Quick and Easy 10mm/15mm Cemetery

I needed to make a quick cemetery for the Cemetery Hill portion of my upcoming First Day of Gettysburg game at Origins. I got the idea to use the rounded ends of some craft picks I had as the tombstones, and glued them to some leftover Warmaster sized metal bases from which I had removed the troops.  The whole project took about 20 minutes from start to finish and produced a nice set of tiny tombstones.

The ends of the craft sticks were easy to snip off with a pair of clippers.

I glued them on the bases with white tacky glue

Shown with a base of 10mm troops for scale.

A close up of the tombstones.  They would work equally well for 15mm I think.

First Red Martian Unit Finished

This week I finished my first unit of ten Red Martians and an overall commander for the big 20 player GASLIGHT game Buck Surdu and I are running at Historicon.  The figures are from Bronze Age and measure 32mm tall.  I really like Bronze Age's stuff.  The figures were relatively flash free and have a lot of detail that really makes simple paint jobs look good.

Bronze Age Martian Beast with Howdah Conversion

Over the weekend I worked on a conversion of one of Bronze Age's Wasteland Mutant (Thark) mounts (Thoat) into a mobile gun platform by adding a howdah and a radium cannon.  I hope to use this in our big 20 player GASLIGHT Mars extravaganza at Historicon.

I began by sawing off the top portion of the saddle and blanketroll that comes molded to the beast.

Next I began to construct a howdah out of cardboard.

I used toothpicks to make a railing around the howdah, and some wire-work from a dollar store wire dollhouse table to make some decorative ornamentation around the outside of the platform.

Next, I constructed the radium cannon out of some left over Eldar weapon bits, a flight stand peg, and half a slotted base.

Here is the finished product with a Bronze Age Martian for a sense of size.  I embedded two magnets in the beast's back, and glued a metal base to the underside of the platform, so it is removable for storage and transport. And, if I ever wish to make a different load for the beast to carry it will be easy to switch them out.

Here it is with a coat of black primer all ready for painting.

And here it is with its paint job.  the radium cannon is crewed by an Ironclad Minaitures Sandwar Cannon Crew.

GASLIGHT at Origins 10 Years Ago

At the end of this month a group of us will be heading to Origins to host several "G.A.S.L.I.G.H.T.", and "Look, Sarge, No Charts" games. As it turns out, it was ten years ago that I first brought GASLIGHT to Origins, and I decided to go back into the archives to look at the pictures of that first trip. The rules were relatively new, having just been published in 2000, and going to Origins gave us an opportunity to share them with folks outside our usual East Coast HMGS convention schedule. GASLIGHT was very well received by the Origins gamers.
    I ran several ACW by GASLIGHT games at the con, and my scratchbuilt and toy conversion vehicles were a big hit, as there was very little in the way of VSF vehicles available then. How far VSF has come in the last 10 years.

Jenn helps me set up one of the games.

Two players discuss their strategy

Union forces advance.

A much younger me calls the next activation cards.

The action heat up in one of the games.

Jenn fills in as a player in one of the games.

HAWKs Host Games at Har-Con

Several members of the HAWKs (Harford Area Weekly Kriegspielers) attended Har-Con yesterday and ran five games at the con. This mini gaming convention is put on by Harford Community College's Gaming Club (Harford County, MD) and features video, board, card, RPG, and miniature gaming. The crowd was light due to wonderful spring weather, and those who did attend were scattered amongst the various gaming genres.
The HAWKs had two tables at the con. On one we ran two land battles, and on the other three naval battles.
The first game we ran was my "Look, Sarge, No Charts: WWII" 1941 Russian Front game, and featured a Russian force attempting to hold open a road as German forces tried to cut it.
We had a nice group of players at this game including two student's of HAWK Greg Priebe, who teaches an online history course at the college, and had offered extra credit to any of his students who played in the game and wrote a two page report about it and it's relation to the history of the actual events.
German forces, attacking from the left side of the table, attempt to cut the road running along the right hand side.

In the final moments of the game the action swirled around a small wooded area that straddled the road as the Russian defenders tried to throw back a couple of German units that had reached the road. In the end the game was declared a German victory.
While I was running this game, James 'Tank' Nickel was running an Uncharted Seas game on the second table. Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to get any photos of it.
After my game, Buck Surdu set up his GASLIGHT 'Tripod Down' scenario; which features three tripods attempting to rescue the crew of a fourth one that has been destroyed; as local army units try to kill the stranded crew and beat back the rescuers. And on the naval table, Tank set up a 'Fire as She Bears' game featuring Swedish and Russian fleets.

I had a chance to play in this game as the Russian fleet admiral. My lack of skill as a naval commander showed as I was quickly overwhelmed by the Swedish forces.

My fleet (in foreground) comes to grips with part of the Swedish fleet.

Meanwhile, Buck's game was underway on the other table. Three tripods reek havoc on the English countryside.

In the end, despite a stiff defense from the humans, the Martians were declared the victors.

The final game of the night was a WWII naval game run by Tank using 'Naval Thunder'. I got to play in this one too as one of the Italians facing off against the British. I commanded four cruisers.

This was the second naval disaster for me, as lost my first cruiser on the second turn as a lucky British shot caused a freak magazine explosion. Soon after, as I tired to fend off two attacking groups my other ships were sunk or burning. (As seen in the photo above.) In the end the game was declared a British victory.

The HAWKs had a great time, and want to thank the convention organizers who provided everything we asked for, and all the gamers who came out and played in our games. We look forward to coming back next year.

10mm Fantasy Sampling for LSNC: Fantasy, Ancients & Medieval

As we go into the final stages of working on "Look, Sarge, No Charts: Napoleonics", I have begun working on 10mm forces for the next incarnation of the LSNC series, "Look, Sarge, No Charts: Fantasy, Ancients & Medieval". I haven't started to concentrate on one or two particular forces yet, but have been painting up some odds and ends I've acquired over the past couple years.
Below are a sampling of what I've been working on recently. Note, that while I have based them up in the standard LSNC style, we have not developed the labels for this version of the rules yet, so in some of the photos you will see a blank area on the back of the bases. Some of the figures are shown with a US penny to give a sense of scale.
At Cold Wars Rob from Eureka Miniatures USA brought us a few sample packs from their 10mm Fantasy line to peruse and purchase. These four 'Tree Trolls' are one of the packs I got. They are being commanded by a 25mm Games Workshop dryad, who passes wonderfully for a 10mm Ent, or a rarely seen Ent-wife as the case my be.
A close up of two of the Tree-Trolls. There is nice detail on these so they are a snap to paint by drybrushing.

Over the winter I purchased a Games Workshop "Battles of Five Armies" set, which contains a wealth of 10mm figures. Below are some of the goblins from this set.

At first I wasn't a fan of figures cast in strips, but the way these strips speed up my painting has started to make me a believer.

A close up of the goblins. These are great figures and more in line with GW's LOTR goblins, then their Warhammer and Warmaster varieties, which I find too cartoony

These are some of the elves from the BoFA set. Here again, these are great figures that paint up fast.

A close up of the elves. These will be the basis for a wood elf force I plan to build.

These are some Pendraken Amazons. I painted them more modestly then intended, turning them from PG-13/R to more G rated figures.

A close up of the Amazons.

These are a pair of Games Workshop High Elf Bolt Throwers. These are beautifully detailed figures, and one of the less cartoony races in GW's Warhammer and Warmaster ranges.

That's it for now. I'm mainly concentrating on Historicon painting at this point, but hope to post some more photos of my "LSNC: Fantasy, Ancients & Medieval" progress later in the summer.

"A Union So Tested" Rules Used at Army OPD

Last Thursday several members of the HAWKs were invited to lead an Officer Professional Development event for members of the Army's 114th Signal Battalion. Sam Fuson spearheaded the effort which included the officers, senior NCOs and senior civilian staff members of the unit.
The object of the event was to have the participants take part in a game recreating the battle of Chancellorsville from the American Civil War with the goal of encouraging decision making strategic thinking, and team building. Each player was assigned a divisional or corps command.
The game was played on a 20' x 8' foot table and featured over 4000 1/72 scale plastic figures. Set up took over two hours.

The rules used were our "A Union So Tested: Look, Sarge, No Charts: ACW". Each stand of infantry represented a regiment.

The table full of figures was an impressive sight.

All the players really got into the game and had a fun time while having a learning and team building experience as well.

Afterwards, Colonel Surdu led the officers in an after action discussion of the battle.

And Colonel Surdu was awarded a plaque for his part in making this event a success.

Here is a short video of the event: