TinMan - VSF/Steampunk, Empire of the Dead?

I have been hunting high and low, for this figure for ages. Ever since the whole VSF, GASLIGHT, Empire of the Dead thing took off, I knew he'd be perfect, but in two broken parts, which always seemed to be in different places to each other, I was never able to find both at the same time to effect a repair, until Sunday...

In a fit of tidying, I discovered both parts, at the same time...

The repair was easy and a bit of themed re-basing and, Voila!

TinMan - now Infernium powered!

The figure is a very old Citadel figure from way back in the late 80's, if I recall correctly... he came with a little dwarf engineer with a blow torch ... and were part of a cartoon strip story from the then Citadel Journal, the story involving a Chaos Ogre in full Black Plate armour, called Skragg, again if I remember it right...

The paint job is old, but serviceable, though I may need to touch up the slightly chipped paint on the end of the hammer...

Here he is paired with Professor Erazmus, from WestWinds Empire of the Dead game...

TinMan and the mad professor, his creator?

I'll just have to come up with some stats for him in the game... anyone any ideas, comments welcome below!

Jabberwocky - GASLIGHT?

Twas brillig, and the slithy toves 

Did gyre and gimble in the wabe: 

All mimsy were the borogoves, 

And the mome raths outgrabe...

A bit of a blast from the past this one...

Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
  The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
  The frumious Bandersnatch!

Looking through my display cabinet I glanced up this creation of mine from many moons ago, a Jabberwocky ! I am not sure but I think its an old Citadel miniatures figure... To give you an idea of size, its mounted on a GW 40mm square base.

 He took his vorpal sword in hand:
  Long time the manxome foe he sought --
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
  And stood awhile in thought.

It always reminds of that rather weird and quirky 'Python' movie - Jabberwocky, with Michael Palin;

Jabberwocky

And, as in uffish thought he stood,
  The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
  And burbled as it came!

A rather characterful Beastie, I love the leering head and oddly vestigial wings...

One, two! One, two! And through and through
  The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
  He went galumphing back.

"And, has thou slain the Jabberwock?
  Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!'
  He chortled in his joy.

I wondered if I might be able to ally it in with my Prussians for GASLIGHT, or maybe use it as a proxy for one of the weird and wonderful EotD hirelings...?

Grrrrrr !

I can't quite recall when I painted this, probably some time back in the 90's... I have a feeling I got it to add to a planned Chaos WFB army that never materialized... I don't think its ever seen the tabletop in anger, hopefully that may change one day...

`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
  Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
  And the mome raths outgrabe. 

 from Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There, 1872

Lewis Carroll

Prussian Maxim HMG - GASLIGHT

Finally got my Prussian Maxim Heavy Machine Gun team finished for my prospective GASLIGHT games.

As much as I would like to equip my Zendarian Gentleman's club with it for Empire of the Dead gaming, I fear this may be beyond the scope of the rules... shame though as I love the idea of mowing down zombies, werewolves and Nosferatu with it!

Now its just as well this is a 'sci-fi' setting, and not strictly historical, as I have to come clean with the set up of the team...

Obviously there were no instructions in the blister pack, and I messed about with getting the right fit for the gun and crew. Everything looked OK, until I went to the web for some colour reference material for the gun, found what I was looking for then then realised the belt feed goes in the other side of the gun... bugger!

What I had not contemplated was that the loader would have his back to the action... that and the relative heights of the gun and tripod to the loader seemed a good fit for where I put it. As it was I had to entirely cut off the cast base from the loader otherwise the belt feed was just too high... greenstuff also was used to join feed belt to the gun.

Ah well I still think it looks pretty cool. I'll just have to come up with some fiendish new gun to explain this alternative feed mechanism... maybe some 'infernium' enriched rounds... who knows!

Prussians - GASLIGHT / Zendarians - Empire of the Dead

Well they have taken a little while, and their painting has been interrupted by several FoW items, but they are now finally done; my VSF Prussians, for GASLIGHT. And a wonderful surprise was finding they are also perfect for depicting the Zendarian Gentleman's club for Empire of the Dead. Two games with one set of models - more bang for your buck, can't be bad I say!

For those who missed the earlier WIP post, they are 28mm Paroom Station figures from BrigadeGames.

20 trooper models in a good advance attack pose (in 5 subtle variants) that will suit the skirmish nature of these games very well. 3 Officers that will no doubt be various Hauptmanns, Feldwebels and what have you (must research German military ranks!) and two Extraordinary Prussian officers. No doubt perhaps an Oberst and Major. I'll have to name them of course... I can see Ottos, vons, Ludwigs and all sorts of other Germanic name combos coming up...

I must admit I painted them as quick as I could, and skimped on a few details, I didn't bother doing eyes on the troopers, nor did I do a top highlight, but I think they have turned out well enough for the tabletop. The flesh tone appears a bit yellowy in the pics but they are fine to the naked eye, I think this is a lighting effect during photography.

Please excuse the odd tuft of static grass clinging to the models, this will fall off with time.

Next up, a WIP; a fiendishly nasty Maxim heavy machinegun. Not terribly steampunk in appearance but hopefully quite terribly deadly to its targets none the less ol' boy! ;-)

Again Paroom station from Brigadegames.

Right, wheres that Colonel O'Truth got his redcoats hiding? Ah yes that tropical place Ah-Pul Sh'Napps, somewhere on the Dark Continent, we'll find 'em and giving a sound Prussian thrashing!

One for the Colonel! VSF Prussians - a start is made! WIP.

Well after much spouting and pontificating, waving of arms, stamping of feet, and conducting polls, I have finally put paint to model and made a start on my VSF Prussians!

The poll results, along with comments received, supports the portrayal of the Prussians in their traditional uniform of the period circa 1880.

And so I have set to with this scheme in mind. I have got 20 Trooper figures, 3 Officers and 2 Characters on the go at once.

 Humble beginnings so far, with black undercoat, dark grey trousers and a mid blue tunic painted up to now, though one officer has been taken a little further.. The skin tone looks very yellowy in the pictures but that's just the nature of the lighting...

The figures are very nice sculpts, from Paroom station via BrigadeGames in the US. I also like the pose of the troopers, in an 'advance' stance, which suits the skirmish nature of the game. The officers and characters have nicely animated poses too , which befits their nature.

Whilst the Prussian Uniform has come out on top, I still like Rolys idea of the Bavarian light blue uniform and plan to use this for my proposed 'Aeronef-waffe' troops.

I have also been doodling about with ideas for Steam vehicles to add to my infantry, so I'll see what bits and pieces I can source to start making some creations. Watch this space...

PS... anyone got a spare pair of arms! I've got that many projects on the go at once I'm running out of space to have them all part done in their WIP status! ;-)

A return to VSF!

Many moons ago, four gentleman gamers, (Myself, Roly - Dressing the Lines blog, Joe - Colonel o'Truths Miniatures Issues blog, and 'Notorious Greg' - no blog that I am aware of) got together with the notion of exploring the world of VSF, using the GASLIGHT rules.

More here for a recap...
http://scottswargaming.blogspot.co.nz/2011/08/foray-into-vsf.html

However, being the eclectic group that we are, much distraction appears to have ensued, as I disappeared off into the 15mm world of WWII gaming with Flames of War, and Roly has been on his Maori Wars odyssey using Sharps Practice. I'm not sure what Notorious Greg has been up to!

Of our quartet, only Joe stayed on target, and over the past 6 months or so has put together an amazing array of VSF scratch built goodness! More can be seen on his blog here:

http://colonelotruth.blogspot.co.nz/

So, I believe with a view to giving the rest of us a virtual 'thick ear', an impromptu meeting was called at Bowman Towers, where Joe brought all his recent creations for us to drool over, and become suitably inspired once again to get back on target...

Here's a pic of Joe's amazing collection, as Roly looks in amazement, and my son decided to buzz them with his planes. The enigmatic mysterious Notorious Greg can also be seen lurking nearby, minus a head, who is this 'masked man' I hear you ask...?

Roly had actually shown up to grab some dense foam from me to use as a base for his Maori Pa (that means 'fortified village' and not 'father'), the same stuff that Joe has recently used for his river board sections, though Joe had sourced his own.

 So we all ogled Joe's handiwork, and probably all inwardly thought; "Christ, how the hell am I going to top that lot!"...

 Above, Thomas the Tank engine meets Star Wars in a bizarre and suitable VSF twist, whilst below we can see a possible early prototype of the Dreadnaughts of a futuristic period set 40,000 years from now ;-)

 And Gargantua herself, aptly named, this thing is massive! So suitably 'enthused' (read - brow beaten, chastised and sent to the naughty corner!), I promised to make some progress on the VSF world...

 All those months ago I did place an order for the Paroom Station Prussians from BrigadeGames, but they arrived and languished in the 'to do' pile, as mountains of 15mm WWII goodies bypassed them to front of the painting queue...

My current batch of Late War WWII projects are nearing completion, and unless I suddenly feel the need to make an early start on MidWar Desert or Eastern Front stuff, I can take a WWII  break, and have a crack on with these guys below (Don't worry Paul, I will get your Typhoon finished!)

So above is the first start on prep'ing those Paroom station Prussians. I must admit, when they first arrived their rifles were badly bent in the packs, and I was a little concerned they may just snap off as I tried to bend them back into position, but thankfully the quality of this pewter is rather good and they bent back no problem.

The first 12 figures trimmed, filed and glued to 20mm washers.

Now I have another slight dilemma...

I have used the word 'Prussian' a lot and also loosely thrown around the word 'Bavarian' too in connection with my proposed VSF 'dastardly huns'. I had not thought more about it, until several weeks ago, Roly pinged me an email with a specific uniform depiction for the Bavarian army. I had not realised they had a separate army! Of course, 'Germany' of the period was broken into many separate States...

The Prussian uniform would be a mid blue jacket with dark grey pants, whilst the Bavarian uniform, would be a light blue jacket and pants.

I'm undecided which way to go. I still like the idea of the Prussians, but the Bavarians would be a novel twist, and a lot easier to paint up with the airbrush!

I thought I might run a little poll, whilst I trim the remaining figures, to see what opinions are out there on the subject in the blog-o-verse...

 Poll in side bar shortly. Thanks for voting!

Another discussion arose between us all about whats the difference between VSF and Steampunk, and some intersting thoughts and opinions were aired. I asked as I was thinking about making an Aeronef for for my VSF 'huns', but wondered if it would be appropriate for our setting...

I'd welcome your opinions on VSF vs Steampunk, and indeed is there actually any difference or is it just nomenclature???

Steam Transformers via GASLIGHT

Easter brought the expected excesses of round chocolate goodness entering the Bowman household... along with other gifts including a Transformers game for No.1 son, on his Nintendo...

Well after having his fill of electronic fun, he asked if we could play Transformers, with his toy robots and the GASLIGHT rules.

I had told him many months ago when I was ordering this rules set just what sort of things we might be able to do with it, and I figured giant robots should work just fine...

The only thing with GASLIGHT (if you don't already know) is that whilst it can handle a lot of 'periods' and items, for the most part you have to make up all the stats for vehicles, weapons, personnel etc yourself before the game. Whilst a little lengthy it is fairly easy to do from the charts provided.
So we set to, rolling away...

I was the bad guys, predictably, so picked 6 small robots of varying origin. These were rated as Veterans for Shoot & Scuffle rolls.
After this they got rolls for speed , save , spin and weapons from the various charts. The only thing I couldn't find were 'vehicle melee weapons'. So I just made them 0 range and rolled for SRM (save roll modifier).

Chris rolled up three good guys, one each of Leader, Adventurer and Hero (based on the robots size), for their Shoot and Scuffle values, and then again rolled up various weapons and vehicle stats.

Here's a pic from mid point of game where we stopped for a break... as you can see we are clearly playing in a barren landscape devoid of cover... AKA the lounge floor ;-)

Battle for the lounge floor - the White Raptor charges Bumblebee!

The game proved rather fun I have to say, with Start up rolls, sustain rolls and frequent rolls to hit and their resulting save rolls and damage chart references.

The only issue we had was that vehicles in this game are clearly meant to have a crew, as most of the 'killing effects' upon the vehicles from the chart, were actually an effect of crews being killed. Since our robots were sentient and didn't have 'crews', after some thought we instead gave them 'virtual crews' in the form of 'life points' or 'hit points'... once they were gone, you were dead.

We enjoyed our little game, though Chris got a little tired of the requirement for Start up and Sustain (though I rather liked it). Obviously he was thinking dynamic futuristic robot aliens and I was thinking Steam engines... ;-)

Next time he wants to bring a certain "Optimus", with increased firepower and an 'always on button'...

Some other things that cropped up we weren't sure about:

If a robot failed its sustain roll, and was then charged by an attacker in the scuffle phase the attacker would get one automatic hit. This seemed logical to us?

Also once engaged in melee, neither combatant could be targeted in shooting, for fear of hitting your own guy! (possible exemption from this for the bad guys).

Having played about with the rules this way I'm keen to give them a go with 'proper' troops and steam vehicles...

American Civil War - Confederate Battalion

I have finally finished that box of 36 Perry ACW 28mm figures, started oh so long ago! They have stared at me rather mournfully ever since I got started on that journey into Piracy ;-) I finally felt they deserved to be finished.
When I started the project they were just going to be for Black Powder gaming, but then I realised there may be some skirmish gaming opportunities for them also.

So I am pleased to present to you, a Confederate Battalion with Battle honours of Seven Pines & Manassas, upon their flags.

Firing Line

 Here above seen in all their glory in full firing line.

Skirmishers deployed

 Here above seen with skirmishers deployed. Having checked the Black Powder rules on such a Mixed order formation, it seems about a third of the unit should be deployed as skirmishers in this fashion, so thats 12 figures out of the full 36 figure set.

Full Skirmish Order

And here above in full skirmish order.

All the figures are based on nominally 20mm (but actually19mm) zinc plated steel washers. Being steel they are attracted to magnets, and so I made sabot bases from 3mm mdf sheet cut 40mm x 40mm. This was then covered with a layer magnetic paper, painted brown, and flocked to match the figures. As the figures are light weight plastic, the strength of the magnet works well, the base can be fully inverted and the figures don't fall off.

Mounted on magnetised sabot base

4 figures on a 40mm x 40mm sabot base.

Magnestised sabot base

The sabot base itself, flocked just enough to allow the washers contact with the magnetic layer.

The figures themselves I must admit, I took several short cuts in their painting, realising that with 'gerzillions' of figures for multiple periods still to paint, I had to try and get quicker.
So, I black undercoated, and then base coated all figures in their required 'mid tone'.
I then washed the entire figure in a 50/50 mix of Vallejo Dark Brown and Black wash.
I then worked back up the colours using the original mid tone colours.
I didn't do the eyes, just left them as a dark brown line in the eye socket recess.
Being plastic figures I only gave them one coat on Vallejo acrylic matt brush on varnish. I didnt bother with the polyurethane gloss, reasoning that the gloss was only really required for metal figures to resist chipping from the metal surface. Plastic figures don't require this.
The base was flocked with GW sand and this was just given a wash of Vallejo Dark brown wash. Normally I'd then drybrush lighter browns and cream colour to the sand, but didn't this time, content just to add the static grass.

I think the figures still look fine, and a lot of time and effort was saved. I am happy with the result.

So I can use my figures as originally planned for Black Powder as ACW troops.

I can also use them in full skirmish order for Rules with No Name, on Joe Harrison's Leadwood.

And finally, again as skirmishers, I can use them for some GASLIGHT gaming, whether as ACW themed troops, or perhaps as a Colonial force; the '1st FusilierAbteilung of Neu-Bavaria', to go alongside my planned Prussian themed VSF army.

So several uses out of one box of figures. More bang for your buck I say!

30/11/11
Second thoughts too: Using the washers also means I am no longer defacing Her Majestys currency, by using NZ10cent coins for bases, though oddly enough, the washers I bought are exactly the same size as the 10cent coin, yet have a hole in the middle (therefore less physical metal than the coin) and cost 21 cents each to buy... not sure what that says about the state of our economy? I wonder if  I might get any odd looks if I tried to pay for my lunchtime sarnie down at the cafe with a handful of washers....  'honest, they're worth more than the coins in your till !"  ;-)

A foray into VSF

Inspiration - it's a dangerous thing!

Within the last year, I have become properly aquainted with a certain Mr Joe Harrison Esq., aka 'The Colonel O'Truth', here on the Kapiti Coast.

It was some months ago that I was invited to partake in a cowboy skirmish game, and having been presented with Joe's 'Leadwood' - I have to say it inspired me to do likewise, although with a differing genre that I had a previous interest in: Pirates! So that was the source of inspiration for all my recent piratical goings on.

Joe also has an infectious enthusiasm for all things of a VSF nature, or to give it it's full title, Victorian Science Fiction. For those of the uninitated, this is a period which draws heavily on the ideas and works of Jules Verne and HG Wells to name a couple.

It is a period that the GASLIGHT rules have been designed for use with, and these rules appear to nicely cover all the troops, heroes, machines and beasties admirably well.

GASLIGHT

Well I have to say, it's happened to me again - inspiration!

And so, after a bit of chatting things through, 3 locals have decided to give the whole VSF thing a bash; Joe, myself and Roly Hermans.

Now being a Brit myself, I would have been the first to jump at the chance of fielding some colonial British in their iconic pith helms and red jackets. I first saw these troops as a kid, watching that classic movie; Zulu. Stirring stuff, and what red blooded British male wouldn't find this movie inspiring and invigorating!?

However I have obviously already been pipped to the post by Joe, with his previously commenced project; HMSW Gargantua - his incarnation of a British steam powered quadruped walker, crewed by such stalwarts as Seargent Boddington et al.

HMSW Gargantua

And so with the British already in the field, a suitable colonial adversary would be required, and what better than the dastardly Hun!? Thinking on Germanic imigery of the proposed period (1880-90s-ish), I remembered another somewhat iconic image, that of Karl Gerhart Fröbe, better known as Gert Fröbe, from the movie; 'Those Magnificent men in the flying machines', wearing that characteristic pickelhaube helmet.

Gert Fröbe

With this image in mind I set about searching the web. I found that the Germans of the period had been involved in the Franco-Prussian war, and a quick look at more images confirmed the sort of figures I was after.

More web browsing found a range of models I was happy with, available from Brigadegames, from their Paroom range.

Some great figures available there. I am sure an order will be placed forthwith!

Now one thing that characterizes the VSF period are its machines. So my troops were going to need some kind of 'tank' for the battlefield, especially after viewing at long range the looming form of HMSW Gargantua!

Obviously tanks didn't come into service until late WWI, some years after our proposed period of time. Plus these early machines would have been powered by the internal combustion engine and not steam power, which is one of the hallmarks of VSF fun!

I did find the wonderful looking german A7V tank. The temptation was to build one of these and stick a large chimney / funnel on the back, but that seemed too easy, and 'cheating', and not especially tailored to our period.

A7V

One of the things I have found with researching this project is that lots of folks have come up with a great many ideas for vehicles, but a great many are 'seriously fictional', if I can put it that way? What I want from a vehicle is the idea it could actually work. So I did a fair bit of web search reading up on steam power, hydraulic power, steam tractors or tractor engines, and caterpillar tracks, and importantly their inception dates and rough abilities.

Consequently, what I am thinking, and propose here, is to make a fighting vehicle based on the steam tractor engine. However, rather than the large heavy wheels, which by all accounts made the vehicle unuseable over difficult boggy ground, due to its weight, I would swap these out for caterpiller tracks.

To armour the vehicle, I decided to build an enclosed cab at rear of machine and, using a later german idea; adding schurzen plates to the sides and also to the front, but in a large 'cow-catcher' shape.

Stugs, with schurzen side armour plates

"Cow Catcher"

I also need to arm this vehicle and propose mounting a gatling-gun team or cannon artillery team, in an armoured enclosure upon the tractors roof.

The only thing to do would then be to route the funnel, down and backwards, so as not to interfere with the Gun teams line of sight.

Another touch I need to think about is a fuel supply. Now I have seen these machines trundling around the place back in Britain at summer farm festivals and the like, but what I am unsure about is how long could one run for, before it needed more coal to refuel it? So I am therefore considering having the machine drag a similar looking coal tender behind it, either wheeled or tracked and with side schurzen plates again.

So thats where all my thinking with this has got me so far!

Roly, our third player in the group, currently seems to be pondering between a French themed army perhaps using French Foreign Legion figures, or perhaps Austro-Hungarians of the period... we shall wait and see what he comes up with.