Return to the Hobby

It has been quite a while since I last posted here. When I started my tool truck business back in 2021, most of my hobby time disappeared almost overnight. Between running the business and keeping up with everything else in life, wargaming and blogging quietly slipped into the background. Recently, however, life, career & things have begun to shift again, and I’ve found myself returning to the hobby table and thinking about miniatures, campaigns, and projects once more.

After looking back over my old hobby blogs, I realized just how scattered my interests had become over the years. At one point I had created several different blogs to cover different projects and ideas. While that seemed like a good idea at the time, it also made things a bit fragmented. Going forward I’ll probably keep things simpler and just use this blog as the place where all of my hobby thoughts, projects, and experiments live. So I'll rename the blog and it's focus.

With that in mind, I’ll be using this space again to document whatever catches my interest on the hobby table, whether that’s miniature wargaming projects, terrain experiments, new ideas for campaigns, or simply thoughts about the hobby itself. So I'll change the look of the blog; but for now I’m just happy to be returning to the table and looking forward to seeing where the next round of projects leads. If any old readers still happen to be passing by, feel free to say hello in the comments. It would be good to reconnect with fellow gamers again.

NEW IMAGI-NATIONS ATOMIC AGE BLOG

 

I've created a new blog to record my miniature craftwork in my imaginary cold war gone hot campaign setting. I will remove those posts from this blog to the new one. Soviet Union of East Borgovia.

NEW LOOK & FOCUS

It's time for a new look however it may also be time to retire this blog. I'll update this post when I decide which direction I'm going.

UPDATE: I'm NOT going to retire this blog but rather shift its focus to 19th century warfare up to and including the Great War.

3D Design: Civil War Landship

My first landship design for my Clockwork Civil War project. Designed in Tinkercad. Once I have a printed and painted model I will post pics of those.

Focus on 2020

Greetings my fellow wargame bloggers. Instead of doing the annual recap of 2019 I'm just going to skip that and focus on what I plan to achieve in this new year with the time that is given me.

Blogging: I plan to slim this blog down even more to just simply cover horse and musket up to the Great War. I plan to move the Second World War, Vietnam and other modern warfare along with the  Atomicpunk stuff to their own blogs.

Painting: I am going to change how I track painted models this year. I will focus on completed forces rather than individual miniatures. With that said I hope to complete, across all genres at least 4 complete and field ready forces.

For this blog I plan to continue to chip away at the Royal Spanish and American forces for the Spanish-American War. Perhaps even get back to my 3mm ACW armies and the VSF elements for both wars.

Battles: I fought one! I had a few solo-playtests of Warhammer Underworlds but as far as matching my force against another, only one. I don't care for that number. I want to engage in narrative solo-gameplay and perhaps get in at least 3 games at the conventions this year.

Conventions: Recruits is on as well as the Recruits Spring Sale but ReaperCon is out this year. I would like to also make it up for Border Wars but that's during Ren Faire Cosplay season so that would be a difficult to make.

Campaigns: For this blog I want to continue work on the Spanish-American War and just perhaps the Battle of Prairie Grove in 3mm.

I want to wish anyone who reads this a happy and prosperous new year. -Auston

GHQ Hex Storage System

I started 3D printing a hex storage shelf. It took 10 hours. My best-friend came by and said "Let me see that." He left with it and the next day came back with this awesome storage shelves for my 100mm GHQ terrain hexes. Three fit on the wall between my storage closets and four under my new wargame table.

The Portable Napoleonic Wargame

I picked up my first copy of one of Bob Cordery's books in paper. The first two, I bought on Kindle. I plan to add those to my collection in paperback as well.

Remodel of My GHQ

I began remodelling my warroom. I wanted to share it with my wife and her embroidery hobby. So I gave her my cabinet desk and a corner. My best friend built me a printer bench and it is amazing. So much better than sitting on top of my old desk.

I am also working on a solution for GHQ terrain hex storage. I don't care for the idea of using fiddly tubs. I will post a picture of it once I've solved it.

Grid Battlefields for the Portable Wargame

I started working on some 4" grid battlefields to fit my new 3'x3' wargame table. I intend to use The Portable Wargame by Bob Cordery as the rules for these battlefields.

Painting Update: 2mm Spanish-American War Forces.

The current state of the American and Royal Spanish armies for an intended Span-Am War campaign. The current Spanish force consists of the three infantry and one artillery regiment. The Americans have two infantry and one artillery regiments along with two battalions of skirmishers.

Royal Spanish Army

United States Army (GHQ in center)

Painting Update: VSF Aeronef and 2mm Infantry Block.

Tonight's painting includes an aeronef and a 2mm infantry regiment block.

2mm Imperial British Landship

I painted my first landship this evening. I printed the model on my Ender3. I am calling it a Gordon Class Landship. My first painted miniature of 2019. Chin Chin.

2mm Victorian SyFy 3D Printed Force

Happy New Year. I have begun basing models in preparation for painting and battle for the start of a Victorian SyFy campaign. All in 2mm plastic. All models and the gray bases were 3D printed on my Ender3.

The non-steampunk units will also see use in planned campaigns of the Spanish-American War and the Russo-Japanese War.

After Action Review: 2018

Happy New Year to any and all. Looking back over the past year I began making custom plastic toy soldiers and action figures. I continued with toy soldier photography. Painting saw a dramatic uptick from the previous year, however battles fought saw a decline. I was able to attend ReaperCon in Denton but had to miss out on Recruits. I enjoyed my hobby in 2018 and am looking forward to what 2019 will bring to the craft.

PAINTED
2mm Foot Block: 1

3mm Foot: 73
3mm Artillery: 10

3mm Cavalry: 5

3mm Armor: 17

3mm Trucks: 2

3mm Mechs: 7

3mm Monsters: 36

3mm Aircraft: 1

15mm Foot: 19

15mm Mech: 1

15mm Armor: 2

15mm Beasts: 1

15mm Cavalry: 4

15mm Artillery: 1

15mm Aircraft: 1

15mm Monsters: 3

1/72 Foot: 2

1/72 Armor: 3

25mm Foot: 12

25mm Cavalry: 1

25mm Monsters: 1

54mm Foot: 2

60mm Foot: 1

Hill Hexes: 1

Field Hexes: 4

Game Acc: 4

Bust/Diorama: 1

Total Painted: 216

BATTLES FOUGHT

Fantasy Wars: 6

Second World War: 4
Warmachine: 1

Warhammer 40K: 1

Pathfinder ACG: 1

Year Total: 13

Forward Observation: The Craft in 2019

As the new year is less than 48 hours away I wanted to share some of my plans for the hobby in the coming year. On the horizon I foresee a reset of my miniature war-game hobby. Far too long I've had too many projects. They tend to overlap and interfere with one another and I end up overwhelmed. Like many in the hobby I spend far too much time reading other peoples posts and planning that one day I too will accomplish X or Y. I want to accomplish things. I want to do epic level hobby things, things that are good, creative and worthwhile.

So basically I'm starting over. Going to take a step back and look at all that I have and begin from there. I have more models, miniatures, books and terrain in my war-room than I have space for. So I must scale back, reduce and reuse. This week I traded my old bookshelf for two new ones that accommodate model storage too, see photograph below. I am down to just one 3D printer now, an Ender 3, bottom picture. It is a great hobby tool for both terrain and miniatures. This past Fall my home war-game rules evolved into a set that I thoroughly enjoy and give me that feel of generalship. I will continue to expound on them for other periods.

I intend to move ahead with miniature photography and hunting. I've really enjoyed finding unique places to setup action figures and models for pictures. This past years hunting trips were exciting and in the case of the first wild hog hunt very intense.

Model Painting Over Christmas

We went down to the family ranch last weekend. I took along my paints and some models to paint. I was surprised at the amount I finished. I expected to do just a bit more but I am very happy with what I did paint.

Yours Truly....

Thought I would post some pictures of my granddaughter and I at the #ozarkcornmaze this year. Some of you frequently show yourselves in pictures at the club or show and since I have no show this year nor any club at all I will post these.

3D Printed 2mm Blackpowder Infantry Block

This model was designed by Forward March Studios. It printed out very well. I've never even considered 2mm before as I thought 3mm was small enough but now that I can print my own miniatures, yeah, I'm in.

50x40mm Plastic Base with Hit Die Slot

I designed and printed this base tonight. It arrived to late to help some units but will see service with others, particularly 3mm ACW and Samurai.

1/600 Aeronef Ironclad

I printed this out to match my ACW 1/600 Ironclads and to fit with my 3mm VSF/Colonial foot regiments but I am unsure if I am happy with it at this scale. I am toying with the idea of reducing it down to about 1/1200.