2nd Squad (15mm Stargrunt)

Let's face it we all knew this was coming so it's no surprise really. This is the second squad of 15mm FSE troops from GZG. Same unit composition as last time. These guys however are not in helmets but the famous "Kepi Blanc" I did think about painting the kepis a different colour for about 2 seconds so as you can see it was a very serious consideration. Having used white undercoat I managed to keep them clean enough to make the white really stand out. Other than the kepis they were painted exactly the same way.

I will have 2 more squads to finish the platoon, a 3rd Infantry squad, a power armour squad (not sure if they get transport yet so I'll leave that out for now) and a command section in a command version of the Hover vehicle. They will not be down this week as I have yet to order them. You know I'll show them when finished, but I need to paint a few other things in between. No idea what yet, you'll know when I know.

The big problem is the lack of time this week, real life was getting in the way. Not only have I looked after my nephew all week but I have also managed 15 hours overtime. James, my nephew is pretty good and does not get into trouble and can amuse himself (well sometimes) so I can manage a very little painting at some point each day, even if it is only for 10 minutes. So I can't really complain.

I will be running a ZOMBIE game at the club tomorrow. So expect an AAR on Monday. Another short post today for all the reasons listed above. For now though there is an ice cream with my name on it calling for me. So Thanks for reading and Zombie AAR on Monday, (I hope... that's my cue to forget my camera of course). All the Best Clint

1st Squad (15mm Stargrunt)

Not a huge amount to show today. It has been one of those weeks were I just can't get too much done. Enough excuses. Here is my first squad of 15mm FSE Stargrunt infantry. 8 figures in all. 6 armed with a standard FA-75 Standard Gaus assault rifle. It has less fire power than many of the firearms but a better impact so is generally on a level with other small arms. There is also a Squad automatic weapon (FA 77) and a Mistral portable guided missile launcher. I realise that if you do not play a lot of stargrunt most of this will sound meaningless. This is the standard FSE squad in the rules and is the pack composition from GZG.

FSE troops come with a choice of head gear, these as you can see are helmeted, the other choice being Kepi. I have a squad of these as well and they should get finished today. No promises, but that is the plan. The transport hovercraft was included in the pic just for completeness, as it will be assigned to each squad.

Elsewhere in my games life I have collected some of the wooden off cuts from a neighbour, and hope to get to work on Sunday's proposed zombie game later today, but currently waiting a phone call from work, so can't leave the house to work up the shed.

Lastly I want to say a big thanks to all my followers and casual glances for breaking the 10 000 page view score. I was thrilled yesterday when it did so. I know for many people 10 000 is not a large number but for me I do feel it was a significant milestone. So once again THANK YOU.

Short and sweet for now more on Saturday. All the Best Clint



AGCI-5Bs

The standard infantry carrier for the Federal States Europa is the Aero-Glisseur Combat d'Infantrie 5B. A medium sized hover vehicle capable of carrying 8 infantry into many battle field situations. The 2 crew, driver and gunner stay with the vehicle when the infantry dismount. The Stargrunt universe has these vehicles build under licence by several factions so realistically (for a sci fi game) they could be the most commonly encountered troop vehicle. As you can see they both have a small turreted weapon as well as a pintle mount. The pintle mount could have gone on the back where I have fashioned an aerial, or the top of the turret.

As metal kits they went together easily with a little flash to trim but otherwise clear of mold lines.not a massive amount of pieces and fairly self explanatory with regard to assembly. I do like the face that the skirts are slightly raised which aids they eye in seeing them as hovering It was not something I really noticed until I put them on bases.

So my 15mm stargrunt force is slowly growing. Very slowly I grant you but it's all going in the right direction. Just a quick post today, more on Thursday. Until then take care and speak to you soon. Clint

Post script: Just picked up some off cuts of wood from my neighbour so I should be able to start making stuff in the next couple of days.... (Fingers crossed).

15mm Sci Fi Truck.

This 15mm Science Fiction truck is by Ground Zero Games (http://shop.groundzerogames.net/ ) . I purchased it at SELWG last year, and it ha been staring  at me across the painting table ever since. I admit it, I was feeling guilty and that I was neglecting it. Following last weekends game of Stargrunt 2 I felt inspired to tackle it. It came with no instructions and in several pieces which made it quite tricky at times having to make educated guesses where things went. Most of the castings were good and went together well some mold lines and flash, but nothing that would stop me getting more. (In fact I have sent for a few bits and pieces). I must admit that I do have a Stargrunt force in 25mm but in the four years I have owned it only part of it ever got on the table once. This might be why I have decided to get rid of it and move to 15mm instead. It also might have a lot to do with the fact that John Tuffney has sold the vehicle molds on to another firm and only a limited variety is now available.

 
 Given that I have talked about making a 15mm Apache Indian game it made sense to me to paint this vehicle in desert camouflage. Originally I shied away from it as I have seen quite a lot of Sci Fi games on desert, temperate or ice worlds and I thought it might be nice to do something different. Having taken a "Common sense pill" I put that idea behind me and determined that I could use desert terrain for both games. I fought against it but finally conceded!

While only a single vehicle at this time I shall grow the force probably to a reinforced platoon size. At least one other club member has 15mm Stargrunt so an opponent is not unfeasible. having said that I would like to create 2 opposing forces so that I can instill a unified painting and basing feel to the troops. It is possible that I am over thinking it, but generally games do look better is everything looks like it belongs together which is hard to do if several players all want to buy and paint their own. To me at this stage it is worth the expense to get the game to look how I would like it. By that I mean no disrespect to other club members. The base is simply mount board that I have spare and the "rocks" are small pieces of cork crumbled into random sizes and shapes.

That's today's post, I have lots to do this week in order to see the zombie game I have planned come to fruition in 7 days time. Most of it revolves around contacting my neighbour (the builder) to get some free resources which I can then "rough-cut-and-bash-fit" into the setting I desire.

More Again Tuesday. Thanks for reading and take care Clint.

More Thrust.....Islamic Federation

A couple of months ago I painted my FSE (Federal States Europa) Full thrust intro fleet. At the time I could not find my second intro fleet. Well as you can see it has now turned up and managed to stay still long enough for me to paint it. Some of the smaller ships were already painted, but the larger ships being multi part had simply flown away. However here they all are, all in one place and all painted. I wanted to offer a strong contrast to the other fleet which is mostly cream in colour, so I have painted these a rich regal blue as the main colour. Given that all the ships have crescent shaped wings I felt s most appropriate to paint the wings several shades of gold. Against the blue the wings really jump out. Which was the effect I wanted. Each ship also has a light yellow accent stripe about a quarter of the way from the front. This was done purely to make them look more interesting and to break the blue up along the hull. Overall I think the colours work and contrast strongly with the FSE which is something I wanted. Having enjoyed painting both intro fleets I am almost tempted to get another two or expand these two at a later date.

That's today's post. I shall finish some more painting today so the next post will be on Sunday. I do plan to run a 7ombie game at the club NEXT weekend and will need to make a little scenery for that. next week. Nothing too complicated as I am waiting for my neighbour (a builder) to drop off a bag or two of off cuts from a garage he is building locally. Which will keep costs down for that and a few other projects.

All the best folks, Thanks for reading and I'll post again on Sunday (Assuming I get what I have started finished!!!)

Nil Points!

Well I finally finished a leader for SAGA. This is supposedly a welsh warband leader. I say supposedly as it could be any faction. It is easy to think that we have to have the "correct" figure as supplied by the manufacturer. Obviously that is not the case where we are dealing with a dark age force. As mentioned in earlier posts there was no uniforms and all equipment was used by everyone. Given the "gifting" of items from battle fields (Taken from the defeated force) anyone could be wearing items of any origin. Some times things might need to be adapted, for example a side split Hauberk "gifted" to a Norman knight would need to be front split. For those not in the know it's hard to ride a horse in hauberk that is not side split.... I know I have tried. You end up sitting on a really uncomfortable fold of metal chain link. Which is unpleasant for both rider and horse. Additionally your legs are exposed to the danger of the battlefield.  Not the idea of armour! 

Anyway back to the figure. In addition to the two axes and shield he carries a sword as well. I would have given him a spear instead of the axe in his left hand if I had any spare. But I have taken a liking to the additional axe so I will not change it now. His shield carries a stylised Raven. Having repainted the shield 3 times now this will be the final solution. I am not totally happy with it feeling that is should have been "Crisper" but I can't be bothered to have another go just yet. So it will do! While all the others in the warband have two colour geometric shield designs. All his clothes have a contrasting colour stripe as well. From what I know this was fairly typical on garments which would have been decorated with embroidery or Tablet weaving.

I am not sure which manufacture makes this dog, it was an eBay find. Relfie at the wargames club also wants a dog for his leader. Relfie said it out loud before me, but when he said it the dog was already in the post. The breed of dog is also correct for the period not that they had breeds as we would think of them, but a certain well known tapestry has dogs which look similar to this at least in proportion.  The last thing that identifies this as a leader is the size of the base. All the others are on 20mm square bases, so a larger round base should give this enough impact on the table that it is clearly something different.

Given that in Saga your warband leader is free I still only have four points of Vikings ready to play with. Until the majority of other players reach that level I feel justified in taking a break and working on other projects!

That's if for today. I'll Blog again on Friday, Thanks for reading and I hope to see you all soon. All the best Clint!

Stargrunt

Yesterday at the Rainham Wargames Club we had a game of Stargrunt. Having not read the rules for more than 2 years I was not at all familiar with what I was supposed to be doing. Ok that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it. The scenario was that a senior officer's vehicle had broken down in an insurgents area and the NI (New Israeli) forces needed to rescue him from the Islamic Federation (IF)insurgents. The officer and bodyguards decided to stay inside the vehicle rather that take cover in any close buildings.

All other troops had a random start location (both direction and distance. The long and the short story of this is that some of the IF forces started in more favourable positions than others. All  the IF insurgents moved and where able opened fire on the troops inside the hover jeep. My troops just got to a position at the end of the 2nd turn and the NI rescue force turned up.

They were veteran quality and the IF were raw/green. Which for those unfamiliar with the rules meant that I was rolling d6 and the Israelis were rolling d10.  As can be seen on the right my squad was caught in the open. They continued to suffer "Double Suppression" for the next hour and a half (real time, probably 5 minutes to them) which ment they could do nothing at all, not even dive run away until the suppression was removed. Being green troops that was not as easy as I would have hoped. SO that just stood in the open getting shot at. Eventually they paniced, went first to Shaken and finally routed of the table, having done nothing all game apart from move twice.

Elsewhere in the town other NI troops had come onto the board. Having already lost one section of troops El Kev gave me another unit to control. These at the time were completely exposed in the open and caught between the officers in the vehicles and another NI squad. I moved them as soon as I could into a walled garden. And managed to fire at the NI squad.

It did not last long, fire was returned and they were "Double Suppressed", Triple Suppressed and first "Shaken" then "Broken" to the stage they could do nothing for the rest of the game. Don't get me wrong the game was not one sided. The IF did (well I did not but Ian and Kev did) manage to put up a fight. Ian in particular managed to keep his militia alive for the whole game.

Finally the Insurgents were allowed to start rolling for reinforcements, regular quality.. Yippee! Mine arrived after everyone elses! But at least they turned up in a place where they could not be shot for a few turns! The other guys arrived straight into the action. Brilliant victory was now possible!

Well actually no it wasn't! Both lots of reinforcements were shot to pieces starting out in the open and with no real chance to become combat effective. They did get a few shots back, and did manage a few NI Casualties, but realistically to little too late. Overall they died horribly out in the open.

My reinforcements did benefit from the massacre. Not being seen as a threat the NI forces did not attempt to target them straight away. As they did achieve a couple of shots at the Officers vehicle, and did manage to wound 2 of the crew, but not the senior officer. All in all the IF were just targets in a NI shooting gallery.

It would have been over much sooner if the dice had not gone against the New Israelis. With an armour value of d4 against a NI automatic rifle firing d12 for impact/penetration it was surprising just how often the d4 beat the d12.  Still it is a good set of rules and even just being a target was OK as all the guys are nice to play against!

No Mans Land. Maidstone.

I went over to Maidstone today as I knew that Karl from Crooked Dice (7TV and 7OMBIE TV) would be running a game. He actually had two games set up. "You Only Live Dice" which we were lucky enough to play at the club two weeks ago and this one. "Fiddlers Green" is a small introductory game that takes 30mins to a hour to play. As such it's a very good stepping stone into understanding the rules. The whole game is on a 2 foot square tile. Set in a fictional English village, I assume called "Fiddlers Green" as that is the name of the scenario. A couple of good guys are sent into town to investigate the strange happenings aided and sometimes hindered by one of the locals (a little old lady with a shotgun) All the pics, apart from the first one are in play photos. The Villainous opponents are some Morris Dancers with pistols and unfriendly attitudes and some robotic scarecrows with scary attitudes.

I did not play, I probably could have Squeezed a game in but elected to take some snaps and bother Karl about a few game ideas.(More of that in a second or two). Because I did not play I am not 100% sure of the victory conditions. So all I will say about that for now is that the game did look well balanced seemed to flow nicely. One player did struggle to get the initiative dice roll and was always just slightly out of step. But as we all know you just can't beat the dice when you continue to roll low.

As mentioned above the real reason for going was to talk to Karl about the proposed show game. I showed him the picture of the "Tigers nest Monastery" and he firmly bit into the idea. As a visual it's very strong and If I can make it to look anywhere near as good, the game will be a winner in the public eyes no mater what. (we all get seduced by nice terrain). I was concerned about using any of the Characters that already exist in the rules. I need not have been Karl is happy for me to use them, or not as I see fit. He will get a chance to play test it before I take it to any shows, so anything he really dislikes can be changed.

One of the problems with the two show games Crooked Dice have is that they take too long. I think I can remedy this by breaking my game down to 4 sub games that can, if you choose and time permits play in sequence. Or I hope you can play it as 1 large game. The 4 smaller games strike me as the best option though as at shows most people in the UK don't want to commit themselves to a long game, but could spare 30mins to an hour. The freshness of 4 smaller games might work well. I have not seen it at a show, where all the games are linked, but I hope it will give a very episodic feel.

I plan to start buying some materials on Monday and maybe to start the build. Plans are great as they always change so when Monday comes I can always change my mind. I intend to build one 2 foot square section at a time. This will allow me to try it down the club at each stage. Maybe this is a prudent, maybe it's me being a wimp! One of the first things to do though is to decide on the style of the casts. Artisan do some "Sky Pirates" which will look good as the heroes troops. I have two packs unpainted so that is a start. For the Villains though I am torn as there are so many options. I want them to look as dramatic as possible, as well as villainous evil underlings. My current thinking is to change them on different boards. The first board for example maybe some Copplestones "Back of Beyond" Figures will look correct with one Ninja. Progressing through the boards with the foes getting more and more daunting. Maybe the 4t board has an end of level boss...

AT this stage it's all just talk. Now the hard work begins.

Thanks for looking have a good weekend. Take care and roll good dice. All the best Clint.

 Post script: A pic of Rochester Castle from the train as I came home from Maidstone.

Update 0.1

A little while ago I ran a poll asking what project I should tackle next. The most popular result was 7Tv or7ombie Tv. So what have I done with that idea since I hear you ask. Well last club day I had Karl from Crooked Dice visit the club and put on a 7TV game for us. I hope the club members enjoyed it, I know I did. Karl has promised to come back later and run another game for us. Which would be great and very much appreciated. This was an important first step, as it confirmed that we mostly had got the rules, mechanics and flavour right in what the company was looking for. There were a few minor tweaks (aren't there always) grenades actions and luck that we will have to look at. But generally everything went to plan.

Following this step I started to look at possible settings for the game. I did not want to encroach on Crooked Dice show games, which tend to be based around James Bond settings. The painting to the right is of the "Tigers Nest Monastery". As a current Buddhist Monastery this will not be used in any James Bond film. That being the case I feel sure that to take inspiration from this site would be acceptable, and yet still retain the feel of the genre. Quite obviously a direct copy of the setting would be unfeasible. I can use the Tigers Nest Setting as a start point for planning a game though.

 Which is what I have started to do. As you can see I have started putting together some notes, sketches and game ideas down on paper. Don't get too excited this really might fall flat on its face. I do however feel confident enough in the idea to start to share the process now. My current thinking is that I should move away from James Bond and treat the setting as semi mystical. This is one of the reasons for painting the Yeti and the Ninja! Yes there is a method to my madness... but on the whole much more madness than method. For figures I have ruled nothing out. I do anticipate buying some more Ninja.... and painting them in RED  robes possibly some Chinese terracotta warrior figures to use as robotic guards or maybe some Chinese Zombies. Or I might purchase some modern 28mm Afghan fighters to act as site security. At this stage it really is totally wide open. I intend to talk to Karl on Saturday and ask if he wants me to use his existing heroic cast, "Pandora King" And "DR Soloman" or if he wants to retain them for his own game. The last thing I want to do is tread on the companies toes on this matter.
I must stress the "Tigers Nest Monastery" is for inspiration only do not expect to see me build the whole thing!

I will post again on Saturday afternoon. Thanks for looking. Any ideas you want to contribute will be more than welcome but as ever I will get the final say. Take care and have a good couple of days. All the best Clint.

Yeti

This is a http://newlinedesigns.co.uk/ Bigfoot miniature. Having looked at images of Bigfoot and Yeti's It came clear that Bigfoot were usually shown as being brown and Yetis are shown as being white. It seems that these mythical creatures are so similar as to being just about the same thing. That being the case maybe the colouring is geographic in nature. This is of course speculation. As I have chosen a white colour scheme we can think of this one as a yeti and not Bigfoot. A really nice one piece sculpt. (The Ninja is shown only for scale.) Painting was simple. White undercoat with black ink washes to get the main fur colour then my normal techniques on the flesh. I won't say the figure painted itself, but it was a nice straightforward figure to paint. To be honest it was the base that gave me the biggest problem. I decided that I wanted patches of snow on the base which were the problem.You can just see them on the base. They look better in real life, but you'll just have to take my word on that.

The figure was purchased at Broadside in June. Which means it made its way to the top of the painting list in double quick time. I do have a second pose, but that one is not fighting quite so hard to get coloured up. But maybe soon. Someone (sorry I forgot who) mentioned "Drug crazed Chinese Zombies". That simple comment (I think on the Zombie Bloggers Association before you search all the blog comments) sparked an idea in my head which has since spiralled out of control. Luckily it has not resulted in a spending spree (yet). It has resulted in a frantic Internet search for both information and miniatures.

Well that's today post. I shall post again on Thursday. Thanks for looking. See you again in a couple of days! All the best Clint.

Fembots (2)

Back to the wargames stuff. I am still not quite managing to get much painting done. However I have finished two Crooked Dice 7TV Fembots. Long time readers of the blog will remember I painted a couple after the Cavalier show one of which I gave to Kev. Anyway, long story made short, here are the next two. I purchased 4 at BROADSIDE, so two more to do sometime. ! of each pose and two heads although I am tempted to grad a few extra heads to create more variety, shame the robot face one is only available with one hair style. (I am too lazy to sculpt new hair, even If I could do it!) It is clear the fembot on the right has had their artificial face mask come loose whether this is for maintenance or from battle damage is unclear, still I suspect most of my followers would not be looking at the face first. I also think a variety of skin tones on the Fembots is desirable as well so I have painted the figure on the left to be more from the Indian sub continent region.

The game Karl put on last weekend has sent my brain into all sorts of confusion. As a club we have the offer to run the Crooked Dice show games at shows. This really is a Fantastic offer. As a club I think it would be a real boost to us as well. As such I have contacted a couple of local shows and await their reply to determine if they have space for another game. Time will tell. I am not the kind of guy that will be happy running other peoples games for very long so I suspect I shall sort out my own game of 7TV suitable for shows. I am pretty much bursting with ideas, and I suspect that Karl will be happy with anything I can get made I still want to get it "right". I will want a game that looks and plays well.

For today that's enough waffle. I need to get started on some of the projects so I have set aside this afternoon to do just that. Time will tel if I manage it! That's it for the blog today. Hope you like the Fembots, I'll post again on Tuesday. All the best Clint.

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.