Tag: Gaslands

A Break In The Weather And A Day To Spray

Its not often that we get a day to consider undercoating something in the UK, especially in mid February.  Moisture and temperature can play havoc with spray cans.

This week we did get the window to spray for one afternoon and I took it while I could.

Silver for robots…

Lots of robots…

Silver for some of Coronasan’s MDF Gaslands gates.

(and silver for the Martian underground base entrances…  but I forgot to photograph them in the mad rush to get so many batches out on the BBQ)

And, just to mix things up, black and grey for the MDF house that I started a few weeks ago…

Lets hope I can get some real painting done soon.

Gaslands – Hotrod

So back home from our trip to Rome and I had a day to spare before Salute in London, so no time to get stuck into anything too complex.

Just time to tart up the new Vatican Hotrod. A simple silver pen and ink wash is all its getting.  Such a simple game only needs simple efforts (not everyones opinion I know.)

Rear facing MG and front end Ram should keep its look and allow me to deal with being anywhere on the starting grid.

A fun little car and nicely different from my other team members.

I do seem to think that I have a bit of an ‘Orange’ vibe going on with this team.  Its going to need a team name soon.

 

Distraction – Rome

We spent a couple of days away last week.  Rome – Never been before and it proved I am a small town boy at heart…

Loved the sights and history on offer.

Great weather and great to wander about in such an iconic spot.

Did all the traditional tourist stops.

Spent much longer wandering the Roman Forum than we expected to.  Such a big and varied site.

Happened to be the Rome Marathon that weekend too.  The small town boy in me did not appreciate the cramped city streets that day…

I was truly longing for wider skies by the end of our stay. I can now fully understand why the cities squares such a part of the culture there.

Can’t take a gamer anywhere though without seeing something worth using in a game.  In one of the Vatican gift shops of all places, all I noticed was a potential Gaslands car…

Gaslands – Race Night

We finally managed to get that, postponed by snow, Gaslands game played.

First game on the newly built game table, and it worked well.  Crews were kept simple again.  Coronasan had a light Buggy, his Pickup truck with a turreted MG on the roof and his new Performance car.  I played a Pickup with limited ammo on its rocket launcher and a back up Car with grenades, a caltrop dropper and a nitro booster.

After 2 turns or so we had reached gate 2 and had caused some serious mayhem.  The performance car and MG pickup were toast (we must remember to paint the undersides of our cars as they are turned upside down when wrecked).

Coronasan was left with a light buggy at this point, so looked likely to lose.  I had a pickup, with no ammo left, and my backup car.  Both of my vehicles having taken some serious damage by this point.

With this being a race, Coronasan decided to put his foot down, and just go for it.

Whereas I planned to sit in wait for him, until he rounded the corner, and then finish him off.

All was not as I had planned, as first the car went down to a hail of bullets then, as they rounded the last bend, side by side, his driver ‘popped a cap’ in my pickup’s driver’s face (serves him right for hanging out of the window I guess).

As usual I forgot to photograph the final moments in all the excitement but you can probably picture the dejected look on my face while Coronasan tried not to crow too obviously…

If anyone is interested the MDF gates used in the game, these were Coronasan’s own design and will be on sale through Products for Wargamers at Salute in April this year if all goes well…

Gaslands – Prep For Our Next Game (Score So Far +7)

As we have a Gaslands game planned for this week, I have just found time to rust up and varnish the last two cars in my original team.

A pickup truck with turret mounted rockets with an unarmed looking car finish the team off nicely with the options to go for a heavy or light ride.

I added a passenger hanging out of the window for a little extra detail as I was finishing up.  Makes it look a little less like a hot wheels car.

The Photo makes the rust on the front of the car a little bright.  Not so in real life…  This has been given equipment options that do not have to be modelled on the car. Grenades to throw out of the windows, along with a caltrop dropper and Nitro booster for a little extra speed mid game.

Together they add up to 50 cans so are a team in themselves.  I plan to use them for our next game. It will be interesting to see what tactics I have to employ without a ram on my side.

As I should really be focusing on the items on The Plan and this is no longer on that plan I have to be hard on myself and actually mark it down.

Score for post -1/ Total score +7

Gaslands – Game On (Score So Far +9)

Varnish is on and although these photos do not do them justice the cars are looking far less new and shiny.  The Rust effect (when wet by the varnish) blends in and spreads out slightly as well.  All making it less heavy or obvious.

My starting line up with stats.

The Plan for the game: The Racer in Pole (or at least at the front of the starting grid) The Hammer in second line.  The Shooter in the back row.

The plan never made it past turn one.  The start had both front row cars rolling poorly and never getting past gear one.  This caused all the cars behind to bunch up and swerve left and right.

The Hammer started to ram whatever was in front of it, as it was in gear 2 by that time, and on a roll.

My Shooter had to swerve away from the pileup and left me needing to perform a hard turn in turn two to stay on the table (should have been simple enough). In the end I rolled a slide that I could not cancel and slid right off the table…  Out of the race in turn two…

After a few turns of car-nage (see what I did there?) the racer was cruising away while The Hammer was blocking most things (mainly Coronasan’s two buggies). However, as Coronasan’s Truck had passed the first gate, his guns came to life and the Racer started to feel more vulnerable.

Past gate 2 and I thought I was away.  Sadly Coronasan’s truck was not far behind and upping gears to match the supposedly faster car.

I managed to get an oil slick out the back of The Hammer but at the cost of not ramming for one turn and Coronasan’s truck found time to pull away (although those buggies found it hard to get by still.

In the end my Racer managed to pull over the finish line with only one hull point left after Coronasan got 2-3 effective shots on target.

On such a small board its hard to get out of range of a Heavy Machine Gun Turret.

The back field was left with cars pointing in all directions and no hope of getting past gate 2 let alone finishing the race…

Game played.  On The Plan…  Hugely enjoyable…

Score for post +1 point / Total score +9

Gaslands – More Finishing Touches (Score So Far +8)

Well, I haven’t gotten round to starting my war rig as yet but I have started to weather the (extremely clean looking) original crew.  I have been adding small details, here and there, as and when I pick them up. Today we can see the addition of wire mesh windscreens for two of the cars and a rather heavy coating of rust to all of these cars.

My Racer (a performance car) didn’t have any guns or additions in the original build, so gets a driver that is more interested in firing his hand gun than steering it would seem.

As the Racer will be tasked with actually running and finishing the race, the others will be the blockers and chasers in our next few games.

Firepower is limited in this 50 can team but an MG on the bonnet of a second car will give the option for a second race contender if the Racer gets taken out.

The Hammer is there to take out as many cars as possible over the first half of the race (as I don’t expect him to be at the front of the pack at any point).

The rust is looking a bit stark at the moment but it is a water based paint that, when varnished, will change colour and blend in more (you might have to trust me on that one…)

A Gaslands game is on the Plan.

Score for post +1 point / Total score +8

Gaslands – A New Addition To The Garage: The Hammer (Score So Far +3)

One car left before I can call my first Gaslands garage complete.  Not that they are a planned crew.  They don’t even add up to the required 50 Gas Can point limits in any way, shape or form… Its a collection of cars adding up to about 100 cans that I can pick 50 cans from, and fudge the remaining points with driver traits and the odd box of extra grenades.  The game lends itself well to spending left over points on bits of kit and skills that don’t always have to be represented on the model.

Last in the chop shop is the 4×4 with the horrid blue plastic roof and bull bars.

Thankfully a set of clippers and a blade soon fixes most things.  I prefer to keep the original paint schemes for these cars, and add details, rather than repaint the whole thing.

One resprayed drab grey roof and some silver pen to the front bars and we are almost there.

I have two rams from Ramshackle games in my bits box but I wanted to save them for my War-Rig. So, even though that dozer blade is perfect for this car, I have decided to build one from scrap this time round.

Ramshackle do a number of gun parts and turrets but I wanted this to be gun free so added a small double barrelled mount to the rear as an oil slick dropper.

I don’t mind if my enclosed cars don’t have drivers but any open topped jeep or car needs someone to put in that empty seat. Again Ramshackle have some great choices.  Some have said they are slightly cartoon like. Personally, in a game where I am using toy cars, I think they are absolutely perfect.

We drive from the right seat here in the UK you know…

Roof on and ram ready.

This car will be my hammer, no finesse, no guns, ram, block, shower the slower cars in oil…

The garage as it stands: Sponsor – Rutherford

  • Car/ MG-Front
  • Pickup/ Rocket-Turret
  • Car/ Grenades
  • Pickup/ Ram-Front,  Oil slick dropper-Rear
  • Performance Car/ NOS

Next Up… A War-Rig!

Score for post +1 point / Total score +3

Gaslands – A New Addition To The Garage: A Real Racer (Score So Far +2)

My ‘New Year Plan’ has me building a new crew for Gaslands and a War-Rig to go with it.  Today I realised that a War-Rig is actually likely to cost more than 50 cans alone and constitutes a new crew all by itself.  Therefore I have decided to expand the original crew and write a proper team list for it. That will let us play using the full rules of the game (sponsors and driver traits etc).

The first 3 cars are done and work well.  The two new additions have been chosen for colour match as much as anything else.

I don’t plan to spend much time on the first of these as I plan for it to be run as a Performance Car in the game.  It doesn’t need fancy guns or extra kit as it will be trying to race off ahead of the pack when we play a death race style game.

This one just got a couple of highlights with a silver sharpie pen, nothing more.  It is an odd one as it has heat sensitive paint and goes from pink to orange in different areas every time I handle it.

I have some S and S models, passengers with guns, on order at the moment and I hope to add one hanging out of the window before I call it finished.  All of the cars will get some weathering when all the crew are added, just to finally dirty them up a bit.

Definitely progress made on The Plan

Score for post +1 point / Total score +2

Gaslands – Delving In Old Boxes For New Ideas

So, Xmas is over and I have to admit that I have not achieved all that much in the shed for the whole of the holiday period.  I think I played one or two games but I have not been moved to pick up a paint brush for the last three weeks.

I have tidied up a bit…  I then made it all untidy again by moving all the left over snacks out of the house and into the shed (purely as an act of kindness to my womenfolk, who are all claiming to be dieting now…)

I have considered making New Years Resolutions…  Then disregarded the idea as it will just lead to failure…

But mostly I have been looking through old boxes…  Over the years I have had some great ideas.  Big and small they all find their way onto a dusty shelf or into a handy compartmented toolbox or ten.

As the pre-Xmas activity was all about Gaslands (Ospreys car wars like game) I have been digging out anything that might be a similar scale.  For a gamer that mainly focuses on 28mm wargames I can lay my hands on a surprising amount of 20mm(ish) stuff.

I am not altogether sure what the ‘official’ scale of Hot Wheels cars is but they match up with most things from 1/72 to 1/64 pretty well in my opinion.

I suspect that I am not that dissimilar to other gamers when I say that I have too often been ‘distracted’ from a project (lets say like collecting both sides for a 20mm Vietnam game) and found myself acquiring things, just because they might fit for a similar game.

In this case, while acquiring some 20mm supply trucks, for my US forces in Vietnam, I found myself buying 20mm Humvees in case I might be able to use them for a US in Iraq style game. Not that I have any 20mm modern infantry to use with them…

And of course when looking for Humvees you always see Landrovers…

At least I did more with the Landrovers than just put them in a box…

A couple of weapons that would do fine for Gaslands I think…

Useful things 5 amp fuses…

Quite why these were in the same box I will never know…

But this…  This has potential…  This should be good for my first War Rig (and its already looking like its been weathered!)

Lets not mention the fact I have about fifteen 1/72nd scale tanks.  I wonder if I can play a game of Gaslands with just tanks on both sides (a tabletop version of world of tanks anyone…)

I am pleased to mention we did get our first game of Gaslands in just after Xmas.  A simple affair, with minimal scenery, and only a few cars on the field.  We played a scaled back version of a death race mission.  I have to mention that my opponent, Veganman, managed to ram anything and everything in our first game.  Knocking out a number of cars even before we cleared the first gate.

In honour of that achievement I will be adding a Ram to the front of a car or two of my own before our next game.

I suspect that my next few weeks will be just as unproductive as I settle into the new year.  I do have a Dust Tactics game planned, and more Gaslands to look forward to, over the next week.

So that paintbrush looks like it is going to get ignored for a week or two longer at this point…