Mole Machine and Some Painted Figures

I have completed several other projects during this month for use in various table top games

The 1st game was a repaint of space gorilla's provide by AndyL into cybernetic steam punk gorilla's controlled by a group of goblins



Then on a similar theme the dungeon in my previous post needed a way to get the player characters out, Von Dumas was the rescuer so we decided on mole machine coming up through the dungeon floor.



This was built in one morning before I went to work from a bit of rolled up cardboard, a cardboard spiral and some rocks from the garden. The cone at the top is a missile pod from a old air fix kit.



The rocks and machine were then given a quick paint and this is the result an hours work at the most.



And lastly a few new oriental figures acquired from Perry Miniatures.

Steam and websites

Last night I whipped together a website (take a look here) for my brother Robert for his driving school since he's competing against ever growing number of instructor and thinks he needs a web presence to for a younger audience who no longer use the yellow pages, but search the Internet.

Today I needed to make a Steam punk weapon for AscendancyLRP, lots of bits of brass including a candlesticks and the end of curtain rail, along with a fire extinguisher sprayed with brass paint. Yes and just my luck it was dry this morning the minute I popped outside to spray the extinguisher it started raining making the paint bubble, so I had to start again and fume up the house. Hopefully I will get photo while its being carried in costume tomorrow during the game.

I also went to see AndyT holiday cottage just finished, well he was still putting a door handle on, Phil and several others larpers from London will be staying there for 3 nights and it looks smashing, they will be the newly renovated houses first guests.

Lizard man painting and other things

I can at last make time to update my blog after 4 hectic days well evenings of emails, planning and figure painting in preparation for this Saturdays Ascendancy wargame in the Chimera shop.

Following on from great weekend at Murton Park larping, filling my food bag with fairy liquid, and eating lots of cake, I started putting together a myriad of ideas from the players, some very simple, some needing clarification and background help on perceived skills and some interesting and complex, that's now done and documented for play this weekend.

I've also finished painting a bunch of Lizardmen, enough for the battle of the type I wanted anyway. I've not spent long on them, painted in a big batch relying on washes to give a bit of depth rather painting high lights and details.

The box of figures ready for battle


This photo of a serpent man is very old figure.


This in the photo below is the new style lizardman, these small type are called Skinks


This is also a old style lizardman, possibly the worst lizardman figures Games Workshop produced, I painted this one only to use as a Sauron Priest.


From the very earliest range of lizardmen, this was called a troglodyte, in my army it will now be a Kroxigor.

This was also from the first range of Lizardmen, and the same size as the new Skinks which are skirmishers, however the old models are not suitable to be skirmishers, so I will be using them like a Saurus warriors.

This is a Saurus warrior from the latest range of lizardmen.

The week at work as been a bit traumatic to top it all, so it will be nice to have a rest, knowing everything is ready.

I finally got a taste for African Rooibos in the form Twining African Rooibos with strawberry and vanilla, the pure Rooibos I have tried a couple of times and well drank it, but wouldn't have asked for 2nd cup, Julie brewed me a cup of Tetleys rooibos and vanilla with milk which was the 1st one I liked, but this is 1st I would buy more of, perhaps a few more cups down the line I will go back to pure rooibos and see if I now like it more.

One fault with the new beverage is my work colleagues struggle at the best of times to make tea, and asking for fruit infusion really confuses them especially as I like the tea bag left in, so asking someone to make me rooibos tea was a mistake since I was in a meeting and they left the tea bag in and it was too bitter to drink, by the time it got to my mouth.

I bought a new hat.

Nice trip to Living History Fayre in Warwickshire yesterday with Julie and Dave, we also ran in Doug and Izsy for a quick chat, and few other friends not has many as usual though. The fayre was very busy and I heard one trader comment "what recession" and another mention to Julie that all the stock they had left was on display.

I bought myself a 18thC knitted seaman's forage cap from 'Tinkers Tailor' as per the photo below, a pretty book with blank pages as a birthday present.



After watching Doug and Izsy buy cakes from the confectioners (Angela Pantry) stall I also succumbed and bought a packet of Whiskey and Ginger Fudge, and some small round white sweets called Whores Farts (warning do not put this into your search engine to check the ingredients as I did you get all sorts xxx related links even if you add extra words like sweet or confectionery) can't tell you whats in them since there's no label and forgot what it said on the stall which is very irritating. Both packs of sweets are for my mother, although I won't be telling her what the sweets are called, I did get to try the fudge since Doug started a trend and Julie also bought some, and gave me bit to try, very nice.

Dave tried on a Tail coat without asking the price as the photo below on what was from previous experience a very expensive stall, so after 15 minutes of dressing looking and examining the garment he finally asked the price to which the nice man replied well the outfits six hundred pounds, the coat on its own three hundred and fifty pounds, to which Dave replied a little out my pocket I was thinking well hundred pound tops, hmm did see that one coming still Dave did go back and buy some very nice epaulets from same guy.



After the fayre we went for bite to eat at the Cocked Hat in Coventry rather than try the cardboard food at the Fayre which is most unappealing.

Today my tasks were and are to get information from AndyL and start the map for the Acendancy Borgengast campaign and also paints some toy soldiers, I'm currently painting Lizardmen one unit is complete, 1 started and 3 undercoated to make my five unit target.

Photo 9 of 52

Photo of painting table

Lizardmen Army

With the release of Warhammers new Lizardmen due I thought I'd start by getting my old ones painted before I bought any of the new ones.

Lizardmen Saurus priest


Lizardman Saurus Muscian


Kroxigor



This is a Snakeman, no longer in army list as far as I can see, and probably rare figures I will paint the 4 models I have anyway.



Unit of Kroxigor's nearly complete


Unit of Lizardmen undercoated


Unit of Snakemen with some Lizardmen Saurus and Skinks in the background

Battle in Ripley Shop

After a week of doing nothing but organising a table top battle to represent 26 larp players, the day of the battle arrived.

The battle would last all day I arrived and unpacked the figures at 9.30am and finished packing them away at 5.30pm, even with that amount of time each side only got 3 turns each due to the complexity of all the little scenarios running through the game. General Dave and General Samantha took control of Von Dumas force at 11am and General Andy took control of the undead forces of the Witch King. Andy deployed heavily on one flank since he was after a object, while Dave followed Sam battle plan and put most of their forces up the centre and protecting a object on the other flank. The result was a total and utter points draw 17 victory points each, a most unexpected result. It was Andy's 1st go a controlling a warhammer army and while he was not familiar with the rules his skills at bluff and deception did him great service, allowing him to gain the points he needed, while Dave a more experienced wargammer used his troops skillfully to his best advantage, while contending with the Larp game player needs and one Larp players attempt to kill everyone by deploying a nuclear bomb that stole all Dave and Sam's tactics.

After the battle we went to Pub for meal with Andy, Heather and kids, Mike, Dave, Kate, Sam, Jak and his daughter who had spent all day hiding in corner almost unnoticed doing a good impression of Violet Parr Invisible girl from the Incredible.

After food Dave was bunking in my spare room, and the following day we returned to Chimera shop to collect my figures and played a few games with our old Magic the Gathering decks before Andy and Mike joined us to shows us how good the new decks are. I then dropped off a very groggy Dave at the station to make his way home.

Below is few pictures of figures painted & remodelled by myself and Dave

Izzanbard mounted on his Dragon

Von Dumas on flying platform fights the Witch King on his giant flying beast

Bel (by Dave), Jessica (by Dave), Morticia, & Major Hoight (by Dave)


Jessica showing off by flying alongside Izzanbard (he can fly too)


Fang in his new cage


Major Hoight(by Dave), War and a Von Dumas Robot

Catch up post and

I have been so busy organising an Ascendancy table top battle that have not had time to post this week? last week, does the week end on Sunday?

Last weekend I had great time at a Ascendancy LRP event, good weather, good company, good event, I had really enjoyable encounter with one of AndyL Npc's together with Julies and Dave pc Mr Flay, and had plenty to do despite the lack of crew. The only bad point to the weekend was the M1 being closed Friday adding an hour and half to my journey and the A42 shut on the way home adding half an hour to that trip.

On Wednesday a early trip to London left me shattered and I fell asleep during a TV series called Lost in Austin, which as somehow kept my interest in previous weeks, but now I've missed a episode I will no doubt not watch this week.

I went out on Thursday night, a big round trip picking friends up to meet up with my war games friend DaveA who now lives in Nottingham, it took me an hour & 3/4 to pick everyone and not far off on the return trip. It was nice to see everyone, DaveA, AndyH and Jock.

Friday I was also invited out by Jock to meet Pete and Barbara from my Knights Errant days, but it was one evening too many when I was busy with other stuff.

Saturday I spent the day out with AndyT and Linda, 1st going to watch a Football match and then back for tea and bit telly watching, including the X-Factor which was funny, Simon Cowell rolling his eyes at some appalling acts, they must put on for a laugh.

Anyway to the battle so far 152 emails including my replies plus the several phone calls, forum posts and several hours talking to AndyL have filled in the my week, I'm not complaining since I'm enjoying it.

Below is couple of pictures of character models I been putting together and painting for the battle, one Izzanbard is a work in progress, the Von Dumas flying platform is complete.

Nexus battle

This weekend the Ascendancy Battle organised by myself and Andy at the Chimera shop finally took place after 2 weeks of effort in painting and organisation.

The battle was successes, and it all flowed well, even if the size of the battle was little ambitious for a 5 hour game.

On Saturday Julie came up to help me record events, Jock became one the Generals and Mike someone I had not met became the other General, we also had visit from SamK, Colin, RichardS, Amy and Jak from the Ascendancy Larp game to see what was happening. SamK and DaveP also helped by painting and providing some extra figures.

I had spent the previous weeks painting elves, see pictures below

and building a terrain piece called the Nexus, a couple of picture below, one at the tiered cake stage and one finished.

With help from DaveP we also created some special character figures see picture below

After the battle Me Julie, Jak and Mike went back to Andy & Heathers for a Chinese take away and a bit of quiet chat, I also sampled Heathers M&S cakes..yum.

On Sunday I woke up to type up the battle from the players, Julie had taken 4 A4 pages of notes in small handwriting for me to work from, however the 1st thing I encountered was 48 spam bots registered on our Forum, it took me over an hour to delete them, by the time I had done and recorded them 2 more had appeared.

So after I instead visited Andy in the shop to collect my figures and he was still running around making me coffee's despite his operation, he had organised yet more wargames in the shop and had 7 players all waiting for the 8th to show up, who was apparently playing WOW when they phoned to chase him.

I then when home via mothers to feed and check on her cat while she was away, typed up the battle post for the players and then crashed on the sofa.

Jonty wins the day but looses.

This Saturday was 3rd in a series of Ascendancy table top battles, this one saw the undead hoards face Avalon.
The battle that started out with all the advantages stacked in favour of Avalon due the players of the Ascendancy Larp game really getting behind and doing as much as they could to make sure they won.
However with 3 elements to the game, the General leading Avalon failed on 1 of them probably the most crucial to Larp world, while not to the battle itself, so Avalon won overall, I think they Larp game players may consider it a loss.
General Jonty returned in charge of Avalon, Jock took charge of the Undead or Forsaken as we call them, Sam took charge of Nightjar and making the Emperor look good while giving Jock and Jonty regular history lesson on why this or that was necessary, I was the newspaper reporter

and Andy did special effects.

It was big game using 4 tables in the Chimera shop, around 300 figures, 2/3 painted by me, and lasted about 5 hours, although I was at the shop for about 8 hours with setting up and packing away.

DaveP (the General at the previous 2 games) painted his own character figure, Dr Flay as the picture below, the paintings good but its the modelling he did to this figure which is only one inch (25mm) high which is excellent, you can't appreciate from this photograph, the original figure was a butler and had niether hat, cravat, glasses or watch from what I remember, perhaps Dave can elighten us with a quick reply.

A couple of figure of my own below which also required a bit of converting altough not to the extent of Dr Flay, Havelock needed a bit of hair, glasses and a cane thats about it.

Below Dr Flay, Havelock and Shaman Rat

Below Queen Morticia and her Necromancers

Today Sunday is brilliant day after yesterday and last weekend, a nice warm sun, the bees are buzzing around the few flowers that have come in my garden, and what with the clocks going forward, spring feels like it here at last, definitely looking favourable for camping events, although anything can happen, and rain in spring is always likely, still it would have been a good day to camp today.

So now its on to my next project which I hope will be a bit of kit for the next event, its fairly simple so I should have the time to get my sewing machine out, we will see how my time goes.

Undead (Forsaken) Army

Tonight I applied the last coat of varnish to the Undead army started 10 days ago here

I managed paint about 150 figures in the time I would normally paint 20 because they were already based, I had a bank holiday with no plans so spent it painting, and skeletons are reasonably simple to paint with no clothing, although with 7 chariots, stone throwers and several characters figure they were actually more time consuming than your average figure to paint.

A couple of photos below which don't do my efforts justice, but I'm pleased and looking forward to them being used.