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.

Check this out! I found it amongst the amazing art of Deviant Art, my favorite online art website. I have to say, this is an inspirational piece of knitwear.

This is the Cthulu Ski mask- and I love it. The artists gives the

details of the designs so anyone as crazy as he is can have ago at making their own! Do check out Deviant Art, if you are not familiar with it already. I loose hours of my like browsing the art there- It beats the Tate hands down, in my humble (and biased) opinion

These two chaps of advisors for my Liverpudlian Socialist army for 1938: A Very British Civil War aka VBCW (If this means nothing too you yet scroll down for a more detailed expansion of what VBCW is all about).
The strapping Johnny Foreigner on the left is an advisor from the Russian army, Commissar Boris Lavrov. Although the Soviets are keen to maintain the image they are not getting embroiled it the British civil war, they are already supplying the Liverpool based soviets with weapons, training and even three tanks. Lavrov's task is to help train the officers of the Socialist army.
The older gent is the distinguished political thinker, and left wing activist professor Ernest Ramsbottom. When the civil war erupted, Ramsbottom left the relative safety of his Essex home to join with his socialist comrades in Liverpool. The old professor is not much of a fighter, but is towering intellect and his academic authority have been recognised by the leadership of the Liverpool Socialists, and they are glad to have him aboard.

Both these excellent figures are from Artizan Designs Trilling Tales range, probably one of the best rangers of VBCW-type figures around. They are a great pleasure to paint.

Poison Thorn is believed to be a mutant Supervillainess who has the ability to telekinetic control plants, causing them to become animated, as if possessing a malign intelligence of their own. Some claim she is an Eco-warrior, fighting multinational corporations in an effort to protect the environment, but others claim she is a terrorist, or even a thief out to line her own pockets.

This figure is part of the Mutants and Madmen range. I picked it up at Salute, and have to say that I was rather underwhelmed by it. The mini is very generic, which is a good thing, as it lets me paint it as any sort of super I like, but the pose is so bland, and the figure lacks any dynamic movement; even the face is blank and expressionless. I had to work quite hard to get some sense of character into the model. By the way, the over the to tarty make up is deliberate, as I was trying to evoke the image of Uma Thurman from that dreadful batman movie (with, I would have to admit, very little success- it would take a better painter than me to make this mini look like Uma).
All that aside, at least this is another four colour super mini, for all you fans of this blogs Core content. Hopefully that should stop Leon moaning for a bit longer. I have a few more supers in the pipelines, so keep checking.

I have been spending a lot of my spare time playing Red Dead Redemption on the Xbox, and it is having a peculiar effect on me. For the uninitiated, Red Dead Redemption is a cowboy game. It is without doubt one of the best drawn games I have ever seen, with every screen shot feeling like it was taken right out of a Spaghetti Western. Needless to say, this has inspired me to push forward with my cowboy project, and so today I have spent almost the entire day making more scenery for my Western table. Leon and I have had one game of Legends of the Old West, by Warhammer Historical, and really enjoyed it, but I realised we needed lots more scenery. As well shops, a saloon, sheriffs office etc to represent the frontier town of Deadhorse, we need some hills, scrub and rocks to represent the desert too. Some of the buildings, like the shops, will be 'classic' western-style, but a few, like the barns, stables and fences, will be generic enough for me to press them into service for the Very British Civil War too, so I will be killing two birds with one stone.

There are a number of good manufactures who make western scenery, but it is sadly rather expensive, and due to the budgetary constraints I find myself saddled with I began ferreting in the garage and found enough balsa and card to make a start myself. Here's a couple of WIP pictures of what I have been up to today.

The first is a bank. The front was made by Snapdragon studios. Sadly they no longer offer this range, but Total System Scenic (TSS) offer a very similar product (Link). The back is scratch built. The flat roof is useful to add different dimensions to the game. The stable block and the shack are both by Warbases. I picked them up at Salute this year. They are very reasonably prices and well made. I just need to finish them off by adding a tiled roof. The picket fence is something Leon picked up. It was 1/32 scale, but works really well for the cowboys as a slightly larger fence. I based it on a strip of plasticard, and sanded it. I think they look great.

The second picture is of some cacti I have assembled from a Pegasus kit Leon gave me. He bought them with a project in mind, but decided he was probably never going to finish it, so generously gave them to me. I based them on 1p and 2p coins. I just need to sand them and paint them.

Well on the way to having the table ready now. I think I deserve a well earned rest. Time to boot up the Xbox and get back to Red Dead Redemption.