Friday, February 29, 2008

Projects for the rest of 2008

I decided I needed to put together a project list for the rest of the year. These are in the order I'm working on them but some are larger than others. Basically I'm trying to focus on each project for at least a month and some of them two. I don't expect to always get everything done for them that month but hopefully by setting aside some time where the project will get priority will help me get as much done as possible. The year is pretty split between Pulp adventure projects and some Sci-Fi armies for No-Limits. I'm trying to set up some army list for my own 23rd century space exploration setting. I've made the graphics below so that when I'm listing an update for a project it will be clear what project I'm working on it for. These are just miniature projects. I will also be adding three or four terrain projects soon but terrain tends to be a colaborative effort at our house so I'll list those seperately. My goal is to also have most of the figs for each project aquired and assembles/primed by the start of each project.
This was my January/Febuary project. My goal was to get my pulp adventurer collection up to 30-50 miniatures. At the start of the year I think I had five and now I have 26 unless you count the Pulp Figures Cops I just finished as personalaties. I know I fell short but I nearly got all my pulp personalaties on hand compleated. I have only 7 or so unfinished at the moment though I have a few more on the way. I think I can work the rest in during the comming months.

This is my project of March. Hopefully I'll be able to finish it because I have a lot of uses for such a project. I have 5 Tramp Steamer Sailors on my workbench right now and another 10 on order. The Tethys will be scratch build probably out of foamcore, cardboard, and wood. I've built a couple sailing ships but never a steamer so this should be interesting.


My April project will be Adversaries for my Pulp games. These will be creatures like mummies and dinosaurs and the like and perhaps a few villians as well.

This project is for May. I already have six of these guys painted up and another 18 or so based and primed so this project should go smoothly. My end goal is to have 20-30 Marines.

In June I plan to work on my small Freikorps army. I already have 10 done from last year and 30 more primed and ready to paint so this is another project that is looking good.

My July project will be French Foreign Legion. Unfortunately I don't have any figs for this project yet but I'm looking to do about 20-30.

This is my August project. I plan to build a rag tag force of about 30-40 space pirates and a few support weapons and vehicles. I have a lot of figs for a lot of lines and I plan to make these guys pretty diverse so I don't expect a problem getting the force together. This will be a No Limits force.

For Sepetember and October I plan on doing more of a modeling project. I'm going to be building some planes from the 20s and 30s as well as doing a few more pilots. I don't really have any kits at the moment but I know where to get them so I'm going to start collecting them soon.


In November I plan to do the Martian Soviet Socialist Republic. I have some figs for this project but I plan to aquire more and some support items as well. November just seemed like a good month for a communist uprising. This will be another 20-30 figure army for No-Limits. I'm going to focus on models with heavy build gear and over built support weapons and armor. Vehicles will be tracked and wheeled for the most part.


Finally in December I'll be doing the Terra/Lunar Alliance. These are the "Champions of Democracy" type forces for my 23rd century No Limits settting. The T.L.A. will be sleaker and more modern looking than the M.S.S.R. and will also consist of 20-30 figs. The vehicles will be high tech and hover/skimmer type craft.

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

The Atlantis Campaign Part 2

Part 2
After leaving our dig site we notice that the French soldiers are following us in their own truck.

Just as we settle in for the long drive back to Essaoria someone starts to shoot at us from the top of a large rock. The truck is hit and starts to sputter a bit.

Two more individuals start to fire at us from up the road. One of them even has an automatic rifle.

We pull over behind some rocky hills to the right of the road. The French soldiers follow and get out of their truck as well.


The ambushers from the large hill continue to fire on us.

One of the soldiers is hit and goes down. The French move into cover and return fire.

More attackers come out of their hideing places. Suddenly we hear a familier howl. The beast we had slain at the dig site had returned from the dead!

Just as things were looks bad Allison shot down one of the ambushers on the large hill.


Emily and I only had pistols so we decided to try an get a better position on the attackers near the road.


One of the men took a shot at Emily as he ran past the hill she had just climbed. Fortunately he missed.

It became apparant that these weren't local tribsmen attacking us. They had the look of mercenaries as all but one of them was of European desent. The fellow with the automatic rifle was spraying bullets wildly as his comrads advanced but as frequent as his fire was he didn't seem to be hitting anything. I'm not sure but I think I heard him singing a song above the din though I couldn't make it out.

A rather large African man charged up the hill towards Emily and I dodging fire the whole way.

The beast charged a French soldier and tore into him in a savage fury.


Jack didn't like the look of the fellow with the large sword charging us. Before I could stop him he charged the man barking at him and nipping at his heals.

Ignoring our dog he charged Emily and hit her in the head with the pommel of his massive blade. This only made jack madder and he took a pretty nasty bite out of the brute's hand.

Allison tried to shoot the beast which was now feasting on a french soldiers entrails. Though it appeared to hit she aparntly had shot through a hole in it's decayed carcus.

Drawing my sword cane I jumped up on a rock and took a stab at the large man attacking my daughter. He barely managed to avoid my carefully aimed thrust.

The rest of the soldiers avenged their fallen comrad with a hail of bullets that again killed the horrid creature. At least we hoped it was dead this time.

Unfortunately their chears were cut short as another of them was shot down by our attackers.

The man with the BAR continued to pour fire into the fray and continued to miss everything he shot at.

Aparantly I had the attention of the swordsman. He turned his blade on me and I only just managed to dodge.

Jack bit into the mans just as he was about to swing at me again. It must have thrown him off center as he fell to the ground below us knocking himself out in the process.

In all the excitement one of the attackers had managed to sneak up on one side of the hill. He made a dash for my truck which was still running dodging bullets the whole way. He managed to jump into the dirvers seat without so much as a scratch.

We continued to shoot at him as he drove away.

The rest of our attackers took that as their cue to flee!


As they ran away it occured to me that not only was all my equipment on the truck but also some of the artifacts and information we had found at the dig site. Fortunately Emily still had the strange key but the rest had been captured by our attackers. Captain La Clede assigned one of his men to look after the wounded and the rest of us loaded into the truck the French truck to try and track down our stolen artifacts.

To be continued.......

Sunday, February 24, 2008

Michelle's Atlantis Campaign

This is a report from my wife's new Atlantis Campaign. It's a Pulp era game set in 1931. We are using a modified version of No Limits we created to do more roleplay oriented pulp adventure games while keeping the combat quick and easy like a miniature skirmish game.



Morocco, June 19th 1931 just a few miles south of Essaoria.




I, Charles Langford, my two daughters Emily and Allison with out dog Jack have set up camp near what we believe are Roman ruins.



We set out early and search the ruins all day. Emily finds a key early on with a strange stone set into it. Later we discover that the floors are covered in what looks like astrological signs and a strange cuniform script. Jack discovers a strangly heavy and smooth metal ball about the size of a baseball. Near the end of the day we discover a strange open area on the floor about 5'X 10'that is very smooth and totally different from the tiles around it.



We take careful rubbings on several parts of the tile floor then retire for the night. I stay up late to study the strange rubbings. The ruins appear to be Roman but the astrological signs and strange writing are most certainly not. The rubbings contain what looks to be a map of the solar system but oddly only the plannet Mars is marked.



Somewhere during my study I must have fallen asleep but I am awaken by the sound of jack rushing from the tent barking loudly.



I follow him out and notice he's headed for the dig site barking up a storm.



Something in the ruins has him very upset but we don't see what it is that's bothering him. I notice Emily is behind me and I can hear Allison getting out of the tent.



Suddenly we are face to face with a unbelievably horrid creature. It seems to be a large hound of some kind but with two heads and a spiked tale. Whats worse is that it's skeleton is exposed in some places by large rotting holes in it's hide. Despite this fact it is still quite animated and lively. The beast lets out an unholy howl that strikes fear in our hearts.



Emily and I move backwards shooting at the creature but we both miss. Jack seems to be frozen in place and I fear the creature will attack him and tear him apart.



Instead of attacking Jack the beast leaps right into the middle of our group and fortunately directly into Allison's sights. With one shot she drops the horrid creature.



It's only then that we start to notice the awful stench of the already decayed body. We examine it it bit unsure of what to make of it.



We are so intrigued by the creature we almost fail to notice a group of armed men have moved into out camp. They appear to be French soldiers.




Their leader Captain La Clede says his men where on patrol when they heard fighting. He is as supprised as we are at the strange creature and claims he has never heard of such a beast. I show him my papers concerning our escavation and after what seems a lengthy review he hands them back satisfied. He ask us about anything we might have found and unfortunately Emily pipes up about the key straight away.



Then captain decides he and his men should stay in our camp for the night just in case there are any more problems. I'm somewhat suspicious about his motives but I have no athority to stop him. After a brief chat I turn in for the night.



I decide to say awake for a while just in case the French soldiers are up to no good. I carefully peer out the front of the tent and notice the beast has been moved away from the camp. I also notice some of the soldiers searching the ruin. It would be most unfortunate if they were to find something important because chances are they would try to keep it to themselves. I'm in a bad position though as I don't wish to start trouble with the government after only a day in country.



After a while curiosity and the large ammount of cofee I have been drinking get the better of me and a venture from the tent to relive myself and check up on my new "guardians"



Before returning to the tent I check in with the captain. He tells me they have burried the beast. I remind him that if his men find anything in the ruins they should inform me in the morning. He assures me that his men are only securing the premiter but I still don't trust him compleatly.



I return to bed but I set Jack to guard the door of the tent in case the Frenchies try anything. Jack's a good guard dog. I'm sure the frogs won't get past him without him raising a ruckus.



In the morning I find the French Soldiers haveing breakfast. Captain La Clede informs me that he believes I should return to town and hire some guards before I return to escavate more. It's clear it's more of an order than a request we strike the camp after a quick breakfast.



With nothing left to do we get in our truck and head back to Essaoria to hire some more men for the dig. The French form up and follow us back. Perhaps I shouldn't distrust them so much but I can't help but wonder if they found more clues during their nightime searching of the ruins.

To be continued......