VBCW: Street Lamps

I think that when it comes to stocking a table with scenery for VBCW it is the little details that make all the difference and set it in the right 'Period'. For example, you might have a 16th century timbered farm house, but if it's next to a Bright Red 20th century phone box suddenly it is in a very specific time and place. These Lampposts are very much the same sort of thing- a little detail that helps make it all seem more 'realistic'. 

These were a pressie of my old mate Pulp Citizen and they are from the Tamiya military roads signs set (1/48 scale). I have ten of the painted up- and they should be good for any game set from Victorian times to modern day. They were quick to assemble and paint- makes you wonder why it took me twelve month to get round to doing them?

Burma: Chindit Force Ready For Action

I began work on my 'Burma Campaign' at the beginning of the year- intending to build an a Chindit army and a Japanese army to play Bolt Action. I though it would only take a few months but then I got distracted by zombies and what have you- and so it has taken a bit longer than planned, but now I can finally say that the Chindist are finished( for now) and that the IJA will be finished before Christmas. Here they are...

 This is a 1000 PV force for Bolt Action. It is based on a Chindit force from 1943-44. There is s a mix of Stens and Thopmson SMG's, and the Boys ATR has been replaced with the PIAT. 

Here is my Platoon CO. He is wearing a cap instead of the more usual bush hat.

 Medical Officer. Not this one has taken to wearing a side arm- not really in keeping with the spirit of the Geneva Convention- but in Burma things got a bit nasty. 

A Chindit MMG crew

The Chindit Figures are from various sources- Warlord Games, Wargames Foundry and The Assault Group.

 I think the Officers might be Black Tree Designs, but I am not sure. 

I also painted some scenery- bunkers and rocks- I am not sure who made the bunkers- I bought/swapped them on Lead Adventure Forum.  I don't even know if they are made by the same manufacturer.  The rocks are by Total System Scenics and will be generic enough to work in the middle of a Burmese jungle, or Middlesex or even Middle Earth. I love generic terrain. 

VBCW: Black and White Timbered Building

The relentless scenery painting surge continues unabated- this week you can see that I have painted a black and white timbered building- this is one of the laser cut ones. I am not sure who made this one, but I bought and assembled it about a year ago, but haven't got round to painting it. Until now.
Nowadays you can buy preprinted buildings- like the F+IW ones I finished last week, which might have saved a bit of bother, but I am happy with the way it tuned out. 
Now historical purists might pint out that these Tudor period timbered buildings were not actually black and white, as they tended to be left the natural colours- and in parts of England were even pink as the daub was stained with ox blood (you learn many things on this blog): But to those people I say 'Bhar! You know nothing!'. This building has been painted up for my own Very British Civil War campaign, which is set in 1938 in the environs of Chester- where in the 1920-30s local history enthusiast thought black and white was the appropriate colour for old Tudor buildings and went around nagging people to repaint their buildings in the 'authentic' colours. 

This building will also be useful for WW2, and even pirates, so it should see some use. 

French and Indian Wars: Two Log Cabins

Following my rather exhausting Zomtober I have been having a change of pace and trying to finish some 

half-complete building projects. here are a couple of log cabins I can use for my French and Indian Wars- I am going to use Musket and Tomahawks as a rule set.

These cabins are from 4Ground and are quite lovely- they are pre-painted too, which is a bonus. I did, however, repaint the roofs as I din't like the finish that they had. that was a quick and easy job that only took 1/2 hour. 

I love the fact that these models have nicely detailed interiors too!

Halloween Madness 3: The Dead Walk

Regular readers will know that each year Pulp Citizen and I get together and have a game of Pulp City themed on Halloween. This years wacky game features a LOT of zombies. Superhero on zombie action- What's not to like? 

Pulp citizen has take my photos and tuned them into a story in is usual style- It's very cool but its epic, so rather than reproduce the entire battle report here, I would rather refer you to his excellent blog. 

Pulp citizen is a Pulp City obsessed nut, but he is also one of the writers working on the second edition of the rules, so we used a play test version of second edition. If there is anything that seems a bit odd, that is probably why. 

Anyway, with out further ado here is a link to Pulp Citizen's Blog- I hope you enjoy. 

Zomtober 2013: Final Round Up

Hi Guys and welcome to the final round-up of this months Zomtober for the dynamic duo painting team. This month Charlie and I have managed to paint a staggering 30 zombies and 11 survivors (it was meant to be 12 survivors but one went missing before he could be painted). That gives us enough zombie apocalypses stuff to start our own campaign. We cold do with a few more bits of scenery, but we have made a good start. 

Butch: Generally known as 'Fat Bloke' by Charlie. Butch spent too long playing Battlefield and Call of Duty on his Xbox. He is very over weight, but is convinced his virtual experience has given him the skills to survive a zombie attack. (painted by Charlie)

Joe the mechanic: Joe might not be the best fighter, but he can fix anything- just what you need when you need to hot wire a hummer in a hurry.
(painted by me)

Here are all the survivors including the luckless Graham. Figures are plastic from Wargames Factory

And here are all 30 Zombie. Again they are plastic and are from Mantic

Escape from Zombie Town : A Zombie Battle Report

In order to celebrate a rather successful Zomtober, Charlie and I decided to take all our zombies and our freshly painted zombie survivors to the Wargames Store on the Wirral for a game. It gave us a chance to game in a built up urban environment, because I haven't got much scenery suitable for a Zombie Apocalypse setting. 

Once again we used FUBAR, modified with a few house rules to make each of the survivors unique. The scenario was a simple 'get across the table top and off the opposite side' affair.

In FUBAR both the zombies and the characters activate on a dice roll, which is excellent as if creates a lot of unpredictability and drama, while helping to recreate the whole zombie movie vibe: Foolhardy survivors dashing off ahead on their own, and others lagging behind to be picked off by the packs of zombies. In our house rules we have zombies spawning at random in packs of five, and roll a single activation for the whole pack. Survivors roll to activate separately, as if they were one man squads. 

The survivors move through a ruined landscape of a factory destroyed in a fire. If they can only make it across the canal they will be safe.

The survivors (from L to R) Graham the office worker, Scott the mall cop, Hank the construction worker, Stan the gangster,
Giovanni the chef/hit-man, Marcus the bad ass biker

The survivors get a glimpse of some of the Dead shambling around on the road up ahead. If they can just make it to the foot bridge over the canal before the Dead spot them they should be safe. 

Hank dashes off ahead, but realises too late that another pack of the Dead has cut off their rout to the footbridge. There is nothing left but to fight their way through.

More Dead start swarming across the road bridge, attracted by the living. Things are looking dangerous now. 

'I've got your back son.'
The professional chef/hit-man Giovanni moves up behind Hank to give covering fire. 

Startled by the gunfire Graham starts to hangs back, but realise too late his mistake, as more Dead begin lumbering out of the ruined factory complex!

Hurrrm! Brains! Graham starts to run as the Dead surge after him. 

By now the rest of the survivors have managed to shoot their way through the Dead to reach the footbridge over the canal. But the Dead are closing in on them. 

Graham makes it to the top of the ramp, pursued by a pack of the Dead thirsting for his brains. More Dead  start pouring in from every direction. Will Graham make it too the footbridge?

The Dead grab Graham. He manages to brain one of them with his crowbar, as the rest surge around him, dragging at his flesh with their vicious claws. 

On the footbridge Scott and Giovanni try desperately to hold off the ever growing numbers of Dead, trying to buy time for Graham and the others to make it to safety. 

It's too late for Graham, as the Dead finally tear him limb from limb. 

Giovanni, ever the professional, holds the bridge long enough for the rest of the survivors to make it off the bridge to safety. The steady tap tap of his assault rifle drops one Dead after another as he cautiously falls back. 

The remaining survivors (Hank, Giovanni, Scott, Marcus and Stan) make it to relative safety  and live to fight another day. Graham has presumably joined the ranks of the Dead. 

This was a great game and was full of highlights and excitement. Once again FUBAR proved itself a worthy rule set for a pick-up-and-play zombie game, providing the right mix of drama and action. 

I would like to commend the Wargames Store for their help. They were very friendly and so were the other customers who all took time out to come over and see what Charlie and I were up to. The gaming table was very suitable for the game, and gave us some good ideas. 

I hope you like the AAR, and find it a fitting tribute to all the bloggers  who have joined in this Zomtober. 

Zomtober 2013: Week Four

Week four of Zomtober has seen some strong progress towards our goals. We added three survivors and eight more zombies. We are still short of the planned 30 zeds and 12 survivors, but as it is the October holidays Charlie and I are hoping we can get them finished (Actually we have lost one of the survivors- so it will be 11 in total).

Yesterday Pulp Citizen and I played a game of Pulp City featuring every zombie we have painted- and believe me that is a lot! stay tuned for some Superhero vs. Zombie action in the next few days.

For this Zomtober entry we have three survivors. 

Lewis: Aspiring gangster rapper.

 Before the Apocalypse Lewis built up an arsenal of weapons to give him street cred. Since the coming of the zombies he has put them to good use.

 (painted by me)

Scott the Mall Cop:

 Protecting and serving the community with a shotgun he 'borrowed' from the sporting goods store!

(painted by me)

Graham: A over-stressed office worker who has come to realise that in order to survive the Zombie Apocalypse he must get aggressive.  Office politics takes on a new twist when Doris from accounts is trying to eat your brain. 

(Painted by Charlie)

We also added to our zombie horde- completing another eight. This brings our total to 18. We have adopted a real workshop approach, with me working on the skin, Charlie adding blood, rags and hair, them me finishing off with the bases.  It's a system that seems to work well. 

Zomtober 2013: Week Three



Week three has seen a bit of a slow down as I have been a bit busy in the house, doing DIY, while Charlie has had loads of homework. We have a few WIP, but only turned out one survivor each.

I did Marcus the biker- I am particularly pleased with the leathers and his tea-shirt. Charlie did Billy, a character he certainly empathised with. Hope you like...

Before the Zombie Apocalypse Marcus was a motorbike courier. He is a tough, no-nonsense character with a strong independent streak. His favourite weapon is the machete he picked up in a hardware store, which he uses to behead any zombies who get too close.

Billy 'the Kid', as he has become known by the other survivors is a street smart skater boy, who has survived the zombie apocalypse thanks to his quick wits and bravery. Other survivors tend to look after him, but the truth is he is more than capable of looking after himself.

I Just want to add how amazing this Zomtober has been so far- it's great to see everyone's blogs, and all the new zombies and survivors Zomtober is spawning!

Zomtober 2013: Week Two

Here's this weeks entry. Having taught the Monkey Boy Charlie how to paint zombies he got to work in his relentless style. Within a couple of days he had clocked up nine finished models- and I am well-chuffed with them! They are so good that they are completely indistinguishable from the one I painted. I painted in eyes and teeth, then I painted the bases. Charlie doesn't like to do the faces and bases, but for me they are my favorite bit: I find it relaxing after a hard day at work. 

The only trouble is now I have got to put together a load more, before he starts moaning he has got nothing left to paint!

As well as faces and bases, I have managed to turn out one survivor- here he is. Again I used the Wargames Factory plastics. 

Ex gang member Stanley and his AK.

The AK47: The best there is. When you absolutely, positively have to execute every zombie in the room, except no substitute.