32 traders, 12 clubs and 23 games so far

The title of today's post is where we are with Broadside 2012 (so far). Yes we have 32 confirmed traders from the mighty warlord games down to several one man bands. While we have 12 clubs confirmed to put games on as demonstration and participation, several of the traders have also decide they want game space as well. This helps everyone, the traders get a platform to showcase their games, the organisers get another attraction which we don't have to organise and the public get a really good looking game to watch. I say really good game, as they (the traders) do tend to put good games on, usually very spectacular well made scenery and well painted figures. As mentioned above this is where we are at the moment and it puts us ahead of where we were this time last year. The magazine adverts have been paid for so they should start appearing soon as well, I remember saying last year, once the adverts start to appear more traders will take notice, and I was right. Last year we continued to attract traders up to the deadline, with the last one coming on board 2 days before the show date. That's leaving it a little late as poor Mark (don't show him too much sympathy he's a Millwall fan after all) was re-jigging the floor plan all the way up to the last minute. I expect nothing less this year, if anything I expect it to be worse with the Flea market idea meaning people turning up on the day and wanting tables.... Needless to say we shall do our best, but miracles take longer.

The two photos show another painted market stall for the three musketeer game. So players will be able to through fruit and veg at each other, take bites out of apples and maybe even stick tomatoes on their swords before they try to run each other through. The rules actively encourage inter-action with the scenery so in a few weeks when we play maybe I'll do a bat rep... but maybe I won't last time I trialed these "homebrew" rules we had multiple characters "swinging" from same chandelier at the same time. This encounter, being in a market should be equally chaotic.

The building is by PMC games, an eBay seller. It comes in two parts ready painted and at a reasonable price. Personally I think it's great and intend to get some more when money allows. It is not without problems though. Historically, architecturally and structurally it's all wrong, but only if you are being pedantic. For example the overhangs should be smaller, no more than 1/4 the floor beams length, which you can clearly see in the top picture (left hand side) is out of proportion. You will also notice (in both pictures) that the timber framing (which should be the structural skeleton of the building) is interrupted by the windows. In real life you would never weaken a building in this way it would make it unstable and likely to collapse. Still enough of that it still looks good and I can't see any of the Rainham players worrying about it, well now that they have read this they will, but normally they wouldn't.

I will not be going to Skirmish on Sunday two shows two weeks apart is too close for me as I need to work through the purchases I made at cavalier first. Talking of which I have some 20mm Taliban on the paint table and with luck should be able to share them with you on Monday. That's it for now, have a good weekend and take care, I'm off to watch the rugby on telly!. Cheers Clint

PIB

Here are the next four bases for my PBI (Poor Bloody Infantry) force which has a proposed game in 2 and a bit weeks. The overtime is killing the amount of painting I can get done, but at least by doing a little  every day It is progressing. As you can see these are 3 mortar stands and one sniper stand. Not the most exciting picture nor the most exciting subject but even at 15mm scale they look alright and once they all get together and on the table the forces will look presentable.

I started cleaning up the first batch of Taliban for the Force on Force game this afternoon. And they should get into paint in the next 24 hours. Picking two packs at random I pulled out some heavy weapons and leaders. I don't know my modern weapons to well and one of the heavy weapons chaps has something really quite large and I'm not sure what it is. Still if I paint it a dull green colour I can work it out later. Being 20mm (1/72 scale) you should be able to see more detail than these tiddly 15mm chaps. I have also got a little parcel from an online auction house yesterday of some Liberation Miniatures Taliban, only a handful and mostly armed with sniper rifles. I did not realise that until they arrived, but I'm sure I can find a use for them.

I'm a bit rushed at the present so it's a short one today, I'll post again on Saturday, all the best Clint

"I see dead people!"

Here are the first of many "dead people" sometimes you just want a few corpses to lie still while you play the game, not get up and wander about the place biting  people and generally creating a nuisance of themselves. I needed some for the car park game and had to use dead cowboys which looked a bit NAFF, but at least you got the idea. Anyway Tim (AKA Frontline Tim http://www.frontlinewargaming.co.uk/) set about making some. Now Tim is the second to say he's not a great sculptor, (second only because his wife would get the words out faster) and while these are a little raw they are perfectly good enough to represent unmoving lying still type dead people. He makes six all different in a pack cast in resin. I have only painted 4, as you can see, (stop counting on your figures it is 4 honest) as they were the first few I pulled out of the bag he gave me. All in all I am happy they are great for zombie feast markers, or to just litter your streets with as atmospheric scenery. Far as I am concerned job done.

This second pic is of one of the market stalls for the planned 3 musketeers game. Yesterday had an email that three of the key players aren't gonna make it Sunday so I'll postpone the game for a while and play it when more people can get involved. Which is a real shame because Tim has posted me some more of these, his own, as the rules need LOTS of terrain. The rules are home brew and assuming we get a good game out of them I'll post them in a later blog. Again this is another FRONTLINE resin casting. 4 of these and a fountain in a pack so quite good for musketeer type games.

OK that's the painting covered. But that's not all I have been doing. I have finished taping the latest moonscape and given it a single coat of muck, now it will need 3-4 days to dry out before the next coat. This should give me a chance to batten out the last to Afghanistan boards later this week.

I have also approached a supplier for club shirts and having originally said he can do them has not got his act together sufficiently for me to proceed. Am I down hearted? No not at all, the closer it gets to Summer the more variety of tee shirts will become available and the price will drop. At least that's what I keep telling myself. I have nearly finished the design, One of the dice has both a 1 and a 6 visible which as gamers of all quality know you should not be able to see (at least on a d6). So a little tweak and the designs done too.

And that's it for today. Hope you found something interesting here. Should post again Thursday. Cheers Clint.

Another Fembot

I am a little late posting today as I've had relatives round.  Don't get me wrong it's always nice to see them, but it has put me a bit behind on where I think I should be.
Anyway here is the second Fembot. Not quite finished in this photo so only need to put the few gold touches on and I'm sure you'll be able to imagine them as exactly the same as the first one. Clearly the lilac colour was acceptable to me and was fun to paint as it makes a change from most uniforms. It's probably a colour I shall use again although not on any more Fembots. Having said that painting fembots is fun and I'll think about getting some more at a later date.

Other painting update:

1.  Finished one peice of scenery for the 3 musketeers game I plan for a weeks time. I had hoped to have gotten more done but could not this morning. It is painted pretty roughly but it painted fast and at this stage I need fast. It stilll looks okay, but needs some tarting up at a later date. 1 done 3-4 four to go. I have yet to re-write the rules for the game, they're all in note form but having played it through before it should work okay again now it has been tweeked.  
2. Started to paint some of the zombie feast figures. The corpses to litter the streets of the zombie games. I have 4 on the table in various states of compleation, but again nothing to show today.
3. 8 PBI US infantry stands. (2 batches of 4 stands). I should get the first ones finished tomorrow and get a pic of them by Tuesday. Well that's the plan anyway. The second batch by the end of the week if all goes well.

Re Terrain update:

1. 3 Musketeers as mentioned above. 4 peices to have finished by Sunday morning. only furniture peices not full buildings. A set of Market stalls laden with goods.
2. Moonscapes. Started the fith board this morning, Then relatives arrived so had to abandon work half way through the first real stage. Andy from Ainsty castings wants a large crater board. The crater is about 14" across so I think that should be big enough. I am on the taping it all down stage. hopefully I can finish that  stage before I bnext blog.
3. Force on Force Afghanistan boards. Managed to get two boards cut to size and battened out ready to be worked on. I wanted all 4 done by this stage but at least I have made a start. Need to get the other two done in the next couple of days.

Other wargames projects: I have orderd some stuff from a couple of manufacturers for the BROADSIDE game. It is therefore very likly that I'll be paining 20mm modern wargames stuff for the game very shortly.

I have also been working on club shirts for the Rainham club. tempted to change the colours now to suit the new direction. I'll speak to a supplier on Monday or Tuesday and see where that takes us.

Well that's todays updates. I start 2 weeks of overtime tomorrow so will look and feel like one of the living dead for a while but it's only 2 weeks and the money will be ploughed back into my hobby so really nothing to complain about.

Cheers Clint.