Update

Hopefully some tanks show up in the mail today (12 M-48 Pattons and an OH-58). I've really got the painting bug and haven't had anything to work on all week. At least my wife's art-nado is being packed up today. This is what she's put together:

Here's hoping she can sell it all since we can't eat it. :) To be honest, there isn't a lot of money invested there - just a lot of time.

Junior has been nagging me for "stuff to paint" lately and I really haven't got anything for him, although he did raid some old half-painted Eldar the other day. I did order him some Infinity miniatures for Christmas and will probably get myself some too. Yeah, I know that if you scroll down a few posts on my blog you'll see me mention not wanting to touch Malifaux because of the "different scale" issue. Ski is changeable, like a feather in the wind. I do have a bit of 40K scenery still that'll work just fine for Infinity. Plus, the larger scale and glossy cool-looking minis are rather appealing to 9-year old eyeballs. The game's rules are available for free (SHOCK AND AWE!) and look pretty OK at first blush so I'm looking forward to giving it a go.

OK then, that was easy

Damn can I get some painting done when I have no distractions. The FRG Light Jager Battalion is done. Here are some "meh" pics of the results.

That's a mortar stand, 3 MILAN stands and 7 no-frills infantry stands.

Last time I painted MSH troops, I made a tool to make flocking easier since micro-armor sized infantry on a thin metal base is difficult to simply pick up.

It's just an ordinary pencil with the eraser pulled out and replaced by a rare-earth magnet (gorilla-glued in). Given the way I base my dudes with quarter-inch of ID strip on the rear of the base, there is a target to aim for with the magnet. I haven't played a game of MSH since I made the pick-up stick, but it may also save a few gun barrels later down the road too!

Ya'll have a good weekend!

Update

I haven't gotten a whole lot done lately - my wife has commandeered the painting table for some art pieces she is making for a show next weekend when she hopes to sell them off. I did get a bit of work done on some West German infantry for MSH, using the dribs and drabs I've had as leftovers. If things work out, I may have them done this weekend. I also ordered some M48s for the Germans, to go with the infantry as part of a reserves brigade. Gaming this weekend is doubtful, I hope to make up for it next weekend.

Be well and good gaming!

Are You A Proper Wargamer?

This is starting to make the rounds... I'll add my 2 cents. I saw it on Wargaming Girl's blog.

* Spent at least £500 ($800) on figures / tanks - and you get extra kudos for every £500 you've spent
At least $20,000 in my life, probably much more than that

* Pricked your finger or thumb on a pike block - several times
Not on Pike Blocks, but on aerials and other bits

* Tried at least 10 different rule sets and vowed never to play half of them ever again
20+ rule sets and I am officially retired from two - Blood Bowl and Flames of War

* Bought an army off EBay
NEVER! (Unless it is just unpainted lead)

* Sold an army on EBay
Yes, twice. 40K Space Marines and FoW US Paratroopers

* spent months painting an army - then used it in anger once
Yes, Skaven in WHFB

* tried several different periods and genres
Yes yes yes! Lots of different stuff!

* dropped a box of figures on the floor from a great height
Worst ever was dumping a large tackle box containing a Lizardman army out of my car into the parking lot. Quick answer - yes, at least 3 times.

* lost a battle on the last throw of the dice
Yes, all the time. Most recent was yesterday.

* made at least one enemy for life
Yes. Risk, Blood Bowl (two), FoW.

* had a proper, stand up argument over a wargamers table
Oh hell yes. 

* thrown a dice across a room
Many - Blood Bowl and WHFB primarily. I've calmed down a lot since then though.

* rebased an army for a different rule set
Yes, plus my next big project will be converting FoW to WWII Spearhead

* inflicted a whopping defeat on an opponent
Yup. Made Bruce cry in WHFB. Smote the crap out of some Skaven in WHFB. I've whipped up a few 6-0 wins in FoW. Crushed some souls in Blood Bowl. 

* suffered an embarrassing defeat due to a stupid tactical decision
Constantly. It's my signature move.

* joined a wargamers club
No. It's not a "thing" around here.

* bought a ton of lead that remains unpainted
Nope. I've been very good about that.

* been to a wargamers show
Yup. I do like them too!

* have more dice than is logical or necessary to own - and have used most of them
Probably 800-1000

* have taken boxes of troops down to a club just to show them off to your mates
Nah. I break them out for fightin' not just showing off.

Flying Lead and Little Grey Men

The National Guard and LGM had another encounter Saturday evening - this time Dennis took command of the spacemen while I kept control of the Georgia Army National Guard. I worked up some stats for the Jeep and its recoilless rifle as well as the Aliens' robotic menace TOBOR. I also tweaked the LGM a tad - the guys with rifles are much nastier now with a better C score and their weapons also being one C score higher. Below are the actual game stats used. I really do like that Ganesha Games has a very easy to use unit generator on their website for their games.

Lieutenant  Q3 C3 Pistol, Leader
4 Guardsmen Q4 C2 Semi-Automatic Rifle
Radioman   Q4 C2 Semi-Automatic Rifle
Loader Q4 C2 Carbine
Bazookaman Q4 C3 Bazooka
Jeep         Q4 C2 Off-Road, Recoilless Rifle
Recoilless Rifle   Anti-Tank 6, Combat +2, Lethal v. Soft Targets, Range: Long, Slow Reload

Alien Leader Q3 C3 Ray Pistol, Leader
5 Troopers Q4 C2 Ray Pistol
2 Riflemen Q4 C3 Raygun
TOBOR Q3 C2 Armored +5, Ray Claws, Off-Road
Ray Claws Anti-Tank 5, Combat +3, High-Tech Ammo, Range: Long

The battlefield from my side. Two riflemen, the jeep and the Lieutenant on my right, bazooka Joe and the loader in the center and three riflemen towards the left.

The game board from the other side. TOBOR was overlooking the road and all the infantry was in the woods between the robot and the saucer.

The jeep and TOBOR line up shots at one another. Both shots were ineffectual.

The jeep pulled back to reload and the riflemen try to get into a good firing position.

Things aren't going so well. The bazooka man actually hit TOBOR twice but failed to cause any real damage. The alien rifles took out the guardsman on the billboard and the bazooka man with some fine long-range sniping.

LGM cross the hedge. I have two guardsmen on the roof of the Texaco station, prone. The jeep takes a shot at the aliens but it misses terribly. A return shot ignites the fuel in the jeep and ends its day. 

A few turns later, the guys from the Texaco station climbed back down and charged the aliens, engaging them in close combat. The back and forth shots had been indecisive and I was looking for a way to break the stalemate. My soldiers took out the three aliens but the Grey riflemen gunned them down in short order leaving me with just one soldier - he's at the very bottom of the picture towards the left. He passed his morale tests but I evacuated him on his next activation. Clearly, the alien menace was not to be taken lightly!

We had a good time with the game. It was Dennis' first gaming using the SBH system and our first time using armored vehicles so going was slow but after some time we were buzzing right through it. I do need to tone down the alien riflemen - I'm going to put their C score back down to 2, that with the +3 from their weapons makes them better than the run-of-the-mill grunts but not overpowering which is exactly what they were. I also need to pilfer an army sniper from my FoW collection to help the guard out.

Be well and good gaming!

Off-Topic

Well, Malifaux didn't really work out in Charlotte - I went by the game store but the players were there for D&D. Ha! I did hang out and chat with some of the folks for a couple hours - nice people and a good shop - Games HQ. Malifaux looks neat but since all my scenery is 15mm scale or smaller, I have no business getting involved with bigger scale games.

I haven't done jack as far as painting lately, unless you count a coat of paint on "Monster Island." I'm going to turn a pink insulation foam hill into a terrain piece for Mighty Monsters - a Godzilla-type game. I ordered some PicoArmor tanks, helos, APCs and stuff for use with it too.

I installed Windows 8 on my home PC last evening. The upgrade process worked flawlessly - I was rather impressed. The performance boost is nice. It'll take a week or two to get used to the UI but it isn't as bad as the nay-sayers in the press would have you believe.

Happy Halloween! We're dressing up as Scully, Mulder and two aliens this evening.

A Murder!

Well, this certainly falls into the "and stuff" department. Saturday evening we did a "How to Host A Murder!" I bought the kit "An Affair to Dismember" back in June and sent out invites in July, so this had been planned for a while now. Two of the invitees, a married couple "forgot" the date, so I - originally just going to buttle and chef - ended up playing one of the parts and I called my mom to fill in the remaining female role. Ain't moms wonderful? It's been 20+ years for me and mum since we played one of these so we were all novices and things went a tad roughly to begin. After 30 minutes or so, once the booze had time to soak in, we were all chatting it up hurling accusations and questions back and forth. It was an absolute blast. We will definitely be doing this again. And now for the pictures...

My wife as Angela Deth, DDS

Ziggy and Randal as Hannibal Lecter and Asthmadeus, Prince of Dimness

Jami as Lizzie Bordeaux

Mum, as Aretha Garlique a Gypsy, Shelley as Glumda the Witch and me in the back as Balihi, the Rogers and Hammerstein Monster (out of dress since I was only supposed to be hosting).

Poring over our dinner and round three instructions.

Dennis as Aldrinktotat the Mummy holding a candle for my mom so she can read.

Quite the coven

I'm out of town in Charlotte, North Carolina this week at a Citrix training class for work. I found a game store up here that's has Malifaux running on Wednesday evening so I may swing by and check that out.

Be well!

Dystopian Wars

Well, it certainly has been a week of getting things done! I knocked out the EoBS tanks and bombards that have been  75% done for about 3 months.

Some pics...

My Japanese stuff is very shiny and metallic - just the way I like it. Maybe I'll actually drag these guys out and play a game of DW one of these days.

Shipwreck Planes

Those 1/600 planes I was working on got finished up this evening. I was waiting on the bases which arrived yesterday.

Here are some pics of the finished products...

Some F/A-18 Hornets

A-6 Intruders

And oh so sexy MiG-23 Floggers

Can't wait to put 'em on the game table!

The Texaco Station

I finally finished the Texaco station that I started on some months ago. It has been languishing on the "to do pile" begging to be completed and the game of moon-men versus army-men Saturday was just the inspiration I needed. I'll add some actual fuel pumps one of these days when I get around to making them.

This was the inspiration for the design:

It is mostly foam-core with the paper removed. The edges of the roof are balsa and the ladder and sign are plastic card. It should add a nice touch to next next game of Flying Lead.

Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting

Junior and I took Flying Lead out for a spin this evening and had a quite enjoyable battle.

The scene: October 13, 1960 near the Chatham / Effingham county line north of Savannah. 4:00pm. The Georgia National Guard has been put on alert - something has been spooking old man Kessler's cattle for the last week or so and the FBI has reason to believe the problem is not of this world. Lieutenant Callahan is patrolling with a squad of weekend warriors when they come across something they never expected.

National Guard OOB:
2LT Callahan Q3C3 Pistol, Leader
Bazookaman  Q4C3 Bazooka
Loader Q4C2 Carbine
5 Riflemen Q4C2 Semi-Automatic Rifle

Grey Aliens OOB
Mul'der  Q3C3 Ray Pistol
2 Alien Riflemen  Q4C2 Raygun
6 Alien Troopers Q4C2 Ray Pistol

The layout. We're using the SOBH board I made for Gnomecon. It's 24x24. The aliens on the board are not where they will be starting.

A view down the creek.

My starting positions. Lots of rifles on my left and the bazooka "sniper" on the right. The bazooka was nothing special in this game with no vehicles. He is a better shot than the other guys though.

The invader's setup. They are all in the woods. The saucers are really just scenery but became important a bit later in the game.

Two Greys take up positions on my far right. One has overwatch on the bridge. 

The guard moves up. The bazookaman goes prone - indicated by the silver marker.

Riflemen take shots at targets across the river. Two hits!

We decided that the aliens could drag their wounded back to the saucers for first aid. Junior did just this. His trooper that crossed the road into the graveyard takes up overwatch on the bridge.

The lone alien rifleman (the other was wounded and currently being tended to) takes aim at PFC Jones.

Gene gets a neat little hole through his chest.

Another raygun blast hits home - Private Stephens is wounded badly.

"Bear" lines up a rocket at one of the scum on the bridge and knocks it out of action!

But the aliens are trying to make off with the body of Jones! What kind of monsters are these?

Lieutenant Ricky Callahan rushes forward with his .45 blazing, catching the alien square in the chest, sending it sprawling on the asphalt.

But the other alien rifleman forces Callahan to hit the deck.

Bear looses another rocket and blasts the vermin. Another one out-of-action!

But the honorless alien leader slowly stands and carefully lines up a shot, disintegrating Callahan. Bear, the Loader and one other rifleman, PVT James Simmons fled back. Clearly, more firepower was going to be necessary.

So, the Greys won, the out-and-out kill on my leader pretty well decided that. My guys were so close to my board edge that any flee result meant they were off the board. We both had a good time. Next time we'll add in the rules for vehicles and maybe add in the tank or jeep and the alien robot.