Great Wargaming Survey 2023

Three takeaways from the 2023 Great Wargaming Survey are resin printers are popular, 98% of wargamers are in the hobby for life, and the average age of historical wargamers is rising.

Actually, go watch the video, it's worth watching.

My takeaway, we are all getting older, even us SF &F wargamers. The survey while an outstanding achievement is still self-selecting for those who know and can be bothered to answer. Caveat, none of us are getting younger.

That's all. Sharing because I care about stuff I do.

Thanksgiving Aftermath

It has been a long time since I posted a Thanksgiving post, but today we're recovering from last night's meal with Susan's colleague from work, Simon Bland, who really appreciated being invited to share a feast with us. He's lovely.

And while Simon didn't want his picture taken, and Susan was far too flustered to have hers taken, she took a lovely picture of me, which I'm going to share just because I love her for taking it.

Y'all have a great weekend, and catch you on the bounce.

Warfare 2023 Show at Farnborough

For the first time since Covid lockdown in 2020 we've been to a wargame show. We met up with Paul from The Man Cave. He described our conversation as erudite, which is totally flattering given the amount of cussing a typical conversation with me entails.

I looked around the show, but only bought some size 0 Kolinsky sable brushes that were on offer. I saw a lot of bargains, but I need more stuff to paint like I need another hole in my head.

Susan took a picture of me looking at temptation and resisting the urge to buy more stuff. There were plenty of great looking games being run.

Above and below are a couple of pictures of the impressive games on show.

For a full on video showing what we saw, check out Big Lee of Miniature Adventures, who has you covered.

And Susan caught me on camera wondering around the vast hall. As you can see there was a plethora of tournaments games being played on the day too.

And afterwards I gave Paul a lift back to London in my M1009 CUCV Chevy Blazer.

We were blessed with nice weather and had a great day out.

Big Little Wars: Post 12 - Small Robotic Attack Platforms (SRAP)

Small Robotic Attack Platforms (SRAP)

Small robotic attack platforms (SRAP) is a generic catch-all term that covers all remotely operated small robotic vehicles. Human oversight is required for them to move and attack.

Remotely operated SRAPs come in a range of configurations with different capabilities. The most commonly seen are small flying drones, more correctly referred to as a UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle).

Civilian SRAPs are only available at defense of 2, because they are commercial platforms rigged to carry weapons. Armoured military variants have a defense of 4.

However, unarmed reconnaissance UAVs are often deployed by the military as semi-autonomous vehicles. See Semi-Autonomous Combat Platforms (SACP) in the Armoured Fighting Vehicles section (coming soon in a separate post).

Small robotic platforms are not affected by shock, so they are not assigned a shock rating. But they can be hacked. Small robotic platforms are bought as needed, but are not always available to players in all scenarios.

Creating Small Robotic Attack Platforms

The base cost for each small robotic attack platform is the movement added to the defense value. This section provides examples explaining how to use the tables below to create and cost the value of unmanned robotic attack vehicles. 

SRAPs must pay to mount weapons and the for cost of the weapon. All movement is in meters.

The weapons for SRAPs can be found below, added at cost. Chosen from the available weapons for the size of mount chosen.

I'm all too aware of the time between this and the last post about these rules. No excuses, it's all down to me dropping the ball.

Finally, thoughts and opinions always welcome.

NB: Big Little Wars posts to date.

OMWB: Frustrating Big Buster Rebuild

This is what I've been working on for the last month, with additional delays due to new glasses and general life events getting in the way. I wanted to improve the fit of the torso by seating the magnets better.

However, the first delay was waiting for more magnets to arrive.

This model is one of a pair I originally built as reference for the artist I commissioned for the cover art for my novels. So this build served a dual purpose.

 

I also wanted to take the opportunity to refit and upgrade an earlier conversion with ball joints. Adding ball joints appeals to my inner nerd. 

 

Shock horror, it did not go well. There was much buggeration with the old two steps forward, one step back. But, challenging setbacks are an opportunity to improve.

The other part of the rebuild was changing the backpack and pop up missile pack using parts from a RAFM Kodiak I'd acquired.

 And here it is. Looking totally bad ass even if I say so myself.

But, another mishap occurred when drilling the attachment points for the ammo chute (not seen because, duh!), when the drill bit broke. So, still a work in progress.

It is what it is.

The Big Scopedog: Blogoversary too!

I've got my new glasses and can see to start work again, but everything on the table is still very much a work in progress, where progress can be defined as close to zero as to make no difference.

Sucks to be me.

Still, I got my big 1/12th scale Takara Scopedog down off the shelf to dust it off, and reassemble the cockpit that had come astray when showing the mech off to friends.

Now dusted, and photographic proof to boot.

NB: Added as I just realised this is the same date as my first blog post that was 14 years ago. Doesn't time fly?

OMWB: CASE-2X Version 3

Above is my third CASE-2X Mod 1 variant standing pose mostly completed. I say mostly because I need to restore detail lost from the conversion. Delayed by illness impacting my ability to work due to the pain in my wrists.

It's a bitch.

Again, the model is poseable. So the torso twists, the arms and head can move using magnetized ball joints. 

Though I've yet to assemble the missile pack the model is largely complete.

OMWB: CASE-2X Kneeling

 

Still feeling a bit rough from Covid, so this is just a compilation of pictures taken so far with this project, which by comparison, made the conversion I did for the Hunter running pose seem like a piece of cake.

There was just so much fettling to make the pose work.

When one cuts a casting apart to rebuild it, what one finds is how much is wonky with the sculpt. Nothing is truly square or symmetrical, and well this just makes everything more difficult.

Nowadays, with digital sculpting this would not be a problem

However, digital sculpts can end up looking lifeless, which takes a really good artist to add life back into the finished product.

Also, for this conversion I wanted to mount a gauss rifle, as described in Bad Dog.

So, I assembled some parts to make a nice chunky, but not too oversized model. I used a Rapid Fire Bazooka from the Dream Pod 9 1/144th range as the base on which to mount  a combination of original RAFM weapon parts.

As before, there's still some detailing work to finish this conversion, which is delayed by my ongoing infection leaving me a bit ragged around the edges.

Still, I'm pretty pleased with the repose.

OMWB: CAS-3-Mod 1 Kneeling

After gathering a bunch of a parts I eventually got around to assembling my kneeling CAS-3-Mod 1 Ape. I changed out the yellow part in the picture above for another for this conversion.

After drilling to magnetize the torso, I found that the body couldn't turn because it interfered with the raised plates on legs. Hence the photo on the right showing how I rebuilt the parts so that the torso would clear the plates, which I really shouldn't have had to do because this was sculpted as a kneeling Gear.

So, I bit the bullet and re-sculpted the lower torso top, and corrected the mismolded lower torso.

Finally, with that corrected, I could finish the conversion. As you can see I've added some stowage.

I have some old RAFM weapons, quite a few in fact, but some of the weapons are ridiculously large. Hence the substitution of the new Heavy Grenade Launcher from the current Dream Pod 9 1/144th range.

I decided to make the torso on this version a recon specialist variant inspired by the Ape suits that in my novel Strike Dog.I used a part from the current Kodiak from Dream Pod 9.

My plan is to make six mechs given that each half of the detachment was a mirror of the other. So, this model represents either Sergeant Mary Lewis, communications, or Sergeant Miguel Sanchez, communications from my novel Strike Dog.

Combat Armor Suit Detachment Alpha 5136

    Captain Anthony Downey, detachment commander
    Master Sergeant Campbell, operations and team sergeant
    Staff Sergeant Morales, combat engineer
    Sergeant Mary Lewis, communications
    Sergeant Schmidt, medical
    Sergeant First Class Frank Radoslovich, weapons

    Chief WO1 Andrew McAdams, assistant detachment commander
    Sergeant First Class Thomas Nguyen, assistant operations and intelligence
    Staff Sergeant Julia King, combat engineer
    Sergeant Miguel Sanchez, communications
    Sergeant Daniel Robinson, medical
    Staff Sergeant Juan Espera, weapons

And yes, this means I working on three more CAS-3 Ape conversions.

Still some final detailing to finish, which is going be delayed because after three and a half years of avoiding catching COVID19 I've tested positive. To say I feel ill only scratches the surface, and I can't remember being this ill in over forty years.

Guess it sucks to be me.

Girls und Panzer

We've seen some of these Girls und Panzer episodes and they're all a hoot to watch.

For those who like to play wargames then TooFatLardies What a Tanker would be perfect for recreating a Girls und Panzer campaign.