Time flies.

It's amazing how much time can get by you and how quickly it can seem to do it. I wonder if I've been in a time warp or abducted by aliens? Whatever the reason, I've been reading other's blogs and have been inspired to dust mine off.
My last posts had to do with an American Civil War project I was working on. Well, if memory serves me correctly, I called my buddy John on a Thursday and said I had the figures done so he came back with, "OK, I'll be down Saturday for a game." That didn't leave much time for terrain making of any kind, but I was able to rough-out a game. You can see the astounding pictures here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/11231824@N08/sets/72157618711391897/
There's no rhyme or reason to the picture sequence, but you can get a good idea how things progressed.
The Union right, near the wheatfield and peach orchard, was pretty roughly handled, but the boys on Devil's Den put up a hellacious defense and were still holding their own as Vincent's brigade occupied Little Round Top. We were only able to play maybe half of the scenario but it was pretty obvious the Rebs were going to be stymied.
My latest project is World War I, 1914, East Prussia. The period is one of my favorites due largely to Barbara Tuchman's "The Guns of August". I think I've read that book 5 or 6 times, maybe more. The war could very well have been won in 1914, but the August campaign boiled down to a massive deadlock.

Well, much more has happened since I started the blog way back when, but that should emerge here as I continue to make posts. Until next time, then!

Busy, but not very productive.

Well, I missed my first blog entry last week. With a broken furnace and fighting the mother of all colds, I was definitely not myself last Sunday evening, when I should have been blogging.

But I think I'm still doing OK. I finished-up a bunch of figures that were destined for a table far, far away and neglected to take any pictures of them before I packed them for shipping. But, I hope to see some pictures of them at a later date.

With them off the bench, I got a good start on my next batch of 33 newer-issue figures for my ACW project:

These 33 will get matched-up with 66 old Airfix figures to give me all the Confederate rifle stands I'll need for my first game of Fire & Fury.

I have been thinking ahead to the terrain I'll have to be dealing with. One concern is wooded hills. I'm not sure how my hills will be made: forms under the ground cover or models. Either way I go, the trees that I have on bases really won't work very well. So I bought these trees without bases at A. C. Moore crafts, making good use of their 40% off coupons.

I'll also need to put together a peach orchard. Fruit trees are not especially big or sturdy, so I was happy to find these at A. C. Moore, too:

Always on the lookout, I was pretty tickled when I found this Torii gate for my Samurai at PetCo. None of my Samurai are painted as of yet, so I had a couple of Boxers stand-in for scale.

Yesterday we had a "Maine Game Day" here. These are rare events not to be missed! I played in two games: 25mm Alamo (using a variation of Sword & the Flame) and 25mm AWI (Two Hour Wargame's Black Powder Battles).

The Alamo game should be of interest because the Hudson & Allen model was used for the Alamo (not a great pic here, but it'll give you an idea as to how big it is):

A better pic, showing the detail:

There were some beautiful games, like this 6mm ACW:

And some beautifully painted bad guys.

Well, I guess that's enough for now! Hope to make another entry next Sunday. Thanks!

Bluebellies.

It's been a strange week for yours truly. Some low-life got my debit card information and did some internet shopping. My bank and the merchants invloved were all great and I have money back in my checking account, but I can't say it was a pleasant experience. Also this week, I got the word that the product I work with will no longer be available after January 1st. I guss I feel like a Studebaker mechanic in a lot of respects. So long as there are Stubebakers on the road, I should have work and my skills are still transferable.

Well, enough of that reality stuff! I continued to make progress on my not-ready-for-the-blog project and got a small bunch of Yankee infantry mounted for Fire & Fury rules. My Yankees had been mounted for use with Johnny Reb rules.

The HQ figures are 23mm from Musket Miniatures.

I think they look better now that they're remounted and the stands have been "flocked".

My first game using these guys is going to be Longstreet's attack on the Peach Orchard, Wheatfield, Devil's Den and Little Round Top, the only difference being that the Yankees are not going to get the massive reinforcements they actually got. So it's just going to be ol' Dan Sickles out looking for trouble:

And the Yankees have some Zouaves to act as artillery magnets.

That's all for now, I have a kid tapping his toe waiting for the PC. But before I go, I was out doing some yardwork today and thought this was worth a picture. Bye for now!

ACW project: CSA infantry, batch one.

This week I got my first batch of Confederate infantry done: 81 figures ready for the table.

No, I'm not that productive, really. Quite some time ago I painted 27 Rebs (before I got distracted by other eras), so I decided to use one newer issue figure with two restored Airfix figures per movement stand. I think it works!

Restoring these figures is really a breeze. I first of all remove any flash, not caring if I chip anymore paint or not.

Next, I temporarily mount the figure on a bottle cap with a bit of "poster putty".

I then coat the figure with Liquitex Matte Medium. Since the brush is likely to pick up an occasional chip of paint and deposit it in the bottle, I "X" the bottle I use for this purpose. The Liquitex "locks down" any remaining paint on the figure and serves as a primer on any bare plastic. Thereafter, I paint as normal, trying to match any existing colors as best I can. If I can't find a shade that's "just right", I tend to go to a lighter color and dry brush...more or less...the rest of the item I'm painting. Once I'm done, I give the figure two more coats of "clean" Liquitex to protect the paint job.

Also this week, I got my first real use of Valspar brand plastic primer as I was ramping-up for my next batch of figs. The nice thing about Valspar is that it dries clear: so if your figures are cast in a useable color, you've saved yourself a bunch of time! The stuff dries fast, but you may want to hit the target with two light coats. Once it's dry, you can almost feel the "tooth" the primer will give the paint. Nice stuff. I found mine at Lowe's Home Center.

Next week I'll be busy doing a project for a new friend of mine. I'm going to take a few pics, but I won't be posting them until I know my buddy has seen the finished product himself. So next week's entry is up in the air at the moment. Hope you drop by then!

Regards,

Bob

So why blog?

After much humming and hawing, I decided it was time for a blog. My main motivation is to share what I can with the wargaming community, but I also want to have something to motivate me. There have been times when I've gone several weeks without doing anything much hobby related. I figure if I get in the habit of posting every Sunday evening, then I'll want to have something to report, right? So, in a way, this blog will be my production supervisor.

First up: Awhile back I took ownership of a big bunch of old Airfix American Civil War figures painted as Confederates.

The figures, and the paint job on them, are about 30 years old. Back in those days, there was not a lot of knowledge around on how to best paint soft-plastic figures, so the paint would usually chip, flake and fall-off....before you finished painting the figure in a lot of cases.

Without too much hesitation, I started "restoring" the figures. The first thing I did was the artillery. This gives you an idea of how they looked to start with.

And I just finished 13 batteries (one gun, 3 gunners, one limber each) today.

Next Sunday I should have some infantry done...wait...I WILL have some infantry done and hope to talk a little about the process I'm using to restore these figs.