Terrain pieces and recycling

This will be a slightly odd post, all I'll be posting has been seen on the blog before, but very long ago and in different shape. 

This is a collection of terrain pieces or tabletop accessories that I put together with previously discarded items or broken models. As some might remember, I moved back to Italy last summer and, although the move was fairly smooth, there were some casualties.

Whatever could be salvaged in some way was repurposed and turned into terrain pieces. I also have more old banners from our very early days as hobbyists that became baggage train decors and a few very very old fences that my brother built in the early 90s that after laying around and broken for over thirty years, were finally restored and painted, the principle being that anything that involved some work should not be wasted and turned into tabletop usable items.

Following you can see the eclectic mix of pieces that I repaired and painted for a whole different set of settings and games.

One of the casualties of the move, one of my beloved three winter Panzer IVs. The turret was caved in, it lost a few roadwheels and the tracks were broken in a couple spots, it was definitely not fixable, so I decided to put a ton of snow on it and use it as a piece of terrain in a winter setting of WWII.

 

These are the fences that IlVJ built circa 1993, there were actually more, but after traveling through different boxes, shelves and cabinets, this is what I could salvage. I based them and gave them a quick paintjob and they are ready for the table.

These are the banners from the first incarnation of my dwarf army, built between 1989 and the end of the 90s. Around 2000 I decided to strip them all down and repaint them (I still have 2 units and a catapult to complete). These were the banners that proudly flew over some of the units, now they will serve as a reminder of the old glories of Warhammer third edition on the background of future battles.

This was a 3D printed Daedalus industrial mech that someone from my Canadian gaming group printed for me for a campaign, its loading arm and a leg snapped during the shipping, it now sits as a wreck on the field of battle.

All these were completed on the side, while painting other stuff, so just came along as I was doing something else.

I enjoy giving a second life to little bits and stuff that would otherwise end up in the garbage, with a bit of work anything can be reused and serve a new purpose.

Dragonlance, Huma on Silver Dragon

 This model is part of a trade that IlVJ did with one of his co-workers years ago.

 It is a quite old Ral Partha model that we got already painted and I just wanted to touch it up, unfortunately one of the wings broke and it sat there waiting for almost fifteen years. I finally decided to repair and restore it.

I touched up the dragon itself and repainted the rider, the famous Huma Dragonbane from the Dragonlance saga. 

I also mounted it on a base that I decorated with rocks. I'm pretty pleased with the result, it turned out to be way more work than expected, but it was worth the effort.

Huma Dragonbane on Silver Dragon. 25mm, Ral Partha, refurbished by Ginzio

Terrain pieces

 This has been a slightly unproductive week, I've been busy with other stuff and I got stuck on restoring a model that is almost done and you will see next week that took quite a bit of time.

What I have this week is a set of hedges that come form some boardgame, I can't remember which (maybe Battlemasters?). They are basically 2D pieces with some shallow details, it took literally no time to finish them, not the greatest, but they are decent enough and, as per my usual policy, anything with some paint on is worth of a gaming table, so they'll add to the terrain collection which is never big enough.

The second thing I'm posting is an old banner that used to be IlVJ's wood elf army standard. When he stripped that army, we saved it, mostly out of a nostalgic feel and now, after many years, I had the idea to put it on a base with some rocks and use it in a baggage train setup (if we'll ever use one in a game).

Following this I am currently doing the same with the banners from the first incarnation of my dwarf army, it is a small thing, but brings my memory back to 30+ years ago when we were young and had that kind of enthusiasm that gets lost (or better changes) over the years.

Field hedges. 28mm, unknown manufacturer, painted by Ginzio.

Wood elf army standard. 28mm, built and painted by IlVJ in the mid 90s

Orcs get command

 I managed to finish three more stands of Tom Meyer's orcs, two of which are command stands with very peculiar standards.

Three regular orcs. 25mm, Ral Partha, painted by Ginzio

Command groups with Motorhead standards. 25mm, Ral Partha, painted by Ginzio

The unit so far, at the moment it is 33 models strong, I still have 15 or 16 to paint, so I should be anle to field 2 units of 24 or one giant unit of 48-49 orcs.

Battletech Clan invasion campaign game 4

 This is the second half of the previous scenario that we had to split due to not having the full crew available.

This one sees the Kell Hounds and Crescent Hawks trying to inflict as much damage as possible to the reserve of Clan Nova Cat trying to reach Luthien to support the Smoke Jaguar and take the city.

This time I have a lot more pictures, I actually reminded to take a decent amount during the course of the game and Gian added some of his own.

A reinforced lance of Kell Hounds, all Plastech models I had lying around after a big trade.

The Crescent Hawks, apart from the Awesome, a pretty lightweight lance, very risky against a heavy clan force.

The attackers, a fairly heavy force of Nova Cat. 

The battlefield, featuring a new mat that Gian just received.

The Kell Hounds take position in the center wooded area and behind rocky outcrops waiting for the arrival of the feared Clan units.

On their right flank, Clan Nova Cat comes in fast and immediately engages the mercenaries in a vicious close combat fight.

On the Clanners left flank, the Crescent Hawks are spread more down field, so the attackers have more time to maneuver and trade long range shot, but the lighter mercenary mechs stay in cover and manage to avoid taking too much damage.

The Kell Hounds get stuck in with the clanners around the areas of wood close to the edge of the field.

The Crescent Hawks try to skirmish at both long and short range, the little stinger stand defiant dodging shot after shot.

On the clan right the mechs push forward and the Wasp tries to ambush the Nobori-nin.

While on the left the Fenris manages to survive a last attempt from the Crescent Hawk captain to put it into the ground and escapes towards the city.

Meanwhile a lucky shot from the Awesome blows up the Mad Cat's cockpit killing the pilot and scoring a big success for the mercenaries in trying to stop as many clan mechs as possible.

The commando has one of his torsos cored by an ammo explosion, but manages to survive thanks to his CASE ammunition storage. The Stinger keeps harassing the Loki with mixed results.

The Nobori-nin savages the Wasp with his lasers and the light mech's pilot decides to power down and abandon the fight.

On the same side, the remaining Kell Hounds surround the Daishi and try to hurt it as much as possible.

The same happens on the other side of the field when the Crescent Hawks try to surround the Loki, unfortunately for the mercenaries, the Commando is permanently put down.

Thanks to a lot of fire and luck, the Kell Hounds manage to inflict 4 wounds on the Daishi pilot that passes out crushing the mech into the ground and taking a fifth 

The Loki makes it out of the field with not too much damage.

On the last turn, the Daishi pilot miraculously manages to regain consciousness with a box cars and stands up his machine.

We ended the game here and considered the Daishi pilot fought to allow the remaining clan mechs to leave the field, while she was captured at the end of the fight, so she won't make it to the final game.

I hope you enjoyed this report and I'll have another one in probably 3 weeks with the final game of the invasion of Luthien.