WIP Modern City Board

Hi folks. I've been doing a little work on a city board for some ATZ gaming. I bought a couple of 1/4" thick 2x4 foot pieces of hardboard at Menards (a local DIY store). Board is divided in half by a painted on 12" wide road in the center, with a 6" wide road running along the top edge. That leaves an 18" square in each lower corner for buildings.

Picture above is not exactly to scale, but should give an idea of the general layout. I made two boards like this so they can be placed together to one 4x4 board.

Pic above is from about mid board looking toward the 60 zombies I've been working on. A mixture of 30 Wargames Factory and 30 Zombies made with WGF Legs and Mantic Zombie trunks and heads. I like the mixed ones a lot more than the straight WGF Zombies. I also mixed in some WGF Saxon heads I had bought from Hoard O Bitz off e-bay. I'll be posting more pics of these Zombies as I get them painted.

Pic above is looking at the horde from a side of the board.

Pic above is looking from the bottom of the board to the top, through the Zombies. I set up the top side of the board with 15mm/HO scale stuff to see if I can use the board for 15s, too. 

Pic above is looking from mid-board toward the North. That's a 15mm Old Crow Goanna in the foreground. The APC is a Bravo Team 1/72 M113. The buildings are H/O model RR.

Pic above is another shot of the 15mm side of town. There is a mixture of 15mm minis, another Goanna with a different weapon set, and a Combat Wombat Hover tank. The ruined building and the Billboard are from Proxie Models.

You may notice a lighter gray colored strip by the street in the pics. It is where the sidewalk will be. I took a few vinyl floor tiles and cut them into 1.5 inch squares. I spray primed them with Rystoleum automotive gray primer. Those will be added to the board soon. I think having a raised sidewalk adds more realism than a painted on 2d sidewalk.

And now for something completely different. Cue naked guy playing piano ala Monty Python. :)
I had placed an order with Sgt Major Minis for some Studio Miniatures Zombies. I got a great deal and a fast turn-around but am just now getting around to comment on them. I got set #2. They are beautifully scuplted, I can't wait to ugly them up with my mad paintin skillz. :) I had seen pictures of them on Vampifan's blog and had read how nice they are but they really surpassed my expectations in real life. But what I really think is also cool is the way they are packaged.

They come in a VHS box. I actually thought somebody screwed up and sent me the wrong item, at first. :) The back of the box also shows painted pics of the minis inside. Which I find very helpful. I didn't know Studio Miniatures did this with the package. It makes sense with a name like Studio, of course, but I still think it is very cool. Forgive me if I seem naive, this is my first set of Studio Minis, but it sure won't be the last.

Another first, I also recently got an order from Hasslefree Miniatures. I see these on other people's sites. (I'm looking at you Vampifan :). And have always wanted them. These and the Studio Minis Zombies are Christmas presents I asked for very specifically. No more queer purple goddamn slippers (she said she thought they were gray, WTF?!) Anyway, these are also some very fine minis. I chose ones from shows and movies I like; Buffy, Hot Fuzz, Shaun of the Dead, and a few others.

It's been a good couple of days. Thanks, for looking and Merry Christmas and God Bless us, everyone.


 

Great Customer Service from Battle Miniatures Emporium

As soon as I saw the post that Brother Joseph had opened up the Battle Miniatures Emporium website for orders, I zoomed over there and placed an order for the "Abominations of Dark Science Collection 1.  This Collection includes 1- Death Digger, 1- Grizzought 1- Murg Imp Base and 3- Rattle Wings. All this is only - $9.60 USD. I added in an extra pack of 3 Rattlewings because I like them so much. And because I was his first customer, Brother Joseph even threw in a free Glertch mini with 4 extra weapons and a free Biosect with 2 bladed extra back limbs. How's that for cool? I got home yesterday after a 12 hour shift and there it all was waiting for me. Very fast turn-around and perfect timing, because I have today off. :)

These are very cool minis with excellent detail, and almost no flash. They have molded bases and even have detail on the base. I really like that. I've already got them black primered and am raring to start on them. I think I'll do the Death Digger first. Thanks for looking.

15mm Space Hulk WIP

Pic below shows a layout from the GW Space Hulk Mission Book made with Hirst Arts sci fi molds.

Hi, folks. I've been doing a little work on a new project. A "15mm sized" Space Hulk. I will also use it for ship interiors in my ongoing X-COM in 15mm project. It's made from Hirst Arts sci-fi molds and I am loosely following Bruce Hirst's Space Hulk plans. I switched out the floor tiles molds he recommended (1.5" floor tiles) for 1" floor tiles, and based it on 3mm art foam. I used the Industrial Edge mold for the walls, but had to substitute many of the larger pieces for the smaller 1" or 1/2" pieces. I'm working on some doors and trying a couple of different options. I'm trying to make some doors with Shrinky Dinks and some doors I will scratchbuild and make a custom mold using an Alumilite Mini Casting Kit. If you're not familiar with them Shrinky Dinks are a polymer film you can print designs on with an ink jet printer, bake in an oven and the film shrinks and thickens. I don't have any pics of them, yet, but they're not too bad. Anyway here's some pics.

Pic below shows Khurasan Miniatures 15mm Space Demons I will use for "GeneStealers".

And here's their opponents, Blue Moon 15mm Orion Republic Heavy Infantry who will sub in for Space Marines. The door pictured behind them is a cut-down version of a sci-fi door from the Hirst Arts Starship Wall Mold.

I haven't decided on a paint scheme, yet. I could go with the sort of silvery blue scheme from the X-Com computer game, but I'm also tempted to go with a sort of olive drab green. I'm hoping to recruit the boys to help me paint this set up, like they did with our full-sized Hirst Arts Space Hulk set we did a while ago, here. Anyway, that's all for now. Thanks for looking.

Versatile Combat Wombat Vehicles

Hi, everyone. A while back I made a little forward base using Combat Wombat Defense Turrets and with pods from the Bullfrog Lander and the Command/Medic pods made for use with the Atlas LSS GEV. I was struck with all of the possiblities you can have mixing and matching the different Combat Wombat turrets, pods and other components. I've gotten a few of the Atlas LSS GEVs and some of his new additional turrets. I'm really having a lot of fun seeing what I can come up with using all of these components. I still need to paint the turrets and the new Atlas vehicles. Here's some pics.
Pic below shows a LAV GEV APC

Next pic is a LAV GEV APC with an ADA turret

Next is a LAV GEV APC with a low-profile turret

LAV GEV APC with an autocannon and ATGM turret

Here's a few pallets of cargo made from Ground Zero Games Store Pallets and JR Miniatures Fuel drums

Pic below shows a pallet of fuel drums on an Atlas

Next series of pics below show an Atlas with a Command pod with the various different turrets added.

Pic below shows an Atlas with a defense turret base. The defense turret could be cargo or perhaps part of the hull of the vehicle.

Pic below shows addition of a defense turret gun. Use it as a tank-killer?

Next two pics show a SLAM and an ATGM

It's amazing what a lot of unique vehicles you can end up with by mixing these components. I think Combat Wombat really knocked it out of the park with these. I'm looking forward to painting them up, and I still want to add some more CW Grav Vehicles, and eventually some tracked and wheeled vehicles. Thanks for looking.

15mm X-COM Farm board finished.

I got all of the scenery for the Farm board done. Stable's painted, interior for the Farmhouse is finished, even got the Mutons done.



Sectoid guarding the ship



Muton waiting in outbuilding to ambush X-Com agents



Ground floor of the farmhouse with interior walls and Muton soldier

Mutons are an evil alien race that look like muscle men in green suits with purple face masks.

Mutons made from Rebel Minis 15mm Super Hero Pack A

Size comparison with a Rebel Minis Super Hero (Muton) and Khurasan Minis Sepulvedan Resistance Fighter (X-Com Trooper)

Well, that's it for now. Scenery's done. Need to keep working the minis. Thanks for looking.

More 15mm X-Com

Hi, folks. A little update on the 15mm X-Com project. I finished the barn. It now has the interior stairs, hay bales, a corrugated roof, and I painted and stained the exterior wood on the second floor. The floors of all of the buildings are print-outs from "X-Com: Tactical", a very nice free download from BoardGame Geek. X-Com: Tactical not only has the rules for playing X-Com on the tabletop, it also has some very nice 2-d graphics of the terrain, tokens, and ships. If the authors, Paul Pounds and Evan Leybourn, see this, thank you very much for making this excellent resource available.

The farmhouse is mostly finished. I need to finish the interior walls dividing the rooms, then it is done. The interior walls are mat board (I took a page from Vampifan's book). I will glue on some wood print-outs from the Fat Dragon Rio Draco set to simulate wooden interior walls and doors. The windows used for the farmhouse are 15mm resin from GameCraft Miniatures.

The stable is the last building for the farm board. I made it from craft sticks and gave it a corrugated metal roof. The roof is cereal card run through a crimper and glued to thin plasticard (that's how I did all of the rooves).

Also did a small UFO based on print-outs from "X-COM: Tactical" and pics from the interweb. The hull was made from a mixture of 1/2 inch quarter round wooden molding from a home improvement store and some Hirst Arts sci-fi bits. The interior bits are from Hirst Arts Sci-Fi bits, also.

I just received a couple of packs of Critical Mass Games excellent Astragar Fighters to use as Snakemen. That's an idea I stole from ThorLongus when he posted his a while back. If mine come out half as nice as his I'll be happy. So far I've got them primed and based. A few of them have been included in some of the pics for size comparison.

Hay bales. I made these from green pot scrubber pads. Painted them yellow, washed with Golden Brown craft paint, used a rubber coated black wire for the bale straps. They're a little larger than the ones in the X-Com: Tactical print-outs, but they'll work.

Stairs. The stairs were made using Dis's excellent tutorial here.

This tutorial was a big help and I made 3 pretty nice stairways for the barn and farmhouse very quickly. Differences between mine and his are I needed to make my stairs much smaller to fit the template of the buildings. I used a 1/2 inch Hirst Arts brick between the stringers and only 1 thickness of thin plastic card for the stringers. Also, the scissors I used were an old pair of pinking shears my wife gave me, and I think the zig zag pattern is a little smaller than his. Otherwise, pretty much the same except his are much nicer.

I like the way you can fit the miniature's base between the steps to hold it in place. When I saw that pic of this feature on his blog I knew I had to try it. So, Thanks, Dis, for the excellent tutorial.

Well, that's all for now. I was able to pick up some extra shifts at the part-time job so I won't be blogging much for the next few days. Upcoming projects list just keeps getting bigger and bigger.

Upcoming Projects:
X-COM
Post pics of Mutons
Cyberdisks
Chrysalids
Chrysalid-Zombies (These last three are gonna be from 15mm.co.uk)
Floaters
Ethereals

Thanks for looking.

15mm X-COM Farm Game Board & Sectoids

Hi, folks. I've been doing a little more work on my X-COM project.

The board is 2'x 2' and made from four 1' vinyl floor tiles which have had model RR grass mat glued to them. It's further subdivided into 16 six inch squares, each with some different features, all of which represent the terrain seen on-screen in the farm in the X-COM computer game. It amazes me how much variety you can get in such a small space. There is a small apple orchard, a grove of stumps (Zuzzy Minis) some crop sections made from sections of outdoor carpet or pipe cleaners, stone walls (JR miniatures) and some walls scratchbuilt from cork coasters; rail fences (JR minis), tall and low hedges (Pot scrubber variety), and a WIP scratchbuilt barn (built to scale from screen shots). I still need to stain the wood (coffee stirrers) on the barn and add a staircase and second floor. Still pending also is a farmhouse and stable complex. The buildings will all have playable interiors.

My Sectoids are Rebel Minis Greys. These are great little minis for a great price. I did a simple pj on them, based on the Sectoid colors from the X-COM PC game. Primed them with gray primer, painted the eyes black, ray guns are green and silver. A couple of leader types have a blue cape as well. (You don't see that in the PC game, no clothing on the Sectoids, but I don't mind.) Then just a black wash, sand and flock the bases and seal with a matte spray acrylic sealer. Here's pics.

Pic above shows the Sectoids, ready to begin their evil mission on Earth.

Pic above shows an X-COM Heavy Weapon Platform (GZG missile drone) finding a Sectoid hiding in the old orchard.

Pic above shows an X-COM trooper (Khurasan Minis Sepulvedan Resistance Fighter) investigating the strange light coming from the old barn. A Sectoid Leader is waiting for him to come into his line of fire. The blue light in the barn is from a little battery-op Christmas tea light that strobes through different colors of light.

The last pic shows one of those sneaky Sectoids getting into a sniping position.

Thanks for looking. Next up will be more work on the farm buildings, and maybe a Cyberdisk and small flying saucer.