Pulp Vehicles #1

Scored these four beauties from a local charity shop today. They really catch the spirit of Pulp, especially the big yellow taxi and the explosives truck. They need a bit of work doing on them though. The Royal Mail van needs its front grille sorting out and the big yellow taxi (gottityet?) needs a new front bumper and a pair of fancypants bullet headlights. I was going to re-paint the Tussaud's truck but on reflection I'll leave it as is. Having a truck like that provides vital cover for all manner of nefarious goings on.

 Pulp Vehicle Park

 Big Yellow Taxi

 Sinister Tussaud's Truck

 Royal Mail Truck

 Explosives Truck

UATH!

HotT Battle Report: The Oni v The Samurai or Last Night An Ashigaru Saved My Life

Tuesday night is, usually, wargames' club night. Last night I made it to the club via public transport with only one staggering drunk to contend with. So far everything's coming up Cake Tin. I arrived at the club without further incident and we set to getting the game on. After dicing for Defender (Me, Samurai) and Attacker (John S, Oni) we set the board up plus terrain. John's die rolls allowed him to load one half of the board with terrain features whilst the other remained as flat, good-going.

The Battlefield

The armies square off

Oni furthest from viewer

Samurai nearest viewer

Oni charge forward

Samurai stand around discussing rice prices

Oni hurtle forward some more

Samurai still seem unconcerned

But what's this? 

The Samurai right flank has wheeled through 90°

 The Oni charge smashes home.....

...And carries away the Samurai Knights and one of the Spears!

The second Samurai Spears is recoiled. The line holds but only just.

The Samurai Blades General slashes his way through a pair of double-ranked Oni Warbands near the BUA.

The remnants of the Samurai left wing managed to close up.

The Samurai right wing trundles forward across the Bad Going.

The Oni, stunned by the failure of their charge regroup.

Poor PIP rolls stymied the Samurai advance.

The Oni meanwhile set about destroying the Samurai left flank units.

The Samurai General managed to hack his way out of the melee, 

destroying another two Oni Warbands in the process.

Unfortunately the Samurai Spears (The Ashigaru of the title) 

were left behind to certain death.......

.....Well, no, actually. The Spears managed to fight off attack after attack. 

This heroic resistance allowed the Samurai line to reform
and then begin its own counter-attack.

The Oni prepared for one more smashing charge.
Surely this time?!

Losses at this stage: Oni 5 x Wb, Samurai 1 x Kn, 1 x Sp

Oni Behemoths attacking up and down the line.

Ashigaru Spears clinging on.

Samurai Blades, Hero & Shooters (top of pic) take the battle to the Oni.

Those Ashigaru Spears simply WILL NOT die!

Finally the resistance of The Spears is broken and they are recoiled into the main Samurai line.

The Samurai Blades & Hero work together to destroy an Oni Behemoth and end the game.

Samurai Victory!

Final Score: Oni 1 x Bh, 5 x Wb. Samurai 1 x Kn, 1 x Sp

BANZAI!

A very thrilling game that could have gone either way at several points during the contest. Both sides had poor PIP rolls at times when they really needed good ones. The Samurai Dragon and Lurkers were never deployed. The Dragon because I rolled only one 6PIP score the whole game and that when my infantry were very heavily engaged. The Lurkers because the Oni never broke through the line to threaten the Stronghold which lay in the Bad Going.Without doubt the Ashigaru Spears' dogged resistance bought the Samurai General time to regroup his army and re-new the attack which led to victory.

Updates as they happen!

PS Welcome to new blog members Brian English and JGelder1. Thanks for following, chaps!

Pulp Faction

I think I mentioned I was working on some figures with Pulp potential either here or on Book of Faces or somewhere. Anyway the point is I am, or was; they're finished. I've also given them names but am yet to write a back story for each. I've got a few ideas and will put finger to keyboard presently.

What is attractive about gaming Pulp adventures is the episodic nature of the games. With a few figures, some nice terrain and at least three plot holes what's not to like. I've always enjoyed Pulp, for example I went to see 'Raiders of The Lost Ark' TEN times. Yes, you read that correctly: 10 times. I did enjoy it though.

And what's brought this on? Well, given my grasshopper mind and July 2014's copy of 'Wargames Illustrated' which had a 'Pulp Adventures Special'. You can work the rest out for yourself. That said I've had the figures pictured below for ages so I must have been destined to do this. Wasn't I? Ha!

I painted them up as erstwhile 'White Russians' and make no apology for historical accuracy since Pulp is fiction so are the colour schemes. I think the idea of them searching for treasure to finance an(other) attempt at re-establishing The Romanovs is grounds enough.

 

 Baron Brasneki's Band 

Baron Boris Brasneki

Ludmilla the Killer

The Baron's Daughter

Ardaz Nayals

The Baron's Bodyguard and Physical Culture Enthusiast

 Symion Shetsov

Intelligence and Assassination

UATH!

Re-Supply Day

Now, in these days of government imposed abuse austerity on certain sections of the population we all need to score a bargain or two. In my case I'd become embarrassed by my lack of grit and sand for figure basing. Now, there is a certain Workshop of Games which flogs frankly miniscule bags of the aforementioned products at obscene prices. They failed to attract my interest with such meanness and so I cast my net wider.

I pondered on for a little while and then >SHAZZAM!< the lights went on: Wilko's!!! For those that don't know Wilko's (Wilkinson's) is a UK based shop that sells everything apart from metal figures and plastic models. Which, in fact, they might; must check. The point is that if it's not in a Wilko's store it (possibly) doesn't exist. One of their departments caters for pets and my gaze fell upon the budgie section. And what's this? Only 1 kilo bags of budgie sand and budgie grit at a £1 a pop! I bought a bag of each. They will last for a long long time.

One of my basing methods is to mix PVA with a drop of earthy colour paint then add some grit and sand. mix well and apply to the base. Leave to dry and then paint/highlight/wash as required.

                                                           £1 a kilo! Bargainsome!

PS Welcome to new blog followers Scannable Goose who runs some really fab blogs. And to Doug
 whose own blog is a seriously good read. Go and have a look instanter!

Updates as they happen!

No War

I've just returned from an impromptu night out which involved the Tom Dunnett Big Band, The Yardbird Club in Brum and some lovely friends. That one of my friends was a German woman was very fitting. We discussed how 100 years ago we would have been enemies because of some pieces of paper that neither of us would have read or much cared about.

We decided that drinking gin, dancing and being friends was more important. So that's what we did.