Messages

1

The Shipyard / Re: Working on some Tarakians

« on: April 22, 2016, 02:40:20 am »

Thanks for the kind words, folks.  I think I finished up tonight.    Sprayed the green in the grav gun focus and added some very basic engine glow.  Glue for the hawk widgets is drying and then into the bag for Conclave tomorrow.  Everything came together right in time to go to bed.   

Coming atcha...


Sir Robin impression...


Gotta agree with your sentiment, Landlubber.  Until I started detailing I was worried the entire fleet was destined for the Simple Green jar.  I'm pretty happy with how it turned out in the end.

Ruckdog, I doubt I could explain the basic ink technique any better than Anarchy Models did in two of their videos on Beasts of War for their HS Stencil Wave 2 Kickstarter.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/805848592/hs-stencil-system-wave-2-from-anarchy-models/description

In particular Brian shows how he achieved a very nice transition effect with inks over white paint on some Eldar jet bikes and a Falcon Grav tank.  I wasn't using stencils, nor was I looking for transition effects, but the basics are the same.

http://youtu.be/BrfvNQT5fuQ

http://youtu.be/OQhetREJ2zo

2

The Shipyard / Working on some Tarakians

« on: April 20, 2016, 02:20:15 am »

So after getting schooled by Directorate over and over again while flying my Terrans and Hawker (seriously has to be the worst matchup in the game) I brought out a pair of Tarakian patrol fleets I had in my closet and thought I'd give them a go, and try a new painting method that I hadn't tried out.

Starting in with a black primer followed by a heavy white overbrush.


Went over everything with Vallejo game ink...


Happy with the results everybody it's getting a coating of orange...


Next I'm trying to knock back the bright orange with some browns.  Trying to figure out if I liked Sepia or Brown more...


I decided on brown.  Really they where almost the same color with a little less shine on Vallejo Brown.  Comparison image of the orange ships before and after brown in was applied...


Now I add Copper and wash it with GW's Sepia wash to ribbing areas...


And because I skipped a couple of days in pictures while I detailed I ended up with this...


Added a neon locus effect to the grav guns and added a bit more white to the bridge on the right BB...


Now I just need to add some OSL to the grav guns, locus looks cartoony atm, and throw some engine glow on the backside and I should be gtg.

...And Hawk widgets, so many widgets to add

3

FACO / Re: Upcoming events!

« on: April 04, 2016, 02:05:36 am »

Signed up for CoG and put Halo (not bringing anything, I've never played but I'd like to check it out) and FSA on my sked. Chris, the guy who keeps bringing those damn Dindrezi should be coming as well.  We're still trying to talk our Solyrian/Relthoza buddy into coming.

I'll be bringing along my game mat and terrain that I brought to Genghis Con as well.  Hopefully I'll have a bunch of asteroids done by then, too.  I was jealous of other other Chris' rocks last time.

4

FACO / Re: Upcoming events!

« on: April 02, 2016, 07:32:44 pm »

Looks like the combined fleet pdfs have been updated for the 6 major races.  ROTO, defense platforms, system wars and Task force have all been incorporated into their racess pdf.

The link to the Terran pdf is broken atm.  The Spartan forums have been tearing through them looking at compiled changes as well as errors.

http://community.spartangames.co.uk/index.php?/topic/17959-new-combined-pdfs/

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FACO / Re: Upcoming events!

« on: March 30, 2016, 06:24:42 pm »

Thanks for holding another local event, Dale, especially so close to Adepticon.  Two questions...

It's it going two be two lists like at Genghis Con?  I saw that it's using Adepticon's 2016 rules but I can't seem to find them.  Just last year's.

Are Task Force models running FSA rules allowed?  Schedule on the COG site mentioned latest ORBATS are allowed but I think the new ships stats were still considered beta last time I looked.  Then Harpoons...

6

The Shipyard / Re: Aquan idea

« on: February 25, 2016, 10:45:55 pm »

I normally use Vallejo airbrush primer but these came primed from my buddy.  Not sure which kind but it's slightly grainy so I'm thinking probably GW rattle can.  P3 is normally smoother than this.

He didn't bother removing much flash or mold lines so I've been doing some filing and scraping and throwing down a layer of Vallejo white primer over the other one.

Hoping that this is really just a matter of not waiting long enough and not using a gloss coat.  So far none of my Terrans, which I've moved much slower with due to assembly line painting vs one mini at a time, have lost any paint...even the ones that aren't sealed yet.

7

The Shipyard / Aquan idea

« on: February 25, 2016, 05:30:08 am »

A buddy of mine that went half in on the Overseers box is getting out of FSA ( ) so I took his Aquans off his hands.  I was flipping through the Kurak fleet guide and am using the following image for inspiration.



A little time with the airbrush and this is what I came up with.  It's only a first attempt and I don't like the transition from Brown to white to purple. It'll take a little more doing.  I also think I need to work from a darker brown to lighter.





I have some HS Stencils from Anarchy Models and plan on using the Mottled stencil (it's a bendy plastic instead of a stick on type) once everything is good and dried up.



The first attempt did not go well.  After matte vanishing the model and waiting 12 hours laying the stencil against the model simply stripped the paint off.  Into the Simple Green she goes!  I'll have to try gloss then matte coating and wait a full 24 before trying to apply the stencil.

8

FACO / Re: FSA and Planetfall at Genghis-Con 2016

« on: February 19, 2016, 02:47:15 am »

Am I missing something on how to apply the coupon codes from the event?  Trying to pick up the new FS: Task Force Terran/Dindrezi starter box for myself and Chris through the web store and when I apply the code it errors out saying the codes need to be 13 characters when the codes on the certificates are 6 characters.  Do we add the code as a comment on the order and the discount will be applied after checkout or am I just blind to something glaringly obvious?

9

FACO / Re: FSA and Planetfall at Genghis-Con 2016

« on: February 15, 2016, 01:46:19 am »

Wish I could have made it to day 2, but then numbers would have been uneven so I guess it doesn't matter.

I notice the deal that is the Dropzone Commander terrain wins again!  I wish more folks were playing that game as well.  I just bought the starter set and am about 300 in the hole due to the Dropfleet Commander kickstarter.

10

Firestorm Armada / Re: Battle Report: Terrans Vs. Dindrenzi

« on: February 15, 2016, 12:22:22 am »

It seems to me that the popularity of Terrans due to their Battlestar looks, inclusion in Valhalla, and players instant ability to identify with them (being human) leads a lot of folks to play them.  Heck, half the fleets at Genghis Con were Terran.  Add that torps are such a tempting weapon system due to being unaffected by terrain and not suffering from hull point and crew degradation and you have a situation where every experienced Zenian player knows they need to double down on things that negate torps effectiveness (namely escorts, interceptors and stealth systems).

Three of my regular opponents are Dindrenzi, pure RSN, and Directorate and it only took them one or two games against my Terrans and Hawker (and my lovely guaranteed 14 torp AD Makalu cruisers) to realize this and tailor there lists against torps.

To counter the anti-torp counter my Terran lists have taken the focus off of the castled up behind asteroids torp ships and I'm much more likely to bring shunt bombing Missionaries and flanking nuke Destroyers and Marshals (at 1200pts or higher).  I've also begun experimenting with Horizon assault cruisers as nobody expects a Terran list to actually try boarding.  They're not spectacular but they bring 5 AP each and the Aegis accompaniment adds survival if they're driving up the board (at the cost of an extra BL if the enemy blows it up).

Let em spend all those points negating my torpedoes, I want counting on them anyway.

The problem with this in the tourney setting is whether or not your shunting or flanking reserves will even get on the table in 3 or 4 turns as getting beyond that seems unlikely in 2.5 hours.  Also, Prefect Timing or Charter Legacy (if you have access in your fleet build) TACs become a necessity just to get em on the table.  Even with Prefect Timing it's still not a given they'll get on the board before round 4, if you even get that far.

Effective indirect fire that there is no counter to has me seriously looking at Tarakians.

Edit: Also, I am not a huge fan of decimator warheads (due to being very situational) but holy crap they can ruin the chances of escorts providing PD.  Note that the escorts themselves are not capital class and do not take critical effects the Decimator Warheads MAR just says you have to exceed CR...not that a critical hit needs to happen and it effects the WHOLE squadron.  Could be useful in dealing with escort PD.

11

FACO / Re: FSA tournament 2016 after action

« on: February 13, 2016, 11:24:04 pm »

The 2.5 hour timetable per round really was detrimental to my usual max reserves Terran list.  I like bringing Marshals and Artemis in from the flanks to initiate some serious nuclear destruction on turns 3 and 4 and I like to shunt my Missionaries in turn 2 on tier 2 and tier 3 ship's rear fire arc.  Those little guys put out hurt well above their tier but you have got to have them in RB 1 or 2 and you need at least 3 of to be alive to do it.

 In rounds one and two things didn't go according to plan as even the Perfect Timing TAC wasn't getting everybody on the table.  By round three I'd given up on reserves and opted for Drives to Maximum to get the Missionaries where they needed to be and it worked swimmingly.  It also turns out that cruising Artemis aren't that bad even if you're giving up on Hidden Killer's benefits.

I did find the round 1 satellite objective frustrating with objectives only counting at the end of the game.  My slow moving, low activation count fleet (again, due to all dem reserves) had great difficulty getting to or contesting the objectives.  I much prefer the End Phase checking and Battle Log changes from Capture The Station, even if Terran aren't usually too good at that mission.

Round 1 satellites throwing 4 dice was really not  that useful against anything but a tier 3.  It was in interesting mechanic but maybe if they had the Tarakian  push/pull mechanic added it would have been more useful.

Round 2 was, sadly, not that dramatic.  Rick and I only got to finish turn 2 and I was soooo looking forward to taking over his two cruisers that had benefited from me rolling an inordinate amount of Hull Breach crits on his tier 2s.  Those Terran assault cruisers can be pretty surprising to an opponent not expecting boarding actions from da humies.  Pure BL the game would have been a minor victory to Rick at 3 to -3.  I think turn 3 would have seen some impressive BL swings throughout the turn.

Round 3 I found the single objective in the middle of the table to be a wash.  Both sides just had to get as many units as possible within contest range (12" was pretty forgiving) and go to all stop.  By the time you got there you were probably only looking at one more round of play.  So, it was kind of a rush to the center then just a slug fest to see if Matt or I could explode enough ships out of contest range.  Turns out it was just a BL game.

I'm also not sure how well the tertiary objective in turn 3 works in the tourney setting.  Plus one point to the opponent of the first player to shunt a squadron out.  I normally try to begin shunting out squadrons when they reach half hull points to keep from losing the full BL change.  It works in full length games but I didn't expect to see a shunt actually go off in 3 or maybe 4 turns so I didn't bother. 

Critiques aside I had an exceptionally good time.  Thanks for organizing this, Dale.  You put together a fine event.

12

FACO / Re: FSA and Planetfall at Genghis-Con 2016

« on: February 11, 2016, 02:17:06 am »

Finished up the last of the terrain I'm bringing along. I don't have a lot of 3D asteroids (actually, it's a set for Star Wars Armada so it's got some ruined SW ships if that's alright).  Plenty of felt templates for throwing down asteroid tokens and a decent number of gas clouds.

13

FACO / Re: FSA and Planetfall at Genghis-Con 2016

« on: January 29, 2016, 06:40:07 pm »

Myself and Chris from last year will be there to represent the USN.  I can bring a 6x4 and some felt cut outs for terrain and some cruddy planetoids.  May have to put in for leave on Friday as 4pm is a little early to pick up my stuff from home and truck back south to the event.

I'm a little confused by the registration on the site.  It lists three FSA events, both $3.  One is form 1600-1830,  Another is 1830-2100. Another from 2130-2330.  All say $3.  Do we need to register and pay for all three?  Is this intentional?

...got some painting to do. Haven't touched FSA since we started playing Kingdom Death.  And Fallout 4....that happened.

14

The Shipyard / Re: Working on some Terrans

« on: July 30, 2015, 11:26:01 pm »

No large updates of late.  Tonight I've just been blocking in the black bits on several squadrons but after I got tired of it for the night I was looking at the carrier and these bits just screamed out to be made into port and Starboard navigation lights.  It's got me scouring the other large models looking for a place to give them a similar treatment.

15

The Shipyard / Re: Working on some Terrans

« on: July 25, 2015, 02:52:20 am »

Thanks, Ruckdog.  I sent you an invite as Mauser1011.