A village is born!

So,

A few weeks ago I ordered a few new buildings for some gaming from Sarissa Precision. I wanted some South Pacific looking buildings and ordered the Far East Bundle. First off, It only took about a week and a half to get my order from the UK, that was amazing with everything going on in the world. Secondly these buildings are awesome, I love what the Sarissa guys are doing!

This past weekend I decided to work on getting them assembled and started to "Plus" them up. What I like from these kits you can use them as is or dress them up as much as you like. So first these kits I added doors (used the extra MDF left over from the cutout) and a couple of small hinges I have. I also plan to do a corrugated tin roof to give them more a Hollywood flavor to them. For the corrugation I am using the same card board I used for the Spanish tiles but making them larger and not over lapping them. In fact I am cutting them up at various widths and not placing them touching each other as to have that run down sort of look.

First building with a new roof!

 You will also notice that I already did the texture to the bases and the buildings are not glued to the supports, so when I do start painting I can paint up the texturing under the buildings and adding grass and some plants as well.

Common meeting Hut

This bundle set is perfect for a little village and I am really looking forward to painting them all up. You will notice that some buildings are just planked siding, the one below is a woven looking sort of building, nice little touch.

Woven or thatched siding.

These kits just have so much character and I could see them being used for a few games for sure. Because of these buildings, I need to order more Pulp Figures (Castaways set) as well as Island Natives for this as well.

Another nice looking building!

Animal pen or cheap overnight accommodations? 

All in all I am very please once again with Sarissa's offerings and will be buying more of there products in the very near future. Stay tuned for more pics as I work on these lovely kits...

TK

KAT Attack truck

 Welcome Gaslands fan

I kicked out another cool conversion this weekend, this one I call KAT Attack and is a rather simple conversion. All parts are from the Implements of Carnage sprue from Northstar. I added the Ram, air intake, machine guns and the launcher to the rear, that was it.

KAT ATTACK! 

The model is the Erikenstein car and was originally a grey color, I of course disassembled the car and stripped the paint and chrome off of it. Once dry I mounted the guns and launcher to the model. I had to wait to place the Air Intake and plow on after I put the car back together. Then it was a prime of black and wait to dry.

Slick looking profile

I painted with a mix of Creamcoate and Reaper paint to get the yellow then did a flesh wash from Army painter on the model/ At this point I liked how it looked, but once the wash was dry I went back in to clean up the wash in areas that I did not like how it pooled up.

Mean rear end

Once that was done, I went at it with my Vallejo Environmental colors to dirty it back up with rust and grime. Before I did that I added the decal of the skull (from a 40k decal sheet) to the sides. This little decal really makes the truck pop and ia a great eye catcher for the model. 

Ramming Speed!

So there you go, another build for Gaslands and only took a day to do as well, can't wait to get it on the track!

TK

A Very Pulpy weekend.

 Hey folks,

This past weekend was a very productive weekend and it all focused on Pulp. A couple of buddies this weekend were doing a sort of Hobbycon weekend working on the new 40K box set that just came out and were looking for folks to join along. Well I am not interested in 40K nor did I buy said new version, I decided to work on what I had, so Pulp miniatures were on tap.

Models completed on Saturday

 I was able to complete five figures on Saturday and as Sunday rolled around, I busted out a few more models. Four out of the five are more old west, more like Mexican revolution, but they can be used in Pulp games, and the fifth model was a true pulp adventurer all from Pulp Figures..  

What a Wild Bunch we have there.

So I was able to get another five completed and as I was working on these, I got notification that my Sarissa Precision  order would be delivered today! So not only would I have completed 10 figures, but I was getting some terrain today.

Box from the UK smelling of burnt wood!

I ordered the Far East building pack, a dock and two Steam Powered launches all intended for Pulp gaming or Pacific WW2 gaming.

My terrain haul!

I was so excited to be getting my terrain that I started work on them as soon as it showed up. The first item I set about building was the dock, pretty straight forward kit, although I decided to add rope wrapped about the supports for the dock. Just some natural twine used for bracelets, which adds a nice little touch to the dock.  

part of the dock which includes another section, so a Paradox!

Once I had the dock assembled, I turned my attention to the steam launch, and I was very happy to be assembling these. And if you know me, I was a skipper on a very similar looking boat trudging down jungle rivers for many years. This kit is a neat little kit, in the picture below I have the hull completed and just have the canopy sitting there, my plan is to extend the canopy all the way over the boat and I will be using tissue paper for the canopy and making another set of frames to hold it up. The Steam boiler does go up towards the front, but I will be making a replacement that looks more like I am used to seeing in the boats I piloted. 

I get paid for the number I take out, not how many I bring back!

here is a combo picture of the dock and the boat together, which is perfect for what I am going to use it for!

Watch your step and don't step on your watch!

I ran out of steam and was not able to finish more on the boat, but will be working on it throughout this week. So stay tuned friends, more dispatches from the Jungle soon! 

Kungaloosh!

TK

Tired of it all...

 Hey Fans,

Sorry for the depressing title, no I am not giving up on life or my hobby, but I am getting tired of the latest vibe with one of my hobbies. I am pretty sure this feeling is from the current state of affairs with the world and the Rona, but I am getting tired of Games Workshop and the current trend of collecting being the main focus for the hobby.

I started my war gaming hobby with a few old classic GW games like Space Hulk and Blood Bowl and I moved onto to Warhammer Quest, Fantasy Battle, Battle Fleet Gothic, Epic, Lord of the Rings, Warhammer 40K, AOS, Kill Team and a few others. I have been a fan of all of their games and of recent love the models that they are turning out. yes i am a GW gamer at heart. I have spent tons of money on games and have had a great time with all of them. In fact some of the other versions have pulled me back into the fold and spent a lot of time working on newer models.

But I have started to wonder if its worth it anymore? Its not the money, I am not really enjoying the games like I used to when i was younger. I used to get all fired up thinking about games, campaigns and new projects, now I just feel sort of like Ehh. Perhaps its being older, my attention is not like it used to be and even the drive is not there like it was.

I wonder if this feeling is the same with others? Is there a point that we reach with GW games that is the end? Am I alone thinking like this? As I said at the top, some of this is brought on by the fact I can't game as much right now, I keep hearing this thing will pass, but its been almost 6 months and its still here, dosn't look like its going away anytime soon, but I will not go there. The other part of it was just yesterday I was looking through my book shelf and I still have two copies of old Warhammer Fantasy, a couple of editions of 40k books and a few other game rule books from GW, I have at least a two dozen rulebooks and it dawned on me, why do I still have these??

That is what got me thinking, am I done with Games Workshop? My most recent projects have me thinking about Pulp games, WW2 games and other games (Gaslands) that I would rather be playing. The drive to do anything for GW is just not there. perhaps the saying is true, with age comes wisdom, maybe I am done spending money with a company that dosn't seem to value you me anymore (if they ever did that is). 

So I am just wondering, is this depression of GW coming from the Rona? Is it coming with Age? I can't be the only one who feels like this (or am I?). I would love to hear your thoughts and comments.

TK

Quiet on the set!

So,

This weekend I busted out a few Pulp Alley & Pulp Figures miniatures to work on, I love pulp games and I wish I got to play more of them, but my local group is not as interested as I am. But that not withstanding I still paint up figures and terrain for games I will run.

This Weekends painting

Not sure what got me in the mood to bust out these, maybe the GW info about Blood Bowl that had me down, but I felt inspired to paint and pretty much the whole weekend to do it. I just have to say that I really love Pulp Figures miniatures, they are so charismatic and in a way, very simple to paint. Unlike GW which are very detailed almost to the point of over detailed, Pulp Figures are much more of a joy to paint for me and I always get great results. 

Take 81!

Pulp Alley miniatures are in the same vain as the Pulp Figures and this was my first set of them to paint up. I had used these models for years when I ran demos, showing people the figures that Dave was now making. So I decided to paint them up finally after all these years.

And Action!

I also tried a new Red hair color on the Red Queen model from Pulp Alley, I have always gone with an orange with a red wash, this time I started with the same color as I used on the model on the left below, its a color called Yellow Ochre from Americana. I then used a red wash that was watered down and applied that. Once it set I used a Reaper Marigold Yellow 09007 as highlights, its more a yellow/orange color and looks awesome as a high lite for much more realistic Red head. 

Pulp Girl & Red Queen from Pulp Alley

Anther shot of these beautifully sculpted models.

I also got around to getting this Limited edition Empire of the Dead model painted up, which I named Professor Cox, a crazy nar do well bent on about bringing all kinds of calamities down on society. I have a tendency to name some of my characters after friends, this one is no different, He is named after my good friend Noel Cox, who I used to work with at Disneyland. Noel went on to work as an animator on the Simpsons and most recently is now working at Knotts Berry Farm in the living Calico players as the Deputy Mayor of Calico.  I shot a picture of the mini to Noel, and one day I will have him going in a game so he can bring his creation to life on the tabletop!

Professor Cox and Evil Doctor of Mayhem!

I also did up these two, the model on the left is Pulp Alley while the model on the right is a Pulp Figure, both fit the bill as Good Cop and Bad Ghestpo agent and will be used in many a games.

You do know I am holding a Tommy Gun right?

So there you have it, some daring Heroes, some lovely ladies and a few bad guys thrown into the mix, all and all a great turn out of characters for some pulp games.

TK

The Sea Duck

Well, 

This took longer then I thought, but I got the Sea Duck completed last night. This is a Lindberg 1/48th Grumman Goose kit which I will use for Pulp gaming. if your old enough you will recognize this plane from the Tales of the Golden Monkey series that used to be on TV back in the 1980's.

1/48th scale kit

This kit is a fairly simple kit and the detail is not that great, but as a gaming piece, its perfect and the price is very reasonable, I think I paid $15.00 including shipping.

Built in only about an hour, that's how simple of a kit it is.

As I was going to be using this as a gaming piece, I assembled the entire kit in about an hour and even glued in the windows as I would paint over them. The kit has no detail inside, so that was a major reason I would paint over the windows.

All built and ready for the paint. 

I sprayed the entire model in a nice looking gray from Tamyia (actual IJN grey). I then waited a week for it to dry and then masked off the areas to be painted black and shot that color on. I wanted to use all rattle cans for this project. Once I let that dry, I cam back in and hand painted the cowls red with thin coats of Reaper Red. I then painted up the engine and washed it with strong tone wash.

At this point I realized that I sis not do a great job of masking off the aircraft and some of the black bleed through, no worries I thought, I would just touch up and color match the areas. Well that did not work and now I had different colors. I contemplated re shooting the plane and masking off the areas (cowlings) in the grey, but after thinking about it, I decided to use Reaper Blitzkrieg Grey (from the CAV line of paints) to repaint the aircraft to more of a white color by hand. Now being a gamer, I am used to that, but was worried about it as I use thin coats of paint and when I started on it I thought I messed it up even more. So I went to bed and hoped that the plave got lost in the Bermuda triangle or something.  

Looks much better!

Well after sleeping on it, I went back to the plane and started another coat of paint, this time it went much better as the first coat was not covering it completely but the second coat was. This gave me hope and I pressed on. I touched up the black areas that I had made a mess on and finished the windows. Now I am happy to say its completed and doesn't look to bad (still not perfect, but as a game piece it works).

Nice clean lines

So now all I had to do was come up with a name, which I decided that it would be called The Sea Duck (from a animated TV show) and came up with a back story for the pilot, Jonathan Harrington, dashing explorer, daring treasure hunter and all around good guy!

This was supposed to be a quick project, but it lasted longer then I had planned, but its nice to call it done and now I can move onto other projects.

TK 

Opps, they did it again!

SO,

Games Workshop just announced that they are releasing another new box set along with a New hard back rule book for Blood Bowl to be released this year.

New Version of Blood Bowl Already?

So, I have very mixed feelings about this, on one hand, I am glad that GW is supporting one of my all time favorite games, then on the other side I think What the Hell GW???

I started playing BB back with the 2nd edition back in 1988, I loved the game and so did my buddies. I was hooked and have bought each version up until today. This most recent edition came out 4 years ago and they are still releasing teams, but today they officially announced a newer version.

Why does this make me mad? Well that means all the money I have spent on this new game is about to go out the window! All the extra stuff like tactic cards, GW made sleeves, bought teams and extra boards, pretty much went in with both feet. Now there will be a new rule book and from what I am hearing, a new stat added to the game, so that means all the team cards, and rule books are now garbage and I would need to buy more stuff! 

Of late GW has gone to this collector mentality for the last few years, causing a sort of buying frenzy for products and I think GW dosn't mind, it helps with the frenzy and everyone wanting their products. It drives demand and I am sure GW banks on the sales spikes caused by this which helps their bottom line.

Well though for me & my situation, I think I am done feeding the GW cash cow, its time for me to take back my hobby, its not about the fevered buying and collecting, its about the hobby in general and I want to have fun with it. So I will be pumping the brakes and turning my focus to other games and spend that money on things I want and not things I need to get before it sells out!

TK