LPL Season 6, Rnd 5. Worlds of Tolkien

Round 5 has begun over the LAF for Lead Painters League season 6  

Above is my 4rd Round entry "Red Planet" which again lost, but much closer this time 136 to 197..I think the painting , composition, where about equal this time around..so it was clearly a matter of personal taste. I can see where people start to slack off over the duration of this, getting a quality,new entry in every week is insanely tough. Fortunately for me this weeks bonus round is the Worlds of J.R.R Tolkien and I have lots of painted Lord of the Rings models, and have been working on LotR models constantly . My current entry, titled *Arnor, before the War*  is currently winning by a huge margin, so I should climb back up the ladder a bit with the bonus points. after losing Rounds 2, 3 and 4. I could use a rebound.  I do have a couple more LotR entries, ( Some of my Adepticon army for this year is coming up next,) then some Dark Ages, and some more Fantasy models coming. Plus the next  bonus round is round 10 and its a Maritime theme..I am going Pirates all the way.

Abandoned Base

After an surprise aerial bombardment of nerve toxin, Agents from Void Corp explore an abandoned Federal Base on the Red Planet looking to download the data from its Comm Sat. A dozen surviving Federal Soldiers lie in hiding waiting for the chance to pay them back.
This battle will be hashed out very shortly as soon as I can one the guys to sit in.
WIP for this scenario...The Void Corp Dropship.(GZG) The Federals (Khurasan) and a Grav Sledwith a mounted cannon. (GZG) Building 1, the command post and 2, the Comm Sat have just been sprayed Green.



The Buildings (as well as the models) are from Ground Zero Games..despite the simple appearance the building are metal casts and bring the headaches that metal casts bring..I spent way too much time on them. Especially with the freehand numbers...Thanks to the Tuesday Night crew for suggesting the weathering powder, it makes it all come together.


Are the rate this 15mm stuff is coming together I should have a nice selection of playable stuff all popping out this month...It also motivated me to finally get around to trying Flames of War...and I putting together the rest of a 700 point force just for some demo games this month.



I haven't played any WFB since Core Comp...oh noes!...has 8th ed soiled me from my Favorite Game? Nah...no worries there I needed some time off and I seriously have the WFB itch...what I end up settling in on for my dig-in project over Xmas break is still up for grabs.

Red Planet

I spent sometime this weekend moving my 15mm Sci-Fi off the 2D boards, over to some full 3-D. I repurposed this crater table top I did back in the spring of 2008, it never got much use and I stumbled on the perfect hobby sand (Quickcrete all purpose) awhile back and wanted to give it go. So I re-textured the whole thing and re-sprayed it with Rustoleum Cinnamon, then dusted it with Rustoleum, Nutmeg..then drybrushed it with a variety of cheap hobby paints (something akin to Tau Ochre), and my Red Planet was born.




I am currently working on 18 miniatures for the figures for the 2-D skirmish game, I've got maybe a 1/2 dozen complete. Not sure what to do about the basing yet. Right now they are glued to 1/2''s squares I got from Litko for extra balance plus the 2-D boards are a 1/2 inch grid so it works great..the Action point system I am using uses Front, Flank and Rear sides in various degrees so Square bases are a must. Popping these little guys off there cast bases seems a bit more challenging than the 28mm stuff...I was stumped on trying to come up with some kind of appropriate basing for the 18 shipboard models so painting these black is about all I can think of, unless I might move to a grey to match the deck plate. and when I do some other military figures..they'll get the "red planet" sand bases


I am digging the sense of scale with the smaller models here alot, it makes for much more realistic weapon ranges. With the current ruleset I am using in the above the shot the fellow in the rocks with a scoped rife is 15 inches 0r 30 squares away on a 1/2' grid (or 150 feet in game reality although from this perspective it looks even longer) needless to say he has the serious advantage against pistols at this distance which are at max range and he's in hard cover.



The guy on the left is recast on an old traveller miniature from RAFM the girls in the middle and the building are Ground Zero Games, the guy with rifle is from Splintered Light, the Truck is from Khurasan, I've picked up stuff from 4 or 5 manufactures now, I am definitely liking the GZG stuff best, I have a whole set of the buildings so I actually have some 15mm terrain now.



Sooner than later, I'll be demoing the the 2D game and this 3D game my homebrew ruleset. I have a few days off coming up with the holiday, so fingers crossed for some hobby time.

Tangents

(my latest project..2D meets 3D in 15mm)


If you're like me, and I've got assume if you are ready this, while you might be more self disciplined, you can definitely relate. Over the years..I accumulated a ton of gaming stuff enough to take over the majority of an almost 2000 square foot basement, my gaming area is bigger than my local GW shop and bigger than some of my friends entire apartments. While its existence is rooted in one of the benefits of home ownership, know that if that sounds over the top, I agree it is and every 5 years or so I get the urge to downsize. Compile that urge..with the cold math of what you spent on all that stuff and you'll fall into a period of self analysis that could be frightening. In my case I have collections of things going back all the way to the late 70's.

The last month I have been thinning the herd so to speak via ebay (which still sucks by the way, but the only game in town.) old RPG books I've had for years, miniatures from games I never touched, whole games I never touched. Things like Space Hulk, which I liked but played twice in a year and had a great secondary market..gone. In fact all my 40K stuff is gone with exception of a few painted characters I've held on too, I even managed to get a few bucks for 4th ed army and rulebooks. along the way in sorting the boxes of terrain, miniatures, books, games, and modeling supplies, I came across my box of old RPG books for the game Traveller. while I am sure most you are familiar with Traveller for those that aren't. simplistically it was bascially D&D in Space, penned before Star Wars and completely unlike D&D in most respects (other than being an RPG) any included in my box of stuff was the box for one off game Game Designers Workshop produced call Snapshot. close combat aboard starships in the far future, was the subtitle. Now I haven't played Traveller since probably 1983...after Blade Runner came out we had an awesome Traveller campaign, that's one of my fondest RPG memories as a boy. It took me a couple minutes to remember Snapshot..but then it dawned on my...er..wow...Snapshot is a 15mm Skirmish Game from 1979!!!



(box covers from the two versions on the GDW original Snapshot game, I have the one on the left)



After digging in and doing a little research, I quickly found how the game was improved over the years and how with Snapshot as a base I could quickly develop something cool, its no secret that 15mm Sci Fi is has a great growing fan base and I found whole slew a great miniatures online dirt cheap..Snapshot also uses deck plans like board game rather than physical terrain, although you could easily incorporate it. It was not tough to find some kick ass state of the art high res deck plans. By the bedtime that evening I had whole game system put together literally for the resale price of a handful of items I hadn't looked at in years. Part skrimish game, part board game, my version of Snapshot is fast paced skirmish game with lots of eye candy once I paint the minis. I've also repurposed a unused tabletop of mine for 15mm so expect some standard full 3-D scenarios as well. Anyway this is pretty great find low cost "find" I can't wait to get one of the guys to come try it out with me. Needless to say my "Classic Traveller"stuff went back in the keep pile.

Now the point is/was to downsize spof course buying new stuff while you are downsizing is typical of us "attention deficit disorder" gamers. I reconcile this by saying "but I did get rid of alot of stuff", of course buying more 15mm stuff when I've got Flames of War stuff sitting in boxes or half built.(no -I have not written of FoW off yet) is another dilema, I also have my "Songs of Blades and Heros" skirmish stuff waiting to be demo'd too..I'm finding myself more and more driven to smaller skirmish games of various genres. low cost, short build times, easier rules..etc..while my large format wargames WFB, WAB, are languishing in various states be it tourney burnout with WFB, or my inability to get WAB army(ies) built and painted to place where I just love playing those great new rules. Anyway looks like a couple months of Skirmish distraction is just what I need.

More on the 15mm Sci Fi craze soon, in the meantime...I've been spending alot of my time here
Dropship Horizon
Ground Zero Games


Numerous manufacturers do the "firefly" crew knock off thing
these figures are from Splintered Light Miniatures



lots more of this and 28mm pirates coming soon