His goal was to recreate some Lord of the Rings style wargaming. I really like his approach. But personally I like to have a little more magic in them. Like in some of the larger battles of the Drow Drizzt series. Therefore I will probably alter them a bit. But first I need to come up with some forces.
I am thinking to do a 2 mm version. Bases around 60 or 100mm wide. And converting all distances to cm or 2x cm, and 3d print all forces. Just toying around in my head, and scribbling some designs on paper. Hopefully some time to create them in the near future. But probably better to finish some other projects first.
The last post was in March and then it happend. For my birthday in April, I received unexpectedly a 3D printer. A very cool tool, which I already made good use of. But for the printing a lot of preparation is needed, so the time behind the computer was not spent on maintaining the blog. Combined with some house renovation it, it got a little silent here.
The past period I haven’t gamed much. But I have used the 3d printer to create new miniatures and terrain. So I will try to make an overview.
From the projects already on the list, i mainly printed some terrain features for frostgrave. For the other projects no new development. But I have also started some new projects, were the 3D printer create most of the miniatures. I have bought the folllowing rule sets:
What a Tanker – Two Fat Lardies
The Balkan Naval War (Broadside and Salvo) – Long Face Games
Hordes of Things 2.1 – Phil Barker, Richard Bodley Scott and Sue Laflin-Barker
Portable Wargames – Bob Codery
I also came in contact with Remi. He is developing a aerial firefighting miniature game. And I have supplied some miniatures to him, and plan to play the game also myself. Lastly I have also found some nice scenarios in the WSS magazine, which I hope to play out. This all resulted in the Plastic pile.
Frostgrave
The first things I printed was terain for Frostgrave. As I already had a selection of miniatures I needed terrain to play on. As Frostgrave requires a lot of terrain I gave myself some options. I have started to paint some of it. But still need to finish it. Mostly some houses and ruins
What a tanker!
What a tanker has interested me since it release. Due to the quick flowing rules and simple dice mechanics. I have doubted for quite some time, finaly ordered the rules. With the 3D printer it is quite easy to print some tanks ans play. And with a large colelction available at Thingverse from Bergman, almost any type you wish is available. I have printed the first batch of tanks from all over the war. I have scaled everything to 10mm so I can use the terrain from Frostgrave/Pikemans lament. To complement this, I have also printed some Normandy houses. Everything now ready to be painted.
Hordes of Things
I have been following the stronghold rebuilt blog for quite some time. And have read most of the battle reports of last years weekly hott battles. This gave a good interest in the rules. After reading more online, it is a ruleset with easy rules. And I realy like the troop generalisation. Therefore I decided to buy the rules. To test them out, I need some armies. So I have started to print some earthenkind miniatures from Dutchmogul on Thiniverse in 15mm. For a second army I am still searching for a good idea. Maybe dwarves or a banana army (see Thingiverse). This is the most recent project and ongoing.
The Balkan Naval War
On this blog I have already mentioned earlier that I was interested in some naval wargaming. When the summer sale was on wargame vault, I got the Balkan Naval war with a good discount. In combination with a set of 3d files of most relevant ships. The ships are printed. So now should be painted.
Beside the above projects, i have also tried some other things. Trying to print some 2mm figures, as I already had bought the forward march library. Printed some other planes for the cold war forces I already have. Printed a fokker T.V. bomber for my may 1940 forces. And designed and printed some Dutch kazemats and sherman tanks for my father. Besides this there are a lot of other ideas. Sometimes even trying to print something.
I hope to take up the blogging and wargaming again. And trying to finish some of the project. I hope to write shorter blogs, to motivate me to blog more often. And also to be able to store all the odd ideas that pass by.
The terrain mat has been finished. After the second layer, I have drybrushed all the details with a light fleshy color. Then put some variation with a dark brown wash. But used it more like a filter. Creating a very patchy color.
Next step was the flocking. A mix different short grasses and some turf and sand. Just made some different mixes and applied then with a seave. After that I applied some extra sand to create some rough pathes.
I am very happy with the result. I can roll it up to around 20cm diameter to store away. And use it both for 10mm as 2mm and bigger scales if I want to. Now up to the next part of the terrain. Some more forest, roads and waterways. But for these I need some new ideas, to get some visible pleasing results.
The mat with some 2mm armiesBut can also be used with 10mm, as this 10mm unfinished terrain pieces demonstrate
More than a year ago, I presented some plans and ideas. Time to present an update. Some projects have lost interest, miniatures have been aquired and games have been played. I hope that this overview will provide some renewed motivation to finish more projects.
New rules
Sword and Spear
Frostgrave
Burrows and Badgers
(Bolt Action)
Over the past year I have aquired some new rule sets. Sword and Spear looks a good rule set for late medieval games. I still have to make some army. And I have always the possibilty to use it also for ancient wargame, if I want to expand in that direction. Frostgrave I aquired free, due to Osprey Publishing lockdown actions. I didn’t think that I would play the game, but after reading the rules, and seeing the options for terrain, I am planning to start a frostgrave project. Burrows and Badgers looks also to be a nice game, but no plans yet. Bolt action is mentioned between brackets. I don’t have the rules myself, and am not directly planning a project. But my father aquired the rules and has started to make an army, so proabably will play some games in the future.
Painting
I have aquired a lot of airplanes, so now it is time to paint them. I have already started and primed a big batch. Also I hope to play a few games of Pikemans Lament in the near future, so I should finish my army.
Pikemans Lament requires also some terrain to play. I have started to sqratchbuild some. This is looking very nice, and fun to do. Because a lot of the terrain would also fit a Frostgrave era too, I have decided to do Frostgrave in 10mm. I had some leftover figures from the 10mm army, which might give a starting warband in Frostgrave. Probably I have to invest more. But maybe good to finish some parts first.
Next to that I still have some 28mm figures. These are not high priority, but some nice painting excersises.
1:600 scale aircraft
10mm Pikemans Lament
10mm terrain
10mm Frostgrave
28mm 4 lads try out
28mm infinity
Wishes
During all the above actions, there are still some dreams left to start new armies. For the Sword and Spear rules, I hope to create a pair of 2mm armies. Also I hope to expand the Frostgrave rules and miniatures, to actually start playing some games.
During my research for the airwar above Ethiopia, the books also described some ground actions. This wants me to invest in some ground forces, to enably to have combined actions if possible. For this I am thinking about FiveCore Brigade/Company commander. But I am waiting for the Wargamevault Summersale, and hope they are on sale then. I already have some small ammounts of tanks and figures in 3mm.
Next to that I hope to expand the 10mm Frostgrave, both in army as terrain. The terrain would have a double function also in the Pikemans Lament games.
3mm scale modern armies and rules
2mm scale medieval armies
10mm Frostgrave expanded
10mm Frostgrave terrain
Research
Parrallel to above projects I hope to continue my reasearch in the following topics. But probably will these have the lowerst priority. Occacionally reading some books. I expect that above projects will eat most of the time.
Battle of Scherpenzeel
War crimes and wargaming
Modern wars in Africa
Challenge
To motivate me, and steamline the different projects, I hope to create a challenge for myself. A 10 week building/painting challenge. Everyweek will get a goal to finish a unit or piece of terrain. I am still in thinking process. Hope to post more details of the challenge at the end of the month.
The new year is already a week old. My start was a little different than planned, and just started with some fiver. But all is running normally again.
Last year I started this blog, to motivate myself to continue working on the different projects. I managed only 32 post. I had hoped to post a little more regularly, around 1 every week. But the whole of December I skipped. For the new year I won’t make a new year resolution to do it every week. I expect some changes in personal life, so probably not spending a lot of time on hobby stuff, especially around April.
But overall I do have some plans, on what I hope to achieve this year. Last year I have build a new desk to work on. The next step would to find a suitable storage solution for all the different projects. To store the miniatures, terrain and all other odd bits, during assembly, painting and in storage between games. Preferably transportable to make sure I can bring the miniatures to games in the same box as where they are stored.
The second aim, is to start and create a wargame scenario for the Battle of Scherpenzeel. The whole research will take probably be longer, but I hope to create some simple scenarios, of what the battle of Scherpenzeel would have looked liked. Parallel to this I hope to do a more in dept research on this battle, and try to recreate what actually happened. But this will be a multiple year plan, so I don’t expect any outcome for this year on that.
The third is linked to the second goal. Create an army for the battle of Scherpenzeel. Probably in 2mm scale, either Irregular miniatures or Forward March Studio combined with some own creations. If working in 2mm I will probably also include some odd roman or ancient forces, to play with the same rule set Sword & Spear. I hope to at least play one game of Sword & Spear this year.
The last goal is to paint and base a part of all the different air forces i acquired last year. i Have already started on this last weekend, and glued some magnets to aircraft. Hopefully i can continue this the coming weeks, so they can get primed, ready for painting.
This was the first post of this year, and hope that this will be a good start. Probably there will be more post without a lot of picture, and more logging my thoughts, to keep motivation and hope it is to interest for others.
On Crisis 2019 I obtained a box of Corvus Belli Infinity Operation Icestorm. Or actually half the box, the Pan Oceania is missing, but the terrain is still in. (It was second hand, so price was also appropriate.) Also included was a starter set for Infinity Nomads, totaling in 13 Nomad miniatures.
I probably will end up to paint the starter set in blue, to proxy as Pan Oceania, to do some playing in the end. The Operation Icestorm ones, hope to finish in the Nomad red scheme, as on the box.
After assembly I have started with a black undercoat. Yesterday evening I tried some airbrushing, but it did clog up. So couldn’t get any progress. I hope to continue in the weekend. Hopefully some progress to show next week.
Last Saturday together with my father we went to Antwerp, attending Crisis 2019. This event is organized by The Tin Soldiers of Antwerp.
For me it was the first wargame show ever attended. And it was a nice experience. We did arrive early, with quite a lot of people already in the queue at 9:30u, even though it did not open before 10 o’clock.
After entering, it was busy, but not overly crowded. After a quick go around to check what there was to see, we ventured past all the different vendors, tables and stands, and accumulating “buit”
“buit”
There were four things on my list to hunt for. The first was a pre-order at Magistar Militum, for some 3mm O8 miniatures, extending some missing planes (like the f-84f Thunderstreak and Allouette III) and adding some ground forces as targets and SAM (Sa-2). The next thing on the list was some Baccus 6mm figures. Unfortunately Baccus could not participate in the show, but luckicly for me I found some second hand figures (romans and axe warriors). I wanted to see these figures to compare this scale to the other scales, and have some better understanding for possibilities for future armies.
The next victim was are the Sword and Spear rules published by Great Escape Games. I had done some research on possible rulesets for Medieval wargames, using larger scales, and not using grid maps (sorry DBA and To the strongest!) Which might not be to complicated, and can be used for scale 2mm, 3mm or 6mm. I think this ruleset will work out. Now to find a army for this.
The last item, was just a encounter at the second hand market place. I have been looking before to some 28mm sci-fi gaming, and passing both Warhammer 40k and Infinity, I didn’t want to jump into it jet. But at one of the tables, there was a nice starting box, for a good price. Including a second starter pack. I hope to paint these, and try some try out games.
Conclusion
Being the first wargame show, it was nice to see. I had hoped to have more possibilities to interact with some tables/participate with some of the games played. But for some reason this did not work out. Maybe spend some more time on the tables next time.
Om of the biggest drawbacks I saw, was that English located companies are quite expensive. Paying in Euros most of the companies would round the payments in their favor. With the general exchange rate of around ~1.16 euro to pound, most companies used 1.20 euro to the pound as exchange rate, sometimes rounding even more in favor of their own pockets. There was only one vendor which did have a very nice solution in this case. Just saying that labeled price was in euro, so giving an discount of a little over 10%. Hope next time some more companies will be a little more creative in handling those exchange rates. If Brexit wouldn’t change to much in participation rates..
Looking back overall, there is a change that I will visit again next year, but I don’t thing it will be a yearly go to show, but probably one in the two or three years. If you have never been there, and living reasonable close, go visit it, to check out yourself.
Last couple of weeks have been holidays for me. We had decided to visit Ypres and Normandy. Both places I have been before and new some camping sites.
Off course when visiting Ypres you cannot ignore the battlefield and memorial at the Menin gate. We did only visit one museum as we only had a couple of days here. We went to the Paschendale museum.
Laken hall Ypres
Just after the last post
crowd gathering before the last post
Mine crater next to hill 60
Nowaday sight of Hill 60 to the left, and the crater on the right side of the trackThe view during ww1
After the first couple of days we went to Normandy. Were we visited multiple battlefield sites.
“Don’t build your house on the sandy land”
I assume a Flak bunker post
Parts of the mulberry harbor Arromanches
German coastal artillery
Distance view of mulberry harbor
Next to the well known we visited also some less well known battlefields. Long before D-day there were already enough battles in the area. Most well known is the Bayeux Tapistery, which we didn’t visit this time as we have seen it before.
The first was a visit to Tatihou. A defensive island for the coast. On the island is a maritime museum, which describes the battle of Hogue. And the destruction of the French fleet by an Anglo Dutch force in 1690 just off the coast of this island. Next to this story you can see some old fortess works. And some German ww2 bunkers which are build within this old fortress.
Fortress on Tatihou island
The next visit was to Formigny battlefield. Here an English force which landed in Cherbourgh was defeated by the French in 1450. This battle was the start of getting rid of the English in Normandy. There is not much to see, except from some farmland, and two monuments. But it is located slightly more land inwards at the height of Omaha beach.
Maisy castle
The last was just a lucky stumble. I found a sign telling the story of this old castle. It was of the landlord of the area at the start at fifteen century. This was one of the most important stronghold for the surrounding country, as he had counsel rights. It got destroyed around 1412 by one of the English raids into Normandy, and has been in ruins since then. On the horizon of the photo the sea is visible. On the coastline you can nicely walk, and find lot of German bunkers and Atlantik wall positions.
– “If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind, we can’t help wondering what an empty desk indicates.” – Unkown
One of the first priorities I had at the start of this blog, was the development of my desk. I used to work on an old garden table. But wanted to have a more stable solution. Also including my computer and monitor in the desk, to have just a single workspace was part of the plan.
In my daily job I am working as an engineer, giving me access to some 3D CAD software and the knowledge to work with them. Therefore I started with measuring the available space. Here I did make only a small error, so the table is less wide as possible. But this will be solved in the future.
The above image shows the final design. The blue box is a standin model for my desktop computer. So I know exactly what space I had available. The Black model barely visible is the same, but for my airbrush compressor. Under the airbrush compressor I have space reserved for an air tank, which might be required in the future, but will be used for storage for now.
Because I have all parts in 3D it is quite easy to create a parts layout/list of all the parts needed. The building material would be wood, and multiplex panels.
Especially below drawing was very helpful. I did print this out, and go to the local wood supplier. They did saw all the multiplex panels to the correct size. All the beams I have cut to length myself. It is very easy, it shows already all the length. I did just cut everything according the drawing, and ended up with a pile of parts.
After that, the actual construction could begin. I pre-drilled all the holes for the screws, and started just assembling. I didn’t take any pictures of that. But below you can see the end results. With an already cluttered desk. Still need to organize everything 😉
Next step is to add some wooden edging to make all the edges nice and smooth and also preventing that some models will roll from the table. Also I want to put some extension on the rear side, to gain an extra 10cm space. Add a monitor bracket, so the monitor is lifted from the table, and is not taking up any valuable space. And do all the cabling and wiring underneat, to install the desktop. Hope to have this finished in the next couple of weeks.
Lately I have been following Jims blog as he is doing some ironclad fleets. His ships look very nice, and are tempting me to start a new project. He documented the painting process quite well. I have even checked the rules “Broadside and Ram” on what would be needed. I know I should stick to my current plans, but this might reside in the background, and you never know when it will be too tempting.
I could think of some fictional battle between Dutch and British conflicts on the North Sea. The 16th century but with ironclads. Or maybe go for different theater with Turkish and Greek, or Austrian forces. It is especially tempting as you only need a handful of ships and not need much terrain to make a nice game. Hopefully I can resist the urge.
