543 - Still Stupidly Busy; Still Gaming and Building

Just checking in. 

Normal service should resume next week...and then I shall have some catching-up to do, methinks...!

Proof, if proof were needed:

Benefit of having an opponent who 'vapes'...

- Drax.

542 - Even More Terrain Building and Gaming! What the--?!

Hullo!
I'm stupidly busy, and it's great. And exhausting. And great. And exhausting.

And great.

Work is going full tilt, I'm trying to get a job for a year in America, I've got half a table 'built' for a tournament less than a fortnight away, and somehow - somehow - I've managed to get a game of Bolt Action in...with another planned for this week! 

YAY!

Details of my new-found club will emerge eventually, as will the pics of my last gaming night of cinematic X-Wing defeat...and a windmill update... but for now I shall leave you with two things. 

1) Some quick pics of last week's fun Bolt Action game (against a mixed Paras/Commando force), and
2) The joyous knowledge that my PIAT team somehow managed to one-shot a Cromwell. I can now die happy.

KA-BOOM!

...and then I lost mine, to an airstrike. Fair enough.

- Drax.


PS: Is my blog looking weird to you too, or is it just me?

541 - Really Busy with Hobby Stuff!

Hullo, All.

I've been away from the blogosphere again, but for once it's because of the hobby: In the last fortnight I've (a) played three - THREE! - games of X-Wing and (b) been working flat-out on constructing a portable 'Dutch Polders'-themed gaming board for a Bolt Action tournament in early February...the centrepiece of which is a hulking great scratch-built Windmill with three playable levels, a balcony and rotating cap and sails.

No time to write more, but I have ABSOLUTELY LOVED THIS CHALLENGE - especially trying to do it all on the cheap - so here are some ropey ol' pics in order of progress. 

Trust me: I DO have a plan...:

Looking for dykes in Homebase...

Floors A,B and C. As is so often the case with me, the cardboard was supposed to be a mock-up, but it worked so well and was so sturdy that I decided to just go for it. 

Dear God, but that glue-gun has come into its own! The best £4 (incl. 50 glue sticks) I ever spent!

I added the balcony and railing...

Made a storage out-building to go with the windmill, provide the only other bit of solid cover and enable me to test techniques out - like the shingles on the walls, which will hopefully cover parts B and C of the windmill too...

I am very lucky that my two daughters are well-behaved, as I've nowhere safe to leave works-in-progress...

Changes to the map after a realisation and some frantic back-pedalling 

Yesterday, the faux fur arrived, and at last I could start blocking-out the table in all its polder-y openness...

obviously, both the windmill and the outbuilding will be at dyke-level.

sans-sails, it's about 13" tall.

This is about 90 minutes' work. And by 'this' I mean painstakingly hot-gluing the cereal packet strips overlapping across the polystyrene-filled yoghurt pot...that in itself took even longer to construct. 

gables and stove-pipe added...

no-frills interior

[apart from a vague attempt at scoring some planking, just as a trial]

...and oh boy, did THESE take some working out. I'm happy with them now though: VERY happy. They are paired, and they separate for easier transport

Some of my original ideas. Hexagons are very pleasing and surprising shapes to work with.

Fly Casual,


- Drax.