Saga Scots

I recently bought Saga.  Jay, otherwise known as the The Baron bought these and they looked good.  I hope they are good, I am into it to the tune of the basic rules, the Northern Fury expansion, a dice pack and 6 points of Scots.

I finished the leader and the two hearthguard units.  (I know, they are called something else, but the rules are not to hand at this moment)

I posed them in my new terrain, instead of the little marble top table I had been using.

Not the greatest paint job, and I used shield transfers because a man's gotta know his limitations, to quote Dirty Harry.

I have been getting a fair bit done lately for a couple of reasons.  First, I managed to strain my back, and have been able to work for short bursts on wargame stuff.

The other is that for the first time in 2 years, we got a winter storm here in Kansas City.  We got almost no snow at all last year.  This is my desk as of noon today.

So no work today, probably not tomorrow either.

New Terrain

I recently bought some terrain from Amera, a company that makes vac-form terrain.

http://www.amera.co.uk/

 I was very pleased with it when I bought it.  I finished painting a couple of them.

This is a ruined building.  I sprayed it black, and used drybrushing.  I did grass and added a couple of small bushes.  I may do some more patches of different colored scatter grass before I hit it with a matte fixative.

The other is a bit larger, its a ruined tower.

I did similar treatment with this one.  It will provide splendid cover for skirmish games.

I ordered these from one of Amera's US distributors.  The prices were good, and they arrived very quickly.

I have some more smaller pieces to finish up.

Basing up trees

I bought some Woodland Scenics trees some time ago, but had never based them up.  A friend gave me some plastic that is fairly thick, but easy to cut.  I based up the trees, some two to a base, some just with one.  Its a small project, but I am glad to have it behind me.

This is my unfortunately disorganized work surface.  I have some of the bases with trees, others not.  The camera makes the ground parts look more yellow than they are.

Behind the trees, is the next project I am working on.  It is vacuum formed plastic terrain from Amera.  That is one of the smaller pieces, and I hope to have some ready to post soon.

I also am working on a Scots Saga warband.  I sure hope I like those rules, I am in them for the rules, the expansion that has the Scots, and an 8 point Scots army.

Get painting Jaye!

More VSF figures

These are some more figures for my VSF contingent.  I plan on buying some more of these soon to bump the force up to two squads of 10 figures.

On a lighter note, today is my 60th birthday.  My wife emailed everyone we know and got them to send me cards with the hope that I would get at least 60 cards.  It worked!  I got over 60 birthday cards.  She also gave me 60 presents.  Most were very small, in some cases small pieces of candy to fill in.  In addition to clothes, I also got $60 in gift certificates to my local hobby shop.  That should get spent this week!

Been gone to Puerto Rico

My wife made all the arrangements for a trip for my 60th birthday.  We went to the Luquillo Sunrise Beach Inn in Luquillo, Puerto Rico.

This is a picture from our snorkeling trip.  Well, it was intended to be a snorkeling trip.  Truth is, neither of us could get the hang of it.  :)  After falling down trying to walk with fins (yes, we walked backward like they told us) and generally not being able to do much of anything, we enjoyed an afternoon on the water.

The Luquillo Sunrise Beach Inn is a 17 room bed and breakfast in the little town of Luquillo, Puerto Rico.
www.luquillosunrise.com/ 

It is a terrific bed and breakfast right on the beach.  Most of the rooms face the ocean, and the second floor rooms have balconies.where you can enjoy the sounds of the surf.

The beach in front is a surfing beach.  There is a very good public beach for swimming and snorkeling about 5 minutes away by car.

I had read about an awesome restaurant around the corner from the hotel.  Its called Pasta Y Pueblo.  We drove right by it the first night, thinking it was a boarded up shack.  Its a small addition to a home made into a restaurant.  It has a small menu, but unbelievable food.  We went twice.  If you are going to Puerto Rico, look up Pasta Y Pueblo on google.  

I will be back to wargaming now that I have a sunburn and great memories.  

New VSF figures and new project

I have been trying to build a force for GASLIGHT.  I recently took some Robot Legionnaire figures from Hydra miniatures.

 http://www.hydraminiatures.com/index.shtml

I painted them bronze, with other metals for the weapons and details.  They are done except for a Dullcoat finish.

I have some more figures I am working on, plus some vehicles and an airship.

My new project is to finish up as much terrain as possible.  My wife is out of town around the beginning of February for several days, and I am planning to base trees, make hedges, and paint up some new terrain pieces from Amera.

I have a friend who has had some Bellona terrain pieces, which were vacform pieces made many years ago. The technology was not that great, and Bellona was made from fairly thin plastic.  It tended to get damaged over the years, and this stuff was made back in the 60s.

Amera is made from significantly thicker plastic.  It is still vacform, so the detail is not exactly what you might get on a resin cast piece, but its also cheaper and much lighter, while still being very sturdy.

Amera is an English company.  The URL is:

http://www.amera.co.uk

At their suggestion I ordered from one of their US stockists, Noble Knight Games.

www.nobleknight.com


They were very prompt, the order arriving within 3 days of ordering.  The prices were reasonable, but when I went to look, they were out of these items.  Apparently I ordered what they had.  They do indicate if something is out of stock, but don't give the price if it is.

My plan is to get all of these painted and detailed with flocking and extra rubble in some cases.  When they are done i will post them.

I looked on the Amera website.  The first piece here was 6 pounds.  I think the prices are about double in $.  This first piece is about 12 inches across.

Amera also makes pieces that need some assembly, but make up into quite nice ruined buildings suitable for 28mm science fiction or post apocalyptic games.  The plastic is heavy enough to support the models.

VSF Russians

I finally finished a couple of units for my VSF contingent for GASLIGHT.  It is 2 units of 10 figures, Russians fom the Russo-Turkish war.

The figures with the chevrons on the base are the NCO's for the units.  I had no idea what the insignia for a Russian NCO was, and I need to be able to identify it quickly in the game.

I have some more figures coming for this that I hope to get posted soon.  I am also doing some figures for Pulp Alley.

In a lighter vein, my friend Ken had posted questions on his blog that I thought I would answer:

What was the very first wargame you ever played (board, strategy or miniature

My father bought my brother and me a Civil War game one Christmas.  It was a boardgame, but had little plastic figures of infantry, cavalry and artillery.  We loved it.  We played it till it fell apart.  My father bought us Panzerblitz next, and we played boardgames for many years.  I had a subscription to Strategy and Tactics for many years, and had a large collection of boardgames that I ultimately sold when I got into miniatures.

What was the first Miniatures focused Wargame?

I was living in Cheyenne, Wyoming in the late 70s.  A friend introduced me to ancients gaming with WRG 3^rd Edition rules.  He was using 15mm figures.  He only had one army done, so we divided it in two and played against each other. 

What was the first Wargame Army you collected and fielded as your own (painted or not, but your own)?

After playing my first ancients game, I went to the local hobby shop.  It had almost no 15mm ancients, but there were some of the old Minifigs 15mm strips of figures.  They were molded 5 to a strip, as I recall, and you had to cut the bases apart.  I bought three strips, some Humbrol paints and a brush, and started painting.  They were Greek light infantry slingers.  I ended up with a fairly large Greek army after going to Denver and buying many more figures at Bonnie Brae hobbies.  The paint job back then was awful.  I didn’t realize that priming the figures was a good first step.  J

I went to England in 1978 for two years.  I was in the service, and ended up at a base about 30 miles from Cambridge.  I met some gamers down there (who were astounded anyone would drive 30 miles for a wargame) and started doing 25mm Greeks, again for WRG. 

I gave up on ancients years ago, but doing that first army was terrific.

What has been your favorite Miniatures Wargame you have played?

After gaming for most of 45 years, its hard to pick out one.  I did play on American Revolution game with some friends back in the ‘80s.  We started after work on Friday night, and it was a set of rules we were playtesting for two of the players.  It was a fun tactical situation, and when it started getting late, no one wanted to stop.  The game was finally over around 3 am, by which time we were all punch drunk and laughing nonstop.  Larry’s wife finally got up, came down, and told us all to go home.  J  Any time I think of that game, it brings a smile to my face.  Then, to make it perfect, my standard transmission locked up in 2^nd gear and I drove 20 miles home at about 20 miles an hour.