Obligatory Christmas Loot Post

I hope all those who celebrate Christmas had a merry one. And for those who don't, I hope you had a great Thursday.

My list was void of any RPG related items (I just got Barbarians of Lemuria during the 50% off sale at Lulu.com back in November and picked up my pre-ordered copy of the 5e DMG). So, Santa indulged the wargamer in me this year:

I haven't built a scale model in 30 years or so - that King Tiger and the ZiS have a dizzying array of parts. Coupled with the fact that I've never built scale model armor, only cars and planes, starting with the F4F-4 Wildcat is a no brainer!

All of these will see use on the table as they are completed.

I am debating painting the tanks and truck. Currently only 3 of my vehicles are painted and they were factory painted at that; the rest are the plastic color they came in. If I start painting a few, I feel I'm going to have to go crazy and paint EVERYTHING. On the other hand they might all look a good deal better painted.

Speaking of paint:

This is for the WWI project in plastic 1/72. I've got the Italians and Austrians - or rather the starting forces for both sides. Now, it's time to acquire uniform references and paint and such. Oh and to learn more about this aspect of WWI, since all I know is from Wikipedia.

In addition there were gift cards and some cash that will, at least in part, be put to use on my too many projects.

The Osprey Austrian companion volume to the Italian Osprey above is a definite. Neil Thomas's One Hour Wargames seems to be the rage right now, despite its limitations, so I'll probably pick that up, along with Table Top Battles by Mike and Joyce Smith.

I am doing my best to avoid picking up any more figures or vehicles just yet, but it's almost inevitable that I will. GHQs 1/285 WWII stuff is looking really tempting right about now and they do have that sale going. Never mind that Classic Toy Soldiers is doing a 15% off after Christmas sale on just about everything.

Appendix N Loot and More!

I'm up visiting my parents this week with my son, which translates into untold amounts of free child care for him and free time for me. 

On Sunday, Ariale and I paid a visit to a large indoor/outdoor flea market / antique market near my parents' house. 

Here are a few of the things I took home:

Although iconic, I've not read any of these before (and my local public library doesn't have them).

The dealer had an amazing selection of books, including a section I will include in an abandoned wizard's tower:

Photo by Ariale M.

One of the outdoor dealers was packing up and I spotted this before they got it packed away:

The box has seen better days, but I'm chucking it anyway. The figures are what I wanted. As soon as I saw them I thought "I could use these in a wargame!".  I'll probably use them with Gutshot! or something similar. I haven't measured the figures, but they don't look like they'd be out of place next to 1/35 sized figures (they're around 2" tall). 

More books!

Finally, I saw this comic book on e-bay a few months back and really wanted it. Maybe it's the idea of a flying, ghost inhabited tank, or that said tank is engaging a Japanese plane in the PTO, but whatever it is I just love the cover and wanted to see what was inside, but the price always seemed a little high to me.

As fate would have it, one of the indoor comic book vendors had "my" comic and Ariale decided I was going to own it (I win!):

You know I'm tempted to make this into a wargame scenario, too.

Happy Father's Day

I hope the dad's out there had a happy and stress free day today.

I was up at 4:30 AM with my little man, he wasn't doing terribly well, acting out and getting easily upset, and in my sleep deprived stupor, I wasn't able to pin it down, until 7:00 AM when I realized something was probably hurting. 

Children's Advil and 20 minutes later and he was his normal self. 

Later in the day, he was supposed to take a nap while I took a much earned dad-nap, and if it failed he was supposed to help his mom and her boyfriend do some work around the house. About two hours later, i woke up to my son's tears and screaming.

Apparently, dad hugs were needed before he could calm down; he quieted down and ended up falling asleep in my room for an overdue nap, which was followed by some brief dad-son grocery shopping and picking up Chinese take-out. 

He's a light in my life, so the tough days always are totally worth it in the end. Although it can be a struggle in the moment, that's for sure.

To keep thing's gaming related, I treated myself to some WWI minis as my fathers day gift to myself and they arrived yesterday:

My gift from my son and his mother will arrive within a week or so, HaT WWI Austrian Infantry and HaT WWI Austrian Infantry Heavy Weapons. 

I didn't mean to start a new gaming period - i swear!

Nuts! Final Version Arrived! (Plus some other stuff that arrived not too long ago)

I went out to the mailbox today and to my surprise, my printed copy of the Nuts! Final Version rulebook was there.

Since I've ordered and received several sets of rules in the last month or so, I thought I'd do a group shot:

The Pacific was a find at the library book sale two weeks ago. It's quite a tome compared to my usual reading, so it might be a while before I can muster the fortitude to confront it. I also just finished No Bended Knee: the Battle for Guadalcanal, so I could use a break from the PTO for now.

The WWI rules were inspired by my reading of The Guns of August (a book I thoroughly enjoyed). Until I read The Guns of August I had only a barebones grasp of WWI. I'm not saying I'm an expert now, but I know more than I did and that's a start. And I find I want to read more about it. 

So, yeah, I fear a new wargaming period in my future.