Armored Ink

Radar Installation

2012-01-29T14:21:00.000-08:00

At the Goodwill the other day, spotted and bought a GI Joe personal track vehicle for a whopping whole dollar. The 2 pieces that caught my eye will save me hours of free building the radar dish for my above ground installation. The over all above ground installation has a layout for about half a dozen buildings, including a radar assembly to track aircraft that might get to close to said installation.

Not to large so I can mount it on top of the Admin building, though probably will add a stanchion with a couple of Missiles to deal with aircraft that get to close.

Underground Update

2012-01-26T18:00:00.000-08:00

Finished sheathing all the foam blocks for the varied office levels of the underground complex with Foam Core art board. Hot glue and Caulking for the win! Next was the priming of the foam board surfaces with water based paint to avoid the warping if you use spray can paint with solvents.

28mm soldiers added for scale comparison. Wall fixtures, pipes, valves and the like are next, though finding a source of Pipe Elbows is proving to be a bit of a bother... The building blocks are separate from the under board so they can be re arranged for multiple uses rather than a fixed board.

Sea Foam green for the office walls, some of the lower parts of the blocks will get the rock texture applied from the blasting to create the "underground" complex. Floors to be concrete or maybe some lino like for the office areas.

Underground Complex Advances

2012-01-19T15:48:00.000-08:00

Countless Minions were hired from Minions R Us to push the progress on the Underground Complex project;

Foam core board is being affixed to the sides of all the foam blocks that will represent differing levels for the underground complex. A soldier, 28mm, is shown for size comparison. 2 of the simpler blocks were covered today with a 3rd under way. Areas that represent enclosed "rooms" have a inch high "lip" on top of the blocks which is representative of the blocking of Line of Sight out of that "room". Stairways are drawn on for the moment with eventual stairways and platforms to be added later.

WWW II Battle

2012-01-14T08:11:00.000-08:00

So in the pursuit of generating the best set of rules for our WWW II campaign, yet another battle pitted Axis Germans and Itallians versus Russians and Belgians.

The Axis is at the top of the picture, Germans left, Italians right, with the Russians lower left and Belgians lower right. For a meeting encounter the Allies did the advancing while the Axis went to shovel and pick work. The activation is now with designated cards and a End Turn card mixed in to randomize when the turn ends, either plays out or suddenly ends. The Belgians were using "captured" Pz 1s, that were small and fast, dodging a lot of incoming fire from the Italians and later the Germans Stg III's fire.

The Russian plan with a company of Penal Troops was "right up the middle" to see how some of the recent rules changes would effect their play. Of course this left a trail of bodies up to the German position but a couple of torn up squads reached their objective building and proceeded to evict the Walker behind it with a close assault, which raised so questions about how such assaults would work, good question to get settled in play test!

I have to say that with the card activation, I got to advance 2 squads, then a Belgian unit, then the random turn ending card flipped! Followed by a shuffle and the first card up allowed by screen to move up again, catching the German defenders by surprise ... or so it would have seemed. Then the Germans opened fire.

Of my 8 10 man squads, only 1 and a half of them survived the battle which ground to a draw with the Allies in small point advantage. Cold drinks were broke out and the post game discussion engaged.

During the course of the game I detected a few oversights to our current hot off the presses rules, Blast Templates needed to be expanded to our 28mm size from the 15mm size, a few of the anti tank weapons didn't have range and penetration numbers and minefields needed points costing. Otherwise were hoping to get the Scenario generator set up this coming week if I followed the give and take session at the end.

Boring Development Work

2012-01-14T07:55:00.000-08:00

Working with RRsize to come up with the lighting LED plan for the convention level game board has turned out to be dry dusty work to assemble the number type and placement of the LED groups.

So, using paper cut outs, a few figures and dice, placements for the "encounter Labs" were figured and totaled.
Placements for Labs will have a slightly raised Dias area with wiring under the Dias placard. Large Copplestone order should be going out shortly for a lot of consoles and lab sets, which in turn have to be drilled out to get the LEDs inside the "scopes" and crt displays.

Stairs.... still need to come up with about... add it all together, 4 feet of stairs. Single run and switchback style arrangements are in the plans, just how to put them together is still being debated, that's a lot of stairs to build or... simple stairs could be cast. Fiddly bits.. are the time consumers.... and of course the "mission creep" of adding another encounter spot.... must avoid any more or they will be sitting on top of each other, heh.

Napoleonic Warmaster Battle

2012-01-08T08:58:00.000-08:00

Traveled a distance to some gaming friends club meet and got pulled into a Napoleonic Warmaster Battle as a co commander.

The battlefield, river with 2 bridges and a ford that "might" be crossable and proved to be about 12 inches deep..... I played adjutant to the left flank British commander offering sage advice and otherwise suggesting forms of mayhem to the French who wanted to cross the river in the worst way...

French Deployment faced our left flank with their Reserve Cavalry, who lacked any Infantry or Artillery against our all arms force which did include infantry, artillery and cavalry.

Picture of the left flank forces arrayed at the outset of the battle. The French won the initiative with a general advance on the ford. Our move put us a tragic 25cn from blocking the ford due to a flubbed command roll...

The French then managed to squeeze a Cav group through the small gap but then returned the favor of failing their next command roll, leaving the single Cav unit on our side of the river, who in all fairness wiped out a artillery battery, bounced a unit of our cavalry, turned and injured a unit of infantry before going down in a welter of musket fire.

Our position mid way through the battle. An attempt to breach our ford defense with a cav charge led to the chargers being thrown back and then decimated with artillery and musket fire. Once the French Cavalry that had crossed was dispatched our flank settled into pounding the French Cavalry till their commander decided to shift to their center area. This led to tea time and a few crumpets before we had to mount up and journey home.

Conflict Resolution Devices

2012-01-08T08:42:00.000-08:00

Some munitions used in a miniatures battle over the weekend:

First action of the new years

2012-01-04T11:36:00.000-08:00

As I cleaned up the living room after new years a friend dropped over with a flat of Dwarven Troops and said lets dust of the figures and play Something... so out came the Chipco Fantasy rules for a very small action game.

My Orcs were initially successful in slamming back some of the Dwarves but alas, the God Di ' ce abandoned my Orcs to their fates in the end. My, what a lot of rule book page turning to get back into the game! So the Miniature games of the new year have started!

It's Christmas Eve

2011-12-24T09:26:00.000-08:00

Here's hoping everyone gets their gaming gifts! I'm getting a new Video Card and doubling my cpu's Ram for starters! New up date on the concrete floor project probably in the first week of Jan. as I have just about completed the scribing of the cracks and will move to painting the entire surface with a foam rubber roller. Some coloring ideas were given me by Skrapwelder, which I will employ.

Still looking for a cabinet maker that has supplies of 1/8th inch MDF board. Failing that I may have to use art board and sand the smooth surface off for a test piece for the walls. Failing that, Foam core with some "dent" scribing for the cracks.

Work Update

2011-12-13T07:44:00.000-08:00

Just finished a 1:1 scale 1:1 ratio house exterior paint job. 2 elements made it take quiet a bit longer than planned, 40 mph windy days and freeze's that meant that paint could be applied for 3 or 4 hours per day so it was warm enough to apply and dry before the freeze started again.

So now to do the Christmas stuff where I find the Mrs. the perfect gift, whether it costs 1 $ or a hundred dollars and back to working on the underground complex floor 4x4 board.

Concret Etching is Started

2011-11-25T16:39:00.000-08:00

So, taking the excellent concret work up from The Lazy Forger site
http://www.thelazyforger.com/tutorials/how-to-sculpt-a-paved-road-part-1/
, I am working it as super sizing it to a 4 foot by 4 foot piece of MDF board that is 1/4" thick.

I will be making larger and smaller "poured" concret areas, patchs and the like to vary the otherwise geometrical lay out. Throw in some inset drains here and there to add some variety and the overal surface can have the "buildings" any where on it for variety and easier transport.

Soviet Forces Battle Italian Forces

2011-11-21T10:52:00.000-08:00

So at the game club the other night I got the oppurtunity to field my Wierd World War II Soviet forces against the Itallians of a co gamer that is working hard at increaseing his total force composition. We worked out the points by having him buy all his avialable forces and then I matched them.

First picture shows my waves of Penal Battalion troops surging forward covering the Shock Squad of all smgs with armor on the flank.

Opening shots knocked out the major tank on each side but the Italians walkers suffered from badly aligned sighting systems and were shot up by my soviet Light Tanks.

My attempt to take the hill on my left flank finally was carried after taking a hugh amount of fire from the right flank hill where the Italian Paratroopers were dug in. Support fire from my reserve squads LMG managed to find the range and shot down most of the Para's which in turn let my final Penal Battalion forces to sweep up and into hand to hand fighting, throwing the surviving Italians in rout off the board. Sadly, after 3 turns of my 2 light tanks firing like mad at the sole surviving walker, the Last shot of the game blew off a leg and crashed it to the ground in a blazing ruin. The Itallian command section gave up screaming for reinformcements and retreated off the board.

New Project Launched

2011-11-18T14:28:00.000-08:00

Have decided to work on a convention game to run at Kubla Con this coming year... what to do.... So I selected a 50s Pulp Action game to feature multiple groups sent to a Secret Desert Installation (ok, maybe not so secret any longer) each group having its own victory conditions that might put them at odds with some of the other groups. After sketching out some layouts I hit the rewind button and wrote up what I wanted to see going on in the game rather than laying out the game and then figuring out how to get the players to do the scenario the way I would typically lay it out. With the What I wanted to see happen list I am designing an Underground installation with the small complex of buildings above, surrounded by a chain link fence.

Here is my rather different approach to an underground Installation lay out... rather than a small maze of tunnels leading to chambers I have the descending areas concept. On top of the blocks will be walled in areas where you cannot view down over the edges for the most part. A few scattered Elevators will be included plus the ubiquitous stairs. Some lower level interior walls will be put up that are totally destroyable by explosions and the like

Missions will entail rescuing scientists and Computer reels... or destroying / killing the same. I see a big order to Copplestone Castings in the future..... the complex will fit in a 4 foot by 4 foot board.

WWW II Battle Engagement

2011-11-12T05:32:00.000-08:00

Here is my force lead by Union Jack in a recent WWWII battle;

Part of Skrawelders Halloween Game he ran for the local gaming group during which I ran his British commando group lead by the indomitable Union Jack. Multiple groups of mainly German forces were sent to find some POWs being held by a break away vampire and his cult followers. I managed to avoid the horrible dice curse for a change and finished the game with my entire 5 man section and Union Jack intact!

Some of the terrain and terribles we encountered and over came. Sadly the POWs were "turned" and had to be "put down" .

Paint meets Models

2011-10-26T10:18:00.000-07:00

Fast update on the Soviet Recruits:

Still Bases to work up and lighting wasn't the best for the shot.

New Soviet "recruits"

2011-10-25T13:08:00.000-07:00

Soooo here we go

House training and a certain amount of "breaking in" time to be sure, but the NKVD will handle the fiddly detail bits about that! (and a repaint of course)

Swap Meet Blues

2011-10-24T12:12:00.000-07:00

So you go to the gamers swap meet with some cash in the pocket and no clue really about what you might be interested in but not having any pregenerated ideas....... and then they start cutting the prices if you "take them all"..... so 75$ and 3 deals later:

This is a picture of Most of the Mageknight figs I picked up, I had already boxed mounted figures, around 30 of them before I thought to grab the camera and shoot a picture.

Completion of 185th Gulag Shock Company

2011-10-22T09:37:00.000-07:00

Held steady to a day of touch up and matt spray sealer to reach this point;

Regular troops to either; keep the Shock troops moving forward or herding them forward....

Press Ganged Gulag troops with various "uniforms" some of which may still have blood stains.

Special forces, Medium and light tanks, Rasputen, Bio Object 37 and Powered Assualt Armor. Still painting and detailing on these.

So here's Grassed bases

2011-10-16T17:02:00.001-07:00

Blarg... glue, grass, press, tap tap.... repeat 110 times.....

WWW II moving along... slowly

2011-10-15T12:40:00.000-07:00

So, put in a dvd movie and got out the Kel Seal to fill in bases gaps last night;

Goop applied to the bases to smooth the figure to base demarcation. Painting the bases green and boots black to go with my acquired figures next.

WWWII Update

2011-10-06T18:15:00.000-07:00

Couple games back I got to command some tanks.... light tanks.... bullet proof but not proof to much else!

These brave vehicles fell prey to 76mm shells, very large cyborg Gorillas, and I think a Giant were wolf.....

They did brew up quickly and effeicently though..

Weird World War II Force Under Construction

2011-10-02T09:14:00.000-07:00

So, the local group is doing some WWWII, with Germans, Italians, More Germans, Belgians, Polish and well, so, Hmmm, decided to tackle some Soviets. But not your usual source, since it is WWWII. For my rank and file trooper we went to the Gulags, for better troops we drafted the guards and to keep them all in line the NKVD! A Hulk figure will the basis for one of my "super hero" figures, along with a Doctor Strange converts to Rasputin.

So, 4 squads of 10 gulag press ganged fellows, tough as nails (survived this long in the gulag) but low shooting skills (of course they were not permitted guns while imprisoned) , guards will be good at melee (dishing out beatings), NKVD will be elite as they are used to shooting anyone not toeing the party line. Might add in a female gulag guard squad using she wolves with smg's and Rasputin's Pioneer Scout squad (kung foo school girls) as his elite hit squad.

D&D game results

2011-09-27T07:35:00.000-07:00

So were sitting around with some Orcs pounding down the path at us, Elf Ranger zaps arrows out like a machine gun, Barbarian bashes, smashes and slashes like a demi god, and my Warlock falls back on my typical dice rolls... whiff, piff, pew pew pew...

General Info

2011-09-06T20:57:00.000-07:00

Battling side effects of meds regimen I have been on, which has left me not very active of the last few months. Change up has got me a bit more able to focus attention again and hope to get somethings posted along the way. Best advice I can offer anyone on getting older is to put it off for as long as possible!

Back from week Vaction!

2011-08-12T17:08:00.000-07:00

Found some fantastic grey tree lichen to use on my up coming VSF Lunar Campaign terrain, most all of the terrain will be constructed from FOAM RUBBER material! Picuters to follow soon.

VSF Maddness

2011-07-25T19:22:00.000-07:00

In the campaign a Swedish force with Venusian allies met an army of Kaptain Kneemo's Expeditionary forces.

Here are the forces, Kaptains force at the bottom edge and the Swedes at the top of the picture. The entire Swede Left flank was comprised of Newts fighting for the Swedes with a Huge Monstrous gator with howdah.

Kaptain Kneemo had his marines and sailors on his left facing the Swedes human forces, while on his right the whir and clank of his robotic infantry moved into position and locked down to steady firing backed up by 2 Medium Walkers and the Kaptain.

Left flank tidies up its formations while the right does likewise.

Into the battle the Swede left flank allies push forward into a pounding rain of shells and bullets. The Newts slowly lose unit after unit, the rear units pushing over the piles of dead, slowly advancing. when the last unit formed for a charge at a mere 8 inches, it to was cut down, a few survivors joining the stream of Newts running to the rear to "secure the camp".

The Swedes mean time had traded blows with the Kaptains Marines, driving them back, but with the arrival of the Sailors to stiffen the line they concentrated their fire and decimated the Swedes Elite Infantry units and broke the artillery.

A general advance ensued against the crumbling Swede right flank and that lead to the withdrawal of the remaining mounted units and other screening forces still intact enough to retire in good order.

Mega VSF Battle

2011-06-24T14:26:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I hosted a B-Day mega VSF battle BBQ. Photo's of the battle follow:

A view of Kaptain Kneemo's mostly robotic units that were fielded that day.

The Ottomans massive Walker bestrode the field in all its glory.

Draniki Askari skirmish towards a wire entanglement. Belgians meet Clockwork robots in the center.

Belgians and their AAfrican askari move to the front while their American allies hold their flank.

Oh and enter:

One subterranean Dinocatsaurous and one Feldtcatasaurous true terrors of the field of battle....

And the Matt is now Brown

2011-06-14T14:32:00.000-07:00

Color coated the Matt brown rather than green for when or if any of the kel seal does not fully cover, so as to reveal bare dirt.

Next I also ran out a sample piece that I will run some colored Kel Seal and Flock over to see how it compares to each other, I will intentionally not do a great job of coverage so as to check which will look the best down the road as it were.

New Project Launched

2011-06-13T12:58:00.000-07:00

To go with the new 6x10 game board in the garage I am starting the game matt that will roll out over it. Using an old painting canvas drop cloth for the base material. Plan to take out the sewn seam in the center and re attach the two pieces by using kel seal as a glue between them. Edges will get coated with the Kel Seal also so as to prevent unraveling of any canvas edging.

Yep, thats a yard stick lying there for scale. For smaller games I have my 4x6 foot matts that I can use. Also planning on some 4x6 boards with blue foam so that I can do rivers and such in them, then lay them out side by side for up to a 6 x 12 board, and that's as big as I plan on at this time!

New works

2011-06-02T15:38:00.000-07:00

Thought to take a couple of photos for what's on the workbench at this time. First is Officer markers for the Martian Empires games were playing. Each has a Command Radius, with General being the greatest on down to Major. So with 3 grades of officers radius, I determined to use 3 figures for the Generals , then 2 for the next and 1 for the last, each on a 50mm round base.

Next, something of a scenic complaint about all those units firing their smoke creating rifles got me to thinking about different approaches to how to have a line of smoke without just piling cotton balls along the front edge of the units.

I used Cloth wire, sniping away and covered a one inch line of wires projecting forth, then left a few wires to bend down to the ground with a final curl of the bottom edge, which will be attached to a base. Over all, once its based and the wires hidden, I think it will fit the bill for a good photo effect of a firing line. Shorter pieces will be made for units that have suffered casualties/lost stands.

Kubla Con VSF goodness scored!

2011-05-31T10:04:00.000-07:00

In a discount bin I paid3$ each for these star wars 2 man scout flyer's that will work up into VSF scout skimmers.

Besides a paint job, I am thinking that changing the guns to chin mounts would make them more versatile for the battle field. Have to work out the uniform color for pilots though. No colonial period "air pilots" uniform pictures to draw from..... ;)

Birthday Mega VSF battle

2011-05-16T17:47:00.000-07:00

Yep, decided to host a massive VSF battle , sides were determined by the pick of the players as they arrived, without knowing who chose what position as they did arrive. Leading to Belgians, British and Phobosian Qar vs Kneemos Expeditionare force, British and Americans.

To the right is Kneemos in the lower corner, then Brits then Americans. Opposite left side is the Belgian blue line, Brits and then the Qar in the far left most sun lit corner. Table was 14 x 4.

Battle commenced at about 11:00 am!

Here the Right Brits slam forward into the Left Brits in a stand up slug fest. To the right picture the battle continues as the Left Brits push a force on towards their right flank and roll into melee with the Right Brits, which led to much effusion of blood.

Kaptain Kneemo's forces, having completed long range destruction on the Belgian Blue Line infantry, rolled the extreme left flank, while most of the surviving Belgian infantry tried to huddle behind the woods.

The Americans and the Right Brits forces were decimated while the opposing side took some sever casualties, only the Belgians were crushed, but alas the field was carried by the forces of the Left Side in the end.

Much BBQ, snack foods and cake was consumed.

Mega Battle

2011-05-14T15:18:00.000-07:00

I decided for my birthday to host a mega VSF battle. At least 6 people will bring armies totaling nearly 15,000 points to take part. Here's the battlefield for any that think to check before coming over ! Mahaha

Center of the board here. Watery pieces of ground are swamp, any collection of trees and foilage in base to base block line of sight. Single pieces of vegitation are moveable, for looks only. The Temple is the ONLY high ground. The board is 14 feet long and 4 feet wide.

Friday night game

2011-05-14T10:10:00.000-07:00

As our campaign on Venus moves along slowly, various skirmish games are being played out in the setting with characters from our armies. At the end of such skirmish battles someone tends to get a bit of treasure that converts to troop points for their armies.

So wending my way through a typical Friday night crowd at the Great Escape Game shop gaming room:

Then on to the game table:

The GM, Nils, Bucky and David, eagerly awaiting the word to start.

The field of investigation pictured on the left. An item to search pictured on the right.

Checking lines of sight, but alas the rifles were limited to 12 inches range to fire. My Explorer and side kick, she was a hotty, accompanied by our contingent of Tharks.

A close up of the Statue's we examined. To the right my reduced group links up with the Belgians group.

Here the Americans, British and Phobosians are involved in a 3 way no holds barred melee, hacking and slashing till most all their henchmen were slaughtered.. then Peace broke out!

Fast Paint Job

2011-05-13T14:05:00.000-07:00

Used a sponge roller and sponge brush to put color on the temple for the game tonight. Then scattered some flocking on it glued with PVA glue. Some of my movable jungle plant bases will fill it out. Painting took about 2 stages of 15 minutes, base dark green plus dry, then roller and sponge brushing for lighter highlights. Can use once and discard.... I have large garbage bags packed with all sorts of Styrofoam from moving sets and the like that I have amassed over the years!

Alien Predator Commanalities

2011-05-11T21:25:00.000-07:00

Having watched a series of movies involving aliens that hunt and kill humans:

They tend to breath air, water and vacuum.
They seem to be immune to -700 degrees and +400 degrees when in space but can sometimes be burned by torches.
They eat humans even though they are totally alien tissue composition.
Bullets either can not seem to hit them, tend to bounce and if they do hit, they do tiny amounts of damage.
They can see in total darkness, blinding light, infra red and just about every spectrum.
They do seem to be able to shift shape to smaller than their normal shape.
Have beam weapon technology, that when fired can sometimes be dodged as the energy beam is no faster than a slow bullet.
Traps, no matter how cunning are spotted or avoided easily except the last one, which is typically never fatal.
Aliens are Asexual, leaving young here and there when there was only one to begin with.
Aliens can use human females to reproduce with, or speed the incubation of their eggs with.
Loss of a major limb is never fatal, just slows it a tiny bit.
Repeated shots to its head that splatter plenty of goo and gobs of flesh are not typically Final fatal.
Alien demolition charges to cover up their presence always have a countdown timer, especially the self carried ones... for some reason.

Can you add more?

New Modeling Source Items

2011-05-03T17:12:00.000-07:00

Found these at a Goodwill store.

The toy bull dozer has a very good set of Tracks that I think I will detail up, cut free and cast for use on a set of tanks. The Dino bones are going to get cut up and set in jungle terrain pieces, maybe a tar pool piece also.

Monsoon season sets in on Cytherea

2011-05-02T16:51:00.000-07:00

In the west the Americans and British tore at one another in campaigns of maneuver. The Ottomans pushed westwards, the French, Swedes and Western Empire pressed their borders tighter still. One French banner mysteriously died or vanished in a time warp at the ruins of an ancient city while continuing to explore there.

There are parts of the map that might be a wee out of sorts, but I filled in what I could, and those news headline grabbing cub reporters over play up everything!

Light Green = Ottomans, Light Purple = Swedes, Light Grey = Belgains, Dk Blue = French, Md blue = Western Empire, Yellow = Kneemo, Lt Blue = Marines Expedition, Red = British

New Temple

2011-04-27T20:04:00.000-07:00

Friend sends me an email that he is running a skirmish game this friday night and needs aliens and a temple, "ok".... 20 minutes later:

Game out of the past, Heroquest

2011-04-27T09:11:00.000-07:00

Played a couple of games of Heroquest the other day. Reminded me of the simple game mechanics it has.

Cytheria Campaign Update

2011-04-23T06:59:00.000-07:00

Time for a Map!

Red (left) British, Light Blue US Expeditionary Forces, Yellow is Kaptain Kneemo, Purple is Western US Empire, Blue is French, Light Green is Swedish Forces, Red (right) is Belgians, above the Belgians are the Ottomans.

With much of the expansion finished the main actions have been the clashes between the Ottomans and Belgians. But now war has broken out on the west coast area as the British drive a force into the US Expeditionary lands in an apparent effort to sever the outlying lands from their capital in a move to reduce their revenues and suffer their farthest banners losses to the winter retreat!

In the most recent British effort:

The British are at the far end of the field, only slowly realizing they face a superior sized force. With US scouting forces threatening their flank, they form a Rourke's Drift defense on their extreme right flank.

The British Spark Charges with his Walker! Into a hail of fire. DISASTER befalls the walker the the plucky Spark manges to bail out of the brewed up wreck and attack with his arcane implement of destruction, putting the Marines Company to rout.

On the US extreme right an Artillery battery finally gets to position and deploys, laying volleys of shell into the flanks of the Hessian Mercenaries on the British right. Some are sent fleeing, others are mowed down in windrows.

The setting of the sun through the dense cloud cover brought a close to the battle, leaving it a draw with both sides leaving the field. Lady luck and fate had her way with the British early on with their command activation rolls and with the US firing rolls. The British were slow to get moving and the US were poor shots for the most part.

Domes Domes Domes!

2011-04-20T09:55:00.000-07:00

Micheal's had these on sale, the lot of them inter stacked inside each other for 15$. Finally large plastic Easter eggs that do not have flat spots on them for sci fi needs and VSF also!

Two shots with my 2 man steam walker for size comparison. Add to them , put pipes between them and the list goes on.

Cloud Kraken progress

2011-04-19T21:45:00.000-07:00

Took time to straighten out tentacles and fill in lego like block parts o smooth out the body / tentacles:

Painting and a clear plastic pole to elevate it properly. Adventurers on Cytheria beware!

Lower Ughawa Swamp Exploration Game

2011-04-15T23:19:00.000-07:00

In the Lower Ughawa Swamp 3 powers vied for the vast treasures rumored by natives to be found there. Belgians, French and British expeditions were launched into the steamy, bog poxed morass of vegetation and creatures that consider humans to be in their food chain.

British force, led by Allon Quartermane, the intrepid hunter enter from the left. The French forces led by Andre d'Apertif led his companions in the the top edge. The Belgians entered from the right side.

The French pushed in after dispatching a mobile carnivorous plant and spotted the fabled temple.... and its guardian creature! Though the Gigantic Wurm did not move to attack the French commander Andre had his tiny command form line and open fire! .... To little effect, mainly sending lead bullets off into the distance...
The wurm became enraged and charged.

Quatermane led his rather inept military officer, Jones, Jones sycophantic follower, and 2 others forward. Spotting a large shambling creature, he took aim, fired and took most of its head clean off for a fast kill. Exhilarated by the ease of the kill they crashed through the brush, headless of any danger... only to have Jones brush up against Itchy Thorn Brush, and breaking out in a horrendous rash that plagued him the rest of the trip. Then when they thought they would get trophies from the downed beast they found that another had beat them to it and was prepared to keep the carcass. The fighting with the giant croc was hand to hand!

The French slowly were getting eaten by the Gigantic Wurm! Till the last man standing Andre was inspired to his own rage as the wurm swallowed Colonel Jean-Louis whole! Out of pistol ammo he hurled the empty gun at the wurm, who near death, swallowed the gun, choked and fell over. Andre carried the unconscious soldier of the party out of the muck and got him hidden in some heavy bushes that overlooked the approach to the temple platform, having retrieved a rifle from a fallen comrade.

The Belgians were in lock step; 3 paces! Creature at front right! 2 volleys should do the job! 10 Paces forward, Front Left, 2 Volleys! and they slowly worked their way in.

The British approached the temple platform Quartermane and a soldier climbed up and examined the golden skull. Quartermane instructed his man to take the skull and he would cover him with his hunting rifle. Skull was lifted and poisoned darts flew everywhere. Quartermane avoided the darts easily as he and his man turned and flet the steps... when his man said "here, take the skull Im feeling a bit odd.. especially when a second dart took him in the ear, killing him instantly.

As Quartermane fled down the steps, he came into view of Andre who fired at him, wounding him unto unconsciousness! All his party was wounded but traded fire with Andre, neither side scoring any telling hits. As inept as his assigned politician was, he did order the remaining soldier to carry Quartermane to safety, while firing over his shoulder to cover their hasty retreat. Not to hasty to stop and grab a valuable helmet from the much of the Jungle floor though!

Here the Belgians are approaching the temple mount.. The vase on the ground had been dropped.. alas and broken. The sole standing Frenchman, Andrea is in the background, whom decided to recover his wounded comrade and make the best time back to their base camp. Wounded, carrying his fellow soldier, he was unable to carry any valuables off.

The British party political leader created quite a bit of noise while berating the soldier to move faster.. while he carried Quartermane and all the loot, listening to his leader complain about his wet socks, lack of a proper newsman to properly record his exploits.

The Belgians carried off their loots with out a loss, while the French were decimated. The British scored the most loot at the end.

The Game situation had markers for creatures to be revealed when players got with in 12" of them. The creatures had varying ranges at which they would attack players with some having really short ranges. Players typically decided to fire at anything they saw.

3 spots were marked by the GM as to having definite light loot, but other spots were marked with copper beads, that a die roll would reveal to be Junk, or some sort of Heavy pottery or a small statue that would then have to be lugged around and also required that they gather several in order to "sell them off later for game monies". Of course they were heavy and slowed their rate of movement..

The game played out in about 2.5 hours. A lot of close calls, some deaths, great shots, lousy die rolls rounded out the over all encounter!

Jungle Adventure Outcome

2011-04-14T09:02:00.000-07:00

Thought to put together a piece of the "previous" explorer to the area, as it were, for a game I will be running Friday night. So:

Two views, angle and overhead of a camp site where everything went bad! Bones and over grown items and tent.... just waiting for the next set of explorers to stumble across....

Spring cleaning

2011-04-13T07:42:00.000-07:00

Decided to re work my painting station.

Out came the plastic wall racks and old paints, in went new shelves and current paints. Just in the top edge of the picture is the TV with DVD player and satellite connection. Having the wife work up some new adjustable curtains for the side to the left of the picture.

Shot of the old set up. New TV though :)

Temple of .... Mahahahahhahaha

2011-04-11T19:10:00.000-07:00

Need a Temple for adventures to prowl around this coming Friday night... so to work:

On the left is the Styrofoam cut, glued and scribed with a pencil. On the right, black wash then varying dry brushing of grey to white. Central pillar uses the same build up, but with a golden skull on top. Total time, about half an hour.. hair dryer carefully applied sped drying time.

FAST VSF PARTY SKIRMISH RULES (4/10/11)

2011-04-10T11:44:00.000-07:00

FAST VSF PARTY SKIRMISH RULES (4/10/11)

Weapon Max Range                            Shooting RANGES                           Throw RANGE

Pistol            12                         0-6 7-12   13-24    25-36    37-48             0-6    7-12

Shotgun         24                          8      7         6             5           4                  7        6

Rifle              36

Big Game Gun 48                                    Target or Shooter is:     Soft Cover -1 (shot gun ignores SC)

Blow Gun         12                              Walking -1                         Hard Cover -2

Bow                 16                                Running -2

Whip                 2                                  Evasive Run -3

Hit Location and Result                      HEAD             BODY      ARM                            LEG

1 Head                                            1-2 Dead          1 Dead      1-3 Severe Wd(-2)       1-3 Sv Wd (-4)

2-4 Body                                       3 Severe Wd     2-3 Sv Wd   4-5 Lt Wd (-1)            4-5 Lt Wd(-2)

5 Arm                                            4-5 Light Wd      4-5 Lt Wd    6 Scratch                   6 Scratch

6 Leg                                              6 Scratch              6 Scratch

Bullet, arrow, dart = No modifier

Lg Claws, Lg Teeth, Sword, Knife, Ray Gun = +1 to Damage roll

Claws, Teeth , Whip -11 to Damage Roll

Target is a Flunky -1 to Damage Roll

Poison 7 (does light wound on 7 or less for 3 rounds)

Dead = Figure is dead, gone, kaput

2 Severe Wds = KIA, Out of action, roll after battle, recovers with future Penalty

2 Light wounds = 1 severe wound (Sv Wd)

Flunky  Moral                   3D6 D6

Situation            PASS      FAIL             Run Away              Go to Cover/Prone          Laugh at it!

Fired At              3-12         13-18              6                            4-5                                1-3

Light Wd              3-9          10-18            6-5                         3-4                                1-2

Severe Wd           3-6           7-18             4-6                          2-3                                  1

Melee

1. Roll Imitative, 3D6, high roll wins Above +2, Prone -2, Flank +2, Behind +4,Each add+2

2. High roller is the Attacker, this Round only, Both Roll 1 D10, Attacker Higher = Hit

3. If Hit scored, consult Hit Location and Result Table

4. If No hit, or you do not kill / Stun opponent, roll again 1 D10 and reverse attack /defender

5. If Hit scored, consult Hit Location and Result Table

Classes of Adventurers

Explorer Is armed with a pistol and Whip(2 attacks) Spot 7 (12”), SEARCH 7

Spy Knives, Pistol, Hide 7. Spot 7(12”)

Big Game Hunter Big Game Rifle 8, Big Game to hit 9 with -1 to damage roll at 12”+, Spot 9 (18”)

Officer Pistol, Sword, or shot gun and sword Spot 6, Search 4

Bungler Pistol (6) Trip/Find 8- Orate 9+ (loose move turn)(causes -1 to hit rolls 9”)

Spark Ray Gun (4D10 range..varies by turn, roll when fires), Search 6,

Courtesan Spot 7 (12”)pistol 5,Can remove one Lt Wd if both remain stationary and not fight. Only 1 Lt wd per character can ever be removed.

Flunky Rifle, No Spot, No search, No know, +2 on Shoot to Hit rolls, -1 to move, Spot 6

Sidekick Rifle or shotgun, pistol, Look Out Sir! (if with in an inch can take a hit meant for the primary character instead.) Can be performed after character would normally be hit. (Those selfless sacrifice type of guys!) Spot 7

Each player can have up to 3 characters and 2 Flunky’s. They can have fewer characters and make up the difference with more Flunky’s. Sidekicks are possible for Explorer’s, Big Game Hunter’s, Officers and Sparks. Bring extra figure, die roll before game starts to see if you have one for one of the mentioned classes, Sidekick replaces a Flunky.

Movement is 6+D6 per turn. Figures have a 180 degree frontal view.

Walking is 4” or less. Turning in place is same as stationary. Moving Evasively reduces run speed by -3 but makes you harder to hit.(harder to fire also…) Once every other turn you can RUSH if not encumbered, gains double run distance rolled, must move all or end in cover. Cannot be encumbered.

Jungle patch is D3 penalty in distance(1=2 inches per to cross, 2 = 4, 3 =6 inches). Waterways are 4x’s

To search a encounter patch you must move thru the patch then roll to search, it does not conceal you while you search. Large Encounter patch can only have 1 group in the middle of it to make search rolls. Search Rolls cannot be made if you are being fired at.

Carrying Booty or prisoners / wounded reduces movement by -2, and all of these cause you to be Encumbered.

Firing at an enemy group. Over 6 inches, should you get a Hit when shooting, the Hit is assigned randomly (by die roll) to a single figure in the group. If multiple hits are scored, all are randomized, even if this means one character or flunky ended up getting multiple times. Devilishly hard to recognize people at range! (Hence having flunkies to help absorb hits….) Under 6 inches, Characters only may select fire. Melee is base to base.

Search: Roll to find treasure at marked Areas, Spot Roll: See hidden people or creatures, Trip Find happens when ever party is at encounter marker. Anything that requires any other type of check will be based on the highest stat the character/flunky has. (command number etc.) Flunky has Skill 6 for this.

Creatures attack from hiding by chagrining out! 4D10. Those in open that become aggressive move 2D10 first move then 4D10! You get to learn aggro ranges the hard way!

Anything not covered here will be adjudicated and recorded/implemented by the GM during the game if needed!

Review the article at ARMORED INK on Vegetation of VENUS ! REALLY!!!! Your group is of course On Venus! The Wilds are dangerous, mostly Unexplored, No Native guides!

Article about the game to be played at : http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Sactanks/message/746
the Group is open to anyone that is interested.

VSF Battle Report, Year 2, Turn 3

2011-04-10T07:33:00.000-07:00

The Belgians continued to pound the Ottoman lands in another push to break their military power.

Initial deployment on the Left. On the right we see the Tribal Elite Guards unit that defied the Belgian massed efforts to secure their left flank and clear the hill of Tribals.

Left is a view of the Belgian Right flank. The "Heavy Walker" alligator with howdah attacked into the Belgian line and crushed a Walker Vehicle!

The Tribal Elite Guard unit still holding up, but their doom is approaching, in the lower right of the picture is a unit of Heavy Infantry that finally got to the top of the hill and fired down the flank of the Tribal unit as shown in the right side picture.

Poor communications and some bad ammunition caused the Belgian force to slog along slowly and expend effort with their rifles for no return. In the end, the attrition of the Tribal units caused them to flee the field.

(Translation of the above in game terms: The Belgians failed many many command rolls to get units to move and then threw very poorly on firing rolls to inflict casualties.. Bad Dice ruled his day..)

Swamp Pieces Reworked.

2011-04-05T06:55:00.000-07:00

Changed things around, mainly due to the size of the pieces/storage/transport. They have to be stacked one on top of the others, which means the plants would slowly get smashed or rubbed off, depending on flat storage or standing on edge. So I took them off, remounted all plants to smaller bases to be placed and or moved as needed for troop placement and movement.

Still a bit of repainting to do, but that's all being done by spray can. Also took the opportunity to back fill a few rough spots on the surface of the 2 bases that did not look right.

Large Swamp Sections for Venus

2011-04-04T12:52:00.000-07:00

So... Gee, my swamp sections for Venus were, "a bit small".... So broke out the materials kit and got to work;

Here's the basic pieces cut smeared with Kel Seal to smooth them out some, I was out of the usual plastic sheeting I normally would use. Sprayed blue, the shots of dark blue and green. Finished with a medium brown sprayed around the edge where the "grass" would end and the muck begin. Relatively easy, shaped the plastic is under 5 minutes, Kel Seal smeared with a wide stick and left to dry for 4 hours. Came back, spray colors were about 5 minutes as I did not wait for colors to dry, just shot them on top of each other , let them blend a bit.

Problem with a large piece like these, that are roughly 3 feet by 2 feet is that stands of troops will have to be placed on them of course so I didn't want to load them up with lots of swampy growth. In fact I may have to remove those I put on, and remount them on smaller pieces to be scattered about on the large piece, as I do with my Jungle Filler bits. Hmmmmm already thinking of how to...

Cytheran Battle Report Belgians vs Ottomans

2011-04-03T06:17:00.000-07:00

I'm adding pictures to Skrapwelders battle report which I am shamelessly lifting in Toto from our Yahoo Group, as I was to "not there" due to meds that left me unable to concentrate much on the battle to follow who was doing what to where.

Ibrahim Sinusi reporting for the Tercüman-i Ahval gives us the following report from the wild lands of Venus.

Several hours prior to darkness falling in the Cytherean jungle, this reporter witnessed the first of what may be many armed encounters. This battle saw the Ottoman Empire defending its allies from the Belgian aggression.

The Belgian force slightly outnumbered the Ottomans but had no cavalry and ended up being out scouted by the Turks. This would allow Turkish cavalry and flier units to enter from the extreme flanks later in the game.

The Belgian formed up with their main force of infantry in the center supported by two mechanical walkers. On their left flank were two units of Zulu askari and on their right were a tank supported by infantry and a battery of Gatling guns positioned on a hill. Several notables of the Belgian army were in attendance including their madboy spark who would later make a definite impression on the Turkish forces. In reserve as a rearguard were two units of infantry.

The Ottomans arrayed there regular infantry battalion of Turkish and Hungarian regulars in the center. On their right was a battery of heat ray cannon, one of several new technologies that the exploration of Venus and Mars has brought to the Ottoman Empire. On the left flank was a large force of the Newt nation allied to the Empire as well as the strange space faring, and reportedly clairvoyant allies known as the Kuiper Bedouins. Running around on the Belgian flanks were two units of light cavalry and a pair of the new liftwood augmented, flying carpets armed with black smoke projectors.

The battle, while fierce in parts ended in a draw with neither force reaching any break points. The setting sun and made further fighting impossible and both forces withdrew to lick their wounds and contemplate revenge.

Highlights of the battle included:
A disastrous misfire by one of the heat ray cannon. Fusing it into a solid lump of uncompromising inertia.
A bold strike by the Ottoman cavalry that decimated the Belgian artillery and sent one of its infantry units in flight.
The vengeful onslaught upon the Ottoman lancers from the Belgian spark that left only a large crater where once a regiment stood. The spark even managed to survive without blowing himself to bits.

Both sides withdrew from the area, but as there is still an Ottoman allied settlement in the vicinity the map hex remains in Ottoman Ally control.

First VSF Battle

2011-03-31T09:44:00.000-07:00

And with a teaser title like that:

Rick, Bucky, Belgians, David, Mike Ottoman/Native alliance. Both sides did some spectacular good and bad dice rolling. The Belgian Spark fired some awesomely dangerous weapon and vaporized a unit of cavalry, and walked out to the explosion, dusting him self off saying "that went a little better than expected".
I suspect Mike will post battle pictures and commentary over on the Lead Adventure Forum.

Cytheran Ruins..Under construction and Finished Photos

2011-03-29T21:31:00.000-07:00

Fast post of new project that will fill a missing terrain piece for our Venus VSF campaign.

Flower holder with spike removed. Figure is for scale. Next step is the collapsed portion of the structure. Lots more to fill in there of course, but have to wait for some of the Spackle to dry before trying to glue more bits to it. Will be covering a lot of the structure in creeping vines and other types of over growth. Danger may lurk in the husk of the tower!

Got a little more work done roughing in the basic ground structure as it were. Then applied spray paints and pva glue, put it in a box, dumped flocking in a couple inch deep. The pressed down firmly all over it to get the flocking mixed into the glue. I have, over time, found that pressing the flock down gets better coverage after shaking off the excess, than simply letting it dry and tapping it off.

The unmodified plastic flower holder in the back ground shows the size when lying down for comparison as to how I laid out the fallen tower pieces. A figure for scale is included, he may see some action tonight, maybe. When this is fully dry, glue and paint, I will launch into the putting creepers on with the hot glue gun. Then the jungle brush and ground creepers of course. The goal will be for them to be Very over grown. I am working up a few wires and other "interesting bits" to have just partially sticking up out from under fallen slabs of ancient technological items....

Now the finished shots:

Completed Picture of Self Propeled Artillery and Handler

2011-03-27T16:56:00.000-07:00

Did some more work and thought to post a shot:

The human is, oh, about 6 foot 10 inches, with gas breathing device, those bugs do exude some pretty power full stink, and his controller unit. He has to avoid the stink, enemy fire and the hot brass cartridges raining down from the weapons mount.

Completed "Organic Artillery"

2011-03-23T19:58:00.000-07:00

Usually Organic means included in the table of organization for a suitable sized brigade etc. My take on it was a little more... out there. So, I first had to scratch build 2 Gatling guns and 2 light artillery pieces to mount on my "self propelling units".

I successfully raided the styrene and bits box for items to assemble the assorted guns with. The mind control units are from space Marine jet packs. Not happy yet with the over all color scheme of the bugs and am open to suggestions. Otherwise, not to bad for mind controlled, self propelled artillery "units".

New "Organic Artillery"

2011-03-22T18:38:00.000-07:00

So steam power, Spark powered, horse drawn, artillery comes in many forms, now; ORGANIC

On the left are the start of 2 Gatling artillery pieces made from plastic stock. To the right is a picture of the guns nearly ready to be mounted on their "self propelled unit". I removed the rider and his legs, cleaned up the saddle area a bit. I will be adding a "contraption" to the brain case of the giant insect next, for "remote control" . I'm tempted to put a few more Bits here and there. Also working up 2 that will have 3 pound-er guns on a mount similar to these.

Contemplations

2011-03-19T08:31:00.000-07:00

All my VSF miniatures are done, tinkering with a few officer figures, but otherwise they are all done. Possibilities are work on:

Work on more Fantasy Rules army re-basing
Finish some Nordics
Maybe open and count all figures in each category to be finished.
Work on the permanent storage system by lugging more stuff from the old shed...
General clean up of the Hobby room
Inventory, sort and separate hobby supplies.. hmmm

So many choices...

To Funny

2011-03-15T21:19:00.000-07:00

Found the League of Steam on Youtube, they do some really nice steampunk skits, here's one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDYOP9Pmr1g&feature=fvwrel
there are several others, some funnier than others, costumes are really nice!

The Rocketeer Force Assembled, finally...

2011-03-15T19:35:00.000-07:00

2 Companies of Rocketeers join the arsenal of Kaptain Kneemo's Expeditionary forces. And on to finishing their bases.

Formation Flying

2011-03-14T18:44:00.000-07:00

Thought to get something done, been way under the weather for a week now, so here we go:

Rocket Exhaust, which to Use

2011-03-08T18:00:00.000-08:00

Here's a shot of all 3 types of rocket exhaust I came up with:

One on the right is hot glue only, no paint. Second from the right with the khaki pants is central hot glue with some grey paint smeared on and let dry, then coated over with lots more hot glue. Finally on the 2 figures on the left are hot glue formed then painted with white/grey/black. Actual rocketters are in various stages of painting, I'm really, at this point, only considering which type of plume to use.

Post comments about which you prefer and why if any reader is so inclined, thanks.

Rocketeers Part 2, Bases

2011-03-07T19:52:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I was not thrilled with the heroclix see thru plastic peg stand on black, had to go. But, what to use? Run a wire up, paint it black? or Grey? Stopped, kicked back with a cup of coffee and thought what do rockets that are flying do? I mean their low tech, not super efficient... sooo they trail smoke. ! !

First problem, what to make a smoke trail out of? Wire and cotton? Naw... thought about the muzzle flash I did out of Hot Glue.... Picture to the left shows the basic build up for the smoke trails.

This picture shows the smoke columns attached to the figures and their base. That was a bit tricky as they are currently being based on cardboard....funds are tight at the moment for metal bases.....so, onwards. Filling in around the attachment points to give more support and more weight to the bottom of the figure to help hold it upright.

Final shot of the night has basic colors slapped on the smoke columns to give a better view of how they work and look. I can vary the heights to allow for the size of the figures, and can blend the bottom of the two smoke columns in the middle where they meet as well. Have to paint the proper uniform colors to match the standard colors I have selected for Kaptain Kneemo's forces.

Rocketeers

2011-03-06T15:53:00.000-08:00

Kaptain Kneemo's automated factory has just completed its first production run of flight packs for select infantry units.

On the left is the original hero clix figure. On the right with the addition of a Perry's pith helmet and basic repaint we have the Rocket Troopers. Helmet fit perfectly after I took off the antenna skull cap bit.

Kaptain Kneemo's Campaign Characters

2011-03-04T05:59:00.000-08:00

A friend of mine worked up bit bio's for my starting characters for our VSF campaign, in which each player is receiving 6 characters to utilize to their benefit during the campaign. Without further ado:

* * * A Flash Report from the Greystone Space Station orbiting Venus * * *

The mysterious and intrepid Kaptain Kneemo late of Poland, the Orange Republik
and Siam, and many parts unknown, made a spectacular appearance to introduce his
staff at today's luncheon. Resplendent in his Polish Naval Dress Uniform, the
good Kaptain took advantage of the presence of this reporter as well as the rest
of the off-world news team to showcase the men and woman he brought with him to
fight the evil and corrupt British Empire here on Venus. After a brief speech
about the need to crush the British Imperialists and their campaign to enslave
Venus, he turned the floor over to his Aide de Camp Jatinder Aloysius Carnehan.
A man of obviously mixed blood with excellent English skills, Kaptain Kneemo
calls him Peachy for some reason. Reportedly he is a pagan from Kaffiristan,
but an eminently civilized one.

First in line is his discovery officer, a renowned frontier scout at home on the
river, in the mountains or in the jungles of South America, Major Tristan Pitt,
late of the Chilean Army. American by birth, handsome by heritage, the roughly
hewn but innately charming Major Pitt has led a life of adventure, including a
2000 mile trek hunting dangerous fugitives from Helena, Montana deep into
Mexico. Having an unerring sense of direction back home, it remains to be seen
if he can translate that skill into mapping the largely unknown Venusian
terrain, or if his skill as a polyglot will serve him well in learning the many
native tongues spoken by the varied civilizations of Venus.

Colonel Augustus Retief, a retired Boer commander, known to have the best
disciplined and most successful command in the rearguard battles of the great
trek north will be the Kaptain's second in command. His famous inspirational
leadership and pattern of success in all past campaigns should serve the
expedition well. At a full two meters tall, he will be hard to miss (except
hopefully by the enemy marksmen) as he directs his command into action against
the British and their allies.

Lt. Colonel H. B. Finn will command the mechanical cavalry division of Kaptain
Kneemo's small but talented army. The Lt. Colonel is known for his selfless
loyalty and dedication, no matter the cost. His horsemanship is superb, and his
brilliant analytical mind adapts rapidly to the chaos of the battlefield. Also
known for his strong anti-slavery stance, he has vowed to help Kaptain Kneemo
free any sentient people bound to slavery under any guise by the Empirical
British.

The Third Division, some equipped with the revolutionary electric powered
flechette pistols and boasting five companies of robotic Infantry will be
commanded by Doctor Major Cornelius Clausewitz-Bergstein, a German Nobleman of
superior breeding and education. The robot soldiers are his design,
manufactured by his partners in Austria. Major C-B was retired from the
Austrian Army for taking chances far beyond those considered sane, even though
he is said never lost a battle.

Exploring areas considered too dangerous for human habitation will be Captain
Patricia Hazzard, late of the Hawaiian Islands. The daughter of Norwegian
refugees, the 1.87 Meter tall blonde golden tanned Amazon-like beauty has
recently returned from exploring parts of southeast Asia previously unknown to
the western world, her pamphlet on the wonders of Nepal and her partial ascent
of Mount Olympus is still on the New York Times best seller list. Known for her
linguistic skills, she hopes to be the first to communicate with civilizations
yet unknown to the Children of Terra. Her hatred of the Raj, having seen
British troops massacre whole villages in the Punjab, is seen as obsessive by
some, though the good Kaptain says he values that in an associate.

A surprise last minute addition to the team is the dashing recently retired
Portuguese Diplomat Ricardo Roarke. Drifting in from his latest assignment at
the Royal Court in Moscow, Ambassador Roarke announced he would leave his Island
home in the Azores for this fantastic adventure with the mysterious Kaptain
Kneemo. Celebrated for his skill in the kitchen, as a vintner, and on the
ballroom floor, this well-rounded public servant should not only be able to
communicate well with the other ambassadors, but improve the morale of the
Kaptain's army.

Yours in service to the World Free Press, Ole Jameson of the New York Daily Globe.

(*side note is that Ole Jameson is Aka Kevin Fury)

The Whole Swamp

2011-03-03T15:27:00.000-08:00

Thought to take a picture of All the swamp pieces on a single table, in this case a Card Table:

Table is roughly 3 foot x 3 foot in size, plenty of pieces that can be laid about on a 5 x 9 table. Thinking to make a bunch of 1x1 inch markers with grass on one side and numbers on the other;
2:4 or 3:6 etc for how much infantry and vehicles pay in movement distance to go 1 inch across the edges of the over all bases of the swamp pieces. Then these markers could be randomly applied next to each piece used so No one would have any idea, other than it would Probably have a penalty in movement speed.. hmmm at least one marker would be 0:0 meaning infantry and armor pay no penalty in that piece... hmmm.

Finished Swamp Terrain Piece

2011-03-02T22:28:00.000-08:00

Finished several sections of Swamp pieces. I kept the amount of foliage down to a minimum to facilitate placement of troops stands that will be placed on and around them yet blend in with some of my filler jungle pieces. Nothing like a deadline to get the work done.

Reflective surface of the watery areas works pretty well. Thought I might have to use some Woodland Scenics Water or something but feel the existing surface will work out fine.

Venus Terrain Update

2011-03-02T10:17:00.000-08:00

Since the lower lands of Venus for the Campaign will be swampy, I set out to create some fast, easy swamp pieces that will cover lots of ground, cheaply. A 2x4foot sheet of textured florescent lighting cover was only 5$. I broke it into odd shapes, and rounded the corners with a set of heavy scissors. Next step was to lay them out, spray the edge, couple of inches where possible, in green, center areas is blues and browns.

Here is a picture of the stack of bases that I broke, trimmed and sprayed in about half an hours time. Next step was to break out the flocking and PVA glue. Some time was spent squeezing a ring of glue around the edge of each piece, then using my finger to spread the glue. Placing a glue ready piece on a disposable flat surface piece of cardboard I heaped green flocking onto the white glued areas, then used the side of the Closed glue bottle to roll press the flocking into the white glue. Inverting the piece immediately I tapped the excess flocking off. Rinse and repeat each piece.

Here is a shot of the pieces ready for the next step, adding bits of grassy knolls to the wet areas and some foliage bits around the edges and centers. Such foliage as I add will be very low and sturdily attached so that I can store all the pieces by simply stacking them one on top of the other, to minimize the overall amount of space needed to hold them for transport. The only snag in the process was running out of flocking! 2 pieces to edge and centers to add bits to.

And there you have it.

Movies not yet released, but oh my! Ha

2011-03-02T09:24:00.001-08:00

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (2012)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1611224/

and
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1430132/ The Wolverine

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1764651/   The Expendables II

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1289401/   Ghostbusters III

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1646987/   Wrath of the Titans

Die Hard 5, Underworld 4: New Dawn, Kick-Ass 2 and lots of others

Gah! how about:

The Kitchen Sink : Premis: The Breakfast Club meets Zombieland

"Why? Well, the plot follows a bunch of high school kids who are attacked by zombies. While they're on the run, the zombies are then attacked by vampires. Before aliens land on Earth, and everybody has to band together to fight them."

Nuff said!

Painting Update

2011-03-01T14:15:00.000-08:00

Thought to take a short break and post on what I have been working on.

Friend of mine is pushing to get his US Marines done for the VSF campaign, so I have pitched in and have almost finished 3 companies for him. Flesh wash and highlights and mounting on bases to go. He is working on more down the table from me and gets a tiny bit annoyed when I say, "what color next?" while he is plugging away.

Oh and in the background are more Native lifeforms for Venus.... possibly for the pictured Marines to encounter..

VSF Battle Report, Jockeying for Position

2011-02-26T11:13:00.000-08:00

Kaptain Kneemo and his American Allies engaged a Belgain and Native force, natives here after refered to Lilshiztens (bastardized form of little shooters)

Left picture shows starting positions, the honorable and courageous Kneemoites and Americans in the lower part of the picture and the scurrilous Lilshiztens and all around no-goodnik Belgians in the upper area. While the natives wasted no time in surging forward, the Belgians remained true to tradition and had difficulty in putting down their hot chocolate and schnapps to get moving forward. Right side picture has Kneemo's much feared walker chugging out shells and the infantry and robotic infantry forming line for battle. The Belgian Heavy tank took a pounding from the Walkers shelling, suffering its gun being bent sideways and the crew determined not to lose the vehicle by driving off the battlefield.

Next photo show the Belgians finally showing up in the battle zone and opening fire. The Americans decide to utilize their bayonets to save ammo for the real fighting, to mixed results, having one unit thrown back and the left flank most, with the aid of a Walker driving the Lilshiztens before them. Meanwhile the Robotic Infantry on the extreme right flank engaged in a long drawn out fire fight with the Belgians Askari Zulu unit.

The battle ground down with the Belgians teetering on their army break point and a Walker that was totally out of control careening across the battle field. The Americans were hammering the fleeing Lilshiztens while the Elite Guard of same were holding the central Jungle feature and feeling pretty dang superior to their brethren.

New Bad Thing

2011-02-24T15:13:00.000-08:00

From the Dreamblade line of figures...a new badie;

Have to work up an good base for ... him.. it.... thing...

VSF Battle Report (Non campaign battle)

2011-02-23T12:17:00.000-08:00

Kaptain Kneemo's scouting force encountered a similar sized force of Belgains. (600pts) As neither side was interested in speaking to each other shots were quickly fired. On Kneemo's left a unit of Line Infantry Sailors and a Medium Walker. Center forces and on to the right were five Askari Line Infantry units. Across from them, the Belgians, from right to left (their view) were a unit of Heavy Infantry, 2 units of Line Infantry and a Medium tank. Both sides opted for a single officer.

Have to fix the bases of the Belgian Askari Infantry as their shields tended to overbalance the figures... Overall the battle was shaping up to be a slug fest shoot out. Belgians won Initative and opeted to move first in the game.

Kneemo's Robotic (Askari) Infantry advanced and fire was exchanged with the Zulu Askaris getting shot up and failed their moral roll, fleeing off the field. Their Heavy Infantry also took hits from the Walker and failed their moral check, twice, on 2 different turns and fled the field. Their Tank fired and an Askari units moral broke and fled, another took the fire and clanked on. The walker suffered a confusion hit, mis reading the results and failed to make an un jamming roll at the end of the turn that their gun jammed. The sailors made 5 command rolls, so marching down the field, they changed formation, opened ranks and fired into the back of the Belgian Line Infantry scoring a massive zero hits....

On the last turn of fire the Belgian Line took 50% Casualties, failed their moral and fled the field. The Tank Crew declarded a Mechanical victory and drove of the field stage left.... :) Belgians suffered from the Terrible Dice God.....

Prototype Lunar Alien

2011-02-22T21:28:00.000-08:00

Toying around with ideas while taking a break from painting my VSF officers I hit upon an idea and put hot glue gun to work shaping my new alien prototype for Lunar adventures in VSF. Everyone is in a rush to get to Mars and Venus, possibly even Ganymede…. yet the moon is right on the way.

Venus Structures

2011-02-19T07:20:00.000-08:00

For our about to launch campaign on Venus I was chatting with the GM to be and learned we had no real concept on what type of buildings might be there. Terrain overall has be decided to be swampy with limited "plains" areas and to have massive Plateau's where landing sites would be established and fortified. So the idea of native villages or towns came up.... hmmmmm I offered to throw something together and decided that square and rectangular were out. So cruising some dollar stores I came up with an item to form the basic "building".

The basic idea is that they are alien, strange shaped and visually "different". Access is via underground tunnel ? Earthlings are still trying to figure them out, but that is a low priority in the land grab rush that is breaking out at the outset of the campaign. I used flower holders for outdoor tombstones.... somehow that seems to fit in with the death and carnage that will surround them! Up ended with their plastic spikes removed, I sprayed them with a base dark brown coat and then, from a distance, sprayed them with varying colors here and there.

Being in a jungle setting I went for the creepers and other jungle plants to be up and around the towers. The base material is from plastic florescent light cover sheets. They come in a variety of smoothness, smooth to rough, I use the rough as it hold glue a lot better. It breaks un evenly but that works too. Towers are affixed with hot glue globs on the inner lip and then smeared around the base where tower meets plastic base. Had to be careful not to melt the plastic of the tower.

Have to love the hot glue gun, with lots of glue sticks to put creeper vines on the side of the towers. You can add many or few, up to you, easy to do. Do not worry about getting a nice thick line at first, it will tend to want to warp the plastic. So I applied several coats of glue, one over the other, filling in here and there, branching out on some. Adding a bit of the Styrofoam balls here and there brings the creepers more to life. I plan to head back over and get two more holders to convert into fallen and crumbled tower ruins.

And there you have it.

Kaptain Kneemo Skirmishing with the Swedish Forces

2011-02-12T12:45:00.000-08:00

Last pre campaign battle took place between Kaptain Kneemo's forces and the Swedish Expeditionary forces.

Left shot is about 5 turns into the battle. 4 Companies of Infantry and Sailors, Lt Walker, Hv Walker and a unit of Heavy Infantry head towards the Swedish force on the top of the picture. The Swede's comprised a Guards unit, 2 line units, 1 militia unit, 2 units of Cavalry, A Gatling artillery unit and a Clockwork unit of tiny tanks. For several of the turns, the Kneemo right flank, commanded by Kenny and Bucky, was either confused, bogged down in the mucky terrain or lost, (possibly a combination of all of them) and moved next to no where. Stanley command the left flank Lt tank and a unit of Line Infantry and did a marvelous job shooting apart a cavalry unit, remnants are seen in the upper left corner of the left picture after their removal. Next the massive cavalry unit prepared to charge. In the mean time the heavy walker damaged the Gatling artillery and sent it back to get ammo or some assistance, though they returned later.

Right picture shows the result of the massive cavalry units charge (massive as in the size of the mounts), though they charged and contacted the shipboard Marines front, they died in 2 rounds of hand to hand combat. The light tank went down to the fire of the Clockwork Tiny Tanks unit. The right flank of Kneemo's forces finally got moving and started pouring fire into the Swede's, taking out the Gatling gun crew as it had finally moved back up to the line.

Continued fire into the Swede's left flank takes out a company of troops, the Militia unit breaks from the fire of the heavy walker on it. At this point the surviving line unit, Clockwork Tiny Tanks and command structure orders a retreat. Stanley's surviving command shot away the Guards unit to his front and was about to face off with the Clockwork Tiny Tanks.

The game lent itself to covering all aspects of the rules system, Martian Empires, with some slight modifications, mainly in adding more types of troops. Next stop, VENUS!

Unusal Picture

2011-02-12T12:25:00.000-08:00

Saw this painting at an Ikea store. Its about 5x6 feet.

New Venusian Creatures

2011-02-10T10:38:00.000-08:00

With a campaign starting on Venus shortly, I thought since its a rushed land grab by various colonial powers there has been little exploration of native creatures that might include humans into Their food chain. So searching about I located some star wars miniatures that fit the bill, and only around 50cents each.

So these critters should be hungry enough to figure that the soldiers are some sort of Take Out..Fast Food. Still have to put some colors on them, dry brush here and there. I did procure at least 4 each of them, as they might be the kind of creatures that hunt in packs!

New Demonic Allies

2011-02-09T16:36:00.001-08:00

Got some Dreamblade mini's finally to add to my Evil Sorcerers army. Pretty much used their original base colors as the dark prime coat to dry brush multiple layers onto except for the second from the right in the bright maroon color. Otherwise a tiny bit of flash was cleaned and I started painting.

Muzzel Blasts

2011-02-08T06:35:00.000-08:00

So, during a VSF battle last week, there lumbered the mighty behemoth tanks and walkers, firing for all they were worth... and it looked.. dull. No Bang, No Flash, bah. On the to hobby table to tackle the problem of no muzzel flashes. First was the problem of how to make it removable since there would be times the big gun would not be firing.

So on the left is a half inch of plastic tube, into which I hot glued with a glob of hot glue, a piece of bamboo skewer. I small glass of water was near by which sped the cooling time of the glue by dipping it into the water. I had to be really carefull with this first step so that the skewer and plastic tube were aligned properly and not pointing off at some angle. On the right is the first build up of hot glue, on went lots of glue, then dip to cool and repeat.

Next 2 photo's show the continued build up. I reshaped the areas that were "wrong" to the eye by holding the tip of the hot glue gun to the spot in question till it softened, then shoved it around.

Having gotten the hot glue on and cooled, I then proceeded to give it a paint wash and bit of dry brush. Hmmm still not right, so on went some Cotton for smoke out of which the flash comes. Still, not to bad but the remaining problem that became apparent when I put it on the end of the tanks cannon was that the plastic tube was larger than the diameter of the end of the cannon and that the flash drooped down in a not satisfactory direction. I solved that by adding a bit of Plasticine modeling clay into the end of the plastic pipe so that when its placed on the end of the cannon, it acts as a temporary stabilizing tacky glue.
And there you have it, fast and easy to make.

Venusian Rifle

2011-01-26T18:52:00.000-08:00

After some enquiries I shot a picture of a before and after assembly picture of my Venusian Rifle, made from a laser rifle and bolt pistol.

I just nipped a bit off the end of the rifle barrel and the end of the bolt pistol, then heated the end of the rifle barrel with the tip of the hot glue gun, then dab of glue and apply to the pistol grip. Paint it up and its done.
Not to much time per assembly, just in rounding up enough bits to do it.

New Venusian Race for a Jungle/Swamp setting

2011-01-23T19:37:00.000-08:00

Not wanting to field modified skinks or kroot, I found some star war aliens and decided to modify them for use in the VSF world. Being that they came with a type of pitchfork stabbing spear, I wanted to change them up and took some old Imperial Guard 40k laz pistols and rifles and combined them. Next, I got rid of the spear and drilled out each hand to take hold of the newly created rifle:

To the right is the unmodified creature, and to the left he has his shinny new ranged rifle. I rather like the snake scaled hide, but will work on the colors some, maybe a wash and some dry brushing to change it up some.

Kaptain Kneemo's forces

2011-01-22T21:11:00.000-08:00

Fully assembled on parade, the Kaptains Expeditionary Venus Ground Forces:

2 units of Clockwork Mechanical Robots, 1 Unit of Heavy Infantry, 2 Heavy Steam Walkers, 2 Light Steam Walkers Tanks, 2 Light Steam Walkers, 1 Brigade of Marines, 1 Brigade of Sailors and 1 Brigade of Mechanical Robot Infantry, plus of course their Illustrious Commander.

New Clash for Kneemo's Expeditionary Force

2011-01-14T22:53:00.000-08:00

This evenings game pitted a British Force of Guards and Line Infantry units supported by 2 self propelled light cannons and an armored Hanson Cab sporting a Gatling weapon attempting to take an Inn. Skrapwelder commanded their right flank and Black Cavalier their left flank. Their forces are pictured to the left.

The Kaptains forces were bolstered by some American allied forces, Marines, soldiers and sailor units. The Kaptains forces were a unit of line infantry and robot soldiers along with 2 steam walkers and a unit of Mechanified Infantry. The pictured forces did not necessarily start in the positions shown. Command of the Kneemo forces was Stanley and Alfrik.

Advancing with good speed and discipline the British quickly occupied the central hill and began rifle engagements. Their self propelled guns opened fire on the walkers, nearly taking them both out with their opening fire.

The hanson cab had a bit of a problem with its controls as it sped up the slope of the hill and rammed into the rocky out cropping, barely avoiding crashing down the other side. Kneemo's forces deploy along the crest of the hill, with a machine gun emplaced in the upper floor of the INN. The Americans deployed down the slope of the hill and off into the woods beyond. The walkers returned fire at the self propelled guns and smashed one into scrap metal. Rifle ranges were found to be a bit to long.

Pictured left is the overall positions of both sides as the firing commenced. A brigade of British troops came out of the woods in the bottom right of the picture and were met with a withering fire that disordered 2 of the 3 units. On the far side of the field in the trees behind the Innn the British Guards unit and the American Mariens exchanged fire for several rounds. The surviving self propeled gun slowly lumbered up to give fire support. In the upper right of the picture the Mechanified Infantry unit bounded in and fired down the flank of the Guards unit.

The battle enters a frenetic stage as the British regular infantry storm up to the INN. The Americans counter attack and enter into melee on both sides of the INN and the machine gun squad head down stairs and enter the fray, probably shooting from the hip.... The British are thrown back in rout. But, the self propelled gun enters the fray and the Americans behind the INN are broken and sent packing back. The Mechanified Infantry unit is converted to tin foil by the Hansoms cab gun fire, which Finally got working right... such a sad story for that cab...

Last picture shows the Steam Walkers standing their ground as their Regular Infantry and Robotic Infantry are sent back over the hill to regroup. The remnants of the British Brigade keep up some rifle fire but time runs out for them and they fail to take the Inn, though another turn or 2 would probably have see the capture.

Rivet Maker

2011-01-13T17:56:00.000-08:00

Thought to try out a FISKERS hole punch with a 1/16th inch puncher to make rivets for my vehicles and other craft.

To the left is the hole puncher and punched card stock. To the right is the rivets mounted on a tank, Kaptain Kneemo is providing scale comparison. While not the smallest rivets they are big and clunky looking for my VSF kit bashings. Just select the thickness of the rivets to be and punch away till you have more than enough.

All Things Robotic

2011-01-12T19:18:00.000-08:00

Having finished off the last robot unit for Kaptain Kneemo, I thought it time to rack up photo's of all of them here;

On the left are a couple of Mechnified Infantry in exoskeleton suits. Most all of the robotic units are from Mageknight figures. The MI did not want to convert very well with a head swap, the chest area was not going to smooth out well so I put in the metal shield plate to cover and give the driver a bit more cover from incoming fire.

On the Right are 2 Steam Walker Mark 1's, they have no human controllers, pack a lot of fire power and are considered expendable in a battle.

On the left is a Steam Walker Mark 2, with human operators. Better fire control and decision making capability. Still packs a good punch and makes good speed.

On the right are some Guard Bots, simple built, simple task robots. Light fast firing guns, light armor with moderate movement speed.

Mechanical Infantry Robots on the left, light weapon and melee weapons. Light weight armor due to the size of the power plant.

To the right is a similar version except it is more tightly sealed for submersible action.

Walker Light Tanks on the left. Light guns and flexible legs allow it to move through rugged ground faster than treaded vehicles.

To the right are smoke launcher robots. Shoulder mounted grenade launchers, and the smoke can obscure or be fatal types of gas. These are for the clearing out heavily defended infantry positions.

Lastly the Robotic Air Wing. Small rockets for punch and light rapid firing guns for close air support. Not suited for high altitude flying and long range, they still fill an important roll on the battlefield.

Steam Klank Robot

2011-01-11T20:03:00.000-08:00

Thought to dig through the "extra figures box" of stuff that I have ordered now and then figures that, were either to large, to short or well, did not live up to the original picture once I had them in my hands. So, pulling out the kit bashing tools, I thought to create a new VSF robots of various types.
So a mageknight mech went under the xacto blade:

Fairly typical figure with lots of extra spiky bits, skull face and huge battle axe blade. Nice smoke stacks on the back, good joints and rivets. Torso is solid, a plus when getting a heat gun near them to attach new parts.

So, the skull face had to go to avoid Skeletor jokes and a few other comments on skull faces at our game club meets. Battle Axe blade was sent in for resmelting. Spikes on boots removed. New Cannon barrel mounted over the hugh cannon mount on its left hand. I prepared the upper top curve on the torso for a new head. The extra small arms in the center torso got trimmed for a machine gun barrel. I also hacked off the largest part of the fist to prepare for a new attachment.

New head attached with extended telescoping eye mounts. A large chain gun had the base scored up and hot glued to the former fist. Machine gun barrel mounted to the inner left small arm. I pretty satisfied with how its come along. Painting, hmm thinking staying with basic metal so it's not obviously with any faction, just a good generic Klank. Also have to change out the base!

Vegetation of Venus

2011-01-09T20:58:00.000-08:00

Early reports of the varied vegetation of Venus has arrived from the Exploratory Teams sent to prepare some basic information to forward to the Expeditionary Forces. The following are a fair sample of the plant forms found so far:

Left has the Pith Tree, a soft cored tree that has been found extremely useful. The soft and pliable "heartwood" is a kin to paper mache, exposed to air it can be shaped by hand, then over a couple of days hardens to a toughness of Terran hard woods. The fruits that festoon the tops are edible but have a 1 week shelf life once picked before they quickly decay leaving only the husks behind, which very slowly decay to fertilize the tree.

To the right is what is being called the Froth Tree, which is found in the mushy "plains" areas. It is useful for making ropes from the tough fibers, similar to a yucca plant. As is seen it grows to tremendous heights. Vehicles cannot seem to push through it very well.

The Scale Tree has a hard bark useable for burning, the purple nuts on top are edible, the leaves though are sappy and sticky, lending a use to glue. It grows rather quickly once its seeds take hold , but the seeds seem to need a long dormant time once detached to start to sprout. Plantation growing of them should provide plenty of fire wood and other useful products.

To the right is the Bubble Bush, identified by its red, yellow and oranges. Tough skinned "fruit" actually contains hydrogen gas! The fruit grows in size till it pops off the mother plant and floats off in the air, though in detaching it suffers a very tiny hole that slowly leaks the gas out till it lands, far off, to take root. If secured to the plant the bubbles can get very large and be harvested for hydrogen gas.

To the left are the large broad leafed green Flat Leaf bush's. A source of food for local animals. Terran animals will eat it if nothing else is available, though it gives them serious cases of flatulence....

To the right are the Wax Plant, tall, spiky leaves that are covered in up to an inch of waxy material that make fine fuel for lamps and other wax uses. Fruits are sweet to taste but are Not Edible! and can cause sever illness and death if enough of them are eaten.

Itchy Thorn Brush is the reddish plants to the left. Fine spines cover the branches. Attached to the spines are tiny seeds. Brush against them and you get stuck with tens to hundreds of them that can cause tremendous itching, though scattering the seeds during the removal of the spines. The plant does not burn well even when left cut and out to dry for weeks.

Constrictor Bush to the right, nasty stuff. Near the stem, touching the hairy leaves causes them to curl in suddenly in a area effect, trapping the hand, arm or what ever touched it trapping it. An acid is exuded and a digestive operation starts. Only quick use of a bush knife to get free will save you as another side effect of the acid fluid is a narcotic effect quickly causing you to slip into unconsciousness.

Water Hyacinth plant is very common in the flooded swap areas. It often hides deeper water and is or can be treacherous to think that there is solid ground under it. Large Yellow fruit is quite similar to Terran coconuts.

To the right another common bush plant which tends to be edible by Terran animals with little or no noticeable side effects. It is also a staple of local wildlife.

The last plant is a problem as it seems to be alive along the lines of simple animals. The fronds "sense" movement and move towards the movement and grapple animals. The tips of the long branches are very hard and very sharp with the ability to pierce into the victim. To be avoided whenever possible!

Lastly are the Walking Trees, which tend to move about all the time, probing the moist Venusian soil for nutrients and or small, slow moving creatures...

VSF Battle Report

2011-01-08T11:02:00.000-08:00

So after the holiday break we got the group going the other night with a warm up VSF battle. Still mastering the rules there were a lot of learning instances all around. So here is the opening sides:

On the left we see the forces of Kaptain Kneemo and allies vs the French Forces on the right side picture. Walkers and Steam Tanks oh my! French were trying to secure the bridge and a bridgehead while Kneemo and allies were trying to pound them back from the bridge. There was a ford in the river to the left of the bridge.

Allied steam tanks and walkers on Kneemo's left seemed to have misplaced or under powered their opening rounds as they created a great deal of steam and smoke but did not manage to get any hits to slow down the copper advance, taking substantial casualties in return. On the right flank the mechnified troops advanced and coming into range of the french infantry proceeded to open fire and sent the first unit packing. Steam walker fire was also abysmal on this flank... sigh, have to recalibrate the weapons again! The French Steam Walkers thundered across the ford and into the mechnified troops, steadily pushing them back. Breaking one of the mechified units they fell back to ready another charge, but in order to cut losses a retreat was sounded. The Left flank was driven back and or eliminated as the French heavy tank crossed the bridge with the copper walkers support and took the farm, establishing their bridgehead.

And for those wanting a better look at Skrapwelders French steam walkers here you go. Im sure he will be posting some much better shots and info tid bits about construction somewhere.

Kaptain Kneemo's Venus Expeditionare Force Update

2011-01-03T22:26:00.000-08:00

Finally, 5 companies of Ship's Marines are completed along with their 2 heavy support walkers:

Banners and bases to flock yet, but wanted to get a new post on the blog for the new year! The Shipboard Sailor company's are still being touched up but should be ready in the next couple of days to be followed by a complete layout of the TOE force with proper bases.

VSF Mech Walkers finished

2010-12-28T22:12:00.000-08:00

Painted, and added rivets and smokestacks.

And they they are with an infantry escort / comparison.

VSF Mech Walker Conversion

2010-12-27T20:16:00.000-08:00

Couldn't pass up this great and simple conversion:

Star Wars miniature walker, on the right is the untouched original version. Quick head swap for pith helmets on the right. Some repainting of uniforms to do but there you have the simple swap.

Killer Robot Update

2010-12-27T05:53:00.000-08:00

Thought to up the detailing on the robots just recently constructed. So with dremel in hand it was time to add some details.

First was to extend the "guns" barrels, way to short, did not much look like guns. Thin plastic rod with "seed" beads added. I drilled into the ends of the knobs that were to be the guns and pre assembled the new barrels. Having counter drilled out the mounting spots made it go easier. Picture on the right shows the mounted barrels.

Then added some Antenna's, did think about rivets but the nice smooth shell look of the tops seemed to not need them for a change. Mounted 2 to a base for Martian Empires machines, each base is a support weapons unit.

New Robots

2010-12-23T03:45:00.000-08:00

Was browsing in a large office supply store when I happened upon some fancy plastic paper clips that can also be pinned to the wall. So digging around in the bits box I dug out some old mageknight three mech legged cyborgs, I clipped and shaped the trunk. Next was mounting a plastic tube to lift the top mount up as it was to low in my opinion.

So here are some shots, the left shows the various stages, cyborg cut, stem mounted to paper clip and unpainted complete. To the right is the robot with a flat black spray coat primer. I will dry brush them in either dark metal or perhaps brass for VSF gaming.

ACW2 Final Battle Report

2010-11-30T07:19:00.000-08:00

We organized the time, troops and place: Mayhem ensued:

The board looking from the Nationalist side, to the right is the onslaught of the Constitutionalists.

Armor engagement as Consti's push their vehicles thru the town. The Waves of nationalist forces surge forward.

Consti side with the Immigrant reinforcements pushing in to the town. To the right is the result of air attack!

A shot of the waves piling into the town where the action was called for time. You decide.

Martain Empire Battle Report

2010-11-20T18:48:00.000-08:00

So another battle was fought English lead by Mark and Don vs Prussians lead by Nils and Alan. Starting forces:

English on the Left side of the picture. Near ground is several companies of Kreigsmarines and a Light armored Hanson Cab AFV, center is several guard companies supported by Light AFVs and in the far left flank are 2 large units of red martians.

On the right side of the picture are the Prussians, in the near ground are Marines, and Sailors supported by a unit of Mechanized Klanks, middle ground 2 companies of regular infantry supported by another unit of Mechanized Klanks, in the far right flank 4 companies of regular companies and a field piece.

The battle quickly became a head on collision, here is the Prussian right flank engaged in hand to hand fighting as the red martians wasted no time in closing in and going to swords. Initially they drove back the companies of regulars but in turn were flanked by the reserve company. In the fighting that followed the red martians were broken and driven from the field.

On the Prussian left flank I (Alan) pushed forward and started a rifle exchange with the British units. My sailors proved quiet capable of getting off some really serious shooting and inflicted significant casualties, driving the British units to their front back, as seen by the lack of opposition in the picture. The Hanson AFV was not scoring hits, perhaps their gun was jammed in an upward position? ;)

Prussian right flank closes in and takes out the Brits far left AFV in close assault. Central units are exchanging fire, men dropping everywhere. Martians continue to flee the field, in the foreground my Prussian Marines are forced to retire as combined arms take out the British sailors unit and begin to push in the British right flank.

With the British left flank gone and the left center collapsing, a retreat was sounded and the field left to the Prussians.

Game flow was pretty good. Artillery was found to be a bit weak for the points cost. I figure the GM will do a small bit of tweaking, probably to the moral for "under artillery fire" or some such. Martian Empires rules will, I suspect, be our base set for the January VSF Venus campaign launch.

Venus Must Fall!

2010-11-15T11:44:00.000-08:00

Finished purchasing the rest of Kaptain Kneemo's sailors and marines, all cleaned, primed and painting is under way. Jan 2nd, new VSF campaign with the local gamers is to be launched, and Kaptain Kneemo will have his invincible forces ready!

To the left are the sailors, in whites, black shoes and a different hat band color to eventually differentiate sections. To the right are the Marines, Whit pants, Green coats, khaki pith helmets. 120 figures all told.

Prehistoric Reinforcements

2010-11-05T09:32:00.000-07:00

Bargin Bin find!

So, the 2 dinosaurs were 49 pennies each! The little cuthlu fig is for size comparison. I was given the Tezla robotic figure was a hand me down to my Kneemo collection from Black Cavalier. I have quiet a pile of dinosaurs and plastic.. oh, 50mm cavemen that we sometimes pull and and smash around on the game table with. Rules do not allow for spoken words between team players or opponents, only grunts and pointing are allowed to formulate battle plans. Meat eaters are of course very dangerous, plant eaters less so unless you get to close or they stampede from a Meat Eater....very dangerous then!

New Dollar Monster

2010-10-25T10:20:00.000-07:00

Found a new monster from The Goodwill. A Lego's monster probably from their Atlantis line. Missing a couple of tentacles but I moved some around. Lego block spots on the critter will have to be removed but this creature might just fill the bill for the Cloud Krakens of Venus!

Tail tip to mouth is about 8 inches, tentacles add another 8 inches in length. Needs paint job, and in the roll of the Cloud Kraken, Im figureing on blue's and grey's to flesh it out, so to speak.

Warmaster Battle Report...of sorts

2010-10-24T09:14:00.000-07:00

Tried out Warmaster for my first time:

Bretonian vs Chaos. I and Skrapwelder commanded the Bretonians vs Black Cavaliers evil nasty Chaos .. guys.. yah. Learned about command and control, make the dice roll, equal move, with decreasing chance, fail means end of all moves so roll wisely. I found that fairly standard tactics apply to this game. Missile fire did a bit but not much, its rather difficult to a mass enough damage potential to destroy an enemy element out right. There is no firing in support unless I read wrongly, possibly missile casualties carry into combat, have to read up on that. In the far back is what turned out to be my, strategic reserve. I let them dally to long and then they were at such a penalty to activate that they sat there till the last turn of the game, then boldly advanced to grab loot. The Knights with blue are Skrapwelders beating on the remaining Chaos Knights, who were in the progress of killing the last stand to their front of my Knights. Battle was see sawed back and forth till chaos reached their break point. The command range penalty for moving to far afield does prevent the ZOOM across the board with mounted forces that would probably totally unbalance the game by tossing strategy out the window.