Here are the other two figures from forlorn hope games. They painted quite well. I'm not 100% happy with them, but they are good enough for the table top and that's the whole point from my point of view. They are let down by my photography skills or lack their of but you'll have to take my word for that. I have enjoyed painting them and they'll maybe get an outing tomorrow. I should be running the Zombie car park game postponed from last year. So I can put these three in as extra characters, which may or may not get picked by the players as we'll have a random selection like we did at the Sittingbourne club. I think there will be less people playing so I think either 2 or 3 random characters each. Which should give the game a different feel as it will be less everyone out for themselves as players "Sacrifice" figures in order to keep the ones with keys alive longest. But time will tell. If I remember I'll take a camera and hope to get a shot or two of the game as it goes along.

I have not looked at the moon boards today, best If I leave them till Monday and see what they look like then. That way they have much more chance of being dry. It definitely is a case of a watched pot never boiling. Sometimes a few days away  make all the difference to a project. I have spent a lot of time thinking about the beach boards I want to make for Broadside 2012. One of the things with shows is the amount of tables the organisers have to buy in for the event. Lots of clubs want to showcase their games and aim to have big displays if they can, and whilst that does look good as each table we tend to buy in costs about £5 some club displays can cost the organisers £25-40 in additional tables. The money has to be found and quite obviously shows do want clubs to put on games, so It's not really a gripe, just an explanation. Therefore I think the Rainham club can fit their game on 2 trestle tables. The tables being approx 2 foot by 6 foot. and beaches (on the whole) tending to be focused on the shoreline I think I can build it on 2 foot widths. Thus If we decide we need to we can create an L shape playing surface by placing one table at 90 degrees to the other. In my mind I'm thinking 8 foot (6 foot long side PLUS the 2 feet from the second tables Short side) by 6 foot. At present I am thinking 2'x4' boards (3of) and maybe a 2x2 board corner piece, and possibly another 2 foot square "Satellite Board" of seascape and rocks which is not attached to the actual terrain but is still part of the set up. There really is a lot to talk over at the club on Sunday and I'll most likely forget something or other.

But that's today's post. Another one Monday.



Thursday

Well it has been 2 days since the last post, if I'm honest I did miss typing this yesterday, but lets keep it at every other day for the time being. One of the things about posting regularly is the desire to get things done so you have something to say. Anyway here is a pic of the biker when painted. I mucked up the tattoo on the left fore arm and have repainted the arm since this was take. All in all I'm not unhappy with it. The photo does show up all the flaws and miss brush strokes that your eye glosses over in real life. Still that said he's not all that bad. One of the problem with bikers is that they do tend to dress drably all black leather and denim.
The other two are coming on as well. The female biker is done (no pics of her yet) and she looks pretty good. I did repaint her Bra from Black to Red to inject some colour into the trio. Her tattoo's are smaller and maybe I should have put one on the small of her back which is so common at the moment, but not personally being a Fan I have not done so. The other one with the chain is also coming along nicely, but is not finished yet. I have given him grey hair to make him look older and more like the leader, whether that will be the result time will tell. Photos of him and the girl when they are finished.

I have also started the 10mm dwarf cannons. I am sticking to the basic colour palette from before as it seemed to work. They are really at the basics stage of blocking in colours so I will not dwell on them more at this time.

No this is not a holiday snap from a few days away in the sun. This is Joss Bay in Kent. as mentioned previously I am thinking of running a game of "Cutlass" at Broadside 2012. (When I say I will be running I of course mean I will be running round like a headless chicken generally talking to the traders and making sure things are getting done in the hall in general. BUT I hope some of the Rainham club will take on the responsibility of running it). OK that's clarified. Coming back to the point this is the type of terrain I am thinking of creating. Tall cliffs, sandy beaches, smugglers caves, maybe a tavern and maybe a lighthouse. I have loads of ideas as to what could happen but until it does it happen it's all speculation. I will most likely send of for the first "gang" next week. Kev has suggested that I start with the Royal Navy as a force. To me this sounds like sound advice and I think I'll take it. The Royal Marine figures armed with musket and bayonet are known to be formidable in game terms. Historically speaking it is recorded that some Kent smugglers did have cannons on the beach set up to repel the local government forces should they need to. I'm guessing they did not want to get convicted of smuggling that time, still it's a bit extreme!

My last bit of progress news today is the moon boards. The two latest boards had dried sufficiently to allow the final coat of "muck" to be applied. Having doe this they now need to completely dry so there's no point in touching these till after the weekend. I'll let you know Monday what the state of play with them is, but I suspect it will take a full week for them to reach the right level of drying. The other board is just about dry from it's top coat and now I can see all the small bits I missed so It will need another coat, just to make sure.

That's it for today should post again on Saturday. Right back to the paint table.

Cheers Clint

I have decided to post every other day. I was trying to write something everyday, but it was becoming difficult. So from now on every other day. I can't guarantee I will but at least I will give it a shot, which is funny as this only started the blog as a way of talking about the zombie car park construction. Anyway on with the wargames news from my point of view.

I have nearly finished the Fat biker. All I am trying to do now is put some Tattoos on him that look about right and don't look so rubbish that it spoils him. I am not saying he's brilliant, but he's not looking too sad. He will need to be done by the weekend as I want to take him to the Rainham wargames club as he looks quite like one of them. (You know who you are Kev... yes you).

The other two figures are also coming along. Another of them (the girl) does look like another of my friends as well. (Tracie was a biker who was also a mud wrestler she sadly passed away 2 years ago at the age of 45 from Cancer.) I am trying hard to make it look a little different from her so I don't get too focused on trying to get it perfect. The other Biker does not look like anyone I know.... just in case you were wondering.

On to Other topics. The moon boards are drying out. The first one has just been given a base coat of black ready mixed poster paint and white wood glue. The wood glue is thoroughly mixed with the paint and some water was added to thin it down (The ratios are about 4 Paint: 1 Glue: 2 water) The glue will act as a sealer and should give it an extra little bit of protection. At the worst It won't harm it and at the best it will seal it and protect it. I have decided not to colour it after this stage until I get the others all to the same level. That way I will be able to keep the greys consistent on all the boards which I hope will stop it having a "Patch work" effect.

The Cutlass rules arrived and I have been reading them. There's a lot of eye candy and glossy pages. The actual rules only take a few pages and seem quite straight forward. I'll need to try it and get to grips with the action/reaction system in a game before I come to any conclusions. I do like the basic rules and the fact that if you are better at a statistic (like dexterity...DEX) you get to roll a "stronger" dice. A d8 as opposed to a D6 for example. If you are like me the size of the dice does not alter the fact that you will still roll a 1. The general mechanics are clear and easy to follow: shooting for example is the attackers Accuracy dice versus the defenders defence dice. With modifiers for injuries, cover range etc. The Defenders dice roll is subtracted from the attackers accuracy roll and if the result is positive a hit has been achieved. Charts are consulted to determine the effect of the hit from very minor injuries or stuns up to taken out of the game. All in all I am happy with the rules at this stage but would need a game to make sure I like the way they work.
The main attractions to the game are the setting, a fantasy pirate game. and MORE importantly the lovely figures. I shall be ordering some of them next week, following a few chats at the club on Sunday. To be fair I like most of the forces. I am least attracted to the undead which is not to say I would not want to get some, but as a starter force there are others that excite me more. Dwarfs, as you will remember are a new force for me , so perhaps they are the flavor of the month. Elf Pirates I can also go for very flamboyant and no doubt with a French accent. Orcs/goblins to be honest I prefer the goblin figures to the orcs but I see no reason they cannot be a pure goblin crew, just using the Orc statistics for the officers. The humans can be Royal Navy, Pirates or Privateers figure wise I like the female pirates I can see they would be fun to paint, but the Royal Navy get Marines which are pretty good (statistic wise) in the game, just a shame they don't do female marines!!

See you in 2 days time.

Sunday comes along and you think you might get some time. Yeah I think you know where this is going...

Moon boards. The first board has dried out, so it's now ready to colour up and turn it from sand to moonscape. This is probably the most rewarding stage getting some colour on it and making it finally look like it should. So expect a pic of that in the next couple of days.

Here is a quick snap of the next two. Obviously they are progress shots. The closer board has an open area, maybe a moon base could go there, or maybe just all the craters have missed this spot. Andy (Ainsty Castings) did ask for an open area. I'll just have to assume he knows what he wants to do with it! All seems to be going well and with no major problems. It just takes ages to dry out. At this stage they have taken 2 coats of muck and really need to dry thoroughly so not much more work on these till very late in the week. I can and will move them from the work area so I can get on with a few other things.

Today I had a visit from a friend and received a "late" Christmas pressie. Not anywhere near as late as last year's pressie which took 8 months to reach me. He just kept forgetting about it (so did I) but we got their in the end. We both have the same outlook and tend to get each other great pressies, but ones we have no immediate use for. This time I got a box of Perry plastic Ansar. I have no 28mm colonial stuff, so it does not immediately go with anything I have, it does however fit nicely with his 28mm colonial British stuff. Anyway I have not opened the box yet so can't tell you anything about them. I'll have a look in the next few days and perhaps offer some thoughts on them.

The warmaster dwarfs are still sat their staring at me asking to be tickled with a paint brush. Time permitting I'll start them when I finish the three bikers mentioned below. Talking of which they are coming on quite nicely and I anticipate them being done by Wednesday at the latest. Not blowing my own trumpet but I don't think they look bad at all.

Cheers Clint.