VSF

 

Getting started on my VSF-variant Sellswords and Spellslingers campaign, here is my party during a recent ARSS operation in the Balkans.

Left to right: Professor Humphrey Hodgeson, Maisie Hodgeson and "Jack".

Professor  Humphrey Hodgeson. A younger son of Lord George Hodgeson, his academic achievements at Oxford led him away from the usual family careers of the Military or the Church (his older brothers include a Major General, a Rear Admiral and a Bishop). He was quickly recruited by a clandestine branch of the Foreign Office, the department for Arcane Research and Scientific Studies. As well as the inventor of numerous devious (and sometimes dangerous) devices used by ARSS operatives, he is a fine shot with a revolver. Currently operating in the Mediterranean theatre.

Maisie - the Honourable Margaret Mary Georgina Hodgeson. The youngest child of Sir William Hodgeson, Professor Hogeson's eldest brother. Her intelligence and adventurous spirit led her to join her favourite uncle on one of his missions, by stowing away in his trunk. On the conclusion of which ,she was offered an official position within ARSS.

"Jack" - Jonathan Berry. A 2nd cousin to Sir Graham Berry, the Premier of Queensland. He first came to notice commanding the police unit that captured the infamous Ned Kelly, the mutant bushranger, and his gang. He was subsequently recruited as an operative of the Colonial Office, tasked with investigating some of the more "exotic" occurrences throughout the Antipodes. Currently on secondment to the FO in the Mediterranean ("Boss, you're sending me to work for an ARSE?"). 

Jack and Maisie engage with some Balkans brigands.

 

Jack distracts an Iron Man, whilst the Professor prepares a suitable devious device. 

More VSF/Steampunk with Vehicles

 So what makes the difference between Victorian fiction and Victorian Sci-Fi? Exotic weapons and steam-powered conveyances of course!

I already have reasonable collection of horse-drawn transport (although it's mainly rural, some more urban vehicles and in the planning stage), but I needed some steam-powered vehicles. Scouring Ebay, some good old die-cast toys supplied my need!

Sir Henry Willoughby-Smyth shows off his new steam-power carriage to a lady admirer (a Brumm model).

Not to be outdone, Lord George Ponsenby invites Sir Henry to view his latest stream-powered conveyance from Italy (this one is a Rio model).

And a street view from a recent game.

That's it, I'll be getting some of the latest efforts photographed and posted after Christmas.

In the meantime Season's Greetings everyone!

Some Lockdown Painting - VSF/Steampunk

 Recently, in between lockdowns, I've played a few games of Wolsung from Micro Art Studio in Poland, with an old gaming buddy who recently returned to the hobby. She loves painting and chose the game because of the figures, which are rather nice, but a tad expensive for my budget. I've really enjoyed the game, so I put together a few  clubs (factions) utilising figures I already had in my collection. This inspired me to re-visit my VSF version of Sellswords and Spellslingers and also led to me trawling the internet for interesting miniatures to paint.

So here are a few of them.

A rather prim lady engineer from Ramshackle Games.

Mek the Knife, Murdoch, Newspaper Magnet and The Tunstall Torcher, all from Black Pyramid Gaming's \Steam and Steel range

Steam-powered, bicycle-mounted Gatling gun (well why not?).  A miniature from the SMOG boardgame by CMON.

Country squire and staff by Blue Moon.

In Wolsung there is an undead faction, the Ven Rier, which are decidedly Germanic. As I already had a group of Westwind's vampires, which I'd painted up in the first lockdown, I decided to go for a Transylvanian branch of the faction.

Westwind zombie cossack guards.

And some more zombie cossacks.

The whole faction.

Ice Zombies/ghouls for Ven Rier cannon fodder. Confusingly, in Wolsung bog-standard zombies are called "ghouls" and the more dangerous undead are "zombies"!

Two more bizarre creatures from the SMOG game, a giant stinging bug creature and a rat-like sewer scavenger.

Various Fantasy Figures

 I haven't posted much recently. Partly because I have been a bit preoccupied with reinventing our family business in the face of the current situation and finding new ways to earn some sort of income. And partly, if I am honest, because I seemed to lack enthusiasm to do so. 

Not that I had lost interest in gaming. I have kept painting since the summer, if a bit sporadically, and even managed some regular games with selected friends. It was just that I couldn't be bothered to take photos and put them into a blog post. So giving myself a kick up the backside, I dug out the various minis I've painted since August and taking some piccis to get myself started. I have been painting only 28mm fantasy, for some reason, perhaps because I have mostly only been playing skirmish games (fantasy and gothic horror/steampunk) for the last few months, so that is what has has grabbed my attention. 

I'll put all the Victorian-style stuff in another post, so this is just the more conventional fantasy stuff, mainly for use in Sellswords and Spellslingers.

To kick off, a mummy. A Reaper Bones mini that I picked up in a bag of odds and sods at a wargames show (remember them?) some time back.

"Mummy" and "Daddy" ogres, again Reaper Bones.

Another Reaper mini, metal this time, a Ranger looks for clues (or lost scorpions).

Some resin spider victims that I found on the web from Russia.

And the same with their new friends!

A troll, once again a Reaper Bones mini.

Some strange sort of mutant troll, not sure what range this is from.

Finally a bunch of plague zombies. These are plastic, I think they are from one of the Zombicide board games.