I couldn't come up with a funny title to do with logos

We're nearing the end of the month, and it's been a fortnight since I last updated, which is a dashed poor show! 

I'll try to right that wrong with a recap of where I've got to, including some new bits done in the last couple of days.

If you're reading this blog regularly and taking copious notes (I assume you are, and if not, why not?), you'll be aware that my aim for November is to get Flashbang, my homegrown close quarters battle modern skirmish game, ready for use at WFC. That's an important step for me as it's where I play probably 95% of my games of anything, so if I want people to start playing Flashbang (and I most certainly do), I'll have to be able to play there.

The first stage has been to update the rules. This ended up being an almost complete rewrite. I can't show any pictures for this unfortunately, but I've spent a fair bit of time revising the rules and I think they're now ready to be playtested again. I've changed a lot of things since playtesting the first time round, but I think I'm close to having it cracked now. I decided I wanted to make it really flexible, which I think I've now achieved, but time will tell. 

Next, the terrain. WFC has a rule that only allows painted models to be used, and a nice looking table really helps to make people want to play a game in my experience. I already had the models for SWAT and criminals painted, so to get a nice table I needed some terrain. Since you're an avid and attentive reader you'll know that I bought some lovely multi-part lasercut buildings in Derby a couple of months ago. Well, I haven't done anything with those yet. Ha!

Basically, because the aim is to fill a table as quickly as possible, I didn't think I'd get the best return on the time I invested by tarting up the Sarissa buildings. I want to make a nice job of those, which I won't do if I rush. So, I went online, and found a few free cardstock bits and pieces. Print 'em out, stick 'em together, get 'em wrong, start again using different glue, and Bob's your uncle!

Those buildings will fill part of a table, and block some lines of sight. I also mentioned earlier in the month that I wanted to do a shipping yard - the thinking there was that it's a good place for criminal types to meet up, and you could create a lot of little alleyways and hidey holes with ISO containers. 

I made a dozen of the containers, and I might yet make more as they're very easy to put together. I'll admit that they don't look fantastic (there's a bit too much white card showing for my taste) but the effect of a lot together is pretty nice.

You'll have noticed the fencing in the last couple of photos - that's been today's job. It's made from the standard aluminium mesh that everyone uses for this, which I've mounted on some small bases I got from Andy - five stuck together for each fence section. I used wooden coffee stirrers (Subway never knew what hit them) for the fenceposts, and a bit of drilling allowed me to run some barbed wire across the top to finish them off. I'm really pleased with these and I have the bits to make the same amount again, which will be done at some point.

The fences need to be painted and based - one thing I've noticed is that a lot of people make something like this and then seem to decide it doesn't need to be painted. I've seen two different model manufacturers with unpainted fences on their websites alongside beautifully painted models, and I really don't get it. For some reason, people think that the mesh looks convincing as it is. Alright, it's metal, but then you paint the swords on your models don't you? Mine will be painted!

My revised Flashbang rules allow vehicles to take part in the game, so I've painted up my SWAT van. "Is that it?" I hear you cry... well, yes it is. Some internet research has shown me that police in the land of the free tend to use two types of vans for SWAT teams. There's the big, square, armoured thing that you can steal in GTA and says POLICE SWAT on the side... and there're also smaller, almost civilian looking vans, that are armoured but don't have markings - the idea being that you don't instantly inform the suspects that you're about to storm the building they're in unless you have to. My model is definitely the smaller type, and the photos I could find online suggested that black was easily the most common colour, so there it is - a black van.

I used gloss black to paint the bodywork, then used minimal highlights and just let the reflective paint do the highlighting for me. A nice if not particularly exciting model!

The SWAT van done, I wanted more of a challenge, and I found my vending machines. I really enjoyed doing these, and put in more effort to get them right than was really sensible, but I'm very happy with the result. First, some research pictures...

And now my version:

These were a lot of fun to do, and I can tell I'll enjoy doing the rest of my Ainsty bits and pieces!

Finally, a load of rubbish...

 I thank you!