Pulp Alley at Call to Arms 2014. Set up.

We did not come up with a name for this other than "Pulp Alley Demo game". I had thought of "Carrion Up the Nile" but never got around to suggesting it to the others.
We had been looking forward to this Demo game for most of the year. Its been lots of work painting up all the little bits and pieces which I think makes a Demo game great fun. All my gangs were already painted so it should have been easy but I wanted to do some extras. I will first post some photos of the game setup and some of the extra bits. Ray also painted extra figures and made most of the town buildings, as well as the two gangs that he and his Son Michael were using. I think Michael painted his undead reinforcements.

Dr Who kept appearing at certain parts of the game but did not have any effect on play.

Five floating skulls were spread around. The first four enabled labourers to be recruited which meant that you could enter the Pyramid, via either an underground tunnel or the front door. The fifth was the winning Plot Point.

Madness tribute band, The Los Palmos 7.

Walk like an Egyptian. 

Final plot point hidden in the Tomb. 

Thoughts on Flames of War and Demo Game.

No photos to post today as I am stressing out trying to finish off a few items for next weeks Demo Game of Pulp Alley.
I have just finished the Italeri North African house which I will be using as a jail. My River Boat needs a few things done before I can say its done, plus some figures which include my Madness tribute Band and some Celeb's. I should be able to photograph these during the upcoming game.
We had a quick setup with mate Rays buildings last weekend which looked real good. This will give us lots of Alleyways and cover plus it will give us places to put the bystanders.

Since my partner is taking over my gaming room, I thought I would sort through my FOW pile to see if theres anything worth selling off. I made a pile of bits and unopened packets while trying to work out prices I kept thinking, " I like these" (and my girlfriend said that they are cute).  Now I have painted and sold off three Soviet Armies plus Winter terrain and some other bits before, but I just cannot bring myself to sell off my German Armies. My buildings never sold on Trademe so I am kind of thinking of using them for games with other rules like IABSM. I like Lardies rules but am not sure if I like these so maybe just House Rule FOW instead.

The things I have decided to keep now are; Mid War Brits in short sleeves, US Rangers (Darbies) plus some German bits. (I always wanted to model the Herman Goering Division based in Italy). I have also kept a box of Russian Cossacks both mounted and unmounted plus 10 Stuarts. (I have a Early/Mid War German army to oppose them already painted).
I am not going to follow the army lists too much. I find you need to buy too many things like AA or field guns that you don't really need but help when doing morale checks. I also want to use the Rangers with the Brits which you cannot do in FOW comps.
These armies will not duplicate my 20mm collection which is Late War , so Late War German kit and my Typhoons will have to go.

If you have read this far I would like to point out that I am not bagging FOW. I really enjoyed playing it from the days of the original Yahoo group to the early days of the 2nd rule book. I also have my name in a couple of books as a Play Tester. I just found I got bored with it and that I kept getting caught out with the special rules in comps. Plus I got tired of the discussions during games with people I have never met before. (I get enough of that at work as a Service Engineer) I loved painting Soviets but hated the Hen and Chicks rule, and found I did really well in comps but then something would go wrong leaving me finishing worse than I liked. I was never any good at designing a winning Army so think friendly games are more my style.

Cheers, hope to post something more interesting next week.

I am losing my gaming room.

But not for long.

My partner has to move out of her current Flat which she is using for dressmaking as well as accommodation. The building needs to be earthquake strengthened before Christmas so we thought that she could use my gaming room as her workshop. We have been dating for nearly four years, so I guess it was about time to live together rather than the gypsy type lifestyle we currently have. It also means that I will have more evenings to paint which is great news.

I have had plans to build extra garaging on my property but it seems to be too hard to get past the council. As an alternative I am planning (fingers crossed) to build a purpose built games room instead on the lawn. This will have separate entry from the house and should be quite secure and also a much better environment to keep books and models in. The current room is a converted garage which can be a bit damp. I can also empty out my third bedroom which is a dumping ground for gaming storage and has a small wargames table.

Here are a few photos to illustrate what I have been using for gaming.

First up the small bedroom which looks huge in the photos and has a Bolt Action Dads Army game set up.

The large gaming room which is 6 meters by 3.5 which I have been using for nearly 16 years.

A Pulp Alley Demo game is set up to practise on.

1/35th scale models are in the glass cabinets.

The boxes contain painted figures, and note the yet to be
 converted Pirate ships gathering dust.

A star in a reasonably priced Cart.

Just finished a Chariot for my Mummy forces. The horses were from a job lot won off Ebay which are from a Foundry Ancients range (I think). They are the third set of horses which I tried out and then discarded. I tried to paint them like they were undead with skin stretched across the bones. Not sure if it looks like that? The cart was scratch built from brass rod, plastic card and some wheels off an Esci Pak 40. The rider is from the Eureka range of Chaos Egyptians.
The little chap running behind is from a Foundry Darkest Africa set with a greenstuff wrap around his shoulders.

I also finished a pack of Brigade games Archeologists and labourers and a pack of prisoners. I'm really happy how the stripes came out but it did take several nights to get them done. I had a missing pick in one of the packs so substituted a spare from Heresy which was in the spares box. It looks huge but its too late to change it now.

Eureka Mummies and Skeletons.

I have just finished painting some Mummies and Skeletons from Eureka. I've had these for ages in the lead pile as when I first saw them I thought that they would be too fragile for gaming. I recently got them out again intending to use them as terrain. Some of the limbs seem too fragile so I glued some lead strips around the legs and glued the arms against the bodies as much as possible to give them more strength. I also cut the tabs off them so I could glue them to flat bases.
The Mummies came in one piece, but seem to have no plan as to how the wrapping was applied so were a real pain to paint. I think I had three attempts to get the wrapping to look ok.
I am quite pleased how these figures look but will treat them with kid gloves when gaming with them. I've had one detach himself from a base already! I also failed to match the bases to the colour of the Pyramid even though I think I've used the same colours.

I just checked on the Eureka Website and found that the range is called Chaos Egyptians. They call the Skeletons Undead Warriors and Guards.

Mummies.

Undead Warriors.

Undead Guard.

Chaps, your not leaving me behind are you?

"CLARKSON YOU UTTER PILLOCK!!!!"

Soft Plastic disaster.

I don't often have a problem with this hobby which cannot be solved by a bit of research on the internet. However after trying to glue some plastic figures to GW bases to use as markers, which would keep track of points earned in our Pulp Alley Demo game. I have not found a glue which works well enough to handle the figures. So far I have tried Tamiya thick cement but several figures just fell off. I then used superglue to rebase these, but several more fell off including some of the superglued ones. I then tried PVA with similar results.

I undercoated the figures with spray paint and then tried to touch up with hand painting. However the first few figures just popped off the bases. I then flicked all the figures off the bases and gave up in frustration.

I have heard that a special Plastic's glue is available but have not had a chance to go around the DIY stores yet. I thought I could use card bases as an alternative but I really like the look of the square plinths as I wanted to make these look like tourist souvenirs.

Top Gear Egyptian Special 1930's style.

I wanted some NPC figures to use as Diplomats or similar who would need rescuing in certain scenarios. Remembering the Top Gear India Special then who better than the Top Gear Team?

Finding the figures was fairly easy as Pulp Figures had some suitable, but they would need some work. James was converted first by cutting through his back and then straightening him up which required a bit of Greenstuff to fill the gap. He then got a new head from an Artizan figure with some more hair from Greenstuff.
Jeremy was then worked on but after the work I had done on James he looked much smaller than I wanted. I cut him off at the ankles and the added 3mm with metal rods drilled into the legs and down through the feet, and into the base. This was then filled with Greenstuff. I still felt that he did not look imposing enough so I added extra height to the base. I also tried to remove the moustache which destroyed the lips! I tried to cover this up with paint. I forgot to add extra hair with Greenstuff!
Hammond did not require anything other than paint. I am undecided if this is the perfect figure for him or should I look for another. Anything else I have found does not look animated enough to fit in the the others.
Egyptian Stig was ok as he was but I decided to remove the garrotte and replace it with a steering wheel and some Greenstuff hands.
Mr Manlove was just a paint job. The name comes from an episode where they are in Germany and a Technician of the same name checks over the cars for safety and condition.
The Golden Cock comes from an episode where James and Jeremy finds an ornament in a Motorway shop. James favourite expression is "oh Cock" in case you didn't know. I will use it as a peril or treasure marker.
I have some more bits to add to this theme on the work bench, and some others which are going to require quite a bit of conversion work.

The Cast

Did you know? blah blah blah etc.

Behold the Golden Cock.

Look Jazza, its a Hookah, Yes James two of them.

Cairo Police.

Look James, the Rozzers have a new wagon.

Audience?

Peril markers.

Reaper small Egyptian Treasure pile.