4% of the Sand on Omaha Beach? Fragments from D-Day.

Just ran across this interesting note about the sand composition on Omaha Beach:

"University of Texas geologist Earle McBride analyzed samples from the beach...Further testing revealed the shards to be magnetic shrapnel from the Allied invasion....He and his colleagues also identified iron and glass beads formed by the intense heat of explosions. Up to 4 percent of the sand is made up of this shrapnel, the researchers report...

Edition Wars

My new favorite source of role-playing wisdom discusses the edition wars that are flaring up again after Wizards of the Coast's announcement of 5th edition development commencing. Language warning!

Piquet FAQ

I haven't mentioned it here, but the Piquet FAQ from Santa Clarita Wargamer deserves to be noticed by those with interest in the rules. He has also posted a lot of Field of Battle WW2 content lately, which I've found fairly interested. Along related lines, Brent Oman is currently developing a squad level FoB WW2 set. I'm very interested in that, as I feel more free to improvise scenarios. At this scale, just about anything could have happened. With FoB WW2 at company scale, I feel more contrained to try and follow history.  I mean , not that I actually run that many scenarios as it is...but I do have a Carentan map made up, and most of the figures ready for it.  I should really make the time to run it...

Ave Tristan, paintituri te salutant!

A big thanks to Tristan of GWpertinent for sending me a sprue of Warlord Games Celts and Praetorians by way of Mik. He must have twigged to the fact that Number One Son and I have been painting ancients, and these will be put to some good use by us. That is just supremely cool. Thanks, Tristan!! ...even if you ARE a Chelsea fan. Did you see that ludicrous display last night? The thing about Chelsea is, they always try to walk it in.



...apologies for the bastardized Latin...I actually spent like 30 minutes trying to figure out what the equivalent word for "those about to paint" would be, based on "Ave Imperator, morituri te salutant" before deciding I was just waaaaay over my head and wasting time...

A New Technique for Rivets

Whether it's giant land trains, WWI tanks or Necromunda Underhive terrain, I'm always running across people in the hobby making rivets. Micro-Mark just blasted out an e-mail with their new solution, rivet decals, which appear to work much like a water slide transfer. It appears from their picture that you get a page full of rivets, mostly in rows but a few different patterns as well, and trim them up and apply them as needed. I thought it looked like a pretty clever idea-- I wonder how well they adhere?

Best Wargames Table Ever?

The Architects of War have made me insanely jealous of their absolutely amazing table set up.

Piquet Cards

Santa Clarita Wargamer has recently written an entry on Piquet's use of cards to simulate command and control problems. It's worth reading if you're curious about Piquet.

Bugs, Mr. Rico!

One hundred of 'em! As Nick Hawkins has noted, rubber cockroaches look surprisingly effective on the table, and are extremely cheap. I finally got around to ordering 100 of them off eBay, I really have no idea what I'll do with them, maybe 5150 with Nick's modifications. They just looked too cool not to have.

International D&D Contest

I'm entering Troll in the Corner's International D&D contest.  I feel like my luck has to break soon...  My luck is so bad.  How bad is it?  My luck is so bad I just went to look at a car, and the previous test driver wrecked it!  Stay away from me, people!

Concertina Wire

Armored Ink has a nice article on building concertina wire obstacles.

New Terrain Initiation

My new Terrain Guy game mat and hills got their maiden battle Friday night. Mik has a report and pictures. I am a satisfied customer.

La Figoblogotheque

Whoa, just found la Figoblogotheque. Looks like it's basically one big centralized RSS reader for miniatures pages (in English as well as French). You've got to be able to find something interesting and new here.

Doctor Who

Some very nice miniature Doctor Who items at Grekworld. I think they're awesome, but I'm not sure I'd enjoy playing a miniature game with the Doctor. I mean, you can't kill him...

New Piquet Blogs

Nice to see that some new Piquet players have started blogs. Owner/author Brent Oman has started Wargames and Stuff, and author and great guy to drink with at Historicon Eric Burgess has started Din of Battle.

Happy Birthday, Mik!

Today is Mik's birthday. I have played more games with Mik than with any other human being, and he started off his birthday with a blast, as he wound down our first game of 3:16 Carnage Amongst the Stars as we passed midnight.

Ooooh MY!

Mongo's Wafflehouse is an interesting blog with lots of 15mm zombie and Super System entries...including a converted Ambiguously Gay Duo...

Wargaming in the 28mm

Just found Wargaming in the 28mm, a mainly Napoleonics blog which includes a Battle of Vimeiro scenario for my favorite rules in the world, Piquet's Field of Battle.

The Ooh Shiny Complex

I have discovered a new blog, the Ooh Shiny Complex. I liked his Tusk game report.

Modelling Tips

From the Warp has a lot of links to vehicle and armor modeling articles. Gotta be something useful in there.

Four-Color Figures Blog

Scott Pyle of Superfigs and Chaos in Cairo (and other places) fame now has a blog.