The Isolation Chronicle: Desperate Gunfight! Tin Men Defeated! Strange Creatures from Airships Attack Town!

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🜌  The Isolation Chronicle, 28 March 1871  🜌

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Strange Creatures from Airship Attack Town!

Desperate Gunfight!

Great carnage!

About 6 o'clock this morning the early risers of Isolation Gulch were astonished at the sudden appearance of a flaming airship which has been sailing throughout the Territory[source]. It was traveling due north and sailed over the main street and appeared to crash on the outskirts of town. Early reports that it was an Army balloon in distress were soon quashed with the arrival of a sight that fixed in those townsfolk present a fear of Judgement Day come early!

Dramatis Personae

The chill morning air was rent with the terrible clanking of what appeared to be two men wrapped in iron and brandishing pistols! With these armoured strangers came three creatures, grey, diminutive, almost child-like, who soon proved to be the greatest threat the town has faced since the terrible Cholera plague of 1852. Shambling behind these intruders was a deathly, corpse-like apparition. It still wore shreds of butternut uniform suggesting it was animated at the nearby Confederate cemetery.

The townsfolk, having run to balconies and sidewalks to investigate the commotion, were heartened to see that the Territory Troopers had turned out of their camp by the New Cemetery to confront this strange host.

Witnesses recounted that Captain Morgan, who led the Troopers, gasped audibly when he saw the alien posse that entered the main street. 

Morgan was heard to cry, "How can it be? It's the Kelly Gang! Surely my eyes deceive me! And who are those grey children they bring with them ...?"

Morgan had recently returned from two years the British Colony of Victoria and in recent nights had regaled the patrons of the Opal Saloon with the exploits on the Goldfields of these infamous, iron-suited Bushrangers.

But, this correspondent can assure his readers that the good Captain's exclamations were cut short that morning, when the abominable grey creatures unleashed their lances of fire!

The infernal weapons shot beams of red, scalding light which struck Sergeant Collins and Trooper Bowman as they rounded the corner of the Undertakers' salon sending the rest Captain Morgan's troopers scattering for cover wherever they could find it. The smell of the charred flesh assaulted the sense of all present.

The townsfolk stood transfixed, as if enthralled by feats of illusion and thaumaturgy at a travelling circus. Then a voice called out "They must have come from that crashed airship!" Others fell to prayer, fearing they witnessed the Book of Revelation come to life before their very eyes!

The loathsome grey creatures stalked ahead of the Kelly Gang, no doubt sensing their unearthly weapons had advantage both in range and accuracy. Jacky Jacky the Tracker was observed by all making a valiant charge into the fray to try and turn the tide of the fight.

Jacky Jacky let loose a wild yelp and charged headlong down the street strait into the path of an awful, reanimated carcass from the recent Succession War. Being the bare-knuckle champion hereabouts, Jacky Jacky opened with the 'Hook to Hammerfist' blow, that won him his recent bout against"Sailor Tom" Sharkey, but the horror shrugged it off and closed on him and with his flesh rending talons and fangs.

Just when the day seemed lost, Trooper Taylor appears from Isolation Gulch's back alleys and lets loose a hail of shotgun pellets at the grey invaders at close range! Ichorous fluids dripped from the pellet wounds and they fell back by the survey office, seeking cover.

Readers! It was High Noon! Not in a temporal sense, but certainly it was the tipping point in this bitter fight for the main street of Isolation Gulch. Jacky Jacky traded blows with his undead foe. Both now terribly wounded. 

Captain Morgan fell, bleeding heavily after trading shots with the Kelly's from behind a horse hitched outside the Milliner's shop. 

Corporal Stone, wounded, valiantly charged the armoured bushrangers drawing blood from both. 

Trooper Taylor's shotgun finished off the second grey fiend and was saved a death blow by their Leader when its fire lance fell silent!

Fearing the outcome, panic set in among the good people of Isolation Gulch and, I regret to report, your correspondent was not immune to this hysteria. 

Shots rang out! The infernal weapons seared the morning air. When, finally, I peered over the Saloon's balcony, bodies, human and otherwise, littered the street. The Grey Leader stood alone, it's weapon alive again, sweeping the street seeking Sergeant Collins, now our only defender!

Collins charged with a 'huzzah' worthy of the Light Brigade, his fate similarly directed. Seeing the wrath of this seasoned veteran advancing, pistol blazing, the Grey Leader sought cover in the alley by the Livery Stable. Into that Valley of Death Collins charged, but a full blast of the alien's weapon downed him within feet of his prize. A terrible moan rose from the people of Isolation Gulch, as one. Fearing what was to come. But the Grey Leader seemed to disappear in the shadows, for no-one saw it leave. 

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Readers, the toll was too great. Captain Morgan and Sergeant Collins perished in the dust that morning. 

However, I am relieved to report that the remaining Troopers are recovering under the watchful eye of our very own Sawbones, Doc Gregor. The remains of the grey invaders were inspected but quickly turned rancid and were burned for fear of unknown pestilence. The Kelly's have survived their wounds thus far and they moulder in the lock-up awaiting interrogation and trial.

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Notice:

A meeting of the Town Council held in the Opal Saloon shortly after these extraordinary events has called for a posse to be formed to search for the leader of the Grey invaders.
Volunteers of sound constitution and steady temperament are asked to gather tomorrow at dawn.

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Rules: Shootin Iron, from Dave Bezio's Grey Area Games

Miniatures:

• Grey Aliens by CP Models
• Troopers and Kelly Gang by Great Escape Games, Dead Man's Hand miniatures - 'State Police' and 'Kelly Gang' sets.
• People of Isolation Gulch variously by Artizan Designs Wild West range; Eureka Miniatures Pax Limpopo range; and, Shadowforge Wild West Women.

Terrain scratch built by author.

Scratch building Old West Buildings in 28mm

My youngest came up to me recently and said, wouldn't it be cool to play a miniatures game based around Cowboys and Aliens (not so much the movie, but the genera in general)! Well, I'd never considered gaming the Old West as an option - no reason, just wasn't my scene. But the idea was intriguing and we were heading toward (what would be months of) isolation and I knew a large terrain project would be just the ticket!

In terms of gaming, there was a plethora of rules to choose from. I wanted a simple set of Old West skirmish rules and have selected Shootin Iron by Dave Bezio's Grey Area Games.  I also thought the Weird West gaming sub-genera might offer a good setting as well and have purchased Dracula's America: Shadows of the West by Osprey Publishing which looks like it will fill that need admirably.

Construction technique

The main structure of the buildings was made from 5mm foamcore which I got cheap from my local art supplier as it was 'water damaged' (but was fine in reality). In general, I used a wall height of 50mm with the false fronts of the commercial buildings being around 120mm tall. To ensure all the interior spaces were playable, I used removable gable and skillion roof types also made of foamcore.

The exterior wall cladding was made with 190mm x 6mm coffee stirrers using a range of techniques including weatherboard/clapboard, vertical wood sidings and a board and batten siding - a style of exterior siding that uses vertical boards with “batten,” a vertical strip of wood to cover the seams.

Once the cladding was applied with hot glue I textured and weathered it by scratching an exaggerated wood grain into the coffee stirrer and then randomly bevelling the edges and cutting cracks into the ends of planks.

The false fronts common to this era of commercial buildings were cut to a range of shapes to add a bit of interest and a combination of vertical and horizontal cladding applied to create a space for the signage and to add some character.

Flooring was added using the same coffee stirrers and textured the same way as the cladding.

Roofing types used included tar paper and battens, shingles and occasionally some corrugated iron. The shingles were cut from cardboard with each shingle being 5mm x 5mm. For the tar paper I used very fine grit 'wet and dry' sandpaper with wood battens. Corrugated iron was just corrugated craft paper.

The finish I wanted for the buildings was that of very aged timber - timber that had not been painted for a long time (if at all) - giving a run down, or possibly abandoned appearance. I used Platypus Scotsman's Grimdark Church as inspiration. I also took some inspiration from an old church I saw in West Bendigo during a stay in the Victorian Goldfields last winter (in the 2 weeks between months-long lockdowns for COVID!).

This old Protestant Church was converted into a recording studio

Poppet head on the Nell Gwynne Reef in West Bendigo. It was a cold, foggy stay (just as I like it) 

The exterior surfaces were painted using the following technique:

1. Coat all surfaces with a mix of Matte Mod Podge and black paint (using the method described by Black magic Craft).
2. Brush all surfaces with a dark grey using a fairly wet brush to get good coverage (but leaving a little back in the deeper texture.
   
3. Dry brush with a light grey
4. Then add a very light dry brush of white.
5. Using an Army Painter mid-brown wash I add some semi-random colour variations tot he planks
   
6. Coat the whole surface with a black wash - like Mel describes here:
   
7. Once it is completely dry, add very selective light grey and then white dry brushing to highlights using downward stroked to pick up surfaces light would hit.
8. Finally, using a flat scraper in a carving tool set, I gently work all the surfaces to scrape off any thick areas of colour - this gives a very worn, aged look tot he exterior surface.
   

Blurry, but atmospheric! Figures by Artizan.

Doors are wither cut from wider 'tongue depressor' style sticks or were legend and brace doors made up using the coffee stirrers.

Windows were made using thick clear plastic from take away food containers (the rectangular type) and very thin basswood strips obtained from a model railway supplier. I cut the plastic to the size of the window opening (all windows included vertical window frames that the plastic could be glued to) and then glued (with super glue) the basswood to the outer edge and to provide the mullions in the window. Just make sure you paint it to the final colour before you glue it onto the plastic as you can see the timber colour from the insider (found that out the hard way!).

Eyeing off the 'hoopleheads' from the balcony of the saloon.

All of my techniques need a lot of refining - especially the doors and windows - but this project certainly kept me entertained in the quiet moments of the first wave of COVID.

Scratch built Nissen Huts, road barriers and shipping container 28mm

So often I find that terrain ideas are the motivation for new projects. Currently, I'm working on some  items that lend themselves more to a Cold War era post apocalyptic setting than the classic Pulp that he’s been my recent focus.

'The Road' (Source)

My hope is that this will inspire some 'Apocalypse Alley' gaming using Pulp Alley rules based around the aftermath of a nasty biological weapon exchange. The leagues will give me the opportunity to use some of the Eureka Cold War era moderns in like thev 28mm US and Soviet lines they have in NBC/MOPP gear. Link

Keeping to my (nearly) zero budget terrain philosophy, I have been working mostly with cardboard, cork and wire mesh. Here are a few of the creations and the inspiration for them.

'The Base' - a quick layout of the components I have built so far. At the moment I'm working on roads, finishing the perimeter fence and helipads.

I love the look of these old Nissen huts built using 90mm postal tube and corrugated cardboard. The construction process is set out in a great article by Dennis Berwick

This bird's eye view of the base shows the mysterious generator spewing out toxic goop on the bottom right. Ultimately this will be outside the perimeter of the base.

These street barricades are simple to make and will be useful for a range of modern settings. I used a cool tutorial by FearDaAlien. They just need some ballast in the bottom as, being made out of foam, they tend to fall over easily.

I've wanted shipping containers for ages - always been looking in toy stores etc. At last, I've found a great tutorial on Panzerfaust Nostalgia for making them out of card. I'm very happy with the result. Now for mass production! The container made out of 1mm card stock with craft store corrugated cardboard glued to the outside and plastic tubing for the locking mechanism.

Thant's all for now. Study and work are weighing heavily on my crafting time - but the light is at the end of the tunnel!

Just as an aside, I found this nice little article on post-apocalyptic ecology: http://strangehorizons.com/non-fiction/articles/ecology-and-the-post-apocalypse/

Something's afoot at Mosquito Creek

Far to the south of the troubled waterways of the Murray-Darling river system, something's afoot in a gloomy corner of Westernport Bay. Despite the recent storms, there's been a a noticeable increase in ferry traffic out to French Island in the past few weeks. The Master at Tankerton Jetty has been unwilling to discuss the contents of the barges that were doing nightly runs just muttering something about a government project.

The master's son was driving tarp-covered loads out to somewhere near Mosquito Creek by night - sodden, poor land, no good for grazing. By daytime he was ferrying working parties of prisoners and their guards to an 'undisclosed location'.

The island's only General Store was alive with rumour - was a factory being set up at the island's prison farm?  Could the government be finally electrifying the island (long overdue), or was it something to do with upgrading the cable line to Tasmania? One thing was sure, if any of the Islanders new what was going on, they were keeping tight lipped. Les Johnston, who usually knows everything that's going on on French Island,  says that when he was out near Mosquito Creek shooting foxes last week, he saw a strange glow off over the mangroves. Someone needs to go out and have a look - but because the prison is involved, nobody is game...

Skirmish Sangin - A bad morning in the Sangin Valley

Sangin Valley, Helmand Province, Afghanistan, October 2010

Having taken over northern Helmand from the British in September 2010, Marines of the 3rd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, began aggressive clearing operations by October. 

Sangin Valley Green Zone (Source: http://www.talkingproud.us/)

Late one October morning, after three hours of patrolling the streets and fields surrounding a village in the Green Zone of the Sangin Valley, Bravo Section is returning to base. While crossing open ground at the edge of the village, the section is engaged by a force of about 20 insurgents.

The section breaks contact and retreats towards the rest of the platoon but in their rush to find cover, one of Bravo's fireteams take a wrong turn and finds themselves separated from the section in a corner of the village that seems very quiet ... a little too quiet!
[Adapted from Skirmish Sangin 'Recon Patrol' scenario pp. 142-144]

Fireteam Leader Cpl. Lewis 'Chesty' Puller whispers into the comms:
"Stay Frosty Oscar Mike, it's too quiet around here."

"Stay Frosty Oscar Mike"

Chesty gives the order to "Freeze!". Five marines hold their breath. Then the order comes, "Fireteam, to the front, two troops, irrigation ditch, one hundred, commence firing!"

The Taliban spring their trap!

The local warlord had been reinforced by some Taliban - these veteran fighters saw the opportunity to bottle up the lost marines in the laneway. The radio chatter heightens as the Taliban leader deploys a team in the irrigation ditch to cover the north end of the lane, while he leads a flanking maneuver to the left through a compound. Meanwhile, he calls the local warlord's men in to close of the south end of the lane.

The quiet is shattered by two AK-47s opening up sending the marines into cover.

The local warlord's men close off the line of retreat to the south.
The marines are trapped!

As the two Taliban, prone in the irrigation ditch, continue with their suppressing fire (orange arrows), their leader and another fighter swing left through the compound hoping to flank the marines (blue arrows). 

'Chesty' Puller barks the order "Far ambush" sending his men into cover from which they will return fire and look for the opportunity to maneuver. But, the kill zone ahead leaves no chance of assaulting the enemy. 

His men implement their counterambush drill like clockwork. As the SAW gunner, PFC Sipple, and the his assistant Pvt "Chuck" Robb, on the other side of the lane, prepare to cover their line of retreat, Chesty signals his rifleman to follow him over a shattered compound wall to look for some cover (yellow arrows).

The local Warlord's men have closed off their retreat, the SAW gunner falls prone beside a shot-up utility hoping to lay down some suppressing fire, "RPG!" someone yells ...

RPG! An ear-shattering explosion sends a shock-wave down the lane followed by red hot shrapnel and a shower of masonry.

Chesty Puller and Rifleman Miller feel the concussion of the nearby RPG blast shake the mud walls of the hut they have entered. They quickly decide to climb up to the roof to assess the situation ... "Miller, stay low and find cover when we get up there!" Chesty barks as they climb through the choking dust into the light.

When 'Chesty" gets his first sight of the lane his worst fear is confirmed. The SAW gunner Pvt Hasford, has been badly wounded by the RPG. His assistant, "Buzz" McCloskey is under heavy fire. It doesn't look good for Hasford, Chesty knows his mission is now focused on extracting his wounded.

But the fleet footed Taliban leader and his comrade are already in the compound opposite. The marines have lost the initiative. 

The fire from the irrigation ditch shifts to the marines on the rooftop, which proves to be devoid of any effective cover. Chesty goes down in a hail of automatic fire. Rifleman Miller, already halfway through the hatch, is hit too - both slump on the rooftop, motionless.

Automatic Rifleman PFC "Jim" Webb dives over the shattered wall into the compound hoping to assess and stabilise Chesty and Miller. With Chesty down, the fireteam is now under his leadership. He can hear movement coming up at speed through the compound he's just entered - he's not alone! From the compound opposite he hears an order barked in Arabic, he swings around and sees the Taliban leader on the rooftop - Webb takes a bead on him with his M249.

The Taliban now charge into contact from the north end of the lane. Chesty and Miller are seriously wounded and trapped on the rooftop, the SAW gunner, Hasford, is possibly KIA. Things are looking grim for the marines.

Webb gets some rounds away in the direction of the opposite compound roof and fumbles for a grenade. He's keenly aware the compound he is in is not secure.

"Buzz" McCloskey is in desperate measures in the lane - cut off with Taliban approaching from the north and the local warlord's men from he south. He grabs a grenade and tosses it at the insurgent with the RPG who is struggling to reload while keeping cover. His training tells him to 'cook it' for a few seconds, the target being so close, but under pressure he throws early. The RPG operator drops his tube, picks up the smoking grenade and tosses it back!

The grenade bursts at Buzz's feet, shrapnel tears into the marine and, unbeknownst to him, the Taliban fighter taking aim behind him.

Buzz McCloskey's grenade is tossed back by the RPG operator with terrible effect.

Back in the compound, PFC "Jim" Webb, now the last marine standing, reaches for a grenade and pitches it towards the Taliban leader who is on his radio calling his men into a final assault. He cooks it but fumbles the throw and it bounces onto the rooftop above him and explodes seconds later. Chesty, Miller, and the Taliban leader opposite, all receive mortal wounds from the grenade.

Webb's grenade sends shrapnel scything over the compound rooftops

Webb has no time to think, an AK-47 rattles behind him and rounds smash into the adobe wall by his head. He swings around to see one of the warlord's men crouched behind some pallets of grain. A quick burst of his M249 takes out his opponent as shouts from the lane tell him he needs to scram if he's going to get out of this alive.

Sick to his stomach at the thought of leaving his buddies behind - alive or dead - Webb dives for a window in the compound wall and dashes towards the, now empty, irrigation ditch. His first thought to take cover and assess the situation.

But as his aching feet hit the dirt on the other side of the narrow, but deep, ditch, something tells Webb to keep going. He dashes for the cover of the wheatfields. No time to think of what he has left behind, if he's going to make it to lunchtime, he needs to find the rest of the squad. It had been a bad morning in the Sangin Valley.

Coming up next ... V-Beach, Cape Helles, Gallipoli, 25th April 1915. A TFL If the Lord Spares Us scenario.

V-Beach, under construction