Fleeing Victorian Civilians

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.

Two Additional Plasticville Buildings for Granville

Plasticville gas station
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
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
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
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.
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...
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
Beds for my motel

The Victorian Avengers

A start on "The Victorian Avengers"
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
Black Widow

This will be Black Widow, or Natasha Romanoff.

Captain America
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
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
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!

The HAWKs Armies for Kids Project

Diligent work...
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
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.

The Fruit of a Several Weeks’ Work

Victory Force Miniatures of Dorothy Gale and Friends
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
First group of Pendraken Elven cavalry
Second group of Pendraken Elven cavalry
Second group of Pendraken Elven cavalry
Third 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.

Muskets and Tomahawks

French and Indian War game using Muskets and Tomahawks
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.