A recent blog from John at “Just needs Varnish” and Email from my mate John wanting to know if I had a book on Australian Cyclists Units in WW1 made me remember that I had put these together but never made time to finish them.

They are a very quick conversion from the HaT Japanese WW2 cyclists with just a head swap. Remember when all we had were the airfix box sets that we had to butcher and put together heads, bodies and legs in a very Frankenstein like way to be able to make the figures we needed. A nostalgic time I am glad we are long past and passed.

Of course I had a book on the subject:

I picked this up from Slouch Hat publishing in Mornington, Australia. With Ron passing away they are not printing any more, and are only selling what stock they have left.

One couldn’t have a unit without a commander

Or a Lewis gun for support

Or a firing line – not sure how much cover they have!

There were a large number of Australian cyclists in most theatres:

Although a mounted unit they do not seem to have carried the cavalry bandolier and these photos depict the standard infantry uniform.

Another Christmas project – John (both of you) note I didn’t say which one.

The final bits for the village arrived from Sarissa Precision a few days ago and being sick of painting zombies decided to turn “Bob The Builder” and finish off the village.

First there were two small village huts with two animal shelters.

Next was a watchtower with bell.

From the last blog on the village you will remember that I was struggling to work out bhow to represent a Japanes garden. Sarissa had these walking platforms that I thought would be excellent as a starting point. I also remembered that i picked up some “crude” building models on a trip to Vietnam and decided that some of these might suit as a centre piece or two. I will deffinitely not use all of them.

I plan on having a large water feature with lots of plants and rock paths across which the figures can “walk” on the platform. Not sure how it will go but having just completed the real thing on two house I will just play it by ear.

I will hopefully get these painted this week ready to start the garden.

Well, actually, quite a lot but more on that later.

In 1988 Aly Morrison designed the Legion MkVI Corvus Armoured Space Marines. As I indicated in a recent blog “An eclectic week of goodies and surprises” my wife brought back a car load of goodies from a property that we gave to our daughter.

These Beaky Space Marines were amongst the treasure trove (Dave M this blog is for you).

The box contains 18 sprues. 15 Sprues with 2 Space Marines on each and 3 accessory sprues with assorted “goodies”.

The accessory sprue containes a flamer, heavy bolter, power fists, and bolt pistols. You will notice a number of closed fist arms. In the good old days Space Marines could just march up to an oppopnent and punch their lights out….. ahhh how times have changed.

The box has seen better days but is still intact and the retro artwork is a GW history lesson in its own right.

Alas these will probably end up on ebay as I haven’t played 40k in years and am unlikely to in the near future.

I have always liked that saying and not just because I have two Grandsons that went through a very intensive “Toy Story” phase. Although it always suprised and worried me a little bit with their fixation on Bo! Although I cannot be too surprised given a lot of us also probably went through a Bo phase of our own – ahhhhh that perfect 10!

No, what I liked about it was that it signified “endless posibilities”.

When I started wargaming in the late 60s, although prior to then I always played with toy soldiers, there were very limited options both in terms of figures and types of games to play. Donald Feathersotn and Charles Grant Snr from the UK and Jack scruby from the US were the main drivers of the hobby, which really just consisted of Horse and Musket and Ancient periods. Of course those crazies that played with wizards and the like were around but they were treated as sporns of satan.

Now we have a whole smorgasboard of posibilities – indeed to infinity and beyond.

So much for that diatribe, my real reason for this blog is to show you my latest acquistions – yes another project that will take years to complete but they DO look cool.

My “Infinity” game Nomad contingent still in their shiny new boxes, although I have had a peek or two.

I plan on these being my Christmas break project, but hey there are endless possibilities and who knows what may come up between now and then!

To Infinity and beyond

Having recently moved we have been going through our precious possessions (junk) to try and declutter (create more space for more figures MWAHAHA) SWMBO, alias my beloved, Maree, has been going though our photos and found these:

Maree and Fellow PIG (Phillip Island Gamer) some twenty five years ago playing at the Arcanacon 40k tournament in the mid nineties. Who would have thought that all of these years later Dave K would be a regular opponent of mine and still facing Maree in the dark streets of Gotham – go Catwoman! I have to say that because after all she is SWMBO.

We cannot determine who won, but Maree’s recollection is that she whipped his ass!! At least that is what the illustrious PIGS Annals will now state. And they are THE accurate historical record when it comes to all things PIGS! Just ask Maree.

More photos of Maree at the table with her 40k Khorne Berzerker Army when you could use the “skateboard dismount from Rhino” rules.

Not wanting me to be left out she also dug this one up of when we were at the GW London store in 97:

Unfortunately the Blood Angel still looks the same – pity about the poor old Imperial guardsman.

Well, I never thought I would actually get a face-to-face game this side of Christmas.

I decided to keep the game simple because with only two visitors allowed I knew we would have a few more wanting to be involved on Zoom.

The Warlords Dr Who game seemed ideal to try and run both on the tabletop and have others on zoom understand what was happening. I chose the first scenario “A meeting of metal” with three recruitment cards and 5 adventure cards each..

The Cybermen had a leader and Cybermat swarm, 2 Cybermen with 2 cybermats and 4 Cybermen. The Daleks chose a Dalek Leader and 2 Recruitment cards with 3 Daleks and a Fate token each.

As per the scenario suggested I used a large amount of terrain with limited lines of sight, depicting a small Ash Wastes Shanty Town. The paper mat that came with the game was used.

Sorry, but I was so distracted by actually having a face-to-face game that I didn’t take many pictures.

The Cybermen quickly sent their Cybermats to capture the Vortex Nodes.

This was assisted by using an Adventure card which allowed the Cybermen to move two Vortex nodes closer to them. Although this assisted them with gaining more tokens, this was more than off-set by the Daleks picking up a Vortex Node with a massive 5 Victory points.

The Daleks now dominated the Victory points meaning the Cybermen needed to “convert” at least 5 Daleks to Cybermen or capture one of the Dalek Vortex Nodes.

Success. One Dalek less and one Cyberman more.

Over the next few turns Daleks were gradually being converted, but this was still not enough, and the Cybermen launched an all out assault to try and capture a Vortex node.

Seeing this the Daleks very “un-Dalek” like started retiring.

With the sixth turn ended, despite a valiant attempt, the Victory points were 14 to 9 in favour of the Daleks.

EXTERMINATE!!!!

Great to be back gaming again, albeit with limited participants.

Hi Guys, I have tried several versions of dice towers and trays over the years but have never found any that are either small enough, or usable enough for me. Cannot remember where I found out about how to make these, but here is my simple answer.

So that was two dice trays for a total of $8.47. Hope you can use these in your games.

I am planning to put a blog up about the game in the next few days. The problem is that I was so distracted with the game and having mates around that I didn’t take many photos.