Sunday 23 August 2015

Wasteland Terrain

Welcome back. 

Undercity terrain is not the only projects I have been working on. There has been some Wastelands terrain too. I have also acquired some terrain projects. 

The air cleaner. These can be found out in the wastelands and in various places in Utopia City. The kit is a MDF model from Wargame-Model-Mods. I am not too happy with the painting of the window. 

Again the posters where printed off on my printer. 

I intend this terrain piece to be the objective in my first Roach Jones game "Escape to the Undercity". 


The Objective building...

This building is intended to be an objective in various games. It will be a medical unit/clinic/hospital, old store, office block, factory, military barracks or police station as the scenario demands. 

The locals didn't like being  locked out when the end happened. 

The model is a MDF  kit by Wargame-Model-Mods. 

I have some magnets and I plan to put some swapable signs which will change the building's use for the relative scenario. Now I need to make some metal plates which will have printed signs glued to them. 


The old Bunker Entrance....

This was gifted to me by my friend Xander along with a few other bits
. He made it many years ago from what I think was a Hotwheels playset. 



This is another "Xander". It will be used as an objective or scatter terrain.

Another item from Xander is this 1:50 scale pickup truck. I think the Warboys are excited that they may have a new Warrig. 


Now I have caught up with my blog backlog. Now what to do next? I have some additions for the Warboys clan and a possible figure for Roach Jones to paint. 

Then there is the rest of the Undercity terrain to finish. Or there is the pile of terrain from Amera Plastic Mouldings to crack on with. So much to do...and that is trying to avoid building 28mm wasteland vehicles, finishing my 15mm Hammers Slammers force, building hotwheels combat cars or 1:24 post apoc cars. So many ideas...so little time. 

Thanks for looking. Cheers. 

Into the Undercity Pt 3

Hello and welcome back to my blog. 

It has been a busy few weeks here. As usual I try to fit some hobby time in when I can to help me unwind and retain my sanity (for what that is!). It is now time for a update of what I have got done. I have been working largely on undercity terrain. 


An undercity tower. Built from Mantic's Sci Fi Urban  District Kit. Or the remains of a couple of the kits at least. 

Like my other undercity efforts using the Mantic terrain I have painted them to look like salvaged panels and bulkheads from old starships. One of the nice thing is that these pieces could as easily be used out in the Wastelands of Mattblackgod's world. 


I quite like the mantic kits & will get more in future. Some of the clips can be fiddely and I think the kits could do with an extra sprue in the box. I would like to one day (space & cash flow allowing) to make a SF tunnel set or maybe star ship interior from the Mantic kits. 

Another abode from Mantic's SF battlezones kits. 


I printed the posters off on my printer. 


Mantic's SF kits are not the only kits in my collection. There is the old Robogear ones too. Here is another undercity abode. 

This has been based to hide the few millimeters difference in the height with the Mantic terrain. 

I also decided to add a few details to this model. The vent is a Mantic base with embroidery mesh in it. The barrels are from the Mantic accessories sprue. 

The striped access hatch was a spare Robotech panel. I added it and used putty to make it look like crude welds. 

Low cover or supply objectives. These come from a pair of Mantic Accessory Sprues and glued to MDF  bases. 

Undercity (long dead) air purifier. These may also be found out in the wastes from the planetary terraforming days, on the mean streets of Utopia City or with in the City Blocks. They could even be a part of the life support of a star ship or space station. 

The model is an MDF kit by Wargame-Model-Mods. I was going to paint it in my typical grey scheme but I felt like a bit of color.



This kit comes with another building to follow in another post. The kit has plenty of detailing vents and other bits now spare which will be used for detailing other models. 

So far I have to base and detail the other Robogear platformer bits for the Undercity. There is a bunch of Pringles tubes which need to be used somhow in this project. 

Thank you for looking. 

Friday 14 August 2015

Wasteland Wondering - Roach Jones


Welcome back to another Wasteland Wondering. This post really is about Wasteland Wandering.

For some time I have been thinking about a prolonged campaign on mattblackgods world following a wanderer. Lets face it, it is a classic post apoc story line and what better way to explore a world than follow an wanderer? My next predicament was what the character's motivation to wander would be. I have plumbed through a lot of PA fiction for ideas to what and why the Wasteland wanderers wander.

I settled upon a character living in mattblackgods world's only surviving mega city, Utopia City. The character will be called Roach Jones. Roach is a nobody living in the a megablock. He is haunted by disturbing dreams which feature a lot of MBG symbols and a strange black rusty pyramid. Looking for answers he goes to the Church of Mattblackgod who see him as a heretic and pursue Roach through the mega city. In addition to this the Magistrates now want him for disturbing the peace and inciting a riot. Poor Roach never had much luck.

Fearing for his life Roach decides to flee into the undercity. The campaign will follow him on his adventures out into the wastelands. Roach's disturbing dreams drive him on to find answers. Answers he hopes to find in the world's founding members tomb - the Tomb of the Mattblackgod.

Map

Now MBG's world has a pretty fixed and defined map from using it as a gaming location for the last 10 years or so. I plan to change it as Roach explores. It also allows me to use other favourite figures and creations from my collection which live thousands of miles away from Roach. A new map of his adventures will be populated. It may become the new map of the world.

As the campaign goes on real life and what ever else inspires me at the time may also filter in. That's part of the fun isn't it?

Rules

Rules wise I am a bit mixed on what to use. Firstly I thought the my old 40k Rogue Trader would work. It covers everything I need. It can easily be added to by pinching rules from Gorkamorka or Necromunda. The down side is that the initiation and some other rules no longer sit well with me. So there would be quite a few house rules drawn up.

NeutronYork3000 is another consideration but the basic vehicle rules are a limitation. Some house rules may be in order to flesh them out.

Nuclear Renaissance seems to have everything I need to carry out this campaign with minial fuss. So at the minute I may go with them.

Wastelands 3 is another ruleset that may work. It features vehicles and has a campaign system.

 Fate

One problem with starting a character with a low stat line is that they will not last long in the harsh post apocalyptic world. Recalling the days that I played Warhammer Fantasy RPG  back in the dim mists of time, there was a Fate stat. The idea is that some god or overlooking power is keeping an eye on the character and performs the odd miracle to save them. The players use their fate points to keep various characters alive. It is a limited pool decided randomly and players have to take care not to waste them. I may introduce this to the rules I use to help keep Roach alive.


Another addition is an idea borrowed from the Max Payne computer games. The idea is Bullet Time. Time slows down allowing the character to dodge bullets and make aimed shots. If I use this then Roach can only use it once per game. How it is implemented and what bonuses it gives will depend on the ruleset I use.

As the campaign progresses so will Roach's skills. Hopefully he will pick up a few friends on the way too.

New blog?

Whilst I was mulling all this over I did think that it may be fun to give Angel his own blog documenting his journey through mattblackgods world. Or should I just keep it here in one place? I suppose I could add a tab for Roach Jones' adventures. I need to find a figure now to represent this poor soul.

That's the ideas so far. All thoughts and ideas about this greatfully received.

Thanks for looking.

Sunday 2 August 2015

20mm Post Apoc - Blood & Fire.

With all the recent Mad Max madness I have been a little obsessed with crazy post apocalyptic vehicles.....well a little more obsessed than I usually am anyway. 

Hotwheels & Matchbox produces lots of cool cars for customization for reasonable prices. This has lead to my interest in 20mm Post Apoc being rekindled. 

Back in the day I was a huge Dark Future fan and I still have my set. It seems a waste to leave the models gathering dust. This project will allow them to Live Again!

About 12 years ago I had long period of sick from work. I discovered the Axles and Alloys game and set to converting hotwheels cars like a demented mad man. Axles and Alloys got me back into the hobby. After converting several dozen cars (a lot of which I sold a few years ago) I discovered there was few figures out there to game this which lead to my return to 28mm for figure based games.

Recently I discovered in the lead pile a pack of 20mm near future I picked up from Evilbay a few years ago. So I thought I would paint them and make a start into 20mm Post Apoc. 

It is going to be a arid desert world similar to the Mad Max series, the Rage and Darkwind computer games. I have decided to call the setting Blood & Fire. 

Most of the world's surface water has boiled off. The seas are pretty much gone and large deserts are in their place known as "The Salt" to the survivors. Some of the world's great fresh water lakes have survived but at a much lower level. They have given rise to green zones. Small oases where the only vegetation (and food) grows. 

In a place that once was the North American Great Lakes lies a large green zone. It is protected by a great wall and a force of warriors. This place is called "Civilization" and has several towns. The Capitol Town is Sanctuary. President Smeeg rules Civilization. 


Smeeg is accompanied everywhere by his bodyguard Jess, a ruthless trained killer. 

Civilization has the Nu Life Corporation which helps Civilization stay ahead of the Crazies in the Wastelands beyond the wall. It produces the Interceptors which the Mags use to patrol the Wastelands beyond the wall.  

Dr X is Nu Life's head scientist. He invented the H2O diffuser which pulls moisture out of the atmosphere. The Diffusers are the life blood for many outlying farms and townships. Dr X often heads out beyond the wall in a ambulance and a brace of escorting Interceptors with his assistant Nurse E looking for old world tech and samples of mutation for research. 


Dr X goes out unarmed but Nurse E keeps a pistol handy for dealing with the hostiles beyond the wall. 



The ambulance is a cheap Chinese toy van. It is decorated with junk from the bits box. The ambulance is armed with a flame thrower turret. It is a bead and metal tube. 



There are some dangerous gangs living in Civilization. They live inside Civilization but have bases a few miles beyond the wall. The gangs prey on on convoys inside Civilization and hide the loot beyond the wall. On such gang is the Dead Eye Gang. 

The Dead Eye Gang is a trio of bothers. 


L to R - Plug, Theo and Woody. 


Woody drives the pickup whilst Theo mans the machine gun. When the gang makes a hit the pickup gets loaded with loot and they haul it off before the Mags arrive. 


The pickup is a Matchbox car upgraded with junk from the bits box. 



Plug rides in a buggy. It rips up quickly and Plug uses the twin barreled elephant gun to punch big holes into the transport. The buggy then races away before any return fire can damage the buggy. 


The buggy is a Matchbox buggy. Bits of card and junk from the bits box give it the Wasteland look. 




This is going to be an on off project but I have lots of ideas. All I need to do is hunt down figures from various places. 

Thanks for looking. 

Saturday 1 August 2015

Into the Undercity Pt2 - Terrain

I have been working on some Undercity terrain for beneath the mean streets and Mega Blocks of Utopia City. 

The undercity consists of many domes, caverns and lost cities that was buried when the City was built and as it expanded to become a megacity. Huge towers loom up into the darkness holding the dome and cavern ceilings up. 

 
The tower is an ex pringles tube. The base is a cork pan coaster with the edges nibbled to make it look like a rocky outcrop. The graffiti is inspired by the Metro 2033 Novel. 

The platforms are made card and bits from the depths of the bits box. The ladder is scratch built from coffee stirrers and match sticks. 

Beware the strange green mold growing every where. It can cause strange illness'. Some strange wastelander has tagged this tower. 

I have some of Mantic's Deadzone terrain sets knocking about. It is ideal for an undercity on a world that used starships to colonize it. 

Here is a security outpost.

 


No security outpost would be complete without a barricade. 



Okay not quite Undercity but it is Post Apoc. A bed from Thunderchild Miniatures.

The Warboys want a kip but are not too sure if the occupant will mind. 

Thanks for looking.