Final Corner Done!!

I didn't really paln this, it sort of just happened, as I moved some stuff from the living room to the attic.

I put boards on the final corner of the attic floor, and I can now really start to arrange stuff as I want it to stay permanently.

The only thing left to do now, is to reinforce the trapdoor, but I have to buy a single extra board for this, as none of my leftovers are large enough to fill the gap between the supporting beams, and I want it to be a single piece, as this is the more sturdy solution.

Tomorrow I shall put up the last light bulbs and connect them, and hopefully I shall find time to buy a few 'screw hooks' to hang them from.

I have to speed up the process, as Anna wants to have her birthday party in the man-cave (and who can blame her?), and her actual birthday is next Friday, so the attic needs to be completely ready for that.

The Trapdoor

The last picture shows how the newly finished corner is already in use.

My spare glass wine fermentation 'tanks' (I still have not found the proper English term) are in the far corner, and some cardboard crates with Lord of the Rings stuff, and some terrain materials have been stacked in front of them.

The old wicker trunk is used to store the tarpaulins I cover everything with during winter, to protect them from moisture from snow blowing in under the eaves.

Camp and Baggage Bases Finished!

I did manage to get the 28mm Camp Base done yesterday, but the four 15mm bases I flocked earlier today.

Here is a pic.

We did not play GoB yesterday, as Ulolkish could not get here until mid-afternoon, but we played JDMG with the experimental house rules, and I shall record our antics in due time.

15mm Xenomorphs/Aliens (GoB T'lekkan Proxies) WIP 4

My Pendraken order arrived today, and I can now begin to finally plan in details what sort of unit I am going to use the different kinds as.

Although these are nominally 10mm, they are more than big enough to use as 15mm creatures, thus giving me a lot more options to choose from.

And, yes, there are both Facehuggers and Eggs!

I think I am going to use the small crouching ones as 'Drones', and as they are really small, I may put two on each 15mm washer base; they are a Formed unit, and by randomizing the way they are glued to the bases, I may be able to create a 'swarm' look to an otherwise dull square rank-and-file unit.

Well, we shall see about that.

For now, I need to concentrate on finishing a couple of older projects, so the T'lekkan list will have to rest for a week or two.

Quick Update!

I have at least one game scheduled in the attic for tomorrow (either GoB or JDMG), and in the case we should decide on GoB, I thought it would be a good idea to get my long overdue Camp Base (and the Camp and Baggage Bases for GoB15) finished - so I grabbed my drab earthy brown and a brush and slabbed some paint on.

I plan to highlight them with a drybrush tomorrow morning, and then flock them around noon, hopefully in time for them to dry before Ulokish arrives.

I may need to place the GoB28 Camp Base on a radiator for it to dry fast enough, but that is an easy option,

JDMG: Street Rumble (2015-05-12)

After having played the introductory scenario twice, it was time to try out a full-scale fight between two street gangs.

I dug out some old models, and sat down to create a couple of gangs, and then I just had to find some modern stuff to populate the table for when Ulolkish came around to play a game.

As we played the 'Street Rumble' (not really that many scenarios to choose from in my old free version of the game), objectives were simple: Exterminate the opposistion.

I played the slightly smaller, slightly better armoured gang made up of old Necromunda Van Saar gangers, while Ulolkish took control of some Foundry Street Violence female minis (previously named 'Trixie's Midnight Runners' for a game of Flying Lead).

As it turned out, the rules somewhat favour setting your minis up in firing cover, as the two-actions-per-activation then mean you get to fire twice at visible targets, whereas moving minis will have only one shot (or none, if they use both actions for moving), and that - in cooperation with some insane rolls on Ulolkish' behalf - was instrumental in the complete annihilation of the Van Saars.

I tried maneuvering my gangers around the 'Runners', whereas Ulolkish took up firing positions, and very early in the game took out my sole rifle-armed Punk (who was the only guy who managed to take down an opponent), which left me outnumbered and outgunned for the rest of the fight.

I might have fared better, had I from that point concentrated on bringing as many guns as possible to bear on one target ar a time, but after my two wins in the intro scenario I was a bit over-confident and just kept to my initial plan of circling the opposition.

For future games, though, I shall propose some house rules regarding shooting and movement:

1: Moving and Shooting
It should be possible to combine a move action with shooting; with a -1 modifier if moving/shooting without having moved first, -2 if moving/shooting after already having moved this activation.

2: Moving Target
It should be more difficult to hit a moving opponent than one standing still. Thus, each Move and/or Move/Shoot action during an activation should give a model a +1 Agility modifier for rolling to avoid being hit (thus, up to a maximum of +2 per Phase). This modifier is immediately lost when the model is activated in its next phase.

This should reward cinematic play style, and make it just a tiny bit more likely that some models end up in close quarter fighting.

Next time we play, it will be in Argonor's Attic, and I hope to pursuade Ulolkish to try out my suggestions.

Meanwhile I have been constructing a large Isengard army for GoB out of already painted minis, so I am going to try to get a game or two going soon, as I have the whole week off, and it would be a terrible waste of leisure time, not to push some minis over a table!

Below, you can almost track the development of the game, and I shall not use many more words to describe gthe fight, as it turned into a very one-sided affair.

When rolling for injuries, though, all my gang members came out without a scratch, so apart from not earning a whole lot of Credits from this game, the gand is as good as new, and I can spend the earnings on some needed changes in equipment!

My leader just could not get behind those girlies,

No matter where he ran, guns were pointing his way.

Fnal showdown of my leader.

Last Man Standing, the sole surviving Juve heroically tries to gun down Trixie,
but fails, and bites the dust (or concrete)

Busy Kitchen!

After a lot of gardening this weekend, on a rainy Pentecost Monday, attention must be turned to indoor activities.

I am boiling honey and water for mead, while my wife and Lea are making chocolate chip banana icecream.

Yesterday, they made strawberry icecream from frozen strawberries we have had in our freezer since last summer, so they have to be used, before the strawberry bed is again yielding kilo upon kilo of that red delicacy!

Floor Finished!

After uprooting some small tree stumps in our garden, and cutting a lot of low-hanging branches, I concentrated on getting some floor laid down in the garage attic.

I have now finished the area around the trap door and the stairwell, and I can start planning how to arrange stuff in this new reality. Note how I placed some furniture beside the stairs, to avoid somebody accidentally falling through the hole!

I moved the old dining table from the middle of the floor to the area close to the stairs; it will be a small-scale table for 15mm games and really small stuff like the Star Wars: X-Wing, Star Wars Armada, War Rocket, Star Trek: Attack Wing, and small 28mm skirmish games. I plan to have 3 tables available along the outer wall for such purposes.

I shall move the table with the tools on it to the space vacated by the old dining table, and then I shall put up the folding table, currently in our living room with the LEGO Elves terrain project, at the far end of the room.

I shall finish off this post with a new picture of the Cosy Corner with the mead bar behind the armchairs, and the stove ready for spreading some nice atmosphere.

Argonor's Attic Attack III

Dates:

Friday, August 14th to Sunday, August 16th (2015)

Sign Up:

Please, announce by August 9th at the very latest if you are going to attend - and which day(s) you will be present. Contact details on the Attic Attack page.

General Information:

See the Attic Attack page on this blog for details.

Also on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/1436460539991520/

We may have a longbow archery contest during the weekend, if the weather is nice, and if participants are interested.

Trip to Jelling (2015-04-26).

Climbing the Southern Barrow

About a monh ago, I won a double-sided woollen cloak fairly cheaply on a Facebook-auction, and I decided to combine the pick-up with a trip to 'Denmark's Birth-Certificates', the runestones in Jelling.

My kids had not been to Jelling before, and it was a good opportunity to give them some cultural and historical fodder.

Anna had her knee-cap slip (heredital problem) some days before, and thus was using crotches.

After visiting the site, we had 'nordic' lunch at Café Sejd (http://www.cafesejd.dk/en/)

View from the Top. A 'confirmation' had just been taking place in the church.

The stones of Gorm (left), and Harald Bluetooth (right)

Climbing the Northern Barrow (at the other side of the church)



The Church Choir with Altar and Communion-bench

Some Progress in the Attic!

Cosy Corner has been finished!

Yesterday, I took a deep breath, and ventured into the garage attic to start readying it for som gaming (this spring has hitherto been very cold, so I have not been very motivated.

As, however, our living room is beginning to look like Santa's workshop, I thought I should better move some stuff from there to the attic as soon as possible, and that means that I have to first work through the final stages of laying the floor down.

So, I moved a lot of stuff away from the area around the old trap door and the new stairwell, so I could get some of the boards fixed in place.

Of course I put some stuff back there as soon as I had a couple of boards in place in both sides, notably the drawer cabinet and the small table you can see in the last picture were moved away from Cosy Corner to allow the armchairs to be placed in front of the stove.

I have to work the next two nights, so I probably shall not get more work done until the weekend, but then I have eight days off, which should see me getting at least the middle boards up to the trap door laid down, and hopefully also get the area around the stairwell done.

Trip to Tivoli (2015-05-03)

The past year, Anna and her classmates have been taught to play brass instruments (Anna trumpet) as part of a co-op project between the municipal music school and her school, and as a final hightlight, they were going to Tivoli in Copenhagen to play a small concert there at the 'Music School Days'.

Two happy girls in a bus.

Siblings could ride the bus for free and get free entrance to Tivoli, so Lea tagged along, and I took Saturday night off to be able to partake in the trip with my wife.

Happiness is wearing daddy's hat.

I did not get any pics of the actual concert, as I forgot my beloved camera in the bus when we arrived. Luckily the instruments had to be deposited in the bus after the concert, so I could get it out. Not that I took a lot of pictures, but just a few to remember the atmosphere by.

Chocolate Turtle Bar (and soda) from a motorway kiosk

A view of Copenhagen's Town Hall from inside Tivoli

Clear blue skies over Chinatown

Entrance to the 'Daemon' (kind of rollercoaster)

Interesting place? I did not have an icecream.

15mm Xenomorphs/Aliens (GoB T'lekkan Proxies) WIP 3

I finished assembling my 'princelings' this evening. I have found that it is easier to fix the heads in place first, then adjust the wings to fit behind/under them.

Tomorrow, I shall put some greenstuff in the gaps under the heads, and them I am all set to begin painting this unit.

I am going to prime them black, then dryprush with a blue-grey, pick out details, and then use clear varnish all over the models.

I have not worked out how I am going to do the unit leader, yet; I may do one in another colour (greyscale or boney white), or maybe use another kind of model - we shall see about that when my Pendraken order arrives.

More Work Done in the Garden,

The last part of the rose bed I started creating last autumn was prepared yesterday, and my wife moved a lot of the remaining roses from the other part of the garden to it today.

Also, in the middle of the lawn where our flagpole used to sit (it broke in a storm a couple of years ago), I created another bed for roses. The big, square concrete block in the ground is still there; we shall need a powered breaker hammer to remove that, but roses could be planted around it.

Combined with some lawn-mowing, this work took me most of the afternoon (I slept to about 11 a.m.), so I did not get to do much work on my hobby projects, but as has been reported in another post, I did manage to assemble a couple of Xenomorphs for my 15mm GoB T'lekkan proxy army.

The girls played croquet in the background, and later almost killed each other over it.

Took some yelling and reprimanding to restore peace, but now at least Lea is sleeping tightly (Anna is probably devouring another book, although it is long past her sleeping time).

15mm Xenomorphs/Aliens (GoB T'lekkan Proxies) WIP 2

I arrived at work late yesterday evening, just to find that I had been given last night and today off (SO stupid, we cannot acces our work schedules online!!).

So, I went home, sat down with a half bottle of mead, watched Die Hard With a Vengeance on TV, and afterwards bunked in my eldest daughter's room, as she was sleeping in my bed (Anna and Lea take turns to do so when I am working).

While I had this unexpected extra day off, the May weather showed itself from its absolutely best side today, so I spent most of the day in the garden, mowing some grass, and readying another small bed for roses in the middle of the lawn (where our flagpole used to sit - it broke in a storm a couple of years ago, and the concrete block in the ground is still there; we shall need a powered breaker hammer to remove that).

So, I did not get much hobby time, but I managed to finish assembling two of the winged Aliens.

The prone creature will need a little putty on the neck, and I am not quite sure if it is due to bad fit, or a wanting preparation job on my side; I shall pay more attention with the next one...

The bases are, by the way, 18mm steel washers I found in Bauhaus yesterday, when I went there to replenish my supply of 15mm and 20mm washers, and to buy a new splitting maul.