About Me

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London, United Kingdom, United Kingdom
A mythical beast - a female wargamer! I got back into wargaming in the summer of 2011 after a very, very long break and haven't looked back since. I must admit that I seem to be more of a painter/collector than a gamer, but do hope to correct that at some point in the near future. My gaming interests span the ages, from the "Biblical" era all the way through to the far future. I enjoy games of all sizes, from a handful of figures up to major battles (see my megalomaniacally sized Choson Korean and Russian Seven Years War armies).

Monday 26 May 2014

The Untouchables?

Yesterday's refight of Plataea was a blast. Even though I had the Spartan command. Which needed to roll a 5 or 6 at the start of our turn to begin moving troops (to reflect the historical fact that they were waiting for the entrails of sacrificial goats to tell them it was time to join battle). Lots of goats were sacrificed before I was finally able to start moving my hoplites on our 5th turn. By this time the Athenians and other Greek allies were not inconsiderably annoyed by the Spartan's piety/superstition/willingness to see them being slaughtered by the Persians. Not to mention the Persians were ominously close to outflanking the Spartan battle line.

I think we actually managed to play out about 17 turns before calling the result - a narrow win for the Greeks. It was good fun playing with 25/28mm figures and we had some great food courtesy of our host, Gordon. Reflecting on the game afterwards, the "goat sacrifice" mechanism definitely needs to be amended.

I'll try to post some pics of the action later this week.


The G-Men

I managed to spray these with matt varnish today. I then took pics before I'd gone over parts with brush-on gloss and satin varnish. The pics did highlight a couple of small bits which needed touching up, but I couldn't be bothered to re-photograph them, so here you go warts 'n all pics of the Blue Moon G-Men.















The great thing about this little group is that (should I so wish) four of these could just as easily be used as gangsters as only two have their Bureau shields on display.

Although my original plan was of just painting these figures to "gaming standard", ignoring awkward things like eyes, this plan went to pot very quickly. Now I'll have to continue it for all the other figures. Curses! I even went back and painted the eyes of the cops.


Prize Draw Prizes and Curt's Entry Fee Figure

I spent a while this afternoon packing people's prizes and Sgt Steiner for Curt. They will get posted out tomorrow after work. Rodger, Joe and Justin will find a little something extra in their packages along with their gangster figures.


Spending Spree

I realised on Saturday evening that I was almost out of matt spray varnish, so placed an order for a few more cans. While I was in buying mode I succumbed to the lure of more figures for my Mob Wars project. I've placed orders with Brigade Games, Pulp Figures*, Dixon Miniatures and Fenris Games (for some scatter terrain). I'll also be placing an order for some Eureka figures from Fighting 15s. More scatter terrain is lined up to buy from Ainsty, either at Broadside (maybe as a pre-order) or as a normal web order. I also need to order some foam trays from Figures in Comfort to store all the figures and vehicles. Not to forget the additional buildings I need to order from Sarissa Precision to fill out "New Mornington, Michigan" (the fictional city where my gangster gaming will be set).

It's rather scary how much this little diversion is beginning to cost!


* I somehow managed to forget to make a note of which 6 packs I ordered.

20 comments:

  1. Great sculps done justice,

    Ian

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  2. They look terrific; I didn't see any warts.

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  3. That's the great thing about these guys they can be used for both "sides" (save for those badge afflicted).
    And warts ? What warts ?

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  4. What with you and Loki doing Roaring Twenties figures I am getting quite in the mood for doing some myself. Nice work Tammy.

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  5. Lovely work Tamsin especially like Mr Connery!

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  6. Those are great. Must agree the Connery look alike is my favourite.

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  7. These are great Tamsin and I love the Mr Connery figure too.

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  8. Nicely done Tamsin. They are quite characterful sculpts :)

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  9. Lovely job Tamsin, although all I can hear is Mr. Connery's immortal line, "They pull a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue. That's the Chicago way!"

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  10. I'm glad to hear those wimpy Athenians hung on long enough for you to finish your goat rituals. Mr. Connery is the best perhaps most recognizable of the movie cast. Its scary to see what a hour or two on the internet can do to ones pocket book when your in the midst of a project.

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  11. They may be Untouchable but they certainly aren't unmentionable! Well done on these, they're quite something.

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  12. Keen to see the Platea pics.

    FMb

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  13. I'm glad to see you painting these above table top standards. They're coming out so well and you're obviously having fun with them.

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  14. Wow, that's quite a shopping list Tamsin

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  15. Lovely paintwork Tamsin!

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  16. Great looking Gansters, Tas. Wow - 17 turns! That sound like Marathon :)!

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  17. @ Ian - cheers!

    @ Baconfat - it's an expression meaning "without any removal of blemishes". Mind you the guy in the brown suit does seem to have a protuberance just behind his chin on the right....

    @ Zabadak - especially the guy in the greenish suit and the one in the duster - I think he'd be great for a hitman from out of town

    @ Clint - happy as ever to be of disservice! :)

    @ Francis, PK and MarkG - glad you like them. Mr Connery is rather splendid, isn't he?

    @ Simon - indeed they are characterful

    @ Michael - shouldn't that be "He shendsh one of yoursh to the hoshpital, you shend one of hish to the morgue. That'sh the Chicago way!"?
    I had a felling someone would come out with that speech as a comment :)

    @ Robert - their suggestions that the Spartans were hoping for the Athenians to be wiped out, allowing Sparta to become the dominant Greek city state were entirely without basis. Personally, I think some nasty Persian sneaked into our sacred enclosure and fed the goats something nasty

    @ Millsy - thanks :)

    @ FMB - I might get round to posting them tomorrow

    @ Anne - once buggering around doing the eyes is out of the way, it doesn't take that much longer to paint the rest of the figures up to a higher standard. Added to which, they look much better.

    @ Phyllion - I have in the back of my mind running it as a participation game at shows and maybe BlogCon 3. Not to forget some solo gaming at home

    @ Rodger - cheers!

    @ Dean - thanks. It was quite a long game....



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  18. Excellent work, Tamsin.
    I really like those.

    Cheers
    Stefan

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  19. These look terrific, I really like how the tones are realistically muted, but there's still plenty of interesting variation in colour between the characters.

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    1. Thanks. I deliberately went for a more muted look with these Feds than with the mobsters they are fighting :)

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