Dust Tactics: Custom Terrain - Ruin

This custom terrain piece represents a collapsed structure for use in Dust Tactics.

The in-game rules are exactly the same as for the two small rubble pieces. Infantry can enter, and count the rubble as cover, however walkers and other vehicles are unable to occupy any of the spaces.

As this terrain piece occupies 4 squares on the board I wanted to make it look even more like a collapsed building so I separated each of the four quarters so that each looks a little different from the last.

Once again the terrain piece is on a 6mm MDF base with camfered edges on two corners, with the other corners modelled to look like the remnants of collapsed walls. I added a wooden floor to one section and the a tiled floor to another.

Dust Tactics: Ruin

 I used a combination of foam-core off-cuts, lollipop sticks, grit and gravel and a variety of things from my bitz box, including an old 40K barrel and a Mordheim window to finish it off.

Simple paint-job with a spray undercoat, light dusting coat, stippling, ink washes and dry-brushing. The final paint finish was completed at the same time as my Rubble bases to ensure they looked at least a little similar.

Dust Tactics: Ruin, Alternate View

Dust Tactics: Custom Terrain - Rubble

In comparison to many other tabletop games ther ares relatively small amounts of terrain required to play Dust Tactics.

There are a few scenarios that feature 'Rubble' spaces. These are spaces that represent collapsed structures or destroyed 'blocking terrain' (Enormous Tank Traps, represented by card counters in the basic set).

A Rubble space does not block line of sight. It can be occupied by infantry but not by walkers or other vehicles. I wanted them to be a sound representation of collapsed structure and still allow up to 6 miniatures (a unit of 5 figures plus a hero if need be) to be placed on them.

This terrain was made using a base of 6mm cambered MDF square with an assortment of foam-core off-cuts, lollypop sticks and sand/gravel scatter PVA'd into place.

Dust Tactics: Rubble Marker 1

Dust Tactics: Rubble Marker 2

Both pieces were painted using a combination of spray undercoat and a light spray 'dusting', ink-washes, stipple and dry-brushing.

They were pretty quick and simple to make in between other projects whilst waiting for other pieces to dry etc.

Dust Tactics Rubble Markers

Dust Tactics: Printable Blocking Terrain from TopoSolitario

I have an idea for some custom blocking terrain for Dust Tactics.It is still going to take some time (and effort) so rather than simply use cardboard counters in our games we wanted to use as many 3D elements as possible. I'd made up a few old GW buildings and we had quite a few additional terrain elements such as crates (both Dust Tactics crates, Tank Traps and other plastic/resin elements but we needed more.

Dr Google was our friend and we found these lovely printable elements from TopoSolitario

They are nice and easy to make models, I simply printed them directly onto some card that was thin enough to use in the printer, ran a sharpie along any 'exposed' edges and glued them with Heavy Duty Pritt Stick.

TopoSolitaro Printable Dust Tactics 3D blocking terrain in use.

There are plenty of awesome downloads including loads of Sci-Fi and near-future suitable items

Check the rest of the paper models out here at TopoSolitario

Incursion 3D Playset - A Splash of Colour

Getting the first base coat down on the Incursion base felt pretty good last week, so this week I mostly spent a little time adding some colour to the board.

Incursion 3D Playset in progress

Ink washes, sponging, stippling and dry-brushing in a variety of colours.

I'm pleased with the outcome so, next comes the really fun part... the detailing!

Incursion 3D Playset - Progress at last!

It has been ages since I've last posted anything. I know, I suck!! It is partly because I've been so busy with other things in my life, and when I say partly, I really mean that's the only reason. Quite simply, I've not made the time for any tabletop gaming or related hobby.

Work, kids, looking after a big old house, working out, running a couple of businesses and other hobbies (LARP for the most part) have simply got in the way.

I've missed the man-cave.

Having spend most of my creative juices building armour and costumes lately. I miss the smell of acrylic paint!

Last weekend I finally spent a few hours clearing out the man-cave. I was pretty ruthless and chucked out a load of old rubbish that was getting in the way and I was 'Saving, just in case I needed it!'

A few hours of cathartic bliss and a few film scores later, I finally made room to work on an old project once again.

I started an Incursion 3D playset back in November 2013 after being inspired by Herrodadog's 3D Board.

So at last, I got the first paint of coat on the base of the gaming board.

Incursion 3D Playset: Dust Tactics miniature for scale

Damn it felt good!

Baby steps!

Incursion: 3D Play Set - Fenris Games and Scratch Built Cave in Markers

As a welcome respite from building the two Incursion game boards I've been throwing in a few objective markers and other counters to keep things interesting along the way.

I purchased a set of Fenris Games Incursion Objective Markers, see these previous posts for my Zombie Pinger and Doomsday Device. As they fit the theme perfectly.

I happily painted away and when I had finsihed I put the finished Cave-In marker straight onto the 3D game board only to immediately realise it simply didn't look right. The Fenris objective markers are designed to fit on the 40mm printed game board and as I up-scaled the board (so that I could get miniatures in and out easily) the Cave-In was simply too small to reflect an actual cave-in any more; whoops!

10 minutes are finishing this one I went to work on my own, slightly larger, version.

It's not as good as the Fenris games one and in retrospect I would have stuck the top n onto a larger base and simply filled in the gaps, but it does the job.

Dust Tactics: 3D Gaming Board - Frozen Water Boards WIP

The Victory Bridge campaign that comes with the Dust Tactics: Revised Core Set is focussed on a series of encounters in and around a key crossing; Victory Bridge.

Although I actually played through this campaign when I first starting playig this game using the map tiles the water features the maps depict and the bridges do feature in other campaign seenarios. So to go wiht my Dust Tactics 3D Game Board I wanted to make sure I had all the resources to play those other scenarios too.

I looked through the scenario maps from all of the campaign expansions I have (I'm missing just a few of the newest ones) there appeared to only ever be two water boards shown in any of the scenarios.

Dust Tactics is primarily winter themed so I wanted something to reflect that, so a quick few google images seraches and I quickly decided that ice floes fit the bill.

For simplicity's sake I used the same methods I had already been using. Having played around with cork tiles quite a bit recently I thought I might as well make use of the materials to hand. I'd already made up two standard battened 6mm MDF boards to match the others in preparation, so all I had to do was get a smooth (ish) finish and then start sticking 'random' irregular pieces of cork onto the board.

Ice Floe Board. WIP

The plan is to paint the whole thing white, with some pastel aquatic water shades washed/blended into the ice itself, and to use blues and green (gloss varnished) on the actual water.

Incursion: 3D Play Set - Part 5

So with both Incursion gaming boards marked out and most of the floor tiles in place I went to work on sorting out some walls to give the board it's true 3D feel.

I stuck to a pretty simple method of using foam-core and wood glue, pinning as I glue and removing the pins once dry. I picked up a set of dressmaking pins for making LARP costumes and have honestly found as much, if not more, use making foam-core buildings. I suspect using expanded polystyrene or solid foam insulation might have been quicker, but once I'd started, I deceided to finish it that way.

Walls shown in situ. 40mm based miniature for scale.

It was fun for about the first 3-4 blocks, then it got a bit tedious, perhaps because there was so much ahead. Many weird world war 2 soundtracks were played and many cups of tea were drunk in the making of the rest of them.

I kept the height of the walls to 50mm, with an additional 5mm top. sat on the same surface as the cork tiles, so total actual height ended up around 53mm. Just high enough above the height of a standard model to feel like a wall but not too high so I couldn't get my fingers in to move them around.

Incursion: 3D Play Set - Part 4

Having decided that I was going to use cork for the floor tiles of my Incursion game boards and started work on them, I soon realised that covering the whole board in the same sized cork tiles might leave it looking a little 'samey'.

The Cork floor tiles look great, especially for these detail parts, but over the whole beard, became a bit dull.

The floors depicted on the printed game boards change from area to area and. I decided that following the board more closely and changing the floor coverings would give the game board much more visual appeal. It seemed a bit of a shame to go back over some of the tiles I'd already done, but once I had the idea in my head I just went with it. Incursion's two game boards are different so I retained plenty of cork floor tiles on board number 1, number board 2 got a slightly different treatment.

Lots of cutting out card tiles and lots of PVA. The little bit of curving in the card soon settled.

This certainly wasn't a quick process but it was quite enjoyable all the same. It also allowed me to work in some 'transitions' between different areas on the board, more noticeable on board number 1,  and to delineate some of the rooms.

Incursion Game Board 2, floor almost finished.

Incursion: 3D Playset - Fenris Generator Control Panel Objective Markers

My Incursion 3D Play Set project is slowly smoldering away in the background and seeing as many of the components can be used for Dust Tactics too it seemed quite reasonable to me (that's my excuse anyway) to get some more of those elements done too.

Fenris Incursion Generator Control Panel Objective Markers

These Generator Control Panels are used for Scenario 6  from the Incursion rule book 'AC/DC' in which the Allies are engaged in an all-out drive for the Axis Command Centre and the Doosday Device.

The objective markers are available from Fenris Games who obtained permission to sculpt and market them as an 'official' Incursion product. They cost just £6.50 for all 5.

They were a simple grey spray undercoat, base coat of olive drab and citadel wash. The dials were hand painted with a black wash base and a simple two colour highlight before adding the black dial.

Fenris Incursion Generator Control Panel.

They make nifty objective markers for Icursion and fit perfectly with the aesthetic of the  Dust Tactics universe, so they'll see plenty of use.

Dust Tactics: How to Make a Custom 3D Gaming Board

Following on from the teaser reveal last week of my custom 3D Gaming Board I made for Dust Tactics. Here's a step-by-step to guide on how to build your own. This technique is relatively simple and could be used to make a variety of urban, sci-fi, or post-apocalyptic gaming boards (I would like to use this technique for my Judge Dredd Miniatures board). It was pretty quick, easy and relatively cheap.

Dust Tactics Custom Gaming Board, Finished and In Action

Whilst the whole project was undertaken over a series of months, in terms of actual time spent it could really be done in just a few weekends.

Dust Tactics is a board game and. in the Dust Tactics: Core Revised Set, you get a poster sized play-map. The artwork is what you'd expect from a modern 2D gaming map, high quality, thematic and quite generic. Great to get you started but after a while it seems a little bland.

To variety to the gaming surface, the Dust Tactics: Terrain Tile Map Pack adds 12 double sided terrain boards. The terrain board set essentially adds a different theme to the gaming map, the tiles themselves do not change the basic game mechanic, i.e. they don't for the most part (with the exclusion of water) add significantly different terrain effects. It is however, very shiny. Industrial themed, layered colour variations, worn, stained concrete, direction markers and rusty panels.

Dust Tactics Terrain Tile Set

The Dust Tactics maps and terrain boards feature squares that measure around 93mm. I increased this very slightly to 95mm for ease of measurement. Each tile is 3 squares by 3, but for ease of setting up a table I made sections of 9 by 3 squares. I also made just one section of 3 by 3, to help with certain scenario layout configurations. I didn't change the size too much, so that the Dust Tactics: Warzone Tenements (designed to fit the standard map) would still fit pretty well and not look out of place.

The base of the board is 6mm MDF, batten on the outside only. I use the three drill method, Highly recommended. What's the three drill method? One drill for drilling holes, one drill for counter-sinking and one drill for putting the screw in. I made my first terrain board in this method with a single drill and it took about six hours. I made all these boards with three drills in just over two hours. The Drills I picked up were part of a Ryobi Cordless Rechargeable Drill Twin Pack.

The only picture I could find was the one I took when I made my first terrain board, slowly... with a screwdriver.

The whole board was then covered in cork tiles, cut down to 95mm squares. Every tile had a bevelled edge created with a quick sanding.

Keeping the tiles even was actually trickier than I anticipated.

Gluing the tiles onto the boards (wood glue) and retaining a good fit all the way along was a little difficult (expansion in contact with wood glue perhaps?) and a few had to be cut down (just a mm or two here and there).Since finishing this project I have found a much quicker way of doing this (on some dungeon terrain tests), which I wish I had known about. Cover the whole board in cork, mark the squares and then cut with a sharp knife at a 45 degree angle along both sides of the line, the bevel pops out easily, much quicker and far less effort. Every day is a schoolday!

First three boards, a standard 9 by 9 game size, unpainted, with rubble terrain WIPs.

Once I had a few under my belt is was simply a case of knuckling down and getting it done.

I base coated the top edge of the boards with a dark grey primer and then primed the whole board with a medium grey house paint emulsion. Rather than trying to dry-brush (which as anyone who has tried it, can be challenging on a large flat surface, I kept the base-coat relatively light.

Undercoat with grey house paint emulsion.

Following the first coat I ran a quick diluted coat over the top in the same grey, this filled in the few spots that got missed on the first pass and also gave some areas a patchy, stained effect.

Panted board, with patchy effect, before colour was added.

To ensure there was more colour variation across the board, I split the board into 3 by 3 sections, using a straight edged mask and here and there, began sponging on colour variations. This was simply a case of choosing a variety of greys, browns, ochres and even some blue and green (more subtle) and after a few tests I stipple sponged on the colour. I added a few smaller squares (hatches or patches on concrete) for more variation.

To add to the industrial feel a drew up some stencils of directions and hazard markings on plain white paper and once again (this time using white, black, red and yellow) sponged on the markings.

Sponging on the markings

Once all of the main colouring was complete a ran over the whole board with a VERY light dry-brushing in a much lighter grey, literary just enough to catch the corners of the squares.

Dust Tactics Custom Gaming Board: Finished, without terrain.

All in all I was very pleased with the result. I have a few more specific pieces to make, two open water boards, one submarine and some customer 'blocking' terrain pieces. The table is likely to get a public outing  as a friend of mine and I are putting on a Dust Tactics display game at the Eastern Front Wargames Show on Sunday 27th July 2014 in Norwich.

Dust Tactics Custom Gaming Board: In Action

Dust Tactics: 3D Board & Custom Terrain

I really enjoyed painting all of the models from the Dust Tactics: Core Revised Set.

I painted them over a relatively short period of time whilst I was living away from home, so I was something new and exciting to keep me sane whilst I was away from my family.

Being away from home so much, starting a new full time job and running two growing businesses was taking it's toll, so from a gaming perspective I needed something simple, quick to play and simply something different to hold my interest.

I played a few test games which we really enjoyed. Dust Tactics has quite a simple core rule set. It is essentially a grid based board game with miniatures and the rules, from my experience, are not really 'open to interpretation' in most cases. There are individual rules that are specific to certain models or troop types and as the game has grown so have they, so for me personally there's enough to keep me on my toes, but they are really not too complicated to slow play, or leave me confused after a busy day.

The best part is, as the rules a relatively simple, you can actually play a few reasonable sized games in a few hours. So if you're prepared and ready for it, in an afternoon or evening, you can actually play a whole 6 game campaign, something that the designers of the game do beautifully with the Dust Tactics Campaigns.

Like it often does, an idea hatched; How about a 3D play-set? Yeah I know, I've got a few on the go at the moment. Grid based, modular, easy to store, less likely to shift around that a paper mat and most of all, pretty. The images used for the campaign books are such an inspiration and I was confident I could do something I'd be pleased with. Here's a teaser. The eagle-eyed reader might also spot a few of the additional models I picked up and painted in the last 6 months.

Due to logistics, the project actually took a long time to work through (over 18 months), but the actual time spend on it was remarkably small. I just had to be very patient, as sometime I literally only got an hour or two a month.

The main boards are all done, I just need to work on completing of some of the terrain elements and some special boards so that the play-set can be used for almost every game in all of the campaign books.

I've taken pictures all the way through the process, so I'll pull together a series of 'How to' posts if that's of interest to anyone.

In place of the in-progress custom terrain elements I'm working on, I've used some papercraft terrain elements from Marcos from TopoSolitario.com. Well worth checking out as he's created some fantastic terrain elements for all sorts of modern and sci-fi themes.

Incursion: 3D Play Set - Part 5 - Doomsday Device

Another one of Fenris' Incursion Objective Markers.

This one: The Axis Doomsday Device!

I've done this for my Incursion Playset but once again, it'll be great for a objective marker in Dust Tactics or any other Weird War II game as well.

It certainly makes me feel like we're doomed. Simple black undercoat, silver dry-brushing, copper detail, wash and some decals. The logo on the right hand side of the model is a simply printed onto paper and glued onto the model after it was matt varnished.

I'd also like a give a quick shout out to fellow blogger Simon Hunter of Project Zeke Miniatures who is undertaking a 24 Hour All Things Zombie: Final Fade Out marathon for charity with fellow gamer James Brown of Hive City Terrain.

The 24 Hours of ATZ is being held in a suitably apocalyptic location and takes place on the 5th-6th July 2014 and is all in support of The Sick Kids Friends Foundation.

Want to show your support? Check out the Safe House facebook page and get in touch or donate over at the Safe House JustGiving Page.

24 Hours of ATZ? That'll be at least 12 Batreps then? :) Good luck Simon!

Dust Tactics: Tank Traps

Similarly to the ammo crates, in most standard games each player gets to deploy one tank trap anywhere this is no other terrain feature.

In game terms; tank traps prevent a vehicle from entering a square and provide hard cover for infantry.

These are the plastic ones you get with the Dust Tactics: Revised Core Set.

Nothing complicated here, grey spray undercoat with a white spray dusting, gentle wash on the base and them a dry-brush before matt varnish.

You get a few more with some of the other scenario sets although there are very few scenarios in Dust Tactics when you actually need many more than two.

Incursion: 3D Play Set - Part 4 - Zombie Pinger

Slow and steady steady progress on the 3D board. I'll post some more pics soon. I got a little distracted and decided that some objectives were in order.

I also thought they'd work great for Dust Tactics, double win!

Fenris Games make a superb set of Incursion 3D Objective Markers, so they were a bit of a must.

The first one up is a 'Zombie Pinger'

Black undercoat, silver dry-brush with copper and grey highlights. The small decal is a leftover from a World War 2 Axis kubelwagon.

Dust Tactics: Ammo Crates Size Comparison

Following requests from Joe, aka Zabadak and Bob Kinnear on my previous post Dust Tactics: Ammo Crates, here's a size comparison with a few miniatures.

Crate beside a Dust Tactics Ranger

 The crates are 23mm x 23mm x 50mm. Dust Tactics is definitely 'Heroic' in scale. The figures are pretty chunky, especially the weapons.

Hasslefree Ken, Crate and Dust Tactics Ranger

You get one of each of the crates in the Dust Tactics: Revised Core Set and I have picked up most of the additional Dust Tactics: Operations (campaign and mission packs) some of which also come with additional crates.

A few creates from my Dust Tactics play set.

There are 3 types of basic crate available, Allied, Axis and SSU. I don't currently have any of the latter.

Dust Tactics Ranger and Crate stack.

Dust Tactics: Ammo Crates

Dust Tactics makes a relatively limited use of terrain. In most standard scenarios each side gets to deploy just one ammo crate in a square where no other terrain is placed. The ammo crates provides 'Soft' cover.

In theory you could use any terrain element, a tyre stack, oil drums, rocks, crates, a fallen tree, sandbags etc.

These two ammo crates come with the Dust Tactics: Revised Core Set.

Simple enough to paint, undercoat, base-coat, wash and gentle dry-brush. Decals added (leftover from an old WW2 model kit) and then a quick coat of matt varnish.

Incursion: 3D Play Set - Part 3

Rome wasn't built in a day... but I'm pretty sure that the Romans did a little bit every day... so that eventually they got quiet a bit done.

 Slow but steady progress is the order of the day for my Incursion 3D Play Set.

I want the game board to have a very 3D textured feel so the floor tiles start out as Cork Floor tiles from a DIY store. I've seen cork floor tiles used very well for a number of things, so I picked up quite a few packs to set me in good stead.

The edge of each tile will be sanded down so there is clear definition between spaces on the game board.

Incursion: 3D Play Set - Part 2

Slow but steady progress with this. Not a great deal to talk about as the process is pretty self explanatory.

I simply marked out the grid and then filled in the blanks. The hashed areas are where the 'block's, or walls, will go. I up-scaled the board a little, so that getting the 40mm DS based figures in and out of the terrain wouldn't be a problem.

I managed to get the second board done, so here's the two individual boards joined together.

Incursion 3D Play Set: Both boards in planning stage. Miniature for scale.

There's a long way to go, but it's definitely taking shape. The miniature is for scale. That's a 40mm DS based miniature down there.

I also started downloading some graphics ready to use on the interior. Such as this. It'd be rude not to.

Incursion: 3D Playset - Part 1

Not much to report on this recently, as I'd mostly been doing stuff related to the 7th Annual Festival of Zombie Culture.

Incursion 3D Play-set

However, here's an update on the Incursion 3D play-set.

I decided to go for a battened board on MDF, the same as nearly all my other gaming tables, because it is a technique I am familiar with an it should suit the scale and format.

Board 1 - Stage 1

This is simply the first board marked out on battened MDF. Early days, but it's a start.