Best laid plans of mice and all that. I've been busy all morning sorting out my mothers switch over from Analog to digital. It's all done now but did take two different installation engineers or two different call outs and a free upgrade to Free Stat as she's in a set top black spot. Their meter readings kept "overloading" and making bleeping sounds and they had no idea why. Still it's all sorted now.

All of which means I'm a little behind as that had priority. However the moon boards have dried out nicely and I have started  another one of them. At this stage it's about half masked up, but I can easy finish that on Saturday. So in conclusion they are getting done, I'll offer a pic in a few days of all 4 of them (2 more after that, for 6 in total).

Which of course means the dock sides are already behind schedule before I even start. The good news on that is that every day next week I'll be walking past B+Q so can re-stock on some vital supplies. Assuming I stick to the paste board idea I'll have to think of how to loose the "checker board" texture. It worked very well as car parking, but I can't see it working as water. My choices are to either sand it back or to cover it. As Sanding will be a LOT of work and still might not work I think I'll have to cover it. My initial thoughts are to use aluminium foil but I'm not sure if I can get a good solid attachment to the hardboard. One of the other problems I'll have is the general dimensions of the paste board. Being 20 inches across I think I might have to put the docks, wharfs and jetties at an oblique angle. Until I sketch it out I'm not sure how that will work in regard to look and feel, I'm hoping it adds rather than detracts but only marking it out will really give me a clue.

Painting wise the 10mm Dwarfs are at a stand still. I have volunteered to paint a collection of buildings for the game of warmaster that is proposed for next club. I guess I'd better rake them out and dust them off. I have also re-started a games workshop Chaos Marine army. I don't really play 40k any more but my nephew does and it would be nice to be able to give him a game. The main problem is the colour scheme. I have tried them in grey armour and that looks quite good, (and my nephew loves them) but I came up with another idea and want to try that out before I am completely satisfied. About 1/2 way through painting the second style now. When done I'll invite feedback on them both.

Lastly for today I had the "hard copy" of the crooked dice 7ombie TV rules and some nice counters arrive this morning. I already know that the rules work quite well, so this is just to own a nice shiny copy,

Post again on Sunday and maybe a pic or two.

Nope this is not one of mine, lets make that quite clear. I had nothing to do with making this. I have included it because not only is it superb but it has inspired me. When I saw it I asked Kev and Relfie if they thought I should build a dockscape. They both replied very quickly that they thought I should. In an ideal world I can knock one out in about 4 weeks start to finish. HOWEVER I am going to aim for 5 weeks starting Saturday. ( I'll probably over run a few weeks but good to have a target to aim at.)
As you can tell this board is only 24 inches square. The ship here is 6 inches wide and 24 long. I don't know how tall it rises, but as I'll have to scratch build my own I'm not that worried.Nothing wrong with small boards, in fact a lot to recommend them, no vast shooting galleries, and lots of opportunity to get up close and personal. So taking this as a start point I'll try to shoe horn it into the paste table. At this stage I only intend to use 1/2 the paste table, which gives an area of 20 inches by 34 inches. If my players want a bigger area they'll have to wait a few extra weeks, or do it themselves. Yep that means I'll make it the size I want and plan it to expand onto the other half of the paste board when I get a chance.
Given that I want as much versatility as I can get I'll try to keep it as an old dock. That way we can use it for everything from pirates/cutlass all the way to contempory, or horror or even science fiction. Obviously the boats will have to be era specific, but the actual wharfs and jetties in made to look like stone or wood can be of any time period. Concrete can also be used as that dates back to Roman technology, but I'll try to minimise that.

That's all in the planning, but what's in the make. Yesterday when I went up the shed to work on the moon boards some of the paint had frozen in the bottle. I managed to thaw it out OK and it was not a huge amount, but it does illustrate just how cold it was. I have managed to coat boards 2 and 3 with a mixture of paint and PVA wood glue. I am now ready to start the next one. But due to the cold have decided to come indoors and warm up for now. I'll give them both a day to dry out and then start the next. I feel very happy with the progress now that I am 1/2 way through them. I'm so looking forward to a quick tidy up in the shed you would not believe it. But all in all they are coming on fine.

Unfortunately I can't face the painting table at the moment, there's just something about the 10mm dwarfs I am struggling with. I know once I bite the bullet it will all flow, but I'm not in that mind set today. Relfie wants to do some Warmaster at the next club, so with luck I'll feel encouraged to get some more done, just not today.

I will start on the Cutlass shore boards soon but having a short arm deep pocket moment so am not buying the materials this week, or the figures. I have had an expensive week wargames wise, bagged a few eBay bargains despite the fact I still have loads to read and paint but they were just so tempting I had to. I also sent off for the 7ombie TV rules and counters before they sold out. I get paid end of next week so I'll try to resist eBay temptation till then, or maybe put a few things on, just so I don't feel to bad about all the wargames money flowing out of my account. Hey ho!

More again on Friday cheers Clint

yesterdays post today

Well as I was very busy yesterday I thought I'd invest a few minutes today to catch up.  On Sunday we had a club meeting and finally got round to playing the zombie car park game at the Rainham club. I only took one picture (to the right) because as soon as I produced a camera some of the players got up and walked out. That crimestoppers programme has a lot to answer for. (IT my be because the kettle boiled about then as well though so not too sure.) It was one of those games where it started with me and two other players (Relfie and Kev) we got everything ready I told them the rule changes and we just started and Fraiser (one of our new and young members) turned up. So to keep things fair Kev and Relfie gave him two characters (one each) and we started. WE got a turn done and then Patrick and Tim arrived (pictured) we had a quick break to admire Tim's painted treasures. And Patrick decided to play some loud 1970's horse racing game on his own in the corner. So Tim started and we had another couple of turns. Then Patrick decided he was gonna play and him and Fraiser split their forces. When I use the term "Herding Cats" you get an idea of what it's like from that brief description above of how the game started. Anyway here's the cast list:

Relfie: Brown (trousers) erhm suit and a Little Girl.
Kev: Army Girl and a Store keeper.
Tim: Biker and Heavy
Fraiser: "Sleazy man"
Patrick: Eccentric Shop keeper.
Clint (me): Zombies.

All the Zombies were classed as extras and all the characters were classed as co-stars and we were using the 7ombie TV rules. Given that there were 4 teams of 2 characters, Patrick and Fraiser being paired due to Patricks late arrival/participation and because they are friends. I shoved 35-40 Zombies on the board to make it "balanced".

The game started with the search for keys with some pretty MAJOR hints (from Kev who had read the blog) to the younger players as to where you might find them, which they ignored for most of the game. It's great having a mixture of ages as the younger players tended to do their own things with out regard to the victory conditions and how to escape, although they were pretty keen on stitching other players up at the same time. Most players searched the loos and stairwells first thinking perhaps that people had discarded their car keys in such unlikely places as they attempted to escape the grey horde. You are hardly going to make good an escape by chucking car keys down a ladies loo. Still they wanted to search and so they did. Patrick and Frasier spent most of the rest of the game searching the skips and getting a few scavenger cards including a bicycle, dolls head, a crowbar and 2 Molotov's.

Meanwhile elsewhere the sheer number of Zeds mad it impossible to move without being reached by at least one of them. Tim's Heavy was the first to succumb to the grey horde and taken down quite quickly as he kept trying to use his luck re-rolls and kept failing to alter the result. It then took that character 3 turns to shake of the stuns before he could come back as a Tank. Hugely disappointed with the 4 inch tank move he plodded towards his real life son with all the built up taxi-dad hatred he could muster. kev and Relfi had by now found keys and were trying cars as often as they could. Special mention to Kev for killing (headshot) three times as many zombies as everyone else combined. (I need to check his dice next time, not saying they were loaded, but I have my suspicions.) Relfie's little Girl was the first to find a car. Tim's Biker and the Brown Suit man were about to jump in when the grey mass swamped Mr Brown suit right in front of the little girl as he was trying to get in the door. The biker edged away and ran for another car (he too had keys) needing 5 or more for the keys to fit in this car he of course rolled a 4 on 2d6. dragged down by a feeding frenzy of 4 zombies he lost his second character.

Kev also lost his crack shot shop keeper to a small horde but the army girl also had keys and had got a car working. The little girl a notorious bad driver managed a sharp turn and fearing a collision stayed in first gear where they were better able to control their vehicle. While the army girl was crashing up through the gears at every opportunity.

Meanwhile back at the skips Patrick and Fraiser becoming surrounded by zeds, including two tank zeds (Tim and Kev's ex characters) and as yet without keys decided to let loose with the Molotov's right next to the petrol tanker. Throwing them both, the missed both times and both petrol bombs scattered. Four Zombies were turned into crispy critters and three of the four took head shots as a result and died. The forth staggered around on fire no doubt to be talked about by TV critics for days to come.... too much violence on TV these days etc.

Having negotiated all the obstacles the little girl put her foot down and made swift progress stopping just 1 inch from victory. Then the Army Girl covered the distance to the exit to take the game.

So that's the game report. To me it's quite funny how the two characters to get out in cars were both the same ones as at the Sittingbourne club and yet played by different people. It's also interesting that the Heavy died first in both games even though again played by different people. Both the youg players want to play the same game again using the same scenario so I know they enjoyed it.

Elsewhere at the club there was some boardgames being played and an ACW naval battle. So I think it was quite diverse. The concept of the battlefield in a box (my paste table idea) was received very well and I can see other club members taking it on board and making it their own. Tim was also mentioning the possibility of "re-doing" the dead cowboys in 20th century clothes which I think has a lot of merit. He originally sculpted a series of dead cowboys which the rights were bought for by someone in the states. So if he re-sculps them to be more contempory dead (not living dead) I think he could be on a winner, but time will tell.

Just a very quick post today as I am all behind with what I should be doing.

Yes we had our first club game yesterday I'll talk about it next post. Just to say that for now it went pretty well. It did have issues, but nothing too disastrous. And peeps seemed to have enjoyed it.

The latest two moon boards are drying nicely and I'll be able to work on them tomorrow once I have a good look at then then I'll know what to do. It will either be first base colour coat, or another load of "Muck" dependant on what they need.

Nothing painted in the last few days so nothing more to say today. I'll try to do better next time.

Cheers Clint