Since I now own a set of Pulp Era Skirmish rules I’m looking for ways to quickly create some appropriate scenery - as well as re-use my existing terrain.

I plan to re-use my Mordheim table (without the bridge) as a basic ‘dock-side’ tabletop however I’ll need to create some more 1930’s era buildings. I figure a system of resin doors and windows in 5mm foam card wouldn’t be a bad place to start.

Design Preservation Models have some great looking model railway terrain that looks like fine inspiration for 1930’s buildings. Pictured is part of their modular ‘O’ scale kit and apparently ‘O’ scale is pretty close to 28mm.

Last night was a gaming night and Dustan dropped around a $20nz Medalist ‘Hobby Engraver Kit‘ (aka a cheap Dremel clone) that he’d picked up from Mitre10 on the shore for me. Thanks man!

Looks like it’ll be very handy for modelling and for $20nz the price is certainly right. Branded Dremel tools from Mitre10 are more than ten times that price!

This tool is battery powered with a mains charger, which is a mild hassle I’ll admit. I still can’t get past the $20nz price though. Even if it only lasts a month of modelling it’d still be a good price. At that price they’re almost disposable imho.

If you’re a New Zealand hobbyist I’d suggest checking out your local Mitre10 for one of these.

Heresy Miniatures have started selling this great looking Ogre! He’s sculpted by the same gentleman that created GW’s Vampire Counts Ghouls. I really like the exagerated musculature and snarling face. The legs look a little odd but then I guess he’s meant to be winding up his mace for a backswing…

He looks like with a bit of extra green stuffing he’d make a fantastic Necromunda Scavvie ‘Scaly’ - while I’ve yet to play Necromunda I’m very tempted as several of my gaming friends have gangs.

Via Tabletop Gaming News.

Pityak Studios run a friendly forum for New Zealand modellers. We’ve had a few challenges there recently (not ‘competitions’ because no prizes are involved), including ‘Take me to your Leader‘ and the ‘CD Terrain Challenge‘ which is currently ongoing.

I’ve seen a lot of good terrain based on an old CD on various forums and have always wanted to try it myself. So over the past week I abandoned all my other projects (surprise) and threw together the pictured terrain!

It’s a ruined building corner intended for use in Warhammer 40k and 40k City Fight. It’s constructed almost entirely from Hirst Arts gothic pieces cast in Ultracal 30 with a plastic drum from the Games Workshop Battlefield Accessory sprue and two pieces from the Tank Accessory sprue - points if you can tell me which pieces.

As it was a small piece of ‘throw away’ terrain I used it to try a few things I haven’t done before. I really ruined a lot of the pieces by attacking them with a small hammer to create rubble. Some of the pieces were also partial mis-casts and rejects because of bubbling, something you fortunately don’t really notice in the finished piece.

I tried my hand at ‘bullet holing’ the pieces as well by drilling with a 1mm and 3mm bit and chipping with an Xacto. I placed bullet holes just around the exterior of the doorway and ruined window. They look ok, but not great imho. Possibly I should have created at least one massive ‘thru-and-thru’ (as they say on CSI) blast hole - something to try next time I guess.

Finally the ruins paint scheme is a departure from how I usually paint which is three drybrushed coats of interior house paint over a black spray primer.

Instead this ruin was simply painted a creme colour over the assembled bricks, then washed with a blend of Kiwi liquid brown shoe polish and 50/50 Klear floor wax and water. Once dry a single coat of slightly lighter creme was carefully drybrushed over.

I was trying to acheive the look of marble or sandstone that has been heavily stained by age and/or pollution after being inspired by some great terrain by Wig on the Hirst Arts forum. I feel the effect is close but not exactly what I wanted. Possibly because I couldn’t help myself and fell back onto the warm brown palette I always seem to end up painting! I wonder if gray or black Kiwi shoe polish with give a different overall appearance.

The ground is a more orange than I would have liked but I can live with it. That sandy looking effect combined with the sandstone building actually makes the whole piece look like a ruined city on some dust blown desert world and also matches the paint scheme of my Imperial Guardsmen too.

Overall I’m happy with the piece and it was really enjoyable experimenting with a small, tight piece of terrain while having no fears about simply chucking the whole thing away if it went bad.

I suspect this won’t be the only piece of CD terrain I create…

Paul Tevis has recently posted interviews with game designers recorded during the GAMA Trade Show on his
‘Have Games, Will Travel‘ podcast.

I’ve just listened the Gareth-Michael Skarka interview which discussed distributing RPG rules via PDF. I found it interesting considering I seem to be buying more products this way.

Hasslefree Miniatures sell a range etched brass foliage of various scales.

One that particularly caught my eye was the ‘Fan Palm’ which surely would be superb for Flames of War North African terrain. They have a couple of ‘non-foliage’ etched brass products too, the most useful naturally being barbed wire.

I do wonder where they’re sourcing them from because I have a sneaking suspicion they’re simply resellers.

Spotted in the March Fictional Reality.

Rattrap Productions publish some interesting looking 28mm Pulp Era Skirmish rules.

I’m a fan of the Indiana Jones movies, similar TV shows and Raymond Chandler, so I bought a copy of the rules from RPGNow along with ‘Dragon Bones - Adventures in the Gobi Desert’ too. I mean for $7us + $6us for two downloadable PDFs how could I go wrong?

They make interesting reading, with a flexible d10 based system and a definite focus on capturing the flavour of Pulp era magazines. It is also scenario based (rather than points based like Mordheim) which should work to create a very movie or serial-like atmosphere.

Check out the free downloads for examples of the rules and scenarios. There’s also an excellent PDF tutorial for creating quick yet attractive buildings from cork floor tiles. The system’s author also regularly posts to the ‘Hot Lead and Steel Sinews’ Yahoo forum.

Hmm although I guess that means I may need some 28mm Pulp Era figures in the future! Here’s a good round-up of manufacturers…