Adding a new “Spin” to my Full thrust space station!

A couple of weeks ago at the Hull & Track club I was running a pre-convention test of my “Attack on Redback Station” scenario for a Full Thrust space fleet battles convention game when jokingly I said to James Rodgers “I was going to make the station model spin at one time, but it would have been a PITA!” He looked at me and said “with your love of detail and customizing I’m surprised you haven’t!”

Well that made me think well why haven’t I? About five years have gone by since I first built the station and the internet market for strange gadgets has exploded…especially in the area of “nick nack” display. Within moments I had found a very small motorized turntable that also lighted up for under $20 usd!!! Ten years ago this would have been a month long project and a real pain in the “arse” to build… nowadays, 4- clicks of the mouse and 1 day later amazon dropped it off! A bit of paint work in the form of stars and ready!

Undead SAGA Warband episode #6 “Skeletal Giant”

Pretty intimidating to see this guy coming at you

So just a quick post up of more “UnDead” that should have gone up long ago but just been busy and posting is way down the list of important things in life…. trying to get in more post means less writing and just slapping up the pictures!

I absolutely love the sculpt and especially the weapons on this guy! Also the “repairs” to the bones from past battle damage.

I did this guy last year and he’s figured in a few battles. Very imposing at about 7+ inches considering regular 28mm is a bit over 1 inch! He’s a REAPER figure, the metal version, and was a joy to build, convert, and paint! In SAGA he’s a hard hitter being a 14/0 armor 4 or 12/0 armor 5 depending on how you run him.

It’s a big heavy figure and I took time to drill and brass pin all the joints. Legs, arms, and torso, joints were also epoxied with 2 part JB Weld as even quality super glue would not be up to the task! The JB KwikWeld is also very good at filling in gap and can be carved before full curing and sanded at full cure.

I used a semi-gloss coating on this figure just like the rest of the UnDead warband as it gives a bit more kick, deeper colors, and just looks great to me.

Worked on a few techniques that I do not normally do on historical figures, aged bronze blade, cats eye star sapphire jewel, and a Jade handle.

I love how the modified pose came out, much more dynamic and taller than the original hunched over pose the stock model has. This required cutting, bending, repositioning, and pinning of legs, torso, arms, hands/weapons, and his head.

I liked this figure so much I bought a second version, slightly different and made from that weird plastic and sold under the “Bones” division of REAPER miniatures as well as a second identical figure to this one. Both currently in the “lead pile” for future projects.

Detail on this REAPER figure is just right, not to little nor to much like many over done Games Workshop models.

This guy is always ready to”lend a hand” on the battlefield! He carries one on his belt just in case…..

A small amount of the tattered cloth hanging on him was painted with the same “red” found to some degree on all figures in the warband to tie them all together.

Project Space Marines or Marines from the future for a Future Marine!

Several months ago, my son mentioned he was playing Warhammer 40k on his PC from time to time and asked me to paint him a Space Marine to sit on his computer desk. This sort of touched my heart as in all the years of seeing me play wargames and paint miniature army’s he never really got the bug for that part of my hobby. He did get a love of history, gaming (on the PC), just never really picked up a brush. It reminded me of my father and I, my dad loved the outdoors, history, and hunting. I picked up his love of camping, history, but never became a hunter.

Well, I took up the task and decided to not just paint a figure but do something that would challenge my skills and give him something to not only enjoy but become a keepsake to remember me by.

I’m not a Warhammer player and haven’t painted any Space Marines but I was familiar with the game and the figures, in fact I had some hanging around awaiting possible conversion for other games. One of them was an old “Beakie” space marine from the 1990’s that had been kicking around my painting area for 20+ years! Plans started to formulate for the project;

  • It had to be impressive, make a statement, inspire.
  • It had to be something you wanted to display, not get tossed in a drawer later.
  • It had to last….
  • It had to have a personal attachment that meant something to both of us.

I decided I was going to do a diorama something that would have multiple facets of interest for the viewer and maintain interest over time. I had the one figure but my son wanted a figure with a banner and after scouring the internet settled on Warhammer 40k Primaris Space Marine Ancient Adeptus Astartes figure off Ebay. Now having both figures I formulated ideas for the vignette. I almost included a 40k Space Marine speeder with four other figures that would be dropping the Space Marine officer on  some ruins seeming to plant the banner, but realized this would be way to big (after I have already bought the speeder set of course). I also started thinking of how to enclose the vignette and protect it from dust and damage.

There are all types and sizes of these little display cases called “Bell Cloques” and they are great for displaying Mini’s!

This led me to looking at Bell Cloques to house the vignette in. If you aren’t familiar with these, they are simply a glass dome set on a base that allows 360 viewing of an item while protecting it. I found one on Amazon for around $25, 3 ½ “ wide x 7 ½” tall, and it had LED lights in it! I thought that would add a whole other dimension to the project and make it display better. It would be a perfect size for his computer desk. Having the two figures and now locking down the space the project had to fit into allowed me to start working out the scene, structure, and figure pose.

It was about this time that I get tired of thinking about a project and start just doing it and letting things progress, discovering problems and working out solutions as they arise. So, I started by cleaning up the two badly assembled miniatures figuring out how to paint them. The old beaky Space Marine was left in his original pose while the Officer/bannerman was chopped up and reposed to look more dynamic. I also decided to not paint these as “Ultra Marines” in their striking blue armor, but go with “Blood Angeles” and their very vibrant blood red armor.

Disappointed that the “LED” lighting did nothing to light up the miniatures in the display!

Once I got the display, I was excited to check out the “led” light function but was disappointed that the LEDs being set into the base under the glass bell really only light up the glass not the interior and frankly were more distracting than helpful. I decided to just work on other parts of the project while pondering the led situation.

I decided to put the two figures in an urban firefight situation and created some two-level building ruins for this. I put a separate round base under it for strength and so I did not have to build directly on the display case in the event it had to be replaced at some point. I was also still a bit unclear on positioning of the figures. I also made a decision to rip out the LEDs, drill a hole in the base to allow me to bring the LEDs up into the vignette area and perhaps use them to actually light it. Once done I played around with position and lighting.

The basic structure formed. The LED’s were gently removed, and re-routed through a newly drilled hole. Batteries and a switch for the are in the base.

Me hanging with “Mr Bean” at Kirkwood ski resort while Paul snowboarded… His harness looks a bit like the armor I’ll put on the figure later.

Things were starting to take shape but there was still something missing, the “personal touch”, the thing that would make it connect with Paul and I.

I couldn’t have found a better match!

Now at the time this was all happening Paul had adopted a dog from the local shelter during a visit at Christmas, an 8-month-old Pit, Labrador mix, a real sweetie! we had both spent some time training and caring for the dog we named “Beans” and the idea struck me to find a miniature that resembled “Beans” and put him in the scene. It was surprised to find the spitting image of “Beans” in 28mm from a company called DarkSword Miniatures and ordered a pack.

The scene now had a theme of an advanced scouting party establishing a forward observation post with their canine war dog!

While I fooled around with the dog’s position, I felt that I needed to alter “Beans” a bit to more fit in as part of the Blood Angeles force. Out came the Kneadite 2 part sculpting putty. I used the putty to ad power armor to his upper body, held in place with a mean looking spiked collar and a belly strap. I also added in a small bump with an antenna on the armor to represent a tracking/voice/camera transponder system. I purposely limited the armor because I wanted to be able to paint and have the figure readily identifiable as “Beans”

I think “bean’s” adds that touch of realism to the scene and shows that despite Warhammers claim that “in the dark future there is only war!” Space Marines still love their dogs!

It was around this point that as always, I get so wrapped up in the process and it’s coming together that I quit taking “in-progress” shots so will get to the finial “done” photos. I will say that I spent some time on working out the lighting effect and how to have it look as natural in the vignette as possible without taking over, or looking out of place in the scene. All in all, this was a real fun project for me done with a lot of love and dedication for my son Paul who is leaving his job in the corporate world with Patagonia (outdoor clothing) to become a pilot in the US Marines! I think his dog and the Marine tie in will give him years of enjoyment!

Picture with the LED’s on.

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American Civil War “the Last Waltz”

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I haven’t done a battle report in ages, frankly for a couple of reasons, they are a lot of work and unless you were there can be a bit boring. I’m putting this one up because the occasion was a special one, a gathering of the “clan” so to speak to “honor” one of our long-time gamers and a gentleman of the first order Steve Gausche!

Joe N and Steve G back when we played WWII 20mm at the “Dogs of War” clubhouse in Burbank, California. Great times! Circa 1998?

Steve has been around the Southern California historical gaming scene for as long as I have or longer, from the early 1980’s, so 40+ years! I met Steve at the last Grenadier in Burbank California and discovering that not only did we have a love of playing with toy soldiers and history we both worked in the movie business and had the same job on different “sets”!  This led to a friendship and work relationship of over thirty years! We worked on many of the TV shows and Movies familiar to you all, Startrek, Profiler, Charmed, Magnum PI, Arliss, and more for long hours made bearable by talking history, miniatures, games and even doing a little painting on set waiting for makeup, hair, or special effects to do their thing.

Steve Gausche life long gaming pal! We had just re-based his ACW troops on magnets! We did this at a time when most others still hauls their mini’s around in old pizza boxes! Circa 1992!

These days Steve’s gaming has become limited because of health issues, yes none of us will last forever. I resolved to give Steve something to remember, a showing of the love and respect he had earned over the years in our gaming community. Steve and I had been talking and lamenting the fact that we hadn’t been able to game much over the last year with Covid, and other commitments and I said “well let’s do something now, no more waiting” when I asked him what he would like to do it was “American Civil War” his favorite period.

The shear number of troops on the table made for a great looking game!

Really at first it was just going to be me, Steve, and a couple of others on a Friday night at my place, nothing to complicated or special, however I thought I might just send out an email blast to others who might want to join. I figured that since I live up north of Los Angeles and it was a Friday evening game the traffic and logistics would have few people joining us, boy was I wrong! I ended up with an outpouring of support that touched me and made the night very special for Steve! Over a dozen gamer’s committed to coming up with many more sending messages of love and support for Steve! Friends in other states wishing they could be there, some of the players drove 4+ hours, all through the LA traffic, some even taking the day off to get there early for dinner!

Truly a gathering of the “Old Guard”

Thanks to all who attended and to my lovely wife who gave us a great after dinner spread of munchies! On to the game!

A good game always starts with good preparation. Terrain laid out, troops assembled, and rules, reference sheets, and all needed gaming aides at the ready!

With large groups, impromptu games, and limited time, fairly balanced forces and a meeting engagement is often a better choice than a historical battle. We went with a Corps per side, each player having command of a division and its artillery batteries. Mike Estey and I umpired as many had not played the Fire and Fury rules before, I helped on one end of the battle and Mike the players on the other end.

A little side note; ALL the figures on the table are Steve’s and all painted by him, they are beautiful as well! All the terrain was built, painted, and provided by me and it’s OK I think….

Thanks to Mike for spending much of his time helping to explain or answer questions from players, this made the game the success it was!

The original “Brigade” Fire and Fury is a great, classic, innovative rule-set, easy to learn and quick to play, perfect for this evening! Just enough detail and feel to be fun but not cumbersome.

The Battle opened with players rolling their entry positions. The table was basically divided diagonally following the main road stretching the length of the table. Each player rolled for entry at one of 4 points, 3 on their long table edge, and one on their short side. Rolling ended up with each side having one division coming on in the center and 2 on the southern edge. Classic example of two army’s who while searching for each other unexpectedly bump into each other resulting in a “battle”

As troops poured onto the battlefield both sides rushed to deploy into position while commanders struggled to come up with a battle plan! As happened in the Civil War the “eye’s” of both army’s, their Calvary was out gallivanting somewhere else!

Both side rushed units North to avoid being flanked, the Confederates had the advantage of controlling the road but were a bit slugish in issuing orders getting the troops moving down it. Union General Clark Dandridge commanding the Union right flank (on the northern flank) pushed his units hard and got into good defensive positions before Confederate General T. Daun could get his attack organized. The opening shots came from this flank with General C. Dandridges forces artillery battery pounding the assembling “rebels”.Unfortunately for the battle report I was to busy to pay much attention to what was happening on the Southern section of the battle field or even in the middle where the largest concentration of troops were located on both sides. I have to rely on the bits and pieces learned after the battle from those who survived….

 

Seeing the lines of blue clad Union troops already advancing on them the Southern commanders dressed their lines of battle and pushed in to meet the “yanks” It seemed the southern Generals had finally aroused themselves!

Right wing Southern Commanders (pun intended) Chris S, Stevie G, and Joe N.

Pictures of the battle are a bit lacking because of the photographer (me) having little time and not wanting to slow the game down. Everyone was having a ball and with the limited time for the evening I chose to pay more attention to moving things along than taking pictures and gathering information.

Around this point the various artillery duels settled down, a general push began, and firing erupted along the entire line of battle.

The far southern table edge looking out into the middle of the battle centered around the church where some of the heaviest fight would take place.

This gallery is from fighting in the center around the church. It was here that the legendary miracle of “Stones Church” happened! When called upon to roll the dice for the resulting firing and melee’s Confederate General S. Gausche rolled like never before with 4-5 consecutive 10’s, a few 8-and nines, but never less than a 5! This feat of die rolling just couldn’t be matched by  the Union Generals Clark Dandridge, his father General Dave Dandridge, or General Estey. Union Brigades were pushed back with several colors captured and battery’s silenced or forced to retreat.

Matt Denny and Mike Estey of the “Bengal Club”

About 2/3rds the way into the evening Matt Denny of the Bengal Club group made it (late nite doing peoples taxes) and being another experienced Fire and Fury player grabbed a beverage and offered his services to the Union!On the Confederate left flank the Union had been holding it own and in fact General Clark’s artillery was causing concern with Confederate General T. Duan’s infantry, disordering them and causing light casualties. General Daun was heard to tell his brigade commanders “let us push forward bravely and clear out this nest of vipers!”

I failed to get many pictures of this action but you can see the initial deployment in the picture I used at the top of this post with the pictures of the resulting action here.

Union forces sent to guard the flank under the young “give them the steel” Union commander General Clark fix bayonets and surge forward. Rebel General Daun struggles to get his men in position.

The Union brigade managed to reach the stone wall but a withering blast from the Reb gun batteries and the muskets of their infantry disorders and causes much loss of life to the Union brigade.On cue, sensing the moment and following General T. Dauns order to give them “the steel” two rebel brigades crash into the remnants of the Union brigade, killing or capturing what was left!

Going down fighting this union Brigade is attacked by two full rebel brigades, on of which is in brigade mass and hitting them in the flank! I think the difference in final numbers was negative 14 for Clark’s troops! Resulting in “Swept from the field”

With little opposition the Northern wing of the Confederate Corps looks to roll onto the Unions flank and finish folding the Union center.

A Union brigade suddenly finds its self alone, out of command, and facing more than 3 to one odds including a rebel battery to its front.

Meanwhile the Southern flank was like a pot beginning to boil over. An early push by Confederate General Christian Adolphus Snell (his father fought with the Prussians at Waterloo) was checked by large Union forces under the commands of General Dandridge and Estey. Dense woods and hilly terrain made maneuvering on that flank difficult but it was about to explode as night fell, this combined with the bad news from the Northern section surly would have caused the Union commanders to retreat, regroup, and not risk destruction of their forces in a less than advantageous engagement. Besides think of all that fine Tennessee Whisky we captured yesterday, certainly wouldn’t want that to fall back into Rebel hands!

General C.A. Snell pushes his brigades into the attack helping to give the northern C.S.A. brigades more time.

Fierce fighting was breaking out in the dim shadows of the wooded hills. The outcome was never a sure thing for either side.

Muddy “Catfish Creek” divided the forces of the Southern edge and the center. However it was fordable along its entire length, it being the end of summer. The Unions superior artillery and their Generals ability to keep it close in supporting the Brigades had a telling effect on Rebels ability to close in.

Another view of the left end and the center from the Union position (we captured Matthew Brady and all his equipment) showing again the perfect positioning of Union battery’s to support the Brigades.

With the Northern flank of the Union army turned as well as the Union center cracking and under pressure by having to redeploy forces to meet the Northern attack soon to come it’s the opinion of this reporter (known Southern sympathizer) that had darkness not begun to fall (it was 10:30 and many had long drives) the South would have carried the day! Not a resounding victory but certainly barring a lot of great die rolls would have forced the Union off the map. At the end every one was smiles and Steve with the biggest smile of all, being the “Hero” of the game!

 

Riddle of the Sphinx

Being a guy who couldn’t cook to save his life and likely to starve with out my good wife watching over me you can imagine my wife and daughters surprise several years ago when they caught me watching the “Great British Baking Show”! I found the show fun to watch, interesting to see how these baked works of art were created, and frankly I could listen to the dictionary being read to me if it was done with an English accent! Little did I know that what I would learn watching this show would help me in the wargaming world….I make a lot of terrain and while making a damaged “Sphinx” model for a friend I thought about what a pain it was to spread out filler on the base while creating the underlay for the drifting sand. I use “Durham’s Rock-Hard” wood putty quite a bit and it can be messy and a bit troublesome when trying to apply in a controlled manner quickly. It spreads easy when very thin, gets into cracks, but wont hold shape well or stay put. When its thicker it is hard to spread out evenly, retains brush marks and starts to set up.I spent a few days on other projects, always though in the back of my mind thinking on a new way to apply the filler. Then bingo I thought back to the baking show and how they used “icing cones” when decorating cakes, would it work with wood putty?

A quick trip to the market and I had a dozen plastic “icing cones” for $6 US. Mixed up a fist size batch of filler, scooped it into the icing bag, rolled and clipped the bag end closed, cut the other end off creating about a ¼ inch hole, and I was ready to go.

To apply it you simply point the open tip where you want filler and squeeze the bag! Wow, just like a tube of toothpaste, it worked better than I had hoped for.

  • Varying consistency of the mix, thicker or thinner, helps in control and flow.
  • Roll from the “fill” end pushing material towards the tip. Like a tube of toothpaste!
  • Small clips are useful to close each end.
  • A few soft flat brushes and water can help in moving or smoothing out applied filler.
  • A small amount of PVA wood glue added to the mix makes the putty even harder!
  • Bags are reusable when cleaned out quickly.Who would have thought that watching “the Great British Baking Show” would make one a better painter… just goes to show you never know where that next “cool trick” will come from!

Bill Witthans

 

Japanese Monks for RONIN, the game I’ve yet to play!

 

While not a fan of most of the OSPREY rule sets this one really hit the mark in my book just based on reading through it. Cant wait to actually test drive it with game soon!

We all do it, get interested in a game or period, buy the rules, the figures, maybe even build some terrain, and never play the game! That’s me so far with RONIN one of OSPREY’s stable of rule sets. RONIN covers small skirmishes between Japanese Warriors during the late period of Sengoku Jidai or Warring States in 15th-16th century Japan. I’ve always liked the period and have two large 15mm Samurai army’s based for “Battles in the Age of War” by Peter Pig. I now felt the urge to paint some 28mm Samurai but since the amount of detail on Samurai in 28mm would rival Napoleonic uniforms and I did not have the urge to paint 28mm Samurai armies! However, a few handfuls of figures in a very detailed small battlefield setup that is RONIN sounded perfect.

Well, I have had the rules for nearly 5 years, figures for 4 years, and some terrain for 3 years, and still not played, but I have finialy painted my first “Buntai” or group for the game.  North Star Figures makes some excellent figure sets designed for the game and just to get my feet wet I painted up a group of 8 Monks.

REMEMBER… double click a picture to get a lager version.

A good start to my RONIN force! Eight monk figures from North Stars boxed set (metal figures).

Even though they are arguably less detailed than other Samurai figures the colors and getting the simple robes of a monk to look good and stand out is very challenging. I really liked the poses on these figures and the sculpts are very nice. I think the sculptor did an excellent job of getting the Japanese face structure right without it looking comical. The figures were sealed with a gloss coat but then I used a semi-gloss instead of a total matt finish as it gives a bit more depth and richness I like on Samurai figs.

This art work was an inspiration to paint and play a warrior monk force.

The warrior monks of feudal Japan were not much different from their sometime enemy, sometime allies, the Samurai. Politics and alliances in Japan during this period were in a constant state of change, sometimes even during the course of a battle. Dozens and dozens of factions all grasping for power or simply protecting their “piece of the pie”! The religious sects were generally peaceful but not afraid to fight when their interest were threatened, also very well trained, motivated, and fearless when doing it. Some of these monk sects power rivaled that of  Daimyos at the time. Often Diaymos tried to rally the monks to their side and some Diaymos were monks as well having taken the vows of the order. The conflict between Oda Nobunaga and some sects of monks lasted for years, producing some of the most vicious fighting of the period!

 

Warrior Monks used the same weapons and armor as the the Samurai. They tended to specialize in some weapons like the Tetsubo (club) and the Naginata (polearm). If you took off the priestly robes worn over their armor you might be hard pressed to tell them apart from the Samurai.

Painting these figures was fun and with less sculpted detail on the figures allowed me to concentrate more on the method I used when applying it. Blends, washes, glazing, dry brushing all contributed to the depth and richness in the cloth. I went very simple with my base treatment’s as I did not want it to detract from the figure. I used a style of long grass and crushed stone, common to Japanese gardens.

 

Getting 15mm Napoleonic infantry off the shelf!

Just a quick post to update on what I’ve been up to lately both miniature wise and with life in general as one often impacts the other. Over the last year I’ve been quite involved (working my ass off!) in fixing up and remodeling my house prior to listing it for sale and a possible move out of state. This has led to me sorting through a lead pile of enormous proportions and list things as KEEP, SELL, or GIVE AWAY! Much of the “KEEP” section has already been packed but there are still quite a few projects half-finished on the shelf that I’m endeavoring to finish before I move.

Projects that are awaiting completion, some of these figures are growing beards they’ve waited so long!

Some of the projects are also commissions or projects promised to others that have already appeared as post (Carthaginian Archers) and many are just victims of the “oooh shiny let’s paint some of these instead” where we start another project before finishing the current one, we nearly all do it….

A quick search on YouTube will take you to this gem of a historical movie.

One of my ongoing projects is 15mm Napoleonic’s and I have not only a fair-sized collection of fully painted / based figures, French, Russians, Saxons, and Bavarian’s but an almost embarrassing amount of yet to be painted Napoleonic miniatures. One of the partially finished projects was a group of late war period French Line infantry and as I had just watched Napoleon the 2002 mini-series “again” I was in the mood!

I would recommend the show to any history buff and while there are a few small mistakes or “stretches” it is overall superb, well written, photographed, and well cast. At just over 6 hours I still felt I could have used more and never felt it to drag on. I put this show on a par with Shogun, Horatio Hornblower series, or Vikings, as it gives one a true feel for the period while not boring the viewer and still maintaining some historical accuracy!

Sorry for the poor quality of some pictures but I fooled with the settings and couldn’t remember exactly what they were to reset them! Having packed my notes on camera settings it will take a few sessions to get them right again! Being that I’m from the “analog age” where each function had its own button or dial sifting through endless “menus” to adjust things is painful!

Quite a few of my wargaming buddies have shed their 15mm collections over the years and moved to 25-28mm figures for a variety of reasons, “I don’t use them any more”, “I like painting larger figures” or the often “I can’t see them!” I have kept mine and continue to paint, play and enjoy the scale as I think it has many attributes not found in the larger scales. Savings in figure cost, time in painting, storage, and room needed to play are often plus marks on the side of 15mm. I like the visual aspects of large masses of figures covering the table much more easily done in 15mm. It’s also sometimes easier to hook new players into the miniatures hobby because of these attributes than with their larger cousins. There are pro’s and con’s to all scales and frankly I love them all!

Enough with the scale debate! I really just meant to show  the figures I just finished as part of getting things off the “half-finished” shelf!  This unit is late period French Line infantry and are composed entirely of 19th Century miniatures that most of us know as the original “Old Glory 15’s. The unit it is based for the Age of Eagles rules by Bill Grey and what I consider one of the best for the Napoleonic period.

These guys are happy to finally march off the shelf and into the “active duty” case! Figures are from the “Old Glory 15’s” line produced by 19th Century Miniatures

I’m also going to start trying to document my entire collection of miniatures in pictures here on the site so I will be slowly adding pictures via post but ultimately, they will be organized on the “painted pile” page according to period and scale.

More soon!