TravCon 2026 Day1

TravCon is a Traveller RPG convention run by BITS – the British Isles Traveller Support. On our way up to TravCon, traveling on the M1, our friends Alex & Kezia caught sight of us in my Chevy, and took this pic for posterity.

We arrived just before 17.00, got ourselves booked in, met up with Kez & Alex, and settled in. Both of us were total newbies to Travcon, but we were made welcome by Richard and Andy. Richard is giving the briefing.

Name badges on landyards made it easy for people to know who was who. 

Susan went off to play in Alex's Extraction scenario, while my first session was Gee Cows to the Rescue! run by Tim Collinson, seen below, using Mongoose 2nd Edition rules (not that I noticed any real difference to what I remembered from Classic Blue book Traveller).

 

We were playing the parts of a Gishdag Khuulam Aid Organisation (GKAO) team, providing rescue and medical aid. The blurb said, "From fund raising to frantic races against time –– you're the ones that wear the patch respected throughout the Spinward Marches."

Here we are all set up and ready to go save the day. G-Cows are Go!

 

I played the Chief Medical Officer, Sion Alman of a modified and refitted 600dton liner modified for rescue missions. The session was split into two parts. The first a fund raising dinner to schmooze with patron to raise the final 2.7 million credits to launch our ship, which was interrupted by an emergency call to action.

It took us 24 minutes to get from the dinner to the launch bay, traffic was a bitch.

There we found our ship being hastily prepped for launch, stevedore's busy loading emergency supplies. Inside the ship, maintenance panels were open, cable runs spilling out, and sundry systems not fully signed off as checked. But, we were good to go!

Take-off revealed the ship flew like a barge.

The center of mass being changed down to the upgraded power plant and manoeuvre 6 engines. But, our pilot made the rolls to get us into orbit, and then it was pedal to the metal to blast out to the 100 diameter line to the accident site.

A scout, and a small liner had collided.

The scout was unresponsive and drifting outward. The liner was squawking, and drifting inwards.

We made it there in just over two hours to find debris drifting, escape balls launched, and the liner tumbling out of control During the difficult dock, our pilot took 40 minutes to match the tumble of the stricken ship, we saw that the rear end was ripped off, and the ships pinnace (yes, there were jokes) had been ripped open.

After some necessary medical interventions, much confusion, we saved the day, and got the money we needed.

The game ran for four hours, was pretty intense, and it was time for bed. I'd like to say I slept like a log, but I was totally buzzed, and it took a while to fall asleep.

I had an exciting first day. 

Final Stretch

Now that the body is symmetrical, see the post here, it was obvious where work was needed. The old joke about asking for directions to somewhere, and the reply being if I was going there, I wouldn't start from here, applies to this project.

Side-by-side comparison showing the missile casings to the rear that Keith graciously sent.

 

I still need to add the sloping casements for the the main guns, then add the secondary batteries, and the anti-personnel guns. Finally, to finish, I need to add the twin circular tanks/gubbins, and the two exhaust vents on the rear deck too.

Nose-to-nose shot of my original Grenadier Ogre and my Ral-Partha converted to represent the Martian Metals original Mark 5.

I estimate I've spent 60 hours the hours working on this conversion. Some of that time is down to not getting it right on the first attempt, and having to correct my mistakes.

Finishing Combine GEVs

 

Since I've been working on my Ogre Mark 5 conversion, these unfinished Combine GEVs sitting around getting dusty, finally come to my attention.

I had mostly finished painting them, but the silver enamel paint on the canopies ran when they were gloss varnished.

So, they need that tidied up. 

 

Given it has been nearly ten years since I put these aside, I'm pretty confident I can clean up the silver canopies, without the paint running gain, when I apply the final coat of mat varnish.

I've also got a whole bunch of Combine infantry that need there helmet visors painted silver to do too. So this year looks like I'm doing a bunch of Ogre/GEV miniatures, which makes for a nice change.

That's all for now, catch you on the bounce. 

War Machine

 

Probably a bit late, but we watched this, and it had an alien mech chewing up a bunch of Ranger candidates on their last training day.

It has been around a while, but caveat, I'm mad about mecha, and there are not enough films with mecha, so I'm biased. 

Total gonzo fun. Hope there's a sequel showing the bigger picture of the invasion.

Back in the Chop Shop

Not forgotten, just place aside, just a much needed change of pace. I needed a break from mixing epoxy putty, and filling it smooth, as yet another problem came to light.I started on refurbishing the missile pods, but this isn't working out as I wanted.

I'm going to have to fabricate parts instead. 

While you all wait, Keith Falk sent me a package of spare parts I need to complete my Vulcan, but also some Ogre 1 parts he had to spare too. 

What is really going to help bring the project to a successful conclusion is the Ogre 1 tower, which is substantially larger than the spare I had.

So, here's where I'm at.

That's all for now. May the fourth be with you.

Fixing Blog and Mechs

I started these RAFM Heavy Gear conversions 10 months ago, back when the after effects from getting shingles was still bothering me. But, as life would have it, I forgot about them. After, I started painting the Mk4 Ogre I decided to slap some paint on these too. 

Then, after reaching this point, I realized I'd not actually finished adding all the details to them, which meant stopping working on them to fix the omissions.

Doh! Don't you hate it when that happens? 

And, to add insult to injury, I discovered that blogger no longer seems to support hashtags. So, I had to go through all my tags and remove them, so as to allow my blog to sort posts again, which still seems buggy.

In this case, no longer sorting by date.

And yes, I've logged out. Logged back in again, with a verification code, and my directory of posts is still not sorting by date.

It is what it is.

Ogre Mk4 Reborn

Between working on my Ogre conversion, I've had an ultra rare prototype Ogre Mark 4, rejected by Steve Jackson Games that has been sitting, waiting to be finished. I began working on in April 2016, and thought I can do better than that.

So, I stripped it.Yes, this is me being distracted!

Reassembled, primed, and given a wash to bring out the panel lines.

I painted for about an hour a day during the week before and after Easter, which makes this a labour of love. So, here is the repaint.

 

The eagle eyed will notice the camo pattern is not exactly the same as the first version. 

The eagle eyed will notice the camo pattern is not exactly the same as the first version, but I think everyone will agree this looks sharp?

Or, at least I hope so. 

Currently, I'm in the groove painting so, finishing the MK5 conversion will happen when I've cleared my painting table.

Anyway, that's all for now, catch you on the bounce.

Salute 53

We went to Salute and had a great day. Susan and I played in a game of What a Tanker, run by Joe Bilton, which won the Silver Gold trophy for best participation game. I got to drive a damaged Char B1, with two Panzer IIIs gunning for me, I ended up ramming one of them in desperation, as I only rolled move dice. 

We toured the hall afterwards, and I introduced myself to the CGL demo agents running BattleTech.

As the kids say, I farmed some aura. I told them I was the former FASA freelancer who wrote the all but one of the Clan 2C mechs for the 3055 TRO, back in the day.

We stumbled across the Gundam Assemble game being demoed, and I think the minis are going to be a big hit with mecha fans everywhere.

This Konflict 47 board caught my eye too. The Axis mecha looking alien like was cool.

At 14.00  we went and listened to the Professional Wargaming panel. I know Dave Manley, and he and the other panelists did a good job of describing the wargames they've run for the MoD and Civil Service, and my takeaway was the importance of immersion where story is everything.

And no show report would be complete without a picture of haul. The Battle Group book I picked up for Paul, who now needs to let me know where he wants me to post it (he's gallivanting around the world for work).

The MDF paint rack, Susan bought for me, because she wants my paints organized better.

I picked up my Maschinen Krieger from Drew Edney of Slave2Gaming himself. It was super nice to meet, put a face to the name, and jaw on about SF wargaming, which we surprisingly shared similar views about about.

I bought a copy of O Group, not because I'm getting into WW2 (I can barely keep up with Ogre and my mecha ambitions), but because I want to read the rules for phase lines, which is something I'd like to include in any set of rules I might write.

I picked up end of line sale six pack of 0 to 5 of nice sable brushes from ABC Brushes.

The final  splurge, and boy did I splurge this year, was some packs of Crow Industries Clan Elementals, which I plan to convert into FATS-Cs; Chinese fatties from Bad Dog.

That's it for now, catch you on the bounce. 

MekTek 4: The Final Issue

Dave Hardwood drew issue four's cover, a friend from days when I lived in Southend-on-Sea who also drew the cover, and a bunch of interior illustrations for OHMU War Machine. 

 

This turned out to be a bumper final issue with articles by Bob Nicholls, Dayfdd Neal Dyar, Helen McCarthy & Steve Kyte, Mike Timbers, Marcus Rowland, Glenn Wallbridge, Alex Stewart, and me. 

Mechs at Large my editorial promised that the next issue would have the article on cybertanks, and I promised the next issue would come sooner (Oh, how I laugh now). You can blame money, and me focusing on OHMU War Machine, which was my answer to the problem of introducing cybertanks into BattleTech.

The editorial also included a battle report of the 1988 Boston BattleTech Competition by the late Bob Nichols, the man behind Mechforce UK. RIP Bob, you were a force to be reckoned with.

Finally, I added a quick note about the then Panasonic NTSC VCR that could be rented in the UK. Those were the day when renting TVs and video recorders was still a thing. 

Japanima Dayfdd Neal Dyar provided an extensive article on the genesis of BattleTech's mechs. He described how they were drawn from several anime series including 1981s Sun of the Fang Dougram, 1982s Super Dimensional Fortress Macross, and 1983s Crusher Joe. Dayfdd's thoroughly covered the three shows plots, and their characters various story arcs. 

Snapshots Short one paragraph reviews of five fanzines that fell into my hands.

Animé Contact List Helen McCarthy provided a list of useful addresses for beginning to get into animé. This covered magazines, shops, clubs, and organizations promoting animé.

Hover Mechs Mike Timbers delivered an article on adding hover mechs to BattleTech as a way to address the weakness of hover vehicles. 

Warnography With three reviews. The first was Alex Stewart write up of his experience playing Palladium's Robotech RPG. Describing it as a fun game beset by problems with how the rules were presented, and the restrictions of the setting. The main focus of the game was blasting alien battlepods, limiting  play focused on character development.

The second piece was a short offside review of the Robotech RPG by Simon Kemp who was less satisfied with the rules, which he found unsatisfactory for a game of mech combat.

And finally, Helen McCarthy reviewed the Panasonic NVL 28B NTSC VCR, which would play NTSC video tapes on a PAL TV monitor.

Manga, Manga I was reading the following manga: Cobra; volume two of Crying Freeman; Yukinobu Hoshino  2001 Nights; Black Magic and Dominion, both by Masasume Shirow;  the Lost Continent, by Akihiro Yamada; and last, A Plague of Angels by two Western artist's – Adam Warren and Toren Smith –  delivering the third outing of their homage of the Japanese Dirty Angels.

I mentioned in passing other manga I'd seen too: Captain Harlock; Lensman; and Broid, which were all disappointing for reasons of availability, or other issues

I was also reading Aliens Earth War;  Revolver a Dan Dare comic; Give me Liberty by Frank Miller and Dave Gibbons; and the wonderful Starstruck by Elaine Lee and Mike Kaluta. With the passage of time I'd forgotten how many comics I was reading back in the late 80s, early 90s. Those were the days.
 
A Question of Identity Marcus Rowland provided an article for the Mechwarrior RPG, which would add to the 'fun' of piloting a mech.

House Rules had two contributors. Mike Timbers gave a list of tweaks he made when playing BattleTech and AeroTech, which he found useful to clarify the rules. Glenn Wallbridge wrote about anti-personnel guns, high explosive and armour piercing ammunition, and indirect fire, also adding starting fires too. 

Mech Modelling  Glenn Wallbridge provided an extensive seven page article on how to convert mechs, how to cut and pin limbs for more dynamic poses, and finally, how to paint and base them. Given that Glenn had sculpted a series of mechs and vehicles for a manufacture he brought a wealth of experience to the topic.

MekTek LOCs Twelve pages of letters and replies to questions, which showed how much the game had grabbed the players back in those early days of BattleTech. 

Mechforce Finally, a two page advert for MechForce UK run by the late Bob Nicholls.

So, that's it, the last blast from the past.

Chop Shop: One Step Back

So, here I am, still unable to drag this conversion across the finish line. Why? Because the front treads aren't symmetrical, as can seen here. And, as can be seen above the missile pods are like Goldilocks and the three bears (one too large, one too small, and one in the middle).

Bah, humbug! This drives me insane.

My inner ADHD OCD just brings me to a halt (PS: Not diagnosed with either, this is a throwaway comment, pay it no heed). 

And from the side the Mark 5 was starting to look the business with its bug-eyes too.

 

So, unable to square the offset asymmetrical nose, I pulled the right side bogie off.

Using a set-square, I glued the bogie back on. Making sure that it was in the right place, and parallel. Not as easy as it sounds, but nothing about this build has been easy.  

If, were starting again, I would check to make the model was square to begin with. Assuming stuff makes an ass out any decision you make.

I've add more epoxy putty to the front, as I noticed that the nose was skew-whiff from the front of the model not being square. It may not be perfect now, but it at least has more than a nodding acquaintance with the concept of symmetry.

And a shot from above.

 

Anyway, that's all for now. The work continues so, until next time. Take care.