I have completed a short PDF painting guide for a Battletech wargames miniature, mostly using Games Workshop Foundation paints. The PDF includes photos and comments through the various stages of painting. The Archer mech is used for the Classic Battletech game but the guide could be used to help any painting technique or genre of miniature hobby.
Archer Battletech Painting Guide PDF (2650)
Download the guide here. If you like it, please register on this site and leave a comment.
This week we played a Killzone (wargame by Nick Lund) tabletop wargame in 15mm using some Ainsty Downbelow terrain. The game was based on Mars and we used some Infected human types on a Martian research base as foes for the military sqauds arriving on the planet.
I have created a short background and rules for use of the Infected in Killzone. You can download the A5 PDF of Infected human details here:
Killzone Infected Wargame Statistics (455)
External Links:
Short web comic with photos of the action from the game version of our game session.
Rules Download and much more for Killzone by Nick Lund on the excellent Gisby website.
I have pulled together a selection of photos from the GW (Games Workshop) Battlecars range. Battlecars is a tabletop board game which can be played with 6mm scale miniatures, which are sadly no longer produced by Games Workshop. It was an 80’s classic game from Ian Livingstone and has stood up to the test of time. The models can be picked up on ebay at over £1 a model and often fetch a lot more, I spotted one auction at around $30 for only 5 of the tiny cars. Big money for the size of each 6mm model! You can also usually find the rules on ebay which can cost up to £40.
Games Workshop also produced a car game called Dark Future which was released with plastic cars in Matchbox scale (20mm). Dark Future was based on a track rather than a free-form city area used in Battlecars. I prefer the smaller scale and mechanics of Battlecars but Dark Future was a fun game to play and allowed for more detail of weapons on the cars.

There are alternatives to using the sweet little 6mm cars and you can use Micromachines, Hotwheels and Matchbox cars. This will require you to scale up the game board which would be easy to do with a few bits of cardboard and a steady hand. Battlecars had an expansion called Battlebikes and some of these are pictured in the gallery images. The trucks were released as models but no rules where ever put together for them, which is something our group in Crawley are now working on and we have the prototype rules ready for testing.

The game itself is great fun with simple rules for the use of a mix of weapons and templates to cover your damage and the location of ammo. Ramming is great fun and a well played game can lead you into some fun scenes of auto-carnage. You can read about the board game in detail here Battlecars at Boardgamegeek .
To view the full collection of painted models in full painted colour click here: Gallery of Battlecars

One of our local gamers Kevin has pulled together a quick reference sheet for a Necromunda ganger squad in Excel. You can easily update cells with WS (Weapon Skill) and all other game stats. Please feel free to download a copy and use for your house gang. File is a Zip file containing an XLS sheet.
Download: Necromunda Gang XLS Sheet (706)
I have recently finished painting a Hasslefree 28mm Miniature called Sebastian. I like his old stance which is stooped and makes for an interesting character. I am currently using him as a Paladin figure in a D&D game and he matches my 55 year old character well. The figure itself was very clean and needed only very minor work to clip and sand off any extra bits of flash.
I started with a base of black undercoat and then used new Games Workshop foundation paints for the initial colour layers. The sqaure base is a metal one from Freebooter and the Shield is from a Confrontation set which I added to match my D&D character who uses a shield. I mounted Sebastian in the metal base with Green Stuff and used sand to texture the base before painting.
The armor is painted to look old in grey and I rushed it a bit so the result is not exactly a “fine blend”. It looks good enough to game with and I finished the model with an enamel gloss varnish followed by a matte dull coat of varnish.

Follow this link to view more close up photos.
You can find the Sebastian Knight figure to purchase on the Hasslefree web site.
Dusted off my old copy of Games Workshop Necromunda for a game this last week. Managed a short skirmish between a Delaque (sneaky guys in long jackets) and Escher gang (Punk Girlz) . Both local gamers Agent of Ping and Kevin joined the game and discovered quickly how easy it is to start jamming the unreliable weapons used in the Underhive. It was interesting how, even with a Heavy Plasma carried by the Escher Ganger “Candy” it was difficult for the house to bring any arms to bear on the sneaky Delaque.

You can view more pictures of the game over in the gallery here: Necromunda Game May 2007.
If you are thinking of integrating a forum with the blog software wordpress you will find an excellent resource over at the Blogger Help website. The article goes into detail on Simple Machines Forum, Vanilla, BBPress (The Wordpress Forum) and phpBB. A very concise guide and well worth a read if forum use is important for your blog.
I spotted a very interesting article on the classic British comic 2000AD over at the BBC website. The comic, first published in 1977 at a cost of just 8pence, is the subject of an article highlighting some interesting parallels between the comic and modern society.
Who needs Nostradamus when you can pick up a copy of 2000AD and read the full story. It feels like the obese life of the Fatties has become a reality!

Have a browse over to the BBC site to have a read of all the wildly interesting similarities between modern life and 2000AD. All in very good taste!

Are we in the middle of a folk renaissance? I think I am and I am especially enjoying the work of Kate Rusby and more recently Julie Fowlis.
Kate Rusby

I have been lucky to watch Kate live at the Corn Exchange in Brighton (UK) over the last few years and she is magic! Kate has such a clean and pure voice that carries you into her songs with a goose bump. In the style of many folk singers she also narrates the performance with interesting notes about the songs, where she learnt them and other quaint details. There are also a couple of her songs that call for audience participation on the chorus which adds to the fun. I would recommend you catch a Kate Rusby gig soon and be prepared to sing-along!
Julie Fowlis

I first heard Julie Fowlis on BBC4 in a recording of the Cambridge Folk festival in 2006. She was performing a Gaelic song called Puirt a Beul which is very striking. Her vocals are most gymnastic and she also switches to the whistle near the close of the track. The recorded track on the Album does not do the live perfromance justice! Julie is playing this coming Wednesday 8th Nov06 at the Komedia in Brighton (a very fine Venue) and I will drop another journal entry in after the event with news of the performance!

If you are interested in a taste of Julie Fowlis you can purchase her latest music from the album Mar a Tha Mo Chridhe in MP3 format here: Tradtunes Download for Julie Fowlis You can also purchase the CD and find out about gigs on the Julie Fowlis official site here: Julie Fowlis Home

Julie Fowlis