Me(c)h..

We've all done it, right? picked up some nice-looking models with one aim in mind, and ended up going off on a tangent that may end up being a new ruleset, army and scale?

Well, at Warfare this year I picked up some spider drones from GZG to see if they would work as unusual mechanical spiders for my Ramos Crew for Malifaux, plus a couple of walker drones to cannibalize and make a Mobile Toolkit for the same crew.

However, having scratchbuilt/modded the Mobile Toolkit fairly successfully, I had a couple of spare walkers and I was also a little unconvinced by the Spider Drones - they were just a bit too big really for the look I wanted. One of them is going to end up becoming a Brass Arachnid for Ramos (as it only seems to be available in a box set and I already have all of the other figures in it) but that left 5 spare ones.

So, the idea of having some NATO and WARPAC walkers to add to my Cold War Commander armies started to crystallize... sort of a "Weird World War III" thing going on, or possibly more realistically a gateway drug to 6mm Sci-Fi gaming. A bit of discussion with the ever helpful folks on the BKC/CWC Forum later and the idea started to take shape...

Anyways, these are the initial results:

NATO Combat Walker carefully avoids stepping on a greenhouse.

3-tone NATO cammo helps them blend in...

Well, sort of. I think it's this one from Ground Zero Games 6mm Future Wars range.

Walker supported by NATO 6mm infantry

Parked up next to a Leopard II

Parked and blurred (sorry)

A Russian-build 6-legged Spider Walker opens up on NATO infantry at close range

The Russian scientists had initially found that making a 6-legged walker was a huge technical challenge, however given their role as "the baddies" they felt it was worth persevering with the more sinister and evil look the 6-leg articulation gave the walker, and eventually the Spider Crab Walker was born.

Originally called the Spider Walker by NATO, it was renamed the Spider Crab Walker in recognition of many Russians rather unseemly love of sushi.

The bright green night vision searchlight allows the Spider Crab Walker to be effective in all weather conditions, as well as allowing it to hide effectively under beds.

Walkers and H&R AFVs and infantry

The idea of having Walkers in the same force as an M60 just amuses me ....

Another ADLG Game...

This time it's another usually rubbish army, the Galatians, who take on an enemy Carthaginian army in a very short battle report that features a really good curry.

Pike & Shot(te) Video game review

In a new departure for this site, here's a link to a YouTube video I managed to create in which I do a very bad job of playing Slitherine's new Renaissance video game based on FoG:R, Pike & Shot.

You can see it on YouTube here.

Here also are a couple of screen-grabs of the YouTube video of the game.

Overall it's very simple to pick up, the game rattles along at a decent pace and the AI appears to be sensible - no MTW-style clouds of units milling around aimlessly here!  However the graphics are a little basic to say the least, and it's hard to imagine why they haven't included at least a simple form of Campaign Mode in the core game (I think it's under way and planned for an update soon).

That, for me, means the current price of close on £40 (I think £36 as I write this..?) is probably a little bit on the steep side - even accepting the "this is for a limited audience so the price will need to be different to a Total War type title" argument. Once this isn't "shiny and new" and Slitherine presumably decide to knock a few quid off and it will start to look a lot more sensible - add the campaign mode and this will be even more true. Anyway, a decent game and also your only choice for this relatively obscure and poorly served period in the games market.

See how much it costs on Slitherine's site now!

The Worlds, in Koblenz - 6 FoGR Match Reports

The Worlds in Germany - a brave Swedish army sails on a sea of beer and model railway fetishism towards a date with dice, destiny and pork-based catering products by the side of the Rhine in not-that-sunny Koblenz

The end result is 6 full match reports containing a full suite of the internet's entire content of German comedy video interludes, and some intriguing analysis from Renaissance Hannibal and the much-loved Princess of Sweden.

Enjoy The Worlds in Germany... preferably with a beer and a pretzel in hand

More Malifaux Painted goodies

This time its Marcus the Beast Master, and Ramos the man who conjures metal spiders out of scrap

Painted figures include the new plastic Marcus box set, plus some of the older metal figures

The Marcus Crew

Cojo

Rogue Necromacy

Large Steampunk Arachnid

and many more...

L'Art de la Guerre - new Ancients rules, reviewed...

A short battle report and review of the "new" (well, new to English translation, but actually the third edition) of L'Art de la Guerre Ancients rules is now on this site.

Hopefully it will give you a bit of a flavour of what seems a very enjoyable, familiar-yet-different set of rules.

Gettysburg

I was recently lucky enough to get some spare time in the US and took the chance to do a quick visit round Gettysburg battlefield. 

I've taken a load of photos, (rather unusually) as a pedestrian tramping across the park on a gradually brightening up Saturday afternoon in October. They have already appeared on the Madaxeman facebook page, but not everyone sees that, so here they are again:

They start from around Meade's HQ on Cemetery Ridge, follow Picketts Charge (in reverse - or retreat I guess), then go along the woos on Seminary Ridge, recrossing towards The Peach Orchard and Wheatfield and up to the Pennsylvania Monument back at the top of Cemetery Ridge.

What surprised me a little was how shallow the slope was at Cemetary Ridge that the Union chose to defend, but also just what a bloody long way across the terrain Picketts Charge was too. Big and Little Round Top looked like proper "impassable" hills as well, although I didn't have time to go up them. 

My first ever game of Malifaux

There's a vague possibility that there are lots of DBx-based historical miniatures/Malifaux crossover gamers out there, but for those of you who aren't in that (probably small) demographic, I've posted a match report from my first ever game of Malifaux on this website.

Malifaux is a Steampunk Gothic Horror skirmish game with card-driven mechanics and some rather nice models. It appears to be a lot of fun, which is a great relief after having bough the rules and the figures and then spent plenty of time painting and basing them up.

For my (and my opponents) first game we set up an over-ambitious Mei Feng vs Sonnia Criid 50 SS matchup that we managed to get through in about 5 hours, which is not too bad given neither of us had ever played before - some of the combos were rather complex.

A brand new "Steampunk Hannibal" makes an appearance as well as the usual poor jokes and irrelevant video interludes.

But this time there's also a clunking great robot who's almost a train and who hits people with an enormous metal bar as well.

What's not to like?!

The matt varnished Shermans & Churchills

As promised in the previous post, the finished articles are here:  Plastic Soldier Company 20mm Shermans, 15mm Churchills, and Battlefront Bren Carriers all painted in Halfords cammo green.

This really has nailed that "bronze-green" effect I was hoping for!

PSC US infantryman based on a penny for scale.

Not quite sure what's gone awry with the varnishing on this flank of the tank, it's not as obvious in real life as on this photo.

The top decks look great to me - the "puddled" Army Painter varnish on the one in the foreground's read deck is something I'm quite happy about actually - maybe it could have been brushed out a little though?

And the Churchills... again a great result IMO

I am toying with the idea of a final drybrush, but the details already "pop" so much I'm not sure if that would be too much..?

The colour that's been achieved is pretty much perfect IMO

The early version turret AVRE. Several of the transfers have ended up showing their edges, which is annoying as this normally doesn't happen with my "two layers of clear gloss" technique - maybe my gloss poly needs replacing - or maybe they were just old transfers?

For essentially a one-piece casting these track assemblies are fantastic - well done PSC!

The drybrushing really picks out the stowage boxes too.

Morer slightly odd effects on the big blank flanks of the Shermans here - but again, not as bad in the real world, and in some ways quite good to have it so irregular (ish). The driver's face has done really well here.

 With a PSC infantryman in the foreground

The Battlefront bren carriers.

A final close-up of a rather smug chap - probably waiting for his cup of tea! Make sure you saw the first post too in this two-part series.

Using Halfords Matt Cammo Spray on WW2 vehicles

Halfords is a well known (if you are in the UK) cycle/car accessories retailer, and I am a signed-up and committed user of their range of spray paints for both white and black undercoat.

Recently they have offered a 3-tone range of "cammo" paints, including a khaki which was used as a base coat for these fellows, and also a Dark Green. The Dark Green looks pretty ideal for that difficult-to-achieve WW2 Allied AFV colour, so having some 15mm PCS Churchills, 20mm Plastic Soldier Company Shermans and a handful of Battlefront carriers to paint, I thought I'd give it a go.

Here are the Churchills - these are really well detailed kits, that go together very well and also give you options for a variety of vehicles, including cast and welded turrets and a couple of AVRE options. The Bren carriers are in the background. The spray provides a deep and very matt green finish, but as there is no matching paint pot, you have to be very thorough with getting good coverage.

These are the three PSC Shermans - I sprayed the tracks (which come separately ) with Army Painter Leather brown, which I also use as a base colour for the PSC US Infantry, which are having some heavy weapon crew added to them at the moment (in the background). The heavy weapon teams share the odd/inaccurate Y-shaped braces of the infantry..

The Sherman models are really well thought out for wargamers (as opposed to modellers) needs. They go together really easily (apart from some small gaps where the tracks join at front and back) and feel very robust - someone has thought about these as bits of kit which will get a lot of handling, and designed them accordingly. 

The "shiny" patches are where I have put a patch of gloss varnish as a base coat on which to add waterslide transfers at a later stage - adding a gloss base coat under each transfer and then sealing it in with a further gloss coat before the final matt coat really does wonders for removing the outline/edge of the transfer on he finished model.

Here they are again, this time with Allied stars on them. I think I may have gone overboard with the stars, having them on turrets and hulls, but it adds a little more life to these models anyway.

Here are the Churchills, with some fairly serious drybrushing going on. They have transfers from the Battlefront Allied Armour sticker set. The unit insignia are probably not appropriate for Churchills, but beggars can't be choosers. They will fight with my PBI PSC British Infantry

Very few of them ended up with space on the turret for one of these formation markings.

The carriers, with the little Battlefront blokes peering out.

Churchills again, showing the great detail on the rear decks.  For such simple models to make they come out really well.

I then gave the whole lot a liberal washing with Army Painter Dark tone (the strongest one). I think this will tone down a lot once I get round to doing a matt coat, but right now I am wondering if I will need to do another set of drybrushing.

The carriers - again with probably inappropriate unit markings!

Front view of the Churchills.

And the Shermans. I'm quite optimistic that the mix of base colour and Army Painter will end up as that sort of bronze green that WW2 vehicles seem to have in the real world.

About a week later I managed to Dullcote them and add the finished pictures to this site - see them in this post.