Rural Bookstore Finds.

Found while on vacation in Missouri.

Final Results for MO-1

Dried and smash-strained.

Martian Foliage Grass Type 1O.

Stirred up the first batch of flocking for the upcoming Martian terrain I have in mind.  This is Type 1O for 1st Attempt, Orange.  It's actually a mix of Orange and Brown. The next will be an Ochre or a Yellow/Tan or Yellow/Red mix.  The flock below is fresh from the pot and needs to dry. I will post the dry and crushed flocking as I did on the green.

First Flocking Grass is Finished!

Bought a strainer today and used an empty baby food jar to smash the dried clump flocking through the strainer to break the flock up.  I am very pleased with the final results.

First Attempt at Making Terrain Flocking

Watched some videos on YouTube on how to make your own flocking so I emptied out the pencil sharpeners at work and gave it a go. I used a bit too much water for the amount of sawdust I had so I know next time to use about half of what I poured.  Still a couple of paper towels to soak the excess and its drying nicely.  Not bad for my first try.

All Quiet on the Martian Front: Scout Tripod

Received my first shipment from the AQMF Kickstarter.  I was so pleased to receive this, especially since it was delayed 5 months.  More items are due to arrive, they are shipping the product out in waves.  So I sat down at my craft table to assemble the lone tripod sprue that wasn't bagged up with the rest.  After assembly I realized I should have placed the positionable leg up front rather than behind but lesson learned for the rest of them and I do have plenty left to assemble.

10mm Arabs for FFL March or Die Mini-Campaign.

First group of 7 Arabs from Old Glory's 10mm line for my future March or Die Mini-Campaign.  I think the green guy will have to be moved to a HQ element. He was the first test model before I found a color scheme I like. See bottom picture from Plastic Soldier Review for color scheme.

More Country Roads

Once again they are little more brown in hand than in the photo.  Dry brush brown on surface and edges, flock while wet and glue static grass.

Terrain: My First Roads

I crafted the first 20" of roads from a roof shingle that blew off our house during a storm.  I still have to make curves and other roadway features.  I chose to use the gravel side. I brushed on some brown paint then while still wet sprinkled on some light green flocking and then glued some static grass down in spots.  The picture shows up more black than what it looks like on my table. Much more brown on my craft table.  Good start for now.

Boxer Rebellion: 15mm Chinese Boxers

Based up 8 elements of Chinese Boxer fanatics today.  Gave them names and printed out some base decals.  Wanted to add another model or two more per base but 3 was all I could do without buying more models which I do not want to do, aside from cavalry, artillery and a general.

Principality of Huack: Royal Naval Brigade

Here are some Naval Infantry units of the Royal Navy.  When conducting land borne operations with the Royal Army they form as the Naval Brigade though they are a much smaller detachment.  The models are 15mm Naval Russians for the Boxer Rebellion.  Lighting is not good but I'm taking the pictures at zero dark thirty too.

ACW: 5th New York Zouaves, Army of New England

This puts the Army of New England at 10 elements.  Only 3 more elements remain, the Army General, and 2 cavalry elements.

ACW: 3rd United States Infantry Regiment, Army of New England

ACW: 3rd Vermont Volunteer Infantry

Last batch of the gunboat Union infantry.  Labeled as the 3rd Vermont Vol. and based up as skirmishers.  This brings to 7 the total elements for my Union "Army of New England."  I am looking forward to finishing this army and then beginning either the "Arkansas Legion" based on Cobb's Legion or the 15th Arkansas Infantry.

ACW: 54th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry

Finished the 4th element for my Union Army the "Army of New England."  This element is the 54th all black regiment led by Colonel Shaw.  These soldiers were another eBay purchase that came as a nice surprise with a 15mm gunboat.  I don't need them for the gunboat as the boat is destined for the Huack-Turkoslavia Wars.  The remainder of the white soldiers from this purchase shall be used to construct skirmisher elements for the AoNE.

ACW: Next Element of the 22nd NY Militia, Army of New England.

Another base I put together of soldiers bought on eBay.

New Direction for the American Civil War

I have been collecting ACW in 15mm for several years now and have just not got around to painting yet. I also had some painted models that I had bought online.  Below is a few of those, the 22nd NY Militia.  I had been toying with the idea of selling all my 15mm off and going with 10mm for the massed troops look but I have since dropped this idea.  Why spend more money when I can do everything I want to do for this period in 15mm?  So I'm sticking with 15's and below is the first base I've done up for my home rules.  The lighting is kind of bad as it's the middle of the night.  This will be part of my fictional "Army of New England."

The 22nd New York Militia, American Civil War

Eagle Decoration For My Wargame Table

Saw this at Hobby Lobby and thought it would make a great addition to my table.

Painting and Gaming Totals for 2013.

Well my gaming year ended on Christmas day.  This years painting numbers are down but the gaming total was up.  Also I stopped tracking purchases and setting target goals.  So I will continue with simply tracking models painted but I am changing the format of games played.  Instead of listing the name of the game and how many times I played it I will list by period and how many battles were fought in that period.

2013 also held a couple of achievements for me.  The release of my element based WWII wargame rules and the launch of my own miniatures line at Bat Cave Minis.

Models Painted
3mm: 170

6mm: 15

10mm: 0

15mm: 15

25mm: 23

54mm: 0

1/72: 1

1/2400: 0

1/6000: 0

Terrain & Acc: 3

Total Painted: 227

Prior Year Total: 497

Games Played

HOTT-SYW: 1

Mayhem: 1

Dungeons: 3

Tales of M&L: 3

Combat WW2: 3

D&D: 1

Brigadier: 8

Battletech: 2

Battlesystem: 1

Legatus: 2

Commodore: 1

Song Blades & Heroes: 1

Freeblades: 1

HOTT: 1

Bush War FUBAR: 2

Myth & Legends: 3

Year Total: 34

Prior Year Total: 31

Principality of Huack: Photograph of Royal Navy Gun Crew at Practice

The Royal Navy released a photograph of a gun crew at the Royal Navy Base in Auston.  No doubt the photo is meant to a publicize deterrent to Turkoslavian aggression.

Gun Crew Sailors of the Huack Royal Navy.