10 more days and counting...

So, I still have some time before I get back home.  So I figured I share a pic of one of my most fun to make conversions. A Chaos Lord of Khorn on a bike.

I was hoping to capture the whole blood drenched and stained look and feel......

Enjoy...

While away... A little post

Figured I post a few pics, just so you know I am still around.... but still 2 more weeks before I get home.

Here are a few Warmachine pics... Long live Khador!

Enjoy, and remember..Tips, suggestion or critiques welcomed....

Gruntz, Its been a long wait.. But I went ahead and bought it!

Gruntz... Yeah Gruntz, the game!

So, why the hype? Well for me, I was always a 40K Junkie.. I never played anything else, it was 40K or bust. But in the last few years, maybe getting older and a little wiser I started to crave something else, something with some flavor, so I started looking for it.

A couple of years ago, this game was just being developed by a gentlemen named Robin Fitton. And it was a fluke I happened to find one of his YouTube videos for a tutorial on painting.. 15mm. Intrigued, by what I was seeing I dug a little more and found out he was developing a 15mm sci fi miniatures game. It looked pretty cool. So I silently join his yahoo groups page and started to follow all the goodness that was going on there.

It was his page, that got me hooked into what I call my new obsession.. 15mm sci fi gaming. What a world it has opened up to me, the sheer mass of figures that can be purchased through the multitude of vendors is staggering, and there is so much out there you can really paint and design your own flavor of minis.. your way.. its awesome..

Well anyways, I digress, so while I was waiting for his game to be developed a little more, I got introduced to Ambush Alley Games, Tomorrows War.. which for the past year I have been pretty steady at playing, and  then more recently got involved with Two Hour Wargames 5150 Star Army, which in itself one of the best designed games for wanting to have fun.. I really enjoy that system so far, and I am only still learning it.

So far, this has nothing to do with Gruntz, so I will get to the point. I have been wanting to buy it since it came out awhile back but I have been holding off, for one reason, finding other players. In my neck of the woods, its very hard to break out a new game to people. Most people here are either GW or PP gamers. Now some of them also play a few other games which happen to be 15mm, but if you are not a part of "the group"  bringing in a new game is not going to be easy. Even more so for me, where my gaming is limited to when I am home from work... If I am lucky I get 3 game nights every six weeks. So games like Tomorrows War and 5150 are very "solo" friendly so those I bought and fully enjoy! But following all the news of Gruntz, I just heard of a few new things, I couldn't resist it any more.. I had to have the game that started me on this journey of 15mm

So here I am, on the road(work 200nm out at sea), looking on wargames vault with Gruntz in my Shopping Cart, and what pops up on my Google+ account?! "Robin Fitton has added you to his circles", and then shortly after that, he commented on my blog about some of my stuff. The one person who single handed, got me hooked on this new medium of gaming. How frikken cool is that!?? So taking that as a sign from the gaming gods, I quickly purchased the Gruntz rule book.

And wow.. I am here at work, and at my breaks, reading through the rules as quick as I can! This game is not optimized for solo play, but this game and the design of it is pure genius from what I have read so far. This is a game, that I will indeed push when I have game nights at home, and I hope the few people who do Sci Fi game in town will be open to this system! It seems like its going to be a lot of fun to play!

Anyways, I wanted to show my support for this game and its designer out of respect. As personally, I would not have even gotten close to being anywhere near involved with 15mm miniatures if it wasn't for his own drive and passion towards this style of gaming. I am sure there are much higher trafficked blogs on the net that give all types of reviews of games, more in depth looks, and so forth, but if you guys can take anything at all from my post, go ahead and buy this game and add it to your collection! Its only a few bucks, and downloadable from Wargames Vault.. so go get it, and try it out..

Project 2013: First Squad Completed...

For those brave souls following my progress on the 2013 project. Here is my first completed squad of Khurasan's Exterminators in Environmental Exo-suits.

I want to do a little more touch up and add more effect to the shoulder light and the light flare on the visor but I don't know what to do or how to do it!? 

If anyone out there got some simple tips they don't mind sharing, feel free to leave the comment below.

Time For A New Look..

Hi all..


I want to change up the way the blog looks.. I am in the process of playing around with the layouts, and backgrounds..

I would like to know if people find the text hard to read now on the blog page?

Please leave a comment below and let me know.

Thanks

JC Locke

5150: Star Army Basic Training - Target Practice

Ok.. 

So, the last few days I have decided to start to learn a new ruleset from Two Hour Wargames. 5150: Star Army.

What I decided to do was place a few figures on the table, set up a basic training area and start trying some of the basic mechanics of the game.

So, with volunteers from the Terra Nova PDF, a small squad entered into the training field and broke off into 2 opposing teams of 4.

Each team had is wearing Soft Body Armor and as a SAW weapon and a leader with a rep of 4, and for that matter, everyone was a rep 4.
Armed with the latest Non Lethal Electronic Weapons and Immobilization Harness Systems, the two forces faced off.

Blue Squad needs to run past the alley way to the other building across the street.

Green Squad lay in wait. Target practice is fun!

Blue Squad rapid moves across the street, the first two members enter the alleyway triggering an in site test from the green squads SAW gunner and regular. The rest of the blue squad move 2 more inches. Sadly for the Blue Squad, two of their members are left in the open. The site test was passed 2d6, so the green squad opens up. The SAW gunner fires 2 shots each, rolling a 12+4 and a 9+4 rep, two hits. The Impact rolls results in Knocked down for both Blue members. Which then triggers two out of the fight results. The second green squad member fires 2 shots at the lead guy, and 1 more at the leader. Scoring a 7+4 and a 2+4 (miss) this results in a second knocked down and OOF result for the lead blue squad mate..

This results in a man down test, which the Blue squad gets a duck back result. The two remaining blue guys are with in 4 inches of two down members so try and retrieve them. (This is where I get a little unclear of how this works) So far they rapid moved for 6 (they still have 2 more inches before they need to roll for rapid move) So they move their remaining 2 inches to pick up the wounded members, this triggers another in site test, and the end results were much of the same, the last two were out of the fight.

So the question I have from here is if they did manage to retrieve the two members with out getting mowed down, how would have the movement work out?

I am allowed upto 6 inches of duck back movement, do I used this allowed movement to retrieve my fallen members, or do I get to use the rest of my rapid move which I decleared earlier but never had the chance to use yet?

So 2 inches to get to the fallen members, and then the last 4 inches to move back to cover? 

or

Move 2 inches of my regular move (now at 8 total, do my rapid move test) and move the remainder of that, and then add in the 6 inches for fall back?

More Painting Progress..

Just a few more sample shots I figured I throw out there..  If you have any tips, advice, or critiques feel free to leave them in the comments below.

2013 Project. Humans Vs Aliens

One of my major inspirations for Scfi gaming has been this movie (Battle Los Angeles) since its release. I really enjoy a good action movie like this. So I figure that I would develop my new game table into a 4x4 ruined city, and have a new force of miniatures for the alien invaders.
That leads me to my question, and I would like your help. What mini ranges out there would best give the feel of these invaders?
I am torn as to what I should get. I am leaning towards the Insectoids or the Brogg  from Khurasan and rebel minis .So tell what you think and post it. Thanks!Jolly
Perhaps you know of another mini....???
Anyone out there have anything that looks like this?
Battle Los Angeles
Good news, I already ordered a pile of stuff from Game Craft Miniatures, so the city is already underway.

Project 2013: Status Update

I have been slowly making some progress on my project this year. Given the fact that this time home from work, I have been doing mostly training, I have not got as much done as I would have liked. Plus, pulling a muscle in my back forcing me to be sidelined for two days didn't help me much either.

So I have been thinking about painting, and how I want it to look. I want to keep it simple, basic colors, not too detailed. I was planing on painting all the pouches brown, stuff like that but I got 200+ minis I need to paint this year, so I want what ever it is I am painting to be quick and easy.

So, below is the sample scheme I am going with for my Powered Armor Troops.

In person, the highlighted areas stand out very nice, but it appears that in these pictures it just looks like  light green blobs.. I guess I will need to add a wash over them to smooth it out.

But anyways, this is the basic color scheme I am going with.

New Ruleset added to my collection -Two Hour Wargames

In my ever growing 15mm collection I decided to expand by picking some other rulesets. Somthing that is a little more optimized for solo play.

I have owned all things zombie for a few months now, but never had the chance to read through the rules until just the other day, it didnt take me long to see the value of this system.

So right back to THW I went and also picked up 5150: Star Army.

Im just now reading the rulebooks so maybe in a day or 5 I will have a small battle report to post. Until then, check out the website at

http://www.twohourwargames.com/index.html