Where there's a Wall there's a Way!

Back in 2016, I bought a number of products from Stonehouse Miniatures, including 2 sets of their 28 mm "Hewn Fieldstone walls". They of course sat around unopened until I realized that I could use these pieces for both the "Fortresses" for my Snappy Nappy campaign game, and also the walled gardens at Talavera.

The two sets combined have a LOT of walls!

A sort of "garden maze" layout.

In the two sets combined there 8 corners, 2 gates, 14  4" straight sections, and 2 each straight sections with "T" and "X" junsctions that can allow the walls to branch.

Here's several more possible layouts with the pieces.

This shot shows the "T" and "X" sections. Handy for something like a series of garden walls abutting houses, such as at Aspern.

This walled area is 16' x 8".

This one is about 8" x 8".

The walls are made of off white resin, so first I spray painted them all flat black.

The walls were then dry brushed with Craftsmart dark grey, followed by Craftsmart  grey (form Michael's - very inexpensive, not great coverage, but that's a bit of an asset when used for dry brushing like this).

To give some more interest, I did the tops of the walls by dry brushing with Craftsmart Brown, followed by Craftsmart Golden Brown. The doors were dry brushed with Golden Brown followed by Craftsmart Kaki. The bases were dry brushed with Craftsmart Shamrock Green. The paths to the gate were painted with Craftsmart Expresso. 

Materials used, minus 1 can of $1.99 flat black paint from Walmart. 

While I was in a Terrain mood, I also cut up the second rubber backed coir mat I had purchased at Home Depot a year or so ago; so now I have twelve 8 x 6 inch "wheat fields", four 6 x  6 inch, and four 8 x 8 inch fields. Surely enough for any conceivable set up!

Little brown Jugs

I painted up this set of ceramic jugs as additional table dressing for my Ancients games.

 Manufactured in Resin by Stonehouse Miniatures, "Ceramic Jugs"

As you can see, I painted them in  three different basic "pottery" shades.

I used the ink pens for some simple geometric decorations.

A "magic wash" of dilute ink was them applied.

None jugs in the set, some with plugs, some without. Stonehouse also makes Amphorae.

Some other Egyptian items for a sense of scale and place!

The Sphinx

The latest addition to the table dressing elements for my Chariot era games is this Sphinx, which I acquired at Historicon this past July.

Resin painted by yours truly...

In common with most other ancient statuary, it seems that these were painted... even the Great Sphinx of Giza shows remnants of red paint on  its face. 

The Sphinx will fit into a "box" for my 28mm games with To the Strongest!

Block painting with ink pen lining added, plus some shading on the body, and an ink wash on the base. "What walks on four legs in the morning, two legs at noon, and three legs at dusk?"

The Sphinx is made of resin and available from Stonehouse Miniatures. They make quite a lot more Egyptian themed elements, as well as Mayan/Aztec ones, and European ones. I have two sets of stone walls and some jugs from them yet to be painted. Recommended!

Back from Historicon 2016

I left from the home a bit later, circa 9 AM ( I discovered a dead car battery circa 7:45 AM; excellent service from Triple A to replace the battery and have me on the road in a little over an hour!). I picked up Jared in Tarrytown, NY about an hour later, along with his one large tub of figures etc. for the Russian Civil War games he was to run with Field of Battle, 2nd edition. Starting off later than intended, the trip took about 7 hours this year, but only South of Washington, DC, was there very heavy traffic on I-95 (as usual). Jared made a most agreeable traveling companion as we discussed wargaming, history, convention sites, liberal politics, theology, sociology, education, medicine and population health, and personal backgrounds...among many other things! We were just about as chatty on the way home, with the talk focusing on future wargaming projects and preliminary plans for games to run at Historicon 2017; thus both trips flew by subjectively! Tim flew in from the UK and met us at the hotel, also being delayed and thus arriving in Fredericksburg about 7 PM. Shortly thereafter, we headed over to the Convention center to get our badges. As we were all registered as GM's this took less than 5 minutes, but even on Wednesday night the line for pre registered attendees seemed quite long - I'd estimate a 20 - 30 minutes wait. We questioned why convention badges couldn't be mailed to attendees in advance, or even downloaded as a pdf file. Perhaps something to think about for the future in terms of convenience, decreased wait time, and decreased demand for volunteer staff. Thereafter, we met Eric B. and headed out for a nice dinner and pleasant conversation.

    There will be a number of blog posts forthcoming about the convention, but we both had a great time as usual, running and playing in games, scouring the flea market, and of course shopping in the dealer area. The show was very well attended on Thursday especially. Once again, games were on the short side on Saturday night. There were many great looking games, and plenty that I am sure that I never even got a chance to see, as I barely entered any of the side rooms at all. It seemed a little noisier in the main gaming area this year, but still tolerable, especially compared with the first year there (2012 ?). The Air conditioning also seemed a bit less effective this year in the main gaming area only, but not unbearable like some past July days at the Host in Lancaster. There were quite a few new companies in the Dealer area this year, which was good to see, and some previous exhibitors were missed, which was not so good. Jared attended the members meeting and reported that the main topic there was preliminary discussions around holding each of the three HMGS East conventions (Fall In, Cold Wars, and Historicon) at a different site,. in order to draw from a larger population base - Fredericksburg, Lancaster, and a new convention center in Sommerville, NJ (which also happens to be where I did my residency training in Family Medicine over 30 years ago). I will just say that I'd be thrilled with Sommerville as a site, as it is probably only about 2.5 hours drive away, and is very do-able for gamers from almost anywhere in New England, New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Ohio, and of course, New Jersey itself. It is about a 30-40 minute drive from Newark International Airport.

    I ran four games this year, "The Assyrian Came Down Like a Wolf on the Fold" (Egypt vs. Assyria) and "Ye Who are the Warriors of God" (Hussites vs,. Catholic Crusaders) with To the Strongest!, on Thursday AM and Thursday evening respectively, "The Great Cavalry Action at Liebertwolkwitz, 17813" with Field of Battle, 2nd edition on Friday night", and "The Engagement at Klagenfurt, 1809" with Piquet: Les Grognards, 2nd edition at 7 PM on Saturday evening. Posts about each of those will be forthcoming in the next few weeks.

Just unloaded the car, so here's what I brought down, plus my personal bag, laptop, Jared's Tub, luggage, and laptop!  It all fit in quite nicely, actually!

I didn't buy too much this year. 50 Old Glory French Line infantry in Bicorne from Freddie A. in the Flea Market, 1 pint of the Gale Force 9 economy Masonite bases (especially the 40mm rounds) for about $20, and the rest from a new merchant at Historicon, Stonehouse Miniatures. A Sphinx (they have a lot of nice Egyptian and Mayan/Aztec themed terrain items - temples, pyramids, Egyptian Gods, etc), a 2 story 28mm stone house, and some resin wall sets to make 6 feet of walls (they have at least 4 different styles. Also a bag of  "pottery" Jugs for ancient battlefield decoration. Their prices are quite reasonable, too!