SALUTE 2018 : BEST OF SHOW!

Action early in the Award Winning Game

Rob and I decided last year after Salute to see if we could team up to put on a set of games using the rump of Jeff's Pulp miniatures and beef up the presentation with a set of new terrain boards.

My view was to see if we could win a "Best of Show" at the Salute Convention of Trumpeter in Burnaby.

I love it when a plan comes together!

The combination of the Jungle terrain board (with its modular design including a realistic looking waterfall) and the League Cards put us over the top in during the 2 pm to 6 pm game time on Saturday at Salute this year!

Friday, we played in games, I managed to get into a chariot race game for the first time ever.

FLIP! (I didn't and actually came in 3rd place and won more cash than I started with)

Other games I saw:

Not certain the exact era, though the terrain looked great from Terry Sawchenko

WWII

Good to see a classic Battle Tech

Saturday was bright and early from the hotel and off to set up Pulp Alley.

First session was a town, we had seven (7!) players, so I had to add in the water feature and have one league arriving by plane!

all floors were accesible

street scatter worked great!  it even got pulled into the action

One truck crashed into the gangsters car!

The street scene looks great

Arrival by AIR!

Star Trek Captain Kirk got into a real punch up at the end!

The Cowboys League did the best in downtown.

The cards were a great tool for use at the table to keep track of everything really fast and simple.

The winner of Best of Show for the early time slot was an amazing "War of the Worlds" game that my son Alexander played in.  (sorry no photos I was too busy running a game)

Next was 2-6 pm, and the Jungle was on deck, we had bonuses for the Cowboys that won the first game and they carried over into the Jungle game.

Five players make for a busy board!

GREEDS

The Yellow Peril

Radium Inc.

A couple of science clues were the early objectives.

The scenario took place in the dark (only 12" visibility)

Natives got into the action (with Feng Yi)

Even a lowly Follower from Winchester, Smith and Weston got surrounded by the local Ooga Booga Boys

In the end it was a sudden discovery of the secret tome that told where the Idol of Atlantis was hidden and The Yellow Peril, handled by my son Victor managed to grab the glory!

A Company of Heros led by the animalistic Feng Yi are the Yellow Peril

This was the winning time for Rob and I as they announced the best of show.

Finally I got into a Civil War game run by Dennis Chin.

Overall battle at game start - the 'stars' are the objective

The scenario was a piece of the Bull Run battle

Certainly the work from Dennis is good

Creating a great visual spectacle

The Rebels had taken the hill

Union guns were in disarray or destroyed

disorder in the Rebel ranks at the snake rail fence

Disorder with the Union infantry now

Long view of the field

In the end the Rebels held the high ground

too many disorders were starting to wear down the numbers of Union infantry

Dennis' game then won Best of Show for the evening period.

This day either I, or one of my boys were playing in or running a Best of Show for the day!

All in all a great day out.

Met up with a number of the old Grognards of Napoleon's Battles fame and there's a battle in the works ...

LONGBOATS for Pirate and other games - including PULP

Along side the Pulp works I have been able to squeeze in a couple of the longboats from Blood & Plunder.

Realizing that I had little time to do the fiddly method of painting, I decided to imitate the horse painting method I have used to turn out the cavalry quickly.

longboat in setting with Rob's amazing peril island terrain

I really love the effect that it as had on these beautifully detailed models.

the boats started as white resin, I gray base coated, then painted with a mix of brown and black (forward boat here), then did a 'wet-brush' technique to just get the highlights of the boards (rear boat in the image)

next comes color layer on top of the while 'pulling' or 'wet-brush', for these two boats I have done one with orange color band (rear) and yellow color band (front)

then an ink layer goes on, both boats are seen here in a flash photo with the ink still wet

I'm not completely satisfied with the finished product and plan on another ink layer and then dry-brush on highlights and accents the color and the ropes.

The Firelock Games boats have fantastic detailing and that detail is what has made painting these boats a real treat.  I'm looking forward to the sloops in the future along with the crews of Pirates that I have.

Pulp Play ready for SALUTE 2018

Once more we went to the local library and set up the Pulp Game Board for the city, now much more finished.

More details also were available for the leagues, including a set of cards to control a league my youngest controls.

the city board, with the canal and bridge

details of the contest on the 'rough side' of the canal

ready for action (with a 'hand' in the middle of the board)

now just the town, note the light standards

the vehicles really make the street scene more active - the new signage on the buildings also brings it more to life

Cowboy Curly Bill taking shots at some of the purple men of Radium Inc

City center at the Variety Store

Groceries were also available

buildings floors all separate and characters can be put on each floor

the interior of the buildings have no furnishings, yet the do have wall paper and floorings

Inspired to use cards to help control the game action, I have custom made one set for my youngest son's league:

fold the card at the color line and the sepia details are all ready to work with!

Pulp Games over the winter break

Once again we have set up a number of games over the winter school break.

This time Saturday Dec 30th was set aside for Pulp Alley for another play-test of the board and system.

Downtown board came out for the first time, still not quite finished, and we all had an opportunity to marvel on the great works that Rob as done.

The Crazy Cowboys made a return appearance and here Bart is walking confidently over the bridge on the canal ...

Two young players joined in again with my middle son, who ran his Lego Mandalorians again.

This time it was a "race against time" scenario, where the Mandalorians had stopped a police car and were frantically searching it for that vital plot point!

The terrain artist took part in the game this time running the infamous "Dark Fire"

an Eye Ball gangster takes aim

general mayhem in the center of the board

an overview near the end of the game, where the Mandalorians just managed to get the data on turn 6!

Dark Fire comes boiling out from their hideout ...

We then took some time to set up a few more photos of the first jungle/island board:

wild men face some adventurers

the great terrain has so many different uses

adventure leagues come in many different forms

Then after the street action was done we took some promotional photos of 'downtown'.

city street scene

building interiors are accessible

even the pavement has details

the combination to come soon will be excellent

Rob tells me that there are more details to come for his city-scape,  including lamp posts, fire hydrants and man-hole covers.  As well as building details and decals.

We are well on our way for putting on a good show at Salute in 2018.

Island of Perils - Pulp Game playtest for Salute 2018

Right after the last installment of Salute, March 2017, Rob and I discussed going into a project together to host some game(s) at the 2018 Salute.

Here is the first play test run for what is shaping up to be two or three games at Salute in 2018.

we have been using the Pulp Alley rules set

the terrain board of peril island 3'x3' as built by Rob

yes, Daleks were in the game!

A Blood and Plunder boat (unpainted as yet) was pressed into service

the Red cloaked minions were on a rampage

a slippery bridge was full of perils

yes that is a Lego Star Wars character racing to get to the Grumman Goose plane to escape

Gangsters, ray guns and more were all in action for a second play test

Rob is currently working on a city-scape section of terrain, I have cars and trucks and a couple of motorcycles even for 1920-36 era to put into it.  Currently there are 50+ more of the pulp minis in various stages of painting ready to complete another dozen or so in time for the next playtest on Dec 30th.

Starting to look good for having it all ready for Salute 2018.