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Thanks.

And... that's kind of what I was thinking too, it's just a crapshoot.

Ahh well, only one model so far out of many has turned out effectively unusable.

Seems to me like anything after the first layer of paint should behave like it always does... but yeah I dunno maybe not.

You can thin liquid greenstuff? Maybe my pot of it isn't dried out and useless then.

Is it worth trying a spray-on Matt Varnish on the tacky minis? In theory, shouldn't that dry clear, flat and dry and fix the tackyness of the underlying paint?

I sprayed the nun with it. Twice.

I have a theory that maybe I didn't let the dip cure enough before putting the sealer down... but honestly I doubt that's it since I've done that to a *lot* of my models so far this year, all of the not-bones models have been 100% normal and not tacky regardless of when I've sealed them.

Could it be a reaction of some sorts with the bones miniatures? I generally tend to do a brush on wash myself.

Star Wars ship designs were always a tad strange, they were trying hard to make things not so familiar, even though the ships all use some form of turbo jet engines

Yeah, I think it was just the 70s-80s design theory, they wanted to make stuff look more space-future so they did all of that weird decentralized cockpit asymmetrical stuff. In some ways, the designs are endearing, in others... they're just plain goofy as heck. When you get to a big old capital ship, I don't think it matters what shape it is, you've got multiple people driving that by setting courses and whatnot, but it seems like anything a person is gonna drive with control sticks or whatever... ought to be symmetrical with a centered cockpit. I realize we drive slightly to the left (or right) in a car.. but that's a far cry away from a B-wing or the Falcon lol.

I'm not sure about the bones material... I've dipped everything I've done so I dunno if they'd be tacky if I hadn't or not.

I always figured the Falcon needed side viewing radar with the way it is arranged. In Star Wars Rebels, their ship, the "Ghost" has a center-line cockpit. Seems newer designs are favoring that.

Slave one flies one way then tilts and lands another, reminds me of the German prototype that stands up to launch/land, then tilts to fly in a normal direction, had 3 wings that had ramjets on the tips to spin them like a propeller.

That thing looks scary to fly

Slave 1 makes no sense to me. Why would you want to fly it in space the way it's done in the movies, you're presenting a much larger target area.... Can't fathom it. It's not like the little rotating guns couldn't still shoot forward or backward or anything, they just wanted it to look fuggin weird. I guess, for the most part, the Imperial designs make the most sense as most of them *are* symmetrical.

Uploading the pulp alley battle report, typing as I go so it's gonna take awhile, upwards of 40 pictures =/

Big report! oh and more pics of the Hanomag were loaded last night

Tired of having his plans thwarted by Buck Spencer, the Mad Scientist used his considerable political influence to call in some favors and send Buck off on a wild goose chase. Knowing that he could move without interference, for a time, the Mad Scientist enacted a plan he had been holding in reserve for quite awhile.

Calling once again upon his creations, the Gorilla Gangsters, the Mad Scientist sent them forth into the secret laboratory of one of his most successful competitors. Their mission was to grab certain formulas, research notes, and key scientists before escaping into the city sewers to rendezvous for pickup.

Little did the Mad Scientist know that his machinations were being watched, and that another had similar designs. The Necromancer was also covetous of Dr. Brighton's research, but unwilling to tip his hand so obviously as the Mad Scientist. However, attacking his unwitting adversary's minions in the sewers... this was acceptable. The Necromancer dispatched his top apprentice, Serine, as well as two Initiates and several undead minions. Their mission was clear, and time was on their side... they simply had to delay the Gorilla Gangsters long enough for the rendezvous to be missed.. and then the shambling hordes of the Necromancer could acquire the desired research at their leisure.

I'm gonna put turn sequence, rules commentary, and whatnot in green so as to not break up the pacing as much

The first 8 shots are all pre-game photos of the set-up. We used my battle systems terrain for the scientist's facility, and some terracilps malifaux sewer terrain that my opponent has for the sewers.

We decided to play the Dangerous Delivery scenario which involved one league trying to run the objectives across the map in order to claim them. The defender need only prevent this from happening to claim the objectives, allowing them to focus on offense and harassment rather than trying to solve plot points.

I rolled Serine's 5d8 finesse against the Network of Supporters ability to see how many extra points of contacts I could drum up for the battle. I managed a paltry 2, but I put them to pretty significant use. The first point bought me an upgrade to d8 on the initiative roll, and the second bought me an extra starting fortune card, and I put several of those to good use throughout the mission.

I won the Initiative roll and knew I had way better chances as the Defender, this mission is quite rough on the Attacker and I didn't favor my outlook on offense, even with my high league-wide dodge and intrepid explorers perk (allowing me to dodge in any direction instead of straight away from the damage).

So, I graciously gave the Attacker position to my opponent.

We decided that the entire sewer area should be perilous, meaning that anytime a model activated within that half of the board the opponent could play a card from his hand as a challenge, representing some perilous happenstance and potentially injuring the enemy model. For this map, most of the threat would come from collapsing masonry, albino sewer gators, and slippery stones.




Dr. Brighton's Labs, suspiciously connected to some old and run-down sewers. Perhaps Dr. B wasn't as aboveboard as he claimed to be...


The Perilous sewers abruptly terminate at the smooth concrete walls of the basement level of Brighton's facility.


The sewers are particularly perilous, brimming with foul waters and slippery stones. The masonry was also old and crumbling, and the occasional hiss could be heard.



The Gorilla Gangsters left much behind on their way out, taking only those bits they were specifically directed to take, the choicest notes and research.





The game commences with the Necromaner's team (me) having the initiative.


Having secured the most vital research notes (carried in the briefcase by the man in the trench coat), a crate of the most valuable supplies, and Brighton's best subordinate scientist... the Gangsters were ready to roll out. Bananas was in a nearby room, finishing one last task, and would join the rest one round behind.


But even as the gangsters prepared to make their escape, a sinister force emerged from that very tunnel entrance.
*sniff* "It smells even worse than you lot" drawled Serine.
"Spread out and wait to engage until they're close enough to reach, I don't want to explain to the Necromancer why his latest creations are riddled with holes" she quietly spoke, mostly to herself. The undead minions would follow her unspoken mental commands well enough, and the Initiates being alive would seek to keep themselves that way.




Serine led her unliving forces towards the center of the sewers while the Initiates moved into position to 'persuade' a fleeing scientist and haggard bum to accompany them back.


The gangsters crowd around the exit, with a big spike-clubbed bruiser leading, and everyone hot on his heels.




Serine still held the initiative after the initial moments of the encounter, and cautiously advanced her forces towards the gansters who must surely know of her presence by now.


This is where I started being nasty, and where my extra cards came in handy. I knew my opponent had more skilled and more reliable forces, so I used the perilous nature of the sewers to as much advantage as I could, throwing a lot of cards early to help thin out his forces (at least temporarily).
Channeling her energy, Serine afflicted the Fate of the charging gorilla bruiser, causing him to slip on a slick stone and run headfirst into a wall.


Mister Yellow and Mister Purple advanced behind the poor ape, noticing that his impact had loosed some masonry from the ceiling dealing him a fairly tremendous blow.


Fate proved to be out to get everyone, however, as the Initiate of the Blade found little success in coercing the bum.


The initiate of the Book had similar problems with the fleeing scientist, who only wanted to escape and who was quite terrified of the undead monstrosities passing him by.

Yeah, my opponent played the first card, and I randomly drew the second. Both initiates are good at a different skill, and both cards are the two abilities they aren't good at. The initiates basically did nothing the whole game due to bad cards, I should have had them switch off after such bad draws... but I never had to secure the objectives anyway, I was just looking at some insurance.


Sensing the approach of an enemy, Serine directed her forces to wait until they could spring forth and catch it unawares. Though the bone golem and the creature were evenly matched, it quickly tired and was eventually worn down by the axe-wielding skeleton.


Experiment #7 managed to stagger back to it's feet and fall back along the bridge, but the bruiser was down for the count.


Serine decided to take matters into her own hands, charging across the rickety planks to engage #7 herself.


The thuggish brute was no match for Serine, but Mister Yellow made short work of a skeleton.


As is the way of such lesser minions the skeleton, once sufficiently wounded, would have no chance to rise again without assistance after the battle. The lost of such a minor servitor was hardly disconcerting for Serine, however.


Marie, one of the Mad Scientist's many daughters, attempted to make a break for it but Fate was against her and she took a hard fall over some slippery stones, dropping the research materials. The Bone Golem tried to ford the swift flowing sewer water, but went down hard and could barely extract itself to the bank where it started.


Bananas had caught up with the gang and was trying to coerce the scientist that the bruiser had lost track of.


Da Boss boldly advanced forward making short work of one skeletal minion.


And that minion had no chance of recovering, such was the brutality of the onslaught.

We're on turn 4 from this point, the game will have 6 rather than 5 turns as one of the gangsters' objectives gave them the 'extend the game by a turn' ability.



Serine charged viciously at Mr Yellow, but was unable to definitely knock him out.


In fact, she took an injury herself.


The zombies advanced towards #7 but the gangsters had taken the initiative when serine was injured.


Bananas had trouble convincing the scientist to accompany him, as you may well imagine, but a revolver can be pretty persuasive and by this point he had almost made a job of it.


Da Boss continues to blaze a trail through the minions like they aren't even there.


Serine and Mr. Yellow battle it out while the zombies manage to overcome #7.


Serine managed to overcome the exhausted Mr yellow.


Turn 5 now, my opponent really had to make a break for the exit!
Mister Yellow and #7 both managed to hang in the fight, advancing against their foes.


Mr. Purple proves his worth by gunning down the initiate of the Book at close range.


The first exchanges in the ongoing melees prove fruitless.


But the zombies prove their worth yet again by holding down #7 for one more moment.


As the field lay in the last moments of the skirmish, the outcome was relatively clear.


Fearing retribution for anything less than fanatical devotion, the initiate of the Blade madly charged Da Boss but was knocked silly with little effort, leaving Da Boss a clear road to escape.


Though fights were still raging, their outcomes would be largely inconsequential as Da Boss caught the getaway car as it was pulling away, the rest of his gang would have to find their own way home, and the rest of the loot was claimed by the Necromancer's crew.


So, that's that. The battle ended at 4-3 in favor of the Necromancer, though I really wonder how things would have wound up in a more straightforward battle. We'll see I'm relatively pleased with Serine, she can't stand to Da Boss, and even Bananas would give her trouble (they'd likely just out dodge eachother till the end of time...) but she brought some useful abilities to the game through the extra contacts and did a decent job beyond that. I'm not sure how I feel about the followers. They go down, and stay down, really easily. I may trade two of the followers up for an ally instead, another melee brute to help protect the Initiates. A fun game at any rate! Next time we play it'll be X-wing, and I probably won't make much of a report for that as it usually devolves to a couple of ships circling eachother

Ah, it is always an awesome day when villains fight over the goodies

Been a while since I popped by. Lots to catch up on! Liking the colour scheme of the fusilier though. Nice work.

I thought it was pretty fun to have a badguy slugfest too

Ckig, there's a face I haven't seen around lately, good to see you still kicking about

First 10 up, got about 30 more

 GrimDork wrote:
I thought it was pretty fun to have a badguy slugfest too

Ckig, there's a face I haven't seen around lately, good to see you still kicking about

First 10 up, got about 30 more

It's good to be back!

Looking forward to it

20 now, halfway there lol.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Alrighty, done now.

The tiles and walls helped make it set the feeling of the lab to sewer, what, I wonder was Dr. Brighton's plans? seems he was set to make an escape had someone come after him through the front doors of his lab? Now who of course would come trough hi front door and also make him afraid to need a escape way??????

I dunno. I just made the guy up, so I have trouble guessing his motives

 GrimDork wrote:
I dunno. I just made the guy up, so I have trouble guessing his motives

Sounds like new chances for a new bunch of minis/background!

And I remembered to add new Hanomag pics

The terrain looks amazing and really lifts the report to the next level of awesome.

The sewer terrain is Terraclips, right? How is that stuff?

Its my opponents but it seems solid enough. In some ways it's better than the BS terrain because I can see the clips and scenery holding up a lot longer because they try to do less with it. It's like 2.5D scenery, there are doors and walls but you probably aren't doing more than one floor with it. If you can... I haven't seen it done but that was my only experience with the terrain too. Battle systems lets you build up and has lots of neat scatter and cool stuff on the walls... but yeah, it's more complicated, has more points of failure/confusion, and without proper treatment I could see it wearing out faster.

That said... I think the BS stuff has sharper images at least to some degree, and the card, I'm pretty sure, was thicker than the terraclips.


Got my 2x2' building done, working on decorating the rooms and then I'm gonna add some models for many photos, maybe a mock battle report or something.

 GrimDork wrote:
Thanks.
And... that's kind of what I was thinking too, it's just a crapshoot.
Ahh well, only one model so far out of many has turned out effectively unusable.
Seems to me like anything after the first layer of paint should behave like it always does... but yeah I dunno maybe not.
You can thin liquid greenstuff? Maybe my pot of it isn't dried out and useless then.

Hell yeah - it's the only way I can get it to work decently. Just use water. And I know what you mean and agree with regard to after the first layer of paint.. but Bones is an odd material. Really odd.

That table looks fething awesome. The two types of card terrain actually merge really nicely, and the BR looks like it would be great fun!

Thanks. I'll have to try rezzing my liquid greenstuff.

It was pretty cool to have both sets though I regret how small a portion the BS stuff played in the end. Well enough though, it got me to more or less finish prep work on my set.

More later when I'm not so tired, and with better light. A brief shot of an apparent corporate takeover.

Damn you Grim, I do not visit your blog for a week or so and it progresses a few pages and you change your avatar.

The combined scenery set up looks fantastic, a whole evocative gaming world to get immersed in which i guess most of us are after.

The corporate takeover looks like it could get...messy.

Haha, I wish I was moving along at the pace I want to be... but I can barely get myself to play a video game after work right now, let alone paint And here we are on the weekend and I've only done just a touch of highlighting on a dread.

It goes like that, I think you may feel an added pressure because of the seasonal nature of your job. There is rarely any point in picking up a paint brush if you are not feeling it, it will just show up in your painting. I am sure it will pick up in no time at all.

Yeah you've pretty much got it right. Painting is for fun, especially since I so rarely play.

If I can find the right timing I may get into airbrushing a little more... its not that it's really any easier than brush-painting... honestly it's harder since I'm less experienced with it and I usually do it standing (best place to do it doesn't have good seating... when it warms up a bit more that may change though...).. but I dunno sometimes I can get into the mood for it more easily. Got a lot of scenery to work through.


Oooh I just remembered an Idea I had maybe 2-3 hours ago... gotta get on that. I'll report back if I find success.

Below are some images of two of my old z-corp marines. On the left is a litko 25x1.5mm clear acrylic base. On the right is a 1 inch bottle cap epoxy sticker glued to the opposite side of its backing sheet. Litko bases would be $15 per 100 and any orders will cost $7 to ship. I can get 200 of those sticker things for maybe $7-10 on Amazon. I haven't verified that the Amazon item is identical to what I got at hobby lobby but I just wonder..

What do you guys think of then aesthetically? Its the difference of $37 vs $7 under ideal conditions. One drawback is that I'm pretty sure they don't make those sticker things in 40 or 60mm sizes so I'd still have to use the straight non-beveled litko bases for those sizes.

Thoughts? Crazy cheaper but the two concerns are do the substitiues look good solo, and can they be mixed with the litko bases?

Don't the 1" bottlecaps have a sticky side ?

Oh, maybe I forgot go mention that part. I took the sticker off, flipped its backing sheet over, and stuck it to that side before carefully cutting the newly-backed base free of the sheet.