Quick Update

A million things have kept me from doing much of anything hobby-wise. This is mainly due to a major spring cleaning effort at home followed by lots of dull, mind-numbing administrative duties at work (not to mention a chronic pain-in-the-@ss colleague). None the less, I've managed to do a few things, at least on paper.  Sorry, no pictures now but will do so when I report on these projects later.

1. Managed to paint up more Splintered Light orcs. Thanks to severe allergies at night, I've managed to get some painting done while waiting for the anti-histamines to kick in. I'll show them off when I have them based. Splintered Light has just come out with some 15mm adventurers that look great, as well has more orcs on dire-hyenas. Must...resist...temptation...to...buy...

2. Started planning/designing a hacienda in 1/300 scale. That's been a difficult ongoing task. They are a million different styles and the style I am interested in are very hard to visualize. As best I can put it, they are like a bunch of different buildings that have been attached together. I think I've managed to draw up some sketches and plans for what I want it to look like.

3. Boat building is back in the works. In a previous post, I decided that 1/300 river boats weren't a priority, but there were a couple of posts on TMP about a building material called Sintra that got me interested. It seems to be foam core consisting only of the core. Its supposed to be pretty strong and comes in ridiculously thin sheets. I ordered 3mm thick sheets but they even have sheets 1mm (!) in thickness. The cost itself isn't too bad, but the companies that sell it ship by UPS, which really jacks up the cost. I have already worked up plans for the Brazilian river monitor Parnaíba, which is the oldest active warship in the world, being commissioned in 1938. I've drawn up the plans based on the few photographs of the ship that are out there. In addition to the Sintra, I bit the bullet and ordered some brass guns that ship modellers use to improve their models. There are none for 1/300 scale, but I bought some 5" guns at 1/350 scale that will hopefully be small enough to look like  3" guns in 1/300 scale.  If it turns out well, I will build a second one and maybe sell it...maybe.

Blank Dice

I've always like warships of the pre-dreadnought age. When I was in elementary school, I read all I could about the Spanish-American war. I had a great-grandfather who was in the Russian Navy during the Russo-Japanese War. My favorite piece in Monopoly still is the battleship. There is something about those ship designs...

As I said in my previous post, Bob Cordrey modified his naval rules to use conventional 6-sided dice. Silly me, I didn't know this until I ordered some blank dice. Oh well. Now I have a whole mess of blank dice.

I bought them from Blank Dice. Its a UK company. They have a whole mess of different colors. I have since found that I could get them from a whole bunch of other places on line, including Amazon.com, but hey, this company was recommended on TMP. The prices didn't seem to be too bad, but I'll be honest, I don't remember how much I paid. They shipped pretty fast, too. Not EM-4 Miniatures fast, where they have packed up and shipped out your order before you even know what you wanted, but still pretty fast.

Blank 6D's from bBlankdice.uk.co

They are indented to insert stickers. They don't sell the the stickers but have free pdf templates that I assume are properly sized.

Size comparison with US Quarter

 They seem to have a proper heft to them. You know what I mean...the difference between the crappy dice set you got in the D&D starter set in the 70s, and a pair of dice you use for craps at a casino. That was one of the things I was worried about. I thought they might be very light.

What am I going to do with them? I have not decided yet. My daughter has already asked me what I have planned for them, so I better think of something quick!

I want to thank my friend Karin at the college where I teach for taking the pictures for me with her camera phone.