Movement Trays!

More on the Greeks...

I have never used movement trays before, let alone scratch built them. But Of Gods and Mortals suggests them and, especially for the close order troops, it just makes more sense. OGAM suggests using a compact disc for the open order troops. But that's for 28mm. Much too big for seven 15mm guys. A trip to the craft store got me these nice oval blanks:

I found plastic card the same thickness as my penny bases, taped it to a board and used a 3/4 inch drill to make the holes. A little spackle and sand later...

You can see I also made some plugs to fill in for casualties. I made enough plugs to also use as condition markers. Nothing specific, just general reminders about who jas activated.

Here's a few in progress pics of the closed order tray:

My very anal setup.

If I had it to do over I would have the hoplites a little closer together but they work for now.

Thanks for looking!

Of Gods and Mortals Greeks!

Well, it's been over a year since I've posted anything. And truth be told, I haven't done much hobby-wise during that time. A friend and I heard the call of Saga, even got some minis but the will and the staying power just wasn't there. They are all sitting on my dresser gathering dust right now. 28mm too. That might be why they languish. 15mm really has gotten it's hooks into me.

So I finally took the plunge and splurged on the rule book for OGAM and a handful of Xyston Greeks. I cannot express how much I love these minis. The are simply beautiful sculpts. I was going to buy some 28mm mini to use as a god by then my daughters found this old (pretty crappy to be honest) GW plastic minotaur on the floor in the basement. Fortune favors the parsimonious I suppose.

So here they are in their phone-pic glory. There's a few shields missing that I need to glue back on. And I was much more pleased with the minotaur's skin tone before spray-coating him. The purple is so much more purple now. Oh well. The warband is done and ready to play.

Now I'm waiting on an order from Khurasan for my Cthulhu warband. I have a feeling I'll be waiting a while. My friend ordered some vikings at the beginning of December and didn't get them until after Christmas. Not a huge deal but the waiting is making my eyes wander over toward Japan and a possible samurai warband. Damn you lead addiction.

A Game 6 Years in the Making

This past Saturday my 6 year old daughter, Gretchen, asked to play a game. She'd asked a few times over the past few months and despite my fear that I would get everything set up and she'd have changed her mind I decided to give it a go.

I gave Gretchen 7 "girl" minis, all from GZG's Spaceship Crew and Ravagers sets. The Not-Inara mini was the prisoner of an evil witch doctor whose 9 zombie guards were patrolling the small town (I used some Whitewash City paper models along with some of my sci-fi shanties and the comm bunker made a good "dungeon").

The rules were inspired by Ganesha Games Song of Blades and Heroes mechanics but considerably simplified. All the minis had a single Skill that could be used for everything. Need to shoot a zombie? Roll and d6 and add your skill. Need to pick a lock? Roll a d6 and add your skill. I gave Gretchen's ladies a skill of 4. The zombies would shuffle along with a 2. We used long match sticks for movement, the ladies could run on there turns using two match sticks but the zombies could not.

I spread the zombies around on the main road through town and Gretchen set up her ladies in a corner where she quickly established all the relationships in her group. There were sisters, cousins, a mom and daughter, and I'm pretty sure a few of them didn't like each other.

After she killed the first two zombies she realized how much tougher her girls were than the zombies and she just knew she had the game in the bag. But then she got within range of the witch doctor who promptly turned one of the ladies into a zombie. Gretchen was gobsmacked. She didn't want to attack the new zombie because that was so and so's sister. But she didn't want orange girl to get eaten either. She solved her problem by concentrating fire on the witch doctor, who dodged many a bullet (much to Gretchen's dismay) but fell in the end. The girl was unzombified, the princess was rescued, and there was much rejoicing.

This was so much fun. I loved how quickly she just made up personalities and backstories for her minis. What would take me a half hour and a whole set of tables to come up with she effortlessly produced within a minute. And the math! This is a great way for her to practice her math! I threw in some plus and minus modifiers on the fly and she worked right through them.

She has now decided that we are doing this every Saturday. That sounds pretty good to me.

New Armor and Some Repeats!

The past few weeks I've been slowly but surely working through the APCs and AGS. I've had these models for what seems like forever and I finally got the motivation to work on them. I decided to try weathering with pastels. I think I might have tried it before (some of the sticks of chalk show evidence that I have) but I can't remember what models or if I was just trying it out. It went on a little thicker than I would have hoped for. Part of that is that I had to do two coats... the first layer was much too dark. But overall I'm pleased enough with these to take the pics and call them done.

In that last pic I threw in the flat-bed. It will eventually carry a MRL but I had a little trouble with the primer. I don't know whether the humidity was too high or I didn't shake the can well enough but the paint really bubbled. And then, being a resin newb, I tossed it into some nail polish remover. Mistake. The resin does not like acetone. Ah well. Lesson learned. And now that I look at the missile launcher pod again I don't think it's all that bad. I'll prime it this week and get it painted.

Thanks for looking!

I've Done Something!

I haven't posted since April 9th but that doesn't mean I haven't been hobbying. Sadly, it does mean that I haven't been hobbying much.

My last post showed off some Oddzial Osmy New Vistula Legion with a few Mechwarrior mech repaints. I've since based the mechs and painted a few other figs as well.

Group shot!

The little tanketts are Autonomous Mortars (nicknamed "Auntie May" by the troops). They'll bombard any bad guys they "see" and for those they can't see the LRRP are always ready to paint a target for good ol' Auntie May.

The rocket pods will be interesting. I want them to be parachuted onto the battlefield and then function much them same way the AMs do. I figure scatter dice will have to come into play. I think I have three of these painted (it might be four).

That's it for decent pics. I did get a DSLR for my birthday but good grief, the thing is complicated. I'm going to have a to really pour over some tutorials to get the hang of it and that eats a chunk out of the hobby time.

I have been slowly but surely working on some electrical box buildings. A few more doors and rooftop greebles and I'll be ready to to prime and paint them.

They'll go with these city tiles I've had sitting around for way too long:

Why are there only 7 you ask? I was just too lazy to do the 8th.

 These were inspired by Spacejacker's great tiles and I still have a ways to go before I'm happy with them. My buddy Chris has another full set (of 8... he's slightly less lazy than me) so we will someday have a huge city table for 15mm.

That's it for now. If you've read all the way down here I think you are a very special sort of nerd. Thanks!

New Vistula Legion

Well, it's been a while since my last post but I have been plugging away at the hobby. I bought about $20 dollars worth of Oddzial Osmy's New Vistula Legion minis a few months ago. I got a few packs of infantry, a pack of SAWs, a pack of NCOs, and the lovely pack of LRRP (this pack was the army's major selling point for me, I just love the scuplts).

Once again I have a crappy camera to take the pics, the decent camera having been almost destroyed somehow (grrrrrr).

The pics of the rest of the infantry were too bad to post. I've got a total of 30 troops right now. I think another $20 worth of figs would do me fine.

I also ordered some Mechwarrior figs because, well, they are incredibly cheap.

They painted up pretty well. The hard rubber, or whatever it is made of, is obviously not the best material but at about $3 a pop I can forgive a lot.

I got two Heavy Artillery vehicles which I'll be using as autonomous mortar drones and last, but not least, 5 Long Range Missile Batteries. I haven't painted the LRM or the mini-mortar tanks yet because they really have suffered from the crappy hard rubber. The barrels/missiles all need to be straightened to some extant. But, again, for the price I really am willing to put a little extra work in.

I bought the LRM batteries based on idea from a post over on Dropship Horizon. Mark talks about how he never really like mortars in a sci fi game but then goes on to think through how you could make them work. He mentions mortars being deployed by drop tubes. That got me thinking, and that got me looking, and that got me buying.

Right now I'm waiting for my Combat Wombat order. Just a few hover APCs and a hover missile battery. I think this is going to be a fun little army.

Chris's Minis

My buddy Chris has been telling me that I need to post so I thought I'd use his pics to do it.

Here's his stash of terrain bits from Micropanzer:

He got a bunch of doors and windows and I am jealous.

Here's a little terrain piece he whipped up last week.

I dig it.

And here's his take on t he Brog Empire minis from Rebel Minis:

I love these minis and I'm so glad he bought them. He's a big fan of Steve Rude's Nexus comic and I think these would fit in that universe splendidly (as would most of PF's sculpts). Chris said that he was able to reposition arms easily and that after a run in with a sleeping cat he could bend the guys back into position without breaking them.

My next post will show off my progress on Odzial Ozmy's New Vistula Legion. I just have to find the time to take some pics.