The Push - Part 1

As mentioned previously, I will be running an 1889 game at Cangames this year. With school work out of the way and things at work calming down a bit, I was able to get going on terrain this past weekend.

Dollar Store Goodies

An earlier trip to the Dollar Store gave me some of the materials to work with. Woodlands Scenics it isn't but the price can't be beat. One note: try to buy all you need of a certain item in one go - you may never see the exact same item in stock again.    

Red Weed

Plastic plants are always useful. As you can see above, most are made up of smaller sprigs that can be separated out. Be sure to wash all plastics well to remove any mould release agent especially if you will be painting or dry brushing later.

Stacked up ready to go

My rifles still needed some touch ups and I had purchased some guns to even the odds for the Martians. Saturday was pretty grey wet out so painting was the order of the day.

The bird houses were slated to become a Martian swamp village. Weapon ranges are rather long so the Martians need all the cover they can get. The first step was to give them a good coat of gesso.

Doors

The next step was to add some doors cut out of recycled three ring binder cover card and cereal boxes.

Garish....

 The back story material for Space 1889 talks about the Martians ability to fuse sand to create their canals. I thought that the same technology would be used in house construction. Canada is now, or rather was home to a rather ugly form of pottery known as Blue Mountain. I used that as a inspiration for my swamp Martian huts.  While Blue Mountain primarily used a subdued dark green, I went with brighter colours. I am going to rationalize this by saying that Space 1889 can quickly devolve into "North West Frontier in Space".  I wanted to mix some "strange" into it so that the players know this is not just India on another planet. 

Ready to move in.

Sunday was bright and sunny so construction moved outside. The various bits of plastic greenery were cut down, reconfigured and applied as thatching to the huts to produce the rather fetching trio above. Bits of ceramic fruit and silk flowers were used to add a feminine touch.... not sure why exactly but there you go.

Hedges

Other bits of  greenery were hot glued onto more recycled binder card to produce a series of hedges for the Martians to hide behind.

Cheap Walls

A final project for the day was to make up a series of broken walls out of recycled Styrofoam scrounged by a friend on garbage day. I used the beaded variety because it was what I had and the beads give a rubble like texture to the breaks. It is not particularly robust so for longer term use I would look for insulation board and possibly even add an MDF base for strength.

Next up will probably be the temple complex. Work is also ongoing on the unit cards and quick reference sheets.  When does a hobby turn into more work than your actual work?

New Steampunk Miniatures from Meridian

Yes I am an unrepentant RAFM fan-boy but sometimes you want to order off a different menu. Andrew May over at Meridian Miniatures has been working on a new line of steampunk miniatures.  He has a few pictures up on his Blog and has posted quite a few more on the most august of all war gaming boards: WD3. Be sure to check out his Facebook page as well.

Although there are other steampunk lines on the market, Andrew has come up with a range of heads that cover the usual subjects but also add in some diver's helmet and post apocalyptic variations that capture the genre very nicely. But, what I am really excited about is his range of weapons. Most steampunk weapons I have seen have been influenced by  WH 40K. Andrew's are unique and beautifully capture the creativity and variety of weapons created by steampunk cos-players and authors. 

Post Apocalyptic Heads

Diver Helmet Heads

Great Steampunk Weapons

Be sure to check out some the contract work he has done. He is a very talented sculptor.

Magnetic Movement Trays Part II

With Cangames fast approaching I have been trying to fit in bits of modelling here and there. Unfortunately, the weather has been less than cooperative, reducing my time in the man cave. So painting the movement trays I made earlier it is.

Above is a selection of the three types of bases. The small ones on top are for regular troops in base to base contact, the larger rectangles are for massed irregulars and the larger ones are for your sneaky skirmisher types. All are made up of thin MDF drilled to take rare earth magnets at appropriate spacing.  I am still deciding to flock or not. So let's put the boys on the cat walk.

We begin with a quintet of Oenotrian Fusiliers. Though most of these lads are from the Cutter company, they have brought along one of their riflemen to balance out the party.

Next up is a mass formation of Oenotrian citizens army irregulars demonstrating the close packed formations so often seen in the streets after the Gashant Polo Matches let out. The fuzziness of the image is as much due to the intoxication of the fearsome fighters as it is due to the incompetence of the photographer.

And finally, we have 5 young Martian chaps down from the hills showing off the latest spring fashions while they demonstrate their renowned skirmishing skills.

The bases work quite well and can even be inverted without the minis falling off (as long as you don't shake them too much) As noted in the first post keep them away from your credit cards etc.

Next up we go terrain shopping at the dollar store.