The Blog of Michael T. Murphy and his lifelong obsession with "little army men" and their imaginary glory, miniature wargaming, and other things...

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Projects on the table (and under construction)...

So I've spent this weekend, dear reader, catching up on long dormant projects. Since most of these involved Bongolesia, and that I am doing a large game at Origins, I feel that this is the priority, but, as with all wargamers and mini-gamers in general, "other things" slowly start to creep in and demand attention as well...

One of my ongoing projects is the building of a coastal tramp trawler...a "boat of all trades"...I had a problem with doing the hull, until a foray into Hobby Lobby showed these little babies up for sale...


They're anywhere between $ 4.50 -7.95 each (if you catch them on sale), and are actually quite nice little pieces. with a little work, (removing some of the little items), they could actually be used stock the way they are for 28mm figs....Hmmm...Maybe my pulp figs need a little sailboat to take them out to the mysterious fog shrouded island???...hmmmm...

Anyhow, with my trusty Dremel (and a lot of patience), some balsa wood, basswood, and Plastistruct stuff, it was changed into this:

Not a bad little effort if I do say so myself...Now it's not completely finished, but you can see the changes and effort, and it's going to be the "perfect" little coastal trawler boat...Just the thing for when when you are making a fishing run, a scientific expedition, or taking folks out for "a three hooooooooo-ur tourrrrrrr...." along the coastline of Bongolesia...
A side by side comparison...


A word of warning though...If you do get these boats and start working on them with a Dremel or saw...wear eye protection...and be patient. The wood is extremely hard and when it cuts it shatters.
Next up...what construction project would be complete without a report on the progress of the Bongolesian Presidential Palace?


Here you can see the ground floor, the balcony, the columns, and for good measure; a member of the Presidential Guard standing near the entrance to give you an idea of the size of this structure...Just the thing a President-For-Life needs... (and always a good objective for the next coup that is sure to come along)....

No Presidential Palace would be of any real "umph", if it didn't have it's own grounds....Soooooo...Here is the layout of the Presidential Estate. Naturally there will be walls surrounding it, and of course...guards with machine guns and itchy trigger fingers...

Moving on in our little worktable tour....
The capital city needs an airport...you know, a place where tourists with full wallets can come, and tourists with empty wallets can leave...where air cargo can be offloaded and onloaded and where hijacked planes can land and await to see if the hijackers demands are going to be met or not...
Soooo...I've started work on the initiat buildings of "Sudekia International" also known by it's formal name as "Bomba' De Plane Airport"...(It's French you know...)

Here we can see the terminal building along with the flight control tower, (most of it), and a section of chain link fencing. A BRDM1 Scout Car and the Presidential Guard stand alongside to give a sense of scale...


Now what self-serving dictator wouldn't have signs telling people "how cool and great he is?"...B'wonah has it!
And of course as I leave the work table and turn around and look at the "project table"...THIS is what I see...patiently awaiting me....



AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!



And who are these "mysterious" characters on the table, overseeing all that is done?...Why it's none other than (From R to L), "Herr Doktorr Von Glockenspiel, "Uncle Albert", and that mysterious mummy bandaged criminal mastermind simply known as "The Tool"...What COULD they be up to???
Tune in next week for another exciting episode!!!
Comments are appreciated...

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Origins and the Bongolesia Blog...

So I'm registering for Origins next June, and setting myself up to run a late night large scale AK47 Rep. game in Bongolesia, (with prizes for the winner!), and for those of you that would like a waaaay early sneak peak, (and if you don't visit the bongolesia blog), well....here it is:

http://bongolesia.blogspot.com/2010/11/barf-rebel-scum-for-origins.html

http://bongolesia.blogspot.com/2010/11/national-defense-forcefor-origins.html

This will give you dear reader a quick "down n' dirty" of some of what is going to be on the field...

Enjoy and I hope to see YOU at Origins....look for the guy in the dictators uniform...

Saturday, November 6, 2010

OH NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!

This is a story about my game room....

And how it got turned into a "guest room"....

To be fair and honest it was only a guest room for a small bit...as my lady's father came down for two weeks.

But still....

So let's see what it looked like!




"Hmmmmm.....here's the door to the game room....I wonder why it's closed???"









Well the sign proclaiming what it is is still there...in it's rightful spot...Lets open the door and have a look and see, shall we?









Who knows what secrets lie beyond this closed door? Welllll....there's only one way to find out!!!







Hmmm...pretty dark in here...Let's turn on the lights...


CLICK!




AAAAAAAHHHHH!!!! WHAT IN THE @#**????!!!


The rooms been "cleaned and rearranged " by a female creature of the household!!!!






Pleasant dreams....while sleeping under the Bongolesian Flag...




Hmmm...seems pretty well organized and tidied...and I can see where everything is....mostly...




The painting table/desk is clean and tidy....hmmmmm....

All the brushes and stuff in their place...

And my shelf o' minis and stuff seems to be A-OK....that's a good sign....

And above it all, my Victorian Alter-Ego, Col. Horatio Hieronymous Mustard (Sandhurst Class of '53...harumph!) stands and observes with keen interest...while his servant keeps the port handy, and the Voodoo Master works his mojo...all the while the Bongolesian Flag snaps crisply in the breeze...