Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

Another Christmas is in the books. Plenty of great memories from this year that I will cherish. The Santa Clause and Secret Santa projects came up with some very nice presents that were hobby related. First up is the Santa Clause items.

I received these beautiful figures. I really don't have a good emplaced 88mm gun to go with my Germans and I will need one for a support option for the Second Battle of Kharkov. I am very excited about this set. Thank you very much Santa Clause Ken. (Since I am the organizer, I know who everyone had.)

For the Secret Santa that Jason organized this year, I ended up with a really neat Chain of Command Morale tracker.

This is from a company I have never heard of, Phalanx Consortium. They are pretty cool. They provide lots of helpful reminders for things that I normally forget. These are very nice. I will have to check them out and get some more for my other armies. Thank you Secret Santa. This is much appreciated. Very cool.

I hope each of you had a great Christmas and will have a marvelous 2018. Game on.

Santa Clause and Secret Santa & Terrain Stuff

Santa Clause and Secret Santa

It is that time of year again. The Santa Clause emails have all gone out. I hope everyone is busy plotting and planning. I am not sure if I posted anything for my wish list. I can't remember.

I pretty much only game in 15mm at this point. My current interests are east Front WWII, Pirates and Early Imperial Romans.

3D Printing

I just got in my 3d printer. Bought a Anycubic i3 Mega printer. I managed to get it set up and am working on a test print. Rather than go straight for terrain or miniatures from Thingiverse, I decided to go with the test owl print. I think that was a good choice since I have no clue what I am doing. I managed to open Cure - the slicer software and save a scaled palisade wall on it. That will be print number 2. I will try to get some picture of it at some point. Right now, I am happy as it was churning away.

I need to get this set up as I have not only the immense amount of stuff availible on Thingiverse to play with, I have 2 kickstarters I should get soon. One for Normandy terrain and the other for East Front Terrain. Still 4 days to go with this one if you want to jump in. So far it looks to be an excellent value.

Santa Clause and Secret Santa

OK. I have just finished off my outbound gifts for both the Secret Santa and Santa Clause. Hopefully, it will prove to be a jolly holiday for my recipients.

How are you doing with your preparations? Everything coming along well?

Miracles and Wonders

Well that is what Christmas is all about, right? Well, I managed to buy my present for my Santa Clause target. Tough decisions to make but I think I got something useful. I have it 80% painted at this point, which is miracle number 2. Miracle number three is that I figured out what to get my Secret Santa. I am in negotiations to complete the order now.

If things continue, I will have both projects wrapped up by the end of the week. And if my wife is not paying attention, I may get some other things painted up as well while she is not looking. After all, I have that kickstarter town to paint up.

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.

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.

Secret Santa, Santa Clause and Welcomes

Santa Clause

I am pleased to report on the wonderful pieces that I have received from my Santa Clause. Since I was running the Santa Clause, I knew who was painting the miniatures that I received. I did not pick but it was the result of a random number draw. I have to say I am very happy with the miniatures that I received.

The miniatures are wonderful Peter Pig French Civilians from their WWII range. I will definitely be using these. They were wrapped and included a very thoughtful card. Well done. They came wrapped and had a card included. I was a very happy boy Christmas Morning. Thank you Ian for letting me be a part of the fun.

Secret Santa

This was my first year in participating in Ian's Secret Santa program. I have no clue who my secret Santa is as my wife snatched up the gift as soon as it arrived and wrapped it as she did not want the mailing envelope under the tree. I know roughly where it came from based on the manufacturer.

What was there when I opened the package was nearly a complete 15mm Modern British Platoon in berets. I was very pleased. They are QRF miniatures. I received two packs of advancing infantry, a pack of GPMG wielding fellows, a pack with Carl Gustavs, and a Command pack. This is great. I really don't need much more to round out the platoon headquarters.

Looking at what else I need, it looks like QRF will be one stop shopping. They have FV432's as well. A big thank you to my Secret Santa. This is well appreciated. Any suggestions on how to paint these fellows?

Welcomes

Apparently, I am not paying attention as I looked today and there are three new followers. Welcome!

First up is Tim Gow of Interbellum and Megablitz and More. Interbellum is interesting and I had never seen it before. The site seems to be about imaginations campaigns including a WWII one. This will be one to follow for me. Megablitz has some nice AARs of modern games. I need to spend some time looking around.

Next is Conrad Kinch of Joy and Forgetfulness. He is a blogger I have seen commenting around other blogs and did not realize that I was not following him already. The blog is rather nice with some very nicely painted models on it. Another one I am glad to follow.

Last up is Bill. I can't find a link to Bill's blog. But welcome anyway. If you have one, let me know and I will gladly post a link.

Now for some Good News

Thank you to everyone who purchased From Empire to Revolution. So far I believe we are close to 100 copies sold. Honestly for what is viewed by many as the backwater of the Great War, I am viewing this as a success.

I have finally finished with my offering for the Santa Clause but I can't show you as I want my target to be the first to see it. I did take some suggestions that I had received and made a sabot base for it. OK, truth be told, I had some one cut out the base and then finished it. The base is done and its looking pretty good. Well at least to me and my 6 year old son. He was rather miffed that he was not allowed to play with them.

I also managed to wrap up my offering in Ian's Secret Santa (Thanks in large part to those who bought From Empire to Revolution).

Next up, I am trying to be involved in a Play By Blog game. I have never done that before. I signed up for two of them. One is Roy's Old West game (that is still looking for participants last I heard). And I also signed up for the iron clad game. I am not totally sure how this will work but it should be fun.

Now my next task is to get some items off of the to do list. I have attempted a Mark Luther ground sheet. I bought a sheet at Target and dyed it green. I then sprayed it with a couple of Greens and Browns to break up the monotony. Anyway, it can't be worse than what I have now. Once Friday is over and done with, I plan on seizing the kitchen table and getting a solo game in.

Also I have made progress on my large tree for 15mm. It is currently standing next to my Santa Clause item and it looks pretty good. Also I bought some putty and hope to finish off the Roman Watchtower sometime soon as well.

And just to prove I will take a picture now and again, here is my finished Panzer II Flamm that I received from Gaming Models. I repainted it and am nearly happy with it. The Balkan crosses would have been tiny where they were supposed to go so I left them off.

This picture was an attempt to use natural light. Unfortunately, the sun was not cooperating with me.

Until next time....

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.

Secret Santa - Time is Running Out

If you have not been to Ian's blog - The Blog with No Name lately, you may have missed the news about the Secret Santa deal he has going. Time is running out to join. It is an excellent means to build community among your fellow bloggers/wargamers. Stop by and sign up. I am really looking forward to it this year.

http://walladvantage2.blogspot.com/2014/10/secret-santa-catching-up.html

Wargames Secret Santa III

The Blog With No Name is running their Secret Santa program again. I participated in the Santa Clause part last year and really enjoyed it. I ended up with a nicely painted destroyed Syria T-55 from Peter Pig. I sent out a Zulu War Heliograph team and British Padre.

I am going to sign up again this year for both the Secret Santa and the Santa Clause. I think they were great fun. And it is likely the only way I will get miniatures for Christmas. Head on over to Ian's site and check out the rules. They are simple enough for me to be able to follow them.