Fully Painted: Pig Iron Sci-Fi Infantry, and More

A couple years ago, I got my hands on a big ol' box of gorgeous sci-fi infantry figures from Pig Iron Productions. Now, if you know me, you'll know that I'm a sucker for anything by Pig Iron. The gritty, near-future aesthetic of the figures aligns perfectly with my sci-fi wargaming interests. I've already got a big skirmish army built from Pig Iron's Heavy Infantry figures, as well as a hefty group of the totally awesome Kolony Ferals.

This new lot -- offered up by fellow club member Karl after one of his many bargain-hunting transactions on ye olde Internet -- included 30+ Kolony Militia figures. These guys have greatcoats and gas masks and military gear, and they look fantastic everywhere I've seen them. The militia guys were unpainted, and they sat in a box at least a year while I fiddled around with other projects.

I finally got started painting them last summer. My goal is to do small groups in different paint schemes, so they can be used on their own as warbands, or as squads in a larger army.

Here are the first two groups. I'm not sure what to call them -- either half-squads or reinforced fire teams, or something similar.

And just for fun, here are a few more sci-fi figures I finished up recently.

This guy is from from Ratnik Miniatures (via Lead Adventure Miniatures) ... he is called an "assassin," but he could easily work as a squad leader, sniper or forward observer.

These are a couple female troopers from Hasslefree Miniatures. I really like them because they don't have the typical ostentatious armor and crazy proportions that characterizes the female form in most miniatures. Their armor and poses look fairly functional and realistic.

And lastly, we have three character models perched atop some really amazing resin bases that I picked up at the Games Plus auction last year. The resin bases were unpainted, unlabeled and I have no clue where they came from.

The figures themselves are (from left): Pig Iron Kolony Militia, Reaper Chronoscope (trying to be a Gears of War guy) and Warhammer 40k Vostroyan (some of my favorite recent 40k sculpts).

Studious blog readers will note that a few of these guys have already hit the table in various battle reports this year. They're not particularly new -- this is just the first time I've gotten them all together for some decent photos!

-- Patrick, Chicago Skirmish Wargames club member

Cleared to Engage: The Mystery of the Atom

Last week Josh and I got together to try out Cleared to Engage, a fun, fast-playing ruleset written by P. Todoroff and hosted over at his blog Stalker7. As you might surmise, the intent of the ruleset is to provide a basic framework of rules for running sci-fi, post-apocalyptic and/or cyberpunk skirmish games.

These are Todoroff's homebrew rules used for most of the games featured on his blog. CTE lacks a points system or premade character profiles, but that was no problem for us, as we relish the challenge of crafting scenarios. We were eager to try the rules out! I set the scenario in the Derzhensko Exclusion Zone, which is one of several homebrew settings we've used for our sci-fi and post-apoc games. Here's the scenario outline:

The Lure of the Atom
Location: Derzhensko Exclusion Zone
Area: Unsecured Perimeter K-18

The Zone’s porous perimeter has been compromised by a group of ex-military scavengers, trespassers and adventurers. The goal of the expedition is a single unexploded atomic bomb -- a relic from a past era, when such weapons rained down from the skies. Could it hold the secret to the Zone’s existence? The explorers must first get past the defenders of a small settlement nearby. These hardy folk have spent years rebuilding some semblance of a society in the ruins of the Zone, and they are unwilling to watch their hard work get destroyed by invaders.

The game pitted a group of veteran stalkers, mercenaries and ex-military types (backed up by some rather frightful mutants straight out of the lab) against a ragtag band of dug-in settlers armed with mostly improvised weapons. The stalkers' objective was to reach the atomic bomb and explore its mysteries. Their secondary objective was to reach the water tank outside the greenhouse and restock their dwindling supplies.

The settlers' objective was to annihilate the mercs -- and as we saw in our game, a combination of poor terrain placement and the sheer lethality of "Cleared to Engage" helped the settlers achieve their goal quite nicely.

I deployed my mercs in the wooded perimeter outside the settlement, intending to use the "Snipers in the Woods" scenario rule to lay down withering cover fire while my guys advanced. I knew my weapons and equipment were better than the settlers' pitiful rakes and garden hoes. (That's sarcasm, of course. As you can see in the pics, Josh's guys were lovingly converted to hold all manner of nifty weapons, from a leaf trimmer to a stop sign to a pneumatic air gun!)

I advanced through the woods, sending two groups of guys toward the two objectives. In this pic, Floyd the Mega Mutant and Yadonovsky the stalker close in on the water tank, which is attached to the side of the greenhouse -- and critically, within range of the settlers' firearms!

A turn later, they arrived, taking cover behind the greenhouse before sprinting to the water tank.

Over by atomic bomb, another pair of mercs was advancing cautiously, using broken barricades as cover. Alas, they were ambushed by Josh's recon element, which had been forward deployed near some shipping containers.

Actually it looks like the recon settler killed the mutant berzerker and was then slain herself. Here's the pic -- you be the judge.

Alone and unsupported, Morsov (with the shotgun) darted across the street to link up with the stalkers by the greenhouse. He made it halfway before encountering some defenders. After a brief, fierce close combat, both figures killed each other.

In fact, that happened a lot. Every single one of our close combats resulted in both figures dying in the first round. I'm not sure if that was due to CTE's deadly close combat system, or some misunderstanding on our part. The result was a veritable killing field near the greenhouse! Here's an example of the carnage after three or four turns.

The results were similar over by the greenhouse. Ranged combat thinned the ranks, and close combat took care of the rest. Josh and I both slaughtered each other's figures with reckless abandon! Josh had a medic, which meant that he was able to revive a couple figures -- only to see them butchered a turn later by my guys.

When the dust cleared, I hadn't managed to secure even one of the two objectives, and Josh had decimated my fighting force. His settlers wouldn't be doing much settling anymore, though, as they had left more than half their number strewn about the streets as casualties. We agreed that Josh won the scenario.

CTE proved to be quite deadly, almost to a fault. We couldn't stop our guys from dying! Even the settlers, with relatively poor stats, were able to score hits when rolling buckets of dice with their machine pistols. Some of this came from terrain placement -- the wide open street was an absolute killzone -- but even figures in cover, such as my snipers in the woods, didn't last long once they started to draw fire.

We agreed to try out more multi-wound figures in our next game, as well as lower benchmark combat values across the board. The great part about this ruleset is that it is very easy to modify and tinker with. After the game, we were just brimming with ideas for possible tweaks and enhancements to better suit our play style and figure/terrain collections.

Hats off to Mr. Todoroff for crafting a fun ruleset that has energized our players. Doubtless we'll try this one again soon!

-- Patrick, Chicago Skirmish Wargames club member

Fully Painted: Flesh Mutants and Sci-Fi Objective Markers

A couple of months ago I was on a big STALKER kick -- playing the game every evening and browsing some of the excellent, inspiring work that folks are doing on the tabletop to bring this oddball genre to life.

Along the way I uncovered a pile of Sedition Wars Strain figures that I had acquired from Karl last year and promptly forgot about. I decided to give them a quick and dirty paintjob so they can serve as mutants and/or rad zombies for my post-apocalyptic games.

I used just three colors for the figures -- flesh tone, army drab for the pants, and a couple spots of yellow to highlight the weeping sores on the bodies. Then, of course, they got the dip, which brought everything together nicely. They won't win any awards, but they don't look half bad for an evening's work. You can see more pics of the mutants in action in our recent battle report.

Along with the mutants, I also finished off a half dozen resin objective markers. Originally designed and sold for Dystopian Wars, the markers are like little mini-dioramas with all sorts of nifty details, perfect for sci-fi or post-apocalyptic games.

That's it for now -- back to the workbench!

-- Patrick, Chicago Skirmish Wargames club member

Fully Painted: Post-Apocalyptic Russian Scavengers

Earlier this year I decided to look into purchasing some select models from Ratnik Miniatures, a small-batch Russian manufacturer distributed by Lead Adventure Miniatures (and sold domestically here in the U.S. of A. by Cool Mini or Not). Imagine my surprise (and glee!) when I strolled over to CMON and saw that the entirety of their Lead Adventure Miniatures stock was on clearance!

I quickly pieced together an order, snapping up a half dozen packs of post-apocalyptic figures that I've been salivating over for years. Much of this stuff is inspired by the STALKER video games: lots of scrappy scavengers with gas masks and bandoliers and pieced-together military kit. Very heady, atmospheric stuff.

Anyway, the figures arrived and I set about painting up two batches of Russian scavengers, for a grand total of 10 guys. They're armed with simple 20th-century weapons -- no laser rifles here -- which fits perfectly with our post-apocalyptic games.

As an added bonus (and just to see if I could), I gave each guy a name, written in Russian along the base. Somewhere my college Russian professor is chuckling!

These guys already hit the table earlier this year in a game of The Dogs & The Dust. I'm sure they'll be a familiar sight on the wastelands for a long time to come!

-- Patrick, Chicago Skirmish Wargames club member

The Dogs & The Dust: Dead Man Walking

Last week we gathered at Games Plus for our regular game night. Due to the availability of tables, our merry band was a bit scattered, and tucked away in the back corner were Josh and I, setting up for a game of The Dogs & The Dust, the sci-fi ruleset from the paint-addled mind of fellow club member Mattias.

We've played it a few times now, each time exploring a bit more of the game's design space. With this game, though, we decided to try a scenario. It occurred to me that the default mode of play for TD&TD (scavengers looting a battlefield) is a perfect way to game STALKER (that peculiar, post-apocalyptic video game that is just ripe with tabletop possibilities). Here's the setup for our scenario:

Dead Man Walking

Derzhensko Exclusion Zone

Area: Akulinin Industrial Sector

Once again, the lure of loot and artifacts in the Derzhensko Exclusion Zone has proven too strong. Two teams, outfitted and equipped to scavenge and survive in the harsh conditions of the area, crept into the ruins of the Akulinin industrial plant. A fortune in decrepit loot was scattered around the facility -- if the two crews could survive long enough to turn a profit.

I schlepped a plastic tub full of terrain (plus my gorgeous Zuzzy mat) up to Games Plus and set up a compact little 3x3 foot tabletop battlefield. In the center was a sprawling industrial complex (terrain created by fellow club member Karl) around which were strewn six objective markers. Our task was to explore and secure these objective markers -- but a random encounter table meant that each objective could hold both plunder and terror in (un)equal parts. Here are a couple:

Josh and I deployed on opposite table edges. He fielded his Wreck-Age Reclaimers, and I was trying out my newly painted Russian scavengers from Lead Adventure Miniatures.

Each figure in my crew has his own name -- written in Russian, of course. Here are Igor and Pavel gearing up to explore the zone.

As the game began, Josh advanced his Reclaimers and seized the first objective. One lousy encounter roll later, he found himself surrounding by fleshy, wet, glistening mutants, the result of some experiment gone terribly awry.

Not to be outdone, Volodya the Russian scavenger poked around a heap of abandoned equipment and drew the ire of a pack of mutants as well, eager to devour his flesh.

At this point, we realized that the scenario could really benefit from a gamemaster. Combat in TD&TD consists of a series of opposed rolls, so it was really a lot of extra work to basically insert a third faction (the  mutants) into the gameplay without a third player to roll the dice and move the mans. I would finish my turn, then play the zombies while they attacked Josh, then he would play the other zombies while they attacked me, etc. Just a lot of dice rolling. Not a shortcoming of the game, more like an oversight in the scenario.

Anyway, back to the action. Seeing that Volodya was in trouble, Zhenya unlimbered his double-barreled shotgun and waded into the fray, peppering the mutants with buckshot.

While I occupied myself fighting off the mutant incursion, Josh was busy securing objectives. We rolled randomly to see how loot and mutants each objective would contain, and the dice were definitely in his favor. Here is an objective that spat out one measly mutant while accounting for a huge chunk of victory points.

Meanwhile, my guys were having trouble securing even one objective.

Eventually we got close enough to begin exchanging fire with each other (in spite of the mutants). The end came when the Reclaimers caught Igor, the leader of my crew, all alone out in the open. He was trying to jimmy the lock on these computer cores and didn't even see the Reclaimers coming. Oh well!

But it was all in good fun, since Josh and I had a fun game of The Dogs & The Dust. This was something of a milestone for me, as it was my first regular game night since becoming a father three months ago. It was great to get back in the saddle! You'll see more of me on the blog, too.

-- Patrick, Chicago Skirmish Wargames club member

More Toybashing: Creepy Crawlers and an Egg Box

I'm back with two more pieces of sci-fi terrain made from old toys and cast-off junk. These started life as a "Creepy Crawlers" molding station and a vintage refrigerator egg box that Josh gave me.
 
For the egg box, I flipped it over and used the lid as the roof. I used a bunch of Rokenbok pieces both as supports and as flat sections for the floors.

I added some plastic slabs on the sides and roof, plus a few bits from the Pegasus Chemical Plant kit. This kit has become hard to find in the USA and I highly recommend buying it if you can find it. I use pieces from the kit on almost every terrain piece I make.

The end pieces are plastic doors are upgrade pieces from the Sedition Wars game. The ladders are cut from pieces of toy Power City train track.

Here's a look at the original Creepy Crawlers kit. I don't have any in-progress pics of the Creepy Crawlers piece, but here's what it was made from.

I separated the toy from its base to shrink the footprint a bit, then rebuilt it into a sort of forge.

I covered up many of the screw holes with either plaster or round bits of plastic punched from blister pack plastic with a standard paper hole punch.

Except for a small grate and a few other pieces, almost all the added bits are from Mantic Battlezone accessory sprues. This thing just screams Necromunda to me. Though it's finished, I feel that I need to build some kind of gondola or reservoir to hold whatever it dumps out of its bucket.

The egg box building doesn't have quite the same Necromunda look, but it's a nice piece that is perhaps a bit more futuristic. It looks to me like some sort of chemical storage facility.

The simple orange, green and gray scheme has some nice contrasts.

I really like these Sedition Wars doorway bits, though I wish I'd chosen a color other than aluminum, which looks an awful lot like the grey walls after a couple washes and a dusty tan drybrush.

The bit in the middle is a hatch that lines up with a ladder from the 2nd level. The roof looks good enough, but perhaps I should have done something to split up the one-piece look of the lid.

Overall, the egg box building has a very unique look that sets it apart from the rest of my collection. I particularly like the way miniatures can be on a second level elevation and still have overhead cover. Now that I'm occasionally playing Necromunda, I'm thinking a lot more about multilevel terrain and cover. Both of these pieces are well in that vein.

-- Karl, Chicago Skirmish Wargames club member

Rokenbok Terrain Bonanza

A week ago I was at my local resale shop when I came across a Rokenbok Monorail Start Set.

It lacked the train and many of the other small elements, but the other large elements -- a ball elevator and storage tank -- that intrigued me most.

For those who don't know, Rokenbok is a building system based around mostly cubed construction elements and radio controlled items such as trucks, monorails and other motorized features. Despite having other projects in the pipeline, as soon as I got home I broke out my tools and glue and started building.

First off the assembly line was this Storage Tank.

It is mostly stock pieces, except for the addition of a grating on top cut from circular cross stitch mesh (which is an excellent way to add industrial-looking floors to any round item). I also added some corrugated floors over the downspouts (not pictured).

The second item is the Ball Elevator, originally intended to lift plastic balls up into the storage tank. After cutting away the power cords, I removed the rubber conveyor belt and glued in some lift sections. A bit of cutting enlarged the top spout enough to fit miniatures up there.

A couple of small bits from the Pegasus Chemical Plant kit were added. The cavity in the back for the power cord is perfectly sized for 28mm figures.

Both terrain pieces were undercoated with ruddy brown Kryon spray primer. Then I added a wet overbrushed color layer, followed by a brown wash and a light tan drybrush to dust everything up.

The inner areas of the elevator also got some heavy ballast using the concrete topper mix that I've been trying out. It's concrete mixed with a nice variety of gravel and sand. The concrete portion isn't as gritty as plain sand (which takes a drybrush extremely well), but it looks like soil when painted, and the mix of gravel sizes is great.

Here's what they look like with paint. Adding pieces of corrugated cardboard turns the downspouts into useable area and makes the entire second story of the tank much more useable. If you don't have any corrugated cardboard on hand, just grab a few Starbucks drink sleeves.

Looks like I forgot to include a ladder up to the top though...

The elevator makes both a very fortified position and a means to access higher sections of a multilayer terrain layout. This bad boy is tall!

Though it looks plain blue in the picture, the paint is actually a really nice blue-green color.

The bucket sections are close enough to avoid disrupting movement in most gaming rulesets.

These were on the table for last weeks game, and they looked great. I'm especially keen to see them as part of a Necromunda layout. The square supports that make up most of the Rokenobok system run the risk of looking a bit similar if used to much, but they have a nice futuristic look, and I'll be using these parts in future constructions.

Lastly Rokenbok toys are a bit too expensive to buy at retail just for terrain purposes (this set cost almost $200 in stores!), but I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for them at the resale shop.

-- Karl, Chicago Skirmish Wargames club member