Boarding Actions Build Log (1)

 I've always maintained that I like the idea of 40k even if I don't adore the game itself. The idea of a 2k army is daunting and expensive for my ADD riddled brain. I have been flirting with the idea of a zone mortalis board for a long time (see earlier posts on this very blog) but to be honest with the new Boarding Actions Game mode and terrain I'm probably scrapping that terrain. You can google Boarding actions to look at the pretty pile of sprues but in short, the idea is "lil fights in spaceships" 500 Points, limited options, quicker games.

I wasn't super interested in the box itself until I stumbled across this originally on reddit. Orkitect Studio has produced a 3d printable version of the board. Thinking I could save a bit of money, I opted to start printing.

When these tiles work they are absolutely incredible. There's a whole system in place for magnets and wires to make the tiles pop together, there's options for all magnets or snap fits for no magnets and the designer has already modeled and released some of the neat unique bits from one of the expansions. 

Cue the sound effect of the record scratch

I wrote the above in march of 2023. Its why "finish boarding actions board" made my list two years in a row. Because I'm lazy. In my defense this time I have some legitimate concerns.

The text you're reading now replaces a pretty lengthy paragraph I had written back in march and the keen eyed among you may notice the pieces are made of two different materials if you look close. One of the issues I had in 2023 was that my prusa finally took a crap and blobbed up. I spent the better part of a week disassembling and what have you to clear jams and scrape plastic. I finally came to the determination it was gonna need a new thermistor, then a new hot end, then this then that. I tore the thing apart and chipped away on repairing it for a few months where it sat unused next to my Mars 3. An idea sparked and I decided to start this project on the Mars. I won't bore you with too many details but needless to say, it was not the right medium for this project. I spent a small fortune in failed prints and broken resin and fails and cleanings. I said I'd fix the printer but with my day job (fixing 2d printers) I never had the drive to actually finish it. Around Christmas I ran some numbers and made a decision to replace the device with a new Bambu P1S. There will be more on that at a later date, but the main take away here is this

I went from this

to this in about a week.

So what you see now, is a whole boarding actions table. I purchased a cardboard mat from one of the starter sets and have since this photo glued in all the magnets. Next up is painting and wire on the column pieces.

More Necromunda Stuff for the Analogue Challenge

 Recently Added to my Pile.

First up, Here's the Bounty Hunter Ortruum 8-8

And here's the Starter Gang I finished up for Necromunda

 Real short and sweet this time around.

AHPC X (5) - Post Challenge Check In

As everyone is aware at this point, the Tenth Annual Analogue Hobbies Paint Challenge is over. I thought I'd take this opportunity to talk a bit about the challenge and outline my plan of attack for the next few months.

I've harped on this over and over and over throughout the challenge that I'd like to paint and play a few different games. In particular; This is Not a Test, Necromunda, Age of Hannibal, and Poseidon's Warriors. Shortly into the challenge I also made the point that I'd love to play through War in Rohan before the next book comes out and as a result I think I mostly painted towards these goals.

The vast majority of my points this time around came from Necromunda. I finished the plastic box sets for Cawdor, Delaque, and Goliath as well as started on a lot of terrain. I now have 3 full tables worth of terrain for these games and in particular I finished and entered the Death Ray Designs Armageddon table into the challenge.

This being done will now give me enough terrain to totally play a game of necromunda with totally painted everything which for me is a rare feat. I found some lists for the plastic box sets so I figure I'll be trying it sooner rather than later and because it was all painted in the challenge I'm counting this as a win.

I also managed to finish all of the boats for the roman naval game. I'm not smitten with the rules yet but because I printed everything I really didnt waste a lot of money on the project and will be trying it again.

Now, in the not so great news, I've completely stalled out on Age of Hannibal. I knew painting 10mm figures was a bit of a chore and I just completely sidelined the project. The original hope was to get the game cracked out and playable but I think I'll just chip away on it here and there. Everything I've painted so far for it was posted in the previous post on this blog.

This is Not a Test is an interesting one. Once I have enough stuff to play this game, I'll be able to try out 7TV Apocalypse as well so its definitely high on my list. I even went as far as to prep a bunch of figures for it. The only thing that I painted unfortunately was the shanty building but I now have a absolute pile of stuff from crooked dice and a bunch of stuff primed and ready and will be simply rolling this project into the next wave.

On the Lord of the Rings front, I painted a dozen riders of Rohan, 10 Beserkers and a few characters. I've been given the go ahead to showcase a big diorama piece in the shop so it is in my best interest to get moving on this and my plan now is to paint up all my dunlending figures before tackling the Warriors of Rohan. They announced a hobby book for LoTR so I think I still have a bit of time before the next book in the series comes out.

Going Forward
I think one of my major motivators was structuring my painting into specific games. I'll be continuing this trend going forward and picking 3 or so specific projects to focus on. I really want to begin thinning my hoarde this year and I think its a good way to motivate myself. That said...

This next wave of painting's projects includes:
This is Not a Test
This is a no brainer. I own such a pile of stuff for it and have been printing more buildings for it. I have some giant ants and some mutants by Crooked Dice on the table now and after that I think I'll make some lists and try the game out with some basic terrain. This is also going to open the table to games like 7TV Apocalypse and Zone Alfa.

Game of Thrones
I bought heavily into this game while I was at Cold Wars and got a chance to try it. So far I love it and am in love with the figures and cannot wait to play more and start painting. I've basically got enough stuff for 4 factions now and am probably going to start painting that soon.

Sisters of Battle
I'm really into painting these figures and would like to finish the ones I have at least and get 500 points or so ready for some games we have planned this summer. I just finished the first squad of Seraphim in the challenge and ordered one of the new characters to paint. I haven't bought too crazily into the army yet so I'd like to get ahead of it for once.

Blood and Valor
Finally WWI has been on my radar for a long time and I'd really like to get a game of it on the table soon. I have a pretty big pile of the amera vacuform trench already done and a platoons worth of british painted and ready to go (though I may rebase just to match my more modern basing sensibilities.)
I put together a 150 point German list and am eagerly awaiting a test game.

So there you have it. In no particular order there are a few projects that didnt make this "work on immediately" cut or that I'll probably chip away on including but not limited to;
Oak and Iron, Age of Hannibal, Zone Raiders, Infinity, Crisis Protocol, Batman ect
Additionally I'd really like to take a short break from wargame painting to finish a bust or figure kit just for my display case. In the wake of all this Covid-19 crazyness I have no idea if I'll be entering in shows this year so I think it's important to me to continue to crack out projects like these.

Some stuff to look forward to for sure!

Hive City Table (1) - Plans and First Progess

In addition to the Zone Mortalis Table (more on that very soon) I'll be working on and project logging a "Hive City" Table. Did I mention I went off the deep end here?

First the inspiration photos can all be found here https://imgur.com/a/RqoK8

 
Way back when, in White Dwarf issue 207, they ran an article about a "vertical" table. During a discussion with a friend, he mentioned if he was gonna bother getting into Necromunda it would be on a table like that. I did some research and eventually found the article archived and, looking at it, it didn't seem like an impossible task to recreate it. An impulsively bought Proxxon Cutter (with some glowing recommendations from Anton over at Anton's Wargame) and we were on our way.

First some notes. After monkeying around with some figures I've come to the conclusion that the Ambot is the tallest Necromunda specific Figure in the range except maybe the chaos spawn. The Forgeworld Ortuum- 8-8 figure is ever so slightly taller but giving a 3 inch gap between floors was enough for either to fit without scraping the ceiling.

The depth of each floor is 60mm and is cut out of 1in thick board. The reasoning behind this is simple, two figures can pass each other but no one can fit by the Ambot.

The floor and Structural Walls are cut from 1.5in board and the over all dimensions are 28" x 36" x 42" These dimensions are the result of measuring the trunk of my SUV and the airducts above my gaming table at home.

The structural parts were glued together with Liquid Nails and reinforced with toothpick "rebar"

Once the structure was together it was simply a matter of figuring out where to put each wall and floor. I've decided each corner will have a "point of interest" and in the case of this one, that point is going to be an elevator shaft.

Above is about an evening of work put in. The floors and walls are cut into 60mm strips very quickly with the proxxon and then the thing gets assembled.

The process it self is simple. George and I went Floor by floor saying things like "what if the gaps on this side this time" and simple cut parts to fit, stuck some toothpicks in the side and glued it into place. There is a "measuring jig" cut from some foam to keep the 3 inch gap relatively the same across the whole board but otherwise things were generally eyeballed. For all the floors we used Titebond Wood Glue. Its easier to work with, clean up etc, and a little cheaper to boot. We feel pretty strongly that things don't need to be "perfect" because who else has an almost 4 foot tall board like this to play on? Almost every layout decision is spur of the moment and you can see some marks on the parts for ideas that are still forming.

Here you can see a shot with some figures on it.

The end goal is lofty still but I figure the board can be used obviously for necromunda but also for games like Reality's Edge, This is Not a Test, Hardwired, Zone Alfa, Judge Dredd, Zone Raiders ect ect ect. And in the event I get tired of it, I know of both an infinity and an existing Necromunda group who would probably love the donation.

This is obviously early days still but I wanted to get this thing "out into the wild" so people can see some of the process behind it and hopefully my board can inspire others to build something crazy

AHPC X (4) - The Next 2 Entries

At long last, I'm entering the Challenge Island. As mentioned previously Poseidon's Warriors was one of the games I wanted to try this winter. My hopes are to use the rules as part of a huge Punic Wars campaign sometime down the road. I did finally got around to setting up my portable light booth. I definitely still need more light but I think I'm on the right track here.Let me know if it's working.

So first up, 6 quinquireme's I think. These are 1/600 scale models I got from Wargames Vault and 3d printed in Resin. I read somewhere that they tore the sails down when they actually went to battle so I decided to skip the sails on these (so no bonus points there). These are gaming models for me and I gave them a very quick paint job accordingly. I've decided I'm going to go with a generic "red" navy and a generic "blue" one which should work perfectly for gaming.

So here are the first 6 boats for the project. There's a scenario I want to try in the Poseidon's Warrior book that will need 30 in total but I wanted to start my trek into the island. As an aside, I love the challenge island because without it, I have no idea when I would've gotten to this project.

Over the New Years break I also managed to get the newish King of The Dead and the Heralds of the Dead box set for Lord of the Rings. These are incredible simple paint jobs to match the rest of my army.

So 3 x 28mm foot for 15
30 Points for Reidy's Reef
5 Bonus Points because it's a new project for you at Reidy's reef  (First boat models I've ever painted)
18 Points for the 6 1/600 scale boats.

Thanks everyone, and Happy New Year!


Welcome along Matt, i do like the sound of printing the ships. i have adjusted your points estimates to give a total of 68 points. 



To continue my journey inward onto the island I've headed in the direction of Burch's Bluff. I was sort of wracking my brain a bit on this one to be honest. I was debating what I wanted to enter for this spot and originally I was going to work on the forgeworld Rogal Dorn kit I purchased for my Imperial Fists but was a little intimidated to start on it. Then I thought maybe work on my Epic stuff or a Contemptor Dreadnought when I realized I had built this when they were released and never actually put any paint on them. A bit of Army Painter Gun Metal primer and a couple hours later and here we are.

Here's 2 of the Cerastus Knights for Titanicus. These were quick paint jobs but I'm pretty happy with them.

While I was trying to decide what to paint I worked on a couple other odds and ends for the other projects on my list. First up the new Saruman to go with War in Rohan.

This one was an absolute blast to paint. I had recently painted the old finecast one and was pretty proud of the paint job until an accident involving a bottle of Vallejo Warlord Purple took him and his white cloak out of commission so it was nice to get another Saruman Finished. Sidenote, if the paint doesn't come right out, don't keep squeezing.

Finally I painted some Anvil Industries Bomb Rats for my Cawdor. It's funny, my plan for the Necromunda stuff started at "paint the Cawdor cus theyre neat, who cares about the game" and now its "Matt, why do you own all of the models for a game you still haven't tried." I'm gonna roll with the the energy though. A couple people have asked whats next and the answer is Goliath. For now though, rats

These are simple little paint jobs. Unfortunately they didn't come with bases originally but that's nothing a trip to Thingiverse couldn't fix. I have some of the official models from Forgeworld on order but I can't imagine how many of these I'll end up needing.

So here's where I'm at for the island now

Next stop is "any figure bought AFTER the Challenge was announced (very shiny and new)." which shouldn't be a problem for someone with 0 impulse control.

For today,
15 points for the Cerastus Knights
30 Points for Burchs Bluff
15 Points for Saruman Mounted and on Foot
10 points for the Palantir and the Rats

Thanks

MilesR: Minions get cranky when they're asked to think (it's not one of our strong suits) but I'll forgive you (this time) because of the quality of the submissions.  For the Cerastus Knights, I'm going to count them as 28mm infantry BUT award 5 additional bonus point because they look big).  I'll count the Palantir as a figure and the tiny rats will be combined onto another.  That should net you a tidy 70 points

AHPC X (3) - The First 3 Entries

These are the first 3 entries I posted in the Challenge this year. Riders of Rohan, and 2 gangs for Necromunda. Copied directly from the blog, the italic text is from the editor.

I had grand ambitions of getting these posted in the first day of the challenge but alas real life got a little in the way again this year. One of my short term goals is to play through the new War in Rohan book so I've been hammering away on my Rohan Army to go alongside the Uruk-Hai I started last challenge. First entry from me for this challenge is 12 Riders of Rohan.

These are regular plastic Games Workshop Lord of the Rings figures mostly painted in a mad dash yesterday evening.

Twelve 28mm Cavalry should net me 120 points and put me up on the board. I can't wait to see what this year's challenge has in store.

_________________________________

Well Matt, you've put the extra time to good use as these Riders look terrific (I love the mass of them). I've always had a soft spot for these figures as they look so dynamic and seem very evocative of the books' description of the Riders.  I also like your clean brushwork, especially on the shields, and the bases really give the impression of them galloping across the plains of Rohan. Lovely stuff.

120 points for your debut on the board. Welcome to Challenge X, Matt!

One of the things I said going into this challenge was there were a couple games I wanted to put on the table by the time the challenge was over. In particular, Necromunda, This is Not a Test, Age of Hannibal, and Posideons Warriors. Although I took a break today to go see the new Star Wars, I managed to make a pretty good dent in one of them by painting my Delaque gang from start to finish.

I figured it'd be a good Christmas Day project because I airbrushed them leather brown and figured itd be a nice quick speed paint. What I did not account for was just how long it'd take to get that copper trim right however I think I managed to pull it off

There are ten figures in total and they were built with the out of the box instructions. I'm a fan of pretty much the whole box but these two are probably my favorites.

Anyway, 10 28mm figures should net me 50 Points.Merry Christmas!

_______________________________

Excellent work, Matt. I've always liked these figures, but have not seen them done up in brown and I must say they look really good! The copper was an excellent choice for the detail edging as it sets off so nicely against the rich brown base. Great work! 

Are you doing any other factions for Necromunda, or are you tackling another from your bucket list? I look forward to seeing what you come up with next.

-Curt

As mentioned in my last post, I want to put this game on the table this Winter and I was on a roll with the last gang. I actually painted the first test figure for this group right after finishing the Delaque but I figured I'd post them all at once.

So this is ten figures, the new plastics, built by the instructions same as last time. I actually bought these the day the week they were released. I love the aesthetic with the candles and nooses. I bought them under the pretense that they'd look cool in a case even if I never played. I got them all built that night and then looked into what book I'd need to play it. At the time to play in a campaign I think I was told I'd need something like 3 or 4 different books to have all the rules for the gang so they went back on the to-do shelf and gathered dust until Dark Uprising and the Gangs of the Underhive book came out.

In particular I think these are my favorite figures of the bunch, the one on the left was the test figure.

Though I also have a soft spot for the gaudy leader type

I think they came out just a little dark, they look a little better in person. My photography skills are in definite need of improvement but overall I'm pretty happy with how these turned out and for me, the challenge is all about turning the lead pile into playable games.

 

I have a few other gangs for Necromunda but I think I'll get a test game or two in before I break the shrink on those. There are a few more models for this gang though (bomb rats) that I'll post as soon as I can find some bases for them. For now though, that's enough figures to get a game going, so its on to the next project for now.

10 28mm figures again for 50 points

_______________________________

Matt, you're on fire with these Necromunda gangers - excellent stuff. Cawdor is another great looking gang, with lots of gritty models. This being said, I think your use of blue as a contrast colour gives an interesting counterpoint to the otherwise earth(grease)tone of the models. I think my favourite one of the lot is the chap with the combination boat hook / blunderbuss. Easy to learn, hard to master?

Great work Matt. Which is the next gang coming up?

-Curt

3D Printed Zone Mortalis (1)

I've mentioned in passing a few times now that I've bought into the latest version of Necromunda. I have a few of the books, a Cawdor gang and the Dark Uprising box. Though everything is still very WIP I stumbled across the Forgeworld Zone Mortalis Boards and found some updated 8th edition 40k rules for using them. Part of the plan with the Imperial Fists was to play smaller skirmishes and kill team type games with a ZM Board. Between the board itself and the terrain provided in Dark Uprising I've begun 3d printing the board found HERE

Example taken from the Thingiverse page

 Here's where I'm at so far. You get the idea here, and can see the growing stack of base tiles in the background. The printer is running near constantly when I'm home now. For reference, a 6inch tile takes 4 hours 20 minutes to print. These corner wall sections are currently taking 8 and a half.

Still to print are more walls, accessories, detail bits, doors, etc. There are also damaged versions of a lot of the parts so I may experiment with some damaged sections.

Because of the print time and the fact that I have the Dark Uprising terrain, I've been thinking I may experiment with a few more "Open" sections. 

Cost wise the material is much cheaper than purchasing the resin boards (if they were available) but time wise it's a wash. The tiles will still need to be painted and mounted to something for support.

As of right now the printer is "down for maintence" so to speak so I figured I'd post what I had so far while I get it up and running again. The short term plan is to glue these down to some hardboard for stability and then start painting Necromunda figures and the Dark Uprising Terrain to fill it out for now.

AHPC X (1) - Preparation

 

It's that time of year again. Last year I set the (rather lofty) goal of 1000 Points and fell short by about 300. This year however, I'm setting the same goal but beginning the challenge with a plan.

For anyone who isn't familiar with the challenge all the rules can be found HERE.

In short though, each winter a bunch of wargame bloggers get together and pledge a goal to paint over the course of winter. The points per model vary based on scale and subject matter but for reference a standard 28mm foot figure will net you 5 points. In addition to the pledges and painting there are also side duels and themed challenges to earn extra points or show off.

I did the challenge for the first time last year and absolutely loved it. I haven't kept perfect track of it but I believe I've painted more since the challenge began last year than I had in the last five years. Last year saw me complete a Blood and Plunder Native force, an Uruk-Hai raiding party, and a little under 1000 points of Gloomspite Gitz for AoS among other odds and ends. 

Last year, show season kicked off in the middle of the challenge with me going to 3 local shows before the challenge ended. I think I took for granted how busy that would make me and as a result I didn't shift the days I painted those weeks and my output really suffered. The other issue was that, having never participated before, I had no idea what to expect. Models I thought I'd crack out took longer than expected and I received bonus points where I didn't know I could get them. This year I have more of a plan of attack to accomplish my 1000 point goal.

Look at how fancy I've gotten
Above is a spreadsheet detailing my Punic Wars project. At Fall-in This year I purchased another pile of figures from Old Glory to complete this project (and start it) leaving me with one bag of just about everything they make for the era (and then some)
Finishing this list may require a couple orders to some over seas companies like Pendraken for the odds and ends I'm missing but in theory this is achievable. With the horses this project should come out to 701 points and will put a real dent in my goal.

After the Punic Wars (or more likely alongside) Ill be shifting my attention to skirmish forces for a couple games I'd like to try in 2020. In particular, This is Not a Test and Necromunda. I recently took an order of Lead Adventure STALKER types as well as the new Dark Uprising box and hope to crack out the figures as part of the challenge.

If I've done the math correctly that should leave me sitting around 150 points left to complete the challenge which I plan to fill as I get inspired throughout the winter. As mentioned I've started Imperial Fists and more recently Sisters of Battle so perhaps a model here and there will contribute to my total. There's also the matter of terrain for 40k and Necromunda but more on that in a later post.

Either way, wish me luck.