Paint Queuemas Day 5: Pulp Germans

"On the fifth day of Paint Queuemas...."

Today's entry is a group of 28mm Interwar German mercenaries/baddies for pulp gaming from Copplestone Castings CC's Back of Beyond range carries a lot of dynamic and unique figures from a period that doesn't get much attention. Best of all, they are clean castings so require little prep work to get started.

These were zenithal primed and painted using glaze techniques.The Freikorps uniforms are one coat of Dark Green ink wash and then 2-3 coats of GW Camoshade. Their stalhelms were painted with Vallejo Golden Olive, sponge chipped with Vallejo Light Rust, and edged with AK Gunmetal, then washed in diluted Camoshade. The skull emblems are handpainted.

The naval officer is one coat of Secret Weapon Soft Body Black and then ~3 coats of Blue ink wash. His pants are Vallejo German Grey and his boots and gloves are black ink wash. I just realized I forgot to paint the buttons of his peacoat! The femme fatale is one coat of dilute Purple ink wash (for extra shading) and then 3 coats of Dark red ink wash.

All the leather was done using two coats of GW Sepia wash. The weapons are all AK Gunmetal washed with Soft Body Black. All the flesh tones are some combination of Vallejo Flat Flesh, Basic Skin tone, Salmon Red, and/or Luftwaffe Uniform. I opted for very basic urban rubble bases painted with a variety of thinned craft paints.

I now have a crew for the resin MkIV tank I painted up years ago.

Stay tuned for tomorrow's post

Product Review: Pulp Alley version 2 Rulebook and Cards

While at Adepticon, I was finally able to play a large demo game of Pulp Alley after years of interest. Blown away by how much fun the system was, I went to order a copy and found out that the game designer, David Phipps, had a Kickstarter campaign for version 2. $50 and a few months later, I received my pledge - a PDF of the rulebook, an 8.5"x6" softcover rulebook, a small 6" ruler/rules reminder, two packs of Fortune cards, and a pack of Known Associates cards. 

You have to understand that this game is completely self-made by the creator, without any assistance from a larger game company, from (as far as I can tell) his own home. With that in mind, this game is as good (if not better) than many of the games put out by much larger game companies. The rulebook is well bound, in a nice handheld size with a glossy cover. The cards are all good quality, having the thickness of playing cards and a satin/semi-gloss finish. I would recommend putting these in some card protectors to extend their life and keep them looking brand new.

What is "Pulp"? Pulps were cheap, often lurid magazines popular in the early 20th century, usually before the widespread use of television, that entertained the masses with stories of brave explorers, cowboys, fighter pilots, and other heroes. Characters such as Tarzan, The Shadow, and Doc Savage were popular Pulp heroes and served as the template for other heroic characters that would be popularized in film long after the pulps had disappeared - Indiana Jones, The Rocketeer, Jack Burton. Pulp Alley focuses on these types of of heroic adventures however, the system is so open-ended that it could be used for a wide variety of miniature gaming from the Old West, early 20th century wars, and into Science Fiction.

Pulp Alley games are usually two or more players (though solo play is possible) who choose a warband or unit of between 3-6 characters (though larger size units, known as Mobs, are possible) who fight over control of themed objectives known as "Plot Points". Each character has a variety of stats and special abilities. Uniquely, Pulp Alley does not force your miniatures to be WYSIWYG (though it's still encouraged), as each character is defined by their statistics and abilities. Additionally, Pulp Alley uses a multiple dice system (from d6 to d12) to represent various levels of ability, difficulty, and damage with "successes" be consistently measured by rolling 4+ on any one dice.

In keeping with a cinematic feel, each turn, the initiative of play is dictated by "The Director" and this role can (and will!) switch between players every turn. The Director chooses which player may act and the chosen player activates one of their characters. Each activation the character can move and choose one action or attack. Once that character has completed its activation, The Director assigns play to the next player (or the same player), until all characters have activated.

And I hear the complaints now - "so I just have to sit around while other players act?". No, this is where the Fortune deck (and your hand of cards) comes into play. You may play Fortune cards to steal The Director's role, force other characters to activate, force characters to re-roll or re-do an action....if you can think of it, there is very likely a card that allows you to do it. This provides a feeling of suspense and dynamism as inactive players can change the fortunes of the active player and (in a group with more players) often will end up attempting to out-do each other with who can change the game quicker.

Character creation is very straightforward and user-friendly with a long list of special abilities, perks, and backgrounds. Want to have a debonaire secret agent with his secret agent buddies? You can do that. A world-traveling archeologist with a spunky female sidekick and his native guide? You can do that. Nefarious villain from the Far East with mystic henchmen? Lovecraftian cult leader with a gang of flunkies? Disguised aliens bent on world conquest? You can do all of it. Version 2 has also introduced an expanded weapons section, mounts and vehicles, as well as backgrounds and resources to give your warband a unique feel.

All in all, I've really enjoyed this game and have been surprised by just how easy it is to pick up and get hooked by. How this game doesn't have a much larger fan base is a mystery, as it would seem to attract the same crowd that have made other skirmish games like Frostgrave such massive hits. If you can, I would highly suggest picking up a copy and trying out a few games yourself.


Pros:

• Engaging, fast-paced game suitable for nearly any genre
• Well laid out, concise rulebook
• Lots of gameplay examples
• Despite overall book/card size, clear and legible font is easy to read
• Good quality cardstock
• Known associates cards are double-sided (edit!)

Cons:

• Interior paper of rulebook is somewhat flimsy

Statue Scatter Terrain

Even with the current hysteria surrounding statues here in the US at the moment, it was actually by complete coincidence that I finished these pieces this week. I recently came into possession of a lot of modeling stuff since a distant relative passed away who was also a long-time historical modeler. Among all the different models, were a small collection of 54mm figures that were rather old and not very well cast, so I decided to give them a new lease on life. I cleaned each of them up, cut up some wood for plinths, and put them all together.

To paint them, I tried a very different technique than the one I normally use, most recently on my Hungarian statue. This time I primed the plinths with gesso and used a tan-colored chalk paint for the color and texture, highlighting with white mixes, washing with Vallejo European Earth, and finally adding some light earth color with a dry pigment wash of Yellow Earth. The statues themselves were primed grey, basecoated in Pavement grey, with successive drybrushing of a blue-green paint mix. Unlike most earlier statues, I tried to to leave the dark grey base showing through in areas of shadow and focused the verdigris more on the blue side of the color wheel. What really helped was a good wash of Secret Weapon Cool Grey which helped to mellow the colors (which I also carried into parts of the plinth to imitate weathering). I also added some whitish discoloration on horizontal surfaces to simulate the effects of bird poop. All in all, I really like the final effect and will use it going forward.

Included in the set are two Napoleonic statues, an American Revolution statue, a Confederate soldier statue, and a Spanish-American War soldier statue.

The two statues below (one Spanish-American War, one Napoleonic) are for sale for $25 each. Drop me an email if you're interested in buying one or both.

Product Review: Trenchworx WW1 Mk.IV Tank

I bought this kit for my planned German Revolution project as Freikorps armored support with a gift certificate from Operation Sting provided by Trenchworx. The model was shipped very quickly (about 3 days) and also arrived quickly (another 3 days). As with all Trenchworx products, the model comes packaged in its own box, wrapped very well in bubblewrap with clear, detailed instructions. 

First impressions were pretty good. For a resin kit, it's fantastic to have some clear instructions, making this kit very approachable for new modelers. The resin looks and feels nicely cast, with little to no noticeable mold release. The components consist of a main body, two track assemblies, two Male sponsons, two Female sponsons, and the various detail parts.

Assembly was fairly straightforward however, there are VERY prominent mold lines running along the inner edge of each track assembly. In the picture below, you can see the mold line. This is, by far, my biggest issue with this model because, to fix it, requires cutting and sanding each individual track section to be level. This eliminates the fine riveting detail on each track section and takes forever to complete.

The biggest redeeming feature of this model are the magnetized, interchangeable side sponsons. This enables the modeler to quickly and easily switch the tank to either Male (cannon-armed), Female (MG-armed), or Hermaphrodite (one cannon, one MG). It should be noted that the Hermaphrodite version of the Mk. IV is highly contentious among scale modelers, as no visual evidence to their existence is known.

Another issue with this kit is the tiny muffler exhaust pipe. Despite being the smallest piece of the kit, it isn't attached to any sprue and I, inevitably, lost it. It would also have been nice to receive a pair of dorsal rails for the main body. These were fitted to many Mk. IVs to carry logs or fascines as anti-ditching devices.

In the end, the completed kit is nice and the scale seems correct (total dimensions are ~6"L x 2"W x 1.75"H). However, without the certificate, I wouldn't have been happy to pay $40 for this kit. Let's be honest - for a 1:56 scale kit, $40 is extremely overpriced, especially considering that many 1:35 scale Mk. IVs are the same price.

Pros:

• Interchangeable, magnetized sponsons to change to Male, Female, & Hermaphrodite versions
• Poseable MG and cannon
• Overall nice detailing and scale

Cons:

• Very prominent mold lines on tracks
• Exhaust pipe has no sprue and is easily lost
• Lack of dorsal rails
• VERY expensive