Monday, June 29, 2015

Pulp Alley League - the Adventurers

Here's one of my Pulp Alley leagues - the good guys. Jack Sampson and his adventurers.
The figures come from a variety of Pulp Alley packs. My favourites are the dog with the eye patch and the guy with the monkey on his back.

Here are their cards for Pulp Alley.


Sunday, June 28, 2015

Mausoleum #2

I finally finished the second Mausoleum I've been working on.
Lovely detail on the kits, but I really struggle to churn out something that looks good. It feels like a different skill set is involved, or at least a very different application of the same skill set. Anyway, it's done and only four more to go (urgh!) Once again, this is for my slowly developing Pulp Alley meets Rogue Trader project. I almost have enough stuff together for a game. Just need to persuade the kids to give it a run.

Wednesday, June 24, 2015

Almost Stolen Goods - a Pulp Alley game

Last night I got in a game of Pulp Alley with Nick. Nick's a seasoned RPGer, but his only exposure to wargames has been a bewildering game or two of Warhammer. Here's how it went down. (The lighting was pretty dire, so apologies for the quality of the photos).
Why invest vast amounts of time and energy digging up a priceless archaeological treasure when you can just steal one once someone else has done all the hard work? The famed golden chest of Cheops has been unearthed and sold to Sir Clifford Carne, a wealthy if unscrupulous private collector. Even now, Sir Clifford and his manservant Otto Cramb are lugging the chest to Sir Clifford's car, ready to whisk it to the airfield and then back home to his collection.

But other people have other ideas...

Sir Clifford, Cramb and the chest in the foreground.
The car awaits its cargo.
The would-be thieves move in: Dr Veruckthaar and his motley assortment of rats, robots and red-headed hunchbacks (me) from the right and through the market. And Jack Sampson's company of adventurers (Nick) at the far left.
Jack accosts Sir Clifford.
Veruckthaar's flunkies lurk.
Sir Clifford brushes off Jack's attentions and carries on towards the car.
Jack's sidekick, Ace Mason tries his luck at grabbing the chest, with just as much success as his boss.
Jack is momentarily detained by the hunch-back, but its a problem easily solved by a length of sharp steel.
Meanwhile, the rest of the gangs have been closing in on the car and the chauffeur.
The robot successfully grabs the chaffeur as Sir Clifford arrives.
Sir Clifford has no choice but to carry on on foot, scurrying past Dr Veruckthaar.
Jack is on the trail again, but the robot has other ideas.
So much for that! As Jack races onwards, the robot recovers, only to be accosted by the accursed black cat!
Jack confronts Veruckthaar as the treasure walks away.
But the robot rushes to Dr Veruckthaar's aid. It goes down but takes Jack with it!
The way is now open for Dr Veruckthaar to grab the treasure. Well, there is a lowly ally of Jack's.
But he would have to race through a storm of laser gun fire and pin Dr Veruckthaar in combat to prevent the Dr from grabbing the treasure.
Yes, yes he would... Meanwhile, the only real winners from this game...
A great game - it went down to the last roll. Nick said he thoroughly enjoyed the game and would be quite interested in another one. And I don't think he was just being polite!

Sunday, June 21, 2015

Red Infantry Company #3

The red horde is growing slowly. These guys are are a little more uniform than the last unit. They'll be my higher quality infantry.
Once again, 15mm Peter Pig figures. Once again, quick and easy to paint.
Reds without a red banner may be confusing, but a bit of variety is nice. And there is a hammer and sickle on there!



Sunday, June 14, 2015

Red Infantry Company #2

Another unit of red infantry for Red Actions. I've painted these guys a little more motley - if I need a mob or a conscript unit these guys will do the trick.
I'm particularly happy with the way the banner turned out on these guys (remember they are 15mm figures).

Sunday, June 7, 2015

Massachusetts Provincials

I've finally finished painting my provincial unit for Muskets and Tomahawks. Provincials aren't great in M&T, so I'm not sure they'll ever quite reward the time they took!

Why paint provincials then? One of the better books I've read in the last few years was George Marsden's enormous biography of Jonathan Edwards, the Puritan preacher. One of Edwards' contemporaries (and opponents) Ephraim Williams Jr, was a colonel in the Massachusetts provincials. Williams was killed in a French ambush during the battle of Lake George (1755). This was an unexpected connection between two spheres of interest, so I thought I'd paint something up. The provincials were not uniformed at this early stage of the war, so the link is all a bit tenuous, but there you have it!
The figures are 28mm from Galloping Major.