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Town Has A Couple Of New Additions

As I have been avoiding painting to some degree, and building a few kits and models to pass the time, I thought I would try to get the last of the MDF buildings I own up and finished.  If I am honest, painting this one would be easy as it is only likely to get a couple of ink washes and details done, so no spraying would be involved.

A good supply of wood glue and rubber bands however, are a must with these kits in my opinion.

Sarissa Precision have expanded their City Block range greatly since I bought their first Residential buildings.  These now include their large Corner store and some new Terraced shop fronts.

The one above is a nice example of what can be done with MDF and contrasts well with the earlier buildings. You can see how the company have begun to add more detail to the buildings since their first few designs.

My corner store was refitted late last year as a hotel with a nice prominent sign. However, its internal layout meant I had a small stair and entrance that was not part of the larger building.  In my mind this had to have a reason for being there.  So I scoured the web for shop signs and good ideas.

In the end I found a supplier of pin badges of all things! They sold me a barbers pole badge in about the right size for this scale.

Hence forth this small corner of the corner store hotel will be known as ‘The corner store hotel barbers’

Well, until I can think of a real name for it.

Looks good to me anyway…

Now, I just need to paint up that store front and we are done!

Steam Wars – More Martian Tripods

One plus side of not playing large figure count games is, when you have painted the 5-6 figures you need for a game, you are quickly free to drift into another project.  And, oh my, do I drift.  With no discernible direction at all…

After getting a few things setup recently, to play a couple of games of Rogue Stars, I have found myself drifting back to an old project.  The weather again is not yet ripe for large scale undercoating so more building has been going on.

In this case building Martian Tripods…

Scout tripods in this case.  Smaller than the original Assault tripods and with a less varied selection of weapons options, but in this case, one box of scout tripods has doubled the number of proper tripods I have.

They tower over the metal tripods that I have, and the cephalopods I plan to use are smaller still.  They may need reclassifying when I actually come to profiling them up for our games of Steam Wars.  The larger Assault and Scout tripods will likely be my equivalent of vehicles, while the smaller metal tripods, may end up as units of Martian cavalry or heavy infantry.

As it is I will probably have more chances to profile them than paint them. Especially while the weather at the moment remains so cold and wet.

I guess I should expect these conditions though…  It is winter you know…

More Sci-fi, More Walkways

It seems a long while ago that I bought some of Sarissa Precision’s Gantries. It was at a salute a few years back if I recall correctly.  They didn’t have all the bits I wanted so took my order there and then and sent the missing items post free as soon as they got back to the office…  Great customer service and great products.

This month I finally got round to painting them… and then realised that I had not thought through the collection of pieces as well as I might have done…

The set I picked up could only be made up into long runs or a T shape and worse than that, I had 2 stairways and 3 ends to my gantry…

So I bought some more…

Simple painting again. Black undercoat spray to start with and then uniform grey sprayed only down the middle of the walkway and roughly under the supports.  Lots of black remained on show and left shadows and light with very little effort.

The set now makes up solid blocks of terrain as well as long runs with corners and entry points in a number of places.

One small issue was my realisation that the base plate of the stairs is off set and only fits one way (not the way I stuck one of my stair sets…) Oh well what’s one more trip hazard when the whole walkway already has a hundred 1′ wide holes in it 🙂

Looking better…

and more versatile…

That’s actually one job that has sat in the shed, unfinished for 2-3 years, now finished..!   And it wasn’t even on the To Do List…

Success at last…

At Least I’m Doing Something – More Rogue Stars

Skirmish games appear to be the way forward. At least in my small world anyway.  Smaller figure count games are great for quick start up and often provide fast paced, effective and cinematic games.  Most of what we do these days is smaller armies games.  Even Coronasan’s Steam Wars (probably the only big army game I play at the moment) fields units of only 5-6 figures.

Rogue Stars is just like that as it offers a fast paced small force skirmish game that is also quite detailed and characterful at the same time.  I know its not everyone’s cup of tea but the detailed character building makes each and everyone of your crew into an individual.

At first read it appears a very complex game for only about 8 figures to a table.  the many smaller rules and layout of the book can make it seem overly rules heavy.  My advice is to hold off judging it until you have tried it out though

We have tried a few games now and have found the system to be more intuitive than we expected.  A good cheat sheet with a few of the more often used tables copied out on it is a must though.

We have played games where we just go out and try to kill each other, try to steal wheelie bins full of new tech from under our opponent’s nose and the usual sort of hold terrain while trying not to get killed type games.  All work well.

As we look forward to our next games I have rooted about in the back of the shed for all those Deadzone figures I collected and never got round to painting.

Smaller scavenger types good at hiding and stealing Tech…

More aggressive alien types.

These are my first choices so far, obnoxious blaster wielding alien, quiet spoken tank like bodyguard, tech savvy sniper girl.  Whoever said stereotyping was a bad idea is wrong.

Gutteral, gruff voiced brutes (only because their guns are so loud and they shout all the time…)

Fast, sneaky and likely to dodge in and out of cover given the chance.

Now, what else can I find..?

Other Unplanned Stuff Done – The Rogue Stars Distraction

As expected our gaze and gaming focus has been drawn in a new direction again.  Osprey have released Rogue Stars (some might say finally). After a long build up and some delayed publishing dates the book was released before Xmas and then promptly stolen from me by the beloved great lady so that it could be given back to me covered in glittery paper.  Xmas traditions can be great and frustrating at the same time.

This time before our first game I have managed to get some painting done to flesh out the old Sci-fi scenery in the shed.  Some freestanding MDF stairways add a little extra access to some of the industrial buildings and my older Deadzone scenery that I have.

The Deadzone stuff makes up the majority of my Sci-fi scenery but its a good mix of heights and allows easy figure placement so I can’t fault it at all. Mantic have hit on a winner here I believe.

A simple paintjob was all it got a couple of years ago but even that was enough to get it looking good.

I have now read the rules and picked out my first figures for a 4 man crew of bounty hunters.  More of the Sci-fi scenery is on the painting table so should be finished up and on show here soon too.

The To Do List – Scrapped

So in the post Xmas lull I have finally managed to get into the shed and put some work in.  However, what I did manage to get done was nothing from the planned ‘To Do List’

Xmas brought its own distractions and as I was a good boy all year Santa (also known as Coronasan)  brought me this rather fine and official looking library.  Made by TTcombat its a solid and surprisingly detailed building to add to the ever growing town.

Currently it sits half made as I plan to paint some of the more intricate parts before stocking them on this time. If the weather would just dry up slightly while I am not at work I could get a couple of base coats on it.

With imposing steps and even bookshelves for use inside its going to be a good addition to the set.

It does prove that I cannot keep to any plans, however well meaning they are.  So rather than beat myself up about not getting the list complete I have decided to just get on and do what comes to hand (just like always) who knows what will get picked up and started next…

 

Update – To Do List…

Unsurprisingly I am behind with these posts again (should that read – already…)

Last time I listed the things that I would be attempting to do to get back on track with my projects in the shed.  So, how have I done?

If I am honest, badly.  One reason for the list was a planned ‘Big Game’ that I hoped to get a few new units ready for.  With over 2 weeks to prepare over Xmas I managed to get nothing new done so fielded a Steam Wars force that was just about the same (if a little larger) than my normal army.

The game went ahead as planned and 3 forces converged on a small town controlled by a fourth smaller NPC mechanical force.

The British arrived in style on an aeronef with plenty of jump troopers and machine gunners on board.

The Germans struck hard and toppled my US marine walker before it could do too much damage.

Then went on to attack the aeronef with their own jump troopers (Please remember my own jump troopers were still lying unloved on the painting table)

The US marines reinforcements did come on to force their way towards the town in the end but too late to capture enough to bring them victory.  The Germans were Victorious and the British looked Glorious in their skyship.  The Marines only managed to save face and come in second this time around.

I however still have nothing ticked of my to do list…  Must do better!

Dust Tactics – A USMC Fully Painted Army In 2 Easy Steps

Anyone who has been following my blog will know that Dust Tactics is one of the lasting games we play in the shed.  We have probably played more games using this ruleset (or one of its variants) than any other.

I have a LARGE Axis force (still not completely painted…) but have become slightly tired of these boys.  So lately I decided to build an Allied force and slowly paint it up.

On eBay however, I found a cheap deal on a USMC starter force. All boxed and including a heavy walker, 2 medium walkers and assorted infantry.  The best part…  It was a Premium painted set.  The startlingly fine paint jobs and weathering on all of the pieces puts my painting to shame.

Throw in a diecast prepainted halftrack and I was well on the way to being finished. And with no effort taken.

Then another Premium set came up on eBay.  This time with Heroes and alternate turrets. I was, all of a sudden fielding a full force with no effort other than clicking my mouse.

What to do with my primed figures.  I cannot paint as well as the guys at Dust Studios that’s for sure.  It would mean painting a few modles in a very different style to my usual methods.  I have said before that darker tones are easier for me.  But as I age my eyesight makes all my mistakes less obvious and I guess I could make them look close enough matches.

Not too bad if you look from far enough away.

So,

Step one buy most of what you need ready painted (setup an eBay alert if you are lazy like me)…

Step two don’t buy too many new units unless they are not available as premium painted units…

Looking Back At Some Unnoticed Successes. The Town Has A Touch More Colour. 

Looking back over the year I have got more done than I thought.  My MDF buildings got a lick of paint (well, ink anyway).

These buildings (mostly from Sarissa Precision’s city block range) have been used in a majority of games but have never been finished off.  Mostly because the base material colour was almost a match for the sandstone fronted blocks they represent.

The bases and backs have always been in need of a touch more colour though.  A couple of balconies (or fire escapes) add to their versatility (and make them a pain to pack away again).

In fact I went all out and bought 2 types of fire escapes and a smattering of other items at the same time (It was at the Derby wargames day I think).

A second storey for the corner shop added another level of height to the table.

And all of a sudden we were playing on a number of height levels (lots of escape routes and sniper perches were to be had).

Main street had taken on a little more colour and looked all the better for it…

The corner shop was upgraded with its extra floor and fire escapes to…

…The ‘Grand Hotel’. With its smaller side door soon to become the entrance to ‘Bobs Barbers’ when a small barbers shop striped pole I bought turns up.

Two subway entrances (yes two – if you go down one you have to come up another or it looks like you got lost…) were added to the collection this year.

Council green and grey paint job and signage done

Some small portable toilets (unlikely to be seen in a Victorian town but I liked them so I bought them…)

Warbases curb stones and paths were painted and rebased to hold their positions better and tie in with the newly painted city blocks.

All in all its come together quite nicely.  Shame I didn’t realise how much I had really got done.  Feeling less like I wasted so much of my time this year now…

Harbour Or Quayside, Whatever Its Called It Still Needs Finishing. 

So, another quick to finish project should be this simple set of terrain boards.  I have wanted to get a harbour made for the various ships and boats that I have picked up over the last few years.  I managed to find some very good wallpaper that is embossed with what appears to be a small flagstone pattern.  As soon as I saw it I knew that it would be perfect for covering some of my older unusable terrain boards. However, soon after I picked up a roll the project stalled and just stopped.

I only needed to cover 4 old polystyrene boards and make up some wooden edges for the job to be done.

In the end I got them covered and a couple of the required edge pieces done.  Even at this stage it was looking effective

I got quickly side tracked by other things though. Other things that included these lovely, resin cast, stone steps and wooden walkways.

All of which are now painted but cannot be used without the main project being finished.

So, yet another stalled project with only a few hours left to finish it, but one that has not been touched for weeks!