Some Hope for My Blog and Other Odds and Ends

 I still can't post blog photos from my computer, but did a little experimenting with a friend's computer, and found that the photo up-loader seems to work there.  So, I'm going to try to resurrect my wife's old laptop and see if I can work on my blog from it.  First though,  I need to locate a charger and a new battery.

Recently, I've been doing a little work on new 28mm post-apoc settlement buildings and hope to share pics over the next week.  They will mostly be a collection of adobe houses and shanties made of junk.  Additionally, I plan to update some of my older sci-fi buildings for use in the post apocalypse to add to the settlement.

Last weekend, I stumbled onto a wonderful little used book store that had some old miniatures gaming books and rules sets.  Books date to the 1960s and include titles by Featherstone and Grant, and rules span a period from the late 1970s to the about 1990.  You can find the various titles in the history section at BookMarx books.  There were maybe 30 titles on the shelf related to historical miniatures gaming.  I picked up a copy of Featherstone's Solo Wargaming  to continue my exploration of hobby history.

On the New Arrivals front, I recently received an order from Mad Puppet Miniatures, a few 32mm old west ad post apoc figs, which are on my paint table and hope to share soon.  The figures are made of resin, and beautifully detailed and cast.   Shipping from Spain to the US was a little slow, but that is to be expected given the world situation. 

I also received a few more 6mm Cold War infantry from Heroics and Ros, a few Soviets and some more East Germans to round out a few units. These are the newer sculpts, which are lovely miniatures, and shipping time was relatively short, so it looks like H&R is up and running pretty smoothly again.

That's about it for now.  Stay safe out there.

I think My Blog May Be Dead

Well, after spending some time attempting to load photos with "The New Blogger", I have discovered that I cannot.  If I drag and drop, I eventually get an empty "photo box" in my post that disappears completely when I move the cursor.

The uploader consistently take several minutes to load (like 12 minutes or more), and the photo selection never displays in the uploader window (43kb jpg file).  If I select the blank image box in the uploader window, I get the little "something is happening" thingy for several minutes, then it stops, the select button is de-selected, and no image ever appears.

Also, the legacy Blogger option has vanished.

I'll try again in a week or so and see what happens. 

Best of luck to everyone, stay healthy. out there.

 

28mm Post-Apoc Diner and Billboard Update

During this past week, I finished my abandoned diner, and I also finally painted a roadside billboard that has been setting on my painting table for quite some time.

I still need to make a base with a parking lot for the diner, but I'm going to wait a couple of weeks, and work on several different terrain panels all at once, including a couple more road sections with driveways, some town/road sections, and maybe a little park.  

Here are the some pics of the diner:

I went back and forth about boarding up the windows, 

but figure the wood probably would have been scavenged early on, 

so left it off. 

I was concerned with how to do the roof, I ended up using 

320 grit sandpaper, and am pretty happy with how it turned out.

These utility shelves were a pain to make, 

but the room needed something.  I think they did the trick.

I made a number of tourist posters, advertising signs, a calendar, 

and some menus, but ended up not using most of them; it all just 

seemed like too much, and I figure most paper products would 

have vanished with time.

I'll probably eventually add more detail to the diner (nothing is ever really finished, is it?), but for now, the building is done.  As I mentioned above, I still need to make a base, and am working on the roadside sign.  I might add a couple of light poles for the parking lot as well.

This billboard is something that I made maybe a year or two back.  it has been waiting for paint ever since, and today was the day.

It is kind of an unwieldy piece, but I wanted some clutter that stood very upright off of the table, and this does that.  I'll going to add a couple smaller billboards of differing design with some signage still visible.  The figure is a Foundry 28mm Street Violence fig for scale.

Not a huge amount of work done this weekend, but I got a couple things off of my table, and got some paint on a dozen and a half figs also, so that isn't too bad.

Returning to the Abandoned Diner

Sometime back around Christmas, I think it was, I was working on a 28mm post-apocalypse diner, making good progress, when in between my work sessions, 
one of my cats knocked over my paint water, walked across my palette, and then through the diner and across the various bits, spreading paw shaped splats across the diner and bits.

I tried cleaning off the various "splattings" with partial success, but frustrated, decided to put the project aside for awhile, and come back to it later.

Well, it is later, and I starting "re-abandoning" the diner last weekend.  Originally, I had intended to work on Mama's farm, but about ten minutes into that, I found myself in a conundrum over whether to build it as a stand alone piece on a single base, or series of modular pieces that could have multiple uses.

Anyway, while mulling that debate, I made some progress on the diner, and here are a couple of pics.

As I work on the diner, or any of these pieces, I don't just build broken stuff, splat dirt, grime, and dust, etc, I try to imagine the story of the piece, of the abuse and decay.  I try to envision how the story of the place affected the decay and helped make it look like it does in the After.

I start out imagining it shiny and newly built in the early 1960's, how it passed through owners and remodelings,  the state of wear and disrepair at the time of closing, and how vandals, squatters and mother nature shaped it over the years since.

In any event, the diner is coming along, and will will give way to Mama's farm over the next few days with any luck.

Armaments in Miniature 15mm O-2, A-37, and OV-10

My latest order from Armaments in Miniature arrived a couple of days ago, and I received my 15mm, 1/100 scale 0-2 Skymasters, A-37 Dragonflies, and OV-10 Broncos.  Quite simply, they are perfect.  Absolutely beautiful resin castings with detailed panel lines, and each coming with various options for weapons and/or tanks.

Here are a few quick photos:

The Cessna O-2 Skymaster.

The Cessna A-37 Dragonfly

The North American Rockwell OV-10 Bronco

My photos don't do them justice, as my table was cluttered to permit setting up better pics at the moment, and I just wanted to get some photos out there.  

These are three beautiful models of a particularly unique group pf aircraft.  All either having curious histories and or features, and all designed for, or specified for service in Vietnam.

The O-2 also served in Europe, helping to keep watch over the Warsaw Pact, and remained in US reserve and ANG units until the late 1980s.  It has served the militaries of many other nations as well, and is ideal for third world air-forces and that of imagi-nations as well.

The A-37 served well in Vietnam and remained in US service with ANG units into the 1990s as FAC aircraft.  It also saw service in Panama, during operation Just Cause, and served with a number of South American air forces.  Aircraft captured during the fall of South Vietnam served the Socialist Republic of Vietnam's AF into the late 1970s, and a few examples were transferred to various nations of the Warsaw Pact.

The OV-10 Bronco is famous for its role in Vietnam, where it demonstrated its amazing flexibility, in addition to observation/FAC/ and light attack, convoy and helicopter escort, light transport, and could function in a variety of other rolls as well.  It had an internal cargo bay in the rear capable of mounting a trainable 20mm rotary cannon, 5 paratrooper, 6 soldiers, or two casualty litters and a medic.  On top of that, it just looks cool.

After Vietnam, the aircraft served in Europe with US forces in NATO, and  a small number of  OV-10s were outfitted with new electronics serving with the US Navy and Air Force in Iraq and Syria as recently as 2015.  Consideration was even given to opening a new line to build new aircraft.

Anyway, if you play Vietnam in 15mm, you need some of these models.  These aren't on his website yet, so you'll need to e-mail Dave to order them, but they are available at $15.00 each from Armaments in Miniature, fantastic models, fantastic service, and all at a great price.  Highly recommended.

The Ramblings of August

I haven't posted much lately as I haven't been accomplishing much, despite my best effort.  My 6mm Cold War infantry have been painted for for a couple weeks, and most of my time since has gone to labeling and flocking 1200 or so stands of the little fellas  

Troops representing six nations over a span of 40 years.  

Yes, I need to add more.

Heroics & Ros new French Infantry for the war in 1982

To be honest, I haven't been able to get in a good rhythm with this, it is just so repetitive and doesn't feed my creative hunger.  But, they are all labeled and about 45 percent of the flocking is done.  I expect that I'll finish them this weekend, as I should will have a little more free time than usual.

GHQ 1980s US Infantry, curiously, 

they look a little smaller than GHQ's Vietnam era US troops.

As my 6mm Cold War project has hit a period of relative un-excitement, I've also been tinkering with my 28mm Post-Apoc game.  Last month I finally got three new factions organized, painted one, and ordered figs to wrap up two others.  In an effort to feed my creative hunger, I also designed some terrain associated with the factions, and expanded the back story to accompany them.   Unfortunately, my work table is occupied with thousands of 6mm Cold War infantry, so I have nowhere to build the terrain.

A battalion of Soviets from H&R, again newer sculpts, 

will serve in the 1978 to 1982 time-frame, in two different world wars.

As it turns out, the manufacturer for the post-apoc figs is MIA; they took my money and sent no figs, won't reply to e-mail, nothing.  My second order (different company) for bits associated with the newly designed terrain has gone the same route.  I guess given the world situation, these things are bound to happen.  I hope that the people on the other end of my orders are doing okay and staying well.

Luckily, I found a source on E-bay for a replacement for the most critical fig for one of my new factions, and the seller seems to be a stand-up guy, great comms and item arriving early and all, unfortunately my purchase, and someone else's got reversed, so I received some stuff I didn't order, and the fig that I ordered is lost somewhere out in the wastes,  poor little guy, even if he is destined to be a maniacal overlord.

One seriously bright spot in recent weeks was a reply to a e-mail that i had sent to Armaments in Miniature inquiring about some Vietnam era aircraft that Dave (you can e-mail him at aim_schmid@yahoo.com) has been working on.  As it turns out AIM has three new 15mm (1/100) scale models available; the OV-10, the A-37, and the O-2.  As the OV-10 is maybe my all-time favorite military aircraft, and the Dragonfly isn't far behind, I was quite excited.  Still am.   I immediately ordered two each of the OV-10 Broncos and the A-37s, and a single O-2 "Mixmaster" at $15.00 each.  You will need to e-mail about these models, as he simply hasn't had time to update his website.

If you haven't seen any of Dave's work, his models are among the most finely detailed and cast models, that I've ever seen.  Simply beautiful work, and perfect quality.  Dave mentioned that he has decals for the models  (Black Ponies for the OV-10), though I didn't order them, as my Broncos and Mixmaster will serve in Europe in the 1970s , and I still haven't chased down the markings that I'll need for the 601 Tactical Observation Wing (or whichever variant of the name it was using during the years of service of these aircraft).

My A-37s are intended to serve in my fictional African campaign, so I've already made up decals for those.  Though I guess they could arrive as part of an intervention force, its not written in stone yet.

Anyway, my AIM order will be shipped next week, and I'll post some pics of the models as soon as I received them.  it will be good to have a little boost for my 15mm Col War project.  It has been lingering a bit, as the infantry that I was depending on have become unavailable.

Enough rambling for now, I'm off to the dungeon; its time to flock. 

Only Five More To Go

I had another productive weekend with 151 stands of French, West german, and British troops completed, and now have only 5 of 47 6mm infantry companies left to paint.  I'm wrapping it up with the British, as I struggled for quite some time, trying to decide how to paint the DPM uniforms, and have saved them for last.  

I ended up giving up on 6mm camouflage uniforms, opting instead to try to decide on the color they generally assume at such a distance that you cannot distinguish the camo pattern.  This has resulted in rather bland infantry, but then again, the goal is to get these on the table before I'm not around anymore.

Anyway, here is a pic of some of the British on my painting table, a busy place of late.  The bigger figs on the right are 28mm post-apoc factions waiting for a few stragglers to arrive in the mail.

Hoping to be done with infantry this weekend, then moving on to a few buildings.