2014 Historicon Prep

 The river sedge sections have been completed - 5 feet of river's edge on two sections (one 4' and the other a foot).

 I'm pleased with how they came out.  I have decided to redo the water it's just too damn blue.

A shot with the Union Monitor in the picture - at 28mm these are big darn models.  Also completed on the HCON to-do list are all the player handouts / cards / charts for both games.  All that's left is some shading on 8 Confederate artillery figs and I think it will be time to start packing.

I'm also painting up a few vehicles for the Bolt Action tournament on saturday - still trying to decide wether to play Brits or Japanese.

1 Week to Historicon and Sectional Terrain River Test Section

 Yikes - it's one week until Historicon and I'm still making terrain for my games.  At least it's better than my usual rush of painting figs for games the day before - all the miniatures I need are done and ready to be packed.  The final terrain section are some river banks that will merge Ernie's existing terrain sections with mine and form a river bank and small dock.  I've made the first pass with ground covering and I', letting that dry for an hour or so before going over it again.

 Here's a shot of the four foot section of river bank along with a dock I built in 10 minutes from scrap wood on-hand.  Unfortunately it looks like I spent 10 minutes on it so I'll need to figure a way to dress it up.

 The "10 minute dock".  I used an old model railroader trick to "age the wood" - a few drops of black india ink in rubbing alcohol.  The picture shows the results after a single pass.  Each successive pass darkens a bit more.

 The tail end of the river section has the start of a beach...

 Here's the final section (for 5 feet in total).  It boasts a beach (hmmm, I wonder where the Union waterborne force will need to land in my "Sink the Tennessee!" game).  The rocks will have some trees and maybe an Easter egg for visual detail and to add some height to the rivers edge.

Lastly, unrelated to Historicon is my rough build of a river section.  Work will have to stop on the sectional terrain project until I get on the other side of Historicon.  I am really excited about this project but have figured out some changes I need to make in my approach.

Sectional Terrain Update

 Sunday has seen some good progress on my new  sectional terrain project.  To revisit the goals of the project - I'm building 18-20 2ft x2ft double sided sectional terrain pieces (land on one side and water on the other).  The most immediate deadline is the HMGS Historicon convention with is less than two weeks away and I need the water side for some games I'm putting on.  The first step of the project was to fill in some gaps on the flat plywood (or water-side) of the sections.  1/4 inch plywood is extremely easy to work with but it's very prone to damage so some plaster work was needed to fill is some gouges and cracks.

 The next step is a little wood staining along the sides to dress up the looks a bit.  Once the board are finessed (both sides) I'll go back and re-cover the sides with a polyurethane finish for protection.

The next step was to figure out what color to paint the "water-side" - I was debating going with browns which would fit the James River locale for my upcoming Historicon games but that wouldn't be such a great palette choice for my blue water naval gaming so I opted for a standard sea blue.

 Here's a shot of three of the four 2x2 panels painted blue.  One tip - use the really cheap foam brushes (in the center of the picture) for this type of job where you don't want any paint slopping down the sides.  These paint "brushes" cost maybe $0.25 when purchased in bulk and do a good job.  Plus clean ups a breeze as you just toss 'em.

 A shot of the 4th 2x2 panel.

 Here's the 1x4 extension I built so my terrain boards can match up to Ernie's 5' wide terrain sections at Historicon.

 Here's a shot in the sun, where the deep sea blue stands out more.  I'll add some tinting post Historicon.

We had a visitor come by the work shop via our pool - a terrapin turtle.  It took me a good number of tries to catch the brute in the pool.  There pretty fast and will try bite a finger if your unwary.  At least I got a good work out chasing this guy around the pool.  To be honest, it was a lot of fun.

As I was releasing our little friend, he did remark that he thought the water sides were a "little to blue, too"  Everybody's a critic.

I Declare Independence from Terrain Mats!

 Happy July Fourth Everyone!  The weathers isn't all that great this morning on the Chesapeake so I decided to work on a gaming project.  Today, I've decided to Declare Independence from Terrain mats! and the flat ground they provide - I'm taking another run at building sectional terrain!  Here are my objectives:

2ftx2ft sections that have undulating ground on one side and a flat sea for naval gaming on the other.  The plan is to build the sections by taking 1/4 inch plywood and framing the underside with 1x2 lumber.  I'll fit polystyrene foam (pink insulation panels) on the inside of the frame and the carve it to represent terrain changes.

 The first step is building the panel. which require the 2ftx2ft section of plywood and and 8 ft 1x2 cut into 2, 24 inch pieces and 2, 22.5 inch pieces.  It's all very easy but remember to alway measure your plywood panels as sometimes the dimensions may not exactly be 24" per side - especially if you get pre-cut sections.

The next step is putting in some 1/2 inch spacers that the 1" polystyrene will sit on - I've got a bunch of one inch thick polystyrene on hand and the 1x2's are 1.5 inches high - hence the spacers.

 I've glued the spacers in place and used some common workshop "weights" to hold them down along with my trusty gallon jug of waterproof wood glue.  If you're a sailboater like me and sail wooden boats you need A LOT of wood glue!

 After a few hours of assembly and sanding (I hate sanding, but hate splinters even more) there are for assembled 2x2 sections.  I also built a 1x4 ft spacer panel so I can match these up to Ernie's terrain for our upcoming Historicon game - imagine a pair of 28mm scaled ironclads dueling on these - they will be in less than two weeks!

A fifth 2x2 section was built as a test for a river section.  The river will meanders more than is implied by the reinforcing panel down the middle.  The plywood just flexes to much with a gap in the frame so the brace holds it in place.

Next up - staining the wood.

This is my second attempt at building sectional terrain.  I build so larger 2x5 panels in Sep of 2012 that were OK but they never get used.  The draw backs of the larger sections is that I can only work on them in the garage and it's hard to store them (which makes the wife mad).  In fact I've only used them twice.  The smaller 2 foot sections will fit under my game table and I've got enough room to store an inventory of 22 panels.  More over they'll fit on my painting desk which will make adding detailed terrain features both easier and more enjoyable.

Historicon All Quiet on the Martian Front Games

I stopped by Ernie's to pick up some stuff and saw just part of the US forces being prep'd for the upcoming demo games of All Quiet on the Martian Front at Historicon.

The scenario is titled "The Battle of Memphis" and will involve 20 players (10 human / 10 Martian).  The game will be run 5 times over the course of Friday and Saturday - stop by and take a look if you're at the 'con!

All Quiet on the Martian Front - Now They've Gone a Stepped in It!

 Another Assault Tripod to add to my growing Martian arsenal.  I wanted the basing to show the true fiendish nature of our Martian advisories.  It's true - the respect nothing, not even a man's private sanctuary!

 The outhouse is scratch built using some old model rail road supplies I had.  A scaled down recruiting poster was also added to give the right theme for the image.  It took me a few tries to cut out the quarter moon shape of the front

The fleeing figure is one of the "Human Prey" figures that came with the kickstarter and  I think it works rather well to give that "mad-dash" kind of feel.  I added the trailing toilette paper as an after thought

My out house has interior detail.  I'm working on a scaled down version of the AQMF Rule book to add on the floor of the "rural library".

Fire & Fury Regimental Playtest

 Yesterday, I had the opportunity to participate in another round of play testing over at Rich H's house.  Rich is the author of the ACW ruleset Fire and Fury Regimental and always puts on a great event.  I played a small scenario on a 4 by 5 foot board depicting the final action in the Wheat-field during the Battle of Antietam.  The action depicted an assault by 4 Union Brigades against 2 Confederate.  I commanded the Confederate Brigade on the right flank.  The miniatures and terrain are 15mm scale and are from Rich's extenuative collection.

The first picture show this initial contact of the blue wave - the Union had 7 turns to get to the upper left of the picture.

On turn three, the Confederate side saw the chance to launch a spoiling attack which, if successful would cost the Union some precious time and likely win us the game.  The odds were in our favor and the attack launched....

While the odds amy have, indeed, been in our favor the dice were not and the Union was able to both repulse the assault and maintain the momentum of their attack.

Towards the end of the game - one last desperate assault by the confederates to regain a VP area.  Both sides were worn down by this part of the game (turn 6).  The assault failed and then my brigade quit the field due to failing a command check and we conceded the game.

The game was a blast and I really enjoyed it.  Fire & Fury Regimental is my favorite set of rules for the ACW, but they do require some investment of time to fully understand them but that investment is paid off in a great gaming experience and a real feel for the era.  I highly recommend the rules, which can be purchased directly from the author here.

More All Quiet on the Martian Front Painting: Infantry

 Some infantry units for AQMF - these figures were a lot of fun to paint up and were done as tests.

 First up a single platoon of US Infantry.  These lads are member of the "famed" Louisianna Militia unit the :"Les Bon Ton Muertriers Martiennes".  I'm depicting this formation as a collection of various US units but all painted in confederate grey.  I've got two more infantry units to finish up.

 A US regular army heavy machine gun unit.  These units can be very effective if supported properly.

Lastly, two units of Martian infantry - they're called Lobotons in the game and are actually captured humans converted into slave infantry.  They come in two types "Slicers" and "Blasters" and are one of the tools the Martians have developed to try and dig humans out of fortifications and buildings.

My Son's Latest Project: Quad Copter Autonomous Flight

My son's latest tech project involves programming a Quad Copter to take-off, climb to 20 meters, fly to multiple GPS points and then land - all on it's own without any human control.  We spent most of Fathers Day working on the project (OK I did very little but offer encouragement).  The video is after his 4th test and a few replacement props later (thank goodness they're cheap).  The test was very successful and it was a very fun Father's Day.

This Quad Copter can carry a payload of a little over a pound and will eventually mount a sony go-pro camera on a gimbal mount.  His project is to build a prototype of a security bot that can be triggered to launch via a cell phone call and fly a preset route (around our house), transmit video of the house and then return to it's landing pad - all on it's own.

I'm hoping to use it to get some tracking shots of a big game - with the quad copter flying over a table shooing my mini's in action

FOW Mid War, North Africa Themed Tournament

I'm about to head out the door for my second FOW tournament.   It's a 1485 point Mid War, North Africa themed event which will be run at Huzzah Hobbies in Ashburn, VA.  Google tells me its about a 2.5 hour drive from hear in St Michaels so I need to hit the road soon.

I'm taking a German Fallschirmjager list, which will have 2 of the three fellows pictured to the left.  The list consists of an

- HQ w/ Anti-tank rifle
- 2 full FJ platoons
- MG section
- Full mortar platoon
- Recoilless gun section
- a single Tiger
- Recon platoon (2 8 Rads)
- Nebs

The list gives me 8 platoons or 7 if I combine the MG's and recoilless guns into a point defense platoon.

I'm not sure about the wisdom of taking a single tiger over 3 make III's or 4 Marders.  The real reason is that Tigers just look cool on the table so this may be one of those situations where fashion wins over function!