Going Over to the Dark Side

I taught my nephew how to play Star Wars Armada.  Being a fan of all things Star Wars, it was a hit with him.  It was also his first experience with miniature wargaming.

I took a few pictures to show the painted TIEs in action and to get better shots of the glittered felt cloth I've been using as a mat.

I've been pretty busy lately, with not much time for painting.  I like the way the painted fighters look compared to the unpainted ones, so plan on continuing doing more.

Just before that Imperial Star Destroyer went bye-bye...

Greater Craters

Craters/shellholes are perfect terrain elements for any modern to sci-fi gaming setting.

Years ago I bought a Plastruct set of vacuum-formed sheets that were filled with craters.  I had used these in WWII games.

6mm mech and 28mm model for scale.

There's nothing wrong with them, they work just fine -- except that for gaming they don't provide a natural feel since they are two regular, rectangular sheets.

I decided I would try my hand at making my own.  I came up with the idea of using the Plastruct craters as molds for casting and I filled them up with pva glue (I was really broke back then).

I glued my new 'castings' onto scraps of wood I had around from other modeling efforts, covered them in fine gravel and painted them.

I made a dozen or so of these.

They worked out well.  Not the most beautiful of craters, but they are functional.


One day I was in my local shop and saw the Gale Force 9 crater sets.  I was looking to spend some money there and nothing else caught my eye, so I picked these up.

Prepainted, semi-flexible resin.

There are two sets.  One set of small craters and one set of larger ones.  The small set has several pieces similar to those pictured above.

Big booms went here.

The larger crater set has two craters and a ruined 15mm house.

They have a nice look to them, they came already painted and are easy to throw down on the table.
I would have preferred them to be a bit deeper. 

If you are feeling lazy, looking to burn money (as I was) or just like the look of these, I think they are a decent terrain investment.  The smaller set seems to give more "bang" for the buck, especially if you are not going to use the small 15mm ruined building.

Homemade Asteroids - A Failed Experiment

While perusing the local craft shop, I noticed the paint section had some natural sponges for painting with.  They look a lot like little asteroids.

I had a plan.  I took a clear plastic bin I had and put some paint in it.

I mixed it with hot water.

I put the sponges in the water.

And made sure they soaked up the paint.

I then left them out to dry.  When I checked on them a couple of days later, the color mostly ran out of them and it looks like they started growing some unwanted additions.

:-(

Sparkling Spacemats!

I've been getting into Star Wars Armada and Star Wars X-Wing games.  There is also the space combat aspect of Robotech to consider.

A necessary accessory to a space combat game is a space combat game mat.

There are plenty of wonderful mats out there with artists' renditions or even Hubble photographs.  These are quality productions with beautiful prints.  I had considered these but they are costly.

I decided to go cheap.

I visited the local fabric shop.  The store had a few space themed prints, but in the end I chose felt with glitter.  The felt will keep ship models from sliding around much, while the glitter produces an effective starfield that doesn't visually overwhelm.

Imperial Star Destroyer not included.

Total cost for two yards of cloth: $16.00.

In the future I will probably want a nebula-style setting.  I will have to keep my eye out for suitable cloth or just buy a wargaming mat.

Bates Hotel

Today I finished another of the Burn In Designs buildings.  This one is sold as a hotel and it has the definite look of a modern hotel.

Assembled and sanded.

As the others, this was easy to put together using wood glue.

Spare bits of mdf were added for unobtrusive roof details.

The covered entryway seemed like it would be a perfect candidate for adding a patio.  I took one of the entrance arches from the Burn In Designs hospital and added it here.  It fit perfectly in the space.

If you have been following this blog then you know I've become fond of adding styrene strips for enhanced details on these buildings.  This one is no different.  The edges of the roof have been lined with strips of styrene.

Tiled plasticard for the patio.  This sized tile didn't allow for a snug fit, something would have to be done with those edges.

Paint job work in progress

Here is a Zentraedi battlepod added to show how the 40mm base will fit on the patio.

Female power armor -- the 50mm base doesn't fit in, but on the raised edges.  That needed consideration.

Painted the building.  I did a three-tone color scheme.

As usual, I pasted oak tag on the interior of the building to cover the windows.

I solved the misfitted plasticard problem with clump foliage along the edges.

Spartan destroid for size.

Comparison with a couple of other recently completed buildings.  Behind is another Burn In Designs kit, while in front is a GameCraft house.

3 Shades of Grey

Just a quick post to show a couple of more acrylic houses from GameCraft.
I did a sloppy sort of job painting these.  They had been sitting on my painting desk half-finished for a while and I just wanted to get them done and move on to other clutter. 
I wish they came out better, but I'm going to leave them be for now and perhaps revisit them in the future.

Four story house with styrene details added.

The balsa chimney was crushed a bit on the bottom.  It shouldn't show too much on the table.

Unpainted version.

Plants in the planters!

A larger, two family house.

Gunky windows and visible varnish streaks on the wall.  Not so bad from far away, but disappointing.

The bottom floor is a shade darker than the upper ones, but that doesn't come through well here.

The Two Towers

One of the Burn In Designs buildings that I found most interesting is the office building that has 'two towers' with a connecting piece in the center.  There are actually two such buildings -- today I'm showing off the smaller one.

Here it is sanded and filled.  Like the other Burn In Designs buildings, this one is mdf.

 

On on of the towers I put a spare bit of mdf to serve as a HVAC unit.  It's flat and so should allow for the impression of detail while still allowing large based models to have some stability.

I added some styrene strip trim to the tower roofs.  It looks cleaner like this.

In the middle section I added thicker styrene strips along the edges.  I envision that the center section would be accessible to pedestrians.

I included mdf brick "planters".  I originally planed to do a roof-top garden type setup there, but removed many additions to facilitate the bases of the mecha models.

The bases are either 40mm or 50mm wide.  The creator of the building had this game in mind when designing it and his planning shows.

The painted and window-covered building...
I left the large entrances in the center of the building open.  I can see possibly having a driveway or even street passing through there.

Empty planters.

Added flowering plants.  I like it.

I've been having fun with this project.  Although I've focused more on Judge Dredd lately, I haven't abandoned this one.  I enjoy slowly building up my city, putting together the kits and figuring out practical ways to enhance the way they look while still maintaining their gaming-utility.

Although I have been also building the models and painting them, my main focus for this project has been terrain-first.  It's a new approach to me.

Fleur de Lease

I've been in a miniature painting, rather than building painting, mood.  But  I did manage to finish off another couple of GameCraft acrylic houses.

In one of those "duh" moments I realized I could have been using L-shaped styrene strips on the building corners to hide the joints and increase strength.

One of my ideas for enhancing these was to add window boxes.  For these I used quarter round strips.

My balsa strip reserve was getting short, so on these buildings the chimneys don't go all the way to the ground.  I don't think it will be too noticeable.

Basing material was used to add plants to the planters.