#72 Sedition wars: BfA end in sight

Okay, the blogger app ate my original post so short version:
All the miniatures came out better than I thought. Only some bases, small details and Hurley left. Grendlr is my best paint job to date. Built a storage insert for the box based on Universal Heads design I saw on boardgame geek. Um... oh yeah pics of scythe witch, brimstone, cthonian and grendlr. If the app regurgitates my original post I'll update this one.

#71 The Strain continued

I had a bit of a break and now feel it's tine to get back into tge swing of things before I to the LA area for a week. I have just a few models left to finish off the Battle for Alabaster set. The Strain level 3, 4  & 5 exoforms. I used a dark purple to give the flesh areas a wash and will pick out details with a red a possibly give some areas a drybrush of the same color. On some of bigger miniatures I will pick out additonal details with blue to give them a glow effect, hopefully...

So the pics are: scythe witches and cthonian then brimstone and finally the grendlr (one of the figures that attracted me to the game in the first place)

#70 Sedition Wars progress: 82% done

Wow. I made considerable progress these past two weeks. I have finished all the level 1 & 2 Strain and all the Vanguard (except for Kara's face & hair). All that is left are the Scythe witches, Brimstones, Grendlr, Cthonian and Hurley. That will have me with one complete set of Sedition Wars: Battle for Alabaster miniatures painted. Then it's on to wave 2 which will hopefully take less time though with almost all the miniatures being characters it might take the same amount if time. I want to paint the homage characters similar to their movie/show/game counterparts. Anyways on to some pics! Sorry for the poor lighting.
(I forgot to add I might put some blood spatter on some of the bases.)

#69 Sedition Wars: the progress continues

After a little internal debate I decided to use a darker red a give all the level 1 & 2 Strain a little wash to bring out some details and make them less monochrome. I also thought it would be better to give them a less necrotic look to give a better feel for the figures being in the midst of transformation. I also gave the bigger beasties their flesh tone and metallic sections. The next step is finishing the bases on all fully painted figures: the low level Strain and Vanguard troopers. After that I move on to finishing the characters and big beasts.
The pics below show some of the added washes to the Strain, the bases and the flesh and metal on the big beasties.

#68 Sedition Wars: group shots

I just finished up putting the glowing bits on the lower Strain. Now all I need is to touch them up with some green to give a putrid flesh look. I also need touch up the bases for all the minis I have done so far and finish two Vanguard characters. I'm going to start painting the bigger minis later today and order some paints so I can finish all of them in one pass (hopefully). The two photos below show all that I have done so far. The Quasimodos laying down show some of the glowing blue bits I've added to the Strain. Each type of figure has a variety of small details painted this way. No real change to any Vanguard, I'm very pleased with how they turned out.

#67 Sedition wars: Strain with more flesh!

Two posts in one 24 hour period? What's gotten into me? Nothing too crazy I hope as I've finished up the Strain as much as I can with the paints I have though any suggestion on what color the glowing bits should be is appreciated. I done all the flesh on the lower Strain models and only have the Scythe Witches, Brimstones, Grendlr and Cthonian left (and one Hurley, doh!). I'll be using the same colors on those as well just keeping things looking a little cleaner hopefully. I want to use some cool green washes on the Revenants, Stalkers and Quasimodos to get a nice putrid flesh look. After that the glowing bits are all that are needed for me call the lower Strain done.

#66 Sedition Wars Strain progress: flesh!

Wow. I haven't painted this much in a long time. Not since my 40k days. It was a little tough at first though I think my biggest problem is that I need some new brushes to control the paint better and more paints for a wider  color palette. Anyways, I got all the metal bits painted on the Strain and got some fleshed out. My next step is finish the flesh and order some more colors. So here are a couple of Strain shots!

#65 Sedition Wars progress

I've managed to keep up my momentum and painted some strain minis, well their pants at least. Starting with the upper left & going clockwise there is: green, red, orange, blue, grey, yellow. I divided them up which I think will give a good variety on the table. Also some character updates, just some detailing on Kara and Barker. Skin tones once I get the paints for them.

#64 Sedition Wars now with some character

Well I finally got around to painting miniatures again! It felt great to put paint to plastic again (I'm not a big fan of metal mini's, too much trouble to cut and clean). This time around I worked on the faces of some of the rank-and-file Vanguard and finished two if the characters to boot! I'm quite pleased with the amount of work I did in the few hours I put in last night. I'm not the greatest painter in the world and am not going to try to be, I just want to make them look neat on the table. So without further ado or tangents here they are, enjoy!

#63 A little Star Wars rpg stuff

Over the past few weeks I've managed to get some Star Wars gaming in! Both X-wing miniature and some new Edge of the Empire gaming to be exact. I really enjoy the X-wing miniature game. It's simple to start out and the system has some depth to it, enough to keep things interesting without being bogged down by rules. To be fair though my group hasn't really expanded into upgrades yet and has focused on just using the ships/pilots "as is", which so far has worked out.

#62 DataCrash dice mock-ups

Pretty fun weekend. Got a game of X-wing in, just the basic quickstart rules. The game seems pretty easy and fun so I hope to introduce some more friends to it in the future. On to the real info though! I spent a few hours working on dice mock-ups for DataCrash based on my friend Omar's designs. I came up with two designs, the main difference between the two is the battery charge level indicator. I just reversed the colors in each, nothing spectacular. I didn't take the time to shrink them down to the size of the final printing size figure I'll get around to that after posting this.

The two upper pics are the 'full charge' face. The exclamation point means the player gets to roll an extra die when attacking/defending. I'm a real fan of the exploding die mechanic all the way back to West End Games Star Wars RPG (I really enjoyed that system). The lower pics show a 4 on the left and what will be a 1,2 or 3 on the right. I'm not using numbered dice since in playtesting I think that some units were a little overpowered. Instead I switched to a 'success vs success' system. Now units roll a number of dice based on their skill number instead of adding it to the number rolled. Then the players compare the number of successes, whoever has more has succeeded in attacking or defending. I'll get into gameplay more in a later post since I plan to get some more playtesting in the coming weeks. Plus I'm going to be ordering some custom dice with Omar to make gameplay even more intense!

#61 Paintin' some bases!

It's been a few weeks since I've painted anything and as I contemplate the paint scheme for the Neoteric side of DataCrash I brought my Sedition Wars minis. I still have a few things to do for the Vanguard, mainly details, and decided that in the meantime I might as well do something with the bases! I gave each base a simple black wash which I think makes details pop out. I also left certain areas more or less white as I want those parts to have some color or become lights on the floor. The pic I'm posting also shows some if the Strain side of things. For more detailed looks at any of these minis I suggest searching the web. I might feel the itch to post up some closeups of pre-painted/assembled miniatures from this game in near future though.

Despite an earlier post noting how I did not want to work on any of the Biohazard level extras I might change my mind on that too...

The main reason I stopped painting was that I injured my neck and then recently my back. I should be all better now though and getting back on track. After washing all these bases I should be ready for those Neoteric fella's. :)

#60 Ooooooh...Lego's!

I placed an order for some in celebration if Star Wars day and got a bonus Chima set! What's better than Lego's? Free Lego's! I'm not that interested in Chima though I'm going to investigate this set fo sho. My order also came with a flyer for the new Chima sets too.

I actually ordered a few minifigs, a small Old Republic set and some of those minifigs-in-planets Star Wars sets. After seeing them in the plastic I want to get a few more. Kind of sorry I missed series one... Always ebay I suppose...
I also got the free special Hoth Han Solo!

#59 Neoteric upload commencing...

I received some of the first Neoteric figures last week and hope to begin painting them within the next week or two. As you can see by the picture they are quite different from the Legacy side of DataCrash. Clockwise from top-left: Antivirus, Script runner, Packet scout and Compiler, enjoy!

#58 Other games to check out

I received my Mobile Frame Zero book in the mail a few weeks ago. I have taken my time to go over it, read the rules, background and look at all the neat pictures and diagrams in the book. I'll update this post with some pics later on. The game sounds fun I just need to set aside some time to go over my Lego(c) collection and sort all the little parts into bins to ease construction. I can heartily suggest to anyone who likes Lego(c) and gaming to check it out! Link

#57 Homestretch for basic Vanguard

So close to the end of painting the basic Vanguard Samaritans from Sedition Wars:BfA. I've finished the weapons and have the bases and faces (ooo... A rhyme) left to finish. I want to variegate the skin tones on the helmetless Samartains since there are only 7, not including the characters. After bases and faces it's on to the Strain! And now for some pics!

Bottom pic: helmetless females, one w/ sabre kinesis rifle, one w/ bouncer mplg
Middle pic: females / helmets, one w/ sabre kinesis rifle, one w/ fusion lance
Top pic: male samaritans, one w/ sabre kinesis rifle, one w/ reaver
(still have not figured out this blogger app, pics are always opposite how I think they will be arranged)

#56 Painting the visors green

We're painting the visors green, the visors the visors we're painting the visors green!
I finished the visors on the Vanguard this morning and also added some details to the weapons. There are some really nice details on the bodies of the gun that I've seen others paint as glowing parts so I did the same. It gives some detail to let the eye wander and ties the visors to the weapons.

Next is painting the guns and bases black then adding some details with some metallics. There are also great details on the bases that might look good as lights or other things. Here's a snapshot to tide you over.

#55 Color choices...

I'm at the last stages of painting the non-character Vanguard from Battle for Alabaster. My trouble niw is how to paint the visors on these troops! I have a nice clean white basecoat down. My initial plan was to paint the visors a nice bright green to make them really pop and give a real tech-y look. After putting the white on though I'm leaning towards leaving them white or just making them look like a clear visor. Here is a pic of a few figures, let me know what you think, yeah?

#54 SW:BfA progress

Just wanted to post up some pics of my progress with the Vanguard. So far I've done all the shading and painted the joints on all the basic troops. Next up is visors, guns and bases then onto the special/heavy weapons. I do need to pick up some metallic paint and maybe a few other colors.

*forgot i have 3 faces to paint to.

#53 More SW:BfA minis

Just wanted to post up a quick shot of what I've done so far. I cleaned and assembled the figures the first week I received the game (arrived 1/18/13) and gave them a coat of primer a couple weeks later. Then I decided on a color scheme, took a few days and I crossed my fingers those paints were still. So that brings us to know. I have done the primary colors on all the non-character Vanguard. All that's left are details, weapons and bases. I'm thinking a basic black and gunmetal for the weapons, not sure what I'll do for the bases and a nice vibrant green for the visors.
Here's a shot of all the mini's from the base game.
I'm not sure if I will ever get around to painting the extra figures I received since I'm still waiting for the rest of the character figures I ordered. That and working on mini's really messes up my back these days.

#52 Some other miniatures

I didn't get everything I done this weekend that I wanted too. I did manage to get a Sedition Wars Vanguard color scheme set and 9 vanguard basecoated with the primary color. I still have not decided how to paint the bases.
I also managed to put together the KD pinup I ordered. I was really happy to get a Twilight Knight Pinup. Despite a few problems it went together rather well considering the petite-ness if the mini. I'll probably update this post with a scale shot later. Only real problems were the left heel (it wasn't there) & the sword broke of at the join to the hand, not earth shattering though they took some time to fix. Anyways on to pics!

#51 Almost all parts completed

It's been an interesting exercise making all the pieces for the DataCrash minis in a 3D modelling program. I've learned a few things about making shapes in Sketchup and I might just jump over to using Blender in the future. I'll have to see how similar it is to Sketchup. Anyways on to some pictures!

#50 The parts I've made so far...

As you can see in the following picture I've made almost all of the basic parts of the DataCrash figures in Skethup. All that I'm missing is the hand/shoulders for the Gatekeeper and Import cores. I totally forgot about them until I exported this snapshop and since I need to get to work I'll have to make that part tonight. :P

  

There are two cylindrical shapes in the front that I'm planning on using for the ICE figures. I'm leaning towards the one on the left since I think it matches more with the physical piece thought the one on the right might give more definition. I'll have to pull one of the figures out and look at the actual piece before I make my decision. Eeep! I've gotta get to work! Oh, the mushroom looking shape is used for a few different figures, might have to make a Heavy Import core and I need the feet for the walker... Ok ok! I'm going!

#49 More 3D models, this time bodies!

Just a quick post showing of some body shapes for the sentinel, gatekeeper and ICE units. In the picture from top center and going clockwise: arm shape, head/body shape, sentinel body, gatekeeper body, ICE/scout body, standard gun, and head antenna. Ok, I'm off to sleep.

#48 Working in 3D!

It's been awhile since I did some focused work in a 3D program. The only one I really know how to use is Google Sketchup (though I want to start learning Blender). The stuff I've done in the past was usually based around learning the different tools, especially the 'follow-me' tool which is awesome when it works the way you want it too. Otherwise it just makes really crazy looking things which can be fun too. Anyways, with working on DataCrash and my friend Omar making the minis I thought it might be a good time to get back into the digital 3D modeling stuff again. The DataCrash characters make good forms to start out with since they are relatively simple shapes. It took me a couple of hours to make the basic parts and composition for the Sentinel.

#47 Door counters for Sedition Wars:BfA

I haven't been up to too much lately. Been getting in some solo games of a couple different systems just to learn the rules. I have also gotten the miniatures for SW:BfA primed and ready to paint. One other thing I've done is to make open door counters for the game since there are none included with the many different counters that are already in the game. Anyways onto the doors! I've made a simple sheet that has six sets of red doors closed, twelve sets of red doors open and five sets of blue doors closed and open. I hope that makes sense. Looking at the pdf will probably make things a lot clearer. I have two different versions of the red doors open. It just felt right since the Alabaster station is well on its way to technozombie apocalypse and I figured not all the doors function quite right. Enjoy!

They are made to be printed on US Letter 8.5" x 11", no scaling as I made the image slightly smaller then the printable area. Sorry I do not have any pictures of them I action yet.

#46 Some games I like and kickstarter too

I'm sure just about everyone's found some kind of crowdfunding site and checked out lots of cool things to throw money at, I know I have. In fact I've found four projects to fund and in no particular order, well from the first to the last actually, here they are!

#45 Some changes to the DC rulebook

Small update to the rulebook situation. I've had to change fonts for the interior text of the rulebook. The betty noir font just didn't work at smaller sizes, pretty much anything lower than 20pt. So sadface at that then my friend Jennifer showed me a font called orbitron which looks like a mix of 1980's computer font with some future sauce mixed in and I like it so much I used it for all the interior text! It looks pretty good all the way down to 12pt and since that's the smallest I'm going I haven't encountered any problems with it.

#44 An actual page layout, exciting!

Well I've finally gone and done it. I managed to put together a page layout that I am pleased with. Of course it is just the beginning of designing the rulebook. The layout below will be used for all the standard content pages, rules, descriptions of things, and other stuff. The main cover will of course look different as will the table of content. I am thinking of using the idea I have for the table of contents for the page that explains the layout of the unit cards, just have to see what happens. Any way, on with the show!

#43 One font, different colors!

Short post. After some discussion with my collaborator on this project I noticed he left a comment on my last post about getting one particular font in a reverse b&w scheme. So I went ahead and made in two other colors as well, red and blue! Not much though it does keep the creative juices flowing. Now if I could only get around to actually designing some pages that are more than just hasty scribbles on scrap paper...