Introduction to Creative Juggernaut’s Terrain Hexes

An Urbie on a moon

I have to admit, this one is on me.  Here’s the background. We were considering doing a new mini for CGL and were struggling with the poses.  I had been watching the fan forums on Facebook and someone had been commenting about how he just never could get the hang of the bases and was complimenting others on their base creations. I threw out the idea of having one or two custom terrain bases that fans could attach the mini to rather than the dull flat base in lieu of extra arms or legs.  It seemed like something that would be kind of cool.

That got me wondering – how many fans had similar frustrations?  So I asked around and found that for many folks, the issue was time. They wanted good bases, but they took a lot of time.  They had to buy bases, then some green stuff, do the molding…wait for it to set. Paint, flock, detail…it was taking some fans almost as much time as they spent getting their mini’s ready for battle.    

The short version – we didn’t end up doing the ‘Mech in question, but didn’t let the terrain base idea slip by.  Our goal was simple – make some cool looking terrain bases that required very little effort for the casual gamer to prep and use.  Brent, Kevin, Eric and I started batting around the idea of a line of hex bases, compatible with BattleTech, that would take little time to prepare and looked good.  Brent and his son took on the job of the initial batch, based loosely on the map sets for BattleTech, Badlands and Lunar.  I think one of mine actually made it to production – I’m not sure.  We wanted a good random mix of these bases in each bag. 

A random sample of painted Lunar bases

A random set of Badlands bases

For me, this was all about how much time it took to prepare the hexes.  So in these examples, what I am going to show you is a bare minimum effort and provide you with rough timing. 

Prep for the bases is pretty simple. There is a spur and some very minor flash.  I was able to use trimmers to cut the spur and a simple file to prepare the base.  Total time, assuming you are careful when you trim the mold spur, less than a minute per hex.  Now, if your mini needs a flat spot for a footpad, you will need to take a file and make one, but in my examples – I didn’t.

This spur was the biggest and it was easy to clip through. Brent has informed me that the new process means even less spurs to none!

I spray painted them flat black – just a few seconds per base.  I like black borders on the hexagonal sides and this fit well into my evil plan.  

Next up, dry-brushing. I was tempted to fire up the air brush, but with the black as a base, I thought that dry-brushing would give me the desired contrast.  Also, my goal was to do this in the fastest way possible, rather than the most detailed.  I spent about 45 seconds, on average, per hex.  I went with a dull light brown for the Badlands and an off-white for the Lunar bases.  I honestly felt that I was spending more time cleaning my brush than I was painting. 

For these images I grabbed my trusty crimson UrbanMech and just set him on some bases so you can see how it looks.  The result…I spent, at tops, two and a half minutes per base to prep and paint them.  Yes, I could have glued down some scrub brush on the Badlands hexes – but I felt it wasn’t necessary for this demonstration. This was intended to show even the most unskilled painter how easy and fast these can be deployed to your gaming battlefield.

“Look at me mom, I’m in the Badlands!”

I personally love the Lunar bases because I can see these being changed with little effort into battlefield craters rather than meteor strikes. 

We sell these exclusively through Aries Games & Miniatures.  https://ariesgamesandminis.com/index.php/shopping/category/295-shock-monkey-games.html

The Tukayyid Salvage Bits Bags at Gen Con and Beyond

Our company, Creative Juggernaut, has been busy leading up to Gen Con. First, we produced hundreds of Stormcrow Tukayyid variants and shipped those to Catalyst for them to sell on their site.  Second, we produced a batch of Black Knight Tukayyid variants and got those off as well. For Gen Con itself, we assembled Tukayyid Salvage Bit Bags, (around 700) as a convention release. 

We jokingly called these “dime bags” in-house.  They are parts and pieces of ‘Mechs that were unfit for release to the public.  Some parts are partial casts, some are deformed in some manner, others have air bubbles (which look like damage).  Our company believes in being green and rather than send these off to the landfill, we packaged them for resale. Each bag is the same size as the Black Knight and Stormcrow, but are crammed with random parts.  The parts are from these two ‘Mechs, as well as some prototypes we did for a Marauder IIC, an UrbanMech, and a Crusader…but mostly Black Knight and Stormcrow parts and pieces. 

So what good are they?  These bits can be used on bases as battlefield debris for your ‘Mechs to be standing on or next to.  The bits can be used to make fallen ‘Mech objective markers for Alpha Strike games.  My personal use of these is for when a BattleMech is destroyed in a game.  Rather than tip over a model I have worked hard to assemble and paint (risking damage), you can use these parts to mark dead enemies and comrades on the field/map. 

I met one person that bought a few bags in hopes of getting enough to assemble a battle damaged Black Knight. No guarantees on such efforts, since the parts are randomly stuffed in the bags.  I appreciated his ingenuity and creativity. 

We didn’t announce these would be available at Gen Con because you never know until the last minute if they are going to be suitable for sale, etc.  As it was, Brent loaded up a piece of luggage with Tukayyid Salvage Bits and lugged them personally to Gen Con.  Things were so last minute, I don’t even have a photo of the bags right now. 

Eventually, once the dust settles from convention season, these will go up for sale on the Catalyst Game Labs website – along with the Stormcrows and Black Knights.  And yes, we are going to produce more ‘Mechs.  No, we cannot solve international shipping prices nor are we selling these directly – you have to order them from Catalyst.  Catalyst sets the sales price on these.  There is no way to preview them online, so there’s no picking and choosing – you get a random bag stuffed with random parts. 

We will do some social media posts when we know when they are for sale; but that is handled by Catalyst and there is no guarantee that we will gets a heads up.  I would recommend watching their web site since you now know that they have stock of our products. 

So what it next?  I’m sworn to secrecy, but there are some big things coming from Creative Juggernaut…BIG things. 

Black Knight Variant Mini Coming Soon!

“Please accept this sword as evidence I want you Clan-butt dead…” Adept Rufus Faust, Battle of Tukayyid

Our game company, Creative Juggernaut, has been working closely with Catalyst Game Labs on a number of high-end miniatures of variant BattleMechs. The first two, the Tukayyid Stormcrow and Black Knight have been in production for a while.  While work continues on the Stormcrow, we thought it would be a nice to show you that the Black Knight being shipped to Catalyst. In other words, it will be for sale soon.  

Mystery shipper (okay, it’s Brent) dropping off the shipment of Black Knights

These are not preassembled minis and they come with some variant parts, giving you some opportunities to pose the minis differently.  They come in little ziplock baggies and are plastic resin so they are easy to modify, for those of you so inclined.

Proof that Brent was not carrying an empty prop-box.

The minis will be available on the Catalyst Game Labs online store. When?  We can’t say for sure, but as you can see, they have not only been shipped, but received at the warehouse…so this is finally happening! We encourage you to check the CGL store every so often and watch for their social media announcements if you are interested in these. 

So, this is happening…

So what is next?  Obviously we need to finish up the Stormcrow, which is darned close to being done.  We aren’t allowed to officially say what additional minis are in production, but based on the positive feedback we’ve seen online there are others that are being prepped for casting right now.  Brent has even cooked up a surprise or two. 

Thanks for your support and patience.  We believe it will be worth it. 

Stormcrow Variant – Creative Juggernaut

Pew – pew

If you are unaware, our little company (Creative Juggernaut) is working on producing variant ‘Mechs for BattleTech in limited production runs.  To address your questions up-front – I do not have a date when they will be available yet (though rumor has it that the Black Knight’s are done.  Don’t tell Brent I told you that though – that’s our secret!)  They will be sold through the Catalyst website – we have to for licensing reasons. No, I do not know what the final price will be.  In many respects, I am a cog in this machine, and in the case of minis, a pretty insignificant cog. 

Brent sent me along a Stormcrow kit so I could paint it up.  This comes with the arm fitted with the pulse lasers, and the option of fitting it out with the gauss rifle or the autocannon.  I opted for the AC20 because I like using one when I play. 

You will see the production baggie (ohh…ziplock!) and the components.

Its like the prize inside the cereal box when you were a kid

The only clean up I did to the parts was with my bare hands, rubbing off a tiny bit of flash. I wanted to duplicate what a gamer might do if he wanted to put in the minimum effort and get the mini into battle quickly.   

It fit together pretty well.  I uplifted one leg slightly, I like the look of my mini’s as if they are moving. I angled the arms a little on-purpose. Not sure if I like that or not. I’m sure some Senior Tech in the Clan will have my hide for that.

For paint, I used the airbrush to do a layer of black, then gray on the bottom, dark blue, with the top being light blue.  I was going for a Ghost Bear look, doing a reversal of the Omicron Galaxy paint scheme. Why Ghost Bears? Because they have some wonderful colors to work with…and they are Ghost Bears! Seriously, I would love to tell you there was some reason for this, but there wasn’t other than I thought it was a neat look.  The layering of the paints did a lot of the work for me and the base coat of black took care of the recessed areas. I avoided doing a wash simply because I liked the effect I came up with. 

Total paint time for this mini was 22 minutes – the vast majority of which was cleaning the airbrush between color changes.  I added some decals, but right now I lack Ghost Bear decals, so I kept it simple. 

Overall, I love the results.  The ‘Mech is very airbrush friendly and can be posed with little effort.  Let me know what you think in the comments below.  Enjoy!

Building the Variant Black Knight – A Creative Juggernaut Project

“None shall pass!”

As some of you know, Brent Evans and I are part of a company called Creative Juggernaut (www.creative-juggernaut.com).  We have been working on a number of very cool game products under our Shock Monkey Games subsidiary, but recently, our focus has been on making a pair of variant BattleMech miniatures for Catalyst Game Labs.  This post is about building and painting the Clan-Buster variant of the Black Knight. 

Let me deal with the most common questions I keep getting up-front.  These will be sold through the Catalyst Games Labs web site only.  We will not be selling them ourselves.  These are a limited run unless Catalyst wants to do something different down the road. CGL will set the prices on them.  No, I do no know what that price will be.  There are a lot of variants that we are jointly considering and we do not need suggestions. 

Much of what we do is proprietary in terms of the casting process – so I’m not at liberty to share that.  I had Brent send me a production Black Knight.  We decided to produce these unassembled, since we figured that most mini fans of BattleTech are used to putting together miniatures.  Also, it helps us keep the cost down. 

The packaging will have a wrap-over piece of thin cardboard with the image of the assembled figure on the back.  It’s in a ziplock baggie because, well, it’s simple.  For the record, I did almost zero cleaning of the figure in terms of mold seams. I wanted to approach this like a typical gamer might.    

A bag of goodness

Assembling this Black Knight you have to essentially make two decisions.  One, what do you want to do with the hands.  We cast variant hands, and what is really cool, we have some that are open (so you can see the fingers.)  Me, I had to have the sword…duh.  I went with the open hand with the autocannon just because I thought it was cool. 

The other decision you must make is what legs you want to use.  Brent included a bent leg which excited me.  With a little kitbashing, you can actually make a kneeling/prone Black Knight, which is very cool.  One of our team, Kevin, has a kneeling one that looks pretty incredible. I decided to use the bent knee to give the impression of the ‘Mech charging.  I glued it to the base and liked it, for about an hour.  I opted to make a change.   

He was going to be charging as shown above, but I changed my mind.

The parts fit together very well.  The plastic is easy to work with – no pinning.  The detail on the hands is something we just haven’t seen with ‘Mech minis in the past.  Look at the photos and form your own opinions.

During the casting process, we always have a little left over resin.  So what we have done is create some molds of various ‘Mechs and use them to pour our leftover stuff.  These are not designed or intended to be perfect, but provide us with spare parts, limbs, etc, that we can use on the bases for terrain.  Brent sent along a bunch of cast-off UrbanMech parts with this batch – so what I did was cannibalize an Urbie leg and re-pose my Black Knight so that it is standing on the blasted off leg.  Why did the Clans have an Urbie on Tukayyid?  That I can’t answer.  Maybe this is some other ComStar operation…

Some cast off parts

A change of stance. Standing on a fallen foe. I used some rust wash on the Urbie leg.

For painting, I used my airbrush to lay down a base coat of black.  It’s a ComStar ‘Mech, so I went with a white layer next, again with the airbrush.  I used a light dusting of brown on the legs to show mud splatter.  Total painting time was around 20 minutes, including the detailing.  I didn’t use a wash.  It took me longer to clean my airbrush than it did to paint. Usually I use white to show wear on the armor, but with a white ‘Mech, it did my chipping using silver – especially on the sword.   

Final product. I like the mud splatter on the lower legs and the silver chipping on spots.

I love it.  The Knight is beefy and looks ready to kick ass.  My next one will be a Ghost Bear isorla version. My next assembly will be our production Stormcrow Tukayyid variant.

CLASH – The Unofficial and Completely Unsanctioned 2020 Presidential Debate Drinking Game – Up On Kickstarter

CLICK HERE to go to CLASH on Kickstarter

A few years ago my good friend Brent Evans (of Catalyst Game Labs) reached out to me about joining him at a little startup company he wanted to get going – Creative Juggernaut.  Brent and I spent a lot of time talking and realized that we had a pretty cool vision for what a company could do.  We didn’t just want to produce games, we wanted to build IP’s (Intellectual Properties) that spanned RPG’s, tabletop games, comics, fiction, animation, film – the whole shooting match. We are not competing with CGL, we are on very friendly terms with them.  It is all good in the ‘hood.

Just so there’s no confusion, Shock Monkey Games is our games division.  It’s all part of the Creative Juggernaut uber-corp.

So, we started work on a massive project, working late hours and weekends.  It is called Land & Sea.  Along the way, we came up with some cool one-off games as well.  The first of those was Clash, which was a drinking card game for the 2016 election.

We released it just before the first debates and Eric Crew, who is on our team, had copies made for us to share with friends and family.  The response was pretty positive.

Work on Land & Sea continues…the first three massive novels are DONE and we will be Kickstarting those pretty soon. There’s a LOT going on there, including some fantastic miniatures that will be made right here in the USA.

I proposed that we update Clash for the 2020 Presidential Election.  If there was ever a year I wanted to get drunk watching television, it is 2020!  So we did.  We updated the rules, the cards, and decided to launch it as a Kickstarter.

It funded in the first 11 minutes.  Bear in mind we set the bar pretty low because we have already gotten the production work lined up.  After all, the game is done, tested, laid out, ready to rock.  All we need to do is provision it and we are doing that with DriveThruCards.  Our goal is to deliver it a week or two before the first debate.

I know there are a lot of rumors that the debates might not happen, but Clash can be used watching any of the news channels.  Just turn on CNN or Fox News for an hour and start playing – you’ll be hammered by the second commercial break.

The game doesn’t have to be a drinking game.  It can be played just for grins or for pennies or M&M’s.  It DOES force you to pay attention as to what is being said.  In this year in terms of politics, that is going to be a big deal.  Also, we poke fun at both sides of this contest.  We are equal opportunity abusers. With these candidates there is plenty of material to work with.

So, I hope you will join us in the launch of Clash 2020.  Feel free to share this with your networks as well.