Space Weirdo's Game 6: The Big Boss

Having missed game 5 in which the gang was attacked by Nova Corp heavies while celebrating in the pub Steed made a return for Game 6, the final confrontation with the head of the Nova Corp mining corporation. 

The gang had to break into the heavily guarded HQ compound and take control of the site. With only six gang members able to participate there was sadly no room for Mrs Peel!

As ever Gary and Jack's terrain was excellent:

The head of Nova Corp is in the office at the back. The compound is surrounded by a force field fence that needs to be disabled before the gang can enter by turning off the power in the bottom left building:

Steed and Zap Auto-cannon arrive in style in the Space Bentley and move down the elevator into the compound:

The rest of the gang wait outside for the power to be turned off:

Psycho Dave faces off a robotic guard dog:

Guards and gang members exchange fire:

Steed uses his 'Saville Row' stealth suit to sneak up to the generator building:

The interior of the HQ: 

Nova Corp boss plus the obligatory 'Mad Scientist': 

Steed enters the generator room and turns the power off: 

Two guards appear, Steed knocks one down with his deadly umbrella: 

The other pushes Steed back though and he dives for cover: 

While this was going on things had been going badly for the gang with three members down and only Steed and Space Ravi alive in the compound. The situation was very grim indeed as hordes of guards rushed towards Steed: 

A hail of fire puts Steed down and out but not (yet) dead with the guards closing in for the kill! Can anything save him at the last minute?!

Remarkably, YES IT CAN. In true pulp style Space Ravi runs through the largely denuded of guards HQ complex, cuts down the Nova Corp boss and takes control, immediately deactivating all the guards! Steed lives to fight another day....

A tough finale to what was a fun series of games. Gary and Jack's scenarios were all great fun and really brought to life by the wonderful terrain they built. Participants varied each game with everyone enjoying it greatly despite my tendency to refer to the other members of the gang as 'incidental characters'!

One of the gang, Neil, did a newspaper style write-up of the last game:

It also of course gave me an opportunity to use the Steed and Mrs Peel figures I'd painted up which I never thought I'd use (the Bentley at least made some appearances in 24 hours to Basildon CoC PSC!).

 

Space Weirdo's Game 4

Game 4 of the Space Weirdo's campaign saw the crew attempting to 'recover' some mining machinery located in the desert:

This time Steed was accompanied by Mrs Peel with both characters staring off in a hover car:

Deciding that a frontal assault was unwise Steed races the car to the flank:

Mrs Peel leaps out to try to take over the machine but is attacked by a space slug!:

A defending crewman leaps into the driver's seat while Mrs Peel is fighting off the slug:

Hyena boy races to the rescue, the vehicle is fitted with flame throwers though so if the operative manages to fire them.....

Hyena boy successfully storms the cockpit while Mrs Peel evades the attentions of the slug:

Tragically one of the defending guards blows Hyena boy away!:

He then attempts to take over the driving seat but is shot down in revenge by Mrs Peel:

Steed arrives to deal with the slug, successfully doing so by inserting his umbrella into it's mouth and opening it sending bits of slug flying everywhere!:

Meanwhile on the other side of the the vehicle the crew's shooters have been happily cutting down the defenders. One has managed to get into the driving seat and is attempting to drive the truck away:

Another slug attacks Mrs Peel:

A sandstorm has blown up and Steed manages to get lost while attempting to attack the slug. Luckily another of the crew appears and prepares to shoot it:

The slug is shot to bits:

Steed finally locates Mrs Peel:

The target vehicle is captured, the defenders wiped out and Steed and Mrs Peel acquire the jeep for the ride home:

Another fun game with a lot of action from the rest of the crew that I didn't manage to capture and Gary and Jacks set up looked great, all home made as well. Unfortunately I'll be away for the next instalment but I suspect Steed and Mrs Peel will be back in the future!

The Avengers!

My favourite TV series when I was a kid was 'The Avengers' starring Patrick Macnee as John Steed and Diana Rigg as Emma Peel.

Every week they would defeat implausible plots to take over Britain in various nefarious ways. Steed was normally armed only with his trusty umbrella, his bowler hat and an impeccable dress sense. Mrs Peel was unusual for the time in that she wasn't just a pretty sidekick to be rescued but actually was probably smarter than Steed and an equal partner.

A while ago while flicking through the Artizan Designs website (as you do) I saw a figure pack which, while not named as such (presumably for copyright issues) bore a great resemblance to the duo together with 'Mother'. Inevitably I then had to place an order for the pack of course.

I finally got around to painting the two main figures:

Though not a character in the series Steed's Bentley often appeared. There is a Matchbox 'Models of Yesterday' version which is about the right size for the figures one of the later versions of which I picked up from eBay for a very small sum.

I painted some of it (the soft top, seats, dashboard, leather bonnet straps and the rather glowing chrome work) and can't quite decide if I want to matt varnish it or not. It seems to fit well with the figures:

I'm not quite sure what if anything I'll use them for. Steed and the Bentley would be appropriate for the CoC Operation Sealion collection but Mrs Peel would probably look a bit out of place!