Every Quar needs a home

So my 2nd side project is the Quar and in between painting Star wars stuff they were in need of a little attention. I had been looking for a suitable house for my Quar to fight over. It had to be quirky enough yet still practical. I didn't want to just re-use buildings in my collection, though the fencing and fields will see some use. Luckily at the Border Reiver show I managed to pick up a couple of buildings from Sarissa Precision, from their Burrows and Badgers range. These looked like they would fit the bill. So the first one is built and painted up.

I'm quite happy with how it turned out and so spent some time today building and undercoating the second house. Once done it will be time to give the Quar another run out on the table top.

Imperial Technicians and game prep

So a little more work done as I get prepared for a small game on Thursday using the Galactic Heroes rules from Wiley games. These are models are my proxies to represent Imperial technicians. They are always in the films  scanning the millennium falcon or in the background. So create them I used a sprue of Cannon fodder from Wargames Atlantic for the bodies and heads. The arms are from various Stargrave sprues along with and additional equipment. I gave them all side arms as that is how they are depicted.

They are a simple light grey uniform with black boots and caps. The caps are not quite tight but close enough for me. The team could do with 1 or 2 maintenance droids to complete them.

Next up for the game on Thursday I was preparing some QRS for the players as well as a sheet with their team details. So far we have 1 team of Bounty hunters and 2 teams of Rebels. I'll be controlling the Corporate Security extras. I even did some photos of the teams, to help with identification and for character progression in future games. I even went with a different effect to look like wanted posters. The captains name's are based off the players own name.

D"Vas M'son and rebel cell

Bounty hunter Se'an M'voy and miscreants

Rebel Jon Oberte and crew

So I think I have everything ready for the game. Mitch is loaning me some of his terrain pieces as my own collection is not large enough yet.

More Corporate Security

So with a few days off work I put together another security trooper team. These are just straight out of the box. Once again keeping to a simple colour scheme to match in with the other 5. This will give me 2 x 5 man squads for Galactic heroes.

The full team

I can see these guys getting plenty of use in some small skirmish games before the need to use any Imperial troops, I also re-based a few more figures. The 2 droids are from Northstar, the 2 proxy Mandalorians are from Die hard miniatures. Very tempted to put together a full team of Mandalorians.

So what's next? with a game coming up on Thursday which has expnded from a 2 player game to a large multi-player game, I've got 4 more of my old Stragrave figures being re-based. I also have a couple more rebels to paint up along with a couple more droids.

A Galaxy far, far away

Every now and then I like to run a small side project alongside my main. I find these little distractions are great to act as a sort of breather and allows a change of focus. So this is just such a one. I always enjoy a bit of sci-fi gaming, especially Star wars. I do have plenty of the Star Wars legion figures, but these are more appropriate for larger battles. I am wanting to run a few smaller games around a Rebel cell during the early parts of the rebellion. It will be based around small raids, stealing cargo etc. At least I will be able to use the storm troopers if needed.

The first batch of figures are simply some Stargrave figures, re-based on the legion style bases. They will be a decent start for a rebel cell.

The next batch of figures are some beasties that I picked up off EBay. They are Nexus, from the Imperial Assault game. They were pretty easy to paint up. I can envisage using these in scenarios involving transporting  them or as enemies in some ambush on the party.

The last batch of figures completed are some Corporation security guards. They are based on the Stargrave troopers, taking inspiration from the guards in the series Andor. I've got another 5 of these undercoated.

So what next, I've got a couple of cargo transports on order from Oshiromodels. I've also picked up some extra stargrave sprues of Scavengers to use as rogues or bounty hunters. There is also a sprue of Cannon fodder from Wargames atlantic. I can see these making suitable ground crew and workers in a cargo hold.

Border Reiver and the game

So finally the Border Reiver show arrived. It was an early start to get to the club and pack up everything we needed for the game. Double checked we had everything, even took along some glue, just in case of any emergency repairs that may need to be undertaken on arrival. When we checked in we had a good location on the left near Colonel Bills and Galloping Major. The table was quickly set up then realised a road and junction were in the wrong place and needed moving further to the right. With most of the club members arriving on time we were all set with 10 minutes to spare before the doors opened to the public.

All ready to go

Our only real issue was our table that was provided was 6ft wide, I had only planned for 5ft, but we managed. It did give an added bonus with plenty of room to deploy the troops, especially on the Parlaimentarian side.

Once the doors opened I found myself in the role of spokesperson so I kind of lost track of the game and probably didn't take anywhere near enough photos. Thankfully we had plenty of visitors to the table and many conversations about the battle, the figures, asking to take photos of the game  and discussions around the rules. I hope I didn't miss any visitors to the table, but I know my throat is rather sore from all the chatting. Below are the few photos I did manage.

All in a very good day. From what I can recall of the actual game. Cromwell fell at the hand of Prince Rupert, who despite the disparity in numbers was giving the Roundhead and Scottish left flank a bit of a going over. Over on the other flank Goring and Fairfax had pretty much fought each other to a standstill. The infantry in the centre were getting heavily involved in a musketry with duel with honours about even. So we called the game to a draw.

I'd like to thank Mitch, Neil G, Neil B, Sean, Thom and Robbo for helping to run the game. Would have been a nightmare without them. Was it worth it? in the end yes as it was great to see a year's work come to fruition. Now to rest up for a couple of weeks while we make plans for next year's game, someone else ca take the lead on that one. 

More prep and other things

As the Marston Moor game draws closer as I started thinking about a couple of fields around the 2 villages to try and break up the table a little. Previously I've just used some shaped pieces of felt of various colours which have worked fine. So as a trial I took a couple of the spare pieces I had, a dark brown and lime green to try and 'jazz' them up. I first tried to added watered down paint in various shades of either green or brown but was not really happy with the outcome. I then remembered some old mixed flock I had and decided to give each field a very rough coat of PVA glue then covered in flock. I wasn't too bothered if some areas were missed. Once the excess was shaken off i then added some static grass around the edges with a few tufts scattered across the fields. The results are in. Not 100% sure of them, but better than just plain sheets of felt.

Think I prefer the one on the dark brown base.  Not sure if I will have time to get the other pieces done as they are at the club. While these were drying I finished off the last 4 pieces of hedge that I think I need. Done pretty much the same as the last batch.

The other bits I completed were the 20 dismounted dragoons for Simon and a 10mm Battlescale church which will come in handy for ACW/AWI games in the future.

Now just got a couple of civilians to finish before Saturday and the frame guns for Simon.