10mm Oil Storage Facility

10mm scale fuel oil storage depot for science fiction or modern gaming. This is all scratch built. The large oil drums are pill bottles the small ones are desiccant containers from the pill bottles (contents removed). The piping is plastic tubing from the hobby store bent over heat. I will probably add a cinder block wall, but wanted to paint most of this before adding it. 

28mm Numidian Skirmishers

This is my promised 'Numidian Horde' that was mentioned earlier. These are Old Glory figures, which come 30 to a pack. I only 'needed' a single eight stand battle group (16 figures) but since there are 30 in a pack, I painted 30. This is 28 of them in two battle groups: a six-stand group and an eight-stand group. The last two figures (not shown) will be runners for some Elephants that will be painted later.

These were an experiment in Army Painter 'dip' speed painting. Not including cleaning and assembly and basing these 30 figures were painted in two sessions that were about 3 hours each. I know this because they were painted entirely while listening to game 3 and 4 of the Bruins/Rangers playoff games. I skipped doing my normal 4-step eye painting on these and opted just for eyebrows and letting Army Painter do the rest. The shields are mostly home made on my laser and hand painted decoration. With cleaning and basing the 30 figures took a total of 9 hours, or 18 minutes a figure, bag to table top.

Next up a unit of veteran Libyan spear men for my Carthaginian army.

Dropzone Commander Arc of Fire Gauge

My friends Gordon, Chris and Russ are starting to play the science fiction miniatures game Dropzone Commander from Hawk Wargames. When I was younger I played science fiction, mainly Steve Jackson's Ogre/GEV rules. Once I got into historical gaming my interest in sci-fi faded. Gordon, Chris and Russ are good friends and a ton of fun to game with. I'm making the rare exception and joining them in playing this game. The authors recommend you copy the template page from the rules and use that. BAH! That just won't due for someone who owns their own laser engraver. This is their template in glow-edge transparent acrylic which is my material of choice for such items.

I may only make these for friends, or I may sell them on my website if there is enough interest. If you want one let me know by emailing me at my business email: aew@wrightbrothersrc.com.

Luftwaffe 1946 - WWII Air to Air Gaming at Adler Hobby

Saturday I took a trip to Adler Hobby. Since my surgery I haven't been able to get down to Adler as much as I like. Things at work have made weeknight visits to Adler very difficult for me and Saturday visits haven't worked out in a while. This past Saturday things finally 'clicked' for a visit.

My friend Russ hosted a small play test of some rules he's working up a game for: Luftwaffe 1946. The premise of the game is an alternate history that allows the German air force to extend world war II. I'm not necessarily interested in the Alternate history, but the rules work very well for all historically-accurate air to air combat as well.

For our play test Russ tried three Me109s versus two P-38 Lightnings. Gordon and I were the USA, and Russ and Denise were the Germans. Denise got in early and shot down Gordon while I was tailing her and pumping her 109 with .50 cal rounds from my Lightning. A little too late I got revenge and put her 109 into the canopy. Meanwhile Russ was swinging around for another pass at me, but he dove a bunch to gain speed, while I climbed. Eventually I was able to make the altitude gap unsurpassable and get away from the two 109s. All the while I was thinking continuing to turn fight TWO more maneuverable opponents in a Lightning wasn't wise.

I like these rules. They give just enough detail without any brain-hurting over complex mechanics. You can have everything you need to know on one sheet of paper - big type. Soon Russ and I will work out some dedicated flight stands for his 1/300 models that I will make on my laser in acrylic.

May 2013 Game Night

Last Friday was our club's monthly game night for May. For a holiday weekend we had a very good turn out. Three games were run, and all had plenty of players or were full. I played in my friend Ed's Thirty Years War game. This is a game he's been working on for a while and has written the rule set for himself. He calls it a 'battle management' game. The main mechanism revolves around pulling units out of the main line of combat when they become worn to replace them with fresh units. Managing the rest and recuperation of your worn units and keeping a proper reserve are keys to success.

My opponent Phil (below taking a photo) played well and had good dice. Over the course of the game I went from having a superior force to hanging on by my finger nails. Ed called time just before things got ugly.

 

Other games were a Column, Line & Square Napoleonics game run by my friend Pete S. (left) and my friend Mark D. ran his Falklands war game (right) that I play tested last week. From what I hear our suggested changes from the play test made a big difference and game was very good.

28mm Ancient Gaul Cavalry

This is a battle group of 28mm Gaul cavalry for my Carthiginian army for our upcoming first Punic War campaign. They are based for Field of Glory rules. The figures are all Old Glory figures from their cavalry and command packs. A lot of gamers put their Gauls in very bright clothing. I just don't feel it looks right that way. On campaign such clothes just wouldn't keep their colors or hold up. Instead I've chosen what I believe are more period appropriate colors. The shields are hand painted. I'm not thrilled with them, but it's the best I can do free hand. Some of the shirts and pants are striped or plaid. I chose to do enough to get the impression of the correct cloths being used, but also allowed for some replacement clothing during a long campaign made from the cloths of the conquered. Again I feel this is a good historical choice....it's also easier on the brush strokes.

I've been posting a lot of my re-basing work on Ebay-purchased Napoleonic lead. These ancients were not purchased painted. I painted them up myself. Next up on the painting table is a large horde of Numidian skirmishers.

28mm Austrian Napoleonic Jagers

This is the last of my units purchased in a recent buying spree on Ebay. These Austrian Jagers were purchased from Dragon Painting Services and re-based for Napoleon's Rules of War. These will be one of the primary regiments in my advanced Austrian division. The other infantry unit will be Grenzers which I plan to paint, or if I can scrape up enough 'pin money' I may have them contract painted.  Next up in the blog will be some Ancients units that I have painted myself. Several are finished and just waiting on basing to hit the blog.

28mm 'German' Austrian Napoleonic Fusiliers (2)

Another unit of Napoleonic German Austrian Fusiliers. These also were purchased from ppsbay and re-based for Napoleon's Rules of War. Both of these came painted with the grey regimental facings, collars and cuffs shown on the right-hand unit. I left this one with grey facings to match one of the other battalions that I have allowing these two to form a regiment. There's a chance in the future I may get another and re-paint it's facings green to match the other battalion I re-painted the facings on.

Falklands War Play Test

Last night we got together to help my friend Mark D. play test a Falklands War game he's planning to run next week at our club's monthly game night. Mark is able to use a meeting room at his work evenings and I must say it's one of the nicest gaming spaces I've played in: well lit, plenty of room and comfy leather chairs!

Mark's terrain is very nice and I spend the evening picking his brain about his techniques, including his homemade hex terrain that's very much like Geo-Hex.

Below left you can see the board layout and game in progress as I arrived late. Below right, the Argentinian commanders, Charlie, Dave (aka Olaf) and Ralph.

The scenario calls for the British to attack an entrenched Argentinian hillside from two angles: frontally and with a small flank force. Arriving late I got the reinforcements, including the flanking force. Waiting for me on the flank was a Panhard AML armored car. My squad ambushed it and fired it's one and only LAW rocket at it but missed horribly. Between a mountain of angry Argentinians and an armored car (proverbial rock and a hard place) I decided a close assault of the armored car was my best option. The outcome is shown below:

Fortunately for me my last squad member was able to get a grenade to detonate in a way that disabled the car's gunnery systems....then he ran for the beaches. The rest of the game I spent cautiously advancing my other squad from reserve, but they didn't see much action before we called it for the night. It was a very enjoyable evening with friends and I hope Mark got the constructive input he needed to fine tune his game. 

28mm 'Hungarian' Austrian Napoleonic Fusiliers (2)

The second of two Hungarian units for my Austrian army. These are more figures purchased from ebay merchant ppsbay_com and re-based for Charlie's rules, Napoleon's Rules of War. Together these two battalions will make up a small regiment. I could add a third later for a large Regiment. I may also paint up three additional figures to match to make a regiment of three battalions of three stands each.