Michka's Aliens project (10/23/12, AAR from Rock Con 2012)

[manatic]

Please do. I just got done reading your Colonial Marines review again last night, and it made me want to buy more miniatures. I think that's fair.

Warms me to the bottom of my heart, that does!

[Gun bunny]

SO very cool i just want to start a bug hunt now!!! 

[Michka]

I ran an Aliens game this weekend at Cyphan, a science fiction convention in Chicago. Here's a short after-action report for the game, with lots of pictures.

The marines have been sent in to investigate a lose of contact with the colonists on PK-336. After having a look around the colony they find P.D.T. signals coming from the nearby mines. As they are leaving the colony to get into their APC they spot movement.


The marines are jumped as soon as they exit the colony.

A wrecked tanker truck is caught in the crossfire, and explodes, creating a lake of fire in their path. 

The marines are overrun and the fighting does not go well.

One of the smart gunners makes a run for it.

The corporal also make a run for it. He doesn't make it however, because one of the troopers launches a grenade attack that takes out six Aliens near him. The multi-directional acid shower he receives insures that nothing was left. Our not-so-heroic smart gunner is just outside the acid splash, and actually survives.

At this point the only surviving marines are the two smart gunners. The first gunner has made it to the APC, he's suffering the serious acid burns and nearly dead. He barely got the door closed. The second smart gunner makes his run across the board. He runs through the lake of fire, as did every other marine.

The second marine actually makes it to the APC, deciding to "T.J. Hooker-It". He chucks his gun and climbs on top of the vehicle as it roles away for the massacre. 

The buildings are terrain pieces from the HALO DVD game that I modified with plasticard. The tanker truck and semi are cheap toys tarted up like the buildings. The APC is a Galoob toy that I puttied up and re-painted. The silver hatches at the corners are milk caps with plasticard inserts. The hatches are hot spots, where new aliens arrive on the board. I'm using the Savage Worlds rules to run the game, but the hot spots rule from Ambush Alley/Force on Force.

I just forgot to put an 'f' in  the word 'modified'. I think it's time for bed. 

[Ironworker]

Very cool AAR!  Great to see this stuff in action.

[mpennock]

To give you an idea of the carnage in Michka's game, those white poker chips in the pictures represent the acid splash from an alien that has been dispatched by the marines. There were half a dozen more of the beasties that were taken out by incinerators and thus not marked by the chips....

[Estarriol]

Absoultely awesome! I have some 15mm stuff lying around I must do something with... What rules do you use? I was planning on adapting Mongoose's Battlefield Evolution...

[verd]

What rules do you use?

I am also interested in that.

Very cool stuff indeed.

[Earther]

I'm using the Savage Worlds rules to run the game, but the hot spots rule from Ambush Alley/Force on Force.

 

Excellent looking game. Nice to see the new terrain pieces playing a part too. Looking forward to more.

[verd]

Excellent looking game. Nice to see the new terrain pieces playing a part too. Looking forward to more.

Opps 

Thank you

[Michka]

Brag time.

Forgive me if I break my arm patting myself on the back, but I'm feeling some pride right now. I'd originally hoped to have more of my colony sections ready for the con this weekend. By the beginning of last week I could tell that wasn't going to happen. I was having a minor panic, because in the game description I'd said the scenario would take place in a colony. At the last moment I got the idea of placing the action in a series of out-buildings situated between the colony lock and the APC. I already had three building modified, painted and ready to go, but that was nowhere near enough to cover a 2 foot by 2 foot board. On Wednesday night I furiously modified more of the building pieces from the HALO DVD boardgame with Plasticard so I could have them at least primed for the game. On Thursday night, fueled by panic, I painted all six of the new buildings in a streaky wet brush technique. I liked the look so much I had to repaint the original three green buildings. With time to spare I cut out the oil slick to put under the tanker truck. That's just a piece of Plasticard, cut to shape, sprayed black and gloss coated. (As you can tell, I love working with Plasticard.) I still had a couple hours before I needed to sleep, so I painted the two vehicles too. So my grand total for that one night of painting was nine buildings, two vehicles and an oil slick. I still want to go back and add details to the buildings, but for a rush job I'm head over heels. 

Oh, one more thing and I'll stop being so self congratulatory. I don't use decals on my models. The numbers on the corridor corners and all the caution tape on the corridor sections is hand painted. I really hate working with decals. I don't think I've ever gotten them to work right. 

OK, done bragging now. 

[verd]

Brag time.

Forgive me if I break my arm patting myself on the back, but I'm feeling some pride right now. I'd originally hoped to have more of my colony sections ready for the con this weekend. By the beginning of last week I could tell that wasn't going to happen. I was having a minor panic, because in the game description I'd said the scenario would take place in a colony. At the last moment I got the idea of placing the action in a series of out-buildings situated between the colony lock and the APC. I already had three building modified, painted and ready to go, but that was nowhere near enough to cover a 2 foot by 2 foot board. On Wednesday night I furiously modified more of the building pieces from the HALO DVD boardgame with Plasticard so I could have them at least primed for the game. On Thursday night, fueled by panic, I painted all six of the new buildings in a streaky wet brush technique. I liked the look so much I had to repaint the original three green buildings. With time to spare I cut out the oil slick to put under the tanker truck. That's just a piece of Plasticard, cut to shape, sprayed black and gloss coated. (As you can tell, I love working with Plasticard.) I still had a couple hours before I needed to sleep, so I painted the two vehicles too. So my grand total for that one night of painting was nine buildings, two vehicles and an oil slick. I still want to go back and add details to the buildings, but for a rush job I'm head over heels. 

Oh, one more thing and I'll stop being so self congratulatory. I don't use decals on my models. The numbers on the corridor corners and all the caution tape on the corridor sections is hand painted. I really hate working with decals. I don't think I've ever gotten them to work right. 

OK, done bragging now. 

 

[Commander Vyper]

Yup amazing what you can pull out of your hat when you're up against it. Good job.

[Michka]

I realized I hadn't taken any close up photos of my APC and Aliens yet, so here they are. The APC I use when gaming is a Galoob toy. I've filled the seams and re-painted it so it matches the look of my miniatures. In the second photo you can see the main advantage of having a toy. The turrets still move. The hatch on the side slides open, and the tires even roll. I'd usually disable the wheels, but on this toy the wheels are held in place pretty good. This doesn't stop my players from running it around the board while muttering "Vroom-vroom" though.





This next photo is of a 1/72 scale APC resin model I picked up many, many moons ago, parked in front of the Galoob toy.



And lastly, here is a photo of all 27 Aliens I've re-based so far. I still have quite a few more to re-base but I've been busy making terrain lately.

[Michka]

Good Grief!!! It's been three weeks since I updated this thread. I finished the third and forth corner sections as well as the intersection floor. Here goes...



And here's a picture with the wall and corners removed from one side, to show how the wall sections sit on the floor pieces. I didn't want to attach the walls to the floor so they would be easier to store.



The light gray board the corridor is sitting on is 24" by 24". Originally this was going to be the size I was aiming for. That plan has changed. Considering I haven't even made wall sections with door yet I'm going to need a longer board. Said walls with doors are currently in the planning stage. I started working on another wall section this week, but I've been distracted by another project.

[mpennock]

Looking good!