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Building is looking very nice! Dumpsters and machine outside
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That building is really good!

I can't really give any input on the warmachine front as I have only rarely seen the models online and never in real life.

But I can add my voice to the liking of your taco stand. Is it a sealed building or is there interior detail?

And do the tacos taste good?

Because if you are fighting your way across a warzone for a munchies run, they better be worth dying for.

Looks great!

Skorne troll bloods and retribution are the only warmahordes factions I am interested in personally but not enough to buy into it.

Yeah, it's totally possible that I won't buy any either Carlos. I might, especially since they're well discounted where my bonus points live and I'm realizing I kind of almost prefer metal models after working on my Infinity stuff... But it's just as likely I'll use those slush funds to nab new X-wing or notable Imperial Assault personalities.

Thanks for the kind words about Taco Mars guys

I think it's probably like Bog's Burgers... the food is surprisingly good for a dive like it, but you probably don't wanna watch them cook it

The building has no interior though there is an openable roof, so that may happen eventually. For now the roof is just to unveil a surprise objective like the seed pods.

Oi... Been cleaning out boxes. Some packed to move, some that have been around for years. The pile of crap on the table now has to be sorted and stored somewhere. Sigh.

Nowt like a big pile of crap to deal through...

The building looks cool as well, is there any truth in the rumour that the locals have re-named it Taco-Hell?

Haha, probably. This part of the city is pretty well abandoned, I would say. Or at least the honest folk will have left. Ramshackle buildings like Taco Mars will all be tagged and signed to death, but government and military buildings will mostly be unblemished, just grimy. I'll probably get some use out of that sentries active in the area sign.

Pile isn't too bad. Not considering how many boxes it was reduced from... just gotta get it sorted so I can find things later when I need them.


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Also, I hate to add to the pile... but between Theo's zombie escapades and me watching a couple more episodes of the Walking Dead (I can only tolerate 2-3 in a week, if that, gets kind of boring in patches), I'm really kind of keen to order the wargames factory zombies and survivors kits. Probably less than $70 shipped for 60 zombies and 60 survivors. Probably splice in some mantic undead as well.

Don't get me wrong, I like my scifi zombies... but they aren't quite as versatile as they could be. I guess neither are the WGF zombies as they're pretty contemporary (though they'd do alright for older periods if you pick out certain types of clothing/weapons).

But yeah, distant, future purchase. Just an idea rattling around in my head. Between pulp alley and Mars Attacks, I could use a little more contemporary/20s/30s/40s firepower.


Bah, i should stay away from the internet.


Almost got the game room sorted.. though that's pushed some overflow into the office. And really it's just bulk sorting, the display/terrain shelves in the game room need a lot of sorting work still.

I bought into Warmachine back when it came out, because I love the big clunky warjacks. Then I started playing competitively and serious competitive play was all about the all metal infantry models, which I didn't own. Sold off most of my collection and never looked back.

Taco Mars looks great. The GrimDork graphitti tag was a nice inside joke.

I sill love the clear bases, but I can't bring myself to buy them in the bulk I would need them , but I may have found a cheaper alternative. Clear tiddly winks. I ordered some, and I'll let you know how they work out.

Interesting that you need the infantry more than otherwise. Makes sense really, probably less metal and more margin for them. Honestly, I may not even worry about *getting into warmachine* so much as I may just get some of those fantastic mage hunters, mage hunter assassins, and Narn (character MHA). If it ever looks like I could play... get some more. I dunno though, the more I look at the range the more it grows on me. I don't love the chunky WoW aesthetic on everything but on the elves it's neat, as they're usually ridiculously slender and what not.

We'll see. The Wargames factory zombies and survivors appear to be up on amazon at reasonable discount so they may hedge out the warmachine elves. I still want some of the mage hunters though... they'd work well for parties/warbands of elves for D&D. Somewhat unusual/advanced elves, but that works. I've got a wonky subculture like that. My campaign setting doesn't have drow (it's lame, but I gotta be a snowflake *somehow*), there are some creepy elves what keep to themselves though... totally work for the mage hunter dudes.

Still not sure. Doesn't matter. Blew out all my points on brushes anyway


I've got some more photos of Taco Mars but I'm gonna let them do the LoER judging before I post them. For anyone who's just that interested, can be found in the gallery.



Lemme know how the tiddly winks work out. I could blow out all of my 300something bases on scifi models alone I'm sure, if there's a cheaper alternative for fantasy models... I wouldn't mind

Alright, here's a few more photos of the completed Taco Mars building along with some other finished scenery and some minis battling over it all:


Corporation marines emerge from elsewhere in the city, converging on the Taco Mars building where the enemy alien forces have chosen to stand their ground.


Corporate forces are met with harsh resistance.


Many marines don't make it home from the ambush.


But a tactical drop by the Rangers clinches the engagement.

More in the gallery, but you get the gist of it. I need to get some more buildings done. One of these days, I'm gonna put out the four deadzone mats and see if I can fill them up or not. Don't think I'm quite there.

A friend is coming by later today, dunno if we'll try any games or not, but that will slow up my hobbying in either case. Hoping to get Mashaaf started this weekend one way or the other though.

The game room is almost totally cleaned out, and the office surfaces are pretty usable... though both need much more organization.

The way the different model ranges blend together is fantastic. I really like when you can get that sort of cross game versatility from your collection.

Terrain works really well. Although I feel for any poor marines that don't make it home from a seedy Taco vendor.....

Agreed. I think it's the bases that help tie them all together. Either way it looks fantastic.

Thanks guys, I like how everything works together too

I think I may draw up some pulp alley league teams to represent some of my scifi dudes, more play-ability for the win.

I think there are extra/optional rules for having superheroes/stuff like 40k characters have extra perks/stats/whatever, but honestly if you just consider all things equal.. it doesn't matter if my detective in a trench coat rolls the same number of dice as a space marine captain, they aren't going to be meeting. So as long as it's just scifi stuff on the table, rolling 4 dice is still what the stronger characters do, don't need to modify the rules in relation to other settings.

I think the pulp alley rules are pretty fast and punchy and would work well with small teams of scifi minis, I also have a boatload more of scifi terrain. You don't get some of the more advanced/tacticool rules like some modern/scifi games have, but you get a pretty neat system where most characters will get fatigued by interacting with multiple enemies in a turn, fighting and shooting are both valid, and the objectives are pretty damned important. Ranges are also realistic, while short range is pretty low, you can more or less shoot across the board (and c'mon, even a 4x4' board is within pistol range if you aren't abstracting greater distances).

Bah, even if you *do* cross genres, it's more amusing to have the punchy detective shooting holes in space marine power armor and getting similarly knocked around... would be boring if one sided

Nice work on Taco Mars. The posters really make it. I also like all the stuff on the roof-- it breaks up the surface without looking too cluttered.

Also: how do you do your Deadzone terrain? I have 8-10 battlezones, but I just can't figure out how to do them quickly while keeping them interesting to look at.

Thanks Josh

I'll do a photo shoot of my battle zones and post them as soon as I get the chance. I'll let you see what you like and don't like from there.

I'm pretty boring with my shapes though. There are some pretty fantastic shots on the internet of some really interestingly shaped b-zone scenery. But I've been meaning to photograph my stuff again anyway.

Taco Mars looks excellent!

Thanks

I'm getting destroyed in the public vote here http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/0/663856.page#8125126
But I never really expected to win, even in a run with fewer competitors. Learning experience. Check out the link guys, there's five entries total (you've seen enough of mine ), and some really neat ideas and execution going on.

So between some lazy time on Sunday and little stolen moments here and there, I managed to run a me/myself/I game of scifi alley with the Shadow Knights facing off with the Galactic Empire. I'm going to do a proper battle report when I get the chance. Got a lot of photos for editing and some records to streamline and spruce up.

I'll give you the gist of it, Vader and company get their butts handed to them. I may have to go back and reevaluate both Vader's abilities and which units he takes with him.

Storm troopers died in droves (they should, but maybe too fast) and nobody on the Empire side really did anything impressive. The marines, on the other hand, pulled some really mean stunts and had some heroics etc. The shadow knights got an early card advantage and two or possibly three storm troopers went down to random unforeseen perils without even getting to shoot. Vader himself got taken out of action by a card keeping him from attempting a health check to recover.

It'll take awhile to get this battle report sorted out, but I think the Empire will need time to recover and possibly redesign. I think the next fight will be Corporation Marines Vs Space Marines, a good old fashioned Marine-off. Or something.

There are some nifty ideas in all those competition entries. I'll have to start following these contests more regularly.

I envy you your gaming time, even if it is solo. My boy likes to play games with my little army men, but he's still to young to do much more that play with them like tiny action figures, with the occasional roll-off to see who dies.

Cool terrain.

D

Thanks

@Josh yeah mine is still too little to trust with anything other than Bones I wouldn't miss. Pulp alley plays fast, I probably only took an hour and some change to get through that while taking photos and notes.

Taco Hell looks good. But if I can make one bit of constructive criticism... the main sign looks really washed out and simple compared to the signs all over the rest of the building, which have strong, rich colours. The main sign of the business should really stand out with strong colours. It might be worth a quick cut and paste/photoshop job to replace it so it has the same style as the rest of the building?

I just made this for you I left space around the edges so you can trim to fit the building sign. if you like it feel free to use it. If not.. well, don't worry about it.

http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg143/azazel_f13/Miniatures/Scenery/Taco%20Mars_zpsdk0s9afd.jpg

It's possible. Probably, really. I may get back into fiddling with photoshop/the gimp. Even paintbrush can do better than I did for the signs. So, you are right and I probably should get some signs printed for it sometime. I've been meaning to get some more varied posters and warnings so when I'm feeling it, I'll do so. Good call.

I got all of the battle report photos edited, now I just have to write the report and upload the photos. May be soon, may be the weekend or later.

See my last post-edit!

Ooh lookit that. Thanks . How could I not use it.


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I'll have to find some new posters to populate the sheet with it.

Signs and posters, they do seem to help make the scenery come alive!

Yep, it's good stuff.

So. I'll admit that I have a problem. I keep buying more freaking models people...

Oh well. I haven't filled up the available space yet and hell, this place has an attic

Anyway, I spotted the wargames factory dark futures survivors on amazon for a reasonable price (16-18 monies) and just happened to check my rewards balance and saw it was 28 bucks. So yep, I nabbed both sets and got sixty more miniatures for like.. 6 or 7 dollars. Whoops!

Now I'll be obligated to get the zombies too. Eventually.

I hear they're great kits and come with a boat load of arms to use, plenty of extras supposedly. I figure a few of them will be old fashioned enough for Pulp Alley, and some may do for civilians in more scifi-oriented games. Between all of the Pulp Alley and Mars Attacks stuff I have laying around... I may have to invest some time in making modern/almost contemporary scenery.

Yeah... anyway whoops.

The Wargames Factory Survivors are great models, but the thier zombies are not. I'd buy Zombicide Zombies if you were looking for modern zombies.

Oh, really? I was thinking of getting the zombies too sometime, but they aren't as good, huh? Do you have any specific wisdom as to why they aren't? I've been watching theo tear through those zombies from the board game and though they looked pretty solid. If that's the better route, its fine with me, just curious as to where the WGF zombies fall short.