For Sunday, 23 August, I’m thankful for Strategies Games & Hobbies‘ Immortal Brush painting contest.
This November will be the 20th Annual competition!
A few years ago, for a few years, I was honoured to be asked to judge the event, along with two local well-knowns. It’s a fun day with some really good paint jobs across all kinds of genres.
If you’re in the Vancouver metro area, do yourself a favour and check it out. Hell, enter a contender; you could win!
This Sunday I’m thankful for the Grumman Goose.
I was recently in north Vancouver Island and was lucky enough to get these two photos of a Goose docking in a harbor:
I sent these pics to a friend and he said it looks like i was hired to do surveillance at the docks. Ha! Now there’s a scenario for any flavour of Pulp!
It turns out it’s not just Jake Cutter …
… and Archer …
… that fly these beautiful birds.
Wilderness Seaplanes, out of Port Hardy, operates two of them.
As evidenced by Maps.
Hm, it kind of does look like I’m spying on them.
One of their Gooses was flying around near me at one point but I couldn’t get a photo of it in the air as I was driving.
A few years ago when I was first delving into Pulp gaming I was sorely tempted to order one of these babies off eBay. I might yet.
It’s good to see they’re still available.
For Sunday, 5 July, I’m thankful for World War Two sitcoms.
I think Hogan’s Heroes, ‘Allo ‘Allo and Dad’s Army would make a great campaign. Something along the lines of the Allies need to get a scientist or engineer, or somebody’s girlfriend, out of Germany and who better to get the job done than our casts of fearless spies, saboteurs, resistance fighters and home guard?
It could be played in one evening, as short as three individual scenes. Or it could be run as a mini-campaign of three three-act episodes:
The timing of the games — given the timelines of the three shows — would probably be best suited to around Christmas 1943. And that could lend an additional holiday flavour to the scenarios!
For Hogan’s Heroes, Stoessi’s Heroes make Colonel Hogan, Colonel Klink and Sergeant Schultz.
For ‘Allo ‘Allo, Artizan Designs make good versions of René and Yvette.
And Warlord Games do Dad’s Army right proper.
Curiously nobody seems to make the rest of the casts of Hogan’s Heroes or ‘Allo ‘Allo. There are numerous companies though, that make WWII figs of all kinds, combatants and civilians. So I don’t think it would take much searching to find suitable analogues.
For rules you might try 02 Hundred Hours or 7TV. My caveat is that I’ve not played the former (though I know a few people who have and really like it), and I haven’t played the latter in its current edition.
I hope somebody takes this idea and runs with it. I’d love to hear how it turns out.
For Sunday, 28 June, I’m thankful for the Tres Amigas!
Left to right they are: Empolvada, Suertuda and Eda.
I can’t remember where I got Empolvada. I thought she might have come from either Great Escape or Knuckleduster, but I can’t find her on either of their sites. I’ve had her for at least a decade, and things do come and go.
Suertuda I’m pretty happy with. She started out as a Malifaux 2nd Edition alternate fig of Perdita Ortega. But, since all of my Mexican bandits have liquor in-hand, I wanted to convert her. As luck would have it, just after I got my Perdita, Warlord released this Christmas Truce pack for Bolt Action. Boccob’s yer uncle!
Eda is one of Colonel Bill’s Belt Fed Girls, Dulce Maria.
Together these señoras form one of the deadliest cliques among El Guapo’s Time Banditos.
And remember, …
For Sunday, 21 June, I’m thankful for the Empire’s Cloud Class Pocket Cruisers.
They are:
The Imperial Pocket Cruiser Cumulonimbus, cloaked above a boreal coast while conducting strategic reconnaissance to Core:
For Sunday, 16 August, I’m thankful for Space Weirdos.
Two weeks ago a couple friends and I played a three-way game that was a blast, even though it was a blow-out for me.
One of my buddies mustered a horde of Mantic Games’ Space Zombies and Ghouls. Witness the canage:
My other buddy attacked with a cohort of Big Mr Tong’s ’70s Cylons (available through his Patreon). Witness their majesty:
And I brought my Pecking Order, to give them both a beaking they wouldn’t forget:
Sadly, my Gallus Gallus 5/13 just couldn’t land a hit; the dice were unkind. And I learned a thing or two about being out-actioned. I built my six birds to be pretty high-cost. But the other guys’ forces were more evenly balanced. That mattered.
In the end the game came down to Cylons versus zombies:
Good times!
So, did I learn anything from this? Yes I did. Next time, Ten Piece Bucket!:
This past Sunday I’m thankful for the axolotl.
I’ve always thought they were cool little creatures. And in Mexico City right now, they’re everywhere as part of their World Cup decorations and celebrations.
I was tempted to buy a pinata of one but resisted. I couldn’t figure out how to get it home.
Instead I’ll get my Reaper trio painted up.
Last Sunday I was thankful for Mexican Wrestling.
Though, unlike the fan I caught in this next photo, I was a bit unsure of who was who.
I did eventually sort them out though. It’s made easier by the bad guys loving being bad guys.
I came home wanting to rewatch some El Santo films and some Blue Demon movies.
Reaper used to make this fig and Nobleknight have one listed.
I’ve got one somewhere in my lead pile. I’ll have to dig him out.
THIS is a fun short survey of the genre if you’re wondering where to start.
This past Sunday I’m thankful for Adventurers.
Specifically creators who’ve set about painting each and every figure from the Rogue Trader miniature series RT601. Thus:
I recently discovered there is a subculture of incredibly talented painters who — over the last decade or so — set themselves the goal of painting all of the figs shown in the above ad. Some have expanded their vision to include other White Dwarf listings, such as Bob Olley’s Iron Claw Space Pirates:
Here are three blogs to check out if you haven’t already:
Dr. Mathias’s Miniature Extravaganza
Spend some time on each. Wander around. Rabbit-hole. You’ll be glad you did.
I imagine some of these guys have had a field day with more of THESE LISTS and I just haven’t found their work yet.
These painters and their project remind me of when I learned Res Eve Knife Only is a thing. Some things really can be made better simply by doing them harder, faster or harder and faster.
Oh no! It’s the Iron Claw Space Pirates! We’re doomed. Doooooomed!
This past Sunday I’m thankful for the return of Heavy Metal magazine.
Late in 2024 Heavy Metal ran a Kickstarter to relaunch the magazine with a new #1.
Such a great cover.
I backed it. And then I decided to support them for the first while by buying a one-year subscription for the next four issues. They’re all out now and apparently my sub includes an Annual issue as well, so not bad.
All five of these issues include chapters of the ongoing dark fantasy stories Gladiatrix, by John Stanisci …
… and Millstone, by Michael W Conrad.
They’re both quite good, and still running.
Also in these first issues I rediscovered Vicente Segrelles’ The Mercenary.
This story recalled something familiar. I was sure I’d seen that character before. And the art style. Long ago. Well it turns out Segrelles has been telling the tale of The Mercenary in Spain since the ’80s. So I must have read some of it somewhere in the deep dark past. This chapter is a well-told moment, beautifully illustrated, that hopefully will lead to more events in later issues.
There’s also an eerie story called Cold Dead War: The Aftermath, by Craig Wilson.
It picks up where the segment in the Heavy Metal movie about the WWII pilot parachuting onto the haunted island leaves off:
Kinda creepy. It wraps in issue 5.
But after all of the above, the big win for me is discovering an ongoing story about a couple of characters I’d never heard of before. Burton & Cyb.
Lucky for me they’ve been adventuring since the ’80s. Yes, again. And yes, in Spain. Again. And it turns out they’ve been appearing in Heavy Metal for decades; I just never came across them. I don’t know if the ones I just discovered are new stories or old. But I’m liking them a lot.
Something I’ve been thinking about is taking the palette of a serialized story from Heavy Metal and using it as the guide for painting a unit or two from my collection for Xenos Rampant. I think Burton & Cyb would make a good place to start for a squad of scavenging scroungers. And Millstone might be a good source for my Black Spiral Dancer Vargr.
If you want to know more about the history of Heavy Metal, the wiki entry is a pretty good place to start.
