VSF "Steampunk" Electro-pistol Conversion

Inspired by photos I've seem on the web of "steampunk" style weapons others have made, that were converted from Nerf guns, I set about to make one of my own.
I chose a Busy Bee Toys' Ultimate Snipe Blast as the basic gun I would start with. This is a Nerf style gun, but much cheaper, not having the Nerf brand name.

I began by removing all the screws and soaking the gun's parts in water and dishwasher soap to help remove the mold release on the gun's surface. I left it to soak over night then dried it and reassembled it without the firing parts inside. I also removed the handle in the back used for cocking the weapon.

Then began the fun part of gluing on the bits and bobs to transform it into a VSF looking weapon. I used an assortment of scrapbooking craft gears and screwhead brads, and plastic model bits, a clix base and some other bits.

I then sprayed the whole thing with Krylon Fusion Camo Flat Black. When this had dried, I drybrushed it with a gun metal craft acrylic, and then picked out detail with copper and brass colors.

I'm very pleased with the results, and I must say that the whole process was a lot of fun. I think I am going to make some more of this kind of weapon, and see what I can do with other styles of Nerf type guns.

A Few Figures For Cold Wars

I'm busy getting everything ready for Cold Wars, which is fast approaching. I thought I'd take a moment and post some photos of a trio of figures that I have recently completed for my "Victoria Hawkes and the Lost Roman Colony" Cold Wars game.

German clockwork armored suit made by Eureka Miniatures. Called "Krieghosen" on their website.

Rear view of the Kireghosen. I love the gears and key details.

The evil Roman priestess. This figure is a Shadowforge Dark Temple Acolyte.

Back view of the priestess. Probably a little more of a 'back view' than is proper. But then if you're an 'evil priestess' you can get away with it.

The heroic Roman General. I believe this might be a Foundry figure, but I got it in a lot of assorted figures, so I may be mistaken.

Back view of the Roman General.

Zombies Part II & Horrorclix Zombie Hunter Conversion

As I explained in my entry from three weeks ago, our club is embarking on a zombie project. Everyone is responsible for painting 20 zombies since non of us wanted to paint hundreds on our own. I showed the first ten zombie figures I had finished in the entry three weeks ago, and today I am showing the second ten. We are using the Wargames Factory plastic zombies and I really love their multi-pose options and conversion potential.
I also completed a female zombie hunter that I converted from a Horrorclix figure.

Here's a shot of all ten zombies in my second batch.

This is a closer look at half the group. I'm really pleased how these turned out.

These are two of my favorites; the Life Guard and one that's taken a close range shotgun blast to the chest.


Here's a view of their backs. I love the irony of a zombie being a "life guard", and James 'Tank' Nickle gave me the idea for the shotgun zombie with the big hole in front and all the smaller exit wounds on the back.




This is a closer look at the other half of the second batch.

This is two of my favorite conversions; the crawling zombie who's lost his lower legs, and the doctor zombie that has large shoulder damage from being a zombie's lunch.

Here's a view from the back of these two.

This is another favorite; the swimmer zombie. I'm really pleased with how the floral pattern on his swim trunks turned out.

Here's a back view of the swimmer zombie.

This is a zombie hunter converted from the Horrorclix "Runaway" figure

Here's a back view. I love the teddy bear on the back pack.

Here's a look at the original Horrorclix figure and the conversion side by side. The original figure is holding a hacksaw in her left hand which I cut down to to look like a pistol.

The HAWKs' Barrage XV One Day Gaming Comvention

The HAWKs(Harford Area Weekly Kriegspielers)held their annual one day regional convention "Barrage XV" last Saturday January 22, 2011. The convention was held in the cafeteria of Archbishop Curly High School in Baltimore. There was a near record turn out of gamemasters, vendors, and players and everyone had a great time.

The large Look, Sarge, No Charts: WWII game Buck and I ran. The scenario depicts a hypothetical attempt by German and Russian forces to capture a town on the outskirts of Lvov in Poland '39 as the Poles try to destroy a German battery which is shelling Lvov.

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Another shot of our big Look, Sarge, No Charts game as German forces threaten the Poles' last line of defense.

A closer shot of the Poles' position

Scott Perry's Carlist War game. It was a great sight to see all these beautiful and rarely seem armies arrayed on the table

Eric Schlegel's Cedar Mountain Civil War game using "A Union So Tested" rules

A closer shot of the Union and Confederate lines.

Matt Kirkhrt ran two well received ancients games using these innovative figures made from wooden craft bits.

Another shot of Matt's beautiful home made ancients

Here's a video of some of the days events.

And here is a link to the Barrage website where you can see more photos from this year's convention: http://www.bucksurdu.com/Buck_Surdu/Barrage.html

New Club Zombie Project

My friend Buck and I were talking over the Christmas holiday and, both being fans of the book World War Z, we were discussing how it would be cool to do a zombie project, but neither of us felt we wanted to dive into such a project if it meant painting a couple hundred zombies. So we struck upon the idea of making it a club project where each member only had to paint 20 zombies and a small group of survivors. When we brought the idea to the club members we were met with an enthusiastic response. It seems we weren't the only ones interested in doing a zombie project but not in painting hundreds of zombies. We agreed to use the 28mm Wargames Factory zombies since they were reasonable priced and offered a lot of flexibility for variety of poses. We will probably adapt our GASLIGHT rules for the games.
I purchased a pack at the local brick and mortar game store and have begun to put them together and paint them. I'm finding it to be a lot of fun to find creative poses and as I build more I'm getting inspired to do more involved conversions. I had a couple sprues of the freebie Wargames Factory ancients that had been given out at some of the HMGS cons, and I Incorporated some of the parts from these into some of the zombies I made. I also found the zombies to be a pleasure to paint.
Here are some photos of my first attempts. These are the first ten that I have assembled and painted. I will post the next ten when they are finished. I've been enjoying them so much I may do anther twenty. Who knew making and painting zombies could be so infectious. :-)

New Year's Eve Battle

It has now become something of a tradition for the HAWKs, that Buck Surdu and his wife host a New Year's eve party and gaming day for the club on December 31st. This year we had two miniatures games and two card games while waiting for the ball to drop in Times Square. I volunteered to run one of the games, and brought the Father Christmas Letters battle that I had been working on (see previous blog entry). I ran the battle using our GASLIGHT rules. Buck ran a 1920's gangster game as the other miniatures game using our Blood & Swash rules. We finished out the night playing Munchkin and then Kung Fu.

The small town of Granville, IL was the scene for this gangster battle pitting two rival mobs and the police against each other in a three way contest over stolen money, and a kidnapped Senator's daughter

All seems quiet as my gang enters town.


Another street scene, as innocent civilians stroll about, unaware of what is brewing in the back alleys. For more detail on this game see Buck Surdu's blog:
http://www.bucksurdu.com/blog/

A view of the North Pole and Santa's compound as the battle begins.

Some of the forces of good arrayed for battle.

Some of the Goblin army bent on stealing Santa's presents and spoiling Christmas.

Buck's daughter, Sammy, moves her toy soldier guard to defend against the onrushing Goblin horde.

On the other side of the compound, the teddy bear battalion and cannon brace to receive a charge from Goblin cavalry and infantry. A clockwork Santa bomb wobbles up to explode on contact with the cavalry, as Yukon Cornelius and the Bumble move up in support on the left.

Goblin archers and their catapult and troll take their toll on the toy soldiers. In the upper right Santa and his friend Polar Bear move up to offer support.

The teddy bear and cavalry battle continues and Rudolph joins in

Santa battles a Goblin Hero on his spider mount and is killed by a freak Save roll of 20. In future games we may rule that whoever kills Santa has to put on his outfit and become the new Santa.

The North Pole Elf Militia (NPEM) moves up to support the teddy bears. Meanwhile, Rudolph has fallen to a goblin cavalryman's attack.

The elf cook's hot chocolate catapult moves up to support the beleaguered bears.

Close up of the Elf Cook's Hot Chocolate Catapult

The carnage continues as the goblin cavalry is eliminated as is the bear cannon, and most of the bears.

A view of the thick of the battle.

The end is near as goblin infantry and evil snowman poor though the undefended main entrance. In the end it was an overwhelming goblin victory. In retrospect it was decided I had set up the goblins too close to the compound so the North Pole Defenders had not had sufficient time to move into defensive positions before getting hit. We also felt that I had under rated the stats for the North Pole Characters.