Northwest Invasion II - 1,675-point Mid-war tournament on October 26th, 2013 at Guardian Games

On October 26th 2013, players from all over the northwest will be descending on Portland, OR for a club challenge across state lines! Local players will be defending their territory against all comers. Pairings will be done by team, so you get a chance to play folks you don't normally play...and you won't have to play the folks you rode with.

Not a competitive player? No problem...this is an event for the fun of it. Prizes will be done by raffle, so everybody has a shot at the loot! Every player gets one entry into the prize drawings, with bonus entries for Best Overall, Tourney Aces (best score per team), Best Painted, and Best Sportsman.

An event trophy is given to the highest-scoring team to keep until the next Invasion.  For now, it resides in Portland.  Next time...who knows.

Wargame Airbrushing 01: multi-purpose rigs

To get an airbrush rig on the table top, I got to combine two of the great things in life... modelling, and home improvement stores.  For this particular build, I had a few criteria:  keep it multi-purpose, portable, and suitable to long painting sessions (my preferences), and keep it quiet (my wife's preference).

This particular setup has a few bells and whistles that are not required for basic airbrushing...I will make note of those optional components when they come up.  The order I list them is the order I connect them in the final rig.

Tank Spank 1 - September 21st, 2013 at PLU

Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, WA is hosting a Gamerati Game Day September 21st, 2013. 

From noon to 5pm, I will be running Tank Spank 1...the trial run of a Late War all-tank Flames of War event.  Tank Spank uses most of the Tank Aces campaign rules (as presented in Blood, Guts and Glory) with a few exceptions listed below.

There will be demos and pick-up games for Flames and other systems going on from 10am until midnight; card games upstairs, miniatures downstairs, not sure about the board games and traditional games...but they will be in the building!

British 25pdr Battery Part Two: Crew and Gun Basing

Okay, now that the artillery dudes and their toys are done, it is time to get them on bases.  It felt like the basing took longer than the painting did, but I wasn't keeping track of how long each step took, so who knows.  I was going a little slower than usual, as I was trying out some new materials and techniques, but I like the overall effect, so I suppose it was worth the extra time.  The target deadline is Memorial Day weekend, as a friend of mine needs them for a tournament at Enfilade 2012, so there is plenty of time...the associated vehicles (14 or so tractors and transports) are primed and basecoated, so won't take that long to knock out.

Anyway, let's finally get these guns on the tabletop!

British 25pdr Battery Part One: Artillery Crew

To help a friend of mine get started in Flames of War, I am painting some of the British minis I have had in various stages of assembly for about five years a little while.  Called around to find some folks willing to trade some primed American stuff for primed British, and off we go!

First up is a two-section battery of 25-pounder artillery pieces and assorted staff elements.  I decided to start with the arty crews, as they would be the most time-consuming part of the unit.  He is going for late-war Desert Rats, so brown and brown it is, with a little khaki thrown in for flavor.  He will be using a maxed-out battery, so it will have eight crew teams, three command teams, two observer teams, and a staff team.  There are associated vehicles, but I'll be doing those later, at the same time as the guns themselves.

Flames of War in the South Puget Sound area

So, we have some stuff to put On The Table Top.  Now we need a tabletop!

I keep going through the same routine every time I road-trip in the local area...walk out the door, run back inside to Google "game stores" near the destination while the car warms up, then head out.  To shorten that process, I figured I would have some results staged in advance.  Here are some of the stores within an hour or two of Lacey, WA:

Spray-painting invasion stripes

L4 AOP w/ Invasion Stripes

Used by US forces in the latter part of WWII primarily as an artillery spotter, the L4 Grasshopper Aerial Observation Post was a nifty addition to the arsenal.  Google it for some additional coolness...some nutso pilots decided to arm them with bazookas and go into ground-attack mode!

Now, you could paint it by hand, but I'm going to use some masking techniques and spray paint to get a Grasshopper AOP on the table.