Just another quick post. The moon boards are not dried out yet, hopefully on Sunday. So no update there.

Slowly slowly slowly painting the figure from Forlorn hope. But needed to catch up on sleep today so not been as active as I might.

I have undercoated my next batch of 10mm dwarfs so they'll be next.

Hopefully I'll be more productive soon and have something to show for it. But we all have off days so lets just chalk this up to one of those days.

Just another quick daily update.
Starting with the moon boards. I Have put the first coat of "Muck" on the next two boards and now they need a couple of days to dry. SO probably do nothing with regard to the moonscapes til Saturday at the earliest. That being the case there is nothing to show. The Camera seems to be eating batteries so I'll get some on the way home from work tonight.

New Figures: I had a small eBay order through today, just 3 figures from www.forlornhopegames.co.uk arrived very swiftly with the minimum of fuss. I got T0064 Male Biker with smg/chain, T0066 Female biker smg/shorts/boots. and T0069 fat biker with smg.

OK but what are they like: Firstly let me say I like them a lot and may well get some more. There are only 6 in that particular range, so making whole biker gangs might not be quite so easy, although I think these figures will fit in with many 28mm ranges, foundry street violence and Copplestone KKBB ranges quite well. There's no major casting lines or "flash" and the figures have had a dusting of grey primer when they arrived. So all that's good. I have nothing Bad to say about them, But there are a few things I'd have wished for. The "cuts" (denim jackets trimmed of sleeves) could have had the usual 3 patches on the back and a couple of others on the front. The Chain is very chunkie and would have been better slimmer. The Fat biker is not as fat As I would have hoped and no where near as fat as some bikers I have known in my past... (John the Big for example)... I was hoping for some figure who looked like a contestant in the biggest looser. Still we don't all get what we want. The bit that fits in the slotta base is also quite thin so needs to be packed out before you can mount them properly. Both the male bikers also have a pistol holstered as a back up weapon. The guy with a chain also has a grenade on his belt and a knife in his boot and an offensive pony tail hair cut. With that amount of weapons they look like good Necromunda gang candidates.

I'll tart up the warmaster dwarf beserkers in a sec and get these bikers ready for paint on Friday.

I was quite luck at work, I did manage to get all the time off I want for annual leave. (Has to be used up by April). So It looked like I'd get a couple of games in at the Sittingbourne club. Great as young Steve had a Vietnam game planned which I wanted a go at. But then my other supervisor rang me at home first thing this morning and offered me 18 days overtime (which of course I agreed to). So I may have to miss the Vietnam game, which is a shame but the money will allow me to buy loads more wargames stuff! (Yippee!) Also on the way home managed to pop into Tescos and get their last minute final mark downs before things go out of date. Sirloin steak at 58p a pack you just can't go wrong so I bought all they had and other than the one I had for lunch the rest have gone in the freezer! Some days it just works out right.

OK the last bit's not wargaming but I just had to tell someone!!!

Two snaps of the 10mm warmaster dwarfs from Kallistra. I have some tidying up to do and a few touch ups with a paint brush, but other than the varnish I'll call these done. (well almost done).  As you can see I have settled on a very simple colour palette. Given that most of them in this regiment are skin tone it was just a simple job of painting them "dwarf flesh" and then adding a dull red wash to get in all the cracks and crevices. I was going to hi-light them but have decided against it as I think it works well enough. All the fabrics were painted "Regal blue" and highlighted with dobs of "Enchanted blue" That just left the hair and the weapons. As you will note this is not an expert paint job as I really need to hand on to what little sanity I have left. Really quick post today as have a lot on my mind, Non of which is wargames related. So kindly forgive the brevity. Cheers Clint

Getting back to normal.

Again no pics today.

Moon Boards. I have done most of the next two boards construction. I'll still need to put a couple of layers of "Muck" on them and allow them to dry thoroughly, but they are coming along. I did manage to put the last layer on the first board. That will probably need 5 days to dry out and then colour up. Spent 2 hours up the shed in the cold and wish I'd put 2 pairs of sock on.

Club shirts: Done nothing today.

Warmaster Dwarfs: Getting there. I have just put a thin Black wash on then. Once dry I'll look at basing them and then with luck should get to photo them tomorrow. They are the first ones so have to learn the tricks of painting them as I go which means a little slower than normal, but if the black wash works I think they'll look OK.

Other than that nothing today. But have ventured the idea of a Mordhiem game set in 16th century Japan inspired by the new Wargames Factory Samurai. More if it happens.

That's it for today, I'll try to get a pic or two up on Wednesday.

Drying out.

You'll forgive me but it's the first moon board which is drying out. I must say it's doing OK, looking as I would expect. So generally I'm quite happy with the progress. It will need one more coat of paint glue and sand and then about a week to completely dry and then I can start colouring it up.

I have started the next two boards as well. On Tuesday I'll finish the construction of them with an aim to getting the first load of muck on them both. Until that happens not much to see.

I will post some pics of the warmaster Dwarfs I'm painting when they get to a stage where there is something interesting to see. Again they are looking good for what they are. They won't win any painting competitions, but they will not be embarrassing to Field on the table, which is the point.

Next subject: Club shirts. I have sent the design ideas out to three people. Two of whom have gotten back to me the other is most likely away or the holiday season. One person has suggested we have a Zombie Curassier as the club motif. I have no objection to that but as soon as I suggested they might like to do some kind of sketch to show me they backed out and just said can we have them on black shirts. Personally I think black would be the wrong way to go, yes I can see it would make them popular, but the colours would not "pop" from them and they would thus look dull. And after explaining my concerns he suggested Red (same problem), then Blue (I was getting bored by now explaining the same thing over and over again and said for it to work it would be best if it was on a pastel colour.... finally he came round to my original white shirt idea. Takes a time but finally I can get my own way.

Also talked to Alan (Sittingbourne club) about if we were going to get some "crew" tees for Broadside this year. He thinks we should so that's also in the pipeline. BUT no details just yet but we should have them by Cavalier where we would hope to wear them and hand out leaflets. If we get it sorted we'll be easy to spot at that show.

The thing I get from this blog is that it does "make" me do something for wargames everyday. I may not have to do much but I will have to do something.

More as it happens. Clint

Happy New Year

Well no post yesterday, which is not to say I did nothing, but more to say I was doing things I don't want to talk about. Later today I'll do some more on the moon boards and start my 10mm dwarf army. I am a recent convert to dwarfs having spent many years as a staunch dyed in the ear Elf player in role-playing-games I have steered clear of the diminutive chaps in the past. I think it was mostly that the people in my past who had games workshop dwarf armies were not as likable as people as I would have hoped. I hasten to add this is nothing personal to dwarf players in general, but is aimed at a few people in the past whom I have now lost contact with.

I have only unpacked one blister of Kalistra Beserkers, but I have found them very characterful. Yes the muscles are ridiculously large, and the noses remind me of bad Astrix cartoon copies, but all in all I think these stout chaps look great in naked metal.They seem much "chunkier" and probably a little taller than Pendraken, but that's not a problem for me as I don't intend to mix and match.  I also like the Kalistra price compared to GW and the fact that you get 4 stands and not three. Which has little effects on making a small army, but when making a large one say 3000 (warmaster) points will lead to a saving somewhere along the line. They are also wearing "Kilts" and bear chested and now that I have typed it I can't think what I would have done differently if I were a sculptor. The weapons are a nice mixture of really over sized and unwieldy items both one handed and double handed swords axes and hammers. All in all I think they'll paint up well and look good on the table but time will tell. One thing is for sure I'll be able to lose with them no matter what they look like.

Cleared

Well I have now cleared my painting table ready for the next batch of well I'm not totally sure yet, but probably the start of a warmaster dwarf  army, as I have them about ready to go, but I don't have any games planned.

You can probably tell what all the figures are without my telling. But just in case you cant they are copplestone cops, a crooked dice uplift security (not at all Captain Scarlet like) and three Hasslefree miniatures all painted to look like cartoon characters. (I'll have to get better at photography). I do have a Fred done previously so not included in this shot. I don't have the Scooby mini, there was something about it I was not sure of at the time, but am now regretting not getting it. Oh well.

The building in the background is hand made by me, but pretty old. It's just to give the figures a sense of scale and some form of background. Anyway it's made out of foam core (also called Lightweight or foam board depending on who makes or sells it). Anyway I'm not talking about that today.

I did have a flick through the "Tomorrows War" rules last night. It ways only a brief look at the rules, but here are my initial thoughts. If you have played "Force on Force" by Ambush Alley there are no surprises. Much of the rules, and 95% of the mechanics can be found there. The basic concept of the mechanics is that you need 4+ to succeed. The number of dice you roll will be dependant on how many figures are for example shooting, the weapons they are using, if they are at short range and other factors. The type of dice used vary with the troop quality. Militia and poorly trained troops will use d6. Regulars d8, Elite will use d10. And the superhuman film stars will use d12 (don't expect many published scenarios for Force on Force to use d12s). Obviously it's easier to roll 4+ on a d10 than a d6 for example. When being shot at the defender also gets to roll dice for their troop quality and it is by comparing these results of both the attacker and the defender that a result is determined.

The main turn mechanic revolves around acting and reacting to each other. For example Player a moves player B tries to react and interrupt player A. Player A may then try to interrupt player Bs attempt at shooting with a different squad. It sounds complicated but works really well on the table. Again your troop quality determines the dice you use rolling against each other to see who gets the drop for that action and then resolves either the action or reaction dependant on the dice.

There is a pregenerated background with some forces and equipment detailed as well as some planets and some political background. You don't have to stick to that of course, but from what I have read it's not too bad. Obviously being an American rules system the Americans have the highest technology and thus the best weapons a bit predictable really.

Overall I do like these rules but as they stand I think I'll stick to Stargrunt. I can see that changing if/when they bring out a couple of supplements with set scenarios and more background. Which I personally think Stargrunt should have done.

All the best Clint

Thursday

Again no pic today.You don't need a pic of the boards battened together and glued and then neatened up. yes I have done what I said I would, but there really is not anything useful to see.But as soon as there is anything worth looking at I will post it.

I have had feedback on the club shirts and it looks like it's a go (don't tell Ian he's bound to want to have a say and be negative about the whole thing). I think every club must have one and ours is called Ian. Which is not to say he's a rotter or anything, quite the opposite he's genuinely nice guy. But I think he's going through a can't be bothered phase, refuses to buy anything wargaming or paint anything and he's not hosted a game at the club for ages.All of which is his choice and I can't fault him for it, to some extent that was me a year ago, lost all enthusiasm. So I do know what it's like. I have now sent the design idea to the treasurer and (Frontline) Tim. I can't see them really digging their heels in so it looks like I shall have to spend some hours neatening the design and getting it ready for production.

I still have to read "Tomorrows War" so I can't talk about that either. I do realise it will mean me buying two opposing forces and making some terrain, but that can wait for a while. Also on the wait list is Cutlass (because it has yet to arrive) and the WW1 Zombie idea. I need to start finishing things before I start too many more, but I suspect that's a very common war-games trait.

I hope to finish some 28mm figures later today read for 7TV and that ilk of game. I have finished one lot of "pro-painting" ready to go back (early first world war 28mm Germans), I might phone the guy tonight and let him know depends on how I feel. However for myself I am painting some Copplestone cops. I originally got them for a superhero game idea, which has since faded into the background due to my lack of interest in building sky scrappers. I have this thing about most wargames tables being very 2 dimensional, especially at shows. I think any show game that can raise itself above the base board by more than a few inches starts to look interesting. Otherwise the game tends to look flat. Now I do grant you that most historical battles while some were fought on hills, (Waterloo, Hastings etc..)  they still mean that the observer at shows is looking at the figures mostly in plan. I did wrack my brain for some historical battles where height was important, but they tend to fall into a few distinct categories, Air war is the most obvious, and castle sieges. I must admit I would like to do a castle siege game, with a decent size castle to squabble over but that would create a storage issue.

That's enough for now speak soon. Clint

Wednesday

Well not too much to report on the wargames front over the past few days. Today however I have been to B+Q and bought some more wooden battening. I have worked up the shed and battened out all the remaining boards for the moon scape. I'll leave the glue to dry overnight and when I get back from work in the morning I'll sand them and generally neaten them up. Once that's done it will be repeating the previous steps with minor variations to create different boards.

The first moon board (in this batch) is drying out nicely, but still needs a few more days before I want to put the next layer of paint/sand and glue on. Then it will need a week to dry. So at this stage nothing to show in pics. It looks exactly the same as the last picture, but the texture is slowly, very slowly stiffening.

On other projects: I have sent a sketch of the club shirts to a club member and am waiting for his feedback before I spend any more time on it. Obviously I want him to say "Yes that's fantastic" but even if he does then that's where the real work will start.

Still thinking about WW1 Zombie games, I think the best scenario is a trench raid as opposed to a mass battle.A plucky group of Tommies going across "No mans Land" to infiltrate the German trenchline and find out what's going on. I suspect the biggest difference between a standard 7ombie TV game and one set in WW1 might be the skills. Mostly they will be very limited and most players will put their defence up as high as they are allowed. I think that I might limit the amount of points they can put up defence by might be limited. I like characters to be somewhat limited and have a vulnerability. Otherwise you'll get characters knee deep in Zombies and not worried about it. I'll decide closer the time of course, but it's just my first thoughts. I'll have to change the scavenger cards as well to fit with the era and setting and again that's more to think about. If I get this idea up and running I'll offer it to Dr Warlock for his Fanzine. He Knows I'm dyslexic and will have to proof read it thoroughly, but that's what an editor does.

That's all for today, yes I now it's not very exciting, but it's a step that needs to be done and done properly before I can go any further.

Merry Christmas

Well today is the 25th of December. So happy Christmas and seasons greetings and all that Malarkey. Seriously hope everything is going well for all of you.

To the right is all the games related stuff I was lucky enough to be given this year. For most of us "Mature" wargamers this is a first rate haul of goodies and for which I am really thankful, definitely no gripes from my point of view this year. I guess Santa must have deemed me "Good" this year. Normally it's just some socks and pants and some deodorants. So by comparison I am over the moon. All of them were surprises. The Jadpanthers were from Alan a small reward for putting on the Zombie Car park Christmas game if I am honest I had the pressie a few weeks ago but did not open it. I had rattled it and judging by the dimensions and weight and sounds concluded it was  most likely a kit of some kind, although with Al it could have been just the sprues with all the pieces removed and a witty note. It would be the kind of thing he might do as a joke, but I was confident (this time) that it would be kosher. (Mind you I have yet to open the box so the last laugh might still be with him). But I have faith.
The rest though were a complete and utter surprise.

I have only had a quick scan through "Tomorrows War", but I have Force on Force so I do have an idea of the quality of the production and to a lesser degree the quality of the rules. Coming to the point the rules seem (at this stage of quick scan) to contain a setting which appeals. I semi realistic future of futuristic warfare. I like what I have seen from a setting perspective both countries and corporations colonising planets and squabbling over resources. When I read more I'll have a much better idea, but for now I'm quite excited by it.

The DVDs have obvious 7TV links and as I have not seen them for ages will be quite fresh to me. I did manage to watch Deathwatch yesterday evening. My conclusions are mixed. I did think it was a good general horror film. I was informed it Zombie film, however  I saw no zombies in the film, which I found disappointing which is why I am not being as enthusiastic as perhaps I could be. The trenches were well constructed and the general feel/atmosphere of the film was really good and there are some good horror themes centring (in my opinion) around isolation both from their own forces and between the individuals of the group. But then I'd never be a film critic. Shame no Zombies though as come on World war one zombies does have a certain resonance.

I'll check the moon boards first thing in the morning, but I am not expecting it to be dry just yet and with Relatives arriving late morning don't think I'll get much chance to do much of anything. Still you never know I might get lucky.

Hope you've had a great day and that Santa has delivered more than just socks! All the best Clint

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