Sing it! (to the tune of Kung Fu Fighting)
"Everyone loves online shopping
Add to cart as fast as lightening
The wallet is slowly tightening
My lead pile is certainly frightening."
Add to cart as fast as lightening
The wallet is slowly tightening
My lead pile is certainly frightening."
Several purchases have crossed my doorway recently. Everyone likes a little bit of "here's my haul."
Not my actual house. Pic stolen from the internet for comedic effect. Isn't it Hi-larious? |
Incoming Stuff
I've had some Kickstarters arrive. The first to show up was my new version of the board game Britannia by PSC.
I love this game to bits, so the purchase of it was a no-brainer for me. Though its been several years since I played it last, and who knows when I'll be able to break in this new version. It's essentially the same game as the old version rules-wise, but has cooler components and a new 2 player version; which might make it easier to get on the table as the proper game is a 4 player game that takes about 6 hours to play. You might hear or read on the internet of people playing it at around 4 hours but they are lying. Or they strapped themselves to the chairs with no food or bathroom breaks. It's an awesome game, it just takes awhile to play.
A closer look at the new components. There are some crazy cool people who paint the miniatures for their board games, but I am not one of them. |
The other KS to arrive was the "Farms of Gettysburg" by Things From the Basement. I pledged for these back in June of this year, and just assumed that every KS is a year wait; but I must of not been paying attention because but here they are! That was a nice surprise.
These are 15mm MDF buildings based on actual buildings / farmsteads from the battle of Gettysburg; which I think is a pretty cool idea. However in hindsight, I probably didn't need to get ALL of them, cause what am I gonna do with 13 farms? Typical overspending of wargamers! Who authorized such a transaction?!! Let it rest, for now is not the time for recriminations, and blame can be assigned at a later date to all guilty parties.
Close up of the raw woods. |
These are also way more detailed than I thought they would be, even more than the 28mm stuff from Sarissa that I got recently.
I have long wanted to do some scenarios focused the first day of fighting over the rolling hills and ridges west of Gettysburg, though I've been distracted by other battlefields that are easier to construct.
This will probably be the first that I assemble, as the Thompson was in a central location during the first day in the fight for Seminary Ridge, and later went on to serve as Lee's headquarters for the rest of the battle.
Speaking of Seminary Ridge, What would Seminary Ridge be without the famous Lutheran Seminary?
What a monstrous hunk of resin! My 18mm ACW troops at the bottom for a sense of scale. |
I have long been looking for a 15mm Lutheran Seminary building but they are hard to find. Go ahead, type it into a search engine and see what comes up, I dare you. After coming up empty for months I finally found that Noble Knight Games had one in stock...that I immediately purchased. I am a Kung Fu master at the speed that I can click add to cart.
This thing is huge! It's the second biggest building I own in either 15mm or 28mm (yes, the 15mm Seminary is bigger than other 28mm buildings). Such a large building on the table is certainly going to draw the eye as it towers over everything, so I'll have to be sure to paint it extra good. Which will be a challenge because there a ton of little details on it. Like all those window frames, roof tiles, and the zillion bricks.... sounds like a good challenge for ACWary. Mark your calendars! ACWary is just 2a little over a month away! What do you mean "What's an ACWary?" For shame that you forgot this thing that I made up one time after drinking too much coffee way back in January... Here is a LINK to the post for a reminder.
Tough I'm not a huge fan of these bushes sculpted onto the model. And it doesn't quite sit flat which is annoying. |
Lead piles need a cycle to illustrate the way they are constantly renewing themselves. There's a Water Cycle (Evaporation, Condensation, Precipitation, and Collection) a Rock Cycle (rocks go from Igneous to Sedimentary to Metaphoric) that serve as examples. I know these things because Daughter #1 loves "The Magic School Bus Rides Again" on Netflix. The Lead Pile Cycle can be something like:
Imaging: Wargamer imagines playing with a miniature army and how much fun it will be.
Purchasing: Wargamer buys the miniatures (lead pile grows).
Procrastinating: Miniatures sit for awhile as the wargamer gets distracted by other stuff
Painting: Miniatures are finally painted (lead pile shrinks).
Imagining: Wargamer imagines new additions to the miniature army and how much fun that will be...
and you get the point. I personally thought the addition of the Procrastinating step to be quite inspired.
So it will come as no surprise that after my unexpected hobbyathon where the AWI lead pile seriously dwindled to a mere few nude lead miniatures, that it was renewed with an order from Brigade Games.
And the cycle repeats itself. Another 48 miniatures added to the lead pile. |
The Long Winter
The end of the year is upon us and is the time where I usually get swamped with fun (or at least trying to make it fun) family stuff. Gaming tends to cease (like it wasn't already due to the COVID) but spare time for the hobby side also tends to disappear. I doubt I'll get much done of anything but that's the way it goes when your children are small. So any future blog posts will have to heavy on the witty commentary and light the substance. Least all the above shows that I have plenty of stuff just waiting for me.
Plus there's a super important birthday in December that needs to be celebrated. There's also Christmas.
Have I mentioned my birthday is in December, really close to Christmas?
But first! Next week is Thanksgiving here in America. Wishing everyone a SAFE and happy holiday.
Till next time.
-Stew
Stew, intrigued by the Gettysburg farms, really nice to see them fully modelled on real buildings. I’ve heard that the Britannia game is a good campaign generator for the tabletop.
ReplyDeleteThanks Norm! The nice part of them being based on the real thing is that you can look up images of how they’re supposed to look. Of course, all the pics of them taken during the ACW are grainy black and white...😀
DeleteI can see how the map of Britiania could be used for campaigns.
Lovely post Stew you made me chuckle with your eclectic Mix. A lot going on....I would grateful if you didn’t post pictures of my house again though 🙂 the seminary is a stunning building but you need a really big game to show it off....looking forward to seeing it painted up.
ReplyDeleteThanks Matt. Sorry about outing your front door...😀
DeleteIt’s a nice building but a little intimidating to paint because I’ll want it to look nice. I happen to have 2 scenarios that will have both the Thompson House and The Seminary on the table for a RFF game. 😀
Haha! That made me laugh!! Looks like your gonna be a very very busy boy!
ReplyDeleteThanks Ray. I appreciate you leaving a comment. I wonder if I’ll be more busy this December or less bc we can’t drag the kids to a billion different events but are all stuck at home....OH you mean wargaming busy bc of all the new stuff. Yes I am. 😀
DeleteLooked at some of the Gettysburg farms myself but we tend to use 10mm buildings for our 18mm ACW games, although my Station and water tower are 15mm. Will be interesting to see them built.
ReplyDeleteTony.
Thanks Tony! I know that many drop down a size for their buildings. I just don’t like it when miniatures are taller than the buildings and since my 18mm troops are in 3mm bases they are quite tall; though I find 15mm to be a decent match still. 😀
DeleteHopefully I’ll get around to building and painting these next year.
Stew! You are back in fine form after having thrown COVID off the scent. Very funny and a much enjoyed respite from Real World shenanigans. Besides painting and gaming during your forced isolation, you did some shopping too. Good! Looking forward to seeing Gettysburg on your table as you refight the First Day.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I have a super important birthday in December too!
DeleteI’m tired of blogger having an error after I write stuff and waste my time... let’s see if this works
DeleteOh it did!
DeleteThanks Jonathan! I was able to do a little shopping... it was hard not to do more.
Gettysburg is sounding like a nice project for next year depending on how we’re doing with Covid, as all the best scenarios are multiplayer.
And congratulations on being in the club of having a December birthday! All the best people are born in December, it’s been proven by science! 😀
Lots of good looking loot! The mdf stuff looks good and the big lump of resin already looks impressive, I have just signed up to the analogue hobbies painting challenge again, so I can at least say,"look I've made a commitment, you wouldn't want me to go back on a commitment?" The joys of guilt!
ReplyDeleteBest Iain
Thanks Iain! I’m always take a pass at the analogue challenge because it comes at a terrible time of year for me to try to actually get anything done! Plus I get a lot of encouragement to get stuff painted up just by following blogs and seeing when folks (like you) get stuff done.
DeleteAnd I’m not a big believer in guilt, but my wife is, but then she was raised Catholic. 😀
You got me ,my wife and I are both recovering Catholics so residual guilt sloshes around no matter what you do!
DeleteBest Iain
lol. I should be more specific though; I’m not a big believer in inappropriate guilt. But regular guilt...then of course. 😀
DeleteMate! That was a hilarious intro - and I honestly thought that was your house with all the boxes when I first saw the thumbnail photo lol! Things Fromm The Basement are doing some brilliant stuff, can't wait to see you get them on the table :)
ReplyDeleteThanks Ivor! Glad that you found it funny. I try to make my posts entertaining to help cover up how lame they actually are...
DeleteI am very impressed with Things From the Basement so far. I’ll have to keep them in mind when I’m looking to expand some 28mm buildings 😀
That's quite a collection!! I've only managed one game of Britannia since mine arrived (2 player) but was very impressed.
ReplyDeleteThanks for leaving the comment Alastair, I appreciate it. And it’s good the hear that the two player version is a good one. 😀
DeleteAre you sure your birthday isn't in November?! :P That is a serious haul for a single month! All of the terrain looks exciting but that seminary is something else! It will take some time to paint up but it is going to look awesome when you get it done. I am envious that you have room to store that thing too! :D I somehow haven't heard of Britannia but it looks fun and like something that would be up my alley too. I'll have to look into that one a bit further :) I hope you're able to get some hobbying in during these cold winter months (well it is cold here in Chicago anyway) and I'll be looking forward to more updates when you have time regardless of what they're about!
ReplyDeleteThanks Kuribo! I’ll be able to store it easy enough, there’s room in the back of the garage where all the spiders are, with all my other wargaming stuff. I’m a little intimidated to paint it as I don’t really have a lot of practice with painting resin building but I’ll still give it a go of course. 😀
DeleteIt won’t nearly be as cold here in Northern Ca as it will be in Chicago, but I’m actually from southern Ca where anything below 60 is cold so I find it freezing up here!
Thanks for your support and following along. 😀
Well, now "Kung Fu Fighting" will be running through my head for the next 72 hours: thanks for that! Holiday distractions notwithstanding, a nice addition to the lead pile--just about right to get to vaccine distribution and face to face gaming can resume :)
ReplyDeleteThanks Ed! I’m sorry, it’s a dirty trick I pulled there. 😀
DeleteI really do hope that next year will be better for face to face gaming than this one has. I really did miss my large multi player games.
Quite the haul! Farms of Gettysburg is a bonkers project, but one that can really only add to the presentation of a giant convention game... so when you get through them, they should be ready for the '22 season.
ReplyDeleteWhat did you get for AWI?
As for the seminary, that is a huge building! Would look better with some proper bushes added though.
Thanks Laz. I’m really hoping to use the Seminary and and some of the MDF farms in a biggish ACW game next year, of course we’ll just have to see how things shape up. I hate to loose 2 years of larger gaming and hosting at my place. 😀
DeleteYou must of missed it, that large pile of miniatures at the end of the post are all AWI.
And I’m gonna have to do something smart about the silly sculpted shrubbery for sure. Probably just cover it all with flock. 😀
I saw the figures, but what figures are they? Sort of hard to tell from baggies ;)
DeleteAs for games next year... maybe by June? Who knows. Should have plenty of time to paint though.
Oh! My mistake! Sorry. Who knew you’d want such trivial details, because they don’t count for nothing until painted. 😀
DeleteGot some more continental line infantry, some British grenadiers, and some British light infantry command. The idea is to expand the forces some to accommodate a SP2 list. 😀
A nice haul there. I acquired very cheaply about 300 well painted LOTR miniatures in a junk shop (couldn't believe my good fortune). I had hopes perhaps the youngest boy might be tempted to try miniatures as he's a LOTR fan, but no, he looked, said they looked 'nice' and that was it. That was two years ago. Finally sold them off on eBay for what turned out to be an extremely handsome profit (bought for $100, sold for $1300). To cut a long story short, the $1300 is now gone. Like a Kung Fu fighter I was adding to the cart faster than lightening, just a shame you didn't blog this a little earlier and I would have been singing as I clicked. Boxes still arriving at the door, no quizzical looks from Mrs Tactical Painter because there are no charges on the credit card. Click and win!
ReplyDeleteThat’s a great story! You’ve had some good luck there. I’ve also not been very successful in getting my oldest child to play miniature games. But I never get quizzical looks from the wife for miniatures showing up. She buys so much crap that the tiny amount of stuff that I get is above reproach! 😀
DeleteOoooh, that terrain is going to look so good once you get it built and painted. Happy early birthday!
ReplyDeleteThanks Markus. 😀
DeleteOf course the real trick IS getting it all built and painted....
Hi Stew - just being courteous and paying a return visit - even though this is a pretty old post. How is the construction and painting of all the terrain pieces going?
ReplyDeleteThanks RR. I appreciate it.
DeleteBut I’m sad to report that my progress has been nil as RL has been sucking up all my hobby time. ☹️
Hey, Stew. Just found your post. When RL gets out of the way, we'll have to butt heads about a big ACW game. Once upon a decade or two ago, a deceased friend and I re-created First Bull Run - I recreated the terrain as close as I could on three 4' x 5' boards for a total of 5' x 12' (quite an accomplishment within the confines of an apartment!). I'm guessing the seminary was from the old Scenic Effects range, at the time a revolution in historical miniatures building modeling, at least ready made. Never got any of the buildings but do have some of the rivers from the same folks. Just be sure and wash it in warm water with a drop or two of detergent, rinse well, let dry, and prime (after any necessary clean up of bubbles and the like, of course). And then paint away. Have a safe, healthy, and Happy New Year. (Hope Santa was good to your hobby aspirations.)
ReplyDeleteThanks Greg. That sounds like a huge game. But I would like to plan out doing some ACW battles for the future if it can be managed with the world as it is. 😀
DeleteUnfortunately I haven’t really started any of this stuff yet. ☹️