Bones for Terrain.

Recently I came across a few cool pieces of terrain that features large exposed skeletons.  It reminded me of something from Star Wars or the bone yard from Pitch Black.  I wanted to build some terrain that features large bones.

I was planning on going local to pick up something at Michaels.  Before I did I hit the internet, and came across the following item:

http://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B013DISYEE?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00

$10.99... Canadian.  Free shipping?  I gave them a shot and they arrived quickly.

I haven't built anything with them yet, but I thought I would post a few photos so you could all see them in scale with a 15mm as well as see how they take paint.

	The packaging they come shipped in is minimal.  Just the packing box and plastic bones in the bags. Nothing special, nothing to add to the cost.
The scale of these is large.  Dinos are big, yes, but these will do the job at 15mm of being extra large.  Here is a Rebel Minis Sahadeen trooper standing on the rib cage of the Triceratops skeleton.
	Close up the skull.  It is split in two, like the rib cage.  This will allow you to potentially build twice as many skeletons.  Also note the cool cracked texture, this is on all of the bones.
This will be my painting test piece.  I plan on just giving it a quick wash and then dry brushing it.
	The bone with the initial wash.  The wash brought out the cracks decently, but also identified a solid mold line that will need to be cleaned off.  Not a big deal, I just hadn't noticed it till the wash.
Finished with the drybrush, next to an unpainted.  I think, I would use a darker wash next time, but overall the extra detail provided by the cracks are a nice touch.

Overall for a random bunch of plastic bones for $11, I am pretty happy with the product.  If you are looking to incorporate a long dead monster in your sci-fi or even fantasy terrain, I think these are a pretty decent place to start.

FallCon 2015: 15mm Tomorrow's War. RESD vs Cyber Threat

This was a refresher game using two equivalent sides.  TL2, standard troops

Rigel II:  New Mohi

A fledgling colony established on the edge of known space.  Colonists establishing the first settlements stumbled across an artifact of unknown origin and technology.  It's importance was clear and a FTL message dispatch was sent to Terra.

A small force of the Royal Exo-planetary Strike and Defense was sent to hold the position.  Unfortunately the transmission was intercepted by the Cyber Threat, a race of intelligent robots who have decided the tech should belong to them.

The small unit of RESD troopers was divided into 3 fire teams.  One held the artifacts position while 2 other fire teams went out to scout the area to prevent unknown attacks.

When the Cyber Threat appeared the main colony was protected by a small force, knowing they had to survive while three squads of machines approached out of the mist.

The Colony of New Mohi, a new small colony on the fringes of human space.

RESD team 1 holds the area around the artifact while the Cyber Threat approaches the compound.

RESD Team 1 knows Team 2 and Team 3 are scheduled to return, and so hold out and stay mostly out of site while the robots approach.

RESD Team 1 takes cover expecting to be caught in the fire of the Cyber Threat soon.  On the left side RESD Team 2 returns from scouting and approached through the forest, causing the Cyber Threat to funnel their forces more down throat of the compound.  Unfortunately heavy cover makes firing lanes rare and hard to come by.

As expected the central element of the Cyber Threat comes around the corner of a colony building and opens up on Team 1.  Team 1 presses into cover and begins to return fire as one of their riflemen fall.  In the chaos their fire impacts uselessly against the compound walls, missing the robots.

During the firefight the reinforcing element of RESD Team 2 moves forward to the edge of the forest in order to be able to lay down fire, trying to hold the second element of the Cyber Threat at bay.  On the right side the robots see an opening and dash between the tanker and main colony building hoping to out flank the RESD and catch team 1 in a cross fire.

Just when it looks very bad for the humans, RESD Team 3 returns through the forest on the right, forcing the Cyber Threat to hold position and re-evaluate.

As the fire fight rages across the main colony road, the left element of Cyber Threat dashes across to lend support to their central element.

RESD Team 2 moves up and opens fire on the Cyber Threat central element with Team 1.  Their plasma rifles are strike home and knock several of the robots down, damaging some severely.

Aftermath of the firefight, 2 severly damaged robots, and one lightly damaged.  The fire from the robots falls around the troops but does no damage, the massive damage pins the robots where they are for now.

As battles ebb and flow the left element of the Cyber Threat moves up into a firing position in the trees, their combined fire down on the RESD this time cause massive damage knocking troopers into the mud.  One stays down permanently. One takes serious damage, his armor holed through the lower body.  On the right the Cyber Threat enters the main colony complex hoping to use the cover of the door to finally dislodge RESD Team 1 from the artifact's building.

From their position in the building the Cyber Threat right element exchanges fire with RESD team one, ammunition strikes true on both sides, as warriors from both factions are knocked to the ground.  RESD Team 3 moves along the forest edge and sets up a firing line, preventing the right element from crossing to the artifact.

Team 1 and the Right Cyber Threat feeling their firefight heating up and their companions knocked down with serious injuries continue to take as much cover as they can and continue to fire across the road at each other.  The damaged central element falls back, to remove the damaged units freeing them to fight more effectively.  Their left element comes down the hill and enters a colony building

The battle continues to rage.  A war of attrition on both sides.  At the point the artifact is still in the human's control, and barring a stroke of bad luck, both sides will continue to wear themselves down little by little until the colony is left a smoking battlefield with not enough men or machines to retrieve the artifact.............

Rocky Outcropping

In an effort to increase my scatter terrain collection to help cut down LoS for games I set out to build some new pieces.  This is the first of the pieces I completed for use in a Tomorrow's War game.


Materials:

Old CD
Rocks
Styrofoam
Flocking
Caulk
White glue
Hot glue
Paint


Basic layout.  White foam sealed and primed glued to the base with hot glue with a few rocks to make it more interesting.



Base built up a little with caulk to make it less smooth.  Then flocking applied; sand in some places and a tea mix in others.

After another black primer to cover everything, the base green color is added to the grassy areas.

Grey base color added to rocks, and then areas are highlighted via dry brush with a lighter color.

Finally some browns are applied to show some extra dirt around the base and some moss glued in place for bushes.

Morning Coffee, or is it?

I drink a fair bit of coffee.  Much of it is from coffee shops.  I throw a lot of cups away.  I have seen a few ideas using the "java jacket" sleeve as corrugated steel for shanty's etc.  but I wanted more.

I have had this idea rolling around in my head for a post for a couple of days before I finally got around to building it.

Goal: Create a sci-fi building (15mm) using only a coffee cup from a coffee house, plus glue and paint.

Materials:
Coffee cup
White glue
Hot glue
Texture paint(optional)
Knife and/or scissors
Ruler

Step 1: Get a coffee cup.  Drink coffee.  Clean cup.

Step 1 cont: These are the basic parts we have to work with.

Step 2:  Measure an equal distance down and cut out a segment.  NOTE:  If you make it a single floor and measure with a miniatire the top roof of the building is NOT the bottom of the cup.  I had a small issue with this.

Step 3: Cut out plastic from cup.  I had intended on using this cut out plastic for something, but I never did.

Step 4: Use the plastic ring as a base and test fit the cardboard.  This will probably only work well if your building is as about as tall as mine.

Step 5: Using exta cardboard add details and a door

Step 6: Because of the height of the building, I need an insert ring to attach it to the plastic building base so the door is not covered.

The building with the cardboard detail and riser ring for insert into base.

Step 7: Assemble building and add last bits of detailing: A ladded to allow men to get to the door and a hatch giving access to the roof.

Step 8: Use hot glue to glue the two pieces together.  I glued inside and out.  The outside will look aproximately like a VERY heavy weld line.  Gluing from the inside is probably good enough though.

Step 9: Using texture paint add further detail and fill in small spaces.  This can be used to simulate weld lines.  At this scale these will technically be huge unless you are way better at this than I am.

 

Building painted with it's base colors

Base colors plus some weathering.

Slightly different angle.

Pond

I started work on this pond last year sometime,  I sadly did not take photos of the piece prior to the base paint and sand, even though it sat on my bench like that for about a year.  Pretty simple process, watched a few videos here and there on ponds etc.

Basic piece based on a CD.  Formed with silicone and paper.  Middle covered in paper to hide hole and the hot glued in place.  Basic rocks glued in place and everything given a base color as well as some white glue to add on some sand for texture.

Same piece but has now had diluted white glue spread across the initial sand to seal everything in place.

Extra flocking added (tea) to a few areas to represent a few grassy areas around the pond.

Grassy areas have color added as well as a white dry brush across the rocks.

Added some tall marsh grass as well as a bit of flocking around the edge of the pond.

Envirotex water.  Added a drop of blue and green paint and poured it into place.  Spread it around with a crappy brush to fill the corners.

Updates

Things have been pretty quiet on the miniature front.  Painted up 5 standard troopers for the desert troopers.  I also did some more work on a piece of terrain I am working on; a pond based on a CD. 

Ruleset wise I haven't done very much.  Poked and prodded a few things.  Decided to change from order wheels to order chits, but I am still not 100% happy with the game mechanics, so I am mulling them over still.

In other news I ordered a few new battlesuits for the desert guys and nearly have a concept for a flyer in my brain.  Might be time to sketch that out a little.

AAANNNDDD

Even more unpainted metal is heading my way as my first miniature kickstarter I supported is headed my way from Loud Ninja.  https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/485545784/the-yandrassi-invasion-new-15mm-scifi-alien-force

We shall see how I like them as I am not typically an alien guy, but it might make a cool auxillary force.

MAN & MACHINE: RULES & SAND

As I worked on the rules and made a few changes, I started messing around with Roll20 and building a few units.

I came to the conclusion that it needs re-working, that for what I see in my brain the number of stats I have is too many.

This means some mechanics simplification and changes in ideas.  So for now my brain is chewing away on that and I am trying new ideas, some I love the idea of, but don't seem to work on paper.

In other news I have completed my first two command groups for my Dessert army.  Loosely inspired by the Fremen of Dune and largely populated with Sahadeen miniatures from Rebel Minis.


Based miniatures.



Primed and washed.



Base colors added.  Dark brown and flesh tones



Lighter brown jackets, washed with a dark umber and then dry brushed.

 

Command group with dessert bases.