Slow start to the hobby year

Hi All,

While many have been picking up where they left off with a productive year, I have been relatively quiet. I still haven't picked up a brush since maybe November. I'm not happy about it, but I don't feel the need to force myself either. I've been trying to focus on various projects around the house instead of ignoring them.

Most of my hobby has been reading the rule books I got on or around the holidays. I read Last Days:Zombie Apocalypse and Last Days:Seasons and am thinking about how to best get that on the table. I do have a lot of 20mm scale zombies buried somewhere but all of my 28mm zombies are fantasy. I've also toyed with the idea of sci-fi zombies, but again the Necromunda zombies are buried somewhere. It also occurred to me that I have those 40mm zombies, but I think we don't have enough survivors.

I also read Hardwired. I think that might be the quickest way to get things on the table and cooperative play is the best thing for our household. The thing I'm missing for this is enough terrain. (Back to those goals I forgot about biting me in the ass.)

Lastly I started reading Gaslands:Refuelled. You guessed it. The cars have all gone missing. Although I could use the Devils Run cars if I can get over hating how they were coming along with my paint job.

I did get in a WFRP game and make a cool image depicting a scene from the game. At least I thought it was cool. I may do a post on making it. Perhaps not quite a how to but just an overview.

We're supposed to have a local meetup here in Phoenix to game Star Breach in the Dune universe setting. Unfortunately I can only stop by to pick up my order dice because my son is performing in the district honor band that afternoon.

Hopefully I can get it together to have a project finished in the near term.

Also a quick welcome to Joe M. Sorry for the lack of activity of late. I hope to be posting something semi useful in the near future.

Thanks for stopping by.

Witness Weekend

Hi All,

A bunch of us have been egging each other on to build cars for the re-released Gaslands:Refuelled. You've probably been seeing and hearing a lot about it. If you haven't, check it out here.

I think there is even a line of Mark Copplestone of figures scaled for this soon to be released.

Anyhow, I have been having trouble finding a specific box filled with cars I reserved for just such a thing when we were trying to play mad max style games awhile back. I either didn't tag that game Post apocalypse or didn't write a report.

Anyway, I did find my box containing some resin cars from the Devil's Run game Kickstarter that I pledged but then didn't do anything with. So if all else fails I'll work on some of those.

I put some random Hot Wheels and I think the Blue Porsche is a WELLY, whatever that means. Just wanted to show scale. Devil's Run - Route 666 can be found here. I think the real reason we never played it is I refuse to play with unpainted minis and, obviously, I never painted them. So perhaps we can get a game in soon. Especially since I'll have to wait and see if Santa brings me Gaslands refueled.

Thanks for looking.

Kublacon 2018 - Axles & Alloys 3000

Hi All,

Next game of the weekend was Axles & Alloys a tweak of a rule set you may already know. It was a blast to play and possibly my son's favorite game of the weekend. No stress about his rolls, just white knuckle driving and screaming "I will see you at the gates of Valhalla! All shiny and Chrome!" Or something like that.

This one is more of just a play by play.

Enjoy.

It appears in my excitement I forgot to number page 4. Oh well.

I'd like to welcome Tim and Don Bailey to the blog. Blogger doesn't seem to show if you guys have a blog. If you do, I'd be happy to link to it. Thanks for following.

I'll probably do a Paint Table Saturday post next and then finish up with the last game of the con and the game I played with Lasgunpacker.

Thanks for looking.

Aberrant figures for Dark Future

  Once again I've fallen victim to the new hotness. In this case it is the resurrection of Dark Future, GW's post apocalyptic death racing game. I initially caught the bug for this with THW's Machinas, but failed miserably to try and get in a game with the family. So it was put on the back burner. (By failing I mean I tried to play with them before I had a firm grasp on the rules and it became one of Daddy's complicated games.)

  I never played Dark Future, or Car Wars, back in the day so I'm not really nostalgic other than that I was bit by the Post Apocalyptic bug like most of us in the 80's. A boy and his dog, Road Warrior, Blood of Heroes, Le Dernier Combat. Just a few of the films of a dystopian future I can name off the top of my head.

  But this is a miniature line review, not a film review.

  After joining the Oldhammer: Dark Future group on Facebook I was reminded of my Aberrant: Warlands car and figures. The line is 20mm and comes with obviously "not" Mad Max figures and vehicles. I found it funny when people on TMP bitched about it being 20mm. There is so much 28mm and 15mm stuff out there it seems pretty ridiculous.

  Anyway, here's two wasteland villains and The Stranger and his dog "Max" along with the last of the Tomato Juice Cocktail (V-8) Interceptors.

The figures are a little rough and on the flat side, but they are something that I couldn't find anywhere else. They were all slotta tabbed white metal and came with 20mm round plastic bases. Since I put all my 1/72 (20mm) figures on washers, I did a tab-ectomy. I had trouble with the dog's rear foot so I put a rock under it.

The Hot Wheels AMC Lancer Javelin AMX is shown for scale. The car was two part resin and for some reason had a striated texture to its surface. The blower, gun and stowage are all white metal. I added the hood mounted gun because it came with the kit, and who doesn't want a giant machine gun on the hood of their car, even if it isn't cannon. Hmm, maybe a cannon?

Just my two cents on the possibilities of this line for Dark Future.

Cheers.

Of Machinas and modems

My indiegogo shipment of the Machinas rules plus two card decks arrived in the mail today. We need to jump this to the head of the queue and get some games in. Perhaps I need to make up some more cars to race against the last of the V-8 interceptors.

I've been having trouble with my internet service dropping out and having to restart the modem and router a lot, especially over the last two days. I had a Motorola SB4200, turns out it is 11 years old and ran DOCSIS 1.1. Now I don't know DOCSIS from wotzitz but apparently were up to 3.0 now. I am now the proud owner of a Motorola SB6141 and, after a little bit of back and forth on the phone, seem to be surfing fairly fast as advertised.

Faster and smaller, the 11 year old one on the right.

I've got a lot in the works coming up. I'm fighting the Mangu (read Mongol) invasion of Stygustan (read Ancient Egypt) in the Talomir Tales campaign but had to order some Mongol figures.  It also appears I need to make up some river sections. I have a few days before the figures get here so I'll try a couple of things. I also bought a garden sprayer to try and paint the battle carpet a la something I saw Dux Homunculorum do. And of course to finish all those figures I started on the challenge but never finished.

While I was typing this the postal lady rang to deliver some undead figures I had ordered on ebay from Taiwan.

Four boxes of figures in one box.

I like how he collapsed the boxes to consolidate for shipping.

These got here in a week, they were promised in 11-21 days. He charges $5 per item shipping, but refunded some of the cost when combining the four boxes together. I'm still waiting on figures I ordered at the same time from the East coast of the US.

Vehicles and Video Games

Hi All,

So my latest entry is over at the themed bonus round on Analogue Hobbies here. What I wrote to Curt follows:

"While most clung to the dying husk of the the old world, others became nomads scrapping for fuel to take them away from the chaos. One such vehicle was the V-8 interceptor.

For the vehicle round I had been keen to finish the Maxwell car from Aberrant Games. I bought it awhile back when I was thinking a lot about post apocalyptic games and hope to also use it in an upcoming games about P-A car racing.

As usual, I spent a lot more time hand wringing than actually painting. In the main I like how it turned out although I was concerned that it was starting to look overworked. I tried to use ground up pastels to weather it, but they essentially washed off when I tried to fix the dry powder on. So I stippled paint. The rusty fuel tank in the back was also a first. Anne really got me thinking about rust, so I figured I had to try. I also tried to mimic an oxidized paint look on the hood and roof of the car. It doesn't show in the photos because of the angle I took. I included the gun because it came with the kit and because my conception of a Post Apocalyptic Deth-Mö-Beel™ is bristling with armaments.

Those of you with delicate constitutions may wish to brace yourselves, but I have a second (GASP) set of vehicles to add to this entry.

These are two Studio Bergstrom Sing-On Pocket Destroyers. Again, I would have a whole fleet of these painted if I would just knuckle down and decide on a color scheme. These painted up quick once I decided.

I have no idea what scale these would fall under. I included a group shot with the Warrior of the Wasteland for scale. He stands 27mm from bottom of base to top of head and was a 1/72 (20mm) scale entry."

What I neglected to mention in my blurb for the challenge was the composition of the models. The Maxwell car was two part resin with the blower, gun and stowage made from white metal. The metal bits cleaned up fairly easily. The body of the car had one sprue connection that needed filing and one imperfection in the body that I ended up leaving along the right quarter panel. There were also some weird surface striations that I ended up leaving as I didn't feel like the effort of sanding the entire vehicle smooth was worth it. I don't really understand why this wasn't just a one piece cast, or why it doesn't have tail lights. Overall though it's a fun little car.

The Klingon ships are straight up white metal. I don't recall cleaning them up much. Primed gray, boltgun metal on bridge and canons. Two dry brushes with grayish greens, pick out the wing detail in red, orange then yellow. My home made wash was then applied. I have to say I'm embarrassed that it took me so long to get around to painting these.

Back to the car for a moment. I think it will be great fun for use in the new game from Two Hour Wargames called Machinas. I joined the Indiegogo this morning. You can see it here.

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As for video games, well I probably should be painting instead. I've downloaded The Walking Dead Season 2 ans State of Decay to my Xbox. I've already completed the first episode of Walking Dead and will have to wait as they are releasing the upcoming episodes piecemeal. State of Decay is cool but there is a lot of stuff to manage and, since it's a download, not a lot of explanation on how to do it. There are reams of websites and videos with game tips though.

Well off to see to the needs of children on this holiday here in the states. Have a good one.

PS - That 49er game last night was annoying. The Niners didn't choke. They lost the game on a great play by Sherman in the final seconds. Too bad he doesn't realize it.

Bugs, Rabbits and Chickens oh my!

From Interloper Miniatures - Cast in Ruin

Saw this posted on the Grumpy Grognard it's an Indiegogo for Gamma World figures here.

The concept art looks cool and the first mutated chicken green looks pretty awesome. These, coupled with those Lead Adventure post apocalypse figures could be fun.

And  note about Grumpy. He (I'm assuming Grumpy is a he) set up his blog to vent about stuff on various OSR rpg forums. To quote A Christmas Story: Grumpy "worked in profanity the way other artists might work in oils or clay. It was his true medium, a master." 

I find it humorous because I can relate somewhat and I just marvel at how even in games people can take an us versus them attitude rather than accepting that some people like to game another way.

Make your own Hogan's Heroes set up.

Some one on the solowargame group for yahoo was asking about some set up that they had seen at a convention showing a WWII German POW camp. They were looking to use it for some Post Apoc buildings.

Turns out they are a free download of paper buildings from Ebob Miniatures here.

Nice buildings with some good detail. I think they are in 28mm scale, but not 100% sure.

Wasteland Meltdown

Over at Chicago Skirmish Wargames they have been doing a lot of post apoc gaming. This post here is a report of the game they ran at Little Wars, straight out of the Road Warrior.

The cars look amazing and it looked like a fun game. Even better, they put up a link to the rules they are using here. I've downloaded them and they look pretty cool.

I'm still working on those ACW posts and am looking into a post about paper modelling. I have a bunch of things to do today for a Brownie meeting my wife and daughter are hosting here tonight and I just got a call from my Mom about a death in the family. So, as usual, it may take awhile to get these ideas posted.

And in other game related news, it looks like I might be joining a Play by Blog with my brother and his gaming group. So many projects, so little time.

Another Post Apocalypse err.. Post

So Ricardo's post over at Fantalonia got me thinking about Post Apocalyptic games again. He basically was reviewing 15mm.co.uk rules for the USE ME system. His review focused on it's differences with the Ganesha Games title Mutants & Death Ray Guns (MDRG) which is a homage to TSR's Gamma World. Back in the day we (meaning my gaming group, not the royal we) played a fair amount of Gamma World and no game was complete without some kind of Dethmöbeel^TM (ie a big vehicle with armor and Guns all over it).

Image from: http://www.waynesbooks.com/GammaWorld.html

For what USE ME: PA was all about I thought that this post on DropshipHorizon was a little more illustrative. I'm tempted to buy it, but perhaps I need to play one of the other five rule sets I own and haven't played first.

Other titles that are in development are Ganesha Games Apocalypticum, you can see some playtests and some cool PA vehicle models at ChicagoSkirmish Wargames. It looks cool but it appears that combat is not deadly enough, yet.

Two Hour Wargames also has After the Horsemen in development and the Yahoo group has some files on playing Fallout with the old Chain Reaction 2.0 rules. (What's that? Some one should update that to CRFV?) [As a side note you can download the Chain Reaction Final Version and Chain Reaction Swordplay Final version for free at the Two Hour Wargames store.]

And in my search for “Post Apocalyptic Rules” I found this site http://www.darkshire.net/jhkim/rpg/freerpgs/bykeyword/postapocalyptic.html with a bunch of interesting looking free rpg alternatives to Gamma World.

Also if you like John Carter, THW has just put out a free add on for gaming the Warlord of Mars on their blog here.

And today is the last day to put your name on the list here to win a free THW ruleset.

Be Ready Etc, Book Review

Now I must admit that this was a total impulse buy because of the cover and excerpts on the back. I was also, at the time, heavily into post apocalypse material.

I will say that I find Forrest funny and appreciate his quirkiness, but at times the book gets a bit much. Many dick jokes and overall locker room humor. While I have a high tolerance for this others may not be able to get past it. I would also say that the synopsis and pitch he gives to the publisher are probably more what I was looking for. Stretching it out into a book just made me want to put it down more than keep reading.

So from the back cover:

1. Have you dug up your wife's rose garden and built a fallout shelter, equipped with a prison where you can lock up annoying family members?

2. Have you mapped out an escape route to your safe zone?

3. Is there a vehicle of death siting in your garage?

4. Have you filled your go bag with all the needed instruments, including waterproof matches, postapocalyptic goggles, and at least one sexual party favor?

5. Have you learned how to milk various types of animals, including a giraffe?

You get the idea. So you have tips on how to survive, signs of a variety of coming apocalypti and tips for how to set up your own post A society (with you on top of course). There are also several side bars with interesting stores by Forrest and friends such as "Naked Etiquette" and my favorite "Ways to know if you are a F***ing fighter" especially #2 - You might be a fighter if you've ever given a stripper ringworm.

So in conclusion I would say this book is more like a limerick book. Better to pick and choose your way through than a straight sit down and read through.

Post Apocalypse 28mm

Andrea posted something about a Ganesha Games Post Apocalypse rule set based on the figures from lead-adventure.com

This is like kryptonite to my stance against 28mm. I probably still won't cave, but these minis are definitely cool. What is particularly cool is the Matakishi mini:

So if you can't game with him in the flesh, you can game with him by proxy. Pretty sweet.