A Little Painting

 I finished up a group of 10 Bombshell Minis old-school pulp models this week. They're "Buck Rogers" style jet pack troopers, picked up on a whim.

A fun addition to the collection and hopefully I can get a Pulp game together one of these day to feature all the sci-fi models I have!

Southern Front 2026

 I went up to Raleigh North Carolina last weekend for the Southern Front game convention. As usual, it was a wonderful get together with a group of terrific guys and gals. Mark from Savannah also made the journey - he's also become quite taken with the con.

The first game I'd signed up for was a LOTR War of the Ring game. The host, Mike, wasn't as up on the rules as I'd have liked and there was a lot of time spent poring through the rule book. That was a bit frustrating. The models and table top were top notch though and we all still had a good time pushing minis around on a Friday afternoon!

I got to command the Riders of Rohan and Gandalf on the far right flank.

A view further down the table.

Ugh. An unkillable monster.

And an unkillable troll. 

That did make for an easy excuse to start drinking early. Friday evening I hosted my game of Viking-flavored Nightwatch.

I had six players - one for each Viking and two guys shared the Saxon defenders.

Heck, the Saxons actually won the second scenario!

There are the two Saxon players!

The Vikings narrowly held on to win the third scenario, ultimately finishing ahead on the night, 2 to 1.

Saturday morning, Mark and I got into a game of Blood and Plunder.

There's our dead sexy table

My Frenchies skulking about in the sugarcane.

Although Mark's nasty pirates nabbed the prisoner and hurried him away, I got the better of the pirates in the fight that followed, nearly wiping them out! My teammates fared similarly - although the pirates won their objectives, the French won a sound military victory.

After lunch, the WW2 desert war game I'd signed up had been cancelled so I got in on a game of Test of Honor. I was sandwiched between two youngsters, 13 and 10. They were terrific. Sadly I didn't get any full table photos.

My Samurai leader charged into a group of monk archers. The rest of the monks sorted him out in no time. Grrr.

But my ronin with the big hammer and sweet leopard print trousers was an absolute wrecking machine. It was a very enjoyable game, but maybe too fiddly for a 6-player convention game. It just has a lot of mechanics that need to be explained. In a smaller situation, it'd be excellent.

After dinner, it was on to The Texas Incident. 1890's Pre-Dreadnoughts duking it out in the Philippines. My teammate and I commanded the Japanese contingent. I'd actually played this game, a creation of GM Bruce, a few years back and captained the same ship in that game.

There she is. Across the table are the two Americans, left and center and a Brit, right. The American mission was to reach the stricken Texas, board and make off with her. The mission, secretly assigned to us, was to sink the Texas - a very tall order indeed.

My teammate and the lead British ship manage to collide. Crimminy.

What a mess. Having the smallest ship, my tactic was to keep a low profile and let the big boys blast away at each other. I did get in quite a few nice hits on the USS Indiana and the Russian Potemkin.

Being a turn-template game, many years of experience with Dystopian Wars and X-Wing has served me well. I can drive. The others, not so much. 

Some shots of the players...

Another great weekend of dice and toy soldiers. Already getting prepared for 2027!

Orks, Meet the Y

 Two projects for this update. First, a follow up from last weekend's post. The YMCA sign is done and came out nicely IMHO.

and the other thing... I finished up the other half of the Oathmark Orcs box set, joining the fifteen I finished up in July.

They certainly look the part. Rough and ready and thoroughly dirty. Ready to bash some elf heads!

Viking Terrain Bits

Since the playtesting lest weekend, I've been steadily working on a couple of bits of scenery for the games at Southern Front. I started these fence sections some months ago, but bending the cross-members was frustrating and I stopped for a while. I went back a couple weeks ago and got them knocked out. They turned out quite nicely I think.

And then there's this... Mark thought a bundle of scenarios called "The Pillage People" should include a YMCA sign. Always happy to oblige, Mark.

It'll be ready soon enough!