Flavorings and Cavalry in Prime

Okay, I admit this is not going to be the most exciting post but I think you'll find some things of interest somewhere in the photos.  This first lot is a series of cliffs in development.  I had a bunch of left over pieces from other projects and rather than throw them away I realized I could use them to make a variety of cliffs.  Some might say a piece of 2x4 on top of a 1x6 might not be much of a cliff - unless you are a 15 mm figure!  So, they'll do - eventually.  Ended up with a LOT of them.  What I like most is the ability to create a box canyon effect.  There will also be at least one waterfall.  Many, many options as to how to use these once they are done, which they are far away from being at this time.

This next lone shot is of a piece of terrain originally created for my pirate games.  With a four foot wide table they reach nicely from one side to the other which means they can be used in a variety of hill formations.

Which leads to this group of in progress terrain pieces.  These are meant to be high passes but can be used in a variety of ways.  One really cool use will be to arrange them in such a way as to create 'famous' passes - think Apache Pass or Kyburz Pass.  This is all adding a lot of options to what I can put on my table.

Moving on we arrive at some images of my flavor pieces, some done some in progress.

Above is a set of 16 spring grass pieces, some finished, some in progress.

And here we have two sets of 12 pieces each of tall grass, the left being nice and green and the right hand batch being very dried out (used lots of browns, tans, a little green, and a finish with saffron cans of spray paint).

The background above, to the right, is the summer green grass, 16 pieces.

And here, on the left and into the background are the 16 "California blonde" grass (think autumn).

Here is a small group of six pieces used for underbrush - bit of an oops here because when I built these I couldn't find the couple dozen other pieces I was looking for so these might get re-done at some point in time - or maybe I just build some more crowded pieces of underbrush.

Here you'll want to focus on the lower front - those are some areas of just rough, really dry ground.  Not shown because of issues with posting pictures and an out-of-date Safari on my other lap top are 3 each of two types of plowed fields.  I think, all told, I know have about 90 flavor pieces with more planned to get to at least 120 pieces.  The new challenge is how to store these so the wood bases won't warp.  Flat, flat, flat!

And, now, something a bit more fun: 20 regiments of American Revolution Cavalry primed and ready for painting.  Not the greatest photos, I'm afraid, and because of that photo loading challenge I'm not sure if the photos show all 20 regiments but I think they do.  But they provide evidence of progress.  I realize it is hard to see in many of the photos but there are dismounts to 'match' to every regiment, 12 men mounted on 12 horses, 12 dismounted men, a group of householders, and one dead cavalryman per unit (40 pieces x 20 regiments = 800 pieces to paint!!!  Yikes-a-zowie!)

Four regiments above.

 The above photo came out with better lighting for an unknown reason but you can at least see things better - 3 regiments in there.

All those regiments sort out to 3 British (16th, 17th, and mounted Highlanders), 3 Loyalist, 2 German, 4 Continental, 2 Legionary, Militia, 3 other revolutionary units like Washington's Life Guard, North Carolina and von Heer's Corp, and 2 French regiments.  Not all were actually full regiments but I want lots of cavalry for those hypothetical games I will be running.

And now to switch gears, here is the 'newest' of my French and Indian War units, the second provincial regiment.  No, the paint jobs won't win any awards - but those guys fight across the table just fine.

That flag has NY on one side and NJ (I think) on the other.  And seeing these photos I think I'll go back and use a wash on the skin tones - maybe.

Now that I have access to the blog again and have an idea how to sort out loading photos in the future, hope to get more posts up.  Though no promises they'll be soon because I'm putting a lot of my effort into my model railroad.

Success - regained access to blog

A bit late to post tonight but I have photos of recent projects but have been having trouble accessing my blogs - finally got back in!  Yeah.

Over 23,000 views since inception which surprises me - though I do discount a couple thousand of those as spider trolls.  I guess just part of the internet reality.

More later now that I've gotten back in.

Breaking a barrier

I think I've cracked through the barrier to reduction - and it will start with the Vikings.  Not by getting rid of them but by choosing only a relatively small set of them to keep and paint.  And, bonus, while doing a sort I started settling closer on the type of Viking scenarios I want to run.  So, all is good.

Or is it?

There is a very real possibility that I might be closing down all blogs I've started - depends on the results of research into a certain area based on new knowledge relating to the web.  Hopefully it won't come to that, but it might.  So, if there are things here you like, take a look before it goes away.  If it goes away.  No time line.  Just a thought.

And an order for some more buildings on its way as well as a few figures, not many of the latter.

Ivan the Idiot

Well, not all Russians, the legitimate visitors are welcome and appreciated.  But 209 visits in one month from Russia - well, we all know what that means.  Dostva-prick-ya.

Otherwise, I'm still here and finally getting time to get moving on miniatures again.  Hope it stays that way for a while.

One Step Closer

Sent off today what is likely to be my last 'large' order for miniatures, an Irregular order.  Okay, a couple of smallish orders to do yet - and then, maybe, some commissioned figures.  But with the two anticipated smaller orders, one more likely one maybe-ish, I will have finished ordering figures.  Feels good.  And getting to this point, I find myself spending more time working on the various and sundry elements of the collection.  Hope the pace keeps up.

The recently acquired Stone Mountain Star Fort dries after getting cleaned up.  The mountain passes got 'cut down to size' yesterday - as in literally getting cut shorter almost three inches.  I think that will work better.

Enough for now.

Conquest Sacramento 2016

Okay, first a variety of games at Sacramento's ConQuest Sacramento - I did not play in these, just took some photos.  And, no, I don't know what they all were but you can probably sort it out from the visuals.  A larger image just by clicking on it per normal.

 The following images were from Dave's Napoleonic game using Rank and File rules with his modifications.  It was a good game, a corps level action and I enjoyed.  Would have been nice if we'd had a few more players but such is the way of con games.

 And here are some shots of a game I ran using the same rules but with different modifications.  It is a French and Indian War game where each unit equates to a company at one-to-one and each company gets two manuever units.  Lots of native units.  Didn't quite get two new units into the game, finished painting them but they weren't textured.  Around 800 figures in the game.

I did have the good fortune to start the game with a full complement of 8 players but a couple dropped out, one to attend to convention duties and one that apparently took umbrage at something another player did.  Or maybe they just didn't like the game - but others joined in along the way.

Hope the players enjoyed the game.  I am on the look-out for an even easier and faster playing game since I will be doubling the number of foot units used - twenty-eight eventually, with the two on the painting table sixteen will be done and two more are 'almost' there, less there command - sort of.

Almost and Finally

As in almost to the convention.  Haven't gotten many of the figures I'd hoped finished but I have gotten all but a small handful of 120 deciduous trees foliated - or added foliage if you prefer.  And I've gotten a river and a bit of a lake (or ocean) matched to the terrain similar to the figure basing.  Still a few figures to work on and some bases to texture - and those last trees to finish.

So, I'm hoping I'll have a visually appealing game to a higher level than before, with everything matching up to a pretty nice degree: ground cloth, tree bases, water features, and figure bases.  I did take some photos with my new phone - but still learning how to use it - of a practice setup to make sure things will work.

Modified the rules, Rank and File, a bit to adjust based on previous FIW games.  Nothing earth shaking  for the most part.  Though I did get my charge token system up and running and will see how that goes - more on that later.  Have the scenario and troop types and quantities all sorted out.  Just that little bit more to get done, most of it should be finished tonight or tomorrow (and I have the next four days off so I have almost two full days to finish things before playing a Friday game and a Saturday morning game before my Sunday afternoon/evening game, and then play another on Sunday, or so is the plan).

Yesterday I received an order from Peter Pig so I can 'finally' return to my railroad project for the Old West - worked out a special order to get three tenders only so now I can put three flat cars back into use as freight cars instead of converting to tenders - probably one each gondola, tank car, and keeping the last as another flat car.  Unless I come up with some other car type I want to do.  I think that will bring me to 57 pieces of locomotive and rolling stock items to put on the rails.  That is a lot!

Awaiting balance of an order from Stone Mountain and a new order from Blue Moon/Old Glory and then one more to place with Irregular Miniatures - and then I will blog about an important milestone.

Of course, now that it is spring time, a lot of the hobby stuff will be shunted aside while getting the yard in shape but progress will be made.  Next post after the convention - with photos.

Progress on figures

Okay, so it is only texturing bases - so far.  But I should finish tonight on the texturing of all my fully painted French and Indian War figures in preparation for a convention game in about six weeks from now.  I do have some additional figures to finish painting and then those will need to be based and textured to match.  And the cool part is that the basing - along with a little dry brushing is a good match for the terrain canvas, not perfect but still looks like they were designed to work together.  That has me jazzed.  So, back to work to make more forward progress.

Photos in good time - still need to seal and dull cote before reaching that step.  And I might wait and get photos from the actual game rather than staged photos - or possibly a little bit of both.