I am very pleased with the post man today. He dropped off a single eBay buy of this Dwarf Flame cannon blista. SO I'll give you a free guess as to what will be coming up on the painting table this week. Having looked at the figures closer than a simple eBay picture will allow I think they will fit quite nicely with the Kallistra ones I already have, which is going to save me a lot of time and effort. No need to muck about getting different crew figures and and all that malarkey! I still have a few packs of Kallistra to paint and base, before I can claim anything like enough to Field an army, But as I got this one cheap I feel I can indulge myself and get it done before next weekend. I have got some dwarf warriors on the table as we speak and I am sure I can get those done by then as well.

I hope to have a bit of a CULL of old figures soon, either at shows or on that famous on line auction site. I have been putting it off both through a reluctance to part with them and a natural level of apathy. However the time has come. I realised the time had come when I wanted to play a game of PBI (Poor Bloody Infantry by Peter Pig). the problem being that I don't have the figures for this project painted just yet. "I Know" I thought "I can use my Flames of war figures!" There in my mind problem solved. So I dragged the Flames box from the top of the cupboard and had a rummage. I went straight to the US Paratroop Company. I looked at the figures and I saw that the troops carrying BARs and .30 cals were for the most part mixed in with other figures and thus could not be told apart as I would need to for PBI. I looked at them, I starred at them, I thought long and Hard and put them back on top of the cupboard and took down the US infantry company which was still in its shrink wrap. The problem was that I could not face re-baseing them. I would rather start afresh than re base figures. Yes I know It is sheer lunacy but it's the way I'm hard-wired. Ahh you are thinking that's ok he can still play Flames now so that's ok nothing wrong with that. But there's a problem, and you knew there would be. You just knew it. The problem is no one else at the Rainham club plays Flames. The two people who did play have left the club for pastures new and I wish them luck with all that, but It means I have stuff I'll never get to use now. I could hang on hoping that a new player will turn up and already have an army that's compatible, but seriously what are the chances? So I think they will be part of a Cull, a spring Clean, an exodus, a slimming down if you will. One of the big problems with the club members and to some extent all wargamers is that we are all individuals. If I say at the Rainham club let's have a WW2 Game it would generally be accepted as a good idea (Unless I said we're playtesting for Phil and then I'd have a rather different response). And that's great happy smiley faces and lots of people saying I have "I have a _____ army " and "I have a ----- Army" but no two armies will be compatible with any other either in scale, theatre or time period. Let alone be based to the same set of rules. So at Rainham for the most part you need to do two armies, which can be a lot of work. Ok Ok that's a slight exaggeration as Pete and Rob can both field North African armies (Pete Axis and Rob British), in the same scale and using the same rules. But as a generalisation everyone has something different.

On the whole though I would not change the clubs attitude I am learning to embrace it. Finally coming to the Point Graham already has 2 PBI armies, (Russian and German). So creating an alternative one of my own seems like a good idea. The Obvious choice would be to build something which could be complement these armies so of course I have chosen Yanks!

Yes I am as bad as everyone else!



Skaven Marines

As you can see I have been painting some Skaven Space Marines. Following the "success" of my trial I have been working on these and have managed to get the first batch finished. Or nearly finished, They await Varnish and some "tufts" put on the bases which with luck might make them look a bit tastier.

All painted in acrylics and pretty quickly. I used a base coat of "tin bitz" for the rusty armour speckled with a couple of light browns and two or three brown washes of varying shades to get in all the cracks and give it a dirty look. Then some boltgun and mithril silver very very quickly drydrushed on to some of the areas mostly where I thought there would be exposed edges likely to take a bash. The light Green is Scorpion green and a mix of scorpion green and white, while the dull red is scab red, which I use as a part skin tone and on the bolt gun grips.

I have had a lot of fun doing these while I was not going up the shed but for now I'll put them away until after "Cavalier" (2 weeks time) in the hopes that I can get some more bits and bobs for them at the show really cheap, either at the bring and buy or at one of the stalls. I did intend to visit a GW store next week and get the staff to sort me out an army list based so that I may focus my spending a bit at the show, but as it's half term next week I'll give that a miss as the place will be crawling with kids and I don't want the local kids to start one of these armies and flood the store with badly done versions..... well maybe once I get enough to actually play a game, and not just one squad, which it is at the moment.

I have started painting the 20mm "Road Kill" vehicle now, I settled on a "Baby blue" base coat which does look quite striking. It's not till you start painting sometimes that you actually think more about the model. During construction I was focused on sticking things on and seeing what it looked like. When you get to painting however you have to make a decision about the game world. You have to decide for example if the car was modified before painting or if it was painted then modified. On the face of it it does not seem a hard question but there are implications as to how you see the world and the people in the world. If the car is modified and then painted for example it implies that the modifications would also be painted and there fore that the people had the time and energy to worry about aesthetics. Or was it a standard car that they adapted to fit a new environment and world setting. Generally we think it will be the second option, but if the rules already come with a world setting you can't be totally sure until you have read them.

Talking of rules I have sent for "Outrider" but not received them yet. The reviews I could find (few that they were) suggest that movement is like in "Wings of war" where you lay a card and then move the vehicle. I can see this working as a mechanic very well. It would rely on basing the vehicles. All of this is speculation for the moment though but I am intrigued enough to want to know more.

I had a "Senior moment" while at work last night and remembered a project I bought everything for but never actually started. One of the club members (Graham) plays PBI (poor Bloody Infantry) by Peter Pig. About 2 years ago I bought enough 15mm figures to create a US army infantry company and then did nothing with them so they are still sitting in their packets. That being the case I might dig them out and actually get them started while I wait for the Cavalier trolley dash experience. It will all depend on how the mood grabs me in the next couple of days. I don't want to build scenery in the shed for until the snow has gone, yes a wimp I know I have been called worse and probably will be again before the week's out. Like most of us I do have a lead mountain and yet as I look at some of the boxes I am not inspired enough to do much about it heaven forbid. And while I think about eBaying my Flames of war stuff (also 15mm ww2) I do wonder how much I can salvage and use for PBI. The problem I have had with Flames of War is the two club members who did start forces left and I am now left with an  army I shall never use again, it's nicely painted so I should at least break even on eBay, although you can never tell, or I could sell it at Cavalier or Broadside.

Oh there is some news on Broadside by the way. The Council has completely changed how we are to cope with the parking this year. Last year we had to pre buy parking vouchers from them. This year we are to buy 4 hour tickets and display Broadside Badges in the car windscreens. It does raise the price from £2 to £3 for each vehicle, BUT we are not limited to how many car parking spaces we can have. Last year we had to limit it to two cars for each club and 2 for each trader. Which is awkward for clubs putting on games. (I'll talk about it at the club on Sunday).

Well that's today's news done, hope you found something interesting here. All the best Clint

Road Kill?

I have been talking via emails to Kev and Relfie (hi Guys) about the idea of a "Road Warrior" Mad Max type game. The idea has been floated at the club last year, and we tried a couple of games of "Car wars" (I used to play it about 20 years ago, but it was new to the others I think, or at least close to being "new" well new in a 25-30 year old kind of way. Not totally sure why we stopped playing but we moved onto other things pretty quickly. My personal view is that while I like Car wars it's had its day. Current games seem to be faster flowing possibly with interrupts and generally less complicated. So we are kind of on the look out for a good working set that's fast, furious and fun, without masses of charts tables and

 add ons. I did read the rules for "Axles and Alloys" last night but I am not convinced. Only being able to make one turn each movement seems very restrictive, but perhaps It might give a reason to drop speed in order to manoeuvre. I am not anti "Dark future" from Games Workshop, I have the rules and did start reading them before X mass but never finished. I don't think it would take too much to use them although I would need to create some kind of turning key/template and forget the grids that are on their tracks. Another option is OUTRIDER, which I came across this morning and know very little about. It is available here:

http://dicefestgames.blogspot.com/p/outrider.html

The two photos are of cars I have created for a post apocalypse mad max setting. The top is 28mm scale, created a while back and I don't think I ever used it. It gives the right feel. I would like to get some buggies but they are harder to get as a starting point to work from and then they would require more work to bring to a good gaming standard and if in the rules they are not as powerful as standard cars why would you bother, except for completion.

The second car is a "Matchbox" 20mm scale  with a penny for scale. I have started to add mods at this stage, but only extending the bumper and adding a couple of plastic tubes to the front to represent "Gun" ports. The second pic has all the window grills added and a tarpaulin tied to the roof. I have undercoated it and it should go to paint sometime soon. At that stage you should get a much better idea of what it looks like as it's quite hard to tell being all white, but maybe just maybe you can see something. No ideas what colours to do it yet and I probably won't until I sit at the paint table with it and am forced to make a decision. Starting from a white base I have the option of doing it yellow or orange, possibly pink. If those don't appeal then I can over paint in a darker colour I'll have to wait and see.At the same time as I undercoated the car I also undercoated some more 10mm dwarfs. This time dwarf warriors as they are the base troop type, even though I have only 1 pack at the moment. The army list says a minimum of 2 units so that's a future purchase but for now I need to whittle down the unpainted a little. Preferably BEFORE Cavalier I do hope to go but there is no guarantee of course and that includes the possibility of it getting snowed of like it did a few years back, but as we have a couple of weeks I'll not worry just yet.

I am using the weather as an excuse not to work up the shed, but I have checked and nothing has been damaged by the frost. And on the plus side we have a pair of blue tits looking like they may nest up there. If so it will be the 3rd year in a row so once they are settled I know I can work in the shed without disturbing them.

Lastly for today the Skaven Chaos Marines are coming along nicely and should have this batch finished by or over the weekend. That's all for now take care all.

Deep and crisp and even. That's either the snow or a pizza description. But today it's the snow. I am not saying I am snowed in or anything like that, but I am not inclined to work up the shed, or even to spray up some figures ready to paint.

As I only have the skaven marines on the paint table at the moment, and they are drying having had a heavy rust wash on their armour they could not be photoed. But I ha ten minutes so I thought I'd offer an update. As you have seen I have 1 finished, but 6 started and waiting on the paint table. Additionally I have purchased a plastic rat ogre from eBay ready for converting. I have considered using rat ogres as the basis for terminators, however I think I'll stick to the dreadnought conversion idea. SO now the quest for a good cheap space marine dreadnought so I'll trawl eBay in a bit and keep my fingers crossed.

I have also been talking to Kev about a mad max game idea. To this end I have started to convert a "matchbox" car when it gets to an acceptable stage I shall of course blog it.

Well that's today, lets hope the weather improves enough to actually get something done which is worth showing.

All  the best Clint.

As you can see here are the latest of the 10mm Warmaster Dwarf cannons. I did get them finished and while not blowing my own trumpet they came out quite well. It was a pain to get them finished but now that they are I feel good. I may have to start the next unit over the weekend.

I have not been up the shed due to working all the overtime so when I check I am hoping that everything is dry enough to work on. The Cold and inclement weather has delayed work on the two construction projects, but not disastrously so.

A brief post today. Cheers Clint

Well the crisis that stopped me blogging on Monday is over now. So I can continue.
Nothing is dry up the shed. So I can't work on the moon boards or the cliffs, which is a shame but there is absolutely nothing I can do about it at least for the moment so the best thing to do is just wait and see how it goes. I would love to say I'd done this to it or reached that stage, but as it's not dry enough at the moment I'll have no choice but to be patient.

I have done some work on the painting table however. My mental block on the 10mm dwarf cannons has passed and they are now progressing, I should have them done by Friday. I'll say no more for now and with luck chuck a photo up end of the week.

I am also now working on Skaven Space Marines. 6 more started, All the conversion work and even some of the base colours. I really need to talk to a few GW employees about these and get some decent feedback as opposed to working in the dark. I can't see it happening in the next few weeks though, but by then I should have a squad done and then I can start to ponder my direction. I am loving the idea of a Rat ogre dreadnought though so as soon as I can find the bits cheap enough on eBay (cheap rat ogre head and cheap dreadnought....not a chaos one I'll make it chaos without the aid of GW this time).

There are a couple of things I'm working on that I don't want to mention at this stage, (Kev knows Relfie so ask him if you want.) They are gaming and even zombie related but unless I can get them to work how I want I don't want to talk about them further.

I have been thinking about Zombie games recently. Most of the games we play are in the first few weeks of the Zombie-Apocalypse. Kind of the "Walking Dead" setting with a few survivors either scavenging, escaping or just moving through an area. While these are great fun and I'm not saying we NEED a change it does make me ponder if we should play it as more of a campaign. By this I mean the same sets of characters used each time to drive a storyline forward. Is day today survival sufficient for us or should we be looking to make a series of games where players actions have repercussions. Maybe if they drive cars a lot they might need to scout petrol stations, use a lot of ammo gun stores. Will the other local survivors be hostile to them for "stealing" resources or even just making lots of noise. After all more noise means more zombies. So something simple like driving a car down a street might seem fairly harmless but what if you are a survivor living by stealth and some road hog drags more living dead into your neighbourhood.

Another thought is what happens after a few months, how will the survivor groups have changed. Will they have built forts that they can defend or will they be nomadic. If nomadic what modifications will they have made to cars? Survivor architecture will also be different, boarded doors ad windows are only the start to the possibilities. Solar panels can provide warmth and light and running water, so the roofs of buildings become far more important, water collections and even small vegetable patches for those looking o live for many years to come. There used to be a textile factory in Leeds that had Sheep on it's roof. As a survivalist why wouldn't you do the same. I think there's some modelling opportunities to be had here, but at the moment they are just pondering. I think there's more possibilities for zombie games than just the out break period which we have tended to concentrate on. Still it's a lot more to think about, but enough of that for now.

I did go to the wargames club on Sunday, but I did not stay all day, I treated it more as a social then a gaming day. Most of the regulars could not make it either apathy, work, broken ankles or family commitments. Peter did turn up and will be their in 2 weeks. Graham put on a rather nice American Civil War game. (All Grahams games look nice, lots of scenery and every thing painted and he even has read the rules enough times to know what he's doing.....In my opinion Graham is the rules guru at our club.) I did mention club shirts and the treasure said the kitty had enough money just sitting their, not being used..... I am tempted to pay for them myself just to stop other people whining that they don't like them, or want a different colour/design or layout. It's funny but the ones that make the most fuss tend to be the ones least likely to do anything themselves,(just an observation). I did notice that there was a flaw in the design though, unforgivable to all wargamers on the dice logo I had a 1 and a 6 on adjacent faces. I have yet to change it on the computer, but at least I spotted it before someone else did. I'll start working on the shirts again, once this batch of overtime is out the way.

Real life prevents Blog today.

AS you can see I have started the coast/cliff boards. But I got called away, so it will have to wait until next week before I do any "REAL" work on it. The top picture shows the wooden edge that will be common on all the cliffs so they can fit side by side without leaving massive gaps. I have not measured the angle, as I did not see the need, I just went with what I thought looked about right but I'm now thinking I could have made them steeper. This is the "outside corner and as such will take a lot of materials especially as I think I want a lighthouse on the top. But I shall be making it up as I go along so pretty much anything could happen.

This board is 24 inches square. and should reach a height of 11 inches plus the light house. I have glued the first few layers of polystyrene down and will give it a chance to dry before I add more layers and take it to full height. Originally I was going to work to the pencil lines but I could not get the polystyrene sheets I wanted at B+Q so I settled for some smaller and cheaper ones. As with all things I'll try to save money on wargames projects where I can so I was not too disappointed with getting smaller ones. In an Ideal world Blar Blar Blar...

I'll settle on the rusty armour for the skaven Marines. I was asked why I thought metals that far in the future would rust. I can think of several reasons, like they use a material that corrodes for the same reason that we don't make modern tanks out of stainless steel. It could be expense, durability, resilience, scarcity of materials or the reason I have selected, because I like the look of it. Other than that I have not sat at my freezing cold attic painting table, because it is just that at the moment, freezing cold. I'll no doubt use the excuse of being to hot in the summer!

Lastly to Kev who broke his ankle on Thursday. Get well soon mate, take care and we'll talk soon no doubt.

All the best Clint.

As mentioned previously I was looking to start a Warhammer 40k Chaos Marine army and trying to work out the colour scheme for the force. Well here are my two options.  I can either go for a grey armour or a rusty armour. (Hope you can tell it's rust!) I want them to have a run down shabby look that I think is suitable to rats as I don't see them looking after their equipment particularly well. I know skaven Marines have been done before a number of times, which tells me that it's not a terrible idea. I imagine their fleet got trapped in some kind of Chaos storm and the only other living organisms (of a certain size Germs don't count) on board the ships  mutated into a meld of species. As shipborne Marines I see them as less reliant on big fighting machines and more on close quarter battles. I appreciate that the fleet could and probably would have a stock of Land Raiders, rhinos and the rest, so I may allow myself a couple of vehicles but on the whole I'll try to limit them. I do like the idea of dreadnoughts though as I can see them along with terminators being used on board ships. As I want this to be a cheap project I think I'll stick to what I can get at the right price on eBay. I have enough pieces to get a complete squad done before I need to go looking for more though . These were painted about 6 months apart as I was dithering over them and could not decide where it was going. My nephew by the way loves them and really wants to make his own, but I am trying to restrict him as while he's a good painter/modeller for his age he is only 10 years old.  So for now I'll just decide on the colours and maybe get some more done. Always open to suggestions colour wise, but orange and purple stripes is not going to happen. And if you insist that It should I look forward to seeing yours.

Elsewhere in the Shed, the moon board has had another coat of muck and should get it's final one on Monday when it should be dried out. I'm not gonna rush them as that's no use to anyone and WILL result in more work needed to tidy up where they would have gone wrong. I did have a look at it this morning and it does need several days to dry out, so I anticipate a week before this one is to the same stage as the others. And then only two more after that.

It was raining very heavily when I knocked of work this morning and I didn't fancy going to B and Q. But that is the next step for the First BROADSIDE board. I have sketched it out roughly and am happy with the sizes. I would like the cliffs taller but we do have to be "semi"-realistic so they are only 10 inches tall. It's the kind of crazy thing I might change later and double the height, but for now they look about right. As you can tell I am not being decisive.

Nothing much is happening on the painting table, I seem to be out of the swing of it for the moment. Maybe that will change over the weekend.

Thanks for reading, I'll post again Saturday and hope to get to B+Q>. Cheers Clint

This is just to remind you all what the moon boards turn into once coloured up.The figures are 25mm space suited figures by Ground Zero Games Painted in a very bright green so as to strongly contrast with the greys of the terrain. These are two of my own boards and not part of the ones I'm currently making,  although they should look the same when done. As mentioned previously the latest one is drying out and if the weather is ok, (Not to cold or wet) it should get another layer of paint glue and sand before I write again. Kevin pointed out a set of Horror clix zombies in space suits currently on ebay. I'm still umming and ahhing about getting them, so for now I'll pass although "Zombies from Outer-Space!" really does sound like such a NAFF B movie you'd have to go and see it.

Moving on. It has been a slow couple of days on the painting and making front. Nothing new to share just yet.feels like a "Must do Better" type school report.

 I have however been thinking, The dock-scape is going on hold for a bit (I imagine Kev and Relfie scowling at me as I type that). Having had a better look at the one that Karl at Crooked dice has done I think using the paste table is no longer the way to go. I have not given up, just set it aside till after Cavalier (end of Feb) where I can have a chat with the CD guys and pick some brainz.

 I'm looking after my nephew for the next couple of days as he's been sent home from school ill today and I'm down as his emergency contact, it's nothing serious to worry about, but far to serious to play on the X BOX. If he's well enough to play X BOX he's well enough to go to school. That's the rules as laid down by my beloved sister and who am I to argue with her. So it looks like it will be a Jurassic Park afternoon, or maybe Eight legged Freaks.!

Hopefully I should have something to show on Thursday... Must do Better!

It's hard to make out the details due  to the colours, however these are the moon scape so far. If you squint though you can see enough to get a pretty good idea. Each board is 2 foot square so this area is 4 foot square, I have 2 more boards to do after these are done. Obviously they need to be fully painted BLACK and then painted in various shades of grey. The sand coloured board has only had one layer of muck on it but I'll put a couple more on this week and allow it to dry completely so that it comes to the same stage as the other three.

This is the "Start" of the coast boards for the Broadside show. This one is again 2 foot on each side. As yet I have yet to determine if they will all be 2 foot by 2 foot squares OR if I can make 2 2foot by 4 foot rectangles. I realise I could do either, it's just what comes down to being the better game boards for storage and transportation so for now I am not going to over think it, I'll just play it by ear. You can see in this shot that one corner has been notched this is so I can attache the cliff walls  in such a way that they can but up to each other without a nasty gap. Having visualised it I think it should have 11 inch  high cliffs with a 2 inch reverse slope. (Not sure that makes sense enough for anyone to understand, but when I work on it again I'll take a pic and it should become clear.

I will have to make two boards that are square, one with an inside curve and one with an outside curve. This will allow me to turn a couple of corner and vary the coastline sufficiently. The tables we have at Broadside are 2 foot wide and 6 foot long thus with 2 tables set  at right angles will give an 8 foot by 6 foot coastline. By having a choice of both inside and outside corners we can set the adapt as we need to. Anyway this will all become evident as work goes on.

As mentioned on Friday the dock board will start in earnest on Monday. Brummie has suggested a thick layer of paint to disguise the texture of the hard board. It's so obvious that I missed it as a solution. I still like the idea of foil though, not because of the shininess but because if I screw it up and un-screw it carefully it will create a very different texture.Still time will tell.

Nothing from the painting table to talk about today. so with that I'll finish writing for today. Cheers Clint

Best laid plans of mice and all that. I've been busy all morning sorting out my mothers switch over from Analog to digital. It's all done now but did take two different installation engineers or two different call outs and a free upgrade to Free Stat as she's in a set top black spot. Their meter readings kept "overloading" and making bleeping sounds and they had no idea why. Still it's all sorted now.

All of which means I'm a little behind as that had priority. However the moon boards have dried out nicely and I have started  another one of them. At this stage it's about half masked up, but I can easy finish that on Saturday. So in conclusion they are getting done, I'll offer a pic in a few days of all 4 of them (2 more after that, for 6 in total).

Which of course means the dock sides are already behind schedule before I even start. The good news on that is that every day next week I'll be walking past B+Q so can re-stock on some vital supplies. Assuming I stick to the paste board idea I'll have to think of how to loose the "checker board" texture. It worked very well as car parking, but I can't see it working as water. My choices are to either sand it back or to cover it. As Sanding will be a LOT of work and still might not work I think I'll have to cover it. My initial thoughts are to use aluminium foil but I'm not sure if I can get a good solid attachment to the hardboard. One of the other problems I'll have is the general dimensions of the paste board. Being 20 inches across I think I might have to put the docks, wharfs and jetties at an oblique angle. Until I sketch it out I'm not sure how that will work in regard to look and feel, I'm hoping it adds rather than detracts but only marking it out will really give me a clue.

Painting wise the 10mm Dwarfs are at a stand still. I have volunteered to paint a collection of buildings for the game of warmaster that is proposed for next club. I guess I'd better rake them out and dust them off. I have also re-started a games workshop Chaos Marine army. I don't really play 40k any more but my nephew does and it would be nice to be able to give him a game. The main problem is the colour scheme. I have tried them in grey armour and that looks quite good, (and my nephew loves them) but I came up with another idea and want to try that out before I am completely satisfied. About 1/2 way through painting the second style now. When done I'll invite feedback on them both.

Lastly for today I had the "hard copy" of the crooked dice 7ombie TV rules and some nice counters arrive this morning. I already know that the rules work quite well, so this is just to own a nice shiny copy,

Post again on Sunday and maybe a pic or two.