"Men of the North" scene complete!

Hi all!

Well... my gift for my father in law is complete!

So, my father in law is a big lover of all things frontier... mountain men and Lewis and Clark and all the rest.  I've done one other scene for him, a Revolutionary War scene (another of his favorite periods) but I knew that he really wanted something from the era of the frontier... so!  This was born!

The idea was that I'd have a camp on a ledge with a few mountain men looking out to the mountains at night.  I knew I wanted to do a lighting element, and in this case did two... one for the fire, and one for the blue LED at the top of the whole scene that would make it feel more night-like.

Here is a shot of the main character of the scene, on the precipice, looking around the mountains.  I built the little lean-to at the back, and the fireplace and rocks, and all of that.  The guy in the background is actually a figure from Wargames Illustrated that I cut in half, and then I make a greenstuff blanket around him.  The guy at the foreground I did need to do a little converting with... namely, carving away his pistol and making it a rifle.

Here is the whole thing with the lights on.  It is remarkably difficult to get good shots of the light... there is, as mentioned, a blue LED in the top that sheds a blue light over the entire scene.  There is also an LED buried in the foamcore of the cliff.  The flickering looks incredible, actually... I build the back of the fireplace open so that you get a lot of firelight playing on the trees and the camp.

Here it is all closed up.  Overall I'm very happy with how it turned out!  Below I included a video of the lighting... it REALLY doesn't do it justice, but what can you do:)

Thanks for coming by and looking!

The Rockies at Night, WIP

So!  Just thought I would post, as I've gotten back to this Christmas gift project... right now it is unassembled (just propped up) and the wiring isn't done, but this is, ideally, what it should look like when it is done.  Still a lot left to do... plus, I am thoroughly baffled about the last few steps of assembly... there needs to be a piece at the top to hold the blue light, but at the same time the entire thing needs to be removed at will to change the battery... it will take some thinking to get it right.

Whoops!  I just figured out a MAJOR PORTION of this whole thing... I had been SO confused by the rigging of the lighting, and couldn't figure out WHY... I had done a million like this... and it JUST OCCURRED to me, after MONTHS of staring at this thing, that I had simply ordered the wrong switch/battery combo.  I am a certifiable idiot.

15mm Technicals finished

Hi all!

Well, I did buy a few figures at Fall In, and thought I'd get them painted up!

These are a trio of 15mm technicals from Old Glory miniatures.  The crew is also from Old Glory, although I had to do some head swaps and green stuff work, as they only had the African heads, and not the Middle Eastern heads in stock.  I did put a passenger in the red one (you can see his AK sticking out the side) and added a guy with an AK and a guy with an RPG to the beds of two of the trucks... I just think these look better with a lot of dudes on them!

I tried to make them look really ragged and dirty, and overall I think they turned out okay.  I went with a white truck, a blue truck, and a red truck... those Toyotas you see are always those colors.  Unfortunately in the photos you really can't see all of the work that went into them... the colors are REALLY varied, and the trucks have dents and the like.

Unfortunately there is an issue... what I *THOUGHT* was some sort of line in the truck itself (along the side) is clearly, upon painting, a mold line.  A really, really REALLY bad mold line.

Like... bad.

So... I think I am going to have to do some scrapping and repainting, because honestly those lines are all I can damn see now.

So, got some work ahead of me, matching paints and colors.

BTW, below is a shot so you can see them in scale with a few of my American pieces of armor!

Fall In 2013 - The Purchases!

Hey all!

Well, FINALLY, my last Fall In post... namely, the purchases!

Now, I am an elementary school teacher, so unfortunately my toy soldier purchases can't be too grand.  I'd love to buy a huge army of figures, but that just isn't reasonable for me:)  Thankfully there are still lots of neat things to buy!

At the top is a great purchase; a $4 bridge for my 15mm ACW collection from the Flea Market!  I want to do some work to it, but frankly I think it will work great:)

 

A box'o'bases from Gale Force 9!  Now, they were very kind, and counted this as taped shut:)

I got mainly square and rectangular bases for armies, but included a smattering of other sizes as well, in case I need them for some random project... it always helps to have a few around!

Here is a bunch of clump foliage, bought so I can remake my forests for my 10mm Napoleonic collection to look like those over at 6mm ACW!

Some modeling supplies!  Some silver and gold paint, and a bunch of clumps of grass for basing, some of which are from BTC.  I needed all of this, and I'd rather get it and not pay shipping while supporting the vendors at Fall In!

Some minis from Old Glory!  Some ACW casualties for my Longstreet army, and then some 15mm technicals for my moderns.  Unfortunately they only had "black" crew available, but a few headswaps should work.

And finally some lovely 15mm shipping crates, also for my 15mm moderns.  These guys are from Highlander studios, and just SO useful!

So!  That's what I picked up! Nothing fancy, but PLENTY useful.  Can't wait to get that bridge together!:)

Fall In 2013 - The Game I Played (and bonus stuff!)

Hey all!

Well, as usual, I signed up for a game at Fall In this year, and as always, I signed up for the biggest Carnage and Glory game I could find... The Road to Leipzig!  Generally they do BEAUTIFUL games, and they are simple and fun, sooooo... sign me up!

And please do click... the pictures get LARGE.

Above is a shot that I sort of stitched together (ignore the bad job) to give you a feeling for the whole battlefield as the game rolled on!  On the left our French forces (near side) took the stone buildings to serve as our left flank... we then linked our line up with the village in the center, and tried to hold the enemy off on the right hand side.

Enemy Prussians advance across the field at us in the center.

More enemy troops advance on our right, Russians this time..

The Prussians plunge right into the village in the center, and our French prepare to throw them out.

A shot from the enemy's side of the table, as Austrians advance in the center and on our left.

Here you can see a few of my units in skirmish order engaging the village.

Another shot of my skirmishers firing at the village, whittling down the Prussian defenders... in the center you can see where one of our French units plunged RIGHT down the main street and threw the enemy back!

The Prussians begin to pour out around the sides of the town, but fire from the village (which we took quickly) whittles down the enemy.

The right hand side comes under HEAVY enemy attack (Russians this time) while the French attempt to hold them off.

Here is a succession of shots down our line.  This is our far left, where the Austrians are advancing.

The center.  The three units in reserve at the back and the skirmishers to the far right in front of the woods were my command.

The center of the table, where the Prussians are attacking.

The far right, which is starting to crumble juuuussstt a little under the Russian attack.

The French plunge into the oncoming Prussians, who are caught unprepared!

Our center pushes forward to meet the oncoming enemy, who begin to abandon the village.

The French forces roll through the village and up the center, crushing the Prussians backwards on top of themselves.  Note the one French unit that pushed ALL the way up the road and is now in the rear of the Prussian lines!

As the French line on the left advances the Austrian columns counterattack!

Napoleon himself oversees the fight!

And the game grinds to an end, six hours in... the fight on the far right grinds down as the Russians and French troops there are exhausted... the enemy Prussians in the center have been largely crushed... and the Austrian counterattack on the left falters, as they had already been battered in earlier battles and could not stop the French advance.

And here is that aforementioned French unit which plunged straight through the enemy lines and survived enemy fire and cavalry charges and made it ALL the way through the game unbeaten, earning battle honors as well!

Oh, and as an added bonus... the ACW game that was being played next to ours!

The Rebs advance on the Federal position.

The peak of combat!

Oh, and another shot of a MESS of troops from the other Carnage and Glory in our room, the Battle of Novi!

So... another beautiful Carnage and Glory game... thanks to all the guys, including Nigel who ran it!:)  I'll sign up again next year!

Fall In 2013 - The Games!

Hey all!

Well, here they are... the games!

Now, I personally thought the overall level of games was the highest I've seen at Fall In.  LOTS of big, good looking games from all sorts of periods.

So... I didn't get shots of EVERY game, but I got as many as I could... I ran out of space on my memory card at one point and had to cut a few! 

Also, I've numbered the photos so if you know anything about the person who ran it, let me know!

1.  Got to be Napoleonics, right?

2.  A big 15mm Napoleonics game.

3.  Loved the Napoleon figure, being shown all of the captured enemy flags!

4.  Rebs prepare to march onto the field!

5.  British soldiers in a last stand against Native Americans?

6.  A fantastic 28mm ACW siege.

7.  The boats bring their guns to bear in the siege.

8.  Federal troops prepare to assault the Rebel lines!

9. A beautiful 28mm Cowboy game!

10.  More of that game.

11.  A Federal camp is under thread by Confederates.

12.  The far right flank on Paul Olszanski, Dennis Kalember and Gwen Reeves's 15mm Gettysburg table... you can see the two Round Tops and the Devils Den.  The great buildings were all from John Mayer's Buildings in Turmoil range (and were sold right off the table, along with the table itself!)

13.  The center of Gettysburg.

14.  You can see the Seminary and Gettysburg itself here on the far left.

14a.  A closeup of the Devils Den!

15.  A cool 28mm Samurai game, the "Defense of Anjiro," which used the "Ronin" ruleset and even included GM mandated death poems!  I missed them, unfortunately... but talk about rubbing it in.  Yikes.

16.  The Samurai themselves!

17.  A 15mm WWII game.

18.  Lots of Napoleonics!

19.  The Carnage and Glory guys do the AWI!

20.  More Carnage and Glory, this time Napoleonics ready to get on the field.

21.  15mm Napoleonics cross the bridge!

22.  That is a lot of sand for those 28mms... but I don't know much about who they are!:)

23.  A great looking WWII game.

24.  An absolutely HUGE 28mm Roman table!

25.  More of those Romans!

26.  A packed 15mm ACW table.

27.  Those Carnage and Glory guys again, with more Napoleonics!

28.  And more of that game...

29.  And MORE of that game...

30.  And yet more!:)

31.  15mm Napoleonics.

32.  More of those Napoleonics.

33.  More of the Carnage and Glory AWI!

34.  Some more of their AWI.

25.  Carnage and Glory guys do Napoleonics.

26.  And more Napoleonics...

27.  And more...

28.  And more!

29.  28mm Ancients.

30.  28mm Sudan using "The Sword and The Flame" rules.  Beautiful!

31.  More WWII. 

32.  Okay, one more Carnage and Glory Napoleonics shot... sorry they are out of order:)

33.  Not sure, but it looked great!:)

34.  15mm Napoleonics.

35.  Some very pretty 28mm AWI.

36.  More from that game.

37.  And a bit more.

38.  And some more!

39.  And a bit more!

40.  Those are a LOT of Rebels!

41.  The Russians cross a river, 1943.

42.  More Rebs prepare to enter the table.

43.  28mm.

44.  Gotta be WWI, right?

45.  VERY small ships blast each other to matchsticks!

46.  28mm Rebs advance into combat!

47.  Not sure on this one, sorry!

48.  Some great WWII tanks cross the fields of Europe!

49.  Whoops!  More of that Gettysburg table!

50.  Great "Gangs of Rome" table!  Note the removable roof!

51.  Some 15mm Napoleonics.

52.  28mm Moderns.

53.  Mini-Mech warfare... LOVE those buildings, made out of simple wooden pieces but SO effective at that size!

54.  A GREAT game from www.6mmacw.com !  I was JUST talking about his blog and his trees LITERALLY as I turned the corner and saw the game.  SO stealing those.

55.  6mm ACW troops prepare to enter the field.

56.  More 6mm ACW figures!  So nice, and with tents made from cereal boxes!:)

57.  More pretty Carnage and Glory guys.

58.  More Carnage and Glory, ACW this time.

59.  MORE Carnage and Glory, Napoleonics this time.

60.  Yet more...

61.  And more...

62.  And more!

63.  Some 28mm WWII... check out the open buildings from FourGround!

64.  More great 28mm WWII.

65.  Really pretty 28mm knights!

66.  My favorite of the show... a STUNNING 28mm Samurai game!

67.  More of those Samurai.

68.  And more...

69. And more...

70.  And more...

71.  And yet more!

72.  And finally, some great 15mm Moderns from the (Balu Baluk Ambush)!! game. 

So... those are the games I got shots of!  More tomorrow in the "Games I played!" post!:)