"Where the bloody hell have you been?"

Wotcha Folks,

I just thought I'd update you on why there's been no updates. 

Well it's two fold really. The main reason is that I've been trying to put some hours in (1 a day in fact) on my website Orcs in the Webbe as I have neglected it terribly recently and decided it was time to start doing regular updates. These have yet to materialize as I foolishly picked a big feature to start again with but that should be done for this Friday.

And secondly that I started this blog mainly in order to save money on gaming by picking a new subject and scale to stop spending a fortune on those darned 28mm+ metal miniatures. Well little did I expect shiny plastic pre-painted superheroes to drop to 25p a pop. Yep what with the tits up of Wizkids Games you've been able to get DC and Marvel heroes at bargain prices all over the UK so I have expanded my collection alot. There are some excellent mini's in there for Flash Gordon gaming but for the moment I've just been playing Two Hour Wargames excellent CR3.0 ruleset with Batman and Co cleaning up the streets of Gotham. 

Do not worry I've not given up on my 15mm Flash Gordon adventures but it might be a couple of weeks yet whilst normal service is resumed.

Laters,

Craig

Erstwhile Minions - Ming's Palace Guards in 15mm

In the cracking original Alex Raymond comic strips Ming and all his palace guards are yellow skinned and oriental in style, much like many pulp villains of the 1930's whilst good for Ming (although I favour green skin over yellow ala Defenders of the Earth myself) the look I wanted for my palace guard was that which has already been excellently captured by Graven Images and their 40mm Flash Gordon range which I first saw on Dampfpanzerwagon's blog...



With just a bit of digging and some internet searches for picklehaub helmets I discovered that early World War I Germans in picklehaub helmets look almost identical to them.

So with a target in mind I first checked out the Peter Pig miniatures. As they had no photos of thee particular miniatures on their website they were kind enough to bring some along to Salute for me to have a look at. Sadly they were too 'kitted out' with pouches and paraphernalia for my liking so I opted not to grab them (but did buy a swath of their Red Alien range for my main protagonists). I did find a few more picklehaub Germans with other suppliers but none of them leapt off the web at me.

After much more searching of miniatures from different era's and different companies I saw something on Eureka's site that fitted the bill and I also tracked down a UK supplier in the form of Fighting 15's. So I have decided to order a pack of their Schleswig-Holstein 1848 infantry. The helmets are very close to what I'm looking for and the figures seem to have no additional detailing other than their uniforms. Now, I have no idea if the scale will fit in with my Peter Pig hero's (like the problem I have with my chosen figure for Zarkov) but for £3.20 I might as well order a pack anyways.



I am going to have to sculpt a little half cloak on them and change the end of their gun for something pointy but I think in the scale they are they'll look pretty good.

Laters,

Craig

15mm Flash Gordon Photograph !

I figured out the camera and here is the first picture of my 15mm Flash Gordon miniature. The photography is not perfect but you can get the idea :) The expertly chosen brown backdrop is my wallet

It is one of Peter Pig's Red Alien's, you can see it on their picture on thier website, it's the one on the far left of the image below, the one aiming down the barrel of his gun...

And below is my painted version...

I'm quite chuffed with it, it's not brilliant but definitely tabletop gaming quality.

It still has a few bits left to do as mentioned in my previous post. Comments welcome and advice taken on board (please be gentle though!)

C.

Gordon's Alive ! - Painting a 15mm Miniature

I say again these mini's are really bloody small ! But I carried on regardless, this Bank Holiday weekend in between gardening, in-laws and me and my partner, Em's, April boardgames day I managed to get some time in to paint my first 15mm miniature.

Sadly I have no in progress pictures as I was too excited and just got on with it, next time I will aim to do better as a blog with no pictures (and my somewhat lacking prose style) does not a riveting read make.

First thing I decided on was how to base them. After some good advice from a variety of folks here I decided on 15mm steel washers as I like the magnetic storage potential, sadly I only had four of them in, so armed with super glue and paper (to cover the hole) I based the miniature I was going to use as Flash, the 'straightened' female figure I had singled out for 'action Dale' and two others from Peter Pig's Fantasy Red Alien range which I was going to use as practice.

After the glue had dried I whipped out my ancient can of Citadel Chaos Black spray and let them have it. Once dry I saw some still silver areas on all four miniatures and gave them another blast. Then once dry I saw some more silver areas and blasted them again. Then I saw some more silver areas and once more gave them a blast. This time once dry I had (mostly) covered up all the metal and was ready to paint. I dug out my (also ancient) box of Citadel paints and started on my first character, Flash Gordon.

At this point I changed my mind as to which figure to use for Flash, I liked the action pose of the 'firing' Red Alien as opposed to the relaxed pose of the Red Alien Hero. 15mm miniatures really do look better with an undercoat on, you can see previously unnoticed detail and the pose much much better than when in base metal. The GZG figures I saw on display at Salute in light grey looked really good, I only wish all their mini photo's on their webstore were done in this way.

So after this small change I got the littlest brush I owned, took off my glasses (as I could not focus on the mini with them on) and started applying bits of pigment to the tiny little metal man. Always a fan of Kevin Dallimore's painting tutorials on Foundry (before they decided to remove them and publish them in a book) I always start a mini with the face to give it some character. A few swathes of Bronzed Flesh and Flash looked a bit more human than Red Alien. Next up I went for his shirt which proved to be a bit tricky due to the chest belt thing he was wearing. I used the very dark Scab Red as my base colour as although on my 15mm adventure I wasn't planning on doing Dallimore's three paint method for all of it, the pigment in red is always a bit pap so I start dark and build up. Next up was his hair, I went for Sunset Yellow on the black wavy locks, then I got some Ultramarine Blue and quickly daubed his trousers, I ignored the sculpted loincloth as the front piece is barely noticeable and the back one looks like a bag/pouch attached to the belt. Then I used some good old Chaos Black to tidy up any errant strokes (of which there were surprisingly few) having been splodging for twenty minutes and took a look at my master piece. Hmm, my first thought was 'that's crap' but after a few more glances and some better light it looks okay. Definitely okay for the first colours for tabletop gaming standard anyways.

I had a bit of a break and later that day I went back to it. I used Snakebite leather on all the belts opting not to go for yellow as I didn't want it to clash with his hair. I was surprised how good it looked, giving him a pulp 1930's adventurer feel. I then mixed a bit of Bleached Bone with some Sunset yellow and highlighted his blonde locks and put a light drybrushing of bronze on his pistol. I like the steampunk feel of bronze weapons so you'll probably see this across all my mini's instead of brightly coloured blasters as per the comics.

At this point I also did a quick 50/50 water/wash of Flesh Wash on his skin. This turned out to be a mistake as it turned him a David Dickinson orange fake tan colour. Out came the Bronzed Flesh and Bleached Bone and after some work I thought it looked okay so I stepped away (knowing when to walk away from a mini's paint job is always so tricky).

Then I put a quick bit of Boltgun Metal on his sword blade and some Shining Gold on the hilt/pommel and he looked okay. I did take some pictures at this point but they're worse than crap. Will take some practice to photo 15mm mini's I feel.

And that was as far as I got, all in all about 30-40 minutes for a hero character.

I still have to highlight the shirt with a lighter red (which I don't have at the moment) and highlight the blade with Mithril Silver. I'm also considering highlighting his trousers to make them look a bit more worn but I'm not sure, similarly I may put a bit of lighter brown on the belt/bag/holster.

Tonight I'm going to add some basing materials and attempt to take some photos. I also might try and make a start on Dale. I have ordered 100 more 15mm washers from eBay for the grand price of £2.80 including postage so I can base up my squad of Ming's robot henchmen (Automatons from Alternative Armies) and actually get a game in !

Laters,

Craig.

Flash Gordon - Coming Soon in Colour !

So one week and a bit after Salute (in between DIY tasks) I am going to try and paint my Peter Pig supplied 15mm Flash Gordon.

The first thing I found about 15mm is that they are really bloody small. I know this might seem obvious to most people but I'm not sure I was expecting them to be quite so small. However not to be deterred I am going to go for it.

I've been umming and ahhing about what colour to paint him but I think I've decided to go with the 80's cartoon scheme (which is the same as dampfpanzerwagon did with his 40mm Flash Gordon) but also it matches up with some of the comics.

 

Now I have no idea how this is going to go, I am an extremely slow novice level painter and have never painted anything this small.

Before unleashing the coloured gloop I first need to base the tiny little man. After checking out a variety of forums I've decided to go for small steel washers (and shall be purchasing some this evening) but I am going to compare the to 1p coins as well as I know a lot of people favour them.

I also might try a test paint on one of the other 'Red Martians' I have, I'll try and take some photos as I go but not sure how the macro function on my camera will perform.

Am quite excited and will let you know how I get on...

Craig

Oh well, who wants to live forever? Ha! Ha! Ha! DIVE! - Hawkmen in 15mm

In my humble opinion the most famous race from the Flash Gordon stories is without a doubt the Hawk-men of Mongo. Mostly because of Brian Blessed's fantastic performance in the 80's movie the very second you mention Flash Gordon then someone will inevitably shout "GORDON'S ALIVE!" in a booming voice.

When considering them to make an appreance on the gaming table visually they have remained similar in all the different previous incarnations (shown below from left to right, the Alex Raymond comic, the Buster Crabbe serial)



Similarly their leader Vultan has undergone little change (shown below from left to right, the Alex Raymond comic, the Buster Crabbe serial, the 1980's Filmation cartoon and, of course, Brian Blessed in the 1980 movie.)



So then, quite a distinctive style and one I wasn't sure at first how I was going to get some in 15mm. I had previously discovered the following images on Alan Saunder's excellent 15mm Flash Gordon HOTT army page...



And also this second image from a post on the Rat Trap Productions Pulp forum...



As you can see, these would have been prefect. They were manufactured by M. J. Miniatures who sadly had ceased trading but thanks to the comments on the forum post I realised that the rights to them are now owned by The Scene Miniatures but they were not on their website. Not being the shy type I quickly fired an email through and the owner Mike got back to me pretty much straight away. So I can announce (with his permission of course) that he's having a bit of work done on the Hawkmen mini's and they will be re-released on the 1st May !

This is awesome news as they are perfectly suited to 15mm Hawkmen, I'm prolly going to do a bit of work on one of them to be Vultan but the rank and file will be good to go once painted up.

Laters,

Craig

Honourable Warriors - The Lion Men of Mongo in 15mm

If you asked anyone for an race from Flash Gordon the most likely response would be either the Hawkmen or the Tree-Men (although it's doubtful anyone would call them that). Going back to the original comic, right from the very start of Alex Raymond's strip we see that Mongo is a rich and detailed alien world, with many more peoples than those we are familiar with from the 80's movie and most modern retellings.

One such race which has fallen into obscurity is the Lion-Men of Mongo. One of the first natives to team up with Flash (after an altercation in the skies) is Thun, crown prince of the Lion-Men. Early on he becomes one of Flash's group and for that reason (and some prompting from I See Lead People's Eli Arndt) I've decided to include the Lion-Men in my initial 15mm Flash Gordon line up.

There are quite a few interpretations of Lion-Men in the different source matrial. In Alex Raymond's original there was not much "Lion-ness" about them. Thun was pretty much a semi-naked orange man with big dreadlocks and a beard...



This was also a look followed by the Buster Crabbe serials...



However in some of the other versions there has been a definite more animalistic appraoch the Lion-Men, including both the 1979 Filmation cartoon (far left on the DVD cover below) and also in the new comic by Aarden Entertainment (in the background on the cover below, behind Flash and Dale).



So with an eye towards having a more interesting and varied 15mm battlefield I have decided to go with the animalistic approach as there seems to be a good selection of 15 cat people out there. As Eli kindly drew my attention to, Splintered Light Miniatures do a whole range of cat people, not limited to just Lions.



I think for a starting skirmish group the 11 men plus leader for $8.00 would be ideal, but for future expansion you could do the different aspects of the Lion-Men's culture with the different types of feliniod that Splintered Light produce.

Laters,

C.

Flash Gordon using Larger Than Life...

Yesterday I sat down and perused the Internet to look at the various rulesets I could use to play my planned Flash Gordon miniatures game. Scale doesn't matter so much as I have the magic powers of a calculator but I definitely want to stick to a skirmish type game, the other is that it has to be fun.

There are currently quite a few 28mm/40mm games out there featuring not-Flash, something of a classic sci-fi revival in fact but the game which piqued my curiosity most was Two Hour Wargames Pulp ruleset, Larger Than Life (LTL).



Two Hour Wargames and their reaction based games system are (as far as I know) quite unique. You play out the preamble and run up (and fallout) of a game using multiple campaign tables and the actual fighting itself has a clever mechanism where you're never quite sure what the figures under your command are going to do, let alone the bad guys. because of these cleverly designed tables the game lends itself to solo and (my favourite) co-operative play the rules are fast paced and fun.

With LTL the core gaming system remains mostly the same as previous games but much more streamlined and a lot of work has gone into the campaign structure to make the games you play feel like a pulp adventure and if Flash Gordon in my mind was anything, it was those Buster Crabbe black and white serials that were repeated on TV during half term holidays when I was a kid (these were repeats in the 80's, I'm not that old).

So all excited I bought a downloadable copy of LTL and waited for it to arrive. One of the small irritaters with Two Hour Wargames is that they email you the file after a certain period of time (up to 24 hours) instead of it being instantly downloadable. So after a nights sleep my file arrived and I started reading through the book, creating my characters and campaign as I went. One thing to be aware of (which did catch me at first back when I bought my first Two hour Wargames product Warrior Heroes (WHAA), their fantasy ruleset) is the layout of the book, it doesn't follow the normal formula for a rule book it's laid out more like a flowchart with each section dovetailing neatly into the next one you need. Once you get used to this you'll wonder why other manufacturers don't do this. Also the LTL book is streets ahead of older rulesets (like WHAA) as when you do need to jump to another section it's clearly labelled which page you have to go to.

So how did my adventure go, it went something like what follows, whenever I play a Two Hour Wargames game I start a new Document and write down things as I go, I have copied my first foray into this excellent ruleset below, a battle/campaign report if you will. The sections in blue are fluff that I wrote after I'd finished the dice rolling for each section before continuing on to the next. The sections in green I've added here to make it flow a bit better.

Flash Gordon using the Larger Than Life Ruleset by Two Hour Wargames

- The rulebook breaks down what is a pulp and explains what the main factors are. I added in my Flash Gordon details as I went.

Star – Flash Gordon
Co-Stars – Zarkov
Love Interest – Dale
The Big bad – Ming
Femme Fatale – Aura

- Then it has full details of how to create your Stars, the main players of the tale.

Flash Gordon (Star)
Star Power: 2
Larger Than Life
Cheat Death
Free Will
Home – TBC
Reputation: 4
Brains: 2
Brawn: 4
Bravado: 2
Advantage: Natural Athlete
Disadvantage: Chauvinist – He cannot choose to attack a female unless she has attacked him first.

– Having a look through the disadvantages none of them seemed to fit with the idea of Flash so I made this one up.

Profession – Jack-of-all-trades (use the Adventurer Crisis Table)
Skills:
Acrobatics (Brawn)
Shooting (Brawn)
Influence (Bravado)
Melee (Brawn)
Employer: National Government.

– I wasn’t sure what to pick for Flash as he’s on Mongo and is the only one but I decided that working for America probably makes the most sense.

4 Recruiting Points

- I used the story of Flash to help me here, even though not technically at Home (as Flash has no home on Mongo at the start of his adventure) I’ve chosen to recruit two co-stars Dale Arden and Hans Zarkov.

Dale Arden (Co-Star & Love Interest)
Cheat Death
Rep: 4
Brains: 2
Brawn: 2
Bravado: 4
Advantage: Sexy
Disadvantage: Petite - I used the Runt disadvantage but decided to call it petite, to be more in the spirit of Flash.
Skills:
Journalism – The ability to investigate as well as report the news.
Crisis Test: Civilian
Employment: Private Company (Daily Herald)

Hans Zarkov (Co-Star)
Cheat Death
Rep: 4
Brains: 4
Brawn: 2
Bravado: 2
Advantage: Photographic Memory
Disadvantage: Addict (Drunkard)

- I gave Zarkov this but am using it to represent an addiction to stimulants, he always seemed a bit of an oddball character.

Crisis Test: Adventurer
Employment: Self-employed

Flash, Dale and Zarkov are on Mongo and using the wreckage of their crashed Rocket Ship as a base of operations. It’s in the middle of nowhere so is classed as Jungle (Rocky Desert).

Opening Scene

What does the star need to accomplish? - Find a person (Enemies protecting)
Who is the Big Bad ? – Slavers (Ming’s Palace Guard)
And how bad is he ? – Same rep as the Star
The Master Plan – Steal treasure

After crash landing on the planet surface, Zarkov picks up a radio transmission being sent by some of Ming’s Palace Guards back to the palace. In the transmission the Guards reveal that they have captured the crown prince of the Lion Men of Mongo, Prince Thun ! They are holding him captive in an attempt to get their hands on the Lion Men’s fabled ancestor stone.

How many scenes before the final scene ? - Get info from someone in a Story Advancing Scene

Travel scene – Have to go to Jungles (Arborea) using a Safari Vehicle, there is no encounter whilst travelling.

Under Zarkov’s instruction Flash and Dale manage to salvage parts from their crashed rocket ship and construct a basic flyer to take them to the nearby mountains where the transmission came from.

Scene 1 - Get info from Someone (Story Advancing Scene)

Is the Big bad here ? No
Time of Day ? Daytime

Travelling through the mountains as close to the triangulated signal as possible they discover that the Palace Guard are no longer here as this is just a relay post that was used to forward the transmission. Noting that the relay station appears manned they land their flyer and set out to find the small building with the intention of questioning the inhabitants.

Difficulty of finding the person ?
Rolled 2 and 6
No modifiers as person in Jungle
Roll 2d6 vs Rep = 6,4 – 1 pass
Roll 2d6 vs Difficulty = 4,6 – 0 pass
Searcher finds the Quarry but will suffer Complications when questioning the Quarry.

Solving the Clue
Rolled 4,3
Flash = 4 – 2,1,2 – 3 successes
Clue = 3 – 1,6,4 – 1 success
Star solves the meaning of the clue (Clues solved = 1)

Sneaking up on the outpost with the hopes of getting the drop on the sole guard within Dale trips up and they’re worried they may have alerted the guard to their presence. Luckily for them he did not hear and they quickly overcome him and manage to persuade him to give them what he remembers of the co-ordinates of the original transmission. Sadly it is incomplete, they tie up the guard and leave him behind.

Advance the Story: 4+1+1d6 = 7 !

Get info from someone in a Story Advancing Scene.

Travel scene – Have to go to Jungles (Mountains) using a Safari Vehicle, there is no encounter whilst travelling.

Scene 2 - Get info from Someone (Story Advancing Scene)

Is the Big bad here ? No
Time of Day ? Night

Flash and his companions trace the signal from the relay station and decide to head to the next one with the intention of seeing if the guard their can recall any more of the co-ordinates. They get back in their anti-grav flyer and head off in the direction of the next station.

Difficulty of finding the person ?
Rolled 2 and 5
No modifiers as person in ‘Jungle’
Roll 2d6 vs Rep (4) = 4,1 – 1 pass
Roll 2d6 vs Difficulty (2) = 2,5 – 1 pass
Searcher fails to find the Quarry.

Upon locating the next relay station finding it sadly unmanned Flash and his companions were not able to find out any more information about the co-ordinates of where the signal originated.

Advance the Story: 4+1+1d6 = 8 !

Get info from someone in a Story Advancing Scene.

Travel scene – Have to go to Lost World on foot there is an encounter whilst travelling.

Scene 3

After the failure at the last communications relay they examine the information they down loaded from the rocket’s computer and track the origin of the signal as best as they can. Zarkov believes the signal to have come from the entrance to a nearby cave. Leaving behind their flyer they enter the forbidding cave on foot.

Scene 4 – Travelling Encounter – being followed

Not long after they enter the cave network they realise they are being followed.

Scene 4 becomes a Stand Up Fight

Suddenly the tunnel our heroes are following opens up, thinking they have traversed the whole width of the mountain the look up but they notice the sun is paler in colour to that of Mongo’s surface. Above them is clear blue sky and the strange coloured sun is centrally positioned. As they look down from their ledge they see a lush and verdant grassy plain, unbeknowst to them they have entered the inner world of Mongo. Amazed by the wonders this alien world has to offer they descend to the plain, but no longer being able to conceal themselves in the tunnels their pursers catch them up and attack !

- Hmm the rules did seem to neglect to give you who you are fighting when a being followed turns into a Stand Up Fight. I am just going to roll on the Interaction tables as normal and then follow the full combat bit.

Interaction with Dinos !

Setting the Stage (p.40 [46]) - The scene takes place in an open and flat area of grassland.

Assemble the Cast
4+4+4 = 16
Roll 1d6 = 5 : +1 Clue = 6 : Big Bad Rep 4 = 10 = The enemy has equal the Rep of your group.

Small Feeder
Rep 3
Star power 2
(Three of them equalling 9 Rep)
Special Characteristic:
Feeder
Crisis test: Feeder

Small Ferocious Flyer
Rep 4
Star Power 2
(Five of them equalling 20 Rep) – I reduced this to 2 of them making the overall rep of the encounter 17 instead of 29 !
Special Characteristics:
Flyers
Ferocious
Crisis test: Ferocious

Place the Actors on their Marks

Leaders start 11 inches from each other (28mm scale), place all other with 12 inches of leader but no closer than he is to enemy.

Action Section – Take the Gaining the Upper Hand test
Flash – 4,5,5,3 – 1 Success
Dinos – (+1) - 5,6,5,1,5 – 1 Success
Flash – 6 - Fail
Dinos – (+1) - 5,2 – 1 Success
Dinos won

Score 1 more success than opponent

• All will fire if possible. Go to the Combat Rules section.
• Otherwise charge into melee but enemy may fire. Go to the Combat Section rolling Activation normally

- Not owning any Flash Gordon miniatures I stopped there for the moment !

So in ten scant minutes I had an excellent scenario laid out in front of me leading to a rumble with the inhabitants of Mongo's inner world. I could play it solo from then or have people playing Dale and Zarkov and even someone playing the Dino if I wanted to. All in all I was very very impressed with how this ruleset let me follow Flash's footsteps on Mongo and I can't wait to give the fight a go this weekend (with proxies) and will let you know how the combat mechanism works ! One thing I forgot is that my Flash and his co-stars are not armed so it might be an easy win for the Dinosaurs !

Over the weekend I will also be looking at a recommended source for the Lion Men of Mongo and maybe trying to source a Zarkov whilst I'm at it.

Laters,

Craig

The Evil Tyrant - Ming the Merciless in 15mm

As dictated by duality theory, good cannot exist without evil so today I have turned my web crawling towards getting a good miniature to represent Flash's nemesis on his adventures on Mongo, Ming the Merciless.



Unlike most characters who undergo massive changes depending on the source material you look at, Ming remains pretty much constant throughout all the different incarnations of Flash Gordon, the only notable exception being the slightly under-par* 2007 series (shown above far right image). Ming was typical of oriental styled villains of the 30's and is in effect an alien version of Sax Rohmer's Fu Manchu (perhaps they were one and the same, or maybe even twins separated by time and space; the pulp scenario Flash/Fu possibilities are stirring in my mind already) sadly there are only a few miniatures that could possibly be used for Ming.

Circa Games have an excellent 15mm resource for Victorian and Pulp 15mm miniatures and one of the things they do mention is one of Irregular Miniatures colonials line, their Chinese Civilian FZ 122 who sadly does not have a picture but is described by Circa as "One chap with long robe and round hat looks distinctly Fu Manchu-like." which (minus the hat) could be exactly what I'm looking for but his clothing might be too low key for Mings sumptuous robes. At the low low cost I've decided to get two of these anyway, one for Ming (with a bit of head re-sculpting or maybe a head swap) and one for Fu. That is one of the awesome things about 15mm, you can pick up extra miniatures for future games as you know it's not going to smash the bank to get a new game up and running, especially skirmish level gaming that I'm primarily interested in

After some more trawling of the usual 15mm suspects I actually found a likely culprit on Alternative Armies 15mm site. The meekly named 'Merchant' from their Laserburn Starship crew looks ideal, especially when lined up next to the Defenders of the Earth version of Ming.



Obviously I'm going to have to do a bit of remodelling on the head and the beard is bigger than we'd expect but the miniature looks really nicely detailed. One of these has been added to my Salute buying plans.

Another thing I found right next to him on the site was 'Space Scout', which immediately put me in mind of Ming's son, Prince Kro-Tan from the Defenders of the Earth cartoon.



I like the idea of Ming having a opportunistic power hungry son as well as the femme fatale daughter, Aura. The addition of an extra sibling opens up loads of gaming possibilities for anything from petty rivalries to a full civil war on Mongo so 'Space Scout' is going on my Salute list too !

One thing I'm not yet 100% decided upon is skin tone. I'm not yet sure if I'm going to go with the Alex Raymonds yellow skin, the Defenders cartoon green or the movie's Caucasian. I need to decide on one though as it will affect the painting of all my Mongo troops and Ming's offspring. I'm leaning towards the green but I might just use it foe the 'royal family' as opposed to Ming's palace guards, perhaps suggesting the rule of Mongo was taken by force or even a separate race of higher born humans. Hmm...

Tomorrow I'll be having a think about which rulesets can best accommodate 15mm Flash Gordon gaming...

Laters,

Craig

* read 'tragic'.

The Hero of the Piece - Flash Gordon in 15mm

So then, armed with a miniature scale and a theme I hit the first stop of most people these days looking to find anything at all stop at, Google. Google has a lot to answer for, because of it we can now pretty much find anything we want in a very small amount of time through the magic of the internet. Whilst this is in itself amazing it does make you realise that no matter how original you think an idea is, someone has probably tried it before.

Fourth link down in a simple Google search for "15mm Flash Gordon miniatures" we find "Alan's Flash Gordon Army" and in seconds the first step of trying to find a figure to represent the hero of the piece has been deftly stepped on and subsequently left behind with a plethora of miniatures and ideas to kick start my new hobby.

Steve 'Flash' Gordon - Our Hero

Depending on if you follow the comics, the black and white serial, the eighties movie or the (tragic) new 2007 series, Flash's background varies. Originally a Polo player graduated from Yale he has seen incarnations where he's been a famous quarterback for the New York Jets to the (tragic) new interpretation where he's a track runner. All of this is moot really as once he's in space he dons skin tight clothing (often just a skimpy set of briefs) grabs a sword and a blaster and heads into the fray. I have decided to stick to (at least to begin with) the Alex Raymond strips as they are quite jolly and full of much derring do. The strip below is from Flash's first few hours on the planet Mongo...



As you can see he's parading around in his skimpy's with a top nicked from one of Ming's flyers armed with a sword he's picked up along the way. This set the parameters for my first mini and thanks to Alan's Flash Gordon Army the legwork has already been done.

Peter Pig's fantasy line, 'War in the Age of Magic' has several miniatures called Red Aliens that look wonderfully like exactly what I'm after...



Would you look at that, a buff young male in a pack along with a scantily clad female who could easily represent a captive Dale or even Princess Aura all for 1 shiny pound. I have spoken to Peter Pig and pre-ordered these along with some of their other miniatures to collect at Salute !

My (epic space) quest is underway.

Laters,

C.

The Adventure Begins !

Afternoon All,

Welcome to my new blog which will document my journey into the world of 15mm science fiction and fantasy gaming. It has been 100% inspired by Tony (Dampfpanzerwagon) foray into the world of 40mm Flash Gordon gaming on his blog. I always read Tony's blog updates with awe, his painting is awesome and the conversions and scenery he somehow finds the time to create are truly a wonder. For a long time I have played pretty much one system, Flintloque, which has taken up much of my time with both the game itself and the website I run for it, Orcs in the Webbe, I will still be carrying on with Flintloque as it enters it's 3rd incarnation but I have decided it's time to get a different gaming perspective so I'm changing to 15mm gaming to see what it's like.

I must be honest the main deciding factor in loosing a whole centimetre off my models has been cost, 28mm miniatures have been gradually getting more and more expensive over the last few years and whilst I do appreciate the amount of effort and time that goes into creating them in the current climate I simply can't afford them any more. I have toyed with (and as a result, created) many print off minis and flats to try gaming with but there's just something about miniatures games that make them so much more appealing. For me it's not just the gameplay (although that is obviously hideously important too) but the hobby itself, collecting the miniatures, painting them and getting them onto the gaming table.

Taking Tony's lead I have decided to stick to Flash Gordon for my initial encounter with the world of 15mm, not because there was a plethora of minis that suited it (quite the opposite at first glance) but because I liked what T0ny had done. For him the seeking out and finding of new minis/terrain that fits in with his chosen theme and scale has in itself become part of the hobby.

All of this has tied in nicely to my trip to Salute at the end of the month, meaning I can pick up some minis without incurring postage, although at 15mm the costs don't stray too high anyways :)

So without further ado I leave you gentle reader to enjoy The Space Adventures of the MadWelshWizard.

Craig