Near Future Troopers (part 2)

 

5 more troopers to join the initial dirty dozen. Still all from the Copplestone Castings range of Future Wars Assault Troopers, these are a selection from the two character packs. I'd have painted up the remaining 5 as well if I could find where I'd squirreled them away to, but these guys give me an easily identifiable leader.

All the dice rolls have been made for my first game, although there is a slight delay as I paint up the first alien assailant. I know you can use any figure, but when you roll a result and know you have a perfect miniature in you collection that just needs some attention with a paint brush you just have to postpone, don't you??

Near Future Troopers (part 1)

 

The first set of Troopers for Majestic 13 have been completed. 

WIP - Majestic 13 Troopers

 

I picked up a copy of Snarling Badgers new solo\coop ruleset "Majestic 13" this week, or at least the pdf with the hard copy on it's way. If you've not heard about it think "XCom", linked campaign missions of small squads taking on an Alien menace with different objectives and hazards. The game is miniature agnostic, so despite technically having figures already painted up that could step into the action, what better time than to delve into the depths of the lead pile and get some new painted figures done. It's almost as if we are forward planning or something!

Biker Gang

As a bit of a change from sci-fi I thought I'd do some figures that I've no real agenda for. These Copplestone Bikers have been sitting primed for a long time so it's nice to be able to have them ready for any Zombie games (like County Road Z which I keep looking at!)

Zomtober - Week 5

Final Week in Zomtober and probably my favourite mini of the month. This punk is from Hasslefree and goes under the rather unassuming name of Joe. The scuplting is so tipically smooth that I was encouraged to a bit more detailing than I normally do. I had a bash at a Union Flag on his t-shirt and an anarchy symbol on this back. The t-shirt doesn't bear up to too close scrutiny, but from the tabletop distance looks like its meant to, so result. Also the way his left eye had come out (from my variable painting) made me think it looked a bit swollen, so I've tried to give him a black eye showing he's been in a rumble and come out the other side!

The second of this week's figures is Cleaver Vine from West Winds sidelined Road Kill range. He is slightly on the heroic side of scaling, but the pose brings his height down. I always have trouble with faces and eyes and this figure was a bit awkward as his eyeballs have been sculpted almost popping out his head. But the cigar, haircut and dynamic pose are are winners.

All that remains is to thank and congratulate all the other participants in this years event. There have been some great and interesting models across the board. And also to finish with the customary group shot:

Zomtober - Week 4

With the October break this week time was short for painting (was away with the family on a short break to South Ayrshire, Scotland), but a couple of simple paint jobs have seen me through!

Two survivors possibly from different ends of the social scale this week. First up is a business woman from Foundry's Street Violence range.

The other survivor is by ZonbieSmith. His rifle seems to have been damaged at some point, which obviously hasn't done him any favours as I painted his Zed version for Zomtober a couple of years ago.

Zomtober - Week 3

The original (not) Rick and Carl from Studio Miniatures. These two are earlier releases which are more comic book based. S.M. have since released a couple of excellent sculpts of a more serious vein as per their later zombie survivor releases. I won them on ebay without the Lori figure. Also, strangely, the Rick figure has two pistols, whereas the website has him holding a rifle in his right hand. I don't know if they come with weapon options.

The Rick figure is really nice to paint. The Carl one is a bit cartoony, or at least small for his age. Having said that the wide brim of hat hides the face. He'll also probably mix well with some of my other kid figures, once they get painted..

EDIT: After writing this post I got round to pulling out some of my Walking Dead graphic novels. In these early volumes Carl is indeed very young and the sculpt above is quite accurate.

TT Combat Filling Station

Real life is trying to weigh me down a bit, so it took a bit longer than hoped to get this kit to a playable state. It didn't help that the cheap red paint that I'd picked up was a real pain. It was marked "water paint" which I naively took to mean acrylic turned out not to be anything of the kind. Despite being dry for the best part of a week , any fluid, including neat paint, caused it to re-activate and smear. Fortunately repeated blasts of Matt Varnish Spray (I daren't have brushed it on) sealed it enough for me to continue.

There is still work to do. I didn't like the large "DinoGas" signage that goes on the roof so didn't add it. Haven't had time to fill the holes yet. Also I've not had time to do a proper interior yet past gluing down a printed out floor.

But it all stands as playable enough for the moment as I'm aware that Zomtober has started properly now and those participating have rushed out with the early Sunday.

Rubbish!

A quick bit of street dressing painted up. Some wheely bins, bin bags from Black Cat Bases and good old trash cans (as T.C. would refer to them) from Studio Miniatures. All from making those alleyways more interesting. Also sprayed the toy set street lights I'd saved.

TT Combat Bus Shelters Completed

One of the brace of kits I ordered in from TT Combat was their Bus Stop set. It comes with 2 bus stops and 2 lamp posts.

Fat Dragon Buildings Added

Just a quicky.

With more time consuming pieces on the horizon, I printed out a couple of Fat Dragon buildings and put them together. They are simple kits and fly together. I didn't glue the room sections onto the walls as the collapsible version is handy for storage. The higher building has the fire escape option for extra play options.

I need to get some more card to add a couple more to properly have all those back alley venues.

The sky line was starting to look a bit flat, so I added the roof access on one and an AC Unit on the shop. Looking at it now, the taller building could really do with an old chair, etc next to the roof access. Perhaps with small sign saying "Burt Reynolds".

Zomtember?

Yes I know that Zomtember isn't a thing (it's actually Zomtober) but one of my main aims this year was to give Zombie gaming the attention I'd been so longing to give it for a few years now, so I've cleared my table (mostly) and decided to go early and for longer!

With around 50 or 60 zombies already painted, this period will have both Survivors and scenery in it, although I plan to still join the Zomtober crew when it starts and keep to the rules.

The streets are [too] empty

Fat Dragon Modern Buildings

During my Hobby Shed tidy-up I had call to check out my box of card stock modern\near future buildings (free from Germy and still recommended ). They haven't had a lot of use recently but were looking much the worse for wear all the same (especially as these were the first card stock builds I made - a bit of a cowboy job, even for me!).So I've been casually looking around for replacements (especially since Zomtober).

Tristan Flint Arrives

Well, to be fair to his painter he arrived a weeks ago, but I've taken some time to get him based. This was painted as part of a figure exchange I did with Tristan @ GWPertinent . I've just given him a plain urban base to set him off. With his colourful hairstyle and shorts he reminded me of Keith Flint of the Prodigy, so he shall forever now be named Tristan Flint.

Unreal CR3 Tournament



Sometimes it's better to
not pop round the corner

Halo*Star came visiting for a game. The brief was simple. The game had to be 3 player (Halo*star, Arabiansquire and myself) and the request was "something Necromunda-esque".

Now I have the latest Necromunda rulebook and it's all fine and good, but this was to be a one off game, so the gang advances which make the game so interesting were not an issue here. We'd all played a couple of Chain Reaction games and enjoyed the system, so I thought we could beef up abit to a 5150 game. But the inexperience of us all meant that I decided to keep the gangs generic and simple so everyone was running off the same rules, rolls and weapon lists. Armour was alse left out, meaning the higher impact energy weapons should be left out for balance. By this time I realised that I'd ended up back with CR3! Not a problem.

Arabiansquire's Heavy
takes one step too far.

Three identical 5 member squads were made up:

• Rep 5 Leader armed with BA pistol and high impact melee weapon
• Rep 4 "Heavy" armed with a chain gun or similar
• Rep 4 ganger armed with a shotgun,
• Rep 4 ganger armed with BA pistol
• Rep 3 "juve" armed with a pistol

 

As an objective I decided to run  a varient from the Domination mode in Unreal Tournament. 4 hotspots were located at various parts of the board. All are neutral at the start of the game. When a gang member stands on the hotspot it changes to their squad colour and their squad is awarded 1 point. If a member of another gang moves over the hotspot it changes to their squad colour and that squad gets a point (the previous team still retaining their earlier point). At the end of the alocated game time each squad is awarded 3 points for each hotspot in their colour. Any killed figures were not re-spawned, although in a larger game with more player controled squads this might be an idea. All other rules as per CR3. Simple. 

I threw down a load of scenery to keep the table busy and try and avoid the dullness of long range heavy weapons dominating the table (something that seems to happen too oftern in the Necromuda games I play!). Looking at the table I could really do with at least one more (preferably two) levels higher in terrain - ah well another project rears it's head!

And the boy becomes a man.

I'm not going to go into a full report but give a couple of key actions. Poor Halo*Star , (starting mid table) got off to a poor start and had to wait a couple of rounds to activate. Unfortunately his first "actions" were for losing his Heavy and making reaction rolls. ArabianSquire (starting at the top of the table) moved most his squad down the eastern side of the terrain, with a side squad  looking to pick off some of Halo*Star's figures and maybe get a point from a hotspot. Unfortunately he lost his Heavy to In Sight reaction fire as he tried to get a bead on some of them. my forces split as well. The majority looping round to the east picked up a hotspot and killed H*S's Heavy early doors before moving inland under the cover of the last remaining Heavy of the board. A splinter group also move up the western edge to counter A.S.'s main force. They managed to take down ArabianSquires leader as he ran round a corner, but eventually both fell victim to a plucky juve who recovered from a duck back, toughed out a received fire test and then "lucky shot" his way to clearing the opposition. Good Work!

Despite the carnage some points were scored and the game finished in 3 close scores (with me winning). We all agreed to was good fun, and the rules were beginning to sink in. We also all agreed that we needed to start picking up some gun based game tactics as tactics were generally in short supply!

Street Militia

The modern/horror figure painting continues with a set of 3 organised street militia (Wargames Foundry Mercenary Fire Team).
I had a bash at some Urban Camo for the trousers here for the first time. Had a peek round the web to try and find a nice tutorial but couldn't find any past colour choices and blobbing on a grey base coat. My attempt came out OK, although for future attempts I'll try and leave a bit more white visible.

Zombie Hunter Ray

It seems like an age since I last posted. Blog update wise it's only been a week but that's mainly due to the scheduling function of Blogger. With the weather hitting central Scotland hard in the fortnight so much my time has been spent clearing snow, worrying about travel,etc that there has been no time for gaming. You'd think being stuck indoors would have the opposite effect, but no. Actually I've not been stuck indoors - I've been shoveling!

Right enough weather whinging.

With the completion of my Cryx Bile Thralls I needed a break from Warmachine, and set upon this excellent mini - Ray from Hasslefree Miniatures. A really joy to paint, not only because I was concentrating on only one figure for a change!

More modern figures are lined up on the painting table as I type...

Flying Lead - First Game

"These Government cutbacks will be the death of me!" thought PC James as his backup arrived. HQ could only afford to send out 2 SWAT members, which seemed woefully little. He almost wished he'd never called in his sighting to Capri Bonnetti and her 4 henchmen entering the old industrial area!

Having a couple of hours "free", I thought I'd trial run my recent purchase of Ganesha Games "Flying Lead" ruleset. With their "Songs Of Blades..." (SoBH) rules being the one I play with the Arabiansquire for Fantasy skirmishes and having also MDRG, the changes hopefully wouldn't be too brutal but different enough to capture the flavour of the action.

Anyway, thoughts after the report.

Forces were kept small to around 250pts.

Cops:

Beat Cop: 26pts Q4+ C2 - Pistol, Handcuffs

SWAT Member: 80pts Q3+ C2 - Flash Bang Grenade, Pistol, Shotgun, Body Armour, Handcuffs, Personnal Comms

SWAT Sniper: 134pts Q3+ C3 - Semi-auto Rifle with Scope, Body armour, Marksman, Sniper, Personnal comms

 

Villians:

Capri: 112pts Q3+ C3 - Large Cal. Pistol, Leader, NCO, Steady Under Fire

Mafia type (x2): 56pts Q4+ C2 - Large Cal Pistol, Sawn Off Shotgun, Mook

Street Thug: 15pts Q4+ C2 Strong, Mook

The Cops entered the industrial area from the South Eastern corner. The Villains could be set up anywhere on the board.

Cautiously the law officers made their way up the eastern side of the site, looking for some of the gang.

They soon found a thug waiting in ambush behind a wall and started to encircle him.

The tough realised and made an escape up a ramp into a nearby building

Meanwhile one of the shotgun welding ganger members tried to move round behind the cops, but the SWAT sniper saw him and gunned him down.

With the police officers stalling or being drawn out in the centre of the site, Capri and an enforcer moved in from the northern edge where they'd been hiding.

Meanwhile PC James spotted a second thug lurking in the eastern building shadows and brought him down with a single cap from his pistol.

With the SWAT member giving chase into the building and no ambushing companion now available, the escaping thug droped down prone behind a crate and crawled for a back ladder.

Meanwhile the sniper had manouvered into a position to take a shot, but missed.

With this threat exposed, the mafia man stepped out of cover to bring the SWAT man into range of his Sawn Off shotgun and blew the sniper away, before running into cover of the crumbling wall.

The remaining cops manouvered themselves round to make a co-ordinated flanking move on the criminal.

Realising this, the crim stepped out of cover to remove the softest target, poor PC James. Miraculously the Mook missed, as did Capri, who moved up to take a shot, as victory presented itself.

With lead flying round his ears, PC James steadied himself and squeezed off a shot at the shotgun wealding goon, taking him out. Capri, finding herself now in sights surrendered, and the remaining thug ran off.

------------------------------------

Thoughts:

On reading, Flying Lead doesn't seem that different to SoBH. There are different special rules to take into consideration, but basically SoBH with everyone having bows.

WRONG!

Guns are dangerous, kids! It's been commented on that in SoBH that an extra combat stat can make a heck of a difference. Well in Flying Lead (FL) all gun attacks carry an added C bonus - a pistol is C+1 whilst a Sawn-off shotgun carried a whopping C+3 at medium range. Gun ranges are usually double that of SoBH ranged attacks, so the standard medium range weapon has a full strength attack at 2xMedium range. Also the SoBH "knocked back" combat result has been replaced, for ranged attacks, with a duck back/go prone result. Our lack of modern (ie gun) gaming experience showed with this latter one, as we could have been taking shots to keep the enemy down or ducking for cover. Especially as you can now move and shoot in one action for a only a C-1 penalty.

There are obviously loads of rules we never touched on - vehicles for one, overwatch for another, but this was a first trial game and I wanted it to stay within the boundries of SoBH (ie 2 small groups).

Still great fun and recommended.