Newten Town Phase 3 WIP

To say it has been a while since I last touched these is an understatement. Checking back I see I started on these boards two years ago, put them to one side and forgot all about finishing them. Over the last few days I got them out and did a bit more work on four of the six boards I made up.

If you clicked on the link above you can see what a difference adding the filler has made. I bought brown wood filler as an experiment to see as and when the terrain takes a knock whether it helps with reducing white chips. 

I put two of the boards into storage because they were duplicates, and while in the greater scheme of things this probably doesn't matter, I don't feel any urgency to duplicate boards. This is very much me trying to get back into doing some hobby stuff, and anything that gets in the way is moved aside.

What I really want is enough town boards to fill my table and run a game of Heavy Gear. This may be a vain hope, but again I want to remove any excuses that might prevent me from playing a game or two. As they say, one lives in hope.

As a note. these are 10mm scale building from the now defunct Fieldworks range of resin buildings. However, in my considered opinion or perhaps experience, I find that they work with 15mm figures too.

So the next step is to add Woodland Scenic ground foam.

Merry Xmas 2018

 

Having done the food shopping and wrapped presents my plans, if they can be called such are to read and perhaps do some therapeutic model making. I might even get around to applying some paint to those that are assembled.

So now it is time for me to wish all my readers a very Merry Christmas.

   

Ghost Dog Available in Paperback

 

 Forgive me splurging duplicate posts on both blogs, but see physical copies of my book is still a thing.

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A Hiatus

I'm currently not very well. When my rheumatoid arthritis nurse told me I was being too hard on myself I realised I was going around in circles beating myself up for not doing enough, when the truth be told if I were in a full-time job I'd be signed off sick.

So there will be a short hiatus while I let all the medication I'm taking do its job. In the meantime here's a shot of me shooting an arrow.

An observation from shooting longbow is that I learnt that "yards" back in the day when bows were a weapon of war, rather than a hobby a person can enjoy at ones leisure, was shorter than an imperial yard, which we all know is 36 inches. Cloth yards were shorter, 30 inches, and therefore when the range of a bow is listed as 240 yards the modern equivalent is 180 yards.

With my 32 pound bow I can shoot out to around 120 imperial yards, which is 140 cloth yards.

So now I'm wondering if all those ancient wargame rules took this change of measurement into account? And who says wargaming isn't a useful hobby, as clearly I've learnt something new.
   

Models for Three Covers

  

These are the model reference pictures I sent to the artist who drew my covers. Above is the model that he used for Bad Dog.

Above is the picture I sent for the cover of Strike Dog. And below is the picture I shot in response to seeing the cover for Ghost Dog.

  

My author page where you can buy my books

Ghost Dog – Out Now!

Story Summary

Newly promoted to the rank of Captain, Tachikoma will now lead another off-world mission. This time to retrieve advanced alien technology. 

The problem is that her team will have to travel to a planet where the pillars only open once every six months. The timing for their return is crucial to the success of the operation. 

Waiting for them is an unforeseen destiny. Can Tachikoma return all her people alive along with alien technology that will change the world? 

Cutting-edge scientific theories underpin the mystery that drive this thrilling military SF roller-coaster ride.

Testimonials for Bad Dog

“This story is great, with a very firm grasp of the Marine Corps lifestyle.”


– Sgt D. Barrow, USMC

"High concept, high calibre character-driven Mil-SF. Compulsively readable."

– Alex Stewart aka Sandy Mitchell author of the Ciaphas Cain series

More About The Author 

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The Badlands Assemble

The Badlands Assemble doesn't quite have the same ring to it as The Avengers Assemble, but I've had these sitting in a box ever since the original Heavy Gear KickStarter arrived, which was two years ago.

Doesn't time fly?

I've been feeling a bit out of sorts, because the side-effects of my medication is a bit rough, which is why I missed last weeks post. 

I felt I needed to do something to cheer me up that wouldn't get bogged down if fiddly details. So I got these models out of the box and cleaned them to get the grease off. I find windscreen wash, which has isopropyl alcohol and a wetting agent, is good for this. 

Anyway, this was about the limit of what I could manage.

CASE-2X-M: Mod 2 Backpack Corpsman Variant WIP

The claw arms are magnetized and not only move, but are also swappable.

And as you can see from the above picture I've finished assembling a new Dog. This one is meant for Corpsmen to ride in.

I side stepped the whole Corpsman issue in Bad Dog by the simple expedient of having the company deploy from a CSN Hornet, part of a MEU. In Strike Dog and Ghost Dog my Corpsman character Keith deploys in a MARPACE power armour suit.

However, the next Tachikoma novel, Red Dogs, the story really requires the Corpsman to be part of a combat armour squad.

After talking to a real life Corpsman, you know who you are, I was informed that Corpsmen go off and do special forces stuff that makes them suited for special operations. How could I resist? So after some fiddling around with magnets I made this new Dog.

 

My thoughts behind the CASE-2X-M: Mod 2 are that it's a engineering variant optimized for medical interventions. Hence the claw arms for opening up damaged Dogs to remove their occupants.

Arms swapped over into the stowed position. And I need to unbend that gun part.

This also of course means I have the option on now building a CASE-2X-E: Mod 2 engineering variant. Oh the burden of having ideas.

But before I build that I actually have to build a CAS-1-Mod 3E Ape combat armour engineers suit, which will feature in my next Gate Walker series story: Two Moons. All fun to do. Just have to get some more parts together. I see an order with Dream Pod 9 in my future.

  

Human Operator Surrogates

 

I'm been doing some priming. It's easy to do, and doesn't hurt my wrists too much.

Back here I painted up some Dream Pod 9 GRELs to use as HOS (Human Operator Surrogates). They never quite rocked my boat for a number of reasons: they were all left-handed, with only two poses I could use. So, I decided to see if these NuCoal infantry would work as androids?

There are more poses, which floats my boat. Right handed, which is good. Just not sure if they are bulky enough?

Still noodling about whether or not they work for me. I stood them next to my super heavy tank conversion to see how they look. Seems promising.
  

ABC Warriors

 

I found that I had these figures in my stash of shame. They're all lead castings, so they were looking a little sorry for themselves as they had darkened with age. I decided that something had to be done to prevent them from deteriorating further.

 

A thorough going over with a glass fiber scratching brush cleaned them up, and in one of my rare spurts of enthusiasm I ended up priming them with mat white Humbrol enamel. My go to primer for metal miniatures.

I no longer remember who made these, and there was no identifying mark on their bases, which is not that surprising given that I doubt they were licensed replicas.

That's not really Ro-Jaws, it's a generic droid from some other range that I had hanging around.

My plan is to paint them in green and red to match the comic. But first I will need to do the black for the shadows.