May The 4th (Still) Be With You…. You Rebel Scum!

Yep, more granny grating.. but just LOOK at them! Aren’t they CUTE!

So as an OPFOR for the stormtroopers and Lord Vader, I created a company of rebel infantry using the same techniques as in the previous post. I mirrored the organisation of the Imperials – 3 platoons of six stands each, a command group of two stands, a pair of scouts on jetbikes, and a hero commander – in this case, Luke Skywalker himself!

And yes, a great deal of “I am your father…” “That’s not true! That’s impossible” squeaked in Chipmunks style falsetto has been going on here recently.. I’m blaming lockdown.

As before, a simple painting process – sprayed with cheap grey primer and given a base coat of Wilko’s Granite Dust house paint. Then a wash – I alternated between Vallejo Smokey Ink, Black Ink, and Army Painter Green Tone because I wanted a clear difference between the uniform pristine white of the Bad Guy Empire and the grungy guerillas of the Good Guy Rebel Alliance. I did the same for skin tones too – after all, diversity = good, and Rebel Alliance also = good, so Rebel Alliance must = diversity, right? So you’ll see a mix of skin tones – pinkish washed with Vallejo Skin Wash, dark brown washed with Smokey Ink, Goblin Green washed with Green Tone and Wilko’s Duck Egg Blue house paint washed with.. well, I squeezed a drop of blue ink from a nearly dead biro and mixed it with water and matt medium!

Basing was more or less the same as the stomtroopers, but this time I added some really fine dusty earth from the garden along with the sand and flock. I’d notice a patch of this in the garden and thought it might prove useful as a basing material.. it’s not world changing, but I like the effect.

Right, then – pics:

The lads on parade – as with the Stormtroopers, 3 platoons of infantry, an HQ, two speeder bikes and in command (featuring the BLUE lightsaber) – Luke Skywalker!

Scout bikes

Rebel infantry

All together: “I am your father!” “That’s not true! That’s impossible!“

So next is figuring out what to play with them – as I mentioned, Hell By Starlight, which I fund a VERY dusty copy of in the attic will be getting a go, and we’ll bodge some stats for them in Epic – not forgetting our “epic scale” take on Future Force Warrior which hopefully we can get back to developing further now lockdown seems to be easing… Let’s keep the masks on and the fingers crossed people, we’re nearly there!

Stay safe and thrifty out there, we’ll see you soon

The Tiniest Kings Of War Pt. 2

So with the Orcs sitting on the shelf champing at the bit for a good scrap, it’s time to break out the trusty granny grating and create them an OPFOR – following the list in the Kings Of War rulebook, this is a 750 point force.

All the techniques are the same as I used with the Orcs (and Jim with his stormtroopers– readers will be forgiven for thinking that we’ve become a little granny grating fixated over the past couple of weeks) – the main difference is that I went for a more orderly appearance with the lads ranked in proper formation, and cranked out a few shields for the stunties using my hole punch.

I went with an opposing colour scheme for these little guys – whereas the Orcs got all the warm colours (green, brown & red) I gave the Dwarves a cooler theme of silver for their armour, blue and white heraldry and flesh tone. When you’re dealing with what are effectively the same little cross shapes, I figured it pays to have maximum possible delineation between units!

Dwarf Lord – like his Orc counterpart, he got a rock to stand on and a little washer base all of his own to mark how important he is.

Berserker cavalry regiment

1st Ironclad infantry regiment (equipped with “throwing mastiff” upgrade)

2nd Ironclad infantry regiment (note the 2 hammers on the banner and the shields with a quartered as opposed to halved colour scheme)

Ironwatch crossbow troop (missing one of the little guys, not sure what happened to him – manufacturing issue)

Ironbelcher cannon – this began life as a bit of drinking straw, wheels were hole punched from cardboard and the little reinforcement rod came from a length of granny grating. Cannon and crew were mounted on a 20mm x 20mm piece of single corrugated card.

The lads on parade – look how smart they are, all ranked up, not like those filthy unruly greenskins…

These were a fun little build, and best of all if the boy drops (or eats) a regiment of troops then it’s the work of an hour at most to replace anything! Clearly they’re nothing like the quality of some of the amazing 6mm, 8mm or 10mm miniatures you can buy or 3D print, but they’re absolutely fine to play with and in terms of cost? I bought one sheet of granny grating last year for something like £2 and so far have made both the Kings Of War armies as well as a pair of Epic Imperial Guard infantry companies and auxilliaries… and I’ve still got a load of it left!

Next up – LET’S GET READY TO RUMBLE!

Stay safe, sane and thrifty out there, we’ll see you soon

May the 4th Be (Belatedly) With You

Hmm…. I think I may have been in lockdown too long…

Anyway, followers of this blog can’t fail to have noticed Dan’s experiments with granny grating, and I think I’m probably the biggest fan of all – I’d already picked up a sheet of the stuff to see what I could use it for, and it wound up helping to detail our DIY Space Fleet ships and my WW2 Sci Fi trooper (must make him some friends…) and it was only a matter of time before I succumbed to the temptation to copy Dan’s idea (well, not Dan’s, this guys’ – but you get the drift).

We’ve floated the idea of an “Epic Scale” take on the Apocalypse: Earth system for a while, and I figured let’s just make some figures to test it…. what theme shall I base them around…

Yeah, that should work.

I should add, there is no real logic to this, it’s not like we’re planning to buy the franchise off Fantasy Flight Games – I just like Star Wars (yes, even the new ones… and even Phantom Menace!), and I like Epic. So these little fellas will serve as test beds for Apocalypse: Earth Armageddon rules and look ADORABLE while doing so! Further inspiration was gained by finding one of my old favourite RTS PC games on Steam for the princely some of £2.99 back in February:

I decided to set up two identical forces – Imperial and Rebel, each with a company of infantry (3 platoons of 6 stands each, with two command stands), a hero and two scout bikes. I also stumbled across this old relic from the 90s:

I got this waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay back when as a kid and never really understood the rules, but a cursory flick through it shows some interesting concepts involving reactions and fatigue that should be fun to play through.

So, what did I make? Come and see!

Stormtroopers! Spray primed grey, painted with Dulux Jasmine White house paint, black marks for the blasters and the armour gaps, and each platoon has a shoulder flash with it’s colour on for identification purposes. Bases were 20mm squares of single corrugated cardboard from a box of Morrison’s Shiraz, painted brown and then painted with PVA, drizzled on sand, dry dusty soil from the garden and flock.

Stormtrooper HQ! No banners here, as Star Wars is at least slightly more sensible than 40k in this regard..

Vader!

I sense a disturbance in the force… the army assembles!

I love these little guys – yes, up close and personal they don’t look much, but from two feet away the illusion is complete and I absolutely love the sense of having effectively got something for nothing.

I’ve just finished doing the Rebel force and they’ll be featured soon, as soon as I can pull myself away from Teeny Darth Vader and Teeny Luke Skywalker re-enacting all those classic scenes from the films.. and of course it’s not too long before we can think about actual in-person, face-to-face gaming once again (fingers and toes crossed)… until then, stay safe, stay sane, stay thrifty!