Stabilising the Return of the Overseers Gate Piece

Now I don't know about you, but I loved the RotO boxed set - the set had great models, including a lovely extra scenario piece, actually composed of 6 individual parts (5 resin, one acrylic) that build up into an impressive scenery piece for any space (or other sci-fi) game. There is a catch, however...the pieces have no positive alignment with each other, meaning that a knock of the table of a brush with models moving will cause it to fall out of alignment, or for the acrylic piece to fall off. This is annoying, especially when you're trying to enjoy your game and not do corrective assembly on scenery pieces.

One solution, of course, is to glue it all together, but that makes it cumbersome to cart about (it's a pretty substantial piece, even without the acrylic insert, plus I like the modular nature of the piece. The obvious solution was to magnetise. Now as there are no positive locators (the "tabs" that key into each other aren't directly aligned in the z plane), this makes it tricky to do. I started off using 2mm Neo magnets glued onto the arms to give them enough reach to get to the centre piece;

I put additional 2mm magnets on these and dabbed the ends in red paint to mark their position on the centre piece.

Unfortunately when trying to glue the magnets onto the centre piece this proved impractical - there's just not enough surface area to resist the magnets pul to each other, so I quickly scrapped this idea. I then toyed with adding Green Stuff inserts to the arms so the centre piece tabs would have a positive location, but then the idea came to me that really, all I needed was a base.This was a much better idea - it meant everything could be magnetised well and remain modular.

To make it, I found the thickest plasticard I had (just under 2mm thick), and arranged the gate on it, marking position roughly with a Sharpie (roughly as I didn't want permanent blue marker on my gate!)

I then cut the plasticard into a rough rectangle using the outer points as guides, then marked out and connected the guide points with the Sharpie more carefully based on regular distances

For those of you not familiar with cutting plasticard, especially thick plasticard, this is achieved by simply scoring with a sharp blade (NOT trying to cut through it, which is likely to end up with you spilling your own blood), and then bending the parts so the material splits.

You need to be careful when doing this with cut-ins like here, otherwise you can have a tendancy to run on the split into the piece you want to preserve, especially which the piece you're trying to remove is larger that that remaining, as here. Care and patience will serve you well here! Reversing the direction of the ben often helps to get things started at the edge too. If all goes well, you should end up with a cross piece and four rectangles (which I'll probably use for bases at some point in the future).

The next step was to drill a 3mm hole in the central piece and glue a 3mm diameter by 2mm thick Neo magnet in there - I wanted this to be solid!

Once glued in, I used red paint on the magnet before positioning on the cross support to mark its position.

Once marked, the corresponding hole was drilled in the plasticard and magnet inserted by placing on the existing magnet on the gate piece and pushing hole - this ensures the correct polarity. The magnets in the plasticard were all snug enough to fit without needing glue at this stage. This process was repeated with the arms...

...and the piece built up this way, one piece at a time.

Here is one of the long pieces with magnets placed on the already magnetised resin piece, ready to push home into the hole in the awaiting plasticard - in fact this is the last one!

And here it is all assembled, without and with the acrylic;

I also took one "in space"

So this works really nicely, and isn't too obtrusive, but I wanted to finish this off, so I trimmed the corners, filed down the hard 90 degree edges on the top of the plastic and smeared superglue over both sides of the magnet areas. This meant nothing would come out, and its a bit more aesthetically pleasing.

The very last step was to take it outside and give it a good coat of black primer. Once dry, I assembled it all again and took a final picture to show the effect - which I think is pretty good - it doesn't detract from the piece at all, and holds it really firmly...success!!!

If you want to make one of these, you'll need 18 3mm x 2mm neodymium magnets, which should cost no more than £3 or so (I buy them in 100s, they're much cheaper that way - around £8 for 100), and some thick plasticard - 2mm or 80 thou, which should be around £1.50-£2 for an A4 sheet. As you don't use it all, the total project cost for this for me was probably around £2, but if you're buying specifically for this it could cost around £5. I consider that a small price for the time it'll save, and actually the gate looks better because it's pre-aligned, you don't have to worry about lining things up carefully.

Anyway, I hope it's been helpful, please don't hesitate to ask questions or post comments. until next time, cheers!

Return of the Overseers Unboxing

Hot off the press - here it is!

Oh Yes, the Return of the Overseers is here! Huzzah! As you can see, the box is exactly as would be expected from Spartan, a lovely full-colour card sleeve wrap around a sturdy corrugated card box to protect all the resin goodness...as you've probably all already seen, this one has some great artwork of the battle above Proteus Prime on the front, and a shot of those gorgeous studio models and contents on the back. So, without further ado, let's open up the box;

Yes, it is suitable stuffed with resin, as we also expect from Spartan these days - you can certainly see where your money is going with these sets.

On the left we've a lock-bag with rulebook, scenario book, token sheets, TACs and the acrylic for the "Dimensional Gate". Then we have the models, and on the lower right another smaller lock-bag with the SRS tokens, small pieces and micro dice (I haven't bothered with the bag with the bases in - no one get's excited about acrylic bases!). Now let's get that resin (all protected in the usual bubble-wrapped bags that have become standard) out and on the table.

OK, that's a lot of resin! Those of you familiar with the Aquans and Directorate will be able to judge sizes from the frigates in the centre here. Let's just say the Oannes and Anarchist are HUGE! What's also surprisingly large are the parts for the Dimensional Gate.

The two other new things for us are the scenario book and the soft-backed "man bag" sized rulebook. I must say this is a very welcome addition, and complements the full-size hardback extremely well. Lugging the hardback around to games is a bit of a chore, so this is great (but I wouldn't want to part with my hardback either).

Now, back to the models, and as I'm a Fenian man, I'm going to start with the loveliness that is the Anarchist class battleship:

Now that's a sexy piece of resin. instantly recognisable as a Directorate ship, but also noticeably different - it looks more advanced, and the large circular depression on top is covered in detail for the cyberwarfare focussing array to cover. What really surprised me is...

It's RESIN! In fact, EVERYTHING in this set is resin, there's not a spot of pewter to be found. I was quite dumbfounded, I'd expected this piece to be metal.

Looks good when its in place too. Cyberwarfare turret...oh yes, come to me my little fishes....

Underneath the Anarchist has the distinctive Directorate turrets, laid out in distinct broadsides. The front underside armour makes her look sleek and deadly, and the fore fixed weapons of the Eliminator are replaced by vertical wing bays...she's a truly multi-purpose ship.

Moving onto the mediums, these are very clever models, utilising common side pieces around a dedicated central section for the Annihilation gunship and Turmoil R&D Cruiser. Each of these has positive and negative locking areas for a positive fit (although there is a little play here, so be careful when you're making them or you might get a model that looks a little "off").

Anyway, the pieces are very well cast and carry some eye-waveringly precise and subtle detailing as can be seen (especially if you've good eyes!).

Next up is the Turmoil R&D cruiser, one of my personal favourites of this set. Here is the central core of the Compressor Beam weapon that the Directorate black project works have been working so hard on:

Again you can see the negative depressions for the positive key sections on the side parts to go into. As the core here is triangular, they give the Turmoil a very distinctive v-shaped profile despite using the same side parts - as I said, very clever.

Here's the underside of the section, showing the area for the underslung gunrack:

And here is the detail on the emitter end of the Compressor Beam - stunning detail level, which is really going to benefit from good painting:

The set uses the existing frigates, which are probably my favourite frigate design, but as they're not new I'm not going to spend any time on them here (lovely though they are). Same goes for the Aquans, so I'll move straight to the new Heavy Carrier, the Oannes:

The Oannes is HUGE - or at least that's the impression she gives. Actually, she weighs 67g to the Anarchists 86g, so she is substantially smaller in displacement, but she doesn't seem that way! In fact, she's scalloped underneath, so she doesn't have that clamshell bulk of the Directorate.

Hopefully this picture shows that - in fact the ship gives a lovely effect of being swift and elegant despite her seemingly huge size. Here's a straight down shot of her underside:

So she's more like a Turbot than a Tuna! Once again though, Spartan have excelled themselves in making this ship, with amazing detail and undercuts I just wouldn't have thought possible in a two-part mould. Here's the front of the ship and that iris-hanger opening (plus a rather fearsome array of forward-facing laser blisters):

The Aquans don't just get this new monster carrier, however, but a gunship and heavy cruiser too. Both of these utilise the existing hull of the standard Isonade and Namazu cruisers, but with different add-ons. First is the Shiva gunship:

This starts with a funny little resin "beak", onto which you add two panel sections:

These look complex but actually I think they're going to be quite easy to put together. We shall see! Next up is the Sulis, the Heavy Cruiser which gives a very similar ability to Armada Aquans as their crystal formations do in Planetfall:

The Sulis add-on is really a huge cruiser body onto which the normal hull is an add-on, rather than vice-versa! Again, it's an incredible piece of casting - how Spartan consistently turn out models like this from their moulds is beyond me! Here's another shot showing the part that the hull attaches to (and a whole load of undercuts etc that confound my mind in terms of mould-casting!):

Now with the two factions dealt with, we can move onto the Overseer models. The first is the anathema Probe, a simple three-part model with features a central core and two "wing" add-ons. The detail on the little central component, however, is unreal:

It's lovely! The two "wing" add-ons then attach to the central rim bit.

Next up is the Dimensional Gate, which turns out to be enormous! It consists of five pieces -a central core:

Two side stabilisers:

...and two long pieces:

As you can see here, these again have fabulous detail on them, allowing those of us with even basic dry brushing skills to make them look great. There's another great thing about these though - all have been made so they sit on the table unaided;

See that little ring of dots? They act as a base for the central section without taking away from the form of the piece. Likewise the other sections both have "feet";

These are incorporated seamlessly into the designs, and make them sit solidly on the table:

This means the whole gate can be constructed and assembled on the table without the need to glue it together - making it easy to store and transport - that's in stark contrast to the Battle for Valhalla set with the fragile legs of the Valhalla Station. The station looked great, but it was a nightmare to move without the possibility of breaking one or more legs. The Dimensional Gate is entirely different:

It's a really nice thing to see that Spartan have created a (very large!) scenario piece that looks great and is also very practical - well done chaps!

Ok, excitement over the resin done, next I had a look at the new size rulebook, which is exactly the same as the hardback, but smaller and more convenient for club gaming, and also has some really nice maps of the Firestorm Galaxy and Storm Zone in the back, something we've not seen for quite some time. 

Next it's the Scenario book, which features that lovely artwork:

Inside you get contents, a nice piece of fluff to tie into and build on that in the Planetfall Battle for Proteus Prime book, and then 7 missions which demonstrate the rules of Firestorm incrementally for new players. This starts with a simple frigate duel in Scenario 1;

To a full-on boxed set slugfest in Scenarios 6 & 7 (where the overseers also make an appearance);

This is very much in the same vein as the Battle for Valhalla booklet, and I still think its an ideal way to bring players into any new game. Of course existing players don't have to do this, but I'll think they'll find them fun anyway, especially the later missions. After the missions, there's an Epilogue, and then you're into the stats for the different models, starting with the extremely powerful Overseers ("Masters of the Dimensions", as they're quoted as being!).

After this you have stats for the new Directorate and Aquan ships, including descriptions of the new MARs (with an example for the new "Energy Locus" of the Aquans), and then standard descriptions of the other Mars used by ships in the book so you don't have to reference the rulebook if you're in a hurry.

So, there you have it - The Return of the Overseers in all its glory - it's a hell of a starter set, and I think anyone thinking of or who has already taken the plunge and ordered it will not be disappointed. It feels like an extremely well-polished and professionally produced product, the models are stupendous (and well worth the retail price alone), the man-bag size rulebook is really handy, and the scenario book adds depth to the storyline as well as introducing new players into the Firestorm game in an easy and logical fashion.

I know I'm horribly biased in this, but it's a really excellent product, and I can't recommend it highly enough..

Return of the Overseers - 10/10!