Thread: Questioning chirine ba kal

Originally Posted by Shemek hiTankolel

I like these guys. What scale are they?

Shemek.

About 1.5 inches tall, so between 25mm and 28mm. 30mm bases, if that helps.

Originally Posted by Shemek hiTankolel

This makes perfect sense to me. I think I might have a can of that in my stash as well. I know if you use a shinier base or prime coat, like black, before you spray the silver you can really give it a good buffing with an old T-Shirt and get a good shine. If you can get some of the old Testors Metallisers in a spray can (I really like Burnt Metal, and Jet Exhaust) the achievable results with a little elbow grease and a rag are out of this world.
Can't wait to see both of them, if you do a second one. You mentioned in an earlier post that you used wood filler as base to hold the paint. How do you apply it on to the sphere? Do you find that you have to do much sanding in order to smooth it out? I haven't had much luck with this stuff in the past so I'm curious how you use it.

Yep; I did the undercoat in satin black, and I think the result was what I wanted. (Picture below, if I can get it to load.) I'm keeping my fingers off this model for a while, to see what I think of it. I like it, so far; I think the clear Plexiglass base sets it off nicely. And the dings look like this car has seen a few adventurers; I'd be worried about the backstory behind the nice neat hole just above the hatch...

Yes, I used the Borden's wood filler; I like this stuff a lot more then the older style 'Plastic Wood' filler, as that stuff uses acetone as a solvent and it will dissolve most any plastic on contact. The Borden's is a water-based acrylic, and is as neutral as you are likely to get.

I generally do not apply it with a putty knife - it gets way too thick, and tends to shrink and crack as it dries when it's applied in a thick layer. I use a cheap 'chip brush' to paint it on, as you can thin it right down with water. It makes a great adobe finish, like what I did with Castle Tilketl, and works great on the open-cell foam I used for the tubeway car. I usually don't have to do a lot of sanding when I paint the stuff on - the coats are thin enough, and they just need a little touch-up when I want a really smooth surface. If it's adobe, then you want to leave it sort of textured as it looks a lot better.

DSC00116.jpg

Here's the final result...

Originally Posted by Shemek hiTankolel

Thank you for the clarification. My group and I never made it past 1st Ed.AD&D, and EPT. What would be categorised as I wonder?
I guess all of my games are Sandbox. I never understood forcing players to follow a specific, set path, plot line. This was my biggest beef with the old Dragonlance modules. Great story/background but the modules were ruined by their dogmatic approach to how they had to be played with the pregenerated characters. Boring, IMO.

Shemek

Yes, that was very helpful, and I'm sorry for not being more clear.

Back when I first started to interact with OSR people (about five-six years ago, now) I kept getting told that the various set of rules coming out of the movement were intended to simulate / replicate the way it was assumed / presumed that Dave Arneson, Gary Gygax, Phil Barker, etc. ran their games; the emphasis seemed to be on rules mechanics, both as a way to do this and - from what I got from various people - as a way to 'correct' the errors that it was felt had been made over time in the various games that came after these pioneers.

What baffled me was when I shared my experiences playing in those games, and how The Big Three ran the games that I was in. I was told that "No, no, it couldn't be that way!", as the assumption was that three guys had come up with a set of rules or mechanics that could be simply adopted in order to do 'OSR'-style play. I pointed out that for all intents and purposes that their style was 'Free Kriegspiel', more then anything else, with a healthy does of Braunstein mixed in. I was pretty astonished to hear about the 'railroady' games and game style, and then to be told that Phil's meta-game that ran in the background of our adventures was 'too railroady' and 'directed play'. From where we sat at the table, yes, there was an overarching meta-plot, ut we could do anything we really wanted to - very 'open sandbox'.

Fascinating.

Originally Posted by Greentongue

As you invest time and money in props and the extensive details of each NPCs and items in a planned adventure, there is a urge to not let all that go to waste as characters SQUIRREL!!
and run off in a completely different direction. With some rule sets it is easier to generate the details on demand but reusing props can be a challenge.

While I like characters to drive the adventure (keeps it interesting), I can feel for the people with a lot invested in their pre-planned adventure|s.
=

Fascinating insight. Never had any 'pre-planned' adventures, back in the day, and I still play that way. Yes, the meta-plot / meta-game is still running in the background; and any props, figures, maps, etc. are all based out of that meta-game. It's up to the players to take up the adventures on offer; I can think of a dozen plots / adventures Phil dangled in front of us that we didn't take up.

Originally Posted by Gronan of Simmerya

Astonishing what's been mass produced in plastic, isn't it?

Also, THAT is the game I want to play in!

And can be gotten cheap in the dollar store, too.

Well, if you want to play THAT game, get a few people together next time you are in town, and I'll run it. You'll love the Ahoggya mercenaries in their powered armor and jump jets...

Originally Posted by chirine ba kal

Yep; I did the undercoat in satin black, and I think the result was what I wanted. (Picture below, if I can get it to load.) I'm keeping my fingers off this model for a while, to see what I think of it. I like it, so far; I think the clear Plexiglass base sets it off nicely. And the dings look like this car has seen a few adventurers; I'd be worried about the backstory behind the nice neat hole just above the hatch...

Yes, I used the Borden's wood filler; I like this stuff a lot more then the older style 'Plastic Wood' filler, as that stuff uses acetone as a solvent and it will dissolve most any plastic on contact. The Borden's is a water-based acrylic, and is as neutral as you are likely to get.

I generally do not apply it with a putty knife - it gets way too thick, and tends to shrink and crack as it dries when it's applied in a thick layer. I use a cheap 'chip brush' to paint it on, as you can thin it right down with water. It makes a great adobe finish, like what I did with Castle Tilketl, and works great on the open-cell foam I used for the tubeway car. I usually don't have to do a lot of sanding when I paint the stuff on - the coats are thin enough, and they just need a little touch-up when I want a really smooth surface. If it's adobe, then you want to leave it sort of textured as it looks a lot better.

DSC00116.jpg

Here's the final result...

That looks amazing. I like the dings on the car's surface, it really adds character and gives it a worn look. After all, they are tens of thousands of years old! Next time I go to Home Depot or Lowe's I pick up some Borden's filler. I've never tried this one. I've used Elmer's and Lepage's before, but both were lacquer based, stinky, and hard to use. Kind of like Squadron's Green Stuff epoxy filler/putty. Thanks for the info.

Shemek

Originally Posted by chirine ba kal

Yes, that was very helpful, and I'm sorry for not being more clear.

Back when I first started to interact with OSR people (about five-six years ago, now) I kept getting told that the various set of rules coming out of the movement were intended to simulate / replicate the way it was assumed / presumed that Dave Arneson, Gary Gygax, Phil Barker, etc. ran their games; the emphasis seemed to be on rules mechanics, both as a way to do this and - from what I got from various people - as a way to 'correct' the errors that it was felt had been made over time in the various games that came after these pioneers.

What baffled me was when I shared my experiences playing in those games, and how The Big Three ran the games that I was in. I was told that "No, no, it couldn't be that way!", as the assumption was that three guys had come up with a set of rules or mechanics that could be simply adopted in order to do 'OSR'-style play. I pointed out that for all intents and purposes that their style was 'Free Kriegspiel', more then anything else, with a healthy does of Braunstein mixed in. I was pretty astonished to hear about the 'railroady' games and game style, and then to be told that Phil's meta-game that ran in the background of our adventures was 'too railroady' and 'directed play'. From where we sat at the table, yes, there was an overarching meta-plot, ut we could do anything we really wanted to - very 'open sandbox'.

Fascinating.

I'm not up with the current terminology at all. I've become the "old guy" over there. Man, when did that happen, and how did it happen so fast?? I don't understand the mindset of people who refute reliable sources simply because their accounts aren't what they think they should be. You were there, you gamed with all three of them, end of story! If you or the Glorious General can't speak with authority about Phil's games or Dave Arneson's games, or Gygax's games who can? To paraphrase Gronan: you can't cure stupid.

Shemek.

I frequently have new GMs asking me how I can be so flexible and roll with what the players want. That's the secret of course. There's a world out there with great events in motion but how and if it impacts the players is really up to them.

Originally Posted by David Johansen

I frequently have new GMs asking me how I can be so flexible and roll with what the players want. That's the secret of course. There's a world out there with great events in motion but how and if it impacts the players is really up to them.

Exactly. This is how I have always run my games.
Years ago, in my old game, the guys got banged up pretty bad, they wanted to train, do magical research, etc. All very valid and needed actions at the time. So they decided to lay low and hole up for about six weeks. No problem. We played out the training, research and what not. After a couple of weeks they started hearing rumours about strange events, in the East. Violent raids destroying whole villages, Ssu massing in unusually high numbers... Basically, although they were taking a break, the world was not. Their enemies fully exploited the party's inactivity, to their detriment.

Shemek.

Originally Posted by chirine ba kal

And can be gotten cheap in the dollar store, too.

Well, if you want to play THAT game, get a few people together next time you are in town, and I'll run it. You'll love the Ahoggya mercenaries in their powered armor and jump jets...

Also, love the tubeway car. As far as the surface blemishes, well, first off, see previous comment about all the nasty spores, mold, and fungus on Tekumel -- (can you say "mutated biological weapon"? Sure you can!) -- and secondly, we've established Ssu with blasters and Hlyss with lightning bringers... maybe that car has a colorful history!

(cue a few Millenium Falcon-style "scorch marks" here)