5th 29th ID section done!

29th Infantry Division
Originally uploaded by The Gonk

Fifth section of 29th Infantry Division completed! I actually had these guys mostly completed last weekend, and was pretty stoked to be well ahead of my slow "two weeks per section" norm lately. I had visions of having the sixth finished this weekend and was ready for it! Then, life happens as it tends to. School functions, neighbor functions, etc... Plus, mid-week I came home for lunch, and just browsed by my painting table to gaze upon them momentarily, and I found the whole table standing in water!! Somebody had dumped my paint cup over on my painting table!!!!!!

Paper Blood Bowl Players

Make Your Own Game Pieces contains foldable paper cubes to represent Blood Bowl players. It's an interesting idea. Obviously, it's not as nice as a fully painted team, but it's probably easier to use than proxies when trying out a new team.

4th 29th ID section done!

29th Infantry Division
Originally uploaded by The Gonk

Fourth section of 29th Infantry Division completed! I keep churning these guys out...the fifth one is primed and ready to start painting, and the sixth, unfortunately, is still back ordered (although I got a shipping notice recently, so I should get it soon). I've settled down to about two weeks per section, which isn't too bad, I suppose. I am only painting 2-3 nights a week or so, around family and work stuff. I'm mostly glad that despite a pretty strong pull towards Blood Bowl lately, I haven't given up on painting these guys! Next up, I need to order some paint for my LCVPs...

A Return to Three Coach Blood Bowl

Threeway Blood Bowl
Originally uploaded by The Gonk

We played an impromptu game of my old hack for Blood Bowl with three players. It actually played fairly well, despite a few oddities. We played with 11 players per side and a single ball, with the kicking team able to place the ball in either receiver's third. What we found was that once the ball was well into somebody's third, he was playing 1 on 2 as both other teams had only a short distance to go to score! I might try to assign scoring end zones instead of letting teams score in anybody else's end zone. We also had a kick-off in which the next player to take a turn was not the receiving team. But, overall, the changes to play felt minor, this still felt like Blood Bowl to me.

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.