Copplestone OOP 25mm Halflings

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

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

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

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

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.

Gettysburg And Some Updates

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.  Jeremy shot all of them as we drove down from Little Round Top and around the battlefield. Bushman Farm is the middle photo, with Little Round Top in the background. Not sure about the names of the other buildings. Seeing them just now, he said he has no idea how the photos came out so well. (Just a little modest!) It was a great trip.