First Order from Moonraker Miniatures

I received my first order from Moonraker Miniatures a couple of days ago.  A mix of figs from their 28mm Spacelords and Future Skirmish lines.  After placing my order, I got a quick confirmation and the order was received in 8 working days.  The figs are all very cleanly cast with no flash, three came with slotted bases.

 

Most will be worked in with my old GW Imperial Guard troops, adding a sniper, a medic, and a couple command figs to the various HQ sections.  Most of the others will become vehicle crew (with a little conversion work), and one will be added to my post-apoc scavengers.

They scale pretty nicely with my old GW figs, and with the newer plastic Cadians.

So, a big thumbs up for Moonraker; great service, really cool figs, and a very reasonable price.

Misc. Projects and Whatnot

Been working a lot (day job, not the hobby) since the last post, and between lack of time, energy, and plain old sore and stiff hands, I haven't made any progress on my APC, but have been doing what I can otherwise. 


Ponape; 28mm Colonial/Victorian Adventure Games

After re-discovering so much stuff for my colonial adventures that never got used, I've begun to start the process of rounding out the history and fluff for the many scenarios that never got ran.  This has mostly been a lunch time reading and research project thus far, but will eventually lead to miniatures and modeling.

I did have to throw out most of the uncompleted buildings, as they were basswood construction and got water damaged in the flood, but otherwise everything else seems to be intact.  The docking station for the airship, and winged version of the airship, bits for a narrow gauge railway and gold mine, all good.  Also found bits of the incomplete ships, and the hulk of my French ship, which was in the trunk of my car, when it got rear-ended and totaled (both ship and car).

Above, the start of a hull for Bully Hayes ship, the Leonora, my destroyed

French destroyer and a German gunboat.

In time, I intend to resurrect Ponape  as a convention game.   I have faded away from the convention scene in recent years, but have to admit, that after going to Origins this year, I feel a little of the old spark again.


The Space Bubble/Job Pod/Almost Spaceship

This was moving along nicely last year, until interrupted by my flood.  I haven't actually done anything with it recently, but it sets on a stool next to my paint table, ready to be worked on as soon as I clear enough space to work on it.

In addition to the bubble above, there are a couple of trays of bits in various stages of paint, waiting to be placed in the modules.  It will be a centerpiece for near future and maybe even post-apoc games at some point.


28mm Post-Apoc and Near Future Figs.

As I was sorting through stuff, I came to realize that I had a serious load of both painted and unpainted figs for near future and post apocalypse game.  This kind of got my juices going again, after more than a two year lapse.

As I discovered more an more figs, I started sorting them out into the various factions.

There are over 400 painted figs, about 400 unpainted, plus another 150 or so painted orks that I plan to use as mutants in the PA.  Portions of roughly 22 factions are represented above, some are pictured below:

Kryomek robots with scratch-built weapons, security for the industrial complex.

 

A colorful heard of mutants, hungering on their tray.

 

A few bikers, Foundry figs, I think.

 

Miscellaneous mercenaries, some work together, others have additional help.

 

Some Copplestone (mostly, anyway)  scavengers.

 

Could be corporate or Federal troops, wouldn't trust them either way.

 

Billy-Jo, Bubba and Mack, god old boys (and girl) to the end and after.

 

Two old Imperial Guard figs that make up part of the territorial defenses. 

 I've actually got an entire company of these figs, around 140 in all.

 

Alpha Forge Asteroid Miners, pilots of the space bubble,

and a threat to the near future, and beyond.

I'm currently working out what I need to complete each faction, and purposing some of the many figs that don't currently have a home yet. 


Texas Israeli War

A second post-apoc project that I've been tinkering with will bring a little of the Texas Israeli War to the table top.  I've got six factions and armies in mind at the moment, but only a handful  of unpainted figs for now.


So that is what I've been tinkering with in recent weeks in place of doing any real gaming.

The Job Pod, Not Quite a Spaceship in 28mm

Told ya' I wasn't dead yet.  Six weeks ago, I thought the crazy at work had stopped, but then had a relapse of 14 hour days.  In a way, it was a good thing, as my first hobby project of the year was inspired by a project at work.

Among my interests are near-future, sci-fi, and post-apoc games, subjects that I haven't done much with in the last two years.  One of my gamers block victims has been creating a spaceship for the Alpha Forge Asteroid Miners that I purchased several years ago.  I had pictured them as being what hopped out of the flying saucer near that small "out west" town for my locals vs. the alien invaders scenarios.  I had also planned to use them as part of my post-apoc  silliness.  But I could not come up with the right delivery vehicle to transport them from their storage box to my game table.

Well, about three weeks ago, while reviewing about a million  photos at work, I receive a message from the gaming gods.  Inspiration came in the way of a SEM photograph of a spark.  You know, a little piece of metal that was sheared off of something, glowed for a second, and then ended its life as a piece of dust.  I glanced at the photo, and immediately I saw it for what it was.  Before me was a means of inter-stellar transport.  Well, sort of. 

What I saw was basically a steel bubble that had burst on impact with the floor.  A magnificent little thing, with a pebbled exterior, cris-crossed with shallow valleys, splayed open and exposing a cratered moonscape interior.  I also saw it setting in an impact crater , smoking, with a ship of sorts contained on the inside, and asteroid miners exiting their transport cells.  This is what too many long hours will do to you.

I realized that I suddenly had my "spaceship", and that I could now continue with the end of the world.  So, I managed through three more weeks of 14 hour workdays, and have finally begun my alien "spaceship".

I worked up some very basic sketches, along with some background story for my games.  The ship quickly morphed into a more of a time machine/alternate universe portal type thingy, consisting of a shallow impact crater, an exploded bubble of rocky looking material, and a containment vessel for the critters inside.  Here are a few of the sketches (sorry they aren't better quality, but I was in a bit of a hurry):

Above is the initial concept, the burst "bubble" setting in the impact crater.

 

 

In the bubble is the "shipping container" for the "work crew" of asteroid miners.  A series of small chambers and equipment "cells" linked together through a series of beams, tubes, and cables, suspended within the bubble by a series of stabilizing arms.

 

The individual chambers will be eight sided cells, about 2-3 inches across.

 

Upon getting a free evening, I quickly cut up some foam, and began work on the crater. Below are materials and tools needed for this phase of the project. 

 

The foam is from Lowes, 3M Styrofoam spray adhesive, a surform tool, and a hack saw blade.

 

 

 

First, I roughed out the basic pieces of the crater with the hack saw blade, mounted the pieces with spray adhesive, shaped it a little more with the hack saw blade, and then shaped it with the surform.  The rough crater measures about 26 inches across and three inches high.

 

 

 

A 28mm Copplestone scavenger stands in the middle of the crater to give a sense of scale.

 

Next I need to rough out the bubble. Once I have the basic bubble shape completed, I will refine the crater so that the two pieces fit properly, and finish detailing the shape of the crater. 

 

I've got to head back in to work now, but expect to work on the bubble tonight and tomorrow.  Hopefully I will have another post up before the weekend is out.  Once I get this together, I will post some of the background story trying to justify this silliness.



Early Stages of the Apocalypse

Well, it may have happened a few days later than I expected, but I finally started on the apocalypse.  Not really a lot of progress, but the sidewalks were a tedious part and are more or less done.   I've only got about a third of the highway and overpass glued up, and I'm not sure if I really like it or not.  It is kind of compressed to fit the table top, and I may end up re-engineering it before I'm done.

Anyway, here are a few pics with some 1/43(ish) vehicles, and a couple of 28mm figs for scale.

The craters need to puttied and sanded, the roadways need ballast, and the whole things gets a coat of acrylic paste before painting begins.  I'm probably going to finish the roads to the painting stage before making much headway on the city block sections. 

The city blocks will be a mix of flat plain panels on which various buildings and other constructs will set, and detailed panels with integral PA damage and ruin.

I want to do all of the masonry buildings out of the blue/pink foam as they will be much faster to construct than from other materials, but I need to make some patterns first, to press brick, stone and block patterns into the foam. Wood frame structures will be made from basswood and/or styrene textured sheet, but will take much longer to construct.

Unfortunately, I have to take a break from this for a couple of days, but hopefully will be back on it by the weekend.