The Green Tide: Wave 1

Finally! After receiving them a couple of weeks ago from someone on The Miniatures Page, I've finally got some pictures of my current group of Orks/Space Orcs/Spess Urks/What-have-you. (I also got some bonus buildings when I bought them, kudos to CC for being generous)

I have 25 Orks in all currently, 5 in a command and the other 20 in two 10 Ork squads for da' boyz. While not intented to be exactly like Gamed Workshop Orks, I will be using a lot of the same terminology when setting up my force since I love the fluff so much.

I will be using them in Fast and Dirty 4.0 and have already played a test game with them. I'll do a batrep for the next game I play.

'Da Command:

Da' Boss and 'is Orks.

'Dis one luvs da' rokkets!

Da' Mek' Boy and 'is shocka' thingy

'Dis one has Dakka

'Da current Boss. You lissen to 'em, ya lousy grots!

   I loved the pose of the first one so much that I wanted to make good use of it, I figured that a rocket would look great on his back and its fits the pose perfectly. The rocket itself is a chopped down pop-up timer from a Chicken Mignon. I have several more and plan to use them as missiles and rocket packs for a later squad.
   The Mek Boy looked like it was meant to be some sort of power armor originally. I decided to sculpt a nice heavy battery back pack and add a Tesla cannon of sorts. I need to add the coils still but it has shaped up nicely.
   I didn't do much to the heavy gunner in the squad other than shave the horns on the helmet off. The current warboss is a great sculpt, but I plan to sculpt my own much beefier warboss eventually. This current boss will then probably be swapped to the role of commander for a Nob squad.
   Sorry about the lighting in the first picture!

'Da Boyz:

"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!"

"Orks! Orks! Orks!"

I really like how each member of a 10 ork squad had its own sculpt. Especially since each one has so much character! Such a shame that the models are OOP.




'Da rides:
I figured my Orks would be needing to get places, and being my human army has a couple of tanks, I needed something to help shift the balance. The command squad has some anti-tank firepower, but there's only so much one squad can do!

"Look at 'dos beautiful teef!"

This is a WIP of a trukk of sorts. I had originally wanted it to be some sort of transport but it's turned into some sort of support machine as well. I bashed up two old toy cars, a semi and a dump truck, then added plasticard in layers and smaller bits as bolts to make it look proper orky. The cannon is from an old Mechwarrior clix; I want to eventually sculpt a crazy gunner on it. The tubes on the top are going to be smokestacks with cotton "smoke" coming out of it. I'm almost done with it, I just wanted to add more bits here and there detailing it. Alas, I will have to wait until I can get more super glue, this project ate up all I had left!

Lastly I am scratch-building a group of three Killa-Kans! I am working on the first one as a proof of concept for the others. So far I've used a chopped up chap stick for the main body, plus some magic-sculpt. The size is fair currently, the final ratio will be different than GWs average Kan, but it will beef up a bit more as I start paneling and detailing.

Giant Robot Support/Alternative Mekanoid Dictator

I was going through my old to bin and I came across a rather impressive toy that I remember playing with 5-7 years ago. Then it struck me by its look it could make an awesome giant support machine, or even a secondary type of the monstrous Dictator (From Khurasans awesome Mekanoid line).
Here it is in all its glory:

The walker had a few more pieces as well, such as rocket pods that fit between the shoulder and head (You can see the space where they plugged into) and the top to the cockpit.


From the look of the cockpit compared to this Rebel Mini’s figure, it looks like it even fits around the 15mm mark!

Even not as a Mekanoid this has a lot of gaming potential in my eyes. Though, for the life of me I can’t remember the name of the toy or its toy line! All I remember it was based on a show, an American cartoon if memory serves, that had a sort of far future dieselpunk kind of feel. Even the name of the show evades me! I also had a few other toys from the line, such as this really cool red fighter…. But they have been lost to time.
If anyone can identify this I would be very thankful!

The Space Demons Cometh

So, Khurasan Miniatures Space Demons have already caused quite a stir in the 15mm Sci fi community for their excellent craftsmanship and perfect Not-Alien looks. I actually ordered mine a couple of months ago, but didn’t get pictures of my mostly finished force until later. Heck, I was even surprised when I found the pictures I had taken of them while they were still unpainted; I had forgotten I even took those!

Well, here is my force currently:

It consists of:

1. 16 Stealth Demons
   
2. 8 Hammerhead Demons
   
3. 16 Assault Demons
   
4. 2 Space Demon Kings

I figured this was a good and sizeable force to start with. My original intention was to just go with enough for 15mm scale guncrawl/spacehulk style gaming, but I later decided I would also get enough for skirmish wargaming as well.

I am currently experimenting with my force layout, trying to think of fits the Space Demons and keeps them from playing like humans. I’m gaming for now with FAD (Fast and Dirty) a free squad based rule system for 15mm Sci-Fi. The Stealth Demons have fallback and deep strike style abilities, with my main goal to make them harassers. The Hammerheads are the only ranged unit of the force, and I have them set to be reserve until they are needed for anti-armor. Then the Assault Demons are linked with the Demon Kings with the Hivemind ability, and are meant to just rush the enemy. Once I work things out I think I’ll post the army list I’m putting together.

The Stealth Demons:

Assault with King:


The Hammerheads:


Getting and starting the minis: Each “squad” comes with 8 space demons in a little baggy like the below. The flash on them was VERY minimal, and they are some beautiful sculpts.
 
Being that they are soft metal, the tails can actually be bent and twisted a little for differentiation to keep your swarm looking fresh.

The heads come in the same bag as the bodies, but are unattached. This lets you position them however you would like. They also come in two variants: Ones with the ‘tongue’ and those without.


I tend to base all my 15mm minis on metal washers you can get from the local hardware store, using larger ones for weapons teams and Demon Kings.

Here they are after having been based and had their flash removed:

And finally with them flocked after adding a little putty to the bases. The flock itself is the coffee ground material described in one of my other posts.


Final Notes: I LOVE the Space Demon designs not just because I am a huge Aliens fan but also because they have a lot of character as well. You can definitely see the Giger inspiration, but they start to take on a life of their own, different then their xenomorph counterparts; As well, the hammerheads seem to get some inspiration from the flying creatures in the movie Pitch Black.

The sculpts are well defined and they were a joy to paint, especially since they were my first 15mm scale army! Thus I went with something simple and effective, black base with some dark grey, grey, and white drybrushing. I want to eventually go back and work on them some more, and add in more detail.

I plan to eventually expand it with more Assault and Hammerhead Demons, a Queen, and a few more Space Demon Kings so I can try to make variants!

Cheap Wargaming Terrain:

I’m always looking too find ways to make my gaming cost less; and by cost less I mean find cheaper supplies so I can buy more minis. Terrain is one of those things that you can pour a little, or a lot into and get varied results. I enjoy trying to find the most bang for my buck when it comes to this. It’s sort of a mini game for me, how much can I make with as little money as possible all while still making it look nice?
What’s one way of doing this? Well, let’s look at one thing you might do everyday.

Yes, what you see above you is a most sacred relic, the coffee pot. Contained within it is the means of producing the holy black liquid that we Americans all crave and desire, Coffee. Joking aside, let’s open it up and see what’s inside.

There we go, that’s the stuff. After serving it’s purpose coffee grounds are often tossed. Though, a quick google search will reveal lots of interesting (and some quite effective) uses for coffee grounds, such as in here: http://www.thegoodhuman.com/2010/06/08/16-ways-to-reuse-old-coffee-grounds/

But! This is a wargaming blog, and as such we’re hear to read stuff about wargaming! So, it hit me one day as I was about to toss the grounds, if I dried these, they’d make awesome ground cover! We grind our own coffee, so the grounds tend to be nice and small, perfect for basing at smaller scales like 15mm.

The only catch was to dry them. So we have two main sources of doing so: #1 The Sun

By putting them into a small metal pan and shaking it around so that it’s all distributed evenly, we can let the number one heat source on the planet use its free energy to do our bidding; It’s both primitive and green!  Letting that inner caveman or hippie give a victory cry is optional but encouraged.
You’ll want to use a metal pan here, as it will warm up faster and hotter then say, plastic. You’ll want to occasionally go out and stir or shake it around to make sure all of it dries evenly. Though, this option won’t work in some weather, such as rainy or snowy seasons. Which brings us to our second main option: The Stove

The bonus of the stove is that you can dry it effectively no matter what the temperature or weather outside is. Though it won’t be ‘free’ like the Sun is, so console your inner hippie and move on. While it will use up a little bit of resources, using the stove will usually be much faster unless you live in a hot, dry climate. Even so you want to make sure you open it up and stir it around so that everything dries evenly. You’ll want to make sure that it isn’t burning either. I haven’t really experimented much with temperature, so just keep an eye open and find what works best for you.
After they are done, I'’ll stick them into a sealed container to keep them safe (and preferably not spilled all over my floor or desk). As a last note, remember that coffee grounds are organic, so if they aren’t dried right mold will take to them and that could get nasty (and bad for your health.
The grounds are good for rough dirt, light gravel, and other such wasteland terrain. Try mixing different grounds together, or with sand for some differing terrain types. I generally glue them onto a base or piece of terrain, then seal with a black primer before I paint. So far it’s working ok!
Enjoy!

Side Project: Battlestars

So I forgot I had some pictures of a few side things I’ve been working on. One of these being a group of three classic style Battlestars I purchased on Ebay. Though, to my unease after I bought them I realized they were in almost same style and look of FASA’s old Galacticas (I’ve never seen them in person, but I came across pictures of them online and their details). FASA’s were of course metal, with my Ebay purchase being resin and of not the highest caliber casting.
So  they might be bootleg which made me sad. Though I’m not sure because I looked up who produces them, and this person is also openly selling on places like Star-Rangers forums. He essentially takes the old bits and chops them up for new ship configurations and casts them. I doubt the validity of this but I don’t know if he has the rights, or what exactly the laws are in place of these. It seems on the forums (or at least when I checked a few months ago) no one was raising any fuss about it. Of course that doesn’t mean it’s right, I just don’t know if it’s wrong.
Anyway, what was bought was bought. I’d paid for them so I still planned to use them, though I’d wish I could have verified them before…

Anyway! I’ve put together two of them, and I haven’t decided if I will put together the third, or bash it into some really nice wreckage terrain. I suppose modifying them is one bonus to having them in resin. I primed them black and worked on the details with a different grey or two. I then detailed the red areas differently but similarly on each ship (to add some difference but not too much). I then made a wash of some black gloss paint and a little water and heavily dabbed the thing. Lastly I drybrushed a tiny bit to make everything pop a bit more.



Not shown are the engines, which I painted blue and added a bit of a white highlight. I’m really happy with how they turned out compared to my relatively beginner painting skills. The dabbing/wash added some interest and difference that suits the classic Battlestar look rather well. I might experiment with it more sometime.
Now all I need are suitable fighters and to pick up some Not-Cylons from a few of the lines I know of!

Absence And Current Plans

Well! It’s been awhile since I’ve posted so I’m just letting you guys know that I’m still alive and still intend to keep posting! I’ve got several work projects on the bench right now, including a mostly completed Space Demon army among others. As well, I still intend to use my Mechwarrior Clix for 10mm gaming in large scale engagements. With the Battlemechs serving double purpose as mecha for a Mekton game I want to start running soon!

See you guys later!

GZG Starter Fleets

While I haven’t been wargaming for a great while, the scale I’ve been the most active in is space gaming. I started with the paper counters from the back of the Full Thrust rulebook and then managed to get a hold of some Em-4 plastic fighters. While intended to be used for smaller scale games like Silent Death, the fighters, when shaved down and modified, work well for small capital ships.
Though now, I have some “proper” ships. Just before Christmas, I ordered Ground Zero Games two-player starter deal and picked out a Sa’Vasku and ScanFed fleet. I liked the general look that the ScanFeds have, and I’ve always been a big fan of bio-ships so the Sa’Vasku were a natural choice as well.
There are 16 ships total, split into two fleets of 8 with matching ship types. Included in the box was also a version of the Full Thrust Light rules so you could give it a whirl and see if you want to try out the (free!) full rules. This can be obtained on the Ground Zero Games website, if you are interested: http://www.groundzerogames.co.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=section&id=9&Itemid=50
First up, the Scandinavian Federation fleet. I went with a nice dark grey and blue color scheme, and made highlights and paneling using light grey and sky blue, the final touch was red for the engines and a white dry-brushing all over. Not bad for my first attempt at a full fleet.

The flash on these models were minimal, with most of it being just a small amount of mold lines. Although, there were two catches to the ScanFed fleet which makes them a bit tricky. First and foremost is how the engines are. On the ship classes larger then destroyers, the engines are separate pieces that need a lot of shaving and filing to get to fit just right with the ship. As well, they like to seem to fill up a little during the molding process, so you need to have a pin vise and hobby knife ready to shape them out a bit. Secondly, for everything destroyer class and up, the forward hull and the rear hull of the ship all fit together in the middle. Meaning it can be a bit tricky to get it level, without it dipping up or down, or leaning to one side
The largest ship in my current ScanFed fleet, the Battlecruiser. Don’t have a catchy name for it just yet.

A frigate next to a destroyer.

The Heavy Cruiser: The second largest ship in the fleet. It’s currently in drydock due to losing its flight stand in a transport mishap

More random images!:



The Sa’Vasku: This were a joy to paint! Being organic I was able to mottle in a lot of different colors without having to worry about consistent. I started with three primary colors, a dark green for the body, ivory for the spikes/appendages, and a dark red for random fleshy spots. For the body, after the first coat or two, I started dabbing  highly watered down paint in random places. This added a vary mottled look with different tones of green. I later drybrushed some more green colors with very good results; they sort of added to the organic look while wrangling in the various dabbed colors to make it look somewhat consistent. The ivory spots were then drybrushed with some light brown to add some interest, while I hit all the high points of the red areas with progressively lighter reds and crimsons. I really like the overall look to them.


Counterpart to the ScanFed Battlecruiser. It has more mass, and has IMHO a rather interesting design.


Frigate (Left) with a Light Cruise (right)

The new style Heavy Cruiser, my favorite ship in the fleet and the one I think has the most character. I was able to ask and GZG swapped the old style out with the new one. I can’t wait till more of the newstyle Sa’Vasku come out!

More images:

 

Closing Thoughts: I really do love both fleets for their own reasons, and hope to grow both when I get the chance. I’m working on a number of space terrain projects that I’m hoping to complete sometime in the near future. For the models themselves, I plan to get some rare earth magnets to put into the bases because I’ve been having a lot of issues with flight stands breaking! It would also make transport much easier as well.