New Hex Terrain Board

My hex terrain board is now setup and ready for whatever hex battlefield I can craft. I used hotglue to fasten the hex border pieces down so they are permanent.

My First Hex Terrain Board

I picked up these hexes last fall from a TMP ad. My wife donated her chalkboard to me to use as the hex table. The wooden frame around the chalkboard acts as a lip to hold the hexes in place. I cut the white hexes to make stop gaps for the flocked hexes to fit onto and make the board usable.

Tonight I sat down and crafted four field hexes. I have many more planned and hopefully another TMP hex purchase coming soon.

3mm ACW Union Infantry Regiment and Artillery Battery

It has been over a year since I last worked on this project and it felt good to be back in it this past weekend. I painted up one regiment from the "Irish Brigade" (note the green regimental standard) and an artillery battery. These two units along with what I previously had now bring my Union Army to a Division level. So I now have two brigades, each with two infantry regiments and an artillery battery. Of course these soldiers will see service in my planned "Clockwork Civil War" steampunk inspired ACW battles.

2017 in Review...

Happy new year wishes for 2018 to all whom read this.  I had some hobby activity each month except March. I began toy soldier still life photography this year and it's been a fun addition. My painting numbers were plain dismal. However I did find time to rebase many models for use with new home rules. Speaking of those I discovered The Portable Wargame by Bob Cordery and love it. I have meshed his rules up with my own and come up with a system that scratches my particular gaming itch for army battles. 

I had a pretty good Spring and Summer in the hobby but things trailed off in the fall at the start of deer season as hunting has become a new hobby for me that I enjoy. I have given up on some parts of wargaming; for example 28mm Warhammer mass battles, but will use those models for Frostgrave-Mordheim type games. I simply don't have the time to paint 28mm models. Again, best wishes and happy new year.

The Craft

Foot: 1

Cavalry: 2

Artillery:

Vehicles: 1

Aircraft:

Ships: 1

Spaceships:

Monsters:

Terrain/Acc: 3

Painted: 8

Rebasing: 56

Total Crafted: 64

Battles Fought
Ancients: 1

Fantasy: 7

Naval: 1

SyFy: 1

Seven Years War: 1

Second World War: 2

Board Wargame: 5

Year Total: 18

World War One: 15mm British Army

I sat down tonight to take inventory of my lead pile and part way through ended up rebasing these soldiers for the Portable Wargame. The bases are all 1" square except the tank which sits on a 3"x2" base.

Note the 12th Gurkhas Rifles on either flank of the HQ element. Also the 22nd Indian Lancers next to the 8th Dragoon Guards.

The Portable Wargame

I'm hooked on the The Portable Wargame by Bob Cordery. I may adopt it to my own particular

style of adding and subtracting dice vice roll modifiers and using square bases for movement vice a squared grid and like hexes over squares. I've recently ordered some hexes from GHQ and a fellow wargamer on TMP.

I do want to have a few more playtests of it first. As a solo-wargamer I've found small math can be tedious. However this is not a DBx style game. I will post my first full battle report with these rules soon. I've been doing small little "test" scenarios with dice and bases only.

I love the exhaustion point mechanism. Also these rules can easily be adjusted for any period including naval warfare. Bob has given us a toolbox with the Portable Wargame.

Recruits Con 2017

I attended Recruits again, this year. It still fun and a great value. However it seemed to me that attendance must have dropped a little bit. I am assuming this is due to moving the convention from September to August. I made over $300 in the silent auction with 13% of that from 3D printed items which was nice. Unfortunately due to time constraints and auction responsibilities I was able to catch a game. I do hope that next year I can stay Friday and Saturday night. It seems the Friday night action is getting better and there were several big games that lasted after 5pm.

Here are a few pictures of some of the tables this year.

54mm French & Indian War.

Stalingrad

Monte Cassino

Stalingrad

This was part of a terrain board collection in a large wooden
box with wheels. The price was $500. It did not sell.

Stalingrad

Helm's Deep

Helm's Deep

Freeblades

Cambrai

Helm's Deep

Monte Cassino

Monte Cassino

The Portable Wargame by Bob Cordery

I've been reading Bob Cordery's Wargames Miscellany blog for a few years now. I have quoted him on the left panel here under Wargaming Advice.  I've always found his blog interesting and often times rewarding reading. I recently purchased the epub version of his wargames rulebook "The Portable Wargame" and have enjoyed reading it and found it close to what I had in mind with my Not-HotT homebrew rules. So it's given me more to think about and perhaps some mechanics to cannibalize. It's well worth the price and after reading it I picked up the second book "Developing the Portable Wargame" epub. It too has a greater value than the small price I paid.

His use of the "Exhaustion Point" mechanic is genious! I am very happy with both purchases and will probably pick up the paperback versions too.

3D Printed 28mm U.S.S. Monitor - ACW Ironclad

Over the course of several days I printed out the pieces for the Union Ironclad, the U.S.S. Monitor. Though not my scale. I thought it would be a fun print and assembly. I may print another in 6mm but before that I intend to print the Confederate Ironclad the C.S.S. Arkansas. This model will be listed on my Toy Soldiers for Sale page and if not sold in a month or so will travel with me to Recruits Con for the silent auction.

3D Printed Hex Terrain Tiles for Random Mini Campaign Maps

It is my plan to use these hexes to create maps for random one off mini-campaigns. I am working up a method for drawing and placement. Here are some pictures and an example of the draw.

Begin with first drawn hex in center.

Place new draws clockwise from top.

Continue with clockwise placement.

Now I added a rule where any arctic tiles are placed on the top
and bottom of the map.

Game Day; June 10th 2017

My son James came down to visit me today. We went to the theater to see "The Mummy" starring Tom Cruise. Then came home and played a game of Risk 2210, Stratego and Checkers. As I mentioned in my previous post, it has been a good day.

3D Printed 15mm World War One Tanks

Another online purchase. This was the final straw, I broke down and bought a 3D printer after these models arrived. The new printer should be here sometime next week. I can hardly wait.

Micro-Scale Battlefield - Post 3

I finished up the micro-scale battlefield mat today. Added highlighting and touch-ups here and there. Here are some pictures of 6mm WW2 Americans and some 3mm ACW Union Regiments.  Next for this battlefield will be to craft or buy some 3mm buildings and foliage/trees. Overall this was a fun project. Oh yeah I forgot I have to give this a matte coat.

Add contour lines to the roads and river.

Highlight all areas of the mat and paint bridge crossings.

Cut off excess canvas.

6mm building and models.

6mm WW2 Americans entering a village.

Nice terrain bridge laid down perfectly over the painted bridge crossing.

3mm American Civil War soldiers.

The view from above.

Micro-Scale Battlefield Mat - Post 2

I put down the base coats of paint on the micro-mat. I like the rough look of the caulk beneath the paint. I want to experiment with some different "roughing" techniques for future mats. Hopefully this weekend I will have time to do touch up painting and highlighting. The next project after this is to finish off the 3mm 2nd Brigade of the 1st Division of the Union Army of the Frontier. All they lack are the command staff element. Then either craft or buy some buildings to go on the micro-mat. 

I am more pleased each day with the micro-mat. However I still have the bug to craft 12" square foam tiles.

Micro-Scale Battlefield Mat - Post 1

I decided to give terrain mat making a try in the hopes of having a nice size battlefield for my 3mm micro armies. I read up on the subject and watched some videos then bought the supplies I needed. I bought the canvas cloth at Jo-Ann's, the caulk at Wal-Mart. Everything else I had. I started the project Sunday. Then picked it back up tonight with the layout design and painting. I don't think I will use flocking. I used a plastic bag to rough up the mat and will try to use paints to color and highlight the grass, river and roads.

Spread the canvas, iron if needed and apply the caulk.

Allow to dry overnight.

Draw roads and rivers then start to paint.

2016 in Review

Happy New Year! 2016 started out pretty strong in the hobby but some unexpected changes occurred in mid-September that ground my war to a virtual halt. My painting numbers more than tripled from 2015 but the amount of battles fought dropped to less than half of that year.

I don't expect a big hobby rebound in 2017 but will aim for a steady progression of my war effort.I am still feeling a strong pull to microscales and may begin to push further in that direction.

2016 Painting

3mm: 220

6mm: 7

10mm:

15mm: 3
1/72: 14

25mm: 4
54mm: 1

Terrain/Acc: 7

Total: 256

 2016 Battles

Ancients: 1

Risk: 1

Colonial: 3

Fantasy: 5

World War II: 4

Total: 14

3mm Royal Marines Light Infantry Regiment

Here is the RMLI Regiment which together with a battery or two will serve as the Naval Brigade to my colonial forces.