Quarantine time is hobby time.

Stuck in the house, oh my!

      Well it's day one of "safer-at-home" (cute phrase) here in Wisconsin so that means, not much changes.  Now I can enjoy guilt free hobby time since we aren't supposed to go anywhere and I work from home, another bonus.  I've taken advantage of this time to start looking at my miniatures situation and making some decisions.  One of these is that I have some things that I'll probably never use and they should start to slowly make their way out of the house.  My plan is to have a box where I can put stuff I "probably" want to get rid of and if in a year or so that box is still around I get rid of it.  Unfortunately that doesn't take a lot out of my lead pile.
     When it comes to the lead pile I think I've found my answer for speed but acceptable paint jobs.  It came from Dr Faust, and it's a style I've seen but never tried.  Basically it's a shadow to start and then layer up highlights from there; I used to paint the middle and then shade and highlight.  I'm getting a reasonable speed but the figures look good enough for me.  It also isn't too far removed from advance techniques that I want to use on model figures.
      Now for the good stuff, what have I finished!  In keeping with my previous post I'm putting up at least pics of what I'm finishing with the goal that in 2021 I'll see a lot of progress.  So here it is!
   After about a year of sitting in my room I finally completed 11 French destroyers in 1/2400. 

Escorts forming.

Hull numbers even!

Scatter terrain, you can never have enough!!!!  These are a mix of Crooked Dice, Mantic, reaper, Scotia, Things from the Basement, and some others.

Vendor stalls for the villagers

Goodies for the underground lab of evil!

Is it wrong to have pews near a gallows?

A Eureka boat I had sitting around.

I did complete a lot of vehicles including a truck & trailer from Puppet's War, a Bolt Action KV1, more gaslands cars and a repainted GZG 25mm vehicle.

A really nice model with good crisp detail.

Probably my last KV since I now have 2.

Figures and figures by the dozen.  I don't remember the final tally but it was a good amount.

Foundry and Old Glory African Natives

Old Glory porters

More GW minis for my buddy Duane.

RPG minis, some pretty old school.

More SpecOps from The Assault Group

Foundry minis for Darkest Africa

I can't leave out buildings, that's my thing!  I completed a Charlie Foxtrot Russian farm and an Acheson dark age house.

CF models go together very nicely.

Each floor and roof removable.

Nice resin piece for my vikings.

     The total that I completed is:
7 Dark Africa/Pulp
7 Dark Africa casualties
44 Dark Africa tribesmen
14 Dark Africa porters
10 GW oldhammer minis for my bud Duane.
3 Vietnam minis
14 miscellaneous RPG minis
4 market stalls from Mantic
31 pieces of sci-fi scatter terrain
1 tractor and trailer for sci-fi
1 sci fi apc
1 kv1
2 houses
4 gaslands cars
11 pieces of medieval/modern scatter.

Painting Challenge 2020

Another year of painting

     I took part in another monthly painting challenge with fellow gamers.  It's a way to get us motivated to get stuff done and encourage the others.  Anything is game and any stage of completeness is fine.  This month of January I focused on finishing stuff taking up painting room space along with pushing on with mini painting.  Here's what I got done (all 28mm this time):
Orthodox church
2 middle eastern houses
4 watch towers from the Wild Geese kick starter
Minis:
      2 Inuits
      6 goblins
      4 African tribesmen
      4 vikings
      2 warthogs
      1 beaver
      1 dinosaur
      2 rpg figures for D&D
      10 Syrians
      10 GW fantasy minis for a friend.

     For February I'm looking at a Russian house, the terminal from the Wild Geese set, more Syrians and African tribesmen.  More GW figures for my buddy will be in the mix and maybe some Gaslands cars.  Even if there's no challenge for February I still plan on getting through these at least.  I'm still managing to avoid making game purchases, and that's OK.  There are still a lot of minis I'd love to get but the idea of clearing a tote worth of minis is starting to become more appealing than adding another tote to the pile. 
    My next update will be an exploration of DIY grass tufts, and they are self-adhesive!

2020: The year of living without deliveries

Now that's a pile!

     The year 2019 ended with me searching through my lead/plastic/resin/mdf pile in search of parts of a project that has pushed it's way to the front of my mind (1/600 pt boats, fyi).  Searching leads to organizing which leads to the fish to the face: I have A LOT of stuff!  Stuff is being polite.  I like to store my unfinished inventory in plastic totes and I'm up to eight of them now, one is just mdf terrain and 2 ships that have to be built.  This isn't counting three totes of bits and pieces that I plan on using for scratchbuilding, the "junk pile".  So the big fish that hit me in the face is that I shouldn't be buying anything, at least until I get this stuff painted, and even then I'll probably not live long enough to get it painted.  Add to this my model kit hobby and playing 5E D&D and I have quite a collection built up of things to fill my free time.
    There are a lot of reasons why I've ended up with a large closet worth of stuff and almost any wargamer or model builder can relate to how it gets to this stage.  At least now that I've recognized the problem it's the first step to healing, right?  I've made it through the end-of-year sales and various tempting emails that come in with a discount code. In an effort to start reducing this pile I'm going to try a strategy that I haven't used in the past: finishing one type of mini before starting on something else.  I'm a painting magpie so I have lots of opened bags and various minis laying around, all in various stages of completion.  I'll still have some odds and ends on my desk but I'm going to make an effort to eliminate groups of minis, first up Mongrel 1980s Syrians.  I picked those up years ago and it's a big enough group that I feel like I'm doing something but not so big that it will take a year or more to complete, unlike my darkest africa stuff.  I'm still painting a friend's GW collection on top of this, about 200 minis.  Buildings and vehicles are a separate category.  For those I'll be finishing one before starting on another, not normal for me.  I have four 28mm watchtowers nearly done and I'm going to do the final weathering on a Puppet's War tractor trailer.
     To get this herculean task complete I plan on posting updates as I get stuff done.  Very little has been completed for 2020 but here's a shot of what's "close" to getting done.

Waiting for nature to take it's course.

     The towers and figures have been painted and my brown house paint has been applied for the base.  When I get enough done, usually a full cookie sheet, I take a day to do all the grass work, so I'm about halfway there.

Finally something is done!

     I did manage to finish Mantic 28mm plastic walls that took a lot longer than they should have.  The Mantic terrain crates are really nice but some of the pieces are bent and I had my first experience using boiling water to straighten them and it worked nicely.  I play skirmish games normally so things like walls are always in demand and these are nice modular pieces.  I still have random things on my desk, minis, a 25mm GZG vehicle I'm jazzing up, repairing the roof of a 28mm Armorcast building, and some 1/300 Skuas.

     So here's to 2020 being the year when I clean out a tote and hopefully more!

The end of the year udpate

Other work from the year:

      Finally an update!! Distractions are the name of the game and besides other stuff I also build scale models, usually plastic.  The Armorama site has campaigns that I participate in, mostly to get me building from my stash of kits.  These are themed builds with a start and stop date along with a ribbon that is added to your profile if you finish in time.  I've done 7 so far and one of them was a WWI theme open to air, sea, and land models so I chose the ICM WWI Russian Infantry set in 1/35 scale.

     The figures went together pretty easily but the gear needed to be dry-fitted as the molding included spaces for the gear to lay in.  The bolts (really the top of the bolt assembly) of the rifles was a separate piece!  Very fragile and not very long.  The kit comes with A LOT of extra gear and weapons and included is a sheet listing what each piece is, kind of like a box of chocolates.  I'll speed to the end and give some finished pics.

     We also had a year long campaign for the SWAMPS model group that meets in south Milwaukee.  last year's build (September-August) was the new Tamiya Stuart tank in 1/35 scale.  As is usual with Tamiya kits it went together very easily and the detail was top notch.  I chose to go with the Russian tank driver and follow markings I found in one of the many eastern front books I have.  These are all the completed kits for the group.  I tried out some of the new weather techniques that are popping up (filters, modulation, etc). 

     I started trying my hand at making grass tufts for both minis and models and the early results are promising.  I just need to try out floor adhesive and some different blends before I make a large pile of them.

     Some more medieval minis came in to reinforce my growing army, a successful Kickstarter!

    The plan for 2020 is to continue chugging through my lead pile without adding to it!  So far it's been a month of resistance and it's a start, since I have enough minis for all the projects I want to do.  The level of detail new miniatures have make it hard not to pick up really nice figures even though I have the same type, but not quality, already paid for and sitting in a box.  I'm going to start painting up my 6mm BAOR/USSR forces and get more terrain done for that.  One of the two black friday deals I took in was for Cold War Commander in hardcopy.  Between that, Mein Panzer, and Fistful of Tows 3 I should have something that works.  Purchased MDF buildings and ships need to be completed.  On to 2020!

A new nation is born!

Lbotu welcomes you!

     We are pleased to announce the birth of a new nation to in the African coninent, Lbotu!  As many miniature gamers know, it's sometimes easier to create your own country or countries than using an existing place with its people and institutions.  I can't get the drive to create one for my SYW Russians but for moderns, it's been floating around as an idea for a while.  I finally got down to business and, using AK47 1st ed. for the method, I creaed Lbotu as the home for my 1970-2017 games.  It's probably a mix of movie nostalgia and current issues that make it ripe for gaming ideas.  I plan on providing some background on the people, places, and things that make Lbotu a country of contrasts.  Mercenaries, guerillas, aid workers, well wishers, and business interests all swim around the cities and countryside, sometimes creating exciting reactions.  Some of the rulesets that I'll be using for games in Lbotu include Spectre Operations, At Close Quarters, Black Ops, Skirmish Sangin, and Dogs of War.  I hope to avoid reactions to games set in actual locations to avoid political and personal sensitivities that fellow gamers might have.  As an imagi-nation nobody's relative has seen service there and it's not in the news.  As a pretend place, I'm not making light of the difficulties that happen in that area of the world.  If anything it would be interesting to see more research done on the state of African affairs and ways to alleviate problems.  All commentary, news, reports from the field, and other material is a creation of my imagination and in no way represents any real people.

 Background:   Lbotu (el-bow-tu) was founded as a Belgian colony in 1630 as a friendly port on the western side of Africa for it's traders.  The coastal area was soon developed by European business interests, resulting in the cities of Elenville and Brudes, both on the coast and at the mouth of rivers.  The inland areas became sources of goods through farming, mining, and timber.  The harsh measures used to rule the Congo Free State didn't materialize in Lbotu, mostly due to the amount of foreigners doing business and residing in the country.  After the Treaty of Versailles Belgium ceded Lbotu to the British to run.  The constant mixing of nationalities, religions, and cultures created a system of "controlled chaos" in which it was easier for all involved to be accepting of each other because the alternative would be too costly (costly = trade).  Because of the open nature of Lbotu Britain was able to run Lbotu with a minimum of oversight and force.
     In 1964 independence was granted as Britain started to disassemble it's colonial empire and calls for independence within Lbotu grew.  The change to local government was relatively peaceful compared to other parts of the continent and the British system of government continued with the new ruling parties.

Resources:  The natural resources of Lbotu have become an important part of the national economy as trade routes around the Cape of Good Hope became less critical for the movement of goods.  After the 1964 independence the Lbotu economy fell as support from Britain fell off and a push to maximize national resources increased.  Past environmental impact from this period, "The Uprooting" as it was known, created tensions between business and environmental forces along with friction between urban and rural dwellers.  Fifteen years of unrest, including the birth of various resistance groups, was ended at the 1985 "Tcheweya Conference" which codified environmental laws and procedures that would allow sustainable use.   While the extremes were not happy with the accord reached, it did quell the growing violence that was disrupting daily living.


More work to come........
   

In the jungle, the mighty jungle...

What lurks in the jungle?

     The gaming group I'm in is embarking on a campaign in a fictional land that is a mix of African and NW Frontier terrain and peoples.  Since I collect natives and actually have no colonial troops, I'm looking at the savannah and jungle areas of the map for my people to inhabit.  I have around 200 African native types now (no Zulu) that are a mix of Old Glory, Foundry, and North Star.  They break down into 130 spear/melee, 30 bow, and 40 musket.  I still have probably another 200 to finish so this is definitely not the final tally.  I also got the Old Glory set with the Chief, captives, servants, and even a guy in a pot, definitely a good set to add some character to your village.  Speaking of villages, I need somewhere for my chaps to inhabit.  I did buy the set of huts from Old Glory but, as a modeler, I wanted to try making them myself since I wanted a lot of them and it would be cheaper in the end to make them instead of buying all I need.  I came to the realization that I like lots of buildings, in any game where beings are.  A medieval town of 2 houses is fine but 8 would be better.  Fighting over a large Soviet village is more entertaining, especially when those buildings break up line-of-sight.  I can always go with a smaller settlement but I like to be able to go big if I want to.  Even if the structures are wood that a HMG can shoot through, they still break up the table and SMG troops become pretty valuable. 

     So how do I get a bunch of huts for a low price?  I use towels and PVC!  

4 half-way done

The pvc sections

The tools of the trade

     Here are the steps for making a hut, finished hut pics to come in the next update.  Everything done below is done with the proper safety gear and space to work.  Power tools are in use and plastic is flying around so be careful!

1.  I bought a 36" long piece of 3" pvc pipe.  You can get more or less, 3' was easy to handle compared to an 8' piece.  Through trial and error I came up with 2.75" as a good height for my hut walls and proceeded to cut the pipe into 2.75" chunks with my power miter saw.  

2.   I then marked the doorway by tracing a piece of masking tape, about 2"x1.75".  I drilled a hole in one corner and cut the doorway out with a jigsaw.  Lots of plastic dust from this,  wear eye and breathing protection.  Heated pvc is not good for you, in fume or dust form.

3.  For the roof I cut out a piece of cereal box card in a 4" circle using a circle cutter.  A cut on a radius allows it to be folded to make a shallow cone.  This was superglued to the pvc, I use Gorilla gel super glue.  

4.  The grass roof comes from an old towel and I trace various circles using items at hand (a CD, a paint dish, a yogurt lid, and a glue bottle in decending order).  When cutting fabric a pair of fabric scissors are very handy.  These circles were glued to the cardboard and then on top of each other, going from largest to smallest.  The top pic shows the "cd shape" towel glued down.  I use carpenter's glue, slightly diluted, to do this step.  This is one an item you can buy in gallon jugs from the hardware store.  If you build a lot of terrain the hardware store is going to save you a lot of money over the game or craft store.  

5.  Once all this is dry I take the diluted glue and coat the roof so that the towel fibers can be "shaped" downward to make it look more like grass.  I also painted the hut with gray anti-skid paint.  This gives an earth look without looking like someone put gravel on the walls.  It also primes the pvc for later painting.
6.  Now comes painting.  For the hut I use a medium-dark brown and the roof is painted with a yellow-beige.  The interior is painted the same as the exterior.  When the whole hut is dry I gave the roof a coat of Army Painter dip, medium.  It shows the crevices and also protects the roof.