The Governor-General's Army

 Another eight figures finished - these are two packs' worth of modern African paramilitary soldiers from Crooked Dice, marketed on the website as the "Governor-General's Army." These were a semi-impulse buy for me a few months back; I placed a big order with Crooked Dice and I tossed these in among everything else. I had some vague ideas about using these as local forces in GI Joe games - the fictional African nation of Kalingaland appears in Marvel's GI Joe comic series in the 1980s, with the Joes team helping ensure free and fair elections in Kalingaland in the face of Russian interference. So these might appear in my games as the Kalingaland national army receiving support from the Joes, OR as anti-democratic forces receiving support from Cobra. 

I'm really happy with the camouflage on their fatigues, and let me write it down here so I can recreate it later if needed:

• Basecoat Warpaints "Venom Wyrm"
• Wash "Agrax Earthshade"
• Heavy Drybrush Warpaints "Woodland Camo"
• Brown splotches in Reaper "Brown Sand"
• Dark markings in Reaper "Woodland Brown"
• Light Green splotches in Pro Acryl "Faded Green"

Honestly I could probably ditch the Venom Wyrm - it's a warmer green than Woodland Camo, and I could have done a basecoat of Woodland Camo, washed Agrax, then drybrushed with Woodland Camo again and it would have looked fine. 

Figures Purchased in 2025: 27

Figures Painted in 2025: 34

New Recruits for GI Joes

 Greetings, readers. For the past three years now, I've been working on and off at painting up (and in some cases, converting) figures to represent the heroic GI Joes and the villainous Cobra from the 1980s animated series. Today, as I work through my collection of miscellaneous primed figures, I've added five more figures to the finished pile - four Joes, and one Cobra.

First up is the sinister and sensual Baroness Anastasia DeCobray, Cobra's chief intelligence officer and one of Cobra Commander's lieutenants. This figure, the "Crimson Contessa" from Crooked Dice, depicts her in the costume she wore in the original animated miniseries, vs the leather catsuit she would wear later.

Next up, on the Joes side, we add Flash (laser weapon specialist), Dialtone (communications), Shockwave (S.W.A.T.) and Starduster (aerial reconnaissance and jet pack pilot). Starduster is an interesting one - his figure wasn't a regular commercial release in the 80s; instead you mailed in box tops from GI Joe Action Stars cereal to get him. 

It's hard to say no to a figure equipped with a jet pack and a grenade launcher, and I'm happy to have him in my collection.

Figures Purchased in 2025: 27

Figures Painted in 2025: 26

Running GAGG XXIX - Sharp Practice Demo

 Greetings, readers! This past weekend was the annual gaming convention put on by the university gaming club I've belonged to for almost 20 years now - Running GAGG, hosted by the Geneseo Area Gaming Group. I joined as a freshman in September 2005, and have only missed the convention twice since then. 

This year I committed myself to playing more games than I ran, something I've never done before. I signed up to take part in two wargaming demos - Sharp Practice and Bolt Action - and two RPG sessions, both played with 1st edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. I also ran a session of the RPG "Barbarians of Lemuria" with an adventure I'd written set in Alex Bates' Lost World of Azor, with miniatures available on his website. 

Playing AD&D from 10pm on Friday night until 2am Saturday morning meant I was in no shape to attend the 8am Saturday game of Bolt Action. However, I did get to learn to play Sharp Practice on Friday afternoon, which was a lot of fun despite a late start!

The scenario was a simple meeting engagement between American colonists and British regulars in the American Revolution. I took the British, while the gentleman hosting the event played the Americans. We were dead center in the student union ballroom so it was a bit noisy, but overall I had quite a bit of fun.

I don't recall the names of the units - I know I had three 8-man blocks of Highlanders with an officer, two 8-man blocks of Grenadiers, a 3 lb cannon and a small unit of scouts. The Americans had similar unit sizes as well as a preacher and a sergeant. I did take a few pictures as we went:

My deployment

Scouts meeting on the road

Cannon moving into position (disregard the pile of tokens)

The British Highlanders in retreat

We were coming up on the end of our timeslot, my forces' morale were much lower than his, so we called it there. Overall I had a good time and would absolutely play this again. And this counts towards my two games a month!

Figures Purchased in 2025: 27

Figures Painted in 2025: 21

More Modern Figures

After finishing that unit of White Russians, I needed a palate cleanser so I picked out a few of the modern/zombie apocalypse survivor type figures I've got in my primed box.

First up is "Cobra" from Hasslefree Miniatures, but we know exactly who this is. The iconic Snake Plissken from "Escape From New York," played by Kurt Russell. This is the second figure sculpted in Kurt Russell's likeness I have in my collection, because I also have a "wink wink, *not* Jack Burton" that Hasslefree sells. 

Next up is "Monique," also from Hasslefree - wearing nursing scrubs and reloading a revolver. My wife briefly had to wear scrubs for a front desk medical job she held, and I based the colors on a set she had owned. 

"Rihanna" is another Hasslefree figure, described on the site as having waited out the first few weeks of the zombie apocalypse at an airboat tour office, surrounded by increasingly-less-hungry alligators, seemingly immune to the infection. 

Finally, an unnamed cartel soldier from Brigade Games' "Drug War Z" line. I really like the personality to this line of sculpts, and this guy's cringing posture is great. 

And I just realized I didn't paint anybody's belt buckles. Guess I'm going in to fix that later!

Figures Purchased in 2025: 27

Figures Painted in 2025: 21

Izhevsk Rifle Detachment

 In hopes of distracting myself from how badly I'm missing Atticus, I returned to my hobby desk to finish off what I'd started last week - a pack of White Russian infantrymen from Copplestone Castings. I've painted them with the blue shoulder boards and piping of the Izhevsk Rifle Division, as shown in the color plates of the relevant Osprey book. They served in the far east and eventually settled in Manchuria, making them ideal for my Back of Beyond project. 

I'll probably end up adding an officer and a banner-bearer to this bunch. 

Figures Purchased in 2025: 27

Figures Painted in 2025: 17

RIP Atticus

 Longtime readers of the blog will recall that in 2016, Gina and I adopted a very large, very charismatic black cat, named Atticus. He was already a few years old at that point, and was an amputee - he'd been found living on the streets with an injured and gangrenous tail that required amputation. 

Atticus has brought us a lot of joy in the intervening 8 1/2 years; a sweet and affectionate cat, he greeted me at the door whenever I came in (or at the bedroom door when I emerged in the morning), always wanting to be in my lap or sprawled across my shoulders. Anything we were eating he wanted a share of, and he would have loved it if we'd just put the jar of mayonnaise, or salsa, or whatever else on the floor for him to help himself to. 

As he got older, health issues began to pile up; hyperthyroidism, a heart murmur, arthritis, and most recently, kidney disease. Yesterday when I got up, he seemed lethargic and unsteady on his feet, and we couldn't get him to eat.

Taking him to the emergency vet, they discovered a very large mass in his abdomen; prognosis was not good given his advanced age (he was probably 14-15 years old at this point), and the vet was confident that his lifespan past this point would be measurable in days at best. We made the difficult decision to have him put to sleep, taking cold comfort in the fact that we wouldn't prolong his suffering to try and steal a few more painful days with him. 

We said our goodbyes - told him how much we loved him and would continue to love him for the rest of our lives - and I cradled him in my arms as the drugs were administered. 

In a few days' time I'll get the call to come collect his ashes. In the spring, we'll pick a nice spot in the garden outside and inter him, and plant something nice over him; something that will attract birds. I think he'd like that. 

8 1/2 years doesn't feel like enough time. I keep expecting him to come trotting around the corner to jump in my lap and demand treats. We've been sobbing on and off since the vet let us know about the mass. 

I don't think we'll be catless for long, but right now the grief is very raw and very sharp; I see Gina and I becoming second chancers, giving a home to cats who - due to amputation, like Atticus, or FIV+ status, etc - are considered "less desirable" for adoption. 

Majestic 13: Operation Firestorm

 And we're back with the second AAR of the night, with the Force Discreet feeling confident (cocky, even) after their astonishingly successful first mission. Hot on its heels, they were redeployed - another wilderness mission along a forested stretch of highway. This time they were up against a Helion Beam-Chaser, a lightweight, almost frail creature that generates a field of intense heat around its body and can focus this into blasts of superheated plasma. While the vague description given in the Majestic 13 rules suggests an elemental sort of creature, I pulled a "Mark IA1 Assault Fiend" from the game "Legions of Steel" out to represent it; I got this some years ago when Raybox Games reissued Legions of Steel and unfortunately it looks like Raybox is no longer offering the figures. 

As soon as the Force Discreet arrived at their deployment zone, a torrential storm broke out, reducing all visibility to 12". Which unfortunately meant that if they were close enough to shoot at the Beam-Chaser, they were close enough to be in range of its area-of-effect abilities - and it's powerful blast attacks. 

The team's secondary objective this time was to hit two supply caches hidden in the forest on either side of the highway. The team quickly scrambled towards these objectives while laying fire into the Beam-Chaser as visibility allowed. It returned fire, quickly immolating Emilio and Ortiz.

Javier collected one supply drop, while Pilar managed to grab the other one - despite taking a blast from the Beam-Chaser that left her blinded and down to 1 hit point, and getting stunned by the monster's area-of-effect power. 

Sick of dealing with the Beam-Chaser, Javier called in a drone strike that extinguished the monster's flames for good.

With the monster defeated, we went into the post-battle sequence. While Ortiz recovered just fine from his injuries, Emilio unfortunately received a permanent injury - the loss of one of his arms. The team requisitioned a second suit of ballistic armor (assigned to Javier in recognition of his victory over the Beam-Chaser) as well as a pistol for Emilio. 

A second upgrade to the base was also successfully requisitioned; enhanced point defenses, which will come in handy in a few games when the Force Discreet have their first Special Mission and face an enemy strike team. 

Figures Purchased in 2025: 27

Figures Painted in 2025: 7