New Years Gaming Resolutions

This is probably my last post for 2017. Tomorrow, I am heading off to Louisville, Kentucky for my daughter's USTA Junior's tennis match. While visiting my family in Chicagoland, I went to Games Plus Hobbies in Mt. Prospect, Illinois and bought about $80 of stuff I probably don't need. I also scored a can of Krylon Olive Green from a nearby hardware store. Why they sell this stuff in a Chicago suburb but not in rural Tennessee is beyond me.  Anyway, on to resolutions.

My resolutions? I have only one:

Play more games.

Happy New Years to all!

Shapeways 15mm Fantasy Figures

I thought I had posted this a while ago, but I only posted one of them. Here is the complete set of 15mm fantasy characters from Small Ox Miniatures all painted up. Small Ox Miniatures is a Shapeways shop that specializes in 15mm and 28mm figures.

L to R: female paladin, dwarf, male magic user, female thief/assassin

Not too bad looking. Their heads seem sort of big. Something about how they are "sculpted" seems different from traditional miniatures, but I can't put my finger on it. Nonetheless, I like them. My bases didn't turn out well. They are supposed to be on cobblestone, but it looks like crap. I bought two more that will be character figures.

News From Bovatopia

Headlines from Sunday's paper:

T-34/85 in 1/600 scale

My project continues much slower than expected. This has not turned out to be the quick slap on the paint and get them on the game board project I had thought. Part of the problem is that the weather has not been conducive to spraying. It's been either too cold or too humid to spray paint outside. The biggest issue has been flocking. I can't put my finger on why it is, but it's a pain in the you-know-where to flock them. Here is some finished T-34/85 tanks ready to go.

I am using Krylon and Rustoleum Camo spray paints. Originally, I painted a few of them khaki, but at that size, it didn't look any different from the pale green (Rustoleum's Army Green) that I am using for the opposition. Krylon makes a camo olive, which I would have preferred over the pale green, but none of the home improvement stores nor Walmart sells it. So, I used sand instead, and is now the official colors of Bovatopian ground units. Frankly, I am not in the mood to be all that picky.

Notice that the flock is rather uneven on the stands. I used PVA glue (Elmer's white glue). In some places the flock stuck; in other places, it didn't.

On a positive note, I found that Krylon clear flat is almost as flat as Testor's Dullcoat. Around these parts, Dullcoat is hard to get. A can of the Krylon is the same price as the Dullcoat for more than double the amount of paint.

Rethinking Bridges

As much as I like the bridges I made for my 6mm moderns, they are limited by the fact that I can't put them anywhere. They are part of a river segment. So, what that means is that I have to lay down the roads to conform to where the bridges are. Originally, I wanted bridges that I can place anywhere, but I couldn't figure out how to integrate them with the river banks. At the same time, I didn't want them suspended a few scale feet above the water.

Schorote, a contributor on the Facebook 6mm wargaming and terrain group  (also has a website: BK (budget) Wargaming), has made bridges for his games. When I saw his pictures, it was one of those, "Doh! Why didn't I think of that?" moments. He kindly let me post them here:

According to Schorote, "the bridges are 6 cm long, 2 + 2 +2 cm, and 1,5 wide. the river top is 5mm below board surface while it is again 5mm deep."

A few years ago, I bought one of those profile or contour gauge. Now I have a use for it. My rivers are pretty uniform in width and the banks are not particularly variable. I think I can build some that will do the trick.

Figure Bases for 3mm Figures

I thought about using rectangular bases, but I decided to go the cheaper and faster route for basing my 3mm figures. I found some washers of various sizes that I can use at the local home improvement megastore. Each were a box of 100 and were around $5 each.

The #6 is a little too small, plus it is thinner than the other two, as well as the penny. I will probably go with the #8, the 1/4" and if need be, the penny. The #8 and 1/4" are about the same thickness as the penny. I didn't notice it until after I bought them that they were made out of zinc. So much for storing them on magnetic sheets.

I will fill the holes with cheap plumber's epoxy putty and then follow the way Just Jack based and painted his for his 3mm armies.

The Dark Journey into 3mm Begins

Fear not gentle readers, I am not abandoning 6mm microarmor scale.  My fixation on creating modern ImagiNations sent me on a slight detour. Bovatopia is entering the game. Yeah, I could have built another 6mm army for Bovatopia, but I decided to go with 3mm for two reasons. First, I'm not sure how invested I will be in the Bovatopian sideshow. 3mm moderns is a cheap way to build armies. I already have a lot of aircraft in 1/600 scale that I use for air combat portion of the campaign, so those are already covered (except helicopters).

Second, I want to play some games...NOW!!! My famous last words when I started 6mm was that they would be relatively quick, easy, and inexpensive to get some games going. You just have to go through this blog to see how that's panned out. Nonetheless, I plan to hold to this statement.

That being said here is what just came in the other day from PicoArmor.

Bovatopia
Until I can develop more of a backstory, Bovatopia will begin with Soviet/Russian equipment.

MGs & AGLs

RPG 7 & MANPADs

The Opposition
As I mentioned in my last post concerning Bovatopia, I am leaning towards having several enemies of Bovatopia. I don't have a name or backstory to these, but they will represent one of Bovatopia's enemies.

Polish IVF based on the Finnish Patria AMV.

Very nice model of the Brazilian armored car.

Polish for Infantry

British, but who would know at this scale?

Comments
I had to look up what "Piechota" means. Its Polish for "Infantry." The German infantry and the British Milan team are very different in sculpting style compared to the Soviets. It is not clear by the catalog numbers, but my guess is that the Germans and British are more recent sculpts compared to the Soviets. They look less blobier.

They have a lot of flash on them, much of it in the form of vent casts. However, if you look at the Soviet riflemen, there is quite a bit around the heads. I will try to get it off without decapitating them, but I am not going to worry about it too much at this scale.

The selection has really grown over the years. One of main reasons why I stuck with 6mm was that there was much variety to choose from. The gap between 3mm and 6mm is quickly closing.

The next step will be basing them. Do I go with US pennies like Just Jack's Hakuna-Matata Wars? Or do I spend more and order some from Litko?