The view of Granville down the main street from the vantage point of the town park

Friday night I ran a play test of one of my GASLIGHT games for Historicon in July.  In the continuing saga of Duke Morrison and his buddies trying to thwart the nefarious machinations of the Venusian invasion force advanced guard, the scenario featured another ruckus in Granville, IL.  In previous scenarios, we’ve learned that Professor Serafini Nannini, famed physicist from the University of Chicago, has invented an anti-gravity ray.  The government set up a clandestine lab in the small town of Granville, IL, for Prof. Nannini to continue his research.  The Venusians have prepared to invade the Earth.  Their advanced party had hired local gangsters to help in their various plans to capture Prof. Nannini and his inventions.  Many of those plots involved capturing Prof. Nannini’s beautiful daughter, crack pistol shot, and lab assistant, Gianna Nannini.  (At Cold Wars, Duke Morrison, the hero of these adventures, along with his buddies LTJG “Boats” Morgan and Sgt. “Wrench” Webb, rescued Gianna Nannini from being sawn in half by trappers in the Yukon and being sacrificed to Kali by Thugees in India.)

A view of the town before we started the game. You can see the motel in the distance.

This scenario was a four-sided affair.  The Venusians had captured and brainwashed Prof. Nannini.  The Venusians landed in the park and planned to place the anti-gravity ray on the back of a pickup truck.  Their mission was to use the anti-gravity ray to remove the remaining equipment from Nannini’s lab.  While Duke and his friends were away in the Yukon and India, the government moved the lab.  Since Duke and his men arrived at the motel late the previous night, they hadn’t been shown the new location yet.  So neither Duke nor the Venusians (and Prof. Nannini) knew where the lab is!

Granville before the action commenced

In the meantime, the Venusians have been slow in paying the gangsters for their efforts, but the Venusians had said it’s okay for the gangsters to loot the town while they (the Venusians) were absconding with the valuable lab equipment.

Duke Morrison, "Wrench" Web, and their men dash from the motel as the shooting starts

As the scenario began, the gangsters moved into town from the North and South.  The Venusians had just landed in the park.  The commotion of the rockets landing and the Venusians mixing it up with the local police roused Duke, Boats, Wrench, and their men from their short slumber.

The Venusians with brainwashed Prof. Nannini enter the town

The Venusians quickly mounted the anti-gravity ray, controlled by Prof. Nannini, into the back of a pickup truck and headed toward town while several other dismounted Venusians raced into the town in search of the laboratory.

Venusians and gangsters face off in front of the theater

The Venusians accosted some townspeople in front of the theater and used their “truth ray” to get a movie patron to point out the building where the lab equipment was located.

Torpedo Brooks and his men "knock" on the back door of the hardware store, looking for loot

The gangsters ran through the town, ransacking the motel office, hardware store, clothing store, gas station, and other buildings, collecting loot.  The game is meant to have more players than we had for the play test, so the gangsters were controlled by too few players.  This meant that the gangsters were more organized than will be the case in the convention game, resulting in the gangsters serendipitously divided up the town up.  There wasn’t much gangster-on-gangster fighting.

Venusians working their way around the theater (top floor removed)

After a short fracas between one group of gangsters and the Venusians, the Venusians amazingly didn’t seem to hold a grudge and instead kept running through town, searching for the lab.  Eventually “Boats” and his sailors found the laboratory on the second floor, above the hardware store.

Prof. Nannini's lab workers using a vehicle to locate the relocated lab

At about the same time that “Boats” found the lab, Nannini’s lab assistants arrived in another truck and joined the sailors on the second floor.  Soon afterward a group of gangsters that had found its way on the roof of the building with the lab ran down the stairs and assaulted the sailors and the lab assistants.  After a couple turns of hand-to-hand combat, the gangsters in the lab were defeated.  The sailors then decided to clean up the lab — by tossing the dead bodies out the second-floor windows.

The action gets hot and heavy as the Venusians with the anti-gravity ray and some gangsters in a hijacked Coke truck speed through town

Despite using the anti-gravity ray to lift Venusians into upper-story windows looking for the lab, the Venusians didn’t arrive until after the battle with the sailors had ended.  Being bored, the brainwashed Prof. Nannini decided to help his Venusian masters by using the anti-gravity ray to lift good guys into the air and drop them 30 feet to their death.

The action gets hot and heavy as the Venusians with the anti-gravity ray and some gangsters in a hijacked Coke truck speed through town

The final, climactic action took place in the center of the town, where Duke Morrison’s men and “Wrench” Webb’s men were all but wiped out by the Venusians, who were in turn gunned down in the streets by “Boats”‘ sailors.  Due to the lack of gangster-on-gangster fighting, most gangster losses came from the sailors and the police.  The groups of gangsters that avoided the police collected a significant amount of loot from around the town — and now operate a miniature golf course in Miami Beach, FL.

Victorian Avengers

A couple of weeks ago, I posted an article about how I’m building a Victorian-era version of the modern Marvel Avengers.  At the suggestion of some folks on line, I purchased the Malifaux Seamus Avatar to be the Victorian version of The Hulk.  I think he came out quite well.

Frosty Bar

I also completed this Plasticville ice cream stand to add to my pulp town.  I finished two more Cape Cod houses too, but I didn’t take pictures of them.

Science laboratory with new machine

Over a year ago in the UK there was a happy meal toy for a cartoon, called Johnny Test.  Chris Johnston sent us a couple of each to convert, but it took me a year to find the triangular-tipped safety screw drivers need to disassemble the toy.

New machine converted from Johnny Test happy meal toy

I have another one that I’ll convert into some sort of transporter or containment device, but this first one I wanted to be some sort of scientific device.

Four Eureka Allied "Bear-o-Planes"

I purchased the Eureka bear-o-planes a couple of years ago.  They languished in my project box until Chris sold his to Todd who decided to use them with Jamie Davis’ famous Future Race rules.  If you haven’t played Future Race, you’re missing out on one of the great gaming experiences.  Jamie, a huge Star Wars fan, wrote the rules to replicate the pod racing sequences from Crap-isode I.  Frankly, I think Jamie’s game is the only good thing about Crap-isode I.  Anyway, when Todd started talking about using the bear-o-planes with those rules, I got excited about getting my planes painted up.

Four Eureka German "Bear-o-Planes"

Look for them at an HMGS convention near you!

Delancey Street Characters

I saw these on line some time back and commented that I’d like to get my hands on a set.  To my surprise the person who commissioned these figures found me at Cold Wars and handed me a set.  I couldn’t wait to get them painted.  To my embarrassment, I can’t remember my benefactor’s name, but I greatly appreciate the gift.

Plasticville gas station

I have been looking for the Plasticville gas station for my Pulp town of Granville.  It turns out that in O scale, Bachman doesn’t make it any more.  On Ebay, the price was crazy, because people are selling it for collectors in boxes, etc.  It turns out that two things make the gas station collectable: the box and the cardboard insert in the window.  Chris Palmer found the gas station in less-than-mint condition without a box at Cold Wars for $5, and he bought it for me.  It was my big “score” for the convention.

Second view of Plasticville gas station

I worked on it a little at a time since Cold Wars and finished it up this week.  I’m pretty happy how it turned out.

Final view, showing clearly the sign I made on the computer

At the same time Chris found the gas station, he also found the Plasticville super market in a bag for $5.  Since I already have a grocery store in town, I decided to convert it to a clothing store.

Plasticville supermarket converted to a clothing store

I took the name for an up-scale store that used to exist in the Detroit area.  This is where men went if they wanted to get good clothing.

Another view. Note the store windows.

I went online and found some pictures of store windows and mannequins from the 1930′s to put in the windows of the store.  The lamps in the front hide slots in the store front where the original supermarket sign used to fit.

Final view...

A few posts back you can see pictures of the motel I made.  At Cold Wars I went by the RLBPS booth and got a bunch of resin bedroom furniture to fill out the rooms in the motel.

Beds for my motel

A start on "The Victorian Avengers"

If you’ve seen the recent Marvel movies, such as Iron Man, Captain America, and the Avengers, you’re familiar with the adaptation of these comics for the “big screen.”  I found the three figures above at Cold Wars and thought about putting together a group of “Avengers” for Victorian science fiction games.  These figures are imported by Iron Wind Metals, which also carries the old Ral Partha figures.

Black Widow

This will be Black Widow, or Natasha Romanoff.

Captain America

My Captain America figure is meant to be a cross between Captain America and Uncle Sam.  I haven’t decided if I will add a shield, but I think I’ll ad one that is more Norman knight looking, rather than round.

Iron Man

This is Iron Man.  I decided not to paint him red.  I thought that brushed metal would be more “Victorian.”

The missing Victorian Avengers

These are the figures I haven’t chosen yet.  I shouldn’t have trouble finding a figure with a bow and arrow.  I’m not what figure to choose for Thor just yet; although, I’m more interested in the picture on the top right instead of the one in the top center.  I could use a generic Viking, I guess, but I’ll keep looking until something jumps out at me.  There is a Pulp figure of a big bruiser that I might get a second copy of in order to paint him greenish and call him “the Hulk.”

Stay tuned for the adventures of The Victorian Avengers!

Diligent work...

This weekend, Chris, Duncan, and I got together to inventory the various donations we’ve received.  This project, begun with figures from the estate of Wally Simon, is designed to get unused figures into the hands of younger gamers to help grow the hobby.  Since the first iteration, we’ve had many folks donate figures to us.  The challenge has been that rarely are the donations complete enough.

What we do is get four or more player’s worth of figures painted.  Then we run a game for kids under 10 at Historicon.  All participating kids walk away with full armies, rules, and usually some other odds and ends to take home and play with their buddies.  This is our third year.

Duncan and Chris doing inventory

We finished inventorying what has been donated.  After I type up the inventory sheets we can determine which armies are closest to completion for Historicon 2014.  (For 2013 we’re giving away 54mm ACW skirmish “armies” with some really neat paper terrain constructed by Chris Johnson.)  I’ll be posting the inventories along with “wish lists” later in the week.

Victory Force Miniatures of Dorothy Gale and Friends

My buddy Sam Fuson found these figures on the Victory Force Miniatures Web page.  He is painting them up for a GASLIGHT game.  I couldn’t resist getting a set myself.  These are The Scarecrow as a sniper, Dorothy and Toto (Toto has a grenade in his mouth), The Lion, and the Tin Man.  These will have to make it into a GASLIGHT game soon.

Chris found a huge batch of 10mm fantasy figures on line and gave me the ones he didn’t want.  They are Pendraken figures that are supposed to be Elves, but I’m going to use them as Humans.

First group of Pendraken Elven cavalry

Second group of Pendraken Elven cavalry

Third group of Pendraken Elven cavalry

I haven’t figures out how many points each of these units will cost, but this will make an imposing-looking player’s worth of figures in an upcoming fantasy game.

I’ve also been working on painting and assembling a Plasticville gas station and supermarket in O scale for 28mm figures.

French and Indian War game using Muskets and Tomahawks

Friday night at the HAWKs meeting, Greg ran a first game with Muskets and Tomahawks, which he bought at Cold Wars.  It was a good excuse to get my Old Glory 28mm FIW figure son the table again.  We were all fumbling through the rules, because it was the first time we had played them.

Roger, Dave, and I were the French, facing Mike, Chris, and Tank.

The game has an interesting card-based mechanic that is somewhere between Piquet and The Sword and the Flame.  In fact, it has a lot in common with an idea I’ve been mulling during my morning runs for a major revision of Beer and Pretzels Skirmish.  There is a deck of cards that are used to control activation.  Different types of units (e.g., regulars, militia, irregulars, indians, civilians) have different cards in the deck.  These cards indicate that the unit can perform one or two actions.  Better units have either more cards or more actions on their cards.  Though in our single game this led to an extended dry spell for the French, the idea is intriguing, and I’m anxious to try the game a couple more times before forming an opinion.