Dark Future - Renegade Car Conversion & Paint Job

Hi there! In our last Dark Future post we took a look at the game and what comes in the box... Today we're going take a closer look at one of the Renegade cars and look at a bit of conversion work and the paint job itself... 'Make ready road warrior, cause' the Maniax are comin'. And your death is comin' wiv em!!'

The first thing to do was to inset some wire mesh on the inside of the chassis, helping to give the car a rag-tag look of improvised driver protection... The wire mesh itself is used in car body repairs and is readily available at a cheap price from your local auto center (i.e. Halfords).  The mesh is handy for all kinds of hobby conversions, for example, you can cut it in thin strips and curl it round a pencil for some quick and easy lengths of barbed wire. Stick it in your spares box.

I measured off 3 bits of mesh to fit around the inside front and side 'windows' and using some superglue and a pair of tweezers, held the wire in place. This can be a bit of a tricky process as you wait for the superglue to 'bite' and hold the elements in place... you will likely end up sticking your fingers together... ;)

Next up, I wanted to add a bit more weight and menace to the front of the car... It needed a nasty looking ram for smashing into any Sanctioned Op's that got too close... Here's where a good collection of Plastruct items comes in handy - well worth adding to your arsenal. The ram itself was made from a length of girder and was 'bolted' into place using various sizes of rod to create a supporting frame onto the main chassis of the car. Finally the ram was given a few impromptu spikes and thoroughly scuffed up and aged with a few hacks from the ol' hobby knife...

Finally, I added an old cow skull to the bonnet of the car, converted up from an animal skull from the GW Beastmen sprue and 'long horns' fashioned from an old chaos warrior helmet. I also added a human skull totem on the back of the car,  using a small skull lifted off a GW Space Marine, to keep things in line with the 15mm Dark Future game scale. I should also add that I extensively weathered the rest of the car body work to make it look suitably post-apoc...

With the conversion work complete, it was onto the paint job. Starting with the car chassis and working over a black undercoat, I dry-brushed on some GW Charadon Granite and added further various shades of brown to help dust up and whether the car. All metal work, such as the front ram and engine were given a coat of Bolt Gun Metal and a wash of Badab Black. These elements were also dry-brushed to give them a dusty, weathered finish. To give the drivers cockpit a bit of character, I also picked out the various buttons and targeting screens - very 80's!

The car bodywork was completed in the same way as the chassis - lots of dry-brushing and weathering to help add to the aged, battle scarred look of the car. The skull trophies were base coated with Dheneb Stone, given a wash of Gryphonne Sypia and a final highlight of Bleached Bone. Finally, the car needed to proudly present it's allegiance to the 'Maniax' gang and so had their name scrawled down the side of the fairing...

Well, I hope you like this first addition to those highway hell-mongers, the 'Maniax' Gang. I'll continue to paint up the rest of the models from the Dark Future boxed game and report my progress on this ere' blog!

Cheers :)

X-Wing - Bespin Rescue Battle Report!

© Inquisitor James 2013

As a warm up to Gambit Games UK's forth coming X-Wing tournament in October, the talented Inquisitor James created this wonderful 'Bespin Rescue' mission. A whole load of players gave it their best shot at this month's club day and here's the low down on my (somewhat wayward) attempt to take control of the infamous Millennium Falcon, piloted by that cheeky chappy, Lando Calrissian...

'I'm off to Ladbrokes to catch the 3:15 at Haydock'!

Re-living the famous scenes from the Empire Strikes Back movie, could Lando give chase to the bounty hunter Boba Fett and save Han Solo? And let's not forget ol' one hand himself, Luke Skywalker, hanging precariously from the gantry at the base of the Cloud City. Could Lando 'flip the Falcon' and return to pick up Luke safely? If all that wasn't enough, Lando would then be forced to fight his way back through the swarm of Tie Fighters sent by the Empire to put an end to the party. Lando had his work cut out...

You can find the rules for the mission here and posted below for reference. I urge you to give it a go, and be sure to give Inquisitor James props when you do so :)

Ready Cheewie? We're going in...!



Mission 1:

© Inquisitor James 2013

The first mission would see Lando giving chase to Boba Fett in an attempt to cause some damage and if at all possible, shoot the bounty hunter out of the sky all together. Lando would score +1pt for every successful hit on Slave 1, with a potential +10pts available should he succeed in destroying Fett. With the Millennium Falcon kitted out with an engine upgrade, there was the temptation to use the boost action to close range and get that all important extra dice for attacking at range band 1. But that would see the Rebel player miss out on a valuable +10pts for resisting putting the pedal to the metal...  Fett's objective was simple: put as much hurt on the Falcon as possible and leg it off the board in short order!

Lando fires the engines as the Falcon lifts off the landing pad and gives chase to Boba Fett...

Both ships open up with their guns, exchanging a withering hail of fire... 

....and to make matters worse, the Falcon runs into both a seismic charge and a wayward Cloud Car...

...The damage begins to stack up...

Mission 2:

© Inquisitor James 2013

With Boba Fett making good his escape, Princess Leia senses that Luke is in peril and orders Lando to turn back and attempt a daring rescue. With the board clear of any Empire threat, this mission would be all about flying skill, dodging those wandering Cloud Cars and in homage to the scene in the movie, flipping the Falcon over in a wing over manoeuvre to head back to Cloud City and Luke's rescue...

Lando dials in a koiogran turn...

... and powers back to rescue Luke...

Having successfully completed his wing over manoeuvre and bagging himself an easy +10pts, Lando banked the Falcon round and picked up the injured Luke Skywalker from the base of the Cloud City. All that was left to do now was to make good their escape and work out just how they would rescue Han from both the deep freeze and the clutches of Boba Fett before he decided to cash in on his bounty...

'Get a move on Lando! Top Gear's on in half hour!'

Mission 3:

© Inquisitor James 2013

Right on queue, 3 Tie Fighters arrived on the scene to give chase to the somewhat battle damaged Falcon. With Lando simply having to boost the Falcon off the far side of the board, it looked like it would be a simple +10pts and victory for the Rebels.... But unable to suppress his gambler nature, Lando decided to pull off an audacious maneuver to immediately swing round behind the Tie Fighter formation and take them all down from behind at close range!  Unfortunately for Lando, it all ended in disaster as he miscalculated his turn and flew off the near side table edge - Thus ending the game and handing overall victory to the Empire! (it would appear that Lando also took the camera with him as there are no photos of the triumphant Tie Fighters...)

Great game - despite the loss, I really enjoyed it! Re-counting those famous scenes from The Empire Strikes Back was a blast and really helped bring to life the cinematic experience games of X-Wing can provide. Unfortunately Lando's maverick ways meant that he couldn't re-live the triumphant heroics of the movie but ever the gambler, he decided to give the mission another go.... But this time the stakes and the game would be upped to 'Jedi Level'!....

'Jedi Level' - A whole lot more Cloud Cars, a whole lot more Tie Fighters and a whole other story... ;)

Until next time...

Dark Future?

The infamous 'Maniax' Gang - Proper scum!

...It is if you live in the post apocalyptic alternate future of GWs 1988 Road Warrior mash-up - Where mega-corps rule, technology runs rampant and Sanctioned Ops patrol the highways tracking down and destroying the renegade, lawless scum who live there...

I was looking around eBay a few months back on the hunt for hobby nonsense and I came across a copy of Dark Future, in great condition and under the ownership of 'one careful lady driver'. Nostalgic memories of halcyon hobby days came flooding back and it felt like a good opportunity to own a little bit of GW hobby history. I hit the 'buy it now' button...

A post apocalyptic '3D Roleplay!' experience for all the family

I'm led to believe that DF may not be the slickest of customers when it comes to game play? (I'll have to put that to the test and report my findings). And there are certainly some alternative 'Road Warrior' style games out there that may be worth exploring: Wreckage / Thunder Road / RoadKill / Car Wars.

But GW's presentation and imagery certainly tick all the right boxes and really help inspire those looking for a Mad Max style fix...

The game comes with 4 cars (2 each of Sanctioned Op Interceptors and Renegade) and 4 bikes. And whilst certainly a product of their day, they're great models and given a bit of imagination, are readily customisable (a scoot round the web will bring up some great examples). Of course, one of the big draws of DF is the opportunity to raid the kid's toy box for old Matchbox and Hotwheels cars that can be converted up and seconded into your gang for reinforcements... I've managed to smuggle out a good number to the man cave in recent weeks, with the kids yet to notice ;)  

To begin with however, I'm going to concentrate on getting the main game minis painted up and ready for the table-top, this should at least facilitate the ability to get a few games in before I get carried away with too many 4 wheeled grand designs.

The renegade 'Maniax' gang car at the top of the page is the result of my first foray and in our next post we'll have a look at how this fella came to be...

Cheers :)

Judge Dredd...

The Judge Dredd Mini Game has been piquing my interest of late and I think Mongoose Publishing's recently announced partnership with Warlord Games will be a really positive step for the future of the game...

I've been looking through the free rule book and contemplating different gang options. The Justice Department certainly look the business. They'd be great to paint up and would also be a cost effective starting force - Their high base cost meaning you'll be eating into your gang start up fund of 500 creds, in short order...

The Ape Gang look fun and they're understandably agile and fast moving on the table, which could make for a powerful close combat orientated bunch, backed up by stealthy Orangutan snipers :). A little bit limited when it comes to Mercenary List options though...

Of all the gangs, it appears the Denizens of the Cursed Earth present the most opportunity when it comes to varying your gang members, with mutations and PSI powers available at reasonably affordable cred costs...

These boyz look like they could be the gang for me. Unfortunately, I'm not massively inspired by the DotCE mini range... hopefully Mongoose/Warlord will fix this in future releases. In the meantime, I'm still interested enough in them to consider looking into alterntaive options - Maybe a converted gang out of GW bits ? I'd made a stuttering start on a Necromunda gang last year, which could act as a starting point. The other option could be someone like Hasslefree Miniatures, who offer a great range both in terms of minis sculpts and weapons for conversions...

Anyone else looked into the JDMG?  Be good to get your opinion :)

WH40k - Mortifactors - Test Mini!

Brother Carnus of the Mortifactors 5th Company stalks his prey...

It's been an age since we had any Mortifactors action on HBID! So let's remedy that with a few pics of Brother Carnus. He's with his battle brothers on the Death World of Miral in the Ultima Segmentum... as they stalk the vanguard of Tyranid Hive Fleet Gorgon...

Aside from his duties of smashing alien skull with high explosive bolter rounds, Brother Carnus has also volunteered his services to act as the test mini for the long overdue Mortifactor mini paint job...

'I don't need jungle camouflage. I am death incarnate. I hide from no one...' 

Using GW paints, the edges of Brother Carnus' armour were picked out with Adeptus Battle Grey and the bolter casing was base coated in Khorne Red with an edge highlight of more Khorne Red blended up with a little white...

The bone armour was given a base coat of Rakarth Flesh, a wash of Seraphim Sepia and a final edge highlight of Ushabti Bone. To represent the Mortifactors chapter badge, I opted for one of the skull transfers from the standard space marine transfer sheet.

Carnus loves his new battle gear and has urged the 'Chapter Master' to pull his finger out and paint up the rest of the boyz...

'Rest easy brother, I shall make haste just as soon as I conclude this game of X-Wing'  ;)