500th Post - Secret Santa - Other Ramblings

Wow, I have cleared over 100 posts this year. This is post 500. The blog has risen to 160 followers and over 128,000 views. Not too bad. Thank you for following and reading along. It has been great fun getting to know many of you and getting feedback on my many different hobby adventures. Please keep the comments coming.

Secret Santa
Yes, it is that time. Ian's Secret Santa project just closed and I received my target. Now I just have to figure out what on earth to buy them. Also I was asked to make a post with a wishlist of things that I would be interested in. Well, that is a great question. I have 3 current projects going on that I need more stuff for.

#1) 10mm Zulus. I have absolutely 0 terrain for these fellows and I need more Zulus. No preference in manufacturer. I actually was looking to get from several different ones just to see what they are like.

#2) 15mm Cowboys. I have at this moment 6 painted cowboy miniatures from Peter Pig. Anything from that range would be welcome or any of the 15mm buildings from the Game Craft Miniatures Wild West Line. Especially their 1 story buildings. Actually that would be excellent.

#3) 15mm WWII terrain. I would be happy with just about anything that I could use for either Normandy or the Eastern Front. no preferences as to manufacturers.

#4) Just thought of one more. Picts from Splintered Light Miniatures. I need to beef up the rather weak force that I have for Dux Britaniarum.

Those are just some ideas. Or just go through the blog and find something complimentary to what you find. I am very excited to have something hobby related under the tree this year.

Other Ramblings
I was really wanting to use post #500 to show off something that I actually finished or to have a contest. Neither are going to happen right now. But I have an idea for a give away that I will probably do sometime early next year. I will check to see if there is something that I can do with a local terrain of figure manufacturer.

The Santa Clause is going fairly well. i have heard back from a number of participants and it seems that people have gotten their ideas well in hand and are progressing. I am guessing that I will be done with mine before the end of the month. So I can mail it in early November.

So far my experiment at Wargame Vault has been mostly fruitful. I am encouraged enough to keep the books up there. The Coming Thunder has been the best seller there. With the sample scenarios as well as the full book. They have done a fantastic job of putting the word out that the book was for sale there. All in all, I am impressed with them. I will use them again for my next project as well.

As for next projects, I am finishing off my novel, CSS Appomattox. I am over half way done editing it and if I can get focused, i should be able to finish off the editing in a week. I am seriously considering posting it up on DriveThruFiction as well as amazon. DriveThru is a sister company of Wargame Vault.

Post 400: The Revenge of the Paint Table

Welcome to post number 400. Posting has slowed a bit here lately but I am trying to get things cranked up again. I am setting a goal for the Month of May, that I will post at least 4 times a week. With Easter coming up this weekend, there is no way that I can get much done before then. 400 posts is rather remarkable for me. The blog began in May of 2007. That puts this blog at 7 years old next month. I can hardly believe it has been that long. Enough nostalgia, on to the fun.

Finally! I got my paint brushes moving a bit and made some progress. Did I work on one of my existing projects? No. Instead I found some Late War Soviet vehicles that had not received any attention.

Here was my painting table at the middle of the week:

You can see that I have added several new items. I have a bunch of them from the Old Glory Dark Ages Baggage Train pack. Some Picts have been placed on the queue as well. There are 4 cavalry, 4 skirmishers and some spearmen that look almost identical to the javelin troops. There is a finished base of married Zulus and two Zulu leaders. Then there is the set of dead WWII Italians that need work.

Besides the above, there are some Late War Soviets that ended up receiving the attention. First is a set of 4 unprimed Ba-64 armored cars. Then there is one each of: T34-85, SU-100, SU-85 and SU-76M.

The T34 had hatches that would not fit. It was very frustrating. In order to make it work, I glued them on in an open position. That also did not look great so I went to the bits box to find some figure that would work as a soviet tanker. I found a Battlefront dismounted tanker figure. However he is rather big. I cut the figure down and got him in place. You can see his severed legs in the front right corner of the image. I did not have a suitable second figure and the other one's hand was overhanging the other hatch. So I left that one open.

All of the Soviet tanks are Old Glory/Command Decision figures.

I finished up the tanks last night. Here is the look of the painting table this morning.

And here are the tanks by themselves.

Lastly, you may remember that I had been working on terrain for a bit. One of the things that demotivated me was a slight disaster with a large wooded area that I was working on. The base of my woods fell in the garage to the concrete floor. It took me over a week to recover and pick up a brush again. I think I can fix this but it was definitely demotivating.

Well that is all for now. Take care and happy gaming.