Thomaston's random project

[Logain]

Dang all of your projects look like a lot of fun to put together.  Very creative! I love those trees and under story vegetation. You likewise inspired me to try some small scale projects.

Ian – in addition to Vanguard and O8/Pico Armor, GZG has some, Microworld has a small line, Ironwind/Ral Partha has some 3mm battlemechs and other odds and ends, and the Shapeways National Cheese Emporium are others that I know of.

 

[Thomaston]

Thanks all, it was a nice project. A lot of experimentation and made me pretty comfortable with sculpting in this scale.
The crawler was fun, everyone should try it. I kept adding details to it every time I picked it up.

I think Tumbling Dice ground vehicles are also 3mm.

Tired is enough.

[OldBen1]

I love the crawler and the techno thing.  The miniatures are so tiny!  Keep posting pictures!

[Thomaston]

Some 6mm sculps, testing to see if I want to do little people with guns. Brigade South Africans for comparison. Not as chunky but that can be fixed, I really like the boonie hats on the Brigade minis but it’s against my religion to use metal minis.

If I’ll be doing this more I think I’ll make master for guns and make copies, the magazines were the most dificult part.

The two on the right are copies of another mini. Wanted to see if I can get away with copying the basic body and change the arms and details to make them look different.

Tired is enough.

[Just Jack]

I’m digging those Brigae guys, but those dudes you sculpted are, as always, truly amazing.  I’d buy some, for sure!
Are those berets on the last three guys on the right?  The poses and weapons look great.

V/R,
Jack

[Thomaston]

Just Jack wrote:

<p style=”font-size: 20.8px !important; line-height: 26px !important;”>
Are those berets on the last three guys on the right?

<p style=”font-size: 20.8px !important; line-height: 26px !important;”>V/R,
Jack

Those were my attempts at hair. The guy in the middle looks like an alien.

Tired is enough.

[Just Jack]

Gotcha, and quit being so negative, they’re awesome!

If they’re not pretty enough for you, I’ll buy them off your hands, happily 😉

V/R,
Jack

[Thomaston]

Tired is enough.

[Just Jack]

Now you’re just teasing me! Those look awesome.

V/R,

Jack

[Darkest Star Games]

Gotta know, are those front figs at a smaller scale, or are they kids with guns?

"I saw this in a cartoon once, but I'm pretty sure I can do it..."

[Just Jack]

Darby,

I believe those are his 3mm troops.  If I recall correctly, he posted a 3mm skirmish fight a year or so ago.

V/R,

Jack

[Thomaston]

They’re supposed to be my 3mm and 6mm versions of the characters.

Tired is enough.

[Darkest Star Games]

So no Halflings with peashooters, eh?  Might be a touch too far out, that’d be getting into Shadowrun realms there!

"I saw this in a cartoon once, but I'm pretty sure I can do it..."

[Thomaston]

Getting old sucks.

The plan, always ambitious.

A rough beginning.

Tired is enough.

[Just Jack]

Looks interesting and, as always, I’m looking forward to what you come up with.

So, am I to assume you’ve made the 6-minute mile then?

V/R,
Jack

[Thomaston]

NO, no, haven’t done the 6-minute mile yet, probably never will. I found out the route I measured was 50m short, adding around 10s to my time. Cutting 30s in a month and a half is not going to happen, so I’m back to miniatures.

Tired is enough.

[Just Jack]

So, ya got caught cheating!

Good to have you back in the land of make believe anyway 😉

V/R,

Jack

[Darkest Star Games]

Don’t give up T!  Just change your route to be down a slight incline and that time will improve quickly.  😉

Of course, gaming is far more important as well as less sweaty and injury prone activity…

"I saw this in a cartoon once, but I'm pretty sure I can do it..."

[Thomaston]

Just Jack wrote:

So, ya got caught cheating!

I blame Google maps, it round out distance unless you use the measuring tool. Prroving that google is really out to rule the world and mind control us all.
Next thing you know google will be rounding everything to 8″.

Darkest Star Games wrote:

Don’t give up T! Just change your route to be down a slight incline and that time will improve quickly.

That made me laugh, in a very sadistic way. Gotta go up hill before you can come down it -_-‘

Anyway the hex board is coming along. Finally happy after redoing it yesterday. Will post more photos and maybe a test game once it’s more complete.

Tired is enough.

[Thomaston]

More randoms. I dug up “SOME” old spaceships. Mostly GZG minis, a few conversions and some vanila minis. The three big ones on the right were scratch built. Spacestations were mostly from bits and parts form tanks, Gundam and DP9 miniatures. Will be rebasing all these onto the blue round base like the disc station.

I have a thing for using fleetscale fighers as large spaceships to get something visually resembling Legend of the Galactic Heroes. GZG news about revamping their fighters got me interested again. Now the long wait for those fighters to come out.

Tired is enough.

[Darkest Star Games]

Very interesting!  I love fleet scale. I missed the GZG news, it’ll be interesting to see what they come up with.

What rules will you use to get that LoGH feel?  5150? GOBS?

"I saw this in a cartoon once, but I'm pretty sure I can do it..."

[Thomaston]

Initially I was thinking of using GW’s Warmaster. It has formations suporting each other and flanking. Missile weapons aren’t that effective and is simple to play. Having seen Usagitsuki use Bag the Hun to play a cavalry game I’m tempted to use Dave Crowe’s hex version of BoB rules for more fluid space battles.

Tired is enough.

[Darkest Star Games]

I feel like that would give a very Star Wars like game, as far as fighter combat goes, but can’t quite see it for capitol ships.  Could work though, outside the box.  I get caught between wanting more realistic battles (ala Lightning Strike) and cinematic ones (like LoGH, like 5150 Star Navy), depending upon what the setting is.  Remionds me, it’s been a while since I played the Babylon 5 ACTA game, I should resurrect that, as well as the 15mm Full Thrust game…

"I saw this in a cartoon once, but I'm pretty sure I can do it..."

[Just Jack]

The world is waiting for more Air Mercs and getting back to 1Love, 4Play, and the gang.  Just sayin’… 😉

V/R,
Jack

[Thomaston]

@DSG
There was that first battle in LoGH and maybe a few more where speed and momentum of the fleets played a part in the strategy. I can’t figure out how to play Lightning Strike with more than a 3-4 spaceships. B5 Fleet Action was my favorite space rules, much simpler than B5 Wars but quite a bit more complex than ACTA. I miss ACTA’s fleet scale fighters.

@Just Jack
I’ve been thinking of how to get back to both games. Still haven’t decided on what scale I really want to play Project Slow Burn in (happens every time). Tiny Air Combat seems like a cursed game for me, I could never get past 3 missions in a campaign before loosing a pilot/plane. I’m a bad at managing mercenary squadron. I’m drawn to more humorous games now so when i get abck to them there’s probably going to be some changes. Also need to play the big fight for the fantasy game but too scare of seeing any characters get killed.

I’m still working on that mile run. Morale is low after I watched a Youtube video of a 12 year old kid do it.

Tired is enough.

[Just Jack]

Regarding Project Slow Burn, 6mm is the answer!
Regarding Air Mercs, you’re complaining about losing a plane after three missions???  After three missions, I’ve lost all my planes! 😉
Looking forward to the fantasy finale, as well.  Character die brother, it’s part of life, makes the ones that survive all the more heroic.
And good luck with that mile!  But I stay away from YouTube; I used to play guitar, until I watched seven year olds doing things I would never be able to do…

V/R,
Jack

[Thomaston]

New 1Love, scaled to H&R new minis and a lot smaller.
The 4 stages of love, agressive, passive, denile and heart broken.
(Combat, non-combat, taking cover/misc actions, casualty)

Tired is enough.

[Just Jack]

First, I gotta  say I appreciate the larger figures more (my eyes are getting bad!), but then I gotta say, those look fantastic!  Particularly the ‘combat’ pose, that is amazing, great character.  And you’re doing it, eh?  Different poses for different characters?  Really cool.

V/R,
Jack

[Thomaston]

The larger ones are 9mm tall, they’re kids next to 10mm and too big for 6mm. I need something that scale with 6mm vehicles. Even these new ones look big next to GHQ HMMWV, not sure how well they’ll look against H&R vehicles.

Now that I’m into 6mm modern maybe I could use Cruel Seas’ crew for civilians.

Just Jack wrote:

Different poses for different characters?

I’m not good enough to replicate the same pose for every character ;D
There was going to be one more pose with pistol but lets see how these work out first since my bright ideas don’t usually go well in practice.

Tired is enough.

[Thomaston]

Tired is enough.

[madman]

Just awesome. So much life and individuality.

[Darkest Star Games]

I think they look great!  You really do have some great poses there, a lot of figure makers could take note, as so many do not have very lifelike poses like these.

Keep ’em coming!  I love the idea of having different poses for each character.  Played a 54mm WW2 D-day Airborne game once (I think it was Final Combat?) which was hyper detailed/simulation and each character had a pose for everything (prone, kneeling, standing, running, walking, etc) due to the necessity of the rule system.  The dude obviously did a LOT of work, and the poses not only looked great but did indeed keep us aware of that figures’ state without having to use various markers and chits.

"I saw this in a cartoon once, but I'm pretty sure I can do it..."

[Thomaston]

Thanks guys.
Now that I have comitted to it I’m not so sure how to play the game.
For example when to change a stance frome combat to non combat?
Does it change when moving?
Best solution I could think of was to restrict each model to 1 action each turn.

For the poses I give all credit to movies and youtube. There’s an abundance of shooting videos and shooty movies out there it makes posing very easy.

Tired is enough.

[Just Jack]

Yeah man, they’re fantastic.  Now we need poses for reloading, firing a pistol, shot in the arm (but still fighting), shot in the leg (but still fighting), throwing a grenade, crawling, dragging a wounded comrade, carrying a wounded comrade, etc…  😉

The game Darby is describing is not Final Combat (I’ve played that, and the one Darby is talking about, I just can’t remember the name.  I want to say it was “Soldiers at D-Day,” or something like that), but I would recommend a game like Final Combat (or its modern version, “SOF Warrior”).  The game is broken down into phases, and you can carry out one action per phase, with better troops activating in all five phases (Tier One-type troops) and rabble activation in only two phases, with the phases randomized by chits.

V/R,
Jack

[Thomaston]

Just Jack wrote:

The game is broken down into phases, and you can carry out one action per phase, with better troops activating in all five phases (Tier One-type troops) and rabble activation in only two phases, with the phases randomized by chits.

I’ll probably go this route. I have a few rules with chit activation, I’ll have to dig them up.

Adding pistol pose is the only one I’m thinking of. But fear not I’ve ordered an action man figure to play super detailed games with. It’s expensive way to play and I should have enough for a squad including selection of weapons by the time I’m 80.

Tired is enough.

[Just Jack]

Just the pistol pose?  Is he using the pistol because it was quicker than reloading his primary, or because he’s been shot and can longer operate his primary?  See, you need all those poses, quit being lazy! 😉

Regarding prone poses, for what it’s worth, if you’re only going to make one, make it a ‘pinned down’-type pose.  Most people want to make them firing poses, but in this day and age, with everyone wearing body armor, troops shouldn’t be spending much time in prone firing positions, when the only real reason to hunker down is to get behind something solid, out of the line of fire.

Action figures, eh?  There was a guy over on TMP doing fights with 1/12th scale guys, playing outside in the grass, pretty cool.

V/R,
Jack

[Thomaston]

I don’t know if reload shuld be an action. It makes characters very vulnerable.
If reload is an action, I’m planning to group it all in the crouching pose along with stealth, supressed/pinned, first aid, etc. It’s a catch all pose, for anything involved.

Prone pose is for casulties only. They’re difficult to pickup, being flat and all.

Pistol pose is because I think it’s weird if a character is armed with pistol but the mini has a rifle. I’ll probably leave it though because I don’t want to be sculpting a mini for every combination of weapons, backpack, protective vest.

I knew I got the idea for the action figure game from somewhere. It has the potential of being the most realistic game you can get.

The plan is to have 18 NPCs in 3 groups of 6, civies, banditos and security force.
6-9 crouching generic NPCs
6-9 generic casualties

Tired is enough.

[Just Jack]

Wow, that looks fantastic, and they’re not even painted!

From my perspective, if you’re running a game with phases short enough that you can only take one action per phase, then reload probably should be an action, but then that means you have to track ammo, which I hate… and thus don’t do, thereby belying my own statement that reload should be an action.  In any case, if you’re going to have reloading as an action, I figure the kneeling pose works well enough.  It’s not perfect; if you’re reloading in a CQB situation you shouldn’t be seeking cover and kneeling down (takes away from your ‘violence of action’ concept) to reload, you should be reloading with weapon still shouldered and eyeballs still on target, and if there’s not time for that you should be switching to secondary.  But again, it works, no mistaking what he’s doing on the tabletop.  And it shouldn’t make him too vulnerable, the idea being he sought out some kind of cover to reload (reminding me of remedial action for a stoppage, or SPORTS).

Gotcha on the prone pose, sounds good to me, but…
“I’ll probably leave it though because I don’t want to be sculpting a mini for every combination of weapons, backpack, protective vest.”
How ’bout some dedication to your craft, sir 😉

Are you telling me all these guys are for NPCs?  If so, where are the characters?  Are they the ones we’ve already seen for the four guys?

V/R,
Jack

[Darkest Star Games]

That is a fantastic group shot, really characterful sculpts my dude!

Thomaston wrote:

They’re difficult to pickup, being flat and all.

You almost scored a keyboard kill with that one!

 

"I saw this in a cartoon once, but I'm pretty sure I can do it..."

[Thomaston]

Just Jack wrote:

How ’bout some dedication to your craft, sir 😉

Are you telling me all these guys are for NPCs? If so, where are the characters? Are they the ones we’ve already seen for the four guys?

It’s too cold for sculpting but mostly, I’m lazy.

These are the characters 1Love, 3Some and 4Play. Only 4 NPCs done so far.

I still have mixed feeling on reloading as an action. I feel the opposite to you. I think having only a single action per turn makes the penalty for reloading too high. Although I’m also imagining my guys waiting for the enemies to run out of ammo and reload before popping out for the kill.

@DSG
Can you describe the 54mm game you played in more detail?

The long wait for GZG to release their new fighters. The thing I really like about space game is the terrian is easy to put together.

Tired is enough.

[Author]

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