Author Topic: Space Mecha!  (Read 5981 times)

Easy E

  • Lieutenant Commander
  • ***
  • Posts: 444
  • Number of Times Thanked: 112
    • View Profile
Re: Space Mecha!
« Reply #15 on: May 07, 2021, 11:06:48 am »
I have a ton of Litko flying bases that I have used for various projects in the past.  They use a "connecting ring" that you can attach to the model and then insert the peg into the ring. 



However, I am having a hard time finding a surface to connect the ring to!  I don't really want to go with drilling into the model, but it is looking more likely the more I try to figure it out. 

Support Blood and Spectacles Publishing:
https://www.patreon.com/Bloodandspectaclespublishing

Kelly

  • Lieutenant Commander
  • ***
  • Posts: 257
  • Number of Times Thanked: 56
    • View Profile
Re: Space Mecha!
« Reply #16 on: May 07, 2021, 06:56:10 pm »
Apart from acrylic flying stands the only other option that I've seen that might work would be using fine gauge wire, or floral wire painted black.  You would still need to drill in, but it would be a much smaller diameter going into the model.
If my wife asks, I only spent half as much as I wanted to...

Easy E

  • Lieutenant Commander
  • ***
  • Posts: 444
  • Number of Times Thanked: 112
    • View Profile
Re: Space Mecha!
« Reply #17 on: May 10, 2021, 10:52:18 am »
Good info everyone.  I will have to play around and see what I can find.  I want to be able to "rotate" the model and differentiate between facings as that is a key part of the game I am developing for these.

What's that?  You want to see what this game may look like in game play?  Okay!  Here is an early play test before I had any models. 



One of the great things about being a game designer, is that you are always playing around with new rules, games, and ideas.  You are tweaking, drafting, and testing out different genres and themes.  Today is an example of a game in development called: Glittering Void.  I had spent way too much time watching space based Mecha anime and decided to try my hand at making my own tabletop version of the game.  I had long been thinking about how (and if) you should incorporate "Height Bands" into a space game.  After watching a lot of anime space-Mecha battles I decided that you should, since Mechs were always getting wasted by Mechs coming from strange directions.  height bands could help simulate this process. 

Those of you who play a lot of games will see heavy influences from Aeronautica Imperialis, X-wing, Battlestar Galactica, Jovian Chronicles, With the Lightnings, and more.   

The trading contract for the Freehold of New Arcadia will expire and come up for re-negotiation in the next rotations.  Traditionally, these contracts have been held by corporate interests aligned with the New Olympians, and New Arcadia was considered within the New Olympians sphere of interests.  However, the free hold is located in the Asteroid Belt, which the Earth Alliance views at its territory.   

With the contract set to expire, elements of the Earth Alliance have begun aggressively courting New Arcadia.  They have offered lucrative incentives, and coupled them with veiled threats.  In fact, some smaller trading and prospecting vessels from New Arcadia have gone missing in the region.  The Earth Alliance has cited this as a prime reason to change contracts, as the New Olympians have failed to properly protect and enforce the expiring contract.

The powers that be on NeOlympus have deemed it necessary to reinforce their alliance on New Arcadia.  To this end, they have deployed a patrol ship and a compliment of suits to New Arcadia space.  A Carrier arrived and dropped off just such a ship before continuing on its route.  The New Olympian commander on the scene has pledged to find the cause of the missing prospecting vessels.   

 Investigating the last know location of one of these New Arcadian Prospecting ships, the New Olympians had unusual activity on their scopes.  Interference was being thrown out by a large Radiation Band in the area.  Therefore, a patrol of Suits was deployed to investigate further.


Forces

New Olympians

3 Ares Space Combat Suits

1 Ares Space Combat Suit

- Upgrade #2: Dual Heavy Beams

Unkowns

1 Polemarch Suit

- Upgrade- Combat Shield

4 Hoplite Suits

- 1 Upgrade- Rocket Tube



Of course, today's play test will be featuring my (in)famous Paper Templates!  I have been preparing some "Not Gundam" knock-off models to use in a more "polished" version of the game.  This is still early days in the process.   

I use dice to raise or lower their altitude.  On the table is Alpha, 1 dice is Beta, and 2 dice is Gamma level. 

I also made some small paper circles for future games that will be used to show the direction travelled.  A key part of this game is that you can travel one direction, but face another.  Facing is based on the Front (marked with an F on my templates) and the direction of travel will be based on the triangle on the marker below the template.  Make sense?

Mission:

Today's mission is found in the main rulebook.  In this scenario, unknown blips have been detected and combat units have been deployed to identify the unknowns and determine who they are.  You can score additional Victory Points by using your sensors to "ID" a target as well as normal combat processes.

Set-up

Today's game will be on a 48 MU x 48 MU board with 1 MU being one inch.  There is a Radiation band that goes across the board at Alpha and Beta level.  This radiation band has been making long range Identification of the unknowns difficult.  It is 12 MU wide and arcs across near the center line of the board.  I am using pipe cleaners to differentiate the edges. 

 

The Unknowns are on one side of the Radiation band, while the New Olympians are on the other.  All suits are deployed up to 6 MU from the board edge.  The New Olympians are at various altitude bands and speeds.  The Earth Alliance are all at Alpha level and coming on at full speed.   

If you want to give the battle a read through, you can find all the info here:
https://bloodandspectacles.blogspot.com/2021/05/battle-report-glittering-void-id-and.html   
Support Blood and Spectacles Publishing:
https://www.patreon.com/Bloodandspectaclespublishing

Easy E

  • Lieutenant Commander
  • ***
  • Posts: 444
  • Number of Times Thanked: 112
    • View Profile
Re: Space Mecha!
« Reply #18 on: May 24, 2021, 10:27:22 am »


When I originally designed this game, I intended to use Dream Pod 9's "With the Lightnings" Range of figures for my space mecha combat fix!  I still do, and the rules even trying to call out some of the sculpts that go with some of the mecha profile.  However, the game is pretty much scale and model agnostic so you could use anything you wanted!  You could even use Gunpla kits if you wanted to!
 
I initially used some of my infamous paper templates to do some playing and testing with the rules. 



However, one day I ran across a bulk set of ugly toy Gundam knock-offs with 144 for about $14 US.  I swooped in and picked them up for use in this game.  Make no mistake, these are some seriously ugly, plastic toys, but at about 10 cents a pop, it did not seem like I could go wrong.  Plus, they are cheap enough to cut up and re-assemble with no fear.  I may also give some of them a lick of paint to see what happens, but not this day.  I could try to pick up some of those Lego weapons to go with them for Beam Cannons and Mas Rifles and the like too.  Perhaps I will see how converting these ugly little dudes goes before I try any of that. 



Armed with my new, plastic Kicko robots I decided I had to get them out on the table for another battle using the Glittering Void rules.  If you go to the desktop version of the blog, you can see a Work-In-Progress section of the blog.  This section has links to games that are playable, but still in the development process.  You can find Glittering Void there.   

he trading contract for the Freehold of New Arcadia will expire and come up for re-negotiation in the next rotations.  Traditionally, these contracts have been held by corporate interests aligned with the New Olympians, and New Arcadia was considered within the New Olympians sphere of interests.  However, the free hold is located in the Asteroid Belt, which the Earth Alliance views at its territory.   

With the contract set to expire, elements of the Earth Alliance have begun aggressively courting New Arcadia.  They have offered lucrative incentives, and coupled them with veiled threats.  In fact, some smaller trading and prospecting vessels from New Arcadia have gone missing in the region.  The Earth Alliance has cited this as a prime reason to change contracts, as the New Olympians have failed to properly protect and enforce the expiring contract.

The powers that be on NeOlympus have deemed it necessary to reinforce their alliance on New Arcadia.  To this end, they have deployed a patrol ship and a compliment of suits to New Arcadia space.  A Carrier arrived and dropped off just such a ship before continuing on its route.  The New Olympian commander on the scene has pledged to find the cause of the missing prospecting vessels.   

 Investigating the last know location of one of these New Arcadian Prospecting ships, the New Olympians had unusual activity on their scopes.  Interference was being thrown out by a large Radiation Band in the area.  Therefore, a patrol of Suits was deployed to investigate further.  This led to an engagement in the Radiation Band between unknown Suits and the New Olympian pilots.

Post-battle analysis allowed the New Olympians to identify that the suits engaged were of Earth Alliance design.  However, the Earth Alliance is well known for selling their tech to anyone with the currency to buy it.  Identifying their suits would not be enough to link them to the loss of the Prospecting Ships from New Arcadia. 

Therefore, the Patrol Craft tracked their potential telemetry to a nearby Asteroid that could house a forward operating base.  En route, unknown suits were identified attempting to transit from the area.  The New Olympian pilots were scrambled to engage the fleeing Suits and attempt to disable and capture the Polemarch suit.  Hopefully, the "Officers" suit would allow the New Olympians to gather needed intel on these freebooters and discover their connection to the missing Prospecting Ships. 


Forces:

New Olympians

3 Ares Space Combat Suits

1 Ares Space Combat Suit

- Upgrade #2: Dual Heavy Beams

Freebooters

1 Polemarch Suit

- Upgrade- Combat Shield

4 Hoplite Suits

- 1 Upgrade- Rocket Tube   



On the left is the Freebooters.  The Yellow is the Polemach suit, Orange are Hoplon suits, and I will use the #4 suit with the Bazooka.  The right is the New Olympians.  The Yellow is the Dual Beam suit, while the red are standard Ares suits.
I use dice to raise or lower their altitude.  On the table is Alpha, 1 dice is Beta, and 2 dice is Gamma level. 

I also made some small paper circles for future games that will be used to show the direction travelled.  A key part of this game is that you can travel one direction, but face another.  Facing is based on the Front (marked with an F on my templates but normally the actual faces of the model) and the direction of travel will be based on the triangle on the marker below the template.  Eventually, I will have bases with direction arrows on them, while the miniature will be able to swivel.  Make sense?

Mission:

Today's mission is found in the main rulebook.  This scenario is a targeted attack.  The New Olympians are trying to disable/knock-out the Polemarch suit, while the Freebooters are attempting to take out the Ares with the dual Beam cannons.  These suits offer an additional +15 VP for taking them out.   

Set-up:

Today's game will be on a 48 MU x 48 MU board with 1 MU being one inch.  This area of space has two large radiation fields that the Freebooters are trying to use to cover their escape.  They are marked by Pipe Cleaners.  These fields cover Alpha, Beta, and Gamma heights.  They are obscuring and dangerous. 

The Freebooters are set-up in the corner around their edge of the board.  The Polemach is in the back at Beta level.  The other Hoplon suits are forward of his at various altitudes.  One looks like they are planning on going around the Rad Zones for a flank attack.  Meanwhile, the New Olympians are on the center of the opposite board edge.  The squadron is anchored on the right by the Dual Beam Cannon suit.  The others string across at various heights.  The New Olympians appear to be going between the Rad Zones to start.



Of course, you can read the rest of the report and get the overview of the game on the blog....

https://bloodandspectacles.blogspot.com/2021/05/battle-report-glittering-void-targeted.html
Support Blood and Spectacles Publishing:
https://www.patreon.com/Bloodandspectaclespublishing

Easy E

  • Lieutenant Commander
  • ***
  • Posts: 444
  • Number of Times Thanked: 112
    • View Profile
Re: Space Mecha!
« Reply #19 on: July 12, 2021, 04:21:27 pm »
An attempt at drilling into the Mecha and putting them on a base proved...... disastrous.  Legs and arms went ka-boom and paint got a bit mangled.  Repair work will have to be made.     

Back to figuring out how to glue on the washers to mount them up. 
Support Blood and Spectacles Publishing:
https://www.patreon.com/Bloodandspectaclespublishing

Easy E

  • Lieutenant Commander
  • ***
  • Posts: 444
  • Number of Times Thanked: 112
    • View Profile
Re: Space Mecha!
« Reply #20 on: August 09, 2021, 10:12:26 am »
Posted some stuff on my blog about these guys, but I think it is stuff you all have all ready seen. 

In case you are interested though.....
https://bloodandspectacles.blogspot.com/2021/08/on-painting-desk-its-not-gundam-space.html
Support Blood and Spectacles Publishing:
https://www.patreon.com/Bloodandspectaclespublishing

Easy E

  • Lieutenant Commander
  • ***
  • Posts: 444
  • Number of Times Thanked: 112
    • View Profile
Re: Space Mecha!
« Reply #21 on: October 25, 2021, 10:33:01 am »
I got them all painted up, and you can read about the journey on the blog.....

http://bloodandspectacles.blogspot.com/2021/10/on-painting-desk-splash-some-paint-on.html

However, if you just want to see the finished mecha..... here you go.....



and these guys:



Not the best photos, but there you go!
Support Blood and Spectacles Publishing:
https://www.patreon.com/Bloodandspectaclespublishing

Kelly

  • Lieutenant Commander
  • ***
  • Posts: 257
  • Number of Times Thanked: 56
    • View Profile
Re: Space Mecha!
« Reply #22 on: October 28, 2021, 07:06:41 pm »
Nice job, about how tall did the models end up being when mounted on the stands?
If my wife asks, I only spent half as much as I wanted to...

Easy E

  • Lieutenant Commander
  • ***
  • Posts: 444
  • Number of Times Thanked: 112
    • View Profile
Re: Space Mecha!
« Reply #23 on: October 29, 2021, 09:59:42 am »
I would say about as tall as a 54mm Nappie model in a big hat?  Two 3rd edition space marines in a trench coat? 

Pretty much two 28mm models tall? 
Support Blood and Spectacles Publishing:
https://www.patreon.com/Bloodandspectaclespublishing

Landlubber

  • Administrator
  • Admiral
  • *****
  • Posts: 2177
  • Number of Times Thanked: 64
    • View Profile
Re: Space Mecha!
« Reply #24 on: November 06, 2021, 11:08:49 pm »
Paint jobs on those turned out really nicely! (Not that I was doubting your skills as a painter...more that I wasn't sure how the paint would take to the material).
"Sometimes, you gotta roll the hard six."--Commander Adama