Build Your Own Stonehenge?

A bit of a wierd day. I had been volunteered by the Ministry of the Interior to help out with car parking at the local agricultural show, so spent the morning playing at traffic control in a field. It was actually quite good fun, although I'm now very sunburnt. It was all to raise some money for my son's scout troop, so well worth the effort, even if I now glow in the dark.

We also have some French guests staying for the weekend so it was off to Stonehenge in the afternoon for  some touristy sightseeing. It doesn't seem to have changed much since my last visit in 1973, as the concrete soviet style bunker visitor centre thing is still there in all it's post modernist glory. It's a bit embarrassing to be honest but the actual henge bit is still pretty impressive, once you peer over the assembled coach loads of people.

Anyway, to save something from an otherwise unproductive day, I bought a Build Your Own Stonehenge kit from the gift shop. I'm not sure what I'll do with it but it does have potential for Adventures in Jimland and Tusk, although some pre-historical suspension of dis-belief will be a pre-requisite. It's a nice little injection moulded kit, in what could be 6mm or 10mm at a push, so worth the £5.99 that I handed over for it?

Summer Holiday Project [3] Adventures in Jimland

The third of the projects for the holidays will be the Adventures in Jimland 18mm figures including the expedition leaders, the askaris, the soldiers, the porters and the cavemen. I've also got a couple of 28mm Copplestone dinosaurs that will look pretty good next to the figures and I've found some 28mm giant spiders that will be equally impressive in 18mm. If I can, I'll try to find some plastic dinosaurs and other things to supplement what I've got in metal, otherwise it'll be a pretty unadventurous expedition.

Adventures in Jimland Figures

The Copplestone and Blue Moon figures arrived today, so I've spent half an hour or so sorting them out into a box, ready for basing and painting up over the summer holidays. The Blue Moon figures look like they'll be easy to paint and are very clean sculpts, whilst the Copplestone cavemen might take a bit more time to get right, as they're full of character and detail that's crying out for some layering and highlights.

Adventures in Jimland Cavemen

I thought I'd add some native figures to the Adventures in Jimland project but, rather than use Blue Moon Deep Dark Africa ones, I've decided to go for the Copplestone 15mm 'Picts'.

These are archetypal pulp low browed cavemen complete with big pointy sticks and stones, so will look pretty cool as a lost world prehistoric tribe. The other advantage is that they come in two packs, one bow armed and the other with hand weapons, which is exactly what I need.

I've also splashed out on a Copplestone Nanotyrannus carnosaur which will look pretty impressive next to the 15mm figures. I had one of these a long time ago and it's a cracking sculpt, full of character and detail. I'm now looking for other 15mm compatible dinosaurs and beasties  to complement the handful that I already have in the leadpile.

Adventures in Jimland...in 18mm!

I finally made up my mind about the scale for Adventures in Jimland. About time really. I have all the figures I need for this in 28mm but thought it would be nice to have a change of scale and go for 18mm instead.

I tend to get bogged down more than usual when I paint 28mm stuff and seem to have an ever growing pile of based up figures that have yet to get even a whiff of a paintbrush. I tend to crack on with 15mm, however, as they seem less daunting and I don't get sidetracked by fiddly detailing as much.

The other advantage of 18mm is that it'll tie in with my existing AK47 stuff, so that any terrain that I scratchbuild can be re-used for that as well. I already have several African tribal huts, for example, which will be perfect for a native village.

I also have some 10mm colonial figures and Magister Militum dinosaurs but the humans are so tiddly they lose their identity a bit  compared to the larger scale figures, which isn't really ideal when you're playing a game with roleplay type elements. As a result, I think the 10mm stuff will be diverted for use with Tusk.

So, as a reward for shifting two tons of topsoil from the front to the back graden over the weekend, I've bought myself three packs of Blue Moon 18mm Deep Dark Africa figures. These are the Missionaries and Explorers, the Askaris and the Porters. I've also added a pack of WTNW 18mm French colonial soldiers which were on sale for £1.20 over at Northstar.

This should cover everything I need for my Adventures in Jimland expedition party. I haven't got any natives, hostile tribes or animals yet but I'm sure they can be located without too much trouble. The Copplestone 'Picts' are particularly nice cavemen and I quite like the look of the Blue Moon pygmies, but they'll have to wait until I have a bit more pocket money to spend.

Easter Island Statues Scale Up

In the interest of science, with a very small S, I thought I'd take some pictures of the recently aquired Easter Island heads next to 28mm, 15mm and 12mm figures. I think they look good next to all three but, if I was pushed, I'd say the 15mm option is the most impressive. I'm sure General Papi Mpongo would agree.

Easter Island Statues

I found these today in Waterstones of all places and thought they'd be rather good as terrain features for either 28mm Saurian Safari or 10mm / 15mm Adventures in Jimland. There are four different resin statues in the box, which works out at £1.25 each, so not too expensive. They'll need a bit of washing and drybrushing, a decent base and a bit of weathering but I think they're rather good.

Adventures in Jimland?

I was browsing through my rules library the other day and dug out my copy of Adventures in Jimland by Minden Games, which I had bought when it was re-published a couple of years ago. I originally intended to approach this dinosaur hunting expedition game in 28mm but was put off by the number of figures involved, around forty or so if you go for all the options.

http://minden_games.homestead.com/Jimland.html

Although I have plenty of suitable 28mm figures and plastic dinosaurs for use with Saurian Safari, I thought to myself that it would be a great mini-project in either 15mm or 10mm, making it both quicker and cheaper to complete. A small scale game would also make it possible to scratchbuild some really good terrain features which would be easy to store and transport.

Anyway, I dug out my Pendraken 10mm figure box and rummaged through for suitable colonial types, natives, bearers and so on. I have a couple of WW1 East Africa army packs which have been raided for the bulk of the figures, so the exploration team is covered but haven't found any suitable native types, so will have to order a pack of Pendraken's Ancient Indian forest tribal warriors to fill the gap.

I already have a handful of the Magister Militum 10mm dinosaurs and reckon I can find some plastic toy ones to add to the collection. Other wild animals and creatures will have to be scrounged in a similar way.

I've also costed up the 15mm/18mm option using the Blue Moon Manufacturing Deep Dark Africa range, which has some great figures of explorers, natives, askaris and porters. This worked out at over £40, however, so it would be much cheaper to use either 10mm or 28mm.

It's all a bit theoretical at the moment but I think it could be a cracking little project!