The Wild West

Another reason not to live on the Western Frontier, aka Wales.

Here in the Home Counties we have hysterics if a badger poos in our garden.

[Taken from Daily Mail]

Ve Haf Ways

This is British wargamer Philip Fursman holding his 28mm Adolph Hitler miniature that he tried to sell on eBay.

They pulled his auction on the grounds that he was promoting hate crimes.

God knows what they will make of my Zombie Nazi Stormtroopers.

Spannerhead Special

I thought I had sold off all my Battlefleet Gothic ships when I found this hiding in the bottom of a drawer.

So, off to eBay with you.

Road Sign

Road sign in Cardiff, just in case the Daleks get lost on the way to the BBC studios.

Non adinstar sursum

"Right lads, here they come. Wait for, wait for it, Now! Last one to slit a gizzard is on latrine duty."

A cohort of Warlord grizzled Caeserian Roman veterans with their Centurian, Popinus.

Pretty In Pink

Centaur Mares in Battle Array.

These are Shadowforge Dark Temple metal miniatures. I picked up a handfull from Allsorts Emporium but they are unavailable in the UK, as far as I know. I guess I shall have to pay the postage from Oz, Gulp.

Fings Wot I Find Useful

I am allergic to superglue vapour so I tried using high-viscosity superglue, which has reduced vapor. The problem is that it takes for ever to set so I bought some Zip Kicker accelerator.

You put the glue on one side of the join and the Kicker on the other and just press them together for an instant bond. This normally weakens the joint but I find that any weakness is offset by the high viscosity of the superglue. In any case, once you get a join, you can reinforce it if necessary.

The combination is great for glueing 'point' joins as it builds a collar a bit like epoxy resin.

Recommended!

The Persians are Coming

I made these with two boxes of Wargames Factory Persians - one infantry, one cavalry - costing £16 each.

They are typical Wargames Factory models: not great but not bad either, and very good value for money. As usual with WF, you get a very wide equipment choice. I chose to make two units of infantry, a bow/spear/shield medium infantry and a light bow infantry, and two units of cavalry, horse archers/light cavalry and medium/heavy cavalry.

I did a simple paint job using army painter Dark Tone to shade and protect the finish as I wanted the units in action as quickly as possible. I am happy that the result is adequate for game play.

Attack Of The Crocodile God - Hail Caeser

The Crocodile God, Shawnicon Crocomagnus, has taken umbrage at the beings who live on the shores of the Black Sea for being effete couscous-eating southerners who think black pudding is is an overweight lass from Wolverhampton. He, therefore, raises an army of the dead and is marching down the River Jaxarxes to give them a sound thrashing - in a manly sort of way - and force feed them battered black pudding made from the blood of Loch Ness toad deep-fried in super-saturated fats according to an old Achturmuchty recipe.

Threatened with a fate worse than death, the effete couscous-eating southerners take an oath to resist unto death, swearing an oath of unity over a bottle of chablis chilled to exactly 3.34 degrees Centigrade. They hire the well-known Greek Mercenary General, Kleftiko, who is taking a holiday on the Black Sea coast for his health after the Spartan King, Muggeophon, caught him holding two Mister Bun the Baker cards with another one in the hole.

He soon whips the southerners into line, using the little-known Mosley training schedule, and blocks Crocomagnus' route south at the ruins of the Temple of the Forgotton God. Kleftico has two companies of Greek Mercenary heavy hoplite infantry and a company of similarly equipped Amazons as the core of his army, two companies of peltasts, one Amazon, one snake-people, two small units of snakepeople blowpipe skirmishers, a troop of Parthian horse archers and a troop of Scythian heavy cavalry.

The Army of the Dead advance, except for those who fail to hear the trumpet call, probably because they have no ears. Kleftiko sends out his skirmishers and Parthians to harass them. The Scythian heavy cavalry ignore the order to move up. Crocomagnus concentrates his infantry on the right wing, threatening the peltasts anchoring the southern left wing, intending to pin the southern hoplites by harassing them with his light chariots and cavalry.

 Battle is joined. The Scythians still refuse to obey increasingly frantic orders from Kleftiko, and one of the Greek Mercenary hoplite companies retreats rather than advances. Treachery! Crocomagnus has made them a better offer.

The Parthians perform brilliantly, shooting up the dead cavalry and charging through the resulting hole to tackle the skeletal chariots from the rear. One of the skirmisher units breaks. Due to a slight cock-up on the command control front, the southern peltasts engage the skeletal infantry with hoplites in support on the flank. It was supposed to be the other way round. Kleftiko himself joins the battle to inspire the peltasts, and is fortunate to escape unhurt when they break. He gallops out of the fray. The Scythians finally charge the chariots in the flank but it is too bloody little, too bloody late.

Kleftiko applies a Mosley to his horse's rear and keeps going. If he can just get back to camp before anyone else he can claim victory and demand his bonus.

New FLGS, Rochester, Kent

Our new FLGS in the Medway Towns on Watling Street where it runs through the old Roman City of Rochester. Watling Street is the Roman Road from Canterbury to Chester that crosses the Medway at Rochester. It was built over the Celtic Road, one of the oldest stone built roads in the world.

Next door is one of the imposing Rochester buildings used by Dickens in his stories. The wooden gazebo (chalet) partially obscured centre left belonged to Dickens and was used as a study for writing.

Greek Mythology Brigade for Hail Caeser

The first of brigade is finished: two more to go.

It consists of:

General - Medusa
Heavy Infantry - Amazon Hoplite Phalanx
Light Infantry - Amazon Peltasts
Light Infantry - Snakemen Peltasts
Skirmishers - Two small units of Snakemen Poisoned Dart Blowers.

I use half size units compared to the Hail Caeser Recommendations because (i) I need half the number of figures and (ii) I do not need such a big table.

So a standard infantry unit consists of twelve models in two rows, and a standard cavalry unit of six models in one row. A small unit is half sized.

Side View.

Rear View.

Top View.

Outflanked by the Wabbit Daemon.

The Gorgon Medusa

I have decided upon Dark Sword's Gorgon Medusa for my Hail Caeser Greek Mythological Army. It is a lovely metal model, superbly sculptured and offered at a very competitive price of around £7. I decided to gor for white as the dominan theme for the dress and bow, offset by green for her reptile scales and snake-hair.

And now to finish my Amazon hoplite unit.

Nail-Biting Election

I have sat entralled watching the election for President of FIFA. Would the sitting president Sep Blatter win or would it be the challenger who was banned from entering the Hall and had his name taken off the ballot?

Arguably, this was the greatest election tussle since the Supreme Leader won the North Korean leadership.

Incredibly, Sepp Blatter won.

I am quite exhausted now.

I was a little confused by why he keeps mentioning pyamids.

Nazi Zombie Troopers

 I have finally painted my Nazi Zombie Troopers from Studio Miniatures:

They compare quite well to the metal West Wind Nazi Zombies, not as crisp perhaps, particularly in facial features but hell, they are walking rotten corpses. I used Army Painter Dark Tone resin to give a quick finish, as usual, applied with a brush, not dipped.

I have discovered a great free Nazi Zombie game on the internet - more about that later.