Most RFCM rules use templates for area scenary like woods, villages and the like. I have been using various colours of felt cut into interesting shapes up until now. This afternoon I cut up a load of lino floor tiles which I intend to texture and flock. They should look really nice when done. The lino is great as you can cut it with scissors but is pretty tough. If they do warp slightly you can just bend it back into shape. The templates are roughly 8"x6" which is half an A4 piece of paper. The RFCM rules state that the templates can be an inch or so either up or down from this size. Also two templates can be butted up together to make a larger area. Its a great system to lay out your terrain. I may do some road pieces. I currentley use the S&A scenics felt pieces but they do look a bit stylised. I will gradually replace all my bits of scenary to look how I want. For any demo/participation type games at shows I will build specific boards with scenary items sculpted on to them.
I will try some pictures tomorrow.
Sunday, 22 February 2009
Saturday, 21 February 2009
More Regiment of Foote and MOCB
Painted a unit of Foote for RoF today. A yellow coat regiment which looks nice. Only took me an hour and they look quite nice if I do say so myself.
Also painted up 4 of the M113's. Two of these are the older models by Peter Pig which were replaced some time last year. The newer ones are slightly wider and have some stowage. I did have some problems sticking the new ones together but I am fairly happy with them now. I was going to use the older two for my AK47 as UN vehicles but got carried away and all four are now painted in Olive Drab ready to head out towards Saigon with some new grunts.
I have been rearranging my figures into the Kaiser Rushworth cases. Thes really are excellent cases and great value for money. I use the 'D2' trays which are pick and pluck fitting 40 3cmx3cm bases to a tray and 4 trays to a case. I now have one box for my Union CWB army, one for my Reb CWB army, one for my AK47 stuff, one for my PBI stuff and one for odds and ends which has the MOCB collection in at the minute. I intend to get more of these as my PITS collection is still loose in a cardboard box and my ECW collection remains in box files due to the amount of pikes and horse. Highly recommended.
Hopefully a gameat home this week, possibly Tuesday. Not sure what yet. I do fancy another RoF game testing the Edgehill scenario.
More soon.
Also painted up 4 of the M113's. Two of these are the older models by Peter Pig which were replaced some time last year. The newer ones are slightly wider and have some stowage. I did have some problems sticking the new ones together but I am fairly happy with them now. I was going to use the older two for my AK47 as UN vehicles but got carried away and all four are now painted in Olive Drab ready to head out towards Saigon with some new grunts.
I have been rearranging my figures into the Kaiser Rushworth cases. Thes really are excellent cases and great value for money. I use the 'D2' trays which are pick and pluck fitting 40 3cmx3cm bases to a tray and 4 trays to a case. I now have one box for my Union CWB army, one for my Reb CWB army, one for my AK47 stuff, one for my PBI stuff and one for odds and ends which has the MOCB collection in at the minute. I intend to get more of these as my PITS collection is still loose in a cardboard box and my ECW collection remains in box files due to the amount of pikes and horse. Highly recommended.
Hopefully a gameat home this week, possibly Tuesday. Not sure what yet. I do fancy another RoF game testing the Edgehill scenario.
More soon.
Thursday, 19 February 2009
Regiment of Foote Scenarios
After some work on a scenario for Worcester, I have decided to shelve it for now. In its place will be Lansdowne which was smaller but involved Waller and Hopton, so a bit different from the major clashes the other scenarios cover. It is a classic attack defence game too so fits the RoF framework nicely.
More soon.
More soon.
Points system
Just updated my points system to take account of scenary bits. I think I am under selling myself with 5 points for a building as it probably takes more than 5 times as long to paint a building as it does a foot figure.
Last years tally did not necessarily include basing of figures, but now I only count figures that are based to score points. This has had the consequence that I have only just finished basing figures I painted 6 months ago which has eaten into my painting time for this month. All basing is now done however so from this point each point has to be earnt!
My aim is to hit 2ooo points for the year. Thats only 170 or so points a month. I CAN turn that out in a couple of days or so, but not often. I am on course so far. My wife is away skiing at the end of March so I plan a paint fest over that week (leaving an hour for frantic cleaning just before she gets home of course!). I am thinking this will be the start of my Wars of the Roses. I will aim to do the prep on these before hand and will aim to do 200 figures over the week.
I am way up on my 'pledge' (paint more than I buy). Of course I may actually buy MORE figures than I paint but because I score points for scenary and more points for vehicles, the balance should work in my favour. Maybe I should 'point up' each purchase.
Last years tally did not necessarily include basing of figures, but now I only count figures that are based to score points. This has had the consequence that I have only just finished basing figures I painted 6 months ago which has eaten into my painting time for this month. All basing is now done however so from this point each point has to be earnt!
My aim is to hit 2ooo points for the year. Thats only 170 or so points a month. I CAN turn that out in a couple of days or so, but not often. I am on course so far. My wife is away skiing at the end of March so I plan a paint fest over that week (leaving an hour for frantic cleaning just before she gets home of course!). I am thinking this will be the start of my Wars of the Roses. I will aim to do the prep on these before hand and will aim to do 200 figures over the week.
I am way up on my 'pledge' (paint more than I buy). Of course I may actually buy MORE figures than I paint but because I score points for scenary and more points for vehicles, the balance should work in my favour. Maybe I should 'point up' each purchase.
More Vietnam
Spent the last week painting dead peasants, live peasants, dead Marines, caches and hooches for my Vietnam. Also finished all the basing on my ACW and PBI armies. Just the flags to do on the ACW stuff.
Also painted a load of walls and fences plus some rocky outcrop pieces that Peter Pig do. The fences are from Peter Pigs Western range and look nice and rough. I also have done a few fences from Timecast. The walls are 'drystone' types I bought at Alumwell when it WAS Alumwell so that must be 5 or 6 years ago I guess. Its funny that with wargaming, its not just about painting the figures or basing them. For me the game has to look right with all the associated impedimenta (?). So I seem to have spent a lot of time lately getting these bits done. I always seem to buy these bits but never get round to painting them.
I have a couple of M113's to finish for Vietnam and then can look at playing a few games. I have both the old and new versions from Peter Pig. I think the older ones may go towards a UN Peacekeeping force for AK47. I also have a couple of diecast Hueys, but these are prepaints which I wont be touching. Hopefully at Alumwell I will pick up some decal sheets from Skytrex for the M113's to make them look really nice.
On the subject of Veitnam there was a great documentary on BBC4 this week called 'How Vietnam Was Lost'. Told the story of two events that changed the war. One was an ambush just north of Siagon where 60+ US troops were killed having being pressured into searching out the local VC regiment by Westmoreland. The other was one of the first Anti War demos in an American university (cant remember which one) that started peacefully protesting against the universities links with the makers of Napalm. The local police were sent in and all hell broke loose with the police bascially brutalising the students ending up with over 60 in hospital. Both events took place on 17th October 1967. Very thought provoking. Especially the commanding officer of the lead company who looked your typical 'all american jock' type who broke down on camera telling about how his company was dead in the field and that he had being shot 4 times himself. Catch it on iPlayer if you missed it.
Back to wargaming and I have been thinking about making some permanent baseboards for my games. Most of the latest RFCM sets are on either 5x3 or 6x3. The new aK47 is 6x3. PBI is 4x4 and MOCB 6x4. I am thinking that MOCB would work just as well on either 6x3 or 5x3. My PBI will always be played on a cotton sheet marked out into squares (for now anyways). The rest I am thinking I will do one 6x3 board, pretty much as described in Battles in the Age of War using a GW static grass mat with some low level scenic bits on. Not sure about roads and rivers. May scult these on, although it does limit your set up somewhat. Hills are another thing. I currently use S&A scenics scenary which are nice and practical but the plastic bases I use do tend to slide down them too easily. As ever with these projects I am stuck between a rock and a hard place. I may just do a board for demo/participation game purposes which should be easy enough.
My scenarios for Regiment of Foote are coming along nicely. Just need to sort out the problem of having no scanner. I am fairly sure Peter Pig hand draw their maps for their scenarios and then scan the picture into the computer. I love how these look and want to replicate it if I can. I may have to wait until I am back at work and use a scanner there! On the scenarios themselves I am just researching Worcester, all the others are done. Some tinkering to do to ensure they play right under the rules. One minor problem has been to tailor the number of units under each command. Too many and it will be very difficult to maintain any cohesion. I think absolutely no more than 6 units per command. The size of Marston Moor has necessitated 4 generals per side.
More next week. I may have them done by this time next week, but as we are off to Berlin a week today I doubt I will have time to post them up.
Also painted a load of walls and fences plus some rocky outcrop pieces that Peter Pig do. The fences are from Peter Pigs Western range and look nice and rough. I also have done a few fences from Timecast. The walls are 'drystone' types I bought at Alumwell when it WAS Alumwell so that must be 5 or 6 years ago I guess. Its funny that with wargaming, its not just about painting the figures or basing them. For me the game has to look right with all the associated impedimenta (?). So I seem to have spent a lot of time lately getting these bits done. I always seem to buy these bits but never get round to painting them.
I have a couple of M113's to finish for Vietnam and then can look at playing a few games. I have both the old and new versions from Peter Pig. I think the older ones may go towards a UN Peacekeeping force for AK47. I also have a couple of diecast Hueys, but these are prepaints which I wont be touching. Hopefully at Alumwell I will pick up some decal sheets from Skytrex for the M113's to make them look really nice.
On the subject of Veitnam there was a great documentary on BBC4 this week called 'How Vietnam Was Lost'. Told the story of two events that changed the war. One was an ambush just north of Siagon where 60+ US troops were killed having being pressured into searching out the local VC regiment by Westmoreland. The other was one of the first Anti War demos in an American university (cant remember which one) that started peacefully protesting against the universities links with the makers of Napalm. The local police were sent in and all hell broke loose with the police bascially brutalising the students ending up with over 60 in hospital. Both events took place on 17th October 1967. Very thought provoking. Especially the commanding officer of the lead company who looked your typical 'all american jock' type who broke down on camera telling about how his company was dead in the field and that he had being shot 4 times himself. Catch it on iPlayer if you missed it.
Back to wargaming and I have been thinking about making some permanent baseboards for my games. Most of the latest RFCM sets are on either 5x3 or 6x3. The new aK47 is 6x3. PBI is 4x4 and MOCB 6x4. I am thinking that MOCB would work just as well on either 6x3 or 5x3. My PBI will always be played on a cotton sheet marked out into squares (for now anyways). The rest I am thinking I will do one 6x3 board, pretty much as described in Battles in the Age of War using a GW static grass mat with some low level scenic bits on. Not sure about roads and rivers. May scult these on, although it does limit your set up somewhat. Hills are another thing. I currently use S&A scenics scenary which are nice and practical but the plastic bases I use do tend to slide down them too easily. As ever with these projects I am stuck between a rock and a hard place. I may just do a board for demo/participation game purposes which should be easy enough.
My scenarios for Regiment of Foote are coming along nicely. Just need to sort out the problem of having no scanner. I am fairly sure Peter Pig hand draw their maps for their scenarios and then scan the picture into the computer. I love how these look and want to replicate it if I can. I may have to wait until I am back at work and use a scanner there! On the scenarios themselves I am just researching Worcester, all the others are done. Some tinkering to do to ensure they play right under the rules. One minor problem has been to tailor the number of units under each command. Too many and it will be very difficult to maintain any cohesion. I think absolutely no more than 6 units per command. The size of Marston Moor has necessitated 4 generals per side.
More next week. I may have them done by this time next week, but as we are off to Berlin a week today I doubt I will have time to post them up.
Saturday, 14 February 2009
A day under the duvet part 2.
Ever the romantic on Valentines day I have been shivering underneath the duvet most of the day.
It did give me time to go back to my project to write scenarios for Regiment of Foote. I have 3 done, research done for the other three and just the maps to do. I intend to make them look a bit like those in Bloody Barons and Civil War Battles. I think they look really good and playtesting will begin next week.
It did give me time to go back to my project to write scenarios for Regiment of Foote. I have 3 done, research done for the other three and just the maps to do. I intend to make them look a bit like those in Bloody Barons and Civil War Battles. I think they look really good and playtesting will begin next week.
Thank You Martin
A quick thank you to Martin Goddard for permission to use the Peter Pig image for the blog.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)