Scatter Ruins for wargames tables

After my recent post on 15mm scale ruins I dug out all my building ruins and thought it was worth getting them prepped for use.

Firstly, we have the 1/100 scale ruins that featured in the last blog post. I have added the building I put together from the second sprue now (rear right of the photo). These were the Ebay find that possibly comes from the Russian company Teknolog.

Next up, the Games Workshop Lord of the Rings ruins (I think they came with the Fellowship of The Ring set). I like these as they have a fair bit of style about them, but they could pass as Art Deco, so would work for almost any period right through to sci-fi games. they could also be used for different scales right down to 15mm without looking out of place.

This is the classic Games Workshop 40K ruins. Fortunately they don’t feature GW’s recent taste in adding skulls to everything, so they work well as a ruined church (or other gothic building).

The following items came out of a couple of model kits.

The first is from the Gigantics Giant Scorpion kit. I put the Scorpion togther and have it stored away for a future project. The building that came with it, although technically around the 1/200 scale I think, are useable with 15mm figures as the doors are not too small…

The main problems with them are, firstly the weird way that the rubble on the front of the building seems to have stuck to the building instead of falling to the ground and also the lack of backs to the buildings. I don’t think they will be too difficult to get around, just adding some plain walls with the odd window…

The second Gigantics kit is the Tarantula.

Again the building has no back, also the electrical gubbins is open at the back too. I will use it against a wall to hide the back.

Next up I have a couple of smallish resin pieces. The first is from iKore, and although the range was nominally 28mm, the size of the door, and the bunker as a whole would probably suit a 1/72 scale or 15mm scale game better than it does 28mm.

The same can be said for this old Kryomek emplacement from Scotia Grendel Productions.

My final post in this series looking at small ruins and scatter terrain items will look at the Alzo Zero 1/72 battlefield ruins set.

15mm Scale Plastic Ruins!

I picked up a couple of sprues of 1/100 scale ruins on Ebay last year. I recently got around to putting them together and I must say I was very please with them.

The auction allowed multiple purchases, and as I was not too certain about the trader I only went for a couple. However, I now wish I had bought two or three more.

Once I had clipped all of the parts from the frames I soon had them put together. The kits are very versatile and can be put together in many different ways.

The made up the first sprue into these two pieces. If positioned well, they can be used as either the two halves of a large building or as a couple of smaller separate ruins.

As you can see, they are pretty generic, suitable for everything from early 20th century through to Sci-Fi gaming.

I’ll post photos of the other set in a few days…

Unfortunately I haven’t seen any more of these sets on Ebay, but I would certainly recommend them if anyone does actually manage to find some.

Well at least someone has been reading my blog!

A old gaming chum of mine, Mike Schraner, recently sent me these photos of some 15mm Sci-Fi stuff he has been working on.

First up Mike has taken the Britains Pig huts and taken them a stage further than I did. He has done a wonderful job with these…

Next up, is the air freshener dome. Again a nice grungy military look here!

Mike also added in this photos showing some Matchbox SWAT trucks, that were apparently originally bright blue.

If anyone else has used any of the ideas I have posted on the blog, please send me some photos. I would love to see them!

Wargames Show Report: TARGE 2012

Last weekend the 26 annual wargames show was held in Kirrimuir. The TARGE show is one of two shows held in the North East of Scotland that are usually held about a month apart (the other being SKELP, which I reported a couple of posts ago).

Now having a couple of shows so geographically close together and at a similar time of year, is bound to lead to comparisons. I usually try to judge each show on it’s own merits, and I enjoyed both shows, however, this year TARGE clearly attracted more visitors, traders and games.

The venue was in a school (where it has been for the past few years, which proved to be a reasonable location with two or three decent size rooms. Unfortunately the catering left a little to desire, with only a selection of small sandwiches, pies and cakes being available, but I suppose this is standard for many smaller shows!

The quality of tables was especially high, with some very nicely modelled terrain. So with that here are my usual batch of photos, with comments where relevant.

A couple of ACW games, 28mm and 15mm.

A simply done WW2 game that looked very effective!

Beneath the Lily Banner and Black Powder.

Napoleonic Naval Battle.

A couple of very attractive games that unfortunately I am not very familiar with!

World War 1 and an X-Wing Demo

My son and I sat in on a game of Watch This Space, a pulp sci-fi game put on by the South East Scotland Wargames Club. The game featured several teams of “Good Guys” and “Bad Guys”, of which we got to choose one each. My son choose the marines from Aliens, including Ripley (many of the teams were somewhat familiar from Scooby Doo, Dr Who and other familiar franchises) and I chose a squad of Hydra Miniatures Robots as it gave me a chance to actually play with some of the figures in my collection…

As well as the tables shown here several of the same tables were on display as were seen at SKELP, so a very full and interesting display.

As well as the excellent tables on display there were also a good selection of trade stands covering most peoples needs and I was happy to see Four A Miniatures in attendance again so that I could pick up his newer Snow Troopers.

Also, at the Bring and Buy, I managed to pick up a small force of Demonworld 15mm barbarians which will go nicely alongside my Copplestone Barbarians, for my slowly brewing 15mm fantasy ancient Britain plans…

All in all TARGE was a fun and enjoyable show.

Laser Cut Stalingrad Factory

I haven’t posted many laser cutting projects recently, mainly due to not having had much time to work on any!

However, I am getting back into the flow of things now and have just knocked this up for a friend of mine, Aidan. He is a member of Aberdeen Wargames Club and they are planning on doing an Eastern Front Flames of War campaign. Aidan asked if I could put a few building together for them. It seemed like just the sort of thing to get me back into designing for the laser cutter.

The first building that Aidan requested was a factory, similar to one they had seen one of the Flames of War source books. So taking that as inspiration I produced the model you see here.

 

Firstly I designed the intact, complete building and then I added the bomb damage. Consequently I now have two new designs added to my library, a nice shiny new looking factory, and a bomb damaged factory (both at 15mm or 1/100 scale)!

As it is quite a large model that covers a fair bit of table space I wanted to have access to the interior. I designed the roof so that it would lift off. It is a little fragile, and you have to be careful when putting it back in place, but I didn’t want it to look clumsy when it was on the model.

I left the interior mainly clear, so Aidan can fill it with as much or a s little rubble and machinery as he likes.

Next up I will be working on an apartment block…

Carronade 2012 Wargames Show

This time of year is the busiest for me. The students I work with are approaching their final assessments and the workshop is very chaotic. We are all stretched to the limit and as such I find it difficult to do much hobby work in my spare time (this is why I haven’t posted to the blog for a while). So it makes a great break to get away to a decent wargames show for the day.

Carronade (in Falkirk) has been the highlight of the Wargaming year in Scotland for the past two or three years (at least as far as I am concerned – I haven’t managed to get to Claymore for three or four years so I can’t comment on the new venue for that show).

Last year I went to Carronade with a friend, Mike, who has since moved down to Durham. So this year I gave Jeff a lift down and we were also accompanied by my 7 year old son, who was really looking forward to having a try of one of the games!

I spent the first hour selling off a few things on one of the rentable Bring and Buy tables. This worked out really well as I ended up covering all of my spending for the day (including the petrol to get me down to Falkirk and back).

Anyway I suppose I should really get on to the Eye Candy…

Firstly, here are a selection of the wargames tables that were on display. I will identify the ones I can, but didn’t get a chance to speak to everyone so some will have to remain nameless…

54mm American War of Independence

Card Stock Mordheim. I am not a great fan of card terrain systems (as a professional model maker they somehow seem like cheating), however this table did look excellent!

I am not quite sure what this table was trying to achieve, it was split in two, with half being a WW2 game and the other half being a fantasy or sci-fi game…

WW2 Desert War

Epic W40K

A very nice Malifaux table.

A rather good Vietnam display. I have always been attracted to the Phantom, since my father and I built a 1/32 scale kit when I was a boy.

This was a great looking Pirate table, divided into several islands, each with a different piratical feel.

I was quite taken by the look of this Setting the East Ablaze game. The games is aimed at the period between the World Wars and mainly further east, this table was se in Egypt however and look great fun. I may well have to pick these rules and get some of Copplestone’s Back of Beyond figures to go with them.

The Urban War Demo Table, reminds me, I have some of these building sets… really must put them together!

A Very British Civil War, put on by The Gentlemen’s Wargames Palour

Warhammer Fantasy Battles, Lizardmen against Ogres!

Empire of the Dead, the new Steampunk rules from West Wind.

World War 2, probably Arnhem.

I didn’t get much time to look at the Painting competition, but this airship model did catch my eye.

Now moving right along, here are a few of the newer items from the various traders.

I am very impressed with Four A Miniatures, they are consistently adding interesting miniatures to their range. They seem to have an eclectic taste, jumping from fantasy to near future Sci-Fi quite at random, but all the miniatures have a very appealing style. I bought their new barbarian figure, and was sorely tempted by both their snow troopers and these brand new drop troopers (excuse the poor photography). What impressed me even more was that the proprietor actually remembered me from last year…

Next up we have a selection of Scheltrum Miniatures new releases. They have been expanding their Shattered Empires: German November Revolution range a lot recently and these new vehicles have got some real character.

These historical armoured cars will surely have uses for everyone from Back of Beyond fans, to VBCW and even Steampunk gamers.

Anyone who has read this blog before will know that I am a fan of the Critical Mass Games range of 15mm Sci-Fi miniatures. I participated I one of their demo games at Carronade last year and since built up sizable ARC Fleet and Praesentia armies.

After meeting Craig last year I work with CMG to design a series of laser cut game counter for their game. As I don’t have manufacturing facilities I wasn’t able to do the actual production counters for them (just some prototype samples) and the project has languished on the back burner for a good while. I was pleased to here, while I was at Carronade this year, that they have finally sourced a manufacturer for their counter. As such I was glad to see some of the prototypes in use on their demo table this year.

I had placed a small pre-order with CMG for their latest Mercenary figures as well as the new Alien Jungle Tree Trunks as well. These seem suitable for use as simple alien plants, with no further work (beyond painting), or also as trunks that you can add our own foliage to the top of. The handy thing for me is, that they are big enough that they will suit both 15mm and also my 28mm Pulp Sci-Fi collection!

While on the subject of my purchases, here is what I came home with.

My main purchase was the 7TV rules and it’s two expansions from Crooked Dice, the Summer Special and On Location. I am a big fan of the 60’s and 70’s TV, as I am sure anyone who grew up in that time is. So these rules really scratch an itch that I didn’t even know I had. As reference material I already have DVD sets of Captain Scarlet and Thunderbirds (notionally they are for my sons) and The Champions, The Saint and Callan, so ideal feeding ground for scenario ideas…

The Bring And Buy was also fruitful on the buying as well as selling front. My gaming buddies and I have regularly played the Ticket To Ride board game, which belongs to one of the other guys. I have considered getting it or one of the other games in the series on and off for several years. So when Jeff pointed out the Ticket To Ride card game for £5 it seemed to good an opportunity to miss. I also picked up 3 (unread) W40k novels, all of which I had previously been meaning to buy, and 2 W40k audiobooks for £2 each. Absolute bargain!

Finally, after purchasing the 7TV rules I was inspired to pick up some scenic items from Ainsty Castings that would be useful for the Pulp TV genre. Utility buggies and a laser table (well I do run a laser cutter all day at work). Conveniently these will be suitable for both “Hip” 60’s style scenarios and also for my Pulp Sci-Fi figures…

On the social side of things it was a good show, with both traders and visitors being in a friendly and most sociable demeanor. I chatted with lots of people, caught up with some people I have not seen for a while and put faces to a few people I have encountered on online forums.

The only disappointment was that my son and I didn’t get to take part in any participation games. There seemed to be a severe lack of them this year. Oh well, we’re hoping that either Skelp or Targe can satisfy that for us…

So that wraps up Carronade for this year.