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Post by scottwashburn on Jun 12, 2019 13:14:47 GMT
I've been tempted to make some 'boots' for my tripods to spread the weight out. Perhaps the Martians in my books will start doing the same.
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gunnyhighway
Scout Tripod
Just because your from Mars doesn't mean we can take warm showers in the wee hours of the morning...
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Post by gunnyhighway on Jun 12, 2019 14:51:22 GMT
3 legged hurri-canes? Remember the cane commercial? Respectfully, Gunny
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Post by madmorgan on Jun 13, 2019 15:36:04 GMT
Egads, more Huey-Lewy-Duey walkers with their big red boots! "It's Bo-ta!" (ref Buckeroo Banzai)
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Post by loyalist on Jul 11, 2019 0:41:31 GMT
Ok this is all good and fine - but, who makes these models??? Is that a prototype of the new Red Death? I think the LIC has just been modified - it would be easy enough even for a ham hand like me to add those elevations with painted wood dow. Another possibility is that's a Shapeway 3-D designed figure. There's some really good modelers out there doing 3-D designs on ships & planes - it would only take one to start doing variant AQMF figures.
Looks like the rear turrets were elvated using towers from the Mk. II flame tank.
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gunnyhighway
Scout Tripod
Just because your from Mars doesn't mean we can take warm showers in the wee hours of the morning...
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Post by gunnyhighway on Jul 11, 2019 3:10:52 GMT
Good God, man! Someone get this supposition under control. A little support and explanation from the new owners would help here! Just because we're not on farcebook doesn't mean we don't want to know what's going on! Respectfully, Gunny
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Post by David N.Tanner 07011959 on Jul 11, 2019 12:46:43 GMT
Good God, man! Someone get this supposition under control. A little support and explanation from the new owners would help here! Just because we're not on farcebook doesn't mean we don't want to know what's going on! Respectfully, Gunny Loud noises of agreement from the back benches.
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Post by GarageBay9 on Aug 21, 2019 3:10:49 GMT
So now that the new designs have been officially unveiled at GenCon, I can post a little more about them. Hi, folks! I'm the 3D artist and digital sculptor that is redoing the Tripod models for 2nd Edition. The decision to resculpt them was driven by a number of things, but primarily it was a desire for new visual design on them. My art design for them actually goes back to not long after the game was in limbo following the bankruptcy of Alien Dungeon, and I've stuck with my work on them ever since. I'm really excited that with 2nd Edition in the works, what was originally a personal project I was just going to 3D print at home has evolved to become the game's tripods going forward. It's a modular system allowing construction of most (and eventually, hopefully all) of the tripod variants using a main set of parts that are mixed and matched. A lot of my inspiration came from deep-sea crustaceans and insects. I wanted something that was a weird, unsettling halfway point between inorganic and alive, with a mix of thick layered shell plates, machinery, and biological forms. I'm really happy with how it turned out and the response at the conventions where David has had them on the table has been great, so I can't wait for everyone to get a chance to play with them! Just to assuage some quick concerns - the original (1st Edition) tripod models are NOT being obsoleted. You will still be able to use them to play 2nd Edition. That is straight from David Pearce at Abby Normal. We're still making some tweaks and revisions (mostly parts engineering stuff for molding and to make building them as easy as possible), so work isn't quite done yet, but you can definitely see where they're headed! As a bonus, here's a render I did of the 3D sculpt, and some non-canon lore I wrote to go with it, set in the western foothills of the Cascade Mountains of the Pacific Northwest. It's nasty territory for the Martians to fight in, with Seattle being easily defensible by the nearby naval base; the region was also a fiercely rugged and independent frontier society even in the 1910s. The locals could have easily fought guerilla-style against the Martians in the harsh, rainy mountain ranges and dense old-growth forests, and probably given at least as good as they got. "After the 5th Cavalry spent their lives near the Columbia, just the three were left that came through the mountain pass. We got one with blasting charges from the mine, brought half the mountain down on the blighter, cracked it open and lightning came out. The second we never saw again after the fourth night.
The last one... that's the one I still see when I close my eyes at night, Sar'nt. It left dead homesteads and ash as it went. The Snoqualmie braves tracked it through the mountains but none of our outposts ever saw it come further West than the PSS&E railyard at Gilman.
The natives named it in Salish. They called it The Beast With Skin As Still Water.
You could see your soul and all your past sins reflected back at you in its hide when it stared at you."
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Post by scottwashburn on Aug 21, 2019 11:40:12 GMT
Great stuff! Also great that you remained committed to the game even after Alien Dungeon folded up. It was pretty much the same thing for me. I kept writing my novels and talking up the game and posting battle reports. And it's not dead yet!
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Post by madmorgan on Aug 22, 2019 9:31:52 GMT
On third look, it appears the 'right' appendage has some sort of 'hand' or grabbing device - hard to tell from one pic. It certainly is an oppressing figure, not just a tricked out Assault like the old Red Death. Wonder if it still has all the devices the original Death had (Siren,Dazzler,etc.)?? More is needed - next March can't come soon enough!
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Post by scottwashburn on Aug 22, 2019 13:21:04 GMT
I think the only thing I don't like about the new tripod is the 'ring' base for it. I know the big disk base can be awkward, but it gives you a place to record the hits on the tripods and it also has some nice modeling possibilities. The bases of my tripods have burned marks on the ground from heat rays, skeletonized heat ray victims, wrecked wagons and field guns, etc. Not a biggie, but something to consider.
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Post by boxholder on Aug 22, 2019 16:25:58 GMT
I tend to do my bases with some paint and a bit of flocking. They are a bit austere. I kind of like the ring base since it lets the terrain below show through.
I can see Mr Washburn's point. But it is the work of a few minutes to cut a styrene disc and glue it in place.
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Post by mikedski on Aug 22, 2019 23:48:42 GMT
I think the only thing I don't like about the new tripod is the 'ring' base for it. I know the big disk base can be awkward, but it gives you a place to record the hits on the tripods and it also has some nice modeling possibilities. The bases of my tripods have burned marks on the ground from heat rays, skeletonized heat ray victims, wrecked wagons and field guns, etc. Not a biggie, but something to consider. Agreed. The damage tokens add to the game in a visually pleasing way. Also the information the tokens convey is readily apparent to all players.
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Post by GarageBay9 on Aug 24, 2019 10:16:27 GMT
On third look, it appears the 'right' appendage has some sort of 'hand' or grabbing device - hard to tell from one pic. It certainly is an oppressing figure, not just a tricked out Assault like the old Red Death. Wonder if it still has all the devices the original Death had (Siren,Dazzler,etc.)?? More is needed - next March can't come soon enough! It does! It actually has three arms, two up above from the shoulders and one lower at its left torso, and a large Heavy Heat Ray mounted side-saddle in its right ribcage-type-area where the lower right torso arm would otherwise be mounted if the HHR wasn't there. The modular parts mean that the Reaper Claw mounts on the same size tabs as the Medium Heat Rays you see at the ends of the upper arms. David and I have bounced around ideas for a gunslinger-type config with four Medium Heat Rays (and possibly two Small Heat Rays where the throat tentacles are mounted), and the model can physically be built that way without needing parts unique to those configurations. There's a lot of cool things the new models can do now like that. Some versions like the Devastator have unique parts (it gets some large missile racks that are impossible to miss), but they all use the same core parts to build up the chassis. I think the only thing I don't like about the new tripod is the 'ring' base for it. I know the big disk base can be awkward, but it gives you a place to record the hits on the tripods and it also has some nice modeling possibilities. The bases of my tripods have burned marks on the ground from heat rays, skeletonized heat ray victims, wrecked wagons and field guns, etc. Not a biggie, but something to consider. So the ring bases were actually kind of serendipitous. We needed a base for the prototypes, especially the one that went to Enfilade earlier this year (the Red Death). It just needed to be sized right and handed off in time to 3D print. David was printing these on his liquid resin 3D printer and so my first thought was "I should leave the middle out of the big, featureless circle to save on expensive printing resin". As I was hitting save and uploading them, there was also this fleeting thought of "huh... a tank could fit in the middle, and that would look pretty cool with the Tripod standing over it..." ...and then it was well past midnight and I stumbled off to bed. I got a phonecall from David not long after and he was all excited because the ring bases did exactly that: they let the Tripods interact on the table with the individual tanks and infantry in a way they couldn't (at least very easily) before. He and I have talked about them some more and he's very strongly in favor of them; they just add too many cool options, and there are some game materials tweaks in the plans that solve the need for markers and status tokens on the table. We're also aware that a lot of players love detailing their bases - me included - and we're brainstorming a way to not leave them out. The rings will be thicker, giving some more real-estate for modeling. We're mulling over some other things that could give more real-estate to players who want to model their bases up awesome. It's not off our radar.
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Post by hardlec on Aug 24, 2019 15:39:31 GMT
First: I had a concern about the loss of the counter tray, but by having unit counters, the counter tray is not needed. Second: One weakness of the old tripods is the legs. The plastic legs are too delicate, and the pewter legs are too soft. I’d recommend that the new tripods incorporate clear Lexan columns to the design, providing three points of contact that are very tough and stable, while the tripod legs can be decorative. Third: I’d strongly recommend 3 sizes of head and three 3 of legs; small, medium and large heads, low, regular and tall legs. This provides nine types of tripods for six “parts.” Add caps, such as a missile pod, a great horn, a grinder al la the harvester, and some others, and different arms/tentacles. Put a magnet on the end of each arm, and put a magnet on each tool to swap out tools, weapons, impaled victims, etc. Modular parts will reduce inventory headaches. According to the literature, Martians are individuals and fight as individuals. Individualizing the Tripods will be a good thing.
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Post by boxholder on Aug 26, 2019 12:03:15 GMT
I have never had any real problem with the plastic legs IF they are all three on the ground. The plastic bodies are light enough to be supported by the the legs when all three are in contact with the base or something on the base. You can use a fallen tree, a rock, a shack, a pile of rubble or a small hillock to provide a third mounting point if you want some more visual interest that the flat base.
Trying to make the two leg "pose" work is a prescription for a fragile mounting, irrespective of the photos or instruction sheet. Any force applied can bend the two legs and break them at the base. Three point mounting is the way to go. The fact that legs can be posed in many geometries makes this possible.
The pewter legs are a bit soft for the larger metal models, so a plexiglas (acrylic) rod for an unobtrusive extra support is a good option. That said, my Harvester has stood up OK (no pun). The long tentacles have bent, though, so I ended up bending them to provide another attachment point while looking more candid.
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