Ongoing Sale

With the New Year comes a new broom, and it has swept all sorts of gribblies out from the caves of Lead Mountain. Gribblies that, sadly, will not get to join their comrades in the technicolour kingdom of the Wargames Shelves. And as the year goes on, more have joined them...

All prices are exclusive of postage – email me at infoatmorningstar at gmail dot com to confirm interest and work out postage costs to your location. Pieces are sold first come, first served. This is to make space as much as it is to make money. That said, to my shame, I will also trade for unpainted/primed 15mm AWI.

There will be changes to the list over the next few weeks as some items sell and others join the list as I root around. Do keep coming back.

Now all that's out of the way, on to the good stuff:

18 sprues of Mage Knight ruins, £2 each or £30 for them all. Each sprue makes one gothic Sci-Fant corner piece with a modular design for all you labyrinth-builders.

15mm Italian Wars, unknown manufacturer. 9 cavalry, 20 infantry, including command - £5 the lot

Airfix 1:48 Westland Lynx AH-7 on the sprue £15 from the Op Herrick boxed set

Airfix 1/72 Scimitar, half painted with extra armour £1.50

6mm resin bunker £1

15-20mm Homemade 3rd world terrain - £3

 

Homemade 20-28mm Middle Eastern building £3

 

Homemade 3rd World Village £15 (all buildings together £18)

 

 

 

Village against 4x4 foot of board.

£3 Books & Games
Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Jade Empire

The Rest of the Books

Armies of the Napoleonic Wars, Fremon-Barnes, Pen & Sword RRP25, my price £15

Monty's Ironsides: From the Normandy Beaches to Bremen with the 3^rd Division, Delaforce, Chancellor RRP16.50, my price £3

A Fistful of Kung Fu, Sfiligoi, Osprey Publishing RRP11.99, my price £5

The Wargaming Compendium, Hyde, Pen & Sword, RRP35, my price £15

The Great War, Reardon, Warhammer Historial, my price £20

Jugula (plus cards), Buchel, Studio Tomahawk, my price £10

Raise the Clans: The Wargamer's Guide to Jacobite Britain, Hackett, Amberley Books RRP16.99, my price £10 

Bolt Action: Armies of Great Britain, Thornton, Warlord Games RRP14.99, my price £5 

Lovely hardback Warhammer 40K 6^th Edition, Games Workshop RRP stupid money, my price £20

All prices are exclusive of postage – email me at infoatmorningstar at gmail dot com to confirm interest and work out postage costs to your location. Pieces are sold first come, first served. This is to make space as much as it is to make money. That said, to my shame, I will also trade for unpainted/primed 15mm AWI.

There will be changes to the list over the next few weeks as some items sell and others join the list as I root around. Do keep coming back.

New Rivers

The first project of the new year is finished! I now have about 10 feet of brand spanking new river ready to dominate my miniature battlefields.

This new big river is lightyears ahead of my previous ones, which were only about 15mm across. These ones are 95mm in width, and as you'll see, really look the part.

I was inspired by the excellent Shed Wars blog. Though I don't have the space for a waterfall, I got Santa to provide me with the hardboard and floor tiles to make the lower flowing water. It all worked just as promised – the gaps are really due to the slipshod way I made the rivers. If I had my time again, I'd cut the tile with a Stanley knife and a steel rule – not freehand with kitchen scissors!

Recipe

Basically, the tiles were marked out with the size of the river sections (generally 15x9.5cm). The Oxford Blue tiles I used have some unfortunate trim, so I couldn't go with my initial plan of 12x4” sections.

These were stuck onto the centre of hardboard sections, kindly cut out by the lad at Homebase. And then cut in half again, thanks to that damn edging. 

The long view.

The other way round.

 

A mix of brown paint and grouting was then applied to the banks, and when this was dry, it was drybrushed with Wilko emulsion and flocked. I also painted the inside edges black, to minimise the effect of any gaps.

The straights all piled up next to the bends.

Once my Vietnam infantry are finished, I'll add some Silflor tufts, but until then, I'm happy with how they look. They're a bit bare in the photographs, but the flock stands out a lot better in person.

Finished articles. It doesn't look as long as it is...

The same from another angle.

Here are some action shots, enjoy!

Predator's-eye view of a British patrol in the Green Zone.

Is there someone watching from the fields..?

The Landies skirt the river bank.

28mm Dark Age warriors seek a crossing.

Are they fleeing something?

Looks like it... Hannah's dinosaur is closing in.

US Airborne cautiously approach the river - Wehrmacht wait ahead...

They get in closer, unsure of how to cross this body of water.

New Year Round Up

Well, 2013 was a long year, and a good one overall. I started it bedridden from a Christmas operation, and ended it with ten days of celebration with good friends and family.

I got published for the first time this year (Miniatures Wargames 367 if anyone wants to find it), and got a job in the industry - subsequently lost, but still!

Due to illness, work and general Real Life, I didn't get as much tangible hobbying done this year as I planned, but I do have half a dozen wargames and RPGs in alpha stage condition, which is nice.

If anyone wants to beta test them and get an acknowledgement in the finished product (maybe more!), they are:
- Capes & Courage: A fast play WW2 pulp game for re-enacting the likes of Captain America, Commando! and suchlike.
- For a Dollar & a Gun: A diceless, rulerless set of cowboy skirmish rules, usable 20mm+. I use pound store cowboys and a poker set - job done!
- Art of War: A mass combat fantasy card game, which just needs adapting for points, really.
- Silent War: A modern fantasy/horror RPG, kind of like a monotheist version of Cthulhu with two-fisted heroes.
- Matter of Legends: A roleplaying game for bringing back the mystical side of medieval fantasy.
- Magisterium: A roleplaying game set in an 18th century city where everyone is a wizard. Bartimaeus trilogy meets Jonathan Strange in the middle of the Seven Years War.

Feedback on any of them would be appreciated.

Compared to 2012's total of 1099 models, 17 vehicles, 80 pieces of terrain, 32 game aids and 300+ flats, how did I do?

Bearing in mind that "models" equates to 1 15mm infantryman (larger scales and mounted models counting for more), I got: 1370 models, 6 vehicles, 29 terrain pieces and 2 game aids. An increase in models with a decrease in everything else - largely made possible by a secret squirrel project coming out in a magazine near you in the (hopefully!) near future.

So this year will be more models, more terrain, and hopefully not a lot more purchases. I need to cut down the lead mountain a bit, especially since looking for my girlfriend's ring showed me just how much of the Underbed has been seized by the Kingdom of Boxes! There is much painting, inking and basing in my future. Now if only I could get the missus to be a painter as well as a roleplaying gamer...

I have a Pulp Alley campaign to look forward to with Mr Woodward, and lots of sci-fi, ECW and Nam stuff to paint and build in 15mm. In 28mm, more Saga, more Dux Bellorum, some In Her Majesty's Name, Of Gods & Mortals and Fistful of Kung Fu, more Chain of Command and IABSM, and new projects in FIW and WWI.

Gosh. Looking at that list, it almost seems like Osprey is tying with TFL in my affections. Utter madness!

New Year's Resolution: Put up at least one blog post a month. If any of you are still reading a year from now, feel from to chuck stones at me for missing it if you fancy.

And to sign off with, an official preview of Mr Morris' quite frankly amazing Salute Secret:

Creatively anachronistic Scots launch a charge against..?

Happy New Year everyone!