Maggots and flies and cars, oh my!

Time for a quick update!

Firstly, the dark light didn't do some of the figures any justice in my last post. I am going to take future pictures in the man-cave where I have more control over the lighting! Here is one of K-9 seeing as he deserves a bit better!

Next up, I recently managed to acquire the Corgi model of Bessie. It took a surprising amount of work to remove the figure of the Doctor from the front seat, and I managed to damage the model a little, but nothing too serious. It was a bit of an extravagant purchase in some ways as it is not really required for the scenario. But one of the event cards in the game allows for Bessie to be placed on the board, so I wanted to be prepared!

I also finished off the 6 bases of maggots for the game, so here they are:

Pretty icky! And of course, the rules allow for these beauties to change into flies. Had a bit of a problem here as it is surprisingly difficult to source a decent fly. I found one picture on the Doctor Who Miniatures game forum, but could not find them to buy. In the end I decided that, in keeping with the slightly dodgy effects the show is known for, it would be okay to use some joke shop flies! I got these in two packs of bugs and insects from Poundland. They actually also came with some large maggots, but I prefer my more 'realistic' fishing bait ones! Here are the flies:

I basically left them as they were, but applied a heavy dark grey drybrush and painted the eyes red. I think they look very much the part in terms of dodgy sci-fi monsters, but also slightly creepy...

There is plenty more on my workbench right now, UNIT troops and characters, the Doctor and companions, plus some Cybermen and Daleks. Stay tuned for more adventures!

Doctor Who Project

Well, I have felt the need recently for a more light hearted project where I am not trying to build big armies or paint a whole load of figures. Pressures in other parts of my life have led me to want a more relaxing game to work on. So I am pleased to announce my Doctor Who project!

I have written a 3 player scenario which will involve a search for an alien artifact, the rescue of hapless civilians and the presence of multiple non-player game-controlled alien forces. In short, chaotic and fun. I'm using the full event deck from the miniatures game, but also a scenario specific event deck of my own nefarious devising. It will all be kicking off big style. At least, that's the idea!

But let's start off slow... A couple of orders from Black Tree have arrived and I thought I'd start off small (sorry for the poor lighting):

K-9 will be one of the companions the Doctor player can select at the start of the game. Which Doctor? Well, let's just say I have selected a series of companions appropriate to my chosen Doctor, of which K-9 is just one.

Next up a few more Weeping Angels, from the Doctor Who Adventures Magazine, who may or may not be making an appearance in the game:

I'm a bit happier with these than my previous effort, but that might be due to basing them differently...

Finally (and randomly illuminated by flash...).... maggots from the story The Green Death:

And where are these from? Well, I searched far and wide for my perfect maggot...

Whoever Frank Warwick is, his fake maggot endorsement sold me on these bad boys. They are dead squishy, but paint up okay I think. Plus they actually scale pretty well with 28mm figures, looking similar to this:

So these maggots may be making an appearance in my game as well....

That's all for now, but stay tuned as there is plenty more to come.

Doctor Who (!)

Whoah, where did that come from?! Only the other day I was staying how I'm going to stay on focus and prioritise some of my current projects... Then BLAM! Two painted Doctor Who figures... I can only assume they came through a crack in space/time and I've painted them far into the future when I have the spare time to dabble in projects which might never see table time...

Both these figures came with the Doctor Who Adventures magazine, available weekly in the UK. The Silence figures came with last week's issue along with some Silurians (8 of each). When I saw the figures I was going to give them a miss but (as is typical) I couldn't help it in the end. I doubt the Silurians will ever be painted, but the 'lanky' look seems to suit the Silence figures and I've seen a couple of publicity photos where they actually look taller than humans, so  I figure they might work.

Here is a 'before and after' shot:

For a quick paint job done last night I'm pretty happy with how it came out, especially given the dubious quality of the soft plastic figure.

I also thought I'd paint one of the Weeping Angels which were given away with a much older issue. In this case I just decided to paint the figure grey and follow with a wash in ink as I'd like to spend as little time on them as possible. I was going to try a really minimalist approach and just apply a wash, but it wouldn't take to the plastic. Unfortunately it didn't turn out so good. I think partly this is due to the mould lines on the figure, but also the method I used. It does look a bit better in real life though.

Again, a before and after:

The figures (well, toys really) that sometimes come with the magazine are pretty hit and miss (Cybermen with 'childbearing hips' for example), but I'm kicking myself for not picking up the Daleks. The Weeping Angels came in a pack with two poses, hiding and pointing, the Silence just the single pose, but it looks a bit creepy, so that's fine. Crooked Dice do some stone angels (Link) but at £4.50 a pop I think I'll give them a miss in favour of the cheaper alternative...

Incidentally, I'd highly recommend checking out the Doctor Who miniatures game rules, (Home page) which are still available as free PDFs. The system has been developed further for Crooked Dice's 7TV rules.

That's all for now!

Generic Welcome Post!

Well, I have now reached the milestone of 20 whole followers, plus two that show up in the figures, but nowhere else.

So welcome to those who have joined recently. I hope I will post things that you find entertaining!

Out of curiosity, which of the following would you be most interested to read about?:

• Fantasy (Warhammer 3rd Edition, Lord of the Rings)
• Zombies (All Things Zombie, No More Room in Hell)
• Sci-Fi (Star Wars, Rogue Trader, Star Grunt, Epic 40K)
• Pirates (Flashing Steel)
• World War 1 (The Great War)
• Victorian Sci-Fi (GASLIGHT)

I could list a load more, but I'm going to try and stick to games where I have both rules and figures readily available! That said, I'm sure I've forgotten a couple... I will be covering everything in its own time, but I'm always thinking about what is next and this might give me some focus! Thanks!

Uh oh!

Okay, so it had to happen at some point, but I have become more than a little distracted by my zombie gaming plans...

My kind sister got me some Rebel Minis zombies, gangers and civilians for my last birthday and, as you can see, I quickly based them this evening. The undercoated figures are 'irish hitmen', or 'guys in suits who happen to have a pistol to hand in the event of the zombie apocalypse', as they will be known in my games. They were from my previous order consisting of zombies and SWAT team members (already painted). So plenty to be getting on with!

On the left you can see my current Warhammer production line. Slow but sure. It isn't being forgotten about, let me assure you.

As I type this I am being slightly overcome by fumes from my latest Poundland acquisition:

Perfect (and cheap!) industrial vehicles for my urban environment. For some reason they smell just like the London Underground, but for £1 each I don't mind too much. I'm thinking about converting the middle one to look something like the Dead Reckoning from Land of the Dead:

A perfect vehicle for zombie hunting. Provided you can find the fuel of course.

So there you have it, a small update about what is going on in the man-cave at present.

Thanks for reading! Comments welcome as always.

Zombie a go-go.

Well, I'm suffering slightly from painting fatigue at the moment, which has given my brain more time to think about what is next on my list. I think it would be a good idea to scale down a little for the next project, so it seems it will be a good opportunity to work on my 15mm zombies.

Aside from a distinct lack of zombies (they are in a box out of shot), this is pretty much what I have at the moment. So fairly thin on the ground. On the other hand,  I have a huge pile of printed out card buildings and road sections to assemble, as well a load more figures from Rebel Minis. The playing area is only 2 feet square at the moment, but I hope to fill it up and grow to a dining table sized urban area soon enough!

One thing I do want to do is make some plain grey tiles to fill in the areas around the roads, so it doesn't look like everything is built on grass! I should say this is a budget project for me (can you tell?!), so it doesn't look as snazzy as a lot of zombie projects people blog about...

As for rules, I have both All Things Zombie and No More Room in Hell. I have only played ATZ but I am aiming on playing both rules and writing up some kind of comparison.

If any of you zombie fans out there have useful hints and tips, please feel free to share!

What's up next...

Various factors comprising what is usually called 'real life' have conspired to leave me with no time to focus on gaming projects over the last week. But I do have plans!

Given that I was able to paint my Empire and Skaven forces reasonably quickly, I have allowed my no purchasing resolution to slide (well, there were other reasons too, but this bog is solely about gaming, so I won't comment on them here!).

I have decided that the next part of the Legend of Baron Gustav will involve him being taken to a town for treatment for his injuries. Along the way, the Empire forces will be ambushed by ad Orc and Goblin force. This will allow me to utilise some more of my old Warhammer Quest figures as well as get started on this little lot:

I love finding bargains on eBay! The Orcs and Goblins in the picture will form the core of the ambushing force. The Dwarves (or Dwarfs in GW speak) will be a force allied to the Empire.

So plenty more painting for me to be getting on with! I intend to start tomorrow, so let's see if I can get this done in record time!

In the meantime I am trying not to distract myself with thoughts of other projects... I'm thinking about selecting a few and throwing the ideas out there to see what people would like to read about most. More of that in a future post.