Afghan Wars ~ Adrien's Birthday Game

I took a long drive out to Ballarat this morning to a friends house (Adrien) and took part in a game set in the 2nd Afghan War of the 19th Century. This was something I'd never played before and not the type of game I've ever considered. There were eight players (4 to a side) and only one or two knew the rules. This didn't matter because the rules were fairly easy to pick up and most of us had a pretty good handle on them within a few turns.

The table was fairly large with the British columns coming from three directions. The Afghans' held a ruined fort in the center and a town on one table edge. I was an Afghan warlord holding the center between the town and the fort.

I couldn't stay til the end but my guys were holding up pretty well when I left them and they'd dished out plenty of grief on the British in front of them.

All the figures were supplied by Adrien, as was the table and the venue.

The Town.

 The Fort.

My command.

 The head of the British main column.

The Diner at the End of The World ~ Part 2

It took me a bit longer than I'd anticipated, but I finally got my abandoned roadside diner painted and suitably ruined. I still have a couple of little things to do, like outfitting the kitchen area a whatnot, but it's 95% done and ready enough to be put on the table.

I'm pretty happy with it. It's nice and sturdy and has enough room to move figures about without things getting cramped and in the way. I would have liked to add more detritus and junk but I decided to keep it uncluttered so figures will fit easy. I'm looking forward to using it.

So, if you have a hankerin' for a foot-long dog or a hot cup 'o joe, head over to Big Ed's where the Big Eaters meet!

 With some figures for scale.

The Diner at the End of The World

Every zombie apocalypse worth it's salt, needs a diner.

After discovering the "affordable postage" charged by Sarissa Precision and their lovely models I put in an order. I really like their retro American stuff and in particular the diner. So I added it to my cart. Then deleted it. Then added it. Then deleted it again...

I kept seeing a big sheet of card leaning up against the corner and it kept whispering to me; "You can make a diner yourself... You, can make one out of that card... You can make one... You can make one..."

So I didn't order the diner (I ordered a bunch of other stuff instead!).

I took a trip to a craft shop and bought a few blank mdf table place-mats. I printed out a black & white tile design I made a few years ago and stuck it to a piece of card (7.5" x 10.5"). Then I glued the card onto the place-mat.

That's the floor. I then started to put the building together around the floor tile.

Everything is just 2mm card. Since I took the above pic I also added a refrigeration room and pantry to the top right corner.

The windows are made from a big piece of clear acrylic packaging which I sandwiched between two layers of wall.

The tables are mounted on map pins with some card added to give them a bit more height. I'll use some more map pins and a bit of putty to make some bar stools and toilets too.

So, now it needs to be painted. I'm a bit stuck for a colour scheme. Red seems an obvious choice for a diner but I want to steer away from red. I'm not keen on yellow either because it's a shitty pigment and I'll have to do several layers to get good coverage.

Blue...? Green...? Orange (maybe)... Brown...? I'm just not sure yet.

I just realized that I haven't done the front door.

Some Street Furniture

Not much to report but I thought I'd add something to keep things interesting.

I took a visit to Knights of Dice (they're about 10 minutes down the road) and got some things to make my streets a bit more interesting. KoD make very, very nice models and I have some pieces, but their larger buildings are not really what I'm after. I'm after a mundane look and KOD don't do mundane.

Anyway, I got some dumpsters and their pallet-jack set. I did the first set of dumpsters and made them straight up, as designed. I then made a third one and tried something different, so I roughed it up a bit and filled it with junk. I have a fourth one to do and I'll do that one differently too. The logos on the dumpsters are just something I knocked up on photoshop. They're just printed on paper: cut ou, glued on and scuffed up.

The pallets and pallet-jack are nice. The jack is an interesting little model that looks really great. It has some very detailed parts and and I'm amazed at the level of precision that Kod can do with their laser cutting. It will add a nice level of detail to my zombie apocalypse street terrain.

And a posed shot to see how they mix with some other terrain.