Look out! He's Got an Axe!

As a holiday treat, I thought I'd post a little blurb showing a WIP snapshot (sorry for the pic quality, bare lead doesn't photograph all that easily) of an axe-wielding loony I've started working on.

The figure is an old Alternative Armies Celtic warrior that's been rattling around my bits box for some time. The original figure is naked except for a strange band around his waist. I'm not sure what the belt is as it has no buckle or anything. The figure originally sported a spiky, crazy, fantasy Celtic hair style and a pretty ordinary beard. the axe had a little knot work on it.

I decided that this pose and stringy appearance of the figure was perfect for a mad axeman. I shaved off the crazy Celt hair and the knot work from the axe. Once this was done, the axe looked much more ordinary and I could start working on redoing the hair.

For the hair, I went with a matted, wild, almost dreadlocked effects. I started by laying on little "worms" of grey stuff in the general arrangement of where I wanted the main mattes to go and then used a hobby knife to poke and cut at them, moving it about so it looked less clean and organized. I think the overall effect was a nice one and it gave him that wild look I was looking for.

I decided that though the nakedness was creepy and crazy the belt bothered me and to disguise it I added a bit of tattered cloth around the legs and backside of the mini - not enough to cover him up but to make the weird belt look more like the waistband to a former pair of pants. The front of the belt is obscured enough by his hands and the axe that one can imagine there is a a draw up there someplace.

I hope to get him painted and based up soon and will post pics of the finished model when I am done.

-Eli

Pulp Robot Finding

Just a short blurb this time. While I was greedily opening all the individual boxes in the box of Gundam colelctible figures that arrived today, I stumbled across this little guy. Well, not stumbled - I knew he was in the set, but was surprised to find that I got one of him. I think he makes the perfect little pulp sci-fi robot. With a coat of metalic paint and may an antena, he's be just about perfect.

Hope you like him,

-Eli

Parrot Man Nest Hut - Part 1

Having found some smallish bird nests at the local craft store (the same ones where I got the eggs for my aerofauna), I decided it was time to try to make my idea for a Parrot Men nest hut a reality.

I started by going through my bag of fake foliage and found a couple of incredibly gnarled twig pieces. The had the look I wanted, but they were simple rubbery pieces for show only and had no sort of wire structure to them. I took these, cute them into shorter lengths, and wove them into the nest and formed a nice, visually appealing framework that looked like it might be the lower part of some larger framework holding up the roof of the nest hut. Once I had them in a configuration I liked I hot glued the bases into the nest and then super glued them at key points to secure them. In some cases, I added wire to add extra hold.

The next step was to make the roof and for this I turned to a technique I had read about on another blog involving using bits of old towel to simulate thatch. In this case I wanted to use it to simulate a less uniformed thatching of various materials to give the roof that savage, semi-civilized bird nest look, but be obviously different from the actual nest. Anyhow, I layered on several uneven, irregular layers of various pieces of old towel and then based coated them with a mix of black paint and PVA glue.

I'll post more pics as I make progress in shorter updates later. I've still got to figure out how I am going to do the perch veranda around the perimeter of the nest. After that's done it's just a matter of drybrushing and detailing (adding some sponge flock for moss and perhaps some sprigs of plastic plants to show jungle growth on the structure.

Have fun all,

-Eli

Aerofauna of Terra Secundus - Part One

The Aerial lifeforms of Terra Secundus are nearly as diverse as those that occur in more terrestrial habitats. Aerofauna are, by definition, creatures who spend most of or their entire life cycle at altitude. What makes aerofauna different from the likes of birds or similar creatures is that they do not simply take to the air as a part of their terrestrial existence but instead make a life for themselves devoid of terrestrial contact. Many of them live at altitudes that exceed the range of birds and in some cases that of man-made flying contraptions. The purpose of this series of articles is to explore the many varied forms of life in the skies of our home of Terra Secundus.

Let us begin with Haler's Kraken. This creature is known for its large bulbous body which tapers into a neck-like extension at the front of the creature. Like many forms of aerofauna, Haler's Kraken is equipped with a trailing, non-prehensile tentacle which is uses as a sort of rudder and wind sensor. The Haler's Kraken is armed with four long, muscular tentacles that extend from it's "head" and normally trail behind and underneath it when not in use.

The kraken is a is a voracious predator and can be found following pods of smaller creatures across the skies. It is not adverse to attacking larger prey up to its own size and can even be found predating its own kind. Due to the brazen nature of this predator, it is also a threat to aerial vessels as these can often be mistaken for prey species and fall victim to its crushing tentacles.

Haler's Kraken is recognizable for its banded gray and black coloring which is broken up by mottling of white speckles. It's head and tentacles as well as its dorsal flange are a bright red, marking it for both mating and threat purposes. The Haler's Kraken sports a number of biol-luminescent spots along both of its sides.

Next we take a look at, the Yellow Bow. Filling a niche analogous to terrestrial dolphins or smaller whales, the Yellow Bow, named so for the yellow spot on the front of its body, is a relatively harmless creature. Sporting the common trailing tail tendril it utilizes a pectoral flange to propel itself at great speeds.

Yellow Bows are not predators but instead strain off massive amounts of cloud-borne algae common in the upper reaches of the sky. When threatened or during mating season, they can become quite agitated and dangerous, attacking anything they perceive as a threat natural or man-made alike.

In addition to its characteristic yellow front spot, the Yellow Bow is distinguished by its sky blue color with grey and white banding along their sides. Each of their three bands is marked by three bio-luminescent spots which it uses for communication.

The last aerofauna we shall discuss today is known as the Silky Sky Marshal. A rather graceful name for an equally graceful creature, the "Silky" as it is more commonly referred to, is a passive aerial opportunity feeder that easily blends int other surrounding clouds. From this position of concealment it will reach out and snare passing creatures with one of its many tentacles, moving them to its central mass where they will be stored in one of its expandable storage sacks for slow digestion.

Silkies are most commonly encountered by humans by accident as they seem to show no appetite for man flesh. Aerial vessels have become snared in their tentacles or outright collided with them, not having seen them as they floated hidden among the clouds. Silkies are sometimes found in the company of other aerial browsers as these creatures often blunder too close and become meals. Though too massive to fall prey to the likes of Haler's Kraken, Silkies do have predators in the form of flocks of Sky Darts or even the feared Shark Bats.

Silkies are identified by their melon, shaped bodies under which hangs a silky mass of filaments and sacks as well as defensive stinging pods. They have the ability to change their colors to blend in with the ambient colors of whatever cloud cover they are in and have even been seen flashing light across their bodies to simulate lightning. This last notable trait has often caused the unnecessary diversion of aerial conveyances who thought themselves in danger of colliding with an oncoming storm.

I do hope you have enjoyed this little adventure into the wondrous world of aerofauna.

Sincerely,

Dr. Herman Zolta
Zangief Insistute of Science

Aerofauna Sightings

For a long time now, I have been wanting to make some aerial life forms for our Aeronef games but have never really jumped into it, until now. While collecting supplies for the construction of the nest huts for my Parrot Men, I ended up with several fake eggs that are too big to use for the Parrot Men (thought might make good 28mm dino eggs). After having initially set them aside, I later took a second look and realized that they looked like some sort of giant floating gas bag creatures.

Taking some putty and extra wire to make a trailing tendril and some fin-like flanges. I then drilled a few holes and made some quick wire flight bases. The end result is a collection of bulbous creatures with squiggly tails out the back. Unfortunately, as you can see that also bear a very unflattering resemblance to giant flying sperm. Ah well, they are still cool looking.

The larger creature pictured above was made out of a small deco squash. Using the same technique as used on the smaller creatures above, I made the trailing wire look a bit more organic, added a flange to the base. I wanted this creature to be a bit more menacing, however. If the smaller ones were analogous to porpoises then this was going to be like a giant squid.

Drilling several holes on the front of the squash, I then bent up several pieces of wires of a mostly uniform length so that they looked alive. I glued them into place inside the holes and applied a layer of putty around the area to reinforce that weak material where the holes had been drilled. Whatever the squash was made out of was very brittle once compromised and I found the holes basically tore out once I started trying to fit the tentacles. The tentacles were then arranged in a swept back manner to show the creature was in motion. I then based up my giant floating predator on a quickly made wire flight base.

This passive floater was done using the same techniques as the others but this time I was able to integrate the wire that came attached to the deco squash into the tendril mass suspended below it. I then added sprigs of fake berries arounf the bottom of the main body. This added a nice effect, even after the spray paint melted the berries (always check to make sure what sort of material your components are made of!).

I plan to do more creatures and will post them as I get them finished but I hope you have enjoyed the first glimpse into the majestic beasts that inhabit the skies of our Aeronef campaign world of Terra Secundus.

Watch the skies,

-Eli

Steampunk Away From "Home"

Since my group and I began our plans for Aeronef, we have discussed whether or not we wanted to use Earthly nations or go with something original. For me, this brought up an interesting question. Is Steampunk/VSF reliant upon Earthly components to avoid becoming purely science fiction or are the elements that make it Steampunk/VSF more a matter of style rather than historical reference? To me, it seems to be about style and theme, but perhaps a bit of a look at the setting we intend to play in will help to demonstrate where I am coming from.

Our setting is on an alien world outside of Earth's celestial sphere, the idea being that it had been reached by humans through an Ethereal Hyper-locative Aperture (wormhole) some time ago. Though colonized by Earthly explorers, the planet known as Terra Secundus was later isolated when the EHA closed. Since then, the human colonies have formed into their own nations, developing technologies to adapt to their new world.

Terra Secundus is not an Earth analog, though it does have many similar environments. It is characterized by massive mountain ranges winding steeply across the face of the planet. So extreme are these ranges that some go beyond the limits of human airship technology to overcome and in many places they dive down in sheer cliffs to a veritable maze of sees, oceans and water ways. This leaves little in the way of flat land to colonize, making such areas crucial peaces of real estate.

The planet sports a variety of habitats in the valleys and plateaus that make up its more level lands, but much of these have been settled and converted to one extent or another by humanity. In other places communities have sprouted out of the sides of mountains or built upon reclaimed land jutting into one water way or another. In all cases, humanity balances on an eternal precipice, not just figuratively but quite literally, his existence forever challenged.

The planet has a few indigenous sentient species some hostile, some friendly and some simply disinterested in the presence of humanity. Most notable are the humanoid Deva, a red-skinned people similar to the Martians and possibly related in the same way that the humans of Terra Secundus are to terrestrial humans. The Deva are masters of the aerofauna of the planet and live in towering terraced cities or in travelling caravans made up of domesticated floaters carrying barque-like vessels under them. Relations with the Deva have been hit and miss and much of it has to do with the particular city or tribe one is dealing with.

The other notable race is a rarely scene and as yet identified insectoid species which occupies an area rich in contragravital minerals. This species will be dealt with more once the player playing them defines them more.

The above mentioned contragravital mineral is called Gravicite and it is found naturally in deposits throughout the planet in varying quantities. The raw ore can be used to power gravity drives thus making the heavier than air movement of massive vessels as possible as moving nautical dreadnoughts through the use of coal. But Gravicite is not only available as mined ore.

The aerofauna of Terra Secundus are also rich in contragravitic compounds and, if hunted and processed properly, can produce industrial quantities of Gravicine, a liquid with contragravitic characteristics. This has led to the thriving industry of "sky whaling" with entire fleets of ships combing the skies of Terra Secundus, harvesting the massive floaters for their valuable Gravicine. This has brought humanity into several direct conflict with the Deva who do not take kindly to the industrial slaughter of the creature that have so defined their culture.

One last source of contragravitic compounds is a through refining of chemicals and mineral that can be extracted from various flora natural to the planet. These plants, though not all demonstrating their own contragravitic characteristics, have been cultivated on massive industrial plantations where they are harvested and refined into Grivicine Distilate. This is a poor form of Gravicine which cannot produce military grade contragravitic properties but is enough to power and drive smaller or commercial vessels of smaller sizes. It's primary use is by smaller or poorer nations or city states, or as a way to take the burden off of more effective contragravitic compounds in larger nations.

As you can see, the setting has all the basic building blocks for good old colonial fun as well as being founded on basic VSF/Steampunk themes. I have just chosen to take the setting out of our solar system and away from conventional Earth governments, though certain cultural elements will persist. This frees me and my group to create what we want, allowing us to use familiar themes in ways that the conventional frameworks do not allow for. For me, it means being able to design aeronef vessels that do not look like they belong in conventional earthly fleets.

Thanks for reading,

-Eli

Inspiration - Martian Hand Cannons?

Remember the great line of fantasy figures that Grenadier put out for their Fantasy Warriors miniatures game? Well, I do and I was thrilled to find out that Mirliton now carries what appears to be the whole range of miniatures. But what got my attention was these fellows above.

The figures pictured above are "Dark Elf Arquebows" and were intended as some sort of odd heavy crossbow trooper. I always thought they might make a nice addition to the RAFM Martians for VSF battles. Converting their crossbows to guns, they suddenly become heavily armored hand cannonneers. Perhaps they could be a heavy troop type for the various city states?

For me, they seem to work well with their swept up helmets, flared shoulders, and bare legs. They very much look like they could have marched forward from one of the royal houses on Mars to join the fight along side or against the colonial forces. Perhaps if my gaming journeys ever take me to Mars, I'll pick some up. For those of you already battling it out on the dusty red planet, you may want to have a look.

-Eli

Bits Bugs!

A friend of mine was kind enough to front me all his GW Tyranids bits from the various sets hes purchased in the past. I had wanted them so I could see what manner of mischief I could do with them. The result was some new hellish bugs for my survival horror game project and any other general horror stuff I might find myself up to.

The first thing I came up with are these spindle legged fellows. They have a Tyranid gun for a a body and a Tyranid Ripper for a head. the legs are Gaunt weapon arms with the weapons and hands clipped off. The legs have been drilled and lengths of thin wire inserted. The wire will be covered over with some putty to blend it into the rest of the limb. A little grey stuff and some paint and these should make fine horrific beasties.

As the project continues, I'll post some more pics but enjoy the WIP pics above for now.

Take care,

-Eli

Parrot Men Mounts

So, I was thinking about the wonderful Death Rays over at Victoria's Boys in Red and was inspired to try and figure out a way that I could do something similar for one of the various projects I'm working on (of course that means yet another project) and it occurred to me that the flightless Parrot Men might need something to get them around.

What I decided on was a pterosaur or something like it. The world of the Parrot Men is a tropical, primordial place complete with dinosaurs and strange creatures. I figured that the Parrot Men might make use of the rookeries of pterosaurs that nest in the cliffs and mammoth trees where they themselves make their homes.

The problem come in finding a good, nicely done pterosaur model or toy that would require little or no conversion. A repaint is likely to occur with any plastic toy, so that I not a problem. I am going to see what I can find out there but this fell below would fit the bill nicely.

In The Tall Tall Grass

After reading some very cool ways to do tall grass and finding myself woefully unable to find the materials to do so, I began to experiment with other materials and such and finally found something that I liked. It came in the form of a product from the fish supply section of the local Walmart called breeder grass.



The breeder grass comes in boxes of something like 16-20 (can't recall and don't have the box to check) individual tufts attached to a plastic grid that is designed to be buried under your tank gravel. Take the tufts off the grass and fix them to round bases. Touch up each tuft with some drybrushing of a lighter color along the upper halves of the blades and then add textured ground material.



The end result is several individually based pieces of tall grass that can be used for a variety things. You can place them individually or in small groups for accents on the table or in larger patches to create expanses of tall grass. Because they are individually based, you can make paths through them in whatever formation you want or even move them out of the way to show minis moving through, without having to remove the grass from the board.

I will say it likely takes a bit longer to complete than some of the other versions for tall grass, but it is resilient, cheap ($3-4 per box) and still as, if not more, flexible than some of the other methods.

-Eli

Parrot Men Village

Inspired by the good gentleman at Victoria's Boys in Red I have found a renewed interest in my Parrot Men project. Though I had not intended them for VSF proper, they easily work for such a game without modification. I am using GW's cool Kroot minis for them and intend to do a host of conversions and modifications to create various Parrot Man personalities. But on to the new ideas.

Somewhere along the way, I had acquired several of those cheap plastic champagne glasses that come in two parts - the stem (which make for good flight bases for larger models) and the cup proper. I have been holding on to them since then, thinking that some day I would have use for them, and indeed I have finally devised something that has inspired me - nest huts for my Parrot Men.

The concept for the nest huts draws from several sources both real and fictitious. I first looked at bird nests. They come in so many shapes and forms that nature would surely provide me with something usable. I looked at various woven nests as well as those of mud construction. Next I looked at how they were situated in the trees - nestled in crooks, hollows, the ends of branches and even hanging. I drew a little bit from all of these.

Next, I looked at man-made constructions for bird houses and such. It sounds silly, but you have to assume that a birdlike species is likely going to develop some similar concepts when they move from instinctual to engineered designs. My main points of consideration here were perches and decks as I figured my Parrot Men, living in a tropical environment, would likely want some sort of veranda to spend their days on.

The end result was the sketch below...

The basic idea is the marriage of a common craft store bird nest to the thatched over plastic wine glass using carved and shaped craft or natural sticks for the uprights and the decking. I am not sure if I want to make them hanging or built on the tops of branches or both.

The way I see the Parrot Men living in them is similar to how some of the South American tribes live in their simple shelters. Like regular bird nests, the Parrot Men use their nest huts primarily for the safe-keeping of their young. Eggs are laid in the center below the line of the veranda as are the family's other possessions. Daily life is spent perched outside on the veranda perches or on the surrounding trees. As Parrot Men cannot fly, but are excellent climber and leapers, they can easily access even the most remote nest huts.

We'll see how this develops.

-Eli

How Far is Too Far?

The other day it struck me, while I was sketching concepts for my survival horror miniatures game, that we seem to assign different limits to what is going "too far" depending on the media being used. I have often found that if I watch horror movies or read a particularly lewd story I am perceived far more differently than if I play in a game that involves similar content. It's one thing to read about half-clad vampiresses or to watch unthinkable creatures ripping apart hapless co-eds in slasher films, but it is an entirely different thing if I have such things appear in my games. This strikes me as odd.

In my design work now and in my various games, writings, doodle and such in the past, I have conceived of some pretty horrific and potentially objectionable ideas. This has little to do with who I am. Some of the games I play are about nasty things. Some are also about truly wondrous things or outright wacky things.

But, all things said and done, is there a limit?

Contemplatively yours,

-Eli

What's on Your Table?

Taking a clue from another blogger, I decided to take accounting of my various projects and found that I have indeed managed to bury myself under projects AGAIN. I say again, because I one time, I had actually managed to cut myself some slack and expunge a few of my "go nowhere projects". These were mainly things that had one time shown promise but later proved fruitless. At any rate, I have managed to gather myself an assortment of new projects.

At this time, I have the following projects that I am actively working on -

• Aeronef Fleet. Designing master for eventual molding and casting. I have the designs in mind and sketched out, but just need to get the masters built.
  


• Land Ironclads. Converting and collecting figures to build a couple of forces. This is coming along nicely, though right now I'm strictly on a convert what I have basis. I haven't bought anything new for this, which is kind of cool.
  


• Hordes Troll Bloods. I have a ton of these guys but have yet to even start painting them.



• 28mm Parrot Men. Converting 40K Kroot into pulp scifi aliens. I have about 16 of these guys. I am currently gathering bits to do a few leader/personality types before I start painting.
  


• Zombie Miniatures Project. 50+ zombies including dogs and pigs. A couple of survivor bands including one made up entirely of armed postal workers. Working on more zombie animals, including zombified zoo animals, starting with an elephant.
  


• 15mm Scifi Army. Converting and painting figs from various sources for a 15mm hard scifi setting. I have a couple of platoons worth of modern Israelis and some AT-43 TacArms that I'm using for this. The TacArms are joining some converted15mm M551 Sheridans for a light assault force.
  


• 15mm Fallschirmjagers. These guys are not finished after a coupe years in my hands. I love them, but all that fiddly camouflage is driving me mad. I have enough for a strengthened company in Flames of War including all manner of vehicle support.
  


• Terrain. There is always terrain to be made, but I would like to try working on something a bit more structured than the wilderness stuff I have been working on.
  


• 28mm Pulp Figs. Haven't played in a bit, but still building up. I still have Chinese bandits and mobsters that need to be finished and haven't even started painting my masked mercenaries. I also have plenty of characters and heroes to finish as well as some beasties.
  


• Superfigs. I keep planning on this one, but have yet to settle on a team or find/get all the right figs for a team. I have a couple of robots I am converting for my criminal organization but I haven't found henchmen that pop for me. I do have some aliens that need painting but I'm also gathering figs for a fun project building a sort of half-cracked anti-hero team based on characters from various Rob Zombie songs.
  


• 6mm Trojan War. This is sort of a dream project and I have a few figs I picked up for proof of concept but haven't started the project full on. So far I have been focusing on the Trojan Allies as they are more diverse and therefore enjoyable to collect.
  
  
• Survival Horror. This is really in the development/experimental stage but I am trying to develop a fun and effective miniatures game for this genre.

It may not be as huge a list as some out there and I am sure I'm forgetting something, but it is still a mountain of work for me and there are always new projects popping to mind all the time. I also split my hobby time between various RPGs and board games as well.

Let's see how it all shapes up,

-Eli

Achtung Wunderwaffen!

t's really sad when good gaming ideas and miniatures lines go horribly wrong. Dream Pod 9's Weird War Two game "Gear Krieg" was a great idea that suffered horribly, IMHO, from bad marketing, bad editing and a bit of "before its time" syndrome. The game had a lot to offer, the same stuff that games that came way later capitalized on. The system got clunky for anything over a couple of units which, in my opnion totally defeats the purpose of playing in 15mm.

Anyhow, it produced some amazing miniatures cast to DP9's usual high standard and at it's core was an okay game and I managed to amass quite a collection of them over the years. Not all of them got painted but I did find some of them and thought I'd post them out of a sense of nostalgea and respect for the lovely figures they are.

Here are several Loki Kampfers painted in early war colors. These were the first ones I had ever painted. One thing I loved was that there was an obvious progression of technology in the German walker designs.

Another thing that Gear Krieg did was to inspire a certain creativity for new units. As I played Germans, that is where my ideas centered. Other players in our group tried some other stuff and I'll see if I can get some pics of their stuff to post here. A quick note here on creating Weird War Two stuff - The Allies are hard to design for.

This walker is what became known as Falschirmkampfers or as the allies called them, "Jump Walkers". They were meant as a sort of powered frame to accompany Fallschirmjagers on drop operations, providing mobile heavy weapons support that could still be transported on conventional air drop transports. They are made from the old DP9 Ferret gears from their Heavy Gear Line

This flyer was not wholly my idea. Inspired by a picture of a conversion of a Sharkit 1/35 WW2 German Jet Bike, I built this one out of a Crimson Skies fighter. It was meant as a scout as well as close-in air support for infantry operation, operating below Allied air cover but above the ground. The concept for these was that they would be transported on large halftracks and launched by catapult into local operations. We called it a Kampflieger.

These minis were really fun to paint up and convert. Perhaps when I have a chance to work on them a bit I'll do some individual walk around/technical reviews of the machines they represent. It's unfortunate that DP9 priced themselves out of my reach as I had some nice plans for some of their models.

Hope you have enjoyed this little jaunt down memory lane.

Take care,

-Eli

Survival Horror Miniatures Game Development - Part One

After asking around to various video game fans, gamer friends and the miniatures community at large, it seems there are a few key things that will need to be included to make a survival horror miniatures game work. Here is a quick laundry list.

1) Pregenerated Character designed with specific motivations/objectives and
abilities for the scenario being played. This will ground the players in the
scenario and offer them a way to invest in their characters.

2) Partially scripted events, encounters, story development. This will keep things
moving along and allow for a sense of accomplishment and development which
should also aid in keeping the players vested in their characters.

3) Fear/Terror Mechanic. This is key to help reinforce the emotional responses that
the characters would have within the game that the players may not have.

4) Mystery/Uncertainty. Using "fog of war" or some random elements, the
scenario should unfold in a way that keeps the players guessing.

5) Triggered Story Events. This is a trick used in video games to move things
along. Having certain things that are triggered by accomplishments of monsters
or players keeps the players motivated and helps to build a sense of impending
doom.

This is just an initial list and will likely be refined as I work on it more, but right now I'm still in that fact-finding and brainstorming stage. It seems that the key to running survival horror as a miniatures game is to make sure that there is a definite build-up and not just a series of combats.

Did I miss anything?

-Eli

Is Survival Horror Right for the Gaming Table?

The other day at work I got to thinking about all the great survival horror movies and games that are out there and how they have so much in them that would be fun to model or paint. Survival horror, as a genre, generally includes tons of vivid and evocative sets and creatures as well as characters and heroes that almost scream to be made into miniature.

There has already been much done along these lines for the various zombie games that are out there (you have to love zombies), but these generally come down to survival games and less along the lines of horror. The problem I see comes from that side of things which may work well in RPGs but are harder to bring to life on the miniatures games table.

Horror is based on certain assumptions that are hard to simulate on the gaming table. Fear, uncertainty, powerlessness, even hopelessness. All of these are based on emotional responses that most tabletop gamers are not going to be able to tap into. Most miniatures games are simply too cut and dry to instill players with these emotions. But, still I wonder if it can be done.

I would love to hear any thoughts or ideas that those of you who read this may have, so please comment freely.

Thanks,

-Eli

Gundam Miniatures Battles - Box Contents

Just a bit of an update on the Gundam project. The boxes I ordered are on their way though they may take a bit to get here from Japan. I was able to find some information on what sort of mix of figures I can expect from the boxes, so this is at least good news.

I have been told that in any given box you will receive, generally, one of each of the "grunt" mecha and possibly a few variants. The rest of the box will be made up of the rarer "special" suits. This seems a perfect mix for gaming as the grunt suits will be the most common on the battlefield. I have also been told that in most cases you can manage to accumulate the whole of any given set in about two boxes, but as I am not a collector, this is not as important to me.

It had been mentioned, by one of my sources, that the various grunt suits may come with different unit markings and paint schemes. This isn't that huge of a problem for me as I had already consigned myself to having to repaint them to get more of a tabletop mini look as opposed to the glossy model look they come with. This will allow me to standardize the schemes of the grunt suits to make them look like more of a cohesive force.

Bottom line, it looks like this project is very doable, though I am still scrambling to pick up older sets before they completely disappear.

Take care for now,

-Eli

Land Ironclads - The Force Thus Far

So, camera crisis averted by the timely purchase of a new memory card, I can now press on. I still suffer from an outdated camera but it can get the point across. Shown below are the fronts of the two types of Land Ironclads I have built as well as three bases of the Steam Colossi as well as a couple of bases of unfinished 2mm infantry to show scale.




So far, I have left them devoid of markings until I decide what sort of nationality I want to make them.

Hope you like,

-Eli

Steam Colossi for Land Ironclads

I have been trudging along with my Land Ironclads conversions, cobbling a force together from bits and pieces that I had laying about in one box or another. This is not a front-line project for me just yet, but I find several (perhaps too many) old 6mm Battletech power armor minis that just begged consideration.

Most of them were not overly well-suited to conversion to VSF, but the Grey Death Legion power armor looks like it will do nicely. These figures have a very static pose, domed helmets and a jump pack on their back, which at that scale looks much like a pair of boilers. The minis come in three versions, each armed with a different weapon - Gatling gun, large-barreled gun (laser I think), and some short-barreled thing that looks like flamer (B-tech loved its flamers).

I think with the addition of a funnel between the dome of their rocket packs and a nice coat of gun metal paint they should make for quite nice walking terrors.

Note: There was supposed to be a pic with this post, but my memory card for my camera is AWOL. I'll get some pics up ASAP. Thanks for your patience.

Gundam Miniatures Battles or I Need a New Hobby Like I Need...

This was bound to happen, but I have recently come into the knowledge that a line of models for the mecha from the various Mobile Suit Gundam series has been available for a while now. These models come in a range of scales but the one that caught my ever-roaming eye were those in 1/400 scale. Of course, this puts them right at a game-worthy size and means that I must now have them.

Curse the universe for making this even possible.

Soooooo...now I am scrambling trying to assemble the mecha that I most would like to have on the battlefield, scraping together from a line of collectible figures that have been in production long enough for some of the early and, for me, more desirable sets to be out of production and scarce. So, like a mad bat out of some dark fiery place, I am on a quest to get a hold of enough 1/400 Gundam models to make this thing work.

I am waiting on two boxes of randomly assorted figs to arrive. These were picked up for a song on a clearance sale and should prove to be a nice and educational first purchase. My hope is that the rarity of units will shadow the rarity of the various units in their respective series - grunt suits more common than star or specialized suits. If this plays out, then I will be in business.

If you are reading this and have any information on the breakdown of the various boxes in the Gundam Collection series of 1/400 collectible figures, please drop me a comment.

Thanks,

Eli

Land Ironclad Conversion WIP - Part 2

Since I first decided to try my hand at some homebrew land ironclads, I have been finding myself coming up with more and more projects ideas for the game. In addition to finishing the two that I had already started and posted about, I have also found another two of a different design to put together.

The original two have had all their parts assembled and put together. I decided to use 15mm Sherman tank road wheels for the two smaller secondary turrets I wanted to place toward the rear of the hull of the vehicles. I drilled small holes in them and inserted cut pieces of thin wire for the barrels. These glued to the hull nicely and should hold well once painted. For the main guns, I simply glued the guns to the hull. This is not the most elegant of methods but it should ensure a hold that will stand up to play.

As for the two others of a new design, these were made from parts off of two different types of old Ral Partha tanks. These had originally been purchased for one project or another but never were used. After knocking them apart with a heavy object (man that superglue set hard), I found that the tracks off of one mated up to the body of the other made for nice retro look with a boxy hull. A tower at one end of the hull made the perfect place to put the primary turret (made from a 1/72 tank road wheel). I fleshed out the look by adding a 15mm oil drum for a funnel and some wire barrels in the turret and the design was done. This one was easier than the first but it used fewer parts that went together much more solidly.

At this point, I am down to just the basing and painting of the land ironclads. I am also working on some bipedal "steam soldiers" and some infantry blocks , but will cover those in a future post. When they are all done, I hope to show them all off together in one grand picture.

Take care,

-Eli