Introducing 'ScrapJacks' to PaulOG via Discord

Hi All,

I hosted PaulOG for a game of 'ScrapJacks' over Discord the other day and he's written up a terrific post-game write-up. Check it out!

Cheers!

Curt

Robo-Mule for Space Salvage Games

My local crew has been gamely trying all the recent space salvage rulesets I've foisted upon them (Kosmika, Scrapjacks and soon Legitimate Salvage). So, I thought it only fair to give our intrepid crew of space truckers a bit of help, with the addition of a robotic mule to schlep their gear and hard-won salvage. 

This is a figure from Artificers Mini to which I've added, literally, a load of additional stowage to assist its crew as they delve into the Deep Dark of spooky wrecked starships and abandoned space stations.

Coming up: More Droids!

- Curt

Radioactive Space Zombies!

Continuing on with my Space Salvage diversion, I figure I need to amass some adversaries for my Space Cowboys to face off against. And what better to start that with a group of Radiation Space Zombies! 

These models are 3d prints from Pascal Blanche over at MyMinFactory.

I really like the animation of these guys. They have that herky-jerky menace one often attributes to the undead. 

I decided to try out some fluorescent effects o these fellas, thinking they're driven by some malignant, sentient radiation similar to something in the original Heavy Metal movie (love that flick). 

'Bad Plutonium Nyborg, man...' 

The bases for this project are all metal washers as I wanted the extra weight with these 3d prints. I just tarted them up with bits and bobs of plasticard, clipped tubing and 3d printer supports. 

Next, will be some robotic assistance for our space truckers.

Thanks for popping by!

- Curt

Deep Space Salvage Crew

This spring we see three(!) rulesets being released focusing on the theme of creepy, claustrophobic, salvage work in deep space. Black Site Studios has recently published 'Kosmika'; in early March, Patrick Todoroff's released 'Scrapjacks'; and Will RD has just closed a Kickstarter for the Forbidden Psalm spinoff, 'Legitimate Salvage'.

As one can imagine, all of these rules draw heavily from 1979's  'Alien', which depicts a gritty crew of 'space truckers' being redirected by their corporate paymasters to a mysterious planet to investigate a beacon, where, of course, everything go horribly, horribly wrong. 'Alien' is an all time favourite of mine, with fond memories of being scared out of my wits while watching it, knees to chest, through half closed fingers. Glorious.

So I've been very keen to try these various rules out to see how they do in portraying that balance between space horror, corporate salvage and lo-tech combat. Each of the systems require a very low figure count, which is good as I had no appropriate figures or terrain. This quickly needed to be addressed.

The terrain was easily sorted with an order to the good folks over at TTCombat. I picked out a selection of kits from their 'Chroma' Archology and Refinery ranges. These are all pre-coloured kits, just assemble and you're off. Terrific for those who're not keen on painting MDF terrain after spending hours simply assembling the stuff. Highly recommended.

Stacked examples from TTCombat's 'Chroma' Archology range.

The figures required a bit of spelunking through MyMiniFactory, but I found these excellent designs from Papsikels Miniatures depicting the void suits worn by the 'Nostromo' crew. I just love these designs. So heavy, ponderous and baroque. Even after over 45 years since the film's release, they still look like something one would wear for salvage/exploration in deep space.

For the spacesuits' colours, I tried to keep it similar to the film, with the faded pink for Dallas, yellow for Kane, and the blue Lambert. I also did up a green suit as an extra, as some of the rules allow for larger salvage crews. 

I wanted to mimic the corroded verdigris seen on the original helmets, armoured shoulders and chest plates, so tried out the AK Verdigris paint set, which, with two simple steps, worked a treat. Recommended if you want to go for a similar effect for bells and old brass fittings.

I'll follow-up with more figures (flora and fauna) along with a few short reviews on the rules as we play through them.

Thanks for popping by!

- Curt

Some Sci-Fi Rogues

Hi All!

I stutter-steped with these guys at the beginning of the Painting Challenge back in December, and they've been waiting on their paint holders, half done, balefully staring at me, willing me to pick them up to get them across the line. So, I finally relented, and here they are, done.

These rogues can fit in for a multitude of sci-fi skirmish games (Five Parsecs from Home, Kill Sample Process, Galactic Heroes, etc.). A cast of characters from Sci-Fi Central Casting.

This yellow-spotted green alien dude is from Knucklebone Miniatures. 

The sculpt is great (love the re-breather and chunky blaster), but I found that my initial colour blocking really sucked. Nonetheless, the vibe finally hit and after a few washes, blends and highlights he staggered into his own. I quite like him now. 

The beastman is another great sculpt (From Imitation of Life). He looks a very capable and no-nonsense kind of fella. Very much the veteran mercenary. 

If I were to do him again, I'd snap off one of his horns midway to give him a more hard-bitten, down-on-his-luck look. 

'Don' and 'Sancho' were must haves for me when I first saw them. Thes are prints from Imitation of Life as well. 

The Quixote figure has this terrific disheveled-but-oddly-regal beard, like much of the art depicting him. I thought I'd make his armour a multicoloured hodgepodge to reflect his somewhat hapless background. I made his visor rose-tinted, which I think is suitable for this particular romantic knight.

I added a power-feed to his rifle as it seemed the thing to do.

As to poor Sancho, I especially like his lugubrious face, seen here faithfully schlepping Quixote's kit without complaint, his BAR rifle as the ready to support his slightly crazed master when needed. 

His pasta strainer helmet and oxygen tank cracks me up.

The gunslinger, also a 3d print from Imitation of Life, is a bit soft in some of his detail, but I think his pose is spot-on.

I think of him as a young desperado, constantly getting into scrapes, eager to make his mark. 

So there you are, five more rogues ready for high-jinx and adventure in the far-off starlanes. 

Thanks for dropping by!

- Curt

'Lab Eagle' from 'Space 1999'

Hi All!

Like many hobbyists of a certain 'vintage', I was a child of the 'Space Race' between the USA and the USSR, with the Apollo and Skylab missions occurring throughout my early childhood. Everything that was in vogue during that time was 'space age' and 'futuristic'.  It seemed that the world had this optimism that, after the lunar landings, we could do absolutely anything. Riding upon this 'space enthusiasm', in 1966 NBC launched 'Star Trek' (which surprisingly debuted 2 days earlier on CBC here in Canada), with 'UFO' coming along in 1970. 

My first experience of 'Star Trek' was when in went into re-run syndication, and like many around my age, I was completely entranced with it. Nonetheless, as good as 'Star Trek' was, there was another show launched in 1975 that, for me, eclipsed Captain Kirk and the USS Enterprise, and that was 'Space: 1999'.

I've shamelessly copied Wikipedia's description of the show as it's better than anything I could do:

The premise of Space: 1999 centres on the plight of the inhabitants of Moonbase Alpha, a scientific research centre located within the crater Plato in the Moon's northern hemisphere. Humanity had been storing its nuclear waste in vast disposal sites on the far side of the Moon, but when an unknown form of "magnetic radiation" is detected, the accumulated waste reaches critical mass and causes a massive thermonuclear explosion on 13 September 1999. The force of the blast propels the Moon like an enormous booster rocket, hurling it out of Earth orbit and into deep space at colossal speed, thus stranding the 311 personnel stationed on Alpha. The runaway Moon, in effect, becomes the "spacecraft" on which the protagonists travel, searching for a new home. Not long after leaving Earth's Solar System, the wandering Moon passes through a black hole and later through a couple of "space warps" which push it even further out into the universe. During their interstellar journey, the Alphans encounter an array of alien civilisations, dystopian societies, and mind-bending phenomena previously unseen by humanity.

'Space: 1999' had this vibe that was completely different from 'Star Trek'. One could definitely see 'Star Trek' originating from the United States, whereas 'Space: 1999' was from the UK and Europe. 'Space: 1999' seemed darker, more realistic and quite introspective. The stakes seemed higher and there was more of an edge running through it. Though it only lasted for two seasons, I thought it made its stamp on the genre and I still enjoy watching re-runs when I come across them.

I really liked the technology of the show as it seemed quite practical and utilitarian, but still stylized and kinda groovy. The Moonbase itself was wonderful, with all these pods radiating from a central core, and the costumes and gear were excellent as well (so very 70s). 

You can see how these uniforms influenced the designs for 'Star Trek: The Motion Picture'

Maya was such a hottie and rather kick-ass as well.

My absolute favourite bit of 'Space: 1999' kit was the 'Eagle Transporters'. These were girder-framed spaceships and kind of insectoid-looking in design. They had this neat modularity about them, and could be configured by swapping out their central module to fit a wide assortment of missions. As the show did not have 'beam-me-down transporters' like Star Trek, the 'Eagles' were often pivotal to many of the episodes. 

I was absolutely transfixed by them. So cool.

There was this wonderful model railway shop in Saskatoon that had all the diecast Dinky Toy versions of the Eagles.

I can tell you, I spent many an hour with my nose pressed against the display cabinet glass, pining for them. I remember them being quite expensive at the time, and I knew very well what the answer would be from my parents if I asked for one, so I just made due with looking and daydreaming of what it would be like to have one. 

I've looked at these on Ebay several times but have not pulled the trigger on one... yet. I'm sure it will happen as nostalgia and disposable income often make a convergence, so it's only a matter of time. Nonetheless, for this post I thought I'd print an Eagle and try my hand at painting it up. 

This is a 'Lab Eagle' with the central module having booster rockets and little more room for, you know, lab stuff (besides what bad thing can happen in a space lab...). The model is only about 3 inches long, so about 1:600 scale.

I have to admit, it was a bit of a rush job as this week was busy, but I think it captures the fundamentals of the original design, though there is some damage to the exhaust (damn aliens). Perhaps I'll print a slightly larger version, but that will be another day.

Thanks a bunch for stopping by!

- Curt

Third-Tier Security Mooks

Hi There!

For this submission I have a team of third-tier security mooks to help quell all sorts of volatile situations. Things like chaos incursions, vehicle parking arguments and particularly aggressive seniors at grocery checkouts.

These models are from Knucklebone Miniatures, one of my favourite 3d designers.

I wanted a quasi 'Mega-City One' look for them so went with a distressed yellow ochre for their shoulder and knee pads. Also to give them a little 'somethin' somethin' so I provided them with snazzy looking chromatic visors - besides, the bad guys need something to aim for...

I had a few of mishaps removing supports with a couple of their weapon magazines going missing. Bad words may have been uttered. Anyway, I rolled with it and came up with some sprue replacements, but I placed them at their feet, figuring that these hapless new guys had accidentally thumbed the magazine eject on their weapons and are now caught wanting.

I like 'Number 10' the bare chested officer with the cigar. He has a sort of Robert Crumb counter-culture look about him. 

I had some extra Adeptus Imperialis decals laying around and so gave the bunch their very own shoulder pad numbers. Easier for body identification...

These chalk outline aspirants will be valued additions to future games of Mothership, Kill Sample Process and Cy_Borg. 

Thanks for dropping in for a peek!

- Curt