tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-69648560909745333992024-03-14T01:24:12.815-04:00Blind Metal MinisAdventures in Lead, Plastic and Tinklarg1http://www.blogger.com/profile/07386947734363967476noreply@blogger.comBlogger135125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6964856090974533399.post-54154042436703014202016-04-27T11:52:00.000-04:002016-04-27T11:53:46.015-04:00Confrontation Part IV: Plastic & PuttyLast time, I presented the heavily engineered mounting post that I crafted to support the metal knight & pegasus combination for this diorama. Any hope of suspending such a heavy, metal figure from a single point required a solid structure. This time, I will explore some of how I approached the dragon at the opposite end of the scene, as well as some of the initial rough terrain layout for the base.<br />
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First, and foremost, this base is going to use up a massive amount of Super Sculpey modeling clay. The material is easy to work with, cheaper than Green Stuff, and won't dry out, or set until I bake it. That means I have weeks to fiddle with it, and add detail before I run off to bake it. You can see the first few stone forms in the photo above, as well as the clear delineation between the little fired patch around the brass support post, and the fresh Sculpey.<br />
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Even with all of it's great features, I don't want to try to fire a 40m think chunk of Sculpey. It is too likely to crack, or just not cook all the way through, leaving a fragile, uncured mess. To mitigate that problem, I started gluing some cork tile to the base. The cork will serve as a firm filler material underneath the Sculpey. In the photo above, you can also see the band of Green Stuff that I added around the cork. The purpose for that addition is to make a smooth interface between the cork support and the Sculpey. With any luck, I will be able to remove the Sculpey in sections to fire it, and then return it to the base. I don't think that would have worked out well, if it was directly pressed into the rough texture of the cork.<br />
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At this stage of the build, I was keeping the big chunk of
cork that goes directly under the dragon separate. My hope was to use it
to create a removable part that could be re-mounted on a gaming base
when the diorama was not on display. Clever sculpting would allow the
rockwork to fit together snugly.<br />
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As I kept adding Sculpey, it quickly became clear that building the rocks around a removable central support would be a lot of trouble. I think it would be doable, but tricky. Fortunately, a friend from my local paint club suggested a <i>far</i> superior alternative: Make just the dragon removable!<br />
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I knew, from my past experiments with <a href="http://blindmetalminis.blogspot.com/2011/12/dindrenzi-bb-wip-part-2.html" target="_blank">mounting ships for Firestorm Armada</a>, that standardized brass rob and tube stock could be fitted together very nicely. Rummaging around in my parts supply, I picked out some 1/16" bass rod stock to glue into the dragon's feet. I had rejected the 1/16" inch stock as too flexible for mounting the night, but it's more than enough to handle the light weight Bones material.<br />
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With the pins set into place with some super glue, I cut two lengths of 3/32" brass tube to form the female end of the pairing, and glued them down into the display, anchored in the wooden base. I glued the last pieces of cork to the base to provide some sturdy support for the brass, but, if the whole arrangement works, Narthrax will be easily removable from the display, even after painting.<br />
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I left the pins quite long. It will increase strength, and reduce wobble, while the Dragon is on display. Thanks to the flexibility of Bonesium, it is fairly easily to align the feet with their fixed positions, without having to precisely machine the whole structure to strict tolerances.</div>
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In the end, you can't even tell the structure is there!klarg1http://www.blogger.com/profile/07386947734363967476noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6964856090974533399.post-3945193835881331602016-04-13T07:26:00.000-04:002016-04-13T20:59:18.506-04:00Confrontation Part III: Engineering for MetalIt has been quite some time since I posted the <a href="http://blindmetalminis.blogspot.com/2015/09/confrontation-part-ii-its-not-easy.html" target="_blank">last installment</a> of this series. Even though I knew this would be a long one, I had not intended to go five months between updates! To provide a brief recap: I had assembled most of the parts of the dragon Narthrax, but the other participant in the scene was sadly lacking in readiness:<br />
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Since the, I have been trying to get the metal half of this duo assembled, so I could get back to blocking out and building the base that will support both of them. <br />
<a name='more'></a>By far the biggest, and most obvious, difference between the two players in this little drama is weight. In spite of being at least twice the volume of Barros and Tempest, Narthrax is a featherweight model, easily supported on two tiny hind limbs, and a few drops of superglue.<br />
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The metal pegasus, by comparison, is quite heavy. Supporting it, and its rider, from only a small contact point requires quite a bit more engineering. The Tempest model does come with a built-in socket for a support rod in his model, but I very much wanted to try to minimize the visibility of the support structure. The end product will be much more dramatic, if he appears to be suspended in mid-flight, charging at Narthrax from across the base.<br />
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The down side, of course, is that, to hide the support point, Tempest's pose calls for a strongly cantilevered position, supported from on of his hind legs, with nearly his full weight hanging in mid-air over the base. Moving the support point to the back required drilling a new hole for a connecting rod to attach, so I began to carefully drill a new hole through Tempest's hind leg, hopefully without screwing it up, and mangling the thin pewter casting in the process.<br />
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My first attempt made room for a 1/16" brass rod, which was pretty good, but some test-fitting showed that it still tended to bend slightly, when I placed Tempest's full weight on it. After some soul-searching, and a little eyeball measurement, I decided that I could probably get away with a stiffer, 3/32" rod. Re-drilling the hole to widen it was a nerve-wracking experience - there was not much room for error, given the thickness of the leg.<br />
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Case in-point: The first leg I tried drilling went wrong, with the bit chewing up the details from the inside. I was able to fix it up with some green stuff and sculpting tools, but I do not recommend trying it. Fortunately, the second leg worked out fine, and I am hopeful that the end-product will be nice and stable.<br />
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A quick return to the diorama's base allowed me to review how the two figures will be positioned relative to each other. This is my first drama, and I am still figuring out what will look best. I want the scene to be contained in the space, but there needs to be enough separation to keep them from interfering with each other too badly.<br />
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After a little trial and error, I toke a pencil, and lightly marked each position to give me a good idea of what should go in each spot. The mark for Tempest is pretty close to the edge, but remember that it's the location for his back foot. Most of his body will be in front of that, over the base.<br />
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The next step was actual construction. I cut some lengths of brass rod stock, and installed set them up as a little tripod, embedded in the wood of the display base. It's possible that the basic rod would have held on it's own, but I wanted the extra reinforcement to make extra sure.<br />
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A touch of solder, and a big blob of green stuff completed the basic structure. (I tragically forgot to take a picture of the support with the green stuff in-place.)<br />
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Once the green stuff cured, I took the liberty of roughing out some of the terrain around the mount using Super Sculpey. I finished up, and fired this part now. My plan will be to build up the rest of the base in sections, sculpting and firing them separately.<br />
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Once mounted, I have to say it feels good to see most of the main parts in place! Tempest and Narthrax look good facing off against each other. They look good, don't you think?<br />
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The next step will be building up Narthrax's mounting position. I think I'm going to have to elevate his position by a centimeter or so. I am also debating whether to try mounting him on a removable base, rather than gluing him permanently to the display. It would be very cool to make it possible to use him in gaming. It would also probably make it easier to pack up the diorama for transport.<br />
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klarg1http://www.blogger.com/profile/07386947734363967476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6964856090974533399.post-83502541379486688742016-03-30T21:50:00.000-04:002016-03-31T10:57:29.397-04:00And then an Army HappenedI have been playing DropZone Commander for slightly more than a year now, focusing primarily on the Shaltari army for that game. As is my usual pattern with war games, I got off to a good start on producing a painted army, but then stalled a bit, and never finished. This time around, I have been focusing on having at least one or two new models painted every time I play the game, and, over the months, an army just... sort of... accumulated.<br />
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<a name='more'></a>This might only be the second time I have come so close to fielding a completely painted, competitive army. The first being my Warhammer Fantasy High Elves, from over 15 years ago.<br />
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While working my way through Hawk's products, I have built up a much better feel for the difference between their resin and plastic products. One easy place to spot the difference in resolution is in the lift vanes on the Shaltari constructs. The Tomahawk Grav tanks in the photo above are all resin, with very finely detailed patterning on the fins, while the Kukri anti-air vehicles, in the foreground, are injection molded plastic. The plastic pattern is much the same, but the mold does not support the extremely fine lines shown in the resin.<br />
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Hawk's metal infantry are also quite richly detailed, for tiny 10mm troopers. You can see one squad of Firstborns here, picked out with ivory colored trim on their warsuits. Overall, I am pretty happy with them, but I might decide to go back and add some more extreme highlighting in the future, so that <i>some</i> detail shows through from more than six inches away.<br />
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My Braves suffer from some of the same lack of contrast, but some of them came out reasonably well. Squad IV looks particularly not bad, considering. Notably, this is one of the metal squads. Hawk's plastic infantry are fairly flat, and not as interesting to look at.<br />
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Dave Lewis' ability to design models so that they look cool, and take paint almost automatically continues to impress me. There are lots of other highly detailed resin lines out there, but not all of them look good as good with a basic paint job as these do. One of these days, I need to try painting a real showpiece model.<br />
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There are still plenty of models that I would like to add, or finish, to allow myself more options in army construction, but I have to say that I am pretty pleased with the results so far.klarg1http://www.blogger.com/profile/07386947734363967476noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6964856090974533399.post-66675894657356244712016-03-16T22:25:00.000-04:002016-03-30T23:31:59.035-04:00More ROBOTS!As if I needed more mecha minis, my Reaper CAV Kickstarter package arrived over the weekend, bringing me another batch of delightful plastic robot toys to paint and play with.<br />
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Unlike the white plastic of the original Bones series, and of the Alpha Strike early shipment that went out last year, the latest CAV plastics are molded in a solid grey color. I'm not sure I believe it makes an important difference for painting, but it sure makes photography easier for the unpainted version - Yes, painting on grey different than painting on white, but you can always apply a primer layer to change the start point.<br />
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The CAV models are a bit harder to dry-fit than some of the previous Bones minis. They parts are clearly keyed to fit together, but the fit is not always as snug as in some of the big fantasy Bones pieces. On the other hand, every single CAV model is multipart, whereas many of the fantasy sculpts are single piece castings that require no glue at all. Still, I managed to get all but two of the wee bots up on their feet, with nary a drop of glue!<br />
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I have heard varying estimate of CAV's scale, ranging from 10-12mm, but I think they fit well enough into the 10mm genre to be labled as such. The cockpits are, perhaps, a touch on the large size, compared to the more conservative stylings of Dropzone commander, but they should fit in without too much trouble.<br />
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Here you see them lined up with a selection of other 6mm and 28mm figures, for further comparison. I know that a number of Battletech players love CAV figures as a source of parts, but, personally, I think most CAVs are a bit big for that role.<br />
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Knowing most of these would not be painted for some time, I also took it upon myself to sort them into storage. When the time comes, I will be able to pull out a miniature giant robot to paint, and then terrorize the table top!klarg1http://www.blogger.com/profile/07386947734363967476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6964856090974533399.post-91968029469250216382016-03-09T09:51:00.000-05:002016-03-09T09:52:07.078-05:00Do it Yourself: Terrain Bonus Feature (2 of 2)<a href="http://blindmetalminis.blogspot.com/2016/03/do-it-yourself-terrain-bonus-feature-1.html" target="_blank">Last time</a>, I detailed the build process and material I used to build a set of custom terrain boards for DropZone Commander. This time, I will complete the article by detailing the paint strategy I used to finish the boards, and get them ready for play.<br />
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Step one was to both prime and base coat each board. Because this is terrain, and not a competition miniature, I used the cheapest gray spray primer I could find at a local hime improvement store. In this case, it turned out to be a Rustoleum combination paint and primer, but anything should do.<br />
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The spray paint I used turned out to not to be a great primer for water-based paints. It seems to be a bit hydrophobic, leading water-based acrylics to bead up, rather than cover. I was able to compensate for that a bit by adding a layer of matte varnish, and by using thicker than usual paint to color in the roads. The paint you see here is a dark grey mix, composed of black and white Golden brand acrylic paints.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhfV-6I1wTBlc0VwwRkl7xLhp9IoK9HxYrJDyZC1GZTcNGKiZoht9-xYI0z4KBCAi_dJ8zbKOE9ahrw67BYcAWraRhgKR2sBZlGg_1sn5LOxswNiE-juhyphenhyphen_pUmZ7twdwqZSyg-3YQQnkE/s1600/Roads2.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="279" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhfV-6I1wTBlc0VwwRkl7xLhp9IoK9HxYrJDyZC1GZTcNGKiZoht9-xYI0z4KBCAi_dJ8zbKOE9ahrw67BYcAWraRhgKR2sBZlGg_1sn5LOxswNiE-juhyphenhyphen_pUmZ7twdwqZSyg-3YQQnkE/s320/Roads2.gif" width="320" /></a></div>
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The next step in defining the road ways was to paint in a set of crosswalks. I wanted to get this done fast, rather than create a perfect board, so I cut a crude template out of a thick paper brochure, and used it to lay out the stripes. Once they were roughed in, I went back with a brush to clean up the edges and even things out as best I could.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEf1U511E45Q28UW_0SZ_aozbfKaQyss0M2bIabARZpHDMpPBhexe1JRtuUWwluhts8IDq90qRSVo8N4U89Zs64JLdDxLXmwdkG5MJ1Rdi1nBsi1qkM0l0jpasPkdplzm-74dPhqvTpLI/s1600/TerrainBoards1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEf1U511E45Q28UW_0SZ_aozbfKaQyss0M2bIabARZpHDMpPBhexe1JRtuUWwluhts8IDq90qRSVo8N4U89Zs64JLdDxLXmwdkG5MJ1Rdi1nBsi1qkM0l0jpasPkdplzm-74dPhqvTpLI/s320/TerrainBoards1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Sadly, crosswalks, and a large parking lot, were about all I had done in time for CaptainCon. The board looked pretty good, but I still wanted to complete them for future use. It would be a great shame not to give them another shot on the table.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6fpahTaSCnLHdXscJM31EdRKd326M-XEr9OgOeoQXV-fLZFl5A9I2-OEORE_uxnDhIeB6MmKG50cGJjjutL1U07hbQhoCospj370biMrgH850ni9nYsFCgBUta59LcHtFsuGphYDl8BE/s1600/Home_Masks.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6fpahTaSCnLHdXscJM31EdRKd326M-XEr9OgOeoQXV-fLZFl5A9I2-OEORE_uxnDhIeB6MmKG50cGJjjutL1U07hbQhoCospj370biMrgH850ni9nYsFCgBUta59LcHtFsuGphYDl8BE/s320/Home_Masks.jpg" width="267" /></a></div>
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When I got back to work, the crosswalks provided boundaries for painting in the lane lines for each road. Even with a rough paint job, I wanted the center lane dividers to run close to the center of each road, and to be of reasonably even width. That meant breaking out a ruler, and some masking tape to lay out the shapes.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjH1D4a5m0im4RZ_T6r_5THfKoxvsbmPtDmL8nA6icgz5HIN8-xkWyammfKCzTcLF6SyMPktfW4GEFExVGJq69ZBHxJDu1tWFz_bA-vYCuGfbApkcNJ9Oa2wff1GIHsC5lmmwNYDj2Pdm8/s1600/Home_Masks2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="231" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjH1D4a5m0im4RZ_T6r_5THfKoxvsbmPtDmL8nA6icgz5HIN8-xkWyammfKCzTcLF6SyMPktfW4GEFExVGJq69ZBHxJDu1tWFz_bA-vYCuGfbApkcNJ9Oa2wff1GIHsC5lmmwNYDj2Pdm8/s320/Home_Masks2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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I then broke out some craft paint to paint in the lines. Because the roads were already painted a nearly black base color, I started with a layer of white paint, before laying on the yellow. Without that step, it would have taken many coats of yellow paint to achieve a strong color.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVUMieGjbJeGo24WTf6A3QkJ1XLZAqoq5Zu8-cBhz0P1bzAnY4h5gvh88fcOI_JJpqsnHhck5tgPv02PIHLfF__u6qitp7ldpWImpO84QbrgHPSS15VhM938-xTtV-qNGMsHFyhCQ6v2I/s1600/Home_Masks_Removed.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="271" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVUMieGjbJeGo24WTf6A3QkJ1XLZAqoq5Zu8-cBhz0P1bzAnY4h5gvh88fcOI_JJpqsnHhck5tgPv02PIHLfF__u6qitp7ldpWImpO84QbrgHPSS15VhM938-xTtV-qNGMsHFyhCQ6v2I/s320/Home_Masks_Removed.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Masking tape has not always worked 100% properly for me in the past, but, in this case, nearly every line came up with a crisp, clean edge. Huzzah!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir-S9VTP7qto0jDcY2w5OwkcvXMPEBOI5kYmLrHl1DukR374HKifSLukr-yOywCBx6tsR1NL9ufEEwVhBfxl-mZP9-s3TeQQqonZMyn8YPmOW85RnhSSjgQSqadOic_CNaf13EOhQkFcI/s1600/Home_Sharpe.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="282" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEir-S9VTP7qto0jDcY2w5OwkcvXMPEBOI5kYmLrHl1DukR374HKifSLukr-yOywCBx6tsR1NL9ufEEwVhBfxl-mZP9-s3TeQQqonZMyn8YPmOW85RnhSSjgQSqadOic_CNaf13EOhQkFcI/s320/Home_Sharpe.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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For most American 4-lane roads, the center divider is a double line, yet I painted a single thick line. The next step was to split it into two using a marker. In this case, I decided to do the whole thing free-hand. I might have gotten a more even line with a straight edge, but sharpies are imprecise, and this mechanism made it easier to adjust as I went.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnwi60efmXmQtFS2piBV6X24g4VO_Kb7nOE-rQ1rvvU685HiTdoGAGg58pEkwm3kW5wW115i8f3MmIsddH4Fe7JyxQKYFP3SBjA2_wZugKfpcbj6yZQ4WXvAukBQTWsGbGAQkI22KTbRE/s1600/CompletedBoard.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="314" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnwi60efmXmQtFS2piBV6X24g4VO_Kb7nOE-rQ1rvvU685HiTdoGAGg58pEkwm3kW5wW115i8f3MmIsddH4Fe7JyxQKYFP3SBjA2_wZugKfpcbj6yZQ4WXvAukBQTWsGbGAQkI22KTbRE/s320/CompletedBoard.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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The next time I build something like this, I will spend more time carefully cutting the road shapes more precisely. (Assuming I start early, and have the time) For this version, the width of the roads are not perfectly even, preventing the lanes from being of perfectly uniform size. Having painted a carefully placed center line to assure basic symmetry, I added in the final lane lines by hand. As with the Sharpie work, it enabled a lot of adjustment on the fly to blend in the sins of construction. I did use a ruler to keep the breaks in each line reasonably evenly spaced.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipdwkE1DjINW2x2idG5NAf4TfgW_O4ZkM3LbULv_LjyaEgPl78Nnif10kkvJjIICOnpowMmHj7J7qRTwINKLQIPqQWMBVGognHW4HT1V4GtqjEYfo6nNE_tiBX655dUmuGyCeYsupPH98/s1600/CompletedBoardClose.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipdwkE1DjINW2x2idG5NAf4TfgW_O4ZkM3LbULv_LjyaEgPl78Nnif10kkvJjIICOnpowMmHj7J7qRTwINKLQIPqQWMBVGognHW4HT1V4GtqjEYfo6nNE_tiBX655dUmuGyCeYsupPH98/s320/CompletedBoardClose.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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There is, of course, always more to be done. For example, I may paint the edge of each grey area a lighter color, to add in a curb. It might also be cool to paint and flock an area of greenery for a park. If I actually do any of that, I'll be sure to post an update!klarg1http://www.blogger.com/profile/07386947734363967476noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6964856090974533399.post-7836113403194017352016-03-02T21:25:00.000-05:002016-03-02T21:25:01.068-05:00Do it yourself: Terrain Bonus Feature (1 of 2)One thing I left out of my review of 10mm terrain options was the option to build your own. I am not an experienced terrain building master, but I have picked up some techniques, and I like to think that I can produce some pretty good results, given the time and motivation.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6oJ_sY2wqQS0uXT6kY-fNFa_eGtj1XbcZKPcvNyBGaMFNefLAviFUOWAYIWUWduqUZnUXWHn-7vMkqZCG8J4BUQDK3RmMC8T3YQulZOq_n34LqOpe6Lxub7qPS10geY5Q0ooX3nZQ5HQ/s1600/TerrainBoards1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6oJ_sY2wqQS0uXT6kY-fNFa_eGtj1XbcZKPcvNyBGaMFNefLAviFUOWAYIWUWduqUZnUXWHn-7vMkqZCG8J4BUQDK3RmMC8T3YQulZOq_n34LqOpe6Lxub7qPS10geY5Q0ooX3nZQ5HQ/s320/TerrainBoards1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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I left this out of my review series for a simple reason: The quality of home-made terrain, and the effort required to get it ready, are entirely dependent on the skills of the builder, and, since I won't be shipping myself over to do your building for you, your results will vary wildly.<br />
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For my own build, I started with a favorite of terrain of many terrain builders: Pink foam insulation board. In this case, I used relatively cheap 3/4 inch stock, cut down into 2'x2' sections. The plan was to use four of them to assemble a standard 4'x4' tournament board.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWV2mrxFkmtESZg7uSJql1hrs28bfSh8Yauhdmljt64XgxsckWCdyLnZN0pXmkLGzP4z55KrQW9CcLgq_nlBrgO3knEa8UOebeHgZbyFHB2Cn6AFlRc_b6mFoa3umqeqvqlgEM83M3A-Y/s1600/Home_Cut1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWV2mrxFkmtESZg7uSJql1hrs28bfSh8Yauhdmljt64XgxsckWCdyLnZN0pXmkLGzP4z55KrQW9CcLgq_nlBrgO3knEa8UOebeHgZbyFHB2Cn6AFlRc_b6mFoa3umqeqvqlgEM83M3A-Y/s320/Home_Cut1.jpg" width="284" /></a></div>
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For DropZone, I wanted both a smooth surface - to represent flat urban pavement - and a sturdy surface to support game play. As nice as pink foam is to cut and shape, it is pretty soft, and can easily be damaged by die rolling, or rough handling. For this project, I used 0.020 styrene sheet to plate over the surface of each board.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQ5mtfy0M5LY1OI-btnM199Ml3Xwq_PzIcSRtgYf5GMBpUErCy4xeuqrfWASawi-neeVcLhLyINfig5oiF8vXwlyAQ7nNmAw6TMOI0z0l46XJbcA4266iFVlTuyWIIZ_te9k7mzxM2V5c/s1600/Home_Plating1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="310" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQ5mtfy0M5LY1OI-btnM199Ml3Xwq_PzIcSRtgYf5GMBpUErCy4xeuqrfWASawi-neeVcLhLyINfig5oiF8vXwlyAQ7nNmAw6TMOI0z0l46XJbcA4266iFVlTuyWIIZ_te9k7mzxM2V5c/s320/Home_Plating1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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I used two-part epoxy resin to bind the styrene to the pink foam. Normally, I use white PVA glue for scenery, but it doesn't hold styrene particularly well. Superglue holds better to styrene, but the pink foam can't hold up to it. When I tried it, I found that there was some form of chemical reaction that ruined the surface of the pink foam without sticking to it. The toluene solvents in many filler putties, such as Squadron Green Putty, will do the same. (I only made that mistake once!)</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCVFE4drs6BHZzXJ6B_Rh4lnG0ietFXAglHOzfTI1jOdV2D4LDfrHJTqOQ1l9cp6kegQN8TowBR2UKEtW1EAAsNDKzCfiPXpPejghCg2kNtIleV8e1FdIe_zk-iCHPYdkzawChrAJ4PMI/s1600/Home_Plan1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCVFE4drs6BHZzXJ6B_Rh4lnG0ietFXAglHOzfTI1jOdV2D4LDfrHJTqOQ1l9cp6kegQN8TowBR2UKEtW1EAAsNDKzCfiPXpPejghCg2kNtIleV8e1FdIe_zk-iCHPYdkzawChrAJ4PMI/s320/Home_Plan1.jpg" width="317" /></a></div>
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With the plating in place, I broke out a ruler, compass and pencil to lay out a basic street design. I wanted something that had some variation and interest, but fit with the basic four-lane road standard featured by other popular Hawk terrain.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjfidOx2IpLvbVyW7Cg8qrv_D9l97s9Vo9H9oWCO3UdaxnkX0dvGDtAPMoOaZIva-FNGC_b-8ML70CLHXQxt2Kw9skaIbfY_Cd4RXteExkspGvKe6OwmgMvnvCP071jIYZywPRdYFx2NY/s1600/Home_Build1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="197" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjfidOx2IpLvbVyW7Cg8qrv_D9l97s9Vo9H9oWCO3UdaxnkX0dvGDtAPMoOaZIva-FNGC_b-8ML70CLHXQxt2Kw9skaIbfY_Cd4RXteExkspGvKe6OwmgMvnvCP071jIYZywPRdYFx2NY/s320/Home_Build1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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The road design provided a road layout, but to design them I needed to fill in the space between streets with raised material to represent sidewalks and land between the road cuts. For this project I used very thick poster paper, bought at a local art supply store. It wasn't quite as nice, or as easy to work with, as styrene sheet would have been, but it was much cheaper than the equivalent thickness of styrene (Slightly less than 1mm).<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLqjIKXB6q9IgImlh942nDuuFKgIk_T-2TcvymPsJm4lLpH5F5uzkB1EnCCbcccSLDx3Oqu9hazk7QdQ8_VNPmUOax_TESWV1s_9gaM3b1uIWfxWbwf7d8XRTrjhaCy1R-Pnt81y-ErP4/s1600/Home_Magnet1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLqjIKXB6q9IgImlh942nDuuFKgIk_T-2TcvymPsJm4lLpH5F5uzkB1EnCCbcccSLDx3Oqu9hazk7QdQ8_VNPmUOax_TESWV1s_9gaM3b1uIWfxWbwf7d8XRTrjhaCy1R-Pnt81y-ErP4/s320/Home_Magnet1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Another embellishment for this project was magnetization. I tried gluing some small rare earth magnets into the edges of each board to help them grip each other on the table. If successful, it will help them stay aligned during game play. The magnets I used turned out to be a bit too weak to hold the completed boards securely, but I will absolutely try again in the future.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKsnJ8ppq7IZ6RyS8czW66StylLAEYu-S1prInf1sjV2921gmxCy-QFGyuhGXPdQNnVFA65i2tQelAmKOyKPaXiE3pJbrjrpH3KjHZLo09W3z70hzU8Z4TZnwX_gjYLtWa2v1ENcPozH4/s1600/Home_Plating2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKsnJ8ppq7IZ6RyS8czW66StylLAEYu-S1prInf1sjV2921gmxCy-QFGyuhGXPdQNnVFA65i2tQelAmKOyKPaXiE3pJbrjrpH3KjHZLo09W3z70hzU8Z4TZnwX_gjYLtWa2v1ENcPozH4/s320/Home_Plating2.jpg" width="278" /></a></div>
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The last step in assembly was to cut strips of 0.010 styrene to plate the edges of the board. As with many glues and putties, the solvents used in spray paints will melt pink foam insulation, and the edge-plating provided both a smooth surface, and protection for the base material, shielding it from the spray paint.klarg1http://www.blogger.com/profile/07386947734363967476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6964856090974533399.post-13353349950259369802016-02-24T20:58:00.000-05:002016-02-24T20:58:10.218-05:00Enough Terrain! Paint a Figure!In the midst of my mad dash to CaptainCon, I took a brief detour through the Reaper forum winter gift exchange to paint up a traditional miniature. My assigned exchange partner requested something that showcased Non-Metallic Metals, so I took on Reaper SKU #02551: Monique DeNoir. I thought her full-body armor and elegant cape would provide a good canvas to try.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://forum.reapermini.com/uploads/monthly_01_2016/post-8239-0-98118200-1453761066.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://forum.reapermini.com/uploads/monthly_01_2016/post-8239-0-98118200-1453761066.jpg" height="314" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo courtesy of Aaron G.</td></tr>
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I used a combination of different NMM colors for this project. The most prominent was a deep brown/black scheme using Reaper Walnut Brown and Linen White. It was a fun experiment in a new NMM color formula for me. Up until this project, I feel like I was in a bit of a rut, using just the same steel and gold formulae over and over. (Of course, both of those feature here too.)</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1pKoRjOiYh6NmsVXP3VReufQPiZ9EbawF-c6vrsL7LzPuES02ev6a4pHnYDCCUrm5MzQK1w65RE-UN_AWDkGjNf8Tw3XrV59n_D8XjSo9AaEKx7ajts4Q4er3PBIP0NR40piLIExrQRI/s1600/IMG_1598.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1pKoRjOiYh6NmsVXP3VReufQPiZ9EbawF-c6vrsL7LzPuES02ev6a4pHnYDCCUrm5MzQK1w65RE-UN_AWDkGjNf8Tw3XrV59n_D8XjSo9AaEKx7ajts4Q4er3PBIP0NR40piLIExrQRI/s320/IMG_1598.JPG" width="227" /></a></div>
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As is common, for my work, I began the project by cleaning the model, priming her with a white spray primer, and affixing her to a handle using white PVA glue. In this case, the handle is an Ironwind EM-T bottle, full of water. It's a nice size, and the water keeps it pretty stable.</div>
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Since Monique DeNoir is intended to be a vampire, I decided to try to create a very cool, slightly inhuman skin tone, while basing it primarily around normal, human colors. To start off, I went to the complete cool-tone extreme, and base coated her skin with a deep blue.<br />
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I eventually covered it up entirely with other colors, but the undercoat was designed to add a cool cast to the later layers of paint. In Monique's case, those later layers were mostly pale, Caucasian skin tones. When I got to the highest highlights, I also mixed in a slightly bluish-white color to add to her pallor.<br />
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As you can see, I also began to base coat some of the armor plates with a deep brown color while I was roughing in her face. While I normally like to paint "inside out", from the deepest recesses, to the highest relief, it sometimes helps to begin blocking in colors early. Staring at a uniformly white model makes it harder to visualize the final look.<br />
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Once I was satisfied that her skin was mostly correct, I began painting in some of the armor plates. I wanted to see how well I could achieve a new NMM color, using just two paints, in this case, a deep brown and a yellowish off-white. The process was tricky. Wildly different colors like that don't blend easily, but I was able to make it look good enough. If I try again, I will try to find at least one mid-tone color to smooth out the blending.<br />
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I got the concept for using a deep, black-brown color for a metallic armor came from this 1651 Dutch still life, by Willem Kalf, showing a piece of segmented armor, along with a variety of other items. It produces a very different feeling than the more traditional grey or blueish NMM formulae. How many people thought I would ever really go back to that source from my trip to the Smithsonian in 2012? Better late than never, right?<br />
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Black and red seemed traditional for a vampire paint scheme, so I decided to brighten up a model by using a bright red as an accent color. I am very tempted to paint another version of this sculpt for myself, using a different arrangement of colors. One option would be to experiment with a metallic red for the armor, and a deep purple for her cape.<br />
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As much as the black-brown armor was an experiment, the blue-grey steel formula is very traditional. I used it to add trim to the armor plates, and scabbard, as well as the blade of her sword. I wanted to keep the steel bright and silvery, so I emphasized the white and blue portions of the gradient. The trick with NMM is just to keep the contrast very high.<br />
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With the miniature very nearly painted, I was running out of time to deliver her to her intended recipient. I didn't think it would be right to call her complete without a decent base, so I set about building and painting a simple, but interesting base to show her off on the table, or on a shelf.<br />
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I had considered an indoor setting, or a paved stone street, but neither appealed to me. I did not have time to sculpt something very elaborate out of sculpted, or green stuff, and any of the pre-cast resin bases at my disposal would have been too flat, and plain for the job. This was a gift, darn it!<br />
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I decided that a basic raised, stone base would look good, and could be assembled quickly. It took a little bit of fiddling around with basing grit, cork and green stuff, but it did not require anywhere close to the level of patience and curing time that a fully sculpted base would have required. It's one of the things I love about using cork in basing.<br />
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Of course, something I have seen James Wappel do, and which I should some day steel, is to keep pre-baked sheets of Sculpey around to break up into roads, paths, walls etc. Combined with styrene parts, cork, and a little imagination, it can open up whole new layers of options. Like copying from Dutch masters, I'll get to it. Eventually.<br />
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Next time: The beginning of the end of my terrain binge.klarg1http://www.blogger.com/profile/07386947734363967476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6964856090974533399.post-75670771663733979062016-02-17T20:17:00.000-05:002016-02-17T20:17:01.258-05:00CaptainCon 2016 Wrap-upOn February 6th, we held our first local DropZone Commander tournament at CaptainCon 2016, in Warwick, RI. Even with a couple of last-minute no-shows, we were able to muster five players (6 with me as organizer). I am prepared to call it a success, and look forward to the next one!<br />
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This was my second tournament, after Gencon, and the first I have organized myself. As I posted during the past weeks, I dedicated a great deal of time to preparing terrain for the event. The end result was four tables ready to go right at the start, with enough extra materials for at least one more, should the players materialize.<br />
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We had an unusual mix of armies at the event. PHR and resistance had the best representation, with two players each. One of my fellow organizers brought his UCM along, and my Shaltari filled in as a sixth army, to bring us up to an even number of competitors.<br />
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The CaptainCon organizers were very supportive, and provided us with ample space for an event of this size. I have high hopes that we will be able to repeat it next year, with even more players. If we can hit 8 players, or more, the level of competition will be that much better!<br />
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At the end of the event, the top three finishers were:<br />
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<td><b>Player</b></td><td><b>Army</b></td><td><b>Tournament Points</b></td><td><b>Kill Points</b></td>
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<td>James S.</td><td>PHR</td><td align="center">35</td><td align="center">1509</td>
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<td>Seb. K.</td><td>UCM</td><td align="center">34</td><td align="center">1508</td>
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<td>Brian K.</td><td>PHR</td><td align="center">34</td><td align="center">1412</td>
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</tbody></table>
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As you can see, it was a very close-run thing. The top three players were only separated by one tournament point, and a handful of kill points.</div>
klarg1http://www.blogger.com/profile/07386947734363967476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6964856090974533399.post-31851312842141715932016-02-10T18:05:00.000-05:002016-02-10T18:07:43.145-05:00Ten Mil Terrain Wrap-upAfter an unexpected month-long delay, caused by the mad race to CaptainCon, I thought I'd post my final thoughts on the ten millimeter terrain products I have been trying out. Although there are a few other options to look at, perhaps most notably N-scale railroad scenery, I think the three I have explored here provide a pretty good cross-section of the options on the market.<br />
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The above photo shows the tables we set up for the DropZone Commander tournament at CaptainCon. Our setup showcased a mix of Hawk, Blotz and 4Ground terrain options, as well as a little bit of home-made scenery, bodged together by yours truly. (More on that in a future post) Also featured, although not reviewed, were a set of 10mm urban F.A.T. Mats, from Frontline Games.<br />
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So, now that I have worked with all three brands, and used quite a few on actual gaming tables, what do I think of them? Read on for a comparative summary of my thoughts.<br />
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<b>4Ground</b><br />
Of the options presented here, I have purchased and assembled more 4Ground terrain than any of the others. 4Grounds MDF buildings are very detailed, and look absolutely beautiful on the table. For me, personally, I also really liked the fact that they came pre-painted, which simplified the decision-making and finishing process. Once each piece is fully glued together, it is ready to go.<br />
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The down sides to 4Ground is that all the detail bits are very fiddly, and adding them consumes much of the time you otherwise save on painting. 4Ground is also a little short on larger buildings. Most of their offerings focus on little structures, with a roughly 3"x3" footprint, which can be an issue for some games.<br />
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<b>Blotz</b><br />
Blotz terrain proved very fast and easy to assemble, but was not quite as idiot-proof as most of the 4Ground structures. There were some cases where the orientation of a part was not obvious, and could be placed incorrectly. Blotz terrain is also noticeably less detailed than the 4Ground offerings, which makes them less beautiful on the table unless you add a lot of post-assembly finishing work.<br />
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Blotz offers many more sizes and footprints of buildings for the 10mm scale than 4Ground, including some very large options which can look quite impressive on the table. Blotz also offers damaged versions of many of their buildings, further expanding your options for a rich and varied tablescape. For my own purposes, I found painting Blotz pieces more onerous than pushing through the detailed assembly of the 4Ground pieces. Even though the Blotz terrain is appreciably cheaper, I do not like it quite as much. Experienced terrain painters may find that they feel otherwise.<br />
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<b>Hawk Scenario Packs</b><br />
Hawk's small range of scenario terrain pieces are very simple to assemble, and, from the samples I have seen, are extremely well engineered and cast. Unlike the other two manufacturers, Hawks' premium terrain pieces are made in resin, rather than MDF, which is a very different beast to work with. At the time of this writing, Hawk only has a few kits on the market, leaving relatively few options for building a whole table's worth of scenery.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjz3HySvZDWbnt2VjlJYXfqTTVqV-H81x82tr4tD842tm23550eOSNnIjTb87LpTCsxQLj7YEd_9OwogcY6r5jS_veCk7cXfhh3WK8GN5_VbZlLS8_lxqF5ll4DSSKv2BDNVD0Hda6cKhE/s1600/Hawk_BunkerComparison.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjz3HySvZDWbnt2VjlJYXfqTTVqV-H81x82tr4tD842tm23550eOSNnIjTb87LpTCsxQLj7YEd_9OwogcY6r5jS_veCk7cXfhh3WK8GN5_VbZlLS8_lxqF5ll4DSSKv2BDNVD0Hda6cKhE/s320/Hawk_BunkerComparison.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Once assembled, and primed, I found that the Hawk pieces were amazingly simple to paint. The design of each piece allows for surprisingly beautiful results with very quick base coat + wash techniques. For the bunker complex, I added some extra detailing, but the total work to assemble and paint each bunker was quite small.<br />
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<b>Hawk Cardstock</b><br />
Hawk's Ruinscape terrain pack (and the previous Cityscape equivalent) is a very different beast than the other options presented here. The box retails for about the same cost as a single medium-sized MDF or Resin building, but contains a complete "battlefield in a box". Each pack comes with 20 card stock buildings, in 5 different sizes and shapes. Each building comes pre-printed with a detailed, full-color "paint" scheme, and can be folded into a ready-to-use shape in a matter of minutes.<br />
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The Hawk buildings look nice on the table, but are obviously flatter, and less detailed than the quality resin or MDF alternatives. The positive side of that fact is that the Hawk buildings pack up very efficiently. Built as-is, they can be stacked and nested together very compactly. For my own copies, I added a foam core base to reinforce the structure, but they still packed very nicely into a rectangular box, with no danger that detail bits might break off in transit. There really isn't any question that these buildings are the best option in terms of value for the money.<br />
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<b>Comparative Ratings</b><br />
I rated each option on a 1-5 scale, in each of six criteria, with five being the best possible score. The six criteria are, in order:<br />
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<i>Appearance</i>: At the end of the day, how good does each item look on the table?<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>Selection/Modularity</i>: How much variation can you get out of this product? How repetitive would it look if you filled up an entire table with it?<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>Time to Table:</i> How much time does it take to go from opening the package to getting a piece game-ready?<br />
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<i>Simplicity</i>: How easy is it to prepare each piece, and how easy is it to do it correctly on the first try?<br />
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<i>Transport Readiness</i>: How easily can a set of these pieces be packed and carried to a convention or game store, and how likely are they to break on the way?<br />
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<i>Value</i>: Given all of the above, how much value does each option provide for its price?<br />
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<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td></td><td><b>4Ground (MDF)</b></td><td><b>Blotz (MDF)</b></td><td><b>Hawk Scenario Packs (Resin)</b></td><td><b>Hawk (Card Stock)</b></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><b>Appearance</b></td><td>*****</td><td>****</td><td>*****</td><td>***</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><b>Selection/Modularity</b></td><td>**</td><td>****</td><td>*</td><td>***</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><b>Time to Table</b></td><td>***</td><td>***</td><td>****</td><td>*****</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><b>Simplicity</b></td><td>***</td><td>***</td><td>****</td><td>*****</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><b>Transport Readiness</b></td><td>**</td><td>***</td><td>***</td><td>*****</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><b>Value</b></td><td>***</td><td>***</td><td>***</td><td>*****</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
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At the end of the day, my winners are 4Ground, for a stunning premium table, and Hawk's card stock for a good, fast terrain option. Both of the others are quite good, and I would recommend checking them out, but were not quite a match for my personal needs.<br />
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If you missed the past installments, you can go back and read them here:<br />
<br />
<a href="http://blindmetalminis.blogspot.com/2015/11/pick-your-battlefields-terrain-part-1.html" target="_blank">4Ground</a><br />
<a href="http://blindmetalminis.blogspot.com/2015/12/building-better-tomorrow-today-terrain.html" target="_blank">Blotz</a><br />
<a href="http://blindmetalminis.blogspot.com/2015/12/fighting-fields-of-reconquest-terrain.html" target="_blank">Hawk Wargames</a><br />
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<b>Note:</b><br />
In the interest of full disclosure, I will say up-front that I did not try out any of hawk's resin building parts, or building kits. I have looked at them in the Hawk online store, and they look absolutely stunning, but the cost of the resin kits, combined with overseas shipping is prohibitive, and has, so far, kept me away.klarg1http://www.blogger.com/profile/07386947734363967476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6964856090974533399.post-55484065666662377992015-12-29T18:00:00.000-05:002015-12-29T18:00:16.083-05:00Fighting Fields of the Reconquest - Terrain part 3I can't honestly go through a survey of small scale terrain pieces without including the card stock and resin offerings from Hawk Wargames. Any of the 10mm pieces I have looked at so far would be an excellent fit with Hawk's popular Dropzone Commander game, but Hawk has produced a line of their own (mostly) resin terrain pieces to fit the scale as well.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSNx8oCTr0GJ8HzW47q7hNTDtUVVN20i9Vh6eE66_0U8F86zWmgMXXXNsI6OqcGJDhZfNdDlsB_y-HwyeYAxBAOeJc4oiK8-ywaPk1kSVvVfvaHjIpw1ztJ6uGm9lCuNqUokkzBQ9V0C8/s1600/Hawk_Terrain.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="286" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSNx8oCTr0GJ8HzW47q7hNTDtUVVN20i9Vh6eE66_0U8F86zWmgMXXXNsI6OqcGJDhZfNdDlsB_y-HwyeYAxBAOeJc4oiK8-ywaPk1kSVvVfvaHjIpw1ztJ6uGm9lCuNqUokkzBQ9V0C8/s320/Hawk_Terrain.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Although very clearly molded in the style of Dropzone Commander, these pieces are perfectly usable in other 10mm scale games, such as CAV or Firestorm Planetfall. Really enterprising 10mm sci-fi gamers might even trot out their old GROPOS models to play along.<br />
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<a name='more'></a>In this installment, I am going to talk about two separate, but related terrain products from Hawk. The first is their line of resin scenery, focused on buildings and military installations from the world of Dropzone Commander.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiL7N5gAid7OBqYYc3ej9z0CqxCrfN9o7i37NuD_xZ86RY2T-1T9eo77btlfFvksvSVjxi788YTnT6IW67fQOfzFxnXbqOIrNJo2YNgZl1Nw3FpnOVAeR3DPwdMN6L3aoE-tbrVCuCftuY/s1600/Hawk_Monorail.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="242" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiL7N5gAid7OBqYYc3ej9z0CqxCrfN9o7i37NuD_xZ86RY2T-1T9eo77btlfFvksvSVjxi788YTnT6IW67fQOfzFxnXbqOIrNJo2YNgZl1Nw3FpnOVAeR3DPwdMN6L3aoE-tbrVCuCftuY/s320/Hawk_Monorail.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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At present, I only own a small number of Hawk terrain pieces. The first, shown above, is their art deco monorail set. The train comes in multiple pieces, and is actually set up for the individual cars to link together, and ride along a thin track. I have not gotten far with the piece, but I will be sorely tempted to add magnets to solidify the train's articulation.<br />
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The other sample I have is a cluster of five bunkers, perfect for providing objective makers or small buildings on a military style of terrain board. Both the bunkers and the monorail are scuplted with Hawk's usual high level of detail. In the picture above, I have already started to prepare the models for primer, and have installed a set of magnets to allow the missile turrets to rotate freely.<br />
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I was also very pleasantly surprised with how easily the bunker pieces painted up. They are very well designed to respond to simple washes and edge highlighting, yielding high quality results very quickly. Although I have not painted it yet, I suspect the monorail will be nearly as quick.<br />
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The downside to Hawk's resin terrain pieces is, not surprisingly, price. MSRP for the bunker set is ï¿¡35, and the monorail is a bit steeper at ï¿¡45. Neither is unreasonable for high quality resin pieces, and it is true that you can find discounts on the boxed sets if you hunt around, but it will never be cheap. Hawk also sells resin building kits to build up a beautiful cityscape, but they are only sold through their own web site, so they are nearly always full price. They are look like considerably more work than the engineered scenario kits. They are beautiful though.<br />
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The second offering from Hawk comes at the opposite end of the price spectrum.<br />
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In addition to their high quality resin, Hawk offers affordable card stock urban terrain. They have two versions, "Cityscape" and "Ruinscape", depending on how worn you want your battlefield to look. Both kits come with 24 double-sided 1' x 1' card tiles, each pre-printed with urban streets and grass parks. One set is enough to set up a 6'x4' game board.<br />
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Each kit also comes with 20 pre-cut buildings that can be quickly folded and glued together to provide scenery for your game. The buildings are printed with the same textures that you find on Hawk's resin building offerings, but require only minimal gluing to get onto the able.<br />
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I have taken an additional step with my own pieces by gluing a piece of foam core into the base of each building. It prevents them from nesting for efficient storage, but it also reinforces the card stock, making for a sturdier, and, hopefully, more durable terrain piece.<br />
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The card stock terrain has proven very popular among DzC players, and would probably also serve very well for similar games, providing you want a dedicated urban environment. The printing is very high quality, making it quite attractive, but it will never rise to the level of well painted resin or MDF terrain. On the other hand, a complete battlefield in a box comes for just ï¿¡30, making it by far the most affordable option I have looked at to date.<br />
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This brings me to the end of my series on commercial 10mm terrain options. I'll post a summary and follow up soon.klarg1http://www.blogger.com/profile/07386947734363967476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6964856090974533399.post-51749801480117454132015-12-06T19:00:00.000-05:002015-12-06T19:00:11.940-05:00Building a Better Tomorrow, Today - Terrain part 2Last week, I <a href="http://blindmetalminis.blogspot.com/2015/11/pick-your-battlefields-terrain-part-1.html" target="_blank">posted my thoughts</a> on the 10mm urban terrain options offered by 4Ground miniatures. This week, I turn my attention to the equivalent product line from <a href="http://blotz.co.uk/" target="_blank">Blotz</a>.<br />
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Blotz terrain is superficially similar to 4Ground's products: Both are made from laser-cut MDF; Both are made in the UK, and both require you, the consumer, to assemble them. How do they stack up? Read on to find out. <br />
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As with other MDF-based options, the Blotz terrain comes in pre-cut MDF sheets, which one must trim out prior to assembly. As you can see here, the most obvious difference between the Blotz terrain and its 4Ground competitor is that the Blotz pieces come unpainted, leaving it up to you, the consumer, to finish them for the table.<br />
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The Blotz sprues are easy enough to work with, but the tabs connecting them to the parts are much more substantial than the tiny little connections on the 4Ground terrain. It will take a bit of actual cutting to separate the parts you need. Not all the parts are labeled either, which can occasionally lead to some trial and error to figure out what goes in each place. That said, I probably wouldn't mention either as a problem, if I wasn't comparing this to 4Ground's stuff.<br />
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Assembly is quick, and pretty simple. Basic PVA glue will hold MDF together, and most of the Blotz pieces fit together very nicely, and often only fit one way, reducing the rate of build mistakes. In this picture, you can see part of the Blotz parking structure under construction. I should note that I added the lines marking out parking spaces. The piece came completely blank.<br />
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The one building I have assembled came with a separate sprue of detail pieces, which add some nice character to the building, but they are not nearly as numerous as the details from the 4Ground equivalent. That does lead to slightly less detail overall, but not as much as you might think. Some of the detail 4Ground provides as separate parts, such as windows and door frames, are built into the Blotz wall parts. Integrating those details is possible because they are not painted, and therefore do not have to be part of a separate sprue. The one ding I will give Blotz is that they only seem to use one thickness of material, which means some of the add-on details a re a bit oversized and cartoonish looking, when viewed up close.<br />
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Blotz buildings come in multiple tiers, permitting extra layers to be added in for taller structures. This adds quite a bit of customizability, but I have to say that it is tricky to align each tier perfectly, leading to some gaps. Next time, I might glue the layers together as I go, and accept the loss of future customization.<br />
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Another quibble I have with the Blotz building is that it does not include an inner layer behind the windows. That means that light can shine through the building, making it look much less realistic. For the building shown here, I grabbed some black foam board that I had laying about and cut pieces that I could fit into the interior to darken the whole thing. The process did not take especially long, but it was extra work. (For the record, each row of windows can be nicely covered with a strip 5/8 of an inch wide - about 16mm.) <br />
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Once complete, the Blotz terrain does look quite nice, and fits in well on the battlefield. I will have to get moving to arrange for more of it to be completed in time for my upcoming tournament.<br />
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As with last week's terrain review, I am going to reserve my final ratings until the end of the series.<br />
<br />klarg1http://www.blogger.com/profile/07386947734363967476noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6964856090974533399.post-77732805173634188252015-11-30T22:35:00.000-05:002015-12-04T15:25:39.484-05:00Pick your battle(fields) - Terrain part 1Recently, I have been working with a lot of war games terrain. Part of this is to get some variety in my miniatures work, and part is because I have agreed to run a Dropzone Commander tournament in the spring - and I need to be able to supply three or four tables worth of terrain! As part of that project, I will be sharing some of my experiences with 10mm scale terrain over the next few weeks. This week, we begin with pre-painted, laser-cut terrain by <a href="http://www.4ground.co.uk/" target="_blank">4Ground Miniatures</a>.<br />
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4Ground offers quite a range of terrain styles for 10mm, 15mm, 20mm, and 28mm gaming. They also offer terrain from many genres, but they are not evenly distributed across scales. Happily, their 10mm terrain focuses on a combination of ultra-modern and art-deco urban terrain. I will leave it to your imagination to guess why.<br />
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Say, is that a Scourge Grav tank in their promotional image? How did that get there?<br />
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Anyway...<br />
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The buildings come as a stack of MDF sheets. Each sheet is
pre-painted in a single color, with dark lines engraved with the laser
to add details. Interestingly, they seem to work with two different
thicknesses of material: A sturdy ~2mm thickness for the main structure,
and a much thinner variety for detail parts - and there are a <u>lot</u> of detail parts!<br />
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Also included in the package are an instruction sheet, and a bundle of rubber bands and clothes pins, presumably to be used as tools during construction.<br />
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I quickly set to work cutting parts from the sprues, and assembling the building. A criticism I have is that the instructions are not always clear on how to orient different parts. On the other hand, each part is labelled on the sprue, and most of the time, they can only fit into position one way. I would say there is a bit of a learning curve the first time you work on one of these kits, but I was moving along smoothly by the time I started the second one.<br />
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As you can see, the supplied rubber bands can actually be quite handy to bind the pieces together while your glue dries. What's more, since each sprue is painted with a different color, 4ground
has you layer parts together to create a detailed, multicolored model.
The end result is really quite good. The down side is that some of the
parts are very thin and fiddly, and may threaten to break. The little
archways you see above are certainly less than a millimeter thick!<br />
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Extra detail, and extra fiddliness comes into play in the colorful detail work. Here you can see where an extra part has been laid in like a mosaic tile to add color to the building's first story. Pretty, but definitely extra time taken.<br />
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Once the structure is assembled, you have something that looks almost finished, and feels like an accomplishment. Unfortunately, that's when the really finicky work begins: The windows, doors and other little details are comprised of tiny detail parts from the thin sheets of material. Each must be carefully cut from the sprue, and glued into place.<br />
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In many cases, the windows are two parts, and there can be 100 or more windows on each building. Of course, that does not include the window ledges, cornice, HVAC details, and more. I will give 4ground a lot of credit for including one or two spare windows for each size and shape, just in case a few get damaged during installation.<br />
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Another nice feature, shared with some other terrain brands, is that 4ground makes provisions for their buildings to separate into pieces, allowing extra floors to be added to, or removed from, the building to adjust its height. in the case of the 4ground buildings, the fittings between levels are quite precise, and fit snugly into position.<br />
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I am going to reserve my closing thoughts until I have posted overviews for a couple of other terrain brands that I am trying out, hopefully in the next few weeks. I will say that 4ground is not the cheapest option out there. This two building set carries a recommended retail price of ï¿¡37, but the end result will look very nice on the table. (and, as one may expect, it is possible to find better pricing deals with enough searching.)klarg1http://www.blogger.com/profile/07386947734363967476noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6964856090974533399.post-67673629339883748142015-11-03T20:34:00.002-05:002015-11-03T20:41:40.512-05:00Dropfleet CommanderI have been posting quite a bit work on Dropzone Commander over the past year, including <a href="http://blindmetalminis.blogspot.com/2015/08/dropzone-commander-review.html" target="_blank">my review of the game</a>. I have really been enjoying Hawk's approach to tactical, objective-oriented games, and now I am very excited over the impending release of Drop<b>fleet</b> Commander.<br />
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<a name='more'></a>The ships are absolutely beautiful, and the game play looks intriguing, based on the teaser videos they have been posting on Beasts of War. The first video, posted below, is all about how activation and orders work in the game, which is reminiscent of DzC, but different to keep the game distinct.<br />
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Finally, as with so many things these days, they are launching the game via Kickstarter, and the campaign is live right now:<br />
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<a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/hawkwargames/dropfleet-commander" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://ksr-ugc.imgix.net/assets/004/801/949/38a2dfa913dbbb3b9caff0a2e3b316b7_original.jpg?v=1446219269&w=680&fit=max&auto=format&q=92&s=818f1cb9f2c73a667055f1b335ee7763" width="350" /></a></div>
klarg1http://www.blogger.com/profile/07386947734363967476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6964856090974533399.post-27826077889576579682015-09-29T21:31:00.001-04:002016-02-12T09:46:13.162-05:00Confrontation Part II: It's Not Easy Being GreenAs expected, I have been proceeding slowly with this giant diorama WIP. In the past few weeks, I have been mostly painting tabletop miniatures for my Dropzone Commander armies (more on that in a later entry.) Still, I have done a lot of work preparing the dragon Narthrax for paint.<br />
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I need to get both the dragon and the knight mostly cleaned and assembled before I can begin construction of the scenic base to support them. I can't really complete their assembly or paint until I get that done. As is usually the case, prep work is key.<br />
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What I have done, so far, is to assemble Narthrax, using standard superglue, and filling the gaps with green stuff putty. Superglue holds Bones plastic extremely well, and green stuff sticks to the surface surprisingly tightly, once it cures.<br />
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I was actually a bit surprised at how prominent the gaps are between the parts. I suppose I have been spoiled by working with resin and plastic for most of the past month; I am no longer used to the forgiving, but loose, quality of Bonesium.<br />
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As you can see, I have applied quite a bit to fill the seams, especially around the dragon's tail and wings. I have also sculpted some scales to help blend the parts together. I am no Julie Guthrie, but, hopefully, things will blend in, once paint is applied.<br />
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There is still some more cleanup to be done on Narthrax, but, at this point, I really need to start prioritizing tempest. The pegasus has some pretty severe mold lines, and I need to have it ready before I can attempt any staging work.klarg1http://www.blogger.com/profile/07386947734363967476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6964856090974533399.post-60765056015391066842015-09-01T08:30:00.000-04:002015-09-30T15:52:22.725-04:00Ten Milimeter PaintAfter posting my recent review of <a href="http://www.hawkwargames.com/pages/dropzone-commander" target="_blank">Dropzone Commander</a>, by Hawk Games, I thought it might be a good idea to write up my painting experience with the Shaltari and UCM armies.<br />
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The two are an exercise in contrasts. One shows the bold colors of an alien military, unconcerned about hiding their position, while the other is a more traditional military force, emphasizing pragmatism over style.<br />
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Like the studio army, my Shaltari sport a bright, primary color scheme that leaps out on the battle field and announces their presence. Designing this scheme was a lot like working with parade livery for Battletech miniatures in the past, and makes for a striking army on the table top.<br />
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The UCM, on the other hand, present the image of a conventional, modern, army. I felt that they should be painted in a plausible military camouflage scheme. Going in, I knew that camo often looks very nice in a sterile photo studio, but, by design, it breaks up the silhouette of each model, and robs them of a lot of their table top presence. Worse, it can make your whole army simply dissolve into the background, when you really want it to stand out boldly.<br />
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Both armies began with basic white primer, followed by an airbrushed coat of Vallejo Model Air Black paint along the bottom of each model. The black paint pre-shades the undersides. The result is that the base colors of the model will be brighter on the top than on the bottom, providing some basic highlight and shadow effect, even in a simplified, table top paint job.<br />
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As with my previous post on painting the Shaltari, each model then gets its base color. I still use red for the Shaltari, and I selected a light grey for the UCM vehicles. In the photo, you can see how different the same red shade looks, depending on whether it was sprayed over white (left), or black (right).<br />
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Partly because it is easy to do with an airbrush, and, partly, because it looks good on military vehicles, both of these paint jobs incorporate broad stripes of a secondary color into the airbrushed base coat. My current Shaltari scheme makes use of a bright yellow-gold to provide some color variation against the unrelenting red background.<br />
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For the UCM camouflage, I picked a deep pine green that works well for an alpine look, but that will (hopefully) still stand out a bit from the greys of the cityscapes that dominate Dropzone Commander games.<br />
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Once the base coats are done, I embark on the slow process of detailing each mini. I always start out looking for the easiest possible route to get table-top ready. I also invariably get drawn into further and further detailing in an effort to make things look better. For the UCM, things are still pretty basic: I painted the exposed machinery, weapons and drive wheels with a medium metallic steel, and picked out the tires, treads and cockpits in a deep blue-black. I might go back and revisit the cockpits later - they seem a bit dull.<br />
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At this stage, the only thing I did for the Shaltari was to pick out their myriad tiny details with chrome silver, and paint in their own cockpits / sensors with the same blue-black. The remaining details wait until what comes next: Inking.<br />
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I use inks and washes on both armies, but in subtly different ways. For the Shaltari, I have been applying a deep purple ink to the whole model to dull and tint the colors, and to bring out the recesses and panel details.<br />
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For the UCM, I have only been inking the metallic components and treads, in this case with pure black. To preserve the light grey and moderate green tones, I have been directly inking in the panel lines for the non-metallic components with a sharp brush. It takes a little bit longer, but it produces a nice effect.<br />
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Once the inks and panel lines are done, the UCM await only their final highlight phase. The Shaltari, by contrast get a second pass of detailing. Since my first iteration, I decided that they needed a bit more pop to look properly finished. The result is a far more complex, and detailed paint scheme for the lift vanes surrounding each model. The final result uses a very bright yellow, a very deep red, and a bright ivory color to tie it together. I like the way this scheme brings out the molded details of the lift vanes, but, unfortunately, it does not work quite as nicely on the simplified plastic kits. C'est la vis, I suppose.<br />
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The final step for both armies is to apply thin edge highlights to the corners and panel lines to bring out as much detail in each model as possible. For the brightest parts, these highlights are in pure white, but in all cases, the idea is to pick a bright color to bring out the details.<br />
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Now I just need to finish up an army's worth of each!klarg1http://www.blogger.com/profile/07386947734363967476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6964856090974533399.post-62115073472097683502015-08-24T08:00:00.000-04:002015-08-24T22:00:17.990-04:00Confrontation Part I: StorytellingWith convention and tournament season over for 2015, I am starting to think about show-piece painting again. I have a few projects percolating at the back of my mind, but one thing I have never tackled is a diorama.<br />
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Dioramas are all about telling a story in miniature, and in a confined space. A good diorama presents exactly what is needed to convey its story to the viewer, and nothing else. For my first try, I am going to attempt a classic showdown of knight versus dragon. The two models are large, dynamic and iconic. It will be up to me to bring the piece together with base design and arrangement.<br />
<a name='more'></a>My initial goal is just to design the layout and get ready for construction. Once I have that put together, and the right framework in place to hold the models, I plan to paint each element separately: dragon, knight and base. Once everything is done, I will bring them all together for final fitting and finishing.<br />
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I got the idea for this project from the Julie Guthrie's beautiful <a href="http://www.reapermini.com/OnlineStore/narthrax/latest/77279" target="_blank">Narthrax</a> sculpt for Reaper's Bones line. Narthrax is an amazingly evocative dragon, and she looks like the beast is right in the middle of wheeling around to meet some airborne foe - precisely the scene I hope to depict.<br />
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<a href="http://www.reapermini.com/OnlineStore/pegasus/sku-down/03096" target="_blank">Barros and Tempest</a>, another Reaper kit, by Sandra Garrity, is a model that I have been wanting to paint for some time, and which I think provides the perfect antagonist to challenge the mighty Drake on her mountain perch.<br />
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The plan will be to mount Narthrax on an elevated rock outcrop, probably integrating part, or all, of her built-in base. Barros will be mounted near the base of the display, flying up to confront the dragon, lance leveled. This should fit the poses of the two miniatures well, and it has the added benefit of placing the heavier metal figure in the more stable position, near the base.<br />
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Based on my <i>very</i> rough appraisal of the parts involved, I think the two will work out best on a round base that is somewhere around 9-10 inches in diameter (~24cm). I want enough distance between the two to keep them separate; I don't want it to look like Narthrax is actually <i>eating</i> Barros' lance!<br />
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At the moment, all I am doing is preparing the parts for assembly. I will also have to select one of the three alternate torsos that came in the Barros & Tempest set. Right now, I am leaning towards the unhelmeted male torso. I like the idea of a female crusader, but the female torso option has a built-in sword, and would require quite a lot of work to integrate with the lance arm.<br />
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I make no promises about how fast I will progress on this project, but when I have news, I will update things here!klarg1http://www.blogger.com/profile/07386947734363967476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6964856090974533399.post-39307410809523258652015-08-17T12:00:00.000-04:002015-08-17T13:21:38.854-04:00Dropzone Commander ReviewBowing to peer pressure, and the allure of tiny resin goodies, I have slowly been drawn down the rabbit hole that is Dropzone Commander, by <a href="http://www.hawkwargames.com/" target="_blank">Hawk Wargames</a>.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Scourge and UCM forces face off in a skirmish</td></tr>
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My slow slide into a new game culminated with the official DzC tournament at Gencon this July. At this point, with a mostly painted army, and seven games under my belt, I feel that it is high time that I collect my thoughts, and write a review.<br />
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<b>Product Line:</b> Dropzone Commander<br />
<b>Manufacturer:</b> Hawk Wargames<br />
<b>Type / Scale:</b> Sci-Fi Skirmish Game / 10mm TrueScale<br />
<b>Theme:</b> Mobile Combined Arms Urban Warfare<br />
<b>Material:</b> Injection-Molded ABS Plastic, Metal and Resin<br />
<b>Link:</b> <a href="http://www.hawkwargames.com/pages/dropzone-commander">http://www.hawkwargames.com/pages/dropzone-commander</a><br />
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Dropzone Commander, or 'DzC', as it is abbreviated, is the first game put out by Hawk Wargames. It is a medium-scale wargame, focusing on combined arms combat in a science fiction setting. A typical tournament-level force usually includes around 25-40 models, including infantry bases, tanks, gunships, and the game's signature aerial transports.<br />
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The game focuses on humanity's reconquest of the so-called "cradle worlds" from the alien and parasitic Scourge. The exiled survivors of Earth's home territory style themselves the United Colonies of Mankind (UCM), and have spent the years since the Scourge invasion amassing a huge force to retake their home territory. Also featured are the divergent, and highly advanced cyborgs of the Post-Human Republic and the enigmatic Shaltari aliens. Hawk has plans to tell the story of the reconquest over time, and their first expansion book, released in the summer of 2014, introduced a fifth faction, comprised of rugged human resistance, still fighting the Scourge on their home territory seventy years after the initial invasion.<br />
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Game play in Dropzone commander centers around scenarios. The main rules contain half a dozen missions, and the Phase I expansion adds in another set that showcase specialized terrain pieces available from Hawk. Each scenario includes basic setup instructions, including how to distribute objectives, focal points and terrain on the table. In each case, victory is awarded to the player who accumulates the most victory points by retrieving objectives, collecting intelligence, seizing key terrain features, etc.. Refreshingly, destroying your opponent's forces only factors in as a tie breaker at the end of the game.<br />
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As with most modern miniature games, DzC uses a system of alternating activations, however there is a twist: Each army list is structured into 5-7 "Battle Groups", comprised of one, <i>or more,</i> squads each. Player activations alternate by battle group, rather than by squad. This introduces an interesting dynamic in both army design and game play. Larger battle groups can potentially get a lot done, or bring tremendous firepower to bear on the enemy all at once. On the other hand, moving a small battle group commits fewer forces to action, and forces your opponent to reveal more of his, or her, own plans before you engage.<br />
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Another core feature of this game is the use of combined arms. Most units are fairly specialized in their use. Most main battle tanks are designed to control territory and hunt other armored vehicles. Only infantry can enter buildings to search for critical objectives. Scout units can spot for artillery fire, and extend your general's sphere of influence on the battlefield. Another interesting division is between aircraft and ground units. Airborne units are fast, often heavily armed, and are immune to most ground-based weapons. On the other hand, as a rule, they are lightly armored and can be very vulnerable to dedicated anti-aircraft weapons. Successful game play demands that a player balance these capabilities and apply them thoughtfully to the goals laid out in the mission in each game.<br />
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As suggested by the name, troops enter the board aboard fast-moving aerial dropships. While it is possible for ground units to drive on under their own power, airborne transports can greatly increase the speed with which your troops deploy into the field and reach their assigned positions. The trade off between the speed and flexibility of transports, versus the basic firepower of additional troops, is another of the decisions that faces each commander as they prepare for battle.<br />
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That said, in my opinion, a knock on the game's theme is that it is very often advantageous to minimize your transport options to save points. Once troops are in position, their transports become much less valuable. Thematically, it would be cool to incentivize players to fly more of their troops into battle.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo courtesy of Brian Kelly</td></tr>
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The actual combat mechanics will feel familiar to experienced war gamers. When they activate, troops may either shoot and then move, or move and then shoot. Attack rolls use a basic d6 roll, modified for terrain or other effects. Each successful hit is followed by a second die roll to determine whether the target actually takes damage. As with other systems, the odds of damaging something is a function of the weapon's strength (energy) opposed by the target's armor rating.<br />
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Close combat between infantry is the exception, which uses a somewhat complex system to distribute attack dice among the infantry squads on each side of a fight, followed by throwing a few fist-fulls of dice to determine the outcome of each bloody scrum. Infantry close combat in DzC is quite brutal, and usually results in a clear winner fairly quickly.<br />
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<b>Miniatures</b><br />
At the end of the day, this blog is about miniatures, and DzC is a miniatures game. This begs the question: How good are the DzC models? Read on to see what I think of Hawk's work.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Model size comparison: Battletech (left), Dropzone Commander (Center) and CAV (right)</td></tr>
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Hawk started out with a mostly resin line of models. Only the tiny, 10mm infantry models were rendered in metal, rather than resin. The detail of each resin piece is very fine, and quite believable. Hawk Dave is reportedly very thorough in modelling each unit to look plausible for its role, and to be the right scale on the board. It is completely possible to model each transport with its intended cargo embarked. In fact, in many cases, you can load the models into transports without glue, and they will stay in position just fine.<br />
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Fit is excellent on all the kits I have assembled. As you might expect, their are mold lines and flash to clean up, but they are in line with other resin manufacturers. Hawk pushes the envelope on how fine they can make detail on resin gaming pieces. Some of the thinnest parts are quite translucent. I haven't had any issues with breakage so far, but I have found that some of the tiniest details can be a bit prone to air bubbles, which can force you to break out the green stuff for repairs or reinforcement. My rating on Hawk's casting quality reflects this.<br />
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Last year, Hawk managed to replace the starter army boxes for the four original forces with injection-molded plastic kits. The new versions are still beautiful, and retain nearly all the detail of the resin originals. Thanks to the economies of plastic manufacturing, the starter boxes are much cheaper than the resin ones, retailing for $55 each. If anything, the fit of the plastic kits is even better than the resin; I have found that many of the plastic tanks will hold together without glue! (Although I would recommend using glue before submitting them to the rigors of game play.)<br />
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The new material also eliminates any problems with trapped air bubbles. For better, or worse, only the core starter boxes are available as plastic models. Everything else is still being released in resin or metal.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Shaltari Braves in plastic (left) and metal (right)</td></tr>
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The one fly in the plastic boxed set ointment is the infantry models. The restrictions of sprue design make the plastic troopers much flatter and less dynamic than their metal counterparts. The level of detail in each trooper is also noticeably less, provided you lean in and squint hard enough to make out the details on a 10mm infantry trooper. That problem is far from a deal breaker, but it is a bit of a disappointment, given how beautiful the plastic vehicles are.<br />
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<b>Game Rules:</b> 5/5<br />
<b>Sculpt Quality:</b> 4/5<br />
<b>Model Detail [Resin/Metal]:</b> 5/5<br />
<b>Model Detail [Plastic]:</b> 3/5*<br />
<b>Casting Quality:</b> 3/5<br />
<b>Ease of Assembly:</b> 3/5<br />
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* - My plastics rating reflects the very high quality detail of the plastic vehicles, but also the rather disappointing infantry from the same sprues. <br />
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All in all, I have really been enjoying Dropzone Commander. Hawk's models are beautiful, and take paint very well. The game is extremely tactical and interesting, but a tournament-scale game is still playable in 2-3 hours, depending on how focused you are. I rated the hobby aspects as average, rather than superlative, because of their minor casting issues, which can require a bit of extra cleanup before assembly, but that absolutely should not turn anybody off of this excellent game. klarg1http://www.blogger.com/profile/07386947734363967476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6964856090974533399.post-59246106806480040642015-08-07T16:37:00.002-04:002015-08-18T10:45:32.802-04:00Gencon 2015 RecapI got to spend last week at Gencon 2015, which was an absolute blast. I got to try out Robotech RPG Tactics on the table. I doubled my games played for Dropzone Commander, and generally got to take in all sorts of cool stuff. I won't try to capture all of it here, but I will try to hit some of the highlights.<br />
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Certainly, the biggest miniatures splash at the con was Halo Fleet Battles, by Spartan Games. This was Spartan's first trip to Gencon, and they only had a small booth to show off their product. Fortunately, the War Store was there to provide some additional table space, and a store front for product sales. If they hadn't been, I Spartan would have been completely overwhelmed. They even had the gigantic Covenant flagship looming over the demo table to keep all the Human players in-line.<br />
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Spartan's stated plan is to design Halo Fleet Battles to allow engagements among dozens, or even hundreds of ships, which should look spectacular on the table. I did not get to play a demo, but they were running a table all weekend at the War Store booth. I have to say that it did look very pretty. I hope Spartan comes back bigger and better next year. I'd love to see ramped up support for their games at the big show.<br />
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<b>Dropfleet Commander</b><br />
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The other space combat game on display was Dropfleet Commander, by Hawk War-games. Shown above is a beautiful, giant-sized UCM cruiser. Hawk Dave was on-hand in the booth to give hints about the game and discuss the models. I have to say that I am absolutely in love with the look.<br />
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As far as I am aware, Gencon was the first time Hawk has rolled out previews of their Scourge ship designed, which, I have to say, I absolutely love. You can see a close up of one of their cruisers in the photo above.<br />
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From Dave's commentary, it sounds like DFC will be objective oriented, much like its predecessor, Dropzone Commander. Fleets will engage above a planet's surface, with cities, orbital defenses and other features on the surface below. Fleets will maneuver in and out of 3 layers of atmosphere as they jockey for position over these objectives to land troops, bombard the surface, or prevent their opponents from doing the same.<br />
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It sounds like ships will have a signature value which dictates how hard it is for an opponent to hit them at range, and that these values may vary depending on the ship's actions. One comment I overheard is that Shaltari ships would light up like a beacon when they raise their shields, which might lead to some interesting trade-offs. The UCM fleet is rumored to be well-rounded and turret-focused, while the Scourge are supposedly a bit more focused on short-ranged combat, much like their ground troops.<br />
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<b>Dropzone Tournament</b><br />
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A highlight of my trip was the Dropzone Commander Gencon Tournament. 16 players got together Friday morning to line up and vie for control of the cradle worlds. I brought my Shaltari to compete, with the paint of their base coats still slightly damp from earlier that morning.<br />
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My first round match-up was against a very inexperienced Scourge player, and wound up being a bit of a mess. Working out how to set up for our scenario took a little time, and I did not discover until turn 2 that my opponent was playing an illegal army list, with Eden's Dinosaur serving as his commander. (Special commanders are not permitted in tournaments.) Hawk Simon was able to sort out his list, and establish a relatively workable correction, but all the mistakes and discussion cost us a tremendous amount of time. Unfortunately, the net result is that our game timed out at the end of turn 4, with my forces still getting into position to claim table quarters, and a draw.<br />
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I feel that I was in a strong position for a win, had the game gone to a full 6 turns, but I suppose a draw is not too bad for my first tournament game, and only my fourth game overall.<br />
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I do not have a photo of my second round fight, which is unfortunate. It was the best game of the lot, against a skilled UCM player with a very heavily air-focused list. Our mission was "Secure the Flanks", and both of us launched our forces straight at the objectives and focal points with an eye towards maximizing victory points.<br />
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I was unable to secure the objective nearest my deployment zone before my opponent demolished the building containing it. All of my infantry escaped, but it placed me at a disadvantage once his infantry made off with his own objective.<br />
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I did manage to secure the objective in the center of the table, but had no clear avenue to extract it from the board with his anti-air units closing in. I took a gamble by running one of my Eden gates into the middle of the board at the end of turn 3 and landing it next to the building. I was able to seize the first activation for turn 4 using the "Central HQ Directive" card and execute that hand off from my infantry to the gate. My opponent had one shot to bring down the gate as it took off and raced for the board edge, and, sadly, just barely brought it down. That play pretty much sealed the game, and I have to say that it was both tense and exciting.<br />
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At the end of the game, both of us tried to seize the two focal points on the board, and wound up splitting them, one apiece. This was another case where I gambled to try to score points to gain a win or tie, racing my damaged command vehicle towards the second focal point. Sadly, my opponent was able to focus enough firepower on it to finish it off before the game ended. (In point of fact, we traded commanders, with his Phoenix going down in flames the same turn.)<br />
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This game was a loss for me, but a tense and exciting one.<br />
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In the third, and final, round of the tournament I drew a mirror match against another Shaltari player, with a very similar list design. The two of us traded shots back and forth, which did not go well for me. Hot dice quickly knocked out both of my Jaguar walkers, and damaged my Gharial command vehicle. My saving grace was that I managed to keep my opponent at least slightly off-balance, forcing her to relocate her troops back and forth several times throughout the game. I also managed to bring down one of her objective buildings before she could extract anything in the process, busying a squad of Braves in the process.<br />
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Ultimately, this game also came down to two factors: The complete inability of my Braves to locate an <i>alleged</i> objective in a large building through five turns of searching, and a massive scrum over the central focal point of the mission on the very last turn (pictured above), which my opponent dominated through superior positioning. Combined, those two things yielded a tie, and an overall record of 0:1:2, which placed me in the middle of the field overall.<br />
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Next year, I plan to do better!<br />
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<b>Masters & Minions</b><br />
A regular highlight of Friday night Gencon for me is the Annual Masters & Minions game with Catalyst Game Labs. Every year, ticketed fans get to play against Catalyst employees and other associated insiders in a friendly round of Battletech.<br />
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This year, I signed up with three friends, to form a full group of four, and got to play against some fine gentlemen from Virtual World Entertainment, of Battletech Pod fame. You can see our table in the photo. My 'mech is the green and grey Sphinx charging ahead on the far side of the board.<br />
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As you can see, the 'mechs on the Masters side of the table were quite nice looking, and filled out some classical Clan paint schemes. One of the rewards each year is for the players to go home with a painted miniature. Of course, the 'Master' 'mechs at Loren Coleman's table went a slightly different route:<br />
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Next year, I will have to check out the pods early in the Con, before
the lines get too long, to say hello and see what it's really like. Many
thanks to the Virtual World guys for a great game.<br />
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<b>Art Show</b><br />
My final highlight for this year was the annual art show. I always try to leave some time to see the prints, sketches and other works of art on display by artists from across the industry. This year, I fell in love with some of the work by Robotech RPG artist Charles Walton, and was fortunate enough to be able to bring a piece home with me.<b> </b><br />
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I want to thank Charles for being extremely friendly and gracious with his time. It is always a pleasure to meet the people who work on elements of the hobby that we love.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgL5ye3PHpWihPR-6ReW5hobzi8fN_OAcv1CNpGndLAZQqCOOK2lEp5VhijqMmQRThjMsFvf2LAbechrtxGsWB1Amglm2ztTi2iHmFTHT38IDdt1MYwz1jN4_nnTcnDzT-b7zKkt1zkpgw/s1600/Walton2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgL5ye3PHpWihPR-6ReW5hobzi8fN_OAcv1CNpGndLAZQqCOOK2lEp5VhijqMmQRThjMsFvf2LAbechrtxGsWB1Amglm2ztTi2iHmFTHT38IDdt1MYwz1jN4_nnTcnDzT-b7zKkt1zkpgw/s320/Walton2.jpg" width="233" /></a></div>
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I'll add that, based on the demo I played, Palladium's Robotech RPG Tactics game is pretty entertaining. I'm going to have to paint up some mecha and give it another shot soon.klarg1http://www.blogger.com/profile/07386947734363967476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6964856090974533399.post-16490688146356860912015-07-07T12:00:00.002-04:002015-07-07T12:00:35.784-04:00Temptations for the Mini-holic
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<a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1513061270/reaper-miniatures-bones-3-the-search-for-mr-bones">
<img src="http://www.reapermini.com/misc/Bones3/Bones3_Teaser.jpg" width="400" align="center"/>
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Go ahead, you know you want to...klarg1http://www.blogger.com/profile/07386947734363967476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6964856090974533399.post-58562717162097957342015-06-30T21:09:00.000-04:002015-06-30T21:09:23.586-04:00The Vagaries of LifeThere is not a whole lot to report for June: I haven't been able to make much painting or modelling time in the past month, due to the intervention of life:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0InUBTo_XvSo4A-EYMHPkiLIZJJHKw6Euz6Iz10mL-yMbki-pyqE7pivfiR_eCqTch4q-JoNi7It59OTLem9w-alnItKygwAxVHBDcRNReAHVVU0ebOL975kv2-ldAwR5LrS02k3NAaI/s1600/Demolition.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0InUBTo_XvSo4A-EYMHPkiLIZJJHKw6Euz6Iz10mL-yMbki-pyqE7pivfiR_eCqTch4q-JoNi7It59OTLem9w-alnItKygwAxVHBDcRNReAHVVU0ebOL975kv2-ldAwR5LrS02k3NAaI/s320/Demolition.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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What you see is the state of my front door, as of the end of May. Fortunately, the repairs are now complete, and I have most of my furniture back in place. I have even installed a new, slightly safer, spray booth in my paint area to give me a place to experiment with air brushing.<br />
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My first airbrush project has been to try to inject some
additional color into my DropzoneCommander Shaltari army. My basic red
scheme looked good enough, with chrome highlights and bright yellowy
lift-vanes, but it didn't really pop the way I wanted it to. My newest
experiment is to add some brighter yellow-orange patterns to the base
design and see how it looks after that.<br />
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Stay tuned for further updates!klarg1http://www.blogger.com/profile/07386947734363967476noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6964856090974533399.post-76289656974513895242015-05-31T20:26:00.001-04:002015-05-31T20:26:23.030-04:00CAV Razor: ContinuedHome repairs, business travel and illness have conspired against much progress on the CAV project, but much of that is behind me, and I have made some headway as compared to my <a href="http://blindmetalminis.blogspot.com/2015/04/cav-battle-damage.html" target="_blank">last installment.</a><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQFM3sFBbaxI0fJ2o9xrOye5lScoStueiACX62rTEd5m7krFCmyIRUy5v39eKGO1B8VwSV1rnIVrbtgYz8fM8JyCSoXhShoqtjarA3xImx2v_mNnwakn-norp-AHdl4DKO9ON6mzgqjso/s1600/Freehand1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQFM3sFBbaxI0fJ2o9xrOye5lScoStueiACX62rTEd5m7krFCmyIRUy5v39eKGO1B8VwSV1rnIVrbtgYz8fM8JyCSoXhShoqtjarA3xImx2v_mNnwakn-norp-AHdl4DKO9ON6mzgqjso/s320/Freehand1.jpg" width="302" /></a></div>
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I outlined a Malvernian insignia on the Razor to tie it into the CAV Universe. I'm not sure if the paint scheme is appropriate, but I gather that CAVs change schemes readily and often sport bright colors, so I imagine that it is acceptable.<br />
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I picked a bright yellow as the main color for freehand and other minor detail areas. It contrasts well with the purple. Once I had basic shading and details roughed in, I started adding painted-on wear and battle damage to the mini. I'll admit that I gor a little impatient at this stage, as not all of the model has its base shading in place. I will need to go back and revisit that before I can complete the weathering.<br />
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Before leaving for ReaperCon, I also experimented with some SecretWeapon weathering pigment to add dirt and grime to the lower legs and the wreckage on the base. It looked OK, but I was able to take a pigments class from "Mister Justin" McCoy himself, and I now know many things that I did wrong. I won't be starting over, but I will be revisiting the pigments and dirt when I reach the end of this project.klarg1http://www.blogger.com/profile/07386947734363967476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6964856090974533399.post-35395979728663525462015-05-02T08:28:00.000-04:002015-05-02T08:28:00.486-04:00Fey Project 9: The Voyage HomeAt long last, the Fey Project is winding to its conclusion. During the weekend before ReaperCon 2015 I managed to get the final shading and finishing done, and pack the miniature up for transport to Dallas. This project was exhausting, but I am pretty happy with the results, and it was fun to experiment with so many new basing techniques. Rest assured that some of these will return in the future.<br />
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Naturally, I am never 100% satisfied with my work. There are lots of little details that could be shaded or blended a little better to refine the piece, but I do not think the differences would translate into the photos.<br />
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One detail that might not return in a future project is the photo-etched brass foliage. I have to say that working with the tiny brass parts was tricky and fiddly. It is easy to damage a piece while clipping it from the sprue, and the razor-sharp edges do not play very well with paint or brushes. It also takes an astonishing number of individual pieces to construct adequate ground cover, even over the relatively small area of this display base. It looks good when completed though.<br />
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The little butterflies are impossibly delicate, and would never fly on a game piece, but they were a lot of fun to add onto this pure display model. I will have to experiment with similar accents in the future.<br />
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At the time of this writing, I still have five days to tweak and fiddle with the piece before I have to commit it to the competition. I am hoping that I can resist too much extra fiddling. I'd hate to make it worse.<br />
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I think it may be time to go back to painting some game pieces. There has been talk of a Dropzone Commander tournament some time this summer. I must be prepared!klarg1http://www.blogger.com/profile/07386947734363967476noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6964856090974533399.post-19242373141759566992015-04-26T08:57:00.003-04:002015-04-26T08:57:43.424-04:00CAV: Battle DamageDuring a recent New England Miniature Painters Association (NEMPA) paint day, I took a short break to play around with one of the Bones CAV models that I received from Reaper Miniatures back in the Fall. The mini was part of the early-bird Kickstarter package from their CAV campaign. If everything goes to plan, the second installment of little plastic robots should appear in a few more months.<br />
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When I started this, I wasn't thinking too hard about paint. Instead, I pulled out the CAV and attacked it with my hobby knife, slicing pieces off and then playing around with a variety of materials to add on battle damage that might look cool in the finished product. One thing I'll say for Bones is that it makes this sort of experimentation easy and affordable!<br />
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One technique that I was eager to try was using a bundle of sewing thread to simulate internal wires or other components, hanging out of a damaged part. I saw the technique used on a Battletech miniature some time ago. That painter's plan was to simulate Battlemech myomer bundles with thread, and it worked. In this case, I just went for a generic bundle of twisted metal, cables, etc. You may also notice that I added some brass wire to the damaged area to vary the texture and thickness of the wreckage.<br />
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While building the model, I soaked the thread with a drop or two of
liquid superglue to stiffen it. The result has the shape of the thread
bundle, but is quite rigid, and has a nice hard surface to accept paint.
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As I progressed, it became obvious that wreckage and battle damage would be a major focus for this piece. To enhance that look, I pulled out some old metal Battletech parts and glued them down to the base, partially burying them in sand and rocks to make it look like a littered battlefield. I am already thinking that the title for this piece might be "You Should See the Other Guy".<br />
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With the primer in place, it's a little bit easier to see how the details fit together. It also blends the different materials into a single piece, making it easier to see what works and what doesn't. One flaw that showed up is that the surface of the
thread is a bit prone to have little fibers sticking out of it, adding
fuzz to the piece. I worked at removing most of that with my hobby
knife. I doubt that the fuzz would look good on the finished piece.<br />
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The Kickstarter page tells me that the CAV Razor is a Malvernian design, and Reaper is planning a color named "Malvernian Purple". In the spirit of embracing CAV, I decided to make purple the primary color for this model, even if I am planning to cover a lot of it up with weathering and damage effects.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwSrJSWmXFd8N66Wm8RP5F4sZjaTdrI-0Vd1cCZosqDmtNLP1VbxBVJshmcrSgq0ESQE-QrfIuxnclLzZfn-aXMbEnH19-wq1gjIR9UZqB3jWnA8Xc3i6ZrlvnU3cNtI2zERXo3MWaDeE/s1600/05BaseCoat.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwSrJSWmXFd8N66Wm8RP5F4sZjaTdrI-0Vd1cCZosqDmtNLP1VbxBVJshmcrSgq0ESQE-QrfIuxnclLzZfn-aXMbEnH19-wq1gjIR9UZqB3jWnA8Xc3i6ZrlvnU3cNtI2zERXo3MWaDeE/s1600/05BaseCoat.jpg" height="320" width="239" /></a></div>
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Next, I added "black" accents to the model to set off the purple using Reaper's Walnut Brown. I also added some bright metallic paint to the joints and structural parts to pick out the details. The next step will be shading - I will need a complete, shaded paint job laid down before I can add damage and weathering.klarg1http://www.blogger.com/profile/07386947734363967476noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6964856090974533399.post-16512003376854453012015-04-21T09:39:00.000-04:002015-04-26T08:30:34.684-04:00Fey Project 8: The Home StretchIn the past week, I finished my basing work on the Fey project, and I am almost done with the basic shading for the whole figure. Once I add some highlights to the edges of her wings, all I have to do is refine the light and shadow across the model to perfect the finish. (OK, to <i>improve</i> the finish. Nothing will ever be perfect.)<br />
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As you can see, I finished up the bracken leaves, and added in a couple of additional mushrooms to break up the yellow-green monotony of the base. Not visible in this picture is the fact that I have now gotten the yellow-orange blending roughed in on the back of her wings, making them more or less complete, even if the blends are not as butter-smooth as I might like.<br />
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In keeping with the theme of over-the-top basing, I 'borrowed' a new technique from artist Erin Hartwell and clipped out some paper butterflies to act as accents for the base, and to reinforce the overall color palette.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8AAp0DbCnd5Df275UXRf-z1yYhkuT9cwCEX__jmSUGA1LrbHtDNMPqmHLqpt4nVR5weZu643vNiBeO5xwourdPZa06TAwXO29QpJS6fNlmy40hEToSnOGrH8CIRbx-ePYrJSMZT99BKo/s1600/Butterfly1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8AAp0DbCnd5Df275UXRf-z1yYhkuT9cwCEX__jmSUGA1LrbHtDNMPqmHLqpt4nVR5weZu643vNiBeO5xwourdPZa06TAwXO29QpJS6fNlmy40hEToSnOGrH8CIRbx-ePYrJSMZT99BKo/s1600/Butterfly1.jpg" height="245" width="320" /></a></div>
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Once I had the shapes, I painted them with a mix of brush-on sealer for strength and thinned master series paints for color. The yellow and deep burgundy-purple are done with the same shades that I used for the rest of the project. The white in the eye spots is just about the only bright white on the whole project, and it is <i>really</i> tiny. I think it should work out pretty well. I do wish the purple looked a little less black though.<br />
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Once in-position, these things do add splashes of very bright color to highlight the base. I will try to wrap up and post a final picture before too long.klarg1http://www.blogger.com/profile/07386947734363967476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6964856090974533399.post-9953928175590437282015-03-31T22:15:00.003-04:002015-03-31T22:17:33.250-04:00Fey Project 7: Return of the BrackenI have not had a huge amount of time to paint in March, but I still made some process on the Fey Project. This entry will just be a quick progress check-in, rather than a deep article on technique. Hopefully, the next one will include some finishing touches and a complete, or nearly complete product.<br />
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The biggest change is, as you can see, that I glued the figure down to the base. At this stage, I am close to 80% finished with the ground cover basing, and I have also nearly completed the paint on the tree stump and roots that frame the scene. I still have shading and finishing to do on the figure, but it makes the project feel much closer to completion to have the parts put together.<br />
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This brass-etch bracken looks nice, and it is far sturdier than any paper equivalent that I might construct, but it is a huge amount of added work. Individually painting each leaf only takes around 1-2 minutes, but there are already more than 40 leaves glued to the base. At a guess, I need another 15-20 to finish up, and move on to other painting.klarg1http://www.blogger.com/profile/07386947734363967476noreply@blogger.com0