Back from Japan - An Update!

Hello! Long time no see and all that. It's weird, every time we go to Japan for a few months I think "great, I'll have a lot more free time to blog and read through all those roleplaying books I want to review!" but then it doesn't turn out like that and in a way I actually have less free time than when I'm back home, working. Very weird. So please excuse the long silence. Now we're back in Sweden and I even managed to bring some loot from the land of the rising sun!

First off  here are a couple of quick phone pics of my recently painted fleet scale mecha for Jovian Chronicles and Lightning Strike. Since I've been waiting so long for something like this I was eager to get started and begain painting the same week we got home. They've even seen their first action as we played the second session in our Jovian Chronicles campaign this week. More on that later of course.

This is what I've finished so far, and covers pretty much what was needed for the current session.
The Hector standing in as a Retaliator.

Two standard Wyverns and one Command variant.

Pathfinder Alpha command variant. I drilled four shallow holes in the backpack as thrusters.

As you can see I've re-based them on regular hex flying stands. Mostly as we'll be using them for the roleplaying game quite a bit, but also since I do like the current Lightning Strike rules where each exo armour is an individual unit. I can always re-base them again later if needed. I'm really happy with how they turned out and I think they hold up pretty well to the full 28mm scale exos.

Up next are a flight of Syreens and bunch of CEGA ships. These will be followed by another two Hectors and some Jovian ships which should amount to enough to allow me to start playing Lightning Strike properly. More and better pictures to follow!


While in Japan I took the opportunity to get some Japanese stuff. Two games from Japanse board game maker Oink Games: 海底探険, aka Deep Sea Adventure, and エセ芸術家ニューヨークへ行く, aka A Fake Artist Goes to New York. One is a quick push-your-luck game where you're trying to gather as much treasure as possible without drowing (which you do. Frequently) and the other is a kind of drawing based Spyfall. A Fake Artist Goes to New York is just... awesome! So much fun can be had with just a few pieces of paper and some pens. Great game! Deep Sea Adventure is also a solid filler, but doesn't quite tap into the same genious as Fake Artist.

Trying to get just a few... more... pieces... of... treasure! *Gasp*

Some of the weird creations we came up with as we played.

One of the things I love about Oink Games is that all their creations come in tiny, tiny boxes! They're about the size of two regular decks of cards stacked on top of each other and it's so nice to have producers trying to make it as small as possible instead of just pushing more unwanted air into their boxes. Smaller games=more space, more space=more games! :D


Of course, you can't go to Japan and not get some kind of giant robot! This year I finally managed to see the full scale gundam at display in Odaiba and it was spectacular! Actually larger than I had expected and with loads of cool detail. While I was there they projected a Gundam series (Iron-Blooded Orphans I think) on the facade behind the gundam and it lit up in different colours to match the action in the episode. Pretty cool!

I also bought my first proper Gundam kits. Although I was on a tight budget I managed to squeeze in three 1/144 High Grade kits by simply playing smart with the different bonus point cards all the big chain stores have in Japan. For a long while I was thinking that I would get some of the models from the excellent Gundam Thunderbolt series, but in the end I went for three kits from Gundam: The Origin instead as they are newer and better designed. While "only" HG kits they are fairly close to Real Grade kits when it comes to detail and movability.

I've only put one together so far, the YMS-09D Dom Test Type, and it was a lot of fun! Took longer than I expected (even with painting and glue not being required) simply because I did all the panel lines as I built it. It's the first time I've used my Gundam markers and the ones I have are a bit larger than I hoped for, but works fine as long as you wipe away the excess paint. You can see the finished product up top. Well, it needs a top coat, but apart from that it's done. I have Char's Custom Zaku II and Zaku II High-Mobility Type, both from The Origin, to build as well. Here are another couple of pictures.

There's also another modelling project lying before me. An old friend in Japan, who also loves scifi, was kind enough to give a Maschinen Krieger model out of the blue! It's the 1/20 Raptor power armour and it looks like a lot of fun to build! However, I really want to do it justice, with lots of rust and other weathering effects so I'm not going to rush it. It might sit untouched for a while, but I am determined to get it built before I go back to Japan next time.

For those who don't know, Maschinen Krieger (or Ma.K as it is also known) was originally a science fiction comic in Japan in the early eighties. However, that was only the catalyst and what we know as Ma.K today was the brainchild of Kow Yokoyama and was born out of kitbashing and the love of science fiction, early space exploration and WWII. It has a fairly fun backstory about human space colonists who want to return and take back Earth from a fascist dictatorship that now rules it. It's mostly just an excuse for building amazing looking models though, and for it to be proper Ma.K they should be dirty and grimy and rusty. Haha! I highly recommend checking out the page of Ma.K enthusiast Maschinen Kreuger as it has loads and loads of great picturs of models!

I also picked up some smaller stuff. The 100 yen stores are great for finding all kinds of cheap stuff that can be used for modelling in different ways. Among others I got some pastels (for weathering) and a bunch of sheets of corrucated cardboard (for terrain). Got to love scoring cheap deals! I was going to get sheets of cork as well, but forgot all about it so that'll have to wait till next year.


Well... I think that covers the main events. There is a lot of other stuff that I'm doing or prepping for, but at the moment I'm trying to focus on getting all the Jovian Chronicles minis painted (working on the CEGA fleet now) and then I might get stuck in with MERCS Recon as the wave 2 stuff should be arriving here soon... ? I hope. I really want to do more roleplaying as well. Need to try Ten Candles and Ryuutama for sure and I would love to find the right constellation of people for Torchbearer to really take off! Then there's Mutant: Maskinarium where you play as a robot who has just gained consciousness. And of course our Jovian Chronicles campaign.

Well, expect some more regular updates from now on!