ATZ (B Team-5): 3 Men and a Little Lady

Introduction

[B Team-4 is this way <==]

It's been almost 3 months sine I played a game of All Things Zombie, so I reckon it's high time for another!

When we last saw the B-Team, they were running down a street in panic after 2 of their members were attacked by a child zombie.  Are they infected?  Nobody seems to be sure, so maybe finding some medical assistance quickly would be a good idea.  The trouble is that the way to the nearest emergency centre is on the far size of an area of town with a reputation for gang violence.  The B-Team aren't exactly hard men and they also have a woman and a small child in tow, so how will this work?  Read on to find out...

The Scenario

This is a straightforward search for assistance.  The party must find someone to help them (either a doctor or little Lucy's father, or both).  Failing all else, they must exit the far end of the table.  Not a very clear set of goals, but life isn't always fair!

At the moment, the B-Team and allies consist of:

• Ernie: REP 3, golf club.  Sometime leader.
• Bob: REP 3, hammer.  Dumbass.  He'll be fine as long as a leader tells him what to do.
• Sid: REP 3, crossing sign on pole (improvised 2-handed weapon), bottle of antibiotic pills.
• Michelle: REP 3, bow, expensive handbag.  Slow
• Lucy: REP 2, big-ass pistol (it's her daddy's gun and she won't give it to anyone else!), 2 large knives (she found them; they're hers).  If Lucy fires the pistol without bracing it first then she is automatically stunned.

The Game

As can be seen from the picture above, random placement led to Possible Enemy Forces (PEFs) along the main road, whilst some groups of zombies were generated in the parking lots and back alleys.  This was just the luck of the dice and not any cunning plan of mine as gamesmaster!

The party advanced slowly, wondering why everything was so quiet and deserted.  Almost immediately, the REP-5 PEF from the burger bar was resolved as a lone survivor.  Kitty may have been little, but she was a very feisty and determined girl.  She and the B-Team exchanged pleasantries:
Ernie started: "Er, hello.  Are you lost?"
"No, I'm not.  Are you?" replied Kitty.
"Well, we're looking for someone.  Have you seen a tall, kind man in any shops?" (this was the only description they had managed to get of Lucy's dad).
"Sorry, no.  Look, I've got to go now, or else I'll be late for tea"
"Er, wait a moment.  It's dangerous out here; wouldn't you be safer staying with us, just until we can get you home?"
"What, with a bunch of losers like you?  No, thanks!"  With that, Kitty skipped down the road and off the table.  [This was something of a relief to me, as I had visions of the B-Team becoming a magnet for every little girl who is out alone in the zombie apocalypse.  Why are there so many of them and so few gangers or police?!]
As she passed the party, Kitty looked over her shoulder and called out.  "I wouldn't go that way if I were you.  You'll be sorry!" [the REP-4 PEF in the school bus was also resolved, but as a heightened sense of danger/encounter level].

The B-Team ambled on, pondering the words of the departing girl and wondering what she knew that they didn't.  They would have done better to pay attention to their surroundings, as they suddenly became aware of a couple of zombies who were almost upon them [The B-Team missed several activations in a row.  It was just as well that there were only 2 zombies!].

Now came one of those fateful moments on which a game can change completely.  The players had basically 3 choices:

1. Run for it (i.e. down the street)!
2. Attack the zombies before they moved again.  At least the party would have had the initiative.
3. Retreat into the book store and barricade the door.

So, which option would you take?

A very appropriate "Friends to the End" random event card was drawn; the B-Team acted as one without any dissent.  Not fancying their chances in melee and wary of other groups of zombies and the last PEF in the open, they chose to enter the store.  Fortunately for them, the door wasn't locked (50% chance!)

Sadly, the inside of my book store model isn't detailed.  At least it has flooring!

Unfortunately for the B-Team, the building wasn't empty.  A single, ragged zombie stood in the middle of the building, looking directly at them.

The men froze; everything happened too quickly for them.  Firstly, the zombie shambled towards little Lucy.  She saw it coming and fired her pistol, but missed and stumbled backwards in surprise at the noise and recoil [Lucy's special rule: she is automatically stunned if she fires the pistol without resting it on something solid first].  Before anyone else could react, the zombie was on top of the fallen girl and had bitten deep into her shoulder!

Michelle was the only one to react.  "Get off her, you monster!" she yelled, as she lunged at the zombie.  She tripped and fell, but the zombie's attention was now on her instead of Lucy.  It stooped over the prostrate woman and tore a gaping hole in her throat.

This was too much for Sid.  With a whimper, he fled up the stairs to the next floor of the building, leaving Bob and Ernie shocked and motionless [failed "brown pants" rolls]!

Sid didn't find safety on the upper floor, though.  He had just reached the top of the stairs when he realised that the store manager, warehouseman and a shopper were all present.  Sadly for him, they had clearly succumbed to the zombie plague and were moving towards him.  If nothing else, the firing of Lucy's gun must have alerted them.  Sid screamed and turned to run back down the stairs.

He stumbled and tripped down the stairs, finally landing on top of the single zombie that was busy trying to eat Michelle's corpse.  Fortunately for Sid, the zombie's neck was broken when it cushioned his fall.

A moment later, the 3 men found themselves fighting for their lives, as the 3 zombies from the upper floor and the 2 zeds from outside in the street all converged upon them at once.

Desperation must have given them strength, as within moments the B-Team had knocked most of their attackers to the floor.  The zombies were slow to rise [i.e. they failed some critical activation rolls!] and the men went on a frenzy of hitting the fallen undead again and again, with hammer, golf club and crossing pole.

Within moments, there was nothing left of the attackers; the only things still moving were the B-Team themselves.  Sid retched violently when he saw what was left of Michelle, while Ernie approached Lucy with trepidation.  "Hey, guys!" he called "she's still breathing.  She's alive!"
"Oh, man!" exclaimed Bob.  "What do we do now?  I'm not a doctor; I don't know any first aid".
Ernie continued "I dunno.  Maybe we could wash her wound, or something like that?  There's a McDooms just up the road; there must be some water in the toilets there."
Bob and Sid both stared at him.  He realised that they were looking at him oddly and then he blushed.  "The restrooms will have sinks, guys!  They'll have taps with clean water.  What the heck did you think I meant?"

The B-Team paused briefly to redistribute the weapons from the fallen woman and girl, then they cautiously exited the book store.  A trio of zombies were shuffling up the street, but they had their backs to the men and didn't notice them.  With Bob cradling the unconscious Lucy, the team made their way carefully across the street and into the fast food joint.

My McDooms building doesn't have a detailed interior either...

Inside the burger bar, a solitary zombie was sitting at a table, barely noticing the entrance of the people.
"I've got this" exclaimed Ernie, as he pushed past his friends and strode up to the zed.  He swung his golf club hard onto its head and the creature slid beneath the table, crushed.

"Argh" grunted Bob as Ernie pushed past him to attack the zombie.  He didn't let Lucy fall, but in struggling to keep his balance, Bob's foot became trapped between the restaurant's door and its frame.  "Shit, that hurts!" he mumbled as he struggled to avoid shouting out loud.

The B-Team found some water (in the kitchen) and tried to wash Lucy's wound with it.  Sid also found a first-aid kit on the wall; he squeezed out most of a tube of Germoline and rubbed it over the girl's shoulder, hands and face.  It didn't seem to do much good, but "It can't hurt, can it?" was his attitude.

There wasn't much else they could do inside McDooms, so the men left the building after looking carefully out of the window for hostiles.  The 3 zombies were still ambling slowly up the road, but they were heading away from the restaurant and didn't see the B-Team.

The B-Team stood and watched the undead for a few moments, just to make sure that the creatures were indeed unaware of their presence.  Ernie spoke: "Isn't that, er, you know?  Her from the telly?  Ah, the presenter from 'Cake Challenge'?  Always wears a big string of pearls?"
"You mean Mrs. Danvers?" replied Bob.  "It could be...I'm not sure.  I guess she's past caring about her appearance now!"
Sid had been somewhat withdrawn since the action in the book store.  He chimed in, rather harshly "Well, if you want the pearls then why don't you go and take them?  She won't mind - all you have to do is crush her skull, you know!"
Ernie looked at the older man, but since he couldn't think of an appropriate response, he just shrugged.

After a short pause, Ernie exclaimed "Right, we've got to get out of here!"  He stuck the pistol into his belt and took the wounded girl from Bob, then ran along the road and down a side street.  Bob hobbled after him as fast as he could with his sprained ankle.  Sid was left behind a bit; he was examining the bow that he had taken from Michelle's dead body, trying to figure out how to use it.

Within moments, 3 fresh zombies (ex-hobos and gangers, by the look of them) had appeared on the flank of the party.  Sid wasted some time trying to shoot arrows at them, but he missed.  "Dang, this isn't as easy as it looks!" he muttered, as he jogged down the road after the rest of the party.

Suddenly, he realised that Ernie and Bob had disappeared and left him behind.  Sid ran to catch up, loosing one last missile from his bow.  Surprisingly, the arrow hit one of the zombies; the creature paused to look at the shaft sticking out of its chest.

The other 2 zeds ignored this distraction and closed in on the man in the dayglo uniform.  Sid gave a little shriek as he felt them clutching at his coat, but with a short sprint and a kick he was clear.

He even managed to catch up with the hobbling Bob, before both of them followed Ernie off the table and away to safety - at least, for now.

Aftermath

This was a failed mission by any standards: the B-Team didn't recruit any more help and didn't find a doctor (or even someone with first-aid training).  Not only that but they lost one team member and had another one bitten by a zombie.  Not good!

The ATZ:FFO rules say that REP can go down after a failed mission.  Each character rolled a dice: Bob and Ernie are OK, but Sid decreases to REP 2.  I guess his nerves are shattered; he can't take much more of this!

Then we come to the part that I was dreading: what happens to Lucy?  We rolled a dice to see if her zombie bite is infected and it came up as a natural '6'.  Lucy's bite wasn't contaminated and she won't turn into a zombie - at least, not on this occasion!  Of course, she's still injured and won't be fully effective (!) for a while.

I think I've finally decided that the wounds taken by the men from a child zombie in Game 4 are not infected.  It just seems too harsh to do anything else (and it was a strange situation); the B-Team have enough troubles without this as well!

So, what next?  These guys are stumbling from one crisis to another, just about surviving.  Should they continue looking for Lucy's dad, or for a doctor?  Or should they hole up somewhere and try to recuperate?  The 4th member of their group, Sam, is still in a hospital somewhere after being shot by the police (Game 2), so maybe they should try to find him?  I'm not sure...

Showcase: Junkers Vehicles

Introduction

2 weeks ago, I talked about my 28mm Junkers Sandrunners.  These 2-legged lizards and their riders are pretty weird, even for a science fiction army.  However the original VOID 1.1 range had some elements in the same force which are (in some senses) much more conventional.  It's time to talk about the Junkers vehicles!

Quad Bikes

In the picture above are both variants of the basic Junkers quad bike.  On the left is the standard model, armed with "twin combat shotguns", while on the right is a decurion (NCO) with a chain gun/rotary cannon.  Note that I've replaced the cast metal aerials with a piece of steel wire (for strength) topped with a tiny bead (so that you don't impale your hand when picking up the model).

As quad bikes, these models are quite large.  That's OK - I can imagine them carrying a passenger as well as the driver, or perhaps a small amount of cargo.  They have well-spring suspension and look capable of travelling cross-country at high speed.  So far, so good.

Where my suspension of disbelief breaks down on these is with the weaponry.  Mounted weapons of any kind on a quad bike would be extremely difficult to aim, especially if the driver is being bounced around whilst moving over rough terrain.  OK, I could easily enough imagine that the "combat shotguns" (which in real life would be for fighting room-to-room in built-up areas?) are actually assault rifles or light machine guns, but that still doesn't get around the aiming problem.  Also, I don't see where is the ammunition supply for such high rate-of-fire weapons.  Hmm.

Dune Buggies

I have 2 of the Junkers dune buggies painted up (and several more unstarted ones in boxes).  This first one is the standard chain-gun model.  It has room for 2 crew in the "cockpit" and in the back it has an open "turret" mounting a very large rotary cannon and another crewman.

Again, the basic vehicle looks very capable, fast and rugged.  The weapon makes it look a bit top-heavy, though.  I wonder if the dune buggy would tip over if the gun is fired in any direction other than straight ahead?

There's also something about this one which makes me particularly annoyed - the driver is firing a weapon!  My own personal experience suggests that it requires a lot of concentration to be in control of a civilian vehicle in peacetime.  By rights, driving cross-country whilst under fire should require one's full attention.  But this guy has 1 hand on the wheel and is using the other to shoot at something off to the side.  I predict that the dune buggy will smash in 5..4..3..2..1..SPLAT!

Here's the second form of Junkers dune buggy: a "transport".  Again there is space for 2 in the cockpit.  Thankfully the driver has both hands on his controls, but he has a buddy beside him who is shooting away.  At the back of the vehicle is an open platform with handrails and a further 3 passengers.  The buggy clearly has room for rather more people than this - perhaps 6 or so on the platform - but perhaps such a load would slow it down too much?

There is a third variant of the Junkers dune buggy (with twin flamethrowers?), but I haven't got any of those.

Bonus APC

I have one more vehicle for my Junkers force, but this one isn't a bike or buggy.  Rather, it's a full-blown armoured personnel carrier.  It was built from a Games Workshop model that I had lying around after some old project.  It's been painted in the same camouflage as the other vehicles, so it clearly belongs to the same army!

This model came with several weapon options.  Rather than choose one and glue it in, I built all of them.  Each hatch or fitting has been glued to an insert; the 2 openings in the roof of the APC have been lined so that (almost) any combination is possible.  The "plugs" are made from the bodies of 10ml disposable (plastic) syringes, whilst the "sockets" in the APC are made from the slightly larger 20ml syringes.

Here's one possible combination, with a twin machine gun and a simple closed hatch.

Another variant; this has a missile launcher and an opened commander's hatch.

Conclusion

The dune buggies and quad bikes seem a little out of place as purely military vehicles.  The basic chassis are good models, though and I have several more to build (some time!).  I'm very tempted to convert the crews into post-apocalyptic savages (see this post for the style I'm thinking about) and re-arm the vehicles with quad spearguns and the like.  Road Warrior - here we come!

Robin Hood and the Abduction of Marion

Introduction

A little while ago, I published a Song of Blades and Heroes battle report entitled "Robin Hood and the bishop of Lichfield".  It was always my plan to play more games in this setting, so here is another one.  Actually, we played the scenario twice, since the first game was very short.  Read on to find out what happened...

The Scenario

The Sheriff of Nottingham and his dastardly men have taken Maid Marion prisoner.  It's not important for the game how this occured - perhaps she was hiding out in a local nunnery, or maybe she was in disguise and visiting a sick aunt.  Anyway, Robin Hood has heard about this and is giving chase through the forest, along with some of his men (the others are away on a raid elsewhere in the county).  If the Sheriff can just drag his captive to within sight of the town of Nottingham then Robin's band won't dare to follow any further.  Will Robin catch up and rescue the lady?  Or will the Sheriff succeed with his nefarious plans?

We decided to play the Kidnap scenario from Song of Arthur and Merlin.  Roughly speaking, one warband has captured someone important and must escort their prisoner from one side of the board to the next.  They have a 1-turn head start over the rescuers, who are pursuing them.  One figure from the kidnapper's band must spend an action every turn to keep the captive under control; a second action may then be used to move the prisoner and captor together.  If the captive ever becomes uncontrolled then the rescuers may move that model as part of their warband - if thy make the requisite action rolls, of course!

Victory is determined as follows: 5 victory points to the kidnappers if they move the captive off the far table edge, or to the rescuers if they move the captive off any other table edge.  1 VP is also scored for each 50 points value of enemy figures lost.  Since we were playing with 400 point warbands, this would give an absolute maximum of 8 points in the unlikely event that the enemy's warband was slaughtered to a man.  The fate of the captive was more likely to determine who won the game!

The Forces

The Sheriff's Men

• The Sheriff of Nottingham: moderate fighter, leader, evil
• Guy of Gisborne: good fighter, armour
• Yorik the Jester: poor fighter, dodge, distract
• Lesser Knights (Sir Stanley, Sir Walter): moderate fighter, armour
• 4 crossbowmen: modest shooting, rabble
• 13 men-at-arms: modest fighter, rabble
• Lady Marion: captive!

Robin's Men

(Sadly, I didn't have enough personality points to field both Robin Hood and Little John - Robin is a very expensive character!  I suppose that Little John is leading a different search party somewhere else)

• Robin Hood: good shooting, good fighting
• Friar Tuck: modest fighting, inspire
• 9 Merry Men: modest shooting

So, Robin and his band are outnumbered by about 2:1 .  On the other hand, most of his opponents are rabble; these are much easier to scare off or kill than normal.

Game 1

In the first game of the afternoon, the Sheriff (my youngest son) chose to bring on his band of ne'er-do-wells in one corner of the table and advance down the edge.

Guy of Gisborne scouted ahead, whilst the other knights and the jester dragged Marion forwards.  The Sheriff started marshalling his crossbowmen behind a small clump of trees, whilst most of the men-at-arms didn't move.

It proved remarkably difficult to bring any of the rescuers onto the table at all [the Song of Blades system allows you to roll 1, 2 or 3 dice per figure for actions - but if you get 2 failures then your turn is over.  I tried rolling 2 dice usually, but had a stunning number of double failures].  After 2 turns, only 3 outlaws, Friar Tuck and Robin Hood himself had arrived.  Rather than bring them on close to the mass of men-at-arms, I chose to try to outflank them and run for the knights and the prisoner.

With the Sheriff encouraging them, the crossbowmen shot bolt after bolt at the nearest outlaws.  Over the course of 2 turns, they killed 2 of them outright.  Then, the 3rd man slipped over whilst dodging one bolt only to be hit by another missile in a very sensitive place.  He writhed about the ground screaming, before collapsing to the ground in a fountain of blood [i.e. a "gruesome" kill].

The poor outlaw's horrible death unnerved Friar Tuck; he took a few steps away from the grisly sight.  Robin Hood also had to take a morale test [because he was within "Long" distance of the kill (just)].  It shouldn't really have been a problem, but he rolled 3 failures and promptly legged it off the board.  Oh, man!  How could I possibly recover from this - I don't think that Friar Tuck was going to tackle all of the baddies on his own and even if more Merry Men had arrived, there was no certainty that they could catch up with the prisoner or overcome the escort.  Game over, man!

Or was it?

In the excitement of shooting down the outlaws, the Sheriff hadn't yet spent an action to keep the prisoner under control.  The last crossbowman rolled 2 activation failures; thus signalling the end of the turn for the kidnappers.

As the knights jeered at the famed Robin Hood for running like a bunny rabbit, Maid Marion slipped from Sir Walter's grasp.  She immediately ran in the opposite direction [Marion activated on a 5+ and was 2 moves away from the side edge of the table.  If I could roll 2 activations out of 3 dice then she was off and safe - but I only rolled 1].

Only Yorik, the jester, was quick-witted enough to grab for the fleeing damsel.  He almost had her, but was then wrong-footed by a sudden jink.  Maid Marion disappeared into the edge of the dark forest and was lost to sight within moments [At 3+ activation, Yorik had a good chance of recapturing the prisoner; he would need one move to reach her and a second activation to subdue her.  However, out of 3 dice he only threw 1 success, thus allowing him to draw level but also signalling the end of the baddies' turn for the 2 failures.  Marion then took another turn, threw 3 successes out of 3 and ran like the wind off the table edge].

Well, that was unexpected.  Final scores: 3VP to the Sheriff for vanquished foes, but 5VPs to the Outlaws for a prisoner escape.  Victory to the Merry Men!

Game 2

Whilst it was satisfying in some ways, the first game was over so quickly that we had enough time to play the same scenario again.

This time, the Sheriff's men entered the table rather more in the middle of the edge.  Even if Marion managed to escape, she would have much further to go to reach either side [and with only a 5+ activation, it seemed unlikely that she'd make it without being recaptured].  Also note that both she and the Sheriff were surrounded by soldiers - my son wasn't taking any chances with his 2 most valuable models!

Again, the Merry Men were slow to arrive - and when they did come on, it was in dribs and drabs.  One outlaw fancied his chances in hand-to-hand combat against the Sheriff's rabble, but was quickly dispatched.  The others tried to keep moving parallel to the kidnappers whilst waiting for reinforcements to arrive.  Marion did indeed struggle enough to break free when she saw Robin arrive, but she was quickly surrounded and caught again.

In a surprisingly aggressive move (or perhaps it was a cunning delaying tactic?), the Sheriff sent small numbers of men-at-arms to engage the would-be rescuers, whilst the knights and the jester dragged Marion further across the board.  Initially, the rabble had some success: the standard bearer killed one Merry Man and the other 2 soldiers had Friar Tuck on the ground and in trouble.

With a flashy piece of archery, Robin shot down the standard bearer [another gruesome kill].  One of the men who was attacking Friar Tuck fled at the sight, though the other wasn't so easily impressed.  Still, this did allow Tuck to regain his feet.

However, the reprieve was temporary.  With a howl of fury, Guy of Gisborne charged the poor friar and swept his head from his shoulders with one mighty blow [gruesome kill, again!].  Robin Hood was so taken aback at the fate of his friend that he retreated a few paces.

Guy followed this up with a ferocious charge at Robin, pushing the outlaw back until he was almost off the table.  This was his undoing however; the moment there was a slight gap between them Robin put 3 arrows into the knight in quick succession.  Guy's armour wasn't enough to save him from the master bowman; he sank to his knees and was out of the fight.

Meanwhile, the lesser knights and the jester, encouraged by the Sheriff, were crossing the table alarmingly fast.  The Merry Men really couldn't afford to hesitate if they were to have any chance of rescuing Marion.

While Guy of Gisborne had been on his rampage, more outlaws had arrived on table.  The strung-out men-at-arms had attempted to stop them on occasion; sometimes they had succeeded in delaying the Merry Men for a while, but in the end they mostly died or ran away.  The Sheriff didn't have many men left, but the knights were close to the table edge with the captive.  Could they drag Marion away before Robin could rescue her?

Yorik the jester was now the rearguard; he had considerable success in distracting the pursuers with his tricks and jokes.  Robin ran as fast as he could, ignoring the sideshow and firing occasional long-range arrows at the sheriff - but the kidnappers just had too great a lead.

Sir Stanley kept firm hold of Marion, whilst Sir Walter protected his back and the Sheriff of Nottingham encouraged them from the side.  Robin could do nothing to prevent them from escaping, as Marion was dragged away, biting, kicking and cursing in a most unladylike manner!

Result: 6VP to the Merry Men (for casualties caused), but 7VP to the Sheriff (2 for casualties cause and 5 for the captive).  The bad guys win, Lady Marion is captured!

Conclusion

This was a very interesting scenario and one that was quite difficult for the pursuers.  In both games, the Sheriff's Leader ability was critical, mainly for the +1 Quality for activating nearby followers but also for the ability to issue group orders.  He was able to keep the kidnappers moving fast and while Robin and his men dispatched hordes of goons in the second game, they were delayed just enough that the captors could escape.

The Amera Amphitheatre

Introduction

A couple of weeks ago, at Salute 2014, I bought a couple of bits of terrain from a company called Amera Plastic Mouldings.  They make vacuum-formed pieces and while this technique limits the sharpness of detail that can be achieved, their terrain is incredibly cheap.  I've had my eye on them for some while - the long-defunct Bellona range of vac-formed terrain is a very fond memory of my childhood - but until now I'd not bought any of Amera's product.

Of the 2 pieces I purchased at Salute, I've now finished one.  I have special plans for the other (F218 Temple Ruins); it won't be finished as a temple if my ideas work out - but that's for the future.  For now, here is a description of the model that I have completed.

The Amphitheatre

This piece appears in the Amera catalogue as "F208 Amphitheatre".  Officially it is in the 28mm Fantasy section, but I see no reason why it couldn't be used for historical settings or indeed for 15mm or smaller figures.  Other than the depth of the terraces and possibly the size of the stone slabs, there's not much to indicate scale on this.  Indeed, the "orchestra" (the circular space in the middle for the performers) averages 78' (23m) in real-world Ancient Greek theatres.  For 28mm figures, this equates to rather over 1' (30cm), which would be a prodigiously large terrain piece.

So, my amphitheatre is going to be a small, provincial affair rather than one associated with a busy city.  However, it has a wealthy patron, so the orchestra will be paved with marble rather than just packed dirt.  This is really just an excuse for me to try out a circle-cutter that I got for Christmas (from a pound shop or similar "bargain" store, so not a very expensive tool at all!).

I cut out a disk from plasticard that was embossed with paving.  This is really sold for scratch-building model railway layouts and is scaled for OO layouts, so the paving is perhaps a bit small for my project.  Still, it'll just have to do.

I also cut out a slightly larger ring from plain plasticard, to be used as a border.  I used a triangular file to mark out the stones on it by cutting a slight groove every 1cm or thereabouts.

Fitting these new parts to the model was easy - or at least it would have been if I'd applied the super glue to the correct side of the plastic!  If the finish looks a bit rough then that's because I had to wipe off the embossed side very quickly, wait for the remnants to dry and then try again.

I also took the opportunity to shape the rim around the bottom, thus removing any straight lines.  It's my opinion (not backed up by any science of which I'm aware!) that straight lines draw the eye more than gently-curved ones.  My intention is for the base to blend in with the table a bit better.  I really don't know if this works or not, but there we are.  Hmm.

Actually, I did consider removing the base rim completely, but I decided that it probably added some structural strength.  I also thought of packing the reverse side to enable the model to take heavy figures.  However, it's made from quite thick plastic as it is and barely flexes when I press down in the centre of the orchestra.  In the end, I decided that such reinforcement wasn't needed.

Painting

The amphitheatre was coated with my usual grey undercoat (Halfords spray body primer, for cars).  The circle of marble was painted in a much paler colour and then all the stonework was washed with black.

For the dirt parts, I under coated with a mid yellow-brown paint to which some sand had been added (for texture).  A couple of successively lighter dry-brushes completed this.

Finally, the edges of the stonework were highlighted and I added some static grass and clump foliage.  This theatre might have had a rich patron once upon a time, but I think it's fallen on hard times more recently and the weeds are starting to take hold!

The End Result

It occurs to me that I haven't mentioned the size of this model amphitheatre yet.  Well, it works out at roughly 30cm wide and 21cm deep, or perhaps slightly larger than this.  Even if it's really too small for a historical Greek theatre in 28mm, it's still quite a big model!  The figures seen on it are some of my "Jason and the Argonauts" project; I don't think that the skeleton warriors summoned by the evil King Aeëtes are part of the show at all!

The cost of the amphitheatre is a mere £3.50 (plus a little for the materials I've used on the model).  I'm very happy with the way it has turned out and I can certainly see myself buying more products from Amera in the future.  Now I've just got to work out how to store this piece...

Showcase: Junkers Sandrunners

Introduction

I've been falling behind my intended posting schedule a bit, recently and I can't quite put my finger on why this is so.  Sure, I've been busy with work and family - but that's always the case and so it isn't any real excuse.  Perhaps I'm spending too much time reading other people's blogs, instead of updating my own?  Possibly, but surely there's time enough for both?

Anyway, here's a description of some models I've had for some time.  This is part of my ongoing plan to document my collection (though I doubt very much that it's realistic to photograph and describe everything I've collected over the years).  Still, I've got to try!

Without any further ado...

Junkers Sandrunners

The Junkers were one of the 4 human factions in the VOID 1.1 Science Fiction game.  Originally these models were produced by I-Kore, though the range was obtained by Scotia Grendel when I-Kore folded (actually, that's simplifying the history a bit, but I can't remember all the ins and outs of it).

I bought a lot of the Junkers, Viridian and Syntha figures cheap when the game fell out of favour.  The VOID 1.1 rules are nothing very special, I think (just a d10 "Warhammer 40,000" knock-off), but I like a lot of the models and they can easily be used with other rules such as 5150 or FUBAR.  Although I've painted a fair number of my VOID models, I have many more just waiting...

As written, the background for the Junkers was a harsh, militaristic dictatorship.  Some elite forces were pampered and equipped with the best that money could buy, but many brutal penal legions also exist.  Think of a cross between House Harkonnen from Dune, the Soviets under Stalin and the Roman Empire.  Within their army, the sandrunners are scouting forces that consist of melee-armed troopers mounted on bad-tempered, 2-legged giant lizards.  How could I resist!

Within my sandrunner collection, I have 2 different commissars or enforcers.  These are there to enforce discipline and ensure that no-one has any unpatriotic thoughts (by blowing their brains out should anyone start thinking for themselves)!  I doubt that I'd ever use both of these enforcers at the same time, but either could be used alone as a lone spy, scout or post-apocalyptic nutcase, I think.

 Of the 5 troopers, the sergeant and 1 of his men have short swords.  The other 3 guys have thermite lances - basically an explosive charge on the end of a long stick.  In theory these can eliminate anything up to (and including) a main battle tank, but first you'd need to get close enough to charge the enemy and secondly you'd have to hope that the back blast didn't kill you.  Life is cheap in a sandrunner patrol!

Here's a view from the other side.  You can see that the lead swordsman is left-handed; this is quite unusual amongst wargaming miniatures.  I approve thoroughly of this, since I'm corrie-fisted myself.

I see these guys as tasked with patrolling remote areas or backwater planets to keep down native resistance, rather than being thrown into a main battle line.  They have simple equipment that doesn't need much maintenance or fuel, so they can be fairly self-reliant.  There are examples of this role in many places, such as the initial Star Wars film on the desert planet and indeed in the later colonial empires of Britain, France &c.

Mind you, I still don't know how the troopers manage to ride the lizards without being eaten.  They're some of the most bad-tempered critters I've ever seen used as cavalry mounts!