15mm Tomorrow's war buildings from Gamecraft

So it's been a bit quiet round here, and frankly it's cause I've been too lazy to do any real hobbying of late. I'm trying to break out of it though, and I started with a bit of light assembly of the recently arrived 15mm Tomorrow's war buildings I purchased from GameCraft Miniatures

Landing Pad (elongated hex)

Garage/shop module

Medium Module

Small module

They arrived pretty quickly, taking around 7 days to arrive from the States. I ended up purchasing the landing pad, the garage/shop module, 2 medium modules and 2 small modules. I also purchased the 3d kits for the 3 modules, which basically without means that the raised areas you see on the outside wouldn't be there, they instead are just cut-in to the surface. Still visible, but not raised up.

The whole order cost about £48 I believe. It was originally £51 odds, but GameCraft charge a flat rate of $20 for international shipping, and then refund the difference, which for myself was $6 something. All in all, I think it's pretty good value for what they are.

The buildings themselves are pretty good. They fit together well, with the laser cut MDF having small slots for everything to go, though there were some very small gaps, though nothing a bit of filler won't take care off. No removable roofs which would've been nice, but it's survivable. They don't have a bottom either, but if they're based up then it doesn't matter. I had to place a big box of random figures on top of the landing pad, as when I glued it, the MDF on the top layer

I haven't fitted the doors to these yet either, and I'm not sure I will, or at least not on all of them. Again these just slot in to the frame, and can then be glued in.The doors themselves are a little taller than the model I've got them next too, so they may look a bit big if used for smaller scale things, like Heavy Gear. Possibly not too bad though, I'll need to test it and see.

So now the next thing is what colour to paint them. I'm looking for something a bit more than grey. Possibly a white/red combo. What are your thoughts?

Mecha Ace signing off

Sometimes you get what you want, sometimes you don't...

So a couple of things happened this week in gaming. Well a lot of things happened, but I'm going to focus on a couple that have particular interest to me.

It was announced this weekend that the game Robotech Battles that was in the works and I talked about in this post has not got the green light from Palladium and Harmony Gold. John Paulson of Paulson games was told that he would not be used for the project. On the robotech battles facebook page, it was announced that apparently the numbers do not add up, and that while the project may be viable in the future, they would not be using his company. I think this is a great shame considering the amount of work he put into this game, both with starting the rules, and with some of the great prototype figures he produced. I can only feel that Palladium or Harmony Gold, or both, have dropped the ball on this on, and instead seem happy to just let the licence sit there and do nothing.

You can read all about it at his blog robotech battles blog

Keep flying...

There'll always be a place in my heart for Robotech. It's what exposed me to anime and giant robots and started my love of both, and I was genuinely quite excited when I saw this game, and the miniatures it was producing. I reckon that dream will just have to wait a while longer unfortunately.

In other happier news this weekend the the website for Hawk Wargames new game Dropzone Commander went live. I would suggest you all rush over and check it out.

Hawk Wargames

It's a 10mm massed battle game, that has the premise that a lot of the time your forces are being deployed by Dropships (the name is a big clue to this). No more just lining up your forces (though I'm sure there will still be an element to that).

Frankly the pictures of these miniatures look gorgeous, and to those people that saw them in the resin at Salute can testify, they are still just as gorgeous.

I've prattled on about Dropzone Commander a couple of times now, probably cause I think it's worth. You had difficulty getting near the stand, and I think Dave has the next big thing in gaming on his hands. The prices are a bit higher than the rest of the 10mm crowd, and you're looking at £68 for a starter army (which is about the smallest game size), though I worked it out for the UCM army (as they're who I'm interested in) and it saves me £14.50 over buying the bits individually, which is good, and the rulebook is £15 which in this day and age is hardly expensive. So yes a bit pricey, but still reasonably in line with them. Frankly though, if you want nice miniatures, and these are very nice miniatures, you pay a bit more money. Same with Infinity, same with Mercs, and a whole load of other games that charge more for their figures.

Along with the miniatures, he's also releasing a line of scenery in the future, that will be modular double-sided tiles. So you can assemble them in anyway you desire. I think it's a great idea, and looking at some of the dioramas he's created with very little beyond his own figures and the scenery he's made it'll look gorgeous.

The United Colonies of Man on parade

The alien Scourge swarm through the streets of an abandoned core world city

The alien Shaltari invade in force

This and various others show what excellent work he has done, pretty much single handedly. I for one will be getting some.

I would suggest you go to the website and read up on the background that he's created for this, and if you're like me will be left wanting to know more. Speaking to him at Salute, I was very pleased when he said he whole heartedly believes in letting people know who they're fighting with, who the enemy is and why they're fighting.

And if you are still intrigued after that, the man himself will be on Facebook chat on Monday the 11th from 9am till 9pm on Hawk Wargames facebook page to answer questions regarding the rules, the game and anything else I imagine. I might pop on myself.

Mecha Ace out. 

Empire of the Dead WIP, Wappinshaw, and competitions

Well I've been a bit quiet on the blogging front of late, but I had the day off today so managed to get a bit of progress done on my Empire of the Dead faction, all of which can be seen below.

WIP Wolfskins

Two WIP wolfskins. Forgive the lower than usual quality (which is in itself not great) photography as they were just quickly snapped on my phone camera to get a pic up.

The one on the left is finished miniature wise, I just need to do the base. The one on the right currently just has the base colours and washes applied to him, he still needs highlighted etc. I'm going for a bit of a gypsy look from the victorian period, so different colours on them, though generally using the same ones. Might not have all the colours present on them at the time.

For the bases, I think I'm going to mostly keep the gravel look on the base, with a few cobblestones and bits of grass sticking through, as if they're in the run-down areas of London were the cobbles have all come loose and been carted off by the locals for other things.

Hope you like them, any comments and criticisms welcome

Wappinshaw 2012

Wappinshaw was this weekend, on Saturday the 2nd of June at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, and once again my club G3 was in attendance with our Empire of the Dead demo game. There was no prizes this time, but we were certainly busy all day, with a generally good crowd round our table asking questions about the game and a good few demo games run during the day. For some pictures and talk about the event you can find some here. If you look closely on top of the Tenement with the flat roof, you can see we managed to squeeze a geeky in-joke in, with a Vorlon watching closely the events that transpire, before whisking Jack the Ripper away for their future purposes.

Wappinshaw blog

To help as well the Figures in Comfort, who are the official stockists at shows that Westwind themselves cannot attend, gave us 4 vouchers they'd received from Westwind productions, so that if we felt someone had done something especially worthy during a game, that they could receive one and take it to their stall. They would then receive a prize of a free limited edition figure. These were put to good use, on occasions such as when Sherlock Holmes actually managed to beat The Ripper in a fashion rather than just managing to hold him up for the 10 turns.

All in all a good day was had as well.

Competitions

As no doubt some of you are aware, my mate DangerousBrian aka LeadLegion is running a competition over on his blog

Lead Legion prize give away

To celebrate reaching 50 followers, he's offering up the chance to win £50 worth of painting by himself to the lucky winner. I think it's a great prize, and I've entered myself to hopefully get the lead mountain down a bit.

If you weren't aware of it, I'd heartily recommend you go over and enter. He does a great job and in a good time scale. The best of luck to anybody who enters.

Mecha Ace out.