still abiding

What a long year it has been thus far! Still struggling with military computer learning, cept know it appears that my new computer is too advanced for the required courses. There was also an unexpected expenditure as my truck blew it's engine a few days before New Years Eve. I was allowed to borrow my Pastor's Suburban while all sorts of funds were poured into my poor Silverado. We decided it needed a new engine, and we also decided we needed a backup car(note by we I mean wife!) I pulled money from my retirement and allocated it toward truck repair and a new for us car. I spent 2k for a nice no rust Lesabre which also had very low miles for it's age( I also rued how at one point an older car cost about $500!). Three days into the new car, I pushed snow with it in a massive oddessy that had me outside for 6 hours attempting to go to work in minus wow degrees of cold, a blinding snowstorm, and no plow trucks in sight. I called in to work as I couldn't make it and spent my time limping home and rescuing other motorists. Turns out that snow impacted under the radiator and caused the transmission to overheat and die. So a truck with no engine, a car with no transmission, a too kind Pastor with an again loaned Suburban, and more money pulled from my retirement.
Lot's of frivolity, words unable to be taken back, and more vehicular adventures and mishaps with snow, ice, animals. I could write a book on the painful escapades! We now have both car and truck in the driveway running perfect( Pastor also has his truck back in his driveway)My wife and I survived it and we may laugh about it in a few years! ;) The kid's were mostly non-plussed, but during all of the excitement we acquired another dog. I'm not sure how I was circumvented, but I am still pained over the loss of my big St Bernard-Black Lab shadow, companion, and foot warmer. My wife's Chocolate Lab-Cocker spaniel has adopted me as she has been outgunned by my wife's new Yellow Lab- German SHEDDER, and the newest member of the posse which is a male Black Lab-Beagle. So This is a positive that I wasn't looking for. My tribe is bigger!

The Chocolate Lab "Brownie" sulking.

Teaching the new Black Lab that the outside is his bathroom...He hasn't quite mastered the lesson yet.

Queen Sheba aka "Stella" the Golden Lab-German shedder. She is a very warm footwarmer with very soft fur!

"Nova" and the dogs enjoying the Michigan weather.

Teaching my middle daughter how to CrossCountry ski.  She actually did pretty good and enjoys it more than running with the old man in the snow.

She also taught me how to take a selfie. I'm hoping she or her siblings will fix my computer next!

Everybody has been talking about this game, and as a Sith Lord it was reprehensible that I didn't own it. Thankfully my wife fixed it for valentines day!

she even got me my favorite Imperial craft, The Interceptor!

Lot's of goodies!

 

All this and a tie bomber too!

 For a wargame this is an elegant game and I almost feel guilty that I am not assembling and painting forces for it. The rules were very easily grasped by my kids and they have successfully beaten me and my my Luke Skywalker X-wing 4 times out of 5!

That is it for miniatures, as Nova has teethed on the zombie bases. My poor Brits have been knocked about by my daughter's cat as he evades the trio of Labs. The paint and models are even now buried by mail and broken bits from my family that need repair. so my lofty goal of completing my Peninsular War troops during the Analog Painting contest, didn't get very far. But I am satisfied with another set of lace type troops.

My wife and I have been married for 15 years now. She knew I liked toy soldiers and she bought a nutcracker that became the start of this still growing collection. Each one is a gift from family and friends and not a Christmas has passed where at least one has not been given to me as a gift.

The Highland drummer my kid's bought from Bronner's Christmas store in Frankenmuth Michigan.

Most of the smaller ones are table place markers and gifted by my kids, friends and co-workers over the years. I rather like the bearskin grenadiers!

My two favorites are the taller two in the picture. The fellow in yellow has a really smart looking uniform and the bearskin hat. the green troop was my gift from my mother this Christmas just past.

Wonderful color on the troop and the wood grain is clearly visible.

The modern soldier was a gift from my Dad and Step-mother when my unit was deployed.

The small  little king was the very first one my wife bought me and the leopard Cossack was also a gift from her.

I think we may need a larger mantle as the company will gather more brothers-in-arms as the years go by.

My kids say there is an unofficial contest to get the coolest nutcracker yet for me next year. Thankfully this means that I may avoid gifts of neck ties and ugly holiday sweaters for awhile yet!

Lot's of pics, but It has been a busy few months. I am still going to press on with my Peninsular troops.

I hope to get them completed before Spring has come. I do have some new scifi troops that need painting, but I have to wait till late spring to primer them. My wife hates Krylon being used in the home. If further recruits are going to arrive at the house( minis and nutcrackers), I better keep her happy.

I wonder if anyone will find an AmerInd next year...that would be a truly neat one to have!

The keen eyed among you may have noted the black and white photo on the mantle. That would be a little Potawatomi boy who would grow up to be a real Indian Scout. He didn't know then that family and kids are way cooler than anything you can do on a battlefield...except when your young children can creep up and give a surprise makeover on a sleeping daddy. I could do without living with so many cheerleaders under my roof! ;)

 

paper warehouses, kit comparrison

   Things are progressing reasonably well, I haven't lost my temper once this week!...thus far!
Lots of honey-do's have been accomplished, I've made it to almost all Church and school functions-except the times I was at work-, and I've also made respectful progress on my painting.
I even have found the time to set up the tree, string the lights, and set up my nutcracker collection; although, I suppose those are requirements for the season! It seems that my paint table has a foot race between the 44th Regt of foot and the  Prison Outbreak zombies. One will be featured next week, If I survive the next five, twelve-hour work days and the non-winter drivers seeking home or shopping as I go to and from work!
I have slowly been taking advantage of technology with this hobby. First using the internet for research instead of the library, then forums with like minded hobby enthusiasts, paper models to replace the expensive kits and time consuming scratch builds, and of course blogger!

There is nothing wrong with scratch builds nor kits. They do take time from the minions and can take money from recruiting more minions. I have several really nice kits and scratch built terrain pieces, I consider it mandatory to have objective markers or army specific terrain bits to anchor a force in what is mostly a modular, generic battlefield. Papermodels are really great as they are cheap and often nice free ones can be found. Some can be reskined or include optional components which can lead a hobbyist to fill a table with structures from just one PDF file. Dave Graffam is one such designer who includes several skins and options in his builds including instructions to scale the structure into any size you need. His builds have been the easiest ones to build. Chris Roe makes splendid Scifi vehicles and structures which fit well into BladeRunner/5th Element/Battlestar Galactica/ Serenty type settings his builds are a bit more intermediate to expert but are exquisite in the function( removable roofs/walls, working ramps, etc). I have several different kits from many makers. I had thought to make my own to sell, but I'm still a ground pounder and free time is for my minions!

I have two warehouse models to show. One is the multistory warehouse from Finger and Toe models, the other is a derelict warehouse from Stoezels Structures. Both are really easy to build and could fit well in most any era from WW1 to future war.

I made the Finger and Toe model a four story structure. It could have several more levels or even one. Several optional doors and windows are included to further personalize it. I am very unhappy with the roof and have made several previous structures as static pieces because of the warping roofs. The Stoezel structure is laminated paper over foam core and it has a solid build that is rapidly endearing me to his kits. I may try laminating the finger and toe models which should remove the dreaded warp issue.

there is some warping here, but I found this a novel way of building a layer cake construction and keep the levels from shifting during use. Glen included the interior parts to help stabilize the floors

Glen also used the concrete decorations to hide the seams of each level making this a very functional model...except for that roof!

The Stoezel structure has two floors, because it is so solid I store my paper crates and barrels in it.

It is truly a warehouse for my minions! It came with a staircase and the support posts which hold each upper level in place. each post is precolored even on the end pieces. ..in case you should want to lay a few down for tripping hazards or further adding to the disrepair of the derelict.

Finger and toe has spots in the corner for the support posts, but they are only colored on a few sides and the top.

The blue line is marking the area for a floor in the stoezel structure. you can cut a rabbit in the foamcore and build this as a threesided, layer cake, or a removable floor as I have done. make sure you test fit first as Carl gives you enough print acreage on all the pieces to accommodate your building preference.

My Free French Scifi Marines have graciously wandered into the top floor of the Finger and Toe warehouse. They are trapped! Although Glen included stairs, they are taller than the floors and you will have to cut out openings for each level. While this makes a nice sandbox approach, I have discovered that some windows and sections would be covered by the stairs, so I left them out.

They are more ramps than stairs as well. They do have a good slope for mini bases and did go together quickly. Another big deterrent is only the side and rear of the stair are skinned, it has to be against a wall. I am going to save them for a future build.

Both kits are really nice. The finger and toe model cost me less than $5 and the Stoezel structure was free. With cost, ease of build, skin quality, game potential...the better kit is the stoezel structure, but I truly like the sand box Finger and toe. I'm going to rebuild it with foamcore and go for a couple of large up to 10 storey towers for snipers! You could even run a skirmish for ascending or descending the tower. But the derelict is free and really easy to build.

If you haven't built one yet, I recommend a wrinkle free scrapbook glue, 170# cardstock, and spray photo adheseive for sticking the card to the foamcore. I'd use black foamcore as it looks better than white when thin slivers show thru slightly off cuts. Follow the instructions and allow time for the glue to set. I have a slew of cheap markers to edge the cardstock with the similar color to the skins, this also removes the white slices peeking thru. Last of all, it is paper and it is easy if you take your time; however, both of these models took a weekend to build together. I spent perhaps 6 hours for each build not including dry time. I played with my kids, painted models and performed honey-do's.

It was a rainy Michigan summer weekend which may have influenced the warp factor of the finger and toe model too!

Thus concludes another week, It'll be redcoats or berserker zombies next week!

 

Imperial Guard 40k

Good morning! I think I am adjusting well to being a day-walker. I have completed the East Essex Regiment and the first batch of zombies... well completed save basing! I have to paint the bits added to the infantry bases and flock them. I should get that done in a few weeks or next week if lucky. Military Ball this weekend, Christmas decorating only 2% done, holiday shopping, plus my mandatory exercise regime does take a lot of slices from "free" time. My oldest daughter and youngest daughter both have birthdays this month and all four kids still have holiday programs in music and celebration as well as the errant sporting venue! It is a shame I am not wealthy, an assistant would be a huge help to organize my daily schedule. It's supposed to be my wife, but she has that peculiar glazed look she only gets during the holidays. It's that 50 yard stare promising dismemberment/ death if I forget to be somewhere that I should already know about! Thus I shall have to be wary this Yuletide. Now onward with hobby goodness!

The following is the newest addition to my Cadian 7th Cavalry. They are my oldest army with minis going all the way back to the mid 80's; they are also the litmus test that gives solid evidence that even a completed host is never truly done. I do dart about like a madman, flitting from project to project( Germans and Tau are 1/2 painted and dusty from before I deployed...2yrs in wait!) I took the Sash and Saber spare ACW heads and test fitted them to check feasibility in adding some more rough riders to my army. Not only did they fit really well, but I also discovered that I have scores of plastic guard bits. Scores, as in, enough to build another 2-3 platoons. I scrounged up some parts for a new veteran squad and then I snatched a few more bits to make a Sgt Major model. With 5 platoons all with chimeras and the squadrons of tanks and batteries of artillery, it was past time for a Sgt Major to terrorize junior officers and enlisted alike.

my new vet squad

My painting style has changed a lot, but I still use the same spot colors.

Each platoon has a colored shoulder pad to indicate platoon allocation.

my veteran squads are just plain olive drab as they are beyond platoon structure.

I am really liking the effect of the sash and saber heads.

the sgt major, a RTO, and plasma gunner

I gave the Sgt the Stetson as I only had 10 spare heads and one was obviously not a kepi.

a view of the rest of the squad from the rear, each color is the three tone method over a black primer coat. each area also received it's own color wash for blending...didn't use or know of washes in the 80's!

I obviously still need work in photographing my work, but although all is flash wiped, you can see the bling and command presence of the Sgt Major!

Not to be left out, My renegade forces ! My renegade forces use gray as a primary color then purple, blue, red, and green in accordance to power alliance. These fellows are Slanneshi, so they use purple for a second color.

I used Catchan, chaos marine, chaos warrior, chaos knight, beastman, kroot, and a whole lot of "?" to build this squad.

I used a smattering of skins and furs to instill a marading, pillaging look to them. They are not showing up to help anyone but themselves!

I gave them one bull headed troop, I tried to keep the whole skull and chaos star bit minimal

The brass was hit with a turquoise then tin bitz followed by a burnished brass drybrush

I built them way back at the start of this century and blocked in the color. They were used in the Armageddon/Cadian gate campaign. I can't remember which one was going then! It wasn't until this summer that I finished with midtones and highlights followed by washes and basing.

There is a real rebel vs. federal feel to them which is intended. The federals far outnumber them too as the Cadian7th is my favorite army to use in 40k. I like having a ton of average men armed with flashlights( lasguns are probably the worst weapon to use in 40k but 40 shooting at one squad can be brutally effective!). The renegades are a great foil for them as I do not use all the chaos worshipping extras that are allowed. I do have deathguard nurgle marines to bolster them and they were painted to match my bloodaxe orks for human mercs. The renegades were really just a theme force to confront the Cadian7th and let me enjoy troop movement and all the fun of traditional combined arms without demonic and psyker powers disruptions.

well, that is all for this week. I'll have more next time. in the meanwhile, and if this works, below should be a YouTube video or link of the bohemian rhapsody done for star wars. If it works, this old dog has a new trick! I just wish I knew how to save the videos to my external drive. Perhaps I'll ask the younger soldiers this weekend....

 

 

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challenges and the holiday season begins!

Ever have one of those days that just doesn't go right? one of those weeks?...years?
I promise I haven't fallen into the pit of despair or even a fugue of apathy. In all I'm doing remarkably well for a 45 year old whose mid-life crisis involved putting back on a uniform and returning to the military. I couldn't do the cliché of chasing a twenty-something blonde and jetting around in a convertible. I had to put on camouflage to validate my manliness.
It was for several reasons I put the uniform back on. Yes, twenty years gives me a bit extra for retirement, medical gets better, and the ability to buy more for less at military commissaries. There is also the Patriotic portion. My family has served before The US decided not to be a colony of England. I grew up with accounts of ancestors present and those long gone( my son is named after a great-great grandfather who served in the ACW). 9-11 did provide a motivation as well, my children also( who doesn't want their kids to be safe and not have to serve- perhaps the not serve is a pipedream as /I am perpetuating a cycle long unbroken) The unit I joined to finish my 20 is the very same one my great-great grandfather was part of in the ACW. My own grandfather served from the same armory when they were tankers in the Korean War, My wife's father served with the same unit in Vietnam. I trained as a recon scout and deployed to Afghanistan. Being the old guy in the unit has it's own set of challenges being that I am not as fast or strong as the kids, I also do not have the rank as the few soldiers who are in my generation. I was kept in reserves till some of my buddies were hurt in an ambush, then I got brought over. I am the only soldier from my unit not to receive a CIB( combat infantry badge) not because I wasn't shot at, but it wasn't a firefight of the tempo that crippled some of the kids that brought me over to begin with. We all came home alive which if not the perfect ending it is a good one.
The economic downturn and budget cuts have impacted further as well. A soldier never quits, but the organization can quit on the soldier. I don't blame them as it must be hard to quantify a subordinate older than yourself, yet I am frustrated that I spent a considerable amount to repair torn hamstrings just to be benched at the start of deployment. I am a touch resentful that troops younger than I who gave guidance to have been promoted over myself, I am equally resentful that I am getting shoved out the door. I am resentful that each time I don the uniform, I take a pay cut from my civilian job, yet I still carry out every task put before me. Anger...
Anger, there is a lot of it seething beneath the surface. Not just the perceived anger in the above paragraphs, but also in the news and nation. When the British Soldier was stabbed to death in England not so long ago, I went tunnel vision, blurred angry. Seeing the time life images of the troops in Somalia being dragged through the streets naked put me in a red tinted rage. If you have never experienced it, It is a cold, numbing thing. your sight narrows around what you have an overpowering urge to destroy.   This urge is reached by the idiot in a Che t-shirt who told my daughter that I was going to kill Muslim women and children. The button has also been pressed by the loudmouth patron holding up a gas station queue as she complained about her too hot coffee or the motorist who cut me off on an icy highway sans turn signals.
A physical clue is my face turns white, my eyes darken to black, and my left hand shakes. I know this because my wonderful wife has noted it. I have yet to determine if age has prevented myself from snapping. It is a cold seething rage, and my thought process if somewhat narrow for solutions still exists. PTSD, dunno, I have joined the American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars. Both have several vets who share the same fury. A Psychologist has called it irrational anger which seems very ironic as it feels very rational to me to be angry. I honestly have no intentions of climbing a water tower and venting with a rifle. That suggestion brings a tremor of the "irrational anger".
Family is a huge help, It's hard to hold on to hatred and vitrol when your kids are full of wonder and cheer at all they see and do. A beer with a few vets also vents a bit of steam. A wife rubbing your shoulders and saying "honey..." is a good verbal cue to let go.
Running helps, I'm not as fast as I was in my youth( my own 11yr old daughter runs a 18 min 3 mile, and she is faster than my 2 mile run for this year)still it does wonders for quieting your mind. Wargaming is another tool. You can't build and paint models when you are pissed off. If a dark spell is on me, often a few minuets with some plastic and lead will get me back to an even keel.
I did not make it through my list of Git-er-done. The Cygnar forces are completed except for basing, the Spacewolves and Crimson Fists are still where I left them as are the dwarven host. I still have to finish my chaos warships as well. Now I have the Napoleonic forces added to the queue!
I have a suspiscion that my wife is cognizant of this calming effect. Although I failed in completing the forces she tasked me to complete....gamer OCD or shinyitus had some limited involvement.
She has been looking at my scifi 15mm list for the Alien Legion project which was to be my reward for completing the armies( that I didn't). I really got to focus and get something completed before St Nick comes by!
So rant completed, here are some Crossover minis from a kickstarter this year. Modern, zombie, superhero, pulp, even scifi can use these minions. If you venture to the website for them, you will note they have minions for order( I'm not the only one who likes that word)
Once again the photos are rather bad! I will get some better ones as thses will be photographed again once I complete them.

so here are my boys in blue. regular patrol officers and a swat team

The police leader of the minions. he'll be my police sgt, Tyrell from Reaper minis is my police chief and is shown for a size comparison. I just need some reaper bases or similar so that they all look like they belong.

The Crossover minis come with separate heads. Here is the same police officer body but with different heads. My swat leader has a thug leader head( I liked the bald head with sunglasses), the swat officer next to him uses the helmet head. I painted on the balaclava. the last officer got the standard patrol cap.

here are the armed thugs. I used a variety of camouflage on them. They can be armed robbers, terrorists, paramilitary, current to near future.

I gave them a variety of footwear as well from boots to basket ball shoes

a clown mask, balaclava,and bald head 

with the masks, I had to make a joker crew! the middle three have green hair green pants and purple jackets to show whose goons they are.

I am really fond of the armed thugs. They are not elite like hydraesque troops, but are great for a quasi military flair and could easily blend into scifi blade runner type adventures.

the last two are Crash and Burn. I've only painted the brass and red on them and they still have a way to go!

I have entirely completed the red portions of the uniforms, I just have to finish with the other bits.

All these models were primed in a semi gloss black as my kids used up all of my flat black on some cardboard for art projects. A prelude I am certain for the status of the gas tanks once they are old enough to drive! 

They are going to be a husband and wife team of dubious morality. They will be neutral between the rivalry of my super villain and my kid's heroes.
There are several super and minion sets available from Crossover Miniatures. I will be shopping for more as with the separate heads, I can get some not-Shield and not-Hydra minions as well as ninjas!
What kinda villain would Dr Dread be without a team of Ninjas!?
The price isn't too bad as a group of 15 minions go for about$50 and the single heroes go for around$6. I just need some bases to even them up with reaper. Since their bases are molded on, it may be a bit problematic to use the third party scenic bases. But for generic heroes and villains they have some really nice generic sculpts.
Yes, I'm a little late in my posting as today is Saturday and not my imposed deadline of Friday.
I am sufficiently stuffed on turkey and other holiday culinary delights...we also have a plethora of leftovers which is another benefit of the holidays! Leftovers! meals will be easy the next few days, if you like turkey of course!

Defiance Games UAMC- supposed to be Pinzgauer

It's been a pretty good week thus far! I'm still adjusting to working days. It seems that my biological clock says SLEEP TIME at 830ish in the evening. I'm really not used to that! My daughters also are adjusting to having me around in the evening hours. I have been plagued with pop music earworms like "thriftshop" "royals", "applause" etc. I find myself humming them at work which is really odd as I am more of a hard rock head banger type. Metallica, AC/DC, Ramones, etc. that is more my speed with a little bit of Supertramp and Linkin Park. I found out that my darling girls play bubblegum music while I sleep and they are involved in schoolwork. My wife did not approve my proposal for blasting Judas Priest or Queensryche at window rattling decibles during my 3am workouts as a reprisal. She was more diplomatic and headphone usage is now mandatory.... A shame as I had Manowar's Hail and Kill ready to go for my morning workout!
 So now on my day off, I am awaiting my wife to return from shopping with friends as she gathers culinary ingredients for Thanksgiving. My sole obligation for the day is hanging pictures and shelves, but I have to wait for her presence so that I will not have to do it twice. In the meantime, I decided I'd use my downtime to further present some work from the summer months. It seems that Fridays will be the new day for posting unless overtime prevents it in which case I'll get something up on Thursdays. Todays subject will be the mighty Pinzgauer cardstock space shuttle that I finally completed months after the time it was needed for a game that was canceled due to conflicting summer schedules of all parties.
Unfortunately, I was not able to salvage a good photo of the shuttle with it's entirety. The photos taken were too washed out in the flash. I was able to rescue a few shots of the Defiance Games UAMC conversions that I did as well as locate a photo of earlier conversions with the kit and a shot of the mini paint I mentioned last post.

Perched upon the top of the Pinz you can see my Free French Colonial Marines. Behind them lurk a multicam marine and a specops marine. The Pinz was printed as the subdued SpecOps perfect for delivering my SpecOps marine platoon.

The Free French were just a head swap with Perry Napoleonic French Infantry. I actually chose the blue fatigues in inspiration from the French Marine units used in the French and Indian War.

just a barely salvageable photo of the marine fireteams deploying from the Pinz belly.

The French Marine fireteam was just a quick test on what to do with all the plastic bits I have.

The SpecOps were one of two ideas I had for the plastic kit and each box provides enough for a platoon. I have given my kids a fireteam each of NCO, rifleman, Squad Support Weapon Specialist and assistant gunner. I had ordered two boxes, received two more as gifts then got another pair of boxes as a gift while I was deployed and sorely missing the hobby.

In the box above is the multicam platoon and the SpecOps platoon they both were used in the sands of the COP I lived at while in Afghanistan. They were painted when I returned to the States last October.

I couldn't find any photos of the Pinz other than the small portions showed here and in the shipyard posts. I did find this photo of my first conversions of this particular plastic kit. I was inspired by the work I was doing by going on missions with the ANA. I used some spare heads and arms from the Perry Zouaves plastic kit to make these fellows.

They also were the first minis to get hit with the new paints by Derivan, which are pictured behind them. The Reaper Nova marines pictured behind them were the other test batch, but they were coated in my traditional black undercoat while my "native" troops got the old fashioned whitewash to see which undercoat works best this particular paint. I was really interested in how well they dilute.

All my paints get water added to them to where in the end the paint pot is just a thinned out mostly played out wash! considering that my P3 and citadel paints are 12ml and these are 36ml, I think it will be some time before they become just another wash. Since they are of the dropper sort of bottle, I played with the palette in mixing and thinning them. the results of which you can see on the Scifi troops pictured above.

That will be all for this week, I got chores to do! I also need to get cranking on my Naps and Zomicide figures. If I do not get moving on them, I'll ruin the luxury of the reserve photos I have taken! I was at least more fortunate in photographing my very own artwork.

A self portrait of myself(younger) crouching over a French soldier

This is how St Peter would be if he was Algonquin and not Catho! ;)

detail of St Peter. I drew this overseas for a battlebuddy who was shopping for a tattoo.