2020 - Gaming & Painting Year in Review

 Probably my favorite model I painted this year - my Moorish warlord (with bodyguard & pet cheetah)

I sit here in the sun room of my new house (moved in October 2020) and look back on the accomplishments of this past year. First and foremost is the new house, of course. Not only does it have the cozy sun room with its view of the neighborhood, but the new place also has a dedicated painting/crafting cubbyhole down in the basement. No longer do I have to use my desk in the office as a place to paint or organize my projects. What's more, the house has a huge finished basement with lots of room for gaming. That is, once face-to-face gaming starts up again! In fact, I just ordered two 8'x30" folding tables for that area, and there's room for even more gaming down there! I've joked that we can host an 8-player Saga tournament down there, and I think it is pretty close to true.

 Rival Samurai gangs battle it out in one of our last, face-to-face Sunday evening gaming sessions

Of course, year in review wouldn't be the complete without mentioning the 800-pound gorilla in the room: COVID. Our last Sunday evening, face-to-face gaming was on March 15, 2020, when Mike Stelzer ran a playtest of his Samurai miniatures rules he's writing. Yes, March 15...perhaps we should have followed the seer's advice to "Beware the Ides of March!"? Still, we met at our usual spot, my friend Mike's Brewpub/Basement (he usually has two of his homebrews on tap!). His wife, a nurse, had hand sanitizer on hand and we all made sure our grubby fingers were germ free. Allen resisted a bit, but knew we were serious, and after those preliminary precautions, we sat down to game. None of us knew that would be our last in-person Sunday night game session of the year. We were all worried about what was to come, and with good reason considering how this year played out!

Our Saga game days were one of the things COVID curtailed in 2020

COVID also clamped down on our twice-monthly Saga game days in Columbus and Dayton. After our meeting on March 1st, we didn't game together at the game store again till July. We were able to get in meetings until November, when the second wave once again closed the gaming areas of Guardtower East and Dragons Guildhall. I started 2020 off playing my Welsh warband in Saga, which had an amazing success record. I switched over to the Picts (Scots from Age of Vikings) partway through the year. I had a good run with them, too. On a whim, I tried the Carolingians, and enjoyed playing them well enough to pick up a 4-point army Gripping Beast army box from Game Table Adventures in Newark, OH. I also got in a game each with the Pagan Rus and Norse-Gaels using my Viking miniatures. I closed out the year playing my newest army, the Moors.

 Nechtan Mac Fergus' Picts racked up a phenomenal 8-0-0 record over their 2020 streak of games

It was a pretty successful year of generalship in the Saga games. Here was my record with the various armies I played over the course of 2020:

• Army  Wins-Losses-Ties
  
• Picts (Scots), 8-0-0
• Moors, 4-0-1
• Carolingians, 2-0-1
• Welsh, 1-0-0
• Pagan Rus, 1-0-0
• Norse-Gaels, 1-0-0

 I began 2020 playing Saga with my Welsh army, led by Lord Gwendawg, here

My run of success is probably in danger, as my luck can't go on forever! Seriously, I have really enjoyed the tactical challenge of playing Saga, though. Learning how to maximize the special abilities of my army, while simultaneously watching out for what my opponent's can inflict on me is a lot of fun. I like poring over a battle board and trying to think of combinations of abilities that can help bring victory on the tabletop. I usually type them into a Notes page on my iPhone and keep it pulled up during the game. Otherwise, I might forget to use a stratagem. 

 My Picts face Jeff F's Huns led by Attila -- a tough, tactical puzzle that solving makes Saga enjoyable

Still, winning at Saga is not all about using your battle board abilities. You need to have a plan for your army, and the ability to change plans in midstream. Two of my more challenging games this year were against Dayton area gamer, Adrian John. In both, he showed up with a superior tactical plan, in my opinion. My usual methods weren't bringing success and he was winning through the first three turns. However, I recognized that and changed tactics. I went with a backup plan (shooting with "Reach" with the Scots and charging home instead of skirmishing with the Moors). Both times, my halftime adjustments eked out a victory. So, Saga requires you to be flexible and adapt your tactics to your opponent and their army. 

 One of my first painting accomplishments of 2020: Finishing off my Pictish army for Saga

As far as painting miniatures in 2020, it was a moderately productive year. Ever since our school switched to online learning in April, and with my decision to teach the students whose families chose all online in the new school year, I have been incredibly busy. Adapting lesson plans to an online format is a constant process. This has impacted my painting time, of course. I kicked the painting year off last January by finishing up the Pictish infantry I needed for that warband. The army requires a LOT of infantry figures. I used four army points of warriors (32 figures), and 1 point of levy archers (12 more figures). Some were done already from our previous Dark Age skirmish games using both Song of Blades and Heroes and Tribal rules. However, a lot of the Pictish spearmen were newly-painted for the Saga force.

 The cover of my newest rules set - Mean Streets (inspired by the 1979 movie The Warriors)

I then switched modes back into terrain building for my gang warfare rules, Mean Streets. Another major accomplishment of the year was seeing them through to publication this past May. I created a number of things to fill my modern cityscape, including

• Wallace's Brewpub (named after our Sunday night host, of course!)
• O'Brian's Pot o' Gold Motel, a two-story motel (named after one of our Sunday members, Brian)
  
• Sidewalks and concrete medians to improve the look of my streets
• St. Jennifer's, a Gothic-style Catholic church (named after Jenny!)
• Two kiosks: Smith's Smoke Shack (after my friend Steve) and the Morning Crower newspaper stand
• Dumpsters and trash heaps (NOT named after anyone...)
  

 Wallace's Brewpub - named after one of our Sunday gamers - is one of the buildings I created in 2020

I did some other odds and ends, such as 28mm carts or wagons and their "loads" for Saga objective markers.  I also did some pack mules and handlers for my French & Indian War games with my Song of Drums and Tomahawks rules. I created some more terrain for Saga -- bogs or fens -- with material found inexpensively at Hobby Lobby. 

 The Indianola Mohawks was one of the two new street gangs I painted up this year

Inspired by March's successful final playtest of the Mean Streets rules at Cincycon 2020, I painted up two new gangs. The Indianola Mohawks were a "punk rocker" gang with colorful mohawk hairstyles, punk music t-shirts, and a good bit of black leather. The figures are from Casting Room miniatures, and I really liked them. I modified most, giving them weapons like chains and knives. This was also when I purchased the Wiz Kids gasoline station accessory pack, which you will see the Mohawks posed by if you click on the link. I bought this from Fun Factory Hobbies in Mt. Gilead, OH. Knowing how badly COVID was hitting game stores, I made it a point to buy things I might not have otherwise to help support them.

 Julio is the leader of the final (and 9th) gang I've painted, The Santanas (using Casting Room Minis)

When I ordered the figures from Casting Room Miniatures for the Mohawks, I ordered three packs total, which I had planned into using to create two different gangs. The second gang was your classic, leather-jacketed gang of street punks. Since I am trying to be ethnically inclusive in my portrayal of street gangs, this one would be my first Hispanic gang - the Santanas. I really liked how these came out, though they ended up being the last street gang that I'd paint for the year. With nine gangs painted up, I had enough for about as big of a game as I wanted to run.

Some foot from one of the 3 remaining 15mm armies after my selloff, Caledonian/Pict (still for sale!)

In July, I made a major decision to hone down my miniatures collection. I decided to put all of my 15mm Ancients and Fantasy armies up for sale. I post them here on my blog, and then also took them up to the Fort Meigs flea market, where unfortunately, none sold. However, I began to have success selling them online by posting them in various Facebook groups. The biggest score was when a single buyer purchased all of my remaining fantasy armies (built years ago for Hordes of the Things, which we didn't play anymore). I had been saving them in case we got back into it or a new set of rules took off, but we simply didn't play them for years. It was the same for my Ancient armies. I had been saving the Fall of Rome collection of DBA armies. However, with Saga taking off and me building armies in 28mm, it simply didn't make sense to keep storing them in my closet. I sold a number of them, but still have three left, if anyone is interested (Pictish/Caledonian, Germanic Barbarian, and Briton/Celtic). The Picts in particular are some of my best 15mm work ever, I feel!

It took me 5 months of 2020 to complete my latest army for saga, The Moors

July was also the month I began painting my newest Saga army, the Moors. I ended up completing 24 archers, 16 spearmen, 20 cavalry, and a command stand. I know I talked about this before on my blog, but this army was one that gave me faith in my painting skill, again. Prior to that point, I was honestly feeling that my skills were deteriorating. I felt I had passed my peak, and that the eyesight and hand steadiness needed to do superb work was no longer within my range. I made a commitment with this army, though, to using the lighted magnifying lamp I have attached to my painting desk. I bought new brushes with finer points. And much to my surprise, I found my hands could be steady when I held the figure under the lamp. One thing that help was cutting half of the stem off of my fine-point brushes. That way, I didn't have to deal with the tip banging against the top of the magnifier. Holding this golf pencil sized brush was much easier, and I found I could paint very interesting and colorful patterns for the robes of my Andalusians. I finished the army just a few weeks ago, which brings us up to present.

 Berserkers! The first of the figures from my Viking interlude after finishing my Moors

Although I have a Carolingian Saga army waiting in the wings to be painted, I decided to sneak in some other things I felt I needed. I had no berserker figures in my Viking army, so I painted four fantasy figures up for them. On my table right now, is the second half of 12 Viking archers. My Viking army is probably my most popular loaner army. I had a limited number of archers, so if more than one of my armies was being loaned out, I was scrambling for figures. This should solve that problem. I will also do a couple units of unarmored warriors from the Anglo-Saxon Gripping Beast box that I bought. I have plenty of infantry in chainmail -- which I like to use for hearthguard in Saga. I just don't have many unarmored Saxon/Viking ones, which I like to use for warriors. And speak of Saga, I would be remiss if I did not mention the Saga Ohio Podcast which I began late this year! In homage to the wonderful Northern Tempest Saga Podcast and the Saga Thorsday video blog, I interview and discuss Saga with one of our players. We talk about their favorite army, analyze the special abilities of the battle board, and future plans for other Saga armies. Give it a listen on either Spotify, Anchor, Google Podcasts, or several other platforms!

Other bits of 2020: 28mm Iron Wind Metals Policemen and a Miniature Building Authority dumpster

But wait a minute, this was supposed to be a year in review article! Here I am, discussing future plans!! All in all, I felt 2020 was a productive year in both terrain making and painting miniatures. I had hoped to get more time to work on the next supplement for Song of Drums and Tomahawks (covering Hernando de Soto's march through America), but writing and research was only just underway when prepping for school sucked away nearly all of my free time. Another First Command Wargames product that I had planned to start in 2020 that did not get done was the aerial supplement for the rules. I am pretty happy with the helicopter rules as they stand. I think the fixed wing aircraft rules need a little more work, though. I want to include shoulder-fired Surface to Air Missiles to the rules. That will require a lot more playtesting, which of course, is exactly what COVID conspired to limit this year.

 Owner Steve of Smith's Smoke Shack seems unimpressed by The Santanas anger at his prices

Still -- nothing wrong with a few unfinished projects at the end of a year, right? For such an awful year that COVID-ravaged 2020 ended up being, hobbywise, it could have been a lot worse. How was your hobby year? Feel free to add your comments below -- I'd love to hear!

New Gang: The Santanas

The leader of my Hispanic street gang, Julio, proudly sporting his gang jacket emblazoned with The Santanas' logo

Even though I had painted up nine street gangs as part of my Mean Streets project, something was missing. I'd recently done punk rockers (Indianola Mohawks). I had a martial arts gang (Linden Daos), an African-American gang (Eastmoor Kings), motorcycle gang (Sons of Thor), and a West-side working class white gang (Hilltop Highlanders). However, I had no Italian or Hispanic, leather jacket wearing, "classic" TV gang.

Cruz has tattooed the gang's "S" onto his ample beer belly and keeps his leather jacket unzipped to show it off

So, as I sat looking at the remaining eight figs from my purchase from Casting Room Miniatures, I noticed most had obvious leather jackets. My original plan had been for them to be a heavy metal gang and call them the Head Bangers. However, the chance to do a classic gang with their logo emblazoned on the backs of their brown leather jacket was too good to pass up. I decided to go with a Hispanic theme, and remembering my high school days that rock guitarist Carlos Santana was popular, I decided to go with the gang name, The Santanas!

Margarita looks like she's been around the block once or twice, and "packs heat" to deal with those who give her grief

Once that decision was made, I realized I had a problem. Back when I began painting the Indianola Mohawks, I decided to be efficient and do the flesh tone on both gangs. I did them in a mix of Caucasian, African-American, and Hispanic. Oops. They needed to be ALL Hispanic. So, the first project was to darken up the Caucasians and lighten up the African-Americans. There are a range of skin tones with Hispanic people in the United States, of course, just like any other ethnicity. So, I actually liked how the skin palette, so to speak, turned out.

Intimidating-looking El Lobo carries his bat with him everywhere, always ready for a rumble

Next up, I made the decision to go with brown leather jackets over black ones. The Warriors in the movie of that name have brown ones, as (I believe) do the The Wanderers in the more light-hearted movie of the same name. What symbol, though? I Googled Carlos+Santana+symbol and scanned through the hits. There was the musician's trademark, swirly capital "S." There was also a few Hippie-trippy wings in the drawings, too. So, I sketched out Santana's swirly S with wings on it, and liked how it looked. Even more importantly, I was really pleased with how it came out on the back of the jackets!

Ramona takes no crap from anybody, and needs no weapons. She'll wallop you upside your head with her meaty fists!

I had an epiphany, of sorts, while painting The Santanas. And that is I HAVE to use my lighted magnifier when I paint details. I'd always been irked with how the tops of my paint brushed clanked against the mirror as I was painting. In a fit of anger, I snapped off the top half of my tiny, detail brush and was like..."Heyyyy...this works!" So, I think the logo turned out as good as it did because I am using my magnifier religiously on detail work, now.

Mańana's figure began life as a hippie protestor, but I turned him into something more menacing with jewelry chain

Two of the seven figures I was painting did not have leather jackets, though. One of them appeared to have a sleeveless "wife beater" -- sometimes called a muscle shirt. I used paint to turn that into a leather vest, instead. The other was too obviously a t-shirt to do anything with. So, on of the gang members isn't wearing his leather jacket. So, I painted the logo on the back of the shirt, instead. I was tempted, for a moment, to paint Santanas on the front. Then I realized that I am not that skilled to do so. Not even close! The figure has a Rastafarian style haircut, headband, and actually turned out to be one of my favorites from the gang.

Jeffe's sleeveless t-shirt was morphed into a leather vets, and I added a knife to turn the peace sign into V for Victory!

I haven't talked about the actual REAL first step, yet -- silly me! Modifying the figures from Tedious Hippie Scum (one of the packs I bought) or Leather Gals and Boys (the other) into a mostly-armed street gang. The Leather dudes I didn't have to do anything to at all -- bare-bellied Cruz already had a chain, El Lobo carried a baseball bat, Margarita concealed her pistol, and Ramona and Julio brandished their fists. The two hippies needed modification, though. Jeffe was given a knife in his right hand (I guess the two fingers doesn't mean peace, it is "V" for Victory!). I modified Mańana by giving him a length of jewelry chain between his outstretched hands. I was very happy with how it turned out.

In fact, I was incredibly happy with how The Santanas turned out. This will be my last gang for awhile. I now have ten, which is more than enough for the games I'll be running (whenever we get to meet in person to run games again!). Hope you enjoyed The Santanas!

New Street Gang: Indianola Mohawks (and WizKids Gas Station)

The Indianola Mohawks, my newest punk rocker gang, take over the local gas station

While researching the names of manufacturers who make 28mm miniatures that would be good for street gangs, I came up on Casting Room Miniatures. Even though I felt that I had enough street gangs already to run my game, I couldn't resist buying three of these packs. They covered types of gangs I didn't have already, and the figures had lots of characters. So, I ordered them from England, wondering how much extra time they'd take with the Coronavirus lockdown.

Iggy and Julius look around for some civilians to harass and intimidate - I love the hairstyles on these figures!

To my surprise, they arrived within two weeks - faster than my Footsore Miniatures North America order which still hadn't shown up after five weeks (I eventually gave up on them, and got a refund). So, instead of painting Viking bondi warriors, I would be painting punk rockers! The three packs I bought were Street Scumbags, Leather Gals and Boys, and Tedious Hippie Scum. With only five figures to a pack, I decided to break them into two gangs -- punk rockers and heavy metal heads. I split the Hippie Scum bag up, two to each new gang, and filed away the remaining placard-carrying figure for another day.

Ian toasts the other members with his refill on his drink, while Kira says, "Hold on, Ian, this girl is pissing me off...!"

The Street Scumbags would form the nucleus of the punk rocker gang, which I chose to call the Indianola Mohawks. Indianola is a street running alongside OSU campus, north of downtown, and seemed a good neighborhood to locate a gang. Mohawks, well, many of the figure had mohawks, and Indian, Indianola...get it? I did some Google searches to come up with a gang logo, and settled upon a skull with sunglasses and a red mohawk. I also did lots of searches on punk clothes, hairstyles, and t-shirts.

Maybel (with the blue hair) is spoiling for a fight, as is Sid, who has his dukes up ready to rumble

I really liked the Casting Room Miniatures. I did have to give most of them weapons. I took snippings of lead spears flattened with pliers for knives, a wire spear with no spearpoint for iron rods, and jeweler's chain for, well, a chain! I really like how the weapons worked into the figures, and felt they looked natural with the poses. My favorite was how the hippie girl who was holding her hands in the air worked perfect for stretching a chain over her head. In fact, she ended up being one of my favorite figures from this gang!

I gave tattoos, earrings, nose studs or chains and bright, punk rocker hair to the Casting Room Miniatures figures

After looking at images online, I decided all the punk rockers would wear black, with a brighter accent color. The leather jacks and vests would be black with bright silver zippers or studs. The t-shirts, vests, jackets, and Maybel's skirt would get gang logos on the back. However, the t-shirts looked too plain with nothing on the front. So, I looked up punk bands and then added those names to "punk" "tshirt" searches. I picked out the easiest to paint -- a Public Image Limited logo, Dead Kennedys symbol, and Black Flag's logo.

Some of the pieces from the WizKids 4D Gas Station

I spent a lot of time decided on hair colors, too. Bizarre hair has always been one of punk rock's most noticeable icons, so I wanted to do it up right. My favorite turned out to be Iggy's rainbow effect mohawk. I also really like how Maybel's blue hair came out, too. Once I was finished with the t-shirt logos, I decided to go ahead and give them tattoos, as well. I'm happy with how all the extra stuff I painted on these turned out.

Iggy and Sid check out the service entrance of my Sarissa Precision gas station, and more of the WizKids pieces

When it came time to take pictures of the gang, I decided to set up a recent purchase of mine. I am trying to support the brick and mortar gaming stores in the area. One avid supporter of the wargaming scene is Fun Factory Hobbies in Mt. Gilead, north of Columbus. I messaged him on Facebook, and he patiently went through what he had that I might be interested in. I ended up buying the WizKids 4D Gas Station from him. It contains 25 pre-painted pieces, such as pumps, ice and soda machines, propane tank, trash cans, air pump, and more. I may go back and add yellow trim on the pumps so they match my MDF shell station, but these images are straight out of the box.

Sid and Kira help themselves to some ice and soda (with a little liquor in it?), while keeping an eye out

I encourage others out there to support their local hobby stores at this time, too -- especially the
"brick and mortar" ones. I bought a boardgame (Terraforming Mars) from the Guardtower here in town. Dan from Game Table Adventures has some 28mm 3-D printed Viking A-frames for me, too. I essentially decided to spend my state tax refund (around $300) supporting the local game shops. I need to pick up something from the Guardtower East, too -- this week, hopefully.

Concrete Medians (and Clowns) for my Mean Streets

A car drives quickly past my new concrete medians, hoping to avoid an encounter with the menacing looking street gang

After setting out all of the terrain at Cincycon the other weekend, one thing bothered me a bit as I tried to admire my setup. I had left about eight inches between the city blocks for the main roads. Although I do like my charcoal gray wool felt, and think the fibers in it do a good job of replicating the multiple colors in asphalt, something left me unsettled. That was simply too big of an expanse of featureless asphalt. It needed something 3-dimensional on the road to complete the picture of a city street.

These medians are placed too close to the sidewalk for the photo -- my main streets at Cincycon were 8" wide

I had dismissed the idea of yellow lines on the asphalt -- partly because I hadn't come up with a way that I thought would look good and was practical. Then the idea struck me. What about concrete medians going down the center of the road? And why not fill those medians with decorations -- like trees or flower beds? Fortunately, a vendor selling flower tufts was there at Cincycon, so I picked up three colors (orange, pink, and white with pink) to supplement the purple and yellow flower tufts I had already at home. I had lots of leftover MDF board from my concrete city blocks to cut up into strips for the medians.

Strips of MDF with a flower box created from square concrete dowel sections

Once again, I leaned on handywoman Jenny to cut a section of MDF into 1"x6" strips. I took one of those to Hobby Lobby and picked out square bass wood dowels that I could use to construct "flower box" atop the concrete median. I cut the bass wood up with a craft saw and X-acto knife, using Tacky Glue to arrange them into rectangular boxes atop the MDF. I decided to do a batch of eight first to make sure it all worked out. Doing a lone test one seemed to much of a time waster, and I had a feeling that I would like how they turned out.

Fine blended gray ballast is my go-to for a 3-dimensional concrete effect - as seen in the now-concrete flower boxes

My concrete is made from Woodland Scenics Fine Blended Gray Ballast. I decided to flock the flower box first, and seal it up good so that I would have something to hold onto when I did the flat, top surface of the median. I painted it a light, concrete-looking gray first, then when dry, brushed on full strength Elmers Glue-All white glue. I then poured the ballast over it trying to cover the surface thoroughly. Some places ended up patchy, so I went back and reapplied more later. Once dry, I sprayed it with Krylon clear matte. Next up, I brushed on a 50/50 mixture of white glue and water to fully seal the ballast onto the surface.

Last-minute idea of painting the sides of the medians "traffic yellow" so motorists in my Mean Streets see them better

At this stage, I got the idea of painting the side edges of the MDF the standard "traffic yellow" you see here in America. I am glad I thought of this touch, as you do occasionally see the sides of medians painted yellow for visibility. Plus, it is a splash of realistic color against the asphalt. Next, I painted the top surface of the medians gray, and then followed it up when dry with full strength white glue. More ballast was poured onto this surface. Once again, I sprayed it with matte sealer, then added 50/50 white glue and water.

A line of white glue is squeezed into the flower box, followed up by fine brown ballast as base layer of my "dirt"

At this stage, I realized that for such a simple terrain piece, it was a fairly laborious process to create them. The next-to-last step was to squeeze in full strength white glue into the flower box itself and pour in Woodland Scenics Fine Brown Ballast that I used as my earth mixture on figure bases. Once dry, this is followed up with a Brown Turf flocking from Woodland Scenics to give it the dirt color I use. FINALLY, it was time for the last step. I once again squeezed white glue into the flower box and placed my flower tufts in there. I did two colors per median piece to make it more bright and sunny looking (I know, not exactly what you think of when gang warfare comes to mind!).

The finished medians - each having two colors of flowers planted in the concrete box -- to brighten my city streets

Speaking of gangs, in my rush to get ready for Cincycon I had completed my eighth gang -- the Franklinton Flippos. Named after a Columbus TV clown star, Flippo the Clown, this West-side gang uses figures from the Assault Group. They have two packs with masks, one with clown masks and the other with "anonymous masks." I painted both styles up as clowns, though. To go along with Flippo's costume, I gave them dark blue shirts with white polka dots. I also gave them jeans, shorts -- whatever the figure appeared to be wearing.

Creepy Franklinton Flippos (figs from The Assault Group) hang out next to the median, creating a nuisance

I really like how this gang looks on the tabletop. Some of my favorite photos I took of the two games of Mean Streets that I ran at Cincycon have the Flippos in them. They definitely look creepy. So, when I wanted to pose some miniatures with my new concrete medians, the Flippos were the ones I picked! Now that I have my first batch of eight done, I will probably follow it up with the remaining MDF bases Jenny cut for me (six? eight?). I have the process down, and I have my head wrapped around how long it will take. I'm fairly happy with how they turned out. I think they look better on a tabletop than they do close up in photos -- and certainly better than the plain asphalt street!

28mm Policeman & Other Things I've Been Doing

Police officers investigate a disturbance in an alley way littered with garbage bags from Miniature Building Authority

I imagine this has been a somewhat productive week for miniatures bloggers. In the spirit of Monty Python's "The Life of Brian," I'm trying to look on the bright side of life (feel free to whistle along...) while the Coronavirus shadow looms over Ohio. Classes at my school district are cancelled in an attempt to limit the spread. This means I am working from home -- creating online assignments, answering questions, communicating with parents, grading, and more. It also means I am at home pretty much all day. That, on the bright side, translates to more hours to spend on miniatures projects.

These plaster barrels sitting outside Wallace's Pub needed only the metal bands painted and basing to be complete

Before we'd closed down, I had pulled out some various modern scatter for my 28mm urban city -- another dumpster, trash bags of different sizes and shapes, and a huge resin heap of rubbish. In addition, I added the four 28mm police officers I'd purchased at Cincycon from Iron Wind Metals to the other four I had never painted, and set them out to clean up and prime. During one of my games at the convention, one of the player's gang got knocked out pretty early. As I was sitting there feeling bad that the game was over for him, I got an interesting idea. Why not, at conventions, have players in a similar situation come back as a police car with a couple officers inside? Have them come in on a random board edge, and get them back in the game.

Ral Partha (Iron Wind Metals) policemen check out a Miniature Building Authority dumpster

Well, to do that, I'd need police! I am also in the process of looking for a suitably sized die cast police car. I know they're out there because I've seen them in other gamers' photos. So, if anybody sees one here in Central Ohio, give me a shout! The police officers themselves were painted dark blue, then highlighted with a brighter blue. There wasn't a whole lot of detail that wasn't uniform bits, so they went really quickly -- black belt, hat brim, and shoes, along with silver for the badges and steel or brown for their revolver or billy club. Pretty soon, I had a force of 8 police officers to clean up the mess my gangs would make of the city!

Most of the garbage scatter were things I picked up last Cincycon from Miniature Building Authority. They're a fantastic store, and make some truly amazing buildings and other miscellaneous things for the wargamer. I had brought a little wad of birthday cash and was planning on spending it with them, but alas, they did not come this year. Some of that went to Iron Wind, instead, of course! For the garbage, I spray primed it all black, then went over it with my usual 50/50 mix of black acrylic paint and water. Next, I dry brushed the dumpster and trash bags Iron Wind Dark Green, followed with Kelly Green highlights. I picked out some other odd bits in different colors, and they were quickly finished.

This garbage heap from Miniature Building Authority was the most overwhelming to focus on details to paint

The trash heap, well, that was another story. It was mind-boggling to look at. There were so many bits of this and that it was hard to focus on anything to decide what color to paint. So, I got out a post-it note, and wrote down a half-dozen things to paint on the first pass -- a sheet of corrugated metal, various tarps, a window frame or lattice, pipes, etc. After that was done, I did it again, picking out some more things. Eventually, everything was painted, and I added in my earth brown for the main part of the heap. I based the heap and the garbage bags on styrene plastic, and then added medium blended gray ballast (I should have used my Fine, though). As a final way to darken up the heap and blend the colors together, I gave it a dark black wash. Finally, I was happy with how my pile of rubbish looked!

There is more on my painting desk that I am working on, but I'll save that for another update. Expect to get at least one Lead Legionaries update a week as long as my school remains closed. Unfortunately, it will be mostly about painting and building and not gaming, as the convention scene is closed for the next couple months at the minimum, I'd say. Even our Sunday night gamers are leaning towards taking a hiatus, though Brian is pushing us towards online board game play. It is Sunday as I post this, so we'll see what happens!

Two New Urban Gangs: Eastmoor Kings & the Hilltop Highlanders

Two leaders of the Eastmoor Kings, an African-American gang in my fictional world for 28mm Urban Gang warfare

With these last two gangs completed it means I have seven 28mm urban gangs completed. Since our normal attendance on a Sunday evening gaming is seven, I think I am at a stopping point in painting up figures for player factions. I may still want to paint up miscellaneous figs, like civilians, police, etc. And of course, I'll be working on terrain pretty much continuously for this project.

I decided to do this gang in matching shirts - black with a light green crown for Kings and "E" for Eastmoor

Appropriately enough, these are probably two of my favorite groups. I purchased figures from The Assault Group from their Ultra Modern line (their "rioters" packs) and they are perfect for this period. I tossed in a couple figures I had already to supplement what I purchased, but most of these figures are straight out of the pack, unmodified.

I was tempted to cut out the molotov cocktails from the hands of The Assault Group figures, but decided not to in the end

Let's start with the Eastmoor Kings. When I was going to high school in Columbus, Eastmoor was always a "scary" school. It was largely an African-American school (two-time Heisman trophy winner Archie Griffin went there!). So, it seemed a natural to name an African-American gang like the Kings after that school. Why the Kings? I did a Google search on gang logos and symbols, and The Kings kept coming up. It seemed like an appropriate gang name. Plus, I felt I could handle painting a crown with an "E" inside of it on their gang apparel.

As you can see, there is some repetition on the poses from The Assault Group, except for subtle difference like face scarfs

I gave most of the gang members jeans or gym shorts. I really like how the leader with the pistol came out, though, with the purple sweat pants. I am basing my games on the world of the Hollywood movie, The Warriors (except set in Columbus instead of New York City). Like in the movie, the gangs will prefer melee weapons rather than firearms. However, the figures was too good to not use, so he will make it onto the tabletop.

The Assault Group figures I used for this gang are probably some of my favorite ones I've painted for this project

The Hilltop is a neighborhood on the West side, so it was only natural that I locate one of my gangs there. Unlike Eastmoor, the Hilltop was mostly working class white when I was going to high school. I thought I would play off of the Hilltop name and call the gang the Hilltop Highlanders. For their gang apparel, I thought why not paint their pants as trews (or golf pants, if you prefer)?

Yes, that is my attempt at a Cincinnati Reds Johnny Bench jersey! Note the Hilltop Highlanders logo on the leather jacket

This was my last gang, and fun to paint. The Assault Group figures have a lot of character, and these probably have the most. I did not like how any of my other figures I own mixed with them, so this gang has only eight figures, fewer than the 10-12 of the others. For the trews, I decided to go a couple steps further than I have in the past for painting tartan patterns. I began with a deep red, drybrushed a brighter red. Next, I did a "window pane" of horizontal and vertical lines in dark brown. This is where I usually stop on tartan patterns, but I decided to add more. Next, came a thin, vertical yellow line in between the two brown ones. Finally, I added a dot of kelly green at the intersection of each vertical and horizontal brown line. I really like the effect it gave.

I like the sunglasses on the guy in the striped shirt, plus the variety of hair styles on these figures

Since the pants were the gang identifier, it allowed me to be a bit more creative and use more variety in their shirts or tops. As you saw above, I painted one as a Cincinnati Reds Johnny Bench jersey. Another had one of those blue down jackets that were so popular back when I was growing up. Others had leather jackets, and there was even one with a tie -- he must have a job that makes him dress up! The one with the scarf wrapped around his head gave me a pause. In this working class white gang, an Arab head scarf would hardly be welcome. So, I decided to give him a flag-looking one for a suitably patriotic look!

The gang member with the numchuks is a modified Foundry Ancient German, the rest are from The Assault Group

I guess now that I have the figures for this project mostly done, it is time to finish writing the rules! Weirdly, I woke up the other morning with ideas for a command and control system for a skirmish game running through my head. So, I may decide to go back and rewrite a portion of what I have done to include these (dream-inspired?) ideas. I also have another MDF building on my painting table, so things are finally moving again on this project!