My Trip to OKC (Oklahoma City)

On January the 19th I made a 3 hour drive up to Oklahoma City with some of my fellow Infinity players from the Dallas/Fort Worth area to play in an Infinity tournament called WarPanda's Wiley Wompus.  I didn't have any aspirations of winning since I'd only gotten to play one practice game with my new Aleph army before going to the tournament.  BUT, I had hoped to at least give a decent showing.  More on that later...

So, there were 16 total players and we each got to play 3 games.  As usual for Infinity, all 3 guys I played were really friendly folks and we had some fun competitive games.  I lost my first battle 6-2, faired a bit better in my second game losing it only by 2-1.  The last got off to an ugly start and I ended up losing 6-3, but I pretty much killed all his troops in revenge.  Sadly, if I'd had more opportunity to practice with my new army I think I could have done better.  By the last game I was really getting a feel for how to use my troops.

With the games tallied up at the end of the tournament, I found myself in LAST PLACE.  Yes... I'm not doing so well on the tournament scene this season.  3 tournaments, 3 last place finishes!!  Not good for my ego, but I think things will turn around with the new Aleph army.  The Oklahoma group has a tradition that the last place player gets to put their name on a wooden spoon and keep a baby seal hat until the next tournament were hopefully someone else will take the honor.  Why a baby seal hat you ask?  Think "clubbed like a baby seal" as a description of how the last place finisher feels.  Here's a picture of me, the clubbed baby seal.

Next up, our local group has a tournament on Feb 17th.  I haven't decided whether I'll participate yet.  I'm still feeling a bit beat-up on the tournament scene.  Will see though... that's a few weeks to recover.

Anyway, here's some pictures of some of the tables from the Oklahoma tournament.  I didn't take any of these pictures, but grabbed them from the Facebook posts after the tournament.

2018 to Infinity

HAPPY NEW YEAR FRIENDS!

I wish you all a healthy and happy 2018.  May your miniatures get painted to your satisfaction, your dice roll true, and all your games be full of fun.

This year I'm keeping it pretty simple on my goals for 2018.  I've really enjoyed my almost weekly games of Infinity with the local players so I plan to keep focusing on that.  I'm already signed up to go to a tournament the later part of this month.  I've never really been one to participate in tournaments, but the people who play Infinity are such friendly folks that I find these tournaments to be pretty enjoyable.

So, my goals for 2018 is pretty simple:

1. I accumulated quite a few Infinity figures last year and more during Christmas.  So, I want to have every figure I own plus any I purchase this year to be painted by the end of the year.
2. Work on some new techniques to paint all these Infinity figures to a higher standard than I currently paint.

And, that's it.

Now, while I plan to get all my Infinity figures painted, I do plan to sneak stuff in from some of my older neglected projects.  So, if you're not into Sci-Fi figures, hopefully I'll be throwing in some historical stuff to peak your interest.

Now, back to toys.  Here are the last figures from 2017 I have to show you.  These are remotes from the Aleph faction.

The Dakini Tactbot is a tactical remote that can be used in a variety of missions.  In games terms though, they are just your basic line troops.  Hence I kind of speed-painted him.  I don't plan to use these very much.

The Garuda Tactbot, however is designed for more immediate insertion/deployment.  They can be launched from aircraft and spaceships.  In game terms, on any of my active terms, I can bring him on to the board by airdrop.  Pick a location on the table, roll for a successful drop, or roll for drifting if I fail the roll.  Very handy for trying to slip a figure in behind the enemy or for trying to drop a troop on an objective.

My first figure of 2018 is almost finished thanks to having a 3 day weekend.  Think Amazon on a motorcycle.  :)

Thank you all for continuing to visit my blog and leaving comments.  It really is appreciated.

Rod

A Fairy and Her Garden

My wife, Alla, has a green thumb.  She has an impressive collection of Japanese orchids and African Violets (some pretty rare).  She puts a lot of hard work into it and our house always has a variety of plants in bloom.  Here lately she decided she wanted to display some of her micro violets in a display as a fairy garden.  She found some stuff online and most of it arrived looking pretty good.  Only thing that was really lacking was the paint job on the fairy she ordered.  So, she asked me to repaint it.

BEFORE PICTURE:

Basically most of it was like someone just did an ink wash over the clay...

Here's how it turned out after the repaint (mostly).  I was still working on the raccoon when she stole it to take her pictures so it still looks a bit plain.  Anyway, I think you'll see that she did a really awesome job on putting together her Fairy Garden.  I'm quite proud!

Cheers!

Rod

Distractions...distractions...distractions...

So I've been a bit quiet here lately.  I was getting a little burned out by the last two weeks of the Painting Challenge.  I didn't even bother to paint my last bonus round entry even though it was primed and ready to go.  Partly because the entry that won the 4th round was a miniature of Emiliano Zapata, and my planned entry for the 5th round was Francisco Villa and a camera crew.  Following up the 4th round winner with another Mexican Revolution entry just seemed lame.

In addition to that, I had just finished painting my 10mm Warband armies.  So I started learning the rules and playing a few test games.  From that point I found it hard to get back into painting mode and that's when I discovered...

Yes, the Warhammer Fantasy version of the PC game series Total War.  Having played "Total War: Rome" and "Total War: Napoleon" I assumed it would be a nice distraction for a couple of days.  BUT oh man...  this one is really good!!  I think the campaign system for this game is the best of the Total War series.  Each faction has different campaigns too.  I've been totally hooked and have completed the Empire, Bretonian, and Dwarf campaigns.  And just started a Vampire Counts campaign.  This is bad.. really bad.

On a positive note, I forced myself to sit down and finish another figure for Infinity.  I haven't had a chance to take pictures yet, but you will probably see it here in a week or so.  Huh?  A week or so?  What? Oh yeah, I'll be flying out to Kyoto, Japan tomorrow with my wonderful wife to enjoy the beautiful cherry blossoms.  Can't wait!  So if I fail to post any comments on any blog posts for the next week blame it on distractions!  (see what I did there?  heh!)

Sorry the lack of miniature goodness in the post.  Take care friends!

Rod

Merry Christmas friends!

Just a quick note to all of you that are celebrating Christmas, that I hope you and your families had a wonderful time.  Work has been killing me here lately, so I've had a bit of trouble getting in the spirit.  If you've ever had to work over 70+ hours in a week, I'm sure you know what I mean.  Luckily we got the weekend off and I had an enjoyable time with my wife and family.

I received a variety of gifts, but I thought I'd share the ones that are hobby related.  My wife really surprised me this year with what appears to be the theme of "he needs a village"!  So I received terrain for two particular gaming genres I'm currently working on.

First is a bunch of buildings that will work for my Napoleonic gaming. These buildings and the bridge all came from Magister Militum.  I didn't even know they made 28mm stuff... (should I even admit that?  Does it make me a bad miniature gamer?)

And for my 15mm Sci-Fi she got me these buildings from Brigade Models.  The detail on these buildings are top-notch!

She never ceases to amaze me with her Christmas shopping.  I feel that I'm a really lucky man!

My Mom also added to my hobby supplies with my usual Christmas request of Winsor & Newton Series 7 brushes.  Sizes 0, 00, and 000.  Being someone who hates to spend a lot of money on brushes, I tend to "baby" these things and get them to survive until next Christmas.  First time I tried a Winsor & Newton Series 7 brush, because of the price horded it "saving it for something special"  6 months later I realized I had never used the damn thing and decided I was just being silly.  I do like these brushes!  Also, in the picture is the airbrush cleaning supplies I requested.  I'm hoping these things will be easier to use than pipe cleaners!

Anyway, I'm excited about my Christmas loot and I hope all of you fared just as well.

Rod

AHPC Prep

Well, I had planned to finish up my 10mm Dwarves before the painting challenge started, but unfortunately work has decided they had better plans for my time.  Some Executive boss-type person set a deadline and suddenly we're all scrambling to meet this deadline.  My boss, being the generous person he is suggested me and some of my team work the weekend for extra work hours.  So kind...

So, the one positive of all this, is that by the time I get home I didn't feel like setting up my paint desk... so instead I just prep miniatures for the challenge.  One thing I wanted to accomplish with the challenge was to make  a noticeable dent in my lead pile.  So I started digging through the pile and found all kinds of wonderful stuff I wanted to paint!  I'm pretty excited to get started now.

From 10mm to 54mm, here's a sneak peak of what's to come...

American Revolution (yes, it's time I pick that project back up...)
Zombies
Fantasy
Sci-FI
WWII

All that above should get me the over the 500 point goal I set.  But I hope to get more prepped before then!

Not an exciting post this time.  Blame my work.  I know I will!!

Rod

MilleniumCon 2016

This weekend I made my annual trip down to Austin to play some games at MilleniumCon.  This year was the 19th MilleniumCon.  It is a convention hosted by the Lone Star Historical Miniatures group which has chapters all over Texas.  I am a member of the Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW) chapter.  I chose not to try to run any games this time, but instead just to enjoy my time as a player.  A couple of my games ended up being cancelled, but I still managed to get in 4 games and observed a few others.

Here's some pictures of some of the games I got to play in...

"The Hunt for Moby Dick" - this was a pretty fun little game using Legos.  Each player had a small boat with crew to hunt down the Great White Whale.  There were plenty of things to consider like not colliding into other ships or the whale when plotting movement, having crew fall over-board, and  sharks in the water.

I was in charge of the black boat.

Thar she blows lads!

Several boats have managed to harpoon the whale and are on a "Nantucket Sleigh Ride"...

I still have all my crew, but at this point haven't damaged Moby Dick enough to have enough points to be anywhere close to in the lead.

Finally the whale gives in this his wounds.

Next up I played in a Napoleonic ship game hosted by the crew of Portsmouth Miniatures and Games.  The game used their own miniatures and also their own rules called "Bloody Broadsides".  I commanded a British 74 gun ship called the Leviathan.  Having a crew with a high morale, my guns were ready to do some damage so I was put in 3rd in our line.  We were going up against an allied fleet of French and Spanish ships.

The battle lines approach.  French and Spanish on the left and the British on the right.

Broadsides begin to be traded down the line.

The French and Spanish fleet have the misfortune of having their lead ship the Bucentaure completely explode as it tries to snake their line behind the British line.  So the French and Spanish try to reform line while changing direction.  This is costly as the British hold a disciplined battle line and continue the pound the other fleet.  For my ship, HMS Leviathan this was a difficult time because all the changes in direction left me as the prime target for several turning French ships.  My crew, hull and rigging were taking a beating!!

The French and Spanish are trying to change direction and reform a line.

The British line stays disciplined... maybe too disciplined?

 Here is the bright moment in the Spanish & French fleet's battle action.  The British have been a little too cocky and tightened up their lines to try to focus their fire on the disorganized mass of Spanish and French ships.  So when the lead Spanish ship (San Justo) decides to collide with the lead British ship (Brittanica) it triggers a rough series of collisions fowling several ships at the front of the British line.

It takes several turns for the Spanish ship and 3 British ships to get unfowled, but it's not enough for the French and Spanish to gain any advantage.  The game resulted in a minor British victory (and a Major Morale victory).

The final picture has points were tallied to determine the victor.

My next game was a wargame currently in development over at GMT called "The Last Hundred Yards".  I've had a long time fondness for the old wargames with the cardboard chits.  It is how my Dad and I got into wargaming so there's always a sense of nostalgia for me playing these games.  The game was being run by the games designer, Mike Denson.  So while I was playing the game I got to hear about his approach to the design of the game and what he hoped to accomplish.  We didn't get to finish the game, because there was a lot of rules to cover, but I found it to be a pretty fun system.  I'll be signing up to help this get published on their P500 program.

Start of the first turn, so most of the unit are still concealed so a marker is covering the stats.

Thanks to my partner laying down a great smoke screen with his mortars, I was able to make a run at the German position with my infantry.  My assault did not go so well, so most of my troops are disordered (the red band on the chits on the right of the map.)

The last game I played was the "Battle of Plevna" from the Russo-Turkish wars of 1877-1878.  This was fought in 10mm using the Big Bloody Battles rules.  I'd been wanting to try out this rule set for a while, so was glad to see it offered.  Unfortunately, I got a little to engrossed in the game and only realized much later that I only took one picture!  Heh... oops.

Me and another guy named Bob played the Russian & Romanian forces, while the 3rd guy played the Turks.  This was a tough siege because the Russians were very inept and not as well equipped as the Turks.  Luckily we only needed to capture and hold two forts to win.  Our strategy was to hit the flanks and use the forces in the middle to keep the Turks stretched out.  In the end it worked out and we managed to win, but I can't begin to describe how much of a massacre it ended up being for the Russians in the middle.  The plan worked but the costs were high!  It's times like this that I'm glad it's all pretend and my decisions don't affect real lives!

Anyway, that was my weekend.  I got away from it pretty cheap too.  There really wasn't anything in the vendor area that grabbed my interest, so I only picked up a few Dust figures in the flea market.  I had a lot of fun but was glad to get home today.

Rod

Rod's Big Adventure!

Hello friends!

I'm very excited to say that Rod's Big Adventure begins tomorrow.  

I'm headed to Beijing, China to study Kung Fu for two weeks.  10 full days of training basically from dawn til dusk.  My wife and I are headed there a few days early to get in some shopping and see some of the sites.  I'm very excited to get to see The Great Wall in person!

As for the training, I'll be studying 4 different styles: Baguazhang, Tong Bei Quan, Six Harmonies Praying Mantis, and a Shaolin long staff style called "mad demon staff".  Two weeks really isn't a long enough time to master anything obviously, but it is a great opportunity to learn from different Chinese Masters.  Just seeing them go through the movements should be educational in itself. It will be some grueling training, but a very exciting opportunity.

Anyway, I'm not sure what all is blocked in China (Facebook, Google+, etc...) so I'll probably not see any of your posts for about 3 weeks.  In that time, stay well friends!  I look forward to catching up on all your hobby accomplishments when I return.

Rod

New Project and a Personal Accomplishment

Hey everyone!  Wow, I can't believe how much time has passed since my last post.  I have been painting, but I have nothing completed to show off just yet.  Last year I wrapped up my Mexican Revolution project to the point where I feel safe to say it is done!  I may add a unit here and there but that would only be to add some flavor to specific scenarios.

So what I plan to be my MAIN project this year will be Napoleonics.  When I was a young man (15 or 16) I walked into a game store one day and saw a miniature game being played.  This was new to me!  I walked over and saw all these uniformed soldiers being marched around and fighting a big battle.  It was Napoleonic armies in 15mm!  From that point on I knew I wanted to play miniatures.  But as you all know, that's an expensive hobby so it is difficult to start until you become an adult and have a real job.  Years later when I finally got into miniature gaming, Napoleonics seemed over-whelming so instead I started with smaller stuff.  Now many years later I have finally decided to take the plunge!

Here's my work in progress picture of the lovely vignette of Napoleon and his staff from Perry Miniatures.

And now for my major lack of productivity in painting this month.  My other "hobby" is that of being a martial artist, specifically Praying Mantis Kung Fu.  I study a specific style called Seven Star Praying Mantis.  It's a lot of hard work but it has been really rewarding.  I had a test on Saturday and now get to move on to my next phase of training.  The test covered a year and 3 months worth of study! So this month I spent a lot of extra time training in preparation (10-12 hours a week).  It really cut into my painting time, but it was really worth it.  Here's a picture of me receiving my new gray sash.

I hope February has been treating you well friends.

Rod

2015 In Review

In 2014, I basically stepped away from the hobby to focus on my personal life and for some reason I ended up deleting my old blog “Close the Ranks” (and about 3 years of work).  Not sure why when I reflect on it now, but when 2015 started I resolved to start a new blog and track my hobby progress.  It’s been worth it.  Not only do I feel like I’ve reconnected with internet "friends", but also discovered some new people to follow and it's fun seeing their projects develop as well.  We have a lot of wonderfully talented people in our hobby!

Blogging takes some effort but one of the benefits is at the end of the year you can flip back through your entries and see what all you’ve accomplished.  I must say I was really surprised at what I was able to complete this year.  Here’s the stats…

WWII (15mm)

121 Soviet Troops

51 Fallshirmjager

4 AT Guns

1 Russian Church

1 Russian Log House

Mexican Revolutions (28mm)

41 Rebel Troops

20 Federal Troops

1 Field Gun

1 Mexican Church

1 Train Station

1 Stucco Stables

Assortment of Mexico terrain (railroad tracks, telephone/telegraph poles, cacti, hills, etc…)

Sci-Fi (15mm)

66 Figures (humans and aliens)

Vietnam (15mm)

14 Viet Cong

Random Stuff

2 Dark Age Scots

1 Fantasy Adventurer

4 Vietnam Era X-Men

Commissions (not shown on my blog)

5 15mm Sci-Fi Cars

12 15mm Sci-Fi figures

So, if I pushed all the calculator buttons in the right order that’s 342 figures and 5 buildings.  I’m quite happy with these totals and pretty pleased with how 2015 went on the hobby side!

Now it’s time to focus on 2016.  I have to sit down and determine what projects/goals I want to accomplish and make a plan.  It will be a flexible plan though, because it's SO easy to get distracted by new releases and games.  I think it's really part of the whole hobby!

Thank you all for stopping by my little blog and offering comments and encouragement.  It is very motivating.  I wish you and your families all a blessed and happy new year!

Warm regards,

Rod

Cheap Paint Rack

Hey everyone!  Sorry I haven't posted in a bit.  Life has been interfering with hobby time because of the holidays and everything else.  There are a few items on the workbench in various stages of completion.  Hopefully after Christmas I'll get a chance to wrap some of them up.

On a side note, I got one of my Christmas presents from my wife early.  She wanted to find me a rack for my paint that would help me haul them back and forth to my painting desk and storage closet.  She didn't really like anything she saw online but did find this $10 cosmetic display on Amazon.  I think it's supposed to hold nail polish.  As you can see from the pictures it works perfectly for GW paints.  It will also hold the pigment bottles and washes from Mig Ammo comfortably too.  I liked it a lot so we went ahead and ordered 2 more!!



Hope you all enjoy the holidays and get to spend quality time with family and friends.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Rod

Gifts & Cats

So last week was our wedding anniversary and my wonderful wife surprised me with a couple of books.  I had seen these books in a store one time and drooled over them for a bit and then promptly forgot about them because they were a bit expensive, but mostly because I haven't gotten into Napoleonics.  Well, I think I have an excuse now...

But for now I'm still in the swing of painting up more Villistas for my Mexican Revolution project. Once I finish up with this batch of peons from Old Glory I have some really neat stuff from Gringo 40's I got in the mail last week.  Can't wait to start painting them.  

Helping me with my painting are these two "helpers"... Arwen (brown) and Freya (gray).

You might be thinking... "Wow Rod, that's one really clean painting desk!"  Yes, I agree.  One thing I've learned about kittens is that you have to learn how to keep all your supplies in containers.  I have learned the art of setting up my painting station or putting away my stuff in just a couple of minutes.  You never know when the little helpers will decide to take a nap so you have to get your painting in quick!!

Main Force Viet Cong

Took a little break to paint some figures that have been in my lead pile for a while.  These are Main Force Viet Cong from Flashpoint miniatures.  They paint up really quick with the black uniforms.  I tried to make some of the uniforms a bit more faded than the others, but in 15mm that's really hard to tell.  Anyway, they have plenty of reinforcements on the way!  Here is the first batch.

Some of the different poses...

There's more figures and more poses in the blister.  I just tend to paint all the same poses at the same time that way I can try to give each a little variation.  Mostly in color but hard to tell from my pictures.

Rebasing with Warbases

Last year I started the switch from 28mm Vietnam gaming to 15mm.  Surprisingly this is my third switch in scale for that period.  I originally started it in 20mm and sold off that collection to start 28mm.  Painting 28mm is great for all the detail, but it limited the amount of figures I could put on the table.  With 15mm you can have larger operations AND it's most importantly MORE AFFORDABLE.  Especially for all the vehicles.  So when I made the switch I decided to use Flames of War bases because it was very popular set of rules for Vietnam at the time.  Only problem is the rules I like for Vietnam gaming usually all use single basing of figures so my project stagnated while I pondered what to do...

The other day some friends introduced me to Warbases and my dilemma was solved.  So, now I can have single basing in 15mm but still have an easy way to move them around.  I LIKE IT.

Here's how they looked before.  These are US LRRPs figures from Flashpoint Miniatures.  I painted them in Tiger Stripe camo and add green/black face paint.

Now with the new bases on the movement trays from Warbases.

Also, I'm started to add pictures of stuff I've painted over the years.  They will have tabs on the menu. So far I have added my Pulp miniatures.  If you're interested please check them out.

Hope every has had a good week.  Next post will be soon as I have finished up another unit of Soviets.  :)

Rod