British Black-Shirts

The British Union of Fascists (BUF) are a faction in the fictional wargaming setting 1938: A Very British Civil War (aka VBCW). I stress the fictional part right from the beginning because I don't want anyone getting the wrong idea and thinking I am in any way condoning fascism or far right-wing political views. Its just a game, and they are just toy soldiers. OK.

That said, here is my first squad of BUF fighters from the Royalist stronghold of Manchester, ready to take on the 'Red Peril' of the Liverpool Free State in the Siege of Liverpool. The BUF militia is made up of rabidly anti-Communist volunteers. What they lack in military training and discipline they make up for in enthusiasm, especially if it gives the Mancunian BUF chance to get one over on their long time rivals, the Scousers.

These figures are from Musketeer Miniatures, and are available from Gripping Beasts. Musketeer are one of the few companies producing figures especially for the 1938 era.

Another Building

Here's another shack, which I have just finished. Obviously it can be used for 1938: Very British Civil War, or Legends of the Old West. At a push it could also work f0r Warhammer, 40k or Conan. I like versatile pieces of scenery.
This models was made by Warbases. I picked it up at Salute 2010. It is laser cut from thin MDF board, complete with the knots and planking effect. It assembles very easily, a bit like a very simple 3D jigsaw. I had to make the tiled roof, but that was easy enough, taking about 20 minutes and a side of a cornflake box- no big hassle there. I suppose I could have made a bit of an effort covering up the joints where the walls meet, but I decided not to bother. The best bit about this particular model is the cost- just £6. Buildings are a fairly new development for Warbases, who, as their name would suggest, usually make precut bases for wargaming, but I really like them. They do some nice Victorian terrace houses I think I might invest in for my VBCW board at some point in the future.

The other day I was in town and I picked up a copy of Firefly , the sci-fi TV series that was shamefully axed after three episodes, and has gone on to become one of the most loved sci-fi series around. I am about halfway through the DVD box set so far, but feel all inspired to do sci-fi again. Added to this, Leon has purchased AE Bounty, a skirmish level wargame featuring space pirates and bounty hunters- sounds very cool. Don't be too surprised if you see one or two sci-fi figures creeping into the blog, further diluting the mix. Hopefully any sci-fi minis I pick will have sufficient cross over to be used in my supers campaign too: I am on the look out for some nice generic aliens and robots.

In the mean time here are some pictures of some of space ships I picked up at Salute 2010.

The first is a private yacht, the Swansong, chartered out of Alpha Centuri, where it's luxury fittings and high performance engines makes it a popular vessel for the well healed traveler or perhaps a lucky gambler. It's fitted with twin plasma engines and a single phaser accelerator. Small but perfectly formed.

The next is a bulk freighter, the MSS-C Longshanks, operating out of the Mars colony, shipping ore and produce in short hyper-hops. The huge vessel is fitted with two promethium grade plasma reactors, making it dependable for long haul deep space journeys, as well as shorter destinations. As a civilian freighter it is unarmed.

These are made by GZG (Ground Zero Games) for their Full Thrust game. I don't have Full Thrust, but couldn't resist these. The Swansong is tiny, only about a centimeter long. Longshanks is more impressive, coming it at a good 10cm.

This snake pit is another example of some of the scenery added to my growing collection of half-completed-things-that-have finally-been-finished-off. I bought this on a whim ages ago, and have only just got round to finishing it off.

What is it? Well its a sacrificial snake pit of course. What is it for? No idea.

It's could be used in a pulp game, or Conan, I suppose. I could even get away with using it in a supers adventure, with mad cultists and the like, or a even voodoo villain. For now it is an on the shelf in the cupboard in my gaming room, waiting for inspiration to strike.

The Book Golem, fearsome minion of evil sorcerers, or faithful companions of a bookish magic wielding superhero? No one really knows for sure. Many believe it is nothing but an urban myth, a local 'ghost' story told by the night watchmen at the library and the museums to scare the new guys. But the night watchmen know better: They know that sometimes things really do go bump in the night!

This rather unique and wonderful mini is from Black Cat Bases, a curious model company who do an eclectic range of minis. This one is from their range of Call of Cthulu inspired models called "The Lost and the Strange", But I thought it made an excellent minion for some super-mage.

It has been so long since I have posted anything, but fear not, I have not forgotten you, my loyal readers. The fact is I have been away for a couple of weeks, but during that time I have been prolifically painting.

Currently I am on a scenery theme, finishing off lots of half done projects, assembling lots of bits and bobs that I have been mail ordering over the last few months and generally making a lot of progress towards assembling enough bits of scenery that I can put together boards for VBCW and LotOW. So far I have painted lots of barrels, crates, cactus, fences, buildings and so forth, but rest assured, I have also been painting a figure or two.

Here is my finished Mexican Bandito gang, the Tequila Boys. This is the third posse I have completed for LotOW. I plan to do at least one more. This will ensure games don't become too samey, with two gangs just slugging it out time and time again. I was also inspired by the Xbox game Red Dead Redemption, which is partly set in a very lawless Mexico. Deadhorse (my fictional Old West town) is situated close enough to the Mexican border to suffer intermittent raids by these dastardly villains.

These figures are a mostly by Artizan Designs, but there are also figures by Reaper (from their Chronsocope range) and Black Scorpion. Both Reaper and Black Scorpion are very generous with their proportions (probably closer to 32 mm scale than Artizans usual 28mm scale) but I think that they work well enough together. This has been helped by the fact that I kept the pallet tight, just using a few colour, to give the posse a consistent look, without trying to make them too uniformed. I have done this with each of my gangs, to avoid any confusing on the battlefield, and I think that in this case it has worked very well.

You can also see a few of the bits and pieces of scenery I have been working on in the pictures. The cactus are from Pegasus Games, and the fence is some 1/35 scale picket fence my old mate Leon picked up from somewhere. The barrels are by TSS. The barrels were not very well molded, but look good enough on the battle fields to be worth using.