28mm - Ren and Stimpy

To show the scale of the resin scenery dumpsters in the post below, I used some old figures which I painted in the early 1990s. They are from the Grenadier 'Future Warriors' range, now sold by Mirliton, an Italian company. That particular pair came from the 'Interview to Rebels' pack.

Here's a pic of the bare metal from the Mirliton website:

On that day, way back when, I experienced a bright moment of painting zen perfection: the planets aligned, my mind focussed and I was able to paint Ren and Stimpy on their tshirts. I did this by just putting dots of colour on the minis, occasionally wiping off a mistake, until I had the figures just right. Although I think my painting has improved since, at least when it comes to rough and ready techniques to make an army look smart on the table top, these are two of my favourite minis, and I consider the detail work the best freehand painting I have ever done. Of course the rest of the minis are very simply painted, because I didn't want to distract from the logos on their shirts (and I honestly didn't want to mess up the rest of the paint job!)

28mm - Armorcast resin scenery: Dumpsters!

I bought two resin dumpsters (large rubbish bins) in 28mm scale. They are from Armorcast - the same company who make the Mega Cannon, although I purchased them from an eBay store called Players' Cove.


The dumpsters as they appear in the Armorcast store website.



The dumpsters scale well for 25-28mm, whether you are using realistic or heroic proportioned figures. They look like the type with big plastic lids, so they are probably suitable for settings from the 1980s to near future/cyberpunk. I would certainly recommend them for skirmish games or roleplaying games where you use figures and like a little more scenery. They are also detailed enough to suit a diorama or display.



The pictures show the dumpsters with 1990s Grenadier 'Future Warriors' miniatures, in 28mm scale, and a Games Workshop plastic Catachan Imperial Guardsman, for scale.

The surface of the closed bin had a lot of little air holes, which is not something I had found on the Mega Cannon. These will have to be filled with glue or putty, although the 'urbanised' paintjob I am planning will mean that they won't be as much of a worry as they would be, for instance, on the body of a clean looking car. The open dumpster shows a lot of garbage, some overflowing. Good for gritty city scenes. There was also a little flash or overflowing resin on both models, but it was easily clipped off and sanded back. You would have to do that anyway for large resin kits, so it's not a big problem.


Armorcast Mega Cannon as it appears on their website.

Note: I built the Mega Cannon back in 2008 but haven't gotten around to painting it yet. A tip for prospective Mega Cannoneers - the working parts actually do work, but only if you glue them together in the right places. I didn't :(

WH40K - Idea for Ork Warboss Battlewagon

I have stalled in building and painting my Ork Battlewagons, for a couple of reasons. One is that I decided to paint the interior before completing construction, so there aren't any unpainted areas visible when the model is finished. That is enough of a reason to make the cars 'open topped' as per the game rules - so I can stop building them, paint them up and get them on the tabletop already.
So, it occurred to me that I should make a flashy Battlewagon for my Warboss - with lots of 'bling'. (Trophies, spikes, chains, enemy heads, etc). I will build this one with an open cabin, so that the Warboss miniature can stand there. I will probably included one or two of his favourite guns, and a driver figure from the Trukk model to do most of the actual driving.

WH40K - Quick conversion - Ork Rokkit Boy

A very quick conversion. I used two of the small rocket pieces from the Ork Stormboyz box (you get a lot of these left over). These were glued to the barrel of the Big Shoota piece from the Ork Boyz box. The barrel of the shoota was cut down, and the cog shaped 'gunsight' piece from the Lootas/Burnas set was glued on the end, to make it look less like a gun and more like a rail for launching rockets.

Of course it's ludicrously overbalanced, and it looks like the Ork firing it is about to get a face full of rocket exhaust. But that's what I like about it. (When I paint him, I will add scorch marks on his face.)

Tools and Tips - Cheap circular cutter

I found this in the tool section of a discount store, among the blister packs of carton cutters and soon-to-be-rusty socket sets. It's a tool for cutting small pieces of pipe. I have used it on brass and styrene, and it works very well, considering that it cost all of two Australian dollars. I have cut lengths of brass pipe of approximately 5mm and 6mm diameter, and styrene tube up to about 13mm diameter.

It works by a circular blade (not very sharp itself) which freely rotates and is gradually screwed down over two steel rollers. The pipe is turned by hand on the rollers, as the blade scores and then cuts into the pipe. I have found that the brass tube does bend in slightly at the cut, so if you have bought two thickness of tube to slide into each other - for instance as pistons or gun barrels - you will have to file back the cut end so that the smaller tube can fit inside the larger. Also, when working with large but thin styrene tubes, the plastic can warm slightly in your hands. This means that the cutter will crush rather than slice through the plastic. I recommend going slowly. Again, the blade will score as you turn the tube, which means you can eventually snap the cut portion off. The end may be a tiny bit rough with a cheap tool like this, but sanding or filing will fix that.

Ork Flakka Trakk turret, with gun barrels made from sections of brass pipe.

I have been able to cut sections of pipe down to only a couple of millimeters length - basically brass rings. This tool is an incredibly cheap way to cut tubes for converting models: gun barrels, roll cages, suspension parts, pistons, rings and even 'brass' shells from fired ammunition.

Warlands - Box Contents and Scale Comparison

Here are some pictures of the Warlands vehicles from the boxed set. In that box you get one truck, two buggies, two white metal driver figures, three white metal gunner figures, two six sided dice, two ten sided dice and a small rules booklet, which includes cut out counters. The cars are nicely moulded, with only minor flaws. The figures are a little indistinct, but a clean paintjob would fix that. Scale is definitely 20mm, but they will work with vehicles in similar scales.



The truck. The tailgate is moulded separately. An airbubble is visible on the back edge of the cabin, but this could easily be filled with superglue, or left as a bullet hole. There are several bullet holes and areas of damage moulded on these vehicles, so it won't look out of place.

The Buggy. There are two of these, with the same 'battle damage'.

Here are some comparisons for scale. The green truck is an Old Crow model in 25mm scale. The bike is from the Grenadier Future Warriors range. The brown figures are 1/76 toy soldiers (It should be noted that figures in this scale, and 1/72 scale, are rarely consistent between brand names. Of course human beings aren't all the same size, but you will notice the difference when you mix brands of these or any figures.) The white car is a Matchbox model of a Bentley, in what it claims is 1:64. I have a tape measure, but not a Bentley, so I will have to take their word for it.

The vehicles and figures are clearly small scale - about 20mm or 1/72. The cars could be used with 25mm miniatures, but the more 'epic' the proportions of your miniature collection, the smaller these vehicles will look. So, they look good next to Grenadier minis (such as the 'Future Warriors' from the 90s) but tiny next to Games Workshop. In between would be ranges such as Street Violence. The cars would still be useable, but noticeably smaller. How well that works on your tabletop will depend on how picky you are.

If you were going to use these with larger minis, I would suggest moulding a new driver for the buggy, and adding a remote controlled gun, or a completely new gunner. You could also just use repainted or converted Matchbox or Hot Wheels cars, with the rules that come with this game.

Unfortunately, these little cars are visibly smaller than the 25mm scale Old Crow models. Old Crow make a range of 15mm models, but I have never seen them in the flesh (in the resin?) so I could not compare the two types.

WH40K: Scratchbuilt Zagstruk and Stormboyz Nob

Before I went away, I built two members of my Stormboyz hierarchy. I made a Stormboy Nob (squad leader) from an assortment of parts, and then went to town to scratch build my own Zagstruk, a special character who can lead a Stormboy mob. He's not a figure I need in my army, but by the time I got around to building him, I had a couple of plastic power-klaws available. The hard part was mounting him in a flying pose, but not having him overbalance. The base has a few pieces of scrap white metal superglued in, for that reason.






Games Workshop's model of Zagstruk is available here - but support your Friendly Local Games Shop!

Warlands!

I found the basic boxed set for 'Warlands', a Mad Max style car skirmish game by Aberrant Games, at Milsims in Melbourne. These are crisp little models in 20mm scale - so they are far too small for Warhammer 40,000. However, they don't look too bad next to 28mm scale figures of more realistic proportions, so they would be fine in most Cyberpunk or post-Apocalyptic wargames or roleplaying games. The cars are made up from single pieces of resin for the bodies, including wheels, engines and upholstery. White metal is used for the roll cages, figures and some small accessories. The moulding is nice, although there was an air bubble on the back of the cabin of the truck. This will be easy to fill with superglue. I expect that they will scale nicely with the Old Crow Models tanks that I have.

Oh yes, and I am back!

Note: All these pictures are from Aberrant Games' website, and belong to them. Go there and spend your hard-earned on these shiny, shiny toys!

WH40K - Assemble the Away Team

I've been away from my hobby table for a while now, and will be for a few more months (hence the break in modelmaking and pictures of things that I have glued to other things.) My boss has asked why someone as nerdy as I am doesn't have some minis on my desk. So now I am wondering, is there a 'starter set' or a 'beginners pack' of WH40K, WFB or any other system, that I could buy on the internets, with figures, glue, paint, clippers etc. Or, do I have to go to some web-shop and pick it all out myself?

WH40K - B-4 M1931 203mm Howitzer model kit

Here's another model kit that would definitely look right on the WH40K battlefield. It's a 1/35 scale model by Trumpeter, of the WW2 Russian M1931 203mm Howitzer.

The tracks aren't powered, they are there to help when the gun was towed over rough, frozen ground. 203mm is about eight inches - that's a big gun, even by WW2 standards. The kit comes with the little trolley for carrying rounds, and a set of large wheels for the towing end of the gun carriage. You would have to do a little work to make it suit 28mm wargaming figures rather than 1/35 scale model figures. Also, being an accurate scale model, the parts would be a bit more fragile than the basic GW kits, when you are physically moving it to and around your games. There were several good reviews of this kit, and the price is about US $70. So, not cheap - but compares well with GW and Forgeworld.

One note of caution - in real life, this gun had a relatively small barrel - 25 calibres - so you might want to modify it for WH40K use. In my opinion the short barrel makes it look more brutal and suitable for the immediate battle, so I would keep it.

WH40K - Opportunity for rethink on Forgeworld

Late news but when I ordered the Forgeworld items I described below, I made a mistake with my credit card. FW sent a polite message letting me know, but I took the opportunity to rethink spending AUD $500 on toy tanks. Maybe when I get into playing the game more... Until then, I have cancelled the order.

WH40K - Bombard Battery from Forgeworld

I have ordered three (!) of the Imperial Guard Bombard vehicle kits from Forgeworld, because I want to make a siege artillery battery. They aren't cheap. (In fact they are outrageously expensive) but I have been thinking about them for quite a while and have decided to bite the bullet.

I have also ordered the Trojan support variant of the Chimera, and the Space Marine 'Air Defence Command Platform'. I plan to mount the dish piece on the hull of the Trojan, to make it into a Command Post vehicle.

In the new Imperial Guard codex, the same gun as the Bombard can be seen on the Colossus vehicle - which uses the Chimera chassis instead of the Leman Russ. Apparently the stats are the same (or similar), and this suggests that the Colossus could eventually become available as a plastic kit - a variant of the Chimera. However, I have finally decided that I won't wait that long. Also, I prefer the 'weight' of the Leman Russ chassis - it looks more suitable as an artillery carrier for a gun that big.

The Trojan suits my idea of a command car - the boxy hull is a bit higher than standard, something like the real life M577 variant of the M113 APC.

In the codex, up to three Colossus, Griffon, Basilisk or Medusa vehicles can be taken as an Ordnance Battery, in any combination. This encourages the modelmaker/collector to have a diverse collection, but I like the idea of a battery of the same types. In game, I think I could use the Bombards as proxies for the Colossus. The Trojan would have no particular game value, except possibly as a proxy for a command Chimera, or a Salamander.

As their main armaments are the big guns, which have a minimum range, as well as a maximum, they are actually vulnerable to close assaults. I think this weakness makes a more interesting game - they become as much an objective as they are a weapon.

28mm - Geezers! Shut it!

I was taking a look at the new Fernvale Specialty Scenics website, and followed some of the links from there, when I found this game based on 1970s British police dramas.

I have included just two photos of the almost 50 miniatures these guys have made - they look great and I intend to buy some. (Compliments to the painters too - good work!)

From the looks of it you could roleplay The Sweeney, The Professionals - even Minder if you were feeling creative (or Life On Mars if you wanted something with a twist). There is an 80's supplement with a Miami Vice feel. It comes with a range of 28mm minis for the game with great sculpting and character names and it looks the dog's proverbials, if yer know wot I mean.

WH40K - Ork Characters

Here are my plastic Warboss (from the Black Reach boxed set, but bought on eBay) and Boss Snikrot, the special character for Ork Kommandos:

I had converted the plastic Warboss slightly - new boss pole, new claw etc.

I wasn't very happy with Snikrot's paintjob, because he is a quite expensive figure, in dollars and points value. But he is good enough for table top play. I stopped where I did, because I had been considering giving him camouflage on his skin (very unOrky to hide from your enemies like that) but couldn't decide on colours. I want an obvious pattern that doesn't actually obscure detail. Perhaps like the warpaint Arnie wore in Conan The Barbarian.

(Painted figure of Conan by NECA)

WH40K - Games Workshop Deff Rolla Sprue

Fresh from Issue 47 of the Games Workshop Newsletter:

Incoming! Ork Deff Rolla
Ork Warbosses and Battlewagon krew everywhere have been awaiting the release of the Battlewagon Upgrade Pack since the Battlewagon's release in Janu-Waaargh!-ry - and today at Toronto Games Day, it was finally revealed.Ork Battlewagon Upgrade PackThis new sprue - the first plastic frame to be designed exclusively as a Bitz Pack - includes the mighty Deff Rolla, a lobba, a brutal-looking killcannon and a cheeky Grot rigger. Available to order from the 1st August, make sure you check out the Incoming! article on Monday to see more of this new Bitz Pack.

I think it is a fine construction - certainly a good addition to the Battlewagon kit, and as spiky and dangerous looking as any of the scratchbuilt versions out there. I will be buying one, and finding uses for all the other gubbins that come on the frame. The only concern I have now is that, since building my own version, this one might look a little small.

Ork, Warboss, Battlewagon, Killcannon, Grot, Deff Rolla and pretty much everything else I have written on this post are trademark Games Workshop. Thanks for the cool toys, guys!

WH40K - Ork Stormboyz

I bought a box of the Ork Stormboyz when they came out and have gotten around to building them. I also bought a few more of the Stormboyz bodies and rokkit packs (jetpacks) on eBay, since I knew I had a lot of leftover arms and weapons.

I have built most of them 'out of the box' and made slight modifications on a few, trying to make each figure unique. I didn't use all of the rokkit pack bits - I wanted to make the rockets single tubes, with a minimal amount of auxiliary gubbinz. So, I clipped some of the smaller details of the small parts and just used whatever was at hand to cover the gaps in the large rockets.

A couple of these guys have bodies made from a regular ork torso with the front ground down to about half thickness, glued to a stormboy front (there are six in the set, although there are only enough other bits to make five boyz). I have also tried to make each base unique, with other pieces of scrap plastic. Obviously not all of them are 'flying'; some are just standing on the ground.

I haven't decided if I will build a 'nob' (squad leader) for them - it might be made out of larger ork pieces, and I might even buy or build a couple of Power Klaw pieces for his feet, to make the character from the Ork Codex - Boss Zagstruk. There is a metal figure of him, but he doesn't come cheap.

WH40K - STOMP-E teaser

Not really a teaser as I am nowhere near starting work on STOMP-E. I just had an idea for a logo/glyph plate for the model.

It's just a piece of scrap plastic, from the 1/35 landing craft, I think, with a variety of pieces from the bits box glued on. The 'brackets' holding the hammer and axe are made from the twisty wire that came in the packaging for a Transformers toy.