Transforming Wargame Pictures into Drawings

Nearly done my Space Hulk project ... on the final push to finish that up. 

That being said - due to some other work I have been doing around some scenarios, I've been messing around lately with taking real pictures from my wargames and making them into drawings/art using AI.  While AI is dumb in many ways and sucks at many things, it is fairly good at doing this. All of the images below are from pictures taken using my DSLR camera with a zoom lens during my many ACW wargames.  Some minor editing and cleanup is needed after AI does the bulk of the work.

Sharing here for reference and to show how evolving technologies can benefit us in the wargame community.

Another use this past weekend was during a game session with my good friend Roy Scaife.  He was hosting a game of Maladum (dungeon crawler board game).  He wants to get the miniatures for the game painted but there are no good painting references.  I took a few pictures of the miniatures using my phone and had AI generate painting references for them.  It worked great for that.

Anywho ... on to the pictures ...

Some of the best wargame pictures I have are from my ACW games, but I have many other pictures and decided to throw some of those at it to see  what it would do.  I didn't spend as much post-processing time on these as I was just messing around.

AI does some wonky stuff.  In this image above it had inserted a monkey (rather subtly I might add - took me a minute to spot it) into the scene near the artillery ... why?  Just AI doing random stuff.  Had to remove it.

I really like what it did with my epic Pike & Shotte picture here.  I need to mess around more with the pictures of my epic Pike & Shotte and Hail Caesar stuff.

Many interesting possibilities here.  Especially when it comes to designing scenarios and writing up rules references.  I must emphasize that everything needs detailed reviewing and corrections are almost always necessary.

Space Hulk Progress

I've managed to finish all the core sections I need to run the scenarios from the 4th edition mission book for Space Hulk.  I can also run the scenarios from the expansion campaigns GW did for the Ultramarines, Dark Angels, and Space Wolves.  I am adding some additional sections from the Genestealer and Deathwing early edition campaigns.  These tiles where done in the 3rd/4th edition style and shared on the Space Hulk Facebook page which is a treasure tomb of Space Hulk resources.

Working through tokens, rules reference, and dashboards now.  I also managed to get all my Genestealers, Terminators, and Chaos Terminators on bases.  I also have two boarding torpedoes I'm working on.

Below is the first room in my expansion efforts.  A large 5x5 room with a catwalk around a shaft.  There is a 3x3 insert I can lay into the shaft opening to fill out the full 5x5 footprint.

Below are pictures of all the completed "base game" sections.

Nromally in Space Hulk the doors sit on one of the squares.  I did my doors so they slot between sections.  A small tab either side of the door slips under the tiles from each section securing it in place.  Pracfiacally speaking, in the game doing this doesn't change anything in the gameplay.  I think it looks better and allows the door to be locked in place.  A little tab allows the doors to be removed from the frame.

I setup the "suicide" mission (standard first learning scenario) and played through it with my son.  Everything worked great.

I have lots of Chaos and Imperial Terminator squads covering the main Chaos powers and several Space Marine chapters.  My multiplayer games I'll be hosting at Kublacon will have Imperials, Chaos, and Genestealer players all opposing each other.

I have several tokens I'm working on.  Leveraging a design from the game Maladum to mark locked doors (and damaged doors).  The Genestealer entry points slip on to the tiles.

A lot of progress.  I'm really looking forward to hosting this at Kublacon in May.

Space Hulk, KublaCon, and Rambling

It's my busy time of year.  January through early May I'm pinned down with work - which is in a near constant state of crazy - and coaching high school boys Volleyball (which is an added -20+ hours a week over regular work).

That being said, I'm looking down the barrel of being an empty nester.  My youngest graduates high school this year and heads off to college.  It is likely my last year coaching as well.  More time for hobbies!

While I'm not posting all that often I am gaming.  My group is playing a weekly Maladum campaign (dungeon crawler).

KublaCon, the largest convention in NorCal, and my annual gaming nervana, approaches in May. 4 days of gaming fun.  This year we have a group of around 15 people!

My theme for games this year is GW games that have taken a long walk off a short pier 😁

I'll be hosting games of Space Hulk, Warhammer Full Tilt, Speed Freeks, and Necromunda (1995 edition, not the newer complicated edition).

As for Space Hulk, that crazy guy Adam Clark - who has 40k in 3 different scales ... maybe 4 - did a 32mm scale bunch of custom Space Hulk sections, but then decided to do it all in 20mm instead.

Nice!  But unfinished.  Adam was looking to make space and was recently over in Seattle so he shipped this set down to me along with all the STLs and GlowForge files he had.

I am limited on time so I put to work doing some extra designing/laser cutting.  My goal was to avoid any "proper" painting of the sections.

I have 3rd edition Space Hulk.  I scanned all the tiles, cleaned them up, and rendered each square.  I then could design anything - print the squares on Avery label paper (stickers), stick those prints to 2mm MDF tiles, then apply a PPF (clear protective film I get off Amazon).

I say proper painting was avoided - no brush work.  Rattle cans, washes, and sponge weathering.

After painting the interior, I stuck the tiles on the MDF frame I glued into the floor.  I'm happy with how the section worked out.  I'm off this week so turning the crank at the ACME factory to get the other sections done.

My game will include the normal Imperials, Chaos Traitors, and the full range of Genestealer Cult models in a 6 player frenzy.

More to follow later on.  Happy gaming!