I set this up so that I can ramble on about my lead (and plastic) mountain, my endless gaming, miniature, and terrain projects, and other

insights into various games.



You'll find lots of 'pretty pictures', various modeling techniques, and hopefully some inspiration for your own lead pile. You're bound to

find something amongst my games and photos that interests you.



Sit back, open a cold one, and enjoy.


If you need something, feel free to contact me at: dglennjr at yah00 dot com









Sunday, March 25, 2012

28mm ACW raid into North Florida/South Georgia

Here are some pictures of a recent 28mm ACW game we ran on March 22, 2012.

The Battlefield from the north end. 

The Battlefield from the south end. 

The brown house on the hill. (It was spared from the horrors of war, this night.)

A small, rebel held hamlet in North Florida.

I thought the sunlight over the field was cool, so I took a picture.

A rocky outcropping in one corner, at the request of one of our games. (The rocks are real rocks, stacked up with some trees and lichen added.) Looks pretty good to me.

The Confederate line opens withering volley on the Union blue-bellies coming up the road. (Excuse the unfinished ACW troops.  I've got about 300 of about 500 that are in various stages of painting and detailing.)

A Union squad charges out across an open area  (mistake #1) against waiting rebels behind light cover. (mistake #2)

Confederate troops attempt to hold the wheat field fence line against the attacking Union troops.

Three companies of the 2nd USCT advance down the road from the right.

A rebel artillery battery is brought to the middle of the wheat field.  Due to some orderly withdrawls by the rebels in the center, the battery would be withdrawn as well to a second line of fences.

Some Georgia Militia enter the table and form up on the confederate right.

Three Union companies march at the double-quick down the road and encounter the rebel militia.

Both sides exchange volley's with each other.

The Union boys take a couple of casualties, but the militia takes a deafening fire that drastically dwindles their ranks.

One more volley by the Union left forces the Georgia Militia to 'Skeedaddle' off the field. The Rebels who had reformed in the center and the town, prepare to withdraw off the table after their artillery battery is silenced due to effective and deadly accurate Union musket fire.

The dice gods simply weren't with the Confederate forces this night.  

28mm Wild West General Store, Undertaker, and Prison.

Well, another 28mm Wild West commission project is finally finished.  I hate it when life and work (which has been picking up) gets in the way of games.  (It may be my last commission project for  a while as my terrain and miniature painting are suffering.)  My last client that I made a Sheriff's Office for, had another request for his upcoming games, which will be some type of Pulp/Wild West game utilizing 'Mud Men' and such.

Building #1 is a combination General Store with an Undertaker shop next door. Building #2 is a Prison, drawn on the inspiration of the Alamagordo Prison in the movie "For A Few Dollars More".  So here they are in their finished glory.

Here's the General Store and Undertaker Shop, as it is transformed from mdf board and foam-core board into a finished terrain project:

The 1/8" mdf base with foam-core walls.

 
Balsa wood details are added to the facade.

Details to the facade are added, including the wood sidewalk.

The roof and other wall details are added. The Undertaker roof (tan to the right) is made from layers of sandpaper glued to foam-core. 

 The General store roof is made from strips of 'cereal' box cut to resemble shingles, and then layered onto foam-core, just like shingles.  The windows and doors openings are framed with balsa wood strips.  The wood clapboard siding is made from more strips of 'cereal' box and overlapped just like the real thing.  

The building has been primed black, and then covered in a coat of brown paint.  

The flat, sandpaper roof received another coat of black paint while the sloped, shingle roof was dusted with a grey spray paint.  

Here, color has been added to the facade with  a different paint scheme for each building.  The Store names were requested by the client.  Some other details are out in front includes a ladder, hitching post, waterin' trough, and a variety of barrels (from Hobby Lobby), with a paint job for Whiskey, Salt, Flour, and etc. 

Inside the General store is a shelving unit (removable) that has and assortment of boxes, cans, glass containers, and etc.  A counter was made of 3 barrels with a flat piece of wood on top. A couple of coffins are displayed in the Undertaker's shop and some freshly carved gravestones are outside for purchase.  

On the left is the General Store.  The showroom is the larger room to the front with the storeroom to the rear.  On the right is the smaller, Undertaker shop.  The covered space in the back is his wood shop, where Mr. Black constructs new coffins.  The doors are freestanding on flat metal bases so that they can be closed, opened, or removed. 

The finished model. 

The finished model.


Here's the Alamagordo Prison, as it is transformed from mdf board and foam-core board into a finished terrain project:


 
The 1/8" mdf base with the plan drawn in as a guide. 

 The courtyard is in the upper right corner.  The two guard-rooms are to the left and below the courtyard.  Beyond the two guard-rooms are the six prison cells.  

The 1/8" mdf base with foam-core walls.

 Note the layer of foam-core paper that was removed and carved into adobe bricks.


Round, wooden roof beams are added to appear to protrude from the walls as is typical with adobe style buildings. The foam-core walls have been covered with drywall compound to replicate adobe walls.  Note the bars on all of the windows that were added before the drywall compound.

The drywall compound is not added over the carved brick areas. That area will be covered with pva glue and then painted.

Here's the interior after the drywall compound was added.  

The model has received a primer coat of black, followed by a tan paint.  

 The model has received a primer coat of black, followed by a tan paint.  The model was glued down to the mdf base (that had been covered with glue and sand, and painted brown) after the tan paint was dry.

 The building has receiving it's final paint job and highlighting.

 Note the details that have been painted...bars are black iron, the adobe brick is a reddish-brown color, and there is some graffiti on the prison walls. (someone's marking the days.)

 The final model.  Ballast, rocks, grass, and weeds have been added.

  The final model. Note the bars/grillwork has been added to the cells. The doors are freestanding on flat, metal bases so that they can be closed, opened, or removed.  


 The final model.