Frostgrave, Halo Ground Command and other tabletop minis

[keglo]

Originally Posted by Hahma

Thanks Keglo! The good thing about painting so much, is that I force myself to try different techniques and when I find one that works, then I have that in my arsenal for the future. Also, the main thing I've learned from watching the professionals do it on videos or hearing their tips, is to have the paint thin. Thinned down it is easier to work with, control and seeps into crevices better. But it also makes it so that it doesn't hide the details, so if you mess up when trying a technique, you can go over it no problem without worrying about too much build up. The paint dries relatively quickly, and if you work on a couple areas or a couple colors at a time, you can paint an area then come back to it and go over it again. Also, using thin paint can also give you certain affects and looks you want based on the primer color under it, so you may sometimes not even go over it with any more thin coats because you get the look you want after one. And when I did the cape on the Orc King for S&S, I painted the back of the cape silver and thin coated the green and purple (and wet blended) over it to retain the shiny silvery look.

As far as the plants, I got them off of Amazon HERE

Thanks for the tips and the link!



I

[Hahma]

I've been in the mood for awhile to play some Halo Ground Command, so I set it up last night and got started with a solo game (setup and one round) and a while after getting up this morning, I finished the final 4 rounds.

1500 point armies.

UNSC
2 Infantry units, 1 of them had a command unit attached.
1 Infantry Support unit with 2 HMG'S
2 Warthogs armed with Chainguns
1 Scorpion tank
1 Spartan
1 Pelican dropship
Covenant

1 Jackal Marksmen unit (held in reserve for an air drop)
3 Ghosts
1 Storm Ghost
2 Hunters
1 Wraith Artillery tank
1 Wraith Anti-air tank
1 Phantom dropship

The scenario was Assassinate, where a player gets 3 bonus VP's for each unit with the Commanding Presence loadout. The UNSC had 2 (Command Unit and Spartan), while Covenant had none. It goes for 5 rounds.
The Scorpion got onto the hill early to have a commanding view and fire lanes and the only thing it could see at the moment was a Hunter, so it out a wound on it. The Wraith antiaircraft tank moved and put some damage on it. The artillery Wraith also moved but failed to hit the Scorpion. But the Scorpion did take a 2nd damage from a Phantom ground attack run that gave the UNSC 2 VP's for that air mission.
The UNSC ran a supply drop air mission that gave the Covenant 1vp, but it also dropped a weapons crate not far from the Spartan and the unit he was attached to. This gives elements within 6 inches the overwatch loadout and if the Spartan moves into basecontact with it, he can switch weapons, which he did when he switched to a Spartan laser. The Pelican did take a damage from the anti-air Wraith.

So the battle raged on, and in the 2nd round, the Covenant dropped in the Jackal Marksmen unit behind the hill the Scorpion was on. It was able to take out the command unit that was attached to the support weapons unit. The neat thing about the Jackal Marksmen unit, is that they don't have to target the closest element of a unit like others do, they can choose any element, so they choose the command unit. They also can force a unit with Heroic Save loadout (Command Unit and Spartan) to reroll a successful roll, and it negates that unit's resolute ability to reroll failed Heroic Save rolls. The Phantom took damage when the Warthogs reacted. This mission gave the UNSC 1VP.

And so it went, back and forth until the final round and the UNSC had the Spartan ( with 1 of 2 damage from the Jackal Marksmen unit), one Warthog, the Pelican with one damage, and one infantry unit left. The Covenant had the anti-air Wraith and the Phantom with 2 of 3 damage taken.

The Covenant moved the Wraith into the woods and attacked the Spartan with both weapons. The Spartan failed his inactivated reaction roll requirement of 5 on 2d6's, he rolled a 3. So even though the potshots at him failed, it cost him an activation. The Warthog moved to get closer to the weapons crate for better reaction vs a Covenant air mission. Counting Vp's, the UNSC were up by 2, 20 to 18. So one last gamble had the Phantom make a ground attack mission to attack the Spartan and Warthog. If the Phantom took any damage from the reacting Warthog, that would be it. But the Warthog missed and the Phantom took out the Warthog from its side weapon, and put one damage on the Spartan. The Spartan had Legendary Heroic Save and Resolute, so he would only fail the save on one die face, the skull. He rolled a skull twice to fail and take his final damage. So while that air mission gave the UNSC 2 VP's for 22, the Covenant got 9 (2 for Warthog, and 4 for Spartan and 3 for scenario bonus for assassination of Commanding Presence unit), for a total of 27.






















Sadly, yesterday Spartan Games announced that they are closing their doors. They have several miniatures lines, with Halo Ground Command and Halo Fleet Battles being the most recent. But it just ends up that the miniatures business is very competitive and for a smaller company, it makes it tougher. Lots of different systems out there now and also kickstarter platform for certain companies. Spartan didn't go the kickstarter route, as they tried to do it the old fashioned way. Though, they had been around for decent amount of years, it's just gotten too difficult to keep up with all their systems lately, and one of the owners had health issues to deal with on top of everything else. Feel bad for them for sure. At least I have a ton of stuff already painted and a lot that isn't painted yet. My buddy Chris also has a lot of it too. So while Halo Ground Command may go the way of Heroscape, I still have plenty to play and enjoy in the future.

[mac122]

Man, @Hahma has ALL the cool toys!

[quozl]

I got one of these mats from Harbor Freight:



It's 4 puzzle pieces about 2 feet by 2 feet each so the whole thing comes to 4 feet by 4 feet.

I cut it down to 3 feet by 4 feet so it will fit on my table. Then I used a sharpie to put 1" squares all over it.

Next step is to make an incision on each of those gridlines down about half way through the mat so I can insert cardstock walls wherever I like.

[Hahma]

Originally Posted by mac122

Man, @Hahma has ALL the cool toys!

Yeah Mac, I have been collecting, making and painting a bunch of neat stuff over the past year. Hundreds of hours work and a bit of money. I've sold some games, sock a little bit away each payday and my job has this health plan through Humana where I can earn points and cash them in for $25 Amazon gift cards, and I use that for some hobby stuff.

I just turned 50 in June, and I figure what the heck. I've only got so much time left to enjoy things like this. Who knows when I can't paint anymore for one reason or another, or any other thing that can come up. I'm going to enjoy this hobby now, because "later" sneaks up on you and the next thing you know, 5 or 10 years have gone by

Originally Posted by quozl

I got one of these mats from Harbor Freight:



It's 4 puzzle pieces about 2 feet by 2 feet each so the whole thing comes to 4 feet by 4 feet.

I cut it down to 3 feet by 4 feet so it will fit on my table. Then I used a sharpie to put 1" squares all over it.

Next step is to make an incision on each of those gridlines down about half way through the mat so I can insert cardstock walls wherever I like.

That's a great idea Q! I've seen a guy use those to make a game tabletop terrain that he built up and was able to change things up by switching the puzzle pieces around. But putting grooves in them also gives you a ton of flexibility in setting up dungeon walls or castle walls or all kinds of things.

I look forward to seeing it when you have it set up for gaming.

[Hahma]

My buddy Chris has been sharing some pix of a couple buildings he's built from the 4Ground Games kits, the same type of kits that I used to build my Blasted Tower and Ruins pieces for Frostgrave.

The plan is to use them for post-apocalyptic games such as The Walking Dead All Out War, superhero games perhaps as Chris is looking into the Knights models DC Superhero game, or for Malifaux or others.

The roof and different levels lift off to have action inside, though it's not detailed inside.









And with some tealights inside.

[TREX]

Those look great @Hahma. I picked up The walking dead all out war but am yet to play it. I'm going to finish all my terrain designated for Frostgrave first I think. Then I'll get started on some post apocalypse terrain. I'm also contemplating getting some sci fi stuff done for star wars legion. I'm pretty sure I'll pick it up. I'm really wanting to do some custom monsters for frostgrave as well. I've got too many great miniatures to not do some for them. With all those monster options, it almost begs for its own scenario campaign. We'll see how much I have time for anyway. I'll be starting a new job soon part time on top of my full time job to eventually go full time with the new job and quit the old one by the front of next year. That means I'll have no extra time really until I get on with the new one alone, then I get back my weekends.(after a good 12 years of working every weekend.) I picked up a couple more cool looking safari dragons and the 5 headed hydra they have. They should make for some great monsters for killing. Maybe even do a co op campaign for it.

[Tornado]

Nice buildings!

[Hahma]

Originally Posted by TREX

Those look great @Hahma. I picked up The walking dead all out war but am yet to play it. I'm going to finish all my terrain designated for Frostgrave first I think. Then I'll get started on some post apocalypse terrain. I'm also contemplating getting some sci fi stuff done for star wars legion. I'm pretty sure I'll pick it up. I'm really wanting to do some custom monsters for frostgrave as well. I've got too many great miniatures to not do some for them. With all those monster options, it almost begs for its own scenario campaign. We'll see how much I have time for anyway. I'll be starting a new job soon part time on top of my full time job to eventually go full time with the new job and quit the old one by the front of next year. That means I'll have no extra time really until I get on with the new one alone, then I get back my weekends.(after a good 12 years of working every weekend.) I picked up a couple more cool looking safari dragons and the 5 headed hydra they have. They should make for some great monsters for killing. Maybe even do a co op campaign for it.

Sounds like you have a lot on your plate TREX. Good luck with your new job, it will be nice to be off weekends.

That Hydra looks cool!

Originally Posted by Tornado

Nice buildings!

4Ground makes some good stuff. They are prepainted, but require a bit of assembly.

Here's a link to where some urban items are.

http://www.4ground.co.uk/28mm-city-center

[Hahma]

For whatever reason, I saw some PVC pipe from an old plumbing project, laying around in my workshop in my basement, and decided to make something out of it.

It was originally going to be a vertical tank to be part of another piece that I started but didn't finish yet, but then it seamed too short for that. So I looked into horizontal tank images and found some inspiration. Now I don't have any games systems at the moment that this could be used for, but with some urban terrain my buddy Chris has been building lately for some modern and/or post-apocalyptic games, I figured I could add some stuff to the table whenever we use that stuff. I also had those dumpsters I built and painted earlier, so at least I'd be able to offer some stuff to the table.

I basically cut down the PVC pipe, cut some acrovyn to cover the ends, as well as make the hatch assembly on top (other than the scrap mdf used for the hinges and handle), as well as for the diamond plate piece that the pipe goes into on the ground. Foamcore for the support pieces under the tank. Scrap sprues for the pipe and valve assembly. The base under it in some pictures is foamcore with a piece of acrovyn glued on top of it for durability. I'll finish that base piece in a rundown urban way I suppose, with some gravel and maybe grass growing up from some cracks here and there.

[keglo]

Wow, that turned out great! I love the rust effect. Such a small thing but really adds that special touch. Is that some Infinity figures standing next to it?

Sorry for my ignorance but what is acrovyn? I have never heard of the stuff but it sounds like I might need some. It looks like it has a nice texture to it that was perfect for this project.

[Hahma]

Thanks @keglo !

The rust is really easy. I kind of use a drybrush technique but not in the typical brushing lightly across the top of something, but in dabbing the colors on, as I don't want it too heavy. I start with a dark brown, then I dab a little dark red over that randomly, but not too much as I just want to add a little redness but not make it look like it's red. Then finally, I dab on some orange here and there. Having some silvery metal poke through on some hard edges adds a little too, but I did that before starting the rust process. Finally, I added a wash of a little black mixed in Quick Shine floor finish over the entire piece, and it darkened the rust effects some.

No, those aren't Infinity figures, they are from Mercs Recon. I had kickstarted it for a lot of money a couple years ago and got it in last June. Those were some of the first figures I had ever painted, other than the base Mice and Mystics set a few years ago and a couple Heroscape repaints. But i don't count those so much, as those were with crappy paints and not much technique. With Mercs Recon however, that's when I had decided to go big into painting and bought an $80 paint set from Army Painter, which I still have all the paints and only low on a couple colors after a little over a year of heavy painting. These Mercs figures aren't the best, as I didn't make the best use of highlighting and shading, and I kind of over washed them with some of the inks that came in the paint set. I was new to that and they ended up dirtier than I would choose to make them now. Fortunately, I have probably 130 of them left to paint and can make them better now....eventually. When I got into Halo Ground Command, last August, I pretty much stopped painting the Mercs Stuff. And then I got into Frostgrave and have some Halo stuff yet to paint. But I recently finished up a 2nd pair of Hunters for Halo and may try to get a good bit of the rest of what I have primed for them done soon.

My Infinity stuff I got a couple weeks ago is still sitting in the boxes and not assembled or even primed yet. I have another set with around 8 figures in it that I had pre-ordered that should be coming in soon. So I'll wait to get all of them before painting any of them. The good thing about them is that each faction (like with Mercs) has their own color scheme, so that will make batch painting them easier. Frostgrave was harder with that, as they didn't have matching uniforms, but I could use the same colors in different spots while working on a couple or few figures at a time. Sword and Sorcery was one at a time stuff (other than the blueish undead versions), as they were all individual characters with their own scheme.


Acrovyn is a commercial wall protection product. It is usually put on walls in sheets and would typically go 4ft up the wall to protect from rubs and dents etc. The carpenter at the hospital I work at gave me some scraps that he didn't need. It comes in 4x8 sheets and while we order it from a supplier, I believe it can be gotten at some home repair stores. But, it's pretty darn expensive, so that is an issue for wanting it for this type of hobby stuff, unless you could find a place that sold small scrap pieces. I guess other hobbyists use something called plasticard sp? for thin pieces of plastic on projects. But I've never gotten any of that, but suspect it could be gotten at some hobby shops.