And now what?

Well as can easily be seen, it has been a while since I have posted anything about Bongolesia: Evolution. For the last update I showed off the conversions that I did for the Deathrace, but it turned that they were not a needed as I thought they might be. The event went off without a hitch and much fun was had by all involved, and of course I didn't have my camera there... D'oh!

As for the Second Battle of Jambaville, it never actually happened. The time table for the day was kind of wonky and we weren't even able to get started until later than I had expected. At that point I had a number of players that were itching to do the Deathrace, so I went ahead, threw my timetable out of the window and went ahead with the event.

Afterward, I played a game against another local gamer who had just gotten into the game using the more traditional forces (in this case USMC vs. MEA) which he greatly appreciated. He had only been able to play one other time, so this really helped him get some of the rules down.

Finally, I ran a large battle featuring a combined force of the USMC and the EFTF against the PLA and MEA. Fun game, though we (the baddies in this case) were thoroughly slaughtered. The funniest moment of the game was when a squad of my MEA infantry moved into a shanty only to discover that was where one of the SAS fireteams had decided to hide! Still, fun was had by all and that is all that really matter.

So with all of this said, what about Jambaville? What about the Oingo Boingo Cult and BARF? Good question. Right now, I have to admit that I am concerned about the future of the game. Recently Mongoose Publishing effectively pulled the plug on the line and it is now officially "in a holding pattern". They are hinting that there is some big announcement coming in a few weeks, but the last time that they said that is was nothing but a major disappointment so I am very concerned about what will happen. All of this combined with my own life being very much up in the air has effectively put the brakes on anything happening with this project. Still, I want to at least post some pictures of the completed buildings. I just need to get them out of storage first.

Signing off for now, but hopefully with more soon...

The best laid plans of mice and snowmen...

I had planned to post a picture and a write up for each of my custom "Technicals" for the Bongolesian Deathrace. I had planned to set the whole thing up and get a picture of Jamboville posted. Heck, I had even planned on having all of the buildings painted. Still, Desert Wars was fun regardless so it couldn't have been all bad.

Even so, I still feel the need to finish what I said I would do and it's better late then never. Like cheese, some things get better with time. Course some also turn a fuzzy, blueish grey but for now let's focus on the first kind.

The first racer that I created was Hot Shot; the details about that car and how I made it can be found in the previous post. The next one is Killer Kart.

As with Hot Shot, Killer Kart is also based on a Maisto die cast car but in this case I went with a Scion xB. This was a much quicker conversion than Hot Shot since all I needed to do was assemble the two pieces of the gun (which is a bolter from an old 40k Rhino for those who don't know...), and then glue this onto the roof. Voila! Instant technical! In fact the paint job was the most time consuming aspect of this one since I was trying to make sure that the dark red diagonal was straight.

Next up is Blue Lightning...

This car is based on a Matchbox MDX die cast. The first step was to kit it out with a couple of weapons, in this case two bolt pistols with their handles chopped off and flipped upside down. Next I painted it dark blue and did the weapons, engine, and suspension in plain old Chaos Black. Quick and easy. Once this was done, I painted the lightning bolts on the sides and roof just to liven up the paint job a little.

Next up is the Oingo Boingo Cult entry into the race. The imagery was perfect for this one; a bunch of crazed cultists riding around in a gaudy VW van. Doesn't get much better than that.

This is one of the two easiest conversions of the bunch since all I did was repaint it. I wanted gaudy, so I put a heavy coat of white on it to cover the old paint job and just daubed on big splotches of bright colors.

Next is the other conversion on the cheap (aka the new paint job), one that I call "UN Sanctions".

This is a Matchbox Land Rover Defender that I base coated grey and then dry brushed with white. Of all the vehicles, this is one that I wanted to give a worn look to. It is actually not finished yet as I still need to finish painting the gear on the roof rack, but it was done enough for the game.

Last but not least is another comic car, the Mini Cooper of Death.
This is another one that is not quite finished yet, but I think you get the idea. For the weapon, I used the missile pack from a new set of Space Marines that I had lying around and glued it to a small round shield. Then I simply glued this to the roof and throw a quick coat of black on it. Once I am able to finish it, I plan to paint a large skull on the hood to really give it a Grim Reaper feel.

And there you have it! The six home-made contestants for the Deathrace. As it was, most people brought their own cars with them to the race, but it was still a lot of fun to pull on some of the old Car Wars concepts and make them into something real.

Next up will be a closer look at the buildings that I have built for use with Battlefield Evolution in general, and Bongolsia specifically.

And the first contestant is...

Well, it has been a while since I have been able to post anything, but the good news is that this post even includes pictures! Yay!!!

With Desert Wars rapidly approaching, I am going to be cranking out the last few buildings that I need to finish Jamboville over the next few days. Tomorrow I am going to set up the town again and get some more current pictures posted, but for now I wanted to start introducing my homemade entrants for the first ever Bongolesian Gran Prix!

The first entrant is affectionately known as Hot Shot, shown here on a portion of the ill-fated and never completed Bongolesia Expressway.Drawing inspiration from my bygone days of Cars Wars, Hot Shot is based on a Maisto die cast of a 2003 Chevrolet SS Concept car. The first thing that I needed to do was make it so that I could mount the machine guns in the headlights, so I used a 1/16" drill bit to make an indentation on the inside corner of each headlight. For the actual barrels, I had been thinking about using either brass rod or part of a paper clip, but I finally settled on chopping a couple of small lengths from the hand rail from an old 40k Rhino that I had in my bits box.

Once this was done, my daughter and I gave the car a base coat of black and then I added the flames, head and taillights, and the metal trim. And voila! I still need to give it a coat of sealer to protect the paint job, but I have to say that I am very happy with the outcome.

Tomorrow, I will post a pic and a quick how-to about my next homemade technical, Killer Kart.

More progress but where are the buildings?!?

I have managed to get some more work done on Jamboville, but of course I don't have any pictures. No problems though; I've got the camera right here. Now where are those buildings?

Oh yeah... Jayce has them. But they look really cool. Honest.

Hopefully I can pick them up from him tonight, but it is already getting pretty late so I don't know if it will happen. If not, I will get some pics posted of the individual buildings as soon as I can.

I also had two great finds which I am pretty excited about.

The first is a ten wheel cargo truck (I am sure there is some kind of official name, but I am drawing from my Car Wars days here...) that will be perfect for a PETROCO transport. Admittedly PETROCO trucks would primarily be tankers of some kind (they are an oil company after all) but a regular cargo truck or two would be great for staging a raid on a supply convoy for the drought stricken southern portion of the country. And it is even white, so I just need to put the logo on the side and weather it. I actually found this at a local grocery store among the wind up cars. You know the ones... you pull them back, let go and send them flying into someone elses car. Pretty inexpensive as well, coming in at about $5.

The second is a Land Rover that I have re-painted as an old UN vehicle. Even without any weathering, it is looking pretty abused so once I dirty it up some I think it will look great. This gives me a nice proxy for what amounts to a UN Technical. It does not actually have a machine gun on it so it might wind up being unarmed, but all I was looking for was something to represent some kind of standard off-road vehicle that you might find the UN using. And not only is it the perfect scale (1/64th on the nose) it was also the right price ringing up at about $1. Needless to say I might pick up a couple more just to have around.

I have also made some progress with the conversions for the Bongolesian Gran Prix, but I am going to hold off on posting pics of each of these until they are done, which should be by next weekend.

Now to bug Jayce to see if I can get my buildings back...

Some progress plus a bit of a tangent

I have managed to make some more progress with Jamboville, but there is still more to go. This past weekend would up being very... exciting you could say? Needless to say, other much more important things took precidence over my hobby, but things are much better now. I will be taking some of the buildings with me to Hosehead's Hobbies (our local gaming store) this Saturday, so I am really going to be pushing to get more done with them before the big day.

As for the tangent that I mentioned, I have decided to post some pics of some cars that I am going to be converting to use during Deathrace Bongolesia. No real Bongolesian-centric theme for them, just something fun to do that I thought I would share with everyone, especially since these vehicles will be making their debut at the first Bongolesian Gran Prix!

Stay tuned for details; pics will be coming soon...

Finally a couple more pics

Well, I managed to find the camera and get some pics taken, but unfortunately that is all that I have been able to do. I was hit by a bad cold, so all I have been able to do for the past couple of days was sleep. Still, I am planning on getting more done this weekend, but til then here are the pics.

This shows an overhead view of the two ruins and two of the shanties. I still have to do some final detailing before they are complete, but they are turning out very well.

Here is another view looking over one of the shanties but more to the side to try to give a sense of scale. Still more work to do, but I really think that it is really pulling together.

Started painting...now where is the camera?

Well, I have painted two of the shanties and both of the ruins. I even set them up with some of the Lions of Allah (aka the Middle Eastern Alliance) and their Tunguska so that I could show how they look. So of course this is the time that our camera decides to go AWOL. ARGH!!!

Once I manage to find it (hopefully later today...), I will get a couple of shots posted.

Times they are a changing...

Telecast of a recent report on ENN...

"There has been some late breaking news from the small African country of Bongolesia. Troubled for years by fighting between the army and anti-government forces, the Bongolesian government has announced that it was finally able to defeat the dissidents and they are hoping to enter a new age of peace and prosperity.

The leader of Bongolesian, President P'hat Daddee B'wonah, had this to say...
"Our glorious National Defense Force has officially destroyted the final remnants of the anti-government hoodlums known as BARF. While rumors abound of the "Lions of Allah", we can be sure they are nothing more than that. This is a time to rejoice in our new time of peace!"

The discovery of oil a few years ago has provided a much needed boost to their stagnant economy and with the end to violence in the region, the UN is stepping up their humanitarian efforts as well. Acting with the support of the European Federation and the United States, the UN has begun implimenting numerous plans throughout the country with a focus on improving healthcare and drought relief to the stricken nation. The price tag for this effort is $681 million, with a majority of this money being provided by the UN General Relief Fund.

Sports is coming up next after this quick break..."

Another view of the growing metropolis

I managed to get some more work done on Jamboville and even better... pictures! Well, actually just one picture but one is better than none.
Now the town is really starting to take shape but there is still some more building to do as can be seen by the empty bases that are on the board. These will be the homes of two more groups of shanties, two more residencial buildings, Bongo Mart, another small farm building, and the UN building. Once those are built, I need to add some details (such as the signs for the theater) and then I can start painting! Yay!!!

More shanties and some ruins

Well, I have managed to build another section of shanties and two ruins tonight. I was also able to cobble together a radio tower for the comm building (aka WBGO) using some pieces from a Platformer kit. Having now done two sets of shanties, I am thinking that I am actually going to skip the roofs at least for now. Any fighting that happens within those sections will probably be bloody given the close quarters, and I think that having to take the roofs off and on repeatedly would just bog things down. And it also makes one less thing to build as well.

Now the board is starting to really take shape, and once I get some of the other large buildings done (namely the UN building, the Bongo-Mart, and at least one of the residential buildings...) I think that the whole thing will really start to visually pull together quite nicely. More pics coming soon...

Here piggy piggy...

Just a really quick update today.

The pigs are here! Yay! Now Jambaville has a reason to exist if I can only get the rest of the buildings made...

More progress made but more to do...

Well, I was only able to work on one of the other buildings for the farm and it still needs some work before it is finished. Still, I did learn something useful. The packaging that they used to use for light bulbs is great for modeling random bits of sheet metal like you would find for the shanties and for a basic metal roof. The problem is that they used to package them in it. Everywhere that I have looked, all I find it boxes made from plain, flat cardboard.

Then I had a bit of luck.

My wife is an avoid scrapbooker, and it turned out that she had a sheet that she had picked up from a scrapbook store. I have not had a chance to hit a store to pick up some more, but I hope to do that soon since I am thinking that tin roofs will be common in Jambaville. More pics once I get some more done.

After a night's work...

Well, one night of the weekend down and I have made some progress though I plan to work some more later tonight. First off, we have the overall view of the board.

This gives the basic layout of the roads and the four buildings that I have (mostly) assembled.

Here is a view of the new Jambaville Cineplex and next to it the WBGO government sponsored radio station (providing the town with their link to the outside world). I still need to build the signs for the Cineplex and I am going to try to build some kind of a small radio tower for the station as well.

Next is the prize gem of Jambaville and the object of much conflict in the region, old M'Doo Naal's pig farm. Hey, wouldn't you risk your life for a good BLT right now? The two empty boards across the street will have two more small buildings on them to finish off the farm. Should get both of those done tonight. Beyond these two buildings will be a small forest just to make things interesting.

Last but certainly not least (except for in the property values) is the first of several groups of shanties. This one will probably be the largest of the three or four that I make for the town and could result in some nasty shanty-to-shanty fighting in those close quarters. I still have yet to do the roofs for this one, but that should be done soon as well.

Filling up the world of Bongolesia

Since all I had to do with the factions was decide who best represented what (one of the beautiful things about a pre-painted game), now I can get to the nitty-gritty; namely the terrain.

For inspiration, I decided to look to a Bongolesia game that was played during our local May Madness convention in 2005. The scenario was set in the rural metropolis of Jamboville with the forces of BARF raiding the town to try to make off with their pigs while the NDF was trying to drive the BARF back and the UN forces looked on in bewilderment. So how did the game end? No idea to be honest, but there were enough pics taken of the table that I was able to plot out the town on a 4' x 6' table with a few new buildings added just to make things interesting.

With all this in mind, I drew out the town on graph paper and figured out what I need to build to be able to play this at our next summer games day in mid July. It seems like it could be a daunting task with only just over a month to do it all, but at least with no minis to paint I can just focus on cranking out the terrain.

All told, I need to build the following...

• at least two ruined buildings (more if time and my own whims allow)
• the Bongolesian Market (Bongo-Mart anyone?)
• a UN building
• two Residential buildings (two or three story apartments)
• four groups of shanties (I wanna be an instant slumlord!)
• three buildings for Old M'Doo Nal's farm (including the pig pen)
• a state of the art single theater cineplex
• a free standing communications building
• 17 dirt road sections
• four large forests

So far, I have most of the road sections done (the joy of felt) and I already have cloth to represent the forests, I just need to cut it to shape. As for buildings, I have already started both the theater and comm building (pics coming soon) and as for the rest... we'll just have to see how much I can get done over the weekend.

And so it begins!!!

Some of you already know what and where Bongolesia is and that is a good thing. As for the rest of you, I suggest that you click on this link so that you can learn all about this little slice of heaven, as described in loving detail by its creator, Murph.

http://bongolesia.blogspot.com/

Back so soon? Did you read it all? There will be a quiz, so I hope you paid attention...

The point of this blog (amazingly it actually does have a point...) is to give some pointers on bringing Bongolesia to the Battlefield: Evolution game system. The first thing to consider is the fact that BF:Evo is a pre-painted game with four distict factions, so we have to figure out how to break this down.

First up is the National Defence Force. The best thing to represent them is the PLA; the equipment of the PLA is all fairly generic with nothing to advanced compared to the other factions, so it only makes sense for them to be the protectors of the homeland.

You can't have a third world nation without someone to fight against, so next up is BARF. Of the factions in BF:Evo, the MEA is the only way to go. Their equipment is very basic and in some cases hastily improvised, making them the perfect choice to represent the Rebels. Incidently, the MEA also works well for both the Oingo Boingo Cult and the Lions of Allah.

What would a third world country be without the UN poking around all the time? The world may never know... but I do know that the EFTF is the perfect fit for the UN forces stationed in Bongolesia. The EFTF will have access to various units from different nations, making them just like the real UN, so it only makes sense that they would be in Bongolesia keeping an eye on the humanitrian needs of the people involved. That's right. Humanitarian. The oil that was just found in Bongolesia has nothing to do with it...

And since everyone else has pulled into town for the party, it only makes sense that the US Marines show up to keep everyone in line. After all, someone has to protect the oil...

So that gives you some kind of an idea who is involved in this block party. Next comes filling it up with stuff to fight over (and around and through...) More on that soon.