50,000 Hits

It seems a bit of a tradition for blogs to celebrate the milestones, which I did last week for the blog turning
1 year old, but I didn't want to let 50,000 go by without a bit of to-do.

In June I posted 10,000 hits, just eight months later it's now up to the 50k mark.

Looking for an appropriate picture for 50,000 I came across this:

Which seems appropriate, since I'll be talking a bit about other countries, and that I've been feeling really cooped up in my home country for far too long now. This is a 50k note from Belarus, showing Mir castle, which I've been to, so even more appropriate!

Mir castle was quite impressive, despite my bias that 'castle' means made from big grey stone blocks.  ;)
Unfortunately most of those type structures in Belarus have long since been destroyed.

As a history buff and a gamer, it's pretty hard for me to resist visiting a castle.

In the US, we only have the ones at Disneyland and the one Hearst built... not really the same. 

From the inside courtyard.

On the walkway between the towers.  

Something tells me if this structure was in the US no one would be allowed to go inside it- this walkway's railing isn't sturdy enough to meet safety standards to prevent idiots from jumping off. 

And the stairs that follow are lawsuits waiting to happen. 

Not the best place to go exploring if you suffer from vertigo in stairwells: the spiral stairs going up the towers are extremely steep:

Good luck trying to attack your way up these stairs!

  And for long distance defense, nothing beats good old reliable rock.

And the view from the towers:

And to put a lid on the castle pictures, the covering of the well inside the courtyard... always good to have a reliable water supply *inside* the castle:

I was waiting for a fountain of blood to erupt through this and an old monster hag to leap out... 

but no such luck

.............

When the blog reached 10,000 hits I looked to see which countries had visited the most.  As you can tell, I do like traveling internationally- and when I can't spare the time to go myself, it's a nice feeling knowing the blog is being visited from all over. Not that domestic visits aren't appreciated: of course they are, and the distance just within my home country can be greater than between some countries! 

The top 3 countries by total visits are:

1. U.S.A

2. U.K.

3. France. 

But it's a bit unfair when countries have different populations, so the best way is to do it per capita.

Coming in first:

 United Kingdom

Second:

Australia

Third:

Denmark

At the 50 Follower mark, I'd added it up and Denmark had been first, UK second and Australia third.

So to commemorate U.K. taking the lead I'll finish up with a bit of one of my all time favorite bands from the U.K. with a song that fits my feeling that war is great for the tabletop, but it'd be nice to have a lot less of it in the real world.

Thanks for all the visits everyone!

Perspectives on Wargaming

Thanks to friend and fellow wargamer Dan for bringing this to my attention:

Goblin Flies to Portugal

You know the old saying:

"Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Don't teach a man to fish, and you feed yourself. 

He's a grown man.  Fishing's not that hard."

       -Ron Swanson. 

But that's for fish.  Goblins are a whole other animal. They bite back. You can't just throw someone into the world of goblins and expect a better than 50/50 chance he'll come out of it alive.  

So I painted a goblin that will soon be on it's way to Portugal.  

I don't know if airlines sedate aggressive animals in transit or not. 

This is what they're used to dealing with:

Not this:

So best of luck baggage handlers! Maybe a little payback for all the abused and lost luggage I've had. 

There's still time if you want to donate a goblin for the big international team.  

Here's my goblin for the Merry Mayhem News project.  

Hope he enjoys life in Portugal! 

A Weird World War II Battle: Germans defend against the Soviet-US invasion.

Last night we had a game to test out the final version of the rules we'll be using. Since only four of us were able to show up we decided to have a 2 vs 2 battle, of Germans vrs an alliance of Soviets & Americans.

The German side was:

Totenkinder's Ahnenerbe: Small command squad, 2 Ahnenerbe squads (2 LMGs each) and 1 soldat squad of rifles.  3 Panzer I, a Panzer III and two Panzer IV walkers.  They also had the Gingerbread Man and Wulf in ambush.

German Counter Strike force: 3 infantry squads in half tracks, 3 motorcycles, a Pz38T, a Panzer IV walker, and two Panzer III in ambush, one with a howitzer.  No supers.

The Soviets had a serious horde of poorly trained & equipped infantry.  A T28, two BT7s and two walkers with 4 anti aircraft guns.  Note: I didn't realize they were anti-aircraft guns at the time. More on this later.
He also had The Soviet Bear, a super character.

The American force looked very small, but had mortar artillery, a couple snipers, camo'd anti-tank gun, and a squad of specialist in walker-suits: expensive and deadly.

The Germans were defending:

and from the other view:

The soviet starting position: That's a lot of troops!  I hope we brought enough ammunition.

The soviet bear:

The Americans:

We're using card activation now, which I like for the randomness of it, and not knowing when or if you'll be able to activate.  Others like it a lot less.  We'll be trying a modification of it next time, where every unit will have a chance to activate, but must roll to see if they do when their random time comes up. 

The German Counter Strike force opted for a very active defense: deciding if he defeats the Americans that will mean any defense is complete. 

Oddball, an American tanker in the heaviest walker suit:

The American artillery fell only once, to no effect, the rest of the battle, the radio operators Marge & Madge sat gossiping on the line. They're going to get a stern talking to from Rosie the Riveter you can be sure. 

I started taking shots on one of my Panzer Striders from Oddball, and since he had such good cover behind a house and assistance from a well entrenched anti-tank gun, my walkers went deeper into the forest and the other out of the ruins, behind the forest to get a better position against the Soviet horde. He'd disabled my main gun shown below, but the next action I'd repaired it and moved to take better cover:

The Soviet T28 and the Strike Force walker exchanged shots across the wide field until the T28 got the worst of it and released a column of smoke: X  <- right below this x is T28 wreckage. Nice shooting Karl!

Unfortunately the next action saw this walker destroyed by a lucky shot from one of the BT7s. 

On my flank, as the soviet infantry advanced I gunned them down: The Panzer I's were ideal for this, though I did lose one to fire from the BT7s: i kept trying to shoot them down with my Panzer Striders, but they made a lot of lucky armor saves, so it took some time.  One BT7 was taken out by a panzerfaust.  

When some of the soviets reached the bridge, Wulf charged them, killed half and the rest ran, only to be gunned down my my troops.  

To take out the soviet walkers in a breath of fire, Gingerbread man flew off only to discover those walkers didn't just have 4 machine guns, they had four anti-aircraft machine guns! So Gingerbread Man got shot out of the sky before having a chance to wreck havoc. Well, that's how the cookie crumbles.  (Sorry, I had to). 

He did have Regeneration, so the Bear ran up to snack on the sweet left over food, as bears will do, preventing the regeneration from working.  A bad turn, since those walkers would soon shoot up Wulf, leaving him on one wound. But his work done, and all soviets clear of a threatening position, and his rival, the Soviet Bear, far away back in the woods, Wulf decided it'd be better to retreat to the woods, lick his wounds, and wait for the next threat.  We're defending after all.  My troops defending the bridge got cut down, but the rest of my troops were well protected from them. If they came out further to get a better shot my walkers could pop them: the Soviets were pretty well held off.  

On the other flank, the German advance stalled out.  The motorcycles were destroyed and he was left with just two elements with anti-tank weapons to face the 3 remaining yank armored pieces. Hard to say how that would have gone down after the last turn: if he'd been able to give as good as he got before being eliminated then the Americans wouldn't have much hope of reaching the ruined keep in strength to take it from what I could bring to bear on them, but if the Germans failed to damage the Americans at all it could have been very different.  As it was, the last turn came up and the defense was complete. 

A good game.  It will be interesting to try out the modified activation system.  Also, this is a great simulation of an arms race.  Now that I see the Soviets have anti-aircraft guns and what they can do, I have to get my scientists to make some similar ones for my army.  I'm also going to need some artillery, but with operators who don't gossip as much as Americans do.  I also have some vehicle ideas for the Belgian Liberation Army to get them to a competitive size of these other armies, without breaking my theme, so I'm excited about that too. 

2nd Place Pirates

My entry for Hydra Miniatures War Rocket Space Pirate Clan Contest was selected for 2nd place.
I'm quite happy about that!

The contest was for the painted ship as well as the idea and fluff behind the pirate clan.  I also included some rules I came up with for some upgrades, which Hydra has liked enough that some or all (not sure) will be appearing in their upcoming pdf supplement.   I won a Class IV and a Class III ship for when they're released: Free Ships! WhooHoo!  Thank you Hydra Miniatures!

To see the full pictures of the ship and the background and rules visit my blog update for the entry here. 

Visit Hydra Miniatures to see the other winners, both quite cool, and the whole War Rocket game. 

And since it put me in a Gary Numan mood before, might as well continue with another early classic. 

Not as technological, but I could see a good dogfight in space to this...

One Year & Counting: Laughing Ferret Lab is 1

One year ago I started this hobby blog.

Time doesn't march forward, it punches the hyperdrive.

So happy birthday to part of me:

The time went fast, but I did accomplish a lot of hobby:

- Met a fun local minis-game group and have had some great games with them.  This got me motivated to start painting my Quar, creating a VSF aspect to the Quar as the "Quar of Phobos", letting me paint not just the Quar but steam tanks, robots & airships for them.  And then more recently two weird war II projects of the Frau Tottenkinder force and the Belgian Liberation Army. 

- I painted a couple Blood Bowl teams for myself (though I had to sell one) and got to take part in a couple tournaments, placing Wooden Spoon in one and Overall Champion in the other.  I love you too Nuffle. 

And I've had the Blood Bowl league which is always fun.

- I've completed some other projects this year that I'd looked forward to: I 'finished' painting my Twilight Devanu and two fleets for War Rocket.  

- I had a good time with the Legends of the Old West with my Bandidos, and had looked forward to Legends of the High Seas, but not enough people could make games, so it was canceled: I had to miss a session due to working overtime hours, so I'm at fault there too.  Hopefully next season opening we'll give it another try. 

So what lays ahead for year 2?

Hard to lay concrete plans, but some things I hope for:

- Paint some more War Rocket fleets, as well as my GZG fleet and do the conversion-scratch build fleet I've had planned for a couple years now. 

- Work on the rules for a pre-history miniatures game I started writing rules for, and paint the minis for it. 

- Get back to World of Twilight and paint my Fubarnii to start, then the Delgon.

- Gladiators.

- SAGA

- I really like the look of the new Goblins from Mantic... I asked them and they said they do plan to release goblins with bows later in the year, so I'm tempted to make a large goblin army. 

- 15mm sci fi & fantasy.  I have some ideas for a 15mm large scale battle fantasy wargame, so I may work at that. 

- Work toward my goal of having 1 (or more) of each Blood Bowl team, fully painted. 

- Do the Lead Painter's League 6 Challenge. 

The Blog itself:

Mostly a big thanks to everyone who follows, visits & comments.  I could talk to myself in an empty room, which I can neither confirm nor deny, but it's much more fun to share the hobby with all of you. As of today, 137 followers, 222 posts, and closing in on 50,000 hits. You're only encouraging me, which I don't mind at all.  It's been great to 'meet' so many fun people. Thank you!

Genestealer Cult Mutants and Lead Painter's League.

Despite the slow-down on updates I've been just as busy this half of the month as before, maybe more so.

I won't have as many updates of progress shots or completed minis because I've decided to try to squeeze into the Lead Painter's League 6 on The Lead Adventure Forum.  This has become one of my favorite minis sites, since it's a good fit for my far-flung eclectic minis interest: there is everything from the ancient world to pulp, fantasy & scifi. Whatever your minis interest might be, they probably have many others with the same interest to share.

I wasn't able to do the paint league challenge last year, just not enough time, but going to try to do it this year, if I get in: they're putting a cap on it at 50 participants and it seems last year they had 70.  The rules of the league are that no mini can have pictures published before the end of the week's vote, only primed pictures at most, not even work in progress.  So some updates will have to wait until I have entered them and their week's entry is up.

I had thought to show some pictures of some of the ones I have planned, but since the bases are painted, that's already too much to show.  So I'll just have to wait.  I figure the 10 weeks of the league will be a good way to get some progress on the many different projects I have waiting in the wings.

Stuff to look forward to:

Old metal Orc Blood Bowl Team
Quar
Lord of the Rings
Another Faerie Tale Agent and Squad
Warploque Halflings
Spaceships
Genestealer Cult
& more.

In the meantime, here is a conversion prototype of one of the Genestealer Cult command squad.
The command squad is armed with melta guns, and I wanted to make them more mutated than the rest of the infantry, and in a style that fits the commander: nude and wiry.  I wanted these to be the most like genestealers, but felt the stealer body was too much: so I've used ghouls and added an extra set of limbs: still needs fill & smoothing with green stuff.

Here it is:

And with its mistress:

The Deadliest Game: A Film of Proper Grande Adventure in VSF

This is too fun not to share.

Do you know Dr. Grordbort's? Purveyor of fine esoteric weaponry? The crafter who makes me wish I made a lot more money than I do? If not, run and check out his site.  Then watch the movie: there, on vimeo or here of a grand hunt on a far flung planet by the finest in His Majesty's service.

Tally-Ho, Off You Go. There's a Good Lad.



And, he mentions Phobos! I really do want to get back to my Quar project... 

Abraham Lincoln, President and Vampire Slayer

You've undoubtedly heard about it.

You might have already seen this, if not, now's the time.

I think this is going to have all sorts of inspiration for tabletop gaming.  -not to mention pc & video games.

Since tomorrow is President's Day here in the U.S. it seemed a good time to remember the president who had to handle not just a civil war and help bring an end to slavery*, but had to deal with all those blood suckers too.

Enjoy:


* Remember though, it's not as simple as most think: the U.S. civil war was not about slavery.  It was not a goal of the war to bring an end to slavery: that wasn't even on the table.  Many slavery states fought on the side of the Union. Lincoln's goal for the war was not to end slavery, it was just to prevent secession. Granted, one reason of secession was slavery states feared that the federal government might try to end slavery, which was something they considered a 'sate right': but it was one of many 'state's rights' issues that was behind it.  In fact, the 'Emancipation Proclamation' didn't free a single slave by itself: it "freed" all slaves in rebel states: those states he had no power over, but did nothing to change the status of slaves in states loyal to the union: only when rebel territory fell into the hands of Union armies were any slaves freed as a result.  If the Union wanted to free slaves why didn't it free those it did have power over (all of the slavery states that were fighting for the Union)? It seems it was designed more to create chaos in the Confederacy than to actually be about freeing slaves.   Not until the war dragged on and on, and it became ever less popular did the goal of freeing slaves become tied to the purpose of the war: the enthusiasm of the abolitionist cause was tapped to bring renewed support for the war.

Slavery did end as a result of the war (leading to support for the 13th amendment) but it wasn't the reason for the war, nor a goal of the Union for the war when it began.  It makes me wonder: if there had been a swift victory for the North, would slavery have even come to an end at that time? It doesn't seem very likely.  It may be that only because the South made it so difficult to win, that it was such a long and brutal conflict, that it made it possible for abolitionism to gain more support and become needed for the morale of the North to continue the fight.  In fighting so hard to preserve their 'right' to have slaves, did the South make it inevitable that Slavery would end? Interesting and ironic if so.

It'd be nice if it really was an altruistic effort to help people in need.  I guess people prefer the noble sound of a war to end slavery, but it wasn't anything so simple as is usually the case in war & politics.

Brother Can You Spare A Goblin?

Happens all the time. You're walking downtown when a man down on his luck and sitting on the walk looks up at you, hand outstretched and says "Brother, can you spare a goblin?" My heart goes out, as a man rich in minis, my walk-in safe piled high with elves, monsters and spaceships, dwarves and aliens, what's a single goblin to me?

Sure, I could channel Rand and say 'get a hobby you bum' in misguided belief that apathy creates stronger gamers, and those who can't rise to it aren't worth the dice they'd roll anyway.  But I'm just not built this way; my heart bleeds paint. And so I reach into my pocket and give a goblin or two.

Well Tristan over at the Merry Mayhem News blog, which is situated in Portugal I believe -I do love how thoroughly international the gaming community is- is running a Goblin Potluck of sorts for a friend of his.  This was explained on the last Zlurpcast, but he did tell me it was detailed a bit wrong (much like they thought my 'Aslan's Asskickers' team was 'Asian Asskickers': a typo that lead to some pretty wild conclusions) it isn't that one goblin donation will be chosen to win the team, the team will go to the friend and the winner (chosen randomly from all goblin donations) will get a print of an original piece of Blood Bowl art.  There is also a second prize and some extra prizes for people who get up a work in progress picture posted on their blog or a forum or such before Feb 27th.  And the painted gobling isn't due until April 1st, so you have plenty of time to join the fun and make a Blood Bowl goblin.

If you don't win, what does it cost? The price of a goblin, a little time and some postage, but your goblin will join other goblins from around the world.  Personally I get a big kick out of knowing that I have painted minis in 5 continents: it's just fun.  There's still goblin's to be donated, and I doubt he'd turn away others if they get filled, so check it out here:
http://bloodbowlmayhem.blogspot.com/2012/01/give-him-goblin-contest.html

Here's my goblin I made, going for a more dynamic running pose, just built from the standard warhammer plastic goblin kit.  Is he running toward the action or the safety of the bench? Hard to say.

I Got Some Free Steel Streets

Thanks to Chris from Sippin' On Paint Water for sending me a cool set of resin bases.

He ran a contest recently to come up with a name for his bases, and my suggestion 'Steel Streets' won the poll.

This is his first go at resin base casting from the sound of it. and quite a good start.  It's something I've always been meaning to get around to trying- I have some ideas for bases, 15mm scenery, and 15mm sci-fi alien tanks, but so far I haven't had enough time to try any of it, so I'm quite impressed with Chris at not just finding such time but doing it.

I ran a contest awhile back, and though I left two comments with contact for emailing me with an address for the prize, I was never contacted: baffling.  But not me- I'm a happy greedy git and more than willing to collect some free stuff.  I mean, how often does it happen? And he even had the bases in a black dice bag:

If you haven't been to his blog (linked above) then go and check it out and watch for his bases and future releases.

I haven't decided what I'll use them for yet, but I'm sure I'll think of something given the variety of projects I have going on. 

Aslan's Asskickers: Game 4 Report

 Jim: "Here they come again Bob, those lion-loving forest frolickers, The Aslan's Asskickers. 

Bob: "They're playing those cow dwarves again."

Jim: "Eh? No, that's a different team.  This is another Chaos Dwarf team, there seems to be a lot of them around these days, but they aren't cow-dwarves."

Bob: "Different cow dwarves? No Bull? But I see two with cow-butts"

Jim: "Seems their minotaur is out sick! And yes, centaurs have cow butts."

_________________________________________________________________________________

Game 4 was against the other Chaos Dwarf team in the league, the misguidedly named Little Damned Stunties. His Minotaur was out with an injury, missing this game, so he was able to induce Nobbla Blackwart, the chainsaw goblin star. He also had a reserve bench of 2 hobgoblins.  Meanwhile, my team had a new minotaur to replace the busted one I fired: Rudolph would be replaced by Blitzen, a name I hope will be appropriate.  I won the fame but he won the coin toss and elected to receive. 

I kicked to the center just as clouds parted and the field bathed in very bright sunlight, the ball went very deep and bounced off field, so it was handed to his blocking, sure-hands centaur: the one that looks like a cow.  

A bit of bad luck, but not a big deal.  My mission here is to slow his drive and steal the ball if I can. 

The first few turns are pretty uneventful, I get knocked down a lot and don't seem to do any good knocking back, but I've slowed him to where he's not making any progress. I kept trying to get at the chainsaw goblin, to remove his threat, but so far that bloger was safe, luckily his chainsaw wasn't doing anything to me either.

Then comes Turn 4. The moment when it all begins to fall apart.  My Minotaur who'd chased after the chainsaw goblin, now got blitzed by the ball carrying centaur (!) Injured.. killed! Wow, first game, 2 actions with him and killed? So I apotho'd and got 'miss next game'.. not good for a new player mid season, but better than dead.

Then he knocks out a faun and my elf as well.  In my response I did manage to finally injure that chainsaw goblin. 1 injury for each, even except for missing my new mino next game. But I also had to dodge a faun, rolled a 1 and knocked himself out! Yikes.  My team is getting thinned. 

He's now caged up in the center and I have none that can deal with it, so it's time for a risky move: Dodge with the bear to blitz the ball carrier.  Has to be done. Roll the bone-head: he's fine. Dodge: 2.. Loner? rolled a 4, hes ok to use the reroll: reroll: 4! dodge is successful! Run for the blitz, hit for 2 dice.. push. *sigh*
Quite an impressive play for a fizzle at the end.

Blitz failed to knock the carrier down, but he's pretty hemmed in there.  But then on Turn 7 my Boar (the troll) gets double skulls on a block and get's knocked out and he's knocked out another of my fauns too.  His armor rolling was amazing.  Almost always rolling a 10 and getting more knock outs than stuns.

His time to shine, dodge with the centaur carrier, makes it, go for it to hand off to the other centaur, makes it, hand off is good, centaur makes 3 go for its to score!

I had 4 in the knock out box now and get 2 of them back for my last turn.  I proceed to fail both the bone head and the stupid check for the big guys and then fail to pick up the ball with my agility 3 sure hands faun, for the turn over.  Sometimes you have to laugh.. 1/6 & 1/6 & 1/9 chance of that happening and I get them all.. quick, get me a lottery ticket! I did get my other 2 knocked out guys back for the 2nd half though.

Just one guy down, and the score 0-1 at the half.  I set up to make a drive down my left flank.  I blitzed with the bear into the centaur, and wrapped guys around to receive a pass later.  The Boar wades into the dwarves to tie up as many as he can.  His Turn one he gets to the frog and kills him.  Yikes! My glorious agility 4 Froglin, now a green smear on the field. The crowd gasps in shock. Not trusting the way luck is landing this game I throw to the elf who then makes one go for it to score. This team can be pretty fast when it wants to be. 

I then kick to him and he fails to pick up the ball.  here's my chance! I take the risk and send half my team around the sides to try to take advantage of it- if he fails to pick up the ball again I could get it, or barring that, can jump his ball carrier.  But he knocks out my troll... with a hobgoblin no less!

(The all-judging finger of Nuffle points out his next victim)

He does manage to pick up the ball this time and makes 3 go for its to get safely into a center cage, away from the players I sent after him. Drat.   He also knocks out another faun and stuns the Bear and injures another faun.  It's not that I'm having very bad luck it's that his luck is marching down Main street forwarded by a big brass band. 

Turn 5, and half my team watches the disaster unfold

I now have 6 players to his 11 and he's got the ball well protected. I see a chance.. a 1 die blitz with my wrestling skaven to bring down the ball carrier. First he needs to dodge out.. roll a 2: reroll: 1. armor break & knock out! In response he injures yet another faun! I now have 4 on the field. 

With his ball carrier close to scoring I got a faun onto him, he blitzes him and knocks him down, his turn had ended, my turn 7 I jump up with the faun to throw 2 die in his favor against the centaur, not a good roll.. use a reroll, get pows! he goes down! but in dodging away to get the ball he fails his dodge.  The centaur gets up and makes the winning TD. Almost had it there at the end, even with almost no team on the field. 

Well it was a seriously brutal game.  Karmic retribution for the damage I did to the other chaos dwarf team in game 2? or maybe they heard what I did to their cousins and were bent on revenge.  First loss, record is now even 1-2-1. 

He managed to get 4 injuries on me so he's wracked up a lot of star player points.  My minotaur will be out next game and I've bought a brand new frog for my team, so rest in peace Clyde and welcome Tadd Pohl to the team. I did get 1 skill roll, so another faun with block.  Lost a rising star, but the team is becoming more reliable so maybe it will work out.  2nd skill on the first faun to get a skill though is going to be claw.  Have to do something about all this 9 armor out there! My next game is probably against dwarves: he also had a bad game: a blocker & slayer killed.  So our bruised teams should make a nice game on the kiddie-field. 

After a beating like that, this song seems appropriate, enjoy!

Herr Hans Hossenfeffer & Schildkröte: Specialists of the Ahnenerbe

Frau Totenkinder has an unknown quantity of minions at her disposal: some once human, some crafted from thoughts and feelings of those who hear their tales.  One of the newest to appear in the war is Herr Hans Hossenfeffer.  Hans, to be blunt, is a rabbit.  Not since the days of medieval knights questing for the holy grail have the hearts of men quaked in fear at the mention of a rabbit as they do now.  Totenkinder has other animals, and near-animals at her disposal, so some may wonder what use a mere rabbit is when she has the likes of Wulf and Baby Bear under her direction.

Hans Hossenfeffer is incredibly fast.  Striking out across the battlefield in a brown blurr, he flanks unsuspecting enemy and unleashes a torrent in mad glee.  Those few who have seen him and lived are surprised to find a turtle near him.  That no matter how far afield he goes, a turtle is often close behind, or as improbably as it may seem, just ahead of his position, though none ever see the turtle moving in anything more than a slow motion.  Nothing much is known about this reptile, and he is simply known as "Schildkröte". Often taking cover behind the invulnerable shell, Hans opens fire in the name of his master.

............................................................................................................................

So the Tortoise & the Hare are painted now... here they are in color:

(click for larger pictures)

I probably have too many of the weird-super characters for this force now, but they're just so fun to paint and develop their backgrounds.. can't resist.