Gaslands and Briscon

I was in Brisbane last weekend, and realised to my good fortune that Briscon was happening. In the nightmare petrol-guzzling dystopian mire maze that was the carpark, I received good preparation for a Gaslands Refuelled particiption game. Ross Williams ran this as well as made all the scenery and cars. The tyre piles are sliced Nerf rounds.

My car with front-facing minigun and molotov cocktails

Buggy with rocket turret and shotgun

Car with turreted machine guns and napalm dropper

The course. Ross proudly told us that noone had made it to the second gate.

Start your engines!

We race to the first gate, which activates weapons.

I veer infront of the buggy and drop a molotov accurately on it

Mayhem! I dodge a rocket; napalm is dumped and the buggy crashes into the other car

Both my opponents blow up, I try to squeeze through the eye of the needle
and we called the game. Great fun!

Other participation games I saw included Lion Rampant crusades and Wings of Glory. There was an impressive 15mm Johnny Reb display game of Gettysburg, but it lacked any explanation or crowd-wranglers. I'm getting crotchetty.

Early evening July 2 1863

Peach Orchard with Little Round Top in the distance

There were a few tournaments going on, including Armada (Star Wars and Mantic), Battletech, Bolt Action, DBA, Team Yankee, 9th Age, Kings of War, Star Wars Legion, and One Page Rules' Grimdark Future.

I had a good time at the bring & buy stand, including an absolute bargain on OOP Forgeworld renegade milita and metal Catachans.

Anzac Day 2023- Western Front digger

After Gallipoli, the Australian Imperial Force was deployed into the Western Front trenches from March 1916 until the Armistice.

This 54mm figure is from Slave 2 Gaming, sculpted by Mike Broadbent. There are some subtle areas for improvement on the webbing, but the stressful part was stippling on muddy splashes without drowning the detail. I haven't done any detailed groundwork on the 40mm base, but I do have more of these figures and could do some in the future.

Lest we forget.

Five Parsecs. Campaign game 16. Through the forge

It's been a while since I've been able to pursue my Five Parsecs campaign- it's back! A recap of the crew of the Innominate:

Gallius Marbec: Ship's captain who aspires to becoming a Rogue Trader. Has he bitten off more than he can chew?

Gallius Marbec

Lady Heldycryn: Hive noble who wants to see more of the galaxy.

Lady Heldycryn
(recovering in Sick Bay)

Julio Rybeck & Roma Jyan: Once rivals, now lovers hunted by their former gangs.

Julio Rybeck (also Sick Bay)

Roma Jyan

Venda Hezel: Punk tech savant.

Venda Hezel

Chugger: An ogryn who is devoted to the crew after they saved him from slavery.

Chugger

Corvin Akenz: A new member of the crew with a servo-skull that can scout ahead.

Corvin Akenz

Gallius' rag-tag crew have had many escapades both on- and off-world, but are back on Necromunda and have attracted undue interest from many parties. After a savage beating from xenos-tainted insurgents, Gallius hires an underhiver to guide the unwounded back to their ship. Stazie Rendir takes them through the refineries, but the thuggish Forge Guards want to be paid their dues...

Stazie Rendir, underhive guide.

The crew advance through miles of refinery domes.

Corvin's servo-skull detects the rampaging Forge Guards!

Gallius hustles the crew towards a firing position.

Chugger's opening salvo takes out the leader.

The Goliaths are dosed up on frenzon and rush forwards.

The crew take advantage of their opponent's unsubtle tactics.

Melee with the combat-drugged gangers goes in the crew's favour.

Chugger brutally takes down another!

The way seems clear again...

... but more Guards emerge from both flanks.

Point-blank blasting on the right.

Chugger clears the Forge Guards on the left.

Corvin takes out a charging Goliath.

The last enemy is defeated.

The crew, although outnumbered, fought their way through the refinery. The fearsome Goliaths abandoned tactics after dosing up on combat stimms, and were brutally gunned down. Gallius, feeling short-staffed, offers Stazie a position in the team, which she accepts. Roma takes her boss aside to let him know that there is a rebellious undercurrent in the crew, and there has been talk of replacing him as Captain...

The death of Gothmog

• 1955: Tolkien publishes The Return of the King, and does not specify Gothmog's fate
• 2003: Jackson releases The Return of the King, which also doesn't show Gothmog's end
• 2004: Jackson releases The Return of the King Extended Edition*, which includes the blink-and-you'll-miss-it Death of Gothmog:

• 2008: GW releases a vignette 'The Death of Gothmog'. I like to think this is a Perry.
• 2023: I paint said vignette.

The death of Gothmog

I got this off eBay, partially painted and broken. I had thoughts of making this into a piece with sabots for the figures, like my Sauron piece, but ultimately decided against it. I've got plenty of Éowyns and recently a plastic Gothmog. I stripped the pieces and reassembled it. I decided to place it on a nice oval MDF base from Knights of Dice. I bulked out a little bit of the groundwork with Milliput so that Éowyn and Gothmog are on solid ground.

Stripped and ready to go

Test fit on MDF base. Note the narrower metal
base before bulking it out with Milliput

I'd thought of doing the miniatures separately, but during a test fitting they got stuck in place so I painted them all together. It wasn't too hard. I started from black and then drybrushed browns and creams in the grisaille fashion, which the French call Le Slapchop.

My favourite part was painting the cloaks. The rohirrim cloaks are built up from Vallejo Russian Uniform, and the elven ones are built up from German Feldgrau.

The reverse of the scene

Gimli dual-wielding and has a two-handed axe
strapped to his back

Dying orc #738 is really dynamic with his helmet flying off
and sword leaping from open grasp.

Aragorn and Andúril

Gothmog

Éowyn desperately grasps for a sword from her dead comrade

I was slightly disappointed with it, but then I flocked it. I used some pretty dry colours to match the film- the Pelennor fields have been somewhat abused by hordes of orcs and stampeding mûmakil- and it really came to life. I haven't varnished it and am somewhat afraid to.

*251 glorious minutes!