And Now We Return To Our Program...

Well, that was fun.  Slightly unexpected break due to a trip to New York plus some studying for work but that is done now! Huzzah!  And it doesn't look like the break hurt my stats too much either as people are still be misdirected here.  Just because I called it the Sin City Dispatch doesn't mean that there are those kinds of pictures here.

And I'm still not a trucking company either.

So next week things should be getting back to normal?  Kind of?  There is the New Year thrown into the mix as well but we are planning on hitting out LGS for their New Year board game day so that should be a great way to ring out the year.  Until next time...

Workbench: It's Harvest Time!

I sat down and cracked out some more terrain pieces and the outpost is really coming together.

In particular I like how the farms have turned out.

The crops are mounted in groups on bases so they can be removed to make positioning minis easier.  I was going to mount the plants individually but decided that doing rows of plants would be more easier to make and move around as well.

I also finished the roofs for the small and large hab units which really tied these pieces together nicely.  I'm still debating on signage for them but for now they are good.

Speaking of signs, I did put the Porta-Mat sign on the back of the transmat and then dirtied it up some.  A pretty minor thing but I like how it breaks up the flat surface on the backside.

Of course you can't have a farm without having an old farm truck.

Nothing too fancy but I thought it would be a fun touch.  On the back is one of the storage containers I'll be putting together.  For those who might not recognize it, it's the case that replacement blades for a Harry's razor come in.  I had been thinking about adding some plastic card to it but I might just slap a coat of paint on it to see how it looks.

I still have some more buildings to get painted but I'm going to finish those off next week.  That said I really like how it is all coming together from a visual point of view and the overall density of the cover as well.  Having things to break up line of sight is important in Antares and I'm looking forward to push around some miniatures again soon.

I need to pick up some storage totes to better store and transport my pieces but then I'll be shifting gears back to working on my minis.  It's been a couple of months now but I think that this has been a really good break for me.  Now the question is which faction should to look to expand first...  Until next time...

Workbench: Beam Me Up Imtel!

Short week this time but I was able to throw together the transmat for my outpost.  I was even able to get some paint on it as well.  Behold the latest tool for the up and coming colony outpost, the Porta-Mat!

I followed through with the cargo container concept (it's the new C3 everybody!) but this time there was a slight twist.  Instead of having it as a refurbished container, my idea was that this unit could be dropped onto a planet and quickly unfolded into a functional transmat.

I have also picked out the "crop" for my container fields but I left some of my materials back at home so those will have to wait until next week.  Slow but steady progress is still progress after all.  Until next time...

Workbench: Babylon Binge And The Outpost

This week has been all about Babylon 5 and working on my outpost.  Normally I think I'd feel guilty about sitting down and watching a 23 episode season of a TV series in three nights but this time, I feel like I've been really productive.  In fact, here is what I've done this week for my Antares outpost.

The outpost buildings along with other terrain pieces I've been working on.

As can be seen, I still need to get paint onto most of the pieces but they are all fully constructed complete with roofs.  As I've mentioned before, there are no interiors for these buildings but I should be able to make some modular units that I can slide into the units if I really wanted to.  Thankfully the rules for buildings in Antares are kind of abstract so the interiors aren't needed.

Beyond the buildings that I've already touched on, I came up with couple of new pieces in the form of a contained field of crops.

Some friendly Ghar coming in town for the farmer's market.

I'd originally seen these as going onto the second level of one of my hab clusters but for now I'm using them as free standing pieces.  I also added a piece of foam core along the bottom of that I can use for "soil" although it would be easy enough to swap it out for another function as well.  Ultimately all of the hab modules are meant to be... well, modular.  The idea is that they can be positioned in a number of different layouts and environs.  Really trying to maximize how functional it is.  It's going to be an extended long weekend for me, but I'll have to see how much I get painted once I get back out here.  Until next time...

Workbench: Two Habs And A Landing Pad

I was able to get some more work done on the outpost and though its been slow and steady, I really like how it's pulling together.  The changes that I made splitting the adhesive foam sheets along the corners is working well.  I'd been concerned about the gap between the joins in the foamcore being an issue but it has been working out very well.  As I mentioned, hot gluing it would be an option so that I could keep the foam sheet in one piece but its one that I'd prefer to avoid if possible.  So far so good, but I still plan on pacing myself so I can adjust my methods as I move forward.

Though a transmat will form the hub of the outpost, it only makes sense to have a landing pad as a backup and it's also a nice visual element.  I'd thought about leaving the surface of the pad plain but it covers such a large area so I'm glad that I decided to break it up instead.  It would be easy enough to put some scatter terrain such as crates on it but the seams and repairs on it help to keep the surface visually more interesting.  The platform itself is also raised up on a hill and the barrier along the edge gives cover, making it a good objective or defensive position.

I also put together most of a second extra hab pod.  For this design, I decided to go with a longer pod and place the door in the side of the unit instead of the end.  Overall I'm really happy with how it turned out though I still need to add a roof.  Eventually I will probably add more details but for now it gives me a very serviceable building to add to the board.

The warehouse/hanger and a second long hab unit are still in progress but as I mentioned before I'm trying to refine my methods on each piece instead of rushing in headlong.  In the past I've gotten too ambitious and found that my methods weren't working as I'd hoped, ultimately discouraging me and then I just walk away from the whole project in frustration.  Going with this slower route, its letting me identify and correct problems as I go.  This is definitely more time consuming but I feel like the end results are really paying off.  Until next time...