A moment of History.



Torch bearer.

30 mins to go!

Torch bearer coach

As a change of pace here is a moment of history. At 7:50am the Olympic Torch arrived at Gillingham. I arrived about 35 minutes before the torch, It's a good job I did as it was already fairly packed. It became more packed as time went on. But being over 6 foot I was confident I could get some kind of pictures. I gradually moved back from the edge conceding ground to the kids and eventually their mums. But I would not yield to prams, I have my limits.
 The Kids opposite were loud with cheering. They Cheered every police car, every police bike and even passing motorists that waved at them. All in all they really added to the atmosphere. Some of the local schools had a late start and the children did not have to be in class till 10am or so one of the mothers told me. I guess the teachers wanted to see the torch as well.  The crowd held an atmosphere of excitement, anticipation and pride. Every person united to support the country. It really was a good feeling to be part of it. So If you still get the chance to see it go. The first official vehicle, was carrying all the days runners, dressed in track suits and huge grins. The level of pride was fantastic.



Sponsor float

 Then came the sponsors waggons. It did add to the parade, but in my mind cheapened it with rank commercialism. The Samsung coach was the best not just because of the pretty girls, but also the enthusiasm they had.



3rd Sponsor Float

Sponsor float with pretty girls!

























The motto on the support vehicle was very apt. The torch carrier would not be long now. Every camera was ready. I was convinced that my batteries would fail. You know the feeling I'm sure.

The crowd silent but with whispers of "Here he comes!" And some puzzled looks on children's faces. You could hear the noise from further along the road so you knew it was coming. 

Support Vehicle



The crowd before the torch.



Torch Bearer.

And Finally your reward. A moment of history.

Vampire Leader/Undertaker.

I feel as if I have been resting on my laurels. I have only finished 1 figure since Saturday morning and it's Wednesday already. At this rate I'll have nothing to show on Friday. This is a FOUNDRY 28mm wild west Undertaker. An old figure that I have repainted to represent a Vampire in Empire of the Dead. The skin tone is a very pale blue as a base colour and pale flesh on the highlights. Red eyes complete the Evil look. Dressed all in Black (Hi lighted with different dark greys of course) with a dark purple sash on his hat, which you should just be able to make out.

As stated previously I have mixed feelings about EotD. While I am sure the mechanics will work fine, they are as I keep saying Necromunda with d10s. I do wonder if it is sufficiently different from Necromunda and therefore "Legends of the Old West" the Warhammer historical variant, which we have played at the club. Maybe I am spoilt by having too many game options but I do wonder if we will play this to any extent. Or if the players will say we have done something similar as they remember Legends of the old West. For convenience the Wild west would be the obvious choice as we already have the scenery but I fear it might be too similar. I could build new scenery of course, but that takes time money and motivation. So for now I'll just move forward slowly until motivation grabs me.

Although I have not finished much I have done some preparation and undercoating of figures. Nothing I wish to share just yet. I am sure I will soon though. But for now that is today's post. More again on Friday. All the best Clint

7TV "You only Live Dice" Game at club.



Burly Gatecrashers

As a club we were luck enough to have Karl from "Crooked Dice" run a game for us. This is his show game, "You only live Dice!" The situation is that... it was a quiet day at the office, the office being a dormant volcano somewhere in the home counties. And my security chief caught some Eco terrorists breaking in so we locked them in a cupboard and carried on with our work. The next thing we know all these butch burly men arrived in a helicopter and started attacking us. It's just not cricket! The rocket countdown had started and we were struggling to install the crop fertiliser before it lifted off.



Office layout!

 As you can see not a typical office, but when you rent a building you sometimes have to make do! As you can see the fertiliser delivery system (AKA the rocket) can be reached along 2 aerial walkways.


"Fertiliser"Barrel

 Not sure why the Eco Terrorist referred to the Barrel as Nerve Gas it's a genetically modified crop fertiliser destined for the third world to boost Rice Harvests. And That's the story I am sticking too! Me produce "Nerve Gas" that must be some kind of joke. It's a weed killer and a very good one. It would have changed the world if it was not for those darned Eco terrorists!


Barrel at end of first move.

I could not believe it these Eco terrorists burst in and opened fire on my security guards we had no choice but to defend our selves and our property! Even one of the ones locked in the cupboard escaped before the Police could arrive and sort the problem out and that one viciously assaulted a technician who was doing no more than twiddle some dials in line with health and safety protocols and his job description.


The Burly Eco terrorists cower behind cover.

Staying at long range the Eco terrorists took advantage of the office facilities knowing the site security guards were reluctant to damage company property. As a result the poor chaps suffered terribly by being shot at. Many of them being hard working family men were appalled by the actions of the Eco terrorists!

Stalwart technical staff carry out Moving and Handling protocols while being shot at.

 Security did try to intervene but with the terrorists all in cover they needed to roll 6 on d6 in order to hit them. The unfortunate chaps did their best but on most occasions a trip to Spec savers might have served them better, So of these boys are getting on you know and can't compete with the hooligan element existent in the youth of today. So after killing several of these valiant defenders the Eco terrorists targeted the junction boxes responsible for powering up the rocket... erhm I mean delivery system.

Rampaging Eco terrorists destroy private property!

 Then the terrorists killed Bert, one of the technicians carrying the payload. Harry carried on moving a mere 3 inches a turn with bullets whistling about his head as he tried to man handle the "fertiliser" onto the delivery system so that the hard work of his colleagues would not be wasted. Dr Mao a visiting Expert from China was horrified at the behaviour of the Eco-hooligans and he and his female companion (who doesn't talk much, she's very shy) Gave two of the terrorists one of their own medicine.

Dr Mao intervenes.

  The corporate forces of good from Dadelaes Enterprises where just managing to get the upper hand. Thanks to the good Dr Mao, and Mr Plesances's personal assistant who waving a fan had managed to thwart the efforts of a kilt wearing mad man. When disaster struck.

Disaster srtiking!

 The terrorist who had been locked in the cupboard had crawled through the ventilation ducts and suddenly carried out a lightning strike sabotage mission on the office Plant room. They managed to beat up some harmless technicians and cut the power supply. These sort of acts should not be tolerated in civilised society. These interlopers had no right of entry, nor did they present any form of search warrant not offer a "cease and desist" notice with annoy of our legal team Therefore officer we were merely defending our selves and our property and in no way using disproportionate force in any way. I humbly suggest all our property be returned to us along with both an apology and suitable re numeration for both the work disruption and the endangerment of our loyal personnel.

Ok I was the baddies and we lost, because I roll Naff dice. I Failed my Morale test, used a luck point

To re-roll it and then rolled a 1. Meaning 4 of my staff had to leave the board. At this stage I only had 4 left so for me it was game over. I was supposedly playing a bady, but I think they were just misunderstood. All in all a very enjoyable game. But Next time the forces of "Good" need to follow the letter of the law and I will need to see a search warrant.

There was just time for a second game so I stepped out and all new players were brought in. Karl is the guy behind the screen. It is not a ref's screen from role playing, but it could have functioned as one should the need have arisen.

Kev and Stew were the evil forces this time and Tim and Frasier the goodies. The game flowed faster on the second run through as these guys tended not to worry too much about cover, but did try to move about in the open.I won't give a detailed description of all the actions, but there are the hi lights.

•  The barrel of Nerve Gas first tried the right most gantry, then the middle and finally started to come down the slope.
• The Fembots in the control room held up Pandora King and Dr Soloman for a lot of the game.
• Dr Mao used his jet pack to move into the middle of Captain Gordons men and then used a sonic stunner to make most of them unconscious.
• The game was a lot more bloodthirsty from the start with movement being preferred over cover.
• Kevin made exactly the same morale roll as me including the re-roll, but having one extra figure meant that he could keep his star on the table while all my fled.
• Dr Mao managed to reach the escape helicopter.
• Tan (Tim's co star) managed to shoot both technicians carrying the gas with a long range SMG shot without hitting the gas canister.

Overall I think everyone enjoyed the day. I know I did. Karl has offered to come back and put another game on for us in the future. He wants a run through of my Zombie car park game as well so that's a possibility. He lives about a 20minute drive away so all things are possible.

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