The Road to War: An Interuption of Progress During the Golden Age of the Hobby (- or Part 1-1)

I woke up stupid early this morning full of child-like excitement and enthusiasm for my current big gaming project, the construction of terrain tiles for gaming in Cold War Germany.  So consumed with euphoric anticipation was I, that you'd have thought that I was about to receive a Red Ryder BB gun with a compass in the stock.

It only lasted for a moment, as I sat there in the early morning darkness, realizing that my excitement was wasted, and that I had woken up for nothing, as this would be day 6 of waiting for one minor product, of which I am out of stock, to be placed in the mail stream, such that it might begin its journey from Colorado to Ohio.

You see, last weekend I got to the point where I was ready to flock the terrain addressed in my previous post, Part 1 of this project, and discovered that I was out of light green flock.  I am sure that my previous stock of this came from Woodland scenics, probably about 1987, but at this point, either I am wrong about the source, or they stopped making it at some point.

As it turned out during my search, I found that fine light green flock is not a common color these days. But fear not, for in this "Goden Age" of our hobby, via the progress of digital technology, what I need is only a click away.  Well that and the days or weeks it will take to receive the item, that I could readily have in hand after a 40 minute trip to the hobby shop in 1987.

Once again, I find that the golden age of gaming is filled with pyrite encrusted lead rot.  Or, as usual, something that I need and have used for decades in my hobby is no longer readily available.  In recent years, the demise of paint, glue, solvent, tools, and product lines  has made my hobby much more burdensome than it might otherwise be.

Additionally, despite the fact that I can get figures (that were already available in my preferred scale, and that I already had), in a multitude of other scales, and from several more manufacturers in my preferred scale.  I still can't get 15mm US Cold War era troops in their OG107 fatigues that they only wore for thirty years.  (I swear I just heard Sam Kinison's voice.)  Been waiting for those for about thirty years too.  Actually a bit longer.  I'm sorry, I would have envisioned a slightly different golden age in my hobby.

Okay, I know, in the big picture, it is a little thing really, teensie-tiny, but this happens so often these days, and steals so much joy from my hobby, that I just had to cry about it a a little.  Again.

Okay, so new plan going forward:

I'm moving on to the next stage of the project, making the second batch of terrain, which will end up being a second and third batch, as I want to work on slightly smaller numbers of tiles at a time, to give more room to work and keep progress moving.

The second batch of terrain tiles will include stream, small river, some sloped, and a few odd sized filler pieces of terrain, about 52 tiles in all.

The third batch (49 tiles at this point), which will probably wait until after the new year, will include an expansion of the pieces introduced in stage two; more river, hills, and a modular hill ridgeline/crest system.

Additionally, when putty, paste, and paint is drying on more terrain, I will be painting  new vehicles for the invasion of France 1940.  Thanks to Scotia, Heroics and Roa, and GHQ, I've built up quite a backlog over the last month.

Its okay, I'm not getting a Red Ryder BB Gun with a compass in the stock.  And besides, I always wanted a football.

Have a great day, and stay safe out there.