Hobby progress has been slow since the return from BOYL, with a combination of the usual disruptive effects of late summer/early autumn slowing down output. Slowing down output, but not halting progress. Behind the scenes I have been working on two projects.
The first of these projects is assembling the Battle Systems sci-fi terrain that arrived about ten days ago. Its pre-printed, pre-cut sci-fi interior cardboard terrain.
To date I have tended to avoid card terrain for my miniatures games – I prefer the more traditional, modular “train set” terrain sort of approach and mixing the two can be difficult to get right. Storage and time considerations had me resigned to my toy soldier interactions taking place in outdoor settings (a detailed sci-interior space is a huge commitment of resources) but then this Kickstarter came along and provided a one stop shop to fix it.
Although assembly of this terrain takes about one hundredth of the time it would take to build in in any other fashion, putting the stuff together properly still takes significant time, so I dont have much to show for the hours that I have put in on it just yet. Some photos and some details of gaming plans using the terrain (things like VWFDXMPCOWPC, if that means anything to you) will follow at a later date.
The other project is this WiP Ash Waste Nomad. As I have had a bit of burnout from painting orks in the run up to BOYL, I figured that I would get my small seven miniature strong Confrontation Ash Waste Nomad project done as a palette cleanser. The test piece model above is technically finished, but I have decided that I am not happy with a couple of the elements and that I want to revise them before I paint the rest of his buddies.
So, while its a little quiet around here, there are a few things going on in the background that will come to fruition over the next few weeks, so stay tuned.
Actually dont stay tuned, go to The Governor General of Sector Six blog where you can see Inquisitor Verhoeven, Gunslinger Rosa “Digger” Stone and Pat O’Blivion – Astropath attempt to get to the bottom of the evil machinations of the xeno-corrupted Ministorum in Sector Six (Texas actually, where some of my toy soldiers have gone on holiday for the sake of combined crossover narrative).
Spot the tourists… click me.
Filed under: Editorial, Uncategorized | Tagged: Ash Waste Nomads, Confrontation, Necromunda, Sci-fi, The Governor General of Sector Six |
sho3box 
Hmm, I’m curious about the Battle Systems. I also tend to avoid cardboard scenery, but the pics I’ve seen look nice and tempting. I’ll be having a look at what you have to say about this when you have it assembled 😉
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Suber, the short answer is that its good stuff. I will know better in a week or so and I am hopeful that I will get a game in on it within the next fortnight so I will report back then.
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I notice on Battle Systems’ website they seem to stick their designs to foam core and slot it together that way. Not exactly “cardboard” scenery. Their promo pics look great… I suspect it’d look like crap when I was done with it though 😦
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Battle Systems used to produce PDFs for printing and making card terrain. I suspect thats where the foamcore that you mention comes in NSA. The Kickstarter stuff is laminated dense card, like mounting card with a better finish, so it genuinely is cardboard scenery 🙂
I never had the patience or resources for PDFs of scenery to be printed and laminated and cut and glued etc, its very labour intensive, very precise work. I wouldnt touch that sort of thing. The Kickstarter Battle Systems stuff is a different beast altogether. I sound like a shill, but its a very different, honestly. If I was cutting and gluing then my set would look like crap too, but it doesnt: it looks like the promo.
Ill put up a post about it over the next couple of weeks.
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Hey you’re allowed to cheerlead a product w/o being a shill… I do it all the time! Some things are just that good 🙂
I can imagine what you mean by dense card, and that is definitely a step up from printing and cutting and “fffffffuuuuuuuuu I’m already sick of this stuff”.
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The print it yourself stuff was a non starter for me too. The minimum requirements to get it to a decent standard are too high. Some people love it, but I found it a chore, with many obstacles between printing and playing.
The preprinted and jig cut sets from the Kickstarter are great, but its still a fair amount of work to get it off the ground. Its like having a huge load of miniature flat pack Ikea furniture: its well designed and goes together nicely if you take the right precautions and do it properly, but it takes a while to complete no matter how you look at it.
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That scenery is tempting I have to say but what got most of my attention is the Ash waste nomad. He works fine for me and I particularly like the weathered pants.
Though I suffer from post-BOYL lazyness I want to get bacjk on tracks with my RT/confrontation gangs and the nomads are one I’m looking forward to.
Hope to see yours soon.
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Post BOYL burnout is a real phenomenon, its endemic on the blog scene. Pretty much everyone that I met at the event got as far as putting up a report or two when they came back and then ran out of steam. Its a natural thing after such a big build up, enthusiasm will come back.
As for the Nomad, the scheme as shown is almost completely finished, I am just considering making the blue areas a little more blue, making the contrast between the highlights and the base colour a little less harsh. I expect to have the lot of them done over the next couple of weeks.
Thanks for the feedback.
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That terrain looks fab, but can you tell me when it’s all made up does it take up much storages room when you’r not using it ?
As for your nomad I think he looks first class & I look foreword to seen them all.
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I will give a full rundown of the space involved in storage etc when I have all of the terrain assembled and photographed Frank, but I dont have the full info yet as I am still assembling 🙂
The terrain breaks down into small wall sections and can then be clipped together. The clipped together pieces can be stored as sub-assemblies so that set-up for a planned game is faster, but its not a requirement. Check out the Battle Systems web page for an idea of the size of the basic pieces. They have a video on storage too that is very helpful.
Im glad that you like the Nomad. I hope to get the rest done pretty soon. Thanks for the feedback.
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Your Nomad has me thinking of converting up a gang of them now, damn you! Another project! He does look all the cool though!
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Knowing that you might be considering a Nomad project is worrying Colin, as you might get twenty five of them done before I get my six finished…
If the official Nomad models get finished and I enjoy painting them, I might paint a few of the Grenadier/Copplestone/EM4 Scavengers to add to the group, but its hard to compete with that cool wide brimmed hat look.
Thanks for the feedback 🙂
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The planets are clearly aligning – I am planning Ash Waste Nomads as my next project also…using the Marauder and Citadel figures too.
The frustration is that mine will take three times as long to paint and only look a fraction as good as your “WIP” figure 😉
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Having seen your Brat(t) gang first hand, I am certain that your take on the Ash Nomads will be something to look forward to Axiom. We might even get some sort of Nomad alliance going in a year or so 🙂
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