The 4Ground Damaged Church

I've had my eye on this particular kit from 4Ground for quite a while. I always like the idea of having a bombed out building on the table as it definitely gives more narrative to the game - there is also a normal version of this kit as well, but I don't think that'll end up in the shopping cart (though it would be neat to have that complete version on the table and then swap out to the damaged version when it takes hits!).

I used my usual Gorilla super glue for the main part of the build - again, not for faint of heart or the inexperienced 4Ground modeler, but if you've seen any of my other posts I like that I can get a kit built much faster by not having to wait for parts to dry. I did use the recommended PVA for the windows and shingle upgrade (you'll see that below) as that gave me time to adjust and work those much more fragile parts in. The kit went together extremely fast, I finished everything except for the window details over two afternoons, with no issues at all.

The details on the door frames and windows is absolutely fantastic. What makes it even better is the fact that it's not a complex build to get this result; it's simply three parts glued on top of each other, so well done 4Ground.

This was a bit interesting, a part number, B1, was on the front of this window?! So I'll have to either use some scrap MDF or plasticard to cover that up.

And the basic build completed, except for the window details, from several different angles.

I knew that I was going to upgrade this kit as much as my abilities could manage, as I had an final picture in my head before I even began this build. One of the first things that I did was to use the 4Ground shingle add-ons. I still have several of these from other projects in different colors laying around, so it was a matter of deciding which color I thought looked the best. I went with the Glazed Red Tile shingles as I thought it made the church pop a bit more than the gray or blue.

These add-ons are highly recommended if you build any 4Ground kits - I've used them on several builds now and couldn't be more pleased with the end results.

I cut out some single tiles and turned them a bit to give the destroyed parts of the roof more of a distressed look.

And the end results with the MDF plate I cut out for the church...

I also added a couple of Battlefront's Battlefield in a Box Craters to add to the narrative of the destroyed building.

The other thing I did was to go through and add some light and dark grey paint to random bricks throughout the model. As well as using the 4Ground bleached wood paint to paint over the exposed edges, something that I think makes a huge difference in the overall look of the model.

Secret Weapon Exhaust Black pigment and Citadel Nuln Oil was used to enhance the blast hole on the tower, as well as around the walls of the main part of the church. The Secret Weapon pigment is a nice product, but it gets everywhere even when being really careful with the application. I had it on my shirt, pants, all over the MDF plate I cut for the church, and even got it on my Cigar Box Battle mat... extremely frustrating, though ultimately my own fault for not taking a bit more precaution around the mat.

More enhancements were made to the blast hole by adding Pegasus Hobbies bricks randomly around the damaged area.

Black pigment applied to the blasted part of the roof as well.

More Pegasus Hobbies bricks were added throughout the blasted parts of the church, and 4Ground paints were applied to them.

A detail shot of a smaller in tack window and then a partially destroyed one to the right. I used a pair of small scissors to cut the acetate to give an appearance of broken glass to the window. I think it worked brilliantly!

The main stain glass window is amazing! The photo doesn't do it justice at all, definitely something you need to see in person.

The front of the church, and an above shot, before the overall wash was applied.

Flock from Scenic Express was used on the MDF plate, as well as rubble and more random bricks. Below is a quick shot of PVA placed for the rubble and brick piles.

I used the Secret Weapon pigment to enhance the craters, and couldn't be happier with the results.

More of the rubble and bricks.

I didn't take a good photo of them, but the two trees you see - which are from Woodland Scenics - on the base, I used magnets to be able to move them if they caused any issues during game play. I picked these up at the local Hobby Town a few months ago because I had a $5.00 coupon that brought the cost of 20 trees down to $22.00. A great deal price wise and why I jumped at it. Well, these trees are pretty awful. The clump foliage literally just falls off in clumps. I guess for just over a dollar a tree I shouldn't complain, but I don't see me buying these types of trees ever again.

Looking now at the photos I'm going to have to go back to the roof and make some improvements on the scorching. Way too linear.

I really like this shot! I did do some detail work inside the blast hole with rubble and bricks, but didn't get a photo of it.

As usual whenever I use MDF I get the obligatory warping on my base. Extremely frustrating.

And the following is the end results of all the repainting, brick and rubble additions, and modifications.

Some of my members of the 508th outside the church.

Super happy with the end results. I do have some of 4Grounds church accessories coming, which I will alter with destructive goodness, and that will add a bit more narrative to the inside of the building - with broken and burned pews, the altar and font. There is one other thing I'd like to try that will take the final product to another level, but we'll keep that one under wraps for now :) Anyway, I'm calling this one table ready now.

I guess I should also quickly mention why the blog has been quiet for a while... our superstar at the farm had surgery on both his front legs about a month ago. So everyday it's me and Mr. Jack outside in the pasture for a few hours hand grazing - him, not me - on top of all the normal farm duties. Some mornings it's been pretty cold or raining, but others like today, it's been nice. The best thing is I've been able to put the earbuds in the phone and I've gone back and re-listened to all of The Brit, The Yank, And The Hobby podcasts, http://thebrittheyankandtheyhobby.libsyn.com/, as well as going back to the B.A.R. (I guess I should say "the Bhaaar") and listening to early Bolt Action Radio talk. Good stuff!

I've been working on a French Partisan army for Bolt Action in between this build, so hopefully can finish that up and get some more narrative and Hollywood-esque BA games going. As well getting the church into a Bolt Action AAR.

As always, thanks for looking!
Ivor

Dr. Benton Quest and Bandit

Dr. Benton Quest. A scientific genius who was involved in the US space program and in the forefront of research in many other areas, Dr. Benton Quest was often called upon by the US government to investigate strange happenings. Based on the 26 episodes of Jonny Quest we saw, there were a LOT of strange happenings to investigate!

Finding the right figure to represent Dr. Quest proved a bit more difficult than I first anticipated. Benton actually wore more outfits than anyone else in the main group. He had different colored lab coats, wore different colored suits, and had several different polo shirts as well. I decided to go with what I'd call the "classic" look when you think of Dr. Quest, so I went with a lab coat scientist. Though I think I'm going to make another figure of Benton in a suit, as I'm not sure how well a lab coat figure will work in different settings - a jungle for instance.

The model I went with for this first version of Benton came from Crooked Dice games. What's great about these figures is they have a separate head system so it allowed me to try to find a head that looked as close to him as possible. And I think I found the perfect one - it came from the box set of Minions I got with my other 7TV stuff.

He's holding a neat little science gadget that really captures the animated version of Quest too.

Bandit I'd actually finished about a year ago but I changed his base to a clear one to match the rest of my pulp figures. He came from one of Bob Murch's Pulp Figures line, though I can't remember exactly which one. Certainly not representative of the animated version of Bandit, but close enough.

The music soundtrack I ordered from Jonny Quest also arrived while I was finishing up the figure. It's from La La Records and honestly I can't even remember where I heard about this company, but however I did I'm so glad I did because this thing is absolutely amazing!

It's a two disc set with music from every episode, almost 130 total tracks! Limited run with only 3000 copies made too.

And here is the gang so far...

Next up the kids...

As always, thanks for looking!
Ivor

The Crooked Dice Goodies Have Arrived!

It was with great joy that I opened my mailbox a few days ago to see these two boxes waiting!

My order from Crooked Dice arrived safely from across the pond just over two weeks from when I placed the order. I went overboard as I usually do when I see really cool stuff, and these guys certainly have a ton of really cool stuff available!

The top of the box has some really neat retro artwork along with images of two figures from one of their more recent releases, a hero (a very James Bond looking chap) and a villain (a very early style Ernst Stavro Blofeld looking chap), both expertly painted by the brilliant Kev Dallimore.

The back of the box.

The side of the box.

And what I found inside once I took the cover off.

The contents of the box; blast template, dice, gadget and countdown cards, unit cards, tokens and plot points markers.

It's really neat how the guys at Crooked Dice have created and presented these rules. 7TV is essentially a fictitious television studio from the 60s and 70s that produced both television shows and also movies. So your games are basically episodes of a show or parts of a movie. Personally I think this is just genius, and really looking forward to seeing how it actually plays out on the tabletop.

The mcguffin plot point is a retro style tv!

The rules are in two different books; the main rules in your 'Directors Guide' and the rules for your "casts" (your figures) -both pre-made and how to create your own- in the 'Producers Guide'.

I will say that I don't particularly like how the rule books aren't a normal book size. But maybe that's because every single rule book or supplement book I own, or have ever owned for that matter, has been like that and that's what I'm used to.

When I first printed out the pdf download I bought for Ghostbusters, the Paranormal Exterminators Program Guide, I initially thought something was wrong with the file because of how it looked. It was when I opened the main box and saw the two rules books I realized that was how it was supposed to be. Definitely not what I would have preferred. Just one nerds opinion though, it doesn't take away from the game in the least.

I absolutely love Ray Harryhausen, I think he was a genius and he was without question someone who influenced me to build models and create worlds of my own. Here's a photo of my autographed Harryhausen  picture - which I'm sure is a fake, but it doesn't matter. It is right above my desk and it is an inspiration to me every time I look at.

I'd heard about 7th Voyage (the tag line is 'wargaming in the world of stop motion mythic fantasy') a while ago, but I felt that I had enough rules and different time periods going on that even though I loved the setting of the game, I wouldn't make the purchase. Until it just happened to be on sale when I bought all my other 7TV stuff! So hopefully in the near future I can play a game on the tabletop in the same spirit of a Harryhausen movie; Talos and some skeletons have to be up first I think :)

I also picked up a whole bunch of figures. Most of them definitely fall into that "minion" category, where I'll use them as guards for a villains lair or something similar. This first box is actually the Minions Starter Set!

These next groups of figures are from their Department X range. But again, very minion like, and even though they are supposed to be good guys, I can see them being used in the same way as the set above for the bad guys. 

I also grabbed a set of the scientists. I had thought I'd found a good proxy for Dr. Benton Quest, of Jonny Quest fame, but when I opened that figure it turned out to be not even close to what I had envisioned. So Crooked Dice to the rescue! The top left figure is now going to be Dr. Quest!

And last but not least, my Ghostbusters figures. These guys will round up my named characters for the game. The Dana Barrett and Louis Tully figures are just amazing! Hopefully I can paint them well enough to do the sculpts justice.

Lots of goodies from the guys at Crooked Dice, so a big thanks to Karl Perrotton for getting me all sorted! Stay tuned for a rules overview and maybe even a test run of a game.

As always, thanks for looking!
Ivor

"Made It Ma, Top Of The World!"

I absolutely love that quote from "White Heat". And it's just a great movie beginning to end too; James Cagney in full on gangster mode, brilliant! Why hasn't someone made a Cody Jarret figure anyway?

Well, that's kind of how I felt when I saw the newest issue, #348, of Wargames Illustrated. My Chicago Way table and game from Historicon got a full page of coverage, with 4 photos and a pretty neat couple of paragraphs about it.

When the issue finally arrived in the mail, I immediately went to the Historicon coverage pages. It's always neat to flip through that section of the magazine each October and look over the photos because it's the only time I can ever say "I got see that in person" when looking through the magazine, or sometimes quite the opposite, and be like "when was that game, I totally missed that?".

I have to admit I did have a small hope that I might see a picture of my table, but even if I didn't that was ok. The three days that I had it set up, I got a ton of people taking pictures, asking questions, and giving compliments, which was absolutely amazing in itself. That definitely made it worth all the time and effort I put into the board.

I have to give a big thanks to Dave Taylor, from http://davetaylorminiatures.blogspot.com/, who I'm 99% certain is responsible for all the photos of my table. I remember talking with Dave (mostly because of that black shirt he always wears with his awesome logo on the back, plus I've seen him a lot over the years at H-con) on Thursday about the table, buildings, models, and game. And also him taking some photos of the board, and specifically moving a few models around to create a bit more of a narrative feel. So thanks a lot Dave!

Also want to give a shout out to my friend Miles Reidy, who also got a full page spread on the very next page no less! If you've read any old posts or have been following from the beginning you'll recognize the name. He's definitely someone I try to emulate when I attempt to run a game. I've even coined the term "The Reidy Doctrine" which states "We're here to have fun! I'm going to make mistakes with the rules" which I make sure to say before every game I run. I've had the privilege to play in at least one, but usually more, of Miles' games since I've been going to Historicon, and he never disappoints. Definitely check out his blog if you have the chance http://lairoftheubergeek.blogspot.com/

So of course this absolutely raises the stakes for next year at Historicon - can I make something just as good to get back into Wargames Illustrated? Hopefully. I've got three solid ideas for games and tables, and of course you've already seen one of those with Ghostbusters, so I guess we'll see!

As always, thanks for looking!

Ivor