Cold Wars: Big Game Part 3....

To All,

The third table was the Raid on New Providence. Each of the different nationalities had a stronghold to defend until their Treasure Island gold showed up.

Here is the initial set-up and the players reading the cards. In the Gnome Wars each player gets a unit card that has all the statics and special abilities for the unit/nationality.

Eric Jacobson is the gentleman in the green shirt. He is an excellent Gnome Wars player, but an even better GM. My son prefers when Eric is running the game over me. (Nice!)

The different units jockeyed for position and set up their defenses. They had to defend against each other, British Marines, and zombies.

Here the Swiss move up to take out some zombies.....

....and do a nice job.

I don't know who, but someone blew the roof off of the German HQ......

 

....more to come!

Cold Wars: Big Game part 2....

To All,

In the sea between the Treasure Island and New Providence were the ships and boats that dropped off the landing parties. The task on this board was to keep your ship afloat and crew alive until  the landing party returned with the treasure from the island. The ship captains were to pick up the treasure and deliver it to their stronghold on New Providence.

The first turn had the captains placing their ships and learning the movement.

Here we see the captains plotting their move, moving, and making alliances. The guy smiling at the camera is Brad Leaver, one of the Canadians......

The gentleman in the green Gnome Wars shirt is Kevin Jacobi, another one of the Canadians, who ran the High Seas board. If he ever decides to run a convention game again (I'm sure he will) sign up for it, you will have a good time. There is a shipwreck on the right side of the board that had extra gold on it. Most of the ships headed toward it....

More maneuvering.....

....you can see a steamship off to the right. that is being captained by Andy, who stayed out of the fray to see how it would all shake out (turned out to be a great move)....

....as these four ships went broadside to broadside, with one crew of pirates being blasted off their vessel. The crew of Sikhs also were shot off their ship. The Sikh players on the treasure island and New Providence were not enthusiastic upon hearing this news...

....as the dude in the red shirt landed his Swiss on the shipwreck and claimed the bonus treasure, the cannibals headed to war canoes and into the fray.....

....more to come.

Cold Wars 2012: The Big Game begins...

To All,

On Saturday Eric Jacobson, Kevin Jacobi, Cam Cusiak, Steven Stanton, and I put on a huge, 700-figure, 36 player game of Gnome Wars. Even with that amount of figures and players the game ran incredibly smooth.

Here is how it went down:

The first board was the Treasure Island. The players had two simple tasks - find your treasure and get off the island. Here is the initial set-up.  (I left in the background so you could see that there were quite a few other games going on.)

 The island had inhabitants - Cannibals - and they went looking for food...

As the landing parties were searching for their treasure, a few of their members were captured by cannibals.... 

 ....so they had to go to the village to attempt a rescue. The young man pointing with the ruler is Scott Lung who, despite his age, has become one of the better Swiss players over the past couple of conventions. The gentleman to the left of him is the best Irish player in Gnome Wars right now - Bill Goodrick....

 ....who sent half of his Irish back to the boats with the treasure. He did sent the other half of the Irish to support the attack on the village....

 ...as all the other landing parties went to the village one of the nubes, before seeing if the natives were friendly, shot and killed a few cannibals. Immediately drums were heard in the woods....

 ....so the attackers decided to use the cannibal village to defend themselves against whatever was going to attack...

 ....The cannibals launched their attack from the woods with the different nationalities working together....

....except they told the Sikhs there wasn't enough room at the walls and they should set up on the outside. Good thing they had a machine gun....

More to come!

British Marines: Blue Coats....

To All,

Finishing up the 16 "Blue Coat" marines.


The cuffs and coat flaps are painted Santa Red:

The ammunition box strap is painted white and the ammo box painted black. A little drybrush on the gun and they are done:

Here are the 44 marines:

I just have to flock them and they will be ready to kick some Pirate Ass.

British Marines: Part 7

To All,

Finishing the "Redcoat" Marines.

For flesh I mix Howard Hues Suntan and GW Chestnut Ink. (I know this recipe is really not that effective for some because the Chestnut Ink is OOP. I have what is probably the last two pots.) This first mix is allied to the hands and face.

In order to give the flesh time my next step is to dry I drybrushed Burnt Sienna on the gun stocks.

Then I do two more layers of flesh - I add a couple of drops of Titanium White to the previous mix.

After those two steps I hit the beard, face, and gun with GW Ogryn Flesh wash. It helps to blend all the shading.

Here is the result:

More to come....

British Marines: Part 6....

To All,

The British Marines are coming along nicely. At this point it is time to touch up the blocking that has been done so far and paint the straps:

Using Lamp (Ebony) Black I touched up the hat and the shoes/stockings. I painted the ammunition box and its strap black. The coat was touched up with Santa Red.

Before:

After:

Antique White was used to fix the pants, cuffs, coat flaps, and lapels. The trim on the top of the hat is also done with Antique White:

Here is the unit up to this point:

More to come....

British Marines: Painting 28mm eyes....

To All,

I have been asked to give a brief "tutorial" on how I get such a good result with the eyes on my figures.The technique I use was taught to me by my good friend who is both my painting mentor and one of the best painters of historical miniatures I know - John Spiess.

Step one: I paint the eye area black because it gives the greatest contrast and makes the eyes pop. If you want colored eyes - brown, blue, green - paint the area the color you are looking for instead of black.

Step Two: Using a small brush I put a small amount of Titanium White and put a dot on the outer and inner edges of the left eye:

Step Three: I rinse the brush and repeat step two for the right eye.

And this is the result.