Clone Wars Update...Droid Factory

The Droid Factories have been working overtime...not content with leaving pre-painted plastic well enough alone, it was upgrade time. I posted the ways of my madness with the pics below...





The Homing Spiders were a squishy mess, so I removed them from thier large bases (I had to do some cutting, they really glue these things well!) and then I replaced the long part of thier soft legs with chopsticks cut to size and repositioned thier joints so they aren't in their original "huddled" pose.


I chopped up some of the Rocket Droids and glued them back together so they looked a little more dynamic then their original standing pose. Then I attached some wire to their backs and tore some cotton balls to make a smoke effect for their jump packs. I used orange and black inks for the color.


Being soft, the Snipers guns were bent in all directions, so I added some wire and putty and a paint touchup so the barrels look more straight now.


Here is a fresh group of B1 Battledroids, I painted some minwax polyshades on them to make them look more realistic but they were still sticky a few days later. I gave them a coat of gloss sealer, and then a coat of dullcoat and now they aren't sticky.


Rather than just inkwash the silver B2's, I mixed some Ultramarine and some Boltgun Metal and made them metallic Blue. The B2's were silver at Geonosis but then went a blue color so I thought these would look cool.


Finally, here are some IG-88 Assasin droids. I liked the pose they had, so I just altered two of them to make them look a little less uniform.


May the Droids be with you!

15mm F.R.O.G. Force

My first jump into 15mm! Get it? Jump? OK...I painted up those Critter Commandos 15mm Frogs and added some Grav vehicles made by Combat Wombat. The big mechs are from a toy range called M.A.R.S. that I grabbed at Menards for dirt cheap during an after Christmas sale in 2006. I repainted and based them and they kinda had that frog look to me. Now I'll have to paint up the Ratzis so they can fight it out...

Combat Storm Memorial Day Battle

Time to move the action outside! I've posted a map of the Tan city of Danturia on the Combat Storm Yahoo group hoping that the other members take a section of city to fight over so we can tally up the results. Not exactly a summer Games Workshop event, but I do what I can. So today The United Green sent a force to attack the city from the Northeast with the goal being the manufacturing section of the city which will be fought at a later date. The soldiers of Tanada weren't going to make it easy, and were ready with an outpost that the Green needed to hit before attacking the Northeast Base and then hopefully on to the factories. Here are some pics of the fighting...it was a Green victory (but we'll need some reinforcements for the next battle!)

Survived Another Pokemon Club...

Took the kids to the Kenosha Southwest Library for Pokemon Club, an hour of swapping cards, playing Pokemon games on the WII, and playing the card game (so I've heard...no one seems to actually play it there...) This is our second time at the Club, I got a bunch of doubles on eBay so we can trade with the other kids. Unfortunately, I was told at the end of club that next time I can't trade with the other kids anymore (I guess because the club is for K - 5th graders, and here I thought all the other parents were just sitting in the corners 'cause they were lazy or something...) so my girls are going to have to do all the work next time. The next Pokemon Club is at the SW Library on June 1st. Maybe I'll start my own club where parents bring thier kids' toys late at night and we swap all that stuff...

Yeah, it's as loud as it looks!

Have You Checked out Rockheads Lately?

I wasn't able to fight a game on Friday, so I thought I'd do a post about Rockheads here in Kenosha, WI. There has been some changes since Allen took over. All those old toys and clutter are gone, and the shop seems more focused on catering to the serious gamer or comic collector. Here are some pics I took one night, if you haven't stopped in for awhile come on by, and if you can make it in on a Friday night let me know so you can try out Combat Storm or get some action in my Clone Wars campaign. I often wrap the night up with a fun game of Toy Mallet too....

The middle of the store has a long row of tables to play on, here you see ToyMallet, Confrontation and Warhammer 40k games being played. There is also a large sellection of terrain handy so all you have to do is bring your army to the table.

Behind some people playing Magic (I know! I didn't realize folks still play that!) you can see a large selection of board games by Fantasy Flight and everyone in between, and racks with RPG modules and supplements.

Here is a wall dedicated to Warhammer, WH40K, Reaper Dark Heaven & Warlord, plus there is a great selection of minis from Future Wars, Anima Tactics, Impact Miniatures, Wargods of Aegyptus, etc. They also have tons of Games Workshop paints and inks, all the Reaper Master Series Triads you could want, plenty of brushes and tools, and a supply of ProCreate putty.

On the sides of a cabinet that features nicely painted miniatures and superhero statues are racks and stacks of new RPG releases, Confrontation, AT-43 and Warzone Pre-Paints, boxes and boosters of Star Wars Miniatures and Monsterpocalypse, LOTR box sets, all kinds of cool stuff.
OH YEAH!! I almost forgot....Near the back they have a whole bunch of racks of current and recent comic books from pretty much every publisher, plus a whole bunch of back issues. A comic guy is going to have to review all that, I'm not into comics anymore, my knowledge of Marvel history ends around the Acts of Vengeance crossovers back in 91 I think. So my warm fuzzy memories aren't tainted with all this dead one day, back next year stuff, Civil War stuff and all that...(but I thought the Marvel Zombies was cool as heck!)

Toymallet 40 Cents: Gators vs. Pachydon

After the Clone Wars fight newcomer Roy and I fought a Toymallet 40 Cents game using Blasted Planets minis made by Historifigs. I took command of the Pachydon which consisted of two squads and the Robo Elephant Walker of Big Stompy Doon (tm) and Roy used two squads of Gator Guys and 2 Gator Tanks. I made a rule mod of giving armor points to the vehicles so they wouldn't bite it with one hit. Both sides were given the missile launcher trait for thier uh, missile launchers...

Ah! The two sides meet in the swamps of Gatoraidia...Fearing a pre-emptive strike by the ravaging Gators, the Pachydon must strike now to prevent an invasion of Elephantitia!

Roy sends his Gator Guys and Gator Tanks forward to engage the biggest threat. This works in my favor because my Pachydon begin a crossfire and better position them...

Concentrating the Gator Tanks and a squad equipped with missile launcher troops, the Elephant Walker erupts in flames..WAAAAAAAAA!!!!

Knowing that there is a Gator tank with thier name on it, the Pachydon rush to find cover amongst the ruins.



The Pachydon take cover in some ruins and manage to wipe out the last Gator tank with a missile laucher! Pachydon Victory!

Combat Storm: Clone Wars Second Battle of Yavin 4

Ahh..Friday night at Rockheads...smells like a Clone Wars battle! Once again I took command of the CIS forces who were looking for revenge after losing last week's fight, Nick commanded the Clone army again confident in his force-dice powers...This weeks forces were similar to the last battle as I was tweaking the points for my Clone Wars mod of the Combat Storm rules. I think I've got the troop types in this battles' costs about right, now I can work on other troop types for future battles.

Republic forces and the CIS Army prepare to engage in combat through the once quiet forests of Yavin 4...

A squad of Clones and two Heavy Troopers advance in the ruins of Yavin 4 supported by AT-RT's...

Droid Tanks manage to take out a Flash Speeder that has been damaging thier armor.

CIS troops rush for cover under the punishment of the AT-RT and Speeders' bombardment

With the AT-RT's dishing out major punishment, the Droid Tanks rush to attack the Clone flank.

A squad of Clones rally to beat back the tide of Battledroids.

The Clones beat the B1's in close combat but the Crab Droid finishes off the Last Speeder and with the Clones unable to take it out, they retreat CIS Victory!