More Tiny Steps

Long COVID is a barrel of laughs. I think I am having a good day then LC says forget that and pay attention to me. I did get some stuff done and then the wall said hello again. Suddenly I don't have the energy to change the channel on the TV. It can't be a bad day because I now have the energy to be upright. Two posts in two days says something else.

So I managed to prime about twenty minis including three Battletech mechs and some stuff for Sludge. I was planning on carving some raised terrain for Battletech and got one piece carved out of the twenty or so I had planned. On top of this I managed to put some things in the right place so I can finish some more hexes. Not for Battletech. 

Now I am hoping for some more energy tomorrow. Past experience says that is probably not going to happen. What I will get s another wall and a lot of brain fog. Still that will be better than the last few months.

Progressing With Battletech

Having picked up the brush for the first time in a year, I am making some progress. My pace has dropped due to Long COVID. I just can't focus for long periods of time anymore. So I will take what I can get. I wanted to keep up the tempo with the Battletech stuff.

I have acquired another two mechs. These were classed as painted. Lots of grey in the nooks and crannies but it's a start.

They are still a little way off being finished. I am working on some transfers but need some clear gloss acrylic varnish before I can do that.

Whilst not the best work I have ever done, let's say I am out of practice, they look better than a lot of what I am seeing online. 

Still it has given me the urge to start posting again. I doubt I will get back to a post per day, but a post a month would make me feel a bit more in the game again. I have a load of Sludge stuff to do. Not to forget the Grey Legion.

Unexpected Projects

I now have an almost pathological avoidance of games my friends want to play. Over time I have been drawn into many expensive projects that have been shelved before my first purchase has arrived. Many of those that don't fail for a variety of reasons like suddenly moving away or making a decision to buy every Napoleonic army in 6mm.

Still at the blobby stage

So a couple of my mates are playing Battletech. I've played it in the past. Almost forty years in the past. I had been thinking about it in much the same way. I have to admit I was wrong. They actually like the game and want to keep playing. As a birthday present I got a couple of box sets and some random extra mechs.

Suddenly I am back to painting. For the first time in months. Trying a few different things. Not least is a leaning more towards contrast types of paint. Then I've taken moulds of some mech bits and used greenstuff to make base scatter. 

I have some of my mojo back. My painting area is now back up and running properly after almost a year. I've even got a proper wet pallet as I couldn't find my home made one.

Once I've done the mechs, I think I have twenty four of them, I am going to move onto Sludge, and finish of the stuff that has been waiting for final touches for a year. 

6mm🤔

I have a mate who comes to visit and go to a couple of wargame shows. I have a good time and I enjoy the company. One of the shows is the Joy of Six. A show mostly aimed at smaller scale gaming.

I am not adversed to 6mm gaming. It's not really my thing. Some years ago my mates talked me into buying a French Napoleonic army, mostly so they could gang up on me. I started painting. About the same time, I was talked into buying a GHQ American army when I already had a Heroics & Ros army. The figures are prettier. Neither have ever made it to a table.

So I kinda gave up on 6mm. So I turned up to the show whilst my mates went on about their stuff. So I sat down, had a brew and I ended up talking to John Treadaway for half an hour. Seems like a decent bloke. Which for me is high praise indeed.

Don't worry, he didn't get round to gnawing his own leg off. I did note he seemed to be with his now almost obligatory stupid hat. 

Over the years I have come to see that there are two types of gamers and they are summed up by the two main wargaming magazines, setting aside White Dwarf of course. Wargames Illustrated is about big battles or very expensively painted miniatures or both. This is about people who invest time and resources to make something beautiful. I used to write it off as style over substance but if you are going to put all that effort in, I am sure you want the substance to. It is a magazine for the more serious gamer and I don't see as much fun in amongst the pretty pictures.

Miniature Wargames, John's magazine, has always been more my thing. There is a lot more of the joy of the hobby in its pages. Maybe the games are not as slick but you get the feeling that people are playing a lot of games. More about fun and less about spectacle. Now I think John thinks you can have both and that his magazine is trying to offer that, at least some of the time. It does feel more professional since he took over, I will give him that.

What I am talking about is something a little different. WI seems to offer games that might not have taken a life's work, but maybe just a half a decade or so. For me, I would sooner be able to play ten smaller skirmish games to a good standard than one game of big battalions tons high one. I don't know, maybe I just have a short term memory problem. Er, well, about that....

1:2 Scale Miniatures Day

Not really been on here much lately. Long COVID or that damn vaccine has really laid me low.  Some days are better than others. So today was a good day. 

I started my 1:2 scale miniatures collection about five years ago. I've only got the one. I can't imagine anyone fielding an army of them, it's more of a skirmish scale. If you have ever been in soft play, you will know what I mean. It took nine months work to get it ready for play and I had to get a lot of help with it. This one is totally lead free although you wouldn't think it if you drop it on your foot. I couldn't find any Osprey books on them or even one of those jokey Haines manuals.

More Freakin Hexes

About ten years ago I had this idea for terrain hexes. About five years ago I started making some when i got my first laser cut. Then I had a thirty five litre RU box full of them. Then there was two, then there was three now there is a fourth box, overflowing with blank tiles.

My name is Jacko and I have a problem.

So I started doing table top gaming again this year, after what is about a five year gap. Not my choice, just, errr, circumstances and stuff. I still think I want to do more. And more. And more. And, well you get it.

For me I would be happy with a 2' x 2' or 60mm x 60mm. Well ish. Hex geometry is more complicated than it looks. However a lot of games and most gamers want a 3' x 3'or 90mm x 90mm table (ish again" thanks to the way hexes work. So...I had enough for what I call my most apocalypse board to do a 2' x 2' so time to upscale.

I wanted to use the hexes to replace battle mats and give me something more variable. No two games should be the same. That means a lot of variants. The post apocalyptic table also had a lot of extra requirements to improve the character. This meant a lot of junk, some bits of resin and a lot of scrap material to give the tiles more character. To add a bit more character there are actually four different textures on the tiles. Not sure they have any meaning in game terms but they make the game look pretty.

So this board is getting on for being finish. I reckon I need to finish what I have and do about another dozen tiles. 

Now I am looking for what's next. I like the mud tiles and think I will make more but not sure I want this as the next project. So right now I am thinking either desert or a ruined futuristic city tile, which I am calling Paradise City Lost. I am also thinking in terms of snow

Getting Things Done

So back in 2019 in the summer before my daughter was born I went to Salute. The big plan was to start playing This Is Not A Test. It kind of hits a lot of buttons for me.

The game uses a lot of counters and as of today, I now have them. Designed cut and stuck to bottle cap stickers as per Guerilla Miniatures Games.

I may even get a game in.

Thanks for your help Ross.