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Kraken
Federated Suns
Marshal
Joined: 04-Feb-2002 00:00
Posts: 2755
Location: United States
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 Posted: 05-Apr-2007 17:39 Post subject: Micro Machine sets? |
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I've an assortment of Micro Machine playsets.
The sets themselves are large enough to where they can be used in conjunction with BTech minis.
There are, however, two problems:
1. They don't have hexes marked on them. This would mean that using them would require the use of a measuring tape to determine distance traveled.
2. As the sets were scaled around cars instead of minis, there's a few places where the minis themselves would fit but the hex bases would not.
Given these two problems, should I consider using the occasional set to liven up combat, or should I simply skip it?
Thanks.
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"I wish I could write as mysterious as a cat." -Edgar Allen Poe"I knew there was something special about you, but I never realized you were really a cat." Wolfwood to a random cat (Trigun)
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Horhiro
Draconis Combine
Samurai
Joined: 04-Feb-2002 00:00
Posts: 1625
Location: United States
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| Posted: 05-Apr-2007 20:16 Post subject: |
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Sounds like it would be very kewl to use them! What if you used infantry....having 1 infantry or Battle armor mini representing an entire squad or star, some tanks (which should fit where the cars would) and perhaps light mechs which might fit better in spots. Shouldn't be too hard using the minis rules not having hexes.
Make sure to take some pics of the battle!
Also you could use some vtols!
_________________
"I have lived my life trying to be a virtuous man. The Dragon admires tenacity, and the code of the samurai upholds it as well." -Minobu Tetsuhara
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Kraken
Federated Suns
Marshal
Joined: 04-Feb-2002 00:00
Posts: 2755
Location: United States
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| Posted: 05-Apr-2007 21:47 Post subject: |
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| Horhiro wrote: | Sounds like it would be very kewl to use them! What if you used infantry....having 1 infantry or Battle armor mini representing an entire squad or star, some tanks (which should fit where the cars would) and perhaps light mechs which might fit better in spots. Shouldn't be too hard using the minis rules not having hexes.
Make sure to take some pics of the battle!
Also you could use some vtols! |
The thing is that the hex bases for minis are simply too large to fit on the roadway and some of the tighter uphill turns; we'd have to play using only minis that didn't have bases.
_________________
"I wish I could write as mysterious as a cat." -Edgar Allen Poe"I knew there was something special about you, but I never realized you were really a cat." Wolfwood to a random cat (Trigun)
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Horhiro
Draconis Combine
Samurai
Joined: 04-Feb-2002 00:00
Posts: 1625
Location: United States
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| Posted: 09-Apr-2007 18:53 Post subject: |
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Not having hex bases would make miniature play tough, as you need them to determine facing changes/move points. I suppose you could kind of play free -form, especially if you were GMing it for some other players and could be very unbiased and fair about it.
What if you made it a pure infantry and battle armor game with vtols and straffing aerospace fighters? Add gun emplacements, pill boxes and minefields and let the grunts go at it!
no matter what it would still be nice to see.
_________________
"I have lived my life trying to be a virtuous man. The Dragon admires tenacity, and the code of the samurai upholds it as well." -Minobu Tetsuhara
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Storm
Draconis Combine
Chu-i
Joined: 06-Feb-2002 00:00
Posts: 278
Location: United States
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| Posted: 18-Apr-2007 21:45 Post subject: Hexless Play and Micro Machines |
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Most of my conventional, air, and armor forces are micro machines. I've even done conversions for the Abrams, Apache, and F-16s I have.
As far as hex bases, we get by without them. I mean, most people can figure out a 30-degree turn. And since I play miniature battles and terrain as opposed to mapsheets, I think it looks better, and I haven't really noticed any difference in gaming quality. But again, you have to have everyone agree to it, as well. Fortunately, I corrupted my brothers to my way of thinking.
Storm
PS: The titanium series makes some great minis as well. I use 6 Republic Gunships for battlesuit transports.
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Storm "The More that thou sweatest and swearest in training, the less thou bleedest and diest in combat."--Dick Marcinko
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Talen
Capellan Confederation
Sang-shao
Joined: 05-Feb-2002 00:00
Posts: 1269
Location: United States
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| Posted: 20-Apr-2007 12:28 Post subject: |
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These sound like the Highways and Bi-ways play sets!
One thing I always found useful when using the mini's on micro machine sets was to have a small piece of plastic/wood/lego/whatever to tape to the bottom of the base so that i could elevate it up above some of the small roads. I remember the Toolbox Playset gave me a lot of problems...but it made for some interesting urban fight scenes.
Think outside the box when trying to adapt your mini's to work on any sort of odd surface or existing set. You'd be surprised how many simple solutions there are for odd problems.
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"Historians exercise great power and some of them know it. They recreate the past, changing it to fit their own interpretations. Thus, they change the future as well." - Leto II
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Storm
Draconis Combine
Chu-i
Joined: 06-Feb-2002 00:00
Posts: 278
Location: United States
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| Posted: 20-Apr-2007 14:04 Post subject: Flight Bases for Micro Machines |
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I drill holes in the bottom of my aerospace/VTOLs and give them a flight base (the good old hex-and-wire).
With my battlestar galactica and Klingon Bird of Prey models (used for Btech \-scale dropships), I modify the stands that come with the models so the stand matches the terrain. It works with the Titanium series, too.
Storm
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Storm "The More that thou sweatest and swearest in training, the less thou bleedest and diest in combat."--Dick Marcinko
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Kraken
Federated Suns
Marshal
Joined: 04-Feb-2002 00:00
Posts: 2755
Location: United States
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| Posted: 15-May-2007 19:38 Post subject: Building fabrication |
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This is slightly related, considering that it involves Micro Machines.
It has come to my attention that I might have to fabricate a few structures for my Micro Machines city. These items, when they do show up on E-Bay, are often either expensive or posted by people who don't know what they're doing.
What materials should I use to make the following assuming that I can't find them or a near substitute? I can easily get cardstock and modeling clay, but anything else might take some creative acquisition.
*Highway Bridge. I need a 3-5 lane highway bridge that can span across a river. I'm thinking that the span will be 4-6 inches, but I'm not sure since I have yet to do the actual layout on the surface I have. This is a priority, as I intend to have a river divide the city.
*Houses / Apartment. Nothing fancy here; I just need to produce them in bulk. If I have any room left in the portion of the layout where most of the residential districts are to be, I intend to fill it.
*Cemetary. Why not?
*Post Office, City Hall, Courthouse, Library, etc. These are all things that a normal town should have at least one of. They'll be in the "older" part of town, and so I can justify them looking a little shoddy. Again, this one is a priority for the town.
*Storefronts. I need a bank and a convienience store, and might need a few specialty shops.
_________________
"I wish I could write as mysterious as a cat." -Edgar Allen Poe"I knew there was something special about you, but I never realized you were really a cat." Wolfwood to a random cat (Trigun)
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AWAD
Draconis Combine
Chu-sa
Joined: 06-Feb-2002 00:00
Posts: 766
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| Posted: 16-May-2007 09:17 Post subject: Re: Building fabrication |
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[quote="Kraken"]This is slightly related, considering that it involves Micro Machines.
*Highway Bridge. I need a 3-5 lane highway bridge that can span across a river. I'm thinking that the span will be 4-6 inches, but I'm not sure since I have yet to do the actual layout on the surface I have. This is a priority, as I intend to have a river divide the city.
*Houses / Apartment. Nothing fancy here; I just need to produce them in bulk. If I have any room left in the portion of the layout where most of the residential districts are to be, I intend to fill it.
quote]
For the Houses I use the old EPIC buildings from Games Workshop. They work very well.
For bridges that big you are going to have issues. Maybe taking some sort of 28 mm scale item and working it.
AWAD- lots of WWII 6mm stuff that needs updating for Btech
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Stinger
The Knights of Chaos
General
Joined: 30-Apr-2002 00:00
Posts: 1833
Location: United States
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| Posted: 16-May-2007 11:10 Post subject: |
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N-guage also works very well, scale isnt perfect but its darn close. You should be able to get your bridge from there as well as apartments. The biggest problem is they are usually older buildings. But they should fit just fine in a micro machines play set.
I was given around 40 N-guage buildings form my grandfather have yet to get them all cleaned up, repainted and remounted so I can use them in gameing.
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Stinger
If it's "creepy" to use the Internet, military satellites, and robot aircraft to find a house full of gorgeous young models so I can drop in on them unexpected, then FINE, I'm "creepy". Howard Wolowitz. BBT.
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Storm
Draconis Combine
Chu-i
Joined: 06-Feb-2002 00:00
Posts: 278
Location: United States
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| Posted: 16-May-2007 13:11 Post subject: Kraken's Terrain |
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| wrote: | It has come to my attention that I might have to fabricate a few structures for my Micro Machines city. These items, when they do show up on E-Bay, are often either expensive or posted by people who don't know what they're doing.
What materials should I use to make the following assuming that I can't find them or a near substitute? I can easily get cardstock and modeling clay, but anything else might take some creative acquisition.
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You might want to look here:
[url]terragenesis.co.uk[/url]
This is one of my favorite sites on the web as far as terrain goes. Good group on the forums, too.
By the way, I've been building wargames terrain professionally for about 8 years, so feel free to e-mail me (buck.hedge@gmail.com) if you have any questions.
Storm
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Storm "The More that thou sweatest and swearest in training, the less thou bleedest and diest in combat."--Dick Marcinko
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Kraken
Federated Suns
Marshal
Joined: 04-Feb-2002 00:00
Posts: 2755
Location: United States
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| Posted: 30-May-2007 20:40 Post subject: |
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Due to the fact that Micro Machines are no longer being sold in the United States, I decided to stop by Hobby Lobby and see what they had in the way of N-scale railroading items.
The average pre-assembled building was $20 each. 
I think that from now on, I shall be fabricating those buildings that I need.
_________________
"I wish I could write as mysterious as a cat." -Edgar Allen Poe"I knew there was something special about you, but I never realized you were really a cat." Wolfwood to a random cat (Trigun)
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Storm
Draconis Combine
Chu-i
Joined: 06-Feb-2002 00:00
Posts: 278
Location: United States
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| Posted: 01-Jun-2007 13:13 Post subject: Assistance for Kraken |
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Kraken,
I've been building terrain for nearly 10 years now (Battletech was actually what got me into it). If you need any help let me know. If you need something you don't think you have the ability or time to tackle, my services are at your disposal.
There are also a doo-doo load of paper buildings available at sarna.net. Most of them were designed by a guy who goes by NC Tracker. They''ve gotten better as his skills have improved, and paper models are a good way to get into terrain building.
Also, I have a bunch of paper models I've scaled down for Battletech if you don't see anything you like at Sarna.
Storm
_________________
Storm "The More that thou sweatest and swearest in training, the less thou bleedest and diest in combat."--Dick Marcinko
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Kraken
Federated Suns
Marshal
Joined: 04-Feb-2002 00:00
Posts: 2755
Location: United States
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| Posted: 01-Jun-2007 22:23 Post subject: Re: Assistance for Kraken |
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| Storm wrote: | Kraken,
I've been building terrain for nearly 10 years now (Battletech was actually what got me into it). If you need any help let me know. If you need something you don't think you have the ability or time to tackle, my services are at your disposal.
There are also a doo-doo load of paper buildings available at sarna.net. Most of them were designed by a guy who goes by NC Tracker. They''ve gotten better as his skills have improved, and paper models are a good way to get into terrain building.
Also, I have a bunch of paper models I've scaled down for Battletech if you don't see anything you like at Sarna.
Storm
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Hobby Lobby has some good, thick posterboard in a variety of colors for $0.89 each. What I'll most likely do is get a few sheets of that, as it's multi-purpose and I can get multiple buildings from a single sheet if I'm careful about how I do things.
_________________
"I wish I could write as mysterious as a cat." -Edgar Allen Poe"I knew there was something special about you, but I never realized you were really a cat." Wolfwood to a random cat (Trigun)
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Storm
Draconis Combine
Chu-i
Joined: 06-Feb-2002 00:00
Posts: 278
Location: United States
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| Posted: 17-Aug-2007 14:30 Post subject: Paper Terrian |
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There's a doo-doo load of paper terrain out there as well. THe nice thing is it's relatively hassle free to build, fairly inexpensive, and mostly free to download.
There's a lot of good stuff at germsworld.co.uk, and NC Tracker's collection at Sarna.net.
I have a large collection on my hard drive. If you need anything specific, let me know.
Storm
8)
_________________
Storm "The More that thou sweatest and swearest in training, the less thou bleedest and diest in combat."--Dick Marcinko
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