Slowly taking shape

The work on the Corinth board continues. I have now made a descision on the railroad and are going to build it directly on the board. The painting off the open fields and the woods are done and I have started on the roads. I am also planing on how to make the defence systems that was built around Corinth. They will be removable so I can use them in other scenarios.

My work table all cluttered with work material.

Close up on one of the four parts that will be the battlefield of Corinth.

Two of them togheter so you can see how they fit.

The start of my railroad. I will try to use some wire for the tracks.

I am along with this process also thinking about making terrain in a more traditional way. That is terrain pieces that I can put on the table in different ways to create new battlefields.

Here is a last shot on the confederates waiting to get some paint on them.

Two batteries, one cavalry and one dismounted cavalry. Not that much...

Roll Sixes/

Conny

Bobby Lee

Some time ago I found a kickstarter for Columbia Games Bobby Lee 3rd edition. It looked good and before I knew it I was on. And today it arraived in my mail box, Bobby Lee! I opened the box and have now prepared everything to be able to start playing. But now it has to wait a bit so I can continue to prepare for GothCon. The rules are by my bed so I at least can read them before I sleep. The rulebook is only 12 pages and have a good layout and language so I don't think it will be that difficult to get going.

At last two pictures of the game:

I will try to return to this game later on to tell you all about it and what I think of it.

Roll Sixes/

Conny

Labels, paint and stress

Hello all

Well the work continues but not at the speed that I had hoped for. The renovation of the basement takes its time and the garden looks like the no mans land during world war one. But I have started to paint the Corinth board. I still have a problem with how I will make some railroads. There is companies that sell railroads but then comes the problem of making them fit the board. At the moment I am thinking about cutting a lot of toothpicks and start glueing... oh well we will see what happens in due time.
The labels on the other hand are going fine and they are done. There will be some small adjustments when I find them. They are difficult to get right since the armies involved had a complicated structure since the north had two armies intermingled and the same in the south. But I think I have a nice set up of it now.

Here you have a picture of some of the labels. I always try to find pictures of the commanding officers since I think it improves the labels some. I also have all information on the labels that the players need. DG for example stands for Dedicated Guns. The number in the square just to the right of the nations flag is the moral value for the brigade and so on. The color at the bottom of the label shows what corps or in this case what army the brigade belongs to. The number in the colored space to the right of the label are what division the troops belongs to. 

It is 46 days to GothCon and I still need to paint and base the last confederates that I need. I have prepared them so I hope I will manage to get the painting going this week. The Corinth board must be done to. So a bit stress there is but I am fortunate to have a week of from work just before GothCon so I am not that worried just jet. 

I have completed the book "A landscape turned red" to. It was a good read and even that you know how the battle went you hade some Aha experiences. So I recommend the book for all that are interested in the american civil war to read!

Next time I hope I have some pictures of the board to show you all, but until then...

Roll Sixes/

Conny

How to make a base

Hi again

The union have now got some more troops. I had forgot that the cavalry could dismount so I still need to do some dismounted cavalry. The bases are done and I thought that I would tell you how I do this. 

Here are the finished division commander. But he is not ready for the board just jet. So here we go:

All the bases on the miniature are done. Now starts the making of the larger base were I can put my labels. 

I start with cutting out some OH-paper to the base sizes I intend to use.

I will cover the larger base with this OH-paper with some super glue. Important here is to not get glue were the labels are going to be. I always paint the place for the label. Blue for the union and grey for the confederate.

You see here how I try to keep the glue at the front of the base. After this I glue the base with miniatures on this base. Same here keep the glue at the front!

Now I have a lip at the back of the base were I can put the label I need dependent on the scenario.

I can also mark the base with an OH-penn. 

This time I used a different kind of base that made this process more easy. Earlier  I have used a base made of white plastic that I needed to paint the edges on and cut to size. Now I bought bases from Pendraken and they are excellent. The edges are a bit darker and the base is about 1mm higher but I can live with that ;). Here are a final picture of all the new troops.

Now it is time to start preparing the confederate troops that I need. But I have also put a flag on some confederate troops to HRR to. 

That was all for now. The labels to Corinth are all but done. I will give you a picture as fast as I have one.

Roll sixes/

Conn

Thinking ahead

My house is in chaos still and my wargame room  aka "The Bunker" are up side down and therefore I have trouble to work on my project for GothCon. I have managed to salvage some items up in the house so I can paint and base some miniatures anyway. But the board has been put on hold at the moment. Hopefully my basement will be finished at the end of next week and life return to normal pace.

But now to the headline of this post. I have already decided what the next project are going to be after GothCon2014. The project will then be the demo I will show up at GothCon2015. If all goes faster than I plan maybe I can show it at Gubbspels Galore 2014, but I think that can be difficult.
Anyway the new project are one that I have thought of a long time and it is Naval and river combat with Ironclads and ships. I asked a question at the forums at The Miniatures Page about rules and got many, many answers, thanks to the kind gentlemen. I also found some blogs about this topic and darn there are many talented war gamers out there!
For the moment I am reading rules and searching for miniatures. There are many good companies in the US making fine looking boats. But, and that is a large BUT, it is very expensive to order from Europe with tax and shipping etc. So at the moment I am looking at Peter Pigs range 7 that have nice looking boats and accessories like forts and land batteries. The rules I read are at the moment are River Wars by Bob Johnson. They have a nice lay out and are easy to read.

The second rule set are Victory on the River by David Manley. I have not read that much of them so can't say so much. But I got them for free on the internet. I am also thinking about buying the rules from Peter Pig, Hammerin  Iron 2.

Well time will tell what rules I will go for. There are a lot of rules out there and I am still looking and reading reviews etc.

Here are some pictures from Peter Pigs range. I have taken the photos from their webbsite so they are not mine.

The work will now continue with basing of the union troops and I can soon show you some picture of them. The labels to the Corinth scenario are also soon ready to use and I will let you all have a sneak peak of them to :). Some more troops have landed in my mailbox to so now I can make 10 brigades more for the union and the confederates.

Roll sixes/
Conny

Work on all fronts

At the moment there are work on all fronts. My basement are at the moment a workplace and in my garden I have an excavator digging all along my house to improve the drainage. This makes it difficult for me to get to my bunker and work on the board and miniatures to GothCon.

But all is not lost and some work has been done and GothCon draws near...

Here you have the board with hills and edges to the streams done.

Here I have used wall filler to smooth the edges.

The difficulty now will be how to make a railroad that fits the board. I have some ideas and have got some good advices at some forums. Oh well that comes later. Anyone have a good idea about this please write a comment about it.

I have done little on the bases for my union troops but have none the less made some small progress.

All bases has got some gravel on them and I have started to paint them. I also started to do some new labels for the scenario. I am trying to make them more clear as of what formation the different brigades belongs to. I will put up pictures of them when I have some.

Roll Sixes/

Conny

Work progress on Corinth

Hi

The work on the Corinth board has started for real now. With 75 days until GothCon I need to speed up some if I am going to make it all ready. I use white glue and gravel to get an edge to the streams. Then I will use some filler to get a smooth transition to the board. The hills I make with cardboard in layers. Then I will use filler to smooth the hills. O well need to make some defences to and I still have to do the missing troops. The basing continues with the union force and the confederates are being prepared to be painted. Here are some pictures of the work in progress. I am also preparing a how to of how I do my bases for Volley & Bayonet. 

Well white glue and gravel as promised.

This is how it looks after I remove the gravel.

Here you see the rivers are almost done. The glue on the hills need to dry before I can start applying the filler. This time I am also trying to do the board in pieces for easy of transport and storage. My Bull Run board is rather large and therefore difficult to store ;)

Roll Sixes/

Conny