Great Deal from Helion Books

     Helion Books is offering their "Russian Army In The Great Northern War" book at 1/3 off through The League of Augsburg blog this is a great deal on a truly superb book. If you are at all interested in this subject you really should have this book. Don't miss this deal.

A more or less typical Night with Anton

I have been waiting to post this one for a while as I figured I should wait until Anton came back to the land of the living (sober) after his revelries.  I figured posting would be a good sign so now that he has made several I will launch this missive. 


So, for all of you gentle readers who have never had the pleasure of an evening at Anton's I thought I would write this one up to reflect the modus vivendi of the group. 

Review of the PSC Cold War Soviet Infantry

     I had a chance to review the new Plastic Soldier Company Cold War Soviet Infantry set. Top quality product all around!

28mm Plastic Horse Size Comparison

     In response to a question I received I did a side-by-side size comparison of some of the plastic model horses in my "to do" pile. The grid in the background is 1/4" graph paper positioned directly behind the models to reduce parallax effects. This is in no way comprehensive, just a way for readers to get an idea of the size, proportions and detail of the various manufacturer's product.

left to right

Perrys Miniatures from their Mounted Men-at-Arms 1450-1500 kit

Conquest Miniatures Medieval Knights 1300

Gripping Beast Late Roman Heavy Cavalry (also Dark Ages Cavalry)

Warlord Lace Wars (they use the same oddly proportioned beast for all of their cavalry)

Victrix Napoleonic Austrian (sorry, I have no Victrix cavalry at all)

Fireforge Mounted Sergeants

 

Cold War Workhorse the PSC M-60

     I did a review and build of the Plastic Soldier Company's M-60 model for the Michigan Toy Soldier Shop
You can read my review here

     This is what the model looks like once it is built

Photo Review Gripping Beast Late Roman Heavy Cavalry

 

cover art, nicely done, good painting ideas 

except that the silver-faced helmet was used only for games and exercises, not battle

     I now these have been around a while now, but I finally got a chance to open up the box and start on building them. While I was doing that I thought I would do a quick photo review of the models for anyone that hasn't seen them in the flesh (er....plastic?). 

Kearsarge Komplete

     Well,  I managed to find a few hours and finished this model. Overall it was a fun build. I think the model is effective in conveying the style of the ship, even if 55% of the hull was shortened away.

 

side-shot, ruler for scale 

Sometime Things Just Happen Part V

     Truth be told, I get bored easily. I just finished painting my way through a small mountain of 1/300 buildings for R.U.P. to use in his upcoming Batteltech Extravaganza. I have a dozen other projects on the "Urgent" pile but I had the itch to build a boat. I remembered that my friend Steve had expressed an interest in having one of my pre-dreadnoughts for his own and that he found the two-tier turrets of the Kearsarge class of USN battleships to be intriguing.

      Then this sort of happened.......

 

at the end of a couple of hours I had this worked up

 

another few hours brought further refinements and some paint

     She still needs a fair amount of work; guns, boats, ventilators, masts and railings, but she is taking shape nicely. As usual lots of concessions have been made to both playability and storage-space. A fair half of the hull length is missing as are the attendant midships guns. Other details have been ruthlessly pared down to the bare minimum to reduce breakage and clear deck space for the crew.
The picture below gives you an idea of how much was traded away to reduce the model to a manageable size.

 

this is the "missing bit" the funnels and cranes will be re-arranged to make sure

 that they appear on the model , the bow and stern have been foreshortened as well 

     I skipped on the step-by-step as there is nothing new in the modelling techniques used in this build. Check "Adventures in Blue Board and Foamcore" for step-by-step articles on my prior projects

The Gift of Brotherhood

I don't normally do too many posts, but this felt merited. I had recently gone to a wedding in northern Illinois (not far from Lake Geneva, in fact) for a friend from college, where I saw a bunch of old fraternity brothers (including the groom and his best man). At the reception, the best man and his wife ran into a problem: many of the people who came had come through a shuttle service, and they had barely missed the next-to-last shuttle to their lodging. They had to leave early the next morning and the final bus to their lodgings would be leaving at midnight.

Thankfully, I brought my Terrain with me and drove them back. Stephen, the best man, offered me money, but I turned it down because friendship, brotherhood, yadda yadda yadda. I got an unremarkable text from him asking me what my address was and didn't think about it until this  showed up.

All Things In Moderation

     My tiny little blog has been swamped with spam comments. I apologize to everyone who wishes to post a comment, any and all comments will be cleared through to the blog but I don't want to be seen to be endorsing Pakistani "Escort Services" or Indonesian "Computer Solutions" and such. All other comments (good, bad, or indifferent) WILL be posted, I check several times a day to clear the moderation box out, please don't view this as an attempt to control or limit the discussion.

A Little Something to Distract The Housemartin

 

    and a few other people as well, 

I really like the bald fellow with a cigar

 

Bob Murch has released further miniatures in his Pulp Figures Range among which are these delightfully evocative Mexican Officers. Bob's work just keeps getting better and I was already a big fan! Check out all of his work on his website, oddly enough entitled, Pulp Figures.

Gaming Schedule In The Near Future

     I am finally beginning to make the transition to retired life. Part of this is the realization that I have a significant bit of control over how I spend my time. Pat of that control is getting gaming back on a regular schedule. Things look like this for the near future;

      8JUN18     1930hrs   D&D my place, new campaign will be starting, latest edition rules
      9JUN18     1900hrs   My place,  just picked up a copy of "What A Tanker" by Two Fat Lardies.   It looks like jolly fun. We will be giving that a go.

     During the week I am open to hosting a game on Wednesday or Thursday, let me know if you are free or have something in mind and I will post it.

     15JUN18     1930hrs     D&D (this is tentative depending on people's schedules)    
     16JUN18     1900hrs    My place, historical gaming

     If things work out this will be pretty much a regular schedule going forward.