I have been buying things from Ian at Fenris Games for some time, and some of my favourite models have been bought there. Ian’s products are of high quality and never disappoints – he is also a jolly good fellow.
If you are in a rush go and check out his new kickstarter whether you like anthromorphic animals for you fantasy or your sci-fi/postapocalytpic settings here.
Here are some of the many amazing models I have done over the years, like this one of Atlach-Nacha (more here) which was a joy to build and paint.
Atlach-Nacha
Or this one “The Dweller in the Ruins” (more here), simple paintjob but with a character just shining through.
The Deathdealer, not sure how many layers of yellow wash I applied!
Or the Dark Young of Shub Niggurath – or the Murder Tree in my World.
And there are more done and waiting on the lead (and Resin) pile from Fenris.
As you know I have a fascination for the Swedish Mutant RPG form 1984 (well for the whole line including the latest amazing Free League Offerings – Mutant Year 0 and Mutant Hindenburg). One of the key elements are the mutated Animals that populate the world as a result of experimentation to find resistant creatures to the world after the catastrophe – a virus infested world hiding away in enclaves then nuking each other to Kingdom come. But never mind, the resulting world is a Post apocalyptic Skandinavia populated by “pure” humans, mutants (both human and animals) and robots, etc.
These Animals are mostly anthropomorphic, in other worlds they are like humans in terms of walking on there back legs and having hands that can grip items like weapons but with the features on an animal. There are a lot of these models if you look around but not all fits in a wider setting mixing in with humans from other ranges etc (e.g. being too cartoony – is that a word?).
Sometimes there are models perfect with no modifications required, sometimes some headswaps are required. There are some fantastic ones to be found from Sally 4th (here).
Anyway here are a few from my current collection.
Anyway all in all a little bit insane, but both the Little One and I really enjoy it.
Now, back to Fenris Games who are currently on their second day of their Wyrdworld kickstarter.
Consisting of Anthromorphic Animals that will fit directly into the Mutant world and of course any Fantasy setting. If you want to take them a step further you could easily kitbash them and add the odd Traffic Sign shield (perhaps with a Moose on it), or a holster or a high tech weapons from one of those many sprues you have lying around, or a musket slung over the shoulder to add that Skandinavia Post Apocalyptic look to it all. The pictures shows two examples of this.
Lagertha from Bad Squiddo Games a Dark Ages Shield Maiden turned Post Apocalyptic by adding a traffic sign shield.Addng a holster to a fantasy chap!
The Kickstarter was funded within 24 hours and is running for another 9 days when I am writing this. Go and check it out, there are a number of different levels that you can pledge at should you wish to.
By the way here is the link to the Kickstarter (and HERE)
Bank holiday here in the UK coming to an end, hobby is slow at the moment due to work but a few fun things recently.
Planet Pot Troopers
Saga Magic – a 6mm Fantasy / Glorantha Project
Pot Troopers
Il Douchebag and his Security Forces and special advisors
Last blog post I presented the bad guys – the Il Douchebag and his gang and that I would get some additional soldiers as support (more here). So do do the Pot Troopers I have ordered a few Sprues of these from Wargames Atlantic (I only order two sprues on ebay to see if I like them in the “flesh” – I might buy more but that is enough for now.
I gave them a simple paintjob just like the rest of Il Douchebag’s soldiers (Dark Green with black more or less). But I really like the result and they fit in really nicely.
One of them equipped with a flamethrowers, the others with Automatic Shock RiflesLed by Lt. Jiang KvinnThere to protect Il DouchebagAll 8 Pot TroopersMixing really well with the other stuff.
So these are for our Sci-Fi campaign and will be used for a game of Stargrave next week.
6mm Glorantha for Saga Age of Magic
You might recall I did a project for Saga in 6mm a few years ago (more here) and I bought Saga age of Magic some time ago but I am yet to try it out. Anyway I bought a bundle of Gloranthan Morokanth (the kind of Tapir like race of nomads that herd humans). Here is a picture of them from the latest Glorantha Beastiary.
Paul at Papier told me some time ago that he were doing some Moronkanth in 6mm (he already did Bison Riders and Scorpion men, more here) and I got myself a fair few of these, there are plenty of different packs from herders with human, man-drawn chariots, sword/club/spear armed with and without armour and a command set.
A number of codes available
I intend to base them like I did my Dark Ages armies for Saga (example below) but have not yet done so, on 25mm square bases each representing a base in the normal game, i.e. a Levy is 12 bases with either 4 foot/2 mounted 6mm miniatures, a warrior is 8 bases with 8 foot/3 mounted 6mm miniatures and hearthguard 4 bases of 9 foot/4 mounted, with the warlord being 1 base with 10 foot/5 mounted.
Anyway so far I am in the middle of the painting and finished the first batch today.
I just wanted to show how nice the sculpts are – remember that they are very small.
Compared to the Pot Soldier 28mm
Also Paul will shortly release some Gloranthan Trolls in 6mm, I have just put the first coats down on a few of these. They look interesting.
In other news I painted some old Terminators I had to be used the Mutant 1984 madness (they are from the first Space Hulk set). I like the look with the bronze and brass paint job. You do not immediately think Space Marine. They will serve as a kind of Security Bot.
I have also got some new stuff from Alternative Armies (https://www.alternative-armies.com/) and I am yet to paint the batch but here is one I painted this week.
/Hope that was of some interest, more on progress next time
I really love the old Copplestone Castings, currently sold by Forlorn Hope games, in the UK (link here).
My Star Grave/ 5 parsec heroes Spawn of Speed are from the Rocker range (see more here and here), these are the rebellious heroes of the Space Sagas.
The Little One and I talked about doing a small campaign and I remembered these miniatures from the Fornlorn Hope range.
It contains 4 cops with hats, a female cop (with the standard, no hat/helmet and big hair), a guy with a big gun and a guy looking like Mussolini (Il Duce) doing a gesture measuring something with his hand (or something like this). I thought this was a perfect basis for a small Dictator and his closest guard. I wanted to make them look dark a menancing and went for the Vallejo Black Green (70980) as a base colour with some small highlighting with Vallejo Gunship Green (70895). Most of the other details where painted black then some highlights with very dark grey in two rounds. The advisors had some details in the Green basic to blend in with the “unit”.
So here is the “Captain” – Il Douchebag and his First Mate – Vlasik Beria.
The Supreme Leader’s Guard – Henrietta Herler with 4 troopers
Special Advisors – Mr Andersen, Scarf face and Mr Pee (these are from the Rebel Range).
The setting is the Planet Pot, a mineral rich planet mainly mined for Tin. Il Douchebag has been ruling the planet with an Iron Hand for donkeys years and his regime is oppressive. The Spawn of Speed band has been sent to help the underground resistance movement with information and supplies to start a coup to take over control, so a series of small adventures – a small campaign is being planned.
The kind of scenarios in the “ladder campaign” would be something like this:
First contact – getting onto the planet fight against some security forces and try to escape and find the resistaince.
Stealing some important designs to allow access to the presidential palace
Attack on the presidential palace, a fight against Soldiers to gain access to the palace.
Chasing the Dictator – a “get him before he escapes” kind of scenario
I also want to do some Pot Troopers and have ordered some of these (they are Raumjagers from Wargames Atlantic), I think they will look brilliant in the colour scheme above (i.e. Dark Green and Black, basically painted the jacket and the trousers in green).
Lots of things going on at the moment but getting in the occasional session and have been doing a fair few things recently.
A dropship for the 28mm stuff the Little One and I are doing, and also a really exciting Space Bus on its way.
Some clutter for Urban Sci-Fi gaming
A few more things for the Mutant 1984 project
Dropship
Following from our two games so far with the Stargrave rules (we showed some pictures from one of the games here), the Little One and I felt the need to get some shuttles of dropship without breaking the bank and we found a nice model from Mantic Games (model here) that seemed to fit the bill – it sells for about £25 but we managed to get one for £20 including postage from Ebay, as usually there are some re-sellers that may sell it to you cheaper than buying directly from Mantic.
I spray painted the model with Silver paint and used a series of washes to get a dark green metal with grime look. The funnies part of it was the last step which was done applying some Flory Models Grime Wash (I bought a few of these washes some time ago and I am really happy with the effect after in essence just dabbing it on with a brush (you can get them from here).
Really happy how it came out – quick but effective.
In addition we have order another flyer, a Space Bus from the 2001 movie, in 1/55 scale which hopefully will work (I will report back and let you know). It really works for me.
Clutter for Urban Sci-Fi Gaming
I had some 3D printed terrain I bought from Sabotag3d a year ago for my Judge Dredd project.
Put some paint on it this weekend trying to get a little bit of an overall cartoon feel to it all. All metallics are gold or silver base paint with contrast paint on top – I like the effect it gives.
And of course with a little bit of miniatures and other terrain.
Mutant 1984
Finally I have had some fun painting some miniatures from Fenris Games for my Mutant 1984 project, as per usual the the nobleman Guss af Edelhus in the forbidden zone in Muskö year 105 has an apperance, he is from Warlord Games.
Jageret Svin – bandit and explorer
Wolfram Varg and his fellow Hunters, some of the most sought after troubleshooters in the Pyri-Commonwealth
A Pit Guillotine (well actually a Gug from the Cthulhu Mythons)
/ Hope that was of some interest, have a good weekend (eventually)
I entered Fenris Games #Paintalloween in September last year. This is an annual thing that Ian runs with a few categories painting Fenris Games stuff, with the winners of each getting a £50 to spend on his products. I entered with my Death Dealer that in essence was a black painted model with some grey and Silver detailing, and some generous helpings of red and mainly yellow wash, I wanted to create the effect of a demonic knight riding on his supernatural stead through this lava landscape with the reflections from the lava on the horse. It was, like a lot of my stuff, a little bit of a trial and error and in the end it kind of worked from a distance, so take a step back and have another look at the picture below. The model is depicting the Death Dealer and is based on the famous 1973 paiting by Frazetta with the same name – more here. You make also recall it from the cover of the excellent album by Molly Hatchet in 1978.
I was lucky and landed a £50 gift card that I put to good use and bought a few things (with a little bit of a top up, they have a lot of really beautiful stuff) – by the way here is the link to the Shop. Go and have a look at what they have – there is so much to explore.
The key miniature I got was a model of the the Cthulhu monster Atlach-Nacha, described by Clark Ashton Smith in his Bood, The Seven Geases in 1934
“The dark form ran toward him with incredible swiftness. When it came near he saw that there was a kind of face on the squat ebon body, low down amid the several-jointed legs. The face peered up with a weird expression of doubt and inquiry; and terror crawled through the veins of the bold huntsman as he met the small, crafty eyes that were circled about with hair“
The model is big, the heads you can see on the head are in 28mm scale. And needs to be assembles, which is easy with some green stuff (or putty) and some super glue. I end to get all together, like here, then wait a while and go over it with a scalpel and file afterwards.I applied some contrast colour (yes I bought a fair few bottles that I have not utilised a lot, but they are brilliant for doing this kind of work on bigger models and quick.
Then I just filled in the details gave it a few washes and became really happy with the results, it is a fantastic model. I would love to see what a more accomplished painter would do with it.
With the Call of Cthulhu Rulebook as a background.
In other news, I recently found a sprue I must have got for free in a magazine with six Landsknechts, that I thought I could something fun with for the Mutant 1984 project.
I believe they were from this set (from Warlord Games)
So in usual style we need to do some headswaps with the fantastic critter heads from Sally 4th (link here) – there is fair amount of different heads for all your headswapping needs!
Assembled and ready for the splash!
This will be a an elite body guard unit to one of the big trading house – the rainbow team.
Star Grave and 5 Parsecs from Home
There is a Nick Starter currently running for the new Frost Grave variant in Space – Star Grave, there is about 2 week left when I am issuing this blog.
For me I just needed to see these two pictures (the first from the Mercenary Set and the Second from the Crew set) and I am in at least buying the figures, because these are perfect for the Mutant 1984 project. (look at those heads). You can check out the Nick Starter here. I just got all the plastic models without the rulebook which still comes with the bonus items.
In addition you should really check out another pre-order set and this is the new edition of Five Parsecs from Home that you can pre-order now (with immediate downloadable PDF copy) for delivery in May this year, same time as Star Grave. Well you will need the same miniatures for both so why not get both sets. I have bought the Five Parsecs book and will only get the Star Grave miniatures (You can check out his game and pre-order the book here).
I have played the earlier edition of FPFH and really enjoyed it. I have got the Little One reasonably interested so we may take this for a spin at some point in the future.
Anyway, always a good Mutant 1984 angle to be found.
Some of you have been here before may know that I have a sweet spot for the Swedish Roleplaying game Mutant from 1984. It was my first encounter with a Roleplaying game and it blew my mind away. We, the Little One and I, have been looking for some rules to use for some miniature gaming in this world and one of the rule sets we have been trying has been the Mutant and Death Ray Guns (MDRD) from Ganesha Games. We really enjoy them and with a few modifications as detailed below we can have a damn good time.
Here is the standard intro I have been using for the Mutant (1984) world:
The background blur of the game makes me reflect on these wonderful words by H.P. Lovecraft, “We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of the infinity and it was not meant that we should voyage very far”. Basically following a deadly and incurable epidemic caused by samples from a mission to Mars the human civilization collapses. The survivors build enclaves and start experimentation on humans and animals, in effect creating mutants, to see how they will survive outside the enclaves. However conflicts arises between the enclaves and it leads to a nuclear war sealing the fate of the world.
That magic box from 1984
Fast forward a few hundred years and the from the ashes new civilizations start to emerge with mutated humans and animals, some “pure” humans and even some mutants with mental powers. There are remnants of the old worlds scattered all around, and some androids/robots from the old days are still around. In addition there are certain areas where the effect of radiation has left some strange effects on the flora and fauna and these areas are called “Forbidden Zones”.
The game is set in Scandinavia, but not as we know it today, and the general level of new technology is equivalent to that of the 19th Century, give or take. There are steam engines, muskets and some emerging rifle like weapons, heliogram for communication, etc. Some of the old technology has survived but is rare.
Notes on our take on the rules
War has been raging on for 200 years and the planet lies devastated after countless weapons of mass destruction has been set free. A new dark age has started.
"After mankind’s self-inflicted downfall, other beings strive for dominance. Humanoid mutants, androids, mutated plants and animals fight each other for resources such as water, weapons, fuel and food. It’s a brutal world that knows no hope or respite. A world with only two kinds of inhabitants: those who perish and those who survive." (from the introduction to the rule book)
The rules are based on the famous Song of Blades and Heroes engine, it plays in about an hour, it is a small skirmish games and normally uses a handful of characters (5) per side. There is a random system of generating characters or a points system can be used – this is especially useful for matching the miniatures you have.
The different character types are: • Pure Humans • Mutants • Mutant Animals • Mutant Plants • Androids • Robots • Wretched (like Zombies)
These match very well to the Mutant 1984 universe and most things are relative easy to build using these rules. Each type has different access to weapons/equipments and traints, etc.
Activation is based on each player choosing to activate a model to do 1 to 3 action, for action a die is rolled and a score is needed to be successful for each die. If two failures are recorded the turn goes over to the opponent. This means that all models can perform at least one action without risk (you only roll one die, if you fail that is only one failure). For two actions there is a risk of two failures and in addition if going for three actions the risk increases of having at least two failure meaning the turn is over for the player. This is a fun part of the system as it forces the player make some choices. Combat is straightforward.
We have been a little more liberal with the points system than suggested in the book in terms of building the characters. We have allowed the mutants a wider choice of skills and equipment to reflect the fact that the world is a little more stable and the mutants/animals are perhaps a little less feral than suggested in the MDRG world setting as written. We had great fun in doing this together, based on some of the many models we have.
In addition we have introduced primitive firearms (single shot rifles, musket, blunderbuss, etc) based more or less on the rules in the Songs of Drums and Tomahawk rules (another great rule set from Ganesha Games).
We have added these to the Ranged Weapons table as follows:
Musket (2H), Range – Long, Combat – Users, Multiple Shots – No (Pts cost 4)
Rifle (2H), Range – Long, Combat – Users+1, Multiple Shots – No (Pts cost 5)
Pistol, Range – Short, Combat – Users, Multiple Shots – No (Points cost 4)
Blunderbuss (2H), Range – Short, Combat – Users+1, Multiple Shots – No (Pts cost 5)
In addition these primitive firearms require two consecutive actions to reloading (in the same turn). In addition the blunderbuss works like a shotgun in the rules (just less efficient and with the loading constraint).
We bought the MDRG rules in PDF format from Ganesha Games homepage, link here, they are $8. Splendid value for money and highly recommended.
Here are some example forces we have used in some of our games.
The Pyri Commonwealth Patrol
This gang is a regulary military patrol of The Pyri Commonwealth’s finest – the Riflemen.
They have been tracking a gang of Cocks that have been pestering the locals using technology from the olden days, killed several and caused property damage. Their objective is to stop the gang and seize their high tech weapons – with unconditional force if so required. The unit is only armed with old style weapons apart from Rifleman Hayya who has an old tech sniper rifle. The unit has to rely on its stealth and shooting accuracy to win over the more heavily armed opposition – but not forgetting about its hidden asset, the slow but deadly Rifleman Lacoste.
This weekend I and the Little One tried out a version of the Men who would be Kings rules by Dan Mersey, we played the Skirmish version (kind of, we actually played it like we had 12 figures per unit although we only used 6 models, but we needed two figures worth in terms of damage to remove a model) with some borrowed items from the FOCH WW1 rules adaptation that you can download from Wargames Illustrated here (covering Tanks, anti-tank guns and squad LMGs). We call it the Mutants who would be Emperors – as it is set in the weird world that is my take on the Mutant universe as presented in the Swedish Rpg from the 1980s (your Mutant may vary, more here).
Basically following a deadly and incurable epidemic caused by samples from a mission to Mars the human civilization collapses. The survivors build enclaves and start experimentation on humans and animals, in effect creating mutants, to see how they will survive outside the enclaves. However conflicts arises between the enclaves and it leads to a nuclear war sealing the fate of the world. Fast forward a few hundred years and the from the ashes new civilizations start to emerge with mutated humans and animals, some “pure” humans and even some mutants with mental powers. There are remnants of the old worlds scattered all around, and some androids/robots from the old days are still around. In addition there are certain areas where the effect of radiation has left some strange effects on the flora and fauna and these areas are called “Forbidden Zones”. The game is set in Scandinavia, but not as we know it today, and the general level of new technology is equivalent to that of the early 19th Century, give or take. There are steam engines, muskets and some emerging rifle like weapons, heliogram for communication, etc. Some of the old technology has survived but is rare.
In short anything goes, it is a world that has started to re-build itself with a technology level of about 18th century give and take but there are some old tech weapons floating around – this is represented by the three different level of firearms in the rules (antiquated rifles, rifled muskets, bolt action rifle, basically differing in terms of range. We may review this moving forward and consider some reloading rules), basically giving each model using one of these a 2d6 (as we are using 6 per unit) in terms of rolling for damage. For other weapons (automatic weapons, lasers, etc) we assume them having a damage of 5d6 (each LMG costs 1 point) – this gave some units we used a very high fire power rating – being difficult to take down but not impossible for a unit prepared to charge in and fight hand-to-hand. We also used a tank and anti-tank gun in line with the FUCH rules.
The scenario was a straightforward fight between two border detachments, one from the large Pyri-Commonwealth and the other from the small but proud Jemtland north of the Pyri-Commonwealth, during the short but eventful Yran Hostilities that almost led to an outright war in the year 96 (or 2550 if you still count in AD).
The Pyri-Commonwealth side has stopped to re-supply at a depot that is well stocked with water and other essentials, very close to the entrance to a small forbidden zone in the Hamra region in the northern part of the Pyri-Commonwealth. The depot is run by the Nicholas von Rijn trading company and a good deal has been made, a few drinks have been had and there are rumours that Furir Dozibugger has had a few too many already (Typical for the Pertorian Guard – elite status in what?, drinking and hazard gaming). There has been reports about some mutated monsters in the area – a walking murder tree and a giant beetle – both are very aggressive towards humans and extremely dangerous. There is enough firepower in the detachment to take them down but invariably a few men or women would have to put their lives on the line in case of an encounter – and they do not fight with caution. Suddenly the Rifle units comes back running, they report movements on the other side of the old ruins – “It is those damn Jemts again. Prepare for engagement…. to arms, man the tank and attack!”.
These are the units we used for this battle:
The Pyri Commonwealth Detachment
Skyttesoldater of the Nordholmia Battalion (Models from Perry Miniatures, Swedish Napoleonic firing line with command with some conversions, link here)
Skyttesoldater of the Nordholmia Battalion (Models from Perry Miniatures, Swedish Napoleonic firing line with command with some conversions, link here)
Skyttesoldater of the Nordholmia Battalion (Models from Perry Miniatures, Swedish Napoleonic firing line with command with some conversions, link here)
Pyri Riflemen with a LMG per section (Warlords 95th Rifles with conversion, link here, and female officer of unknown origin bought on Ebay).
Pyri Riflemen with a LMG per section (Warlords 95th Rifles with conversion, link above, and female riflewoman of unknown origin bought on Ebay).
The sharpshooting Pertorian Guards – armed with Repeater Berry Rifles. Only flaw is the section commanders habit of being drunk (models from Ironclad Miniatures with a conversion, link here)
A tank – this is an experimental model with a steam engine and armed with a machine gun. There are only two things that can cause it any major harm the AT rifle carried by the Cocks or the strong jaws of the Giant Beetle. Tank from Ironclad miniatures (link here)
The Jemtland Detachment
Fusiliers of the Skogsmulle Battalion (ACW Perry Plastics with some conversions, link here)
Fusiliers of the Skogsmulle Battalion (again, ACW Perry Plastics with some conversions)
Bullet Spitter (Kulspottare, Gatling Gun unknown make, with crew being made from Perry ACW plastics)
Free-shooters of the Skogsmulle Battalion (conversions from Perry ACW units)
Free-shooters of the Skogsmulle Battalion (conversions from Perry ACW units)
And of course the wandering monsters, they will attack anything moving within 6 inches and anything firing at them with a movement of 6″+1d6, attacks at 4+ and will deliver 12d6 worth of damage as well as taking 12 points of damage (both counting as being in light cover due to protective bark and scale). The murder tree is from Fenris Games (a dark young of Shub-Niggurath – link here) and the Giant Beetle a plastic toy (made in China) that I was gifted by Michael Leck.
What follows in not a AAR but a set of pictures from the fighting, with some comments, as we were mostly using this to try out the rules – we had a blast playing and the craziness of it all really adds to the fun! What made it even better was that the Little One had done most of the planning and I just had to, more or less, sit down and play. We plan to run the game again and perhaps we will do a better narrative of the battle then.
The men of the Pyri-Commonwealth ready for Action!
The set-up the Jems coming in from the right and the Pyris on the left with the trading station and the water tanks. The Giant Beetle ended up in the middle of the table and the Murder tree in the top of the picture next to the old truck and the ruin.
About there..
The Jemts are advancing!
Tank Gliding in to action with the intention to put itself on the road and put down some fire down the road. First getting rid of the Giant Beetle.
Following some really bad dice the Beetle just got angry and went for the tank, starting to damage the hull with its strong jaws. The Machine Gun firing another burst and jammed, it would be up to the muskets to do finish the job.
Meanwhile a steady advance on the other side of the table
Some good shooting later from the men of the Pyri-Commonwealth and the Beetle flipped over dead. But the tank had sustained substantial damage from the beetle.
The other group of Pyri Rifles set to take out the Mercenary Squad
…behind the cars
A skirmishing action trying to take a few of the Cocks out!
Only one Cock lost and the retaliatory fire with a team full of machine guns took the rifle team down from 6 to 1 – game over.
Overview…
The Cocks are waiting to take out the tank and anyone else coming into their view!
The Pertorian Guard were slow to get going as the had started drinking early that day.
The tank with an unjammed MG moved over the dead Beetle (made in China).
Pyris finest managed to press on but managed to irritate the murder tree.
Another bad firing from the Tank’s MG and it jammed again.
Some fine shooting by the remaining rifles and the Murder tree went down after a few exchanges.
House to house fighting! I have to agree it looked really weird with all these different uniforms and the setting – absolutely loved it.
The Cocks maneuvering around to take out the tank (like if it was a threat anyway)
Hey mate stop waving the flag – they will know we are here!
This is also the moment when the Cocks used their Anti-tank ability and knock-out the tank (it had already taken some damage and just needed a small push to go useless) – we could not find any of the smoke markers so I let you use your imagination.
Nothing more retro than Wimpy! Uber Delivery – the boys are gaming!
It became a dragged out firefight!
…until only one Pyri group were left standing and pushed back into the ruins!….
THE END – the last firefight before all the Pyri-Commonwealth gave up!
Some more pictures the Little One took before we tidied it all up!
Absolute blast. It is funny that I am playing a game with my son being the same age I was when I first adventured in this world 35 years ago. / hope that was of some interest!
I recently ordered the Seven Days to the River Rhine rule set from Great Escape Games (link here) and have ordered a few Soviet and Swedish cold war tanks and infantry from Heroics and Ros to play it in 6mm.
I had a quick read-through of the rules and they seem straightforward and clear on an initial read through. There are a number of videos on how to play the game and viewing these I feel confident in running the game. There few nice mechanisms that make me eager to give them a try, like the activation / reaction / change of initiative rules. It has a simple but not simplistic feel to it. I also like the “damage” system where the units does not need to be destroyed but can be overwhelmed and can pull back to recover, etc.
The Little One and I, decided to play a game this coming weekend but as we are still waiting for the Cold War miniatures I thought we could use some 6mm Sci-Fi Forces instead. I do not aim to do any modification to the rules, I am just using the Sci-Fi stuff in lieu of the Cold War ones.
I have plenty of vehicles but a limited amount of infantry that looks ok, however I recently ordered some of the excellent 6mm Sci-Fi Polish Infantry from Brigade Models (link here).
These will form part of the infantry element for our armies and then we will use some of the many 6mm Sci-Fi vehicles I have (also from Brigade Models).
I think they work excellent as a general futuristic infantry type, not too advanced tech or combat suited (that is not what I am after for this diversion). In fact it is the best 6mm infantry of this type I have seen.
I bought four packs of infantry (the come in packs of 25) at £2.75 each, with the vehicles a total outlay of about £15. They are based on small Flames of War sized MDF bases and Commanders on smaller ones. I plan to use these for Quadrant 13 and Future War Commander.
For APC I used the Magnus APC (link here) and the Small Vehicle is a Wizard Jeep (link here).
Simple fast paint job, tried to convey the illusion of some camouflage, it works from a distance.
We will use these for both sides this weekend, unless I finish the other set of infantry I am working on from Brigade Models.
I will do a Write-up next weekend on how it went – looking forward to it. I hope they play as well as they read.
This, as indicated by the Part 2, is a follow-up of the posting last week where I discussed some painting approaches we have taken to quickly complete the necessary painting of the 2 No. Star Wars Legion Base Sets the Little One got for Christmas, so we could get it on a table and play it. It is worth checking out that blog post here.
Today we will cover:
Some Tatooine like buildings we got through Ebay
Approach to basing and terrain mats
The barricades
Storing the stuff in the Base Box
Tatooine Buildings
Last time I showed some Tatooine style of buildings we ordered from e-bay, they arrived last week and looked great. Being 3D printed they had some layers visible, but not too much to upset us.
We added some Vallejo mud paste on the models here and there to add some further interest. It was then primed with black gesso.
Then from left to right, heavy drybrush with the buffy colour (let dry), then a wash with sepia ink (diluted with water say 1/2 ink/water), then drybrush with the lighter colour.
We then detailed some part with a drybrush of saddle brown followed by a leather red (Vallejo), whilst other parts in metallic bronze. I then washed these details with a rust wash. The moisture collectors were painted like the barricades below. We think it is good enough for the table.
I have bought another two buildings from the same seller at eBay (3dwgprinted), and will paint them in the same style once they arrive (this should give us a good start with some terrain).
Some thoughts on Terrain for Star Wars Legion
One of the cool things with Star Wars are the different environments where the action could take place. It could be a fight on Tatooine in a desert environment, in a forest like Endor, snow like Hoth, or in space ship (like the opening scene from a New Hope) or a base. This, to us, is one of the many fascinating aspects of a sci-fi fantasy world. The bases the game comes with are dark grey for the Imperials and Burgundy red for the Rebels, they are 3mm thick (see picture below).
Here are ours by the way.
We could have left them like this or put some texture on them, but what? – Space based flooring, desert sand, forest, snow? Instead we decided to go for Clear Acrylic bases, and got them from here https://justlasered.co.uk/shop/star-wars-legion-clear-bases/ .
Incidentally they do some other cool stuff, worth checking out (these are in 28mm scale).
Sorry, back to the bases.
This is how the bases turned out and how they look on a gaming surface (based on a sneaky little skirmish we had over the weekend using the Little Ones “Alcoholic-Free Beers and Pretzel Rules”). I think the bases works well.
We have ordered a 6 by 3 desert mat after shopping around a little bit – it looks like this.
It looks good and will also be useful for some of my Mahdist war stuff I was working on last year as well. However the piece of fabric we used to take the pictures above I have to admit looks smashing too.
This was a piece of fabric bought from ebay. It sells in 1/2 meter lengths and is about 1 metre wide, so you would need to buy 2 No. for a 3 by 3 mat (total cost of £13) and 4 No. for a 6 by 3 mat (total cost of £26). It is shown in the screen shot below.
The things is that there are many different colour schemes of this pattern/style which would give you the ability to get a few different options for the look of your table.
I have only bought the one shown in the pictures above (so not sure how the other patterns would look on the table). Also remember that these are pieces of fabric, not comparable with the quality of the wargames mats in cloth or other materials you can buy commercially, they also come in a 1 metre width (that is 3 ¼ feet so will not do your normal 4 feet width) – but perhaps worth considering to give some variety. It is hard to beat £13 for a 3 by 3 mat. I might have ordered one or two more varieties and will report back once they arrive.
Barricades
There are some barricades that comes with the game – we are yet to figure out how these would work in practice! I suppose they are included as a substitute for other terrain, but I always find them funny especially if both sides are using them. It is a little bit like some kind of paintball range where the opponents meet up instead of a more believable skirmish in a more improvised location, or where only one side has set up defences. However perhaps I am overthinking this.
We base coated these with black gesso and then dry brushed them with a medium grey followed by a very light grey. We then used a pale grey wash over them (we used the Vallejo Pale Grey Wash).
Storage in the Base Box
We cut a few pieces of 3mm foamboard we had lying around to allow us more efficiently utilise one of the Legion Boxes for storing the miniatures (all the other stuff fits in one of the two boxes). This is how they were cut (all the same length as one side of the box). Making sure the walker would fit as shown.
Then inserted in the box.
We then cut another piece on top to be able to store more soldiers, and added a handle to be able to lift it up easily – we used an old little toy model cat.
Perfect (not for travelling around with, but enough for us to gently put back into storage).
Plenty of space to fit those speeder bikes when done, and further expansions.
More or less done.
But that cat does look scared, with all those rebels around! / Hope that was of some interest!
I did put the final touches on the two basic DreadBall teams this weekend, I am now ready for Season One! The season was originally “aired” in 2014 or something like that. I am looking forward to this! If you know nothing about DreadBall then check it out here. However if you are late to it, there are other variants and I believe a second edition in the making. Having had a little look this weekend, the second hand market on eBay is favourable if you want to pick up some of the older stuff.
I promised the Little One a game but he fell asleep long before I had finished splashing paint – maybe we will get another opportunity this coming week! I did put them on the board to see how they would look. Well what can I say it is me doing 28mm so I feel like the object of that famous Sting/Police song about the possessive lover – Every Breath you Take (slightly modified I must admit).
Every brushstroke you make and every detail you overpaint Every mold line mistake, every inky stain, I’ll be watching you Every layer you add, every wash you make, I’ll be watching you
I’ll be watching you!
I am very happy though and the Little One will love thrashing me on the field!
I wanted the RefBot to look a little bit C3POish! It is a mean looking lady!
However, as always, when I do get the finger out and finish an old project I tend to get some new inspiration so I got about 6 additional MVPs from eBay – they are mercenary veteran players that can be used to enhance a team. The cosmic order will be restored on the lead, or in this case the plastic, mountain. Old Shiny never rusts!
I suspect I will get the Ratmen (Veer-Myn) and the Dwarves (Forgefathers) team as well in a not too distant future – but I have decided I would do so as a reward when the MVPs are home and dry following the paint job (Sounds far too disciplined, doesn’t it?). As stated already, I am looking forward to this and the Better One did say that she would like me to do more sports – so here we go!
I also did some progress on my 6mm SciFi project – the Blue and the Green army. We intend to give the Future War Commander rules a go using these.
Next week I hope to start the Rommel bases (as discussed last time here, I got the miniatures this week but wanted to get some things off the workbench before getting into it. The 3mm tanks are SMALL!, but I suppose they should be) and also do some aircraft for the Sci-Fi project as I have some nice models I got before the holiday. I want each army to have recon forces, infantry, tanks, artillery and air forces to allow combined arms type of games.
And yes I need to get started with this years large GNW project at some point – but not yet!…Not yet! (as Juba said in the Gladiator!).
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