Monolith-Con III - Apes of Wrath

Hi All,

Last report from Monolith-Con. I think we were winding down at this point. Apparently I forgot to take pictures so this is a short one.

Kill team is an interesting game, but if you don't like status counters it is not for you. I liked that you knew exactly what you needed to roll to hit, no more Ballistic Skill charts, but all the special rules were a little hard to remember to use. The cards make it easier to reference, I just mostly forgot to use my command points all together.

Anyway, enjoy.

Thanks again for looking and commenting.

Probably be a lot of year end wrap up and prep for OWAC in 2019 if I can find the time to blog.

Monolith-Con III - Imperial Rebel

Hi All,

In this battle report I was in charge of the objective in a game between Lopez and Blue. It was a fun little diversion. Hopefully they will write reports of the battle from their perspectives. Mine was a little short and missed a lot of the action.

Thanks for looking and commenting. I think I have one more for the weekend.

Monolith-Con III - Bounty Hunterz

Hi All,

A fun Venator scenario. Little did Abdul Goldberg know he would meet an imposter. (Impostor?) Why does that word seem to not look right no matter how you spell it?

Any way, Enjoy.

Thanks for looking and commenting.

Monolith-Con III - Ambull Safari

Hi All,

I got to run my Ambull scenario again for the guys. We used some home made counters and I got to break out all the plastic Ambulls and monsters I had painted up.

We tried using knock out grenades to subdue the Ambulls, I'll let you decide if it worked.

The idea was to try and collect the most VP's of Ambulls. Live (5), shot up (3), indiscernible hunks of meat (1). The Knightmare Ambulls were worth double.

Enjoy.

Thanks for looking and commenting.

I'd like to welcome Alex Joker to the blog. Besides this blog he reads some pretty good ones, thanks for adding me to your reading list. If you have a blog, let me know and I'll link it.

Monolith-con III - The Siege of Chateau Crane Tombe (Castle Graveskul)

Hi All,

This was the epic battle we played on the Saturday. 10 hours but it didn't feel long like some 3rd ed games can. Lots of action all over the table. You may be able to read other accounts or the lead up to this battle on the other participants blogs. Give 'em Lead, Governor General of Sector Six, He of Three Names, Blue in VT.

On a technical note, I used my cell phone and then processed the photos in lightroom. To get the "comic" look I wanted I decided to use the photoshop Poster Edges filter and bumped the exposure as needed. Anywhere from 0.3 to 0.5 of a stop.

It was a little more work but I think it achieved the look I want without overpowering the figures.

Enjoy.

We have all decided to not be overly concerned with adhering to each others fluff. We try to use the appropriate character names to give credit but where it goes from there may be totally different.

Monolith-Con III an overview

Hi All,

Just a quick post giving you the gist of the games we played last weekend. You can also see what airbornegrove, Blue in VT, Bulldog Lopez and Maj. Guiscard each have to say about it. But they're probably lying.

I neglected to mention that Maj. Guiscard made everyone those sweet commemorative plaques. I made a Monolith for him.

Next up will be the massive 3rd Ed battle, it may take me awhile to go through the pictures though.

Thanks for looking etc.

Terrain Tuesday 8 - Monolith quick build

Hi All,

I got back from Monolithcon last night and thought I'd fill you in on how I built the Monoliths this year. As you may remember I built some for the guys last year. This year we had two new people, so I built them again with one new thing.

Let's take a look.

I started with some pieces of styrofoam that I had saved from some packaging.  I cut them 4" tall.

They are about 2.25" wide and .75" thick

Next I used .25" foam core for the base. It's not the best basing material, but I have a bunch of old foam core on hand. I also want this to be light and fairly cheap, so I'm keeping it to what I have on hand. I cut it 4" long.

I cut it about 2.5" wide.

I then cut another layer 3" long,

and 1.5" wide.

I beveled the edges and rounded the corners of all the foam core with a 9mm snap blade cutter.

I then cut tooth picks to a length I wanted with the wire cutter on a pair of pliers. A touch overkill, but it worked. I lost one piece when it bounced somewhere after cutting, so be careful.

Next I punctured holes completely through the top piece and into the top of the bottom piece. You can do it with the tooth pick, but it's easier to do with a metal object. Just be careful not to stab yourself in the hand trying to push through the paper.

Looks like I forgot to show, but put the tooth picks through the top layer with the points up and the cut part sticking through. Those cut ends will stick into the holes in the top of the bottom layer. Then the styrofoam will be stuck down onto the tooth pick points until it is flush with the top layer of foam core. All of this will be stuck together with PVA glue. I used Aileen's Tacky glue.

After I gave that a chance to dry I covered the base in spackle as well as a couple of dents and chips in the styrofoam. The spackle was lightly sanded after drying and then I did my normal ground work. In my case that means spots of natural sand texture gel and spots of PVA with a mix of sand and different sizes of railroad ballast.

The next step, I again forgot to photograph, was a layer of Hotwire Foam Factory Foam Coat on the styrofoam. Last year I used only mod podge to seal and harden the foam before painting. I bought the Foam Coat for use on my Mighty Fortress and I wanted to try it out on this. I did a 3-1, powder to water, ratio and it was a little hard to brush on at that thickness. I also learned, and was later confirmed by Bulldog Lopez, that Foam Coat only sticks to itself and Styrofoam. Nothing else. So don't use spackle to fill your styrofoam.

Anyway the Foam Coat does what it says on the tin. Makes it hard and sandable. I then painted everything black and then drybrushed on Charcoal, Rain Grey and Drizzle Grey. The last picture looks a little weird because I edited it so you could see the surface of the Monoliths better.

An easy project that I did while waiting for other things to dry. Any tips you want to share or questions you have, please leave a comment.

Thanks.

Also a welcome to Miguel Guillermo. I think he may go by the handle Skully. If you have a blog please let me know.