X-Wing by Candlelight: A Sandy By-Product

No pictures, but last night my son and I played X-Wing by candlelight as Hurricane Sandy swirled around outside us.  It was fun in a campy sort of way or as my son said (hopefully with tongue-in-cheek) "gee dad we're playing X-Wing just like the pioneers did".

The storm seems to have passed maryland without a huge amount of damage - some trees down and no power (got to love cell phones that become mobile hotspots!).  I'm typing this listening to the hum of our generator.

Be well out there!

Building Sectional Terrain, Part VIII: All Roads Lead to Fall-In

With Fall-In less than a week away there are still things to get done for Lundy's Lane - namely roads and fences.  The roads are made out of asphalt shingles that are painted and then flocked around the sides.  The benefit of using these shingles is they are flexible but will hold a shape, come "pre-textured" and their cheap.  It's a pretty clever idea that I though up all by myself - no really I did - you can trust me.

OK this isn't really my idea.  In fact I stole it and just about all of my other good gaming and terrain ideas from Ernie over at Architects of War.  In fact he has a tutorial on how to make them already prepared!  Here's a link to the "shingle road" tutorial.

On a non-gaming note, my son has recently completed his Eagle Scout service project and he's pulled together a blog that describes his experience.  As you may guess for earlier posts, he is a fanatic about robots and was able to combine his engineering passion with the scout service project.  His project involved organizing, fund raising and coach a Jr First Lego League Robotics team for disabled children through the Easter Seals 'Little Warrior" program which supports special needs children of deployed or disabled veterans.  It was a very challenging project for him to work with autistic children but the team did very well.  Here's his website:  http://jrlegoteam2946.blogspot.com  His site could use some traffic so please take a look.

OK enough proud pop stuff and back to road making!

Lundy's Lane - Final Units Completed

 The final four units for my Fall-In War of 1812 game are done!  Outside of a few command stands and some terrain I think the game is good-to-go.

For the British, there is a 30 figure unit of Indians mounted on large oval bases (Renedra bases).  For the US  (from front to back), there is a 12 figure unit of Mounted Kentucky Rifles (w/ dismounted fig's too!), a 36 figure unit of Maryland Militia and a 36 figure unit of Marines featured previously on the blog but never fully sceniced.

 A few other shots of the final figures.  Those of you with any knowledge of the Battle of Lundy's Lane might be howling now as there were no Mounted KT rifles, Maryland Militia or Marines at the battle and you would be correct.  I'm making a few minor edits to the orders of battle to make things a bit more fun for the players.

 Another shot of the figures.  I really like the Indians and look forward to getting them on the table.  I should point out that the Kentucky rifles and Maryland militia were painted for me by Mike M who is a very talented painter and will be the overall commander for the British for our game at Fall In.  Mike also won vignette competition from the Perry painting contest sponsored by Architects of War at last July's Historicon.

Lastly, after years of nomadic painting throughout the house, I finally broke down and bought a hobby workbench for a permanent "home".  Since it would be in the open it had to look nice and executive management (my wife) allowed me to order up one from American Workbench.  I need to get some better lighting but I'm very happy with the bench.  The book holder in the center is sized to hold an I-Pad so I can watch football on Sundays (using Direct TV's "Direct Ticket"), stream movies or listen to podcasts/music.

I'm still tinkering with organizing the workspace but look forward to many spending many hours there avoiding much more important duties.

Building Sectional Terrain: Part VII, The Hill is Done!

 The hill, which will be a focal point for the Lundy's Lane game is finished.  It's roughly 3 feet by 2 feet and will hold two to three 40 figure battalions along with some artillery so it should be a tough nut to crack.  The first picture shows the side that will be facing the American army.  I have no idea if the hill at the actual battle site had a rock face but mine does!

The second photo shows the side that face the British table edge.  I think I was a bit to heavy handy with the wheel ruts but nobodies perfect.

Next up are some split rail fences and road sections and then I think I'll be ready for the game.

Building Sectional Terrain: Part VI

 While my son was taking his SAT's I got a bit more work in on the sectional terrain project for Fall-In.  First up, the hill received a plaster coat in the form of paper towels soaked in hydrocal plaster.  The roads are pink spackle (don't worry it dries white.

 I also re-did all five terrain boards to cover up the issue I had with the matt medium showing through (please see the last post in this series).  I made sure to wet the board before applying the sealant.

 Here's a close up of the edging....

 ... and a close up of the terrain. I like the way it's coming out.

 The other four board drying.

Another shot of the Hill drying in the sun - see the pink is starting to fade away...

More progress shortly.

Building Sectional Terrain, Part V

 The main focal point of the battle of Lundy's Lane was a hill that traded hands several times during the battle.  I finished the basic structure of the hill last night.  It's a 3 foot x 2 foot piece of terrain that will sit on top my terrain boards.

 Here's a close up of one edge.  The hill will be relatively light but very sturdy.  I'm focusing on playability rather than geological accuracy so the Hill will feature a very flat "top".  Today's mission for the Hill will be to cover it in hydrocal soaked paper towels and add some of the rock faces.

In all honesty, I screwed up some of the terrain boards in the previous post.  I didn't wet the boards before applying matt medium in spots.  The result is the medium doesn't spread evenly and you get what look like dribble marks.  These may fade over time but it's best to redo those spots the right way.

I surprise myself with my capacity to repeat silly errors like this with each project.  Oh well, it's a good thing I was only working on make-believe terrain!

Building Sectional Terrain, Part IV

 Whew - there was a lot of progress this morning on the Terrain for my Lundy's Lane game at Fall-In this morning.  First up was the bane of any word working project - sanding.  There is in an inverse relationship between the skill of a woodworker and the amount of sanding required post fitting.  Lets just say that I buy my sand paper in bulk....

 All 5 frames were sanded down and cleaned up.  As you can see, some required a lot of sanding.  The sanding took about an hour and a half and I was able to listen to episode 44 of the WWPD podcast.  While it's ok to listen to something while sanding it's a very good safety rule to never wear ear buds when working with cutting or drilling tools.

Once sanded, I began a test fitting of the boards just to make sure everything went together well.  In the picture is my Robotic's team's favorite and most important tool - a rubber mallet which has been dubbed "The Persuader".  Many a troublesome gear, sprocket or bent frame has been "persuaded" back into place during a tournament. I used it today to make sure the locking bolts went into place.

 Here are the five, two x five frames assembled together.  While there are some minor gaps everything seems to fit well.

 Next up, is filling the gaps in some of the luan plywood.  I use a standard filler that goes on pink but dries white.  Once it's white it's ready to be sanded.

 The first test for scenicing.  I'm using Woodland Scenics static grass flock in various shades - this was what I had on hand.  The method I use is the following:
(1) Paint a patch of the board with a latex paint (very durable).
(2) Sprinkle three of four shades of flock
(3) "Jiggle" the board
(4) Repeat until the board is covered
(5) Tilt the board up and shake off excess flock
(6) Apply a liberal spray of diluted matt medium
(7) Sprinkle a bit more flock on any bare patches
(8) Set aside to dry.

One useful tip is to use a plastic sheet to catch the excess flock and use it for the next board - it's already pre-mixed!

 Here's the first board about half way done.

 First board completed (only four more to go).  In the middle right you can see a bump from some cork board I used as a experiment to add some height.  I didn't like how it turned out and so opted not to try it on any other boards.  I'll rely on hill pieces an can lay onto the board for elevation changes.

 Here's a shot of three completed boards put off to the side to dry.

 The fourth board drying.  I forgot to take a picture of the fifth one but it's looks like all the others.  Once the boards have dried over the next 24 hours, I'll go back and add some details and fill in any bare spots.  I do think I will make the green patches a bit bigger.

UPDATE: make sure you lightly "wet" the boards before applying the diluted matt medium - see post V for the results if one doesn't.

 With the boards done (for now), I decided it was time to start building the hill that was such a prominent feature in the battle.  The base is 1/8 inch MDF board and the hill will be approximately 3 feet x 2 feet.

Here's the hill cut-out (my gosh but cutting MDF makes a mess).  I'm using some 1x2 scrap to brace the base of the board and start adding the elevations.  Hopefully the hill will get completed next weekend!

First Game of X-Wing

 My son and I played a quick game of the new Fantasy Flight miniature game "X-Wing".  I had gotten wind of this game from the guys over at WWPD and was hooked.

The game is a blast.  Our first game went down to the wire with my X-Wing finally seeing off the last of 2 Tie fighters after a lot of maneuvering.  Both fighters were down to there last hit points so it was a lot of fun. I'm sure we got some of the rules wrong but the game was a blast.

From a component side, I think the game is well worth the $31.99 I paid for it from the War Store. The pre-painted mini's (one X-Wing and two Tie Fighters) are very well done.  All of the other game components are also very of a high quality.

Game play is simple yet there is a good deal of depth.  The movement dials are a very nice innovation and keep the game moving along briskly.

I suspect there will be a number of re-fights over the course of the weekend but that will need to wait as Saturday morning will be occupied with a college visit to Drexel's Engineering School for Sean and myself.

Building Sectional Terrain, Part III

 After some non-war gaming project delays (robotics and work), the frames for the five 2x5' terrain sections are complete.  They came out nicely and are both rigid and light (coming is a 4 lbs each).

The next step will involve some light sanding and then sealing the wood.  I am toying with the idea of lining the tops with 1/4 inch think cork flooring and then using a file and Dremel to create undulations in the terrain.  I should perhaps do a test piece as I'm worried about how the edges will wear and how my terrain pieces will look when placed on top.

Here's a shot of the last two sections awaiting attachment of the final 1x2' top and a cross-brace that goes under it for support.

I should start scenicing the boards this weekend and have then finished by mid October.

Robotics Team Wins the "Battle-O-Baltimore"!

 Yesterday was a big day for my son's FRC robotics team - they won the an "off-season" event called the "Battle-O-Baltimore".  It was a great event and winning was very unexpected.  The first shot is of the three robot's of the winning alliance.  Our robot is in the foreground with our team number 4067.  I didn't take a lot of in-game photos as I was coaching but hopefully I'll get some up.

 Here's a shot of the winning alliance plotting strategy for the semi final rounds.  Being rookies our robot wasn't the best shooter (maybe a 10% accuracy ratio) so we created a program that feeds balls to a partner robot during the autonomous phase so they can shoot.  During games our primary role was to play defense (beat the heck out of the opposition robots) and then in the last 20 seconds rush over to a swing bridge tip it down and then balance on it.  Not as easy as it seems as the robots weigh up to 120 pounds (excluding the battery)!

 Here's a shot in the pit area where the team is repairing some damage that occurred in one of the qualifying rounds.  My son is re-drilling a pivot point for the swing arm (used to push the swing bridge down).  The other guys are repairing the belt assembly for the ball movement system.  Our 'bot got the heck beat out of it but we gave more than we received.

Here's a picture of the team in the queue for a match.  There were 5 qualifying rounds and then we played in 7 championship matches so that was a lot of play time for the 'bot

 Here's a picture of the drive team during set up the night before.  From left to right is my son, Sean, who was the driver, Albert lead programmer and "human player - role was to inbound balls that were scored, and Ibrahim who operated the ball lift, shooter and bridge arm.

 A picture of the 'bot the night before.  We're currently sponsored by NASA, JC Penneys and a local hardware store -Kendalls.  There's room for more sponsorship names so watch this space as we may have some interesting new sponsors soon.  Robotics at this level can be very expensive!

Our robot features a six wheel all wheel drive drive train that allows us to push any other robot around.  The ball collection device is a brush assemble (it looks low-tech but works like a charm) and a belt assembly that carries the basket balls up to the shooter.  The shooter is essentially a version of a pitching machine that spins at up 3500 RPM but we could never figure out how to make it accurate.  This was out first year in FRC, so we're off to a promising start.

Proof that if one has enough Donuts anything is possible.  We arrived a bit early (ok, a lot early) on Saturday morning and couldn't get into the pit area.  Luckily I found a Dunkin Donut shop close by and purchased four dozen and saw a magical transformation of surly teens into happy campers. Through the power of Donuts, anything is possible.

That's it for FRC until January when the new game is announced and the six week build session commences.  Now we switch to FTC, which are smaller but more complicated robots.

Oh and I still need to finish my terrain for Fall-In...