We Have a Winner!

Oh you had no idea there was a contest on did you? Well there was, the Annual Fiends in Waistcoats Super Secret Referring Site Contest! As long time readers will know I like to check my Blogger Stats for no useful reason. So in an effort to give this compulsive behavior a purpose not to mention reward those bloggers kind enough to and this blog to their blog roll I've created this contest. The 2015 participants are;
Monkeylite's Modlhafen
Nimrod's Too Many Knives 
Fran's The Angry Lurker 
TamsinP's Wargaming Girl 
Gordon's I Have Wrought My Simple Plan 
Legatus' Legatus Wargames Armies 

(For identification purposes in case of chance encounter)

And the winner is TasminP!!!!
Followed by Legatus who nearly eclipsed her with referring hits form a second blog Legatus Victoriana. Trust a lawyer to come up with a trick like that. Better luck next year Legatus.

WHAT YOU WIN
 Well Tamsin that's up to you send me a note at ageofbloodiron at gmail dot com or through the dreaded FB with your desire. If its cars for car wars give me the general dimensions of the cars you have and the sort of chassis you are looking for and I'll source them out. If you are car wars fatigued check out Reaper Miniatures catalog and let me know what takes your fancy. I'm giving you access to American toys that my be hard to come by in London. Note Reaper has a 6mm not Battletech line
that may be of interest.  Finally I'm limiting this shopping spree to $40 have fun.

Still No Hobby Work But I Bring You Twerking!

I realize that seeing Hana Montana as she is now saddens many people but be of good cheer gentle readers the Oxford English Dictionary confirms that Twerking was stared by Victorian's in England no less!

“It was in use in English as a noun by 1820 (originally spelled ‘twirk’) referring to “a twisting or jerking movement; a twitch.” Its use as a verb emerged a couple of decades later, in 1848, and the ‘twerk’ spelling had come about by 1901. The precise origin of the word is uncertain, but it may be a blend of twist or twitch and jerk, with influence from the noun quirk and from work (v.) in reference to the dance.” Oxford English Dictionary. You can see the full article here.

Soliders of the Queen WIP

Well this is not Monday, but on Monday gentle readers I brushed aside much needed domestic chores in favor for prepping my Warlord British infantry for The Zombie Incident of 1888. I managed to get some decent light infantry skirmish poses out of the Warlord British Line Infantry plastics. The kneeling poses which are really more indicative of the aftermath period where British troops restored "order" to London. These kneeling skirmishers will figure into "The Battle of Whitechaple", where in the government forcibly disarmed the women of that district. Whom through various means had amassed a considerable supply of firearms during the course of the Incident. I'm not so happy with the major clean-up job I'll have to do to the metal figures that came in the box I hope all this work will pay off in the end.

Happy Father's Day

I'd like to wish a happy Father's Day to all my readers as I know many of you are fathers. Sadly still know hobby work done so far, but I'm clearing some space to begin work on some character conversions for the ZI (The Zombie Incident of 188) as shortened by Sir Michael the Knight of wargaming. So expect some WIP shots Monday night.

NO Hobby Work Today

Today was my only day off I'm back to the grind in the morning so no hobby stuff again this week. I did get the spend a few hours will old friends who heard of my current Star Wars mania. I was given this Micro Machine fan club special edition set. Now I have a 15mm Darth Vader and a tiny Star Destroyer.


I've been very busy of late with real life issues like staving off eviction and getting a better job so I have neglected to mention three new followers to the blog. They are; Another World Miniatures they make some nice figures check them out, John Wasterfors of Mars1889, British Legion who has a youtube channel (if you also have a blog let me know) and Kuan Hua Quah of Foureyed-Monster he is a rather impressive painter please check their blogs out they are rather interesting.

Sir Christopher Lee R.I.P.

Sir Christopher Lee passed on today ending both an amazing professional career and severed the last leg of my personal triad of Gothic Horror.

 

Sir Christopher Lee's Hammer horror films in combination with both Vincent Price's Poe films

and the Warren Publishing horror comics (see here) created my deep love of Gothic Horror. Now that the last living link to this triad has pasted this particular combination will never inspire another young soul again. But perhaps The Zombie Incident of 1888 will one day corrupt one young impressionable soul in an abiding love of the Gothic Horrors now past.

Speaking of The Zombie Incident of 1888 I realize I have zombies, British troops, the Werewolf of London, the Gentleman from Norwich, The Mysterious Crown Agent Ms. P, Sir Michael and Her Majesty's Rejects awaiting completion. In addition I have these innocent victims to finish the Bicycling Barrister, Proff Prayt, Jim the Milk Lad, Billy the Baker's Boy, Buster the Hound and Sad Tom the Tinker buster's master. I'm working on the stories for two more characters not yet begun Fran the Fireman and Gilbert the Shakespeare Reciting Gorilla. So once Real Life permits gentle readers London of 1888 will get some new denizens.

Tips For Making Rock Cliffs

Six years ago I made this terrain table for a local gaming convention (the last time I've been to a game convention!!) when I joined the dreaded FB I joined some groups including Wargaming Terrain Tips (or some such name) and I posted this picture. Many members of that group, including that scoundrel Ray, demanded tips on how to make the rock cliffs in this board. So I'm going to do a very quick review of how I made the rock cliffs I'd like to make a proper detailed one but that will require making another board and then take proper step by step pictures. Here are some pictures of the rock cliffs painted but without flock.

28mm Infinity Miniature for scale

The cliffs are built up out of foam insulation...

Then the rock cliff "faces" are clad in cast rocks cast out of tuffstuff using Woodland Scenics rock molds. They are very durable and by placing a mold on a slight angle when casting you can get different rocks from the same mold. For large projects you are going to need several different molds. I used five molds for this project.

First I cast up a small ton of various sized rocks, you'll notice I experimented with adding pigment to the plaster while casting.

Then you star gluing them to the foam framework. Its very much like a jigsaw puzzle. You'll have to break up many of the rocks to make a nice looking wall, I started dry fitting them before the plaster fully dried it was easier to break them into the shapes you need that way.

Then I used filler paste (plastic wood as the case was) to fill in the gaps. Finally added small rocks along the cliff base.

That's it in a nutshell folks!

Star Wars Madness in Space

I know I number several Full Thursters or whatever fans of this game call themselves amongst my readers. I have never played this game but I found a simplified Star Wars specific set of rules for convention play with my Google-Fu. I like them a lot so thank you Rod & Aaron Cain for making them. And yes before you ask I did check out Star Wars Armada I have the free rules which look nice & fast but I can't abide making the ships twice the price of the X-wing ships without addition content its just too much of a GW move for me to stomachache.

Next up will be to find a 6mm or 10mm scale rules set for huge land battles then I'll be set on the Star Wars front.

Source Material

I used my google-fu last night to dig up some PDF scans of the old WEst End Games Star Wars Role playing Game source books. These books used original materials from the first trilogy provided by Lucasfilm. The RPG rules are translatable into the West End Star Wars Miniatures Game which is an added bonus. I will be using them for the background information in my Star Wars games.

West End Games produced this game from 1987 to 1998 when the company went bankrupt. West End never produced PDFs as internet publishing didn't exist while the company was in operation so all these PDFs are fan created book scans.

The early books contain many unreleased early Star Wars sketches.

Trading For Star Wars

As you know I've decided to return to my roots and get into Star Wars miniatures in a big way. So I an looking to trade off the miniatures from long forgotten projects in exchange for some Star Wars swag. The very bendy WOTC pre-painted figures are acceptable. As are action Fleet toys of a compatible size. I will post up a permanent trading page on this blog as soon as I remember how.

INFINITY miniatures from Corvus Belli
Aragoto Senkaenbutai boxed set of 2 bikes, miniatures in box unassembled.

Japanese Sectorial Army box set (starter set) The Kemeita and Niga's swords are broken (a common issue with these miniatures), miniatures in box assembled and partially painted. This box also contains the 2nd Domaru Butai with boarding shotgun.

WARZONE MUTANT CHRONICLES These are the classic metal figures from the 90s.

TG1208 Warzone Dark Legion Legionnaires 

  TG9505PB Warzone Dark Legion Undead

TG9854PB Warzone Mishima Hatamoto Leader

You can contact me here through Google or on FaceBook if you are interested in trading.