Static Grass Blues

I hate static grass.

In theory, it would be so cool looking...grass standing up. In 1/300 scale, it would be like tall grasses.  My prone machine gunners could hide behind it. It would add some nice variation to my 15mm figure stands.

The problem is that very time I apply it, it always ends up like its been flattened with a steamroller. I've tried blowing in it, poking it with a tooth pick, and even tried holding the base upside down and tossing the stuff upward. Nothing has worked. It always looks like a pile of grass. I have a big container of this stuff taking up room on my workbench. I look at it and think, "wouldn't it be great to use this stuff." Then I reach for the flock.

I have scoured the internet for answers. There have been many suggestions, but I have yet to try them. Plus some of them seem to be variations on what I've tried already, so I am rather dubious of the results.  I remember one of them had a nice technique to make your own tuffs of grass, but you need a static grass applicator.

It was recommended to me to get a static grass applicator. These will definitely do the job.  I'm sorry, I am not paying $200 for some fancy machine that I will only use occasionally. There are the $40 "electric fly-swatter" applicators. These are still a little pricey. There are instructions to build your own on the internet, but I am not handy with an electric soldering iron. That leads me to the last alternative that was recommended to me. The Noch 08100 squeeze bottle applicator. Yes, I am naming names here. It looks like an 8 oz. rubber bottle. You put the grass in and shake it up. The grass builds up a static charge rubbing against the sides of the bottle, and then puff it out where it will hit the glue standing up. Sounds great! It can't be all that expensive. Even if it doesn't really work, I won't be out of a lot of money. However, there is a problem: almost no one in the USA sells them! I found five online hobby shops that sell them, but they are in the UK, Germany, Italy, and even Finland. They are about £4 in the United Kingdom, which equals about $6 US; however, I have the feeling that the shipping would be more than what I pay for it.  So, is there some sort of embargo in the USA on the Noch 08100? Are they being sold to foreign powers and terrorist groups that we oppose? Can they be used for nefarious purposes other than to happily deploy static grass?

Now, remember I said almost no one in the good old USA sells them.  I found that Amazon.com sells them through a third party vendor. "Great!" I thought. The price in bold print stated little over $6. "Wonderful!" I thought even louder. Then, I saw, in not-so-bold type, Shipping & Handling: $16... WHAT!?!?
You've got to be kidding! Does a specially-trained Golden Eagle carry it to me in its talons? What are these people thinking? I'm sorry, but that is nuts, just nuts. The customer reviews went on and on about great service and great shipping. Huh? They must be millionaires to throw away that much on shipping.

This leads me to another somewhat-related rant: shipping and handling. Fortunately, pretty much every wargaming company uses the good old US Postal Service, or the postal service of their national origin. In the US, the postage is more-or-less a fixed price unless you are ordering 10 tons of lead. Not so with art supply companies. I have nothing against FedEx and UPS, but but paying 3 times or more for shipping for an item is not worth it. Case in point: I used to use technical drawing pens to illustrate my fossil specimens. These pens ain't cheap ($15 to $25, depending on the pen nib), but they are about the size and weight of a fine-point marker.  I remember an nationally known art supply store wanting to charge $25 for shipping. Why? Part of it was because I live in the middle of nowhere (I lived in Zone 7 or something like that), but the main reason was that the pen cost $20. No, there was no insurance to this order, they just decided to charge that much to ship it via a delivery service. Come on! You could put it in an envelope, sick a stamp or two on it, and off it goes! Every online art supply company, even those that claim they are discount ones, stick you with outrageous shipping costs.

So, will I pay $22 for a small rubber bottle that I don't even know will do what I want it to do? Eh, no. I will find my own bottle and give that a try first. It will be a long time before I pay that much for a domestic purchase. I might as well order it from Europe. The overseas postage might be a little cheaper. I might even buy my own bug zapper and try my hand at making one.

More Painted Minis

I managed to finish some more miniatures that I started in March. I wouldn't call what I did multitasking, but I went back and forth between scale and genres during each painting session. Some were ones that I had started awhile ago and never finished. As usual, forgive my crappy photography.

I finished up more of my Splintered Light Orcs, but didn't finish the command, so no new photos of them, yet.

First up is Khurasan Miniatures DIMOG Amoursuit Mk 1, or is it Mk 2? I don't know. I bought it a long time ago, I can't tell the difference based on their website pictures. This is the miniature where I lost the driver's door, but my aunt-in-law's granddaughter found it. I went with the autocannon and  missile launcher configuration. The missile launcher really looks more like a big recoilless rifle:

You probably can't tell, but in addition to using the old Future floor wax and black ink wash, I also gave its lower end a wash using brown. For highlighting, I did some with silver to simulate wear and tear on it. Its mounted on a large washer.The barrel of the autocannon is very bendy. I am not sure how long it will last before breaking.

Next up, a 15mm Mastodon with howdah:

 I can't remember who made it. I want to say its an old Grenadier, but I am not sure. They came with some dudes to put in the howdah; one archer and one spearman. I have to figure out what fantasy army this guy belongs to.  I am not quite finished with it. I still need to paint the shields that are on the howdah and put him on a base.

Last, but not least, some microarmor.
First, is an tractor-trailer from Shapeways:

The number of shops that make micro scale figures on Shapeways seems to be growing. I can't remember who specifically made this. Shapeways, IMHO has a lousy website. I find it hard to find things, or to go back to specific shops that I liked.  So far, I have purchased a few items, mostly aircraft. I have yet to be impressed my miniatures made by 3D printing. Its not so much the detail, or lack of it, but I don't like that fuzzy texture (frosted ultra-detail) that I get on a lot of models. Plus, I think the price is still too high, especially for the quality. I didn't bother to prime this truck. Normally, I would have given it a wash, but the fuzzy texture would really show up on it.

Next, is another in my line of technicals:

I have not painted it yet because I want to use a spray-on primer, and its that its been raining more often than not. High humidity/rain and outdoor aerosol spraying is not a good combination. I can't remember who made the truck, but the gun is a WW2 German 20mm Flakvierling 38 made by Heroics & Ros. I would prefer a Soviet ZPU-4 Quad 14.5mm AA gun, but I've read on Micro Armour Mayhem that GHQ's model is awful to build, plus I don't feel like paying $10 for it. Scotia-Grendel has one, but its HUGE! It would definitely not fit on this tiny truck.  I have three more of these little trucks of unknown origin. Heroics & Ros does make a reasonable ZPU-23 that I have put on another truck. I will probably stick one on one of these little trucks.

Last, is a WW2 BK1125 Soviet armored gunboat:

This is also made by Heroics & Ros. It is a pretty simple model. As part of the Northern Chalupistan river fleet, I plan to modernize it. I will build a tripod mast to hold a radar dish, but I am not clear what else I will do to it. The small machine gun turrets will probably go. I will keep the T-34 turret. I tried fitting some other spare turrets, but they were too long in the back and rammed into the pilot house.

  

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.

OMG, This is Fantastic!

I've been tinkering with the idea playing some games of Bob Cordrey's The Portable Naval Wargame, formally known as Memoir of Battle at Sea. Had I paid more attention to his updates, I would not have ordered the blank dice originally needed for these rules. He made some minor changes that included using standard dice rather than color-coded dice. Based on my read of them, they are a simple (but not simplistic) set of rules that emphasizes playability and a fast game, but seems to have a good degree of flavor for pre-dreadnought and dreadnought naval battles.  I have not been able to give them a try (big surprise there), until now....

...anyway, from Bob's site, I found that another site, Three by Two Tactics, has taken his game and made a virtual board game for it (see here). Its not an online game.  You do need to have the rules handy, but it allows you to run games and test the rules without investing in physical miniatures. Plus you can play it anywhere...like in your office...when you are trying to grade final exams.

Bob's rules are free, and its free to run the game board. Another plus is that it runs on Macs as well as PCs. That's a big plus for me! Give them a try.

Now, back to grading (cue "Volga Boatmen").

FYI: New Discussion Group on Google+ for 15mm Fantasy Gaming

Over at TMP, there was an invite to join a 15mm fantasy figure discussion group on Google+.  A number of years ago, I joined the 15mm fantasy group on Yahoo! It petered out not long after it started. It is still active, but barely. Hopefully, this one will generate more interest than the Yahoo! group did.

March Paint Fest

Sorry for the lack of gaming-related posts. Work and home life has been crazy. At least things at work will calm down once the semester is over in a few weeks. Back in March, I realized that I needed to address the HUGE backlog of unpainted fantasy figures that have been piling up. So, I made an attempt to put a tiny dent in the pile. I started with the most recent purchases first, and have been slowly working backwards.

Splintered Light Miniatures Kobold Command

Splintered Light Miniatures Orcs

I painted more, but I didn't want to photograph them until I've based them. I'm bad about painting a batch but not basing them. In my view, they are not officially done until they are on a base.