Kessel Run Game Project Part II

from prototype to hero model 

Of Ships and Space and Sealing Wax...

Continuing to build all the parts for my upcoming Kessel Run Race game,
Last time we covered the Summa-Verminoth and the Tie fighters, so this time we'll finish up with the other parts needed for the game.  As always, I need to make a list of things to check off so here's the current list.
Game table mat- aka the  race track
Correlian  Freighter ships on stands-with dice holders
Asteroids on stands - Foam and wood bases
Tie Fighters on stands with dice holders - acrylic
Gun sticks - cut from acrylic
Summa-Verminoth Boss monster
D6's (have these)
Rules

Correlian  Freighter 

I first started with a basic shape, because the size of the thing and the structure of how it would work on a stand was really important. These things have to stand up to game play, hold the right amount of detail, and not crowd each other as I have a finite size that the race track could be.   I first did drawings on paper scanned and made a few scale sizes in photoshop- then cut them out and played with them for a bit to see what would work best. Paper prototyping, or cardboard is a fantastic way to play around with the pieces and get a good "real world" feeling for the piece. 

Testing the size of the stand against the Tie Fighters 

After I got the size I wanted, I needed to really make a ship that looked like the Millennium Falcon. Luckily there are tons of wonderful blue print type layouts on the internets; I found one I liked and used it to draw over using Lasercad- the vector drawing cool I use for my laser cutter.

 The trick was choosing which lines and details would work best to make it read well. As I only had one  night to build it out, I made my choices and then cut out a bunch of ships. Pretty happy over all, but once I started painting ships, there were detail lines I wish I would have put in- and will at some later date ( I literally have one ship with red pen lines showing where I want to make changes).

Corellian Ship yards 

 Next I painted the bases gloss black, and lightly primed the ships white. Then painting time with acrylics- and done!  As you can't see the bottoms of the ships, they have no detail other than an extra piece to support them on the base.

Asteroids

The asteroids are standard foam. I cut them with a knife, shaped them with a hot glue gun, then painted them with a dark black/brown mix of house paint mixed with a bit of Golden course pumice gel to give the outside some more texture. When dry (takes 24 hours). After that a bit of drybrush with grey and some raw umber. Bases are laser cut base and dowels, rattle canned gloss black.

bases were made to not interfere with the ships

finished asteroid on the track. sorry I don't have any closeups of asteroids 

The Track
My game play space is two fold out tables from Costco, which measure roughly 4 x 6 feet when put together. I've made a stretcher bar to fit my table, which I use to stretch canvas over when painting my gaming mats. For the Space mat, I had a piece of black died canvas, that would work perfectly.

Ready for painting

The track is made up of move spaces, each 2 inches x 4 inches. I used 2 inch wide painters tape and had my apprentice (son) cut the pieces. At the start point I made fancier cuts to match the ship bases, just for fun.  The nice thing about the tape was I could move pieces around very easily and change the layouts, put some ships on it, see how it felt, move and adjust as I wanted.  Once I had them all down, I took my iron and set it to medium heat then pressed the tape flat ironing it- holding a board on the other side of the canvas for an ironing board.

Then I took the canvas out into the back yard and using black, grey and rust red spray paint commenced to paint out the worm hole style track.

Done and awaiting peeling Ironing the tape down really helped

After that, I used a blue grey, white , dark blue, red and orange acrylics to paint over the areas. The paint I used was very wet, almost like a stain. lots of flicking the brush to make "stars". By the time I was finished it was dark, and I was doing this in the back yard with little light, so was not sure how it would come out.   Over all I'm pretty happy with the results!

Detail of the Boss fight area 

Done and Done 

Once that was dried we peeled off the tape exposing the canvas underneath. I unstretched it and set it up for some play testing. 

Track with a race in progress 

Top down 

That's it- other than going over the rules. I'll do that after I get the game going, and figure out a way to get the rules so you can down load them yourselves if interested. 

Starting line up. 

Tie fighter squadron fires at a player

Thanks again!  let me know if there is anything I did not go over well enough. Note- for some reason blogger won't let me comment/reply to my own blog, so I'm not being snobbish, just a tech dork. :) 

Kessel Run Game Project part 1

Summa Verminoth looking for a snack! 

Punch it Chewie!

Each year for my Fosslings, I create games for their birthday parties.  My Eldest has really gotten into playing Sabbac, and that lead me down a trail to make the Kessel Run game.

Goal of the Game

Making the Kessel run is not just a simple jump to hyperspace and then you are there. To make it you first have to thread through the psychotic cluster and then, pass through the maelstrom.

Be the first to make the Kessel run and survive. Can you do it in 12 Parsecs? (aka Game turns). First ship to leave the board wins.

Game Designer goal

I have 7 days to get this game designed from start to, what I’ll call a hard Alpha state- meaning all the parts are there and the rules are ready to be play-tested a week before the party.  As a game designer in my real life, I put all my skills to work on this project as I would launch a video game.

Scope:  I am the only rescource, so have to scope my time well.  This meant making a list of all things I needed and all the things that the lists needed.  This is actually something I learned a long time ago when I got to work with Adam Savage and Jamie Hynemen. Those guys are super pros and taught me a lot in the short time I was working on a project at M5 industries.

The list

Rules:  I had a good working race game system from when I made a “snail race” game for my youngest a couple of years ago as my starter.  The system worked well, so I just needed to adjust it and expand it a bit for the Genre.

Ships: Players will need to fly in Corellian freighters- aka the Millennium Falcon.  I have a rough of a vector file of this from a previous game I made.  This will need updating and need a movement stand.

Event Hazards:  Things that happen if you roll a 1. I landed on Tie fighter squadrons and asteroids. I have a vector I bought on line of the Ties, and asteroids are just foam rocks.  All doable.

Working on a 1/12th scale Millennium Falcon at M5, back in the 90's

Track:  I saw a cool track someone did (I really wish I remember the guy’s name) of a pod race, where he made the track by taping down the track sections and painting over.  Gonna steal that great idea, and I already had a piece of black canvas. the first part was figuring out how the race was going to go, with lots of iteration on how many turns it would take, as well as adding up to 10 players. 

laying tape down to figure out the track. Lots of iteration!

Boss monster: The Summa Verminoth.  I have nothing like this, so will have to make one. That starts with a sketch.  I decided to do it flat so that you could see it and it would take up track space as a blocker and hazard.  Ultimately to get it done fast, I used 3mm craft foam and painted it.

Spent Thursday Night doing the sketch, then scanned and printed a few copies 

I used glue stick to attach the paper to craft foam, and then cut it out. This was not as easy as I hoped

Ended up doing 2 layers to get more form and shape.

A face only a mother could love

To paint the Verminoth, I used grey and red rattlecan primer, then went into it with minis paints. Craft foam takes paint very well. The paint job is pretty loose, but it "sells" the idea of the monster. I overlapped tentacles where I could for more strength. This is a gaming piece after all. 

Protyping and Sketching

I spent a full day figuring out how to make the bases and stands for the ship models, working on 3 variations.  I ended up with something that is sturdy, can be cut out of either plexi or wood, and held dice that represent a ship’s hull points. 3mm birch plywood is very strong, so I use that for the bases for the ships, as well as for the asteroids and the tie fighters.   I cut a rough shape for the Falcon to get a sense of what scale I wanted.  Did 3 iterations before I nailed down the size. 

rough prototype of the Falcon. Actually this is rev 2, or 3...

Tie Fighters

I already had a vector file of the Tie Fighters, so it was just a matter of how to represent a squad. Top down would look to… I dunno- gamey- so I played around with sketching up a few ideas, and then went to the internets and watched a few scenes, and then came up with etching them on clear plexi and painting them.  Turned out better than I hoped. Since they were cut with acylic, I decided to cut the base out of it as well (and I had some).

Tie fighter squad. Etched plexi painted in. 

 

 Note the added support on the Falcon's base that shows I need more design work. 

During my "research" I came across this awesome anime short. 

Tie Fighter Wars

That’s all for part 1- next time we’ll  cover the rest.  Cheers!

Making Plastic Pikes

Warlord plastic pikeman marvels at the new pikes

Now don’t get me wrong, I love a good metal pike, and have used them quite a bit- I also have the scars to show it. More times than I care to remember I’ve impaled myself on my pike blocks. Looking for a good, and much more economical alternative, I found others making and using styrene plastic for pikes.  Here’s my step by step on how to make your own.

The bare bones version showing plastic pike

 

Tools

The most important tool that you will need, and might not have in your tool kit is a pair of smooth pliers.  Smoothing meaning no teeth in the inside grippy part.  Aside from that you will also need:

Cutting blade- A basic Exacto works, but for this job a chisel shaped blade is very helpful

Measuring device- to measure out your styrene pike lengths; once you’ve cut one, you can use it for a jig. If they are off a bit, I’m sure that’s more “historically accurate” than them being all regimental.

Metal Pin- use this to align hands 

Drill- in case a hole needs to be enbiggened

Rat Tail file- cleaning up any hands if needed

Glue- Super glue, gel type is the best

Note: Sharp things are sharp, pokey things are pokey and gluey things are gluey- all can give a good dueling scar- so please be safe and responsible when using them.

Parts

For this exercise we are making pike for my Triumph of Death pike miniatures. These minis come with polystyrene plastic sprues.  

Pike Making

Take your polystyrene rods and measure them out in sections to cut for your pikes. I measure mine at 60mm, which is roughly a 15 foot pike.  Cut the rods into your pike shafts. At 60mm you will get 5 pikes with a bit of excess. We’ll use the extra for practicing making pike heads.

I've cut it twice and it's still too short! 

Making spear points

This is actually quite easy, but does need a bit of practice. Take your flat nose pliers and “pinch” about 3mm of the end of a sprue to make the flat part of the point. Note that if you want a wide head squeeze more. Pike heads in general are not very wide, so I don’t squish the plastic too much. Really it’s up to you- but do try and practice on the off cuts first.

don't move the blade, rotate the sprue. 

Next take your favorite cutting tool and cut the flat shape to a point. First cut one side, then roll the styrene to the other side and cut it. If it’s a bit uneven, just trim a side to match up.

Once you have all your pikes made, time to put them in the hands of your troops.  With my Triumph of Death Skeletons the hands are made big enough to accommodate the styrene, and even a bit bigger, but sometimes in the mold and casting the hands get out of alignment to each other. I use a large sewing needle to put through the hands and straighten them up before I glue the pike in. You can also use this pin to move and pose the hands into a slightly different position to add variety to your unit, by slowly prying the hands about. This technique may mean you have to cut the back hand away from the body first.  If you find any flash, a rat tail file of a blade will make short work of it.  

Next, add the pike into place where you want it to go, then slide it up a bit, add glue to the hands and slide it back in. I use my Exacto knife to hold the pike in place while the glue is setting.

Ready for Muster

That’s all there really is to it.  When you have them all done, use a good primer and you are ready for painting.

Say- won’t the paint peel or break off it the pike it bent?

I’ve been making these for about 5 years now, and have yet to see any of my pike peel.  If you use a good primer and paint, and seal afterwards it should not be an issue.  If it does, simply re add some paint and re-varnish!

Here are some examples of the Pike skeletons with plastic pikes. Note that these guys have thicker (2mm) styrene rods for pikes to help visualize better.

Cheers, and thanks for following through. This technique also of course works great for spears, and banner poles.   If you have any questions, or have your own method in making these I'd love to hear from you.

Bats! A tutorial

Going Batty for Bats! 

So, a few years ago I was walking by a stationary store during October and saw this cool confetti in the window. Lightbulb! I had an idea.  Bat swarms!

Over the years I've made these for different games, friends and family, etc. Thought it was time to do a tutorial.  This tutorial goes over all the basics I've learned (some the hard way) and how I based this particular unit, for Kings of War.

Parts is Parts

The bat swarm is made up of three parts: bat confetti, insect mounting pins, and super glue gel.

Bats- found on Amazon, but check your local shops first

Bat Confetti:  These plastic bats are a great size for 28mm "Vampire" style bats. A bag of a bajillion of them costs from $1.99- $3.  Not only are they a good shape, the plastic bends well into animated poses.


Insect Mounting Pins

Caution- very sharp! 

Over the years I've used various methods to make "stands" for my bats, from larger straight pins to styrene rod. I think these insect pins are the best as they are the thinnest thing I could find, and are quite strong.  They come in different heights and sizes, but the size 2 pins which are 60mm tall I think do the trick.  Cost is about $7.00, but you get a 100 pins.  In my example I have about 23 bats on my base, so that's a total cost of $10.00-ish for  4-5 units worth of swarms!  Here's a link to the pins on Amazon

Super Gluin-it Right!

I'm all over the place with glues, but I've been liking the Gorilla Glues lately.  I do reccomend gel glues over regular so that the bats "stick" better.  Also I'm showing the pin vise I use to drill holes into the base.

Assembly 

This part is both easy and tricky.  Your first thought, as was mine, was dip the tip of the pin in glue, stick it to a bat, and done!  The trick here is the glue takes a bit of time to set, and the bats slide off and glue themselved to your table or fingers or pants (yeah, I found one) instead. Here's the trick I learned.

I use postit notes to put the glue on. Then roll the pin head to get a good "gob" of glue.

After putting glue onto the pin, stick the pin in something. I had a cardboard box close by, so used it.
Then, take a bat and balance it on the pin and let the glue do it's work.  Make sure to space them far enough apart as you are doing this so that you don't bump the other bats.  Let them dry for a good hour before mounting- which gives us time to do the base.

Bats on a stick!

All your Base!

 I'm basing this unit for Kings of War. In the forces of the Abyss army list you can have flying imps, so these could be statted like that. Honestly these could be considered fast cave of any type- it's really up to you! Back to basing. I started with one of my "troop" size Kings of War bases that I make, and trim the sides down with a box cutter blade, creating a bevel, which helps blend it into the terrain.

MDF KoW base

Always cut away from you!!!

I want some height variation to help the bat swarm look, swarmy... so added some cork to the base. they I spread glue on and added flocking sand. It was a hot day, so I put it outside for about 15 minutes and it was all dry.

Cork is cool stuff! (and easy to mount pins in) 

base covered in sand. I need to get more!

After it was dry, I gave it a base coat of Vallejo flat earth, and some dark grey(Foundry Stoneb 57b) on the cork to make them into rocks, and drybrushed with light earth and a bit of P3 menoth white base and grey  to lighten everything up a bit and grab details. Use whatever colors best work for you.

Add water to the mix. you have a lot to cover! 

Good enoufh as this will be flocked as well.

Once the paint was dry, I glued some flocking and some bushed on (but forgot to take a picture of that). I did this before mounting the bats so I would not get glue and grass accidently on the pins.

Pinning and mounting 

To make a good swarm, you will want to vary the heights of the bats. To do that you will need wire cutters to clip the pins. CAUTION  this is an important thing I've learned in doing this. Those tiny needle sharp off cuts will go flying and you will find them the hard way sometime later. I got one stuck really deeply in my foot. Here's the trick Tape! Befor cutting, place the pin on the sticky side of a piece of masking tape. When you clip it, the off cut stays on the tape.  I cut about half my bats pins, some really low, some mid ish. Play around and do what feels good.

Sticky side up! 

One piece of tape goes far- and is easily disposed of. 

Once cut, I started from the center of my base and worked my way out. drilling small holes and gluing the bats in. Before gluing, I bent the wings by gently pinching them with my fingers. Note that some of the bats, if not well glued, will pop off. I Made extras just in case, and re-glued the others on for future basing.  The cork works out great to give extra height to the overall look, and is easy to stick pins in.

nearly finished! 

Don't be afraid to play around- add more bats, bend wings, angle pins for movement

Top down. Note no bat goes past the base edge. 

Side view- this shows how I was trying to get them to swoop down.

Touching up! 

Once all together I play around with some of the wings, and see if I need to add more or less bats to create a flow. The plastic bats are very shiny plastic, but dull down perfectly once you seal the whole thing with a matte spray.  One thing I did do before I sealed the bats, was to go in with some dark brown and "gesture" the bodies, heads and wing frames. Nothing fancy and very "loose" painting, just enough to break up the shapes a bit. When I varnished the unit, the brown kinda got lost, so I'm going to go back and hit it again I think. I may also try a bit of grey.

Done! 

This entire project took about 2 hours, including waiting for paint to dry.  I'll be making more swarms, and using a few bats to dress up bases for my Triumph of Death undead.  I hope this was helpful, and I look forward to seeing your bat swarms.  Here's more pictures next to miniatures for scale.

Cheers!
Ths