3rd 29th ID section done!

29th Infantry Division
Originally uploaded by The Gonk

Third section done (the one on the left)! The weather has cleared up, so no more snow days, no more holidays, the kids are back in school and their functions have started back up, and I'm back into the swing at work, all of which means less time to paint and a bit slower productivity on my painting. Still, I'm not going to complain much about 103 (if I'm counting correctly) figures in the month of January!

Second 29th ID section done!

29th Infantry Division
Originally uploaded by The Gonk

Thanks to some snow days and the MLK holiday, I got the second section of 29th Infantry Division with the other optional machine gun finished! That gives me a legally playable force now, although of less than 350 points! Still, I'm making progess...that's just more than half of the boxed set, and just more than a third of what I'm planning on painting.

First 29th ID section done!

29th Infantry Division
Originally uploaded by The Gonk

I finished up my first batch of 29th Infantry Division troops. On the right, you have a full assault section. On the left, you have an optional machine gun stand, the company commander and 2IC, and then General Cota in front.

Are You Ready For Some Football!

I'm not! My next door neighbor calls over and asks if I would like to come by his house and watch "the game" tonight. "Sure," I say. "Is UT playing tonight?" UT played their bowl game a week and a half ago! Oops! "No," he says, "the national championship is on tonight!" Ah, really? What am I supposed to say, that I'd rather be an anti-social neighbor and sit at home painting my toy soldiers? At least there will be beer there.

29th ID Under Way

29th ID Under Way
Originally uploaded by The Gonk

Got some painting time this weekend and started cranking out my Christmas present of Flames of War 29th Infantry Division Assault Company. They are nice little figs, and I'm taking a little bit more time on these than I have on my previous FoW figures. Which means, across the entire weekend, I only got most of one section done. I had intended to crank out the remaining command stand, company commander and 2IC, and General Cota tonight, but I have a head ache, a cold and I spilled my beer so I thinking...29, Let's Go...To Bed! I ordered two more sections and another LCVP box, so I will have a full six sections when I'm done. At the current rate, that could be mid-February, but the current rate is pretty unrealistic!

The History of Rome Podcast

Whew! I have been listening to the History of Rome podcast and have finally caught up! It's really quite nice-- good audio quality, well-spoken history and fairly comprehensive; it is so far almost 48 hours of podcast covering Rome from the legendary flight of Aeneas from the Trojan War well before Romulus and Remus founded Rome in 753 BC until, most recently, the reign of Emperor Probus, ending in 282 AD. I just finished listening to the last episode as I painted up some of my 29th ID, and I'm kind of sad I don't have another episode to immediately launch into. At least this will let me catch up on the last two WWPD: News From the Front episodes I have missed.

Complete Book of World War II Combat Aircraft

Complete Book of WW2 Combat Aircraft
Originally uploaded by The Gonk

At a recent game of Check Your 6!, a question was brought up about the features of a particular aircraft, and the host hauled out a hefty tome entitled Complete Book of World War II Combat Aircraft. At well over 400 pages, it certainly does seem comprehensive, and each plane is detailed in a full color, full page (at minimum; many have two page spreads) three angle diagram. And best of all-- once I went looking for my own copy, I found one...FOR A DOLLAR. Score! I got it on AbeBooks and they no longer have any copies below $20. Still, for such a large, lavishly illustrated book, that's not a bad price. For somebody like with without extensive knowledge of the subject, it's a great book just to sit down and skim through. Which aircraft accounted for 50% of the Axis planes destroyed in Europe? Read the book! Or the wikipedia entry. Although, the book has much nicer pictures and is certainly more enjoyably tactile.

Piquet Cards

Santa Clarita Wargamer has recently written an entry on Piquet's use of cards to simulate command and control problems. It's worth reading if you're curious about Piquet.

For Auld Lang Syne

Welcome 2011! I can't believe it's 2011 already. We violated a few local ordnances this evening with a screeching round of fireworks. For my own references as much as anything, Magic Crystals are a lot of fun for the price. These things shriek LOUDLY and actually fly. On the downside, one came back down on my new car! No damage that I could see. It rained pretty hard most of the night, but fortunately around midnight it lightened up quite a bit. Our midnight finale' was Sky Quake, which I was a bit underwhelmed by. It was still a 500g power bundle though, and as it started going off, I thought, "Wow, I wonder which neighbors went to bed early tonight..." For a big piece like that, my favorite is still Loud and Rowdy.

It's beginning to look a lot like D-Day

Christmas Gifts
Originally uploaded by The Gonk

I hope everybody had a great Christmas! Ours was great. With three kids and a dog, it was quite a spectacle around our house. But, now all the kids' toys have been played with, the Christmas turkey has been finally devoured, and it's back to work for me. I did manage to receive a nice little hobby-related Christmas this year. Mostly because I ordered it myself! I got some of the new Flames of War Battle for France items-- the D-Day slipcase books, the 29th Assault Company, and the LCVP set. Kind of special purpose, but I've been considering getting D-Day landing stuff for a while, and when the 29th was re-released, I thought there probably wasn't a better way to do it. My wife also got a few books off my Amazon wish list-- Company Commander, a book I've considered an oversight not to have read yet for some time, and the controversial yet popular Forgotten Soldier. I'm already about halfway through Company Commander.

Gaming Tip

IMG00163-20101203-2250
Originally uploaded by The Gonk

I stumbled across a nifty little gaming tip the other day. When we play the great air combat game Check Your 6!, the guys running the game usually hand out clipboards to the guys running the planes, who clip their planes' roster on it and plot their actions each turn. Most of us will usually clip the quick reference sheet underneath for easy access. Well, the other day I received a clipboard with a clear plastic back. It wasn't intended, but I realized I could put the most useful side of the QRS facing backwards and just flip my clipboard over to take a look at it! Simple, and useful.

On the Road to Sainte-Mère-Église

FoW Objective Vandervoort
Originally uploaded by The Gonk

I finally got my Vandervoort objective finished up and photographed. I'm not much of a scratch builder, so I'm pretty pleased with how my creation came out. Here we see Lt. Colonel Vandervoort being hauled down a side road after injuring his leg upon landing during the 82nd's D-Day drop. He's passing a sign post showing that he's headed for Sainte-Mère-Église, one of the 505th PIR's objectives, and-- well, would you look at that! I misspelled Eglise!!!!!!!!!!! Argh!!!! I quit this stupid hobby!!!