Greetings all. Still Alive and hobbying!

 Greetings all. Long time no speak. Certainly no posts on here that's for sure. Its been a bit of a stressful real life time the past few years and blogging has taken a bit of a back burner unfortunately. I've still been dipping my toes into the hobby however. Managed to attend a single 7TV event and the Games Expo last year but painted barely anything. 

Now one of my sort of promises I made to myself was to be more productive painting miniatures wise this year. I was just cleaning/,assembling and sometimes priming and then getting no further.

So I decided to try and get to as many gaming events as I could this year as well as try and paint at least a 1 figure a week. Now that doesn't mean 1 each week per say but by the end of the year I hope to have painted 52 miniatures in total

So far I am nearly on target. I have a been to two 7TV events and have a third one this month and I am working on two casts for it. Some will be existing models already painted.  But I plan on adding miniatures from the to paint pile for it for both casts. Anyway this is the what I've manage to get done so far this year.

So January and February I started myself gently back in with some lovely Burrows and Badgers miniatures mainly because I am still getting used to painting with glasses as these have more chunkier/simpler sculpts they were easier to paint. Various Guard beasts a Squirrel, Chihuahua, Yorkshire Terrier and a mole with a Border Terrier Knight in the centre.

This was an easy win as mostly it was just repainting his suit as I wasn't to happy with how he had turned out previously. This is a Copplestone castings KKBB not Red Grant.

Now in March I went to my first 7TV Event of 2025 and this was title Robot Revolution 2078 where all the players had to create a team of Robot Hunters and fight against the Hosts hordes of robots throughout the day. I though to myself who is an infamous Robot Hunter? Yep Sarah Connor! So this is my cast I took on the day formed around Terminator Dark Fate. So you have Left to Right Grace the augmented freedom fighter from the future (Spec Ops) Sarah Connor (Hardened Grunt), Danni (Everyman well Woman!) and of course 'Karl'  (Cybernetic Construct).

Mini's are Copplestone Future Wars female trooper with a head swap, Hasslefree Elite Sadie with the shotgun trimmed down. The last two are both Crooked Dice a Survivor and Cybernetic Organism.

Also whilst painting the Dark Fate cast I had a play around with the Crooked Dice Xenos Fighter B aimed at being a not Ripley. However I already have a nice Hasslefree sculpt for this purpose so I decided to have a play around doing a unnamed Colonial marine to test out the colour scheme. I'm quite pleased with how she turned out. 

May had my second 7TV event 'If you go down to the Woods today' This time the theme was Fantasy as this had just had a reprint and update to the latest edition. I wanted to do an evil themed undead/chaos cast but to make it would of having to spend a load of cash. So instead I decided to run my Dwarves again. I had a rummage in the todo pile and found a bunch that had been primed but not started. 

So on the left we have Hasslefree Dynamic Armoured Kayden. In the middle another Hasslefree Ari Wilhelmson (I think a Tre Manor sculpt) then the king on the right and two guards at the back are all Ral Partha Europe. They are a little on the shorter side but mix ok imo.

Ari was a bit of a challenge. It is a gorgeous sculpt but there was a lot of detail and a lot of different layers of clothing, furs, armour etc.

Dwarven King and his guards. Though I think I am missing a shield for the king. which I can't find anywhere.

My cast for the day a mixture of Ral Partha Europe and Hasslefree miniatures. It was a great days gaming and I got to play 4 games against some great people. Karl Perrotton being one who at the event playing!

Yesterday saw me attend the UKGE at the NEC it was even bigger this year with tons great stuff on display. Caught up with lots of gaming chums and spent a bit of cash.  Very much Fantasy minded this year. Though the Demon can be used for all sorts of gaming really. The Red box is to store all my 7TV cards in. I am missing having the boxed sets to contain everything in!

Rise of the Machines!!

 Continuing the sci fi theme we have various robots/droids finished this week. First up from Crooked Dice we have Mean Machine part of the Apocalypse range and one I've had since the Apocalypse Kickstarter way back. Of course he can be used in sci fi settings and he has a bit of a bounty hunter look about him. 

As more of a character figure I added in some brass detailing here and there and tried a blue wash on his pistol. Finishing it with a silver drybrush and some gold plating.

Copplestone Casting Future Wars FW15 Terminator Robots. Chunky sculpts which I love and useful for both Spy Fi and Sci Fi. I got these ages ago for another project which I have forgotten about but could easily be used as in an Argonauts cast or Killbots in 7TV Apocalypse.

 I painted them pretty similarly to Mean Machine without the brass plating and after a wash of dark tone liked how they looked. I painted there weapons in US Grey/Green and as an after thought gave them coloured shoulder joints so I can differentiate between them on the tabletop if needed. 

7TV Day IV Pulptastic! Plans Part 1

Next month sees the annual Wargames Illustrated 7TV day event again up at Wargames Foundry in Newark. The Pulp edition of 7TV has just hit the shelves after its debut and release at the Games Expo so the theme this year is Pulp.

I am still waiting on the Kickstarter that Crooked Dice did of the Stars and Co Stars to coincide with the Pulp boxed set which is due to arrive sometime this month. I have Sky Pirates which I am unsure how to turned into a cast at present so decided to go with a more simple cast idea. Cultists I have but I need some sort of gribblies which again CD are doing some in the near future so want to wait.

Which leaves Gangster types. Again CD are releasing some but I had a good rummage and found some figures that I hadn't painted that would be fit for purpose I found some that I had painted up as spy types which tbh were painted a very long time ago and never really used. So they went in the strip pot. I had the Underworld Boss from the Spy Fi version sitting in the to do box so he would do as Kingpin of Crime in case I don't get time to paint the kickstarter versions when they arrive. Also Jaws I had base on a larger base which never really looked right and he would make the perfect Hulking Henchmen so I broke him off his base and put it onto a standard 25mm round base.

 The motley assortment. Jaws and the Underworld Boss by Crooked Dice, a Foundry Victorian Bobby which I swapped the head with a CD Lawman head. Hasslefree 'Not' Archer I converted into a Trigger man. 

Rear row Hasslefree Leonard, Copplestone Gangster and a KKBB badguy. Statuesque Pulp mini now OOP and then a Pulp Figure Freaky Flunkie

 I cut off the bottle in the left hand but left the top as I plan to paint it as a coin. The silenced Pistol I removed and spliced on a tommy gun from the bits box. I added the fore grip from a spare AK47. 

London Bobby Conversion using a spare Crooked Dice Lawman head. I will use him as a Dirty Cop

Primed up.

Jaws rebased and finished off. He will make a good stand in.

Eyes and skin basecoating.

Getting some clothing onto them

Applying various washes. in the bottom of this pic I found some Artizan Thrilling tales minis that I have also stripped due to there age that might be useful, There is another one with a Tommy Gun so once I have these done may get fast tracked.

 Slowly getting there onto Highlights and finishing off.

 Finished this chap off first who I have nicknamed Big Jimmy!

Picked this up through the Local Library for some Pulp Inspired reading.

Copplestone Castings Road Warrior

Finished my last member of my cast for Saturday's Post Apocalypse 7TV day. I have several versions of the infamous Road Warrior but I think this one has to be my favourite of them all. Deciding to switch from a single Star to two Co-Stars it made senses to include the Hardy version of Max to go with my Furiousa from Hasslfree miniatures. Lovely model to paint I do love the sculpting style of Copplestone.

All the infantry for my Cast.

I tweaked Angels of Justice Profiles for Max and Furiosa. Swapping some effects for new ones. Spy for Repair on them both. Dodge for Leader 1 on Furiousa and Dodge for Gadget on Max. I switched a point of Spirit for Mind on Max as well

Both lost there pistols for a Self loading rifle and Sawnoff Shotgun as per models.

The 3 armed Vuvalini got Soldier profiles with the close combat armed Vuvalini getting technician profiles.

7TV Second Edition.

I've had a little bit of involvement with the second edition of the 7TV ruleset by Crooked Dice mainly did a bit of beta testing for it earlier in the year played some solo games and co opted my good friend Pulp Citizen into a couple of games. The most recent one being last Tuesday.

The Beta rules are available free to playtest still though I think an update is due as they are starting to finalize and lock down everything ready to go into production with. The rules themselves are a printer friendly version but include everything you need to play the game with the exception of miniatures and dice :P

Free Beta Rules

The new game engine is more slicker and the characters all have there own playing cards which you can sleeve (mine are obviously printed myself) the cards have all the information you need to use them including the ratings (points cost) of the star or extras. Building up casts for games is a breeze now just pick a ratings total and then pick your cards and numbers. 

Theres a lot less statuses now and it makes the game run smoother and faster because of it. Combat is all based on a strike roll vs a target defense stat. Both sides roll a d6 adding the defense then the attacker rolls a d6 adding the strike score and needs to equal or better that target roll to score a hit (or whatever the weapon does).

The game itself has a countdown deck rather than a set number of turns. Each Countdown/Finale card has a random event on sometimes a benefit and sometimes a negative. Typically on a 4x4 table you have 10 Countdown and 5 finale cards randomly selected from a deck. The finale cards at the bottom and the countdown on top. Each player as there turn comes about draws a card or if they choose to selects two cards but this makes the game end quicker.

Gadgets still play a part in the game and each side gets a random selection chosen from the deck at the start of the game.  They include pen guns, sleeping gas jet packs to name a few lol!

Players now use plot points this is generated by the total number of models in there cast divided by 2 rounded up and Stars and Co Stars add an extra point per character. These are then used to activate your characters increase numbers of dice rolls add bonuses, use gadgets play events etc. There are new leadership ability's and your extra's can be formed into units so that if there in close proximity you can activate a squad for half the number you would normally need. This is a great mechanic and adds a tactical edge as you deploy and move your casts across the table. You also have a pool that you can build up from turn to turn so saving precious points for when you really need them.

Winners are resolved by victory points for capturing objectives, injuring/removing Stars/Co-Stars from play and victory conditions dictated by the scenario's your playing. Each Scenario also a Directors cut involving a Maguffin counter (story telling device thanks for letting me know what it was Pulp Citizen).

The game we played the other night was around 40 ratings played on a 3x3 (roughly) table with my new industrial terrain.

The Heroic cast and the Attackers in the scenario we played.

Flamboyant Agent

Dependable Deputy

Angel of Justice

Marksmen

Army Soldier Squad with Corporal (5)

Marksman

Army Dog Handler and 2 Attack Dogs

The Villainous cast and the Defenders.

Evil Mastermind

Mad Scientist
Double Agent
Metalnaut
Failed Experiment
Minion Squad with Commander (7)

The scenario we rolled up randomly was 'The Hit' and Pulp Citizen as the Villainous cast chose to defend. As the Defender the Villains gain a VIP extra who they had to defend and I as the Attacker had to take down the VIP.

The game ran quite smoothly and we only had to refer to the book a few times and things were quickly resolved. The game lasted around 2 1/2 hrs and was a bundle of laughs. Final score was 8 victory points to 5. Pulp Citizen's Mad Scientist managed to annihilate my Flamboyant agent and disable and later take out my Angel of Justice (Capture bubble) as well as capturing 3 out of the 5 objectives. There was some great cinematic moments with the mad scientists timely use of a jetpack, climbing suckers and capture bubble gadget cards.

I managed to axe (break) the Villainous cast by shooting all of his minions despite several returning to the table with the Evil Masterminds endless minion star quality.  I literally nailed the VIP on the final turn burning through all my spare plot points to boost my soldiers rifle shots netting me some vital victory points in the final turn though that was cut and dry as the Evil Mastermind used a medical kit to negate the first hit!

I need more weird stuff especially for the Heroic Casts I've dug out some scientists and inventors to paint up for them. Expect to see plenty of 7TV Spy Fi themed stuff in the coming months as I have been bitten by the bug at the moment :)

7TV Second Edition is now up for pre order from the Crooked Dice Webstore its planned release date is early January sooner if possible. At the moment the pre order has a 20% discount on the boxed game as well as upto 50% off some themed starter casts for it which include a number of figures that aren't released as yet but planned for later in 2016.

The Preorder is open until 29th November 2015.

I've got the pre order of the boxed game in and I ordered some extra counters to play bigger games. I can't wait until January as usual from Crooked Dice it will have high production values and the books will be full of awesome photos and fluff.

You get all you need in the starter set, rules, character cards and counters and dice all you need is figures for the theme of your choice :)

 The Starter casts that won't be available at this price after the pre order.

Love the Police Sergeant in this set. The 3 Coppers are £9 normally!

Love this whole set I need to find some cash for this one.

 Awesome Action hero figure as well as ninjas :D

 I can't wait for the release of this set such awesomely cool soldier minis.

 Love the mad science  cast such a fun one to run on the table as well.

Who doesn't need more minons!!