World War II City Fight with Xenos Rampant!

    Keith wanted to get all of his craft store wood buildings and MDF structures on the tabletop!

My friend Keith decided he wanted to get all of his craft store wooden buildings and MDF stuff onto the table for one of our Sunday evening games. He apologized that circumstances kept him from getting all of the buildings completely finished in time, but they all had paint on them. And there were LOTS of them! Keith had his setting in mind, but wasn't 100% sure about the game itself. In the end, he decided to go with a World War II city fight using Xenos Rampant! rules. 

    After 3+ turns, my U.S. paratroopers are finally all on the board -- in a much safer landing zone!

It had been too long since we played XR!, so I was glad he chose them. He was intrigued by our mutual friend Jim W (of Jim's Toy Box fame) using the rules for modern or WW II games. In our latest visit to Jim in Michigan this past August, he had run a modern game using small, 5-figure squads and XR! rules. I told Keith that I was surprised by how survivable these small squads were, when given terrain to hide in. In XR!, units typically roll 10 attack dice until they fall to half strength. Units takes casualties in increments of their armor, so if they have armor 2 (like most in this game) and take four hits, that's two of their five men gone. Very deadly. However, soft cover increases a unit's armor by one, and hard cover by two, meaning the same number of hits would be only a single casualty if you're ensconced in a building. And there were lots of them on Keith's city tabletop! In addition, you don't round up. It would take 8 hits on 10 dice to cause two casualties to a unit in a building -- 7 would round down to one. 

U.S. paratroopers are sitting ducks for the German machine gun guarding the street they're strolling

 Keith said the scenario was inspired by an incident during the WW II Arnhem campaign. The German side (Joel, Tom, Mike S, and Mike W) controlled rear echelon type units. Their ostensible goal was to defend German high command staff in a four story office building in the center of town. The snooty commanders didn't want the rear area riff-raff in their building, though, and had only their guards protecting them in the actual building. The bulk of the German forces were supposed to be an outer arc of defense that the allied paratroopers and Dutch resistance would have to fight their way through.

    One of my U.S. machine gun jeeps moves into position to support the British assault

Jenny controlled the British paratroopers on our left, Allen the Dutch Resistance in the center, and I controlled a huge force of American paratroopers. My force outnumbered my allies, so I handed off a squad of paratroopers (Light Infantry in XR!) to Allen to bulk up his smaller force. Of course, Allen being Allen, promptly marched them up a wide open street towards a German heavy machine gun emplacement. Needless to say, Mike S rolled very well and slaughtered them on his half of Turn 1! One turn, one attacking unit gone! So much for the terrain making the units survivable! Of course, for it to do that, I pointed out to my impetuous Dutch ally, you have to USE the terrain! 

    U.S. paratrooper force is hunkered down in terrain and ready to hammer the Germans opposite them

Meanwhile, I was making horrible "Special Insertion" (yes, cue several rounds of off-color jokes) rolls for my paratroopers to come onto the board. Keith allowed us to land anywhere on the board -- including rooftops -- as long as it wasn't within 6" of a building occupied by German defenders. Jenny kept getting proximity warnings for her Brits trying to parachute in as she tried to deploy forward. Joel and Tom had saturated the area in front of her with defenders, and she ended up having to land in relatively open area. Guess what happened to some of her paratroopers when the defenders took their first turn? Yep, many were cut down in the open, too.

    My U.S. paratroopers fire down upon the German machine gun emplacement at the intersection

Seeing how things were going, I made it a point of landing behind the buildings on my table edge -- except for one unit which landed on the rooftop of a tall building overlooking Mike S's deadly machine gun emplacement. Sure enough, Mike S opened up on my guys immediately after I landed, but my armor being bumped up to four meant they took only a single casualty. We passed our Courage check and sprayed them from above next turn. Mike got his revenge and shot again on his turn, but even though I took no casualties, I failed my check that time. The following turn, he unlimbered on me again, and I roll ridiculously bad on Courage and my guys routed (which I assume means we cowered there or on the floor below the rest of the battle). 

    Safest place for infantry in this game is inside a building or on the roof -- heavy cover is essential!

I had a weird rhythm going on with my dice rolls. I was rolling awful for unit activations, but pretty good on shooting. My two machine gun mounted jeeps activated on a 6+ on 2d6. That's a 72% chance of success, and I estimate I failed on 2/3's of my rolls with them! Eventually, they did get up to where they could fire at Mike's machine gun emplacement and finally took it out. I brought my other jeep over to belatedly help on the assault on the German HQ. In hindsight, as the most powerful force, I messed up pretty bad by focusing on fighting Mike S and Mike W's forces deployed across from me. I was winning the fight against them -- I lost only the rooftop unit and my forces shattered both of their commands. However, I forgot the objective. Eventually, I started moving my squads laterally to help, but looking at the clock, I knew they'd never get there before the game finished.

    Mike W's German (actually Polish) armored car gets a nasty surprise when U.S. bazookas open up

During my firefight with Mike W's forces, I was able to sneak my bazooka-armed Support Infantry up to where they were in heavy cover, but could fire on his armored car. My infantry guys had no hope of rolling five 6's on 10 dice to inflict a hit against his armor 5. It was kind of cheesy, but I moved them up while he was absorbed looking at his phone and not paying attention. Over a couple of turns of firing, the bazookas were able to get a few hits on his armored vehicle, forcing it to back off and essentially handicapping it for the rest of the game. Once a unit falls to half strength, it rolls only 5 attack dice. In addition, damaged vehicles move at half rate. Otherwise, there was a lot of our squads firing at each other in heavy cover and doing nothing other than forcing a Courage check. 

    My two (overpowered) machine gun jeeps hammer away at German squads in the buildings

The Support Infantry and Vehicles were the real killers in this game, unless somebody (I wonder who?) was in the open. They hit on 4+ on each of their 10d6 attacks, while infantry hit on only 6's. Keith and I discussed it online after the game, and we feel that squads need to hit on a 5+ to really be effective. So, Keith may give the infantry units in the game the "Increased Squad Size" ability, which allows them to do that. I also think my jeeps were WAY too effective, counting as a Fighting Vehicle in this game. Also, bazookas in a squad also should not be Support Infantry, we agreed. Just giving an infantry squad the "Armor Piercing" ability does a better job of reflecting their presence, we feel.

    Not learning the 1st time, Allen marches Brit commandos down the street to attack the intersection

After I damaged Mike W's armored vehicle, Mike W pulled his infantry squads out of their buildings and into the street behind them. They weren't really causing any casualties, while my jeeps were putting hits on both him and Stelzer. This gave Mike a good shot at Allen's commandos, who were foolishly out in the open (again!), assaulting the intersection held by the last remnants of Mike S's machine gun emplacement and another infantry squad. Once again, Allen's boys took it on the chin. However, the allies got their payback. I sneaked a unit into the building overlooking the intersection. I also raced my jeep around the side of the building, and together they decimated Mike and Mike's infantry in the open. 

    Dutch Resistance and their British support form to assault through the alleys to the German HQ

Meanwhile, Allen's lone Dutch squad that made it into the office building were driven out by Tom's determined counter-attack by the SMG-armed guards. I blamed myself for not getting over there with my jeeps soon enough to soften them up prior to his assault. As it was, though the German rear echelon troops had taken grievous casualties, at least on my flank. However, I was too busy to see how Jenny and Allen were faring against Joel and Tom. Either way, we made no real inroads to capturing the German high command. Keith didn't declare it as such, but I would give the victory to the defenders. 

    Pulling back from a firefight with paratroopers, the armored car & a squad look for easier targets

In hindsight, I think having our paratroopers "Special Insertion" or drop into the city didn't really work. We should have simply just moved in from the board edge. In all three attacking players' cases, we would have been way more successful. There was some confusion about what the capabilities of the various squads were, and some players were definitely rusty on the rules. Tom and Joel joked that they probably made rules mistakes every turn. We probably should have had a more thorough rules refresher at the start. Fewer troop types with fewer special abilities might have made it easier for everyone to pick up, too. The way it ended up, the most experienced players with the rules (myself, Keith, and Mike S) were all on one end of the table. Those who had played it less were on the opposite end. Likely, that didn't help either. 

    A machine gun-armed jeep & infantry in the adjacent building catch the Germans out in the open

Still, I think that with a few tweaks, XR! can be used for more WW II battles in the future. Of course, Tom is still planning on running O Group for us. So, who knows? Maybe WW II may go from one of our more infrequently played periods to more often in the future! As always, stay tuned to see.

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Miniatures acquired in 2025: 288
  
• Miniatures painted in 2025: 208

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Terrain acquired in 2025: 40
  
• Terrain painted in 2025: 61

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Scatter acquired in 2025: 115
  
• Scatter painted in 2025: 200

First Batch of 28mm Gripping Beast Goblins

 

    My first batch of Gripping Beast 28mm metal goblin archers from their Ragnarok line

Having "warmed up" painting two batches of Warhost Orcs from Hobday & Hicks, it was time to begin work on the main purchase of my 28mm Orc army for Dragon Rampant. Awhile back, my friend Rusty and I split a large batch of 28mm Gripping Beast metal orcs & goblins that a friend was selling. Many were still in the packs, but others had been based up on 1" MDF circles in preparation for painting. However, when he pulled the plug on his project, he offered it up to me. Not needing as many as he had, I offered to Rusty to split it with him, and we agreed.

    I love the faces on these "nasty goblinses" as Gollum, would say -- great poses and personality!

Most of the figures are from the Gripping Beast Ragnarok Miniatures fantasy line. All are metal figures, which as my readers likely know by now, I prefer. When I split the purchase with Rusty, I tried to do it as evenly as possible. These eight goblins are a good example of that. In the batch, there was a pack of 8 Hill Goblins and a pack of 8 Night Goblins. I made sure we each received four poses from the packs. I chose goblins as my initial batch in case I decide I want to do a game of Sellswords & Spellslingers sometime. Once I finished these, I would have both orcs and goblins, hand weapons and bows -- a bigger variety of foes.

    The Hill Goblins are on left, bare headed, while the Night Goblins were a hood or cowl

The poses were very cleanly cast and had almost no flash. The Hill Goblins wear a long-sleeved robe of some sort, but have no armor or headgear. The Night Goblins are hooded and have a two-part robe. The looks are both very similar, so I figured they'd be a great batch to pair up. I don't intend to do anything to make my goblins look different from orcs. I'll use the same skin tone, the same basic look for their clothing, and similar equipment. My reasoning is that splitting them into two different "breeds" is more of a gaming innovation. In The Hobbit, they are called goblins. In the Lord of the Rings, they are called orcs. Although they're split into different bands and locations, to Tolkien they were the same breed. So, mine will look similar, with the only difference being the size of the castings.

    I used either dark or pale colors for heir clothes and tried to make them look dirty

After priming them with Liquitex White Gesso, I did the flesh first. Same recipe as with the Warhost Orcs -- Walnut base coat, Leather dry brush, and Khaki highlight. Once again, I'm very happy with how the goblin/orc flesh tone came out. I pulled out my list of color suggestions for orc clothes that I'd made prior to painting the Warhost orcs, and selected eight colors. It wasn't until after I had painted the base coat that I noticed the Night Goblins are wearing two different garments. Really, it could be three if you count the hood as a cowl and not part of the loose tunic. Underneath the tunic is a long skirt that comes to the ground. Don't make fun of them for wearing skirts, or they'll "...gut you like a bonefish!" Ha, ha! So, I had to pick colors for the skirts, too.

    For the quivers, I decorated them with "Orc writing" -- from a crude, slashy font I found on Google

Next, I dry brushed the base coat and did the skirts, highlighting them the next day. I actually made a trip to the local craft store to pick up more "orc clothing colors," as I called it. I found only two I really liked enough to buy -- a dark navy blue that had a dull, grayish cast to it and a dark burnt orange. You can see I used two of those colors right away on the Night Goblins' skirts. I'd be interested to see how my clothing color choices sit with my readers. Do they look orc-like enough? I could easily paint them all blacks and grays, but I felt the army would look more visually appealing if they're painted in a variety of dingy pale or dark colors.

    The goblin archers creep out of the ruins and stalk towards their prey

I was curious how quickly the Ragnarok figures would paint up, mainly because I bought so many of them! I do have to qualify that, though. For some, who are used to armies of 200 figures or so, my force is pretty small. However, I have been painting for skirmish games mostly the last several years. So, a batch of around 100 of anything in 28mm is a lot for me! I was pleased that these goblins went very quickly. They don't have a lot of equipment -- just their bow, quiver, sword strapped to their waist, belt, pouch, and then their clothes, which I talked about above. I'm hoping that is a good sign and means this project should paint up quickly.

I pre-ordered Dragon Rampant's 2nd Edition rules, which are due out next month, from Fireland Games. I don't think they'll have them in time for when I see them at Advance the Colors, Oct. 10-11. I'm pretty sure they'll have them in hand when I see them at Fireland Games' own Hold the Line convention, Nov. 14-15 at Camp Perry in Port Clinton, OH. Rampant armies are not huge, maybe just a bit bigger than a Saga army (in some cases). I plan on making 2-3 Orc armies out of the figures I'd purchased, though. I suspect I'll want an entire side of a 6-player game to use my orcs and goblins.

    A final look at all of them lined up, ready to commit murder and mayhem in Dragon Rampant!

After I finished up all of the equipment, I looked over the figures. I liked them, but they looked a little....plain? I briefly thought about giving them bloodstains on their clothes, but felt that could get out of hand! So, I decorated their sword sheaths and quivers. I did a Google Image search for Orc writing and found one that looked all slashy and vulgar, like Tolkien describes it. I adapted the orc runes to the quivers and was pretty happy with how they looked. 

After brown and black vehicle washes, flocking, and spraying with matte clear, they were done! One batch down, SO MANY more to go...! I'm actually taking a break from painting orcs and goblins for a batch or two, though. I've got something else I decided to work in. Stay tuned for what that is soon! 

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Miniatures acquired in 2025: 288
  
• Miniatures painted in 2025: 208

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Terrain acquired in 2025: 40
  
• Terrain painted in 2025: 61

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Scatter acquired in 2025: 115
  
• Scatter painted in 2025: 200

Warlord Stands as Prizes for Advance the Colors Saga Tournament

    Warlord stand I painted as a prize for the Age of Medieval Saga Tournament at ATC 2025

Even though I am not playing Saga actively myself, nowadays, I want to support the community and the Saga Ohio folks out there running tournaments. So, I committed to donating a painted warlord stand for both their Friday Medieval Age tournament (Chivalry & Crusades) and their Saturday Age of Iron & Steel (all books except Ancient ones) tourney. After finishing up a couple batches of Orcs and the French & Indian War figs I needed for the first Sunday's game at the museum, I decided it was time to get cracking on them!

    Warlord stand I painted as a prize for the Age of Iron & Steel Tournament at ATC 2025

The central mounted figure for the medieval warlord is a Gripping Beast Mounted Breton War Banner Bearer. I converted his banner to a lance and gave him a foot standard bearer. It's an old Norman figure in padded armor that I've had in my unpainted lead stash for ages. The trumpet blower is from a group of Welsh/Briton figures that I've also had for a long time. Since this is the age of heraldry, I knew I should decided what the warlord's banner and symbols should be before painting them. I decided to go with a quartered banner, one half being checkered purple and white. The other half would be a white field with a black tower on it. When I was teaching History to 7th graders, every year I would have students use medieval heraldry to design their own knight's shield. The purple and white checkered ones always looked cool, so I decided to go with that (and it followed the rules of Heraldry!).

    I really like how the quartered purple and white banner came out on the medieval warlord

The central mounted figure for the Age of Iron and Steel warlord is a Gripping Beast Eastern Princes Warlord. He has enough of a Viking look that he would work for a Dark Age army, I felt. Equally, he could work for a medieval one, as well. I dug through my miscellaneous 28mm Dark Age figures and found one that would make a good standard bearer and another as an extra bodyguard. I think I have fully exhausted my supply of musicians, by now. So, he's just a third figure on the base doing his best to protect his lord. I thought about giving him a leash and painting up a dog, too, but wasn't sure there would be room on the base for it.

    I thought the black bear on a red field looked appropriate for a generic Dark Age warlord

As I usually do, I epoxied the riders to their mounts before priming them. I think by doing that, you make them more secure and less likely to pop off if dropped or grabbed the wrong way. All those layers of primer and paint are just more glue, the way I see it! I also based the foot standard bearers to the 60mm round stands first, as well. I like the brass wire standard to be drilled into the wood of the base and then also connected to the hands of the figure. Two points of contact are always more secure than one. Once this was all done, all of the figures received their Liquitex White Gesso primer.

    With this horn blower, I think I am all out of musicians for my warlord bases - I like the fancy horn!

I did the flesh first, using a craft paint flesh tone followed up after drying with the clay-colored watered down wash I apply to Caucasian figures. It usually does a nice job of settling into the crevices in the skin and darkening the too-pale craft paint flesh color. Next, since so much of these figures were armor, I did the Iron Wind Steel base coat for the metal armor and Bambi Brown for the padded armor. From this point on, it was the usual 28mm base coat of a color and then followed by a lighter, dry brush highlight added to the figures. I worked my way outward, with the tunics, sleeves, trousers, and such, step by step.

    With no musician for his stand, this Dark Ages warlord has to make do with an extra bodyguard!

The colors for the Dark Ages warlord ended up being a hunter green and dark red. I waited till late in the process to finally decide what to do for his banner and shield. In the end, I decided to go with the outline of a bear's head in black on a dark red field. Since the rules of Heraldry hadn't been invented yet, I felt okay breaking them with the black on red ("color" on "color"). I did fancy borders or decorations on the clothes of all six figures since these would be the wealthiest figures in the warband. Of course, this made the batch take longer. I think their time on my painting desk will likely be two weeks -- not counting waiting to do the banners. During this time, I wasn't working on them solidly and ignoring everything else, of course. I was mixing in time each morning on other stuff, as well. 

The banners themselves were designed in Photoshop, resized, and then put on a USB drive to take to Office Max to print out with their color laser printer. I cut them out, coated the back with white glue, and then wrapped it around the spear pole making the sides match up as best as possible. I immediately reshaped it while the glue was still wet, giving a blowing in the wind look. After the banners were dry, I painted the white edge of the paper that was showing to match the banner.

    I also like how the medieval warlord's saddle cloth game out -- nice understated decoration, I felt

I really like how these two warlord stands turn out, and I hope the players in the Saga tournaments do as well! I'm also glad I didn't flirt with deadline pressure, as the tournaments are still about 3 weeks away. And if you look below, you will see these two stands of figures put me at the 200 miniatures painted for the year! As I'm typing this, it is the 265th day of 2025. That's less than one figure a day, but still not bad, eh? So, what else am I working on? You will see very soon my next batch of figures for my Dragon Rampant orc & goblin army. They are in the flocking stage and will likely be posted soon. For terrain, I've finally figured out how I am going to do rice paddies and bamboo for my 28mm Vietnam project. I purchased most of the material I need for them today, but still have a couple more things to pick up. 

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Miniatures acquired in 2025: 288
  
• Miniatures painted in 2025: 200

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Terrain acquired in 2025: 40
  
• Terrain painted in 2025: 61

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Scatter acquired in 2025: 115
  
• Scatter painted in 2025: 200

More Scatter - Modern & Sci-Fi

    These pallets from A Critical Hit & RRB Minis & More are incredibly useful for modern or Pulp

While I was putting away my recent purchases from RRB Minis & More in the closet that holds my unpainted terrain and scatter, I was surprised to find some of the 3-D printed scatter that I bought at Origins this summer. I honestly felt that I had painted it already...ha, ha! Knowing that none of it would take much time to get ready for the tabletop, I put them on my desk to work in when I had time. And, true to my guess, several days later they're all finished!

    For $1 a piece, and requiring only a highlight & wash to look good, I couldn't resist picking up some

First up, are some 3-D printed pallets from both A Critical Hit and RRB Minis & More. I gave them the same treatment that I did for the wooden tables and chairs I'd purchased. I started with a very light tan highlight, strangely enough. This lets the medium brown color material that they are printed in be in the grooves and grain of the wood. For the pallets, I had to do one side, let them dry, then flip them over and repeat the same step with the other side. The next step is to apply the dark brown vehicle wash to them. This settles into the grooves and gives it more depth. Once both sides were complete and dry, I sprayed them with clear matte to seal them and take off the last of the plastic's shine. 

    I liked how these crystals looked so much the first time I bought them, I bought some more!

Even easier than the highlight and wash, was the amount of work I had to do on the 3-D printed crystals using color shift filament (from A Critical Hit). All I had to do was paint the base area around the crystals with white glue and then dip the piece into black fine ballast. In hindsight, next time I would likely also paint that part black, too. A couple teeny tiny patches of the color were showing through after I was done. Once the glue had dried, I painted that area with 50/50 white glue and water to seal in the ballast. Poof!! Done, and joining my collection of previously purchased color shifting crystals!

    I added the black flocking ('coal' from Woodland Scenics) to give the crystals more contrast

Equally easy, and actually done alongside the pallets, were the two park benches from A Critical Hit. I gave the wooden parts identical treatment that the pallets received. Once the wood part was done, I went over the black iron parts with a black vehicle wash. A clear matte acrylic spray over them and they're also ready for the tabletop.

    Some of my 28mm gang members fight over who gets to lay down on the 'A Critical Hit' benches

I know some may likely use these 3-D printed pieces "as is" -- buy them and plop them down on the table. However, to my mind, they still have that plastic sheen (except for the crystals, which I want to keep their glow). I want to give the wood a more matte look, as well as more depth with highlights and recesses. As you can see above, it really takes almost no time to pretty them up a little. So, why not? That's one of the benefits about being retired -- TIME is one thing I have plenty of on my hands! I will likely dip into my 3-D printed scatter some more in the upcoming weeks. I still have a bunch of the things Rich Brown of RRB Minis & More gave me with that 3-D printed modern building that I won in the first contest. They won't need much, but better to have them in my drawers of scatter ready to use than in my closet!

    Just a little highlighting& brown wash makes these 3-D printed pieces look much better on the table

So, what else is on my painting desk? At the moment, I am very close to finishing both of the two warlord stands for the Advance the Colors Saga tournaments. I'm also just about done with my first batch of eight 28mm Gripping Beast goblin archers. What's next, minis-wise? Most likely it will be another batch of Gripping Beast orcs or goblins. However, I m-a-y decided to paint up some characters for Devilry Afoot as a change of pace, or in case I want to run a game of that for Halloween next month! Stay tuned to see...

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Miniatures acquired in 2025: 288
  
• Miniatures painted in 2025: 194

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Terrain acquired in 2025: 40
  
• Terrain painted in 2025: 61

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Scatter acquired in 2025: 115
  
• Scatter painted in 2025: 200

French & Indian War Scatter Terrain

    Everything all together -- the tents, fire rights, and little leather sacks to represent loot

When I decided to recreate the "Skirmish at Jumonville Glen" for the first Ohio History Center game day, I immediately began to think about how to make the game board look nice to museum visitors (and my players, of course!). I wouldn't be able to use any of my showpiece terrain -- the giant, Last of the Mohicans cliffs, the Acheson Creations longhouses, or blockhouses or forts. This was a battle in a rocky, wooded setting. It was essentially an attack on a French camp, so I would have to build that up.

Sure, I had a nice gaming mat, various cool trees, and my really nice (if I must say so) scratch-built rocky ground. I made them long ago using bark mulch pieces which look amazingly like layered sandstone. Still, I wanted more "Wow!" than that, so decided that I needed to make some tents. I did some research and F&I War tents seemed to be very simple triangular ones like you still see in use today. For blanket rolls and bedrolls, I had the three Mantic Games plastic pieces which I posted about awhile back. However, I would need to scratch-build these pieces, as everything else in the "Crystal Peaks Campsite" set is noticeably modern looking.

    The framework of mini dowels and craft sticks in place for each tent, and their paper towel blanket

I started by cutting the bases -- three rectangular pieces of MDF. The upright posts on each end of the tent were done with mini-dowels from the craft store. A hole for them was drilled into the MDF with a pin vice, so they would be strong and stable. For the long horizontal piece sitting atop the poles, I used craft sticks. I used two-part epoxy to attach everything together and keep it as sturdy as craft sticks and mini dowels can be! 

    A look at the blankets and bedrolls cut from paper towel & folded up on the inside of each tent

 Next, I cut a rectangle of paper towel for the blanket on the floor of the tent. I used glue and water to stiffen it, and then craft acrylic paint as a base coat and dry brush. Folded pieces of a paper napkin were used for three sets of blankets on the floor of each tent. I used white glue to attach them to the large blanket on the floor, first. Next, I painted and dry brushed them pale colors like I had the other blankets. Once the interior was done, it was time for the triangular shape of the linen or canvas tent itself. 

I went back and forth over what material to use. I felt cloth or paper towels would have too much texture. Their weave would be jarringly out of scale. Paper or cardboard would be too flat and not have enough texture. I finally decided to go with an ordinary paper napkin that I picked up from a restaurant. It seemed sturdy enough and had a little bit of texture and would look like cloth. I decided that attaching the material would be a 3-stage process. First, I cut the proper width for the tent, but a much longer piece than I would need. I used two-part epoxy to attach one edge to the base. I let it dry thoroughly first before proceeding to stage two. 

    You can see the napkin material held taunt by the dice, allowing the epoxy to affix to the material

Stage two meant dabbing a line of epoxy the to craft stick which was the main overhead support for the tent. I stretched the napkin material tight and set it on the pole, pressing down so the epoxy was absorbed a bit by the material. I stretched the remainder of the material out and weighed it down, so it would stay taunt. I let this dry thoroughly, too. The last step was simply to cut the material to the proper length, dab where it would join the base with a line of white glue, and press it down onto it. I used a paint brush to make sure the glue was properly worked into the paper towel, soaking in. 

The next step was to give the napkin material some strength. After it dried, I sprayed it with clear acrylic spray paint. Once it dried again, I carefully painted the napkin material with a 50/50 mix of white glue and water. Several times during this process, I would carefully use a round paint brush handle to straighten the material. I ran the stick gently on the inside of the tent, from the top peak down each side to where it joined the base. I let it glue dry thoroughly over night.

    Side view of the tents - I like how the paper napkin material I used has a visible, slight texture

All that was left to do at this stage was painting and flocking. I used a light tan ("Wild Rice" craft paint) and dry brushed it white when it was dry. Finally, I used the brown vehicle wash on the sides. Note that I did not need to paint the inside -- the thin napkin material is translucent enough that the color on the outside makes the inside look painted. The last step was to flock the tents and they were done! I felt they turned out okay -- nothing spectacular, but they would certainly add to the look of the table.

I also decided that I wanted to use my flickering LED Fire Markers that I purchased from Bad Goblin Games for campfires. So, I decided to make two campfire rings of stones and simply set the orange plastic flame atop them. I used an appropriately sized circular wooden base, and traced the outline of one of the plastic fires onto it. I then epoxied larger ballast stones in a ring around where the flame would be. I then dry brushed the part of the stones facing the fire black to show they'd be blackened a bit by soot. 

    The ring of stones with the black ballast glued into the center to look like ashes

Inside the stones, I glued in some fine black ballast (maybe used as "coal" by model railroaders?). It gave the center some texture -- I hope it would look like ash underneath the fire. After that, I simply flocked the area outside the stones with Woodland Scenics Earth Ballast and patches of Blended Green for grass. These were super-simple to create, but once the flickering LED is set atop them, they add that extra bit to the diorama quality of the tabletop. I've really begun trying to use more flickering LEDs in my games where appropriate. Why not? They make your table stand out even more!

    Here you can see the dry brushing that gave the fire rings a soot-blackened look (hopefully)

The tents and campfires were used in my Jumonville Glen game, and all of my players (and some of the museum staff) commented on how nice the setup looked. I created them specifically for this game, but now would have on hand for many other miniatures scenarios. The next public game of Song of Drums and Tomahawks I'd be running was less than a week later, at Battles at the Brewery. I had committed to run a F&I War scenario for this game day for the Chillicothe Area Wargaming Group. However, I ended up having to attend a funeral on that same day. Luckily, Jason Stelzer could sub in for me. Jenny and I would drive down to Fifty West Brewing in Chillicothe, set up the game, and Jason would show up and run it.

    The campfire rings of stones with their soot-blackened edges & Bad Goblin Games LED flames

I decided to use my "Interrupted Raid" scenario, which I had run numerous times at conventions through the years. It features a group of Rogers Rangers who linger too long in their looting of a Huron village that they raided. The men of the village return from their hunting expedition, trapping the rangers inside the palisade. Loaded down with loot, the rangers need to fight their way out! In the scenario, each ranger is considered "Slow" (can move only once per turn) as long as they carry their loot. They can drop it at any time, though, and move normally. I needed some sort of marker to show whether a ranger was loaded down or not. 

In the past, I have simply used black pom poms from craft stores (or "poof balls," as I call them!). However, this is in a public place -- poof balls aren't good enough for that! I remembered that my friend Tim Peaslee had long ago given me a bunch of plaster leather sacks cast out of dental plaster as part of the Hirst Arts line. I dug them out and they were indeed small enough to fit on the base of each 28mm figure. Why not? The game was in a few days! Plenty of time, right??

    Close up of the plaster sacks that I painted up and got ready for my 'Interrupted Raid' scenario

I glued the sacks to a piece of cardboard with white glue, and then spray primed them with Krylon Fusion matte black. I went over that once it was dry with a 50/50 mix of black paint and water, to make sure the color had seeped into every crevice. Next, I did a wet brush of Camo Brown followed by a highlight of Leather. The straps tying each sack closed were painted in the Wild Rice light tan. Once dry, they received a final brown vehicle wash.

The last step was to pop all of the sacks off their cardboard, exposing their white plaster bottom. I used some gray tack to turn each upside down, exposing their white plaster bottoms, and hold them in place. I painted the bottom of each sack black, finishing them off. I think the sacks look great, and I will also be able to use them as scatter in many games to come, too. They were finished off on Friday -- the day before the game! My only regret is that I did not get a chance to see them on the figures while the game was in progress.

So, there we go! Some more F&I Was scatter to likely be used in other periods, as well! 

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Miniatures acquired in 2025: 288
  
• Miniatures painted in 2025: 194

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Terrain acquired in 2025: 40
  
• Terrain painted in 2025: 61

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Scatter acquired in 2025: 115
  
• Scatter painted in 2025: 184

Purchases from 'Battles at the Brewery'

    3-story testament to RRB Minis & More's generosity -- the 28mm Duncan House awarded as a prize!

I didn't attend Battles at the Brewery, put on by the Chillicothe Area War Gaming group, expecting to buy anything. However, my friend Rich Brown of RRB Minis & More was there. He'd made the more than three hour drive from his home in northeast Ohio to Chillicothe to set up his vendor table and run some demo games for a one-day event. My own game that I was planning to run was game mastered by Jason Stelzer instead of me. A funeral ended up being scheduled on the same day, so I came at the beginning to set it up and after the funeral to tear it down. While there, I decided to shop at Rich's table. 

    RRB Minis & More's 'Duncan House' is a Medieval tower house - each level & roof comes apart

First things first, Rich had generously awarded me a prize for entering a scenario contest on his website. It was the Duncan House -- a 3-D printed medieval tower home. This three story building is actually also the setting for the scenario I submitted. A medieval noble has kidnapped a noble lady and spirited her away to the upper floor of the Duncan House. Her father offers a hefty reward for her return. The other players try to batter their way into the house and up to the top floor to rescue her.

    Pictures of the interiors of each level (with door choices taped in) -- 1st Floor = Ground Floor

The Duncan House is a really cool design, with a wider section on the second floor and narrower sections on the ground and top floor. The design is late medieval, it appears, but honestly considering the number of medieval buildings still surviving in Europe, it could be used for a number of periods in the historical sections of towns. I'm looking forward to painting this one up and possibly using it for skirmish games (maybe some Sellswords & Spellslingers set in a town?).

    Since the Duncan House was a prize, I bought this 3-D printed, 4-story Medieval Watchtower

Perhaps because I won that building at no cost, it tipped the scale for me to purchase the 3-D printed Medieval Watchtower he'd brought along. Like the Duncan House, it disassembles by floor and is also three stories tall. The only modification I want to do is figure out some way to have my figures magnetic bases stick to the stairs leading up to the front door. I don't know whether to imbed magnets in the 3-D printed material, glue tiny pieces of metal, or coat it with ferrous paint. Honestly, I don't think I have anymore of that paint left, and it would seem a bit much to buy a jar of it for just for that!

    Interiors of the Medieval Watchtower with some of my 28mm Orcs storming the building

What else did I buy? I picked up one of his 3-D printed Pod Habitats that I use for my Sci-Fi skirmishes. It is his "Extra Large" version, but for me, it is a small home compared to my other Sci-Fi buildings. Still, I keep slowly building up my collection of them so that I can cover more and more of the table with suitably Sci-Fi buildings! 

    Very cool 3-D printed Sci-Fi piece that I will use as a landing pad in my skirmish games

Another Sci-Fi terrain items I picked up was the landing pad (at least that's what I'm calling it). It has stairs leading up to the top surface and would be a perfect place to put a small shuttle or spaceship on for a scenario. The top surface comes off, but I can't see any reason to have anything underneath it. So, I will probably glue it in place and paint it solid state. 

    The surface of the landing pad pops off and there is a printed interior 'control room', as well

The final thing I picked up from Rich was a printed copy of David Bezio's "Saddle Bum" rules. I am thinking of using these for a hillbilly trailer park battle, even though they were designed for a Western game. I figure the three firearms in the rules -- pistol, shotgun, and rifle -- fit perfectly for the trailer park vibe. Of course, I don't have hillbilly figures for such a scenario, but when has that ever stopped us from buying an interesting rule book? Rich loves these rules and all of David Bezio's adaptions for them, including black powder (Frizzen Bum) and Medieval (Chivalrous Bum). In fact, my winning scenario (actually tied for 1st place -- Rich gave both of us the prize!) uses the Chivalrous Bum rules. Jenny and I played them at Drums at the Rapids this past May. It was using those rules that I proved I can roll a statistically astounding series of "6's" on 1d6 after the game was well out of hand and I was going to lose...! 

    A picture of the 'Extra Large' 3-D printed Habitat dome that I picked up from RRB Minis, as well

Anyway, the organizer of Battles at the Brewery, Art Nickles, said it was a success and was pleased with the turnout. All of the games had players and were able to get under way, and folks were still gaming when I returned around 5:15pm. I helped Jason pack up my Song of Drums and Tomahawks game, had dinner and a beer at Fifty West, and then did my shopping from Rich's table. So, even though I didn't get to GM or play, I still got to experience a bit of the game day!

    I was scheduled to run a 'Song of Drums & Tomahawks' game, but Jason Stelzer stepped in for me

So, what is on my painting desk right now? The two warlord stands for the Advance the Colors Saga tournaments are almost done. That's six fancy figures who will be positioned, three-each, on a circular 60mm stand. Well underway, also, on the table are my first 28mm Gripping Beast metal goblins. The skin and base coat of the clothes is complete on them. So, they should be finished in the coming week, too. I also have another update on a couple quick pieces of scatter terrain that I completed for the two games of Song of Drums and Tomahawks that were run at the museum and Battles at the Brewery. You know me -- there's always one more tweak I want to add to the tabletop to ramp up its look. So, look for a post next week on those, as well!

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Miniatures acquired in 2025: 288
  
• Miniatures painted in 2025: 194

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Terrain acquired in 2025: 40
  
• Terrain painted in 2025: 61

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2025

• Scatter acquired in 2025: 115
  
• Scatter painted in 2025: 159