DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS

As some of you know I have had D&D on the agenda since my post ( LINK) back in August 2011, wanting to recapture some old school fantasy action, I couldn't pass up the chance to purchase the limited edition Gygax memorial premium covered version of the AD&D 1st edition core rule books, which includes the players handbook, monster manual and the dungeon masters guide, all beautifully bound in a modern contemporary but yet still old school cover. the only real difference between the originals and this version is basically the covers, which have been modernized, internally the rule set is word for word, written in mono tone, nothing added just like the originals.

Between BD&D (basic, red box) and AD&D 1e there is no other version of D&D that I have played the most, I have played other versions, recently D&D 4e, but these two versions I enjoy the most and share the most memories with, of all the versions of D&D I think that AD&D 1e is the one true version, most of the other versions were either too basic, not yet matured enough or over cooked with way too many unnecessary features added on, this is of course only my opinion, I guess we all have our opinions right ?

BUCKBOARDS AND A WAGON

Hi all, back again after a bit of an unforeseen break (sorry bout that), continuing on with the wild west theme, I have put together a wagon, buck board and a doctors buggy, scale wise these are 15/18mm and are all from Blue Moon Manufacturing, all of these will be just obstacles and cover for the many warring cowboy factions that will inhabit my terrain, enjoy...

 

The buckboard was a basic four wheeled wagon of simple construction, usually drawn by a horse, a very iconic form of transport in the wild west, it received its name via the front most board which protects the driver from the horse's hooves if it was to 'buck'.

 



 The doctors buggy, again simple in construction, a smaller four wheeled wagon, usually drawn by one horse, but with much more comfortable additions, colored wheels and a comfy seating position, not a bad way to travel in the wild west.

 



The Wagon, A heavy four wheeled vehicle usually used to transport goods and in some cases even people, is the ultimate iconic ride in the wild west.

WILD WEST BUILDING #3

Hi again everyone, another building is completed for my wild west town, an important building, every town has to have a place where the local law resides right? well this is my Sheriff's office, a nice enough building me thinks, with this building I tried to use more natural tones as far as colour goes and used less facade decorations, a sheriff's office should look more modest, I think it turned out nice, I also ordered some trees, tufts and accessories for the landscaping of the town, this project is coming along nicely.

WILD WEST BUILDING #2

Hi everyone, adding another building to my slowly growing wild west town, this time it is a partially complete town building, an old west construction zone if you will, the building is still at frame stage, the flooring is laid out and most walls have been erected, it comes complete with a ladder, cutting horses and a pile of wooden planks, this building was quite easy to put together and so simple in design, but it comes across very effective visually, a nice piece in my opinion.

WILD WEST BUILDING #1

And so begins the process of Building my Wild West Town in 15/18mm, I don't know what this building does to contribute to this town but if you forced me to make something up, I would probably say that it will end up being a drug store, I have already organised signage but I haven't made a final decision just yet, this building is probably one of the smaller buildings that I will put together, it is one of about ten buildings that will make up my wild west town.

 

This is a DIY kit and a very detailed one at that, lots of little bits and pieces, with a lot of them needing painting prior to being put together, this made it very difficult, I made a lot of mistakes building this one, but I believe I have found a process which should make the next build faster and with a lot less mistakes, I hope you enjoy, there are more coming.

 

 

LOS PANUELOS ROJOS

 

I finally finished my first outlaw gang for my Wild West Project, fellow Blogger Zabadak, cleverly refered to them as 'Los Panuelos Rojos' loosely translated as 'The Red Neckerchiefs'  I kinda liked the name and so it has stuck, they number 9 in total and have a mix of weapons, sawn off shotgun, six shooters and a couple of rifles, the local lawmen had better watch out...

The only other miniatures I added to the group are the two in the foreground, the leader of the 'Los Panuelos Rojos' and one of his underlings, take note that the leader Carrys twin ivory handled pistolas, has a bit of a gut, but is still a lowdown good for nuthin son of a la perra, even though the group kinda looks the same, this was done on purpose, I wanted them to be easily identified in battle, I think they turned out real nice, hope you like them.

COWBOYS

Moving forward again with my Wild West Project, I painted some more Cowboys, these guys belong to the same cowboy gang as the outlaws I painted in a previous post (Go HERE to view that post), I painted them in similar tones and colours with all of them having a red neckerchief to link them together, this brings the gangs members to a total of seven men, I want to add at least a couple more to the total which will make these guys a force to be reckoned with, they have a mix of revolvers and rifles. 

As with all my Wild West miniatures they are from Bluemoon and are 15/18mm in scale. whats up next ? I will paint up the remainder of this gang, and then I will paint up a group of bounty killers (Hunters), you may even recognise some of them, well see.

TEXAS RANGERS

I have some more cowboys to show off today, continuing in the theme of 'Officers of the Court', I have four more frontier lawmen to show you, two Texas Rangers, a Sheriff and a Pinkerton agent, all good guys I suppose...... Right ?   

So, Texas Rangers, these guys were Officers of the court, who had a state wide Jurisdiction in Texas, they performed duties such as murder investigation, political corruption, the tracking down of fugitives, and various other duties, the Texas Rangers are one of the oldest law enforcement agencies in the United states, these miniatures will work very nicely in a scenario I have planned, these particular rangers are well dressed in their town gear.

I also have on show tonight a local sheriff, his jurisdiction is only County wide, the word sheriff comes from the old english term 'shire reeve', a designated royal official responsible for keeping the peace (a "reeve") throughout a shire or county on behalf of the king, how many of you knew that ?? cause I didn't... the sheriff is the guy with the grey hat.

Finally, I also painted a Pinkerton agent, the Pinkerton agency was a security guard and detective agency, basically official guns for hire, they did work ranging from basic detective work to presidential guard duty, the work was not always above board, surprise surprise, business men once hired them as a goon squad in an attempt to intimidate striking workers, the agency is still in existence today as private military contractors.

  

US MARSHALS

So its been a little while since I posted anything, which doesn't mean I haven't been doing any painting or gaming, but to be fair to all the followers of this blog I had better post something up as I haven't yet made my quota for this month.... so here goes.

 

So more on the Wild West front, after my last post I did say that I was working on Lawmen next and Lawmen it is, I have painted up four well dressed Local US Marshals, could they be the Earps? maybe, and in some games probably...   I will definitely use them as the Earps in one game, maybe the guy with the shotgun could pass as Doc Holiday ? offering up support for his friends, I suppose some off them could also pass as Mormons ??  either way these minis turned out real nice, they painted easy and are well posed for some gunslinging action, they are part of the Bluemoon range of Old West 15/18mm minis. thats it for today you can expect somemore post in the next few days, maybe even tomorrow !

CAR WARS COUNTERS

 

 

I have been dual posting about my Mad Max Car Wars project on this blog and also on the Steve Jackson Car Wars forum and have had a few requests to post some of my other car counters that I have squeezed out of photoshop for use at home with my Car Wars game, so as a response I thought I would make a quick post to exhibit some of the different vehicles I have made in the past, there are others but this should be a good lot of samples, since printing them I have noticed a few areas that can be improved on, for example some of the colours are not quite right, glass glare going over vehicle roofs and even car proportions are a little out, anyway all this can be fixed, please enjoy, all comments are welcomed and if you would like to see a specific vehicle as a Car Wars counter please post it in the comments section, if my skill is upto it I'll have a crack at it. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I almost forgot to post some of the basic Car Wars arenas I made for the Vassal mod, good solid arenas for straight forward beginners style battles in a nice open area.

 

 

 

 

 

MAD MAX CAR COUNTERS

"I am the Nightrider. I'm a fuel injected suicide machine. I am the rocker, I am the roller, I am the out-of-controller!" - Nightrider

 

 

 

Well, I have been working feverishly on these Mad Max Car counters, going back and forth from my dvd movie copy making sure that the representation was as acurate as possible, adding as much detail as was worth adding, I think I like redesigned them like four times or something lol, it was fun trying to recreate them as Car Wars counters and trying to make them as acurate as I could, I think they turned out alright, I did a test print of them and placed an actual Car Wars counter next to them and couldn't tell the difference quality wise, I think I impressed my self Hahaha.

So basically I desgined all the MFP vehicles, Big Bopper, March Hare, Max's MFP Interceptor and the Nightrider's Pursuit Special, for the rest of the vehicles that will play a role in the scenario I will use standard Car Wars counters, this includes Gosling 1 and all of Toecutters motorcycle gang, truth be told I actually started these counters a couple of years ago, so most of the foundational work in photoshop had already been done, I  just made them better graphically, and added some more authentic detail, redid the colours a bit so they printed a little more vibrant (they were a little dark before) and I touched up some of the striping, so yeah, there you have it. FYI I based the MFP vehicles off some actual Ford Falcon blueprints, can you get anymore authentic than that ? Hahaha I think not.
  

 

From left to right we have Mad Max's MFP Interceptor, Big Bopper Pursuit Vehicle, March Hare Interceptor and the Nightrider's Stolen Pursuit Special.

SECTOR TWENTY SIX HIGHWAY NINE

 

Scenario: Sector 26 Highway Nine S26H9 (Mad Max Opening chase scene)

A motorcycle gang member nick named "Nightrider" kills a Main Force Patrol (MFP) officer while escaping police custody and attempts to outrun pursuing MFP officers in a stolen Pursuit Special.

World Setting:
 In the near future the Earth's oil supplies are nearly exhausted, world economies are nonexistent and  law and order has begun to break down due to energy shortages, a poorly-funded national police unit called the Main Force Patrol (MFP, derogatorily called "The Bronze" by their enemies), struggle to protect the local townspeople from violent motorcycle gangs.

Rules Used:
Car Wars Compendium Second Edition  (CWC 2.5) ,
Chassis and Crossbow: Low Tech-Autoduelling ADQ Vol1,No3
House Rules

Scenario starts with the March Hare chasing the Nightrider, after 2 turns the Big Bopper joins the chase from an intersecting road, after 3 turns Gosling 1 catches up to the pursuit from behind and after 4 turns Mad Max appears ahead in the horizon, if the Nightrider is still running he must engage Max in a game of chicken, after 6 turns if the Nightrider is still alive Toecutters gang catches up with the pursuit (from behind), it’s going to be a blood bath...

Scenario Objectives:
MFP must apprehend (not likely) or terminate the Nightrider.
Nightrider must survive 10 turns (no Chance).

Location:
Sector 26, Near the Anarchie rd Intersection along Highway Nine.

Notes:
All MFP officers are armed with pistols and all MFP cars have shotguns as standard issue, the Big Bopper is also carrying a rifle, Max also carries his signature sawn off shotgun.
4 out ten gang members are armed with pistols the rest have melee weapons.
2 gang members are also carrying molotov cocktails.
Melee weapons count as a D1 hazard, when they hit a car windscreen.
Gangers can only use one armed melee weapons while riding their bikes.

Teams:
Main Force Police (MFP)
2 x marked Ford Interceptors, 1 x marked Ford Pursuit,
1 x marked MFP KZ1000 motorcycle.

Toecutters Gang
1 x stolen unmarked Holden Pursuit Special, 10 x Kawasakai KZ1000 motorcycles.



So as you can see I have nutted out the scenario details and rule sets to be used, now I must be off, need to re-read  the rule sets and make a start on the Car counters and continue working on the terrain tiles.... rule the roads !

HIGHWAY NINE

Continuing on with my Mad Max themed Car Wars Project, I made a start on the terrain, after much deliberation I decided to make a mixture of both paper terrain and actual modeling terrain, traditionally, Car Wars is played on grided paper that was originally supplied within a boxed set or as part of an expansion set that you could buy in addition to a boxed set, this is how I remember Car Wars and for me this holds a certain romance, so I wanted to incorporate it into this project but also wanted to give it a modern vibe, I dont know If it will work the way I want it too, but I am willing to give it a go, fingers crossed.

 

 

 



So, the way I thought that it would work best was that I would set it up in a modular tile fashion, as they progress up the highway you take the last tile and flip it to the front kinda like 'leap frogin' this would go on until the scenario was resolved, being happy with the mechanics of it, I went to a hardware store and purchased eight 300 x 300mm MDF tiles, 6mm thick to keep away any bowing or flexing, this next bit was fairly easy, I centered the paper roads then glued them down flat, using wood glue, pretty simple but I think it looks effective so far, the next part is going to be the fun part, detailing the terrain, I will report back when I have done some more, thats all for now.  

 

 

 



CAR WARS MAD MAX STYLE

 

Hello everyone, its been fairly quiet around here, so I thought I would just make a quick

mention of some facts, as some of you know, I live in a two storey apartment, this combined with record temperatures here in Melbourne, Australia, of continual 30+ degree (86+ fahrenheit) days have contributed to me doing very little to no painting of miniatures, its warm up here most of the time but when you throw in continual heat day after day, painting becomes very difficult, even with the air con on I find that the paint still drys very quickly, pretty much not even worth doing, painting will resume when it cools down.   

 

 



 

 

So, what does a fella like me do when its too hot to paint? Breakout my fave Board game of course! Car Wars, published by Steve Jackson Games all the way back in the eighty's (where is that Hot tub time machine gone ?), it is a game based sometime in the future where civilization as we know it has kinda broken down and Auto duelling is a way of life, you may or may not remember this game, but either way it was my favorite board game as I was growing up, getting back to this game was always on the cards but fortune smiles on me once more, because that time has arrived. 

 

 



 

As the title of this post suggests I will be doing Car Wars with a Mad Max theme, infact, my first game of Car Wars will be based on the car chase scene from the first Mad Max movie, rules wise I will be using a combination of the Car Wars Compendium 2.5 rules and the rules found in an article of the 'Autoduel Quarterly' the official Car Wars Magazine, the article was called 'Chassis and Crossbow : Low-Tech Autoduelling, they are a classic set of rules that were almost made for Mad Max gaming (with minimal modifying), I will design some game counters and terrain and report back to this blog regularly with updates, eventually culminating in a battle report, this should not take me long to put together (I've heard those words before...). 

MEXICANS

 

Expanding on my Wild West theme, I have some Mexicans for show, the top two will most likely turn out to be either Mexican Bounty Killers or just plain no good for nothing Mexican Outlaws, the mexican in the lower picture will be a mini someone can play or a player mini, these guys are armed with an assortment of guns, a spencer carbine, dual .45 colt single action revolvers and a std six shooter, as with most of my wild west minis I will probably stick to brown earthy colour tones with an occasional splash of colour I hope you like these fellas as I think they turned out OK.

 

So again these are Bluemoon 15/18mm miniatures, good poses, good level of detail, minimal prep work and were a joy to paint, get some if you can, next up should be some lawmen, until then 'Hasta luego señor' (see you later Mr). 

US ARMY APACHE SCOUT

Hello everyone, my latest offering is an add on for my 15/18mm US Cavalry troop, he is an Apache US Army scout, recruited for his specialist skill in tracking and spotting, he is dressed in standard US Army gear, Blue army jacket and red bandanna, he also wears his traditional Apache gear from the waist down, this scout is armed with a big bore Buffalo rifle.

The miniature is from MiniFigs (UK), he is 15mm in scale which actually makes him a touch smaller than the rest of the crew, but it wasn't enough to bother me, I think he fits in just fine with the rest of the troop, painting wise he was a little challenging as the detail levels were quite shallow, but I think he turned out really well.

Just as a side note I will be jetting off on holidays for two weeks, my next post will be in mid February, for those who are curious I will be landing in Bali for a week and then off to Thailand for another week before returning back to Australia, are there any gamers in Bali or Thailand ???