A tiny civil war, with tiny models (Badab War, resurgent?)

Life stuff first: As expected/feared due to the full disability assesment my current employment will end either 1 or 2 month from now, depending on the speed administrative processes. So yeah, less income, but also less exhaustion and stress, hopefully.

Anyway, on to the meat and potatoes of this post:
For some odd reason, looking for painting tutorials for red, to paint a small House Draconis Battletech Lance, led to seeing lots of Space Marine tutorials. Which led to thinking about marines again, which led to try a grimdark/gritty Raptors Terminator squad (for Space Hulk). Raptors led to seeing the Imperial Armour art for them again, which led to Badab War, which led to my 15mm Howling Griffons:

So, I'm thinking about having another go at Badab War games/hopefully a campaign, but this time in 15mm.

 

I don't have a concrete plan yet, just musing. Maybe use this as a project to soften the sting of being at home full time. Like Battletech, I'm hoping to go for a "show up and play"format, where I build a couple of forces, probable for the most iconic and active factions of the Badab War. And once these are done, invite some friends for a day/weekend of gaming.

Since there are 18 chapters involved in the Badab War, I'll need to make some choices on which chapters to build forces for. While 15mm paints a LOT quicker than 28mm, making 18 full armies for 4-8 players is insanity.

My current thoughts are as follows:

Secessionists:

-Astral Claws: can't have a Badab War without the Tyrant of Badab and his army! Plus the Marines and Imperial Guard hybrid force seems like an interesting project.

-Lamenters: Gotta rep the sad bois!

-Mantis Warriors: They're just cool, and I like their green with yellow shoulders.

-Executioners: Might as well complete the set.

Loyalists:

-Red Scorpions: Well, they're the Forgeworld poster boys, and in-lore leaders of the loyalists, so they're a given.

-Howling Griffons: A minor role in the conflict, but they're my lads! I have to include them.

-Minotaurs: The whole chapter was there, and they got special character models, so yeah, can hardly leave them out.

-Carcharodons: Not a big role in the most of the Badab War, but again, cool guys I want to include.

By the  "entire chapter was involved" criterium, the Fire Angels, Fire Hawks and Star Phantoms could also be included. But honestly, 4v4 feels nice and shouldn't be too unmanageable.

If, during the prep, any players express an interest in a particular chapter not in the list above, I can always add them, as I have the files already and most marines paint quite fast in 15mm scale.

Anyhow, that was my ramble/musings.

Until next time!

Time flies when you're (not) having fun.

 I think this has been the longest I haven't paid attention to this blog...
The past year has been...a thing. Sorry about that.

Between long covid, struggling to build up enough hours with that to be able to keep my job, two losses in the family within 6 months, and several other things, it's been a struggle to find the energy to hobby, let alone reporting on a blog about it. 

Things my change in the coming time though. 

Because I lost workable hours due to the disabilities/limitations from long covid, I've had to apply for disability, hoping to get enough disability pay to make up for the lost hours of income.  Just before Christmas, I was told my disability level was set at 85-100%, aka 'fully unfit for work'. Now I need to figure out with my current employer whether that means I can still work for them. Due to the holidays, illnesses and time off of various parties involved in that decision, as well as the unemployment office taking quite some time to send the official report confirming this, I won't know more until next Thursday. Luckily, this has given me time to mull over and get used to the idea, and, honestly, I'd be fine with either outcome.

So for the coming year(s) I'll either have more time and energy to devote to the hobby, but less money, or it'll be more of the past year. Which makes it a bit hard to plan ahead for the coming hobby-year...

Anyway, here's some things I hope I can work on the coming year:
-Battletech: Had the first game in decades the past week, and all involved enjoyed it. So I intend to paint more mechs, do some more terrain. Maybe try and make this a (semi-)regular thing. I'm finding it refreshing to have a "new" yet familiar universe to explore, play with giant stompy robots. In a setting that, while grim, and dark, isn't Grimdark and gothic all of the time.
-Roleplaying: After a year of mostly cancelled sessions and a player dropping out, I'm putting in extra effort to try and keep my Traveller RPG campaign running as regularly as the mutual schedules allow. I also want to do more with props and phys-reps.

Something similar has happened to the Iron Kingdoms RPG I play in, so for the time being that has become a monthly boardgame night.

If it does turn out I'll be on full-time disability pay, I would also like to have a go at reviving my long, looong-dormant Mythological Japan DnD Campaign.

-Space Hulk/Gallowdark/Necromunda:  While the spell of GW has been mostly broken in the past year, I do still like the setting and minis, even if the company, their current game and most especially their pricing, leaves me distinctly cold these days.  And I like tunnelcrawlers and skirmish games. If I do become a househusband, I'd like to work on my terrain and minis for these again, and maybe, finally, get some games in.

-Cyberpunk: Yeah, it still has it's magic for me. And, apart from terrain, it can be done in small bursts and manageable chunks.

-Dungeoneering/fantasy game: I still have fond memories of the year of near-exclusive focus on my fantasy mini collection. And it connects to my love of terrainmaking and tunnelcrawling. I have enough minis painted, I just need the dungeon for them to fight in.

-Terrain: I really miss building terrain.

-Gaming/meeting friends: This may be the most important/valuable one of all. Due to having to put all my energy in work/regaining job security the past year, I have become a bit of a hermit. In general, I want to game and meet up with friends more often, but energy has to allow it.

Anyhow, braindump done. Nice seeing you again, and until next time! Have picture of last weeks Battletech game as a reward for reaching the end of my ramble:

More Musings on Necromundan Environs

 I'm still figuring out the how and what of my (hopefully) imminent Necromunda terrain building and painting spree.

As I said in my previous post, I want to make a number of taller terrain pieces, that will allow me to add some more verticality and upper levels to my Necromunda table.  I'm thinking of building some "tower-like" terrain that can act as risers to support higher level walkways on the table, or maybe even a larger platform that acts as a full extra layer to the game/table.

But, if I were to go that route, how tall should these towers be? The obvious, initial, thought was to make these one foot high. But then I started thinking (uh-oh!) and comparing sizes:

-A Zone Mortalis wall piece is ~6 cm tall (if you average out the height of the risers that allow room for platforms)

-A Sector Mechanicus walkway is ~12.5cm tall

-A Gallowdark wall piece is ~6cm tall.

-The classic 90s Necromunda Bulkheads are ~7.5 cm tall

Looking at this measurement, and accepting that the old Necromunda bulkheads will be the odd one out, it seems that a height about 24-25cm would allow the best compatibility with the various forms of "official" terrain.  Now guess how tall a Pringles can is... 😉

So I guess height is sorted, now to get some inspiration for style and shape. 

I think I want to make a shanty tower, climbing up a derelict pipe or something. Maybe with enough of a platform on top that a second tower can be put on top.  Lots of platforms and walkways to allow passage around and up and down the column, with areas for walkways to hook up to.

Then I just need 2-3 other ideas for colums to support a second level. And some higher towers/terrain to allow traversal between the levels/layers. 

Random though as I'm typing: Maybe I can design/3d print some sort of bayonet-locking connector, that allows me to either put endcaps or platforms, or even the second tower layer securely onto these risers?

Something more to ponder...

Pondering a return to the Planet of the Dead, and of terrain.

 It's been a while, hasn't it. Long Covid has still got it's claws in me, limiting my ability to hobby, or to hobby and then write a blog post about it also..

I have been doing stuff, though, but slowly and often without pictures or posts; As when I have to choose between doing hobby, and documenting hobby, the doing wins out. The past month has been Fallout themed (because TV show, etc.). And I'm currently trying to find/maintain the time and energy to finish that table terrain set (I'm so close, just final touches and some scatter)!

But since this weekend, unsurprisingly, my mind wanders to the blasted hives of Necromunda again. Games Workshop's preview of the Malstrain Genestealers and eerie and alien Spyrers has got me excited about crumbling industrial edifices again. I was getting more and more disinterested in Games Workshop/Warhammer as a company and product line/sales model, but the grimdark, dank and wretched corners of the 40K setting do keep their appeal and fascination.

Anyway, enough ramble, on to the meat of this post:

I want to expand my Necromunda terrain.  I have some nice pieces I built over the years, but I don't yet have what I'd consider a complete or cohesive table. That and I've become increasingly dissatisfied with the lack of height and verticality of my terrain. I want to fix that, but that'll take some wearing of the old thinking cap. 

See, there are two main ways to play Necromunda. GW codified these as "Zone Mortalis" and "Sector Mechanicus" originally. Since then, added "Ash Wastes" and muddied the waters between Zone Mortalis and Sector Mechanicus... What do I mean by that? Well originally the definition was clear "Zone Mortalis" was very much 2D: combat in a warren of hallways and rooms, "Sector Mechanicus" was the 3D variant, with raised platforms and walkways at multiple levels. But then, GW addes a 3rd dimension to Zone Mortalis, by releasing kits that put walkways on top of the walls, and added extra floors and watchtowers...

Which means that if I talk about "Necromunda Terrain" I have to decide and define what I mean by that. And then I have to decide with path I want to take: Separate terrain pieces or modular tiles. Separate terrain pieces means more modularity, but offers less chances for integrating the terrain and making tableaux that showcase the setting. Both are desirable to me... Variation is the spice of life after all, but there is something so cool about having a small shantytown or a mushroom farm on your table.

I like both variants of Necromunda terrain, especially as the Zone Mortalis can also be co-opted for, say, Killteam Gallowdark or Space Hulk, and vice versa. I have several Gallowdark sets (to be built and painted), have my long-suffering Space Hulk project, and have plenty of stls to print Zone Mortalis style terrain. So I'm considering those needs met, or easily made such.

This leaves the Sector Mechanicus style terrain, or as I view it "Classic Necromunda Terrain" as it hearkens back to the old 90s cardboard Necromunda terrain and all the gorgeous Necromunda tables you see online.  This will be my focus for the upcoming build and paint cycle. 

What do I want to achieve?  More levels, and more interconnectedness than I have available now... One of my ideas is to build a few tall columns, with plenty of platforms and stairs/ladders, so lots of walkways can extend from them. I want them to have a flat top/small platform, so I can put a few together and either put walkways between them or put a larger platform between them to create a whole upper level to the table. I just need to figure out how high I want them. And how minis can move from the lower level to the upper level?  Holes in the plateau, perhaps? Or stairwells passing through? I could also just dangle a platform with a crane over the edge... 

Lots of stuff to consider and designs and ideas to ponder on.

This could be the beginning of something great...

 So, last Friday, after half a year of calendar conflicts, we finally had our first session of Traveller after our character creation session in December. And boy did we have fun!

This game was originally intended as a one-off/tryout, but at the end of this session, we all agreed this will become a full blown campaign! Everyone had fun and is hungry for more.

I decided to run a premade adventure as the system is new to me as well, so I'd rather focus on getting familiar with the rules and telling the story, rather than crafting it as well.

We blew through about 90% of the adventure in a single, roughly 4-hour, gaming session.  This is mostly because our group are all old hands at RPGs and all avid consumers of true crime/forensics documentaries. And this was an investigation adventure...
Essentially, wherever the adventure said "if the players do not find/do this, it will be revealed on day "x", they essentially uncovered it on day one. They saved a massive amount of time by not interrogating the crew of the ship involved in a certain incident. Next session will be the final act of this adventure, and then it's on to the next one. (Which is linked to this one, but the players don't know it...yet.) And after that...To infinity and beyond! 😄

One of the things I've been wanting to do with my Game Mastering is to do more with props, handouts and table dressing. And now that this game will be more than a one-off, it'll be worthwhile investing in fun stuff and immersion enhancements. 

The first project will be character folders for the players... 

See you again next time!

Hello again. (Insert funny reference to the passing of time here)

Well, hello. We meet again. Again a short recap of what I've been up to. I'm nearing completion of the 3d printed set of Gallowdark Terrain. Which means that is finished for now, until I find files for the parts from the new expansions. So, for the time being, if I do more Gallowdark terrain, it will be the official stuff (more on that later). For variation, alongside the Gallowdark set, I've also finally painted the Samurai Village I've had in storage for a couple of years:

I've been doing some painting on my Space Hulk Terminators, but ran out of steam before I could finish them. I did make some nice progress on my Space Hulk terrain set, though, spurred on by the Gallowdark frenzy:

So, that's the "tech" for doors and bulkheads sorted. Through the open door/bulkhead you can also see who I intend to approach my Space Hulk terrain in the future: No more painstakingly handcrafting repetitive items, but 3D modeling/file-bashing and printing those, and then add the additional touches and details through kitbashing and scratchbuilding.

I also found a source for larger containers of Dirty Down Rust, as I expect to use a fair bit of that in the future:

The left one is the standard 25ml one that you can find in more and more hobby stores. The right one is the 250ml one I found at a store specializing in weathering and aging products for stage and movie props. They even had Dirty Down Rust in 400ml spray cans!

And finally, the Space Hulk milestome I'm most happy about: 3D Blip markers!  The tops are adapted from an existing file, and I modeled the bases myself. The tops were printed in clear resin and then given a thorough gloss varnish. The bases simply primed black, the numbers/letters painted in white and airbrushed over with a fluor paint. Here's the results: 

Sadly, I forgot to take pics of the regular green blips before I safely stored them all away...

In the set are all the blips I need to play any edition of Space Hulk. :) 

As a sidestep, I painted two sets of Ironhead Armour for the Iron Kingdoms RPG:

One of the Ironheads was 3d printed, I modeled a boiler, firebox and chimney onto what was originally a Steel Golem model.

Since I had some leftovers of the red and green resin for the Space Hulk blip tokens, I also printed some Space Hulk fauna, just for fun and maybe some special scenarios: 

In that picture you can also see a hint of what I'm currently up to...

While I had intended to keep going on the Gallowdark and Space Hulk projects, due to having to interrupt hobbying for two weeks because of a stubborn cold I lost steam. 

Just around the time that Games Workshop had their Warhammer Fest and teased Adeptus Titanicus maybe getting infantry and non-titan vehicles... Which I personally found more exciting than 40k 10th edition. So yeah, I started figuring out how to get my own low-cost titans (see the tiny reaver) in the background of the above pic. And having Titans on the brain again, I also took the large 28mm lad out of storage. It's now fully magnetized and primed, ready to get painted over the coming sunny weeks.

As I said, I'd be coming back to Gallowdark in this post: I may not be able to get the complete set. As I said in an earlier post, Gallowdark was my last automatic must-buy from GW for the foreseeable future. And if you've seen the discussions on social media this weekend, you may have guessed why: I missed out on the woefully understocked pre-order. I may, just may have a chance with an independent game store, but I'm waiting to hear back from them whether or not they'll get the supply they ordered or if GW short-stocks them again...

More news next time!

Sunday Musings: Space Hulk/Gallowdark and abandoning an ancient empire.

 I had the past week off. Which meant that what little energy Long Covid allows me has gone towards my hobby instead of my job. I've also been looking at/seeing things and musing.

What did that musing lead to?  I think I'm done being an active Games Workshop Customer.

Let's preface this with some background and then the causes that led to this conclusion.

I've been a GW\40K fan for my entire adult life. I discovered them around 18 years of age, during second edition. Since then I've bought EVERY edition of 40K starter, and have collected a large portion of the 1st edition books too. Several editions, I didn't even get to play a game in, due to gaming groups drifting apart. But I still kept up, because Warhammer/40K was my main "thing". Even if it was never exclusively so, I do play other games and settings. I have many of the secondary/Fanatic games, and love them dearly, especially Battlefleet Gothic, Necromunda and Space Hulk (Kill team combining these two in Gallowdark was a stroke of genius which is mainly responsible for this only coming now, and not several months sooner, tbh). The shared love of the games and setting has given me the vast majority of people I now call friends, both online and in "meatspace".  The 41st Millennium runs deep with me.

So what prompted this disentanglement from the company that produces it? In no particular order:

-While never a cheap hobby, the game has become downright unaffordable over the past years. The Hobby™ has never been cheap, but the past and upcoming price hike have, for me, broken the limit of value for money.

-GW's relentless release pace means you don't have the time to enjoy new mini's or spend time with a release to get to know it's ins and outs. It's all so rushed and stressful. It's exhausting. 

-And many of the newer releases, despite being of high technical and sculpting skill, aren't very good, lore and design-wise. There's nothing joyous or inspired about them.

-Despite its grand  "Warhammer is for Everyone" statement a while back, I've not seen GW make any significant progress or effort to deal with the obvious bigot issue in their community. They're still here, and with the lack of significant push out since that statement, they're louder and more obnoxious than ever.

-GW's reliance on FOMO and flash in the pan sales and their accompanying consistent unwillingness and inability to get their product in the hands of fans instead of scalpers. It just shows such disrespect and disinterest to their customer/fanbase.

-GW's exploitative lack of respect for their artists and creators. It started years ago, with the removal of author credits on rules, artists watermarks and credits, and now after building loyalty and community through popular faces on their tutorials, they've reverted to literally faceless narration. The only ones allowed a name and face are the presenters, the one who are effectively doing a constant, barely masked sales pitch.

GW has always been a somewhat out of touch and regressive company, but they seemed to be doing better for a while. Not it just feels like their regressing to their worst habits. I just can't find any joy in THEIR version of The Hobby™ anymore.

Sum total: I don't NEED Games Workshop anymore for my hobbying in the 40K setting, and I don't like them near enough anymore to give them a default claim on my hobby budget.

Does that mean GW won't lure me back in at some point? No, if they manage to hit the perfect note with a release (Say, BFG 2nd ed or Warhammer Old World Man O'War?), I might pick that up. But I won't be a devotee anymore, just a passer by.

Keeping my games/collections up to date and assuming something is a must buy, because it's for a game or faction I collect? That's past. The only remaining guaranteed buy left is the fourth installment of Kill Team Gallowdark. Because I WANT to have it, not because I NEED it to stay current. Unless a miracle happens, 9th will be the last edition of 40K I own.

I won't sell my collections either, as I still like the setting and minis. But I'll be playing around in the universe at my pace, on my conditions, in a part of the timeline I choose, an the version of the rules I like without regard to GW's  plans or desires. MY hobby, not The Hobby™.

Anyway, after all that dour thought, let's end on something fun, shall we?

I finished painting the first/test portion of my Gallowdark terrain. These are 3d printed fanmade iterations and meant as a testcase for painting techniques, colour schemes and new materials/paints to try. (Dirty Down Rust prime among them).  They'll also mean I can fill a larger table for when we play a Badab War Kill Team campaign later this year.   You see, for this year, I want to try and focus on playing more, instead of just buying more. Let's hope I succeed!

My Void Crows scavenger team got a bit more than they bargained for inside a derelict ship!