Core Space: Scavenger Hunt - The Set Up

After the fiasco on Arcturus, the Ebon Fox was left worse for wear. Money is tight and with Purge moving into the sector, making an "honest" living might be difficult. So what's the next best thing? Scavenge from the dead. After all, they aren't going to need anything where they've gone.

For this mission, I decided to do something completely different. Instead of going after a station, I decided to make things interesting and have my crew of "good Samaritans" investigate a wreck that they discovered. Introducing, the Sparrow.

This is a small trading vessel that makes runs to various outposts and colonies. Or at least it did until the Purge arrived. It wasn't clear what had happened to it but Kylan and Riva picked it on their sensors floating dead in space. The power was still running but it would just be enough to keep the lights on. There was some structural damage but it looked intact and still had an atmosphere. Best case? There might be a survivor on board that needs rescuing. Worst case? Maybe there are still some goods onboard that they could help get back into the supply chain.

For this mission there is yet another special map. The last mission had a whole bunch of civilians and this one... well, that's the surprise. Unlike a normal mission with the Purge track, this mission is safe from the typical wandering monsters. That doesn't mean that they won't be part of the story though.

Instead of having civilians starting in fixed positions with the Purge showing up at random entry points, this is exploring an enclosed environment. There was a crew of two onboard, a few random items, and maybe something else?

First to pick the civies. In this case, I decided to use Dolin the trench and Mara the techie. They both are pretty average characters so I think they will do nicely. Beyond that... well, the rest is going to have to wait for next week. My thought is to create two or three possible scenarios for what happened on the Sparrow. Is the crew alive? How badly damaged is the ship? Is there anything else hiding on the ship?

Lots of variables to figure in but I wanted to at least throw out a teaser for what's to come! Be sure to come back and we'll take a look at the fate of the Sparrow. Until next time...

Core Space: The Heist On Arcturus Station - The Aftermath

We talked about the set up for the mission, then ran it through the paces. The question is how successful was it?

From a mechanical point of view, it felt like it worked pretty well. I wasn't sure about delaying the arrival of the Purge to a narrative point, but I liked how it all fit together. There was enough pressure to get out but still the ability to get some stuff before heading to the hills. It wasn't in the pictures, but Kylan was actually down to two health at one point so pretty close!

So where to start... how about all those civilians! I was worried that it would be too much going on but most of them were static for this mission. I did decide to give Delmar the delivery man at route instead of having him wander aimlessly, but that just made sense.

Dolin also had a static position until he was approached by Kylan. The idea was that once the contact passed off the information, he would want to make himself scarce. Of course that also assumes that I could actually make a Persuade roll for Kylan to get the data! I liked the narrative that evolved from that though so that works out as well.

The Purge arriving from one side of the board did mean that they were the giant stone from Indiana Jones, pushing the crew out of the station. This felt right though as I imagine the Purge vessel latching onto one location. They were still a threat and the crew wasn't able to just poke around and grab things so that feels like a good balance as well.

So how about the things that they grabbed? This was my first test with using the goods dice instead of the weapon tokens as normal. In this case they rolled up pretty good, totaling 11UA in value. To add a "role play" aspect to this, one of the crew is chosen to go out and sell the goods. How good they are at doing this is determined by their current Skill stat, just like when you try to persuade an NPC. The more successes you roll, the better the value you are able to collect. Makes sense, right?

    0 successes: There aren't any buyers right now. Things are too chaotic, or the goods are too eclectic... however you want to spin it, but the goods are left sitting in your hold.

    1 success: You get the "fair market value"... meaning whatever you rolled up on the dice. Better luck next time!

    2 or 3 successes: You are able to talk up the value some, raking in half again the value of the goods... rounded down, of course.

    4 or 5 successes: You have managed to double you money, you smooth talker! Nice work!

Of course it can't all be good! If you roll two or more "misfires", then things have gone pear shaped. Something about the items you are selling has caught the attention of the Authority and it is confiscated! Loose the highest value die but apply any other results as normal.

With all this in mind, let's see just what Kylan is able to wrangle for their 11UA of goods. Rolling three dice for his skill and... two hits and one misfire! The captain is able to talk up the value at bit and comes back to the ship with 16UA for this ship's coffers. Nice!

Now do they want to buy or sell any regular gear. Besides the goods, the crew also picked up a combat knife and a crafted short sword. Since Zhong the cyber samurai is one of the custom characters I'd made up, I figure I'll keep the sword but sell of the knife. Looking over the options that are out there, Kylan will pick up an enhanced military pistol. Nice and compact but still able to potentially reach out and kill someone. What a great combination! This drops our bank down to 8UA.

Next up is hiring new crew members. The other two custom crew that I made up are either 13UA or 17UA to hire permanently, which is out of my price range right now. Just for grins, I shuffled up the crew that I have available and pulled out five... and they are all a bit pricey so no new crew members. On to the maintenance phase!

And that's when Murphy strikes! Ouch! During their flight to get away from the Purge overrunning Arcturus Station, the Fox took some structural damage and the life support system got a bit taxed when the station's CO2 scrubbers shut down. She's still operable, but definitely worse for wear.

And there we have it! Overall... I think the switch from weapons in boxes to stuff works, at least for me. It was also fun to throw together a logical map; there were sleeping quarters, a market, a maintenance bay. It felt much more like a living space than some of the other maps I've seen. Now the question is, what's next? With the Fox getting to be worse for the wear, it looks like it might be time to scavenge for some ship parts. After all, no one will miss parts from one of the derelict ships left in the wake of the Purge. What could go wrong? Until next time...

Core Space: Heist on Arcturus Station - The Playthrough

With a thunk and a hiss, the airlock of the Ebon Fox attached to Arcturus Station.

"You remember the plan?" the bear of a man known as Kylan Hesketh asked as he holstered his Outland pistol. It would be nice to have something more reliable, but for now they just have to make do.

His partner, the diminutive Riva Doan, tossed her green hair as she rolled his eyes. "Are you serious, Kylan? It's not that complicated; find Dolin, get the codes, grab the goods, and get out. Now are you going to open the lock so we can get started?"

A smirk played across Kylan face as he slapped his hand against the airlock release. "Alright then Riva, let's go get us some credits."

Kylan and Riva make their way onto the darkened station. There is still a buzz of activity even though the station has ticked over to the night cycle.

As the crew make their way from the docks to the market, the delivery man moves to finish his route for the day as an augmented canine wanders around looking for scraps.

Kylan casually strolls through the market, heading towards his contact. Dolin the trench is known for being able to get anything for the right price, and this time the price is perfect. He owes Kylan a favor, and this is the perfect time to collect. "Dolin, my friend!" Kylan booms as he approaches the weaselly man.

"Sorry Hesketh, I've got places to be. Can't chat now!" Dolin says as he slips away.

Damn it!, Kylan thinks to himself. As he follows the man, he looks around for his partner but Riva is no where to be seen.

Meanwhile, Riva opens one of the sleep spaces off the market. Hmmm... Nobody home, she thinks. Let's see what I can find...

Heading into the dimly lit room, she notices a cargo container in the far corner of the room. Bingo! Checking to make sure no one is looking, she cracks it open and finds some quality goods inside (mechanically it was a 4UA roll on the goods die). Stashing her prize away, she heads back out into the market to find the captain.

Kylan breaks into a trot as Dolin tries to get away by heading into the other sleep space. "Come on now Dolin, fair is fair. I helped you out when Shovar was after you, time for you to pay up."

"Alright, fine! Here, take the passcodes but you didn't get them from me, understand?"

Kylan takes the datacard from the man with a nod and a wink. "Absolutely Dolin. Always a pleasure doing business with you."

Now where did he go... thinks Riva as she approaches the terminal outside the cargo bay lock. Hmmm... looks pretty basic. Maybe we don't need Dolin's info after all.

"Riva! What are you doing?" Kylan hissed as he walked up to the terminal. Riva was bent over the terminal running through the displays.

"You weren't here and I was. Might as well see if I could get us a head start." she said and the terminal buzzed at her again.

"Guess it was a good thing I was able to get the info from our friend." Kylan said with a smirk as he slotted in the data card. The locks flipped to green, there was a hiss, and the door to the cargo bay opened up. "Easy, right?"

And then the sector alarms rang out.

"What the Hell did you do?!?" Riva yelled over the alarm.

"That wasn't me." Kylan said as he worked the terminal. "It's a proximity alert. Something is on a collision course with the station. What is that... Uh oh, that's a Purge scavenger vessel! Quick Riva, grab the goods and lets get out of here!"

Without a word, Riva ran into the bay and threw open the nearest crate as everyone started heading for the the transports to get off the station.

"Jackpot! There's some good stuff right here Kylan, get in here and grab some!"

"I'll grab the rest." Kylan said to her. Dolin dropped something when he was running for the transport. Go see if it's any good!"

Kylan grabbed the rest of the supplies from the crate, only to look up into the glowing red eyes of two harversters.

I'm going to regret this, thinks Kylan as he runs over to another crate and cracks it open. Damnit! I'm risking my life for a knife?! "Riva, I could use some help in here!"

"Get out of there!" Riva shouted as she ran back and opened fire on one of the harvesters. The bullets struck home but bounced off its metal body.

The two harvesters scamper towards Kylan with inhuman agility and swing at him. He dodges under one blow but the other harvester gets a glancing blow on him. As he curses under his breath, an explosion sounds from another part of the sector and the lights briefly flicker.

"What the Hell was that?" Riva asked.

"They must be attacking the power systems in maintenance. We need to get out of here!"

Riva covers him as he runs out of the cargo bay, and together they are able to drop both of the harvesters as the sound of energy blasts rang out near by. "Hear that Riva? There must be a devastator here now. Head for the Fox!"

With the Purge closing in, Riva and Kylan ran through the empty market. The could hear more blasts coming from Oblivion's Edge but they were able to keep their distance from the approaching machines.

"Disengage the lock! I'm getting us out of hear!" Kylan yelled as he pounded towards the cockpit. Riva sealed the lock and with a thunk released the magnetic ring holding the ship to the station. She slumped down on the floor as the Fox rocketed away and dropped into core space. There's gotta be an easier way to make a living.

And there we have it! Was the mission a success? Did the mechanics I threw in make any sense? Just what the heck did Kylan and Riva find in those crates? We'll find out soon! Until next time...

Core Space: The Heist On Arcturus Station

Finally time to play some Core Space again, but for this one I've created my own map and scenario, complete with a bunch of special rules. Why? Why not! So let's dive into the heist on Arcturus Station!

The map for Arcturus Station

For this mission, the crew of the Ebon Fox are going to try to line their pockets with some goods liberated from a cargo bay. The door to the bay is locked but the Captain knows a guy that knows the code... and maybe he'll actually share that information! There are rumors on the Purge closing in on the station but surely those can't be true, right?

The "market"

For this mission there is a special map that I put together. The Ebon Fox is docked at the bottom of the board and their target is the cargo bay on the other side of the board. In the middle of the board is a small market which is also where the crew will find their contact, Dolin the trench. Also in the market are two stalls, one manned by Sundr and and the other by Mara Chaldr.

The Oblivion's Edge

On the right side of the board is the Oblivion's Edge, a club that employs Zolla-13 and is currently being patronized by the fixer Luya Faetala. There are also two other civilians that are in the sector, the delivery man Delmar Inarta and the cyberdog Skitz.

That's right, there are seven civilians in this mission! And to keep it "simple", they also have special rules. Delmar and Skitz both move freely each turn as normal. Zolla will also move each turn but she will not leave the Oblivion's Edge... at least not yet.

Dolin the trench will remain where he is until the crew persuades him to share the codes to unlock the cargo hold, but they only have one shot at this. Once they have talked with him, Dolin will start to wander around the station, moving each turn just like a regular civilian.

The cargo bay terminal.

Once the crew have the code, they can open the cargo hold door with an effortless action. If they somehow didn't get the code, then they will have to hack the console next to the door to open it (this is an easy task and only needs one success).

And this is when it hits the fan.

When the door unlocks, alarms start sounding on the station as a Purge scavenger vessel has dropped out of Core Space and closing to dock with the station. Once the alarm sounds, the hostility tracker is set to 5 and there is a chance for the Purge to arrive each turn.

Maintenance room...

...the cargo bay...

...and the storage rooms.

There are three locations the Purge could arrive; storage rooms on the right side of the board, the cargo bay in the center, or in the maintenance room on the left. If the Purge arrive in the maintenance room, they will attack the conduits and the CO2 scrubber. If the conduits are destroyed, all of the doors will remain either open or closed and no longer function (all of the doors start in the closed position). If the CO2 scrubber is destroyed, then all of the non-Purge on the board will start to suffocate. At the end of each turn after it is destroyed, roll a red die for each living creature. On a hit, they take one point of damage that ignores armor which means that the civilians will start dropping like flies.

The emergency exit.

Once the alarm sounds, all of the civilians will start to head out of the sector. All of them will move twice towards the exit which is located on the bottom of the board next to where the Ebon Fox is docked. As soon as they reach the edge of the board, they are removed and will no longer be part of the game.

If an Event card is drawn that activates the civilians, then they will follow the instructions on the card and then continue moving towards the exit during the NPC phase.

But wait, there's more!

I've also switched out all of the gear tokens for goods dice. When the traders crack open the crates, there probably won't be weapons in them. Instead they will have some kind of... stuff... that will have a random value. As soon as the goods die is found, it is rolled and has that value. What can you do with them during the mission? Nada! BUT... you can sell them Trade Phase... more on that later.

If any of the civilians are killed or die before they leave the board, remove the mini but place a random piece of gear where they died. This gear can be grabbed by the traders for an effortless action as normal. There are two exceptions to this, Sundr and Mara Chaldr. When the alarm sounds, they will spend their first action to grab the goods out of their respective crates and then start moving towards the exit. If they are killed, they drop both a piece of gear and a goods die.

And there we go! Loads of moving bits and pieces to keep track of so I'm sure that something will slip my mind once the action starts, but I'm excited to see how this narrative plays out! Until next time...

Core Space: Getting Into Some Characters

Since I picked up all my new cyberpunk minis, I figure it's high time that I actually wiped up some stats for them in Core Space.  The thing is, while there are rules for making characters, its a little vague as far as what is... well, average?  To try to figure this out, I broke out the character cards that I have.  First things first, every crew needs a captain... and I honestly think that this was the easiest one to make.

I see captain Kylan Hesketh as a bear of a man from a life of hard knocks, so I used Weaver as a starting point for his stats.  I dialed down his skill points by one, dropped combat expert, and made close assault 1 as his secondary ability.  Kylan is a former gang member that has broken from his criminal past and is trying to make an "honest" living as a trader.

Now for the crew.  I'd planned on stating them all up but I think that for now I'm just going to focus on the second crew member for the beginning of the Perseus Campaign.  In this case, the crew is Riva Doan.

Looking over the base crew cards, most characters start with four health, four skill points, and an array of nine career points spread between two or more commonly three levels.  In this regard, Riva is pretty much bog standard.  The only difference is that when you build characters, you have to start with two career points while most of the out of the box characters only get one.  Not a big deal but it does mean that the point value for custom characters are going to be a bit higher.  As for her background, Riva was another member of the gang that Kylan was part of and she decided to follow his lead when he jumped ship on the gang.

This gives me what I need to start the campaign though I want to incorporate some of my new civilians into the story as well.  I won't post all their cards but we have Mara Chaldr the techie, Sevia Nakamola the corporate, Dolin the trench, and even Skitz the cyberdog.  I'll probably tweek their stats once I play a few games with them but this is good enough to start!  Now to get them to the table and see how it works out.  Until next time...

Week In Review: More Frosty Core And Murder Hobos!

And another week is in the books!  The question is what did I manage to get done this time?  I'll admit that it feels like less than last week but this is also my 5e week which does take up part of my schedule.  Even so, I'm feeling pretty happy about the progress I made so let's take a look!

BrushFu For Core Space

Two more for the horde.. of random civilians!

Picture is a bit washed out but hopefully you get the idea

These last two are a corporate and a kid.  Only logical for a cyberpunk style game, right?  You've gotta have a corporate in the mix somewhere for things to be truly cyberpunk, and the kid just seemed like a fun addition.  This model is also available on a hoverboard which could be an interesting twist as well.

And that takes me up to nine civilians... or workers?  Since I have Black Star Rising, I can throw that little twist into the game as well, which I think will add an interesting depth to the game.  And as for the miniatures, I really like them.  These are printed by BrushFu Studios, but the sculpts themselves are from Papsikels. I love the variety of the sculpts that they offer, and I've really enjoyed painting up the minis that I've purchased.  I can't help but notice that the first batch I'd received seem to be larger than the second batch.  I kind of wonder if they might have been 32mm instead of 28mm but either way works for me.  If anything it gives them a mix.  After all, we aren't all the same size, right?

That said, it felt like the details were easier to pick out on the larger figures which makes sense in the most basic way, but it seemed like the sculpts are probably designed to be printed at 32mm height.  The 28mm still look good, things just seem to get a bit cramped on them which makes sense.  Think of a river running between two mountains.  At one height, it is clearly there but if you move higher up the detail of the river starts to fade until it becomes a meaningless line between the two ridges of the mountains.  Now translate that analogy to a fold between pieces of clothing and hopefully you can see what I'm getting at.

Next I want to mix things up a bit and grab some aliens.  There's a collection called Novus Landing which has got a great mix of civilians, bounty hunters, merchants... I think it'll add an interesting dynamic to the whole collection.  The store that I'm looking at for these, Resonating Prints, lists all of these minis as being 32mm so I want to see how they compare with my current collection.  Plus I'll be honest, I'm just having fun painting up all of these civilians and populating an imaginary world.  How can you have a fight in a bar without their being anyone else around?  Or in a market?  It just doesn't feel right so adding these characters just feels right, even if they just stay in the background.

Devastators for Core Space

Back in the beginning of the year, I put paint onto my Purge for Core Space.  I'd painted up the harvesters and devastators in the same color thinking that they would be easy to tell apart.  After playing a few games... yeah, not so much.  Instead, I decided to fall back to the original color scheme (at least partially anyway) and I repainted my devastators red.

And man are they red!  The Menoth white that I'd painted them with was a perfect base.  I'd thought that between the off white color and the shade that was on it that the red would be darker but this definitely works.  I did consider painting the heads white but I like the way these pop.  Really need to get this game to the table again soon, especially with all the new minis.  Really need to make some stat cards made up for them soon, or at least rework the ones that I've done.  The captain seems to be about right, but I think some of the crew need to be toned down a bit.  Might work on that this weekend.

Auril the Frostmaiden for D&D

I also wrapped up painting the three forms of Auril this week as I got paint onto her third form, known as the Winter's Womb.

Compared to the other two minis, this one felt like the details weren't quite crisp enough.  They are still there, but no where near as pronounced as the ice shards on the Maiden or the fur on the Crone.  This is also the smallest of the minis which is saying something as the other minis already seemed kind of small.  Even so, they were fun to paint and interesting change of pace for me.  Plus, they led to me picking up another trio of minis but I don't want to post about those yet.  I don't think that my friend even knows about my blog, but I don't want to spoil the surprise in case he does.

The 5e Waterdeep Murder Hobos

Last but not least, we had our biweekly 5e session and man did it get dark!  We've really been trying to stay clear of the law but this week... yeah, it's gonna be rough.  There was a gang fight that quickly escalated ("What do you mean we are doing non-lethal attacks?") followed by a visit to a shopkeeper.  My connection lagged out when we went to his shop, and when I got the connection back a couple of minutes later we were killing him.  Ummm... okay?  I guess?  Thankfully we have several players that can heal.  As long as he didn't take enough damage for an instant kill, we should be able to salvage the situation... maybe...

And that about sums it up for this week.  As I mentioned, I want to work on stating up some of the Core Space characters so I can get that to the table again next week.  Plus I have some terrain that I need to put together for my next Five Parsecs scenario...  really feel like I need some canals for this one... so we'll have to see what I can get together.  Until next time...

Random Updates: So... That Was A Week...

So I got back out to the field, and started painting like crazy.  The BrushFu minis had come in, then Black Star, plus a friend asked me to paint his Auril the Frostmaiden minis...  I'd even put together a post with pics of the stuff that I'd painted but... yeah.  Just wasn't happy with them.  Very flat and just blah, ya know?  Really uninspired so I just set the blog aside for a bit to think about things.

I realized that I was pushing to get the painting done so I could post pictures of what I'd painted, but they were just meh.  Honestly I thought about just putting the blog on hold for December while I figured things out.  Once I stopped focusing on the blog and just painted... well, it seemed to go better.  So for a while, I'm just going to switch to posting on the weekends and do more of a recap.  Just feels like it will be a better fit, so let's look at what happened this week!

BrushFu For Core Space

At the beginning of the week, my BrushFu minis came in.  Huzzah!!!  With the first order, some of them came with bases as part of the print but this time they were all loose.  I kind of wondered if that might be the case so I ordered ten cyberpunk bases so I could keep that basing scheme going through these minis.  Not only did I get the ten that I ordered, but they also included enough extra bases for the minis that bought with this order, which I thought was very cool!

As for the prints themselves, they all looked very clean and crisp again.  I was a little worried because one of the minis didn't have a head, but then I found it in a ziplock by itself.  With that panic sorted, I grabbed the glue and got to basing.

The first two minis that I painted were the droid waitress and the techie.  The initial paint scheme... yeah, they just didn't work.

The color combo on the techie wasn't bad but she just needed more, and I wasn't sure where to go with it.  The droid on the other hand... yeah, she was a failed experiment.  My initial thought was to go for a tarnished and worn look for her since she's a droid out on the frontier.  Maybe she wasn't serviced as often as she should be?  Maybe it's a lack of supplies?  Either way, she was just way too dark.

It was pretty disappointing because I thought that things were flowing better and these were just... well, crap to be honest.  I set them aside and decided to come back to them later in the week.  As I thought about it, part of the challenge that I was facing was the details are almost too fine.  Might be time to grab some magnifiers but for now I just decided to pull up the images from Etsy and enlarge them.  Man, did that make a difference!  This helped me identify some of the details that just wasn't seeing, and I decided to hit them for round two.

This time, I'm a lot happier with the results.  On the techie, I painted some of the base colors on her skin, top, and coveralls to add a bit more depth.  I'd initially only done the base followed by a shade, but I think that the extra base helped pull out the details more.  Looking at the enlarged pictures, I noticed the trim and belt on the overalls so I painted these up as well and I really think this helped.  No, it's not display quality but I feel like its perfect for gaming.

For the waitress, I tried to pick out her body panels with a bright gold that I have, but it seemed to thin to give good coverage, kind of like you usually find with yellow paint.  I could have built it up but decided to grab the cold steel instead since that has better color density.  A short time later, I had the raised and more shapely panels painted up and I like how they contrasted with the recessed spaces.  Her calves and feet are far more industrial in appearance, so I left those the original color.  Overall, I'm much happier with how these two ended up, and I think that stepping away for a day really helped clear my head and refocus.

Trollbloods Of Erehwon

In between the other projects this week, I also grabbed by impaler to get some more work on him.  Initially, I wasn't too pleased with him but then I started to pick out some of the contrasting colors and it really helped bring him to life!

There is still more to do with him (the bases, the tree trucks aka spears) but just adding the touches of the cloth wraps and the bronze trim add so much life to the figure.  I also love the two chickens hanging from his belt!  Just an example of the fun little details that the Trollbloods have.  This guy is gonna look great on the board with his two "crewmates" and I might have to paint up the other one just because!

Auril the Frostmaiden for D&D

A friend of mine is running the Rime of the Frostmaiden adventure for one of his many D&D groups, and he asked me if I could paint up his Auril minis for him.  "Sure!" I said, and then realized that I had no idea what I'd agreed to.  Thank God for the internet, right?

It took a few weeks for us to actually exchange the minis but he was finally able to get them to me last weekend.  I'd hoped to be able to get through all three this week, but the cyberpunk bump that I had really through things off.  Even so, I was able to rally and push through two of the three forms.

Her first form is known as the Cold Crone.  This was an interesting one to paint because of all of the rich details that are sculpted into it.  The ridges in the horns, the texture to the fur, the drape of the robe... all of these are very pronounced details so they just came screaming out of the mini when I painted it.  Love it when they make things easy like that!  The fur was done with three different shades which let me keep around the eyes darker so they could really pop when I painted them.  I do still need to give the claws a touch of black but overall I'm really happy with it.

The second form is the Brittle Maiden.  Again, the details on this mini are nice and crisp so washes and drybrushing were my friends.  I ended this with a thinned white that I painted onto the ends of the crystals to make the edges pops.  I like how the figure ended up but I've got to admit that I'm not that big a fan of the sculpt.  I get what they were going for but... I guess it just seems really clunky.  Not that I could have done better, it's just that compared to some of the other collector series minis GF9 has released, this one seems to be on the lower end of the quality scale.

I still have yet to tackle the third form, the Winter's Womb, but since it's the smallest of the three I will be able to knock it out this week.  Heck, I could have done it today if my supplies weren't down south but I really don't want to get into hauling all of my painting stuff back and forth every week.

And there we have it, the week in review!  Think I'll start calling this segment that in the future but I'll stick with Random Updates for this one.  There might be the odd post that I throw up during the week, but for now I am going to shift my focus and just be posting on the weekends.  Until next time...

Core Space: The Black Star Is Rising

While I'm waiting for my new cyberpunk minis, I decided to take stock of what I have to look at making them into characters for Core Space.  While I've got lots of options, I really was feeling like I was a little limited in the options that I have.  The rules from the basic rule book are civilians and I was looking to make some of these characters more tied to some of the locations.  Based on what I've read, it sounded like the worker rules are what I'm looking for so I decided to bite the bullet and order a copy of the new Black Star Rising expansion.

Black Star Rising is one of the new expansions for Core Space and features rules for both workers and scavengers.  Instead of just wandering around aimlessly, it sounds like the worker rules tie the characters to a specific location so I really want to see how they fit in with the regular rules.  All told, I will have nine NPC characters just from my Etsy orders so I'm excited to see how they help to flesh out my universe.  On top of these figures, Black Star also comes with four more NPCs which means I'll have a ton of options between the existing crews, civilians, workers, scavengers... it's going to be just like its own little universe and I'm really excited to explore it more!

Now I just need to wait for Black Star to arrive... plus my Brush Fu minis (which have finally shipped!)... yeah, gotta love the waiting game.  Until next time...

Random Updates: More Brush Fu For Me!

I've been sitting on another order with Brush Fu Studios for a bit now, and since they just started a 20% off sale it seemed like the perfect time to pull the trigger on it.  In my first order, they were nice enough to throw in a bunch of cyberpunk bases which I really appreciated.  I wasn't planning on using them at first but I'm glad that I decided to.  Rather than just hope they threw in more freebies, I ordered 10 of them so I'd have them on hand just in case.

Next there is a droid waitress, a street kid, a techie, and a corporate woman.  These are all minis that I want to incorporate into my Core Space/Five Parsecs universe that I'm working on building up and they will be interesting characters to have floating around in the background.  The kid could be some kind of informant, the techie is a store owner, the corporate is a Mrs. Johnson, and the waitress... probably just for the background but she seemed like a fun addition.

The last two minis in the order just seem like they will be fun to paint.  One is definitely an homage to the Knight Sabers from Bubblegum Crisis.  Might not be too easy to incorporate into the game but I think it will be fun to paint.  And then there is the dwarf barmaid pinup.  She doesn't fit in with the rest (in case you didn't notice) but she amused me and she was only a buck.  Easy way to kick the total up to get free shipping so why not!

I'm still waiting on this order to ship, but I'm very happy with the other prints from Brush Fu so I don't mind.  I have another set of minis that I ordered as well which I'm currently working on, but more on those soon.  Until next time...

Random Updates: Aaaand... Done!

I did it!  I finished my Core Space minis!  Well, my new Core Space minis... still have some of the actual minis from the box to go but I'm really excited to have the last of my custom batch ready to go.

I really wasn't sure which way I was going to go with this character, but I like how he turned out.  Of course it might be pretty close to the original color scheme for the Tau Ethereal but I'm really not sure.  The colors just kind of spoke to me and it only felt right to listen.

And he's not the only one making his way to the finish line!  I finally actually painted a Teknes union worker and a defender lineman from Wrath of Kings!

I really hemmed and hawed on this one but the color scheme finally came together.  Blue feels like the best choice for their common color, and I'm looking forward to pulling more skin tones into the other works as well.  There is some repetition in the sculpts so I'm hoping switching around some elements of their colors will break them up visually.

I also decided to pull in grey for the clothing on the lineman to break up the colors.  I also painted some of the bands with white and threw in a little Rhulic gold to spice things up.

And on top of that, I broke out some of my Ork boyz to get some paint onto them too.  Well, only one for now but ya gotta start somewhere, right?

I'm trying to use a variety of different shades of green to add some diversity to the mob and so far it's working.  Here he is with a few of his buddies who I painted earlier this year.

There is only... four or five dozen more to go?  Plus a konverted Ork trukk, some kustom killer kans, some kopters... yeah, I've got a lot of Ork stuff floating around right now.

And last but not least, I also finished painting up Walker, the leader of my independent Zona Alfa team.  Here he is pictured with one of the recruits, Jonesy.

As I previously mentioned for Walker, he is a former member of the Institute and it shows in his kit.  The armor is mil-spec armor from the Institute and so is his battle rifle.  I did mix things up a bit though with his shirt, backpack, and sidearm.  All of these bits are done in different colors from the Institute's grey to give him a subtle difference.

And there we have it!  A busy few days painting and I'm really pleased with the results.  On top of that, I also took all these pictures with a new light box that I picked up from Amazon.  I was struggling with the camera settings to get things to appear as I was seeing them but think I've nailed it down... at least for now anyway.  Looking forward to working with this particular piece of kit more in the future, including a possible review!  But more on that later.  Until next time...

Core Space: Family Picture Day!

So I was hoping to squeeze in a game but time is tight.  Still wanted to post something and I've been thinking about the pics of my minis that I posted earlier this week.  They were close up pics and I'm the first to say that I'm not a display quality painter.  Could I be?  Eh... Maybe?  But I enjoy painting for fun so that's more than enough for me.  I don't do have bad painting for table top quality though so I thought I'd put up a pic of them in their "natural habitat".

The Core Space terrain makes for a perfect backdrop, not to mention general scenery as well.

Also thought I'd take a couple of closer pics as well.  In the first one we have our fearless crew... plus the Space Ex courier.  For when it absolutely, positively has to get there overnight.

And in the second we have our random NPCs... at least the ones that I have so far.  I want to do something to better define the top of the goggles on the vendor but overall I'm really pleased with how they all turned out, and they are definitely good enough for for table top quality.

Next week, I'll be bringing down my Runewars/Warlords of Erehwon minis so I can work on them some more along with my 40k orks.  Why 40 orks?  Well, we'll deal with that next week.  Until next time...

Random Updates: Space Ex Vendors In The Zone

Another week and more painting! Yaaayyyyy!!!  I decided to continue moving forward with my Core Space/cyberpunk/Five Parsecs minis and put some paint onto my courier and the knock-off vendor.

After looking at a few different paint schemes, I knew that I had to pull some inspiration from FedEx.  I really like purple and the orange accents just pop against it.  For now I've only put the orange onto the cuffs for now but I might put some onto the cap as well.  It's a little tight since his cap is backwards and I've already attached his massive pack.  Whoops!  Oh well, I like the other colors that I pulled in so he is visually interesting.

For my vendor, I tried to give him a sickly and pale skin tone.  I knew his trench coat needed to me dark with a fancy red lining, but I had no idea what to do with his body suit.  Looking closer at the detail on it, I was reminded of Baron Harkonen's body suit from the original Dune movie.  I painted it up with some jack bone and a wash to pull up the details.  This was a little monochromatic though so I picked out all the straps and such with some grey to break it up.  A few more details and ta-da!  One creepy vendor ready to go.

I also decided to grab one of my Zone crew and slap some paint on him, in this case Jonesy.  I went with your typical military colors of greens and browns, and even speckled his jacket with some camouflage.  Quick and dirty, but I really like how it turned out... now I just need to grab my basing material when I'm back home.  Once that's done, it should pull the whole thing together and make him look pretty sharp.

Of course I also remembered once I was finishing him up that I've been talking about doing the Southwest Exclusion zone... which is more of a scrubland than forested terrain.  Then again, this is one of the recruits... it would explain why he doesn't have more experience.  Want to survive in the desert?  Then don't wear green!  Or I might just hop right back into a more traditional environ for my zone.  All things to consider.

I plan on finishing off the last of my CS/CP/FP minis this week and then I'll have to see what else catches my fancy.  I might grab the nameless heroes I put together since those will be a really quick job.  I'm also putting together another order to BrushFu since I've been enjoying painting these minis so much.  This time, I'm thinking more of the cyberpunk bases along with some more civilians to throw out there.  I've got a good number of them now but I really like the idea of painting up some more.    Until next time...

Random Updates: Cyberpunk Miniatures

I set up the paint station and BOOM!  Instant painted minis!  Well, not really... but I've made some great progress.  I already had three of them mostly done, but I went back and touched up the bases to dress them up.  Pretty happy with the results as well.  First up are the new crew that I bought for Core Space.  I might use them for Five Parsecs as well but either way here they are.

I'd picked these four out months ago but hadn't finished them off.  These minis are quite a bit larger than the figures from the Core Space game, but I really like the aesthetic of them.  Still need to figure out the names and such, but this is a really good start.  I also get a kick out of the cyberpunk Aang on the left.  I hadn't noticed the arrow on his head or the glider on the back when I bought it but it's a fun little touch.  I'm pretty pleased with the bases as well.  The two with the black lip are separate bases that the seller threw into with my orders and visually I think they are a nice touch.  They are available separately now so I might pick some more up on my next order.

The other two that are finished are the first of my "bystanders"... and yes, one of them is a dog.

I think the lady will be a good Miss Johnson/informant and the dog... well, it's a cyberdog.  What's not to love?  I'm thinking maybe he can be like Ein from Cowboy Bebop.  There is another dog in the BrushFu shop as well, so I might have to get this pup a buddy.

On top of these these two, I have three more that are still in progress.

To the left is a courier, and I'm really tempted to go with FedEx or UPS inspired colors for him.  In the middle is your friendly neighborhood knockoff vendor.  What a watch?  He's got a fine cyber-Rolex for ya.  The last mini isn't a print, it's actually an old Tau ethereal miniature from... a long time ago?  I think he will work great for an alien priest of some kind.

I feel like I'm on a roll with these dudes, so I'm looking forward to working on the last three.  Plus, I'm already putting together another order to give me more narrative options.  I've also still got the nameless hero minis to get some paint on as well, so between all of that there should be enough to put together an interesting story or two.  Just need to figure out if I'm just going to use the Purge for the big bad or look for another option to give some variety.  Interesting things to consider.  Until next time...