Supers!

So, I've been rather busy. Military training is ramping up which also means I've been running and exercising more. I've been to the woods several times, mostly for training reasons. The kids are all in sports, and as none are on the same team, lots of different game/practice times/venues. Plus my wife is still a night shifter but has also been bitten by that horrible spring cleaning bug! The dogs and I are running for cover! The poor dears have been getting weekly baths, and since Nova likes to dig and roll around in mud(like I do) he has been getting up to three a week! He does like to get bathed and dried, but hates the temporary ban on going out after he is clean!

So here is Bow, a super submitted to the 5th AAHWPC! He is a Vigilante trope, he will also be used in Zombie and Sci fi skirmish as part of a SPECOPs team.

I did keep his colors muted and simple as it seems to suit my perceived demeanor of his charcter.

As a tinboy, he has helped my kids on numerous occasions as a GM NPC. I let him disappear when the kids no longer need his help.

The Blue Falcon is also another Crossover miniature that finally got painted. My kids really love his stats, but the really don't like him!

Blue Falcon is American military jargon for a Buddy F****r. Meaning someone who is more out to help themselves than help the team. He is also someone who will not only "throw you under the bus" but will also back it up and hit you with it again. 

He is a dandy and likes his shiny clean duds!

My local police are lead by a veteran Ranger who was given two cyber dogs to aid in crime fighting

My daughter had the nifty idea of police lights for tail tips

Alpha and Omega flanking the chief who comes from Reaper Minis

These fellows are some of the new Robotic Minions from Crossover Minis. like the other Crossover minis, they have separate heads for posa-bility and changing looks. The other head is very reminiscent of the Starwars Imperial Biker troops.

I really began practicing NMM on them, I have some more of this type without the police blue, and another platoon element of ones with the 'Biker troop' heads to serve as the military package of robots.

They will be used in our super games, and have a very long plot line coming.

Dr Dread is behind the contract with the PD for these bots. He will reveal that down the road, as I introduce the other bots and the improved military ones into the campaign.

For now, my kids are enjoying them as helpers in attempts to bring Dr Dread and his followers to justice. They are questioning why the blood splattered one hasn't helped them out yet!

With all the minions unleashed on Megapolis, my kids have been needing more support. They were really hip to SHEILD from the movies and TV show. Now they can call on these not-SHEILD for support!

A not Nick Fury and a brunet female agent to act as fire team leaders. Sam Jackson is perfect for Nick Fury, but I'm old school and remember the eternal warrior leading the howling commandos!

I couldn't paint their gear, gloves, boots white as I never really liked that in the comics. Brown leather and green webgear seems a better choice to me! The minions come with the Strike Team heads which I used as they all have microphones and ear pieces. The other heads you can pick are ball cap ones or the not-HYDRA ones. I have a bunch yet to be painted or fielded that are the not-HYDRA!

I just have to come up with a color scheme I like for them.

These Crossover sculpts are my favorites! Very clean minis and nicely detailed. They were a lot of fun to paint which is a good thing as I have a lot more of them to do!

A Web/Net gun, a Rocket Launcher, Flame thrower, and a Minigun. Just the weapons to help an elite paramilitary unit take out super powered villains!

The back packs are pretty nice too.

A size comparison of them all. During the contest I based the Police on Reaper Bases and they match up really well to the Chief. I'm very happy with the line that Crossover has and they are a wonderful little company worth a view. A lot of stuff can be used in other genres besides Supers, The separate heads match up well with other manufactures too.

I have a game of 40k scheduled tomorrow then I'll be back to making terrain for my 15mm troops. I hope to have the 15mm terrain up soon. If I don't, I still have plenty of backlog from the challenge to post up!

I've been sorting out and planning for the next challenge as I've been finishing purchasing of my pulpy WW2 and blackpowder Eastern tribes! more to come! ;)

 

challenges and the holiday season begins!

Ever have one of those days that just doesn't go right? one of those weeks?...years?
I promise I haven't fallen into the pit of despair or even a fugue of apathy. In all I'm doing remarkably well for a 45 year old whose mid-life crisis involved putting back on a uniform and returning to the military. I couldn't do the cliché of chasing a twenty-something blonde and jetting around in a convertible. I had to put on camouflage to validate my manliness.
It was for several reasons I put the uniform back on. Yes, twenty years gives me a bit extra for retirement, medical gets better, and the ability to buy more for less at military commissaries. There is also the Patriotic portion. My family has served before The US decided not to be a colony of England. I grew up with accounts of ancestors present and those long gone( my son is named after a great-great grandfather who served in the ACW). 9-11 did provide a motivation as well, my children also( who doesn't want their kids to be safe and not have to serve- perhaps the not serve is a pipedream as /I am perpetuating a cycle long unbroken) The unit I joined to finish my 20 is the very same one my great-great grandfather was part of in the ACW. My own grandfather served from the same armory when they were tankers in the Korean War, My wife's father served with the same unit in Vietnam. I trained as a recon scout and deployed to Afghanistan. Being the old guy in the unit has it's own set of challenges being that I am not as fast or strong as the kids, I also do not have the rank as the few soldiers who are in my generation. I was kept in reserves till some of my buddies were hurt in an ambush, then I got brought over. I am the only soldier from my unit not to receive a CIB( combat infantry badge) not because I wasn't shot at, but it wasn't a firefight of the tempo that crippled some of the kids that brought me over to begin with. We all came home alive which if not the perfect ending it is a good one.
The economic downturn and budget cuts have impacted further as well. A soldier never quits, but the organization can quit on the soldier. I don't blame them as it must be hard to quantify a subordinate older than yourself, yet I am frustrated that I spent a considerable amount to repair torn hamstrings just to be benched at the start of deployment. I am a touch resentful that troops younger than I who gave guidance to have been promoted over myself, I am equally resentful that I am getting shoved out the door. I am resentful that each time I don the uniform, I take a pay cut from my civilian job, yet I still carry out every task put before me. Anger...
Anger, there is a lot of it seething beneath the surface. Not just the perceived anger in the above paragraphs, but also in the news and nation. When the British Soldier was stabbed to death in England not so long ago, I went tunnel vision, blurred angry. Seeing the time life images of the troops in Somalia being dragged through the streets naked put me in a red tinted rage. If you have never experienced it, It is a cold, numbing thing. your sight narrows around what you have an overpowering urge to destroy.   This urge is reached by the idiot in a Che t-shirt who told my daughter that I was going to kill Muslim women and children. The button has also been pressed by the loudmouth patron holding up a gas station queue as she complained about her too hot coffee or the motorist who cut me off on an icy highway sans turn signals.
A physical clue is my face turns white, my eyes darken to black, and my left hand shakes. I know this because my wonderful wife has noted it. I have yet to determine if age has prevented myself from snapping. It is a cold seething rage, and my thought process if somewhat narrow for solutions still exists. PTSD, dunno, I have joined the American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars. Both have several vets who share the same fury. A Psychologist has called it irrational anger which seems very ironic as it feels very rational to me to be angry. I honestly have no intentions of climbing a water tower and venting with a rifle. That suggestion brings a tremor of the "irrational anger".
Family is a huge help, It's hard to hold on to hatred and vitrol when your kids are full of wonder and cheer at all they see and do. A beer with a few vets also vents a bit of steam. A wife rubbing your shoulders and saying "honey..." is a good verbal cue to let go.
Running helps, I'm not as fast as I was in my youth( my own 11yr old daughter runs a 18 min 3 mile, and she is faster than my 2 mile run for this year)still it does wonders for quieting your mind. Wargaming is another tool. You can't build and paint models when you are pissed off. If a dark spell is on me, often a few minuets with some plastic and lead will get me back to an even keel.
I did not make it through my list of Git-er-done. The Cygnar forces are completed except for basing, the Spacewolves and Crimson Fists are still where I left them as are the dwarven host. I still have to finish my chaos warships as well. Now I have the Napoleonic forces added to the queue!
I have a suspiscion that my wife is cognizant of this calming effect. Although I failed in completing the forces she tasked me to complete....gamer OCD or shinyitus had some limited involvement.
She has been looking at my scifi 15mm list for the Alien Legion project which was to be my reward for completing the armies( that I didn't). I really got to focus and get something completed before St Nick comes by!
So rant completed, here are some Crossover minis from a kickstarter this year. Modern, zombie, superhero, pulp, even scifi can use these minions. If you venture to the website for them, you will note they have minions for order( I'm not the only one who likes that word)
Once again the photos are rather bad! I will get some better ones as thses will be photographed again once I complete them.

so here are my boys in blue. regular patrol officers and a swat team

The police leader of the minions. he'll be my police sgt, Tyrell from Reaper minis is my police chief and is shown for a size comparison. I just need some reaper bases or similar so that they all look like they belong.

The Crossover minis come with separate heads. Here is the same police officer body but with different heads. My swat leader has a thug leader head( I liked the bald head with sunglasses), the swat officer next to him uses the helmet head. I painted on the balaclava. the last officer got the standard patrol cap.

here are the armed thugs. I used a variety of camouflage on them. They can be armed robbers, terrorists, paramilitary, current to near future.

I gave them a variety of footwear as well from boots to basket ball shoes

a clown mask, balaclava,and bald head 

with the masks, I had to make a joker crew! the middle three have green hair green pants and purple jackets to show whose goons they are.

I am really fond of the armed thugs. They are not elite like hydraesque troops, but are great for a quasi military flair and could easily blend into scifi blade runner type adventures.

the last two are Crash and Burn. I've only painted the brass and red on them and they still have a way to go!

I have entirely completed the red portions of the uniforms, I just have to finish with the other bits.

All these models were primed in a semi gloss black as my kids used up all of my flat black on some cardboard for art projects. A prelude I am certain for the status of the gas tanks once they are old enough to drive! 

They are going to be a husband and wife team of dubious morality. They will be neutral between the rivalry of my super villain and my kid's heroes.
There are several super and minion sets available from Crossover Miniatures. I will be shopping for more as with the separate heads, I can get some not-Shield and not-Hydra minions as well as ninjas!
What kinda villain would Dr Dread be without a team of Ninjas!?
The price isn't too bad as a group of 15 minions go for about$50 and the single heroes go for around$6. I just need some bases to even them up with reaper. Since their bases are molded on, it may be a bit problematic to use the third party scenic bases. But for generic heroes and villains they have some really nice generic sculpts.
Yes, I'm a little late in my posting as today is Saturday and not my imposed deadline of Friday.
I am sufficiently stuffed on turkey and other holiday culinary delights...we also have a plethora of leftovers which is another benefit of the holidays! Leftovers! meals will be easy the next few days, if you like turkey of course!

clearing the workbench

It's still been a busy time in the Sith lair,. Lot's to do and getting the kids off to their activities has left me often confused as to where I need to be next!  My daughter( the 10yr old) is still beating me in the run too! It is a respectful time I get for a two mile run, but she is still beating me by almost a full min. She completed the last one in nearly 16 minutes flat! I can outlast her on the longer runs, but I still think that I'm going to be quite tired after these 5k runs we have signed up for( she says 3k are for wussies).

My wife has me clearing out a few rooms for remodeling and I just found out that I am to plant the garden tomorrow...this explains the profusion of flora and seeds that are blocking my garage doors and the back porch. I had my suspicions when I got home from work this morning, but then I was also hoping it was a mild hallucination induced by my long work week and daily exercise regime. Regime as in Insanity is a workout derived from interrogation techniques of the Spanish Inquisition. If you participate in this gross miscarriage of human suffrage, you are a masochist or someone is forcing you to do so(my wife) She says I'll thank her later, but for now I am certain that there is something that I did or said that needs to be apologized for! Perhaps she is trying to cripple me to keep our firmly as front runner in our runs!....they are both girls after all!

I am still trying to get my Napoleonics on the workbench, this means some projects had to get cleared. these are all Reaper minis and most were Christmas gifts or homecoming gifts.

The ginger in the trench coat is my gang leader and behind him is his little sister with a sniper rifle, his ol' lady, and the start of his gang...I'll need to find some more mini's to fit in with them.

 

A back shot of the gang. I still haven't decided on the gang colors yet nor name. this is an excellent way to show the backsides of the ladies though!

 

Doc Dread, or not-Victor Doom. the brazen gun fighter in the front is his number one henchman...but he also has purpose in my Sci-Fi collection!

 

Dr Dread with  Goon#1 and Goon#2

 

Dread's allies the Purple Nurple(my kid's named him), Overload, and The Crusher

 

I truly want to game Sci-fi skirmish like blade runner, 5th element, etc.

I am always on the lookout for scifi civies/ COB's(Civilians on the Battlefield)

I still need more for objectives, victory points, and LOS blockers

these are a couple of robots with some painted resin crates

 

The anima hero reminds me of sucker punch, the scifi ganger fat clark will work well as hero ,thug, or even 40k gaming, lastly Dr Dreads gun slinging henchman will also fill some function in future games.

 

another shot of the work

 

some spec op boys for zombies/spies/ even my scifi skirmish

 

the not Ving was wishlisted for zombie games, so far he hasn't been used in that capacity. He has fought dr Dreads minions, and been in shootouts with cowboys and bikers.

He is joined by The Shadow and The Spirit.

I haven't used the last two at all yet. They may be superhero backup for my kid's heroes as they try to thwart Dr Dread. They may also end up as heroes in Howard Whitehouse's Mad Dogs with Guns prohibition gangster skirmish.

I haven't gotten those rules yet nor the many Wargames Foundry mobsters and Safari adventures and natives. Hopefully I may get those by Christmas as like any good wargamer I keep my list updated and in easy access for family....Especially since my wife has verboten any attempts to buy/acquire  or otherwise increase the mountain of neglect this year!

I have some ork ships to post, but I'll save them for next week in case I make no progress on my Napoleonics. If I can keep a post in reserve, perhaps I'll be further inspired to keep the hobbyside moving.

My kid's each have three heroes they painted( 12 goody-two-shoes) but they do not want me to share them. I am proud of them(kid's and minis) so I will try to sneak a few pictures of one of the games soon too!

 wargaminggirl.

if this works I have been successful in showing the few lurkers where to go to try for some neat free swag. I have lurked on Tamsin's site for a while and she is a great painter and fellow hobbyist.

I'm not as slick as most with the computers, so apologies for the unsophisticated link.

I'm much better dragging my knuckles, shooting, and sneaking through the woods....It used to be running to, but you know... 10 yr old girls are tough opponents!

A Looong week

My kids spent last week getting infected with the flu. By the time Friday rolled around, all four were home sick, my wife was out-of-action, and I had to work Fri and Sat night with severe body aches. by time I crawled into bed Sunday morning( cuz walking was not an option) I managed to get one heck of a fever. I only vaguely remember watching the Daytona 500, and I think I slept through the walking dead....which is funny as a felt and sounded like one! my wife was felling better by then and kept me in bed and dosed up with Nyquil and other flu fixing meds till Tuesday morning.
I can taste food again, coffee is allowed again, my body doesn't hurt, and I'm not hacking up slime every few minutes leaving my chest feeling raw.
I wasn't able to do much hobby wise, in addition to spending my off days sick, I have to pack up gear for weekend military drill....I suspect I'll be ill come next Monday too!
I did not set up a good back drop, but instead shot some pics straight from my paint station. Shortly after returning from Afghanistan last fall, my wife and kids took me to Michigan Toy Soldier and Bronners (a nice Christmas store in Frankenmuth, Michigan). At the toy soldier store, I was allowed to pick up a few items. I really wanted the Wings of War WW1 edition, but the planes were separate. So I settled with some Victrix and Perry Napoleonics. I spent quite some time looking at the flats and other metal models there too. I may be a tough old infantryman, but it seems I have an allergy to superglue. I get a rash on my wrists every time I use a tube.
But allergy notwithstanding, I spied some neglected packets of Sash and Sabre on a lower shelf tucked away in a corner. I have for a long time wanted some more Imperial Guard Roughriders, but GW has instead made Mongolian, and Arabic flavored ones. I decided several years ago to make my own, and TMP members directed me to sabre and sash(or is it sash and sabre) figures for kepi and slouch hat heads.
I really do not like to hack apart figures for parts, but these metal fellows are great in that each pack gave five bodies and eight or more heads. Since I got the firing line, skirmishers, and charging infantry packets; this gave me plenty of heads for my still unfinished project and still allowed me to finish these 15 troops.

The firing line

skirmishers...I like some of the poses here like biting the cartridge and reaching into the cartridge box.

Bayonets fixed and war faces on

a solid start to a skirmish band in ACW.

I am uncertain how many poses are available, but with the separate heads it should be quite easy to insure that no two look alike.

an attempt to break from the blue and grey with some purple and yellow on a reaper speeding super hero.

Just some of the other stuff on my work list in various stages of NOT done!

The biker gang and the ships crew are closest to being finished next, and are needed for an upcoming game where they will be COBs....Civilians-on-the-battlefield. a friend of mine will be attacking a spaceport and I will be defending equipment and employees. My kids are also gearing up to once again try to stop Dr Dread and his villians...it will be more fun to have models they should protect from being smashed.

Since we are mostly recovered from being sick the games should occur soonish, But first I need to gear up and fortify myself for playing soldier in the Michigan Winter, and not relapsing into Flu or acquiring hypothermia!

As far as Sash and Sabre goes....Fantastic minis. I really like them and will be getting some more at the very least some rebels to counter the Yankees. these are 40's I think, but the heads mesh just fine with GW imperial guard. I'd like to get the cav models and see how they rate. I do like the detail on the heads, and they probably are available separately. I'll have to check it out. Another thing to investigate would be seeing if native American heads are available. The 2nd Michigan Sharpshooters were superb marksmen. They drilled regular in shooting, and company K was made up of Algonquin Indians from the Upper Peninsula. It would be nice to be able to skirmish with them.

That is all for this week, I still have to pack for the weekend and I have two days( or is it nights) of night shift to go!