General hobbying...

Just a hodgepodge post of general hobbying goodness.  

That last sentence was almost a tongue twister. 

A Good Trade on Shipping

I know I missed the bus on starting a wargaming blog when blogging was in it's prime.  I can only imagine the hectic traffic even mediocre blogs like this one would of had.  Yet, one the biggest benefit to Blogging (Blogging with a capital B is a verb, and it includes writing your own and also participating in other's blogs) is creation of an online community.  In many ways, this blog has become my wargaming club; where I come together with like minded wargamers and we talk about how fun miniature wargames are and how other hobbies are dumb wastes of time.  Naturally I'm the power hungry Emperor of the club and ya'll are my corrupt counselors and nobles.  I'm sure you all feel like the emperor on your blog.  It's like we're all the Skekis of wargaming.

"AHHH  Ha-ha-ha HAH!"

Can we take a moment and acknowledge how awesome the Dark Crystal on Netflix was?
Course I grew up on that movie so the series hits all of my right nostalgia buttons. 

That's just a round about way of saying that I like making these online relationships.  Especially in these pandemic times. 

My latest online club interaction: Vol of the Sailing ship blog  and I recently did a trade.  He's embarking on some Black Seas Sailing ships and I had one of the Constitution miniatures just laying around that I was going to get around to putting together in the near NEVER.  It was destined for a flea market; so I offered to send it to him for the low low price of emailing me his address.  

But in his heart he was too proud to accept freebies so he traded me two Langton kits of 74 gun 3rd rates, which match my current Age of Sail ships.  

Thanks Vol!

Everyone else take note!:

I am not too proud to accept freebies.  

Can't Stop the Shop: More Purchases

While I wait for the freebies to come rolling in, I've been doing some shopping.

Fields

For 15/18mm I think you can get away with using fabrics and such as I often do, but I like resin ground pieces for 28mm. It's just a personal choice of aesthetics.  I wanted a few more crop looking fields for my future 28mm AWI games and found these from Paul's Models.

Miniature added for scale purposes.
I'm sure they'll look more like fields once painted.

Kickstarter: 15mm ACW Houses

I've pledged in my third kickstarter ever: 

It's still a weird experience to me put down money and wait a year till something arrives.  It's like medieval mail order.  But this looked like a good buy as I could use a bunch of 15mm ACW houses eventually.  I went all in to get everything.  Now it's a waiting game.  I'm sure that during the year it takes to arrive we'll get back to normal wargaming...

Oddly enough, it's my first miniature wargaming kickstarter pledge.  The first two were for board games.  The ACW board game "Antietam" I got from a kickstarter I now feel was kinda a waste; there is sits on the self having never being played.  The second board game I got was the new edition of "Britannia" which is a game I already know and love and own, the KS was just for a shinny new one.  It's on a boat somewhere; understandably delayed due to pandemic.  

Terrain Book

One of the things I enjoy doing the most in this hobby is making terrain.  Pity I don't do more of it.  

Maybe I should give up wargaming for doll houses or model trains?  And while you all think of me as a master terrain builder the real master is Pat over at the  Wargaming with a Silver Whistle.  Because I want to be just like him I picked up his book of terrain tutorials. 

Father's Day Loot

Speaking of freebies, I got some nice hobby loot for Father's Day.  We went down to San Jose to celebrate with my father in law, which marks the first time the kids and wife have left the house for months...

A painting handle, some more nice brushes, and the Opti-Visor

Completing my decent into complete and utter Nerdom, I told my wife I wanted to try out one of the magnifiers that you wear on your head while painting.  She obliged and got me the Opti-Visor.  I already use a magnifier that sits on the desk while painting so I doubt this will improve the painting much, it's more about exploring the ease of use.  

And as we all know; one of the rules of marriage is that you try to preserve the attraction as much as possible.  As it gets worn down through constant exposure.  So it's a good thing that I tend to paint alone in the hobby room, because I'm sure the sight of me wearing that thing is super attractive.

Unless maybe she had a secret dentist fetish I didn't know about...

A Small Return to Better Times

I was able to play a game face to face!  My friend Mr CG invited me over to play a board game.  After discussing it with management (the wife) we agreed that face to face gaming could begin again provided it was 1) only one other person  and  2) we wore masks.  

We played a game of Conan, some scenario where the players had to rescue Conan and a princess from a dungeon.   It was clear that first you free Conan and then use his swinging axe to get the princess.  

I forgot to take a picture, which is no loss, because pics of board games without a lot context are boring.  So here is a pic of a Conan Barbarian Princess

We never did actually rescue her,
so what she was actually wearing remains a mystery. 

Thanks for reading.  Thanks for comments.  

Continue to take care of yourself in these times of unrest.  

EDIT:  I put in the links to Vol's and Pat's blogs, because I was a chump and forgot to do it the first time.  I'm sure ya'll were just being polite and not wanting to hurt my feelings by pointing it out. 

First AWI Miniatures

Innit nice when you buy a bunch of stuff for a new wargaming project and then actually start it?  

Here we have a post with my first AWI miniatures.  Now the project begins in earnest.  

AWI Progess

Man, it has been fooooooorrrreeeevverr since I painted any 28mm miniatures.  It's a skill that's more subconsciously remembered than consciously practiced.  Too bad I was never very good to begin with so the memories are even more hazy.  

In my excitement of starting to wargame the Revolution I've been ignoring chores in order to paint, and managed to finish 16 miniatures for the British Army.  

First 8.
I've also been reminded that photographing 28mm miniatures is hard.

First 8 from the rear.  I like the way the white crossbelts came out.
Since whomever is playing these guys, that's the main thing they're gonna see.

Next 8.  Just more of the same.

Now the uniform is supposed to look a little like this: 

Though I like more of a Blue facing on the Redcoat.

Which is kinda hard to see in the group photos.  So in honor of these being my first AWI miniatures and painting 28mm for the first time in forever  (having a little girl means you've seen Frozen a hundred times, so that phrase is never far from your mind, it's not even the first time that I've told this joke.  It's even funnier in repetition)   here are some close ups....

I like this sculpt of the guy biting the cartridge. 

Enough of that now.  It's more my wanting to show my enthusiasm for this project than my painting skills.  

Keep It Goin' Keep It Goin' Keep It Goin'! 

It's gonna be a long haul getting this genre to the gaming table.  So keeping up motivation and enthusiasm is critical.  Especially since I'm still in a state of no gaming lockdown.  So how to do it?

There's shopping of course, the small rush when a package arrives:

My houses from Sarissa arrived. On first glance inside the package they look a little small.
And,
This is a really exciting photograph.

And of course there is entertainment.  For inspiration I've recently finished reading;

By reading I mean listening to the audio book while in the car,
and while painting.
I ain't gots time to read! 
But the book is recommended.

 

I suppose I could find a good AWI movie to watch.  I've recently subjected the wife to rewatch the History Channel's series on Washington, which I thought was pretty good and is on Amazon

I also like the Blue coats with the buff facings.
and this makes up for the boring Sarissa picture, Because this one is exciting on all sorts of levels.

The only other AWI movie I know is The Patriot, which I'm not gonna watch.  Not for any snobby historical reason, but because I don't like watching a father mourn his son.  No I didn't give any spoiler alert, it's been 20 years. 

A Big Thank You to Norm

I take it back! I have played a game! Set in the Revolution even.  Best Blogging Buddy Norm on his blog ran a Play By Email game of the Battle of Germantown.  It was my first time playing anything by email, and I had good fun.  I played a minor role in the British defense, which really helped me get int he mood for painting British Redcoats.  Thank you Norm.

You can find the ARR and Norms blog over here on the CLICKY CLICK

So the plan is keep turning out British until I get tired of seeing red, and then will probably dig in on some terrain.   With any luck, the AWI project might see the table in some form by the years end. 

Thanks for stopping by, Thanks for reading.