Back from Texas and getting ready for the Swap Meet

Got in from Texas last night.

Five days straight of gaming, movies and beer; I never thought that I could get tired of gaming but I found myself exhausted. Thanks Tom, it was a grand time!!

I return to find a foot of snow, WTF!!!

Anyways, while gaming my butt off, I had a little time to think and I have decided that there is little chance of me ever finishing most of the projects that clog my "toy room". Thus I will be opening the vault and making available almost all of my collection of "unfinished business". From 1/12 scale plastic figures to 5mm minis and everything in between, I have tons of stuff for trade or sale.

I am looking for 25/28mm Victorian Science Fiction/Back of Beyond, 25/28mm French and Indian Wars, female Pirate figures in 28mm, 1/2400 scale WW 1 cruisers and destroyers, 1/100 scale Cold War helicopters (Soviet or US) circa 1965, 15mm AK-47 Republic  stuff (T-55s, kalishnikov-armed Africans, etc), 28mm buildings that can be used for Mexico/Sicily (you know that red tiled roof and stucco walls look), 28mm Victorian/Wild West buildings. And, of course, CASH.

Anybody reading this and needing to find my house send me an e-mail at; daftrica89 at yahoo dot com and I will reply with my street address so that you can "google maps" me.

Keep Painting!    John

Some painted Perrys French Heavy Cavalry



A while back I painted some of the 28mm Perrys plastic French heavy cavalry, they turned out pretty well given my limited skills. I have always liked the Perrys horses, they seem to catch the energy and position of an animal in motion better than most, the riders aren't bad either.
Pictures after the break....

Not Exactly New (but still very nice)

Some of you may be getting tired of my rantings about the new wave of plastic 28mm figures; if you belong to that group skip this post.

If you like the idea of plastic 28mm figues at a fraction of the cost of metal (along with a significant step forward in quality) read on! Some time back Victrix (website http://www.victrixlimited.com/ ) brought out their Napoleonic British Artillery set and a wonderful thing it is.

More Swap Meet Updates

Having been to some swap meets at gun-shows where thing got out of hand I thought that I would publish some rules beforehand:

Swap Meet rules

1.     Label your stuff clearly; price, who owns it, etc.

2.     Rule of thumb is trade is set at price for price, i.e. if I paid $11.00 for it I can trade it for something you paid $11.00 for. This is the base-line assumption; if you are willing to be more flexible please state as much at the beginning. Don’t bring stuff for which you want more than current retail; this is a swap meet, not a collector’s fair.

3.     If you are selling for cash please have a placard or tags stating your price. Haggling is O.K. but give everybody an idea of what you want.

4.     Your handshake is your bond, don’t agree to something that you don’t want to go through with.

5.     Please try to be on time.

6.     There will be a short time set aside at the beginning before trading so that we can all check out what is on offer.

7.     Respect other people’s property, don’t paw through things and bust stuff, make sure you put stuff back where you got it. There is no need to hurry, this is a casual affair. Pottery Barn Rule; if you break it, you just bought it!

8.     There will some refreshments on hand, but please, do not bring food.

Two Ideas I am working on......

The first is a conversion of Space Hulk rules to a World War One trench raid, there are ton of pretty figures out there and I feel the itch to paint them. The problem being that most WW1 rules suck. My idea is that the raiders would take the part of the Terminator Squads while the defenders play the role of the bugs. I am still working out the details and intend to do the terrain as geomorphic pieces that can rearranged to give different layouts.

The second idea is based on a picture and cryptic desription of a game in a British wargames mag of a hunting Jack the Ripper game. It is only described as very fun and interesting. I am working on a method of hidden movement and reproducing the foggy night streets of old London. This is coming together nicely at the rules levekl, now all I have to do is build a couple dozen buildings and some streets! I am still trying to nail down the whole night time gaslit streets thing, anybody got a line on Lionel scale streetlamps that light up and flicker?

Anybody else working on something off the wall?

Tentative Feb-Mar gaming schedule

As usual I am open to people offering to run a game, if you are interested in doing so contact me with the date and details and I will enter it on the schedule listed below.

Looks like it is shaping up this way;

5FEB no gaming, I'm going to O'Mara's to hear my favorite Irish band and have a few beers

12FEB 1900hrs at my place, Dan A will be running a Victorian Science Fiction Role PLaying game using GURPS, bring your top-hat (pith helmets optional) and very best stiff upper lip.
Gin&Tonic and Vodka Gimlets will be on hand.

19FEB no gaming, going to Texas to play at Tom's

26FEB my place 1900hrs

MARCH
5MAR 1900hrs NOTE this will be the swap meet, bring your old toys/cash we will probably play something quick and easy afterward.

12MAR 1900hrs my place

19MAR 1900hrs my place

26MAR 1900hrs my place

John