Sunday 17 March 2013

More stuff for sale

Another post with items for sale. I'm trying to clear out some items I'm not using, and hopefully fund some other projects.














Monday 27 August 2012

Servitor photos

This is sort of a nothing post - just need a place to post photos of some GW servitors I have for sale.

Sunday 29 January 2012

New minis received

So, another week has gone by without progress on my minis. Between responsibilities at work, as a new dad, and my other resolution (to run 2012 km in 2012), time for painting has been limited. It's looking like my first little faction will not be completed in January - I was hoping to do some work today, but the unexpected breakdown of our washing machine is sending me on an errand to a friends to wash our supply of cloth diapers.

I did receive some miniatures this week. I ordered a couple of blisters off of an ebay seller at the end of December, and thanks to living in the sub-Arctic, it only took about three and a half weeks to get here. Yay!

My order consisted of:
Reaper Miniatures Garvin Markus, Nova Corp Hero and RAFM USX Modern Day Heroes Cultists . Garvin Markus is to go with the other five Reaper Nova Corp models I already have, to form the core of my Bunker faction in Wasteland 3: Meltdown terms, or for those more familiar with Fallout, a Brotherhood of Steel analogue. It's a little too bad that Brother Vinni had not put his Nuclear Sandlot figures up for sale until after I had ordered the bulk of the Nova Corp models, but I kind of like the Reaper models anyway, and they ended up being a lot cheaper.

The Cultists are my first RAFM miniatures, and they seem all right. I was a little concerned by the touted "32mm" scale of them, but having seem them in person, they're not bad. They compare quite reasonably to the Reaper models, and are a bit on the large side compared to my Darkson Design miniatures, but not outside the range of human size and shape. I figure these can be bodyguards for the leader of my cultists faction. I plan to order some Feral Cultists from Black Cat Bases to fill out the rest of the cultists.

Tuesday 10 January 2012

Progress on Huntsman Spider Tank, and Red Dragon Terrain

My wife gave birth to our daughter at the beginning of December, and free time is at a premium. I have not had a chance to finish off the figures I put up in my first post, but lest you think nothing is being done, I do have a brief update.

Back in September, I put in an order to Ramshackle Games for, among other things, a Huntsman Spider Tank (with turret), or HST for short. I really like the look of this model, and although I initially ordered it with the intention of using it for some Victorian Sci-Fi/Steampunk gaming, it definitely has a place in my post-apocalypse world. I'm thinking about using it with a force of scavengers (using figures from Copplestone Castings and EM4.

This is my first time working with a resin kit. Biggest difference to metal and plastic models: it's brittle. Although it was well packed, a number of pieces had small chips when it arrived, and while getting it cleaned up I've had a few pieces break. I've mostly been able to glue pieces back in place, but it's also given me a chance to play around with Milliput a bit, to do repairs and gap-filling.


HST with Urban Mammoth figure for scale

This past weekend I started assembling the HST. So far I've attached the head, the HST leg locators and the back plate to the main body. One thing that threw me at first was that the leg locators seem to be asymmetrical (see image below). At first I thought that perhaps there was an error in the order (like receiving two left legs), but I've seen the same things in others' build pages on the Lead Adventure Forum.


I'm hoping that it won't make a huge difference when it's finished, but I have to wonder why that particular design choice? The other question I have is what others have done when mounting the turret so that you don't have to cut up the detail in the top hatch (see image below)? It may be a bit hard to tell, but there is one gear in particular that sticks a good 5 mm above everything else. My plan for now is to drill an appropriate sized hole in the base of the turret so it can fit over that gear. I'm also planning on magnetizing the turret so I can change it out for the hatch cover, or some other smaller turrets I got from Ramshackle Games.


In November, I won a number of auctions on eBay from Red Dragon Terrain. The seller has a number of nice lines, but I was most interested in his buildings with the intention of putting together a small section of a ruined city. I ended up winning all seven auctions I bid on, winning enough to put together eleven buildings, including three 3-story, three 2-story, and five 1-story buildings (four of them ruined). The kits are plastic and have nice detail on the outside, but no interior detail. At this point I have cleaned and washed all of the ruined 1-story buildings, and assembled one (shown below). My only quibble is that the corners don't line up really nicely. I'm considering trying to cut the edge of each piece at a 45° angle to make a nicer join, but will have to check first to see how that would interact with the intact buildings (which have floors and ceilings). Still, I got pretty good value from this sale, and I think they'll make a nice start to a game board.

Sunday 1 January 2012

Welcome to the Wasteland

This is the first post of my blog devoted to post-apocalypse (PA) wargaming. I'm a novice at playing wargames and painting miniatures, but as a goal for 2012 I intend to paint one small (roughly six to ten miniatures) force per month; put together a gaming table set in a ruined city; and try to recruit some opponents! I also plan to add vehicles to the mix, as time permits. The rules I plan to use are likely DiceHead's Wastelands 3: Meltdown, modified for 28mm gaming, but Ramshackle Games' Nuclear Renaissance or other rules are also possible.

After I have four or so forces for PA gaming, I also plan to get some detachments painted for Darkson Designs Alternate Events: World War II (AE-WWII) game.

I got my first faction, the Church of the Purifying Flame (also known more generally as "the Purifiers" and more accurately as "the Pyros") partially painted over the holidays. The Church was formed by a (pick one of "visionary" or "delusional") slave who, inspired by his god, lead an uprising that freed many slave warriors. Some of the more "devout" warriors became his disciples, and continue to follow his commands. The Purifiers have a particular hatred of mutants and cyborgs, but punish any who are impure, as defined by their leader. Few are genuinely religious, but enjoy the power they wield. The force controls an old oil derrick, which gives them the fuel they need to employ the faction's weapon of choice, the flamethrower.

I used Urban Mammoth Gladiator figures for this group. Here are a couple of photos of the miniatures in a partially painted state:


I have 30 days left in which to finish painting them, and base them. Criticism is welcome, but keep in mind I'm learning as I go with this. The blog will also continue to evolve as I have time, I've thrown together this initial post and the blog itself in about thirty minutes time (and it probably shows). I intend to put up links to the sources of miniatures I'm using, gaming fora, and other sites of interest.