Cicada!

Last night I did a little papercarft. I found http://www.toposolitario.com/workshop/ almost a year ago and have been thinking about trying one of their models for about as long. They have a dropship that I may try in the future but I thought I'd start with their smaller ship, the Chicharra (Cicada).

The model is 28mm scale so I reduced it to 65% and printed it on card stock.

Here she is. I think she's adorable. I just love that up-swept tail.

The Cicada will be a fun objective for small scale scenarios or just a nice bit of table dressing. 

Holy Crap! I Actually Played a Game!

Yes sirree, I played a game this weekend with my Kra'Vak, renamed the Laju Kadal (which means fast lizard in Indonesian according to google translate). I was so excited to see my little guys on the field that tactics went right out the window, which, if I'm honest, they usually do. I am not the wisest general the table has ever seen but it was a fun game none the less.

We used the old Gruntz rules, even though we have the new rules. What we lack is the new Gruntz unit builder and I'm just too lazy to make a list up by hand anymore.

Here's some pics.

The military compound is in the upper left.  Shanty town in the center.

Some workers going about their business unaware that an attack is on the way.

More milling about.

The attack commences.

The defending commander has things well under control from behind a bunker.

These cannons packed a nasty punch.

Some power armor headed to their doom.

That tank beyond the trucks was the bane of my existence.

This walker didn't treat me well either.

Not a real AAR, just some pics. In short, I had my forces spread too thin and he just mopped the floor with me. I dealt some damage, wiping out a couple squads of gruntz, but in the end he mopped the floor with me. But the table looked good and the minis were freshly painted. A great Sunday afternoon!

Better Pics!

I got my good camera back and couldn't resist taking better pics of the Kra'Vak. Although now I face the daunting task of reshooting all the pics on the blog. (Probably not going to happen.)

But wait! There's more! I added flowers to the bases. So, not only are the new pics prettier, they're also prettier.

I've never used the flower flock before. I think it worked out pretty nicely. It also solved a problem for me. I was trying to think of how I was going to distinguish between squads. I thought about different colored dots on the shoulders or maybe different colors on the base edges  But because I alternated the blue and white on the squads the yellow and pink flowers take care of the issue for me.

Cool Packaging

Check out this awesome packaging from Oddzial Osmy.

These are my just arrived New Vistula Legion minis ordered through Pico Armor. Placed my order last Thursday and here there are on Tuesday. Nice.

But what has really impressed me is the ready-for-retail packaging that Oddzial Osmy uses. Makes me long to be able to walk into my FLGS and peruse the 15mm section. My only real miniature store in town used to carry Flames of War back when I couldn't be bothered with 15mm. But now that I wouldn't mind picking up some little Russians as an impulse buy they're nowhere to be seen.

Sigh. I suppose it's all for the best. I'd be pretty poor if I could walk into a store with all my favorite 15mm ranges.

Kra'Vak!

It's taken me a while but I finally got back to my Kra'Vak. I'd done maybe a quarter of my army when my buddy and I got bitten by the Weird West bug. But back in November I got stuck in with my little alien warriors and am now done (for now). The big guys could use some weathering. The little guys could use some squad markings. I have four more mini-mecha I could paint up and add in, but as of right now I need a break from white and turquoise.

The army was purchased with Gruntz in mind. I haven't had a chance to look over the new rules but I believe Robin said there would be a little more flexibility where specialist units come in. I hope that means my mini-mecha will add the oomph I'll need to combat some enemy tanks. If not, well, I guess I'll paint up those other four guys and maybe, just maybe, buy some tanks of my own.

So, without further ado...

Fearless Leader

I really like how the scales came out on his Not Dewback.

 

Squad with LAW

Same deal with reversed paint scheme.

 

Squad with SAW

Another reversed paint scheme.

Power armor squad.

Power armor squad with, can you guess?...a reversed paint scheme.

Anti-tank mini mechs and infantryman for scale.

Anti-tank mini mechs with infantryman.

I haven't played a game with these guys yet but my tentative fluff is that each infantry squad has one of the mini mechs assigned to it. Sort of a big brother, watching their backs. That might not be the best strategy-wise but I like the idea of it.

Like I said earlier, I think the big guys need some weathering, probably some paint chipping along the edges to soften up those clean lines, but that can wait for now. I want to work on some more terrain (city stuff most likely) and paint up some of the Match Box stuff I've acquired over the past few months. Mostly it's a bunch of civilian vehicles for objectives and atmosphere; dump trucks, earth movers, that sort of thing. Santa did bring me one of the Fast Freight vehicles for Christmas. It's a sort of ridiculous car/train that would look great as part of a convoy. They come with an "engine" and a single "freight car," but their are couplers so you could conceivably buy as many as you want to make a long train. At $6 a piece, though, I don't think I'll be buying a ton of them.

Anyway, hope you like my Kra'Vak and thanks for looking!

New board and some scatter

Wow. I haven't posted since August 27th. And I haven't really done that much since then either. No minis painted at all. Only a few games thrown in. But I did finish up a river board and some scatter terrain.

Not too many WIP pics. Here's what I have:

The very beginning of the river board. I used a hot wire cutter for the river. Once it was cut out, I cut it in half horizontally, then gauge an even deeper section in the very middle for the river bed. (Disregard the Happy Napper in the background.)

Here you can see that I had the board painted before I decided that I needed to add some more levels. I had just come from my gaming on my buddy's new boards and they were way too cool not to emulate.

And here it is all textured, painted, and flocked. I think I'll eventually add some more detail to the vegetation. But it will do for now.

Next up is the scatter terrain. I wanted some smaller rock terrain. I wanted to be able to use them as stand alone pieces or have them fit together to form a rough wall. Enter the hole saw.

I used a 2" hole saw for this. Just cut one base out, then let the saw overlap the preceding hole for the remaining  bases. 

A little bit of tree bark mulch, some putty, sand, and they're ready to go.

I really like these little bases. No matter how you set them up, they fit snugly together. And it was a nice way to ease back into the hobby after my two month break.

I still have my Kra'Vak army to finish up. Just another two squads and the many mechs. If I buckled down I could have them done before December. But I've got my eye on some more Blue Moon Manufacturing minis. Deep Dark Africa this time. The missionaries look delicious.

Donner Party?

Finished another gang. I had some left over ghouls and a female necromancer so I decided to knock them out. Simple paint jobs with the bloody bits picked out in gloss varnish.

Splintered Light ghouls and necromancer.

These are all Splintered Light minis. I've been fairly impressed with the quality of sculpts.

I started a second 2x2 board over the weekend but had to let the Liquid Nails dry before I could really get to work on it. There's going to be a meandering stream on it which means I get to try water effects for the first time. Hope I don't screw it up.