Friday 24 November 2023

Thanksgiving Aftermath

It has been a long time since I posted a Thanksgiving post, but today we're recovering from last night's meal with Susan's colleague from work, Simon Bland, who really appreciated being invited to share a feast with us. He's lovely.

And while Simon didn't want his picture taken, and Susan was far too flustered to have hers taken, she took a lovely picture of me, which I'm going to share just because I love her for taking it.

Y'all have a great weekend, and catch you on the bounce.

Monday 13 November 2023

Warfare 2023 Show at Farnborough

For the first time since Covid lockdown in 2020 we've been to a wargame show. We met up with Paul from The Man Cave. He described our conversation as erudite, which is totally flattering given the amount of cussing a typical conversation with me entails.

I looked around the show, but only bought some size 0 Kolinsky sable brushes that were on offer. I saw a lot of bargains, but I need more stuff to paint like I need another hole in my head.


Susan took a picture of me looking at temptation and resisting the urge to buy more stuff. There were plenty of great looking games being run.


Above and below are a couple of pictures of the impressive games on show.

For a full on video showing what we saw, check out Big Lee of Miniature Adventures, who has you covered.

And Susan caught me on camera wondering around the vast hall. As you can see there was a plethora of tournaments games being played on the day too.

And afterwards I gave Paul a lift back to London in my M1009 CUCV Chevy Blazer.


We were blessed with nice weather and had a great day out.

Sunday 29 October 2023

Big Little Wars: Post 12 - Small Robotic Attack Platforms (SRAP)


Small Robotic Attack Platforms (SRAP)

Small robotic attack platforms (SRAP) is a generic catch-all term that covers all remotely operated small robotic vehicles. Human oversight is required for them to move and attack.

Remotely operated SRAPs come in a range of configurations with different capabilities. The most commonly seen are small flying drones, more correctly referred to as a UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle).

Civilian SRAPs are only available at defense of 2, because they are commercial platforms rigged to carry weapons. Armoured military variants have a defense of 4.

However, unarmed reconnaissance UAVs are often deployed by the military as semi-autonomous vehicles. See Semi-Autonomous Combat Platforms (SACP) in the Armoured Fighting Vehicles section (coming soon in a separate post).

Small robotic platforms are not affected by shock, so they are not assigned a shock rating. But they can be hacked. Small robotic platforms are bought as needed, but are not always available to players in all scenarios.

Creating Small Robotic Attack Platforms

The base cost for each small robotic attack platform is the movement added to the defense value. This section provides examples explaining how to use the tables below to create and cost the value of unmanned robotic attack vehicles. 

SRAPs must pay to mount weapons and the for cost of the weapon. All movement is in meters.

The weapons for SRAPs can be found below, added at cost. Chosen from the available weapons for the size of mount chosen.

I'm all too aware of the time between this and the last post about these rules. No excuses, it's all down to me dropping the ball.

Finally, thoughts and opinions always welcome.

NB: Big Little Wars posts to date.

Thursday 28 September 2023

OMWB: Frustrating Big Buster Rebuild

This is what I've been working on for the last month, with additional delays due to new glasses and general life events getting in the way. I wanted to improve the fit of the torso by seating the magnets better.

However, the first delay was waiting for more magnets to arrive.

This model is one of a pair I originally built as reference for the artist I commissioned for the cover art for my novels. So this build served a dual purpose.

 
I also wanted to take the opportunity to refit and upgrade an earlier conversion with ball joints. Adding ball joints appeals to my inner nerd
 
Shock horror, it did not go well. There was much buggeration with the old two steps forward, one step back. But, challenging setbacks are an opportunity to improve.

The other part of the rebuild was changing the backpack and pop up missile pack using parts from a RAFM Kodiak I'd acquired.

 And here it is. Looking totally bad ass even if I say so myself.

But, another mishap occurred when drilling the attachment points for the ammo chute (not seen because, duh!), when the drill bit broke. So, still a work in progress.

It is what it is.

Saturday 19 August 2023

The Big Scopedog: Blogoversary too!

I've got my new glasses and can see to start work again, but everything on the table is still very much a work in progress, where progress can be defined as close to zero as to make no difference.

Sucks to be me.

Still, I got my big 1/12th scale Takara Scopedog down off the shelf to dust it off, and reassemble the cockpit that had come astray when showing the mech off to friends.

Now dusted, and photographic proof to boot.

NB: Added as I just realised this is the same date as my first blog post that was 14 years ago. Doesn't time fly?

Tuesday 25 July 2023

OMWB: CASE-2X Version 3

Above is my third CASE-2X Mod 1 variant standing pose mostly completed. I say mostly because I need to restore detail lost from the conversion. Delayed by illness impacting my ability to work due to the pain in my wrists.

It's a bitch.

Again, the model is poseable. So the torso twists, the arms and head can move using magnetized ball joints. 

Though I've yet to assemble the missile pack the model is largely complete.