2007 In Review

So the year is nearly over and I’ve been giving some thought to what I want to do next year. Perhaps I should take a look at my goals for 2007 and see what was accomplished.

My various plans for the year were set out in a number of posts on this blog – The Vimy Project, The Game Plan 2007, and various updates.

The progress of the Vimy Project can be followed using the Vimy Label on this blog – unfortunately you then have to read the posts from bottom to top as it always shows the most recent. In a nutshell between December of 2006 and may of 2007 I modeled about two dozen German and Canadian figures, made moulds, cast about 200 of them, based and painted them, then made about 12 feet of barbed wire obstacles and four 2’x2’ custom/purpose built terrain squares roughly approximating something that looked like the 4th Canadian Division’s front at Vimy Ridge. Then I rented a car and hauled it 500km to Edmonton, Alberta, Canada for Mayday….

Around the same time I built a half dozen generic mudbick type houses that could be used everywhere from North Africa to Afghanistan and the “Back of Beyond” – these I also took to Edmonton for a Savage Worlds Pulp Adventure game I ran – which wasn’t part of any original plan – I just kind of volunteered mid-march as registration was about to open and someone else had backed out…

After Mayday I recognized the value of having a focus and a plan so I set out The Game Plan 2007. In it I outlines the events and conventions I planned on attending, the regular gaming I wanted to do from week to week, and the projects I wanted to work on. Anyway, following the same outline of the plan, here’s how things worked out:

Events and Conventions

Mayday – As I already mentioned I went. It was fun.

Fallcon – After Fallcon 2006 I wasn’t sure if I was going to go to Fallcon again. The only really good times I had during that weekend were when I was playing games with friends. A number of the events I signed up for at the conventions blew chunks – partly because of poor organization and lack of play-testing on the part of the person running it, partly because of the other people playing…

I ended up deciding to go for two main reasons. The first was I recognized the value of an absolute deadline for a project. I got the Vimy Project completed in time because I felt I had to. I wanted to take a break from the Vimy Project but, after the success of it at mayday, I was still pretty pumped about Contemptible Little Armies and some friends in Calgary seemed to be getting really interested in it. I thought I might head to Calgary and run just have a big gaming weekend and run a big CLA game just for them. Somehow I got it in my head that I could run it at Fallcon, just for them…. i.e. I had four friends that were interested in playing – if they all signed up for it on the first day of registration there would be no worries about annoying gits at the table. Maybe it would get the game some exposure and anyone interesting that stopped by the table to have a look they could try and recruit into their game….

Well, trying to cut a story that’s getting a bit long story short here… only one did sign up. Of course I didn’t fine that out until the Friday I showed up in Calgary…. Over the summer I had been doing a fair bit of play-testing and the limitations of CLA were becoming all too clear. It’s an okay game if you’re playing with friends of a like mind that have an appreciation for the era and the tactical realities of it. I had almost wanted to give up and cancel – but then figured – hey it’s just going to be cool friends at the table – nobody’s going to try anything gamey…. Ha…

I guess there were two other reasons I had wanted to go. One was modeling and casting my own figures and wanted to show them off a bit and had been thinking I might try to sell some. The other was the auction. I love getting crazy deals on cool stuff…

Whatever… I’m not going next year. I might make a trip out to Calgary for a gaming weekend with John and Will (and anyone else that can pry themselves away from whatever else they’re doing that’s so damn important….). yeah… I’ll just shut up about that now.

Hero’s Gambit – I had planned on running stuff again this year… but then didn’t. There was much discussion about this in another post (Hero’s Gambit and other things). I’ll leave it at that.

Tim’s Wargaming Weekend – didn’t happen last year, but it definitely is this year – it’s taking place 22-23-24 Feruary 2008 and more or less being amalgamated with my 4th Annual Wargaming Birthday Bash (the birthday bash is basically being extended into a whole weekend of wargaming with friends). More on that later.

Regular Gaming

Friday night wargames – for a while I was running games every Friday night. Then it was every other Friday night, then over the summer it fizzled completely – until I got ramping up the play-testing for Fallcon and wanting to try out this fancy new game I’d acquired called “Blitzkreig Commander”. After Fallcon I got games going again with a regular game night of Thursdays. I simply decided I was going to set aside the time and play a game every Thursday night – whether anyone showed up or not. If no one did – I’d play it solo. That way everyone would know that on any given Thursday evening there was a game going on at Tim’s house. No need to worry about whether it was the first and third or second and fourth or every other week… it’s EVERY WEEK – SAME TIME, SAME PLACE… Throughout the fall we mostly played Blitzkreig Commander and Cold War Commander. We took a bit of a break in December, as everyone was getting crazy busy with other things, but started again this past week and will be raging on every Thursday night in the New Year.

Savage Sunday

I had a fairly regular Sunday afternoon Savage Worlds game going on. I started the year playing pulp adventure skirmish games. Then it too became every other week. Then fizzled. Then started up again with the release of Savage Worlds: Pirates of the Spanish Main , then that fizzled… then later in the fall I got a regular weekly game going again on Saturday nights and have a pretty solid core of 3 players that have been showing up EVERY week, and another two or three that show up intermittently (well okay two that show up intermittently and another that has been threatening to show up for the last three months but has yet too…). This show no sign of slowing down so I expect it will rage on into the new year as well.

Projects

As I mentioned already I accomplished a LOT in the first couple months of the year on the Vimy Project. Here’s how the projects set out in The Game Plan 2007 (and the schedule I laer came up with in ”It’s Good to Have a Plan”) worked out…

Back of Beyond - This was the big project for the bulk of the spring, summer and fall. I set out to build four armies by Fallcon in September – White Russian, Bolshevik, Chinese and an Army of British India. Again, modeling and casting the bulk of my infantry and cavalry, and buying some officers, guns, and specialist troops I finished the White Russian, Bolshevik, and Chinese. About 300+ infantry, two-dozen cavalry, plus some guns, airplanes, characters… It was a lot. If that wasn’t crazy enough – a couple weeks before the convention I decided to rip them ALL off of the individual bases they were originally mounted on and stick them on multi-figure bases… I also re-based all the Vimy project figures and completely gave up on playing Contemptible Little Armies. When I get back to the era I’ll be playing “Great War Commander”!

East Africa - I also modeled German and British Askaris for a Great War East African Campaign – or possibly a fictional “Central African” campaign.

Pirates - As I mentioned I got terribly excited about Pirates… well... briefly… I did paint up a handful of 28mm pirates and I made a bunch of wee ships (See Tim's Shipyard)

Post-Fallcon

Around mid-july I came up with a plan for things I was going to do after Fallcon (Game Plan 07 Sep-Dec). In it I planned to work on my CLA East/Centrral African stuff, 28mm World War 2, the Great War Era Indians I had originally planned to do for Fallcon, Build all the planes I picked up to use for Canvas Eagles and “Project Rebase” - re-basing a number of my 15&20mm WW2 and modern stuff. The only stuff in this list I did was “Project Re-base”. I’m not even going to try and count haw many bases/figures I rebased from the old 30x20mm or 30x30mm bases I had been using to the new basing standards … Instead I raged ahead with some considerable focus and productivity but not so much of a sensible plan… hence the ridiculous amount of modern armour models I’ve acquired over tha last couple months… (See the Armour TO-DO List).

Around October I decided I should start taking stock of everything I have. It was to be an opportunity to show off all the stuff I have painted on my blog while at the same time… well… TAKE STOCK of what I already have and assess what I might need to finish projects I have on the go… I’m still working on the whole Taking Stock thing…

Later still in the fall I decided it was time to PURGE the 15mm stuff once and for all! I had already traded away a pile of it early in the year – collections of 15mm stuff that I hadn’t really even started painting. I held on to the 15mm DBA armies because, well I had a couple of them painted and still held onto this glimmer of hope that I might paint them up someday and run a 1066 campaign. After some serious consideration I came to the realization that I just wasn’t ever going to paint any large numbers of 15mm figures. It always seemed like a chore and that I was forcing myself to do it… Not something I want to do with my hobby time!? I DO enjoy painting 20-30mm figures! I know some people thing painting anything is a chore and I just don’t get why they selected this hobby if that’s so – but I decided to go with what works for me so the 15mm stuff started to go.

I had a bunch of 15mm modern stuff that I held onto because I figured it’s be too expensive to replace it with 20mm. Well, expensive or not, having them in 20mm would be more versatile as EVERYTHING ELSE I had that was “modern-ish” was 20mm! (and that whole don’t care to paint them thing previously mentioned…) So they were the first to go! In exchange I got a PILE of cool 20mm ww2 stuff that I might actually paint some day!

Then the 15mm DBA and HOTT stuff went… next it’ll probably be the Fallshirmjager… more on that in the New Year.

While this all this (trading, re-basing, stock taking, stockPILIING of 20mm stuff, game playing, etc) was going on through the fall I was raging ahead with painting 20mm modern stuff, and I got quite a bit done. Two battalions of modern British, three battalions of Soviet VDV, a battalion of Soviet Motor-Rifles, and a fair bit of soviet equipment, three tanks, a BMP-1, a BRDM, two American M1s, a handful of Israelis and Afghan DRA and Mujahideen, etc, etc, etc. It’s all there on the blog if you look back… In the last couple of weeks I cranked out a bunch of new 28mm fantasy figures for (Savage) skirmish gaming on Saturday night, as well as touching up and re-basing (from old square bases) other older figures, as well as a whole unit of Elves for my new 28mm Warmaster project and some 28mm Vikings to finish up a couple of units.

So despite the fact that I’m feeling a little scattered and overwhelmed by how much newly acquired (whether through trades or purchases) I have to paint… I do think I had a happy and productive year over all….

Now to work on my plan for next year… and finish stocktaking… Stay tuned – The game plan will be along shortly…

Plans for October - Taking Stock

Well as another convention approaches and another project finishes up I’ve been giving a lot of thought to “what next?” So much as to cause some distraction and slow the completion of said projects (Here I am less than three days until I head for Calgary and I’m STILL painting figures!! Well actually I’m finished painting the FIGURES, I’m just finishing up bases now….).

I had been thinking I’d like to get a regular game night going in October but now I’m thinking I’d like maybe take the month off gaming and take stock and make some long-term gaming/force building plans.

So when I get back from Fallcon next week I’m going to start taking stock (and pictures!) of all the figures I have, making a list of what I still need to paint, and what, if anything, I still need to get to finish off any forces I currently have. then I'll try and come up with some sort of outline or plan to complete said forces in something resembling an order of priority or whatever...

I’m also going to get started on some cold war forces I’ve been picking up lately – and I’m sure I’ll pick up some more at the Sentry Box when I’m in Calgary.

Maybe I’ll get a couple Blitzkreig Commander or Cold War Commander games in.

We shall see...

This Week – First Week of August 2007

A couple new toys painted up over the last couple of days…

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)

Some Darkest African tribal warriors from the Foundry . I will be using these in the fall for my Great War in Africa campaign (more on that shortly…)


Joey Stalin. An old Harlequin (now Black Tree Design) figure.


The Scotsman Without a Name. A wild west gunfighter in a kilt and bonnet! How could I pass that up!? From Crusader Miniatures. I painted his bonnet khaki as I thought I might use him as a member of a Pulp WW2 – LRDG X-patrol… or something like that…

(Amanda has gone away on vacation and taken her nice camera – so these next three were take with my old one… can you see the difference…)


A second Fledkompanie of Shutztruppe (again for the Great War in Africa campaign). The Shutztruppe and the White NCOs are my own castings, the Officer in the white hat is from Coppelstone Castings.

These are some 15mm highlanders from Minifig’s Great War line. I bought them ages ago, I think originally to make an early war (WW2) platoon for Flames of War. It suddenly occurred to me it might be fun to play some Great War games with stands and tiny figures on them – maybe Over the Top (Command Decision), or Great War Spearhead, or even CLA…? (Because having figures for any conflict in only one scale… well… that’s just not right….?!).

I was trying to decide the other day, if I were to pick up any more smallish WW1 stuff for mounting on bases such as these, should I go with 15mm or 1/72… While there is getting to be more and more 1/72 stuff available (especially from Hat Industrie) and 1/72 are definitely cheaper and… well… bigger (and thus easier to paint), the minifig line is pretty extensive and they’re pretty nice looking figures…

I should probably just make my own damn toys and stick them on bigger bases if I want to play that way… I really like the look of these though…


I decided to paint some ‘80’s/Afghan War Russians (mostly because I only have these two stands of them…) just for something different to do. These are Combat Miniatures which are currently sold by Figures, Armour, Artillery USA. This was probably in anticipation of the immanent arrival of Cold War Commander. Not that I’d be able to play much with only two stands of Russians…

Does this rock or does this suck? Should I buy a pile of 15mm Minifigs WW1 stuff or just start sticking my own 25/30mm figures on great big bases? Let me know what you think? Please feel free to leave comments below!

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

The History and Geography of Timbogo

Game Plan 07 Sep-Dec

Well… August already. So to update the plans for the rest of the year…

August – Bolsheviks! Finish the officer master, make the rest of the moulds, cast and paint by the hundreds! Try to finish up the airplanes (Chinese and Bolshevik Spads and British sopwith) and make bases for them.

For the rest of the year (Sep-Oct) I’d like to leave things a little open but have a few projects on the go to keep me somewhat focused. These will be:

CLA Africa – I want to work on a couple forces (British/Imperial and German) for a campaign in the fictional German Central African colony of Timbogo. I’m hoping John might get stoked about this and make some French colonial figures for himself to use. I’ve made German (Shutztruppe) and British (KAR) askaris already, I’d just have to cast and paint a pile more, and maybe add a unit or two of European regulars (or Indians!), European volunteer militia types (big game hunters, etc), local/tribal irregulars, and of course I’m going to have to build myself a couple of Gunboats for the battle of lake Timbo.

28mm World War 2 – I have a pile of Germans and British (mostly commandos) to finish up. I’d like to actually PLAY with these at some point too! I had an idea for an “All Quiet…” campaign involving some of these. Others will hopefully see action in Pulp skirmish games.

Project Rebase - I started re-basing a number of my 15&20mm WW2 stuff. I will continue to do this throughout the fall. Hopefully I will make use of these playing Blitzkrieg Commander, etc.

Indians – I would still like to make some Indians for CLA. They would be a very versatile force potentially seeing action in the Back of Beyond (Central Asia), Palestine, Mesopotamia, East Africa, etc.

Canvas Eagles – Get going on building/painting these piles of 1/72 Great War aircraft I have….

Pirates – Build a couple of 28mm ships and paint up some pirates, sailors and marines to crew them!

Some of this may carry on into the New Year….

July Update

According to The Plan I was supposed to have completed the following in July:

1. Finish Indians, make moulds and cast

2. Paint Bolsheviks inc. SPAD (buy some MGs, Mounted Officers for C-in-C/Staff officers, Commissars, etc.)

I haven’t even started modeling any Indians… I have a feeling my game planned for Fallcon will probably not be included a force from the Army of British India, but rather an interventionist force of Canadians (wearing Fourth Division patches…. Because they’re… well… already done..!).

I did finish off the Chinese this month (of course that was one of June’s tasks…) and I did finish modeling the Bolsheviks and started casting and painting a few (well okay I STILL haven’t fixed the arm on the Bolsheviks officers master, and I haven’t made moulds for the other two which are complete… maybe later this week…).

Here are a few of the things I’ve finished up in the last week.

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


One units worth of riflemen finished… only 7 or 8 units to go… (the commissar is from Coppelstone Castings).


One MG team/unit, again Coppelstone Castings.


Still more Coppelstone Castings; some more commissars and a Bolshevik Heroine.


The mounted version of Baron von Ungern-Sternberg (guess what? Coppelstone Castings).


I finished of a unit of French Foreign Legionnaires from Artizan Designs


Finally a famous duo from my childhood comic reading days; Tintin and Captain Haddock (the Tintin figure is from Copplestone Castings Sleuths pack from the Gangster line, The captain haddock figure is a modified SAS figure from Artizan Designs - I have to admit I got the idea for using this figure from someone else – I can’t remember where… some link posted on TMP’s forum – I actually modeled the turtle-neck however…

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

More Contemptible Little Armies Central Asian mayhem!

The Chinese

I am finally finished (well, mostly) my 1920’s Warlord Chinese army (for now…).

I have no real information about the organization of Chinese troops in this period (if there even was any sort of consistent organization) so I have styled it after a modern European brigade (I tend to think of the “units” as Battalions) of two infantry regiments – each with three battalions – plus attachments. The additional force troops include an MG company, mortar and field artillery batteries, a cavalry regiment, a unit of specialist assault troops, a battalion of White Russian mercenaries, and a unit of executioners.

In game terms, the force consists of;

1x Chinese Warlord (C-in-C)
2x Staff officers (technically, according to the army list a chinese army can only have one unless it has foreign advisors… I’m not really all that concerned about following army lists, I have two figures, and two regiments, so… I have two staff officers…)
1x Warlord’s Bodyguard (the White Russian mercenaries – 17 figures)
1x Assault Unit (10 figures – all armed with “trench brooms” – SMGs)
6x Regular Chinese Infantry (18 figures each)
1x Cavalry (12 figures)
2x HMGs (again, technically only one allowed – and I’d normally only field one – but I do own two, because at the time they were only available in packages of two…? One I painted in a grey uniform and it may be the beginnings of a second Chinese Warlord force which I would paint all in grey-green uniforms…)
1x Field Gun (unfortunately I have only one of these howitzers so they currently have to share it with the British… I just painted up a couple of my generic artillery crew as Chinese should I ever feel the urge to field an artillery piece…)
1x Mortar
1x Executioner

Here they all are:

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


Most of the rank and file infantry are my own castings as are the cavalrymen. The Horses the cavalry are on are Hinchliffe horses from the Colonial Connection. The Russians were also cast (and painted) by myself from a mould I borrowed from my friend John Bertolini (which he made from his own master…). Each unit has an officer, and indeed the entire assault unit, the MGs, the mortar, executioner, the C-in-C and staff officers are all from Coppelstone Castings. The Field Gun (shared with the Brits) is a 4.2” QF Howitzer Mk. I from Reviresco while the crew are my own models/castings.



Another view from the above.


I do also have an airplane that I haven’t quite finished it’s a Testors Spad (Which they don’t seem to have listed in their catalogue any more… lucky me I got it when I did!). I’m going to paint a Chinese dragon on the side of the fuselage as the pilots personal symbol at some point…

At some point I might like to add an armoured car and/or an FT-17 to the force as well…

I finished up a couple other figures recently as well…


The Baron Roman Nicolaus Fyodorovich von Ungern-Sternberg (from Coppelstone Castings).


The beginnings of my Bolsheviks a pair of Commissars from Coppelstone Castings (one is actually from the Bolshevik Heroines pack…).


These are a couple of John Bertolini’s Japanese he made for the Russo-Japanese war. I found them in a box I was cleaning out last week. There’s a picture of some Japanese in Siberia near the back of the Osprey book on the White Russians. The uniforms look quite similar so I thought I’d paint these up to see what they look like. I was really guessing at the colours as I have no info about Japanese uniform colours in the late teens/early twenties (the picture is, of course, black and white.. also in the picture they’re in greatcoats...).

I thought the Japanese might be an interesting interventionist force to do for the Russian Civil War - as there was quite a few of them in Siberia (far more than the Canadians, Brits and Americans...!). I won't be seriously considering this any time soon, however!

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

On Wednesday these Chinese might be seeing action! Stay tuned for complete after action report and pictures of the battle!

Momentarily Distracted, Back on Track Now!

Well everything was going okay at the beginning of the month... I was, more or less, sticking to The Plan but somewhere along the line I lost my way… It was the 25th anniversary of the Falklands that got me a bit side tracked.

Well I’m here to announce that things are back on track – though a tad behind. I did however count on this and thus the schedule worked out earlier this year was designed so that I could have some wayward moments (...or... months) and still get the projects done.

For June I was to have accomplished the following
1. Finish off any Chinese or Russians

2. Make moulds and start casting Bolsheviks

3. Start sculpting Indians inc. a new British officer figure, two Indian riflemen, one Indian Lewis-gunner, and a generic Indian crewman kneeling.

Well.. the Russians were finished long ago .

The Bolsheviks… the masters for the three infantrymen were done a few weeks back but the officer still needs work. Perhaps I will get going on the moulds for the infantry and finish up the officer when I start working on my next batch of masters.

Speaking of… the Indians. Didn’t even get started. I’ll get on that this month.

The Chinese. Not quite finished. I did base and prime the ones I had already cast a couple days ago and last night I cast up the rest I needed:

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)

I also cast up some more Russians, which I will paint up as either White Russian mercenaries in Chinese service or some dismounted Cossacks for an “elite” unit for my White Russians… I also cast up a few more Kings African Rifles and a couple British Lewis-gunners (as I don’t think I had got any really good castings of that figure before..).

Anyway, the rest of the Chinese will get based and primed tonight and I’ll start painting them tomorrow!

What I did in June:
A Pile of Falklands stuff. Samples of both sides in 15 and 20mm and a whole British Para battalion (one stand=one platoon) and a Scimitar CVRT in 15mm.

I started rebasing a pile of 15 and 20mm WW2 and modern figures.

I painted a few pirates and made some ships for my upcoming Savage Worlds: Pirates of the Spanish Main campaign .

So… July…I will:
a) Finish off the Chinese!
b) Make moulds, cast, and start painting Bolsheviks
c) Start sculpting some Indians and finish off the Bolshevik officer
d) (I will likely also paint some pirates and start building some 28mm pirate ships for some boarding action…!)

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

The long awaited report on my latest Blitzkreig Commander game with Gary and another report on a small naval action we played on Sunday using my new ships and Savage Worlds.

Latest Stuff

Here’s a couple of the latest items to roll off the work bench… Mostly raging forward with the Falklands theme of the week.

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)



This is the Scimitar CVRT from MJ Figures Falklands line. It’s a very nice kit and comes with three barrel options so you can make either the Scorpion, Scimitar, or … something else…? Scorpion 90?


The Parachute battalion for my Falklands campaign is nearing completion. I thought the infantry would be done with this latest batch… then I found out that the Para battalions at the time had three rifle companies and a PATROL company (and an HQ/Support company) So I’ll need another stand or two of infantry as well as some support weapons – MG, Mortar, and AT (Milan?). So far these, too, are all from MJ Figures. The support stuff I am thinking I will pick up from QRF (unless anyone out there knows of any other place to get 15mm modern British support weapons….?)


These are the first samples of the from MJ Figures Argentines I’ve done. There's only one pack of each of the Argnetine infantry (Infantry, and Infantry in trenches). In the Infantry pack, out of ten guys there are two (count 'em, TWO!!?) guys with some bazooka type thing and one firing a pistol, not the most useful of poses... Ah well... what are you going to do? Thank goodness I'm doing stands and not using them for a 1:1 skirmish game and trying to put together squads and platoons of guys with appropriate weapons! It'd drive me crazy!


These are from Peter Pig. The gun is the 105mm Howitzer from their Vietnam line, the crew is from their AK-47 line (“Helmeted Crew” was the name of the pack, I think…). The Peter Pig stuff is very nice, but considerably smaller than the MJ stuff (and not exactly cheap!). I’ll be using these are Argentines. They should be well enough off to the side that no one will notice. I might pick up one of the MJ Figures Howitzer and crew packs if I decide I need more.



Switching scales and conflicts… I think the figures here were from FAA..? The Jeep is from Rafm. This will be the CO stand in Blitzkreig Commander (or other games…) for my NW Europe/Late War Canadians. The markings on the Jeep, if you can make them out) are for (I hope...) the HQ of the 5th Canadian Infantry Brigade (2nd Canadian Infantry Division).


Never fear some work IS being done on the Chinese! Here are about half of them based and primed. Won’t be finished by the end of June (as originally planned) but should be done... shortly… I do have to cast up a few more as I had to discard about half the ones I had already cast. These were mostly the ones in “at ready” position; I did a crappy job making the mould and so there was just too damn much work carving them to make them look decent… so the rest will be advancing or marching… Should get on these in the next week. maybe I'll cast up the rest tomorrow night after the movie...

Coming soon on Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog:

Tim’s Naval Yard – a step by step look at how I scratch built some wee ships for high seas action in the age of sail (and PIRACY!).

Another Blitzkrieg Commander game report – Gary and I played again last night. This time British and Germans in North Africa; a British infantry batllion defends a desert pass against a combined force of German infantry and Armour!

Still More Distractions

You’d think I just didn’t want to get started on painting my Chinese….

As mentioned in the previous post about distractions I have decided to re-based all my WW2 figures (15mm AND 20mm). Not to conform, necessarily, to any particular set of rules’ basing guidelines, but for purely aesthetic reasons. Instead of doing something reasonable like waiting until I actually thought I might get around to playing a lot of WW2 games I decided to launch right into the rebasing project this week – and while I was at it I painted a few new 15mm figures as well.

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


So I started with rebasing some non-WW2 figures just to see how they look like. These are 15mm SAS from MJ Figures Falkland Islands War line.


The I raged ahead and rebased a pair of Pak36 and crews from my early war Germans…


… and then I did a platoon of DAK. On the left are a couple stands with the new basing system. Not much opportunity for adding fancy terrain or making it into a mini diorama in the desert… but at least they look a tad less crowded.


Then I started in with painting some new toys. These are some modern French from Peter Pig’s AK-47 Republic line… yeah… just don’t ask why I have these or why I chose to paint them this week…


… and finally I painted up a command team, PIAT team, and a 2” mortar team from a Battlefront British Airlanding Platoon. Now I officially have British (or CANADIAN!) Paras in three scales (15mm, 20mm, and 28mm) – what is wrong with my head!?

Oh and I also rebased about 160 Seven Years war figures…. You can see the results of this project here…

Am I mental or what? Should I get my head examined? feel free to comment below...

End of May Update: Last of the Russians and Other Distractions

Well in the last update (last week) I was pretty much done everything I had planned for May..

Well I haven’t finished the Chinese SPAD… and I didn’t prep and prime (or paint) any new Chinese infantry units…

Here’s what I did finish up

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


I did finish the Russian’s C-in-C. He’s also from West Wind Production’s Cowboy Wars line (as mentioned in the last update).


I also finished up some Big Game Hunters from Coppelstone Castings. I picked these up as they could be used both in Pulp Adventure games as well as be the base of unit of British volunteers in some sort of Great War in Africa campaign.


I am also more or less finished up the Bolshevik masters… I might do a little touching up here and there and the officer still needs an arm, etc. But they’re well on their way…


I signed up for a Board Game Geek account and wasted a lot of time cataloguing all my games. Of course going through all those games got me to thinking about playing them and I also stumbled across these half-painted RoboRally figures… So I did a bit of work on them… they’re still not quite finished… but just about…

I also haven’t done an illustration for the Hero’s Gambit poster. I pulled out my pens and realized they were all thoroughly gummed up for lack or use and realized I haven’t gotten Photoshop or Illustrator … or any sort of graphics program on my new computer… yeha, not sure how I’m going to sort that out just yet…

So.. for June. Well in the It’s Good to Have a Plan I had set out to accomplish the following things in June:

1. Finish off any Chinese or Russians

2. Make moulds and start casting Bolsheviks

3. Start sculpting Indians inc. a new British officer figure, two Indian riflemen, one Indian Lewis-gunner, and a generic Indian crewman kneeling.

Well I think I’m on track and that’s all do-able. I have no Russians to finish off so that’s one less thing. I might cast another handful of Russians, when I cast the 6 odd Chinese, I need and paint them up as White Russians in Chinese service. I’ll just add finishing off the SPAD to the “Finish off Chinese category”…

Finishing and making moulds of Bolsheviks should be no problem. Nor should getting started on Indians….

If I get ahead of myself I’ll maybe try and paint a few pirates and make a couple pirate ships.

Another "Game Plan 2007" Update...

I finished up a few more things I had planned to get done this month..

(Remember: click on picture to get a bigger version)

#1 Mounted Russian Staff Officer #1


This figure is from West Wind Productions Cowboys Wars line (ZCW-048 Russian Hunting party) He will be the staff officer of my White Russian force. The other mounted figure in the pack will be my C-in-C…. when I get him finished…

#2 Russian Snipers


Also from the same West Wind Productions pack (ZCW-048 Russian Hunting party). Technically, the list only allows for one… the other, I guess could be a russian “big game hunter” character…?

#3 THE COSSACKS!


Odd angle for this shot…? I took this shot a couple days ago as soon as the finish was dry enough to touch them…I think I was trying to adjust the camera and take the picture with my left hand while holding a squirmy wee girl in the other…. Anyway, 16 of them done. The riders are my own sculpts/castings, the horses are hinchliffe from the Colonial Connection. Before I make anymore cavalrymen I’m going to sculpt and mould my own dang horse!


Here are some of those Cossacks again I was trying out a couple of different paint schemes for Semirechensk Cossacks.

Here is my complete (for now…) White Russian force holding a review for the Tsar and his family.


There are 6 units of 18 infantry (which could alternatively be fielded as 8 units of 13..), a unit of 16 Cossack cavalry, 3 machine-gun detachments, 2 snipers, 1 aircraft, and the staff officer (currently standing in as a C-ic-C).

At some point I would like to add a bit more infantry and cavalry to this force, as well as some armour, artillery, and a unit or two of tsarist officers and/or partisans. But for now it's on to others! Next: finish the Chinese! (... then bolsheviks... then British/Indian...)

Still to do in the next week:

1. Finish painting the Chinese SPAD - Well under way. I painted the recognition stars on the wings last night. I had this crazy idea that I’d paint a Chinese Dragon on the fuselage as a personal symbol for the pilot…. So it might not get finished until next month.

2. Prep and prime remaining Chinese (cast any that are still needed – six, I think..) and paint one battalion.

3. Finish the Bolshevik masters I am currently sculpting – did a bit of work on these today. Mostly just need a bit of finishing touches… and the officer need arms!

4. Poster for Hero’s Gambit – I actually have until the first Tuesday of June to finish this. I have an idea, I just got to sit down and start drawing!

Game Plan '07 Progress Report

Well part way through the week 1 of the new plan and here are some pictures already.

Of the things to be done this week....

1. Finish off the Russian infantry battalion I have sitting on my painting table. DONE! Here they are:

(Remember, click on pics for a bigger version)


The new battalion


The new battalion joined by the rest of the brigade for review.

I have one more battalion of Infantry to finish off the two regiments of the brigade

4. Paint three Chinese infantrymen to finish off third battalion. DONE!


Here are the three Chinese Soldiers I needed to finish off the first three battalions of Chinese.... Didn't take a picture of them of parade... maybe next time...

2. Finish painting the Chinese SPAD
3. Prep, assemble and prime the remaining Russian infantry battalion and Cossack Regiment

Still in progress. Here is a picture of the work station:


The Cossacks and their horses are in the foreground and being worked on. the final battalion of Russian Infantrymen are off to the right. In the distance you can see my Chinese SPAD and beyond them are chinese figures being marshaled for preping, basing and priming (next weeks project)

In addition the the scehduled projects I have put the finishing touches on a couple of other things that were still sitting on my workbench needing a finishind touch or two:


the new Aviatirx figure from Artizan Designs. I picked this up to use as Amanda's Savage Worlds Pulp Adventure character; Josephine Pink! (Should she ever get to play with us again....).


A Nieuport 17 in Imperial Russian service. Maybe Miss Pink will fly this someday...


I also painted a spare Russian infantryman as a White Russian mercenary in Chinese service. "The difference being...?" You might be asking yourself, well I painted the lower legs to look like putees rather than boots, painted on a armband like all my Chinese Warlord's troops have and painted the Chinese five coloured star on his hat instead of the imerial cocade.

It’s Good To Have a Plan

Game Plan 2007 Part Two: A Schedule!

Well, with that rambling out of the way I can try and break it all down into some sort of schedule. So here's what I'd like to do:

This Week

1. Finish off the Russian infantry battalion I have sitting on my painting table.
2. Finish painting the Chinese SPAD
3. Prep, assemble and prime the remaining Russian infantry battalion and Cossack Regiment
4. Paint three Chinese infantrymen to finish off third battalion

This Month (May 2007)
1. Finish painting Russian infantry and Cossack Cavalry
2. Prep and prime remaining Chinese (cast any that are still needed – six, I think..) and paint one battalion
3. Finish the Bolshevik masters I am currently sculpting
4. Finish painting Russian snipers and staff officers
5. Poster for Hero’s Gambit

Next Month (June 2007)
1. Finish off any Chinese or Russians
2. Make moulds and start casting Bolsheviks
3. Start sculpting Indians inc. a new British officer figure, two Indian riflemen, one Indian Lewis-gunner, and a generic Indian crewman kneeling.

July 2007
1. Finish Indians, make moulds and cast
2. Paint Bolsheviks inc. SPAD (buy some MGs, Mtd officers for C-in-C/Staff officers, Commissars, etc.)

August 2007
1. Paint British/Indians and Sopwith

September 2007
-Fallcon!

Other things to work on if I get ahead of myself…
Paint – pirates and sailors, remaining French Foreign Legionnaires, WW2 Germans and British Commandos, Assorted Pulp characters, 1/72 airplanes.
Build – city walls, big pirate ships, little pirate ships, flight stands, and a train station…?

Watch fo regular updates and pictures of the work I manage to get done..

The Game Plan 2007

THE GAME PLAN 2007

Well, Mayday and the Vimy game are over (for now)…. so what am I going to do for the rest of the year…

I’m going to break this down into three sections:
Conventions
Regular Gaming
Projects


CONVENTIONS

I had a great time at Mayday. I’ll definitely be going back next year.

It saddens me somewhat that I have to spend a couple hundred dollars and travel 600km to get in a couple good games over a weekend. But I guess that’s the way it is. Conventions also give me a very tangible deadline for the completion of projects. So I’m going to keep going to them. I’d like to go to more, maybe some bigger ones out east down in the states – anybody out there got any recommendations?

Fallcon, Calgary, AB

I had a pretty good time at Fallcon last year too so I think I’ll be going back to that again this year. This year I think I’d like to run a couple games:

One would be a Contemptible Little Armies game set in the Back of Beyond. The scenario I have in mind would be set in China in the early 1920's and involve a walled city that four separate armies (White Russian, Bolshevik, British/Indian, and Chinese Warlord - plus the defenders of the city makes five, I guess) are trying to take or loot, or prevent others from taking or looting, for their own personal reasons, perhaps with some sub-plots/alternate victory conditions for each.

The other would be a Savage Worlds skirmish game. This would probably be a Pulp Adventure game of some sort like I’ve been running a lot of lately. I’d like to say I’d do a Pirates game but, while I AM a highly productive hobbyist, I wouldn’t want to saddle myself with completing two big projects by then…

Hero’s Gambit, Saskatoon, SK

Last year was a LOT of work getting all the games ready and brow-beating people into showing up to play them and/or run a couple…and for what? I got in a couple of games over a weekend, mostly with guys that I could game with anytime (with the exception of John and Chris – who both made out for a game or two). They were all great games, but I was EXHAUSTED by the end of the weekend!

I’m thinking maybe I’ll just do stuff Friday night and Saturday only… Four games, I could run two and I’ll get someone else to run two. For myself I’ll, again, probably run a Savage Worlds skirmish game of some sort and a Contemptible Little Armies game. The Contemptible Little Armies game would probably be based on one of the Canadians attacks at Passchendale. The Savage Worlds… well we’ll see where I’m at when the event submission deadline comes up at the end of July. It could be a Pulp Adventure or maybe It’ll be a Pirates of the Spanish Main tabeltop adventure!


Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Campaign Weekend

I’d also like to start an annual (or semi-annual?!) wargaming campaign weekend. This would be like a mini-convention were we get together and play games all weekend long, except all the games would be part of a single campaign. Ideally it could potentially involve a number of people and have some aspect of strategic and/or political maneuvering with the enemy and even friction between commanders on the same side. For the tabletop aspect I imagine I would provide all the armies, terrain, etc. needed and use rules that are familiar to all or quite simple and easy to pick up. Hopefully this would all be cool enough to draw friends new and old, local or out-of-towners to my place for a weekend of miniature wargaming madness.

I have a couple ideas for potential campaigns so far; a Contemptible Little Armies/Back of Beyond Campaign and a DBA 1066 campaign. Both are detailed a bit more below. Of course I’m open to other suggestions….

"Race for Kashgar" CLA/Back of Beyond weekend –

Well as I mentioned I should have four armies by Fallcon and could potentially accommodate up to six armies (requiring three tables; one in the war room, two in the garage - which will be heated by next fall!). So two others could bring their own armies.

So far I’m thinking this would probably be something very similar to the campaign in the book. All the armies (and characters…?) would start at a set number of abstract “steps” from Kashgar; their ultimate goal (maybe four steps, rather than the TEN or so suggested in the book for an ongoing campaign). I’d probably have to spice it up with some sub-plots and what not…

I could also allow players to play “characters” and thus accommodate a few more players – though I’d have to come up with some more interesting characters than those in the book so they’d have a bit more to DO! Some more important way of affecting the tabletop battles and a ways to actively participate in them.

I imagine there’d be 6 games: Friday Night, Saturday Morning, Saturday Afternoon, Saturday Night, Sunday Morning, Sunday Afternoon. There is a mechanism in the Campaign system whereby you can send your army on a forced march and not participate in one game if anyone wanted to give one of the slots a miss.

Closest army/character to Kashgar at the end of Sunday afternoon is the winnah! Perhaps if two armies were equidistant from the city (or AT the city) they could fight each other to see who gets into Kashgar first – which would be a walled city defended by a small force of Chinese… Maybe if somebody rocked their first couple of games and got to Kashgar well before the final games they could have to try and hold it against other armies that arrive later…?

I’m not sure when I would run it just yet though. Would long weekends be best or not long weekends (because people do things with family on long-weekends)? Thanksgiving weekend? labour day? If it’s not on a long weekend anyone coming from out of town would have to take one or more days off… well It would be like a vacation – well it would be for me! – and that’s what vacation days are for, right?!

Ideally late August/early September would be grand. That would be about half a year from my birthday – which is when I would hold another one (if I wanted to do this semi-annually – turn my annual Wargaming Birthday Bash into a Wargaming Birthday Bash WEEEKEND!). Later in September is Fallcon. The weekend after thanksgiving is Hero’s Gambit.

I’m thinking I might charge an entry fee. Not to make money or anything, mostly to buy some fun prizes for something or other. It would also be a sneaky way of forcing people to make some sort of tangible commitment to coming. I find that things one has to sign up for but are free are much easier to simply not show up to than things that you’ve actually paid something for, even if it is just five or ten dollars…

DBA 1066 Campaign

This is one I’ve been wanting to do for years. I have all the armies in 15mm (Anglo-Danish, Normans, Welsh, Irish, Scotts and Vikings – I also think I have enough for a second West Frankish and maybe a second Viking…). I’d just have to finish painting a few of them. The campaign would be very simple and more or less based on the one presented in the book – with a few tweaks.


REGULAR GAMIN’

Savage Sundays
I’d like to have some regular Savage Worlds games run on Sunday afternoons. This will probably end up being every second Sunday or the first and third, etc. The alternate Sundays would be “hobby days” were I can get some painting and sculpting and terrain building in.

As long as I’m still running 20s/30s pulp adventure games I might work some CLA into the Sunday games. I’ve been thinking of using it as a even faster, more furious, and still fun way of resolving mass combats for Savage Worlds set in the early twentieth century.

Pirates of the Spanish Main
has shipped to distributors, however, and should be here within a week or two. I may just have to run some Savaged Pirate games… I’ve also recently watched the Deadwood series and that’s given me a hankerin to murder some little metal c@ck-s*ckers… maybe Deadlands: Reloaded
-style

Friday Night Wargames
I’d like to revive the Friday Night Wargames. Part of me wants to just run a game every Friday night. If you run it, they will come, right….? The sensible part of me thinks I should just run a game once a month – others can run games on the other Fridays…? Or maybe the Friday’s would be “hobby nights”.


PROJECTS

I do like to try and stay focused on one (maybe two..) projects at a time as I am way more productive that way. I don’t find it easy all the time, as I am so interested in so many things. For the balance of this year I’d like to stick with the early twentieth century and the Contemptible Little Armies rules but shift my focus a bit to the east and into the years following the Great War – The Back of Beyond.

I have three armies well on their way, and a couple others started. The four I will be focusing on for the next couple months to try and finish up – or at least finish up enough for some big convention/campaign games. These armies are: White Russian, Bolsheviks, Chinese Warlord, and British/Indian.

Here’s what I’m thinking my initial CLA/BoB Armies will consist of:

White Russians

6 Units of Regular Infantry (with bombs) 18 men each (I have 4 units complete, one in progress on the painting table and a sixth cast waiting on deck – in a small box very near the painting table - the rank and file are cast by myself using a mould made by my friend John Bertolini, the officers, so far, are from Coppelstone Castings others will be made by converting some of my own officer figures)

1 Units of Cossak Cavalry 16 men (I have the cavalrymen cast and the horses – from Hinchliffe)

2 HMGs (DONE!! one Coppelstone and two Old Glory – I have extras!)

1 Sniper (primed and on the painting desk – Westwind)

Mtd Staff Officer (again…primed and on the painting desk – Westwind)

1 Aircraft: a Nieuport 17 (just finished painting needs spray finish and a flight stand!)

Other options I’d like to add in the future include.... Armoured Cars or Tanks, British Allies(!? Well I have british – I could include them at any time…), unit of Officer Volunteers (might get some pretty Coppelstone figures for this – just to make them stand out from the rest of the rabble), Field Gun(s)(either Battle Honours or just buy another Reviresco british 4.5 inch QF howitzer and use my own generic gunners), Off table artillery

Chinese Warlord

1 Assault unit: 10 with Bergman SMG ("trench broom") + 1 officer with "carbine" (DONE! - all Coppelstone Castings)

6 Regular Chinese infantry units (a brigade or two regiments, each containing 3 battalions): 18 each (17 of my infantrymen + one officer either Coppelstone or my own converted from … something else.. my German officer perhaps?) ( I have half of these units complete and enough cast for the rest… I think…)

1 Cavalry unit: 13 Regular Chinese Cavalry (DONE! - 12 of my own cavalrymen with horses from Hinchliffe and a Coppelstone officer)

1 HMG 56pts – (DONE! -Coppelstone)

1 Trench Mortar 28 points - DONE! (Coppelstone)

1 Mounted Staff officer 60pts - DONE! (Coppelstone)

1 Airplane: 1/48 French Spad (assembled and in the process of being painted – need to make a flight stand.. he kit is from Testors)

1 Executioner (DONE! - Coppelstone)

So all I really need to do is finish that plane and paint up three more units of infantrymen.

Other options I’d like to add in the future include.... an FT-17 tank, Dare-to-Die fanatics (they look fun) and/or White Russian Mercenaries (I could always use the whites I own if someone else actually showed up with their own damn army), an Armoured car.... MORE CAVALRY(when I get around to modeling a horse of my own)!!!

British/India

2 Units of British Infantry: 16 men, 15 marksmen + 1 LMG (I have two units of British infantrymen completed – they’re of an older homemade figure and only 13 per unit – I have since remastered my British infantry in tropical dress and so I’ll just cast and paint up two fresh units at some point…)

2 Units of Indian Infantry: 16 men, 15 regulars + 1 LMG (These I still need to model – a project for this summer!)

1 HMG (DONE! Battle Honours – I have a second crew on the move primed…)

1 Rolls-Royce Armoured Car (DONE! Coppelstone)

1 Aircraft: Sopwith Camel (needs to be assembled and painted – 1:48 Testors kit)

Other options I’d like to add in the future include.... a higher ratio of Indian Infantry, CAVALRY!!!! Sniper, Aritllery….

Bolsheviks

I haven’t quite figured out what I’m going to do for these just yet. To start with it will be a pretty infantry heavy army. Like maybe 9 units! I am just about finished four Bolshevik masters (officer, 2 riflemen, lewis-gunner – all in budonovka and great coats) I’d like to add some HMGs (probably Old Glory WW1 Russian HMG teams in winter dress), commisars (Coppelstone), a sniper(?), and a field gun (again either Battle Honours or Reviresco gun with my own crew). I also have an extra 1:48 SPAD that I thought I’d paint up with Bolshevik markings. I’ll add cavalry at some point in the future (when I get around to sculpting my own horse!)


Other projects to work on…

Pirates

As mentioned before, with the Pirates of the Spanish Main book coming out I’m sure I will be picking it up and at some point running some pirate games on Savage Sunday’s
I actually have quite a few pirates already; some are painted, most are not.

Most of the painted ones are my old Mordhiem Pirate warband: the all-woman crew of the Red Snapper. I have quite a few old RAFM jack Tar sailor and marines and a few Wargames Foundry cutthroats. I’d have a bit of painting to finish them all up.

The bigger part of the project would be making a few ships! I’d like to make a number of small scale vessels for strategic ship battles and a couple of bigger scale ships to use with my 28mm figures for boarding actions and the like.

The small ships would be simple and stylized and carved or cut out of wood or MDF with round toothpicks for masts. I just can’t bring myself to buy into a collectable card game or play with cardboard ships….

The bigger ship would also be scratch build jobbies of scrap wood and/or MDF, with doweling for masts, string for rigging and old fabric from worn out shirts and the like for sails.

Wild West (or deadlands weird wild west…?)
All I’d have to do for this is make a couple of simple buildings and finish up a few figures. I have a fair number of old west figures from waaaaaaaay back. I recently rebased them for a game I ran last fall.

Pulp Adventure/WW2

I’m pretty happy with what I’ve got right now. I have a load of figures to paint up – I know there’s some zeppelin crew, and other odd assorted figures purchased over the last year of so. Mostly I’d like to build some more props and sets – furniture for my buildings, some more buildings (a mansion, a hangar, maybe some modern – as in 1920s modern – urban buildings…?) a zeppelin, maybe some other Airships,


East (Central?) Africa

Got kind of stoked about this… well I still am… but it’s probably going to have to wait. I have modeled a King’s African Rifles figure and a German East African Shutztruppe Askari figure and cast and painted up a unit of each. I’d need to do loads more though. It might be a next year project in the end.

Canvas Eagles

I bought a pile of 1/72 Great War airplanes last December. I was totally stoked about setting up for running some Canvas Eagles games. I still am but other things seem to have taken priority.

So far I have painted up an old SPAD I have picked up, assembled and primed years ago. I’ve also made a flight stand or two and printed of the rules. I have a dozen planes to build and paint. I also have to make some more flight stands and a hex map sheet to play on.

DBsA(Damn Battleships Again)

I’ve had a hankering to do some naval wargaming – something slightly more modern than age of sail – but not so modern that turns take hours to play out seconds due to the complexity of what’s going on. Since I’m interested in the Great War on land (CLA) and in the air (Canvas Eagles) – playing the Great War era at sea seems an obvious choice. I had looked at Phill Barker’s set of simple Pre-dreadnaught naval rules DBsA. Not knowing anything about naval warfare, period, let alone anything specific about Great War ships I felt a little daunted by not having a clue which of the RNs “cruisers” in the Public Library’s copy of Jane’s fell into Phil’s neat little categorys of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd class cruisers…. I have since returned to the rules with the thought; “who cares?!” I’m just going to make my own little, very generic looking, ships. One for each class in the game. All 1st class ships from all nations will look identical – to tell them apart I will make wee flags and maybe mark a name on the base – not necessarily an historical name either…!

This project really is in it’s infancy as I have not even read all the way through the rules or begun to design, let alone BUILD, any ships. But it’d be nice to do someday… maybe it should have been in the next category or projects…


SOMEDAY PROJECTS...

Then there are the “Someday Projects” – stuff that I have figures for but don’t really have a desire to play much right now and therefore they are not priorities… but I’d still like to get to them someday…

Zombies

Having read Patrick Smyrl’s Solo Zombie Mini-Campaign and seeing 28 Days Later shorly thereafter I got really stoked about doing some zombie gaming… that’s been moved to the back burner for now though I’m sure it will resurface someday…

DBA

I have most of the armies for a 1066 campaign. The Vikings and Anglo-Danish are painted, the rest are not.

I also have a pile of old 25mm RAFM “Successor” figures that one day I’d like to paint up and use for DBA

I also have a few 15mm fantasy armies for Hordes of the Things that I could finish painting up…. And I also just bought a pile of 28mm elves I thought I’d paint and base up for Hordes – because having them in one scale just isn’t enough…. Hey they were a killer deal! 75% off!? I couldn’t even cast them for that cheap!

Warhammer Ancient Battles

Because having it in one scale isn’t enough… I have piles of Vikings, Saxons, Scotts and Irish…. Some painted, many not. I have plenty enough of the first two for WAB armies. If I did a generic Dark Age spear men I could finish out the other two with those… I have this silly idea that I’d base enough of them on 60mm wide bases so I cold also potentially use them for DBA…

Flames of War

I still have loads of stuff to paint for FoW and no desire to play let alone paint them… I have enough desert rat infantry for a second company, a full Fallschirmjager Company, piles of early war german tanks and trucks and horse carts and limbers to finish up, the Trucks for my LRDG patrol , and a dozen tanks for my DAK (6 Pzr III, 6 Pzr II)

AK-47 (20mm)

I have two armies painted and ready to go. I also have enough metal figures for two or three more armies…. Wish I had the time… but I don’t…

20mm WW2

Loads of them kicking around, no desire to paint. Not sure what I’m going to use them for either. Originally they were singly based, most have been rebased for Crossfire. But as that’s fallen out of favor… maybe I should jsut try to sell it...

20mm Vietnam

I have an entire battalion of US infantry (three stands = one platoon) and about half as many VC. I have a pile more VC/NVA to paint. I’ve used them for a crossfire-ish game, but haven’t played since Hero’s Gambit 2005.

28mm Vietnam

I have all of my Americans and most of the VC painted (a full-strength platoon+ of each). I have enough terrain for a good game. What I have yet to do is a platoon of NVA/PAVN and some VC or NVA support weapons… I also have an American tank and APC in varying stages of being painted…

Micro-sci-fi

I have Dirtside II. Haven’t played it in YEARS. Don’t remember much about it but I have some hazy memories of it being a fun game that I’d like to try again someday. Hopefully absence hasn’t made the heart grow fonder – I just bought a bunch of old battletech stuff from a 75% off bargain bin hoping that I might get around to painting and using them someday…

28mm Sci-fi and Super-heroes

I did pick up the Savage Worlds Sci-fi toolkits. Then I bought an odd assortment of Void from the aforementioned 75% off bargain bin… so I really ought to paint those up someday and roll some Savage Sci-fi into the mix on Savage Sundays.. I’m sure there’s also some Superfigs still kicking around needing to be painted…

Seven Year War 25mm

Playing Bob’s Germantown game last weekend has got me kind of interested in trying his Two for Tea rules with some of these old 25mm SYW figures I have. I might want to rebase some, and I have a couple regiments of both British and French that need finishing…

All right that’s enough for now… dang if anyone actually reads through all of this I’ll be amazed… You deserve a medal… I don’t have any medals to give out so post a comment below and I’ll give you two extra bennies next time we play Savage Worlds or something… Cheers!