I guess it really is a good thing when life is so full that I don't have time to sit at the computer and post a significant blog entry about Heroscape. I like Heroscape a lot, but I also realize it's a hobby.
Heroscape provides me with a helpful escape from life from time to time...allowing me to imagine and create worlds filled with deadly swamps, treacherous, snow-covered mountains, broad grassy fields, and deep, dark dungeons. I get to dabble for a while in a world in which the rules are known and followed by all the players, the purpose is clear, and your enemies are easily identifiable. In life, it is not always so.
Another way I like to escape for a little while is through Starcraft. It's another war game, of course, with a little less randomness in the play and a lot more blood and carnage. I prefer to play as Terrans (I do like my Bunkers and Seige Tanks) rather than Zerg or Protoss.
My first attempt at combining the two games was a Unique Squad of two U.E.D. Marines.
I took a couple of Zettian Guards and dug out the heads (Do they really have heads, per se?). Then I took a couple of extra Drake Alexanders (RoTV) and first, cut their heads off, then cut the faces off the heads. I glued the faces into the head cavities of the two Zettian Guards, then painted them in camoflauge. They turned out pretty well, and my friends (some of whom also play Starcraft) enjoyed playing with them.
After the release of Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty, however, I was no longer satisfied with my little squad of two marines. I wanted more!
Then I found a set of Tactical Squad of Warhammer 40K Space Marines in a (relatively) local game store, and I knew I'd found what I'd been looking for. Each box contains 10 marines (For those of you counting at home, that means three common squads of three marines each and one unique hero. Perfect!) that I could build however I wanted to. I had to have them.
So, of course, I bought the box, and then, of course, I let it sit on my shelf for about 8 months.
Last April, though, I took a week of staycation, and finally got them out and start working on them, cutting them off the sprues and piecing them together with a little super glue.
My wife was kind enough to take a few pictures of the process for this blog entry (which I had planned all along).
Of course, having been inspired by Wings of Liberty, the marines I made were Raynor's Raiders ("Raiders roll..."), with Jim Raynor as their Hero.
Keeping with the theme of the original Starcraft, Raynor's Raiders had to be blue. I used a base of a bright blue and then did a second coat in a metallic blue with some silver and some black metallic paint. I also used gunmetal gray metallic paint for the weapong. It turned out great. I highly recommend the gunmetal gray.
I painted Raynor, in a metallic green, rather than blue...to keep with the Starcraft theme and to help distinguish him from the Raiders.
The final result was this:
Me like!
Once the figures were done, of course, I had to go to work on the cards.
I already had worked out some of what the stats and powers would be, but I had to put them in card form and work out a few of the kinks. Here's how they came out:
For the Raiders, I kept the Stim Pack power from my original squad of marines, but exchanged the camoflauge (which didn't seem appropriate) for Commander Bonding. Jandar still seemed to be the best ideological fit for Raynor and his Raiders.
For Raynor, I used the idea of Raynor's special power in Belly of the Beast (the next to the last mission of Wings of Liberty, if you choose to do it) and used the language of the Fire Line Special Attack to create his Perdition Shot Special Attack (Awesome!), and I took a page from the Orcs and gave him Marine Enhancement to go with their bonding power.
They turned out beautifully!
Of course, I couldn't stop there. I needed to have marines from all three Terran factions, Raynor's Raiders, the Terran Dominon, and the U.E.D. So I bought a couple more sets of marines off ebay, and made myself some more to complete my collection. I also gave the marines from each faction slightly different powers and point values, so a player can choose the value of the marnies he wants to play with (they all have Stim Pack, though).
So in addition to Jim Raynor with his three squads of Raynor's Raiders, I now have three squads of U.E.D. Marines ("I've been waiting on you..."), in white armor, in keeping with Omega, the last mission of Brood War) with Adm. Alexei Stukov as the companion hero. They follow Einar.
And I have three squads of the Sons of Korhal ("You want a piece of me, boy?") in red armor, also in keeping with Omega, the last mission of Brood War), with Gen. Horace Warfield as the companion hero (who has Shredder Grenades and a Flame Thrower). They follow Wyndar (a not as evil as Utgar or Valkrill, but not good Valkyrie my son Ben and I created that calls the desert home...seemed appropriate for Korhal and Mengsk's marines).
As for my original squad of two marines, I was going to just retire them as prototypes whose time had passed, but then I had an idea. I renamed them and turned them into mercenaries (again in keeping with the theme of Wings of Liberty).
Oh, I also made a few other Starcraft-themed figures as well, but I think I've blogged enough for now.
Happy heroscaping!
