Project Scrapjacks #1

Hello and Welcome Back,

Earlier this year, I picked up the Scrap Jacks rules by Patrick Todoroff. The game is about salvage teams working for the Vaststar corporation, cutting into wrecks, abandoned space stations, and bases to run salvage missions. In typical fashion, the crew has to make its quota for the corporation or face financial penalties. The corporation doesn't care about the safety or well-being of its operators.

A crew has a limited air supply which dwindles as the mission goes on. Incidents such as injuries or suit damage also use air. This looks to be a good way to build tension into the mission. If the air runs out before exiting the unit, thats it. Your crew is dead. Game over. Don't worry, you might find air supplies in the wreck. Might.

A typical mission runs across 6 Modular Hab Units (MHU), with the crew cutting into each MHU and looking for salvage one at a time. As each MHU is 12 inches x 12 inches in size, you can play on a small table or desktop, setting up each MHU as your crew cuts in. Another attraction is that the rules can be played solo. 

I am lucky enough to already have enough terrain to populate such a small board. I built a board from double-layered corrugated cardboard. Embroidery mesh and EVA foam make up the floor. A quick and dirty paint job finished it off. I will be able to use this tile in future Starport Scum posts. 

An entry and exit door will be required. There are also some resin doors in the pile of shame, which will be painted up as entry and exit points, once I find them.

To play the game, I will need 4 to 6 EVA-suited figures for the crew, depending on your ship size. I have used different colored shoulder pads and helmets to distinguish the different crew classes.

My crew color class ideas are:

Torch (cutters, breachers, burners) - Orange pads

Rigger (mechanics, splicers, hackers) - Blue pads

Patch (medics) - White pads

Yarddog (muscle/bodyguard) - Green pads

This is the lot I have painted so far. I have so many so I can field a rival crew or raiders.

This will be my crew. The figures are from Anvil and Brigade Models. The sharp-eyed among you will note that the webbing on this team is brown.

This will be either a rival crew or raiders. The figures are from Anvil and Brigade Models. These are marked out with green webbing and pad markers. Cunning, eh?

This lot are additionals, to be added or mixed with the other crews as needed. The figures are from Ramshackle Games, Gardens of Hectate Range. I chose red webbing to ID them. 

I have another use for the EVA suited figures, the game Expendable Employees. Which is in a similar vein but planet side. 

One of the first threats a rookie crew encounters are maintenance robots. These are small bots. 

These wee robots are from the Reaper Bones line. Looking at these guys they might be also handy for 15mm scale games.

Some more small bots. The small two at the front are Stargrave objective markers. The two hovering bots are 3d prints from the DaveandDavesArmys Etsy store. 

These are the larger bots. Some of them look more like construction bots. All of these figures are from HeadBunnyGames and DaveandDavesArmys Etsy stores.

You need a boss level bot and I have this Death Marble by Reaper Bones. 

For the security bots, my rusty 40k Necrons or Mantic Asterians will fit the slot. I will need some apex bots too. 

This game has gotten me fired up to get more bots painted up. There are others in the pile of shame that will suit this game and my Wild Galaxy settimg. The robots will also be handy for other Sci Fi games such as Stargrave or 5ParsecsFromHome.

Up next time Infected Crew and Cargo Mules. 

Thanks for looking,

Stay Safe and dont let your air run out.

The Truckdoza

Alreet! Welcome Back.

Need transport across the Wastelands? Come book the Truckdoza. Rough terrain is not a problem. The ram deals with obstructions and barricades with ease. As the wasteland is a risky place a twin machine gun is mounted on the cab to deal with those pesky bandits and mutants.

Many years ago, I picked up this cool pickup truck from Ramshackle Games.

Picture courtesy of Ramshackle Games.

The model is heavy and I can be clumsy. I dropped the truck from height and snapped some wheels off. It was assigned to the rework bits box.

During the Covid Lockdowns, I discovered the truck while looking for bits. I also found these cool looking tracks in there, from a cheap B&M stores toy tank. They matched the length of the truck perfectly.

The problem was fitting them. Stripping the truck down, I had to remove the truck bed component. I ran some Balsa wood batons the length of the Truckadoza. This allowed the tracks to be fitted with small wood screws. The dozer blade was fitted from the orginal model. The rear gate was made from a gift card I had been punching rivets from. Some resin junk armour was added from Ramshackle games. A Fox Box Ork Jerrycan and back pack (now availble from Ramshackle games) was also added.

The Truckdoza was parked (pun intended) until last week, when sorting bits for the Junk Raft (see my previous post).

I added googly eyes to hide the screw tops holding the tracks on. The vehicle needed foot boards. The were made from gift cards and interesting looking bits cut from plastic food trays. Another backback was added from the bits box, along with a Ork Skull which was painted in mythril silver as a nod for the film Mad Max fury road. 

Some armament was needed. Another bits box delve turned up another Ramshackle Item, which has lurked there for over a decade. A mount was made from two circles of EVA foam. Rivets were added. I am using tiny nail jewels. You can buy packets of 1000 quite cheaply. They are consistant looking and a better match to the model scale.

The model was primed black and heavily drybrushed in sheet metal. The whole thing was washed in brown. I could have left it there, in a oxidised grimey metal state. Grey was sponged over the metal panels and then colours sponged over the top to give a worn or chipped paint look.

Thanks for looking, take care out there.

Meet the Colonists #2: Alien Zoologist Team

Hello and Welcome back,

In this post, we are going to take a peep at my Alien Zoologist Expedition Team. While they are for the Alien Zoologist Game, some of these figures will also double up as Colonists for the Skirm game or the township of Pusteron on my own world of Corrosion.

In case you don’t know, Alien Zoologist is a solo game by Florian F. Manthey, where an expedition hunts alien creatures, eggs and poo for a zoologist's collection. The game leans heavily on kit bashing a expedition team and creating alien critters from butchered toys. It features tokens to collect or interact with the critters. I made mine last year but I haven’t got around to painting them.

The Expedition Team.

The Zoologist:

Lord Aluicous Sidney Oldwood Smythe Smythe Smythe (just known as Lord Oldwood to every one who doesn’t want to run out of breath just speaking to him) is a Aristocrat from the Brittainna group of systems who has a passion for building up his own zoo. He is a old friend of Lord Valchiria of Wreckage station which orbits Corrosion. Lord Oldwood ect ect, has brought an expedition to the world in the hope finding creatures for his alien zoo. In the game the Zoologist acts as the guy trying to capture critters hopefully uninjured.

The figure started out as a Sci Fi ganger by the now sadly vanished Kallistra games. I have another one of this figure, so butchering it to make the Zoologist didn’t smart too much. The tears in the t shirt were filled and big buttons added to it. I sculpted a gas mask and added a back pack with hoses to house the ventilator (not all worlds have a breathable atmosphere). The sword was removed and a post to make a big butterfly net added. The butterfly net was built from wire and had putty wrapped around it. The netting came from a bag of halloween sweets. The shoulder epaulettes are resin and came from Anvil Industries.

Sadly, I cant see many characters roaming about with a giant butterfly net searching for junk to salvage on Tapu or Corrosion. Not unless they are really eccentric!

The Big Game Hunter.

Simply known as 'The Major', he is ex Brittannia military from an aristocratic family. He has a passion for killing animals to make himself feel better ("well they don’t complain about it as much as the poor, eh what!"). He sports an old antique hunting rifle owned by one of his equally blood thirsty ancestors.

The Major figure is based on a Stargrave Crew man torso. A pair Dead Mans Hand cowboy rifle arms were added. They didn’t fit too well so a pair of putty shoulder pads were added to cover the area. One of the great things about Sci Fi figures is that a lump of putty can hide a multitude of kit bash sins and not make the figure look odd. As the rules say he needed an antique hunting rifle I scratch built one. The head came from the Dead Mans Hand set and the backpack is from Anvil Industries.

On Tapu/Corrosion the Major arrived on the world and brought his great granddaddies' big game gun. He heard there is plenty of stuff to kill and is looking forward to indulging in his favourite hobby.

Doc Wildeyes, the Scientist:

Doc Wildeyes is the Expedition Team's biologist and is interested in studying the creatures and collecting their genes. In the game the biologist collects the critters eggs for captive breeding and research.

The figure is the only one of the set un modified, as I thought it was perfect for the job. It is from Northstar Miniatures Steampunk range.

On Tapu/Corrosion Doc Wildeyes serves as the colony's resident medical practitioner. If the med packs cant fix you, are you brave enough to go under his scalpel or the terrifying rusty salvaged Autodoc machine?

Riff Void, the Assistant.

Riff Void is the assistant to the Doc. A young man wishing to start a career in Alien Biological research. His job is less glamorous than the other members of the team. He has to collect the alien critters dung for analysis. He also has the fun job of distracting the beasts if the other team members are in danger.

The figure torso is a Warlord WW2 German in a great coat, I got as a free addition from Northstar (thanks guys). The arms are from a fantasy dwarf sprue, complete with shovel. Putty shoulder pads cover any limb misalignments. The head is from Ramshackle Games. The bucket is scratch built using a medical connector cap and some wire. The backpack was made from a lump of spare putty (I always mix too much!).

On Tapu/Corrosion, as Riff Void is the youngest colonist he has the great job of cleaning the town's outhouse. A job even the beadbots turn down. You know you are the bottom of the pile when a beadbot outranks you.

Gnarly Petain the Ranger.

Gnarly Petain has travelled many worlds, learning the ways of the beasts and how to live off the land. Gnarly Petain is hired to find and track the animals. In Alien Zoology the Ranger puts out food to attract the beasts.

The figure is a gunfighter torso, head and arms from the Dead Mans Hand set. I chose it as the Ranger is described as being armed with two pistols. Shoulder pads were added to Sci Fi the figure up a little. The backpack is made from spare putty.

On Tapu/Corrosion, the character is just another scrap hungry adventurer from a frontier world, hoping to make his fortune.

Thanks for looking,

Take care out there.

Meet the Colonists #1

Hello and Welcome back,  

In this series of blog posts we will be meeting the colonists who live in the (only) colony on the world of Corrosion known as Pusterom. These figures will be serving as the colonists faction in future games of Skirm. But first a little background...

Corrosion is a long abandoned, wreckage strewn world which was then used as a orbital dumping ground for over a century. It has an artifical moon sized space station known as "Wreckage" orbiting it. Despite the old empire's attempt to cleanse the world of all life, to cleanse it of GELF Spores, life has survived on the world. Although as all records of the world has been long erased it is difficult to know if these creatures are native or some kind of mutant. As there is no evidence of the GELFs, it was deemed safe to build a colony to act as a base for salvagers, as the world is rich with old junk. The colony is known as Pusterom and is located on a high mesa for it's protection from the wild life and Ruster tribals.

Herbert Dibdab arrived on the world to scavenge through the piles of rusty junk, like every other colonist on Corrosion, in the hope of getting rich quick. Probably like every other colonist on Corrosion, there is a pretty good chance that Dibdab is on the run. This lost world is the ideal place to hide out especially as it doesnt appear on any Galactic maps.  The figure was donated by my friend Xander, I suspect the torso is Frostgrave (?) and the arms are 40K Cadian Imperial Guard. I have no idea where the head came from. I added some pouches, added damage to the shoulder pads and removed the Imperial Eagle from the Lasgun. 

Meg the Mech, like others arrived to seek her fortune and ended up settled in Pusterom, the colony on Corrosion. She works over at the landing pad as a Starship mechanic. The visiting ships are vital for supplies and trading the items salvaged from the world. Vessels visiting Corrosion often get damaged by the orbital wreckage cloud and Meg is kept busy making repairs. The figure is a old Warmachine dirty Meg figure. I have had this figure for over a decade and it was recently stripped and repainted.

Scab is another long time scavenger living at Pusterom. The figure is another donated by my friend Xander, I suspect the torso is Frostgrave (?) and the arms are 40K Cadian Imperial Guard. I have no idea where the head came from. I added some pouches, a back pack, added damage to the shoulder pads and removed the Imperial Eagle from the Lasgun. 

Crooz arrived on world in a fireball as his ship collided with a peice of wreckage in orbit of the world. He managed to escape the crash but badly injured his arm. Crooz was lucky that a bead bot found him out in the rusty wastes. It's code made it carry Crooz to Pusterom where he was given urgent medical treatment, but his arm was lost. A mechanical arm replaced it. Crooze now runs a shop that repairs Beadbots in Pusterom. The figure is a old Warmachine Steamjack mechanic figure. I have had this figure for over a decade and it was recently stripped and repainted.

Gax breezed into Pusterom one stormy night and never left. Carrying an axe made from space ship hull, Gax told a wild tale of crash landing on Corrosion over 1000Km from Pusterom. Gax had a crazed look in his eye as he told of survival stuggles, battles with monsters and Rusters. Gax is handy in a conflict although his rage filled charges can ruin any tactical plans the other colonists may have. Gax is a old metal OOP figure by Ramshackle games, that Curtis kindly sent me. The tattoos were done with AK Real Colour Markers. I had a lot of fun painting this figure.

There will be future Meet the Colonists posts.

Thanks for looking,

Take Care out there.

Starport Scum #12

Hello and Welcome back, 

Time for Starport Scum, episode 12. 

The Kooman brothers are deserters for hire. On the run from the Alliance forces they deserted, they hang around spaceports on frontier space looking for work. 

This pair were part of a figure deal I got off evilbay. The paint is thick. After shaving off the 40k imperal eagles, I touched the figures up. I treated them some washes and based them. Not great work but they are good enough for henchmen, goons or Xenomorph fodder. 

Time to introduce a new bunch of GELFs into the Wlid Galaxy - the Klangers.

Originally characters from a children's holovid, these GELFs were engineered to look like these characters to entertain children. Although they had few issues with humanity the Klangers fled with the other GELFs fearing the backlash. Klangers can breed and have settled a handful of worlds in GELF space. Although they live peacefully the warlike ORCS and GROTS GELFs that are neighbours (galactically speaking) have forced the Klangers to protect themselves. Klanger technology is crude and basic equating to early to mid 20th Century Earth, and they are hungry for more advanced weapons and equipment.

Like the Halfers some Klangers have migrated and built colonies on Dvarg worlds for protection. With the encroachment of Human frontier space on GELF space, Klangers can sometimes be found in spaceports trading or looking for work. 

These figures are Quar Trenchers. I think the light armament and improvised hand weapons gives them the right feel for Starport scum, crew or even pirates. It occurred to me that the Quar figures resembled the characters in one of my favourite childhood shows, the Clangers (yes I am that old!).

Gun drones are commonly used by various groups across human space. They allow some extra close range fire power when you short on bodies. 

Care has to be taken wandering through hostile territory as these bots are often left dormant as a extra security measure. These figures are 15mm GZG figures and were painted and dontated by my friend Xander. I just touched them up and finished them off. 

I found these old metal Necrons on Evilbay. Two of them were painted and one unpainted. So the two painted Necons got touched up, washed and a rebase. 

The other one got painted in a similar fashion. Each Necron had some colour added to the shoulder pads. 

As they look different to the later plastic Necron offerings and these are painted shiney, I have decided that this three will be operating as robotic crew or security in various settings. 

Thanks for looking,

Take care out there.

New Guardians Power Armour

Hello and Welcome back, 

The Guardians are a wasteland society that collect old technology and weapons to prevent humanity on Mattblackgod’s World from repeating the mistakes of the past (my version of Fallout's Brotherhood of Steel). Many of the people of the Wastelands regard these wasteland "knights" as oppressors rather than saviours. 

The local chapter of the Guardians has uncovered a couple of suits of power armour in the Last City Wastes.

Some antique power armour, found in (what was) a private museum and made operational. This T60 armour is from the Fallout game. 

This suit is botched together and originally it belonged to a bandit warlord. Until the Guardians 'liberated' it from him. At least thats one less bunch of bandits for Wastelanders to worry about. This figure uses Khordal Pattern Armour base figure by Ramshackle games as a starting point. These figures come without arms or head. They are useful for using up all those 40k Space Marine spares people seem to accumulate. I also dropped a helmet from a plastic Void Viridian.

Thanks for reading and stay safe out there.

Robo Maggots

Hello  and Welcome Back, 

The Robo Maggots were created as a weapon during the GELF (Genetically Engineered Life Form) wars. Designed to be dropped behind ememy lines the Robo Maggots will attack military personnel, civilians, wildlife, livestock and machinery alike. These robo maggots with lie in wait or crawl towards targets and attack using a bite attack with razor sharp teeth. The robo maggots are lightly armoured helping them survive light attacks.

These weapons were banned not long after the GELF wars finished as they were uncontrollable, attacking friend and foe alike. They do not stop until they are destroyed some how. The fact that the Robo Maggots can lie dormant for long periods has made them troublesome for centuries afterwards in former war zones. 

Robo Maggots are a threat on worlds lost or destroyed during the GELF wars. Many an adventurer, explorer and scavenger has fallen foul to these relentless machines while exploring the lost or dark worlds.

Some unscrupulous types smuggled Robo Maggots aboard vessles, with them becoming active some time later. These pests have caused vessles to become lost, drifting hulks. Robo Maggots are a constant threat when exploring lost space hulks. 

After the GELF wars the old Empire dumped the remaining stocks of Robo Maggots from orbit onto the world of Corrosion. These machines are another danger faced by the wildlife, tribals and explorers on Corrosion. 

The Robo Maggots Grubs from a Dr Who play set. There was enough to base some as spaceship or station threats and others as desert bases for adventures on Corrosion. The figures themselves were painted rusty and dry brushed. I wanted a old rusty machine look. The rusty look would make them blend in to the surface of Corrosion. 

Thanks for looking 

Take Care Out There.