A British VSF stronghold

Every now and then I have a flash of inspiration. Not exactly like realising how to split the atom, or solve world poverty, or banish the forces of the neo-liberal right wing .. but in the 'gaming sense, a germ of an idea that with a little time evolves into something I quite like. This is an example. 

My British Victorian Science Fiction army for HotT (Hordes of the Things) has lacked a stronghold. Browsing through my many 'bits boxes' as you do I stumbled across a 15mm old country farm house, and a futuristic piece of equipment that could perhaps have been a 'power house' .. or ... whatever heinous machine you care to imagine. The appeal, the inherent anachronism, of their juxtaposition appealed to me. Both on the same base, a heinous machine pseudo-disguised, only half hidden, behind an old farm house. So this idea took shape.

The finished product, farm house in front, scientific 'machine' behind connected with a heavy red cable, as you do.

I wanted the machine half hidden behind a mound, as if the ground had been partially excavated and the machine is half hidden deep in the earth. To create the 'mound' or hillock I glued some old plastic sprues to the base in order to give the filler compound something to key onto, and also to save weight on the overall base.

I then gradually layered filler over the sprues, allowing each thin layer to dry before proceeding. I am hoping this will minimise the chances of shrinkage and cracking

The base overall was then given a layer of plaster

... and the building and machine were glued into the wet filler

A few small hedges ... actually hedgerows for 6mm, but who notices ...

A piece of thick copper wire to represent a heavy duty cable connecting the machine and the house...

... and an old Airfix Cuirassier figure standing in the road outside the farmhouse with horse.. yes I know it's French, but this is 'fantasy', so I can do whatever I like.. and it was a way of emphasising the anachronisms I wanted on the stronghold base

And voila, a stronghold for the VSF army. 

An 'aircraft carrier' for HotT.. one final naval element

Can you ever have too much of a good thing? Well maybe. There was a craze went around the 'modelling' web a year of two ago for building space ships from clothes pegs... it eventually went quiet, but not before folk had demonstrated some wonderful creativity.

Having created three 'naval' elements for my HotT armies, I had the bug, but realised this was not something that could go on forever. However I wanted to create just one more.. a matter of indulging the creativity, and the old fashioned model building, rather than any necessary desire to create elements for the games, simply because I had enjoyed the process and the challenges so much. After all we have not yet trialled the 'naval' rules, so have no guarantee that this will actually work.

That said, as friend Jon and I have discussed, this is a hobby of multiple dimensions, one is the gaming, and another is the modelling. So .. given that in our 'mind's eyes' these naval elements are likened to airboats, it did seem reasonable that one of the elements should be some sort of 'VSF aircraft carrier'. Aren't airboats about projecting airpower? This is it.

The core of the ship based on a couple of shapes carved from core board.

The core is 'clad' in light card. I wanted some sort of pseudo- carrier/dreadnought (a bit of a cliche, I guess), so it needed gun turrets down each side

A flight deck is added

A bit of a superstructure, and three funnels

Based, and the water texturing added to the base

Basic painting, some flight deck markings, and a base deep green applied to the 'water'

Lighter blue water and white foam added around the ship

I wanted some sort of 'flyer' on the flight deck, and it took four failed attempts before this came out .. a sort of gyrocopter.. far from perfect, but at arms length it looks okay, just don't peer too closely

The finished product

The final products, from left to right an orc ship, two VSF ships, and a VSF submarine

This has been one of those projects that hasn't necessarily been 'gaming focussed, but a lot of fun. The project engaged some good old fashioned imagination, and model making skills, using spares, scraps, and recycled materials.. the sort of thing I love most. I am pleased with the final products, and am looking forward to seeing some of these on the table. Now I just hope we can generate some 'naval' rules that work. Watch this space.

A bunch of posers....

 Over the years I taught at Christ's College in Ōtautahi Christchurch, I a painted and accumulated several Warhammer 40K armies, specifically for the boys in the 'gaming group I ran to use. I don't really play the rules myself, and haven't looked at them in over 7 years.

However the legacy is four 40K armies, and I have to say that while I don't game with them, the painting gave me a lot of pleasure. With the latest terrain piece completed, I thought a small photo shoot using figures from my 'Lost and the damned' army was in order .. the dark universe and narrative of 40K certainly matche the tone of the terrain.

Warpath in 6mm

Andy and I toyed with the Mantic warpath and Firefight systems not long after they came out. We decided to get back in to some Warpath .. we like the system, which I described as Epic Armageddon Lite. The activation system creates a really interesting game dynamic far superior to anything in the sci fi genre that we have seen before.

We did ponder whether some Spearhead mechanisms might adapt to this too, but that's a very different matter. Anyway, no AAR, just few photos. e sue the perspex explosion markers to mark suppressions on units.  

Indulging our creativity in our hobby

I would never really describe myself as creative. I have never developed my ability to draw, or sculpt, for example. That said, I played music in my younger days (the violin, and then the viola.. and I was quite reasonable at it), and of course I have painted miniatures since 'I were a yung laad'. I guess that counts.

On top of that, in my professional work as a school leader I have lead our kura to a school vision to be a centre of creative excellence, recognising the importance of creativity to our capacity to be human.

Our school vision, writ large at our main entrance.

That said, I love nothing more than the creative challenge of creating interesting things from rubbish. It is enriching, invigorating, and most of all challenging. When Lorraine presented me with the empty reals from some ribbon she had used in her own hobby craft work (she is an amazing and prolific knitter), I relished the challenge of what to do with it. I am not one of those creatives who conceptualises things , sketches them, and then creates. Rather, I will take 'bits', and literally 'play' with them, shuffle them, hold them against other interesting bits, play with them to see what I can come up with.

The ribbon reels 'au natural'

After lots of 'playing around, I added them to a few paper towel rolls/cardboard tubes. I could se was piece of wargames scenery, from one of those dismal dystopian worlds, a chemical complex making deeply noxious poisonous 'gloop'. This would be ideal for HotT (Hordes of the Things) games set in the Weird World War 1 concept.

The basic cardboard pieces

I wanted that 'industrial' or 'steampunk' look, which in my head means rivets. So I took some heavy paper, and punctures rivets into it. The idea was that if glued to  the 'towers' and vats with the indentations facing inwards, I could create the raised profile of rivets.

Black paper strips with the indentations created.

The first strip glued to a tower.. I often do this with a single piece as 'proof of concept'

I also rummaged though my spares box looking for 'bits' that I could use to create detail on the components of the industrial complex.

Include din the detailing was the use of old Bic biro ink tubes, and the plastic sprues from old kits, to create some pipe work.

Oh, and there was a ladder...

I painted the 'towers' before assembly. A red brown coat over a black undercoat, with steel grey 'stipple' over the top

In addition to the strips that were 'joiners' of the sections of the towers and vats, I also used the same 'rivet' technique on an irregular rectangle of card to look like a'patch' on one of the towers.

The pipework was given a pseudo industrial look

The open vats (the inner parts of those ribbon spools) were filled with 'No More Gaps' to create the 'goop' that filed them. I also added a piece of an aquarium plant. I wanted the idea of a mutant plant grown because of corruption from the chemical goop that was being produced at the plant.

The goop was painted in greens, layered up from dark to light green to add light back into the terrain piece.

The new inductrial complex placed alongside an earlier creation made again from 'rubbish' (a piece of packaging, and a ping pong ball

The finished piece, with steam/smoke rising from one of the vats

Goop leaking from one of the vats

A mutant plant growing form a large spill of goop from one of the open vats

The terrain piece with a couple of Weird World War 1 pieces, the left a behemoth tank created from another 'ribbon reel'

With some 40K orcs

And with 40K mutants

And with some HotT 20mm Orcs

So this is me indulging my creative urges.  find this absorbing and relaxing, engaging and immensely satisfying. I love this stuff.