When Imagination Fails

On the painting table

I finished a set of Cold War-era NATO microarmor for a game, and started work on a group of Minbari star ships.  With the base done on the Minbari ships, I took a break and started to build two Shadow Omegas.  Unfortunately, the Shadow Omegas are difficult to put together with pieces breaking off easily because there are no mount points for the spines.

Narn completed

I finished gluing together three of the painted Narn ships I had. 1 remaining G'Quan was partially primed.  My next ACTA game will probably be a meeting engagement of a the Bin'Tak and 2 G'Quan against 2 Brakiri Avioki and 1 or 2 Earth ships.

Progress on some of my Narn ships

Finished drilling the mount holes on some already painted Narns that I bought from hiffano months ago. 1 Bin'Tak and 3 G'Quans. I hope to use them in an upcoming game with my Brakiri.

Started work on Brakiri ships

I started work on the Brakiri ships.  Base is done for all three of them.  Just need to do a bit of detailing.  Then I have to finish up some painted Narn G'Quans I picked up a while ago.

What is it about miniature game designers and poor graphic design

I just picked up a copy GHQ's post-WWII rules.  What is it about miniature game designers and poor graphic design?

Is is really so hard to make your section headings in a larger font size than the body text?  I know the headings are bolded, but that just isn't enough.  And why don't they use a San-serif font (i.e. like Helvetica or Arial) for the section headings and a Serif font for body text?  Why is the font so tiny and cramped?  Hasn't anyone ever heard of white space?

It is not just GHQ's rules.  Crossfire, which I like and think is incredibly imaginative approach to company and battalion scale games, does the same thing, as do others.

I know WRG used a similar style, but it is 20 years later and page layout has improved noticeably.  Actually, my 25 year old WRG moderns rules were laid out better. 

Come on game designers, lay out the rules so we can read them easily and find what we need!

Picture of the PsiCorp Shadow Hunters I finished recently

I finished two PsiCorp Shadow Hunters this week and posted a picture of the two of them at Flickr:

I pretty much used the same technique as I have with other Shadow-like ships:

1. Spray prime with black;
2. Paint with several coats of Floquil NATO Black;
3. Apply a wash of silver multiple times.

I cannot list the paint/water ratio I used, since I adjusted it to be more silver between each coat.  I think I applied at least four coats.  I am more satisfied with this result than what I achieved with the other Shadow ships since the silver is more noticeable.  I photographed it under florescent lights so the lighting conditions aren't the best.

Posted Pics of PsiCorp vs EA/ISA Game

I posted pictures of the PsiCorp vs EA/ISA Game we played today.  Start at the picture linked here and click the right most thumbnail picture in the "whenimaginationfails' photostream" set of pictures on the right. Keep clicking the right most thumbnail picture to cycle through the game. 

Suffice it to say that my EA / ISA forces got their clocks cleaned with the all three Earth ships either exploding or being reduced to no hull and crew.  After the Omega died in turn 4, the White Star opened a jump point in turn 5 and performed an All power to engines special action to get out and tell others what had happened.   I'll post a more detailed turn by turn account when I can.

Resolutions and all

My list of miniatures that I have primed or prepped, but have not completed, is truly too high.  Of course, so is my list of unprimed & unprepped miniatures.  Sigh. 

I won't be prepping or priming any more until I get through a good chunk of my list of unfinished miniatures.  This will be tough.  Good thing winter is coming up.

Photos from Torvalus vs Shadows Game

I put up the two most interesting photos from my Torvalus vs Shadows game.

Torvalus had bet on the development of the younger species at GLrdBffVb.  When the Shadows started to interfere in the GLrdBffVbians development and affect the Torvalus' bets, the Torvalus sent their Dark Knives to enforce a blockade of GLrdBffVb.

The Shadows decided to force the issue and run the Torvalus blockade.

In the picture below, after the initial clash, the Dark Knife in the lower left used its super maneuverability to retreat and get a side shot on the ancient Shadow cruiser while the others moved to engage the other ship.

The view from the other ship:

We had to cut the game short and so we never found out who would win.  Unfortunately, I couldn't find my normal camera and had to rely on my cell phone camera instead.

Fall priming done

We had a brief bit of warm weather, and with trimming and cleaning done, I set about priming the latest set of miniatures on which I plan to work.  Of course my list of primed, but not completed, miniatures is far too high.  Still, I finished priming a bunch of miniatures, including:

• 1 Minbari Sharlin
• 2 Brakiri cruisers
• 4 Brakiri Halik frigates
• 2 Shadow Hunters
• 2 Shadow Omegas
• 1 Shadow scout
• 1 Shadow cruiser
• 8 stands of Shadow fighters
• 8 stands of Vorlon fighters
• 8 stands of Minbari Nial fighters
• 10 stands of Narn Frazi fighters
• a whole bunch of Mauridian & Deisho from Ravenstar's Cold Navy line.

This is most of what I hoped to do last month, but the Shadow scouts are a pain to glue together, though they look fantastic, so I only worked on one.

I had hoped to make the Shadow Omegas' center section actually rotate, ala this post, and went so far as to buy the required brass rod and tube.  However, I decided that drilling out the center section would prove to be too large an effort.

I have a game coming up, so I am finishing up the Shadow Hunters.  I'll post pictures of the last two games next week I hope.