2010 here I come

For my 60th post on this blog I thought I would look forward to the next year from a personal point of view and not from games.

In October 2010 I reach 49 years of age so I need to prepare for the dreaded 50 (though why dreaded I do not know) so I'm going to set myself a little challenge. Those who have met me know I am not a little guy (vertical or horizontal) and am not exactly a fit bod (get puffed out going up stairs) so I need to sort this ASAP without killing myself getting fit.

As such, I hear-by pledge that life allowing I will walk Hadrians Wall before my 50th birthday.

Now stop reading this and enjoy the celebrations

Happy New Year and thanks for following and reading - without you this is a waste of time.

I see no bases

It took me a long time to decide on what I was going to base the 1/4800 ship on and the Internet was no help as it gave me

• Blue/Black hexagons with sea swell moulded on
• Plain hexagons and just the casting for sea
• Rectangular bases with sea swell moulded on
• Rectangular bases with the ship names stuck on

I failed to pick up any sea swell compound at the shows but finally tracked it down to EM-4 in the Vallejo section as water effects but to be honest I did not like the samples as these ships are so small the waves look out of scale.  I also was unsure if I could match the colour without going over the metal bases of the actual casting.

The next problem was naming the ships – as these are fantasy ships I did not want to make up names and to be honest my labelling skills are OK but printing and cutting labels is not my favourite hobby – cutting neat lines leaves my in the cold on a good day.

So this left me with a dilemma as I wanted to have a hex base and identify each ship and then it struck me – transparent hexes with a single letter on them.  Cue a quick trip to Litko Base Maker, a short wait and a pack of bases docked with no problems.

I know – daft scanning a clear hex but you get the idea…

I decided a simple temp[late was required so I could scratch the surface without it showing below the moulded base, so 30 seconds with a pen gave me a pattern to work to:

The small horizontal line was to key the letters so they are all in the same place:

Out of all the work involved, those letters gave me the most hassle – I ended up using rub down transfers from ‘The Range’ but I am not sure if they will last very long.  These are mounted on the top of the hex rather than below and not covered in varnish / protector in any way.  Fortunately, the sheet comes with plenty on it (to say nothing of flowers, angels, big silver letters etc etc) that I can replace as required.

Glue selection was simple – superglue mists clear plastics (been there - thrown it away) so two part epoxy was the selection and the result is:

The carrier film on the letter is visible but no way am I cutting it off!

Now all I have to do is create the rules!

 

2010 – The plans

As per the reviews (parts 1, 2/3 and projects) – last year was OK but I could do better so:

• Avoid buying new shinny stuff (will power required here)
• Stick to what I have to complete (more will power required here)
• Put other bits away (done this before but what the heck)
  • This includes a pile of Songs of Blades figures
  • This includes Ogre, Cavemen and Birdmen!

This gives me a series of small tasks / projects to reduce my visible lead mountain with:

Songs Of Blades and Heroes troops

• 14 Kallistra Pygmies with my own unit rules as SBH does not have any!
• 3 huts

1/4800 Naval ships and rules

• 3 of the small ships to balance out the sides
• 2 wrecks as markers / scenery
• A couple of more islands
• A whirlpool and rocks scenery
• Quick play rules

15mm Sci-Fi

• 8 more NI – (SG15-Z7) kneeling and prone troops to round the units out to 10/12 each
• 16 more targets (sorry civilians)
• 12 alien Mercenaries
• 3 small craft
• 8 not brown Garn
• 8 Khurasan Paraschanid Bugs
• 10 Khurasan Felids
• 6 oil drums and misc scenery items

15mm HOTT

• Fantasy Ice / Cave Wars from MY Miniatures
  • 16 Shooters (Inuit2)
  • 1 Behemoth / Yeti (Inuit50)
  • 8 Riders (Inuit 13) – counting Reindeer & Rider as 1
  • 16 Foot (Inuit 23) – used as Horde / Blade / Spears depending on mount
  • 12 Generals / Shaman / Sneaker figures (Inuit 1)
  • 1 Foot on skis - (Sample pack kindly sent FOC) – used as Sneaker as its quiet on snow!
• 1 Mammoth (Inuit 10) due to liking the figure (I may base as Behemoth)

Other figures that may may HOTT

• Ducks – only have 8 figures so far and will be the few figures I buy during the first 6 months
• Armies of the Penguish Civil Wars may also make a showing as part of the Ice War troops as a treat for myself IF I am doing well

162 figures + any ducks / penguins I buy.

Now as a total change of pace, I’m also going to research Aztecs but not on this blog – I’ve created a second one but will keep this on as my main Sci-Fi and Fantasy focused one.  Not quite sure where this will end up – possibly HOTT, possibly mainstream rules, possibly just for fun but it will be 15mm in the main.  It may leak over to this side with a small SOBH set of figures BUT from what I have seen so far the 25mm could be only rated as fair compared to the 15mm ones.  Give me a good excuse to see the figure manufactures at shows…

Add on to this a large scenery project with figures for another game not blogged here and I have a busy time ahead of me.

Birdmen

I received two packs of Birdmen yesterday in the post but due to Wine Women and Song (i.e. a family party) I did not get time to even open the bags.

As I am due in work very soon (and its still icy) I have just snatched two photos of the figures now and will sort out better ones to replace this post tonight:

 

10 figures in a pack with a mix of walking / advancing and kneeling troops.

Order from The Scene for £3.25 a pack

EDIT:

I’ve dug out the Canon and the Macro lens (200mm for these at f32 and an age) and discovered that it was not cleaned before I put it away so I have more dirt than sensor at the moment… Out of the 7/8 shots I have one that is acceptable:

Back to the real Blog

After my review of the year to date (three posts below) I thought I would report on the following:

Its snowing here (OK not games related but nice anyway):

I also picked up two sets of rocks from PPI aquarium ornaments at the weekend.  In there natural state you can see they have been cast from slate and worth the £3.29 each – next year I may repaint them but will flock them up.  I first thought rocks = islands but decided 15mm:

and talking of ships – my squid came.  Thanks to JPattern2 on TMP here and fast shipping from MegaMinis I now have a little hacking to do (knew those wrecks would come in handy):

If all goes well I’ll get this cut up and painted this weekend.

Project Summary

As the final part of the yearly round up, its time to look at the projects I set myself:

Battlesuit - Based on the old Ogre universe game

• I managed to make the board up though in mirror image.
• Playing on the board shows how little LOS there is in this game when the suits jump high
• Figures are a pain to find good ones in 6mm
• Memory better than fact sums it up

Pork for Lunch - Cavemen vs Wild Boar

• Found some of the figures, then lost them, then found others
• Never managed any scenery
• May try in 15mm as I have a couple of packs of figures for Tusk

Thanksgiving - Turkey hunting with a twist in the tail

• No figures
• No board
• Had a set of rules and pieces emailed me via this TMP link (members only) or Dons site 
• Fun beer and pretzels game

It's Cold Out Here - Strange going on in the North West Frontier

• Original manufacturer stopped selling the figures
• Tiger Miniatures took over
• I never got started on this due to a lack of nice log cabin model

WW1 - Trench raid / Skirmish games

• Less said about this the better
• Got four packs of figures from Peter Pig
• Worked out the ranges exceeded my table (and the others in the house)
• Kind of gave up until I can sort a board out (no real hope in 2010)

So not a great result on the projects (1.5 ish) so I can only give myself 1 out of 5 for a grand total of 10 out of 20

A years worth of fun for – try harder could do better :-)

End of the New Year Part 2 and 3

2. I want to play.
Well I did technically get more games this year than pervious years thanks to Derek in Lincoln and the shows I went to but it has been interesting to see how hard it is to organise this for weekends.  Given I work often in Grimsby and live near Scunthorpe / Hull maybe its time I stuck my head back in a club or two?

I’ll give myself a 1 out of 5 for a running score of 4 out of 10!

3. I do not have much room so 1 foot wargaming is in.

If anything this is the best result so far:

• Thanks to Derek I started SoBH removing the large figure need for WH games.  This means one tray of figures holds enough variation for 5 / 6  games and who knows I even stand a chance of getting some more troops painted (Skaven nil everyone else one so far) in the New Year.
• 15mm foot figures fit by the hundred.  Now given that I am not interested in tanks at the moment, even the smaller carriers will be fine in a box.
• Scenery – the hedges, fences and islands have all fitted in fine
• The new figures I have bought have over spilled the box I allowed (darn 28mm)

What went ‘wrong’:

• Still buying figures – OK they take less room but not good
• Cork was an absolute disaster.  It flakes, it bends, its at the back of the cupboard till I get fed up with it and bin it I think…

What went ‘right’:

• SoBH and 15mm have rejuvenated gaming for me and reminded me that GW does not rule the gaming world.
• Litko and Magnetic Displays for their magnetic products.  Reduced the slippage problem and saved me money over more case purchases

I’ll give myself a 4 out of 5 for a running score of 9 out of 15

Note talking about Magnetic Displays – a thank you Trevor Holland for sponsorship of the HOTT games at Pudsey Recon.

End of the New Year Part 1

Time to look back I suppose (being a traditional blog thingy)

1. Frugal wargaming it is for me.

Well not great – the total to the left is a lie and does not include the last series of GZG figures, the 15mm Cavemen and sets of rules I have purchased since I slipped the count one fine weekend.  All in all though I have kept the costs down to below £10 a week – lots better than previous years and sets a great target for next year.

What went ‘wrong’:

• 15mm figures went up in quality and too much new shinny stuff came out in a short period of time.
• Rule books / downloads.  Where possible I purchased downloads but got sidetracked in genres I am not playing in and will not play next year either!
• Magazines.  What a waste of money.  Bar from the new shinny temptations they put in front of me I have kept less than 20 pages over the year and at £2.50 a page that hurt.  Not sure if I can give these up as I love to read and will read anything and everything that looks slightly interesting (see my I am a butterfly rant on TMP)

What went ‘right’:

• Show entries – Recon at Pudsey made up for the poor showings earlier on in the year
• 15mm figures – I had never bothered with this scale for any period but I am now happy to have discovered them.
• Scenery – The most fun of all purchases made in the year.  Should have done it years ago

So all in all I give myself a 3 out of 5 for this part of the aims.

Recon 2009 – A hidden treasure

Today has been the best wargaming day of the year thanks to the hard work of the Wakefield and Ossett Wargamers and the Recon show.

For those folks who have never been you are missing a great deal in a little space.  The hall is easy to find (just of the A647 and A6110 near Leeds) and has plenty of car parking (free)  but could be better signed.  Entry was only £2 and this buys you access to 30+ traders and 20 games.  This is half of the ground floor – the sun (yep that yellow ball showed itself as well) spoilt the other side

Upstairs was a series of games ranging from FOW to teddy bears and a busy but smallish bring and buy stand – clear labels and a wide choice of good quality bits helped make this an interesting scramble.

Tucked down the back was the main reason I went – a HOTT competition with five games sponsored by Coritani/Magnetic Displays from Skegness who relieved me of a fair amount of cash for storage bits.  Thought having the HOTT rules, this was the first time I had seen the game played in anger and credit to all players – they where very happy to explain the game and why they made the moves even in the middle of the fight!  I did mange to take a fair number of photos of the 15mm figures in use:

Witch army – flyers and MU only!	Elf army?
Lizard vs Witch army	Cat army (winner)

If anyone has the names of the players please let me know so I can add them to the pictures.  I do know the cat army took the prize for most wins and most popular army and was based around the book of Mr Mistoffolees with a boat as a water lurker and a stronghold of the vicarage wall

Other games included a massive ‘A Very British Civil War’ game over two tables:

with the biggest ship I have ever seen on a wargames table:

Two games with the Eureka teddy figures – one cowboy and one Zulu (Panda) themed games and I owe both the Yorkshire Coast Gamers and Brompton Bankers an apology as I did try to get back to talk and play but failed due to HOTT being so interesting:

Kirklees Crusaders had a fancy Boxer Rebellion game but just sat around and did not want to talk to visitors while I was there:

Oh yes one more point – as for the food FANTASTIC – I had the lamb stew in Yorkshire pudding for £2.50

Roll on 4th December 2010