3mm WW2 Tiny and Really Fun

 Last night at the club, Tom put on a fantastic WW2 game using his newly painted 3mm Americans and Germans.  It's very good that Tom did not waste his quarantine time on binge watching Netflix.

I've never experienced a 3mm game (each base was a company) and was both impressed with the look and playability.  We ere using some draft rules that worked pretty well. 

Ed and I played the American while Tony and Josh were the Germans - it was a very close game but I think the edge went to the US but it was very close.  As usual, Ed did all the hard fighting while I just roamed around in my tanks taking pot shots at Stugs and running away (maybe fleeing) from Panthers.

While the club is now re-opened, we still practiced social distancing.  Here you can see Ed modeling his very dapper mask - if only the rest of us mere mortals could be as debonaire as Ed while strutting around in such a stylish mask.

Ed, Tony and I have embarked upon a secret project over the next few months - you'll see hints about it in various posts.   In fact you already have......

3D Printer Tool Caddy

 I was cleaning out my workshop and stumbled across a test box I had put together when making my son's Christmas present.  Rather than toss it out, I deicded to make a tool caddy for all the small tools and spare parts I have for my Prusa 3D printer.  It's a bit of a tight fir but the box holds everything.  There's a hanging rack on the front side for hand tools like clippers or needle nosed pliers.

 On the other side are holes that hold the Allen wrenches and small screw drivers.  Inside the box are replacement parts like extra print nozzles and tubing.

I just added a few pieces of scrap wood for the tool rack and some simple handles.  Now, at least, I'll know where all my 3D printer tools are. 

Lockdown Haircut

It had to be done.  OK, it only had to be done because my wife decreed it so.  Since she out ranks me, my only course was to follow orders.  That's right, I got a home hair cut after four months.

I'm sure that last statement disappoints a lot of my blog readers as you were are were all anticipating the debut of my silver haired man-bun.  Please direct your outrage at this artistic denial to executive management.

After procuring some hair clippers (DAMN YOU AMAZON!) and watching a you-tube video, my surgeon wife declared herself a barber and set about her task of shoring me like a sheep. 

Before we go any further, I should point out that I have developed superb hair coloring skills as I've done my wife's hair twice.  I may open a salon post lockdown, that's how good I am.

So how did it go?  Well, first off, it is very unnerving when a surgeon is cutting your hair and wondering out loud about how long it would take to suture an ear back on.  As for the haircut.  Well lets just say I have a lot of hats.....

Barstool Project Edging Closer to Complete

 I was able to spend a couple hours in the garage workshop and managed to finish the seats tops and attach them to the frames.  There will be another round of sanding and then the barstools will be ready for finish.  It looks like I will make my self imposed deadline of Monday's club re-opening.

 The first task of the day was to glue up the fourth seat top.  I had to use narrow cut-offs from the leg / apron pieces but had just enough the get a 14 inch square seat out of those scraps.  Sometimes it is better to be lucky than smart.

While the fourth seat was setting up, I got out my router and a round-over bit to take the edge off the seats - I think they came out nicely.  I'll hand sand the top flush and buff out the sharp edge on the corner.

Once I finished rounding over the three previously made seats, the fourth had set up and was also rounded over.

Attaching the seats to the frames was done with glue and some hidden cross sections tacked in place with brad nails.  Once the glue dries the seats will be very firmly in place.

The final task of the day was going over and covering all the brad nails with wood putty.  I've got about 3-4 hours of sanding to do and these stools will be pretty much done.

Barstools for the Club

 With social distancing rules beginning to ease, there have been rumblings of re-opening our club for gaming.  Normally this news would be greeted with joy but I need to get some barstools built to make good on a promise.  I cut all the wood and lap joints a few weeks ago so should get these built this week - well that's the plan at least.  So far 2020 has done a pretty good job screwing up my plans

First up is assembling the leg frames - these are being built for strength and durability not style.  I am cheating a bit as I'm using a brad nailer to tack the pieces in place while the glue dries.

A few hours of workshop time and all for frames are built.  Two stools will be 29 inches high and two will be 24 as that's what we have in the club now.  These frames are super sturdy and should survive high impact gamer usage for years to come.

With the frames built, the next step is to glue up the panels for the seats.  The seat tops will be 14 inches square so I'm glueing up 15 inch square panels (3, 15x5 inch sections).  When glueing up panels, it's really important that the edges faces are square and well sanded.  Also don't put too much pressure on the clamps or the wood will bow.

It was at this stage of the project, I was reminded that I was, indeed, a moron.  I've only got enough poplar wood prepared for three seats not 4!  I could plane up some more from scraps or make the 4th seat out of (shudder) plywood.  I am in a bit of a ethical quandary here.

While the panels are setting up, I made some test pieces with different finishes.  I really like Danish Oil as a finish - it's looks good and is very easy to apply.  After looking at this picture I've realized that my color palette for wood finishing is somewhat narrow - I might need to try some darker finishes.

Before attaching the seats to the frames all of the outer edges will get rounded over and there will be sanding - oh there will be a lot of sanding on this project.

I should get these finished this week and have them up in the club by Monday.  Hopefully you'll see them in a supporting role in a future Little Wars TV episode.  Get it, "supporting role" - he,he - I should have been a stand up comic 'cause I slay me......

When Animals Attack!: Eastern Shore Version

The first weekend of June 2020, promised to be perfect - a strong breeze, temperatures in the high 70's / low 80's and sunny.  A well needed respite during these troubling times.  However, mother nature had other ideas.

Dun, Dun, Daaahhhhh.....

First I awoke Saturday to find this lovely lady Diamondback Terrapin laying her eggs in front of my garden gate.  The gravel of our driveway seems to be the perfect material for turtle nurseries as this happens a lot.

These turtles are on the EPA's "Threatened List" as some idiots used to like to eat them in soup.  I find them fascinating and a really neat neighbor to have.  Maybe having the Perry brothers as neighbors might be cooler (maybe).  Anyway, with the nest in place we've now roped off the main gate to the garden so have to use the side gate.  Score 1 for you mother nature,

 On Sunday, I decided to go for a bike ride with the Dr/Mrs (woe be unto the fool who uses the term Mrs/Dr).  In fact we had just been on one Friday - Friday as in two days ago.  I went to get my helmet and discovered that a local bird had claimed said helmet as a homestead.  Now this nest building took less than 24 hours as we had the garage open all Saturday while I was painting the patio furniture on the driveway.  We never saw the bird(s) in question.  I'm pretty sure whatever the species they have evolved to use some form of "Amish Barn Raising" process to build their nests.

Who knew birds were such fast engineers?  You know if the British XXX Corps had birds as bridge engineers in Sep of 1944, they would have been in Arnhem within 2 days.  Just saying.

Score Mother Nature 2, me 0

After surviving two very dangerous animal encounters and a raft of home improvement projects, I finally settled down to pursue my study of nature - for scenery making purposes of course.  It's a scientifical fact-like statement that the study of nature, both textures and colors,  is best done in a hammock.  After 10 minutes of so of concentrated cogitations on the form and function of ground foam, I entered a trance-like state.  I'm sure I learned a lot about terrain making while doing so.  Because the knowledge I gained was so deep, I'll likely need to take a refresher course next weekend.

Old School Tactical

 My fellow club members are a very bad influence on me.  Well that's what I tell my lovely yet fierce wife when packages arrive at the homestead.  Sorry to throw you guys under the bus, but one must survive the quarantine somehow.

The latest addition to the game inventory is Mark Walker's "Old School Tactical" (OST) series of WW2 squad level combat games published by Flying Pig Games.  Ages ago, I used to play a lot of Squad Leader - note that's Squad Leader and not Advanced Squad Leader, so that may give you a time frame of how long ago.  I really liked the game but the complexity wore on me.

After seeing some very complementary youtube videos on OST.  I decided to give it a whirl and well, mistakes were made.....

The games showed up last week and I must say the components are beautiful - a very large set of mounted map boards - really nice, large sized counters and a crisply written rulebook.  One difference from Squad Leader is the board comes as one big board rather than a set of small geomorphic boards.  Most scenarios only use a section of the game map but it does take a little getting used to.

 This morning I played my first game using Scenario 1 from the book.  I will not go into to any details as Im sure I messed a lot of rules.  I did enjoy the mechanics and found the game very intuitive and fast to play.  I think it will also translate very well to the tabletop.

There area lot of really unique features to the game that I'll go into during future posts but one fun is the concept  of "Luck Cards".  Each player draws a single luck card right after setup.  These are kept secret until played.

Some are pretty good - like this "Artillery Strike" card the germans drew.  Of course when played I failed the accuracy role (5 or 6 on a D6) and the artillery went way off map!

Others are more limited in value like the double time card the Russians had - still in a close game having this right at the end might allow you to grab an objective marker that your opponent thinks you cant get to.  Luck cards impact all aspects of the game but aren't really super strong.  Some effect vehicles only which in a scenario where you don't have any can be a bit problematic.  The rules cover this occurrence by indicating that if you draw a card you cant use  then your luck is just bad (and it's what you get).

Once I know the rules a little better, I'll do another turn by turn game report and will also do some hard thinking about bringing this game to the tabletop.  If only I had a way to make hex terrain......