Koala Slumber...

...which shall be the name of Los Abajos when it is set in southeast Asia. And, yes, of course, a play on Kuala Lumpur. Recording for future reference so I don't forget.

Gyro Town almost 'complete' - as in collected

Something 'weird' with how blogger is posting photos now so no captions just yet. Suffice to say all but the desert dye works is present for the town. The last image shows the medieval tannery replaced with the abandoned desert tower but will be the desert dye works once it arrives. The next to the last image gives a sense of the size of the abandoned desert mine.

Ship photo taken while rewatching Indiana Jones movie. A nice alternative to the Kong Venture ship with the forward superstructure.

Seismic Shifting? Perhaps. But let's hope no one falls over the "edge of the earth".

 Though maybe that could happen...

I have decided to pull the Pulp from the Pages to the main Post thread here on this blog.  At least for a while.  The bad?  Pushes pirates 'down'.  The good?  There will be a lot more posts since I'm very much on a pulp kick these days.  Not to worry, pirates are not being abandoned, been adding 3D printed pirate suitable buildings and planning to switch to smaller numbers on individual bases - when I get back to it.

Rules?  I am actually going for an amalgamation from Fistful of Lead, Rugged Adventures, Voyages Extraordinaires, and ideas of my own.  And, no, Pulp Alley is not in the mix - essentially from my view just a derivate of Rugged Adventures so not needed.  And I only plan to create a Quick Reference Sheet - no other rules.  Story, story, story.  And damn the rules, full speed ahead!  Focus on the fun and the figures and the table.  And, as I told a local group - for rules lawyers, please report to 37 miles southwest of Ulan Bator for any of my pulp games.  For the rest, games will be closer to home - those who appreciate the fun and the story.

On that note, I am building at least 'two worlds'.  Both shall depend on peripatetic locales, meaning that Los Abajos, my Central American port may be in its 'place' for one game and then transported to the jungles of southeast Asia for another game and then perhaps out into the wilds of the South Pacific for another jaunt.  Similarly, my 'desert' port of Gyro (rhymes with Cairo), might be in Egypt one game, Morocco another, then perhaps, Madagascar, or across the water in Tanganyika or even German East Africa, and - who knows - perhaps in lands of my own invention.

There will be desert ruins and jungle ruins - have them (well most of them, some in transit as I type), need to paint them still.  Gyro will mostly be 3D prints, Los Abajos mostly scratch built.

Included in the scratch building are a couple of tramp steamers, the sister ships MIS Adventure and MIS Behavin'.  MIS may stand for Mobile Itinerant Ship or perhaps Mildly Insane Stuff as the mood strikes.  There are a variety of other ships and boats in the works and some submarines as well.  And, if I can find something that works for me I'll even toss in a miniature dirigible.  I've also ordered, more standard plastic kits for adaptation, items for building an airfield, also peripatetic, for a variety of planes.  Perhaps - and this is a HUGE maybe - there might one day be room for a rocket ship.  But don't hold your breath waiting on that, you'll die for certain.  And, yes, cars and trucks by the dozens - and maybe an odd bit of armor may make a cameo now and again.

The desert will feature Indiana Jones and such type characters and Los Abajos will be suffering from an insipient civil war where El Presidente Jorge Tonto Castaneda and his wife Mariposa Gorda Castaneda (a wannabe cabaret singer - bring cotton for your ears) with the assistance of his right hand man and his 'bag' man fend off the wannabe dictator Esteban Chulo Derechista and the leftist revolutionary, who wouldn't mind being a dictator himself, Hector Zurdo Comico.  The latter two 'gentlemen' vye back and forth for the affections of the 'ladies' Esmerelda Pequenaputa and Valeria Cachonda.

Castaneda's presidential 'palace' is very close to the Teatro Marionetta which is, at least publicly, heavily subsidized by Carmina Burana Miranda Bananas, the real power in Conyuras, easy for such a small country to be dominated by a large company, their 'spokeswoman' is, naturally, Carmina Burana Miranda.  In second place to bananas is coffee with their world famous spokesperson Juanito Pedro-Maloliente and his constant companion and always overladen mule Perico.  Some say the banana company is a bit too comfy with the Germans, others say the coffee company, Jitterbug Java, is too close to the British.  The Americans claim to be around to support the 'democratically' elected president.

Generally think in terms of mild mayhem and hilarious names and circumstances and you'll be getting the right idea.  I shall be delving into my sometimes fever ridden imaginations for suitable 'McGuffins' to build scenarios around.

To give a sense of things, a few photos (which have appeared elsewhere):

A hangar and a few airplanes - much work to be done to 'improve' the model, like make it look old and dilapidated perhaps.  

A bunch of 3D printed HO scale 1920s era cars - were supposed to be N scale for my model railroad but couldn't get company to correct.  Was planning to dispose of cars when I realized they will work for pulp.  Normally HO is too big for 15 mm gaming but since these are from the 1920s and smaller they are workable, especially in the 'don't take it seriously' world of pulp.

A portion of Gyro - more buildings on the way.  There are few of the ruins in the shot as well.

An early setup of Los Abajos with a bunch of ships in process.

These are the two tramp steamers mentioned above, 18 real inches long, probably going to wait for some 3D printed detail parts I want to order to 'step them up' just a bit.

And that gives you a brief idea of where I'm going with all this benign madness.  For me it will be as much about creating the 'worlds' through models and the stories just as much, if not more, than the gaming.

Come along for the ride and don't be overly concerned by the turbulence.

edit: a few more photos just taken today:

A suggestion of additional details for the tramp steamers, smoke stack, gunwales, cargo hatches, cargo winch base, possible gun emplacements, etc.  I am thinking to use magnetic bits to be able to change out the cargo hatches and gun emplacements, etc.

The replacement ruined desert tower - now in 15 mm.  Still rather tall but that's okay.  And my first 'disappointment' with Tabletop Terrain - I may be wrong but it looks a lot like this was shipped with the top broken at packing since there were only three of the four supports for the awning that goes on top - and two of them were broken - I broke off the last one because it was about to break anyway.  Try as I might, I could not find evidence of the fourth support anywhere in the box or packaging.  No big deal, too fragile to use as is so if I want the awning I will provide a much sturdier set of supports.

Side by side with the 15 mm tower on the left and the 20 mm tower on the right.  The oversized item will be going to a friend gratis since company doesn't want it returned.

And, now, that is it for today.