Spaceship Interior WIP

 For my new Pulp Figures Spacers, I will need some terrain for them to interact with.  I could use my existing terrain, but eventually there will be some questions of why the spacers are always visiting a planet that looks remarkably like BC or California.  Most obviously, I need something to use for a spaceship interior as that matches best with the spacers mostly wearing spacesuits.

The terrain isn't finished yet, hence this is a Work In Progress (WIP) post.  The purpose of this post is to show the process to build the boards.  I considered just buying something suitable, but balked at $270 (CAD) for the GW 40k boarding terrain kit, although it does look very nice.  So, working on the cheap is best approach, I bought a set of 4 interlocking foam mats from Walmart.  Each mat is about 2' x 2'.  I chose this version as it comes with two shades of grey.  My intent is that the lighter shade will be the walls and the darker shade will be the spaceship floor.  The mats are smooth on one side, intended to be the down side, which I will use as walls, and the textured, up side will be the floor.

I sliced a light grey mat in half, and glued them back to back with Gorilla Glue.

It's important to lay down paper to protect the surface below and to wear gloves to protect your hands, as Gorilla Glue is quite unpleasant to clean up!  Also be aware that the glue expands as it sets, so you won't want to get it on your floor or table.

Once the glue set (I left it for 24 hours), I cut the double width foam into 2" strips.  These strips are tall enough to be reasonable walls and wide enough to stand up.  I will probably get some drawing pins or blue tack to hold the walls in place during a game to prevent accidental movement.

A trip to my FLGS got me some spaceship doors from Terrain Crate.  I like them, and ended up getting another box of scatter terrain and will likely be picking up some more.  The spaceship doors box contains 20 free-standing doors, including 8 double doors, each about 2" wide and 2.5" tall, and 12 single doors, each 1" wide and 1.75" tall.  While they each have a nice base and can be freestanding, I painted them in pairs so I can put one on each side of a wall.

There will be a followup post later as the terrain progresses.  I need to learn how best to cut the strips of foam to avoid it being too ragged.  I'm going to head back to Walmart to get another set of foam mats, and will head back to Imperial Hobbies for more sci-fi scatter terrain.

More Pulp Figures Sci-Fi Spacers

 Progress continues on the new Pulp Figures spacers.  As I described previously, my idea for these spacers is that they want to be as visible as possible, because if they become disconnected from their ship in the darkness of space, anything that makes them easier to see will increase the chance that their mates will be able to rescue them.  

So here they are, in no particular order.  Lots of fun figure out fluorescent paints.  It's quite thin, so it's necessary to paint a flat version of the fluorescent colour (yellow or orange, for example) and then paint the fluorescent colour on top.

I'm trying to get some diversity into the mix.  My historical figures tend to be much more monocultural.

Chap on the right here is Bob's Movember figure for 2024.  Figure in the middle is probably carrying a welding tool rather than a weapon but the other two are clearly armed with space rifles.

These two are distinctly NOT wearing space suits.  I was inspired by Star Trek's Lt Uhura for the lady.  Obviously not an exact match, but she suits the look quite well.  The colour scheme for the chap on the right is very loosely inspired by RCMP uniforms, mostly as a way to carry on using bright colours .  

Coming up next, the start of my DIY spaceship interior terrain!

Holiday games

 We managed to play a few games over the past week.

First off, instead of our usual D&D session, Arthur set up a Fistful of Lead game, set somewhere between Russian and British controlled territory in Afghanistan.   Arthur set it up as a three-way battle, with his intent being that the Russians and British would fight each other for the village, while the Afghans would snipe at both sides.  As it turned out, things happened a bit different from Arthur's original plan!

Here is the village that the troops will battle for.

Each of the imperial forces had an officer (veteran, d12) and 4 riflemen (d10).  The Afghans had no veterans, but they did each get a couple groups of 3 grunts (d8) each.

British force carefully advances into the village.

Meanwhile, the Russians enter the village from the other side.

The first British soldier enters the orchard, and is immediately ambushed and cut down by a group of Afghan warriors.

Remaining British are more cautious and shoot at the Afghans rather than risk hand to hand combat.

Russians were carefully checking each location, but found no Afghans.  Arthur eventually figured out that Oliver had set up all of his Afghans to attack his father's British soldiers.

British soldiers carry on fighting the Afghans.  Smoke clouds represent shock on the affected models.

Russians continue their careful advance.

The skirmish between the British and Afghans continues.

Meanwhile the Russians move in behind the skirmishing warriors.

After the Afghans and British battled to a standstill, the Russians came in and cleaned up.

Today, Arthur and I played a couple of scenarios for our Mad Dogs With Guns campaign.  

In the first game, my Dockworkers gang conducted a raid against the Rum Room, a speakeasy on the South Side of Chicago.  As we don't actually have any big city terrain, Chicago's South Side ended up looking a bit less urban.

Lucius and his gangsters move to the front door.

Meanwhile at the rear of the building, Crazy Ivan and Modest Mike climb up the back stairs.

A defender of the speakeasy looks out the window at Crazy Ivan and his friend move up.

My tommygunner Chun Lee opens up into the main room of the speakeasy but ends up jamming his submachinegun for the rest of the game.

Upstairs, Crazy Ivan and Mike beat up the Southsiders.

On the ground floor, Lucius and Sam were too slow to intervene, and the blonde southsider managed to call for support.

Not shown in the photos, a car with 6 low-level gangsters showed up (summoned by the blonde's phone call) and slowed the Dockworkers efforts to take over the Rum Room.

Meanwhile, two jokers were drawn from the deck, signalling outrage and a police response!

All the gangsters dashed for the exits.  Most of the Dockworkers escaped, but Modest Mike was cornered by the police and was arrested.

Final result for the Dockworkers.  The raid failed, Crazy Ivan suffered a gruesome death, and Sam the Shovel was knocked out and arrested.

We next played out an ambush as Arthur's corrupt Mounties tried to hijack an NPC truck.  Here is the truck coming along the road, with a driver, hoodlum co-driver and an enforcer with a tommygun in the back of the truck.

The truck comes around the corner, spots the roadblock and slams on the breaks.  As the driver puts the truck into reverse, Arthur recognises that he didn't consider that the truck might not stay still and allow it to be taken!

The Mounties open fire on the truck, as their mooks rush forward to seize the truck.  The BAR gunner in particular is quite indifferent about risk, and fired while his friend Inigo Montoya was nearby.  Inigo had to dive for cover to escape his own friend's fire!

The BAR gunner knocks out the tires, and the brakes, and damages the motor.  The truck crashes and is immobilised for the rest of the game.

The truckers return fire, killing and wounding some of their attackers.

But it's too little, too late.  The Mounties' BAR gunner keeps shooting, until a bullet hits the fuel tank and starts a fire.  The vehicle explodes, killing the truckers as well as one of the Mounties.

Final result, the truckers were all killed, the truck exploded, and for the Mounties, they lost two of their gang killed and two wounded.

Eat the Rich

I found a gingerbread recipe that I like, and have been making loads of gingerbread to share but mostly to eat all by myself :).  I even helped Arthur to make a batch to take to his classmates!

I had an idea to make a gingerbread Bailey bridge, but that plan changed after chatting with my friend Barry, who sent me on a different path.  Playing into the zeitgeist of the times, here is my take on a Christmas guillotine.  

It's really an example of 'Nailed It' where people show off how their attempts at baking fall far short of the intent!  But nonetheless, it was yummy :) and my next effort at gingerbread architecture will end up being better!

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Pulp Figures Sci-Fi Spacers

 Bob Murch of Pulp Figures has started a new line of figures based on the Golden Age of Science Fiction storytelling.  I resisted for a while, but then I decided to jump on the bandwagon for the pre-order deal.  Well, the figures have arrived and here are the first of them!

I'm not sure exactly where I will go with these.  My thoughts are along the lines of Firefly/Serenity or The Expanse, or Traveller for that matter, where independent spacers struggle to keep flying alongside more powerful entities, such as governments and large corporations.

Also, after years of painting dull colours for 20th Century or colonial warfare, I'm taking a different approach for these figures.  My theory is that in space, out in the Black, spacers place a big emphasis on being as visible as possible.  If a spacer gets separated from their ship, they want to be as easy to find as possible because otherwise they risk being lost forever in the darkness of space.  When I described this to Arthur, he made another point:  with their faces covered by their helmets, the spacers will be pretty anonymous, so they will also look to personalising their suits in order to be distinct from each other.

That said, here are the first four spacers.

These include my first attempts at using Vallejo fluorescent paints.  Not too bad for a start, I am learning about through trial and error.  First up, I need to get a similar colour as a base, then paint the appropriate fluorescent over it to get the right effect!

Johnny Law

As our gangster campaign proceeds, public outrage grows.  That means that there will be a call for the City Police to intervene!  Fortunately, fresh off the painting table, here come the boys (and one lady!) in blue!

Cops with nightsticks, walking the beat.

These three have pulled their sidearms to investigate some suspicious activity. 

As things get more serious, they can call in support from colleagues armed with rifle and tommygun.

Back at the precinct, the sergeant supervises as old Mike the town drunk gets booked, while Matron keeps an eye on sweet-talkin' Sally.

The cops came with a fire hydrant and an old-timey police call box (notably different from the UK version favoured by time- and space- travelling timelords).

And here are a few shots against a lighter background.

A few comments.  I was going to paint the Matron to match Queen Latifah from Chicago, but that didn't end up happening.  

The police uniforms have red stripes on the trousers and red cap bands.  This is more of a Canadian police thing than American, but I like it as it gives a touch of colour to the otherwise monochrome uniforms.  Similarly, white shirts offer a better contrast than dark blue shirts!

Sally was inspired by Anita from West Side Story.  I didn't have the mauve required for Rita Morena's version in the 1961 movie, so instead I went with a yellow dress based on the 2021 version.