Gang Warfare Playtest #2 with Smaller Group

City streets are quiet just before the gangs show up to rumble in my second playtest of my Gang Warfare rules

Since I knew we'd only have five of us, this Sunday, I seized the opportunity to try the rules with a four-player game. I wanted to see if the dynamics or play was different with only four, as opposed to six players last time. I also added in the traits for figures, giving all leaders a special trait and three others to be divided among their eight-figure gangs.

The Hilltop Highlanders prowl down the alley past their turf, the Shell gas station

I also shrunk the board down, keeping the 3' depth, but shortening the width to around 4'. I wanted to see how this affected play, as well. All in all, fewer players meant fewer fights breaking out. One gang, the Linden Daos -- who rumbled the most in the last game -- actually never attacked another gang (or was attacked in return). Keith admitted after the game he missed on his victory points that beating up on certain gangs gave him bonus points. So, he completed his special mission, defended his turf, and sent members out to tag nearby buildings.

The Bexley Block Watch keeps an eye on the playground and basketball court

Each gang is given a special mission (+15 victory points if accomplished), turf to defend (where they can lose up to 15 points), bonus points for knocking out other gang members (sliding scale, some gangs being worth more than others to them to represent arch-rivals), points for "tagging" buildings, and negative points for members knocked out.

The Linden Daos emerge stealthily from an alley way, eyeing their objective

The only gang to not accomplish their special mission were the hapless Bexley Block Watch, whose middle aged members once again took it on the chin. They were jumped by both the Hilltop Highlanders and the Japanese schoolgirls. In the end, Brian had only two members still standing. Last time, I made each player's turf they were trying to defend the object of the special mission of another gang. This time I purposely did NOT do that. Each player's special mission required them crossing the center of the board, though, to give them maximum opportunity to mix things up.

Mike S, Keith, and Mike W watch as Brian measures his move, advancing the Bexley Block Watch towards the center

I liked how the traits worked out, though with less fighting in this game, some of the traits (Blackbelt, in particular), did not get used. I will keep mixing in more of them in upcoming games so that I have a good idea of how powerful they are and how many points to cost them out at. I am thinking of dropping the number of gang members per player for larger games to seven instead of eight. Although this game moved along quickly, I want six player and large games to do so, as well.

The leader of the Hilltop Highlanders emerges to see the coast is definitely NOT clear on these mean streets

Only one new building (Stelzer Steel Industries) was added to my urban landscape this game, but there should be more by next game. I have decided that I really like the dark wool felt I use as the base cloth. In photos, it LOOKS like asphalt, I feel. However, I am going to replace the lighter gray felt as concrete. I hope to find styrene at a reasonable cost to create concrete city blocks, and will flock those so that the board has a more three dimensional look.

A three-way rumble breaks out between the Bexley Block Watch, Hilltop Highlanders, and the Japanese Schoolgirls

No major complaints from the players. I think they are enjoying the games. The interaction between gangs is good, as they attack each other when one gets too close in their eagerness to defend their turf. I may even expand gangs' turf next game from one to two buildings/structures.

A menacing line of martial artists - the Linden Daos take up position to guard their turf, remaining surprisingly passive

I hope to do another playtest in September, and maybe even run it on Saturday night at Advance the Colors. Stay tuned for more gang warfare!

Sneaking through the parking lot seemed like a good idea, but brought the Block Watch too close to Hilltop turf!

Keith watches, keeping an eye on Brian's movement of the Bexley Block Watch -- making sure they don't come too close!

For all their posing, the Linden Daos never attacked another player in this game

The rumble between the Block Watch, Highlanders, and Japanese Schoolgirls rages in the street

The Highlanders get ready to break into the diner to steal some grub for tonight's party

The Highlanders did a good job of protecting their turf in this dust up -- the Shell Gas Station

And then, the gangs cleared the streets - was it the sounds of sirens they heard that made them disappear?

20mm Mirage III first jet in my modern air force

A 3-D printed 20mm scale Dassault Mirage III, painted in South African Air Force colors

The next step in my Wars of Insurgency modern skirmish rules is to create mechanisms for close air support. I am pretty happy with the helicopter rules I've playtested at conventions the last couple of years. Now, it is on to fixed-wing aircraft!

The problem with that is where to get them from in 20mm or 1/72 scale (which is close)? My first choice would have been die cast metal ones. That is, until I saw the prices not only for the planes but also the shipping ($10 on Amazon). Even though I won't need many for my battlefield, paying $30 a crack was too much in my book. Kits were available, and cheaper, yes. However, my days of assembling 50-piece model kits where you glue antennas and miscellaneous tiny fins on a model are long since past. So, what about 3-D printed ones?

This Mirage III will appear in playtests of my close-air support mechanisms for my Wars of Insurgency rules

I searched on Thingiverse, and found four that were used by the air forces of South Africa or Rhodesia. None were in the right scale, but I had been told they are relatively easy to "scale up." So, I contacted my go-to, 3-D printer guy, Joe. He said no problem, and within a week I had a Mirage III, Blackburn Buccaneer, Hawker Hunter, and propeller-driven Lynx.

Top down view of the model - you can see some of the 3-D printer pattern on the wings that I tried to sand off

I painted up the Mirage first because it was one of the smaller models (you should see how huge a Buccaneer is in 20mm scale!). After sanding the models down to make the surfaces look smoother, I spray-painted it Krylon black acrylic. I followed that up with a 50/50 mixture of black paint and water, to seep into the smallest cracks. Then I did two coats of each base color -- the leathery, khaki
color first, then the green second. I then highlighted each color in a lighter and more watered down version of each color. Details were hand-painted on -- no decals (as you can probably tell...ha, ha!). I particular like how the canopy came out. Very understated. I simply put three different colors of blue on the upper portions of the canopy, on top of the solid black color.

I am pretty happy with how this 3-D printed model turned out, and it was MUCH cheaper than either the die cast or kids. Next up, the Buccaneer!

28mm Sarissa MDF Factory #2 Completed!

The Wangs hang out at the back doors of my latest 28mm MDF Sarissa Factory

When I cleared off the modeling desk in the spare bedroom, I knew it would make sense to begin another one of my 28mm Sarissa buildings for my urban terrain. I flipped through the five I have left from my last purchase from Wargame Tools. The motel? Nah...looks complicated! The 2-level store? Maybe. The newstands? Nah. What about the second factory? That was a quick build, and I'm going to be busy getting ready for the start of school...SURE!

The Wangs (Mega Minis) practice their moves in front of another building named after another Sunday night gamer

There are at least four different versions of the Sarissa factory, and the biggest difference with this one was that it had two sets of double garage doors on the front AND rear sides of the building. That meant you have to be a little  more careful when handling it to paint the interior and sides. The doors are made of cardstock and perforated so you can easily depict them open or closed. Several times while I was shifting my grip during the painting process, I felt the doors begin to give and separate. I wasn't too worried, as I fully intended to print off (rather than paint) them. The paper glued to the exterior and interior would strengthen them enough so I wouldn't have to worry about their strength anymore. I really like how the doors I created in Photoshop look, too. I think they're better than the ones I made for Finn's Industrial Fasteners, the first factory I built.

Who put that graffiti on the factory side wall? Well, I did...downloading Google images, cropping, and printing them out

Speaking of naming, I continued my new tradition of naming the building after one of our Sunday night gaming crew. Thus, Mike Stelzer now apparently owns a factory in Columbus (where I am setting my gang warfare games). Otherwise, I did this factory exactly like I did the first one I built -- so you can check out that entry for details on how I painted and modeled it. I changed the trim color from dark red to deep blue, but otherwise, I did it identically, other than the name, of course!

I decided to have some fun with the "Days Missed" safety sign in the factory

I decided to pose my first gang I painted next to it because they haven't appeared in any of the Urban Warfare posts, I think. That's because I actually painted them years ago for our Pulp games! They were the Order of the Fire Coral in our Southeast Asian 28mm Pulp games, using Pulp Alley rules. In the 1970s & 80s Columbus, they are the Wangs. I named them after a gang in the movie, "The Wanderers" -- which I really do need to find a copy and watch, again. Why the Wangs? Well, Rodney Dangerfield's sidekick in "Caddyshack" was named Wang, and that's a great movie from that era! They are some pretty cool poses -- all but the leader holding the pipe are from 28mm Mega Minis (who are sadly, out of business, it appears).

So, what building is next? A brewpub, in honor of our usual host on Sunday night, who brews his own beer!

More Britons for my Saga army!

28mm Briton reinforcements for my Welsh Saga army

These are the last of the 28mm Britons that I had in my unpainted drawer. Since I am having fun playing Saga once a month with a group at the Guardtower East in Columbus, I figured I may as well get the rest of them done. As it is now, I have to draft some Saxon infantry to fill out my 24 (3 points worth) of warriors. And I also have to draft some Picts to field a unit of 12 Levy javelinmen. Getting these figures done means I have to borrow that many fewer figures to field my "Welsh" Saga army.

Two more Britons that will help fill out the ranks of my two units of warriors

I honestly forget which company these 28mm miniatures come from. I actually received them many years ago when I was helping judge the Origins Awards. The manufacturer sent a very generous amount of samples, and the detail, personality, and posing meant they got my vote! I still have a few mounted figures left from the samples, and I'll get around to painting them soon. Since I use only 8 mounted hearthguard in my army, I already have plenty painted up.

Three more javelin men for my levy unit in Saga

This last batch of three will probably be used in as javelin levy in Saga. They are unarmored, unlike the middle two, and are in a more active, "throwing" pose. Of course, one of the great things about Dark Ages troops is they can be used for so many other kingdoms. There was a lot of similarity in what troops looked like in this period -- at least as far as I have read. The horn blower in the first photo will probably take over as my Warlord's attendant. I like to base my Saga warlords with one leader figure, a musician, and a standard bearer. I know that under the rules they count as one, but it just looks better, I feel (and so do some others, I know!). The other guy in the first picture looks like a "battle line" type of troop. So, he will also fill out the warriors. Speaking of lending figures, he will likely one day get "borrowed" by the Picts when I get around to fielding a Saga Pictish army (which I will field as Scots, because the Picts in their lists are the "Ancient" ones that fought the Romans. The ones that fought the Vikings (the part of the Dark Ages for all my other figures) fought very similar to Saga Scots with bands of infantry with long spears.

What's next? More MDF buildings and -- believe it or not -- jet airplanes! 

Mean Streets: First Playtest of 28mm Urban Gang Warfare

Gangs battle it out for control of Columbus' Mean Streets in our first playtest of my Urban Warfare rules

It was a busy week and weekend getting ready for this Sunday's playtest of my new Urban Gang Warfare miniatures rules. I picked out a new groundcloth, finished painting a bunch of plastic civilian figures that Keith had given me, and even bought new dice. On Saturday, I spread the ground cloth out on the carpet in my house and set up the board to make sure I truly did have enough terrain to create a 28mm inner city.

Allen moves his Bexley Blockwatch on the tabletop loaded with the urban terrain that I have been building

One thing I really liked was my charcoal gray "wool felt" ground cloth. Rather than finding a material to represent roads, I thought why not have the tablecloth be the roads? And place terrain to be the city blocks on top of that? I really like the look of that felt -- it has enough of a pattern that it looks like asphalt. I may even try to cut strips from the material and paint the dotted yellow lines to place in the middle of the streets to give the effect even more. I am of mixed opinion about my mottled light gray felt for concrete. The long-term plan may be to actually create those out of flocked styrene or something.

My Eastmoor Kings prowl down the street where the Bexley Blockwatch has staked out the intersection

It was really fun to get nearly all of my urban terrain out onto the tabletop -- my MDF buildings I'd been making, my scratch-build basketball court, 3-D printed billboards and market stalls -- it looked great, I thought. The gang figures looked good, too. Since one of our regulars couldn't make it, I ended up playing the Eastmoor Kings and really thought they looked cool on the tabletop. Same with the other gangs, including Mike S and his Japanese schoolgirls gang. He was the only one of my players who supplied their own gang. I fielded the other five.

Each gang had their own individualized mission (ahem, finally typed out on Sunday morning!), with multiple ways to earn (or lose) victory points. There was a primary mission which would earn the gang 15 victory points if they completed it. My Eastmoor Kings had to cross the board to the Shell station and steal a car from their service department. I sent my Warchief and three punks to accomplish the mission, but had to peel off the three punks when we started getting attacked by two other gangs. We also had to protect our turf -- the park -- and keep anyone else from entering it. We could earn victory points for "tagging" our logo on other buildings, which I supplied in the form of round stickers for players to actually place on the structures to keep track of...!

The Linden Daos were super-aggressive in the game, charging into contact with the Blockwatch's leader on Turn 1

In a free-for-all, multiplayer game like this, I want to give players some choices. Each gang had two other gangs on the tabletop that they needed to settle a score with, too. They would earn extra victory points for each gang member from those groups that they put out of action. This lets players who just want to fight mix it up. It also allows players who want to be strategic and divide their forces to accomplish missions do so, as well. What's more, I generally made their objectives a good amount across the table. This forces the players to mix it up and encounter (and possibly fight) other gangs. For example, Allen's gang, the Bexley Block Watch, jumped my group headed to the Shell station even though we had not intention of entering their turf. We were "too close," he said. That was the kind of randomness I was trying to allow to happen.

The Hilltop Highlanders, in their starting turf of the weekend market, prepare to move out to accomplish their mission

Of course, the Bexley Block Watch took it on the chin the worst of all, ending up with a negative seven victory points! He was jumped on almost immediately by Keith's Linden Daos (Why? Allen's gang was in his way...ha, ha!). For some reason, Allen had left his leader all alone, guarding a narrow alleyway. He did a good job playing Herodotus at the bridge and holding off the Dao's leader and two other of his punks for several turns, but eventually was knocked out. Shortly after Allen jumped my four gang members, the Japanese Schoolgirls -- showed up in the street and joined the fray. With the Block Watch beset by three gangs, it was only a matter of time before his eight gang members were whittled down, and they began to flee off the table.

Our mission was to get past these guys - the Sons of Thor - and steal a car from the gas station

The Hilltop Highlanders proved the most cautious, completing their mission, tagging a number of structures, but backing down from mixing it up with any other gangs. Even when he had a chance to jump several members of his hated enemy, the Sons of Thor (German Village Chapter), he decided not to engage. Once my Warchief's group got attacked, I quickly brought my leader and his three punks over to help out. We lost one punk to both the Block Watch and the hated Schoolgirls. It galled me, but when a lull in the fight occurred, I backed the Eastmoor Kings off and let the Blockwatch and the Schoolgirls fight it out. I was waiting for Mike S to split his forces -- he had all eight of his gang members together. Once that happened, I was going to jump them. Meanwhile, we formed an arc to protect the park and prevent other gang members from sneaking in or tagging our turf.

There were two main complications to my plans -- the Blockwatch, and these mean-spirited, Japanese Schoolgirls

Amazing, the Warchief actually completed the mission on his own. He raced across the table into the Shell station. Snatching a set of keys from the wall, he ducked back outside and hopped in the matching car. Squealing the tires, he sped off and raced off-table, garnering me 15 victory points. I knew I wouldn't win the game, but that kept me in the running. As it turned out, Mike's Schoolgirls racked up the most points. After the Blockwatch was defeated, they sauntered in, beat up the manager of Jack and Benny's Old Time Diner, forcing him to pay them protection money. That was the Blockwatch's turf, and they were supposed to prevent that from happening. They also tagged a goodly number of buildings, and knocked out a good handful of gang members (including one of mine...grrrh!).

Mike W's Hilltop Highlanders racked up a lot of points "tagging" structures, like this billboard

The Hilltop Highlanders came in second, mainly by maxing out victory points and minimizing losses. My Eastmoor Kings came in third, barely edging out Keith's Linden. They did not achieve their mission, but racked up points -- chiefly on the strength of them causing the most carnage. They decimated the Blockwatch and followed that up with a massive dustup with the Sons of Thor. Although neither were his main rivals and earned big points, his steady knocking of opposing gang members out of action racked up the points for him. The final score was:

Luckily for my Warchief, the Sons of Thor were elsewhere when he showed up at the Shell station!

1. 40 points - O-renishii School of Finishing (Mike S)
2. 28 points - Hilltop Highlanders (Mike W)
3. 25 points - Eastmoor Kings (Mike D)
4. 24 points - Linden Daos (Keith F)
5. -1 points - Sons of Thor (Joel S)
6. -7 points - Bexley Block Watch

The Linden Daos at the start of the game, deployed in front of their turf (named after Keith, who was running them!)

Everyone seemed happy with the rules. Next game, we will introduce some of the special skills that gang members can have. I wanted to ease into the new set of rules, and playtest one bit at a time. I think I may even split the board into two halves, with no more than four players mixing it up on each half. We'll see, though. For now, that means I need more buildings...good thing I have another Sarissa Factory assembled on my desk right now!

The Daos at the end of the game -- still kung fu fighting, this time in a knock-down, drag 'em out with the Sons of Thor

Finn's Factory - 28mm Sarissa MDF buidling

28mm Sarissa MDF Factory Unit #2 - named after one of my Sunday night gaming friends

Two of the half dozen or so MDF buildings I purchased recently from Wargame Tools were factories. They were inexpensive ($16 each), and would be perfect for an urban battlefield for either my modern games or my Gang warfare clashes. Sarissa makes a variety of styles, but I assembled only one, so far - Factory Unit #2, from their Industrial line.

The recessed cardstock window panes are visible in this photo, which I left black to give it a gritty and dark look

When I opened it up, I actually let out a whoop of surprise. This WOULD be the simplest MDF building I had put together! One of my favorite features of Sarissa buildings is how easy they go together, and this one was the simplest of the simple. Essentially, there is a base, four walls, and a roof. Now, the roof has three window covers, and three of the walls have detail-cut cardstock to represent the window panes, but it is still a minimum of parts. You glue the cardstock on the inside of the walls to cover the open rectangular hole of the windows with a window pane pattern. I like this because the panes look recessed a bit, and not as thick as the walls.

The Sons of Thor, German Village Chapter stake out the factory with its Photoshop-created and printed details

As per usual, after gluing the four wall sections to the base, I put a rubber band around the building to hold the joins tight. While it was drying, I took a look at it and planned how I would paint it. I decided I would not paint the window panes a color - they would remain black. It is a factory, after all, and not trying to impress anyone with colorful styling. I decided on gray concrete walls and floor, though I would vary the look with dry-brushing and different shades of gray. The floor would be darkest, followed by the outside walls, and the lightest would be the inside walls. All trim would be dark red.

Industrial posters add to the building's look, while the bamboo skewer in the corner helps cover the small cardstock gap

Prep-work was done exactly as I do all of my other MDF buildings -- spray paint Krylon acrylic black primer and follow up with a 50/50 mix of black acrylic paint and water. I made sure I went over the window panes thoroughly because I would keep them black on this building. Once I got to the painting stage, I think it works best to work from inside out. I begin with the walls, as some paint slops onto the floor, inevitably. The floor is very easy to "cut" sharply with a rectangular brush. I like to leave a line of the black primer separating the walls and floor to give an illusion of depth. I had to go back over the window panes in a few places, though, where my brush went crazy and splashed over onto them. There is some trim on the bottom of the outside that is done in brick that I had to paint. I did a dark red base coat followed by a Middle East Flesh (Howard Hues) dry brush. Once all was painted, I did a black wash over the interior and exterior.

Another look at the gray concrete interior to the factory, livened up by the colorful safety posters

One thing I had decided after painting the Shell Gas Station was to use as much printed out patterns and details as possible (at least compared to brush painted). For this model, I decided that I would work something up in Photoshop for both the garage double doors and the office door, print them off, and simply glue them on. The same for a sign. I think my painting skills have "jumped the shark" and I can't make it look near as well with a brush as I can with Photoshop! I also found some industrial safety posters to glue to the inside walls. I debated over a name for my factory for awhile. I had been wanting to start naming them after my gaming friends, so finally decided on "Finn's Industrial Fasteners." I'm sure Keith will be honored to have a building named after him...ha, ha!

The roof looks nice with the blended gray ballast for texture and the dark red window cover accent

I was worried if I would have to rig something special up for the roof. It simply sits inside the walls, resting on the cardstock inner layer of the walls. I decided to give it something more substantial to rest upon, and cut four bamboo skewers to size. I glued each flush against a corner of the inside walls so that the roof would rest on them. This had the additional benefit of hiding the small gap between the interior pieces of cardstock. Speaking of the roof, I used some blended gray ballast for the roof material to give it some texture.  The window covers were painted dark red.

The Sons of Thor check out the graffiti on the factory to see who has been "tagging" their turf

As a final touch, I decided an industrial building, with its big expanse of gray blank walls, would get vandalized by graffiti. As I had done previously with the Jack & Benny's Old Time Diner, I simply did a Google image search on graffiti and picked out a couple images I liked. These I opened up in Photoshop to change from a rectangular to irregular shape. I did htis by "trimming" them with the paintbrush tool (so, I'm kinda of painting, right...?). This gives it more of an edge that looks like it was done with an aerosol can, I think.

I am incredibly happy with how this small (6"x4") building turned out. I think I am going to look for some plastic bits I can use to represent machinery for the inside. There's a local hobby story that has all kinds of miscellaneous...well, junk, on its shelves. I think I can find something there. Either way, my guess is that I'll do the next factory as my next building, too. That Sarissa Motel I purchased looks kind of intimidating...WAY more parts than Finn's Factory. There's something to be said for "easy," and this was definitely an easy build. Highly recommended! 

Gladiators - Trying Out 'Blood, Sweat, and Cheers'

Pick a gladiator and enter the arena! My stable of 28mm Gladiators

Keith wanted to try out Ganesha Games' "Blood, Sweat, and Cheers" gladiator game at our regular, Sunday evening gaming session. I was excited because it meant that my 28mm gladiators would finally be used in a game. Plus, I am looking for a system that I can use to teach to my 7th grade students when we learn about Ancient Rome and gladiators in class. It has to be easy to teach, and simple enough for the 12-13 year old kids to understand, of course!

My Murmillo, left, against Brian's Hoplomachus, right

Keith spent the weekend preparing, printing out decks and cards for gladiators, along with quick reference sheets. Since there were seven of us, he matched us up in three, one-on-one games. I like that each of the different fighting styles has a different card and stats. There are three basic stats -- Speed, Attack, and Defense, which range in values from 1 to 6. Typically, they seem to be 2 - 4. For example, my first gladiator was a Murmillo, a heavily-armed gladiator who had a Speed of 2, Attack of 3, and Defense of 4. I was matched up against Brian's Hoplomachus, another heavily-armed gladiator with a spear, but whose stats were all 3's.

Thanks to a timely Fortuna's Favorite card, Brian's gladiator goes down before my Murmillo

Speed is critically important, and this is how the game allows the very Roman method of matching heavier armed gladiators (like Brian and mine) against lighter armed ones, such as a Retiarius (trident and net guy). The slower gladiator plays his one or two card choices for his action before the faster one, who can then react and select which cards he wants to play. In the five matches I fought that evening, I was the faster one only once, and it WAS nice being able to react. It took us our first match and partway into the second to really get the system down in our heads. There were subtleties that we did not notice right away, including the fact that after each two-round turn you can discard any of the remaining cards in your hand before drawing up to your compliment of five, again.

Those about to die, salute you! From left, Brian, Keith, Joel, Mike S, Mike W, and Allen

Blood, Sweat, and Cheers is a card-driven game. Your hand of five cards can include any of the following, which is a typical deck in the game:

• 9 Step Cards
• 11 Strike Cards
• 9 Guard Cards
• 6 Glory Cards
• 3 Roar of the Crowd Cards
• 1 Fortuna's Favorite Card
• 1 Imperial Interest Card

Each of the cards allows your gladiator to, in order above, move, attack, defend, use their fighting style special abilities, take advantage of the crowd's favor, swap dice scores with your opponent, and...well, I never saw my Imperial Interest, but I heard it saves you from dying or something. Once we got it down, games went quickly. I learned that Fortuna's Favorite is a VERY powerful card - indeed, it was how I won my first match against Brian. We both attacked, and I rolled a 1 and he a 6. I swapped our dice, and the difference between our scores was 5 or more, so his gladiator was down and out of action. Boom! Just like that, it can end quickly. In fact, Allen and Mike W's first game ended on the second turn of fighting.

Our night's marathon match with Mike W and Allen well-matched

Most matches tended to last 10-20 minutes, though Allen and Mike's rematch went for a half hour or so. With an odd number for the evening, we swapped opponents, which meant we had some of us who played a lot of games and some who played fewer. Mike Stelzer's Thraex (Thracian) was the clear winner, going undefeated in four matches. There is even an mechanism for deciding whether your losing gladiator gets the thumbs up and lives, or whether his appeal for mercy is denied and he is dispatched at the end. Here was our final standings for the evening:

1. Mike S, 4-0
2. Mike W, 3-1
3. Mike D, 3-2
4. Brian, 2-2
5. Keith, 1-2
6. Joel 0-3
7. Allen 0-3

A funny thing happened in the arena tonight: Only Mikes could beat other Mikes (the three of us beat all non-Mikes)

How did I like it? Well, it IS quick, and possible to get many bouts in during an evening's play. The Glory cards do a great job of making each gladiator type different. There is almost no record keeping and you need only dice, a few counters, and cards. You will need action separate deck for each gladiator, which costs either money to purchase or print. Ideally, I would like rules for matches between multiple gladiators on a side. However, no one said they are uninterested in playing again, and most saw possibilities. Mike S loved it, of course - but that tends to happen when you win, right?

MDF Gas Station for my 28mm Urban Terrain

My 28mm MDF Sarissa Precision Gas Station being overtaken by one of my 28mm gangs

Although I think I may be at a stopping point on painting up gang members for my 28mm Urban Gang Warfare project, I have lots of buildings I can add to give them more "turf" to fight over. The latest is another Sarissa Precision building from their Retro Americana line, Gas Station - P002. I obtained it from one of those great guys you run into in this hobby, Terry Jones from Wargame Tools. Although he didn't have it in stock when I asked him about it, he picked it up for me on his next trip overseas and brought it back for me. From there, my friend Zeke grabbed it from him at Cold Wars (with my other purchases), and kindly brought it back to me.

I didn't use the Sarissa MDF pumps, instead painting up this resin one from Miniature Building Authority

As with most Sarissa Buildings, it went together VERY easily. I think that is the thing I like best about their products -- they are so simple to assemble. I did decide to NOT assemble their MDF gas pumps because I had previously purchased a resin gasoline pump island from Miniature Building Authority (another great group of guys!). Since my project is based in the 1980s or so, I wanted to make this gas station somewhat retro, like it is entitled. I also want it to be usable for more modern stuff, though, so I tried to think of what gas company hasn't changed its logo much over the decades. Shell came immediately to mind, so this would be a Shell station. I googled images of vintage shell stations to get the color scheme, and began painting.

The front interior section of the gas station - not the simple painting with details added by printed paper

I prepared the model as I usually do -- black prime with Krylon acrylic spray primer, followed up by a 50/50 mixture of black acrylic paint and water. Although this often makes the base colors on top of it need two coats, I like the effect and coverage that it gives. I painted the interior Ceramcoat Rain Gray first, then the outside Ceramcoat Ivory (a nice cream color) with Red trim. Honestly, painting this gas station has made me realize my physical painting skills are deteriorating. Look in the pictures and you will see the mess I made of straight lines on the red trim (the doors are the absolute worst), I am tempted, from this point on, to use even more printed paper on my models -- and as you can see, there is quite a bit on this one already!

Seamus, the leader of the Hilltop Highlanders, patiently waits his turn to use the facilities

I printed out the floors, interior doors, and posters on the walls to decorate this model. I really like the way they look -- far superior to what I could do freehand! I was wondering if a printed door would detract from the three dimensional aspect of the model, but I think it actually adds to it. Same with the signs and posters (and floors). They seem to give it depth. To get these, I simply do Google searches (except for the doors, which I downloaded from a free textures images website. I did have to add the Male/Female bathroom signs to them with Photoshop, which I use to resize the images to the correct size. The service bay was fun to decorate with pinup calendar girls...yes, I am stereotyping what mechanics would put on their walls! But I have been in enough service shops and seen enough scantily clad women in tool posters to base this at least partially on reality!

A couple gang members admire the artwork on the walls of the service bay while Seamus takes a pee

The Shell signs were taken from Google and resized, as well. I really like the side projecting signs. When I assembled the model, this had me scratching my head. I almost didn't put them on for fear of them catching on things and snapping off. It looks like they're secured fairly well from how the model is designed (going through two thicknesses of MDF), so I put them on. I think them painted red with the Shell logo looks great, though. I probably should have done more for the roof sign, utilizing the oval space more than the circular logo does. Oh well. Something to remember for future models.

A good look at the roof and the back of the building, as Seamus assembles the gang

The rooftop is one area of the model that I modified. Instead of simply using the MDF roof, I glued a sheet of textured plastic onto it. I used a brick-like pattern, and painted in deep red wetbrush, followed by a Howard Hues Middle Eastern Flesh dry brush. I think it gives it a much more three dimensional look than flat MDF. However, my plastic didn't attach so well to the MDF, and you can see where to bowed up a bit in places. I should have flattened it really well when affixing it under a stack of books, or something. Another thing to remember for future buildings!

All in all, I think the gas station is a nice addition to my 28mm urban terrain. In my game, I plan to give each player multiple missions for their gangs. The gas station will allow me add some cool stuff, like maybe stealing a car from the service bay! I have a lot of choices which building to do next as I bought a nice stack of them from Terry when I purchased this one. Stay tuned to see which one I build...