Tuesday, November 1, 2022

Models turned into terrain?

The link below goes to a Lead Adventure Future Wars post I did that shows some Buzz Lightyear ships - and at the bottom of the photo two pods (that I thought might be rockets). 

Well, I bought them today thinking I would use them as some sort of fuel towers or something like that - but they wouldn't stand upright.  Sure, I could easily find a way around that problem but first I unfolded them and laid them flat and realized - with the scale of the 15 mm figure in the photo below - they could be some sort of installation on my variation of Tatooine for my Star Wars gaming adventures.  That is likely the direction I will go, probably with some modifications and definitely with a significant repaint.  Now I just need to decide what sort of an installation.  I could still use one as fuel tower.  

I also found some much smaller versions of the Buzz Lightyears ships that I will be adding to my debris field so I now have three large vessels and three small vessels - no photos yet of the smaller vessels.  Still trying to find a way to represent an imperial destroyer type ship and do it for cheap.  Maybe I'll get lucky at a garage sale or swap meet or something.  If not, I will have to do some creative scratch building.

My overall color scheme for buildings and the debris field will be a desert sand color with varied tones of browns and tans, maybe some reddish tones - and some heavy rusting where appropriate.

Monday, October 31, 2022

A New Adventure - of the "Hope"ful kind

 A variation of what is below was posted on 10/22/2022 to my Whiskey Hills blog but, since that is Old West and Pony Wars, I deleted that post and doing this one.

In September the wife and I took our adult niece for her first trip to Disneyland.  She had a good time and gave them, on a scale of 1 to 10, 101!  So, that made it worthwhile.  

I made a point of visiting the Star Wars area and ended up going back to buy two Imperial Walkers and a Millennium Falcon that are mostly made of metal with some plastic parts.  Below are some photos showing what I purchased:

A group shot.
To the left of the closer shot of the Falcon is a Minifigs colonial highlander figure to show scale.
One side of one of the walkers.
The other side of the other walker - still showing the remnants of the price tag, same thing on the other side of the other walker.  Working, carefully, to remove the tags - mostly gone, just a little adhesive residue to clean off.  Fortunately, the Falcon tag was on the bottom so less of a problem. The Falcon was $17.99 US and the walkers were either the same or $1 more.

As of today, 10/31/22, that purchase price is substantially higher because I've added and/or ordered a whole bunch of additional vehicles and figures - some in earlier posts here. LOTS of figures, and some scratch building bits and pieces.  Still waiting on a few more vehicles and the vast majority of the figures - though hopeful some might arrive today.

edit: forgot that I'd added, once received, the Sand Crawler from Hot Wheels:


Yes, it is a good deal smaller than it should be but big enough to keep me happy.  The local Jawas only went for the mini version.  That is a Rebel Minis 15 mm Sahadeen War Maiden for scale.  She, and the twenty similar to her that came with her, will be part of the smugglers and/or marauders in my games.

I will do some serious weathering on the Sand Crawler to improve its looks.

edit:  Well, at least I got the last of the War-Mart ships today - but no figures.  Here are the two tie-fighters and transport.  I like that one tie fighter is locked in firing position and the other isn't.  I also did a check for other Star Wars items from Hot Wheels and discovered my swap meet find on a similar stand is Yoda's Jedi Straighter - which makes it my new favorite model being a HUGE Yoda fan.  And it scales very nicely with these ships.  All of the ships are easily removable from their stands.  The ships are probably a little small compared to 15 mm figures but that also means they won't over-dominate the table if used in a game.  A bit more of a challenge with the transport but maybe it is a different transport than I was hoping for - a deep space transport rather than a landing craft for troops and/or passengers.

I did get an invoice from one the manufacturers of 'not Star Wars' figures which means I should have lots of figures inbound - and that I am, mostly, done spending money on this set-up.  May still be ordering some 3D printed items.  



Sunday, October 30, 2022

AT-STs arrive

 More still on its way but late yesterday a package arrived with two AT-STs inside from Wall-Mart, Hot Wheels models:

Above image shows how the Hot Wheels items scale to my Disney Imperial Walkers.  Works for me.  The 15 mm Mech Pilot from Rebel Minis is for scale.  My two walkers and these two items will be the "muscle" of the Imperial Forces.
Not sure about the paint jobs on these - perhaps out of one of the clone wars movies (so called episodes 1-3 which I have yet to watch but will one day soon).  No plans to repaint, will just live with them as they come - except for some possible weathering.

Still awaiting a couple of X-wing fighters and a transport.  And LOTS of figures.  


Saturday, October 29, 2022

Star Wars: Huts and "Attack of the Dremel"

Out roaming this morning with the wife and checked out a Five Below store (they should be called 20 Below these days it seems) and found the kids game above - the igloos spoke to me as useful for my 15 mm Star Wars - so I bought two.
Here are all eight huts with a 15 mm figure, unpainted.  The two blue things are referred to in the game as "snow crabs".
Here is close up of one hut with the figure, Rebel Minis tech pilot.
No idea what to do with these except given them to some kid that likes them.  If someone has a 'great idea', let me know.
Here is Yoda's head decapitated from the toy ship.
And here is part of the Dremel attack.  The hole above is part of the kit.  The hole below will be a door - which is a very minor hint of what might happen to the head.
Here is the ship after more Dremel attacking, it will be part of the ancient debris field of crashed space ships.
And the last attack of the Dremel was modifying one of the huts just to make it look different - might be off by itself and home to some hermit or other.

And those snow crabs?  With a good wash, a prime cover, and a repaint - and maybe some work on those forward claws - and these will turn into robots.  I believe there is something like this - a robot - in at least one of the Star Wars movies.

Oh, the game was only $2.50 US at the local store so a pretty cheap find, the ten useful pieces, not including sales tax, were only fifty cents each.

Friday, October 28, 2022

Off the shelf ships - New Adventure

 The following photos are of Star Wars, mostly, items purchased at local War-Marts.  Either Hot Wheels or a couple of Buzz Lightyear items.  This all for a Star Wars setup.  While the ships are cool, my plan is mostly for planet based action, lots of 15 mm figures on order, a few received, buildings and parts for scratch building, too, on their way (plus some stuff I bought at a local hobby swap meet).

An overall shot, four on the left are Hot Wheels items, two on the right are Buzz Lightyear.
The two Buzz Lightyear ships will be turned into battle debris.  The unpainted figure to the left is a 15 mm Rebel Minis Mech Pilot, comes four to a pack, bought three packs.
Debris "in training".
Advanced Tie Fighter - Darth Vader's ship.
A regular Tie fighter.
Imperial shuttle.
Obi Wan Kenobi's Jedi Interceptor.
Same with wings adjusted.
Also wings adjusted.
The Buzz ships come with models that I think I will repaint and use as very large robots.

The two photos below are of swap meet finds.
This will be used as an escape pod ship - maybe.  A bit small scale compered to all else.
And this last one will be a debris ship - after I "decapitate" it of Yoda.  I have plans for the Yoda head, too, but those will be revealed at a future time.

Tuesday, February 22, 2022

The Lark Side

 I do hereby lay claim to the phrase "The Lark Side" (and trademark, copy right and whatever else means it belongs to ME!  I mean it, peanut.) for using to describe the quasi-historical gaming that lends itself to the lighter side of gaming that is still historical in core nature but just doesn't take itself so seriously.  

All you outraged Nappy fans please avert your attention, no apoplexy, please.

The rest of you, come on in the water is fine - can't say whether or not it is infested with sharks, alligators, leaches, or venomous snakes.  But, hey, it sure looks inviting.

Bwa...ha...bwa...ha...bwa-ha-ha-ha.  ðŸ˜€

Just used it in a local gaming group I belong to and realized that phrase has got some serious legs to it.

(edit: so I posted the above to LAF's general discussion board and it got deleted.  No doubt one of that class of Englishmen without a 'proper' sense of humor complained and it got deleted.  Or maybe it was one of those outraged Nappy fans!?  Some people just don't get tongue in cheek humor.  Oh, well.  It's so much more fun over here on the Lark Side.  At least England gave us Monty Python - so there is some hope.)

Friday, February 11, 2022

Ruga-ruga, Natives, and Porters

Just received from QRF Miniatures yesterday, part of the WWI range under the Africa sub-heading. 

Above are the Ruga-Ruga, four poses.
These are East African Tribesmen, seems to be five poses here.
And last are the porters, four poses.

You should be able to click on the photos to make them bigger.  Posting these "naked" photos for some who want to see bigger images than are on QRF website.