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.

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.