Better Loot Than Never...

Hello again.

Doesn't time fly when you get back into your work schedule and, as the annual peak period of the year builds, lose all track of time?

It has been almost two weeks since the Chillcon show in Derby, back on 22nd September. I was in two minds whether or not to go. I checked out the traders and, to be honest, whilst there were some gems, there were others I had not heard of or, on the face of things, was unlikely to be particularly interested in. Oathsworn would be there and there stuff is great, but I did have that feeling that I had probably done enough Burrows & Badgers stuff for now. Colonel Bill would be there too and there second hand options are always worth a look to find those hidden gems. Laser Cut Architect could tempt me with some more "Necromunda"-esque MDF terrain, but I have not painted a gang or built the stuff I have already yet. Crooked Dice were there and I had seen mention of a "Grandville" line of figures in honour of the graphic novels by Bryan Talbot, so I fancied a look at that. They might even convince me to add more to my B&B stuff. But there did not appear to be any real draw for me.

Of course, I did venture along to Derby and, in addition to what I had seen advertised, was pleasantly surprised to find Warlord there with a very full range and others too. And, as always, there was plenty to tempt me. Why would I doubt there would be? I think because, not having played anything for months and with my work/ life balance all out of kilter for a while now, I am struggling to get into anything. Quite simply, however, games or no games, time or no time, I realised again just what this hobby does for me, the release painting even a couple of miniatures provides.

So, where did I spend my hard-earned money?

Read on...

I did see this advertised and it appealed on a number of levels. To top it off, I got this for £31!!! It retails for £40!!! It ticks a number of boxes - limited figure requirement, an interesting period of history, expandable to other armies and not just Romans and Celts, simple rules. Only around a sixth of the rulebook is rules, the rest being scenarios, background, etc. I look forward to trying this rules set out and painting a few Celts. I would like to do some Roman Civil War stuff I think - Celts, Spanish, Numidians, Germans and Romans all freely mixed across the two "Roman" armies.
Thanks to "Mighty Lancer" game for this bargain!!!

I also had my eye on "A Dark And Bloody Ground", buying this from Warlord so I could get the "free" figure - a Woodland Indian peering over a large rock. This period is one for which I have some forces and was the subject of the last game I took out on the road at the Barrage show last year. I am still part way through painting the 35th Foot! The "Age Of Caesar" book I bought for some further background for "SPQR" really and the "free" figure is a Roman officer, so usable for that too.

I saw this on Nephew Nick's "Sleeping Dragon Hobby Shop" stand and immediately saw some potential for old mine works in my "Burrows & Badgers" games.

From "Laser Cut Architect" I acquired these sets to add some buildings to either my "Strontium Dog" set up or for "Necromunda"

Nephew Nick supplied this kit for two Biohazard tanks and, with two in the pack, it will be one each for "Strontium Dog" and "Necromunda". The other kit is a two tier medical block which will have to feature in one or the other game.

Pretensions towards using my Ancient Indians as a Great Kingdom in "SAGA: Age of Magic" saw me buy this figure from "Crooked Dice". Not cheap but, I am sure you will agree, very suitable for a fantasy Indian army!

These two "Crooked Dice" figures I had seen advertised and fancied as a crime-fighting duo for Scarsburgh, my fictional Burrows & Badgers town. "LeBrock" is a badger, but is rather smaller than the Oathsworn versions, so he will be painted as some other type of animal. "Ratzi" will do nicely as a rat, however! So, I give you Hemlock Holmes and Dr. John Ratson.

 A little, light, flavoursome reading from Oathsworn Miniatures is this small collection of newspaper-style articles and titbits. Having done a campaign newsletter or two in the past, I really appreciate this sort of thing.

Finally, I could not resist adding a few extras to my Burrows & Badgers collection. The main set will happily form part of my "Molegrew Haulage" company from the dockside area of Scarsburgh and you can never have too many wagons. The two ladies to the right I see as proprietrixes for a high-class/ lowlife nightclub in downtown Scarsburgh, with the odd talon or claw in the criminal underbelly of the town. The archer and fox figures will fit pretty much anywhere in my existing stuff.

So, a rewarding, if mildly expensive, visit and a most enjoyable one. How dare I think going to a show was not worth it!

G

Exclusive Residential Development

Hello again,

Having recently finished the figures from "The Good, The Bad and The Mutie", the starter set for Strontium Dog, published by Warlord Games/ Rebellion, it was high time I set to on the terrain that comes with the set too. I have some experience with MDF buildings, so was not concerned about the usual things you see on social media about the MDF soaking up paint, warping and so on. Thus, "set to" I have done!

In the set, you get a basic dwelling-cum-office, a generator and windmill to accompany the dwelling-cum-office, an observation tower and four solar panels, all in an easy-to-build mix of MDF and card. They are form the Sarissa Precision range of kits, which cover various eras and locales, and the wider range includes several other suitable kits in what is akin to their post-apocalyptic range. I will be adding a few in due course.

So, I sprayed on an undercoat, selected Army Painter Green as my basecoat and then weathered and highlighted up to taste. I wanted a dusty, arid environment for "Scum's World", my fictional planet on which to stage my SD games, so all effects and basing considerations were built around this. I am pretty happy with the results, but have a look and see what you think. All I need to do now is actually make some arid terrain tiles, or at least acquire a suitable cloth or something, as I have no other arid/ desert terrain on which to plonk these kits!

G

The base is 3mm MDF, not supplied with the kit but sourced from my stash. The texturing is small grade model railway ballast stuck down with PVA glue, painted and sparsely flocked.

I glazed the windows to give this palatial abode something like a civilised feel. The building may be from a post-apocalyptic range, but I did not want that for this use.

Four solar panels should be more than enough for the needs of a simple "shack".

I guess the watchtower is to look out for supply vehicles, dust storms, hostiles and anything else the occupants might desire/ fear.

"Kill the SD scum!"

Hello again.

What naughty, aggressive language the bad guys in Strontium Dog use! The Strontium Dogs only want to take them, dead or alive, to face the justice they deserve for their various crimes. Why get so heated about it?

Max Bubba and his gang come in the starter set "The Good, The Bad and The Mutie", so are the subject of my first set of recognisable criminals for the game. Having painted up Johnny Alpha and his two associates from the set, it was only right and proper that his opposition got the next nod. In short, with the terrain from the same set I have built and mostly completed, with photos to follow soon, I am almost ready for some SD action!!! The hardest part of the whole thing will be to get a couple of like-minded people in the same room at the same time to actually get a game in!

From the left of the photo, we have Skull, Impetigo Jones, Low-down O'Phee, Max Bubba and Brute Mosley.

Max Bubba, his indistinct features marking him out as a mutant.

The unfortunate Impetigo Jones. Unfortunate? Well, the clue is in the name...

Skull

Brute Mosley

Low-down O'Phee

 

 

And that is Max Bubba and his gang. I fully intend to get some more figures from the range, courtesy of Warlord Games, especially Middenface McNulty, who must be my favourite-named comic strip character ever! He is also someone I remember from all those years ago when I first encountered Johnny Alpha and the Strontium Dog concept in "Star Lords" comic.

 

Now to paint the remaining parts of the boxed set, build some terrain boards and crack on with something more/ different.

 

G

Strontium Dogs

Hello again.

I bought "The Good, The Bad & The Mutie" boxed set from Asgard Games on Walsall last year, fan as I was all those years ago in the late 1970's when a certain Johnny Alpha first appeared in a comic and introduced the world to the Strontium Dogs, mutant bounty hunters risking life and limb to take down the nefarious scum of the universe. Now, this was quite a lucky find, as I was never really one for comics, but I loved this strip the moment I saw it and picked it up again several years later when I happened upon an collected anthology or three in a well-known book store.

The aforementioned boxed set, available from the prolific Warlord Games, has a number of sets associated with it, so you can build up your cast of characters from various figures from within the strip over its long lifetime to date, both goodies and baddies. One of the attractions of the strip is that it is not always certain who is who in a universe of dark people and darker deeds...

The boxed set comes with three goodies (featured here), five baddies (to be featured soon, as I have painted them all), a series of cards and tokens used within the "Strontium Dog" game and some MDF terrain, most of which I built today. I hope my forthcoming week off work will see at least some of it painted, along with some other bits I bought off Ainsty years ago but never got around to. Cue Scumm's World, an arid, desolate, lawless place inhabited by hard men, harder women and whatever else the universe throws up, clawing an existence from an unforgiving rock that is home to the odd environmentalists nightmare (Ainsty's Toxicana range, bits of which I also purchased years ago!), some secret, corporation or government stuff long since forgotten (cue those old mutant apes I picked up cheaply, together with the odd sci-fi release from long ago), some disgruntled alien natives (I have to get those K'Hiff out some time!) and a storyline or two.

I need more games!

The Goodies.

Johnny Alpha, whose skills are the best in the game. Great shot, mutant eyes that enable him to see through rock and other matter and a range of kit tailor-made to give some bad guys an issue or two.

Wulf Sternhammer, close combat monster and as strong as an ox.

The Gronk. A brilliant medic. Even better at fainting when the going gets a tad stressful, like all his kind!

 

 

All I need now is to finish that terrain off, build myself some desert game boards, get some reinforcements to add to my SD numbers and get a few games in.

 

 

This is also one of my various boxed games nearly done in its starter format. Just the other 7/ 8/ 9/ ? to do and I will have called it all money well spent!!! I cannot decide which one should be next. I want to do "Blood Red Skies", but I also want to do "Cruel Seas". Then there is "Carnevale", but I also have all the "Necromunda" gangs to crack on with. And my 10mm Crimean War is not going to paint itself, nor is my Arab Conquest stuff. Hm.

 

G

What is red, ...

...doesn't suffer fools gladly, has an incendiary love interest, has horns he has to keep filed down to stumps and is supposed to be a secret?

HELLBOY, of course!!!

Hello again.

As part of my frenzy of boxed game purchasing, I simply could not resist something I found lying around in the "Board in Brum" shop in sunny Walsall recently.

This is a side on view of the box, which is seven inches deep!

A cornucopia of content.

 I was "lucky" enough to find an open example of the game at the aforementioned "Board in Brum", which meant I could examine the contents. There are over 120 figures in the box!!! These range from a couple of different versions of Hellboy himself to his various companions to Nazia to monsters of different sorts and even a turkey! I can only assume that is for some sort of Christmas game based in the old cartoon series, "Stop the Pigeon!", (i.e. "Stop the Turkey!") but I may be wrong. That is all in addition to the bits of scenery, cards for the game, floor plans and the like. All the figures come in storage trays too, which means they are all self-contained within the box and I do not have to buy extra boxes or files to keep things in, just remember where each figure goes!



Floor plans and such for various scenarios within the game.

The uppermost tray of figures contains our heroes, the five, large gribblies, Rasputin (!), a couple of Lamias and some other bits.

Oodles top ogle at!!!

 


Our prime hero in three guises, including Hellboy kid with ice cream!

The five chief gribblies - ape monster, tentacle horror, large grub, fanged amphibian and dragon

Our prime hero's friends.

And a novel little set of busts of the main protagonists.

I have not played the game yet, but I am impressed by the variety and quantity of the contents. There is a little bit of flash to remove, but I look forward to eventually getting some of these figures painted and trying things out. I especially like the fact that several of the figures are useable in other games - Nazis are Nazis, right? And those Lamia figures are crying out to oppose some errant Greek hero in some fabled land as he quests for an artefact to save his home city state from a gorgon or kraken or some such. Did I also mention there are harpies in the set? And how about getting Hellboy trapped in a time loop following some nefarious enemy scheme that sees him taking on Martian tripods, a resurrected terracotta army, a zombie plague or whatever? The game was not cheap, at a little over the £100 mark, but WOW! There is also a Batman game out now, so I must keep saving. My favourite superhero and all that.

And, to top it all, "Hellboy 2; The Golden Army" is on TV tonight, and I am in need of a way to avoid that utter drivel that is the Eurovision Song "Contest". Sky One at 2115hrs anyone?

G

If the K'Hiff are united...

Hello again.

Forty-odd years ago, Jimmy Percy and Sham69 blurted out those immortal lyrics:

"If the kids are united,
They will never be divided."

I very much doubt they realised that, those four decades later, yours truly would corrupt their lyric to provide a suitable title for a post on a wargaming blog!

I had long desired some additions to my total K'Hiff count of eight whole figures, purchased from Denizen Miniatures probably thirty years ago, and painted several years ago also. That early January outing to the Penkridge Tabletop Sale saw me walk through the door and, not a minute later, spy 20 of the dog-faced tribesfolk for a paltry £4. First purchase later, a paint job and voila - a veritable platoon of 28 of the long-snouted ones, including a few specialists.

Time to drag out the "Stargrunt 2" rules, methinks, or whatever passes for quick play, down and dirty sci-fi rules nowadays...

I loved these figures the moment I saw them  all those years ago. I do not remember where I saw them, but suspect some now defunct magazine entry or similar was responsible. As is often my way, I tried creating a backstory for them, but lost touch with the notions I had created in my head as other things took over - they often do, I am sure you realise!

I see the K'Hiff as part Afghan tribesmen, part Boers, part Plains Indian. The lack of heavier weapons is not to be concerned about, as the scale and nature of game I want to use them in is not one requiring wall to wall tanks like a Sci-Fi Flames of War outing. I see them cattle rustling, settler annoying, outpost butchering, supply dump raiding, convoy ambushing, burial ground protecting - in fact, any sort of small scale 20 figures a side skirmish they can get involved with really. Casualties would be a problem for them, so no suicidal charges or fighting to the last dog, but good shots, loyal to their family or clan grouping, fierce close up, fast moving and stealthy.

The whole 28 figures, including the original eight I painted years ago. It was a concern whether I could successfully blend painting styles and bases, but I think I pulled it off.

Squad One consists of 7 figures with rifle, a squad automatic weapon, a RPG and a blooper, 10 figures in all but able to split into two fire teams as necessary.

Squad Two consists of 7 figures with carbine and sword for close combat, a SAW, RPG and Blooper again. This is more of an assault squad.

The Command Squad is a mix of what I had spare! A commander, of course, together with a SAW and blooper, and two figures armed with some sort of power weapon - plasma rifle, lasgun, something like that.

 

And finally, three snipers to act as independents characters keeping the enemy heads down whilst their colleagues manoeuvre.

And that is that. Now I just have to dig out some settlers, colonial marines and similar types and I might actually get a game or two in!

G