VBCW Card stock Terrace Houses

I have been on the look out for an inexpensive way to represent industrial towns like Ellesmere Port and Birkenhead in my VBCW games. Warbases make one in MDF, but I need loads- enough for a 2 foot by 4 fot are at least, and the cost of the Warbases models is just too much for what I had in mind. To solve this problem I ordered ModelBuilder by Evan Models form America. ModelBuilder is a program that let's you design, print off and build your own buildings.
Here are a couple of pictures of my 28mm scale terrace house prototype. The program is very versatile and can make models in various scales. I have been working on some 15mm buildings for my 15mm Zombie Apocalypse games too.

Pumpkin Teaser

I have been busy making some markers for a secret Halloween project for this blog. At the moment it is so tippty-top secret that I can't let on what we are going to do with them (it's a surprise).
I sculpted them from green stuff and stuck them onto 40 mm resin bases.

Trick or treat?

More VBCW Reds for the Wirral Socialist Workers

Work continues on expanding my Socialist force for 1938: A Very British Civil Was (VBCW for short). This comes ahead of the Big Game 4 to be held in Evesham at the end of October.

In my VBCW game, my force represents the paramilitary forces of the Wirral Socialist Workers Council. The WSW Control most of the Wirral, a peninsular in the North West of England. They are in conflict with the royalist forces based in Chester, and are allied to the besieged Liverpool Free State. The so called 'Chester Front' is a line of trench works and defences across the southern portion of the Wirral, stretching from Whitby to Burton. As yet the Royalists have failed to make significant in roads into the Wirral, instead concentrating the bulk of their forces on besieging Liverpool, while the WSW lack the manpower and resources to push their lines any further. Perhaps all that is about to change.

The Maxim HMG is a veteran of a weapon, having seen service in one form or another in every major conflict for the last fifty years. The WSW have recently taken delivery of a handful of these precious weapons from supporters in Russia, via their allies in Liverpool.

Soviet army instructors have been schooling snipers from Liverpool and the Wirral. In accordance with their doctrine the Sniper Platoon has been reinforced by specially trained 'spotters' armed with PPD35 SMGs (again, thanks to their Russian patrons)

Communication is vital in modern warfare. In 1938 radios are bulky, rare, difficult to maintain and unreliable. It's far better to rely on the tried and tested methods like semaphore, runners, field telephones and alike. This heroine of the socialist movement has been trained in semaphore and attached to the WSW Brigade head quarters.

During a civil war moral can be difficult to maintain. To ensure that the Socialist workers of Wirral are following their orders properly the Party has appointed a number of 'Political Officers'.

The political officer and the HMG are by Black Tree Designs (from their NKVD range). I clipped off the top of the gun crew's peaked caps and added a blob of green stuff to make flat caps. The spotter is by Black Tree Designs too, from the Soviet army range. The signalswoman if converted from a Copplstone castings Bolshevik Heroine.

Some Sillyness I Have Been Sculpting

Sometimes I get overtaken by odd urges.

These usually come when I have been spending too long looking at other peoples 'greens' (by which, I mean their sculptures for figures, so called because they are usually made from a green putty known as 'green stuff'). When I am overcome by these urges I have to break out my tools and have a go myself.

Unfortunately for me - and fortunately for the countless small companies making miniatures who would be my natural rival, I am not actually very good at sculpting. Unless you have actually given it a go, it is hard to appreciate just how difficult it is, and how much skill is possessed by the men and women who make 28mm figures for us wargamers to enjoy.

An alien bug-creature, evolved on a low gravity world, where it's tiny tentacle-like legs can shift it's massive bulk.

A giant alien leach creature.

I can't tell you what this is for, it's a surprise!

Dockyard Showdown

Last week my old mate Leon and I fought a brutal battle in the dock yards of Pulp City. Leon has made an amazing battle report, in the form of a comic strip- you can see it on his blog 'Pulp Citizen'. It has to be seen to be believed.
Rather than trawl over old ground and report the same battle as Leon here is a couple of pictures of the two teams involved in the battle. All the figures and scenery are Leon's, so I can't take any credit.
I did take the pictures though.

Leon used a hero team, Blood Watch: Sergeant Bale, Red Riding Hoodo, Six Feet Under, Blood Rose, Loup Garou and Moon Child/Moon Coyote; With Jane Summers and some Vigailntes in the back ground.

My team, A.R.C the mutant primate supervillains consisted of Howler, Le Murtiple, Silver Ager, Doctor Red, Chimp Chi and Guerrilla. And a couple of stolen sentry bots programed and bobby trapped by Doctor Red.

Pop over to Leon's site for his fantastic battle report- not to be missed.

Mmmm...Tiny Brains....

I have been rather busy of late, getting my VBCW brigade ready for the next Big Game in Evesham in October (I will post pictures of some of the new VBCW stuff soon), but I have found time to add a few more zeds to my growing (or should that be groaning?) horde of 15mm zombies from Rebel Miniatures. I think I have got much better at painting them, as I am starting to get used to the smaller scale figures.

This larger zombie-lady is a stripey summer dress.

The vertical stripes are quite slimming.

A couple of unfortunates seen at the local mall.

This is my favorite. This victim was still in bed when he was attacked. Mercifully for us he was in his PJ's.

As you can see, these zombies are basically the same model twice over- The pack of zombies has 22 figures in it, with 11 unique sculpts. I bought two packs, so I have four of each figure in my horde. I have been careful to paint them differently, so they stand out as individuals.

tiny 15mm Zombie Apocolyps

Sometimes the madness grips you and you just have to buy the latest shiny thing you have found, regardless of how practical this is. That's my excuse for embarking on yet another side project.

The other night, while looking for some stuff for my Flames of War army, I accidentally stumbled upon Rebel Miniatures, a US based manufactures producing odd 15mm figures, and I was particularly drawn to their 15mm modern zombie range. Now that obvious advantage of 15mm for zombies is that you can get an absolutely massive horde painted quite quickly,and for not too much money. I promptly ordered a few packs of zombies, zombie dogs and survivors, just to see what they are like. They arrived quickly,and I set to work.

The first few looked too dirty,as I got a little heavy-handed with the ink washes- I am not used to 15mm scale, and you don't need to use as much ink to achieved the right effect. Once I got the hang of it I was quite pleased with the results. Here's some of my survivors.

Burt used to own a gun store, and his sidearm of choice is the Desert Eagle .50 - more than enough stopping power for your average zed, and intimidating enough to put off most looters too.

Tank Girl claims to have been in the military, but here extremely aggressive nature and psychotic behaviour has lead her companions to suspect that she is just some crazed paranoid survivalist.

Lobo Sanchez used to run with street gang called the Saints. Now the Saints are all dead and Sanchez is on his own. A natural killer with street sharpened reflexes- he is born to survive.

Here's a few pictures of my growing Zombie horde- some are better than the others, but I think my technique is getting better.

A suburban family

Fast and deadly- Zombie dogs are a major problem in urban areas

An assortment of Zombiefied civilians.

Fire Support for the Chester Milita

More reinforcements for the Chester Local Defence Force, courtesy of the Duke of Farhams contacts in the military. In this case, they bring some much needed fire support to the beleaguered militiamen.

The venerable Lewis Gun light machine gun, still widely in service in the British army, and an imported Bergman SMG add support at a squad level, while the platoon in bolstered by the addition of a Boys Anti-Tank rifle to hold off the Socialist's armoured cars.

The Lewis Gunner is by Musketeer Miniatures, with a minor conversion (i.e. the addition of a helmet from the BAM plastic Tommie's sprue). The SMG is a Black Tree Designs (I think) with a head-swap for a West Wind WW2 British Army head. The Boys Rifle team are by Musketeer Miniatures, and have not been converted.

Askari and Simba

Askari is a supervillian from East Africa, who works an an international mercenary, hiring herself out to anyone who can afford her exorbitant fees. In the past she has worked for terrorist organisations, tyrannical dictators, unscrupulous multinational corporations, organised criminal and even pirates. So long as she is paid, she will fight for anyone, regardless of their motives or methods.

Askari is a 'Feral', a rare class of super with enhances strength, toughness and reflexes, coupled with uncanny senses. She is accompanied every where by here faithful lion, Simba.

The figure for Askari is a Superfig, which I got of Leon (cheers) when he was having a bit of a clear out. I have had the lion for many years, and I have n idea who it is by (it might be Ral Patha). The lion's sculpt is quite poor, but I managed to add some shading and highlighting to add some definition where it was lacking.

More Bits of Scenery

The "Scenery Making Marathon" continues to gather pace, with some more long awaited projects being finished off.

These little 15mm scale houses are made by Sarrissa Precision, an excellent new company making scenery in various scales using Laser-cut MDF. Like their rivals Warbases, this company's products are well made and beautifully put together- I am not so pleased about the chimneys, which I feel could have been better finished, but the models are great fun to put together and to paint- much nicer than working with resin cast buildings.
Obviously I got these to use with my 15mm Flames of War armies, and as such they are painted in a style suggestive of Normandy and northern Europe, but with a different paint scheme could serve as British terrace houses for a 15mm VBCW Game (not that I am about to change scale).
I plan to do some more in the near futures too.



Next, I didn't make this one, but I bought it from the pet shop instead. It cost £12.99, painted exactly as you see it- All I had to do was cut the price tag off.
It's supposed to go in a fish tank, but instead its going to grace my jungle boards- I can see this being useful in all sorts of games, from Conan to AE Bounty. If this was sold as a piece of wargaming scenery I would have paid more than £12.99 for it, for sure. And I would have ended up having to paint it, and pay postage on it too!
A bargain, if you ask me.

Finally, for now at least, a hobbit hole- scratch built by me. With my steadily growing hobbit army for Lord of the Rings I thought I needed some suitable scenery- this is a prototype, but I am so pleased with it that I will certainly make some more.
Here's a link to a sort of WIP/Tutorial as to how I made it on the Lead Adventure Forum here.

Coming soon....Another 28mm VBCW factory, and more 15mm Flames of War French buildings.