I have a box of wooden building blocks that have been sat around for a few years. Today I finally had a stroke of inspiration that I could use them as modular buildings. I figure if I paint windows on all four sides, put a door on two of them, and leave the tops blank, then I can have some seriously modular buildings. The round ones can be mostly glass. The long, thin ones can also make for useful buildings. If I lay them flat and stack them, then I have a high rise. If I stand them up on edge, they can be used to create the illusion of a closed in area. Sort of creating the edge of a computer game level if you see.
Tales of an Inexperienced Modelmaker
I am getting back into a hobby. Follow me through my journey.
Saturday, 16 July 2022
Rebased infantry and some building blocks.
Monday, 6 June 2022
UK Games Expo 2022
This weekend, just for the Saturday, I hustled my way up to the UK Games Expo to see what all the fuss is about. My brother visits every year, wife and kids in tow and they stay for a few days. Every year they try to convince me, a fellow, but somewhat more casual, boardgamer, to attend. Every year I respectfully decline. This year, my other brother of The Player's Aid fame was in the country for a family wedding. We all made plans to go up and attend. I didn't want to be left out so went for it.
I now regret never going. The freedom I had this year to wander around and play whatever I felt was brilliant. I will give a breakdown of what I tried and saw in a bit. Next year I intend to take my eldest two children. I will have less freedom, but will be able to share the love of games with them a little more. The children and family section was large, and had lots of little games to try out. The cosplayers were many and friendly enough for photo ops. It was all around a good time.
Mr brother and I played a few rounds of this. It says the game takes 20 mins, but as it stood, each dogfight was taking about 3-4 minutes. Once you get caught in the opponent's gun sights it was really hard to get out of them. There were only two small plane miniatures, but they may not be the final miniatures. I would hope for actual plastic minis of the planes.
We attempted to try another game called Air Flix, where you have planes on disks and attempt to flick them into firing positions while avoiding flak, but the guy had sold all the copies and wasn't there on the Saturday to demo it any more.
There were other games I tried, which were fun, bought one for the family, bought a set of dice as that is customary at events like this.
I will take my eldest two next year, I hope. It should be fun.
Monday, 16 May 2022
Destroyed houses for WW2. Not sure manufacturer.
Tuesday, 10 May 2022
A Poor Man's A Billion Suns - Fleet progress
I have made progress with the fighters, bombers, recon craft and smaller capital ships. Pleased with this.
Monday, 9 May 2022
Battlegroup Fall of the Reich Soviets attacking a hasty German defensive line.
Last night I played a "defensive line" game where an ad-hoc Wehrmacht vanguard is attempting to stall the inexorable Soviet advance. I don't think I have played Fall of the Reich yet. It was the one that got away all those years ago, and when they did the reprint I jumped on the chance. Playing it felt a little different, but mainly that it felt like I couldn't afford as much German stuff, with point costs being higher. But that may be imagined. I was also surprised that my two armies ended up with the same Battle Rating. Usually my US armies have a far higher point to reach before breaking. I assumed the Soviets would be the same. But both ended up with BR 23. The Soviets, however had many more infantry to throw at the fascist invaders.
Germans
FHQ is a Panzer IV.
1 infantry platoon.
1 Panzerfaust team
1 80mm mortar team
1 Pak 40 with loader team
1 StuG III
1 sniper + spotter
Soviets
1 infantry platoon
1 T-34/85 platoon
1 Maxim MG team
1 ZiS 76mm gun
1 BA amoured car
1 sniper + spotter
4 trucks and a jeep for the platoon command
Monday, 25 April 2022
A Poor Man's A Billion Suns - Clothes Peg fleet complete.
I have completed my first group of ships. My favourite are the small corvette type ships. I need to have a think about getting any ships in the size area between the big ships and the small ships.