Wednesday Painting - More Pulp Adventurers

Another successful evening of painting, this time just the two miniatures but still in just under 3 hours I managed to knock these out to a pretty reasonable standard. 

Last time we kicked around some miniatures with pulp alley I notices a lack of random adventurer types, I've plenty of bad guys and groups of specific heroes and sidekicks but many of them were more suited to urban environments rather than stomping through the darkest jungles of South America. 

These two figures are from the Defenders of Lucknow set from Mutineer Miniatures, meant for 19th century rather than 20th I don't think they'd look too out of place even though the guy on the right has a rather antique rifle.

See you all next week.

Wednesday painting - Pulp Indians

Welcome to 2015 everyone, hope you all managed a restful and enjoyable festive period.

I've managed to start the year the way I mean to go on, slipping in a 3 hour painting session last night and managing to just about complete these 4 miniatures.

They're painted to match the rest of my pulp Kali Cult and bring some much needed ranged weaponry to the cult.

Figures are Bundalee Native infantry from Mutineers 28th Indian Mutiny range.

I noticed when packing themy away that I've not highlighted the red quite as much as the rest of the miniatures I've done to so I may pull them out 90 the cabinet tonight and add another highlight just to keep them consistent. 

Well that's it for this week, see you next Wednesday. Happy painting.

Festive Painting

Merry Christmas readers, hope you are all having a great time, enjoying your holiday, family, presents or whatever else you get up to when the world closed down for a couple of days.

Now I realise it's a couple of weeks since I last posted and I did say I would paint every Wednesday but with the festive period, shopping, wrapping and visiting family I've not painted just once a week. I have however managed to get some painting in this week whilst I'm off work and at home.

So I've not managed to paint one, or even two figures but a group of eight, pretty impressive for my rates of painting, I've probably managed around 10 hours of painting in total across 3 nights.

The figures of choice have been sat in my painting box for at least a couple of years, pretty much since they were released. I spotted them at a con and instantly saw their potential as pulp miniatures. The figures are from Empress Miniatures Spanish Civil war range (not a period I know much about), from the Republican forces sold as Assault Troops and Command, to me they leapt out as some kind of border guards.

I've kept the colours fairly muted as usual, some semblance of a uniform but with some miniatures in jackets and trousers and others in overalls I thing they've got a lovely militia like feel to them. They're not meant for any country in particular and have a couple of different skin tones in there to add to their usefulness. 

Not going to be any Wednesday figures this week either, so I should next be painting on the 7th Jan, when it's likely going to be some Indian riflemen to add to my Kali Cult for some ranged firepower so I'll see you then.

Weekly Miniature - Part 2

Well it's a day late but I managed to fit in another couple of minis this week, only managed two as my wife and kids are away overnight and so I got a decent amount of painting time in tonight.

It's yet another set of Pulp miniatures for Pulp Alley.

A Flight captain, I used Cpt Jack Harkness ish colours for this one, in keeping with my other pulp miniatures I've kept the tones quite muted and used a limited pallet.

I also managed to finish another hound miniature I found laying around, this time painted up as a rottweiler, a fearsome opponent to be sure. 

It's been a while

Welcome back,

With a hiatus of nearly 18 months of no real miniature related hobby time I'm back, with the birth of my second daughter and much of the end of 2013 and beginning of 2014 being taken up organising an annual LARP event I run my time has been seriously limited, I've managed a few games in this period but that's about it.

Last weekend my Brother was up and we dusted off Pulp Alley one night and managed to get a good couple of games in (see his blog for the write up shortly) They were really enjoyable and have given me back a bit of my hobby mojo.

Whilst chatting to my Bro after the games I set myself the challenge of putting aside one night a week for painting, Wednesday for me is a pretty good one and so Wednesday has been declared painting night, once the kids are in bed I've about 2 hours of painting time so I'm going to aim to paint at least 1 miniature in this time from start to finish.

This may not seem like much but since we mainly play pulp adventures with half a dozen miniatures a side this is more than enough to keep filling out the collection and start clearing through the unpainted miniature pile.

Saying that this week is a bit of a bumper start, I had a number of models part painted or started and so in little over 2 hours I managed to get 3 figures painted.

The first is an Indian fella in some kind of colonial-esque uniform, a miniature from Mutineer Miniatures Indian Mutiny range from a pack I picked up mainly for one miniature but this one seemed useful too. He'll be great for a pulp sidekick.

Next up are a pair of baggage camels, mounted up to be plot points for Pulp Alley. I think these are from Irregular miniatures, picked up at a show for about a pound each.

The bases are not quite finished but I'll likely do a larger batch of them together one night.

So until next week, have a good un.

Painting Competition Month 3

Well the final month was a bit of a slog, I really struggled to summon up the enthusiasm for more painting, each time I sat down to do some I found myself getting distracted by other projects, mostly terrain related which were not part of the competition.

That being said I did manage to get myself well past the 500 point target I set for myself. In month 3 I managed to summon up some 32 assorted miniatures and vehicles in the final month.

I'm just going to post a quick set of pictures with little explanation as I've loads to sort out today, but as usual it's quite a few pulp miniatures, I was really happy to get the mounted Kali Cultists done within the competition as the Professor and his crew much be getting over to India soon, the Brigade Games Merchant seamen were an impulse buy just before the US postal rates went up and I was pleased with the results. I loved making the markers too, gave me a bit of a distraction from churning out miniatures.

Now I've a backlog of terrain projects I must get around to finishing in time for my next gaming session in May and I've another couple of AARs to get around to posting up plus a review of the Pulp Alley rules and Cards I received recently. Expect some more content coming your way soon. 

Butch Sullivan in Escape from the Lair

With my wife out at a works do and my daughter safely tucked up in bed rather than crack on with more painting I decided to have another run through of Pulp Alley and try and figure out some more of the rules. 

I plucked out another pre-rolled scenario from my stash and set out to play a Race Against Time scenario. The background is as follows:

Our heroes are stuck deep within the secret lair of Oberst von Klinkerhoffen and disaster has struck, it would appear that utility station 42 has been destroyed, this station controls the main hanger doors and without it our heroes cannot escape.  One of the electrical conduits is damaged and requires replacing, looking about it would appear that all the parts our heroes require may be available in the immediate area. 

The Major Objective for this scenario is repairing Utility Station 42.

The minor objectives of which our heroes require any 3 are; A pile of electrical conduits, electrical blueprints, some machine parts and an abandoned generator.

The initial setup with out heroes in the center around the Utility Station and the forces of Oberst von Klinkerhoffen coming in from the higher level. 

Our heroes quickly spread out in the first couple of turns making a dash to look for the equipment they need.

Meanwhile the Germans advance, Lauren Stone and the vicious hound Indiana move into a position to cut them off, Indiana leaps straight into the action and mauls one of the German guards.

Kazim makes a move to engage the German guards but under the watchful eye of Klinkerhoffen he is gunned down by the German guards.

Butch rummages through the paperwork in one of the offices and comes up trumps, it would appear he's found a set of electrical blueprints for the utility station.

Markus has made his way back to the utility station with a set of electrical conduits but he is ambushed by Hans Gruber, in the resulting firefight Markus goes down whilst the sly German officer keeps himself in cover around these large pipes.

Lauren moves into a better position and takes out one of the guards whilst Indiana is taken down by another guard with the help of Klinkerhoffen. Kazim meanwhile appears to have crawled off and fallen unconsious from the loss of blood.

Butch manages to start up an old generator  which can be hooked up to the doors and help get them moving.

 With everything they need in their control it would appear that our heroes can make their escape. Klinkerhoffen vows that revenge shall be his our Butch and co disappear into the night.

Again I ended the game a little early as I'd been at it on and off for a couple of hours and wanted to get cleared up as it was getting a little late.


End of Game Debrief.
Overall it ran smoother this time, I'm still getting my head around the flow of the rules, at one point I completely forgot who had the initiative and essentially had to roll off again to allocate it.

Low level characters appeared to get up an awful lot, this contributed to a bit of a bottle neck at the bottom of the stairs which lasted several turns with the 2 groups trading shots and melee and then recovering.

In the end it was enjoyable and I picked up on a few mistakes I'd been making by not reading the rules properly. Another game or two and I should have this down.

Analogue Painting Competition - End of month 1 Roundup

Yup it's been a little quiet around here in January, that's due to the painting competition  Christmas, new Year, my Daughters Birthday and finally a weekend away with some Steampunk Friends of ours.

I've managed to plod along with the painting competition and currently sit a little behind the planned schedule, I've amassed a reasonable 155 points of my target of 500, that puts me at around 31% of target.

I'm actually a little surprised at that figure, and with a good Feb I may actually be able to make the 500 points.

A quick overview of what I've painted so far:

That's 28 miniatures and a vehicle, may not seem a lot for some people but for me this is pretty good progress, I probably only painted 30 miniatures for the whole of 2012 so here's to a year of painting stuff up.

With another couple of orders turning up this last week I've quite a healthy painting queue again, though I'm still ignoring the Saga Anglo-Danes I've got. Up next should be several batches of Napoleonic French, some WW2 Americans and plenty more pulp miniatures. 

These updates will probably only be monthly so they don't cut into what little painting time I have. 

Till next time.

G

First Analogue Hobbies Challenge entry

These were actually completed just prior to Christmas as I was keen to ensure I had made a start before we went a travelling around the relatives.

Firstly I have an important looking Indian Gentleman, possibly linked to an ancient Kali Cult or perhaps just an armed merchant. Who knows but you can be sure he'll turn up in an adventure or two.

Second up is a great towering thug of a man, painted up perhaps as the perfect example of Aryan strength for my pulp Germans, either way he's mean and ready to be a real challenge should our heroes encounter him.

I've some more Pulp pretty much finished but the Challenge rules state Curt gets first sight of the pictures so you lot will all have to wait till I've sent them to him and they've been published.

More Weird WW2 miniatures

What a week, I'm really chuffed with the amount of progress I've made. Though I must ensure I don't burn out pre-painting competition.

Tonight I managed to get a couple of mastiffs done, I went with a fairly classic cream coat with black face and ears and I think they came out rather well. These will be great for guard dogs in both our WWW2 games and for more general pulp gaming.

I also finished off and based one of my FeuerSoldats, I would have painted 2 but the other one has mysteriously gone missing so for now I'll just have this guy.

Sine quite a few people commented on the poor photo's from last time I snapped a couple of repeat shots of the miniatures from last time. Firstly the Doom Trooper, still appearing quite green but much more representative of the paint job I did.

Then we have the armoured panzergrenadiers, the main group with experimental assault rifles and an anti mech rocket.

Then the second group with Flamethrowers. 

I've managed to finish an NCO miniature but for some reason on every single photo I took his face was blurred. Clearly there's something mystical going on and I took it to be a sign that he wasn't going to make it onto tonights blog.

Thats the lot for the moment, I started on a couple of heavily armoured suits in classic German Panzer Grey, they should be finished by the end of the weekend.

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.