Hallo Sailor (part 2)

Here are all the Victorian era sailors all painted and all massed together. When I say "all the Sailors" I do in fact mean all the enlisted men.|I have a couple of officers to add so you will no doubt be seeing this lot again when I manage to finish them. All they need now is a coat of varnish and to be stored properly.

Meanwhile back in my own thoughts. I think I will start working on a few projects this week. Obviously we have Crooked Dice coming to the club tomorrow which may (I hope) allow me to have a decent chat with Karl. So many ideas I am bound to forget some of them. Anyway my current thinking is that I should start building some desert terrain now. Not for anything Crooked Dice or Zombie related, but if I start making some desert terrain pieces I can use them for a couple of projects that are hanging around in the edges of my consciousness. Desert hills, cliffs, rough ground etc can be used in a few projects. 15mm Apaches, Empire of the Dead, and 15mm sci fi. I was not going to do a desert setting for 15mm sci fi but it makes sense not to start too many projects which would need very different settings. Better I feel to make scenery which has a variety of uses.  I won't start anything until later in the week, but at least I can start thinking about it. Certain terrain feature like hills don't scale so can be used for 28mm as well as 15mm as such these are the most likely places for me to start. As mentioned a long while ago I want these peaces of terrain to be free standing and not a complete terrain board.

Club day tomorrow I'll try to remember my camera and photo the Crooked dice game as much as possible to share on Monday. All the best Clint.

Empire of the Dud!

You have seen the figure in the dark purple dress before. While at Broadside Crooked dice had a deal on for this sculpt so I bought two of them. They are supposedly stone angels from a Not "Dr Where!" Tv Programme or something quite similar. But I thought for the price why not paint them as Vampires. All this is old news and has been covered before when I showed the figure on the left. The figure on the right though is new, finished it yesterday. If you are incredibly observant you will have noted that I have changed the base colour though from Grassy Green, to Sandy Yellow. There is a method to my madness (.... maybe!).  I have purchased the rules "Empire of the Dead" Being honest I have very mixed feelings about them. They are very like Necromunda, obviously with a different background setting and "gangs" but the rule mechanics are very similar. I know Necromunda works so I am not worried about that, although it might give a very retro game experience and might make me want to play that again. My main gripe with the rules is the campaign system. It really is minimal. Just checking for wound results sorting out money and possible character advances, shopping and then back to another random disjointed game. This is fixable. It will take some house rules and some hard thinking, Take for example buying equipment. As it stands in the rules any hero could have a "steam exo-skeleton" a "Tesla projector" a "steam cannon" a "pneumatic stake" a" possessed weapon" and ride a steam powered gyro copter. From what I can see there is no research or development rules, no mad inventors/scientists or the like. If you've got the cash you can just buy it. To me this seems like a missed game opportunity as players soon work out their favourite shopping list pop down to the "Acme Steam Gizmo Emporium" and do a supermarket sweep to get everything they need. Maybe this does not bother younger players but it does bother me. It seems a very half hearted way of doing things. The rules designers will no doubt say "we were trying to keep costs down" to which I would point out the 20+ pages of background material and countless paintings and images in the book counter that argument, as does the £30 price tag!

I have not given up on it just yet, but at this stage I am yet to be convinced! So coming back to why I painted the Vampire bases again. As a club we have quite a lot of cowboy 28mm buildings. So I thought IF I was going to do "Empire of the Dead" that would be a much easier setting than building a Victorian London terrain board. But for now I will not be working on EotD as I feel vaguely disappointed by the whole thing!

All the best Clint., I'll Blog again on Saturday. And to my Club Members Don't forget Crooked Dice will be running a game for us on Sunday. Game starts at 10:45 am.

Rough Langing!

As you can see I have finished my second objective marker for PBI. Slightly different from a wrecked tank we have a wrecked plane. This is an adapted "Academy" 1/144th scale P51 D Mustang. It looks like the pilot would have managed to walk away as it is not a total wreck, more a bad landing.. The whole marker was painted in acrylics an given a Satin Varnish. I can imagine a commander saying something like "When you come to the crashed airoplane, That's the town we need to take!" So it's not as literal an objective as a stack of crates or some barrels, but to me that's a good thing.

 The base does make it a little large for an objective marker, but it all adds to the battle field scenery. I could not tel you which squadron it is from as I just painted what I felt was correct rather than going 100% accurate. Therefore if it is not historically spot on I don't really care. I am sure there are those that do care about such things but as it's just an objective marker I am not one of those. To me it's just a spiffy bit of purposeful scenery.

The tufts are homemade from a wall papering brush they work quite well. Not as easy or as good as commercially bought tufts, but a whole lot cheaper. Sometimes you just have to try things to know how they will (or won't) work. The base is just plasticard (quite thick) wall filler and sand and then painted.

Well that's it for today. Most if not all the 15mm PBI stuff is finished now so on to something new in the next few days. As ever loads of ideas. Could well be some scenery as I seem to have been neglecting that recently and just painting. Or is could be something sitting on the paint table as we speak as there are about 20 figure on it half finished and waiting to get that final push. 

Anyway that's today's offering, more on Thursday. See you soon all the Best Clint.

Hallo Sailor!

A very predictable title given the things I have painted this weekend. I have another 6 to do so you'll no doubt see them soon.  I think they are the Copplestone castings. It seemed really odd to paint them having worked for a while on 15mm figures and space ships. Took me a while to get in the swing of it they seemed so large! It's definitely what you get used to. I have no immediate use for these figures, but as I jump around among projects it won't take that long for them to surface in a game.

I am considering using them in Empire of the Dead. They are not my first choice though despite the fact they are of the correct era. Until the rules arrive (I'm told they are in the post) I can't really focus on what I will do with the game. I have ideas of course. More ideas than I can shake a very wobbly stick at. One thing is for sure I will not be building a Victorian London. I have far too many ideas that I wish to bring to fruition.

That's it for today, I'll post again on Tuesday. All the best Clint.

Objective

Still working on some PBI stuff. This is the Peter Pig Sherman objective marker. It is a one piece resin casting. Mine needed no cleaning up at all. So just an undercoat then straight to paint. Painted in acrylics and then a satin varnish. The details is well cast and come out clearly on the model. I found no air bubbles or defects. The bottom had also been sanded flat before purchase. So all in all my model came in the most excellent condition.

Work has started on my next objective marker, which is a lot more home made than this one. And as such does require more work. I hope to finish it over the weekend.
 Yesterday I sent for the "Empire of the Dead" rules. At £30 I think they are expensive. But I had talked about a "Van Helsing" (film) game some 6 months ago with a friend who had broken his ankle (Captive audience to bore..... ) He'll also read this blog so he'll know who I am talking about. Another Club member (Relfie) wanted to try these rules. I am provisionally setting a 3 week deadline to get a trial game together. Other than werewolves I think I already have enough to put two forces together. I will need to do a repaint job on some of them, but I think three weeks is a realistic deadline. Time will tell. I can start painting over the weekend and I can treat the deadline as a challenge.

That's it for today, I'll post again on Sunday. Have a good weekend and see you soon.

Big Guns

Continuing the PBI company I have managed to paint up a couple of 105mm howitzers. The Guns and crew are by Peter Pig while the trucks, are Battlefront. It was a case of what can I get at the right price. Battlefront trucks, being resin, are cheaper than peter pig, while the opposite is true of the artillery and the crew. I like the fact that you can also get stacks of shells which all adds to the feel. The bases are thick card (Mounting board) with a thin coat of filler and a covering of sand to get a texture. All in all I a very happy with how they turned out, I think I might need a two more but that can wait for the moment. When playing PBI you have to set you level of aggression. The US Infantry can set theirs to 1 (the minimum) doing this guarantees you can start the game with some towed guns. That is an option I think I need to explore, 2 extra guns might make all the difference. Time will tell.

I had better give a brief explanation of the building list from yesterday. I am looking to make a participation Zombie game to run at a couple of shows (Conventions). As a show game it needs to not only look good, but has to be easily transported and stored. For this reason I will not be building a whole city (at least in the foreseeable future.) To allow me to focus I needed to write a list of possible adventure sites. By doing so I have clarified my thinking. There are a number of criteria for show games that need to be considered that you can forget about at club games. I have mentioned size for storage and transportation. Some shows (In SE England) also desire you to keep games small so they can fit more in. Additionally at Broadside for example we have to rent the tables. Thus if your game is large it can cost the organisers quite a lot of money.

Well that's it for today. I'll Post again on Friday. Thanks for looking and talk soon. Cheers Clint.

More Thrust.

Firstly As I was not happy with yesterdays blog I have decided to do one today as well.  These are the start of my Second Full Thrust fleet. This time the Islamic Federation. These are only the small ships of the intro fleet, I have put the larger (cruisers) somewhere safe. I will start painting theose when I find them again. But for now these should act as a sample of colours and markings. As shown I have gone for a rich blue as my main colour, contrasting that I have a lemon stripe on each vessel. As all the ships have cresent shaped wings I thought to emphasis these by painting them a copper colour higlighted with gold and washed with "flesh wash" all to signify a more 3D look to the figures.  Once they are all fininsh (once I find them again) I will photograph the whole fleet together as I did the FSE fleet. I shall also offer a photo of both fleets together.

Now lets go back to the poll for a little. In my mind (and only there) I have settled on a Zombie game. Let me start by saying I am not totally happy with any of the Zombie rules I have found so far. They all have something to offer, but they also all lack one or more elements I would like. As such I think I might have a go at writing my own. I don't want to start adding house rules to an existing system, I feel a completely fresh start is in order. If you don't hear any more about this assume I have given up, and common sense has taken over.

Meanwhile back at the Zombie terrain ideas, here are a few I have thought of (in no logical order):

• High School
• Petrol Station.
• Hospital.
• Laboratory / Research Facility.
• Shopping Mall
• Underground / tube station.
• Warehouse/Factory
• Docks/Port.
• Fair Ground / Ammusement park.
• Peir.
• Airport.
• Railway Station / Rail Yard.
• Sewer.
• Appartment Block.
• Church and graveyard.
• Powerstation.
• Army Baracks
• Motorway Service Station / Truck stop.
• Typical Urban Street / City block.
• Suburban area.
• Zoo.

I want to keep it accessable to most people, so I have taken out, space Station, moonbase, submarine, ship and those sort of things brcause the terrain migh be too tight for a flowing game.

I hope there is something there for you to mull over. I already feel Happier with this post than the previous one. I'll post again Tomorrow, so take care til than and happy Blogging. All the Best Clint

Sundays ar club days.

It was quiet yesterday at the club. I had my first ever game of "Spearhed". I took the US side Peter the Germans and Graham acted as a reff.  Set during the Battle of the Bulge, right near the end of the battle as it happens. I had two battalions of Infantry dug in all the way up the other end of the board and my mission was to "Rescue" them. Cutting a long story short we ran out of time before I could get there. It was a shambles from my point of view, my armoured infantry in halftracks against Peters Panthers the result was predictably messy. My Tank Regiment skirted eveything and made no contacts. My independant sherman Battalion halted to engage some German troops in trucks and got bogged down dealing ith them, and my Infanty, the others the ones in trucks slowly trudged through the snow going so slow as to make a sloth seem athletic. Of the two Battalions I was sent to "rescue" one was compleatly wiped out when the germans stormed the village they wer defending, the other battalion did ok but the Germans were concentrating on one thing at a time so they were next. Peter claimed it was a draw, personally I think he was being kind to me it was a definite loss.

That's todays post, I'll blog again on Wednesday. Hope to finish a few figres by then. All the best Clint

Poll Results

Firstly I must admit I have closed the poll 7 hours early, so if you were hanging on til the end to cast a vote I am sorry, but it is now closed. If this upsets anyone next time vote early, this is not eBay and there are NO last minute sniping actions allowed.

For the reat of you thank you very much for voting it is appreciatted and I have taken note of all the views expressed. Of the 17 votes, 7 (or 41%) voted for either 7TV or 7ombie Tv, making it a clear winner. The next highest was 15mm Wild West with 4 votes (23%). Bringing up the rear in a tie for third place with 3 votes (17%) were 15mm Science Fiction and British Colonial. It is possible that all these projects may go ahead given enough time. Given limited resoucses in time space money and motivation I will for now concentrate on the two most popular. That does not mean the others will be forgotten, just that they probably will not get done this year.

Over all I feel the poll was a sucess and think I should run more in the future.

As regular readers will know I have Karl of Crooked Dice Coming to the Rainham wargames club in 2 weeks time. I am currently talking to him about Raimham Club running a 7TV or 7ombieTv game at a few shows next year. SO I will want to have a chat with him and see if he has any strong prefference to either set of rules or settings. Or indeed if there is anything he wants to reserve for his self.

Some of my initial ideas are given in slightly more detail below:

One Step Forward Spy Fi Games

Dicefinger!

For those of you who don't recognise it, or who didn't notice the title in the bottom left of the picture this is the setting (Fort Knox) for the final show down in the James Bond Goldfinger film. As Crooked dice have already two games in the Jame Bond Universe, (You only live Dice, and O.H.M.S.S.) This game idea might be prefect for 7TV Spi-Fi. In Fact it might be a little too similar to thir own plans.

Fandicetic Voyage!

Yes I admit this is just an excuse for wearing rubber wet suits and looking at Raquel Welch. However I think making the terrain boards would be a real buzz if I can get them to work. Additionally I have never seen any game like this at any show. The chances are some one has already done it but even so a game set inside a human body, a team of players in either wet suits or space suits trying to carry out an objective while the evil umpire pits the bodies natural defences against the players. Raquel Welch or not I still think it's a good idea. And if nothing else it has got some eye candy on my blog!

Generic Spi Fi

Another idea is to build a generic Spi Fi set which is not based around a James Bond theme. This Observatory for example would make a great place for game. This picture is only an example, nothing more. A generic Spi Fi could equally well be in an Aztec Ruin as a Lighthouse on the Scotish coast. A game not directly linked to a film has far more options, the draw back is that both players and onlookers will find it harder to describe, at least not as easy as saying did you see the James Bond Game at that show. There are pros and cons to film and non film approaches.

BRING ON THE ZOMBIES

Dead or Alive.

Under the water, under the sea catching Zombies for my tea... Dead or Alive? Of of my younger club members suggested a zombie game on board a submarine! Sheer Genius if you ask me. So I had a quick think and (after suggesting he run it) looked for real life sunken Submarines. This is U 352 sunk off the coast of America as part of an artificial reef. Anyway the game idea would be a group of divers are sent to recover something from the sunken vessel. Yep you suessed it nazi U boat crew Zombies!

Slow Boat to Diner!

There is something evokotive about harbour settings. Let's be honest they look great, messy gritty dirty and run down. The setting being a Harbour, the game being that the players have to reach the place the boat can dock and hang around long enough for the rescue to take place. All the while the dead close in on them. The advantage of this type of game is that you can balance the number of zombies (even bring more on) to the people, the ammo supply and the time the boat takes to get there just for a tense ending where they are just about to get swamped or run out of ammo or health.

60 Feet Under.

A very simple idea stolen from Left for Dead (computer game) is to set the action in an underground/tube station. It's a travel game players have to move from A to B and survive in the process. You have confined spaces twisting corridors and stirwells. Open Platforms tube trains and the undead to contend with. But at least water is not involved this time. 60 feet under would be a memorable show game if only because it would need to embrace 3 dimensions.!

This Won't Hurt a Bit.

Just for compleatness a show game set in a Hospital during an outbreak. Probably the least inventive of the Zombie ideas. Desipte that it is without a doubt a classic zombie setting. Again At a show I have not seen a good zombie setting so even something cleched like this is worth another look.

I hope you found something of interest here. Club Day tommorrow so I'll post again on Monday. All the Best Clint.

Post Script: Spell checker does not seem to be working so forgive any mistakes pleae!

PBI (1)

36-28-19 points
Company Command

I am sure the title of the post gives it away. But for the moment I have been painting 15mm US infantry for Peter Pigs PBI (Poor bloody Infantry). It's all slowly comming together. It's also clear that I have concentrated on the vehicles, and not the Infantry. Under each photo is the points cost in Elite-Average-Raw quality. Given that the game is limited to 400 points and because the rules encourage it I shall only feild 1 tank section each game, probably not even a complete one at that. But at least I have some options. I also have a horde more troops to paint up.

113-80-52 points
!st Platoon

In this set up each platoon has g arand stands 3 bar stands and a command (smg) stand. It's pretty much organised in the same manner as the US Company in the rules is. That will no doubt change when I try to penny pinch the points to get something legal to field on the table. 

So we have Company comand and two infanttry platoons. For a total of 20 stands of foot sloggers. Add to that a Mortar platoon of 3 medium mortars and it's starting to look like a real force of some kind.



113-80-52 points
2nd Platoon

I have 3 tank options. Light tanks in the form of 4 M3 Stuarts. In a late war setting I don't fancy these will do to well if confronted with any real armoured opposition. I am however willing to be suprised. You just never know.

Or 4 M10 Tank destroyers. These have a decent gun but stil thin armour relying on speed to get them out of trouble supposedly! Being open topped they might not do quite so well against German infantry. Again I am willing to be suprised and if nothing else they will draw a lot of fire away from everything else on the table but possibly only for a very short tume.

69-51-39 points
Medium Mortar platoon



156-112-68 points
M5 Stuart

My final option is of course the 4 Sherman. I have only 3 of these which is not too much of a worry. If you play Ammericans in WW2 you just have to accept that German tanks can tear you a new one each and every time. These have neither the gun or the armour to go toe to toe with a German heavy tank. On the other hand the States could out produce the Germans quite considerably. I read somewhere that it was 50 Shermans to each Tiger in production terms. Personally I would like to see a game where the German player has one tiger and the American player has 50 Shermans just to watch the German Player sweat. (And worry that they might run out of ammo!)

That's it for tday. The Poll closses in a couple of days and ten I can start to get direction once more and sort out a complete game in stead of doing just bits and peices. All the best thanks for following (or at least looking at the pics) I'll Blog again on Saturday. Cheers Clint



204-148-88 Points
M10

171-99-69 points
M4

Paint it Black?

Paint it Black? Well actually NO! I know we all think of Ninja as being clad head to toe in Black, historically this was not the case. The reason we think they should be is that the traditional Japanese theatre portrays anything which the audience cannot (or should not be able to) see as black. Thus when Ninja do need to be acted out on the stage they were all dressed in black. I hope that explains it enough. Any questions should be addressed to the QI tv programme. All that goes towards explaining why this Ninja is painted very dark green (a more realistic colour from a historical perspective at least.) I am for once not going to criticise the photography it is that dark and the image has only been enlarged, not manipulated. The sculpt is an old Citadel miniature I found at the right price on eBay some months ago. It was always one of those figures I really wanted at the time, but either did not have the money for or had different priorities for. As I have no Ninja and as it is an option for 7TV cast I thought I should at least have it as an option.

The real news is that Karl from Crooked Dice has agreed to come to our club on 15th July to run a game of "You only live Dice!" Their show game from last year. The reason for this is that I have suggested that as a club we could put a 7TV game on at a few shows next year. This would be a trial run so we get to see how the rules writers get to use their rules in an actual game and not to read and interpret them from the written word cold on the page. Karl thinks he can run the game twice in our club day so we can get eight people involved in all. 4 people in each game. We  will need to start a little earlier than normal, but I don't see that as a problem, some of the club will of course find it hard to get up and to the club with family commitments and the like. So I will need to prebook the game slots this weekend. I already know that someone will turn up late or not show at all so I am thinking of dragging in a couple of non members who can be trusted to actually turn up on time.

That's today's news. Next post on Thursday til then take care and keep hold of the lucky dice!

FSE Full Thrust

 FSE Full Thrust.

FSE Starter Fleet

Must be 18months ago that I bought two starter fleets of Full Thrust ships. At the time if I remember correctly it was £25 for them both now, having checked the web site (http://shop.groundzerogames.net/) it seems that the price has risen to £18 each. Just looking at one intro fleet, this one being the FSE (Federal States Europa,). INTRO FLEET pack contains: 1 x BATTLECRUISER (BC), 1 x HEAVY CRUISER (CH), 2 x LIGHT CRUISERS (CL), 2 x DESTROYERS (DD) and 2 x FRIGATES (FF). They are nice sculpts with each faction having a distinct look which makes national identity in the game easy to fix.

Battle Cruiser, Heavy Crusier and Frigate.

I must admit I did struggle with painting these. Not the actual painting but the colours. My first thoughts were to paint them a wine red but is just did not look right. Maybe on another fleet it would work well, but for these it looked dull and uninspiring. Once cream, I prefer "champagne", they were still lacking something so a quick Flesh wash brought out the detail and then a blue stripe really did lift them and unite them. Overall I am happy with the colours now but I always find it hard to paint things which don,t have a face.

Frigates, Destroyers and light Cruisers.

The Frigates do look small when next to the larger ships but when clustered with the other small ships seem to fit in quite nicely. The only assembly was one join on the Battle Cruiser which is held in place with both green stuff and superglue. So no complaints about assembly at all. Having got this far I have enjoyed them. It has made a pleasant change in my painting and I would be willing to get more space ships. Graham at the club also has a couple of small fleets (NAC and ESU I think) so a game might be in order soon.
As a club we do like Stargrunt Sci-Fi rules so I hope this might also be something we could get into as it has a shared background. Not that there is a huge amount of background material, but there is enough to hang some games on. With Stargrunt several players have factions and seem happy not to encroach on anyone elses. This is great in one way, as it adds variety, the down side is that it can be fragmented, as we all like to use our own forces.

That's today's post. Thanks for reading I'll blog again on Tuesday. All the best Clint