Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Those domes... I am amazed. Excellent idea Grimdork.

Perhaps raise the domes themeselves by adding a wall between the bowl and the lid? That way you could put a door or hatch into the wall.

And I think I will get a few of those bowls myself, next time out.

You could demonstrate domes without actually having a "full " dome by doing something like this.. http://37.media.tumblr.com/5cc14485f739c879701836af3d6635c7/tumblr_mwfucyOyTG1sgghxro1_1280.jpg
I imagine a ballon and many many water medium stuff layers would give you nice bits to paint onto then remove the ballon and tada you have your dome?

@ Red I thought about doing that till I put them up on the pillars, if I was going to make them on the ground I might do them that way.

I think I'm leaning towards more of a netherstorm style implementation:


@Ereynaline that's a pretty cool way to go about it, though I wonder if I could do that method as much justice, especially while keeping it sturdy for games.

True. perhaps just a load of PVA glue or even resin could work? By having a small wall around the base of the dome or at the top you could allow for models to be added and removed easily. As for painting you could simply highlight the edges and add some sort of field pattern (classic hexagons?) pretty easily. the lightning would be an added bonus?

Curse you Grim!! Now I'm going to have to spend time staring at bowls in every store I go to as possible bio dome candiditates

Muahahahahaha!

Scratchbuilder's syndrome, unless I'm just really tired I subconsciously scan the store for shapes that I could use, and I'm not even all that much of a scratchbuilder at this point

I suffer from that malady as well, but I haven't had a use for bowl shapes in years, until now...

Must..resist... must work on Daemons...

They come in red and blue translucent too... Hemispherical demon portals and or force fields

 GrimDork wrote:
@Azazel, yeah I think Netherstorm had something to do with it

I actually thought about trying to do them on the surface and have several more domes with structures inside but... ehh... I dunno where I'd find bowls big enough to really capture netherstorm properly. They are slotted to have greenery, probably jungle plants too, the train trees were just for temporary effect. But damnit now you've got me wanting to paint the ground purple with big glowy crystals sticking up at random angles.... gak... tempting as heck.

Variety of heights would be fine, I actually want to do that but making them uniform adds in the benefit of the boards being more stackable using the bottom support pillar as a support for the board sitting on top etc.

Perhaps a couple of each of varying heights? Or some way to adjust the heights? Again, just basing it (very loosely) off of Netherstorm where the domes were on differing heights of plateau (and different heights of floating rocks!) It adds a nice kind of untamed feel to it, that works well with the Bio-dome concept for me. Maybe even make some "hills" that can double as plateaus/mesas or the base for a Bio-dome.

Damnit... netherstorm... that was actually one of my favorite places.. forget shadowmoon or w/e it was called.
Crap Azazel.... crap.
Anyone have any good ideas for how I might create a larger dome covering more of a 2x2' area? Like most of it? Obviously you'd have to leave it off in game but y'know. Now I want to put those little field projector things that go up the sides like the netherstorm domes...

http://www.webstaurantstore.com/cambro-psb23-40-qt-pebbled-salad-bowl/214PSB23.html?utm_source=Google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=GoogleShopping&gclid=CL6t85uJqMUCFdgLgQodnBUAzg
I bet shipping would kill but thats almost the right size. Its a bit opaque but it implies what I need is out there...

Check Amazon, etc for something similar. Don't they have a lot of free shipping deals to US customers?

Just to annoy you further on the Netherstorm (and Un'Goro) front, have you considered this?


I just ordered one of these myself on the weekend. They're shockingly inexpensive compared to what we're used to paying.

Did someone say Netherstorm??!

You better do some ground domes after this project. (Somewhere to finally wow nerd out, yay.)

Oh snap!

There's also these

They're pretty much as good as any other prepaint, and aside from needing to be rebased for Warhams, some of them have a lot of potential for "real" minis gaming. I bought a ton of them awhile back, and a bunch of extras to repaint, but never got very far before I had to pack up to move. Now if I can just find that ogre I started again...

Haha, dinosaur. And yes, I have been considering it. I was thinking of sneaking a smaller one in somewhere but if I successfully manage the larger 2'-ish dome, I could just pop one in there for display purposes.

Actually haven't had the best luck with Amazon lately. They kind of like to be expensive more than they used to. I haven't found anything yet but I also haven't tried looking for punchbowls which is another avenue.

I agree that the varying height is cooler.

Got something coming up that may invalidate my needing to worry about space and storage for the most part, but still too early to say anything. If it happens though, I'll probably stick to the multi-height domes... though it *will* cause a steeper angle for ramps and such between them.

@Stormwall, I'm trying to source a ~24" dome to cover up one quadrant of my board, it would be on the ground

I assume you'd just take the top off it so you could move stuff about in there?

A sub fight in the domes, like a fire team vs fire team thing?

For actual games, the domes would come off. For self-run cinematic battle report kind of things.. I'd probably add them back in for photos.

I've missed the so much!!

The dread pirate cthulhu is fantastic!! You did some great work there!

Those domes are also pretty sweet. You can tell by your pics of them that you are inspired.

I'm looking forward to seeing where this goes!! Such great work!

Thanks, I like skinny Cthulu too. And he's even finally almost totally dry! I dunno if its a bonesium thing or what, but it took the stain *forever* to dry on some parts of him, but its finally more or less done on the tentacles and even the base is getting better. So he should be capable of terrorizing the other models soon

I dunno about inspired, but I'll take kind words where I can get them, thanks


Today, I got to play some games of x-wing. My primary opponent has a doubles tournament to go to later in the month (I'll be celebrating my daughter's birthday instead, so also fun ) so we ran some 50 point skirmishes. The twin warthog y-wing thugs pulled two victories, soundly defeating 4 academy pilots and taking out a 'fat' Horton Salm (who did better than the ties interestingly enough). Kath Scarlet managed to get shot down by Salm in the third and final game, almost had him a couple of times but she took a regular proton torpedo to the face for 4 damage in the first exchange, and got hit with the advanced proton later in the game... allowing for the Y-wing (who was regenerating shields with R2D2) to eventually wear her down with the ion turret. Close game. Fun too as I managed to get a hit with my points-filler seismic charge.

I should have taken some pictures to show off my spiffy new 3x3' x-wing mat, I'll do that later I guess.

Thanks for hanging out guys, I may put some pictures up later but for right now I need to switch rooms to be closer to the AC!

AC? What's that says my current HVAC system. All the monies will be leaving me soon.

Booooooo :(

Am very interested to see the mat Grim. What are your thoughts on X-Wing? You seem to be playing a fair bit of it. I just await the day of a full HIPS 28mm Star Wars game, only then will so many childhood wishes be met.

Your terrain ideas for the dome are great, I wish I had your vision for turning the mundane into great gaming scenery.

Thanks . I think ive picked up a lot of my scratch build tricks from dakka. Its fun stuff you've just got to try it and poke around for inspiration. Its good for when you have time and space (to store your ever increasing horde), but not as much disposable income. Well and its fun, sometimes I'll scratch build things I could buy

I dunno if I'm playing x-wing so much, or just not playing much else lately . Its a great little game. The balance seems fair, some ships are in better places than others but its a dicey game so even suboptimal builds can have a good day or strong lists can falter. Some ships do seem to be somewhat off the table and in need of update, but FFG does tend to address them. I think I'd like the system with generic ships nearly as much as with the star wars liscence, it plays well.

Dakka is a good source of info

Took a bunch of photos of several of my minis duking it out.
http://www.dakkadakka.com/gallery/images-70053-46875_Corporate%20Takeover%3F.html
There's like 54 of them =/ I'll be putting them in that gallery, probably not all of them today, gonna have to work soon.

I'll be doing an update with captions/storymode as I get the chance.

Miniature market strikes again! I ended up buying some neoterra bolts cause they were heavily discounted as the deal of the day =/

That's a lot of Greys. How many of those sci-fi expansions did you get from Bones 2? That Battle System terrain really looks good. I am kicking myself I didn't back it now. I'll have to rectify that with the post apocalyptic one coming in the fall.

Two, they came with 8 each or something. And ended up with 18 kulathi evil grin.

The battle systems stuff is pretty cool.

I doubt I'll have the money but after seeing some of the modifications to the set they were doing with the fantasy set (fort walls are clearly superior to bunker walls, for instance) the post apoc/modern city stuff sounds fancy.

Got the mantic newsletter, seems they are going brick wall happy!

Yeah, the two mars attacks scenery types look to have been released finally.

 GrimDork wrote:
Yeah, the two mars attacks scenery types look to have been released finally.

they were also showing them with Weird War 2 scenes with zombie-nazis headed at US troops

Alright so I finally finished uploading my 54 photos to the Corporate Takeover? folder found here. But now I'm going to weave them together with a bit of fluff, mostly captions and a little extra here or there.

Below the story you will find a Legend with some extra info about the key players involved. A lot of it is more fluff than necessary, but I wanted to record it as I haven't written some of it down anywhere else before.



This incident occurred at the Grey research station GX-17 on a backwater little planet of little concern. A Ubiquitech patrol force was making the rounds and ensuring local security while verifying licenses and shaking down operators who didn't have the right clearance. Upon reaching GX-17 LT Riley was prepared to check the station off and continue to the next position, when Barker spoke up; "Looks like this place has a level five scan-dampening package, I'm not sure the Listening Post could penetrate it...".

"Tinfoil hat protocols?" Asked Riley suspiciously, "That kind of tech is only authorized for special C7 operations, there's no way these guys have a license for it."

Riley shrugged, resigning himself to actually working for his meager credit disbursement tonight, and said "Alright boys, lets show these Greys it doesn't pay to circumvent UT license and procedure, keep your weapons out for show but don't hot unless you see some resistance. These guys don't usually put up much of a fight so let Barker and I handle things with their leaders, should be a quick procedure. Just for extra bargaining power, Helga, take your breach team and push to the lab. With a facility this size, should only be a door or two into the place, if you've got a gun on their scientists the boss isn't going to try anything funny and we'll be risking our hides a hell of a lot less"

Helga rolled her shoulders and checked the charge on her pulse carbine, "You heard him, Charlie, Becca, Roach, with me." she barked as she moved for the second entrance on this side of the facility. "You heard the 'boss', don't shoot any of them unless they look at you funny. Let the marines hold the first room, as soon as you clear it move to the next. Once we hit the lab, I want all three of you on threat assessment until we get the all clear."

After issuing a few more succinct orders to his fairly disciplined team, Riley activated the facility's external intercom; "Attention GX-17 it has come to the attention of this GCPS patrol that your facility is running tech that you can't possibly have a license for. Prepare for GCPS forces to breach your outer doors, do not resist. This is Lt Riley, my aide and I will be making our way directly to your command center to negotiate your removal of the offensive tech and the issuance of the appropriate fees. Any resistance will be met with deadly force, these Genlings don't have a 'stun' setting. You guys know the drill, don't make trouble for us."

While the Greys did not immediately respond, Riley cut the comms anyway to give them no wiggle room. Some quick gestures had soldiers setting charges to scramble the circuitry and disable the mag-locks holding the portals in place. Nearly in unison, the charges pulsed and the multi dead bolts clicked to the open position...


GX-17 in the first moments of the conflict, Riley's team has yet to breach the second entrance in this capture.


The facility's leadership quickly attempts to cover the evidence of their illicit operations, while Defender G'nem orders his team into positions.





"This is Jenson, we've got some of the red ones over here, they look pretty miffed. Command center is nowhere in sight, we're gonna dig in and have us a bit of a pissing contest with the local security until you give word otherwise, Boss."


"Do not fire Defenders, let our commander settle this, but do not take your eyes off of the soldiers. If they act aggressively, fire freely."


The grey lesser guide holds the Defenders back, hoping for a diplomatic resolution.


GCPS marines seek cover behind storage bins, expecting the Greys to not shoot their own inventory (but unsuspecting of the volatile nature of the crates).


Helga and her breach team blow past the first line of defenders and locate the lab past the sleeping quarters.






"Listen up folks, make any sudden moves and I'm going to decorate the walls with ya. My CO is here to squeeze your boss for fees you guys were too stupid to pay. Like these dead guys. Do you guys have a license for human experimentation? Preety sure you gotta have a license for that. *click* Hey boss, we've got some human experimentation going on here in the lab, looks pretty tame but you might wanna check their permit..."


A corporation fire team advances in the wake of Riley and Barker, including some heavier equipment and a c-6 'chibi strider' combat robot.


"Let me do the talking Barker, but if they've got a red up there and he puffs out his chest, shoot him in his damn face. After that bit from Helga, I can tell these guys are up to no good and aren't as likely to capitulate as we had hoped... Keep your guard up, this whole thing is starting to stink."


"Alright you little bastards, I've got at least two high-profile license violations on you already, care to explain what's going on here?"

The attending defender bristled at the abrupt intrusion but his guides urged him to caution, the seeker looking rather anxious. The head guide spoke first, "Gentlemen, surely this is a misunderstanding. Don't you need some kind of paperwork before you can just barge in here like this? Why, I should like to con/" but Riley quickly cut him off.
"Can it, you aren't talking your way out of this one, Grey. You've got Tinfoil Hat tier dampening protocols in place and you're experimenting on sentients with no apparent license. Step back, and call off your dogs or this is going to become a Seize operation rather than a fee extraction."


The c-6, named Li'l Ray by his squad, encounters a Grey robot guardian. The old Dreadnought class mech's drives whir up as it turns to face the threat. The Dreadnought was a relic of an older age, and it's processors couldn't handle too complex of commands, upon detecting the threat, the aged machine simply switched to 'kill mode'.


While browbeating the Greys, Riley got a brief communication from the c-6 unit.

--c-6 unit designation 'Lil Ray' reporting hostile mechanical unit, please advise. Request weapons fr-- crackle...CLUNK. CRASH!


The older mech had sucker punched the C-6 right through the safety railing. Landing in such a way as to break a key servo motor, Lil Ray as as useful as a marine with a broken back, and it still hadn't been issued a weapons free command.

"Oh HELL no. Geiger, get in there and NUKE that ridiculous rust-bucket! Barker, do it!"
With zero hesitation, Barker snapped his rifle to a firing position and shot the defender in the face as previously ordered. Gore splattered the Prime Guide's face and he fell out of his chair in shock.



Once receiving the command, ranger Geiger wasted no time in executing it. He disengaged the safety protocols on his thermal rifle and used his attitude control pack to skip the stairs, arriving right on the flank of the Dreadnought. The ancient machine simply couldn't react in time. Geiger discharged the thermal rifle right into the robot's power plant, slagging the entire thing and causing the machine to lurch violently over the railing.


Geiger surveys the mechanical carnage he's wrought, grimaces a bit and nods. Li'l Ray had been avenged, hopefully the techs could get him back and running again. Every team needs its mascot.


Riley had pretty well lost his patience by this point. "Do you see the smoldering wreck of your ancient rust bucket you skinny little gaks? Is your dead defender enough to get you to cut your crap? Surrender your facility to my control now and report to the soldiers at ground level or I'm going to order my men to start shooting. Do you read me?"


Unbeknownst to the other parties, a door on the far side of the complex was blown inwards and hulking mutant creatures barged in to the empty room. "As planned... as planned.... Forward, you know our objective. Sweep this place clear of anything that moves, I will not risk harm to our goal" rasped Dr. Simmonds in her hoarse raw voice. Her subcommanders wasted no time in marshaling their forces.


One of Dr Simmonds' strongest assets is her ability to condition and control the stage 3z mutants that are spawned when plague victims fail to progress to full stage 3 mutants. Dr Simmonds has managed to train a large pool of usually mindless 3zs to follow rudimentary commands.


Sensing the nearness of its own kind, the captive 1st generation mutant rises in anticipation of its release.


Riley continued to attempt to cow the aliens and he barked "I'm gonna give you little bastards a three count before I give my boys the all clear for weapons free. Do you understand what that means? Why are you staring behind me? You think I'm gonna fall for the oldest--" before being cut off by a brutal swing from a rifle. His head jerked violently to the side and he fell away into blackness. Barker had attempted to alert his CO but a plague-ravaged former GCPS soldier, now a horrible plague zombie, managed to stick a knife in his heart before he could get off more than one shot. The zombie lost an eye but its hunger and fury were far from sated.


More plague zombies rushed Geiger's position and while he managed to delete the face of the first to enter his weapon's short range, the rifle's firing cycle was simply too long to allow for a second shot. The second zombie was on him before he could unholster his pistol.


The second half of Helga's breach team fared a bit better, cutting down several of the enemy fodder in a few seconds.


As yet more plague zombies poured into the laboratory Helga radioed for Riley, "Hey Boss, we've got some plague nasties moving in from the far side of the lab, these scientists are going down quick!" After a moment's pause Helga switched off her broadcast and assumed the worst. Turning to her team she said, "Alright people, code black, I want you to fall back to the entry points and lay down suppressive fire on these things while you do so. Keep it together!"


After getting the comflash issued when a CO's vitals go flat, the rest of the squad rushes to position and attempts to determine the next course.


Unfortunately for everyone else, Dr Simmonds brought a fairly large crew of s3 mutants, some of which brought heavier firepower.


Without wasting useless words, the plague mutants vaulted and rushed to catch up with their superiors, plague-enhanced limbs speeding their ascent.


The disciplined fire of the trained corporation marines proved effective at stopping the charge of isolated plague zombies, with enough laser burns melting functional limbs to the point of uselessness, or destroying vital organs even the plague zombies still needed to function.


But in other spots, the additional firepower of the latest plague arrivals began to take a toll on the beleaguered marines.


"gak, backpedal faster boys, these things are fast!" cried Helga as her position was rapidly overrun by the zombies.


Cut off from their command elements, the marines and greys had begun to open fire upon eachother, with the greys quickly outflanked and cut down. The marines and rangers in this area made a good show of holding down the advancing plague forces as well, at least at first.


One of Simmonds' followers had managed to appropriate a heavy military grade grenade launcher, nicknamed the Boomstick by corporate forces. Calmly lining up the shot, the plague eventually fired to a devastating effect, wiping out the local human resistance.


Chuckling to itself, the mutant advanced with its companions, moving ever towards their goal.


Meanwhile, at the command post, the zombies made short work of the unarmed grey leadership and unsated, they began to work their way back down to the rest of the fight.


Those same zombies eventually managed to reach the second line of defenders and the mutants went about their grisly work.


Helga screamed at her men, "Get back damn you, those aren't just mindless zombies!" She had noticed their coordinated actions and then spotted the reason. "Simmonds, I should have made a better effort to cross you off my list on Nexus Psi, you bitch!"
The plague-riddled scientist cackled madly and then addressed Helga, "Oh you managed to survive Nexus Psi, did you? You're more resourceful than most. I should like to splay you out on my table to see what makes you tick... or perhaps you would like to join my growing army?"


Helga and the remaining members of her breach team are backed into a corner in the bunk room, their hastily erected defensive positions quickly overrun.


The surprisingly coordinated actions of the zombies, as well as the plague's overwhelming numbers quickly saw the fireteam cut down to nothing. Helga performed admirably, cutting down several mutants with her pulse carbine and skewering more than one on her wrist blade, but she wasn't quick enough to save her men. The mutants surrounded her and began to close in...


One of the last remaining fireteams prepared to give Helga some covering fire as they fell back, but their position wasn't as secure as they had thought.


Though riddled with holes and burns, the savage plague mutant managed to eviscerate or bludgeon all of the marines to death before expiring itself. Help would not come for any survivors on the other side of the complex.



Sensing the nearness of their goal, the plague mutants made one final effort to sweep their enemies away. The Boomstick was put to further violent use, clearing the last pocket of corporation resistance.


Helga burst into a whirlwind of motion, disemboweling the closest enemies before she broke off into a trot towards the nearest potential escape. The mutants scrambled to catch her and negate the last pocket of resistance, to kill the last witness to their acquisition.


Leaping up onto a crate, Helga called behind her "You bitch! You cost me some damn good men, I'm gonna let corp central know what you bastards're up to and the next time we meet I'm gonna slag your face clean off!".


Helga continued to run for the exit with the mutants hot in pursuit. Another zombie turned from its meal to attack Helga from the front.


Helga wasted little time on the mutant, plunging her wrist blade into it's torso and tearing the weapon upwards. The energy field playing along the blade sparked and sizzled as it cleaved the monster nearly in two from the waste to skull. Helga left it to rot behind her. One of Simmonds' aides began to order the rest of the minions to pursue Helga out of the complex, but a well placed plasma bolt bore a hole neatly centered in the mutant's face. Helga paused in the doorstep, cranking her vocal output settings to maximum with a flick a tongue switch set inside her helmet. "You're next you freakish bitch. The next time I see you, there won't be enough left to fill a sick bag." Having said her peace (what little it was worth at the moment) Helga retreated to the patrol craft. She disengaged the locks on her personal jetbike and proceeded to haul ass to the nearest GCPS center to report the worsening situation to her current superiors.


"I really *would* like to dissect that one..." Simmonds mused to herself. "Klein, activate that other switch, its time we got what we came for. With that other one escaping, we will have to move up our time table."


The energy field flickered and winked out of existence. Simmonds reached out to the hulking monstrosity that was the first generation plague mutant and began to cackle madly. The monster cocked its head slightly, and then a wide and malicious grin splayed across its features....



And there's a shot of the whole 2x2' facility after the battle ended.

I hope you guys enjoyed this little skirmish. Any advice for how I may improve the format? I was considering eventually cropping a lot more and editing something similar into more of a graphic novel format, something a bit more story driven as this kind of devolved into captions for long stretches at a time.


Legend.

It's actually pretty impressive how much action you managed to capture in that 2x2 board lol. Nice stuff