Review of 2010

I have just reviewed my blog from twelve months ago. Then I had just 6 followers, and now, twelve months on, I have 33. I guess I must be doing something right.
Last year I declared that 2010 would feature more superheros, villains, thugs as well as some cowboys and some SciFi, and the start of a Zombie horde. Well it certainly did (if 9 zombies can be considered a horde), but what I hadn't anticipated was getting into 1938: A Very British Civil War (VBCW) via the Lead Adventure Forum, and later the Gentlemen' Wargame Parlor. 2010 has seen 80+ models painted for VBCW, in addition to the rest of the stuff. I have attended a few games over in Stourbridge, and the Big Game 3, in Evesham, and generally got to know, via the forum, a great bunch of enthusiastic war gamers (some of whom follow this blog).
2011 will feature, I think, more of the same. Supers will still be the core of the blog, and I have lots more unpainted supers waiting to get featured. A number of SciFi/supers cross overs might be on the cards too. I hope to get my hands on AE Bounty, a SciFi skirmish game from the makers of AE:ww2, and get a crew together for that too. I plan to add to my VBCW armies, to bring the BUF/ Royalist factions up to strength, and to add some much needed anti-tank to my Reds. I hope to add to the zombie horde too, as I enjoyed painting the Studio Miniatures zeds so much. I will to paint some more scenery, mostly for VBCW, but also to paint some interior scenery for Supers (namely a mad scientists lab, probably featuring sharks with frikin' laser beams!). I expect I might be doing some more Battle Cars too, as Charlie wont stop pestering me about it. Leon wants to get some pulp-era stuff done too, and while I have some ready done from a RPG campaign we ran last year, I might be tempted to add a small number to this to flesh it out a bit.
Other things I am looking at, but might not get around to, are more little space ships, and possibly Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, or Gezzers Shut it! Some more Flames of War might also be on the cards.
Phew! When I list it like that it looks like I am going to be very busy in 2011. And very skint!
Happy New Year every one. See you on the other side!

Merry Christmas

Please allow me this opportunity to extend my warmest seasons greetings to all thirty three followers, plus anyone else who happens to wander by. I hope that Christmas is good for you, and brings you everything you wish for, and that the new year brings you plenty of health and prosperity.

Credit where it's due, this art is from Deviant Art web site, and is by an artist called wondermanrules.

Ho Ho Ho.

Pulp Hero WIP

Pulp is a genre of American writing, predominately from the 1930's and 1940's, which features extraordinary heroes battling it out with the likes of Nazis, dinosaurs, cavemen and so fourth. It's long been an era that has interested me, especially considering that these all-American heroes, such as Phantom, The Shadow and Rocket Man are really the precursors for the four colour heroes.
I am planning to get on and do some more Pulp stuff in 2011, as is me old chum Leon. Originally I painted my pulp miniatures with a view to role-playing, but Leon and I have recently decided it would be fun to do a few skirmish games too.
Here is the first of my new wave of pulp minis painted specifically for skirmish games. This is one of the American Rocketeers Corp. These brave and adventurous individuals are always vigilant when it comes to protecting the American way form the nefarious plots of the villainous Nazis!
I thought I would post this picture to show you what I am up to, but I posted it as a WIP as I am not entirely happy with the green for the helmet and rocket pack; I might yet repaint it. Obviously I also need to flock his base etc. I plan to paint six of these guys- kindly given to me by Leon, presumably to kick start me back into the pulp mood- well it worked!
These lovely minis are made by Pulp Figures over in Canada, which is probably one of the best ranges of pulp ere minis out (along with Artizan Designs Thrilling Tales range).

Christmas Madness Pulp City Battle Report!

"Twas the night before Christmas all through the house

Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse."

Things are seldom that peaceful in Pulp City, even at Christmas, and this year is no different.

This is a bit of Christmas silliness my regular Pulp City opponent, Leon (aka Pulp Citizen) got up to recently. It's just a bit of fun.

Through the evil plotting and arcane experiments of arch-villain Mysterious Man, The essences of the mythical Spirit of Christmas has been split into two parts. The first part, the bit that likes to reward all the children in the world who have been good, and who braves the Arctic winters to bring joy to the world, has become Good Santa. Unfortunatly, the other part of Santa, the part that likes to swig brandy and scoff mince pies, and punish the naughty children, has become Bad Santa!

Bad Santa is hell bent on ruining Christmas for everyone by building an army of evil toys and terrible snow men to help him take over the world. To do this he needs to capture the mythical Snowman's Hat. With the hat, he will have all the power he needs to ruin Christmas for ever. Bad Santa Has assembled a team of unscrupulous villains to help him capture the Snowman's Hat.

Bad Santa with Evil Toy and Terrible Snowmen minions, Francis Gator, Guerrilla, Sanguine and his little vampire dog Draku. (Controlled by Me)

Luckily for everyone else, The Good Santa has also assembled some allies from amongst the heroes of Pulp City, and is determined to stop Bad Santa capturing the Snowman's Hat.

Good Santa with Kitty Cheshire, Iron Train, Crimson Phoenix (a play test character) and two Vigilante Minions. (controlled by Leon, Aka Pulp Citizen)

Bad Santa's team got off to a sterling start, when the vampire Sanguine surged forward to grab the hat. Good Santa's team seemed surprised by the sudden move, but soon recovered. The heroes advanced as a team, slow but sure.

Good Santa advances behind Iron Train, whose massive armoured body acts as a mobile shield.

As the evil minions advance the civilians run for cover!

Kitty Cheshire phases through a car, supported by two vigilantes, and manages to take down Sanguine. Bad Santa then cuts her down in a hail of gunfire.

Kitty and her allies take out the vampire Sanguine before he can make good his escape. The Snowman's Hat is still up for grabs.

Iron Train smashes right through a Terrible Snowman like a snow plow.

Good Santa grabs the hat while Crimson Phoenix leaps into action against Bad Santa. Bad Santa's minions launch themselves ant the vigilantes, heedless of the dangers, but prove to be no match for the good guys. A violent brawl erupts in the center of the table, before Bad Santa is taken down by Crimson Phoenix's Five Fingered Death Punch.

Iron Train then fights a heroic rear-guard action against Francis Gator and Guerrilla, while Good Santa Makes good his escape with the Snowman's Hat.

Iron Train takes out Gator, but both Iron Train and Guerrilla prove well matched, and a Titanic battle ensues, with neither one of them able to best the other.

Good Santa escapes with the Snowman's Hat, heroically saving Christmas for everyone (Hooray!)

I hope you enjoyed this bit of Christmas Madness. It was lots of fun to play, even if I was cursed by the gods of crappy dice rolling. Check out Leon's excellent Blog, Pulp Citizen, devoted, as you might guess, to all things Pulp City. Leon will be posting his own version of the battle report, which may give a different perspective on the fight.

Leon set himself a challenge at the beginning of the year, to paint the entire range of Pulp City Figures before new year- keep checking his blog and see how much progress he is making as the deadline approaches. He has already made a herculean effort, not helped by the fact that the guys at Pulp Monsters keep bringing out more minis! He only has a few more left, and needs all the support he can get, so why not pop over to is blog and post an encouraging message.

Merry Christmas every one.

Narg Slave Race

The Unnargs are a sub-race of the Narg aliens, believed for have developed into a distinct species millenia ago. The Narg's view the Unnargs as little more that beasts, and have enslaved the entire species. In Narg society the Unnargs are employed exclusively for hard manual labour, something the Nargs are physiologically unpredisposed towards. Generations of selective breading, and later genetic manipulation, have produced a people that are strong and durable, yet docile and easily trained. Unnargs have been known to exhibit rudimentary psyonic powers, especially empathy. Their peaceful nature is likely to make them a rare sight as part of any invasion force.

This mini is an alien made my Hasslefree. I picked it up at Salute 2010, and have finally got around to painting it. It is obviously a relative of the Grey aliens I bought from Black Cat Bases.

New Superhero Sighted- Fatastic Elastic

The newspapers are ablaze with the story of the cities latest superhero, spotted yesterday preventing a bank heist. The Hero, who calls himself 'Fantastic Elastic', is seemingly unaffiliated with any of the existing super teams. An unnamed source close to Fantastic Elastic revealed that he developed his astounding stretching powers after a freak accident in a chemical laboratory. In addition to being able to stretch, his rubbery body is resilient to damage, and regenerate extraordinary quickly.

This one was a quicky, because I was aware that I haven't posted any superheros lately, just lots of villains and thugs.I also needed a stretchy guy, as I am using the excellent Squadron UK RPG for the forth coming supers campaign, and it features a rather unique random power generation table, and I keep on rolling stretch powers. This it the first mini I have painted who is obviously a stretcher.

This is a Mutants and Madmen miniature, by Black Hat Miniatures (not to be confused with Black Cat Bases, who make the grey aliens I have been painting). I picked up at Salute 2010. He stands 50mm tall. His legs too thin to easily take off his tab, so I opted for a slotta base for a change.

Christmas Madness Returns!

It's December and yet again I am feeling the tell tale signs of Christmas Madness creeping in: Eating too many mince pies, drinking Stones Ginger Wine, and painting inappropriate Christmas themed miniatures. Last years Christmas Madness featured evil snow man, Bad Santa, pulp heroic Santa and some very naughty toys. This years madness will feature some more unsuitable miniatures, and even a special battle report- stay tuned in, and be good for goodness sake.

No really- be good.

Christmas madness kicks of with a zombie-contagion outbreak in the Santa's Grotto at a Birmingham based department store. The resulting outbreak lead to a brief situation when the entire Bullring Shopping center was placed under quarantine until specially trained police squads and Superheroes from Team Metro managed to get the situation under control. Normal Christmas shopping was resumed after a few hours, and the relentless march of consumerism continued unabated.

As an aside, this particular outbreak of the contagion was blamed on some cheap plastic toys imported from China. Chinese authorities have, of course, denied that the contagion started in their country, and blamed western imperialism for the outbreak.

These miniature are made by Studio Miniatures. Me old mate Leon bought them for me in the summer when I was laid up with a bad knee. He wisely realised that it would take me six months to get round to basing them and paining them in time for the onset of Christmas Madness. Cheers Lee.
I would have to say that painting these was a lot of fun. They are superb sculpts, with hardly any mold lines or flash. A highly recommended product!

Battle Cars Reinforced!

Charlie and I have made two more battle cars for our crazy post-Apocalypse Mad Max thing.

Charlie created The Exorcist for his gang boss. Traveling in style, this '47 Chevy is fully tooled up fro offencive play, featuring twin bazookas, and a massive roof-mounted automatic cannon. That's serous firepower for anyone unlucky enough to find itself in front of this bad boy.

My VW Camper, Aka Grunge, belongs to a traveling band on hippy-rockers. It's tooled up with twin-linked military pulse lasers in a turret, smoke launchers and a reinforced crew compartment, making it far more defencive than Charlies vicious car.

For this lot, I broke my self-imposed rule about doing things cheaply, and splashed out £4 for the VW camper off eBay. The thing was so battered it barley had any of it's original paint on, and I know I payed over the odds for it, but I love the classic camper van so much I had to have one in my gang. Again weapons are by Games Workshop, and cars are by hot wheels (Chevy) and matchbox (VW).

Now we have got three cars a piece I think we have enough to start gaming. Charlie and I will try out the Axel and Alloys rules, and I will post a battle report, probably early in the new year.

Rat Catcher Returns With Minions!

The evil Rat Catcher is rumoured to have recruited some minions to help him commit his wicked crimes. From the deepest depth of the city sewers he has brought forth giant rats, to do his bidding. His reign of terror shows no sign of slowing, despite the best efforts of the city officials and superheroes to unearth his subterranean lair.

In addition to the giant rats, he has also been sited in the company of hideous mutant giant rats. No one knows where these monstrous creatures came form, but they seems as loyal and as vicious as a pack of wolves.

I found these lovely miniatures whist sorting out some stuff for eBay in the garage. They are Games Workshop- presumably from the Skaven range (but the mutants rats might be from Necromunda). I based them on resin bases by Fenris, to be in keeping with the rest of my supers range, and with The Rat Catcher in particular. They had thin integral bases which would have been very difficult to remove without damaging their spindly legs, so I filled them back and disguised them with a bit of fine sand.

Can I say a big hello to my new followers, SR, Smillie and Zanazaz. I hope you like what you see.