"Well I'm all broken up about that zombie's rights."

I wasn't in the mood to start painting the qwik team yet, so I started in on my newly arrived Zombicide survivors. I love that the designers sculpted the Kickstarter bonus survivors after our favorite movie characters. I know this survivor has another name (for legal reasons, surley) but I'm going to right out call him Dirty Harry.

After painting other items with so many wrinkles, it's difficult to switch gears and paint a simple suit without overdoing the folds. This is my only suited survivor, so the others should be a little easier to paint in my style.

Now, I'm not sure who I'll prefer to take into a game: Joshua in his lovely tropical shirt and shotgun, or Dirty Harry here, with his .357 and bad attitude.

Brother Pilot

Here's a typical Brother Pilot from the world of Machinas. He's fitted with deliberately placed pieces of armor to protect his side from impacts during a race, and he is barefoot to get a better feel for the pedals and to have a tactile/ritualistic relationship with his blessed vehicle.

The Qwik team is also ready to be painted. The qwik (position player) is also fitted out as a Brother Pilot to fit the theme of the Vestal Mechanics, who also drive the Infernals. She has a helmet and armor on one side just as the Brother Pilot shown here. Though, she will have a little more color since she's playing on the juggers team and not racing in the more-religious Machinas Festival.

Just a reminder: I use Bronze Age Miniatures' generic range (along with green stuff and other bits) to make my figures. If you want to give some green stuff a try, but need a better starting off point than "from scratch," I recommend trying out your skills on one of these figures. Bronze Age also has a 32mm generic range.

Qwik team/Brother Pilot taking shape

The female qwik team is starting to take on its look. I always have a general plan, and then I just start adding  a hodge podge of items (until I run out of the green stuff I mixed for the session) of clothing or armor and see what happens. I think they're starting to look more like a unified team, now, though, the final application of colors will be the final unifying theme (leather padding, steel plates and yellow team accents.)

Sculpting of the Brother Pilot is done! And I'm very happy with how he turned out. I couldn't visualize how he would look, even after making some rules/specifications to follow, but I love the result, and it fits perfectly with the background I'm building: A modern look with a touch of tribalism (well, I'm still not sure if I'm going to tattoo this guy or not, but that, coupled with his shirtlessness, would be the tribal bit here.)

Edit: Hmm, not quite done; I need to add a neckerchief.

The pants, bound at the calves, were inspired by images of ancient Germanic warriors, so I think I will keep with that inspiration and do either a striped or checkered pattern on them (maybe checkered to keep with the auto racing setting, though, I'm better at stripes.)

A trick that David Soderquist, of Bronze Age Minatures, taught me for doing straps is to clean out an old toothpaste tube and cut strips from it. In this case, I used an old Neosporin tube. One of these days, I'll be able to sculpt a decent buckle to better accent the straps.

Qwik/Juggers team: Vestal Mechanics WIP (NSFW)

I've began work on my third juggers team for playing Two Hour Wargame's Qwik rules.
There is a decidedly "Brom" look to this all-female already, which is fine by me. It just means I can have a little more impractical nudity on the team (which I like more because it means less sculpting work for me.)

I think some will have armor up top and nothing below; some below but nothing on top, and maybe one will be wearing her helmet - nothing but her helmet (Ok, and boots.)

What does a Brother Pilot look like?

I've also started work on a Brother Pilot as a display model to stand next to the cars. But he will also serve perfectly as an alternate qwik (position player) for any of the teams I have.

 It took me a while to think of what a Brother Pilot would look like, but I came up with these basic rules:

- All Brother Pilots are bald to show that they are priests.
- It gets hot in the Infernals, so they wear no jackets, tunics or coats- only a simple shirt (or, in this case, no shirt.)
- Since the vehicles are left-side drivers, Brother Pilots wear various pieces of armor but only on their left side, to account for being slammed into the side of the car by bumps and jostles during a race.
-- The priests, to better "become one" with their cars, wear no footwear, preferring direct contact with their foot to the accelerator.
-- For the head, goggle and neckerchiefs are common, as are the occasional helmet (of various designs.)
-- Since the overall effect is for anonymity of the Brother Pilot, no identifying colors are used. Pants and neckerchiefs are made from raw material (wool, cotton, canvas or animal hide.)
-- Brother Pilots are allowed, though, to wear tattoos, but are restricted to designs that honor the vehicles driven and not the drivers. (The most common designs are inspired by the brand/model logos found on the vehicles.)

1:32 Machinas: Colonel Jack's Special

Done with Col. Jack's Special, the large version. It's not much different from the smaller version. The top on the 1/64 version is chopped, so sits lower, has more of an angle, and sleeks out the car a but more. And on the larger version, the cover panel over the rear wheels drops down more, otherwise, these two cars are about as similar as I could get them.

I wanted the larger version to look as much like the smaller version as possible because I like the design (it's my favorite in the collection.) The parts are my usual collection of plasticard armor plates, brass rod and tubing, and green stuff for the baggage and front wheel caps. The snorkel top is the air filter from the engine of my Fairlane.

Colonel Jack Background 

(This reprinted from when I built the smaller Col. Jack's Special, so feel free to skip it and simply enjoy the photos)

Col. Jack's Special is owned by a man who named himself after Col. Jack, a character from Mark Twain's "Roughing It," (one of the famous ancient books discovered by the Seven Hills Church.) In the book (as far as I can remember), Col. Jack, a man off the frontier, took a bus (horse-drawn) through New York City. The ride fascinated him, so he paid the driver $20 to drive him and his friend Col. John all over the city. Jack told anyone who got on the bus that he had paid their fare and that they should sit back and enjoy the ride. Jack was entertained by the variety of people he met on the ride, which continued for the rest of the day.

My Col. Jack's Special has a variety of uses. Mostly, Col. Jack serves as a low-cost charter for Wastelanders. The only drawback to hiring Col. Jack is that he is only one man with one car, so finding him is difficult. But when you do manage to hire his services, you're treated to a fine ride, indeed.

When he's not transporting folks across the wastes, Col. Jack loads his car with supplies and explores the fringes of the Known Wasteland. He carries as much survey equipment as he can (note the red/white survey rods seen on the left side of the baggage). Since he is one of the few people willing to travel far and wide to map the wastes, the Church gives him a larger fuel allotment than is usually given out.

For better fuel economy, ruggedness and torque, Col. Jack runs a diesel engine, hence the stovepipe on the left of the car. He has also discovered, on a couple of his runs, a wide but shallow river, which, for a long time, prevented him from exploring a section of the western wastes, so the car's engine compartment was sealed and a snorkel was added.

Most people in the Known Wasteland like Col. Jack, but there are still those marauders who will take a shot at him now and again, so he keeps a large slab of armor to protect his rear, and a push bar to clear barricades and other road obstructions. He also has extra armor on the wheels and the windscreen (though, I left the armor off the side windows to help preserve some of the car's original lines.) And, of course, Col. Jack mounts twin .50s, because he understands that even his gentle nature needs the support of a little extra firepower sometimes.

Col. Jack has never raced in a Church-sanctioned event (he is still called Col. Jack, after all, and not Brother Pilot.) But he is known to join in a random Waste Race now and again. He prefers more friendly races where there is more nudging and bumping than all-out shooting.

Helping out Proxie Models

My favorite bases of all time, Proxie Models is looking for a small-business grant from Chase Bank (that offers the Main Street Grants program.) To be considered, the business needs at least 250 votes.

How to do it

Here is the TMP link (which will have the link to the bank.) Scroll down to where it says "How the 2013 Program Works." Click on "Consumer Voting" (You'll need to login via Facebook.) Fill in the business name: "Proxie Models," and press return- that should be it! Here's the direct link if you don't want to read Ken's plea (or any other information that might crop up later) on The Miniatures Page.

I like Proxie Models' bases because they combine two elements I like from other bases: They have a low profile combined with a lot of flat space, so you can let your terrain-designing really take wing. You can read more about what I think about Proxie Model bases here.

54mm Machinas: Col. Jack's WIP

This one went together fast- mostly because I had the parts (snorkel, exhaust, guns) built before the car arrived. I still have a bunch of baggage to add to the back, but the build is otherwise finished.

Plenty of spare parts!

A minor problem I had with this car was the front axle had a little too much play to it, and the wheels were rubbing up against the chassis. I fixed this by adding some custom-built plastic spacers that hold the wheels in place.

I also pondered seeing if I could drop the body a bit for that custom, lead-sled look, but decided against it when I couldn't easily get the wheels off the axles (Maybe I could, but the wheels were plastic, and I was worried about breaking the hubs.)

I did gut the interior and made off with a nice pile of 54mm bits, including the better part of an engine. I'll probably add a blower to the engine and add it to my ram car (when I get a ram car, that is.) Not sure yet what to do with the seats, steering wheel and front bumper.

Machinas, Also Reaper Bones

A couple things to show here. First off is my other 54mm/1:32 scale Machinas car, a 58 Ford Fairlane. I used (a lot of) green stuff to add the body work so I could fit the heavy flamethrower.

Since the hood would be permanently closed, I removed the engine. It's currently sitting in my bits box. Some of the extra plastic alongside the engine became a load of scrap metal for the trunk, next to the large fuel tanks.

And since the 1/32 scale version of this car had an open trunk, I chose to drop the flamethrower's fuel tank down into it. The tanks are simply some plastic tubing (from an assortment sold by Gale Force Nine.)

Something else to note: These vehicle are all made by a company called Arko. One of the minor cons is that the hoods/wind screens feel somewhat flimsy. To strengthen them, I disassembled the cars, turned them upside down and lined the inside of the hood/windscreen piece with a layer of two-part epoxy resin.

I plan on doing these in 1:32 scale. For the ram car, I will use a Crown Vic
instead of a DeSoto, and for the Runnin' Gunner (far right), I will use
a 55 Chevy instead of a 57.

I know I was going to wait before purchasing any new cars, but I figured it would be nice to have one to do during my vacation coming up in a week, so I purchased a '54 Chevy Bel Air (also by Arko). I can't wait to do this one, because it will become my new Col. Jack's Special- my personal favorite of my collection. I also plan on doing larger versions of my ram car and a simple rusty gunship (from my Running Gunners faction.)

Reaper Bones Griffon

To help me get through the crappy Bones figures, I'll randomly pull some of the better figures from Jeff's collection to paint up. This griffon was sweet (and easy) to paint. Not much to say about it. It was a bunch of layers of browns drybrushed on, the then beak and talons highlighted with some orange and ochres.

54mm Machinas: '59 Impala

My first earnest car for using in large-scale games of machinas, this is a 1959 Chevy Impala (next to its Hot Wheel counterpart.) The large car is 1/32 scale, and the smaller car is 1/64. I say "earnest" because my pickup truck is a tiny bit smaller than 1/32 scale and looks a bit small against the cars. That's OK, because the original intent of the pickup was to be a nice piece of terrain anyway.

The Impala was a fun build, especially the nice, large 20mm gun. The gun was made using bass wood for the receiver, brass tubing for the barrel, and plastic tubing for the cooling jacket and muzzle. I added the bipod to stabilize the build and give it a little extra strength in case the car was accidentally dropped.

I left the hood off the larger car to show off the engine. I would have done the same for the smaller car, but the body on it is a one-piece casting. On one of the future cars, I might try my hand at a custom-made blower to give the engine a meaner look.

The only other major changes I made on the larger vehicle were to the paint job (I rusted the passenger-side door a good amount), and the addition of an extra panel(line) on the roof. I achieved this by laying down a small strip of green stuff, blending the edges into the roof, and then drawing/etching in the panel line and rivet holes.

Art Interlude

I didn't feel like building or painting today, so I ate out for lunch and drew myself this sweet-ass chop-top Chevy. My original intent was to apocalyze it (to make some fan art for Machinas), but it looked fine as is. I'll apocalyze the next one.

54mm Machinas: Ford "Fire" lane wip

Just another in-progress shot of one of the cars I'm working on. I paid up my commission to Steve Barber for another sculpt, so I'll have to wait a couple weeks before I purchase anymore cars.

But I also still have some Zombicide survivors in the mail, as well as a 54mm Qwik team. So there'll be plenty to do for a while.

54mm Machinas: Next project

Working on my 54mm/1:32 scale version of Saint Chevy's Impala. This is a '59 Impala, complete with rocket tubes and a nice big 20mm gun.

These larger models are made by Arko, and they are a perfect fit for my 54mm Bronze Miniature's figures. I think I'll order a few more soon, so that they'll be ready for my next vacation which is in just a couple weeks (stay-cation).

Other models I plan on replicating. Yep, I think I even found a
decent 1954 Chevy Bel Air to do Colonel Jack's Special (far right.)

I'm trying to do larger replicas of the smaller cars. Seeing what's available, I think all but one (of five planned cars) will be rebuilds of the smaller cousins, and the last will at least be inspired by one of the smaller designs if not an exact copy.

The larger vehicles may also get extra accessories like baggage or chains, since such items are easier to make at the larger scale. And, like the Impala here, I like the hoodless look, with the engine exposed, so one or two of the other cars may get the same treatment. Unfortunately, the engines are molded into the design, so I won't be able to tear them out of any closed-hood vehicles.

Zombicide: Some more colorful characters

This completes all the base survivor figures for Zombicide Prison Outbreak and Toxic City Mall. The bonus Kickstarter survivors are in the mail.

My favorite figure, now, of the entire group is the tropical shirt-wearing shotgunner. Painting that shirt was actually kind of easy. I started by doing the shirt dark blue, mixing in highlights as I went further toward the top of the shirt. Then I used dark green to paint in some random leaves. Dark orange for some lily petals, followed by light green highlights to the leaves and light orange highlights to the lily petals. Finally, I added random white flower bud patterns in the spaces between the flowers, and to the flowers themselves.

Last thing I need to do is add some varnish to prevent chipping. I think I'll forego the gloss varnish which might make the finish a bit brittle, and just do a couple thin coats of Testors dull coat.

Zombicide survivors: Some ladies

Here are some more survivors from my Zombicide game. Nothing much of note in the painting of these. The details continue to be tiny, but are still nicely defined making for an easy, if slow, painting experience. Just four more survivors to go, then begins the waiting game for the bonus survivors from the Kickstarter.

I used three different flesh recipes here; all were triads straight out of the pot. From left to right, I used Foundry Bay Brown, Flesh 5, and Spearshaft. I didn't mix intermediate colors or extra colors outside of those triads.

Speaking of which, I bought some new Foundry Flesh 5. My personal caucasian flesh recipe had five different colors, but I'm finding the straight Flesh 5a-b triad is plenty good without any additions. It's still my favorite flesh of any manufacturer.

... Also some Zombicide survivors

I finished my first three survivors from Zombicide (I have Prison Outbreak and Toxic City Mall.) I'll only be painting the survivors, not the zombies. This serves three purposes: It will be easy (well, easiER) to see your character when the board gets cluttered with bodies; the zombies are a faceless horde anyway; and I will save a hell of a lot of time not having to paint a hundred figures.

And nope, I'm not even going to take time to drybrush, ink and speedpaint the zombies, because as simple as that method would be, I'd still have to do it a hundred times.
I'll probably also not paint the zombivors -- the one-colored pawns will be a nice transition from colorful characters to just another face in the crowd.

I love these sculpts. The detail is tiny, right down to the rhinestones on Grindlock's belt, but it is well-defined, so it's still easy to paint. There were some tiny mold lines, but they cleaned up easily with a knife despite being plastic figures. I salute whichever company casst these figures, and I hope to see more plastic figures of this quality.

Back in the Day: D&D

Some of Jeff's old school figures I painted a little while back.

Just read this nice little story about a blogger's first experiences with D&D. It reminded me of my own first games. Though, I remember playing D&D for the first time (with my buddy Chris Smith in 1984,) my first rpg was Gamma World, GM'd by my baby sitter's older sister.

You can read Cory's story here.

My friend Bryon is painting some of his old school figures on and off. I also still have some of Jeff's old TSR figures (from the late 80s or early 90s) yet to paint (as well as the Bones figs,) so you might see some more old school in the future. In the meantime, my new Qwik team is on its way, as are a couple new 1:32 scale cars. The post-apocalypse will be returning here for a little while.

This post is about D&D, but I cut my rpg teeth on 2nd edition Gamma World.

My favorite miniatures companies

Caveman chief made from one of Bronze Age Miniatures'
54mm generic male figures.

I took a long look at my collection and pondered, of all them, which could I part with and which would I keep. Which, if a fire destroyed everything, would I replace first.

Two of my collections stuck out, Steve Barber's 42mm samurai range and Bronze Age Miniature's generic figures (from which I've created my post-apoc collection.)

Both companies produce other great figures (if I had space, I'd have bought all of David's ((Bronze Age)) Wasteland Mutants and Frazetta-esque barbarians.)  And hell, I like Steve's samurai so much, I've commissioned two figures myself to be sculpted (one is an archer already seen on my blog, and the second, a multipart unarmored samurai, we just recently started the process on.)

But it's not just the great sculpting that I love; The figures I have from these two companies are those that I've converted the most. David's generic figures are especially apt for those looking to practice converting and sculpting. I love the 54mm generics. You can make anything with those, and I mean ANYthing; I've even seen someone turn them into original series Star Trek characters, something I still want to eventually try out myself.

Though at 42mm, Steve Barber's samurai are a
niche range, the larger scale allows for some
easily attained painting results. 

But until then, I'll continue to add to my post-apoc 54s; I'll be making an all-female Qwik team here next. Anyway, if you haven't visited either company, check'em out. Steve and David are great guys and do some nice figures. And yes, they do other scales besides 42 and 54:

Bronze Age Miniatures

Steve Barber Models

Zombicide 2 note:
Tonight, Bryon came over and we had a painting session. He's painting some old-school stuff his future father-in-law gave him, and I started to paint my Zombicide (Season 2) stuff, mostly to see if they would paint up better than those damn Bones figures*. Unlike Bones, my Zombicide figures took a coat of primer like a champ. And unlike my Dreadball figures, the Zombicide figures had little to no mold lines.

OK, there was a touch of tackiness after priming, but a quick layer of acrylic fixed that lickity-split. I'll be painting up all the survivors, but the zombies I'll leave gray and faceless as the undead mob should be.

Zombicide Season 2 survivor. Painting contemporary
figures is a cinch: Shirt, pants, shoes, weapon, done.

*OK, I don't hate the Bones figures so much now that I've finally worked out a process where the paint won't chip off as easy as dried leaves, so some of them may still be useful to me.

My process, if you want to know: Brush prime with Ceramcoat Black; paint as usual; varnish with Krylon Gloss; varnish with Testors Dullcoat. Easy peasy!

You may be able to skip the gloss coat. I simply did it out of habit. But I (or my patron Jeff, rather) haven't had any trouble yet with chipping paint.

Machinas 54mm: Saint Ford's Ferculum

Well, the 54mm/1:32 scale truck went together almost as fast as the 1:64 version. It was maybe longer by a couple extra applications of primer, some extra paint, and drilling some holes in the stack and machine gun jacket. It took about four hours, not including waiting for primer to dry.

I threw a couple I-beams up along the sides of the bed to give it the illusion of depth, and then I filled it up with junk. The rest of the conversion was accomplished with green stuff and plastic styrene. I used all the same methods as with it's smaller version, but it was much easier since everything was larger.

When "scale creep" becomes "scale zoom"

A little something I'm working on for this week. The pieces here are dry-fit, and the green stuff is curing. And yes, that's a 54mm scale figure next to the truck.

The hood doesn't lift, there's no engine detail, the bed has a cover that doesn't lift, and this pickup is the wrong model for the original 1/64 version I have. But you can't argue paying $6 for something that perfectly fits the scale and setting of my little post-apoc collection.

My big version won't look exactly like the smaller version, but it will still be in the same spirit. Part of my next 54mm order includes a figure I will convert into a Brother Pilot specifically for this pickup.

I'm not sure if I'll be doing any more vehicles this size. After some searching, there are indeed enough 1950s model vehicles for a Machinas race at 1:32 scale, but I have plenty of cars right now -- Maybe if I decided to sell my entire 1/64 collection. Until then, this pickup will be a nice piece of backdrop to my Qwik games and post-apoc gladiator matches.

Machinas: Saint Ford's Thunderbird

This week, I'm on vacation. Today I went for a five mile walk, painted a couple landscapes, read the entirety of "Flying Colours" (A Horatio Hornblower book), and painted this '58 Ford Thunderbird for my too-big Machinas collection. (and later tonight, I will finish the day by watching Blood of Heroes and playing a game of Qwik, since the field is still up.)

The gun mount, tailgun canopy and some rear body work was done using green stuff. When the green stuff cured, I used an Xacto knife to trim off flat pieces of the canopy in order to harden the edges. The framework within the canopy was simply painted on.

It was all pretty easy, especially after having a lot of practice the past year. I can do one of these cars in two sittings, now; I convert it over an hour or two in the first sitting, and paint it in a half hour during the next sitting. This is probably why I have 20 cars too many in my collection; maybe I should start selling some.

In other post-apocalyptic news here, I'm thinking about doing a third Qwik team in 54mm. I liked the idea in my last post of the Circus Acceleratus Vestal Mechanics having their own teams. I'll make the team all-female. Their armor will be free-form just as the other two teams I have, but their colors will be the black and yellow of the Vestal Mechanic's Salvage Squad (who are charged with travelling the Known Wasteland, searching for Infernals to rebuild.)

Though, Steve Barber and I are also working on another samurai sculpt (multipart!) so I may hold off on the third team for now. Maybe by the time I decide to do the third team, I'll have an idea for a fourth team....

Weapons vs. Overseers: A Qwik AAR

The team from Weapons Division snatches the bean; the game is on!

At the Circus Acceleratus, inside Turn 1, behind the statue of the Oppenheimer is the area of the infield where wrecked Machinas vehicles are towed until they can be salvaged. Deep into the off-season, this area is clear enough that the various crews of the Vestal Mechanics will play pick-up games of juggers.

Teams are formed from each division of the Vestals into a small league: Weapons crew, Engine crew, Machinas Builders, Track Overseers, Emergency Team, and the Salvage Squad. The occasional Brother Pilot also will join in on a game. Since the area is smaller than a usual field, the teams drop one driver from their starting lineup. The smaller field and starting teams usually make for a faster game, allowing all the teams to play on a given afternoon.

The match: On this day, teams from Weapons and the Track Overseers faced off in a grudge match (the Overseers having won the unofficial track championship vs. Weapons last year.) The Overseers were short a driver, so Brother Pilot of Saint Ford's Thunderbird joined in the fun.

A small wall of drivers is quickly formed in front of their qwik Sera.

Qwiks Rik (Overseers) and Sera (Weapons) faced off, and Sera snatched the bean with lightning speed. With Weapons having set up for defense originally, Sera fell back under the protection her Chain, Zan.

One of the Weapons Drivers moved in to knock down Rik, but Rik slipped below the swing only to end up next to Sera and her Chain. Sera slipped by and returned to the center of the field.

As Rik turned to see Sera go by, the heavy end of Zan's chain slammed him from behind, knocking Rik almost senseless to the ground.
The Weapons team completed its turn by forming a small wall in front of Sera, challenging all comers.

The Overseers' qwik, Rik, is knocked
to the ground twice -- and out of the
game -- by the Weapons' chain.

Once the action had completed itself in front of the Overseers' Chain Ela, she took aim at one of Weapons' drivers and let fly the chain, but it missed its mark and Ela swung off balance and into the zone behind her.

Each of the Overseers' drivers tried to break the wall in front of Sera, but it held fast. Qwik Rik managed to get to his feet and go for a tackle of the Weapons' chain Zan, but Zan is a master of his chain and again knocked Rik to the ground. Not only that, but Rik was knocked out! Now, the Overseers would have to hold out until 100 stones before they could sub in a new qwik.

Weapons had a great advantage, now, with space in front of them and the Overseers spread out. They main group with Sera and her two drivers moved forward, while Zan, with his bloodied chain, moved up to cover the flanks.

Again, each of the Overseers' drivers tried to push Sera's protection out of the way, but they held fast. One of Sera's drivers, Race, took a swing at the Overseers' chain, Ela, and knocked her out of the way, clearing the final path to the stake.

As much as they try, the Overseers are unable to break
through the Weapons teams' drivers to get at Sera.

In the Overseer's turn, Ela the chain was able to stand up, but could not move in to block Weapons' advance. Brother Pilot was the only member of the Overseers' team who was able to put himself in front of the stake. But when the Weapon's made their final push, Race easily pushed Brother Pilot out of the way, clearing the zone for Sera to stake the bean!

Though, Weapons had regained their honor, it was all in good fun. Rik recovered, and both teams shared some thorn apple stew as the sun set over the Circus Acceleratus, shining last on the statue of The Oppenheimer, as it should be.

After the Overseers' chain was knocked out of position, Sera was easily
able to move in and stake the bean, winning the game!

Rules notes: I took a few steps to shorten the game. The usual Qwik field is 5x7 zones, but I shrunk that to 3x5. The usual starting lineup includes 1 qwik, 1 chain and 3 drivers, but I reduced that number by one driver. (I originally tried just having one driver per team, but the field was too wide open, allowing qwiks an easy opportunity to score in one turn against a careless opponent.)

Also, to reduce the number of rolls and bookkeeping, I stopped rolling bonus dice. Next time, I might try something different; perhaps I will pool all of a team's bonus dice? It doesn't make too much sense in the game (bonus dice represent that extra exertion each player makes on the field, a factor not necessarily shared as one by an entire team.) I would only do this to make a solo game a bit easier. I'll keep the regular bonus dice rules when I play human opponents.

Finally, you might have noticed a fellow in the distance with one hand raised. Just as Red Sand Black Moon uses a Patron to determine who is active, I used this figure in the same way to remind me which team was active.

Machinas: Just another car

I was at Target picking up things I needed, and I walked through the toy aisle to get back to the front to pay. That's when I glanced over and saw this Hot Wheels Gasser (a type of drag racer) sitting on the racks. I had been looking for one for a few weeks but had given up on it.

The front end was already raised like that, doing half the work for me in making it look like it belongs in the apocalypse. Having the raised front was great; I could put on a spiked ram and still enjoy the retro grill.

This is my new favorite pure racer of my collection (ie, no baggage.) It has a fixed forward gun and the spiked ram.

The other car should look familiar to those of you following my Machinas collection. I wasn't happy with the sunset camouflage, so I primed over it again.

This time I let my friend Bryon select the color and paint it up. He chose up a nice classic red which works better than the other two original schemes I had on it.

Bryon also had the idea for the racing stripes on my gasser. I'm glad I put them on.

If you're zombie-lover ...

... or you just like horror figures in general, I recommend the All Things Zombie kickstarter which is under way.

I'm bringing this up because I noticed the project page was a little ways down on the the Tabletop Games category (and I didn't want anyone to miss it), but also because I'm just a big fan of Two Hour Wargames, which has some unique, versatile and fun rules mechanics.

Pledge levels include the All Things Zombie rules, cards and minis. There is also a level just for the minis. It looks like $50 will get you four survivors and 21 zeds- not too bad.

There are also other horror-related figures available: Vampire, werewolf, a human "caster" (which I might grab as another paranormal investigator to go with my Ghostbusters collection.)

Take a look. The goal is low and easily reachable. Ed also had an Indiegogo ATZ project (Final Fade Out was it?), which was successful and delivered on time! Can't say that about many crowdfunding projects :)

If you have a minute, take a look!