Turbo Kid and Apple

These figures from Imitation of Life pay homage to Turbo Kid and Apple. I painted them for the  'Romance' theme of the Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge.

Trailer:

Buddy, the Six-String Samurai

This is an homage to Buddy, the guitar-wielding ronin of Six-String Samurai. In the post-apocalyptic far future of 1997, Elvis has died and Buddy must travel to Lost Vegas to become the new king of rock 'n' roll. On his journey, he is accompanied by The Kid.

Buddy

Buddy and The Kid

The Kid

3D prints from Imitation of Life.

Gaslands and Briscon

I was in Brisbane last weekend, and realised to my good fortune that Briscon was happening. In the nightmare petrol-guzzling dystopian mire maze that was the carpark, I received good preparation for a Gaslands Refuelled particiption game. Ross Williams ran this as well as made all the scenery and cars. The tyre piles are sliced Nerf rounds.

My car with front-facing minigun and molotov cocktails

Buggy with rocket turret and shotgun

Car with turreted machine guns and napalm dropper

The course. Ross proudly told us that noone had made it to the second gate.

Start your engines!

We race to the first gate, which activates weapons.

I veer infront of the buggy and drop a molotov accurately on it

Mayhem! I dodge a rocket; napalm is dumped and the buggy crashes into the other car

Both my opponents blow up, I try to squeeze through the eye of the needle
and we called the game. Great fun!

Other participation games I saw included Lion Rampant crusades and Wings of Glory. There was an impressive 15mm Johnny Reb display game of Gettysburg, but it lacked any explanation or crowd-wranglers. I'm getting crotchetty.

Early evening July 2 1863

Peach Orchard with Little Round Top in the distance

There were a few tournaments going on, including Armada (Star Wars and Mantic), Battletech, Bolt Action, DBA, Team Yankee, 9th Age, Kings of War, Star Wars Legion, and One Page Rules' Grimdark Future.

I had a good time at the bring & buy stand, including an absolute bargain on OOP Forgeworld renegade milita and metal Catachans.

Invertebrates of the Underhive

Individually pathetic, swarms of rockworms can be a significant threat. They can be found in the Underhive as well as the Ash Wastes. Underhive rumours persist of rockworms growing to prodigious size...

The lost male cries plaintively.

Should have left the door closed...

These are Rockworm Grubs from Imitation of Life. I'm trying out the new Army Painter Speedpaints range. These are mostly Slaughter Red and Pallid bone. Slaughter Red in particular dries nice and matte with good shading.

I originally had these on thicker GW style bases, but the aesthetic proportions weren't satisfying. Then I tried some multibasing, but still wasn't happy. The svelte Renedra bases were fine in the end.

This chap is delightful, and free:

I do like the idea of a big game hunting Rogue Trader retinue- a magos biologos, deathworld veterans, beast handlers, indigenous trackers etc. Pith helmets, xeno-elephant guns, grimdark David Attenborough/ Steve Irwin stuff.

Arthropods of the Wasteland

I'm of the opinion that you can't have too many vermin for your games. Many years ago, I picked up these Reaper Bones scorpions:

My 3D printer has churned out a swarm of giant ants and a hive entrance (from Imitation of Life):

I'm conscious that all my stuff recently has been rusty browns, so I went for green. A pretty sloppy highlight to tone down the very saturated Army Painter Orc Flesh, and dot in the eyes and jaws.

When I was a vulnerable lad, the TV advert below was somewhat formative. I'm sure Aussie males of a certain age will agree!

Sic 'em, Rex!

GF9 Badlands

Gale Force 9 does a lovely collection of Badlands hoodoos, which I have picked up over the years. It is pre-painted, scale agnostic, well sculpted, interesting, affordable, and durable.The more recent pieces I've picked up, however, have been a considerably darker tone. And some of them had a bit of a sheen, and the bases didn't really match my Cigar Box mat.

Bases don't blend with mat

Discrepancies in tone

So I pulled out the craft paints and big brushes:

Not perfect, but better than they were. I could add some tufts- maybe another day. Now you go do the hoodoo that you do so well!

Gorkamorka: Diggas

Digganob was the first supplement for 1997’s Gorkamorka. Diggas are humans who aspire to orkishness (orkdom? orkyness?) and take on the ork way of life. I picked up a mob off eBay for use in Five Parsecs/ Five Klicks and Necromunda: Ash Wastes. They will make good low-level enemies.

These miniatures are from what I think of as GW’s Silver Age. The poses are repetitive and the proportions and weapon sizes are off-putting, even for GW. They are, nevertheless, crisply cast with a lot of fine detail. They are vaguely piratical with cutlasses, earrings and black powder weapons.

Digga Shaman

Digganob 

Yoofs 

Boyz 

Diggas

Skull-o-meter: 20