Finger and Toe

It’s out, overcoming billions of opponents in the form of viruses.  Now, I find the gremlins have apparently been breeding—I can’t get the website updates to load.  I’ve got a geek headache.  Now that I’ve whined, let me tell you about this new model set.

TANGO PRIME: FIREBASE is an expansion to the TANGO PRIME: CORE SET that adds a broad-based pedestal and a narrower turret level for your towers, or they can be used as a standalone installation.   An installation can be topped with either a massive defense laser or a fire control radar that can double as an e-weapon.

Here’s the animated gif that demos the set:

And here’s the 360 animated gif:

That’s all.  Octopad’s sheets are on my desk to start the photography for final release.

I’ll keep trying to update the website, once I recover from the wall-head banging pain.

FIREBASE is done, with only final compilation of the pdf, press releases, and website update left to do.  So what’s next?

Octopad is a class sci-fi elevated landing pad.  In the real world these are generally only seen in the civilian world on the tops of skyscrapers or adjacent to airport concourses.  The military’s helipads tend to be makeshift affairs ranging from bulldozed clearings to somewhat elevated pads perched atop small, steep mountains, but they’re a sci-fi staple—so who am I to argue?  Besides, they’re just darn cool-looking!

Octopad is a very simple, two page model.  One page is two deck modules which are glued to the octagonal core of the second page.  The core plus the ribs of the deck modules make the Octopad very strong.

Included with Octopad is a VTOL Thunderbird Squad Transport.  This is a simple model and comes in a variation on the Russian urban camouflage.  I’m planning a later release of a more detailed and tricked out Thunderbird in multiple color schemes, much as the MilBee and civilian versions of the BumbleBee.

Pricing for the Octopad will be in the $3.00 range.

Here are some pix:

After OCTOPAD I’m going to try to get the droppod set released.  The tentative name for the set is Chariot.  All that’s left to finish are the textures for the firepod and its turret, as well as texturing the new droppad—an open platform intended for dropping vehicles and transportable structures from orbit.

TTFN.

Glenn

Firebase is nearing completion.  It adds a wide pedestal base for the tower modules and a narrow top to mount heavy weapons.  Included with the two new modules are a planetary defense laser and a radar tower.  There are also buttresses for the base that are designed to fit with the ground level buttresses from the core set.  Below are some CGIs of the new set.

The tower pedestal and turret top

The two new modules with the planetary defense laser and with the radar tower

The new turret top will accept any of the ARSENAL weapons.

The base is six inches square and two high, while the pedestal is a four inch square base with a three inch square top deck (and again is two inches high).  The radar tower stands four inches high (plus a small amount for the navigation warning beacon on top), so a radar station such as shown here is six inches square and more than eight inches high.

This is the last I’ll get done before the weekend as OneMonk (Jim Hartman) is on his way on a cross country trip and will be here Saturday.  You can follow the videos of his trip at his web site:

OneMonk’s Vacation Videos

Did you notice my bad typing in that last post?  Sigh.

Over at The Miniatures Page I goty a request to show some actual photos.  I was going to do a QuickTime movies, but thoguht this might be faster and easier—an animated GIF that shows how to use the basic tower modules, customize them, and expand to a large base.

I’m moving away from Flash Shockwave movies except in some circumstances and using animated GIFs instead.  This is a big deal for me, because, well, it’s a change—and change is scary, right?

Here’s the animated GIF for Tango Prime Core Set:

OK, it’s fun.  I confess.  Back to work on the new Tango Prime set: the Turret.  This adds a base for your towers and a turret to top them (or it can stand alone) and comes with a big ole scary laser to frighten off those drop ships.

Now for some previews of the next Tango Prime set:

This is the turret that goes on top of the towers

This is the base for the tower (it will have buttresses that conform to the Core Set)

Here’s the untextured turret laser.  I have a model that’s more like a naval gun turret that I may use instead.  Both are finished modeling but not textured.

After that, there’ll be a release of two in the Chariot drop pod series, plus at least one Arsenal gun.  Chariot will probably include the drop pods revealed before (squad and fire support) with the Mantis 3 as a separate release.

This is a big yay!  I’ve been doing small scenery elements in the ARSENAL series, but I love designing bigger sets.  This is the beginning of a major expansion.   If you want to see the slide show (IT’S REALLy BIG AND TAKES A LONG WHILE TO LOAD):

http://www.fingerandtoe.com/tangoprimecore.swf

When you watch the slide show, I want you to think about how you can use TANGO PRIME: CORE SET as a kit.

ANNOUNCING SMOOSH ASSURANCE:

If your clumsy-elbowed gamer friends knock a Finger and Toe model off the table, don’t worry—you’ve got smoosh assurance: for the price of card stock and some ink, you’ve got a new model.  Try THAT with resin!

Barricade is a simple, one page, two piece barricade to expand the Arsenal series and the upcoming TANGO PRIME.  The two pieces make a unit that can be chained to any length, then bent to shape custom fortifications.  There’s not a lot to say about the set—it takes a few minutes and you can run a line across the table.  Want to funnel traffic for a checkpoint?  Barricade’s perfect.

So, go get it over at RPGNOW.COM and have fun while I finish the instructions on Tango Prime: Core Set.

Taps for my Old PC

BTW, the reason Tango Prime isn’t out yet is that my PC MOBO died.  I had to scurry about and buy a new PC as my wife’s couldn’t handle what I do.  THEN I had to figure out how Vista works (during its last month in the stores—Windows 7 debuts next month).  THEN I had to find my program disks, figure out where the codes were, copy downloaded software archives over and install.  Finding and moving all my Thunderbird email, Firefox bookmarks, and Photoshop plugins and pre-sets.  Yecch!

So now I’ve got Carbonite on line back-up, a portable hard drive set to back-up, and this weekend my son the computer tech is going to ghost my hard drive.  Paranoid?  You betcha.

So tomorrow I should be back at work.  Light a candle.

This is the Mantis 3, because not all drop pods have to be a Soyuz/Apollo form.  The Mantis 3 is protected on descent  by plasma field projectors that generate an aerodynamically-shaped field around the craft.  The design allows the player to use it either as a drop pod or as a grav APC.  

Not shown in these renders are the landing skids.  I need to add vertical lift ports on the underside of the engine pods.  I’m considering alternate color schemes for the Mantis 3 (but not the other drop pods) because of its secondary role as an APC.

Here’s a work in progress of the Firepod:

It’s about the same height as the drop pod in the earlier blog entry, but half again wider.  It will come with the shroud removable so the weapon can fire.

Last, here’s a sneak peek of next week’s release, ARSENAL: CHECKPOINT.  This set gives you a gate for GREENLINE (and for TANGO PRIME when it comes out in a week or two).

I thought I’d take a few minutes and show you what’s down the road after Tango Prime.  The next release will be a family of drop pods, the chariots.  The line name will probably be Narkabtu—Assyrian for “chariot.”  If I get the time, the markings will be in cuneiform just for fun.

Here are some previews.  The first is the basic squad drop pod, followed by the untextured white models of the heavy weapon (called a Firepod) drop pod, which will accept an Arsenal weapon (using a shorter pintle included with the model set).  The second white is the weapon included with the Firepod.

The model is four and a half inches wide including the leg/ramps and four inches tall with the fins.  The pod itself is two inches wide.  The top can be removed leaving a platform with legs to be used as a small weapon support (say a squad machine gun or mortar).  The fins are the mag rail adaptors and aero-brakes.  You can see the windows for the two-man crew (actually the squad leader and a second squad member), then there is room for eight in the pod.  After landing, the drop pods can be used as temporary quarters and HQ for the troops.  Hint to Jim Hartman over at One Monk—how about some crew-served heavy weapons?  BTW, if you haven’t bought his figures, why not?

This is the Firepod.  The pod itself is three inches wide.  The body is removable leaving a platform and ramps.

This is the Firepod’s weapon.  The inspiration is a T-34 turret.  During the Second World War the Russians occasionally used turrets as ground-based weapons.  Right now I want to include several faces for the gun, so you could have a laser, a rocket launcher, a multi-gun, and a big ole cannon/mortar.  The idea is that this weapon is autonomous, so the Firepod does not need a crew, although there is room for two troops in the upper cone.

I’m sketching a third pod for several squads and have a preliminary model—but it’s too soon to show it.

Packaging hasn’t been fixed.  The two alternatives are to release them individually with two or three paint schemes or as a single release, again with multiple color schemes.

For fantasy players, there’s a bloody Aztec-style altar:

The rear pedestal that holds the calendar hasn’t been textured, but this is close.  This is a small piece—no more than two pages.