Friday 30 March 2012

300,000 hits, I'm out of here, a kick in the crackers..........

.....but thanks very much people for the reading and commenting!

Going on annual leave today (not really going anywhere until I'm told otherwise) and will wander around your blogs whenever I get the chance and will be back on the 10th of April.....

...but today I was told that I will be moving back on shift at work at the beginning of June (still as supervisor) due to staff losses and the site situation continuing (site still being demolished around us) but that I will be back working with Ray!!!!!!(it's getting difficult to type now due to the pain).......


.........we did work on shift together before but it took a lot of patience on my part and a lot of wisdom on his, I need to sign off now as the tears are making it difficult to continue and thanks again people!


Thursday 29 March 2012

15mm Painted Franonian Riot Police.

Not that there's ever a need to deploy them in the peaceful tax haven that is Franonia, but the presence of the well trained and experienced riot department is a calming influence!

Figures are from Rebel Minis and the Bulldog vehicles are from Peter Pig, I could have put more detail into them but didn't (I have no excuse!) as I believe they're intimidating enough by their plain uniform and hardware.







Wednesday 28 March 2012

Angry Lurker Honest Movie Review 71: Act of Valor 2012 (4 STARS)

Went to see this last night but was hesitant after reading a lot of bad reviews especially from Empire movie magazine (1 STAR), a movie with real Navy SEAL's, could they be right?

No they fecking weren't!!!!!!


This is a movie with real actors playing most of the parts but the Navy SEALs being acted by real Navy SEALs!, it starts off with a mission to rescue a kidnapped CIA operative and turns into a hunt for a terrorist leader and his suicide bomber cell, the action is very good switching from first person to third person, they used live rounds a lot in this movie and it shows....

But it's the SEAL team and it's members that you're interested in, they're not actors and that's obvious (these people have seen and done things that would make actors weep) but they're a team of professionals and friends and you see that, they banter and slag each other as only professionals and good friends can and do....

It's emotional, the SEAL teams really family are also in the movie and what I had never seen before was the two directors introducing the movie (twice) with a description of the movie development and the involvement of the SEALs (they were originally only advisor's), live ammo firing and seeing the bond of friendship among professional soldiers....

The movie is not perfect, the action is sometimes disjointed and the story hops from set piece to set piece quite quickly but it's sometimes more about what's out there in the world and glad to have people who can deal with it but don't set policy but still deal with it....

The scene on the river with the boats, mini-guns and twin .50 cals raised every hair on my body and it's been a long time since a movie did that, the movie reputedly only cost $12 million dollars but with the equipment eye candy on view they navy helped a lot and rightly so!

Never buying Empire magazine again as I don't think they got the point of a going to a movie....I just want to be entertained and took somewhere else for an hour and 50 minutes in this poxy existence I call life!

Some people won't agree but that's who I am and I am never fecking changing!

Tuesday 27 March 2012

15mm Private Security Contractor Team.

The boys from Thoinwater Security Consulting provide 15mm close protection for the discerning diplomat or news team travelling in the worlds wargaming hot spots like Franonia or Rayonia!

The figures are from Rebel Minis, they're not bad figures and you get 4 poses and get 5 of each pose so I farted about trying to make sure they're not too uniform but still giving them a certain company look? I have painted two news teams from Peter Pig to go with these and a couple of businessmen!

The vehicles (Toyota's) and gunners are from Peter Pig but I need something more modern like range rovers and may have to go 1:87 scale!

Pictures are the usual quality!













A lot of guys in my industry and some I even know have gotten their close protection licences to go into this dangerous line of work and I hope somebody got what the name of my company means!

Monday 26 March 2012

15mm Painted Hazmat Team from Khurasan Miniatures.

Lovely set of figures from Khurasan Miniatures, the only thing wrong with them is they only do these and a SEAL team as there only modern figures (lovely sci-fi range though...maybe for the future?), these guys are checking for uranium deposits in Franonia and seem to be bloody well armed!






Thursday 22 March 2012

Iron Sky or Nazi's in Space!

Saw this yesterday over at 20mm Gamer, a Finnish science fiction comedy, the first four minutes of the movie and a shocking discovery hidden on the dark side of the moon , more info here.


Amazing stuff even for an old cynic like me even if it's going to be a comedy.....

Wednesday 21 March 2012

The Painting Challenge is over and I finished 4th but Ray.......

......won and congratulations to the ginger twit!

But I am knackered (figure painting and mentally knackered), the challenge was from 20th December 2011 until 20th March 2012, at the beginning I didn't take it too seriously and didn't submit anything until the 31st of December but slowly the juices started flowing and myself an Ray started a rivalry with the intention of trying to finish in the top 5....

In that time I painted
112 20mm figures
371 15mm figures
17 20mm vehicles of all shapes and sizes
55 15mm vehicles of varying shapes and sizes
1 28mm figure for a separate part of the challenge

Not a lot really but I only painted during the week and had a couple of weeks off and I still painted to my own standard and never compromised on that but I enjoyed myself immensely and bloody well done to Curt who we are seeing at Salute and a game we're putting on the next day.....

4th out of the 24 limit that was set but I'm done in with figures....now where is all that bloody scenery that wasn't allowed in the Challenge!





Tuesday 20 March 2012

15mm Painted Rayonian T-55's Tanks.

3 T-55's from Peter Pig, the beginning of Rayonian arms purchases in his disloyal uprising against the greater good of Franonia........

.....should have flags for both sides soon!

A shout out to PanzerKaput's Painted Review , go over and see the prolific painter (although I think he's away with the missus at the moment).


The rotten swine surveying his new acquisitions and for scale purposes as well...... 



Monday 19 March 2012

15mm French Indian War Test Game at Ray's.....

...testing his The Jumaville Affair FIW rules on Friday night which are his own creation to a point. I should let you know that I'm not that well this morning, I'm a little hungover, Ray is on days with me again, the Irish rugby team were a little fecking disappointing and my Mothers Day phone call opened up the guilty feelings again that only Irish mothers can do and I think the fish and chips Ray bought on Friday night were dodgy!

On to the game and pictures (all the figures belong to Ray)....

The rules are a card based system with actions (you need an action to move, change formation, fire etc....), the least you can get in a turn is one unit/one action and the best is three units/ three actions (a big difference), the quality of generalship denotes better action cards (I chose dawdler but Postie got an ass!)

Initial table set up, the British have started to clear an area to build a fort, the French have decided they don't like this idea and have dispatched a large force to throw the British out of the area..

A close up of the initial position....

These cards signified real and dummy units hidden in the woods...

The hill position with the highly skilled craftsman at work and to be protected at all costs...

The 42nd Highlanders behind redoubts....

A small militia unit holds the right flank...

A better view of the Highlanders.....

French line infantry La Reine infantry start to appear....

Quebec militia.....

Lots of real and dummy units......

Postie realising he's short...

......and much prefers umpiring!

Compagnie Francaises de la Marine and Indians clash in the woods, the marines would eventually be wiped out to a man...

More Indians and Courer de Bois tangle at the river crossing, the French would fail two morale tests and quit the field...

The card system in use, 3 actions for 1 French unit.....Ray's unused camera as umpiring is a lot more stressful than he remembered???? (It's been a while).

The highlanders split into 2 units to deal with the French attack....

French Jesuit Indians clash with Rogers Rangers, the Indians will lose but through attrition the rangers have to be pulled back but not before smashing two units of Indians....

Postie trying to figure out where he's hidden some of his hidden units....

Loyal French Indians appear in the woods....

The umpire contemplating giving Postie a swift kick in the crackers.....

Didn't get to use my "Dawgs" but victory was mine at the end....

The game only went about 3 turns of the card system, an end of turn card is in the deck, what did me and Postie think? The randomness was too random as it could give one side too much of an advantage so Ray changed that to a you go I go system but the amount of actions remaining random, the melee was a little confusing and he will be changing that too but all in all nothing wrong with the system, nice figures from a period that is very varied, another thing are random event cards in the deck and on a D20 you roll for what they are, this can be anything form units having to use actions to pull back, officers getting drunk or a unit getting a blood lust and their skill improved (this was a random pain in the arse if you ask me).

Postie had no luck and poor placement, I had a lot of luck and knocked the "merde" out of most of his units with a lot of good dice rolls, all in all the dice gods won! Ray will be discussing more about his rules on his own blog sometime soon.

Not bad at all Ray.....