Dice tower/terrain piece

After about two years of watching Youtube crafting videos, I decided to try my hand at making a structure from scratch. I constructed this dice tower from a breadcrumbs can and dollar-store foam board. 

I cut off the top and bottom, then cut three slits at 45° angles to bounce the dice and cut an opening at the bottom. The wood planks surrounding that doorway are just craft (popsicle) sticks. For the stones, I used scissors to cut dollar-store foam board into irregularly sized and shapes stone blocks. Then I took those foam pieces and shook them in a can with real rocks to add texture. 

After gluing on all the foam bricks, I painted it with Black Magic Craft's suggested mix of black paint and Mod Podge to strengthen the build and to protect the foam from the solvents in spray paints. I then sprayed it with a matte black. 

I painted the stonework with overbrushes and then drybrushes of successively ligher shades of gray. Once that was done, I gave the whole thing a black wash, and then I picked out a few stones to hit with some shades I had--green, blue, and brown.

Details included some flocking mixed with white glue to simulate moss, and some store-bought trees and tufts and a treasure chest mini to close off the dice corral. Then an overall spray of matte varnish, and it was done!

The dice corral is a little small, making it difficult to remove more than three dice, but it does its job and I am happy how it turned out.

As you can probably tell, a certain videogame was a major influence for this build.  I plan to use it with Oathmark and other fantasy wargames, but this isn't my last piece of terrain.

Another piece of junk

Here's another quick and dirty terrain piece for Stargrave and other 28mm sci fi games. This one came from a Girl Scout candy box (dark chocolate caramel cups with sea salt, if you're interested).

The usual steps to give it a worn, yet not grimdark, look: 1. Spray paint a single color. 2. Heavily drybrush silver. 3. Apply a black wash. 

Not perfect, but good enough to provide a little cover during a battle without looking out of place. And one less thing in the recycling bin.

Interesting ...

I took apart a squeeze bottle of "gel control" superglue, for use in terrain building and other crafting, and here are the components. The actual amount of adhesive is very tiny in comparison to the total package. From now on, I'm just buying the normal bottles.

More scatter terrain

As MillenniumCon approaches, here is some more scatter terrain from last summer. 

Can you guess what this transmitter came from?

These two pieces were from my wife's contact lens containers. What's everyone else working on?

Trashy town tutorial

My trashy buildings were easy to make, and other than waiting on paint to dry, didn't take very long to finish. And other than the cost of paint and glue, which I already had, it didn't cost me a cent. For those who are interested, I have some step-by-step photos of each building and a little commentary after the jump:

Some trashy buildings

Just like I did for some scatter terrain this summer, I created some buildings for Stargrave and other 28mm-scale skirmish games using trash and other bits bound for the landfill.

For the main structures, I used the plastic blister packaging from a couple of Starfinder spaceship sets, another large figure from WizKids, and a Q-tips box.

Just like with my previous terrain, I wanted bright colors instead of a grimdark look. 

And being a packrat who saves all sorts of interesting shapes from the recycling bin, I was able to put a decent amount of detail on these buildings.

While my gaming buddies all have plenty of sci-fi terrain, it's relaxing to put stuff like this together, and I enjoy flexing my creative muscles.

I can use these structures with the toy spaceship I repurposed for 28mm gaming as well.

I haven't had a chance to get these on the table for gaming yet, but I hope to do so in the near future.

Literally garbage

These are some quick-and-dirty terrain pieces made from household detritus that I had been hoarding like a packrat. Inspired by the crafting videos from Wyloch's Armory, but boiled down a bit, I made these by spraying the base color, gluing on greeblies, heavily drybrushing with silver, and then drowning in a black wash.

This first piece is what I like to think of as some kind of alien computer or scientific instrument. As you may have guessed, this is the plastic blister from a AA battery pack, with a couple of sprues from old Warhammer bases glued on top.

Next is a power generator made from the tray holding the cookies inside the box. You get bonus points if you recognized it as coming from Girl Scout cookies (unfortunately, I don't remember which kind). In addition to the plastic sprues on top, I glued water bottle caps to this side, and some unused bases that came with some WizKids unpainted miniatures to the other side.

Last is this device, maybe some sort of engine or other mechanical contraption, from the packaging that once held an electric toothbrush. Add some sprues and the plastic fasteners that come with cold cuts from my supermarket deli, and we have a nice piece of alien machinery.

While Wyloch and other crafters use browns, grays, and blacks for that grimdark aesthetic, I wanted my sci-fi terrain to be more colorful, like the fantastic images from my youth. The spray paints I used (Rustoleum Paint + Primer Satin) looked bright when first applied, but the weathering toned it down the right amount to make these pieces look like they belong together on the tabletop. Not bad for what started out as a bunch of junk!

Frostgrave constructs

One thing I like about Frostgrave is that the game encourages you to use your imagination when selecting figures for the game. To that end, I kitbashed some constructs for my enchanter to take into battle. Since my wizard is a former tavern owner who lost her business due to the economy, I figured her magically animated creations should reflect her background.

The small construct, Beryl, came from a Reaper Bones set of barrels and some wooden matchsticks.

The components for Porter, the medium construct, also came from the Bones castings

Stout, the large construct, took a little more searching for building materials. In addition to the Bones barrels, the large container came from the miniature dollhouse accessories shelf at Michael's craft store. Here he is next to his creator, the enchanter Spica "Spike" Brewer.

In addition, I finally got around to painting these treasure tokens, suitable for use with Frostgrave or Kings of War. Anyone else kitbashed anything recently?

GEO and Mark III comparison shots

At the request of a member on the Steve Jackson Games Ogre/GEV forum, here are some side-by-side shots of my kitbashed Ground Effect Ogre and an Ogre Mark III.

They;re about the same length, but the GEO is a little closer to the ground than its tracked brethren.

The width is pretty much the same as well. The Matchbox vehicle I used as the basis for the G-E Ogre was the perfect size for this conversion.

I want to see how the GEO compares on the battlefield. I need to playtest it against the defenders in the Mark III attacking the command post scenario. Meanwhile, it looks pretty good next to another cybertank.

Water hexes for Ogre

When I first ran my Monopolis game, I borrowed some river overlays from a fellow gamer. But sooner or later I needed to come up with my own way to represent water hexes in my large-scale Ogre games.

Eventually, I found some hexagons that are the same size (four inches across) as the spaces on my Corsec game mat.

I bought a pack of 99 cardboard beer coasters in an eBay auction. Some glossy blue spray paint gave me that game-map shade to represent water.

For ease of setup, I attached the hexes in strips of three using Elmer's glue and old business cards. This way I can quickly lay out rivers or large bodies of water for my Ogre games.

Now I can put in some water hazards on my maps, with plenty of room to play out all those aquatic overruns.

Ground-Effect Ogre (GEO)

Take a Mark III, replace the treads with hover gear, and you have the Ground-Effect Ogre (GEO)--a fast, deadly, and extremely vulnerable cybertank.

Instead of tread units, a GEO has ground-effect units. While attacks against them are resolved just like for treads, the fragility of g-e units is reflected in their smaller number on the Ground-Effect Ogre's record sheet. In addition, GEOs take double damage from ramming (as attacker or defender). If a GEO loses all its ground-effect units while in a water hex, instead of being immobilized, the Ground-Effect Ogre sinks and is destroyed.

When resolving a cruise missile attack on a GEO, all systems are treated as standard Ogre components except ground-effect units. Use the line for "Any D0 Unit or Any GEV" on the Effects of Missile Explosion table to determine attacks against ground-effect units, but a D result still has no effect.

GEOs have split movement as shown on the record sheet. Terrain affects GEOs the same as any other ground-effect vehicle. All other standard rules for Ogres apply to GEOs.

        GROUND-EFFECT OGRE RECORD SHEET

WEAPONS            ATTACK  RANGE  DEF            
  1 Main Battery     4       3     4    O
  4 Secondaries      3       2     3    OOOO                
  2 Missiles         6       5     3    OO        
  8 Antipersonnel    1       1     1    OOOO OOOO 

MOVE RATE    |  3/2 |  3/1 |  2/1 |  1/1 |  1/0 | 0
 20 G-E UNITS| OOOO | OOOO | OOOO | OOOO | OOOO |  

The model started out as a Matchbox hovercraft. I added some bits from an Ogre repair kit and a bead from my wife's beading supplies for the ball turret. My attempt at using greenstuff for the armor came out horrible, but it shouldn't be too noticable on the tabletop at arm's length--and I can rationalize it as battle damage.

Ground Effect Ogre (work in progress)

I'm working on a Ground-Effect Ogre (GEO), using a Matchbox hovercraft as the chassis. In addition to some spare Ogre parts, I'm using a craft bead for the turret, and a whole bunch of green stuff--which is very difficult to work with.

It should look better after some sanding and a paint job. I'm also drafting rules for the GEO, which I envision as faster than a typical cybertank, but far more vulnerable because of its hover system. It's about the size of a Mark III, and I haven't decided how many weapons to give it.

I also rounded out my Ogre Miniatures collection with a number of light tanks, both PanEuropean (of which I already had a handful) and NA Combine (missing from my roster until now). 

A dip in the Pine-Sol and I can paint them up to match the rest of my forces.

Forests for Ogre

I'm working on some forest overlays for my large-hex battle map, which will see an Ogre battle with miniatures later this fall.  Here you see them with some PanEuropean heavy tanks for scale.  I will use these to indicate forest hexes, and I made them modular so if a forest hex is destroyed by spillover fire (or intentionally), I can remove that terrain and replace it with a rubble hex (which I need to get started on as well).  Who else is building terrain?

Capellans converge

GNN--The Capellan Raiders have assembled a raiding fleet that is terrorizing the Fourth Ring.  The capital ships are custom hulls from the shipyards of the Brazos Evil Empire.  The escorts include a starbomber and star armored pursuit ship acquired from the Terran Transsolar Federation, a Star Raider from the Garrison system, and a Sathar destroyer.

No word yet on which system this force is headed toward, but Lloyd's has ceased to issue insurance on all unescorted merchant vessels in the sector.  A consortium of shippers is looking to hire at least one Free Company task force to protect its transports.  More on this story as it develops.

Capellan capital ships

When Don M, emperor of the Brazos Evil Empire (and all-around great guy), showed up for GuadaComaCon this year, he brought me gifts--namely, these two scratchbuilt spaceships, painted in the tiger stripe livery of the Capellan Raiders.

I'd seen Don's photos of these ships previously, and commented on how great they looked, especially compared to my own feeble offerings in the same vein.  So I was pleased and honored when Don took those minis out of the box and gave them to me.

"Miniature" might not be the most accurate term--these models are big, with one even dwarfing the Terran Super Galactic Dreadnought, probably the biggest ship in my collection.  The big ship is based on a plastic Zentredi spaceship model from Robotech, spruced up with some Battlefleet Gothic extras and what looks like wings from a 1/144 fighter jet.  The smaller one  includes more BFG parts on a plastic spaceship merged with parts from a Micromachines Star Wars Episode I pod racer.

I'm sure I'll find some way to work these models into my games of 5150: Star Navy--maybe as the core of a Free Company fleet.  Don suggested using the larger vessel as some sort of scenario objective.  Whatever I do, they will look good on the table.  My thanks again to Don for this wonderful, generous gift!