New Dice

The Tin Dictator has delivered to me a nice little envelope, containing 3d12, 3d4, and a pair of percentage dice. This should give me the dice I need for IABSM and for one or two other rulesets.

General de Brigade

Just received the rules in today's mail, the second send for Caliver as the post office delivered me a torn and empty envelope the first time. Caliver was quick to send a replacement when I notified them. I'm well pleased.

We'll see what i think of them as I get to read the rules.

Plasti-Dip vs Gesso

I've now largely abandoned Plasti-Dip, due primarily to the difficulty of getting a spray-on substance onto all surfaces of a figure without multiple sprays, combined with the troublesome actions needed to try to prevent the rubber from solidifying between the figure and adjacent surfaces, causing the figure's own coating to rip when pulled away from the surface.

I'm now experimenting with Liquitex Acrylic Gesso, and much happier with it. Credit Stokes Schwartz of the Grand Duchy of Stollen blog with pointing me that direction.

Warrior Frogs: Step 1

I had a few minutes Sunday evening, so I decided to get out a few of the Warrior Frogs, which I got for the price of shipping from Greg Horne. Thanks, Greg!

I wanted to try a pair of the frogs, and the first pair that came out were pikefrogs, so I did the basic green coat on the pair of them, and had a little green paint left, so I added in one of the mallet frogs. It was my first try painting with acrylics, and also my first try painting a metal figure. Obviously, still more work to do, and I can see they're going to need touch-up as well. But...photo below.

New Plasti-Dip Experiment

Today, I've had an idea, which is presently waiting to dry so I can evaluate it. I've taken a cardboard box, set on its side so the open top faces out towards me. I screwed two screws into the upper surface, and tied a string of monofilament between them in a hanging loop, onto which I've placed a sprue of HaT Napoleonic Prussian Landwehr. I then sprayed it with the Plasti-Dip.

We shall see if this allows me to get good coverage on the Plasti-Dip without the issue of it becoming stuck to the surface on which the figure rests, and then ripping off the figure during removal. If this works, then coming weeks may see some of these figures still on sprues undercoated with Plasti-Dip so painting can actually begin.

I Ain't Been Shot, Mum

In the midst of all my Warboard work, the IABSM system from TooFatLardies has been catching my eye. After several interesting battle reports from others, I finally decided to go ahead an acquire it.

Sunday evening, I tried my first game with it, a solo affair with my Italian platoon against one of my British platoons. I only managed 5 moves before I closed down for the night, due to a late start, but I have to say I'm already liking it. It won't replace Warboard for me, most likely...but it's an additional option. The card driven system actually makes it easier for me to solo it, because some of the decision of which unit to move when is taken out of my hands, making it a little harder to favor one side over the other. When game was ended, the British had suffered some significant thrashing of one of their sections on the west side of the board, while on the east side they were engaged in a slow war of attrition via firefight between a British section with light mortar support in a hedged field and an Italian section in the woods.

Warboard: Americans

Well, I've been lax on posting for a bit, but the American Infantry I ordered did arrive, and were promptly sent into organizing mode.

1 platoon of armored infantry in half-tracks. Check.
1 recon platoon from an armored infantry battalion TO&E (minus 1 half-track). Check.
1 Infantry company....not so check. You'd think 4 boxes of figures would be plenty, but I'm actually short on some needed poses. So...the infantry company is on hold till I can get some more boxes.