Opening Entry to AHPC IX: Frodo & Sam - The Beginning of the Fellowship

In keeping with tradition, I try to open the show with the first entry of the Painting Challenge. 

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This past summer I began reading through the Tolkien canon following the chronological order of the stories. As I've not read the core books since my childhood the process has largely been a study in nostalgia. 

In working through the books what really impressed me was the tremendous importance Tolkien placed on value of allies, friends and companionship. This made me reflect that I'm very thankful for all the great friends I've made over the past eight years of the Challenge, and I resolved to make 'Fellowship' serve as the overarching theme for this edition.

Right, enough faffing about. 

Here we have the starting pair of the 'Fellowship of the Ring', Frodo Baggins and Samwise Gamgee. 

These are from the original metal range offered by Games Workshop at the start of the Peter Jackson trilogy. I have some of the more recent plastics, and while the animation and quality is quite good I find they still lack the crispness and definition of the earlier metal sculpts. 

Of course source material for the painting was easy to come by, with loads of books and movie stills available both in the home library and on the net.

The big base is a limited edition resin cast of Balin's Tomb which was offered by GW after the release of the first film. I actually forgot I had it, being it was buried in the shadowy depths of the Lead Shed. I only discovered when I was looking for some LotR figures after  being inspired re-reading the books.  

It's a nicely crafted piece, with loads of detail and nifty labeled base-slots for each of the nine companions of The Fellowship. I did a quick series of layered coats with the airbrush, a few washes and then picked out the details with a fine brush. I wasn't wild about the GW branding so I just left it black, but I did a bit of ink blending with 'The Fellowship' raised label and the character names to give them a graduated red-gold effect.

My plan is to add the remaining members to the Fellowship over the duration of the Painting Challenge, hopefully completing it before it wraps-up in March.

To paraphrase Bilbo, every great adventure begins with a first step. :)

Next Up: Some WWII Coastal Ships from 'Cruel Seas'

Simple Play Aid for Adeptus Titanicus

Like many in the hobby, I often enjoy modding the games I play. Whether its through custom markers, bespoke player aids, or with special rules to help drive the narrative, I really enjoy adding that little extra gloss to our games. 

Straight out of the box 'Adeptus Titanicus' is a great set of rules. It's easy to learn, fun to play and most importantly (for me) does a wonderful job in conveying the flavour and spirit of the Titanicus/Horus Heresy fluff.

Nevertheless, there are a few spots in the game experience which I thought needed a little help.

The crux of the game is the players' managing their titans through the Command Terminals, along with their associated plastic status markers and cards. 

The stock Command Terminal for a Warlord Titan

As seen above, the stock Command Terminals are very attractive and well thought out in how they organize pertinent game information for the players to manage. They are made of heavy card, with small indentations pressed into the status tracks that match the nubs on the  plastic status markers. Everything fits together well, BUT there are a some inherent problems with the design. 

First, is that if the Command Terminal gets nudged during gameplay (and if you're like me, they will) there is a reasonable chance that the status markers will get knocked out of place. This is a problem as they are the only way of conveying the status of the titan. The second problem is that the card terminals take up a fair amount of space on the tabletop. The designers try to sell players on the fact that Titancus can be played on a 4' x 4' table, allowing extra space to accommodate the card terminals. While certainly this can be done, the 4 x 4 size looks and plays VERY compressed (at least to our sensibilities) as the forces seem to be almost on top of one another. Most players have access to a 6x4 playing surface and will likely play the game as such, so in this situation the command terminals end up sitting at the edge, or right on the battleground itself, which is not ideal if you want to keep everything tidy and in order.

So I began thinking of how we could make the terminals more usable and not so dependent on sitting on a flat surface. What I came up with is a fairly simple workaround. I went to our local office supply shop, and for under $2 each, found a bunch of 8x11 dry erase boards that were magnetic as well. 

I also picked up a selection of coloured magnetic 'thumb tacks' to use with the panels. I then colour photocopied the stock Command Terminals and special order icons from the game so we could place them on the magnetic slates. This way the magnetic thumbtacks hold down the  paper Command Terminals, do a nice job of marking the status tracks and also hold down the weapon cards. Easy peasy. In addition, the slates can easily be moved or placed on their edges without the markers becoming dislodged or sliding around.

Another bonus to these panels is that they can be used for a wide variety of games where players need to keep track of units and for make notes during gameplay. For us they will definitely come in handy for our games of 'Cruel Seas', 'Black Powder' and 'Necromunda'.

Next Up: Some suggested advancement trees for Titan crews

'Fellowship': Challenge IX Begins December 21st

The Ninth Annual Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge has just been annonced. Head over to the Challenge blog to get the details. 

'From the Prairies to the Trenches - Part V: Amiens, Armistice and Aftermath, January 1918 - June 1919'

If you have a moment, please check out the concluding chapter of my team's 5-part video series which focuses on Saskatchewan's involvement in the First World War:

Saskatchewan Remembers.

A Candy-Apple Reaver Titan, Proxy Carapace Weapons and Some Terrain

In my last post I had a Warhound scout titan sporting a candy-apple paint job, so this time out I have a Reaver medium war engine decked-out in a similar scheme.

The inspiration for these came from an excellent YouTube airbrush tutorial I sourced from Moggy's Miniatures. I was so impressed by how he achieved the effect that I wanted to give it a go with a few of my Legio Mortis titans. 

Though definitely not as adept as Moggy's work, I think the graduated gloss red combined with the brass edging gives a suitably decadent, Chaos-y look.

As I mentioned in a previous post, the Reaver kit strangely does not offer the same level of magnetization options as its larger Warlord cousin, so the hobby saw came out for some quick service in order to allow the swapping around of the various weapon bits.

Reaver Power Fist

In addition to the Reaver, I've made up a new set of carapace weapons for my Warlord titans in the form of a brace of Mars Pattern Laser Blasters. 

GW continues to be asleep at the switch in providing support for Adeptus Titanicus, so I printed these from 3D files I found on Thingiverse (thanks Stroganoff!). The edge detail is a bit soft, but I think they're excellent on the whole. 

Again, I popped in some magnets so they could be swapped-in to replace the stock missile launchers. Good to go!

The Mortis Family:

To finish off, here are a few more pieces of terrain that I've added to the collection.

A reactor complex...

...and a set of shield generators.

That's it for now, folks! Thanks for dropping in and have a great week!