Hey there all, Here's a bit of update. I got a backdrop made for the table, hopefully it will help make my pictures better. and the Benton Hussars are drying, tomorrow I can put the gloss coat of polyeurethane on them, and make a box. I think I should play a practice game of A Gentleman's War with them, to try them out, ASAP!

the backdrop was done with spraypaint on cardboard, easy peasy thing. brown sprayed on first. Then I masked with paper bag torn into shreds and some twigs.  then the sky was sprayed on, silver first, then light blue, purple, and white just randomly blasted on at the same time, darker towards top.

the hussars are, of course, my home casts, from home made silicone molds.

 

 

 wanted to use a spinner to randomly give movement points.  also some paperwork and cards, just ideas in progress for the civil war game. the idea with the card is to shuffle all the units in a deck, then turn the card over, some have the unit that moves next, others have random effects that modify the battle conditions.

Still painting on the Benton Hussars.  got the faces done, so pretty nearly there, dark blues, the flag, and the odds and  ends details.  maybe one more day on it should do the trick?

 gaming campaign map. Goosegau vs. Rubenschmeckerrau.

some other things I've downscaled to N or recolored or both for playing Battletech...

So I'm still working on the benton hussars...got primer on, sanded and puttied the last problem spots. This project has taken a lot longer than I had planned, but I'm almost done. The painting is the fun part.

   




 
Soon it will be off my table, and I can get back to working on
The fabulouth Armee.  Got lots of new models for that project...

today the job is putting the rifle butts and swords on.  The casting of the butts did not work out well, it was easier to cut off the malformed part and reconstruct it than junk the rest of the model.  Same with the sabre.  So epoxy putty around a wire core comes to the rescue.

this is just a look at the state of my acw wargaming project...

The Benton Hussars Project.

So, my union cavalry needs two regiments, I chose the first one to be the Benton Hussars, a formation raised in St. Louis, Mo. of european immigrants, mostly  liberal germans who fled after the 1848 resurgence of militant right wing monarchies... the unit borrowed uniform inspiration from the flashy light cavalry of Europe, but toned down a bit.  Still it is distinctive, and I think will look great as models.

 First I did research

 

Not too many references, but Almark books and haythorthwaites Uniforms of the Civil war feature plates, short hussar style shell jacket, shoes, a sort of shako..So, on to making a master model, this is kitbashed from toy soldier bits and sculpting with jb weld plumbers epoxy putty.

And another late night quiet time post!  We've been crazy busy, way too busy to worry about gaming or figures or anything much up here in the freezy frontier...  Howevah, dat said...  I DO have a few projects spinning around my brainpan while I wait for the crazystorm to pass...

Allow me to introduce to you to the Marik Periphery border world of Ezmer's Regret.  As you can see the map is in a very old format...

Meet Bob, She is an off sequence Orange giant,.  A bit dim, cold for a star, but enough to make a slim "garden zone".  It's family of Planets is less than impressive;  a silicate ball called Toast, tidally locked with a surface of rough natural glass.  Moonpie, an airless ball of cratered silicates, Ezmer's Regret, moonless, and with an iron core, it's somehow on the good side of habitable...ish.  Sodapop;  a carbon dioxide atmosphere around a rocky core.  Creamsicle, a not very exciting gas giant...  presumably once a bit bigger. and two asteroid belts; Trashbelt (full of dense metallic ore bearing rock), and Blackbelt, a lot of carbonized ice balls...

I've made a nice paper model of the place... I'll have to tell you more about it tomorrow.

I don't make blog posts often enough, do I?  Well, Here's my first blog video about a lil' something my Debbiewife got me a few days ago...

On a dark Alaska night, with the winter wind howling outside clanging mysterious heavy things into the side of the house and whisking slivers of ice under the door to semi melt in a dirty puddle I have decided to record my latest game of Battletech; the Battle for Ubba's Bridge.    Here's a Map to orient the dear reader to the tactical situation as it was that cold red morning of somemonth, 3025, on a little known, and less regarded world named Ezmer's Regret, on the fringes of the great Free World's League...

REPORT OF DOTOROTU REGIONAL COMMAND, EZMER'S REGRET.

Ezmer's Regret;

Tactical Map, Ubba's Bridge environs.
Someday 0400; 
     The tiny Marik Garrison at Dotorotu City became concerned about reports of a possible bandit landing in the Hopalong Valley; an important breadbasket region feeding the main depot.  Satellite and Scout assets determined a reinforced lance of unknown mechs had indeed infiltrated onworld with trucks and an apparent aim of raiding food supplies and kidnapping young labor. The raiders were slow, but advancing, and it became clear that to prevent further depredations in the more heavily populated upper valley the bridge near the Ubba farm was going to have to be held or destroyed, this mission was given to the young new lieutenant Molly Flandersfield, and her wingman, the green Sgt. Zindy Kate; piloting an antiquated Falcon and a light Hermes mk I respectively.  
Someday +3, 0700      Lt. Flandersfield approached the bridge moving west down the Moopig Pike, at Rock Candy Hill sensors detected two mechs holding the bridge; tentatively identified as a Clint and a Whitworth.  Scouts by this time had determined that the bogies were probably House Liao troops via radio chatter.  Lt Flandersfield immediately ordered Sgt Kate to barrel down the pike closing range as quickly as possible so as to minimize the enemy's superiority in long range weaponry, and tilt the firefight into a Marik advantage.  The enemy, meanwhile maneuvered it's Whitworth into the light woods by the bridge, while the Clint, using jump capability, summeted Fozzil Rock, establishing a field of fire to support his companion.  Lt. Flandersfield engaged her own jumpjets and leleapfrogging from Rock Candy Hill to Armadillo Ridge, then down to the woods sheltering the Liao Whitworth.   At this point it looked like her plan was going very well, but by chance the exchange of weaponfire with the Whitworth took a very bad turn, and an SRM round seems to have punched through her aged Falcon's torso armor and detonated the copious Machinegun ammunition storage, the ensuing cookoff was catastrophic, and her mech was reduced to atoms within seconds.  It appears that the Lieutenant had disengaged her ejection system (though against all regulations, a common practice with warriors who own their mechs to avoid being dispossessed and shaming their families).  At this point Sgt. Kate, correctly, chose to save her asset since the mission of taking the bridge was impossible against these odds.  Having pulled back to the company bivouac for minor repair, it is determined to deploy a new Mission to take the bridge.  Tonight Sgt Kate will scramble again with a detatchment of Dotorotu Public Safety armor vehicles and infantry, and medium artillery support. She will take the bridge and hold it until further notice.