On The Painting Desk - Under the Martian Yoke Baddies

 

I have been working on various projects to help support the releases of my own games on the Wargame Vault.  Today, I am focusing on creating adversaries for my game Under the Martian Yoke.  It is a survival horror game set after the Martian Invasion of the Orson Wells' broadcast.  The game is designed to be a solo/co-op/versus experience as the survivor's of the Martian attack struggle to escape Martian territory and to freedom.  

The game has a number of adversaries that survivor's may encounter.  The biggest and most dangerous are the Martian Tripods of various types.  Thankfully, I have a variety of Tripod models from the now defunct All Quiet on the Martian Front.  However, there are a variety of other tripod models available on the market as well.  

In addition to the the Martian Tripods, there are smaller foes as well.  That includes various drones, animated human corpses, modified animals, and even wild, feral dogs to face off against.  I have a few drones from Alien Dungeon and plenty of Irish Wolfhounds thanks to my Dark Age Irish army from Wargames Atlantic.   

Martian Tripods and Martian Drones from Alien Dungeon, and Mantic Games Zombie amongst 4ground buildings represent my Martian Foes at the moment.

However, some of the most flavorful foes are the re-animated human corpses combined with Martian technology to turn cadavers into puppets of the Martian war machine.  The idea that Martians drink the blood and fluids from human captives is horrifying, but the idea that they then recycle these victims into unthinking killing machines is even more monstrous!  In the rules, these take a few different types and forms.  However, I did not have great minis to represent these models.  

I searched around for suitable models to either buy or 3D print for the game.  I found plenty of zombie models, which would be great for Rabids.  However, The other types I was less excited about my options.  I decided the best way forward would be to make my own using Green Stuff and left over bits from my Dark Age Irish.  The bare feet would work great for my purposes.  

There were five main adversaries I wanted to have for the game.  They were the animal-esque Ferals, and the cadaver troops of the Rabids, Butchers, Shockers, and Gunners.  Ferals were based on animals and their bodies the Martians ensnared, found, or captured.  The others were all based on human frames.    

Rabids

These would be the easiest enemy trooper to use.  Rabids are victims of one of the Martians wicked chemical weapons.  It turns them into raging, rabid killing machines in hunt of other human prey.  These creatures remorselessly hunt down other humans to rend them apart in a rage.  These creatures will continue to hunt and chase their prey until they themselves can no longer physically carry-on.  Rabids still lurk about in the wake of the Martian advance.  Pockets of the Rabid producing gas also still lingers and can infect unsuspecting survivors who stumble into it.  

Rabids are the easiest to source for the game.  Any zombie model will do.  For mine, I have a few Mantic Games zombies from The Walking Dead solo-game.  Honestly, any modern, non-fantasy zombie will do the job in this role.  Thankfully, there are tons of great models on the market for your Rabids.  

Unarmed Survivors are forced to deal with a Rabid 

     

Ferals

Martians have an imperfect knowledge of Earth, its flora and fauna.  As a result, they tended to kill and destroy anything that came across their path.  This included livestock, wild animals, and domesticated animals like dogs.  Now, the Martians know that their primary prey is humans.  However, they still made use of these animal victims of their invasion.  Martian science re-animated these unfortunate creatures and sent them to hunt down humans, fueled by pain induced rage. 

For the Ferals, I was able to find Cyber-mastiffs and similar creatures in various lines.  I was also able to find plastic barnyard animals and dogs as well to serve as a base for conversions.  To start with, I took two Irish wolfhounds from my Wargame Atlantic Dark Age Irish.  I then applied Green Stuff to make them into the bio-organic, techno-zombie monsters.  

Work-in-Progress Ferals

Butchers

A Butcher is the slang name given by survivors to these mindless and unliving cadaver corpses of the Martian invaders.  They are human bodies, revived with Martian technology into a violent unlife.  Their limbs have been modified with sharp blades, heavy axes, and sharp barbs.  Their heads encased in Martian detection and control gear, and their nervous system replaced with bio-electrical impulse drivers.  

For the models, I used left-over Dark Age Irish from Wargames Atlantic.  Their bare feet, bare arms, and modest clothing provides a great base.  Martians care little about human clothing, so having such modest clothes makes sense.  I also had a 3D printed Thrall for a vampire Blood Bowl team that was damaged while cutting him out of supports to use as a base as well.  

From the bases, I used Green Stuff to turn them into the monsterous, unhuman Butchers.  They had single-eye Martian detection gear and controllers fitted to their heads.  I also replaced their limbs with weapons such as axe blades, swords, and even a Martian style Reaper- tentacle.  

WIP Martian Butchers

Shockers

In addition to Butchers, the Martians also created the Shocker.  Shockers have been fitted with an electrical arc to their hands, powered by a Martian battery implanted in their back.  This sheathes the Shocker in an arc of deadly electricity.  It is incredibly damaging on the organic material of the cadaver, but is a deadly and powerful weapon against any human survivor.  Electrical power arcs, sparks, and pops between the prongs of a Shockers pronged gloves, arcing off any nearby electrical conductor.  

Again, I used Wargames Atlantic Dark Age Irish as a base, and applied Green Stuff as needed.  The core idea was to add Martian detection and control gear to their head, and the deadly Arc gauntlets to their fists.  It was challenging connecting the gauntlets to a back mounted battery via green stuff cables.  

Work-in-Progress Shockers

Gunners

The final Martian cadaver soldiers are the Gunners.  Like all of these "undead" techno-Martian atrocities they are revived human corpses sent to kill their former human comrades.  They have been fitted with Martian detection and control gear, and are driven by brute application of electrical impulses to the nervous system.  Instead of simple blades or electrical arcs, the Gunner has been equipped with a low-power Martian Heat Ray that can be used to attack targets at range.  For re-animated corpses, they are surprisingly accurate and can force human survivors to keep their heads down.  

Again, the main components are Wargame Atlantic Dark Age Irish models models fused with Green Stuff parts to create the Gunners.  One of their forearms is fitted with a squared off, bulky, heat ray attachment that mirror the ones used by tripods.  They also have detection and control gear headware added.  

WIP Gunners to hunt down human survivors

Final Thoughts on Martian Terror Troops

These round-out my Martian Foes for the game.  They took me a few hours to assemble and sculpt using simple Green Stuff techniques.  They give me a wide variety of Martian Foes for my survivors to encounter during my games.  Add this to my collection of Tripods, Drones, and Feral dogs and I should have more than enough "monsters" for most game sizes.  Next up, I will paint-up my new cadaver troops and show my progress.    

If you have suggestions for other miniature lines I could use for these troops types, let me know in comments.  You can find Under the Martian Yoke and try the rules out for yourself at the Blood and Spectacles Wargame Vault Page.

I look forward to sharing these guys fully-painted up soon.  I think my messy, imprecise, and dirty painting style will do them justice! 

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On The Painting Desk: "It's (Not) a GUNDAM!" - Space Mecha

 On my, "Purchase" goals was some mecha from Dream Pod 9's range.  They were upsized mecha from the Jovian Chronicles universe to be used with their With the Lightnings rules.  I had built my own Space Mecha game called; Glittering Void that I wanted to use them with these rules.  

However, instead I found a set of ugly "Not-Gundam" plastic robots on Amazon.  I got 144 for about $14 USD.  These were only 10 cents a model as opposed to $10 a model.  I had plenty of them to chop up and they were cheap, so I had no regrets deciding to cut them into pieces and to start making space mecha out of them.  This would not be my first time using toys in my wargames.    

  This is what I started with.  Each one is about the size of a 28mm model but is made of hard plastic like a Green Army Man.  Still you can cut them with a knife or plastic cutter easily enough, and trim them with an exacto blade. You can see on the side how they can be cut up at the joints pretty easily.  

Looking at my previous battle reports, it was clear I needed some suits for the Earth Alliance and the New Olympians.  After I had those done, I could think about other factions.  I wanted a good selection of weaponry and suits for both sides of the battle.  Later, I could also make some Defense satellites, Fighters, and other craft from Sculpey as well.  I have some experience with scuplting Aeronautica Imperialis aircraft, so that seemed like an easy addition for later. 

I chose the top two designs to be the bulk of my troops.  The "Not Gundam" would be the Earth Alliance Hoplite suits while the "Not Gelgoog" in red next to it would be the bulk of the New Olympian forces.  I also decided to use the "Not Gyan" suit in the lower left corner in blue to be the basis for the Earth Alliance other suit types.  These Earth Alliance suits were intended to be more advanced than the front line Hoplite suits.  

The first thing I did, was cut the models up into various pieces so I could reposition them into more dynamic poses.  These guys would eventually go onto flying stands, so some more "flight" oriented positions seemed like a good way to go.  I was able to clip them behind the knees to bend and reposition their legs, cut them at the shoulder joints to reposition the arms, and do other various cuts and chops to put them in better positions.  I then used Green Stuff from Gale Force 9 to "tack" into place.  

After that, I had to think about weapons load outs.  The Earth Alliance used MAS Rifles which are essentially mass driver cannons, or "space age" slug throwers.  For those I dug in my bitz box and found some old first edition Warhammer 40K bolt guns.  I glued those straight on as the Earth Alliance used rifle type weaponry.  For the New Olympians I had some Eldar Guardian plastic weapons from the original metal/plastic Rogue Trader Guardian box.  I decided to actually mount these into the wrists of the New Olympians to represent their Beam Rifles.  These were suppose to be more hi-tech looking than a MAS Rifle. 

I also had some specialty weapons I wanted to add.  New Olympians had Heavy Beam Rifles that I used Eldar Melta-Guns for and mounted in the wrists as well.  The Earth Alliance had a Rocket Tube, which I used a Ork Plasma Gun for.  I also had an Earth Alliance Spartan mecha with a Combat Shield and Laser Axe, I decided to use a High Elf shield and a Ork Chainsword from 1st edition as well.  Lastly, I wanted some Swarm Missiles/Missile Pods which I just made out of Green Stuff.  

Finally, I wanted the Earth Alliance command suit to look similar but different to the Hoplite suits.  Therefore, I merged the Spartan style body of the "Not Gyan" with the arms of the "Not Gundam".  These gave them a distinct and more advanced looked, without disconnecting them from the Hoplite frontline suits.  

When all was said and done, I had two distinct forces of suits.  I had 9 for the Earth Alliance and 8 for the New Olympians.  This is what they looked like when I was done modelling.   

New Olympians: 

Earth Alliance: 

Combined: 

I now had all the suits I needed modeled up.  The next step was going to paint them all up.  I am interested to see how these paint up as they are not made of the normal plastic that I typically paint.  I also forgot to give them a wash of warm water before I started working on them, and now I have a feeling it is too late.  The wash is suppose to make it easier for paint to stick to the minis, as they maybe covered with industrial solvents and chemicals that impede painting.  What a comforting thought after I have handled them!   

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Wargaming on a Budget- Making Models

Several years ago, I found myself in a terrible place as a wargamer.  I was flat broke.  I was putting my money into other endeavors, so my budget for wargames was non-existant.  However, as I look back on this period of my hobby life being flat broke was a blessing!

What?  Yes, you read that right.  Being broke forced me to think about my hobby and what I really was trying to get out of it.  To participate in it, I could no longer just mindlessly buy games, supplements, and models.  There was no way for me to keep up with newer editions or rules changes.  Instead, I had to get my gaming fix through other channels and only buy what was absolutely necessary.

This is what led me into my first forays into Wargame Design.  I figured instead of trying to keep up with what was new, I would just try to make and play games that I wanted to play.  As I thought about the core things I needed to play a wargame, I broke it down into three main aspects:

1. Wargame Rules
2. Terrain and game Boards
3. Models and figures

For Wargame rules, you can find out how I got my start on a different post.  I have talked about it elsewhere, so will not get to far into it today.  I will also save Terrain and Game Boards for a different discussion as well.  Afterall, this post is about making models!

My initial forays into model making were scatchbuilds.  These typically were free form, stand-alone models.  Usually, I tried to make vehicles first.  The most common construction material was common cardboard with masking tape used to block out the edges.  For smaller details I would use cardstock paper.  However, other found items were also used, typically straws, toothpicks, sprue cuttings, and any other tidbits I could find around for free.

From there I naturally moved to working with paper. This is still a standard practice for me, especially when playtesting or trying out new games.  There is no need to go "all in" on a game that I don't even like.  Plus, it allows me to get to the playtesting quickly and try all sorts of different units out cheaply and with minimal fuss.  There were two main ways I used paper, the first was for simple cut-out 2-D templates.  I talk about that extensively in a different post.

However, I had a lot more fun creating, designing and building paper templates for existing and new 3D vehicle varients.  Typically, I would make the template design in MSPaint, trial it, and then make tweaks.  I made a variety of armored cars, tanks, tankettes, APCs, and even a super-heavy using this method.  I constructed two full tank companies.  I think you can still find most of my templates here.

This solutions worked well, but soon I wanted to do even more.  I wanted to make my own models and that meant taking the time to learn to sculpt.  Thanks to the internet, this is easier to learn now than ever with plenty of tutorials, video demos, and pointers.  You can find all sorts of advise on tools, materials, and anatomy.  However, I still wish I had a in-person meentor to help as that would have increased my skill exponentially and faster.

I invested in a set of dental tools, a set of clay erasers, some large corks, and a good exacto knife.  All of these ran me less than a cost of a boxed set of minis.  Then, I began using simple, everyday Sculpey and Super Sculpey.  I didn;t spend a ton of money on Greenstuff, Pro-create, or other materials.  I used Sculpey that you baked in layers in a toaster oven (or kitchen oven).

I have not really looked back.  From there I have made Blood Bowl players, squadrons of Aeronautica Imperialis planes, warships for Aquanautica Imperialis, individual models for various skirmish games, Battlefleet Gothic spaceships, and more.  Making models has become an enjoyable hobby in its own right and gave me the skills and confidence I needed to do what ever I wanted with my wargaming hobby.

Now, I find myself with a different problem.  I have some money, but no time.  I will let you know when I figure out how to solve that problem.

From here, I will just fill in the rest of the blog post with some random pictures of stuff I have sculpted/built.  If there is anything else you would like to see or learn more about just let me know.