Forward Base: Habitat 5 WiP part 2

Today sees the construction of the main structure. But first a little more painting of panels and resin bits.

A few of the vent panels were not laser cut so were painted in while painting the punched out vents and their resin replacements/additions. All the vents, windows, doors, etc. were punched out prior to assembling anything and dry fitted to see if they could be easily installed after assembly. This turned out to be true for the vents and garage bay doors but not for the acrylic windows and doors which fit very tightly and were installed prior to general construction.

The MDF vents were glued to the resin parts and painted both sides. You can see the left side are the painted MDF and the right are the painted resin. The white is Graveyard Bone (Reaper(R)) and Splintered Bone (R) over black primer on the resin and clear sealer on the MDF.  On the MDF side the vent cavities are Glowing Mist (R). For the resin Cavities Soft Body Black (Secret Weapon( SW)) wash to clean up the dry brush bleed.

On the interior rear wall of the building the rollup doors for the toolboxes got a thinned  Phoenix Red (R) and the clear acrylic door was placed.  

 This was a tight fit and, in retrospect, I might have positioned it a little differently because this wall gets doubled by the outside wall which leaves this door recessed vis-à-vis the outer wall. Its not a big deal just something to add to my lessons learned when doing future builds.

Now construction can commence in earnest!

Before attempting to slot things together I carefully trim one side of the coating off the tiny tabs.  This coating helps give these kits a smooth finish but it often seems to bunch up when going into slots and the excess has to be cut away afterwards. Cutting off just one side retains the strengthening effect of the coating while reducing the bunching and occurrence of too tight fits to practically zero.

"The Rough Guide to building habitat 5" on the Antenocitis Workshop site notes that this kit is a little complicated and should be approached in a certain way. Believe it!

The first assembly is the Lattice with Beam, Support Struts, Top Side Panels and Roof Guides for the rear part of the building.

 True to its name the guide is a little quirky. As is the usual case with these kits all of the components of the model have very specific names but the parts are not labeled so have to be carefully selected and test fitting is essential. Some of the parts have names that imply the existence of other parts for example "Beam 1" seems to be the only part named "Beam" in the kit so I spent some extra time trying to located the other "Beams" to make sure the one I had selected was actually "Beam 1"

Next up come the first aid stations.  Volgren Troller has very generously supplied a full First Aid Station and sink for each vehicle bay. The Rough Guide was a little fuzzy here. It details about half of building the most complicated side without mentioning the small positional markings on the struts or how the First Aid stations are constructed... and do the same for the other side... which I mistook for a comment about installing the other side wall when it really specifically was referring to the First Aid Stations.  The kit is very well designed so once I started dry fits it became immediately obvious how things were meant to go.

The inner framework, complete with matching First Aid Stations and side catwalks. The catwalks are not only great places for miniatures to lurk but help a lot with giving the tool boxes and other etched features an illusion of depth.

Now comes the Interior Rear Wall.  Once this wall is in position the whole framework can be slotted into the floor.

Floor installed. For as many slots as the floor part has this went together very easily.  The precision of the laser cutting is really great. The Rough Guide helpfully mentions that the floor should be worked starting from the rear wall. The front wall is not yet on and the side walls are still a bit flexible at this point making them a lot easier to deal with in the fitting.

Time for the Front Wall.  This slots into the floor and relies on the flexibility of the Top Side Panels to be lifted enough to get the wall into position.

Next comes the Exterior Rear Wall which completes the main structure.  There ae still a lot of things remaining to do but this was the tricky bit.

Remember those resin vent panels? Add them in here as they get painted. The printed side is reversed to show the etched detail on the other side of the wall panel and the slightly larger resin side allows for the whole thing to be glued in flush.

First picture shows the resin side.

Second picture shows the painted MDF side.

These slide in very easily and add some extra detail. 

Back to the desk to work on the ramps, doors, ladders, interior details etc...

 

Forward Base: Habitat 5 - The Workshop WiP

Forward Base: Habitat 5 - The Workshop

Habitat 5 is a workshop with two vehicle bays that should be an early structure for a new outpost.

The kit is from the Forward Base Kickstarter by Antenocitis' Workshop and this one includes the resin upgrade as well as the other additional rewards from that campaign.

I sprayed all the MDF with a dead-flat sealer and began painting the details.  These kits are pre-painted which does not mean that no painting needs to be done but rather that they have a single color per sheet paintable coating which allows for the painted surface to look a lot less like painted MDF.

You can see here the ramps are on a yellow colored sheet and I've painted in details like safety markings, logos, tools, etc... The floors and walls are grey and roof panels white. 

These are weathered panels which means the laser cutter was turned up to do some light scorching. It makes for a nice effect on the large areas that I leave unpainted like the grey floor of the vehicle bays.

I still have tool boxes and some cabinets to paint in before assembly.

Then came cleaning and priming the resin components and familiarizing myself with the types of parts that might be included. I learned from some earlier builds that the resin parts need to be considered from the very beginning as they sometimes completely replace structures early in the build process.

For vents and doors the MDF is pre-cut so the etched part can be removed and replaced with a resin upgrade. I have removed the parts to be replaced, turned them round, and glued them to the back side of the resin replacements. Now I'm in the process of painting both sides. In this way I get detailed vents and garage doors on both sides.

 

More on Hab 5 next installment... I also got a little work done on the body bags and am starting the ice vending machines and porta-loos for the Post Apocalypse table.

Last, but far from least, The massive Etherfields boardgame arrived just as I was coming up to post!

With a 17.5 kg mailing weight this thing is a real beast.  I'll be taking a look inside after my wife gets home so she can enjoy it too.

Cheers

RoC Chaos Dwarf Whirlwind

This guy accompanied many a Chaos Horde into battle in the 80s. The model was showing its age and I thought I'd do some touch ups, rebase it and generally do some long neglected maintenance.  Lets call him Hagar.

First things first... Hagar needed to be removed from his old cardboard base. Typical of the 80s the base was flocked, had a couple of raw pebbles glued to it, and... unusually... a hob-goblin child (Grenadier iirc) added for scenic context.  The little Hob isn't visible here but will show up later as I'll recycle it onto the new base.

Having divested Hagar of his old base it was time to give him a new one. This base was from Reaper (R) and was layered with White Pumice (V). Grooves and hoof tramples were made before the pumice dried also a couple of Citadel (GW) skulls, and the Hob-Child... which is still hidden behind fat old Hagar!

The base was given a coat of Flesh Wash (Secret Weapon (SW) and brushed with Sunny Flesh (Vallejo (V) brushed with Sand (V), and a final top dust of Splintered Bone (R).

I used Wet Mud Weathering Powder (Forge World (FW) set with Glaze Medium (V) to get the churned mud beneath the machine that tracks out the rear of the model.  This dried very flat so I used Satin Varnish (V) to give it a wet look.

Static Grass (mud) was the final bit on the base.

The Hob-Child can be seen sitting in the tattered remains of an orange shift crying as Hagar drives obliviously past her.  Fortunately she was spared the mowing doled out to everyone else!

For Hagar and his machine I retouched rather than re-imagined.  The metal parts of the machine were treated to my usual yellow or white metal work ups and the skin was painted Sunny Flesh (V), Flesh Wash (SW) and Basic Flesh (V).

The shield was updated from a faded gold to a more solid color with Brass Casings (SW), Flesh Wash (SW) and Silver (V) highlights. Baby Poop (SW) was spot washed to add color to the shading. Fresh Blood (R) highlighted with Phoenix Red (V) was used to accent the eyes and color the gums. Teeth were changed from base metal to off-white using Graveyard Bone (R) highlight with Splintered Bone (R).

Wood was Flesh Wash (SW) and Sunny Flesh dry-brush to reinforce the old wood color and make the grains pop.

Hagar's horns were redone as they had faded to a nondescript gray over the past 3+ decades.  Handle Wood (R), Flesh Wash (SW) brushed out with Graveyard Bone (R) and Splintered Bone (R).

Some lining with Soft Body Black (SW) wrapped up the project.

Its great to have Hagar ready to renew his assault on the tabletop! The modern oval base should make a good fit with newer games and not be to much trouble when he returns to the fight Oldhammer style!

Back to the desk!

 

Common Goblins

In spite of the name the common goblin is the scourge of many a fantasy realm.  I though it was fitting to muse about the GW version which may be the most common goblin of all!

After painting the horde of Night Goblins from The Battle of Skull Pass I found some loose sprues of the goblins that were included in the WFB 4th edition starter set.

These goblins were produced in huge numbers and the game shop I owned at that time ended up buying these goblins back from some of the more frugal customers so they could get the rules at a better price. I then sold these as loose sprues for a dollar per sprue or about 25 cents a gobbo alongside the candy bars and chips at the checkout. Everybody won and this pile of gobbos... 12 archers and a block of 48 spear... represent all that is left from those broken up starter boxes.  Pretty good rate of resale!

I think of these as "Common Goblins" not only because they don't have all the special effects that make the Night Goblins or Forest Goblins so dangerous but also, in no small part, because this whole pile consists of exactly 2 sculpts... one archer and one spear... and an assortment of shield designs.

These goblins represented the worst of what the hard plastic revolution had to offer.  Monoblock and conventionally sculpted for regular metal casting they took no advantage of the many features that have made hard plastics so popular in the decades since these gobbos made their appearance in 1992. I know, I know, my backlog is a little bit ridiculous but hey! I AM getting round to it!

 They have very sharp spears... and were very inexpensive to produce but otherwise could have been cast in metal.  Now days the hard plastics deliver sculpts that are simply impossible to do in metal... the weight to strength ratio makes models that really appear to fly a regular item... and so much more!

 These stalwarts though will continue to serve.  I've painted them as part of a marauding horde dressed largely in the tunics of the places they have visited... and looted!  The archers I'm calling Redcaps... and harken back to my favorite edition of WHFB which is to say 3rd edition... where its very possible to build elite troop types even for the lowly Common Goblin... The Redcaps will make fine missile elites for the horde. 

Next on the desk is an old Chaos Dwarf Whirlwind that I'm reviving. Some repairs to make and a change of base from a cardboard rectangle that is coming up at the edges to a plastic oval. Of course other new stuff will be added as well.

Back to the desk!

Temporary Military Command Centre

This is from Antenocitis' Workshop (AW)survival line and is described on the website as "Temporary Military Command Centre" but is also described in the kit as "Military Office". Whichever handle it goes by it Makes a handy addition to the Post Apocalypse collection. 

Shown here with Canoness Veridyan for scale this is one of the easier of AW's models to build. Its got a lot of space inside due to the magic of laser etching.  There are a lot of interior details like desks, fire extinguishers, weapon racks, computers, data storage banks, maps, and clocks but none of them intrude on the playspace. Quite clever really. It allows you to cram a squad in there without acrobatics.

Its one of AW's pre-painted MDF line and the only things I painted at all were the gray desks and server cabinets and the blue water of the wall map.  Touch up the MDF snip points with Nut Brown (Reaper) and its done.  Like all the models in this line the prepaint is pretty basic but is totally playable straight out of the box and provides a nice launch point if you want a more detailed finish.  I'll likely add some weathering and graffiti to match the themes on the AZ Mart I did earlier. 

Lots of windows and the lack of actual furniture makes it easy to see which models have access.

I love the real furniture that is available for many of these buildings but there is a certain practicality in having some frequent use structures without a lot of clutter for a travel set or a pick up game.

The exterior is complete with an Air Conditioner that serves as the handle for removing the roof and a freely rotating removable radar/satellite dish. 

A great, quick to build, addition to the tabletop!
 

Malifaux: Avatar of Vengeance

Avatar of Vengeance

 

Continuing the tidy up of models that were started but never finished,  mostly due to packing up and moving house something like 14 times in the past 25 years... but also due to the occasional attack of  squirrel syndrome, I knocked out this old metal, 1st edition Malifaux, Avatar of Vengeance. Shown above with Kirai Ankoku for scale.

I haven't played 3rd edition... not sure I played 2nd either although I did get 2nd edition rules and some of the wonderful hard plastic kits. I think the Avatar type models have been retired from the game although there seems to be some cards available to allow these to be played as Emissaries.. whatever those are! Don't hate me I don't know these rules I'm just painting the pile!

The base is sculpted from green stuff.

Whole Model primed Krylon White.

The red robes are Blood Red (Reaper (R)), layer with Phoenix Red (R), whole robe wash with Drying Blood (Secret Weapon (SW)), target wash again with Drying Blood.

Green robe detail sash is German Luftwaffe Green (Vallejo Panzer Colors (VPC)) detail and edge highlights with Verdigris Pale Green (SW) wash with Sapphire (SW).

Ghostly Avatar painted Hexwraith Green (Games Workshop(GW) straight out of the bottle. Highlights are Splintered Bone (R) and a targeted re-application of Hexwraith Green for depth of color wraps it up.

Rug washed with Sapphire (SW) dry brush with Sky Blue (R) top dry brush with Ice Blue (GW). Fringe is Brass Casings (SW) Flesh Wash (SW)

Stone is Sky Gray (R) with a very diluted Sewer Water (SW) wash focused on edges and crevices.

I'm not sure what is up next... I found a pile of stuff to be repaired after the move so I may work on that.  There is also a Military Temporary Command Post from Antenocitis' Workshop in progress and I just got the new beefier Exemplar Sisters from Raging Heroes that I'd like to have a go at.

Back to the desk!

Gloomhaven Starting Characters and some treasure chests

Being anxious to explore the enormous Gloomhaven board game it was time to knock out the characters that are initially available to play.

Also migrated into this are a couple of treasure chests from Mantic's Kings of War Strategies and Objectives set.  I think they'll make perfect replacements for the cardboard counters included with Gloomhaven so one is presented as "Gold" and the other as "silver"

I decided to do these fairly close to the box art because Gloomhaven, while ambitious for a board game, is not a full blown RPG and the characters are predefined. I wanted players to be able to identify them easily.

If I'm honest the character models are not of the same quality of a lot of the new boardgame offerings like Kingdom Death Monster, Etherfields, Chronicle X, or even The Order of Vampire Hunters but is higher than RWBY: Combat Ready and Dark Souls (Player Characters... Dark Souls does have some very nice Boss models and Gloomhaven has zero Boss models).

I think most of the effort was put into other kinds of presentation in Gloomhaven. For example the little tuck boxes that conceal the locked characters gives a great sense of anticipation so I look forward to seeing them... no advance peeking!

I used that new basing scheme I stumbled on while doing RWBY: Combat Ready except for the Mindtheif and the Spellweaver because they were just stuck awkwardly on the base and required some greenstuff to transition.

The characters are primer white with most colors achieved via washes and layering using mostly Secret Weapon washes and Reaper Paints.

 I've finally located my actual camera following the big move and am setting up the lightbox ... so I'm hopeful that the next batch of pictures will be better quality.  These, as have been all my posts since the move, are just taken at the paint desk with the iPad camera and I've struggled with lighting quite a lot.

Back to the desk!

Post Apocalypse Military Checkpoint, Void Elf Executrix Troop, Kings of War Objective and Scenario Markers.

Busy and eclectic week! First up is the WiP tray drying off after a quick sealer. On deck is a Military Check Point in MDF from Antenocitis' Workshop, a goblin casualty from The Battle of Skull Pass (WFB 7ed. Starter set), and a double dose of objectives and accessories terrain from Mantic's Kings of War 3rd Edition Scenarios and Objectives Pack.

The objectives pack will also be handy to replace some of the cardboard counters from Gloomhaven... stay tuned for more on that!

The Army checkpoint is part of the Post Apocalypse, pre-painted, line of MDF terrain from Antenocitis' Workshop. The little guard hut is presented in its pre-painted and weathered condition but I decided that the road barriers needed a spot of paint as they were plain black out of the box.The alternating red and white striping was aided by the barrier arms being pre-scored.  A yellow work up and a red cap tops of the post.

I've been particularly addle-brained the past couple of weeks and, when constructing the barriers for the Army Checkpoint I used some included spare parts to double the size of the counterweight in spite of the instructions being rather clear that only one plate was required... the more the merrier right?

 

WRONG!

As you can see the extra bit makes the barrier arm non-functional as it impacts the support post very early in its lift... woe is me!

Since there was nothing else for it I decided to have a crack at removing the extra bit with a pair of side snips.

Cha-CHING! the offending bit popped right off and took the glue with it.  One of the advantages of having sealed the part before construction began. Fortunately this was the case with all four arms.  They came away clear and I was able to finish the assembly without further mishap.

The finished barrier arm ready to control movement on the tabletop!

An observation... this kit was more difficult for me than most of the kits from this range... The parts did not go together quite as seamlessly.  I think I needed to build a jig to help with that but part of the problem was that I had to use a different glue than I am used to.  For the other MDF projects I have been using Super-phatic glue which is kind of like the superglue of wood glues. Since it sets so fast I've been able to skip a lot of clamping, banding, and jig making.  I built this kit with Gorilla PVA.  Its a good glue and sets up reasonable quickly... about like a tacky glue... bit not the fast hard set that I was used to so I ended up collapsing the posts a few times and having to rebuild the whole thing on the fly.  Unfortunately it shows on some of them.  I started clamping after the second collapsed assembly so half of them are ok and half of them are a bit ragged.  But they are post apocalypse and have not yet been weathered so... they may yet be battered into submission!

Here is an assembled checkpoint being willfully ignored by a troupe of Void Elf Executrices from Raging Heroes.  I've been using them as Ynnari but continue to refer to them as Void Elves. 

This is the Executrix troop that completes the Executrix command unit I did about a year ago. Fortunately I had done the base coat before the big move so I didn't have to do a lot of color matching... that won't be the case going forward though!

Who said death worshiping Dark Elves have to wear black or red anyway! I mean the power weapons have that Dark Side red light-saber glow... that should cover it!

Mantic's Kings of War objectives... Dragon Egg, Weapons Cache (dead gobbo by GW! 'ow did that git in 'ere ennyway!?! ohh cool static grass)

Runestone and messenger/courier bag... against a stump... with a pistol and a musket... that looks to have ended badly...

Supply crate and ammo pile for a cannon.

Thats all for today...

Next time the Gloomhaven initial unlocked characters and the Kings of War objective treasure chests that didn't make it into this post.

Back to the desk!