1870 Franco-Prussian war - unit workups for The Men Who Would Be Kings rules.

From the Antique Roadshow, Sept 8/13.

http://youtu.be/UR_qh2phhz8

An interview with (I believe she says), Colonel Olive O'Keefe, at the Eastborne Bandstand, discussing his grandfather George's lead soldier collection, started in the early 1870's.  Also mentioned are George's wargaming exploits, his note book, and travels with his soldiers.
Note that this period predates published wargaming rules !

"Emperor George !"

Sometimes when you are bidding on interesting figures on Ebay, you toss a dollar on an odd figure and win - its like the thrill of gambling.  I knew nothing about this figure when I won him for about $1.

My Google-Fu is pretty strong...  but when I turned up nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing on the whole of the interwebs on this figure.... I figured there had to be reason... and at that point.. I turned to the collective wargaming hive-mind that is The Miniatures Page....  and boy.. what I story behind this little guy....

http://theminiaturespage.com/boards/msg.mv?id=298703

Wow... 

A Friendly Building.

Built:  October 2012

So I got a phone call:  

" Hey can we come over tomorrow and use your gaming table and terrain.. cuz we don't have any ? "

"Sure" says I.

".. if you happened to have a building that would be great too..."

Lacking anything period suitable for their needs...  I said "Sure!".

And so it begins..  dropping everything non-gaming that I was in the middle of, as the Valkyries in the Attic were making too much noise for me to focus on anything else...  I scratch built a building in about 2 hours, without any detailed plans, or even a shopping trip... 

 

A sloppy slightly medieval stylised workshop of some sorts - suitable for a steam punk inventor I suppose.

Removable roof- just lift it off.

Balsa wood framing.
Cork sheet for walls & floor.
Styrene Chimney - from a gardening fan-like thing, for tying tomatoes too. (Dollar Store).
Hinges - from the wooden craft boxes (Dollar Store) that I used in a previous project.

Covered the roof frame with thin Balsa sheet, to give it some firmness.
The Straw Mat is a cheap yoga mat from the Dollar Store (previously used in the failed jungle huts projects).

Turned out ok.  Doors work nicely, the metal hinges are much better then the plastic nylon aircraft hinges I've been using.  The roof looks pretty good.

 With a bit more paint, and some detailing, it will be ok.

Oh look, someone's moved in already, and put the kettle on for tea !

Toy Soldier Picture Frame

Saw this in the window of a local eclectic artsy/used item store.

The frame has toy soldiers, toy animals, kinder surprises toys, etc glue on it, and all painted like it was the original frame.  Pretty nifty.

No idea what the actual artwork in the centre was suppose to be, the frame eclipsed everything for me.

*  Apologies for the extremely hodge-podge multi-photo garbage collage, the strong glare off the glass made a picture from further back useless.

https://www.facebook.com/PlanBHalifax

Rulers

Measuring is an important part of Wargaming.

However Tape Measures are be very awkward devices - can't be used one handed (need your other hand to pull the tape out), sometimes the lock doesn't hold, weights a lot if you drop it on a figure & your foot, and it can be hard to measure short or tight distances with its bulky size.
A gamer once brought his electric tape measure to a game - it extends & contracts with the push of a button.  Rather a handy good idea I admit.  But the sound of coffee beans being ground every time he extended and measured and retracted, extended and measured and retracted, extended and measured and retracted, drove me crazy...

I prefer to use a folding ruler - perhaps its eccenticity appeals to me, but I can't think of any reason that it stands out as superior to a tape measure.

The best device I've found so far, is the multi-sectional kids ruler (blue).
Each section is 1", which makes short distances easy to measure without needing numbers.  Its flexibility makes measuring short or awkward distances a breeze.  And its sorta fun to play with, without any annoying noise.  They are difficult to find, but kids stores, teachers stores, etc, can be a start.  They are on Ebay (search: plastic folding ruler) (three for ~$10). 

Tin Man

Official Hallmark "Wizard of OZ" Tin Man Xmas tree ornament.

Suitable for my 28mm VSF games, although may work for larger or smaller scales as well.

These go for about $10 online, I found this one at a yard sale for $1.

Definitely needs to be armed with an Axe....