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

Majestic 13: Operation Shockwave

 Greetings readers! I had today off work for Martin Luther King Jr Day and it was too cold to want to venture outside - the wind chill put us at -7 Fahrenheit, or a breathtaking -22 C! So I got the table cleared off and set up for a game of Snarling Badger's "Majestic 13." As a reminder, this is a solo/co-op game where squads of 5 agents belonging to various secretive organizations attempt to take down a single much larger, much more destructive alien monster, a la the video game X-COM. I realized after my last game that I'd goofed and given my original team, Keel's Killers, entirely too much gear. Rather than reboot the Killers, I decided I'd start a fresh team, using the Foundry "Mercenary Fire Team" I painted earlier this month. And thus the brutally efficient "Force Discreet," founded and funded by the armaments manufacturers of the world, were statted up and set to work. This is a short battle report because the game went very quickly - and I am very tired, having had a bout of insomnia last night. 

I bought the "Battlefield in a Box" escarpments you see next to the road yesterday,
and was eager to see them on the table.

Their first battlefield would be amidst forested hills along an isolated stretch of highway, near a long-abandoned cabin that was once fortified as a survivalist's compound. Their secondary objective was to collect some fragments of the drop-pod that had been used to deliver the monster, for study and reverse-engineering. And as for that monster...they'd be fighting a Yvenian Shocker, a creature that can absorb and channel electricity, delivering destructive blasts of energy that can blind its targets.

3D printed figure from MarketMagiqueMinis on Etsy.

The team quickly spread out, with Javier drawing the monster's fire early on, being struck by electricity and temporarily blinded. The team's commander, Anna-Maria, and her second-in-command Ortiz poured fire into the creature with a rocket launcher and heavy machine gun, respectively. The other team members - Javier, Emilio and Pilar - did their best, sniping at the Shocker with automatic rifle fire and Pilar's grenade launcher. The old cabin collapsed in on itself, though fortunately no one was caught in the destruction.

the blood splatter on the porch denotes this was "Dangerous Terrain" even before it collapsed.

Ortiz and Anna-Maria successfully collected the samples of alien tech, fulfilling their secondary objective, and the whole team continued to fire on the monster, killing it on turn 4.

In the aftermath, the team successfully requisitioned one suit of ballistic armor (given to Ortiz), and added a Weapons Depot to their base, adding +1 to all weapon damage going forward.

But wait, there's more!

Because the game went so quickly, I had time to reset the table and roll up a second mission. Keep your eyes peeled for a second AAR tonight...

Figures Purchased in 2025: 27

Figures Painted in 2025: 7

New Arrivals and White Russian progress

 A package arrived on my doorstep from Brigade Games today - a weighty one! Inside were my reinforcements for the White Russians and Warlord Chinese that have been languishing in my leadpile since 2022. 

After work, I spent some time at the hobby bench; I primed my original batch of White Russian infantry with brush-on primer, since it's far too cold to prime outside, and I cleaned the mold lines on the new pack of Cossacks, getting them ready to go alongside the pack I'd bought a few years back. 

I should maybe get a command pack to add to these, as well as to the second unit of infantry; I've got an order out for more bases that I'm waiting on before I start work on any more. 

Figures Purchased in 2025: 27

Figures Painted in 2025: 7

First Finished Figures of 2025

 I've managed to finish up my first handful of figures for 2025:

First up, we have a five-figure "Mercenary Fire Team" from Wargames Foundry's "Street Violence" range. I went for a simple color scheme with these - olive drab trousers, black T-shirts, red berets. These were slightly frustrating along the way - no matter how many times I went over them, I kept finding little bits of excess metal from the molding process. It was like they kept sprouting new bits! 

Secondly, I delved into a container of figures I'd primed...years...ago and pulled out a pair of Pulp Figures "Sinister Spies." On the website, Bob lists these as "Mr. M" and "Jasper Gutworth," and they're pretty plainly inspired by Peter Lorre and Sydney Greenstreet, respectively. 

These painted up fast and easy - from touching up the primer to being finished with basing applied in only about 2 1/2 hours or so. And you can't get away with painting Mr. Lorre without painting his famous eyes, so I committed myself to trying to paint the eyes on both of them, and I think it worked out well. 

I'm anticipating these two shady characters turning up in various Interwar-set games.

Speaking of...

I placed an order yesterday for more Copplestone Castings "Back of Beyond" figures - enough to round out a pair of small forces for the White Russians and Warlord Chinese, expanding on figures already in my leadpile. In my defense, Brigade Games is having a "Winter Blahs" sale, and I didn't need *that* many figures to get myself to 4 units apiece. The White Russians will be two units of infantry, a small cadre of Cossack horsemen, and a crewed field gun. Meanwhile, the Chinese will be two units of infantry, a Maxim gun team and a "Sutton Skunk" - an armored tractor that mercenary Frank "One-Armed Sutton" designed as a mobile mortar platform with plans to sell to the warlords. There's no evidence it ever got past the prototype stage, but Company B offers a Skunk model and it's too much fun not to include. Both of these will get expanded later, but this gives me a solid starting point. Once these are painted I'll start buying Bolsheviks, British, etc. 

Figures Purchased in 2025: 27

Figures Painted in 2025: 7

Back to the Back of Beyond

 So you know how I resolved to try and focus my attention strictly on one period for wargaming? I was going to stick to modern urban skirmishes?

Yeah, I think on some level we all knew that wasn't going to last.

A few days ago, I started getting the powerful urge to return to historical wargaming - and specifically, what was sort of my roots as a non-GW wargamer: Colonial and Victorian-era wargaming. While Games Workshop was my introduction to the idea of wargaming, not being able to afford a 2000-pt WHFB army as a teenager eventually led me to discovering other wargames. And having grown up reading Jules Verne and H. Rider Haggard, I swiftly gravitated towards "Steampunk"/Victorian Science Fiction games. Long gone now, but 18-ish years ago I had a couple of small British and German forces for Buck Surdu's G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T. rules complete with whimsical steam-powered tanks. I'm not interested in games of native-bashing, but small forces of Europeans with native allies squabbling over territory? I'm absolutely into that. 

So I started looking at Wargames Foundry's Darkest Africa line, and Copplestone Castings' continuation of that line, thinking about wargaming the Scramble for Africa. And I started looking at rulesets such as Chris Peers' "In The Heart of Africa" and "Death in the Dark Continent." I also pulled Wiley Games' "Bigger Battles" supplement for Fistful of Lead down off my shelf and gave it a flipthrough. 

And then I decided I wanted to try and push back, rein it in, and try and hold to my resolution - cut back on what I'm buying instead of dumping more lead into my backlog! Telling myself no is...challenging.

I had to remind myself that I have a nice backlog of historical figures in my project boxes and I could maybe dig those out and start work on them to scratch this historical itch.

This morning I dug into my "Interwar/Pulp" box and pulled out a half-dozen or so blisters of Copplestone Castings "Back of Beyond" figures - that intersection of the Russian Civil War and the Chinese Warlord Period that I've wargamed a little bit in the past. Tonight, I sorted them out by faction, put aside the ones that are half-painted that need to be stripped and redone, and put the remainder of my White Russians on the project bench. 

My hobby time tonight was spent cleaning mold lines (and the mold lines were severe - I love the Copplestone Castings lines, but my god they need a mold refresh!) and gluing figures to Renedra round bases. 

I've got a unit of 10 White Russian soldiers, 3 officers, and 3 Cossack horsemen cleaned up and ready for priming, and a field gun that is ready for assembly. I probably would have gotten the field gun assembled, but the cat was suddenly at my feet yelling that his bowl was empty and I was overdue for giving him his evening treats/medication. 

Sooooo...maybe I amend my 2025 gaming resolutions and split my attention between the Back of Beyond and the modern skirmishes. 

Figures Purchased in 2025: 0

Figures Painted in 2025: 0

Law & Order Arrives

 So these were ordered prior to the turn of the year, and so don't count towards my "Figures Purchased in 2025" tally, but I picked up a couple of packs of SWAT agents from Wargames Foundry's "Street Violence" line, and a SWAT Explosive Ordinance Disposal specialist with bomb-disposal robot from The Assault Group to bring some law and order to my wargaming streets. I purchased these together through Badger Games here in the USA. 

I also picked up a pair of 1/56 scale "Bearcat" armored rescue vehicles to ferry them to and from the scene of the various crimes. These were from Company B Models, and I also ordered some decals from them to give these a finishing touch. These are solid resin bodies with metal bits to glue on - wheels, running boards, lights, front grill, etc. They also look like they'll fit perfectly on 50x100mm bases to better protect the wheels and the like from damage. 

Now to start cleaning up and basing the figures and getting the Bearcats washed and air bubbles filled; priming is still some ways away because the weather has taken a turn for the polar this week, so nothing's going outside - including myself if I can help it! 

That's all for today. Hoping the New Year continues to treat you all well!

Figures Purchased in 2025: 0

Figures Painted in 2025: 0

Fistful of Lead: Bring Me The Head of Big Nick!

 Happy New Year, gentle readers! In keeping with my goal of playing at least two games, solo or otherwise, every month in 2025, I got the dining room table cleared off (we never actually eat at the table, so it quickly becomes a catch-all site) and set myself up with a modern game of Fistful of Lead. Here we have two rival gangs - one a Mexican cartel group, and the other a group of Hell's Angels-style bikers - out for each other's blood, using the "Head Hunting" scenario from Wiley Games' "Wasteland Warriors" supplement. Since I had more cartel soldiers than I had bikers, the bikers became the defenders in the scenario, with the cartel's goal being to kill the biker leader "Big Nick." To that end, they've tracked Big Nick's gang to this trailer park...

The Los Lobos gang deployed in cover behind the Taco Truck, and are as follows:

• Carlos (Leader; Leader, Steady, Inspiring, Encouraging), armed with a Pistol
• Javier (Specialist; Eagle-Eyed, Killer), armed with an Automatic Rifle
• Ramon (Regular; Sprinter), armed with a Modern Rifle
• Michael (Regular; Sniper), armed with a Modern Rifle
• Hector (Regular; Observant), armed with a Pistol
• Marcus (Regular; Dodge), armed with a Pistol

L to R: Ramon, Marcus, Javier, Carlos, Hector and Michael

Meanwhile, the Satan's Sadists biker gang deployed spread out, in cover in two trailers and crouching behind the hummer in the car port. They consisted of:

• Big Nick (Leader; Leader, Tough as Nails, Impervious, Cold-Blooded), armed with a Submachine Gun
• Grill (Specialist; Stealthy, Deadeye), armed with a Flamethrower
• Legs (Regular; Quick), armed with a Shotgun
• Hogan (Regular; Loads of Ammo), armed with an Automatic Rifle
• Barbie (Regular; Killer), armed with a Submachine Gun

Big Nick keeps Barbie close by

Grill lurks in the car port

Legs and Hogan watch from cover in the other trailer

Per the scenario, the game goes for a semi-random number of turns, between 6 and 10, before the noise of the fight brings authorities to the scene. I rolled an 8, so we had eight turns for mayhem before the police showed up. 

The Los Lobos began to cautiously move forward, moving from the Taco Truck to the UPS van, while Michael moved towards the fence to get a better vantage point for shooting; Ramon fired a potshot at Grill but missed. 

A nervous Barbie stepped outside for a cigarette, and Grill moved forward to retaliate against Ramon; he sent a gout of flame towards the Los Lobos member, but Ramon managed to avoid being roasted. 

Legs was drawn outside by the noise, and Ramon rolled out of the way, firing off another ineffective shot. Moving forward, Grill got Ramon and Javier in his sites and let loose another spray of flame - wounding Javier and killing Ramon. 

Meanwhile, Michael lined up a shot and put Barbie out of action:

"Enough of this," Hector thought to himself, and jumped into the UPS van. Hotwiring it, he hit the gas as hard as he could and accelerated directly into Grill, pulping the biker under the tires.

In the confusion (and with the UPS van as added cover), Marcus and Carlos moved forward into the trailer park - Marcus to distract and take down Legs and Hogan, while Carlos hightailed it towards the other trailer. A shot from Hogan put a Shock token on Marcus and sent him tumbling for cover among the trash; Legs put a second Shock token on him with a blast from her shotgun. However, Marcus got up, shrugged off both Shock tokens, and shot Legs, putting a Wound on her. 

Meanwhile, Carlos darted and weaved towards the other trailer, leaping over the tire barricade. Unfortunately, as he landed in the yard, Big Nick erupted from the trailer.

"Heard ya was lookin' for me!" the biker roared, his submachine gun spitting lead. Bullets tore into Carlos, sending him out of action!

That could have been the end of things right there; the Los Lobos were leaderless, after all. However, the scenario didn't say anything about the attackers' Leader being killed, just whether or not the defenders' Leader was alive at the end of the game. 

Michael was still behind the fence, 11 1/2 inches away from Big Nick. Taking a deep breath, he aimed, fired, and put a round in the big biker's forehead. 

With Nick's death taking place at such a long range, I decided the surviving gang members would need to get close and verify that the biker leader was dead before they could flee the scene.

Legs struggled to her feet, and Marcus decided he wasn't having any of that; he leapt forward and pistol-whipped her back to the ground. Meanwhile, Hector made his way to the trailer to take a better look at both Big Nick and Carlos, undeterred by Hogan's ineffectual shots in his direction. 

With the deaths confirmed, Hector, Marcus and Michael loaded the wounded Javier into the UPS van and sped away, minutes ahead of the approaching police sirens. 

***

That was some spectacular carnage and mayhem, and the perfect start to 2025. When Grill hit both Ramon and Javier with the flamethrower I thought this game might swing towards the defenders, especially with Hogan in cover firing through a window at the attackers and Big Nick hidden deep in the second trailer. I gave the Los Lobos an extra guy since so many of them only had pistols. I think having the extra figure made a difference, especially since Javier spent the entire game on his back, too wounded to get up but not enough so to bleed out. And clearly, Hector was an MVP with that vehicular assault!

I've never used the vehicle rules for Fistful of Lead (found in Galactic Heroes 2nd edition) before, but it occurred to me that I have vehicles now, and that they can do more than just be scatter terrain. Plus, in moving it, Hector provided better cover for his teammates - it was a brief thing, but very useful and game-changing. 

I decided to roll on the recovery table under the campaign rules in Wasteland Warriors for Carlos and Ramon, since this may become a campaign this year, with different gangs fighting for control of Anytown, USA, police trying to maintain/restore order, and other events going on.

Carlos was "just winged," and so makes a full recovery and will be available to partake in the next game the Los Lobos take part in. 

Ramon needs more intensive healing; he'll miss the next game, and upon his return in the following game he'll start with a Wound. 

As for Satan's Sadists...

• Big Nick and Grill are pushing up daisies. There's no coming back for them.
• Legs and Barbie will recover, but will need to miss the next game. 

The Los Lobos receive 5 Renown Points, and the Sadists receive 0. 

***

And finally, I'm adding this to my blog posts this year - an accountability tracker for figures and terrain purchased and painted.

Figures Purchased in 2025: 0

Figures Painted in 2025: 0