Blue Sky

Moving to 6mm and 1'x1,5' table allowed me to do another thing I always wanted: to surround my table with sky panorama.

Of course, idea is not mine, personally I have borrowed it from MC Monkey-Dew and I do not know if this is his original contribution or if he borrowed it from somewhere else.

But the panoramic table looks sooooo good when you make a photo of it. Just as example here is the close-up of French voltigeur in action:

Wargaming on a budget space

When my second kid was born, I was forced to surrender to my wife's vision of our apartment. So, our former bedroom become a kids room, and my gaming room become a new bedroom.

And my 4x6 feet table had to move out.

So, I decided to go small and I started collecting some 6mm miniatures. Since 6mm is approximately one quarter of 1/72 and between 1/4 and 1/5 of 28mm, I decided to make 4'x6' table in 1/4 scale. Therefore, I took wood veneer sized to 1'x1,5' and covered it first with magnetic foil and then with paper with grass pattern. This way, my new table was born. And it is completely magnetized.

Now, I am basing all my 6mm models individually on small washers (washers M3 with 7mm outer diameter).
This allows me to use different movement trays for different games, and even to play skirmish games with individual figures since models based on washers are really stabile and fixed on magnetized table.

Additionally, the good thing is that if I can't finish the game in one evening, I can take my new table and put it on the top of bookshelf, out of kid's reach. Everything is magnetized, so everything will stay at its place and I am able to continue the game next day.
Finally, I have made a 1/4 scale inch meter, so that I do not need to calculate distances.

Therefore, everything is ready for me to continue my hobby life on the space budget. Game on!

 

Once upon the time there was a dungeon....

Following the post from Tabletop Diversions blog I decided to try How to Host a Dungeon solo world building game by Planet thirteen.

Here is the result of my first try:

Once upon the time there was an underground. Underground river crossed its way with the golden vein, and ancient wyrm Wyrvardas slept on a pile of gold in natural cave.
Then, the Durum dwarves came to mine the gold. They left some gold in a cave in order not to wake the worm. The dwarven civilization lasted until all gold was mined, then the dwarves moved on, leaving empty city and some tombs behind.
A volcano exploded waking the worm who started digging through the underground.
At the same time surface kingdom was formed. But soon, surface people met some hobgoblin miners and constant war stopped both groups from developing further.
Wyrvardas got rich collecting treasures left after dwarves, and soon it become Alfa Villain.
Wyrm ended hostilities between hobgoblins and humans by eating first one and then second group. Soon it become so big and powerful that the whole underground belonged to him, and no one could challenge him, so the game ended....
Some parts of underground were left unexplored, like a natural cave that was lair to the giant spider...

As a conclusion, I would give How to host a dungeon a 3.5 stars mark.
Game can be interested, and there is enough replayability that no two games would be the same. But in the end I had constructed dungeon, but not a real story behind it...
As a storyteller type of person, I am still inclining more in favor of solo game of Microscope with good idea generator than this. I do not think I will play this game again any time soon.

Onslaught miniatures painted

So, first of my 6mm SF warbands are painted. As mentioned in previous post, all miniatures are by Onslaught.
These miniatures are very detailed, so you can paint them in several ways.

First, let me introduce boys I moved to 40K universe - Miles' jazz band Chaos noise marines of Slanesh.
I painted them in their characteristic "Blue in Green" colors, using standard technique - black undercoat and then blue, green, rotten flash and metal layers.

 They may be a little untidy, but please remember that they are 6mm scale.

 And here is Papa Miles himself:

Since the models are highly detailed, there is another, very simple way to paint these miniatures. You can undercoat them with some light color, and then just wash them.

That is what I did with these technocrat soldiers: I primed them yellow, then washed with green, brown or black ink depending of the unit, and finally highlighted helmets, backpacks and weapons.

 And here are all guys from above in a skirmish game:

 

Here are some more miniatures, the ones I am still to use in the combat. They are all temporary based on 2cm washers.

 

First some feather-brains chieftains, painted by layering. With little patience you can paint every feather on them in different color, but for 6mm it would be too much.



 

And finally some bugs, painted by mixing two methods mentioned above:







 

Onslaught miniatures

Following my decision to change scale to 6mm wherever possible, recently I decided to order some 6mm SF models from Onslaught miniatures.

The models on their web page look just great and detailed, and I have to say I was a little skeptic how will they look in real life considering that they are 6mm after all.

And last week the models arrived.

 I really have to say that I was impressed with how good the models really look.

The level of detail is amazing, and I have to admit that I am in love with these miniatures.
And they also paint really well, but that will be the theme of a future post.

So, as it looks like, I will definitely support Onslaught miniatures in the future, since they are promising some great additions to their already fine range.