Dino’s October 2022
Damn, it happened again - I'm late! Well, I can't really complain, professionally things are going well, but I'm afraid I won't be able to keep my goal for the year. Sure, I'll keep trying, of course, but before I move on to the next project, namely Oathmark, I think I'll have to declare my annual goal as a milestone.
Speaking of which, Robert, a.k.a. Wolpertinger, with whom I've been doing regular painting sessions via Discord lately, converted an old river troll for my Oathmark army.
Stargrave – A Star Wars Story Pt 3
What is Stargrave about? I covered the main rulebook and what it is about in a review on here, and now it is time to start with our Star Wars themed skirmish. We got the rules, what's next? The miniatures.
Asmodee, or Fantasy Flight Games as the coordinating company, has a bit of a problem ensuring the stock of Star Wars Legion, so you maybe not as flexible as you want to be - depending on what kind of army or warband you want to play. I had to order at multiple stores to get my hands on these boxes. Absolutely chosen by the rule of cool, so no meta, weaponry, rule decisions so far. I just bought what I fancied, and would make for a stock of Rebels as well as Imperial troops.
In detail I got to start with;
Old West – Moving to Colorado
I have been playing Red Dead Redemption 2 in late summer and what shall I say, it really got me hooked again with the Old West. I already own a complete collection, with a posse or two even painted up and am pretty rounded with the latest addition in 2020 with Boothill Miniatures.
I have a few rule sets for the stock as well, favouring Warhammer Historicals Legends of the Old West, but I picked up Shootout in Dingstown at Rhein-Main-Multiversum this year. And of course there is always Osprey, in this case just very horror / pulp with Dracula's America.
Stargrave – A Star Wars Story Pt 2
As mentioned in the first article, I bought the first models online on Etsy and printed the later ones at home, so let us see, what you get for your money online.
If you're not a patreon but buying the files individually (especially if you joined later) the question for make or buy was - especially without a printer - not that big of a decision. At 5,20 USD for STLs versus 10,99 EUR printed and shipped it is a close call (in low numbers).
Stargrave – A long time ago on a gaming table far, far away…
I covered my initial rant about StarWars as a tabletop wargaming IP, and where it works and where it does not. And in the mean time, between having ordered 3d printed models for this setting and printed my own as a patreon of Skull Forge Studios, I have narrowed down the rule set(s) and time frame.
As mentioned in the initial post, this is not going to be Star Wars Legion - for multiple reasons - but a skirmish on a troop / squad level and for that, in my opinion among other systems, Stargrave works quite well.
This idea started last year, that prior to me owning a 3d printer on my own, but I already fancied the 3d sculpts by Skull Forge Studios back then. With the models being outside of the patreon around 5-6 USD per sculpt on Gumroad and Wargames3D offering them for 9 to 11 EUR incl. free shipping from Spain via Etsy, I chose to order some. Among others I got myself these:
Necromunda – Into the Dark Backdrop
Along the new releases of the last months, is a new installment of Kill Team - called Into the Dark this time, and while the game itself is not what caught my attention, it was actually the terrain of this starter set.
With 170 EUR RRP you could probably buy it at FLGS with a bit of discount, sell the gangs and keep the terrain for a proper deal, but I didn't fancy the string of events with if I went down that road, so I picked up the accessories sprue twice and one of the regular wall sections for a total of about 30 EURs plus shipping.
The accessories sprue is interesting, as I could upgrade my existing terrain (like the Plasma Reactors or Ferratonic Silos) and the upcoming bulkhead terrain builds with them, as they cover point-of-interest that could provide interaction on the table and at a tenner for a full sprue of this bits, I had to get my hands on them. And to save one shipping, I added one of the regular wall sections, to build a backdrop for my Necromunda gangs. About that - I am still working on the 1995s House Orlock Gang.
Middlehammer – Skaven Rat Swarms
Since I've ordered and covered the Made-to-Order classic Skaven characters from the Middlehammer era of the 90s, I was able to get my hands on some original rat people from Citadel to build a small skirmish warband around.
This gives me the choice to have two small packs of vermin warriors, led by a champion each and some characters. But as we are talking Skaven here, we need some rat swarms. In the classic Warhammer Fantasy battles, you had giant rats that you put on 40 x 40mm square bases. The ones shown in the second picture are the later 6th-ish edition rats, a bit more in line with each other compared to the earlier Oldhammer ones, and of course more variety than the swarm pack plastic ones.
Battlefleet Gothic – Chaos Fleet Pt 2
The Chaos Fleet is set, and now it is time to choose the models. My "demand" are the following models.
- 1x Chaos Battle Barge
- 1x Grand Cruiser
- 6x Cruisers
- 3x Idolators Class Raider
- 3x Infidel Class Raiders
- 4x Iconoclast Class Destroyers
The closest option would be to try and go for second-hand market, but with the pricing that would quickly move the overall costs for this fleet above 200 EUR - if I get lucky. The either go for alternative models or get them printed. For Chaos Fleets there are two major creators, who cover the range. That would be Soul Forge Studio and ItalianMoose. With Soul Forge Studio coming up for about 50 USD just for the STLs to print these, with ItalianMoose offering the files for free.
All of what I needed was on cults3d. I used the Battleship file for the Battle Barge, the Grand Cruiser for the Grand Cruiser and what is pretty amazing, ItalianMoose offers the (Heavy) Cruisers either as complete models, or modular, so you can magnetize them, or use the weapons batteries files, that are available on their own.
Battlefleet Gothic – Chaos Fleet
Welcome back to the grim dark space battles, with Battlefleet Gothic. I did an intro post on this dual fleet project, and we have to start somewhere, so let us do that with the Chaos Fleet.
I'll be using the fleet lists from the Battlefleet Gothic Remastered (I have the v.033 of the fleet lists at hand) and going for a roughly 2.000 points amount of miniatures as a starting ground, to know what to print and have a small collection for smaller to above medium sized battles.
Battlefleet Gothic – Terrain Building
While I'm still deciding on which STLs to use for my Battlefleet Gothic Fleets, I already got my hands on some upcoming terrain pieces. You can use flat terrain with BFG, it works fine, especially as line of sight is measured from pin to pin of the bases, and you don't actually need the height of the terrain pieces.
Yet, I prefer some three dimensional pieces, with the huge question going for domes or spheres on bases. I went for a mixture, the large planet would be a dome, as it would simply be too big to store and to handle on the table, and the others would be spheres on bases. I got myself a set of mixed sized and a large sphere made from two halves.
I actually split the set, as I wouldn't need that many planets and could share the remainder with a wargaming buddy. The two sets I got, set me back 15 EURs, for a two halves 20 cm (8 inch), two 6 cm (~2,5 inch), four 5 cm (2 inch), six 4 cm (~1,6 inch) and eight 3 cm (~1,2 inch) spheres. You probably can get these at your local art store, just make sure you're not overcharged. As you can see, I did a spread of the pieces I keep, along with a brief scale comparison with one of the Chaos Cruisers by Italian Moose.
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