Crazy Old Uncle Rogipoos (and Jose)

This latest post shows photos of my most recent Flintloque character miniatures - Crazy Old Uncle Rogipoos and his pet armadillo Jose.

The miniature of Old Rogipoos is a minor conversion of Oswald Pebblekettle from the Flintloque box set 5104 Albion 105th Foot "The Rifles" with a new bicorne and a mug of cocao (on the strict orders of The Big Nurse). Rogipoos is pictured wearing the uniform of the Willorc's Militia. While Jose - his pet armadillo is a scratch-build sculpts, which I am very proud of. I think I have captured the cheeky smile and unique colouring very well.

For those readers who are not familiar with this particular character, I would suggest that a visit to the Yahoo Group The Notables is the best place to start, see;

http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/notablemembers/?yguid=154655884

Crazy Old Uncle Rogipoos is the alter-ego of one of the 'most inventive' and 'crazy' members of the group - Roger Willcox, the friendly if slightly eccentric owner of Willorc's Hall and the captain of The Robbyng Hoddie Fencible Militia. His biography is very well documented on the Notables site and a great example of how a character can be developed over time with the aid of a brilliant writer and the Internet. I have wanted to model this persona for some time and am now very proud that COUR (and Jose) are now a part of my miniature collection.

I hope that Roger will approve? Cheers and Huzzah,

Tony

PS.

As if it needs explaining - Joze is the invisible pet armadillo of Uncle Rogipoos!

Foul Mouth Freddy for Flintloque part two (continued)

Bill on TMP has picked up on the Freddy sculpt post and produced this link. See;

http://theminiaturespage.com/news/95230/

Now I'll have to get the sculpt off to AA as soon as possible or I'll have some explaining to do! It just goes to prove that 'Blogging' does have a life all of its own.

Tony

Foul Mouth Freddy for Flintloque part two

As promised in my earlier post - here is a photo of the work-in-progress on Freddy, old Foul Mouth Freddy. I would say the miniature is about 95% complete, with just a little bit of detail work to complete.

I am confident that this character - an invention of both my imagination and an old family friend plus the central figure in the Advent Calendar scenario - Foul Mouth Freddy Spikes the ***ing Gun will be cast as a limited edition miniature by Alternative Armies very soon.

It is my intention to write some additional scenarios and back-story for Freddy in the future.

Tony

Foul Mouth Freddy for Flintloque

For any new readers - see;

http://dampfpanzerwagon.blogspot.com/2009/12/foul-mouth-freddy-t.html

and;

http://www.orcsinthewebbe.co.uk/index.php/flintloque/scenarios/424-foul-mouth-freddy-spikes-the-ing-gun-

This week I have been visiting family in Swansea. On my return I have continued to work on my latest building - a 28mm Tudor Style Dovecote or Pigeonnier which should be finished very soon. However for most of today I have been concentrating on a new Flintloque sculpt - Foul Mouth Freddy! Which I hope will be cast by Alternative Armies as a limited edition miniature.

The image below shows my initial conversion, but I have now received the pieces to construct another and between waiting for the 'green stuff' to harden I thought a 'heads-up' was in order.

I'll try to get pictures up-loaded soon.

For now I am looking forward to the start of the Rugby - The Six Nations. Being a Welshman living in England it is always a period of apprehension, but in my usual manner I am optimistic that Wales will perform well.

Tony

Emperor Ming's Laboratory

Last year I was interested to read a post that was up-loaded on a number of 40mm Yahoo Sites;

40mm Table Set Ups - or what size gaming tables do you use?

My reply is details below;

Ive'a used a 2 foot x 2 foot board with Fantastic Worlds. In addition I know that Rattrap Productions run a number of games on 2 foot x 2 foot terrain or skirmish boards.

With 40mm I would suggest that you can have interesting skirmish or small actions on boards that are less than 3 foot x 3 foot. Just build in loads of terrain to limit line-of-site.

Think of the action around the opening sequence of Hellboy (the original or first film), a Scottish Church in the rain. I would further suggest that this as a wargame could easily be fought on a 3 foot x 3 foot board with 40mm miniatures. In the same way, any Flash Gordon 40mm game should be fought on small tables (with just a few characters) as if a black and white film set.

I am lucky in that I have three sizes of gaming boards;

5 foot x 3 foot 6 inches red map board (or Martian terrain) for Aeronef/Space 1889.

4 foot 6 inches x 3 foot (green flocked terrain) for medium or small scale Flintloque actions.

and four 2 foot x 2 foot terrain or fully modelled boards for Flash Gordon skirmish actions (one is in fact 2 foot 6 inches x 2 foot 6 inches).

I also have a couple of friends with larger tables that I can also use. For inspiration try the Games Workshop Warhammer Fantasy Battles Skirmish Booklet, which is full of great terrain and small action scenarios.

I feel that one of the main reasons people/modellers do not start wargaming is they see the huge demonstration games at conventions and shows and then feel that nothing they do will do the game (or their memory of the game) justice. However I can confirm that great games do not need huge tables or hundreds of figures - in fact some of the best games I have taken part in were on small boards with just a couple of character figures per side.

I have also been lucky enough to game on some huge tables - really huge tables like those at the Wargames Holiday Centre, great fun - but mainly because of the company rather than the size of the tables!

This got me thinking and I started (yet another) gaming table - one that I have been thinking about for some time Emperor Ming's Laboratory board, built on a 2 foot x 2 foot chipboard shelf, bought from IKEA for 99p (for two). Even this small space will not be fully used as I plan on having an even smaller gaming area - 400mm x 400mm in an attempt to prove that size doesn't matter. In addition and just to press the point home - the figures I will be using are 40mm.

Read on.....

Photo One - A rough sketch of the layout of the planned gaming board, 2 foot x 2 foot in total!

Photo Two - Further inspiration came when I picked up this toy from an Oxfam Charitity Shop for just 79p.

Photo Three - Emperor Ming and one of his robot sentries examine the progress so far. (40mm Ming from Monolith, by Jim Bowen and a modified Robot Legionnaire from Hydra Miniatures).

Photo Four - The plan (actually produced well over a year ago and safely stored in one of my many sketch books until needed). The 3mm thick plastic card at the side is boxed-off with 80mm x 80mm squares.

Photo Five and Six - The Charity Toy (or Weather Disruptor Generator) position for effect and initial planning.

Photo Seven - The IKEA shelf, mounted on to some softwood battening and the edges filled with Polyfilla before being sanded smooth.

Photo Eight and Nine - Progress so far. Sorry for the quality of the photos - but it was snowing outside!

I have modelled the plastic card to look like the concrete floor of an underground laboratory, the expansion joints are carved into the plastic card with a scalpel and the concrete texture is 'pressed' into the card with an rough stone from the garden. The grating is plastic netting used in the wonderful hobby of cross-stitch.

These photos and post show work-in-progress. I would hope that additional photos and a game report will follow, but not straight away as I have other, more pressing modelling projects to up-date. But I hope that my views and this project will inspire others to check out a new gaming genre or scale and produce a small terrain board with figures, to test out my theory that size really doesn't matter. It is the fun and company that is the real measure of how well a gaming night goes.

Tony

Aeronef over the Aegean

Earlier this week I downloaded the 17 page Aeronef Scenario/Campaign Aeronef over the Aegean by Paul O'Grady and David Crook. I am not going to review the game Aeronef by Steve Blease as there are more than enough great reviews and comments on this Victorian Science Fiction (VSF) aerial combat game, however this new PDF booklet and Mini Campaign has only just been released.

Before I start, please note that you will need the the original rule book - Aeronef by Matthew Hartley and Steve Blease to run this campaign, for more details see;

http://www.blease.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/WG.aeronef.html

The campaign booklet follows the revenge attacks of Baron Lantoz and his battle cruiser the Syren in a series of three linked scenarios, with battle damage being cumulative across the scenarios. In addition there is a very strong and intriguing 'back-story' which helps to give the campaign some 'gritty' realism, something that I felt worked very well.

I am yet to play any of the three scenarios, but enjoyed reading the story and notes on each of the scenarios. I will not give to much away, but will say that the writing and and quality of the scenarios allow the reader to fully sympathize with the hero (or the opposing forces). Very well done.

The booklet also contains some rules amendments, not all of which I agree with, but as I have said earlier - I am yet to play the games, so I will reserve judgement until I have tested them. Further sections give ship profiles of the main protagonists (plus, optional reinforcements) and details of the Brigade Models Aeronef miniatures that are available for this campaign, see;

http://www.brigademodels.co.uk/NoFrames/VAN/index.html

The whole booklet is further enhanced with some quite stunning terrain and model photography, courtesy of Steve Blease. All in all a hearty recommendation - ten out of ten.

Tony

PS.

The cost of this PDF - $1.00 is being donated to the Doctors Without Borders - Haiti Earthquake Response appeal. $1.00 very well spent.

January update

The Flintloque Building Set is now with Dave at Grand Manner and I would hope to see the finished resin castings within a week - to ten days. My next commission is a 28mm European Windmill and this is now 50% finished and once again should be fully finished within the week. Other modelling projects continue alongside these, but at a slower rate.

Earlier today I received an e-mail giving details of the second edition of this book; Model Design & Blueprinting Handbook volume 1. I bought the original book some time ago as a present for my son, who was at the time at university studying Computer and Web Page Design. However, on his return home he allowed me to have the book for my modelling projects.

In shorthand, the book is full of technical design articles about how to produce plans (blueprints) for models from photos or illustrations and hints and tips on reproducing models from these drawings. It has been very helpful when producing models from photos.

This book covers a very specialized subject and as such I would recommend it to scratch-build modellers or modellers who are looking to produce their own designs and drawings only.

For more details see;

http://modelersnotebook.com/

On a separate note Steve Blease of Wessex Games has launched an Aeronef supplement called Aeronef over the Aegean, a mini campaign based on the revenge attacks of Baron Lantoz and his flagship the Syren.

The book is being offered at a nominal fee of $1.00 with all proceeds going to Doctors Without Borders - Haiti Earthquake Response. For further details see;

http://www.wargamevault.com/product_info.php?products_id=78217

2010 has started well with new modelling commissions and projects being delivered on time. I am aware that The Miniatures Page (TMP) will be running a couple of Workbench Articles very soon and Alternative Armies are planning on releasing a magazine that features an article or two of mine. I am sure that there will be loads more to fill the pages of this Blog in the next couple of months. I hope you enjoy them.

Tony