Wow - Table and Blog AAR

War in Black and White's terrain and blog entry make me want to hang up my gaming/terrain and blogging hat and retire. Not sure I can top this. 

Very well done and fun to drool over.

Taken from War's Website

Couple Points of Inspiration

Here are a couple of motivations or inspirations why I study WWII and play WWII games, both mini and board.

One is from my childhood and one more recent. Someone also recommended, "Beyond the Band of Brothers" by Dick Winters. I will have to give that a try. Someone also mentioned that the talks with the veterans are what inspired them. I think the way the producers tied in these real stories with the dramatization was incredible and very moving.

I well up every time I hear one of the vets say concerning losing so many friends and the sights they saw, "You just try not to think about them..." as he begins to choke up...obviously never able to forget.

Of course one is from the HBO series, Band of Brothers and the great movie, A Bridge Too Far.

AMAZING TERRAIN

Thank you timmy! for sharing this link and photos to this incredible scenery:

Inspiring and anger inducing all at the same time:

Wow - WWI bunker work

Now this is inspiring - the era doesn't do anything for me, but this great modeling and step-by-step does a lot for me - great work

http://sidneyroundwood.blogspot.com/2012/06/das-rattenloch-part-5-putty-and.html?m=1

Image is from his website.

Must Resist Another Game

Continuing from the last post where I was visiting all the cons I couldn't go to, I learned more about a couple of new games that are tempting...

Dust Warfare, mainly because the models are very cool and pre assembled. Though, I can't imagine I'll go through with it because of the scale - 28-30mm. But they are cool. The following picture is from the Fantasy Flight Website - go check it out:

The other one I learned of, Hawk Wargames (not much to see here, just a splash page), when I heard Neil's second Salute episode on the Meeples and Miniatures Podcast. HW has created a 10mm Sci Fi miniature game called Dropzone Commander. Sounds like it's going to be expensive to get started. So I may not play, but these miniatures are incredible. My 9 yr watched the video below and said, "Those would be fun to paint."
The following photo is from the Mr. Bug Man blog - go check out his post on this to see more pics.

Here's the Beasts of War interview of the creator of Dropzone Commander:



All that said, must resist the calling for another game.

Also, posting will be slim for the next 2-3 weeks because of my work with Geekway to the West as the Volunteer Enwranglement Officer + other duties as one of the board members. There's still time to register for this boardgame con featuring 4 days of 24-hour gaming fun.

"New" World War II Podcast

New to me anyway. This guy, Ray Harris, Jr, I believe a history major, started a podcast on the history of World War II. It's an interesting way to hear the history. He's basically a guy that's done a lot of research and then shares his "report" with us, the listeners.

He covers a lot of the basics that many of us would know, but also tries to get some more detail that we may have missed in our reading. In addition, I've focused my reading in certain areas of the conflict so am not clear on many other areas.

What's cool is that his style is such that he's just telling us what he's read, so he's not perfectly polished and will sometimes summarize and make editorial comments that seem out of place, but ultimately make it a fun way to listen. It's a great way to pass the commutes. And as a WWII nerd, it's like nirvana.

There's not much specialized on WWII in podcast/gaming podcast land so this is a nice addition.


http://worldwariipodcast.net/wordpress/

Give him a listen and rate him on iTunes.

Oh, and HAPPY PI DAY ALL YOU FOLLOWERS!

Dave's Maps and Aircraft Weathering

I asked Dave to share how he made his map and how he weathered the planes from Angels 20. I'll let Dave speak for himself:

First on the maps:

The game mat images were all "screen captures" of Google map sections.  The WWI field map surface was already digitally assembled into a high resolution image that I found on a fan website, and I added the trench section from a Google map image I found of a reenactor's battlefield in Pennsylvania. 

I used four overlays of the same trench image, but some were flipped, reversed, and rotated so as to break up the regularity of the repeat trench image.  The field and forest terrain on the master image was revealed by cutting away sections of the unwanted trench "overlay" using manipulation tools within my photoshop program (Paint Shop Pro), such as outlining and dragging away unwanted sections wholesale, and fine erasing along the borders of the wanting trench image(s) to reveal the "lower "map's fields and forest. 

Lastly, I captured a section of shell holes, and isolated them on a transparent texture layer, which I repeatedly applied to the completed field and trench image to "meld" in the war-torn trench sections to the more pristine surrounding forest and fields.

The WW2 map was a similar process, but I "screen captured" each section of the selected Google map images (from around Dover England), and assembled these into a complete large map image.  As I recall it took something like 10-12 individual screen map images to get the desired breadth of coverage. 

The open-ocean texture (beyond the coastal wave images) was a free-source ocean texture I found on the web, which I re-sized for proper scale, and once made into a multi-sectioned large image, was layered and "melded" to the coastal waters using the same image removal and erasing techniques as for the above WWI trench section work. 

The hex grid on the WW2 map comes from a number of sections of grids on a transparent layer which I overlaid in sequence to complete the pattern.  Knowing the overall map dimensions wanted, and the number of rows of hexes at a particular individual hex size that should fill the map's area is necessary so that the printed map comes out as desired.   I did "subdue" the opacity of the hex lines by successive eraser swipes (digitally), so that the hex outlines weren't so starkly contrasted against the map's background terrain.

The completed images files can be uploaded to a commercial printer who offers online service, and printed to the selected dimensions (in inches) on vinyl advertising banner material.  Comes delivered to your house in a sturdy packing tube, which serves for transporting the mat to wherever the game calls. :) 

And now, a little about his weathering of the Axis and Allies, Angels 20 planes. The models are pretty impressive as is. But his subtle work helped immerse me even more in the game. Here's Dave:

The pigment I used was "Secret Weapon Weathering Pigment" in "Exhaust Black" color, but I imagine any good brand of pigment will work as long as its dark enough to give a model's etched details enough contrast against the surrounding surface colors. 

I applied the pigment powder with a model brush making sure to dust it into the recessed details especially well, basically covering the entire model aircraft's upper surfaces completely with a thin layer of pigment  (doing this over a piece of paper to catch the excess which drops off during the application). 

After the pigment is applied, and after cleaning one's fingers off, with two sections of folded-over paper towels in reach, I began to wipe off the pigment on the model by drawing the towel flat across the surface, folding and turning over clean sections as needed (often). 

Once the majority of the pigment has been removed, only the pigment in the recesses should remain, providing an enhanced contrast to the panel lines and joints.  With the second paper towel, the insignia and things like painted stripes can be further cleaned with a moisten section of a towel, because the pigment tends to darken these areas, and they'll need to be brightened for better color clarity.

Lastly, the bottom surface must be checked and clean for any over-dusting, and then the model is ready for a coat a clear-flat spray finish, which will seal the pigment under it.

I think the pigment process could be used for other wargaming miniatures also, and especially for vehicles and even buildings.  Any models that have good surface detail (I'm thinking of trying it out on pre-painted WW2 1/144th scale tanks too.

Where I Meet timmy! and Fly a Spitfire

timmy!, who's contributed some input for the blog with is Modern Force on Force! armies had a few people over to play in some Wings of War (Now Wings of Glory), WWI air combat, and some Angels 20, WWII air combat. Angels 20 is the new Axis and Allies miniature game.

clockwise (l) - (black shirt) timmy!, Ed, Dave, Jerry, Doug, Rich, Will, Pat

I got there pretty late and played one game, as a British pilot, against 4 Germans in their 109s.  Dave S was actually putting the game on and of course had washed the planes a bit to dull down the plastic look, as well as, printed out a map from Google to make the game looka real nice-a. (forgive the bad Italian accent.)

I had the first kill as I shot down a 109 with a devastating roll of 7 hits - which took it out. I also assisted in another kill when Ed and I surrounded a 109. I gave him one point of damage, but then Ed had like 6 hits. - destroyed.

 
I believe this was Dave's first game as a GM and was using the simple rules. Pretty straight forward rules and it sounds like the advanced rules would help it a bit to add some nuance. To me it's a great convention game. Can learn the basics pretty quickly, and once engaged it goes quickly.

Dave does a great job of playing/gming the miniature/boardgame combos. I'll have to do more of a post about some of his conversions.

In addition, it was good to meet timmy! in person and to see his stuff and work area in person.

I like all the lamps and the paint/photo booth.

He has a variety of stuff and has a collection that is, in Dave's words, "era agnostic". Very true. ACW, ECW, WWII, Napoleon, Modern, Battletech, Air, Future, 15mm, 20mm, 18mm, 6mm, ... I will get more into his collection in future posts. I've been tempted to try some Cold War Commander - maybe I could rent some kit from him.

Airbrushed Digital Camo with the cutest little stencils...CRAZY - but looks good.

 Also, I believe Basic Impetus covers ECW(?)...yes, they do if you use their Basic Impetus ECW supplement (FREE) and their ECW list.

Also, he's made some progress on his Recruit's Somalis. I will have to go to Recruits one year with this group.

Modern 20mm Gamer Interview with timmy!

Want Bigger? Click it.

As I've recently posted, I've virtually met a local gamer (within 2 miles) that plays mainly in 20mm, but also dabbles in 6mm and others. He's know as timmy! on various forums around the webs and  He's considered starting his own blog.  Until he's ready to do that, I've invited him to contribute stories here.  We're still working through how this might work. 

As before: Click It.

In the meantime I've asked him some questions about his work on 20mm modern miniatures for Force on Force!, by Ambush Alley Games. He's worked pretty closely with Sean, the creator of Force on Force. In fact, these first two pics are in preparation for an upcoming Force on Force supplement on Fallujah. 

Here's the forum where timmy! goes into a few more details.

Here you go, the first official interview for The Itinerant Hobbyist:

From Ambush Alley Forum

Q. What scale are these models? 

A. 20mm

Q.  Force on Force, correct?

A.  These pictures were taken for the set of rules called Force on Force by Ambush Alley. It is a supplement book strictly on Fallujah Iraq. Title unknown to me at this time. This is the third book where my models will be pictured. The first supplement book is titled Day of the Rangers:Somalia 1993.   The second book is called Bush Wars:Africa 1967-2010. 

Ambush Alley Forum - WIP

Q.  Did you create any of the terrain yourself or did you buy it all? - if you made it yourself, which parts?  

A.  The buildings and roads are done by Gamecraft miniatures. (Side note from TIH: Gamecraft posts some interesting videos. Being from the marketing world, this technique is great. Show the customer how to assemble and paint your product - tremendous. Especially in video form. Don't wait for your customers to do it.) The figures are done by Elhiem Miniatures. Various terrain pieces were scratch built.

Q.  What materials were used?  

A.  Color and black and white print outs shrunk down for signs and newspapers/trash. These were glued on clear plastic sheats that I cut. I sculpted trash bags and built the fruit stand.  The trash bags will be available for sale along with refrigerators and dumpsters on Combatwombatminiatures.com.  All scratch built by myself.

Ambush Alley Forum

Q.  Do you have a particular scenario/game you're preparing for or is this general terrain building?  

A.  Again this is for Fallujah. It is in no way finished. It will be highly detailed with several blocks for house to house fighting.

Q.  How long have you played Force on force? 

A.  I would say almost two years.

Q.  Why modern? As opposed to any other era? Why Fallujah?  

 

 A.  Fallujah has always been an area of interest of mine. I was planning on building a section anyway so it worked out well. I do a lot of modern gaming, especially in Iraq. I in 04 and 05 I was a contractor providing PSD/ executive protection for several companies. So I try to take my experience and put it in a game.

Ambush Alley Forums

Q.  What's your history with miniature wargaming? 

A.  At the age of four I started watching my father paint Airfix plastic figures.I stood there for hours!  The bug has always been there. I really got into official gaming when I was 15. A store called Epic Gallery moved close to my house. There is where I spent most of my teen years. Though I always did some sort of gaming with home rules with buddies of mine. Ive been playing with toy soldiers since I can remember.

Q.  What era and scale did you start with? 

A.  At the age of 15 I really didn't have a lot of money for things. I was very very fortunate to have a friend who would buy me armies for GW Fantasy.  I also played WW2, Napoleonics and Civil war.  Heck I play anything but my time is now devoted to painting and playing with 20mm and scratch building.

Ambush Alley Forums

Q.  Your GMing at Recruits, correct? 

A.  The founder of Ambush Alley (Sean) and myself will be running a Somalia scenario for the debut of their new supplement book Day of the Rangers.

Recruits Game Convention looks like an awesome Midwest convention in Kansas City/ Lee's Summit, Missouri. Just $5 to get in and it looks like a great time with lots of vendors and games being played. I was planning to go this year, but most travel plans had to be cancelled. We'll shoot for next year.

Readers, let me know if you like this format and what other questions I should be asking gamers, etc. What do you want to know about? 

Inspiration Part 3 of 2

Some other Quick links that I didn't squeeze in because I'm too tired:

Some miniatures on sale on eBay by a blogger I follow - 6mm GHQ and CinC stuff - amazing:

I've shown this guy's work before, but he's just posted more that are incredible:

And this guy, mainly for how he seems to run his business and his prolific YouTubing:
BlueTable Painting out of Utah.

Inspiration and Other Things Part 2

Right now, the Daft Punk playing on the Electronic Station on Spotify is inspiring me...this kind of music does this to me all the time. As I was looking for some pic to show on here about Daft Punk I ran across this video. And, no, I don't like it for the reasons that may seem obvious. I love the creativity of it all - so, here, in a major diversion for the blog is Daft Bodies (the "original" hands version is good/better - to the tune of 40,000,000 more views!):



Anyway, back to the regularly scheduled program:
I've spoke about terrain inspiration and now a few others:

From the TableTop Tacticians blog

The TableTop Tacticians:
I started watching their videos for inspiration and some WWII gaming (Their flames of war games)...Their first videos of their games were of unpainted models and modest boards (I started watching at the beginning of 2011. Slowly but surely, more models were painted, they seemed to have a better understanding of the rules and usually had a new face fighting their battles.
In a little over the year, they seemed to have grown a significant FOW community locally around them.

Inspiring to see a community grow.

btw, I like the objective marker with the C-47 airdropping the guys - this is what I mean by inspiration.

CommandCombat on YouTube.  He's coming up with this John Madden style of reporting his wargames which is fascinating and fun. I also like how he discusses the stats, has videos of tanks, and give analysis. Some of this will be copied/imitated/adapted at a YouTube/Blog post near you. Should note that not all of his videos have the video drawings, but the ones that do are fun.

Model Dads Flames of War blog - for their layout and their great tutorials. I envy their layout and their tone. Go check 'em out.

Their AARs are creative in their story telling approach.  Marketing and graphic design are interests of mine and they've nailed the Graphic Design - 10/10.


WWPD - What Would Patton Do - Again, I started listening to their podcast just to get some WWII mini gaming inspiration. Then watched some of their videos and reading their AARs. This is another community that has built up in a couple years time (seems to me anyway) It's been since I've been mini gaming anyway. They even created an AAR creator, called BatRepper, to help bloggers create consistent looking battle reports. They have an impressive 285 followers right now.


Last one for the night (it's getting late and I'm notoriously slow at writing...): The Two Half Squads. These two guys in a round about way got me into mini gaming. I started listening to them  when their podcast was fairly new and I was somewhat interested in ASL, or Advanced Squad Leader. I listened and commented on their blog (even to the point where they read one of my email comments/questions before I was even playing). And then...started playing ASLSK. Met some local ASLers and played for a short while. ASL and a one year long DnD campaign (my one and only) combined to show me the fun of rules and miniatures. With the detail of ASL rules, miniatures rules (some of them anyway) are a piece of cake. Also, playing with the DnD minis piqued my interest in seeing my games in 3D and not just on some chits.

These guys are inspiring because they're sticking to it. They're on episode 62 and still producing good stuff. I also like them because they're into it, but also very laid back with good senses of humor. ASL is such a small niche that they won't get the followers like WWPD, but they deserve it because they contribute a great and light-hearted asset to that community.

And that's it for inspiration for the night - except for one-100+ more. All the blogs I follow as well as the 42 followers. Many of the 42 have their own sites and their different ideas are an inspiration to keep upping my game...and terrain...and writing...and

Inspiration and some other random things

Table Designed by 9yr old son

New Hills Under Construction

New JR Miniatures House Under Construction

Okay, this could be long and rambling, but I've been sitting on it for some time, just trying to find the time to update what's happening and then to talk about some inspirational things I've seen.

My 9 year-old talked to me for the longest time about laying out one of my tables. Finally, the time was right and he did it - pic to the right. I will be playing a Blitzkrieg Commander II game on the table to try it out. He liked the roads. He also picked the armies. US troops in September 1944, trying to capture a bridge and rescue a captured US prisoner in one of the towns. The US also has a captured German Prisoner that the Germans want to rescue. This will be tough for the Germans because their force is half the size of the US force. However, they do have a King Tiger in a tank pit and an 88 in a gun pit.

A few rules I'm running through to try out for the first time:
Scheduled Artillery
Engineers
Wire
Prisoners - wait, there aren't rules for that - I'll figure something out.

There will be an AAR of this game - once it finally happens.

One last thing on this - 9yr old just wants to set up the table. He has no desire to play because, "playing is kind of boring."

Part of my to-dos - get more terrain complete. Thus the next two pics. I'm creating more hills. This will be made out of blue foam and not the free, cheap white stuff I used before. These will be a couple mm thicker, more oval with less big jogs and bends, and generally larger in area.

Next, I'm painting up the two Manor houses I bought from JR Miniatures back in August.

Also, I'm working on completing the Polemus fences I bought ages ago. The GSC8 from Baccus.

I'm pushed on terrain because I want to give participants a similar feeling I get when I'm playing on one of Jerry's tables or see the incredible Mluther's tables.

One of MLuther's tables:


And now, one of Jerry's tables:

So, you can some differences between these two and mine, pictured above. And I want to say that when I talk about the look of the table, I don't mean that because my 9 yr old designed it. Whether I'd set it up or my dog had set it up, it would have the same "look". This look is defined by the materials and products you choose...for sure.

Also, these two have more experience than me and, in the case of Jerry, has been collecting just a tad longer than me. So, I'm certainly not trying to compete with them. But what I'm trying to do is be proud of the tables that I'm presenting based on the limitations I've partially set for myself: how much I'm spending on it, my skill level, and the time I'm willing to put in.
Jerry fills his tables. But it appears that MLuther also fills his, but not so much with terrain as with the way he colors his tables with shades and colors to look more natural. MLuther can get away with this because he's gaming at 6mm and Jerry at 15mm.

Just hit me that MLuther's roads, scenery is more to the scale of the minis than mine. 

As I'm typing this and looking at these two sets of boards, I'm just awed by how good they look.


Links to some other pics:
MLuthers Flickr albums

Jerry's:

I'll have to continue this on a part 2

Dry Dock paining - some completed ships

Lutzow

Lutzow

Started painting ships for Naval Thunder. These are the 1/3000 ships I found for a $1.00 each at Miniature Market.

This is harder than I thought.

And I will paint my destroyers from here on out with a grey paint and a couple touch ups like black on the stacks and perhaps some dry-brushing. I painted the HMS South Hampton and Arethusa. Yeah, this is not pretty. But I want to keep them the way they are to hopefully see how I improve.

The South Hampton I could find only had two stacks and I couldn't find anything about retrofits. Mine has 3 stacks - maybe I can say it's extra fast! Just kidding purists!

The Graf Spee and Lutzow however, were fun to paint.

And yes, I've reached new levels of Nerdaton with my attempt at painting a swastika flag on the bow of the Lutzow. Yes, using a filament off an old toothbrush. Better luck next time.

Graf Spee

It's fascinating the paint schemes they used on ships in WWII. Some of them are quite effective making the ship look different than it  is. You can imagine at sea and dusk that it would be hard to get a good spot while targeting.

I've been thinking of basing and was going to get some Litko But I'm really trying to not spend money. I'm either going to try cutting some plexiglass I have (though I hear it's challenging) or perhaps using a heavy letraset. Like a heavy cardstock. With the latter I'm concerned for warping.

On another note: tried playing Basic Impetus again with the paper representing Samurai and Korea. And not so much interest this time. Impetus is a good set. I like the rules. Nice and easy to get, like Naval Thunder. However, I just wasn't interested in finishing out my test. And, when I was looking over the rules to clarify a few things, I found myself forcing the issue. It's my hobby and have other things I would like to try. I'll put thoughts of this era aside for awhile. When I get around to reading the books I bought for the era my interest may be rekindled.

On yet another note: watched the original True Grit and enjoyed it more than I thought I would. I'm leaning toward the new one as my favorite. I was impressed with the 1969 iteration though.

Here are a few of the sites I'm using as guidelines for painting and books for inspiration:
http://www.bismarck-class.dk/index.html
http://steelnavy.com/gallery_cruisers.htm
http://www.modelshipgallery.com/index1.html
http://uboat.net/index.html 
 

From Amazon

From Amazon

From Amazon

You Guessed It, From Amazon

And My Favorite, From Amazon

Great use of lights and minis

I was just checking out the blogs of those who've recently started following me and I saw these great pics at "Captain Richard's Miniature Civil War" - very cool stuff - completely used without permission - though I will go ask him now.
Go check out his site.