Happy 2019 and Traditional End of Year Post

Year-end reviews and coming year goals posts rank among my favorite part of participating in blogging. However, I haven't done one of these myself in a long time - not at all on this particular blog.

Indeed, I've purposely avoided even thinking about plans and goals and such, but for the coming year, as I seem to be getting better at juggling activities, I feel it would help to have some direction written down, if only for the fun of looking back and comparing to where I ended up.

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2018 got off to a quick start and then immediately petered out - I could not balance, work, dad life, music, and gaming.

A game of 5 Men in Normandy from January 2nd. The only game until November.

Once I left the big band I was in, and the company I work for went to work-at-home, things started to change. When I finally got through the backlog of film noir dvr'd from TCM, I found I had time during the day (lunch hour) to do things.

By year end, I had gotten in a few games of Morschauser's Modern and Company Command  and was fired up enough to repair some damaged figures and make some acquisitions to round out both the Germans and the Americans. I finished my Highlanders, and Gatling gun and crew, and made some decisions about my 54mm Imaginations / VSF project as well and that, too, will inform 2019's efforts.

So, speaking of 2019:

1. Complete a basic force for my Imaginations/VSF British and Russian forces. That means one infantry units of 10 figures, 1 cavalry unit of 4 figures, 1 gun + crew (3-5 figures) and 1 character / officer figure each. It's a modest goal - what amounts to a force for G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T. - as I am nearly half-way done for the British. Ideally, I'll have two 10-figure infantry units each, but I don't want to overreach on these goals.

Great Game cartoon. Source: Wikipedia

As this will be an Imaginations campaign, a lot of the fun is to be had in the fiction, loosely supported by Wikipeda, movies, novels, and sometimes even a proper history book or documentary, and so there is research and writing to do even when I'm not interested in painting or when I don't have time to set up a game.

2. Bring my 54mm US and German WW2 armies  up to three 10-figure units (to be based or not as the rules and scale dictate, thanks to magnets and steel), with command and support options for FiveCore Company Command, Morschauser, Bolt Action, Disposable Heroes, etc. I have a lot of this done already. The primary goal for 2019, besides playing more games, is to get the infantry rounded out (roughly 9 figures plus some NCOs each are needed) and a few infantry anti-tank, engineer, and sniper figures. The Germans need one more Panzer IV but 1/50 are getting out of my price range so,I may have to resort to a 1/48 kit.

Waiting for the new bases from Litko

3. Related to the above. it's time to touch up the paint, reseal, and rebase my WW2 armies using magnets and steel movement stands to allow me to play with individual figures or with multi-figure bases..

4. I am currently researching WWI on the Southern/Italian front, and although the gaming part will be 1/72 and not 54mm, I anticipate posting about it here (because I don't really want to split my postings between this and my dormant blog).

Source: www.firstworldwar.com

5. I want to do some social gaming in 2019 and the best way to do that locally is 28mm Bolt Action. I have acquired the rules already and will do some practice games at home with my 54s to get a feel for them.

I have yet to decide which 28mm force I will paint, but the top contenders are French or Italian (I may pick up a starter of both). I understand these are difficult forces to win with but I'm OK with that. I want to paint something I like the looks of and I don't have in another scale already. What I really don't need is Germans in a 4th scale, or US airborne in a 3rd.

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Of course, the best laid plans and all that.

I'm sure all of this will go out the window at 12:01 AM, January 1, 2019, but for now, that's what I'm thinking (if only I put this much effort into my goal planning for the rest of my life).

Have a happy and safe 2019!

AiP Royal Artillery Gatling Gun

Finished this Armies in Plastic gatling gun today during my lunch break. The color scheme is based loosely on a couple of Britan's and other toys I found on eBay and a few illustrations I found online. The end result is probably ahistorical but I rather like the color.

Gun with her crew.

Speaking of, I had to mix the color of the carriage and wheels. As I tend to eyeball everything, each time I had to touch up a spot and remix the color it changed shades ever so slightly. Lesson learned - mix enough for touch-ups or use pre-mixed paint.

The Broadwell Drum (or what I think is a Broadwell Drum) came from an extra ammunition carrier figure - this gun did not come with one to attach to it, and instead came with several different gun barrels, including a Dragon gun (presumably for Boxers).

Next up, the Russians. I primed a few of the figures and applied my chosen green, only to find that it doesn't cover white primer very well, even after four coats. So, I painted one of the primed figures black, and then applied the green uniform paint and the result was far better. I still need to look into some of the colors for the gear - although I have found a few reference pictures to use online.

Rebasing Project

On Christmas Eve, I received an order of 3" x 3" Wargame Accessories bases from The Last Square. Although I've heard of The Last Square before, this was my first time ordering from then and I was most pleased. I did not expect to receive my order so quickly!

With steel bases and magnets on the figures, I realized I can be as non-committal to my basing scheme as always without the hassle of scraping glue and blue-tac off my toys.

Yep. That's a metal square.

Today on my lunch break, I spent some time fiddling around with magnets and such - and while simple sheet magnets will work fine for the plastic figures, the Britains and Conte metal figures need something stronger.

I grabbed some rare earth magnets off the fridge (5mm x 1mm) and they work well enough, but they add a bit of extra height to the figures. Making a hole in a wooden base for the magnet, and then attaching the figure to the base and magnet (using blue-tac) works like a charm. Unfortunately, the wooden bases I have are too big to fit 3 figures onto a 3" square, so another order placed - this time with Litko.

And just for giggles, below is one of the Tehnolog figures I got for my son for Christmas - rather nice figures that fit well with Armies in Plastic, Deetail, etc.

This one may have just robbed a Playmobil armored truck.

Merry Christmas!

The last gift has been wrapped and place under the tree, I have received my instructions for what I must do to prepare the cinnamon buns when I wake up ( I am first to arise thanks to a very vocal cat who likes to eat on a strictly kept schedule), and now I am unwinding with the said cat on my lap - a Christmas movie might be in order I think.

To my fellow bloggers and to those of you who take the time to visit my little piece of the internet, I hope you have a joyful holiday season, if you're celebrating one or more of them. If you don't celebrate anything in particular, I hope you at least get some time off to do something you find enjoyable.

Inspired by the holiday posts from many of my favorite blogs, I thought I'd share a picture of some toy soldiers with my tree:

Santa will be here before too long, so I best get going!

Santa Claus is Coming to Town

While dutifully completing my Christmas shopping efforts the other day (if one can count searching online as effort), I could not help but glance at a few things for myself. Of course, I didn't purchase anything, in case Santa has anything in his bag for me (although I won't know for sure until a week later when I visit my parents). 

In any case, to my surprise,  one can find Russian plastic figures by the likes of Tehnolog in abundance on Amazon. And what kind of father would I be if I didn't buy some for my son? \

That it would help me find out how they fit with my 54s is, of course, purely coincidental. 

Skynet not included.

Unfortunately, I can't open them up since that would be poor form but I am eagerly awaiting Christmas morning!

Recoverd Pak 40

When you let your young child play with your toys, you have to accept the possibility of some damage.

Exhibit A, my Italeri Pak 40:

Good grief.

To be fair, that wasn't a single instance of destruction but rather, a few years worth. And to be really fair, I'm the one who stepped on it and broke off the wheel.

A week or two ago, I tackled the paint job but struggled to get the wheel to stay on, until last night when I pinned it. Voila!

Ready for battle!

A smart person would have stripped the old paint. I am not the person and so the paint is a bit lumpy looking in spots. It doesn't help that I glopped on Mod Podge for primer rather than using Gesso (Mod Podge works great on figures, it doesn't work so great on smooth, round surfaces). I then sealed it with Mod Podge for more lumpiness. Still, it looks good from arm's length and on the table, and I can drop it now and nothing happens to the paint (don't ask me how I know).

And for giggles, here it is with my recently finished Royal Artillery gun crew who are waiting for their own gun to be finished - note the fancy red stripe and shiny gloss has been applied since their last appearance here.

Royal Artillery firing a captured futuristic weapon.

British Paras vs Waffen SS: Small Skirmish

On Friday, I watched a short documentary on Arnhem Bridge, and that got me itching to get my British Paratroopers (King & Country and Conte metal figures) on the table.

I decided since I was getting those out, I might as well pit them against my Conte and Britain's Waffen SS.

Unfortunately, I only have five of each. So I was looking at some kind of small skirmish.

Rather than spend a lot of time looking for something suitable or making something that might not be fun,  I went with a simple scenario I first encountered in MG-42 (Two Hour Wargames) many years ago and have enjoyed playing many times and with different rules: a German half-squad with MG-42 has taken up a position in a farmhouse with a clear shot at anyone using the road that passes in front of it, the paratroopers have been assigned to take out the MG.

For the rules, I broke out "Kokoda Trail" by Kevin White, available for free download from the Lone Warrior website. I used to play these rules fairly often (also many years ago), but it had been awhile. They are pretty simple, and you need to fill in some blanks on your own, but I really enjoy the card initiative and card based attacks.

The country.

Guard out front.

MG team in the house. Pretend they are on the 2nd floor.

Brits got the first shots at the guard, but then multiple German cards had them all come running out to join in the fray (I diced for their location / actions

Caught in the open.

Flank attack from the woods.

Charge! (and grenade but ineffective and then it went further south)

Avenging a fallen comrade!

Not quite.

And another fail.

Things got a little silly at the end when the MG team moved out the back so they could get  a shot at the last attacker. In hand to hand the our hero would take out two Germans.

But alas, it was not to be. 

I played nine turns. Some of them went very fast, with the stop card coming up after just a few activations. It was enjoyable with just a few bumps. Although grenades are mentioned in the rules, there aren't really rules for them. And it's not clear whether hand to hand combat is instant death for the loser or not - I decided it was, which motivated my attempt to close on the Germans, but it just wasn't in the cards (please pardon my 'dad joke', but I am a dad after all).