So what did we get up to last weekend?

In addition to finishing off a big batch of my Yakult Terrain, I took the opportunity to do some other hobby-related things with the family - primarily the boys and Mum and Harriet were otherwise occupied with other things.

On Saturday we played a 4-way Space Hulk game using the standard Terminators and Genestealer, but also accompanied by Space Marines and Orks.  Rule-wise, I wasn't too concerned with specifics, rather it was meant to be an opportunity for my boys and I to do something together that didn't involve technology i.e. low-fi non-digital family fun.

What did we try for rules?  Initially I attempted to run it like Space Hulk i.e. I GO YOU GO; however, that quickly became slow and boring.  After a few abortive changes on the fly (the boys didn't mind, they were just enjoying one another's company) I landed on the following:

Skill Checks are via Opposed Rolls counting 4s and 5s as successes: the number and combination of dice involved depend upon the type of attack, attacker and defender.  I scratched something out on a piece of paper mid-game that described various conventions.  For example:

A Terminator firing a Storm Bolter...
...rolls 3d6 verses a Genestealer with the Genestealer defending with 3d6
...rolls 2d6 verses a Space Marine with the Space Marine defending with 2d6
...rolls 3d6 verses an Ork with the Ork defending with 2d6

A Tactical Space Marine firing a Bolter...
...rolls 2d6 verses a Genestealer with the Genestealer defending with 3d6
...rolls 2d6 verses a Terminator with the Terminator defending with 3d6
...rolls 2d6 verses an Ork with the Ork defending with 2d6

Was it balanced?  Who knows, but it was fun making opposed rolls.  Lots of squeals etc.

When it came to the number of Units that could Activate per Turn, it boiled down to a simple dice roll: Nids rolled d12, Orcs d10, Space Marines d8 and Terminators d6 - the only modifier being if you had your Leader deployed and alive you could either re-roll or add +1 to the result, to the max of the die e.g., if the Terminators rolled a 2, they could increase that to 3 or choose to re-roll, but no more than six activations for the Turn.

Turn Activation sequence was highest number of Activations to lowest (with special dispensations for little brothers) - so Alex, who was playing the Genestealers, would regularly go first.

I might write down the rules in some more detail sometime, especially if I was to play a similar game with the boys.

Later on the weekend Charlie was feeling creative so raided my shed and found a model airplane I had kept for just such occasions.



I got Charlie to unpack it, read the instructions, advise how we were going to tackle it and then work me through it.

He has the hang of using clippers to get the bits off the sprue but he asked me to file down the messy bits.  He's also very careful with the gluing and did a good job putting it together - lots of looking at the instructions, finding the right bit then working out how to glue it together.

After we built the model, we had a swim while the glue dried, then painted it later that afternoon.  Charlie was keen to do some dry brushing - he knows what it's all about! - but also had a firm idea that he wanted to paint it blue and green ("blue wings and body BUT green at the front Dad!").

Anyway, it came out great and more importantly he enjoyed himself immensely - as did I 💗


The last hobby-related activity was a game of racing cars.  At my local Wargaming Club, my mate Brendan has been running regular games of MAXIMILLIAN 1934.

See the plastic thingy?  It's used to measure movement and
aid in working out turns etc.

I told the boys to get upstairs and makes some Lego cars whilst I made a MAX'34 measuring tool and fixed up a few of my Mouse Racers.

The resulting game was a lot of fun: we kept it very competitive and removed the violence.  Unlike the normal MAX game, there was no top speed (Paddy cranked his vehicle up to Speed 8 at one stage) and there were only handling skill rolls to make - no damage recorded etc.  Dad rules applied e.g., if you failed to make a turn, there would be skids and loss of speed.  BTW there are lots of free pod racing etc rules online - I think I might check some out.

Playing over the entire living room floor was a lot of fun and Paddy was especially keen to try it again one day.  Done!

A yet to be named model and still requiring a bit more painting.  It's been stripped
and restarted a number of times which is beginning to show on the body!  That
thing on the back?  It's a lense from some swimming goggles that broke this summer.

This guy - the Bryn Crusader - if finished.

Another victim of too much stripping.  This is the biggest of the mice.

The smallest mouse racer - I finished it with the cool honeycomb pattern
- easily done with a metal template I have on hand.