Watching Paint Dry

Nope not the BBC's "Changing Rooms" program. Although I doulbt forgive you if you thought so. If I ever rename this blog that's what I'll call it 8-) I know It doesn't look any different from yesterday, but it has now had a second coat of the same mix as yesterday. Now I'd best give it a couple of days to thoroughly dry out. Several places the tape had come unstuck, but this second coat should cure that once dry. Water and tape don't really mix but with the wood glue it should bind it all together. (I say that with confidence as I have managed this technique a few times in the past.)
Waiting is quite hard you always want to fiddle with it and touch it to make sure it's still wet. SO I will walk away and leave it from tomorrow. I will give the board a shake to remove any excess sand. but that will be it in this project till Boxing Day I think.

My nephew is here again and I can't believe he has not seen Lord of the Rings. SO I have had a couple of quiet hours as he watches the first film. Talking of films I did manage to see enough of DEATHWATCH to know that the DVD works OK but drifted off to sleep so I still need to watch it. Me falling asleep is no indication of a film quality I can fall asleep on the back of a horse so while watching a film is just too easy.

The only other wargamy thing I've managed today is to send one of my club members a sketch of the club shirts I want to make. Still waiting for his feedback before I take it any further. And as only a sketch I won't bore you with it just yet. Maybe if they ever get taken to completion, but at this stage it's too early to say more.

Take care till next time. Clint

Post Script: I'll try to dig out some other free standing craters that I have done in the past as Sheldrake mentioned them.

First Coat

Well as you can see the first coat is on the moon board.Some of the masking tape might start to lift especeially when it gets wet. This is not ideal so before painting quickly check and push it back down. Don't over work it it should be fine as long as you have got at least 3 layers overlapping as described previously.  I use a little water some ready mixed poster paint from "The Works" and some wood glue. It's not an exact science or mix but about 3 times the paint to glue. And just a splash of water. Mix it all together until it is a single consistent colour. Mix more than you think you'll need as it's a real pain to mix half way through this stage. Using a paint brush, 2 inch is ideal but bigger or smaller as you have available. Common sense but don't use a figure painting brush that would take far too long and we don't have time for mucking about. The slopes on the craters will seem flimsy and it does have a moments concern as this is the most vulnerable process. A little bit of movement is to be expected, it is only tape after all.
Before it dries "Sprinkle" sand on top. U have used "Builders" Sand from B+Q as it was the cheapest I could get in the amount I wanted. You can use any sand I think as long as it is DRY before this stage. (I think it would work with wet sand, but take MUCH longer to dry therefore make your life easier and use dry sand. If I could have gotten silver sand at the right price I would have used that as it "Tends" to come in a more dry state than builders sand. I use a sieve when sprinkling the sand as t takes any lumps out and gives a better control. By control I mean it allows you see more clearly just how much sand you are putting at a time.
That's where I shall leave it today and allow it to dry over night.
On other projects (Can you tell I have had more time today).

I have sent for the "Cutlass" rules by Black Scorpion mostly as an excuse to buy some of their lovely miniatures. I like the idea of a "Smugglers" game as I can in my mind see the set-up and I like what I see. Once the boards are built I see no reason that they can't be used for other time periods. I have also thought of using it for a 7TV game "Margate Vice" But that's in the future and I'll put it on here anyway so you can see it happening then..

I have had two EBay purchases turn up. The DVD Deathwatch which I am told is a WW1 horror film cost me £1.27 including postage so if it's rubbish who cares. If on the other hand it's good it will kick start the WW1 Zombie game.

The other purchase was some 10mm Dwarfs for Warmaster. Six packs in all so I guess I might have to think about getting some painting done. I have two figures that NEED to be finished very soon, as they are part of someones Christmas Pressie. (Yeah I thought I was all done, but then found them). Oh well at least I found them last night and not Christmas Eve.

SO Now I'll watch this film and see how it goes.

Cheers Clint

Same ol' same ol'

Well pretty much the same as yesterday. Only managed to do the tiniest bit. But now at least have all the craters taped in for this board.

Now being pestered to watch Harry Potter DVD. Best go.

Monday

Well it has almost escaped my notice but we are on the run up to Christmas I have done my best to ignore it and have been very happy to do so. I have bought pressies already (got the last one in September) as I hate the last minute rush thingie, can't see the point a total waste of time. Little bit of planning and problem solved long before it becomes a problem. Or so I thought.

Well today school holidays have started and I have been "babysitting" my nephew. So how much do you think I could get done.... Yeah about that much or maybe a little less. Last time he came he did not have a coat so there was no way he could "help" up the shed. No way at all. So my sister being very very helpful made him wear a coat, but a brand new one that in no way could get any marks on. So the upshot was a total waste of time again could not get anything done up the shed. So No wargaming terrain made at all today.

I think I might have solved the Broadside game idea however. Which has put a smile on my face.  The terrain I am really good at making is cliffs. (even if I do say so myself.) SO I think a 17th-18th century South Coast smuggling game is the order of the day complete with smugglers cave system. SO you heard it here first.

I will continue to post this week and try to get things done in the dark up the shed before the young one arrives and I have to stop and look after him, but don't expect too much. Although I am now ready to start texturing the first moon board. So maybe tomorrow very early.

More later Clint

And Relax.

Well I am over the disappointment of yesterday and the ballroom double booking. SO that's gone and now forgotten.

So what's happening today.
I went up the shed to do some work on the moon boards, got cold and came back down to the house. But did a few snaps so we can talk about its construction. The first step is to get some 6mm mdf and some battening. Cut them to size nail them together after you first put some white wood glue on all the edges that touch. That's pretty straight forward so no need to detail that. There are on this board 3 sizes of craters, each is made from a cardboard tube cut down to an appropriate height.about 10mm for the small 18mm for the medium and 26mm for the large. It does not need to be accurate, or even level close enough in this instance is good enough so don't sweat it. The small craters use loo roll or kitchen roll cardboard tubes and I would start with them if I was following this guide as they are by far the easiest. The medium tubes are the core from rolls of masking tape. The large tube is mad not found. Simply cut some thin card into a strip I use the width of a steel rule to get the right height. Bend it round to create a circle fasten it somehow, I have used staples and tape in the past so it does not really matter as long as it is fixed firmly. Once you have the amount of craters you want, scatter them in a semi random way. You don't need to think about it much, just make sure that they are not in lines, not to close to the edge (you do want some close to the edge though or players will create clear lines of fire and movement. ) As a general rule an inch is ok for medium craters, think about the slope being roughly 45 degrees and go from their, a lot of it is trial and error so have a bash and see what happens. The next stage is perhaps the most important of the whole process. Use masking tape (as in the second pic) and place it directly across the card tube pushing it down firmly both in the centre of the crater and outside the crater. It takes a little thought and practise to get it to create the right slope. But once you have the knack it's really straight-forward. I tend to work like a spider and scatter them at quite wide angles around the tube say at 90 degrees, then 45 degrees. You don't need to be prescriptive about the angles just roughly as the next step will fill in all the gaps. keep repeating the above process all the way round the rings, overlap the tape and make sure there are absolutely NO GAPS. You really want to do this 2-3 times to give a good and smooth slope. The odd bump or wrinkle makes no difference as long as everything is completely covered and a couple of layers deep.  Unfortunately it does take a lot of tape, but it does work and as I can get 2 rolls in the 99p store it's not that expensive a way of doing it. I would suggest using the low price stuff because there's no point in using the expensive when the cheap will do.

On other wargames thoughts:
I have decided to abandon the secret project unstarted. It was to build some modular Venice boards. I think a three musketeer type game in Venice would be great. Or Zombies in Venice. Or a bond type roof top chase. Even WW2 spies. I think the setting would look spectacular for a game. But for me the realisation that I would need to make about 50 buildings for the plan to work, as most of Venice is really close together. All the buildings would be of a piano-noble 16th-17th century design. So at least 3 stories tall with a shop, workshop or store on the street level and living quarters above. Anyway It would mean I would have to build at least 2 buildings each and every week to a high standard. I still like the idea but can't see myself finishing it ever let alone in time for broadside.

Anyway the upshot is that I am still looking for a game for Broadside, but I do have several ideas no doubt some of which will turn out to be impractical. For now though I'll get Crimbo out of the way and take it from there.

That's it for today.

Cancelled!

The chairman of the hall our wargames club meet in has double booked the Hall on Sunday. We play alternate Sundays (and have done for about 30 yeears so I'm told) so we are in my opinion the right to use it but HE has orgnised a ballroom dancing examination and invited over 50 people to participate. I am a bit angry and have written a "snotty" email to him saying that he's been very selfish and that I am not impressed. There are two sides to everything so he might be in the right, and I may not be in posession of all the facts. However from my point of view it SUCKS! Sorry Rant over. So no games now till the new year.

Hopefully I'll be in a better mood tommorow and beable to write something semi sensible. Please don't make any comments and no sympathy please. I do have more going on in my life than a game.

Try again on Sunday.

Friday

Despite the snow I did manage to do an hours work up the shed. Gonna be working on and off now on the moon-scape boards. I was Going to photograph it as a step by step how too guide. But camera needs some new batteries so perhaps tomorrow.

My current war gaming thoughts are all over the place, but tend to fall into several categories. The car-park zombie game for Sunday. And most specifically what will I do with the paste table next. I suppose I could use the car park a couple more times, maybe a Miami Vice drug deal 7TV style, or a Fast and Furious Tokyo Drift car race game. Kev has suggested a swat based anti terrorist game set in a car park. So there are a few ideas, and I do like the drug deal idea, maybe a biker gang doing a drugs deal with some "Colombian" type cartel in a multi-story and a group of cops on the other side. But this car park was a "throwaway" game really everything done quickly and cheaply. Al (AKA Leofwine) seems to think the idea of a game board in a box is a good idea, the main problem is the proportion, it kind of needs to be a long thin game, played in a long thin way. Several ideas have been put forward verbally, but I'm not sure where to go with it just yet.

 Moon scape boards. Well I think about them because I'm making them and I'm sure I'll do a step by step guide to their construction over the Christmas period.

I am also thinking about a "semi" secret project and wondering if I could build it well enough to make it look impressive. I'm kind of over thinking it and probably should just bite the bullet and get it going. I will talk about it here if I get of my fat lazy bum and get it started as if I talk about it there's some chance I might finish it. I want a good looking game for Broadside 2012 and like the idea of this secret project, I was going to do a superhero game, but freaked myself out over thinking how to build New York City.

I am also pondering if WW1 zombies would be a  one of game or if I should perhaps invest some time and money in the project to make it more so. The question is how many times would we play it?

Well that's today's pondering. Talk soon Clint

Back to normal

Well it's back to normal, for a very limited and given value of normal. I'm still winding down from the car park game.  Most of the wargames stuff I'm doing today is pretty mundane. I have had to turn down a game over the Christmas week because I'll be working, and you just can't turn down overtime at Crimbo. (It's not quite double bubble, but it is Job and Knock so that's good.)

Ok so what has happened. Well the BIG news is that Karl from Crooked Dice has offered to come and give us a game. Always nice to get the game designer involved, if a little daunting if it's a game we put on with his rules. However he suggested either "You only live Dice" or the 2012 equivalent. Which is fantastic news as far as I'm concerned.

Also been chatting and at least one of my players loves the idea of doing a WW1 Zombie game. Here's a pic of my hand made trenches. It was made for a show game with Brits against Turks before WW1 games became really popular. It's all modular, but only goes together in certain ways, so you get a tetris type trench system. In this particular game the British had gotten into the Turkish front trench and here the Turks were trying to counter attack and bring up a HMG. Anyway with a quick freshen up I think it would serve quite well. Being inspired by the Nosferatu game in Keil I may repaint it all in greys so the zombies fit in and the Brits stand out. I'll see what time and effort I want to expend. But I think its a game that will happen in February. Working with the title "No mans Land!". Unless you can suggest a better working title.

I have also FINALLY started the Moonscape  Boards that Andy at Ainsty Castings as commissioned. He says he's in no rush which is just as well.

That's all today's news. Don't expect too much more for the next few days, but I will continue to post.

\Cheers Clint

Last Night.

Well this is the set up before the players come down in the lift and begin their escape. Each player selected at random a single character. Given the basics of the rules and the objectives. The cast was as follow:

• Clint "Zombies"
• Mark "Little Girl" (too much hilarity)
• Clive "Little Boy"
• Martin "Cop"
• Alan "Heavy" (again to hilarity)
• Alex "Army Girl" (more laughs.)
• Andy "Store keeper"
• Phil (in absentsia) "Santa"

Activisation was by random selection (names in a hat style) anyway the first few moves were tentative as all players were new to the rules and as I had not told them where the car keys might be they were I think uncertain of exactly what to do. The Little Girl had the first move and moved close to Santa. We had trouble from the outset with communicating to Phil But these things happen and we just got on with it. The other players came out of the elevator and either ran to the cars and found them locked (and no ignition keys) or went to the loos and maintenance room and began looking around. having decided that searching constituted an action. They would not leave till the following turn. By the time they did get to move they each had a scavenger card and were penned in by zombies and had to fight their way out. In the second picture you can see the storekeeper in the ladies loos, (bottom right corner), the Heavy by the first car on the right engaged in fisty-cuffs, the little boy near the red car in the middle. Army girl and the Cop were in the maintenance room,  and the little girl searching the skip. Clive (the little Boy character)

was the first to find some keys, on the corpse of lying that their feet in the third photo. By then the Store keeper had escaped the loos despite typically low wargaing dice rolls and discharged their shot gun into everything except the zombie about 1 inch away. The Cop had tried searching the petrol tanker but could not get it started. Army Girl had likewise spent several actions sliding across the bonnets of parked cars in a very 1970's manner. The "toddlers" (little boy and girl) had started to co-operate but were having trouble taking out zeds. To be fair all players were struggling to finish any zombies off. Big Al (the heavy) had also twigged that keys can be found on corpses and managed to secure a set as did the

little girl. Clive vocalised that perhaps the living dead might have car keys which again is common sense in the setting. The Cop Marting waded into a nearby Zed with his truncheon in an attempt to subdue it enough for a close body search. The idea was good It did get him some keys, but it also gave nearby zombies the chance to get close to him. So with several players having car keys now they started trying to start the cars. I decided to have the first car tried to need a natural 12 on 2d6 for it to fit that car. Then drop it to an 11 for the second attempt then 10 then 9 etc. So now the race for keys was definitely on and Clive having tried several cars had reduced the roll needed to an 8. It was at this stage that Alex (Army Girl) decided that enough was enough and that keys were more important than friends. So having scavenged a fire extinguisher used it on the heavy, and then to start swinging fits at the frozen chap. Meanwhile elsewhere Santa had deemed that the store keeper had been "Naughty" and clobbered him with a sack full of toys resulting in a stun. The next turn Andy (store keeper) immediately recovered from his stun and set about mugging Santa. He grabbed two pressies (which turned out to be an ornamental Katana in a display box and a nicely wrapper Chainsaw, just want we all want.) Martin was having troubles of his own surrounded by zombies with his back toward a car, heavily wounded he played the sewer rat event card and re emerged from a man hole 12 inches away from the trouble. Alan was stunned and the close zombie threw of its stun. So Alex decided to leave the keys on a stunned heavy and run like a girl with legs flapping about as far away as he could, and closer to one of the un-searched corpses, (a dead dead, not an undead). The three zombies entered a feeding frenzy on the stunned and frozen Heavy Al. The inevitable happened and alas poor Heavy Al was zombiefied. To rub salt in the wound Alex made him a new party hat .  As the store keeper was such a rotten shot he swapped from shotgun mode to first chainsaw then katana in an effort to cull the numbers. At this stage only 2 players did not have car keys, although Alex was to get them from the corpse on his next action. Al had keys on his zombie self but while no longer frozen was stunned a state he was to enjoy for a while longer. The Little boy was the first to get  a car moving but being a kid was not the best driver

 in the game. Despite that he did manage to run over 3 zombies as his first action and go up to second gear as his second action all without loosing control but pushing his luck to the limit. The storekeeper and Santa were slap bang ahead of him so unless they got to go next they'd be mown down. The Cop had just scrambled into a car as Clive turned the next corner. Martin (the cop) had to reverse almost into the path of the careering kiddy driven car. The Little Girl Mark was also carred up and the race was on to leave the car park first and scoop  this years tin or choccies which were the prize. But they were not clear yet. The Zombies made several last ditch attacks flailing wildly at the cars as they sped past.

 Clive was in the lead but a bad driver and had to make the choice of running over several zombies including Al (who was now a "stunned" TANK) or swerving out of the way. You can't blame him we all would have done it. The Chance of running Big Al down was Just too great. In a typically series of bad rolls he clipped the first zombie sent it spiralling one way and lost control of the car and spun. Mark was then to go and he managed to manoeuvre through the debris ridden car park and head towards the exit ramp. However Army Girl Alex had also started a car closer to the ramp and the way out, with no time to manoeuvre he set it in reverse and ended his turn at the bottom of the ramp,  but not  out. The turn ended and it all came

down to who went next. Alex's name came out the

hat so he  decided  to fire  is pistol at  the little girl

he missed but was Mark for able to reverse up the ramp and thus win the nights game. We were out of time and as club president Alan had to hand the prize to Alex, shake his hand and say congratulations. All in all it worked well had most of us smiling and laughing (even Alan claims he enjoyed it.) Honourable mentions for the game go to Alan for spending in total 5 turns in stun. Alex for being a rotter through and through, Martin for playing the right card at just the right time, Clive for low rolling consistently, Andy for becoming a walking armoury (3 guns, a sword, lawn mower and chainsaw) but still not being able to kill anything, and Mark keeping us smiling and coming a very close second.

Tonight's the night.

Nope nothing to do with John Barrowman and if he turns up he'll be the first one eaten! No pics today as saving batteries for th actual game. I have created 12 pregenerated co star quality characters. Each with a stat line weapons and a one word description like cop, looter, sleazy man, store keeper etc. It will most likely create some banter round the table as players call each other by thier description, " Andy you're a 'Little boy' and you've got a tiny pistol!"... "Yeah well Mark stop trying to loot Sleazy Alans bum!" You know the kind of thing all wargamers will resort to. (I am no better).

As ever characters can take any reasonable action. but standing thier with your hands over your eyes and claiming if you can't see them, they can't see you, will probly result in teeth marks. I'll change some of the rules for this one off. Activation for players will be by drawing names out of a cup. One at a time so they don't know the order they'll move/shoot etc. The Zombies will activate the same way, but only 1/2 will activate if thier card is drawn. 4 zombies per player and players that die come back as a co star zombie ( I have some wild west zombie gunfighters to represent them.)

The winner will be the first one to DRIVE out of the car park. The two children characters are bad drivers so thier cars will go slower, but they do have a higher move. Running out of the carpark will be assumed to be staying close enough to the zombies to be infected in the next few hours.

I am struggling to find my Santa figure for the absent player but that's the only hold up today.

I'll try to do a game report on Wednesday with a few pics and quotes should anyone say anything worth repeating!

First test shots

Well we are getting to the nitty gritty. By this time tomorrow I should be finishing off and heading out for the game. I still have a load to do, but fear not I am just about on target, so I thought I'd share a few pre game snaps. This first one shows the board overall. There are two white building sections to paint. The One on the right of the carpark is the access stairs, this will house some plant/machinery should the players WANT to turn the lights out and the stairs allow me to spawn more zombies should I need some closer the exit. The Road markings are again white pencil from a coloured pencil set. The Peice of machinery is an old "Snapdragon" peice sorry I can't remember the code or much else about it. I have a barrier to go on the exit ramp. Just a painted cocktail stick which I can peirce the foam core with to make it stick out.  Unfortunatly that's all the cars I have access to, could have done with more, but then that would have been more to carry (Thanks again Kev). As a wide full length shot I think it's starting to get thier now. Not that I was worried (much) but I had yet to propperly visualise it. The second Photo is very similar but you can now see I have painted the loos,blue for boys and pink for girls. No interior details as this is just a throw away game. Any player who can't figure it out deserves a slap with a wet MOGGY. The square room is the lift shaft that the players will start from as they escape the havoc in the mall upstairs. I have a checker plate (Plastic) stand there to represent the lisft shaft propper and the impact plate should the lift fail. (I have no idea if that's what you would normally finsd at the bottom of a shaft, but who cares it looks good and I can blag it if need be!!)  Behind the lift shaft is a set of stairs leading up. Obviously buildings with lifts have stairs for when the power fails (did I type that out loud) I mean should the power fail. The only other room will be a storage room, the grey one on the left, I was originally going to have disables toilets there but this has more uses and I can put a couple of tgreasured artifacts in thier should ay player want to enter a cul-de-sac. You can also see (on the right) some skips and a couple of wide parking bays, possibly for mother/toddler or for disabled drivers. Yes the fuel lorry will be parked thier, but the keys for it will be at the other end of the car park.

The next shot is an eye level shot. It does higlight the fact that the cars are too big, But I think that's ok, as mostly we'll be above the ground floor looking down. Which is what you get in the next pic. Three survivors and a few zeds closing in. The dead body is a resin casting from Tim (Frontline) Wade, Unfortunatly he says the molds have now gone to America. They were wild west dead and wounded, I managed to scrounge a couple, (should have got more in Hind sight). And while they are painted and based for wild west gunfights they are some of the few dead (and remaining that way) boddies I could find. I did ask on the crooked dice forum, but no one had any better solutions which is a shame, but maybe in times to come I'll find some. Thanks for reading. More on Tuesday and a game report Wednesday. Cheers Clint



Enough for now.....(maybe)

Well I have now painted 48 zombies for the game. One was missing from the Sprue that Kev "gave" me so I substituted a zombie clown  just had lying around. It feels like a weight's been lifted to have gotten enough Zombies done for the game. I really must finish the carpark model though or all those will be for nothing.... well not nothing we all know I'll find a use for them, even if it's not this game. I still have 12 on thier sprues which I shall tackel on at a later date. As  Club Rainham Wargames has quite a few Zombies now, this 48, plus the horde that Kev has, plus any other members as well. But as only these will be used on Tuesday night I think I should have enough, just!

Just because all the Zombie painting was getting boring I thought I'd do a machine waith as well. It's a bit more colourful. Still not happy wih the photograpy, I think I might need some help there, But at least it makes a change from painting Grey. Yes still "undead" and as I am sure you'll already know a solo for The CRYX faction in warmachine. It was remakably quick and easy to paint mostly at night. My Cryx force has a very rusty look with purple man colour and green accents.

This afternoon I will sort out the survivor figures for the Carpark game. That will give me 2 full days (other than overtime) to finish things of. I can see it being finished but eben so have mentioned some concerns to Alan. We have a back up Wild West Gun-Fight game ready to roll out if we need. So it's not like we'll have nothing to do on Tuesday if it all goes wrong.

That's it for today. Have a good Sunday and I'll post again on Monday.