It's the little things in life.......

Last night I went and saw Zombieland with Mr Harnett.

It's a decent, entertaining, though fairly standard event with some good laughs and some fairly speedy undead.

Seven out of ten, i'll think about the DVD once HMV have it on sale.

Part of my motivation for going came about thusly;

The Star Wars: Clones roleplay has pushed me toward the clix figures and thier excellent combat maps. This brought me back into contact with thier relation, Horroclix.
We've played a number of very enjoyable zombie games at the club, fitting nicely with my re-awakened skirmish muse.

So whilst working up plot-lines for Clones i've slowly come up with an entire gameboard for a survivalist vs zombie type thing. It's in Jerkwater USA, a 1970's back-water desert town. I know which Hasslefree figures i'm using for the party, what scenery pieces I need from Ainsty and Copplestone.


The Horrorclix figures sort out the protagonist and possibly provide the quick play ruleset required. It's all been a bit, well............ infectious?

I recycled £50 of the Empire wedge into Clones-clix this week at Orc's Nest and whilst having a quick chat with the bloke (no....really, though I did start it and he was taking money from me at the time!) I was told that the Horroclix UK distributor had gone bust and you couldn't get it any more other than E-Bay.

So imagine my delight when I found it all cut price on Amazon! Sensible restraint quickly buckled under the weight of yesterday's pay day (with back pay bonanza) and my fear of them selling out or disappearing.

£20 has got me a starter set and three boosters. The fever subsides.......for now :)

Move along, move along

My one toys purchase at GamesFest4 last Saturday was this chap.

He's a room alarm Stormtrooper with two phrases and a "realistic" blaster sound effect. The motion sensor has a four foot range and he comes with a Han Solo blaster to shoot back with. I bought some batteries yesterday and the evening disappeared all to easily.

Tuesday night at the club was a bit sparse but I got my first proper run out with the World at War rules that we're using for the Pacific '44 campaign. As Rich promised they're fast, fun, furious and fuck'n deadly. I approve :)

I also picked up my Jap platoon (15mm Old Glory) and oh so slightly hooky rules from Shaun. £40 all in and all done. Result.

Also being added onto the projects list are the Star Wars crew and the Star Wars security force I picked up from Heresy for generic roleplay use. They arrived within a couple of days and had a thank you note and a boiled sweat packed in with them. Very pleasing :)

With these projects being added i've decide to not base the Bone Griffon fleet. They looked fine out on the table on Saturday and if I was really bothered I would have done something about it by now.

With the Empire army gone I sorted through all of my cases last night and tied the workstation making spce in both areas. The clones are now very close to being a completed project at about platoon strength which is all i'll require.

Shaun is also keen on making a return to some impetus gaming, linked here http://www.dadiepiombo.com/impetus2.html
Always liked it, though the 15mm Greeks I had sometime ago have been B&B'd sometime ago.
We'll see how much interest we can drum up at the club though the breadth of options may bamboozle many. Fantasy or historical? What period? Matching period? 15mm or 20mm?
Probably a new year project.......probably

That warm and fuzzy feeling.....

....that can only be a wargames show!

GamesFest4 was a local show, with lots of local people, in Watford.
The club, Enfield Gamers, attended ostensibly to try and recruit some new bums on seats. It was my first show for ages and I was all rather keen come the big day.

The show itself had a bit of everything with wargames, roleplaying and re-enacting all present as well as a number of sci-fi / fanatasy authors and artists in attendance including a rather lost looking Jervis Johnson and Steve Jackson relaunching the Fight Fantasy roleplay books.

Ambling around the slight muggyness of many large men with too much facial hair it quickly became apparant that by covering all the bases the show felt very "thin" in almost every way possible, which was a shame as the level of effort from the organisers was patently genuine.

Going against conventional wisdom the trader stands were located centrally and the gaming tables around the outside of the room. Being late entrants we found ourselves squeezed up against a wall. Not too many recruits to be had then i'm afraid and we'd actually PAID to attend.

On the positive side we all had a decent lads day out and most of us found a bit of hobby impetus chatting about potential projects and generally being enthused about toys.

Shado. Mike and a couple of the other guys took part in the 4oK doubles tourney, which featured a great deal of folical foliage, as you can see above and all in the best of humour of course!

We ran one solitary chap through a game of the Uncharted Seas, though Mr Christian finally gave in and bought a fleet. Rich's Pacific '44 game looked and went down much better with a cople of us getting to roll some dice prior to the campaign. Another up!
For myself I sold the guts of my Empire army on the bring and buy, walking away with £200 of folding to re-invest in Star Wars clix, assuming I can track some down!

Sweet sorrow really, an analogy for the day as a whole, as I put a lot of time and effort into the army with some very nicely painted units but I simply have no motivation to play the game anymore and they hadn't rolled dice in anger for quite sometime :(

There are a few decent bits left to possibly stick on E-Bay and more to simply get shot of including an awful lot of sprue. It's the plaster effect, I don't want to do it but I know that I have to.

Ah well, Pacifc '44 at the club tomorrow night. Onwards and upwards.....BANZAII

Stay on target!

The Star Wars: Clones roleplay campaign has been giving me a great deal of motivation recently and is producing some good results.

The session last night was very enjoyable, at least for myself, with all of the players getting fully involved. Leaving the storyline fairly open ended has created a bit of extra work and has required some pressured decisions on the fly but it's given me great focus.

Last night's action revolved around a small settlement of religious types and the group's need to get a 1000 credit bounty from them to ingratiate themselves with the biker gang that they need to infiltrate. After a short round of talking the players ended up in quite a strong debate as how to proceed and had pretty much decided to use the point of a blaster to increase the profit margin.
Absolutely fine by me, such decisions are what I'm using to produce new storylines.

Just as safety catches were being flicked to OFF a rogue natural 20 strengthened the more peaceful path and Mormar, leader extraordinaire, dictated his will.
End result is nil net profit but a group of religious zealots on-call. Fun for all the family :)
All this has pushed me to find that extra painting time I mentioned previously to which en Arnie has been cleaned up along with his mugshot. I seem to have rediscovered my muse, it's all been terribly satisfying.
I'm particularly pleased with Gunnar-girl in her pink tracksuit, I think it suits her Croydon face-lift hairstyle. Jean-Claude doesn't seem to own any tops but never mind. Almost all of the scavenger clones are finished now, I just need to write them in to a storyline or two!

For the shotgun brothers, Bo and Luke, I just need to drybrush and flock their bases so I'm claiming the painting points already. That's 12 so far for the month, three times my result for September.

Looking onwards, as ever, i've been browsing around for some non-comm character types for use in future missions and an order has been put in with Heresy. I've also got my beady eye on some of Hasslefree's excellently characterful offerings but common sense, though suitably strained, has contained me so far.

The club are attending the Gamesfest 4 show in Watford this Saturday in an attempt to bring in so new blood. We're going to be showcasing The Uncharted Seas and Rich J's Pacific 44' campign, of which more at a later date.

I shall also be attempting to sell off a large chunk of my Empire army on the bring and buy. Any proceeds are likely to be plowed back into any suitable Star Wars 'Clix figures I can find. As it's combined with a comics con I shouldn't be dissapointed.

I shall let you know.................. may the Farce be with me... always :)

Asta La Vista Bay-bee

That's right folks, I've actually been painting figures and I've been lov'in it, lov'in it, lov'in it. Have some work in progress b'hatch!

Having spent the afternoon of yesterday's day off watching some of the weekend's rugby form the painting table I've base-coated and washed down ALL of the remaining clones and started the highlight work.

Going for the blue skin-tone has reduced the available palette to a lot of natural, earthier tones without a few stand-out reds and off yellows. This in itself has helped unify a fairly rag-tag bunch and has proved a satisfyingly different project.

With "Arnie" here, the moment I base-coated the skin I just had to go for the whole 80s Miami Vice look, which I've always felt suits any future look particularly well.

I'm not particularly happy with the photo and feel that I have had differing results throughout the blog to date so that's a WIP as well. I'll ask Jon, he'll know.
Just got the skin highlighted on these three, who are particular favourites. I'm particularly pleased with the pink tracksuit on the gunner girl and the desert camo trousers on molotov mike. I can barely wait to get back to them, but will have to as life once again intervenes though not always negatively :)
The anti-tank chaps will have to wait their turn for a bit as working in smaller batches has really helped me kick on. After that a section of their trooper brethren lie in wait followed by some touch up and repair work for those previously completed.

Maybe then some transport will be considered and the the Hulk box will get some lovin'.

Speaking of which it's toys at the club tonight so I'd best be off and away...........

ZARJAZ!!!

The last couple of days have been quite impressive hobby-wise.





Another Tuesday night Star Wars roleplay session and a couple of hours progress painting the clones last night. All very pleasing :)

A reduced group on Tuesday gave good focus for a spot of slick surveillance and infiltration of the Small Numbers biker gang, posing as potential recruits.

With the nominal party leader away the Jedi was forced to the fore and did an excellent job ably assisted by a natural 20 thrown for force manipulation just at the right time. New friends have been made, at least temporarily, intel gained and all without a single shot being fired or a punch thrown. Quite remarkable.

Last night I found about 90 minutes to finish of some block detail on 7 clones and got them all washed down.

I'm quite determined to do the same tonight after sorting out some dreaded "domestics".

With the weekend taken up by work and some quality time with the LADY I've got the day off Monday and intend to make best use, otherwise known as painting in front of the telly!!

I'm really enjoying the whole Star Wars: Clones project / campaign and has taken me back to a golden part of my youth (soppy!). As such I've finally given in and gleefully taken out the subscription for 2000AD and the Mega-Zine that I've been eyeing up for sometime.

For slightly less than than £12 per month I get a weekly dose of thrill-power delivered to the door an a monthly Mega-Zine. The cherry on top is my subscribers Judge Dredd mug!

Happy days :)

Top of the world Ma!!

This weekend I have mainly been climbing up and down hills, in an apparent attempt to get my legs to fall off, and eating Haggis!



This was all accomplished in the rather wonderful city of Edinburgh. Arriving for a late lunch Friday and staying til Monday afternoon the girly and I were wondering if we'd have enough to do.
In the end we barely scratched the surface!

The guidebook had various suggested tours but we quickly discovered that it assumed rising at the crack of dawn and marching through the attractions at a ludicrous rate. No thank thee ye wee printed scally!!

Edinburgh castle was a given but held several unknown gems, particuarly the Scottish War Museum which reduced scale simply guaranteed a higher level of quality.

My personal highlight was scaling the 250m summit of Arthur's Seat, which even small children and the infirm can manage. We managed the longer "Radical Path" on the way up and settled for the tarmac path on the way down!

To give some blog relevance I felt massively inspired by the Napoleonic Highlander displays and also purchased a number of artists brushes to try out, at a fraction of GW's price I might add. Northern thrift indeedy!!

Such distractions will attest for a paltry FOUR painting points last month though in my defence an amount of "block work" has been completed. I need to make more of my evenings and will be pushing myself for at least 5 painting hours per week at the very least.

Meanwhile, we've played an eight man multi-board game of Space Hulk at the club, see Enfield Gamers link on the right and the next installment of the Star Wars Roleplay: Clones campaign is set for this evening.

As is often the way just as I will myself to knuckle down to the projects in hand several other sparkly gems roll my way. Rich J is looking at playing some WWII Pacific skirmish in 15mm which would, obviously, cost very little in time or money...... obviously. Jon also tempts with talk of Malifeux providing a very in-depth review on his Boneyard blog (link to your right). Some stunning figures allied to an intriguing dice-less card based system.... damn him.

Hoots man, there's jooce loose aboot this hoose!!