Danger on Outpost 32 - Custom Terrain Features

Once I had finished painting all the figures from the USE ME Danger on Outpost 32 box set, the time had come to take a close look at the scenarios. The first game in the campaign is a plan shoot-'em-up, with teams of Zeta Reticulans entering the Outpost's domes through airlocks. The scenario page includes this suggested setup map, designed for a 2' x 4' table:

My tables are mostly 2' x 2', and I chose my badlands-style table for this campaign. I figured the smaller size would be fine with the low figure count, as long as the terrain density increased just a bit. Finding terrain to represent the two airlocks on the Zeta Reticulan table edge were simple enough - I knocked together some IMEX Cyberclicks bits leftover from my 40K days to build two of these:

The doorway is obviously designed for 28mm figures, but works fine as part of a larger (invisible) structure. So that took care of the airlocks. I already had plenty of hills, but the water features posed a bit of a problem for me. The only decent water feature in my terrain collection is a swamp for my Red Planet board... not really useful for this scenario. So why not take the opportunity to build a quick water feature for my badlands board, and use it for the Outpost 32 campaign?

The scenario fluff describes the two water features as tourist beaches. My version of Outpost 32 feels more like a refugee colony, so I decided to make them simple lakefronts instead. Then I had the idea... if I made two lakefronts that were identical in width, they could combine to be a single small lake in other games. 

So I found a good-size scrap of MDF out in my garage and traced a basic lake shape. Then I drew a straight line right through the middle, cut out the two pieces with a jigsaw, and cleaned the rough-cut edges with a sanding sponge. Once they were clean, I borrowed one of my wife's spray paint cans... a blue pastel to give me an easy basecoat for the water.

Once the spray paint had dried, I found an appropriate-size scrap of packing styrofoam to form the "shoreline." To get the right shape, I flipped the lake pieces upside-down and clamped them to the styrofoam. Then I just used a hot-wire cutter to trace the lake piece, removed the lake piece, cut the inside,  and then shaped the ground texture. A few cheap craft paints, a bit of white glue, and the water features were ready for the tabletop. And since the foam and MDF were already in my garage, I was able to add to my terrain collection without spending a penny on extra materials.

Here's my final interpretation of the Scenario One setup map:

Up next: Scenario One AAR. 

Cheers,

Chris

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Brog Infantry, Grav Armor, and Exoplanets

Rebel Minis has released another of PF's alien races - the Brog Empire. Just the basic infantry pack is available so far, but it has a great variety of poses and weapons (including a casualty figure). Command and Heavy Weapon packs will follow in the near future. 

The Brog are carrying the same weapons as the Pangalactic Legion. Lots of force development opportunity with that... you could use the Pangalactics as a "foreign legion" to augment a Brog force... use the Brog as a separate subject race, or even develop a campaign based around a double-dealing weapons merchant. These are definitely worth a look!

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And if you're looking to add some high-tech support vehicles to a new alien army, Ravenstar Studios has added a handful of items to the Land Core 15mm range. First we have the Mazer/Archer family of combat vehicles. The Mazer Tank has a cool split-design turret - reminds me of what we see on some spaceship miniatures. For that matter, wouldn't be hard to imagine that it is the same gun found on that faction's warships. The same hull is utilized on the Archer - available with missile or artillery cannon turrets. 

The Passser grav APC is a good complement to the new tanks. It definitely screams "we're not from around here!" to me. The steps leading down from the troop hatch makes it a pretty convincing assault vehicle.

And finally we have the Stinger flier - which looks like a very heavily armed and armored gunship.

If you want to pick these up (or any of Chris' other great vehicles and mecha), Ravenstar Studios is having a 10% off sale through Friday. 

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Our universe looks bigger and bigger every day.

There have been more than more than 800 exoplanets discovered since 1995. Since they are generally detected by measuring the "wobble" of a star and extrapolating mass, most of these planets have been lifeless gas giants. Ultimately, it seemed like we wouldn't find any Earth-sized planets with our current technology.

That all changed this week, with the confirmed discovery of a planet just slightly larger than our own world. And was it found halfway across the galaxy like many of these discoveries? Nope, it's in orbit of Alpha Centauri B - our closest neighbor has an Earth-like planet. 

Okay, so there are a few differences. The planet is Mercury-close to the star and has an orbit of only 3.2 days. So unless it's inhabited by Balrogs with 5-point seat harnesses, we probably won't find any signs of intelligent life. Or maybe that extreme environment is why nobody ever checks out the local Galactic Planning Office to view hyperspace bypass routes... 

Either way, it's very inspiring to learn more about other star systems, and how many planets our galaxy really holds. I fully expect to read confirmed discoveries of Earth-size planets or moons in the "Goldilocks zone" within the next decade. 

So here's the real question. How long will it be until we find out what is on those planets?

Cheers,

Chris

Not 15mm, But Maybe Still Useful - Flyers From Dust Tactics

Many of you may have seen these already, but I just stumbled on the new aircraft models coming out for the German faction in the Dust Tactics miniatures game.

These are designed, like many of the aircraft for that game, as stub fighters and small, almost midget air support craft for the skirmish/small battle scale types of play for Dust. While I feel they are a little scrawny for the 28mm games they are intended for, I do seem some potential for those among us 15mm science fiction gamers who are always on the look out for usable aircraft models for re-purposing.

While I haven't had a chance to look one over in the flesh, they look like they might work nicely as dropships, gunships, or even civilian spaceport dressing with just a little bit of modification.

Danger on Outpost 32 - The Last Few Figures

Nothing feels better than painting a complete set of minis faster than expected.

Having finished the Zeta Reticulans and the alien militia and citizens of Outpost 32 in three painting sessions, all that remained were the six armed human figures which represent the Outpost's security forces. They consist of an SHM Bounty Hunter and five HOF Muster infantry. I started with the Bounty Hunter figure, which is a pretty nice sculpt and pose. I basecoated the figure with Vallejo Heavy Ochre and painted  his jacket and boots with P3 Cryx Bane Base. A quick brown wash over those areas give his pants and shirt a nice "fatigue" appearance, and the impression of a leather jacket. Then it was a simple matter of painting his face, hair, hands, and gun.

 

After my earlier failed experiment with a yellow color scheme, I decided to try something a bit different. Using the same ochre color, I painted the paints and sleeves of the five Muster troopers. Then I drybrushed the Sun Yellow over the ochre. This gave me a much "richer" yellow color than doing two coats of Sun Yellow directly over white. Then I painted the armor, boots, gloves, and helmets with Vallejo Scarlett Red, the backpacks, weapons, and faceshields with Reaper Master Tarnished Steel. After applying black Wonder Wash to the entire figure, I went back and very lightly drybrushed the yellow again, and added a yellow stripe to my chosen leader.

I really like how the Muster troops turned out. The sculpts didn't seem all that detailed when they were bare metal, but really came out once I started painting. And it gave me another excuse to use another Big Ten conference color scheme... who would have thought that football uniforms work so well as Space Opera military colors?

It only took about three hours to finish these, not counting the drying time for the bases. So in four sessions, I finished every figure in the Danger On Outpost 32 boxed set. Not a bad way to spend a week!

Up next: a close look at the scenarios, including a few custom terrain pieces.

Cheers,

Chris

GZG Previews New 15mm Science Fiction

Jon from Ground Zero Games was nice enough to send this preview with pics and everything to us here at Dropship Horizon. I'll let him speak for himself on this. Read below. It's a big one!!!

Hi all,

This Sunday (14th) is SELWG at Crystal Palace, London - hopefully we'll see many of our regulars there!

We've got a nice bundle of new items ready just in time for the show

- full details below, they'll be up on the store very soon with pictures.

This is what we have for you this time round.....

............

The first full production releases for the Official TOMORROW'S WAR 15mm range! We are launching EIGHT packs in the first wave - our normal 8-figure packs with 2 each of 4 different sculpts in each pack

- four each for both the DPRG (Democratic Peoples' Republic of Glory) and RANG (Republic of Arden National Guard):

TW15-RA01   RANG rifles pack A (8 figs, 4 different poses)

TW15-RA02   RANG rifles pack B (8 figs, 4 different poses)

TW15-RA03   RANG SAW gunners (8 figs, 4 different poses)
TW15-RA04   RANG MRAWs and Snipers (8 figs, 4 different poses)

__________________________________________________________________

TW15-DP01   DPRG rifles pack A (8 figs, 4 different poses)

TW15-DP02   DPRG rifles pack B (8 figs, 4 different poses)

TW15-DP03   DPRG SAW gunners (8 figs, 4 different poses)
TW15-DP04   DPRG RPGs and Snipers (8 figs, 4 different poses)

All TW15 packs are £3.60 each inc. VAT (£3.00 ex VAT for non-EU customers)

The moulds for these are very new and not yet run-in, so we haven't been able to cast many for this weekend - so at SELWG on Sunday we will have VERY LIMITED stocks of these packs. If you want to be among the first to have some, come and see us as soon as you arrive!

For those of you who bought our pre-release taster packs of the DPRG and RANG figures (pack codes TW-DP1 and TW-RA1, which will shortly be withdrawn from sale), please note that the sample figures previewed in those packs have been reissued in the production packs above - but with many new pose variants added to the range, so the figures you already have will fit right into your new units.

................

As well as the Tomorrow's War range, we are also launching several new items in our SG15/V15 ranges this weekend:

For our very popular UNSC Light Infantry range, we have a pack of RAM MORTAR TEAMS, a pack of GRAV BIKES for fast attack and recon units, and a manned groundmount HEAVY PLASMA CANNON that makes an great emplaced defensive weapon:

SG15-U28    UNSC/L RAM Mortars - two teams (2 weapons, 2 tripod

mounts and 4 crew figures)

            £3.00 per pack inc. VAT (£2.50 ex VAT for non-EU customers)

V15-92A           UNSC/L Grav Bikes - pack of 2 bikes, 2 riders, 2 stands

            £4.50 per pack inc. VAT (£3.75 ex VAT for non-EU customers)

V15-93A           Heavy Plasma Cannon on ground mount, with UNSC/L gunner

            £3.00 each inc. VAT (£2.50 ex VAT for non-EU customers)

Plus, for the NAC, another great little vehicle for your rapid-mobility forces - to go with the very popular Mules and Trikes, we have a hybrid light carrier with the front wheels and rider of the all-terrain trike, attached to a small load-bed running on tracks (rather like the German Kettenkrad!). Due to the vehicle's parentage, and despite it being a slight misnomer (as it has two wheels and two tracks), the troops using this versatile little transport tend to call it the "Halftrike". The loadbed can carry a palletised cargo load, a fireteam of seated troops or, for attack and escort duties, a gunner and rollbar-mounted weapon. The kit is supplied with two alternative weapons, a rapid-fire autocannon and an automatic grenade launcher.

V15-94A           NAC "Halftrike" light load carrier, supplied with

driver, gunner and two alternative weapons.

            £4.50 each inc. VAT (£3.75 ex VAT for non-EU customers)

Last but not least, we have a variant version of our extremely popular "spider drones" - this time replacing the twin cannon of the 84A version with a single rotary tribarrel cannon:

V15-84B           Spider Drones with rotary cannon (pack of 3)

            £3.00 per pack inc. VAT (£2.50 ex VAT for non-EU customers)

..................

Hopefully that's enough to be going on with - for the Vacc-Heads out there, sorry that it's all 15mm again, but I AM working on getting some new FT stuff ready in time for WARFARE in November - so you haven't been completely forgotten!

All the best,

Jon (GZG)

www.gzg.com