Another of my favourite Games Workshop LotR miniatures

The plastic Fellowship version of Boromir. I love the movement in the miniature's stance - far preferable to the original pose, which I always felt looked like a chap holding things he didn't know what to do with. This one doesn't have the satisfying weight of his metal counterpart, but he stuck a lot more comfortably to the base than my other minis so far.

I've recoloured him to fill in as a generic warrior in my Pulp Alley / Battle Company games.

"Oh, she got a letter just like that and disappeared off to that - that school - and came home every holiday with her pockets full of frog spawn, turning teacups into rats."

Well, the first Pulp Alley game with the Mrs went well, pitting the wiles of Cedric Wyrtgeorn and chums against a band of academic adventurers, and to all intents and purposes she (and I) enjoyed the occasion.

The Artemis Fowl / Indiana Jones-esque theme didn't really grab her, though, and I've been giving some thought as to what I could add to my small but growing collection of miniatures which might spark her imagination into full gear.

Of course, my mind wandered, so inspiration came from the lady herself: she quite likes Harry Potter - do I have anything along those lines?

I did not, and try as I might, I could not find much throughout the web on 28mm Hogwarting, other than an upcoming game from Knight Models, and they look to like they're going to be bigger and more expensive miniatures, and far too detailed for my liking. I also am not inclined to just use film characters (aside from the fact that I did not enjoy the films, so very much preferring the books) - I prefer to game within a world, rather than follow a set script with a pre-written cast, so clearly I will have to produce my own miniatures.

I like converting figures so there is no issue on that score; I have a fair few models which will suit as civilian wizards and witches (muggle-clothed to start with) since pretty much any lightly armed or unarmed appearance will do. The main difficulty arises in sourcing wand-holding hands; I just couldn't find anything more suitable than spears cut short, and those didn't feel right.

So I am having to make my own.

My experience with Green Stuff until now has been largely filling gaps and wild hair styles, with the odd reworking of a sleeve here and there - nothing so intricate as hands and fingers, so this is a learning curve.

So, attempt #1:

I figured the best way to reduce the risk of the wand breaking off at some point in the future was to extend the paper clip I was using for her arm and model the hand around the bend.

The fingers weren't actually all that hard - I just had to remind myself to be patient and let the first parts dry before attempting the next.

As you can see, I rather oversized her wand hand, so I've enlarged her left fist so as to hopefully minimise the discrepancy. Hopefully the difference (and indeed the size of the hands relative to the rest of her) will be a bite less noticeable under a paint job.

Attempt #2:

The hand is at least approaching the right scale, though looking at it now I feel the forefinger is a tad too long. The wand is also a bit longer than the other, but seeing as "each wand is unique", I reckon I am allowed to get away with not being too fussy on that front.

Now to get some paint on them, and work on some male wand wavers. These two women came from Offensive Miniatures and only needed to have their hands snipped off and replaced - unfortunately the male rioters all generally have their faces covered or hold their arms in unsuitable positions. I'll have to look elsewhere, and probably have to reconstruct entire arms. Here goes nothing...

Another wizard! Took longer to finish this one. Having pretty much completed him, I dropped him head-first onto the paint palette, and he contrived to get flesh paint on both sides of him, covering the entirety of his face and beard and a good portion of his shoulders, rendering his feathered and furred cloak skin-coloured. I lost the heart to do it all again so soon, so put him aside.

He is, however, now done!

Tabasco Fire - A Solo Pulp Alley AAR

Inspired by David Phipps' demo videos on YouTube, I've finally got round to trying out the Pulp Alley solo rules. Great fun all round - there isn't quite the camaraderie one might enjoy with another player, but the randomness of the cards combined with the simplicity of the mechanics led to a very entertaining game.

Click on the pages if you need to enlarge them, and if you need some really big versions, just look at the image URL - the original sizes are massive. I need to get to grips with the Comic Life programme!

Some more heavily green folk

I really like these two miniatures. They're wonderful sculpts, plenty of character but - like the wizard and dwarf earlier - not overwhelmingly detailed.

First up is an APEX investigator from Fenris Games, sourced through Bad Squiddo Games, who I'll be using as Dr. Elaine Darrow in an upcoming Pulp Alley campaign (yup, another gamer enthused by David Phipps' demo videos). Her garb strikes me as suitably Indiana Jones-y enough to group her in with the rest of the academic action heroes when not acting as a Pulp Alley plot point.

Next up from Hasslefree Miniatures is a perhaps less academically minded but not less academically ambitious individual. I gave him a university / college jacket to offset his other 'practical' clothing. Switch his crowbar-clutching right hand for one from Studio Miniatures' Rick Grymes, and he's done.

A Private Army

Not a lot of effort has gone into painting these minis well. I cannot abide uniforms, especially in groups of more than four. I far preferred converting some of them to hold more modern weapons. Otherwise they've been basecoated and then washed down with Quickshade.

The only one who has seen any further paint is the league leader, the Sergeant. I picture him fulfilling the Jackrum-esque role (for those in the dark, have a look at Terry Pratchett's Monstrous Regiment - well worth a read), leading the unit from beneath the Lieutenant's nose.

The rest are holding the fort until I can produce some more memorable minions, which I don't see happening for a while. Hopefully these will get me gaming a bit before then.

The Sergeant

The Corporal

The Lieutenant

The Privates

The New Recruits

Reworking the Lord of the Rings

I remember wading through my 6th edition Warhammer Fantasy Battles rulebook - the first I tried - and boy, that was a slog! Compared to the Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game set of rules, it stumbled around under the weight of special rules and exceptions and dependency upon knowing all the rules to understand all the rest.

LotR SBG, on the other hand, was a breezy read through, and you could pretty much get going after twenty minutes' concentration. I spent many happy hours skirmishing with my cousins.

Alas, life tends to require people to move to new pastures, and I haven't found any LotR players in the area. I do still have pretty much all of my miniatures, the huge majority unpainted, and those which have gone beyond the basecoat could definitely do with stripping and redoing.

I never enjoyed (and still don't enjoy) painting white, so I would experiment with different paint schemes on Saruman under the guise of creating new characters, and often felt that it looked better (certainly than the whites I could manage). I carry that habit to the present and, needing a generic wizard to potentially lead a band of fantasy warriors, I've gone for more browns and greens on my favourite Saruman model:

I really enjoyed the cloak, and painting cloaks in general seems to be just so easy compared to a lot of the fiddly detail one can find on minis. The windier the day the better, it seems.

It's a great miniature, and testament to the ideal that 'less is more'. Simple and relatively unadorned with detail.

Just ignore the clouding at the bottom of his cloak, unless you want to count it as dust, rather than an over-enthusiastic application of superglue before basing...

There are signs of too much glue on the next miniature too:

I will learn. One day.

Another fun one to paint for its simplicity - I really like the Dwarf Ranger set. It may not be the finest example of what can be achieved at 28mm, but they're dwarves as I first imagine them when reading The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. And they have more cloaks.

A couple more modern pulped up action heroes and heroines to fill an assortment of roles in Pulp Alley games. More detail to come soon as I work out another league or two.

Pulp Alley League: The Prodigy's Retinue

While I slog through these uniformed minions, here’s one of the leagues I’m looking to roll out in a solo campaign, cards all set to print these off on custom business card sheets – just waiting to finish off a few more models to fill the template out:

A wealthy teenage genius, Cedric Athelhaerd finds mainstream life ever so dull. He thus occupies his time with schemes and plots to further enhance his own wealth. Aided by both his security advisor and his personal secretary, the challenge of unearthing organisations’ deepest secrets combined with needing to maintain a low profile (for his grandmother, his only living relative and head of the Athelhaerd estate, is a lady of society, and very mindful of the need to keep the family name clean) is so far proving enough to hold his interest, but surely it is only a matter of time before he looks for a bigger venture…

I’m hoping that Cedric is going to still be standing at the end of any scenario – surely he’ll be able to dodge most harm! – and skilled enough in most areas to be of use in claiming plot points. He’ll also be churning out gadget after gadget to arm his assistants.

Ivy and Secernere are there to deal with Brawling and Shooting threats respectively. They will also, dice permitting, be armed with enough equipment to attempt most plot points.