Zona Alfa - Quick Mission

On Sunday (2020-08-23) i set up a quick 4' x 4' board to give the new crew and rule adjustments a run.

The board used all the new terrain except the ship and was lacking a little cover for a 4x4. i'm intending to make a big batch of wire trees to pad areas if required. the bushes are good but don't fill as much area as they could, and when they're spread around they're not great at padding.

I set up for a Tier 1 mission, easy but a fair introduction considering i'm i) still learning rules, ii) testing rule adjustment.

As it happens the mission objective involved an abandoned vehicle so used the APC for that and adjusted the roads to suit.

I rolled up two Hot Spots (random locations (scatter dice) - slightly adjusted to fit the terrain features). basically at the centre of the map i roll a d10 for direction then roll 2d10 for distance and place the marker more or less where that ends up. 

The crew started out from a little compound in the bottom-right corner. This was the 'as printed' list i made and includes, 2 veterans and 3 hardened characters.

Just as a note i adjusted the Zone Hostile Table, substituting the 'Drone Strike' for the 'rad ghouls' (though i didn't end up using this option).

The models scooted up the board aiming for the Mission Objective. The setup for this wasn't as great as it could have been. I had model to the front and side with some overwatch (sniper, scrounger and hustle) and triggered the objective.

Rolled a 6 and decided to keep it, so bandits (our sworn enemy) and an anomaly (a nasty burner) - all good for testing rules.

I'm using an adjusted rule that all zone hostiles are treated as individual models (as the player models are), and i've adjusted the deployment rules so that their reaction is randomised.

I mentioned the setup being not great. As the hostiles deployed the crew managed to kill two of the models which was nice, however two made it to cover (no one made the initial (randomised) attack).

So all my models had pretty much used their actions for the turn and the two bandits got to use their actions. Being Tier 1 they only had one action each and they shot at the sniper and scrounger respectively (assault rifles). fortunately they either missed or the targets made their armour saves.

In the subsequent turn the crew picked off the last two bandits without problem. Some members started preparing to take Hot Spot 1 (behind them, and on the path home).

The scrounger searched the objective and navigated the anomaly (+1 for Tier 1, -1 for leader in LOS) needing and rolling a 5. in the anomaly he found an armour artifact which was a sweet find.

the crew then moved into position for HS1. the next turn was pretty much every getting into overwatch and someone triggered the Hot Spot. Dogs. 

None of the dogs rolled to attack and they were picked off the (by now at least) organised overwatch fire.

i think the scrounger discovered a med-kit here. I did manage to remember scroungers get two rolls for salvage (not for artifacts i think - or at least i didn't play it that way).

the crew then booted back to camp in the last turn, having taken no wounds during the mission.

There's not really an impetus to return to base (i.e. you don't loose your models or anything) i guess this was more a force of habit to move out of range of a second player's crew if there was one.  

With so limited models on the table there really didn't feel like enough time to safely deal with all of the available objectives. Higher Threat Levels with more hot spots would probably be even less accessible. just the number of actions available to characters really limits what can be achieved. basically 1 turn is not enough time to move, trigger and deal with hostiles, search and med-kit if required. 2 is possible.

i have a feeling that adding more hot spots  would feel more like danger points to be avoided rather than challenges to achieve. with 2 players playing adversarially they make sense as they're booby traps to launch at your opponent. 

i possibly need to explore the use of the electric-juice item, though the limit to 1 action in the subsequent turn might be a crucial issue.

i'm liking the idea of kitting up the scrounger with a detector to make the anomaly search safer. 

armour is also something i'd like to see more off. i gave most of the models electric juice simply because there isn't armour on the basic gear table.

I managed to include most of the modifiers i know of and remembered (red dot + steady hands) etc, so getting there.

so yeah, this was a bit of a milk-run. Tier 2 hostiles would definitely alter that dynamic with each of the hostiles having to actions to reposition and then shoot, or shoot twice. i'm sure there's far more ouch in the future.

i'm considering 1 more Tier 1 run just to test some post-game rule adjustments and basically lock the rules down.  

Until next time...

Zone Alfa - New Blood - Eureka Minis - Contractor Crew

I was a bit naughty after seeing some pictures up for a company called 'Eureka Miniatures' which seem to cater perfectly for the stalker/chernobyl aesthetic. I discovered they're an Australian company located in Victoria which made it far easier to commit to.

The models i printed were always intended as stand-in proxies until i worked out what i really wanted for this game.

While i generally hate metal, it does create a detailed and robust model, and if they're in one piece and need no glue-up (though a minority of these do) then i'm fine with them. 

Picked up a large squad of american style marines, some military contractors, seal team 6, a barrett sniper, an svd sniper... and a dog (? - i think from the marines as one of the guy seems to have a 'snack bag' on his belt ?? [ed: still haven't worked this out and the pictures on the site don't help either]).

Given my zone is not specifically meant to be Russian these should all be fine... for starters.

For an Australian audience i can't recommend these highly enough even sans-paint. Especially for the price and convenience, i.e. no hefty currency conversion and moderate shipping, they're brilliant. Will hopefully deal with them again.

I have a bunch of mdf round bases in-bound for basing. not bothering with clear acrylics, and even plastic bases are expensive compared to $0.17 mdfs from battlefield-accessories.

update 2020-08-14

Now with added baseness. they no longer tumble over all the time which is nice. Basing will cover the blobby glue work. 

I still have absolutely no idea what i'm going to do with them... i'd prefer not to necessarily break the groups up as a unified 'contractor' or dedicated 'military' faction would make a good AI group... grrrr confusing. 

So for now the project is getting shelved i think...

Slightly later: i think i've decided that the contractors will form the core of my own new/main crew. there's enough of them there in acceptable poses that i can use 3-4 of them as is - which is more than enough for a start.

i also chopped up the svd guy to get the gun. this will be grafted on to one of the contractor (the tommy-gun guy).  

left to right:

selection criteria: anyone not looking down the barrel is dubious, unless they're running. Anyone with an ar15 (assault rifle) is in the running. 

A)  (front) perfect - aiming and gunna shoot someone. you're in.

B)  (back)  new svd guy  worked out well. will need to greenstuff/epoxy the front hand but otherwise perfect. that's my sniper dude sorted.   was previously running 'battle rifle', this may sub in. 

C)  (back) running dude, yeah, dynamic modelling, is don is good.

D)  (back) not an ar15, more like an fn-fal. kind of ready and looking the right way. 1/2 a vote

E)  (front) looking forward, has an ar15... looks interested. 1/2 a vote. alternate for leader.   [this guy never made the initial cut]

F)  (front) hand signal guy, obvious candidate for the verteran/leader as he'll be cheerleading on other models for most of the game.

G)  (back) seems to have a heavier gun, looking the wrong way. only on there at all cos he's got a heavy weapon.  [this guy never made the initial cut]

so yeah, given the game only needs about 6 models max for a crew this is a goodly start.

update ends

update 2020-08-18

This was finished days ago, i just don't get around to updating immediately some times...

Getting a good pic was actually quite tricky. the caps make the faces really dark from front on (fulfilling the purpose of a cap of course). this was the best i could come up with. slightly better in real light but more or less this.

just reviewing the prior picture. i might do up those other two models to have some options for a bigger points game. a heavy weapons (hmg) guy might be a handy option too. future project.

update ends

update (sometime between 2020-08-18 and 2020-08-24)   -  the extra contractors

still the same batch as before, but the 'less dynamic' looking ones. with the other ones completed i happened to set my eye on these.

the guy on the left just fell short of the original selection.

the guy on the right was formerly looking to his right. i figured i could cut the head off and reposition it. i then tried clamping it between two pieces of wood and twisting gently, worked ok. would have fatigued the metal a little, but it's tin and not in for large stresses anyway.

anyways, they're both now acceptable, if only as guards or extras.

Base coat on. i figured that i should probably get paint on them while the formula is still fresh in memory.

one one guy didn't make it at all (kneeling guy).

update ends

Update 2020-08-24

Just finished these guys.

The guy on the right didn't have a pistol, and neither did the sniper from the previous batch. i press-moulded pistols from one of the other models. these turned out not so great and i ended up mainly sculpting them into shape. Not perfect but ok from a distance.

This guy probably has a magnum revolver just for something different (cos that's how it turned out).

So that's definitely it for these guys. Overall... pretty damn happy with the project.

update ends

Until next time...

Zone Alfa - Terrain... A Ship

I think this post original started on 2020-07-29.

So, i am watching the last season of 'the last ship' a bunch of post-apocalyptic american military swill. no offence to the actors who did what they could with what they had, or to the american military; it's just dull cookie-cutter entertainment. but i started it...

[ed: finished that off, geez, what a slog.]

anyway, i thought it might be fun to have a dockside ship for my local Zona Australis. After a bunch of searches in the usual mdf terrain makers, i found nothing suitable for the job. Time for an impromptu scratch build project.  More research to work out what and how, and along the way i ended up with a sketchup plan of attack.

Kind of looks like a big project but it's just lots of smaller bits patched together, and none of those are overly complex.

The basic plan is 3mm mdf sheets, cut to size, glued up as appropriate, then wall plaster over the top to smooth things out, fill gaps and cover other sins.

The bow is the single most complex piece of the project and consists of 29 individual layers that form the curved shape. 

Yes, i've been playing with the collage feature on my phone. Things progressing to plan.

Most of the deck parts were just flattened out on sketchup then i put the dimensions on them and worked from that. 

The current web version of sketchup that i'm using doesn't allow flat to-scale prints which is super annoying.  i did have a look for alternatives but they were problematic, so old fashion plans won the day. yhay paper for your steadfast reliability.

it would have been great to be able to print up the prow segments but i ended up lofting 29 individual sections which was tiresome but not overly taxing. it definitely has the feel of making an actual, real boat. kind of entertaining.

This shows the glue-up of the prow completed, and the decks being assembled. I used globs of hot glue to get the deck pieces in place then white glue along the seams to try to reinforce everything. Not many square edges or parallel lines on this project but it's turning out ok just from a visual perspective.

Top decks on and some models etc to show some scale.

It's about 60+ cm over all. If i leave the prow as detachable i should be able to fit it into a standard storage box. That would be a good thing.

First layer of chunky plaster on the prow. the decks will also have plaster applied once the glue-up is complete.

And that's about where we're up to.

Need to pattern out the ship's superstructure - this is mainly simple and pyramidal boxes. Should be simple cut and glue.  

2020-08-07

results since last i posted.

This is pretty much the final assembly stage. The superstructure pieces have been glued into bigger and bigger elements and finally glued to the deck. I've all but decided that the prow will remain unglued to the main part of the boat to (hopefully) make storage easier. The way it slots in and out is quite sturdy so it's not going to drop off on the game table etc.

There are obviously a few areas that will need bogging up, but gen-er-al-ly it was a pretty good fit. there were various element that needed sanding or filling and i'm 100% sure there's no micro-level symmetry anywhere... but on a holistic level it came together pretty well... doesn't look too wonky, or lopsided or warped or anything. So pretty pleased.

2020-08-11

The container inside a kindersurprise egg and a chupa-chup stick...

A bit more glue, a bit more plaster, a splash of texture paint, and calling it done.

Will need some windows and doors (hatches? portals? yhay for future research) and will probably add some effects like radar/tech gubbins, also some stairs up to the prow perhaps... dunno.

Anyway that's a project for future-self, for now it's complete enough to be a functional board piece without dripping glue or paint or having decks fall off... so... done. 

Update 2020-08-16

Had a spare day yesterday so ended up adding smaller detail bits to the ship. This is definitely as much detail as it's getting. it's functional, with enough detail to break up the main surfaces but without too many fiddly bits to snag on.

The prow is still easy to take off for storage. The gun is magnetised and swivels and can be taken out entirely for storage. The radar mast also comes out for storage.

I will probably want to add just a bit more paint before boxing it. the windows and exhaust ports (on top) should have some black paint for example. might dry brush some light white on just to add variation, but overall i'm happy with the texture and colour.

Here we have some of the new Eureka minis to show scale. There's plenty of room for them to sit without falling (i added some ledges and steps between levels). There's also enough cover for them to not be sitting way out in the open. 

The idea of the large deck on the back is that it's a 'launch' area where you could have an inflatable boat or similar or cargo. The large doors at the back of the rear structure (the recessed area) denotes a storage-type access. Doesn't make logical sense entirely but it doesn't really need to either, as the internals are all enclosed.

update ends

update 2020-08-18

i ended up adding some shading (aka ugly speckling) to the ship. it doesn't look too bad. It then got a couple of coats of clear matt varnish to seal and protect it.  done. 

Something else that i need to do for this project is make a 'water mat'. something i can put over the terrain mat to be an area of water.  probably also a jetty or pier so the ships is accessible. not going to make anything overly large for that though. just a flat walkway and some posts i think. 

update ends

update 2020-09-11

This is actually 3 bits of something something.

Early- to mid-stages on the water mat. it now has a bunch of silicon on it. Will be doing a bit more paint and then a final layer of silicon to 'seal' it and also there are some patches that might have missed out.  it is messy and annoying to apply so possible there are some unsiliconed sections.

dock, or gangway, not sure of the correct term for this one. ship access ramp thingy in the water.  mdf and paddlepop sticks. is probably close enough to complete in terms of construction. will be doing paint on this to hide the shoddy construction.

And finally, i added some 'climb aboard' hand holds on both sides of the hull.

Since the earlier sets of photos i also added some gubbins to the radar array (screw tops from milk containers).

update ends

update 2020-09-13

Matt black base followed by what i'll refer to as 'scrub over' with steel legion drab. More than enough. Then spray of clear for protection.

Overlay drying, bit of rattle can, then clear silicon. easy-peasy... just a bit stinky.

So, water overlay is now complete. happy with the result. bit hard to photograph it right. it's 60cm wide by 120cm long so long enough to fit a standard board acrossways. and you can always let some overhang and not use the full 60cm width.  possibly a tad bluer than i'd planned for (less blue than the pic may imply) as i guess i was aiming a bit darker and greyer, but, in general, pretty happy with the end result. will give it a couple more days out to fully cure then roll and stow.

gangway and water in situ. hoping for a few game hours during the week. 

couldn't be bothered rolling dice today but had enough oomph to set up a token board :) 

update ends

Until next time... ahoy maties...

Zona Alfa - Drone Strike

I'm sure i saw a pic floating around of a 28mm scratch build drone a few days ago.... anyways, one of the Mission Objectives Table elements in ZA is a 'Downed Aerial Drone'... therefore there are aerial drones about... therefore i must make one.

[that can't be good...]

I had originally planned on just making a small, token marker (about the size of the GW pie-plate  'Tau' drones) but as i contemplated what i wanted to make the concept expanded. Why not actually use it in-game somehow?

I put together some rules for a 'Drone Strike' with the intent that it can be substituted into the Zone Hostile Table - so instead of rolling up a pack of Zombies you roll up a Drone Strike instead. All relatively simple mechanics.

This is what i came up with. Yep, half a toothbrush, some flat container plastic and a few gubbins from the bit box. It is not a pretty model. It is not a finished model.

It was very much a proxy for testing the rules, but it should still be suitable for games as is (maybe with a tiny bit of cleanup, though the structure will remain wonky).

A size comparison with one of the new Eureka minis...

Contemporary military drones are (or can be) of a substantial size, not just the little shoe-box size toys you might see around the neighbourhood. This one is probably smaller than it could/should be.

I almost feel obliged to blur the images a bit due to the current (lack of) quality, but [shrug]...

Update 2020-08-14

Added magnets.... everything is better with magnets... except intestines i guess...

Also went over the rougher surfaces a bit more. it's still ugly but i've wasted enough time on it and it's not getting substantially better.

Should make storage a bit safer. That long stick is just waiting for a chance to snap.

update ends

Until next time...

Progress and Style

This following is just a thought dump... probably no pictures... and was written from a hobby perspective but could apply to a wider scope too.

Given it's my blog i can brain dump if i wanna.

I bought some cheap models off ebay recently for the Zona Alfa project. They were second hand models and i chopped, modified and re-painted them so their initial state was largely irrelevant.

They were however, some of the ugliest paint work I've ever encountered. Not clashing colours, not painting out of the lines... just really pedestrian execution.

If i had to guess, they could have been done by a kid or someone who had never painted before. 

I'm not aiming to bash people's early efforts, nor the efforts of people who just don't give a crap - which is equally as valid a position as people who do give a crap.

And at the end of the day it's just hobby.

However, it struck me as being really ugly and more importantly I noticed that I thought it was really ugly.

This prompted me to have a look at the paint work of my relatively old models - although the paint work is more basic than I would settle for now, it still seemed to indicate that more effort was put into them.

The next link in the chain of thought was about being able to realising one's own progress.

If you paint a lot then your work is likely to get better - same goes for most endeavours  - at least up to your personal capacity (which I believe has definite limits).

This is not necessarily something that is easy to notice as you're working on this or that project, and it's not until afterwards when you see a comparison of items that it may become noticeable.

I can easily see the difference in (what I perceive as) the increase in quality of my own painting through the various eras.

I don't necessarily want to revisit old projects and spruce them up; that's how they were, that's the history of this or that project, and how they will stay.  Other people may treat the matter differently.

I guess it's nice to be able to easily see the progression of your handiworks, even if you reach a plateau where further improvements are fairly minimal.

Painting is great for this comparison as it is a simple matter of looking...  this model is simplistic, this model has more tonal depth etc.

Easier and quicker than say appraising prose or the ability to put together an army list.

It's important (in my opinion) to be able to acknowledge your improvement. It boosts morale for one thing, and on the opposite side of that inspection/introspection it can allow you to look critically for areas to work on.

A clear painting weakness of mine is the ability to choose colours. I can copy colours and even modify then to an extent just fine, but given a plain model, paints, and no target in mind, and I'm sometimes floundering (aka the 'ambull' project).

I generally regard my paintwork as being decent. There's usually more that I could do, but I don't have the talent, dexterity or patience for extreme levels of details and eventually I will call 'done' once it's bearable.

There are other people who produce extraordinary levels of quality and detail, even on tiny scales such as 6mm. Nutters, but talented.

I think that more than developing a specific talent set or level of technical expertise, what I've been working towards is developing a style.

I paint how I paint regardless of what I'm painting or the scale of what I'm painting, and I can do it consistently. I don't really enjoy painting, but I like having a painted army.

Through experience and experimentation I've found a relatively small number of techniques that I'll call on and which can be applied to just about anything - embracing concepts rather than rigid mechanical technique.

base coat -> block in colours -> washes to darken -> dry brush to emphasise/lighten -> details as required -> basing -> DONE!

That's my formula, which is probably the same one used by thousands of other hobbyists.

Additionally I think with my particular style there's also an element of quantity over quality.

When you look at one model it's just acceptable, but when you put that model it in a squad or army then the groups' paintwork adds an extra zing - consistent laziness perhaps - a matter of context definitely.

Anyway that's it really; experience is always a winner, work towards your own style whatever that may be, and lots of little sessions will get you there in there end.

...

I actually had a conversation with a game compadre at the last game day. He mentioned an inability to motivate and get the painting done.

Based on this i listed a few points (some mentioned in the above blurb)...

"following up on our convo yesterday. i think the reason i'm getting things painted is;

i) having the paints and everything out means i don't have to 'make a session' out of it.

ii) lots of little sessions eventually gets lots of stuff done.

iii) personal choice: batch painting. some people do model by model. but i find batches more inspiring.

iv) the blog helps just to keep me focused on getting the next something done - because i'm thinking about it more.

v) not being able to handle having tasks incomplete. applies to non-hobby stuff too.

...

it very much helps to find that particular method that works for you (if you can). for me the 5 minutes here and there really paid off, even if it was just one or two models or colours. the little bastards don't paint themselves."

Re point (i) this is invaluable... and applies to so many hobbies and tasks... whether it's playing a piano, or using an exercise machine, or painting models - out of sight is out of mind. If you walk by the paint desk and feel the eyes of the little models following you accusingly then there's some motivation, and it's easier for me to appease that guilt with a little smear of paint before carrying on with something else.

update 2020-11-08

I have recently been revisiting BaC (post on that soon). I'd gotten around to assembling some Tzeentch Horrors, and I had a box of Orks sitting around for ages. Both are on the paint table.

Anyway, i was looking at the models i'd already done from that earlier era (mainly for use in BaC as I don't do full 40k).  My traitor marines, chaos marines, the earlier Orks.

I noticed that my painting from this era was quite primitive. Not bad per se, but it's only at a level of what I'd consider, 'blocking in the colours' (per above),   before washes and dry brushing are done. 

The Horrors got the full treatment and look pretty neat. My Tyranids from this era are also not bad as they had more 'organic dry brushing' than the other factions - just because it seemed to suit them (perhaps that's where I discovered dry brushing - fun to contemplate).

I'm considering doing the 'next steps' on the Orks both old and new models (not quite done with the basic colours on the new ones so I have a day or two of contemplation) as washes and dry brushes should actually make them all look much nicer.

And, if I do that I'm going to want to improve the rest of the chaos, and marines... not like I have many pressing projects anyway (No sarcasm. I don't).

Anyway, the point that I was actually thinking about was WHEN did I go from blocked colour models to full works models?

The techniques were mainly developing during the Epic era - probably earlier than the 'resin' era but definitely by the 'resin' era.

For 28mm i think Blackstone might have been the first full project where i went full works in a big way.  Possibly Necromunda.  Similar timeframe, definitely crossover.

update ends

Until next time...