More Buildings Finished (Plus New Acquisitions)

 I've finished the last two buildings that my friend Dave printed for me - "PayMore Shoes" and "TeeVee Shak," being nods to the brands "Payless Shoes" and "Radio Shack," respectively. These are pretty simple paint jobs done almost entirely with spray paint and cheap craft store acrylics, and I'm not going to do detailed interiors for them at all. They're good table fillers though! 

Secondly, I got some goodies in the mail today from Badger Games - I'd ordered some more of The Assault Group's Modern Africa figures to round out my collection with another character and some militia with heavy weapons. I also got a pack of "Diplomats/Politicians" to use as objectives in games, and a pair of Crocodiles from Wargames Foundry - one of which will go in the swimming pool Gina got me, and the other will be based up and included in my Cobra forces to go with the character "Croc Master."

Which means it's time to update the tracker:

Figures Purchased in 2025: 77

Figures Painted in 2025: 85

GI Joe: Mission of Mercy

 I got the table cleared off today and set off for another solo game of Fistful of Lead; my first solo game since January, actually - and my first since we'd adopted Poppy, a young, energetic and curious cat. How was this going to go? 

I decided to get my GI Joes out for a game, and pulled together a scenario that would let me use some of the generic military terrain that my friend Dave gifted me. 

***

A French colony prior to WWII, Kalingaland was wracked by civil war between Soviet-backed rebels and the US-backed federal government until the fall of the USSR. Since then, the anti-democratic Kalinga Rouge rebels have received funding and armaments from the international terrorist organization known as COBRA. The garrison at a remote National Army base has been struck by a virulent new strain of sleeping sickness; the special missions force code-named GI Joe has been dispatched to deliver a cure. 

With the future of Kalingaland hanging in the balance, Cobra plots to prevent GI Joe from delivering the vital medication. Can they make it through Cobra's ambush in time?

***

The GI Joe team has to cross the table diagonally to reach the Kalingaland base. The character Lifeline is carrying the medications in his case; if he is put Out of Action before reaching the base, the game immediately ends in failure for the GI Joes. At each barracks (the quonset-style huts), Lifeline can attempt a 5+ Task roll to deliver the medication; success results in a Grunt Group of Kalingaland soldiers being deployed and an activation card for them added to the Joes' hand. 

GI Joe Team:

• Stalker (Leader; Ranger, Impervious, Camouflage) armed with a submachine gun
• Beachhead (Specialist; Indomitable, Infiltrator) armed with a submachine gun
• Lady Jaye (Regular; Dodge) armed with a pistol and explosive javelins
• Lifeline (Regular; Medic) armed with a pistol
• Airborne (Regular; Nerves of Steel) armed with an automatic rifle.

Cobra Team:

• Major Bludd (Leader; Deadeye, 9 Lives Tactician) armed with a pistol
• Storm Shadow (Specialist; Swordsman, Street Fighter) armed with a katana
• Copperhead (Regular; Brawler) armed with a submachine gun and a knife
• Cobra Officer (Regular; Slippery) armed with a pistol
• Cobra Troopers (Grunt Group; Tough as Nails) armed with automatic rifles

Using his "Infiltrator" trait, Beachhead took point, sticking close to a clump of trees and observing Cobra as the Troopers fanned out ahead of the named characters. Airborne moved up along the western river, sticking to the clusters of dense jungle, and took a quick shot at the Cobra Officer, startling him.

Beachhead got the Cobra Troopers in his sights and squeezed the trigger on his submachine gun, intending to catch them all in a hail of burst-fire. Except...click! Rolling a 1, he went Out of Ammo without effect. As the rest of the Joe team moved forward, Lady Jaye hurled an explosive javelin at the clustered Cobra troopers, putting one Out of Action and sending the rest scattering for cover. 

Meanwhile, Major Bludd swept forward, shooting Beachhead even as he was clearing the jammed mechanism. Beachhead went down with a Wound. Shrugging off his Shock token, the Cobra Officer charged Lifeline, intent on stopping him from delivering the medicine. 

"You can't stop me!" Lifeline yelled, aikido-flipping the Cobra Officer into the jungle mud and sending him Out of Action! 

Bypassing the wounded Beachhead, Storm Shadow charged Lady Jaye, putting a Wound on her and sending her to the ground. Airborne opened up with burst fire on Copperhead and a pair of Cobra Troopers, only managing to startle Copperhead; Cobra's Florida Man responded by moving up into range and shooting Airborne in the belly, putting him Out of Action. 

Lifeline made it past the fence into the army base, pursued by a pair of Cobra Troopers who opened fire on him; he took a Shock token but managed to dart into the first barracks. Stalker fired on the Troopers, sending them diving for cover, before getting attacked by Storm Shadow.

Unfortunately, that first round of fighting didn't go the way Storm Shadow expected - Stalker won the combat, dealing a Shock token to the ninja. Meanwhile, Beachhead managed to stand up, just in time for Major Bludd to charge him through the woods. Even injured, the Joe was more than a match for Cobra, knocking the Australian mercenary Out of Action! (I had forgotten about Major Bludd's "9 Lives" trait, which would have made a big difference here by converting this Out of Action result into a simple Wound.)

Lady Jaye struggled to her feet and hurled a javelin at Copperhead and some nearby Troopers, only managing to distribute some Shock tokens. Lifeline managed to wake up the first Grunt Group of Kalingaland soldiers, while Storm Shadow managed to get up and Wound Stalker. 

Beachhead used burst fire to try and take out Copperhead and one of the remaining Cobra troopers, only succeeding on eliminating the Trooper; Copperhead responded by charging and putting Beachhead Out of Action.

Switching to her pistol, Lady Jaye tried shooting Storm Shadow but rolled a 1, going Out of Ammo. Despite being Wounded, Stalker got back up and Wounded the Cobra ninja. Copperhead shot Lady Jaye in the back, putting her Out of Action, while Storm Shadow used a Ninja technique to feign death (he rolled a "1" on his Wound Recovery roll, going Out of Action).

With the first group of Kalingaland soldiers on their feet and fanning out of the camp, and Lifeline administering medication to the next group, Copperhead and the remaining Cobra trooper decided it was time to withdraw from the battlefield. Until next time...COBRAAAAA!

That was a really good game. I got some figures I hadn't played with before on the table (Stalker, Airborne, Copperhead, the Kalingaland soldiers) and it was a nice first outing for the terrain Dave had gifted me. Plus it was a nice refresher on Fistful of Lead before I go into Wargames Among the Warplanes in two weeks; I haven't had the free time to schedule a game with anyone lately, so I'll probably try to keep the table clear and set up again next week with some of the figures I'm using for that. 

And Poppy behaved himself and didn't insert himself into the middle of things, batting figures and terrain around! He jumped up on the table once, went "Nope, don't like this" and jumped right back down. 

Figures Purchased in 2025: 66

Figures Painted in 2025: 85

Box Office Video

 Very pleased to report that another one of my modern buildings is finished, and it's one I've wanted for my table for ages. This is the Box Office Video from Corvus Games Terrain, again printed for me by my friend Dave. 

I don't watch anywhere near as much as I used to, but I love trashy horror and action movies. For years I actually did a review blog filled with 1980s direct to video weirdness. So the video store feels extremely right for my table.

The color scheme is, unsurprisingly, based on good ol' Blockbuster Video - God knows I raided their discount bins often as they went out of business. 

This building did come with a floor and isn't just a shell, and I do plan to eventually detail the interior - just not right now because I have too much else to tackle before June 7th. Crooked Dice offers STLs of a video store counter and shelves of VHS tapes that I'll ask Dave to print for me, and I'll resize some movie posters and print out at the copy shop to stick on the interior walls - probably THE TOXIC AVENGER, C.H.U.D., a few others. Things that would have been in heavy rotation among people like me in video stores in the 1980s. 

Figures Purchased in 2025: 66

Figures Painted in 2025: 85

Street Scatter - Car Accident

 Nothing too special today, readers, but I did finish a bit of Mantic "Street Scatter" I'd picked up at my local game store a few weeks ago. Realizing how well the crashed car and truck fit into each other, I made up my mind to put them on a base together; a quick purchase for irregular terrain bases from Things From The Basement later, I had my base. I coated it in fine model railroad flock and primed over it to give myself a rough texture to paint.

Except it wasn't that easy! Once primed, I discovered I needed to flood the coated base again with thinned PVA to try and prevent the flocking from coming up with each brush stroke. Then I hit it with a heavy coat of spray varnish, then spray primed it again. Now I had a solid surface to paint over! 

I did a couple of passes with drybrushing a medium gray craft paint until I had the cement tone I wanted, and then gave it a very light drybrush of a lighter gray. 

Each vehicle was primed black and given four or five coats of TurboDork metallic - specifically "Redrum" for the car and "Multipass" for the truck - and then details picked out. Windows were just repainted flat black. 

Overall I'm happy with how it turned out; it's not going to pass close scrutiny but it's good enough for the terrain collection. I think it'll be a nice playable piece too; plenty of space for figures to duck behind cars or even stand up in the bed of the pickup. 

I have one more of each of these cars primed and awaiting attention, though they might be left separate or even unbased for more flexibility. Alternatively, they might get incorporated into a permanent "junkyard" piece of terrain...decisions decisions...

Figures Purchased in 2025: 66

Figures Painted in 2025: 85

Instant Motor Pool for GI Joe

 So as longtime readers will know, one of my on-going projects over the past few years has been 1980s GI Joe in 28mm scale. A few months ago, my buddy Dave (who also printed my current crop of modern terrain) printed out a variety of GI Joe and Cobra vehicles for his own use for the GI Joe RPG, painted them up, magnetized turrets and even put decals on them all. 

Last night, he handed me a tote bin full of vehicles and generic modern military buildings (Quonset huts, hangars, etc), and said, "Here, Bill, you'll get more use out of these than I will."

four VAMP jeeps, 2 Sky Hawk VTOLs, 2 MOBAT tanks and a softskin troop carrier

Four Cobra H.I.S.S. tanks in front of a larger H.I.S.S. Command tank

I'm absolutely blown away by his generosity... and now I need to plan another GI Joe game! 

Speaking of...

Wargames Among the Warplanes puts on two shows per year - June and September. I'm locked in for June to run a modern "gangs fighting in the streets" game with the figures and terrain I've been showcasing for the past few weeks. But for September...I think that's going to call for a game of Fistful of Lead using my GI Joes. 

Figures Purchased in 2025: 66

Figures Painted in 2025: 85

Pizza Man Open For Business

 Another building finished for my game at Wargames Among the Warplanes in...slightly under three weeks! This is a tiny pizza parlor from Corvus Games Terrain, printed for my by my friend Dave. I bought the STL because it reminded me of a tiny pizzeria that used to be right around the corner from my house - it went through a couple of name changes over the years and realistically was probably a money laundering front. But the pizza was decent enough that it was the main place my family got pizza from until I was in my late teens, maybe even early 20s. I still vividly remember walking in to pick up our order one day and the owner is there in salmon-colored shorts, an undershirt and white canvas slip on shoes, a pistol with mother of pearl inlays on the grip hanging out of his pocket. 

There's no interior detailing or floor to the building - I just don't have time at the moment to mess around with all that right now. 

This leaves me just three more buildings to finish, two trucks, a couple of smoke grenade templates...taking photos of all the figures for the gang rosters...printing everything out...and making sure I have a tote that will fit all my terrain. Easy-peasy...right?

Figures Purchased in 2025: 66

Figures Painted in 2025: 85

Happy Birthday to Me!

Today's my birthday, and while I took the day off work, I never made it down to my hobby bench - too busy running errands and getting the house ready to have guests tomorrow. I did receive some lovely gifts from my wife however!

Two more modern buildings from Atomic Laser Cut Designs - an Urgent Care and a blank storefront that has a really nice brick pattern over the entire exterior walls - as well as some 3D printed scatter from Bad Goblin Games - some disheveled cinderblock walls, an above-ground swimming pool and most charmingly, an on-fire dumpster that comes with a little flickering LED light and battery, so that the flames actually light up. That is going to be an absolute must to have ready for my game in 3 weeks!

And I think I want to recreate what the Bad Goblin team did for the product image on their site, and put an alligator and some scummy "water" in that swimming pool...

I have to thank Mike over at Lead Legionaries for turning me on to Bad Goblin's goodies. He's painted a lot of their scenic pieces, including a variety of ruined and armored trailers and a stunning water tower, over recent months, and has been putting on some amazing games showcasing them. If you're not following his blog you should definitely check it out. 

Gina was also kind enough to hand me her card and tell me to use it to buy myself some miniatures. By coincidence, Lucid Eye Publications put out a call on their Facebook group for what miniatures people would like to see go on sale this week. I requested their Cro-Magnons, and they were kind enough to do it, so I bought another Tribal formation's worth of warriors, as well as another few characters. 

Since I've ordered more figures, it's time to update the tracker:

Figures Purchased in 2025: 66

Figures Painted in 2025: 85

WIP: The Wolf Clan

 I've gotten a little work in on my first warband for Mana Press' Tribal. These are Lucid Eye Cro-Magnons and Amazons from their "Savage Core" line, all pretty similarly dressed for cold weather (more or less). I do still need to order some more Cro-Magnons to add a third formation to this warband, and since I didn't put my warlord on a larger base as the rules recommended, I'll probably get another warlord figure for a 40mm diorama base and downgrade my current warlord to a Hero. 

Funny how this was supposed to be a no-expenditure side project just using figures already in my leadpile...

So far I've base-coated their exposed skin with Reaper "Dark Flesh," washed all the clothing with GW "Seraphim Sepia" to make sure there's no exposed white primer in the recesses, and went over pants and leggings with GW "Gore-Grunta Brown" contrast paint.

I chose dark skin because I'm a big fan of Bjorn Kurten's 1978 novel "Dance of the Tiger," which deals with one possible way contact between Neanderthals and anatomically modern ("Cro-Magnon") humans could have gone; Kurten's Cro-Magnons are dark-skinned, having only relatively recently expanded out of Africa and not having had time to lose their ancestral melanin in northern latitudes. 

Here we have "The Wolf Mother," a shamanic sort of figure dressed in a wolfskin cloak; underneath it she's dressed like a Frazetta painting, but maybe she's high on hallucinogenics and not feeling the Ice Age chill. Next to her is Menhir Five-Tusks, my current warlord. The raised arm gives him an orator vibe, and I can see him standing on a tall rock shouting encouragement to his followers. Maybe give him the skill "Boast" in games to reflect this?

Next up we have a formation of Cro-Magnon Warriors; they're armed with short spears, almost assegai-like, along with atlatls. In Tribal, they'll be Warriors with Short Weapons and the skill "Throwing Weapons" to represent this.

Finally the Amazons:

These are the most fantastical of the bunch; one is carrying a long stone blade and another has a big bird skull strapped over her shoulder. Second from the left is technically a character model, "Seratra the Foundling" but she's pulling double-duty as a regular archer since I misplaced the other two I had. In Tribal, these would be Marksmen. 

So that's where I'm at with these for now. Work is continuing slowly and not particularly photogenically on terrain for Wargames Among the Warplanes. We've had a bunch of wet days which has stopped me from spraying the last stuff I need to spray. Probably only one or two more sessions to finish off the pizza parlor and then I'll focus on the video store. 

Figures Purchased in 2025: 58

Figures Painted in 2025: 85