Gisby's Gaming Blog

November 4, 2024

Colonials: Copplestone British in Tropical Kit.

Filed under: Back of Beyond, COLONIAL WARS, darkest africa, Pulp Gaming, WW1 — gisby @ 19:28

These figures are from the Copplestone Castings ‘Back of Beyond’ range. As such, they are intended for service in Northern India and environs. keeping the Russian Bear at bay. They are dressed and equipped as Britons in any theatre where Tropical Dress was the norm.

This makes them a very useful set indeed.

They are (mostly) in shirt sleeve order, wearing khaki drill shorts, socks, and pith helmets. They can be used in Africa, India, China, and places in-between, from the Great War into early WW2.

I organized them into two ten-man units. This is the first, with an officer, seven riflemen and a two-man Lewis team.

This is the second, with the same organization. I use rules for this era with ten, sixteen, or twenty-man units, so I don’t always use them like this.

These are the supernumeraries – Including the two NOT in shirt sleeve order. They allow me a small Command section, or the option of fielding a sixteen or twenty-man unit with the correct number of rifles. (Depending on the rules being used)

The three officers – Two are very similar, to be sure.

Three riflemen – The figures are similar rather than identical, and they are chosen randomly. This provides a good-looking unit, uniform without being identical. The poses and sculpting are top-notch as is to be expected when Mark Copplestone is the sculptor.

All in all, I am very pleased with the unit(s), and they are going to prove very useful!

September 3, 2024

Not-Jonny Quest

Filed under: Crucible Crush, Pulp Figures, Pulp Gaming — gisby @ 13:57

Pulp Figures recently released PHP 28 Team Chase, a set not-at-all influenced by Saturday-morning television. It contains five figures – A globe-trotting scientist father, his bodyguard, the scientist’s son, his son’s racially-cliched friend, and the family pet.

Of course it’s Jonny Quest, and I had to have them.

Bob has captured the look perfectly. Hair and features are recognizable, and they are all wearing clothes from the series. (I had to look at episodes to get the right colours to paint them)

If I have a quibble, it’s that Bandit may be a bit big. But it’s acceptable because any smaller and you wouldn’t notice him on the table.

All in all, it’s a great set, filled with possible adventures and nostalgia for a series we grew up with. (And love because of a kickass theme song)

It’s also filled with contradictions – It’s great for a light-hearted, cartoony game, with a teen hero, but man, that show was violent. Each reboot toned it down, but the original series killed it’s bad guys, often gruesomely.

The base in the back is for a Pterodactyl. Ignore it.

September 2, 2024

VBCW: The Indian Prince & The Heroes Three

Filed under: COLONIAL WARS, Crucible Crush, Pulp Figures, Pulp Gaming, VBCW — gisby @ 01:58

In my VBCW, there is an Indian Princeling resident in a country-house, so the local defence has Indian troops, both Imperial and Princely. There are rumours of a temple to Kali, and Thugs running about. The Prince may be innocent, but his Vizier is certainly suspect. A retired British officer is in residence as an ambassador/advisor.

The Ambassador and Prince are a lovely pair of figures, well-detailed, and full of character. Having no imagination, I merely copied the paint used on the Pulp website, as best as I could. I am really taken with the Ambassador.

I needed some Heroic Officers for my VBCW, and these three fit the bill. I removed the (lovely) pith-helmeted heads, and ground off the sergeant’s stripes. I then replaced the heads with some Woodbine Design WW1 British heads. This gave me my heroes, I just painted them in khaki serge rather than khaki drill.

All this is in Pulp Figures‘ PBT 26 A 1930’s Version of the Sergeants 3, combining characters from Gunga Din and The Drum. The officers originally had Wolseley-style pith helmets and sergeant’s stripes.

As always, the sculpts were crisp and clean and very well cast. They were a joy to paint, and inspired some VBCW backstory! (Which has changed since the posts shown below)

Also see

VBCW: The Rani’s Bodyguard

VBCW: Woodbine Indian Infantry

September 1, 2024

Space 1889: The Dollar Store Skrill

Filed under: Pulp Gaming, Science Fiction, SPACE 1889, Victorian Adventure Gaming — gisby @ 22:31

If you are trying to populate your Venusian jungles, you have probably already noticed how useful the Dollar Store is. They have plenty of PVC dinosaurs ready to accept paint, putty, and glue.

Recently I found a bag of dinosaurs for a dollar – I gave them a squeeze, they were PVC! Most of them were utter rubbish, but the prize was a lovely big Pterodactyl suitable for a BIG Skrill.

All I had to do is supply a flying base – I make mine using a large washer, a wire, and a pile of fake rocks to support it. If it was a metal model I would need a bigger base, but the plastic toy is lightweight.

A common problem with cheap PVCs is that they react badly to primers and clear coats. This was no exception, and after I primed it remained tacky. I painted it with dilute white paint to make a barrier, and when that was dry, I painted over that. I lacquered it today, with no problem.

Not so bad for a dollar….. Check your local Dollar Store for PVC dinosaurs – Sometimes all they need is a quick paint job.

I’ve been collecting flying reptiles of all sorts, of many scales, to make skrills of varying sizes and threat levels. See also:

Space 1889: Skrill

Space 1889: More Skrill

Space 1889: Skrill Rider

November 10, 2023

Pulp Figures – Dangerous Dames

Filed under: Crucible Crush, Pulp Figures, Pulp Gaming — gisby @ 22:15

A couple of years ago, Bob Murch of Pulp Figures and Crucible Crush released a Kickstarter called ‘Dangerous Dames.’ It was an exciting concept, superbly done. The range has 33+ women in 1930’s clothing and gear, plus a sacrificial altar, a motorcycle with sidecar, exotic pets, and a pack of accessories. There is a mix of body types, and a refreshing lack of cleavage.

Now that they are no longer a Kickstarter, they have been released as a number of packs, each with a loose ‘theme,’ some more coherent than others. (And spread out through several of his ranges) These figures are a few from the release. I have made no effort to sort them by pack in the pictures.

The figures are crisp and clean, and the detail is easy to bring out. Mould lines are minimal. My painting doesn’t really do them justice.

First we have a pair of Adventurers flanking what I imagine as a Special Agent.

Our next selection is a trio suitable as Investigators, witnesses, or whatever you need.

Now we have another Adventuress, and a pair of two Women from the Mysterious East.

Finally we have an Investigator, a Scholar (with a suspicious-looking sculpture) and an Aviatrix.

Going through the Pulp Figures catalogue to count figures in the release, I was mostly struck by how many exciting figures I didn’t show. (Although a few are in other posts.)

Pulp Figures are always great. (I am a fan) and these are especially so. The Kickstarter was fulfilled quickly and with no problems, so the service was great too. Thoroughly recommended.

August 22, 2022

Space 1889: Skrill Rider

Filed under: Pulp Gaming, RAFM Miniatures, SPACE 1889, Victorian Adventure Gaming — gisby @ 21:45

I was looking for flying dinosaurs to use as skrill, and I came across a picture of the Rafm Um-Cijo Cliff Flyer. It looked interesting, and I put it on my list, while thinking ‘That is one miniature I never would have expected I would buy.’

Days later, I was searching through a box for some other figures…. and there it was, RAF3035, ‘Um-Cijo Cliff Flyer,‘ still in its package. The price tag was for a shop I had never heard of, and I certainly had no memory of the kit.

Sculpted by Bob Murch, it is superbly engineered – the wings slot into the body, and the outer wings fit in such a way that they almost don’t need glue. There was no need to pin the wings or any other parts.

The lower half of the rider is moulded as part of the flyer. I replaced the upper half with a Grenadier elf as a surrogate Martian.

I used the base supplied, glued onto a CD, with a length of coat-hanger wire to support the creature. Here he flies with a few lesser skrill.

August 21, 2022

Space 1889: More Skrill

Filed under: Antediluvian Miniatures, Pulp Gaming, SPACE 1889, Victorian Adventure Gaming — gisby @ 02:59

Recently I have been looking for skrill. Like many others, I have been substituting flying dinosaurs for actual skrill. I have also used small-scale Nazgul mounts and dragons as small, niusance skrill. (They are cheap, which is nice)

Larger flying dinosaurs are usually quite expensive, fine if you want to use them as if they are a dragon, less useful if you want to use them like lions or wolves.

Antediluvian Miniatures has, in their Lost World range, a lovely Rhamphorhynchus, and not only is it well priced, but you can order a set of five for the price of four. This gives you a nice-sized pack of flying predators, and they are large enough to be threats even as individuals.

They are supplied with plastic flight bases, but I used bases of my own design. 40mm washers with sintra ‘rocks’ anchoring a wire support. The bottom end of the wire is bent and glued/puttied in place in the washer’s hole so it won’t twist loose.

The Rhamphorhynchus’s are far better painted on the Antediluvian site, but I wanted the pale blue look of the Space 1889 skrill. They are painted a pale sky blue with a lightly-pigmented brown wash.

Of course they are still useful for VSF, Pulp, and Lost World games!

Here they are with a skrill rider, allowing you to compare them to a Martian for scale.

August 19, 2022

VBCW/Great War: Renault FT

Filed under: 3D Printing, Back of Beyond, Butler's Printed Models, Pulp Gaming, VBCW, WW1 — gisby @ 00:42

I bought this tank for several reasons: To go with the Wargames Atlantic WW1/2 French infantry, to bolster my VBCW forces, and because I really wanted one.

The FT (commonly called the FT-17) is one of the earliest ‘modern’ tanks, with a rotating turret atop a tracked hull. It was used by (and copied by) many nations in both WW1 and WW2.

This model is a 3D print from Butler’s Printed Models. He offers a number of different variants, and also sells the turrets separately so you can switch turrets if you need a different version. It was a clean print, and takes paint and glue well – Of course I broke the main gun and replaced it with wire.

I chose a rather colourful scheme for the tank because it reminded me of a lithographed tin tank I had as a child. I keep wanting to wind this one up!

There are no markings on it, so I can use it for VBCW, WW1, Pulp, Back of Beyond, or even WW2. I could use it dam’ near anywhere.

For more information on the Renault FT, look here.

VBCW: Vickers Independent

Filed under: 3D Printing, Pulp Gaming, VBCW — gisby @ 00:26

The Vickers A1E1 only ever reached the prototype stage and only a single example was built, but it is so beautiful I needed one for my VBCW forces. (I have a weakness for multi-turret tanks)

In theory it should be a terror on the battlefield – A 47mm main gun, plus four independently-firing machine guns, it was designed to dominate the cover of ‘Boy’s Adventure’ magazines.

This model was 3D printed in six pieces, but is a bit of a franken-tank.

A good friend printed it for me, and it was a flawless print – But he didn’t cure the resin sufficiently, and on it’s way to me, the fenders warped like a flooded basketball court. The turrets were great, but he had printed all the small turrets the same, although there are two types.

The second print was commercially done. Plastic rather than resin, the dome turret had lines like a phonograph record, and he only printed two small turrets – Even more of the one I already had! But the hull was useable.

My friend tried again, just the small turrets, and printed two of each, so I finally had a complete tank. The original turret, commercial hull, and a mixture of machine-gun turrets. I had an extra of the anti-aircraft turret, which I sent to a friend in the UK who had similar problems.

In the process, I dropped the main turret and snapped the gun off. Luckily I had wire of the correct size to make a new gun.

For more information on the Vickers A1E1 Independent look HERE.

August 9, 2022

VBCW: More Mounties

Filed under: 3D Printing, Paint and Glue Miniatures, Pulp Gaming, VBCW, Woodbine Design — gisby @ 16:02

In past years I have recruited a band of RCMP to serve in my VBCW, and a Musical Ride to serve as Cavalry. They have always been my favourites, but somewhat under gunned.

I found a solution on a VBCW Facebook page – Someone had taken the Woodbine Designs Vickers gun & crew, and given them the ‘lemon squeezer’ hats to make RCMP. (This is not my original idea, and full credit goes to the OP.) So that’s what I did.

There was also a photo found online – Not really RCMP, but they look like them, and that’s good enough for me. A motorcycle combo, with a Lewis gun on the bike, and a passenger with a Bergmann SMG (or similar.) I have NO idea why the APP thought they needed this, but I fell in love with it. For YEARS I had hoped someone would make it, but no luck.

Paint & Glue Miniatures has a lovely Polish motorcycle combo, and the passenger already has a small drum-fed SMG. A bit of carving, a pair of woodbine heads, and a Lewis gun, and I finally have my RCMP bike.

The bike is delicate in places, so you really have to be careful with it until it is based. (It’s a 1-piece print!) I avoided the problem by just breaking the two pieces apart (for ease when cutting, drilling, carving) and pinning them back together with wire. But it is a beautiful piece, and the print was perfect.

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