Ogre: Command Post

 

The ultimate objective for an Ogre in the original game. Very easy to paint: It's essentially just Contrast Ultra Marine Blue with various other colors to highlight some of the instruments and sensors.

And don't worry - there is no hair stuck to the model. After I took the pictures I thought there was but they easily brushed off.

End of Year Update: How did the Abbreviated 2023 Plan go Colonel?

The Great Move of 2023 is over and I had abbreviated time to spend on my hobby. I have had more success with my hobby by developing a plan over the last few years and 2023 was no exception. The year was a little different though with abbreviated time this year due to the move. So let's get on with the plan and see what I did and add in the 4th Quarter. 

 

 

1. Paint miniatures for Ogre. I love Ogre. It was one of the first games I purchased as a youngster and Honorable Son #3 (The Pilot Engineer) loves the game and bought the latest version which is a lot bigger that the pocket sized edition I had!  So of course I bought him Ogre game miniatures for the game and now that I can throw a rock and hit where he lives, it'll be time for some giant cybernetic tank action. Before I moved, I did some test paints for him to see if they fit his vision and I'm glad to say that they did. Some white spray paint and GW contrast paints; hopefully it won't take me too long to finish the project . . . and I am looking forward to painting the Mark III and V Ogres.

Status: 

 

The Mark V Ogre.

Heavy Artillery

 

2. The Northwest Frontier circa 1890. I use the rules The Men Who Would be Kings for my Colonial battles. My initial Indian Army is almost finished but the Pashtun/Afghan Tribal force is falling behind. 

 

 The 1st Tribal Infantry from the middle of last year.

    a.  Pashtun/Afghan Tribal force. When finished the core force will be:

        3 Irregular Infantry of 12 figures each.

        2 Tribal Infantry of 16 figures each.

        1 BFG.

 

The BFG.

I have completed one Irregular (Tribal) Infantry, 1/2 of the second Irregular (Tribal) Infantry unit, one Tribal Infantry unit and the BFG. My goal this year is to finish the 1 1/2 units of Irregular Infantry and one more Tribal unit. All of the figures (with the exception of the BFG crew) are hard plastic miniatures from Perry Miniature's Afghan Tribesmen Box.

Status: 

1. The second Pashtun Irregular (Tribal) Infantry: Complete!

2. The third Pashtun Irregular (Tribal) Infantry: Complete!

3. Pashtun Tribal Infantry #2: Complete!

   b. Indian Army. Before we decided to move I was planning on adding 1 Highlander unit, 1 Sikh unit and 1 Ghurka unit. I have scaled this back for this year and plan on painting the Gordon Highlanders. Miniatures will be from Perry Miniatures.

Status: The Gordons are complete!

3. Learn/play at least two new miniature games (well new to me anyway). 

Status: Pulp! I learned to play Pulp! and I personally think it is underrated - especially for $20 (US) and 64 pages plus an online addendum for Solo play from Osprey Publishing. I think the big problem is that most people did not get past the "basic" rules (which are basic) and move onto designing their own worlds. It is not pre-packaged like Pulp Alley - but it is worth the time and effort to add the chrome yourself if you don't want to spend the extra money.

The Mad Guru is back!

Warhammer 40K Fireteam: Fast fun and furious - GW wonderfully finds the right balance between miniatures and board games. Love it!

"Adeptus Astartes Primaris Assault Intercessors my fuzzy butt! We are, and always will be, IMPERIAL ASSAULT SPACE MARINES! For the Emperor (Long may he sleep!).

4. Play some games and meet new gamers! 

 

 Status: Now that we are settled I'm starting to meet some of the local gamers and some new action will be taking place in 2024! Now it's time to plan.

Ogre: Heavy Artillery

 I'm continuing on with my project of painting Honorable Son #3's (The Chemical Engineering Pilot) miniatures for Ogre. Here is the Heavy Artillery.

As usual, with usual GW Contrast Paints you need to prime with either White or a Grey. All of the Ogre miniatures I am priming with White. The base is Contrast Basilicanum Grey along with the small metal highlights on the artillery tube. The tube itself is GW Contrast Black Templar.

Remember with Contrast paints to do the lighter colors first unless you want to go back and use white again to get a lighter color over a darker color. The gun carriage and Fire Direction Center (FDC) are Contrast Ultra Marine Blue with the doors and hatches highlighted with Contrast Basilicanum Grey with some red and yellow. The stripe around the gun carriage I had to go back an paint white and then I painted it Contrast Nazdreg (BWAH HAH HAH) Yellow. Ta Dah! Instant artillery battery (not counting the initial primer) I did during the first half of a football game.

The Ogre Mark V: A Quick and Easy Paint Guide

In the year 2085, armored warfare is faster and deadlier than ever. Hovercraft, tanks, and infantry slug it out with tactical nukes. But, the most feared weapon of all needs no human guidance. It's a giant cybernetic tank bristling with guns and missiles.

It's the Ogre.

A part of the sturdy, cardboard game board. You can also play without the board and use a ruler.

Ogre has always been one of my favorite games and one of the first games I purchased myself as a you 12 something. The updated board game version is fantastic and Honorable Son #3 (The Chemical Engineer Aviator) has plastic miniatures to play on the new board game. He asked me if I would paint them (it didn't take long to twist my arm) so I thought I would use just three GW Contrast paints to knock them out quickly.

Above is the sprue for the MK V Ogre in hard plastic. In order to use GW Contrast paints the items must be primed in either white or a light gray. I did not use Hobby Primers, even though they are usually the best quality primer out there - I just buy whatever is on sale.

You can see that some of the red can still be seen after one coat of primer. I almost gave it a second coat but I thought to my self, "Self, this is an Ogre. It's not some fancy parade ground museum piece. It needs to look rough around the edges." In addition, I was painting it white so I figured - who cares?

I did some rushing in gluing the Ogre together with the treads. I should have glued one side, let it dry, and then glue the other side. You can see the results of where my sticky fingers were as I put treads back into the correct positions. Hey, it's battle damage. The model itself is easy to put together if you take your time.

I used GW Contrast Blood Angel Red for the base color of the hull. Truth in advertising time: I did not paint the whole hull at one time due to the length of the model. Contrast paints take about 20 minutes to dry and I did not want my finger prints (see above on gluing treads!) on any of the areas. The main batteries, in fact all of the batteries are painted with Contrast Basilicanum (What the heck is a Basilicanum in the GW world? Gee, another homework assignment.) Black and the Primary Sensor Array is painted with Contrast Nazdreg (BWAH HAH HAH!) Yellow.

The engine like structures, exhaust fans, and treads were all painted with GW Contrast Black.

The rest of the secondary batteries, anti-personnel batteries and secondary sensor arrays were also all painted Contrast Basilicanum Black. The Rattler Missiles were painted with Contrast Nazdreg Yellow.

Tah Dah! All done.

BWAH HAH HAH!

Star Frontiers' Knight Hawks: Engagement at Paulus' Star

 "Contact!  Make that 4 Snake class frigates entering from Slither jump point. Lasers are charged and their torpedo flashes are trying to connect."

"Go to General Quarters!" Activate Electron screen. Weapons get a targeting solution on lead enemy frigate. Send all information to Davout command link signature Boone."
"Transponder identifies lead frigate as Star Scourge, followed by Vicious, Pestilence and Stinger. Marking targets now."

"All ships this is the Commodore.  Execute as planned.  Do not let those ships pass the alpha line. The Daniel Boone will take the lead on the right with Davout - Richthofen and Xerxes take the left.

 The Daniel Boone and Marshal Davout move to take on the Star Scourge, Vicious, Pestilence and Stinger.

  The Daniel Boone prepares to fire missiles and all laser cannons.

The Marshal Davout accelerates to catch up as the deployment of the Slither frigates had it further behind the Boone.

 The Richthofen (yes the one in red!)and the Xerxes advance in an attempt to flank the Slither ships.

The SAV Stinger turns toward the threat posed by Xerxes and Richthofen.

"Surprise you slithering evil space snakes!"

 The Cruiser Squadron consisting of the Inazuma, Ochakov and Rodger Young fire up their reactors and become visible.

 The Boone takes multiple hits damaging its engines and torpedo batteries.

 More hits and damage as the Davout tries to draw the fire and block the now critically damaged Boone.  The speed of the Slither frigates in close action is making the difference!

The Davout blocks a salvo of missiles from the Star Scourge with anti-missile defenses and gets some good, but not decisive laser hits on the Pestilence.

 Ships are engaged on the other flank as the Vicious and the Stinger mix it up with Xerxes and Richthofen.  Missiles and laser fire are exchanged but no serious hits on either side.

 Pweh, Pweh. Laser bolts and explosions!

"Das soll dock wohl ein Scherz sein!" states the captain of the Richthofen.

 Contact!  Enemy battleship SAV Doomfist!

The Boone explodes under concentrated laser cannon fire.

 The Richthofen attempts to slow down the Doomfist but is overwhelmed by its defenses and firepower.

"Entschuldigen Sie. Wo sind die Kreuser, die uns helfen sollen?"

 Now that systems are fully charged, the cruiser Inazuma heads to assist the Davout and Xerxes.

 The Inazuma kamon adorns the side of the ship.

The Rodger Young and Ochakov move as fast as their cruiser reactors will allow them - but go too fast and they may overshoot the enemy battleship when it is time to maneuver.

 The Davout and Xerxes counterattack.

 The quick action of the Davout and Xerxes allows the Richthofen to make its escape.

 BOOM!  The SAV Pestilence never saw it coming from the Inazuma.

 The counterattack continues on the right flank as the Davout, Xerxes and Inazuma hammer the Star Scourge.

 The cruisers start to move in on the Doomfist.

 The Richthofen continues to move out of the danger zone (hey, I need those victory points!)

 The SAV Stinger hits the wounded Ochakov while it returns fire along with the Rodger Young on the Doomfist.

 The Stinger swiftly turns to engage the Davout and Xerxes . . .

  . . . and that does not work out for the Stinger so well.

 With the loss of it's escorts, the Doomfist has too many targets and is taking multiple hits from the Rodger Young and the Inazuma.

 And in for the kill . . .

 BOOM!

 One last attempt on the Ochakov by the Vicious.

 The Star Scourge attempts to run from Davout and Xerxes.

 The Vicious runs into a situation it cannot handle.

 The SAV Vicious makes a run for it right into the targeting array of the the Richthofen.

Cool.  A green explosion and that's the game!

 The valiant Richthofen.

 Inazuma sends additional damage control teams to the Ochakov.

The Commodore's flagship.

Our space battle was fought with the oldie but goodie Star Frontiers: Knight Hawks.  Star Frontiers was published by TSR Games, the same folks that brought you the original Dungeons and Dragons.  Designed as a Sci Fi Dungeons and Dragons, the best part for me was when they added Star Frontiers: Knight Hawks which provided rules for a fast moving boardgame of ship to ship space combat.  

No knowledge of Star Frontiers is needed as it was a standalone game with basic rules, advanced rules, a campaign set of rules, maps, counters, etc.  It does require some record keeping for damage but it is not burdensome and is an extremely fun game to play with miniatures.

 Campaign Map.

Counters and hex map for the game.