45mm Painted Miniature Factory Figure: Uncle Meat or............

..........as I like to call him"The Angry Lurker".

While reading other wargaming blogs I have come across people using a figure to represent themselves or others on the table especially for skirmish gaming and basing batreps around themselves and others, I do this myself by making the player pick a figure to represent themselves (I find they treat the figure differently and play him differently aswell). As an umpire you don't always get to do this but I think I have found the figure that best represents me physically and mentally and he is a 45mm resin figure from the Miniature Factory http://www.miniaturefactory.net/ called Uncle Meat.

Now some of the followers of this blog who know me personally and have met me may agree that the model is quite a good likeness but may say  just not ugly enough are just gits (needed to get  that it in before they did).The head, juice bottle top and chainsaw come seperately but are an easy fit and the model is quite an easy paint, really happy with how he turned out (for my painting skill) and all I need to do now is find some chainsaw catalogues.

L to R, 28mm Copplestone Casting and Hasslefree Miniatures for size comparisons.

Angry First Aid Part 2........Knee Aid.

My 3 day first aid course for myself and half my security team is over and everybody passed (I was surprised aswell) but now I have guys who think they are House (pictured left) and are trying to find people to perform procedures on, they want their ID's to read Doctor (one wants to have site hero?). I agree with the House image because with security you get loud and surly first aid but still good first aid but mainly beacuse our knees are in tatters and the cane would help. Our instructor did buy us knee boards but they were small and we kept slipping off them (causing even better carpet burns) lol.The other thing we found out about one of our colleagues is that if you tickle him he farts.

Should be back to normal from the weekend with blogging after I redo some pictures and Bob Geldof can organise a gig.

For some comments I received CPR stands for Cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

Angry First Aid........my knees are killing me

Organised a 3 day first aid course for the staff at work which started yesterday.There were five of us for the first set of training including Ray from http://onelover-ray.blogspot.com/ and why I am I angry because I have the knees this morning of a .....(insert joke here) between putting people in the recovery position and the constant CPR pummeling (I was up and down off the floor like a ???? ...insert answer here) I thought I was going to need the recovery position and some CPR done on me.

I am now on my way to the course again, my knees are still killing me and my practice dummys name is Ray, I need to improve my slobber lock and you cannot revive somebody through CPR alone (Hollywood is full of shit) and did I mention my knees are killing me.

Angry Movie Lurker Review 24: Ultramarines: A Warhammer 40,000 Movie (2 STARS)

.....back on the horse after internet and phones returned yesterday late evening, did some painting, took some pictures and watched a lot of movies and this was one of them.

All I knew about this movie was a trailer I had seen on a blog and I was interested because I have always been a fan of WH40K especially space marines (dark angels), imperial guard and orks in that order.This movie was a bit of a let down and I realise it was made on a minimal budget but my only problem with this movie is the portrayal of the space marines, they are showed as less than superhuman, constantly bickering and making snide remarks at each other, they die after one shot mostly ( but 6-7 shots to take out a chaos marine) , keep taking their helmets off in the battlefield?.The marines I remember reading about over the years in novels and the magazines were insane killers who were virtually one man armies held in awe by their own people and in fear by other races.

Their is beautiful stuff here, battle barge, thunderhawk gunship, power swords, chainswords, heavy bolter, flamer etc......but one squad on a battle barge (12 men), some of the visuals are excellent (the scenes of the imperial fist battlefield devestation), the black legion chaos marines and the imperial fist chaplain but some of the rest is terrible.

The story is that an ultamarine squad plus apothecary and captain head to a planet and a shrine guarded by a company of imperial fists after an emergency beacon is activated, when they arrive they find most of the imperial fists dead and the mark of chaos is everywhere and they fight to find out what happened and get off the planet alive but chaos is everywhere and has plans of its own.I watched it until the end and I applaud the movie been made in the first place but what could have been with a better budget and a different chapter......Ultramarines have always been a problem for me too perfect and a bit preachy for my liking.

Inspiring Picture 15: Jedi Mind Tricks.

...........only works on the weak minded.

Apologies in advance but I only work weekdays and have limited access to my blog at work and because somebody went through my street's phone and internet cable I now have no phone or internet at home for the past few days, so my visiting of other blogs and commenting will be down for a few days until I return to work on Monday (it hadn't been fixed as I wrote this), so no online PS3 COD Black OPs for me this weekend.LOL

So on Monday I will definitely be back blogging but I'm hoping before that or I may have to change the blog name to The Angrier Lurker.

28mm Painted Reaper Miniature: The Road Warrior.

........I'm scared, Fif. It's that rat circus out there, I'm beginning to enjoy it. Look, any longer out on that road and I'm one of them, a terminal psychotic, except that I've got this bronze badge that says that I'm one of the good guys.

This is a 28mm miniature from Reaper Miniatures called Rex, Dark Future Hero designed by Tim Prow but to me he's The Road Warrior and a zombie/apocalypse survivor, size and comparison pictures included.

L to R, 28mm Copplestones Castings and Wargames Foundry.

All he needs is one of the last V8s.

28mm Painted Hasslefree Miniatures William Figure: Not Spike Figure?

Got this at christmas from Hasslefree Miniatures http://hasslefreeminiatures.co.uk/index.php and just recently painted it, black is a hard colour to paint or represent on a figure because its boring and you can overdo the drybrushing and make it very grey or underdo it and get no definition at all.The figure is called William and was quite expensive but you have to support companies if you can to make sure they're still around when you want more figures, to me he looks like a figure from a well known TV series set in Sunnydale in the late 90s.

Pictures are the usual hit and miss affair.LOL

L to R, 28mm Copplestone Castings and Wargames Foundry

Band of Brothers' Major Richard Winters dies aged 92

Did not realise he had died until yesterday http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-12158637 , I believe he was an exceptional man.

I consider Band of Brothers one of the greatest TV series I have ever seen, I read the book "Band of Brothers" by Stephen E.Ambrose (excellent book) afterwards and found the character of Dick Winters fascinating and read his biography by Larry Alexander "Biggest Brother" (very good book).He was a no nonsense sort of man who led from the front and inspired others.

A picture of Major Winters 1945.

A picture of Dick Winters from 2002.

Some of the cast from the TV series, Dick Winters is in the middle played brilliantly by Damian Lewis.

28mm Painted Hasslefree Zombie Surfer: Surf's Up.

.................smells like victory.

28mm painted zombie surfer from Hasslefree Miniatures with some size and comparison pictures, can you name the movie the quote above comes from with a famous surfing scene.

L to R, 28mm copplestone castings and 28mm foundry.

Battle: Los Angeles.....this looks really good.

.........this should be a blast even Skyline was watchable and obvious gaming possibilities.

28mm Old Crow Models Neo Soviet Armour.

Finally finishing off my 28mm neo soviet forces with some armour from Old Crow Models (problems with getting the colour), the models are a Sabre Heavy Tank and 2 Claymore Heavy APCs and I have 4 more smaller vehicles to finish this weekend and we are done.I love armour and vehicles in games but I focus more on the infantry element so I don't go overboard on vehicles (finances also come into it) and armour usually become scenery in modern or future wargaming especially in urban fighting.

Good models from Old Crow and the figures for scale and size comparison are 28mm figures from Four A Miniatures (very nice figures).

Pictures as usual are a bit of hit and miss.

Inspiring Picture 14: Faith.

..........I find your lack of it disturbing.

1.This maybe another useful blogging tip but you never know, Captcha seemingly is the system where after posting a comment on a blog the blog then makes you do a word verification (challenge response test used in computing)  I believe to stop spam comments (I got a little spam even with it on), if you post a lot of comments on other blogs its a pain and sometimes can cause blog reloading for the comment poster but its not a big issue just makes posting on other peoples blogs easier. If you want to take it off as I think it starts off being on, just go to SETTINGS and find COMMENTS and then go to SHOW WORD VERIFICATION FOR COMMENTS and press No.

2.On an even different note some bloggers have asked why I am angry or called angry, now my friends say it is because I am Irish (southern) and strawberry blonde (not the word they use) but it is because I am always angry ( yes that angry) and have to find a lot of things to occupy me so that it is under control and I can participate in polite society, my modelling, wargaming, my PS3 FPS online addiction, my good woman and this blog help me a lot and I must admit the followers, readers and commenters on my blog and its success ( to me that is) have stopped me from renaming it The Angrier Lurker.When I started this blog I did not expect much but sometimes you got to have.....FAITH.

Thanks to eveyone who helps.

........useful blogging information I hope?

Was over at !KickenDaChickenz this morning http://kchickenz.blogspot.com/ and he was talking about how to show support to fellow bloggers and it has a way of doing this on his blog including instructions (very good stuff and I found out I'm following 375 blogs!!!).It got me thinking about something that may be of use to some of you because I have seen a few instances of it now and it limits some bloggers not getting followers or readers back.

I have picked up some followers recently and when I click on their image it didn't show a link to their blog it only showed sites they have joined but when I was wandering around the blogs I follow I would find an image of them commenting on another blog and maybe mentioning their blog or a link to their blog and I would then follow them.So I believe the problem is solved when you go to dashboard on you blog, click edit profile and on homepage url make sure your blog address is here as written on the top of your homepage......blogspot.com.I hope this helps as it was something I wasn't doing initially and I hope I'm not talking out of my arse.

Below is a piece of cartooning genius that just pips Calvin and Hobbes as my favourite comic strip ever, Bloom County and still makes me laugh to this day.

28mm Painted Foundry "Viscera Twin" Miniature: Chainsaw and Hockey Enthusiast?

This 28mm miniature is from Wargames Foundry and their street violence range"The Family" and is one of the viscera twins from that pack and I painted him up for my zombie games as a ganger (could be a survivor but he's not people friendly looking) because I did not have a chainsaw figure yet and the bonuses chainsaws give.For some reason I do not have the other figures just this one but he is the best of the bunch and a big boy, the problem is foundry sell him as part of a pack so you have to have the others or sometimes they can be found on ebay singly or in lots for far cheaper prices..

If you want to see the complete painted set just go to this man  http://vampifansworldoftheundead.blogspot.com/

Another blog of note is this one  http://jim-hale.blogspot.com/ but needs some followers but especially readers as his blog ( he has more than 1) is quite excellent.

L to R, 28mm Copplestone Castings and 28mm Foundry.

28mm or 35mm Painted Hasira Kiboko: Dictator for Life.

There is a quote from a TV series "The Young Ones" from the 80's when the group of students discover oil in their basement and Mike (old student) takes charge and the immortal words are spoken "Viva El Presidente and Dictator for Life" or something very similar, these are the words I live by at work.

Anyway the figure a 35mm (32mm to eye level) giant from Matakishi's Tea House http://www.matakishi.com/ depicting president for life Hasira Kiboko in full regalia, I will probably use him as somebody who comes out of the ashes of the apocalypse leading an army in the USA but not before finding a nice outfit.Nice figure, had a lot of mold lines but eventually cleaned up nice and was a relatively easy paintjob, there are some comparison pictures to give you an idea of scale if you are thinking of purchasing one.

L to R, 28mm Foundry and 28mm Copplestone Castings.

28mm Painted Hasslefree Miniatures: Mutant Grant.

This painted figure is Mutant Grant from Hasslefree Miniatures and my idea is to use him as a T-Virus infected model for gaming, very nice miniature as are nearly all hasslefree miniatures, the only slight downside sometimes with hasslefree is price but quality costs I guess.

L to R, 28mm Copplestone and 28mm Foundry.

28mm Painted Pulp Figures Villian: The Crimson Scorpion?

This 28mm figure is from http://www.pulpfigures.com/ and is called The Crimson Avenger from the Weird Villians pack, quite a nice figure and I have been thinking about getting into Pulp/WWW2 gaming and using him for this period because I like the bad guy in movies or gaming (as long as he is a good bad guy?).

When I wargamed WW2 I focused more on the germans, Lord of the Rings I focused on Saruman and the Urak-Hai, WW1 again the germans etc........in the movies I like a good bad guy like a bond villian (Blofeld, Auric Goldfinger) with the right amount of madness (but not the lunacy in Tomorrow Never Dies) and even better an organisation (SPECTRE). I do not mention Oddjob or Jaws as they are henchmen (and henchmen are a topic all by themselves) and a critical part of the villians team, I even rooted for a while for Damien in the Omen's, mention has to go to Hannibal Lecter, The Punisher, Darth Vader, Joker (Heath Ledger) etc........there are many more and while we may not condone what they do, they do do it well.

It's all about the conspiracy and the what if's with me.

L to R, 28mm foundry and copplestone castings as size comparisons.

Inspiring Picture 13: Survival

.......it's how I have survived at work all these years.

28mm Modern Zombie Game Report: Zombietown USA Batrep.

Put a zombie game on Sunday for 4 of Posties rejects, the game involved 4 small squads of national guardsmen entering the town to recover a phial of liquid hidden in the town plus 4 side missions.Find and locate a CIA operative (vital information), locate the local governor (political strings still being pulled), locate grandmother/grandson of a Leiutenant General (living in hope) and CBS camera crew with vital footage.

I used the Akula's AR:SE zombie rules which are generated on a playing card system (basically black moves zombies and red moves survivors and a joker ends the turn.

Squad A: Captain Richard plus 4 guardsmen
Squad B: Leuitenant Stuart (Postie) plus 4 guardsmen.
Squad C: Sergeant Surjit plus 4 guardsmen.
Squad D: Corporal Ray plus 4 guardsmen.
Everybody had a M16 plus a few guardsmen had grenade launchers and SAWs, I was in control of the zombies and umpiring, the zombies were generated on spawn points (4 static and the 2 mobile zombie hordes), if zombies were to be generated I threw that amount of dice (sometimes 25+) and placed them at that numbered spawn point.

Squad B and D enterd from the north with squad A and C entered from the south (all other points were blocked to them) and squad D went for it blazing away and attracting a lot of attention (there were about 20 zombies on the board to begin with and a lot of them headed towards the gunfire).Squad A and C were more cautious and started to sweep the buildings for survivors and phial of liquid (the survivors made contact when a guardsmen was within 3 inches and the phial was detected with a sensor each team had when within 3 inches).For the first few turns anything dead got a bullet between the eyes and the shooting of most squads was deadly and the spawn points were kept busy.

Within the first 4-5 turns most survivors had been located and placed among the squads and the general consensus was that things were good and finish things off by finding the phial and everybody would exit the town the way they had come in (by this stage I was having a fit as there had been one or two close shaves but no casualties and my zombies were getting slaughtered).Squad D needed to exit the town on the other side due to his rear been overrun with zombies.Then the phial was located in a container and things started to go wrong for the guardsmen (black cards started to come out together and allowed mass movement by the zombies to corner the guardsmen).

Squad B had its first infected guardsmen trying to remove the phial from a container (I roll a D6 to see how many turns before coma and reactivation), the CIA operative recived a infection injury aswell (Squad A got most of its kills through close combat in these turns?) but the other squads over 2 turns lost 4 guardsmen (including sergeant Surjit) to been zombie food while another 3 got infected by injury.The phial was not recovered as the game ended and the container became a zombie meeting area.Squad A, D and C left the area (South) with survivors but B had problems and would have to exit to the north.All survivors were found but the CIA operative never made it (ended up as zombie food metres from getting off table).

All in all the game lasted longer than we thought ( 6 hours but could have gone on longer) as I had another scenario ready to go.The guys actually liked the game even though zombies are not their thing, military forces are very strong and between the 20 guardsmen they put about 150+ zombies and tanks into the void and bad luck eventually lead to their casualties.The next game will be normal survivors without all the weapons and skills that the military have, the other thing is if a friend receives a bite should they be despatched there and then ( I will probably put in a dice rule to reflect this). Postie actually won among the players by killing an awful lot of zombie tanks. (P.S close combat with zombies is a bad thing!)

Some pictures from the game, hope you like and apologies for any mistakes but thats life ( any questions just leave a comment as I always respond).

Squad A and C pooling forces after entering the town.

A zombie horde spawns.

A choke point of zombies.

Another zombie horde spawns more zeds.

An aerial view of the fighting around squad A and C.

Numbers are starting to count against the guardsmen.

CIA operative receiving his first wound.

No respect for the dead, tough fighting at base camp.

Aerial veiw of the worsening zombie numbers.

A squad view of the container containing the phial.

Guardsmen Van Damme with a target rich enviroment developing but he is wounded already.