Modelling Tips

Miniature Scenery has a number of useful painting techniques and effects. It's mostly geared towards building and terrain, but a few may be useful for figures.

Necromunda Game Report

As I mentioned, Mik and I played Necromunda last night. It was a fun game, as always. I managed to pull out two wins last night-- I barely scraped by in a Gang Fight, and then dominated a Shootout, despite losing my nerve.

The Littlest Wargamer

I got my five year old son Heroscape for Christmas. He is really enjoying it. We played a little intro game, which he won, and then he played a lot "free style." Mik was coming over tonight for some Necromunda, and my son wanted him to play Heroscape, so he ran his first game ever! He really got into it. He and I were on a team, and things were going poorly for us. We had killed nothing all game and were on the ropes, when he kills his sister's dragon. The boy stands up in his chair and and goes crazy!! We almost pulled it out, but in the end, we lost. He had his head in his arms and was about to cry. I will have to have a talk with him tomorrow about sportsmanship. After he went to bed, Mik and I played Necromunda and I kicked his ass!!!!!!!! TWICE!! WOOOOOOOOO!!!! IN YOUR FACE, MIK!!!!!! ;-) I'll try to post some pics tomorrow.

Site Upgraded

I upgraded to the latest version of blog software. Please let me know of any problems you notice. In particular, I'm trying to turn off the old blacklisting utility which had, I think, started to cause more problems than it solved. Update: Okay, I think I broke all comments. Give me a little while, I'm tied up at work and can't work on it right now. Update: I think I've fixed it now. There may be more spam on the site now, but I will try to nuke it as I see it.

Two More Books

That reminds me, I also finished two more books-- The Cunning Blood and The Android's Dream.

Resolution broken!

Well, I finally broke down and bought some figures. There was a batch of Infinity figures on eBay and I bought a fair bit. I could have let them pass, but I got them at 20% off the War Store prices, including shipping, so it was a deal too good to let pass. In all fairness, I had achieved the monetary goal I was looking for, if still three weeks short of when I expected to.

The Greatest Computer Game of All Time

Maybe people don't believe it at first sight, but below is a screen capture of the greatest video game ever made, a game I have been playing for around 15 years-- Nethack.

More IDPA Videos

A gaming buddy, Mik, and I went to the local IDPA match again, and here are the videos. I will see if I can't get the fullscreen stuff working later. Update: the full screen videos now work, with a resolution of 640x400, so they're a little larger. Update 2: Results are up, we did alright. That's the first time I've made the top third, and a bunch of the top guys are best in the state from Cleveland.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope everybody enjoyed Thanksgiving. I haven't been updating much because I was in Atlanta for a week on training and then in Kansas City for Thanksgiving. That's a lot of driving! Yet, despite visiting the War Room and Table Top Game and Hobby, my resolution to buy no miniatures through the end of this year remains in tact. I doubt I'll finish up the 40mm AWI I recently got in time to buy any more...I just haven't had time for the hobby much this month, and my Grenadiers are languishing, half-painted.

What I Did This Weekend

This weekend, I was working with lead in a different form. I shot an International Defensive Pistol Association (IDPA) match sponsored by the Oak Ridge Sporting Association (ORSA, IDPA page). I just found out that had started-- it's one of a couple around Knoxville, and fortunately closer than Greenville and Chattanooga. It's been about a year since I last participated in IDPA, and I was pretty rusty but glad to be back in it. We spent a very nice Saturday morning running through seven stages. I then beat my head against the wall for several days figuring out how to embed the video in my website.

Selecting Tabletop Terrain

Saxe-Bearstein has a very interesting article called Terrain Selection Concept, a fun and interesting looking method of two players establishing the terrain for a game. Personally, I have used the mechanisms in Theater of War a lot, but Command Decision has an improved version of it (which I use for Field of Battle!) I'm still looking for Warplan 5/5, though...if you have a copy you'd like to sell, let me know!

New Podcasts

AllAboutMiniatures episode 3 is available. I must have missed the TMP announcement. Napoleon 101 is up to episode 13, which covers the war of the Third Coalition and apparently ends before Austerlitz.

Halloween

Note to parents: getting your five year old son, no matter how badly he wanted it, a black and camouflage head-to-toe ninja outfit to go trick-or-treating after sun down is a baaaad idea. At least he had a flashlight, I could almost keep an eye on him.
We moved over the summer. We had so few trick-or-treaters at our old neighborhood that we actually drove back there and hit a few houses so they would have somebody! At our new neighborhood, it was like a block party, with gaggles of 30 people at a time moving up and down the streets, meeting each other multiple times as we criss-crossed the subdivision blocks. And they won't stop ringing the bell! Here's a tip: when it's 9:00 and the lights are all out, WE ARE OUT OF CANDY!! Besides, you look like you're 18, I wouldn't give you any candy anyway!

HistoryShots

I've always wanted the History of [U.S.] Political Parties posters from HistoryShots, and I see they have now some military history posters-- History of the Confederate Army and U.S. Army Divisions in World War II. Edit: If you like things like this, check out the classic graph of Napoleon's casualties during his Russian invasion, by Minard.

The Classic Solo Wargame

Historifigs is reprinting old articles by Joe Morschauser from their old Table Top Talk magazine. The Classic Solo Wargame looked like an interesting article. Definitely a classic article now, it's 40 years old!

Saxe-Bearstein

I just saw Saxe-Bearstein, a blog primarily about the construction of a fictional 18th century army. It has some nice other stuff, too, like this simple linear campaign system.

Books I'm Reading

So, part of my recent resolution was to read some books. Here's what I've read so far:

5150 Star Wars

Here are the 5150 rules for Star Wars I wrote up with input from my buddy Mik. It's mostly from ANH and ESB as those are the figures I have. I'd love to have any additions you come up with, as I probably won't stat up anymore than this since this covers most of my figures. After watching Clone Wars, though, I could see myself getting clone trooper and droid forces down the line... Anyway, you can see some pictures here of some playtest games Mik and I played.

Okay, nevermind

The resolution is out the window once I get my current batch of Trident 40mm AWI figures painted (and they're next in my queue). Check out the new releases I just got in an email!

Working around the shame

Well, one way to get around my resolution is to trade! I traded a buddy some VOR Union power armor for some of his old Harlequins, and am currently working a deal for some more Star Wars figures. I think this in the spirit of my resolution and no big deal.

Shame Update

Here's the update on my no purchases resolution-- sixteen days, two paychecks and no purchases! In all honesty, though, I did see a couple of deals I couldn't pass up, but they either got bid up on eBay so they weren't a bargain anymore, or shipping was a killer, or stuff like that. So far, so good, but it does seem that I might be tempted by a deal too good to pass up!

Interesting Art Forum

The Concept Art forums have some pretty inspirational stuff, including some well-illustrated large scale sculpting tutorials.

Great Stuff

Or at least interesting stuff. In the US, Great Stuff is an expanding insulating foam sealant. You can get a can for about $5. I've been wanting to try it out for a while, and finally got some and made some test pieces.

CISAPWADD

Yesterday was "Call In Sick And Play Wargames All Dang Day." A guy we used to game with came into town, and I took the day off to hang out a buddy's house and play some games with them. We did some Supersystem and then some Warmachine, but we mostly just fooled around and chatted. In the evening, the rest of the guys who didn't take the day off showed up and the guy from out of town wrapped up the Sci-Fi d20 Modern campaign we had been playing when he moved away. It was a pretty fun day, but I'm beat today.

Shrimproll

I just found shrimproll. Not too frequently updated, but some really nice pictures.

Very cool lava terrain table!

Now, here is one of the coolest looking terrain layouts I have seen, a Star Wars "lava" layout. And I don't even like Star Wars!!

5150 Star Wars

Here are some pictures from our 5150 Star Wars games last night. We're working on some rules we'll put out soon.

Why Pre-Painted Figures Will Dominate

Really, if we were able to look at the sales across all the pre-painted manufacturers, they may well dominate already, and here's why. For just over $100.00, I bought a substantial amount of figures, had them shipped to me, and will be running a game with them tomorrow. From purchase to play in about a week for about $1.00 a figure. You just can not beat that. I don't think they're going to drive the unpainted market out of business, as it certainly does not provide the same feeling of accomplishment or enjoyment that I get from painting and creating. However, considering it would have taken me, realistically, two years to have painted all these by myself, assuming I even finished, it opens up areas of marginal interest, like Star Wars for me. I would never have devoted the amount of time it would have taken to paint all these figures up, I'm just not that interested in Star Wars. But, hey, if $115.00 buys me enough figures to sit down and play with my son and my friends, who like Star Wars more than me, well, I'm going to do that.

The Pile of Shame

This is my pile of shame, everything I have bought since Historicon started. This is why I'm not buying anything else until the end of the year. I was doing well, painted up about half of everything I bought at Historicon, but then flipped out when my buddies liked 5150 and decided I needed more 25mm Sci-Fi! Then I had to put an Old Glory in order for them, as I'm the Old Glory Army mule, and of course I had to get a little something for myself. Plus, a bunch of eBay bargains. Yu Jing remotes for under $20.00, including shipping!? Can't pass that up. I'm keeping it all on my table when I can see it always and feel bad about it! Well, except the 40mm Trident AWI. I'm not ashamed of them, they're awesome!

New fonts

I increased the font sizes and changed the fonts for the site's layout. I'm trying to make the site a little easier to read. It's lately struck me as somewhat difficult to read. If you have any opinions about it, let me know. Thanks.

Dogblogging!

So, I was stepping away from setting the gaming table up for tomorrow night's Star Wars 5150 game, when I notice my dog, Bear. He's a twenty pound Schnauzer (or Schnoodle, the pound claimed). Both his front legs were bloody and wet!! He's had allergy problems lately, so I thought he had licked his legs to the point of being bloody. I got my wife out of bed (she had just went) since I thought I might need help with it...

Trident Designs 40mm AWI are Awesome!!

I just got my order of Trident 40mm AWI from MSC today, and I have to say, these are some exceptionally beautiful figures. I wasn't crazy about British Grenadiers, as I mentioned, but those figures REALLY wowed me. I can't wait to start painting these up! You can bet I will post pictures as soon as I do!

Sculpting Articles

Lyonstudio Miniatures has a collection of sculpting articles. I'm getting that itch again...

Star Wars Miniatures Singles

I bought some more Star Wars singles (PRE 10/1, of course) from Dragon Justice. They had good prices, cheap shipping and great service. Recommended.

I can't pronounce Aufklärungsabteilung but fortunately this new blog's text is in English, is readable and is very interesting. Added to the blogroll.

Star Wars Tatooine Terrain Pictures

There very inspirational pictures were part of an eBay auction a couple of years ago. A buddy turned out to have saved them, with the name of Mos Abra. It is a very creative and well assembled "Mos Eisley"-style Tatooine town done almost completely out of styrofoam packaging material.

MST3K

So, I subjected my wife to her first viewing of MST3K last night. She didn't finish it, as she wanted to go to bed early. At 9:15! She claimed she was tired, but I know she was simply on the verge of laughing out loud and could no longer contain her stoney veneer! Ah, women. Can't live with 'em...pass the beer nuts.

Lord of the Rings Battle Companies

LotR: Battle Companies adds an experience-based campaign framework to GW's LotR rules.

In Under the Buzzer

I sent my last order for the year, for sixteen 40mm Trident Designs AWI figures from MSC, today, getting it in under my deadline for the last miniature purchases this year. I ordered another ten colonial militia, and six Grenadiers. I wasn't going to get Grenadiers, and I don't know when the Light Infantry is coming out, so I'll buy them now and if I get around to painting them before the end of the year, I'll have opponents I can play.
Note to miniatures manufacturers: Sending me free figures results in sales! So, you know, send me free figures, you bastards! May the seed of your loin be fruitful in the belly of your woman, Andy.

For Tue: MST3k: Manos: Hands of Fate

Muah hah hah!! Netflix has the MST3k Manos: Hand of Fate DVD in the mail. My wife has never seen MST3k before. She's going to HATE it! Muah hah hah!!

No More Minis for the Year

I've been on a bit of a binge lately, culminating in me blowing the last of my minis money on Star Wars miniatures. I don't even like Star Wars, but my son does, so there you go. I bought about 30 Stormtroopers, 60 rebels and all the Rebel Storm rares for under $100...that's not bad, until you consider, you know, that I don't even like Star Wars. Ah well, buying off eBay means I have the consolation of knowing that George Lucas did not get any of my money directly. Anyway, I have more miniatures than sense at this point, so I'm calling a halt at the end of September for the rest of 2006 (giving me just enough time to get a couple of last orders in...tee hee!) Moreso, since I have been feeling guilty for not reading anything much for the last few months, I hereby resolve to finish five books between now and the end of the year. So be it!

The Book Meme

I have been tagged by Maksim of 6mm-Minis for the book meme. Sounds fun, so here goes:

The Rare Feeling of a Job Well Done

So, after dinking around with sculpting and casting for many years, I have finally cast something well and have it in use! It is a...

Miniature Wargaming in Knoxville, TN

I've been meaning to do this for a while, and list the miniature gaming groups in Knoxville, Tennessee. I'll try and keep this page up to day with what I'm aware of relating to Knoxville historical miniatures.

How To Sculpt

Matakishi's Tea House is hosting How to Sculpt by Jason Miller.

Colonel Marbles Miniatures Reviews

Colonel Marbles has started a weekly vidcast. I'm not much on watching videos on my computer, but this is short, just a rundown of his top 10 SF/F miniatures released in the last week.

Filters

An article on using filter washes on your miniatures and models.

Real Modelers of Genius

GW-style slottabase base weights from Impact Miniatures. I've mucked around with various things over the years, even including split shot-style lead fishing weights interleaved through the base and coated in epoxy. On plastics that have the tab, I typically cut away the tab with gate cutters when I'm done painting the model and glue a washer underneath.

High Quality Weathering Powder

I've got to get some of this.

5150 Solo

I've run two Xeno (i.e., Aliens) battles solo today with about 10 humans and about 50 bugs (plus a few dinos as I started rolling high!).

Trident Designs 40mm AWI from MSC

A few weeks ago, Miniature Service Center sent out some Trident Designs 40mm AWI samples. I got one, and have just painted it up.

THW 5150 Game Report

A buddy and I had a quick little pick up game last night. We decided to try out Two Hour Wargames new Sci-Fi rules, 5150.

MiniatureGeneral

MiniatureGeneral is a blog by John from the AllAboutMiniatures podcast.

AllAboutMiniatures Podcast

AllAboutMiniatures is a nice podcast. Take a listen.

SuperSystem Slugfest!

Or rather, a Rooftop Rumble! My Rooftop Rumble is structurally complete, I just need to finish painting some of the buildings. Plus, I finished my Zero Foundation figures (Zero Device, Jump Monkey, Battering Ram, Steel Razor, Ape Austin and Boomerang Kid), so I might swap the mish-mash bad guy team for them.

AWI Flags

Dansk Figurspilsforenings Hjemmeside has some AWI flags in their Downloads section (it's in English...or at least that portion is).

NecromundaCon 2006

The official results [3Mb PDF] of NecromundaCon '06 have been posted.

Slick Slicks

I'd never heard of ERM's Corporate World line, but I like them, especially the Assassins and Slicks.

Necromundacon 2006

Yesterday was Necromundacon 2006! For a buddy's birthday, we got together four guys (three of which still play regularly) from our Necromunda league 10+ years ago, along with two others, and played sixteen games of Necromunda over about thirteen hours yesterday.

Free 40mm AWI

Miniatures Service Center recently ran a special giving away a free Trident "Battle Road" 40mm AWI figure. I got one, and really like it. I have generally pooh-poohed 40mm as yet another scale, but I have been thinking about it for skirmish lately. I like the figure. I'm going to buy probably about 10 figures per side and run some skirmish games with them. $3.50 is about on par with good 28mm nowadays, and these have more visible detail and will probably be easier to paint and look better on the table. So, for detailed, small scale skirmish, 40mm may just be the way to go!

Clan War to be re-re-released

Looks like Magnificent Egos is planning to produce the full line of Clan Wars miniatures. Best of luck to them. I just bought some Griffen Greys from them, and got what I ordered promptly.
I was always rather ambivilent about Clan Wars. I was a huge L5R fan back in the day, and ran Deathseeker.com, the number 1 L5R site. I liked the figures, and the game played okay, but I wanted to see massed samurai armies, to the point that I considered painting 6mm samurai armies and making my own rules. Ah well, I have lots of ideas that never get done.

Wargaming Blogs

Wargames Blogs is a list of wargaming blogs compiled by Derek Hodge.

Lead Adventure and the Mad Painter's Diary

Lead Adventure is a new forum devoted primarily to "Adventerous" gaming (Pulp, Old West, Gothic Horror, etc...). It's run by Alex Bews of Witchhunter.net and his new blog

The Feldmachink

The Feldmachink is a clever way of using hidden units.

Duhnuhnuhnuh SUPERFIGS!

I've been getting my Superfigs together for a rooftop rumble game. I'm getting pretty close to finishing! I made the two big roofs a couple of years back but never got around to using them.

Making Terrain

I've been playing some Necromunda lately, and we decided we would all make a one foot square piece of terrain to represent one of our territories. I decided to do Vents, and here are some in-progress shots.

Barker Does Modern Rules

Phil Barker has a set of modern rules, the Sharp End, up on his website. It's ultra-modern, for regular vs. irregular forces at company scale.

The Best Looking Games at Historicon

Here are pictures of what I thought were some the best looking games at Historicon. There were a lot of really impressive games, but these really stuck out for me.

Eat Hitler!

Eat Hitler: The Nazi Taste Treat! was Howard Whitehouse's fun little game. Hitler and his insiders have built a time machine in '45. They're going back to '33 to do it all over again, but right this time. Only the time machine malfunctions, and sends the Nazis back to the Mesozoic Era! The dinosaurs instinctively know that these Nazis must be eaten! Players got points based on the seniority of the Nazi they ate, from goon to Hitler and in between.

Chain Reaction

On Saturday, I also played in a intro Chain Reaction game. I've got the rules and could tell that there was some value in them, but frankly they are so poorly written that learning from the book is too much trouble to deal with. Bob, the guy running this event, seemed to have pretty much the same idea, and was running two simultaneous teaching games. I totally forgot to take pictures of the game, but I ran a squad of inter-war US Marines against some Central American militia. I guess I got so into learning the rules, and really having a blast playing them, that I didn't even think to snap pictures. I did take one of his groovy dice tower. Anybody have one of these for sale?

AK-47 with Peter Pig

First thing Saturday morning, I made for an AK-47 game with Martin and his wife from Peter Pig. I've got a ton of figures from Peter Pig and really like them. I never really got into the AK-47 rules. I got them and read them years ago, and pretty much dropped them, although I thought the political flow chart system was genius, and have used the rules for bringing on troops in other games. Anyway, I didn't want to pass up a chance to learn from the master, so to speak, and I thoroughly enjoyed the game and anticipate running it locally.

The Updates Will Now Continue

I ran pretty much around the clock on Saturday. I took a lot of pictures, but I never got a chance to upload them or update the website. I drove home yesterday, and am just now loading the pictures. Stay tuned.

Charles Not In Charge

I played Piquet: Field of Battle 1809 game last night. I commanded the Austrian right, attempting to stop the French from crossing a stream. I performed adequately, having three poorer units routed, but my better three stuck around and defended a battery that continually pounded the French when the reached the banks. All was for naught as a cavalry division full of Cuirassiers crushed our left flank. Anyway, I really liked FoB. It's still Piquet, but much simpler, and with a mechanism of ensuring even play while still allowing a better force to out-maneuver its opponents. Updated with pictures.

Super games at Historicon

So, I've bought the dickens out of the Superfigs range, and built my own skyscraper rooftoop terrain, have the rules but have yet to actually play a game. So...guess what I did today?

The Games People Play...at Historicon!

I'm off to my usual start, dying miserably on the shores around Mount Suribachi with TAC: Arc of Fire, and having my French and mercenaries driven from the field by a Hapsburg tercio with Piquet: Band of Brothers 2. All the vendors say I'm a true hero, though! Fun stuff!!

Before the Con

Nothing really turns on at Historicon until Noon on Thursday, so I jumped out of bed early and tried to get some things done away from the hotel.

See ya!

I was going to write about this morning, but uploading pictures is taking longer than I thought, and the dealer's room opens in 20 minutes, so I'm heading that way. If you don't hear from me again, I was crushed under the throng of gamers stampeding to blow their money. I regret nothing!

Arrived at Historicon

Left Knoxville at 8:30 AM and arrived in Lancaster, PA at 6:30 PM. VROOM! That's even stopping for a 30 minute lunch at Shoney's. Not my favorite place to eat, but the guys I'm travelling with selected it. We ate dinner at Applebee's, got our registration materials, then sat on the deck overlooking the pool, drank bourbon and beer, planned games and talked a little history and politics.

Fallujah Lessons Learned

Lessons Learned: Infantry Squad Tactics in Military Operations in Urban Terrain During Operation Phantom Fury in Fallujah, Iraq [PDF] from the Marine Corps Times is a very interesting article about MOUT in Iraq.

Not a Spammer

I saw a few bounced messages in my e-mail box this morning indicating some spammer is forging the littleleadheroes.com domain as a source address for spam. If you're visiting, rest assured, I'm not a spammer.

Taskforce Productions Blog

Taskforce Productions, makers of We Can Be Heroes and Baptism of Fire, is keeping an online diary.

I am moved.

I am in the new house. Unfortunately, my stuff gets unpacked last, so I am still about half in boxes. I wanted to smoke a pipe while we celebrated the 4th, but couldn't find them. My original Zulu movie poster that I've had for years without any place to hang it hasn't been located, either. I couldn't keep track of things in the old house even after living there for ten years, now we're in a bigger house and everything is in a new place anyway. It's going to be a long few weeks getting the place comfortable.

Happy Holiday Weekend!

I hope you enjoy this Independance Day weekend. We close on our house tomorrow, so I will be spending the weekend loading boxes, hauling them across town, and unloading them at the new house. Movers will come on Monday and get the heavy stuff for us, so we expect our first night in the new house to be Monday night. If the site is down for a few days, that's what's going on.

Soccer replay games!

As a kid, I loved Strat-o-matic Baseball. With the World Cup in full swing, I thought that would be fun to do with soccer! However, despite there being a Strat-o-matic hockey, there is no Strat-o-matic soccer. So, I started looking around.

What I Have Been Doing

So, with me in locked-down no-mess mode, I've been reading and playing a solo VBAM campaign...

Going Into Hibernation

We have begun cleaning clutter up around the house in order to prepare it for viewing by possible buyers. According to my wife, most of my precious hobby is clutter, so it is being boxed up and hidden away. I prefer to think of them as entering carboard chrysalises, to emerge as beautiful armies at their new home. Or something like that. I chunked my old, well-worn 1'x2' flat terrain boards into the trash, as I mostly use a ground cloth anymore, and plan on making nice 2' square pieces at the new place. I also threw a way a bunch of old styrofoam pieces-- I am big on ideas but low on productivity, a sure way to accumulate a bunch of trash.

Military Anecdotes

Being a Short Discourse on Miniature Wargaming has a list of interesting and amusing historical military anecdotes.

Happy Birthday to Me!

I am 35 years young today. Scored some Victory By Any Means books, some 15mm BH/OG Napoleonic Bavarians and Württemburgers, and a new carrying bag for my pipes. Yay!
It currently looks like we'll be closing on the new house at the end of June. The home inspection went really well. My primary gaming area will be about 22' x 16'. Nice! But that's not all, folks. There will be an upstairs finished attic annex directly off that room that is 10' x 15', and has lots of closet/attic storage space. I'm thinking wargames downstair, RPGs upstairs. Sweet. I'm thinking about soliciting designs on this site, with some cash prizes. Stay tuned!

Barbarians Completed

In some sort of record, I finished the entire 6mm HotT Barbarians army in a weekend.

More 6mm Fantasy

I started on some 6mm Barbarian figures.

Where Have I Been?

Well, I cut my thumb badly and was unable to paint, I've been to Chicago on business, coaching both my son's and my daughter's soccer teams, had my in-laws in for a couple of weeks, and it looks like I'm about to buy a new house. In other words, I have been busy. On the upside, though, my thumb is better and I've just finished a pack of 15mm OG French Hussars, soccer season ends Saturday, and the new house will have lots of gaming space, so things could be worse!

Historical Miniatures Gaming: The World's Greatest Hobby

Historical Miniatures Gaming: The World's Greatest Hobby is a nice site, which includes several terrain and modelling tips.

15mm Sci-Fi Conversions

I've been finishing up some 15mm Sci-Fi guys, mostly 15mm GZG Free Cal-Tex guys, and wanted to convert some specialists not offered. I think they turned out pretty well.

Miniatures Gamer Radio

Miniatures Gamer Radio has started up, a podcast directly relating to Miniatures gaming. In other news, Napoleon 101 is up to episode 3. Some good stuff to listen to while your painting.

SG2 Game Report

A buddy and I ran a decent game of Stargrunt 2 the other night. I was pretty proud of how nicely the table looked. It wasn't high-end, but it was quite a step up from the usual for me. So nice in fact I didn't even mind getting crushed.

Phil's Phigs Available Again

Phil's Phigs are available again from Impact Miniatures, which also has some new Fantasy Football figures.

Sci-Fi Scratch Building Tips

I found a very interesting article on scratch-building Sci-Fi models. It's geared towards larger models, but most techniques would work fine at smaller scales. The site also has some interesting photoshop tutorials, such as this "dirty metal and rounded courners" tutorial which would be useful for paper models.

Olives and Khakis Part 2

I decided to put my new discoveries to the test tonight by matching a color that I liked, Testor's Model Master Olive Drab, but a paint texture that I hate, being very thin. In doing so, I stumbled into the Third Dimension of paint mixing.

Olives and Khakis From Delta Ceramcoat Paints

I use mostly Delta Ceramcoat paints. I like most of them and they are definitely cheap. The big downsides for me are that some, like yellows and oranges, are often translucent and they lack modern military colors like olive and khaki.

Cold Wars Reporting

Walt O'Hara is reporting from Cold Wars. Wish I could be there.

Mixing Paints

This Creafigs post shows one guy's formula for mixing various GW paint colors from the GW primary colors. I don't use GW paints (although I may get the primaries just to try this), but I thought it might be useful. This looks like a good, basic guide to mixing paints.

Scratch Building Starships

I'm always envious of those who can create their own models, and FT Scratch Building shows how to make excellent GZG/Full Thrust starships very cheaply.

Painting Skin Tones

CMON has some nice articles on painting various skin tones.

The General's Tent

The General's Tent looks like an interesting blog, which the author has promised to update regularly. Like every other blog in existance! ;-) Best of luck to Coyote, I've linked him in my blogroll.

IanH's Wargames Pages Moving

IanH's Wargames Pages has moved (formerly here).

Antenociti: The Art of Flora

Antenociti's Workshop has a nice article, the Art of Flor(a), on making nice looking plants and ground cover.

Napoleon 101 Podcast

Napoleon 101 has started on the Podcast Network. I've sampled the first episode, and it sounds pretty good.

The Stipsicz Hussars

The Stipsicz Hussars have a nice website with galleries and articles.

My First Napoleonics Game

*SNIFF* I've finally painted enough figures to put on my first Napoleonics game with my own gear. I'm so proud. I do believe that, finally, this officially makes me a Historical Gamer. Now I just have to finish the initiation ritual of criticising somebody's else's uniform painting!

The Waterloo Campaign in Miniature

The Waterloo Campaign in Miniature looks like a very nice Napoleonics weblog that has started up, primarily discussing the troops at Quatre-Bras.

Napoleonics on the March

I decided to take a break in all the Sci-Fi stuff I have been doing lately and go back and finish flocking all my Napoleonic bases I hadn't done.

Smoke Markers

Some interesting ideas on smoke markers from Games Workshop. You can see how I did mine some time ago here.

State of the Hirst

Got a few more Hirst rooms done. It's starting to look a little substantial.

Modern Plastic Barrels

I ran across some really cheap wooden barrels that I think make great modern/sci-fi plastic barrels.

A Couple More Hirst Rooms

It was a long weekend...my son was sick, then my wife and I were sick, I had to go out of town for a house warming, my son had his 5th birthday (January 22, the anniversary of Isandlwana and Rorke's Drift, how cool is that?) and then, unsurprisingly perhaps, I got sick again. However, I did finish a couple of rooms.

More Hirst Pieces Completed

More pictures of my finished Hirst starship pieces. I wouldn't have thought so, but it's more trouble to paint these things than to actually cast them.

First Hirst

I've got my first Hirst Arts starship room put together and painted.

Made a New Starship Wall Mold

I got my Smooth-On OOMOO 30 RTV Silicone, and made a new Hirst Arts starship walls mold.

Painted JC Figures

I finally finished up the girls from the first release of JC Figures. I really like the figures, and spent a lot of time on them-- whether it shows or not, I'm not sure! I'm fairly pleased with how they turned out.

Playtest Game Report

A couple of buddies came over Tuesday night. We were planning to play some PKowboys. We had previously discussed doing something similar to Warhammer Quest, which we have been playing lately, with starship crews. I had written up some rules which we looked over and wound up playing.

Baron de Marbot

I've been reading the Memoirs of Baron de Marbot from Napoleonic Literature. I started it because it was free, I could download it to my Pocket PC, and a brief survey showed he served in the 1809 campaign. Now I see that he was one of the contested two first into Ratisbon! That's pretty cool, I had thought that was a great story, but never paid any attention to the name and had no idea that I was reading his memoir. It's really a great read. Did you know a horse can bite a man's face off his head? According to Marbot, it can-- and his did, to a Russian Grenadier at Eylau, in addition to disemboweling a French sergeant. That was one scary horse.

MiniMods Moved

MiniMods is at a new URL now.

Shrinkage

NOT the George Costanza kind, the RTV silicone kind. I was feeling pretty chuffed to have made my own mold of the Hirst starship walls and was cranking them out at an impressive rate. Now I see that my mold shrank quite a bit, and they're about 1/16" too short.

My New Hirst Starship Molds

I got my first Hirst Arts molds, the starship molds, and have been playing with them a lot the last few days. They rock.