Spring Fever 2013 After Action Report Part 1

Hi Kids, I had originally planned to go to Cold Wars but the weather decided otherwise.  My route was through the hills of western Virginia and the roads seemed dodgey at best.  So it was off the Raleigh NC for the Triangle Simulation Society's con instead! Usually they don't conflict, but apparently the hotel had other ideas this year.  Bummer, I know!

 Here we have a shot of the world famous battle of Camerone, Mexico, 1863.  Those are the 63 French Foreign Legionairres taking on one of the massive waves of 2000 Mexicans during Maximillian's brief reign.  All those tan squares in the background are dead Mexicans!  It was a great game of sniping and assault waves, but unfortunately the Mexicans won.  Don't forget this year is the 150 anniversary of the battle on April 30th!

 There were two tournaments going on, Warmachine and 40K.  This is one of the Warmachine games.  About 40% of the armies had a "Colossal", the latest bigger-better jack.  Standing about 6 inches tall, they make an impressive addition to combat power!  At US$135.00, they make a pretty big impression on the economy too.

 Battletech in 1/285!

 Brace yourselves, its Team Ellis running another rigged racing game!  These things are tremendous fun, just remember they are about as staged as wrestling.  Try to look surprised when Team Ellis members finish 1, 2 and 3.  Good thing we're not in Vegas!

 The latest hot flash in gaming, X-wing!  I ended up with a new M Falcon myself.  Too cool to resist.

 A long shot down one of the rows are Warmachine games.  There were two rows total, about 5 games per row.

 Could it be Arkham Horror?

 One of the friendly vendors, Yadkin Valley Games. Specilizing in cardboard AH/SPI/GDW style games, look for them on Consimworld, ebay, etc.

 Hanger 18, one of the local Cary NC shops.

 Wargames Factory was offering good deals, too, including the new Leviathan from Dreamforge.

The Game Connection, another local store.

 Here we have a 15mm WW1 game called "Trenchfight."  Some french tanks prepare to cross the friendly trenches. Crossing 6 feet of trenches isn't going to be easy!

 French infantry in their starting positions.

Smile for the camera ya Boche!

 One of the table rows of 40K, they had about 20 guys show up to beat each other up for the tournament.

 The other row of games.

 Two dropships going head to head at 1000mph?  Nope, two different games.

 More of the Emporer's finest holding back the foul spawn of Chaos.

 Sled dogs run amuck or Space Wolves?  Raleigh games always bring out the Forge World stuff!

 A 1/32 scale WW2 game!

 The French infantry about to jump into the Hun trenches.  Any port in a storm, as they say!

Out west, cowboy action about to start.

 

 Lord of the Rings, a big honkin' game of Isengard.  The good guys about to storm the walls!

 20mm WW2 Russian Front action, some KV's get crankin'.

 German halftracks prepare to be assaulted.

Infantry join in the mayhem!

Well kids that's about it for this installment.  I've been told posts with 50 pictures take too long to load, so I'll have to add the rest in another post.  I highly recommend the Raleigh NC cons, the next one is Southern Front, usually in Sept or October.  I might even get off my butt and run a game myself.  I'm thinking the world famous much beloved Operation Barras 25mm game! 

March Happenings (Or lack of same)

 Hi Kids,  Now I know there's a bucket o' dudes out there wondering, "What has the Chuckster been up to lately?"  (Well, maybe one of you.)  What's happening?  S'up?  What strange goings-on while in the dreaded Basement?  The answer to all these questions in basically: "Not much."  Here's the newest arrival of the Russian 1904 Fleet, the Rostislav!  She's a 1/600 Old Glory Shipyard/Merrimack Miniatures from their "Age of Ironclads" line.  Yes, you too for the low low price of US$20.00 each can buy just about the entire Russian, Japanese, US, and Spanish fleets from this era.  I really dig these things, I got the bug for Big Naval back at Origins 1989 where I saw Tsushina done with ships about this size.  Dude, if you're reading this, a hearty Well Done! Right now the count is 7 finished, 30 more to go!  Don't worry, I've already started another battlewagon, the Potemkin.

 Been playing some World of Tanks on the web, too.  Just bought an M8A1 Tank Destroyer and had an amazing game!  Yeah buddy, that's six (6!) count 'em, SIX medals won in a single game.  Now I can get back to the more usual work of getting crushed!

 I bought the unpainted T54/55 off ebay a couple years ago, but it seemed so small I thought it was 20mm by mistake.  Set it next to a 1:50 T54/55 and found out it is just 1:56 instead.  Boy do I feel dumb.  I guess we all have our moments.

 The final moments of a Disposable Heroes all armor game.  My last remaining R35 was surrounded by 4 Huns; two Sdkfz 231 and two Pz38T's; but emerged triumphant!  Due mainly to lousy German dice rolls and the Sdkfz's 20mm gun only able to penetrate the tracks of the R35.  I know my victory has nothing to do with my skill!

 A Privateer Press Khador Behemoth!  Painted at last!  It's been aging on the shelf for 5 or 6 years, figured it was time to get it done.  Yep, those mammoth cannons on the shoulders are not supposed to be that big, but the parts were missing.  Replacements would have been $18 so I went the cheap route and used some extra bits instead.  Yes, I know the fistguards are on backwards, but the instructions were missing as well.  This thing set the record for pinning; there are no less than 11 pins in the hip joints, not to mention a quart of glue and epoxy! Most of them are external, so I'm not going to show you the back. My hat is off to anyone who builds these damn things!  Wow, what a pain!

 This is my dog Zeze, a rescue dog from Albania. Yes, I'm serious.  No, I don't beat her, she just doesn't dig having her picture taken.

This is a close-up of my other dog Molly, who likes having her picture taken so much she gets too close to the camera.  She was a local rescue.  No, I don't beat her either. But thanks for asking.

And due to the snow storm between here and Lancaster, I'm going to miss Cold Wars! 400+ miles (each way) on questionable roads just ain't in the cards.  What a bummer!  I can hear the vendors screaming already! Good thing I can still order more stuff on the internet.

What the hell was I thinking? A tour of the Basement of Heaped Miniatures

 Hi Kids,  Since film is no longer an expense I can just go nuts taking pictures.  I was taking a few shots of assorted figs and decided to go ahead and capture some images of the Basement of Heaped Miniatures.  The room is only about 10 or 12 feet wide so I couldn't get far enough away to get the entire bookcases/shelves in the frame, but I'm sure you get the idea.  Obviously the craters on the lower left and the plastic toy dinosaurs just above them are painted, but just about everything else you see is still awaiting its turn on the paint bench. About 15 years ago I started buying plastic tupperware-ish containers to store figs, usually by army or type.  Some are labeled: Warzone Bauhaus, GW Imperial Army (remember before they changed the name to Imperial Guard), Southern Militia & Northern forces for RAFM Heavy Gear, Reaper, Kryomek, 25mm Nappies, Tau, Adeptes Astartes, Void,  Dystopia Wars...  Yeah, I've got my work cut out for me.

 Here we have one of the other units, this one is packed with everything from dice and rulers to rulebooks. The black box lower right is 90% Rackham figs, but there are also swarms of Flames of War Italians, Brits, USA, Russians, and Germans.  Since you can't just do WW2 in one scale there are also a couple hundred bucks worth of 25mm WW2 figs, along with a pile of Company B, Westwind, Chieftain & Battlefront (the 25mm kind) vehicles.  There are also entire armies of 25mm Macedonians, Carthaginians, Starship Troopers....    nothing is painted.
These two pictures show less than 50% of the lead shielding down in the bunker. The other shelves are blocked by the pool table.  Which is for sale, by the way.  Anyone want a Brunswick Windsor VIP table?

 The first 40K army I ever had: The Eighth Imperial Shock Assault Legion.  Nicknamed the Imperial Dicks.  Back in the days when you had to make up your own army list.  There are a few more dreadnoughts still in the boxes of course.  More beakies too.  Not pictured (to the left of the speeders) are the world famous skyboard riding assault marines, an idea stolen from Judge Dredd comics.   Down in front are the Chainsaw Warriors in green camo.  All the back banners are hand painted.

 A few of the Space Orks.  Yes, that one banner is the 10SS Drop Legion. Got your RT book handy?  Yep, they're in there someplace.

 Some more of the unwashed masses. Shock Attack guns, grots, even a Super Cybork.  Those funky things on the left are what I use for Mad Doc's cyborg bodyguards, RAFM space orks in heavy armor. I gave these units what I thought were catchy names; 10/3 Heavy Mob, 1040th IRS, 13th Ju-ju Warriors, 427th Chevy...

 Some of the orc mechanized troops; meckanics, buggies, bikes, off-brand dreadnoughts....

The Heavy Support of the 251st Iron Stompers, three Gobsmashas.  At least that's what I think they are called.  Old Armorcast vehicles, back when resin stunk to high heaven.  It was recommended to use a blowdrier on them to stop the stink.

 Two orc vehicles for scale, and a RAFM Heavy Gear Assault Mammoth.  I really dig those old heavy gears, I wish the game had caught on around here. I own about 4 editions so far.  Why yes, that is the world famous 13th DBLE triple grey and black camo scheme.

 The Heavy Support of the other side, three Armorcast Shadowswords.  I like Armorcast since these things only had about 10-15 parts.  The 13th DBLE one I painted, the others were from Ebay or Bartertown.

 The only Land Raider I ever built and painted, in the livery of the 8th ISAL.  Got another one floating around here someplace.  Afterall, they came two to a box for about US$20.00

 My first kitbash, a 8th ISAL dropship.  It started out life as a plastic Gundam heavy lifter kit.  Had to stick a lot more weapons on it of course!

 Mr. Peabody, set the wayback machine for 1985!  Its a Citadel Miniatures Hobgoblin Rocket Team. 

 Sometimes my rule of not fielding a mini until its painted bites me on the ass.  I still own three of these things, never got to use them.  I think they were written out of the rules about 5 editions ago.  Yeah, that is the price tag.  UK Pounds 6.50. That was about US$9.00.  This thing would probably retail for US$50 nowadays.  God only knows about Ebay.  I cry for the children.

 This is one of the ugliest figs I've ever owned.  When I opened the box I was horrified how two dimensional it appeared.  Chances of being painted.....    ZERO.  The Fighting Uruk-hai I bought at the same time have been in thousands of battles.

 

 Some Call of Cthulhu figs from Grenadier.  Cold Ones, Mi-Go...  not sure who made the flying snake.  Back in the days when I didn't paint the bases... afterall, what would you do if your figs move from outside to inside a house?  You would have to repaint the bases.....  The ignorance of Youth. Gotta love it.

 One of my Marauder monstrous spider riders.  Back in W$ 3rd Ed this was the only way to break a dwarf unit, since they caused fear.  If you lost a combat to fear causing opponents you broke automatically. No check required.  Yessiree, back then we had to make our own bases out of balsa wood.  You even had to measure them.  This one is 40mm.  You kids have it so easy now.

This is the fig that started it all. This is the first one I ever bought.  A Ral Partha Sea Elf with Two Handed Sword in true 25mm. It is about as big as a single 40K Terminator arm.  I bought this thing on vacation at Fantasy and Strategy World (or is that Strategy and Fantasy World?) in Boston back in the late 1970's/early 80's.  I think it cost about US$0.90.  It is painted with Testors Enamels just like all my plastic model airplanes.  The square bottles were all you could get at hobby stores around here.  Well, I figure I've bored everyone to tears by now.  Only two questions remain: "What the hell was I thinking when I bought all this crap?"  and "Who's up for a painting party?"