Recent Painting

There's been a few bits across the painting table over the past few weeks, not as much as I managed over winter but I've been catching up on various series of stuff and generally enjoying what little warm weather we've had in the UK.

Most recently I've just finished some crates of rifles from Ainsty Casting, I thought these would make some excellent plot points for pulp alley, stolen weapons? experimental rifles? or even just evidence of a lost camp.  Very quick paint job, based on 40mm mdf bases with just a little foliage to keep them useful for different areas.

Next I've some wonderful luggage from 6milphil on the lead adventure forums, these were brilliant casts and took an age to paint as I wanted really diverse luggage rather than painting them all in similar colours. Items based on 40mm round or 25mm round bases are ment as plot points and the rest just as drop terrain. 

Finally I've a Heresy Miniatures Ogre, this guys been in a box for years but since a friend of mine recently mentioned fantasy gaming I was digging through some piles of unpainted stuff and found him. He made a nice change from painting historical miniatures and I just love the attitude.

I've just finished some tentacles and am painting up some Ainsty trade goods at the moment for more pulp gaming, will grab some pics when I have a minute. 

March Terrain Projects

With the painting competition finished I'm straight back into terrain building, I had a number of projects lined up since last Autumn and I was itching to get back to building stuff. 

First up we have a River from GaleForce 9, they are apparently discontinuing this set which I wish I had known prior to purchasing it. This is actually a replacement product as there was a manufacturing fault with the original which left a cracked glaze over the water and was pretty ugly. GF9 for their credit did replace them without challenge. 

All I've really done here is a couple of layers of flock so that they match my other boards then added a few clumps of foliage and grasses along with some taller grass. I feel it does look even better in real life and it will fill a gap in my terrain collection that's been annoying me for years. 

Next up I've a load of random scatter terrain, these first 2 are just CD base terrain and were essentially made from spare rocks and stuff after I finished with my other scatter terrain. I didn't want to waste anything so I bunged these together. 

 Next I've a load of new scatter terrain, inspired by my brothers use of the 4Ground tree bases I thought I'd do my own, I unfortunately mis-remembered the size of the bases and it wasn;t until I'd ordered some 40+ 40mm bases I realised the that the 4Ground bases use 60mm ones. Handily Warbases came through with a custom order of something similar built for my 40mm bases. They were a little more expensive than the 4Ground ones but will do the job.

I based up a random collection of rocks and tall grasses to make some difficult ground areas for skirmish gaming. We've always struggled defining the edge of such areas with our existing terrain and so these will be a great addition. I've already got another couple of sets of bases being worked on and will be rebasing my all trees onto 40mm bases so I can use them in the same style of base. I may also try and get some larger bases from Warbases soon.

Finally I've some new plot point markers for Pulp Alley, some Aztec/South American style ones which I believe came from some AVP miniatures, I based them to match the rest of my jungle terrain.  

I've also some interesting pyramid like markers which came with the Horrorclix starter set and will make great markers for any mythos based adventure I'm sure. 

That's a wrap for now, I've a huge pile of stuff to work through and I'm keen to just kick through it while I've the energy to get on. I've miniatures for fantasy, 40k and Victorian/Steampunk projects lining up on my desk as well as more terrain and some additional pulp bits left over from the competition. 

First batch of Weird WW2 Scenics Completed

The terrain made from bitz box rummaging was finished earlier today, I feel that's not bad for a weeks work considering that I've probably had under 10 hours hobby time.

Firstly a quick group shot of the finished bits.

Which break down to the following rooms:

The Chemical Pump Room
These huge pipes and pumping equipment shift the vast quantities of chemicals round the facility required for use in the mutagenic experiments of the DoomTrooper Project.

The Generator Room
Providing power to the both the underground facility and the guard station upstairs, the generator room is a prime target for any attack. I'm still waiting on the actual generator to arrive but it should be here in a week or so.

The Experimental Lab
The main target for the attack, the lab has produced a great number of monstrosities as part of the DoomTrooper project. Again I'm waiting on some clone tanks from West Wind Productions to finish this room off.

I've also enough crates already in the collection to make weapons storage room. Though I'm not sure I'll need it as I'm trying to keep the board to just 2'x2'.

Next up I've some WWW2 troops to finish, some new stuff to start and then I better start assembling miniatures for the Analogue Hobbies Painting Competition.

Blinked and missed 2012

Well 2012 has sped past an unimaginable speeds.

My daughter was born on the 13th Jan this year and is a delight, unfortunately my hobby time appears to have dramatically diminished and outside playing a few games here and there I have painted practically nothing in 12 months. For reports on the action you should check out my brothers blog over here:
http://infrequentwargamer.blogspot.co.uk/

My only success was 12 more Napoleonic French Line Infantry for Sharpe Practice.

So what inspired this sudden blog post I hear you cry????

Well this weekend my Brother was up, I'd not really planned anything but decided to run him through a few games of Angels 20 from Axis and Allies miniatures, I've introduced a few new gamers to it over this last year and I do believe it's one of the better WW2 air warfare games out there. It's also all pre-painted which is a definite win in my eyes these days.

The variable flight stands are one of my few hobby successes this year, I found some telescopic rods in Tesco for £1 each, after sanding off the bottom and cutting away the end I found I could fit them onto the Angels 20 mini bases and still be able to use the status maneuvers needed as part of the mechanics (read placing planes at jaunty angles for in game perks)

So after a few games of this my brother and I sat down to discuss what our next project will be, we'll be getting together in a months time for Christmas and New Year so it would have to be something we already had miniatures for as nether of us have much time at the moment. It would also have to be something I contributed most of the bulky terrain for as my Phil would be on the train so space would also be a premium.

We've played a lot of 1930s pulp over the past few years and as part of that we also appear to have a few WW2 miniatures in our collections, I've about 10 Germans used mainly for pulp villains and we both have some Weird WW2 miniatures from an abortive project a few years back so we decided to dust them off and run a couple of scenario driven games around Weird WW2. But what rules would we use, clearly they had to be a small games about 10-12 miniatures a side and a smaller battle field would be a perk as it would mean transporting less.

Brink of Battle raised it's head again, we've pushed a few minis around to it earlier in the year and it appeared to be a reasonable set of rules. After a couple of discussions we agreed to tweak a couple of rules, firstly we'd replicate the activation system from Sharpes Practice as we felt it worked well there and I was keen to use blinds to represent unknown enemy positions. We also discussed adding multiple wounds to better represent some of the weird stuff such as battle suits and great honking monsters. 

So it appears we had a game, after mulling it over for 20 mins of so I had a couple of scenarios in mind and with out further ado I'll introduce them:

It's late 1944, the Allied forces across Europe are pushing back the Germans and it would appear all is not going well for the 3rd Reich, Dr Willhem Von X, disillusioned by the way the war is being fought has recently defected and ended up in the Britain. He has provided a wealth of information on a super secret project code named SS Doomtrooper. Deep in an under ground laboratory it would appear t hat German scientists are trying to create the ultimate battlefield warrior, mixing ground breaking science with their technological advances it may be the last hope for the 3rd Reich's survival. 

A small covert force lead by a notorious British Major will be dropped in the area and a two stage mission will follow. 

Mission 1; Capture the Facility Entry, It would appear to maintain the secrecy of the project the facility has been designed with only a single entrance, this entrance it lightly guarded to help it remain undetected. The major will take a small force and attack the entrance at dusk, once secured additional forces will be dropped under cover of darkness to reinforce the major and provide some heavier firepower for the fighting that will take place inside the complex. Should the Major fail to capture the entrance this larger force will be required a the area may soon by crawling with additional Axis forces. 

Mission 2; The Major will lead a team inside the facility with several objectives, they must plant timed explosive devices in 3 of the critical areas of the Lab complex. The Main Growth lab where the scientists are known to have a number of Doomtrooper specimens in progress, The Generator Room, The Chemical Treatment Plant or the Armoury. Destruction of a number of these areas should lead the lab to be inoperable and should ensure the program is shut down. 

So we've a plan forming, I've suitable terrain to do both a general above ground board and some terrain used for underground pulp games which would suffice for the lab. A quick plan shows I need the following extra bits:

Specimen Tanks and medical equipment

Some pipework and pumps

A generator and random electrics

A secret entrance

Defenses such as barbed wire and tank traps

So far I've rummaged in my bits boxes and can make much of the above:

I'm sure you are dying to see what I  can turn this random collection of stuff into so keep watching this space,  there will be some WIP pictures up later this week.

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.

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.)

Don't forget to follow this blog for updates.

Oops, A day late once again, Apologies to anyone who checked by yesterday. I finished up quite late at night and didn't have time to get any photos done.

However I have some now:

3 new risers, 2 are 3 levels high and the last just 1 level high. Each level comes out at 30mm tall to give you an idea of scale.

A test batch of ruined walls. These were build with off cuts of the Foamed PVC and embossed styrene that the blocks are made of plus some polystyrene to bulk then out and some bricks shopped from more spare Foamed PVC. The tesxture is a mix of PVA, Fine sand and filler with some extra rubble thrown in for good measure. I'm really happy at how these turned out so I'll be makeing some more when I have the chance.

Some Test Rock faces. Overall fairly dissapointed by the look of these, this wasn;t quite what I have in my head when I started them but then I've always struggled with makeing decent rock faces. I may trial a few more techniques over the coming weeks to try and get some better ones.

So the total scenery so far this year is shown here with some jungle I made last year. Considering I've got about 4-6 hours hobby time a week at the moment I'm fairly happy with my progress.

A final close up with Indy again to show scale.

So whats in store for this week?

Well I'm now out of Foamed PVC and some of the embossed styrene so although I may make some more ruined walls I'll most likely not finish them this week. I'm also out of a fair amount of paint and getting low on Glue I feel a sneaky trip to the store coming on.

What I have found is a load of Hardboard cut offs which I'm trimming down to make greenery bases so I can mark out the edges of area terrain (forest, jungle etc) These are going to be fairly basic and mainly just add grid marks to the floor. I've also got a 2'x2' board primed grey so I may have time to mark out the grid and add a few more grey/brown shared to it.

I also have my Wargames Factory Zulus sat on my desk. These are to be turned into jungle tribesmen so new weapons are needed plus wooden face maskes etc.

On the bargain side I was in Asda tonight and spotted Watchmen and District 9 for £7 each (they also had moon, public enemies and underworld 3) with the missus scowling I just grabbed the 2 for now but that should keep me entertained this week.

Any how I'll hopefully see you all next week.

Right then, only a day late and I've finished painting my first set of Terrain for my new pulp tables.

Below are the blocks shown last week in various layouts. The driving force behind this terrain is flexability rather than reality.

So whats next?

Time to turn these rather uninspiring blocks into all sorts of interesting terrain. This week it's going to be rocky outcrops, mainly to hide some of the bricked edges these are for purely aesthetic purposes.

So I'll see you next week with more

Week 2 - Sunday 31st Jan 2010

Week 2 over and again I've not got a lot done.

Thats the problem with having too many hobbies, its easy to get distracted.

However with a slightly fruitful weekend I've managed to get a little done on my new generic pulp terrain.

Here are the test pieces finished earlier today:

Wow..coool!! I here you cry, but what the hell are they for?

Well for things like this really:

Indy investigates a ancient jungle temple, or even:

Indy cautiously decends an ancient stairway through the mountains.

Over all this terrain is there to give height to the table rather than be stand alone scenery. Once you mix some props in with it I'm expecting to be able to make anything from sewers to ancient temples all using just one main box of terrain and a selection of "setting" pieces.

So far I've managed to build this much:

Its about enough to cover about a square foot of board with multiple levels. I've got some more 3 level high blocks in the works plus some edging blocks to allow the terrain to be used as risers for some mountain sides.

I'll also be branching out into adding some of the setting terrain now I've unpacked a lot of my bits boxes.

Any how for this week thats it.

Tune in next Sunday and I hope to have all this lot completed.

Ok week one finish:

Progress; not a lot.

Still working on sorting out my new house so not a lot of progress this week.

I have managed to start some new Pulp terrain in the form of blocky levels to be used for rail stations, underground stations, indoor ruins and temple blocks.

These are built from a rather fancy material I've found via Antenociti's Workshop called Foamed PVC, its around 3mm thick but much easier to cut than standard plasticard sheet but much stronger than foam-core. I think I'm now a fan.

Click the following link for the product:

http://www.barrule.com/Workshop/scratch%20builders%20paradise/sheet%20materials%20-%20metal%20and%20special%20materials.html

The tops and sides are being covered in embossed styrene and engraved into 30mm squares for ease of gaming.


I've 4 sections built and pieces cut for around another 4 plus some steps.

However I'm running short on styrene and only have 1 sheet of foamed pvc left so looks like I need to stick an order in for more.

I plan to have the whole lot built by next sunday so watch this space.