Fishy fishy

I finished the first two minis out of my birthday batch of starship models from Monday Knight Productions: the Aquarian Alliance Tigershark-class stellar destroyer leader and  Leviathan-class galactic dreadnought.

These will join the rest of my Aquarian fleet, the smallest of all my Starfleet Wars/Galactic Knights collections, and the only one that doesn't include a super galactic dreadnought.

I plan on using these ships in games of Starfleet Wars, where they are the only faction with cloaking devices; in Galactic Knights, which doesn't have any official rules for the Aquarians; and of course for 5150: Star Navy, but I'm not sure what force they will represent in that setting.

Note that the dreadnought is mounted on a taller nail than the destroyer leader.  This allows escort ships to remain close to the larger craft on the table.  It also has a wider base for stability.

I ordered these two models as an afterthought, as I was buying a whole bunch of Carnivoran and Entomalian spaceships to round out those fleets.  I'm happy my budget had room for them.

Oh, and interesting fact about this ship in the Starfleet Wars background in an article from the Superior Models house magazine Wargamers Forum: The Leviathan can operate underwater, and even launch its missiles from beneath the ocean surface, just like a 20th-century nuclear sub.  So careful when you're at the beach!

Bases for the big boys

I have three super galactic dreadnoughts that I've painted, but at the moment, none of them are on bases.  The reason is simple: these toys are very massive, half a foot long, and weighing close to a whole pound.  Regular bases won't do (these heavy castings tend to tip over), so I came up with this three-in-one stand using one 2-inch washer and three 1-inch washers with wooden discs.

As you can see (apologies for the blurry pic), these stands are larger than the bases I make using my typical method of basing model starships.  For these bases, I used longer nails so that the big ships will stand at a suitably height compared to the smaller vessels.

Now they're all painted, and waiting for their ships.  Pics just as soon as I drill some holes to get the SGDNs based.

Sunday Starships: Avarian SGDN

Wow.  It's been a long time since I started working on the Gryphon-class Super Galactic Dreadnought.  I painted one side of it about a year ago, and never got around to finishing it.  Until today.

My wife commented that this model is too big to be called a miniature.  She also noted that it would make a good murder implement, telling me something like: "I could kill you with this and the police could never match the wound to the weapon."  (We both have a strange sense of humor.)

This starship is the flagship of my Avarian fleet.  While it was designed for Starfleet Wars and revised for Galactic Knights, I also plan on using it as a Class 6 vessel in the starship combat game I co-authored, 5150: Star Navy.

Bonus photo: The seventeen ships that were part of my birthday present, all primed and ready to be painted.

Look for finished versions of some of these ships on this blog (hopefully) next week.

Happy Texas Independence Day!

To all my fellow Texans, whether you're here in the Lone Star State or in some foreign land like New York, Happy Independence Day!  I had some Alamo beer to celebrate.  How are you commemorating the holiday?

Sunday Starships: 5150 fleet action

I turned over the bargain Directorate fleet (above) to my brother over the weekend.  Since I also had a Firestorm Armada starter fleet (Aquan Prime, below), I brought it along for a battle.  Of course, instead of using that ruleset, we used 5150: Star Navy.  The models went on the table unpainted, but please don't hold that against us.

Both boxes contained the same number of spacecraft: one battleship (Class 5), three cruisers (Class 4) and six frigates (Class 3).  We quickly adopted them to Star Navy, my brother taking the Zhuh-Zhuh and me going with a Free Company.

Since All Ships Must Have Names, I christened my mercenary force as the Rampage (battleship); Steadfast (heavy cruiser); Standard and Striker (light cruisers); Fearless, Fang and Fortress (frigates), and Defiant, Deadly and Dreadful (destroyers).

 My brother went with a simian theme: the King Kong (assault ship); Curious George and Clyde (interdictors); Jane Goodall (cutter); and the Koko, BJ Bear, Albert the 1st, Donkey Kong, Tarzan and Heston (missile boats).

Long story short, I blew up or chased off a couple of his ships, and he was unable to do much to me at first.  However, once he eventually got into missile range, the missile boats kept chipping away at my battleship until he took the last hull point.  But I let him win.  ;)

Oh, and it was pretty cool seeing a hardcopy of the game I helped write.  My brother even asked me to autograph his rulebook.  All in all, a fun battle.  Until next time then, may the Zhuh-Zhuh prevail!

Treasure of Dragons

Dragon magazine, that is (or The Dragon, as it was referred to back in the day).  Apparently, just about every print issue of this periodical is available online at the Internet Archive.  You can browse the issues on the website, and even download individual issues.  The collection also includes the Best Ofs and Dragon Annuals.  Polyhedron, the magazine of the Role Playing Gamers Association, is also there in digital form.  That's quite a trove!

Personally, I bought my last new issue of Dragon back in the '90s.  Lackluster articles and a lame letters section with fanboy debates on casting for an imaginary Dragonlance movie led me to believe that the magazine had jumped the shark.  Besides, I had been out of gaming for several years, and even though I would pick up the occasional find at a used bookstore, it would be years before I got into the OSR and back into gaming.

But I still look back fondly on those days of my youth, when seeing the issue in the magazine section at Waldenbooks at the local mall sent me thumbing through the pages and fumbling through my pockets for allowance money to buy the mag.  Now I can relive that thrill of discovery of some new gaming goodness.

(Hat tip: the d20 Dark Ages blog.)

Another mini for my wife

When I was at the game store on Saturday, in addition to the bargain spaceship set, I also picked up another miniature for my wife.  I'm trying to get her more interested in gaming, and one good way to do that is to purchase figures that will pique her interest.  She's a martial artist who likes to read books and watch movies about strong women kicking ass (her D&D character is named after the actress who plays the lead in Kill Bill), so I'm always on the lookout for minis that fall in that category.  In that vein, I found "Human Ranger Michelle" from the Bones line of plastics by Reaper, sculpted by Jeff Grace.  It was a bargain at $2.49, so I didn't hesitate to snatch it up. 

My spouse appreciated the fact that I was thinking of her while I was geeking out at the game store.  She also liked the design of the miniature--the combat stance, the weapons, and especially the fact that the woman is fully clothed.  It can be off-putting for some women gamers to see minis of females wearing chainmail bikinis.  And I'm not just talking about the ridiculousness of some of the stripperiffic designs out there.  There's a practical aspect to consider as well: While cheesecake is great to look at, it's very inconvenient for for fighting.  So my black-belt bride is happy with this miniature, and I'm excited to have another figure to paint. Now, if this will just entice my wife into gaming some more ...