Hirst Arts Starship Molds

I got the casts of the Hirst Arts Starship molds I ordered from Castle Kits. They're pretty nice, there's a lot you can do with them. You can see me dry-fitting together a little corridor section to try them out.

Firefly

Despite being a fair Sci-Fi fan, I have never seen an episode of Firefly until today. I guess, despite assurances from friends, I just didn't have much faith that a Sci-Fi TV series today would be any good. I just got the first two series disks from NetFlix today. My wife was busy with her sister all evening, so I was home alone and watched both disks trough, finishing at about 1:30 AM tonight! I thought it was very good, although I didn't care so much for the literal Old West cowboys in space stuff. I will probably buy the series.

Superhero Pictures, But Better

Okay, that's more like it! I got rid of the white background and put them in front of some terrain, and was able to get better pictures, so I reshot all of them.

Superhero Pictures

Here are some more super hero figures I finally got around to taking pictures of.

Infinity and JC Figures Size Comparisons

I took some comparison shots of my Infinity and JC Figures miniatures for the curious.

Infinity Has Arrived!

I came home for lunch and found my Infinity order had arrived from Wargames, Inc. I ordered it on Thursday, and received it on Monday during the Christmas season. That's the kind of service I have always received from them, they've been really great.

MiniBlogster

Thanks to Zac of Tabletop Gaming news for the heads up on MiniBlogster, a nice news blog. I've added it on the right.

What I have been up to

I haven't posted in a while, but I haven't been completely idle. Mostly, inspired by my first game of Warhammer Quest, I've been working on a solo Sci-Fi campaign system. It's extremely rough right now, but already fun to fool around with. I'll post something here when it's reasonably well put together. Also, I started painting up my JC Figures girls. Pretty nice figures, and I think I painted them well. When I've finished, I'll get some pictures up. I promised I would finish them before I started my Infinity figures, which should arrive Monday. I also ordered some casts of Hirts Arts' new Sci-Fi floors and walls from Castle Kits, with the idea that if I like them, I might buy the molds.

More Blogs

I just added Tabletop Gaming News and Little Wars to the blogroll, check 'em out.

I finished a bag of Battle Honors 15mm French Légère tonight.

Painted Baccus 6mm Napoleonics

LSHM has some extremely nice pictures of Faron Bell's 6mm French Army for Grand Armée.

Some Sci-Fi Pictures

Since I had the light tent out, I took some pictures of some Sci-Fi figures I hadn't yet.

Better Pictures of White Collar Survivalist

I set up my light tent at lunch and took some much better photographs of RAFM's White Collar Survivalist. I really like how this miniature turned out.

Military Books

I just found this, Napoleonic Literature. It has some public domain Napoleonic books, including the interesting looking Memoirs of Baron de Marbot. Updated: The General Staff Library, while not free, has a number of very interesting books, such as regimental and staff histories of the Austro-Prussian War.

RAFM's White Collar Survivalist Painted

Taking a break halfway through a bag of 15mm Légère, I painted up my new White Collar Survivalist from RAFM. Updated: Better pictures here.

Albion Fantasy Army Finished

Well, mostly. I got the special stands finished up. All I have left are the Highlanders, but as I have about forty points of stands painted up and my opponent has yet to paint anything, I'll let them sit. Here, you see an Aerial Hero Pegasus and a Paladin Unicorn.

2mm Figures

I've been fascinated over 2mm figures for a while, primarily as a way of bringing the ground scale and the figure scale closer. I finally sat down and painted some up, and I don't really think they'll work for me. They should work fine for reduced-size games, but not for massed big battle. Read on for more pictures of me painting them.

Correctly Scaled Corridors

I spent most of my spare time today putting together some correctly scaled Orbital Terrain. It takes time, but I printed out about 35 sheets (not all used) at top quality in my printer with a fairly new color ink jet cartridge, so I felt okay about that. I had visions of having to buy multiple $30 cartridges just to get a decent amount of terrain.

More Corridors

I mounted the Stones Edges Orbital pieces on black foam core, with the rug grip rubber pieces underneath them. It's pretty unobtrusive, and much more playable now. Notice the door that fits snugly into the doorway.
The only issue I have with them (other than the things that naturally come with paper models, such as the time to assemble them) is that they don't seem to be scaled properly. The 1.5" wall is about 1 5/16", so I don't bother to measure the foamcore, I just lay a piece down next to it and try to err on the side of being too short. Update: Looking at it now, I realize the pages are A4, and the "Shrink oversized pages to paper size" is set, shrinking the 11 11/16" A4 paper length to 11". It seems to print okay unscaled, so I'm not sure how I will procede. I'll probably just start over.

Patrick's Hobby Shed

Patrick's Hobby Shed looks like it will turn into an interesting blog.

Stones Edges Orbital

Ooooo, shiny!! I saw the Stone Edges Orbital starter pack was only $5.00 on RPG Now, and couldn't pass it up.

Shooters Finished

I finished the five stands of Shooters tonight.

Unassembled CLAWS Unit

I got my order of JC Figures miniatures in from Victory Force Miniatures. Very prompt service from VFM, since I just ordered them on Monday. Here is a photograph of the unassembled CLAWS Unit. That's a lot of stuff to put together, but I'm looking forward to it! I'm resolving to finish my 6mm HotT army first, though.

Reply from Irregular

More on my VAT issues with Irregular. I got this response today to my e-mail to them.

Spears Finished

Got the three stands of Spears finished.

20mm WW2 and Modern Paper Vehicles

Paper Tiger Armanents has a number of useful, inexpensive paper models. They've got a LAV, which isn't a common model, plus, interestingly for me, some M113 models. My 20mm Israelis can't find a Zelda which scales well with them, at worst, I could scale one of these up as I print it out. They're all M113 A2 and later, although I could live with that if they looked okay. Hattip: MW.

Take a Course in Game Design

Alan Emrich has several interesting items related to classes he's taught covering game design.

Network-23 Gallery

SaintRigger has a very nice gallery up.

Blades Finished

Got the six stands of Blades finished tonight.

Irregular Miniatures Service

I ran into a little irritation with Irregular over my sample order.

Awesome New Anime Figures

JC Figures (from JC McDaniel, sculptor for Devil Dog Design) is now available. Check out the awesome CLAWS unit!

Tyranid Conversions

Chest of Colors has a gallery of some very impressive Tyranid conversions.

Knights Finished

I went ahead and finished the three stands of knights.

Archers Painted

I procrastinated a bit on the archers, not really wanting to paint them, but finally got around to them.

AWI Articles

AmericanRevolution.org has some very interesting articles, such as this on artillery and songs.

TheWarStoreNews

Neal at the War Store has a blog I just found, TheWarStoreNews.

More sculpting

A couple more little things I sculpted but forgot to take pictures of:

Adventures in Sculpting

I've been trying my hand a sculpting again lately. Not great, often not even good, but not terrible, either.

Where On Earth Did This Figure Come From?

Did you ever find a figure and have absolutely no idea where it come from?

Starting the Rest of the HotT Army

I cleaned up the 12 strips of bowmen and 12 strips of Highlanders, washed them with soap, glued them to craft sticks and spray painted them last night. The paint did work better with the wash. That took about thirty minutes, then it took about ten minutes to drybush the bowmen. I couldn't just drybrush down the strip like I've been doing, and it wasn't much fun, so I quit after that. I wasn't very motivated last night anyway. Total time is now 5:45.
I shouldn't really say the rest of the army, I'll probably do a hero stand and a cleric or paladin stand for this army, but this will finish up the bulk of the painting.

NaNoWriMo

It's only a week and a half until NaNoWriMo, but I think I will pass on it this year. Finishing was a blast last year, but it took up all my spare time and then some for a month, and I just don't want to devote that much energy to it right now. I have too many other things going on.

Step-by-Step Spears

I took step-by-step pictures explaining how I painted my Spears.

Austro-Prussian Sample Order Away

I was very busy today and didn't have time to do anything. I have been reading the Battle of Königgrätz and enjoying it. There are lots of maps, although they don't indicate scale. From an overview of the campaign, it seems like a blowout, but there are several suitable actions that would make good scenarios. I went ahead a put in an order to Irregular for the rules and about $30.00 of figures. I felt like I needed to start to get my hands on things to try and imagine the possibilities. I may buy a used book or two on the subject, as well.

Thinking About Basing, and Painting the Knights

Got a little more done last night.

Gluing On the Bases

I got the stands glued on at lunch.

Blokus, A Very Cool Board Game

I had a 20% coupon for the local games store. I didn't really need any miniatures or RPGs they carried, so I decided to look for family games. I bought Carcassone on the recommendation of my friends, but it was listed for both 8 and 10 years or older, and both ages are older than my kids. The manager showed me Blokus. Lay down funky shapes and try to play them all? Sounds lame. But...it did have a Mensa award and the German "Spiel des Jahres" award, pretty high praise, I thought, so I bought it.

Napoleonic Austria-- The Campaign of 1805

Now, this is a good idea: Chronofus has written a wargamer's guide to the 1805 Napoleonic campaign. Looks pretty useful. I guessed black on my 1809 Uhlans' cartridge pouch-- looks like I probably guessed wrong. Check the whole site out, it looks pretty interesting. Hat tip: MW.

Touch Ups and Bases

Here's a short painting session on the foot knights.

Painting the foot knights

Okay, so I decided to start on the three sticks of foot knights. For whatever reason, the spray paint didn't cover that well.

Starting a 6mm Fantasy Army

I got two new 6mm fantasy armies in from Irregular the other day. A buddy and I went in and ordered them. He got two as well, giving us a total of six, counting my Undead and Elves. I thought I'd detail the project as I worked on it.

How I Go About Selecting a Period to Game

I thought it might be interested to roughly chronicle the process I go through in selecting an army for the Warring Empires contest. I wounder how dissimilar it is from others?

I've Got To Learn To Say No...

So...TMP is running a new contest, small scale Warring Empires scenarios. Hmmm...not really my period, but I have sorta long-term been thinking about doing the Franco-Prussian War. And 2mm? Why, I'd love an excuse to do a 2mm army. Chris Pringle...hey, he's a co-author of TAC and Arc of Fire...well, that's a mark for the rules, too. Hmmmm...wait, I could do the Austro-Prussian war instead. I've been on a big Austrian kick in Napoleonics, and it would be a nice followup. Ah, but Bill has to get three people signed up...maybe he won't make it...nope, got it! Man...I'd like to, but I already am doing 15mm 1809 Napoleonics, two more 6mm Fantasy armies, 25mm Sci-Fi stuff and have 6mm AWI ready to go...but...I guess just can't say no.

History of Warfare

World History at KMLA has some interesting historical links, especially the History of Warfare, which includes wars by country. Very useful if you're looking for wars involving, say, Bavaria or Württemberg. I don't see Württemberg listed for the 1809 Napoleonic campaign, but it still looks useful.

More 6mm Fantasy Pictures

Kieran Mahony has updated his 6mm Fantasy Wargaming with more pictures of his nice armies.

Game Pictures

I posted some pictures from a game last night of PKombat, some playtest Sci-Fi rules based on PKowboys.

The Stranglehold

The guys at the Stranglehold have a blurb page up. Man, that sounds promising!

Nice Galleries

Fellow blogger fatgoblin has a very nice miniatures gallery among many others at the NapNuts galleries. Also, there are some wondrous works among the members list at Displaced Miniatures.

Hordes of the Things Campaign Rules

The Abingdon Wargames Club has a pretty complete set of HotT Campaign Rules on their site.

Colonel Marbles Miniatures Masterworks

Colonel Marbels Miniatures Masterworks seems to be generally idle, but its Army Showcases are invaluable if they cover what you're looking for. I like the Fishmen and Pirates.

I just painted twice as fast!

Ha! I've been whining a lot about how slowly I've painted my Naps, 350+ figures over two years. Well, I bought them two years ago, but poking around my site, I just found this entry which indicates I fooled around and only painted about 50 in the first year. So, overall, I've been painting my Naps twice as quickly as I thought I had been! I guess it's nice to keep a little journal to track your progress...

Mini Realms

Just ran across Mini Realms. Mostly fantasy/sci-fi, but there's some interesting and creative stuff in there, like some custom sculpts. I'm adding it to the blogroll.

Uhlans on the way

Got half a unit of Napoleonic Astrian Uhlans painted yesterday...

Paper Dungeon Tiles

Germy's World has produced some free, nice looking paper dungeon tiles. A very inexpensive and adequate alternative to the very expensive resin dungeons, thanks Germy!

Junior General's Paper Soldiers

I've mentioned Junior General before, but he really has a nice selection of paper figures.

Napoleonic Milestone!

Finally. Twelve bags of Battle Honors figures, two years and 366 painted figures later, I've reached a milestone...

The War Times Journal

I've checked out the Republique page at the War Times Journal a lot for their OOBs for Wagram, but I just saw they also have uniform painting guides, always nice.

Small Obsessessions' Painting Lair

Small Obsessions has a new painting lair with a very nice layout. I should be getting a new area soon...stay tuned for details...

6mm Modern Buildings

tinyempire has pictures of an interesting 6mm modern city project.

Paper Buildings

Paper Terrain has some nice looking paper buildings in a variety of scales.

Building Realistic Buildings

Terragenesis has a nice article on realistic building technique for a Fort Duquesne display.

6mm Fantasy

I've been looking at 6mm Fantasy again lately. Not as many resources as 6mm Sci-Fi, but here's what I've found:

1809 Austria Campaign

TMP has a nice thread on books for the Napoleonic 1809 Austrian campaign.

Surpluswargaming

The Surpluswargaming Yahoo group has been created to replace the now-defunct FigureTrades group.

Snapdragon Studio

Snapdragon Studio has some very interesting resin terrain items. I especially like the Future World hasty barricades.

Awesome Modular Terrain System

The Dallas Thursday Night Irregulars have a write up of their very impressive modular terrain system.

Bryan's VSF

Bryan's VSF pages have some nice modelling tips for terrain and other things.

Metal Magic Spacelords Back In Production?

Wow, good news-- according to this thread on TMP, rights to the old German Metal Magic Spacelords have been sold to em4 who will re-release the entire line!

AWI Uniforms

Here's a link to the nice AWI uniform plates of the Sons of the Revolution in the State of California, without their hideous Java navigation system.

Blog Updates

I ran across a few Wargaming weblogs I wasn't aware of. NapNuts has a news page, and member Captain Arjun has started Wargames Correspondance. Arjun links to Confessions of a Wargamer and fatgoblin's ranting. Searching TMP, I found 28mm a day, the humorous Country Diary of Carlos Plynkes, Maksim Smelchak's 6mm-Minis (man, I help admin the 6mm_Miniatures yahoo group with him, and didn't know about that), and Junior General has a blog.

AWI Continentals Painted Up

I painted up my sample pack of Continentals, and placed an order for a full American army through Heritage Studios. Read on...

My 6mm Big Base AWI

Here's how I'm thinking of doing my 6mm AWI figures:

BritishBattles.com

BritishBattles.com looks like a very good overview of the British involvement in the Horse and Musket period, Crimea and the Zulu War.

The Alchemist's Journal

The Alchemist's Journal is a well-established blog devoted mostly to GW games and Flames of War, but he does have some very interested modeling posts.

Initial order of Baccus AWI

I ordered a couple of packs of Baccus AWI as samples from Heritage Studios (excellent service), and have the first ones painted up. Read on...

Paper Cargo Containers

If you need any shipping containers, this site has them in a variety of designs and scales. Click on the "Download" link.

Battlefield Anomalies

Battlefield Anomalies is an interesting historical site, detailing "some of the lesser-known battles of history." The site not only gives details on the battle itself, but some very useful general info as well.

Thinking About Big Bases

I've always wanted to do 6mm on big bases. Baccus has some very inspring pictures on his site. Here is a very inspiring photo of French battalions made up of over 100 figures each. In this photo of British and Portuguese troops, notice the layout of the lines...Charles Kirke has his officers on the flanks and drummers to the rear like a real battalion might be formed up. Very nice. In this SYW picture, it even has a regimental gun on the flank of the unit.

The Trojan Bunny's Gaming Blog

The Trojan Bunny's Gaming Blog has just started up.

Making Rivers

MiniMods has a great article on making rivers out of craft foam.

Buldings from Cork

Paul Ward has some interesting ideas on making buildings from cork-- both Boxer Rebellion and city high rises.

minimods: Modern Warfare Blog

minimods is a blog devoted to 28mm modern wargaming. It looks very interesting.

Mark Twain Quote

The ever-quotable Mark Twain, from 1865: "I don't want any of your statistics. I took your whole batch and lit my pipe with it. I hate your kind of people. You are always ciphering out how much a man's health is injured, and how much his intellect is impaired, and how many pitiful dollars and cents he wastes in the course of ninety-two years' indulgence in the fatal practice of smoking; and in the equally fatal practice of drinking coffee; and in playing billiards occasionally; and in taking a glass of wine at dinner, etc., etc., etc. . . . You never see but one side of the question. You are blind to the fact that most old men in America smoke and drink coffee, although, according to your theory, they ought to have died young; and that hearty old Englishmen drink wine and survive it, and portly old Dutchmen both drink and smoke freely, and yet grow older and fatter all the time. And you never try to find out how much solid comfort, relaxation and enjoyment a man derives from smoking in the course of a lifetime, (and which is worth ten times the money he would save by letting it alone,) nor the appalling aggregate of happiness lost in a lifetime by your kind of people from NOT smoking."

Wargames Central

Wargames Central has several sets of free rules, including Vietnam skirmish (with Battle of Bin Phouc'd report), modern micro armor, cowboys, pirates, and more.

Displaced Miniatures

DisplacedMiniatures.com looks to be a free gallery/article hosting site. There are many high quality pictures from various people available.

A few more steroscopic images

Here are a couple more stereoscopic images I made:

Zaphod's Heads

Zaphod Beeblebrox of TMP has a blog, Zaphod's Heads. On the downside, it's not all miniatures, but on the upside, he's got decent taste in music. He just needs to listen to more Saint Vitus, Clutch or Sleep.

How to Make and See Stereoscopic Photography

Some links on how to see stereoscopic photography if you're having problems: here, here (these are parallel), and here. I find that it helps, as the two blurry images get close together, to pick out a distinctive feature you can make out in both and concentrate only on that.
One tip that might really improve my photography is the One in Thirty Rule, that the pictures should be taken at a distance apart equal to 1/30th the distance to the object being photographed. I tried to keep it about the distance apart my eyes are, which is much further apart than 1/30, probably more on the lines 1/4. This may explain why some of the accidental ones work much better than several of the intentional ones.
Hey, a website devoted to stereoscopic photography!

More Steroscopic pictures

A few more stereoscopic/stereographic pictures I did tonight. Read on...

Small Obsessions

Small Obsessions is a nice miniatures site with lots of information on conversions and some on photography. I love his painting area.

Stereographic Photography of Miniatures

Okay, so while fooling around with my new light tent, I decided to try something I always thought was cool-- stereographic, or stereoscopic, photography. I've never seen miniatures done like this, but see no reason not to. The results were pretty good! Read on...

More on Miniature Photography

Tiny Tin Men has a series of articles on miniature photography: Part 1: Lighting, Part 2: Camera Settings, and Part 3: Post Processing. There is also the MiniPaintingPhotography Yahoo Group.

My Light Tent

I spent MLK day building a light tent for photographing miniatures. Read on...

Still More Paper Models

Stones Edges produces fantasy and science fiction paper corridor systems.

How to Build a Light Tent

Ran across this home made light tent page looking for tips on photographing miniatures.

Paper Spaceships

World Works Games has a new space line of paper models, Space Works: First Light.

War in Lebanon

More pictures of various wars in Lebanon.

Battlefront WW2 Dioramas

Battlefront, creators of Flames of War, has some very inspiring 15mm WW2 dioramas on their site.

1/72 Helicopters

Scale Plastic Hobby Model Helicopter Kits contains a number of listings of helicopter kits in various scales, primarily 1/72 or 20mm.