Rabbits In My Basement

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Pulp: part 1 Cops

I realize I haven't talked very much about my Pulp stuff. Of course I haven't done much with my Pulp stuff in a while. We had some pretty wild and woolly games that got written up on the Mad Padre's Gaming Blog (and another game here.) I think our last Pulp game was maybe in 2008.

My fictional setting is Pottersville. The inhabitants are a collection of RAFM, Steve Barber, Pulp and Iron Winds miniatures. When you tell your friends you're thinking of doing Pulp gangster adventures you suddenly have all sorts of small baggies of random figures given to you. I managed to accumulate quite an assortment in very short order.

Lots of cops with Black Marias.

First up, the Pottersville Police Department. Some RAFM Call of Chthulu figures, some Steve Barber cops, and I think one of the tommy gun armed cops is an Iron Winds figure. The vans are Lledo promotional trucks made for a some company, but I primed them, painted them black with grey highlights and then made the 'Police' signage on my computer printer (select black for the text box fill and white for the colour of the lettering).

Cop section 1. The Police Captain is the Pulp Figures Sea Captain.

I use a letter/number code for all my factions. So the Police are P, the G-Men are G, the gangs are A, B and C. T for the Tong etc. The each character has a number. Big factions like the Police I'll divide into sections with a two digit system; 10-19 for the first section, 20-29 for the second, etc. The leader will be 01.

Cop section 2

A couple of detectives.

The "Flying Squad" mounted and dismounted

The motorcycle detachment is all RAFM figures. The riders come off and can be replaced by the figures on foot for when they dismount.

The G-Men. a lot of Steve Barber figures. The woman is from Pulp.

The Steve Barber figures are nicely detailed and animated but a bit small. I put a piece of cardboard underneath each to make them appear taller.

Saturday, April 2, 2011

A Zug of StuGs!

Last year I warmed the cockles of your hearts with a tale of random kindness, a Christmas Miracle and a box of German paratroopers. Included with the box of Fallschirmjaeger were five Authenticast StuG III Ausf Fs, because my benefactor figured the FJ would need some armoured support. More tanks are always welcome, especially the iconic StuG, which I`ve always liked. The Ausf F which entered service in 1942, would fill a nice mid-war niche in my collection that was currently unfilled.

The StuGs were in rough shape. Over 50% of the tracks were broken off. All of the barrels were broken off at the mantlet and bent into a J. Gluing the tracks back on was easy. The guns required more thought. I thought about drilling and pinning but there wasn't much room to drill into the barrel themselves. So I just applied a liberal amount of epoxy and used some pieces of foam packing material to hold them at the correct position overnight.

I gave them a black undercoat and then set them aside for a while. A few months back, in between commissions (I do a lot of painting for myself waiting for glue and primer to dry on other people`s miniatures), I put some paint on them with the following result:

Here are some comparison shots with one of my early war Battlefront StuG III Ausf As on the left and a late war Battlefront StuG III Ausf G on the right:

Nice little models which have amply rewarded me for a small modicum of TLC. So now I have quite a pile of StuGs for all my Assault Gun needs in every stage of the war!

Friday, April 1, 2011

Scary Old Baggage!

And no I'm not talking about my mother!

Here's the old Museum Miniatures baggage train I bought quite cheap at Hotlead:

$10 for 6 wagons is pretty good really, but my 25 year old paint job is pretty ahem ...bad. But I think some ink washing should fix that. Although I have a sneaking suspicion I painted them when I was still using enamels, so the ink may just run off without some gesso first. The solid wheels are the truly atrocious part, since spoked wheels have been around since the bronze age and I recall that Museum Miniatures sold the same models with spoked wheels as "Medieval Baggage"!

But I have enough spare spoked wheels of suitable size to replace the wheels on the 4 in the foreground. The big load of wood and the four barrel wagon look heavy enough I suppose solid wheels might be appropriate.

So I'll give them new wheels, ink wash/Army painter dip, rebase, remove the drivers and pushers and they shouldn't look too bad. Once they have spoked wheels then the 2 wheeled barrel cart, 2 wheeled cart and the two general baggage wagons would be alright with my SYW armies too I think.

And not so scary:

Those Humbers I got for $15 at the Bring & Buy. A few minutes with a paint brush and they'll be ready to go look for Jerry.

Antique Roadshow

A friend who isn't busy enough teaches part-time at a local university. A history professor retired and cleaned out his office giving my friend a pile of artifacts. My friend thinks to himself "I don't really need two swords. I'll give one to James!"

So here it is:

I suppose I should have included a tape measure. It has a 34.5" blade. Overall length is 41".

Plain, stamped metal. Worn leather grip.

The only markings are the 'D' on the scabbard and the number '146' stamped on the guard.

I'm guessing a heavy cavalry troopers weapon. An attendee at Hotlead did the 'Antiques Roadshow' bit and surmised it was late 19th early/20th century issue. Probably made surplus when the Canadian and British armies got rid of their horsed cavalry in the 1920s.

The temptation to wave it about is quite strong. But I don't want to break any light fixtures!

Thursday, March 31, 2011

I've just had a cunning plan, Baldric....

After playing in Steve Thompson's Sharp Practice game at Hotlead (these are pictures of actual game I played in too), I started thinking about my fledgling Napoleonics collection. I have one box of Warlord Prussian Landwehr (which I reviewed last year) and 60 odd Russians I got two Hotlead's ago in the Bring & Buy.

I had been thinking that wasn't really enough to do anything with and I'd need more. Not being able to afford a lot more I put them away.

But at Hotlead I had had a pretty good time with a pretty smallish army (2x 24 figure units, 2x guns and an 8 figure cavalry unit). So I started thinking about my Napoleonics and realized that the box of Warlord figures would make a fine unit and the Russians would easily organize into at least 2 units.

In Sharp Practice figures are organized into Groups of 8-10 figures, and then the Groups are organized into a Formation. A Formation can have a flag and a Big Man with musicians to help him issue orders. A Group may have a lower ranking Big Man like a sergeant.

The Warlord Landwehr will easily sort themselves into 3x 9 figure Groups plus a command element of Big Man, drummer and ensign. The Russians have been resorted into 2x Formations. A Line Infantry Formation of 3x 9 figure Groups plus Command Group and assorted Big Men and a Grenadier Formation with 2x 8 figure and 1x 6 figure Groups plus Command Group and assorted Big Men. There's also an 8x figure Group of chaps with their muskets at the high port who would probably make a nice detachment of Jaegers. The also have an artillery piece.

I have enough Russian gunners to man two guns. I can probably get a second gun from Mike.

Hurray! Instant army! By the time I get all the infantry painted I will probably be able to save some money to buy a few cavalry and expand the Prussian contingent. Mike already has enough French to fight them if he can find enough extra command figures to make the Big Men.

Now I just need some time to do a bit of painting for myself....

Monday, March 28, 2011

Hotlead 2011: second batch of pictures!

Some more pictures emailed to me by an attendee showing a few other games.

Some Napoleonic skirmish action

Cacadores and Rifles vs. Voltigeurs

Green Jackets and Voltigeurs Rules.

Byzantines vs. German Imperial troops in Italy 11th cent.

He must be doing well.

Lovely masses of infantry!

The reason why I keep doing this.

A new hero

Hotlead 2011: First Pictures

My friend Peter took a bunch of pictures when he wasn't manning the trenches at the Bring & Buy. He has kindly given permission to publish some of them here. I made all the pictures small to save on page loading. click on each to view at full size.