OGRE's mini Blog

Hey, guess what? I'm the Montreal (Quebec) Regional Champion for Dust Tactics!

Here's my winning Allied army :

From top left :
-Rattler
-Wildfire
-Pounder
-Ozz 177 & Grim Reapers
-The Boss command squad
-Rhino & Tank Busters
-Gunners & Johnny One-Eye
-Death Dealers

Fun event with great opponents at a wonderfull shop (Gamers' Vault). It was a three round affair in which my Allied force prevailed against two SSU heavy armies and finally one Axis air supported Kampfgrupp. The last one was practically a tie at 43 vs. 40!

Not sure I'll use that World Championship Weekend pass though, but I do appreciate the medal and dog tag.

So, been playing a lot of Zombicide lately. Recruited my daughters to paint the minis They loved the 3D part of the freeform edition I made (see previous blog post), but the game plays a lot smoother with the original rules... so I started to make the original boards in 3D.

Here's what mission #08, from the original rules, looks like :

Yeah, I know, still with crappy quality pictures

Notice, also, the little additions like painting the yellow ring on the runners to spot them easily. All boards will be decorated to the standards of the 3C, respecting the original themes whenever possible. I made them slightly larger than the originals : 12''x12'', and they're stackable for easy storage.

Inside, with the furnishings

The base is ¼'' MDF cut to 11 15/16'' squares. Roads are 3'' wide with a 1'' sidewalk... and, yep, the walls, floors and sidewalks are made from 3/16'' (4mm) foamcore. The walls are 2¾'' tall and the doors are cut as 1''x 1¾''. Doors on a full tile side wall are centered 3'' from each corner and on a partial side wall (corner buildings) are centered 2'' from the building front and the tile corner. All other doors and interior walls are approximated. Don't forget to position doors from every room to each street section it touches. The sidewalk and interior floors are glued after all walls. This leaves a 3/16'' crack at each door threshold... hope you kept those scrap pieces of foamcore you cut off for the doors. Just sand them down a bit so they can easily be re-inserted back. You can use them as doors or windows to block off unused openings by painting them accordingly. You just stick'em in that threshold crack and squeeze them into position and they'll hold by friction. It's the simplest way I found to make the doors.

Interior finishings are a mix of http://www.worldworksgames.com and other sources, but my super-helpfull ace-in-the-hole is : Tommy Gun. The best place to find his free stuff is on his new site http://www.modelpaperworld.com/en/ . Check him out, you won't regret it!

Eventually, I might make roofs or second stories for my buildings as I'm also going to use them for Dust Tactics...

It's been a while since I put up anything... Been doing little projects, like completing the church you'll see below, and playing with my daughters.

I set-up a little Zombicide game using my Freeform rules (see below) for my daughters. The aim of the game is for Scooby and the gang to reach the hospital's second floor. Spawn zones at each street end and behind the hospital.

The police cars and building entrances can be searched.

And here's my house rules for Zombicide Freeform :

AFTER ACTION REPORT :

Dodging the zombies is a bit too easy... Will have to modify the Freeform rules : If in contact with a zombie, you cannot move away. It grabs and gnaws at you until it is eliminated.

I've been wanting, for a while, to assemble a contemporary city board for modern horror/apocalypse gaming. It's coming along...

A mix of Ziterdes, Bachmann's Plasticville, Dust Tactics and a little bit of Pegasus Hobbies' Gothic building set #2. The Church should be finished by next week. The asphalt is actually... asphalt! It's a left-over roll from my roof.

The aim is to make a neutral XXth century urban setting for any period from WW2 to 2000. The Hospital will have to go, of course, if I'm to make a historical WW2 setting... This is only half of the planned surface. I'll be making ruins from cast pieces of the Dust building (the grey one) to fill out the second half.

Always loved these things, but a lot of them are ridiculously expensive... it's just mdf, after all. These guys, though, seem to be a great bunch. There prices are rather good I think and make these quick construction kits affordable. Plus, they offer special client project production. I'll most certainly try them out eventually.

http://demoslaser-cutdesigns.weebly.com/index.html

I converted my Dust Allied Heavy Combat Walker to, what I think is, a more practical version. I took two 40K IG side weapon mounted armor to make the top housing for my weapons. For this to fit I had to reposition one of the .30 dual MGs. The cannons I mounted on wooden dowels that fitted snuggly in the opening. For the front, where the cannons used to be, I put a visor for the driver. Of course, I changed the decals from MCW to HCW with a few well placed drops of paint

At least, now, it fits within the 4 squares... almost.

Nice little Dust Warfare Allies build at 150 pts. (I really need to find myself a better photo set-up)

The Boss w/ additionnal ressources
Johnny One-Eye
Recon Boys
Death Dealers
The Gunners
Steel Rain

Got this mini from Dust, he's supposed to be a U.S. Lt smoking his cigar. The original head was a mess : bad casting and too much primer. So I decided to modify it. Added a belt and holster + stuck a 40K IG officer head and drilled in a rod for the cigar... If only my painting skills could match my crafting skills.

Had fun with a old AT-43 walker I found real cheap...

Also a winky at SSU players : seems the ruskys are having a hard time with their new walkers

So, had a little time to amuse myself. First, I tried to make up rules to represent fighter-bombers in Dust. Will try this one out to see if it's sort of balance...

And then I finished up this little project that had been lying around for a bit. It was originally meant to be an objective piece for WW2 gaming, but the container just didn't fit... not sure when exactly intermodal containers appeared, but I'm pretty sure they weren't around Europe in WW2. But, for Dust, an alternate history with higher tech, I figured it would fit in nicely.

Again, my excuses for the crappy quality of the pictures.