Dashing through the Sand - a Pulp Alley Game

The delivery driver had been burning the candle at both ends. Too much work for one night. Not to mention the suggestion of a little too much alcohol. Hardly surprising that he crashed. What was surprising was the fact that he hightailed it, leaving his valuable cargo scattered for anyone to grab. 

I ran this game at our club on Sunday. Five players, including two first-timers, joined the festive fracas! The objective was simple: player with the most parcels at the end of the game wins!

The crash site with a civilian scavenger.

Scattered parcels.

Tramp steamer crew and adventurers intermingle.

Cowboys a long way from home.

Mad scientist hoping for a DIY science kit.

Sherlock Holmes' band, including the dreaded hound of the Baskervilles.

Shopping around for presents.

Stanley is the first one to make it to the sleigh. The reward for his derring-do? The black cat. I suppose he's been naughty rather than nice.

Party time!

A little too much eggnog.

Sherlock tries to attract the attention of a present but not a cat.

The captain doesn't fare so well.

The cowboys close in on the last unclaimed present.

But the winner is...

Edged out the cowboys who finished with four parcels.

Does my Bum Look Oldhammer in This?

The pages of 40k Rogue Trader are full of all sorts of interesting and unsavoury characters. I thought I'd have a go at one who wasn't too difficult to reproduce.

He's a human renegade - power armoured, but not a space marine. I imagine him as some kind of mercenary, selling himself and his kit to the highest bidder.

Now at this point I can almost hear the Oldhammer purists sharpening their RTB01 sprues into dangerous weapons as they cry heretic! Yes, he's definitely new Oldhammer. Marine bits from the latest kit, and an Imperial Guard head. Sorry guys. Back in my youth I used to own a moderate stash of the 'good stuff', but not a single one these days. I look at them every now and then on ebay, but they tend to be a bit rich for me!

The guy was a breeze to paint until I got to the checked pauldron. Oh, that was painful. Checks on a curved surface - urgh! I painted over and started the whole thing again a couple of times.You can see one of the early attempts - good at the front, but it all gets a bit wild at the back.

Even the final product looks a bit wonky at the back, but it's the best I could do.

I was searching for ways to tie his base back to the illustration. I tried painting 'Smash' onto his base like grafitti, but it looked pretty naff, especially if you didn't know the significance of it. In the end, I just went with the wanted poster, evoking the papers on the table.

Here he is, admiring his own likeness.

At some stage, I'll have a go at his buddy. Just need to find the right head...and work out how someone would use a bolt gun and a power fist at the same time...

Doctor Who

My brother is a big fan of Doctor Who, old and new. I'm painting a couple of things for him for Christmas. Here's the first - Heresy Miniatures' 'Hugh II'.

 Nice miniature, although I struggled with the vast swathes of blue. I haven't painted eyes for ages, but I thought you have to for David Tennant!

More Chaos Cultists

I've been painting these cultists in between some more elaborate models (the Cadian standard bearer, something else that's on the way). They are such a pleasure by comparison! Straightforward to paint without being at all boring.

 I go through colour phases with my painting and I seem to be in a green phase - cultists, imperial guard, walls! All green! Anyway, the next thing will be decidedly non-green. If I can get it finished...

Cadian Standard Bearer

Painting progress has been slow lately, and blogging with it. This guy took a while to grind out: it was a relief to get him done. He's a standard bearer for my Cadian Infantry.

The paint scheme is pretty standard, but he has a few little personalisations. The location of the unit, Star Ford, is a corruption of my suburb, Stafford.

The unit's motto, Tormento Pabulum, sounds suitably bombastic for the 40k universe unless you happen to know what it means. It translates to something like 'cannon fodder'.

And here he is, inspiring the aforementioned artillerists' banquet!

Cadian Infantry

Phew, it's been a while. My motivation often tends to flag a little at this time of year. I end up doing more purchasing and less painting. Not good when I'm trying to churn out stuff for a campaign next year.

Anyway, here's something I have done. A half dozen of cannon fodder Cadia's finest. It's a pretty bog standard paint job on some bog standard figures - Astra Mundanium - not a lot to get excited about really.

About the only thing worth noting is the freehand numbering. Lots of straight lines make this an easy regimental number to paint. Paint the three long vertical lines first, then the others.

Oh, and some Rogue Trader spelling.

Back from the Future - a Pulp Alley Game

Dr Veruckthaar has decided that today's technology is not enough to fuel his schemes for world dominance. Technology from another time and place is what he needs. He builds four time portals to draw unsuspecting beings from another time and place. Four groups of suddenly homesick, technologically advanced warriors, all arriving at once, all wanting to know how to get back home...what could possibly go wrong?

A five player game at the club. Four teams start at the dimensional portals, one on each side of the table. To get back home, they must grab one of the temporal inversion crystals from the centre of the table and get it back to their portal. Simple? Well, it's a peril to grab one, and a peril to fit it correctly onto the portal. And once you do fit it on, only one character can get home at a time. The next character has to reactivate the crystal and the portal (another peril). Oh, and at any time, the crystal might be rendered unstable - you have to drop it immediately and wait for it to stabilise.

For Dr Veruckthaar, the task is far more straightforward: harvest the technology by grabbing (defeating in a brawl) one chosen character from each of the teams.

I controlled Dr Veruckthaar.

Master M ran the space smugglers.

Rhys (who had painted all the other leagues), deployed his brain creatures (didn't quite catch what he called them).

Trevor played the Daleks.

Sangeeta ran the robots.

Half way into the first turn and it was pretty clear that Dr Veruckthaar's encounter with futuristic technology would involve less harvesting and more being harvested by...four out of six characters already down or out.

As they closed in, the leagues began trading shots with one another.

To add insult to injury for Dr Veruckthaar, the black cat honed in on Stanley.

Robot on robot carnage.

The leader of the icky brain critters (that's the scientific name) is the first to grab a temporal inversion crystal. He/she/it speeds back to the dimensional portal and successfully activates it. Home sweet home!

Meanwhile, one of the other crystals has become unstable. Will insufficient supply drive up the prices? No, we'll just reduce demand.

Davros motors in and grabs himself a macguffin temporal invertor crystal.

After numerous attempts, Master M finally grabs a crystal, only to have it go unstable on him. Serves him right for relentlessly attacking his Dad!

Davros makes it back to the Dalek's dimensional portal and both he and the white Dalek get away despite Dr Veruckthaar's attention.

The smugglers and the robots are left scrapping over two unstable temporal invertor crystals as the end credits roll.