Hobby Progress- Scatter terrain and Objectives

Hello and Welcome back,

Just a quick catch up with what I am upto hobby wise. I have been catching up with finishing some scenic scatter and objectives for the tabletop.

The pots, kiln and barrels are Fogou, the mdf crates/vending machine & lockers are from Miniature Scenery in Australia (can anyone explain why the post from Australia is cheaper and quicker than across the Atlantic?) and the desk, cabinets, weapon rack and screens are mantic.

I have also been reading through the Neon Lords of the Toxic Wasteland RPG rulebook. It is a D20 based Post Apocalyptic RPG with a 80s vibe. Looks a fun game. 

In other news I am planning on doing more work on my dusty space port terrain collection. Hopefully I will have some updates on that soon.

Thanks for reading

Take care out there.  

Maddans World Independent Mining Crew

 Hello and Welcome Back,

Time for a visit to Maddans world in my Wild Galaxy setting (world background fluff to follow).

Maddans Independent Mininig was set up by a gang of miners from across human space who arrived at Maddans world hoping to make it rich before the world was claimed.

MIM is lead by Big Albert (the bald bearded guy in the centre) a miner from the Brittannia systems.

The gang. The Miners are armed with old autoguns and whatever protection they have managed to cobble together.

These figures are a limited run of the RT666 set of Space Pirates by Mark Elster, which I picked up from Facebook. I liked them as they have a old 40K Rogue Trader charm to them. I chose a yellow theme to tie them together and fitting for a mining crew.

This crew got a 40K Ridgerunner as a convoy guide (Maddans world is largely desert and convoys get regularly attacked by Bandits, offworld raiders or the local wildlife). I got this model as a birthday gift from my wife (I told you she was a keeper!). It assembled easily which feels unusual for recent GW 40K kits and I think it is a kit that could be a good donor for conversions.

I sprayed it yellow with Army Painter rattle cans. The stripe and striped top hatch was done with masking tape and sponging (taking a little inspiration from the Mad Max Pursuit cars). Lots of weathering was added using grey and brown paints stippled around the edges of the vehicle.

Thank you for looking, take care out there. 

Happy Easter and some hobby progress

Hello and Welcome back,

It’s April already and Easter is upon us. Happy Easter everyone. 

Hobbywise I have been a bit of a butterfly so far this year flitting between projects and finishing very few. Maybe I need to focus more but then hobby time gets regular catterference.

Here we see Dixie reminding me that I exist for his comfort after a few attempts to steal my paint brushes. It often feels like my moggies work shifts to prevent me getting anything finished.

Recently I got this Grauncher vehicle finished by Ramshackle Games. After assembly the Grauncher was primed and then put a side for a while. It was then painted brown with some grey patches to represent primer. Some orange splodges were added too for that harder rust. 

The Grauncher then had Vallejo chipping fluid painted on. Once dry the Grauncher was sprayed yellow with Army Painter primer. The chipping fluid was then scraped off giving this chipped look. One issue I had was the chipping guild took off the paint some places right down to the resin which had to be

I think in future I will be trying sponging on resin vehicles and keep the chipping fluid for plastic models. The Grauncher then got the details finished off and a brown wash or two. 

The Grauncher would suit hauling scrap across the wastelands or sat on a space port dockside waiting to move cargo. 

In addition to the Grauncher I made a crate from old robogear terrain set pieces. I painted it in a dark rust and sponged grey over it. Some contents marking were added. 

Some a bit more sinister than the others (well it is Easter!).

Looks like a certain mechanoid from a popular television show has been past at some point. Obviously just after he broke his programming as I can’t see him taking up graffiti normally. 

That’s all for now, thanks for looking.

Happy Easter and stay safe out there.

Hobby Progress

Hello and Welcome back, 

It’s getting close to the end of what feels like the longest month of the year. It feels like an age since New Year. Things have been moving slowly on the hobby front but I have been trying to fit a little hobby time most days. I thought a little progress report would be in order.

One of my plans for the upcoming year is to create a pirate faction for my Wild Galaxy setting known as the Bloody 40, inspired by a story I found in a local history book. As a faction they will operate in two ways with a pirate crew with a vessel (the Bloody Vengeance) and a second group that operate as a high jackers operating within the ships they target. This lot is assembled will be the crew of the Bloody Vengeance. They might even be handy as a crew for Stargrave too. 

These figures are a mix of Northstar Rogue Stars and Antediluvian miniatures figures. I got them assembled, cleaned and primed ready for me to throw the paint about. 

I got a DnD fantasy magic robot Titan from a friend for Christmas. It needed to be shootier. So I clipped off an arm with a battle hammer which is easy with these rubber figures and grafted an old Robogear cannon. It wasn’t doing it for me so I moved the magazine and added a barrel to make a autocannon. The main weapon was reworked into some form of energy cannon using a cap off a tube of ointment. Cables or hoses made from greenstuff have been added. It’s basecoated ready for washes and detail.

The plan for this is to be some sort of dormant war machine in the ruins or to be a Behemoth class Immucyte for the Zone Raiders setting. 

I started this Gilgamesh figure by Ramshackle Games last year so I have been finishing him off. He doesn’t need much more. I plan on him being a derelict post apocalyptic cyborg or to be the head of my post apocalyptic cyborg clan. 

These two bikers by Ramshackle games are also in mid paint. I love all the cargo on the Lancer rider. It reminds me of going on camping trips or holidays on my motorbike (Lance not included!). 

Hopefully I will have some finished stuff to show in a couple of weeks. 

Thanks for looking

Take Care out there. 

Zone Raiders - life in Megastrata 170622B on the post singularity Matrioshka

Hello and welcome back. 

I am getting my background fluff together for my Zone Raiders setting. Zone Raiders is a small skirmish game by Tony Xano that is set in a Matrioshka sphere in the post singularity. It is a high tech post apocalyptic setting on what is essentially a unimaginably sized space station. 

The Matrioshka sphere is a thinking machine powered by a Dyson sphere built around a sun (possibly our sun the background doesn’t specify!). It is constructed with many spheres built over each other, each split into uncountable continent sized Megastrata. 

The post humans built Matrioshia to develop a fully automated thinking machine that would enable them to join together as one consciousness in the Singularity. This took a long time and the post humans used humans as workers, companions and possibly pets. During the time taken to develop, construct and perfect the brain, the post humans entertained themselves by creating genetic constructs, sentient robots, machine animals and many new technologies. When the brain was complete the post humans vanished into the singularity leaving their creations and humans to survive in the Matrioshka alone.

Megastrata 170622B - is over 12,000Km x 12,000Km in size. The floor of the Megastrata is littered with all manner of dead machines, ancient 4d printers, pipes, ducts, vents, tanks, vats, cables, towers, domes, biodomes, toxic lakes, radiation pockets, ruins, rust deserts and more. What townships or city’s that exist in the Megastrata are hundreds of kilometres apart. The city zones are the only true safe spaces from the dangers of Matrioshka. Although the city zones have the other dangers usually associated with civilisation. Beneath the floor of the Megastrata there are many hundreds of levels filled with tunnels, pipes, ducts and travel tubes. Legends speak of old domes and storage bunkers deep below the ground of Megastrata 170622B. 

The Megastrata ceiling is some 10Km above the floor. Massive inverted towers hang like stalactites from the ceiling filled with artefacts of the ancients (the post humans) and possibly supplies. These towers are incredibly difficult to get at. Old disused mono rails hang from the ceiling. There are hundreds of levels above the ceiling reaching the upper edge of the Megastrata. No one knows what exactly is hidden in the levels above Megastrata 170622B. All of the outer bulkheads of the Megastrata are hyperdense and impenetrable although that doesn’t stop attempts to break into the neighbouring Megastrata.  

In addition to the many environmental hazards in the dark zones of Megastrata 170622B there are wild tribes of Morlocks, prowling Immunocytes looking to attack for anything sentient , sentry nodes, out of control ancient industrial machines, wild electrical discharges, unmapped Immunocyte nodes, nano-swarm leaks, strange plants, toxic fungi, strange creatures and technobeasts. 

There will be future posts with more detail of Megastrata 170622B. Stay tuned.

Thanks for reading.

Stay safe out there.

The Asterians

Hello and welcome back.

A couple of months back I picked up the Insurgent Earth rules by Patrick Todoroff. A quick overview of the rule background is that the Earth is attacked by alien invaders and quickly over run. In the game you play a small resistance cell. It is a solo or cooperative game. 

While I have more than enough figures to cover a team of resistance fighters I found that I didn’t have enough for the aliens. For the grunts and solider levels of aliens I chose to use the Necron Skelebots that I have for Zone Raiders Immuncites. For my flavour of Alien Invaders I decided upon robots controlled by a evil alien intelligence who is too smart to actually get involved in the dirty work of combat. 

Meet the Asterians 

But I needed more figures. I needed some figures for the alien elite, lieutenants and boss. Looking about I settled on Mantic Asterian Cyphers as alien elites, Black Talon Prime as a alien Lieutenant and a alien Marionette as the final boss. This also gives me the option of adding to the Cyphers ranks if I feel like it. 

The Cyphers

The figures are painted with Army Painter speed paints. I am not too sold on the scheme I chose for the Cyphers.

The Marionette (L) as the final Boss and the Black Talon Prime (R) as a Lieutenant. 

As I like to get the most from my collection the Asterians will also serve as a Nth Generation gang (think sentient robots with a common construction template) for Zone Raiders. 

Thanks for the looking, take care out there. 

The old storage tanks.

Hello and welcome back,

One feature of any old ruins, industrial sites, post apocalyptic bases, the Neo Soviet industrial wastelands of the “zone”, underhive or busy space ports is huge tanks. They could be storing water, fuel, gas, oil, chemicals, waste, neurotoxins or pan galactic gargleblaster. What ever is or was in them they make great line of sight blockers or table detail. For the more despicable gamer they might leak from stray shots or even explode causing much tabletop chaos.

These tanks will be handy table decor. They are HST boiler tank parts by Ramshackle Games. I was going to scratch build some tanks but these are probably cheaper and quicker. 

Thanks for reading, stay safe out there. 

Squatana Jhones and the alien ruins of doom!

Hello and welcome back. 

One day Squatana Jhones learned of tales from the Boromites about distant worlds that lie beyond Dvarg and Boromite space. These worlds featured ancient crumbling ruins of a lost civilisation that predates both Humanity and the Boromites species. 

Boromites are not interested in such things but the stories awakened the spirit of adventure in Squatana. He immediately started to assemble an expedition force to go and seek out these ruins with the aim to prove Humanity was predated by another galactic civilisation. Plus he might be able to get rich with any artefacts he may discover. 

Squatana is a little old school and prefers old technology such as a flaming torch and his dear old grandmother’s best battleaxe. Squatana Jhones is a Macrocosm Witch Hunter who I feel has a vibe of a certain movie franchise archeologist. 

The main crew is made up of personalities from his clan and includes a Psyker. Well you never know what you might encounter. 

Just in case the expedition runs into something large that wants to eat the Dvarg for lunch (or lots of small things that want to eat the Dvarg for lunch for that matter) the expedition brought along a battle walker. The laser Gatling and power fist will prove useful for dealing with swarms, horrible looking alien monsters or smashing into ancient vaults. 

The team brought a couple of grav bikes for fast attack or getting back to the ship urgently. 

The Clan members, battle walker and grav bikes came from the Heroes Space Dwarves Kickstarter by LAfig miniatures. I matched them with the Squatana figure as the are a similar size. 

Originally I planned this to be a command section for my older 40K Squats but they are somewhat larger. So I chose to make them a individual force with a yellow paint scheme for a industrial look. All the figures are painted with Army Painter Speed Paints. While they worked well on Squatana but the choice of yellow on the Clan looks a bit naff to my eye. 

Thanks for looking, take care out there.

The Boring Machine

Hello and welcome back. 

The ground rumbles and slowly this boring machine bursts from the ground. 

The machine grinds to a stop and a head pops out of the hatch and shouts “is this exciting enough?” (boring machine - exciting! Get it? I will get my coat!).

The head disappears and some furious clanging comes from the interior of the machine. “Bugger! There is no reverse!”

Ramshackle games makes the tunnelling/boring machine. It was a very quick paint job. At some point I might add a rubble and soil filled base just to finish it off. 

This tunnelling machine will be used as scenery. Unless I get my squat force finished and they might want to break into places. 

Thanks for looking

Stay safe out there 

The old Robot!

Hello and welcome back.

I have had this 40K Blackstone Fortress Robot knocking about for a couple of years. My first problem was how to paint it. At first I was going to go for an ancient machine look with lots of rust as just another hazard of digging through the ruins.

Another idea was to assign it to a particular faction giving it a paint job suitable for the faction. Then I settled on painting a standard military colour so it can be used with what ever faction. The old bot sat in some bunker or cupboard forgotten until someone charges it up and press the KILL button.

This robot will be useful to supply some fire support to my Sci Fi factions and some of my post apocalyptic factions. 

Thanks for looking and stay safe out there.

Warriors of the Wild Galaxy - DCS corporation

Hello and welcome back,

In the Wild Galaxy the more powerful Corporations have spread across the Galaxy. They are a power in their own right having their own armies to protect their assets. The Definintive Colony Systems (DCS) corporation is one such Corporation. 

DCS is the largest and most powerful corporation suppling everything from toothpaste to fully armed battle cruisers (crew not included). It has bases across Human Space trading in with most nations and frontier worlds. Many colonies have lots of DCS items as the corporation is the main galactic supplier of colonial equipment. DCS also owns its own worlds and controls an entire system near frontier space which is heavily defended by DCS’ own battle cruisers. 

On the world of Dehlijeblli, DCS has a depot trading it’s wares with the locals and space crew traffic between the city of Urg Dehlijeblli and the space port. The Corporation security stops the depot from being looted and protects shipments from local criminals.

These figures are mantic GCPS figures that originally came from the Project Pandora box set. They were undercoated grey and given zenithal highlights. They were painted with Army Painter Speed Paints. These paints worked well with the figures and I had the base coats done in a couple of hours. A few bits of detail where added. This was a quick paint job. 

Thanks for looking.

Take care out there.

Starport Scum 5 - Mad Donna and her crew.

Hello and welcome back,

Time for another look at the Starport Scum inhabiting the Wild Galaxy, this time Mad Donna and her crew.

Mad Donna’s name is infamous throughout human space for causing chaos and mayhem where ever she goes. She is wanted across the Galactic Blocks and nations. As a fugitive she seeks more adventure and mayhem on the independent and frontier worlds. 

Mad Donna is a old Necromunda figure/character. This figure was primed grey and painted using Army Painter Speed Paints. As you can see it has left the figure with a rather unhealthy pallor. My thoughts on the speed paints later on. 

Her crew of goons are (now OOP) Stontuim Dogs metal bad guys figures (sorry I can’t recall the name of this set) by Warlord games. I had these figures primed white sitting in the pile of shame and grabbed them to try the speed paints. 

I have tried the Army Painter Speed Paints on figures both primed in white and grey. White primer works best. Sometimes the paint needs more than one coat to get a nice colour. One issue with highly detailed figures is the paint can bleed into the detail or other areas which requires a touch up with white followed by the colour. Details will require normal paints as the speed paints are too thin to use for detail. I found it just as much work to get the details done as when painting with normal mini paints. It did speed up the painting of large groups of rank and file which I suppose is the speed paints purpose.

So in summary - speed paints work best on figures undercoated in white. It is best to use the paints on rank and file figures that have limited detail or it will take twice as long as normal paints. I dare say I will be experimenting more with the speed paints to try different effects.

Thanks for reading.

Take care out there.

Kosmik’s Sweat Lodge

Hello and welcome back, 

Welcome to Kosmik’s Sweat Lodge. Hallucinations and stench guaranteed. Just pop in here to sweat and hallucinate your troubles away. Rhythmic bongo shamanic drum music supplied for extra. 

This model was a 3D printed building I picked up back in 2014 (Gah where did the time go?). I didn’t really vibe with the model at the time so it sat languishing in the hobby pile.

My main bugbear was the windows looking riveted on. Wracking my brains as to what I could use it for, the Sweat Lodge idea came to me. The model got a couple of coats of brown textured paint to help it fit in with my frontier world terrain and to also try and hide the hideous printer lines on the model. This was followed by a heavy white dry brush and a sepia ink wash. A final white drybrush followed. 

To finish it off, I dry brushed layers of dirt around the bottom of the model and added some extra weathering using weathering pencils. Lots of graffiti and decoration was added as I wanted the building to reflect the character of the owner, a strange character called Kosmik. 

A few posters where added printed off on my inkjet printer. These are mainly wanted posters. 

Just to keep people on their toes I decided to add a slightly more sinister looking bit of graffiti on the top roof/floor. 

Now all I need to do is find a figure for Kosmik. 

Thanks for looking.

Take Care out there.

Warriors of the Wild Galaxy - Dehlijebelli Security Force

Hello and welcome back, 

Time for another instalment of Warriors of the Wild Galaxy, this time the Dehlijeblli Security Force.

Governor Inndaloo of the frontier world of Dehlijeblli Security Force decided it was time for a security force to keep the peace in the various colonies on the world. Dehlijeblli Security Force couldn’t rely just on the Corporate or the security of various sites or colonies because they tend not to get involved in conflicts if the world has no security force.

The Galaxy is a dangerous place with GELF or pirates raids becoming more frequent so the needed for a defence force was felt to be prudent. It maybe useful in the unlikely event that Dehlijeblli Security Force goes to war with its rival world Immodium. 

The Dehlijeblli Security Force Security Force (DSF) while acting as a military force also acts a police force patrolling the streets of the capital city Urg Deljibelli and around the world’s space port. It is quite common to see them standing watching bar brawls enjoying the entertainment then clearing up the aftermath, hanging around the city gates or spaceport attempting to look menacing and engaged in fire fights with smugglers or armed robbers.

The DSF do have access to some heavy weaponry as you never quite know what trouble you will run into across the world. 

General Kashnkarri leads the DSF and is always moaning to the Dehlijeblli council that the world’s force needs more equipment. Tanks, speeders, grav cars, power armour the list goes on and on. It is usually justified in some ludicrous excuse such as “you will be sorry when GELFs are using you to slake their lusts”. Old Kashnkarri is regarded as a source of entertainment to many in the civilised parts of Deljibelli.

Kashnkarri did manage to get a few fourth or possibly fifth hand armoured grav cars. They are ideal for crossing the sands of Dehlijeblli. Although flying over the top of a dune at high speed can cause damage to the grav repulsion drives under the vehicle. The cars usually patrol the main transport routes across the world. Armed with a laser cannon and machine gun the AGC can deal with most problems they are sent to attend to. The Grav car is a trash bashed computer mouse. 

Back in the days of the Terra Empire before the Earth exploded there was a empire wide craze of reacting old Earth Wars with real interest in the wars of the 20th to 22nd centuries. Digi printer files were available freely for most uniforms, weapons and war machines used in those conflicts. After the collapse of the Terra Empire these files found their way to the frontier worlds. The files were quickly adapted with updated plasma or hydrogen engines, better materials, sensor packages and updated weapons. 

This vehicle was printed from such a file. This tank was popular back on earth because in addition to the decent protection it also allowed up-to 6 infantry to be transported. Unlike the 20th & 21st century this vehicle was equipped with a 27th century plasma cannon. Kashnkarri managed to get resources to print a handful of these AFVs. They are usually parked around the space port as the plasma cannons are great for defence against invading pirates, GELFs or whatever fictional galactic menace Kashnkarri has invented this week.  The tank is a 1/48 scale Academy Mekriva. 

As Delijibelli is a arid world I felt that my old GW 40K Tallarns would fit the bill for the DSF. There are a few modified figures. The meltagun figures had 1/35 WW2 land mines added to give a Lewis Gun look.  

Thanks for looking. Take care out there.