The New Armoured Steam Tractor & VSF Engineers!

Captain Darling reviewing a section of Engineers with their newly delivered Armoured Steam Tractor on Salisbury Plain!

Well I needed a unit of Engineers for my 1870's FUBAR VSF games (don't we all!) so I bought some of  the Ironclad VBCW Firemen as my proxies. I picked them as I thought they were cool figures and I really liked them! Even though for a later period these will fit in well with my VSF figures and as engineers they'll have the ability to expertly use of explosives etc and are armed with the latest Light Rapid Fire Carbine (read SMG) and magazine fed Galvanic Rifles. As per all the figures I've bought from Ironclad Miniatures they are crisply cast. I do notice in their ranges the stances are a bit similar for their long armed figures i.e.  kneeling, rifle at the ready and rifle in advance pose anyway I like the uniforms and quality you get. If I didn't make my own VSF vehicles I'd definitely get some of the ones Ironclad stock! Enough jabbering here they are painted as best I can!

Well of course Engineers need transport so I have put together an Armoured Steam Tractor which as soon as I get the small Lego wheels I ordered will have a trailer (including coal supply) to tow!

I modelled this after a picture of a period steam tractor I found on the net. It is a regular production one with an armoured, floor, front plate and cabin added so I get to use some brighter colours mixed with military grey armopur plates. The wheels are the newly developed armoured style fully cast. By armouring the cabin it saved a lot of detailing! When not in action the rear cab door is locked open to allow for ventilation and coal to be accessed from the (soon to be added) trailer. Once action is joined the fire box is filled to brimming and the cabin is buttoned up! Don't fear the intrepid Commander/Driver and Sergeant/Stoker have asbestos impregnated uniforms so they are safe from the fetid conditions of the enclosed cab unfortunately for them OH&S is a 21st Century thing!

Here's the basic bits in one place! I straight away gave the roof a coat of 'Heritage Green' from a cheapie spray can just to see what the colour was like and I'm pretty happy with it. I intend for this to be painted brightly in the style of the time but with added on dull coloured armour plates and armoured wheels. This is to be built with the usual stuff I use styrene sheet, plastic tubing and odds and ends.

Here are all the parts painted and awaiting assembly! The wheels are from a friend who had them spare when he abandoned building a WW II German big artillery gun, the smoke stack is part of a electric toothbrush head, the piston thingee for above the main chamber is a medicine tube cap and the axles are coat hanger wire. I used some sticky strips from the scrap booking area of Spotlight for the 'Victorian Embossing'.

And these are the final pictures! Just needs the trailer to be complete!

  

  

I hope you enjoy this latest piece of VSF equipment and feel happy to use the design to expand your own fleet of vehicles!

Oh yeah and as promised last time next time back to 'The Russians Are Coming!' Scenario Four details and AAR...yeah like you believe that!

Generic Landship Hulls!

I have completed three landships for my VSF gaming so far and because I am enjoying making them so much  already have plans for four more which is not really a problem as you can never have enough Landships! BUT how many of these will I ever get on a tabletop at once I thought so I began to ponder and thought if I make a generic hull which I can slot a superstructure into then I can make as many of those as I want and just chop and change them on the generic hull as I require them for games! Brilliant I hear you say well not quite but it's a cool idea to try out.

Now never doing anything by halves I created two generic hulls. These are made like the previous ones with 0.5mm, 1mm and 2mm sheet styrene and Lego 28mm wagon wheels. I have used round 'bows' and a sloped 'sterns' with a coal chute and towing points. There is a hatch on the starboard side and a tow chain on the port...Ahoy! (just put that in to go with the nautical lingo).

So once a superstructure is made it's a simple matter of attaching it to the top of the hull by sliding it into place. See in the example below with a bit of styrene substituting for a superstructure it fits in the top of the hull and the two arrows show the way it will get slid into place...

After sliding the superstructure forward it is 'locked' into place, you'll see in the picture below in our example the left arrowhead is now hidden, gravity is more than is required to hold it in place.

Okay I'll be off to build some superstructures now!

Next Time back to 'The Russians Are Coming!' Scenario Four details and AAR...

1/56 Martian Tripod In Action!

I played five test games fine tuning the Martian Tripod rules and I am pretty happy with how they worked out.

The test games were based on the Cruise of the Borodino with a single martian tripod attempting to cross the table top of 72" and exit (in any condition) the opposite edge to where it entered...between it and its objective a large number of pesky Jerries!

The Martians won 4 out of five games so if I fire this up for little Wars Humanity is gonna need some reinforcements! I didn't take many pictures but here's the few that were any good.

Martian, "Oh goody the Humans have an Avionic Craft time to engage my Illudium Q-36 explosive space modulator"

Martian, "Where's the kaboom? There was supposed to be an earth-shattering kaboom!"

And there was 3 out of four of the Human Armoured Wagons bit the dust!

Oberleutnant Fritz Roll (slightly funny here in South Australia) to his gun crew, "Der himmel uber! Wir sind in die Scheiße!"

Martian, "There seems to be something wrong with my bloody Tripod today!"

There was with every weapon shot out but its heat ray this Tripod was overwhelmed by the Jerries...

View from a Human blimp of the action!

Catch ya next time!

FUBAR VSF Rules & Martian Tripod Updates

Righto this is the first of two posts for today, yep this is what you could call the “double event”…anyway as I don’t want to combine a boring “ramble on rules” with some fun pictures that came about from testing said boring update of rules this post includes my current batch of updates for the FUBAR VSF rule set…tatatataaa rules covering Martian Tripods!

I’ve got everything nicely settled for my Human Super Heavy Ironclads i.e. Landships and the Martian Tripod rules are based on them to keep everything simple! Of course everyone can change the rules however they want to cover Martian Tripods but this is my take and I hope to make these Critters just a little bit better than anything Humanity can field against them. I have built one Tripod so far and will eventually put a second together but that’ll be it.

FUBAR VSF Martian Tripod Rules

The Breakdown table is replaced with the below ‘Event’ Table I still want Martians to experience surprises on an Activation Roll of ‘1’ but of course these are highly evolved Fighting Machines so are not prone to just breaking down…

1. SPLAT! Some local wildlife, i.e. a cow has just been squashed by your machines foot carry on as normal this turn
2. SQUISH! Your front right foot is stuck in mud or a badger house or something like that -1 on next activation roll
3. AAAAAH! Martian Error!!! A slipped tentacle results in forward motion locked on move straight forward 2D6
4. OOOH! Marconi wireless waves cause interference to the tripod controls steering locked no turns next activation
5. CRUNCH Uneven ground causes instability -2 off next activation roll
6. Uh Oh! Roll on the Damage Table'

The standard Damage and Catastrophe Tables are used for hits on Tripods with the following updates:

All Crew and Suppression Hits are ignored

A ‘5’ result on the Damage table is rerolled:

1,2 or 3 equals a ‘2’ result
4,5 or 6 equals a ‘4’ result

After the FORTH Steering Broken result the Tripod’s steering is broken no more turns allowed

After the FORTH Immobilised result the Tripod is immobilised

After the FIRST vehicle wrecked destroyed etc result randomly select a weapon that is ‘out of action’

After the SECOND vehicle wrecked destroyed etc result the Tripod’s maximum speed is reduced to half

After the THIRD vehicle wrecked destroyed etc result the Tripod is destroyed

Note a roll of ‘6’ on the Damage Table followed by a roll of ‘6’ on the Catastrophe Table destroys any Tripod it’s considered a critical hit!

I have included the following clarifications into the FUBAR VSF rules concerning how Tripods activities are covered:

Tripods Full Speed:     12”
Tripod Half Speed:      8”
Tripod Turning Circle: N/A

Tripods have three weapon systems on board:
Heat Ray                     Range 50”       8D6 no -1 over half range      Fire every second turn *

2 x Rocket Pods         Range 60”       2 x 3D6                                   Fire every turn 
3 x Black Smoke        Range 18”       3 x 2D6 no -1 over half range Fire every turn * +

* Can’t fire at Human Avionic Contraptions
+ Ignores cover modifiers only affects exposed i.e. foot targets saving throw is always 5+ against this

A stationary Tripod may fire all three of its weapon systems with a +1 aiming bonus

A Tripod may move up to half speed and fire two of its weapon systems

A tripod may move full speed and fire one of its weapon systems

Next Time some Martian Tripod FUBAR VSF eye candy!