to get in gaming time because weekends tent to be catch up on family time and even though we are a gaming family there are sometimes other things that need doing.  To that end I have contacted some gaming friends who have Friday afternoon off and we have decided to try and have a game session from noon to four on Fridays.  We've rolled up characters and decided to alternate between Call of Cthulhu and Conan adventures which is cool because we can use a lot of the same miniature resources.  Even though the settings are very different since Lovecraft and Howard influenced each other so much the two settings work well together. 

Another good thing about these settings is that the protagonist are all humans and that makes it easier to have a flexible miniature collection for each setting.  I've already got a nice collection of "Pulp" era protagonist painted and a large number prepped and ready to be painted.  As far as the Conan stuff I have a fair amount of that in my collection too although not as much of that is painted at the moment.

So I will likely be post a lot of new projects based on these two settings in the near future.  

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.