New Year! New Game!

Not a new year, really, but each September i undergo a spiritual re-awakening.

I have been playing a few porxy games of Flames of War and have decided it is worth me following up on, basically because:
1) I like 15mm
2) I like playing games, not collecting games and never having a chance to play them.

Having been loitering around the local gaming club, I've managed to meet a few players, so have decided to piece together a1000 pt. mid-war German force for next week.


Most of these figs are by Forged in Battle, not battlefront. Mostly because I'm a contrary arsehole, but they are nice figs and I enjoy them. They are a little smaller than most makes so as long as I stick to FiB it should be ok. Read More......

First Stargrunt squad done!

Things that I have learnt painting my first 15mm:
*My eyesight is going
*It really doesn't matter if each mini isn't that good. "That'll do, pig".
*DO NOT USE VARNISH. The white on the bases is my Humbrol varnish melting the base. I DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS PRODUCT
*A full army/squad always looks better than an excellently painted single figure Read More......

Leviathan and Stargrunt projects!

I've had this mini (well, it stands 12 cm tall) for over a decade. It is from the now defunct 'Leviathan' game, and I've always loved it but never had a reason to use it. I looks like that know I might thanks to Nuclear Renaissance! Over the years, and moving country, it has taken a beating and will need a lot of attention to get up to scratch. Embarrassingly, I've never painted a mini this big before so I may have to approach it with a little caution.





As you can see, it needs a lot of filing and putty before it is painted.




On top of this, Stargrunt! I've been playing (and loving) SG a fair bit recently so went and bought a platoon of New Israeli from Ground Zero Games. The two APCs are from Old Crow.

All thats seven 8-man squads, a command squad and 2 mounted sentry guns all for 25 quid +p&h. Bargain.





I almost don't want to paint them because the promise of what they will be will always be better than the reality of how I will paint them. But we've all got to grow up, children, and I should start these this week.
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More design work.

Will I ever get to actually making this thing? Front chassis, rear chassis, mid chassis, turret, barrel/muzzle. 5 pieces so far. As far as I can tell, my limited skills can make masters for all pieces, and all should be able to be cast from a one-directional mould. Now just transferring the images to reality. The basic shapes are OK, but need more details so they don't look so boring when they are cast. Doors, hatches, armour plates, etc. So, time to start making masters!

EDIT:
This is as much drawing as I'm willing to do. I'll wing it from here.
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Final design?

This may be what I end up making. Instead of copying tanks that I can buy from a toyshop I might as well try to make something I haven't seen before. So, GRAV TANK TO THE RESCUE!

What I have in mind is an articulated tank, that is, 3 main body pieces that can be positioned however one chooses. This would be how the tank steers. On 2 grav pads, the tank would have a turning circle of 0 metres. I think 20-30 of them would look pretty good on a battle field.

The turret needs to be bigger. I may change the middle section to be a thin support for a larger turret/crew section. TBC.

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Sketch-up part 2

Whilst well and truly still in the planning stages, I'd thought I'd knock up some CAD drawings to help me visualise what it is I want the tank to look like.

As you can see, I haven't yet decided what I want the turret to look like. Who knows, I may decide I just want lots of little buggies. That's allowed, right?

I'm thinking that it is a bit tall for a tank. Modern tanks (e.g. Abrams) are about 8 feet high, where as this is 12 feet to scale already, not including turret. I may reduce the size of the upper chassis from 15mm to 8-9mm, reduce the wheels and the lower chassis, and make any turret wide and flat. It will still be larger than a modern tank but that's the future for you.

I've thought about how I will cast it. Rather than have a 2-piece mould and all the problems that come with it, I'm thinking about doing two 1-piece moulds and pinning the castings together. The top half of the chassis will be one, the bottom the other. The front guards and wheels I can sort out afterwards:

This leaves the issue of how I want the turret to look like. I may need to be a bit creative with it if I only want to use 1-piece moulds.

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Casting project time!

I'd thought I'd start a new blog with a new project. Basically, I've been very inspired by these two blogs. I want to make and cast my own tanks for 15mm Sci-Fi (in a word, Stargrunt) in resin and make hundreds of them and zoom around the table top with a unique battalion of tanks.

Having been MANY years since I've done anything with resin, I'm gearing myself up for some mistakes along the way.

Sketching!

Fail to prepare and prepare to fail. I thought I might draw a 1:1 plan of what I think the tank should look like. I haven't drawn a turret on it, namely because I'm not sure what I want it to look like yet. Read More......