New Pulp NPCs

With a week off staying in a hotel far from home on a course for work I found a little time in the evening to paint up some NPCs for my net pulp adventure.

Managed to get 3 Characters done in 3 nights (the others unfortunately were taken up with study) so I'm quite happy with that and a little ahead of schedule (the games are planned for the end of August)

So without further ado, let me introduce:

Mr Harries:

A suspicious character prone to an excess of alcohol and bad language, Mr Harries is an able seaman and will do almost anything for a little etra cash whilst the boats in port. Definately not a character to be trusted.

Norman Hardacre, Groundsman

A Grumpy old Yorkshireman with a strong dislike of trespassers. He sees little reason to discuss things civilly and will usually resort to yelling and a warning shot or too against anyone unlikely to be caught by him.

Mr Smythe

Little is known of this mysterious fella, he speaks a dozen languages, can often be found skulking in the shadows trying to get one over on the heroes. Most dangerously nobody appears to know his agenda.... He is rumoured to be a foreign agent.

With another delivery today I've more mooks, some british police and a couple of other NPCs to paint up and along with the scenery and vehicles the next adventure will begin.

I've also had some pictures from my brother of some of the heroes of our next adventure.

Sean Jenkins and Hawkins the Butler:

And Squadron Leader Michaels:

They will Join Professor Hemmingway and his Daughter in our next adventure.

2 Days 2 Posts... Let me introduce...

The 8 Amigos....

First up the Bandit chief, "The Riviera Kidd"

Followed by his 2 Toughs who are as yet nameless...

One of the bosses mounted roudies and dismounted version of the same.

And finally 4 other Rowdies to cap off the gang (though one will likely become a kid for the purposes of LotOW)

Thats it for this week, I hope to get as couple of games over the weekend and I'll try and remember to take some pictures of the action.

Gah 2 months and no updates!

What have I been doing with myself...

Well aside from it being one of the hottest Summers the UK has had in recent times I have actually had some time for some modelling.

At our trip to Salute back in April my Bro and I decided to give LoTOW another run as we rather enjoyed it a few years ago when we first tried it. It was another of those projects that got put to one side and never picked up again. However after passing by the Black Scorpion Stand at Salute it became clear that the next project was to be Cowboys or Pirates... As we already had LoTOW rules and some minis we went for the Western Theme and picked up Blood on the Plains as well.

I went for the fantastic Mexicans from Black Scorpion (which are almost painted so I'll post em soon.)

With a lack of terrain and a plan to meet in early July for a game we had little time to prep. Splitting it up we decided to both build 5 buildings and some extras... My Brother managed a building or two when I last spoke to him but did have a load of street debris type terrain, I on the other hand had the 5 buildings done but nowt else.

Even so we should have enought terrain for some decent shootouts.

"Stop ya blathering and show us some pics!" I hear you cry. Ok then I will....

These are fairly basic builds with an even more basic paintjob and no detailing yet, the games are planned for this weekend so I was running very short on time.

Not overly happy with the paint job but it will suffice. Just got some signs

to do for the front and thats them finished.

Final Game - Into The Temple

Slight delay in posting this, I've had a busy few weeks and only now had time to sit down and pit finger to keyboard.

Background:

The heroes descend a flight of moss covered steps into the cool underground tomb. From deep within the cavern the heroes can make out an ominous roar. Perhaps it is just wind rushing through the tunnels, the heroes unperturbed push onwards, keep to discover the tombs secrets.

The first 100 paces or so goes well, the heroes stumble across an abandoned camp and rooting around in the leftovers manage to find some medical supplies to patch up their wounds.

Jasper always keen to get our heroes into trouble takes the lead and begins to sniff around an old doorway...

Out of the shadows beyond the doorway steps a sole jungle warrior, possibly one of the tombs guardians. The warrior was clearly far from dangerous and was dispatched with little effort by our heroes.

Onwards they push until the captain stumbles across not one but two problems, several mighty sections of masonry fall from the roof, narrowly avoiding the Captain, who in his haste to leap free caught the trigger for a lethal spike trap.

Not only was the Captain injured by the spikes but he also now appears to be trapped behind the rest of the heroes.

Dirk searches around for something to help his old companion out with only to stumble upon two deadly giant centipedes. This time they are not so easily dealt with and the centipedes chew rather large holes in both Dirk and Jasper. Eventually the good Doctor deals with the situation but not before poor Jasper of heavily wounded, the poor dog falls to the floor blood gushing from a dozen bites.

Dirk pushes on, knowing that it could all be for nowt if he fails to find anything of value.

As Dirk rounds the corner the source of the ominous roaring presents itself. The Heroes appeared to have triggered an ancient trap and the temple is beginning to fill with water. With 2 Pedestals with ceremonial ornaments in sight Dirk throws caution to the wind and rushed over, dangerously close to the water.

Filling every pocket with these valuable items Dirk waits for the last possible second before escaping.

The Captain, freed from his situation makes his way down to Dirk, on the way he spots several tunnels Dirk failed to notice in his haste. Giving several of them the once over he feels a slight breeze coming from one tunnel, yelling to Dirk to head this way our two heroes make their way out of the temple. Poor Jasper was left to his fate.

Post Game Report:

Considering this was the least planned game, that I forgot to introduce 2 more villains half way through and that the water filling the tomb was made up the day before the game was ran I feel that it went fairly well.

The main comments that came out of our after game chat was about more RP elements, and multiple solutions, much like the fast lane/slow lane from the previous game.

In this instance, a broken bridge to jump across, some vines for our heroes to clamber up etc.

Personally I was mostly disappointed I'd not done something more with the temple guardian concept and put together some other warriors who could have been the boss characters for our heroes to beat. Thus is the problem with planning these games, there's always something you come up with either when it's too late to do anything about it or more usually mid game.

Going forward the squared terrain worked wonderfully, it's  handle traps easily, works with ranges well and takes away pesky tape measures meaning you can just get on with the action.

All this new terrain is multi-use and much of it will see action again in future games.

Game 3 - Hunt in the Mountains

Background:

With time to recover after their flights through the swamp our heroes entered the mountains fully rested and took their time to scout the area a little. The route into the mountains appeared to loop around a deep canyon, although not noticed on their first look at the pass there is a dangerous looking rope bridge spanning the canyon. On the far side of the canyon several warriors could be seen patrolling the mountainside.

The heroes must cross the canyon deal with the warriors on the other side and search the mountains for the entrance to the tomb mentioned in Dirk's notebook.

An early test set up of the board, modified for the actual game to give more choice to the heroes.

The Game begins:

Dirk and Jasper take the long route on solid ground, the Captain however feels daring and moves slowly across the bridge, cunningly timing his arrival to be between 2 patrolling warriors.

Dirk and Jasper however run straight into trouble, stumbling upon 2 Native warriors who charge at them from the long grass.

Jasper is spooked by the sudden encounter but Dirk makes short work of the first warrior with his revolver as the second warrior bears down on him.

Jasper continues his run of bad luck leaping past the good doctor and straight into a rather nasty spike trap.

The trap appears to finish off poor Jasper and so Dirk steps forward to investigate a possible entrance to the tomb. As Dirk tries the get a closer look a huge shadow falls over him and the largest savage he's ever laid eyes on steps out of the shadows and forces him back into a perilous duel in an area infested with deadly spike traps.

The combat swayed backwards and forwards several times but finally Dirk gained the upper hand, tired and bloody he finishes off the chief and meeting up with the captain the two set out to uncover the tomb entrance.

Aftermath:

Poor jasper is a mess, but the loyal companion manages to hang on for just one more advanture. The captain was relatively unscaithed and Dirk only had minor cuts and bruises to contend with as they stumbled into a darkened tomb...

Post Game Report:

Another strong game, the use of a fast but dangerous route verses a slower but less dangerous one appeared to work well and has given me plenty of ideas for the future.

The Jungle Warriors were getting a little dull by now, being grade 1/2 characters they didn't really put up much of a fight and only scored a few wounds on the heroes.

The Grade 2 Tribal Chieftain did put up a decent fight and his poisoned weapon almost caused a problem for Dirk. In the future I think I'll try and use more grades of enemy, perhaps some grade 1 elite warriors and several grade 2 character enemies.

Game 2 - Chase Through the Swamps

Background:
Our heroes try grab a little breathing space and a shelter from the incoming storm, but it is cut short by the sound of approaching feet, the Jungle natives appear to have caught up and the heroes must go on the run once again. Barely a few steps into the thick jungle the heroes stumble pon a stagnent swamp criss crossed with dangerous looking causeways. With little time to think they push on forward.

Special Rules:
Woah Slippery - The wooden Causeways are covered in slime and jungle detritus and are dangerous underfoot. If the heroes try to move more than 3 squares on the causeways they must take an immediate dodge roll or fall over.

Goal:

The heroes must escape the swamp and head into the mountains.

Initial Set up:

The Game Begins, our heroes only have a slight headstart on the Jungle warriors, they must make best their escape.

The heroes quickly get ahead after carefully navigating the first set of causeways. Jasper proves difficult to control and dashes off to take on the Jungle Warriors crossing the causeway behind the heroes. In the distance several bow armed jungle warriors take pot shots at our heroes across the fetid swamp.

More savages appear, the heroes appear to be surrounded. However all it not lost, after a frantic melee several of the Jungle warriors flee blindly into their own poisoned dart trap and suffer painful deaths (the statue markers on the right hand side of the above picture marked the area)

With the Jungle warriors dispatched Dirk makes a run for solid ground only to stumble into a Giant Centipede nest. Two of the huge beasts rear their heads to attack but without dropping a heartbeat Dirk fired off two shots from his shotgun at close range, turning the creatures into little more than goo.

With no hostiles in sight our heroes made their get away into the mountains taking some time to rest and patch up their injuries.

Whilst Camp was made Dirk took the time to look back through the note book found amongst the recovered equipment, the book holds notes speaking of an underground tomb with untold riches hidden within these very mountains, when morning comes our heroes will investigate further...

To Be Continued...

Post Game report:

This game played out at qite a pace and from the lack of photos we were clearly distracted by the action. overall everything worked quite well. The heroes took several injuries, whilst none were truely life threatening they would start the next adventure with some wounds (they were allowed to remove 1 level of wound from each location). The Giant Centipedes appeared to be the most ineffective creatures encountered. It was truely a bit of an anti-climax when they appeared only to be instantly blown away (this was their first outing too)

We both felt this scenario played out a little better than the first one, and it was all round a little more fun. The heroes had a harder time, at one point they were surrounded by 8 1/2 Grade enemies which looked like it may have been a little too much to handle, handily all the heroes involved had fairly good combat skills and managed to fight them all off.

Game 1 - Shipwrecked!

Well after 5 months of building and painting I finally got to put all the new terrain to use. The last month has been massively hectic with work and finishing terrain and miniatures off so I've been a little slack with the updates. However for the next week you're in for a treat, I'll be posting the commentary for the 4 games my brother and I played over the bank holiday weekend.

First Up Shipwrecked.

Our heroes:
Dr Dirk Savage: Our favourite treasure hunter returns once again bringing his brains and brawn to the fight.
Captain Wells-Robinson: A trusted companion to the doctor, the Captain brings some much needed fire power.
Jasper: The Captains loyal mutt, willing to follow him through thick and thin.

(unfortunately I've no individual pictures of the heroes as the Captain and Jasper belong to my brother and I forgot to take the shots before I left.)

The adventure starts with our poor heroes being washed ashore after their boat is shipwrecked in a tropical storm somewhere off the coast of South America.

I did a test set up about a week before we played this game and grabbed an overhead shot of the board to remind me of the layout. On the day a few bits changed but not much.

Test Set up

Final set up on the day.

Back to the adventure, our heroes awaken on the rocky shores of this unknown land with wreckage all around and a storm heading in. They much first gather up much needed equipment and head into the jungle to find cover from the coming storm. However they are not along...

The Savages Investigate

As our Heroes make their way across the rocky shoreline a number of painted skinned natives appear to investigate, they appear to be less than friendly and the captain lets them feel a little lead.

With ever increasing number of jungle warriors approaching our heroes make a dash for it. On their way they managed to uncover several of the missing crates, additional ammo, medical supplies and a shotgun were now all in hand for their adventure.

Dirk makes a run for it.

Eat Lead!

With the Dirk well out of harms way the Captain takes the opportunity to gun a few more the the jungle warriors down.

Spiked!

Jasper, excited by the new sights and smells of this foreign shore stumbles upon a dangerous spike trap. This was not to be the first time his canine instincts would let him down.

Escape...

With the natives left trailing and everyone still on their feet our heroes make their escape past some ancient ruins and into the jungle.

To be continued...

Post Game Blurb:

For the first game of the weekend this seemed to go rather well, we of course forgot a few rules and tweeked the planned game as we went along, overall the native warriors did not do a lot of damage to the heroes but with ever growing numbers it became easier to run than fight.

The only additions to the scenario I would make if run again would be a strict time limit for the heroes to reach the safety of the jungle and the the jungle warriors should have gone for capturing the heroes rather than straight out attacking them.

Dangerous Encounters

Late post again mainly due to busy weekend. This weeks main subject was some of the more dangerous markers for my next adventure. These will serve 2 purposes, firstly to be an obsticle to avoid when first uncovered and then a number of encounters will become blocking terrain and placed on the board.

Hopefully these will give the adventures some colour and excitement in an Indy Jones style.

First up are some Spike traps, very simple to make, just some BBQ sqewers cut down to size and roughtly sharpened. These were bedded into some mulliput on top of 2p pieces to give them strength and a little weight. Quick paint job then static grass, leaf scatter and some gore.

Next up are some Carved native statues, again ment for multiple uses as traps (in this case poisoned dart spitting traps) and also for markers to be clues in a later advanture.

These were made from Fimo, roughly shaped into tree trunk shapes with a little texture, baked and then the faces were carefully carved with a sharp knife. This appeared to give a better more defined look than just sculpting the faces. After carving the 1st face (back left) I decided to move towards a much simpler look for the rest. Simple paintjob along with grass and scatter once again.

I'm half tempted to add some warpaint to the faces to make them a little more fierce but am not sure yet.

The final Traps this week are some rock fall markers, to be used for collapsing temple roofs and dangerously unstable mountain sides they'll be a dangerous encounter for the heroes.

Made from left over slate and rubble that I chucked in a box after another project, they're based on 25mm round bases (mainly as I had some in a box and no 2p coins spare, I may also change these to be based on coins for confirmity)

Grey heavy drybrush paintjob along with black and brown washed and some drybrished highlights keep these fairly quick to paint.

The only other project completed this week was some wooden causeways for my swamp. These were made from matchsticks and no more nails, and nothing else. Sprayed black and drybruched with various browns.

A quick set up so you can see how I' using them, this board is around 2 foot square (actually 60cmx60cm) to give you an idea of size.

I've also had a chance to pen down some of my scenarios, for the moment I'll reveal only the titles:

• 
  
  Scenario 1: Shipwrecked!
• 
  
  Scenario 2: Escape through the Swamps
• 
  
  Scenario 3: Into the Mountains..
• 
  
  Scenario 4: An Abandoned Tomb!

Thats my lot for this week, I'm putting together some of my villains so I'll not have any more terrain ready for next week but I may have some pics of them.

p.s. Apologies for any spelling mistakes in this one, rushed writing it to get it out tonight.

Interesting New Product

Whilst browsing the wares at my usual train/model shop I came across a rather large display of newish products from Noch.

Titled Laser Cut Minis they appear to be pre coloured, precut plants. Here's some pics from the Noch site:

Priced at almost £6 a pack and according to the box they contain 8 plants so they seem a little steep. However it sparked my interest and I bought some just to find out what they were like.

I'll report shortly on what I've done with them.

Late again

Darn, Its started so well and went to pot so quickly. 2 weeks and no updates. not only that but I haven't done that much either.

Its all mainly being blamed on a weekend away and busy life..

I have managed to get a coupld of smaller projects completed and several more started so here goes:

Another set of test pieces, I was going for something a little like:

But of course since my new tables all going to be in 3x3 cm squares doing something hexagonal wouldn't work. Instead I aimed for somthing a little more like this board from Redskullz on the Lead Adventure forums

So what did I manage to come up with then? Well this:

5 Sections so far to fit in with the general multi-use theme of the rest of my terrain. Spread out this covers around 30cm x 60cm (2'x1') so about enough for half a .45 adventure board. I've another set marked up, I just got to find the time to cut out the hardboard bases.

So added to some of the previous sets what does it look like?

Well rather like this, the heroic Butch Sullivan is modelling in the picture for scale.

The extra bits are farily simple grassy areas:

Just hardboard, a bit of sand and static grass, grid is drawn on with a green sharpie pen afterwards. I've really just made these to give a bit more of an overgrown impression to the other terrain, part of the trouble with making generic squared terrain is that it can be difficult to make it feel right.

So I already mentioned working on a few little projects so I'll give you a couple of WIP shots of my somewhat busy desk:

The main 2 projects for this week are:

A set of 8 (only 4 carved so far) jungle totems, keeping them fairly simple for now, when painted I'll prolly add some warpaint effects to make them a little fiercer. This are to represent various encounters the heroes come across.

The other project is also a set of encounter markers:

This time its 10 spike traps, though I think I'll make some more later. All my encounter markers are going to be based on 2 pence coins to make it clear what are encounters and what are not during the game.

What else have I got lined up?

• 
  
  Props kit for sewer system (lengths of piping, pipe corners, girders etc)
• 
  
  Wooden Causeway (5-6 straight lenght plus coners, T-Junctions and cross roads)
• 
  
  Some more weeping trees (see the set up picture above for some test examples I made a while back)
• 
  
  Some rocky/uneaven hill sides to butt up against the formers, this time with slopes and steps to climb.

So I've enough to keep me busy for a while yet, I'm aiming to run some test games of my re-worked rules sometime at the end of march allowing me April to play around with them and finish up projects ready for my gaming weekend with my brother at the beginning of May.

Well thats it for this week, catch you all next week (update may be on Monday as I have family round over the weekend.)

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