My Robotech/Macross Project : Battle Cry (Fighting Fives) - Battle Report Page 6

[Elbows]

Since I keep polluting all of the Robotech threads with my stuff, I figured I'd start a thread of my own.  I'm doing a blog to follow it as well, but I tend to update Lead Adventure much more often.

Goal: 1/200(ish) scale table top wargame.

System: My own "Fighting Fives" game system, which is tiered dice/action cards driven. Rules set is only 32 pages.  Simple, and hopefully fun.

Game size: Undetermined.  Probably 15 units (unit = one mecha, or a infantry unit, group of vehicles etc.) per side maximum.  Can be adjusted with action decks if needed.

Models Source: This is the tough part.  As many people have seen from several other projects, models must be acquired through a variety of expensive/hard to find discontinued models, and gashapon (vending machine toys).  It's expensive, but with enough searching a decent complement can be assembled.

This will be a predominantly picture heavy thread, with small bits of info - results from playtesting etc.



Tiered dice are colour coded.  Each unit has two predominant traits, measured between D6 and D12.



Action Card decks.  Players take turn drawing and playing action cards (able to hold a small number in their hand).  These have been printed via www.thegamecrafter.com.  I have made some revisions, but the cards are nice and playable.



The bulk of my enemy kits will be from the Nichimo kits (originally produced in 1982, and re-released 10-12 years ago in a second run).



Several models used are Gashapon, which vary from cheap bendable rubberized plastic to beautifully painted hard plastics.  The scale shows two 25-28mm figures.  Most of my units will be based on 60mm mdf bases as pictured.



Four Gashapon which have been primed, and re-painted.  Please note I am not a good painter.  I paint the models first and foremost to be gaming pieces.  No award-winning paintjobs here unfortunately.  However, my paintjobs are better than the poor auto-spray finishes applied to some of the Gashapon models.



A Glaug (Officer's Battle Pod) - a rather poor Gashapon figure, but easier to obtain than the rare model kit.



A trio if Queadluun-Rau (female power armour).  The lead model was painted in a differing paint scheme for use as an ace or officer.



Some UN Spacy models (Armoured VF-1J Veritech, VF-1S Veritech, and Tomahawk Destroid) from Kaiyodo.  These are nicely painted hard plastic Gashapon, and significantly nicer than the poorly built Bandai/Chinese copies.



An assembled lot of mecha from each side.



Two Kaiyodo Gashapon Veritechs which can be built in any mode - but are best suited to Guardian (Gerwalk) mode.



The Kaiyodo models are fantastic, very pose-able, and have opening missile pods etc.



I swapped some heads, and some Gashapon gun-pods onto one of these models.  Note that the models actually have about six other missile pods which open!



Current collection of models.

More coming.

[Elbows]

Cell phone pic of my Spartans I just finished up.  Not stoked on the paint scheme, but it'll do.  One has been outfitted with a Gu-11 gunpod (optional for Spartan destroids).

[TerryC]

These look fantastic. Have you thought of doing one or two actually firing the missiles? Would look great with some of those armorcast missile trails or something similar.

[Elbows]

I don't normally do that kind of stuff for gaming models, because then it bugs me the whole time that they're not actually fighting    I agree though, if you were doing some for simple models, it'd look good.  They even sell some like that.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Macross-Imagination-Gashapon-Soul-Hyper-Solid-Archiv-/320440812934

Enough missiles for ya? 

[TerryC]

  Oh great, now I have to buy some. Lucky I start a new job tomorrow.

[James Holloway]

Nice looking stuff! Don't run down your paintjobs -- they look crisp and eye-catching.

[Elbows]

Only some of the Gashapon have been painted, the Kaiyodo ones come with a beautiful paintjob from the factory.  I have two Battle Pods sprayed which I'll try to get to later this week. 

[kalamadea]

I think your own paintjobs look better, especially on the female power armor. The Tomohawks are passable, but without any shading or blacklining they just look like toys, especialy the veritechs. As much as you keep knocking your own painted stuff, they look like actual gaming pieces, the newer stuff you added, while it has cleaner paint lines and decals, still just look like toys. A thinned black wash in the recesses would do wonders, and is super easy to tidy up with a Q-tip soaked in rubbing alcohol. Just wait a few minutes till the wash is dry to the touch but before it's fully cured (takes a day or so with acrylic washes). You'd have to be careful with the Spartans as the rubbing alcohol can lift off acrylic paint if it isn't sealed, but the gashapon stuff is painted with a type of solvent heavy paint that melts into and becomes part of the plastic.

[Elbows]

I did some black wash on the Spartans, but it didn't turn out so well.  I only have access to crappy cameras.  All of the gashapon and models are still waiting on the no-shine finish, but I've been lazy.  We'll see how motivated I am to do more work on them.  Right now I'm looking at a stack of battlepod boxes half my height...

On the way or sitting in boxes:
15+ Battlepods
4+ VF-1A veritechs (guardians, and battloids)
6+ Monsters (only painting up one, others will be kept and sold off later)
6+ Spartans (will build two, probably sell the rest or keep them)
2+ Defenders (will build)
1 Phalanx old Exo-Squad toy which will be painted up and probably used (it's scale is "okay")
2+ Self-made Phalanxes which are 50% done, may or may not finish them.
1 Quel-Quallie scout pod (will build if scale is suitable)
1 more set of Kaiyodo Gashapon
2 more Gashapon Officers Pods
15+ Gashapon Veritechs which may not be built (used for parts, pretty poor)

The only thing I really need to hammer down on is Super Veritechs, and Fighter mode Veritechs.  I doubt I'd ever run all of these models at once (I'd need a gigantic convention table).

I have terrain, but no buildings, or suitable 1/200-1/220 dedicated terrain, just generic hills/etc.  So, once enough models are assembled for serious play-testing (getting close) I'll start concentrating on building terrain.  I have two primary games I'd like to run as of right now; initial attack on the outskirts of Macross, and a skirmish on the frozen Macross island shortly after it was teleported into space (could be an awesome table!).

[mpennock]

I doubt I'd ever run all of these models at once (I'd need a gigantic convention table).

This is the same conclusion that I came to with my project. It's tempting to get a lot of models, but you eventually have to sit back and ask yourself how many you can actually use at the same time...

[Elbows]

Agreed.  The only thing I have en masse is Battle Pods.  The Gashapon Veritechs are only there because I bought sets to get the Female Power Armour and Officer's Pods.

Beyond battle pods, my goal was always 3-4 of every other mecha (maybe a few more Veritechs, but we'll see).  Some of the mecha I ended up with more because I won a couple of ebay auctions without knowing it etc.  I'm pretty comfortable - the only exception being the male power armour and zentraedi fighters coming from mpennock's Shapeways store.  Once those arrive, I'll be happy and content to just paint and build.

The 6 Monsters I picked up because they were going for $100 on ebay.  I picked up a bunch of spares to shoe-horn away into a closet for future ebay potential.  We shall see. 

[Elbows]

First Battle Pod done...huge pain in the butt.  I hate painting on white primer when the model is predominantly white (any mis-strokes require touch up, etc.).  It took a bit too long, so I've come up with some ways of painting them faster.  Now that I have a scheme I like, I'll be able to do small batches I hope.

Scales nicely, though in reality it should be about 20-30% taller than an average veritech, but right now they work perfectly for gaming purposes.  The Heavy Artillery Pod is deadly in the game, and when used in conjunction with the scout pod, will be a serious threat to airborne Veritechs.

[Elbows]

Will do.  If I remember tomorrow I'll take a number of scale pictures, with some of the Yamato stuff etc.  I'll also measure them out.

[Elbows]

Yeah, I think that's pretty darn small for 1/100.  The problem with Robotech is that no one (even the original animators) really scaled much.  The general consensus is that destroids should be 35-40' tall, where Veritechs would be perhaps 42-48' foot tall, and Zentraedi Pods would be closer to 60' tall (since they're piloted by 35-45' tall Zentraedi soldiers.

I'll go snag some measurements and pictures now, and be back in a bit.

[Elbows]

Well...if you wanted to do Battletech in a slightly smaller scale, it seems the majority of 1/200 kits and models scale well, and you could use any variety of 15-20mm infantry/vehicles...would be very easy to whip up a bunch.

I agree though, once you hit that 1/72-1/60 spot for Macross you enter the beautiful new, but expensive kits...Some of them are simply mouth-watering, and many can actually be purchased as action figures, but for quite hefty sums.

http://www.figures.com/forums/news/10713-yamato-japans-1-60-macross-destroid-tomahawk.html

These 1/60 figures are about $65...but damn they look sweet...