100/100 GOOOOAAALLL!

But first; a one act play:

Begin Scene: 

Kids are asleep, wife is in bed playing on her phone, probably looking at Etsy.

Enter Stewart (me), the hero of the story.

Me: "guess what I just finished doing?"

Wife: "You filled out those forms so our daughter can go to school next week?"

Me. "nope"

Wife: "you fixed the broken toilet in the downstairs bathroom?"

Me: "nut-uh."

Wife: "You fixed the lock on the garage side door so someone can't sneak in and murder us in our sleep?"

Me: "You watch too many murder shows.  No! WAY more important than any of that.. I just finished 100. 

Dark ages.

Miniatures."

(brief pause)

Wife: "Get in this bed RIGHT NOW."

Me: "Oh yeah! Whose your big daddy miniature wargaming painter.."

Wife: "Whoa,- that was weird.  Never mind, you can get out now and go fill out those forms like I asked you to."

End Scene

100 / 100

To recap: back in January I set a goal for myself to paint 100 dark ages miniatures (Vikings and Saxons) and to paint only dark ages miniatures until 100 were done.  Mainly to get out of a hobby funk and to make my dark ages mass battle games juuussstt a little more mass.  I thought it'd be a fun experiment to see how long it would take. 

8 months is the answer; because today is the day.  There was no real deadline for the project other than I didn't want it to take all year because for me, that would of been depressing.  I was shooting for late September / early Oct at the latest.  So I'm ahead of schedule.  I am a rock star.  But a the kind of rock star that comes out early and not the kind that is over an hour late to the stage in order to make an entrance.  Don't they know that people had to hire babysitters???!!

It's feels nice to complete a goal you set for yourself.  I feel that after 40 there are so few life goals left to accomplish because everything has been done...

Get married? Check

Know the joy of having children: Check, check, check, check

Know the heartache of having children: check

Start a career: check

Get really good at said career: check

Plateau in said career and get really bored and now just do it for the money: check.

Buy a house: check.

Engage in a never ending battle of breaking and fixing the house: Check

And so on.  Basically my life goals these days are 'don't die' and 'don't go broke' and 'try to have some fun before you die and go broke.' 

Where was I?.....Oh yeah miniatures.  100 of them.  Now I know that 100 is a pretty amazing number to have done... whaddya mean other people do it all the time?  

Actually I am well aware that for some folks 100 is not a big deal and they paint that many miniatures or more a month easy-peasy.  And I know that others would be hard pressed to paint 100 miniatures a year.   And I know others that have foolishly painted 6mm troops or smaller and I don't even know how many of those would even count as 1 miniature or how one sees them in the first place....

The one thing that they all have in common is that they all paint better than I do. 

Whether 100 is a lot or a little doesn't matter.  It was a goal and I did it and it feels good to achieve something. 

Last of the 100.

The final 12 heroes of the hour.
2 more Berserkers
8 Generic skirmishers with spears and no shield
1 Saxon cross bearer
1 female civilian.

Now for The traditional closer ups to see the amazingly average painting...

I'm not not sure I needed more Berserkers, but these miniatures tickled me
because they are both mostly naked and wearing animal skins.
Like in some HeMan and the Masters of the Universe cosplay.

Skirmisher gonna skirmish
(Shake it off)

I'm gonna call this the 'Super-Duper Christ Cross Banner Bearer.'
It will provide bonuses to Christian units.

And 1 female civilian who looks rather annoyed.
"Shouldn't you be doing chores instead of painting miniatures?"

FAILURE and Excitement

The miniatures of the '100 effort' (as I'm going to call it from now on) consisted of:

20 Saxon Ceorls (on two big battle bases / movement trays)

20 Saxon Thegns (on two big battle bases / movement trays)

Saxon Leader base (w/ 3 miniatures)

20 Viking Bondi (on two big battle bases / movement trays)

20 Viking Hird (on two big battle bases / movement trays)

Viking leader base (w/ 3 miniatures) (see the pattern there)

4 Viking Berserkers

8 Generic skirmishers (they have no loyalty)

1 Saxon Super Duper Christ Cross bearer

1 generic peasant.

Now the naturally epic thing to do would be to show some pic of all 100, and this where I do the epic fail.  I didn't really keep track of where I put the newly painted miniatures inside the storage tubs; just kinda placed them in there higgledy piggledy.    And since they all look basically the same and I can't remember which is which; 'that skunk has sprayed the stink' as they say.

Lots of people say that; it's another way of saying that ship has sailed or the opportunity has passed.  Well people say that over where I live.  Ok, it's only me that says that.  But it will catch on.

And I figure if a a pic of  100 miniatures was gonna be fun, then showing off the WHOLE collection of Saxons and Vikings would be WAY more exciting.  Maybe even 5 times more exciting.

Plus now would be a good time to take an inventory of what I have; Being a visual person it helps to see it all laid out. I set up a table in the living room while the wife watched TV.  It was a show about murder.

All the Vikings and Saxons

All the Vikings and Saxons at an Artistic slant angle.

A quick Tally reveals that there are just over 500 miniatures on the table.
So it was 5 times more exciting.  I'm a blogging genius.

The 100 effort basically added 8 trays (4 Viking and 4 Saxon), 2 leaders, and some various bits to the collection; moving it from 'small mass battle' to 'medium sized mass battle.'  Could probably keep 4 players interested.  

A Date to the Dance

These miniatures will have their official debut on  Veteran's Day Weekend here in the United States which is November 11th.  When there will be not one, not three, but two local conventions.  These being Vet Con and Conquest Sac.

(couldn't find a banner for Vet con, but here is a Linkidy-link)

Feel free to hop on an airplane and come down here just for the privilege of gaming with me. 

Actually these local conventions tend to be small to medium sized affairs, and these will be the FIRST I attend post COVID.  I want to see local conventions succeed so that they stick around so I'm volunteering to host several games.  Usually at conventions I am known as the ACW guy due to my long standing love affair with the ACW (I love you ACW, yes I do, whose the prettiest war?  you are!) and putting on games of Regimental Fire and Fury; which everyone loves and I am greatly respected for (if I do say so myself).  BUT I didn't spend 8 months painting dark ages miniatures for nothing!  So Mass battle Dark Ages games it will be.

The plan is to attend one convention Thursday and Friday and the other Saturday and Sunday netting me a 4 day weekend of gaming and no children.  The no children part is key.

Endings are Beginnings 

Of new endings.  Now that 100 effort has ended and I am allowed to paint other stuff.. I'll have a look see at what is lying around here.  But first I gotta clean up my hobby desk...

Such a Disaster after 8 months of painting nonstop
except for those times when I actually stopped.

and second I'll end this post.  

Thanks for Reading.

Double Thanks for writing a comment.

Till next time.  

88/100 almost there

Look-it, I painted some Vikings.

LOLOLOLOL, I'll go get my sandwich.

But first:

Thanks to everyone who left a comment on my BIG 5 YEAR POST.  It definitely generated a lot of comments, WAY more than I thought.  It was the most fun I'd had on the internet while keeping my pants on.  Moreover; it proves that you'll never get if you don't ask.   Inspired,  I asked the wife for a little something special for my 5 years of bloggings.  That was a hard NO but the exception proves the rule....

Especial Thanks to the folks who wrote me a a little 5 year bump on their blogs.  The idea being that anyone who comments on your blog (and you probably comment on their blog) might enjoy reading and commenting on this one; and I of course would return the favor and then We All Would Have More Fun. Stroking my delicate teenage girl ego is only of secondary importance.  

Time will tell if the experiment worked.  I've added a bunch of people to my blog roll (the main way I keep track of blogs) so next time they post I'll write something and we'll see if  over time we become best blogging buddies.  Or maybe we'll just sporadically write comments when something strikes a cord.  And no big deal if nothing happens.  It's like we all met at a party for friends of friends with friends.  Hopefully I didn't miss anyone.  

Now that I garnered all this attention like a histrionic Reality TV persona; I feel this pressure to make this PB&J post the best damn PB&J ever (if there can be such thing).  Such a set up for the fall, because all I have are these barely adequately painted Vikings....

88/100

Today, 12 more Vikings are ready to take the whale road to distant parts and different peoples to beat them up and take their stuff.  Vikings really were kinda jerks.  Lucky for them history loves a bad boy.

Heroes of the hour.
10 Viking Bondi (complete with movement tray) and 2 Berserker types.

Now for some close ups.  Just so that you can actually see the miniatures, not because the painting is all that ah-mazing.

Just like leaders are always waving their swords in the air,
it's a rule that Berserkers are either covered in animal pelts or naked.
I know which one I would choose.

These two kinda look like they just finished some good drugs.

These two are brothers who had a falling out over a woman.
The left one is hoping the right one dies so he can snatch the helmet.

Some glorious Foundry miniatures with their characteristic fabulous beards.

I've already warned my wife that it's a rule that every man at least once
has to grow their beard out COMPLETELY.  As in Viking / ACW / LOTR dwarf style
and that she can expect such fabulousness from me one day.

No need to show the rest of the miniatures.  You get the idea.  You have your own miniatures so you know how it goes.

Easy Terrain Bonus

4Ground kits are pretty easy to make, even if they do say on the package "This kit is Complexity 3."  I got these Dark Ages houses recently. 

"Our House,
is a very very very fine house.
With two cats in the yard
Life used to be so hard...."

Now that song will be stuck in your head.  But only the chorus, because that's the only part anyone knows.

 

These were especially easy because they were just given to me by my friend Mr. PC.  Basically threw them at me from his car while yelling "TAKE THESE SUCKER!" and there was the squealing of tires and the smell of burnt rubber. 

Because Mr. PC is at the stage in a miniature wargamer's life where he has more stuff than storage space, and I reap the rewards.  Especially since all my dark age buildings are 4ground, so these fit right in.

Almost There in the End

Only 12 more miniatures to go, to get my self imposed target goal of 100 painted dark ages miniatures.  I keep getting closer and closer the the end of this long trench but the end never seems to come fast enough; and I feel like this guy from Star Wars..

WHAT???!! A Star Wars meme in a Dark Ages post??
I respect NO boundaries.

So it's an exciting time at the paint table these nights, I have the whole seat but I only need the edge.  I'm rushing the bedtime routine with the kids, practically throwing them into bed saying "Go to sleep already!!! Daddy has some painting to do.  Read your own damn bedtime story!!"  

Or something to that effect.  

Maybe I'll get that something special from the wife after I paint 100 miniatures; because I am full of achievements.   

Thanks for Reading.

Double Thanks for writing a comment.

Till next time.

The 5 Year Bump

 This Blog of Terrible Loss is 5 years old this month.  Happy blogging birthday.  Let's talk about Blogging in general and what you can get me in specific. 

Ok, so it's not quite talking.  I'll type and you'll read but try to hear my voice in your head as you do and it will feel like talking.  I sound like a combination of Darth Vader and PeeWee Herman.

5 Years of This Nonsense

So I've been doing this for 5 years now which officially makes me an expert and perhaps, the best blogger ever.  I mean suuuure some blogs will post more often with better content and with less typos; but how many of them have a fun title like mine?     

All of them?  Are you sure?....Ok, never mind that last bit then.  but I'm still an expert. Because I say so.

The problem with blogging is that the vast majority of blog posts are what I have come to call 'look-it posts.'  As in "Look it, I painted something."  or "Look it, I played a game."  or "Look it, I bought something."  These posts are the peanut butter and jelly of blog posts; meaning that it's an easy stable that everybody eats when there is nothing better (or no time to cook).  Even in my own blog there are mainly Look-It posts.  And Look-It posts, like peanut butter and jelly, are boring.

-Wait! that's obviously an inflammatory statement meant to raise engagement in what is otherwise boring text.  Read on, I'm going somewhere with this.

The reason there are so many mundane Look-it posts on a wargaming blogs is that it's reflective of what we do 90% of the time.  Buying things, painting them, and then playing with them.  And this not a bad thing, as it indicates a healthy hobby life.  

But every once in a while, we do something really cool.  We put on that BIG game, we do a cool terrain tutorial, we write a scenario, do a excellent wargame review, or we write a hit song about our love of goldfish crackers or something like that.  These are some of the better blog posts because they demonstrate something, and are inherently more interesting.  These posts provide to the online community because the posts are informational and/or inspirational; becoming a resource for others.  Posts like these are what drew me to blogs in the first place.  

I'm happy that I've done a couple of these over the years.  These posts also tend to get found more in google searches because they offer something that people are a looking for.  Over the last 5 years my top 5 most viewed posts are:

Clash of Spears Review  written in August 2020

DIY Wargame Mat written in August 2017

Forest tutorial written in August 2020

DIY Wargaming Roads written in July 2018

ACW Rule Reviews written in  Feb 2021

-The pattern? In-depth terrain construction and thoughts about wargaming rules.  Obviously no one in the wider internet really cares that I painted 10 Viking miniatures to a reasonable table standard. 

These type of posts take a lot of effort to do.   The projects are large and the posts take forever to write. To continue our food analogy; these posts are the fancy meals, the Thanksgiving Dinner of blog posts.  And I'm proud of those posts (and others like them, there are a few).  They are entertaining, informative, and make me look good; if I do say so myself.   

The kicker is: If my blog only had fancy meal posts the it might be a good resource, but blogging would not be very much fun.  As anyone who has made Thanksgiving Dinner (or any big fancy meal for a lot of people) can attest; It's a LOT of work, there is often swearing involved, usually a minor burn, and crying children.  All for the glorious presentation on the table and the meal is over in 40 mins with nothing left over but dirty dishes and general feeling of being dissatisfied.  And a tummy ache.

When I started blogging, I envisioned mostly doing fancy meal posts but quickly realized that if I stuck to those types of posts alone, there really wouldn't be much here.  There would be long periods of inactivity and no one would be able to tell if the blog was 'active' or gone 'dormant.'   It would be a nice resource for folks, but there wouldn't be much interaction.  

And to be fair, It's not like any of those top 5 posts are jaw dropping-ly good.  I'm not really an expert in anything and all my posts take the tone of  "if this mook can do it, then you can to and probably better."  The only thing that I am consistently good at is falling asleep in bed at night while my wife talks to me.  I do it ALL the time.  

I've said before that without some interaction, blogging would be too much like shouting into the void.

So I started to post more often on the mundane stuff.  The stuff I did 90% of the time.  It was easier for the blog to be 'active' (for me; 2-3 posts a months is about right).  Number of followers grew; currently at 93.  I never really know what that number signifies other than somebody liked something enough to click on the button.  Number of Blogging buddies grew and interaction increased and blogging was fun.  Turns out folks like Peanut Butter and Jelly.  Turns out I like Peanut Butter and Jelly.

As long as it's grape jelly, maybe strawberry.  Anything else is GROSS.  My wife likes raspberry and it's constant source of friction in my house.

Because We All Like PB&J

A Loooooong time ago, before my life was dominated by children, I used to be a part of some wargaming clubs.  More over, I used to actually GO to the club meetings.  2 or 3 times a months really.  Not only would we play some games but people would bring their newly painted miniatures to show off and get ohs and awes.  If meeting in a game store people would make purchases and temp others to do the same.  While playing in one game you could wander over to people playing in another and gab for a bit.  You get the idea.

I'm still part of clubs but much more of a sideline / periphery member.  I hardly ever go to any meetings.  I'm more like a fun guest star and not in the regular cast; I'm the third in the threesome.
In a lot of ways, blogging has become my on-line club.  Especially with the little network of Best Blogging Buddies where we consistently follow each others blogs by writing comments.  There are about 10 people who regularly write a comment on any piece of shit post that I write; and I routinely write comments on their posts which are works of art.  

With some of these guys; we've been doing this for YEARS.  years I say.   There's around 10 additional people who occasionally write a comment  on this blog when something strikes a cord or when life allows.  Therefore most of my posts have around 20 -30 ish comments on them (10-ish people writing a message and me replying.  I always reply, it's just good manners).  
I think this is GREAT fun and provides that interaction that I no longer get from real life (for hobbys anyway).  

I'm not trying to say that this is a LOT or a LITTLE. I see plenty of other blogs that get way more comments and actually see scores of blogs that get waaaay less.  What I'm trying to say is that blogging has become a fun way to get little wargaming-themed bursts of Dopamine from nice people; because all comments are positive (all comments I write are meant to be positive).  I've never had anyone write a comment  saying something like 'your painting sucks and your terrain is trash and you should feel bad because your life is bad!"

Plus, when you follow someone's blog for awhile you do get a kinda-sorta sense of who they are as a real person; and over time they become less like strangers on the internet but more like online pen pals.  On line club members who are sharing some fun hobby stuff.  So when they post "hey look-it, I did this thing" My first thought is "Cool bro.  Nice job.  Your hobby stuff is aces and thanks for sharing."  because Peanut Butter and jelly is not boring depending on who you eat it with.  It's not the food, it's the company.  It's not boring at all.

So to sum up; I've learned that there are basically two kinds of posts in the miniature wargaming blogging world --  RESOURCE posts that tend to get more views and LOOK-IT posts that tend to get more comments.  Any blog that can do both is probably on the right track for super blog stardom (if that's a thing). Look-it posts are much easier to do so tend to get more of them.  

But more importantly THANKS everyone who takes the time to interact, even sporadically.  I really appreciate it and more over, enjoy it.  I hope you also enjoy my lame attempts to be funny and interact on your blog.  

That'd Be A Good Place to Wrap up the Post

But I won't!  Keep it going keep it going!  It's my goal that this will be the ONLY blog post you read tonight.  Or Skim.  or just laugh at the silly memes I pulled from the internet. 

5 Years is a significant mile stone.  Now that we've talked about blogging in general lets bring up the uncomfortable subject of gifts, and what YOU can get me in specific....

You can write me a comment of course!  I just talked about how I liked them.  Just a line to say "nice job so far on this terrible blog.'  even if you haven't done so in a long time.  go on, do it.  Like and Subscribe, ring the bell, and that BS.

Or, if you really want to go above and beyond for this big occasion; write me a blog bump.  

A blog bump is when you use your blog to highlight someone else's blog.  So that your audience can be directed over here to my blog and I CAN STEAL THEM.  

But maybe that will increase the exposure of this Terrible Blog and I'll get a few more folks leaving comments regularly which will mean I'll leave comments on their posts and we'll all get a little more interaction.  Which should increase the fun for everyone. But don't feel like you have to,  

--I don't want to come across that I am chasing comments or likes.  I do care a little bit as I just said I think it's fun; but I don't care so much that I'm up late at night worrying about my view count.  I also don't have any ads or monetary investment in this blog or some strange youtube-ish algorithm that I need to face.  But I will say that MOST of the people that have become Best Blogging Buddies / Online Club Members are the ones I have found mentioned on someone's blog I was already following.  The post went "hey check out so and so blog because he is ONE OF US."  And so I do.  I write a comment like "Hi, I wandered over here from X's blog.  Nice place you got here."  and they would reply "welcome to my parlor Fly" and so it begins.   

Now It's Really Time to Stop

I agree.  Thanks for sticking with this long wall of text.  I hope it was thought provoking and entertaining.  I'll be back *soon* to say 'look-it, I painted some Vikings.'  

Thanks for reading.

Double thanks for writing a comment.

Triple thanks if you do the BUMP.  Be sure to let me know so I send you flowers.

76/100

 

Now where was I before being so rudely interrupted by dumb real-life problems?

Oh yes, painting miniatures for the Dark Ages.  The stuff that REALLY matters.

76 / 100

In the continuing journey of painting 100 dark age type miniatures before painting anything else just to see how long it takes me; I cross the 3 quarters marker with 76 painted miniatures today.   Hooray for 3/4s complete!

While there is no real deadline; I don't want it to take all year just because it'd  be really depressing if it took a year just to paint 100 miniatures.  Especially because I don't paint all that well and more especially because I am actually trying to have NOT take a year....

The year is 50% over and I am 75% done; so I have +25% happiness from a baseline of being sad.  

The mighty 10 this time around comprise of 4 random Viking hirdmen,
probably with generic Viking names like Erik and Sweyn,
and two command stands with 3 miniatures each (that adds up to10 right?)

Here is the Anglo Saxon Command stand.
I'm pretty sure the leader figure is Gripping Beast's 'Alfred the Great.'
I'm not sure because I just had it in a ziplock bag.  But I know he's a leader
because he's pointing his sword in the air.

Here is the Viking stand.
He defies convention and has his sword pointed down!  What a rebel!

He also has a strange Pagan power....
His hair is blowing to the left while the banner is flying to the right...

Aside comment:  Thanks Ray!

Speaking of banners: the banner for the Viking command stand is from the Blog 'Don't Roll a 1' written by Ray.  Turns out I didn't have a suitable raven/viking banner so did an online image search and the blog popped up.  I thought "hey, I know that guy!"  (well kinda, I read his blog and comment once in awhile).

Thanks Ray, appreciate the resource. 

No close ups of the 4 generic Viking hirdmen because who gives a damn.  No-body.

So instead, the new 4 new Vikings go onto a Big Battle Base (movement tray) that had 4 empty spots and the whole things gets lead by it's new hair flying leader into the storage tub.

To the Storage tub! For adventure and plunder!
"hey-ho, hey-ho,
off to storage we go."

24 More

24 more miniatures to go before the magical number of 100.  24 is nice because it divides so easily down the middle into 2 batches of 12 miniatures.  The next 12 are already up and waiting for their turn through the agonizing painting process.

What's it gonna be, more Vikings?!?!
You Betcha!!
Pics of unpainted miniatures are super exciting!!!!
I'm gonna use MORE exclamation marks!!!!!!
!!!
!

Public Service Announcement

DID YOU KNOW that there is a 3rd Bill and Ted movie called "Bill and Ted Face the Music"  ??!!!

I KNOW RIGHT??  How did we miss that?  

If you're like me then you will find it on Amazon and watch it immediately.  

If you have no idea about the Excellent franchise that is the Bill and Ted movies then you have a telephone booth hole in your heart.  

Party On Dudes!

Till next time.

Thanks for reading.

Double thanks for writing a comment.

ACW Diversion

 

Life can be a boring monotonous chore.  Let's have a short diversion in ACW gaming...as in a short post.

An ACW Game is Always Fun

Over the Memorial Day weekend there is Kublacon; one of the largest and best miniature conventions on the west coast.  I didn't go.  I'm too poor these days to go off spending nights in hotel rooms.  It's not so much the price of the hotel room as it is price of the cocaine and hookers that are mandatory purchases in any hotel scenario....plus gas is like $6 a gallon around here!

Anyway..

I did have some people over to play some ACW.  Other losers who also didn't go to Kublacon were Mr. AS, Mr MW, and Mr. CG (so 4 players including me).  I was tempted to try and find more players for a BIGGER game but I started thinking that 4 player games are kinda the Goldilocks of miniature games. 

Rules were (my favorite) Regimental Fire and Fury.  Scenario based on the 'Duncan Field' scenario out of the scenario book "This Bloody Field" by Brad Butkovich on Shiloh.  I have SO MANY regimental sceanrio books that sometimes I just pick one at random and find a scenario that works just so I cans ay that I've played a scenario from the book and therefore was NOT a waste of money. 

Each player has two brigades or 8-9 regiments.  That's another bonus of smaller games, players get to have bigger commands.  I like having bigger commands in my games.

And SO; the table is set:

Tried Out Something New

I tried out a new terrain technique for me because I've had a problem with ALL my previous ACW games.  The problem of terrain boundaries.  FOR EXAMPLE: The terrain for this scenario is that it's light woods everywhere; except where is open ground in fields and one region where it's heavy/dense woods (in this case the area is the famous "Hornet's Nest.").  Usually I mark the boundaries of woods and fields with fences or logs or whatever and it tends to still look good and be clear.

Until half way through the game; because fences get moved and logs roll and all the trees end up in bunches in out of the way places on the table. 

The idea:

Using one of my Cigar box mats as the base (and Cigar box mats always seem to photograph weird) I laid out all the boundary stuff, and then took some of the flocks I have for ground cover and spread these out in a light layer over the mat where needed.  

Like So!
The Hornets Nest area marked out by logs and filled in with a brighter green flock.
This area is heavy/dense woods.

Like So!
Duncan's Field (and all fields) marked out by fences and a light ground cover.
These areas are open ground.

Everywhere else is light woods.
Trees on the table are there just to look nice.
But not as nice as my Blue Moon ACW collection.

It seemed to work like a treat.  Provided clear boundaries that held up during gameplay and will be a versatile system to adapt to any shapes.  

Alternatively one could just make custom fields for each scenario and that would look awesome.  But did I mention I have a LOT of scenarios?  that would be a lot of work.

Here is the ONE picture I took during the game.

My good friend Mr PC came over during the game to talk and hang out.  Mr PC is my good gamer buddy from when I lived in the Bay Area 7 years ago and we did frequent games because we lived 20 mins apart.  And I only had one child back then. 

But now he recently moved from the Bay Area close to me again; so gaming shall be back on the table.  I'm not saying he moved over here JUST to play games with me again but I am saying it was likely 80% of the reason why...

Too bad that now I have even more children...

Speaking of Family: My Wife the Hero

The original plan was to play outside in the backyard.  This wasn't so much due to COVID concerns but to be out of the way of the children and wife who could stay in the house doing whatever.  And the weather was gonna be nice so it worked out.  

But kinda at the last minute my wife decided that she would take the kids to her parents house in the Bay Area and stay the night there 'to be out of the way and you can just have a good time.' 

I was gonna have a good time regardless, but answered "Well I don't want you to feel like you HAVE to do that...ButHereLetMeHelpYouPackSoYouCanGetOutOfHere."

So we got to play inside and in the evening I was able to do some extra painting and relax all by myself.  Thanks Sweets, you're a hero.

(My wife doesn't read this blog, it's been well proven, but maybe after I die she'll look at it from time to time and this will really get her in the ticker...)  

Now Get Back to Work

All right; Breaks over.  Back to the boring routine of work, woes, and whining.  

Till next time.

Hopefully soon.

66/100

Hello Again, 

Welcome back to the Terrible blog.  Today we have average painted miniatures and below average writing.

66 Out Of 100 

I've completed 16 miniatures to add to the growing umber of newly painted dark ages types, bringing the total now up to 66.  Only 34 (quickly checks his math) more to go to get to 100.

66 out of 100.  That's just about spitting distance from jumping distance to the end of this dark ages tunnel.

These guys are all the bad boys of the dark ages.  So bad they got a whole Age got named after them (you've heard of the Viking Age right?).  Guys whose idea of a good time was to hop into a boat, sail to a nice sunny place full of nice people, and steal their stuff and kidnap them.  Sounds like a fun bunch of guys.

That's right; These guys are ALL Vikings.

What a savage looking bunch of criminals

Here we have Hulk Hogan dressed up like a Viking Banner Bearer.

Thanks Mr. Hogan.

Now I'll do a small barrage of close ups so you can actually see what the miniatures look like.

then you can nod your head and say 'yep, that's a painted miniature alright." 

Do you like your men with beards?
Because Vikings do.  Lots of beards here.

Guy on right says to the Guy on the left:
"Dude, the stone ages called: they want their big tree branch back.
Go get a sword and for ODIN'S SAKE GET SOME SLEEVES.
It's embarrassing."

Lots of Foundry Vikings made their way into this batch.
They often have the best beards.

16 miniatures gives 1.7234689765 completed movement trays
(each holds 10, but DONT check that math)
or as I call them "Big Battle bases."

Obviously the next batch of miniatures will have to include at least 4 Viking Hirdmen to complete that last base. 

Then I need at least 10 more Bondi types and that will get me to 80 and then I'm not sure what I'll want to paint to round out to 100.  maybe some dark ages civilians like women and children or something.

The End is Near

That's all I got for now.  Time to start prepping the next figures in line. I gotta hurry; Summer is here and the kids only have two more weeks of school.  Then they won't need to go to bed on time so will slowly but inexorably start staying up later and later, because everyone can sleep in.

Everyone but ME, because I still have to go to work.  

The free time I have after everyone goes to bed but before I do is gonna shrink and shrink.

Such is the life.  No matter; staying up late and waking up early, that's what caffeine is for. 

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

More Star Trekkin'

 

Space, my final genre.

These are the online ramblings of the Blogger; Stewart

His continuing mission: To constantly lose at miniature wargames.

To seek out ways to barely paint but still have fully painted armies.

To boldly follow where others have lead before!

Tripping on Scales

AS mentioned in a previous post HERE; I've got a hankering to do some spaceship flying, laser firing, shield frying, Sci-fi space gaming and I'm gonna do it with Star trek as seen on the shows "Next Generation" and "Deep Space Nine."   I am an absolute rookie in this genre so this is all experimentation.

WHY YES, I am happily watching Star trek Next Generation of Netflix while I paint my dark ages figures.  At least I was until the series suddenly left the catalog, but I happily switched over to DS9.  Don't tell anyone, but DS9 is kinda a better show anyways.  Plus, DS9 covers the Dominion War which is kinda a BIG deal and likely where this little genre will lead...

Anyways, last Trek post we talked briefly about rules and TNG vs TOS, and this post will discuss miniatures, which will lead to a discussion about scales.  Miniature wargamers LOVE to discuss which scale is the best.  Just google 15mm vs 28mm vs 6mm and you'll get TONS of results.  I can't tell you what the best scale is, but I can tell you it's definitely not 6mm.  

I also know that 28mm is not really a scale but a size, but we all know what I mean and using the wright wirds iz knot importent. 

First Difficulties in Size Matters (no matter what she says)

There is no dedicated range of Star Trek TNG/DS9 ships.  Which means you have to cobble your collection together and mix-n-match manufactures and do it all yourself.  So where to start?

First we'll consider the size of the ships, because they're actually pretty big.  Well not really because they're all made up, but you get the idea.  The Enterprise D, a Galaxy class starship, is supposed to be around 650m long.

Secondly we'll consider the size of the ships, because they actually pretty small.  Well not really because they're all made up, but you get the idea.  The Defiant, a Defiant class ship (go figure), is around 130m long. 

Basically, what I am saying is that the size of the ships is AAALLLL over the place...

Ship sizes in silhouette for comparison. 

I'm OBVIOUSLY gonna have a Defiant class and Galaxy class on the table (these are like, the mainstay ships of the TV series).  But it does lead to an interesting conundrum that's probably unique to spacehip/ sci-fy gaming: On the same table you have 2 objects and one is supposed to 5x the size of the other. 

I'm struggling to think of a historical miniature wargame where such a size difference would come into play.  I guess you could take a 6 gun schooner next to a 100 gun Ship of the Line but not many historical scenarios would call for that;  being based in, you know, reality.

Being Picky

You could just ignore this issue, which is basically what happens in the Wizkids ship ranges for the game Star Trek Attack Wing. (I think the game is out of print now but you can still find the ship blisters).  Which means you COULD just get all your ships from them and there are lots of youtube videos and blogs where people paint over the the extremely piss poor manufacture prepaint and make the model pretty.  It's kinda like when an average person gets hair and make up done by a professional in a make-over style show.

Some Star Trek Attack Wing ships.
The Galaxy class on the far left should be 5 times bigger
than the Defiant class on the far right.

But I'm gonna be picky and I want the ships to scale to each other.  If anything because I want players to be able to see that one ship is bigger than another just by looking at them.  Big ships will probably have lots of guns and be dangerous.  Small ships will likely be really fast and cute with Hello Kitty Stickers on them.

So it's obvious we need some sort of scale.  Common scales for ships are 1/7000, 1/5000, 1/4800, 1/3900 (the original FASA scale), 1/3125, 1/2500.....   you get the idea.  There's a wide variety to choose from.

At this point I should mention that I got a lot of help from posting on The Miniature Pages, my wargaming club email group, and Internet best friend David from Lazgunpacker Blog.

Thirdly we'll consider the size playing the table.  I'm gonna be using my standard 5x6 table (two folding tables pushed together).  So I want ships that are big enough to be seen and look cool, but small enough that they'll be able to swoosh about the table and do some maneuvers.  After watching videos of Full Thrust games on Youtube and playing my first game of Klingon Armada with David; I have the idea that ships ought to be around 3"for a big ship and around 1" for a small ship.  Ship miniatures bigger than that appear to only creep slowly about the table and ship miniatures smaller than that might as well be cardboard counters.  And cardboard chits are for board games and board games are boring.  

(that's a joke, I love board games, don't send hate-mail).

OK, so it was a BAD joke.
They all can't be gems.

Not to mention that really big ship miniatures will likely need really big flight bases to keep them from toppling over in a slight breeze and damaging the amazing paint jobs I'm gonna give em.  I want flight bases to to be under 2" so that I can use a space mat with 2" hexes to play Starmada.  When playing with hexes,  I don't want ships that are in hex C, to be spilling all over hexes A, B, D, and E as well.  

As can be seen from this pic from my 1 game with David;
Ships that are around 1-3" ish look good on a 2" hex

Doing some easy math using the Enterprise D (because the Galaxy class starship is one of the bigger ships in Star Trek, and as I said, required for Trek gaming); at 1/5000 a Galaxy ship miniature is 5" long.  Too big. 

But at 1/7000 the ship is around 3.5" big.  That seems right.  The Defiant would be a little more than 1".

So 1/7000 seems to be goldilocks of scale choice where ships will not be too big or too small. And there we have nice, well though out,  line of reasoning that makes perfect sense.  

To Boldly Go Where Others Have Gone Before (or TLDR that above bit)

In reality, while exploring ships and doing image searches I found the blog A Mere Matter of Painting who has an impressive gallery of 1/7000 Star trek miniatures and I just decided to copy what he did.  Why lead when I can follow?  Afterwards I convinced myself of the virtues of the 1/7000 scale.  

I tried a couple of times to leave a comment to thank him s but it never seems to go through, so just in case he stumbles across this:  "Thank You Sir.  You are a (Star Fleet) Officer and a gentlemen."

Getting on Board the Ships

Having chosen the best and proper scale, it's time to do some shopping. Shopping is the most fun part of miniature wargaming after actually playing the games with cool people.  Then comes designing scenarios, then making terrain, then talking about miniatures with your wife, and then lastly painting the miniatures. 

Obviously 3d printing is the first stop; but as I don't have a 3d printer nor do I want one because where the hell would I put it?  My hobby desk is almost constantly covered in crap I mean cool miniature projects in various stages of completion.  

That means Shapeways is my shopping center.  The search function for the Shapeways market place SUCKS. But eventually with time and effort you can find some good stuff.  There's actually not that many shops that are selling Star Trek ish ships (probably because no one has the license) and I really only found one that labels the miniature as what it is called from the universe and puts in the description of what episode or movie it comes from.  Most shops will have a pic of the ship miniature that is obviously a Trek ship but have it called "SF Hvy Cruiser Refit" or "exploration cruiser" or "Bob's Bigboy Pickle Battleship."   Again, this is because no one has a license to do these so most try to disguise it somewhat so Paramount can't come after them (though I wonder if they would really?) 

That's right, it's a Star Wars Meme in a post about Star Trek.
I cannot be contained by mere genres.

So it helps if you know what you are looking for.  So go on and get your trek-nerd hat on and get to know the the star ship classes.  Get to know the Star Trek timeline.  If you're like me, you'll enjoy it for the first couple of hours and then get annoyed at all the inconsistencies that arise from reading about a fictional universe written by too many people with too many timelines. 

Also; A Mere Matter of Painting blog (that I linked above) has links to where he got his ships which is super cool because you can see how the ships look after being painted.  

Here are a few shops to get you started, because they are where I started:

Armadillo Miniatures: This is the easiest shop to...shop from.  He calls the ships what they are called in the Trekverse, has scales, and a wide selection.  Because of this his shop seems much more personable and user friendly.

Halcyon Shipyards: Seems to have some nice ships and provides the scale of the ship in the label.  However, there are no descriptions of the ships and they have generic names.  You just have to know that the "SF Assault Cruiser" is a Sovereign Class (or the Enterprise E) just by looking at it.   

Robs3dModelShop:  this is an Etsy store and the ships LOOK like they're at the 1/7000 scale.  Much cheaper than shapeways stuff.

The hard thing about buying stuff online is that you don't really know what you're getting until it arrives in your grubby hands.  

If you're like me then you also have a hard time visualizing accurate sizes
(just ask my wife what I think is 6"....yukyukyuk).
In order to see it better, I took some graph paper with a 1" grid
and drew out the size of the ship.

I've seen that people also use models, toys, and board game pieces for their ships.  This might work fine if you can see it in person but most of the websites that sell such things don't list how big or small the actual ship is.  

First Plunge

Having decided on the scale it was time for test run; I bought some ships from Shapeways.   Also because after window shopping online for weeks I ran out of willpower to resist the urge to buy stuff.  I am not made of steel.  If anything I am made of soft couch stuffing.

I made a order for a small ship, a medium ship, and a large ship, with the idea being I can see how they rank up to each other.  I also made sure I got them in 'Fine Detail Plastic' as that seems to be the way to go with small miniatures like these.

Taking a picture of clear plastic ships was kinda hard.

These are 2 Saber Class ships (because 2 came in the file) as the small, and Excelsior class ship as the medium (in the middle), and the Galaxy class for the Large and because the whole point is to have a TNG Enterprise. 

A Saber class ship is supposed to be around 200m, so about a 1/3 the size of the Galaxy.

An Excelsior class ship is around 400m, so 2/3s the size of a Galaxy.

I'm pleased that these all seem to line up well next to each other. 

I'm waiting for some flight stands to show up in the mail before getting these primed and I just might be tempted to paint one or two.  Maaayyybe.

Thanks for Reading

Glad you stopped you by.  Hope the above was a fun read.  Feel free to have the replicator make you a hot drink for the road.

Till next time.