Gaming Japan in Nashville!

Posted on September 13, 2026 by Bill

Just a quick post of what going on in my world,

At Nashville’s Track and Hull gaming group we are working on getting in more Saturday gaming since some of us find the Tuesday night gaming a bit short time wise for some games and face it the drive across Nashville at 5pm can be tough! I’m just reposting a short blurb that I did on the club site.

Thanks to everyone who showed up for the Saturday gaming, 9 players in two games! Scott Anderson and I (Bill W) put on a Samurai battle using Test of Honour rules. Besides Scott and I we had David R, Grimsby, and Pete playing as well. I set up terrain early with my new Geisha House and a nearby temple. We did a scenario out of the book that fit the terrain “Capture the Spy” with one of the Geisha’s being the spy. My Samurai Hero got to the ladies first and rolled well capturing the spy, my triumph was short lived as Grim and Pete pushed their Hero’s at me and managed to get control of her and began to spirit her away. Fighting was across the board but the melees around the Hero’s and companions were intense. My Samurai Hero/leader managed to kill Pete’s leader who was chopping up my lower ranks. Grim and Pete did a great job of defending and keeping David and my forces from getting the spy back. Of particular note was the battle between My mounted Hero and Grims “Big dude with a Mallet” a hero of some renown that went for at least 6 or 7 rounds of combat before my roll of seven swords put an end to “mallet man”

I set up Terrain while Scott A assembled forces and matching stat cards.

Scott A game mastered and this gave me a chance to play!

We did a scenario out of the book “Catch the Spy” where you must come in contact with suspects and roll a “Test of Wits” to see if they are the spy. Do these lovely ladies look like spies?

Sohei Monks rush in to prevent enemy spy from getting away!

Two of the most powerful Samurai warlords go “toe to toe” on horseback! I’m playing the “green Shimazu” clan figure on the left. (all shown figures painted be me)

Early on I discovered the “spy” and was trying to escort her of the board for a win when two powerful enemy warlords wrested control of the “spy” from me!

All the terrain is mine and most of the buildings built from the great looking line of MDF Japanese kits from Things from the Basement

“Tough guy with Mallet” and my Samurai Hero “Sushi Isagoodee” square off for the games longest battle trading blows 6-7 times before my high roll put and end to him!

While all this fighting rages around them the peaceful villagers just keep on tilling the soil only ducking from time to time to avoid arrows!

Japanese TV and Movie characters for Test of Honour

Posted on August 30, 2026 by Bill

Well, it’s been ages and a lot of water under the bridge. It’s not that I haven’t been painting or building but life has just been such that this site has gone way down the list of priorities…. I hope to start posting more regularly and get things up to speed again. I’m going to start small with some recent work and work backwards.

A few years back I decided to try Ospreys Ronin game, liked it and painted some 28mm Sohei Monks for it. I have now moved on to Test of Honour by Grey for Now games and really like the game. It’s a much more story driven game with lots of depth and expand-ability. I’ve been painting quite a few mini’s for it as well as buildings and terrain. Had to take a break on the “Geisha House” by “Things from the Basement” build as I got the kit with a few pieces missing (Jeorg the owner of TFTB was great in sending what I needed and making things right with his excellent customer service!). While I wait for missing pieces, I decided to paint a couple of Japanese figures based on two famous TV/Movie’s from Japan.

The figures are made by Bac Ninh miniatures who do a great line of hard-to-find characters from history and film. The first is Itto Ogami and Diagro from the Books, TV series, and films, “Lone Wolf and Cub” and the next is “Ziotachi the Blind Swordsman” also a famous character from Japanese film. I made 2 concessions when painting these figures to add a bit more contrast and to liven things up a bit. Can you spot the changes?

I’m going to have to come up with “stat’s” for an in game card for these characters!

Truthfully though the sculpts were great I thought the faces could have been better but so could have my paint job as I rushed them both.

I liked Ziotachi a lot and had fun painting him. The Japanese TV series and Movies are a must watch for you Samurai buffs! The sculpt also got the Katana’s position right as Ziotachi had a very unique “inverted” style holding and using his sword opposite of what would be normal for a Samurai.

They were fun to paint, although I rushed them (I may get a second set and do a better job) and wasn’t happy with some things, I still liked the figure and look forward to having some great games with them!

Martian Flyers in 28mm

Posted on May 7, 2020 by Bill

These were really cool flying craft, sadly I think no longer produced. I made a few mods to this one as I remember.. Certainly the “Guardrails” were copper wire and craft beads. I also think I did the rear tail area scalloping with a Dremel rotary tool to fancy it up a bit.

Sorting through pictures and found these so up they go for a bit of “eye” candy. These stuck out since I was about to sell a bunch of RAFM “space 1889” figures and they got snapped up by one of the “dogs” (you guess who!) so we may see battles on Mars in the future! I painted these years ago for Chris S. London War-room as I recall and for “Space 1889” or any Victorian Sci Fi situation.

I think I might have been working on Star Trek DS9 at the time and used some “Klingon” lettering for the tail ID! The scalloping I added in the rear tail section now ties the original models scalloping in the front together and improves the look tremendously in my opinion.

There was another control station that never got added since I had misplaced it at the time. found it years later in a “bits” box… I should paint and ad it! I see negotiations in our future Chris…..

I just love the design, so retro 1930’s Flash Gordon! I could just see “Ming the Merciless” cruising over the planet Mongo in this!

This flying “gunboat” was by the same manufacturer but done for the earth-men’s or colonial powers. Again a very nicely done model. I wish I would have picked some of these up but it was one of those times when you think “oh I’ll get them down the road” but then they go “out of production! I guess this justifies our large lead mountains! Get it while you can. I remember buying a bunch of models for a line called “Maschinen Krieger“ once again because they looked cool and I had some grandiose plans to use them in a project that never happened. I bought them for around $6 to $15 apiece and perhaps 12-15 kits, 10+ years later I sold the now “rare” original kits for 10 times the purchase price (and all to one person in Australia) with people literally fighting to get them, go figure!

Looking at this model I realize I didn’t really finish it with as much detailing as I planned, I did add the smoke stack and a few flag receptacles. Perhaps Chris would like me to finish it out a bit more? Part of the smoke stack was from another project and not used but kept in the “bits” box…came in handy for this modification.

I think this would look great with some German WWI style Submarine type markings!

Being as the boat is very monotone I used the trick of a splash of color (red prop) in the rear to draw the viewers eyes along the entire model.

A “Wargamers” guide to: Sheltering at Home!

Posted on April 25, 2020 by Bill

Hey I read on the internet “staying warm and drinking prevents you catching the Corona Virus” so this has gotta work right?

So having some time and the thought, I’ve written a short piece to help “Wargamers” survive the Corona Virus Pandemic! It is a piece not designed to play down the seriousness of the situation but a piece to lend spirit and support to my fellow gamers!

Its a long piece so it gets a separate page!

A “Wargamers” guide to Sheltering at Home!

Enjoy, Bill W.

An Ax at 1-1 scale

Posted on January 15, 2020 by Bill

OK, about time I posted something up here, not that I haven’t been busy but I’ve just not had anytime to post stuff! Well I still don’t have much time but even a small post will make me feel better…

My project for part of November and most of December was prepping for the Holidays and working 6 days a week which doesn’t leave you much time to paint, build, or play! Now I added to that work load the decision to make my daughters Christmas gift, well one of them. My daughter is a avid camper and hiker, while growing up with us, and now many times with her friends. Several times over the last couple of years she has borrowed my camping ax to use and hinted that she could sure use one of her own.

The condition my $5 ax came to me in!

While up in Washington camping last year my wife and I stopped at a little church bazaar and I picked up an old, rusty, beat-up Estwing camping ax for $5 and thought I would try and restore it for her. Little did I know what a project it would become!

Estwings come with a ring type compressed leather handle and it was completely rotted. cutting it off reveals the steel “tang” The new handle was cut to shape, split, and routed out to mate to this tang using two part epoxy.

I like to push the envelope sometimes and this project was no exception, I got into acid etching using vinegar, lemon, and a battery charger, engraving with Dremel tools, gun bluing, as well as expanding my woodworking skills by custom making the handle out of a chunk of south American “Ipe” wood. This wood is dense and super hard, 3 times as hard as oak! So dense that it doesn’t float in water it sinks!

I’m pretty proud of the handle its shape came out great and is a joy to hold. I also added about a 1 ½ “ to the normal length so as to add a bit more leverage and force in the swing.

My daughter loved it, ran out Christmas morning went to take pictures on the wood pile, and post to twitter, kids!

Into the steel of the ax I etched and ground images of trees, mountains, lakes, and activities we loved to do when camping.

Now she says “Dad I need a second ax to go camping with so I keep this one nice!” oh well I guess I’ll start checking swap meets for another bargain ax….

Dogs of War spoken here!

Posted on March 7, 2019 by Bill

Several times before I have posted about our gaming group the “Dogs of War” out in California’s San Fernando valley and how activities there might become a regular feature here on my site. The post below is a start in that direction, how exactly this will work is yet to be worked out. We hope to have other contributors, Chris Snell’s weekly reports now with pictures, as well as possible contributions by other “Dogs”. For now they will appear as normal post and be “categorized” under “Dogs of War”. This means that to find all post pertaining to the “Dogs of War” you only need to look at the right column scroll down and where you see “CATEGORIES” simple choose “Dogs of War” under that heading and all of the post linked “Dogs of War” post will be pulled up.

“Dogs of War” News from the front.

Posted on March 7, 2019 by Bill

Well after resisting “Flames of War” for over ten years but I finally got hooked into playing a game down at the Dogs and surprisingly ended up on the winning side! Now that is usually enough to hook me into a new rule set and a commitment but no not yet (ok not “new” since it’s been out for 15 years!). I love WWII and the majority of my wargaming over the years has been in that period, Air combat (Mustangs and Messerschmitt’s) Navel (General Quarters) Land Combat (Tank Charts, Frontline, Soldat, Crossfire and many more). I still don’t think Flames of War is “my” idea of a good WWII ruleset, for me it lacks some elements and sometimes the look of the battlefield gets a bit silly (Phalanxs of vehicles wheel to wheel and track to track) but as a “WWII GAME” it’s good. I think its fine, especially for players new to wargaming, new to WWII, and those who want a fast, light hearted approach to the game. It’s got fair detail without being burdensome, lots of troop types, vehicles, air support, bombardment, and tons of options to keep one interested for many months if not years! The rules are exceptionally well written and the explanations are very clear. For me I think it abstracts quite a bit to fit the complexity of a modern battlefield into the fast play mechanics of the rules, I’m not always of fan of this, but for what it is and what it is intended to be it works.

While I’m not head over heels in love I think I might be sucked in just enough to paint a few units, maybe Africa Corps or Fallshirmjager for Italy or Normandy because after all its about rolling dice and having fun with friends.

The Game we played was early war Europe (France) always fun and I jumped in with Frank on the German side, Chris Armstrong and Dave Dandridge lead the French forces. My strategy was simple, DEFENSE, always a good choice when commanding forces in an unsure situation and not knowing the rules made me unsure! I was also facing David D. a competent and tricky opponent who won’t make many mistakes and is sure to make you pay for yours! Not going to do any type of battle report here, just going to post a few quick shots I took while trying to hold off Dave’s French onslaught!