[Mr. Average]

I like how chunky they are. They verge on cartoony but it works!

As for rules I’m looking for something that will handle large scale so full bases get removed and the battle occurs at the scale of a whole company. I’m basing first and figuring out the rules later.

[Mr. Average]

Hah! Well, we all have our crosses to bear. I think they look very smart with the base label, just a very minimal one. Just a visual marker really.

[Mr. Average]

Bit of a pain to paint three-rank bases but they look right so I’m suffering through it.

[Mr. Average]

You’ve made me think of a force of black-turreted tanks for His Majesty’s Armored Regiment of Shirkers! I shall get to work on that interphrastically.

[Mr. Average]

Guy Farrish wrote:

I don’t mind revisionist history if it is based on research and shrugging off old straitjackets. The work that has been done on WWI Western Front for example has sloughed off the sixties patina of ‘Oh What A Lovely War’ and maybe even opened some people’s eyes to the fact that Blackadder Goes Forth was not a documentary. When it’s an excuse for shoddy writing and not being bothered to check simple facts it isn’t revisionism; it’s laziness or grinding a political axe.

You probably put it way better than I could.

[Mr. Average]

Revisionist history is in vogue at the moment. That is putting it as generously as I can.

[Mr. Average]

The Royston Yeomanry covet the precious things of the French.

[Mr. Average]

WE DIDN’T BURN THEM!

[Mr. Average]

Mike wrote:

I am from Birmingham, but I now live in Lincolnshire… Just incase you need an odd unit here and there 😉

I’m considering making my powered armor troops be Local People from Royston Vasey. 😉

[Mr. Average]

Also, yes, doing small contingents with different colors is kind of my own trick to keep the painting process interesting. I find myself losing interest in projects where I have to produce too much of the same thing. A sci-fi medieval approach seemed appealing for that reason.

[Mr. Average]

Darkest Star Games wrote:

Mr. Average wrote:

“You don’t mean… like the Earl of Doncaster?!”

Aaaadder, bubumm. Aaadder, bubumm!

You officially win the prize!

[Mr. Average]

Well here come the men-at-arms of the Duke of Norfolk:

and here are his colors compared to the Duke of Lancaster:

Now to figure out my next English vassal. And I know what you’re thinking:

“You don’t mean… like the Earl of Doncaster?!”

I mean JUST like the Earl of Doncaster! Or maybe the Duke of Battersea, or the Marquis of Marchmain, or even the Earl of Brideshead.

[Mr. Average]

[Mr. Average]

My biggest as-yet unsolved challenge is how to do castles in the 25th Century. Because both sides still use castles, and besieging and taking castles is definitely a big part of campaign goals.

[Mr. Average]

Jim Webster wrote:

I must say that I do think this is a really inspired project 🙂

Do I dare sense another Hellfire supplement coming?

[Mr. Average]

In my world the Spahis would be coming from the territory of the Almohad Caliphate, who are tied up fighting with the Empire of Asturias, which owns most of South America. It’s not a bad idea though, it might be interesting for them to be mercenaries in the employ of the French king! The Almohads are no dummies and they might not want a strong English state on their northern borders! I need to draw some maps, clearly.

[Mr. Average]

After many years I’m coming back to this lovely little project. Some iconography for the English and French as their war over Burgundy and the Angevin Empire continues into a new phase. English and French banners, for example:

And base labels for the English:

[Mr. Average]

Great googly moogly man!

[Mr. Average]

Old photo because the current set is a mess still, but I’ve come back to my project for the “Thousand Years’ War,” a science fiction world where, for reasons unknown, the Hundred Years’ War has been extended indefinitely into the 25th Century. Right now I’m doing an English cavalry regiment under the command of the Duke of Norfolk. I’ll then move on to their French opponents under the Duc d’Alençon.

I’m also working on some forests for them to fight over.

[Mr. Average]

Calling it Rouge Trader is good for moral.

[Mr. Average]

I bought a 5lb bag of potting sand ten years ago and I’ve been working off it ever since. Cost me $6, as I recall.

[Mr. Average]

It depends largely upon the scale for me, and what effect I’m trying to achieve in the end. At 3mm scale I usually base my infantry first, prime the whole assembly as a single unit, and then paint. This lets me conceal the little platforms they stand on. At 6mm scale I more often paint first, then base with pre colored talus, sand and flock to conceal the little stands. Anything larger I always paint first and then base. Vehicles I also paint first and then base regardless of scale. The only time I did otherwise, to my own woe, was with a set of 15mm scale SF3D walkers, which as a result look like their feet are sunken into the ground. Not bad, but I wish I could have done better.

[Mr. Average]

Rummaging through my old samples bin on my lunch break I’ve found some 6” square sheet metal parts, too. That might be interesting because it would fit better in a travel box, (I’m using an old 40cal ammo box for this project) or maybe make good staging for troops before/after battle.

[Mr. Average]

Steppy stone hills. Flat tops for easy placement of bases and other terrain. It’s a very “BattleTech” style, but in my mind so far it has all looked the way it turns out to be in real life so I’m going with it.  To be honest the only reason I’m going with squares instead of hexes is aesthetic – I like square edges on my game boards.

I’m not sure about water, roads, etc. yet but I think more tiles, albeit probably thin ones in strips so I can not have to Build infrastructure one square at a time. But maybe I won’t mind that as much as I think, frankly. I’m going to try some things.

[Mr. Average]

Bingo in the two trees being light forest. My goal for the initial kit is 25 dense forest and 25 light forest. The boards are 12” square – laser cut don’t you know so nice and accurate. I’m actually thinking of doing a partially-terraformed mars as a base mainly because I love the look of red soil, but also because it would be a nice backdrop for VSF air battles as well as more gothic, Schism Of Mars style games. I hope anyway. For hills I’m casting some Hirst Arts dungeon floors.

[Mr. Average]

By the way, I appropriated some samples of sheet stainless steel from our office – we ordered a sample that was A430 instead of A304 by mistake. Magnetic was bad for the site but good for my project so now I have a nice little steel panel I’m going to paint and lacquer as my base for my isometric battle board.

[Mr. Average]

For me it’s all in the basing. Base your infantry first, then build up the base around them with white glue and sand, and prime the whole thing. That conceals the little platforms they stand on and makes each squad easier to handle. If you also have a magnet in the base you can put the little stand of troopers on the end of a roofing nail, which makes them easier to handle. Beyond that it’s like painting any other miniature, just smaller. I do recommend that you NOT dry brush at this scale, though. It all ends up looking like they ran through a dust storm. But base coat with thinned shadow color, pick out the panels and such with a middle tone, then highlight with a bright edge color, trying to keep a consistent side towards your imagined light source. Paint the base an appropriately contrasting color, and edge in black – paint, or I’ve recently discovered a black indelible marker works well too, for wood bases.

[Mr. Average]

Thanks, Andrew. I shouldn’t really be putting personal stuff above, it doesn’t really matter. Things are tough all over.

I’ll say this though, my dream of an isometric battlefield is closer to reality: four trees on a 1” magnetized base make a really sweet bit of Dense Forest, and are very economical on materials. I can make some nice heavily forested boards this way.

[Mr. Average]

I happened to see images in passing of a game I used to love back in the 90s – turn based strategy called Fallen Haven. Mainly I liked it because it felt very much like a tabletop game and I loved the map graphics. They seem primitive now but they’re really pleasing to me:

So rummaging through my bits drawer (my budget is tapped out) I found a heap of old chenille pipe cleaners and remembered that GHQ used to have a system for making trees out of them – and the scale seems to anticipate 3mm scale miniatures. So I gave it a shot and it’s way easier than it would seem at first glance. Pretty convincing too!

That’s about five minutes’ work actually – I feel like o could production-line these pretty easily. The deciduous trees look best, but that’s just because I’m not practiced enough with the palms. I’m going to keep practicing for a future bit of jungle terrain. But for now, my thought, in my infinitely fussy way, is to make little 1” square forest tiles and lay out my terrain on a 1 x 1 grid, like the classic isometric games. I’m even sure I have some autumn colored flock somewhere so I could do seasonally-appropriate sets. And tiling it will let me remove one tile at a time to accommodate forces inside forests. Possibly too fussy but something about it appeals to me and the price is right since I already have the parts in the form of leftovers in the box.

Just another project to keep me from going insane as my life slides from crisis to crisis.

[Mr. Average]

Funny I’ve actually been considering doing a set of very simple red-v-blue (or equivalent) forces and playing on a vinyl surface with dayglo colors like a map projector. Not sure it works but it would be that kind of genericized game surface. In fact I have MDF models from Iliada that I’ve been doing in fluorescent colors so they’ll glow under a black light. Which is kind of the ultimate expression of the “no camo in sci fi” theory.

[Mr. Average]

We painted battleships in fairly effective pattern-breaker camouflage and it didn’t go awry. Personally I like camo for my supertanks but I play a little loose with what I call “camo.”

[Mr. Average]

I think it was one of the many things they just kind of did and hoped nobody would notice.

[Mr. Average]

Jim Webster wrote:

Andrew Beasley wrote:

Just realised you can see their ‘toes’. Impressive detail brought out well by your painting!

Now you’ve tempted me to get some and paint them with open toed sandals 🙂

Would you expect power-armored Warrior-monks not to wear sandals? Let’s be serious here.

[Mr. Average]

Darkest Star Games wrote:

That blue scheme came out pretty well. Dude looks a bit evil, or maybe cranky due to not getting his morning cup o’ joe.

I have to upgrade the glow on his eyes to make him look a little crankier.

[Mr. Average]

Insurgents gonna insurge. And since I started with Howling Griffons the natural opponent in the Badab War is the Executioners, who have a groovy blue pattern-breaker scheme that I’ve always liked. My take is more of a free interpretation than a real version of the old White Dwarf colors but I like it.

[Mr. Average]

You’re very often correct but I do it just to be safe. I primed a model Nutrocker from Slave2Gaming and the primer peeled off like sunburnt skin, in one big piece. As Lord Lister said, “Cleanliness in all things, even the humblest of tasks.” (Or at least that’s what Peter Sellers said, in The Wrong Box. Good motto though.)

[Mr. Average]

Do wash the parts in soapy water first, I’d say, and then air dry them. But yes, their big resin mechs are favorites of mine and I prime them with flat white Krylon spray with no problems.

[Mr. Average]

Looks like a great game!  One of the toughest things for any game in the SF3D milieu is that single powered armor suits are supposed to be an even match for conventional armored vehicles in most circumstances, which defies the kind of visual logic upon which tabletop games are based. At 15mm scale and up, tanks are big so you have fewer of them and base your infantry individually. But this makes tanks a big use of space for not much major tactical advantage, while having a lot of suited infantry around is much like having every unit be a tank. At 6mm scale and lower your tanks are the main players and you base your infantry in squads, but a squad of SAFS suits in game terms would be an overwhelming concentration of firepower. It’s a very interesting challenge.

[Mr. Average]

Very good call on the grey sharpie. A little more modeling and some propaganda posters seal the deal.

 

[Mr. Average]

Gotta have ruins. I’ve never been afraid of a little papercraft either.

[Author]

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