28mm Pulp Tramp Steamer - Project Finished !

Ladies & Gentlemen

It gives me great pleasure to announce that the Steamer 'Katie Jane' has finally left the dockyards !

Believe it or not I haven't worked on this project since February of this year and everytime I enter the shed the dear old boat stares at me wanting its finishing touches.

So once the working week was done I decided to get this done - afterall the boat is integral to my dockside build and the game I am planning for BLAM in October.

The start of this project can be found here...

from the beginning

and is a shot of progress made in February

So what's been added...

the ship needed its name plates....

The Air vents  - these were purchased online through a model boat builders - perfect for those pulp hideaways !

Stairs have been added to allow access to the bow and stern decks

I  have then added some masts - just simple dowel rods

 

and a flag (both made up on the computer and printed)

throw in some life-rings and the ship is complete.

I give you the Steamer Katie Jane...

The crew is mustered...

Oh and why the Katie Jane ? Well that is the name of my wife...she is chuffed to bits that the boat is named after her

you look nothing like Leonardo

28mm Naval Unit

Whilst over in Tactica this year I bought a number of Pulp Figures including two packs of the British Sailor range.

These can be sourced from Northstar in the UK

http://www.northstarfigures.com/list.php?man=186&page=1

Although the pictures shown on the website show them in 'whites' I wanted mine in blues for my VBCW games - but of course they can be used in a number of settings including pulp.

These were really easy to paint up and complemented the dozen or so Sailors I already had purchased and painted some years back.

Sadly I can't find the manufacturer of these ??

For the Naval Brigade Officer I used the Salute giveaway figure from 2014 with his dog...

So I now have around 20 rifle armed Sailor boys

And a gun crew...

Ill be adding a few other pieces to this force in due course

Until next time

Building a 28mm Modular Tomb - part 1

Over the weekend Mrs Shed decided that a trip to Ikea in Croydon was needed. For some strange reason we have mislaid all of our breakfast bowls and there was a need to buy some stackable shoe boxes for my daughter.

So off we tripped early Saturday evening. IKEA can be a wargamers dream and each time I visit I always return with some kind of booty. This trip was no different and three of the draw units shown below ended up in the back of the car.

I had been on the look for these since last years BLAM when Dewbabuk use the drawers themselves to make adobe buildings. All he did was turn them over an give them a plaster adobe finish

I did consider doing the same but the thought occurred to me that these might be the perfect boxes to build my modular dungeon and tomb. What's more is they come with there own packing case.

As you can see from the picture before each drawer unit provides one large, two medium and three small rooms. I bought three boxes so enough to be going on with.

The picture below shows a simple layout using just one drawer section. I have three to begin with so it will probably keep me busy.

So on Sunday night I decided to do a test piece. Unfortunately these scandivavians don't seem to have measured these boxes in simple easy to read measures but fractions of centimetres. Establishing the centre point was crucial on each wall as I could then mark out the doors.

These were cut using a jig saw.

With the doors cut I turned my attention to the floor. A piece of 3mm foam core came to the rescue.

This was soaked in hot water to remove the paper backing. First time I have ever tried this and it works a treat.

Once the paper was removed and the foam dry I etched on the paving slabs with a biro and drew is some cracks.

check that it still fits...;-)

For the walls I used 2mm Blue Foam. I had purchased a number of sheets of this a couple of years back from 4D design in Tower Hill. If I run out I'll switch to using cheaper foam core.

These were scored with block work 3cm x 1.5cm.

In the picture below you can see the chamber starting to take shape - the figure is a 28mm Robin Hood. At this point I thought the walls might be too high BUT it does allow me some room to add height to the floors and create pits, steps etc. in future pieces.

I decided that it would be much better to paint all these first before gluing them into the box. Unfortunately I didn't take any painting shots but given the first build is for the tomb complex under the pyramid these were painted light brown and then drybrushed yellow ochre followed by cream. As per all my desert boards.

The outer box was painted black.

And here we have the first finished room. I still need to glue in all the panels and tidy up the top edge, but hopefully this gives a picture of the final affect.

With time running out I decided I would need some corridor sections. The walls of these are being packed out with 25mm polystyrene. In the next post I'll focus on building the corridors, including corners and junctions.

Part 2 can now be found here

http://shedwars.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/building-28mm-modular-tomb-part-2.html


So as I left the Shed I discovered that my two cats were waiting for me on my new trellis...

Until next time....

Pulp Alley - Nazis, Mummies & Heiroglyphs

Hi Folks

Can't believe its been almost a week since my last post and I have been slack - we played agame of pulp alley on Monday and this is the first time I have got round to writing up the report.

Too much work and other real life things getting in the way !

 

I was joined by both Mark, Steve and Legatus we played a four way multiplayer game. I had been able to set up the table over the weekend and prepare the leagues that would battle it out. Following the game it became apparent that four is probably the maximum that can battle it out in such a game so we will need to be aware of this for future Monday nights.

 

the outskirts of Cairo

 
 

The four leagues (made up on Sunday night and assisted by a rather fine Rioja) were as follows.

 

Eisen Schloss (Iron Castle in German)  - A Nazi sponsored group intent on securing objects of antiquity and paranormal interest for the benefit of the Fatherland. This League is headed up by Count Kluge and his rather butch henchman Herr Kutz (who clearly fashions himself on his idol)

 

The Children of the Sun. A mythical cult based in Egypt intent on protecting the antiquities of the Pharoahs. This group is lead by the High Priest Al Quresh who somehow has resurrected the bones of King Thotses 1V

sadly no team photo..Legatus Hedlius figures

 

P.I.T.H. (Paranomal Incidents that Threatens Humanity) A British based secret organisation intent on the destruction of cults, magic and other sinister activities. The group is lead by Ray ‘the gun’ Alan and his partner Lord Charles. Funnily enough all the leading characters wear Pith Helmets. The group was also joined by Doddery Ken
 

 

The Kennedy Research Institute of Histories and Antiquities: An American organisation (possibly backed by the Government) intent on collecting famous antiquities and locking them up in a warehouse. This strange behaviour is almost certainly driven by the fact that the Americans have little of their own history so by default want nobody else to have them. This team was lead by the adventurer Texas Bob and ably assisted by Professor Missouri.
 

 

As you can see these Leagues really had very little thought put against them but do create a flavour of what might unfold.

 

 

Our adventure was set in the 1930's just outside Cairo. (Yes I know very Indiana Jones). Pulp Alley is a game driven by plot points - as the players collect these plots they can progress through to the final task. In this case the final task was located in the centre of the table. An old Obelisk - the winning player needed to collect two plot points (from an available four) that would enable a translation of the Heiroglyphics on the central obelisk.

 

Our four sub plot points were marked around the table using white counters. These were to be found at -

 

• The truck outside the tomb entrance
• The obelisk outside town
• The tall building overlooking the market
• The Bedouin camp

The four players each started in one of the corners.

 

Rather than writing up a full AAR I'll leave that to Legatus who has produced a wonderful write up on his blog. I am just going to post a few piccies of the key actions

 

http://legatuswargamesarmies.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/some-old-things-in-my-filing-cabinetand.html  

The Local Bedouin Arab who was himself a plot point

The Mummy stomps towards the Nazis

The Evil Count Kluge dispatching a yankee henchmen..to sieze a plot point

The chaos of the table



Chaos in the Bedouin encampment...Lord Charles comes to a sticky end

Mummy !! - Storms the Nazis at the final plot point.



The Local Market including Mad Mullah

 

The Nazis approach the first plot point and quickly capture this unopposed

The Americans cautiously wait on the edge of the board.....

 

As I stated earlier on a full aar is sitting on Legatus's blog - its a good read and you get to find out who won...

cheers & until next time