To Conquer the Stars Part IV

So previously I mentioned that I purchased some of the photon torpedo markers from Amarillo Design Bureau. I'm not sure if they still sell them. Nice sculpts, not very clean however. But after painting them up I like how they look and I think they will look great on the table. I have included a few pics I have taken of them so far

These should look really great flying around the table blowing stuff up!

This is my favorite shot!

Large Photon Torpedo/Plasma Marker - Close Up

Medium Photon Torpedo/Plasma Marker - Close Up

Small Photon Torpedo/Plasma Marker - Close Up

More news on the Full Impulse (Star Trek Variant) campaign that we will be kicking off soon. I have started to adapt the Battletech Chaos Campaign rules over for use with Full Thrust. So far so good. I have nine generic tracks written out and have plans for six story arc tracks (three to a side) as well as adapted rules for ship repairs/refit/upgrades and crew advancement.

Once I get them full adapted I'll post them somewhere to make them available for other to use (and of course modify as they see fit). It is a work in progress however so I figure it will require some playtesting during our own campaign to make sure they are balanced. Looks like we are up to five players so far - Chris, Paul, Josh, Emmi and myself. I'd love to find at least one other player to balance out the sides. More news as it develops!

To Conquer the Stars Part III

I have been pretty busy the last week so my progress has slowed a bit. I did manage to finish up the Phalon fleet before i got swamped with real life. I have been wanting to get a post done with pics of the finished Phalons. I also got all of my Kra'Vak assembled as well as the Plasma Bolt tokens for the Phalons. I just need to prime them and slap some paint on them...

The Kra'Vak looking menacing as always!

The are the Amarillo Design Group Photon Torpedo markers I will be using for the Phalons.

I have been wrestling with a question of how to handle my fighters as well. They are not such a big factor in the style of games we plan to play - being Star Trek is fighter light. However I would like to get them all finished at the same time as the fleets if at all possible. A while back I participated in a Full Thrust campaign and it was so easy to come by resources that before to long we had huge fleets with twenty plus ships and thirty plus fighter groups. I happened to just be getting my Full Thrust models at the same time so I actually based my fighters on little wooden discs. One fighter per disc with enough room to stick a d6 behind it to keep track of fighter group losses. My question is this... Should I keep them that way, or should I get some GZG fighter bases and base them properly? My inclination is to do the later because I think they would look better, but what do you think. Here is what they currently look like and here is what a properly based group looks like...

Originally based to make swarms of fighter groups... now I'm not so sure.

This image is from Laughing Ferret Lab well worth taking a peek at and the other idea I am thinking of using for the fighter groups. Your opinions are welcome though I am leaning towards this idea.

Here are some pictures of my completed Phalon fleet...

Yay! My first fleet is completed (minus the fighters and plasma markers but still).

Front view closeup with the Macro setting...

and the view from the rear where you can see the thruster glow!

To Conquer the Stars Part II

I've made some progress on the fleets this last few days. I am about half done with my Phalon fleet with all of the base coating and wash being finished. I am about halfway through the dry brushing and then I just want to go back over them and add a few small details. Engine glow mostly. Here are the picks of the Phalon fleet WIP.

Shades of blue - I thought about doing green but not only were my color choices limited but I thought they would look to much like Zentradi ships.

Close up of a Light Cruiser... I can't wait to see these boys in action!

So Chris continues to be pretty excited by the whole idea of running this as a Star Trek style fleet battle game so I did some research and found that there was a great conversion done by W. Scott Field which I think really capture the spirit of Star Trek using the Full Thrust rules called Full Trek, he also has a few other sci-fi setting conversions on his site. For those of you unaware the Full Thrust rules (all four books) are now free to download off the designers website, Ground Zero Games, there is also a link to their store where you can buy models of all the ships (and then some) found in the book.

I have also decided on a paint scheme for the Kra'Vak. I will be doing a light grey with a charcoal wash with a grey drybrush. I will be painting the rail guns and engine glow red. I also plan to add tiger striping in white. I "should" be finished with the Phalons within the next days and then I'll start cracking on Kra'vak.

To Conquer the Stars Part I

I recently made a new friend at work, Chris, who is a gamer (mostly rpg's & board games) however he has taken an interest in some of my miniature games namely Full Thrust because he is an avid fan of Star Trek. Well Chris and I were recently talking about dusting off some of these miniatures I own that I have never used and it got me digging into the closets looking for the boxes of Full Thrust miniatures that I bought about two years ago. I found all of them... which was amazing considering they were in three different places and I have moved three times in the last two years.

After taking everything out and giving them the once over I realized there was quite a bit of work to do. I have a New Israeli fleet already to go, although I would really like to repaint them or at least add some further details at some point. I have a Kra'Vak and Phalon fleet as well already assembled and I need to just pick some colors and start slapping on the paint. I think that is a good point to start because after that everything will require some assembly. However, I do have a small O.R.C. fleet, a small Pirate/Reaver fleet, a small UNSC fleet, a large FSE fleet as well as a mix of civilian/commercial ships. I think once I get done with the Kra'Vak and Phalon fleets I will put together the O.R.C. fleet as I just love the look of those ships and follow that up with the civilian/commercial ships to help vary the objectives with.

Chris has offered to help me whip some terrain together for this as well which in all actuality shouldn't take long as I already have the asteroids made they just need to be glued to bases. I have some closed cell polystyrene to make planets from as well so my table will look appropriately celestial. I even have some black fabric to use for a table cover on my 4x4 table. I'm hoping to have a game of Full Thrust going inside of a month if my schedule permits.

New Israeli Fleet

Phalon Fleet (in need of some color)

Kra'Vak  Capital Ships

The remaining Kra'Vak. I actually have another whole bag of ships to assemble.

A Pirate/Reaver Fleet

The O.R.C. Fleet which is by far my favorite looking fleet. i can't wait to get these put together.

All three fleets that can be used now. The Pirates/Reavers and the O.R.C. fleets are in the bags behind the New Israeli's. The bag in front of the Phalons are markers I will be using as their primary weapons. I think they are actually photon torpedo markers from the Amarillo Design Group. Behind the Phalons are their fighters swarms. In front of the Kra'Vak are the extra ships I still need to assemble and behind them are the heavy fighters.

A close up of the New Israeli Fleet

The Phalon Fleet close up

Lastly the intimidating Kra'Vak Fleet in your face!

Back in the saddle...

Well, it has been quite a while since my last post, which is ironic since in my last post I had said I was going to try to start making regular posts again. I moved  shortly after my last post and ever since I have been working on getting my space set up for my hobbies.

As it happens I have been working on several projects. For starters I finished the second unit of Orc Warriors for my Orc Warmaster army. I have also gotten the third unit about half finished. I have all the base colors applied and I only have to get through the highlights.

I recently decided to set aside the Warmaster project on account that there are no players in my area. However, my girlfriend and my friend Josh both have expressed interest in Malifaux which is a game I use to play before moving. I have a bunch of figures for it most of which need to be assembled and painted... big surprise I know. So, after giving it some thought Josh and I started work on some Malifaux terrain pieces.

We started by looking at the terrain pieces used in the first rulebook and settled on several specific pieces as well as a few generic ones. Below is the list of pieces we have started.

Dead Zone
Hazardous Terrain
Magic Nexus
Mysterious Effigies x3
Ancient Monument
Boulder Piles x3

I am using old cds as the bases for these and I just started by gluing down the rocks. I then used water down glue and sprinkled sand mixture, however I realized just yesterday that I should have made my porridge mixture and applied that instead, it looks much better. I plan to mix some up on Wednesday and finish them up.

I also found a great video on youtube to making colored flocking and here is the link. I'm going to make some this week as well. Rubbishinrubbishout has some great videos and I highly recommend you take a look at what he has to offer.

My Daunting List of Unpainted Lead

So I promised earlier that I would make a list of all that I needed to accomplish before I got caught up. Like I said before... I have a problem. That problem is collecting new things and then getting them just to the point where I can get them on the field at the local store, or at someones house that has a board and terrain. Typically this is getting them assembled and maybe so far as primed. I have decided that is not going to cut it any longer if I am going to remain sane. So that being said, I'm the kind of person that is more successful if I have a list of things to do, especially when I get to mark stuff off said list. So here in no particular order is my Gamer to do list.

Paint Warmaster Orc & Goblin army
Paint Warmaster Empire army
Paint Warmaster Dwarf army
Strip and re-paint Warmaster Choas army
Make 10mm Warmaster terrain pieces
Paint Alien Squad Leader (ASQL) "Stargate System Lord" army
Assemble and paint ASQL Alien Grays army
Assemble and paint ASQL "Harkonnen" army
Make 15mm ASQL Scifi terrain pieces
Paint Full Trust Kra'vak fleet
Paint Full Thrust Phalon fleet
Assemble and paint Full Thrust FSE fleet
Assemble and paint Full Thrust ORC fleet
Assemble and paint Full Thrust USNC fleet
Assemble and paint Full Thrust Civilian craft
Make Full Thrust play mat and terrain (ie planets, astroids, etc)
Assemble and paint Crossfire American Company
Assemble and paint Crossfire German Company
Assemble and paint Crossfire Russian Comapny
Assemble and paint Crossfire US Marine Comapny
Assemble and paint Crossfire Japanese Company
Make 15mm Crossfire terrain (European and Pacific)
Paint 30mm Legends of the Old West (LotOW) Outlaw Posse
Paint 30mm LotOW Lawman Posse
Paint 30mm LotOW Cowboy Posse
Paint 30mm LotOW Native American Posse
Make 30mm Old West terrain pieces
Paint 30mm Malifaux Neverborn Crew
Paint 30mm Malifaux Resurrectionist Crew
Paint 30mm Malifaux Archanist Crew
Build Macro Photography Light Box
Build generic game boards
Build gaming table

and finally... a special project I am working with my Father on. A series of game boards we are dubbing "From Normandy to Berlin". Which we know will take a while to finish but the hope is that we will be able to follow the allies as they advance across Europe. We are starting with the Operation Overlord basically recreating Dog Green Sector of Omaha Beach. We of course understand that we might have to sacrifice some realism to gain some playability but we are looking forward to the challenge. I will dedicate a post solely to this subject in the near future and hopefully you will read along!

I have quite the to do list don't I. This doesn't even include all the games I want to play. Such as Ambush Alley in 15mm, Battletech (the table-top version), All Things Zombies and my newest acquisition... Warmaster Ancients! I picked up Warmaster Ancients and Warmaster Ancient Armies up from Ebay for a song! Both books for $41 including shipping. Since they have been out of print for a while I could not pass on these even thought I am not yet ready to dive in. I also plan to get into 15mm ACW but have not yet decided on a ruleset to use. I'm still looking around and reading reviews and such. No rush since I have so much on my plate at the moment anyway. But the objective is to get my hobby to the point where I am working on the newest hotness instead of being eight games behind. And these are just my miniature related projects. I am also working on expanding the TRO data for a Battletech to Epic conversion (The original can be found here), Card Designs for "War of the States" and "Mobsters" (the rules can be found here), as well as designs for one of my own card games and soon enough playtesting and design work  for a miniature game designed by one of my close friends.

My brush-fu is weak but my will is strong!

I am a notoriously slow painter. It comes from my deeply rooted desire to be perfect. It is one of the things that frustrates me about painting because well I am not a patient person and I hate to make mistakes. So this whole miniature painting this has been challenging for the ego. I know that i'm a pretty good painter as I have a steady hand but I also know I need a lot of work to get the skills I wish that I was born with. Still I won't get better without putting brush to miniature. I have painted next to nothing in my six years as a wargamer so these completed units enter into a short list of things I have painted. For your laughing pleasure I present you with...

My Very Short List of Painted Stuff

1. 10 Menoth Temple Flameguard from the game Warmachine which I no longer play. These were my first painted models and they had clean lines but I did not even yet understand the most basic concepts of painting. My first attempt at dry brushing was a disaster.

2. 14 Stands of Cyberdyne System Terminators for my Alien Squad Leader Mechanoid Army. My first venture into 15mm models. Love 'em! Getting better at painting here but my attempt to add flocking was so FAIL. Still it was a big step for me. I used a brush on ink wash to tone down the silver of the terminators. I think they turned out really nice. I currently have no pictures and they are still packed from my move but I hope to change this soon.

3. 6 Lektra Vassals for a scifi skirmish game called Rezolution. This is another game I no longer play. I liked the rules alot but the models were at times poorly sculpted compared to other scifi games. I also moved away from the group that was playing this game and could not get anyone else to try this out.

4. 4 figures for Legends of the Old West. Part of my (huge) horde of Wild West figs. Still a little improvement but I ran into problems trying to paint a black coat. Looks bad and when I get better I'd like to go back and repaint it.

5. 2 units of Warmaster Goblin Wolfriders! These two units represent 120 pts of my 1000 pt Warmaster army. I have a few pictures of these which I will post here but I hope to take some nicer ones in the next few days. So now without further ado...

... pictures!

This is the best pic in my opinion.

I hot glued the whole unit to a single strip.

It took me 17 days to paint both units (that's 24 10mm models).

See, told you I was a slow painter.

All of these were approximately 18 colors.

One base color and one (sometimes two) highlight color(s).

I know I should have used the dip method.

But, I had a lot of fun painting them which is the point I think.

 Now, I just have to base them and hope I don't ruin the nice paint job in the process. Wish me luck!