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Steam Wars – New Gun Carriage – Mortar

This little gun carriage should get me a quick win.  This was done a few months after sending the deck gun sets to Black Pyramid.  No news yet as to the progress of that project (hopefully a few deck gun casts will be ready to be made up at some point in 2017).

This was a scratch build based on the mortar kit in the Black Pyramid artillery set.  Just some levers and gauges to jazz it up.

This should be something I can get done and finished quite easily.

So, there must be something else can I get done before Xmas?

Dragon Rampant Evil Snails Or Maybe Martian Molluscs

The bulk of the work done in the summer was on a Dragon Rampant force.  Not a huge amount of work but a good start.  These Scibor Snails were a gift from a friend and always on the painting queue but never started.

They were a bit daunting as such good sculpts deserve a good paint job.  That usually takes time but sometimes just getting something done is what is required.

I decided I would have to just get them done so I could play a few games with them to try out Dragon Rampant properly.

First pass, and almost happy with them.

The teeth and claws turned slightly pink during a final wash so a quick touch up was required before finishing the basing.

Otherwise I quite like these.

Tufts and tooth whitener done.

5 more of these guys and 3 of Scibor’s big snails remain on the paint table and will be one of the jobs to finish before Xmas.

What else can I get done to get another quick win?

Some Allies For The New Martians And Maybe A New Army For Dragon Rampant

So in order to get some of the myriad of projects finished I need to get the blog slightly more up to date so we all know where the starting point is.

These guys were on the painting table back in the summer and got finished off as allies for the Steam Wars Martians force. Something of a close combat/ fast attack force.

Based up in the simple way that the robots were they are quite an effective looking unit.

Cracked Martian earth and rocks with small tufts. Quick and easy.  Just what I need to get some jobs done.

I must try to work out what affects the size of the cracks. Maybe a quick google search will set me right.  Larger cracks are more visually effective but smaller cracks in some of the flatter areas look good too.

So the army is started but, because of the large number of figures, its far from being finished. So no quick win to be had there.  One option remains though.

Osprey released Dragon Rampant earlier in the year and I have just the use for these guys as part of a themed army. Based on a snakey or snaily monster ideal I have a few units that will look good together.

So, next up, the bits I got done over the summer that started, but never finished, my new Dragon Rampant army.

Next time… Evil Snails.

Horizon Wars – Reworking Rules – Tiny Wars

The games of Horizon Wars that we have been playing recently have been a lot of fun.  Lots of bits of the game appeal to me.  The fist full of d12s and the range to targets modifying the ‘to hit’ value, used in the shooting mechanism, are really nice departures from the usual games of roll to hit and roll to wound.

It has just not felt ‘right’ to me to have one tank, or stand of troopers, on the table to represent the unit.  This does not detract from the game, and its obvious success is shown by the following it has developed on the Facebook page (likely driven by Robey’s presence there on what seems like an hourly basis).  Full marks to Robey for this fine system and what looks to be a growing collection of supplements on the Precinct Omega web page.

What I hanker for is a small scale skirmish game where forces are based on units of 3-4 stands or models and makes the battlefield feel more populated than Horizon Wars does at the moment.  If I fielded the army below in Horizon Wars I fear that the required record keeping would slow the game down too much and we would lose the fast play feel we like.

As a result of that nagging feeling, I have decided to stop my whinging and turn my thoughts towards being more productive.  I plan to either make Horizon Wars fit my own specific needs, or to write a new set of 6mm rules that captures some of the essence of what Horizon Wars has sparked in us lately.

So, over the next few weeks (more likely months or years) I will start to put a new version together.  Still keeping with the economical and simplistic aims of the original game but that feels more ‘right’ to me somehow.

The new game will be – Tiny Wars (and will likely never see the light of day). Well, maybe…

 

Steam Wars – Martian Test Figures Part 2

So, the first of the Martian forces are almost done and just bases left to do.

I have decided on a rocky Martian, cracked, red earth look for these bases. The theme is a bit ‘off’ as they are meant to be invading earth but I like the red earth idea more.

Cork sheet for rocks gives a nice flat topped look and then some of GW’s Martian Iron Earth technical paint and its done.  Simple.

Well, almost done…  Yellow grass gives a contrasting colour and some more interest.

The cracked earth look is more noticeable when the paint is applied thicker in some areas than others.  These were my learning bases and some have turned out better than others.  Overall I like them though.

I gave a quick coat of spray varnish and ended up with that horrid, slightly frosty, look to the silver.  The bases and brass areas didn’t frost up, so it must be something to do with the silver paint I used.  I got the same thing with the last lot of 6mm tanks I did but they were only silver in small patches.  These are ALL silver…

I don’t think I will risk varnishing the large tripods when I paint them, as they are likely to be all silver…

Horizon Wars – New Forces Finished

While I have been sorting and tidying, I have been flitting from project to project.  Not the best way to work, as you never get ‘in to the grove’ with anything, but at least it gets those half planned odd jobs done.

My Horizon Wars army has most of what I need but I have a hankering to be as complete as possible with it.  That is the reason I have added a few new tanks to the force, to give me some Heavy Cav and Armoured Arty.  A couple of new Mechs (Light and Heavy) are always welcome too.

One thing I found while painting these simple units was how base coats can be more different than you expect.  The original force was basecoated using an old can of GW Skull White.  With a wash of Dark Tone it remained fairly bright and gave me a good shadow effect.

The new units were basecoated in GWs new Corax White.  It must leave a slightly more uneven surface as the dark tone wash didn’t run cleanly off the base coat and gave a more grey finish.  Not enough of a difference to notice unless you look for it… Annoyingly I cant help but not see it…

With a little colour and some basing the effect is less obvious and I guess I can cope with it. I know other armies that have suffered from very varied base colours, Coronasan’s Blood Angels Spacemarines for example 🙂

I don’t think they look too bad, and with them being 6mm scale, I guess I wont be able to see the problems in about 10 years time when my eyes are even worse than they are today.

Painting Table Quickies

I have had a bit of time to tidy things up in the shed lately.  While packing a few things away, and moving other things about, I have been reminded about a few items that needed a little finishing off and some other bits that have been in the painting queue for what seems like forever.

My small collection of Napoleonic miniatures have been used occasionally to proxy in as AWI and FIW forces in games like Muskets and Tomahawks or Donnybrook.

They have been half based at best for the last 3 years.  Of those that were based they were oh so simply done that it is almost embarrassing that I hadn’t finish the others.

A couple of other Napoleonic figures, bought ready painted from eBay, were originally gloss varnished. So these were in need of dulling down a bit.

A quick base or two later and a coat of matt varnish and a long overdue job was done.

Then there was the boat…

This small resin boat was given to me by a friend (I wonder if he even recalls it himself) about 4 years ago.  Its moved about in the shed from the back of a shelf, to the painting queue, to a box of bits, to my drawer of potential Steam Wars miniatures and finally onto the top of my new painting bureau. Each move seemed to get it no closer to being finished.  It did get undercoated at some point but even that did nothing to speed its progress along.

Now, however, it is finished!  and it took about half an hour to do (and that probably included the drying time for the strong tone wash it got to pick out the grain in the wood…)  All in all its the little jobs like this that give me that nice sense of achievement. God knows why it has taken me so long to complete it. Bugger knows what I will use it for either, but at least it is done now, and it can stop staring at me from the back of the shed.

Steam Wars – Test Figures Painting

A real post this time I promise…

These guys were on the ‘to be constructed’ pile for far too long.  They are made from that nasty ‘resin/plastic’ stuff and look like they are cast similarly to the Deadzone and Dreadball miniatures that Mantic sell.  These ones are by Privateer Press though and are for their Warmachine game.

There I go moaning again…  I really must get off this negative vibe!

I should have realised that when I first saw them, as I have made up a few of the plastic figures from Warmachine before. I had then vowed never to use them again.  The metal stuff from both Mantic and Privateer is great! So why they use this method of moulding for their plastics I will never know.

These are Convergence of Cyriss, Reductors.  Robot types with multi barrelled short range guns strapped to one arm and a blade strapped to the other.  Just the ticket for mindless Martian troopers.  Putting them together went ok but they clean up very badly.  The flash and mould lines are a pain to remove as it is so soft that a file does not work and a knife is little help either.

The flat detail is not too well defined either, and with a coat of silver spray almost disappears.  This was the problem I have had with these types of miniatures before.  But as they will be driven in front of the Martian tripods to die as cannon fodder they wont be on a table long enough to notice.

Slap on some brass and dark tone wash and they almost look respectable.  I also managed to picked out 5 with a green eye and 5 with a blue eye so that I could identify the different squads without them looking too different (cunning that, don’t you think).

They are all but finished now and awaiting their bases, so I will use them to trial the idea I have for Martian themed bases on them.  I have a plan for that, that hopefully will bring what looks at the moment like a mixed up selection of units, together as a coherent force…

Building Various Bits Of Resin. 

Its been more than 2 weeks since I last posted something.  It almost feels like a confessional when I start things off like that, but all too often I have seen these long gaps in posting.  The blog was designed to motivate me, and it does that, but it also shows me how erratic my hobby habits really are…

One moment I am on a roll with a project then, Blam…  On to another thing, no pause for thought, no planning, just up sticks and away we go.  I guess I have to admit it… I am a gaming butterfly, blown about by any change in the winds of gaming.  (I have been called many other things I know, ‘gaming slut’ just sounds so dirty though.)

Anyhow, enough of that nonsense.  Who cares if I am easily led (well, all of the games companies I guess, I am a godsend to them, as I pick up a little of all and everything that pops into my view…)

This post shows that quite well.  When last I posted I had been prepping lots of bits ready for the painting queue.  The mix that has been made up now is quite eclectic and varied.

From Ironclad miniatures walking transports…

To various snails and suchlike from Trollforged and Scibor.

And back to Ironclad miniatures for the submersible…  Don’t get me started on those divers from Scheltrum either…

Next time, a real post, not just some ramblings…

Dust Tactics – Decal Dilemas  

A while back I finished the Flack version of my Heavy Axis Walker for Dust Tactics.

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The heavy anti-tank guns for this vehicle have then sat on my paint table for the last few months, in a half finished state.  Barrels were done, the breaches and ammo loaders were not…

They are now though.  One small problem however, is that when I varnished them, using my usual spray, some of the decals blistered and have partially lifted.  I wouldn’t have minded if the whole decal lifted, but as the remainder is under varnish in this case I cant get it off without damaging the paintwork…

Do I just leave it and call it weathering?

Either way this is a huge beast of a walker.  Especially when compared to the tiny tank in the photo (one of my Horizon wars figures managed to photobomb the first shot, the walker is so big it hid the little guy…)

Overall I like the look of this brute.  In the end I wont probably do anything with the damaged decals, so from here on in we shall state for the record that it was done on purpose, to depict battle scaring from a hard life…