Lego - Super Troopers!

Here are the Lego Super Troopers:

The .45 Auto is from Brickarms, as are the smoke grenades. The Glock 17 and torches are made by STC. The utility belts and nightstick are from BrickForge as are the Ranger Hats. The figures and the yellow head are the original Lego Collectable Minifigures Series 2 Highway Patrol figures, as is the speeding ticket. The handcuffs are a Lego part. I like BrickForge because they sell via PayPal, but I generally buy Lego weapons from Minifig World, the Australian distributor for Brickarms, STC and BrickForge.



The minifigure heads have cool sunglasses, but don't have moustaches. (Rabbit has been growing his for a month.) Also, I appear to have bought the Ranger Hats in Dark Tan, rather than Reddish Brown. It looks like BrickForge have some more cool items for sale, so I can easily fix that!

Speeding ticket from the Lego Collectable Minifigures Series 2 Highway Patrol figure.

WH40K - Tokens

Ork Trukk on fire, or 'Turn Two' as it is more commonly known.

I have bought some game tokens from Litko Aero Game Accessories and Gale Force 9. I bought the Litko tokens from their own website and the GF9 tokens from Maelstrom Games.

The flame and smoke tokens can be used to mark barrages, dangerous terrain or objectives. I put them on destroyed vehicle models to show that the vehicle is now a wreck. The tokens aren't as realistic as carefully painted cotton wool but they are handy and robust enough to be dropped back in the troop trays after the game.

I bought the following Gale Force 9 token sets a few months ago:

GF9 Fire and Explosion Markers (set of 6) 

GF9 Smoke Markers (set of 6)

GF9 Sci Fi Infantry Status Token Set ('Pinned', 'Morale Check' etc) 

GF9 Sci Fi Vehicle Status Token Set ('Weapon Destroyed', 'Immobilised' etc)
The last two sets are thinner pieces; black plastic backed with a velvet material, and are handy to use as reminders on the WH40K battlefield. 



Smoking: Makes an Ork look serfisterkated.








   

Recently I bought some Litko token sets and they arrived a couple of weeks ago:

Flaming Wreckage Large (set of 3)

XL Flaming Wreckage Marker

Mini Wound Marker Set (set of 10 little skulls)

  

I has got... erm... lots of wounds left.

I use the wound markers by putting them near models that have lost some of their wound points (explanation for non-players: most toy soldier figures in WH40K have only one wound point, but a few models have two or more, such as leaders and characters.) Previously I had used dice, with the number of pips representing the wounds remaining, but occasionally they would get knocked over, or even rolled! Now, I will put a number of skulls down to represent remaining wounds.

Comparison: Litko vs Gale Force 9

The GF9 tokens fit together better than the Litko ones, and are made from slightly thicker plastic. They have a good range of basic tokens that would suit a lot of tabletop games, including the big names: Warhammer 40,000, Warhammer Fantasy Battles, Warmachine and Flames of War. 



The Litko tokens are more interesting to look at, and their store has a much bigger range, to suit all the games already mentioned, and a lot of other well known roleplaying and wargaming products. However, the plastic stock is a little thinner, so the tokens need to be glued together.

In any case, I glued all the tokens with 'Tarzan's Grip', so they should stay intact under gaming conditions. (Whoops, drop, clatter...)

No worries Boss - dat will buff out!

Overall verdict: these tokens aren't mandatory for a tabletop wargame, but they are handy and colourful. Both ranges are quality products, at reasonable prices. I recommend you choose a token set that suits your game system first, and then go for the style that you prefer. The GF9 products fit together better, but the Litko have a wider range and are more visually interesting.

Lego: Collectable Minifig conversion idea

The second series of Lego Collectable Minifigures have been released in Australia. I bought a few and ended up with three of the 'Traffic Cop' figure. Then I was browsing the Brick Forge website and I had an idea:

Collectable Minifig Traffic Cop
+ The Brickforge 'Ranger Hat'
= Super Troopers Lego!

;

I wonder what pieces I need to build Farva?

WH40K - Movement Trays from Litko

I bought some movement trays for my Warhammer 40,000 Ork army. These are from Litko Game Accessories, who make a wide range of tokens, trays, counters and other items for roleplaying and wargaming. They also let you make custom markers and tokens.

The Litko movement trays are made of plywood - two layers already firmly glued together. They look like random shapes, but each pack has the same variety of shapes. The circles are 25mm, suitable for GW Slottabases, or competing brand names. Litko also do 20mm in this range, so be sure which ones you order.

The trays are neatly cut out, and definitely feel solid enough for play. The figures end up quite close together - they are about 5-6mm or a quarter of an inch apart. Usually, in the game, I tend to spread my figures out a bit more, within the bounds of the coherency rules of course, but I will be happy to try this product out and see if it speeds the game up.

I bought two sets of the ten-figure trays (with four trays in each pack), and one of the five figure trays (with eight trays in the pack). I will give them a quick blast of grey spray paint and some of the same 'ground cover' as on the bases of the minis. The results won't be very pretty but they will do nicely for the game.

Since I have over a hundred ork figures in my army, and they can be put into 'mobs' (or squads) of up to thirty models, these trays will make it much easier to shuffle them around the table top.

I have also ordered some of the Litko tokens: fire and blast markers, to adorn burning or wrecked vehicles on the 'battlefield'. I will show pics of them when they arrive, and compare them with the Gale Force 9 items I already own.

WH40K Converted Baneblade links or Vanity, thy name is TOMB

In a fit of vanity I googled my own work. These aren't new links, but my Baneblade conversions were noticed in a couple of wargame/modelling forums.

Les Guildes

and

The Whiz Store Forums

Go me!

Lego - Sorting and Storage

As might be evident from a minority of posts, I don't just play with Warhammer 40,000 models - I also collect and build Lego. "Collect and build"? OK - I play with Lego.

My collection has been built up from what a lot of AFOLs (Adult Fans Of Lego) call my "Dark Ages". That is, the time after childhood, when you put your Lego away, until adulthood, when you pick it up again. So, I have been buying Lego for over ten years - since about 1998 when Star Wars Lego first came out.

In that time I have collected about 70,000 pieces of Lego, and that is a lot of bricks to pick from when building. There are lots of ways to store Lego. I use tray boxes - the sort that can be used to store stationery. I also use Fischer compartment trays (which I also use to store WH40K figures.)

The tray boxes are stacked in rough categories: from left to right they are Technic, transport (wheels, engines, wings), flats, the all-encompassing 'misc', bricks, slopes and creatures.

The stacks rest on a few kitchen cupboards, which are used to store other toys and games. Lego instructions and catalogues are in a filing cabinet. This is all starting to sound more than a little retentive - but without some sort of storage system, it would be chaos!

Minifigures and things minifigures use like tools and weapons are in the Fischer trays.

I use Keji storage boxes, which come in 5 drawer, 4 drawer and 3 drawer versions. Most of these were bought from Officeworks at about AUD 15 each. I also have a few slightly larger ones bought from KMart.

Because some of the drawers are getting full, I try to keep pieces of the same colour attached. (Sorting by piece type first is easier than sorting by colour.) This makes them easier to find in the drawer, and reduces the chance of an accident sending some crucial Lego part into the unknown recesses of the room.
There are also two much larger seven-drawer boxes, also bought from Officeworks. They can be seen on the lower right in the big pictures, in line with the cupboards. They are used for bulky parts like Lego train tracks, or parts for which I have accumulated a very large number like the classic 2 x 4 Lego brick.

Sorry about the blur.

Keji 5 Drawer storage box.

Lego - Commotion On The Pitch

I've been building a lot of my old Lego sets recently, including town buildings, cars and trucks, and the like. In 2000 Lego released some Football themed sets, and with the World Cup in mind, I added a small stadium, stands, and other accessories. (Check out http://www.brickset.com/search/?theme=Sports&year=2000 for a view of the range of Football sets for that year.)

Unfortunately, World Cup Fever seems to have overtaken one of the spectators, and a streaker has run onto the pitch!

Lego set 3409 Championship Challenge, released in 2000

WH40K - Ork Stormboyz painted by Mat

Like it says above, here are my Stormboyz as painted by my friend Mat. His work is first rate, and puts my poor paintjobs to shame. Of course I paid him for the job - it started when he asked if he could paint a Stormboy, just to see what they were like. I knew his Tau and Tyranid armies looked pretty sharp, so I gave him the job and these were the results. I still have to add some grit and gravel to the bases, but I was very pleased!





Stormboy character Zagstrukk (scratchbuilt with two plastic 'power klaws' for feet).



The Grenade Fairy comes to life! Tink! Tink! BOOM!

WH40K - Ork "Deff Dread" Dreadnought

This is my Dreadnought.



I built it pretty much out of the box. For a while I was tempted to reverse the body, putting the engine boxes on the round surface and painting the flat rectangles as armoured 'glass'. But I decided to keep it as is.

Before building this, I had seen another player's model and decided that it was a bit too spiky, so I have trimmed most of the spikes off. I also thought the four armed arrangement was very crowded on the model. It's cool, but a bit too busy for my tastes. I also wanted 'plenty of dakka' so I attached Big Shootas (machine guns, basically) to the arms. I also put some spare resin exhaust pipes on the engine blocks, instead of the original pieces.



The model comes with the option of using either claws or ends on the feet. I glued the claws on and added the bigger end pieces as well, to make its feet as big as possible. The Dreadnought is posed to look 'stompy' and the base is just scraps and bits from the bottom of the bits box. I use cheap superglue like an Ork Big Mek uses rivets. (More is better!)

The model is a lot more dynamic and detailed than the old metal dread, and fun to build. A lot of spiky bits!

Warhammer Fantasy - River Troll conversion ideas

Just some ideas for converting the new River Troll models. Apparently the pack has sufficient parts to make three trolls, with two spare heads. Two ideas present themselves:

River Trolls as Killer Cans. There are plenty of spare weapons and bits on the Killer Cans sprues; they could be used to arm (and armour) the Trolls. Might even have gretchin (goblins) riding/controlling the beasts. Optionally, they could have wiring and control panels, suggesting that they are cybernetic rather than just big monsters with guns and choppers.



Troll Giant. The Giant with a Troll head. Probably a bit of Green Stuff necessary to convert the body of the giant to show scales, river slime, etc. One consideration: colour. Would I paint the Giant green, to make it some magically created freak (but with the game stats of the Giant), or would I paint it skin colours, but with 'green paint' liberally slapped on by the orks? That would be a trickier paint job to do. I would want to make it look like a messy paint job, but in a way that is clear that it is deliberately applied messy over the natural colours, instead of just my poor brush work. I think adding 'hand prints', or even painting the green in shades like drying pond scum would help the effect.

All pictures in this post are from the GW website.