10mm Scourge Tank Battalion for LSNC: Sci-Fi

   We are slowly gearing up to begin work on our latest rulebook in the "Look, Sarge, No Charts" series of rules.  This will be geared towards Near Future and Science Fiction battles.   Therefore, I have been busily working on assembling some forces to use during playtesting; and have just completed my first full tank battalion.

The entire battalion

    I used tanks from the Scourge faction from Hawk Wargames Dropzone Commander range.  Since I didn't see needing a ton of Anti-Aircraft vehicles, which came with the Scourge Starter Sets I purchased,  I converted them to be HQ tanks for each company and the battalion.  I chose the Scourge becuase I like hover tanks, and I felt they had a cool alien look about them.

The Battalion HQ stand.

     I organized the battalion in a basic 3 by 3 arrangement of three companies with three platoons each.   I will probably eventually create an actual AA platoon stand to attach to the Battalion HQ once we start working on the aircraft support rules.

A company of three platoons and an HQ. 

10mm Sci-Fi Wrecked Battle Mech Terrain Build

     This past week I completed a new terrain piece for my ongoing 10mm Sci-Fi project.   I have a bunch of leftover Mechs from the clicky Mechwarrior game, and I got it in my head to construct a destroyed one  that was all rusted out; like it had stood for decades or centuries in the same spot where it had been knocked out.

   I began by slicing the mech from its clicky base, and then I used a pair of pliers to rip the arms and head off.  I then used a drill to make a big hole in the torso to look like where a missile had hit, knocking out the mech.  I also used the drill to enlarge some of the  holes where the arms and head had been connected.  I used my hobby knife to pry open the cockpit, and then cut down a 10mm Warmaster skeleton figure and glued it into the cockpit to represent the mech's  long-deceased pilot.
      Next,  I cut some small sections of thin wire and glued them in the holes with superglue to look like cables that had been ripped apart when the mech was destroyed.  I glued the parts with hot glue to a 3-inch plastic base that I had beveled the edge of with a hobby knife; and then covered the base with Tacky glue and applied a coating of sand.

      My next step was to spray the piece with flat black paint

   I then began applying some splotchy brown paint to achieve the rusted look.

     I finished painting the piece, and then applied some static grass here and there to the base.  Afterwards, I sprayed the whole thing with Testor's Dullcote varnish.
     I'm very please with how it turned out.  I think it will make a nice little vignette to decorate a battlefield, and perhaps provide some rough terrain and cover for units in play.

Shown here with 10mm Dropzone Commander Scourge infantry and a tank.

It's funny, as I was making this, the famous poem, Ozymandias, came to mind:

Ozymandias

     by Shelley 

I met a traveller from an antique land

Who said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone

Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,

Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,

And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,

Tell that its sculptor well those passions read

Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,

The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed:

And on the pedestal these words appear:

'My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:

Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!'

Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare

The lone and level sands stretch far away

10mm Mage-King of the Lizardmen (Games Workshop Conversion)

   This week I completed the commander-in-chief figure for my Lizardman Army: The Mage-King of the Lizardmen.  For the base of it I used the Games Workshop Lizardman "Tetto'eko" figure, which I was fortunate enough  to get a good deal on from a friend at last year's Barrage convention Flea Market.

    To make the conversion from 28mm to 10mm I did a couple modification.  First, I cut the tall feathers off of each of the side partitions to reduce the overall height appearance. And then I simply didn't add the pair of pillars that are suppose to go on the deck, and the three that are mounted underneath. After I assembled the throne, I test fit different arrangements of Pendraken 10mm Lizardmen until I found a pleasing composition.  It was then just a matter of painting the throne and its occupants.

  I am pleased with how it came out.  I think the original model is just scale-neutral enough to make a convincing king-sized 10mm throne.

10mm Mind Eaters

   This past week, I completed a warband of 10mm Mind Eaters.  Recently, I painted up a pair of  Reaper 25mm Mind Eaters and mounted them  on a base for Bear Yourselves Valiantly to represent giant Mind Eaters.  You can see that post here.

    While working on these figures, I was struck by their passing resemblance to the adrenal/toxin sacs that come with various GW Tyranid sets; and I got the idea that some of these bits might make good in-scale 10mm Mind Eaters.  So I ordered a set of them off of Ebay, and painted them up.  I think they turned out pretty good.

    I statted them up so they have ranged attacks that do Morale results only, and gave them a modifier that penalizes any troops trying to close with them or stand against their charges.

Recent 10mm: A Hero, a Leader , and an Elemental

  I recently completed some 10mm fantasy figures which included a Lizardman Hero, A Fire Elemental, and a Cursed Knight Leader.
   I had a leftover Lizardman figure (I believe he was made by A.I.M.) and thought that he bared a striking resemblance to  a certain purple TV Dinosaur, so couldn't help but paint him up as the great Lizardman Hero, B'uar-Nee!

     Recently I painted three  28mm Barrow Wardens from Reaper's Bones line, and was really pleased with the results. So I thought I would experiment with a Warmaster Chaos Leader I had, to see if the rust effect I had used on the Barrow Wardens, would translate to 10mm.  I'm very pleased with the results, and think I will now paint a unit of Chaos Knights I have as this sort of "Cursed Knight" look.

    I don't know who made this figure.  I received  it in a short-lived birthday figure exchange I was part of a few years ago, and since it was 15mm (I think) I never did anything with it.  I came across it the other day; and not knowing what it was supposed to be, was struck by how the sculpted "fur" ?  looked a lot like flames on it.  So I decided to paint him up like a fire elemental.  I think the result is pretty good.

10mm Lizardman Flyers, and Small Attack Lizards

   I recently completed a 10mm Lizardman pterodactyl-mounted leader and unit base fom my Lizardman armies for "Bear Yourselves Valiantly" mass combat fantasy rules.   These were actually 15mm figures, I got in  a lot I bought online; but because the riders are sitting cross-legged on their mounts, their actual height looks shorter.  They therefore fit in just fine with their 10mm brothers.

      I also completed this base of small lizards and a handler for them.  The small lizards are from the same lot of 15mm figures the flyers were from.  The handler is a 10mm lizardman warrior from Pendraken.

Dwarf War Machine Conversion: 25mm to 10mm

  While I was at Huzzah last month, I found this cool old Ral Partha Dwarf  "Steam Cannon" War Machine in the flea market.  It was missing it's crew, but that was fine with me, because when I saw it I immediately thought about it's possibilities as a 10mm Dwarven "Ogre" type vehicle for my Dwarven Army for "Bear Yourselves Valiantly" mass combat fantasy rules.  And the price was certainly right. :)

   The kit itself was easy to assemble.  I then raided my 10mm figures box for some spare Warmaster Dwarf Cannon crewmen to man the machine.  I test fit the Dwarf crew around the deck, and when satisfied, I glued the machine to a 3" x 3" metal base (BYV units have 3" frontage, and I needed the 3" depth to fit the model), and the crew I glued to a tongue depressor for ease of handling while panting.   I then sprayed the vehicle and crew with flat black primer.

        The painting itself was straightforward, and when complete I glued the crew onto the vehicle and then flocked the base.

    I'm really pleased with how this model came out.   For the most part, the parts of the vehicle are scale variable, so the 10mm crew doesn't look too out of place on the deck.

Pendraken 10mm Lizardman Cavalry Completed for BYV

This week I completed my first base of Lizardman cavalry, and a Lizardman Cavalry Leader,  for my 10mm Lizardman Armies for "Bear Yourselves Valiantly" mass combat fantasy rules.  The figures are from Pendraken.

     This was also the first chance I had had to try using one of the new Minibits dice frames, some of us had recently ordered, on the command stand.  I think I like the look of it, and they will really help players keep their command dice with the proper stands, as often they are left behind on the table when players move their units.

10mm Giant Poison Dart Frog Swarms

     Over this past weekend I finished up a couple bases of giant poison dart frog swarms to accompany my 10mm Lizardman army for use with "Bear Yourselves Valiantly" mass combat fantasy rules.   The figures were from a pack I picked up in a flea market a while back and were made by Chariot (now sold by Magister Millitum) and intended for 15mm. I think they work fine for 10mm too.
   

Two bases and a command stand.

A close up.

Shown with some 10mm Pendraken Lizardmen for scale.

10mm Pendraken Lizardmen Units

     This past week I completed some more units for my planned 10mm Lizardman Army for "Bear Yourselves Valiantly" mass combat fantasy rules.  Some of my readers will remember that a few weeks ago I posted the Giant Turtles that were the first Lizardman units I painted.
   So far, I did three stands of spear-armed troops, one of archers, and a Battlegroup leader, Wing Commander, and a Shaman.  Next up I hope to finish some cavalry and other assorted troops.

Three spear wielding Warbands and one of archers

The Wing Commander on his personal war-turtle "Pooky", a Battlegroup leader with banner, and a wise old shaman 

A close up of the regal Wing Commander

Battlegroup leader

Shaman

Spear close-up....

..and archers.

Recently Painted 10mm Fantasy: Trojan Rabbit, and Sea-Elf Wizard

    This weekend I finished up a couple 10mm stands for my "Bear Yourselves Valiantly" fantasy armies.  The first of these is a 10mm 3-D printed "Trojan Rabbit", purchased from Shapeways.  My friend, Buck Surdu, and I both got one of these; and in talking about it, we decided we'd treat it as a kind of self-propelled  armored personal carrier.  So, to enable the "self-propelled' part, I modified some extra War-of-the-Roses figures I had to become "pushers", and glued them on the base as if pushing the rabbit forward.

Un cadeau!

Let's hope they remembered to get inside this time!

   The other figure I completed this week was an Elf Wizard for my Sea-Elf army.  I used an extra GW High Elf Wizard I had, and painted him in my Sea-Elf army colors.  I tried to paint him as if standing upon a water spout, and casting some sort of water-based spell.

Sea-Elf Wizard

Battle For the Elf Capital, Using "Bear Yourselves Valiantly" Rules at Cold Wars

On Saturday night, we reset the 20 ft. table we had used for our morning Napoleonic game, "Battle of Paris, 1814", (See report here) with fantasy figures for a big 12-player  "Battle for the Elven Capital" game using the mass combat fantasy rules, "Bear Yourselves Valiantly" and 10mm figures. Buck, Surdu, Dave Wood, and I all co-GMed the game so there was plenty of help for players new to the rules.

An overview of the table. The Caledonian Heights can be seen in the back left of the table.

      In this outing, the High Elves (and some of their Elven cousins from the Woods and Sea), replaced the French from the earlier Battle of Paris game; and a loose alliance of Dwarves, Antmen, Undead, and Goblins replaced the Prussians and Russians from 1814.  This time the attackers were bent on  ransacking the Elven city and capturing the wealth it contained.

HAWK David Schlegel  helps a young gamer and his Mom. Both mother and child grasped the rules pretty quick and seemed to have a lot of fun co-commanding their Elven force.

    Apparently, the Elves had become over-secure and careless in their ever-increasing wealth, and the new outer walls of their growing city were only partially complete.  The alliance formed against them saw a keen opportunity to separate the Elves from their riches.

A force of Dwarves, with the Dwarven cavalry anchoring the right of the Allies line, advances towards the Heights

       The Elves chose the Caledonian Heights  on the outskirts of their city to anchor their stand against the invaders.  The Alliance formed on the plains below to make their attack, with the Dwarves and Antmen on the right and right-center,and the Undead on the left-center, and the Goblins on the far left.  

The beginning of the battle for the wall that lasted almost the whole game.  With  no one avialable nearby to hold the wall as the Dwarves neared, the local Elven commander sends his warband of Giant Eagles and a unit of Pixies to hold the wall. In the photo a unit of Dwarves has gained the first foothold on the top.

     With commands distributed among the players, the game began.  The Dwarves and Antmen started their stoic march on the Heights, as did the Undead on their left.  The Goblins on the far left advanced towards some built up areas and canals they needed to cross to gain the Heights.

The Goblin horde advances on the left, as HAWK Noah Guilbault helps a young Goblin commander conduct a melee on a unit of Elves defending a built-up area

     As the battle waged on the Heights, fortunes see-sawed back and forth.  Meanwhile, the Goblins on the left ran into stiff resistance and restricted approach lanes which greatly hampered their advance. In the center the desperate Elves had only a warband of Giant Eagles to send to defend their partial wall as the Dwarves approached. The Eagles were joined by a unit of Pixies as a back and forth battle developed for control of the walls.

The battle rages on the heights. In the foreground a pair of monstrous Dust -Devils prepares to assault an Elven unit, as Antmen come under a hail of Elven Archer fire.

    Just as in the historic game in the morning, the attackers seemed to be in reach of gaining their objective of capturing the hill right as their losses began to tell and some of the attacking warbands began to rout off the slopes.

Another view of the battle 

  There was massive carnage on all sides.  Besides the loss of many rank and file warriors, commanders and airships were brought down as well.   First one of the Goblin over-all commanders fell to some Elf Knights,  then the Elven Commander on his mighty dragon was cut down. The majestic Elven Airboat was brought down by a unit of Giant Wasps.

The battle for the wall continues. The Dwarves have now gained a stronger presence on the wall, and the Eagles are beginning to be the worse for wear.  In the end, the Eagles were eliminated and the Dwarves held the wall,  but a small remnant of Pixies still held out in the right-hand tower

    In the end, the Elves managed to hold the Caledoinain Heights at a heavy cost, and they were declared the victors.   Everyone seemed to have a good time and picked up the rules very quickly.  As GMs, we had a great time running the event for a great group of gamers.

An Elven Wizard creates a magical wall of flame to hamper the advance of some approaching Dwarves.

10mm Lizardmen Giant Turtles with Howdahs for BYV

This week I completed two giant turtles with howdahs for a planned Lizardman army I want to build for my "Bear Yourselves Valiantly" forces.  The turtles are actually 15mm models from a lot of 15mm Lizardmen figures I bought on the TMP marketplace a while ago.  The Lizardmen figures are from Pendraken.     The original 15mm howdahs stood too tall for the 10mm figures, so I had to cut  the walls down about an 8th of an inch all around.