[Frag]¶
Board and Miniatures¶

The first four models with washes applied:

The green and violet model with highlighted player colour:


[Frag]¶
Board and Miniatures¶

The base colours are done, as well as the first washes.


[Frag]¶
Board and Miniatures¶

Small change in plan. I will finish the following four models first:

The rest of the models will be divided into two 8 man groups, one will be the blue team, the other the red team.


[Frag]¶
Board and Miniatures¶

I started to paint the miniatures. I started by painting the suits of the EM-4 Troopers in Vallejo 70.836 London Grey. I worked on 8 models, as I only have 8 of the clamps.

The next step was to paint the body armour in the player's colour. This I painted at the same time on the EM-4 as well as the orginal Steve Jackson miniature.


[Frag]¶
Board and Miniatures¶

Prime night! I basecoated both the Steve Jackson as well as the EM-4 models by airbrushing Vallejo surface primer black 28.012, now they are ready to be painted.

In the background you can see the Hirst Art molds, the plaster drying from the latest cast.


[Frag]¶
Board and Miniatures¶

While casting the molds 1-2 times a day to build up the needed number of squares, I removed the mold lines from the EM-4 miniatures in parallel.

I will not use the backpacks supplied with the models, as these fighters are not on a campaign, but on short arena fights. This leaves them with big holes in their backs, though...

To cover these I printed the following quite simple geometric forms on slighty thicker than usual paper

and glued two stacked pieces to each back to represent the body armour.

For the planned way to base the models, the bar below the feet is not helpful, so I removed it. Insted, I inserted a paper pin in one foot of each model. They will first be used to hold the model while being painted, later cut down and used to secure the model in the base.

The paper armour was then sealed with gloss varnish, before rinsing the models in warm soapy water to remove any casting residues.


[Frag]¶
Board and Miniatures¶

The weekend before last, I was on Norman's Stag Night, where I talked to Marco who told me about this nice, funny and quick game simulating PC shooters as a boardgame while we talked about the hobby we share.

I really just wanted to take a look at it online - but some clicks later I had bought a copy.

And found to many additional rules - like the capture the flag mode. For this type of game, the miniatures provided with the game might not be enough though - so I would need some more. I was always fascinated by the troopers from EM-4 Minitatures, but they never fit any of my projects. Now there was my opportunity...

Boardgames are optivally boring - flat, just coloured paper... A 3D board is so much better. Enter Hirst Arts Molds. I own quite some of them by now, and played around with some of the 1" floor molds. When placing the walls in 3D as well, they need some kind of broader foot, otherwise they will fall over. So I would need larger tiles, the 1.5" ones, so that the wall foot as well as the base of a miniature fit into each square. So I ordered some of them, enough for the flat floor squares as well as a mold for the power up fields, transporters and respawn points.

Thank you Marco... just another project I have no time for... ;-)