The Angry Lurker

15mm Painted Franonian (IDF) Centurion Tanks...

2012-03-02T09:43:00.000Z

...formerly Israeli but I got them cheap from a guy called Avi and a bit of paint job later.......

15mm Peter Pig IDF Centurions from their AK47 range and now in Franonian grey.....got a WW1 wargame this weekend with the Rejects (no Ray as he's working....cue insane laughter) and if you can have a damn good weekend but it's not compulsory!

Angry Lurker Honest Movie Review 68: Jackass 3 (4 STARS).

2012-03-01T09:30:00.001Z

Now your telling yourself 4 STARS for these lunatics who have never grown up, you're right but neither have I and especially if you liked their shenanigans before and to me this was the best of the 3 movies......

Myself and my mate Vinnie watched this down the man cave and I must admit that I came close to peeing myself with laughter and he came close to throwing up in the garden from laughter but mostly due to his aversion to other peoples faeces (I know..strange right!).

It's full of juvenile stunts involving blunt force trauma, faeces, urine, dogs, bulls, faeces, boxing gloves, hitting people in the nuts and a portable loo on a bungee cord full of faeces etc....., there are scenes where you literally go "don't do that", a lot of pausing due to Vinnie heaving in the garden and having to clean himself up and a little sadness due to Ryan Dunn who you know is now dead but still making you laugh...

I know it's not everybody's cup of tea but it brightened my day up for a while.....and a short 56 second clip of a little safe to watch Jackass madness.

R.I.P

15mm Modern Painted US Marine Humvees.

2012-02-29T09:38:00.001Z

Some US Marine Humvees (they have a deep wading exhaust and intake unlike the army version seemingly) from Peter Pig, not too bad a model (a lot of mold lines), the crew figures are cast with their weapon, a mixture of .50 cal HMG's, Mark 19 grenade launchers and a TOW launcher.

Demo games for Wargames shows and no ass cracks, Cavalier 2012 part 2.

2012-02-28T10:32:00.001Z

As I said yesterday the Rejects will be putting on a demo game at Broadside 2012 and we got a lot of advice from other gamers at the Cavalier 2012 show and some nice pictures, we're also getting polo shirts with our logo and names on them for the professional mercenary look (lots of XXXL's then)......

....we also want to be approachable (some of us will need lessons), know what we're talking about, have handouts, presentable (more about that down the page), good demo game eye candy terrain and figures and maybe even smiling (more lessons), it's about wargaming and making friends I hope and if you want to take a picture you can with maybe a sign saying that please do, BigLee said he got some smart ass comments from one table about the flash on his camera interrupting their game?

If you have any advice and have done this yourself please leave a comment as we're bloody amateurs and maybe out of our depth!

More pictures from Cavalier 2012....

This WW2 game was from the Crawley Wargames Club and a more helpful bunch of guys you couldn't find, plenty of advice about the boards they use, figures, handouts and etiquette.....

This is a good idea and as Ray said he'e stealing it like all his ideas.....

Steve 1 (standing) and Steve 2 (apologies Steve 2 for back of head shot) but one thing he said about a demo game that stuck was appearance and ass cracks, nobody wants to approach a table and see 6 or 7 builders ass cracks and nobody willing to talk to them......

Ray posed for this.......

This was "The Storming of the Alamo", 6th of March 1836 from the Loughton Strike Force and this is the other type of demo game I believe which is played enthusiastically from beginning of the show until the end....

I went back several hours later and the action was getting tense as the walls had been reached.......there seemed to be a casualty figure for every single casualty caused!

One last thing and a favour, a friend of mine and Ray's has started a blog about modelling and wargaming, early stages and I will help him tweak things but he could do with a few followers over at Vinnies World, I'll make sure he follows back......:D

Cavalier 2012, the Lurker's point of view part 1.

2012-02-27T10:39:00.001Z

Ray and BigLee have already done great posts about the Cavalier 2012 show with lots of lovely pictures, I will do my little bit now but more about demo gaming, Broadside 2012 and probably post it over two posts....

Postie paid for us in again (Thanks Dad......), within seconds of getting in I was tapped on the shoulder ( thought it was the law or a paternity case) and was introduced to a charming Frenchman called Stefan and a fellow blogger Dr. Willett's Workshop, great blog and a fabulously talented painter and a fellow immigrant......

This show for me was more about demo gaming (I was also short of funds unlike Ray with his seperate money rolls) and as the Rejects are putting on a demo ACW game at Broadside 2012 and we will be testing it on the Sunday after Salute 2012 show with some fellow foreign bloggers, some of the demo games we had seen before at other shows but a couple of the games stood out to me...

I did purchase a few bits like varnish and paints (the compulsory purchases), picked up some 15mm resin shanty towns from Ironclad Miniatures (one of them had a roof missing when I got home but I have emailed him and hope to get a reply and a roof soon), an M1A2 and Oshkosh truck from QRF, a ruined 15mm Humvee and Mercedes from Peter Pig (Ray bought the merc as he owed me money and he will paint it as well for his alter ego in the Franonia campaign) and a 15mm Huey from Flames of War (dictators need to make quick getaway's as well) although I'm fecking horrified at the amount of pieces in it.....

BigLee, Stefan, Postie (contractual shot) and Raaaayyyyyy!

Ray deciding which money roll to use to pay for his 15mm metal addiction...

Aerial view of hall, the show was well attended in my opinion.....

The bring and buy wasn't that well attended, I think people aren't selling at the moment and there wasn't much on offer I thought.....

Now onto what I thought was the best demo game and 28mm game at the show and put on by the Gravesend Gamers Guild, the WW1 game was defending the bridge at Obourg 23rd August 1914 and it was a visual treat with great info, great guys putting it on, good chat and a little history is never a bad thing, they had books, handouts and they even played a bit.....

Phil was saying he hates making scenery but loves painting figures and one of the guys at the club loves making scenery but hates painting figures and you can see where this is going, the scenery has a lot of other periods it could do for....

Phil, (Postie, he gets everywhere but he did know them) and Reece form the the Gravesend Gamers Guild, great guys and great demo game guys, we learned a lot from them....

The figures were a mixture of Great War Miniatures, Renegade and Scarab I believe......

Always a use for Hornby.......

This was a good point, stuff gets damaged at demo games and this took a while to repair by Phil and he wasn't happy, blood y great model though.....

....and the day ended under the golden arches with Postie paying again, there was a rumour Ray was going to pay but he was down to only one money roll by then.....

More pictures tomorrow of two other games and more good advice from the Crawley boys about demo games and no ass cracks????

Cavalier 2012 Show and Generation Kill Book.

2012-02-24T10:31:00.001Z

The Rejects will be at Cavalier 2012 this Sunday and hope to see some fellow gamers and bloggers there, it's the first show we attend every year and it's a small but good show and we will do a few pictures and words next week!

Just finished this book (it only came out in 2004!) and it's a fantastic read of the authors time (rolling Stone journalist Evan Wright) with the US marines First Recon Battalion during the 2003 invasion of Iraq and the insight into this elite unit within the marines (the details of their training is amazing), although the marine commander Major General James Mattis called them "cocky, obnoxious bastards".

What you get is a tale from Evan who was mistrusted at the beginning to say the least but gained their respect by riding in the lead humvee and sometimes reluctantly carrying a weapon, it's a tale of aggression, misuse of this unit, poorly supplied, sometimes poorly led but always ready for whatever came their way and looking out for each other but it's also a tale of sadness, no real overall plan, comradeship, lucky escapes, the death of civilians.......

The marines themselves are brutally honest in their opinions (some of them got into trouble later) and as aggressive as their Devil Dogs nickname (supposedly earned in 1918 from the Germans they fought at Bellau Wood during WW1 were they were called hounds from hell in German dispatches), they used to ambush each other at night whilst waiting to be deployed and nick each other with their combat knives on each others ribs.....

A great read and now to find the TV series.....

Angry Lurker Honest Movie Review 67: The Woman in Black 2012 (3 STARS).

2012-02-23T09:52:00.001Z

Had to take a day off from blogging and work yesterday due to life and shenanigans.......

A grief stricken young lawyer (Radcliffe) with little choice heads to a remote village in the early part of the 20th century to sort out a deceased woman's estate to discover it's been terrorised by a vengeful ghost of a betrayed mother..........

Saw this Tuesday night for two reasons only because I was asked to and they were paying, this is not my sort of movie for cinema viewing but there was nothing else playing that we hadn't seen and would agree on.

This is a creepy movie and I heard that it was supposed to be quite scary with people screaming out loud in the cinemas and the opening scene is quite brilliantly done and sets the tone for the rest of the movie. A young lawyer who hasn't come to terms with the death of his young wife is given no choice but to head to the bleakest part of England to sort out the wills and sale of a house, the village is grim, the location is grim, the weather is grim and even the locals are grim.

Children have been dying in this village for years and mostly by their own hands and during his investigation of the house (incredible house and great grim location) we are thrust into a tale of betrayal, vengeance and the woman in black who Radcliffe sees and the story is set and running as he investigates the story behind the deaths.....

This is classic creepy and suspenseful stuff, close ups, chilling score, lighting, some genuinely good scares and shocks (there were some good screams from the female part of the audience but not the men obviously), it's got a short running time, worth a watch and the ending is grim but good enough once you think about it....

....did I say it was grim?

What's better than one 15mm arms dealer but two 15mm arms dealers.....

2012-02-21T09:55:00.000Z

....especially for a very frugal with the finances Dictator!

Inspired by one of Cage's better movies........figures from Peter Pig and Ural 4.5 ton truck also.

15mm Modern IDF or Franonian Infantry Platoon.

2012-02-20T10:22:00.001Z

In reality they're Peter Pig IDF modern infantry but I'm using them as Franonian infantry for protecting the fledging state of Franonia, they're will soon be militia, armour, flags, police and enemies etc.......

The blogroll problem has been solved by a suggestion from Rebel Barracks to have two or more blogrolls, so I did and it's working......

Angry blogger rant, Safia Gaddafi, Salute 2012 bad news, won a competition and boobies....

2012-02-17T09:45:00.000Z

Blogger is giving me arseache at the moment, deleted my blogroll due to the fact you couldn't add anybody to it any more, I then did another blogroll (which took fecking ages) and entered all my favourite blogs again minus a few fecking dead ones and everything was fecking fine and now it's stopped me adding fecking blogs again, can't get any answers from blogger but now they're really arse invading us with this new Captcha fecking arse water..........

....even this guy trying to be funny got it fecking wrong!

I'm already angry enough without having to squint and shout at the computer more than I usually fecking do and then have (mild mannered , fecking bollox) Ray who is on days this week coming in and fecking ranting about Captcha to me because he's physically fecked and blind as fecking well, for fecks sake blogger sort yourself out.....

.......and why is fecking Safia Gaddafi emailing me!!!!!!!.........

Greetings to you,

I am the second wife of the Libyan leader MuammarGaddafi and my name is Safia Farkash al-Baraasi Gaddafi. we came to know eachother in 1971 when Gaddafi was admitted to a hospital where i worked as anurse. we got married the same year and have six sons and one daughter.

I decided to contact you on this vital issue asyou may have heard about the death of my husband Muammar Gaddafi on ThursdayOct 20 2011.............,

This is just an excerpt from the email but money is involved eventually.........

The Rejects are not doing the WW2 game at Salute 2012 now due to the organiser Paul Darnell having to pull out due to work issues but we'll still be going as fecking punters and hope to meet up with fellow bloggers there....

I entered a competition over at Retro-Zombie about filling in the blanks in a comic and I fecking won and I won a puzzle page?, I'd rather win his current competition which is easy to enter where the prize is a zombie head pencil holder, give the boy a visit......

The last two panels were blank and something came over me and I'm not fecking sorry......

This is the fecking prize!!!!!!!!!!!!

Always had a thing for the counsellor, looks like somebody else fecking did.......

...and whilst painting a fecking 28mm Predator figure for a fecking friend I dropped a lot of fecking black paint down the front of my fecking shirt, fecking friends........

Now have a good fecking weekend if you can, rant over and I'm fecking out of here.......

Angry Lurker Honest Movie Review 66: Sherlock Holmes 2 (3 STARS)

2012-02-16T10:07:00.003Z

Sherlock Holmes and Dr.Watson join forces to bring down their fiercest adversary, Professor Moriarty.

I loved the first movie, 4 STARS of anybody's time but for some reason this isn't even though it's a romp at times, we know nearly all the characters apart from Mycroft Holmes (Stephen Fry), Sebastian Moran who is Moriarty's evil henchman (Paul Anderson) and Moriarty himself (Jared Harris, I only knew him as Dr.Ashford from Resident Evil: Apocalypse) but he's bloody well cast as the evil Professor.....

The story revolves around Moriarty's attempt to start World War 1 a lot earlier than it officially did and it's a damn good attempt, the story is fast paced (the set piece in the forest in Germany is particularly well done) but things don't get going until quite a bit into the movie, good action, good humour but the new lead actress is distracting (Noomi Rapace) but not in a good way but Holmes and Watson perform brilliantly together and it's a good ending but at times a little far fetched. Hoping for more though......

15mm Modern US Marine Corpsman and Casualties plus Force on Force Rules....

2012-02-15T09:51:00.001Z

....and why did I buy them?

15mm Peter Pig modern US marine corpsman plus assistance and marine casualty figures, there is one navy corpsman normally per marine platoon, also bought these rules that my brother funded with an amazon voucher at Christmas....I may have bitten off more than I can chew as I usually like my rules like me....simple but we'll give them a go anyway!

15mm Hotel Security or Dictator Bodyguards.

2012-02-14T10:27:00.002Z

15mm figures from The Scene , described as special agents or The Authorities but I'm using them as close protection for my Dictator with uniform designed by said Dictator, in a pinch they could provide security for a Vegas hotel in the 1970's......

Picked as many static poses as I could but they were nice figures from a little company and good service.....

15mm Dictator's Mercedes Benz or the reason for the new car.....

2012-02-13T10:44:00.001Z

Both vehicles from Peter Pig, this is what happens when people are misled and make the wrong decisions, luckily one of the clones was in the back, my newer (webuyanycar.com) Mercedes Benz is now up armoured and with a flash paint job.........

15mm Painted Modern US Marine Sniper Teams.

2012-02-10T09:23:00.000Z

...from Peter Pig, not 100% sure how many make up a full team but they do work in pairs, one team has a Barrett M107 sniper rifle and the other has a M40 sniper rifle, the other 2 marines provide security.

Have a good weekend my friends if you can......

Angry Lurker Honest Movie Review 65: Underworld 4 (3 STARS).

2012-02-09T10:28:00.000Z

I saw Underworld: Awakening in 3D (my first 3D movie experience), the glasses were a bit of a pain but I think only as I wear glasses as well and I believe that only parts of the movie were in 3D, some scenes especially explosions were quite good but after a while the effect was less appealing, I would quite happily watch this in 2D and not really bothered about seeing another 3D movie .........

This movie is set 12 years after the last movie (Evolution), the humans declared war on both the Lycans and Vampires and now both races are pale shadows of their former selves and both are on the verge of extinction but sinister plans are under way, Selena and her hybrid daughter with Michael (the original actor is not in the movie and the character has a very brief appearance, this is quite a loss to the movie?). There is a brief flashback at the beginning to clarify previous events!

Anyway herself and her young daughter who she was unaware of escape from their prison/lab facility with assistance and are pursued by mangy lycans, humans, vampires, not so mangy lycans and Stephen Rea having a great time as a bad guy (technically), the movie is rated 18 and it shows with a lot more gore and blood, it's only 88 mins long but it rarely lets up with the action (good and bad), the budget was more than the last movie but doesn't show but Selena (Kate) is still as great as ever and as the last death dealer goes through the opposition like a dose of ducolax. The story is based around a Lycan plot to re-emerge back into the world but in an improved way.......

It's over the top, a little ridiculous but well worth the watch for Selene still at her best and kicking ass in her still well fitting costume.....

English Language Best Blog 2011, I won.......

2012-02-08T10:10:00.001Z

The owner of the blog La Figoblogotheque emailed me last night to say I had won the English Language Best Blog 2011, this is the award I was nominated for and I asked people to help me with last week and thanks to you lot I won.......now I know I'm not because there is better out there but I still won!

I make no apologies for acting like a blog whore like Ray, thanks again!

One other question, bloggers from other parts of the world are turning up for Salute 2012, Excel Centre, London Docklands on the 21st of April and some of them want to meet up with some of the Rejects and others, do you know of a good pub near the venue?

15mm Painted Modern Peter Pig US Marine Platoon.

2012-02-07T12:18:00.001Z

....or my attempt at painting modern (ish) US marines for the Franonian or modern theatre, these were a nightmare to paint as there was a lot of discussion on colours on forums but they'll do me!.

A modern US marine platoon consists of normally 42 men, 3 squads of 13 men divided into 3 fireteams of 4 men and a squad leader and a platoon headquarters element of a platoon commander, platoon sergeant and a navy corpsman.

Humvees, sniper teams, casualties and medics, AAV-7A1's and air support (probably a cobra gunship) to follow.......

Just as a sidebar, I've had to delete the old blogroll as I couldn't add or delete any blogs, so I've had to go through the nearly 1000 blogs I was following and start adding again, bear with me as this will take a little while and apologies if I missed you at the moment......

MacKenzie's Heights 1854 Crimean Batrep......

2012-02-06T11:07:00.001Z

....or the poor bloody ill equipped Russians!

The Rejects gathered for the first time this year last Saturday for a fictional Crimean wargame, John, Surjit and Ray playing the Allies, myself, BigLee and Ian playing the Russians, the teams were picked beforehand.

Most of my pictures will be the Russian point of view as Ray and BigLee have batreps on their blogs (Ray is turning his into a version of War and Peace).

The Russians were in defence building siege lines and redoubts and the Allies were scouting to find and destroy them........let shenanigans commence!

Some of the intial Russian deployment on the heights.......

........and the rest, you can see that the redoubts are not complete......

The Allies initial deployment that I could have screwed up if I had rolled a 2 or better, fickle dice gods......

Contractual Postie shot, up close and personal......

BigLee's cossacks, never to attack unless the other units routing or showing it's flank or rear and you're really close!

Russian sappers giving it the big one filling in large gaps in our defences.....

Ray putting on a brave drug enhanced face due to back pain (he had bent down to pick up his wallet and pulled something), there was not a lot of sympathy from the Russians or his allies......

A Russian heavy gun prepares to unleash hell......

Sappers are still at it, the number on the paper is what had been thrown on an average dice, this was done every turn until 20 was reached and another piece was completed....the rocks denote impassable terrain.

The Russians deploy and change formation to counter the cowardly but sensible Allied tactics....

Ian's troops turn to my right and deploy for battle.....

The thin red well armed line....

The Russian left flank.....

The Russian right flank.....

The rest of BigLee's cavalry and horse artillery arrive on the Allied right flank.....

The cossacks sneaking through the woods......

The Allies deployed and never moved further than this, they had rifled muskets with a range of 15" while the Russians had muskets with a range of 9".

Ian's knee heals well after surgery even with my attempts to put him back into rehab with pokes and kicks.....

One of the highlights from the game for the Russians, giving the allies heavy horse a slapping.....

The cossacks were lured out of the woods by the Coldstream guards showing their flank, the cossacks couldn't resist and took out a quarter of the guards out in the action and then pursued and hit a cavalry regiment but died to a man....

The other cossacks took out this artillery and then....

...took on a guards regiment in square and died to a man.....

By this stage Postie was shattered physically and mentally, mostly Ray's fault as he whined so much (lunch had been pasties, oven fries and garlic bread) and a draw/minor victory for the Russians was declared and accepted by both sides!

The difficulty with the rules was the range of the allied weapons, they stayed at 10" and whittled the Russians down (moving back and forward to keep the 10" range while the Russians 9" range counted for feck all, this is historically accurate and the Russians never really won any engagements during the war but it's hard to deal with in a wargame that's hard to win but it was a good fun day with the usual banter, laughter among the Rejects and racism(Ian, it's why he was in pain for a lot of the game).......it's why we play mainly.

The Angry Lurker: Inspiring Picture 32: The 90's.... UPDATED!

2012-02-03T13:43:00.000Z

The Angry Lurker: Inspiring Picture 32: The 90's.... UPDATED!: I miss them along with the 80's but then I am old.........I also need a favour, over at La Figoblogotheque I'm in a 5 way street fight for b...

Inspiring Picture 32: The 90's.... UPDATED!

2012-02-03T11:13:00.003Z

I miss them along with the 80's but then I am old.........I also need a favour, over at La Figoblogotheque I'm in a 5 way street fight for best Wargames blog of 2011, the link is here , don't worry I won't be hurt if you don't but even Ray voted for me, shameless and I mean shameless plug over......

The Rejects are meeting up this weekend for a Crimean wargame and if you can have a damn good weekend, I won't because Ray will be at the wargame as well!

15mm Painted Peter Pig US Marine EOD Team.

2012-02-02T09:34:00.002Z

The Hurt Locker was on again last night and while it's a very watchable movie it wasn't a six oscar movie, this is my EOD (Explosive Ordnance Disposal) team for my marine platoon for Franonia, the pictures aren't great but they're not bad up close........I hate taking pictures!

Angry Movie Lurker Honest Review 64: Haywire 2011 (3 STARS)

2012-01-31T10:47:00.001Z

Beautiful freelancecovert operative Mallory Kane is hired out by her handler to various globalentities to perform jobs which governments can't authorize and heads of statewould rather not know about. After a mission to rescue a hostage in Barcelona,Mallory is quickly dispatched on another mission to Dublin. When the operationgoes awry and Mallory finds she has been double crossed, she needs to use allof her skills, tricks and abilities to escape an international manhunt, make itback to the United States, protect her family, and exact revenge on those thathave betrayed her.

Gina Carano.

This is an action movie which starts half way through and goes back and then continues on, the lead actress (Gina Carano, former MMA and was ranked third in the world in her weight category at one stage, was the Gladiator "Crush" on American Gladiators and currently trying acting in this Stephen Soderbergh movie), the movie is a little slow at times but is made up for by the fight scenes which while not Bourne quick are good all the same and she prefers the close combat way out most times, it's a double cross movie with a some revenge thrown in, she's been given a good cast around her with Michael Douglas, Antonio Banderas, Ewan McGregor, Michael Fassbender etc......

Gina doesn't do too bad with the role and I hope she's given more in the future, the locations are good especially Dublin as she was running by places I did bouncer on the door and places where I was a chef (memories), the action when it came was good, the story was a little weak but it's well worth a watch especially if you like Gina (she's very beautiful).......

The one word ending made me smile.........

15mm Peter Pig Dictator and Bodyguard and......

2012-01-30T09:40:00.002Z

....Franonia!

Good weekend as I saw 2 movies on Sunday at the cinema (3 in total last week) as my friend turned up (Vinnie) and we hit the movies (Haywire and Underworld: Awakening 3D, my first ever 3D movie experience), nearly got involved in a altercation with a fecking couple who talked through nearly a whole movie but they backed off and will review the movies this week and next.....

The figure you see below may represent me when I started to run a small country in the late 1990's on the borders of the middle east and Africa but I can't say exactly due to the CIA saying I still owe them!

I've decided it will be a hypothetical country (maybe) and region but the figures and vehicles will be real with rebels, insurgents, security contractors, US forces and Franonian troops, etc.....

Below is a Peter Pig dictator figure with IDF figures representing the bodyguard and GAZ jeeps as transport...already started to design a flag.....

...and of course I realise I'm bonkers!

20mm Painted WW2 British Infantry Platoon.

2012-01-27T10:25:00.001Z

British infantry platoon painted up for the What If? Operation Sealion gaming, figures are mostly SHQ (which were awful sculpts, so much flash and distortion........ ) and some Blitz Miniatures (good stuff)...

....picture quality is the usual poor quality but I think it's for the best as these are not Ray's best work!

Terry Pratchett: Snuff

2012-01-26T11:29:00.000Z

SWMBO's birthday was recently and among the multitude of gifts she got was this by Terry Pratchett (nice as it saved me buying it as I am a big fan), read it in a couple of days, more Sam Vimes out in the sticks defending goblins, fighting injustice and being a git......

If you have never read Pratchett I recommend this author unreservedly as one of the best out there and the Discworld series which now stand at 39 books I believe are some of the best reads out there especially the City Watch and Witches series.....highly recommended.

Terry Pratchett does humour like no-one else....

Having problems deleting and adding blogs, anybody else having this trouble and if you did how did you fix it?

28mm Modern Civilians for Zombie Gaming 4...what are their chances?

2012-01-25T10:10:00.000Z

I may not have taught this true but according to The Walking Dead if one of them shoots the other then they will get away while they feast on the other larger one maybe.....

....both figures are from Foundry.

Looks like a reporter but wait what is that on his belt, maybe a badge, a cop, armed, street smarts, not too many donuts.......7 out of 10.

Mafia Don, too many meatballs, street smarts, tough, ruthless, rich but no henchmen........3 out of 10.

Angry Movie Lurker Honest Review 63: The Guard 2011 (4 STARS).

2012-01-24T09:39:00.000Z

...it's gets 5 STARS if you're Irish because there's some things you understand better......

Sergeant Gerry Boyle is asmall-town Irish cop with a confrontational personality, a subversive sense ofhumor, a dying mother, a fondness for prostitutes, and absolutely no interestwhatsoever in the international cocaine-smuggling ring that has brought straight-lacedFBI agent Wendell Everett to his door.

Brendan Gleeson plays Gerry Boyle, a garda sergeant in a small village in Connemara outside Galway who to put it mildly is a bit of a git but a funny git, this movie made me laugh quite a lot because maybe I understood it by better by being Irish but it's over the top with it's storyline but maybe nothing else, a very enjoyable movie and with a good ending.

There are good performances from Mark Strong, Liam Cunningham and Don Cheadle and from the the Irish cast but Brendan who taught at my secondary school before acting got him is brilliant and on top form.

Like Gerry says "Like the fat man said, ifyou have to be careful not to drink too much, it's because you're not to betrusted when you do".

The guard in the title refers to the national police force of the Republic of Ireland who are called Garda Siochana which literally means "Guardians of the Peace".

20mm Soviet WW2 Anti Tank Platoon Platoon...

2012-01-23T11:02:00.001Z

.....now with added troops and crew that were lost and found in a zombie scenery box! The figures and crew are from PSC and are based on the European Battlefield rules.

Playing Favourites or Favorites.........put the bloody kettle on!

2012-01-20T10:37:00.000Z

This has been going around the wargaming blogs, it shows what gets fellow bloggers ticking and not just about wargaming and our hobby.........

Wargames Period :- The Sengoku Samurai period is my favourite and I have a reasonably large collection of figures, scenery and books and followed closely by WW2 in several scales and several times....

Scale :- For me it has always been 25/28mm but finances can dictate the hobby now but the injection of quality 28mm plastic figures has helped a lot......

Rules :- I hate rules especially complicated rules unlike some of the rule addicts I've come across through gaming and blogging but my favourite are Games Workshop's Lord of the Rings rule set. I got into these when the young fellow started collecting the figures and I helped him out by painting the good guys (Saruman and the Urak-Hai) so he had an opponent and loved the easiness of the rules and I have used them for dark age skirmish, pirates, samurai and possibly modern......

Board Game :- Don't get to play boardgames any more but my favourite to this day is Shogun but I do get in the odd game of chess.....

Figure Manufacturer :- I used to be an awful Wargames Foundry whore in the day but they went to hell in a hand basket but I had figures from every range they did at one time or another, I used to decide a range to paint by what they made at one stage...... my favourites now are Perry Miniatures, Peter Pig and CP Models (I buy quality rather than the cheapest and most suitable, I will avoid periods if there are no good figures for the period).

Opponent :- Who else could it be at this time but the lunatic Ray over at his blog (I start a blog and he copies me, most of my ideas have ended up on his blog because you can't tell him anything but he's a good lad and got me into the Rejects all those years ago.... I feel nauseous for some reason). We compete in some way over anything and I mean anything.......

Books :- I read a lot of books (one year at a security gatehouse I went through several hundred, there was a library right next to site and things were quiet.....)

Tom Clancy: Anything with Jack Ryan and Red Storm Rising.......

David Gemmell: Anything the man wrote really but Druss will always be my favourite.....

Antony Beevor: Brilliant and interesing military author...

James Clavell: Shogun and his others are good also.....

Jack Higgins: Quality easy fiction with a lot of Irish shenanigans going on at times....

Robert Jordan: The wheel of time series but it's dragging on a bit....

Terry Pratchett: Anything from Discworld.....the man's a genius!

There are lots more but the quality of a book to me is the ability for it to make me want to read it again....

Movies/TV :- Now I love a good movie or TV show so I'll keep this short if I can...

Band of Brothers: The best and most watched....

Kingdom of Heaven : The directors cut version only....

Lucky Number Slevin: A movie about revenge....

Dead Man's Shoes: A movie about revenge.....

I love old movies like Freebie and the Bean, The Wind and the Lion or popcorn like Taken, Rambo, The Expendables or foreign masterpieces like The Killer, Yojimbo, Ran, Seven Samurai, A Better Tomorrow, anything with Laurel and Hardy, of course a bit of zombie with Dawn of the Dead (original) , Zombieland and 28 days later, diversity is the name of the game......

Art :- I love a lot of military prints especially anything by Angus McBride but once while wandering round an art gallery in Ireland (I was dating...ok) I found a painting by an Irish artist Francis Danby called the Opening of the Sixth Seal, I have a copy at home hanging on a wall but the original is huge and needs to be seen up close.......

PS3 :- I am a PS3 whore and love FPS shooters but I am currently banned from using a mike by SWMBO and the neighbours 3 or 6 doors down usually know when I'm playing as I have been known to let my feelings be known......currently wandering around MW3 causing mayhem!

This is me.......

Miscellaneous :- I love A-10 Warthogs, Pamela Anderson, Tiger tanks, Apache helicopters, the charge of the Scots greys in the movie Waterloo, the helicopter scene from Apocalypse Now, SWMBO, good cleavage (women only), sad music, loud music, burgers, Johnny Cash, Ireland, good chips (fries to the US readers), drums and percussion, coca cola (no substitutes or diet), american football (Chicago Bears fan since 1985), decent porn, truth and the smell of napalm in the morning.......

Rant :- I hate liars and hypocrites, the way some figure manufacturers treat us the customer like we're dopey fuckers with the quality of product they send out and expect us to bodge it together and expect holes and excessive flash to be a worth challenge (it's not,it's like McDonalds with their pictures of the burger as in not what you end up with and wonder what the fuck happened), politicians (if you say you want to be one you should be culled), most lawyers, bankers, stock traders.........

....there's a lot more but I'll leave it at that!

Dudley Constable, 20mm Operation Sealion Scenery so far....

2012-01-19T11:03:00.000Z

Have started sorting out my What If? Operation Sealion table for a game, it's a wargaming set up rather than a dedicated display like some of the beauties you see at shows. Only civilians and some home guard have been placed on the table, the area is in a bit of crisis after what they believe are random bombings of the area.

The year is 1941.......Hitler hasn't invaded Russia, the French fleet ended up in German hands, only 3,000 troops got away at Dunkirk, Germany has not Allied with the Japanese, the United States have not entered the war, the Luftwaffe concentrated on;y on the RAF and airfields etc......

Dudley Constable is situated on the south coast of England, a picturesque, quiet corner of England but for how long......

No real close up shots as most of the figures have been seen before but if you want close ups Mr. De Mille can be contacted and they can be arranged....

Harbour area....

Cottage hospital staff help the wounded....

Bomb craters dot the area......

The village green and cricket club area...

A pill box needs to be manned....

The docks under guard...

A VIP comes ashore with escort after his craft is damaged?

2nd Painted 20mm Soviet WW2 Infantry Platoon.

2012-01-18T10:02:00.000Z

This unit netted me 128 points in the challenge, 32 plastic figures from The Plastic Soldier Company and 2 platoons down and one to go to make up the company...

I'm not confirming that the pictures were taken at work......

A Quarter of a Million Hits (250,000).....

2012-01-17T09:37:00.001Z

....deepest thanks to all readers and commenter's!

Yesterday was a disaster, Area Manager turned up again and I had to go to Bluewater (large shopping centre in Kent) to check out a contract to try and find jobs for the boys before the end of the year when the site could be finally closed and sold.....

......didn't get back until late (brought Ray back a McDonalds and found him shouting at the computer at pictures he'd taken off models for his blog and painting challenge, cursing the sun, bad lighting and his camera...)

Lord Lichfield at work....

The face of a madman.....

So I spent the rest of the day trying to calm him down......never thanked me though for the McDonalds!

Happy Friday the 13th.....and so true!

2012-01-13T10:10:00.000Z

Area manager down today and doesn't look like he's moving (he's on his third cup of tea) and unlike Ray I have to work now and again, so just a quick one and you people be safe out there.......(ok even Ray!).

Have a good weekend people and I will wander round your blogs later.......

20mm WW2 British Machine Gun Platoon

2012-01-12T09:47:00.000Z

A 20mm British MG platoon for keeping the Germans off the beaches or the high street during the invasion, the 3 figure command section are from SHQ but the machine guns are from Blitz Miniatures, the table is nearly done for a game as well.....

Pictures are the usual dubious quality.....

Angry Movie Lurker Honest Review 62: Fast Five 2011 (3 STARS)

2012-01-11T09:33:00.000Z

or Fast and the Furious 5.

You will like this if you liked most of the others, you will like this if you like "The Rock" Dwayne Johnson ( he has bulked up to the size of a brick shit house), car chases, explosions, gun fights, beautiful cars, ridiculous story line, beautiful women, bikinis, overacting, incredible stunts, humour, defying the laws of physics and torque, etc......

It's a good movie, pure popcorn but made me smile and not in a bad way and make sure you watch through the bloody credits for an old face from before......

And I'm out of here (Anne has been ~~bullying~~ motivating me to paint more!)......

20mm Painted Soviet WW2 Command Base.

2012-01-10T09:14:00.000Z

One of my entries for the painting challenge will be this command base from Britannia Miniatures of command motivating the troops, it usually comprises 5 figures but the other two have joined the partisans and took command of an infantry company.

I wasn't in a rush to paint this as it's really only a diorama or a bit of eye candy but the challenge means points.....

Up to 8th place out of 24......

20mm WW2 Painted Partisans and Resistance Fighters.

2012-01-09T11:48:00.001Z

I gathered these WW2 20mm figures together to represent saboteurs, resistance fighters and for behind the lines shenanigans that tie up regular troops and put a strain on lines of supply and communication...

They are a mixture of soviet partisans from Shell Hole Scenics and CP Models, dismounted soviet tank crew and cossack from Britannia Miniatures and resistance fighters from Wargames Foundry (these are more western european operations), I will add my soviet airborne as well to give a more military look to the unit.....

Ray painted and based these (has never based a figure for me before) and got points in the challenge as well for them ( there is no bleeding fecking justice at all but that's life.......). I'm happy to have them even if the painting is a bit dodgy......

Questions and Answers.......

2012-01-06T09:40:00.001Z

Anne who is another Irish person (female) currently wandering the world like the Irish have been known to do posted some questions on her blog yesterday for a list of fellow bloggers to answer, I said I would as at least one of the questions mentioned zombies.......

Go visit Anne's excellent blog.......

The questions.....

1. What celebrity would you mostlike to shag and why?

Pamela Anderson because she's the one.......

2. In the event of a zombie attack,what politician would you be willing to use as a human shield?

That Putin fellow, the man seems as hard as nails (last longer or the biggest one I could find)......

3. Rate the survivability of atleast 3 fellow bloggers if they are attacked by zombies.

Ray from Don't throw a 1 1 out of 10, the man's all mouth and no trousers!

Paul from The Man Cave 7 out of 10, the man's in the military!

Vampifan 6 out of 10, he's got the zombie surviving knowledge!

4. If you could reanimate just onedead person from history, who would it be?

Oliver Cromwell!

5. Would you be willing to takethis person out to a pub? Why or why not?

No, too busy showing him parts of Ireland he visited on his earlier tour........

6. In the event of a nuclearholocaust, would you be willing to eat cockroaches to survive?

I was a chef once and we can make anything taste good (nearly anything....) so....Yes!

Take the quiz yourself and post it on your blog...........

900+ Followers.......thank you!

2012-01-05T09:47:00.002Z

Nothing much to say other than thanks very much, the blog keeps me functioning as a human being for a little longer.........thanks again, it means a lot.

Something for the girls........

....not true of all of us men!

Something for the boys.........

....and for Bart

20mm WW2 Painted British 6pdr Platoon.

2012-01-04T10:58:00.000Z

The last bits of the Operation Sealion Project are just about done and the British are done, the figures are a mixture of SHQ (not brilliant and horrible flash), Blitz Miniatures (very nice figures) and the guns are from Britannia Miniatures.

The platoon has a couple of trucks for transport (which I forgot to include) and is based for the rules European Battlefield.......now Ray painted these but I based them (is that okay Ray?).

More of these will be coming up over the next few days or so (I hope) including MMG platoon, Mortar platoon, infantry platoon. tanks, trucks and military police.......

The pictures I took are horrible and these were the best.......

20mm WW2 BT-7 Soviet Tanks, back to work and Resolutions!

2012-01-03T09:54:00.000Z

Back to work today, a quiet Christmas, a quite New Year (except for the shagging fireworks!), painted some 20mm Soviet BT-7 tanks from Pegasus Hobbies for the painting challenge (Ray has cheated twice already!), Santa wasn't too bad to me either.

I don't post too much from home because the SWMBO has knackered 3 desktops so far and now has a laptop for wandering around poultry forums but it doesn't like blogger, so I visit more than comment at home because the laptop wouldn't survive the angry repeated typing.

I will start wandering around blogs again today, hope you had a good Christmas (you're not obliged to) and a good New Year (same thing), ignore those resolutions but to me me it's like the lyrics from a song "another day older and deeper in debt!"

Have a good one people but only if you want to!

20mm figure from PSC for scale or size purposes.

Happy Christmas and a Happy New Year!

2011-12-22T11:15:00.000Z

Yes I know but the anger management therapist said not to put Angry Christmas so I didn't!

Off on annual leave today until the 3rd of January so probably no posting (you never can tell) but I should get a chance to wander around your blogs during that time.........

I've had a wonderful year of blogging, meeting and talking to old bloggers and new bloggers but also missing some old bloggers!

Now I do want you to have a good time but you're not under duress to do so...you know me I'm a Bah Humbug sort of git but I try to keep it under control!

I have used this picture before but it still cracks me up........

WW2 20mm Painted Greatcoat German Squad.

2011-12-21T09:12:00.001Z

I have added a 4th squad to my early war German platoon and I feel these guys are wearing more appropriate clothing for the south coast of England (definitely for the Soviet Union), models are from CP models and are lovely except some of them come in pieces and with my hand shovels this caused some light swearing for a little while!

The Painting Challenge begins...and a book is launched.

2011-12-20T10:11:00.003Z

The painting challenge at Analogue Hobbies finally starts today (haven't painted feck all last week) and good luck to everybody (including Ray....)

They need an undercoat and off we go......

Also the boys Brandon and Bryan over at A Beer for the Shower (one of the top 3 blogs out there....) and they have finally gotten their book out there to the world and can be seen and bought here Amazon for £1.47 or $2.00 I believe and you can win a puppy (hold on....breaking news...the puppy is no longer on offer......air holes are being mentioned.....dammit!)

I bought my copy last night and I hope it's a success for the boys...........

On a final note I had my fingers crossed when I spoke about Ray..........

20mm WW2 Painted AB Figures British Officers.....

2011-12-19T09:44:00.000Z

......with driver and car!

The British are now painted and in the process of basing, done by Ray and myself and are from AB figures, I would have done everything from this company but they only do late war mostly and are considered expensive!

Driver is from SGTS Mess and the car is from Frontline Wargaming.

Angry Movie Lurker Honest Review 61: Immortals 2011 (3 STARS)

2011-12-16T10:25:00.003Z

Wasn't expecting a lot from this but it wasn't too bad with Theseus (Henry Cavill) a stonemason who witnesses his mothers death at the hands of Hyperions forces, has been chosen by Zeus to fight against the ruthless King Hyperion (Mickey Rourke, plays it well with lots of scenery chewing but I like him) who is searching for the long lost Epirus bow that can free the Titans who were imprisoned in a mountain by the Gods (seen at the beginning).

This movie has Greek mythology all over it with Oracles, a Minotaur (a different twist on that legend), Titans, Gods (Poseidon, Athena......), the bad guys are great (cruel) especially the lackeys, good action when it comes, traitors and some good effects and some over the fecking top effects but all in all worth a watch.

It's a different take on Greek mythology as I discovered when I referenced some of the main characters in this film but that's movies and directors for you.....

20mm Painted Frontline WW2 Civilian Trucks.

2011-12-15T11:59:00.000Z

These are from Frontline Wargaming (a lot of work to just get to this stage but as the budgie said they were cheep!) and will be used for scenery from the south coast of England to the wilds of the Soviet Union.

20mm Painted WW2 FAA German Mortar Platoon.

2011-12-14T09:39:00.001Z

Finally starting to finish the last elements of German forces for the Operation Sealion project with this early war mortar platoon according to the European battlefield rules I'm using, I was lucky to find some early war FAA Germans on ebay and while they're not in the firing pose I still like how this unit looks as it moves to set up their tubes (they will get an opel blitz for the long journeys).

I consider the FAA and CP Models some of the best early war german figures in this scale.........but either hard to find or don't do the things you need!

20mm Painted WW2 Russian Infantry Platoon.

2011-12-13T09:52:00.002Z

A 20mm painted Plastic Soldier Company WW2 Russian platoon for my foray into the Soviet Union next year, the platoon is made up of 3 squads and a command squad, there is a figure (LMG) missing in the top left of the first picture but he has now been found and while Ray is not a suspect at this time but investigations continue.......

The Second Annual Analogue Hobbies Winter Painting Challenge.

2011-12-12T09:55:00.001Z

I've joined 20 other like minded figure painters and entered a fellow bloggers painting contest Analogue Hobbies, certain painted items earn you points and you send pictures of the painted items to Curt at his blog and he keeps score, it doesn't start until the 20th of December and ends on the 20th March 2012.

The points are as follows;

Scoring Matrix

5 points per 25/28mm foot figure

10 points per per 25/28mm mounted figure

10 points per 25/28mm artillery piece or limber model

4 points per 20mm foot or unmounted horse figure

8 points per 20mm mounted figure

8 points per 20mm artillery piece or limber model

3 points per 15mm foot or unmounted horse figure

6 points per 15mm mounted figure

6 points per 15mm artillery piece or limber model

Now there is a problem, that friend of mine Ray from Don't throw a 1 who has been a burden to me for the last decade or more ( got him a job where I work and he still hasn't thanked me) has also joined ( just because I joined) and has started the smack talk on his blog (very hurtful) but I'm in it for a laugh and to motivate my painting amounts and to participate with others because my therapist said so!

Ray, you're going down quicker than a $10 hooker.

British Military Tournament 2011 Pictures, Earls Court.

2011-12-09T09:34:00.001Z

Got brought to this event last Saturday as another early Christmas present (will have nothing in my stocking now except for coal), I took some pictures but the seating was a bit of a distance from the arena floor and the lighting was a little weird at times but a damn good event but expensive.

The theme of the show this year was the relationship between the USA and Great Britain throughout history, most often not that harmonious.

The other half refused to participate!

US Army Old Guard Drill Team........amazing skill!

A short re-enactment of the Battle of Franklin 1864 during the ACW which is considered the Pickett's Charge of the West, more info here , it rocked the arena with the noise of muskets and cannon fire!

Kings Troop, Royal Horse Artillery, absolutely stunning to watch these at full gallop and the training required...what it must have been like on the battlefield!

Wellington College gun run with the band of the Royal Marines.

Amazing stuff!

The Royal Signals Motorcycle Display Team: "The White Helmets"

They have no fear and their ridingcaused the most ooohs and aaahs of the whole event with how close they rode their bikes towards each other.

US Army Europe Band....very good.

British and Afghan forces defending a meeting in a village and building a new bridge while under attack from insurgents...

...suspected insurgent car bomb being dealt with!

A feed from Afghanistan with an American and British officer talking about the event and the situation in Afghanistan.

The ending...

...and the drums and pipes of the Scots!

There were several Mexican waves (technically Irish waves), John Bull and Uncle Sam whipping up the crowd and finding the effect of military bands and their music is amazing and astonishing, I had to be stopped from leading our side of the arena against the other side but it was a close thing!

Angry Movie Lurker Honest Review 60: Cowboys and Aliens 2011 (3 STARS)

2011-12-08T09:30:00.001Z

A man wakes up in the desert in Arizona in 1873 with no memory and a strange device on his wrist and wanders into the town of Absolution during the start of an alien scouting mission to colonize Earth.

Finally got to see this even after most reviews were not that positive about it, I never read the graphic novels that it's based on either but it's a western with a good cast and Aliens in it (it can't be bad...right!).

I'm not a great fan of Daniel Craig (except for Bond) and Harrison Ford will only ever be Indiana or Han but they work well as people who are not that nice but band together to save the people who have been abducted and stop the aliens from leaving the planet before they bring back more friends.

The action is quite good, the CGI is good, the aliens are not bad and have a serious Midas addiction, there are a host of supporting actors who you will know, cute kid and dog (some things we have to bear) and did I say indians?

Worth a watch as I said but could have been much more but cowboys and indians fighting aliens with bullets, spears and dynamite in the desert is not something I had seen before or likely to again.

20mm Soviet 45mm Anti-Tank Guns but there's a bloody problem!

2011-12-07T10:38:00.001Z

I painted these Plastic Soldier Company 20mm Russian anti-tank guns recently and their crew and took some pictures when I realised where's the fecking crew because I know I painted them!

Now I'm not accusing anyone (Ray!) but I'm still looking for the painted shites until then here's there guns (lovely bits of kit) and also another thing why did I paint only 3 of the 4 guns that came in the box!

I need a lie down and here's a sneak peek of what was at the British Military Tournament 2011 last Saturday.

Very, very pretty Apache!

Not just one man cave but two!

2011-12-06T10:23:00.001Z

.........and a joke I heard.

Postie in a rare moment of niceness.

Postie (El Presidente and Dictator for life of the Rejects) has quite a few figures but not only one man cave which is about 20 ft long and 14ft wide and where we game but a second smaller one but more impressive than the larger one because of it's contents!

There is rumour of a third in the attic but not many ask about it because of the crying.........of Ray when he tries to talk about it!

He has a lot of books but to borrow one you have to leave one of your children as a deposit, if you don't have children you don't get a book to borrow.

Part of the fleet and 28mm medieval and others....

More figures........

Painting desk......

Even more figures........but there are more stored elsewhere!

Ready for basing....

More books, same deal as before......

The joke which has had me chuckling for a few days and seen over at the wonderful blog called also The Man Cave run by my Australian friend Paul.

Bear Remover

A man wakes up one morning to find a bear on his roof.

So he looks in the Yellow Pages and sure enough, there’s an ad for ”BearRemovers.”

He calls the number, and the bear remover says he’ll be over in 30minutes. The bear remover arrives, and gets out of his van with a ladder, abaseball bat, a shotgun, a large cage and a mean old pit bull.

“What are you going to do?” the homeowner asks.

“I’m going to put this ladder up against the roof, and then I’m going togo up there and knock the bear off the roof with this baseball bat. When thebear falls off, the pit bull is trained to grab his testicles and not let go.The bear will then be subdued enough for me to put him in the cage.”

He hands the shotgun to the homeowner.

“What’s the shotgun for?” asks the homeowner.

“If the bear knocks me off the roof, shoot the dog.”

20mm PSC Painted WW2 Soviet Infantry Squad.

2011-12-05T10:17:00.001Z

While I'm nearly finished the Operation Sealion forces I had a go at painting some of my Soviet forces which I have been hoarding for a while, nearly have a platoon done, I followed the painting instructions on the box from PSC but I'm not happy with the colour, the figures or my paintjob/choice of colour but I suppose I'm not called the Happy Lurker for a reason and they were as the budgie goes cheap!

The British Military Tournament was very good even if I was sitting in the Gods (well nearly!) and will post pictures..

Lots more Soviets to come.......

28mm Modern Civilians for Zombie Gaming part 3...what are their chances?

2011-12-02T09:26:00.001Z

Some more candidates for surviving the upcoming apocalypse, figures are from Hasslefree Miniatures and have yourselves a good weekend...I'm off to the Military Tattoo in London on Saturday (early Christmas present).

This guy is a bit of a lump, college student, possible college football player, maybe a linebacker...or a golfer? 7 out of 10

This little lady caught sunbathing at the beach when hostilities broke out, vulnerable, no supplies or clothes but plenty of possible suitors will volunteer to protect her? 8 out of 10

He'll protect her!

Nice hat!

Angry Movie Lurker Honest Review 59: Conan the Barbarian 2011 (3 STARS)

2011-12-01T09:30:00.001Z

...and a short review as someone at work has gone sick and I'm being forced to actually work!

Ok, it's not the original and has very little to do with it but it's an enjoyable romp with our new Conan (Jason Momoa from Stargate Atlantis and Game of Thrones) playing the Cimmerian with a penchant for aggression and hacking limbs off and his quest to revenge himself on Khalar Sym (Stephen Lang) for the death of his father and destruction of his village. Khalar wants to resurrect his dead wife with the help of his sorceress daughter, he needs to find the pieces of a mask and the blood of true blood who falls into Conan's hands.

The action is plentiful, good set pieces with a lot of fighting on the screen, great and bizarre costumes, weird bad guys and weirder dialogue but he's no Arnold but it's not that much of a problem, it's a popcorn movie that won't have you bothered about a sequel.

15mm Ancients wargaming eye candy, Hittites and Assyrians.

2011-11-30T09:12:00.001Z

This batrep has already been published over at the other Rejects blogs, all I can say is that it was a one sided game for the other side but I had a good time and a win is a win especially when it's against Ray!

So here are some of my pictures from the game and have yourselves a good day!

The initial layout before we but more they screwed it up.

The town of Sansat circa 854BC.

Contractual Postie picture, took some pictures of his second man cave which I will post this week.

This represents myself, Prince Fran the flame haired.

The Assyrians deployed for battle.

Bloody Hittites!

There wouldn't be much difference 5 turns later!

Assyrian heavy chariots.

Assyrian medium cavalry.

Assyrian heavy infantry with ladders for siege work.

Assyrian baggage camp and harem!

Postie had 10 of these on the table and could be reinforcements but mine here turned out to be peasants gathering wood...dammit.

Slingers...useless gits.

Heavy infantry...not so useless.

I, Prince Fran the flame haired lead my forces from the back mind you...I am son number 25 according to my dad the King.

Arab camelry or as Ray described the ancient version of a bleeding panzer.

I lead some Hittite chariots into an ambush....cue evil laughter!

...and then give them a kicking......

...as seen here....cue more maniacal laughter!

Chariots engaging each other....

...bleeding Hittites have to double team me I'm that awesome and humble!

The many faces of Wargaming or doing as you're told!

2011-11-29T09:33:00.001Z

On Sunday Posties Rejects met up for a game of 15mm ancients and as you've possibly heard here and here it was a bit of a disaster for BigLee and Ray, the game was finely set up by Postie with hidden units and possible Favour of the Gods markers all over the place but where the problem started was with one side's man in charge sticking to a plan (in his eyes a good plan) that other's possibly didn't think so!

Now you know me a little and I'm not one to focus on the misery of others (well Ray can be an exception) but I felt sorry for the boys and did a little pictorial tribute to the many faces of wargaming...our hobby.

Will post some of my pictures of my game tomorrow for eye candy purposes, sorry about yesterday but the SWMBO was in her birthday mode so I took the day off and hid.

This is going to be a good day and a good game my friend....

What????????????????

F************************k

You need to stop taking pictures Fran or I'm going to arse invade you with that camera!

A moment of despondency....

The brave face.........

I'm not playing anymore........

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ........

I'm going to kill him..........

I had a great time though and won!

Inspiring Picture 31: Villains Accuracy?

2011-11-25T08:43:00.001Z

It's bad enough when your lackeys and henchmen can't hit the side of a barn door while standing beside it but you can't knock off the hero yourself as the villain other than give him a fecking flesh wound but not before you tell him the fecking plot.

Note to self when I take over the world, no giving away the plot and the henchmen (maybe henchwomen?) need firearms and accuracy training but obviously not too bright as you don't want them getting ideas!

Got a game this weekend with the Rejects so you all have a good one this weekend hopefully especially the Thanksgiving lot who are still enjoying their 4 day weekend!

Angry Movie Lurker Honest Review 58: Killer Elite 2011 (3 STARS)

2011-11-24T09:20:00.001Z

When his friend is kidnapped, a retired assassin/hitman is forced back into action. His job to kill 3 members of the S.A.S for their part in a mission many years ago in Oman.

The movie is based on a supposedly true story and book written in 1991 by Sir Ranulph Fiennes called "The Feather Men" whose character appears in the movie and who also was seconded to the S.A.S and served in Oman (The Dhofar Rebellion 1962-75) about which the book is mostly about and the reason for the contracts.

Set in 1980, Danny (Jason Statham) is a mercenary who has retired due to a mission which we see going wrong for him, his friend Hunter (Robert de Niro) is kidnapped by a Sheik who believes the S.A.s murdered 3 of his sons in the fighting in Oman years before, he forces Danny to take out these 3 men and make it look like an accident so as not to raise suspicion.

Along with 2 mercenary friends Davies (Dominic Purcell, brilliant in the role and great sideburns) and Mieir (Aden Young) they set out to do so but a society called the Feather Men (ex S.A.S members who protect and look after ex-S.A.S members) learn of the plot and set their man Spike (Clive Owen) plus others to find out and protect the targets.

I won't go into much more other than to say this is a good movie with a lot of action, moustaches, gore, sideburns and car chases. There is conspiracy and dodgy dealings all over it but it's not bad and Yvonne Strahovski (Sarah from Chuck the TV series) is in it.

Ranulph Fiennes has always been very vague about the book and story and was even confronted by a daughter of a character killed in the movie to which he admitted the story was fiction?

Definitely worth a watch and they should make a movie about Ranulph Fiennes (turned down by Cubby Brocolli for the part of James Bond for having hands that were too big and a face like a farmer!).

28mm Modern Civilians for Zombie Gaming 2...what are their chances?

2011-11-23T09:34:00.001Z

Another 2 civilians from Foundry miniatures painted up as a change from 20mm and again their chances?

City worker, stocks and shares are his life, aggressive, stressed to feck, heart attack candidate, power mad and a capitalist....4 out of 10

City worker?, maybe a doctor or scientist, he has possibilities by helping others but has a comb over which is bordering on him getting one in the back of the head if he turns out to be useless..... 5 out of 10

Heaven & Hell: Diary of a German Paratrooper.

2011-11-22T09:31:00.001Z

Picked it up on the bring and buy at Salute, I always like to read a bit from the other side of the conflicts.

Very good account of a German paratrooper from the second world war from training right up until his surrender to British troops at Rees, Germany in 1945, it's a no bullshit look at the training and tactics of a new type of warfare, he fought in Poland 1939, Narvik 1940,Crete 1941, Russia 1941-2-3, Sicily and Southern Italy 1943, Normandy 1944 and finally Holland and /Lower Rhine 1944-5 and is sent to England as a prisoner of war until 1946.

He starts off with enthusiasm for the war and the Nazi party but as his account goes on this enthusiasm for both dwindles as the war and years progress. His writing is short and to the point with literally dates sometimes following each other as he mentions little if nothing happened or if their is action or casualties, he cares for his men and their survival, he has some discipline issues in the early days.

We learn what he thought, what he felt and what he went through and his transformation from an eager soldier into a war weary veteran wanting mainly to bring his men home safely, his description of the chaos and confusion of war is vivid and grim. Good read and great pictures throughout.

Service Medals:

Iron Cross First Class
Iron Cross Second Class
Luftwaffe Jump Badge
Luftwaffe ground assault badge
Close Combat Clasp in Silver
Wound badge in Silver
Narvik campaign sheild
Kreta Armelband

28mm Modern Civilians for Zombie Gaming......what are their chances?

2011-11-21T10:02:00.001Z

28mm foundry civilians for zombie/modern gaming but what are their chances when then outbreak comes?

Still painting up the odd figure for zombie and modern gaming, as we all now in most games civilians are a bit of a burden to be protected and saved but what about the civilian being able to look after themselves from the get go?

Two likely lads here.

City road sweeper, fit from all the breast feeding of that brush and as a possible weapon maybe or likely to be as fit as a sloth but has life experience? 6 out of 10 survivability

Student type, fashionable and functional clothing,but what's in the bag, books, weed and munchies or a Glock but possibly too sheltered and naive a character? 5 out of 10 survivability

IMAGE WARNING: 20mm Painted WW2 German Battlefield Discipline.

2011-11-18T09:39:00.001Z

First questionis why paint the miniature? (I didn’t, Ray did but that’s not the point), whyis the miniature on sale from a manufacturer?, why buy it? I suppose I like the disturbing but true and it’s only a metal miniature, this scene happened a lot as a deterrentto others and some say kept the German army together in the later stages of thewar.

There were alot of examples of battlefied justice throughout the centuries for example Englishdrumhead court martials (I believe first documented in the Peninsular War 1807,the term arose from the use of a drumhead as an improvised writing table) but is the miniature is justied or just disturbing?

I haveincluded some other examples of battlefield or otherwise justice miniatures.

Feldgendarmerie units were generally given occupation duties in territoriesdirectly under the control of the Wehrmacht. The duties policing the areas behind the front lines,ranged from straightforward traffic control and population control tosuppression and execution of partisans and the apprehension of enemy stragglers.

But by 1943as the tide of war changed for Nazi Germany, the Feldgendarmerie were given the task to maintain discipline in the Wehrmacht. Many ordinary soldiers deemed to be deserters were summarily executed by Feldgendarmerie units. This earned them the pejorative Kettenhunde (chained dogs) after the gorget they wore with their uniforms. The arbitrary and brutalpolicing of soldiers gave them the other nickname Heldenklauer (hero-snatcher) because they screened refugees and hospitaltransports for potential deserters with orders to kill suspected malingerers. Rear-echelon personnel would also be checked forpasses that permitted them to be away from the front.

I may never use the miniature in a game but I still bought it though, apologies if the images disturb but it did happen!

The miniature is from CP Models and the Feldgendarmerie are from AB figures.

Execution of a German soldier caught in a US uniform in WW2 around the time of the Battle of the Bulge I believe.

The execution of Catherine Howard.

English Civil War justice I think from Redoubt Miniatures.

Guillotine set from Foundry Miniatures.

Angry Movie Lurker Honest Review 57: Drive 2011 (3 STARS)

2011-11-17T09:12:00.001Z

A Hollywood stuntman who moonlights as a wheelman discovers that his life is in danger when a heist goes wrong.

"I drive for you, you get your money. That's a guarantee. Tell me where we start, where we're going and where we're going afterwards, I give you five minutes when we get there. Anything happens in that 5 minutes and I'm yours, no matter what. Anything a minute either side of that and you're on your own. I don't sit in while you're running it down. I don't carry a gun. I drive."

What to say about this movie, I didn't know what to expect and even now I don't know what I really feel about this movie. Nearly the first half is a slow stroll through neon lights, moody looks, his (Ryan Gosling) day and night job but done with real detail on lighting, scenery and affection with a next door neighbour and her kid (nicely done but out of character?).

The second half is another movie with his employer (Bryan Cranston, good and sleazy) at a garage who dreams of a race team with our hero getting involved with the wrong people again you'll understand when you see him (Albert Brooks who is brilliant and Ron Perlman who for once is lost in his role), our hero agrees to help his neighbours husband who is just out of prison and owes the wrong people money so right out of character he gets involved in a heist which is already been screwed up by others (his employers old friends) and then the second half of the movie is a violent road crash that heads to an ending which nobody wants but you know is coming.

It's still a watchable movie, very well shot, the action (the movie was mentioned for the violence being very graphic and it is but that's what really happens to the human body) what there is good (Albert Brooks and his love of blades is shocking and disturbing especially in one scene) and for once because the pace is quite slow at times the music and lyrics made sense and were well chosen and that worried me.

20mm Painted WW2 Zeltbahn German Tents.

2011-11-16T09:37:00.001Z

These metal beauties are from TQD and are supposed to be painted in the 1931 Splittermuster pattern (well my attempt at it anyway), the zeltbahn (tent quarter) was developed in 1931 and could be used as a rain cape, a means of personal camouflage, as a means to construct multi person shelters. In emergencies, it was even prescribed as the basis for a jury rigged flotation device.

There were standard designs for creating four, eight and sixteen man tents from the tent quarter.

Some pictures of painted zeltbahn's for scale and size purpose and some actual ones in use.

Zeltbahn tent.

Rain cape.

WW2 Painted Soviet Airborne Infantry Squad.

2011-11-15T09:50:00.001Z

A squad of soviet airborne infantry from TQD Models, difficult to find much painting information (well for me anyway) on the airborne but lovely figures and will probably mix them with my partisan forces, this apparently happened in 1943 after a drop went wrong around the Dneiper river as part of a major offensive. Really nice figures.

The Soviets mounted only onelarge-scale airborne operation in World War Two, despite their early leadershipin the field in the 1930s. The Axis air superiority early in the conflictlimited the ability of the Soviets to mount such operations, whilst later inthe conflict ongoing shortages of materiel, including silk for parachutes,reduced the ability of the Soviet airborne to operate. Nonetheless, the Sovietsmaintained their doctrinal belief in the effectiveness of airborne forces, aspart of their concept of “deep battle”, throughout the war. The largest drop during the war wascorp-sized, and was not successful (the Vyaz'ma Operation, the 4th AirborneCorps). Airborne formations wereused as elite infantry units, however and played a critical role in severalbattles. For example, at the Battle ofKursk the defence of the eastern 'shoulder' of the southern penetrationby Guards Airborne units was critical to holding back the German penetration.The Soviet military sent at least one team of observers to witness British andAmerican airborne planning for D-Day buttook pains not to reciprocate the liaison.

Russia pioneered the development of combat gliders, but used themonly for cargo during the war.

PS3 Red Light of Fecking Doom...again, I blame Ray.

2011-11-14T09:55:00.001Z

Over the weekend my second PS3 (out of warranty) bought the fecking farm with the fabled red light of doom problem, did the youtube solutions but nothing and it also swallowed my fecking new MW3 game, now why did I blame Ray well because he dropped round on Friday night after I got home from work and we knocked the fecking hell out of the campaign mode on MW3 over 6 hours and as he pissed off home around 2345hrs I think he broke it due to his style of playing (button bashing bollox) and me letting him play for longer out of sympathy as he like me now doesn't have one but I can't be sure but I think he owes me.

Some pictures of the young lad who hasn't got the same anger management issues as me trying to fix and retrieve my game disc.

Got the award below very recently off the lovely Melanie over at !No, really, you can eat it! and you know me I'll take any affection I can get, I would like to pass it on but the SWMBO reads the blog sometimes so if you want it take it but say nothing to her.

Now while I'm contemplating selling my blood and south of the border white fluids to pay for a new PS3 but in the mean time a friend has loaned me his machine (no not Ray!).

Never Forget.....Ever.

2011-11-11T08:19:00.001Z

....a lot of Irish boys including family.

Conflix 20mm Pre-Painted WW2 Buildings.

2011-11-10T09:42:00.001Z

...picked up some of these quite cheaply a little while ago for some WW2 scenery, they could be used for many periods obviously but they're listed as Stalingrad and Kursk ruins I believe but can be used in many other locations like southern England maybe?

Have placed a 20mm figure and tank to show scale and size if you were interested and the paintjobs are quite acceptable.

Angry Movie Lurker Honest Review 56: The Dead 2010 (3 STARS)

2011-11-09T09:33:00.000Z

When the last evacuation flight out of war torn Africa crashes just off the coast, an American air force engineer Lieutenant Brian Murphy (Rob Freeman) is left to survive in a land where the dead are returning to life and attacking and eating the living.

This movie is like a video game at the start where you start off with very little including information and must find food, water, shelter, supplies etc......, this is where it's strongest in the case of what any of us could do in the same situation, the landscape and environment are beautiful but ultimately deadly, the zombies are everywhere (the nice slow types) and are relentless, you don't don't know where you are and there is literally nothing out there but wide open terrain and the odd village but always zombies.

Our lieutenant meets up with a soldier who is searching for his son after his village erupts in violence and zombies and they journey together initially reluctantly and head towards where the soldier believes his son has been taken by locals, the journey is the story but the environment is the killer here (you actually feel hot just watching the movie), the effects and gore are quite well done, the movie is grim, could have been better but I believe it's a zombie movie you need to see but will leave you feeling cold unlike the location.

The main character is quite likeable and acts exactly like anybody probably would and if you're wondering where you saw him before he played the old Ryan in Saving Private Ryan.

Would I watch it again like some other zombies movies I would have to say no but I'm glad I saw it though. Grim.

Completed 20mm WW2 German Infantry Platoon.

2011-11-08T10:09:00.002Z

Completed the early war German infantry platoon according to the rules I'm using (I will probably add another squad), as before the figures are TQD with the 50mm mortar from Stonewall figures I believe and still contemplating the collar patches.

Picked up some FAA MG34s, mortars and other bits and pieces on ebay and will add these when I can.

20mm Painted WW2 Soviet T-28 medium tanks.

2011-11-07T09:52:00.000Z

The Soviet T-28 was among the worlds first medium tanks, the prototype was completed in 1931 and went into production in 1932, it was an infantry support tank and designed to destroy fortified positions but would see limited success on the battlefield.

It weighed 28 tonnes, a length of nearly 24 and a half feet, a crew of 6, a 76.2mm main gun and this variant had 4 7.62mm machine guns.

Have been collecting a few 20mm Soviet pieces over the last year as a side line and as the British are currently been painted I just wanted to paint something different (not that different I grant you) but will do something around 1942 in Russia with my early war Germans.

The models are from Shellhole Scenics "Friend or Foe" range and I have added some 20mm German armour to show scale.

20mm German Panzer IV and II for scale.

A lovely Greek, Zombies, covert work painting and marriage is like a deck of cards.....

2011-11-04T09:37:00.001Z

.........so they say!

An item from that Greek gentlemen Thanos over at Miniature and Terrain in a swap for some die cast vehicles and some other pieces I've sent him (been looking for one of these lately).

A free sticker from the zombie master over at Zombies Everywhere modelled by one of my boys at work who is getting it in lieu of overtime (he's a bit of a zombie nut).

Possibly a covert temporary painting desk at work but I can't confirm that those are 20mm WW2 Soviet airborne......

.......or that these are Armourfast T34/76's! in mid gluing.....

....or that this is true even though I'm not married yet (she's not subtle with the hinting either).