The actual relay station itself was built from a Creme Egg carton with a couple of bits glued to it – a dead car headlight bulb, a paint bottle dropper nozzle – and then painted grey very sloppily (didn’t know about primer back then).. to the point where you can actually see some of the Cadbury’s logo peeking through!
Clearly, this wouldn’t do in our brave new age! So in common with quite a few other bits we’ve done over the years, having found this piece again after a relatively recent tidying up session we decided to “upcycle” it…
So, a little bit of detailing – cardboard strips to represent reinforcements to the structure and the entrance, and a square of EPVC to mount it on, with the edges bevelled and sanded before given a coat of DIY texture paste (PVA, water, sand, filler/spackle powder) to blend it with the base.
After this it was out to the shed for an all over spray of black primer before overbrushing with the scheme we picked up from Lukes APS (now sadly on hiatus) – Wilko’s (RIP) Duck Egg Blues, followed bu stippling with red, and then dry brush up with successivey lighter shades of grey, unified with a very thin black/ brown wash, before the metallic bits got a black undercoat and then overbrushed with Vallejo Mithril Silver and washed with Smokey Ink..
The hazard stripes were a white undercoat, two thin coats (natch) of Cadmium Yellow craft paint, very thin Vallejo Skin Wash, and then marked in the stripes with a pencil before filling the lines in with black craft paint… still went awry in places but overall the effect meets the “two feet away” test. I went over the whole thing with sponge shipping from Vallejo German Grey and the odd scratch with Mithril Silver, and finished off the red lights with, well, red, on the top of the relay antenna.
Base was drybrushed up with browns into tan, before three tone flocking nickd from Mel TheTerrain Tutor (who’s back in action, hurrah!), before sealing with first a spray of isopropyl and watered down PVA, before varnishing. Result is a nice little centrepiece, and as we finish off writing up and formatting the rules for version 2.0 I think it’ll be nice to revisit that battle – particularly as 20% of all the proceeds we make from it will be going to support Ukraine.. not much, I know, but better than nothing.
Anyway, pics:
Rocking new base & black primer…Overbrush with Duck Egg Blue and red stipplingOverbrush & stipple on the greysAnd complete! In hindsight, can now see one of the door jambs was a little off.. oh well, might have to lever that off and sort itNo more free Cadbury’s advertising on THIS terrain pieceIn situ with rifle squad Bravo from Buffalo 2-7
Until next time, stay thrifty and we’ll see you soon!
Smoke was rising over the dawn horizon as the tired sentry swigged the last of the water in his canteen. Squinting over iron sights, he peered down into the valley below and was suddenly snapped back to wakefulness.
The horde below seemed to have multiplied during the night. The Orca warhorde they had been tracking was far larger than intelligence had led them to believe – their brute warchiefs bellowed orders in their foul tongue, and although much of the camp was wreathed in smoke, the vibrations through the ground betrayed the steps of some far larger creature.
Could it really be true? The machinations of this new warchief that had been terrorising the northern quadrant had all been to summon some abomination from beyond the veil? The possibility was to hideous to contemplate, yet in the face of such terror, the Sky Marines stood tall…
The bushes rustled behind him. The next watch was arriving. He turned and hissed the password “Thunder?”
No answer.
“Thunder?” he hissed, irritated.
With inhuman swiftness, the chittering shadow leapt upon him, it’s blade cleaving a bloody arc through the man’s battledress.
“Die-die, man thing!” hissed the Ratman, wiping the Sky Marines’ blood on its’ cloak…
Well, it’s been a long time coming but we’ve finally managed to bring the Hyperian Warsmini-sort-of-campaign to a conclusion! And now the Orca horde of Warchief Ghazhrag The Bloody have established their status as Senior Baddies by beating seven shades out of Lord Ratticus’ Virum Nascii, we figured a suitable climax would be having them team up against the combined forces of humanity, the Ancien Regime and the Grand Alliance 301st Skyborne! And in doing so, we figured we could shake down the Hyperian Wars ruleset by seeing how it coped with a battle fo this scale and complexity…
Grab a beer, this is going to be a good one 😉
The stage is set… Baddies to the left, Goodies to the right – humanity’s Thin Red Line
Baddies new toys come out to play…Virum Nascii support teams deploy in the ruins, backed up by Slave archers.. note the Assassins infiltrated forwards into the fieldWitch Colonel Alecius Murphy sets up shop in the ruins – cavalry ready for a counterattack, the Ironclad and Steam Tank make ready to spill the blood of Beasts this day!The Dauntless and Whippets deploy out of sight behind the rocks with the intent of being one of the claws of a pincer movement, the oher being the Ancien Regime cavalry & armourAncien Regime grenadiers draw a bead on the Virum Nascii Assassins that have infiltrated forward into the cornfield…..this backfires as the Assassins achieve Frenzy and pile into their lines! Some opportunistic little buggers make a beeline for the Sky Marine squad deployed in the trees on the flank…Humies put up a stiff resistance, however – resulting in a few fallen Sky Marines and Grenadiers, but a completely annihilated regiment of Assassins!Virum Nascii superheavy leads the charge toward human linesVril lightning cannons purt the hurt on the Ironclad!Seeing the sheer mass of what’s heading their way, the Dauntless crew realise there’s no time for fancy strategy – we need every gun firing, and NOW!Virum Nascii losses are appalling, but they’re carving off casualties right and left off the human forces and the Orca haven’t even been touched yet!Orca are approaching in strength, but it’s the Virum Nascii paying the price.. so far!Carnage in the centre as the Virum Nascii and Ancien Regime super heavies take each other out!Orca magic takes a toll on the DauntlessThe first wave of the Beasts have been almost wiped out, but not without cost to the brave human defenders..You didn’t think that was IT, did you?!?“CONTACT FRONT!”More Orca crash into the Ancien Regime lines!The cavalry are hit in the flanks…..and annihilated!With the Orca rolling up the left flank, peppered by fire from the surviving Virum Nascii weapon teams, humanity prepares a last stand under the rocky outcropsWhippet squadron makes a desperate counterattack…The surviving Ancien Regime grenadiers decide to die gloriously!Sky Marines desperately try to stop the approaching Orca horde!Not entirely successfully…. this is how you earn combat pay, lads…“Enemy to our front, left and rear.. they can’t get away now!”Virum Nascii weapon teams bring down the Whippets!Listing, smoking, damaged by Virum Nascii special weapons and Orca magicks, the Dauntless makes her final stand… Vrilfire missiles and cannon take a vicious toll on the Beasts!The last remnants of the Orca horde try desperately to overhwelm the few remaining human defenders..The last grenadier falls and the Orca crash into the Sky Marine rifle squadHumanity not going down without a fight!And when the smoke clears…. the last handful of human soldiers and the surviving crew of the heavily damaged Dauntless look across a sea of bodies, human, greenskin and ratman..
Phew. Well, we did it – just. Humanity held this day, despite appalling casualties and some real nailbiter moments! In fairness to Dan, this was a “beta test” style game, working out some kinks and it’s easy to see that once we’ve got the Orca magick system a bit more fleshed out the shamans will be a LOT more effective.. plus we had to bodge the initiative system a bit to account for the different Strategy Ratings of the four sides.. but overall, immense fun was had, and the system got shaken down very thoroughly! The Beasts of Hyperia will be back, you’ll see…
Warchief Ghazrag surveyed the seen and grunted. His Waaagh God Avatar had been banished back to the ether, most of his ladz and practically all the Ratmen were slaughtered – it was time to pull back while he still had enough troops to rebuild.
He shrugged. It had been a laugh, after all. And you could always come back for anuvver go. “See you soon, ‘oomie”, he grunted and gestured for his lads to follow him from the battlefield…
Skinflint Games 