Do or Dice!



Arrived some days ago. With these and a complete set of the current SAGA rules, I am now ready to start making SAGA warbands out of my LotR minis (I may have to paint additional ones, but that's just an added bonus).

To Magnet or Not to Magnet...

When I  began storing my painted minis in A4 printer paper boxes some years ago, it soon became apparent that the minis - especially those of a metallic disposition - needed sometning to hold them in place when moved around.

At the time, I almost exclusively based my minis on slottas (silly me!), and the logical solution seemed to be magnets.

Neodynium magnets, AKA rare earth magnets, AKA super magnets, come in all sizes and shapes, and I found that 2 mm thick discs fit nicely in a standard 25mm slotta.

In the beginning, I then started switching to metal cookie bins for storage, as the minis with magnets in the base would cling nicely to the bottom (or side, or lid, for all that matters). Soon I realized that this was impractical, due to the shape of the bins (round), and the fact that they are very smooth on the outside, and easily slip - causing stacks to topple over.... NOT good.

Instead, I switched back to the paper boxes, now buying A4 magnetic sheets to put in them. This works a treat, and the boxes stack neatly and safely.

Since then, I have begun basing all minis with integral bases on steel washers, and they adhere nicely  to the magnetic sheets, too, and I happily kept buying expensive magnets to glue into the slotta-based minis.

Until it struck me: I do not need morto magnetize the minis, as long as the base is either steel/iron, or contains sufficiently of it for the magnetic sheet to attract!

I then remembered, that when making chainmail hauberks for LARP, I used iron thread (for fences) 2,04 mm thick. Cut into pieces, it can be glued into the slottas, on top of thin cereal package material (to make it touch the surface of the magnetic sheet.

To the left you can see an example of a slotta with a magnet, and one with pieces of iron thread.


The iron thread comes in rolls of about 200 meters, and such a roll will last me for years, even as I'm going to put iron in the bases of all my painted LotR minis before using them for SAGA in tyhe near future.

The head? I don't know, found it in the wreckage after the storm, lately... ;o)

I have started using Locktite Power Glue gel to glue minis to bases (and stuff under the base), btw... This method results in a much stronger join (and a tighter fit) than using thin super glue.

Horisont V: Impressions, Part 3

Well. nothing much to add, text-wise, but I still have some pics to share:

First. some pics of the SAGA board and a game in progress (Vikings vs Normans):

I got a full set of SAGA rules at a 25% con discount, and my 5 sets of dice should arrive this week!

Some 40K variant played with LEGO lookalikes:

A game of Super System in progress:

Don Ø. staged a series of Star Trek: Attack Wing demo games. He was also bringing some stuff for his friend at boardgamer.dk, and I ended up buying 2 starter sets + 8 additional ships, also at a heavy discount...

Preparation is half the name of success

In this game I (U.S.S Enterprise D) could have snatched victory, had I just remembered the Auxiliary Power rule...

The shop of Wolf Terrain

A couple of shots of a WWII game about parachutes and the Normandy (I have forgotten what rules were used):

Some X-Wing stuff (not mine..)

A game in progress on the board I brought.

And, lastly, a pic of a game of Zombiecide in progress.

That's all from this year's participation at Horisont.

I have a big bunch of pics from Horisont II that I need to get sorted out, and I should also have pics from the first BLAM, somewhere.

Expect to see more in the near future!

Argonor's Attic Attack

I am planning to start inviting fellow gamers for a gaming weekend once a year; hopefully next summer will see the first occurrence of this practice.

Over my garage I have 80 sq.m. of space that I intend to turn into a gamer's man cave over time.

This is how it looks like at this very moment, seen from just above the entrance.

My father passed away in June last year, and we had to clear his house to put it up for sale, which is why this project stalled - and the room is packed with furniture.


This is a view from the other end towards the sole 'real' window.
The tarpaulins are covering some tables with stuff on them.

As you may be able to discern, I managed to get some of the very old (and in some cases, very rotten) floor planks covered (no, I removed the rotten ones, first!) with some 15 mm boards usually used for the underside of roofs, but I never finished the task, as have been struggling with an excess of stuff to sort and decide about ever since.

Now, finally, it seems that we are getting to the bottom of the piles of cardboard boxes that has been sitting in our living room for quite some time, and I can turm my attention to this task as soon as the Christmas vacation starts (until then, I still have some storm-damages to attend to outside - and we may have another storm coming this Thursday!).

Here's the next batch of floor boards!

I am planning the Attic Attack to be an easy-going come-as-you-are weekend, where attendees coming from afar can either camp in our very large garden (or in the case of the lucky few, sleep in my camping trailer or in our living room), or get rooms in Svendborg or Odense.

Beverages will be at the premises, and a toaster should be present for snacks, while meals must consist of sandwiches and/or fast-food from the local diner.

I shall provide gaming tables/boards, and minis for several games, but as I cannot be present everywhere, I'll expect attendees to be willing to make a little effort running some games by themselves (normally, plenty of people at conventions know enough of the rules to stand in for the presenter, anyway).

Guests can also bring games they want to attract attention to, and I expect to see at least 10-15 fellow gamers at the first Attic Attack, as I shall beging to 'advertise' right away.


A view from the front left corner

And from the front right corner... I shall add lamps at every second rafter.

The only access point to the garage attic.
This won't change much, I'm affraid.

I hope to see some of the guys from Horisont - and maybe, if I'm very lucky, some gamers from Germany and/or Great Britain.

I cannot pinpoint an exact date for the event, yet, as there's a lot of work to do before the room can accomodate a bunch of gamers, but I hopde to do it in April, May, or August, the latter being the most likely.

I should be able to finish the floor in about 2-4 weekends, but I also have to get all the furniture organized in as practical a way as possible, and I have to sort out which games I can present with sufficient painted minis and terrain.


Entrance seen from ground level.

There's quite a stretch to be covered, but I'm confident that I'll get there (even if i try to participate in each and every painting club at the LAF, too... ;o)  )















 

Short Round Finished... Sort Of...

Well I have taken this mini as far as I can atm. I did try painting the New York Giants logo onto the cap, but it ended up looking more like an Yves Saint Laurent glyph, so I gave it up and painted it over.

Also, the pin stripes on the cap are not quite rigt; there should be more, and they should not emerge symetrically from the center.

But, Shorty is a Yankees fan, I hear you yell.... Well, yes, but his cap sports the Giants logo. If you don't believe me, scroll further down, and the evidence will be presented ;o)








To me, he looks ready to punch someone...
















And, if a hard-boiled, two-fisted stance is not enough, theres always the slingshot.....

 I have learned one thing from painting theis min: Never EVER paint the base before anything else! The grease on my fingers seem to make the brown paint rub off and get on the painted parts, and you can see that i had to repaint the sleeves - and re verse layering never results in guite the same shades as originally.

Well, it'll have to do for now. Maybe if he suffers some battle damage, I'll go over the entire shirt, but ONLY maybe...


























As promised, som caps to look at:





Roger Breshanan's 19?? cap



Short Round's cap



Yankees 1921 Replica

Didn't Paint Much Today...

...I was busy siphoning my first homebrewed keg of mead into another keg after fermenting had stopped.

The taste is fine, but as you can see, it needs to settle/clear before being bottled for storage.

I did fill 3 bottles for tasting, though - some of my friends will surely appreciate a glass or two... :D

After about a month in a dark, cool place (our conservatory, covered with a dark cloth), the mead should be ready for bottling (and a few Christmas drinks), and then I should leave it on storage for 1-2 years to give it a rich flavour. Well, we'll see if it survives that long...

Short Round WIP - Part 3

I managed to get around to doing his trousers today:

Layer 2: Codex Grey
Layer 3: Codex Grey with white added
Layer 4: Codex Grey with even more  white added.

I think the contrast between Codex Grey (the deep shadows) and layer 3 is a bit too much; I think I'll mix a shade in between next time I 'm doing grey.

Shoes are basecoated Ushabti Bone, which seem awfully yellowish, but I hope I can work it up to a non-greyish white to look a bit like the sneakers he's wearing in Temple of Doom.

I overdid the painting on of folds a bit; I have a tendency to make the darker areas too narrow, leaving too little space for the lighter shades. It's a matter of practice, I guess...