"Indiana Jones" Rope Bridge, Part 1

"He not mad, lady...he crazy!" With those words, Short Round and Kate Capshaw hold onto the rope bridge for dear life in "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom." What with my last Pulp terrain piece being a cannibal's cookpot, it was time to do another equally iconic terrain piece from Pulp movies: a rope bridge spanning a chasm.

I'd been wanting to do a rope bridge for my Pulp games for awhile, but had been waiting on genius to strike. I knew the base material I would use, but not how I would make it more than a one-shot, stand-alone piece. I wanted something that could be used to span any number of chasms in games -- not attached or sized to just one set of cliffs, or whatever. I finally hit on a modular design which would allow me to adjust the height to fit whatever chasm I was planning to span. The gap would remain the same, but how high up the rope bridge was above the tabletop could be adjusted.

    This craft store "Picket Fence" would be turned on its side and become the base of my rope bridge (the pointy ends trimmed off with a wire cutter). The wire that holds the fence together is bendable and holds its shape well -- making it a ready-made stand-in for Indy's rope bridge...!

The base material would actually provide me with most of the work pre-made. I'd long ago spotted the craft wood "Picket Fence" that Hobby Lobby, Michaels, and other stores sell. Turn it on its side, and scale-wise and look, it was a perfect stand-in for a rope bridge. And once I made the decision to forgo a certain aspect of my anal-retentive, perfectionist nature, I knew it would be even easier. I decided NOT to have any handholds or railings on this rope bridge. Yes, I know that in real life, any such construction would definitely have them. I was willing to give up that realism, though, in return for ease of construction. Besides, it is for Pulp games -- not a historical diorama!

The first leap of genius (I'm being generous to myself, here...!) was my decision to make the rope bridge butt up against whatever the gap would be it was spanning. Originally, I'd been thinking of something that would sit on top of cliffs, hills, or whatever. I couldn't figure out how to make it sit evenly on any type of surface. But by making it free-standing, all I had to do was shove whatever cliffs I'd be using on the tabletop up against it, sandwiching it in, so to speak. The obvious first choices would be the cliff pieces I made for my French & Indian War games from pine bark.

    The top and bottom of each segment of the pillar holding the bridge ends would be made from one of these birch wood rectangles -- carved into irregular shapes, of course

Still, I was "stuck": Other than making every single gap the same height, how do I make this piece truly modular and adaptable to later tabletop setups? The final piece of the puzzle came when I decided to construct the "pillar" -- the piece that each end of the bridge would rest upon -- out of segments that could be stacked one atop the other to reach the correct height. The segments themselves would each end in a piece of sturdy birch wood -- the kind you can buy from craft stores for $1.99 a bag. Originally, I thought I'd use circles, but later decided birch rectangles would fit the shape better. The middle of each segment (the "meat" between the birch wood "sandwich") would be made up of layers of 5mm craft foam, which goes by various names in stores ("Silly Winks Foam Sheets" at Hobby Lobby). I could vary the width of each layer to represent the erosion and horizontal striation of the rock (I think that is the right term...I teach Social Studies, not Science!). The various segments would be held together by earth magnets and steel applied to the ends of the stiff birch wood tops and bottoms of each segment.

    The craft foam which would provide the "layers" or striation of the rocky pillar each end of the bridge would rest upon

So, my concept was finalized, and now construction could begin. I cut a 9-inch section of the picket fence (the pack I bought was like about a yard long!), and then trimmed off the pointy ends of each fence board. This made it look more like the boards of a rope bridge. I then slid the end boards out of each terminus of the bridge. I cut four dowel segments and trimmed them to points for the four posts that would hold the bridge in place. I forced each dowel through the empty wire loop where I'd removed the boards. They fit perfectly!

    Although it is hard to see, I would sit one layer on top of the craft foam and draw the outline of the next, slightly larger layer in pencil

I then made each bridge end piece by cutting out and shaping three layers of craft foam to go atop a rectangle of birch wood. The layers would get progressively wider as they went up from the wood base -- which I also rounded the ends on to give a more irregular appearance. The layers were glued together with Tacky glue, and also glued atop each birch square. Once dry, I pressed each dowel bottom firmly onto the top foam piece to mark the spot each post would be. This circle was roughly hollowed out with an X-acto knife. The hole was filled with a squirt of Tacky glue and the two posts pressed down into it so they attached to the bottom, and the layers of craft foam held them in place. Once this was done with each side, I bent the entire bridge into a pleasing, looping arc. The thick wire connecting the boards held the shape. The last two boards rested on top of the craft foam, but I figured that was okay.

    This photo shows how the last board was removed from each end of the bridge, and the wire gap turned sideways. The dowel posts were then forced through the empty wire loops

Stage one was done! The next step would be to create the segments that would be stacked underneath each end of the rope bridge to raise it to the proper height dictated by the scenario. I liked the way it looked sitting on my desk. So far, so good!

    Stage 1 complete! The rope bridge spans the two birch wood and craft foam end pieces, held in place by the dowel posts

Cannibal Cookpot

    An iconic scene in Pulp adventure -- an unfortunate explorer ends up in a cannibal cookpot!

The story arc for my 28mm Pulp games has the Portuguese monk, Brother Virigi, being captured by pygmy cannibals (of the South Seas, no less!). An iconic cartoon image of cannibals is a big metal cookpot with a hapless explorer plopped down inside of it. So, I just h-a-d to build one for the game where the players' archeologists race to rescue Brother Virigi. After all, he's the only one who knows the way to the lost city. I agonized over how to do this and how elaborate to make it.

I knew I was doomed to an elaborate construction when my friend Mike S mentioned "LED votive candles" to me one Sunday evening after gaming. "The make votive candles with LED lights?" I asked. Then immediately went into "Hmmm..." mode. I stopped by Hobby Lobby the very next day on the way home from work. Wouldn't you know it? They had all their LED candles on 50% off! Naturally, I picked up a pack of two. They were a bit taller than I'd hoped. My original thought was to make a little mound to slip over the candle and have the cookpot suspended over the LED flame. At 1 1/2 inches tall, the mound would have to be bigger, which meant more elaborate construction around it.

    This terrain piece was made from 3 layers of blue foam with a hollow cylinder in the center for the LED votive candle

I apologize for not taking "work in progress" pictures. It is a fairly straight-forward construction. I cut three layers of blue foam out so they would stack on top of each other in a rough, rounded, pyramid mound. I then traced the edge of the candle out in the center of each piece of blue foam. I cut out this central circle and stacked the three pieces up, gluing them together so they would fit over the candle. I sized it so the flame part of the LED barely protrudes above the surface of the mound. A piece of black styrene was the base, which also needed the candle hole cut out of it.

Next, I took some dowel rod and roughed it up with an X-acto knife so it looks like a tree trunk, carving it to a point. I drilled a hole right before where it narrows to a point and inserted a piece of craft wood to be the crossbars the cookpot hangs from. Then, I plunged the dowel rod poles through the three layers of blue foam so they'd have a firm grip and stand upright. I added Tacky glue around the base for additional grip. Next, I trimmed up the three layers of blue foam to give it a less stacked and more rounded appearance. Blue foam doesn't really trim well with an X-acto knife, so this was fairly messy.

The next step was working on the surface of the mound. I glued on larger stones here and there along the surface of the foam. Afterwards, I painted all but the stones the earth brown I use for my bases. When dry, I painted the brown areas again with white glue and poured Woodland Scenics "Gray Blend" coarse ballast over it to make it a rocky mound. Once dry, I painted the surface with my black ink wash to give the stones further depth.

    Ladder and platform made from bamboo skewers and craft sticks

Because of the height of the votive candles, I decided my pygmy cannibals would need a ladder and platform to stand on while cooking their "dinner." I made these out of craft sticks or bamboo skewers, and Tacky glued them into place. I also dug through my figure drawers and found two plastic figures I wouldn't be needing. I cut off their heads, hollowed out a wedge shape underneath and mounted them atop the poles with Tacky glue. Now, it was time to do some painting. All wooden parts were painted Dark Brown first, then dry brushed a medium brown and then Khaki. The heads received a light gray base coat, then a dry brush of the palest flesh tone I own. I very sparingly added some less ghoulish flesh tone here and there on the bald head to break up the monotony. Everything painted then received a black ink wash. I did go back and add a highlight to the larger stones that were protruding from the mound -- the ink wash had really darkened them up.

    The cookpot itself is a doll house tin pail from Hobby Lobby, as is the votive LED candle

The cookpot itself is a doll house tin pail from Hobby Lobby. I painted it black with two coats, then dry brushed it copper. I don't know why, but I always imagine primitives having copper utensils and metals. More earthy looking, I guess! Anyway, the pail already had two little rings which I'd pre-measured to loop over the craft wood crossbars. I hung the pail on the crossbars and then added more ink wash to "fix" it into place so it didn't swing back and forth. The final step was to flock the styrene base, as well as adding patches of grass on the mound. I used my normal, multi-step method of coarse ballast and sand for the earth texture.

 

    Now imagine that yellow light flickering, reflecting off the cotton whisps, and you get a better idea of the effect...!

Now, it was time to go back to what started this whole elaborate construction -- the votive candle. I shredded cotton ball material and glued it around the top of the candle so that only the fake flame protruded. The cotton ball would reflect the light of the flickering LED and look like smoke from the firepit. I did not glue cotton to the inside of the pail. I figured I would just manually place it in there to cover the base of whatever unfortunate figure has been chosen for that evening's dinner.

All in all, I am happy with how it came out. It'll be a great counterpoint to Skull Cave once I run the scenario. Plus, cannibals are a staple of Pulp adventures, so I'm sure I'll be able touse it time and time again. Hope you like it!

Catchup on what's been going on...

 

So, I didn't get a chance to update our board game night over here, last Sunday. There were five of us present, and we decided to give Steve V's "Atlantic Storm" card game a try. In this game, the players switch back and forth between playing Allies trying to protect North Atlantic convoys during World War II, or Germans trying to sink them. The idea is to get the most victory points (downing convoys or opponents' ships/aircraft). If you think you are better served playing Allied one turn and then Axis the next, you do so.

The most interesting aspect is that players have a hand of cards, but can only play ones that are in the correct theater (North Atlantic or Arctic), and the correct year (1939-45). So, you may have several cards to choose from, or possibly even no cards to play. In that case, you can discard a card and draw a new one, but you will not affect the outcome of the game. Whichever player does the most to protect or defeat the convoy wins the hand. Opposing card are sometimes worth victory points, which must be divvied out relatively equally to those who joined the winning side.

Steve V and Mike S jumped out to early leads and held on for most of the game. I was competitive early, but then fell out of contention quickly towards the end. There is a "rich get richer" component of the game that those with more victory points accumulated get a larger hand of cards (which of course gives them more cards to choose from to play to win still more hands). Luckily, we forgot about that until the very end of the game or it could have been even more lopsided! It was a fun game, though, and a nice, relatively-quick moving 5 player game. To be honest, I don't remember whether Steve or Mike won -- but I'm sure it was one of them!
Since Steve had to duck out after the game, we were down to 4 players. We decided it was time to give Pandemic another go. This is my favorite cooperative game, though it takes a maximum of only four players. Also, the more players, the harder it is to win as a group. Allen was hoping to score his first victory as a player. Myself, I think I've played where the group won less times than I have fingers on one hand! Our first game got off to a great start, and I was confidently predicting a victory for us. Then, we were hit with a round of cascading "outbreaks." Before we knew it, we'd gone from coasting to what looked like a comfortable victory to losing. D'oh!

Allen insisted we play again, as it is a quick game. This time we managed to win. Instead of staring off quickly, we seemed to be moving slowly. But the tortoise ended up being better than the hare, again. We picked up steam towards the end and won relatively easily. We were helped by having one of the four diseases (yellow -- Africa and South America) come up rarely. So, we were able to concentrate on smacking down black and red whenever it popped up. Also, our one missing occupation (5 possible roles, so each game the four players don't have one) was the "Researcher," who's special ability is to build new research stations. That is the weakest of the five, in my opinion. So, it ended up being a good scenario for Allen to notch his first group win.

Next week, rumor has it, we will be playing the new Ogre board game -- all 25 pounds and umpteen million counters of it...! Otherwise, I've been working on my cannibal cookpot terrain piece. It is fairly close to being done, so you should see an update on it soon. Mike S had mentioned electronic votive candles with flickering LED lights when I was talking about how it would be cool to "light up" terrain pieces with integral lights. So, this piece is designed to go over one and conceal all of it except the flickering light. So far, it looks great, and I can't wait to see it completed. I've also been working on pieces to uses as "plot points" for my 28mm Pulp Alley games. I did a selection of idols, supplies, books, secret maps, etc. Those are all but done, too.

So, look for more updates here soon...!

Tukish Delight? The Battle of Manzikert, 1071 A.D.

    Our Byzantine opponents, Joel and Keith

So, one of our regular Sunday night gamers, Steve, is a big fans of staging refights of historical battles. He'll playtest them with us and then takes them to area conventions to run. The latest battle that caught his eye was the Battle of Manzikert -- a pivotal encounter that probably did the Byzantine Empire as much long-term damage as any other in their history. Because of this disaster, the empire lost is vital agricultural and recruiting lands in Asia Minor. Through the centuries, the Byzantines had relied on this area for manpower, horses, crops, and other goods. Its loss to the Turks was one of the nails in the empire's coffins, though Constantinople did not actually fall for 400 more years.

A couple weeks earlier, he and Keith had tested out the game using Might of Arms rules. Steve wanted to give the battle a whirl using Hail Caesar rules, which our group had played a number of times. I enjoy Hail Caesar, though I often end up getting hammered by its abundant dice rolling! It plays quickly and is easy to learn its mechanics. There is a bare minimum of modifiers -- all of which makes sense. 

    The centers advance towards each other...or would be, if my light horse would move! Allen's heavy cavalry behind are getting impatient and would ride through as we stalled for a third consecutive turn.

In this game, Allen and I would take on the role of Arp-Aslan and his Turkish emirs, while Keith and Joel would be Emperor Diogenes and his subordinates. Both Allen and I like to play fairly aggressively, so we planned an immediate advance all along our front. One problem, though. My dice rolling was its usual suck. I needed to roll an 8 or less on 2d6 to activate my troops. In the first three turns, I failed on that 5 of 6 times (I had two commands). Considering that rolling an 8 or less is a 72+% chance, you can see how poorly I was rolling!!! Whenever one unit in a command fails to activate, you are done for that command. So, our Turkish advance stalled. In fact, it stalled so badly, Allen's heavy cavalry in the center advanced through my motionless, screening light cavalry.

By turn four, I was starting to succeed on activation rolls. I began to envelop Keith's left wing, spreading out my more numerous horse archers out to concentrate fire on him. Eventually, this wore his command down, along with a couple charges that went my way. His broken left wing ended up being the only command broken in the entire battle. We were really surprised at how much horse archery could wear down an opposing battleline. It taught me that you need to have reserve troops to punch through once the enemy is wavering.

    With my slacker light cavalry out of the way, Allen was able to close with the Byzantine center and soften it up with archery fire before charging in.

Allen and Keith did get to grips in the center, with honors about even -- maybe with a slight edge to us. I couldn't follow the action on our left so well, but from the sound of it, Allen and his brother Joel were battering each other about the same amount. In the end, it was likely a minor victory for the Turks -- unlike the overwhelming disaster it was for the Byzantines historically. The thing I took away from the battle is how different a horse archery duel plays out from the usual Roman vs. Carthaginian foot slogs we'd done before. That is a good thing, of course. Those two types of battles should feel different.

    Late in the battle, my right wing starts to turn inward on the Byzantine center

Next week, I believe we will be doing board games. I'll post a report following the evening's gaming.

Rhinos, Hippos, and Apes, oh my!

    Beware the hungry, hungry hippo lurking in the rivers of my tabletop...

I have always enjoyed painting animals, whether in 28mm or 15mm. I think that even if they're used just for scenery, they always seem to make a good table look even better. So, when I finished my Southeast Asian temples awhile back, I thought I should raid my unpainted lead drawer and see what animals I have that would fit the locale. I have a decent-sized stock, and there were bound to be some in there that I could use in my games.

    A 28mm Iron Wind (Ral Partha) Rhino. This is probably my second favorite, after the hippo, of this batch of animals

What's more, Pulp Alley -- the rules I'm using for these games -- has a concept called "Perilous Areas." This is meant to be that generic dangerous part of the miniature tabletop. It could because of treacherous footing, a creaky old rope bridge, or even savage animals that might ambush the player. In the game, opponents can play a Fortune Card on a rival player when he enters one of those areas. These are "challenges" that they must pass using a designated character's statistic -- such as Cunning, Might, Dodge, etc. I envisioned these animals I painted up as perfect "markers" for perilous areas. You want to cross that jungle stream? Well, see that hippo in the water, that means it is a perilous area...will one get territorial and attack you, or will you pass the test?

    A nasty, ill-tempered denizen of my jungles are these over-sized porkers

So, when I hunted through my unpainted lead drawer (okay, rolling set of drawers!), I found a hippo. I also found a rhino, gorilla, wild board, cobra, and two water buffaloes. Yes, yes, I know. Not all of these animals are necessarily Southeast Asian, but it is close enough. These are Pulp games after all. Once you accept that you are being attacked by Pygmy Cannibals of the South Seas, you're not going to quibble about whether the type of rhino I painted up is native to the jungles of Southeast Asia!

    "Out of bananas again...? Why I oughta take the head offa the first dope who comes along...say, who's that over there?"

    I painted this up as an Egyptian banded cobra because I loved the yellow and black pattern

I believe all of these except for the water buffalo are from Iron Wind Metals. The descendants of Ral Partha, this company is a regular at the conventions I attend. I love sorting through their loose lead bin, and have a hard time coming away without my hands silvery and a brown paper bag full of animals that you-just-never-know if I'll need one day. After all, look at these beauties! Who knew that I'd be needing them to mark out perilous areas on a 28mm Pulp game? But there they are! Anyway, I highly, highly recommend hitting up Iron Wind at conventions. You'd be hard-pressed to find a better assortment of animals, dinosaurs, and various other loose metal bits that what they carry. They charge by the pound, too, so you can mix and match to your heart's desire.

    Two water buffalo posing by the second, smaller jungle hut I built in less than a week leading up to my second game of Dakota Smith's Oriental Adventures. Notice the improvised staircase of crates. Clever, aren't I? Ha, ha!

When I finished running the second installment of Dakota Smith's Oriental Adventures at my buddy Keith's the other night, one of my friends found these three Easter Island moai on his table. I snatched them up and told him I'd touch them up and flock them. I knew they'd be perfect for the next game. Yes, yes, I know Easter Island is nowhere near Southeast Asia! But these could fill the bill as primitive stone idols. I mean, last time I checked, Easter Island has never copyrighted the concept of a giant stone head. And if they did, their copyright expired with their civilization! Seriously, all I did to these guys was dry brush a lighter shade on exposed areas, give them a nice dark ink wash, and put flocking on the bases. It'll be a shame to give them back to Keith...I've always loved that otherworldly look of the moai. And yes, I have been to Easter Island in my travels. Here's a couple of my favorite photos from that trip to close out this post.

    I have no idea where these came from -- well, other than my friend's basement! I just had to snag them, touch them up, and get them ready for my next game.

What's up next? A small project and a really big one, size-wise...more to come soon!

    Iconic shot from Ranu Raruku -- the quarry on Easter Island

    One of my all-time favorite sunset shots I've ever taken

Welcome to the Jungle

    28mm Senegalese askaris creep through the jungle pieces I created

Since my 28mm Pulp games are set in Southeast Asia, there's bound to be a scenario or two set in a jungle. I decided I needed to make some dedicated-looking jungle pieces for my games, rather than just plop down my normal trees. I have some palm trees that I use for my 20mm modern Africa games, but I wanted something looking more overgrown and wild.

My thought was that -- rather than put one tree on a base -- I would make the bases larger and have them contain a variety of plants. Many years ago, I'd done this for terrain for my 15mm southeast Asian ancient armies. I dug them up and wasn't that impressed. The plastic plants I'd used were very glossy, and the flocking I'd put on the base was shedding off every time you touched them. Step one would be to touch these up.

    My old jungle pieces touched up with a dark green wash and light green dry brush

I also wasn't particularly impressed with the lurid greens of the plastic plants. So, I mixed up a 50/50 batch of water and Ceramcoat English Yew Green. This is a duller, darker green color that I thought would tone them down well. I didn't try to cover every inch of the plants, but splash it across the majority of the surface. It took less time than I thought it would. Originally, I'd intended that to be it (other than fixing the balding flocking). After they dried, though, I thought to myself: "These are just crying out for a light green dry brush." So, I did, and was a LOT more happy with how they looked. I applied a 50/50 batch of white glue and water to the flocking to fix it down. After it was dry (and warped -- can you believe I used balsa wood way back then?), I sprayed them and was happy. Not the greatest pieces, but they will look good in bulk.

    Cheap plastic trees won in a raffle - no paint, no touch-up

Now, for my new jungle pieces. Awhile back, I'd won a batch of cheap-looking, plastic trees in a raffle. I decided to make one of those the centerpiece of each jungle base. Next, I went to Michaels craft store and perused their plastic plant aisles. I found three likely looking types -- one a fern, another with round leaves, and a third that was very sparse and "stemmy" (technical term). I wanted a variety in looks.

    Plastic plants from craft store ("rounded," "stemmy," and "fern")

I decided to use some 45mm across hexagonal plywood bases I'd bought from Litko for another project that was several back burners behind this one. I could always order more if I got around to it. I Tacky glued one of the plastic trees to each one, generally in the center or slightly off-center. The double-trunk tree pieces would be the largest plant on the base, so it made sense to have them in the middle. Then, I decided to fix the "cheap" look of it. I painted the trunk dark brown and let it dry. Then I dry brushed it a medium brown, followed by a khaki. Once this was done, I gave the same treatment to the palm-like fronds that I had to my previously-made jungle pieces. The dark yew green and water mixture was followed up by a light green dry brush when they were dry. I was impressed by how just a quick application of a few colors really made the trees look ten times better.

    Cheap plastic tree painted with 3 colors on trunk and 2 on fronds

Next, I grabbed the plastic plants from Michaels and trimmed up a bunch of pieces to apply to the bases. I varied the heights -- making the ferns taller on some, the rounded leaf one on others, and the stemmy one on still others. I took a small bit of blue tack (sometimes called poster putty) and wrapped the bottom of each plant in it and used it to affix it to the base. I molded the blue tack into a roughly pyramidal shape so that it would blend into the base once the flocking was done. Next, I painted the blue tack with Tacky glue to seal it, making sure to slop some paint up onto the plant and also onto the base around it. I'd hoped this would lock it in, and it did a nice job.

    The plant pieces attached to the hexagonal bases with blue tack, or "poster putty"

The Tacky glue seal would be aided by the multi-layer ground flock method I've been using for awhile now. The first step is to mix a bit of my reddish-brown ground color with white glue and paint the base completely (also covering the Tacky-glued plant bases). Then I dipped it in medium ballast, covering the surface thoroughly.

    The jungle bases after the Tacky glue seal and the medium ballast layer has been put down

Once it dried, I remixed the white glue, base color, and added about 50% water. This was painted over the ballast. Then I poured sand across it, which adheres and gives a more ground-like appearance. Incidentally, this is how I flock my miniatures, too. Then I take straight white glue and paint it on the base, covering at least 3/4's of it. I sprinkled Woodland Scenics blended green turf across it. The final step is to add a few pieces of Woodland Scenics clump foliage of various colors. Darker colors were placed towards the shadowed center, and brighter ones towards the edges. A spray of Testors Dullcoate was next (the only clear coat I use anymore). Once dry, I put a final 50/50 mix of white glue and water on the flocking to seal it in. These multiple layers serve to seal the plants to the base fairly well, it seems. I really like how they turned out, too.

    The jungle bases complete with flocking

Dakota Smith's Oriental Adventure, Part 2 - Missing at the Mission

Western Archeologist Briefing
Near the Ta-bo Mountains, French Indochina
November 30, 1930

    Despite the failure to get your hands on Brother Virigi’s journal, you came away from the Portuguese monastery on Macau with solid information. The monk had left a few weeks ago for the monastery’s mission on the mainland in French Indochina. The brother monks had set up an outpost in the foothills of the Ta-bo Mountains to preach to the primitive tribes living there. Villagers you speak to along the way there always spit when saying the name of the mountains, so you suspect an evil story lurks in this area’s history.
    It takes about a week to trek through jungle and cultivated plain before you begin to climb into the foothills. Once or twice, you see signs that the other archeological teams you encountered at the monastery may be on the same trail. Villages and hamlets are becoming more and more scarce, though. What’s more, in your last several days of travel, all the villages you pass through are deserted. Chickens and goats wander untended, making you suspect the villagers left in a hurry. There is a smell of smoke in the air as you finally come to the mission station. A grayish haze hangs over the area, as if a fire has been smoldering for days...

    The second scenario saw Dakota Smith and his rivals discovering Brother Virigi's mission station on the mainland raided, smoking, and with no signs of life...

So, after our first game of Pulp Alley, I was trying some changes to adapt the game to the large number of players. Once again, we had five players and myself for our Sunday evening game. This time, though, each player had only 3 characters under his control -- a leader, sidekick, and ally. That is, except for the Order of the Fire Coral, who had sidekicks for all three characters. I shrank the board to 4'x4', and placed the 4 minor plot points 12" from each edge. The major plot point was in the center of the table. The major plot point was a badly-wounded survivor of the raid that had apparently wiped out Brother Virigi's mission station. The minor ones were clues to the the identity of the attackers, including inscriptions on the walls of a ruined temple, the boxes of supplies looted by the attackers, a muddy patch with lots of footprints, and Brother Virigi's new journal.

    A map showing the board as I initially planned it -- some changes were made when I set it up

This game saw a new archeological faction take the field. Mike S had created his own Irish archeological team, and switched over to playing them. Allen, who'd been absent our first game, took over capably in playing Dakota Smith. The French player was absent, so they were obviously held up by bureaucratic duties, while the other Europeans skirted those. Each team made a beeline for the plot point nearest where they'd set up. Dakota Smith, accompanied by Dolly Flanders and Harold Fortwine, hoofed it up the hill to the ruined temple to examine it. Harold stumbled a couple times in the perilous footing -- with vegetation concealing pits and crumbling floors. His arch-nemesis, Von Jaeger, came in on the opposite side of the board and headed for the muddy patch of ground that promised to show good footprints of (and possibly identify) the attackers. The Irish came in not far from them, and advanced cautiously towards the looted supplies, hoping to gain a clue as to who the attackers were by what they took and what they left behind. Harris McLeod and the British hurried towards the swampy patch of ground where the raid's lone survivor lay hidden. And finally, Opay, Tat-Ko, and Jaz Minh infiltrated through the mission huts. Tat-ko searched the monk's quarters, while the other two stealthily closed in on the Europeans.

    Dakota Smith passes up on checking out the village to instead examine the temple ruins at the top of the scrubby hill, hoping to get some clues about the history of the area

    The steely-eyed Von Jaeger notices something odd left by the footprints in the mud

    The mystery of the raided mission station distracts Lady Shannon -- always ready for adventure -- from her hunt for a Buddhist tomb

    The British come upon a grisly discovery in the marshy patch in the center of the table. They are stunned to find the horribly stabbed Chinese man still alive, but even more astonished by the stunted, misshapen body of what wounded him...!

    Once again, the mission of Opay and other members of the Order of the Fire Coral is to frustrate that of the westerners, and keep hidden the mystery that Brother Virigi must have stumbled upon...

All leagues except the Fire Coral ran afoul of an occasional perilous area, but no lasting damage was done to any. This time, I put markers on the table for the perilous areas -- venomous snakes in the jungle patches, crocodiles in the river, feral chickens near the huts (just kidding, but there were some angry, neglected water buffalo that the adventurers gave a wide berth to...!). To be honest, this is probably an area all the players need to improve upon. We still need to learn how how to best play Fortune cards to the maximum effect against their opponents -- especially when characters enter perilous areas. Last game, Tom was particularly effective doing this. However, everyone struggled this game to make much offensive use of them against their rival leagues.

    The perilous areas on the board slowed down the occasional character, and even temporarily downed Fraulein Blucher (German ally). However, she recovered quickly. All hands were available at the bullets began to fly, shortly...

By turn three, all five plot points were in the hands of the characters. There was a humorous moment when the players turned to me and asked, "Is the scenario over?" Once I explained that you could take away plot points from other characters, and that they were worth more experience, they quickly caught on that their next objective was each other!

    Dakota was a bit miffed that Dolly sauntered in and finished off his deciphering of the minor plot point. This didn't prevent him from taking a quick pencil and paper rubbing of the temple inscriptions...

Now, the bullets began to fly (there had actually been a "Parley" card played on Turn 3). Predictably, the bloodthirsty Von Jaeger and his Nazi thugs started it. Otto Tulmann wounded Harris McLeod, who managed to dodge the follow up gunfire of Von Jaeger himself. The next turn, Otto poured more fire into Harris, wounding him further. Steve played a "Stay Down" card to keep Harris from recovering. The portly hunter quickly shuffled away, leaving Major Speke-Eastman and his niece Clara to deal with the vicious Nazis.

    Guns blazing, the Germans chase after the British and the major plot point

Lady Shannon's Irish also showed a tendency to shoot first and ask questions later. Her sidekick Ryan and her cowboy ally, Tex, whooped as they blazed away at Jaz Minh and Opay. Meanwhile, inside the hut, Tat-Ko located Brother Virigi's new journal and hid it inside his robe.

    Ryan O'Shea and Tex open fire on the Order of the Fire Coral

    Inside the jungle huts which composed the Portuguese mission (and newly-constructed for this scenario), Tat-Ko discovers the missing Brother Virigi's new journal and swipes it

Drawn by the desire to capture the wounded Chinese survivor of the raid, all the teams except the Irish closed in on the center. Fraulein Blucher boldly charged up the hill, fists flying, at an astonished Dakota Smith, who had seized the opportunity to open fire at the hated Nazis. Harold Fortwine, an ex-boxer in his undergrad days, waded in and belted the stout, gray-haired matron to the ground, though. Harris McLeod recovered his nerve enough to turn and let loose a fusilade at Von Jaeger, who returned fire. Both were wounded. Major Speke-Eastman also fired off a flurry of shots, further wounding the German. Jaz Minh and Opay avoided crocodiles to dash across the river. As the Irish continued to take pot shots at the martial artists, Jaz Minh skipped back across the river and kicked Ryan O'Shea's gun from his hand. 

    The melee in the center is furious, and the Germans are in the thick of it. All teams are eventually drawn into the brawl, though.

A couple of the players had the foresight to send their plot points off towards the board edge, in the hands of one of their characters, though. Dakota handed the temple wall rubbing off to Dolly. The socialite needed little encouragement to dash off down the hill and away from the gunfire. Tat-Ko sprinted for the edge of the board, but his movement drew the attention of Tex. As his companion Ryan knocked down Jaz Minh, Tex drew a bead on the fleeing martial artist. His shot rang true and Tat-Ko fell to the ground, the journal flung free of his robes.

    Bullets and fists fly as the characters all compete to drag off the howling, wounded survivor of the raid. They know he had key information on how to track down the attackers, and hopefully, rescue Brother Virigi.

The sixth turn drew to a close with the major plot point having been wrested from the British, but under no one's control. The grisly tug-of-war with the horribly wounded survivor saw Clara McLeod dig her heels into the ground and prevent Von Jaeger from carrying the man off. It ended the game under no one's control. The Fire Coral also lost possession of the journal to a long-range shot which put Tat-Ko down and out. The Americans, Germans, and Irish all retained possession of one minor plot point, so came out on top.

As the leagues retreated from the bloody fray to bandage their wounds and take stock of the situation, they knew they all had one piece of information. The monks of the Portuguese mission station had been kidnapped by a tribe of savage pygmies known as the Ta-bo. The wounded survivor's words still echoed in their ears, "Save the brothers, please, masters! The Ta-bo are cannibals...!" If they were ever going to find the location of the lost city from Brother Virigi, they'd first have to rescue him from pygmy cannibals of the South Seas...!

Everyone seemed to enjoy the game, and got into the fact that they were bitter rivals eventually. Pulp Alley is still a new rules set for our group, so we are still learning tactics and strategy. I am still learning at how to incorporate the perilous areas into the game, and keep the storyline of them coherent, pulpy, and well, as believable as a rousing pulpy yarn should be...! I'm sure I'll get better at the storytelling aspect of the game as we play more. The guys are helping out, though, and suggesting reasons for outcomes that make good "B movie" sense. It'll probably be January before I run Scenario 3 (The Search for Skull Cave), as our Sunday night schedule is filling up. That's fine, though, as I have lots of jungle pieces to create. Plus, I have a hankering to make a rope bridge, and what can be more "Indiana Jones"-like than that...?

Jungle Hut -- Southeast Asian building, Part 3

    The jungle hut completed...and overrun by a collection of surly, 28mm Pulp characters. The platform is permanently attached to the base with stilts. The roof comes off, though, of course.

I left off in the last post with the jungle hut all painted and washed, and the roof complete. All that was really left was to create the stilt base. I cut another rectangle of black styrene to the appropriate size. Things were getting trickier here than you'd think, though. I wanted the stairs to slide right under the platform so the heights of the two had to be just right. I measured and double-checked. It looked like it would be a perfect fit.

    I figured these flat-headed wooden pins would be perfect for the stilts of my jungle hut. The rounded flat part at the top would be hidden by the platform, but would be wide enough to give a good grip and hold tight.

I Tacky glued 6 wooden flat-heated pins that I bought in a bag at Hobby Lobby to the styrene base. Although they have a flat surface on the top and bottom, I thought I might need to use some blue tack to hold them upright. As it turned out, Tacky glue is thick enough that this wasn't necessary. Next, I flocked the base completely. I did not want to have to be reaching my brush underneath the platform once it was glued on. Okay, I lied. I glued the platform on top of the pins before I put my final layer of 50/50 white glue and water on it. I got impatient and really wanted to see how it would look all put together! 

    A close up of the front of the jungle hut. This will doubtless be the scene of many Pulp encounters in the jungles of southeast Asia!

Although you can't see them in the picture, I put a lot of clump foliage on the base to represent undergrowth sprouting up beneath the platform. It looks nicely, and as you can see, I did measure correctly (or get lucky), and the stairs slide neatly underneath the platform.

All in all, I am incredibly happy with how this turned out. To me, it really looks like a building you'd find in a jungle clearing.

Jungle Hut -- Southeast Asian building, Part 2

    The hut after a Raw Siena base coat and Khaki dry brush. This is before the Dun highlight and the black ink wash.

Stage two of the Jungle Hut build began with paint...lots of it! As I mentioned in the first article, I made a mistake when I did not paint the paper mache box my base color before I glued on the burlap. I paid the price for it during this stage, and it actually took two coats before I was satisfied you couldn't see bare cardboard inside the tiny squares inside the weave of the burlap. My base color was a new one I'd purchased for it called "Raw Siena," a cheap craft paint from Ceramcoat. I would say 80% of the paints I use are from Ceramcoat. I just don't see the point of paying hobby paint prices. A few specialty paints -- like Steel and Bronze metallic -- are from Iron Wind. Most of my "dry brush" colors are Howard Hues, because they are thicker. My "rank and file" paints, though, are Ceramcoat that I buy at Hobby Lobby or Michaels.

For some reason, I took fewer pictures as the building progressed. I didn't take any of it with just its base coat. It wasn't until after I'd done the Khaki dry brush that I took the next shot. At that point, I was wondering if I should do a further highlight using Iron Wind Metals "Dun" -- a nice dull yellow color that dry brushes well. I decided what the heck, and went ahead and put it in the areas that would be sunlit. I liked how it looked. Then I debated whether to do a black ink wash over it. The hut looked pretty good as it was. If the ink wash messed it up, I might be a bit peeved. What's more, I might even lose my temper and do something rash. Which reminds me of my favorite story of a gamer losing his temper after a painting disaster. A friend of mine had constructed a very fiddly 1/72 scale biplane model, lovingly painted it with interesting patterns, and then spray sealed it. Yep. The sealant fogged the paint job, and none of the normal remedies fixed it. Well, that plane went on its first and only flight, at a rapid pace, into the nearest wall...!

I'm happy to say the Jungle Hut did not become a Jungle Hut ruin. I really like how the ink wash made it look more realistic and three dimensional. The burlap looked less like fabric glued down and more like an actual hut made out of woven material. So, it was a success. And I really liked how the ink wash made the bamboo platform look.

    The printed image of wicker flooring and walls turned out very nice...so nice my friends asked me why do I even bother texturing the walls. I should just print the whole thing. "Thanks, guys..."

Next up (not really, I'm a bit out of order now) was the interior. Once again, I went to the CG Textures website and found high quality images that would work for the interior. I picked out a few woven patterns and resized them in photoshop. I even found a door and resized and colored it and placed it on one of the wicker walls images. I printed them out on my color laser printer and said, "Wow!" The patterns looked really sharp -- even better than my 3D burlap prior to the ink wash! To size them up right, I took a sheet of printer paper and trimmed it to the size of the interior walls (including spacing the windows) -- one each for the long and short walls. I then trimmed the printed patterns to the right size with an Xacto knife. I had previously painted the interior the same Raw Siena when I'd base-coated the outside. Now, I used an old brush to paint the surface where the printed image would go with white glue and positioned the image over it. I did each of the four walls, and then the floor. Once again, I let out another "Wow!" I am really liking this technique of using printed images for the interiors!

    The multiple layers of the roof: black styrene base, foam core eaves (here covered by the burlap already), cardstock roof base, and Teddy Bear fur.

Now it was time for the roof. I cut a piece of black styrene so that it would overlap the roof by about 1/2" on all sides. I cut the triangular-shaped eaves out of black foamcore and glued them upright with Tacky glue. To keep them straight, a giant 28mm ape held them so they were perpendicular. Thanks, Kong! I measured the length of the eaves and cut a stiff piece of cardstock for the roof base, sizing it to overlap by about 1/2" all the way around. I folded it and then tacky glued it to the eaves, turning it upside down and putting a weight on it so that it pressed it firmly against the eaves.

    I was very proud of myself when I remembered to paint the triangular eaves BEFORE I glued on the burlap...proving no matter how old the dog, tedious work covering up for a mistake can teach him a lesson...!

For the thatch material I'd decided to go with "Teddy Bear fur" -- which you can get in a roll from Hobby Lobby. Note: No actual Teddy Bears were harmed in the making of this Jungle Hut. This was synthetic fur. I've been told that synthetic Teddy Bears feel no pain. Anyway, I measured and cut the chocolate brown fur so it would overlap the roof base. I used Tacky glue to affix it to the roof. Once it was dry, I mixed up a batch of white glue and water 50/50. I painted the fur with this mixture, then combed it from the apex of the roof to the ends, which gave it a nice "rowed" looked. After waiting a couple hours for it to dry, it became apparent there wasn't enough glue to stiffen the fur. So, I painted on pretty much straight white glue, which mixed naturally with the soaked fibers. I combed it again, and then let it sit overnight.

    The fur before dry brushing but after it has been painted with white glue. You can see the vertical pattern made by combing...well, *I* can (he says, justifying do the work).

The thatch was indeed hardened, and took two coats of dry brushing easily. I used the same Raw Siena for my first coat and followed it up sparingly with Khaki. I really like how the thatch turned out. The Teddy Bear fur was a definite success. One of my friends said it is the best model thatch he's ever seen. I am not sure if I would got that far, but it is the best model thatch I've done, in my opinion. I cut a rectangle of black foamcore to glue to the underside so it would fit securely inside the walls of the hut and not slide off.

At this stage, all that is left is the flocking and the stilt base! I'll finish that off in part three.