Lead Adventure Forum
Other Stuff => Workbench => Topic started by: Daeothar on November 09, 2011, 09:39:48 PM
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Having been fortunate enough to be able to attend Crisis last weekend, I bought the latest copy of 'Wargames, Soldiers & Strategy' there, as it was 'relevant to my interests'. ::)
As mentioned in the Pulp section, this episode is a bit of a special on Pulp gaming, just as I am running a pulpy RPG campaign with my group. Traditionally, we use the World of Darkness D10 system, as other GM's are running vampire and werewolf campaigns (we alternate between GMs and campaigns, to prevent burn-outs and boredom). This pulpy thing is new to most, but is taken to with gusto by all.
But I'm a miniature gamer all the way, and where others have taken to rolling it all out when there is fighting to be done, or using paper maps and tokens for each participant, I intend to go the full length and use proper miniatures and terrain, plus a dedicated miniature combat system. I've chosen .45, as it is also D10 based, which makes for easy conversion of stats, plus, that's what the geeks heroes of my group are familiar with. :D
I've already sourced and converted all PC's, plus some key NPCs and the bad guys. I've also got some spiffy period cars (roughly 1932, although I tend to bend the timelines here and there if it suits me), which will all be painted in the (very!) near future.
But, with the abovementioned magazine sporting a cool mini game to represent high speed car chases, I just knew I had to use that, if only to see if the miniature and scenery stuff is worth it with my group.
So I grabbed some pieces of thin MDF I had stashed for terrain purposes, and some high density styrofoam I saved form the bin when working my first job repairing computers. That must have been 10 years ago, but patience and a large storage area have finally brought them to their intended purpose...
Some time with an electrical saw, hot glue gun and sharp blade has yielded the following result so far:
(http://www.fierylions.nl/Pictures/ForumPictures/Pulp/CarChaseWIP1.JPG)
As you can see, I have already deviated from the proposed rules in the article, and I have included bends. As my campaign takes place (at the moment) in rural England, I envisaged small, sunken country roads, curving through the countryside. As with the proposed rules, there will always be just 3 pieces on the table, the cars basically stationary, and the road pieces being added to the front and taken away form the rear, as the chase continues. So, I will always have enough straights and bends to keep up with the game.
I will create a simple table to roll against to see what piece will appear next, with sub-tables to see which way the bends will curve, and whether or not there will be traffic coming form the side roads. I might even use the T-junction as a split second left/right decision.
Also, I am contemplating making an extra piece with a narrow (one car wide) bridge, especially with oncoming traffic involved :D .
Furthermore, I made the pieces A4-sized, so they will be easily stacked and stored in a standard A4 paper packaging box, of which there are plenty at work. Such a box will also fit pretty snuggly in my armybag, so no lugging around loose terrain:
(http://www.fierylions.nl/Pictures/ForumPictures/Pulp/CarChaseWIP2.JPG)
Next up is adding filler to the foam and MDF, to seal and smoothen and adding duct tape to the edges for added protection. Then it's sand, gravel, road surface (which I haven't decided on yet; dirt road, concrete slabs, pavement, asphalt? What was the most commonly used road surface on English country roads in the Thirties anyway?), detailing and painting.
I will add seperate terrain features on loose bases, so they can be swapped around; trees, road signs, hedges (lots of hedges) etc etc.
Not bad for one evening's worth of work (at least for me...). Let's hope my buildingspree can keep up the same momentum the cars will have when hurtling down these roads...
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Nice idea and execution.
English roads are almost predominantly Tarmac.
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For 1930s England, you need to watch a few "period" dramas, Poirot, Miss Marple, etc. or even Foyle (although that's 1940s)
Apart from a bridge, country lanes might also have a ford.
Could be a difficult one to model, but might be worth it.
http://www.itv.com/Drama/poirot/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miss_Marple_(TV_series)
http://www.foyleswar.com/
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Looks great! Will eagerly follow the progress!
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Put on the filler tonight and even though it's fast drying, I still managed to press down a finger into a thickly pasted area after several hours of drying time... ::)
No problem though; it'll be well covered with additional layers of prettification. Once it is thoroughly dry (which I had hoped was right about when I took these pictures...), I will sand the filler smooth and lay down some basing material such as sand and gravel. Probably tomorrow night then...
Here's all the pieces, laid out together in a way they'll never be in-game. But my Lego City days returned to me after 30 or so years and I just had to create a street plan. :D
(http://www.fierylions.nl/Pictures/ForumPictures/Pulp/CarChaseWIP3.JPG)
And fastolfrus; where do you think I got the initial inspiration from? ;) I watched the Ms. Marple series and also the older B&W films, which were not only great whodunnit-fun, but also a wealth of inspiration for a certain pulpy RPG campaign. 8)
I'm thinking a bridge would be harder to model than a ford by the way. And after scouring the interwebs for pictures of thirties English country roads, I've got enough material to proceed, including a nice batch of pictures of period stype road/traffic signs. Brandlin; combining your suggestion with the photographic evidence, I will probably go with tarmac/asphalt here. Actually a relief to me, as that will be the easiest surface to model (I was really dreading paving stones...)
As an aside; here are the cars I sourced for the campaign, which I have named 'Interbellum' by the way. I would like to paint them, to match the scenery and figures later on, but then again; the chrome is such a prominent feature on most of them, it would almost be a shame to cover that under paint, even when it is pretty NMM. This would mean only some washes and picking out of details though. If you're looking for me, I'll probably still be on the fence...
(http://www.fierylions.nl/Pictures/ForumPictures/Pulp/CarChaseWIP4.JPG)
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I have the same problem with the cars also. Alot of chrome hate to lose it. Tried using a Micon pin to add detail. That did not work.
I may spray them with something like dulcote and try the pen again. Maybe will try a wash, see how that works out.
For some great looking cars this link is outstanding.http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=33823.0
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As an aside; here are the cars I sourced for the campaign, which I have named 'Interbellum' by the way. I would like to paint them, to match the scenery and figures later on, but then again; the chrome is such a prominent feature on most of them, it would almost be a shame to cover that under paint, even when it is pretty NMM. This would mean only some washes and picking out of details though. If you're looking for me, I'll probably still be on the fence...
You could try masking fluid (available from art shops). It forms a thin rubber layer which protects the parts you don't want painted, and is then peeled off when you've finished.
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Grab some liquid latex, cheaper but the same stuff.
Looking good though!
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Great pieces. I would design a few side of the road pieces for interest, such as a billboard, or a tree. Also, they make great targets for pushing your fellow driver into
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Great pieces. I would design a few side of the road pieces for interest, such as a billboard, or a tree. Also, they make great targets for pushing your fellow driver into
No billboards on English roads. Plenty of trees though.
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No, this project was not abandoned, it just suffered from real-life interference. As happens...
Even though I won't make the deadline, which means I will have to find something to keep the party busy until I'm ready to let them roar off, in pursuit of PC-kidnapping nazi scum, the project is coming along nicely.
Anyhow; the progress so far:
First, a roadside wall. Made from MDF, into which the stones were scribed. I thern split some small squares of the MDF and used the resulting slivers to create some protruding stones by glueing them onto some of the stones. I also cut out some other stones, making recesses stones. This creates some depth in the stonework, and I'm pretty happy with the result, even though it relatively took a lot of time...
(http://www.fierylions.nl/Pictures/ForumPictures/Pulp/CarChaseWIP5.jpg)
(http://www.fierylions.nl/Pictures/ForumPictures/Pulp/CarChaseWIP6.jpg)
On to some of the modular scenery. These items, many which are to follow, will be placed along the roads, to create a bit more atmosphere. There will also be fences, trees, walls even maybe, etc, etc. I used small strips of MDF cut-offs for the bases, cut and filed into shape. Two of the long shapes will cover one bank of a road, and the smaller pieces are exactly half of a large one.
I used lichen for the bushes/hedges, but this is just the onderlying branchwork. This will be sprayed brown and inked, before they will be covered in leaves (read: dyed herbs) and sealed with multiple layers of varnish and a top layer of Dullcote. A WIP mailbox is also present.
(http://www.fierylions.nl/Pictures/ForumPictures/Pulp/CarChaseWIP7.jpg)
Here, you can see the method I used to give the road surface some depth. Actual roads are always sloping towards the sides, to avoid water pooling on the surface, So to simulate this, I added some corrugated cardboard to the middle of the roads. I pressed down the sides first, to make the curves nice and gradual.
(http://www.fierylions.nl/Pictures/ForumPictures/Pulp/CarChaseWIP8.jpg)
I then applied the actual road surface, which is a small grained sanding paper, edges folded in on the sides, glued to the boards.
(http://www.fierylions.nl/Pictures/ForumPictures/Pulp/CarChaseWIP9.jpg)
And here you see another method I used to make the boards as durable as possible. They will be handled a lot during play, as sections are removed from the back and others are added to the front. So I applied ducttape to the sides, to protect the foam and filler, and also the sandingpaper and cardboard. It will most likely be sprayed black in the end. You can nicely see the bulging road surface in this picture.
(http://www.fierylions.nl/Pictures/ForumPictures/Pulp/CarChaseWIP10.jpg)
A picture of the whole batch with basing sand and gravel added. The surface will now first be painted and then static grass and other stuff will be added.
(http://www.fierylions.nl/Pictures/ForumPictures/Pulp/CarChaseWIP11.jpg)
But what is a pursuit game without pursuers? Here are the first two cars in an unforgiving WIP shot. The red one, which originally was red too, was layered at least 6 times, but still I did not get a smooth surface! Now, I know red is supposed to be a hard colour to paint, but I never had any problems with it before. We'll see how this pans out...
With the black car, I wised up and simply covered it in Dullcote. Now all I have to do is highlight it. I will probably revert to metalic paints as well, to make things easier for myself, as opposed th my original idea of NMM. It's nice, but will just be too time consuming.
The first batch of hedges has been based as well as you can see. There is also the first of several fences. That has been built entirely out of wood (balsa for the posts and walnut for the fence proper. Plastic superglued parts for the hinges and some copper wire twisted to look like rope for the 'lock'. I'm really happy with the result too. Some more will probably follow.
And there's that mailbox again. Do you think it's following us? ::)
Anachronistic not-Shaun is there for scale purposes only of course...
(http://www.fierylions.nl/Pictures/ForumPictures/Pulp/CarChaseWIP12.jpg)
And finally a beautyshot of some of the bits, just to get an impression of what the finished product will look like.
Onwards to glory!!
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Cool! That's going to be good.
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The cambered roads look really good! :o
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I am really liking this thread!
Watching with much interest...
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Interesting! :-*
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Looking good, like the three dimensional..er... dimension as most roads for gaming are flat.
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Going to the trouble to actually get camber on your roads is very cool, looks good now and should look great once you're finished!
Can't wait to see how this progresses.
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And round and round we go... :D
Another update, for your viewing pleasure. I actually did all this last night, but when I'm going full steam, I simply do not have the time nor inclination to stop and take pictures. To go when the going is good, and all that... ;)
Anyway, first up is a small item, that took a disproportionally large chunk of last night's mancave-time: a payphone. It's basically a plot device in my campaign, and the starting point for the chase, so it needed to be there. I could have gone the easy way and source some dollhouse phone for this, but what's the fun in that? I sculpted the horn down from a piece of sprue, and used different sizes of plastic rod, tube and what not to do the rest. Oh, and some copper wire for the cord of course.
It's a bit of an amalgam of UK and US types of phone and certainly not period and/or location accurate, but it looks the part, and that's what counts after all. I don't even know if such a phone could have been found attached to a telephone pole like I intend to do, but hey... ::) I do intend to make some sort of small roof over it, you know; against the elements and such.
(http://www.fierylions.nl/Pictures/ForumPictures/Pulp/CarChaseWIP13.jpg)
Then there are the telephone poles themselves. I gathered a lot of pictures for these and there seems to be a distinct lack in uniformity of the things in that period; straight poles, with crossbars of wood, or metal, mounted on top or a bit down. Multiple crossbars, porcelain isolators on top, hanging from the crossbars or even completely missing... So I went with a version that would look the part the most and decided on a version with a single, top mounted crossbar, with the isolators on top of the bar.
For now, I have the poles almost ready (they need basing and weathering). They're made from balsa dowels, simply stained with some Vallejo dipping solution mixed with some VGC black. Ubiquous not-Shaun shows off their scale:
(http://www.fierylions.nl/Pictures/ForumPictures/Pulp/CarChaseWIP14.jpg)
Then there is some painting progress on the road pieces themselves. I sprayed the road surfaces black, but deliberately not too evenly, so the surface will not be too uniform, even before refinements.
The banks and other dirt were given a watered down coat of some house paint I had mixed to colour at the local DIY. I have a liter of the stuff, and it looks like that will probably get me by several tables! It's a perfect base colour for further inking and highlighting though.
(http://www.fierylions.nl/Pictures/ForumPictures/Pulp/CarChaseWIP15.jpg)
And to wrap it up, the same beautyshot again as last time, but this time with all the pieces in their next stage. It all looks pretty autumny now, with all the browns, but the undercoated hedgerows still need their foliage added. They'll summer up quite rapidly once that has been done, trust me. :D
(http://www.fierylions.nl/Pictures/ForumPictures/Pulp/CarChaseWIP16.jpg)
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Wow, that last photo really brings it all together.
Excellent job. :-*
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Fantastic!
As Marine says, that last picture certainly brings it all together.
Great work.
Now- Just run the man down next time! That'll learn 'im!
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Beautiful. I would get a piece of black felt to put underneath the whole thing, to make the road stand out more.
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Well,
I believe I mentioned I'm not much of a blogger, and I've proven myself right again; sorry for that, as more updates could have been squeezed in. I took the pictures, but simply did not have the time to write up the next post.
By now, the actual road pieces have been finished, although I'm still hard at work on the additional scenery, cars and whatnot. So, I guess I'll take you through an abbreviated step by step before showing off the finished product.
You all saw the pieces with their basecoat on in my last post. So the next stage was to liven up the road surfaces, as they were a bit too pristine, and also the banks received their shading (through inking) and highlighting (several drybrushes). Once the painting stage was over, I proceeded with the application of the static grass.
I used unthinned wood/PVA glue for this, stained brown through the addition of some Vallejo dipping solution. I simply paint the glue on, patch by patch, and then dab large clumps of the static grass into it. I then vigourously shake and tap the superfluous grass off, and gently blow over the surface (not on; over), which causes the individual blades to stand up. Once dry, there is some more shaking and tapping. The result at this stage looks like this:
(http://www.fierylions.nl/Pictures/ForumPictures/Pulp/CarChaseWIP18.jpg)
And I could not help myself to take another beauty shot at this stage. Regretfully, the unfortunate not-Shaun took a wooden floor to the face when I attempted to put him back in the display cabinet after last post's picture, so he's undergoing reconstructive face painting at the moment. Here is a Gothic girlfriend of his, doing the honours of posing with the ubiquous 'Black Car'. It's starting to look like something, eh?
(http://www.fierylions.nl/Pictures/ForumPictures/Pulp/CarChaseWIP17.jpg)
As you might notice, the hedgerows have now had their foliage added, making them look pretty nice all of a sudden, be it a tad brittle at this stage. The glued and then spraypainted reindeer moss has become quite stiff and strong at this point, but the glued on (by means of more PVA) crushed parsley is still very brittle here. Although it really looks like a hedge already.
I would later give them several thick coats of sprayed on varnish, before highlighting the green leaves with thinned down Citadel Camo Green. Like a very wet drybrush is the best way to describe the process. Of course, this was followed by yet another coat of varnish.
The hedges still need their bases finished and will undoubtedly receive at least one more coat of varnish before being deemed reasonably gaming-proof. They look awesome, and I'm going to try entire trees at some point, but without proper armour in the form of thick layers of protective varnish, they would be too vulnerable to the rigors of tabletop combat.
(http://www.fierylions.nl/Pictures/ForumPictures/Pulp/CarChaseWIP19.jpg)
Next stage of the road pieces was the addition of more static grass. I used a short, mostly green version in the first stage, but here, I used a longer, brown kind, looking like tall, dried grass, which I added in clumps, here and there.
Then, the third stage of the grassing process followd, almost immediately, with both kinds mixed. I filled the large gaps in the grassy areas with that mix, which looks the most realistic of them all. I wanted the banks to look overgrown, without too large, and connected patches of dirt and rocks.
When that was dried, I used small pieces of reindeer moss to create shrubs. I mainly used the tops, as those are naturally formed like an individual shrub anyway. These were not coloured; this is their natural tone, which looks the best I think.
The moss I used here is even older than the styrofoam used for the banks by the way! They're left overs from when I made model railroads back in highschool. I must have been around 16 or so when I put all that away, mere months before I got my first box of Beakies! And because I always wanted my own gaming table, but never had the space, I've always kept the stuff I could one day use as terrain. I've used several pine trees from the same era to create some wood section for on the table already, and now these hedges. Remarkable how well they kept over the years (over 20 years!). For most of that time, they were stored simply in an old Revell model plane box. Only a couple of years ago, did I transfer them, colour by colour into ziplock baggies. Can't beat nature I guess...
But enough rambling! Here are some shots of this stage:
(http://www.fierylions.nl/Pictures/ForumPictures/Pulp/CarChaseWIP20.jpg)
(http://www.fierylions.nl/Pictures/ForumPictures/Pulp/CarChaseWIP21.jpg)
In that second picture, you can see I've used the same technique as on the hedges on some small shrubs, just for variation.
Finally, I added some coloured foam flock in patches all over the banks, to represent weeds growing inbetween the grasses. Here and there, it has crept into cracks inbetween rocks, or is growing out of some dirt on the road surface. That stuff really does grow everywhere eh?
You can see the finished result in the next couple of pictures, with added additional scenery. Regretfully, those pieces are not yet finished, but bear with me, as I bravely struggle on to get more and more ready...
A car chase at full throttle over a winding country road:
(http://www.fierylions.nl/Pictures/ForumPictures/Pulp/CarChaseWIP22.jpg)
The mysterious chase car is zooming past. Boy they're going fast!
(http://www.fierylions.nl/Pictures/ForumPictures/Pulp/CarChaseWIP23.jpg)
And finally, there's that darn black car again. Who are those people anyway? Some 5 minute Photoshop action took care of the backdrop...
(http://www.fierylions.nl/Pictures/ForumPictures/Pulp/CarChase.jpg)
The first gaming session was played with them last night, and was a resounding success. All players loved the experience and I'm relieved they're actually looking forward to using the setup again. We had to play without the additional scenery, and the cars were not finished yet (and had they rolled for a crossing pedestrian during one of their encounters, I would have been forced to produce a bare metal figure), but the basis is there. As it was though, they had to swerve around slower cars, brave curves in the road at breakneck speed.
They managed to shoot out 3(!) tires of the car fleeing from them, sending it careening off into a bend's bank, finally flipping it over. The nazi driver was instantly killed, and his German buddy knocked unconsious. Miraculously, their captive (one of the Player Characters, whose player had been on a long, work-induced, hiatus, but was joining us again for the first time this evening. Of course I had this all planned...) was thrown out of the trunk (hands and feet still tied) and survived without even a scratch!
And as the heroes drove away, compatriot liberated and one unconsious nazi in the trunk for further questioning, the crashed vehicle's leaking fuel finally reached the still red hot exhaust pipe, exploding the wreck in a spectacular fireball, visible to the elated heroes through the rear window of their vehicle...
Like I said, we play with the World of Darkness system, and the magazine rules were geared towards use with the 'Legends of the Old West' ruleset, so I had to modify them accordingly. I had to convert to a D10 system, and find a way to use the WoD skill system within the game, as it did not cater for different skill levels in, for instance, shooting or driving. But we made do.
I even created a little booklet as a handout for all the players, so they could familiarize with the rules. I also made a conversion table for converting WoD characters into the .45 system, which I mentioned I will be using for combat scenes:
(http://www.fierylions.nl/Pictures/ForumPictures/Pulp/AutomobilesInHotPursuit.jpg)
So, next up are the cars and other additional pieces, including some unsuspecting pedestrians. More news at eleven... :D
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What an excellent build and this...
(http://www.fierylions.nl/Pictures/ForumPictures/Pulp/CarChase.jpg)
...is a fantastic picture :-*
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Great work!
Everything looks fantastic- Roads, scenery, photos, the works!
:-* :-* :-*
As Matakishi says, that photo at the end is genius, but, in my humble opinion, you went the extra mile (no pun intended, please forgive!) with the collection of handouts etc that must have really help clinch the 'feel' of the game.
:o
Well done.
(Consider your idea filed away for future theft use.
Thank you!
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Absolutely staggering. I love the ground-level shots, they really take you there. I think I might have to build some of these now.
Did you repaint the cars too?
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Wonderful stuff!
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The awesome period-feel handouts and the photoshoppery really top this off in grand style.
I'm thinking with a little bit more work on the outer edges of the banks, you could pop these down as regular scenery on an ordinary table, too. Inspiration filed away for the next round of scenery building, perhaps - we've been saying we need more European/UK scenery for our games...
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What an awesome looking project and it sounds a lot of fun.
Your players are very lucky (and spoilt)!
Are the road sections sufficient to finish a game or are they "recycled" to the front?
Also I'd love to see those handouts if it is something you'd be willing to share.
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Wow!!!! More cracking stuff,love it :-* :-* :-*
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Tremendous stuff. A wonderfully thorough job, with fine specifics too - the right camber to the road, those dangerous-looking hedgerows ...
I'm sure your players appreciate how much you've put into this.
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Love-er-ly!! :o :o :o
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This road is really amazing. Many good ideas.
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:-* Stunning work! Great details and realism! :-*
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Really excellent! :-*
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This does look absolutely amazing for a road set in this period in time.
But chaps, dont forget, if you are copying this idea in a more modern setting, that you will need to build sections with roadworks, temporary traffic lights and traffic wardens for that really authentic look!
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What an excellent build and this...
(http://www.fierylions.nl/Pictures/ForumPictures/Pulp/CarChase.jpg)
...is a fantastic picture :-*
Wow looks like a scene from James Herriot all creatures great and small :-*
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Wow looks like a scene from James Herriot all creatures great and small :-*
I always felt that series was a bit lacking in machine guns. lol
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Well, to be honest, my campaign so far is pretty much machinegun-free up to this point.
Not for lack of trying on the players' parts I might add though... lol
All the shooting done in the first chase was with revolvers and assorted hunting rifles. They recovered two Lüger pistols off the hapless German baddies after this race though. I will have to start keeping track of all the hardware they're lugging around. Knowing them, they'll be toting a small army's arsenal in a couple of month's time.
I have one particular player who is especially wiley, and if I'm not careful, a scene, probably along lines very similar to these, will play out in the near future: He'll suddenly and totally unexpected produce that one heavy machinegun 'I recovered from that one plane we used when crossing the channel last year, remember? Well, I'm going to use it now here in this porcelain shop to open that closed door over there'... ::)
An iron memory and unregulated PC carrying capacity can be one nasty female dog of a combination for inexperienced GM's such as myself...
I'll try and see if I can post a more elaborate reply to the individual questions in the thread a bit later, when I have more time. :)
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No, let him have the heavy machine gun. Then, when he tries to use it as the game winner, have it either run out of ammo or jam with a dud round as his character probably is not a qualified armourer. :D
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No, let him have the heavy machine gun. Then, when he tries to use it as the game winner, have it either run out of ammo or jam with a dud round as his character probably is not a qualified armourer. :D
I wish... :?
[WILDLY OFF-TOPIC]
But let me briefly describe the background of his character so you can taste my occasional despair:
He's a HongKongese Chinese orphan, raised in an English run orphanage, but taught Kung-Fu by a master when he took to the streets (so he's a Kung-Fu master himself now). He then went to find his father, who he miraculously found out is still alive (so he's not actually an orphan at all, but left at the orphanage because his parents could not care for him at the time).
The father was serving in the British army in India, so he joined as well, but not just like that, no; he first became a mechanic (so he's now a technical wizard), then a boardgunner in the Airforce (so he knows all about heavy guns. Yeah; whatever) and finally became a Ghurka (No; really... ::) I had to bend over backwards to fix that; he's not a Nepalese national, so could not have actually joined. I twisted that in such a way, that he lied about his origin, was allowed in, then his deception was found out, but he was given an honorable discharge instead of a courtmartial because he had just saved the butt of another PC (a pilot officer (and Baronet), who crashed right in the middle of a pitched battle)).
So he followed said baronet to the UK, to be his manservant. Oh; and he took the old master with him, to be the gardener, and in the middlle of a recent session, all of a sudden asked me what his wife(!) was doing in the meantime (I swear; he made her up just there and then). He looks, basically, like Odd-Job from James Bond, including the dress, although I managed to avoid his hat being a Xena-like throwing disk (but he still has his Khukri-knife from his time with the Ghurka's hidden in his waistband). And did I mention he's the group's designated driver, because he's an expert driver as well?
Bear in mind that this is the very much tuned down version, which I managed to accomplish over several heated debates. Yes; he's the ultimate powerplayer, and his Super-chinese is a walking Swiss-armyknife, but it's all I could do to keep him from creating a true monster...
As a contrast, one other player has described his character as: 'The slightly overweight village doctor, who says 'preposterous!' a lot'... lol
[/WILDLY OFF-TOPIC]
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Daeothar;
It sounds like you need to start rewarding players that actually make the game fun to play and not those who try to bend everything in their favour!
Just make his father the bearer of an incurable disease that is only passed on genetically father-to-son, and have that hang over his head for a while.
It may get the point and might tone him down.
If not............hmmmmm.
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Dae,
You do have a conundrum with that player. You could always run to the extreme; "rocks fall, everyone dies," or just give him Typhus fever/the squits/macular degeneration/early onset arthritis/osteoperosis (delete as applicable). If he has that detailed a backstory, surely there needs to be a medical history as well?!
p.s. Your scenery inspires. :D
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Oh, he's a handful alright... ::)
He's our regular GM, and really into micromanaging in his own campaigns. It can get tiresome at times, when you need to keep book so detailed, you can riposte some of his surprise situations with notes you made 3 years ago. lol
But don't get me wrong; this one needs a very tight leash, but we're into this for the good times, and it always works out that way, and every session is interlaced with wild tangent remarks and laughter, so it's not as disturbing a factor as it might appear from my description.
So; it's all in good fun in the end, and he was pleasantly surprised when I sprung the additional .45 rules on them; everyone gets to roll their trusty D10's, and I get to play with more miniatures and scenery than I can possibly get painted in time without wrecking my marriage :D
Anyhow; I'll show them off here first of course ;)
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Brilliant.
To be honest, I was a bit skeptical when I first saw this thread, as the road sections looked a bit too short to be really practical, but you've done a fabulous job and, seeing how they all fit together in game-play, produced something great for the gaming table.
Oh, and the hedges are superb.
:-*
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:o :o :o No Comments!!!!!! :-* :-* :-* :-*
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:o My Gob is most defiantly smacked
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When I fist saw this, i expected it be the usual stuff we see, but this is a whole new level of detail and accuracy. Well done! :o
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Beautiful, beautiful.
Such attention to detail.
:-* :-* :-*
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Looks very realistic. Excellent work. The matte varnish on the cars also works very well to make them look less like toys, I will have to try that.
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Brilliant, thankyou!
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I'm speechless - this is absolutely stunning! The attention to detail, the final look of it, everything. Brilliant!
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Cheers; glad it is still well received, even when raised from the dead... :D
As it is though, I plan to use these again in the near future, and by then hope to have finished some of the additional features, such as the mailbox, maybe even a phone booth, the phonelines, hedges, traffic signs etc.
I'm actually even contemplating building another section, but with a bridge crossing over it. The road will narrow under the bridge (which will be brickwork I think), adding an extra hazard for the speeding cars... >:D
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Sounds excellent, Daeothar - sorry about the threadomancy. I'm not certain what came over me!
Love the idea of the road narrowing under a bridge - very hazardous!
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I was just pointed here by a more recent thread on roads - and I must say, this little project is quite jaw-dropping! :o
I have to ask, though, as I've at some point considered using sandpaper for another purpose, but dismissed it because of the, well, sanding effect: Does painting the sandpaper make it less 'grinding', so it wouldn't be 'dangerous' to lay a model on its side on it, or should this kind of solution be reserved for rubber tyres?
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IT LIVES!!
lol
Still; thanks Argonor; much appreciated. :)
As for the sanding paper; I've used a relatively small grain type to start with. And you are absolutely right in thinking that the paint takes away a lot of the abbrasiveness of the sanding paper.
I still would not like to rub a painted mini on the road surface, as it does remain course (obviously), but it's quite safe to roll wheels across it. Now, if you have models with fixed/glued wheels and you slide them over the roads, I'm pretty sure there'll be skid marks on the tarmac and the bottom of your wheels will be blank eventually.
But since I am using 1/43 die-cast models with rubber tires anyway, it is not an issue for me.
However, I've not used them for anything else but the chase game. As someone in my thread suggested though, they'd be pretty nice for use as terrain on a full gaming table, with some nice outside edges. I would have to build those first, before using the roads on the table. But I do think that using them in such a capacity would increase the risk of damaging paintjobs (for instance because models need to be placed on their sides to indicate being knocked out etc).
Then again; I also have a much older scratchbuilt bunker on which I used the exact same method, and I've never had issues with that... ::)
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Thanks, much appreciated! :)
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Bumping this again for a wee bit of a question: Sorry if I missed it, but how did you apply and paint the tar snakes?
Also, do you know what grit sandpaper it was you used? I suspect it may have been 100-200 or so, but I'm curious if you recall.
Thanks!
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No problem; after all, this project is directly related to the one in the threadomancy project. :)
The tar is simply pva glue, slightly thinned with water, and applied with a cocktail stick. I found the end result to be too wide though, so I will probably not thin the glue when doing this again.
I painted and weathered right over it, and in the end I believe I picked out the tarmac patch with another wash of thinned black paint (to make it look younger/newer) and simply painted the tar itself with straight black paint when almost all the weathering was done.
As for the grit of the paper; I remember going to the DIY store and just feeling the different sanding papers till I found one that I liked. The packaging is long gone, but I have some left from this project, so maybe there's something printed on the back.
I will check and let you know...
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Fantastique! Thanks!
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I don't game, but I build sets and terrains and whatnots...really a brilliant build I must say!!
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This is creative, inspiring and beautifully executed! Many thanks for reviving this thread!
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Top notch!