Because Somebody Asked.... Decals and such

        I from time to time speak about using products in an offhand manner. It occurs to me ( mostly because people ask what I'm talking about) that some of these items may not be widely available/distributed in the wargaming community. I come to the hobby from a scale modeling background; those guys have nearly as many cool specialist products as the railroad modeling boys. So, after that long-winded lead in I come to my point; a reader asked about decals and how I apply them. I don't pretend that this is the best way, but it is my way and I am (often) happy with the results.

 

Gaming Update 30JAN21 7pm

 Gaming at my place this Saturday 30JAN21 at 7pm

1/72 Fokker D XXI in Finnish colors

        Oh No!  Not another airplane!

 

I forgot to take an "opening the box" photo, so I stole someone else's

        Hey, I'm entitled, I finished the Cataphracts and started on some Greeks, besides this only took a couple of hours spread across three days. This is an ancient Jo-Han kit (which I think is a re-box of the even older Revell kit). It was poorly cast (lots of flash) in a relatively soft gray plastic, the decals had curled up onto themselves but I was rescued by Micro-Scale products; Old Decal Saver and Micro-Sol saved the day (they couldn't do anything about the yellowing but that's not their job).

Road Trip, Part II: US Air Force Museum The Great War

        The Great War saw the first widespread military application of aircraft. In a stunningly short period of time combat aircraft went from tiny, under-powered one or two man planes to multi-engined behemoths that carried crews of as much as a dozen and armed with machine guns and bombs. Speed, durability, reliability and maneuverability all experienced a quantum increase. This vast impulse would lead to the spread of aircraft to all the continents in the years following the war and a world-wise fascination with flight.

Brand New, Warlord "Epic" scale ACW minis

 

beautifully cast in a strong gray plastic

       When I picked up my copy of Wargames Illustrated from my local Brick&Mortar I found sealed in the bag a sprue of the new 13.5mm (?) size ACW minis from Warlord. I had heard of these and was interested in how a "block casting" of figures would appear in the flesh. Honestly I'm impressed, the figures are grouped together well, the casting and detail work is excellent and the idea of being able to crank out large number of troops in easy to handle blocks is very appealing. In effect they have reproduced in plastic the Paperboys cut-out soldiers (minus all that folding, gluing and scissors!)

        Frankly I'm puzzled, this is clearly the result of a lot of thought and work on the part of the sculptor and the casting company so why on God's earth would you make them in 13.5mm????? Warlord has gotten into a rut of making off-scale games but when you are bringing an innovative product into a VERY well established period the last thing that you want to be is the odd-man-out. This product won't penetrate the 18mm, 15mm, 12mm or 10mm markets; ACW is already over-served for sizes/scales. If the accompanying rules are a breakthrough players will just use existing armies. I can't see gamers pitching huge existing collections just on a whim because the minis are nice. 

        So this is a Hit and a Miss; a Hit on the quality and innovation and a Miss on trying to carve out some weird niche market in an already overcrowded scene.

Road Trip: National Museum of the United States Air Force; Part I Early Years of Aviation

 

it's so big it takes up the entire interior of an Air Force base!

       I have been running my yap about wanting to go see the Air Force Museum (check out their EXCELLENT website)  for some time now, well last Monday Trunkmonkey and I went. It is only a three-hour drive straight down I-75 from the Detroit area so there is no good reason that I haven't visited recently. Actually it has been nearly three decades since the last time I went. I was happily surprised by the fact that the display area is now expanded from two hangars to five massive structures! Why have I been waiting? With free admission the only cost is the gas to get there, believe me this is well worth the trip!

         This post will be broken down into several parts because I took over 600 pictures before my battery died and I didn't get past the WW2 section.  Each Section will be broken down into a short photo group of the individual aircraft, be sure to check the other photos in the section as you will find that many aircraft appear in the background of the featured aircraft. I don't provide much commentary as I know very little of this era, Wikipedia knows far more than I.

And they're done...... 28mm Gripping Beast Roman Cataphracts

        This took longer than I thought (probably because it has been too long since I painted any figures) but I have gotten the Gripping Beast Late Roman Cataphracts (which I did a photo-review of here) finished. Even if I say so myself they are a nice looking lot of figures. All figures were painted with Americana acrylic paints and over-coated with Krylon clear matte finish. Basing is playground sand over Americana Honey Brown paint and the grass is a mixture of short static grass and Woodland Scenic's "Burnt Grass" fine turf over Americana Medium Hauser Green.

 

might need some more work on blending that base into the stand....

Gaming Update

 My place Saturday 23rd November 2021, 7pm

Be there..................................................................

Errr......massive brain fart (we may very well BE gaming on 23Novermber 2021) but I meant to type 

23JAN21 7p.m.

 

 be there!

Nearing the finish

 Not that these guys would win any races with all that armor on.....

       ......... but I just wanted to show that I am making progress on these

 

they just need the final details on the faces and horses, 

and sanding and flocking the bases, then varnishing,

OK maybe I'm halfway to finished

Is half a promise a lie?

        OK, OK a little while back I promised that I wouldn't go any further down the plastic model airplane  rabbit-hole until I had at least finished my Gripping Beast Late Roman Heavy Cavalry.....

 

decidedly NOT an airplane, but still a model.........

Gaming At Bastion Gaming Center

         The gang and I took the trip up to Bastion Gaming Center to use their new giant gaming space. We played an oversized game of The Pikemans Lament using the stores 28mm painted armies. It was a case of ECW Royalists vs the Roundheads. The King's men were more numerous but not as well trained while the hard-bitten disciplined Roundheads were fewer in number but made of much sterner stuff. 

          We used the "convention rule" wherein a failed Command check did not end the turn but simply left the unit taking no action. The game was marked by the wildest number of "double-ones" and "double sixes" that I have ever seen. In the end the Royalists managed to overwhelmed the Parliamentarians.

 

Royalists on the right (big surprise there, eh?) facing the Roundheads on the left

Gaming Update, 16JAN21 7pm

 I will be running a game at Bastion Gaming Center at 7pm on 16JAN21. This will be a great chance to try out the huge playing area and comfortable surroundings. Drop by and see the action!