Mileposter Posted January 2, 2018 Share Posted January 2, 2018 I like to build things. Most of the time, it's Warhammer 40k related. Sometimes that's building models, sometimes that's building campaigns, sometimes that's building terrain, sometimes that's building accessories. I design, I code, I paint - I do a little bit of everything. This has lead to my starting little threads in all sorts of sections of the site to babble or keep track of various projects. With the advent of my project site, Index: Mechanicus, where I hope to package and provide some of the fruits of my project labors to fellow hobbyists, it made sense to provide a central WIP thread. Here I can provide a little more detailed updates than what the site might explain or a pointer to the other threads. Also helps activity when one thread might not have been update for a week but another has constant attention. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mileposter Posted January 2, 2018 Author Share Posted January 2, 2018 Project: Wound Tracker One of the tech bits I intend to provide for other hobbyists on Index: Mechanicus is a few pieces of modelling tech I came up with. The first, a digital LED Wound Counter kit that you can build right into your tank and other vehicle models or bases to keep simple track of wounds remaining or bonuses. The kit will contain two electronic pieces to fit into the model: the main board and the battery pack. The LED display has a small backpack that will need clearance when you mount it in the model, but it's very slim. The LED display is smaller than a United States Quarter. Two buttons control the entire interface, and are easily mounted from inside the model as well. I've measured the size out and everything fits into/on a Leman Russ, Rhino, Predator, Fire Prism, Stormtalon, Imperial Knight, Chimera, and Ork Trukk - so i think that covers most chasis in the game thus far. This is the prototype in action on a breakout board. DO NOTE, this is a prototype, and so the final covering, wiring, and batteries aren't shown here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mileposter Posted January 2, 2018 Author Share Posted January 2, 2018 Army: Imperial Guard One of the things I'm working on is a new force of Astra Militarum. Styled after the Forge World of the fan-made Marilith Zone, the Enyara 144th 2nd Company are meant to be both my larger army for play on the table top and a showcase for the tech I'm developing. Glowing tanks, LED rockets, actual launching weapons, commanders giving sound to their orders - any of it is fodder for this army. As of this posting, the army is... Fledgling. Literally. One squad is all that exists at present as I build up. Not even painted, at that! While I will update this WIP when progress is made, more detailed posts will be made about this over in the Imperial Guard thread. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mileposter Posted January 2, 2018 Author Share Posted January 2, 2018 Project: The Nexus War This is a web-based campaign that is designed to (hopefully) be unlike the numerous other types of campaigns I've seen. Where many campaigns are simply "kill, capture, win" and little more, this campaign is intended to be story-first. It is built around a faction design so as to encourage any number of players in a FLGS group to participate. Each player will be able to interact with and influence the evolving story on the planet of Ialdon - communicating with characters and other players via the game board. I've run the campaign locally with much success. The project is about expanding its capability so that any FLGS group can run their own Nexus War campaign, and experience the story with their own meta. It's an ambitious project that I will be hosting on Index: Mechanicus once I've completed enough of the support to make testing available. While I will update this WIP when progress is made, more detailed posts and discussions are over in the Homegrown Rules thread. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subtle Discord Posted January 2, 2018 Share Posted January 2, 2018 Hummm... Colour me intrigued. Interesting and unique lighting opportunities is something I'm constantly on the lookout for to incorporate into future personal and studio projects. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mileposter Posted January 2, 2018 Author Share Posted January 2, 2018 Hummm... Colour me intrigued. Interesting and unique lighting opportunities is something I'm constantly on the lookout for to incorporate into future personal and studio projects. Thanks! The Wound Tracker is closed to a production run, so there'll be a lot of updates on this one fairly soonish. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mileposter Posted January 2, 2018 Author Share Posted January 2, 2018 Project: Splotch! Splotch! is the Project management system I put together to keep track of army painting and building. I know there are plenty of paint trackers and inventory management apps out there - including from GW directly - but none of them I've found able to actually track the progress you make on building or painting an army. So I made one. This is one of those projects that I did just because I could, and while it'll be available hosted on Index: Mechanicus as a 'product', it'll be completely free and hopefully will help some folk who're like me and can't seem to find a completel tracking app. This is probably the project that's least completed. I'll likely start up another thread somewhere for feedback from folks interested. For now, feel free to poke at it here! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mileposter Posted January 8, 2018 Author Share Posted January 8, 2018 Squad completed! Happy that the color scheme worked out as I hoped. More detail over in the Imperial Guard thread. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bjorn Firewalker Posted January 8, 2018 Share Posted January 8, 2018 Not bad. Why did you paint the lasgun red? (I'm assuming it's not to honor Khorne, as an Aquila remains on the lasgun's side.) To show the regiment has close ties to Mars? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Calyptra Posted January 8, 2018 Share Posted January 8, 2018 I'm definitely interested to see where you're going with this stuff. The digital wound tracker in particular seems like heretical xenos sorcery to me, and there's nothing better than heretical xenos sorcery. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mileposter Posted January 8, 2018 Author Share Posted January 8, 2018 Not bad. Why did you paint the lasgun red? (I'm assuming it's not to honor Khorne, as an Aquila remains on the lasgun's side.) To show the regiment has close ties to Mars? Dead eye on the first try. Enyara is a Forge World, so the ties to Mars are both somewhat forced and somewhat traditional. I don't think of them as praising the Omnisiah with every shot - but they might thank Mars a bit when their firepower wins out in a tough fight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mileposter Posted January 9, 2018 Author Share Posted January 9, 2018 Wound Tracker Project is largely complete at this point - programming and setup is entirely finished, all that remains is sorting out some logistics on connectors so I can mass produce these little kits for other hobbyists. The implementation is simple and only requires the use of things we're already usually having on hand - some way to cut things and green stuff! It has a minimal footprint on the model (the LED Matrix is just slightly smaller than an American Quarter), so could easily be fitted into any number of tank models or into the base scenery of the more pesky designs (I'm looking at you, Necrons). The images included here are still part of the breadboard prototype, as I can't showoff the finished casing until I get the aforementioned connector issue settled. Typical usage - The Wound Tracker has four parts once it's installed on a model: the LED Display, two buttons, and an on/off switch. Once turned on, the Wound Tracker displays a double digit zero count as the default. Pressing the 'up' button increases the number displayed (from 00 to 01, etc, to a max of 99) while the 'down' button decreases the number (05 to 04, etc, to a minimum of 00). Meanwhile, if you press and HOLD one of the buttons for 2 seconds, it will display a symbol below the numbers. Holding the 'up' button gives a tiny arrow pointing upwards, while the 'down' button gives a tiny arrow pointing down. These symbols are for indicating buffs or debuffs the model may receive during the game - such as temporary modifiers from Psychic Powers or to note that they have a Stratagem effect this turn. They are intentionally generic so as to let each player use them for what they see fit. A lot of people use dice or little counters to try and keep track of wounds and who has what bonuses. This kit should - with no more effort than typically needed to add an LED to a model - eliminate the need for that extra tracking and losing dice (or whatever else). The kit is also specifically built to be modular (hence the connector shenanigans). This means that it's able to accommodate adding extras like ambient lighting LEDs, and have options like using coin cell or rechargeable batteries (working on an add-on kit for a recharge port). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mileposter Posted January 15, 2018 Author Share Posted January 15, 2018 It's been a really slow week in Mileposter Land (Who knew trying to buy a car took so much time?), and most of what I've been accomplishing doesn't actually have much to SHOW for it - I've built up my backend for the full Index: Mechanicus site and converted Splotch! over to a Node.JS backend to coincide with the website. This week should see far more updates in the hobby and hopefully a release of at least one of the techy projects. Going to try to get the Campaign map to a stage where folks can at least poke at it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mileposter Posted January 22, 2018 Author Share Posted January 22, 2018 Been plugging away at painting for a bit. Next week will likely see more done with the coding projects, but I really had an itch to get this squad onto their bases. So poof: As usual, more detail over in the Imperial Guard thread. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mileposter Posted January 29, 2018 Author Share Posted January 29, 2018 As I expected, this week has been largely coding coding coding - which unfortunately at this stage means I don't have a whole lot to show for it. Index: Mechanicus is ready for it's launch on the first, and I've gotten the groundwork almost completed for letting larger groups play at beta testing with the Campaign. I want to go into more detail and talk about the Campaign, how it works and how people can play with it, but I'm not exactly certain where to start or what people are even interested in hearing about. Is it really just pretty pictures with folks? If you've a question about it that could jump start some discussion, please feel free to poke a post over at the Homegrown Rules thread I'd be grateful. If it ain't your cup of tea, no worries - just trying to get passed this mental stumbling block! Did manage to get some painting done as well. Finished and fixed up my bases: More detail on that stuff over in the Imperial Guard thread. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mileposter Posted February 8, 2018 Author Share Posted February 8, 2018 I was involved in a rather painful car accident early last week which has left me unable to paint for a period of time, and makes typing slow at best. I am recovering well and will return to 100% - but in the meantime updates here will slow pretty dramatically for a few weeks. I've updated the relevant project threads with the same info, and hopefully I'll be able to bring activity back to them soon. I WAS, however, able to launch Index: Mechanicus as planned, though at present it only has the project showcases. The Playground, where folks will eb able to actually poke at and use these things I make, is still getting off the ground thanks to injury. Getting the Campaign to Playground level will likely be the first priority with the delay, then hopefully I'll hit some custom modelling commissions after that. Smaller and more constant updates will be available through Index: Mechanicus and, by extension, Twitter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Calyptra Posted February 8, 2018 Share Posted February 8, 2018 Car accidents are terrifying. I'm glad to see you'll be ok, I hope your recovery is swift. You mentioned trying to buy a car earlier, so I'm also hoping you didn't buy a car and then immediately get into a serious accident in it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mileposter Posted February 19, 2018 Author Share Posted February 19, 2018 I'm recovering and improving steadily. Built the Commander and Command Squad yesterday for the Enyara 144th, with far less trouble than the last attempt at building had. Should be able to build and sculpt bases more often now, though with my index finger still mucked up painting won't be on the menu for a little while. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Custom Hero Posted February 20, 2018 Share Posted February 20, 2018 Good to hear of your progress on and off the modeling. Looking good so far! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Res Ipsa Loquitur Posted February 20, 2018 Share Posted February 20, 2018 These dudes are loyalists? Speedy recovery, fellow Heretic. nb. Am I the only person who uses a spreadsheet to track everything? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mileposter Posted February 21, 2018 Author Share Posted February 21, 2018 These dudes are loyalists?These are loyalist Guard, indeed - to contrast against my Daemons. Speedy recovery, fellow Heretic.Many thanks. nb. Am I the only person who uses a spreadsheet to track everything?No, you aren't - that's why I started Splotch! to begins with. XD You might find it intriguing once I'm able to get it more multi-user-friendly! I can send you a PM if you're interested once it needs some testing? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mileposter Posted March 7, 2018 Author Share Posted March 7, 2018 Been quiet past little bit - but I have my brace off and I'm back to full motion in both hands! This heralds a return to painting and custom projects. Index: Mechanicus will be updated over the next few days with the crazy stuff I'm getting up to. There's a lot of custom kits and individual models that I'll be working on, as well as my backlog of commissions, so this thread will see more updates over the individual project threads. Not putting any of those projects down completely - just have to catch up on the work load now that I can actually paint and use my hand again! A teaser on one of the little things I'm getting back to... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bjorn Firewalker Posted March 7, 2018 Share Posted March 7, 2018 Eldar (or whatever Games Workshop calls its space elves now)? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mileposter Posted March 7, 2018 Author Share Posted March 7, 2018 Yes. It's an alteration, meant to be a Ynnari Farseer. It's a little farther down the pile of the backlog, but it's part of a lighted display piece. I should have a more organized order of operations shortly enough. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mileposter Posted March 12, 2018 Author Share Posted March 12, 2018 This weekend's venture saw this baby almost done. Final layers, then some effects and basing, and she'll be good to sell off. Unfortunately I ran out of time during my Sunday gathering or else the bottom section would be all layered up! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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