Hunk of junk
December 21, 2013I’m currently building up the setup for the next game of Utopia, which means I’m painting and creating yet more generic-ish scenery. In addition to the corky mountains mentioned previously, I’m working on a crashed shuttle.
The crashed Aquila lander (shown here painted by the talented Rob Jedi) that was included in the 2004 WH40K box – yes, that was almost ten years ago – has always been one of my favourite terrain pieces, but somehow I just never got one. Once I decided I wanted one, it didn’t take too long to add it to my collection. LAF member Anpu supplied me with one for the mere price of p&p. Bless those Swedes.
I have long wanted to do some weathering, as I think it’s simply dead fun. I had a fun time with the powerloader three years ago, but I haven’t really had anything to work on. I have especially been wanting to paint something white and then weather the hell out of it. This basically decided that the lander would be mostly white. I wanted a nice, brighter colour to contrast with it, and inspired by the lovely District 9 art book (hint: an excellent Christmas present for any scifi enthusiast, if you’re looking for a last minute find) I settled for a nice bright orange.
What then followed was a regular painting of the piece, and the proceeding with the fun – namely the weathering. I used several techniques, mainly drybrushing and bamboo skewer painting. In case you’re not familiar with the latter, it involves snapping a bamboo skewer and using it as a paintbrush. Snapping the skewer results in plenty of uneven bristles pointing in different directions. Dipping those bristles lightly in paint and painting with them results in very natural looking scratches of varying thickness. I also used different washes quite liberally – they can be interpreted as dirt, oil, soot or whatever tickles your fancy.
I painted the base to match my Zuzzy mat, and it’s a nice fit. I’ve still got three more pieces to paint – it’s actually a five-piece kit but the smallest piece is missing. I’m really happy with the way it’s turning out, and it should make a nice centrepiece for the next scenario! Anyway, enough with the talk – time for some pictures. You can click on any photo to open a larger version in a new window.
Bless those Swedes #2
November 25, 2013IKEA has some useful stuff for the modeller. Apart from the obvious, such as boxes, shelves and display cases (mine being a prime example), there are some useful items that are not immediately apparent. My latest trip to the Swedish house of wonders furnished me with some cork hot pads named HEAT as well as two colours (black and grey) of decorative sand under the name KULÖRT.
The sand will be used for basing, as it’s quite fine. There was a larger, coarser variety on sale as well. The hot pads are currently being turned into rock formations following the instructions in this thread on TMP. Below is a WIP picture as well as some finished ones.
Click for a larger version
Click for a larger version
The rock formations turned out quite nice and they’re very easy to make. I’m looking to build a fair few for the next Utopia game, so I now have a pretty large stack of the IKEA hot pads waiting to be destroyed. So much fun!
Utopia #9 – Old friends
November 16, 2013When we left off a whopping four months ago, the 16th were in the process of storming Conner Industries’ research center 13 on the asteroid DH-3. The operation was going swell right up until the moment the squad realised they’d walked right into a trap. The forces of the Outer colonies had decided to crush one of the vaunted UTOPIA squads in a display of force and cunning.
The 16th was unfazed, though, and did their best to set up defenses. A search of the station armory (with the help of some defected security guards) revealed three brand new, unused automated sentry guns, which were quickly placed at critical locations. In addition the troopers hauled a few small shipping containers into the corridors to provide cover, and prepared to receive the attackers.
The sixteenth prepares
First to enter the installation was Pvt. Johnson of the Outer colonies 3rd Heavy infantry. He barely had time to step into the first corridor, when the sentry turret opened up and quite literally tore him apart. The demoralising start stalled the assault completely as the Heavy infantry leader Sgt. Mancala ordered a more cautious approach.
The new approach proved more successful, aided by the sentry gun misfiring. Having sat in their crate for years, they simply hadn’t been field tested and the squad could only curse as the gunfire suddenly died down. The troopers pitched in with their own firepower, with Lt. Fender and Pvts. Lau and Abdul pouring pulse rifle fire and grenades down the corridor.
It was tough going for the attackers, with trooper after trooper falling. However, the Outer colonies had committed to the mission, and a steady stream of reserves kept pouring in. Metre by metre, the attackers were pushing forward and taking the corridors. The grenades fired by the defenders served the attackers as well, with drifting smoke obscuring the advancing Heavy infantry. When another of the sentry guns died to the sound of electric fizzing and popping, things were starting to look worse. The 16th had something to look forward to, though: a hail from their dropship, the Apache Owl let them know that help was on the way. Would it reach them in time?
Heavy infantry advancing behind smoke
Four security guards had joined the 16th after it became apparent that they were not about to be rescued. However, it was quickly becoming clear that they were ill-equipped for the situation. While they did their best to guard the corridors with their few semi-automatic rifles, they were completely failing to do damage to the attackers, much to the frustration of the sixteenth. The Heavy infantry was getting closer and closer and were already at a distance where they could lob grenades at the defenders.
Disaster struck the attackers just as they were about to break through the defenses. The last sentry gun had malfunctioned, and Sgt. Mancala pulled the pin from a grenade and turned to throw it at the defenders, when the gun suddenly came back to life thanks to Pvt. DiGlaeser’s technical aptitude. Mancala hurriedly pulled back but fumbled with the grenade which fell at his feet, blowing up the sergeant and knocking nearby trooper Kaneda down. On the brink of breaking the defenders, the attack collapsed and the attackers pulled back, leaderless. With the Union of Terra fleet approaching, the defenders were suddenly close to winning.
Sgt. Mancala’s grenade fail clears the corridor
A heavy clanking announced a new turn of events. To the shock of the UTOPIA troopers, Pvt. Jane, MIA after the cyborg attack on Ryukyu Epsilon, had been brought back as a monstrous hybrid of man and machine. Apparently the Cyberdyne-Sendai corporation had managed to salvage more from the disaster than they’d let the Union know. The cyborg marched in, smashing Heavy infantry aside and stepping into the corridor. Lt. Fender and Pvts. Lau, Abdul and Dastevan stared eyes wide as the monster activated the minigun mounted on its right arm. The howl of the barrels was followed by a storm of bullets that tore up the corridor. Lau was hit twice and fell to the floor, while the rest ducked behind corners to avoid the onslaught. Miraculously, “Dog” Lau was still alive and unharmed, although scared out of his wits by yet another close brush with death. The troopers returned fire, but their shots ricocheted harmlessly off Jane. Lt. Fender could immediately see where this was going. It was time to abandon their positions and fall back to wait for extraction. Abdul fired another grenade down the corridor to slow Jane down and to provide them with some smoke for cover.
Cyborg Jane makes his entrance
There was one man who didn’t want to retreat without a fight. Pvt. Krayten Dastevan was itching for combat and stood his ground in a branching side corridor, looking to not only engage Jane, but to engage him/it in hand to hand combat! Lieutenant Fender would have none of this. “Quit messing around, Dastevan, and haul ass out of there on the double!” he ordered. Grudingly Dastevan obeyed, but he did it too late. As he sprinted down the corridor, Jane spotted him and turned the minigun on Dastevan. Halfway through his escape, Pvt. Dastevan was cut in half by the hail of shots, spraying a nearby security guard with blood. The bullets tore through the last of the sentry guns as well. Jane spotted some more guards at the end of the corridor and stomped off after them. This enabled several of the 16th to sneak off towards safety.
Jane prepares to fire on Dastevan
The security guards fled, leaving Jane with no visible targets. The cyborg lumbered on and came face to face with one of the Heavy infantry troopers, who had been more than happy to hang back and let Jane clear the corridors for them. The minigun barrels whirred up again, but luckily rudimentary recognition protocols had been installed and Heavy infantry Pvt. Julian only suffered a case of soiled underwear.
Most of the 16th were fairly safely tucked away in a remote part of the research centre. Most, apart from Pvt. Lau. Lau had been too scared to stand up, and was slowly crawling down the corridor, hidden from sight by the shipping crate the squad had dragged up. There were two Heavy infantry troopers walking down the corridor, however, and it would only be a moment before Lau was spotted. Determined not to leave any more men behind, Lt. Fender ordered covering fire, and whether it was because of Lau’s uncanny luck or the troopers’ skill, the Heavy infantry was gunned down before they noticed the scruffy trooper.
The 16th huddles together…
…as Lau crawls towards safety
Fear spurred the three remaining security guards on, and they fled from Jane as fast as they could, barricading themselves in a room to wait for retrieval. True enough, a moment later the Apache Owl landed on the roof of the installation with a pressurised dome and started cutting an escape hatch. The Outer colonies forces were retreating, and the day was won. Only one decision remained: “Wait for us!” cried the security guards. Jane’s minigun had just shredded the door to the room and death loomed. Eyes turned to Lt. Fender for the decision. To wait for the security guards would endanger the squad, but this was the call Fender made. The guards had helped out, and it would have been inhumane to leave them behind – besides, with Dastevan gone there was always room for new recruits. The guards escaped, but the delay meant Jane had one more chance to open up on the Apache Owl. Bullets punched through into the crew compartment, and one of the security guards lost his leg at the knee. The sixteenth had made it, but had suffered yet another casualty, bringing the tally up to 15.
Pvt. Dastevan – KIA
Man oh man, am I happy. After four months of inactivity, I had my doubts about the survival of this campaign. A much shorter delay has killed games before, and Utopia is my beloved pet. I was super happy to see that my fears were for nothing, as we quickly got into the groove again despite one of my three players dropping out at the last minute due to illness. After the first few rounds the players again remembered their characters and their personalities, and we once again got to grips with the rules. The game was as cinematic as before, and after the game we heaped praise on Flying Lead by Ganesha Games. The simple mechanics allow for quick and easy modification, and we came up with a lot of special rules on the spot, such as grenade explosions clouding the corridors with smoke, sentry guns and their malfunctions and Jane’s programming glitches – there was a very real chance of Jane actually firing on the the hapless Heavy infantry trooper, and when he was swatting aside the Outer colonies troopers, sheer luck stopped them from being injured.
That’s pretty much exactly one year of Utopia behind us. The next scenario will once again be something completely different. This one was a great opportunity for me to field my lovely new Pig Iron Heavy infantry and my cyborg Jane conversion. Now, what should I paint next…
Big spender me
November 10, 2013I haven’t bought a lot of miniatures recently, but I have pledged to a few Kickstarters. A short recap:
This was actually a joint pledge with people from our D&D group. The game has been going on for years, and we’re using a varied collection of miniatures and Descent board game pieces. We figured that a selection of generic fantasy stuff wouldn’t do any harm, although it’ll take ages before we actually get the minis. All the more reasons to keep the game going! Bones 2 was of course massively funded, making over $3M with almost 15000 people joining in. While most of the minis will find use in role-playing games, there are a few lovely weird creatures in the Numenera range that’ll find their way into scifi games as well. Mashaaf the Great Old One is a nice example.
Prodos Games Alien vs Predator The Miniatures Game
To any reader of this blog it shouldn’t come as a big surprise that I got in on this one. I was a bit hesitant at first – at £75+£10 for shipping it’s not pocket change. However, it looks like it’s taking off quite nicely, so there should be plenty of lovely free add-ons and the like on the way. I didn’t go for the bigger pledges, since I already have more Aliens, Predators and Colonial Marines than I have time to paint them. Still, I can’t really miss it, can I? It’s about time someone picked up the licence! From what I hear, Prodos Games has done a nice job on bringing back Warzone, so my hopes are reasonably high.
Anvil Industry is a small UK company mostly known for their 40K conversion parts and such. AFTERLIFE is a game of their own, which I mainly chose to back since I liked the look of the minis and because Anvil Industry seem like a nice, small company. Joel, one of the directors, basically sold me on the Kickstarter over on LAF simply by being a nice guy and being very open about their policies regarding their project. Not a bad job! Free shipping is a lovely, added bonus. There’s still six days left in the Kickstarter, so do consider joining in – £21 gets you six resin minis and a bunch of artwork and background material. I went in for £45, which gets me 19 minis, the background material and possible stretch goals.
That’s my Kickstarter world for now. Any other interesting ones out there?
The Faithful Departed
November 2, 2013As it’s All Saints’ Day in Finland, I figured I’d make a themed post. The Utopia campaign is still ongoing, despite a long break. In fact, we’ve already scheduled the next game – ten days from now.
The campaign has seen its share of heroes and anti-heroes – some more memorable than others. In this post we remember the valiant and somewhat less valiant troopers of UTOPIA squad 16 that have given their tiny lead and plastic lives in service of the mighty Union of Terra.
Sgt. Salt Brauer was the long-time leader of the 16th, who went from a washed-up alcoholic to a hero of sorts. MIA on Ryukyu Epsilon after cyborg attack, presumed dead.
Cpl. Diego “Ding” Rodriguez came from a privileged Latin American family. KIA by a cyborg on Ryukyu Epsilon.
Cpl. “Ace” Wembley was a cynical alcoholic. KIA by an insurrectionist on the Alpha moon of Kessler-11.
Pvt. Bedford was a tough British radical feminist. KIA by a Predator on Triton-4.
Pvt. Bjornssen was a mild-mannered Norwegian tech expert. KIA by an insurrectionist on the Alpha moon of Kessler-11.
Pvt. Ghillian was a young female technician, known for her retro music collection. KIA by a Predator on Triton-4.
Pvt. “Hellion” was a young punk rocker and smartgunner. No one knew her real name. KIA by a security guard on the asteroid DH-3.
Pvt. Hämäläinen was a dour, effective Finn, who kept to himself. KIA by a cyborg on Ryukyu Epsilon.
Pvt. Iljutsh was a former Russian truck driver, on the run from the mob. MIA on Triton-4 after Predator attack, presumed dead.
Pvt. Jane knew his military doctrine in an out – a real hero. MIA on Ryukyu Epsilon after cyborg attack, presumed dead.
Pvt. Kenny was a former pro football player. None too smart, but deadly with a flamethrower. MIA on Ryukyu Epsilon after cyborg attack, presumed dead.
Pvt. McSorley was a heavy weapons specialist with a genuine enthusiasm for shooting things. MIA on Ryukyu Epsilon after cyborg attack, presumed dead.
Pvt. Trill was a happy-go-lucky technician. MIA on Ryukyu Epsilon after cyborg attack, presumed dead.
Pvt. Wu was an excellent sniper with the squad’s most impressive kill count and a knack for off duty trade. KIA by a cyborg on Ryukyu Epsilon.
The Union thanks these individuals for their service. More will surely follow.
New Predastore Predators reviewed
October 12, 2013I just updated my ongoing 28mm Predator review with three new offerings from Predastore: Crossbow-Predette, Austral-Hunter and 2Blades-Hunter. See the review here!
Crossbow-Predette. Click for a larger version
Austral-Hunter. Click for a larger version
2Blade-Hunter. Click for a larger version
Killer elite
October 9, 2013With the little time I’ve been able to devote to hobby activities, I’ve unsurprisingly been working on some more Utopia related minis. While my painting work on the Pig Iron Heavy infantry (see the previous two posts) continues, I’ve also done some converting. You know how it goes, “I’ll just take a look at this plastic kit…hmmm..oh, this gives me an idea!”
This time the kit in question was DreamForge Games’ set of Eisenkern Stormtroopers, produced by Wargames Factory. Like the major part of my current scifi stuff, I picked these up at Salute this year. After finally opening the box, I was struck by the quality of the set – crisp castings, not too many mould lines and so on. Like I remarked when I bought these, I’m not keen on the whole space nazi look. Luckily I had a bunch of extra Pig Iron System trooper heads, so a few quick headswaps later my Stormtroopers had an all new look.
Click for a larger version
I think the end result is pretty nice! They look lean and mean, the Pig Iron heads work a treat and I can easily imagine them being elite, high-tech troopers – you know, cloaking technology and the like. I also gave one of the troopers a heavier weapon taken from the Defiance Games UAMC set. In the marine set the gun is a support weapon, so I think the Stormtrooper using it as a heavy assault rifle emphasizes their bad-assery. I gave the trooper some shoulder pads as well to make him bulkier – he’s the team “heavy”.
What do you think, dear readers?
From the painting desk #24 – Ethnic diversity
September 22, 2013Finished another three of Pig Iron’s Heavy infantry. I hate batch/assembly line painting, so I try to do my best to keep it interesting. This usually results in me adding different ethnicities in units. It not only makes the unit look more interesting, but also better reflects real world and my scifi visions. While WH40K’s Space Marines might be a race of genetically enhanced super-Aryans, I like to make my units a bit more multi-cultural. To illustrate, in 2008 Black and Hispanic members made up over a third of the US Army, and I think the diversity has been, is and will be on the increase.
Realism aside, it serves to break up the monotony of a unit wearing the same armour and BDUs. In the latest group of three, I picked three different skin colours. One was my regular caucasian skin tone, one a reddish mid-range brown and one a very dark brown.
Click for a larger version
In my opinion the end result is quite nice, what do you think?
From the painting desk #23 – OPFOR
September 7, 2013I’m slowly getting my painting groove back on, which means I finally finished a few models. They’re both Heavy infantry by Pig Iron Productions, a part of their mighty fine science fiction range. Like most of my scifi stuff, they’ll find use in my Utopia project. The Pig Iron minis will represent the heavy infantry of the Outer Colonies, a counterpart to the UTOPIA troopers the players are commanding.
Click for a larger version
Click for a larger version
I used the casualty miniature to test the colour scheme. I wanted something very down to earth, so used a combination of browns and grays. In order to keep them from not looking too monotonous, I added a simple horizontal stripe camouflage. Another reason for the simple camo choice was that I wanted to keep these guys quick to paint. A lot of both models is painted using drybrushing and washes, with scratches in the armour and the camo adding extra detail. The casualty won’t be based, I just put him on a base to ease photography.
A special mention must go to the flag patches. To go with the typical “opposing force is always red” mentality, I was about the make the flag red as well. Luckily I decided to ask a non-gamer friend what she thought would look cool. “Maybe try green, with some yellow?” she said, and that I did. I love how it turned out, as the green really pops from the muted overall look.
The Pig Iron minis are a joy to paint. They have a lovely simplicity to them, reminiscent of Mark Copplestone’s work. As Mr. Copplestone is one of my all time favourites, this is high praise indeed.
As always, comments and critique welcome!
Dawn of the Lead 