Herding Cats

I am sure most of you will be aware about crowd funding. I am pretty sure that many of you will have already backed a number of projects and perhaps even this one. I did think I should let you know that I have pledged to this one. Mantic Games are launching a science fiction skirmish game using the popular Kickstarter LINK I will refrain from saying too much more as you can get all the information from the horses mouth as it were by "clicking" the link.

What I will talk about is why I am getting involved. As 4 members of my wargames club have already pledged (I am the 5th) I will be starting at the same time as everybody else so there will be no playing catch up as there have been with so many projects in the past, which is always disappointing and the other guys have played a few games and learnt the rules long before I get a chance to even paint a single figure. Unlike a couple of others I am only taking the $40.00 starting force. It is tempting to go large on this, but better to get one force and paint it up and get it on the table rather than buy everything and get nothing done. Which would be typical of me. I have decided on "Enforcers" as my army of choice. Mostly because they are the most complete force at this pledging stage which hints that they are a sculptors or game designers favourite. Also being humans they might be usable in other games and in game terms should be quite versatile. Well that's my thinking so it's bound to be WRONG!

Anyway enough about things in the future back in the here and now. I have been herding cats again, which actually has been closer to juggling cats this time. The upshot is that the Planned game for BROADSIDE is now going ahead after a short period when insufficient club members were originally available. As of yesterday 2 more club members have told me they can make it so we are up to 4. Of these 4 2 have played the rules (Myself and Graham) and the other two will have to learn it on the day. I was hoping to run it next weekend at the club, but as I would be the only one to play it at the show there really is very little point in that. I might as well keep the ships and the terrain clean, safe and undamaged at least until the day of the show. All this uncertainty has meant that I am now behind on the build, one loses interest quickly when one feels a lack of response. Luckily Monday is a bank holiday so the chances are I will be able to pull it back.

That's it for today. Thanks for reading and I'll post again on Sunday. All the best Clint

Buildings BROADSIDE and Cake.!

This is a 15mm building from Tim at Frontline that I bought from him at the club on Sunday. It is part of his adobe range that he made for himself for his own Sudan game. Which currently retails at £4.95 unpainted. I did want to get some more buildings from him but at this time he is still building up his show stock and this was the only one he had spare at the time. With Broadside a mere 3 weeks away and knowing I can buy from him at any time I think it was wise not to let me have any more. I shall pick some more up later in the year. Quite a nice building and while it does have any number of uses I got this one to bulk out my AK 47 Republic terrain.

 AK Republic, by Peter Pig games has fallen out of fashion at the club of late and while 5 or 6 of us still retain armies we just have not played it for about 3 years. So also getting this building was an attempt to get myself back into the mood for playing it again.


Only time will tell if that plan will work, and if the worst comes to the worst I will have a piece of terrain for my slow cook Apache wargame idea so not all wasted no matter what happens. Overall a very quick paint job mostly done with washes and dirty paint water. I wanted it to look really dirty and uncared for and I think I have achieved that with very little effort at all. If I had the space I could paint up loads all at once, but they take a while to dry with all the water involved so I had best not! Just in case you are wondering about the foliage it was all free, a mixture of aquarium plants and "Butchers Parsley" that used to line the freezer/chiller cupboards in shops but is now out of fashion but great for trees should you come across any.

The Bad news for me today, is that another 2 club members have got their shift patterns and can't support the club at Broadside. This means as a club we would only have two members willing/able to come along. Obviously this is not ideal so I may have to cancel our clubs attendance. I can't say I am over the moon about it, but there really is not a lot I can do. I'll let you know as time goes on. But needless to say I don't feel like doing any more work on the Blood Bilge and Iron Balls  boards until I know for sure if we will be going. If we are not going I will recycle the boards into other projects, waste not want not!

And finally Peter (The Art Therapist in training) at work is leaving tomorrow for another placement so I have made a cake for him on his last day. It's Chocolate, chocolate and more chocolate, with fresh cream filling that has also been flavoured with chocolate,  so I am not expecting it to last too long, so best to show a photo today than leave it until later when it all "evaporates!" A number of the Nurses and even Psychologists and Psychiatrists tell me that free food has no calories and that it will not interfere with any diets! Yeah Right!!!

That's it for today, I was hoping to show my first WSS figures, but they went wrong yesterday and I am on the re-paint! So until Friday and my next blog post take care and have fun. All the best Clint.

Rule 17. Don't let Clint Drive.

  Club day and Kev was running a zombie game.

I had to join in. We used the "Flesh Wound" rules for the first time. The rules are incredibly simple yet still gave a challenging and fun game. So simple in fact that even I understood what was going on..... well most of the time!
   The situation was that the army had cleared out and we (the survivors) had emerged from our basements and met in the centre of the street to decide what to do next. the decision we came up with was to get some fuel from the petrol station fuel up a vehicle and get out of Dodge (ok town). Before I lie and tell you how heroic my character was and how naff everyone else was, I had better point out that Tim supplied most of the zombies, Dave the majority of the terrain, and the survivors came from different sources. Which is the good thing about clubs in that quite often the burden of supply is spread among several players.

   OK the Lies start from now. With no real plan we set of. Kev (playing an ex military serviceman,) moved first and jogged towards a building, Patrick (a conspiracy theorist) went a different direction and activated the first load of zeds. So the rest of us thought better of going that way and quickly followed Kev. Taking it in turns to play the zombies I had to roll a random event. And the dice told me that each player was seperatly attacked by a previously unnoticed zed. This was actually a good thing despite the fact that me and Patrick each got a wound. (We could take 5 so no biggy.) Anyway next turn we quickly dispatched the 3 zeds inside the building Dave with his starting equipment of a Banjo (Dave was playing a kid) me with a 2 handed Garden tool (I insisted it was a shovel). Ian with an Axe and Relfie unarmed but with some armour. Myself Relfie and Ian all played Scholars Ian insisted he was a female physical education school teacher in a mini skirt. Hey whatever floats your boat mate. Not wanting to be left on his own Patrick sprinted to the building while we all searched for useful items. Someone found ammo, another (Ian curse you) found a sniper rifle, Relfie a Shotgun, and I found a satchel...... that's my luck for you. As I was saying Patrick followed us inside the building with a train of 6 zombies following him. I heroically broke a window and climbed out the back. Relfie did the same at one side of the building and Dave (Hallo Dave) decided to block the doorway with his body and supply us all with a meat shield. A kid blocking a doorway from 6 zombies, yeah right good luck Dave I thought as I got out the back of the building. yet somehow he beat them all! No I don't believe it either, not in any zombie game I ever run that's for sure!

   I reach the petrol station first. Ian in his mini skirt gave me covering fire with his sniper rifle. Patrick was with us. While Kev and psycho Dave looped round the other side of the building killing anything that moved as he went and started looting the petrol as fast as they could. When three of us had petrol we headed back the way we came in order to get to the vehicles and get away. Relfie was having fun on his own and had not made it as far as the petrol station but was slowly picking his way to the car and lorries which were our target. Everything was going well I thought. Ian said something along the lines of "there's not many zombies" and then the night fell and they started to come out in force all of a sudden. Typical! Ian was intent on looting just that little bit too much. Remember mate "Need before Greed!" About now the general wear and tear of zombie brawling (and the fact he was fighting 3 and 4 at a time Kev lost his last wound and joined the ranks of the dead. Our first casualty.

   I made it to the car first. Fuelled it up and waited for the rest. Relfie Jumped in the car and Patrick and Dave both added their fuel and got inside. You can't really use a shovel that well when you are sitting in the driving seat of the car. Not that I have ever tried in real life but I can imagine how hard it would be. Ian was the last to arrive and Patrick handed me a pistol (he had two at this stage) and everyone tried to kill the zombies which were now attacking the car. The car would start on 4+ . Patrick said don't roll a 1. I rolled a 1. The car took some damage.
They guys kept shooting the zombies which in turn were attacking the car in more and more numbers.

   26 zombies attacked the car needing a 6 to inflict damage on the vehicle. But it was my turn so I rolled the dice again and rolled 2. The car did not start! The car was still intact but near destruction and I realised that I had another chance so rolled the dice, another 2. Therefore the rule 17, "Don't let Clint Drive!" The zombies tipped the car over and we were in a desperate situation. The following turn I squeezed out of the upturned vehicle and started to run for my life. The others had no other choice but to either follow or stay in the car and perish.
   Ian and Reflie made it of the board and were safe. dave copped it as did Patrick who twisted his ankle trying to leap onto a high place and falling. I also escaped but was the last to make it out alive.

Victory points were totted up, Ian got 26, Relfie 24 and as for myself.... also 24.

Overall a good fun game with half the players dying and 1/2 making it out alive, if not in a good way, but survive we did. And survival in any Zombie game is it's own reward.

Thanks for reading and I should post again on Wednesday. Cheers For now Clint.

Laser Burn?

  For those with long memories you will remember the "Laserburn" rules. For those not quite that old. Laserburn was a set of science fiction rules before warhammer 40k. Anyway cutting to the chase these two vehicles are 15mm in scale and I think they were by "Table top Games". A very quick repaint later and they will become civilian scenery for my 15mm GZG star grunt force. It's so long ago I will not even attempt to try to identify them any further. But obviously one is a flying vehicles capable of carrying 2 people, one assumes pilot and a passenger. The other is a civilian van or pickup, probably envisaged as some form of grav vehicle as it has no wheels, although for my purposes, being just scenery any more details are redundant.
  They were lurking in a box with my old "Traveller" figures tucked away in the attic and had, until recently not been out of the box for over 10 years. So folks there is hope for us all that we will get round to some of the older lead we all have tucked away in at least some form, even if not for our original intention.

AS I am sure you are all aware Tamsin AKA Wargames Girl has been doing a very generous give away on her blog. Today is day 3 (of 6?) all the terms and conditions are on her blog and I think you can still enter the previous 2 days should you choose. If you do enter I wish you all the very best of luck.

A zombie game at the club tomorrow I am told using the "Flesh Wounds" rules for the first time so expect an AAR on Monday. Until then have fun and scoot over to Wargames Girls Blog and check out the very generous offer she has for you.

Cheers Clint

NAC STargrunt 2

I have had a re-think. This is really not that uncommon for me so nothing to be alarmed about. I have now stopped my Kra Vak 15mm Ground Zero Games force and started a New Anglian Confederation (NAC) force. So to the right are my first batch of NAC troops. This is a squad of GZG Ghurkas. I selected the Ghurkas as my troop choice, not for there undoubted fighting prowess but because the forage hats and equipment have a tropical feel to them. As I have decided to focus on a desert world* the tropical gear and forage hats seemed most appropriate. Each NAC squad has a good balance of weapons for both fire power and impact/penetration so they should become quite a strong table top force well able to match the FSE troops I have already done.

SO why the change from Kra Vak? Several reasons, Firstly I was not feeling it, and as we all know If you are making an army/force for the table top if you are not feeling it then it really does become a chore. Secondly I do anticipate building a space fleet and while I do like the look of the Kra Vak fleet I am not attracted to their fighting style. I did look at other possible forces notably the New Swabian League but decided on the NAC as they are perhaps the most highly supported in terms for figures and background. So I do anticipate buying a NAC starter fleet in the near future.

I am in a little slump painting wise but expect to escape the doldrums in the next few days. We all go through it sometimes and it's just my turn at the moment.

* I mentioned above that I will be making a desert world. This is my post Broadside terrain project. I see it having several roles and being used for a few different periods. I will say no more about it at present but I have been chatting with Brian at Lead Legion . Who has been a great source of ideas and a great sounding board. Cheers Mate.

Finally for today I have had to make my first ever "Battenburg" Cake. It was not a traditional pink/yellow cake as I have no yellow colouring. So I went for a chocolate/vanilla combination and I must say I think it turned out pretty good. The reason for the Battenburg Is that I found out that the person who's birthday it was really likes marzipan. It's not prefect, you can see it if not perfectly straight, but for a first try Not too bad. And having tasted it, it tastes pretty good even if I do say so myself. Modest.... well perhaps not, but I am quite proud of it as a first attempt!

That's it for today, thanks for reading with luck I should shrug of my painting lethargy and get down to something ready for my next post. So until the weekend take care have fun and hope to see you back here on Saturday. Best wishes Clint.

Space orks for my Nephew

 Let me start with an admission. Due to the fact that my nephew (James) has been injured over the last week and that muggins has had to look after him I have failed to get any real painting finished. I know feeble excuse.

So what I will talk about today is my old Space Ork army. The week before Salute I gave it away. Shock horror! I gave it to the above mentioned nephew before he got injured so there is no connection with the injury and the army in any way.


All the pictures are just random shots of the army which is over 10 years old. Many of the items are not available in the shops, like the lobber track in the top picture, the captured Rhino in the second etc. It all started as a Gorka Morka force and grew into a full army.  My Gorka Morka Mob was called "The Italian Mob!" and started in converted Heller 1/43 scale mini coopers. They looked good, but did not do well in game terms. Oh Well. Yes they are in the pics somewhere.

 So todays blog post is all old work but never been seen on the blog before so until James gets well enough to go to school I will be looking after him.

I should have something ready in two days time. Thanks for your patience and hope you pop back then. All the best Clint.

3 Dusters!

One of the things I have noticed is that when as a club we play wild west shoot-out games, the figures wearing "dusters" are always selected in preference of those wearing just shirts and trousers. I am sure each club member will give a different explanation as to why. Some will say they are cow-hands out on the range and therefore need a big long coat. Others will say "oh I just happened to pick that one!". One or two would admit they like the article of clothing. I think they mostly get picked as they are seen as more romantic representations of the old west. But I know the club would argue against that thought. Anyway I picked these three up at Cavalier in February and they have finally fought there way up the pile of lead to the top and I have given them a lick of paint. All three of them came in one pack from "Artizan Miniatures" sold to me on the day by "Second City Games".

I made a decision to paint them all in different colours as I did not want it to look like they had all been to the same store on the same day and walked out with matching anoraks! I happily admit I did enjoy painting the duster coats, nice long flowing cloth which takes the washes and highlights very well. I am very pleased that they all look different despite the fact that all the browns started from the same mix and hue which was then added to a second colour (yellow, or black or brown) . This created a range of linked colours with which each figure was painted. (Ok apart from the yellow neck tie and faded red union suit (long johns). Over all three more to add to my collection of wild west figures.

Due to family issues I have struggled to get anything else started. So given that it is now 3pm on Sunday I really will have to get cracking if I want anything ready for Tuesday and my next blog post. So until then have a good time and I'd best get busy with the brushes!

later all, Clint

Keep Calm....

Two parcels arrived this morning. In the first is my "Bloggers" Tee shirt. Pictured to the right. AS you can see it is fairly straight forward with no gimmicks or bells or whistles. Just simple and straightforward. I will admit it took me ages to decide on the exact wording but in the end I am very happy with it. I overthought it! Dice or Die (singular), 1D6 or 2Dc, Roll or Cast, The dice or some dice... you get the idea. I am not saying I considered EVERY combination but I did come up with about 25 possibilities. In the end I went back to the very first one.
 I had already decided that I did not want black because at shows pretty much everyone wears black or faded black. The company had a choice of about 15 colours for tee shirts and as many if not more colours for ink. Some combinations I just knew I was not going to use Pink tee shirt with leopard skin ink for example. Perhaps I could have been a little more adventurous, without going that far. Maybe next time I will.

As you can see I finally settled on Navy blue shirt with white writing. Very safe, conservative and not likely to hurt anyone's eyes! I hope it will both blend in with the other bloggers and yet among that crowd next year at Salute be slightly more colourful than the average "black clad blogger".

  Across the back at shoulder height a simple and effective reminder of the blog name and still in keeping with the message on the front. "KEEP CALM AND ROLL THE DICE.......anything but a one" Overall I am very pleased with how it came out. I think the colour is right for the slogan as is the type face on both the front and the back.


The second parcel was far more interesting to all you wargaming types. It contained figures. Not only did it contain figures but they were the right scale, period and make. All this is normal you would think. And so it would be IF and I do stress the IF I had ordered them. The truth of the matter is that David Crook at A Wargaming Odyssey very kindly and generously sent them to me. I think I have only met David once or maybe twice in real life so I feel the gift was a fantastically generous act. It has made me realise what a kind and wonderful bunch we are in the wargaming community. Therefore the important point I wish to make today is how great it is to be in a hobby where people support each other. It does not matter what scale or period you play, and let's be honest most of us will play anything/everything, what does matter is that we all support each other sometimes with gifts or kind words or information or encouragement. I am a wargamer and proud to stand shoulder to shoulder with the rest of you.



Thanks David (here's the swag!)

Until Sunday and I write this again have fun

KEEP CALM AND ROLL THE DICE

anything but a one.

All the best Clint.



No obvious film tie in at all! Honest Guvnor!

As mentioned in the title this figure seems to have been film inspired. It is another figure from Ainsty Castings Weird West range.  I just can't think where they might have gotten the idea from. I wonder could it be film inspired? Yeah I thought so to. It is the figure that did attract me to the whole range in the first place. Obviously he's not limited to the weird west and will no doubt get used by me as a contemporary zombie hunter. Having not watched the film I am unhindered by preconceived ideas so I went for the most obvious colours. There are a total of 3 different greys and a black base on the clothes. Brown shoes obviously as only a braggart would wear black shoes and a black suit in this period. Nowadays anything goes, even trainers! Standards are definitely slipping Gentlemen.


The last figure in the range is what I thought on first inspection to be some kind of wild west mage. but a closer look revealed it to be a vampire. So I had to repaint the face a lighter shade of flesh which has left is a little messy, but it will pass the two foot test so I won't dwell on my inadequacies any longer. As it was now a vampire I went for a very dark purple hue to the suit with the hope that it might look a little more "exotic". As mentioned above I have not seen the film so the colours are my own choices and not that of the films wardrobe mistress. I don't even know if this figure is part of the film but given that it is a vampire in the west I think it likely. Maybe someone can let me know.

That's it for today. Next update to my wargaming life in two day. So with luck I'll see you then. All the best Clint.

Sundays game at the club

Yesterday at the club I had a game of "Bloody Barons" against Graham. For those not in the know "Bloody Barons" is a set of rules by Peter Pig for fighting battles in the War of the Roses.

Graham supplied all the figures and the scenery. Lazy of me but there you go!

We both randomly selected our armies from about 30 that Graham has already worked out. And we went quickly into the pre-game. I love the pre-game sequence as it completely disrupts your army and gives a reality check that the forces are not at all equal. If two armies were equal and you only offered your men a 50-50 chance of coming out unscathed a lot would not be around when the battle started. So we worked through the pre-game sequence and I was to be the attacker. Graham then had to set out the scenery and I got a chance to move some of it. Bad dice rolls meant that all I could move was one hedge. Darn!

And then the luck came over to my side. Graham then had to roll to see how many of his troops would make the battle in time. The dice rolls determined that he would either lose troops from most units or they could turn up intact but late. Rolling for Each unit he started the game with only 3 units on the battlefield and the rest would arrive when they could. (One unit never did roll high enough to arrive at all despite being tested for each turn.) So I took a bravery pill and decided to act rashly! I moved everything forward at it's level of motivation as far as I could. My plan was to take the fight to him and make him react to my actions as opposed to reacting to his. The picture above shows my mad dash on the first turn. As you can see some troops were more enthusiastic than some others.

Lady luck then punished my rashness and 2 of my three commanders failed to issue order on the second turn. They were obviously distracted by something in an "Oh look pretty flowers!" moment. As this is where the plan faltered. My elite household unit was peppered by accurate longbow shot at short range making 3 of the 8 stands no longer combat effective (or dead if you are called Graham!) Graham had managed to get some more troops on the board and his left flank now had some being previously empty.

I only just motivated my left flank but not sufficiently to attack the village and its defenders. So I had to stop my attack with my other unit of Household troops and my unit of Irish Kerns, 1/2 inch shy of the village boundary. My longbow peppered Household unit was on no advance orders due to the casualties so had to suffer yet more black rain as Graham got his reinforcements into the fight and managed to bring on more. My right flank was struggling to get through the wood or in the case of my levy there failing to move at all.

So I was stalled by terrain on my right and by archery and casualties and no move orders in the centre and unenthusiastic troops on my left. Yet somehow Graham was having problems of his own and the turn swapped back to me again without him being able to deliver any crippling blows. So on my turn I managed to attack the village. This led to a rout of the troops inside and no advance orders to grahams reinforcements who were hoe shooting at my poor arrow magnets the household unit in the centre. So I took the village, and while the fighting unit reorganised themselves my Kerns swept through the buildings and fields and took one of Grahams retinue units in the flank while I managed to hold them in place with one of my retinue units. This melee was swiftly resolved in my favour just as the Irish were about to contact. So they never actually got to fight but had assisted in two melees so far and were thus still "fresh".

Graham had a unit of mounted knights who cut down my arrow ridden household without loss and left my centre hanging in the breeze as I only had some bow armed levy troops who had more brains than bravery and were more than happy to let everyone else do the work.

On my right the troops managed to get through the woods and engage Grahams foot troops in some long range arrow exchanges. My levy had just about skirted the wood and I had a retinue unit heading to support the centre section. Which meant I would have two retinue units and 2 levy units in the centre against two household units 1 retinue unit at about 2/3rds strength and Grahams last levy unit. My left flank had managed to rout everything on that side that graham commanded. And then both the game count down and time at the club ran out.

Graham worked out all the victory points and I started packing up. The write up makes this seem far more one sided than it was. Throughout the day other club members would pop over and see how we were getting on and ask "Who's winning?" To which the only answer was "If you ask him he'll say I was winning and if you ask me I would say the opposite!"  Until we worked out the victory points it really was anyone's game. The result was a "Minor Victory" for me. But incredibly close. If I was being generous I could claim it was the Irish being so close to the other board edge that tipped the balance in my favour. (Scored me extra VPs for within 5 inches of the enemy base line at end of game). Having said that it could have been any of the units as they all played there part.

Overall a very good game and a Victory against Graham is always to be savoured! (Graham is a very good player with strong level of cunning and about 30 years of club experience!)

Happy May Day and next post will be Wednesday, Cheers Guys catch you all later.

Billy the Kid?

 Another figure from the Ainsty Castings Weird West range. This figure is supposedly "Billy the Kid" but it really could be any character you wanted it to be. Again sculpted by Ian Mountain who has a nice understated style. No deep folds in the cloth and a very clean looking face, and not to much of a caricature. I only found out today that these figures were "crowd funded" so I would like to thank everyone who made the pledges and bought these figures into being.  As you can see I have painted in mostly browns but with a very dark grey (almost Black) shirt, although this could be a waist coat Black boots and a blue neckerchief. I Like the fact that the two pistols are quite small it makes them look more realistic than some of the big clumpy guns you see on some figures.
 Overall I am happy with the result although I did muck up his eye and had to repaint it. I will be the only person who worries about it, so no biggie.
 Only two more to go from this pack so I will have them finished I hope by Wednesday. It's a club day tomorrow so I should have some kind of AAR on Monday. No idea what we will be playing as yet. I had hoped to carry on with my Caen Campaign, but two of the key players may not be able to make it, so I have postponed that game for now.

Anyway it's a long weekend for those of us in the UK so the weather is bound to be horrid! However enjoy the extra day off of work if you can and chat again on Monday. Best Wishes Clint.

Power Armour

My Federal States Europa (FSE) force has just had a very slight upgrade with a squad of Power armour troops. The FSE has a tendency to use what many people think of as Light infantry as opposed to the heavy powered battle suits of many Stargrunt Nations. However as a player I did think that one squad of power armoured troops was a good idea as it rounded out the force a little more. AS you can see this 6 man squad is equipped with 3 heavy weapons (2 Mistral Guided missile systems on shoulder mounts, and one FM77 Squad automatic weapon, as well as an ECM suit mounted on one troopers back.)

I have painted the figures with a white band on their helmets (the squad leader has a thinner red stripe flanked by white stripes) this is to match the Kepi Blanc which is worn by some of the light infantry. There shoulders also carry the Tri colour which should help them to keep identity on the battle field. I added this emblem because these versions of power armour are also exported and used by a couple of other nationalities, for example, the Islamic Federation. It was therefore important to me to keep them as distinctive.

Only 6 15mm figures to share with you today I have no excuses for not doing more. But that is all I have managed to complete since last post. With luck I should have something ready for Saturday and my next blog post. Until then have a good couple of days and talk soon.

All the best Clint