Ogre Miniature Variant

Remember the above from here. It's my unfinished sculpt of the Ogre Ninja. There are lots of reasons, some good, some pretty lame as to why this little beauty hasn't been finished.

One reason is that an official miniature is now available from SJG. The other is the amount of work required to finish it that I could spent doing other things

I've made a decision to finish it, but not as a Ninja, but as a Mark-2 Scout variant based on some stats from Henry Cobb's page here. Henry has to be one of the leading lights on Ogre stats, and has a lot of useful stuff on his web page. Check it out.

Anyway, to quote from here;

However if the Ninja was produced without the Missile Rack at first (until it was proven on the Mark-IV) and simply had the rest of its armament then it's load factor would be less than the Mark-V. And then you could assume that stealth was also in development until 2087 or so. The cost for this Ninja-Minus would only be 74 VPs (2 missiles in tubes, 1 MB, 2 SB, 8 AP, 5 treads per hex times 4 hexes of move) and it could have been seen as a scout replacement for the Mark-II until the stealth and rack technologies were available. Then when the Mark-IV was deployed, the Ninja was obsolete as a pure scout and so redeveloped with stealth and missile rack. 

So, that's what I'm going to do with this model, because it makes it unique.

Thinking about this has also made me start imagining a NAC Mark 1 variant that would stylistically be a better fit with the classic Winchell Chung designs, mostly down to the fact that I don't like the current Mark 1 & 2 models. By that I mean they're perfectly nice models, but they look more like Pan European mini-Fencers than precursors of the classic Mark 3 & 5 designs.

YMMV. More thoughts and pictures in due course.

Expanding My Ogre Combine Forces

It's been almost a year, a long time really, since I've looked to expand my Ogre/GEV forces. I've been having a bit of a sabbatical from my miniature wargaming this year having been working on writing three novels, which, if you should so desire, you can read about here?

Anyway,  The above picture shows my next stage of expansion of my forces. Last year I was very lucky to be able to purchase some more Combine miniatures from Daniel who was going over to Austin to be the new Ogre line developer. 

Hence the unpainted models waiting to be assembled in due course.

As you can see I did somehow managed to paint the first colour on the North American Combine miniatures I had squirreled away in my maturing box that were previously shown here, you will need to scroll down to the bottom of the page.

As a reminder I've had these models sitting around waiting for me to do something with them for a very long time indeed. How long? Twenty years, which is a bit embarrassing really, except I do have the excuse of going off to train to be a nurse... and working... and other stuff like that.

The obvious observation is that miniatures don't paint themselves, and it takes time to get an army together. I've been looking through my notes on the number of armour units and infantry one needs to be able to play GEV scenarios and have identified a shortfall of miniatures in a number of areas.

However, getting these as a MiB is proving problematical as they're Warehouse 23 specials, and not generally available product, which means I'm not going to be able to realistically have enough miniatures to run GEV scenarios this year at Dragonmeet.

Next year, fingers crossed this situation will have changed

Robot Fire Breathing Dragon

  

All it needs is frickin laser beams coming out of its eyes and the robot apocalypse can begin.

  

The Chains of Command

My copy of Chain of Command arrived earlier this week and has that lovely new book smell when I opened it to read.  Now some of you may well be asking why I bought a set of WW2 rules given that this is not one of periods that I play?  A good question indeed, and my answer is that I'm a rule junky.  I like to read wargame rules that challenge my preconceptions and stretch my imagination and Too Fat Lardies publish fascinating rule sets that do precisely that.

My intention is to use these rules for Inter War games say for the Spanish Civil War, which I do have an interest in, or adapting them for WW1 games, and even stealing the mechanisms for Vietnam era games.  Somewhere deep and dark I have an idea about using the command and control aspects of the game for a near future SF game involving power armour, drones and cybertanks etc.  Muwuhuhahaha!

Anyway, after reading these, watching some games being played and hanging around with disreputable people talking all things Lard, I recommend that you just go and order this set of rules today.  The book is just so chock full of ideas that it ought to have a waning label that says full of addictive fun rules that will make your head explode.
  

Conquering Mars

As you can see Curiosity, our favourite atomic powered cybertank, is now watching the skies of Mars.  I live the future vicariously through our robot friends who are fun to be with.

I'm currently processing the germs that I picked up at last weeks Nine Worlds GeekFest convention.

There's a reason that conventions generally only run for three days, and that is down to what is lovingly called con crud.

On a happier note I went and spent my Steve Jackson Games MiB points at Warehouse 23 today, and an order of Ogre miniatures is now being process and will be sent to me soon. I doubt that they will arive in time for me to paint them for Dragonmeet as I opted for the cheapest shipping option, which means they may be some time getting here.

For those of you who are interested in such things I ordered the following:

2   Ogre Mark I
2   Ogre Mark II
2   Ogre Vulcan Drone
2   Bigfoot Mobile Howitzer
8   Yankee Light Tank
4   Alamo Superheavy Tank
1   Doppelsoldner
1   Fencer Cybertank

So yes Dorothy. Ogre miniatures are back in stock at Warehouse 23. For the first time this year I actually feel interested in panting some more miniatures, and I'm looking forward to these arriving. 

Edit:  Convention review here.

Nine Worlds GeekFest 2013

 

Just a quick update that I'm attending Nine Worlds GeekFest 2013 this weekend, which is being held at The Raddison Edwardian and The Renaissance hotels at Heathrow. I'm attending as both a punter, a MIB demo agent, and as a panelist.

My original intention was just to go as a punter as I had supported the KickStarter way back when, but then Roger announced that the MIB were going and could I bring my Ogre miniatures so we could run demos?  

I said yes, with the proviso that as I had paid for a ticket I didn't want to be tied down all weekend on a table and not see anything.  

Now my friend John asked for a woman for a Friday evening panel talking about superheroes on the small screen; and so it begins.

I shall try and take photos and post a report after the event. 

NB: Late addition to this post. The report can be read here.