Miniatures & Gaming – Mark A. Morin

Space Cowboys – Bet You Weren’t Ready for That!

Space Cowboys! More properly Archive Miniatures Texican Space Rangers (circa 1978), are the subject of this blog, plus some Steve Miller Band stuff from the 1970’s. Most people are familiar with the Steve Miller Band song The Joker:

Some people call me the space cowboy yeah
Some call me the gangster of love
Some people call me Maurice
‘Cause I speak of the pompitous of love…

Lyrics from The Joker, Steve Miller Band, 1973

Some also know that the opening line of The Joker refers to the band’s 1969 hit Space Cowboy – a rousing song with psychedelic undertones.

I told you ’bout living in the U.S. of A.
Don’t you know that I’m a gangster of love
Let me tell you people that I found a new way
And I’m tired of all this talk about love
And the same old story with a new set of words
About the good and the bad and the poor
And the times keep on changin’
So I’m keepin’ on top
Of every fat cat who walks through my door

I’m a space cowboy
Bet you weren’t ready for that
I’m a space cowboy
I’m sure you know where it’s at
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah…

Lyrics from Space Cowboy, Steve Miller Band, 1969

If you have not heard it before, and/or if you want a theme song for this blog post, here it is:

I’m sure that in some way, shape, or form, these songs influenced the sculpting of these figures.

Back to the miniatures!

In the early stages of my chasing down Archive Star Rovers a couple of years ago, I discovered two figures that were called Texican Space Rangers. One figure was Travis B. Crockett who was armed with a couple of laser pistols. The other was Armando Garcia, who had an assault rifle, a laser pistol, and a very imposing sombrero. Both had very cool jet packs as well. I did think that they would make an awesome unit for Combat Patrol™ games. Archive packaged them in two ways. One was as a set (along with a dog I have not found) as #2045 Texican Space Ranger Group. The other was individually as #2225 (Travis) and #2226 (Armando).

19 catalogue — From the Archive Miniatures Catalog

23 Archive-starrover-2045 — From the excellent Lost Minis Wiki website. The photo above includes the elusive dog, and was posted by David Wood whose excellent blog http://deartonyblair.blogspot.co.uk/ is worth a look if you like old school minis!

There are a few images in the Star Rovers game that showcase the Texican Space Rangers. I think the artwork is very cool and worth sharing as well.

20 image of rangers — Here the Texican Space Rangers are being attacked by Eyegars and Flygars. Note the dog disappearing here as well on the lower left (maybe why I cannot find it?).

21 bar image of rangers — Travis hanging out with a Hurraku Space Phraint at a bar! I made a platoon of these Arduin types earlier this year which you can read about here.

22 bar image of rangers — Quite the bar fight mash-up here. I see Armando on the left, some Space Centaurs, Felynxi, Clint Eastwood (?) and a Chewbacca look alike under the table? Also a Nevile Stocken logo behind the bar near Armando.

I searched, and the only source that I initially found for the figures was on eBay which made the prospect of building a platoon-sized unit very expensive. Because of this, back in June 2016 I made a mold of Armando Garcia and cast several for personal use and for some friends which I wrote about here. I had a plan to cast Travis B. Crockett, but did not get around to it, which was lucky for me as I found a better option.

Michael Thomas is a hobbyist who bought a spin caster and has been collecting OOP miniature molds and making them available for a very reasonable price. I discovered that Michael has both Texican Space Rangers (among many other lost and OOP miniatures) available at http://classicminiatures.net/. The product codes are RKV-0122 for Travis and RKV-0021 for Armando, with their prices being $3.50 and $3.75 respectively, which is very reasonable. I had a sufficient number of Armando’s, so I ordered enough Travis figures to round out a small platoon sized unit of 32.

My concept for the Texican Space Rangers was to have them as a small constabulary-type unit (like the Texas Rangers). I made a command group (1 of each type), and 5 infantry teams. Each team would have one Travis and five Armando’s. Filing and cleaning the originals ones I got from eBay and from Michael was a breeze, while my castings needed much more work to make them presentable. They are moderate in terms of crispness, but not like today’s figures. But hey, this is what it was like in the 1970’s! Once that was done, I used my airbrush to prime them, and moved on to painting them.

I also had a pretty important secondary goal on this project, which was to use as many of my old Polly S, Polly Scale, Deka Lack, and Armory acrylic paints as possible. My Polly S paints were ones I bought in the early-to-mid 1980’s (really). My Deka Lack paints are ones that I purchased in West Germany (remember that?) around 1987. The Polly Scale paints were made after Testors bought them out, and my guess is that they date from the 1990’s (they were gifts Buck Surdu got for me slightly used from a gaming convention flea market). My Armory paints were all bought by me in 1996. All of these paints are viable, but they have lumps and clumps and do not always thin easily. I thought as a challenge, I would use as many as possible as theme colors, and add washes, inks, and glazes to enhance the models. Besides, they won’t be useful indefinitely. If you are interested in the history of Polly S , I did find this blog post that was interesting.

Additionally, I follow a couple of blogs that were inspirational for this project. One was imperial rebel ork’s post about his Western/sci-fi mashup. He has three chapters there. Also, our good inspirational friend Azazel from down under made a painting challenge for units for June, so this works and this is my entry (or at least one of them)! On to the theme colors…

The platoon leader’s main color was Polly S “Venetian Dull Red”, while the platoon sergeant’s was Deka Lack “Blaü” (blue). for the teams’ main colors, the A team got Polly S “Desert Pink”, the B team got Polly Scale “German Armor Light Tan”; the C team got Polly S “Interior Green”, the D team got Polly Scale “WWII British Aircraft Gull Gray Light”; and the E team got Polly Scale “German Mauve”. The Travis figures also have US red, white, and blue on their collars, and the Armando’s have the colors of the Mexican flag (red white, and green). I list all of the paints, glazes, inks, washes etc. that I used for this project at the end of this post (only 55 this time!).

0 Travis B. Crockitt Texican Space Rangers — The Travis B. Crockett’s I got from Michael Thomas, unpainted.

1 platoon primed — The Texican Space Rangers, primed for painting. I ended up with some reductions so I actually painted 32 for this unit.

2 platoon start — Here I started working on the heads and the theme colors. Some (not all) of the old paints I used are in front for fun.

3 mid platoon start — In the middle of the project. I did heads first, then legs, with torsos last.

4 Armando mid stage — The platoon sergeant before washes and inks. This is an original, not a recast.

5 Travis mid stage — The platoon leader early on – I cleaned him up **substantially** as the project continued.

6 Teams A and B await varnish — The command group, and Team’s A and B painted and awaiting varnish.

7 all painted — The whole platoon finally painted and awaiting varnish.

8 All varnished — All varnished and ready to leave their specimen bottles!

10 Command group front — Command Group frontal view

11 Command group back — Command Group, rear view

13 Team B german armor light tan — Team B

15 Team D gull grey light wwii british aircraft — Team D

17 leadership travises — All of the leaders (being the Travis figures). You can see the differentiating colors on the hats and uniforms, which I hope will aid on the tabletop for play.

18 Armandos — Examples of the different Armando figures

This was a fun project, though the older paints are much harder to use than modern ones. Still, I am glad that those oldies got a chance to be useful.

Thanks for reading, and I always appreciate comments and feedback in the comments section!

PAINTS, INKS, GLAZES, WASHES, AND FLOCKING USED:

Vallejo “Surface Primer – White”
Vallejo “Dark Flesh”
Vallejo “Medium Flesh Tone”
Citadel “Reikland Fleshshade”
Vallejo “White”
Vallejo Game Air “Black”
Vallejo “Brown Rose”
Polly S “Venetian Dull Red”
Vallejo “Dark Blue”
Polly S “Desert Pink”
Polly S “Venetian Dull Red”
Polly Scale “WWII German Armor Light Tan”
Polly S “Interior Green”
Polly Scale “WWII British Aircraft Gull Gray Light”
Polly Scale “German Mauve”
Vallejo Game Air “Moon Yellow”
Deka Lack “Blaü”
Polly S “Slime Green”
Vallejo Model Air “Signal Red”
Vallejo “Red”
Citadel “Auric Armour Gold”
Vallejo Model Air “Gun Metal”
Vallejo “Dark Blue”
Vallejo “Glossy White”
Polly Scale “WWII German Armor Dark Brown”
Armory “Leather Brown”
Armory “Prussian Blue”
Vallejo Model Air “Aluminum”
Vallejo Game Air “Dead White”
Vallejo Game Air “Beastly Brown”
Secret Weapons Washes “Just Red” (ink)
Citadel “Gulliman Blue” (glaze)
Citadel “Waywatcher Green” (glaze)
Secret Weapons Washes “Blue” (ink)
Secret Weapons Washes “Armor Wash” (wash)
Citadel “Agrax Earthshade” (wash)
Secret Weapons Washes “Parchment” (wash)
Citadel “Nuln Oil” (wash)
Citadel “Nuln Oil Gloss” (wash)
Citadel “Soulstone Blue”
Citadel “Waystone Green”
Citadel “‘Ardcoat”
Citadel “Agrellan Earth”
Citadel “Agrellan Badlands”
P3 “Bootstrap Leather”
Secret Weapons Washes “Sunshine” (wash)
Vallejo “Glaze Medium”
Vallejo Game Air “Wolf Grey”
Secret Weapons Washes “Stone” (wash)
Secret Weapons Washes “Purple” (ink)
Testors “Universal Acrylic Thinner”
Vallejo Mecha Color “Purple”
Vallejo “Flow Improver”
Vallejo “”Airbrush Thinner”
Vallejo “Matt Varnish”

Thanks again and feel free to let me know your thoughts!

Mass Pikemen Gaming Club: An Action-Packed Combat Patrol session for May 2018

Last Saturday, May 19th, the Mass Pikemen held a gaming session in East Brookfield, MA. We were fortunate to have a fun game using the Combat Patrol™ card-based rules system – which I have adapted for use in retro sci-fi games using fun Old School miniatures. The ones here were from Archive Miniatures and Team Frog. The scenario involved an attack by the Mark III Warbots (two squads) on the peace-loving amphibian F.R.O.G. Commandos, who were once again defending their sacred pond from enemy desecration. This time, the Warbots brought along two new troop additions. One was another Archive Miniatures Juggerbot to act as the Warbot’s Platoon Sergeant. This improved command and control in support of the previously existing Juggerbot platoon leader. Secondly, this marked the first deployment for the death-dealing, flame-throwing giant robot known as Roberker.

The F.R.O.G. Commandos defended their pond’s enclosure with a couple of squads and the heavy weapons section, including the Dread FROGBOT.

In addition to our experienced players, we had a couple of new players, Mike Morgan and Chris Comeau, who quickly picked up on the Combat Patrol™ system.

1 05192018 Mass Pikemen — The F.R.O.G. Commandos deploy.

2 05192018 Mass Pikemen — Roberker, the two Juggerbots, a Red Khang Robot, and the Red Warbot Squad move over the bridge. Roberker, in the rear, being a giant robot, just walked through the river

The Frogs quickly moved to counter the Warbot’s movements. The Dread FROGBOT with its short cannon and two chain guns arrived at the defensive outer wall, and was able to get off a couple of bursts, damaging several Warbots. However, the Warbots effectively closed and used a devastating plasma breaching weapon against the FROGBOT. Even though the fire was off center slightly, the FROGBOT’s left side was basically vaporized. Undaunted, the Frogs kept up their spirited defense with their assault rifles, holding the line.

3 05192018 Mass Pikemen — The Warbots use a Plasma Beam Breacher, knocking out the FROGBOT.

A little to the Frog’s left, Roberker advanced and took fire, but not before spraying flaming death from its two nozzle arms. Several Frogs were fricasseed, but Roberker took several hits as he advanced.

4 05192018 Mass Pikemen — The F.R.O.G. heavy weapon section gets a bit roasted by Roberker

Then the Frogs made a bold jet pack assault focusing on the golden Juggerbot platoon leader. They managed to damage the leader, however they actually killed two of their own in the crossfire as shown below. However, this proved to be a critical move on the Frog’s part.

5 05192018 Mass Pikemen — The F.R.O.G. Commandos make a bold assault, damaging the Warbot platoon leader (golden Juggerbot), and unfortunately killing two of their own with friendly fire.

One of the modifications that I make to the Combat Patrol™ rules in retro sci-fi games is to have robots use the South Pacific Japanese decks, which have different morale results. The golden Juggerbot platoon leader, having been wounded, now had to make a morale check. Amazingly (and against all odds) he pulled the card that said the leader was shamed – and commits hari kiri – is destroyed, and is removed from the game. This pinned all of the attackers, reducing their advance significantly. Some of the Warbots, like the purple squad on the other side of the tabletop (played by Ellen Morin) did manage to rally, but it was a big turning point in the game.

Another interesting action at the end was the brave individual attack on Roberker by the F.R.O.G. leader, Captain Frog, armed with only a Frog Blade and a pistol. Captain Frog jet packed into hand-to-hand combat with Roberker, and despite the stiff odds, beat the giant robot. As Roberker was already severely damaged from the previous assault rifle fire of the Frogs, Captain Frog’s actions took out Roberker.

(This proved again the Buck Surdu theory that the first time a figure gets on the tabletop that it gets whacked!)

6 05192018 Mass Pikemen — The purple Warbot squad advances through a narrow defile.

On the other end of the table, the purple Warbot squad made significant advances away from the other carnage, and were able to use their plasma ball breacher (in this case a ball of high energy plasma) to fire at the defenders. Even though the fire was slightly errant, as shown below, one Frog was vaporized, and the fence breached.

7 05192018 Mass Pikemen — The Warbots fire a Plasma Ball Breacher (think flying ball of plasma fired like a rifle grenade, not like a putt!), opening the way to the pond. We use the card’s bayonet at the top left in Combat Patrol to show the direction of scatter if the target is missed, as was the case here.

At this point, the game was called. Clearly, I believe the Warbots were going to make it to the pond, but the F.R.O.G. Commandos defense was truly spirited and exemplary!

We are looking forward to the next Mass Pikemen Gaming Club session on June 23rd!

Thanks for looking – please share your feedback below in the comments section.

Roberker and Juggerbot – 1970’s Archive Star Rovers Robots for my Warbot Platoon

I was fortunate enough to get a couple of Archive Miniatures robots from the Star Rovers line that I could add to my Mark III Warbot Platoon for use in Combat Patrol™ retro sci-fi games. The first was “Roberker”, a Giant Robot (Archive #2010), which I had only seen before on Lost Minis Wiki and on David Wood’s blog. It is nearly 3½”/85mm tall, and was supposedly one of the largest robots on the market in 1978. It is armed with nozzles on its arms, so I think it is more or less a giant flame-throwing robot. Nevile Stocken commented on FaceBook that it was his creation, and inspired by Fred Saberhagen’s Berserker novels. The second was another late 1970’s Stocken creation, “Juggerbot” (Archive #2009 or Archive #2331), which I had a version of already, but only one, which I use as the platoon leader. I decided to make this one the assistant platoon commander/platoon sergeant.

This same good friend, David Wood (UK version), knew that I was on the hunt for these and graciously provided them so that I could augment my Warbots. Additionally, Azazel’s blog had put out an “April Assembly” challenge, that these two could certainly be participants.

The models are both challenges for assembly – so I needed to make sure that they were structurally sound for the tabletop. First, I will review Roberker, then Juggerbot. I list the paints I used at the end of this post for those interested.

Roberker

I trimmed and sanded the mold lines as best as I could. Roberker was described by David and Nevile as “a swine to pin”. I now know the truth of that very British expression. I spent most of a day drilling and pinning the arms, legs, and head. Using Gorilla glue, I made initial connections of the parts. Then, I used kneadatite (green stuff) in several places. Specifically, I needed to have strength for the spindly arms and legs. I augmented the pinning by adding a superficial kneadatite belt around the chest and shoulder areas, and by making sure that the legs and hips were married. Lastly, I made a strong base connection with the green stuff.

0 as received — Roberker pieces after cleaning

2 Initial gluing — First gluing of legs, torso, and head

3 assembled after Initial gluing — I then glued the arms, but saw that reinforcement was needed

4 after green stuff — Here, you can see the kneadatite reinforcements that I made. This really made the model very strong.

5 after green stuff size — Roberker is no small robot!

I then based the figure on a 2″ steel washer, which is relatively heavy and will protect the model from being prone to tipping over. I then primed, painted, and varnished the model similar to the way that I did the Mark III Warbots. I did however want the figure to look like it had flames coming out of its head, and that it had a sooty appearance having torched many of its victims over the years. Also, for the hand nozzles, I went with a copper and verdigris look.

6 primed front — Roberker after airbrush priming

9 painted pre varnish front — Roberker painted and ready for varnish

15 Roberker front — Roberker completed, front view

20 fourway Roberker — Four-way view of the model

I am very happy with how Roberker came out – and he will be a terror on the tabletop I am sure.

Juggerbot

As I said, this is my second Juggerbot. My first is the platoon leader and he is basically golden. This one was to be similar to the Mark III Warbots in color scheme and treatment. Here as well, I trimmed and sanded the mold lines as best as I could. I did also need to do a bit more work with the pinning and the green stuff here as well. That is because I wanted to have a slightly different positioning of the arms, which necessitated making a “vest” of green stuff that covered the shoulders and the top conic section of the robot.

1 Assembled and comparison with original — My original Juggerbot (the Platoon Leader on left) and his new assistant commander on the right in progress. Note that I was able to give the arms different positioning with the kneadatite “vest”

2 Assembled and comparison with original — Side view of the two Juggerbots

3 Juggerbot primed — Juggerbot after airbrush priming

6 Juggerbot painted — Painted and awaiting varnishing

12 Juggerbot right side — The completed new Platoon Sergeant Juggerbot, right side view

14 Juggerbot front side — Coming at you!

15 three panel juggerbot — Three way view of the new Juggerbot model

This model met my expectations – now the command and control of the Warbot platoon will be more robust.

19 group shot — This shows the size of my different retro sci-fi figures. From left to right, the Warbot Juggerbot Platoon Sergeant, the Warbot Juggerbot Platoon Leader, SFC Mallard, Roberker, Duck Wader, a Mark III Warbot, and a Khang Robot Squad Leader. It looks dire for the two Star Ducks!

Thanks for looking – please let me know what you think in the comments section at the bottom.

PAINTS AND FLOCKING USED:

Citadel “Imperium Primer”
Vallejo “Surface Primer – White” (airbrushed)
Createx “Wicked Aluminum – Metallic Pearl” (airbrushed)
Citadel “Imperium Primer”
Citadel “Nuln Oil Gloss”
Armory “Red Brown”
Vallejo “Black Grey”
Vallejo Model Air “Copper”
Vallejo “Red”
Citadel “Retributor Armour Gold”
Citadel “Fire Dragon Bright”
Citadel “Yriel Yellow”
Special Weapons Washes “Red Black”
Special Weapons Washes “Red” ink
Vallejo “Black”
Citadel “Nihilakh Oxide”
Craftsmart “Sapphire”
Craftsmart “Festive Red”
Citadel “Martian Ironcrust”
Citadel “Martian Ironearth”
Army Painter “Black Battlefields” flocking
Citadel “Nuln Oil”
Army Painter “Anti-Shine” varnish (airbrushed)
Vallejo “Matt Acrylic Varnish” (airbrushed)

Thanks again – please share your thoughts in the comments section!

HAVOC XXXIV Recap – Notes & Photos

Finding a gaming convention that is close by to my home has been somewhat frustrating for me over the last few years. Since I returned to the hobby, I have attended a few BARRAGE events in Maryland , but that’s it.

Imagine then that there was a con 15 miles from my home AND that they have been having it for 34 years (and I never knew!). The event was the three-day (Friday night, Saturday, and Sunday) HAVOC convention, run annually by Battlegroup Boston. This year was HAVOC XXXIV, and I learned of it through the New England Wargame Groups List page on FaceBook. It ran from April 6-8, and I am really glad that I could attend, but it was a last-minute decision. I was also hoping to let folks know about our group, The Mass Pikemen’s Gaming Club in Central Massachusetts.

Back in March, I went to the HAVOC web page, and I also saw that they were looking for game masters. I needed to wait to see if I could attend. Ultimately, I was able to not only attend the event, but to run two retro sci-fi games using the Combat Patrol™ system. The first game I ran was on Friday night. It was “Attack of the Warbots” using figures from the Archive Star Rovers line from the late 1970’s (Mark III Warbots, Star Ducks, Aphids, and Power-Armored Frinx) along with my Mark 1 Sphere tanks). There were also some Wargames Supply Dump Robo-Sentry guns acting as stationary defenses.

In this blog, first I’ll discuss the two games I ran, then share some photos and eye candy of some of the convention.

I managed to get 7 players for the game, which was great. I did not get as many pictures as I would have liked as I was running the game. The players really had a great time and there was a lot of action. No one had ever seen these figures before, and the mass of the Mark 1’s surprised them all! I used a number of Armorcast sci-fi structures as well on the board, and they worked great.

1 setup Attack of the Warbots — The Warbots make their assault. Their goal was to recapture a Mark 1 Sphere tank behind the building on the right center (which the Frinx were attempting to repair for their own use). A Robo-Sentry gun has been taken out by the Warbots and burns in the middle.

2 Robo sentry guns and Sphere tank burn — Frinx anti-tank fire from the factory’s 2nd floor knock out a Warbot Mark 1 Sphere tank between the slag mounds, and more Robo-Sentry guns burn. The remaining Mark 1 prepares to use its Death Ray on the Aphids on the left.

3 Aphid Platoon Leader attacks Sphere tank — The Mark 1’s attempt to fry the Aphids fails and its weapon malfunctions. Seizing the opportunity, the Aphid platoon leader leaps onto the tank from the second floor and attempts to destroy it with a satchel charge.

4 Warbots advance — The satchel charge attack failed to penetrate the Mark 1. Frinx bazookas then hit the tank while the platoon leader was on top of it. The Mark 1 was immobilized by this AT fire, but the Aphid platoon leader was killed by the same attack. Note the card on the tank – I use cards with pictures on them to denote casualties for infantry.

While all this was going on, the Warbots on the right closed with the Robo-Sentry guns and the Star Ducks defending the wall. In this game, I have the Warbots use the Japanese Combat Patrol™ deck, which has different morale results. A morale card result caused one Warbot team to make a Banzai charge at the last surviving Robo Sentry gun, which was jammed. This enabled the Star Ducks to hit the team with direct fire. When the Banzai charge was over, another morale check caused this same team to flee the game, stifling this assault. The Frinx just got their captured tank fixed as the game was out of time. Due to the casualties inflicted by the Warbots, I called the game a draw. The players all were highly excited by the game and loved the ease of use of the Combat Patrol™ decks for all aspects of the game.

Unbeknownst to me at the time, my game was nominated for the “Al Award”. From the HAVOC website, this is “presented for the game with the most stunning visual appeal. Our crack team of experts (expert team of cracks) will vote on the game that made us say “Wow!”.” I was honored to be nominated, but even more so to win! Thanks so much for this to Battlegroup Boston! A great con it was to be sure – and I felt very welcome here by all the club members.

11a award — A true honor! Thanks so much Battlegroup Boston!

The second game I ran was on Sunday, which was “GO FROGS RIBBIT – STOP THE BUGS”. It was a battle between the F.R.O.G. Commandos (with Star Duck reinforcements) and two Archive Star Rovers foes – the aforementioned Aphids and the Hurraku Space Phraints. So, basically, it was insectivores versus insects, albeit big bugs. The Frogs were defending a wooded area between two rivers and specifically their sacred pond. The insects’ objective was to seize the pond, and to dispatch as many amphibians as possible along the way with extreme prejudice.

8aa 04062018 HAVOC frogs phraints only — My game flyer for this game

I ended up with four players for this game – one for each attacking bug side on opposite sides of the board. Star Ducks would reinforce the Frogs as a special event card was pulled during the game. The Frogs would use the regular decks, while the bugs would use the Japanese decks. The Space Phraints also had a Sith. Here again, the players quickly adapted to the Combat Patrol™ deck. All were new to the game.

8a set up for FROGS with me — My set up – Aphids attack from the south, Space Phraints from the north. Terrain posed a challenge for the attacker because their long range weapons advantages were nullified.

8n me gming — The players listen as I brief – photo by Mike Paine

The Aphids got into the fray first with their Grav Cycles, while the Aphid infantry and the Space Phraints advanced.

8b Aphid Grav cycles start — Aphid Grav Cycles prepare to jet across the river

8d Grav Cycles attack — The Aphid Grav Cycles charge into the two 2nd squad Frog positions (two teams by the yellow dice). The Frogs prepare to respond with Frogbot’s chain guns, their assault rifles, and a flame thrower. The Aphids attacking on the right have begun to take heavy casualties.

8h Aphids taking flamethrower hits — Aphid attacks are torched. The leader of the one on the right lost all of his troops and ended up committing ritual suicide from a morale check card.

The Aphids however did effectively draw the Frogs to their attack, weakening the side facing the Hurraku Space Phraints. This would have consequences.

8e Phraints advance — The Frogs 1st Squad maneuvers towards the Hurraku

8f Phraints advance by hill — 1st Squad’s assault rifles inflict heavy damage on the advancing Hurraku Space Phraints. The red beads represent morale checks for the Hurraku

8g taking flamethrower Phraints advance by hill — Then the Frogs used their flamethrower on them…

At this point, the Hurraku gambled and turned the tide of battle. Linda (the Hurraku player) decided to take advantage of her Sith’s power of “Rage”. This ability causes a Banzai attack. This also removes all stun markers from her troops while they charge at the enemy and engage solely in hand-to-hand combat (or just melee as we are talking about bugs and Frogs). The Hurraku also all have the same activation number until the banzai charge ends, resulting in a true mass attack. Here (in melee) the Hurraku have an advantage as they are very tough fighters. They also move fast normally, and the “Rage” improves that movement by a factor of two.

8i BANZAI BUG ATTACK — BANZAI! TO THE POND!

8j BANZAI BUG ATTACK — The other flank is swarmed

8k BANZAI BUG ATTACK — The Frogs are devastated by the assault. Cards denote dead Frogs. Blue beads represent morale checks for the Frogs, which were mounting up quickly. During a Banzai charge, attackers do accrue morale checks, but are not stunned. They also activate all at the same time. The attackers would end their charge after a special card is pulled from the Action Deck – so it can go on for a while. In this game, it never ended.

At this point, a Star Duck squad jet packed in as reinforcements, but it was not enough. They jet-packed in to defend the pond.

8l Star Ducks arrive — Star Ducks reinforce Frogs for a last stand

8m BUGS WIN — A Hurraku Space Phraint reaches the sacred pond and wins the game

The players here had a good time and were good sports. The tide swung from one side to the other. In the end, the “Rage” Banzai charge was decisive.

I will now share some photos of the two games I played on Saturday morning and afternoon (I did not play Saturday night). I played a Bolt Action scenario run by Friedrich Helisch. The scenario was a 1941 German attack on a Russian-held village. David Shuster was on the Russian side, while Friedrich and I played the Germans. This was my first try at Bolt Action.

5 bolt action start — The battle begins as Germans move towards the village

5b David Shuster bolt action mid — David Shuster moves his Russians up

5c David Shuster bolt action mid advance — View from the Russians side

5d first building assault — Germans successfully storm the first building

5e second building seized — Germans successfully take the second building

This was a points-based game, and our taking of the second building allowed us to win by 1 point, so it was very close. As for the rules, I am on the fence, but more than willing to try them again at some point in the future.

The second game I played was a Gaslands scenario. I had heard this was an interesting game and thought I’d try it out. In this game you get so many points to choose and arm 2-3 vehicles (performance car, regular car, and pickup truck). The goal is to run over (3 points) or shoot (1 point) pedestrians (in homage to Death Race 2000) instead of the usual zombies on the game board. You can attack your opponents, but their destruction does not get you points (you do eliminate the competition). The movement is very much like X-Wing.

I played with two other players, who chose to max out two vehicles, while I did three lesser-armed vehicles. I chose to go after the competition and eventually had one of two vehicles to be the last on the tabletop. However, at this point the game masters deploy invulnerable Monster trucks to hunt you down and end the game. I just missed my last pedestrian which would have tied me for first. The game masters (Michael Eichner and Erich Eichner) did a nice job, and this was a fun game. The table looked great too.

7 Gaslight start — The game starts – I had the red cars

7a gaslight start — After using a flamethrower on a white car, I t-boned the orange one, but flipped over the structure

7b gaslight playing — Game play – photo by Mike Paine

I thought that I should share some photos of the rest of the con. I did not get to see as much as I would have liked, but there were a lot of very cool games. Kudos to all the folks at Battlegroup Boston, as well as the GM’s and players! Please share your thoughts in the comments section – thanks for reading this blog!

6 the HAVOC on Sat AM — A view of the con Saturday morning. There were two rooms.

9b 3d deathmatch from above — Tim Allen had a magnificent home game using Legos

9 3d deathmatch from above — The Deathmatch Arena 3D game

9a 3d deathmatch from above — Characters from Deathmatch Arena 3D

12 Lion Rampant — Lion Rampant game (big game!) run by Richard F. Wareing – photo by Mike Paine

13 Chain of Command Hurtgen forest — Thomas Ballou ran a Battle of the Hurgen Forest scenario – photo by Mike Paine

14 Silent Death Smash — Bruce Carson ran a Silent Death Smash game – photo by Mike Paine

10j hanghai game — Mike Paine’s immense game – spectacular! Eye candy for this below, some I borrowed from Mike Paine with permission

10c hanghai game — Game play – photo by Mike Paine

10d hanghai game — Nice sampan -photo by Mike Paine

10e hanghai game — Beautiful terrain, so complex – photo by Mike Paine

10g hanghai game — Game play – photo by Mike Paine

10h hanghai game — Chinese bombard – photo by Mike Paine

10i hanghai game — Nice American gunboat – photo by Mike Paine

F.R.O.G. Commandos Platoon

In the spirit of bringing more miniatures back from the commercial grave, I happily share with you my latest project – a F.R.O.G. Commandos platoon. This unit consists of 40 figures. All of them except 1 figure were made of metal. In the Critter Commandos universe, F.R.O.G. stands for “Federated Republics of GreenEarth”, one of several cartoon nations created by the Team Frog founder, Paul Arden Lidberg. None of these are currently available commercially.

The unit also includes a Frogbot (Crittertek). This project also enabled me to participate in a painting challenge “Squad March” put out by Azazel on his blog. This contest required a unit of at least 3 figures, and I am sure that this one qualifies! It did take up the month of March for sure.

I was able to do this because I managed to get another box of F.R.O.G. Commandos from Chris Palmer at BARRAGE in January. Originally, each box (a re-purposed VHS tape box no less) came with 8 figures and a d10. I had been slowly collecting many different figures from the line, but Chris’ addition of 8 frogs allowed me to create a platoon for Combat Patrol™.

I managed to successfully finish my project just in time for the end of March. I had come across figures from the Critter Commandos line, which was initially put out sometime between the late 1980’s and early 1990’s by the Team Frog Studios company. Later, the figures were also marketed by Nightshift Games. The figures are all creations of the late Steve Lortz, who also made the Star Ducks and other figures for Archive. I just love his stuff, they are a lot of fun. Also, when I was at West Point, I was in company F-4, whose mascot was a Frog (GO FROGS RIBBIT! was our cry). So I had another motivator here as well.

The photo below is what I had assembled for the project. On the top you see the Frogbot, but he was definitely not together as I will discuss later. The miniatures are around 28mm in scale.

So I needed a plan – I decided that I did not want more than 1 figure per fire team to be the same figure, but as you see above, I had a hodgepodge collection. I worked it out as follows – this unit consists of 40 figures:

Command section (2 each – platoon leader and platoon sergeant)
Three full squads (11 each) led by a squad leader each consisting of:
- Two teams of 5 (Team Leader and 4 F.R.O.G. Troopers)
1 Heavy Weapons/Recon section consisting of a Section Leader, 3 F.R.O.G. troopers, and a Frogbot.

It took a bit to clean and file all of these figures. They had some casting issues (mainly cracks) that I repaired with kneadatite (green stuff). I then moved on to the Frogbot, which was not a Lortz creation. I had bought it on eBay with a number of other Critter Commandos, and it deserves a few notes.

4a Frogbot pieces — All I had for the Frogbot

The kit was incomplete. There was no main gun, but there was a small hole in the front of the main body. Pinning was not possible because the legs were made of some kind of tubing., and the plastic “googly eyes” you see above would not meet my standards. Clearly, there needed to be some changes. First, I filed the main chassis down to remove as many casting crevices as possible. I then got a short bolt extender, and patiently reamed out the small hole to affix the extender as a main gun for the model.

5 mounting gun — The reamed out hole and bolt extender

Then I needed to make it look, well, froggy. The eyes were an issue, so I bought some cheap beads at Michael’s. Using some dollhouse hinge screws that I drilled into the Frogbot chassis as mounts, I affixed the beads as sensors/eyes after reaming them out slightly. Then I carefully glued the rest of the model together.

7 resurrected Frogbot — Assembled Frogbot

While I really was happy with the figure, the engineer in me thought that it was too structurally weak. So I used green stuff to reinforce the legs and chain guns, as well as to fill in around the eyes and create a mantlet for the gun.

8 resurrected Frogbot after green stuff — Structurally reinforced Frogbot

I was now ready to prime the lot. I used my airbrush to prime the figures. Without going into painting detail here, I will show the figures and the progression of the project. I list the paints I used at the end of this post for those interested.

First, the lot before mounting on 1¼” washers and priming

I decided to give each sub unit its own different amphibian skin color and color for accouterments, while keeping the majority of the uniforms the same. This was to help with tabletop identification.

Command group got greenish skin and red for accouterments
First squad got greenish blue skin and dark blue for accouterments
Second got yellowish green skin and yellow for accouterments
Third squad got bright green skin and purple for accouterments
Heavy Weapons/Recon Section got grayish green skin and orange for accouterments

10 mid stage first squad — 1st Squad base coated

14 2nd squad painted — Second Squad base coated

15 3rd squad painted — Third Squad base coated

Once the painting was complete, I used Army Painter “Quickshade” (strong tone) to shade the models, followed by a coat of Vallejo “Matte Varnish”. I then highlighted the models, and then added another coat of varnish with my airbrush. I used Army Painter tufts (Jungle, Swamp, Woodland, and Meadow Flowers) to further assist in tabletop differentiation.

17 heavy~recon section painted — Heavy Weapons/Recon Section before shading and warnishing

18 Platoon in a box — The entire platoon in the box awaiting transport

19 leaders together — The 4 leaders showing their different skin tones and accouterment colors

23 hvy wpns~recon section deployed — Heavy Weapons Section

There were 8 different poses plus the Frogbot, so here are some front and back poses. You can see some of the differentiating features here as well.

24 figure 1 Captain Frog — Figure 1 ” Captain Frog” with revolver and sword

25 figure 2 Staff Sergeant Splash — Figure 2 – “Staff Sergeant Splash” with flame thrower

26 figure 3 Corporal Dripp — Figure 3 – “Corporal Dripp” with flame thrower looking like a hair dryer

27 figure 4 Trooper Ribbet — Figure 4 – “Trooper Ribbet” with assault rifle

28 figure 5 Trooper Hopper — Figure 5 – “Trooper Hopper” with assault rifle and pineapple grenade

29 figure 6 Trooper Budd — Figure 6 – “Trooper Bud” with assault rifle

30 figure 7 Trooper Wyze — Figure 7 – “Trooper Wyze” with assault rifle and an antitank mine

31 figure 8 Trooper Wyze — Figure 8 – “Trooper Urr” with assault rifle

15 3 way Frogbot deployed — The Frogbot. Note the middle photo with the shout out to “F-4” on the back. The camouflage pattern is inspired by Japanese WWII tank patterns.

I am very happy with this project, and hope that you enjoyed it as well.

Thanks to:

My wife (for putting up with me during this project – again)
Chris Palmer – for the box and inspiration!
Buck Surdu – for the inspiration and some old paints from Polly S
Dave Wood – for starting me on this hobby back when we were roomies
All my readers – for inspiring me and sharing their feedback!!

PAINTS AND FLOCKING USED:

Vallejo “Surface Primer – White”
Vallejo “Camouflage Olive Green”
Vallejo Model Air “Aluminum”
Vallejo Mecha Color “Light Green”
Vallejo Mecha Color “Deep Green”
Vallejo Mecha Color “Yellow Fluorescent”
Vallejo Game Air “Sick Green”
Vallejo Game Air “Beastly Brown”
Vallejo Game Air “Black”
Vallejo “Dark Blue”
Vallejo “Neutral Gray”
Vallejo Model Air “Steel”
Polly S “Interior Green”
Vallejo Model Air “Black”
Citadel “Retributor Armour”
Vallejo Game Air “Sun Yellow”
Vallejo “US Dark Green”
Citadel “Yriel Yellow”
Vallejo “Red”
Citadel “Imperium Primer”
Vallejo “Glaze Medium”
Vallejo “Thinner medium”
Testors “Universal Acrylic Thinner”
Citadel “Waywatcher Green”
Citadel “Coelia Greenshade”
Citadel “Athonian Camoshade”
Citadel “‘Ardcoat”
Citadel “Fire Dragon Bright”
P3 “Sulfuric Yellow”
P3 “Red Ink”
Vallejo “Yellow Green”
Vallejo “Sunny Skin Tone”
Vallejo Game Air “Moon Yellow”
Vallejo Mecha Color “Purple”
Vallejo Game Air “Escorpena Green”
Vallejo Mecha Color “Green”
Vallejo Mecha Color “Purple”
Vallejo Mecha Color “Green”
Vallejo Mecha Color “Green Blue”
Vallejo Model Air “Copper”
Vallejo Model Air “Gun Metal”
Vallejo Model Air “Medium Gunship Gray”
Polly S “WWII German Armor Dark Brown”
Vallejo “Japanese Uniform WWII”
Citadel “Nuln Oil”
Polly S “Venetian Dull Red”
Vallejo Model Air “Wood”
Army Painter “Quickshade – Strong Shade”
Vallejo “Matt Varnish”
Citadel “Stirland Mud”
Citadel “Lustrian Undergrowth”
Polly S “British Brown Drab”
Army Painter “Woodland Tufts”
Army Painter “Swamp Tufts”
Army Painter “Jungle Tufts”
Army Painter “Meadow Flowers”

Thanks again – please share your thoughts in the comments section!

If you are going to Cold Wars, here are some great options!

I cannot make Cold Wars this year – but these are some great options for those attending! See below!

From Buck Surdu’s Blog

Buck F: 215: Hold as Long as Possible (1) Friday, 9:00 AM, 4 hrs, Players: 6 GM: Buck Surdu & HAWKS Sponsor: None, Prize: None Period: World War II, Scale: 28mm, Rules: Combat Patrol™: WWII. ItisthePhilippinesinearly1942. The Americans are retreating slowly toward Bataan. A platoon of infantry, along with a handful of Stuart tanks, must […]

via Combat Patrol (TM) at Cold Wars 2018 — H.A.W.K.S.

Game Markers, Decals, & Weapons Templates for Retro Sci-Fi games using Combat Patrol (TM)

Back in November, I was happy to have an extended game of Combat Patrol™ using resurrected Archive Miniatures Star Rovers figures (specifically, Star Ducks, Frinx, Aphids, and Mark III Warbots). My old West Point buddies Dave Wood and Buck Surdu made the trek up from Maryland, and my daughter Ellen and her fiance Chris Smedile joined us for a fun game which was described here.

The game was a blast – and afterwards I thought that I could make some improvements that would make play easier and improve the tabletop aesthetics. The retro sci-fi aspect brought in some new elements. In a WWII game, I would normally use small rubber bands to designate the status of a figure with regards to wounds, being stunned, or being out of ammunition. This is to eliminate a lot of bookkeeping which can bog down a game. I also use glass beads to represent morale checks. In a WWII game, this works fine as most figures can only take 3 wounds before they are incapacitated. However, in the retro sci-fi game, I added other elements. One of these was allowing the Star Ducks to use their jet packs three times per game. Another was the Mark III Warbots, which can take up to 6 or 7 wounds, and who may take critical hits (see chart below) that adversely impact their capabilities.

One issue with their high endurance this is that the Warbots can end up looking like they just arrived on Maui after getting several garlands of leis once the action gets going (see photo below).

9 Ma'kcon (2) — Who just arrived in Maui?

I also introduced two breaching arc weapons and a plasma ball breacher that would be key elements of the Mark III Warbots capabilities. As a Army Engineer officer veteran, I thought that this would be fun, and I wanted some cool templates to represent these game elements. Lastly, I wanted to be able to have the casualties remain on the tabletop as a depiction of what happened during the game. This does not always work, so now I make casualty cards for my units that are sized to the figures size (I discussed this previously here).

So my list of improvements became:

Create casualty cards for each unit/figure (done)
Create templates for the plasma weapons (discussed in this post)
Create specialized markers (placards with decals) for use with retro sci-fi Combat Patrol™ games (discussed in this post)

With any new project, I like to try new techniques and learn from trying them out. Here, I decided to try to use my airbrush to do more than prime, base coat, and varnish. I also wanted to use my computer and make decals for the placards. I had not really done any of these things in this way before, so I was going into uncharted waters. I will first discuss the plasma weapons, and then the placards.

For the arc weapons and the plasma ball, I wanted something easy to sue that was durable and vibrant. The Warbots arc weapons can either shoot a 2″ cone (door-sized) for a distance of 5″, or fire a 1″ cone (window-sized) for a distance of 10″. This is to allow them to breach obstacles. The other weapon fires a plasma ball that can make holes (or dissolve stuff/enemies) – think of a really effective M203 grenade launcher. I found a some hardwood (oak or maple) dowels at Home Depot that would work well size-wise. As a golfer, I sacrificed one old Pinnacle for the plasma ball, and mounted it on a 1¼” washer (I don’t play Pinnacles anyways!).

I used my circular saw and cut the dowels to size, and sanded them up a bit. Originally, I had thought I could use decals on them, but decided that I could not sand and varnish them enough for proper alignment and adhesion. Besides, this gave me the chance to play with my airbrushes. I gave them all a prime coat of Vallejo “Surface Prime Gray”, followed by Vallejo “Game Air Black”. I had some challenges with painting the longer templates due to their sizes and being too wobbly to reliably stand up for airbrushing. I made a cradle of sorts out of popsicle sticks that worked adequately – notwithstanding that I needed to be sure each coat was dry before I rotated them.

1 - 2 inch dowel unpainted — The dowel sanded and ready for priming

2 - 2 inch dowel painted — 5″ template after base coat application

3 - 1 inch dowel and ball painted — Working through base coat application on 10″ template and ball

I used some Tamiya airbrush masking tape to make the center beam, and a crossing pattern where the beam would come out of the arc weapon. I started off with Createx “Brite Yellow”. I should have noticed that the label said “TRANSPARENT”! This took a few applications (that was a learning point). I then airbrushed Vallejo “Light Orange” closer to the masking and around the ends. I then removed the masking, and used Vallejo “Vermilion” on the beam centers and the cross on the ends. Lastly, I painted “Brite Yellow” on the ends and as edging on the beams (worked better). I did the same with the ball , but in a mottled pattern. They are not my best work, but they will serve the purpose.

5 painted — Warbot Arc and Plasma Weapon templates completed

6 ball and bots — FORE – Warbot on the left fires plasma ball at a Frinx and a Star Duck (he missed!)

7 short beam — Warbot Arc Weapon (5″) in action, rear view

8 short beam front — Warbot Arc Weapon in action, showing the end you don’t want to be on

The greater portion of the work came with the making of the placards. I decided that I would make the following 185 placards made for use in Combat Patrol™ retro sci-fi. Why that many – well that was basically an educated guess based on most games that I have played.

50 wound markers
- 15 1-wound markers
- 15 2-wound markers
- 6 3-wound markers
- 6 3-wound markers
- 6 4-wound markers
- 4 5-wound markers
- 4 6-wound markers
25 stun markers
10 critical hit – optics/sensors markers damage for Mark III Warbots
10 critical hit – mobility damage (“STOP”) markers for Mark III Warbots
10 critical hit – CPU damage (“ROGUE”) markers for Mark III Warbots
20 out of ammunition markers
60 jet-pack use markers
- 20 for one use of jet pack in the game
- 20 for two uses of jet pack in the game
- 20 for three uses of jet pack in the game

My first effort was to try to sculpt with Apoxie Sculpt and to use stamps. I was very unhappy with the product, as I thought they would be difficult to read and not reliably reproducible.

1 First try at markers — My first effort at placards – not good enough

I then changed plans and decided to try to use polystyrene to see if that would work in conjunction with decals that I could print off on my HP Printer. I found a couple of decal products that I could print with – one was clear and from Testors and one white and was from Bare-Metal Foil Company. The Testors product has (6) 5.5″ x 8.5″ sheets, while the Bare-Metal Foil product was 8.5″ x 11″. I went with the Bare-Foil product for this as I thought it would be easier to print with and it had more space. I did notice that it had a white backing, which I thought would help with visibility once the decals were on the placards. Obviously, some uses would be better with a clear backing, so consider that.

I drew up some mock-ups out of paper to size my placards. I wanted them to have distinct colors (matching their rubber bands) and distinct shapes. Once I had the shapes, I designed the decals . I used Microsoft PowerPoint and Google to select images and shapes. This allowed me make a full landscape page image of the proposed decal. I would then save that PowerPoint slide as a JPEG, and insert that JPEG into a Microsoft Word document. I would then change the size of the JPEG (keeping the aspect ratio locked) and print off different sizes until they matched the mock-up placards. Once that was complete, I copied the requisite number of decals into the Word document, leaving adequate space for later removal by Exacto knife on the actual decal paper. I thought that one decal was adequate instead of double-siding the placards.

Before I could print off the decals, I needed the placards. I got .080″ thick Evergreen polystyrene sheets and 1/8″ tubes. These bond well by using Plastruct Bondene plastic solvent cement. I cut the shapes out with a template, and cut the tubes into 1″ sections. I then evenly split the sections lengthwise. Lastly, I cut the tubes into ¼” lengths. I took differently colored rubber bands, and slid them into the lengthwise cuts on the tubes. Then with the Plastruct Bondene, I attached the placards and the tubes. You do not need much of this stuff – and its good to hold the pieces together for a count of 10. I waited a few minutes, and reapplied the solvent over the attachment and the lengthwise cuts, sealing in the rubber bands as the cuts welded. The small rubber bands are the same as what we used before – they come from Michael’s and are used for some sort of young girls’ weaving crafts. I made 185 of these placards!

1c Plastruct Bondene — The solvent – be careful and read the label!

Then came the painting of the placards. I should have used my airbrush to prime them, but I wanted to use up some Citadel “Imperium Primer” I has. Plus, they were a little awkward to paint due to their configuration. After priming both sides, I laboriously (again I should have airbrushed) hand painted the placards as follows:

Wound, Stun, Optics, and Rogue markers with FolkArt “Champagne” (metallic)
Mobility Damage markers with Createx “Pearl Copper”
Out of ammunition markers with Vallejo “Bright Brass” (metallic)
Jet-pack use markers with Americana “Apple Green”

Once painted, and having painfully learned my lesson in terms of not using airbrush paints, I used my airbrush to coat the placards with Vallejo “Mecha Varnish Gloss”. This helps the decals to slide on properly.

Printing off the decals was new for me. Apparently, there are several steps in addition to printing the decals! First, once you print the decals, you need to apply a couple of coats of a Microscale Liquid Film product (better done with an airbrush, but you can brush it by hand, allowing each coat to dry of course). This application protects the colors. Then the decals can be removed with an Exacto knife from the printed sheet and put into water, but wait, more stuff needed! You also need Microscale Micro Set applied to the surface prior to applying the waterslide decals. This product improves adhesion. then put on the decal, adjusting its location with a toothpick. Let this fully dry, and then another product, Micro Sol, is used to soften the decal and tack it down. Lastly, get the Microscale Liquid Decal Film back out, and put another coat on of that, and let it dry. This will log up any brush you use, so use an old one. Now the decal is protected! Again, repeat 184 more times…for this project.

1 Decal sheet sprayed — My printed decals after airbrushing with Liquid Decal Film

1b Microscale vials — The three magic decal solutions

1a placards ready for decals — Painted placards drying awaiting decals

1f completed piles of placards — Completed placards

1g completed wound placards — Wound markers – these are 1/2″ x 3/8 “

1g duck with 3 flight placard — Star Duck with a placard indicating he has used his jet pack three times, which is the maximum per game that I allow. This one placard takes the place of three rubber bands.

1h duck with stun placard — A stunned Star Duck

1i warbot with rogue placard and Frinx with out of ammo — A CPU-damaged (“Rogue”) Warbot faces off with a Frinx whose weapon is unfortunately out of ammunition or jammed

1j warbot with optics placard and Frinx with stun, Duck with 1 wound — The Warbot on the left received a critical hit to its optics/sensors, and cannot engage as well with its weapon. The Frinx in the back is stunned, and the Star Duck on the right has one wound.

1k warbot with movement hit placard — This Warbot with an Arc breaching weapon has taken a critical hit and cannot move, limiting its ability to penetrate an obstacle.

I have organized all of these into really useful boxes with extra rubber bands (in case I don’t have enough placards for some reason). Hopefully I get to play test their use soon.

Thanks for reading – and I hope you find this helpful! Please let me know in the comments section dear reader!

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