Wargaming Girl

I suppose it is possible that some of you may have noticed that I have recently joined the crew on the Madaxeman podcast. For those of you who weren't aware, you now know!

At the moment it is being produced weekly; recorded on Monday evening and released into the world on Thursday or Friday.

So, if you fancy listening to five guys and one gal talking about wargaming, with added silliness and a weekly quiz, then this could be the podcast for you. I've included the link to the latest episode below, where we discuss what we've been painting, what we would (and might) have bought at Salute and what are plans are for the coming week.

My new table and chairs were delivered just before 9am this morning and two hours later they were unpacked and assembled. I'd acquired quite a bit of white polystyrene packaging from the various packs of flat-pack furniture I've bought over the last few months. So, I sorted through it to find anything which might be suitable for making hill shapes, then dug out my little hot-wire cutter and set about shaping them. These will be for going underneath a cloth, so no need to painting, gritting and flocking.


I know what you're thinking - cream/ivory coloured seats, how long until they get dirty. Yes, well...

Various hill, ridge and undulation pieces

And under a cloth

I do have two more pieces that need shaping. Unfortunately I managed to snap all five cutting wires I had - a mixture of flimsy wire and me trying to go too fast/hard with the cutting. I'll have to take a trip to 4D Model Shop at some point to either get more wires or a new cutter.

Just after I'd taken the photos above, I thought it might be nice to see how much space all the buildings I've painted up for Salutesville cover so I put down my grey slate floor tiles and arranged the buildings. Of course, it would have been a shame to waste the opportunity to get out some of the vehicles and all the figures for a photo session, so that's exactly what I did.


A Courthouse Confrontation



The feds have caught up with Il Postino Diablo and he's been arrested and taken to the Supreme Court for arraignment. Anticipating trouble, Salutesville's Finest have mounted a heavy guard to prevent any rescue attempts...



Unaware of what is about to go down, Salutesville's citizens go about their daily business...




As Evil Postie is the only one who knows where all their ill-gotten gains are stashed, his mob react to liberate him. Ray "The Badger" Rousell's gang are first on the scene:


One of Big Lee's Bad Boys has managed to sneak behind some of the coppers:


And Fran's mob are starting to arrive in dribs and drabs:



Will they manage to break him out of custody? Read all about it in the late edition:


And the band played on...



So, the buildings I've painted so far do cover a 3' x 4' table quite nicely. I've got another seven to assemble and paint at some point which are all reasonably large, so I could potentially fill a 4' x 6' table. Time to acquire some street features I think.

Oh, and then there's the docks, the rail freight yard, Chinatown, the rural retreat...

I'm pleased to report some progress on the trees - just one step left to do on them before they are finished. That can wait until tomorrow though.

Basing gunk added

Trunks and earth base-coated

Trunks and earth washed

Trunks dry-brushed

Brown foliage added to cover ground

The last step will be adding some small patches of static grass. Then I can drop them off at the club on Monday. It's quite interesting to see how some very basic tarting-up can transform some rather crappy looking cheap "filler" trees into something that doesn't look half bad. I just need to get some cheap boxes from the pound-shop to put them in.


I'm off work on annual leave now until 1st September. Seventeen days of freedom! Woohoo! Knowing myself and what will happen if I'm out and about shopping, I've done myself a deal. I am allowing myself to buy one new car model per day (weekends and bank holidays count as double-days), so a maximum of 24 new car models while I'm off. This morning I bought these new car models.



"Errmmm, hang on a minute. "new car model" could be interpreted two ways, couldn't it? I bet she'll interpret it in a way that means she buys more than 24 cars! J'accuse!!"

I'm offended that you would think such a thing. If you count carefully, there are 17 diecast vehicles there, all of them car models that are new to my collection. Actually, just 13 new car models - plus a big truck, 2 vans and the orange pick-up is technically a truck, isn't it? I mean you never hear people refer to a pick-up car do you?

Now, I might have bought more than one copy of a particular model of car, and I may have bought extras of particular models that I already have, but that doesn't break the rules really, now, does it?


Oh and these.





I already have one of these "Cockney Cab II" models, so they don't count toward the 24 new car models limit. These will be repainted to use as Christmas gifts for work colleagues.

Of the new ones I bought today, these are ones that I'll probably buy a few more of:

2008 Lancer Evolution

Lambourghini Urus

Rip Rod

Honda S2000

Driftsta

The Rip Rod will make a good base for El Cheapo amateur night carts (sub-compacts with hardly any armour and a single weapon - a MG or micro-missile launcher most likely). I'll need another six to do four with each weapon load-out.

The Evolution, Urus and S2000 look good for doing custom paint jobs on - large areas for applying masks to get effects like flames and for adding decals.

The Driftsta could be used for either custom jobs or for doing CW mods on.

Anyway, that's enough of that malarkey for one day. You probably want to know what I'll be doing with my fortnight off.

1. Finishing the trees
2. Finishing the 6mm ACW infantry (yes, they were still looking accusingly at me, so I stuck a sheet of newspaper over them)
3. Finish prepping the 25mm GZG figures
4. Work on the post-apocalyptic road-sweeper
5. Try out some airbrushing techniques on some cars I've been prepping
6. Finish painting Cyber-Scooby
7. Paint the figure I still owe Dux Humonculorum from our side-bet in the Challenge

...a multi-storey car park to accommodate all my Hotwheels-scale cars, especially with the adoptions I've made this week.

First of all, I found this one sobbing gently in Tesco during the week while I was doing a food shop.


He'd been separated from his siblings and was miserable because he hadn't been able to find them. Little did he know that they'd been adopted by me. I took him home and reunited the three brothers.


Sadly, it seems there was a fourth brother who is still missing. I'll keep looking to see if I can find him, but if any of you happen to locate  him, please let me know. He's a Hotwheels Nissan 370Z.


Yesterday, while searching for the missing brother I came across some more orphans in need of a good home:


Mostly these will be for Wasteland gaming. The Beetle might become a hedgehog like the one on Fury Road.

Tomorrow night, Simon and I will be playing our first game (or games) of Car Wars. We've decided to go with Classic rules for now, but might upgrade once we've got back into the swing of things. I've packed my camera so there will be pics - promise!

TP Dueling Garage Ltd are proud to present their latest offering for new professional autoduelists and for teams or arenas seeking a solid car for Division 10 duel-track events - The Contaminator






This compact packs a good punch with linked twin MGs in the front and a mighty super power plant gives 10mph acceleration and a hefty top speed of 140mph.






The Pink Peril is a special modification for TPDG's own Pink Panthers team for standard arena events. This variant sacrifices speed and acceleration to add a rear-firing flamethrower plus a targeting computer.










Car Wars Classic stats:

Contaminator: Compact; hvy chassis; hvy suspension; super power plant; 4 x HD tires; two linked MGs front; Armour: F35, R30, L30, B30, T10, U15; Accel 10; top speed 140; HC 3 (with spoiler = 4 at 60+mph); 4070 lb; $9925

Pink Peril: Compact; x-hvy chassis; hvy suspension; medium power plant; 4 x HD tires; two linked MGs front; FT  rear; targeting computer; Armour: F40, R30, L30, B35, T10, U15; Accel 5; top speed 90; HC 3 (with spoiler = 4 at 60+mph); 4200 lb; $9940 ($10,000 exactly when blinged out)



For our loyal customers, a quick preview of our next model aimed provisionally at the Division 15/20 market:





Remember - drive offensively!




OK, so I've been busy and needed to have a bit of a laugh. The four cars in the last pic have got .50 cal MGs from my Sgts Mess order mounted on the bonnets. I've primed them black, to see how that looks as a base, although for the one which will be yellow I'll give it a light spray of white first. I'll do the base coats this evening, then finish them off over the course of the week.