Apes

As usual, I can't post a comment on my own blog.  Sigh.  Thanks for the comments on the apes, guys. 5150NB made me buy apes.  It's all Ed's fault!

Eureka Boilersuit Apes & Chronoscape Alice

I just got a bunch of the Eureka Boilersuit Apes, and the ones in space suits.  Really nice figures.  Since both my wife and I are oil field brats, I decided on bright coveralls.  The Eureka guns are so nice that I tried something different on them.  I painted them Ceramcoat Charcoal and washed them with undiluted P3 armor wash.  All figures were primed grey, block painted in base colors, and then given a brown wash followed by a thin black wash.  The faces were painted Reaper Pro Paint Ruddy Flesh, and washed with old GW Flesh Wash.  I suspect that P3 Flesh Wash would do as good a job.  The eyes were painted a very pale yellow, and given black pupils.  As always, click on the picture for a larger one.

Since I just finished reading "The Seige of Leningrad", they were all given Russian names.

I especially like the boss figure, so he's Leonid!

I looked at both US and Soviet spacesuits, and decided 5 figures with white suites would just be too boring to paint, so I harkened back to the old science fiction movie, "Destination: Moon", and used it for inspiration.

And, of course, I refound my Reaper figure of Alice.  I painted her as one of the stills on Google.  I am dreaming of replacing Carol Lee in the Two-Hour Wargames Risks & Rewards with Alice.  Let's see, Rep 6, Ambidextrous, Sidewalk Demon, has the Razor bullet-avoiding move, 2 BA pistols, and 2 khukri, which the axe stats can be used for.







Colonial Barracks

Well, Colonial Barracks is done and gone, and it was great.  Friday I was on call, and so just chatted with everyone.  Got to meet Chick Lewis, Ross Maker, and Tim Cheatem face-to-face after chatting with them for years on ColonialWars@Yahoo.com, or whatever the actual url is.

There were some beautiful games going on, Nick's ansar battle, and the fabulous terrain for Maiwand.

On Saturday, I got into Jim Pitt's Darkest Africa game, controlling a group of archers for the natives.  I managed to pretty well wipe out a group of Zanzibari slavers, get the peaceful villagers out of the village for the loss of only 2 villagers and a goat, but left a lot of goods in the village for the taxman!  My warriors who were in the village took out a couple of the taxman's askari, but elephants did a lot more damage.  The warrior leader tried a heroic charge against one of the taxman, but was shot down.  Jay Stribling and I gave the natives their only win on points, according to Jim.

Here are three pics of my brave archers in action!

Next, I ran my game using Larry Brom's "With Old Gimlet Eye", US Marines vs Sandinistas in Nicaragua, 1926.  Due to some fine shooting by Donna, and growing casualties, the Marines were forced to withdraw with their wounded, leaving behind their dead, whom the Sandanistas looted of maybe 10 Springfields, a Lewis gun, and a Browing machine gun.

They were not without losses, however.  They lost one Lewis gun operator for sure, and Jim's single Marine unit ran off 2 Sandinista units in hand-to-hand.  Marine bayonets are deadly!

I wasn't as up on the rules as I should have been, and so some points got overlooked.  Sigh.

That pooped me out, and though Nick's "Wind and the Lion" game was very tempting, I went home and to bed, since I was on call again.

Sunday, I played in Mark Steven's Maxmillian Adventure game, in reserve.  Didn't get to fire a single shot from my French Foreign Legion because the Juaristas spent too much time and units on the Mexicans and Belgians on the hill, and never got to the village.  Of course that meant that I got to fondle and ogle Mark's beautifully painted French Foreign Legion.  Wonderful job!

Oh, I forgot the raffle on Saturday evening.  I got Larry's Marines and Japanese, and a copy of "M-1's and Arisakis".  Of course, I got the best prize, and I'm sure all of the winners felt that they got the best prize!

It was a great little con at a really nice venue (one Bayou Wars should consider, hint, hint, BOD), and with a great groups of ladies and gentlemen.