Danton - Part VI

At last! The final installment of this nonsense! I promise that I won't be revisiting any of my ideas from high school again soon, even the "good" ones that still exist in my broader Equalisers setting somewhere. Honestly, I only really wanted to preserve this for some kind of posterity and this blog is just obscure enough to suit my purposes there. So here we go, Danton, for the last time anywhere.

Danton - Lord of the Ring

After establishing democracy in France, Doctor Strange has retired and Schama has retreated to his empire in Russia. One day, Zorro comes to Doctor Strange and presents him with the One Ring. Doctor Strange realises what it is and collects a group of warriors to take it to Mount Vesuvius and destroy it. Zorro, Link, Dr Colossus, Mister Staypuff and Dobbie depart from Paris among much fanfare and travel for days before remembering that they could just used the Chronosphere. Returning to Paris, the fellowship find that the Chronosphere compound is occupied by a team of all-star terrorists from Canada known as "The Furious Maple Leaf".


...and that's where it all ends, mid-adventure. I'm not sure when and why I left off, but I have to guess I was either too busy or just got sick of the whole enterprise. In retrospect, it was all pretty stupid and whilst I remember having fun with it, the fact that I never really did anything with it was probably for the best. Hopefully, this has been at least a fun diversion for a few entries and we can get back to our normal nonsense.

Danton - Part V

Ok, second-to-last one of these, but somehow the longest. Still we're almost done with this jaunt into my first youthful foray into multiverse superhero-ish writing. I can't say it hasn't been pretty awkward going over this for me, but at least I've seen the origins of some of my broader concepts and tropes, which is pretty cool for a writer.

Prelude to Bonaparte - A Danton Adventure

A young General, Napoleon Bonaparte, has risen to prominence under Dracula's regime. He is raised to the rank of General after the Schama War, being before the reunification of France a mercenary, continuing to lead his same force independently of Chewbaca in the Zombie Jesus War. During the final battle with Zombie Jesus, Napoleon discovers his ability to fire energy blasts. As a reward for his service in both the Schama and Zombie Jesus campaigns, Chewbaca grants Napoleon stewardship of Brittany.

This position makes Napoleon hunger for power, he stages a coup, killing Chewbaca and taking control of the French Lawyer army, adding it to his mercenary force. Napoleon embarks upon a naval voyage to the Middle East; upon arriving, he leads his army to victory in Jerusalem and takes for himself the Lance of Longinus, thereby becoming nigh-invincible. Upon returning to France, Napoleon discovers that it has been taken over and is ruled by a Decepticon who can transform into a Guillotine. The armies of Napoleon easily conquer France again, but are unable to penetrate the walls of Paris. Napoleon commissions Einstein to build a chronosphere.

After the chronosphere is completed, Napoleon shifts into Paris and confronts Guillotron. The battle between Guillotron and Napoleon carries on for days, much of Paris is leveled between Napoleon's Gallic Gun and Guillotron's Blaster Canon. In desperation, Napoleon uses the chronosphere on Guillotron, while he is stunned, Napoleon uses his Final Flash, which raises almost of that is left standing in Paris and destroys Guillotron. In the wreckage of Guillotron, Napoleon finds the first Dragon Ball...

Danton - Part III

That's right! We're not done with this nonsense yet. In fact, this marks the halfway point of the Danton saga, a mostly nonsense story I wrote in my final year of High School and found when moving house. Whilst this story is pretty poor by my current standards, I like to think I can see shades of Ultimate Alliance and other projects in how I went about this all those years ago.

Robespierre: Master of Otherworld

Simon Schama's army of Battletoads has splintered after their defeat at the hands of Danton and Doctor Strange. The new French army, led by Chewbacca and make up entirely of Lawyers, has confined the undead army of Zombie Jesus to the area of Brittany. Dracula, Doctor Strange and the Last Ninja have disappeared off the face of the Earth. Unbeknownst to everyone else, our heroes have been transported to Otherworld by the ghost of Danton in the hopes that they can help defeat Robespierre and restore balance to the multiverse. Robespierre gathers his greatest warriors for the Mortal Kombat tournament; Blanka, Pope John Paul II and evil mutant Toad.

In a Martial Arts battle greater than anyone has ever seen before or since, Dracula brutally slays Blanka using his Dragon Fist technique. After a pitched battle, Pope John Paul II banishes Doctor Strange to a Hell Dimension. Last Ninja uses his cool headband thingy attack to simultaneously defeat both Toad and Pope John Paul II. In the final battle, Robespierre destroys destroys Dracula by driving a stake through his heart. It looks as if the Last Ninja will be defeated as well, until Danton's soul enters Blanka's body and the pair utilise the "Two-fisted Monkey Style" to finally kill Robespierre. Just as Last Ninja and Blanka/Danton turn to leave Otherworld, Robespierre springs up in a dying effort and grabs the Last Ninja, dragging them both into a lava pit. A distraught Blanka/Danton returns to France.

Danton - Part II

When last we left off this juvenile screed of pop-culture miscenallia that I wrote one fateful week in the last year of high school, I was wondering why I bothered to keep these scraps of loose leaf for almost two decades. And I'm still wondering. But at least I'm getting this down and I'm finding that cathartic.

Danton 2: Stone Cold

After the events portrayed in Danton, Dracula has been able to rebuild Paris, but the rest of France has descended into chaos, leaving Paris as a city-state. Simon Schama travels back in time and raises an army of mercenaries to conquer France under his sovereign dictatorship. Robespierre returns after becoming the new evil ruler of Otherworld and incites the Parisians to rebellion against Dracula's rule.

Dracula turns to the Justice League for help, joining them for a time. The Last Ninja returns to finally avenge his brothers against Robespierre and allies himself with Dracula and the Justice League. Doctor Strange joins with a coalition of demons to resurrect Danton's soul into a robotic body, christening him "Robo-Danton". Doctor Strange and Robo-Danton travel to fight a guerilla war against Schama and his Battle-Toad bodyguards. After a pitched battle, Schama and Robo-Danton fight in single combat while Doctor Strange raises Schama's fortress to the ground. Robo-Danton realises that he cannot defeat Schama whist he wears his battle-armour, so self-destructs, destroying the armour, though Schama survives the attack.

Meanwhile, the justice League put down the rebellion, forcing Robespierre to retreat to Otherworld, only to discover that Zombie Jesus has raised an army of undead and is now conquering the West coast of France.

Miniatures Finished: This is indeed, a dark universe

I was feeling silly one day a put together this squad of "Emu War Veterans" for no real reason. For those who don't know, my country, Australia, has lost wars to Emu twice in our history. Well, really, they were just really poorly implemented culls, but the joke is the same anyway. I also just really like Emu and hope to own a couple some day, they're really smart and have big personalities.

These were made with Eureka miniatures Emu with Warlord Games guns and pouches, the helmets are off some 20mm vehicle crews I had laying around. These may show up in my games as my "Equalisers" version of the "Ape Earth" that DC and Marvel both have, or maybe I'll never actually use them, who knows?

Danton - Part I

Whilst moving house recently, I came across some pages of loose leaf I've saved since my final year of high school. They contain a silly little story I wrote while bored in class one week and I just never seemed to throw them out for some reason. Reading over them again, I found that in these silly stories is something of the origin of some of my approach to gaming storytelling as it is nearly two decades hence. So for a little bit, I'll be writing up the story, which spins out of a synopsis of the first part of the 1983 film Danton, it's very silly and rather juvenile, and I've only edited the spelling mistakes and worst grammar, so maybe come back next week if you were hoping for anything more meaningful.


Danton

During the Terror, Robespierre and the Committee struggle to maintain control over the masses. Danton, the Great Orator, and his followers seek to overthrow the Committee and end the Terror. Robespierre seeks to imprison Danton without inciting a popular uprising. Danton allows himself to be imprisoned to further his cause. Some of Danton's followers turn against him. Robespierre decides to release the Sentinels to quell the mutant menace. The Justice League break Danton out of gaol and give him the armor of "La Dynamo Tricolore". Dracula seizes control of the Committee and reactivates Voltron, making the Marquis de Condorcet Voltron Commander. Seeking revenge, Robespierre allies himself with The Iron Paw, a coalition of werewolves. Gamera is awakening from his hibernation imposed by Doctor Strange, who has repaired Gundam Wing Zero.

When Gamera awakens, he goes on a rampage in Paris, Dracula sends Voltron to stop him. A team of Werewolf-hunting Ninja attack the Iron Paw, who are actually evil and trying to release a Storm Elemental into the world. In a pitched battle all the Werewolves and Ninja, bar a single Ninja, are killed. The last Ninja swears to hunt down and kill Robespierre, who has gone to Otherworld to fight in the Mortal Kombat tournament. A pair of Japanese fae turn Danton into a giant badger to battle Gamera and Voltron. During the battle, Voltron accidentally destroys Master Mould's holding cell and it attempts to destroy all humans in Paris. Doctor Strange arrives in Gundam Wing Zero and destroys Master Mould with his Beam Cannon. Voltron kills Badger Danton but is destroyed by Gamera, who leaves mysteriously with Doctor Strange.

Miniatures Finished: Ratzies!

After selling off some of my Weird World War II figures, I decided I needed some new antagonists for Golden Age and Pulp games, so I picked up a box of Warlord Winter War Germans from work. Some quick work and a fast paint job and I have another team of henchmen for games.

The paint work is pretty a-historical, more intended to evoke Pulp Comics than actual German Infantry.

The kit comes with this great hand holding a folded map, which makes for a perfect "I have the plans now Kapitan Amerika! Nothing will stop the Third Reich now!" kind of moment with the model. He also has a skull eye-patch, which didn't photograph properly.

You can never have enough Panzerfausts, especially when fighting Allied Superheroes.

Plenty of potential for these guys in Pulp games too, a great kit for any 28mm Superhero gamer.

Miniatures Finished: EDF XII

After some discussions online about using 6mm infantry with 1/400 Gundams, which is technically incorrect, as 1/400 infantry would be 0.7mm, but what "looks better" is sometimes the better choice for games, much as my Kaiju project hovers somewhere between 2mm and 12mm at the best of times. Rather than spend money I don't have on more 6mm figures that "better" resemble One Year War Zeon infantry, I just gave some spare WWII Soviet Spetsnaz a coat of paint.

They still look too much like WWII Soviets for my liking, but the effect is fine. 

 

And, of course, I managed to come into more free 6mm stuff, this time, some KV-2s, the bottom right one getting a "Laser Canon" due to being broken in the packet. I love these for any Kaiju and Sci-Fi games as they're just such a funny looking tank. 

EDF X

When the Alien Kaiju started to attack the Earth, it was soon discovered that monsters native to our world existed, and they defended their territory fiercely. Over time, humans and the Terran Kaiju developed an understanding where they could fight together, even if they couldn't communicate. One of the staunchest defenders of the Earth is Kong, King of the Apes. Although actually planning an operation around him is near impossible, human armies the world over know he will focus his rage on the Invaders exclusively unless antagonised. 

ZIS Truck (GHQ) and Kong (Heroclix) 

The comparison shot shows just how big Kong is. 

Miniatures Finished: EDF IX

I'd kind of lost interest in painting 6mm vehicles, but then I noticed how much space they were taking up in my painting cue.

More ZIS Trucks, I actually got rid of a whole bunch, I had so many. (GHQ)

More T-34s (GHQ) and another T-72 (Eureka), the anachronistic T-72 will be used in Kaiju and Weird Wars games.

"The Black Rose" defense platform, fitted with a battery of laser cannon powerful enough to harry even the mightiest Kaiju. A smaller version of the same cannon can be seen next to it. (Spartan Games)

I'd like to say I'm just about done with my 6mm stuff, but I just got 85 new vehicles for free last night. I do promise, however, more big monsters and wacky stuff is coming in the pipe.

Miniatures Finished: Black Scorpion Tong

I thought I was done with my Tong for Empire of the Dead, but I picked up a few Boxer Chinese for free and decided to paint them up. Also, I was playing in a campaign and wanted to try out one of the vehicles, so needed something for that.

The model with the Jingai is a stand-in for a Death Ray when I need a bit more punch, otherwise the Boxers fit in well with my other Tong. 

 

The cart is from 4Ground and the Ox from Eureka, I tried to keep it generic enough to use for Samurai as well, but the Boxer just looks too Chinese to pass.

EDF VIII Vs Wave V

Sometimes I lose track of projects and all of a sudden I have a heap of stuff on the "take pictures of this and put them on the blog" shelf. Not sure how I missed a giant Samurai robot for so long, but there you go.

WWII Soviet tanks, tractors and field guns. (Mirco Armour)

 

Factory terrain. (Spartan) 

 

EDF Mech, "Sapphire Samurai", with T-34 for scale. (Spartan) 

 

EDF Point-Defense Batteries, with Soviet Infantry for scale. In game terms, the EDF player will be able to deploy these "pop-up" guns during a battle as a form of ambush unit. (Spartan) 

 

EDF Airport (Spartan) 

 

Invader bio-structures creep across the face of the Earth in the wake of Alien Kaiju. (Games Workshop) 

EDF VII Vs Kaiju

One thing I hate about the miniatures hobby is how long it can take to get to something in the painting que. Case in point, I finally got my first Kaiju done, almost a year after I got the model. Anyway, on with it.

Soviet Tank Hunters 

 

Some more T-34s, I have a lot, plus some infantry weapons teams. 

 

Tanks line up against Z-Ton, from the Ultraman franchise (model kit). 

 

Sorry about the sideways picture, forgot to change it and doing so on Blogger is a real pain. These kits are pretty good, and it was fun to paint. Hopefully get a game going soon.

EDF VI

The amount of unpainted terrain I had was getting a bit much, so I've worked it into my rotation along with miniatures. First up was some stuff for Kaiju and WWII, as I want to run some Kaiju at the Australian Plastic Model expo.

Together, the bases make a decent sized collective farm. 

 

A T-34/85 uses some farm buildings for cover. 

 

These Monopoly buildings are great for the 6mm scale, I'm tempted to scope out Op Shops for more sets. 

 

I had a heap of spare ZIS trucks, so some have found their way onto terrain pieces. The gas tank is from a knockoff Battleship set.

 The tractor is also a spare miniature from the box I got from my father. 

I have some more terrain planned, with a bit of a twist on what's already here, so keep an eye out if you're a fan of the smaller scales. 

Wave IV

I didn't really have much of a plan for my Kaiju and Micro Armour terrain, then I had the good luck to come across an incomplete Monopoly set and a couple of other "junked" board games, which gave me an idea. The following terrain pieces are nothing more than some houses, hotels and "submarines" mounted on some PAX Aus badges I had from previous years.

The bases are meant to represent Soviet Collective Farms, to tie in with the Soviet army. 

 

The Soviet infantry and rocket truck give an idea of scale. 

 

What's this? Some kind of alien attack? 

 

Some based and touched-up "Kaiju Spawn". 

 

Play-Arts Legion from the Gamera franchise with several warriors. A Boxing Day sales purchase from Hobby Link Japan. 

 

Poseable, die cast and plastic mix, Legion is one of the biggest Kaiju I have, and a hell of a model. 

 

 

This shot with the truck demonstrates just how big Legion is. 

Miniatures Finished: Anachronaut Squad 2

This one took a while longer than expected, though more to trying to finds suitable miniatures than getting the painting done. I'll admit that some of the historics are a bit daunting, especially the Napoleonic era, but trying out something else every now and then helps flex my skills a little. As a project, I'd love to do a bit more on this, but hunting for individual plastic miniatures can be a little tough. 

The second team of Anachronauts is ready for action! Suitable minions for Kang, Immortus, Chronus or even a Doctor Who "The War Games" scenario. 

Samurai, Gaul Warrior, Union Scout, Imperial Guard Sergeant and Mercenary Billman. 

 Cobra Viper, English Civil War Handgunner, Republican Roman Legion, Medieval Archer and Pirate. 

With the Viper and the Guardsman, I was mostly using some old miniatures and kind of pushing the "Greatest Soldiers from Human History" element out a bit. After all, in Avengers Forever there are Sci-Fi Anachronauts, so why not an Imperial Guardsman from the year 40,000, or a Stormtrooper from a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away (see Squad 1). Eventually I'd like to so an 'elite' squad of Anachronauts, with characters like Beowulf, Guan Yu and Jack Churchill, but miniatures are, again, the sticking point. Maybe a cavalry unit? Maybe a T-34, Sopwith Camel or Bradley? Maybe I should just bite the bullet and start using metal miniatures? Only time will tell. (pun intended)