MOAB 2017 (Mother Of All Battles)

The main hall with games a plenty and trade area

MOAB, the Sutherland Shire Gamer's annual event and Sydney's premier wargaming event, is on this long weekend. I made my way there again this year and wondered through the events and the infamous Bring and Buy (infamous because I always spend way too much money there!) to see what was on offer. Here's my report faithful reader.

Games aplenty

One of the features of this MOAB that wasn't as prominent last year were the number of games being played. Pretty much most of the floor space, with the exceptions of the wall areas and near the entrance, were taken up by competition games being played. The number of different games being played was also higher than I have seen in previous years. The upper space, the stage and half the main flaw were dedicated to game play. I didn't see it this year, but in previous years there were also Bloodbowl games being played in the rooms under the main hall.

Lot's of options

This of course meant that there was little space available for demo games. As such, I didn't get to play Kings of War or other games like last year.

What was great to see was that Epic Armageddon had between four and five tables dedicated to play.

Epic in scope, Epic in proportion!

Each game had at least three Titans on the field and it was great to see these in play. I took a hiatus from the hobby for a couple of decades and missed out of Epic and Warmaster's heyday sadly. But I have been able to amass my Warmaster armies with the help of eBay and so feel I wasn't robbed too much. With GW bringing back Blood Bowl and soon Necromunda, I really hope that Epic and especially Warmaster make a return in the near future too.

Anyway, I digress. I must show off this particular table. This scratch built Imperium frigate dominated the sidelines of this battlefield and looked fantastic.

The Epic Dead... great name for a band!

Batman featured pretty heavily as well.

These guys were still on sale from last year.

Plenty of battles of L'Art De Guerre. Never played it but it looked interesting.

Almost every second table I looked at was Flames of War. Its definitely dominating right now. But Age of Sigmar and X-Wing were also prominently being played this year.

Flames of War

Mad Max style. Can't remember the game's name

This game will trigger SJW's from the USA!

With all the Confederate Statue removals going on in the US right now, thanks to Social Justice Warrior numpties, it was great to see this game of the American Civil War in prominent position in the center of the main hall.

(Warning: I wouldn't blow up this image if I were you. I noticed when I resized it for the blog that there is a dude showing off his bum crack in the background. Yeeeaaawww [insert sounds of vomiting here...]. But then there is also another dude readjusting his downstairs furniture 😒 Sheash, I can't cut a break when taking a photo these days.)

Now, back from barfing in the dunny. Here's some photos to take you mind of that groase stuff.

MDF terrain that you could buy and make these from

As I said, X-Wing featured prominently at MOAB as well.

More MDF terrain

There were some nice scenery tables as well being fought over.

More Flames of War

Flames of War again

And more Flames of War

And more Flames of War...

This years trophies for the Flames of War competition were nicely done.

Trophy anyone?

No idea what this game was

More X-wing. Love that Falcon!

It's like Chess... but with better pieces!

Now, on to the trade floor. There were some really (and I mean REALLY) nicely painted stuff behind cabinets. I say really nice because there is no way I could ever paint that good 😡

This line-up is for an upcoming 18mm Weird World War thingy

Reaper Miniatures very nicely painted (not like my hack job)

These were D&D miniatures

Reaper Miniatures again

Love this one. Make a great addition to my 28mm Undead KoW army

Reaper Mini's again

Look into my eyes! D&D Mini. Love this one!

Reaper Miniatures again

Reaper still

Love the three day growth on this dude. Must give it a go sometime with my mini's

No idea who makes these but they were nice

Back to Reaper

That small dragon would work with 10mm!

And that's it folks. Its still on tomorrow and Monday. But that's MOAB for me this year. I picked up some nice stuff in the Bring and Buy too. A full Warmaster Chaos Army painted was the pick of the day for me. Sweet!

Trolls Under The Bridge 10mm range of miniatures

TUTB Wandering Trolls

Trolls Under The Bridge is an eastern European company that produce compatible product lines for Epic, 40K, and Warmaster. You can find their web store is here, but they also list on eBay.

I like the look of their Wandering Trolls and so decided to buy some from their website. I wasn't too confident in the postal system working from eastern Europe to Oz but decided to give it a go a spend my coin. Postage worked out without a hitch and my trolls arrived, with some other goodies from TUTB, within about a month.

I have to say that their miniatures are excellent. I'll show you some images below of what I received, and of their product line. But I must say that there were no issues in purchasing and shipping from them. So if you like the look of their items below. Don't be intimidated about whether your items will turn up or not. I certainly will be buying more from them in the future. So here's my merch...

Heroes, Warriors of Erebos

Size comparison to 10mm GW Warmaster Chaos Marauders

They come with nice movement trays for the Warriors

Their Wandering Trolls

Size comparison to the GW Warmaster Marauders

Warriors are of metal but the trolls are made of hard plastic

I haven't taken them out of their packets yet as I won't be getting around to painting them for some time. But they look excellent and their Wandering Trolls could even double as 15mm Orcs or 28mm Goblins in my view.

Below are some images taken from their website of their 10mm products painted. They have done an excellent job in detail and variety of models. So if you like what you see, feel free to order from their website rather than just through their eBay store.

Killer Bugs - Starship Troopers style Arachnids from Shapeways

First archtype is painted

I have wanted to find some Starship Troopers style Arachnid killer bugs suitable for 10mm scale miniatures for ages now.

The flash shows off the colours better

So browsing through Shapeways, I came across Daniel Radcliffe excellent Killer Bugs. Dropping Dradcliffe a line, he was very kind enough to make a version that would work nicely for 10mm (and also 15mm for that fact!).

The scary end!

Called Chopper Bug 5 this little blighter certainly fits the mold of beastie I was after.

First ten Chopper Bugs in White Strong and Flexible from Shapeways

Painting was simple. I used a gloss black spray as both an undercoat and to act as the main colour representing the glossy nature of chitin found on many insects. I then used a bright red and an orange-yellow colour to paint the miniature once the base coat was dry. And that was it!

The backside and underneath of the mini

I based these on a 25mm by 50mm base. The archtype test paint job was painted to act as a guide for the rest of the nest. I'm pretty happy with the colours and so will stick with this colour set for the rest. It just needs some dirt and flock and its ready to go!

From above

I've bought ten of the vermin already in White Strong and Flexible (WSF) as a test. But now that these all printed and are the ideal scale I intend to get more once my wallet recovers from grabbing a bunch of Halo stuff as Spartan Games have gone bust.

So how do they compare scale wise? Below I have placed the Chopper Bug next to some Pendraken 10mm Scifi miniatures and an Epic Scale Landraider. I intend to use these for my 15mm Scifi miniatures as well (when they get painted). So these will make a nice Alien Bug army for Future War Commander or similar ruleset.

Size comparison against 10mm Pendraken Scifi miniatures and an Epic Landraider

One down, nine more of this batch to go!

HALO Ground Command Covenant Phantom dropship

Speaking of Spartan Games going bust 😒

Poor lads at Spartan! They produced some wonderful games and I'm sad to see them go out of business.

I frantically bought a bunch of Halo Ground Command and Halo Fleet Battles items before my local store sold out. Needless to say, one's wallet is rather thin at the moment.

One of the things I did manage to lay my hands on was the Covenant Phantom dropship. This is the same size as the UNSC Pelican dropship (see post here). So it suits 10mm nicely but isn't sized to fit with the Halo Ground Command 15mm sized miniatures. So in fond farewell to Spartan Games, below are a few pictures of what you get (or would have gotten) in the box.

Flying stand, tokens and front side of the Phantom's data sheet

The model itself and the other side of the data sheet

Needless to say, I wouldn't doubt that 343 Industries will be looking to licence someone else to carry the game forwards and that would very likely mean that 343 has possession of the molds for these miniatures. So they may very well come back in to production some time in the near future.

Halo Ground Command UNSC Pelican Dropship

UNSC Pelican Dropship components

My pre-order for the Halo Ground Command UNSC Pelican Dropship arrived during the week from The Combat Company and I have only really just had the time to have a decent look at it. So here are some pictures showing the miniature and its scale compared to the 15mm UNSC troops.

The first images are of the data cards and order chips that come with the miniature.

Below you can see the large flight stand that comes with the miniature.

Below is the miniature itself on my cutting board. Next to the miniature are a set of 15mm UNSC troopers still on their spru (confession time - I haven't yet painted any of my Halo Ground Command units, much to my shame. Too many other things that need painting right now). The scale on my cutting board is inches, even though I'm a metric dude.

Pelican model (top) with wings detached

Pelican model (side)

Pelican model (underneath)

The model comes with the rear hatch sealed. So no internal details are visible.

Given that the Pelican is 1:300 scale, I've put together a comparison shot below comparing the Pelican, the UNSC 15mm troops and some 10mm Pendraken Miniatures SciFi soldiers. As you can see, the 10mm soldiers are more in scale with the Pelican.

10mm Pendraken SciFi soldiers next to 15mm UNSC troopers

Spartan Games wanted originally to produce the Pelican in scale with the rest of the game. But this would have produced a large and expensive miniature. So they settled for a near enough scale, being 1:300. That scale, as you can see, is pretty darn good for 10mm. I'm not complaining. A 15mm version with open rear hatch would have been excellent, but a 10mm version for me is sweet as well.

This time I'll use the flash!

Concluding thoughts: it's a nice model that scales well with 10mm sci-fi miniatures, such as those from Pendraken, but is too small to fit in scale with the 15mm Halo Ground Command miniatures. So it will make a nice backdrop but won't really suit anything other than a flyby on the Halo battlefield.

That said, I want to get some more for my 10mm sci-fi miniatures. So in time I may get some more!

Nebula class ship data card for ACTA Star Fleet

It's high time I returned to posting about my conversions for the Next Generation era ship data cards for ACTA Star Fleet. The last ship I posted about was the Ambassador class of explorer vessels for Star Fleet. So below is the Nebula class.

The Nebula Class starship

The above model is from the Furuta range of miniatures. Its light weight enough to be able to rest on a standard flight stand. The saucer section is detachable and I have inked and highlighted the model. You can find out more about this in an older post here.

The ship data card is below. Given its less offensively armed than the Ambassador, the Nebula is a cheaper vessel point value wise.

Next ship I need to develop stats for is the Galaxy class. But that's a post for another time.

Klingon L18 Corvette's from Studio Bergstrom and Woomera Shipyards

L18 A and L18B Corvette's in comparison to the Studio Bergstrom Praetor Destroyer, MicroMachines D7 and Attack Wing K'tinga.

I received some of the Woomera Shipyards L18 Corvette's from Studio Bergstrom the other day. These are in the ADB 2400 (1:3788) scale and are small. However they are very detailed and nicely made. The detail really comes to its own when you drybrush or wash these miniatures.

The L18B (foreground) and the L18A in the background

As a bit of advice, insert the boom before you try to glue the base in. The bases I use are for A Call to Arms Star Fleet and so the stalk at the top goes in far enough to force the boom downwards. I inserted the boom first, then dropped super glue in to the hole where the stand goes, then inserted the stand. I then had to move the boom upwards a bit as it was forced downwards by the stalk at the top of the stand going in to the base of the model. So just be prepared to push the boom back in to place before the super glue dries.

L18B from behind

Underneath the L18B

L18A close-up

L18A from behind

As you can see from above, I also bent the nacelle's outwards to a 45 degree angle as I felt this made them look sexier and also helps to distinguish them from their larger cousins made in the ADB 2500 (1:3125) scale.

L18B close-up

Painting was fairly simple. I just followed the process I used for most of my other Klingon ACTA ships. The end of the post here has a summary of the painting process. The only thing that I did differently was that I used a red colour (Red Gore if I remember correctly) to paint the triangle designs on the wings.

So final opinion? Damn nice ships!

These make excellent small patrol and anti-piracy ships for the Klingon Empire. Definitely looking forward to their bigger cousins that have just become available on the Studio Bergstrom Woomera Shipyards page.