Upcoming event: Diceni 2023

Anyone in the Norfolk area, the Diceni games show is on at The Forum in Norwich this Sunday 30th April, 10am-4pm.

Click for a bigger (readable) image!

 Diceni is a great little show, small scale but a lot of great companies come along, there are always some good demonstration games on and a few cosplayers.

For an idea of what's on, take a look at my post from last year's visit to Diceni.

The Forum also contains Pizza Express and Cafe Marzano if you fancy a snack and there are plenty of other eateries within 2-3 minutes walk in the city centre. If you fancied making a day (or even a weekend) of it, there is also lots of mediaeval history to look out for, with many churches (Norwich used to have a different church for every sunday of the year - and a different pub for every day of the year!), parts of the old city walls, my former workplace the castle museum and much more...

Alien Civilian

This alien is the SHM18 Horansi from the Alternative Armies SHM range.  I've mounted it on a steel washer as I do with most of my human-sized 15mm figures.

It reminded me of the Amanaman alien from Jabba's palace in Return of the Jedi, so I've adopted a vaguely similar colour scheme on the body.

The skin was painted with my 35 year old pot of GW sunburst yellow.  I gave it a sepia wash, then a bone drybrush to add some final highlights.  Some GW goblin green was added on the back of the head and along the back of the arms. This had a black shading wash, then some lighter green highlights.

The clothing is Vallejo beastly brown with a sepia wash, highlights are the brown with a little khaki mixed in.  The various pouches are Vallejo charred brown with a black ink wash to differentiate them from the clothing. Although you can't see them in the photographs, there's a pair of red eyes up there under the head cowl.

This is a characterful alien for any starport or alien settlement.  Although there is only one pose available, you could easily modify it by adding weapons, a staff or flag to the arms.  The arms would probably bend into a different pose fairly easily too.

Epic Centaurs

These teeny tiny tanks are Epic scale Centaurs.  The Centaur is a tracked utility vehicle used by the Imperial Guard for scouting, supply and towing light artillery pieces.

These versions are modified as weapons carriers in the style of WWII Bren Carrier variants.  They come from designer Morteforte (Michael Withers).  I chose to use the multi-melta armed variant.

After cleaning up the resin prints, I undercoated them with Wilko grey spray primer.  The Humbrol 75 Bronze Green base coat was highlighted with Humbrol 86 light olive.  Camo stripes were painted on with a mix of 1/3 black, 1/3 matt varnish, 1/3 water.  Silver tracks and weapons received a wash of black ink and matt varnish.  A very light drybrush of dusty khaki/grey mix finished them off.

These really are tiny! I'm not sure whether to rescale them to 110% or 120% if I print some more or just leave them this size.

Even this small, they print with amazing detail.  I'm still really impressed at what such a cheap 3D printer can produce.

Weapon Team Week: Friday - AFCFA SAW teams B

My final set of AFCFA weapon teams are two more SAW teams.  As before, I have used the remaining prone figures from the GZG New Israeli SG15-Z08 SAW pack and mixed in buddies from the SG15-Z05 kneeling/prone set.

In this case, I have used 2 kneeling figures from the prone/kneeling set to complete the teams.  The kneeling figures do differ slightly in upper body pose/gun position.

Base colour is Humbrol 75 bronze green, black washed and then highlighted again with the base colour.  A highlight of Humbrol 86 matt light olive finished the armour, with gold visors and the weapons are black with a dark grey drybrush.

All these SAW gunners will provide a lot of extra anti-personnel firepower for the AFCFA troops.

Weapon Team Week: Thursday - AFCFA SAW teams A

After the missile and sniper additions to the AFCFA forces, some lighter support weapons.  I have used the prone figures from the GZG New Israeli SG15-Z08 SAW pack and as before, mixed in buddies from the SG15-Z05 kneeling/prone set.

I mixed prone rifleman with the prone SAW gunners to form the weapon teams.  The prone riflemen from the kneeling/prone set have 2 different poses, so the teams are slightly different if you look closely.

Base colour is Humbrol 75 bronze green, black washed and then highlighted again with the base colour.  A highlight of Humbrol 86 matt light olive finished the armour, with gold visors and the weapons are black with a dark grey drybrush.

 These weapons teams are suitably low visibility, ready to be hidden in ambush or concealed in overlooking cover to support an AFCFA attack.

Weapon Team Week: Wednesday - AFCFA missile teams

To enhance the anti-tank capabilities of the Armed Forces of the Charity Freedom Alliance, I have used the prone figures from the GZG New Israeli SG15-Z10 support pack with buddies from the SG15-Z05 kneeling/prone set.

The prone missile troopers are accompanied by one kneeling and one prone rifleman.

Base colour is Humbrol 75 bronze green, black washed and then highlighted again with the base colour.  A highlight of Humbrol 86 matt light olive finished the armour, with gold visors and the weapons are black with a dark grey drybrush.

This gives me 4 dedicated light anti-tank teams for my AFCFA force, plus 2 ATGW and 2 Gauss HAMR teams.  Combined with all the missile troopers in the regular fire-teams, any NAC armour had better watch out next time they take on AFCFA...

Weapon Team Week: Tuesday - AFCFA Sniper teams

The Armed Forces of the Charity Freedom Alliance have some additional firepower.  I have used all the prone figures from the various GZG New Israeli SG15-Z10 support and SG15-Z08 SAW packs and mixed in buddies from the SG15-Z05 kneeling/prone set.  First of all, we have a couple of sniper teams.

I mixed one kneeling and one prone rifleman with the prone snipers to form the weapon teams.

They have a Humbrol 75 bronze green base coat, black washed and then highlighted again with the base colour.  A highlight of Humbrol 86 matt light olive finished the armour.

The visors are gold, the weapons black with a dark grey drybrush.

This gives me a total of 4 sniper teams for my AFCFA force.  The standing snipers are mixed into the normal squads as designated marksmen.

Weapon Team Week: Monday - Mercenary anti-tank team

This mercenary anti-tank team are a mixture of Mercs squad support SG15-M05 (prone LAW) and Pan-African Special Forces squad B SG15-P24 (kneeling assault rifle).

They've been painted with Vallejo acrylics, mainly a khaki base with camo patterns and webbing added in various greens and browns.  A sepia wash gives some shading.

Boots and weapons are black with a dark grey drybrush, the LAW has a dark green barrel.

They will be joining my rebel forces or being used as mercenaries.

Spring of Scenery 2023: Part 11 - Mercenaries vs. NAC Marines

 Mercenaries defend a hidden facility.

Doorway & bricks.

These photographs show some close-up detail of the doorways (3D prints), bricks (Linka) and stonework archway (Hirst Arts).

Stone arch and doorway.

NCC Combat Cyborgs with a Claymore support vehicle prepare to assault a mercenary outpost.  This is a Linka building plus a few Fir trees.

Mercenaries ambush an NCC Marine Lancer IFV.  Some Woodland Scenics deciduous trees add some variety to the usual preponderance of Firs.

Spring of Scenery 2023: Part 10 - Corporate Troops on Patrol

Corporate troops survey the area.  These are GZG Foreign Legionnaires exploring my gaming board. 

The steps were carved from insulation foam and glued in place before the plaster cast rock faces were fitted around them.  A toilet paper pulp and plaster mix was used to blend the various elements together.

Spring of Scenery 2023: Part 9 - Survey Camp Photo Shoot

A planetary survey team set up camp for the night.

Their ride is a repainted Matchbox vehicle.  The tent comes from Alternative Armies and the survey team themselves are GZG civilians/colonists.

Scenery is my games board plus some cheap Fir trees, with some of my real garden in the background.

Spring of Scenery 2023: Part 8 - Supply Dump Photo Shoot

 Bandits break into a concealed supply dump.  This includes GZG figures, a repainted Matchbox vehicle, cheap Fir trees, Reindeer Lichen and 3D printed crates.  The door is a 3D print attached to a Linka brick panel embedded in the cliff face.

  

Spring of Scenery 2023: Part 7 - Forest Photo Shoot

Mercenaries make their way down a forest trail...

I took some photographs on my big gaming board many months ago and only ever posted a few of them on this blog.  Time to remedy this!  These are Ground Zero Games infantry and lots of cheap trees plus some Reindeer Lichen.

 

R-CEE Robot

This 3D printed R-CEE robot comes from the talented Evan Carothers.  Mine has a few ridges on the arms and legs, but this is due to user error (or "incompetence" if you will), not any problem with the file or printer.  I am always very careful to ensure the screws for the resin vat are done up tightly, but on this occasion I failed to tighten the bolt on the print head, leaving it to wobble around.  Despite this astounding stupidity on my part, a bit of superglue fixed the worst problems, so it's fine to use as a bit of background scenery.

The scenery includes a lino sample, some Hirst Arts blocks for the walls and hatch, Lego wheels for the barrels, and a few small 3D printed crates and oil cans.
 

 I've reprinted the robot since I took these photographs, and it turned out much better with the build plate securely fixed in place!

Spring of Scenery 2023 - Part 6: Scenic Photo backdrop - flocking

I used my home-made foam flock on my photography backdrop.

To fix the flock, I painted on PVA, sprinkled the flock, then spritzed with isopropyl alcohol.  To seal it on, I drizzled a thin PVA/water/matt varnish mixture over the whole thing.

The flock was mainly a very fine mixture, including 2 or 3 different shades of green.

Drenched thoroughly, the PVA would seal everything into a solid layer which should avoid bits falling off every time I use it.

There are a few bigger clumps of foam to give the impression of larger plants growing.

The thick application of the sealing mixture also ensured all the rock rubble along the edge of the cliff was very securely fixed in place.

I was careful to use a stiff brush to move some of the flock around to blend it into the edge of the rocky areas and also to keep the stream clear.

This stage was left for 2-3 days to dry thoroughly.  This is another part of the process that requires plastic sheeting or lots of old newspapers to protect your work surfaces.  Old plastic cereal packets work well for this, something like a giant box of cornflakes will have a huge bag that covers a very large area once opened out flat.

Once dry, the matt varnish in the mixture ensured there was no glossy shine on the cliffs or the flock.

The flock crept into the edges of the rubble in a way that I thought was reasonably realistic.

Although the photo backdrop could be used in this condition, there were a few more finishing touches that I wanted to add and I'll cover these another time.