Builder's Yard 2

The second part of this latest adventure in scratch-building involves the tennis balls which were mentioned in Builder's Yard 1. The balls have a circumferential seam which aided cutting them in half a great deal. Once firmly glued to a box they had to be covered in PVA soaked paper strips. This took some thought. Shave the balls or lather them in glue? I chose the latter method and lathered they were.

Once the papier-maché was fully dry I drew on the outlines of doors and windows having decided to abandon the  doors/windows method of BY1. I painted PVA onto the structure and applied just one coat of sand.

The two toys were painted with white emulsion; the windows were painted a dark blue with lighter blue worked in while the dark was still wet. The domes were painted with a watered down green and blue respectively. I left part of the blue dome unpainted to suggest weathering/damage.

I painted the entrances to the market-hall in blacks and greys. I was trying to get a dark to lighter effect - think it kinda worked. I made the doors from plasti-card. When all paint was dry I sploshed watered down brown all over the toys apart from the domes and the windows.

 Market Hall Front

Market Hall Rear

 Posh Building Front

Posh Building Rear

Posh Building Left

Posh Building Right

Updates As They Happen!

Builder's Yard 1

An Orwellian tale of botched up buildings using the cheapest materials and the shoddiest workmanship. With cruel overseers and indentured labour in appalling conditions. OK, it was just me.

I used a variety of smallish card boxes, strips of used copier paper and PVA glue to construct the buildings. doors and windows were made from matchsticks and those round-ended flat wood strips. Budgie sand was also used. Any flaps or loose areas on the boxes were sealed down with masking tape. 

Boxes and Tennis Balls

Tennis balls glued down. 

Strips of paper soaked in PVA applied.

Dried out on a radiator.

 Doors and windows in place.

Building painted with PVA glue.

Budgie sand sifted onto the PVA.

I did 2 coats of PVA/sand for a really strong effect.

Building part painted.

I've gone for a Back Film Lot look because this is Pulp.

 Same building fully painted.

 Another building

The Rogue Legion take possession!

UATH!

PS Does anyone know where 28mm scale Arab-type civilians can be obtained?

PPS A follow-up post will detail the horror of the tennis ball buildings......

A Right Cultist

A mysterious figure, cowled in red, shakes his fist whilst declaiming from a Big Boys Book of Badassery. No idea what he's up to. A summoning of some cthonian horror or just annoyed at a late pizza delivery? We'll have to wait and see.....

Front

Back

Close-Up

Updates As They Happen!

An Ally of The Rogue Legion

Marcel Fezmeen is a denizen of the Cairo Underworld. He spotted The Rogue Legion not long after they arrived from the Hamunaptra disaster. He immediately offered his services, for a percentage of course! Whether he is as loyal to his new friends as appears remains to be seen. What is certain is that neither D'Aramitz nor Hartmann are fools and they will seek vengeance for any betrayal. Provided they're still alive.

The Old Instonians (Sisters Before Misters) #2

Blaze O'Halloran and her friend Phylis (Phil) Martindel. I've pained them up in 'action' clothing as well as 'about-town' clothes. I thought this would be useful depending on where they go adventuring. Here are the pictures:-

Blaze & Phil Decide What To Have For Dinner

Blaze As Explorer & About Town

Phil As Explorer & About Town

Phil Front

Phil Aft

All the best!

The Old Instonians (Sisters Before Misters) #1

This is a female figure for Pulp that I painted and based up at the same time as Manny Gault. I'm going to call her Blaze O'Halloran. That's as far as I've got with her back-story. I also thought it would be spiffing to have doubles of key figures; one in 'action' clothing; the other in normal civvies. With that in mind I'm painting Blaze, and another female figure, in these guises. Anyways, here's a couple of pictures of Blaze to be going on with:-

Two-Fisted!

No

UATH!

Charlie Hebdo

January 7th 2015 Attack 

I stand with ALL victims of terror and against the perpetrators; whoever they are. I have empathy with and sympathy for the dead and injured and for the bereaved families. This does not mean 'je suis Charlie' or that I believe this attack was an assault on free speech. Especially so given some of the hypocritical BS being flung around since the killings and the mounting wave of Moslems-in-general blaming that the murders have generated.

PS Be warned. Anyone making disparaging remarks about Moslems in general will have their comments deleted. As will posts supporting terror of ANY type: state, religious, political.

SAEAE AAR - ¡LOCO LOCO! #2

We rejoin the game as the train, el Loco-Loco, makes its appearance. The Colorado commander realised what was need and ordered his artillery unit to move to the rail junction and bombard the train. It was imperative to destroy or stop the engine before it reached the junction. The action resumes on the right flank of the Colorado position where the Villista cars are attacking.....

....Villista HMG car goes down 

in a hail of Colorado bullets

 Loco-Loco driving forward, 

explosives laden car at the front

 Villista car driving away from the battle as the Villista cavalry, 

including those on the now cleared hill, look on

The battle continued unabated with losses mounting on both sides. The Huertista artillery had dreadful dice rolls until it was almost too late. The train could take four hits and they hit it three times in succession, the last being as it crashed into the junction!

 CRASH!

 DERAILMENT!

 MELEE!

The Villista train failed to detonate on impact. Troops from both sides swarmed towards the crashed loco, one side intent on detonating the explosives; the other determined to stop them. Cavalry, infantry, machine-guns, artillery all blasting and hacking at each other, desperate to gain control of the wreckage.

 BOOOOOM!

The Villistas finally gain the train and set off the explosives killing everybody nearby which included some key Colorado units. This caused panic in the remaining Colorado troops who began to flee the town pursued half-heartedly by the stunned Villista survivors. The Villistas had gained the town and the rail junction but at some cost to themselves.

Colorados
3 x Infantry
2 x HMG
1 x Artillery

Villistas
1 x Infantry
1 x HMG
1 x Cavalry
1 x Car/HMG

¡Viva la Revolución!

SAEAE AAR - ¡LOCO LOCO! #1

Today I set up and ran a solo game using Kaptain Kobold's rule-set for The Mexican Revolution: 'Struggle Against Everything And Eveybody (SAEAE)'. The figures and buildings are from that wonderful site The Junior General. The board is 2 foot square and gridded one side.

So, what does the title mean? Well, it means: 'Crazy Engine' and it refers to the use of a an explosive packed locomotive, as a guided missile, to drive straight into an enemy position and then be blown up. The game is set during the period of The Revolution after Victoriano Huerta seized power and then allied himself with Pascual Orozco and his Colorados. Los Colorados were double traitors having fought against Madero and then sided with Huerta. Consequently they were seldom, if ever, taken prisoner.

So, the game set up. I decided that given their circumstances Los Colorados would fight to the death and also be considered elite troops; giving them an extra Morale Point. They are defending a major town and rail junction. It is vital they retain control of the town and railway and the surrounding area. There are:

6 Colorado infantry units. All positioned around the town.
2 Colorado HMG units. One HMG is stationed on the hill in front of the town. This commands both the railway and the southern approach.
1 Huertista Artillery unit plus observer. The Huerta troops are sited in the centre of town. They are below average and will collapse after 2 MP are gone.

The Constitutionalistas are from Villa's El Division del Norte, not commanded by The Great Man himself. They consist of three seperate attacking forces:


3 infantry and 1 HMG unit attacking the town from the east.


5 cavalry and 2 vehicle/HMG units attacking from the south.


1 Loco-Loco attacking from the south-east.

 The town, railway and Colorado & Huertista troops

The Battlefield

Apologies for the shaky image

 The vital rail junction

 Villista truck tries to shoot its way past the hill.

Colorado HMG is alert and scores a hit.

Despite heavy machine gun fire from the Colorados on the hill

the Villista cars break through and commence attacking the town.

The Huertista artillery proved unable to land any hits on the vehicles.

The Colorados on the hill had their attention diverted by

some unwelcome visitors. The Villista cavalry was upon them!

The Colorado infantry shoot up
one Villista HMG-car good and proper!

 Meanwhile, over to the east, the Villista infantry begin their attack.

The sound of battle rages around the town: rifle and machine-gun fire interspersed with yelling men, revving engines and booming artillery but over it all is the sound of a whistle......

Updates as they happen!

Another Survivor From Hamunaptra

Useful fellow this, got a first aid certificate. His name's Manny Gault and he's a rank and file Legionnaire. Originally from Brooklyn USA he joined up while in France during The Great War. Being a practical sort of fellow he thought the FFL would be more convenient than shipping back Stateside, enlisting, training and then shipping back to France.

He was with the supply train during the Battle of Hamunaptra and was helping the column's doctor treat the handful of wounded who had been brought in before the position collapsed. He survived the massacre by hiding under some dead bodies, human and animal. Once the coast was clear he gathered up all the water bottles he could and started walking. After two days he came upon one of the column's baggage camels that was wandering also. Mounting up he headed for Cairo and eventually met up with the other three in Cafe Rizz-Razz in The Cairo Suq. Here they agreed to work together for their own enrichment and track down that blighter O'Connell. They also agreed that henceforth they would be known as The Rogue Legion.

 Manny Gault

 Also Manny Gault

UATH!