British on Mars with Earth Pattern Radium Rifles

This past week I worked on completing a unit of 10 British Soldiers armed with Earth-pattern Radium Rifles to use in my "Terror Devils of Mars" GASLIGHT game, Saturday night at Cold Wars.

I constructed these figures using the plastic Wargames Factory Zulu Wars British Firing Line Infantry, and the rifles were from a set of plastic Warzone Bauhaus Ducal Militia.   I imagine the rifles to be earth constructed radium rifles copied and modified from the Martian originals.

  I painted them in an alternate history 1880's-'90's uniform, that envisions the British reissuing the red tunic for Mars service, but keeping the standard khaki trousers.
   The figure shown below is a man-portable Gatling armed soldier, also made from a Wagames Factory figure with a Warzone heavy weapon added.

Ironclad Martians and a Ruin

This week I completed two 10-man GASLIGHT units of Ironclad Miniature's Martians, as well as a ruin constructed from some styrofoam packaging.  
 

The wine shipping styrofoam top, after I started applying the dark brown paint.

 The ruin was made from the top half of some packaging used to ship wine bottles in that fellow HAWK Greg Priebe gave me. I thought it had a neat industrial look to it, and since it was partially broken when I got it, I decided to break it up further and make a ruin. I also glued some pieces of bent plastic sprue in the broken areas to look like re-bar or conduits. I painted it in dark brown paint, and then added a couple coats of tan dry brushing, working from mid-tone to white.

The finished ruin shown with two 28mm figures for scale.

I also painted up some of the broken styrofoam pieces to add as the crumbled wall sections. Then, I added some blue trim to the tops of the domes to give it some visual interest. It will make a nice addition to my Martian and Sci-Fi terrain.

Twenty Ironclad Martians with their John Carter figure front and center.

Also coming off the workbench this week were the last figures remaining in my two 10-man Martian units for GASLIGHT, using Ironclad's interesting Martian figures.  I really like these figures with their kind of Pathan-inspired look and their unusual breathing apparatus and masks.  I will use them as some sort of tribal hill Martians, and their unique appearance will help differentiate them from my other Martian units from Bronze Age Miniatures

A closer look at 10 of the Martians and the John Carter figure.

I also like their John Carter figure.  It is a very unique interpretation of the character, though I probably won't be using it as John Carter himself, but rather as the Chieftain to these two 10-man groups of Martians.

A close up of three of the figures. 

I decided to paint them all in a red/orange/yellow color scheme to represent the colors of heir home planet. I added only a few details here and there in more primary colors like blue, green, or purple.
  These figures really have a lot of detail in them, like the breathing apparatus, and the folds of their clothing. It makes them very easy, and a joy to paint. All I did was basic paint jobs, then gave them a coating of Windsor Newton Peat Brown ink. 

Another group of three.

Ironclad Minaitures gan be found at: Ironclad Miniatures

Historicon 2012 AAR: Mars by GASLIGHT Extravaganza

Saturday morning, Buck and I ran our big 21 player Mars by GASLIGHT Extravaganza.   This was a mash-up game of many different Mars backgrounds, and featured Green Martians, Red Martians, Cephalopod Martians, Rockmen of Mars, and even Rooman of Mars, plus a variety of Earthmen forces, including American, Russian, German, British, and Masked Minions of unknown origin.  We had a full compliment of players around our big 20 ft table, which was decked out with an assortment of terrain from both our collections.

Overview of the table.

Everyone had their own objective. These were such things as retrieving an ancient artifact, rescuing Dejah Thoris, securing a crate of medicine, capture one of each type of Martian, or obtaining Cephalopod tripod technology, for example.

Green Martians can be seen advancing in the foreground, and German Sea Battalion troopers move out in the back.

The figures used were an assortment of Bronze Age, Parroom Station, Tin Man, Pulp Figures, Hinterland, Ironclad, and a number of other manufacturers. Many of the vehicles were scratch built.

A view of the action near the canal bridge.  A real scrum developed here in the table's center.

In the end, several of the players achieved their objectives, and the players all seemed to enjoy the game. We as the GM's had a blast setting it up and running it. And we appreciated those folks who hung around and helped us clean up.

The Female Hussars advance with their gyrocopter support

Buck (in khaki shirt) helps some of the player work through a close combat melee

The big battle in the center.

The view from the far side of the canal.

A view of the table about midway though the game.

Another scene of battle. In the foreground is the Red Martian Thoat with a radium cannon mounted in the howdah, and the German Sea Battalion's walker. In the back can be seen the Russian tank (copper colored), and on the left can be seen Tars Tarkus riding his Thoat.

Russian cavalry battles a group of Green Martians

A lucky shot blows up the Russian tank, and a nearby Female Hussar gyrocopter is caught in the explosion and explodes itself, killing some of the Female Hussars on the ground.

Buck and I doing our tag-team card calling.  Both of us were constantly calling unit cards throughout the game to keep the action moving and nearly lost our voices by the end.

GASLIGHT Thark Unit Completed

As Historicon quickly approaches, I am rapidly trying to complete all the Martian units I'm contributing for the big 20 player Mars Extravaganza GASLIGHT game Buck Surdu and I are running there. This week, I finally finished up my unit of 10 Tharks (six-armed green Martians). These figures are from Bronze Age Mniatures, and I really like their large size and dynamic sculpts.
There's also a lot of detail on the figures so, they were an ease to paint.

Shown with the Tinman John Carter figure to give a sense of size.

GASLIGHT at Origins 2012

This past weekend, Buck Surdu, Dave Wood, Greg Priebe, and I, traveled out to Columbus, Ohio for the Origins convention.  Out goal was to showcase our "G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T." and "Look,Sarge, No Charts" rules systems to a different set of gamers other than the regular folks we see at the local HMGS East conventions.
   Buck and I each ran two GASLIGHT games and two LSNC games, and Dave Wood ran three additional LSNC games.  The two GASLIGHT games I ran were a Fleet Battles by GASLIGHT scenario and a regular Basic GASLIGHT scenario.
  We arrived Thursday evening, and Friday morning I set up my first game which was my Fleet Battles by GASLIGHT scenario called "Hunt for the Valkyrie on Mars."  The back story for this scenario was that a large German aircraft carrier on Mars had been caught in a Martian storm and blown off course and badly damaged.  It was now lost in the middle of nowhere and crippled.  The German and British fleets were searching for her, the Brits wanting to destroy her, and the Germans wanting to save her.

The German Aircraft Carrier 'Valkyrie' launches two fighter groups in an attempt to fight off a pair of attacking British patrol ships.

A player moves his ships.

A view of the battle, as ships from both sides swarm around the Valkyrie.

Two players check the range for ship to ship firing

The fighter groups attack again.

In the end, the Valkyrie's engines failed her as she suffered a series of failed Sustain rolls, leaving her susceptible to torpedo attacks from the British.  She eventually took a critical hit, and broke apart and fell to the Martian surface.  All the players seemed to have  good time, and i really enjoyed GM-ing the game.

That evening I ran my "Lost Legion of Venus" GASLIGHT game.  This game has a French force consisting of Foreign Legion and regulars which is lost somewhere on Venus and has become surrounded by hordes of local Parrotmen and Lizardmen.  The French must survive the battle and beat off the attackers to win.

A view of the table near the start of the game.

The French form what the players dubbed the "French Question Mark" formation

The Lizardmen's pet dinosaur moves to attack a French Walker

A view of the French defensive perimeter.

The dinosaur attack on the walker damages it's gun barrel and the player controlling the walker coincidentally rolls to Shoot and jams the gun (a roll of 20). The dinosaur, however falls down (roll of 20 on a melee attack) and our heroine, Victoria Hawkes seizes the opportunity and rushes forward to attack the beast while he's down.

Meanwhile, at the other end of the French line, the second walker has succumb to a shot from one of the Parrotmen's big guns, and is destroyed. It's crew however survive and bail out of the wreck.

Another view of the table as a player measures their rifle range.

A brave Foreign Legion officer, his company destroyed, fights off two lizardmen and the Lizardman King.

The French defenders are slowly overwhelmed.

The game was declared a marginal Venusian victory at the end.  The French forces were shattered, and their walkers destroyed or disabled. Though surprisingly, Victoria Hawkes, usually a bullet magnet, survived!
  All the players seemed to have a good time, and really got into the spirit of the game.  For me, the great players and the way the battle unfolded, made it one of the best runnings of a GASLIGHT game I have had the pleasure to run.

First Red Martian Unit Finished

This week I finished my first unit of ten Red Martians and an overall commander for the big 20 player GASLIGHT game Buck Surdu and I are running at Historicon.  The figures are from Bronze Age and measure 32mm tall.  I really like Bronze Age's stuff.  The figures were relatively flash free and have a lot of detail that really makes simple paint jobs look good.

Mars and Venus by GASLIGHT

I have recently moved two back burner projects to the front of the line: VSF Mars and Venus. I had been toying with doing GASLIGHT games set on these planets for a few years now, and had slowly been purchasing the figures and terrain I would need for them. I think the arrival of the John Carter movie trailer, as well as making tentative plans with Buck Surdu for a Historicon '12 Mars game inspired me to start the Mars project in ernest, and the purchase of some great jungle terrain made by Harry Kogelschatz in the Historicon flea market that inspired me to dust off my unpainted (and in some cases, unassembled) Venus figures.
So, I thought today I would share some of my first efforts that I have completed. The extreme heat and humidity here on the US East Coast has made any attempts at spraying futile, so these figures have sat without their varnish coat for almost a week now. A nice break in the temperature yesterday, allowed me to get them outside and finish them.

Fist up is a set of TinMan 28mm miniatures. These are their: (l. to r) Skiff, Moola, Jack Carson, and Princess Livia figures. I got their Livia figure to be my Dejah Thoris because I didn't really like the striding pose of their Princes Delia figure. I have added a sword to Dejah Thoris' hand so she doesn't have to always be the helpless captive.

Here is a close up of our heroes



..and a rear view. I enjoyed the opportunity to practice painting skin tones, and actually found these figures to be fun and easy to paint.



John Carter skimming across the Martian plains on his trusty skiff.



These are some Martian rock men. They were converted from Heroclix Korg figures. I separated the figure from it's base and glued it to a washer. I also changed some of the arm and leg positions to give each figure some individuality. I added a Milliput circlet around one figures head to represent the unit leader. Being Heroclix figures, they come prepainted, but I also gave them a wash with Windsor newton Peat Brown ink, and then dry brushed them with a little GW Dwarven Flesh.




These are two specialty figures for my Parrotmen of Venus army. Both are Games Workshop Kroot figures. The big gun mounted on the beast had a futuristic muzzle break on it which I removed to give it more of a smoothbore look. Perfect for putting holes in those nasty French Steam-walkers. The other figure will act as the overall tribal chief for my Parrotmen, and here again the muzzle end was removed.

A closer view of my Parrotmen 'big gun'.

And a view from behind.

A close up of the Parrotmen Tribal Chief.

And a view from behind.