Jezebel's Joint: A Sleazy Space Dive...

For the last year or so I've been working on building up a pretty sizeable sci-fi/post apocalyptic space port/shanty town/wretched hive of scum and villainy type table but I haven't posted any of the progress until now.  Here's one of the focal points of the set up....

Jezebel's joint!!!

Jezebel's was a bar with a very shady reputation which I discovered when I was going to college in San Francisco way back in the day.  I lived right around the corner from Jezebel's at about the time William Vollman was writing Whores for Gloria, which mostly takes place within a few blocks of the spot.

The neighborhood was a slice of the third world but Jezebel's had a library full of literary classics and military history and I used to go there after class or work and prop up the bar for hours, reading and draining glass after glass of Hefeweizen.  The place is long gone now.  All things considered that might be for the best but I do have some good memories of the place.

I made the sign out of plasticard, dowel and the cover of the last Jezebel's matchbook I had left.  Come to think of it I've had that matchbook for about twenty years now.  Weird.

The interior of my model Jezebel's captures some of the vibe of the real one.  The picture behind the bar is a sticker that came out of a pack of Varga trading cards an old girlfriend gave me um...about twenty years ago!  It's been floating around in boxes for a long time. I couldn't get that terrible crease out of it but I still think it looks good.  The little movie posters came out of a Blue Underground DVD catalog.  Been saving it for years to use for this very purpose.

The structure is made up of two Armorcast buildings glued together to make a bar room up front and a lounge in the back.  View of fatboy from the lounge area.  Armorcast has retired their line of stucco buildings which is a shame.

Plenty of room on the filthy garbage strewn roof top for fightin' and such...

Stairs lead up to the door shown in the photo above...more smut on the wall there.

Long shot of the lounge...

More lounge.  The booths are made by Miniature Building Authority.

 "Sorry about the mess."...Apologies...I don't have my Han Solo and Greedo painted up yet...The little green thing on the table is supposed to be a napkin holder but I didn't think that napkins were really very much in the spirit of Jezebel's so I painted it the front of each green to try and make them look like intercoms or a monitors or something...

 Exterior with local color and a Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill! poster...

 More exteriors...I have lots more stuff that I haven't posted yet...lots of ramps and platforms, shanties and things of that nature...

 Gotta have big fans in your post apocalyptic buildings.  There's no way around it.  I learned that from the eighties.

Jezebel's is open for business again!

Chariot Wars: Hittite Commander and another Canaanite chariot

Just managed to finish a small but Important part of my Warhammer Ancients Hittite army.  Here is the army's general and a fourth Syrian chariot to reinforce the Maryannu squadron that I already have.  All Ral Partha figures from the nineties, just like all the others so far.

Typical late Hittite war chariot with three riders...

...a driver, a stabby guy and the general himself.  Hard to see the General behind the other two...must be crowded in there!

My fourth Syrian chariot...first three were all painted.  I used a cowhide design on this one and I like the look of it a lot.  Going to use that more from now on.

I have two other command chariot models in the Biblical spur of the lead mountain.  I was thinking about selling them off but now I think I may use them for brigade commanders later on.

I knew I wanted some kind of a design on the umbrella.  Researching Hittite symbols led me to all kinds of strange discoveries.  Many Hittite motifs have remained in use in Europe into very recent times.  Polish/Austrian style two headed eagles, Annunaki winged sun symbols, swastikas and a thunder cult undoubtedly related to the Nordic cult of Thor all featured prominently in Hittite culture.  I was also surprised to learn that the Hittites were the first Europeans to use iron.  Thank God for War games.  Without them I probably never would have learned so much about these very interesting people.

I wanted a two headed eagle for the general's umbrella but didn't trust my hand, going instead with this wonky sort of off center swastika which I felt was interesting and even a bit Flintstonian.  If I can work up the skill and courage to try a two headed eagle on another command figure's umbrella I'll probably make that guy my general and demote this fellow to the status of a brigade commander.   Don't tell him that, though. 

So what's left for my Hittite army?  Quite a bit, really.  Two squadrons of four chariots each, 18 more Syrian levy archers, 1 more unit of Syrian spear men.  And I'll need a dozen or so chariot riders and about twenty auxiliary skirmishers.  So I'm about half way there....

Narfregg Stunty Slayer's Orc boys!!!

Another Odoriferous addition to the ranks of Big Blackie's Orc and Goblin horde arrives in the form of Narfregg Stunty Slayer's war band...

Driven by an insatiable desire for revenge against the Dwarves of Thunder Mount who have often tried to defend themselves against him, (How dare they??) Nardregg often leads his clan into battle alongside the other mobs of Big Blackie's horde.

Of course Nardregg and his gang are more than happy to "Git Revenge!!" against humans, skaven or just about anybody else really...

It is possible that revenge is a word that means something other than what they think it means.  No matter.  It has become their motto, regardless.  The drummer is a nice Alternative Armies figure, a goblin I think.  Its not obvious from the photo, but he is chained to a stake in the ground, from which we can conclude that his presence in Nardregg's war band is not entirely voluntary.

Standard bearer....toofy fellow...grr...

My favorite lad of the lot.  I'm afraid some of the paint jobs on these lads are none too splendid, but then its hard to tell, cause I'm now officially old and cant see anymore.  I feel like I cant even tell if these pictures are blurry or not.

Bought myself a pair of readers at the drug store the other day, got em home, looked at some of my little metal friends and was astounded at the difference.  No wonder I haven't been painting lately.  I haven't been able to flippin' see!

This guy came out ok, I think.  My wife has been wearing glasses her whole life and doesn't know why I've been trying to fight it.  "Look at me, I've been wearing glasses since I was a kid!"  she says.  Well, sure but this wasn't something I was born with.  For me, this is a symptom of getting old...so hell yeah, I fought it out to the last full measure!  Why not?  But the fight is over.  I've lost.  Glasses for painting now.  Who knows?  Maybe I'll get better!

The three regiments that make up the army's main battle line...Waaaggghhh!!!  The army's well past the 3k point mark now and not even one regiment of cavalry yet!  Maybe that should be the next addition...

Knights of the Mittelmark Pt 4: Even more Bretonnians/Imperials

Every year as winter approaches, I find myself thinking:  "Oh, boy!  Lots of cold dark afternoons and evenings with nothing to do but stay inside and paint!  I'm going to get SO much done!"  It never happens.  Vitaimin D deficiency and general weariness and ennui ensure that I spend almost all my spare winter hours draped lifelessly over various bits of furniture, floppy and useless as a boneless chicken.  Arrgh.

Still, one must keep plugging away until life and sunlight return.  I've been trying hard to concentrate on finishing my unisex Warhammer humans army.  I conceived the army as a blend of Bretonnian and Empire stylings, but its looking more and more Bretonnian as time goes by.  Anyway, here are my two latest knights and the twenty fighting men which the Prinz von Refn requires they bring to battle with them when called.

The leader of this tough regiment is one Jan Slitsya, a priest and tutor to the children of one of the knights.  Though blind, Slitsya insists on leading his master's retainers into battle, and his apparently aimless strokes have an uncanny way of always finding a home in somebody's skull or shoulder...  Divine guidance, perhaps?  His magic war hammer inflicts dreadful wounds, and the Orcs and goblins of the Black River country fear him greatly, believing him to be possessed by daemons or worse.

Again I painted the infantry in colors to match the knights.  My original plan for the army was that every infantry guy would have a shield which would match his knight's coat of arms, so you would be able to pick up any trooper in the army and match him to a knight somewhere.  My ambition on that point has cooled somewhat...I've now accepted that a lot of the retainers won't have shields...and some of the knights probably won't have retainers...but I'm going to continue color-coordinating units with certain knights' coats of arms because I think it looks good and it's fun.  Notice I've sort of given up on painting eyes with these guys.  It's just not possible anymore, not until I break down and get a pair of readers, anyway.  Man, once your eyes start to go, they go fast.  Rejoice, O man, in thy youth.

The two knights...used the same color scheme on them so that their infantry would have a nice, uniform feel.  Once they are mixed in with all their knightly buddies, their identical color scheme won't look so odd.

Repeated the chevron design on the shield fore and aft on the caparison.  I think it looks pretty good.

I originally planned to repeat the shield design on this fellow's caparison as well, but I  the end I thought he looked ok as he was and decided not to press my luck.

The white reins maintain the color scheme anyway...

Off to battle.  When I was finished with these guys I yarded out all my Warhammery humans and was startled at how many I had.  I have a lot.  I actually have all the infantry I need for a strong army.  What's missing are characters, artillery and of course, I need more knights, especially if I am using the Bretonnian army list.  So time to try to get on with some of that!  Perhaps a clutch of spell caster types next?

Rogue Trader: Adeptus Mechanicus; 3rd Company, 9th Nepenthe Imperial Guard Regiment

Adeptus Mechanicus Section, 3rd Company, 9th Nepenthe Imperial Guard Regiment prepares to move out in support of their unit during the fighting against Gnummschkull Terdlipp's Orks on Far-go, around The Year of Our Emperor 39470.

A strong Adeptus Mechanicus contingent is key to the success of any Imperial Guard formation, for without the skills of the Adepts and their servitors, most of the unit's heavy weapons would soon become unserviceable.

The original 40k Imperial Guard army list permits up to d6 Adepts.  Very useful for fixing broken stuff and necessary for controlling penal troops.  They can also act as spotters for off-table artillery support.  I've included three in my army.  I suppose that's more I'll ever need, but the figures are so interesting, like Mr. deeply disturbing vagina face here...

...who closely resembles the figure in John Blanche's painting from the Rogue Trader rule book.  I always love it when a mini matches up with something in the rule books.

Really fun figures to paint.

The army list also allows up to 3 servitors per Adept.  Again, the minis are so fun that I ended up buying more than I'll probably ever need, 6 in fact.  But I suppose they could also be useful as 'civilian' models in story-driven games.  The mini above reminded me of the 'test bed slave' character from the rule book, so I painted her in similar fashion.

Wrench guy here came out pretty nice.  Bob Olley sculpted all the figures in this post except the two in the photo below and he was really on his game with all of these.

These fellows came out after the release of 40k 2nd edition, I believe, but I've always had a soft spot for them.  They came out ok for the most part, but once again the eyes were my downfall.

'We shall ease the machine's pain!'

The army list requires that some mode of transport be provided for an Adeptus Mechanicus section, and I was happy to comply.  I gave them this old school Rhino painted in a desert camo scheme.  I still painted a few bits bare metal.  Not very realistic, but it gives the rig a little more flavor, I think.

"This able beast shall get us there!"

So that's that.  I still want a 2nd platoon, an HQ section and commissariat, and a rapier multi laser battery for the company, and a squad or two of penal troopers with a couple of human bombs.  If I can ever get all that together, I'll happily call my Imperial Guard company done.