Sunday, 23 November 2014

Nexus Miniatures SDZA British Agent no 1

Been quite a busy week in real life and has not been that productive. Finished off this guy from Nexus Miniatures. Decided to go with the typical all in black tuxedo look for this gentlemen and I think painted up with black hair makes a good stand in for a Connery Bond.

I have to say the greens that have been posted up on facebook recent;y for forthcoming miniatures from Nexus are just fantastic. I shall try and put a post together in the week about it if your a fan of many 80s movies and tv series your gonna wet yourself when you see some of them!

Work continues on the building its now base coated and has had sand and other debris added hopefully I'll get sealed tonight or tomorrow then I can begin the fun of painting it up.




Wednesday, 19 November 2014

Across the Dead Earth: Sisters of Acquistion

Been an annoying week this week. I have painted up a bunch of a figs (some of which I've had to wait for the ok to post pics of) but I'll be damned I can't seem to take any decent pics due to the crappy lighting and weather grrr.

Heres a few of the 'ok' pics that I've taken (out of what seems to be around 50 pics!) I'm hoping to get some more proper ones done at some point that show all angles. Anyway without further ado onto introductions and there official backgrounds. This is the next gang scheduled to be released by the guys at Dead Earth Games of which you can now buy all the current range as the kickstarters have shipped! The exact release date is tba but its some time in December. I was again lucky to get some of the first run of castings and have had to keep my lips sealed as I've been painting them. They have now been show on Facebook in the Across the Dead Earth Gaming Group so the pics are out there now!

 Unlike the previous Gangs the models are not all single pieces and most require the use of super glue to assemble them. They are also the first miniatures to be sculpted by someone other than Andrew May, having been sculpted by Kamil Milaniuk.

They’re great looking miniatures full of character however they are quite different in style to the three Gangs sculpted by Andrew, being noticeably slimmer and slightly smaller in general. I don't think this detracts from them though they match in height. I'll do some comparison pics when I get around to taking the pics. Anyway here we are

The Sisters of Acquisition

Mother “Bloody” Mary

Mary founded the Sisters of Acquisition from perhaps unlikely beginnings: a brothel. Whilst working in the oldest profession, one both profitable and in high demand across the Dead Earth, Mary was frequently asked by her clientele to acquire other pleasures, cigarettes and cigars, wine, whisky and liquors, instruments for binding and even torture…
…Mary became an expert in the acquisition of rare and exotic “loot” and left her former profession behind, although some say she is not averse to relying on certain tricks of that trade to get what she wants. And Bloody Mary always gets what she wants. The Sisters of Acquisition now work as privateers, tomb raiders and bounty hunters under Mary.

The lovely lady in the centre is Mother Mary

Cara Loft

A born adventurer and thrill seeker, Cara shuns the affections of others in search of glory and loot. Running into Mary as competition when searching for artwork in the ruined London museums, the two formed an uneasy alliance for their mutual gain. Cara is fit and athletic, able to leap and bound across ruins with ease.

On the left is Cara Loft


One-Eyed Sister Sue

One-Eyed Sue gained her moniker and lost her eye to a drunk and abusive “suitor”, who shortly after lost his ability to “suit” and then lost his life. Preferring to keep her clientele at a distance from then on, Sue developed a fondness for ranged combat, and found that the loss of one eyed helped her focus the other.



Sister Sledgehammer

The somewhat imposing, or as she likes to put it, Amazonian, figure of Sister Sledgehammer often attracted a certain type of client when she worked under Bloody Mary in their former profession, the type of client who enjoyed receiving pain. This suited Sledgehammer just find, as she quickly grew to enjoy doling it out with gusto. Now she lives for little else and is the first to get up close and personal with any enemy and would follow Bloody Mary to the ends of the Dead Earth.


Sister Penny

Penny was another of Mary’s “girls” and, alone amongst the Sisters, sometimes misses their former life. Penny has a soft spot for men, thinking them simple and pitiful creatures that need looking after, rather like puppies. She also misses the outfits. Combining these two interests, Penny dressed herself as a nurse and armed herself with a first aid kit. Although she may have a tenderness for her victims, Penny is, like Sledge, fiercely loyal to Mary, and shows no such mercy when called to fight for her.

One of the earlier in the week pics I managed to do of Sister Penny


 The complete gang!

Wednesday, 12 November 2014

Surprise Parcel! and Terrain Progress

Got home from work yesterday to find a surprise parcel from Thunderchild Miniatures (Click the name!)  courtesy of Lord Siwoc. Johnny ran a recent competition which I won!  Thunderchild miniatures are a recently started company making resin terrain and miniatures for the Post Apocalypse. There is some useful generic stuff as well as robots, mutants and other weird creaturesI shall certainly be browsing there store for more additions the two sets below are fantastic quality castings no visible air bubbles and the fit in nicely with all my 28mm miniatures. The Sofa's shall certainly take pride of place in my new terrain piece. ( more on that in a bit)



Here we are next to Jester, Siwoc and Squint


A little bit of progress on the terrain last night incorporated some suggestions from Sunday's post

 Mathyoo's window frames.

 Robert's Window frame symmetry  with bits strewn outside and inside.

 I think a tiled roof will look better than turning it into a fortress. I have the tiles to add yet but this needs to dry first.



The van is now blocked off properly with rubble from the rest of the building.

Sunday, 9 November 2014

Post Apoc Terrain Piece


Started making a building for Across the Dead Earth this week. It serves two purposes as an entry for a couple of competitions (just for fun). The task in this competition is to build a piece of terrain where height is a factor and that it is mostly scratch built.

I've decided to go for a simple two storey structure that is partially collapsed. The roof is still fluctuating as to what it will be. (currently dithering between a damaged tiled roof or a flat roof with a some sort of improvised barricades on).

Here is the wip from start to what is structurally nearly finished. Started mostly Friday and left to dry on Saturday. I need to pick up some cork or cat litter or something as I want to do a rubble strewn base.


The beginnings polystyrene scavenged packaging. The Base is from a commercially bought cake I just cleaned it. Obviously after very much enjoying the eating of said cake :D



 The lower floor before it got hacked into a thinner shape.

 I wanted as second means of accessing the first floor and didn't want to to the obvious ladder route decided to use a wrecked vehicle as a means of entry.
 Bit more of an idea of the overall look. I used some average height figures to measure things as  I went along.
 The beginnings of the collapsed rear of the building the stair well I'm in two minds about again as I can't decide yet between realistic looking stairs and playable ones.

Its current state. I figured the ground floor to be an old looted store of some sort. The Sprue representing what remains of the windowed front. There won't be much interior wise as it will have been looted long ago. If I get time I might have a crack at some furniture bits but we'll see if time allows.



Any suggestions are welcome.

Thursday, 6 November 2014

Capture the Convoy (Across the Dead Earth Game Report)



Had the house to myself on Saturday evening and what better way to spend it than playing a game of Across the Dead Earth.

Rumours abound of an old town being found seemingly untouched by humans since the war. Gangs have gone into the area and not returned and whispers of it being haunted have begun to circulate. Only the brave (or Foolish) are willing to try there luck. Little do they now that someone has already got there first................

Feeling a little rusty having not played it for a month or so due to well time and real life. I decided to just pick 2 of the gangs I had painted up. Randomly The State and The Family were rolled up.

Now the State are quite experienced and tooled up so. I picked a couple of mercenaries out of the back of the book to help add some muscle to the Family and even up the points values a bit.
I picked Aysha and Nisha twin sisters (Not identical I have to add in my case) I used some appropriately armed survivors to us as proxies. They are less specialised compared to some of the other mercenaries so fit in nicely with the rest as extra bodies on the ground.

I rolled a random scenario out of the book rolled  up a Capture and Occupy scenario.  Rolling for quantity of objectives and got just a single one. So picked the yellow construction truck in the centre of the board. Rolling for length of the scenario and generated  6 turns whoever controlled the objective at the end of turn 6 is the winner.


The table is set up.  A small village with a large blockage of vehicles caused by a shed lorry load.


The State deploy by the blue skip lorry (Lower Right corner in the first pic)

The Family deploy in the opposite corner by the old ambulance. (Aysha and Nisha are on the right)

Turn 1



Turn 1 The Family win the initiative but it is uneventful both gangs advance on the objective cautiously seeking cover where possible.

Turn 2

Turn 2 begins with the State using an event card to steal the initiative from the Family.

The State advance on the objective.  Squint moves into cover near the over turned statues. Skelch moves over to edge of the ruins to cover the flank,

Yoshi climbs onto an over turned vehicle so he can cover the objective. Siwic makes of his Scout skill to sneak right upto the side of the truck with the objective in its rear. Jester moves up behind him in support.


Aysha advance upto the objective to contest it.

The Family spreads out. Skylar and Nisha take to the roofs seeking a height advantage over the state.

Reggie and Adam begin to move down the left side of the board.

Eza moves upto support Aysha and Drexyl climbs up onto a wreck to get a better view point.

Turn 3

Reggie moves into the cover of the hedge and hunkers down (Hidden giving a cover bonus).

Skelch climbs the ruins and settles into a good sniping position.

Nisha moves around the chimney breast and fires a burst from her assault rifle at Jester but the bullets go wide.

Yoshi trains his sites on the objective looking for movement (Enters Watch and Wait or WAW)

Drexyl also enters WAW

Squint moves upto near Jesters and tries to get a long range shot at Nisha on the roof but the angle is bad and he misses.
Skylar readies her pistol and enters into WAW.

Jesters lets rip at Nisha with his smg missing with opening salvo but correcting his aims he draws a bead on her and takes her down.

Ezra moves into a better firing postion and hunkers down (Hidden)

Siwoc moves around the side of the track and opens fire with smg at Aysha but she is to well concealed and the shot misses. Aysha returns fire with her shotgun but misses. (the Lucky shot card is played by the family but is counteracted by the Best Laid plans)




Turn 4

The Family win the iniative and Aysha and Siwoc continue to open fire at one another to no avail (Shots either miss or are saved).

Reggie and Skelch pepper each others positions with bullets but causing no damage.

Ezra advances around the corner of the building

Yoshi continues to sight down his rifle (Another WAW counter added to the pile. Giving a second shot or an extra bonus to hit) 

Skylar does the same.

Jester pulls the pin and lobs a grenade over the truck it scatters but manages to catch both Aysha and Adam. Aysha seemingly took most of the blast luckily only a Flesh wound is caused (double 6 on the first save throw but passed the second!)


Jester climbs up into the back of the truck and is gunned down by the eagle eyed Skylar.

Squint advance into the back of the truck to heal Jester next turn.

Drexyl continues to watch the truck for signs of movement (he couldn't see Squint hidden by the pipes in the back of the truck so he added a WAW counter to his pile)

Turn 5

The Family wins initiative (Every turn now!) The State plays there Four Leaf Clover event card and put aside the dice roll to use later.
 Skylar lobs her grenade hoping to catch Squint and Jester in the back of the truck but its to much of a tricky angle and it rolls to the bottom of the pipes and explodes in front of Adam peppering him with dirt (failed to cause any damage)

 Squint heals Jester (failing the first roll but use the Four Leaf Clover dice to pass) Squint the shoots Skylar taking her down.

 Jester thanks Squint and orders him to spread out. Jester then attempts to use a gas grenade but it slips out of his hand and drops it at his feet (The dice represents the grenade and the fact he now has one less action for four turns)

 Aysha climbs into the back of the truck but is gunned down by Yoshi who is WAW.

 Siwoc climbs onto the roof intending on taking Nisha out of play next turn.

 Drexyl also climbs onto the roof and guns Siwoc down with his shotgun

 Yoshi sites down hit rifle again (Re enters WAW)

 Drexyl adds another WAW counter to the pile.

 Reggie and Skelch trade shots ending with the Reggie being taken down by an well placed shot from his sniper rifle.

 Skelch attempts a long range shot at Adam but misses.

 Ezra is ordered by Adam to advance and prepare to take out Siwoc next turn

 Adam moves up to the truck.

Turn 6

The State finally win iniative (boosted massively by all the damage done last turn!)

 The State play the Medic card and Squint is moved into base contact with Siwoc on the roof.

 Squint Heals Siwoc (Double 1!) and shoots Ezra in the face with his assault rifle taking him down.

 Adam clambers onto the objective. Blasts Jester twice but the hits are absorbed by his body armour.

 Yoshi attempts to open fire WAW at Adam but the wreck he is standing on suddenly moves ruining his shot, (Distraction Event)


 Siwoc draws his knife and bends down to slit Ezra's throat when he hears a shout 'HEY MASK BOY YOUR MOTHER WAS A CHOOBIE LOVER!' (Taunt card played)

 Siwoc heads over to Drexyl to sort his filthy mouth out. Drexyl lets rip with his x3 WAW bonus but the shot is saved by Siwoc's armour.

 Drexyl opens fire again at Siwoc but the purposefully moving scout must be causing the car to rock and it spoils his aim

 Yoshi steadies his gun and opens fire taking Adam down.

 Jester shoots Aysha at close range removes her from the game.

 Jester moves onto the objective and into contact with Adam.


The Game ends the State have control of the objective and most of the family are down! Victory to the State!

A very close fought game and there was some greatly timed event cards played spoiling each sides plans. The State were all still on there feet come turn 6. Where as the same could not be said for the Family as they only had Drexyl still standing with Nisha, Ezra, Reggie, Skylar and Adam all being down........

I think  if another turn had of been played Turn 7 would of been a massacre seeing alot of throat slitting being done by the State and Siwoc sorting out that foul mouthed Drexyl.