Pipework forest

I've been in a bit of a painting and blogging slump recently. I did some scenery as a quickie to get it off my pile:

I think they're a fun alternative to trees and shrubs. Maybe they're even fungi that have evolved to blend in with an industrial hellscape?

These are resin prints from Fantastic Plants And Rocks. I put them on some round MDF bases which adds a bit of height.

I'm trying to find a quick and reproducible recipe to match my Cigar Box mat. The basing doesn't quite work in the underhive- but maybe toward the sump bottom...

Five Parsecs. Campaign Game 12. Cornered!

Gallius and the unwounded of his crew are heading back to the Innominate when the lumens overhead go out. Venda is untroubled by this underhive event, but Julio is suddenly alert.

“Get into cover! Lots of footsteps approaching!”

Under cover of darkness, their pursuers close the distance
terrifyingly fast. Range has no advantage here.

Julio rushes forwards and hurls his last frag grenade!

“You will pay for your insolence!”

The miners have some sort of mutant brute with them.
Venda sees something in the dark to her right…

“We’re being flanked!”

“None shall resist us!”

Lady Heldycryn defeats one attacker with her pistol.

But a second miner clubs her down!

Gallius barely fends off blows from the mutant!

He is able to break away in the dark, alone.

The vengeful miners pursue Gallius and his wounded back to the ship. Gallius prepares for a crash-jump off-planet- things are getting far too hot on Hydresar X. As he hurriedly performs the necessary launch rites, the Innominate’s chirugeon-servitor is hard at work saving multiple crew members. Heavy fire shreds the exterior as the Innominate staggers into space- can she withstand interplanetary travel?

Five Parsecs. Campaign Game 11. Old friends

Gallius Marbec’s mysterious contact has another sabotage mission for the crew. Chugger and Konrad are still in the sick bay, so he has to go with a team of five. Gallius takes the meltabombs himself- slip quickly through the underhive, no one even needs know we were there…

The crew cover each other as they infiltrate the target

Gallius spies a familiar totem and realises who his opponents are

A gang of mine workers rush the crew

Julio takes down the front row

Roma charges the leader- but, impossibly quick, he takes her out!

Gallius takes down the leader himself and Julio mops up.

With the gang taken out, Gallius plants the meltabombs and the crew withdraw. Julio helps his lover Roma to the medicae. She will have to spend time in the sick bay, but should make a full recovery. Gallius doesn’t receive as many creds as he would have liked for this job, but he did get access to a small arsenal of weapons.

While Gallius and the crew were away, however, Konrad Rathgir has had plenty of time to think in the sick bay. He decides it is time to leave the crew and become his own master again. He slips away- will we see him again?

The Guiding Hands community group, meanwhile, is very upset and out for revenge…

Gorkamorka: Diggas

Digganob was the first supplement for 1997’s Gorkamorka. Diggas are humans who aspire to orkishness (orkdom? orkyness?) and take on the ork way of life. I picked up a mob off eBay for use in Five Parsecs/ Five Klicks and Necromunda: Ash Wastes. They will make good low-level enemies.

These miniatures are from what I think of as GW’s Silver Age. The poses are repetitive and the proportions and weapon sizes are off-putting, even for GW. They are, nevertheless, crisply cast with a lot of fine detail. They are vaguely piratical with cutlasses, earrings and black powder weapons.

Digga Shaman

Digganob 

Yoofs 

Boyz 

Diggas

Skull-o-meter: 20

Anzac Day 2022- M60 Gunner, Vietnam

Battalions of the Royal Australian Regiment (RAR) were deployed to Vietnam between 1965 and 1972. The proportion of conscripted National Servicemen ('Nashos') rose throughout the years. From 1967, New Zealand contributed an infantry company as part of the ANZAC Battalion.

Each doctrinal section had one M60 7.62mm General Purpose Machine Gun. 

5RAR 1966

7RAR 1967

7RAR, 1970

3RAR, 1968

7RAR, 1970

Oil painting by Bruce Fletcher, 1967

2RAR, 1971

This gunner is patrolling professionally, albeit with a finger on the trigger. He’s got his sleeves rolled down and has cam paint on. He wears a scrim scarf and a giggle hat. He’s made a protective belt sleeve from a cut-up plastic air mattress.

This is a companion piece to my 2016 Anzac Day post, a rifleman with an SLR. It’s an OzMade 54mm sculpt by Mike Broadbent I painted about 20 years ago. I made the distinctive front sight from a bent staple! I have given the figure a bit of a touch-up with a wash, and added some tufts to the base. I also used some HO ferns from JTT. The improved basing really brings it up a notch, but I could blend the groundwork in better. The plinth needs a touch-up as well.

Lest we forget.

Picture sources:

Top: Lyles, K. 2004. Elite 103: Vietnam ANZACs. Osprey Publishing.

All others: Australian War Museum

Five Parsecs. Campaign game 10. The armoury job

"My lord, we have obtained pict-feed of the attack on our armoury."

"Our security are on the left, and the criminal attackers come from the right."

"Our arms cache for the upcoming struggle was between them."

"We were aided by a mutant- abominable, yes, but they have their uses."

"They tried to rush us on one side of the complex."

"Our security responded with a plasma weapon."

"The villains had an abhuman of their own. Disgusting."

"In the confusion, one of the saboteurs slipped round the back and killed a guard."

"Dramatically, he killed a second."

"At that moment, all the lights went out- coincidence? We think not."

"The mutant's powerful but primitive blunderbuss couldn't find a target."

"The mutant soaked up a lot of hits before going down.
Won't have to pay his retainer now!"

"The saboteur planted a device-
but didn't see the response force arriving behind him."

"Pinned like a milliasaur in a trap."

"And our plasma took out their beast."

"They slunk away in the darkness and blew up our armoury. Who were they?"

Gallius Marbec accepted a mission from his mysterious local contact to destroy an arms cache and thus maintain the balance of power. The Guild Troops were bolstered by a scaly and a plasma gun. There was a static firefight on one side while Konrad slipped around the back and, in a risky move, killed two guards to gain access to the armoury. Unexpectedly, the lights went out and reinforcements arrived, taking Konrad out- but not before he planted a melta-bomb... The scaly took a lot of punishment before going down, but Chugger also took a hit. Gallius withdrew and blew up the cache. He spent his payment on medical services for Chugger and Konrad, who are still in the infirmary. His team's activities are drawing all sort of attention, including a shadowy group who have a similar task for  him...

Big crusty lizard mutant from Imitation of Life

5PfH generates 2D6-and-pick-the-higher-result number of enemies per mission. In my first few games, I was rolling 5s and 6s and getting hammered. Recently, I've been rolling 1s and 2s and having very short games. For this game and going forwards, I'll use some difficulty toggles from the Trailblazer's Toolkit to make it more of a challenge. 

I really enjoy the random events in 5PfH- lights going out, reinforcements arriving- these both changed the scenario.

I forgot to use Konrad's 'luck' attribute when he got gunned down, so used it post facto to explain how he escaped captivity and survived a big explosion!