Poldercon 2017 - planning ahead

Poldercon 2017

That is a long way off, I know.

In my head, one way to do the games I like, is to do demos. I did this in the past and enjoyed it a lot. I hope (assume?) the ones receiving the demo had the same feeling! Anyway, I think it is time to give something back and I want to do some demos at the next Poldercon. I've selected 2, namely This is not a Test and Check Your Six!. Why 2? Well, remember my attention span? When I did demos in the past you could be busy one hour and have nothing to do for the next hour, and repeat. Plenty of rest in between so no troubles there.

Then comes Poldercon. 4x 90 minutes of gaming and one long break. Looking at something new for such a long time turns out to be more then I can handle comfortably. Something that I'm comfortable with can easily extend that, including friendly banter. But what about the 2 games? Well, I don't know what will interest people. Will a Post Apocalyptic 28mm game be more interesting then a 1/600 air battle or vice versa? Depends on the people attending, doesn't it? So if I plan 2 games of each, it will be quickly apparent which one is more popular then the other and I can always go 3 for one game and 1 for the other. Or 4 of the one and none of the other. But let's compare the 2.


This is not a Test (TNT)

• Post Apocalyptic
• 28mm
• 90-120 cm square battlefield
• 2 players

Check Your Six! (CY6!)

• Historical (WW2 or Modern)
• 1/600 (but can be played right up to 1/144)
• 120 x 180 battlefield
• 2-4 players plus GM controlled bombers when apllicable

This will attract 2 very different players (or my clones). I'm assuming the smaller scale stuff will be less popular but I can entertain more players per game.

So, what do I need to do to host these games? As it turns out, not that much!

TNT released a demo/starter scenario a few weeks back, I went over it with a fine tooth comb and printed a full pack with all of the paper minis, markers and references, laminated the entire scenario and asked Erik to bind it for me in Tilburg (as there is no shop that does that here). So that part is sorted, I just need to glue the mini's onto cardboard and prep them. The game calls for 1 house to have a heater with drinkable (well, sort of) water that your gang has to tap and get off the table. By keeping things simple (and TNT isn't that complex) 90 minutes for a short game plus explaining it on the fly does not seem as a impossible task. Scenery wise I'm building stuff for Crisis this year anyway so that is sorted too. Making a wargames heater is a piece of cake for me so no problem there either. I should have more then enough time to get it all done plus experience cause Erik read the entire rules and scenario pack and he is dying to try it out.

C6! is a different ball game. It would be a WW2 game (to avoid having to teach about radar homing and infrared missiles as well) I'm eyeing either the Bombing the river Bug scenario from Mustangs converted to CY6!, giving the Germans tons of options (which may not be so smart) or go simple 1944 and have the players attacking a GM controlled B-17 force that is defended by the other players.
Aircraft wise not a problem as I have loads (shop like levels of lead to be honest) and they are easy to paint well. A dozen B-17's and 4 fighters on each side (2 per player) should do it. (exactly 20 bases, which is not a coincidence at all....no really), for the Bug scenario I actually have the Russians painted and would only need to invest in parts for the Ju-287 as that isn't made and I need to convert it...something I relish doing. I already have a hex mat suitable for the game, bases are on the way, scenery is not needed (well, I could add a laminated target to put on the table but as the focus is to down the bombers I think I will pass on that). I have no idea if I can coax Erik or any of the other Frostgrave players into this, just for a few games to try out if my teaching skills still add up.

Both games will need no to little investment of money (which is pretty vital right now!), some investment of time and some planning to get everything sorted. Sofar I have no plans to take it to other conventions, as Impact is next month already, at Figz I will give a foamboard demo and at Crisis I expect to be working again for PSC (but that is never a certainty) and those are all the shows I know of. There is Ducosim too but I don't know the dates for that, being a mostly boardgame oriented venue. Of course, I can always take them to other shows in 2017.

Terminated

Well, thus ends my final day at my current job. Boss didn't come and say goodluck, nobody arranged anything for my keys and passes so I just left them on my desk for my chef, I shook some hands with gloomy people and that was it. I can't remember having such a weird and uncaring last day at the job, ever!

Well, nothing I can do about it. Next up is waiting a few weeks to be called up for checks, and until then I'm going to make every day count by doing my best to clean out my storage locker asap and store what I want to sell and keep, and trash the rest into the bin, and terminate the lease. After that, it is all hands on deck to swap out the hobby and kids room, so getting the hobby room cleaned out is a high priority. When the kids are away for almost a week (to be planned) we, well, I mostly, can move the kids stuff into this room and and when that is done and sorted, make sure to get the new hobby room asap as well....working on the kitchen table is fun with mates but I need a proper room with lights.

I do worry that I will try and overextend myself to get the job done asap. My knee is giving me a hard time and I'm doing my best to ease up on it but this is a task that has to be done now and has to be done fast, as I want to get help, get training and get back to work in less then 6 months time preferably. Before I turn 40 at the latest.

So, what changes for the hobby? While I'm sorting the rooms, no painting. Building at the kitchen table will be possible, so more work to be done on the foamboard stuff. No buying (no change there) and focus on selling, AFTER I finish installing everything in the new room and I'm taking down stuff from the attic one box at a time. No point in trying to sell stuff now as I'm not focussed on that. I'm expecting a shipment of 3mm tanks in 2weeks time and I'm waiting for a friend to use his lasercutting skills to produce all of the bases I need plus more. Other then that, my 2 other wishes (the TNT rulebook and the new Battlegroup book) have been sorta sorted for now.....Piers can help me with Battlegroup, and the TNT rulebook can wait as I have to give the sample rules a few test runs with Erik. This means I have no planned purchases. I do have some wire and a few bottles of paint on my list, but I can pick those up at the Impact show on the 3rd of April. I'm actually thinking of culling the herd quite radically after I move into the new room. There is only so much room to fill and so many games I want to play.

You know, being sensible :)

My Oyumaru order arrived so I can now make more 3mm moulds so I can make more conversions, and, as it seems, tanks in sandbagged positions as it turns out the Iraqi ones didn't move a lot.

Speaking of 3mm, I've been reading and researching on the internet and what I read sofar isn't a lot of good to be honest. I can see why people think this is a good scale for massed battles, but just painting them green and putting them on green bases and calling them done or using elaborate basing labels is not something I'm willing to do. Ok, you can't see much of what I do on the table, but at least contrast the camo with the ground cover so you can see them. Good Blogs or websites on 3mm are very, very scarce, but I'm reading up on this one right now > Very Tiny Wars A good read I think, with plentiful posts. Air gaming is way better represented online.

Tonight we have a hobby night with the guys instead of gaming, so I'm hoping to either get stuff done for La Maisontaal or prep some more concrete blocks for sale. Either will do me good.

A whole lot of text this post was. At least I'm looking forward to the future, no matter how uncertain it might be right now.

3mm takes flight

As I sat here waiting for a reply to my order at Fighting 15's I grabbed some boxes from the cabinet to find my other few packs of 3mm vehicles and found a bag of 3mm aircraft instead. A big bag. I also found all of my Thud Ridge items that I used to demo at shows. In the corner of my eye, at the top of the cabinet, is a collection of Check Your Six! rule and scenario books that I collected a couple of years ago. I want to get back into that, and what better way to push myself is to plan a demo at the next Poldercon? Gives me plenty of time to get things done, find a good convention scenario, paint up the nescessary planes and laminate everything needed. I might even be able to build some scenery, or be able to afford some. Check out this >> Brigade Models
Just 1 slight problem. The bases I have are just for Thud Ridge. Big square ones with a perspex rod coming out of it at various heights, which made it very impractical to pack and store properly. CY6! uses hexes (though the aircraft stand does not neccesarely be that, round is ok too). Back in the day I played a few games using Lego stands, with a die next to it for speed.

Now, I have this thing, I don't know if anyone else has it too, but I don't like dice on the table. Their place is in a dice rolling box that I have, with big walls so that they don't jump out. Dice on the table inevitably get stuck somewhere, hit scenery or miniatures or roll off the table. Seeing aircraft flying around lugging a dice behind them is also not great to look at. But if you want to do this as a demo you will need some kind of marker that is instantly visible to all players. So....in comes Lego.

This is what some people use, as did I:

As found on this Blogpost: flight-stands-for-1600-aircraft

You can use as is, and add 1 altitude die and 1 speed die. Or just a speed die and add cylinders for each level of height (which is what I am going to do). I'm going to leave out the dice all together as I have come up with a cunning (and cheap-ish) plan.

I have a account over at Bricklink, where you can buy every bit of Lego ever made (for a price). This is because I helped out a creditcard less friend back in 2010 who wanted some Lego and I used it late 2013 when I needed Lego parts to make boxes for moulding Oyumaru. If you select the sellers from your country only AND focus on used items you cut back on the (shipping) costs, so I did just that. And then I went searching for transparant cylinders. These sell for 11-15 eurocents per pop. While this looks nice, it does make it harder to see the altitude, so why not use black - transparant - black etc? Used black ones go for 4 cents each. I then thought to myself, in CY6! you have 4 levels of pilot skill (green, trained, experienced and ace), why not give these a colour and use that colout for the first (and third, and fifth etc) cylinder so players instantly see what level pilot what plane is. As it turns out, red (ace), yellow(green) and blue(experienced) set me back 40-60 cents each for sets of 20. I picked up enough white and black ones to make 20 stands of just those, plus 20 neon green discs at 3 cents a piece. (why neon green? Because they were the cheapest) I plan to glue them down onto Warbases.co.uk 30mm casualty markers and cover them with filler and then either flock for Europe or paint them sand for Iran-Iraq and Israel vs Everybody else. 30mm round base fits nicely inside the hex mats that I have. The casualty marker then becomes my speed indicator, it goes from 1-12 which is way more then I need so that will suffice.

So, I now have a easy to work with flight base, relatively inexpensive, made from easily available materials. In the future I can always swap out the multi colour flight levels for transparant ones if people know the rules better, but for the purpose of teaching they are brilliant.

As soon as the casualty markers arrive, I will prep and paint them so you can see what I mean. I also added 20 pcs 1x1 round studs to my order that I can sink a magnet into so it is easy to mount and dismount the aircraft, like in the old system. I'll do 10 of them European woody style and the other 10 with a sandy desert base. If I need/want more, Warbases will be at Crisis and they have a show order pick up discount, so I can wait till then....it is not like I will be attacking maases of B-17's over Europe anytime soon. 10 aircraft in a game with 2 players is more than enough to keep us busy I think and for a demo 2 aircraft per player sounds about right. The vehicles I'm working on now can become juicy targets for jet age and by then I think I will have found something for WW2 as well.

Now, 3mm scenery. Brigade sells it, some very nice stuff too, but just a few villages add up quickly so that is unfeasible for now. That leaves hills, forrests, lakes and swamps etc. Dead easy to make, I once made 2 green hills for Thud Ridge and that was just some flock covered foam. I will enjoy scratchbuilding that. Of course, the senics for 3mm landwar need to be bigger than the 3mm air war targets, but that is no problem.

But all of this can wait. I'm on my last week at work and starting next week I will spend a lot of time cleaning out my storage space at my old flat, I'll most likely bin a lot but save as many miniatures as I can, and cancel the lease asap. That will be 60 euros a month better spent somewhere else. After that I will get cracking on switching the hobby and kids room. I made a head start by cleaning out the 2 cabinets of Kim and I shifted all of her books to the attic....must have been 250 kilos of books alone! (and she never reads hem!). I'll try to move the cabinets to the attic later this week but my knee might not agree with that. Speaking of which, X-rays showed nothing, next up is a MRI at the end of March and the results will be in early April, and then I'll know what the prognosis is. The company doctor today signed me a paper that I'll be leaving work sick. That means the company gets a fine, but that's not my problem. I've got other things to worry about.

More news in a few days time :)

It ain't easy being green

Really had to push myself to start these, and once I did the first one it just flowed without any issues.

3 smokers, 2 turretpoppers, 1 sleeper, 1 flipper and a gangbang. I've reversed the turrets from the poppers this time so I can add a nice white inside contrasting colour like I did with my flipped BMP-1 turret way back. Also did the T-55's barrels corectly this time, with a bit of barrel in front of the fume extractor. I did that wrong the last time.

In all likelyhood these will become Warsaw Pact (Poles or NVA - not that it matters much as in this scale they look alike) so I got that sorted and I think I have enough T-55 wrecks now....well, maybe I will make some Iranian ones but as far as I have seen their camouflage for the T-55....well, they used captured Iraqi ones, so....yes, maybe.

With an eta for bases at 2 weeks, and miniatures at 2-6 weeks I think I will be making moulds of the Shilka and the BRDM-2 I've got so I can turn those into wrecks....fortunately, for the type of games I want to play I'll more then likely field 1-2 BRDM-2's and 1 Shilka, so each of the 3 will get 3 more wrecks added to the collection. After that I'm out of models and I will have to wait till the new lot arrives. Never had that with a project before.

Always Nuka Cola.....Revamp

As the glass was seen as too shiney (I agree) I did some tries in weathering and in the end settled for matte varnish plus washes, plus extra weathering on the label. So now we have this:

Which is a big improvement I think over the old one:

But as always I'm interested in your opinion :)

Iraqi T-55 wrecks......in 3mm!!

 Don't ever tell me something can't be done, I like a challenge, in this case laid down a clown who was talking down on 3mm being counters. I said I would not only show him, but convert them too....which is almost impossible with the metal they use to cast these models.

But hey, here they are, my first set of 8.

Please look at the match to see what size these really are (and no, I did not put down a giant match). 25mm round base for each wreck marker, each one is a conversion in one way or another. 2 short evenings of work and more to follow.

Can't make my mind up: 1/600th period advice wanted

Over the last few years my interest in 1/600th has waxed and waned. Last year I gave up cause I can't paint the infantry figs (that is what I think anyway, if I can't paint 6mm then I surely can't paint 3mm infantry!) but lately I've been playing with tokens and markers for infantry and you know what, I'm ok with that. Knowing ones limitations and all that.

I'm doing this one purely for myself and solo play, and the joy of painting small scale. I just can't decide which period to go for, but I did narrow it down to 3 choices. They are:

• Iran-Iraq War. the sheer diversity of vehicles and the desert to moderate terrain. I have a long standing interest in the period and a extensive air game collection for it. CWC or Rapid Fire Moderns.

 

•  Copy my 20mm 1980's Dutch and make a opposing Russian Tank Division. Sell my 20mm Dutch. I want a Dutch army because I'm Dutch? CWC or Rapid Fire Moderns. 

• Copy my 20mm 1943-45 Germans and make a opposing Russian Tank Division. I will NOT sell my Germans! Battlegroup and BKC.

All periods have their merits. All 3 have a strong (long standing) interest. But atm I can only invest in one.

What would you do?

(Answers in the geste of Do what you like, pick the one most likely of succeeding, which you find most easy to paint are not liked.....I have 3 options for the reason that I like them all!)