Hobby Blog
Something Wicked…. Gaming in the Land of Oz
Dorothy & Pals... Off to see the Wizard! For those of a certain age, Christmas would not be Christmas without a seasonal viewing of 'The Wizard of Oz'. Over the years the magic has been rekindled and introduced to new generations with new tales set in Oz, 'The...
New Bolt Action Starter Set, Painting US Rangers
Since the new Bolt Action Starter Set has been released, I have been busy painting up the miniatures that came with it. Last week I posted a Hobby Blog showing how I had painted the twelve German Grenadiers. This week I am painting up the twelve US Rangers. I...
ACP164: Building a HomeGuard Army
This is the third episode in a series on Army Building in ACP164. It discusses HomeGuard units, and looks at a specific example.
New Bolt Action Starter Set – Painting the German Grenadiers
Last week we got our stock in of the new Bolt Action Starter Set. I wanted to get the contents painted up to tabletop gaming standards as quickly as I could, so broke open my trusty collection of Army Painter Speed Paints and the new Vallejo Xpress range that has some...
ACP164: Building An ILR Army
In this post, we'll look at the basics of building an army for the Independent Lapine Republic or ILR for short. This follows on from the post about building an EDF army and, as usual, there's a lot more information in the impeccably well written sourcebook, which my...
Bolt Action Starter Set painted, based and ready for action!
Last week Friday I received our initial shop stock of the new Bolt Action Starter set from Warlord Games, plus a preview copy to paint up and run some demo games with. When I received it last Friday, I did (my first) unboxing video on YouTube. Over the last week, I...
Ozz, The Great and Small
Front Rank Miniatures Seven Years War Left, Wars of Ozz Quadlings Right. I've received quiet a few emails and comments on previous posts asking about the scale or size of Ozz miniatures. The simple answer is that they are a 28mm range, meaning that a model of a normal...
Pulp Alley and the Emperors Finest
One of the things that I love about Pulp Alley is that you can grab a handful of miniatures from any genre, setting or period, define them as a Pulp Alley League and it all just works. I often say that over the years I've used Pulp Alley for Cavemen to Spacemen with...
ACP164: Building an EDF Army
In this article, I’ve looked at the origins of the EDF and how to build basic squads, using the miniatures availabe from Sally 4th.
Who are the Munchkin?
The Munchkins are a diminutive people, one of several types of Neo-Men who populate Ozz. They have long hidden from men. The great Baum is the only historian who mentions them in the ancient days and even then, he only provided a brief but insightful description of...
ACP164: Origin Story
This is a rambling diatribe about the origins of the ACP 164 game and future directions.
Mechanical Men, Robots, Napalm & Plasma Blasters in the World of Ozz
Mechanical Men with Napalm Blasters After enduring a constant stream of wars, raiders, and bandits, Professor Nitpik has had enough. For years, he relied on rumor and reputation to keep intruders away while he puttered in his laboratories and workshops. But times have...
Pulp Alley D&D Dungeon Crawl part one
Yesterday Mike & I got together to give the ideas that I had mentioned in my Reuse & Recycle blog about using some old board games such as the 2003 Dungeons & Dragons board game as the basis for a Pulp Alley Dungeon Crawl game. We played the first scenario...
Reuse & Recycle – Pulp Alley D&D Dungeon Crawl
If you've not come across Pulp Alley yet, let me explain. Although the cover and title of the book might suggest that it is a rule set for gaming in the Pulp era of the 1920's to 40's, that is not the full story. It does of course excel at Pulp era gaming, but in...
Of Mice and Men, The Kingdom of the Musculites in Wars of Ozz
A few countries have no army, but only one army has no country -- the Musculites. The diminutive Musculites have no permanent home, no borders –no recognized territory at all. They are a completely migratory people. The mice haul everything they own in carts that...
Rivers & Bridges
This is my third article about gaming / collecting / painting / printing the range of 90mm Across Flats, modular terrain tiles from Hexhog Tabletops. Last month I spent my printing & painting time printing the lovely rolling, craggy landscape that Hexhog offer as...
Midshipman Hornblower & The Barberry Pirates:1
Part 1: The Ship As a long time gamer and a long time Hornblower fan, for many years I have wanted to bring the two together with some 28mm scale skirmish gaming based on our Naval hero. Over the last year or so we have been working on the initial releases for doing...
Campfire Chaos
A month or so ago I came across a terrain system for 3D printing in MyMini Factory called Hexhog Tabletops. The system is made up of roughly 3" across the flats hexagonal tiles that are clipped together with OpenLock clips to make up very detailed model landscapes....
Pulp Alley Gaming Day, September 2024
Last Saturday, twelve of us got together for a day of Pulp Alley gaming at Geek Retreat, Harrogate. It was the first time that we had put on a Pulp Alley gaming day. I think that everyone had a lot of fun! Six different scenarios were available to be played, on very...
Blood on the Sands – Let the games begin!
A month or so ago, Frank Sultana kindly sent me the current play test version of Blood on the Sands. I'm a big fan of all things Roman and have tried out a few Gladiator rule sets over the years. My son, Lewis came over to visit at the start of this week, and he also...
Damn Dirty Apes!
I've always wanted to do some table-top skirmish and RPG gaming inspired by the 1963 Planet of the Apes original novel by Pierre Bouelle which sees French Cosmonauts visit a planet orbiting the star Betelgeuse, in which great apes are the dominant...
Hexhog Tabletops 3D Printed modular terrain
I came across Hexhog Tabletops completely by random a couple of weeks ago, on My Mini Factory, while doing some work on my own store. I certainly was not looking for another terrain system. Sally 4th sells game mats and Terra-Former kits for making 12" square terrain...
Blood on the Sands
Last week I came across an excellent set of Gladiator skirmish rules called 'Blood on the Sand'. The introductory set of rules are free to download on the authors Facebook page. The rules contain counters, a map board, tokens and play sheets. The rules remind me of...
Critter Bits – Anthropomorphic Conversions!
I love the miniatures hobby including gaming, painting and collecting miniatures, which is just as well as I have been doing all of those things for at least 45 years now. One of the aspects that I enjoy most about the hobby is converting or kit-bashing miniatures to...
The Adventures of Midshipman Hornblower
Iain Lovecraft and myself have been working on a very special project for the last year or so. We are both huge fan’s of C.S.Foster’s works and can see no end of tabletop gaming potential. Our initial release covers Napoleonic Royal Navy, French Navy and Barbary...
Warlord Games Epic Punic Wars: Week 4 Republican Roman Division Complete
Four weeks in to my Epic Punic Wars project and I feel that I have hit a bit of a milestone. The models in these photographs are the complete contents of the Republican Roman Division Box . I am very pleased with how these have turned out. They can be used as a...
Warlord Games Epic Punic Wars – Week 2 Painting
This week I have painted up my first unit of cavalry, 15 Spanish cavalry from the Allied Troops Division. The same three bases in line. I really like the ratio of frontage to depth that you get using these miniatures on 60mm x 20mm bases. I also painted up a unit of...
A Street off the Aventine
Updated 16th July 2024 This is my hobby blog detailing my work on developing a detailed First Century Rome terrain set for playing Gangs of Rome, Pulp Alley , Songs of Shadows & Dust and Cohors Cthulthu. Miniatures from Sally 4th Might of Rome / A Street of the...
Warlord Games Epic Punic Wars – Roman Infantry Painting Guide
Last week I was lucky enough to be sent a preview / demo set of the new Epic Punic Wars miniatures from Warlord Games. Even although I already have armies for Punic Wars using 28mm metal miniatures from Wargames Foundry, I am very excited by the possibilities offered...
Warlord Games – Epic Punic Wars – Week 1: A start to painting
At the weekend I made a start on painting the first few units for the new Epic Punic Wars game from Warlord Games. I decided to make a start with the Allied Division Division. The four sprues in this box make up: 6 bases of Celtiberian warriors (20 soldiers each) 6...
My Carnevale / Venice Table
I've been a huge fan of Carnevale for many years. Last year my good friend Iain Lovecraft designed some fantastic Venice inspired wargames terrain and miniatures. This terrain is designed with gaming in mind, lots of flat or slightly angled roofs that miniatures can...
Warlord Games – Epic Punic Wars – The Adventure Begins!
Today I received a very exciting parcel from the postie. Warlord Games have very kindly sent me a preview set of there new epic punic wars set to paint, demo and blog about. Anybody who knows, me will know that I am very excited about Roman history in general and...
WaterSpire 2.0
WaterSpire 2 is a Kickstarter project for 3D printable terrain and miniatures designed by Iain Lovecraft. WaterSpire is great for games set in a city filled with waterways, such as Venice, or any number of imaginary cities in fantasy worlds. The campaign includes...
Painting Ozz: Cuniculus (Rabbit) Infantry
This morning I started painting a new unit for Wars of Ozz, the Black Powder Mass Fantasy Battle game designed by Buck Surdu with miniatures from Old Glory (US) available in UK & Europe from Sally 4th. I decided to star putting together some step by step painting...
Pulpam Angiportum: Sepulcrum Serpentis – Eventus II
The Thing in the Well.... concerning events on the edge of a dark and forbidding forest, somewhere in Northern Gaul where Tertius and has companions have been drawn by a disturbing dream foretelling the power of a dark God from the Province of Aegyptus growing and...
Pulpam Angiportum: Sepulcrum Serpentis – Eventus I
It all started with a comment from my son Lewis, about The Ancient Pyramids in Egypt being as ancient to Cleopatra as Cleopatra is to us. As a long term Pulp Alley fan having a huge interest in all things Roman (real and fictional) It occurred to me that it could be a...
Rebasing / Movement Trays for Warhammer The Old World
Warhammer Fantasy Battle is returning with a 9th edition called 'The Old World' One of the changes that has happened is that the bases sizes that had pretty much stayed the same from 1st to 8th edition have been altered for the new release. Heavy, shock cavalry have...
Dungeon Saga Origins
Back in March I backed Mantic Games, Dungeon Saga Origin campaign. I had backed there original Dungeon Saga and had really enjoyed it. It's my favourite dungeon crawl board game! At the weekend the new version arrived in the post. I was very, very impressed with the...
Storing a huge number of figures in an IKEA Kallax Unit
This is a Kallax unit from IKEA. It’s a great product, It’s good value, light and strong and comes in lots of different sizes. Lots of gamers have them already for storing hobby stuff. They are great for books, board games and terrain. At Sally 4th, we’ve been making...
Early Imperial Romans vs Germans with WooD
Yesterday my good friend Mike came around to put the new Sally 4th Early Imperial Romans through there paces. The Legionaries are part of a large range of models in the pipeline covering Rome's wars and her enemies. The models are 28mm metal miniatures, designed by...
Quick, Easy & Great Looking Random Battlefields
Sally 4th has been offering a series of great looking game mats / cloths for some while and over the last six months or so we have been working on a system of terrain overlays for woods, marshes, settlements, rivers tracks and roads. Some times we have a scenario in...
Pulp Alley: Rome vs Cthulhu
Over the last year I have been working on a number of Rome themed gaming projects. We are at the moment running a Kickstarter campaign, For the Glory of Rome that includes some fantastic Early Imperial Legionaries and civilians sculpted by Iain Lovecraft. They are the...
Rigging the 28mm Xebec from Iain Lovecraft
A xebec was a Mediterranean sailing ship that was used mostly for trading. Xebecs had a long overhanging bowsprit and aft-set mizzen mast. Xebecs were ships similar to galleys primarily used by Barbary pirates, which have both lateen sails and oars for propulsion....
Pulp Alley Wars of Ozz ‘A quartet of witches in the fog’
Dave Phipps, Pulp Alley author and altogether good guy has been busy working on a Magic Supplement for Pulp Alley. I was very excited to hear about this, I can see loads of potential for skirmish / semi rpg based games with D&D characters, Frostgrave style...
Speed-painting Rob Roy Highlanders
I thought it would be useful to put a quick article together to show how I paint my Highlanders' quickly to table-top gaming standard. I am definitely more of a gamer than a painter, so when I paint I am interested in the effect from three to four foot away, as this...
Speed-painting Souk Props
Over the years Ann and I have enjoyed several trips to Morocco and have always been captivated by the sights, sounds and smells of the Souk's or markets, often located in the beautiful old Medinas. For me two of the most distinguishing signs of a North African...
Rob Roy 28mm Miniatures
Ever since I saw the Rob Roy movie back in 1995, I have always thought that the plot has a lot of skirmish gaming potential. The very talented Iain Lovecraft has designed a set of miniatures and terrain and David Phipps from Pulp Alley is developing some scenarios to...
Paint my Wagon: 28mm Old West Wagons
I've been a big fan of the Dead Man's Hand plastic gunfighters ever since they were first released because of the versatility you have to put together some miniatures armed and equipped exactly how you want them. I was therefore very excited to hear that they were...
Perilous Planets: Starfleet needs a new crew
Yesterday I was sitting at my desk, thinking that I would very much like to start a new Star Trek inspired Pulp Alley campaign. We have played many Star Trek themed games in the past, it is one of my favourite genres, so it made sense to me to have a new crew for a...
Paint 4 Table: Breton Style Fantasy Archer Regiment
Twenty or so years ago, when I ran a games store I had at least a small, playable army for each army list in Games Workshops Warhammer Fantasy Battle and WH40K game, how ever my 'personal' army, and very much my favourite was always the Bretonnians. I guess I was a...