Happy New Year! Planning for SpartaCon

       I for one am glad to see the back of 2022. It has been a largely disastrous year and I'm hoping for better from 2023. Part of that is looking forward to participating in Spartacon 2023 on 7JAN23. I will be running a 02 Hundred Hours game in the second session. 

        A note to the regular gaming group, I will be leaving my place at about 0700hrs. I have three free spaces in my ride if anybody wants to hitch a ride with me. I will not be staying past the second session so we should return to my place around 1930hrs. Contact me if you are interested .

Merry Christmas! Happy Holidays!

 

Here is to hoping that everyone has a happy holiday season!

and a healthy, happy and prosperous New Year
 

Partisans, for REAL this time

        I have to confess that every time I open a box of plastic minis I have to over come the urge to modify, customize and remodel each and every mini in the box. Rather than fight it I decided to roll with this impulse. I not only got out the box of partisans I also brought forth the spares bits from the Wargames Atlantic WW1 Germans and the 02 Hundred Hours kits. I drew upon that jumbled pile of spares enough different parts to ensure that I built no two figures alike. 

 

here we find Indiana Jones and that famous "Hero of the Resistance" Rene Atios

 

and there they are looking the other direction 

Spartacon is closer than you think!

        

 

Just about three weeks in fact! 7JAN23 is the date set and it will be at the VFW hall like last year.

         I'm signed up to run 02 Hundred Hours and you can find the current state of things at Table Top Events (where you can also register to run a game or reserve a spot to participate in one). Always fun and a free Flea Market as well!   

And then the Partisans showed up.....

         Having become deeply enamored of the 02 Hundred Hours game system (and having painted all the minis provided with it) I was at a crossroads; do I build a dedicated board for the game, or do I assemble the Partisans that have been waiting patiently in the Pile of Regret for so very long? Purpose-built terrain can be quite satisfying; no fudges, no approximating; it is truly What You See Is What You Get. The Afghanistan boards that I built for Zhodani Commando are the product of that sort of narrow focus. 

 

         The problem is that even with considerable effort at making the boards "geomorphic" they end up being limited in a way that loose terrain is not. While I was thinking about this I wandered into The Vault and found the box of Partisans. I popped open the box and instantly decided it would be the minis instead of a dedicated board. I quickly sat myself down and started assembling the models, and almost as quickly I fell victim to the bane of speed; my habit of modifying plastic figures.....

 

the head had fallen off the sprue so it was a "volunteer"

a nice active pose.....where could this lead?

Gaming Update, 17DEC22 at my place 1900hrs UPDATE, IT'S AT PAT'S PLACE NOW

UPDATE, GAME HAS BEEN MOVED TO RICH UNCLE PAT'S PLACE    

 I don't have a clue what we are playing yet but play we will!

December 17th, 2022, 7p.m. my place

  As an aside I turn 64 today, in celebration of this my son, Rich Uncle Pat, 

gave me this wonderful gift

 

what is the purpose of a 3" tall "time-out" chair you ask 

 

 

so that you can punish dice that misbehave

(this is a vast improvement over the previous two methods)

Return to Rhodesia

        Aside from the pleasure of not being in charge of setting up and running the game one of the real joys of attending a game hosted by Rich Uncle Pat is his visually satisfying gaming table. He spends a great deal of time and energy constructing realistic tabletops and providing nicely painted minis. This game pitted Communist revolutionaries against the Rhodesian government forces. We use Specter rules which provided an easy to understand and quick playing game.

another one of R.U.P.'s fabulous tables,

follow this link to see some of his other games

Updated Gaming Update; 10DEC22 at Rich Uncle Pat's place 7pm

        Having watched a couple of play-though videos and actually read the rules in a quiet setting I am going to run 02 Hundred Hours again. I am certain that everyone with have a much more satisfying experience than last time. Rich Uncle Pat has graciously offered us use of his home so we will be meeting there.

          Fail to show and be considered AWOL

02 Hundred Hours minis painted

        Well, not completely. I have to finish the dogs, find a way to paint eyeglasses that works for me and then finish the bases, but the hard part is completed. Last we saw the Germans assembled and base-coated, I got those finished and then pushed through the painting on the SAS lads. With any luck I will be able to run a game on Saturday. But enough of that nonsense! Off to the minis (of course a more talented painter would be able to get much more impressive results than my clumsy efforts).

Putting a litle paint on the Wargames Atlantic German Sentries

        German uniforms sounded easier than camo smocks so I got started with them. I deliberately painted them a shade or two darker to go with the "action at night" setting. I might just rip the heads off the ones wearing glasses (I hate painting eyeglasses on minis!!!). They still have a way to go and then there is basing....

And then the Germans showed up.....

        I have to confess that I like assembling plastic minis more than I like painting them. Honestly there are a great many things I like more than painting minis, but it is part "of the process" so I have to endure it. But, back to the fun stuff1

        Having snapped the pictures of the SAS special weapons group I was confronted with the matter of starting to paint them or starting to assemble the German guards and sentries. It's pretty obvious as to how I decided. In like manner with the SAS I tried to match the builds with the minis but there is less choice of German cards and far more minis. This let my creative side have its chance and I spent the evening trying out different arms and head positions. Finally I made up my mind and here is the finished project. 

 

Special Weapons for the S.A.S.

       Having assembled figures to match the characters depicted on the cards provided with 02 Hundred Hours I decided to put together some figures with the more unusual weapons that are also included in the kit. Those being the De Lisle Carbine, the Welrod Silenced pistol, Lee-Enfeild MK 4 sniper, along with the ubiquitous Bren gun.  The other two minis resulted in a lad carrying a knife in one hand and a normal pistol in his off-hand, just for fun I assembled the last model as a "Sgt. Psycho" figure armed with a Welrod, a bundle of dynamite and carrying his Fairbairn-Sykes knife between his teeth. As with the other models the assembly was straightforward and resulted in some good looking figures that I can't wait to put paint on.

these weapons are all part of the game and have supplemental data cards when you use them