Geek weekend!

These have been some crazy days and I have painted much less than I had desired. But I have not been idle. Just a quick update to recall what I've been geekgaming recently

From the ubiquitous X-Wing...

Yeah, this was a real gaming situation. Rush hour, you know

...To Descent, a game a friend of mine has recently got. This weekend we unwrapped it and saw what was it like.

I must say, top notch minis

I mean it, they are superb. And the game is totally great. I enjoyed it a lot

Quick to learn and definitely fun

I'm currently stuck with my to do list, but someday I have to paint those minis. I will show them and talk to you about the game. Don't hold your breath, but I can tell you I will do ;)

As we got some time left, I tried to remember the Lord of the Rings rules and set a game, as my friend had never played. I miserably failed to remember the rules and everything was a mess having to look at the rulebook constantly, but it was worth of just for moments like this:

LotR OST sounding now

We did every mistake you can imagine, but it still was fun

I have not prepared a battle report as the game was a mess, as I'm telling you. But I'm determined to re-read the rulebook again and prepare a well done battle. We will speak then...

For the moment I can only offer these bad quality pics

No, this is not a 'The Hobbit' movie spoiler. Though it could be so

This very week however I'll post here the highlights of the things I have recently played, a Bolt Action battle report, as I finally have played it for the first time. I'm preparing the AAR, I hope I can post it soon!

Big Boss in Blue (with bonus pics)

You might remember (or not) this post about an Alpha Legion Lord on Palanquin. I already told then that it was my intention to recover the original essence of it. I mean this, Lord of Ultramarines sitting on his throne:

Hey! Can't you knock before opening the WC door?

The illustration is taken from the first 'Index Astartes' section ever published, which appeared in White Dwarf #97. Well, a couple of things have changed in the Ultramarines since then, but I'm not talking today about Master of the Ships Christo Columbine, Master of Sanctity Tow Takka-Chow or half-blood Chief Librarian Astropath Illiyan Nastase ;). Today I'll just focus on this set. After some work I came along with the pieces:

No, they're not floating in space

With just two foamboard pieces I got this:

Deluxe WC

Come on, he even has a constipated face

No, seriously, who did build the audience room in a toilet? Is Macragge not big enough?

Now I have to find the patience to prepare some flags for the wall or any other trophy, but for the moment I simply wanted to have the display, as the minis were rolling all over my workbench. Now I'm moving on other things, but I might come back on this project anytime.

As these pics are not so much, I'm giving you a few things more ;). Nothing special... or maybe it is. Two old terminator armour marines:

Mk.II. Hard to believe this is a GW model, huh?

Mk.III. Different again...

Despite the anatomical issues regarding arms (poor guys in those armours) I find these models somehow appealing, as strange as it may sound, specially the turtleback guy. I've been looking for a Mk.I over eBay, but prices are still out of my budget. I'd like to assemble a five men squad with these old armours, but I may have to wait a bit, I'm afraid. Haven't lost hope yet...

A few 'Wolf time' campaign pics

I promised to show you some pics of the 'Chapter Approved: First book of the Astronomican' campaign, shortly known as the 'Wolf time'. I don't have but a fistful of them, but I'll try to explain the campaign in a few words.

50 years ago an Ork fleet from the Charadonian Empire got lost into the Warp and ended up in an isolated system known to men as 'the Wheel of Fire'. Totally surrounded by Warpstorms, the Orks were unable to leave the system, so they settled and colonized the planets. Nowadays, an Imperial Navigator has discovered the apparently only safe route in an out the Wheel of Fire. The Emperor commanded Space Marines of the Space Wolves Chapter to lead a Crusade into that dangerous area and claim it for the Imperium...

So this campaign is set on a crappy planet named Xit (again, GW humour from the 80's, long time lost in battle...). Space Marines must take over the Ork stronghold led by 'Governor' Kulo (if the planet is 'Xit', 'Kulo' phonetically sounds exactly like 'butt' in Spanish). But the defences of the castle must be deactivated prior to the final engagement. So Space Wolves must simultaneously conduct three different raids on three different power plants. If they succeed, they can attack the castle. If they fail, the assault is impossible and they should fall back. That's it, quite a simple campaign.

The following pics are from the first battle; I'm afraid these are all that I keep. They show the assault to the first power plant, built on a mountain. Primitive dwellers made a temple of it, but when Orks invaded the planet, they killed everyone and decorated the temple in their own style, included the big statue on the front.



You saw me last week

Fifteen Orks garrison the complex. Space Wolves must take over the main building by reaching the grav elevator (on the top of the temple), using it to go into the building and setting the power plant down (or throwing grenades through the elevator. Or whatever; remember, this is RT, there is no limit of what you are allowed to do).

Oooops! No more repeated pics! Next one is new, promised

At the beginning of the campaign, the Space Marine player has to split up his forces at will into three separate detachments, each one having to take care of one objective (though the player doesn't know how many enemies he will meet when he arrives to each one of them). My pal used a couple of Squads and a Captain here (I hadn't said, but I led the Orks, as usual, hehe). They begun the assault with fierce determination:


C'mon brothers! I can feel the statue staring at me! Let's finish here and go back home

However, Orks didn't want to be evicted from their home!

Dis is ur neigburhood, hummies!

As a matter of fact, they did outstandingly well! The dice rolls were unusually lucky:

Ork marksmanship

So they held the line and avoided the Space Marines from even approaching the main building.

No grey hummie is comin' home for dinna!

The Space Wolves Captain bravely advanced under enemy crossfire towards the Ork leader: 

Add photoshop effects at will

In the meantime, the heavy weapons support Squad helped causing some mayhem!


Bratatat dakka dakka pew pew

But the Ork leader smashed the Captain and charged onto the rests of the now scattered strike force.


We're winnin'! Unbeliv... Unbiliv... Unbi... ehrm... Cool!

Though having received an injury, da Boss killed the last Space Wolf standing


Multiple deaths in progress. Please do not disturb

Ork viktury! Well, you see this has been real fast, but it took five turns. Due to an extraordinary luck on the Ork side during turn 1, Space Wolves didn't really had a chance, as their forces were decimated just as they arrived. It was a reeeeal shame, as we didn't even use the big building! :( It would have been fun seeing the Marines in action trying to reach the roof.

We played the other two preliminary battles, but I'm afraid I don't keep any pics but these two:


The bowl building in use!

Space Marines have to take over this power plant, but it's suffering from pressure overloading and it might explode any second! Space Wolves don't know anything of that, and they look amused how the Orks run all over the place instead of fighting them!

Nope, that's a totally diffrerent compound. You haven't ever seen that :P

The fun here comes from the fact that there is a mist so heavy that no one can see beyond certain radius. Besides, the floor hides... some surprises.

I can say no more in order not to spoil the campaign (And I might have said more than I should!). Depending on the results of these three battles, Space Wolves should find it easier or more difficult the final assault on Governor Kulo's Castle. We didn't play it, but I definitely would have liked to see that, as it is a big scale battle. My friend even managed to get the ooold 'Citi-block' set, so we really should have played that, we have no excuse. On other thought, for sure it would have been fun designing and building some more cheap Orkish scenery...


And there are some more map surprises indeed!

So this is what we got. Hope you like this half-campaign!

Even more scenery for the 'Book of the Astronomican' campaign

More cheap stuff as promised :D

We needed some more buildings and garbage piles. Once again, I was determined to keep the RT spirits and to totally scratchbuild everything. So, where to begin from? The obvious answer is the local shop:

 

Minis can go to hell, I want to be a chef

 

For unknown reasons, this bowl was cheaper than plastic ones. I couldn't resist, I had a plan...

 

Ooops! What happened?

As you can see, everything is made of scrap bits; even the ladder on the upper floor is nothing else than staples. This is the final result:

 

 

 

Two minis for scale:

 

Hm, the architect forgot a railing here!

 

I hope it looks as it was taken from the 80's, at least that's the intention! Next week I'll show you these games, as I told you last day. Stay tuned! ;)

Cheers

Some scenery for the 'Book of the Astronomican' campaign

The title says it all, no mistery left. I'm talking about the 'Chapter Approved. First Book of the Astronomican' campaign set released in 1988.

 

Short-haired Space Wolves. Never seen ever since

The campaign is set between Space Wolves and Orks, the Space Marines raiding on three power stations prior to the final assault on the Ork stronghold. They should destroy the power plants in order to shut down the Castle's defences. The campaign requires some buildings, so I came up with these. For the first scenario, the 'temple' (an oooold generator on which the primitive inhabitants built a temple) I made up this structure using foamboard:

 

Orks provided for scale purposes. No Ork was harmed during the works

 

It was fun, but I was terrified about plain walls. My intention was to provide some texture, to make it even the slightest resemblance to the illustration on the book. This is the slow step by step:

 

Grav-elevator. Fun to use

 

Some extra details were needed. Weathering, grass, dirt...

 

So this was the main buliding. Close enough to the original, at least for my purposes.

 

But then I had to face another issue, the big Ork statue in front of the temple. The campaign info tells us that the original statue was built by the primitive dwellers of the area, but when Orks invaded the planet, they desecrated everything and replaced the original head for a new one, resembling their own gods.

Using the illustration above as a guide, I begun to raise the statue to these amalgamated strange gods! 

 

I used a hollow structure and sculpted on it, using DAS putty. I used green stuff for the face and some other details

So this is the boy!

 

Oi! I'm kinda Buddhist Ork. You didn't expect that, did you?

 Once assembled, the temple looks like this:



Believe me, it's really big

 

Next day... Some more cheap scratchbuild scenery!