Mail call from GZG

Okay I don't post things that I get in the mail as often as I should and I will try to change that in the future, in the mean time I put a very large order for Ground Zero Games, they were having a big discount plus some extra goodies base on the size of your order.

So here's my haul and my specially added goodies! Way to much to take pictures of everything but you will get the idea.

Each bag must weigh over a pound each!

All in all it came weighting in at about six and half (6 1/2) or about three kilograms (3)

The Folks at Ground Zero Games, GZG as they are know by at many gaming sites, are great to work with and I have never been disappointed in their service or products. I highly recommend doing business with them. Located in England I generally get my goodies in about 7 to 10 days here in the upper Midwest. They keep you up to dated on your order every step of the way.

Always on the Look Out!

Always looking for a great find and this one come from Jo Ann's Fabrics, clearing out their Christmas stuff and they have these great looking trees.

They come 8 to a bag and were reduce to 2 Dollars a bag so I grabbed up 5 bags of them I feel that should be enough for a small woods or for around a park or what have you.

Tanks in the Wire!

Okay it's not about tanks, but is about wire or the simulation of barbed wire or concertina wire.

So seeing some the the great barbed wire terrain that other have made I thought that I needed some myself for defenses or obstacles.

Here is my attempt to do such a thing.

First I cut a strip of fiberglass screen so that it looks like a strand of wire with barbs on it.

Next I cut a line of brass 28 gauge wire twice the length of the Fiberglass screen.

Now the hard part, fold the brass wire in half at the loop you then place the looped end into the chuck of a drill,

 Now holding one wire and the fiberglass screen strip together with your finger tips, and the second wire you want to keep separate in your other fingers,

Now gently squeeze the trigger on the drill and let the drill do the work of twisting the wires and screen strip all together.

Trim the ends and now you'll have a long strand of barbed wire to do as you wish! Or wrap it around a small rod for making concertina wire. You could string it between wood post as well. Place it on top of chain link fence. Cut in in smaller sections for battlefield debris.

Here I wrap it around a small wood dowel.

Now it's a matter of basing and painting.

Hesco/Gabion Barriers

Seeing Hesco Barriers/Gabions Barriers from other manufactures and the cost to have enough to really do anything with, I figured I can just make them just as well after seeing someone else do it in 28mm range.

Tools and items needed are scissors, hobby knife, glue, 1/2 inch square wood dowel, fiberglass insect screen, hobby miter box and saw

So with a 1/2 inch square wooded dowel costing cutting it in to 1/2 inch cubes which would equal to a 4 foot by 4 foot cube more or less. A 48 inch dowel would make about 96 Barriers! But I know it will be less due to cut lost. It will still make for a lot of barriers.

Then some old fiberglass insect screen cutting it into 1/2 inch strips. I got my from a glass and screening place that does replacement for damaged windows and screens, I got a big piece for FREE!

Now with some wood glue I start gluing the screen strips to the wood cubes wrapping it around all four corners until the screen reaches each other then I just cut it away.

Once the glue has dried around the screen, I spread some glue on what I believe to be the top, I then had some sand to this fresh glue,

Once this is dried, you can mount them to a base to allow you to make a wall fast, You can make corners sections and straight sections, you can skip the sand part and just glue two of them together one on top of the other.

Now this might seem like a lot of work to get to this point but you can save a lot doing so, but you can have a fortified place that will look almost impenetrable.

I only made a couple for now just to see how the would look and to share what I have learned. I think they are going to be great and work really well for my gaming needs!

My plan is to use them in my Zombie games and post apocalyptic games mostly for the military units.

This project cost me less then 4 Dollars! And I'll have more then enough barriers then I can think of.

I hope the will inspire others as the post on The Miniatures Page did me! Now get out here and get your defenses UP and Running!

Basing Part #2

Mounting the figures is just a basic mounting in an earlier post, Super Glue and washers, as to why I like the looks, now to add more to the base to build it up as to cover the molded figure's base and to give it a more level looking platform.

Where to go from here?

I'm using Milliput this is some really great stuff, it's a two part epoxy putty that air drys and no heating it to harden needed.

Tools needed Hobby knife and spatula tool.

So mix up two equal parts together until it has a uniform color and now your ready to work.

I take a little of it and roll it in to a little rope/worm.

Then wrap it around the base and cut away the extra.

I then press it all in and around the base with my fingers, don't worry about finger prints we will make them go away.

Next using a flat edge tool I cut the extra away from the base.

Then with very little water I use my spatula tool to smooth everything out.

As you smooth the base out you may have to cut some extra putty so just use you hobby knife and have it handy as you go.

Now I'm a little out of practice but with time and practice they will become much smoother.

Now set it aside and let the putty harden.

Once dried you can sand the base a little smoother 

Now they are ready for a base coat of paint and painting.

I like the looks of a just plain old base without anything like ground cover or clumps of grass, Being that I don't like the looks of clumps of grass on the base when gaming in an urban areas or any build up area in general for most part and what little gaming I do in the open fields or woods is somewhat limited and still has a nice look to them.

This is not saying that if you like the look of ground cover and clumps of grass on your bases then I say go for it, the idea here is to help those who wish to make better looking bases for just that.

When finished the bases will be painted with a medium gray color, which works very well for me and I really like the looks and it allows your finished painted figure to stand out a little more.

The extra putty not used at this time is not going to go to waste, plan ahead you can make sandbags and other things with the extra putty.

I know this may seem very basic or that is something that every body already knows but, not everyone dose know and there is not many tutorials out there showing the next generation of gamers as to how.

New Zombie Rule Book

Okay this is the first of the new  series of RGP books "End Of the World" from Fantasy Flight Games http://fantasyflightgames.com/en/index/  "Zombie Apocalypse" the whole idea behind the series is to make a character that closely resembles one's self and try to survive the on coming apocalypses.

First book "Zombie Apocalypse" the second book not release as of yet is "Wrath of the Gods" which will be followed by the other two "Rise of the Machines" and "Alien Invasion".

First off the book's cover and it's bindings are very well done and should last you along time and the art work and graphic is done very well also.

The Rules are D6 base using positive and negative d6s. Characters get 6 characteristic abilities, Vitality, Dexterity, Charisma and so on, you as the player get 16 points to divide up between the six charactersitic of you character to pick and chose which are your strongest and weakest suit no one area can have less then 1 point or more then five points, then the playing group votes up or down each of these to get a character that best resembles you,

Now it doesn't end things there, what  you know or skills that you have can be added to your abilities as skills, this is a good thing for each single skill/ability that is applied to a task gives you one positive d6 to counteract the negative d6s, for example you have to get pass a magnet lock door and you have electrical skills and mechanical skills, If the GM applies 2d6 against you becaues it's a dark room and you are tired from lack of sleep.  You get 1d6 for attempting the task then you can apply both of those skills you have to give you an additional 2d6  apply to the task for a total of 3d6.

There are rules for dealing with stress, trauma and death.
Stress is the key factor, the stress you receive can kill you, if you never seem and dead body before and you see a dozen of them now this can add stress to you, now add someone shooting at you can add more stress and so fourth, but if you can recognize this stress and deal with it, you can turn it over into trauma, and time to rest is the only thing that can heal you from trauma. Trauma can slow you down or hamper you in getting task done using the example used above if you had a sprained wrist then the GM could have applied an additional d6 to the task you were attempting. Stress is broken down into three areas Physical, Mental and Social  and can hamper your character in all three of these areas, now there is some tracking of all of this but it seems from the rules and further reading all this can be tracked very well and easily followed. Now you can reduce gaining stress over time by building resistance in the three areas, like the area of Mental stress where seeing a dead body can be stressful over time it just part of the everyday life.

Movement is limited to maximum of 20 meters per turn.

There are guide lines to help run a good game and guide lines for running campaign games as well.

Rules for combat with zombies and other humans seem fairly straight forward. Rules about food, water, weapons and the amount of weight one can carry.

Weapons chart for most weapons and ranges, but you can do a good work around for additional weapons you wish to use easily,

Draw backs to the rule book;

There are no rules for vehicles, or vehicle movement.

There are no rules for using figures.

there are no rules for solo play

These short comings I feel can be worked around, by using rules from other game as to fill in the gaps in these areas. Or you can make your own house rules.

The book does have 5 scenarios for you to play out with players and NPCs with basic locations apartments hospitals and other locations alike, Plus plots to get you and your players involved in quickly

Each of the five scenarios has an apocalypse section covering from day one up to a couple of years to include time lines which are great for inserting as rumors or news headlines you can give your player to hear or see as News Flashes. The second half of each scenario is a post apocalypse situation for years later for which there are save havens for your players to work from and again a list of plot lines to work from with some additional applied rules.

Again each scenario has a list of plot line to try out but I can't see no reasons as to why you couldn't use some of them in different scenarios.

Scenario #1, A meteor brings all mammals back from the dead from mice to elephants not to mention the dearly departed. Basically their all ghouls that want to eat your brains!

Scenario #2. Only the humans come back from the dead. Basically "The Walking Dead"

Scenario #3. Again only the humans but the zombies are more like those from "28 Days Later" these guys can RUN, CLIMB and JUMP!

Scenario #4. You have to deal with Voodoo Zombies and deal with a clan of Voodoo Priest and their followers from around the world wanting to create a new world to rule over.

Scenario #5 Your group deals with Zombies that are much like the creature from "The Thing" the host is infected with a parasite that takes over and devours the host body from within, looking for new hosts, cutting off a limbs only make two threats to worry about now! Fire is a good tool to use!

Now I'm sure you could run any scenario with any zombie type you would like to use just replace the type of zombie you want to run out all the plot lines.

Over all it's a really good book one can have hours of fun with! I believe the other books will have many of the same rules but different rules for dealing with there different titles.

Basing Figures

I have seen a lot of folks out there basing their figures on coins, pennies here in the U.S. and the equivalent to such in many other countries, I myself had thought of doing such until I had seen someone basing their figures on washers, seeing the size of the washer and the size of the penny side by side with a figure mounted on each I knew then I needed to use washers.

The washer being smaller then the penny had a better look to them the base was much smaller and look better proportional to the figure. basically it just looked right to me. I know pennies are cheaper and washers cost more for a box of 100 they cost about $4 dollars for 1/4 inch size that's the hole diameter.

A bonus is that you can line the bottom of your storage box with magnetic strips to keep your figures in place while move such boxes around with very little to no harm to your figures.

Be sure to wash your figures first to remove all the mold release agents before you do any work with your figures.

Size wise the washer looks like the right size.

I like to use wax paper when mounting the figures to the base, I lay the wax paper down layout my washers the add Super Glue Gel to the washer then place my figure in place. the wax paper works well to prevent the washer and glue from sticking to any surface that you really don't want it to be glued too.

figures are from different suppliers but all look good mounted on washers

Now I can build up the base for it to look right. I like a smoother look to my bases just seems right to have a nice looking smooth base other then rocks and plants on the base when you have your figures running around an spaceship or building and the have plants all around their feet. where as when they are on open ground is not as noticeable.

Mourning Our Lost

I apologize for not posting anything lately We have been mourning our loss of a family member.

My Sister-in-Law, My best friend, My Sister at Heart, was one of the dearest people for me to have have in my life, lost her battle with cancer

She was a Wife, a mother of three, a sister, a best friend, someone you could turn to for very good advice or for a shoulder to cry on and a solider to boot U.S. Army Retired.

Jenny

Jenny We love You and Our hearts feel the emptiness of your passing, You will always be missed and love but never forgotten!