Two Minis

 I finished a couple of scenario-specific minis for the Pulpy! game I'm going to host at Southern Front in September. That's the steampunk pulp central America scenario wifey and Z helped me playtest a couple months ago.

I present a jaguar and a mystical skull!

The jaguar is a repainted cougar plastic toy. It's a little large, but who cares, right? The skull was a Halloween decoration bit that got some color-shift paint and eerie glowing eyes. Not quite a crystal skull, but you get the point. I also got some toy crocs to use for that game...

They're closer to proper size for 28/32mm. Not sure if I'm going to paint a couple or just leave them as-is. Now, if I could just get brigadegames.com to ship the damn McGuffin characters I need for that scenario, I'd be set. Those bums didn't tell me until two weeks after I place the order that one of the items is backordered. The chose to tell me this right before this:

I just don't have the words. I can't find anyone else with suitable models in stock. I'll figure something out. 

Check Your 6 - Battle of Britain Games

 Zig came by on Saturday afternoon for dinner and a couple game of WW2 Check Your 6. We're both Jet Age veterans so the new, simpler game would just be a matter of adjusting to slower speeds and shorter ranges.

The first game was just 2 @ Me109s vs 2 Spitfires. 

After a bit of the old "twisty turny" one of my 109s was done. It had taken an engine hit and I failed a piloting skill check to do something or other. The plane went out-of-control and over the course of three turns drove itself into the ground. Truly a crap way to lose a plane. We called the game there.

After wings + beer we came back for another battle. We turned up the chaos going to four planes each and assigning six pilot skill points to our four planes. Ziggy had four Spitfires with skill ratings of 2/2/1/1. I used two 109s and two 110s with skills of 2/2/2/0. 

The BF110s are Wings of Glory models which are conveniently also 1/200 scale so they match the Blood Red Skies models almost exactly.

As with many of these games, we got into a world-class "furball" before long. My tan 110 took an engine hit and an elevator hit early, prior to this mess. 

But while "untying the knot" I got blue and red into position behind a Spitfire that had taken airframe damage. The 109 finished off the British fighter, exhausting all its 20mm ammo in the process. The 110 hit, but also exhausted all its ammo during that shot! Ugh. 

Both 110s were done with one beaten up badly and the other with no offensive weapons. I was ready to call it when Zig beat me to the punch! He had one KIA, another with airframe damage and felt like he was in as bad a position as I was thinking I was. Classic, we were both ready to throw up the white flag and his went up moments before mine. A great battle though and loads of fun.

Be well!

The Plane Boss, The Plane

 After five and a half years, I have finally finished painting the planes that came with my Blood Red Skies starter box. I bought it in early 2019 when it was the new hotness. I didn't terribly much care for BRS but recently had the desire to play to WW2 air combat games. I picked up Check Your 6, since I lover CY6: Jet Age and started thinking about minis. Scrounging up the BRS minis was pretty easy and it was convenient that the I had airbrushed the Spitfires years ago. I placed an order for decals with Miscellaneous Miniatures (miscmini.com). A few days on the table and job's done! Colors and markings are "close enough" and unlikely to hold up to a geek's scrutiny. 

Oh, and I did attach magnets to the undersides of the planes so they'd work with my CY6 flight stands.

I can add a few to the numbers and variety via Wings of Glory since those planes are also 1/200 scale. These should keep me happy for a little while though.

Blood and Plunder and Painting

 A few of us got together for some Saturday afternoon Blood and Plunder last weekend. It was refresher situation for us - it's been months since we played last. I played two games against Mike using identical forces each time, while David played more of a learning game against one of the other fellows who showed up, Dennis.

I used my South American natives while Mike used a high-end English force with some cavalry borrowed from Dennis. Just a basic 100-point smash-em-up, nothing fancy.

My deployment. The corner in which I was deployed was a billiard table of open ground. Not even remotely ideal for a force like mine which absolutely must stay in cover.

Mike consolidated into the center pretty quickly and kept the musketballs coming a steady pace. After four or five turns, Mike put his cavalry in the open and they became easy meat for flurries of poisoned arrows. Once they were forced back, the rest of the English followed suit. 

And there they go to tell the tale of woe to any others who'd invade our land!

We reset and played the same matchup again. We did address the open terrain the second time around and flopped deployment corners, right to left.

The game ran similarly, but Mike was eager to get his mounted troops into melee this time. Unfortunately for him, charging across open ground into a full strength unit of good shooters is quite predictable. The arrows accounted for three of the horsemen and they were forced to fall back. After that, it was just another mopping up operation for my tribesmen. 

We both learned a few lessons and rather enjoyed our gaming. I haven't played with those minis in years and they were just as much fun as I remember.

There's David commanding my Spanish on the other side of the table. I think he won his game.

I ordered some more 28mm FIW troops a couple weeks ago from Sash and Sabre. I put the finishing touches on those last evening. Here are a couple shots of them - nothing too crazy, just basic colors and a wash. English Militia and more French Woodsmen for my Blood and Plunder Canada / New England battles.

And A Bit More Painting

 It's been a good week for finishing some painting projects. This group is the start and majority of a new Xenos Rampant (or any other sci-fi game for that matter) force. I spent time working on these over the last two weeks, between assembly, basing and painting. All that and I got those mechs done as well!

First up are ten "C3 Strike Infantry" from Warlord's Gates of Antares range. They were on sale and seemed like interesting looking fully-armored elites. They came with some hover drones I haven't touched yet.

Squad A with the turquoise mark.

Squad B with the purple mark on their helmets.

They're not going to win any painting contests but a eye-catching for sure and obviously mean business!

Now for the fun ones. These started as Wargames Atlantic Cannon Fodder. As I was assembling them, I thought about all the spare WA Goblin Heads I still had on sprues, since WA is so generous with options in their kits. The fit wasn't perfect, but was certainly close enough to work. Boom. All of a sudden I had some cool humanoid sci-fi grunts. A paint job to match their soldier vibe was in order. I'm very happy with the result. They look like soldiers, not just space-fantasy aliens.

There's the lot of 20.

Some fun additions to collection and an absolute delight to paint. I never intended the two different troop types to have any real uniformity or share any common look. I don't know if the guys in power armor are also goblinoids or a different type of being altogther, but they're brothers-in-arms against whatever foe they face. 

Some New Painting

 There's nothing like playing a game of something or other to get me jazzed to paint some more models for that game. After last weekend's Battletech, a dug through the collection Wayne gave me and found eight mechs in decent condition. I fully refurbished them, based them properly and did 'em up!

Three more for the Free World League (Marik). An Onslaught, Shootist and Argus.

And five for Kurita. A Hachiwara, Tempest and Annihilator in the back and a Jagermech and Hammer in the front.

As always, they were quick and enjoyable to paint up. Of course I'm looking forward to seeing them on the tabletop, it's a really interesting mix.