A League of Ordinary Gamers

Western Gaming Inspiration: Warlock (1959)

2012-02-11T10:53:00.000-05:00

I getting ready to expand my Wild West town and am looking to purchase some of the new GameCraft Miniatures Wild West 28mm buildings. As a result, I did some "research" early this morning (woke up way too early and couldn't fall back asleep) and watched (on Netflix) the 1959 classic western, Warlock, staring all my favorite actors: Richard Widmark, Henry Fonda, Anthony Quin, DeForest Kelley, and more. The blurb at IMDB reads: "The town of Warlock is plagued by a gang of thugs, leading the inhabitants to hire Clay Blaisdell, a famous gunman, to act as marshal" You just know there will be problems! I won't spoil the movie for you!

As I often mention, I use the blog as a visual notebook for myself. Below are a series of screen shots I captured for inspiration, ranging from building shots to outfits. Why should I guess what colors to use for buildings or figures when I can screen capture? I know this post is picture-heavy, but the images are fairly small, averaging less than 200k each. If this is too many photos, please let me know. I'd hate to bring folks's readers to a crawl!

The opening scene of the town Warlock. I need a model of that water wagon!

The saloon, very muted. This will be repainted white later in the movie.

The stone sheriff's office is great. I love the other buildings, too. Must remember to dirty up my models!

This is a great outfit. Must paint stubble on my figures.

Seeing this photo, I realized we need figure facing rules in Western games, for that shot in the back.

A nice collection of dusty outfits for painting inspiration.

Inspiration for townsfolk painting.

Windows are not empty. Remember to add curtains!

The villain gamblers always wear flashy vests. I doubt the small print pattern will survive shrinking to 28mm.

Masked bandits. Remember to make a handkerchief green or blue! Red gets old.

Love the livery colors. I need water troughs (basic water boxes are fine it seems) and wagons.

Another collection of great costumes to paint. Notice how gun barrels are not black?

This doesn't look good!

Richard Widmark makes a stand. Again, love the costume.

Is Henry Fonda a good guy or band guy? Classic outfit and pose.

I love that jacket on the right! I must try it. Plus, buckskins! Nice inspiration for painting.

Sick of Being Sick

2012-02-07T21:07:00.004-05:00

I am now officially sick of being sick. I started teaching this semester with a massive headache the entire week, then a nasty cold bug started going through our house from my son, to me, and then to my wife. I felt ok last week. But now I am sick again! Agh! The same thing is happening to the entire college. Anyway, here are some updates about what has been happening. I hope you all remain healthy. Thanks for following the blog!

Star Wars: Episode I in 3D Premiers Friday
I should be feeling better this Saturday morning to check out Phantom Menace in 3D. Jeremy wanted to see it at midnight Thursday/Friday, but I am way too old for that! I know many people hate Ep I, but I happen to like it. I even like Jar-Jar! My students get a kick that their English professor loves and quotes Star Wars, though my specialties are Renaissance and 19th century literature. See the Episode I 3D website for more info. Plus, we get a free SW toy this weekend only! Whoohoo!

28mm Soviet Update
The 25 BTD Soviet infantrymen figures are nearly done. All that's left are the hats and helmets. Wow, I started them over a year ago! If I'm feeling like it, I'll work on them this Friday.

WWII 15mm Update
These were the first figures I painted and have been showing them here every now and then. But the paint jobs have been bugging me, especially the Germans. They look ok, but I've learned a lot in the past few years. So during the short window when I was feeling better, I spent some time repainting the Germans. I redid the shading and highlighting, redid the belts and straps (they were a mess!), and painted their collars and shoulders. They look a lot snazzier now! I am eying the Americans as well. I also picked up some Zvezda Opel trucks to assemble. I'll try to take some new photos, of course. I need to put on a game of Crossfire one of these days.

Star Wars CCG
Got the old game out and have been having a blast. Jeremy keeps beating me, but it has been fun. I'm picking up some cards on the secondary market as well, filling in some holes. While I have 16,000+ Legends of the 5 Rings cards, I only have about 1,500 SWCCG cards. ("Only?!?" my wife yells sarcastically!) Sigh. It's an addiction. I also pulled out my Lord of the Rings CCG collection. Pray for me!

Sam's Club Selling Babylon 5 Cheap

2012-01-28T09:31:00.000-05:00

Last night, I stopped by our local Sam's Club here in Central Florida. They are selling all the DVD sets for all five seasons of Babylon 5 plus the DVD of the five B5 movies for only $15 each. That was a total surprise! I picked up the movie DVD, so our collection is complete. I wanted to mention this great deal in case anyone might be looking for the series. Hopefully, you can find it in your area.

Also, I want to welcome all the new followers and readers who have come on lately. I hope you enjoy the blog! More later.

Another of the Greatest Generation Passes Away

2012-01-21T22:17:00.000-05:00

Bill giving his service medals to my son as a birthday gift.

It with a sad heart I say this, but Bill Peebles, the WWII vet I wrote about who gave Jeremy his service medals, passed away yesterday morning. His health and strength deteriorated rapidly after I first posted about him (you can read it here in the archives) . Due to his weakness, he was never able to tell Jeremy all the stories he wanted to tell about his adventures during the war, which has really saddened Jeremy. So we once again have to mourn the loss of a good man and friend who will be missed.

For us, Bill is the fourth death since last April, when my father died at age 70. Then our great friend and neighbor George, who Jeremy had dubbed his "Granddad South," suddenly died while swimming. George was 64, a pastor and hospital chaplain. Then in November, Teddy Rushing died from an IED while serving in Afghanistan. Teddy had been Jeremy's school and youth group friend for several years. Teddy was the first kid to befriend Jeremy when Jeremy was new at the school. Teddy was only a few years older than Jeremy, and Teddy's death hit Jeremy very hard. And now Bill has passed. The upcoming WWII reenactment will feel a bit lonelier this year. Sigh. It has been a difficult several months for us.

WWII Uniform Guides: Soviet Reenactor Dealers

2012-01-02T07:00:00.017-05:00

For much of 2011 and now into 2012, I have been painting my Black Tree Design 28mm WWII Soviet figures. While there is an abundance of historical and modeling information online and in print for German, British, and American forces, not as much is available for Soviet forces. It's been a challenge figuring out the various uniform and equipment combinations on the miniatures. And don't even mention all the color variations across the same uniform! Someone once quipped that the Soviets were WWII's version of the Confederate army. The only standard among Soviet WWII infantry is that there was no standard. Too true!

I swear each figure has a different type of satchel or pouch--not just cloth or leather, but different physical styles. How many types of satchels and pouches does one army need?!? Oi! I think I've had to spend more time researching Soviet gear than actually painting it!

SOVIET REENACTOR DEALERS

Below are links to reenactor dealer websites that have been helping me paint my figures, from basic soldiers to officers to snipers to tankers. I'll keep adding to this list as I find new sites, using it as a visual bookmark page. I'll be doing the same for the German, American, British, and other forces as I research and paint those figures. I hope you find this useful. Obligatory Legal Bit: This is not an endorsement for any of the dealers. Use for reference only. (I'll be adding books and other resources as well, so keep watching!)

Trident Military

One of my favorite all-purpose replica uniform stores having plenty of good photos and information for the WWII Soviet gamer is Trident Military. The website has sections devoted to entire uniforms as well as individual pieces of gear and uniform bits, such as insignias. Trident shows the many variations of kit, which helped me identify exactly what pieces were on the Black Tree Design figures I've been painting.

PPKA

Workers and Peasants Red Army (PPKA) is a site devoted to everything dealing with the Soviet armed forces during the 1930's and WWII. The website is written in Russian, though Google Translate does a decent job translating it into English. (The links here are to the PPKA website using Google Translate.) The site covers uniforms, army TOE's, maps, and other documents. A very handy reference for modeling and gaming Soviets. The reenactor uniform photos replicate actual photos from WWII, which is a bit eerie and fascinating at the same time.

Artizan Designs' WWII Painting & Camo Guide

Artizan Designs has a large online collection of WWII painting and camo guides for allied and axis infantry. In addition to the photo guides I've posted here, they also have Soviet painting guides as PDF files, complete with suggestions for how to paint the figures and what colors to use. I used these guides as a starting point but made many changes to reflect the chaotic nature of Soviet uniform colors that quickly faded. Artizan sells excellent 28mm WWII figures and is not an online dealer for reenactors. Just in case you didn't know that. :-)

Front of Russia

Their website may not be the prettiest, but the photos at Front of Russia have helped me tremendously to identify the equipment my Black Tree Design Soviets are carrying. For example, this was the one website where I found a photo of the version of the entrenching tool that the BTD figures are wearing. The website's photos of fully dressed soldiers has also helped, but I keep thinking their main model looks like John Belushi. Creeps me out a bit.

UshankaHat.com

Many gamers, myself included, like to paint Soviet forces fighting Germans during cold weather, such as winter in Stalingrad. The famous ushanka hat is easily recognized by its fur and turned-up ear flaps. In fact, ushanka in Russian translates literally as "ear-flaps hat," a tidbit I learned at UshankaHat's website. The ushanka came in several different colors. Plus, you can read articles on the hats as well as find photos of similar hats used by many countries around the world, such as China.

Soviet Power
Just the name of the website is impressive! Soviet Power has a large selection of uniforms, hats, boots, medals, and other equipment from the WWII era, sold directly from Russia and Ukraine. Who doesn't want to dress up as an authentic Spetsnaz officer for those very special paintball matches? I like that they also have post-war material, such as Afghanistan and more. Very nice all around site for the Soviet fan. By the way, I'm painting one of my figures as an NKVD officer, making sure his brave comrade soldiers face the bullets of the advancing Germans instead of retreating into the bullets of his revolver. You can see the uniform to the left, though the one pictured is late war.

What We're Watching Now: Babylon 5

2011-12-29T23:17:00.000-05:00

Last week, we began watching season one of Babylon 5 on DVD (the remastered version). Though I watched the series when it first aired, this is Jeremy's first time watching it. I've been chatting up the series with him the past 15 years (Jeremy will be 21 in March!), but he's never really been interested until now. He's always been a Star Wars fan, and recently a Star Trek fan (we had been watching Deep Space 9 until last week, stopping in the middle of season four. I kept telling him how DS9 was a poor ripoff of B5.)

I haven't seen these Babylon 5 episodes since they first aired and then rerun during the same season, waiting for the next season to begin. Plus, there were episodes in season one that I have missed, until now. Tonight, we just finished watching the episode "And The Sky Full of Stars," which I missed back in 1994. Wow. It's amazing how each episode has little clues (sometimes major clues) about the storyline/plot! Great foreshadowing as well. I try my best not to divulge anything to Jeremy while watching, but it sure is hard. I keep making little comments and sounds when something important is said or happens.

He's enjoying the series, though he's not as impressed with the Mimbari ships as I am. Oh well. Plus, the cheapness of the medlab's set bugs him, like it has always bugged me. As he puts it, the lab looks "so random," like a lot of the show's sets. But he's quick to mention that story is key, not glamorous sets, especially when the show's budget was a lot less than Star Trek. The lack of Star Trek Tech Babble is also nice.

Gaming: Late to the Show
Ironically, he's now interested in B5 but all the B5 miniatures and games are hard to come by. I still have my 2nd Edition of Babylon 5 Wars box set (never played) and the Babylon 5 revised boxed version of A Call to Arms ship game (played once). Sadly, no miniatures to go with them. I really wanted to get the Fleet Action ships back in the day. I was disappointed to hear that Mongoose went with the larger ships, and that their quality was spotty as I remember it. At least, ACTA has the paper counters. Looks like ebay will have to be my friend for B5 gaming.

A Spot of Luck!
Jeremy bought Season 1 on Amazon with his own money, paying $14 for it new. On Monday, he and I went out doing some shopping on the other side of the county, with the plan to hit Cool Stuff on the way home to pick up some new games, which we did. (More on that in another post.) On the way back, we decided, after much hemming and hawing, to stop by a Goodwill thrift store, one which we hadn't been to in a long time because we usually find nothing there. Well, just as we were leaving the store empty handed again, I saw a small rack of DVDs we had missed. There sat Season 2 through 5 of Babylon 5! No Season 1, but we owned that anyway. And the price? $9 each, in nearly new shape! So I plunked down my money. (Funny how I wind up buying all the other season sets???) We now have the entire series on DVD for only $50.

Taking a Slow Boat to Babylon 5
We tend to watch one episode an evening at around 10pm if there is no hot football or basketball game on. (Jeremy is a basketball freak,while I don't get the game.) I'd like to watch more episodes an evening, but he likes one a night. Hey, as long as he in enjoying quality sci-fi, who am I to complain?

Fun Audio Dramas

2011-12-24T01:05:00.000-05:00

A recent thread on The Miniatures Page got me thinking about one of my favorite pastimes since I've been a young kid: listening to audio dramas. I grew up listening to vintage radio dramas and comedies from the golden age of radio. Then to mysteries broadcast every night on our local AM radio station. Later, I would listen to Hitchhiker's Guide, Ruby: Galactic Gumshoe, and other neat shows on public radio every Sunday evening in the early 1980s.

I thought I would mention a few recent audio dramas I h've enjoyed. Jeremy has gotten most these for me as presents over the years, or I've recorded them live. When possible, I've included links to Amazon in the section titles. Often, you can pick them up used for a few dollars or download them as MP3 files. I hope you enjoy.

Superman Lives

This was a 2.5 hour BBC 5 production from 2005, originally called "Doomsday and Beyond" when it aired. Here is a brief synopses of the story: "Epic action, thrilling suspense, and a rollercoaster ride of mounting excitement are all featured in this incredible audio experience, chronicling not only Superman's duel-to-the-death with the monster called Doomsday and how he ultimately returned, but also the story of his love affair with Daily Planet reporter Lois Lane and the true fate of his arch-enemy, Lex Luthor. The fastest-selling comic book story of all time comes to life like nothing you've ever heard before!" Yep, the classic 90s story in audio. I love it!

DC Universe: Trail of Time

The CD's in this series of "Graphic Audio" releases are an interesting combination of traditional audio books with a narrator reading the text combined with actual audio drama, complete with sound effects. There are many titles in the series. This happens to be the only one I have at the moment. It is wild, featuring many of my favorite characters.

Synopses from Amazon: "Clark Kent is living in a dark world where he has no powers, no memory of ever being anything other than human. His world is controlled by mystical forces no one can challenge, with the triumvirate of Vandal Savage, Mordru, and Felix Faust calling the shots. The Demon and Phantom Stranger approach Clark and tell him that he is really Superman, that alterations made more than a hundred years ago to the time stream are causing space-time fluctuations that will result in this particular reality becoming the sole reality, unless something is done. Since Superman is powerless in this reality, and since the alterations were made in the past, the three heroes have to travel into the past, specifically into the American Southwest of the 1870s, where Jonah Hex, Bat Lash and other DC Western heroes help them set things right again" Cool stuff!

Judge Dredd, Blakes 7, Dr. Who, and More

Check out Big Finish Productions for many audio dramas of great comics and sci-fi BBC shows. You can buy CDs or download MP3s. I own the Dredd collection and love them. Once again, these were BBC productions.

Just a note. BBC Radio 4 Extra has Blake's 7, Doctor Who, and others you can listen to online. You might want to check it out. You can record these programs right off the Internet while listening to them using a free program, such as my favorite Audacity, and save them as MP3 files. I've done this many times over the years.

Any Other Suggestions?
Well, there you go. Some ideas to get you going. If anyone has any suggestions for some good fantasy, sci-fi, or historical audio dramas that you think I or others might like, pop down and mention them in the comments.

Siege of Kanlakab Valley: Playing "The Sword and the Flame" With 10-Man Units

2011-12-18T18:29:00.001-05:00

Prologue
The Battle of Kanlakab Valley had begun when an expeditionary force of primarily Gurkhas had been ambushed while marching in column through the steep hills of the Kanlakab Valley deep in Afghanistan on the very edge of the Her Majesty's Empire. It had been a bloody affair, the Gurkhas retreating from the direction they had come. A small company of men from the 1st Gurkhas Rifles volunteered to stay behind as a rear guard action so their comrades could escape. Colonel William George vowed to return as soon as possible to rescue the brave men.

That had been days ago. Though the stone walls atop a low hill toward the bottom of the valley provided some protection for the men, they knew that it would do little to protect them once the waves of natives began swarming toward them, leaping over the walls and fighting hand-to-hand. Though they had been keeping the natives at bay for sometime, the men knew that time was not on their side.

"They are massing their forces," said Sgt. Ganju Pun spying dozens of natives climbing about the hills to the east. "The tribes are coming together once again. I fear an attack is about to happen."

"We shall be ready for them," responded his superior, Lt. Donald James.

James knew that was a lie, and so did his sergeant. Their food and water supplies were nearly exhausted. The sun had been beating down on them so fiercely for days that the skin on their very lips had begun peeling off in large chunks. There wasn't as much as a leaf to provide shade on top of that barren hill. A godforsaken area of the world if there ever was one.

Hours passed while more and more natives began massing in the eastern hills. Feeling emboldened by their earlier victory during the ambush, the Pathan tribesmen did little to hide their presence. An attack was mounting surely.

Hours passed.

Back on top of the fortified hill, a rifleman suddenly shouted, "Look! There! See? A dust cloud. Off in the distance."

Sgt. Pun ran to the wall and peered down the valley to the west, following the man's shaking finger. "Hmmmm. It is a dust cloud. But is it friend or foe?"

"We can assume nothing," said Lt. James, who appeared behind Sgt. Pun. "Sergeant, prepare your men for an attack. Deploy some on the east wall and some on the west wall, until we know who is making that cloud."

"Yes, sir!" snapped Pun, as he ran off to organize his men, possibly for the last time.

And so began the Siege of Kanlakab Valley.

The Game

A few weeks ago, we played a game of colonials using the The Sword and The Flame rules by Larry Brom. This set of rules has been around for decades, becoming one of the classics of miniature gaming. Though Abel had played many times many years ago, this was my first actual game using the rules. I found them easy to learn and quite thematic overall, though sometimes they can be a bit too cinematic, as if Larry Brom had watched Zulu a few too many times!

Using Smaller 10-Man Units
To better utilize the figures we had while keeping the game fast and bloody, we decided to try using smaller units than the standard 20 men. We based our units on the combatant rules found on page 40 of the rulebook under "The Sword in Africa" section.

We made the Gurkha infantry units 10 men armed with Egyptian rifles. For some flavor in each infantry unit, we made one of the figures a sergeant, who was also armed with an Egyptian rifle even if holding a pistol. For extra flavor in the defending infantry unit, we also made one of the 10 figures a lieutenant armed with an Egyptian rifle. We assumed the defending unit had been larger days earlier but by the time the game had begun had lost many men to the elements and wounds from the previous battle. The officer had survived. If the defending force and rescuing force each had two infantry units, we would have given each an NCO or officer as an extra man as suggested on page 40.

We made the Gurkha lancer unit six men, designating one of them as a sergeant for some flavor. Again, if we had more lancer units we would have given them an additional officer or NCO figure instead.

The mistake we made was giving the mountain gun a full crew of four gunners, which made the single gun quite powerful against the smaller units. We rationalized the guns strength as being crewed by zealous gunners, set on revenging their loses days earlier. Next time, we'll play with two gunners per cannon.

We made the Pathan infantry units 10 men either all armed with spears or all armed with jezails. The rules on page 40 suggest mixing the native's weapons, but we found it fine the way we did it. The jezails were horrible weapons as it was, so arming the entire unit with them seemed to balance it out more. Plus, it made the units easier for our first game. The Pathan cavalry were handled the same as the Gurkha cavalry units, though armed only with spears.

Revised Straggler Rule for 10-Man Units
Using smaller units than in a normal game forced us to modify slightly the straggler rule when a unit charges. Whenever a unit must roll for stragglers, we rolled a single D6. On a result of 1-2 one figure straggled, 3-4 two figures straggled, 5 three figures straggled, and 6 no one straggled. It worked quite well.

Orders of Battle
British Defending Force:
1x Gurkha Infantry (Egyptian Rifles)

British Rescue Force:
1x Gurkha Infantry (Egyptian Rifles)
1x 10th Bengal Lancers
1x Mountain Gun
1x Mounted Commander

Pathan Attacking Force:
2x Pathan Jezails
1x Pathan Native Spears

Pathan Reserve Force:
2x Pathan Cavalry Jezails
3x Pathan Native Spears

Deployment
Since I was new to colonial gaming, Abel laid out the scenery on the table and then placed the units. I haven't been doing much gaming the past year-and-a-half, so I hadn't been working on scenery at all. We used what I had on hand, placing my few foam hills under a piece of mottled-tan cloth I had purchased years ago at Walmart. The scenery was very basic but worked well enough that day.

Abel placed the besieged defending Gurkha unit toward the "eastern" end of the table on top of a low hill. We used my Old Glory stone walls to provide their fortification. He then placed a couple more hills a bit farther east, placing three of his Pathan units on the table (two armed with jezails close to the Gurkhas and the remaining two spearmen farther away behind the hills, out of harms way.

I then placed my Gurkha rescue force on the western end of the table in a small valley we had created. My objective was to approach toward the defending infantry unit as quickly as possible and then escort them to safety the same way I had entered. It sounded like a simple plan, though as one can expect thanks to the rules it turned out to be more challenging and dramatic than I had imagined.

The table is set. We're getting ready to begin play!

Photos of the Deployed Pathan Forces

Below are some photos of the 25mm Pathan figures we used.

Photos of the Deployed Gurkhas
Below are some photos of the 25mm Gurkha figures we used.

Turn 1: The Game Begins

The first turn of the game started out with little drama. It was the first to move, so I activated my cavalry unit, moving them toward the defending unit. Throughout the game, the random dice rolling for movement added some nice tension and friction. I came to enjoy this aspect of it, allowing us to use our imagination when explain why a unit would roll so badly when moving. As additional activation cards were flipped, I was able to move the remainder of the rescue force closer and shift the defending unit so all the figures faced the eastern wall and the massing Pathans. Abel basically moved his jezail units into range, while making sure his spearmen remained behind the hills. Having learned the movement rules, we went onto the next phase, ranged fire.

The spearemen unit of natives sneak up behind the hill, out of sight from the rifles.

Firing Begins
This is when the fun began. Since we deployed units close enough to each other to get stuck in right away, we got right into learning the firing rules. Abel got the first draw of the card and opened up with the Pathan jezail unit closest to the defending Gurkhas. He rolled 10 dice, one for each native firing. Using jezails against a defender behind a wall, he needed to roll a 1 to score a hit on a die. Since the game uses d20s, that gave him a 5% chance of hitting on each die. Sure enough, one of the dice rolled a 1--a single hit. A darned lucky shot, if I must say so!

He then drew a card to see the results of the hit. I figured he would wound one of my men and that would be it. No, not this time. Instead, he drew an ace of hearts, killing the units leader. Ergh! Down when Lt. James, clutching his chest. To die on top of a godforsaken hill in the middle of a godforsaken country was not a fitting death for a brave Englishman such as Lt. James! Surely, back in England his betrothed darling, Elizabeth, would mourn his passing for years to come. Curse you, you stinking Pathans and your lucky card draws!

That combat complete, we drew another card to see who fired next. Sure enough, Abel got the initiative again. This time opened up with his other jezail unit, once again rolling a single hit. Darn his luck! Drawing a card to see the results of the hit, he drew a heart face card. This meant a "key figure" that is not a leader is killed. We decided that this would be Sgt. Pun, who collapsed beside the recently fallen Lt. James. Double curse you, you filthy Pathans and your lucky card drawing!

The Pathans open fire on the defending Gurkhas.

Gurkhas Fire For Revenge
Next, I finally got to fire my Gurkhas. With vengeance in my eyes, I rolled my eight dice. In the end, three Pathans lay wounded and one lay dead. Though it didn't truly avenge the deaths of my brave and beloved soldiers in the Queen's service, it was a start.

My Thoughts on Movement and Firing
So there you have the first turn. The initiative and movement mechanics made for some interesting friction, wondering if units could reach their destinations in time. The ranged fire and wounding mechanics also were fast, fun, and dramatic. Who would have thought I would have lost two of my best men in the opening volleys? The only downside for me was rolling handfuls of d20s, which was a bit awkward because the dice were so large. A minor quibble if there ever was one!

The Game Progresses

As the game progressed, the Pathans continued with their lucky die rolling and card flipping, killing a third Gurkha and wounding another. I was getting ready to erase all the 1's from my d20s but thought better of it.

Eventually, I moved my rescue unit up to the defending unit. The lancers waited at the base of the hill for an opportunity to charge a native unit. Cavalry seems rather weak in the game, so Abel suggested I not engage the cavalry too quickly lest I lose them. The infantry unit moved up to get the besieged infantry unit out of harm's way. The mountain gun unlimbered and began blasting apart the natives from a distance.

Colonel William George has returned to save the day!

Then Abel charged the wall with a spearmen unit, a suicide charge. At the same time, my lancer unit charged at the flank of the spearmen. This was going to be an interesting melee! The Gurkha infantry repelled the spearmen before the lancers were able to make contact.

Col. George, looking on from behind his approaching forces, called out that help had arrived just as the spearmen and the lancers get stuck from charging.

Rule Change: Attacking and Defending Across Walls
One of the major rules we modified for our game were the rules on page 29 dealing with walls in close combat. The rules do not allow combatants to fight across walls at all, forcing the attacking unit to charge to the wall on one turn and then firing, on the next turn climbing onto the wall in the next turn and fighting at a rather large penalty, and then on the third turn crossing the wall to fight normally. This smacked us of Larry Brom having watched Zulu a few too many times. We just couldn't see this as making much sense when the Gurkha infantry were behind a low, thin stone wall that anyone could easily reach or leap across with little effort. No one in their right mind would try to balance themselves on it and fight! (It reminds me of wooden fences in ACW games giving the defending unit a big bonus, as if the little wooden sticks could actually stop a rifle bullet or obscure the target.)

In our game, we made the charging unit stop at the wall and fight normally, giving the defending unit a +1 bonus. The attacking unit could then cross the wall on the next turn, assuming they had not fled. Considering the scenario, it worked just fine for our purposes.

The Game Is Nearing The End

Toward the end of the game, the Pathan cavalry finally entered the fray and charged headlong into the lancers, who quickly met them with a counter charge. But not until the mountain gun opened fire on one of them, blowing them apart quite well. Once again, Abel rolled and flipped cards amazingly well, killing a lancer with the only hit. Still, the lancers tore up the two spearmen cavalry units, which retreated off the table. Then a unit of fanatical spearmen charged the lancers. And the craziest thing happened. Seeing the spearmen charging in their direction, the lancers panicked and fell back (I blew my dice roll when units are contacting during a charge). What in the world?!

The red and green chiits keep track of the units and are keyed into their roster sheets.

This was not good! During all the charging, the two units of Gurkha riflemen were trying to make it off the board to safety, moving behind the cavalry unit and the mountain gun, which was getting ready to hightail it out of there as well. Though Col. George was doing his best to inspire his men to greatness, the exhausted and wounded infantrymen moved horribly slow every turn. (I kept rolling badly for the units' movement dice. It was quite frustrating because it looked like a sure victory was rapidly slipping from my fingers! If the lancers had fallen back just a bit more, the day would have been completely lost, with the spearmen charging into the flanks of my Gurkha infantry. Wow, I love this game!)

Fortunately, the lancers regained their composure, turned around, and quickly charged the spearmen. The photos in this section show this final great confrontation. The Gurkhas would prevail with a decisive victory, while the Pathans, as fanatical as some of them were, would flee from the battlefield. Granted, the natives still controlled the valley. But Col. George would return once again in the near future, this time with a much larger force.

The wooden red cubes are from the Age of Mythology boardgame. I use them to mark wounded characters. I use other colored blocks from the game to mark other conditions.

Though Allah had been with them earlier in the game, the natives were to experience why the Gurkhas were a feared fighting force, no matter how small their numbers.

Final Thoughts

I hope you enjoyed this after action report about how we played with smaller units and the rule changes we made. We both thoroughly enjoyed the game and the rules, which are easy to pick up and quite cinematic. Better yet, we also got to play an entire game to its conclusion, a rarity in League games!

Obligatory (Badly) Posed Photo
Ok, I just had to include this photo. My wife wanted to snap a photo of us playing the game. I think she told us to look like we were "doing something." So we did "something." It cracks me up every time I look at it!

Looming over Abel, I show him the rule stating that I always win. "Oh, that rule!" he replied.

Road to Victory: The Thrilling Conclusion

2011-12-11T08:00:00.001-05:00

Forgive me, but I thought I had already posted the conclusion to the Road to Victory series! Since it has been such a long time since our last installment of this D-Day reenactment battle, below is a little refresher of where we last left the action at the beginning of the engagement.

Two young French partizans have just wandered into the SS road block during the Normandy invasion. Luckily, their papers are in order and are allowed to pass.

Watching the German road block from a nearby copse of trees on the enemy's left flank, lead elements of the American recon force watch the partizans quickly leave the area, while the enemy troops continue to deploy. The outnumbered GI's will have to hold tight until the rest of their force along with an M-8 Greyhound can catch up.

Will the evil Germans repel the advancing US forces, pushing them back into the sea, or will the brave GI's show the Krauts what for? Let's find out!

"Jeder macht schnell! Enemy auf die rechte Flanke!" -- Everyone hurry! Enemy on the right flank! -- Suddenly, the Americans open fire not from the left flank but from the right flank! The German checkpoint forces, including a lone Fallschirmjäger in the foreground, quickly return fire.

The Americans on the right take heavy fire and severe casualties but refuse to give up the fight!

It's a crossfire! The American recon forces along with their Greyhound suddenly advance out of the trees on the German's left flank,opening fire on the confused enemy, who now is being attacked from both sides!

While the Greyhound on the left flank provides covering fire, a brave medic tries to save the wounded infantrymen from the burning jeep on the right flank.

"Nicht schießen! Wir geben auf!" -- Don't shoot! We give up! -- Though both sides fight hard and inflict many casualties, the Americans win the day.

Taken by one of the young partizans and then placed in the bottom of a shoebox in the back of a closet, this photo remains a testament to the brave Allied soldiers, ordinary men, who liberated Europe 65+ years ago on the Road to Victory, giving us the freedom we enjoy today.

(The photo above in its original color.)

TSATF Teaser and Graduation Time

2011-12-07T21:34:00.006-05:00

Tonight, I'm posting a teaser pic for our The Sword & The Flame game we played during Thanksgiving weekend. The figures are Abel's, which he got a long time ago. If I remember correctly, the figures are a mix of old Frontier and Ral Partha in true 25mm. I gotta check my notes when I do the battle report and how we did the game with half-strength units. Some of the Gurkhas are from Old Glory, which are quite a bit larger than Ral Partha but look perfectly fine on the game table.

Graduation Time Is A Very Crazy Time
I was hoping to write up the game in dramatic fashion, especially since it had a number of "movie moments" that literally floored us with the lucky dice rolls and card flips. However, this week (and last week) has been plain nuts--"living" at the dentist, cleaning, barely sleeping, trying to wrap up my Fall semester grading, dealing with the plumber today, and trying to get ready for Jeremy's college graduation this coming Friday---and it's only Wednesday! Family is flying in tomorrow.

You know, I'm proud of him. He did his Psychology AA with a straight 4.0 average, is a member of Phi Theta Kappa honor society, was Student Ambassador for the college, and has decided to pick up a minor in Physics along with his BS in Clinical Psychology when he starts at the University of Central Florida next month. I'll miss him popping in and out of my office with his friends, which he's been doing the past 2.5 years. (I'm an English prof at Seminole State College.) The best thing is that he has been just a good kid with a kind heart. Everyone on the campus where I teach loves him and will miss him. This year sure has been a year of changes for us!

We're Getting The League Back Together

2011-11-29T20:16:00.000-05:00

That's right! After a long hiatus, the old league is back together! That means the blog should be getting a bit more active and interesting over the coming months. We had our first "official" league game this past weekend, a 25mm "The Sword & The Flame" test battle in set Afghanistan, featuring a Gurkha force besieged by Pathans. The photos are finished. I just need to finish the write up. Stay tuned.

Heroclix Throw Down

2011-11-28T22:14:00.000-05:00

Needing to work off some turkey with all the trimmings last week, we did a large 500 point Heroclix throw down on The Bridge. Not telling me anything about the figures he was picking, Jeremy began rooting through my DC boxes picking a "bad guy" team. OK, I can dig not telling me. After he picked his secret project team, I went to town picking my DC "good guy" team.

I always hear about all his heavy-hitter figures, so I like to razz him that I can take him down using "weenies." The other week we played a game in which he took in Beta Ray Bill, Iron Man, Hulk, and a host of other bricks. Pretty good stuff. I, on the other hand, took in the Power Pack team, a couple other kids like Leach (who cancels all powers near him), rookie Invisible Woman, and rookie Thing. I figured that the Fantastic Four were baby sitting that day. Hey, that's just how I roll! Guess what? I KO'ed everything but Iron Man. In a tournament I would have won by turtling behind Invisible Woman's shields while the remaining minutes ran out. It was great fun.

The Secret Project
Ok, so back to our current story. When we began placing the figures on the map, I discovered that Jeremy (my 20-year old son and adversary for the game) picked a modern age Project Cadmus team: Lex Luthor, Amanda Waller, Two Face, The Question, and a Gorilla City Warrior. Ok, so he had lots of the "Outwit" power to nerf my characters' powers. Wonderful--and cheesy in my mind. Plus, he had The Question going rogue, working for Cadmus! Are you kidding??? I guess Question must have been in deep cover.

Doing The Time Warp
Ok, so I plonked down my clix. Once again, I wanted to counter his few figures with many figures in what I like to call the Uncle Joe doctrine, named after Stalin's quip about quantity having a quality all its own. So I took in some of my favorite characters in an old school, brawling Golden Age Justice Society of America team: The Atom, Black Canary, Wildcat, Mister Terrific, Dr. Mid-Night, Liberty Belle, Vigilante, and a Gotham Police. On a 1-to-1 basis, my figures were each half the points of his!

Golden Age meets Modern Age comics on The Bridge.

The photo is the brawl the game turned into on the second turn. Vigilante started my game with Wildcat riding on the back of the bike. Vigilante revved his bike, jumped over a wrecked car, and slid to a halt as Wildcat leaped off the back of the bike while in midair, landing in a awesome somersault feet away from Two Face. It would have looked so cool in a movie! Of course, I had to repeat the move several times with the figures, adding "vroom vroom" sound effects and witty dialogue as I went. (I felt like I was 10 again!)

Well, you can guess how the game ended. I won. Once again, Jeremy got frustrated as my weenies took down his outwitters. I'm still re-learning the rules and could have played my team a lot better. Still, we had a great time

Halloween Horror Comic Display

2011-10-25T21:47:00.000-04:00

Using vintage horror comics from his collection, Jeremy made a special Halloween display at our neighborhood's clubhouse. A number of people have commented how they like it and remember some of the old comics.

He bought some spooky webbing and other Halloween doodads and arranged the entire display himself. Our community's annual yard sale is this Saturday at the club house, so a lot of people should be seeing the display. He'll be there selling off about two long boxes of comics he no longer wants at cheap prices, along with a bunch of other older video games and other items. Of course, all proceeds will go to buy additional comics and video games!

Fiend Factory Memories

2011-10-21T19:15:00.001-04:00

I still remember reading my first issue of White Dwarf magazine, Issue 14 from August/September 1979. I was hooked. Since it was difficult to find White Dwarf here in the US, I took out a subscription from the UK and continued subscribing until issue 88 in April 1987.

Fiend Factory & Folio
White Dwarf used to have a regular column titled "Fiend Factory," which presented new monsters for AD&D. I was a huge fan of that column, looking forward to it every issue. Some of the monsters were fantastic, while others were just plain weird with little thought put into how broken they really were. This is what can happen when fans create creatures!

In 1981, TSR published the Field Folio, collecting many of the monsters from the first ten issues of White Dwarf. If you've been around AD&D or the modern D&D versions, you've probably heard all about this book. If not, check its Wikipedia entry. I picked it up in 1982. It was hit or miss for me, though I loved the cover creature! I always thought the best Fiend Factory monsters were published after FF came out. I also thought it a shame that a Fiend Folio II was never published, correcting FF's miscues and mistakes.

For some reason, I've feeling a bit nostalgic lately about my early days of role playing games and decided to take some trips down my White Dwarf memory lane. Here are a couple of AD&D monsters I wound up using to good effect in our campaign way back in the day. Since my players didn't like to go too much past Level 5, feeling the game wasn't as challenging for them, many of the monsters were low-level.

These two beasties come from Issue 38 in 1983. At the time, I was very hopped on an Albion setting for part of our/my campaign, with lush green grass and rich forests. Instead of ors and kobolds, goblin-like creatures and fairies would rule. (I am a life-long sucker for dwarfs and goblins.) This issue featured a special Fiend Factory devoted to "Faerie Denizens," so it was right up our alley. Here are a few creatures from that issue that kept popping up in that chapter of the campaign. They created some good memories for the players and me.

WW2 and Modern Vehicle Drawings

2011-10-18T08:00:00.001-04:00

I'm not sure how I found these websites, but I thought I'd pass them along. The WW2 Drawings website is very deep, with drawings for just about everything. The Modern Drawings website is still rather shallow. If you're into this sort of thing, check them out.

Wet Pallet Revalations

2011-10-17T10:00:00.007-04:00

This past weekend was one of those revelation moments when it comes to painting miniatures. Not having any committee or department meeting nor having to run up to campus at all (huzzah!), I spent the morning watching painting videos online at youtube. There are some nice videos, and many not so good videos. Still, I applaud the efforts. Making good hobby videos is very difficult!

Today, I will recount my experiences and revelations about using wet pallets. Later, I'll get into some other painting revelations that I am sure everyone else had a long time ago. (It always seems like I'm the last to figure out the basics! LoL)

Several months ago, I tried using a wet pallet but very frustrated with it. I use the Masterson Sta-Wet Handy Pallet kit I picked up at the local craft store chain for $5 after a discount coupon. (You can make one yourself, but $5 is such a cheap price that making one is not worth the hassle in my opinion.) When I last used the pallet, the paint would get too thin when sitting on the paper, and I had a few other issues making the wet pallet experience very distasteful to my...uh...pallet. So I went back to using those cheap-o $1 pot-pallets, though I could have used plain old paper plates instead. Anyway...

So there I am Friday morning, cruising youtube and reading different bits of advice on various blogs and forums when I stumble on some wet pallet advice (and decide to reread the pallet's instruction sheet as a last resote). Hmmm.....yep....oh!....hmmm....duh! Those were the sounds my wife heard emanating from my Man Room as painting revelations smacked me in the head like a sledge hammer. So last night, I finally gave the pallet another try. Bingo! It worked great!

What Did I Do Right This Time?
I learned that using distilled water is a must. I have no idea why. Perhaps the fluoride and other chemicals dumped in tap water mess with the paper? Everyone, along with Masterson's instructions, says to use it. I didn't use it before. I use it now!

I also made sure not to overload the sponge with water. I even poured off a bit of excess water just to make sure. I think this and the distilled water made a huge difference.

I also followed the instructions for soaking the pallet paper in hot water for 15 minutes, though I used boiling distilled water out of fear of using tap water. (Our tap water in Central Florida has a ton of minerals to boot.)

When done, drain a little water from the sponge

After all of this, the pallet works perfectly! Some people said to thin the paint as you normally would, though I thinned it just a tad less because the paint will pick up a bit of the water.

The Benefits of Wet Pallets
Here is what I like about using the wet pallet:

While using the wet pallet, I realized that I used less paint than normal because I used nearly every bit of the paint I placed on the pallet. Wow!
I didn't have to worry about the paint "skinning over," getting that goop layer across the top of it because it's drying out.
Dropper paint bottles are far more efficient with wet pallets than craft paint bottles because dropper bottles are more precise, allowing me to use less paint than I normally would in a regular pallet.
I can rinse off the paint "left-overs" from the paper and reuse it.
If you sit two colors near enough to each other on the pallet paper, you can paint with each one of them and then easily mix them for a mid-tone color, dragging the paints toward each other. (Ok, you can do this on a paper plate as well, but on a wet pallet you have hours instead of minutes to work with the paint.)
Finally, the paints does not dry out while I'm painting.

So I highly recommend using a wet pallet. The Masterson Sta-Wet is very nice, with a tight-fitting lid. And make sure to read the instruction sheet.

From the Greatest Generation With Love

2011-10-14T20:58:00.003-04:00

This photo is so full of joy and sadness that I don't know where to begin. Every time I try to start writing this post, years of emotion keep welling up. It has been a year of great joy and many deep loses for our family. So I'll try to keep it brief for now.

I took this photo back in March of this year. We were having a neighborhood block party that evening and were celebrating Jeremy's 20th birthday. The weather was perfect, so many people turned out, the food was delicious, and Jeremy's birthday cake was great. We really love our neighbors. It's like a family.

Well, Jeremy got a very special present that day that no one expected. No, it wasn't a video game or iPad or some other tech toy. Bill Peebles, a WWII veteran, gave his service medals to Jeremy. He loves the kid. I don't like tooting our own horn, but Jeremy is one of those rare kids (young adults!) who loves helping others, is totally respectful to everyone, and just tries living out what he reads about in his Bible. Bill wanted Jeremy to have his medals because he knew that Jeremy would understand their importance and appreciate what they mean to Bill and future generations. Neither Jeremy, nor us, knew what to say

Bill, now in his late 80s, joined the army at about Jeremy's age. Bill served in the 36th Infantry "Texas" Division. He was a .30cal machine gunner. He served in North Africa, then hit the beaches during the invasion of Salerno, Anzio, fought at Monte Cassino, captured Rome, nearly froze to death in Southern France, was wounded a number of times, then joined the Air Commandos, got shot down over Germany, survived, and then made his way back to the USA. An amazing life the likes I cannot imagine living. He considered it just another day.

Sadly, the doctors gave Bill a bleak diagnosis this past week. It looks like his days of service here on Earth are coming to an end very soon. Jeremy and Robin (my wife) are visiting with him right now as I type this. He still has some time. He's still the spunky fellow we've known for the past several years. But...

Just got a phone call from Jeremy! Bill wants to tell his story to Jeremy and wants him to write it all down, all of his adventures during WWII. Jeremy is an excellent writer, who has already written two novels. So who knows where the Lord will be taking this! Jeremy is excited. So am I!

Ok, time to wrap this up. I'll probably be posting more about Bill Peebles in the coming weeks. So just say a small prayer for Bill and all our veterans of the Greatest Generation. We are quickly losing so many good men who gave so much for us all.

Dipping My Toes Into Napoleonic Gaming

2011-10-12T08:00:00.004-04:00

Jeremy loves the Napoleonic period. He has no desire to paint miniatures of any kind, and I question he desire to push about stands of little Napoleonic figures. (Plus I question my desire to paint them!) However, he loves wearing his Napoleon's Enemies t-shirt from Cold Wars last year, even wearing it to the Heroclix tournament last weekend. So for the longest time, he has been bugging me to buy a Napoleonic game.

A couple weekends ago, we picked up a copy of GMT's Kutuzov, which is a card driven game of Napoleon's invasion of Russia. This is the first game in the series I've purchased and will be the first card driven wargame I've ever played. I was thinking of buying one of the other games in the series, Wellington or maybe Napoleonic Wars, but after reading the reviews this seemed the best choice. Plus, I love anything Russian and am not very interested in the British campaigns.

Being a self-professed newbie to the Napoleonic period, I figured this would also be a good way to learn about some of the generals and battles of the war. I punched all the counters and placed them in trays, so all we need is some time to sit down and play.

The game retails for $65, but GMT has it on sale for $35. I paid $23 from Coolstuff, my local pusher and discount internet seller. You can't lose for that price!

If you have any experience with the games in this series, let me know.

Splintered Light Hares Progressing

2011-10-11T08:00:00.004-04:00

This weekend, while enjoying some peace and quite for a few days during the recent rainstorms and with the son away for a few days, I worked on the Splintered Light 20mm hares. They are nearing completion. Here are some of the hare spearmen and the banner. No design on the banner yet. I'm a bit nervous to try my hand at it. After studying shield patterns, I went with the two-tone green design. I felt it was simple for a beginner like myself, showing them to be a unified, trained force.The rats and mice, on the other hand, will all have different shield designs, showing them to be more like militia (mice) or lacking order (rats). Just my thinking for now.

Blue Moon Cowboy of the Month

2011-10-09T00:01:00.005-04:00

Though my teaching and committee schedule has been busy this semester, I actually took some time to sit down and get a bit of painting done last weekend and this. Inspired by Adventures in Lead's "Photography blues" recent blog post about just grabbing the old digital camera and quickly shooting a shot on the workbench, I snapped some photos of what I've been working on. I used a large yellow envelope as a background. Like I said, grab and shoot.

The first snap I'm posting is of Blue Moon's (Old Glory) June cowboy of the month freebie, CP-11. I got it a few years ago as a member of the Old Glory Army. It, along with several other figures, have been sitting in the drawer partially finished for the past two or three years. Getting sick of seeing this figure lingering about, I finished it off last Friday afternoon. Not the best of my work, but it looks good enough on the game table.

Vest Stripes
I think I posted a while back how painting stripes (and any kind of straight line) scares me to death because my hands shake something fierce when painting. Painting highlights on clothing is also challenging. How I envy painters with steady hands! On this figure, I bit the bullet and tried painting some ivory-colored stripes on his light-blue vest. Forgive me for tooting my own horn, but I actually like how they turned out. A first!

Holster
I found another nice color for painting holsters: Americana's Antique Maroon. It has a reddish leather look. I added some Ivory to it for the highlights, but Antique Rose turned out to be the same color. Go figure! After I painted the highlights, I recalled reading somewhere that adding orange to the red leather would make a good highlight. Not sure about that. I'll have to try it next time.

Coat
The base color coat is Ceramcoat Charcoal, with black shadows and Ceramcoat Dolphin Grey highlights. Memo to myself: try using Rain Grey next time. Dolphin is a bit too harsh I think.

Trousers
I have no idea what color I painted these three years ago! Highlights and shadows are too subtle, as I suspected. Oh well. I don't feel like messing with this figure anymore! Memo: write down the colors for each miniature I paint and then don't lose the notes. That last bit is really important, Bob. Really really important.

Hair and Beard
I like the way the hair and beard turned out. (toot toot!) While looking in the mirror, I tried matching various shades of browns and tans to my own hair, holding the bottles next to what little hair I have left. An odd sight to behold. I painted Ceramcoat Espresso over the black primer. The paint is thin (even though it claims to be opaque) and allows black to show through quite a bit. No problem this time though. Espresso is the just shadow color. If Espresso is unavailable, any darkish brown will do. I just had Espresso handy and never get to use it. It's one of those "orphan" colors that never gets to play with all the other colors. Next I applied the base color, Ceramcoat Territorial Beige, one of the most useful browns made. The highlight is Ceramcoat Trail Tan, another useful color. With each new color, make sure to let the previous colors show a bit.

Well, that's it. Now that I posted my painting info, I will not lose it like I did most of my painting notes a couple weeks ago. Is there an emoticon for smacking myself in the head?

Road to Victory: Combat Photography

2011-10-07T21:49:00.003-04:00

Just about wrapping up my series on the Road to Victory reenactment. Inside the auditorium that day, a group of fellows who reenact World War II army combat photographers set up a wonderful display of authentic WWII camera equipment, showed vintage combat footage and war-related cartoons (Bugs Bunny and Mickey Mouse), and gave a fascinating talk about combat photography in WWII. Jeremy felt it was one of the highlights of the day. I should have overcome my introverted nature and taken more photos of the equipment and gentlemen. I wish I had their talk videoed. They also go into schools dressed in their WWII gear and give talks to the students. What a great way to make history come alive for the kids!

I love old cameras. Imagine lugging these across a battlefield.

Later that afternoon, the German reenactors gave a weapons demonstration and talk for the spectators. The clip below is about 17 seconds of them firing their weapons. We are getting ready for the battle!

50 Mission Crush

2011-09-30T15:59:00.002-04:00

I started writing today's blog post, but as often happens it morphed into something else, this time a nostalgic homage to my favorite computer game company from the 1980's: Strategic Simulations Inc (SSI).

Way back in 1984 when I was a young 21 years old, I purchased one of my favorite SSI computer games: 50 Mission Crush. Back then, I had a heavily modded Atari 400 computer with extra memory (48K) and a custom keyboard. So of course I got the Atari version of the game.

50 Mission Crush bills itself as a role-playing game, with your pilot improving his skills after each successful mission, which took several to ten minutes to play. You had to survive 50 missions to successfully beat the game and go home to America. I played this game so many times I lost count. I never survived 50 missions, though I did pretty well at times from what I remember. Those were good times back then!

By today's standard, the game is crude with basic graphics and lots of text with numbers. But what it lacked in graphics, it made up for it in tension and addiction for an early computer war game.

Moby Games has a nice section devoted to 50 Mission Crush. A quick Google search will also turn up abandonware sites where you can download the game (only 102k in size!), as long as you don't have Windows 7 64-bit installed.

Road to Victory: Firing a Canon

2011-09-28T22:11:00.001-04:00

I'm trying something new. This evening, I created a YouTube account to host some videos to show here on the blog. This is a brief 9 second video I shot at the reenactment. The quality is ok, considering I shot it using my Lumix camera. Since I didn't have a tripod, I do get a bit shaky when the boom goes off! I have a couple other videos I shot that day. We'll see how this works and then see if I post them as well.

Those Ceramcoat Navy Blues

2011-09-28T08:00:00.002-04:00

Over the years, I've been a vocal supporter of using craft paints for miniature painting. I own 100s of bottles of craft paints, along with some other hobby paints. Recently, Michael's Craft Stores stopped selling the Delta Ceramcoat line of craft paints. Michael's also cut way back on their stock of Americana and Folk Art paints, preferring to sell their own cheaper and inferior line of paints.

Several weeks ago when I last visited a local store here in Central Florida, I picked up a dozen or so bottles of Ceramcoat and America on deep discount. paying around .25 to .50 for even their 8oz bottles. I even bought some extra bottles of colors I often use and feel are essential to consistency, such as the browns I use for my figure bases. I figured I had it all covered. I was so content in my collection of craft paints that I ignored warnings on TMP that Michael's was totally getting rid of Ceramcoat.

You know what's coming next! Yesterday, it dawned in my feeble brain that I use Ceramcoat Navy Blue to paint all my Union ACW figures and that I had only one partially used bottle of the color. Agh! A quick check of the Web shows that Jo-Ann Fabric stores still sell Ceramcoat. So I will be toting myself off to Jo-Ann this week to pick up a few extra Navy Blue bottles, storing them upside down to seal them tight for future painting sessions. I am not going to blow it twice!

Today's Lesson: If you have a favorite paint color that you really really need or like to use, pick up an extra bottle or two. You never know when it will be discontinued or altered.

Road to Victory: M8 Greyhound

2011-09-26T08:00:00.000-04:00

The folks at the Road to Victory Military Museum in Stuart, FL brought some of their equipment along to the reenactment. Here are some photos of their M8 Greyhound armored car, which would have been used during recon missions. You can find more information about the Central Florida World War II Museum at their website.

Road to Victory: Willys Jeep Hootin Annie

2011-09-24T08:00:00.005-04:00

Here some reenactors are representing the 99th Infantry Battalion (Separate) with a camp display and a Willys jeep named Hootin Annie. Follow this link and you can read the history of the real jeep's actions during WWII and see more photos of the restored version below. It's a very good story. Hats off to reenactors everywhere for keeping our history alive!

Road to Victory: Reenactor Displays

2011-09-22T23:15:00.002-04:00

With all the confusion of the past few months, I forgot to finish posting the rest of our photos from the Road to Victory military reenactment that took place here in Central Florida. I'll start this evening with some of the reenactor displays.

Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 39th Infantry Living History Group was there. This is a new group being established here in Central Florida. The 2nd Ranger Battalion Company F had a nice tent display. The 197th Guards were supposed to be there, but I don't recall seeing any Soviet reenactors, which is a shame because I could have used them as inspiration for my Black Tree Design Soviets! Others were there as well, but I can't recall them. March was a long time ago!

Over the weekend, I'll finish with the American vehicles (a jeep and M-8 Greyhound) and then the conclusion of the big battle. I apologize for forgetting to post these pics! You can check the older posts as well: Bren Gun and 130. Panzer Lehr.

Killing Blogger's Lightbox Redux

2011-09-18T14:48:00.002-04:00

Google has removed Lightbox as the default photo viewer, so I've updated the blog's code accordingly and removed old posts dealing with this dead topic.

Heroclix Smack Down

2011-09-17T11:55:00.003-04:00

The first game is underway!

Last night, Jeremy finally got to play in his first Heroclix tournament ever, a 500 point Golden Age bash with 10 players. I chatted with the fellows a bit, then popped out for a quiet dinner. I just cannot play three games in a row of anything anymore!

His team was: Batman, Robin, Katana, Swamp Thing, Green Lantern, Flash and Kid Flash.

For not having played in six years, Jeremy did a great job. Granted, he lost all three games but came close to winning two of them. Because it was getting late, he could have won one of them if he just would have payed attention to his Swamp Thing on the last turn. Oh well! He also learned that playing Flash and Kid Flash together is a potent combination of hit-and-run.

Jeremy didn't win any prizes this time, but Chris, the tournament master and really nice guy, gave him a set of the new Captain America maps. Looks like we'll be back there next weekend for another round of games. Everyone was polite, helpful, and no foul language. Very nice and family-friendly! A clean, fun evening, which is all gaming is about.

Stay tuned for more news about the other miniature projects I've been working on.

Coming Full Circle: Heroclix

2011-08-15T22:18:00.000-04:00

After not playing or buying any sets for about five years, Jeremy and I are getting back into playing Heroclix. For the past couple weeks, I've been on a buying splurge picking up a lot of older and new pieces from other players and on TMP, about 300 figures. (Yep, got my Captain America figures already!) Also picked up some new maps. We got the new Street Fighter starter set, which was a natural pick considering Jeremy's love of the video game series, anime, and martial arts. Also picked up the Green Lantern Fast Forces set and am getting the Thor Fast Forces set as well. So we're good to go! Now I just have to finish cleaning up the Man Room so we can play.

Heroclix was the first miniatures game we played way back when in 2003. We enjoyed it for a while. Playing on a map is really nice at times, making set up super-quick. We also had some fun with the tournament scene, but left that fairly quickly for the Mechwarrior tournament scene. (Neither of us ever won a tournament game, but Jeremy almost always seemed to win the fellowship prizes!)

We're just starting to explore the tournament scene again and think we've found a nice group that can handle us newbies! Still, I also want to use traditional superhero miniature rules, so stay tuned. This is all a part of our desire to return to our roots, to the games we used to have fun playing before playing miniature games became so 'serious' for me. These games are also a fun way to introduce other young folks to gaming. Plus, many Heroclix players seem interested in other miniature games as well but haven't been able to try them. A win-win all around.

Captain America

2011-08-12T22:17:00.001-04:00

Not many new posts right now. A few weeks ago, we had another sudden death that really knocked us off our feet. A very good and dear friend and neighbor suddenly died from a heart attack while swimming at the local sports complex. A week earlier at a picnic we had been laughing and eating with him and his wife. This has been one of those summers of death and loss.But we're working through it.

Anyway, we saw the new Captain America movie last Monday. It was a great ride. My stepmother, who was visiting with us last week for the first time since my father's death, is not a comic book fan and was rather critical of the movie. Still, I enjoyed it! After a nice dinner at Seasons 52 later that evening, she pretty much forgot about the movie and didn't mention it again the rest of the week. (If you like nice dining in a relaxed yet sophisticated atmosphere, you must try Seasons 52 the next time you visit the Orlando area. Your wives/parents/inlaws will love you for it!)

I just happen to be a Captain America fanatic, so I decided to post a photo of one of my favorite covers, January 1971. Though I bought it, this issue now sits in my son's Captain America collection instead of mine. He decided to collect Captain America from 1968 through 1975, while I pick up from there through the 1980s. The cover has it all for me: Cap surrounded by Hydra agents, a damsel in distress (dead?!?), and Cap about ready to kick some serious butt in revenge! Oh yeah, Hydra is going down! I just love looking at this cover.

Star Trek: Deck Building Game

2011-07-12T10:01:00.001-04:00

If you like Star Trek: The Next Generation and deck building card games, then you'll want to look out for Bandai's upcoming Star Trek: Deck Building Game coming out later this year. There isn't any official info on the Bandai website yet (a poorly translated rulebook was removed recently), but ICv2 has been keeping track of if with some news articles, and there has been some discussion on the game's Boardgame Geek page since the game was demoed at Origins.

Jeremy and I are looking forward to this. We have a nice collection of cards and decks from Decipher's long-out-of-print 2nd edition Star Trek CCG, but it's always nice to buy a new game, especially when it's self-contained. Now all Bandai will need is a Deep Space Nine expansion, and we'll be rocking!

Need Buildings for 18mm Blue Moon Westerns, Gangsters, and More? Check These Out.

2011-07-07T12:00:00.004-04:00

Wild West gamers always need a lot buildings to flesh out their boomtowns. Unfortunately, resin buildings can cost quite a bit of money or take quite a bit of time and talent to scratch-build. This evening while reading one of my model railroading magazines, I decided to pop over an advertiser's website--Alpine Division Scale Models.

What is Alpine Division Scale Models?
ADSM makes HO scale buildings that will fit perfectly with 18mm figures from Blue Moon. From their website: "Our product line is made from durable top quality laser-cut matboard and basswood; the same matboard that is used in the framing of your pictures and pieces of art. The ease of construction and overall fun that these kits provide make them an ideal project for new and old modelers alike. Wood glue is used in the assembly, and plastic doors and windows are provided with most kits. Using quality model paints will produce very fine looking models. Most of the kits have roof detail, some have signs and lighting, and some have interior detail."

Memories...
I haven't built any of kits yet, but I did build some way back in the 1970s and 1980s when they were originally sold by E. Suydam. I built the Modern Yard Control Tower, Purina Feed Mill, Packing House, and others I vaguely remember. These were easy to build, lightweight, looked good, and were very sturdy--all good qualities for gaming buildings. I assume these kits are even better now. I hope they eventually release the entire, large Suydam catalog.

Western "Old Town" Buildings
If you are interested in gaming Westerns using 18mm figures from Blue Moon, Alpine Division Scale Models makes over a dozen inexpensive ($12 or so for most of them) HO scale Western buildings under their "Old Town" section. Poke around their website for more buildings if you plan on gaming Blue Moon's upcoming 18mm gangsters or anything else set in 20th century America. I thought I'd pass along the suggestion.

West Wind London Gentlemen #1

2011-07-05T08:00:00.006-04:00

West Wind GHJ-5 London Gentlemen

Games Workshop Metal: Crazy or Collectors Items?

2011-07-02T18:00:00.002-04:00

I think the entire world, except for a few ancient tribes hidden deep in the Andes Mountains, have heard that Games Workshop has switched from metal to resin for their figures. The big debate on the many GW-based forums has been the poor quality of the new resin figures, which GW designates as Finecast, though gamers designate them something else unfit to mention in mixed company.

So this begs the question: Will the old metal Games Workshop figures--and by 'old' I mean those that were in production as metal until only several weeks ago--will those figures now become prized collector's items? Will gamers and fanboys in the not so distant future pay even more money than sensible to get their hands on metal instead of resin? Currently, I am leaning toward "yes they will." And therein lies the rub.

If GW metal figures begin demanding high collector prices, what do we do? Do we sell off our mint-in-box/blister metal figures to rake in the big bucks, using the funds to purchase more "inexpensive" figures from the likes of Foundry? Do we keep the sealed metal figures on a shelf or in a display case, examples of the "good old days of metal" as their collector value increases in price? Or do we throw all caution and sensibility to the wind, rip open the perfectly sealed boxes, paint the sacred metal figures contained therein, and then play with said figures, all the while laughing madly as the world crumbles around us?

Ohhhh, I want the say the latter. I really, really do. But as I stare at my sealed mint-in-box Ambush at Amon Hen set of 10 metal figures, three of which are fairly useless in a game unless one wants to start the game with Boromir dying and Merry and Pippin being carted away by vile Uruk-hai. So as I stare at that boxed set of out-of-production-in-metal (OOPIM) goodness I paid an entire $5 at a Cold Wars flea market because the fellow thought they were plastic, I can't help but say to myself, "Boy, you got a collector's item there! Don't you dare open it because it will pay for your retirement!"

Sigh . . . What in the world has happened to me!?! When did I go from being a miniature gamer to being a miniature "collector"? (Note that I said collector and not hoarder--there is a difference! As miniature gamers, we're all hoarders regardless what we like to tell the wife about our "collection" of unpainted figures.) Please tell me I am alone in my crazed thinking? Do we have collector's items now? Will you save your GW metal as your retirement fund or open them up right now, even going as far as playing with them (gasp!) unpainted just to "stick it to The Man"? This, my friends, is a weighty decision, is it not?

Then again, in a year or so Games Workshop could switch back to metal, thus rendering my above thesis totally invalid. On this matter, the tea leaves are unclear.

Blue Moon Pirates WIP - Stripes

2011-06-30T12:00:00.004-04:00

The other day, I mentioned how painting stripes and lines can give me fits because my hands shake quite a bit. I really have to brace miniatures by holding onto sticks or bottle caps to keep my hands steady, and then I'm praying most of the time to keep them steady! Well, here are some examples of failed stripes from my Blue Moon 18mm pirates. I did these several weeks ago, failed, and then tossed them to the side until I could clear my mind, turning to painting my 28mm Soviets instead.

I have a sneaky feeling many modelers and miniature painters have drawers filled with such projects that get put on hold out of some sort of frustration! I tend to get frustrated/tired painting smaller scale figures and then jump up to larger scale figures for a while...and then get frustrated with larger figures only to return to smaller figures, repeating the cycle endlessly.

This is my first attempt at stripes. I used a #00 brush. I might try using a longer bristle next time. Might help keep the lines straighter?

Invisible stripes! Well, not really. More like no stripes. I paint the miniature using P3 Midlund Flesh and then paint the muscle shadows, eyes, mouth, under the nose, and 6-pack abs using P3 Khardic Flesh. The final highlight is P3 Ryn Flesh. The contrast looks good on the table, much better than the photos show.

After trying a brush, I tried some fine-tip artist pens I picked up at the local art store. I thought I might be able to control a pen more than a brush. Didn't work too well. I did learn that the brown pens make nice eyebrows on 28mm figures! They can also be used to make nice iris/pupils on 28mm eyes. But they don't work well for stripes--my wife warned me the pens would create little blobs at the top of the stripes; she was correct...again.

I painted the britches using P3 Menoth White Highlight, a slightly creamy-looking off-white. I then used a very light gray for shadows. The Menoth is highlighted with P3 Morrow White, which is the best bright white I have found. It's also the brightest white I have found!

Yow, I need to repaint these britches! While I use some hobby paints, I still use mainly craft paints.

More Cowboys & Magic Wand

2011-06-29T22:38:00.002-04:00

This evening while online, I stumbled on a brief tutorial about using the Magic Wand function to remove (or enhance) backgrounds from photos. Though I had had other plans this evening, I found myself learning and experimenting how to use this function in my version of Paint Shop Pro. And then I learned how to add gradients to the background. All this took a lot more time than I bargained for! (I spent most of the day--and week so far--on the sofa watching the Casey Anthony trial while nursing pulled back muscles, so messing with Paint Shop Pro was blessed relief! Anyway.....)

So here are the results that worked. I kind of like the look of them, but I'm not sure about the work involved. I have some miniatures that have white shirt sleeves, which was a real pain with the magic wand. Not deleting half the sleeve from the photo was a real chore, so I gave up on them. We'll see.

The top figure is another from West Wind. Yes, I love their figures, though some look like the sculptor did them at 4am after spending all night on a wild bender. I also want to mention that I painted all the flesh and eyes on my Western figures a few years ago, so they look different from how I do things now. I'm still learning though. Oh yeah, the bottom figure is a work in progress. I actually tried painting stripes on the vest and got them pretty straight, considering my hands always shake pretty badly when I paint. The first decent success painting stripes. (Wait till you see the failures I had trying to paint stripes on my 18mm pirates! Ugh! Sigh.)

ZCW-29 The Long Riders

Blue Moon Cowboy of the Month. A work in progress.

Adventures In Wet Blending: There & Back Again

2011-06-25T10:06:00.002-04:00

This morning, I was going to post a few photos of my collection and be done with it. That's how it started. Then it morphed into a post on wet blending!

If painting were a college degree, I often feel like a first-semester freshman! Ok, sometimes I feel like a second-semester freshman, but then I fall backwards after not painting anything for months. To boot, I recently hit a point where I looked at all my unfinished/partially-finished miniatures in my drawers and all the miniatures still sealed in blisters and got depressed. All I saw was a pile of stuff--not models or miniatures--just stuff. Stuff that had been primed for three years but untouched. Stuff that had a bit of this and a bit of that painted. I also saw the dreaded pile of "wasted money," as my wife was starting to call my hobby.

I needed to get something done! Anything done, so I didn't feel like I was wasting time and money on a dead-end hobby. So I said to myself, forget learning how to wet blend. Forget all the fancy-pantsy and artsy-fartsy techniques. Just get something done! And then get enough miniatures (and scenery) done so we can play a game with the stuff instead of displaying it in the closet.

How many of us have hit that wall? I bet most of us have or will!

A Return To Simpler Times
So I went back to simple techniques--shadow, midtone, highlight. Aside from some recent experimenting on faces and eyes on my Soviets, I've been following these basic painting techniques and they work, especially when painting entire platoons or armies.

Then I saw a thread on TMP this morning and read this step-by-step painting thread on Studio McVey's forum. Wow! This was my goal when I started painting--wet blending. Years ago, I tried it on a few miniatures below with okay results, but I was teaching myself.

West Wind's GHL-4 London Detectives

Though I painted this figure years ago, I added the Army Painter tufts this week. This was one of the few figures that experienced no damage when I dropped my box of miniatures a few weeks ago.

Old Glory MW201 Tombstone's Gunfight at OK Corral

I planted the pieces of broom when I based this figure years ago, but the tufts are new. I put a tuft on each side of the straw. Not sure if it's realistic but it looked better than the simple straw sticking out, which had been severely damaged during The Great Drop a few weeks ago.

Excellent Wet Blending Videos
Plus, the McVeys have posted a series excellent wet blending tutorial videos.

So now I'm jazzed to get back into trying to wet blend the proper way instead of guessing my way through the process as I did before. I'm also using quality brushes and paints that I didn't have until recently. We'll see how this goes on the stuff--I mean miniatures--sitting in my closet waiting to be painted.

Check out the McVey thread and videos. I bet you'll like them.

An Old Friend: Old Glory January Pirate

2011-06-24T07:00:00.010-04:00

To start the photos, here is a shot of the first 28mm figure I ever painted a few years ago and the one that began the blog. It's the January pirate of the month from the Old Glory Army. My son loves how I did this mini. It was also my first try at eyes, which are a bit off. As I mentioned several posts ago, I would abandon eyes until this year, when I began working on the Black Tree Design Soviets. Hmmm....this week, I noticed that I have several preacher figures: a couple pirates, a couple cowboys, and some Deepest Africa missionaries spring to mind. Got several nuns as well.

I Blanked On A Snappy Title, So All You Get Is This

2011-06-23T10:47:00.000-04:00

Chessie says, "I prefer a touch of Vallejo in my water, but craft paints will do in a pinch."*

Life has been crazy lately, from stomach viruses to crazy work schedules to air conditioners breaking down on 98-degree days. So it's been a long time since I posted some photos of actual models! This morning, with a lull in the action, I set up a small photo studio and took a ton of good photos of much of the collection, including some WIP photos of the projects I've been working on--picked up some Army Painter grass tufts last weekend, so my thoughts on them as well.. Plus I'll be posting some photos of some games we've been playing. And will be finishing the reenactor photos.Lots of goodness coming the rest of the summer, provided we don't get thrown too many more curve balls!

BTW a big thanks to the folks following the blog and to all the other bloggers out there working hard to educate and entertain us! Blogging is one of the best aspects of our hobby.

*No cats or miniatures were harmed in the taking of this photo. The water was clean. :-)

Returning to a New Normal

2011-05-11T10:41:00.001-04:00

Well, trying to get back to normal here but it hasn't been easy. Each day seems to bring a new crisis of one sort or another. Life seems to be that way! But God is getting us through. Since I'm on my summer schedule, I'm trying to get work on some models in my free time (and trying to exercise more!). I touched up the Western figs and corrected a few mistakes I never noticed, so they are back to health again. Whew! I'll post photos when I get a chance. The Russians are really coming along as well. Anyway, enough rambling! Here are some more photos from the Road to Victory the other month. I'm saving the American WWII photos for a bit later.

Preparing to fire the cannon.

A big BOOM followed by car alarms going off. Awesome!

Train Wreck of a Day

2011-05-01T16:35:00.002-04:00

So I decide to take my mind off my troubles of the past few weeks and lose myself in some miniature painting, which I haven't done in a long time. Well, half an hour ago, while pulling my sole box of painted 25mm figures off the shelf, the box slipped out of my hand and fell on the floor. 75% of the figures damaged from falling on top of each other onto the plush carpet. See, just falling onto the carpet would have been too easy. No, they have to pile onto each other in a great heap of metal. So lots of chipped paint. The Western figures took the brunt of the damage. The few things I'm proud of. Sigh. Of course, figures I really don't need, like my mummies, survived unharmed. Typical! After plopping in my chair for several minutes, staring at the floor, I'm now trying to repair the chipped paint. (Note, I took no photos of the carnage. That was too much to bear.) Oh yeah, while cleaning up a damaged figure, I also accidentally sliced open the tip of my left index finger with an Xacto blade. Thank goodness for bandaids. So here I sit, going back into the blog to hopefully find some of the paint colors I used on the figures. I'm thinking this is an omen that 25mm is not for me...

Road to Victory: Bren Gun

2011-04-12T15:00:00.001-04:00

During the weapons demonstration in front of some US reenactors, Doc shows off his personal favorite--the Bren gun. Watching him fire this weapon was a treat. What a fantastic weapon. Doc is supposed to be a British medic. A medic with a Bren gun sounds like a fearful combination! More photos coming.

Napoleonic Figure Comparison: 6mm, 15mm, 28mm

2011-04-11T18:29:00.002-04:00

The photo below compares 28mm Old Glory 2nd Edition French Napoleonic figures to some sample Baccus 6mm Napoleonic figures and a 15mm Old Glory Prussian figure a little in the background. I was really impressed with the quality of the OG figures. But I can't help being drawn to Adler's 6mm (8mm?) figures! The Baccus are a bit small and fragile for me--perhaps the Adler will be just as fragile? I've already snapped off some Baccus at the ankles by just handling them. I don't know what direction I'll take with gaming Napoleonics. Right now, I'm focusing on finishing my Splintered Light figures, my WWII 28mm and 15mm figures, and expanding my Westerns. Lately, I've been making some nice progress on these fronts.

This is a Title I Didn't Want to Have to Write

2011-04-10T20:16:00.000-04:00

We got a phone call from my step-mother yesterday morning that my father passed away shortly after 6am. Some of you might recall his several-year battle with illness, our trip to see him last spring during Cold Wars (the last time I saw him), and his liver transplant last summer. Unfortunately, he fought constant complications with the transplant and died in the hospital Saturday morning. He was 70. (The photo is from a couple years ago when he was still doing better.) It hasn't been easy the last couple days. (Working on some miniature painting yesterday helped take my mind of things a bit.) We'll be heading up North later this week. We were planning on attending Recon at the end of the month. We still might go. We're just taking it day by day right now.

Road to Victory: Modern Equipment

2011-04-02T21:23:00.001-04:00

Today I'm posting photos of some modern equipment from last weekend's Road to Victory reenactment. Our county police had some of their equipment on display. Later in the morning, they landed one of the copters right in the middle of the festivities. It was a fun experience as leaves and sand blew everywhere! It's one way to clear a lawn!

Jeremy wore his shirt from an earlier Cold Wars. The theme was 1944, with a large Tiger tank painting on the back. His shirt got many looks and good comments from the reenactors. BTW he turned 20 a few weeks ago. I can't call him a kid anymore. Time is flying!

Splintered Light Hares WIP

2011-03-29T08:00:00.005-04:00

Some work-in-progress of my Splintered Light Druid's Children hares. I tried dry-brushing the fur. It looks great on the table, much better than these photos show, but is very time consuming. I'll be trying a different technique on the rats. As for color schemes, the red coat below is just a base coat of the shadow color. I still have a lot more work to do on these coats. The archers will have green jackets. The 'guard' units might have royal blue--not sure yet. I'm thinking of using 2nd Edition of Warlord from Reaper.

Road to Victory: 130. Panzer Lehr Division

2011-03-26T20:20:00.004-04:00

It was beautiful weather today for a military reenactment: not a cloud in the sky, a slight breeze, and temps in the mid-80s. Granted, it was a bit warm to be wearing a wool uniform. As one of the organizers said, WWII uniforms weren't made to be worn in Florida.

We arrived shortly after 10 o'clock this morning. The festivities were in full swing. Since my wife was feeling under the weather, it was just Jeremy and myself today. We were hoping to take our neighbor, Bill Peebles, but he was out of town this weekend. Bill is an 86-year-old WWII vet who served in the 36th "Texas" Infantry Division from 1940 to 1943 as a .30cal machine gunner. He was in North Africa, landed in Sicily, fought at Anzio and into Rome, and then landed in the South of France. He ended his service as a gunner in the Air Commandos. He was wounded five times and survived being shot down over Germany. I'll have a special blog post soon about Bill and what he did for Jeremy a few weeks ago.

130. Panzer Lehr Division Reenactors
This evening's photos are of the 130. Panzer Lehr Division 5. Kompanie, a reenactment group here in Central Florida. (Click here for their website.) They have a sidecar and a "mobile" museum. The museum has a large collection of authentic artifacts, many of which were brought back by US servicemen after the war. Since I collect china, I enjoyed looking at china and silverware that once belonged to Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun. A bit creepy to think they ate off the same plates I was looking at. Anyway, I bet you all are more interested in the hardware, so on with the photos!

MG42 and ammo boxes.

Motorcycle and sidecar.

In a rare moment, a German commander gives a friendly lift to a couple of American GI's on the promise of giving them some fresh strudel and hot kaffee. He might have been lying...

The Mobile World War II Museum

This original PIAT caught my attention. I can see why it took a brave soldier to fire one of these!

The German's encampment.

The kompanie lines up for a weapons demonstration.

Two young French partizans wander into the SS road block during the Normandy invasion. Luckily, their papers were in order and were allowed to pass.

Watching the German road block and waiting to attack are the lead elements of an American recon force. They'll have to hold the line until the M-8 Greyhound and rest of the force can catch up. Stay tuned for more reenactment photos, including American WWII units, Signal Corps, Vietnam, Union Civil War artillery, and modern equipment. And the battle at the road block!

Look Into My Eyes

2011-03-25T18:29:00.007-04:00

I've been playing miniature games for several years now but have been painting miniatures for only the past three years. And I've been going extremely slowly at that! My biggest fear has been painting faces and eyes, especially eyes. Most miniature painters fear eyes for good reasons.

I attempted to paint eyes on the first figure I painted way back this month in 2008, my pirate below. The face is really basic and the eyes are creepy! Pretty good for a first attempt though. I still love this little figure. But those eyes! Shiver me timbers!

Fearing painting more creepy eyes, my next batch of figures had nothing but black dots or maybe brown slits. The eye sockets had no shading or anything. I painted all my Old Glory and West Wind 25mm Western figures like this in the summer of 2008, and I'm still working on some of those figures as I type! I also just realized that I have very few photos of my 30 Western figures on the blog--I have more painted but never shot them, so to speak. I'll try to rectify that. Still, the dot/slash style kind of works pretty good. Since the WW figures can have poorly sculpted eyes, it even helps some of the figures look better and meaner. I think this also works well on rank-and-file army figures.

Long Time No Paint
Since the summer of 2008, I have not painted a single 25mm face! (Looking at old posts, I realize I haven't done much period--but that is another story! One which I am rectifying!) When I got my Black Tree Design 28mm WWII Russians a few months ago, I wanted to do proper faces with proper eyes. I wanted to do proper shading and highlighting. I wanted to do proper 5 o'clock shadow and eyebrows. And so on. So I watched many painting videos and read many articles on painting faces. Painting is always a learning experience--part of the fun and frustration of the hobby.

The Russians Are Coming
This afternoon, I took some quick work-in-progress photos of my Russians. The photos aren't the best, but we'll fix that later. (This is also what happens when one goes to the eye doctor for an eye exam, gets his pupils dilated, and then tries to take photos of miniatures. Not one of my better ideas.)

The faces are not 100% complete. I need to work on the lips, eyebrows, and a few other details. But they give you an idea of what I've been doing and how I've progressed for the crazy-eyed pirate above. The photos still don't show the subtleties of the painting. (Dang, that sounds pompous!) You know the old saying: If you want to make your miniatures look horrible, take photos of them. Anyway, here they are. I can write some posts about how I painted them if folks are interested. These are only a few of the 40+ I have finished so far.

I Want My Stompy Mechs!

2011-03-19T00:16:00.000-04:00

Don't worry. I'll be posting some miniature stuff very soon. I just have to find some time to set up the camera rig. I finished painting all the flesh and faces on the 25mm WWII Soviets and get some more work done this evening on the 40 Splintered Light hare figures. I'm not used to such a detailed assembly line process, so lots of figures are going to get done all of a sudden! To make it worse, I'm thinking of jumping back into 15mm sci-fi. There is no hope for me.

360 Meets Mechs
When we got an Xbox 360 this past Christmas, I picked up cheap used copies of Chromehounds and Armored Core 4. I was looking for something to scratch that big stompy-mech itch I've had ever since I stopped playing the Mechwarrior console and computer games. You know, something to hold me over until the eternally delayed Mechwarrior 5 is released. Sadly, these two games did nothing for me. I know the AC series has a large following, but it just left me a bit cold. Chromehounds left me cold and very frustrated--in the future everything will be brown, and missiles will no longer have guidance systems! Argh!

Well, Chromehounds has been deleted and tossed in the yard sale box for later this year. Jeremy wants to try his hand at AC4. He just might have the reflexes to pull it off better than I could. Until Mechwarrior 5 is released, looks like my stompy-mech itch will remain unscratched. Just had to get that off my chest tonight--these are the two biggest 360 disappointments for me. Luckily, I only paid a few dollars for each.

Napoleon's Wars: An International History

2011-03-11T00:02:00.002-05:00

This week has been Spring Break week for us. Up until today, I've been trying to catch up on some work around the house but have been running errands more than anything. Well, today (Thursday) was a rainy day, so no errands or outside housework. Yippee! I got to spend most of the day painting figures! I decided to work on my 25mm BTD Soviets some more.

What I want to mention is the book you see pictured here, Napoleon's Wars: An International History, 1803-1815. (Click link for the book on Amazon.) I got the audio book and began listening to it today while painting this afternoon, getting to Hour 4. (This morning while painting, I just listened to Jeremy playing on the 360 in the living room, trying to run up his gamer score.) The audio book is 30 hours and well read. It kept my attention the entire time.

When it comes to Napoleonics, my knowledge is probably a 3 on a scale of 1 to 10. This book has been teaching me a lot about Napoleon, the French Revolution, and the Italian campaign, which is where I have left off for now. In three hours, it has bumped up my Napoleon knowledge significantly. I am seeing Napoleon as a real man and putting all the European wars into context, from SYW through French Revolution. I can't wait to listen some more. I highly recommend the audio version. Check if your library has it.

The Road to Victory: Central FL Reenactment

2011-03-09T08:00:00.002-05:00

Just a reminder for anyone in the Central Florida area at the end of the month. There will be a general reenactment event called "The Road to Victory." Proceeds will benefit the future Central Florida WWII museum. God willing, we will be there with camera in tow! ( Due to illness, we had to miss the recent ACW reenactment.)

Everyone Need Some Germans!

2011-03-08T16:22:00.006-05:00

Just placed an order with Old Glory. My membership expires in a few days. I'm not sure if I will renew any time soon. I seem to order only once a year from them anyway. That's because I have been slow to do anything the past year-plus, mostly due to family illnesses. The latest was my wife, who spent a chunk of last week in the hospital. Anyway...

In this order, I got some Germans to fight my Russians and tossed in some Americans as well. Why not? I'm going to paint the.30cal gunner as our good friend, Bill Peebles, who served as a .30cal gunner from North Africa through Europe and then in the Air Commandos. More later on Bill and the very cool thing he did for Jeremy this past weekend. We need to remember and honor our WWII vets! Here is the order:

WWU011 US Bazooka Teams
WWU010 US .30 Cal MMG and Crew
Box008 WWII US Infantry
WWG010 German HMG
WWG008 German Tank Hunters
Box006 WWII German Infantry

They also owed me a bunch of sets that I never got from my old memberships, so I reminded them about these as well. More lead for the lead pile!

BMM601 Dwarf Warband
BMM214 The Duelists
BMM214A Duelist Booster Pack
CP-07 February Cowboy
CP-08 March Cowboy
CP-09 April Cowboy of the Month
CP-10 May Cowboy of the Month

New Favicon
The other night I made a new favicon for the blog, a translucent red die. I hope it looks good for you guys!

Thrift Shop Find: Car Wars Gamebook

2011-03-06T22:26:00.004-05:00

You must drive Orson Whitney, a controversial Church Elder, to San Francisco without letting him get killed in the process.

Welcome to the exciting world of Car Wars Adventure Gamebooks! I have been a gamebook geek since way back in early 1981 when I read my first. I don't remember what it was, but I was hooked. They were a nice change of pace from playing Zork on my Apple. Plus cheating was a bit easier with a gamebook--just a quick peek at Page 46 to see what happens when I open that door and then a quick peek at Page 87 to see what happens if I check the door for traps.... Oh, come on! What gamebook reader (player?) hasn't peeked ahead just once!

This weekend at the local library used bookstore, I picked up a Very Fine copy of the Car Wars Adventure Gamebook: Badlands Run from 1987, paying a whopping 50 cents. The cover is still stiff and looks like no one ever opened it up to read. And get this. They had four more copies! Unfortunately, the other four were all badly damaged. Oh well. This book goes for $15 to $30 on the collector market. (Note, the photo above is not of my actual book. Just a photo I found online.) The cover just screams Car Wars and Mad Max. Back in the day, I was a big Car Wars player. This is the only CW book I've ever found. I also picked up a VF condition AD&D adventure gamebook #18 from 1988, but those are more common.

If you'd like more info on this book or adventure gamebooks in general, check out Demian's Gamebook Web Page.The link will take you to the Badlands Run page. Check those thrift shops for gamebooks. For us old guys, they can bring back some fond memories of misspent youth!

Desktop Dungeons: I Love This Game!

2011-02-10T20:58:00.001-05:00

Jeremy knows that I love small games I can play in fifteen minutes instead of fifteen hours. You know, those time killers to take our minds off our problems right before dinner. (I needed one of those games after today's problems!) Solitaire and the like do not work for me. Nor do I like those little arcade games either. Too much hyper-action or too much thinking.

Well, tonight I found a perfect little time killers: Desktop Dungeons. It's a small, free game based on random dungeon crawls. Jeremy suggested I download it and give it a try. I love it. Just what I was looking for. Of course, some game did last minutes before I died. Since the game is random, being surrounded by high-level monsters on turn one was possible and happened to me on my second game! Nothing to do but swipe at one of them, die, and load up a new game--all within 10 seconds. Awesome!

Desktop Dungeons reminds me of an old LucasArts game from 1997--Star Wars: Yoda Stories. I also liked playing this game and its Indiana Jones brother. Unfortunately, the games went stale quickly. The stories had no connection to each other and became repetitious. The games weren't free like Desktop Dungeons, but I paid nearly nothing for them on clearance. So I got my money's worth.

Anyway, check out Desktop Dungeons. I bet you'll like it.

Rediscovering Crossfire

2011-02-04T23:03:00.005-05:00

Have you ever forgotten that you own a particular set of rules? I totally forgot that I owned Crossfire! I bought a copy about four years ago at the first gaming convention I ever attended, Recon, here in Orlando. I paid a whopping $4 for it in pristine condition, and then accidentally exiled them to my gaming bookshelf. I may have some learning disabilities, like dyslexia and dyspraxia, but I usually remember the games I own!

You know, I haven't had the best of luck enjoying WWII rules for my 15mm figures, causing them the languish in their box. For example, I own Disposable Heroes, a one-time wildly popular ruleset that seems to get less attention today. I played it several times with a variety of players, including a friend who never played a wargame in his life but plays Call of Duty 2 online every night. For some reason, it just never clicked with me or anyone else I played with. The Germans always seemed overpowered, especially with their command rolls. At least this is the impression I kept getting, right or wrong. Other little niggly bits also just didn't do it for me. So I shelved the game.

Having rediscovered Crossfire on my shelf, I've been reading through them. They look incredibly fun and challenging. Good for all the 15mm figures I own. Of course, I need more scenery than I currently own. Lots of cover is important in this game, just as it is in real life. Running across a large open field in Crossfire looks as deadly as it would in real life!

I don't know how well the game would work with my 28mm figures. I haven't thought about that too much. For those games, I might give Nuts a whirl. Ed at Two Hour Wargames gave me a free copy a few years ago, but I've never played it yet. On the other hand, I've really been interested in the new Operation Squad WWII. That seems perfect for 28mm gaming as well. So we'll see what I use for 28mm games. BTW my Black Tree Design Soviets are coming along nicely. I worked on them for a few hours this evening.

So my suggestion for everyone is to check your bookshelves. You never know what you'll find there!

The Eyes Have It

2011-02-01T20:08:00.000-05:00

Painted 41 pairs of Soviet eyes on Sunday evening. I still need to touch up some of them so they don't have that bug-eyed look. I've been wanting to work on them some more in the evenings, but I've been a bit burned out this week from teaching. In my infinite wisdom, all three of my composition and all three of my literature classes turned in writing assignments yesterday and today--nearly 160 papers needing to be graded asap. Sigh. Someday I will learn to sync my schedules better. Plus my dad is back in the hospital. He's rejecting his transplanted liver. Just a little stressful around here!

Escoda Brushes & Silicoil Cleaning System

2011-01-30T09:00:00.005-05:00

Got some more painting in Friday! Stopped by the local art store to pick up some new brushes because my Imex #00 was shot. They're having a 50% off sale. I was going to get a Windsor Newton Number 7 brush, which would have been $11 on sale. Instead, I went with a #00 and #1 Kolinsky-Tamjyr brushes from Escoda. They are half the price of the WN brushes, about $6.50 on sale. I remembered hearing good things online about these, and the art store's staff said they were excellent. (Having a real art store staffed by artists and art majors is so nice compared to the big box craft stores!) Before I bought them, I tried them out with water on paper and was pleased. Hopefully with care they will last.

Put To The Test
As soon as I got home, I put the brushes to work in paint. They are excellent! I've been using Imex's red sable brushes for years, but these brushes blow them out of the water. I can get such a fine line with the #00 it's amazing. Made painting the straps on 15mm pirates so much easier, as well as doing fine touchups. I also used the brushes to paint the flesh on one of my Black Tree Design WWII Soviets, testing a new technique to paint eyes. I followed a modified version of painting eyes from this post on the Vallejo blog. Basically, I used the article for inspiration and then went my own direction.

Jeremy compared the new Soviet face to one of my old cowboy faces and was amazed at how much better I've gotten. He liked the eyes. He says they look real. Two years ago, I painted all the faces on my primed cowboys in one large batch. I feared doing eyes, not wanting the deer-in-headlights look so many gamers accidentally do. The cowboy eyes are just black holes, more or less. They look ok from a distance. Until we compared them to the Soviet eyes and face

I still have some slight tweaking I want to do to the technique I used on the Soviet's eyes and face, but the Escoda brushes made it possible. Using Tamiya Deck Tan for the whites of the eyes and using proper coloring around the eyes also helped. Hey, if I can do it, anyone can! It was easier than I thought! Photos coming as soon as I can snap them. Note: We will not talk about how I spilled my new bottle of Tamiya Flat Black paint all over my work area...

Silicoil Brush Cleaning System

Since I bought good brushes, I also picked up the Silicoil brush cleaning system: a tank with coil and a bottle of cleaning fluid. Though not on sale, I do get a 20% faculty discount on everything in the store. Again, I had heard good things about this system. I needed more Pink Soap anyway, so I decided to give this a whirl instead. The tank retails for about $5.50 and the fluid a bit more. The fluid lasts forever. Since the paint settles to the bottom of the far, all you must do is descant the fluid to a new jar, dump out the settled paint, and then put the liquid back in the Silicoil jar.

I like the system. It works better than using Pink Soap in the palm of my hand to clean my new brushes. The fluid has a paint thinner smell to it, which bothered me at first. Once the lid is closed, the smell goes away. The instructions say using plain water for acrylics works fine, but I prefer using a soap or the Silicoil fluid to properly clean and treat the bristles. Note: I still use the Pink Soap to clean my cheap bushes for painting large splotches of paint like Gesso or black--I don't need that stuff messing up the Silicoil fluid.

Note: We went to Hobby Lobby later that afternoon and saw the Silicoil system there as well. The price was much higher and a total ripoff. This seems to be the pattern for art supplies at HL. Maybe I am wrong, but so far I have not been impressed with Hobby Lobby, which just came to Orlando a few months ago.

Gods & Generals

2011-01-29T22:24:00.002-05:00

Yesterday at a local thrift store, I picked up a new copy of the double feature DVD for Gods and Generals plus Gettysburg for only $2. A quick check online shows that Walmart sells it for $6.46.

I know Gods and Generals gets trashed for being too long-winded, but I have never seen it. I have seen and liked Gettysburg, but it has been years since. I watch the movies for the reenactment scenes because they help me visualize the battles while bringing life to the period of history. I just don't get that from reading a history book or an Osprey. Of course, I read history books, but they tend not to inspire me for gaming. To me, it's the difference between reading a symphony's sheet music or listening to the actual symphony. I've done both, but prefer the latter. I bet I'm not alone in this point of view.

Civil War Reenactment Next Weekend
Next Saturday is a large ACW reenactment about 45 minutes north of Orlando. The last time we went was the day the space shuttle Columbia exploded on reentry. It happened while we were on our way there. It was a difficult day for everyone. Next Saturday should be a good time. My goal is to take as many good photos as I can and pick up some goodies from the vendors. Let's hope for good weather and good health!

Speaking of World War II Reenactments

At the end of March there will be a WWII and 'all-periods' reenactment festival just a few miles from our house. It's being sponsored by the Central Florida WWII Museum, which is trying to get off the ground. It looks like some great Florida reenactment groups will be coming. I've never been to a WWII reenactment. My uncle in Pennsylvania does WWII reenacting. Sounds like fun.

There's Something About Jack Kirby

2011-01-27T15:00:00.005-05:00

Well, I seem to be on a Jack Kirby kick this week! Since I am still learning about Kirby and his work, I thought I'd mention some great Kirby websites and a Kirby freebie all centered around the same fellow, Jon B. Cooke. From his bio on his website: "Jon B. Cooke is the former associate editor of The Jack Kirby Collector and editor/creator of the five-time Eisner Award-winning Comic Book Artist magazine (for "Best Comics-Related Periodical")."

A Freebie!
The Jack Kirby Collector is a monthly print and pdf magazine put out by the same company who publishes one of my favorite comic magazines, Back Issue, which mainly covers older comics from 1970s, 80s, and 90s. If you click on the magazine's cover below, you go to the publisher's website, where you can download the issue below for free plus free sample issues of their other magazines, including Back Issue.

Virtual Museum
If you would like to learn more about Jack Kirby, his comics, and scans of his comics, you really must check Jon B. Cooke's Kirby Museum & Research Center, which is the repository of all things Kirby.

Fourth World Blog
Cooke is also doing a daily blog about Kirby's Fourth World comics, featuring Mister Miracle, New Gods, and Forever People. I'm also trying to get these comics as well as Mister Miracle. Jeremy, my son, just told me that he has some Forever People issues and is giving them to me. Why am I just learning this tonight:? Holding out on his old man again, eh? And considering that I gave him my entire Superman collection and Batman Adventures collection.... Hmmmmm..... I wonder what else he has that I don't know about!?! LOL. Anyway, click on the pic below to go to the blog.

Until next time, always remember that there is no trap from which Mister Miracle cannot escape...even marriage! No wait, that didn't come out right....

Sneak Peek of Mister Miracle #1 (1971)

2011-01-26T20:00:00.005-05:00

Since some folks were interested in Mister Miracle, I thought I'd post a bit of a teaser from the first issue in 1971 along with an article on Jack Kirby from the same issue. I'll post a teaser from the first issue of the 1989 series a bit later this week. Does this make this a teaser for the teaser???

I love how Kirby draws the gangster in this issue, but I really love how he draws the Inter-Gang henchmen in rather "dorky" attire. Seriously, would anyone be threatened by a gang of thugs dressed like this? I've always felt that in gaming we need more henchmen figures like those Kirby draws. Sure, Superfigs makes some henchmen. Pulp Figures have some hooded henchmen. But I'd love to see more flat-top hooded guys like these or like classic AIM henchmen.(When I used to buy Heroclix singles off of gamers, I would snatch up all the henchmen figures I could for a dime a fig. No one wanted them, until Wizkids eventually stopped making them. I guess I have a soft spot for hero-fodder weenies.)

I hope you enjoy a quick look at Mister Miracle #1 from 1971, which now proudly sits on the shelf in its high-quality E Gerber Mylites bag--which I bummed off my son, of course. :-)

Mister Miracle: My Main Man

2011-01-23T01:17:00.002-05:00

Jack Kirby's Mister Miracle 1971

My big excitement came at the end of last week. I finally picked up Mister Miracle #1 from April 1971 in great condition without having to pay a fortune! Whoot! I also picked up some other missing issues from the series, all in near mint condition. I love all the Mister Miracle comics and am a bit of a Mister Miracle fanboy (see his Wikipedia entry). To me, the covers are some of the most exciting DC did during the 1970s because they usually feature Mister Miracle in a death-trap situation that looks hopeless. But we know better!

There were three series. In the first series starting in 1971 and lasting 25 issues, Jack Kirby did the stories and art through issue 18. I love Kirby's writing and art style. To me, Kirby is Mister Miracle for this series. I'm working on completing this set. It can get pricey.

The second series is a 28 issue run starting in 1989. This series features Mr. Miracle and Big Barda having married and trying to live a normal life in suburbia. The take is more humorous than the first series, reflecting the humor of the concurrently running Justice League series, during which the character Mr. Miracle is revitalized and then given his own title again. The writing is crisp and fun, but for me Ian Gibson's artwork really makes the humor in the stories pop for the first five issues.

Ian Gibson's Mister Miracle 1989

I first saw Gibson's art when reading Judge Dredd comics in early 1980s. I always thought he had a devilish style. Just look at his page from Mister Miracle to the left. I have the entire run of the second series. It's great fun and worth reading. I just wish Gibson had stayed with it more than the first five issues!

The third series is a 7-issue run from 1996. I have this but haven't read it yet, so no comments.

Well, I didn't expect to write this much on Mister Miracle or stay up this late. But I just wanted to share a little bit about a comic series folks might not know too much about. Like I mentioned, collecting the first series can be pricey, so patience is a must. The second series usually can be had very reasonably. Same for the third series.

Did Some Painting!

2011-01-17T22:36:00.000-05:00

Taking advantage of the day off from teaching, I continued re-organizing the man-room today, and then sat down for a few hours of painting. I worked on my Splintered Light hares first. They are coming along slowly. I'm finding they are taking as much work as 25mm figures--they are large figures. I also worked on my two packs of Blue Moon pirates. Painted the base coat of white on a lot of shirts and shorts. I'm using Folk Art Vintage White. I'll use my usual shadow methods and highlight with my P3 white. These figures are moving along quickly now. Just several more packs to paint! I could have snapped a bad photo of my work table but thought otherwise. Still got to play Halo 3 with my son, niece, and nephew on Xbox Live. That new toy has been suckling up all our free time!

Cheap Can Be Good

2011-01-11T09:00:00.002-05:00

I finally hooked up my new Brother HL-2140 monochrome laser printer. Several months ago, I bought the wireless version but could not get it to work with my network. After doing some quick searches online, I found this was a common problem with Linksys routers like the one I have. The printer also pulled some major wattage when starting up, causing the lights in my 'man-room' to dim and flicker quite a bit. So back went the printer.

A couple months later, Staples put the 2140 wired version on sale for only $50, so I picked it up. Unfortunately, life was chaotic this past fall, so it sat in the corner of the room, sealed in its box. I also needed some new furniture for my new computer equipment. Well, I finally found some furniture I liked, hooked up the printer, installed the Win7-64bit drivers I downloaded from Brother, and powered it up.

It works great! Barely any light flicker when it power up, and then none after that. (Seems odd this would draw less wattage than its wireless bother, but I'm not complaining!) The printouts are excellent. I really can't tell the difference when I use the 'toner saver' feature compared to normal printing. Toner from NewEgg is $46 for 2,600 pages, I assume using the toner saver feature. Make sure to tape over the sensor holes to get more ink out of the cart (look at the feedback on Newegg's listing).

So no more being a printer miser. I can finally print PDF rules without any guilt. The Cannon sits on the other side of the room, relegated to printing color paper models when I need to. I can't wait to print out my ECW army I bought last month.

Clever Models: PDF Model Train Kits For Gaming

2011-01-09T17:11:00.002-05:00

This evening, I came across Clever Models. They sell craftsman card stock model railroad kits that you can download and print. They offer a wide variety of models in O (1:48), S (1:64), HO (1:87), and N (1:160) scale all done with photo-realism. The variety surprised me. They have buildings usable for Western gaming (I love the small train station!), pulp gaming, WWII gaming, and more. Nice industrial buildings as well. Prices are very inexpensive IMO.

Though made in model railroad scales, shrinking them to gaming scales should be no problem. The owner even mentions doing this at one point. I'd get the O scale kits for 25mm gaming. You can shrink them as you see fit or use them as is for a slightly larger building. Same goes for 1:72 gaming. The HO buildings will work fine as-is with the new Blue Moon 15mm (aka 18mm) figures, or shrink them a bit for regular 15mm. You get the point.

Below are just a few buildings I like:

A Bugbear Changed My Life

2011-01-01T00:26:00.005-05:00

I'm not sure if mentioned this before on the blog, but my roots in gaming are more RPG than board and miniature wargames. I played my first roleplaying session during Christmas holiday way back in 1978. It was a game of AD&D, a year after it was published. I was in high school at the time and had never heard of AD&D or roleplaying games. My buddy's brother, a late-era-hippy English major in college, was home from Christmas break. He had been playing AD&D that semester and brought home all his books. I was spending the weekend next door at a mutual friend's house. Late that evening, I found myself in my buddy's rec room next door, the lights turned low. There the four of us sat on the floor--myself, my two buddies, and the college kid Dungeon Master.

Then the explanations began: Dungeon Master? There was an odd term I had never heard of! Oh, like a referee whose also writing a novel. And we're characters in this novel. Ok, and our motive is what? Killing everything in sight and stealing as much loot as possible while getting out alive. Ok. Sounds logical. Oh, and the dungeon is full of bizarre monsters and crazy traps. Kind of like a death trap. It will be a blast! Ok....

Having finished his (really sketchy) explanation of what roleplaying is and what his role is, the DM instructed us to roll up our characters. I never remembered actually picking the Magic User as my character class, but for some reason I wound up with one. I don't even remember his name. All I remember is rolling a '4' for his Hit Points, whatever those were. And that I had no weapons other than my awesome good looks (I think I rolled really high on my Charisma) and one useful spell that I could cast once--the famous Magic Missile. Wow. Needless to say, I spent the entire evening in the back of the party saying things like "Don't let the (fill in the blank monster) kill me!" I found this to be a rather useful tactic.

Though I cowered in fear most of the evening as goblins, spiders, kobolds, and waves of giant rats sprang from dungeon chambers, I had a blast. I really had no idea what was going on! We could have had the worst DM in history for all I knew, but I was having fun imagining all the happenings. It was like I was in one of those radio dramas that I used to love listening to on the local AM radio station at night. (A passion that I still enjoy today.)

My evening of roleplaying ecstasy came to a bloody end sometime after midnight after the parents upstairs had gone to bed. I have no idea how large the dungeon was that we were looting--I mean exploring. I didn't bother paying attention to the scribblings my other two friends were making on the blue-lined graph paper. I was too busy hiding behind the Fighter and Thief, making sure my hair looked its best for someone with such a high Charisma while trying to stay alive. Then it happened. We barged into one too many a dungeon room. It was our "A Door Too Far" moment. Years later, I would come to learn than a group of three Level 1 characters does not stand a chance against an entire room full of bugbears and that only a DM who wants to go to sleep after playing way too late into the night would spring such a trap.

Needless to say, his tactic worked. We rushed into action--a thief, fighter, and a handsome magic user against the odds. One last desperate stand. For the treasure! In all the chaos and angst of a party knowing it's going to die, all I remember is finally getting off my one magic missile. It there ever was a time to launch that (not very) powerful bolt of magic something-or-other at a hideous beast it was now! I announced my attack then waited my turn in the initiative order. Not being very quick--but rather dashing nonetheless--I stood and watched as the bugbears smashed to death the fighter and then the thief, morningstars splitting leather armor like it was some sort of weak clothing instead of armor. Then is was my turn to attack! Let loose the magic missile! I rolled my die. What did I need to roll? A what? Oh whatever, here it goes. The die rolled across the indoor-outdoor carpeting, past the half-full soda cans, coming to rest along side the empty chip bags. Did I hit it? Did I? I waited for what seemed like hours to hear the results of the one amazing attack that I had made all night. So did I hit and kill the bug-bear-thing? The DM looked up at me. Uh...you missed...and the bugbear kills you. Well, thanks for coming over! It's been fun! I'm going to bed....

Wha? I missed? And was killed by a bugbear? Awesome!!!

Though I did little playing that evening other than hanging in the rear while sending out encouraging waves to my fellow dungeon crawlers, I had one of the best times of my life. The evening was emblazoned on my memory, as the cliche goes.

A few years later, I found a copy of a boxed out of print D&D set at a local toy outlet. It cost me $4 and was the first boxed Basic set, with all the blue books. Though I hadn't played an RPG session since that fateful evening when a bugbear split my magic user's skull, I grabbed the box and took it home. It was Christmas 1981. I had graduated high school but had no idea what I wanted to do with my life, going to work in my father's clothing store. Years later, I would learn that D&D saved my life. But that is another story for another time.

Happy New Year Everyone!

Merry Christmas Update

2010-12-28T18:24:00.002-05:00

Well, Christmas has come and gone. We had a nice time, staying here in FL instead of traveling up North. Here are a few things you'll be hearing me chat about in the coming weeks or months.

This year, the big present for Jeremy was an Xbox 360 Halo Reach Limited Edition bundle. This is the first time we bought a current system, let alone a new system. Not knowing he was getting it, he practically passed out when he opened the wrapping paper! Little did he know that we bought it two months ago.

We also got him a stack of 360 video games, taking advantage of a lot of cheap deals over the past two months. Some fun title are the Halo games and Blood Bowl (ok, I really wanted this!). I also want to get Call of Duty 2 for the 360, even though its 1st person makes me nauseous--I just love the game on my PC. I love playing the Russians so much I bought a 25mm Russian platoon. Now I just need to stop walking about the house randomly shouting things like "You fascist pigs came to Russia just to die!?! Don't worry! We will thaw you out in the Spring!"

We Are Live

We also too advantage of Xbox's 33% off sale and got a Gold Live membership. We've never played games online, so this has been a steep learning curve for us. Luckily, Jeremy's 13 year old cousin in PA has Live and has been helping us out. (A kid helping me out with computers! What am I coming to? At least we have one 'friend' online!)

I will not go into my troubles finding room for the Xbox, setting up the Xbox with my computer, getting our Zune to work with it, updating my ancient router's firmware, getting the headset's setting to work properly, finding. You know, the typical computer stuff.

Xbox Carcassonne - Only $5 on Sale!

Hey guys, if you like Euroboard games and have a Live Gold membership, you have to take advantage of Live's sale on this game. I think the sale runs until the end of this year. I like the Ark of the Covenant board game version but never am able to play it. This changes that, and makes the game easier for someone like me with all my learning disabilities. This is the best deal I have gotten in a long time! The single player is quite good. Download it...now!

Castle Ravenloft Game

When he opened this present, Jeremy thought this was his 'big' present this year. He hadn't gotten to the Xbox yet. He was hoping I would pick up this title. Cool Stuff also had it on sale for $35, so I had to get it. Video games are nice, but getting a physical game is also important I feel. We can't wait to open this. After the Xbox craze settle down later this week.

Napoleon Total War: Limited Edition

Hey, look what Jeremy got me! So this is what he found in the Target clearance bin and rushed to the front of the store to buy. I never saw it coming. We're looking forward to playing this as well. I've been fearing Napoleonic gaming, knowing more about subatomic physics than I do about this period of warfare. I've been toying with the idea of actually painting some Napoleonic infantry. Jeremy loves this period and wants me to game it more than anything. This game should help. (My fears about Napoleonic gamers are another subject for another time!)

Well, that's all for now. I hope you all had an happy Christmas. Gotta run!

Learning About Russian WWII Uniforms

2010-12-15T23:47:00.012-05:00

Like many miniature gamers, I have been amassing a collection of Osprey books over the years. Needing information on uniforms so I can paint my 25mm WWII Russian infantry, which I began prepping this evening,I checked the three main Osprey books dealing with the subject: The Red Army of the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945, World War II Soviet Armed Forces 1, and Soviet Rifleman 1941-45. The books cover the subject in great detail and eventually should find their way into your library if gaming the Eastern Front.

I also like looking at reenactor websites. They usually give a history of their real-life unit along with all sorts of detailed info and photos. The 39th Guards Rifle Division was the first Russian group I stumbled upon. It's pretty nice.

Online vendors selling replica uniforms also are a nice help. I never knew there was so much info about the classic Russian winter hat, the ushanka, until I visited The Ushanka Hat Store's website. Though I could have used one of those hats the last few nights here in Central Florida (we've been going down into the 20's at night!), I passed on hitting the 'buy' buttons. I just wanted the photos. Their blog also is a wealth of info about uniform hats. (They sell more than just ushankas!)

My best find online is a free 115 page PDF Russian uniform guide the video game designer Dennis Schwarz wrote for a WWII game. The guide is like a simplified Osprey with history, lots of detailed photos from buttons to tunics (I noticed some are from Trident Military supply), and info about how to replicate proper Russian uniforms in the game, info that can help miniature gamers as well. Every piece of kit. A big help! His weapon loadout PDF is also interesting in a more esoteric way. Check them out at his website here.

Here is his intro for the PDF: "This guide generally divides Russian troops into various time-dependent model sets. There are five sets total: Winter War units ('39-'40), early war soldiers ('41-'43), early war reservists ('41-'43), mid war soldiers ('43-'45) and mid war reservists ('43-'45). The difference between soldiers and reservists basically devides troops in front-line troops, issued the best equipment available and second-line troops, which were issued a lot of surplus wargear. Each of these sets of course requires proper summer, winter and to some extend - camouflaged models."

So that wraps it up for today. Just a quick look at how to find some historical info on Russian WWII uniforms. I'll pass on more info in an organize manner as I find it. Until next time, break out the ushankas and stay warm!

Inspirational Photos For Splintered Light Hares

2010-12-10T08:00:00.006-05:00

After scouring the web, these are the photos of hares I've been using as a reference. I also have been using the Redwall covers as a reference, but I've never read the books. I watched a few episodes of the TV show online earlier this year, but it just never grabbed my attention. I just love the Bob Olley figures and am a sucker for anthropomorphic stuff, especially rabbits and mice. Oh, and notice that the inner ears and the nose are not pink!

Painting Splintered Light Hares Again

2010-12-09T23:15:00.006-05:00

This afternoon, I once again began working on my Splintered Light hares. It's been several months since I started them and then stopped. The last time I worked on them, I was trying to find the right colors and technique. I did several test figures with varying results. Either the colors just didn't look right, or when they did look good the drybrushing killed my hands. In pain and frustrated, I shelved the figures. Plus, I did not want to start a technique and then change midway.

Having a few spare hours today, I was going to work on the pirates but pulled out the hares instead. Darn it, I love those figures and wanted to figure them out! I think I did. The painting has been going well and the fur looks pretty good. I'll post some photos. My holiday break starts tomorrow and runs about a month, so my goal is to relax a bit and do some modeling/gaming.

The Forces
Below are the figures I bought earlier this year, taking advantage of a 50%-60% off sale. The hares I mentioned above. The rats are primed and up next. I bought some additional figures at Cold Wars since this order, but I can't recall what off the top of my head. The figs will be based for skirmish gaming.

Druid's Children: The Faithful
1x The Faithful Boxed Set Item # DRFA01
1x The Faithful Heroes Item # DRFA02
1x The Faithful Otter Spears Item # DRFA03
2x The Faithful Hare Spears Item # DRFA04
2x The Faithful Hare Archers DRFA05
2x The Faithful Mouse Warriors Item # DRFA07
1x Mouse Spears Item # DRFA08
1x Hare Swords Item # DRFA14
1x Mole Miners Item # DRFA15
1x Hedgehog Warriors Item # DRFA16
1x Badger Lords Item # DRFA17
1x Heroes Item # DRFA18
1x Mouse Warriors 3 Item # DRFA24
1x Badger Lord in Plate Item # DRFA28
1x Hare Command Item # DRFA20
1x Mouse Command Item # DRFA22

Druid's Children: The Rebels
1x Boxed Set Item # DRRE01
1x Heroes Item # DRRE02
1x Fox Spears Item # DRRE03
1x Fox Warriors Item # DRRE04
2x Weasel Warriors 1 Item # DRRE05
2x Weasel Warriors 2 Item # DRRE06
2x Rat Warriors 1 Item # DRRE07
2x Rat Warriors 2 Item # DRRE08
1x Weasel Archers Item # DRRE11
1x Rat Slingers Item # DRRE12
1x Kobold Rangers Item # KOBO05
1x Kobold Skirmishers Item # KOBO04

More Adventures In Windows 7 Gaming

2010-12-05T19:21:00.002-05:00

Yesterday, I spent the afternoon loading several 'new' old computer games onto my computer. Earlier this year, I built a new computer running 64-bit Windows 7 Home Premium using an Nvidia GTS 250. Getting older legacy games to load and then run under 64-bit has been an adventure.

Disciples II Gold: Success!
We picked up this legacy game a few weeks ago on clearance at Target for $2.50. At that price, I'll take a chance! It's really four RPG games in one package. Game Spot reviews the game at 7.8, but most gamers seem to give it a 9. The install was smooth with no hick-ups. The game didn't need patching either, which was a nice change of pace. We're looking forward to playing it.

Company of Heroes: Fail!
I picked up this game last year at a local thrift store for a measly $2, my favorite price point for legacy games from thrift stores. Jeremy and I have heard so much good about this game and were looking forward to playing it. Well, as you can see in the title, the install failed completely. It would start loading the first file, a large AVI, and then hang. Tried installing four times. Same thing. Then I got a brilliant idea--check the disk. Unnoticed by either of us when we bought it, the game's disk has a nice scuff mark running along the outer rim of the disk, as if it had gotten stuck in the drive door when it closed but spun a bit just to destroy it. Argh! This time not Win7's fault. Maybe we'll find another copy one day.

Note: if you freshly install this game, you'll have to install a couple mammoth patches. Do some research to find the comprehensive patches. Sorry, I don't have links to them.

Rise of Nations: Gold Edition: Success!
This is a game we bought several years ago when my old computer was new but haven't played it in probably five years. Installed and patched easily. Looking forward to whooping Jeremy's butt once again. Word to the wise: never give me a nuke. I will use it. Who cares about political consequences!

Medieval II Total War Gold: Success!
I picked this up earlier this week, another thrift shop find for $4. Several months ago, I had bought the non-gold version but never played it. I couldn't pass up this Gold version for the price. Or local charity we support a lot, The Sharing Center, will be getting the old version for their thrift store.

The install went smoothly along with the patching. It sure is nice being able to crank up all the graphics to their max levels without fear! Looking forward to playing this. I own Rome Total War, but never seem to get very far in the campaign.

Empire Earth: Fail!
It installed just fine but after patching just did not want to get along with my mouse. Tried several solutions but the mouse movement was too erratic. I'm sure I could have found a solution, but I was growing weary by then. Since it was an ancient version of the game, I removed the install and tossed the game into the charity box. I really didn't need another civ sim!

Medal of Honor Airborne: Epic Fail!
Don't even get me started on this install! It embodies everything wrong with how games should install. First, it will not work properly with anyone running an Nvida card using current PhysX. Someone wrote a patch to get the whole thing to install and then run, doing some end runs around the current PhysX drivers blah blah blah. Ok, I can handle that. The problem is that MoH:A decided to install an old version over my current PhysX drivers. Oh, and then without asking also decided to install an old version of C++ over my current version. Oh great. Thanks a lot. Oh yeah, and then hang while installing--after messing up my system. Long story short, I restored my system to an earlier point, updated my video drivers (a piece of cake compared to a few years ago!), and made sure my Win7's C++ was working fine. I then walked over the the trash can and literally threw the game in the trash. No one was going to suffer what I just suffered. I did my good deed for the day. I'll get the Xbox 360 version instead...

Dawn of War: Dark Crusade - Honorable Mention
This was the first game/program I installed months ago just to see how the 1GB GTS 250 handled graphics and if my system was working. I can report that the install and patching went easily. I can also report that the game works great with all the details turned up. I haven't played anything other than the tutorial, taking up different sides each time I've played. This is the only way I can afford to play 40K!

Using Google Earth Street View For Gaming

2010-11-28T10:44:00.003-05:00

I've never been to France. I've never seen a hedgerow. I've only seen some photos in books or online. Unfortunately, they never give me the proper feeling of a locale, only a brief glimpse. This is where Google Earth comes in handy.

I'm sure a lot of you know about Google Earth and have used their satellite views of the planet. The other week, after watching some episodes of Ice Road Truckers: Deadliest Roads, I used the program to look at the highways the truckers drove in India through the Himalayas. Those roads are crazy!

Then I spun the globe over to France, looking at the Normandy area. I used the video game Band of Brothers to get my bearings. Yes, I got a nice overhead view of the area as it looks today. Helps with laying out towns and countryside for games, though there are fewer hedgerows today than in 1944.

Google Earth's Street View, however, really brings the entire area to life! Getting down to that level and looking around really gave me a feel for what it must have been like going up Hell's Highway. I felt like a paratrooper in the 101st or 82nd, more so than in the contrived video games. I also got a good feel for the types of buildings I need, the scenery I need, and more. It was like a virtual vacation.

While Google Earth's Street View may be a bit creepy at times, it really can help modelers and gamers gain a better understanding of the area.

Organization Is The Key To Success

2010-11-24T17:10:00.008-05:00

Having finished painting and highlighting the flesh on my 40 18mm Blue Moon pirates, I've been researching pirate outfits and ships . I picked up a couple Osprey books on the subject and grabbed a few screen captures off some of my favorite pirate movies. (Note, the photo to the left is from long ago of some figures simply base-coated.)

Yesterday at 7:30AM, I sat down to paint some outfits and get these guys done finally. Then I found something in another drawer--four sticks of primed 18mm pirate figures with no flesh painted. Agh! I need to keep better track of what is in each drawer of my plastic containers. Organization is the key to...

So my morning was taken with painting the flesh base coat and touching up the black. By the time I was done, it was 9AM and time for some errand running. This morning, I finished painting the shadows and then the highlights.

So maybe the next time I get some time to paint, I can finally do the outfits!

Starting English Civil War

2010-11-17T22:16:00.001-05:00

The English Civil War (ECW) has always been one of those periods I've been interested in but have never gamed, not even a board game, computer game, or miniatures game. I've never even met anyone who was interested in the period. The downside of starting any period is that it takes time to buy and paint armies. But there is a solution!

Billy Bones Workshop makes a beautiful set of paper counters and scenery for the ECW. The artwork captures the look of period line drawings. For a measly $10, you get PDF's for :
* dragoons
* generals
* foote including various musket & pike types
* horse including light and heavy types
* artillery including light, medium and heavy guns
* casualties
* rural buildings
* hedges & trees
* roads and streams
* additional scenery is in the free update set

So tonight I bought and downloaded the basic set from Warmages Vault, my first purcahse of any PDF product online. Jeremy is excited because he wants to help make the counters. He doesn't like painting figures, so this is something we can do together. Plus, we can get up and running very quickly! He was talking about using his colored pencils to color the flats, but he also likes the sepia color of them. I think we'll stick to sepia.

I'm not sure what rules I'll use. I'm a total ECW newbie. I saw there were some Black Powder ECW variants out there, and I own and like BP. I want something simple enough like BP, and cheaper is better. We'll have to research this.

So I have a new and easy project to work on during my Thanksgiving break next week. (I also want to finish the Blue Moon pirates!) I'll keep you posted.

Woodland Scenics Online How-to Videos

2010-11-07T08:00:00.002-05:00

Keeping to my scenery theme this week...

Woodland Scenics, one of the most famous model railroad scenery manufacturers, has a large number of how-to videos online at Youtube. If you are interested in making trees, rocks, roads, rivers, and more then this might be a nice place to look. They also have short videos about their various models and other products. I just discovered these videos last week! Where have I been?!?

Check their Youtube channel here. You can also visit Woodland Scenics' website for info on their products.

Pain Is A Pain

2010-11-02T18:53:00.002-04:00

Have you ever felt like a pain and illness magnet? That's what I have been feeling like since August!

My latest excursion into Painville is plantar fasciitis, which has been causing me excruciating pain in my left foot the past couple months. Of course, it got to the point where I was so cranky I just blurted out to my wife how much pain I was in. That did it. She got on the phone to the docs right away. (My wife is an RN.) I kept fearing surgery, so I didn't want to say anything.

Well, on Friday I got a nice shot of Cortisone into the center of my foot from the side (just a bit painful!), a foot brace at night, and stretching exercises has really helped. I'm not sleeping all that well at night due to the brace, but I can live with it the rest of the week!

A Quick Game of FUBAR

2010-10-29T18:25:00.004-04:00

Last weekend, we gave the 1-page rules FUBAR a test spin using my 15mm WWII figures, which hadn't seen any action in well over a year. When they say FUBAR is rules-lite, they aren't kidding! They were fun for some quick knocking about, but we made some additions to help the game along. This weekend, they should be releasing Version 3 of the rules.

1. The overall table above. While I might have liked my Woodland Scenics trees a few years ago, I realized that I need to make bigger trees and better trees. I also need to work on a lot more scenery and buy more buildings, both of which have been keeping my miniatures in their boxes instead of on a table. For this game, the three US squads will come in from the right center of the table, while a German squad will hold down the row-home backyard in the center as two other units try to come in from the upper left of the table.

- - - - - - -

2. The units are deployed. FUBAR does have cohesion, so the soldiers had to stay close to their squad leader.

- - - - - - -

3. In FUBAR, players each roll a die for initiative. The highest-rolling player gets the initiative and then selects one of his units, rolling a single die to activate it. If the die meets or exceeds the unit's training, which for the Americans we set at 4+ while the Germans we set to 3+, the unit can perform an action, such as run or move-and-shoot. Simple enough. Since we were using 15mm instead of 28mm figures, we decided to halve all distances but keep them in inches. This worked better than using centimeters, which we first tried.

- - - - - - -

4. We're nearing the end game! The situation looks bleak for the Americans. Though they wiped out the original German squad defending the backyard, putting their 30cal machine gun to good use, two other German squads suddenly appeared. The tide of battle was about to shift to the Germans.

We made two changes here. First, FUBAR 2.0 lacks morale rules, allowing a unit to fight to the last man. We made a rather arbitrary decision about when a unit looked so suppressed and shot up that the leader had to make a leadership roll to keep the unit in the game, otherwise it routed. Every time the unit became suppressed or lost a soldier after that point, the leader had to make the roll. This really hurt the Americans, who were not as experienced as the Germans.

We also said that units could see 3" through "light woods," which is what the GI's were in in the last photo above. This allowed units to see farther than the rules allowed for normal woods.

The simple activation roll can really make a break a game. Even when no Germans were in sight, both American squads kept failing their activations, allowing the luckier Germans to move up and then wipe them out without so much as return fire. Some "narrating" during the game sought to explain the Americans' bad situation. In the end, the activation system determined the game. This caused mixed emotions. I did get frustrated as all my GI's just stood there for three turns in a row, doing nothing but get shot up.

Will we play FUBAR again? It depends how version 3 improves the game. FUBAR is a simple, fast game, but sometimes its simplicity works against it.

Copplestone OOP 25mm Halflings

2010-10-25T08:00:00.004-04:00

Last week on TMP, I bought the complete set of out of production Copplestone halflings. I had never seen all of them until they arrived in the mail on Saturday--photos of them online are elusive. Frothers has a few of the miniatures in their halfling gallery.

I am extremely happy with these figures! Great characters. Not only are the LotR hobbits in these sets, but others as well. I like these hobbits more than the GW LotR figures. The little boxes they come in are really nifty as well.

Since there are no photos of the sets online, I snapped some today during a 15mm WWII game I set up for myself--hence the green cloth.

CF1 Halfling Adventurers

CF2 Halfling Heroes

CF3 Halfling Travellers

Don't Talk To Me About Gulf Strike

2010-10-16T19:00:00.008-04:00

Have you ever bought a wargame based on the weight of the box along, thinking that having 900+ counters and four maps must make it an awesome game? I thought this back in 1983 when I walked into the Complete Strategist and picked up a new copy of Victory Game's Gulf Strike.

Gulf Strike sets out to simulate modern combat in the Gulf region all "within" 360 minutes. It's been updated a few times and has been used to game every modern war have been fighting over there.

Back in late 1983, I was at the height of my wargaming and roleplaying life. I was 20 years old, earning a decent living and preparing to go off to college the next year. (I worked for a few years between high school and college.) I had a large collection of wargames from Avalon Hill, SPI, GDW, Victory Games, Games Workshop, and others.

Well, several times I tried to play Gulf Strike to no avail. I read the rules as best I could. I even set it up several times just to motivate myself, thinking that looking at it all ready to go on my game table in my room would do the trick. Never happened. I mean, come on. I was an SPI veteran! I played plenty of "Complexity 10" games like AH's Third Reich. I even "tried" Squad Leader! So Gulf Strike should have been a breeze. Nope. Never happened.

So what is the moral of the story, boys and girls? I don't know. Just last night at Cool Stuff I almost bought Federation Commander: Klingon Border. Almost. So maybe I did learn something 27 years ago? Nah, I doubt it.

Fly's Studio: Part 8 - The Sign

2010-10-15T00:38:00.009-04:00

Last summer, I began chronicling how I prepped and painted Fly's Studio from Old Glory's line of 25mm Western buildings. I enjoyed the project, learning a great deal usually from mistakes. Even though I declared the project finished in Part 7 , I always knew it wasn't. Two unfinished bits have been bugging me: the building needed a sign and it needed porch roof posts.

As in all the older Old Glory buildings in their Western line, the main roof over the building, the building's upper false front, and the porch roof are one solid piece, forcing the porch roof to sit on any posts I might add. A year ago, I avoided adding the roof posts because I was unsure how to add them, afraid they would break off during a game. Building the Hartley House project taught me otherwise. It also taught me to paint the posts before gluing them in place--a mistake I will not make again!

But this article isn't about adding the roof posts. This article is about adding a sign. So let's get to it!

A Bit Of Tombstone History
Camillus Fly was a frontier photographer during the height of the Wild West in the late 1800's . He spent the best years of his career living in Tombstone, AZ, where he ran the small photography gallery in the above photo. The building entered into legend after the famous gunfight at the O.K. Corral took place in a 15-foot-wide empty lot between Fly's building and the Harwood House.

Comparing the vintage photo of the real photography gallery to Old Glory's model, you can see the Old Glory building only has a passing resemblance to it. This doesn't bother me one bit, since I'm not modeling the city of Tombstone.

Freehand v Transfers v Photo?
You might notice that Fly had his "sign" painted onto the building's false front, a common practice at the time. For the past year, I debated if I wanted to hand paint my sign on the Old Glory model. One slip of the brush, however, would ruin the entire model! So hand painting a sign was out of the question.

I then considered using dry transfer lettering, which I've done before on other models. Unfortunately, finding Western-looking dry transfer lettering is difficult in my area and online. What I did find was a too expensive. So no dry transfers this time.

Instead, I settled on using a photo of a real sign. After searching the Internet, I came across the sign you see here. It's a photo of a real sign from a real building, but not the real Fly's Photography Gallery. It's a sneaky imitation trading on the famous name--perfect for me! So in my world of Gun Town, the gallery belongs to the second-rate photographer Martin Fly, Camillus Fly's distant cousin. Like any good greedy relative with little talent of his own, Martin relies on his cousin's famous name for an income.

Resize The Sign The Right Way
Loading the sign into Paint Shop Pro, I cleaned up the original photo until all that remains is what you see here. I then shrank it to fit the model.

The first instinct many people have is to hit the "resize" button to shrink an image. Don't do this!!! Don't even use the higher quality "bilinear resample" function to resize the image. Both techniques will compress the image leaving squiggly "artifacts" in it--not good when printing signs.

Instead, increase the photo's dots per inch, its DPI. The higher the DPI, the smaller the photo will print while keeping the text sharp without artifacts. I knew I wanted my sign to print at a specific size in inches, so I increased the DPI from 72 upwards, clicking the DPI button until it matched the printed size I wanted. The photo above is the actual gif I printed. I left the ball trim in place in case people would like it.

Print The Sign
I printed the sign on good plain paper using the high quality setting on my printer. Since the paper needed more thickness to look like wood, I glued it to a handy scrap of thick cardstock. This combination looked better than printing the sign directly to cardstock printer paper, which still would have been too thin.

Trim The Bottom Of The Sign
Using a steel ruler, I trimmed the straight bottom section of the sign. Cutting this portion of the sign before gluing it to the cardstock is easier I feel. I then freehand cut the "Gallery" portion of the sign using a sharp Xacto knife. I tried keeping the small balls in each corner but decided to cut them off. Freehand cutting a teeny circle is difficult!

Glue The Sign To Cardboard
Next, I sprayed the back of the sign with 3M Super 77 glue. Super 77 may be a bit more expensive but is the best spray glue out there. I aligned the bottom of the sign with the straight cut on the cardstock and pressed it in place.

Trim The Entire Sign
Using the metal ruler and Xacto knife, I then trimmed the entire sign.

Color The Edges
Once the glue dried, I trimmed the entire sign. Since I didn't want the white edges of the paper showing, I grabbed a colored pencil ("carmine") that matched the sign's color. Believe it or not, I bought the pencil in the photo is 30 years ago!

Affix The Sign
I did not glue the sign to the building. Instead I used small bits of blue tack to affix the sign to the building. The tack holds the sign perfectly while allowing me to swap it out with other signs when needed. Nifty, eh?

I experimented with putting the sign on the false front and hanging it from the porch roof. I like both ways. Affixing it to the false front, however, might be safer during a game than affixing it to the porch roof. We'll see how it holds up either way. (You can also see the new posts test-fitted in the right-hand photo. I'm also finishing the bases on my Western figures this weekend, so no more 'naked' metal!)

Conclusion
Printing your own custom signs is easy and adds realism to buildings with little work. Some modelers are taking photos of actual buildings, scaling them to size, printing them on photo paper, and creating actual models that look amazingly real. A couple fellows are building an entire HO layout of modern Miami this way!

Top 50 Animated Features of All Time

2010-10-06T18:43:00.001-04:00

The following is a list of The Top 50 Animated Features of All Time comprised by me, J. R. Waller. I have been a fan of animation/anime for years and it is my pleasure to share with you a list of those shows that I believe to be the best examples of their craft. They each standalone on their own merits, setting the standard for all to follow. These shows and movies display the boundless creativity of their creators and showcase a wide variety of styles and genres. From “cartoons” to “anime” the list feature the best there is. From exceptional writing and direction, to captivating stories, to inspiring artistic direction and much more, these are the best and these are not just my personal favorites either but what I believe to be the essential animated features of all time. Enjoy!

1. Honey & Clover II, 2006, J.C. Staff
2. Mushishi, 2005, Artland
3. Fullmetal Alchemist, 2003, BONES
4. Honey and Clover, 2005, J.C. Staff
5. Millennium Actress, 2001, Madhouse
6. Haibane Renmei, 2002, Radix
7. Kino’s Journey, 2003, A.C.G.T
8. Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, 1984, Topcraft
9. Spirited Away, 2001, Studio Ghibli
10. 5cm Per Second, 2007, CoMix Wave Inc.
11. Planetes, 2003, Sunrise
12. Eureka Seven, 2005, BONES
13. The Girl Who Leapt through Time, 2006, Madhouse
14. Princess Mononoke, 1997, Studio Ghibli
15. My Neighbor Totoro, 1988, Studio Ghibli
16. Spongebob Squarepants, 1999, United Plankton Pictures
17. Porco Rosso, 1992, Studio Ghibli
18. The Big O, 1999, Sunrise
19. Last Exile, 2003, Gonzo
20. Trigun, 1998, Madhouse
21. Rocko’s Modern Life, 1993, Joe Murray Productions and Games Productions
22. Kiki’s Delivery Service, 1989, Studio Ghibli
23. Howl’s Moving Castle, 2004, Studio Ghibli
24. Fantastic Mr. Fox, 2009, Regency Enterprises and Indian Paintbrush
25. The Triplets of Belleville, 2003, France 3 Cinema, Les Armateurs, Production Champion, RGP France, and Vivi Film
26. The Big O II, 2003, Sunrise
27. Samurai Jack, 2001, Genndy Tartakovsky
28. The Iron Giant, 1999, Warner Bros. Animation
29. Rugrats, 1991, Klasky Csupo
30. Whisper of the Heart, 1995, Studio Ghibli
31. Castle in the Sky, 1986, Studio Ghibli
32. The Place Promised in Our Early Days, 2004, CoMix Wave Inc.
33. Voices of a Distant Star, 2002, CoMix Wave Inc.
34. Batman: The Animated Series, 1992, Warner Bros. Animation
35. Hey Arnold!, 1996, Snee-Oosh, Inc.
36. The Twelve Kingdoms, 2002, Studio Pierrot
37. Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea, 2008, Studio Ghibli
38. Justice League Unlimited, 2004, Warner Bros. Animation
39. Aria the Animation, 2005, Hal Film Maker
40. Rahxephon, 2002, Bones
41. The Cat Returns, 2002, Studio Ghibli
42. Doug, 1991, Jumbo Pictures
43. Rurouni Kenshin, 1996, Studio Gallop, Studio Deen, and SPE Visual Works
44. Steamboy, 2004, Sunrise
45. The Castle of Cagliostro, 1979, Tokyo Movie Shinsha, and Topcraft
46. Mobile Suit Gundam, 1979, Sunrise
47. Dexter’s Laboratory, 1996, Cartoon Network Studios and Hanna-Barbera
48. Justice League, 2001, Warner Bros. Animation
49. Wolverine and the X-Men, Marvel Animation, Toonz Entertainment, First Serve International, Noxxon Entertainment Inc., 2008
50. Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket, 1989, Sunrise

P3 Modeling & Painting Vol 1 Briefly Reviewed

2010-10-01T20:32:00.003-04:00

The DVD arrived earlier this week. Having some free time this afternoon, I enjoyed watching it. The video has several chapters for the new painter, covering basics such as cleaning a mini, picking the right tools, setting up a work area, and picking the right brushes.

The video also explains the basics of pinning and filling in gaps with modeling putty. Since I've never had to do this, this section was new to me, though I knew it in theory. I was a bit disappointed that they did not mention what size brass rod to use and its corresponding drill bit size. Looks like a quick post to TMP will be in order when I must cross that bridge.

The rest of the video shows the basics of painting--base coating, drybrushing, washes, and then layering. You get to see three figures from start to finish using the techniques. I was disappointed that blending was not covered. I guess that's an advanced technique. On the other hand, I cannot really do blending anymore since the rapid back and forth with the brush hurt my wrist and hands. (Just rinsing brushes in my cleaning jar can hurt my hand! I have to move my entire arm left to right to clean the brush between paint strokes--an odd sight that feels more like exercising than painting.)

I find the video inspirational and useful for anyone beginning painting. It makes everyone realize they can do a nice job with a little patience and practice. Even Jeremy realized he could paint a nice mini following these instructions. I can see me lending this to a few friends in my Sunday school class. For what it sets out to do, the video gets a A from me.

"Wild West Scale Models" as Inspiration (I Tell Myself)

2010-09-26T18:13:00.001-04:00

I'd like to bring your attention to a fairly new company producing Wild West model railroad kits in N, HO, S, and O scale: Wild West Scale Model Builders. Though they started in 2004 with a single kit, they are new to me!

I don't see myself using them for gaming, though the HO scale buildings would work with the 15mm Blue Moon figures and the S scale buildings would work with 25mm West Wind figures. They would not withstand the tortures of gaming. Price is also a bit much for gaming.

I mainly like the painted examples of the buildings, using them as inspiration. If and when I start scratch-building my own models, I might use the kits as inspiration as well. They sure are nice to look at, but I must resist getting sucked back into narrow gauge model railroading! My wife would kill me! So I keep telling myself this is just for inspiration, nothing more.

P3 Modeling & Painting Vol 1: Core Techniques

2010-09-23T20:15:00.001-04:00

A couple days ago, I gought an inexpensive copy of this DVD online and should be getting it any day now. A long time ago on the P3 website, I watched the sneak peak of DVD and liked what I saw. I already know some of the basics, such as prepping a mini, but I'm sure I'll pick up some new painting techniques. Plus, it will help some of my friends at church if they decide to try their hand at painting, going beyond my basic advice. I'll post my thoughts on the video when I can.

BTW my computer and 22" Samsung monitor sit directly across from my painting table, so painting while watching a how-to-video is easy for me.

Gettysburg And Some Updates

2010-09-20T19:42:00.005-04:00

Life and work has been a bit hectic, which is why not many posts of any significance lately. After 90+ days in the hospital, my dad finally came home last week. My wife and Jeremy are flying up to PA on Wednesday and coming home on Sunday. I'm staying home to work and maybe go to Hurricon this weekend. I'm still debating because I always like going with Jeremy. I'll have to see how I feel later in the week. Below are some quick updates. I'll save my internal debate on starting 28mm WWII versus finishing my 15mm WWII figures for a later date!

Blue Moon Pirates
It's been a couple of weeks since I last worked on my Blue Moon pirates, finishing the shadow and base coats of flesh on both packs. Next is to paint the highlights. Painting the flesh similar to 25mm figures has been paying off. Many of the figures are bare chested, taking a lot of work. My goal is to work on these later this week. I've been doing some research into painting and detailing the pirate ships.

Western
Last week, I finished another West Wind Western figure, a preacher with Bible and revolver. This was an experiment in painting brown hair and beard and it turned out great. I'll snap some photos later. Got a box of Pegasus Cactus to work on as well. Old Glory will be using my photo of the bearskin rug on their website! Finally, I need some time to finish my article on printing and making signs.

Comics
Always buying more back issues than I can read. I'm on an old Justice Society and Captain America kick, getting some nice deals. Last week, Jeremy bought the entire run of Superman titles from 1997-1999 just for some fun reading. Though I have SuperSystem 1st Edition, I'm looking into Superhero rules as well.

Gettysburg Photos
Here are the last few photos from Gettysburg. I only remember that the middle photo is from McPherson's Ridge, which I was obsessing on at the time. Jeremy shot all but the McPherson Ridge photo. Seeing them just now, he said he has no idea how they came out so well. (Just a little modest!) It was a great trip.

And then there is this...

2010-09-17T18:49:00.002-04:00

Uhhhh,,,,,,

Worst Comic Book Cover Uncovered

2010-09-08T19:39:00.006-04:00

Comic book covers are an art unto themselves. Covers make us want to pick up the comic and delve right in. I even collect comics just because I love the covers--Mr. Miracle from the 1970s is a series where I love each cover regardless how good or bad the issue is.

The other night online, I stumbled on this Black Canary cover from 1993. It has to be the worst cover I have ever seen. I don't mind simple designs. After all, I collect vintage Disney comics, which have very basic covers.

But what were they thinking when they approved this one? What does the cover tell us about the issue and series? I know. The series was horrible, it's sales were in the proverbial toilet, and the series was going to be canceled in three issues. Why put any effort into the cover when they put none into the story? (They did another cover similar to this in the series, but this is worse.)

What irks me is that my two favorite super hero characters in comics are Black Canary followed by The Huntress! If this were my only exposure to those characters, I never would have read any of their other stories. Heck, I'll even take the 1980's Justice League covers or this Detective Comics cover featuring the "Flash Dance" Canary over this one! (So much for being dangerous, alluring, and down right sexy during the 1980s!)

I may love Copper-ish Age comics, but this title will never be in my collection! I just had to vent this.

Blue Moon Pirates: Part 1 - Base & Shadow Flesh

2010-09-04T17:25:00.005-04:00

Today, I finished the first coat of flesh on two packs of Blue Moon 15mm pirates seen below. I use P3 paints for flesh. Since these figures are more detailed and will be individually based, I'm treating them more like 25mm figures than 18mm figures.

The first three photos below show the first coat of paint, which is P3 Khardic Flesh. I apply it rather sloppily to get in all the nooks and crannies. I do this because people notice flesh and faces more than clothing. Later, I will trim away all the excess flesh paint using black and then paint the rest of the figure.

I used P3 Idrian Flesh as the base for the African fellows below. There is only one figure in the pack that looks African, which is a bit disappointing. I would have liked a couple others as well for variety. This guy looks suitably tough!

With all the bare chests and legs in each pack, these figures took a lot longer to paint than I expected! With the Khardic flesh done, I set out to paint in the shadow colors. Using a 00 brush, I painted P3 Idrian Flesh into the muscle shadows such as this fellow's six-pack and biceps. I also paint the eyes, the shadow under the cheek bone, under the nose, and under the chin and neck area. When done, I go back and touch that up with Khardic again to make everything neat. You don't want thick lines of Idrian slapped on the figure!

You can see the finished result below. The figure to the right has the Idrian painted in the shadows. The fellow on the left is just the base Khardic. The difference under normal light a couple feet away is dramatic.

Even though painting the flesh has been been an experiment, I am liking the results so far. It is taking longer than normal 15mm figures and is a bit trickier than painting 25mm figures because these pirates are smaller. But I am not done yet.

Next step will be to highlight the muscles using P3 Midlund Flesh. I am thinking of mixing 50/50 Midlund/Khardic but might go straight Midlund for a more dramatic effect with these smaller figures. Then maybe some extreme highlights here and there using P3 Ryn Flesh if I feel it looks good. I think it will be worth the effort. Then I have to return to my Splintered Light hares, which is turning out to be an eternal project due to the drybrushing method I started. Always something to work on in our hobby!

Canvas Panel As Building Bases

2010-09-03T21:00:00.003-04:00

Looking for some more Woodland Scenics trees and materials for making hedgerows and other scenery, we popped down to Colonial Photo & Hobby last weekend. I did pick up a few items that I'll be writing about one of these days.

We then popped across the street to Sam Flax, an art supply stores catering to artists and students. They have a store in Atlanta and here in Orlando. Why do I mention this? First, they are having a MASSIVE sale running until the end of September. I picked up a 12"x8.5" cutting mat for only $2.69 and a 12"x18" mat for only $5.39. Retail on the latter is $15! They have other sizes as well for about 70% off. They also have all brushes at 50% off, but were out of all the Windsor & Newton #7 sizes I needed--rats! They do mail-order, so you might want to check their website's sale sheet.

Canvas Panels--A Cunning Idea!
Lately, I have been hopped on putting all my buildings and small scenery scenes on dedicated bases. I've talked about this on TMP and here, looking at cutting sheets of thin plywood to size. I just need to get a saw and some horses. Sounds easy enough, and we can afford it no problem. I would just have to suck up the usual "abuse" every husband gets from the wife when he brings a new tool into the garage: "Why do you need another tool? Don't you have enough toys?" And on and on. You know, the typical drill.

Then at Sam Flax I came across canvas panels. They come in many sizes, are fairly inexpensive, are just as rigid as thin plywood, and save a lot of time. From the Art Alternative web page: "These canvas panels present an economical and easily portable alternative to stretched canvas–great for students on the go. They are designed for use with all media, and are of archival quality. The 7 oz. canvas is 100% cotton, triple primed with acrylic gesso and securely glued to a 100% recycled, acid-free board. All canvas sides wrap around and are secured in place on the back side. The convenient label provides an area to identify the artist, title, medium, etc."

Of course, I had no idea what sizes I needed for my buildings. Instead of guessing, I bought a 3"x5" panel to experiment and remember the idea. It should take paint, glue, and such with no problem. I'll play around with them and see what I come up with.

Below is the price sheet for the panels listed on the AA website.

Order No.	Description	MSRP
AA7032	3" x 5"	$.79
AA7034	4" x 4"	$.89
AA7001	4" x 5"	$.89
AA7036	4" x 6"	$1.09
AA7038	5" x 5"	$.99
AA7002	5" x 7"	$1.19
AA7040	6" x 6"	$1.29
AA7003	6" x 8"	$1.49
AA7042	6" x 12"	$1.99
AA7046	7" x 9"	$1.79
AA7050	8" x 8"	$1.79
AA7004	8" x 10"	$1.99
AA7054	8" x 16"	$2.89
AA7005	9" x 12"	$2.39
AA7006	10" x 10"	$2.19
AA7007	10" x 14"	$3.09
AA7008	10" x 20"	$3.89
AA7009	11" x 14"	$3.19
AA7010	12" x 12"	$3.19
AA7011	12" x 16"	$4.09
AA7058	12" x 24"	$5.49
AA7012	14" x 18"	$4.79
AA7013	15" x 30"	$8.29
AA7014	16" x 20"	$6.09
AA7015	18" x 18"	$5.99
AA7016	18" x 24"	$8.39
AA7017	20" x 24"	$9.59
AA7018	20" x 30"	$11.59
AA7019	22" x 28"	$12.09
AA7020	24" x 24"	$11.59
AA7021	24" x 30"	$13.49
AA7022	24" x 36"	$17.59

Gettysburg: Little Round Top

2010-09-01T19:15:00.006-04:00

Instead of rambling on about my lack of free time and how I hate Microsoft for changing PowerPoint 10 so some things in the 07 don't work the same and rambling how my college gave us new computers with PP10 over the summer, sending out an email letting us know of the change when most of the faculty including myself was off for summer vacation just so we couldn't save our old files.

Instead of rambling about that, here are a few photos from Gettysburg's Little Round Top. This is a spot that always brings chills to me. It moves many people.

Jeremy shot all these photos. He did a nice job I think. He doesn't take many photos, so it's always nice when he wants to try his hand. The photos are sized for 1680x1080 wallpaper.

Gettysburg: Something For The Family

2010-08-26T08:00:00.003-04:00

I just discovered a folder of Gettysburg photos that I thought I had posted but did not. So over the next few posts, I will get them online. I took them when we visited during Christmas week 2008. The park was dead, and the weather was clear. And cold and windy. No, bitter cold and almost tropical storm windy is a better description. (We've been living in Florida too long!)

Keeping with the blog's bear theme the past week or so, below are some photos of the enormous Boyds Bear Country barn, which is part tourist attraction, part teddy bear museum, and mostly Boyds store. The attraction is only several minutes south of the battlefield. Jeremy and I had a blast. He loves teddy bears, and his mommy likes collecting Boyds bears. She couldn't come with us because she had to go back to work in Florida. So Jeremy got her a small bear and promised lots of photos--he had to call her as soon as we got there. After the battlefield and Boyds, we headed north to visit Hershey Park's Chocolate World at night. It was a long day! Anyway...

A Trip To Make Them Happy
If you visit the battlefield with kids or a wife who really could care less about clomping about another bunch of hills, fences, and statues, I suggest cutting a deal. They "suffer" through the history of the battlefield with the promise that tomorrow they get to go to Boyds. Or drop them there while you clomp around the battlefield. They will love you for it.

Is It Really A Barn?
Why is the building a barn? Good question! The idea for the attraction didn't start out as a barn but quickly became one. You see, Boyds took advantage of a loophole in PA tax and zoning laws. Because they built the museum as a barn, Boyds got off paying a lot of taxes on the property. Locals told me that Boyds built the biggest "barn" ever, pushing it to the legal limit. After the PA taxmen realized their mistake, PA changed the law so it would never happen again. Of course, Boyds was not affected and is still laughing to the bank I'm told.

Old Glory Bear Skin Rug: Finished

2010-08-24T20:02:00.004-04:00

Painting Old Glory's 25mm MW-121 Bear Skin Rug is an easy project that anyone can do with great results. Even kids can do this. After priming, it takes maybe half an hour to paint.

I've included the several steps I took. You can substitute any colors you like for the type of bear you want. I went with the classic grizzly and used the photo to the left as a guide.

(A word of caution about doing a Google Image search for "bear skin rug" while kids are looking at the computer. Make sure you turn on "strict" moderation! Even then, your eyes will be pained with those ancient photos from the 1970's of Burt Reynolds lying naked on a bear skin rug with his select parts covered up. The horror!)

Painting Steps
1. Prime with your favorite primer on both sides. I used Walmart's gray spray paint since that is what I had on hand at the time.

2. Base coat the entire figure in a very dark brown.

3. Heavy drybrush Folk Art #942 Honeycomb. The eyes and inner ears need to remain dark, so try not to dry brush into them. If you do, a dab of dark brown will correct the mistake. (My poor filbert brush I use for drybrushing has seen better days!)

4. Lightly drybrush highlights using Folk Art #953 Camel. I made sure to hit the edges and the top of the ears. Look at the photo to see how fur is different shades of tan. The snout is also lighter, so I hit that. I also hit the cheeks for some highlight. Camel makes the entire model "pop" and look good. My photo below doesn't do the highlighting justice.

5. Paint nose black but drybrush some black onto the snout.

6. Let dry thoroughly and spray with Testor's Dulcote on top and underneath so paint doesn't peel. Place rug in your favorite Western building and enjoy.

Tron In Comics

2010-08-22T08:00:00.003-04:00

Believe it or not, the world of comics has not been kind to the Tron franchise. There were no comic book tie-in back in 1982 when the original Tron debuted. Granted, there weren't many Tron tie-ins period back then.

As has been mentioned other places, Disney really didn't know how to handle marketing the film. It was an odd beast back when everyone used to ask me "Why do you need a computer?" and when Apple ran ads touting their $2,500 (1980-ish money!) 48k Apple II+ as a way to organize your recipes--I kid you not! People did get video games in 1982, with the arcade and console boom about to bust a year or so later. Still, no one really knew what was inside one or how they worked, aside from us true geeks. (Geeks today are not true geeks in my mind, but that is another post for another day.) And Tron took us into an entire computer world, with odd words like "users" and "bit". Amazing!

The only published Tron comic books were a 6-issue mini-series that started in 2005 and sputtered through September 2008. Published by Slave Labor graphics, Tron: The Ghost in the Machine takes place six months after the events of the Tron 2.0 video game and follow the life of the games hero, Jet Bradley. The comics have since been released as a trade paperback.

Though I painfuly played through Tron 2.0 until the bitter end, I never read the comics and have no real desire to put them in my collection. The video game became a like-hate relationship with me. Parts of the game felt like the movie and placed me right inside an interesting story. Unfortunately, the remaining 80% of the game was nothing more than pushing and jumping over boxes. When the designers had no clue what to do, they had Jet push and jump his way through mazes of stacked crates. I kept hoping to find a virtual fork lift and was disappointed how cluttered the virtual world had become. (There was also Xbox's Tron 2.0: Killer App, which I passed on after hearing bad reviews.)

If I come across Tron: The Ghost in the Machine at a comic sale, I might pick them up in a bargain bin just to say I have them. They might be fine, but I don't want to open those old wounds from the video game.

Enter Marvel!
Jump to late 2010 when Disney is kicking its Tron: Legacy hype machine into full gear. Marvel has announced that on November 3, 2010 it will be releasing its "new visualization" of the original movie in comic book format. This will be the first time the original has been in comic book form. (It has been in novel form and two read-alongs: The Story of Tron and the Tron Read-along, both of which I own and enjoy.)

Here is the info from Marvel's web page: "In anticipation of Walt Disney Pictures’ high-tech adventure, TRON: LEGACY, which hits U.S. theaters in Disney Digital 3D™ and IMAX 3D® on December 17, 2010 -- Marvel Comics is proud to bring to you a stunning new visualization of the first TRON film. Adapted by legendary scribe PETER DAVID (X-Factor, The Dark Tower) and stunningly illustrated by MIRCO PIERFEDERICI (X-Men Legacy, Dark Wolverine)! Don’t miss this legendary comics event! Rated A …$3.99"

There is also a 2-issue Tron: The Betrayal series from Marvel coming in October. You can read about it on their news page here. This post is getting a bit long, so I'll just end it here.

Tron: Legacy Wallpaper

2010-08-20T13:17:00.003-04:00

It's no secret that I have been a huge fan of Tron since it debuted in 1982. I actually walked four miles to the theater to see it on its first day of release and then saw it several times over the next few weeks.

I have some original Tron memorabilia. Problem is that it's all boxed away in the closet with the rest of my Disney collection. I have no idea what I even have anymore. Stacks of "banana boxes" full of stuff. I opened a box last month just for the heck of it and was amazed what I found, including a drawing an animator did for my son when he was 2! Since we have been moving a lot, the collection has been boxed up since 1997, though I add to it slowly. Anyway...

You probably know that Disney is planning a major PR campaign for the new movie, Tron: Legacy, coming out December 12. Earlier this year, they painted some of their monorails at Disney World in Tron: Legacy schemes, promoting the new movie. Word has it that this fall there will a number of new Tron: Legacy attractions/events at the Hollywood Studios. You can bet I will try to cover it all.

Le Studios X has posted Tron: Legacy wallpaper from Comic-Con. Most of the wallpapers are sized 1600x1200. You can download it here at their Flicker account.