[McKinstry]

I and 4 friends flew in for the whole convention and in the aggregate, had a great time.

One of our number actually played in your Leonardo game and had a great time and all of us thought the table was gorgeous.

Overall the Con was a solid success (at least for us).  A certain rust had to exist for the staff who did a very good job all things considered. The facility was a bit broken up and required some navigation to find games and the food choices on site were limited but, overall the location worked as well as could be expected. The Dealer Hall and Flea Market were well run and despite missing a few big names such as Brigade and Old Glory, there were plenty of options to throw money at adding to unpainted lead piles.

Hopefully as things progress and we as a civil society learn to live with the pandemic, shows such as Salute and Historicon will resume in full.

 

The tree of Life is self pruning.

[McKinstry]

Vallejo Silver Gray is an very light/almost white light gray that in 1/6000 might work for the PLAN. I believe a couple of manufacturers such as Lifecolor and AK along with Testors make an actual Haze Gray.

The tree of Life is self pruning.

[McKinstry]

For moderns as virtually all vessels are variations of Haze Gray on the vertical surfaces and a medium to dark gray on the horizontals except the Russians are a red brown and some earlier UK vessels a medium green, I use a fairly basic approach. I paint the overall gray I’ll be using on the vertical surfaces and then wash with a dilute black wash to pop the detail a bit better. The wash is a 33% acrylic floor wax, 67% water and black ink to taste (by experiment). Once dry, I drybrush the model with a lightened version of the base gray and then paint in decks and details such as helo pads.

Carrier decks would be fairly difficult to freehand so I use Flight Deck Decals who make one for virtually every 1/6000 Figurehead produces.

https://www.flightdeckdecals2400.com/usn-modern-cvn-1-6000-deck-decals

 

The tree of Life is self pruning.

[McKinstry]

I’m going to see it in IMAX tomorrow. Liked it on HBO but one thing Villeneuve does really well is large visuals and with the luxury of time in retirement, I want to see the worms on the really big screen.

The tree of Life is self pruning.

[McKinstry]

As always, a simply gorgeous game. The hobby is almost by definition a very visual and tactile one otherwise computer games would satisfy the purely gaming part and these games really make it attractive beyond anything on a flat screen.

The tree of Life is self pruning.

[McKinstry]

Thank you for mentioning the “weirding modules” Sane Max. For that reason alone Frank Herbert should have arisen from his grave and slapped David Lynch silly. Needing to make the end battle a shoot out just seemed so dumb.

I am pretty sure Part 2 is semi-funded at this point as the director Villeneuve has been quite adamant about wanting to finish the project and his willingness to take on added projects seems tied to a quid pro quo on finishing Dune.

 

The tree of Life is self pruning.

[McKinstry]

I suppose each to his own. I really enjoyed this new version and felt it hewed closely to the book. As a movie, the 1984 version of Dune was tolerable but certainly not good and absolutely a crime against the actual novel.

I just hope they get the second movie out by 2023.

 

The tree of Life is self pruning.

[McKinstry]

Certainly some of the early war ACW uniforms are wonderfully colorful. I seem to recall a New Jersey cavalry unit in essentially full Hussar fig and there is always Rush’s Lancers.  I would certainly consider many of the colorful units around the Maximillian adventure fair game as well.

The tree of Life is self pruning.

[McKinstry]

I’m in the middle of building a miniatures version of Command & Colors Samurai using 3″ hexes magnetized on a couple of 2’x3’26 gauge steel sheets and Baccus 6mm Samurai. The Command & Colors system for the Sengoku period gives a fairly simplified approach that may not satisfy if you want a really deep dive but it is flavorful with an emphasis on leadership and morale a bit heavier than in their ancients or medieval games.

The tree of Life is self pruning.

[McKinstry]

Long term the industrial power should dominate in naval affairs but the agricultural power could adopt an approach along Juene Ecole lines with mines, small craft etc. for interesting asymmetrical conflict.

On land the industrial power would probably have a serious edge in artillery and possibly small arms but would likely be tied to a more ponderous logistical tail.

 

I’m looking forward to see how this develops and seeing the colorful alternate uniforms.

The tree of Life is self pruning.

[McKinstry]

Nice. The Med is my favorite  ‘what if’ theater for both Pre-Dreadnought and WW1.

Any rules set in mind?

The tree of Life is self pruning.

[McKinstry]

Great looking work in what is my favorite skirmish period.

The tree of Life is self pruning.

[McKinstry]

I really like the look of the game. Those 6mm troops are terrific and make the game look like a big battle.

The painting on those troops are superb as well and I just wish my 6mm lads looked so good!

The tree of Life is self pruning.

[McKinstry]

I bought an EERO 6 mesh router that comes with the base router and two extender/boosters and it has worked a treat for me.

The tree of Life is self pruning.

[McKinstry]

For me, Ebay has simply become too much of a hassle for the occasional only sale. I will usually post on a few wargaming forums when I want to be rid of a project or being blessed with a FLGS that runs an auction twice a year, dump my yesterdays passion projects.

The tree of Life is self pruning.

[McKinstry]

I’m also going to say pretty cool and really creative.

The tree of Life is self pruning.

[McKinstry]

I think I may have filled out that portion of the survey but as with others, find the results both vague and a bit silly in trying to lump motivations/personalities into a few very broad categories. I am not a competition gamer and really cannot address that aspect but as to the rest, most of my gaming friends and fellow travelers over the years have been a mix of motivations that can vary over time.  Many if not most were enjoying the creation of a visually enticing activity that had the added benefit providing a social experience coupled with a degree of intellectual/imaginative stimulation. All a fairly windy way of saying many of us stay with a hobby that lets us be creative and have fun with friends.

The tree of Life is self pruning.

[McKinstry]

I would agree about Pendraken being the gold standard overall for customer care. There are several very good Firms out there but Pendraken is as good as it gets.

The tree of Life is self pruning.

[McKinstry]

The tree of Life is self pruning.

[McKinstry]

I’m not a GW buyer/player beyond the odd paint pot but it seems the current management is pretty sharp.  Having the good sense to recognize that all your employees contributed is refreshing.

The tree of Life is self pruning.

[McKinstry]

Thank you. Nice to see a good sized GNW fight.

The tree of Life is self pruning.

[McKinstry]

Great looking game and an interesting asymmetrical contest.

The tree of Life is self pruning.

[McKinstry]

“There are not enough Indians in the whole world to defeat the 7th Cavalry”

• George Armstrong Custer

 

The tree of Life is self pruning.

[McKinstry]

Drop dead gorgeous game. It is a visual hobby and these games really are attractive.

The tree of Life is self pruning.

[McKinstry]

My son flew Apaches (AH-64-D) in Afghanistan and he said they were told to consider any small arms fire over 2,000 feet as ineffective and not qualifying as a threat to be prosecuted as a part of their ROE’s. That applied only to true small arms as any of the heavy machine guns were to be treated with extreme prejudice. I do believe that depending on mission and other factors, a surprisingly significant amount of small arms may have been received at 1,990+/- feet.

The tree of Life is self pruning.

[McKinstry]

Nicely done. I get most of my 1/4800 ships from Tiny Thingamajigs as his stuff is pretty much the best on Shapeways.

The tree of Life is self pruning.

[McKinstry]

I am blessed with a gaming group that is more than happy to apply common sense and a general spirit of sportsmanship when an issue arises that doesn’t seem covered by the rules or we simply cannot find the answer in a poorly indexed set.

The tree of Life is self pruning.

[McKinstry]

Typically a couple of the group buy the rules and teach the rest. We usually follow a gradual process in which we start with small games and add size and complexity as we continue to play.

The tree of Life is self pruning.

[McKinstry]

Wonderful work on a very difficult subject.

The tree of Life is self pruning.

[McKinstry]

Fantastic work. As others noted, the work on the mitre caps is superb. Extra points for referencing “Over the Hills and Far Away”.

The tree of Life is self pruning.

[McKinstry]

I do like an FAQ and/or errata as needed but as others have said, I’ll simply apply common sense in most cases.

I do appreciate it when a firm makes such things as a Quick Play Sheet or if appropriate such things as game tokens or roster sheets available as pdf’s on a website but it isn’t a requirement and certainly not an obligation.

The tree of Life is self pruning.

[McKinstry]

I found Command at Sea to be on the very to highly complex end of the scale in naval rules. Not quite the painful rivet counting of Seekreig but still a shell by shell with detailed penetration/location set. I have my doubts that it could handle fleet sized (15+ per side) battles in under 8+/- hours but to be fair, I’ve only played it twice at cons. Both of those convention games had players handling at most two ships per individual and most were somewhat to very unfamiliar with the rules.  Not my cup of tea but it has been around for a while so somebody must still be playing it.

The tree of Life is self pruning.

[McKinstry]

I use lists as a starting point but apply other research and common sense to come up with OOB’s if not using an actual battle and even there, most ancient OOB’s are are a combination of guess and conjecture.

The tree of Life is self pruning.

[McKinstry]

I prefer General Quarters both 1 and 3 for WW2. I find GQ1 works very well for large (20+) battles and GQ3 for under 20. Both offer simplicity and relatively minor record keeping with GQ1 a bit more simplified than GA3. The torpedo rules have always been a bit squirrely but I’ve adopted a simplified approach that works for me. I should qualify that both essentially measure the effect of firing over time rather than a shell by shell which I personally detest.

Battlestations Battlestations is another very simple set from Decision Games that seems to handle even bigger battles quickly but at further simplification.

 

 

The tree of Life is self pruning.

[McKinstry]

I also have an airbrush that is quite nice but as has been said, cleaning the thing is such a colossal pain that I use it maybe once a decade.

The tree of Life is self pruning.

[McKinstry]

The ‘big sky, little airplane’ theory is usually pretty good except when enough stuff gets tossed into the air the opportunity for Murphy’s Law increases. When I was doing my Southeast Asian tour, I know pilots and crew used to refer to some fellow on the ground getting simply dumb lucky as a Golden BB.

Also the lower and slower the airframe getting shot at, the greater the effect of small arms. The US lost over 5,000 helicopters and the majority were not to traditional AAA.

The tree of Life is self pruning.

[McKinstry]

It is certainly sad that someone has nothing better to do than snipe anonymously. As has been said, pathetic is the best descriptor.

The tree of Life is self pruning.

[McKinstry]

Totally great! That is truly wonderful work.

The tree of Life is self pruning.

[McKinstry]

Thank you for a nice summary of an interesting time.

I don’t believe there are many instances of opponents underestimating Sikhs and not regretting it.

 

The tree of Life is self pruning.

[McKinstry]

I’m pretty sure I haven’t either. do you know the authors name?

The tree of Life is self pruning.

[Author]

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