Happy St. Patrick's Day - Ship Project March 2026

 I am working on making sales for 8 Ships for a 28mm Pirates Game at Cangames 2026.  This sail was made by gluing together two sides of a Dollarama paper bag

 

 

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Who Let the Dogs Out!

 Here are a couple of new companies (bases) painted for my Fantastic Battles 28mm Dark Elf army:  Whelp Master with two Chaos War-hounds.  Obligatory sounds effects

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-MK1lLI_zQ

The Dark Elf figures are Marauder Warhammer Fantasy Battle (WFB) 1990 Whelp Masters and Whelp Mistress, and the Chaos War-hounds are also WFB figures made by Citadel but from over a decade later.  The asking price for the original Marauder 1990 war-hounds was just too much.

 

My two bases of Whelp Masters with War-hounds

As you can see the bases still need to be flocked, I will use a mix of brown ballast and green static grass.

Defend the Pass October 5, 2025

 This was a Fantastic Battles Defend the Pass Scenario held at my local games club on October 5, 2025. I provided the Dwarf and Dark Elf Miniatures and Morgan provided the Vikings that he played.   The Dwarfs played by Morley were the defenders and the Dark Elves and Vikings were the attackers.  I played the Dark Elves.

 

Initial deployment turn 1

 

WIP Dwarf Rangers

After a recent Fantastic Battles game on October 5, 2025 at my local games club I decided it was time to upgrade my Dwarf Long Beard unit from eM4 (Originally made by Grenadier) and make them Foresters.   The Dwarfs were defending a pass against Dark Elf and Viking attackers.  The Long Beards looked a lot like Rangers in the rough terrain area with their axes and brown trim on their chainmail so I decided to make them Rangers.  The leader in particular (back of formation) needed some repainting and the bases need work.

 Dwarf Rangers in combat with Witch Elves and Vikings

 

Ship Battle - "Pirates 3rd Edition" by Flagship Games from 2016

I was going through some images from back in January 2016 and found these naval combat pictures from a Naval Fantasy Skirmish game called "Pirates: Miniature Battles on the High Seas, 3rd Ed. by Flagship Games (sold by Scale Creep Miniatures SCM-FGP3)  that covers the period from 1400 to 1650 for historical and fantasy battles. The game was introduced to me by my friend John who contributed two ships and some of the figures, I contributed two ships plus figures, the sea mat and hosted the game.

Here is a link to the rules and to Scale Creep where they can be purchased:

 https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/17220/pirates-miniature-battles-on-the-high-seas?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR1LBM4x8F00OiYcZqGCfj-OHsaWdceVnlM-5UFvAfDa6jBxsOK-1ut7eME_aem_mryZddjEyVZ3Gp4cvFXAXg

 https://scalecreep.com/product_info.php?products_id=10000

As I recall this particular game involved ship to ship combat, boarding and finding a treasure chest on an Island.

 

Aft end of my Skeleton ship

Cards for Fantastic Battles

Here are some of the Fantastic Battle cards I have created for relics, spells and strategies, in order to help players avoid having to flip through the rule book to find them.  They have proved useful over the last two year or so.  You may have noted some of them in my AARs.  I also have made some company cards for various races but will post those another time.  Although you can see some of the cards (including some of these relic cards) in use in my earlier blog entitled "Fantastic Battles Dwarfs versus High Elves August 1, 2022."plus other later blogs.

Disclaimer: I found these images through an online searches and was unable to determine if they were copyrighted. No copyright infringement is intended and if I am informed that this is the case I will remove them from this blog.

Relic cards

Fantastic Battles Convoy Ambush December 27, 2024

 This was our annual Christmas holiday game, using Fantastic Battles mass combat rules set this year and its  Ambush the Convoy Scenario, a 3 player scenario. It features a dwarf convoy attempting to exit the board with ambushing forces on either flank, made up of Dark Elf and Undead armies, all in 28mm scale.

 

The three armies overseen by Joey

In keeping with the season I used my tundra mat and snowy pine forests. I played the Dwarf army.

Fantastic Battles Game at the Centre Point Public Library 15 December, 2024

 I have run a fair number of Fantastic Battles Games, but it has been about 9 months since the last one and this was the first one I have run at the Ottawa Centre Point Public Library. The game ran fairly smoothly, other than a minor hiccups, involving refreshing my memory on some rules. 

Overview Turn 2

Prep for Cangames 2024 the Shakespeare Code - Doctor Who

This years Cangames game (May 19, 2024) will be another Doctor Who game, based on the TV episode the Shakespeare Code.   The game will be set in London England in 1599 with the Tenth Doctor, Martha and a variety of Elizabethan characters attempting to foil or expedite the scheme of six witch-like Carrionites to rewrite the ending Shakespeare’s play Love's Labour's Won rewording it to cast a spell to free the rest of the Carrionite race from imprisonment bring destruction to the world. The scenario is based on  a two player scenario created for the Doctor Who the Miniature Games Rules (DWMG).

Unlike previous years when I used the DWMG rules, this time I plan to use Pulp Alley rules as I think these rules are better suited to represent this multi-player scenario.  Those of you who have read some of my earlier blogs will know I have used these rules for other genres in the past. A short introductory video on the rules by the author Dave, can be found here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBraL7mwXgM

Those of you who just watched the video will have heard Dave say that the rules are designed for up to four players and I will likely have 5 to 7 players, so some adjustments will have to be made. This includes drawing coloured tiles to determine who moves to speed up the game. Additionally I have kept the leagues small, 3 figures per player.  

This will be an "evergreen" post as it will get updated as I progress preparing.

Promo picture from TV episode the Shakespeare Code.

Some of the potential figures I may use in the game from my existing collection as of  March 1, 2024.

Battle of the Bulge game 2024-25 Preparation

Below are pictures and maps of my preparations for a Battle of the Bulge game, specifically the Battle of Foy-Notre-Damme-Celles involving British, American and German forces on December 25, 1944.  I started working on this in January 2024 but other projects like Cangames 2024 took priority in mid  April and the game did not happen in 2024, but maybe it will in the the not too distant future.

Overview of Battlefield

Fantastic Battles Game St. Patrick's Day game March 17, 2024, at OMG - Undead versus Wood Elves.

On March 17, 2024 (St. Patrick's Day) at the Ottawa Miniatures Game Club Nick and I had our first Fantastic Battles mass fantasy battle game, with 1,000 points per side with his UNDEAD versus my WOOD ELVES  in 28mm scale.

Overview

Happy New Year

 Happy New Year Everyone, all the best in 2024

Making slow but steady progress getting my 28mm sailors in white tropical / Pacific uniforms painted, including two versions of Vera Lynn, all for Menelduir's the Pulp Alley China Station campaign.  Along with them some RN sailors in blue (Atlantic) uniforms and a Humber Scout Car, all for Bolt Action.

Figures by Warlord, Pulp Figures and Bad Squido