Monday, November 30, 2015

Starting New Projects for December.

   It has been a rough couple of days, since I work in retail. Some of my own personal time table for projects has been delay. However, I feel I have been my good ground!
   One of the current projects I have going are to remake my hedges to the same standard as my new trees. Though, I still have not got all of the parts to finish it, I have a great start on them. Here are some of the steps I have started.
I decided to use chair rails for the base of my hedges. The shape looks like it could be a problem, but I have a plan for that.
The nails are for support to the actual hedge bushes.
 

I added the trees I wanted and glued them in with a glue gun. I also went around and drew with the gun to give the appearance of roots.

A closer look at the proposed roots system. Note: there are no rocks in this hedgerows. Around Google mapping the areas of France, I did not see any rocks involve in hedges. If they are there, they are hidden.

This is a reference to the size compared to a 28mm German. The bushes are ripped and shaped scouring pads for a dollar. I cannot continue further on this until my leaves and sea foam arrive.

 
      In addition to my hedges, I also have started mat number two for my wife and I's upcoming Bolt Action Tournament. It still has the other half to paint. I might be able to finish it on my birthday this Wednesday. Here is a photo of it so far.
This is just part of it. It will be 5'x6'.
 
And here is the finished first one!

Friday, November 20, 2015

An Afternoon of Painting.

    I had a day off to do nothing but paint. I have had a whole bunch of Germans just waiting to painted. I still have a platoon more. Yes, a platoon more! This rather large amount of Germans was cause from when Artizan Designs placed a lot of figures on clearance. Now, I mention to my wife that if she gets some that would be good. To make sure I did not get unneeded troops, I gave her a Flames of War book for a reference for soldier squad references for Panzergrenadiers. Then, I went to work. It turns out she over ordered. It is okay, because I will always use them some how.
    I brought a bunch of Fallschrimjaeger the other year off eBay. I thought I placed a bid for $80.00 for them. Or so I thought! It turns out it placed a bid of $8,000! So I won with no problem, despite the near heart attack. It was still a deal, and I sold some of them. Still, it was a little scary. Anyway, here is just a show case of what I did today. Enjoy!







The Games We Play.



 
     It is true that most of my posts have been mainly our Bolt Action stuff my wife and I play. Right now, it is the most showcased due to my terrain projects. It was the other day that a friend of my said the he had not had us over, because of a large set up of an American Civil War game he had going. I, then, told him that we can play that as well. It never dawned on me until that moment that people we know might only think we play certain games. And come to think about, most of our fellow war gamers are never around when we play different rules or time periods with exception of our good friend, Bill who is up for anything. So I figured I was share some highlights of other games my wife and I play.
      Chain Of Command.
       Okay, so this is more WW2 stuff, but this last game was in the dessert in 1942. My wife, Kalissa has a rather large British 8th Army. I have a German DAK counter army. In the shots below, our friends, Hugh and Joe were the Axis Powers versus my wife and I as the British. It is rare that we are on the same side. Also, Kalissa does not particular care for Chain of Command, because is does have it's slow moments. It happens. I do have to agree that there are long pauses in the game, especially, when one side get multiple phases. One game of Chain, I had 9 phases before my opponent did anything. Multiplayer seems to reduce this.
 


Some of our British.
Hugh's Italians. The red strips were represent Barbed wire.

Germans attacking a Valentine Tank.
    Angels 20.
      It is a real shame that this game from Axis and Allies did not take off enough. We've played a few times. The game is fairly simple. And who does not want to shoot down their friends. I still have not fulfilled my challenge to our friend, Rick. I wanted to take one some of his planes with my French planes, that are the worst in the game. Anytime they fail a move, they loose altitude each time until they crash.





This is my German plane exploding in mid-air. The pilot that shoots me down. My wife!

Lions Rampant.
   This is a newer game of Osprey that involves simple combat during Medieval Times. This a fun a bloody game. We will be playing more of it in the future once I finish painting our stuff. I have not got around to modelling terrain for it either. I know once I a commit to building a castle, it will be game over for me. I will just have to terrain out of control!
Kalissa trying out her Mongolians for the first time.

Bill's Knights.


 
Song of Blades And Heroes.
    Our friend, Bill introduced my wife to these rules, and she really liked them. We ended up buying a bunch of woodland critters armed with swords and such. I still have a lot to paint, but they are still good rule sets.

 


My Fox Guards



Kalissa's Mice.
 Ronin.
   Yet another game of Osprey that we like. We actually got all of the factions when this came out. Though, I tend to use my Samurai the most. Kalissa has her "fundamentally peaceful" monks. This changed after she discovered you can cut off heads as an action. This game was Bill's group versus my bandits I had never used. The fact, I have peasants armed with hammers seemed extra amusing.





I found the peasants to be a lot better than I thought.





 
 
 
Black Powder:
     We played a game of Black Powder American Civil War. Though, we do not have anything yet for these rules, both of us have played different time periods.

 

 





 
Of Gods and Mortals:
     We like Greek Mythology. This game covers all mythology. It is awesome!


Athena takes the high ground and uses lightning bolts burrowed from Zeus.


A hoplite becomes a chew toy!




Ares: God of War!
      Anyway, we do need to play some more games. We still need a few armies for the rule sets we have like Muskets and Tomahawks, Pike and Shot, Black Power to name a few. Also, I will eventually finish a future Con Game: Sharknado! Here are some of the characters so far.