ScrapYard Armory

I love painting miniatures.  About the only thing I like more is photographing them after I’m done and sharing my work.  Up until now I’ve used a very limited assortment of backgrounds for my photographs.  I wanted to do something different and so last weekend, coupon in hand, I picked up a Mountain Diorama Kit at a local arts and crafts store.  It retails for $22 but came out to under $15 after a 40% off coupon.

I built the entire diorama in about a day including dry time.  I’ll take you through the steps as I go from a box full of scenery to some new pictures of some of my older ‘Mechs.

Unpacking and Making Rocks

The kit comes with everything you need for a diorama or so it says.  The first thing I added was a 20″x15″ poster board to make my base.  They sell a fancy base if you want, but I’m all about saving money on this project so I stuck with a simple poster board foundation.

The very first step is to make some rocks.  The kit comes with a rock mold and some casting plaster.  From my experience the water measurement listed is woefully inadequate.  Use your judgment and make sure your plaster will pour.  You want it to settle easily without making a total mess.  Mine ended up a little bit thick and the rocks eventually came out with small pot marks on the rock faces.

You should have plenty of plaster to make almost two full rock sets.  I was a bit conservative and only made one, but I ended up with plenty left over.  You will need some plaster for later but not a whole lot.

Building up the Mountain

Using my poster board as a base, I glued and taped the supplied back boards to form a solid foundation for my mountain.  As I began adding balled up newspaper I kept in mind to leave a large enough flat area for my miniatures to stand.

Plaster cloth, something simular to papier-mâché, is laid out one piece at a time to form the outer shell that our greenery will adhere to.  Take your time with this step.  It is not a race.  After placing each piece, wet your hand and smooth out the plaster attached to the cloth to fill in the holes of the cloth.  This will help to create a smoother surface for your undercoat to stain.  Without ensuring most (but not necessarily all) the holes are plugged, the little earth undercoat they give you will seep into those holes and not do as good a job staining your ground.

You will have plenty of cloth to go the distance.  You should have more than enough to have two solid layers over your newspaper.

Adding the Rocks and Some Color

The rocks glue down with Elmer’s.  Additional plaster is mixed and poured to help fill in gaps between the rocks and the underlying plaster cloth.

Coloring the rocks was deceptively easy.  Yellow, brown, black.  1 – 2 – 3 simple.  Follow the directions and you will be surprised by the results.  Who knew this stuff could be easy?

The earth undercoat is meant to give a earthy stain to the plaster cloth.  For my diorama, I did not fill in all of the plaster cloth holes like I should have.  That combined with being a bit conservation on the water measurement led to me running out well before finishing the job.  Word to the wise: water down this stuff like it’s going out of style.  You can always apply a second coat, but when it’s gone, it’s gone.

I ended up mixing some Beasty Brown and Camo Green Vallejo paints to good effect and finished up.  The blend (heavy with the Camo Green) was a surprisingly decent match to the included earth undercoat color.

Input Green and Season to Taste

Finally, we start adding some grass!  The kit includes three different shades of green for you to sprinkle to your hearts content.  Go nuts, have fun, and be reassured you will have plenty left over to blend.  My only regret at this stage is going so heavy with the dark evergreen turf when I could have spread it thinner over a larger area.  I think it would have looked even better with more subtle highlights.

The kit includes tiny rocks, bushes, and thin stranded foliage which I used to mask out imperfections in my work.  See a seam?  Fill it with shrubs!  Easy as that you can look like you knew what you were doing the whole time.

Late in the game, the directions include a bit on making trees from the stranded shrub material.  I wanted to give the kit a full shake out so I went ahead and made three, resisting the urge to just get out some of my own custom trees.  I have to say my trees do not look anything like theirs do.  Just like the Double Whopper you eat doesn’t look anything like the one shown on the menu, you have to accept the fact that not all is possible with a $15 diorama in a box.

Final Pictures

After the glue and the paint were all dry it was time for some pictures!  I brought out a few favorites to show including one I did not paint myself but instead performed a moderate tune-up on.  After all is said and done, the diorama fits nicely on top of a shelf with my other Battletech books and accessories.

I screwed up recently.  Big time.

I spent a good number of hours painting up another lancemate for the 15th Lyran Regulars unit and then, in an impatient rush, I decided to go ahead and apply a final coat of spray varnish despite the near 100% humidity in the area.  There was a painting contest I was going to enter the very next morning and I wanted to give it time to dry before I hit the road.

Protection is important.  A good two or three coats of varnish or Testors Dullcote will go a long way to protect the time you invest in painting.  Rushed application of said varnish in less than ideal conditions will screw you over big time.

So there you have it.  The high humidity fubar’d my miniature clouding up the layer that was supposed to protect.  I guess I could sprinkle some snow on the base and call it a winter unit.  Either that or I send it to the PineSol graveyard.

PineSol can work wonders but the fact remains that I wasted a good amount of time and because I rushed, I spoiled a perfectly good miniature.

Lessons Learned

• Take your time, patience will be rewarded.
• High humidity and spray primer/varnish = bad

Twilight of the Clans: Battle 2

The second battle of the Great Refusal takes place on the standard Battletech map.  The fearless St. Ives warriors, led by none other than Kai Allard Liao himself, take on the ruthless Clan Wolf to stop the invasion of the Inner Sphere.

See other battles from the Great Refusal in the After Action Category or by searching for Twilight of the Clans in the sidebar search.

St. Ives Compact

• Duke Kai Allard-Liao (0/0) Ryoken B
  
• Colonel Adele Tsang (3/3) PLG-3Z Pillager
  

Clan Wolf

• Khan Vladimir Ward (2/1) MadCat Prime
  
• saKhan Marialle Radick (3/2) Man O’ War A
  

Turn 1 – St. Ives Wins Initiative

Both forces maneuver closer while the Pillager and MadCat immediately open fire on each other, locking themselves, 1 on 1,  in zellbrigen.  Both Gauss from the Pillager miss while the MadCat places some lasers on the Pillagers right torso, shaving a few short tons of armor away.

Turn 2 – Clan Wolf Wins Initiative

The Pillager and MadCat look to trade blows at long range while Kai starts a run towards the Clan Wolf Man-o-War.

The Pillager lands only one Gauss Rifle slug on the MadCat, shedding armor on the right arm.  The MadCat returns fires and hits with both missiles and lasers.  The Pillager stands despite the punishment.

Kai is not yet at optimum range and is unable to damage his foe.  Meanwhile the Man-o-War unloads and manages to score a through armor critical that damages the Ryoken’s gyro.  Only Kai’s magnificent piloting skill saves him from a near certain fall.

Turn 3 – Clan Wolf Wins Initiative

The Pillager stands his ground as the MadCat closes the distance.  The Man-o-War feels lucky and rushes to point blank range after Kai maneuvers slightly.

The Pillager’s aim continues to fail missing both Gauss Rifle shots.  The MadCat continues to pummel the Pillager at range, up to now evenly distributing damage across the assault ‘Mech’s frame and one shot to the head that fails to do critical damage.

Kai seizes the opportunity and alpha-strikes the opposing Clan ‘Mech.  The combination of UAC slugs and ER Medium Lasers shred off the Man-o-War’s left leg.  The Ryoken’s heat spikes to 19 but the ‘Mech does not shutdown.   The Man-o-War delivers a furious beating to the the Ryoken’s center torso, gutting the internal structure and delivering a second gyro hit.

Turn 4 – St. Ives Wins Initiative

With the Ryoken and Man-o-War both unable to move, the two ‘Mechs resort to proping and firing available weapons. The Pillager finally jumps from it’s perch as the MadCat backs up slightly to keep distance between himself and the Pillager’s assortment of lasers.

Weapons fire is horrendous for both sides.  The Pillager and MadCat completely miss each other while the two downed ‘Mechs continue to strip only armor.  Kai uses his UAC20 this turn to try to punch a larger hole in the Man-o-War.

Turn 5 -Clan Wolf Wins Initiative

The MadCat and Pillager now close to short range. Both looking for the deathblow.

The Pillager again misses most of his weapons fire, hitting only the left leg.  The MadCat critically hits the Pillager’s gyro and lands a laser to the head.  The Pillager remains conscious and steady through the punishing rain of weapons fire.

Kai switches to lasers looking for the wounds opened up by his UAC20 shells.  He hits with everything but not the right locations for a kill.  The Man-o-War’s weapons gouge through the remaining internal structure silencing the Ryoken.

Turn 6 – Clan Wolf Wins Initiative

The MadCat stands his ground and trades fire with the Pillager.  The Pillager finally begins landing meaningful hits, destroying an LRM rack and a double heat sink.  The MadCat’s return fire is less accurate as luck turns on the Wolf player.

Turn 7 – St. Ives Wins Initiative

The MadCat wisely pulls away from the Inner Sphere assault and opens up at longer range.  The Pillager lands both Gauss Rifles ripping apart the MadCat’s left torso, but for naught. The MadCat unleashed a hail of laser fire and missles that tore away the Pillagers leg.  As the ‘Mech fell, the pilot was again injured and fell unconscious.  Clan Wolf holds the battlefield and claims victory for the Clans.

NJCon is in the books for 2009.  Here is a brief recap of what went down.

The Grinder

I had three people play in the Grinder.  Each made it at least into their heavy ‘Mech before either the session ended or they had to leave.  I ended up handing out five CDs filled with introductory materials to both players and passers-by.  I had a lot of compliments on the terrain setup as well as my use of Mechwarrior figures.

Twilight of the Clans

There was only one taker for the Twilight of the Clans event.  Together we finished two battles before the Con began cleaning up.  The Clans and Inner Sphere each won one battle.  Look for an After Action Report in the near future covering the St.Ives Compact versus Clan Wolf battle!

There were lots of compliments on the terrain and miniatures by on lookers.  I hope that future Cons will be a little bit better attended but the way I see things, I won’t get anyone to play if I don’t ever try.

Painting Contest

I ended up entering the bring in painting contest with my 15th Lyran Warhammer.  I did not originally intend to enter that particular miniature but the fates were against me as I rushed to complete a new miniature in time for the Con.  Long story short (I’m saving the long version for a later post) I ended up ruining the mini in the eleventh hour and used the Warhammer instead.

The Warhammer was a strong entry and placed third in a popular vote.  I’m proud that my painting skills consistently place but I need to learn a few more tricks in order to vault myself to the next level.  I plan on taking advanced painting classes at GenCon this year.  I hope to learn as much as I can and use those new skills to bring home a first place in the future.

Other Event Photos

Here is a collection of photos from around the Con.  There were a lot of great games to play besides Battletech.  Between running games I played in a medieval wargame using the Hack in the Dark rule set.  The game board was gorgeous and the rules well done.

With GenCon on the horizon and Randall back at the blog/twitter helm we have been treated to more than a few cleverly disguised product hints and rumors.  I’ll admit I got the TRO: 3063 rumors wrong so I’m going to the source for this new round of speculation and wild jumping to conclusions.

Know Where To Listen

The best ways to get in sync with upcoming product leaks are three fold.

• The Battle Blog

Herb has never been great about keeping the front page stocked with news, so I’m very glad that Randall Bills has taken up the reigns.  His posts may not always be long winded but his unique perspective is a welcome addition to the Battletech information flow.

• Battle Chats

The last one never went off and there will be none in June.  That being said, when they DO happen, they are always a great source of future product news and general Battletech info.

• Twitter

Randall and company do a good job sending out fairly frequent tweets.  A great way to keep in touch is to use a RSS feed to track them.

The Rumor Mill

It can be hard at times to properly delineate just what is a Battletech rumor since the Powers that Be often blog about all their upcoming products at once.  Shadowrun, Eclipse Phase and others all get stirred up together.  I’ll be at GenCon this year to see just what makes print. For now, I’ll break down some of the likely suspects for future releases.

Masters and Minions

This product has been mentioned many times in Battleblogs and Tweets.  Admittedly, the name sounds more appropriate for a Dungeons and Dragons monster encyclopedia.  However, I would not completely discount this being a Battletech release as it would seem very apropos for a Blake Document type release featuring personalities related to the Word of Blake Jihad.

Midnight

This product made its debut in a Battleblog with references to artwork and maps.  Any product with maps could very well be a Battletech release that would be tied into the already very publicly known HexPack products.  Or it could be a RPG adventure pack that would suit it for a Time of War, Shadowrun, or Eclipse Phase release.

Vice

Once again the very name of this product seems to be more suited to Shadowrun or possibly Eclipse Phase.  There is still a chance this could be a supplement to A Time of War or even a scenario/Chaos Campaign pack.  The later is less likely as The Powers That Be have a history of making such releases PDF only.

Whats Not On The Radar?

Last year at GenCon, Catalyst pulled out the Blake Documents, a product so well hidden that no-one but those within a close circle knew it was coming.  I would expect at least one product this year that will completely blind side the Battletech community.  With the information they have given us so far, just what haven’t they told us?