Charging back into the action

The last time we saw these guys was in a post, long ago, the 'last post from here' which turned out to be the last time that a painted medieval-esque figure graced this blog for a long time. Since then, the Runissians, Kaliads and Kindrarrians have quietly sat in a box, moved flat twice and never used in action.

Oh it feels good to paint 28mm figures again!

Instead of blabbering about how long it's been since i posted, here is a picture of a Runissian noble i made a while ago and never painted until today.

I was afraid after over a year of not painted 28mm figures i would be a bit rusty, but he turned out OK. Took a while, but that's 28mm for you! I sure do like the modelling and detail on the bigger figures.

Here's an OK-ish  picture of him with some infantry i did at the same time.

Yeah; the chap on the left has a black feather on his helmet, can't decide what colour to do it yet!

So hello again bloggers! I've had a lot of false starts recently, and i hope this won't be another one. I've been out of motivation to do anything with my figures, but i had a tiring week so i had a quiet evening painting and i rediscovered the pleasure in sitting down with the paints and plastic.

A LOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG time...

Far, far too long.

Damn, it's been an age since i have wanted to do anything wargames or blog related! My last post was in march, and since then i have done practically nothing with my figures. They just sat in a corner, gathering dust. Between playing other games and trying to pass my first year at uni, i haven't been able to summon up the motivation to do anything.

Alain approves

Until today at least! Uni's over, holidays have begun, so i cracked out the figures and paints and got to work.

I've done more in a couple of hours than i have in the last few months!

These are for Normedra, my 'Fallout on ice' setting. It felt good to push some miliput around.

Just a little post today, but hopefully the first of many! Stay tuned.

Some WIP chaps in gas masks

I made these with the idea to use them as Adepts for my Normedra setting. The Adepts are highly advanced but mysterious group who practically worship technology. They have the best gear and are powerful friends, and deadly enemies.

To give them a menacing and mysterious look i gave some figures gas masks. The original idea was to make this group a small band that spend their time looking for old technology decimated ruins, but a rethink of how i wanted them to work might change that. Instead i might use modern or near future figures to represent them (so they have body armour) and instead spread these figures into other groups, perhaps some outlaws or bandits to give them a ragtag look when mixed with figures not wearing gas masks.

For the moment they're just chaps in masks!

The one in the middle below is some sort of leader. Wearing a hood and greatcoat, he holds a map, ideal for a scavenger. 

Normedra - Tundra paramilitary

Following from the City State troops in the last post are some of their enemies (or allies in some cases); paramilitary/mercenary troops. These men either raid or defend the smaller settlements not under control of the larger City States, and lead attacks onto City State held lands. They are more numerous than the City States troops, but have less support.

This is the first squad i have painted up, with another half done and the third still in construction. For the first squad i decided not to convert any of the figures so all are as they came in the box. They are German Volksgrenadier from Battlefront.

The greatcoats are a bit of a mix as i was experimenting with them.

The unit symbol is a large black eagle painted on the front of the helmet (or arm for men with caps, but none like that in this squad).

LMG team. I tried doing some winter 'pea dot' camouflage on some of the figures. I will eventually do a small platoon of merchant guards entirely in this camo, so evidently these men have had some success against them!

Another view of the camouflage greatcoat.

Need to add some grass to these too.

And a WIP on an up-gunned Sherman i've been working on. I'm happy with the turret, but not sure about the side skirts. They're too big, but i might take them off completly and add stowage instead.

Reboot - City state soldiers

Time to restart some blogging! Now i have a camera, i hope to get some more posts written then the miserable 2 since the beginning of the year.

So let's begin, first off with with the City State soldiers.

"Onward to Victory!"

These men represent troops of the City States, the settlements that managed to survive the Reclaiming of Normedra and are beginning to rebuild themselves. They are well armed and uniformed, but their units are generally smaller than their enemies. Their tactics are focused around their squad machine guns and long range rifle fire.

I didn't want a monotonous force in all white, so decided to go for a variety of camouflage styles. There are 3 squads of 8 men each, plus a HQ section of 2 officers and an anti-tank team.

1st squad

Most of the figures are Battlefront Americans from the Vietnam range, with a few WWII Americans and Soviets, some with head-swaps or some milliput here and there.

2nd squad

I changed every grenade launcher armed figure in the platoon, as there are only 2 in the Vietnam range. This one below uses legs from a firing rifleman.

I might go back and add some grass or rubble to the bases, but they'll do for now.

3rd squad

Firing from the hip, i thought of Rambo when i made this. The loader on the left has an ammunition belt around his neck.

Officers and lone scout. The platoon sergeant on the right is a Soviet with an American head. The scout also has a new hat.

Rocket launcher team. The firer uses a grenade launcher legs.

In my Normedra background, the City soldiers defend their own cities as well as smaller settlements such as farms or oil rigs from various enemies. They are well armed with light machine guns and assault rifles, making them tough at long and close range. They also have lots of support options thanks to the City industries. Their main weakness is their lack of numbers, as a few casualties can hurt them.

I've also done a tank for them. I wanted a battered look, as post-apocalyptic environments aren't kind on vehicles! So i added plenty of scratches and some rolls and oil tanks on the deck, ideal for long drives through the Normedran tundra.

I did a sort of swan symbol on the side of the hull and turret in black as a unit symbol.

The stowage is all milliput, and the turret is from a Panzer IV.

Soon...

Soon i shall have a camera! So finally i can take some pictures of what i've been painting up recently!

=D

After the little hiatus, it's time to get back into the saddle of blogging i think, this time with images. Starting from next week, expect more posts around here, it's been all too quiet lately (except for the spam comments, at least 15 recently! Ridiculous).

Fallout Chain of Command anyone?

After being used as a target in a few games of Magic (the  card game) i decided to think about wargames instead.

I've been rather interested in post-apocalyptic settings at the moment, a bit dark i know! But i really like quite dark and gothic sci-fi, such as the Inquisitor part of the 40K universe. As such i created Normedra to allow some creation in this genre, and also i've been playing on Fallout 3 recently too.

For my Normedra setting, i'm using the Chain of Command rules and, having a mad imagination that considers everything that goes through it, i thought of possibly using these rules for a Fallout out setting, or smaller scale actions with other figures (WWII included).

The idea is to basically lower the size from a platoon game to use it with a few less figures (a dozen at least perhaps). This will allow me to use my Normedra figures without having to paint up another platoon, and maybe create a few Fallout characters in 15mm.

I also thought of adding a wound system to CoC, based on skimming through the Stargrunt II rulebook. This could be added to a normal CoC game however.

So, here are some ideas and notes i have for the moment:

-Forces are organised into squads and teams as normal, just less squads or each one with less men.

-Perhaps a leader to spend 2 command points to activate a team or squad twice (or could be a force special rule).

-Specialized military weapons (machetes, axes, swords...): +1 d6 in assaults per man armed.

Wounded men:

When a man is taken out of action by a kill result on the effects table, he might be only wounded. Roll another d6:

-On a 1-3 he is dead and removed as normal.

-On a 4-6 he is wounded and laid down. He may not move or fight.

Wounded men can be carried by 2 fit soldiers. They can also be treated if friends in 2" do not move for a phase and is not activated. Any number of men may be treated in a single phase. Roll another d6:

-On a 1-2 he is gravely wounded and dies. Remove from the table.

-On a 3-5 he is stabilized and although he cannot fight, he will live and must be evacuated.

-On a 6 he is only stunned and may fight as normal from the next phase on.

If a medic is present, +1 to these rolls.

This system is far from perfect, and adds a few more dice rolls to the game, but i thought it might be interesting. In campaigns a force might suffer a moral loss if it leaves wounded friends behind (or no in the case of an unpopular leader!).

Fallout

In these games each player will lead a band of adventurers, raiders, legionaries... While units would be smaller, the lack of machine guns might make less of an impact on game play. While some missions might be the usual patrols or attack/defend missions, some could be searching and securing supplies and salvage.

Weapons would stay pretty much the same maybe with reduced firepower except at close ranges to conserve ammunition), power armour represented by either adding one level of cover to the target or the possibility of converting a kill to a point of shock on a d6 roll (5+, 4+ depending on type). Again more rolls, i know.