Changes

I went to the local Con this weekend, Recruits.  Now, Recruits is a great con.  It has a lot of good games, it brings in new gamers, and the dealers area is always interesting.  I just couldn't get into it.

Part of the problem is that I don't hear as well now, and a large room with constant loud background noise means I can't hear a lot of what the GM is trying to tell us.

I got into one of the prettiest games I have ever seen.  Its a huge pirate game in 25mm.  The amount of work that went into it was amazing.  Unfortunately, with about 18 people in it, many of them teenagers, it was interminably slow.  I gave up my ship command to someone else about 4 pm.  It started at 1 and we had played 3 turns.

I think that except for going to look at the dealer area, my days of con games are over.  I also can't stand that long, and paid for the time with a lot of leg pain.

I started thinking about this, and I am ok with it.  I really enjoy the games I play weekly with my regular gaming group, so con games are not a large part of my gaming life anyway.

This has been a more personal post than any I have done before, but what the heck, its my blog.  :)

Some small projects

I have been working on some small projects, and finished a few.

First,  another $5 special from Michael's.

I didn't want to spend a lot of time on this.  It was another birdhouse.  It had a smaller structure on top, but it didn't leave enough room around the edges to put figures.  A quick whack with a rubber mallet removed the offending structure.  It left a pretty rough surface on top, because the glue kind of tore wood out.  I put in some craft sticks, used some more to make a door and frame it (to cover the big hole for the birdhouse) and painted it.  Its a bit dark where I paint, and my eyes are not what they should be.  I apparently need to do a bit of drybrushing with gray, as I got door paint on the wall.

The next thing I have been working on is Mech stuff.  We are playtesting a quick game for mechs, and we use the click stuff as its very cheap online.  All I do is rebase it, and here is the result.

The final project is my retro space guys for Blasters and Bulkheads.  I finished the bases and sprayed them with Dullcoat.

I am getting enough posts that I need to figure out the tagging business.  I have been poking around in the blogspot stuff, but haven't figured it out yet.

I am still working on my Seven Years War stuff.  I have a couple of artillery stands almost ready to go, and another battalion of Musketeers.  My buying has been slowed lately because of house repairs.  Its always something.

Galactic Space Patrol 42, the GSP Beagle

She started life as a short haul freighter.  The Galactic Space Patrol was new and looking for ships for exploration.  They bought her, gave her the name Beagle, and she soldiered on for years.  She was about to go to the breakers yard, when the Patrol had one last duty for her.  As an old tramp freighter, she could get into places where a Patrol Cutter would stand out like a sore thumb.  They gave her a full suite of brand new electronics, a new Mannschenn Drive, and she was ready skulk around the rougher corners of the galaxy, putting Patrol teams into danger.

Our group recently started playtesting Blasters and Bulkheads, the pulp science fiction game using the Goal System.  I found some figures, and then at Michael's for about $6, I found this:

I think, from the big hole in the side, its supposed to be a decorative birdhouse.  The first problem was to make a hatch.  I am not the greatest scratchbuilder around, so with a Litko base, some plastic, and little "jewels" also from Michaels, I came up with this.

The goal system is for small groups of figures, so I bought a few figures and painted them up.  I still need to add some dullcoat, I did the "dip" method on them.

So now I have a contingent for the game.  If they get into action, I will post more pictures.  I decided that the huge hatch on the ship is to make cargo handling easier.  That's my story, and I am sticking to it.

Making Hills

Since I sold all my wargaming stuff a few years ago, I am starting from scratch.  I decided to take a short break from painting and make a couple of hills using techniques stolen from other blogs.

The hills probably need to be taller and larger.  They are made from 1" foam.  I cut a hardboard base, then hotglued pine bark along one side to make cliffs.  I then cut out foam to the basic shape of the base minus the area where I put the bark.  I glued the foam to the hardboard, and after it dried used a foamcutter to cut an angle along the edge of the hill.

The foamcutter is a new one I recently bought at Hobby Lobby.  It has a straight wire about 5" long that gets hot.  Its nice, you can sculpt with it.  It does cool off a bit making long cuts, but it keeps cutting but a bit slower.

After that was done, I used some little pieces of foam and spackle to fill in the gaps between the pine bark and the foam.  I then used a technique that a local game store owner told me about.  I covered the entire thing with latex tile mastic.  You get a cheap brush, because the brush ain't comin' back from this mission, and load it with water.  Swirl it in the mastic to make it a bit more liquid and then just paint it on the whole thing.  It seals up the foam and makes it easier to paint, and it gives a nice skin to the foam that makes it a bit tougher.  The brushes I got were 99 cents each, and the one I used was completely trashed when I finished.

After that dried, which takes about a day, I glued on a bit of railroad ballast around the top and bottom of the cliff.  I had bought 2 quarts of paint, one darker brown, one lighter brown, from the local hardward store.  I painted the darker color all over the foam and the area where the ballast was, using a 1" brush.  (a better brush than before, this one I will reuse)  Then I painted the bark a very dark gray. 

After that dried I took the lighter brown color (really a light tan) and dry brushed the whole thing, including the rocks.  I then used a little bit of white and light yellow to drybrush all over everything.

The final step was to put some flocking on parts of the hill.  I used to have hills that looked like green lawns.  I have decided I like a more mottled look.

The results are below.  I will probably put some kind of final coat on to fix everything, but its basically done.

Played Black Powder tonight

We did a small game of Black Powder.  Most of the units were foamcore bases with topdown pictures of the troops, courtesy of Jay.  We had two units that I had finished, the rest were foamcore.  We were very pleased with the rules.  We played 7YW, Prussians vs Austrians.  We screwed some stuff up, but we expected that for a first game. 

We pretty much fought to a standstill.   Then we discovered the Brigade morale rule.  :) 

We are planning on trying it was 15mm Napoleonics, because Ken has a ton of them and the basing works.

Nice rules, we plan to play them again.

Black Powder

On June 9, our group is going to try Black Powder.  Now, we have almost no figures for this, save for one battalion.

This was what I had previously based as 2 battalions.  It is now one battalion for Black Powder.

To be able to play, we lucky enough to have a graphic artist who not only has a great game room, but lots of skills as well.  He is making foamcore counters to use for the troops until I get more stuff painted.

I have been reading the rules, and we hope to be able to run a small game for our first try.

I have decided that in the future the Prussians I buy from Front Rank will be the ones without field equipment.  That will make them easier to paint.

I am planning a battle report after the game.

Change in Direction

My original intent with the Seven Years War figures was to base them individually, with the intent of playing the old Charge rules.  I have changed my mind.

I have decided to base the figures for Black Powder, and double the size of the battalions.  That means the Prussian Regiment I painted is now one battalion of 24 figures.  More painting for me, but its going fairly fast and perhaps I can persuade some of my gaming group into painting some 7YW.

I also can play Die Fighting with this basing, which gives me another option for rules.

So, I need buy a lot more figures, not a terribly bad thing.