More Silly Things

A change of plans meant that I managed to get some extra stuff done for my friend C, who P and I are now seeing tomorrow. Most importantly I managed to dig out the remaining spider-drone from the pack of three, and get that painted up too. I also repainted a couple of Mark Copplestone's Neo-Sovs that I got given a long time ago, and a spare Crooked Dice Alien Invader. My hope is this eclectic mix will get some action in Five Parsecs From Home or similar - or at the very least sit on a mantlepiece somewhere!

That little bit of freehanding was quite hard!

But it was worth it. I really like the look of this little unit

Copplestone Neo-Sovs and Crooked Dice Alien Invader 2A, in random colours, to be allies or enemies in 5PFH

You can really see the difference in style and scale here - the Copplestone figures are nice and chunky, very heroic scale; the Crooked Dice one much slimmer and more realistically proportioned

'Scuse the fingers. I painted the face in purple to emphasise that despite being humanoid in shape, this is not a human being but something from another world...

If I can manage to, I have some Wargames Atlantic not-Ratlings and a very old 3rd Edition 40K Chaos Obliterator which I want to paint up for C too, so my plan for tomorrow is to get those done before we head over in the evening. After that, it's commission work and Space Wolves. I promise!

Painting Points:
Today: 4
This Week: 7
2025: 333

Pew Pew And Other Gun Noises

Today's been a quite productive one on the old painting front, honestly. I managed to finish off the Carrion, and although they aren't going to win any awards for quality they fit the aesthetic of the Tomb Kings army I've got and look absolutely fine from arm's length (which is what matters). On top of that I bashed out the Copplestone mini I'm using for a Death Cult Assassin which now gives me a full group of those. I still have to finish the tech-assassin, of course, but hey - two days from purchase to painted isn't bad for me at all. And I also blocked in some of the main colours on a group of minis I'm going to turn into a Frostgrave warband - one of the people at the club, K, suggested a game of Frostgrave in a couple of weeks' time, so we're both painting up some figures for that. I'm not totally sure what I'll use for the Wizard and Apprentice yet, but I'm sure I'll have some figures somewhere.

Carrion! Front view, showing all the gribbly exposed ribs and suchlike

Rear view, showing all the gribbly exposed tissues and quills and bones and suchlike

Twin pistols standing in for twin power weapons - I call it gun-fu

I tried to add a bit of blue to the trenchcoat to show it might be a slightly different black to that of the boots and corset; not sure how well it works but it's the thought that counts

A Frostgrave foursome - the three with the flatter bases are North Star Barbarian II plastics; the one on the far right is a metal miniature from an unknown manufacturer

A quick note on that mystery mini in the Frostgrave group. I'm going to use her as a thief, but I have no idea who made her - I picked her up along with some other loose metal minis from Black Lion Games in Edinburgh years ago. I think she might be a Ral Partha figure? If you know, please let me know in the comments! Bonus points if you can ID the inspiration for her paint scheme...

Painting Points:
Today: 6
This Week: 6
2024: 86

Plodding Along

Today I have done... not a lot. I updated the Wyld Kats, scribbled around with some ideas for my Skaven (I have about 2,000 points already which is pretty cool - just gotta paint them), and then did a chunk of the details on the Carrion and undercoated the Copplestone Selene mini:

The Carrion are nearly done, I think - I have to do the base details, and touch up some of the other details in the Carrion themselves. Should be easy enough to get done tomorrow. The Death Cult Assassin got an old-school brushed on undercoat and I reckon if I knuckle down she can be done in a couple of hours or less; the scheme is pretty simple - red, white, black.

Licking Our Wounds

The Wyld Kats got their second outing tonight in the local club's campaign, against N's Cold Steel Orlocks. Unlike last time, they got thoroughly demolished - mostly because I couldn't seem to roll above a two, and N was rolling hot the whole time. I ended up with five fighters Out Of Action, of whom one died! So at some point the Wyld Kats are going to come gunning for Cold Steel... 

It started off with a lot of jockeying for position, with me moving the bulk of my gang aggressively towards the enemy relic

And the Orlocks responding by taking cover and moving around me, so we ended up fighting left-to-right instead of front-to-back (in this photo you can see the Orlock relic, a pile of tyres!)

 

Initial reinforcements were OK, I managed to get my gangers in a position to defend my own relic (seen here just in front of Vikki Vicious and Tia Venom)

But then it all went wrong! A couple of turns of excellent dice rolls from N and terrible ones from me took Fancy Fliss, Sinnamon Kane and Wildsnake Bliss Out Of Action, and I tried to turn the tide by playing Hive Tremors...

...only for my high Initiative Escher to completely fuck it up and almost everyone became pinned, while only the Orlock Captain and Champion fell over. Bugger!

Last gasp attempt to claw something back and my Matriarch fires her plasma pistol at Hot Pete. I needed 2+... and rolled a 1. Shortly thereafter Hot Pete set Roxy Danger on fire, taking her Out Of Action. I voluntarily bottled and fled the scene

But too late for Roxy! I tried taking her to the Doc, but the Doc wanted 120 creds (about the only time I rolled sixes all game) and I couldn't afford it, so she died in the streets of her injuries!

The end result was no new Juves or Gangers from my two settlements, one death, two head injuries (Losse de Grey and Sinnamon Kane), an Old Battle Wound on Fancy, and wounded gang pride. 

Frankly, I buggered up the initial exchange by losing Losse de Grey for a single Orlock ganger - they squared off in the centre of the board, the Orlock managed to disengage and Losse rolled a 1 to try to reaction attack - again, all she needed was a 2 or more - and then I foolishly chased him down, leaving her in the open in front of three Orlocks who promptly shot her to bits then delivered a coup de gras. I should have moved her into cover and shot the ganger, and waited for backup. Then, later, when I had a bit of a chance to try and do something by charging Wyldsnake Bliss into Rudy Judy, an Orlock wrecker, I rolled two 1s and a 2 with three attacks followed by Rudy dealing a serious injury and then a coup de gras. That forced me to use Penny Diamond to take Rudy out, rather than going for Hot Pete... which then left Hot Pete alive and able to hand flamer Penny and Fancy. 

Still, when the dice are against you there's not a great deal you can do. My general plan was sound - use the bulk of my gang, particularly my Leader and Champions, to press towards the enemy relic and defend my own with my reserves. Unfortunately it was not to be, this time. But the Wyld Kats will be back - and angrier than ever!

In other news, I popped into Wayland's Forge today for a rummage and walked out with some Skaven Jezzail teams and a Death Cult Assassin:

The jezzail teams are from the new Age of Sigmar box, but they look absolutely fantastic on proper 6th Edition style bases, and will go nicely into my 6th Edition Skaven army. Which I should probably look at again, I'm pretty sure it's a bit more than 2,000 points now. Might add some Plague Monks at some point. And a Screaming Bell. And a Warp Lightning Cannon... and I should probably paint some of them too honestly.

The Death Cult Assassin is a Copplestone Castings miniature - WH1, Girl Werewolf Hunter - which I got to complement (and complete) the two Hasslefree Miniatures versions of the same character... Selene, from the Underworld film series.

I also took some photos of the various games being played at the club tonight:

Kill Team!

Lord of the Rings!

Super small scale (2mm?) WW2!

Warcry!

Mordheim (my beloved)!

A couple of games of SAGA!

The Old World!

A close up of this beautifully grotesque Nurgle demon engine

And that's that for today - no painting, but a little bit of building of Skaven, and a game of Necromunda, so a pretty productive day in the life of a wargamer. Next week is the club's AGM so I won't be getting any more Necromunda in until the 14th of October probably. Now I just have to work out if I want to spend any of my 150 creds on some new gang members...

Shalom, Punk!

Still no lead, but I'm going to buy one this weekend if I can't find it tonight.

Today I ignored my Goliaths and painted up three more Greater Israeli Army troops - a riflewoman, sniper, and Guided Missile System - Portable (GMS-P) trooper. Their camo scheme looks a little like this:

Which is an Armja Krajowa home-made armoured car. I've altered it quite considerably, using a lighter brown and with less squiggling, but their vehicles will pretty much match this exactly.

Last night, while my son was sleeping next to me on the sofa (he's got a bad cold and won't really go to sleep without Daddy cuddles which is quite nice but shatteringly tiring) at 4am, I wrote up a set of quick-play rules (60s Spy Skirmish) for the Kiss Kiss Bang Bang ranges of Copplestone Castings and Artizan Designs.

I have a few ideas for games using these rules and figures, and the inspiration mainly comes from playing No-One Lives Forever 2: A Spy in H.A.R.M's Way, which is an utterly excellent PC game and one which, together with No-One Lives Forever, should be purchased and played at once. Both take equal top spot in my Best First-Person Shooter of All Time ranking.

Olley Painting Points:

This Week: 16
2009 Total: 39

"You there - halt!"

I'm as fed up with the lack of photos as you lot are, I suspect.

Since losing the cable, I've painted:

1 Rolls-Royce Armoured Car
6 BUF
3 Anarchists
2 Goliath Juves
and now also

2 Plainclothes policemen
1 Gangs of Mega-City 1 ganger

The policemen are quite nice, in my opinion - the sinister Z Division man with his closed raincoat, party badge, pinstripe suit, Webley revolver and leather gloves; the Scotland Yard Detective with blue three-piece suit, tartan knitted tie, and concealed pistol. Same organisation (State Security Police), different methods.

The ganger's completion means that I've effectively finished my GoMC1 project, although, as previously discussed, I would like to get some Judge models and find some more esoteric Mongoose miniatures on eBay. However, I'm happy for the moment. Hurray!

Mind you, none of these figures can be seen because I STILL can't find the bloody cable! Arrrgh! In the meantime, feast your eyes on these:


A mix of Ground Zero Games 'Street Level' range and Copplestone Castings' 'Future Wars' models, this horde of civilians and militia represent the near-future European Federation's Red Block and innocent bystanders during an intensive period of civil unrest following the 2105-2107 Resource War when the EuroFed armed forces soundly defeated the North African-Arab alliance. In the process, however, the EuroFed became something of a right-wing dictatorship. This lot are protesting (and fighting) about it.

However...


The security forces might have something to say about it. Here are Ground Zero Games Neu Swabian League Jagers and Troopers (together with a couple of 'Street Level' coppers and figures, two 'Combat Babes' and two Copplestone Castings models) painted as the feared paramilitary Security Police (Zekurit-Polizi, or ZEPO) as well as normal Polizi (the blokes in black with blue helmets and caps, and the uniformed and plainclothes officers).

I fully intend to at some point return to this project and, using the utterly wonderful Offensive Miniatures range of rioters and police, expand the Polizi (so the rioters don't automatically lose to the hail of automatic and energy weapons fire) and give the rioters-guerillas some extra bodies.

I'm also eventually going to produce terrain, too, probably based on this stuff on Matakishi's Tea House although obviously without the desert vibe - this is Europe, even if it is Europe 100 years hence and in a very different world (climate change hit 4 degrees C, alternate energy is commonplace, oil is rare, the near space system is colonised to try and reduce the effects of population growth, etc, etc). Or even this set of inner city buildings, which is much better!

Really, this project (EuroFed Rioting) sets the scene for my SF stuff, such as the New Israelis who I hope to make a start on this week.

Olley Painting Points:

This Week: 8
2009 Total: 31

Anarchists in Suits and the Gangs of Mega-City One

Today, I managed to put the pin-stripe onto the Angel Alley Anarchists' LMG No. 2, and add the checked stripes on the flat cap of the Lewis gunner. Other details were added too - the ammo drum bag (a school satchel!) painted up, armbands painted on, hair painted, wooden stocks painted, that sort of thing.

Still can't find my camera lead. At this rate I'll have to get a new camera! In the meantime, here are the painted figures I have for GoMC1:












They're a mix of Mongoose Publishing plastics (now out of production), Hasslefree Miniatures and Copplestone Castings. I intend to eventually get some Judges from Wargames Foundry, probably Dredd, Anderson Psi, a Tek-Judge, and three or four Street Judges. I might get a couple with Riot Foam launchers, just because.

That would give me a Justice Department precinct house, really. I may well expand the gangs over time, too, although sadly eBay is now the only place Mongoose's models like the Ape Gang, Rogue Robots, the Lawmaster Bike, Cadet Judges, or Fatties can be found.

See, over all the streets the Fascist banners waving

And now, my VBCW figures - so far...

From top to bottom, left-to-right, we have: 8 members of the Skye Battalion, who've been lucky enough to be issued full uniforms, 3 adventurers for the Back of Beyond (aka Wynd-Grator's forces, although I'm much more tempted to paint them up as, well, adventurers in the Empire for a more generic 1920s-30s Pulp style of game), an Anarchist Lewis gun team, and 6 members of the BUF including 'Flying' Fay Taylour, for once not on a motorbike.

You may just be able to make out the extra shiny leg on the BUF man 2nd from left - this is where I made a feeble attempt to file away his trouser and turn it into a jackboot. It failed, I gave up, and argued that the 'Action' uniform has been altered to make it more practical for fighting in.

These chaps (and chapesses) are accompanying me to work today, and I hope to make a start on them this week.

Oh, and for those of you who want some pictures of civilians from the 1930s in colour, YouTube can be an interesting resource. Searching for 'BUF Anthem' or 'Hunger March' is a good start.

EDIT: Finally worked out how to get photos to behave! Huzzah!