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!

Review of 2014

January
This month was productive with a wide range of projects, some even got completed. The most popular post in January with 552 views was this:

http://thedancingcaketin.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/hott-army-showcase-4-army-of-mouse-king.html

February
A much slower month but with an emphasis on Megablitz Italians. They were also the most popular with 257 views:

http://thedancingcaketin.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/project-m1340-3.html

March
Nothing to see here. Move along to April please.

April 
April was definitely the month of the Megablitz Italians. All manner of Italian units being produced but the most popular post was, with 383 views, this:

http://thedancingcaketin.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/1940ish-italian-armoured-division.html

May
The fifth month was barely alive with only three posts. The most viewed (77!!!), and also a FLW job being this:

http://thedancingcaketin.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/funny-little-watchtower-part-1.html

June
Flaming June was a complete mystery to me, well the viewing figures were at any rate. I'm going to post the most and second most popular posts here. I am doing this because the positions defy reason:

1st (917 views) http://thedancingcaketin.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/think.html

2nd (637 views) http://thedancingcaketin.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/army-showcase-7-army-of-king-richard.html

July
A reasonably productive month with some good work done with HOTT & FLW . By far the most popular post, with 537 views, being:

http://thedancingcaketin.blogspot.co.uk/2014/07/peasants-revolt-revamp.html

August
Pulp Adventures became popular with me and this is reflected both in work done and views. The most viewed post, 264 times, in August was:

http://thedancingcaketin.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/pulp-faction.html

September
The Pulp Adventures theme continued into September with a good number of posts and also some satisfying work being completed. The most popular was, however, a book review! 279 views in total:

http://thedancingcaketin.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/book-review-uncharitable-mischief.html 

October
The tenth month was reasonably productive. Pulp Adventures dominated but Swing Dance also figured. This month also marked the start of my slide into depression which had me in its grip for all of November and part of December. The various Pulp Adventures posts were well viewed this month with the following post seen the most at 367 times:

 http://thedancingcaketin.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/amazonian-hide-seek.html

November
Closed for (self) maintenance.

December
Two posts only in December, including this one. It was nice to finish the year on an upbeat. Things are much more positive now and I am looking forward to next year with renewed confidence and vigour. 

Thank you everyone who joined the site this year and for everyone's supporting comments on my posts. I do appreciate what you say and the time you take to write them. 2015! Let's GO!    
  

Christmas Nightmare With A Happy Ending

Bloody hell! What a game I've had trying to get back into the blog. I solved the problem quite easily in the end, wrong accounts, wrong log-in details BAH!

Anyways I had a rather splendid Crimbo and Santa brought me all kinds of top grade loot. Including, but not limited too, a proper storage box for all the Pulp Adventures figures I've painted to date. I'm actually painting another pair of them at the moment too. I also scored a box set of the Bogart & Bacall movies plus a copy of 'The Rocketeer'!

Joyful & Triumphant

I feel properly re-energised and am anticipating some reasonably good things for 2015. I say reasonably so I don't overreach myself and end up in a hole again like I did back in November for, well, reasons.

This. 

All the best to you and yours for Christmas and the future!

Mojo Gojo Gongon

That fickle creature 'The Muse' has deserted me in the last 10 days or so. Believe me when I say that i'd like to paint some figures but I cannot summon the enthusiasm but it's just not there. I also know, from bitter experience, that trying to force myself to do some work will only result in a disaster for the figures and myself. I can feel the minx returning so normal service should be resumed soonish but, as we all know, these things cannot be rushed. Merely coaxed.