A Rank of Dwarves for $4.50

I took a brief break from the club's post-apocalyptic campaign, and the preparations for Little Wars, to paint up a rank of EM4's plastic fantasy dwarves. These figures, along with their plastic Orcs, were from the original "Fantasy Warriors" game. Each faction features three poses with different weapons. I purchased 10 of each sculpt -- crossbow, greataxe and spear -- for the bargain price of about 35 cents each!

They measure 21mm from foot to eyeline. This is about how they look in the grey plastic. They come attached to a square base approximately 25mm across.

 

The plug on the back can be easily covered up by a shield -- EM4 sells a bag of 50 shields for $2 -- but I forgot to buy these. Oh well, I ended up removing the plugs and the bases, which which was the most time-consuming step.

Note: the axe-wielding dwarves had a small void in the back under the left armpit that I had to fill with green stuff. Not a huge deal, just FYI if you're concerned.

The bases I used are 20mm square bases from Proxie Models. They are really affordable at 48 for $4.50.
They are tiny bit thinner than a standard slotted base and have a nice lip which very neatly contains flock, sandm ballast or foliage.

I've never painted a rank of fantasy figs before, so I wanted to see how quickly I could finish them. Here's the speedy process I followed.

• Remove plug and integral plastic base
• Glue to 20mm base -- I used Plastruct Plastic Weld
• Spray with cheap hardware store silver spray paint
• Block in basic colors
• Apply ballast to base -- the lipped bases made it really easy to squirt in some water-thin super glue. Then I dropped on a couple small pebbles, sprinkled sand on top and allow to dry.
• Paint and drybrush the base
• Brush-dip with Minwax Polyshades Tudor
• Apply Krylon Matte spray sealer

A little later I applied some squares cut from magnetic sheets to the bottom of the bases. Here's how it turned out. The light washed out some of the beard shading, but you get the idea. It's a quick, easy way to paint up some tabletop-quality dwarves.

No sign of the plug on the back.

Here's the full rank, all 10 of 'em.

And here's a before-and-after shot.

I'm very happy with the way they turned out. I'm not sure what I'll do with them yet, though some of them will probably show up in our games of Song of Blades and Heroes. Interestingly, these were not the only dwarves made in this style. There's a whole range of metal dwarves like these, and they are still being produced by Mirliton.  Though they do have a bit of an old-school look since they're all the same pose, these dwarves could make great filler for bulking out larger units in your games. The style is fairly generic, and they are not too dissimilar in size and features to Games Workshop's dwarves.

Here's a comparison picture from this blog post. The first and third are GW dwarves. The second figure is a Mirliton Fantasy Warriors metal dwarf, and the last is the EM4 plastic Fantasy Warriors dwarf.

Suffice to say I think these were more than worth the 35 cents each I paid for them. I'm not a fan of the integral bases, but the Proxie bases class them up a bit. If I someday build a larger fantasy army, I'll likely paint up more of these.

-- Karl, Chicago Skirmish Wargames club member

The Mechs of Mech Attack!

Here's a brief look at the mech models that we used in our Mech Attack game at Little Wars last weekend. They're from a variety of model lines (and even a few toy makers). The infantry figure in the pictures is a 28mm Junkers Legionnaire, included for scale purposes. Some of the perspectives in the photos make the figure look a bit smaller and the mechs a bit bigger, so I've included measurements of all the Mechs from bottom of foot to tallest point (not including antennae).

Here are the Mechs that fought on the side of the defenders.

From left:

• AT-43 UNA pre-painted mech, 3.5 inches or 90mm tall
• 2x Robotech/Macross Valkyrie mechs, converted with toy gun parts, 7.25 inches or 170mm tall
• Custom mech built by Tim from WW2 German vehicle, toy robot legs and other parts, 5 inches or 130mm tall

Here are the Mechs that fought the side of the attackers.

From left:

• 1/72 scale diecast BattleTech Legionnaire toy, original paint job, 6.75 inches or 160mm tall
• Robogear (ExoSquad reissue) Destroid toy, repainted and converted, 6 inches or 150mm tall
• Gasaraki 1/35 scale model, converted, 5 inches or 130mm tall

Here are some more individual pictures of the various mechs.

 

 

 

Look for another appearance from these guys in the after-action report from our Little Wars game!

-- Karl, Chicago Skirmish Wargames club member

Review: Rust Forge 28mm Shipping Crates

While at Adepticon, I picked up three modular shipping crates from Rust Forge LLC. I think they were $12 each normally, but I took advantage of the 3-for-$30 Adepticon special. These are great, inexpensive kits that go together quickly and can be built many different ways.

Here are the sprues -- you can see that they are simple, yet effective.

Here is an image of the flip side of one of the sprues. You can see the different build options.

The sprues were made from a harder plastic than I was used to. They had some flashing, but were fairly easy to clean up. They didn't come with instructions, but the assembly is fairly simple. I started with the bottom, attached a side panel, the other side, and then the top. I snapped the end panels in after that. Plastic cement held the whole thing together.

One minor inconvenience was that the longer pieces all had a slight curve to them. I took care of it by using a ton of rubber bands around the unit while it was drying. For the cost, I didn't think this was a big deal, but it is something to be aware of.

The first kit I built with doors at both ends. I did not glue the doors in place so I could open and close them. They work fine as long as you're careful, bu it's easy to pop them off accidentally, so I may decide to glue them at some point.

I built the second one with doors on one side, and the "refrigeration unit" back panel.

The third one had doors on one side and a standard corrugated back panel. Here is a shot of all three units with some minis (in various states of completion) for a size comparison. From left, we have a 40k Tau Stealth Suit, a Warmachine warcaster, an Infinity figure, and a robed 40k Space Marine.

I am really glad I picked up these pieces. They should be quick to paint, and look great on the tabletop. They will work for many game styles. I am planning on painting them up and weathering them using some techniques I learned from Les Bursly. Look for them on the table in future CSW games!

-- Josh, Chicago Skirmish Wargames club member

A Visit to Adepticon 2013

Mike and I spent Saturday at Adepticon. This was my first time at a gaming convention, and it was rewarding to see so many gamers congregating in one place. We got there bright and early at 9 a.m. when the vendor hall opened. The first thing I picked up was the swag bag! I registered late, so I got a small bag. Inside were a few assorted Secret Weapon bases, a Minitaire paint sample (orange), and two miniatures: a Brushfire fantasy mouse, and some sort of goat man with a flame thrower. Here they are:

I had a coupon in my swag bag for a free mini from Ninja Division to promote their Robotech RPG Tactics Kickstarter, so I visited their booth and picked out a Zentraedi Regult Battlepod. Unfortunately, their booth was packed, so I didn't get a chance to demo the game. From what I saw, the game looked really cool. The free mini is metal, although I believe the Kickstarter will be producing plastic figures.

I stopped by Forge World next and picked up a model that I have wanted for a while: a Dark Angels Venerable Dreadnought. I also snagged dual autocannon arms for it. I was hoping to pick up some Tau stuff, but they were already cleaned out, since Tau is the flavor of the week.

While wandering the vendor room, I spotted a familiar piece of terrain. A while back, I had helped Karl paint one of these buildings for our upcoming Little Wars event. I stopped at the booth to chat, and discovered Rust Forge LLC -- they work with Proxie Models, and were representing them at the convention. They had some great modular shipping crate kits available, so I picked up a three-pack. These can be built a number of different ways. Look for an in-depth review here soon!

My wife asked me to find her a wolf miniature. Always happy to please, I stopped by the WarGamma booth and picked up a rearing battle wolf.

With that important mission completed, we stopped by the Spikey Bits booth next. They were clearing out their 40k bits due to changes in Games Workshop's sales agreements. Mike took advantage of this, big time. Here's a list of what he picked up at Spikey Bits:

• 4 packs of Cadian shock troops 
• 5 heavy weapon squads 
• 4 sentinels 
• 21 kneeling legs 
• part of an IG heavy weapon team 
• a Space Wolves something or other gun 
• a space marine scout heavy bolter 
• three bits bags of heavy weapons crews 
• a tank commander with dual machine guns 
• four assembled shock troopers 
• some dice including a scatter die 
• a couple heavy weapon tripods 
• a pack of Necron warriors 
• two Basilisks that are missing the railing for the gun deck 

I think he cleared them out of Imperial Guard bits bags. I picked up a Warmachine Cygnar Battlegroup, because I like the models, although I have never played it before. I also bought a Tau Cadre Fireblade on sale. At this point, having dropped a sizable chunk of cash between the two of us, we decided to go check out some of the tournament and demo rooms. On the way to the main hall, though, I stopped at the Badger booth, and acquired a quick release attachment for my airbrushes.

The first place we visited in the main hall was the Wreck-Age display. I had heard a little about the game and was eager to learn more about it. The demo table was full, so I chatted for a while with Matt Sears from Hyacinth Games. Turns out he's a regular reader of the Chicago Skirmish Wargames blog! He explained the basics of the game and showed me the model line.

Once the demo table cleared, Mike and I sat down to try it out. It was a fun, streamlined post-apocalyptic ruleset set in a world being rebuilt by survivors. I really enjoyed it -- the game is very episodic, with continuity between scenarios. In the playtest, I fielded a faction called the Stakers, tasked with protecting a homestead. My goal was to stop the intruders at all costs. I only controlled two models: a guy with a rifle perched on a rooftop, and a guy patrolling near a fence with a shotgun. Here they are:

Mike was representing the Drifters, a group of nomads, looking to raid the settlement's food stores. His warband consisted of 1 human and a pair of boars strapped with explosives!

Mike's goal was to get the boars up to the fence so they could blow it up. He advanced, but I got in a lucky shot, hitting the first boar and detonating its explosives! The second boar died on the next turn, with the fence still intact. The Drifter retreated, planning to return in the next scenario with reinforcements. The homestead was safe! After the demo, we each picked out a free Wreck-Age mini from a big box of random figures.

After talking to the guys and playing the game, I was really excited about it, and picked up a special Adepticon-only starter set. It came with 14 minis (Stakers and Drifters, including exploding boars, of course!), a two-part resin fence, a dilapidated vendor cart, rules, counters, and scenarios. One really nice touch to this set is that it came with both standard slotted bases, and lipped bases for each figure! In addition, I bought a second vendor cart and some fantastic vagrant minis. These new additions will add some flavor to many different games.

Matt and I discussed having a Wreck-Age demo day with CSW at some point in the near future, so keep an eye out for news about that.

Shortly after that, Mike had to leave, so I decided to try out a Warmachine game (since I picked up a starter set, after all). I played a demo game and had a great time! I've already got a good start on my Cygnar faction.

Up next on my schedule was a painting seminar given by Les Bursly from AwesomePaintJob.com. He demonstrated some advanced airbrush techniques for lighting and gradient effects, and then showed us some fantastic weathering techniques, including paint chips, engine exhaust, and rust streaks. I'm going to try these out on the shipping crates I purchased.

He blew my mind when he showed us what he uses as a gloss coat: Pledge floor wax! For attending the seminar, I got a 12-pack of the new Minitaire Ghost Tints. These are fantastic airbrush-ready candy style paints. You can use them for tinting existing colors, or doing all sorts of special effects. On the way out I stopped by the Paulson Games table. He was still setting up, but took some time to talk with me about his conversion bits line, and his upcoming game Mecha Front. There will be a Kickstarter for this game starting soon, so keep an eye out.

It was a fantastic, but long day! I'm looking forward to next year. And now, if you'll excuse me, I've got a huge new pile of stuff to build and paint!

-- Josh, Chicago Skirmish Wargames club member

Playtest: 28mm Mech Attack Scenario for Little Wars

It's been our club tradition to run a multiplayer tabletop wargames scenario at Little Wars, an annual convention scheduled for April 26-28 in suburban Chicago. This year Karl had the great idea to run Mech Attack using 28mm figures. The game is normally designed for 10mm or 15mm mass combat figures. So at 28mm, we'll be using some truly enormous mechs alongside our vehicles and infantry. A true BattleTech fanatic, Karl has a nice collection of 28mm scale mechs that we'll be using in this game.

Here's the blurb Karl put together for the event listing:

In 2165 the defenders of St. Martin's Parish on Melk 3 successfully fought back expeditionary elements of the Unified Colonies. This pivotal battle reversed the momentum of the invasion and led to the eventual expulsion of the UC from the planet. Refight this small but historically significant skirmish which saw Mecha, Armor and Infantry engage in brutal combat in the confines of the village center. This game uses Mech Attack!, a fast-playing sci-fi combat system.

Last week was our first playtest. As you can see, we put together a really fantastic urban cityscape. Most of the terrain was crafted by Karl, Tim and Josh using small plastic crates to create simple, modular modern urban buildings. The streets are just regular asphalt shingles with yellow stripes painted down the middle.

The scenario is designed to accommodate 4 players, each commanding a medium-sized strike force of tanks, mechs and a couple squads of infantry. The objectives were a couple of multi-story buildings near the center of the village -- and these could only be seized by infantry. Because of that, Karl included a provision that allowed an annihilated infantry squad to respawn on its player's board edge at any point in the game, to give players a fighting chance at holding the objectives. Here's a look at one player's forces at the start of our game.

Those infantry dudes are from Pig Iron; the APC is from AT-43; the chicken walker is from Kryomek; the bulky tank beyond that is from Pig Iron; and the heavy mech barely glimpsed at the end of the line is actually a 28mm scale BattleTech Legionnaire. How about that for a mixed bag of sci-fi awesomeness?!

Mech Attack is a fast-playing game that abstracts a lot of minor details and uses a damage grid system very similar to Warmachine. The four players (organized into teams of 2) leaped forward to seize the objectives, prompting a running gun battle in the streets of St. Martin's Parish. Here are some photos of the carnage that erupted.

We found that the large vehicles and mechs created some traffic headaches as we attempted to maneuver through the narrow streets. I believe we're planning to spread out the city grid a little bit more to promote some mobility.

We included a small patch of scrub in the center of the city to encourage the infantry squads (which have pretty marginal combat stats in Mech Attack) to dig in and fight it out.

This huge tank (an Ironside model from Pig Iron Productions) leads the way down a narrow city street, followed by the lumbering Legionnaire mech.

A squad of defenders keep close to cover as they make their way down the street toward the fighting. In the midground, an APC prepares to unload a squad of mercenaries. In the background, heavy mechs strafe the asphalt with epic firepower.

Afterward, we discussed some tweaks to the scenario. Despite being a fairly simple system, Mech Attack is complex enough that giving each player more than 4 or 5 units to command is probably too much. So we'll probably be scaling back the composition and/or number of units that each player commands.

We're also considering altering the victory conditions to make sure that each side has a fair chance at winning.

What won't change, of course, are the awesome buildings and great 28mm sci-fi stuff we're putting together for this scenario. If you're in the Chicago area at the end of April, come on out and play with us at Little Wars!

-- Patrick, Chicago Skirmish Wargames club member

Warbands Meet As Enemies, But Depart As Friends?!

Intercepted transmission, origin unknown:

The mutant warband known only as The Toxic Brotherhood ran across a rival gang believed to be the Preservers. A firefight ensued in the ruins of what appeared to be a former military bunker complex. More than 50 percent of the Toxic Brotherhood fell to the advanced weaponry of the Preservers. The great mutant leader Mortis was badly wounded. The remainder of the warband retreated, and a doctor in the service of the Preservers came forward to assist the fallen, including Mortis, who were then able to evacuate the conflict zone.

Transmission ends.

Michael and I met last week for a game in our "This Is Not A Test" campaign. The battlefield we set up was an old military outpost in the middle of a vast wasteland. Old bunkers and military buildings dotted the edges of the landscape. Separating the outbuildings were sandbag trenches, placed ages ago, for reasons long since forgotten...

The Preservationists saw value in the location and were attempting to secure it as a new medical facility and base of operations. They brought their medical specialist, Dr. Bra Ininajar, to help them scout the location.

Far off in the distance, a band of feral mutants roamed in search of their next meal...

The mutants heard sounds coming from the far end of the compound and moved forward to investigate. They left the safety of the bunkers and headed towards the trenches. The Preservationists heard the movement in the distance, and ran for the safety of the nearby bunkers. They took position on the bunker rooftops.

The mutants pressed forward, and started shooting their scavenged weaponry. The Preservationst Reclaimer was hit and downed! Luckily Dr. Ininajar was able to revive him right away. The Preservationists concentrated fire and decimated the oncoming mutants, and the two remaining mutant survivors wisely decided to retreat.

Satisfied with the safety of their new headquarters, the Preservationists stopped shooting. Dr. Ininajar raced after the mutants and offered his healing services, which the mutants gratefully accepted. The next time these warbands meet, perhaps it will be as friends!

- Josh and Michael, Chicago Skirmish Wargames club members