obsidian3d's Strange Aeons thread - Santa and Elf (page 4)

[D@rth J@ymZ]

Especially when he never wins...

It's your dice Uncle Mike...they have been cursed...either that or I slipped something into your Tim's when you weren't looking...

Nice work obsidian3d.  Looking forward to seeing what you come out with next.

[obsidian3d]

Not specific to Strange Aeons, but related to my gaming in that scale. Posted from my blog here http://obsidian3d.blogspot.ca/2013/04/my-first-wargames-factory-multi-part.html. There are tons more photos of each sprue (front and back) on my blog as well!

My First Wargames Factory Multi-Part Plastics

Received these 12 days after placing my order directly from Wargames Factory in the US. They responded quickly, the same day in fact, with a shipping confirmation. Strangely enough, and through no fault of WGF at all, the package ended up traveling all the way from Utah to Los Angeles, before finally being shipped up here to Canada (where it also passed through Richmond, BC). Not exactly effective logistics being exercised by the US Postal service there. Why would you send something 1000 km farther away from it's destination first!?

However, back to the topic at hand. I ordered four different boxes and after shipping and exchange they cost approximately $26 CAD each. One shop in town does stock a few of the WGF products, but not their full range. Were I to purchase them locally they would cost almost exactly the same price after taxes, but I wouldn't be able to get all the sets I wanted when I wanted them.

Either way really...order online and wait, or buy locally immediately but then have to order other stuff online anyway. As much as I want to support my local shops I also want my consumer experience to be relatively painless. So I'll probably be ordering online directly should I purchase more stuff from Wargames Factory in the future.



The first mix of stuff I bought was a little eclectic:
Shock Troopers (18 figures) - also marked as Greatcoat Troopers on the box
WWII German Infantry (30 figures) - late war Nazi troopers
Zombie Horde (30 figures) - male zombies
Zombie Vixens (30 figures) female zombies

I don't really have a need or use for the first two boxes from a rule or gaming standpoint. I've simply been interested in the world wars lately and thought they'd be interesting to add to my collection. Quite frankly I have no idea what I'm going to do with the Shock Troopers. The sort of remind me of Iron Army figures from the Sgt. Savage G.I.Joe line, so maybe I'll do something like that.

The Shock Troopers are great looking figures (and also have the best produced box). The sheer number of heads on each sprue is amazing. I'm going to be ordering the Heavy Weapons box very soon. Now that I have seen the basic shock troops I want to get that set so I can mix all the parts together.

The Zombie Horde I didn't really need at all, but thought the parts could come in handy for conversions. The more parts I can mix together, the more interesting brain-munchers I end up with! Of the four sets, this is probably the least well produced. Lots of good options, but the heads are very soft detail-wise.

I am currently working on a Pulp Figures gestapo squad and their accompanying mad scientist for Strange Aeons /  Kulten, but they are awaiting dedicated zombies for the scientist to experiment on! I still have a pair of unused Mantic zombie sprues and some Judge Dredd miniature game zombie parts so I thought I could bash together some actual Nazi zombie troopers by adding pieces from the German Infantry box parts. I know there are various nazombie kits out there, so this is more of a want-to-do thing than a necessity.

There is a set of 28mm Nazi zombie figures coming my way from the Achtung!Cthulhu campaign I supported this year, but they won't arrive until September at the earliest! From a tabletop point of view it'd look much more thematic to have Nazi zombie soldiers...but I rather think that the civilians make more sense. Why experiment on your own men when you have 1000s of slaves and prisoners to try it out on instead? Looking at the sprues for both sets I already have one kit-bash in mind...

The German Infantry box is really cool looking. There are simply a ton of options for arms and weapon customization here. The detail is great, and they come with bases! Great amount of stuff for the price.

And finally, the Zombie Vixens box was my main reason for the purchase. Since working on the other zombie sets lately I realized there was only one female in the whole 18 figures...only one, and from two different sets no less! While I'm sure a lot of women are faster runners or better at hiding than us slow chubby dudes, it doesn't make sense that no women would be getting caught or bitten during the zombie apocalypse. So I wanted to add some female walkers to my collection.

At a quick glance just opening all of the boxes and examining the sprues I'd say that these figures are a good value for the price. A grand total of 108 figures (with LOTS of options) for $108. I think you can all handle the math on that one for yourselves.

Wargames Factory gets a lot of flak online for the quality of their stuff, but so far I'm happy with what I've seen. My opinion may change once I get into constructing and painting these figures. If it doesn't though, I'll definitely be adding some of their Japanese samurai figures to my collection...even though I don't need those either!

[obsidian3d]

Reposted from http://obsidian3d.blogspot.ca/2014/01/field-report-sa-1234-fff.html where there are more pictures available)

Field Report: SA-1234-FfF

December 17th, 1923

From: Carl Selinger, Commanding Field Agent
To: Director Silver, Calgary Field Office

Director Silver,

It has been several months since my last update and I have much to share. Our last outing went badly, very badly. Simply put, Professor Armitage and Dr. McDermott were both killed during our investigation of the stone circle. In our attempt to flee from the area we were captured and held by a man named Hemler. At least, that's what all of his followers referred to him as.

The man wears a grey uniform identical to his followers, but atop his head is a gleaming silver mask. To my knowledge, he never speaks. However it seems his minions receive directions from him in some manner while in his presence. I hesitate to suggest telepathy or mind control, but after all I've seen in my work I certainly wouldn't rule it out.

While held captive they asked us innumerable questions about our mission, who we work for, what we know about the stone circle. It seems however that the have no knowledge of the Threshold and I'm proud to say that all of my men acquitted themselves admirably. No one revealed anything. But director, the things they did to the bodies of our fallen comrades in hopes of breaking us...unspeakable. I had begun to fear that we might succumb to these horrors when we were miraculously rescued!

Agents Carter and Moreau were somehow able to find us and spirit us away during the night. We evaded pursuit and have boarded a train bound for Marseilles. From there will return home to re-equip. With the current condition of my team, I fear that doing otherwise will simply result in more agents lost. I'll ensure that our findings are forwarded to the London and Paris offices before boarding our ship.

It seems that our rescuers are intent on returning home with us. I've no cause to deny them doing so. By the time we arrive I'm sure we will be ready to accept any assignment you may have for us.

Sincerely,

Carl Selinger

PS: I've cabled the Paris office and requested our new agent dossiers be forwarded to you ASAP.

--Communique from Paris--
ATTN: Director Silver
RE: Agent Dossiers

Monique Moreau


Randolf Carter

[Mason]

Nice work, obsidian3d!
 

Mademoiselle Moreau is certainly distracting.
 

[Comsquare]

Yeah, nice 
Who makes the "Mademoiselle Monique"?

[styx]

Any bets on what part  of the female body the sculptor likes? 

Great work!

[Mearc]

Yeah man what a lovely pair of knee's! 

[Uncle Mike]

Quite a few zombies that you have there, I predict a Death Cult in your future...

[obsidian3d]

Mason et al: Thanks for the comments / feedback. She is a bit of a hot pot isn't she? I had to come up with a name for her that turned into initials "MM". It just seemed appropriate.

Yeah, nice  
Who makes the "Mademoiselle Monique"?

It's a RAFM Call of Cthulhu figure. I bought her at the same time as my "Eddie Coffin" figure, the one with the flask and the tie all askew.

Uncle Mike, I finally got some actual zombified German soldiers, so Doctor Kaufman has some 'volunteers' to work with. I'll be putting together a new properly themed Death Cult sometime this spring.

[obsidian3d]

Reposted from http://obsidian3d.blogspot.ca/2014/04/scourged-forest-2x3-gaming-mat.html

What seems like a long, long time ago...I received some of these 6'x4' mats for my birthday (nope, not last year's). They're really good looking but the size makes them difficult to paint in my house. The only way I can do that is to put both of my large folding tables out together, push most of the living room furniture out of the way and try not to get paint on the floor. I've got my Broken Blacktop mat about halfway done...but that's not what I'm here to talk about today.

A few days ago I stopped in at Trilogy with the intent of picking up a Gale Force 9 mat for playing Star Trek: Attack Wing on. They were supposed to have gotten some in stock, and I was happy to find that the rumours were true. Looking around the shop a little more I saw that they had a "Scourged Forest" 2'x3' Zuzzy mat. I have a 6'x4' one, but since I've been playing a lot of Strange Aeons lately and all of my home-built scenery is of the grass-and-trees variety I decided to buy it.

The price was a fair bit higher than what you'd pay from the manufacturer direct. On the other hand, there is no need to pay for shipping, and Zuzzy is notorious for taking a long, long, long time to deliver the product. (Yes I'm speaking from experience.)

Anyway, I finally got a sunny afternoon and was able to finish painting this thing up. Here's a look at the whole mat all finished.



I didn't take any in-progress pictures, but I did try to keep track of what paints I used (I'm using cheap craft paints from Michael's). I figured if it turned out well, I'd know sort of how to reproduce it. If it turned out badly, I'd know what not to do.

Here's the basic recipe:

1) 2:1 mix of Forest Moss and Burnt Umber, mixed into a wash and applied liberally over the entire mat. This is the most time consuming part, because I had to wait overnight for the paint to dry. The result was very pleasing however, as the brown paint settled in the lowest areas leaving the higher spots a nice dark green.
2) Dry brushed the stones with Medium Gray
3) Painted the trees with Dark Brown and the exposed areas (where there was no bark) with Parchment.
4) Applied a wash of Burnt Umber onto the areas that looked like flattened grass or leaves.
5) 1:1 mix of Burnt Umber and Black on the broken ground. It looked like dried mud, but I didn't want to paint it that way, so I thought I'd aim for a stone / scree of some kind.
6) Applied a wash of GW Devlan Mud to all of the trees.
7) Put down a liberal dry brushing of Forest Moss on all of the grassy areas. I was careful to leave it a little patchy. I didn't want to cover up that nice base coat completely.
1:1 mix of Burnt Umber and Burnt Sienna dry brushed onto the leaf areas.
9) Dry brushed the grass again with Grass Green. I paid a lot of attention to the highest areas this time.
10) Dry brushed Parchment on the leaf areas.
11) Heavy dry brushing of the stones with Dove Gray. Much lighter use of the same colour on the trees and leaf areas.

I might go back over it with a spray sealer of some kind, but at the moment I don't have one. I'm really happy with the results. The details on this mat (and the others I have) are excellent. If you want one though, I recommend trying to find one locally, rather than ordering direct.

I'll leave you with a couple shots of some of the detail areas.

[Mason]

That has come out really well.
I like it!
 

[obsidian3d]

Many thanks. I'm very happy with it and am looking forward to playing some games on it!

[EndTransmission]

Oh I love that mat and all the work you've put into it, very good for woodlands and countryside. I need a mat, so I will have a look out for one of those

[obsidian3d]

More pictures available at http://obsidian3d.blogspot.ca/2014/04/quick-game-of-strange-aeons-treasure.html

Had some time yesterday work to with Uncle Mike on more 2nd Ed stuff for Strange Aeons. Mike and I played through the "Treasure Hunt" scenario. I love the deep one model from Uncle Mike's Worldwide but haven't painted mine yet so I provided the mat, Mike provided the scenery and models. We both agreed that the table looked awesome.



The Threshold deployed first, meaning the deep one had to start farther away that I would have liked. That river looked refreshing however, so he jumped right in on his way to a Lovecrafty snack.

Footsteps on the bridge echoed through the river waters, distracting the deep one from his easy meal. Unfortunately for the scaly beast, the agent on the bridge hates deep ones, and won the combat...allowing him to retreat from the dripping claws.

Blinded by hunger, the deep one foolishly pursued the agent. In the ensuing combat he was unable to catch the slippery agent and cold blood was spilled.



Capitalizing on the distraction, the threshold leader lined up a shot from across the river. Caught out in the open the deep one was fatally wounded (thanks to a critical hit from a double-barrel shotgun!) and the threshold was victorious.

The game was over a lot faster than I'd expected, and certainly not with the result I had hoped for. My first mistake was mixing up who was the leader of Mike's list. I thought it was the fellow with the shotgun, but he was the hater of deep ones. That gave him the chance to survive in close combat, provided he rolled well. Surprisingly (especially since we're talking about Uncle Mike here) those dice were coming up sixes!

I perpetuated my mistake by going after the hateful agent a second time, in hopes of killing him then mopping up the rest of the crew at my leisure. As you saw above that just didn't pan out for me.

A fun game nonetheless, and I know Mike was sweating as we put the board together. The potential for his agents getting maimed or murdered was exceptionally high. I'll get those pesky kids next time.

We also had a really good chat about some new monsters that I can't wait to try out. I'll have to keep those beasties a secret for now though...I don't want my cult membership revoked!

[Uncle Mike]

Thanks for posting these...the board looked fantastic. And most importantly, I won a game!