Kipaji Mto

Say what?  I'll explain below.  Meanwhile, here are a variety of shots showing progress on the way to completing the river for Mike's Rumble In The Jungle (Dust Tactics) game with another play test tomorrow before its first convention outing in April.

 Above shows one of the layouts with some, maybe all four, of the browns applied.  The two green hills are my own plywood hills.  Durability, baby.

 And a reverse shot.  The black is gloss and is the river bottom.  Study carefully, there are 22 pieces in total, seven for the ridge and fifteen for the river (though one of the latter, the 'spring', does double duty).

 And a variation of the angle.

 An alterative layout, there are many.  As I've worked on getting this river ready, I've realized more and more possible combinations and options with these pieces.

Here is the most basic, the six 'straight' pieces and the three 'extenders, that provides a 12' long river.

 Without the extenders it is 10' long.

 Or there can be two different rivers 5' long each to divide a table in three sections.

 All of the ridge pieces and the artesian spring as they 'turn green.'

The various river pieces, less the spring.  The five to the top right are for confluences, though they can be used to extend the river to 17' or so in total -- but would need some use of lichen or some other disguise of the mismatched edges.  Obviously, the river is still black.

 A beginning at coloring the river bottom, from the edges towards the center, above and below.

 I think this is the final coloring of the ridge.

 Or maybe this one?

Will my plan work?  That is a test piece I used as I moved forward from here.

A closer shot of same.  Note there are three colors at the bottom of the river, the mixed green to the sides, the shallower tan, and the deeper brown down the center with some 'smoothing' between them.

We see here all the river pieces with the above coloring.  Things are coming together.  And, yes, all eight browns and greens are done on the 'hills' to the sides of the river.

A first coat of 'water'.

More testing before committing.

Another coat of water, the first two were green.

And then the first of two coats of blue.  (I think.)

Skipping over some steps, where it really starts to show blue and get 'sparkly'.  Or the finished product, if you prefer.  Below...

All the river pieces in one view.  The left is the conflueces, 96" in total if I calculated it right.  The right is the long 'straight' set up with the spring, almost 14' in total.

And a different angle.

Below, at long last, is a shot of my French and Indain war canoe collection with photos taken 'in situ.'

Action is imminent as the Courier du Bois and their Native allies come round the bend to spy Rangers and their Native allies on the water ahead.  On the bank is a unit of one of the Independent companies.

Just another shot of the sparkling river, Kipaji Mto.

The French and their allies.

The British ashore, two shots.

The Rangers and their allies -- and a good omen rising up the bank on the upper right.  (a bear I sculpted out of Sculptamold, a bit large but it works.)

A clsoer shot of the omen.  The green cloth is actually going to be cut up and used as terrain identifiers -- a forest or something, haven't really decided yet.

A low angle shot of the river from the ranger end, or is that a hawk's eye view?

A closer look at the Courier du Bois and friends.

If you tried to count them you should have come up with a total of 44 canoes and 96 paddlers.  The smallest are from Frontier, the other two man canoes are all from Irregular, and the three man canoes I crafted myself, again from Sculptamold -- the paddlers in those boats are also from Irregular they were nice enough to provide without their canoes (many years ago now).

And something completely different -- and rather improbable -- are a couple of my river boats.  The front one is Far West and I think the other is the 'colonial' boat, from Merrimack if memory serves but now available from Old Glory 25's.  These boats are in 15 mm, of course.  I have a half dozen other boats plus a couple of junks, a couple of ironclads, and a couple of 'ocean' ships.  No pictures just now.  Obviously, these are only primed, not painted.

Above was without the flash and below was with, flash really washed out detail and color on the riverboats.

And last, photo-wise, are a couple of closer shots of the boats.  These are primarily for my Slightly Cracked Colonials found under the Steeplechase tab above.  They can serve other purposes, why I can even use the Far West as itself along the Missouri in the the Little Bighorn Campaign -- that didn't work out so well for Custer.

And now, as promised, Kipaji Mto.  That is Swahili for Brilliant River, I was going for Sparkling River but I guess that doesn't work in Swahili.  And I have no idea if it translates as intended or as "Really Smart River!"  Don't care, neither.  But I like the name.  We'll see if Mike adapts it or not for his game.

Terror strikes! Acquaintances shocked. Fun? Hopefully.

Just what is this cretin on about now, you ask?  Well, some where earlier I'd speculated about maybe taking a foray into the Pulp world of gaming.  Well, two days ago I saw an offering from Rebel Minis for some Steampunk figures and that cemented the decision.  While I won't be going down the rabbit hole of sci-fi sillyness or fantasy stuff, I foresee some games set in historical times with historical opponents but with some additional logical extensions of technology.  This does not preclude some items that might be just plain silly.  In my world view, silly can be a good thing; of course, it is like spice in the sense that one should use it judiciously.

And traveling that road I found an item in a local big box pet supply store today (besides some more pagodas for the Boxer setup, one more like have and two of a different type): a 'cute' little yellow submarine - meant as acquarium decor.  I have decided to dub it the U.N.S. Naughtyloose (a web search reveals someone out there in the world uses that handle but I don't think said user will take offense -- it is a pretty obvious play on Nautilus).  The U.N.S. stands for "unknown nation's ship."

Now, the real fun will be creating an appropriate crew for the vessel.  And quite a challenge, too.  Hard hat divers and ship's crews in 15 mm?  And some of them female with, um, broad morals?  Not ready to hand but I'm always hoping.  And always hunting.  Maybe some of those new rebel mini figures will be worth adding just for this crew.

Of course, I am talking about something slightly akilter from Pulp, more down the roads of Victorian Science Fiction with a dose of Steampunk.  Just more solidly based in the laws of phyics and extraplolations from reality that might really have existed.

RIver and Ridge Work In Progess Shots

Below are some shots of the river and ridge, with some extras, I am building for Mike's convention game in April.  Clearly there is still need for paint and to 'texture' the river.

 Above is an overall shot of all the pieces.  Farthest back is the ridge, six feet wide though only five feet are needed for the game; three pieces 20" wide and an extender 12" wide.  On the right and closer is a hill that is really the two end pieces of the ridge when it is not used in this setup.  And way back on the far right is the piece that goes in place of the artesian spring that is the on-board source of our river.

 This shot shows one of the three 8" extenders, this one is ford extender - one of two.

 Another overall shot.  There are eight 20" river sections, one island, two double sets of curves (shallow curves, but curves any way).

 Here is the island river section.

 From the other end where you can see the two confluences, the one on the left also has an additional extender.  With the confluences this can be set up 5' wide or 6' wide with the extender, like the ridge.

 Here is a low angle shot of the 18' end to end.

 And this is a long shot of a group of six 15 mm figures to put it all in perspective.

 Another long shot showing those same figures.

 And here is a closer shot of those figures.

 Those arrows are to keep the river flowing in one direction - unless I make it all 'flow neutral' which is possible.  I also have some special techniques for the water once I get that done - though I doubt it will photograph well.

And one last long shot with those figures about 9' from the camera so about half way down the full set up.

Musketeers Complete!

Or are they?  Well, they are in my mind now that I've acquired that last pack of mounted and dismounted figures - finally arrived at the local hobby shop, no complaints on their service since one pack ordered hardly is enough to place same.  I can't imagine adding more.  Check out the appropriate tab above to see what I have and you'll likely understand why I say I'm done adding to this.  A lot more figures there than most people are likely to get for this period.

That means that all planned periods are complete - especially since I rummaged around in the "extras" box and found a few figures to round out my Robin Hood setup, so that is set.  Now have the village leaders and I can make all foot units either twelve figures or two groups of twelve figures and all the cavalry except Robin's will be nine figures strong; Robin gets twelve because they are really just amateurs in the saddle.

Of course, there is still one buy to go with the "unplanned" Mountain Men and that will likely be all Blue Moon.  And that will complete thirteen different periods.  I still haven't removed the German East Africa tab but that is starting to seem more likely.  And, as I've mentioned before, I'm still tossing about the idea of re-introducing continental Seven Years War (but that is a long shot just now and, if done, might be down scale).

But that is it for figures.  Unless you count the "atmospherics" I hope to add,  four new packs from Baueda for camp scenes are now on the list, at some point I still plan to add some items from Donnington for my Vikings/castle set up.  But these are all peripheral items.  The combatants, and even most of the atmospherics, are now ensconced in their new home.

Most of my future acquisitions will be buildings and other scenic enhancements.  I definitely want to add a middle east village from Crescent Root Studios.  I want to add a LOT of fences and some more buildings here and there.  But even with buildings a lot of what I will add will be scratch built -- most of my wild west and Boxer Rebellion will be scratch built.  For the latter, I had a lucky find today at a pet shop, two nice pagodas.

Closing in on completing the collection is good.  Though on the down side of things, I've still not played in a game yet this year!  And I might be taking a "hobby sabbatical" for a month or three while attending to other life priorities.  Still need to finish Mike's river for his convention game next month and will be out working on that later today.  Pictures when it gets done will be posted here, probably under the terrain tab.

And blogging is taking a back seat of late -- witness almost a month since the last post -- but that is part and parcel with hobby time, we do it when we can.  The rest of the time we do what we must,  If those words seem strangely familiar then you've seen Gladiator and recall the dialogue between Maximus and Cicero.

Well, that's all for the moment.  Hope all of you out there in "the world" are enjoying those moments you give to our shared hobby.

If there's a windmill can Plancenoit be far away?

Not always but it is so in this case.  Dave R. ran a game at a club meeting this past Sunday using a set of rules called Peninuslar Pastimes by Donald Featherstone.  Unfortunately, yet again, I was not able to stay and play but I did get by to take some photos and come back later to check in and see how things were going - no camera on the second trip.  Keep in mind the photos were taken while the game was being set up.  I just wanted to get some sort of a game - and club - report up even though I've yet to get a game in this year.  By the by, I do participate with more than one local club.

 Above is the windmill.

 And the town setting up.

 That is Dave with the top of his hat towards the camera with Chris behind him.

 And Greg, aka the 'impostor.'

 That fine young man in the foreground is Hal.  He's seen a game or two.

 Where we meet - central heat and air, carpet, lots of tables, lots of chairs, friendly staff - a local library.

 And for variety, this was a game - I think - of Magic Realm.  Aaron of the illuminated smoke puffs is in action.  With new blood and too infrequent games recently, I'm guilty of not knowing everyone's name.

 The man with the flag on his shirt his Harry, a very fine painter of figures.  No, that is not the rising sun.

 And the here we have George facing the camera, Charlie in the electric blue, his son diagonal and I don't recall the name of the man in the checkered shirt, new blood.  I believe there was someone on the other side of Charlie.  Game of Thrones?  I'm all adrift in the whole fantasy gaming environment.  And plan to keep it that way!  But we have lots of members who enjoy such shenanigans.

 Take Mike on the left (I hope I remembered that right) and Joe, another great painter on the right.  And this was WH Fantasy Battles I'm pretty sure.

 Back to Plancenoit, some of the cavalry during setup.

 Chris seems to be plotting something sinister...

 An overview of the game but without all the troops in place yet.

 The hand of the great and powerful Dave.

 The cavalry is multiplying.

And a last shot of the town.  Again, the above photos were all taken during game setup.

Dave always provides a nice after action report on the club site which can be found here:

Dave's right up

Or write up if you prefer.  (oops!)

Plancenoit as presented here was in 15 mm!

Must get a game in sometime soon.

An English Invasion!?

Well, not exactly.  But I did add a link to David Bickley's blog (I hope I got his name right).  His is a favorite blog to visit.  And it also shows I'm not completely biased towards the United States.  This is a worldwide hobby.

So far my desire for more games this year hasn't worked out very well - not a game yet.  And none in sight because of massive amounts of overtime for the next couple of weeks.  I'm hoping this busy period will lay the ground work for more gaming time later.