Water, water everywhere

A while ago (3-4 months) I walked into a local fabric shop and found a nice blue faux leather on sale. It was what I was looking for but I really was not expecting to find it so easily. Kind of disappointing I so enjoy the hunt. I requested a 9' long amount (it was 54" wide) and I figured that should do well enough even if it was going to leave a border on both long edges. I figured, a place for unit cards etc.

A 3" border, not too bad I guess

It was only after I got home that I started thinking about what I bought and what I should have done. My wargame table (really a ping pong table) is 5' by 9'. I belatedly realized/thought through what I was doing and realized I really needed a sheet that was 10' long or even two sheets 5' long each. It would allow me to completely cover the gaming table.  However I was not prepared to buy another sheet as this was supposed to be a quick cheap fix! So all I could do was hope that a little extra had been left on, that maybe the sheet would be close to 10' . However my gaming table was a little crowded (see other posts) and I could not stretch out the material to properly measure it.

Now the AHPC is over, and I have had a chance to clean up my gaming table.

A rare sight, the table with nothing on it!

So today I was finally able to spread out the sheet, and lo and behold they gave me a sheet that is 126" long. By my math that means I can cut it in half and have two sheets that are 54" by 63" giving me a small overlap along the long edge of the table. It also means I can use one on my secondary gaming table (1/2 a ping pong table) Oh joy oh bliss oh lucky horse shoe buried up my....

So here is the sheet with some models on it. I do kind of like the light blue colour, not to bright not to dark. I had thought about staining it to give variable patches of blue, but I may just leave it for now. Any thoughts?

All my painting challenge stuff (& a cleaner gaming room too!)

 

 

 Everything laid out from the challenge, does come close to filling up a ping pong table. I was also able to tackle the disaster that was my room, still stuff to be done but at least I can easily move around now.

The items on display have now, finally all been put away in their proper place. My gaming table is once again ready for gaming, but when and what shall we play?

4Ground Fort

 As promised, a crappy video about the 4Ground fort (soon to be OOP?)

 

 It does not have full flexibility to rearrange the fort, pretty well one layout, which is fine by me.

Life after the challenge

 😧

So, today is the second day after the end of the Analogue Hobby Painting Challenge, I am therefore into my second day of withdrawal. For three months I have been living and breathing the challenge. If I wasn't painting I was prepping stuff to paint, if I wasn't prepping I was planning & thinking about painting. However, for the last two days I have not painted anything & for the last two nights I have woken up in the middle of the night thinking that I am running out of time to get stuff painted! When sleeping I dream that I am painting. I think it is a sign...!

So, throughout the challenge I was under a self induced pressure to produce. Whenever I was in my gaming room, I was there to paint and occasionally build stuff to paint. If something fell and I did not need it for whatever I was working on, then it would lie where it landed. If I was done with something it would be tossed aside to be picked up some time later. Worst was the styrofoam carving, for the most part it too just remain as ground cover to be tracked through the house. (boy does it cling)

Overall I was just too busy painting to be bothered to clean up my messes. It created an interesting obstacle course for me and anyone else foolish enough to dare enter my room. It provided a nice test of flexibility and spatial awareness as I pretzeled my way through my room being careful not to step on anything! It was like those movies where the spy has to avoid a laser grid to get to the treasure. 

I also had the challenge of finding places to put finished items, or space to work on new projects. Case in point, the mountain project required a lot of shifting and a lot of piling of stuff onto stuff into a teetering pile. The apocalyptic city board covered up my RPG stuff and forced my computer into another room.

Here is a video that reveals the horrible state of my room the day after the challenge ended. Be warned, it is not a pretty site...

Today is Tuesday and for two days now I have been working on my room in an attempt to reclaim it from the devastation that I wrought upon it. It is of course slow going, but I am channeling the energy that I devoted to the challenge into the challenge of cleaning my room.

Stay tuned for an update...ooh will he clean it or will he fester and wallow in his own wreckage?

So, this is what I have to show after 8 posts to the Analogue painting challenge.

 

This is roughly 435 items that have been painted since the start of the challenge back on December 21 2021. 

It's good to be retired.

I wonder why I sometimes can't find things in my gaming room...

 

Actually, I wonder how I ever find anything!

So, my desk and room are never the neatest, but after 5 weeks of the painting challenge my room has massively deteriorated. Every week I am in a mad rush to get stuff painted, based, flocked, photographed, upload to the blog and words added to describe what I have done. Four out of five posts have gone right to the deadline on Tuesday, before 6 pm. The minion that oversees my posting day lives in England, and given the 5 hour difference I try,  to get my stuff up early so that she does not have to stay up too late. As a result I just keep plugging away at that weeks projects letting other things lie where they drop, literally! 

Outpost fort 4ground

 

So, this arrived sometime before Christmas and was quick;y assembled.  It was an easy build, and despite coming from 4ground will require additional painting, and 'sanding'. While it has some texture on it and some colour it is less than what one normally see from a 4ground product. Now to be fair it is a line of products sold through 4ground so is different. What is also different is it comes with several packs of powder that one is expected to apply to the surface of the model.  

Oh how I look forward to that!

However this project is on the back burner for now as I continue to work on the Analogue challenge. Then again,  it would be worth 80 points...

 

 

 

Analogue challenge update March 16th

So far so good!

This challenge has really got me painting stuff, maybe not so well but certainly quicker than I normally do, and are, at least, tabletop ready.  Four weeks in and I have almost equaled my entire output for all of last year. Further more I am, mostly, enjoying it. I say mostly as there have been late night sessions to push myself to finish off stuff before the posting deadline of Tuesday, so those moments maybe are not the best times. However even the pressure and the late nights ultimately leave me elated as I see the results!

My gaming room is a disaster zone as I keep pulling out more and more stuff to potentially paint. At the start of this event I had laid out a selection of miniatures that I hoped to tackle, however this has not entirely worked out as planned. While I have worked on some of this stuff, I have pulled out far more items covering a wide selection of genres. Right now on my table [Friday January 21st] are at least 100 figures, while surrounding my work area are maybe another 100 or so figures. 

All these figures are in various stages of completion, which is normal for me. Sometime between now and Sunday night I will have to narrow down my focus to what can be done for Monday/Tuesday. My target day is to have stuff done for Monday night, my actual deadline is Monday before 6pm (at the latest) As I said I have quite a few items nearing completion so I hope to have another good 300+ posting. 

Amazingly I am currently sitting with the most points, but it is a staggered event, with posting dates throughout the week so it is a very ephemeral thing and not a focus of mine. What I really want to do in this challenge is not only to paint as much stuff as I can but to also establish a painting habit that I can maintain after the challenge is completed.  

Stuff in the pipeline:

1. 70 points 14 Women's naval unit
2. 180 points 4 islands with 17 add on buildings
3. 80 points 4 Dystopian wars landing barges
4. 165 points 33 Sanwar Martian warriors
5. 70 points 14 Martian female fighters
6. 85 points 17 Female Nazi she wolves
7. 135 points 27 Spy-fi Henchman 
8. 75 points 15 Super alien host figures
9. 25 points 5 super alien host figures
   
10. 100 points 20 Spy type figures
11. 25 points 5 Jack o' lantern figures
12. 80 points 4 out of 10 tanks/armoured car
13. 25 points UNIT troopers
14. 100-200 points 20-40 super figures 
15. 75 points 15 Ice warriors
16. ? points for assorted polar explorers.
17. 8 Eldar titans
18. 200 points 40 Chaos in Carpathia
    

Waterloo Solitaire Bookgame

 

 So, new year, new game, actually played!

Picked this up after Christmas on a whim with no knowledge of what to expect. Well there is not much to the game, simple rules, needs only a pencil and a single 6 sided die and you get to play either the Allied armies or the French.

The book is laid contains 24 maps, 12 with you commanding the French, and 12 where you control the allies. There are 3 levels of difficulty for each option (4 maps each) with a 'bot' controlling your opponent. As you play the game you mark off items on the map in play to keep track of what you have done in each turn. There are limitations on how many times you can command a unit to act, and units cannot act two turns in a row. Should you run out of activations for a given unit, you may still activate the unit by using your commanding general. You also have access to a limited number of combined actions that allow you to launch an attack with infantry or cavalry in the lead, and include support from whichever arm you did not use as the lead, or artillery.

Throughout the game random events may happen such as the arrival of the Prussians. When enough of them arrive they will attack the French right flank.

Bad image here, but this would be the view from the Allied side. At the bottom of the page are your command options, the small white boxes indicate the number of time that you can command the unit to activate. Each unit has a limited choice of options all related to their placement on the battlefield. You do have reserves that you can deploy to either flank and the French have the Imperial Guard who have more flexible options, but fewer troops. 

As your corps take damage you mark off one red or blue box/unit. Mark off all boxes and the Corp is eliminated. Lose two Corps and you lose the game. The elimination of enemy Corps offers new options. For the French, should they eliminate the British right flank they can then attack the British reserves. If the French attack the British right wing without first taking Hougoumont they will do so at a disadvantage. Taking Hougoumont can be done, but is not an easy thing to do, much like the actual battle. 

Overall rating

The game does not take long to play, so for me I did not have that empty feeling that I had wasted a lot of time for nothing. It is deceptively challenging, the limitations built into the game can frustrate (in a good way) your plans. A single die to roll gives you a randomness that can be frustrating (in a bad way) or maybe that is just my bitterness over a series of attacks that I launched as Napoleon that saw the French lose unit after unit without causing any damage to the British.

It certainly has re-playability, at each level, just make certain you use pencil to mark your maps. The bot worked well enough to cause me problems. I suffered from counter cavalry charges against my planned cavalry charge, and I had Wellington retire behind slopes just as I opened fire with my artillery. Certainly there were times where the bot did not stymie my plans, but the times the bot seemed to react to my moves were much more memorable and adds to my positive feeling for the game.

In closing, I enjoyed it, the game did what it was supposed to do and I had fun playing it. I am not certain it is worth the price, only time will tell if I get my moneys worth in play time but I do know I will play this again!

Updates

Wow, I got an email today telling me that Brigade games has just shipped my order today! 

Great news, a little startling considering my order was placed November 28th!!!! Not the quickest dispatch time. Oh and I almost forgot the best part, to take advantage of the maximum possible discount of 20%, everything I ordered was from the, apparently, inappropriately named "Ready to Ship" line!

On the other hand I did receive two parcels today the big one, and the one I was looking forward to, is my order from Alternative Armies. It contains a few infantry packs, but the bulk of the order is a large installation/base. It contains towers, and connecting passageways and some weapon mounts. I have already washed the parts both soap and a degreaser, and will hopefully find an opportunity to prime them tomorrow. They will then be added to my items to paint for the painting challenge.

The other parcel came from Caliver/Minifigs and contained a few minor things, but the feature item is a nice VSF submarine. It too has been washed and will see some priming  soon.

The painting challenge plan of attack!

So, as mentioned in my painting blog, I have signed up for the 12th annual Analogue painting challenge. I will be updating the painting blog with progress reports over the next 3 months. Now, the main goal of this challenge is to get stuff painted, it is not a competition per se. (at least that is how I view it) It also does not involve judging the quality of the paint job, the only judging is how many points a given project is worth. For the most part, the points per figure is pretty clear cut, but some miniatures do defy classification, or at least stretch the boundaries. For instance while certain models might have been designed for 15mm, the actual size of the miniature, say a giant robot, might well be the size of a 28mm or even 54mm figure. In those cases they are often judged at their actual size not their scale size.   So it will be interesting to see what my 1200 scale Dystopian war vehicles get rated at as they are ridiculously over size for that scale, with many being more in line with 15mm or 20mm. At some point I will review old posts to see if I can find some comparables. 

Again the point of this exercise is to tackle my ever expanding collection of unpainted lead, plastic and plastic. But, I did set a goal, and I would like to achieve that goal. To that end I plan to make use of the bonus points available for theme related entries. So far, any theme that I plan to submit figures to, involve figures that I already plan to paint, so why not take the extra points.

So the plan, there are three planetary rings surrounding a mysterious core. We get to pick our starting planet, and can then move about to adjacent planets or by painting a female character we can move to a non adjacent planet. There are also warp points that allow you to move between rings. Each themed submission gains a person 20 points. Well as I look at the options I can see a number of existing projects that would fit one or move themes. So better map out what will be for each planet.

The Outer Ring  (TBD)

Week 1 / Week 2 / Week 3 / Week 4/ Week 5 / Week 6 /   Week 7 / Week 8 / Week 9 / Week 10 / Week 11 / Week 12

 
1 Vulcan: Something Logical; Pointy Ears 10 Martian cavalry 100 +20 points

Solaris: Deception; Illusion

Arda: Fantasy; Tolkienesque Dragon(s) ?

3 Caprica: Doomed; Ambush Fenians on Mars

1 Death Star: Hubris; Of Questionable Design Vickers Independent tank (20+20) 40

2 Skaro: Strange Doctors; Weird Robots 4 Hydra robots + queen

4 Klendathu: Bug War; An Invasion Gone Bad Martian tripods4 tripods + 1 large tripod

Glorantha: Quest; Runes; Heroes 

Istvaan V: Betrayal; Heretical/Heretics or Loyalty/Loyalists Cultists?

2 Babylon5: Operatic; Low Budget Fun Cyclops

 The Middle Ring

5 Perelandra: Venus; Oceanic; Temptation Dystopian wars landing craft, fort & islands

Noel’s Comet: Friendship described miniature, along with a loquacious story (You know, as Noel would say, 'Why use 10 words when ten thousand will do.')

6 LV426: Aliens; A Really, Really Bad Idea Old Glory Super hero aliens

5 Arrakis: Desert; Worms; Spice; Machiavellian Ironclad Desert nomads

7 Cybertron: Giant Robots, Transformational/Transformative Dystopian robots

Vlogsphere: Bureaucracy; Black Comedy

4 Corsucant: Imperial; Good vs Evil Queen Victoria vs Martian queen

 The Inner Ring

8 Altair IV: Forbidden; Old Robots Robbie, 5 of 13 old glory robots
9 Gethen: Ice; Cold; Androgyny Dr Who cold warriors 2 arctic tracks penguin sat

7 Krypton: Weakness; Superhero More Old Glory superheroes

10 Terra: Earthbound; Home Planet of the Apes

Lune: Witchcraft; Changing Tides; Moods, Sorcery Chaos in Carpathia gypsies etc

Xanth: Never Ending; A Unique Talent

11 Mars: God of War; Barsoom; A Mysterious Neighbour Space 1889 High Martians mesa

That is my thinking so far, some details, some things that I will have to gather together to see what I have number wise. 

 

Either way I will be starting with the Independent tank and the 13 robots.

 

Oh, and beyond that I will be working on the 50 Martian cavalry, the 10 French cavalry, the 10 Bengal lancers and the nearly 100 or so back of beyond cavalry. At ten points per mounted figure my goal of 1000 points is possible to reach..

 

 week 9

• Gethen ice/Mars polar and high martians
  

week 10 

• Luna chaos in Carpathia
  

week 11

• Terra Planet of the apes

week 12