Trench Hills part 2; further along the hills

 Whoa, an update so soon?  How did I manage that?  

It's due to the parent-kid ratio formula.  Observe:

When you have 1 Kid and have to watch 1 kid:

Feels like you're watching all the kids.

If you have 2 kids and have to watch 1 kid:

Feels like you're watching 1 Kid.

If you have 3 (or more) kids and have to watch 1 kid:

Feels like no kids.  

Parents will back me up on this.  So, when my 2 sons went to their grandparent's house for a few days, leaving me with just the wife and daughter, I got quite the uptick in free time.   Especially since the daughter is the oldest of the children and the most self-sufficient, as long as there are no spiders.  Especially since (strangely) the wife didn't have a long list of honey-do projects over that time.  Might be because I tied her up and put her in the garage...

More Hills

First I spent some time using The Choppa! to cut some more sticks and then glue them to the edges of the remaining hills.  Once dry, it was time to move the operation outside to do the ground cover...

The backyard operation.

Outside.  yuk.  my old enemy.  I hate the outside, all bright, sunny, and warm.  disgusting.

But this is likely to cause a mess so outside is a good choice.  Messes outside can be left outside, and the outside can clean itself.  

A simple process of painting on a layer of slightly watered down white glue..

Like so...

And dumping on the ground cover of your choice...

Action shot!

As per usual, my choice of ground cover is a big tub of cheap decaf coffee.  I just like the way it looks and it gives enough texture.  Plus, it's a public service because all the cheap decaf coffee I buy for terrain is coffee that someone can't be forced to drink.  No one should drink decaf. 

Take care to put a bead of glue along the bottom of the wood and the card shelf to stick on ground texture there as well.

The leave outside to dry while it's 90 degrees outside. 

And finally, brush off any loose coffee grounds with an unused paint brush and bring inside.

Ah, inside is SO much better,
When placed close together you can see the trench hill aspect more,
as several of these placed close together creates the illusion of a trench network.

Seems like I should of gotten more done.  Yet, a big step forward in trench hill development.

Bonus Works

While the trenches were drying and in-between steps; I took to the painting desk for some easy painting wins.  

Things!

Not everything in the Quar verse has a direct correlation to our world, but in this case there is.  These are called Huvi and are the Quar analogue to chickens.  Least I think so.  Anyway, they'll be added to the farm scenery, because what kind of farm wouldn't have chicken...things.

And some more markers.

Clash of Rhyfles is a great game but can be kinda marker heavy.  While I do have a bunch already made, a few more wouldn't hurt so I can accommodate more players.  

To satisfy your curiosity: The larger flower circles are for Prone status and the smaller ones with a bag are for Stunned Status.  

Because you were dying to know.  I know I know I know. 

And I thought: wow, this is the life.  So productive.  Maybe I could someone who blogs 3 times a week?  maybe I can be someone who paints 1000 figures a year?  Maybe I can get in great shape with home cooking and plenty of exercise?

The next day I went and picked up the boys, and the free time evaporated with cries of "DAAAAD!" and questions of "Will you play with me?' and "what's for dinner?"  "eww that's yucky can we have something else?"   "I don't know, ANYTHING!"  

Thanks for Reading.

Double thanks for writing a comment.

Till next time.

Trench Hills for Trench boards (Part 1)

Hey there!  

In the Quar trenches, the Royalists see that the opposite trench is almost deserted but for 1 Crusader soldier.  They demand the Crusader surrender but the Crusader replies, "Ha!  One Crusader is worth 10 Royalists soldiers."

So the Royalist commander sends over 10 soldiers to get the Crusader, and after a minute of fighting noises from the trench they hear the Crusader say "ha! One Crusader is worth 50 Royalists!" 

Now pissed off, the Royalist commander sends over 50 soldiers, and after a couple of minutes shouting and cursing, nothing but silence is heard.  Until the Crusader calls out again "Ha!  One Crusader is worth 100 Royalist soldiers!" 

"That's it!" Says the Royalist commander and sends over 100 of his soldiers and fierce fighting is heard from the trench.  After the dust settles a lone Royalist survivor crawls back.  "What is going on over there?" questions the Royalist commander and the soldier replied, "Commander, it's a vicious trap.  The Crusader isn't alone; there are TWO of them."  

(/snickers) Trench humor.  Now let's get on with the post:

Trench Hills

The next phase of the Trench boards is to build some trench hills.  By Trench Hill, I mean a bunch of static hills that kinda look like trenches on their sides.  Stand alone hills.  If you build enough of them in varying shapes and sizes you and lay them all out on a table one could build a fairly convincing trench system.  Oh! that's a thought. Save that for the future.

But let's just build a few for a start.  Just enough to add some more variation in height.  The plan is to make these all two inches in height and in some generic shapes.   

Carving It

To start with, I'm gonna gather all the foam pieces that I had lying around...

When did I become this guy?  
The guy that just has foam pieces just lying around in the garage?
Like a foam hoarder.
Lucky the wife will never find it.  Stored in the garage under her hoards...

One spot in the trench boards where a trench hill should go is this section riiiight heeeere.

Where one side is much closer to the main trench-highway than the other.  Indicative of a Poor job of construction and planning I reckon.  So a big trench hill that slows down movement would be ideal.  

Being intellectually impaired, I cut a piece of poster paper (just thick card)
to a size of a hill that I wanted.  Just needed to see how big it was going to be. 
I could not rely on measurements.

The future trench hills.
3 interestingly shaped off cuts and the poster card stand in.

and it's a simple matter to use the poster as a template and cut out the hill on the foam cutter..

This here: is a very exciting photograph. 

Then, in a flash of inspiration, I cut the poster board and lined the hills all the way around the base in order to give a little shelf.

The idea is that this little base will give me something on which to line up the sticks of the trench walls, and give an area for some ground texture as well.  Maybe I'm brilliant. Maaaaybbeee.

But I forgot that I wanted to carve in some stairs into the bigger trench hills, to match it up more with the trench table.  Because nothing brings a terrain project together like consistency.   So I had to tear off the bases on one side...

And used the Proxon to carve out the stairs. 

Then added details to the stairs like I did with the terrain boards.

Stickin' It

Then it was time to start sticking on the sticks that will form the planks of the trench walls.  Now last time when cutting the planks I used a pair of clippers and tediously measured out each cut.  I could do it again, but that is not befitting my status as an Bootylicios Bodacious Terrain Board Builder.  

This is a self-awarded title. And like all self-awarded titles is largely meaningless, no matter if I made my wife call me it or not.  

But as a B.B.T.B.B. (as we in the biz call it) I deserved another tool, so enter my new weapon in the arsenal of terrain making... The Chopper.

Side effects include saying repeatedly
"Get to da Choppa!"
(you get it, or you don't)

Which is exactly what it looks like.  A blade on a stick on a base. 

But it does allow for easy cutting of the sticks.

So while watching TV, which is another tedious activity, I cut several coffee stir sticks to length.  I varied the length at somewhere between 2.5" and 2.25" so that the boards would not be all even.  

Special thanks to The Tactical Painter for showcasing the tool on his blog, on a post about building a house, which is how I learned about it.

And then glued them down...all the way around....using the poster board as the ground...

But I ran out of sticks to completely circle all my trench hills, so I have to,,,

And return later with the next steps.

Thanks For Reading.
Double Thanks for Writing a Comment.
Till Next Time.

Quar Bash!

 

Hi there, I got a question for you:

What do you call a post that has SOME painted Quar and SOME Quar gaming and argues that Quar gaming is cool? 

A Quarrelsome Post.

....

Yeah, I know it wasn't funny.  But in the strongest tradition of Dad Jokes, it doesn't need to be funny.

Some Painted Quar

To make it up to you I now present a SmorgasQuar of painted miniatures.  Or should that be a Quargasbord?  Either way, that joke is wearing thin and still not funny.

First up we have a Quar civilian: the mechanic.
Proving that even in the Quar world; all overalls are blue.

With him are 2 pygmy elephant looking creature things.
Those are for the eventual farm that I shall be doing.

Next up we have some Crusader Trench Raiders.

These guys have special rules that make them especially good at being sneaky and clobbering the enemy at close range.

For too long the enemy has felt safe in his trenches.
Knowing full well that the raiders were not present.
The enemy has grown slow and complacent.
Now is the time to strike.

As ever I'm showing close ups of the miniatures so that you can actually see them, not because the painting is any good.

Not to be outdone, Next up is a pair of Royalist Trench Raiders.

Which are cooler than the crusader ones because these guys
have an awesome metal mask.

Because a metal mask is totally a sensible thing to wear while sneaking around in the dark...

And speaking of sensible head gear, my latest faction joins the ranks of the painted.  These are the Rhyflers that hail from the land of Gwynt. 

And as you can see these dudes are all wearing Bicorn Hats. 

Which is Hi-lar-rious.  

closer view.

The guy on the right is supposed to be smoking a pipe.

Anyway, these are Scattergunners.
What's a Scattergun?  Exactly as it sounds.

And the Leadership of the patrol.
Guy with sword and guy pointing finger.
Standard really.

And that rounds out the latest painted Quar.  Into the storage box they go...

All Quar painted to date.
The box is getting kinda full.

But then take them out of the storage box because it was gaming time!

Some Quar Gaming

Last Saturday, ...which turns out would be a great day to avoid the watching the news, avoiding military parades, and protests of all kinds... I had some folks over to play my new favorite game. 

Game in progress! 

Once again I annexed my children's playroom for my own uses.  I told them it was my turn to play my games with my friends and if they didn't like it then tough!  It was Father's Day Weekend and today would be for me, while tomorrow would also be for me. 

The game would be a 3x3 using my stunning (if I doi say so myself) trench terrain table, because with some many players it seemed to be a crime to not use it.   

Ain't she a pretty table?

Overall Wearin' Dude and a buddy watch on...

We did a meeting engagement where both sides were attempting to reclaim the giant trench.  You won the scenario by getting your dudes over to the opposite side.

I was busy playing and teaching and hosting and eating pizza that no real AAR is possible, not that you would read it anyway.  So, enjoy some pretty pictures with minimal context:

My dudes (in the middle) getting over the trench and pushing into the enemy.

One player brought a little howitzer to the field.

It was maybe one of the best games of my whole life.  

Convincing

My fiend Mr PC came to game.  He's not big on the look of Quar.  They just look odd to him.  And he keeps calling them penguins when they are clearly anteaters.  (Actually, they do look like penguins, but I'll never admit it). 

But he's not a barbarian, and he can appreciate a nice-looking terrain and painted miniatures.  Plus, last time I played what he wanted so now it was MY TURN.  

But at the end he said that he liked the rules a lot, that the rules had a lot of tactical nuances, and with minimal effort could be used to play all manner of serious sci-fy games.  He then sent me this short video...

And it wasn't so Quarrelsome after all. 

Thanks for reading.
Double Thanks for writing a comment.
Till next time.