Spodding

Well, not a poster as such. More of a magazine advert really. I drew inspiration for this image from the old Green Army Men ads you used to get on the backs of comic books of the 50s and 60s. I was pretty happy with the end result. It will most likely feature in the hobby section of the rulebook.

I’ve been in two minds about where to take Atomic Sunset and how to go about developing and producing the rules. I was leaning heavily towards doing it as a ‘theatre of war’ supplement for Flying Lead by Ganesha Games. That is a very playable ruleset and is gaining a strong following, which are very important considerations. But I just bought a copy of their first supplement, Hearts and Minds, and was singularly unimpressed by the amateurish production values and the excruciatingly bad grammar throughout the book.

So, my current thinking is to develop the game as a standalone ruleset and publish it myself as a PDF document. Still, that idea will no doubt change again before the end of the week.

I think this version is better – it tells a story and lets the kids know that hitting giant ants with a baseball bat is A-OK!

Bert the Turtle hits a home run

In between meeting deadlines at work and watching football well into the early mornings, I have been thinking a lot about the Atomic Sunset game concept and where I want to take it. Andrew and Greg have been helping me build a clearer picture of the idea in my mind and define the sorts of stories I want the game to tell. To get back into the feel of the postwar era, I have been busy watching some of the amazing Civil Defense educational movies that were made back in those days. The absolute epitome of the era was the Duck and Cover film, starring Bert the Turtle.

I got to thinking about what other threats Bert might be called upon to give us some useful survival tips for. What about Giant Mutant Ants?

So here’s the first draft poster I made up this evening. I expect to rework this when I get a little time to spare:

Trying to model in 10mm is almost beyond the capacity of my pathetic and aging eyesight. Doing the stonework on the Kamarg tower is proving to be a lot more fiddly than I thought it would be and I’ve had to resort to using magnifying lenses so I can see the detail properly. But it’s been fun so far, and this is the first model I have built that is being done specifically with casting in mind. That in itself is adding some interesting challenges to the way I am constructing it – a multi-part model with minimal undercuts and making it hollow to reduce the amount of resin. I need to ensure that a 40mm x 20mm stand of models will fit in the battlements and on the base as well. Lots to consider.

I’ve started construction of the tower base now. It’s a 10mm scale model and this is the first time I’ve attempted anything that small before, so it’s going to be an interesting challenge. A friend of mine suggested it’s best not to try not to add too much detail, so I’ll keep that in mind as I progress with this.

The piece I’ve made is the circular base at the bottom of each tower. It has a spiral track cut into it that is intended to show how the building will retract into the ground. I tried to make the track as smooth as possible so it may actually be possible to fit some lugs into the base and get it to rotate up and down – I’m sure someone will try!

I don’t know how well these photos illustrate what I am trying to achieve, but it’s still early days yet. The figures standing next to the model are from Eureka’s 10mm fantasy range. Apologies for the over exposed images:

Moments later the tower began to spin faster and faster, and Hawkmoon realized in astonishment that it was disappearing below the ground, the flame passing harmlessly over it.
The Jewell in the Skull – Michael Moorcock.

The towers of the Kamarg were the bastion of that land’s defence against the brutal hordes of the Dark Empire of Granbretan. These towers were armed with esoteric and sorcerous weapons that turned the tide of battle in the first assault against the Kamarg, but ultimately were overcome one by one as the onslaught continued unabated for months.

I have been asked to produce a master model depicting the fabled towers of the Kamarg to go along with a range of miniatures depicting the forces of Count Brass, Dorian Hawmoon, and the bestial legions of Granbretan. Here are my concept sketches:

Started working on the base of the tower now, but nothing much to show for it.

I just received some photos from Nic and John at Eureka Miniatures of the table setup for the Jurassic Reich game at Little Wars back in May. These are much better shots than I could achieve and so, with their permission, I’ve posted them here for all to see.

I’m really pleased with the way that the table came out and the minis looked superb on the countryside.

A couple of weeks has passed since the Little Wars convention and my hectic hobby schedule dropped away to zero almost – it’s been great, but a little boring.

As a ‘casual’ project to keep me occupied while the vuvuzuela horns blare away in the lounge room, I dug out my Incursion collection and vowed to diminish the painting backlog. However, as is my usual state of affairs, my mind went racing from one project idea to the next, and now I have a number of different things on the go at the same time.

• A 10mm scale tower scenic piece for a possible upcoming range of miniatures
• A 10mm ‘modular’ zeppelin model for a new VSF airship game
• A 28mm scale ‘Anubis Gate’ model for commercial production
• A series of 28mm scale farm buildings for commercial sale
• Clearing my Incursion backlog (47 zombies, 5 APEs, 1 Werewolf, Ilsa von X, Otto von X, and 7 MI13 agents
• Painting 20 British Airborne troops
• Painting 10 US Airborne troops
• Painting 13 Teddy Bear Cowboys
• Building a Moria table with my son
• Finishing Bag End

Was that all? Probably not.

These guys have been staring at me for the past few months with their big dead eyes, pleading to be painted. I have around 50 Nazi zombies waiting for me to find the time to give them the attention they deserve. The zeds are for the game “Incursion” from Grindhouse Games (link there’s a down below) and, together with the power-armoured GIs from the Lucky 7th and some British MI13 operatives, form the bulk of my current painting backlog. So far I have 6 models painted out of a total of 68 for this game. Damn! Not even 10%.

Ok, guys, you’re up next!

Who wants to be first? Sarge? Ilsa? Or will it be Lt Murphy? This is my current mission in life, reduce this backlog to something more respectable, perhaps even zero!

PS, Welcome to ‘fuzzywauzzy’ – our latest follower.

Firstly, welcome to our latest follower Gerard Boom (Geboom), it’s a privilege to have you here Gerard!
If you are at all interested in terrain making and want to see some high quality work, go and visit his website ‘Shifting Lands’ !

I was inspired to try a technique that Geboom has mastered with his Amsterdam Canal facades – plaster carving. I’ve not tried this since I was 15 years old, so I thought I’d start small. I wanted to make a master model for the pillars on my son’s Moria table, so that seemed like a good place to begin. I cast up a block of dental plaster roughly the right size, and then smoothed it off with sandpaper. Then in pencil I marked out the basic design. You have to accommodate any raised details in the block of plaster, so I had to carve out the main column shape leaving the base untouched. I’m still working on it at the moment, but you can see from these photos that it’s coming along. I think with a bit more practice and some more appropriate tools I should be able to get quite a lot of detail into a model. I plan on using this technique for a number of master models I hope to make for commercial sale in the future.