Space Marines (Warhammer 40K) 30th Birthday at Warhammer, The Summit!

Hi everyone,

We had a fun time yesterday on April 16th - the 30th birthday of the Space Marines....

How did we celebrate?

Well, visited a new 40K store (new to us) in Reno.  The store:  Warhammer, The Summit.  :)  (Link to their facebook page.)

Cool Space Marines 30th Birthday pins at the store!

 And, the cool 30th Birthday Cake!

We had stopped in earlier and discussed the Dakka Chugga  (our Ork Looted Steam Train - link to that here) with the team there.  They had mentioned that they'd love to see it.  So, we had packed it up so that we could stop in and show them.

And, really glad that on a Space Marine special day, we were able to bring some Boyz to the party!

The Dakka Chugga and Spork, Supreme Warboss of the Pink Orkies - ready to bring some Big Killy down on that Birthday Cake!

In the store, they were enjoying Space Marines' Birthday Cake, and had very cool buttons.

Showed them the Dakka Chugga - and then talked about how we might have a battle using it....

One option we chatted about: Maybe we could set up track around the battle table -- and have other armies try to stop the Dakka Chugga.  Their idea was to make it kind of like a Death Race.

Sounded like a lot of fun.  Also seemed like a very good reason to have Da Pain Train (our 2nd Ork looting of a locomotive - link to that here) ready to go as well.  So, we are going to figure out when that could be and start getting ourselves ready.

The group in the store also mentioned some excellent ideas.  Like, how about taking a passenger car - and loading it with heavily armed Orks.  Maybe one Ork per window!  Going to start looking for an old-school passenger car which we could modify for that purpose :)

Following up on the suggestion from the Warhammer Summit group - we could Orkify a passenger gar like this one.  Lots of opportunities for Boyz to be lined up along the windows.  Plus, a second level to use....

Dice: Old school (clear, sharp edged) D&D RPG dice

Hi everyone,

It struck us recently that the old school clear, sharp-edged, crystal-looking D&D or other RPG dice seem to be pretty much a thing of the past.

Here's our original set from the days of the first D&D edition.  (Always wished that one of these was red to make the full rainbow.)

 Our original 1980's sharp-edged crystalline dice.  (Never had red.)

And, so started looking on eBay.  Sure enough some people are selling "old D&D dice" -- or "vintage D&D dice."

And, so, for a reasonable sum, we got the following just this past week.

 The lot of old dice we found on eBay.  (Look, a red d12!!!)

There was always one issue with these dice.  Very hard to read them!!!

My friend had showed me the white crayon trick.  You srcub your dice with white crayon to fill up the imprinted numbers with white wax.  Suddenly, "pop" -- you can read them clearly.

[Had never really thought through the fact that this just might change the balance of the dice a little bit.  But, since the imprinting removes material - and likely makes them asymmetrical.  By loading up with wax we're just fixing that a bit!]

We never really had a great solution for d20s.  We'd scrub crayon into one set of 0-9 -- and those would be the high numbers.  And, the non-scrubbed ones would be the low numbers.  And, yes, the low numbers were still hard to read.

Here's our process:

 Scrubbed the faces of the die with white crayon.  Then rubbed off excess with paper towel.  Sometimes this required some repeats.

 Here are the d12 and d8 after we've done a few of the sides.

Problem with the crayon method.  The crayon usually wears off over time.  Bits fall out.  And, then you need to repeat the process in order to see the numbers clearly again.

And, remember this old fellow?  The edge-roughened d12 which - also very hard to read - had been marked up with a good old black pen!!

 Old school, edge roughened d12 with black pen highlighting!

Have to say, do miss these.  The new ones come in great colors and roll nicely.  But, the sharp crystal edges were very cool!

And, here is our set with the red die added!  Yay!  A full rainbow :)

Our dice with the red d12 added to the mix.

(Battletech) More Mechs from Craigslist

Hi everyone,

This weekend, we found some a posting on Craigslist -- with lots of old Battletech Mechs!

 A few of our favorite newly added Mechs....

We called as quickly as we could -- and were able to arrange buying them.  It was a bit of a drive for us - but worked out to be more or less on the way we needed to drive - so it all worked out well.

This was really exciting for us, because the lot of Mechs we bought included quite a few we couldn't easily get these days.

When we talked on the phone - the Seller mentioned that he loved playing Battletech (just like us!), but hadn't had a chance to use his Mechs in quite a while.

The Seller had done a nice job of taking care of his Mechs.  One trick we learned from him is that egg cartons make a very nice and convenient holder for miniatures.  They have done a nice job of protecting these!

Unpacking the Mechs.  Very slick use of egg cartons to store the Mechs!

Here are the Mechs we are most excited about adding to our forces:

1) Warhammer
2) Wolverine
3) Archer
4) Marauder
5) Thunderbolts (he had two)
6) Stinger
7) Phoenix Hawks (2 painted, 1 unpainted, 1 missing an arm)
8) Longbows (he had two, one of them painted)
9) Griffin

Picture of the list of our favorite Mech additions.  :)

We know that quite a few of these are "Unseen" Mechs.  But, since we have been playing quite a bit of "early years" Battletech in our campaign, it's fun to have these models since they go well with the really early rule books we've scrounged up.

Also interesting to look at the Seller's Marauder.  We're not sure - but maybe that's the top of a Rifleman on his Marauder ??

It was interesting that he also had some plastic Mechs.  These look like different castings from the ones we got in our boxes sets -- or in the lance sets we have purchased recently.  The ones he had seemed a bit bigger and beefier than the ones we have.  (His Atlas looks like a football player compared to the ones we have.)

Different plastic molds.  Models from the beginner's set on the right; models from this batch on the left.  Some differences in scale and "bulkiness"

Repairs planned:

- We need to figure out some way to come up with an arm for the Phoenix Hawk.  (Maybe we can print something with the 3D printer ??)

The lot of Mechs came with this one-armed Phoenix Hawk.  We'll have to see what we can figure out as a repair.  (Or, maybe we just play with this one as-is -- figuring that the arm was blown off and not repairable.)

- We have some bits we need to sort out (not sure which Mechs they may have fallen off of)

- And, not 100% related - but we discovered that our not-so-great packaging has caused our Mad Cat to have both legs broken off.  Repair certainly in order!! 

How to make a MadCat "Mad"!  Clearly we needed to use some egg cartons!  Glue time....

Car Wars and Hot Wheels (playing the Steve Jackson Games classic!)

Hi everyone,

In the past couple of weeks we had a chance to play a classic game (one of us hadn't played in about 25 years) -- Car Wars from Steve Jackson Games.

First we got the remake of the basic set.  We had fun looking at all of the little pieces :)  And, we ended up deciding that all would be more fun with 3D models!

Some quick reflections on the Car Wars game system:

- The system where a turn is broken into phases -- and a faster car gets more actions per turn -- is very fun.  Strong reminder of what was fun about the Champions system from Steve Jackson.  Really loved playing Champions - and fun feeling of nostalgia.

- Was it easy to build our first car?  No - not really.  Took us a while to figure out the handling class rules - but we finally figured out that your handling class works sort of like hit points....

Here's the first car we built - a van with lots of weapons.  Still don't think we figured out the weight of ammunition properly!

Then, it occurred to us that it would be even more fun to play 40K style with 3D models.  We chatted about it.  We could see two options.  Use the box set exactly as is -- and use N scale models (maybe parts from Dropzone Commander -- which are N scale) -- or use Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars and modify some cars to play!

Well, we decided that Hot Wheels would be much more fun.  After all, we had lots of 40K equipment which would help us out :)

We had to figure out which scale to use for Hot Wheels and Matchbox....  First we figured out that the little paper set in the box was "N" scale.  And, since Hot Wheels and Matchbox are roughly "HO" scale, we did some quick research and math....

Turns out that Hot Wheels are 1:64 (or so), where HO scale is 1:87.  (And, this explains why Hot Wheels always looked a little bit big next to an HO locomotive scale-wise).

There are quite a few scales recognized as "N" scale.  Ranging from 1:144 all the way to 1:160.

Here's our quick set of multipliers from Car Wars to Hot Wheels....

After doing this we had read one blog where a person did a really nice job of setting up Hot Wheels for Car Wars.  (Here's a link to that!)  They used a multiplier of 3.  We took a look at that - and decided that it was just too large for our sense of things.

We went with 2.5 X.

Took a little while (and good practice with a protractor) to build our 2.5X Car Wars template.  But, we got it done!

With our new template ready, we set up a quick battle.

Here's our 2.5X Car Wars template for using with Hot Wheels side-by-side with the original N-scale template.

The scenario was that one of our friends had been captured by a rival gang - and we needed to rescue him in our weapon toting van.

We used some 40K fortification pieces to build a "base" for the bad guys -- and used our battle mat to create streets.

There we are at the very far end - and the "bad guys" base at the near end.  The yellow car tucked away belongs to our friend....

It was fun to play.  We used some 40K pieces to mark smoke and show bad guy cars on fire....  And, we ended up closing out the battle by ramming the bad guys (and realizing that we needed more front armor in the process!)....

Ramming time!  We took out the last bad guy by ramming him with our van.

And, the battle had a happy ending.  Rescued our comrade :)

So, what's next?

Well, we met some folks at Game Kastle in Santa Clara who happened to be working on exactly the same thing (but with some great skills).  [Here's a link to their website.  http://santacruzwarhammer.blogspot.in/2015/06/santa-cruz-fury-road.html  They have been using different rules -- rules from Road Wolf where you move the terrain -- not so much the vehicles....]

After checking out what they'd done, we happened to find a company in Florida who makes small pewter pieces which can be easily added to Hot Wheels for Car Wars -- little gun turrets and the like :)  (Here's a link:  http://www.stanjohansenminiatures.com/Road.htm )

Our parts arrived this week - so now we need to decide how and where to use them.  Also had the great suggestion from the person we met from the Santa Cruz Fury Road group to use Ork bitz on our cars.  Certainly going to work on that since as we see it the latest Mad Max movie had lots and lots of great Orky ideas.  (Here's a link to our Orky things posting.)

Here we are opening up our turrets and gun bitz from Stan Johansen Miniatures

Here we are brainstorming how to modify our cars....

We'll post again when we have some more cars modified!

Ork Barricades for Fork and Spork

Hi everyone,

Over the summer we had picked up some Ork Barricades at a swap meet at Game Kastle.

We hadn't ever seen these for sale before -- seems that they had been discontinued.

Bummer - they look very cool!

Spent some time thinking about which ones should be decorated by Spork's boyz and which should be decorated by Fork's boyz :)

In the end, we went with the big pink symbol as a Spork Pink Orkys barricades.  And, the lower mounted symbol for Fork's Yellow Boyz.

Here are our Ork Barricades so far....  Still need to add dirt to them.

For Spork's Pink Ork Barricades, we used our standard formula for bright pink.  Some white mixed with Valejo neon pink -- and then an over-coating of the pink.  Here is a link to our work to sort that out :)  Pink Paint for Pink Orkys!

Thoughts about rules:

Unless you go with the cover save afforded by the barricades in the Stronghold Assault book, there don't seem to be very many cool rules.

One idea we had -- why not allow buying a Waaagh! Banner with some additional points -- if you want the advantage.  The Waaagh! Banner could have a range from whichever of the barricade pieces you bought the upgrade for.  It would be nice to have the +1 WS.

Or, maybe a rule which would allow an increase in morale when near or behind barricades -- of course for a cost.  (It is a serious bummer when we have a squad of Boyz take a hit at the beginning of the game and then run off the board.)

After we were done, we wanted to add some slime, goo, gore, etc, to the Barricades.  So far we have just added some green slime.  Used the same formula we used when we were adding Tyranid icor to the Dakka Chugga.

Mixed in clear gel (Gel 351 from Grumbacher) with Nurgle's Rot.  The combination is fairly think and forms fairly well into drips -- then dries clear.  (Don't be worried that the gel looks white when gooey.)

 Our formula for green goo....

 

Green goo when wet (gel is white in color when wet)

 Green goo when dried :)

And, here's Spork with his favorite section of the Barricade!

Supreme Warboss Spork with Pink Orkys Barricade!  Got some dirt and rust on them -- looking more realistic (especially the bright pink!)

40K Ork Warboss "Spork" as Motivational Speaker

Hi everyone,

Got to wondering if Ork Warbosses might have more tricks up their sleeves to motivate their Boyz than simply being the biggest and loudest.  (Probably not - but it's fun to imagine!)

Had to reload our favorite font to set these up.  "Battle Breath" - http://www.dafont.com/

Link with more about Spork and his Warboss brother Fork here

Will also work on a more detailed write-up of the history of Fork and Spork.  Not done yet, though :)

Warboss Spork explaining the battle plan to his Boyz

Keys to success from Warboss Spork

Final words before the Waaaagh!

If we made enough of these, maybe we could print out a calendar??

Quick X-wing Star Destroyer Model for Terrain - And Our Massive Battle

Hi everyone,

This weekend we got thinking about having a quick X-Wing battle.  We were just thinking of 3 of us playing different squadrons of Rebels -- against some common Empire ships.  But -- that's not the way it turned out :)

First of all, we got the idea to build a Star Destroyer background terrain piece.

We started with cardboard from a box -- and cut it into long triangular pieces.  (Our idea was that this was just one side of the start destroyer.)  We were planning to make two layers -- with a gap in the middle -- and then mount our turbo laser turrets between the layers.  (It always looked as if the edge of a Star Destroyer was about as loaded as weapons as a Death Star Trench to us....)

Cutting the cardboard for the Star Destroyer

Once we had the cardboard pieces cut, we cut up some pink foam to make the gap between the top and bottom layers of cardboard.  (By the way, we made the top and bottom out of two layers of cardboard -- didn't want it to be too flimsy.)

Pieces are cut - ready to hot glue in place

Then we used hot-glue to glue all of the layers together.  We put a 4-inch wide strip on the facing edge of the pink foam.  We had learned during our Death Star Trench experience that if we didn't do that it would be hard to glue our terrain sticker material to the pink foam.

All glued together!

With that done, we attached our sticker paper.  This is the same stuff we printed out when we made our Death Star Trench a while back.  We had several sheets left over -- so we didn't even need to wait to print these :)

[Here's our Death Star Trench write-up:  Building Death Star Trench from Cardboard Box and Pink Foam]

Here we are attaching the pieces of sticker paper to our Star Destroyer model

To make it seem (more) realistic we aligned the sticker paper with the business edge of the Star Destroyer.  That made for a little bit more waste, but did seem to help with the look.

Zooming in on the Turbo Laser Turrets.  Fit in there very nicely!

We have been working on the game table plans -- and so we were playing X-Wing in a different room.  Lots of sunlight!  Made it a bit difficult to see the black of space on our mat.  So, we put another box behind the Star Destroyer - and that helped a great deal.

[Here are links to our write-up about Turbo Laser Turrets:  Trying to Build a Turbo Laser Turret -- and buying nice ones made by JR MINI]

Our Star Destroyer terrain piece ready for action :)

The Battle!

Like we were saying, we started out small.  But, then we got talking about making a quick drive to Gator Games to look for K-Wings.

What ended up (after our trip to Gator Games) was a more Epic Scale battle -- with well more than 100 points on either side (we weren't counting).

Battle about to start!

Early on, it really did seem that the Star Destroyer terrain was looking pretty cool :)

Our Star Destoyer with the Imperial ships!

But, one problem is that when you looked at the view from the Rebel side of the table, it really disappeared behind all of the ships.

View from the Rebel cockpits!  Empire forces dead-ahead!!

So, this has given us some ideas for Star Destroyer Version #2....

• Why not make the Star Destroyer run the whole way along one side of the game board?  Then you'd see it very clearly the whole way.
• Lift the Star Destroyer up by 1/2" or so with some clear plastic.  Then, you'd see space under and behind it.  Also, this would put it looming up a bit above the large ships!
• And, the Star Destroyer top and bottom pieces should be angled.  It was quick and easy to make them flat and parallel, but doesn't quite give the "Star Destroyer" feeling as it could if those were sloped.
• Maybe even including some features of a bridge would help?
• And, lastly, need to think about the scale.  Do the Turbo Laser Turrets really fit?  Or are they too big?

 For us, managing the battle become tedious pretty fast.  It sort of felt like trying to manage our first large Battletech battle.  

[Here's a link to our attempts to manage a large-ish scale Battletech Battle.]

Several turns into the battle.  Things were starting to get messy.  Lots of movement plans which didn't work out!

We should have thought to something like putting tokens onto the cards of the pilots who had fired -- or something like that.  Regardless, with this many pilots it got very hard to keep track.  And, keeping track of everyone's unique upgrades was even more challenging!!

And, by the way, we really like the Raider model!  Also really like the TIE Punishers.  Normally we are pretty much fans of Rebel ships.  These two new ships are very cool additions.  :)

We are really looking forward to the arrival of the Imperial Gozanti Class Cruiser as well -- since we have been using one of those in our FFG Edge of the Empires campaign.  [Here's a link to a write-up from our Quest for the Juggernaut our last session.]

Back to work on Da Pain Train (40K Ork Looted Wagon Locomotive #2)

Hi everyone,

Is there such a thing as writer's block when it comes to modeling?

We had been charging forward with our plans to build Ork locomotive looted wagon #2 -- in this case, the Eldar conversion of a GE 44-Ton switch engine (Wikipedia link).  But, then we sort of ran out of steam....

In case you missed it, here's the write-up of locomotive looted wagon #1 -- the Dakka Chugga  And, here's the Dakka Chugga in motion -- short Youtube video.

Anyway, we are moving forward again.  Have had some ideas on how what the Ork meks might do in order to maximize the firepower of this vehicle.

Here's a quick update on our progress....

Here is Da Pain Train as it stands right now.  Here you can also see the single-motor Lionel locomotive base.  We have started working on a piloting kokkpit in the front.

Here's how Da Pain Train will look when the shell is on top. 

We started working on a weapon for a second turret in the front.  We got some bits (a broken Eldar Fire Prism model) at the Game Kastle swap meet this summer.  And, we had an old plastic army men tank turret.  So, we carved a spot to mount the prism weapon in the turret.  Only issue is that the prism is metal and the turret is light plastic.  So, right now we're working on adding counter weight to the turret (gluing some metal hardware such as nuts and washers in there).

Here is our Fire Prism turret weapon.  We'll have to work on what the Orks will call it.

Also thinking that an Orky weapon might be an Eldar jetbike strapped to a movable arm.  Probably going to mount a Grot to operate the Jetbike-Arm weapon.  It'll be able to cover a strange arc on the port side of the vehicle by rotating up/down or swinging in/out.

 Here is the work-in-progress for our Jetbike-Arm-Weapon

We are going to have a pilot in the very front of the vehicle.  He fits in there pretty well.  He will like up when the locomotive moves because the kokkpit happens to be right on top of the Lionel shell's old-school incandescent bulb.

Here is our Ork Driva!

We are going to add some other hacked up Eldar pieces in the back.  Won't help with when Da Pain Train tries to go through any tunnels!  But, gives us a way to mount more of the Eldar propulsion to it.  Also, thinking that we're going to carve our a place to stand for a Grot or Ork in those Eldary-holes in the wing thingys back there.

Here is a look at our way to get even more propulsion onto Da Pain Train

We do have a few more Eldar bits.  Thinking about what to do with them.  We have some pod-like attachments to mount on the top turret.  Not sure what to do with some of the Eldar figures we've got.  Going to do something with them - mount them as an Ork trophy somewhere maybe.  Don't want to be quite as gruesome as we were with the Tyranids on the Dakka Chugga.  Doesn't seem quite right with Eldar.  (That's probably not very good Ork thinking!!)