Cylon Basestar for Void Admiral

 

In yesterday's post (see here), I showed off some of the Colonial faction ships for my take on the original series of Battlestar Galactica, as represented in the Void Admiral game system. This post will show off the infamous Cylon Basestar.

The mobile base is noted as being lumbering and armed with 2 long range mega-pulsars, 100 defensive turrets, and 300 Cylon raiders. To represent this for Void Admiral I have included laser turrets (for the mega-pulsars), a flak of 6 (for the 100 defensive turrets) and five fighter bays (for the 300 Cylon raiders). The "ship" has a Hull of 15 and a movement of just 4". But to compensate for its slowness, it has good armour and shielding.

I still have to give these ships a run on the battlefield to see how the Void Admiral stats play out in the game. But by posting them here it helps to clarify my thinking on just how to represent these ships appropriately for Void Admiral.

Battlestar Galactica for Void Admiral

A little while back I picked up a print copy of Void Admiral from Amazon and recently, I also picked up its expansion. I wanted a quick to learn space combat game and having watched the review on Guerilla Miniature Games I went and bought a copy. It struck me that, although it's kind of a Battlefleet Gothic lite kind of game, this would also work for Battlestar Galactica. So, I've set about working on the profiles for some of the BSG ships from the original movie and series I grew up with and not the more recent remake. I looked around my star ship collection as well as what's available on eBay and Etsy and what took my fancy from BSG Deadlock, with a view as to what could fit that original series era. Here's what I've come up with so far.

I began with the Loyalists faction as the basis to develop the Colonial faction of ships. I also knew that I wanted the Battlestar to be the largest ship in the fleet but that it was larger than the cruiser size of ship in Void Admiral. This meant that I created two larger classes above the cruiser size of ship, the dreadnaught battleship and the aircraft carrier "CV" size at 12 and 15 points respectively. It kind of breaks the game a little but the Void Admiral expansion permits a Juggernaut class of ship that is roughly the dreadnaught. Technically, from a naval perspective, the dreadnaught should be considered one size down from a battleship. But for now, this designation will do.

So below is the first run at this. I'll post the Cylons at a future date once I have figured out the stats for Void Admiral. But below are the Colonial ships I've workout out so far.

Battlestar class

Artemis class

Corinthian class

Battlestar Galactica Artemis class

 

Just finished the first two Artemis class battlestars that I will be using for Void Admiral. These come from eBay from a seller in the UK and are very nice 3d prints. So, here's some pictures to inspire you, dear reader.

I'll tell you more about this for Void Admiral in a future post.

Gaslands Refuelled - Mini-Sherman

 

Ok, so the mini-Sherman was always a CarWars thing, but it was my favourite vehicle from that game, and so I wanted to make one for Gaslands.

My mini-Sherman was a panel van with a rocket launcher under the front bumper and enough armour to weigh the vehicle down during a cyclone. That's pretty topical right now over here (I'm looking at you Cyclone Alfred!).

Oz Wheels makes a series of excellent Matchbox scale vehicles of iconic Australian brands. Brands that were quintessentially Ozzy (yes, even the Ford Falcon. Just watch Mad Max) before we destroyed our car manufacturing industry over here by selling out to globalism.

Oz Wheels has a series called 'Barn Finds' and these vehicles come pre-grubby with worn paint work that just screams Gaslands. So, I purchased a number of panel vans and set about looking for the appropriate rocket launchers to put under the front bumper.

Vanguard Miniatures make some nice Sentinel style walker units in Epic scale, the weapons on which work well also for Matchbox scale vehicles. So, I nicked two rocket pods and put them to use on my new (old) mini-Sherman.

I remember one excellent game of Car Wars where our town was invaded by a band of rev-heads eager to kick us out of the place. We took out their vehicles one by one until eventually just their leader was left. We ended up pinning the guy between our vehicles, with me in the lead. Given I only had a forward-facing rocket launcher, but a tone of armour, I just slowed the guy down as we hemmed him in. In the end, we crawled to a stop, and he was out of ammo. He quietly surrendered at that point. But my mini-Shermon was a rock, an almost immovable one at that, with an acceleration of only 5mph. Once I got up to speed, I wouldn't break as it took too long to get going again.

The business end of the mini-Sherman

I'm still considering if I should put a bull-bar on the front of the vehicle just above the rocket launchers. But for now, my mini-Sherman is ready for the table. All I need to do now is make the Gaslands vehicle profile for this thing.

Lesser Fort Rust-n-Nails - part 3 - tabletop ready

 

Well fan, here she is. Lesser Fort Rust-n-Nails is finally tabletop ready.

I am awaiting on (small scale) barbed wire to arrive from eBay. Once I have that, I shall add some to the crenulations. I should also add some small clumps of vegetation to the base. But here she is, finally. Tabletop ready for Gaslands.

But wait! There's no gate, I hear you say. Well, fear not dear fan. Indeed, there is a gate. Two in fact. The first is a chain gate that is constructed, but not yet painted. You can see that below. The chain fits into a gap between the shipping containers that form the wall and an upright container that forms the tower that leads to the viewing platform directly above the gate entrance.

The second is under construction and is a busgate. What's a busgate, I hear you say? It's a bus that has been armoured on one side and is use as a gate. You just drive the bus backwards to open the gap, and forwards to close the gap again. The bus itself is the gate. Think Mad Max 2 with Mel Gibson where the refinery had a bus that was the gate (if I remember correctly, as it's been a few years since I've watched that movie).

So, still a few more cosmetic things to do. But Lesser Fort Rust-n-Nails is ready to go onto the tabletop for a game of Gaslands.

Still Under Construction - Lesser Fort Rust-n-Nails - part 2

 

So dear fan, Lesser Fort Rust-n-Nails nears completion (the first part in this saga can be found here). It would take decades to construct a medieval castle. They should have just used PVA glue, cardboard, coffee stirrer sticks and some small shipping containers that you can get off Amazon. Yes, the final stages of fabrication of Lesser Fort Rust-n-Nails draws neigh. So, here's a quick visual update.

The corrugated iron is just carboard that's been smothered in PVA. Once dry, it's as hard as nails and ready for the gaming table. I did do a couple of layers of PVA just to make sure though.

The ladders are made from matchsticks and MDF offcuts I had laying round. These were just PVA glued together insitu and left to dry. If I wasn't being lazy with this one, I would have constructed the ladders separately and then added them later. I did kind of smother the ladders in PVA glue as well just to make sure they were properly stuck together and sealed.

Over the base, I have used some gap filler, and the rest is sand spread over PVA. The gap filler had a matchbox car run over it several times whilst still wet in order to make tyre tracks at the entrance and up the back escape ramp.

I think it's ready for painting. I do still want to add some barbed wire along the crenulations. Let's see how I go there.

Mr Whippy for Gaslands

 

The Goblins have been having fun. Having found an old, abandoned Mr Whippy ice cream truck, they duly set about outfitting it for both combat and refreshment of those hot summer afternoons when all you want is an ice cream.

This little beauty arrived the other day from eBay, and I set about painting it in the colour scheme the Mr Whippy ice cream trucks have in my country. I think Mr Whippy originated in England actually, but I have fond memories of the overpriced ice-cream these mobile vendors used to disperse out to the masses of children who dutifully waited by the side of the road for the van to pull up to dispense their treats. It was a stalwart of my youth. On a hot summer's afternoon, the dulcet tones of a speaker distorted Greensleeves tune could be heard over the buzzing of flies and children would run to the side of the road to await the arrival of Mr Whippy.

Well, now thanks to the Gobo's, Mr Whippy is back to kick ass. In fact, we could call him Mr Whip-ass.

Sporting a ram, two side mounted machine guns, a 15mm scale Flames of War German anti-aircraft gun as well as an assortment of soft serve and ice cream, this old rust bucket may not be fast, but it can pack a punch all whilst serving up a refreshing treat.

The anti-aircraft gun can be removed and rotated to face its target (nice effect there) and there is even a little gobo at the wheel of the truck.

The vehicle was in much bad repair, from a paintwork perspective, but that was exactly what I was after. Now, she has been lovingly restored and ready for combat.

Soft serve anyone?