Author Archives: Gavin Syme

6th Birthday, Certificate, Weekend Trip…Fun!

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It’s a really happy 6th birthday to my middle son, the poet of the family, who also received a certificate of top achievement in his primary one (first grade) class at school this week.  Double whammy!

He is a very talented little lad with a flair for words and for numbers plus a nicer boy you will never meet; the girls all adore him (both of his own age and those of their mothers!).  This of course he gets from my good lady, none of my lesser quality DNA in there thank you very much!  The certificate from school was accompanied by a little notebook with the school motto and name on it which I have placed with the rest of his little pile of achievements from school and elsewhere.

In addition to his love for Super Mario he also adores trains, cars and other vehicles so I arranged for a weekend field trip from our base in Girvan to the brand new Riverside Museum in Glasgow.  So this Saturday off we went in the pouring rain to the big smoke.  Here follows some photos from the day, I would have posted this last night but man was I tired after that trip (traffic in the big city is way more than I am used to!). I have put some captions on each image to assist you in knowing what is going on.

The Riverside Museum

The brand new Riverside Museum by the clyde river in Glasgow

Inside the Riverside Museum

A view from the second floor to the rear of the Riverside Museum

Weapon Case

Surprise find was a case of Scottish 18th century firearms linked to highway robbery!

The Lads!

That would be me, the birthday boy on the right and the little warrior on the left...can't go leaving him at home eh!

The museum was very good, it has free entry of course, lots to see and the Tall Ship was at the rear on the river for an added attraction.  To me the most interesting thing (and yes I stood on my own for five minutes watching it!) was a hugely speeded up video of the build of the new museum from the breaking of ground to the opening day.  Amazing to see the place going up.  Scale models of ships, plus a one to one size model of Da Vinci’s flying machine were also present.  I will admit to being a bit confused as to why it was not just called the ‘Transport Museum’ as the old one was for aside from a few stuffed animals and nature displays it was 99% transport!

So once more Happy Birthday and I am proud of you my middle son, my little poet 🙂

GBS

Gingerbread with your Flintloque?

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Gingerbread Flintloque Set

Excitement is building and now the cake is out of the bag to alter a well quoted phrase.  In April 2012 there will be a new Very Limited Edition code (VLE) released by Alternative Armies which will feature not only an Undead Baker (cousin of the Reanimator creator Doctorov…Bakorov perhaps?) but also two terrified Dwarf Assistants and a large angry Gingerbread Man (standing some 50mm tall as you see see in this post).  This set will feature in the Flintloque participation game at Salute 2012 along with the fantastic Gingerbread House scratchbuilt by Tony Harwood.

Tony stated to me earlier this week that he would kindly make a pledge to paint up this set for his own use and for use as the official AA photos on the company website.  He has announced this pledge now on his excellent blog so its public knowledge and I can now also talk about it.

And in reply to your offer of ‘thanks’ Tony, all I can say is that you are most welcome.  As Kurt Benson said on the Notables group Flintloque is a unique game that has a special sense of humour all too rare, a sense of whimsy if you like.  Who could not love this set of 28mm scale miniatures.

A hard baked army will be mine!

GBS

O.G.Joel finishes USE ME Cyberpunk manuscript

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Another title in the excellent USE ME series of wargaming rules takes a step nearer to completion.  O.G.Joel has delivered the manuscript for UM011 USE ME Cyberpunk to me at 15mm.co.uk.

Below you can see the cover for the book, which is due for release in April 2012, with digital art created by my best buddy Jim Brittain.

UM011 Cover

More on this title nearer the time but I can tell you that it covers skirmishes, battles, campaigns, solo play along with what you would expect in the way of Cyborgs, Corporations, Hackers and the like.  My own contribution to it that I am working on now is a list of recommended viewing and reading in the genre.  Lots to choose from but I will narrow it down keeping in mind all those late 80’s and early 90’s B-Movies like Cyborg that you can check out too.

GBS

Shilling Service Pack 2 – Death in the Snow for Flintloque

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Shilling Service Pack No 2 - Death in the Snow

Following up on the success of the SSP04 Bier & Bones starter set for Flintloque 3rd edition late last year Alternative Armies are releasing another starter pack on Friday 2nd March 2012.  This second pack is code SSP02 Death in the Snow and gives a player all they need to to get on the action in the chilly Witchlands campaign.  The boxed set contains the ninety six page Death in the Snow game book along with a special two page insert (scenarios, characters, how to get started and more) plus fourteen 28mm White Metal miniatures (Elf Carabiniers and Werewolf Jagers with Vampyre Officer) and fourteen plastic bases.  Last but not least two percentile dice and the box it comes in!  Superb fun and value at only 30.00GBP.

I designed this starter set to allow gamers to get familiar with the game, the campaign and the two small sections before moving on and adding more forces to expand a collection.  It does this very well with the two sections being light infantry the addition of line infantry, cavalry, artillery and the Undead all easy to do.  Plus the insert has a code for 10% off your next Flintloque order…awesome!

There are two more Shilling Service Packs coming out in the next few weeks; news on them as the time comes.  One for Catalucia and one for Grapeshotte.

Look for these starter sets for Flintloque on the Alternative Armies website.

GBS

Foul Mouth Freddie in colour

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Edward Jackson has penned a nifty coloured image depicting Foul Mouth Freddie, an Orc Sergeant with a mouth like a sewer, who has graced several excellent Flintloque scenarios.  Freddie was created by Tony Harwood and you can see all of his F**king scenarios on Barking Irons.  There is also a Foul Mouth Freddie limited edition miniature which you can see on Alternative Armies.

FMF!

FMF is a cool addition to any Albion Orc force in Flintloque.

Enjoy!

GBS

USE ME Terminus Micro-Scenarios 1 to 5 complete

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Terminus Artwork 1

As announced in a previous posting on this blog I have now completed the Terminus Micro-Scenarios number 1-5 for use with USE ME.

You can expect to see the scenarios on Barking Irons Online in the coming few weeks.

1. Planet Fall

2. Primal Score

3. The Shootist

4. Gun Run

5. A Node in the Right Direction

Artwork as seen here will be included and was penned by Edward Jackson.

Terminus Artwork 2Enjoy!

GBS

Salute to the G-House!

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I got a package in the mail this morning and was I in for a surprise.  A package from Tony Harwood for use with at the Flintloque demo game at Salute 2012…and in it…the actual original Gingerbread House as yet to feature on Barking Irons Online.  See here for Dampf’s Blog.

The actual Gingerbread House in 28mm scale

This is a superb little piece of terrain, rich and looking real tasty too.  I will of course take good care of it and those of you who come along on the day to Salute will get to it see it and a lot more new Flintloque goodness.

More on the new Flintloque miniatures and sets nearer the time and also on the demo game but for now thanks to Tony and if you are interested in playing in the demo game drop me a line at Alternative Armies.

GBS

Yum! Battenburger Dwarves

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Flintloque mega fan Tony Harwood has added another custom formation of Dwarves to his collection of lovely painted and based miniatures.  You can read the full article and previous parts on Dampfs Modelling Page and below is an image of the complete set.

Tony enjoys a unique setting in the central urop theatre of the Mordredian Wars called the ‘Sauerkraut Wars’ where his short and stocky lads continue the Bier fights and all the fun that entails. These are superb miniatures from start to end the paint work makes them look good enough to eat and the special touches like the cake themed flag and the hammer carried by the female officer.

Tony created a limited edition unit of Dwarves that are still availiable on the Alternative Armies website.  The LEU03 Princess Julianna have a lot of character too, check them out.

Nice work Tony!

GBS

A Real Bad Can of Spam

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I have been blogging for a month or so now and its going well.  Certainly all the kind comments and emails and words sent my way have given me that impression.  I have now even started to get comments on my postings here on the blog…excellent!  But.  The amount of spam comments is something of a joke!

Some are funny, some are rude, some are downright foul in their language and tone.  The way this blog is set up no comment appears without me authorising it and thereby the address it came from so there is little chance of spam actually making onto a virtual page but none the less it is quite a slog deleting it.

I may look into plugins and such as this blog grows to prevent spamming, all suggestions welcome, but for now I thought I would share my thoughts on this.

GBS

Shilling Service Packs for Flintloque 3rd Edition

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SSP04 Shilling Service pack for Bier & Bones

I had planned to release three more Shilling Service packs for Flintloque 3rd edition in time for Salute 2012, much like the one for Bier & Bones.  However a few emails and one vocal member of the Notables Yahoo Group has led me to change my mind and to move the release forward a touch into March 2012. The new SSP codes will cover War in Catalucia, Death in the Snow, Grapeshotte.  Each will have a 96pp book along with miniatures, bases, dice and a two page special insert; all contained within a lovely box.

While I cannot give full details here the basic contents will be as follows.

SSP01 War in Catalucia

5025 War in Catalucia book, 12 White Metal 28mm Flintloque Miniatures (Six Blacke Watchit Joccian Ratmen vs Five Elf Chassuers and One Ogre Officer), 12 Bases, 2 Percentile Bases, 2 Page Insert (scenarios, character creation and more).

SSP02 Death in the Snow

5026 Death in the Snow, 14 White Metal 28mm Flintloque Miniatures (Six elite Elf Carabiniers vs Eight Werewolf Jagers including Vampyre officer), 14 Bases, 2 Percentile Bases, 2 Page Insert (scenarios, character creation and more).

SSP03 Grapeshotte

5027 Grapeshotte book, 8 White Metal 28mm Flintloque Miniatures and 2 Artillery pieces (Dogman Grasshopper Gun with Crew, Mortar Set with Dogmen Crew), 8 Bases, 2 Percentile Bases, 2 Page Insert (scenario suggestions for artillery, character creation and more).

I am quite happy to release the Witchlands one first (SSP02) as we have requests for it already.  This will be next week at the earliest….I still need to playtest the scenarios!

Never let it be said that I do not listen to the Notables!

GBS