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Managed to get a few bits done this week for the squirrel vs orc game:
- WWS dead trees – nice a large as they are for 28s
- Alternate Armies ruins – more 15s than the 20s from Splintered Light but fine for ‘scatter’
I may add a bit of the moss and ground flock to the tree stumps – not sure yet.
The big stump I had planned to paint is in a “safe place” (ie I cannot find it) so these stumps are stand-ins as a target area for the raid.
And so the Palaeo game is not left out I completed the second pond:
I also went a bit mad after the news of the woodworking and decided that a hone base was required so built a small group of buildings for the tribe to occupy:
complete with garden:
and ancestor(s):
Two games spring to mind:
- A mammoth after some tasty food – possibly a solitary male going by this article in sci-news
- Recovering the grandparents after a wolf attack
Now the electrics are done (we have heat downstairs in time for winter) and carpets being sorted I’ve just got the gunk on the hall wall to sort and I can play a game or two. I actually dug out Ogre the other day – a fair amount of plastic to build (I have the Kickstarter set amongst other bits) but had to find the early rules (sadly cut up 3rd edition from ’77) as the GEV & minis set are too deep for me currently.
If you get a chance to have a game with Mike JUMP AT IT – you would have to travel miles for such a gracious / courteous host.
Bless ya cottons!
Way back in July 2021 (gasp) I showed the Lincolnshire flag as being the colours I wanted to paint the blocks in and today I actually changed the green to match a little better!
Looking at the pic, a few (top right) may get another coat this afternoon but TBH they look fine on to the eye. Now to find the rules and summary sheet etc!
Blowing the dust off some of the paints I did find a lot of the cheap eBay painting balls have rusted over the years:
Not sure if this will impact the paints or not – the ball still seams to be in the bottle (no way to extract easily) – anyone any idea?
Fortunately, most of the paints have Army Painter balls in them but I really need to check the lighter colours…
Next up the test Ogre minis and base up some Palaeo figures (inc doggies) for undercoating and painting. As I have not found my missing hero yet I think a set of simple quest rules for the map is a winter project – they can go hunting for The Spear of The Ancestors 🙂
edit:
Ogre Heavy Tank – green is shiny and it’s not the best pic! but gives you an idea:
I had forgotten how dark paints look on 6mm tanks (it being nearly 45 years since I painted any) but I’m happy with the result.
I’ve also dug out a MY Minis Elasmotherium to eat the vegetables in the little homestead. As per normal with MY figs, they are not the most detailed but this will do fine as a challenge for the folk:
He is a BIG brute – 6cm tip of horn to end of the tail. Need to get a base ordered as I have nothing of that size. Sadly, he is way bigger than my mammoths – they will have to be pigmy ones if they are on the table at the same time (I know, these beasts where 15 foot in length IRL but still out of scale).
Got a bit of painting done for Palaeo Diet.
First up is the largest opponent so far who will be looking to nibble on the garden:
and the ‘brave’ (still to be proven) defenders:
I also got the wolves lair sorted:
I decided that basic flesh was boring so added a few tribal markings that will help identify the figures on-going. Still no sign of the missing man – but I’ve decided he has gone fishing (her indoors complaining over the bugs in the roof of the new house) for now 🙂Very pleased with the lair – it’s a 3D print and despite a lack of texture it will go very nicely in the game.
Still need a bit of time to complete the bases (decided to paint the edges black) and add a coat of varnish but that can wait till I’ve ordered and received the bases for the larger figures in store…
Did absolutely zero on the blocks felt – got a bit carried away with the brush this week! At least the felt does not need the table clearing so I may slide that in next week and be ready to game in December.
Thanks all.
I’ve just come across this picture (from the defunct Tiny Tanks blog) that has a neat idea for a town when using Kallistra hexes.
From what I can gather, the OP (Bish) had the triangles made specifically to fit the hexes and allow the two troop bases to fit in the middle. Very neat as it shows the troops are in place but not sure if it is an advantage over using a blank base with the lines and gardens on it.
The original blog is off line but available via the Internet archive at this link.
I have seen Mikes photo base and made sabot bases before but still think the road / garden base is the way for me.
Footnote:
I may have waffled so much that I may have dreamt about describing my plan (or I have forgotten that I did) ! The small buildings I painted are for the towns in the block game but give me issues when troops occupy the area – I hate wobbly units precariously balanced on roof tops so I was going to make an empty base the same layout and size as the buildings but with only the roads and gardens painted in that I can swap in as needed.
Finally got enough energy not to sit around after doing the washing up today (still falling asleep after any activity post C19) and decided I would complete the full set of felt terrain for my block OHW games.
I did find a couple of calculation errors on my sheet and one redundant hill (I’m not fussed if the hill is 5x10cm vs 7x9cm TBH) but here is my set:
I may redo the marshes at some point (the two grey/blue in the middle) – I’ve since found a darker green/brown/blue sheet of felt but that’s for another day…
Looking top left to bottom right I now have:
- 7 x Hills
- 7 x Forests (or wooded areas)
- 3 x towns
- 2 x marshes
- 2 x lakes
- 2 x roads
- 2 x bridges
- 1 x river (just peeking out)
I did not do the crossroad or fords as these are just where the roads cross themselves or the river but I did create the bridges as they are used without roads in scenario 3 and can be used as fords and the two are not differentiated in the rules when they appear together.
Not sure if I will write the sizes directly on the back or possibly add a sticky label to them – I’ll see if I need them marking or not as TBH it’s a bit OCD to use exactly the ‘correct’ bits but I feel happier to be close to the authors imagination.
I did find my poor old map has suffered with creases over the last few months from being in the box while it was stuffed with the ‘spare’ felt – I have a crack or two in the paint spray I used on the material so may roll this up in future. Looks OK though with a little brush when laid out so no repairs needed.
And the great news is that everything still fits in one 9L RUB box now I’ve added another try to the top – I’m using the inserts from Warbases to hold general items and the RUB square tray for the counters.
Next step is to draft up the ‘snakes and ladders’ style board for the campaign – may get it done tonight ready for a game or two in February 🙂
On a roll tonight – sorted a campaign map / flow.
Basically it is Blue attacking and working its way to the Red home (top right).
A D6 (maybe D4) determines move with a forced stop at the big boxes at the end of each row and the very simple drawings give a basic layout to fight over – this needs a lot more work for campaign 2 but works as a starting point 🙂 This gives a minimum of 5 games out of 10 on the map and (very) loosely gives a story line.
The games (in order) are:
- 3 – battle over the river with two crossings
- 21 – Blue has to take a town and hill
- 12 – Red is defending a bridge but is unaware of another crossing point
- 17 – Slugfest over a hill
- 26 – Disorganised defence by Red
- 9 – Blue needs to seize a town
- 22 – Blue ambushes Red from the forest
- 23 – Red is suffering insurrection so Blue has irregulars and Red has to cross the board
- 24 – Blue has to clear a road and the areas to the side of it
- 30 – Red fight to the last man defending the capital with elite troops
I’ve not added any rules for supply / recovery or reinforcements beyond the few notes on the board – that can come way down the line if things go well.
Despite the aches and pains (and d**n cough still) I’ve managed to get a few bits painted and based:
A pair of woolly rhinos (Coelodonta antiquitatis) join the now based Elasmotherium:
I do have a young rhino but could not put my hands on a wood base so that’s back in the ‘pile of shame’ for now.
The last figure is more for the 15mm game but may make a ‘guest’ appearance in Paleo! Meet the Entus Biggus:
The hands/claws are big but the camera has exaggerated his right one a bit more than I expected 🙂
Not sure if they will get varnished for now – I normally use a spray but not tried it on resin (it’s an old old tin of Vallejo) and no idea if it will react and the weather is not great (damp / cold) so I may wait for a month or two and a sunny day.
I do have a couple of bits that I’m not fussed over (the raft and oar) so may use that as a test.
To be fair, I’ve not heard anyone having issues with varnish and resin prints – there was a post on LAF about plastic figures going sticky but that’s as close as I have seen. Anyone else know of any issues?
Been testing painting a resin river section I picked up at Partizan from Magnetic Displays (Coritani).
It’s a grey undercoat with earth edges, sand river section with a very light blue wash and death guard green applied with a sponge over the sand.
The final ones will have the edges flocked, Mod Podge ripples and the odd real stone added.
I found the blue wash pooled at the edges and brush strokes galore forced the use of the sponge but for a test piece I am heading in the right direction. May try it without the blue wash (my pot is old and has flakes of dried ‘ink’ in it) or mix up a paint based replacement next.
Size wise they are perfect for Palaeo but too wide for the blocks.
@Logain – must admit I fell in love with the figure the first time I saw it and TBH it’s the best impulse purchase I’ve made in years!
@Whirlwind – I’ve really grown to appreciate the smaller games despite the ‘wow’ factor. Maybe it comes from all the small pocket hex and counter games I used to play? Or failing that I’m getting old enough to appreciate a decent storage solution keeps the dust away!
As for small things – the three biggest figures for Palaeo have now been done:
While digging around I found some cork tiles (£3 for 4 from B&M) and decided that I would create some classic rocky areas for the Stone Age guys to run over:
For some reason the superglue decided not to stick this time so it took a couple of extra days (4 in total) but very happy with the result.
House rules will limit the type of animals that can cross these (knew those goats would come in handy one day) and maybe restrict archery despite the tallest one only being 3+cm tall. Not sure if the original SoBH rules had a height advantage (+1 to the roll is a major bonus on a D6) but I’ll have a read.
EDIT: Would have helped if I had a figure in the pic – the largest one (at the front) is 18cm end to end
Been out for a while (physical and mental health not too good) but pottered around over the last two weeks and got a few resin river pieces painted up:
Decided not to go for the green in the end and went classic blue – they just did not sit right on the mat despite the green being close to the local dykes in colour! I did not want a lot of ‘white water’ as these are for use as streams in Palaeo Diet but I did add a bit of ripple with gloss Mod Podge (nothing like being traditional here):
These are the Magnetic Displays / Coritani river sections that I bought a few years ago and it turns out their roads / path sections are the same straights and curves so I can use the road pack I picked up at Newark to add some different curves. Mine are only 3cm wide so you may want to double check with them before ordering any as I do not have the bag with the catalogue number on it (and the road number TH105 does not show in a search).
Despite being a few mm thick they have no real warping and the cream resin takes paint very well (I used Halford Grey undercoat first as you can see from the box). A couple of bits survived a drop from the table to the carpet with no issue.
No real solution for storage yet – adding the tufts / flowers was not the best idea I had 🙂 🙂 Possibly a 9L RUB with Warbases trays to store flat or pick and pluck and store vertically…
While on eBay (more of the 28mm GW to go up soon) I decided to order a small sample of 3D printed walls sized for 15mm from CNC Universe as I was blown away by the small ruin they did. These folk are a true ‘print to order’ as the three bits arrived on the raft 🙂 :
Size wise I am happy as the squirrels match nicely:
and as the orcs are bigger they should provide only a minor distraction… The biggest orc is twice the size of the poor guard above – his head comes up to the top of the spear shaft!
Not sure if much will get done in the next month – Sue is on holiday so the dining table gets covered in jigsaw bits as its the only space large enough 🙁 With luck the small army 1 hr game will get some love on the coffee table and I may be able to get some snake rail fencing done as that requires very little table room to make / paint.
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