Taking a breather...

So in between working, working, working and not blogging (notice there's no mention here about gaming or tinkering with my many umpteen unfinished projects) I serendipitously found this cool quiz...



Gamquistu - Games, Quizzes and Stuff.
 


Yeah, baby! Score!!!


Sigh... now back to work...

Toe in the water, Part 2: Stalingrad with Rail Yard in 15mm

Ohhhh, SCREW IT! Toe in the water, WTF!!! Geronimooooooo!!!!

Just dive right in!

Nice entry, no?

I've been gathering and acquiring more HO scale buildings and weathered boxcars from ebay sites.

My earlier acquisitions. Mostly from the consignment shelf of my local train store.

I've also added more to my Stalingrad collection by acquiring ruins from JR Miniatures. Please excuse the funky hues these pics are in. I've been experimenting with lighting and the key thing here is to ignore the color and concentrate on the content more than the end result.

JR Miniatures Stalingrad

Not that you can tell but all these resin models from JR have been black primered and dry-brushed with an off-white, sand color.

I love how brilliantly designed these ruins are complete with removal floors.

JR's Train Repair Shop with downed crane and other details come out perfectly when dry-brushed.

Godzilla and Asteroids!

Ahhhh... late spring and almost summer, at last...

The pause that refreshes. No coke in this cocktail
to spoil the pure, dark rum goodness. As I contemplate
my drink whilst basking in the sun in my backyard,
it hit me. Egad, shouldn't I be blogging...

After a looong absence and a break from travelling, I felt the need to get back into the swing of things with my much, alas, neglected blog. Without getting into any details suffice it to say that life gets in the way of the more important things: lusting after miniatures, collecting (or amassing) new miniatures, painting your miniatures and playing with your miniatures. Of course, not necessarily in that order.

I was fortunate enough to be able to attend one of our local Houston gaming events held this past April 14-15 in New Caney a tad north of H-town. 

I got to sample a few wacky games. Two of them are worth mentioning because one) someone finally made this game that I dreamt of after seeing Monsterpocalypse and being disgusted by this wanna-be and two) this other game got my imaginative juices flowing and will put me back on the road to creative pursuits (i.e. making terrain).

BBG will do a much better review that I can so read all about it here:  http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/38694/godzilla-kaiju-world-wars   

First up is Godzilla: Kaiju World Wars. Now this boardgame, that comes with *gasp* ubercool miniatures is truly after my own heart. This no gimmicky, ripoff, collectible, miniatures game, thankyouverymuch! This is the real deal with the original Japanese monsters and every thang!! Andy Blozinski hosted and ran the game for 6 of us lucky and wacky gamers.

I got to play as Godzilla with Mecha Godzilla in the background!

Like some gamers (myself included), Andy supplemented the original game with added 3d components for the eye-candylicious 'look and feel' that counters just can't do justice to (e.g. jets, APCs and tanks). Some of you might recognize the ubiquitous Gale Force Nine flame markers, as well. To be fair, the original game comes with four pre-painted, drool worthy miniatures, the iconic: Godzilla, Gigan, Rodan and King Ghidorah (better known as the 3 headed, long necked dragon from Monster Zero). It's ready to be played right outta  the box. Then Andy (God bless 'im) found and included Mothra and Mecha Godzilla to this monstrous rogues gallery for the ultimate showdown and city bashing destruct-fest! 

This is more like it. Pick a monster and be
the monster. Fight with the puny tanks and
jets of the Japanese Self Defense Forces, other
Monsters and wreck Tokyo! Oh no!! 

A few games later Mike brought out Full Thrust. This is an old miniature game set in space that's simple and fun and reminded me a little of Silent Death. Incidentally, many of you know my obsession with eye candy on the gaming table. I mention this b/c we played this game as a test lo those many months ago and without a star map as shown below, I just couldn't get into it. What a difference a star map makes...

Mike West's EM4 space ships on a
star map by Hotz Mats. 

So the part that got me (which isn't pictured above) was a planet and asteroid field that Mike added to this mat thereby enhancing my gaming experience. Four of us played with a pair of ships each and within an hour only two ships remained amongst a litter of space debris and wreckage floating against a backdrop of asteroids... 

As I pictured this, I then decided to make some
asteroids for a quick and easy project. Main
reason being: start creating again.

Asteroids coming soon to a space mat near you...

  

  

OwlCon 2012

Last weekend was our local gaming convention here in Houston: OwlCon. Held in beautiful Rice University this annual event is named after its mascot. This has been going on awhile and just celebrated it's 31st bday.

This year I decided not to work the con and sponsor an event. I just wanted to attend and play, play, play. So I walked around snapped a few pix and enjoyed myself tremendously.

Friday night was opening night where I got to play a Western skirmish game: Gut Shot.
They were testing our the latest expansion called 'Night of the Living Deadwood'
where humans and zombies went head to head with each other. Last thing standing.
Sorry, no pix of the actual table and minis. 

Meanwhile in another room of the con, a great game was being held in the
same time slot . I couldn't be in two places at once, gol darn it! Great table and minis.

Using Gaslight  rules this was a VSF (Victorian Sci-Fi) table filled with lots of eye candy. On the eve of WWI, it's a city fight circa summer 1914 where the Mahdist clash with Euro powers.

And walking thru the dealer's area I spied some Dungeon Stone. Pretty good stuff and made in Texas.

 

Aerodrome

Another great event GM'd by Brian Weathersby.

He never disappoints and I always love playing on his table. 

From the con catalog write up:

"It is April 1945, and Berlin is in ruins. As the Red Army advances into 

the heart of the Reich's capital, it is finding that the German defenders 

may not be numerous, but they have no shortage of determination and courage." 

Ambushed T34-85 by a Panther. 

Sunday was a major fleet action. The Battle of Calabria was brilliantly put on by
Stephen Kastensmidt using War At Sea minis and rules.

I did spend some time in the Steve Jackson room where I played and bought my own copy of Frag!

Sigh... Back to work.

Refurbishing Old Models Part 3

As posted in Part 2, where the Maintenance Bots were featured, I'm continuing my quest for additional scenic items to populate my Sci-Fi table. I've been wracking my brain thinking about other objects big and small that would enhance the scenery: space shuttles, drop ships and perhaps a smattering of different land crafts. 

Part of the fun of this great hobby is exercising one's noggin and imagination for cost effective (read: cheap) items to grace one's table. Lord knows, I've spend coin aplenty in the past and in other areas of this hobby.

So, off I go a hunting. First stop...

A lot of you have been asking: Where ya get that? 
Well, at my favorite Scav-alert store, that's where!
Look for one in a city near you (that is, if you're in the states).

Here are more finds to add to my Sci-Fi scenery. By doing a lot of squinting, especially since I forgot to bring my glasses, I saw the lines of these bikes and imagined them monochromatic and without the riders:

Another Dollar Tree special. You guessed it:
$1 a pack! So that's 50 cents per model. Oh boy!!

Took out the worthless and out of scale riders

A little black primer, metallic dry-brushing 
and we'll see what these babies will transform into

Next, I go to Wally World!

And looky what I found at the Toy Clearance
aisle. I know what you're thinking,
'What can I possibly use this for?' 

Again, with some more squinting, I noticed that
the lines and shape of this model is excellent
and lends itself to a possible shuttle or drop ship
while my Maintenance Bots look on. Meanwhile the
horribly, garish paint scheme has got to go!

Coming soon, the 'after' shots...

A10 Warthog

A little deviation from my current projects when I really need to focus and get that rail yard done for 15mm but alas...

This poster says it all.

One of my favorite ground attack aircraft aside from the famed IL-2 Sturmovik of WW2.

After savaging what looks like a Soviet tank.

Some nose art choices...

And here's the culprit and cause of the current derailment of my train of thought. Sigh... another project to add to my ever growing list of 'to do' items which can't be helped since I wanna do it all, dammit! 

An old kit that was a gift from oh so long ago...

You know, come to think of it. I haven't put together a full on kit since at least a few decades ago. (I'm not counting those plastic vikings and Mobile Infantry neither since all you got is a head and a couple of arms.) So now, in my maturing years, I'm not sure I'll have the patience and the eyesight to tackle this project. 

The two most important things needed are a great light source and a good magnifier. 

The more light the better!

Goggle types are the best.

My homemade combination. Time for a magnifying goggle upgrade.

OK, who the hell am I kidding? I've got umpteen projects on my list and when am I gonna be gaming in 1:144 scale? 


Back burner... Yeah. 


Besides I already have a pair of Warthogs, albeit in another scale...

A flight of GHQ MicroAircraft from my collection