10mm Buildings

I added another pair of useful buildings to my 10mm VBCW range this past week. The first is a church from a prosperous parish, built from Hirst Arts Gothic blocks and components around a foamcore carcass.

The second is a printout of a WW2 German POW camp blockhouse, provenance unknown. If anyone can tell me, I'll happily credit it here.

I scaled the printout size down to 80%, only to discover the printer cartridges were not producing ink properly. It came out a rather putrid green instead of grey. I cut out the parts and assembled them around a block of expanded foam for solidity, then painted it as above. 

Although it could serve as a blockhouse, I think it looks more like a hangar or garage, and will use it as such.

I'm on course to buy a sheet of plywood for a gaming table sometime next week, hopefully before the 4th July holiday. It's something I'm really looking forward to - photos as they come.  
 
 

Back in Colonial mode

Now the dust and debris of moving house is dissipating, I've had the chance to make a few shelves for the Man Cave and get some of my much-traveled figures out of their carrying boxes. 

Thankfully the move/transatlantic flight doesn't seem to have done much damage. The worst was to the upper deck of the civilian version of the Colonial steamboat, which lost its funnel and railings. I'd like to extend the upper deck in any case, so it's an ill wind that blows some good. Here's the same vessel in gunboat mode, with the Reviresco crew figures manning her. 

My Zanzibar slavers suffered chips and dings to their paintwork. It'll take a while to address the damage, but I'll get there. 

As you can see, I have quite a force now, ready to pose trouble for Belgian and British Colonial aspirations. I also have a number of white adventurer types to get into trouble on the Imperial frontiers.

I'm busy building a shed at the moment, but once it's done I hope to buy a sheet of fiberboard or similar to make a gaming table.
  

Royal Salute

Today is the anniversary of the succession of Her Majesty Queen Victoria (God Bless 'er!) to the throne of England. I can't manage a 21-gun salute in her honour, but I can do at least three guns...

(ACW Re-enactors at Muster on the Maumee, Fort Meigs, Ohio)

Fun at Fort Meigs - Muster on the Maumee

We had a great afternoon out Saturday at Fort Meigs up near Toledo. A host of re-enactors from Roman times up to Vietnam were there, strutting their stuff with a mass of interesting stories and facts about their periods. Thanks to all we spoke to. 

I also met up with a group from the Great Lakes Gamers who were putting on a display of wargames in the information center. A nice bunch of guys, they were happy to meet a fellow gamer and talk games and gaming.  Plenty of Too Fat Lardies rules were in evidence; the chaps are big fans of their rules systems.

 French-Indian War in 28mm. 

 Frank Demana discusses the period with my better half.

 Romans in Germania Libera - Can they avoid the Varus Disaster?

Italy, WW2

US Artillery, War of 1812

Small-craft action on the Great Lakes

Roman legionary in Dacian-fighting armor

Grunts in 'Nam

   

Gebirgsjager - WW2 German mountain troops

 

WW2 Russians

British WW2 - ATS (Auxiliary Transport Service) and Somerset Light Infantry

In the photo are my favourite rifle - the Lee-Enfield - and pistol - the Webley (or in this case a clone). It might or might not stop a charging enemy at fifty paces, but it'll certainly make his eyes water. 

A sniper in ghillie suit takes his ease

US Marines at rest

 WW2 US Army HQ tent with staff and 50mm mortar

 A Wyandot warrior from both FIW and 1812 - in the latter period the British gorget signifies personal wealth rather than allegiance

Rider on her way to the mounted medieval warfare demonstration

 Camp of the ACW Ohio Volunteer Infantry

L-R, Canadian Essex Regt. Arquebusier, Ronin, US Army War of 1812, British Foot, another Canadian Essex Regt.

Tomorrow I'll post a video of the ACW live cannon firing demo. Who doesn't like a loud bang and cloud of nasty-smelling smoke? ;)

New cards

My man cave still has a lot of clutter, but now I have some shelving material which will allow me to get most of it stowed away.  I also have a network of garden vegetable plots to dig and a greenhouse to build. Eventually, I will get time to game again!

My next game will probably be A Very British Civil War to "Went the Day Well" rules, produced by Solway Games. These are a set of platoon-level rules which cover the alternate history VBCW and inter-war conflicts in general.

The rules require a set of playing cards for activating units. These have to be laid beside the unit concerned, which is where I ran into a bit of a problem. My collection is 10mm, so ordinary cards would be too dominant compared to the figures. After a bit of a search, I found these on eBay.

They're quarter-size and perfect for the job. Okay, fun time over, back to the greenhouse...
 

Never look a gift house in the mouth.

A friend gave me this nice little resin piece whilst my wife and I were in England.  

 

Socialist militia investigate a cottage.

 

It's hollow resin, manufacturer unknown. It was already painted but lacked depth, so I gave it a wash of sepia ink then dry brushed off-white to bring out the stonework. The scale is on or around 1/150th, so it's going in with my AVBCW collection.

A tour of neighborhood garage sales this weekend turned up this unexpected gem... 

One of the classic works by one of the experts on tank warfare, I'm surprised it turned up in a small town in Northwest Ohio. We got there at the time when the sellers were offering books at half-price, in this case $2.50, so it's something of a bargain. Now all I need is a bookcase to put this and my other books in. Maybe we'll find one at the next round of garage sales!
 

N-scale trees

One happy little result of our recent move was the discovery of a previously lost bag of Woodland Scenics tree flock. I put it to good use in between unpacking heaps of boxes (we struck floor in two rooms Tuesday!). The results I show below.

The trees are N-scale/10mm, made for my AVBCW collection. They're created by sticking flock to thistle heads using hot glue. The trunks are sections of thick twig, which are then stuck to simple roundish bases. I'm going to give them a quick going-over with adhesive spray to fix all in place before finishing the bases with spackle, as the flock has a tendency to rub off when handled. 

Sometime in the past I bought a similar bag in Autumn colours, so some Fall foliage might be appearing soon.

Man Cave in the Making

Let no-one tell you moving house is easy. It isn't. We found a nice place, but it has a few eccentricities in the electric and plumbing departments. Only this afternoon I had to help mop the floor after the washing machine outlet pipe turned out to be blocked on the first wash to be done under this roof. Sigh! 

Still, I have a Man-Cave lined up...

The clutter will be dealt with eventually, once I get some shelves and a bookcase. The space allows for an 8' by 4' wargames table, although I think a 6' by 4' might work better. We'll see. Little chance of setting up a game yet - too much to do. More here as things develop!