Made some rocks!

 Whew!  Now that I have unloaded several projects that had no chance of completion in this decade, I am free to focus more.  So, I needed some rocky terrain for Korea to represent really rough terrain that would also provide cover in Crossfire. 

I 3d printed these rocks designed for 28mm available free on Thingieverse, but being the dolt I am, I cannot find them now...  They were sized for 28mm, so I scaled them down, but not evenly, I "squashed" the Z axis more to make them shorter for my 10mm figures.  Yes, it would probably have been easier to go get actual rocks, but where is the fun in that?  As nothed my 3d printer is my hammer and I turn every problem into a nail...

Here is what they look like finished. 

They will also work for rocky ground in 28mm, maybe perilous areas in Pulp Alley.  Nothing worse than a sprained ankle, but more likely to conceal a snake...

More Pulp Perils and Plot Points

 

Just a few more 3d printed perils and plot points for Pulp Alley (see the collection on Thingieverse here)

You cannot have too many suitcases or briefcases, who knows what horrors they may contain?  The footprints will make great clues, the safe will obviously contain a secret formula, and the ladders may be the most sinister of all!

Enjoy!

3d Printed 28mm Dugout Canoes

 

I now have a fleet of 6 dugout canoes I printed up and painted.  here you see one crewed by a few 28mm Pulp Miniatures Southe Seas islanders and Wargames Factory Zulus.

The STL files can be found HERE.

Good gaming!

Small scale (6mm / 10mm) 3d printed forest

 I have finally painted up my 3d printed trees for 6mm / 10mm figures.  The prime requirement I had for this little project was that the trees be robust and durable.  While not as pretty as model railway trees I think they look pretty good.

The files are HERE

Here is the forest...

And next to some figures for size comparisons.  I printed the trees at 55% - 60%

Left to right:

• A T-34/85 that is 1/150 scale
• 10mm Pendraken figures
• 6mm Baccus foot
• 6mm Baccus mounted

Good Gaming!

3D Printed WW1 trenches are painted and table ready!

 I have finally finished painting up my 3d Printed trenches for my 10mm WW1 troops.  They have shown up a few times on the blog but are finally table ready!

If you are going to play WW1 Western Front at any scale, trenches are vital pieces of terrain to have in your collection. Ideally, trenches would be carved into a terrain board so that troops are truly under the level of the ground (like Sidney Roundwood's amazing terrain boards)  

But, trenches that sit on top of the ground cloth are more flexible and meet my other needs better as well. My requirements were:

1. Flexible layouts
2. The right size for my 10mm troops and handle the 40mm x 20mm bases they are on.
3. Don't stick up too high above the table.
4. Be rugged and able to stand up to abuse

Number 2 was difficult, I had previously tried Flames of War sized trenches for 15mm, but I felt my 10mm guys looked like they were in the Los Angeles River and not a trench. 

This was the perfect problem to solve with (drum roll) my 3d printer! For an inexpensive FDM printer like my Crealty Ender 3, making terrain is an ideal project.  All I did was take another guy's 28mm trenches he had designed and posted to Thingieverse and (with his permission) I remixed them and shrunk them down to the exact size I wanted and created the exact sections I wanted as well.

You can download the STL files here: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4150347  

I printed a stack of these up a few months ago and have finally finished painting them, including gluing sand for texture (I do not know how to do textures in 3d design programs yet)

(Click pictures to enlarge)

Here is the VERY messy process in progress

Here is a layout to show you what types of setups I can do.

A Vickers HMG in a sap.

A British section occupying a firing bay waiting for the Hun.  All of my troops are Pendraken 10mm mounted on 3mm thick bases, to give you an idea of size. 

Here are the unique pieces.  If you click and enlarge the photo, you can see I have the ability to add dugout openings as well.

I am very pleased with how they turned out.  The next stop is to refight every Western Front scenario in the Too Fat Lardies scenario book and in their WW1 compendium, Play The Game.

Until next time, good gaming!

 

I have posted 3D Print files for 10mm / 6mm trees

I have posted the files I used for the 3d printed trees in yesterday's post, they are on Thingieverse here: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4248630

I have not painted mine up yet.  Today was the task of adding decals to a couple of T-34/85's.  I have to let the set, seal them, then I will share.

Enjoy and good gaming!

3d Printed, 6mm Snake Rail Fence (and use your local library!)

(Note: yes, I know this is a distraction and pulling my limited spare time from my main project, but... this is awesome!  We will be returning to our regularly scheduled programming soon)

I finally decided to give 3d printing a try.  What pushed me over the edge is my wife is now working for the county library system, and they just so happen to have a "Maker Space" at the main branch that includes three 3D Printers!  You can print at $1.50 an hour, and this is a great way to try 3D printing before you invest in a printer or a way to get a few terrain pieces cheap.

Here is a link to the Maker Space so you can see what they offer.  

Contact your local public library and see if they have something similar!

I am eventually going to finish my 6mm Rebels and Patriots project, so for a proof of concept, I decided to print some 6mm split rail fences.  I found exactly what I needed for FREE on Thingiverse HERE.  All I had to do was download the files, copy them to a thumb drive, and take them in.  The ones below took 2 hours to print and only cost me $3.00!

Here is one of the sections, which is about 100mm / 4 inches long, with painted (but not flocked) Baccus AWI militia, on 3mm thick bases, to give you an idea.

I am trying to stay focused on my 3mm East Front project. so I have not painted these yet.  But they are waiting for me in a drawer for when I am.  The files at the link above have a few different styles and lengths to meet your needs.

So... Guess what I am getting for Christmas!  Now back to trying to wrap up the Motor Rifle Brigade of my Tank Corps...

Good Gaming!

Double Blind game Progress, Hills

Slowly working away on the project still and continuing to make progress.  Here is my update Kanban Board!  To hear how it can help you, see this episode of Henry Hyde's Battlechat.

I purchased extra Kallistra hills, and now I have 2 identical sets to use with my Double-Blind game project.

 Here is how they'll look with troops

 And here is how they will stack up and be VERY portable for transport to conventions.

The Soviet Motor Rifle Brigade is about 1/2 way through, I hope to have it wrapped up the end of next week.

Good gaming!

Orienting hexes for Linear Warfare, opinions?

Contemplating my 4" hex grid cloth and trying to decide the best way to use it for linear warfare such as the AWI and Darke Ages.  The Portable Wargame recommends using squares for this purpose, but I have this great hex cloth I want to use!

So, anyone with hex grid miniature gaming have any advice?

I see two options, here are examples using my 6mm AWI troops.

Option 1: With the grain

Like this, but the disadvantage is that you cannot make a continuous line.

Option 2: Against the grain

This option was inspired by the excellent Tigers at Minsk rules by Norm at the outstanding Battlefields and Warriors blog.

I am going to modify my One Hour Wargame variant for the AWI to hexes and am experimenting with infantry units moving 1 hex per turn.   Melee only happens when you enter the opponent's hex.  So a British line advancing on a Patriot line would look like this:

Turn 1

Turn 2

Turn 3

In this scenario, assuming a musket range of 2 hexes, the Patriots get 2 shots off at the British, which is exactly what they get in the non-hex version.

But in principle, you can see how it would work.  I am leaning heavily towards this option.

Here is what moving and arcs of fire would look like, facing changes are done inside the hex at the start and or end of the move like in One Hour Wargame.  The black arrows show 1 hex movement and the red outline shows 2 hex range target hexes.

Opinions? Am I cracked?  Thanks for looking, good gaming!

Frugal Forests for 3mm and 6mm

UPDATE: I found the source for this technique HERE and he does a much better job!

Pesky real life has been taking up my time, so I have not updated in several weeks, but I have been keeping a few hobby projects going in the background.

Inspired by The Portable Wargame, Developing the Portable Wargame, and One Hour Wargames, I have been making hex compatible terrain for use with my Cigar Box 4" hex grid mat.  One of the terrain feature you need in quantity is forests and as I will be playing with 6mm and 3mm figures, I turned to my trusty friend the grout sponge, which I have used before for making forests for 6mm.

You can see another method at the Storm of Steel Blog as well, but this is my cheap and fast method.

Disclaimer: I did NOT come up with this method, I saw it on a blog or forum somewhere and cannot remember the source.  If you originated this, please take credit!

Supplies

I used:

• 4 x Tile Grout Sponges
• 1 x Can Dark Green Spray Paint ( I used Rustoleum Camouflage Green)
• 1 cheap acrylic craft paint in a lighter green
• 1 cheap acrylic craft paint in an even lighter green
• Wide Paint Brush
• Good scissors
• Needle nose pliers
• A hex template if you are trying to make a hex shape

Step 1

I cut each sponge in half as they are pretty thick.  I then use a plastic 4" hex I bought off of Amazon (I think quilters use them), but any hex template will do, and cut the sponges into rough hexes.  You do not have to be precise as you want them slightly irregular.

I managed to get 4 hexes from each sponge.

Step 2

This gets a little messy.  First I used the scissors to shape the edges off of the pieces and then I used the needle nose pliers to pluck out chunks of foam to give each piece a more irregular forest like appearance.  Remember you are making forests, not trees.

Do this somewhere you can clean up easily, as it generates a lot of little pieces of sponge.

Step 3

Spray paint the pieces.  I mean really get in close and spray paint the heck out of them.  I did 2 coats, as the pieces soak up the paint, well, like a sponge.  Let dry thoroughly.

Step 4

Heavily damp brush your darker green craft paint on first and let it dry, I used this:

Then dry brush on your lighter green.  Use whatever shades you prefer and dry brush to taste, I used this:

Let dry! Then the pieces are ready to use and are darned near indestructible.  If not using hex terrain, you can do as I have done for my other games and make smaller or larger chunks as you see fit.

Here are some posed shots of the trees on my 4 inch hex cloth with 1/600 cold war vehicles from Pico Armor, mounted on 1.5" squares

 I hope this is helpful.  Meanwhile, I am working on a few odds and ends, including a historically accurate set of hex based rules for the Ruritanian-Elbonian War of 1925.   Until then, good gaming!

3d Corp Flexible craters and trenches with 10mm

At Siege of Augusta, I picked up a pack of craters from one of the vendors (I cannot remember who for the life of me), with the intention of using them for my 10mm WW1 games.  You can see them in action here, and they have worked well, al; though I will get around to drybrushing them eventually.

Meanwhile, I have been on the prowl for a good set of rugged trenches for my WW1 games.  I don't have the time to make nice sculpted terrain boards and need something that won't damage and stores easily.  So, I ordered a set of 15mm trenches from 3d Corp to use with my 10mm Pendraken figures, and here are the results.

Ordering

The company is in Poland and sells via an eBay store here.  Ordering was of course easy via eBay, I paid via Pay Pal, and shipping time was about 3 weeks, which I think is pretty good from Poland.
I ordered two "Wargaming Scenery XL Flex TRENCHLINE SYSTEM"  which is scaled for 15mm.  One was a section fo trench and the other was a pack with a 45 degree bend, two trench ends, and an artillery position.

PRO: Fast shipping (I think) from Poland, selling via eBay and paying with Pay Pal, I could track the package and I felt I had recourse since this was the first time I have ordered from them.  Plus they seem to have good reviews.

CON: There was a STRONG chemical smell when I recieved them, but they are made fromf lexible rubber, so I assume it was some sort of outgassing and I could not smell it much a week later.  Just FYI

They are designed for 15mm Flames of War sized bases it appears by the pictures, but I wanted to see what they would look like with 10mm...

What do they look like? (Click Pictures to enlarge)

Here is a section of trench on a 3' wide terrain cloth with a 6 inch ruler layed down to give you an idea of scale. I have layed out all of the pieces so you can see what I recieved.

PRO: These are Flexible rubber and I cannot break them!  I can also cram them into a box for storage.

 Here is a closeup with a Mchine gun sap and a British 4 section rifle platoon.  My troops are based on 40mm x 20mm bases to give you an idea of scale and the MG is on a 25mm round.

CON: for 10mm only the trenches are a bit wide and the traverses wind up being pretty long.  I have two possible solutions, one that you will see below involving trimming the pieces.  The other is to assume the Trenches are a bit of an abstration in Trench Hammer and assume there are other traverses in there we cannot see.  Then limit the line of sight alomng a trench to 6" (Assault Range) and Bob's your 4th Cousin!  So this is not a huge con for me, but it might bother some folks.  Plus teh interior of the trench is 30mm wide, so I can clear show squads that are up and manning the firing posts, and slide back the ones that are not.

 Some sneaky German Storm Troopers are raiding the trench.

Another shot with the ruler and troops to give you an idea of size. 

 Here si have rearrainged the pieces t create a "Bastion" like outpost.  To make it fit, I took one of the 8" long straigh sections and cut it in half.

 Here you can see that a bit better, that is one advantage to these, with a good set of shears, you can cut them to the shape you need.

PRO: You can also see the detail molded into the pieces, which I think will dry brush nicely with little effort for a really nice effect.

And here is the bastion again, ready to hold off the Boche.

Verdict - Thumbs up (for me)

Would I reccomend these?  Absolutely for a 15mm gamer.  For myself, gaming in 10mm I still answer yes, as they meet my primary requirement for ruggedness and storability.  For "sit on top" trenches they shoudl blend nicely once I have dry brushed them.

The only downside is for folks that do not want thier terrain a little abstracted, these will feel a bit out of scale for 10mm, assuming a scale of ~ 1:150 then theses trenches are 13 - 14 feet across in scale.

For me these are good balance between my storage requirements and scale and I have ordered a few extra pieces.  I plan on trimming some more to make the traverses a bit shorter.

I hope this has been helpful.  Now I have to finish painting tanks, my new blasted forests, and minenwerfers!  Until next time, good gaming!

Built a fortified compound for Nyasaland

In between starting up a play by email matrix game and the rest of my life, I have been working on terrain for my upcoming convention games.

I built a small fortified compound I have built for Darkest Africa out of scraps I had laying around.  I did not want it to be too large, just big enough to hold maybe a dozen defenders comfortably and not dominate the table too much.  I originally wanted to make a traditional fortified tembe, but it would have had to have been larger than I wanted in order to hold defenders in each of the rooms.  So, I compromised on a small fortified compound that can serve as a mission or trading post.

This is an essential piece of terrain for my Nyasaland 1888 game I will be running and will serve as the centerpiece.  I will not provide a step by step, as there are many great tutorials on foam core terrain building, but hopefully you will see you can build decent terrain, on the cheap, with minimal skills.  I learned how to do this from the old Major General's website, visit it if you have never been before. Click photos to enlarge.

All the materials.  I based it on a scrap piece of peel and stick tile I had laying about.  The corners are joined using one of these, cheap but essential for foamboard buildings!  Door s made from stir sticks I found in a drawer.

And here we are after applying spackle with my fingers and a rubber glove. I paid extra attention to the exposed foam areas, as I intend to cheap and spray paint the thing.  Spray paint tends to each foam.

After the aforementioned spray painting with a can of tan paint I had in the garage (I bought nothing extra for this project) 

A little magic oven.... Next I dry brushed the walls, applied sand and gravel with watered down glue to the base, dry brushed it, added static grass, and made a roof from felt. 

Here you can see the garrison, ready to withstand attack, provisioned with plenty of water and supplies.  The Rev. Pimplebottom and his beautiful daughter Penelope are in the center.

Another angle

And a third angle with the roof removed, showing more defenders.  This was the last major thing I needed to do to prepare for running the games over the next few months, so now on to the details, where I hear the devil lives.

Until next time, good gaming!

The Problem of Hills - a Review of Cigar Box Battle Mats and Kallistra Non-Hex Hills

When I started miniature wargaming in 1994, I was spoiled.  My local gaming store and the group I played DBM with twice a week at Ft. Hood were both equipped with Geo Hex terrain.  It was beautiful, and the you could create great looking contours easily. The slopes of the hills looked nice and were not too steep to put troops on without sliding off.

Fast forward 20-ish years, and I have struggled with the problem pf playing surface and contours ever since.  I have tried blue board with a hot wire cutter, plywood, neoprene rubber,and who knows what else.  I need something that looks decent, is storable, lightweight and durable.  Well... I may have cracked it finally.  

I am combining two great products:

• Playing mats from Cigar Box Battle Mats
• Kallistra non-hex hills

I just received the hexes in the mail today, here are my first impressions.  Click photos to enlarge.

Here are the hills when I first pulled them out of the box.  This is two sets of hills, six total, and as you can see, they nest inside each other nicely.

And unstacked.  I ordered two sets, so I have 2 sma, 2 medium, and 2 large hills.

What is this?  A plush blanket?, No, it is a plush Cigar Box battle mat!  They are now offering the option for plush mats which have a bit more texture, but it reminds me of the micro-fleece blanket my wife uses when I am too cheap to run the heat. 

But when spread out it looks like anything but a blanket!  I really like the colors, this picture is not that great (I must get better lights) and it looks better in person.  The colors look exactly like the website depicts them. 

Here is a closeup of the plush texture.

Here are some 1/600 scale West German Leopard 2's maneuvering among the hills.  The road is cut out from their cut out roads and rivers mat. (Forests are homemade sponge and floor matt forests)

To give you an idea of the size of the hills, here is a comparison shot of each with 6mm and 28mm figures at the top, on the slope, and at the base of the hill.  The 6mm figures are Baccus on 60mm wide bases, the 28mm figures are a Gripping Beast Viking, a Wargames Factory Viking, and a Conquest Miniatures Norman

Small Hill:

Medium Hill:

Large Hill:

All in all, I think I am going to be very happy with this combination of products.  The Cigar Box Battle Mat is amazing.  It drapes nicely over the hills, and my pictures do not do the colors justice.  I really need to get more light in the game room.  I will be buying more of these.

The Kallistra hills are highly recommended as well. Even if you don't put hills underneath a ground cloth, they would terrain up nicely.  They are very rugged, won't chip like foam hills, and save the hassle of trying t get the angles just right with a hot wire cutter.  They are pretty affordable too, I ordered them and it took me only a week and a half to get them in the US from the UK.

Happy gaming!