"15mm SCI-FI at Salute 2012 convention." Topic

This is just a note to say that I will be at Salute this year with 3 terrain boards and there is an open invite to come and try the Gruntz game with me, the author, on hand to help.

There are several players from the Gruntz Forum coming along with some of their own forces and one of the terrain layouts will be available for participation using some pre-made forces that demonstrate the different types of game and forces you can play with Gruntz.

I will be posting more pictures as the three terrain layouts are put together for the show on the blog which can be reached here, along with a larger selection of photos: link

Beautiful.

It's going to be my first Salute and I hope by the end of it to learn all about Gruntz :) I will be there for sure I'm very curious to check out some demos.

Looking good chaps see you there.
Guy T- Taylor's Crew – Beyond the Tannhausser gate- also 15mm Sci Fi

awesome looking board

Seeing as I'll be bringing Navarro with me, and I played a demo at reading with you the other year Robin count me in for a game or ten :-) (apologies for being a lurker more than a contributor on the forum/yahoo group)

Thanks Alien Surfer / Von Tinkenessen / Navarro- see you at the show.

I think the smaller 3x3 board will be interesting for 15mm gaming, I am hoping to make it a bit of a standard for smaller engagements. It is certainly a quick process to get the boards made in this size and easy to store at home etc.

wow, wish i could be there…that said please hook navarro on Gruntz…maybe he can be persuaded to sculpt some 3d tokens or objective markers….3d vignettes for suppression or code brown or artillery explosions….or maybe bug swarms for 15mm
have fun guys

Working on board three now, using the handy resin Mesa terrain from Critical Mass Games.

Links to images here: link
link

A small headed hammer is used to hammer the super-dense foam down, so that the Mesa terrain can be fitted in snuggly and glued with No-More-Nails. The sand and terrain mix will then be textured up against the resin terrain providing an integrated look to the board.

I know you lose some flexibility by bolting the terrain down but I am happy with the idea of having a nicely integrated board with the terrain being part of it.

The Gamesworkshop crater set used on the first board at the top of this thread were also glued on with no-more-nails using the same technique so they sit into the board rather than proud from it. It improves the overal integrated terrain look.

The cut out section in the middle is a small stream. This won't offer any additional game functionality but it will add additional detail to the board, like an old canyon with a stream running through the centre. The base at the rear is a cut down Games Workshop landing platform which will be a focus point for the board and allow for some scenarios involving drop ships / attacks etc on the launch platform.

More work completed on this layout. I will keep the updates posted here for anyone interested in looking at the progress to the end result.

Visit the blog for the full article:
link

Looking good Robin :)

Thanks Comstar! Still so much to do and all my extra spare time is focused on the rules update :().

Don't go burning yourself out on our accounts!

Thanks devilinthedetails: I burnt out at the age of 12 playing Elite on my Spectrum 48K. Since then anything I can get my wrecked mind and body to do I consider a bonus! :)

Robin, keep going dude, the terrain kooks superb, as ever an excellentsource of inspiration and tips ;-)

Ahh the ZX Spectrum, home from the shops with or Attack hot in your hands, then five and a half hours hunched over a tape recorder trying to get the damn thing to load!!!……Happy times.

"Ahh the ZX Spectrum, home from the shops with or Attack hot in your hands, then five and a half hours hunched over a tape recorder trying to get the damn thing to load!!!……Happy times."

At a mere 38 some of us are too young to remember such things…. honest. (Jetset Willie rocked).

ZX spectrum's rubber keys were terrible…

and you had to use keys to play games since it had no joystick port!

After some time people came up with a 'programmable' joystick which you could hook up to the damn' thing!

Who remembers the cramp inducing delights of the 1500m's Z and X key tapping in Daley Thompson's Decathalon. 5 mins of numbing torture!….. bliss

Oh the memories. Of course, I used to play a Defender knock-off on my ZX-81 that had no keys at all!

@Johny Boy: I remember my local computer shop, with swinging wall-mounted racks of cassettes I used to browse through. The shear pleasure of picking up digital based games on tape, taking it home and letting it load, adjusting the bias. It takes me so far back that I wish I could somehow forget my entire adult life!

@devilinthedetails: I suppose 38 puts you in the Atari ST / Amiga era? I think 40 makes me a ZX81 / Spectrum person.

Latest update for this weeks terrain build link here: link

Sorry off-topic Spectrum reminiscing.

link

Oh the memories of them rubber keys!

And I think I still have one somewhere!

Now I wished I had a Delorien with some strange flux capasitor in it :p

Cheers Matt

Must recent update with more photos from this weeks work here:

link

That looks nice. Hope to make it with my son (15) so maybe we will manage to fight through the crowds and get a game :-)

Fantastic looking table Robin, very realistic…

What paints are you using on the boards?, I would imagine for something that size it would have to be some sort of emulsion, however the subtelty of the colours is fantastic, a brilliant job by all concerned and really looking forward to seeing this next month.

me too – looks awesome.

@Johny Boy. I am using System3 artists acrylic, thinned down to paint the base colours and drybrush. However the unusual patches and darker areas are created with MIG pigments which are a fine powder in a pot which you mix with water. They make amazing dusty washes that dry matt and are subtle enough to be forgiving when you are painting a large board.

Latest update after our session in the Garage yesterday. New photos on the blog with notes and progress here:
link

You're doing a stirling job there

John T