It's Christmas Eve

Here's hoping everyone gets their gaming gifts! I'm getting a new Video Card and doubling my cpu's Ram for starters! New up date on the concrete floor project probably in the first week of Jan. as I have just about completed the scribing of the cracks and will move to painting the entire surface with a foam rubber roller. Some coloring ideas were given me by Skrapwelder, which I will employ.

Still looking for a cabinet maker that has supplies of 1/8th inch MDF board. Failing that I may have to use art board and sand the smooth surface off for a test piece for the walls. Failing that, Foam core with some "dent" scribing for the cracks.

Work Update

Just finished a 1:1 scale 1:1 ratio house exterior paint job. 2 elements made it take quiet a bit longer than planned, 40 mph windy days and freeze's that meant that paint could be applied for 3 or 4 hours per day so it was warm enough to apply and dry before the freeze started again.

So now to do the Christmas stuff where I find the Mrs. the perfect gift, whether it costs 1 $ or a hundred dollars and back to working on the underground complex floor 4x4 board.

Concret Etching is Started

So, taking the excellent concret work up from The Lazy Forger site
http://www.thelazyforger.com/tutorials/how-to-sculpt-a-paved-road-part-1/
, I am working it as super sizing it to a 4 foot by 4 foot piece of MDF board that is 1/4" thick.

I will be making larger and smaller "poured" concret areas, patchs and the like to vary the otherwise geometrical lay out. Throw in some inset drains here and there to add some variety and the overal surface can have the "buildings" any where on it for variety and easier transport.

Soviet Forces Battle Italian Forces

So at the game club the other night I got the oppurtunity to field my Wierd World War II Soviet forces against the Itallians of a co gamer that is working hard at increaseing his total force composition. We worked out the points by having him buy all his avialable forces and then I matched them.

First picture shows my waves of Penal Battalion troops surging forward covering the Shock Squad of all smgs with armor on the flank.

Opening shots knocked out the major tank on each side but the Italians walkers suffered from badly aligned sighting systems and were shot up by my soviet Light Tanks.

My attempt to take the hill on my left flank finally was carried after taking a hugh amount of fire from the right flank hill where the Italian Paratroopers were dug in. Support fire from my reserve squads LMG managed to find the range and shot down most of the Para's which in turn let my final Penal Battalion forces to sweep up and into hand to hand fighting, throwing the surviving Italians in rout off the board.  Sadly, after 3 turns of my 2 light tanks firing like mad at the sole surviving walker, the Last shot of the game blew off a leg and crashed it to the ground in a blazing ruin. The Itallian command section gave up screaming for reinformcements and retreated off the board.

New Project Launched

Have decided to work on a convention game to run at Kubla Con this coming year... what to do.... So I selected a 50s Pulp Action game to feature multiple groups sent to a Secret Desert Installation (ok, maybe not so secret any longer) each group having its own victory conditions that might put them at odds with some of the other groups. After sketching out some layouts I hit the rewind button and wrote up what I wanted to see going on in the game rather than laying out the game and then figuring out how to get the players to do the scenario the way I would typically lay it out. With the What I wanted to see happen list I am designing an Underground installation with the small complex of buildings above, surrounded by a chain link fence.

Here is my rather different approach to an underground Installation lay out... rather than a small maze of tunnels leading to chambers I have the descending areas concept. On top of the blocks will be walled in areas where you cannot view down over the edges for the most part. A few scattered Elevators will be included plus the ubiquitous stairs. Some lower level interior walls will be put up that are totally destroyable by explosions and the like

Missions will entail rescuing scientists and Computer reels... or destroying / killing the same. I see a big order to Copplestone Castings in the future..... the complex will fit in a 4 foot by 4 foot board.

WWW II Battle Engagement

Here is my force lead by Union Jack in a recent WWWII battle;

Part of Skrawelders Halloween Game he ran for the local gaming group during which I ran his British commando group lead by the indomitable Union Jack. Multiple groups of mainly German forces were sent to find some POWs being held by a break away vampire and his cult followers. I managed to avoid the horrible dice curse for a change and finished the game with my entire 5 man section and Union Jack intact!

Some of the terrain and terribles we encountered and over came. Sadly the POWs were "turned" and had to be "put down" .

Paint meets Models

Fast update on the Soviet Recruits:

Still Bases to work up and lighting wasn't the best for the shot.

New Soviet "recruits"

Soooo here we go

House training and a certain amount of "breaking in" time to be sure, but the NKVD will handle the fiddly detail bits about that! (and a repaint of course)

Swap Meet Blues

So you go to the gamers swap meet with some cash in the pocket and no clue really about what you might be interested in but not having any pregenerated ideas....... and then they start cutting the prices if you "take them all".....  so 75$ and 3 deals later:

This is a picture of Most of the Mageknight figs I picked up, I had already boxed mounted figures, around 30 of them before I thought to grab the camera and shoot a picture.

Completion of 185th Gulag Shock Company

Held steady to a day of touch up and matt spray sealer to reach this point;

Regular troops to either; keep the Shock troops moving forward or herding them forward....

Press Ganged Gulag troops with various "uniforms" some of which may still have blood stains.

Special forces, Medium and light tanks, Rasputen, Bio Object 37 and Powered Assualt Armor. Still painting and detailing on these.

So here's Grassed bases

Blarg... glue, grass, press, tap tap.... repeat 110 times.....

WWW II moving along... slowly

So, put in a dvd movie and got out the Kel Seal to fill in bases gaps last night;

Goop applied to the bases to smooth the figure to base demarcation. Painting the bases green and boots black to go with my acquired figures next.

WWWII Update

Couple games back I got to command some tanks.... light tanks.... bullet proof but not proof to much else!

These brave vehicles fell prey to 76mm shells, very large cyborg Gorillas, and I think a Giant were wolf.....

They did brew up quickly and effeicently though..

Weird World War II Force Under Construction

So, the local group is doing some WWWII, with Germans, Italians, More Germans, Belgians, Polish and well, so, Hmmm, decided to tackle some Soviets. But not your usual source, since it is WWWII. For my rank and file trooper we went to the Gulags, for better troops we drafted the guards and to keep them all in line the NKVD!  A Hulk figure will the basis for one of my "super hero" figures, along with a Doctor Strange converts to Rasputin.

So, 4 squads of 10 gulag press ganged fellows, tough as nails (survived this long in the gulag) but low shooting skills (of course they were not permitted guns while imprisoned) , guards will be good at melee (dishing out beatings), NKVD will be elite as they are used to shooting anyone not toeing the party line. Might add in a female gulag guard squad using she wolves with smg's and Rasputin's Pioneer Scout squad (kung foo school girls) as his elite hit squad.

D&D game results

So were sitting around with some Orcs pounding down the path at us, Elf Ranger zaps arrows out like a machine gun, Barbarian bashes, smashes and slashes like a demi god, and my Warlock falls back on my typical dice rolls... whiff, piff, pew pew pew...

General Info

Battling side effects of meds regimen I have been on, which has left me not very active of the last few months. Change up has got me a bit more able to focus attention again and hope to get somethings posted along the way. Best advice I can offer anyone on getting older is to put it off for as long as possible!

Back from week Vaction!

Found some fantastic grey tree lichen to use on my up coming VSF Lunar Campaign terrain, most all of the terrain will be constructed from FOAM RUBBER material! Picuters to follow soon.

VSF Maddness

In the campaign a Swedish force with Venusian allies met an army of Kaptain Kneemo's Expeditionary forces.

Here are the forces, Kaptains force at the bottom edge and the Swedes at the top of the picture. The entire Swede Left flank was comprised of Newts fighting for the Swedes with a Huge Monstrous gator with howdah.

Kaptain Kneemo had his marines and sailors on his left facing the Swedes human forces, while on his right the whir and clank of his robotic infantry moved into position and locked down to steady firing backed up by 2 Medium Walkers and the Kaptain.

Left flank tidies up its formations while the right does likewise.

Into the battle the Swede left flank allies push forward into a pounding rain of shells and bullets. The Newts slowly lose unit after unit, the rear units pushing over the piles of dead, slowly advancing. when the last unit formed for a charge at a mere 8 inches, it to was cut down, a few survivors joining the stream of Newts running to the rear to "secure the camp".

The Swedes mean time had traded blows with the Kaptains Marines, driving them back, but with the arrival of the Sailors to stiffen the line they concentrated their fire and decimated the Swedes Elite Infantry units and broke the artillery.


A general advance ensued against the crumbling Swede right flank and that lead to the withdrawal of the remaining mounted units and other screening forces still intact enough to retire in good order.

Mega VSF Battle

Last weekend I hosted a B-Day mega VSF battle BBQ. Photo's of the battle follow:

A view of Kaptain Kneemo's mostly robotic units that were fielded that day.

The Ottomans massive Walker bestrode the field in all its glory.

Draniki Askari skirmish towards a wire entanglement. Belgians meet Clockwork robots in the center.

Belgians and their AAfrican askari move to the front while their American allies hold their flank.

Oh and enter:

One subterranean Dinocatsaurous and one Feldtcatasaurous true terrors of the field of battle....

And the Matt is now Brown

Color coated the Matt brown rather than green for when or if any of the kel seal does not fully cover, so as to reveal bare dirt.

Next I also ran out a sample piece that I will run some colored Kel Seal and Flock over to see how it compares to each other, I will intentionally not do a great job of coverage so as to check which will look the best down the road as it were.

New Project Launched

To go with the new 6x10 game board in the garage I am starting the game matt that will roll out over it. Using an old painting canvas drop cloth for the base material. Plan to take out the sewn seam in the center and re attach the two pieces by using kel seal as a glue between them. Edges will get coated with the Kel Seal also so as to prevent unraveling of any canvas edging.

Yep, thats a yard stick lying there for scale. For smaller games I have my 4x6 foot matts that I can use. Also planning on some  4x6 boards with blue foam so that I can do rivers and such in them, then lay them out side by side for up to a 6 x 12 board, and that's as big as I plan on at this time!

New works

Thought to take a couple of photos for what's on the workbench at this time. First is Officer markers for the Martian Empires games were playing. Each has a Command Radius, with General being the greatest on down to Major. So with 3 grades of officers radius, I determined to use 3 figures for the Generals , then 2 for the next and 1 for the last, each on a 50mm round base.

Next, something of a scenic complaint about all those units firing their smoke creating rifles got me to thinking about different approaches to how to have a line of smoke without just piling cotton balls along the front edge of the units.

I used Cloth wire, sniping away and covered a one inch line of wires projecting forth, then left a few wires to bend down to the ground with a final curl of the bottom edge, which will be attached to a base. Over all, once its based and the wires hidden, I think it will fit the bill for a good photo effect of a firing line. Shorter pieces will be made for units that have suffered casualties/lost stands.

Kubla Con VSF goodness scored!

In a discount bin I paid3$ each for these star wars 2 man scout flyer's that will work up into VSF scout skimmers.

Besides a paint job, I am thinking that changing the guns to chin mounts would make them more versatile for the battle field. Have to work out the uniform color for pilots though. No colonial period "air pilots" uniform pictures to draw from..... ;)

Birthday Mega VSF battle

Yep, decided to host a massive VSF battle , sides were determined by the pick of the players as they arrived, without knowing who chose what position as they did arrive. Leading to Belgians, British and Phobosian Qar  vs  Kneemos Expeditionare force, British and Americans.

To the right is Kneemos in the lower corner, then Brits then Americans. Opposite left side is the Belgian blue line, Brits and then the Qar in the far left most sun lit corner. Table was 14 x 4.

Battle commenced at about 11:00 am!

Here the Right Brits slam forward into the Left Brits in a stand up slug fest. To the right picture the battle continues as the Left Brits push a force on towards their right flank and roll into melee with the Right Brits, which led to much effusion of blood.

Kaptain Kneemo's forces, having completed long range destruction on the Belgian Blue Line infantry, rolled the extreme left flank, while most of the surviving Belgian infantry tried to huddle behind the woods.

The Americans and the Right Brits forces were decimated while the opposing side took some sever casualties, only the Belgians were crushed, but alas the field was carried by the forces of the Left Side in the end.

Much BBQ, snack foods and cake was consumed.

Mega Battle

I decided for my birthday to host a mega VSF battle. At least 6 people will bring armies totaling nearly 15,000 points to take part. Here's the battlefield for any that think to check before coming over ! Mahaha

Center of the board here. Watery pieces of ground are swamp, any collection of trees and foilage in base to base block line of sight. Single pieces of vegitation are moveable, for looks only. The Temple is the ONLY high ground. The board is 14 feet long and 4 feet wide.

Friday night game

As our campaign on Venus moves along slowly, various skirmish games are being played out in the setting with characters from our armies. At the end of such skirmish battles someone tends to get a bit of treasure that converts to troop points for their armies.

So wending my way through a typical Friday night crowd at the Great Escape Game shop gaming room:

Then on to the game table:

The GM, Nils, Bucky and David, eagerly awaiting the word to start.

The field of investigation pictured on the left. An item to search pictured on the right.

Checking lines of sight, but alas the rifles were limited to 12 inches range to fire. My Explorer and side kick, she was a hotty, accompanied by our contingent of Tharks.

A close up of the Statue's we examined. To the right my reduced group links up with the Belgians group.

Here the Americans, British and Phobosians are involved in a 3 way no holds barred  melee, hacking and slashing till most all their henchmen were slaughtered.. then Peace broke out!