Looking to the Future

During my last couple of months away from the hobby, I had time to consider the scope of periods and projects that I've entered into, the effects of aging, and my own mortality.  I've realized for some time that some of my aspirations (and very possibly a majority) for the table top are never going to be realized, but I've had a horrible time trying to reduce projects and periods that I've already planned or started, as the balance between enthusiasm and work to be done doesn't correspond to any logical reduction of projects or periods.

For example, 28mm post apocalypse is large in scope, involves a lot of terrain and miniatures yet to be completed, and given the nature of post apoc, most projects for this involve more work (and time) than those for other periods.  Thus, dropping post apoc would make sense, eliminating a disproportionate amount of projects and work in the future.  But it is one of the periods that I am most enthusiastic about, and feeds my need for an artistic (limited as my skills are) gaming outlet.

I've tried approaching my problem from different perspectives, without finding a satisfactory solution.  But, during the "Covid era" I did succeed in staying largely focused on my Cold War project, or family of projects, which largely contrasts my much broader shotgun approach to the hobby before that.

Given that "success", I've decided to try selecting a subset of ten periods, and moving forward will attempt to limit work to these, with a goal of achieving a state of semi-completion, before moving on to new periods and their associated projects.

If nothing else, this will result in a much more limited shotgun approach, hopefully leading to a better balance between building/painting and playing games, than I've accomplished working on all thirty-some periods at once. 

So, the ten "periods" are:

1/3788 Star Trek/Star Fleet Battles Klingon, Federation, and Romulan fleets (Lyran and Kzinti are more or less done).  I already have a good start on Klingon fleet, with some Federation and a few Romulan ships done.  The plan will be to complete one fleet at a time, each as a single project, maybe separated by other periods.

6mm 1950s Cold War.  I've already started the campaign for this, and work is almost complete, with just a few aircraft and a handful of support vehicles needing paint.  The plan is to work on this for a couple weeks to a month, and then maybe occasionally add a few overlooked vehicles here and there as needed.

6mm WWII East Front Barbarossa. Despite having a fair amount of armor done for each side, this still needs a bunch of work; vehicles, infantry, aircraft, terrain, and buildings.  I plan to continue picking up miniatures for this, as the money tree permits, and work on like items for each nation as projects; German armor, Russian armor, German aircraft, etc.  These projects will be alternated with projects for other periods on this list.  I should be able to get some games on the table by next year.

15mm WWII East Front, Barbarossa.  This will go hand in hand with my 6mm Barbarossa, allowing focus on smaller and more infantry oriented battles.  All of the infantry are done, as are most of the German vehicles.  I still need to add a small number of German and a notably larger number of Russian vehicles.  I have no soviet aircraft yet, and will need to build some East front buildings to get this on the table. The various parts of this will be done as separate projects, alternated between other period projects.

15mm France 1940.  Largely done.  I may add a few bits of terrain as needed, and otherwise have a very small number of vehicles and a few airplanes to paint.  This will likely get completed as a single 4-6 week project, though may take less time.

15mm Cold War 1950s.  The biggest single step for this is to paint British infantry, which will make it table ready.  Additionally, I plan t add a small number of vehicles and to build a few airplanes.  I figure that it can be all done in a two to three month window.

15mm 1970s Cold War.  This will involve Soviet, East German, US, UK, and French forces.  I have all of the infantry, with East German, Soviet, and US painted.  Soviet and UK vehicles are done, as are a small number of US vehicles.  The holdup is really the US vehicles, which I mostly have yet to build masters, mold, and cast.  Currently, I still cannot get casting resin, due to chaos initiated by Covid.  This will be completed as a series of projects by nation, spread out over years.  The US forces will be the last to be completed due to the mastering and casting process, but I will be able to bring games to the table in far less than the total completion time, as I get the most complete armies done first.

15mm Soviet-Afghan War.  I already have a large collection of infantry, Soviet vehicles, and terrain for this conflict.  Rounding it out will involve adding a few more helicopters and a mix of terrain items; walls, ruined buildings, gardens, etc.  I've also been toying around with a design for a more dramatic modular hill/mountain system.   Work will consist of new terrain projects or aircraft as needed for scenarios.

20mm Vietnam.   An infantry company (plus support) each of US, PAVN, and VC is ready to go.  Primarily, I need to add terrain, and a  hand full of aircraft, and then will likely build up Vietnamese forces for some larger scenarios.  The work will be done as a series of projects as needed to put scenarios on the table.

28mm Post Apocalypse.  This has been an ongoing project for many years, and I've only touched the tip of the iceberg.  The period will be addressed as a series of terrain pieces and miniature factions added as needed to develop my campaign.  I can see spending 2-3 months per year for several years to get this period developed.

Of these, I can currently put seven of the periods on the tabletop in some form, without any further work, so most of this is filling out the scope of the periods/conflicts.  

For now the goal will be to focus only on these ten periods, putting everything else on back burner until a period is "completed", at which point, I can choose to add one of the back burner projects to the group of ten, or to simply focus on the remaining periods on the list.  I'll decide which route to go, when I get to that point.  

I'm hoping that this approach will allow me to balance completing projects with playing more often, as I find that I often have a sense of needing to "complete" all of my projects before playing.  I'm also thinking that by the time significant progress is made on these periods, that the sparkle of some of the back burner periods and projects will not be so bright, maybe making it easier to let go of a few things.

It may still seem like a pretty broad approach (or maybe just plain silly), but for awhile at least, narrows the scope of work to just over a fifth of the projects, and just over a quarter of the periods that I've started.

Full Circle With Heritage's Panzertroops

Over forty years ago, a friend invited me to play my first miniatures game, Panzertroops, published by Heritage Miniatures.  The game came boxed with 15mm WWII American and German miniatures,  but the local shop didn't carry much of the line beyond the boxed game, and we opted for the cheaper, and slightly more readily available 1/72 kits and plastic figures at the time.

This resulted in my fielding M3 halftracks, Stuarts, and Lees against Panzer IIIs and Jagdpanthers for the most part.  I don't remember ever winning a game, but on one or two occasions, I did manage to get a bazooka shot on Jagdpanther, which was just about as good.

Panzertroops gave you the tools to add stats for additional vehicles and weapons not included in the rules, and we expanded the game accordingly.  After a couple of years, we moved on to other rules and scales, and shortly after that, I began writing my own rules.  

Though I never owned the boxed game, I do still have my bad photocopy of the rules, and recently, I stumbled onto an original copy of the rules on the web.  Eight pages include all of the rules and painting guides for the US and German figs that were included in the box.

As it happens, I did eventually get into 15mm WWII miniatures in the late 1980s, via Quality Castings, which happened to be an expanded version of the old Heritage line.   So, when I finish my current big non-hobby project that's sucking up all of my time, I plan to finally play a WWII game of Panzertroops rules, and with the 15mm miniaturess for which they were intended.

I wish that we had taken a couple of photos of one of those early games, played on a small table in Mark's basement on terrain constructed of paperback books with a couple of HO scale apple and pine trees from my model railroad stuff.

I'll be sure to take a couple of pics this time around.

Can't Get a Break

I've only managed about 30 minutes of hobby time since my last post, and besides a limited reading of hobby blogs, the only other hobby activity in recent weeks was contacting a manufacturer to ask about the status of an early June order for some 15mm vehicles that hadn't shown up.

They quickly discovered a snafu, resolved it, and sent the order.  On arrival, I discovered that I had made an error.  I ordered the miniatures having read that they were made of resin, thinking "cast in resin", but they are in fact printed in resin.  I'm the one gamer that is not a big fan of printed miniatures, and would not have ordered these had I realized that they were printed, as the extremely light weight, and stepped layers from the printing process are both issues for me.  So despite the high quality of detail, I was a bit let down by the models.  Live and learn.

But these models weren't done, adding further to my learning curve.  Another problem that I hadn't considered; the undersides (all lower hull and tires) of half of the vehicles are not completely cured, and are extremely sticky, almost liquid.  I can press a finger tip into them and leave a finger print, or have a finger puppet.  My choice. 

Otherwise, life has thrown another curve at me, so I'm looking at another four weeks of even less hobby time.  Hopefully I can come back to the hobby by the end of August, by which time I figure that I should be full of hobby mojo.   And though I whine about these inconveniences here, I'm keeping it all in perspective.  I see a lot of other people out there dealing with serious health issues, major financial problems, etc.  Things could be a lot worse, and I'm thankful that in the big picture, I'm doing okay.

For now, I'll leave you with this:

My "current" project and dust collector.  

Mama's Farm, a 28mm communal post apocalyptic farm.

Hope you are all having a great summer, and best of luck to you.  As the big guy once said, "I'll be back!"

Comments and Time

First, I found out yesterday that my e-mail filter is blocking some comments to my posts.  No pattern to it that I can find, other than it has only blocked legitimate replies from readers, and has yet to block a spammer.  Thanks for your comments, and sorry that they haven't been getting posted or responded to.

And second, after completing a two month long project that was severly limiting my hobby time, and getting a weekend free to be creative, I was hit by another, even more oppressive thing to deal with, so I won't be posting (or playing, building, etc), for the next few weeks.

Next time around, I'm going to have to rethink how to do this whole "life" thing.

Peaks and Valleys

After peaking with a five day flurry of post apocalypse activity, I've descended into the valley of real life again (that sounds a little darker than I intended), allowing only a trickle of hobby activity.  I almost squeazed in a second game on the heals of my last post a poc game, with an Imagi-Africa game that has been waiting for, I don't know, two years maybe, to get played, partially set up.  But life intervened, and the game still awaits playing.

My Vietnm helicopters are slowly getting windows, with most of the birds being done, but still adding a couple windows every now and then.  And there are still four aircraft that need decals.  They may just get put back on the shelf for awhile.

World War III-1958 is still awaiting an order from H&R, which is in transit.  Once I get those painted up to fill in a few gaps, the BAOR and Soviets can get back to it.

Not really a hold up, but I've also got a few more 1950s NATO aircraft now awaiting paint on my table.

I've been working out what I yet need to pick up for my 15mm 1950s British and Soviets, 1960s French (to battle the Soviets), and 1970s-'80s Brits and 1980s French and Soviets for Cold War battles.  With the exception of the 1960s French, not a lot is needed for any one period or army.   Though when all combined, it is a sizeable list.  My 1970s-early '80s US forces need a lot of stuff yet, but that is mostly going to come from mastering and casting my own stuff, so I'll probably finish off all of the other 15mm Cold War forces first.

Now if I could just get a little more free time...

Good To Be Home (A Post Apocalypse Moment)

The last few days had been strenuous, and getting shot hadn't helped, but at least he was home.  The old man decided to sit for a moment after reaching the top of the first ladder.  It had been a long day, more tiring than most.  As he sat there, appreciating the shade, he noticed something that he hadn't seen before.  An inscription, etched into the rock, on the underside of an ancient layer of stone, well protected from the elements, and not readily in view.  "Pin + Lola".  Crudely scraped into the rock, such that each letter was formed from a series of straight lines.  For example, the "O" consisted of four lines making a sort of diamond or crystal shape.

He had noted other such marks over the years, impressed upon "his" little island in the desert.  Each hinted at a bit of the history of his ancient home.  There had certainly been many here before him.  he suspected that the owner of the hand print on the opposite side of the "shelf" might be the oldest.  No doubt an artifact of a Native American, though probably of an older variety than what his contemporaries would have once associated with the term.

Also, there were remnants of the outline of a shield or coat of arms if you will, with the letters "HD" contained within, he wondered if it was simply a fan of motorcycles, or if the perpetrator might have shared the initials.

Just under the lip at the top was a reminder that "Ted waz here", at least once upon a time.  The old man couldn't decide if that one predated his lifetime or not.  It might have been from a century prior.  In one of the crevices along the climb, he had once found five beer cans still held by a plastic binding, the pull tabs were still in place, but all of the cans had corroded at the bottom, and had dispensed their contents prior to the old man's arrival.

After climbing the second ladder, while hoisting it from its perch, his wound ached, and he was more conscious than usual of the ghosts who shared his little mesa.  What was "Pin" short for, and did Lola have green eyes?  He would no doubt ponder these and many other questions for many hours.  He did this from time to time, revisiting the thoughts about the inscriptions, slowly building images in his mind of each "author's" appearance.

Later, as he lay in his makeshift bed, under his makeshift roof, he reached down, picking up the last tomato from the wooden box left by the she-soldier, and imagined the ghosts of Pin and Lola, of Ted, the hand, and others sharing this cool evening on top of the their mesa, and considered that one day, his ghost would join them.  Maybe tomorrow, he would leave his signature for a future resident of the mesa to find.  Or maybe, he would simply leave his ghost.

The Chase - Part 2

This is a sequel to a game played last year.  "The Chase" can be found here.

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The old man took off his orange hat.  There was much commotion at the farmstead; members of the farm clan scurrying about, too many soldiers in too small a space.  He stood in the front room of the dwelling, flanked by two of the soldiers, as the sergeant ordered them to bring him into the next room.

"Move", one of the soldiers pushed him, rather unpleasantly, "go!".  The old man stumbled forward; while the lieutenant reminded the soldier that they served the people, and invited the old man to sit down in a chair.

The old man cracked a smile, and considered that they were in a wasteland, with no nations, no governments, no society really.   Yet there was a soldier pushing the old man around, as if he had any more right to be in charge, than the old man.

"Something funny?"  Asked the sergeant.  Now there was a piece of work.  Litterally.  He seemed a decent man, direct, all business, and sporting hardware not of the wastes.  They called him Sergeant Hand, and the old man wondered if that was actually his name, or if he was named for the cybernetic hand and forearm that the sergeant sported.  He also had a partially fabricated head.  Something you didn't see everyday.

Sergeant Hand.

The sergeant had experienced something very traumatic, losing part of an arm, and part of his skull, only to have have them replaced with fabricated metal parts, integrated with his biology.  An application of technology that was beyond that of the Before, as well as that of the wastes.  The old man was very curious about Sergeant Hand.  He'd have to look into the sergeant more, when he wasn't busy being interrogated.

The mother was conflicted, caught between the joy of having her two young children returned to her, and the horror of realizing that she would not likely see her oldest daughter again.  He watched as the the soldiers received the gratitude for his effort, not that he cared so much as again, he found humor in the situation.

"Well, lets get to it", and the sergeant began the questioning.  The old man explained in detail, how he came across the two young children, who explained that three men had taken their sister and left them in the wastes,  and how the old man had decided to track the kidnappers, with intention of returning all three to the mother.

The Sergeant seemed to think the idea a bit unlikely, asking the old man how he planned to do that.  The old man explaining only that "he would look for an opportunity".  The sergeant was mildly flustered by the response, but didn't give it too much thought.  The old man would simply do what he always did; that which needed done.

As the questioning went on, the old man began to think about the upcoming pursuit.  He could move much faster now that the two little ones wouldn't be tagging along with him.  And the kidnappers were clumsy, leaving  so obvious a trail that a blind man could follow them.  He just needed to wrap the interrogation up.

The soldiers released the old man, even offering him a ride back to New Clovis, though he declined.  He intended to head in a different direction.  He also spoke to the father of the missing girl briefly, asking a little about her, and explaining that he still hoped to find the girl.  

The father had already given up, and looked at the old man blankly, giving short answers to the questions.  The mother finally thanked the old man for his part in returning the children, and continued to alternate between joy and sorrow.

The old man saw the agony in the mother, and saw that the Confederation troops considered the situation resolved.   But it wasn't really; it was left undone, and the old man hoped to still make things right.  He felt sure that he could find the girl, and hoped to return her to her mother.  

Placing his orange hat back on his head, the old man picked up his gear and left the farmstead, trekking back in the direction of the krags.  It took less than a day to pick up the trail of the three men and the girl. For two additional days, he followed through the wastes, as always, enjoying the beauty of the land, frequently reminded by the remnants of critters that had come before him, that they were of the land, and not the reverse.

The table from the southwest.

At one point he came across a dirt road that had seen a lot of travel recently, clearly including vehicles.  He had not seen anything like this in quite a long time, and wondered about it for a bit.  Intrigued, he made note that he would have to return to explore the trail further.

It was getting late, and he decided to make camp; he needed a little rest.  He was after all, an old man.  He lay there in the wastes, staring at the night sky, unchanged through all of his years.  He loved the night sky, when he looked up at it, it took him back to the before, to when he was a child, to what used to be California, all of those years ago.  He wondered what might be there now, if anyone he once cared about might still be alive, and finally, the old man went to sleep. 

He finally caught site of the men on day four, three of them and the girl.  The men were well equipped, conspicuously so, soldiers given their uniforms, but not of the Confederation.  Their equipment was... better, more advanced.  A tremendous anomaly given when and where they were.  These were strangers, and considering their actions, they were very much in a land strange to them.

The three soldiers and the girl.

The old man closed on them for another day, finally getting within rifle range, as the group began to slow their pace.  He sensed that somehow, the journey must be ending, but was at a loss as to how, given that they were in the middle of bone dry nowhere.

The table looking west.

He still hadn't been seen; these men did not know they were being tracked.  They kidnapped a person, left a sloppy trail, and didn't seem to consider that they might be followed.  It was all very odd; they simply weren't where they belonged.

The old man in the wastes.

He climbed up on a rock which gave him some cover, leveled his rifle, and decided to take a shot.  He fired; a clear hit, but the man didn't fall.  The target moved out of view, but the leader came into view,  so the old man fire again.  Another hit, but again, the man simply moved out of view.

Gaining some cover from which to fire.

The group taken under fire from the old man behind them.

He moved off of the rock and found another position, a bit closer to his targets.  They had moved into cover, and after a couple of minutes, one of the men showed himself, mostly concealed, but trying to find the shooter.  The two men fired almost simultaneously, the old man missed, but the stranger did not.  The energy bolt from the laser was partially absorbed by the old man's armor, but still burned intensely.  

The old man recoiled out of view, and investigated the wound.  It was deciedly unpleasent.  But more upset that he missed an easy shot, than that he had been hit, he moved to engage again.  The two men exchanged shots, missing repeatedly.  The old man was clearly affected by the wound.  It had been decades since the last time he missed four consecutive shots.

He was lucky that his adversary was equally ineffective.  The girl and the other two men stayed out of view.  The old man wa pretty sure that they couldn't escape without him seeing them, so he found the situation a little curious.

The group taking cover and exchanging fire.

He moved around, trying to find a position that gave him better advantage, but it was not to be had.  Some minutes passed, and then he saw the man that had been hit first, and fired and missed again.  

Another shot missed the old man, and then something strage happend.  An armored truck came into view.  Like something directly out of the Before.  It moved into a position to give the group some cover, likely allowing them to mount up.  The old man took a shot at the windshield, where he suspected a driver to be.  A hit, but to no effect.  He fired again, this time at a tire, and hit.  Again, with no noticeable effect.

One of the soldiers is the blurry spot at the base of the rock to 

the left, the armored truck comes into view.

A better view of the truck and soldiers.

The vehicle then turned away from him; he fired again, sure that he had hit another tire, again to no effect, and then it was gone.  they were all gone, leaving the old man alone in the wastes.

The truck drives away.

He was tremendously let down; he had failed to rescue the girl.  Something he was sure that he could do.  He just sat there for some time, then further tended to his wound, which looked absolutely nasty.  It was seriously going to leave a mark.

A few days journey, and the old man made his way back to the farmstead, without further encounter, and explained what had happened to the girl's mother.  She seemed to take the information better than he expected.  Maybe hoping that her daughter would live, and maybe even be taken care of at least.

The old man heads home.

The old man intended to explore the origin of the strange soldiers and their armored car further.  Holding on to the chance that he still might find the girl some day.

He spent a night at the farm, then headed home the next day, looking forward to the comfort of his perch atop the little rocky column in the middle of the desert.  He would take a couple of days to heal,  then head into New Clovis, and report his experience to someone there.  He figured the Confederation would probably like to know that they weren't alone in the wastes.

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This game took form a year ago, but took until this past weekend to play as  ideas associated with the game evolved (factions, stories, and models).  I ended up creating or sort of pencil and paper set of "chase" rules, experimeneting with several ideas as components of the game.  The tabletop game came about, once the old man could close on the target.  

It is kind of ironic that so much effort was invested in what turned out to be such a simple and short scenario on the tabletop.

It suspected that given the way it rolled up, that getting the girl back was too much of a reach, and then, when he had the string of missed shots, it was kind of sealed (the old man is an exceptional shot).  The arival of the truck, could have been much more prolonged, but rolled up with almost the shortest wait possible, which really limited the old man.

In any event, the whole process was fun, both the paper and on table chases. And, I got to round out some background for several storylines and factions.