Experimenting with Clear Resin

Hi folks,

I have been experimenting with wet-effects for a while now,  and I have been particularly fascinated by the clear resin some people have been using to represent clear, deep, water. Every year there seems to be several Golden Daemon entries that include deep pools of water on the bases, with various novel inclusions, such as fish and other beasties. I am planning to use a shallow pool of the stuff on a terrain piece I am working on, but wanted to try it out on something less important first. That in mind, I knocked together another, more simple, terrain piece I am calling "The Spring". This was my first clear resin experience, so if you have any tips at the end please share them! If you haven't used a two-part epoxy resin before, this may help you avoid some pratfalls :-)


Step 1: Preparing the surface

The terrain piece needed a section where the resin could pool and be contained whilst it hardened. I had a few ideas about how I could achieve this, but I settled on a ring of course shell grit. The PVA was poured directly from the bottle in a ring shape and the grit piled over the top and left to harden overnight. It is also possible to tape up deeper wells with masking tape, but you need to remove the tape before the resin completely sets (but after it has stopped flowing).This requires a greater knowledge of the resin hardening time frame than I currently have, but I'm keen to give it a go sometime.

Step 2: Painting the spring

This step isn't really necessary in most cases, water is after all transparent in nature. The base I was using, however, didn't have any detail to see beneath the resin, so I figured some colour would be better than nothing. I used a rough blend from turquoise to black.

Step 3: Buying some resin

There are plenty of different two-part resin products out there that are suitable for this kind of job. In particular, craft stores usually stock the stuff for people who make their own resin jewellery. I picked up two sets of Craft Smart Liquid Gloss for a steal when a local art supply store had them on sale("shop smart... shop... Craft Smart"). Groovy.

Step 4: Mixing the resin

Well, this step is more crucial than I initially realised; it turns out you can avoid a lot of pratfalls by doing this properly. As suggested, the product comes in two parts, the resin (which is the more viscous fluid) and a hardening agent. The two were transferred in equal amounts to a clean disposable container. This needs to be done as accurately as possible, as getting the ratio wrong prevents the resin from setting properly. I used a syringe to do this, which is stupid, because it introduced sooo many bubbles to the fluid mixture. I'll do it differently next time, as minimising the bubbles produced in the mixing stage is vital for the final look of the product.

I stirred it with the provided flat wooden for about three minutes, a little too vigorously, introducing even more bubbles. I would suggest that if you ever are in the same situation you make your stand right here; get rid of the bubbles. This can be done by heating the stirred mixture in a bowl of warm/hot water, sonication, removing individual bubbles with a toothpick or short blasts of a heat gun. Each method has its advantages and disadvantages. Even just letting the mixture stand for a few minutes before pouring gets rid of a lot of bubbles, as they rise to the top over time. If I had realised I had more time I would have used it to get the mixture as clear as possible before proceeding. Avoid getting water (even vapour from your breath) in the resin as it will go cloudy; it is hydrophobic and you get light scattering from the emulsion that forms.

None of the chemicals present are particularly good for you, so I wore safety glasses and gloves. Use nitrile gloves if you can get them.


Step 5: Pouring the resin mixture

I transferred the resin to the terrain piece using a syringe, which was stupid :-) Next time around I will just pour it gently from the mixing cup. The ring of PVA and grit held up pretty well, some resin seeped through but it set quickly. You can use a brush to mop up any stray bits; make sure your workspace is level to save yourself a lot of hassle during this step. I then enclosed the entire project in a box whilst it hardened to prevent dust from ruining the finish.

You can clearly see the worst clusters of bubbles in this shot. I wasn't too concerned, natural springs often have bubbles of gas, but it did get me thinking about how to avoid them in the future. 

Step 6: Everything else...

After the resin had well and truly hardened, about 6 hours, I finished off the piece with some more, dry-looking, grit and flock. There are still a handful of bubbles visible but, for a first pancake, its not that bad, et viola:

With a practice run under my belt I am fairly confident I can tackle my Japanese garden themed terrain project. If you have any experience working with clear two-part resin let me know.

See you across the table,

M4cr0

X-wing: Den of Thieves

Hi folks,

I teamed up with Wade, KuriboGoomba and Sgt Waz to try out another scenario from the X-wing miniatures game expansions; Den of Thieves. This mission comes with the Millenium Falcon so we figured it would showcase the versatility of the ship we all love.

The mission is a fairly simple one in theory. One Rebel ship gets a smuggler token and can be used to capture Imperial containers that are moving from one side of the board to the other. Of the three containers, the Rebels must catch two to be victorious. This requires the smuggler to roll more critical hits than the defender rolls successful evades, which is quite difficult the first time around. Luckily, any critical hits rolled that are evaded accumulate and can be used to make the roll easier in subsequent turns. The Imperial player gets to assign two ships as escorts, which increase the containers movement by 1 for each escort within range 1. Wade and Sgt Waz chose Luke Skywalker in an X-wing (R2-D2), an A-wing and the Millenium Falcon (Squad Leader) flown by Lando Calrission for their fleet. KuriboGoomba and I took a bomber wing: Redline in a TIE Punisher with a Fire Control System, as well as Major Rhymer and a Gamma Squadron Pilot in TIE Bombers as the escorts. Everyone had Extra Munitions, Plasma Torpedoes and Concussion Missiles. The Rebels set up pretty aggressively, with an A-wing surprising us in the backfield with the smuggler token!







Relying on the difficulty of capturing the containers on the first try, Goomba and I raced the TIE's forwards to try and take out a Rebel ship before we had to deal with the A-wing. The alternative; flipping to engage the X-wing, would be disastrous, stressing our ships and leaving the Falcon and X-wing at our backs with the containers moving in the opposite direction towards our enemies! Luke took some early fire from the Punisher's lasers, which afforded it two target locks after the attack. In return, the Millenium Falcon damaged the Gamma Squadron TIE Bomber.

The next turn the A-wing swooped on the nearest container but failed to roll any critical hits at all. The TIE Bomber piloted by Major Rhymer and Redline performed K-turns in preparation for engaging the nimble smuggler and Luke. The Gamma Squadron TIE peeled off the formation and took on the Falcon, dealing some heavy damage with a plasma torpedo before succumbing to the bigger ship's turret and a critical hit (Direct Hit!).







During thee next turn the Falcon and the X-wing both swooped towards the center of the board to support the A-wing. Captain Rhymer got a shot off, stripping the A-wing of its shields, whilst Redline blew Luke Skywalker apart with a Concussion Missile. The return fire from the Rebels was all successfully evaded by the Imperial Ships and the A-wing, with no accumulated critical hits, failed to capture a container.







The A-wing then delicately threaded the needle between Falcon and Punisher and boosted out of Redline's firing arc, trying to steal a container on the way! Captain Rhymer put the fear of death into the plucky little pilot with a Concussion Missile but couldn't take the little ship down. Redline opened fire on the Falcon causing significant damage, evading all of the return fire.







The next turn the Rebels gave the smuggler token to the Millenium Falcon (finally, the galaxy can start spinning again!) and tried to capture a container but only succeeded in adding to the critical hit pool. The TIE bomber swooped around to try and engage but failed to score any hits, whilst the Punisher made a wider turn with the aim of firing some shots in the last turn along the board edge and escorting one container off the board early. The other two containers were getting close to the board edge now, one lagging behind the other, and the Rebels were sweating!

During the next turn the Rebel players had a long and critical discussion about what they had to do to win the game. It was very interesting to listen to the whole thought process, which culminated in the development of a secret plan. Step one of their plan required the Millenium Falcon to successfully capture a container immediately, which it did...

Step two of their plan was to cheat! Bwah ha ha ha ha ha!! If we hadn't overheard the whole thing in detail we may have come to blows over the shenanigans ;-) My gaming mat overhangs the table by a fair amount, so Sgt Waz propped up the extra couple of inches with his hand, doubling the distance the last container had to move and providing space for maneuvers that should have seen the Rebels leaving the board.

The Falcon had one last chance to capture the final container but their cheating, low-down, no-good, scruffy-looking nerf-herder hearts were crushed as they rolled no critical hits. In vain they rolled another half-dozen times but failed to roll enough critical hits to beat what I had rolled on the defense dice. 

Look at that cheeky  grin; shenanigans indeed!

So, despite the nefarious tactics of scummy Rebels, the brave Imperial Navy had won the day, successfully escorting two out of three containers. This scenario was great fun to play, made even better by the company and our "don't let rules ruin a fun game" attitude. If you would like to give this one a go yourselves, consider house-ruling; give the Falcon a bonus to capture the containers, but the Falcon has to survive the battle to cash in any containers it captures. It seems fitting and the containers were ridiculously hard to get.

See you across the table,

M4cr0

Ravenwing: Ravenmaster Complete

Hi folks,

Last night I put the finishing touches on my first Ravenwing bike, a model that I have affectionately named the Ravenmaster. The ravens don't have any effect on the game, but they reflect some of the artwork in the Dark Angels codex which shows flocks of them sweeping into battle with the Ravenwing Attack Squadrons, particularly this one:

My Ravenwing marines all have beaky helmets (Mk6), because, well... ravens be all beaky. In the old days these helmets were hard to come by and I had to cast a wide net over my gaming friends to catch a squads-worth. These days they are everywhere!

The OSL on the lamp has been through a few different iterations. Originally there was too much bouncing off the boltguns and covering most of the front armour of the bike, which I wasn't a big fan of; this effect is more muted. Again, I was trying to capture the style of the artwork, with its baleful orange glow.

Taking photos of this guy is hard because he is always casting a big shadow over himself with the raven! Ah well. I didn't want to do white feathers at the back, in fact, I'm pretty sure I was the only person who was annoyed with these models when GW released them (4th Ed.?). I have painted them in a blend from Caliban Green to Mephiston Red with lighter highlights, which is consistent with the other feathers that I have painted in the force. this makes them look a little more "Bravest of the Plains People" and less angelic.

I contemplated painting a grid on the bike's auspex, but decided I didn't want to spend that much time on it; I have too many bikes to do. I have, however, added a tiny amount of weathering, carbon scoring on the exhaust, just a hint of mud on the tires and two bullet holes (give me a shout if you find both of them).

Here is a picture taken with the Attack Bike I finished earlier, so that you can see te flocking effect of the ravens. Now that I have added weathering and battle damage to the scheme I will have to work on it a bit more to bring it up to scratch. There's me creating a rod for my own back again :-)

I have one more figure, the Veteran Sergeant, to paint before I start batch painting in earnest. I should have him converted by my next post.

See you across the table,

M4cr0

Tukkayid Campaign: Ghost Bears Part 1

Hi folks,

Battletech Tuesday saw KuriboGoomba take control of his favourite Clan, the Ghost Bears, as they begin their invasion of Tukkayid. He chose a Timberwolf D with twin head-capping PPC's, two forward firing Streak SRM 6's and two rear firing Streak SRM 6's for taking a piece out of any sneak attackers, as well as a Mad Dog (no surprises there...) A. The A variant is capable of dealing 20 damage at range, with its PPC and LB-5X AC, but it really steals the show up close with its six SRM 6 launchers. Switching over to cluster rounds on the autocannon would also provide Goomba with even more chances of hitting critical systems. Both of his Mechwarrior were elite; 1/2 gunnery/piloting.

I teamed up with Heinz for this game, and chose a Crockett (Dragon model), Shadowhawk SHD-5M (Zeus model) and a Hussar (Cicada model). We had a Precenter with gunnery/piloting 2/3 in the Crockett and the other Mechwarriors were both veterans (3/4). We started the game in hidden positions, choosing hexes in the middle of the board to provide the best fields of fire early in the game, whilst keeping cover in reach for when things start to heat up.

The Ghost Bears positioned themselves in the prescribed hex rows (07XX, 08XX or 09XX) and fell into the Comstar trap perfectly. In the hex immediately behind the Mad Dog the Crocket opened up with all weapons, grievously damaging the Clan Mechs rear torso armour.





With the Crockett now locked in a duel with the Mad Dog, the Timberwolf challenged the Shadowhawk and proceeded to pummel it. It was not an even match-up, but Heinz and I were hoping that the Mad Dog would go down hard, leaving a more favourable three-on-one battle that Goomba had no chance of decisively winning. With that in mind the Hussar opened fire on the Mad Dog as well, breaking the dueling rules and opening it up as a second target for both Clan Mechs.





Our plan to eliminate the Mad Dog quickly was a good one, but for the second time in recent memory, the Mad Dog just wouldn't die.

Just. Wouldn't. Die.

The Crockett caused massive amounts of damage but spread it across locations. At some point Heinz made an error and broke a rule of the Shadowhawk's duel with the Timberwolf. Jumping on the opportunity, the Mad Dog got a good shot off at close range and hit with 22 (!) short range missiles. This is what that looks like, and he wasn't even done yet:





The Shadowhawk disappeared in the blizzard of fire, its centre torso utterly cored. The heat produced by all of that weapon fire caused the Mad Dog to shut down, so payback came quickly. The Crockett opened up on the Mad Dog's rear armour again, punching through to the critical locations and causing two head hits. It also sustained heavy damage to a leg, reducing its movement points.





The next turn the Mad Dog's systems came back online and it moved a short distance, shadowed by the Crockett. Both Mechs prepared to unload broadsides at each other, twisting torso to unleash hell at point-blank range.





The Crockett destroyed most of the locations on the Mad Dog in this final salvo, whilst the Timberwolf put some very lucky shots into the Hussar that chewed through it from arm to engine. Dead in one unlucky round. One-on-one, plan in tatters, the Crockett squared off against the essentially undamaged Timberwolf.





The Crockett lasted two turns, but put up a hell of a fight. It scored multiple head hits against the Clan Mech and had an opportunity to cripple it through engine or gyro hits, but my luck had run dry. At the end of the last turn the mauled Crockett failed a piloting skill roll at 3+ on 2d6 and we decided to call it a night.


 


KuriboGoomba is always a challenging opponent in Battletech and he knew how to make the most of the tactical error we made; the Ghost Bears were well deserving of the marginal victory it afforded them. I think they probably picked up a skilled Bondsman as well, that Precenter caused some havoc!

See you across the table,

M4cr0