Sci-fi Dropship

For our Grimdark Future game in June, I needed a dropship model as the centrepiece/objective marker for the table. Since none of us had one at hand, I decided to search my neighbourhood stores for a toy that could be easily converted to look "sci-fi". What I found was this attack helicopter that cost US$9.

The toy came with electronics, motors, and lights inside, but as it was screwed together, it was a simple job to take the model apart and gut it. The rotors also came off easily, and there wasn't really anything extra that needed to be done to make the model look the part.

I decided to go for a neutral colour and painted it grey, with the ventral surface painted white.

When I put the model back together again for a dry fit, I realised it looked like a shark. I did some weathering and washing, including some streaking using the black wash, which is not a technique I have used before for land vehicles. I think the result was satisfactory.

The thing that made the model convincing for me were the while decals FG passed me. I am going to replace the guns on the wings with 3D-printed lascannons to make it look more 40K, but this was how the model looked for our game.

I had fun painting the model, so much so that I have now ordered a Hasegawa Egg Plane model to be converted into an Ork Dakkajet.

Grimdark Future and Zombicide: Invasion

I had to take a break from gaming in the month of May due to family and personal health issues, but the worst is - fingers crossed - over, and we managed to get together for a session for June.

Genestealers rush the unsuspecting Ratling snipers, at what would afterwards be called 'Hamburger Rock'.

As usual we played two games. The first one was a 4-player, free-for-all game of Grimdark Future.

The Grimdark Future rules were suggested by Rick, who unfortunately was unable to attend the session. I had a look at the rules, and thought they were easy to learn and remember: the kind of rules that a group that doesn't play regularly needs.

On the other side of the table, Eldar tangle with Terminators.

I wanted to do a fun scenario instead of a straight two-sided battle and dug up an old copy of Wargames Illustrated from my collection, which had a Dropwing scenario featuring different factions all trying to seize transports so they can bug out of an area. I decided to lean heavily into this and asked everyone to bring a small force of their 40K figures.

Our game ended up with four factions: Eldar, Imperial Guards, Space Marines Terminators, and Genestealers. I made lists of around 500 points for each faction, and gave each faction a choice of two unique objectives; players would choose one as their victory condition, hidden from the other players.

The Eldar turn their attention to the other flank of the table, as the Imperial Guards make their last stand.

I needed a dropship for the scenario, and as none of us had one at hand, I decided to find a cheap plastic toy and paint it up for the scenario - the process and result will be the topic of the next post.

The game ended in four turns, with Adrian's Eldar attaining their objective of killing at least one figure from all the other factions on the table, and Nowfel (playing my genestealers) killing the last of the Imperial Guards faction.

We then enjoyed the tea that Wahj made us while Adrian set up for the next game: Zombicide: Invasion.

We played the first scenario of the game, but realised we got the rules wrong. Fortunately, there was time to reset and play it again.

It was a closer game the second time round, but as the scenario was pretty linear and we planned our moves together, we managed to win the game with no casualties.

Just in time for dinner and beer.

It felt good to get together and share laughs and food with my friends again after a tough month of May.

For our game in July, I am probably going to run a Spanish Civil War game using the Hell and Uncivil Disorder rules. Stay tuned.