April Update: "Convention Prep"...

Yikes! 

March got away from me pretty much in stuff, except for a couple of small posts.
I spent the rest of March and this much of April getting stuff ready for the convention, and having some life issues in general.

CONVENTION PREP:

By now, you should know that I am working on some games for Little Wars, (ask me for more info if you don't know already), and I have been neck deep in stuff.

Much of what I am doing is scratch built so it's a bit time and labor intensive.

However with the arrival of my Caribbean Waters Battle Mat from Cigar Box Battle, I was able to lay out the basic shape of my terrain table.

(Please note that this is based on my 8' X 5' table and not the 10' x 6" I am going to be using at Little Wars.

(A nice decent setup for it's size. Now that I have the actual table sizes, I can see that I needed more terrain boards. Yes that came later....)

(The fort and the governors mansion will be in this foreground....)

Then it was working on some of the buildings within the fort itself.

First up was the barracks.

Barracks and Quarters for the enlisted scum for 28mm gaming.

100% scratchbuilt.

Base is foamboard, as is walls. All wall trim, is coffee stir sticks.

Roof is foamboard.

Building is flat walled on the back as it will sit back wall up against an interior fort wall.

Windows and doors are scrap bass wood, and coffee stir sticks.

Painted with craft paints, (except for the brass handles which are from Vallejob paints).

Double sealed with matte spray.

A perfect place to house and quarter the enlisted men. Privates and corporals get their slat bunks and rope beds. Bunks are 2-3 stacked.  NCO's get their slat beds, and a little more room.

"A perfect place to house the enlisted scum, and for them to keep their dirty socks and filthy habits away from the upper genteelness of the officers."

28mm British Officers to scale....

 

(I say sir...what IS that smell????)

Next up was the HQ/Officers quarters....

Completed.

HQ/Officers Quarters for 28mm gaming.

Base is foamboard, as is walls and chimneys. All wall trim, is either large jumbo craft sticks (corners), or coffee stir sticks.

Roof is double thick cardstock.

Bricks are sheet plastic styrene RR model brick wall.

Windows and doors are scrap bass wood, and coffee stir sticks.

Painted with craft paints, (except for the brass handles which are from Vallejob paints).

Flocking by Woodland scenics.

Double sealed with matte spray.

A perfect place to oversee the military operations of the island, and upstairs quarters for the upper level officers. Naturally the general gets the biggest and best room(s), while the junior officers get to share a room....

28mm British Officers to scale....

Then it was test fitting the fort pieces together....

(Not bad for a first time project like this...)

The fort had a few loose pieces that can be worked on. It's not 100% the exact way I want it to be, but it can be used quite well, (as well as disassembled for transport and storage)....

Next up was the docks and piers.

The first set built is the basic "Docks" set from "Things From The Basement".

They came together generally well, and painted up nicely.

Being docks that are used heavily, I went with a heavy weathering on them.

Next up was the wooden piers/docks.

These are also scratch-built out of dowel rods and coffee stir sticks.

And then I started work on the Treasury building.

Another scratch-build, where all the "dirty, filthy, lucre is held for safekeeping."

The structure is two floors with the roof and second floor removable for interior play.

Meanwhile work continued on this monster....

(An easy kit this isn't....)

(One of the fireplaces...in ten separate pieces....)

(Assembling the chimney-stacks...)

(Annnnnd they're put together and painted....)

(One of the sheets of pieces, and none of them are marked according to the "instructions"...)

And slowly it's coming together....

Meanwhile, we've decided to do a little something special for the players, and thus decided to make "Treasure Bags", (Aka: "Booty Bags").

Stop laughing....

Each bag has a wide variety of coins, jewels, and a pearl necklace. Each of the necklaces was done by my wonderful wife, (Gawd bless her!), as her way of contributing to the game.

(Arrrr... there be treasure for you scalawags!)

(Booty Bags!)

(Packed and ready to go!)

And while all of this was going on, St. Patrick's Day rolled around....

(Just seeing if you are still paying attention....)

One thing with getting things ready for a convention is that doing all this work, absolutely wrecked my painting/work room.

It's a pleasant mess, but still it's a mess.

This will need to be cleaned up after I get back.

(Yikes!)

(Again I say... "Yikes!")

FOOD!

Between sessions of building and painting, and such, I sat down and did a few recipes. I didn't get all the pictures of what I made, but one of the new attempted creations came out very well.

These are called "Pears with Bleu Cheese Crumbles".

The filling is a mixture of crumbled Bleu Cheese, (Duh), Walnuts, a dab of honey, and simmered in a pear.

They are absolutely delicious and easy to make.

Sadly though, I ran out of my favorite creamer for my coffee, and now have to wait until the weather turns wintry again...

(Le sigh....)

But on another note, I was able to procur a bottle of this, (and got a really cool dice bag also!).

And I found out that it goes quite well with my favorite cigar blend, and some light reading....

And my wife and I finally finished off the last of these.....

Meanwhile, all the time all of this was going on, I was being watched....evaluated....and perhaps even judged....

(In the living room....)

(And from her place in my work room, where she can oversee my efforts and deem them "not worthy"....)

So as we close out this blog entry, I hope to see so many of you at Little Wars, having fun, chatting, making new friends and meeting old ones.

Be on the lookout for this Ol' Sea Dog will ya!

Arrrrrr!

(Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum!)

More to come!

Thanks for reading!