Pulp Alley - Perilous Island/Worlds!

So, I finally got myself organised and started up Pulp Alley. After a tester game to work out the rules, we leapt straight into a sci-fi version of the Perilous Island campaign with "Hidalgo Fire".

Both crews were trying to grab lady Elaine, who was on a dig in some ruins on the planet Hidalgo.....

A cagey start for the Bombshell crew who snuck forward to try to grab some plot points

Taelor, on the other hand, went straight for Lady Elaine!

Plenty of fighting around the edges of the ruin

These two would embarrass themselves by ineffectually bothering each other for 4 turns...... But the fighting on the other side was far more telling! See the downed people at the back.....

Taelor as leader had a rough challenge to pass

She failed, Lady Elaine tried to run, but ended up charging towards the nefarious space merc's lines and was captured next turn!

Meanwhile, Von Schill (at the back) steamed towards the butler trying to protect Lady Elaine, shooting one of the bombshell crew and grabbing him after passing 3 (admittedly easy) challenges in a row!

Seeing this, the bombshell beast decided to leave the ineffective combat and ran into combat to try to knock Von Schill over.....

..... And succeeded in knocking both of them down! The plot point was out again.

Maelee the mechanic took the opportunity to grab a plot point by rummaging through Lady Elaine's luggage, making up for her embarrassing failure to craft any gear before the game by getting no successes on 4d8!

On the other side, the Ilyrian agent got up and then got shot again!

So in piled the leader of the crew to try to decode the electronic lock on Lady Elaine's tent (no jokes at the back please!), elbowing aside a member of the space mercs in the process, knocking him out.

 Things then got very hectic on the other side as everyone seemed to get knocked down, back up and down whilst trying to grab the last objective!

At this point, Taelor decided that discretion was definitely the better part of valour..... Hiding in the corner with her prize.

Meanwhile, Maelee hoovered up another plot point at the satellite uplink - deciphering Lady Elaine's private messages

The leader of the bombshell crew tried to get the butler...... Passing the first challenge......

But then failed the plot point challenge! No picture as I was too devastated to remember to take one..... 😉

As that was the last turn, the game was over. Taelor had captured Lady Elaine, the major plot point (worth 3 points) and the Bombshell crew had three minor plot points - Lady Elaine's luggage and tent had been rifled through and her private comms downloaded (who said space crews have no morals!) - and as they were worth 1 point each, honours were even.

Bit of a frantic battle report, but hopefully it captured the essence of Pulp Alley which has some very elegant rules to use almost any miniatures you want to. Next up, Tarlor is planning to get Lady Elaine off world whilst the Bombshell crew tries to stop them.... So stay tuned!

A Stuka and an A-10 Warthog met in bar one day.....

...nine months later and this little one popped out. It's got its daddy's chin and it's mothers figure!

I've had one of my productive flurries and as a result I've added three marine centurions, two castellii (is that the plural of Castellax?), some Thallax squads and this winged beauty. On top of that I've also managed to get some Shaltari and a Dreadball team prepped and undercoated.

Now just got to paint the bleeders.

TTFN.

Encolourenaterised!

Yup we've moved from monochrome to full 16 bit colour!

I really like the interior doors. The picture doesn't show the laser etching particularly well but they are really cool. I'm of a mind to get enough of the corridors done soon so we can play through the scenarios in the Forgeworld book "The Aphelion Project". 'Nids vs Marines and IG fighting in a research base.

Could be good.

;-)

  
TTFN!

A quick update.

It's been a busy week so I've not managed to get a lot done but I did manage to make a little progress on some doors for the Spartan Scenics. Just got to add a bit more colour to them and then they be all done.

The little striped oblongs are the top parts to be fitted to the rather nice acrylic interior doors that come with the set. I neglected to photo those obviously but they are pretty neat with a funky "Aliens" Med lab feel to them.

TTFN

Finally!

It feels like these have taken an absolute age to finish.

Unsurprisingly seeing as they have been sprayed, dry-brushed in three different colours, had four different colours painted on and then all thirty six panels have had individually uniquely printed transfers added. Sheesh! I really do make work for myself. Still I'm quite pleased with the outcome.

One really good part of the spartan scenics is their modularity and in particular the side panels on the hubs as they don't get glued in place so that you can hook them up with other scenic sets. This is what led me to the idea that they could be reversible. Great for Infinity with lots of more brightly coloured adverts making the set less grimy and industrial.

What next?

I should be painting infantry but I've also got two more sets of the Spartan Scenics to do. Yup. Even more of this stuff! I love it!

TTFN!

Enough?

Yeah. Probably enough Terminators.

They are a mix of different Scibor marine bodies coupled with GW terminator arms and some anvil shoulder pads. I was going for a mixed look to represent the experimental nature of the Terminator armour during the 30K era.

Given that there are different terminator armour types in HH I thought the different styles would help give the different units an individual feel.

TTFN!

Dropzone Commander - I'm going in hot!

I've always quite fancied a go at dropzone commander (henceforth DzC), but I was concerned it would be yet another one of those games that we buy and never use...... So I was heartened to see the sheer size of the 4ground terrain collection that the silverback was putting together! As it looked so smashing (and wasn't cheap) I was convinced that this game was actually going to get a bit of traction and that's all a magpie gamer like me needs!

Fortunately the armies already chosen were the ones not in the starter set, and the starter set is a ridiculously well priced piece of kit that I just had to do it. This must be some kind of record for me as it was delivered Friday afternoon and here is the completed UCM starter models!

First up, the infantry with their transports.......

I decided on an urban camo scheme and the cunning use of blu-tack, spray cans and washes made it a doddle. I went for 3 colours to add interest and I really rather like how it's come out. The plastic used by Hawk Wargames is amazing. No mold lines AT ALL. None. Zero. Zilch. I've never had a kit in any medium that had none.  The vehicles are absolutely fantastic, hugely detailed for such small things. The infantry are mildly disappointing, being very flat and featureless, but 10mm is quite an abstract scale for people. Oh and the vehicles are amazing enough to make me forgive that.

Next up are the tanks, three AA tanks and 3 AT tanks, all from the same chassi with a different gun and turret.

I was pretty cautious with how I modelled the guns as they are on ball sockets and so could really point high up in the air, but I was wary of transportation issues and breakages, so kept it nice and simple.

Finally, the drop ships. These are really well put together, I wasn't brave enough to paint the lines on the see through cockpit but I'm pleased with how the scheme turned out on them.

Side shot

And for scale, all of them together......

Right, who's up for a tester game?

Pre heresy Salamanders - finally

Yep, it's another one of those "I haven't posted in ages, real life got in the way" blog posts that seem to be everywhere, pretty much all of the time. A combination of lost painting mojo, nothing inspiring and launching myself on a couple of large projects with no end in sight has meant that I haven't posted completed figures since March...... And they were just base coat + wash level bystanders.

But a week or so ago, I was moving the box with my salamanders in around the garage for the umpteenth time when I said to myself "you know, I should just get these done" and I was away!

So, first up are the rapiers. Up to three in a battery in 30k, so of course, I had to get three. That's one of the attractions of 30k for me, large formations and batteries of things as opposed to one on its own.

The same weathering tricks as the salamanders that I've already completed and the three laser destroyers give them the long range anti-tank punch that they were lacking.

These next chaps have been sitting around to the stage of not having left arms, weapons or heads for an absolute age. I couldn't work out what weapons to give them...... Then I just decided that it had to be flamers as that's the signature salamander weapon. Now, these aren't the 30k flamers, I like the newer ones and decided that if anyone would be pushing the boundaries of flame weapons and coming up with new options, it would be the salamanders (and it saved me a few quid too!)

Next was a bit of housekeeping, two sargeants, made possible by the two spare crested helmets that I didn't have to use on the rapiers (each pair of crew comes with one). These are for the two infantry squads I've already completed and I hope you'll forgive me for converting a newer mark of armour..... But then it will be artificer armour after all!

One has the shield from some Warhammer skink riders on his chest, mostly to cover the eagle. Combi flamers and power fists for both as the signature weapon and the power first to represent the slow and purposeful nature of the legion.

Saving the best 'til last, this is my HQ figure. Now, the silverback was a jolly nice chap when he was at Salute and picked up the "show only" HH figures for myself and Eddie. Mine happened to be an alpha legion leader, so whilst I seriously toyed with the idea of starting an alpha legion force to use him in (seriously, I need help), a flick through the HH legion rules for salamanders provided my answer though. The model had a snake and skull motif, so a chaplain sounded like just the ticket. There is a special salamanders character who is the first chaplain and holds a thunder hammer made of a single block of obsidian, wears artificer armour and rocks a dragonscale cloak. Here is my take on him

The head is the most ornate one from the salamanders helmet sprue that forge world do, most of the thunder hammer is from a standard 40k termie one and the head of the hammer is from the alternate dwarf weapon in the first 1980's box of 60 plastic Warhammer warriors (10 identical warriors from 6 different races). The dragonscale cloak is the neck of a warhammer troglodon........

I tried to capture the realy ornate shoulder pad here (excuse my hand being in the photo, it was the only way I could find, not being very good with cameras, to dim the shot enough to try to catch it with out too much glare)

There we have it, enough salamanders for a decent sized army now and hopefully I'll remain inspired to get yet more done very shortly!

Get Well Soon!

One of the Gogs is currently under the Doctor.

It would be indelicate of me to discuss the nature of his current health woes so I'll just take this opportunity to wish the BFG well and hope that he has a speedy recovery.

One mean Mo' Fo'!

A Terminator Marine captain for my Iron Hands.

Another lovely Scibor figure.

I've cleared off the detailing from the armour plates all ready for lots of nice transfers once he is painted.

TTFN

22000pts

So the day of the Mega game arrived with much excitement! We had something in the region of 22,000 points on the table

The board had been set up on Saturday with many of the forces unboxed and ready to go on Sunday morning. We mustered, for the most part (eh Urn? ;-), just after nine but it still took us a while to deploy. The orks deployed first and it was a horrible sight to behold especially as BFG & the Silverback were using the Green Tide formation.

'Orrible right?

And that was just one sector of the four set up along the table. massed Orks supported by a stompa, grot guns, squiggoths and herdz of grotz to sit on the objectives on their side of the table.

The Eldar's knees were trembling somewhat as they camped across from the horde.

Thankfully the IG had brought there ever so courageous Ogryn to act as a fantastic distraction and speed bump slowing the tide of green down.

Mean while in the center sectors....

....it was quite-ish in the fields but in the city.....

....a fight was brewing up with a stompa led charge of Killer Kans supported by non-other than Ghazaghull and some of his equally ugly friends!

The fighting spilled out of the city into the sparsely populated Badlands where the IG and Eldar struggled to contain a grot battle tank and some Killer Kans with the forces they had in the region.

A win for the Orks 28 - 20 at the end of turn three. We played the Eldar turn four, as we had a bit of time, but they only pulled back to 28 - 25 so it is safe to say that even with more turns the Orks would have had it in the bag.

Great game and always great to get the big toys out!

'Til the next one!

TTFN.

Almost there!

I've only now got the Fire Prism to finish with a bit more red on the prism and after that I just need to paint the base for the Scorpion.

PEW PEW PEW!!!

Time to bag some Orkies!!!!

TTFN!