Five Parsecs from Home campaign (3/12/25 Story arc concludes!)

[hubbabubba]

Good stuff.

The gangers look the part. Very Metal, like Conan meets Mad Max, just the way I like 'em

[mikedemana]

The gangers look the part. Very Metal, like Conan meets Mad Max, just the way I like 'em

Yeah, I call them to Barbarozas...

Painted up some more stuff! A few quick batches...



First, I painted up a dozen more Aliens. These are 3D prints from JS Wargamer Printing. After painting up my first pack of six, I was stunned by how EASY they were to finish. Literally, three steps (not counting flocking, which took more time than painting):
1. Spray paint black
2. Go over it with a 50/50 mix of acrylic black paint and water to ensure full coverage.
3. Dry brush metallic - I use a craft paint Battleship Gray, but any similar would work.
-- and you're done!





Next up, a pack of 8 Star Wars Legion barricades. I went back and forth about how to paint them up. I even did a Google Image search to see how other hobbyists did them. I went with the same steps #1 & #2 from the above Aliens, then:
1. Medium gray dry brush
2. Light gray dry brush
3. Thin line of very light gray at the top of each section or compartment of the barricade.
4. Wet brush of "Georgia Clay" in the spaces between the barricade sections.
5. Painted keypads black, and then added bright colorful buttons.
6. Black wash.

I really like how these turned out. I have another pack of them which will make it to the tabletop soon.





This is another piece of Sci-Fi scattter that I picked up from the new 3-D print vendor called A Critical Hit. Same one the "Alien Nodule" came from. Whatever was mixed in to the material gives it an effect similar to a color shift paint I've used called "Black Flash." One side has a very yellowish-green shimmer, the other fades to black. Thus, very little painting on this piece to get it ready. I painted the metal container straps, the metal anchors at the bottom, and the base itself Iron Wind Metals Steel. I highlighted the straps Pewter. Lastly, I painted all the recessed panels black and added a myriad of lighted buttons in yellow, green, red, and white. Very quick to paint up!

A look at the whole mini-diorama I set up to show them off:



More stuff on the way! More pics and more indepth discussion of the painting on my blog:
http://leadlegionaries.blogspot.com/2024/10/more-aliens-star-wars-barricades-sci-fi.html

Mike Demana

[scotty]

Those alien models are superb

[mikedemana]

Those alien models are superb

Thanks, Scotty! These MAY see the tabletop in my Five Parsecs campaign, so I am including them in my usual thread. I finally got around to painting up some Star Wars imperial stormtroopers. I decided to throw in some walkers, too. Not the Legion ones, but something from Wiley Games line of resin models that I thought fit the look.



I went back and forth on how to paint stormtroopers and their white armor with black bits here and there. I decided that black priming and white dry brush wouldn't really work out well. So, white priming it was! I remember from painting my Bronze Legion what a pain in the butt it was to pick out all of those joints in the armor and such. And guess what? It was STILL a pain with stormtroopers!



I also took this as an opportunity to test out a recommendation of my friend Jason from South Carolina. He has begun using artist's gesso to prime his miniatures. Like he cautioned, it looks like it is going on too thick when you apply it, but it does a nice job of "shrink wrapping" onto the miniature. It does an even better job of "grabbing"t he paint and aiding in coverage. One coat of normal acrylic white paint was enough. I think I will be using this brush-on gesso from now on, at least for things I paint white.



I did run into an interesting problem after applying the base coat of white. I couldn't see the detail -- it was TOO blinding white!  So, I problem solved by using a very diluted black wash on the figures, which settled into the crevices and marked out where I needed to do my tedious black detailing. For any areas that I felt got too dark with the wash, I went back afterwards and did white highlighting. A final step, after the blasters, flocking and spray coating, was to use my brush-on Vallejo clear gloss to give the top of the helmet, chest, and other highlighted areas a bit of shiny. I do like how they came out, but am glad that this will probably be the only batch of storm troopers that I need to paint! 



The walkers are about twice as tall as the stormtroopers, and I thought they'd look good alongside them as heavy support. So, I gave them a white base coat. I decided to go with metallic color highlights, choosing three of my favorites -- a deep red, dark blue, and "Christmas tree" green. I liked how they turned out, though I am wondering if I should have done non-metallic accent colors instead of the metallics. Too late to change my mind now! I do like the Wiley Games resin line of miniatures. My only complaint is they are so freaking tall! Which of course didn't matter with these three (called BLST3R on their website).



Finally, the Sci-Fi building they are posed in front of is from Acheson Creations. A local distributor was liquidating his line at a convention I attended back in May, so I picked up a bunch of stuff at 50% off, including this interesting looking building. I used my favorite craft "Chocolate Brown" metallic as the base coat. I went back and forth over what color to do the ribs, but decided to go with the deep metallic red because I knew they went well together. I used battleship gray metallic for the steal plates bolted on, with a little bright bronze here and there as an accent.

I did run into an unexpected problem with the building, though. For more about that, and more pictures of the miniatures, check out my Lead Legionaries blog entry:
http://leadlegionaries.blogspot.com/2024/10/stormtroopers-walkers-acheson-building.html

Thanks in advance for any comments. Now that the local convention that I help run is over, I will hopefully roll up Mission 5 for my crew and update the adventures of the Inconceivable in their quest to find the lost treasure of Amazonas Galactica!

Mike Demana

[Freddy]

I really like those walkers! Nice job on the others too.

[nozza_uk]

Good job on everything. BigMrTong sculpts?

Not seen the Walkers before, they look the part and look like ex Clone Wars droid types.

I agree Stormtroopers can be a pain to paint. For me, I eventually found a fairly simple paint job. White primer, then I picked out some bits with black, followed by a wash with Nuln Oil.

[mikedemana]

Good job on everything. BigMrTong sculpts?

White primer, then I picked out some bits with black, followed by a wash with Nuln Oil.

I believe so...some (but not all) of JS Wargamer Printing products are ones he's bought the license to produce. If I end up having to paint more stormtroopers, I just might try that method. Thank you (and Freddy) for the comments!

Mike Demana

[mikedemana]

Sorry for the lack of games reports, lately. It's been a busy time getting a couple non-gaming things done. I have been keeping up with my normal morning routine of putting in an hour or so painting or building terrain. My latest batch of Sci-Fi minis that might see the tabletop in either Five Parsecs or another Sci-Fi skirmish is this large batch of droids.



They come from a variety of sources, including these three above. They began life as pieces of Sci-Fi scatter terrain from Diabolical Terrain. I sawed off the bottom quarter of them and mounted them on treads (tracks?). I scavenged these from Reviresco packs of gun droids and such that I picked up from RRB Minis & More. I like how they turned out. I was going for an R2D2 effect and think it comes close.



These two above are "Simon 6" from the Retro Raygun line from Hydra Miniatures. I gave them the white and primary color scheme that the others received to make them blend in a bit better. Otherwise, they're very "retro" looking, but I really like them. If you think about it, early Star Wars was pretty retro looking, too. These are metal minis and are pretty heavy. I dropped them while painting a few times, cursing, but finding they came through with no damage. I purposely did one in white with color trim then reversed that with the other.



I also picked up two of Retro Raygun's "Blocko the Squarebot" who takes retro up to 10, I think. Still, I like its funky mid-20th century vibe. I noticed while putting these together that if I left off the arms and head, I had a pretty good replica of Star Wars's famous Gonk -- the walking trash can droid. I couldn't resist doing that, tossing both the head and arms in my bits box for who knows what project! 



I really like how the Retro Raygun Hoverbots came out. They come in a pack of five, but since this was a big batch of miniatures to do all at once, I did only two. I can definitely see me going back and doing the other three. Either that or I'll steal one and convert it into Grogu's floating bascinet!  Of course, that would mean I need a Grogu figure...! I like the white and single color look to these. Doing the scissors like appendages in white somehow makes them look less threatening and more civilian like -- which is what I wanted.



The final droids/robots are Reviresco Monowheels. I envisioned these little guys as trash collectors let loose on the streets. They roll around on their single wheel and snatch up rubbish and deposit it inside their jaws. When full, they roll to a disposal facility and vomit it into the chutes. I like the combination of matte and metallic colors here. I stuck with the white theme with these, as well. You'll notice one of the poor little blighters lost an arm. I was carrying them from my desk (finished) to where I was going to take pictures when I noticed the arm was missing. I went over the carpet a half dozen times and never found it. So, I guess there's a Mark I version with one arm and a pair of Mark II with two arms! 

There are some more photos on my blog, as well as more indepth discussion of how I painted each set up and why. Check it out here, if you're interested:
http://leadlegionaries.blogspot.com/2024/10/hopefully-these-are-droids-im-looking.html

Thanks in advance for any comments!

Mike Demana

[mikedemana]

New crew member, Seon Vogalia -- "rescued from 20 years of sleep!"

Teaser for the next battle:

As the crew of the Inconceivable rode back from Dichelles capital to the spaceport on the warm, comfortable monorail, they teased new member Seon Vogalia about his celebrity status. Many news services on the planet had picked up the story about the "Man Rescued from his 20 Year Sleep" about his escape pod. He had even been interviewed by one of the stations, reflecting back on what he remembered of the icy planet before departing on his fateful mission two decades ago. All this new-found publicity for his rescuers, the Inconceivable crew, made Gunny a little nervous, though.

"Relax, Gunny," Capt. Alistair said. "It will make scaring up clues about the lost treasure easier with Seon being famous. Now everyone who remembers anything will be talking about how that ship, too, departed Dichelles 20 years ago before disappearing. The captain seemed animated, now that the quest for the treasure was officially underway.

"What if some people made those ships disappear?" Gunny asked. "And what if those same people are still around? And let's say they're still here on this iceball and don't want us searching for it." Gunny folded his arms. "All I am saying is it puts a big target on our backs, captain." The rest of the crew grew quiet, looking from one of the old friends to another. Finally, Alistair chuckled.

"You know, if B61 were here, he would say that the trail we are following has...ahem, grown cold here on Dichelles." Several of the other crewmen laughed, too, knowing the Security Bot's fervent efforts to understand and utilize human humor. They'd left the Security Bot back at the ship to watch over things while the rest of the crew explored the capital city of icy Dichelles. Gunny finally relaxed and shook his head.

"Well, I understand a cold trail, but B61 also wouldn't want things to get too...hot, right? That's why we brought along these duffel bags, right?" Gunny patted his duffel that contained his rifle. Similar bags were carried by most of the other crew members, containing their weapons and ammunition. If the authorities questioned them, they figured they could always produce the official letter from the Varxian Foreign Service warning them that a terror group from their planet was tracking them and planning an attack. "Speaking of which, I am a tad worried we are the only passengers on this monorail. Shouldn't there be more people headed to the spaceport? People looking to get off this icy rock? Or workers headed to their jobs?"



All the crew fell silent at that, glancing around the interior of the monorail, then outside at the snow-covered trees and rocks rushing by. The dim orange sun was setting, and it would be dark in about an hour or so. The crew had taken this departure because they wanted to get back to their ship before nightfall. Riding a shuttle around the sprawling spaceport to the Inconceivable in the dark seemed like a bad idea after what had happened in their last mission.

"What the...?" Gunny barked, pointing at a trail of sparks arcing towards the monorail from a patch of woods. "Everybody down and brace yourselves!" A muffled explosion sounded ahead, then the piercing screech of metal on metal. The monorail tilted to the left, paused, and then rolled over on its side with a loud bang. The left side of the monorail was now the floor, and its thick plexiglass windows shattered. Intense cold, snow, and debris rushed into the compartment. The lights flickered and went out. The passengers were tossed around despite their best efforts to brace themselves or hold onto something. The slide seemed to go on for minutes, but eventually the monorail car ground to a halt.

Blue light filtered into the car from the above, right-hand windows. Snow and debris covered the inside as the passengers began to check themselves for injuries. And then another noise began. Metallic pinging along the monorail's undercarriage began slowly, then picked up in intensity. The pings coincided with loud popping noise from outside. "Gunfire!" Someone shouted. "Everybody up and out! Grab your bags, we're under attack!"

To be continued...

Mike Demana

[Stryder]

  Oh man! eagerly waiting for the next installment to see what happens next. great writeup!

[scotty]

Looking forward to this one

[mikedemana]

When I was rolling up the scenario, I was worried that this might be another walkover. However, the weapons the enemy was armed with made me reconsider. There were four Colonial Militia armed with military rifles (range 24") and one with a shell gun (grenade launcher, range 30"). All of them would outrange my characters, which could make it very interesting.


The enemy in the bronze armor of Dichelles colonial militia set up in two groups

I set the terrain up with three large patches of woods, six smaller rocky outcrops, and a handful or linear lines of rock. Then I rolled to see which side they would deploy on. I measured the range to make sure no matter where we deployed, they would begin in range while all except Gunny would begin out of range. I was trying to be set a good ambush. The problem was where to deploy the grenade launcher? If I put it in the forest, the best cover in the center of their side of the board, it would immediately be in range of Gunny with his telescopic sight. So, I pushed it back to the rocky outcrop so he would be in range, but Gunny would not.



Here's the beginning of my battle report on my Lead Legionaries blog:
http://leadlegionaries.blogspot.com/2024/11/five-parsecs-from-home-mission-5.html

Four of the six staggered out onto the snow and ice, emerging from the wreck of the monorail. The saw a snow-covered area of forest and rocky outcrops. Bright sparks of automatic weapon fire flashed in the distance like sparks before their dazed vision. Alistair looked around and saw Doc and Zorina nearby and yelled to them. "Into the woods - take cover!" Further down, obscured in the smoke, Gunny waited for a gust to temporarily clear his view. He saw the captain and two other crew running for the woods on his right. Good, he thought. To his left, he saw a small, rocky outcrop. When the smoke began to obscure his view of the distant woods, he marked the spot in his memory.  "Now!" he thought to himself, and sprinted for the rocks. He emerged from the smoke and behind the outcrop too quickly for the distant attackers to get off a shot.



Gunny crouched behind the rocks and shouted back towards the monorail. "Cephvarx! Seon! You need help?" He heard both call back, saying they were okay. It was just taking them longer to clear the debris off of them and get out of the monorail's wreckage. Gunny nodded, and squatted down to remove his rifle and ammo from his bag. He inspected it to make sure it was undamaged, loaded, and good to go. Crawling up on the rocks, he sighted through his scope at the largest patch of distant woods. Three muzzle flashes, and the sound of more shooting blocked by a nearer woods to his left. Sounded like one more rifle. A whistle and trail of sparks arced from behind the woods and then slammed into the woods the captain and other crew had disappeared into. Five attackers total, it seemed. "Well," he whispered, "now, time for a little payback..."



He sighted through the scope, making out the glint of bronze-colored armor coming from where the muzzle flashes were originating. Breathing slowly in and out, he made out the shadowy form of one of the ambushers. Deep breath, exhale half of it, s-q-u-e-e-z-e the trigger. BANG! One attacker fell to the forest floor, unmoving. "One down," Gunny called out over the communicator to Alistair. He sighted again and fired a second time. He saw another attacker flinch and hit the dirt. "Damn! Close..." Meanwhile, he could hear from Alistair's communicator the sound of the captain dashing through the woods, snapping twigs. The captain informed him the group was fanning out through the woods to get to the edge, Alistair would be closest on the left, Zorina in center and point, and Doc on the right. "Good," Gunny called. "If you're in range, just hunker down and fire. We can outshoot these guys. If Zorina is out of range, there is cover just outside the woods she can make it to and be able to fire her beam pistol."



Gunny continued to curse as he aimed and missed again. Meanwhile, on the other side of the battlefield, the attacker with the grenade launcher realized his predicament. "Blast," he called to his companion, "they have a sniper!" What's more, the three who had hightailed it to the woods were out of their sight, now. He and his companion had no targets from their position in the rocky outcrop. "Let's go -- to the trees straight ahead! Stay out of sight until we have an angle on the woods those guys are hiding in. Don't get in view of the sniper, yet -- we'll save him for last!" The two, wearing the bronze-colored armor of the Dichelles Colonial Defense forces, broke cover and darted for the trees. Snow flew as they crouched and ran forward, then angling to their left, once under the branches. Gunfire continued to echo. "Hurry," he shouted to his companion. "At least one of our guys is down!"



Meanwhile, both Alistair and Doc had entered the gun battle with the two remaining attackers in the woods. Since Gunny's first kill, no one had scored a hit as everyone hugged the cover of the ground and sheltered behind tree trunks. Zorina's voice broke in on the communicator. "I'm at the edge and still out of range. I'm going to dash for the rocks to the front of me -- I will be in range, then. Cover me, please..."

Gunny called out, "You got this, girl -- this is what you've been training for. Close down the range and show them what you got!" The Valkeeri darted forward, difficult to pinpoint with her shimmer cloak mimicking the snow and trees to observers. She heard her companions firing to keep the enemy's heads down and sprinted toward the rocks. She heard the snap of rounds missing her, then ducked down as she reached the rocks. She took a few quick breaths, hefted her beam pistol to her eyes and slowly raised up along the rocks. The first muzzle flash drew her attention. She could see the glint of bronze against the dark green of forest. She aimed, breathed as Gunny had taught her, and pressed the trigger. A brilliant red bolt leapt from the barrel of her gun, clearly illuminating the shocked attacker as it took him in the chest. He screamed in pain and pitched backward, unmoving. "YES!" Zorina crouched back down and pumped her fist as retaliatory shots ricocheted off the rocks all around her.

Check out the rest on my Lead Legionaries blog...   
http://leadlegionaries.blogspot.com/2024/11/five-parsecs-from-home-mission-5.html

Mike Demana

[ithoriel]

Alastair dead? Inconceivable!! 
Nice scenario and great AAR.

[mikedemana]

Alastair dead? Inconceivable!! 

 

Thank you, sir!

Mike Demana

[The_Beast]

Going to have to go back over the thread, but while this is neither Sparta NOR madness, just enough of both to please.

'This is another piece of Sci-Fi scattter that I picked up from the new 3-D print vendor called A Critical Hit.'

I feel I have to ask: am I the only one, looking at the yellow side, that the image makes the drybrushing into a clear cover?

Ah, maybe I strayed too far into the madness side.

Doug