Santa Clause 2015 and Secret Santa Wish Lists

I am trying to narrow my focus for what is left of 2015. I am still trying to get my troops together for my Cold War Gone Hot version of Chain of Command.

Thus far I have a US infantry platoon ready to go and a Soviet Motorized Platoon. What I lack is support elements for the US and any kind of Armor for either side. And of course I am doing everything in 15mm.

Romans and Early Germans are another option. I am building up a force of Roman Auxilia. I am trying to work together a set of rules for a Roman Skirmish game based on a historical Roman Cohort against a German horde. I have nothing in the way of early Germans. I do have a few Early Imperial Romans though. The idea is to have 40 figure strong Centuries. With six total centuries supported by four Turmae of cavalry. Thus far, I am a long way off. It's a long term project and its in 15mm (again).

The next thing I am interested in is cowboys. I am doing skirmish games with my son and we are having a blast. I want to make a Mexican gang but have not gotten anything. As with everything else, it is all 15mm. At the moment, everything is Peter Pig Miniatures. They have painted up quite nice.

Anyway, those are just some ideas. As you can see, I am heavily invested in one scale. Thanks for looking.

Santa Clause Administrivia

Well we are well on our way to launching. I am lacking some details from some of you. In particular, I lack a mailing address and a e-mail address from two participants:

Clint of http://clint-anythingbutaone.blogspot.com/
David Pike of http://smalltablewargames.blogspot.co.uk/

If ya'll could please shoot me an e-mail with the info to cstoesen at corecard dot com, I will have you sorted out.

The rest of you that I am missing information from, I have sent you a mail.

Currently, we are sitting at 16 participants. I was notified by several that they would not be able to rejoin this year due to changed circumstances. That I completely understand. 2015 has not been kind to me and my family but the year is not over yet, and there is still time to have a Merry Christmas.

Only one more day left to join in on the fun.

Santa Clause Closing in just Two Days!

Well, I am back at my desk and hoping for normalcy. My Mom passed away on September 18th and I have neglected everything up till now.

Just wanted to put out the reminder that the Santa Clause will close soon and I hope you all had a chance to sign up. It is great fun. Last year some some spectacular pieces come out. I think everyone enjoyed it.

Santa Clause 2015 - First Update

Less than 24 hours after opening up the Santa Clause we are sitting at Eleven participants! That is great. We now have more than half of last year's numbers. That is very promising. Let see what happens. Thanks for the interest folks.

The Santa Clause 2015

Since Ian has kicked off the Secret Santa already, it is time to get rolling with the Santa Clause. If you were with us last year, you know how this works. If not, here are our ground rules:

Rule number 1:

To enter you need to either have a blog or be a regular follower of this blog (or Ian's) already. This is to give confidence to all involved that everyone will follow through to the end. If you have a blog and don't follow this one it's OK to join in. (I would still appreciate it if you did follow)

Rule number 2:

The idea is that each person involved buys a figure or figures to the value of less than £5 and paints them up to fit in with what the target blogger wargames or collects. Best would be some kind of command for the bigger scales but maybe a unit or two of such as 6mm or a building or... you get the idea.

Rule number 3:

Please try to send out your items so that they will arrive by December 20th in plenty of time for the big day. I will send out who you have on September 30th.

Rule number 4:

Please post on your blog about your participation. The more we can get on board, the more fun for all of us.

Rule number 5:

This is not intended to be a cheap alternative to Ian's Secret SantaTM. Instead it is a great opportunity to send and receive something that will be special BECAUSE it's a one off from a fellow blogger. Not that you have to limit yourself to something useful, feel free to paint up something that will just sit aside the painting desk or study etc and just give pleasure.

So that's the idea, it is another great way to connect with your blogging friends and get something really exciting at Christmas. I hope that this year will be as great a success as last year. Ian's wife did a fantastic job with it and from what I can see, everyone had a great time. If you are interested, please leave a comment here with your blog address. We need to be able to look and see what you are interested in. Then shoot me an e-mail to chrisstoesen at gmail.com. I need to know where you are located as well so I will need a mailing address to send to your Santa Clause recipient. I will cut off the registrations on September 30th.

That's it folks, lets get this going! I hope to see all of last year's participants back involved. It was a great time.

How is it this time of year already or "It's Secret Santa Time!"

The fine folks over at The Blog with No Name are starting to roll with Secret Santa v4. I am in. Stop on by and check it out. It is great fun. My Secret Santa from last year did a fantastic job in picking out something that I like. (I still need to paint it *sorry*)

Anyway, please join in on the fun. It's always nice to get toys for Christmas, no matter how old you are.

Tuesday Build Time

I picked up the parts to the Walthers Modern Conveyors today. I wanted to build it to use for a Ukrainian Mining Complex. It's an HO scale kit. But it looks like it will work well. I built the conveyor and the supports but have not put them together. The kit does not have the to and from buildings for the conveyor. I hope to have this finished off by the weekend and ready for photos. Here is a link to what I had bought.

The next building set I would like are some silos. I am thinking about this set or the ones from Impudent Mortal.

Kickstarter that I just joined in on and Other Things

I found this kickstarter and was suitably impressed with the 15mm offerings. Impudent Mortal has a very nice set of 15mm buildings that would work well for housing near an industrial quarter for my eastern front games. I plan on painting these accordingly.

Please check it out. They have both 28mm and 15mm sets in this kickstarter. It seems to have already more than reached its goal and they are due to come out this year. Click here for the kickstarter page: Impudent Mortal Kickstarter

Other Things

I found out this morning that the reason I am so tired is that I have a case of Strep again. To make myself feel better, I started some retail therapy. Really it was just adding items to my wishlist as I don't have any money to spend at the moment.

The first item that I found was a nifty little park in 15mm by a group called Finished Terrain. It looks to be a park surrounded by cobblestone and a hedge. It includes a fountain and a path across it. I want one.

The next item that I found was a nice little home with a pig sty on the back of it. It has a stair leading to a side door on the second floor. I think this could find a place either my east or west front games. It is a nice Four Ground building that comes prepainted. Something that I am getting increasingly interested in.

Maybe if I drop some hints, my wife I might get one of these for my birthday next month.