Off to Derby World Wargames - As sponsored by Warlord Games.. caaaatchiiing!

Well it is not too often I feel the thrumb of excitement, but it feels like an age since Triples earlier this year. And so am off to Derby University this weekend for the World Wargames Show.. as sponsored by Warlord Games..

Usually Derby is one of the last events for the year, though we have been to Pudsey in the past. This year however, with the fact I have limited my gaming projects and am currently out of work.
Derby is a walk in, wander around, see what bits I sell on the bring and buy, and if I find anything of interest within my price range.

I usually grab a few bits off the "Tree Fellas" as they make great scenery for 28mm and at good prices. I have a been grabbing four or five packs at each show for a couple of years and so have a fairly large assortment of walls and hedges  and may start to look at the trees they do.

Apart from that, its bargain hunting and generally browsing for me. I don't have much space spare, for books so I don't plan to buy any. I haven't read nearly a quarter of my current collection properly. So they need working through first.

Will be nice to just bimble and see. Will be taking the camera to try and actually take some photos. I did one year,, all of about 4 if I recall. lol

So, about to clamber into the attic and delve through my collection for a few things to put on the bring and buy.

28mm Hard Plastic Marines - By Defiance Games

I spotted this thread today on TMP about these;

Defiance Games not so long ago released some fluff on their gaming system/brackground etc. It got a rough reception, firstly as it contain a lot of proffanity and possible racist comments about the Chinese. I think it was more a poor choice of "slang", rather than an actual attempt to be racist in publishing. That aside, they have been promising a range of figures.

And here is the first. Apparently going to be a hard plastic miniature range. So interesting to see how they do, how tricky they are to build and how they match with other gaming systems.

On the whole I like the figure. Its got a look, and much will depend on the factors I mentioned previously. So its one for the sci-fi fans to keep an eye out for. If I learn anything new, I will keep you informed.

Aliens versus Ninja.. Epic!

I have to say, this made me laugh when I stumbled across it.

So we have Aliens v Predator, Aliens v Cowboys, and Aliens v Ninja.
I wonder whats next??

Club Gaming Weekend - 24th and 25th Sept 2011 - Spacehulking

Firstly apologies for the delay in progress on my other projects. One excuse has been the prep for a club weekend gaming session. Our gaming club is very fortunate to have access to a large hall where why usually run our annual gaming show "Gauntlet".
And a few weeks ago a few club members mentioned, wanting a weekend to run larger games that ordinarily couldn't get run in a club night. So we booked the hall and I sorted the tables and whalla. A two day gaming session was at hand.

I decided for ease and with a lack of time etc to run a game of my Spacehulk 3rd Edition the RGP I have been working on. So with four willing victims, sorry players. Two of my own sets of space hulk and one on loan. I built up a three level space hulk.

My Space Hulk Table during Saturday Break, exuse the clutter.

Each player had a single squad of five terminators. Their mission was to recover the CAT from where it had become stranded on the third level as its datacore contained vital mission data.

Each level contained a "nest", which as a secondary objective the marines were tasked with retrieving a bio sample from. Not an easy task.

Each squad contained one character, and four marines. Either a captain, an inquisitor, librarian, techmarine, apothocary or chaplain. The four players chose the captain, techmarine, librarian and inquisitor.
It was chaotic and mad fun. To say the least. 

Tyranid Nest Tile in centre ground on 2nd Level as terminators try and hold their bridge head on the level.

Ambush! The genestealers launch an ambush on the second level!

A Warrior about to give a terminator some grief!

One of the Fields of Glory Games

Warrior Heroes Game

Pony Wars - Cavalry on the move!

Indians in the hills

The cavalry preparing to ride out from the fort.

Butch and Sundance in sight of the Fort.

The Pony Express reaches Custer at the Outpost.

Having ignored the nest on the first level the marines decide to go back and finnish it off!

Troll minders keeping the wolf riders going the right way!

I didn't get any photos of the Flames of War games or the Blackpowder game that were run sorry.

Over all a great weekend. Drank copious cups of coffee and tea, the bar down stairs did excellent food at lunch time and ate far too much junk food. I don't think I have laughed quite so much during a game and usually at Tom's exspence of rolling doubles or unable to roll higher than 3 on 2D6. Despite that, my players all said they had a great time and that really is what its all about.
Might try and organise another for the spring!

Bugs - Got to love internet humour.

Though I have never to date, uploaded any kind of video to YouTube, I do trawl through it from time to time. And today I was looking for an battle report, I spotted, posted on you tube for Starship Troopers game. Somewhere at a convention in the USA, if I recall.

Anyhow, I completely failed to find it. I thought I had book marked it, but nope. Anways, I found this instead..

I commend the editor.. it seriously made me laugh!

Gifted Painters - The boundary between gaming and modelling

If you have never come across this gentleman's work before, and you are a particularly a fan of WW2 period. Then do take a moment to have flick through his blog and pictures.

Using a lot of static modelling techniques, he is able to get some outstanding finishes on what are pretty ordinary wargames models. Also he does a fair bit of alterations, such as extra stowage etc.

Now I my own painting, has improved over the years. My first ever miniatures were some dark angel beaky marines from the original platoon box set of plastics around 1990's or there abouts. They are over done, not undercoated and my brush control was dire.

Over the years, despite the periods away from the hobby, I have managed to learn a few things here and there and have even taken on the dreaded airbrush. A handy tool for bigger projects but one I am still mastering for the smaller individual pieces.

But I know, that though my painting is OK, to "table standard" as I like to refer to it. And a few people have said its better. The compliments I accept kindly. I know there are some who, through hard work and talent, do get results that are just stunning.

So have a look through the blog here. http://troopofshewe.blogspot.com/
And see what you think.

Getting side tracked. The perils of gaming.

So its Sunday night and I am looking back at what I have achieved this week. Or that should really be, what I haven't achieved this week.

Alas, the usual story struck, where I meant to do a few certain things. Not much I was thinking, but they would help keep progression with regards to my Vietnam and Starship Troopers projects. But nope. A complete fail.

Oh I can blame it on many things, and some of them are even quite legitimate excuses. But they won't change a thing. So this week I am going to try a big harder.

But I have a club gaming weekend at the end of it, and I have some figures I need to get assembled and base coated for it. I won't have time to get them completely painted, but as its a giant game of space hulk I am planning, its not a worry.

It is more board game than wargames, but as we have all weekend to play it. It should be quite fun. Will be using my home brew skirmish rule set, which contains a few RPG type elements.

Will hopefully get a few photos and get them posted up.

However, this lack of progress did get my thinking. Which is dangerous some would say.
Firstly, I am not sure if I am alone, but going by a few friends, I am not; In being unable to get regular progress made on projects. I definitely fall into the "sporadic" category.

So anyhow, before I bore you to death. Keep and eye out this week for a few posts as I try and get things rolling once more.

Enjoy!

Nerds Rule!

There are times when you see things that just make you laugh. Not because they happen to be funny, but because, they are, and more, they fit you very well.



I have to say I laughed out loud at this parody. Its so true in so many ways. If I were to count the evenings I have spent with friends and strangers around a dinning room table, gathered on the floor of a room in university hall of accomodation, roleplaying and rolling dice, it would be embarrising. So here is to all the nerds and geeks, who keep the world going and will save the day when the zombies rise!



28mm Vietnam Project - Part 5 - Basing Texture

Well, I managed to find an hour to apply some basing texture.
Having mounted the figures onto 2pence pieces like so;

FoA Vietnam Figures Mounted on 2pence pieces before texture

Now this is where personal preference tends to come in. I know many painters who do their basing texture last. However I choose to apply it now and then undercoat the figures with black or white spray depending.

For these Force of Arms Vietnam 28mm figures I am sticking to my usual texturing medium, of Basetex paint. Its a paint with grit in it basically. Now it comes in varying size pots, from 200ml size, upto 0.5ltr size. I buy the big pots for a simple reason. They have better lids and they don't dry out. Also its handy stuff and lasts a long time if sealed.
But the smaller pots I found to be a false economy if you like it. So by all means grab a small pot to try, but if you like it, make sure you use that small pot up quick. Basetex paint is made by Colourparty, here in the UK.

Now the one thing you have to note, with basetex. The consistency does not always come out the same. I mean, i have bought two pots of brown. One has come out quite viscous and easily spatulared on. And a second pot from the same batch has come out, very runny.
Now this really isn't a problem, either leave the lid off the runny stuff for a few mins and watch the liquid evaporate, or do as i have done to sometimes extend a pots life, by adding some sand. Now in the brown, you will not notice it. The brown will take extra sand, and gravel and not discolour. Lighter colours of course, may tint slightly in shade.

Now, I like it quite thick, as I use a stiff long bristle cheap nylon brush to apply it. Working the brush like a spatula. Applying the first off around the feet/centre of the model and working outwards. The liquids surface tension is pretty good, but it will settle out, and so if you have a raised area, like the base of a figure, then you need to add a little more here, to compensate.

Once I have applied enough basetex and covered the base, you could leave it like that and let is set/dry. If you do, you get a nice caked mud type finish, with drying type cracks in the odd places. Don't worry the basetex, sets like concrete!  So it really is tough stuff.

Now my preference, is to add a pinch of model railway ballast or sand/fine grit mix, here and there to break up the texture and ensure i have some areas when i come to dry brush the model bas, will pick up paint and leave a nice effect.

By sprinkling the gravel onto the wet basetext paint the majority of the gravel will sink in a little and remain well glued down. I do however, rub each figure base with my thumb, to remove and weakly bonded gravel prior to base coating, to avoid you getting "bright spots" when some comes away after base coating, as Murphy's law states it will do in the most obvious place..

So here is what they look like once textured;

Basetex Paint by colour party as base texture medium

As you can see, there are some gravel pieces near the edges and these i tend to ping out, to ensure there are non over hanging. But even as yet unpainted, the bases look pretty reasonable.
So the next step with these will be give them each a rub over, and remove the loosely bonded bits. And glue on a single M79 weapon, that comes as a separate item on one of the figures. Oh and then try and sort the lost gun barrels on a couple. Now I probably should have fixed those earlier, before mounting, but my brain was saying.. " you will have more to hold onto after basing".. time will soon tell whether my brain was right or not.

So here is a close up for those who like detail..

Close up of the textured base.

So the next step, will be glue on the M79 and sort the snapped M16 barrels and then undercoat them. However these are not my only US figures by a long shot. See some of my earlier posts and I have realised some of those were not textured either. So it looks like I might be spending a further night or two prepping before I can get around to base coating.

But will keep you in touch with progress as it occurs.  So stay tuned for the next progress report..

28mm Vietnam Project - Part 4 - Basing Begins

Ok, so firstly apologies for the lack of any substantial progress of late. But life has conspired to keep my rather busy and away from the painting table. However in a sudden fit of energy last night. I dug out my pot of 2pence pieces and my batch of Force of Arms 28mm Vietnam figures and started on the basing.

The first step was, simply to go through cleaning up the figures, trimming off flash and vent tags from the moulding. There was not a great deal, mostly vent tags, which are easy to snip off, cut off or file off, depending on your chosen technique.

There were remarkably few bits of flash to deal with. That was the good news. The bad news, was. The FoA metal is not the most bendy. I found several figures with bent gun barrels and two or three snapped upon straightening. Now this is annoying. But I have had it with other makers.

From a recent comment by John Bruce (FoA) with regards to his latest ANZACS release on TMP, I noted he has now moved to a softer metal. So obviously I was not the only one notice how brittle it could be.

Anyhow, I will try and pin those, to give a gun barrel of sorts. And it probably won't be too obvious. As these are gaming and not display models, I am not too worried. It is just slightly frustrating.

So, first step was the clean them up.. now.. a quick note on tools. A while ago I bought a seam scraper from Micromark tools over in the USA. Its a triangular shaped cutter. Its have a double ended bit and can be extended and retracted as required. And its sharp!

It flies through flash at a rate of knots. The only issue is, they are not cheap to buy, having to order from across the pond.

The postage was pretty high and I managed to avoid the tax threshold just. So quite happy with it. I spotted the tool being demoed on YouTube;

This is not the one I original spotted but that has been removed. However this one shows the tool in use. The one thing I will issue a WARNING!! about is, the point is sharp. It is very, I stress very easy to slip and jab your self with this tool. Just like hobby knives. Best treated with respect or the blood will flow! The video also shows some other tools in use.

So.. once the figures were cleaned up, it was just a case of digging out the two part, 5-minute epoxy. I use Devcon, as its never let me down in the past.

Some care needs to be taken. The inbuilt figure bases/tags with some of John's miniatures are quite small and their poses make the figure top heavy. So you have to ensure you have a pretty flat working area, or you get them toppling, whilst the glue dries. This happened to one and I have to quickly remove the still curing semi rigid epoxy with a knife and re glue it. Nothing too serious.

I mix about two penny sized blobs of resin and harnder in each batch and use a cocktail stick to mix the two, thoroughly. You can tell when it is well mixed, as the liquid will take on a frosted haze, that will clear as it sets. This is usually enough to do about 6-9 figures, depending on base size. Its easy to try and do too many in one go. And before you know it, the epoxy will begin to setup/harden and you will have fine stringers of glue, everywhere and then wham! All of a sudden its hard,, and you find your cocktail stick is now, going to have to be come part of your base.

So, small batches. It also means if you get a figure suddenly fall off the desk, or get interrupted by the phone, the cat, the dog, family etc, and you have to leave it, you only loose a little. I mix the liquids on old business cards, as they are a good size and can be scrapped off, before the excess sets, to get more than one use out of them. Be careful mind with tossing setting epoxy about the place. Its exothermic, meaning it generates some heat depending on brands/chemicals, and so can cause melting/fires in large quantities. Also don't get it on your carpet!

Right, OK here they are.. the 34 odd or so.. stuck and firmly glued.. next step will be the texturing.. which I hope to get done this evening.

Force of Arms 28mm Vietnam based on 2pence pieces

If you look carefully you will see some US infantry, including some special forces and a few VC figures in the set. These figures are nicely styled, and have some real character to them. Each figure is an individual and I do think many gamers interested in 28mm Vietnam, over look John Bruces - Junction City Range.

Basing - Choices for Starship Troopers - A dilema! Part 2

At the club, I was chatting with a club mate about the issue of basing for my Starship Troopers figures (See here for the original post ).

Having gone over the options, whilst watching a demo of the new Critical Mass Games rules and figures (15mm, see my brief comments here ).  I have decided to settle upon 2pence pieces.

Firstly they are cheap. Being only 2pence each. Secondly I have loads, pre-washed and ready.
Thirdly, they will make the plastic figures slightly more stable, as the CoG will be lower and they are slightly wider than the plastic versions they come with. And fourthly I know how to get a good basing effect with them, using basetex paint. (See this excellent guide by Matakishi)

Now this will mean I will need to look at the white metal Mobile Infantry figures, and review quite how to mount them onto 2pence pieces. Our local hardware store has miliput at around £2 a pack, for super fine, black or standard. Since my last packs went stale. Not having learnt at the time, that putting greenstuff, brownstuff or milliput etc in the freezer will extend the shelf life for years.
So, will experiment a little and see. I might need to trim the tabs down a little or i might be able to get away without. Hoping to get some basing done this weekend as i have just been too busy with other things unfortunately this last week or two.

So, check back shortly and see how I have gotten on.

Critical Mass Games - 15mm Scifi - Demo game at the Club.

A couple of guys from Critical Mass Games offered to do a demo for their new range of figures and their rule set. I have seen these being demo'ed as it were, at a few shows around the UK.
The game tables have always been nice and the figures very well present. But I have never taken the time to really study or take part. Why, I hear you cry.. well, it ain't 28mm of course!
That aside, and to be fair to the chaps, they put a good effort into it and they presented a swift and brutal game. Firstly, over looking the first fact, they are not, I repeat,not 28mm in scale. They are quite nice. Infact, I was impressed by the scaling and detail on some of the figures. Some of the styling is not too my taste, but that is the world of sci-fi. We all have our preferences.

Now the rule system, is a basic, alternative atcivation. One player, chooses a unit, and takes his actions, then vise versa untill the end. The shooting is, based on base value for the unit and then some simple modifiers, such as cover. Wounding is, is a save roll, pass or fail.
Vehicles have a simple two part damage chart, you roll to hit, you roll to penetrate. If you equal, its a roll on the minor damage. Penetrate its a major damage.

All fairly straight forward. Commanders, do a few things, and some powers/options depend on each race. Army lists are point-ed and 1500 pts is about the smallest game.

So far so good.., ok, not quite. As it stands, a basic army looks around £80! Ouch!
The rule system is ok. The rule book, however looked a little light. Firslt, no solid, comprehensive index.

If you want to rate a set of rules. Start with the index. If a rule set is well written, its index, will be simple, effective and comprehensive. i.e., so you can find all the bits and bobs, when you need it, as you learn. Not have to wade through reading the same chapter on shooting, each time a differing variation arrives.

Secondly the production was soft spine, perfect bound and what appeared as standard heat bond lazer printing. The paper is non glossy and I have a suspiciouns, after long use the text may smudge. It just looked that way, but I could be very wrong.

So, no I won't be rushing out to buy the rules. They aren't bad, just they they failed to grab me.

BUT, that aside.. the figurs are interesting. They are varied, and I was impressed by some of the vehicle basing and design.

The game played ok. I think its a marmite thing. I can see some people loving it. Some people hating it.

It did not light my fires, but then I am hard to please. Hell, I am damned hard to please!
So, I would give the mini's a B+. Their pricing, a C- and their rules a D-.

Basing - Choices for Starship Troopers - A dilema!

Ok, firstly an apology for the lack of progress on the Vietnam and Starship Troopers fronts. I am just getting over a bug, (no pun intended) that struck over the last couple of weeks.

However, now wishing to make some progress on at least one of my current two projects. I have hit a snag. Its quite a big one. Basing!

The SST figures, in their original format came on some plain plastic bases, 25mm black round solid or slotted, for the plastic and white metal infantry. The bugs as a whole are free standing.

Now, the issue is due to picking up a few packs etc second hand, I am short of bases. Also I am not a major fan of plastic bases. Generally using my 2pence pieces for everything else.
But nearly everything else I have does not have white metal tags. And so to use 2pence pieces. I would have to trim these down slightly or even completely for the white metal MI figures.

The other options is to use the rounded bases. The ones with a central depression and black raised and rounded edge. I have never used these and have no idea how tricky they are.

Generally my basing style is, to fit the figure to the 2pence, with epoxy. Its tough and not had any come loose yet! Even when trod upon. (Not recommded). The metal figure bent rather than detach. Not sure that was good, but then treading on your precious miniatures is not recommended.

Once the glue is dry. I tend to layer on some Basetex paint. Sprinkle a bit of model railway ballast on in patches to give some texture variety and then leave to dry. Rub off any un-glued ballast and figure is ready to undercoat.

Now I prefer to base then undercoat and I am sure others will choose the reverse. But now I am still ensure which way to go.

Looking at Dropships Site and his MI platoon.

Photo from Dropship.org.uk

You can see the original mongoose plastic bases are perfectly servicable. They are near if not identicle to the standard games workshop infantry bases.

But I I am wondering if the figures will look better on these. 

I suspect the answer will not arrive untill I try all three options and decide which I like the most.

High Priced Miniatures - Crazy! Where will it end?

Well a post over on TMP, showed these lovely minis. Don't they look nifty. 28mm Scale (apparently being 40mm tall) and the kind of thing that would fit in many a sci-fi game. Be it an army, a skirmish force..

Studio McVey Miniature

Studio McVey Miniature

Now before you do as I did, think.. "stunning, time to get the plastic out".. the price is £21.99. Yes, you read it right. £21.99. Oh plus £2.95 for postage on top.

Now, I have not come across this company before; http://studiomcvey.highwire.com/ 
and they may be a classic one man band type, and yes resin is pricey stuff. But I just am shocked by the price of a single figure. Yes I know Games Workshop are heading toward this price range per single figure. But their sales are dropping like I stone I have been told.


As someone who ran his own business, I don't begrudge people making money. But I will be very surprised if they manage to sell vast numbers. Such a shame too, as the figures are gorgeous. The very impressive paint job helps too of course.

Will we see a 28mm figure costing £30 by the end of 2012? I hope not..!

Rippler Bugs Sir! Thousands of them..

Ok, so not quite thousands. Infact 9, shiny news ones.

Starship Troopers Miniatures Game Rippler Bugs

I mentioned winning these in my last post, about flight stands. And they arrived today.
I thought at the time, I had two other boxes, maybe three. Infact this is number 4. All still sealed. So I now have 36 Rippler Bugs. If you have not seen the animated series entitled "Roughnecks", check out You-tube. The entire series has been uploaded. Anyhow, in the series there are three types of Rippler bug. Basic ripplers. Acid Ripplers and Kamakaze Ripplers.
So at least now I will be able to paint up some variations and field some rather large swarms. The MI have a few AA capable tools, and I have some Nighthawk marauders in my collection. So these along with my hopper bugs, of which I have 21. Then I should be well catered for arial targets.

I hope to do a few construction reviews as I go. Purely for nostalger as these figures are now long OOP and sadly unlikley to ever be re-released. Shame as the game was fun.

On a side note, these now bring my "Bug Collection", to a grand total of some 260 individuals in total. Hmm that is a lot of painting and building ahead. I really should crack on and get some more done.

Mobile Infantry Fortress

One of the most memorable scenes from the original Starship Troopers film is the attack on Whiskey Outpost.

Image from: http://www.theastrocowboy.com/Mlist/sst.htm

The classic "last stand" type game. And one that SST naturally lends it self too. Hordes of bugs, swarming the walls, as a meager band of heroes try and hold out, till rescue arrives.

Now, tactically the Hollywood factor has been applied badly here. The big surrounding cliffs etc mean for ease of overlooking and the stalk like structure means any bug with half a brain would simply use their powerful jaws to cut them apart and bring down the walls. But hey, don't let any form of logic interfere.. ;)

Well criticism aside for now. The campaign I am planning to run for SST will require some kind of "base of operations" for the Mobile Infantry Force. And it would of course be silly to turn down the opportunity to play a siege type game.

So a week or two ago I posted this picture;

The mystery parts!

And asked if anyone could guess what they were. Well no one quite got there. So its time to reveal, yes, you should have worked it out now.. that its a space ship!

Only kidding. It is indeed a fortress. Well in fact two parts of a prototype modular design create by my self and copyrighted (Copyright 2011).

The four strange E shaped piece, are the main structure, the larger being a base, onto which the three smaller pieces fit. The larger crenelated piece is the front facing wall and the smaller plain rectangle with the cut outs is in fact the upper walk way supported on top of the upper pieces of the E shapes.

The two hexes and four smaller crenelated pieces are actually a tower/corner/hard point unit.

In theory, a series of wall sections and the towers should allow for a variety of shapes and designs in a stable (able to support he 60mm larger bases of SST Marauder Suits, M8's M9's etc and the reliant weapon platforms.

I have to thank Steve here, who has diligently played around with the laser cutter, to get these parts into reality. It is a prototype and I can definitely see some modifications being needed. But in principle I am very pleased with how it had some out.

I was hoping to get the parts put together but have not manage that yet. Might do later this week.

So what do you think?

That plastic stuff - you know, 20mm..

In an effort to be fair to the gaming world and not be seen as too narrow minded. Yes 28mm is king and for ever shall be! But there are other scales available for people to use. And admitedly one of the more popular is 20mm or 1/72nd as some refer to it.

And, if you are a fan of this smaller scale, and like your historical gaming, then if you have not already discovered the following blog, you might wish to take a moment to have a read.

Will have probably been gaming longer than I have been on this mortal coil, and when he is not gloating over crushing victories happens to be a reasonable chap and a fellow club mate.

His collection of 20mm plastic is mind boggling. By some estimates its over 10,000 and probabaly a lot more. He certainly is a busy bloke at times.

Wargame Shows and Calendar for the UK

The popularity of Wargames and Gaming related shows has definitely grown in recent years.
I enjoy wandering around then, not only for the opportunities to buy figures etc direct from traders and see new things. But many operate a bring and buy stall where you can list for a small fee and sale percentage, items you no longer want or need.

The number of shows each year seems to be on the increase though there are a few well established ones, which attract thousands of visitors, and tend to run for two days over a weekend.

For me, one of the best shows is WMMS, as it tends to be the first show of the year. Its only an hour or so down the road and is large enough to have a variety of periods and scales covered, but not too large, as to be a chore to navigate, and require reinforced elbow pads, merely to progress through great hordes of the unwashed.

Talking of unwashed. Seriously, this is one aspect of the wargaming hobby that needs to be resolved. Seriously, wargamers, tend carry the geek label. And frankly, many deserve it. Hell I am a geek and proud of it, so that frankly does not bother me. But I also know what a shower is, and what soap is used for. OK it may be a bit out of date, technology wise, as it is not blue tooth enabled and generally does not have any form of app to plug into it.

Without any jest, at the last two shows I have attended, I have had to walk away from either trade stands or the bring and buy stall due to the proximity of pungent odours from the great unwashed. One smelling so badly of urine, it physically caused me to gag.

I know show arenas and halls get hot, lots of hot air, etc etc, but frankly, there is no excuse not to make an effort at least.

Right rant over! For now at least..

If you are looking for a good list of wargames shows, well the closest you will find and is generally accurate and updated frequently for the UK is; 

http://www.newarkirregulars.org.uk/calendar2011.html#UK

As you can see, there is hardly a month, without at least two or three shows in it. Sadly for me, as I have a self imposed ban on going anywhere near London due to the stupid travel costs , mean Triples and Derby are about as far as I go.

Flight Stands and Compulsive Disorders

I spotted some Startship Troopers Rippler Bugs (A mega swarm box of 9 highly detailed plastic miniatures) on ebay and bid for it. That was whilst I was over at a friends. And I won. And having gotten home and checked my careful excel spread sheet, knowing I already had a couple of boxes and thought a 3^rd would do nicely. Discovered… I now have four! Oops.

Well you can never have enough rippler bugs ;)

Whilst I wait for this latest unplanned purchase to arrive, I was contemplating the basing of flying models and flight stands. I recently made two stands for 28mm scale aircraft for my moderns games. Getting the balance of height and stability is the tricky part.

I was fortunate that the end look, using 6mm acrylic dowel came out nicely.

A10 Warthog on home made flight stand.

Diecast Apache Gunship on home made flight stand.

Both models being 28mm in scale roughly, are quite heavy. The Apachie is a diecast metal model and so fairly heavy. Both are detachable for transport.

Now I know from previous experience, that the small plastic flight stands that come with the likes of GW and the old SST figures are not that strong. The plastic is quite brittle and the mounting pin or lug, that slots into the figure are weak.  Given my Rippler and other flying bugs and WASP equipped MI Troopers, all have these supplied with them. I can see me having a few breakages and then the frustration of repairing them. Infact one of the wasp troopers I bought already painted a while back as snapped already.
Using 6mm, acrlic, is just not suitable for smaller models (though the rippler bugs are not that small).
So I was intruiged when a few years ago now I cam across the excellent site "Tanks and Trolls" at the time I was discussing airbrushing with the author. If you have a moment, take a look around some of his galleries. The painting is inspiring. Anyhow, he mounted his Rippler Bugs at varying hights on what appears  to be stiff wire.

Photo from Tanks and Trolls Website - SST Rippler Bugs

I liked the fact the stands were unobtrusive and had a variety of hights. Wire should also not snap, though may bend of course.  The rippler bugs are plastic models and so weight is not a major issue, though they are quite large as far as plastic models go and so getting the centre of gravity right, will be key.

I was fortunate with both the Apache and the A10, there was a conveient holes in the bottom of both models, meaning I just had to taper the acrylic rods to fit. On the Apache, the whole was forward fo the CoG, so I had to drill a hole across the rod, at an angle and mount a piece of stiff piano wire into it, to push the tail of the apache up, to give it that classic nose down "in flight/attack" stance.

Now I just need to find some suitable wire, that will be stiff enough to be durable, but not too stiff or brittle that i cannot bend/shape the base to attach it to bases. I can some a few experiments ahead.

Operation "Table Clear" - The continuation

Warning - A waffly post ahead.. read if you lack sleep or are just bored..

I spent yesterday hunting for some Vietnam figures and also trying to bring order to the chaos that is my painting room and liberate the painting table from the evil forces of clutter.

For some reason I go through phases of painting, then stop for a while and so on and so forth. The net result is, the painting table becomes cluttered, with various things and thus if my motivation is low, I tend to use it as an excuse not to paint and thus prolonging the time between painting phases.

I have finally had enough, and so its time to look at firstly getting the table clear, and secondly better storage sollutions for my paints, my tools, and miniatures.

As a compulsive horder of miniatures, I have a mass of WW2, Starship Troopers and Vietnam, along with some other Moderns etc etc, that all take up space. The attic has been over run and the shelves I bought recently been filled. The worrying fact is, that most of this is with miniatures that have yet to be painted, and so sit densely packed. Once painted they will take up a lot more space. So somewhere something is going to have to go!

I have already this year, sold off some 40K pieces, and have some others lined up for the bring and buy at Derby this year.

I am probably not alone, amoungst gamers in having amassed too much stuff, all with great intentions, but facing the reality that half may not see paint or a gaming table, this side of 5 years from now. On top of this, I have run out of space to store things.

The Starship Troopers Miniatures, I have just started on as a secondary project to my current Vietnam one, will take up a "lot" of space once done!. Each warrior bug is equivelant in space terms for about 6-8, standard 28mm WW2 figures. Thankfully they are durable and need little in the way of protection as such. So can go en-masse into a big storage box. Given I have 80 or so of these, I am hoping I can get the majority into a 35ltr or 40ltr storage box. But at the moment, I don't know where I will put them.

So the next day or two the plan is to try and sort a more semi permenant solution for the paints and tools etc on the table as a start. Whilst I review other options for figure storage.