The completed tile 9, some extra terrain bits and a few more mechs.

..And so it is done! My original 9 tiles are all finished!

The communications post. As close to a sacred thing as the city has, this complex with several underground levels houses the only equipment on planet capable of sub-space transmissions. While every ship and more than a few houses have local transmitters, they only send over short distances and at a glacical pace if you intend to message someone outside the current solar system, unless you can get to a space station with a sub-space array.

Most of the locals couldn't afford to send a message of course, but it's vital to the governing body in it's dealings with Unity and various factions from the fringe and beyond.

This of course makes the compound very valuable as a target if the city was ever attacked as well, as the side that holds the complex are the only ones in contact with the rest of the sector, not to mention the rest of the fringe. 

 Like the rest of the tiles, the base has nothing glued down for maximum freedom when setting up alternate designs or just using a few tiles for smaller settlements.


I recently took to making a few more pieces of rocks to fill out any wilderness that needs more cover, since most of what I have is too small to make a difference when mechs come stomping about. Some nice spires and rocky outcrops could be used for other games as well, of course!

The set in it's entirety.

I chose to make the individual pieces high enough to partly obscure any mechs or monsters, so that they still fit somewhat with infantry and tanks next to them. this way they can provide some cover whithout being too big. Or so I think anyhow.

As you might have figured, the flat tops are not for looks, but rather practicality. This allows for them to be stacked, producing something somewhat badlands-like, with rock spires high enough to cover most of even a titanic machine or monstrosity.

But it's not all piles of rocks and houses in today's post, no sir! There is also no less than two trios of new mechs. I say new, but these have been sitting waiting for some paint for a while, and on a whim I decided it was time for more CAV mechs.

Going forward I have decided to keep the original designations of the mechs when intergrated into my version of the "Fringe-verse" of NWG fame, just to make it easier for myself.

The whole group, with a hovertank for scale.

The new arrivals for SADU's mech detachment, from left to right we have: a Starhawk VI, a Voodo and finally a Katana.

The Starhawk VI is a medium class mech, armed with a set of rotary cannons loaded with APIT ammo in each arm and a pair of missile launchers on top for added anti-air/armor capabilities. 

The Heavy Katana mech is slow but packs awesome firepower. Two dual-linked fusion cannons make up the main armament, with two missile launchers as back-up if any unforseen threats should appear. 

The Vodoo is another medium mech, faster but lightly armed compared to others of it's class. Made for scouting and flank attacks, the Vodoo has a pair of double-barreled cannons sitting on each shoulder as well as a chin mounted dual laser for protection.

 

Their principal opponent, the USS have also gotten some re-inforcements: a Falcon, a Regent and finally an Imperator class mech.

The regent is pretty small for a medium mech, but don't let that fool you. It's speed and agility lets it outmanouver larger mechs, and from close range it's rockets and multi-barreled guns can do a lot of damage.

The Falcon is something of an odd mech, falling into the higher end of the medium weight class, but carrying a complement of weapons a fair bit heavier than most of it's size. The railguns on it's shoulders can punch out smaller mechs with ease, and even put a dent in a enemy heavy. 

Bringing the total up to two, the newly arrived Imperator will join it's brother mech in the USS ranks. A heavy mech with two particle cannons, it's thick armor and powerful weapons makes it a slugger to be feared. 

As you might have noticed, I haven't had the time to put together a shot of the entire set of tiles. I hope to rectify that soon, and have my first game of Horizon Wars, and quite possibly Mekatac, on that very same board.

Til next time!

New terrain tiles; Numbers 6, 7 and 8 completed!

We can start to see the light at the end of the tunnel!

With these three tiles done, there is only one left to finish up the originally intended nine, making a 75cm x 75cm set of city tiles.

Tile 6, designed to be a housing sector. My original plan was for this to be a disorganized slum, something like the above photo. Since all buildings are removable like the other tiles, it could be made into a another type entirely if I so choose.

The blank tile. The roadway can't be moved, but it still allows for a variety of choices when setting up. 

Tile 7, the bussiness/high-end district. The highrise on the right is still missing it's roof-top sign and the one above the door is blank, as I haven't yet decided on the name for the banking corporation.

 Just like the others, the tile can be reconfigured with other buildings to make it more versatile.

Tile 8, a shuttleport. Basicly a small landing pad and a combined Aerospace traffic controller/customs building, containing all the necessities of both terrestrial and orbital flight, including decontamination and planetary customs enforcement. 

The tile can of course be cleared like the rest.

The landing pad. Made from plasteel and ferrocrete (cardboard and plasticard), the design is a standard across much of human space due to it's ease of construction and maintenance.

The ATC/Shuttleport building. Making sure that passengers are both comfortable and safe from all the dangers of alien contagion while making sure no restricted items or substances enter the city. This is just a small local facility, usually used by bussinessmen and officials to get into the city, while a bigger main spaceport able to accept dropships and orbital shuttles is usually found outside the city limits.

I don't have a good sized shuttle to go with the pad, but I'm thinking about rectifying that as well.
Construction of tile 9 has started, with a building compound almost completed, even though I have yet to start painting. Hopefully I'll have the whole thing ready in a week or so, and then it's high time to start fighting through it!

Til next time!

The last set of structures for tile 6

Today's title is pretty self-explanatory I should think.

While I was working through how to best construct pieces of Tile no 8, I finished up the last set of small buildings I got from Sayiner Micro Toys a while back.

 The whole lot.

 These pieces are technically not part of tile 6, as they are more military/governmental in nature. But since I managed to complete them around the same time, they were included in todays update anwhow.

 A missile silo or launch platform. Is it the entire thing, or is this just the part visible above ground? Who knows..

 This crane can be part of any sort of operation requiring heavy loads, but combined with the big building underneath it can become part of a maintenance/repair depot.

 While it can certainly be a stand-alone structure, I will most likely be using this as a repair shop together with the crane above. Even in the future things break down, so this is were people of the city can come to get big pieces of malfunctioning machinery some needed maintenace.

 These small modular houses are a slight step away from the brigade buildings I usually use, helping to give the slums a more jumbled look. The domes on some of them help tie the stuctures together somewhat, and the different color facade also make these structures into a mini-block of their own if needed.

I set up a quick game using the Mekton Z RPG rules for mecha combat, and I have a few photos and thoughts on this in my next post. And of course more stompy robots :)

Til next time!

Back from Japan

Since it's been a little more than a week since my return from the land of the rising sun, I thought it's high time to get back to my various projects.

But first I feel I should share some choice photos from the trip, most of them related to mecha:

While these probably won't feature in any games due to their towering size, I thought I'd share them anyway for any mecha fans out there:

On the hobby side of things I have soon finished up the pieces for tile 7 of the new terrain board. Tile 6 has now got a few more structures, more than I can fit on the tile I'm pretty sure. But they'll come in handy somewhere! 
 I have started to pick out some minis to be the fighting units for some new formations for my USS and NIJA factions, since you help but be inspired to play with more mecha after a visit to their homeland ;)

While away I also picked up a few 1/100 scale Frame Arms mecha, that I hope to use with Mekton Z to stage some deathmatches and team battles in a similar fashion to the Solaris 7 games from Battletech or Battling from VOTOMS. More on that, and some pics of the stars of the show in a post to come.

That's all for now, Til next time!

Update; Terrain boards WiP, space mechs painted and painted new mechs

My is attention being pulled in all sorts of directions right now and therefore I've decided to make a single update post today, showing off the current state of things on my workbench.


First up is the terrain tiles and some of the buildings for them:

Most of these are intended for the south-eastern parts of the slums, which will be the next tile to be completed. 

The grey tower is part of tile 7, a business and commercial district. As usual the Zephyr infantry stands in for scale. 

Unlike the rest of the buildings shown, these are not from brigade, but rather home made pieces cast in plaster. While they aren't as pretty as the brigade ones, they look a bit different and adds a feeling of shoddy and haphazard placement and style to the slum.

The 6th tile with some of the buildings in place for a possible layout.

The same tile without any buildings, letting me decide on layouts and even function from game to game, just like the other tiles.

The 7th tile. So far there is only the brigade tower here, but I'm working on a few highrises to fill out the gaps.

 The same tile without the tower.

While I haven't had the time to do more than a cursory test of the space movement mechanic for Horizon Wars, I have managed to find some time here and there to paint up the scratch-built mechs I made for this project. 

Technically some form of exoarmor or large power armor in 6mm, I intend to use the mech rules for creating the statlines for them. There are also carriers being constructed for both forces, but I haven't finished either of them to the point that I have much to share just yet.

First we have the NIJA SADU exoarmor:

Inspired by Ma.K, these suits are retro-looking, but don't let that fool you. Even though the Class one and two exoarmor looks like an ancient design, they are stuffed full of modern sensors, weapons and defensive systems. 

The class two is the main fighting unit. Both taller and wider than the class one, these suits are less specialized and easier to use that the first prototype. Advanced ceramic armor with self-sealing nano-foam protects the pilot, while the right arm carries a high-powered pulse laser to defeat enemy armor.

The first unit to be taken from prototype to full production was the class one. Smaller and more advanced than the later class 2, these suits are given to more experienced pilots as they are harder to handle. Using the same type of armor as the C2, the C1 does carry a advanced ECM and is armed with a higher intensity laser cannon compared to the line unit. This, together with it's smaller size,  is quickly making it a favorite among special forces and scouting units. 

While the SADU's exoarmor project is impressive, their current adversary, the USS have not been idle:

Working with their bigger terrestrial mechs as a blueprint, their engineers have managed to create two fighting suits of their own. Roughly the same size as their SADU counterparts, the USS designs are much more traditional in nature.  

The USS line model, the Trooper exoarmor. A versatile unit, designed to handle any number of situations. Covered in advanced composite armor and armed with either laser or kinetic rifle, the trooper can put up a fight against even the best the NIJA has to offer.

Backing up the line units are the Brute exoarmors. Bigger and with a significantly bigger powerplant, the brutes carry heavier versions of the trooper weapon systems, as well as upgraded ECM, heavier armor and improved sensors. 

 Primarly employed to thoughen up regular units, it's not too uncommon to see them converted to command suits. Some agressive commanders have even been known to deploy all-brute formations to crack particularly hard targets.


Last but not least, I have managed to finish up the paint on the first two of some mech I built a few weeks back:

The mechs, with a Zephyr unit for scale as ususal. I painted them up for the SADU (on the left) and Burke's Iron Men (on the right).

A bigger mech inspired by the Battletech Marauder. Composite armor panels add extra protection to the main body, while the two dual barrel energy cannons slag enemy armor.

Staying in the walker-style of mech, the second mech is also a big one, but more of a hodge-podge of design ideas from all sorts of sources (Battletech being in there, of course!). With a missile launcher and a long-barreled energy cannon, it's a versatile fighter.


So that is what I had for you today. I'm hoping I might finish at least one of the spacecraft before I leave for my vacation in two weeks, but seeing as the new Legend of Zelda was just released, we'll just have to see how far I get..

Til next time!