10 day hobbyathon

 

or thereabouts...10 days give or take.  Lots of pics in this post.  

Got Caught, and Got Lucky

I tested positive for COVID.  I get tested through work, and took the test on a Wednesday and got the results on a Thursday night.  It was a little distressing since I know we've been VERY careful and when I got the results it was late evening and I was sitting at a table with my wife and her parents (who had come up for Halloween) who are all in the more vulnerable population.   I'll spare you the details of how I spent all of Friday in a parking lot so I wouldn't be around anyone (Ok, so one detail there).  

It's weird knowing that you are the diseased one.  There are also a lot of health officials that call you when you test positive. 

Long story short; the wife and kids ended up going to the Bay Area to her parents house so I could spend 10 days in isolation.  No work, no leaving the house.  The lucky bit is that all the family tested negative twice over the next week and I never felt sick.  Having known people who have gotten very sick I feel especially lucky to be one of those asymptomatic individuals.  So basically I ended up with about a week of goof off time, and the whole thing was harder on everyone else than on me.  My biggest problems were loneliness and ennui.  And trying not to eat all the Halloween candy that didn't get passed out.  

It couldn't be hobby-time all the time of course.  The whole house had to be DEEP cleaned and disinfected, especially the bathroom (and if you have to clean one, might as well clean them all) and the kitchen.  And when was the last time anyone cleaned the stove top?  Or cleaned under these sofa cushions?  Why do I live in such a pig sty??!!    I also did some of those chores that there never seems enough time to do like clean and vacuum out the car.  I also finally watched the last StarWars movie (it was terrible).  

Did Some Painting

Since I was stuck at home during election week here in America, which has tensions high, I decided it was appropriate to paint some Sci Fi near future dystopian miniatures to fit the mood... Just kidding! I churned out some AWI miniatures.  Still on the theme though.

It's a pretty crappy picture actually, but they there are nonetheless...

First off I painted up 12 more of the Colonial Militia in the brown MPC coats. I like these figures.  

And when those were done I decided to double down and painted up 12 AWI Continental Infantry and their dashing officer.  

 

Another terrible picture!  I must be out of practice on taking photos.

I'm not really going for a particular regiment, I just picked a color scheme I liked.  I was shooting for something like this:

So lets see how I did with that (Hint: the answer is poorly)

I know I say it all the time, but I show some close ups
not to show off my painting skills but more so you can just SEE
the damn miniature in the first place.  

Let's not forget about the aforementioned dashing officer...

I had a pony tail just like this when I was in high school,
though I colored it purple.

I really like way these came out and am digging the uniforms.  While my British are red with blue facings I kinda like contrast with the Americans being blue with red facings.   I hereby award myself a self high five   (because no one was around of course) on my decision to do the AWI in 28mm so that these miniatures will one day make a  pretty sight when they finally hit the table.

YAY ME!

After that I was kinda sick of painting because that is a lot for me; so while catching up on The Mandalorian (which is pretty good and makes up for the terrible Rise of Skywalker, and it's about time that I watched something on DisneyPlus for myself that I got for the kids), I spent an afternoon making some 28mm Snake rail fences. 

Not much to show, they're fences.
The kits are from Battlefield Terrain Concepts

Kitchen Table Battles

Having yet MORE time to kill, it struck me that I now 'all of a sudden' had enough AWI stuff for a small game; so I did a solo game of Musket and Tomahawks 2.  

Side Discussion: Solo Gaming

I don't love solo gaming.  I know some folks like it and even do it exclusively.  But I tend to get bored quickly during solo games.  I am poor company for myself.  But it had been a long time since my last solo experience.  Plus for me; solo gaming is best used to try out new rules and see the how the game mechanics work on the table and get a idea of what tactics should be used etc..   and I didn't have much else to do.  

Table set up.  

There's no real AAR since I didn't really take the time to write down what happened.  So just some  pretty pics (I hope you'll agree).   The scenario is that there are two objectives on the board that the Colonials have to occupy and the British goal is just to stop that and cause as many casualties as possible.  The Americans had 3 units (2 large militia units and 1 large Continental Infantry unit) and the British had 2 (1 of regular infantry and 1 of Light Infantry).  Each had one daring Officer.  

British Light Infantry have the Scouts trait and move through the woods easily
to come up on the flank of some Continental Infantry.

Colonial Militia stalk in some woods (slowly) getting to the objective.
The British Regulars move up as well.

The British Light Infantry on the right and the Colonial troops shaking out
into lines.

Overall; I had a good time putting Muskets and Tomahawks 2 through it's paces.  The game is a little more complex than I initially thought and there are lot little rules to keep track off.  The good news is that they all interact with each other well and I really like the game.  It definitely has a fun black powder skirmish feel to it.  

Musket fire erupts everywhere.... 

The Continental Infantry use 'Volley Fire' to engage the British Lights.
Volley fire is an effective tactic in M&T2.  It ignores terrain and causes reaction tests.

Militia and British Regulars get into a Musket Ball fight.

Testing out the Melee mechanics of the game.

I did get a random event in the game, 
Where a farmer decides to take pot shots from his house at anyone within 12"

It's also nice feeling of pride when a genre you've been slaving away on finally hits the table for the first time; and I was pleased with the appearance.  It's kinda like that feeling you get when after going to the gym for awhile you finally see some improvement in the mirror.  Or so I've been told.   Self High Five Again! 

yay me again!

Doubling Down:

Riding high on that solo experience and still not in the mood to paint anymore and with the election coverage being a distraction and a reminder of hard times, I decided to put down a small ACW scenario.

I really ought to upgrade my rivers.

The scenario is the "Ball's Bluff" scenario from the Regimental Fire and Fury rulebook.  The Battle of Ball's Bluff is a small battle early in the war, where a small Union force crossed the Potomac river to scout the CSA and ended up in a fiasco of a defeat.  Generals lost their job afterward.

The CSA attack starts to pin the USA against the bluffs of the Potomac River

This is a hard scenario for the Union.  All the troops are green and the command structure is terrible, so really they just struggled to do anything more than not retreat.  I don't think I would play this scenario again.  

The charge of the CSA that ends the game.
If you can see the dice and know RFF, you can tell that
the CSA have rolled the best they could while the USA has rolled the worse.

The CSA take the main position, the USA general killed, and it's just like the real history.

To be honest, this wasn't nearly as fun as the solo M&T2 game.   I know the RFF rules very well as it's one of my favorites, so there was noting to learn or experiment with.  Playing it solo got less interesting fast.  It could of been a function of the scenario, but overall it just wasn't as engaging as I would of hoped.  I either missed an opportunity to play larger more engaging scenario or maybe should of broke out a board game.  

Back to the Paint Desk

From my M&T2 game I learned that Colonial Militia really need an officer hanging around to help keep them from running away the first time any British Regulars look at them too sternly so I decided to paint one up, and might as well do a bunch of other miniatures as well. 

All my group pics in this post suck.

I painted up another 12 Colonial Militia.  Since these guys are not wearing the MPC coats I wanted to paint them in any color but brown just so that they would be distinct.  

The officer and his NCO are in MPC coats.

All the Brigade Games AWI miniatures have been really nice miniatures except for this officer, whose face is sculpted to look more like an alien than a humans.  More like an alien gorilla, it's just missing a nose. You might not be able to tell from my great paint job.  

TOTALS

Today the wife and kids returned to the house.  Children are cute after you haven't seen them for awhile.  The totals for the week and a half are:

2 solo games and 39 miniatures painted, which is a lot for a slower painter like myself.  Extra points to me because these miniatures were bare metal in blisters when I started.   Add to the totals one new an improved President and BIG sigh of relief, and one REALLY clean house and a healthy family.  

Thanks for reading.  I hope it was a good post, though kinda on the long side.  Great thanks for any and all comments.  

-Stewart

AWI Colonial Militia in MPC Coats

 

Now that the terrain bug is thoroughly out of my system I return to painting miniatures.  Miniature painting always seems easier after some time off doing other hobby stuff, so I was able to finish off these 12 miniatures rather quickly for me anyway.  Maybe not for others. 

Here we have the first of what is gonna be many many 'American' colonial militia.

Militia in MPC Coats.  What the Hell is a MPC Coat? 

When I bought my miniatures from Brigade Games I purchased many packs of American Militia described as wearing "MPC coats."   At the time I had no idea what an MPC coat was and assumed it stood for something like Massive Pastry Crumbs.  For what it's worth, I think Brigade Games are the only ones who offer Militia in this selective wear.  

I did some internet research:

Turns out that MPC stands for Massachusetts Provincial Congress and the coat is the one that the congress decreed should be offered up as a 'bounty' for enlisting in the militia.  (as an aside, can anyone spell Massachusetts without a spell check?  I don't think so.)   This happened 4 days after the fighting at Concord and the congress wanted to equip the men who had started to surround Boston.  

 The MPC resolved that  each man who enlisted for a year should be given a coat as bounty. Each coat was to made of brown wool, with no lapels and working pockets. It was based on a simple working man's jacket of the period. Samples of the wool were sent out to each town and they were responsible for making a number of jackets equal to the men from that town who had enlisted. When done they were collected and sorted by shade and regimental marked buttons attached. By 28 December 1775 13,000 coats had been made. These so called "bounty coats" served as the first uniform.

By the way, once you know they were called 'bounty coats' the search for info got much easier.  And I must add that the folks on TMP were very helpful  

So basically it's a plain brown coat.  That made painting easier as it's something of a uniform.  Reminded me of painting ACW confederates.  

12 Militia.
Like 12 angry men

And now for some close ups, just so that you can actually see the miniatures, and not really show off my painting and photography skills.  I know I am not the world's best painter, but I am probably in the first top 10.... (thousand).  

Here is a fine pair.
Wait, are those miniatures in the same pose?
That makes for a less dramatic picture, I'll be sure to not do that again.

Same pose again!! how silly of me.
These guys could probably double as ACW confederates.

I really like the tricorn hat.  I might have to get one.
I'm always wary of painting pants blue, even though I do it and I'm sure they had blue pants back then,
But I always think the guy is wearing blue jeans.

Last pair, you get the idea.

Overall I like the way these came out and it's a good start to the American forces.

The Plan is More Miniatures.  But isn't it Almost Always?

Yes it is.  Currently on the paint desk are 12 more Colonial Militia in MPC coats.  After those I think some Continental infantry might be in order just to get some more snazzy AWI uniforms done.  Because that's part of the appeal of the AWI, all the facings and cuffs and turn-backs.  Otherwise might as well be painting  ACW Union miniatures (I have a number of those to paint as well actually). 

Here is how I usually try to crank out 28mm infantry:  

1) Get 12ish infantry based (glued to base, texture added, some rocks perhaps) and primed black.  

2) Select 4ish of the miniatures and batch paint these to completion (ie, do all the coats, then pants, then straps, then hats, etc..).  In the end the miniature is painted with a base coat and highlight, but the base is still just primed.

3) repeat step 2 until all the primed miniatures are done.

4) Using a brush, paint on the army painter 'Quickshade Darktone' to add shadows.  This ruins the brush so it's best to do several miniatures at once.  Let sit for at least 24 hours.  Maybe while I'm waiting for those to dry I can do up the next bunch of 12 ish infantry.  Who am I kidding?  Usually by this point I'm obligated to spend a night not doing hobbies but spending time with my selfish family.  Wasn't 20 mins at dinner enough?  

5) Paint all the bases.  

6) Using a brush, paint on the Vallejo Matt Varnish to take away that  Army Painter horrible shine.  Let dry.  This also ruins a brush, so I have a collection of cheap brushes that are basically throw away brushes after this step and step 4. 

7) Add flock and stuff.  

Taadaa! 

For me, the key to keeping up motivation / desire to paint stuff is to see steady progress so breaking the process up into bite sized pieces of 4 miniatures at a time, until basically a unit is done makes it all so much more doable.  

That's all for now and thanks for reading.  

Halloween is this weekend, so I leave you with my favorite Halloween-y saying:

"Intelligence is knowing that Frankenstein is not the monster, and wisdom is knowing that he is." 

Be safe everyone.