10mm Battle of Islandlwana

I've been a little lax lately, so I need to post some pics of past games.

Here's a few pics from a 2009 game of the "Battle of Islandlwana" with my 10mm Colonial/Zulu miniatures.

 Here's the column of British troops marching along.

 

A closer look at the 10mm troops. 

Here, the battle unfolds as the British engage the Zulus on several fronts in order to protect the wagons & supplies. 

The "spread out" British line is proving not to be much of a match for the zulu impis.

20mm Modern: U.S. Riverine Patrol Craft

One of my numerious projects involves scratchbuilding some water patrol craft for my U.S. forces.  I'd like to use them for duty in Modern Iraq/Afghanistan games as well as anti-piracy and/or Somali amphibious operations in Africa. 

 

Here are some of the inspirational photos I was using.

This is what I started with: a cheap, dollar store, Chinese-made, wind up boat. 

Here, the model has had the rear engine removed, bottom cut/flattened out, and the seating area cut out. Scrap Plasticard (old credit cards and etc.) are used for the new interior.

 Here, the rear platform and the driver control station is installed.

 Yes, I'm working on 4 at the same time, 3 are shown here.

 Here, the 'equipment bar' has been installed as well as the pintel mount on the bow for the automatically controlled 50 cal. MG. (The MG is from http://www.stanjohansenminiatures.com/)

 Here, we see them from the back.  2 of them are standard, while the other 2 have the added side armor plating to protect the soldiers in the boat.

 Here's the armored boat before priming and painting.

 Here's the un-armored boat before priming and painting.

Here's one of the boats after priming. It really does fit a 4-man squad and a boat driver/pilot. 

Two of them will be painted black for special ops, while the other 2 will be painted tan with some camo for use in the daytime.

20mm/15mm Persian Rugs for your buildings

Here are some Persian rugs that can be printed out (or rescaled for larger/smaller scales) to add some variety to your buildings and making them a little bit more 'homely' in the process. It certainly makes a difference.

Modern 15mm African Mosque

Again, a fellow gamer needed a mosque for his upcoming 15mm Mogadishu game, and I built one. I had the most fun with this one and plan to build one in 20mm scale for my games.  I hope he remembers to point the mosque in the right direction towards Mecca for his game. All the roofs/tower is removable as well as the trees. Notice the tile work in the mosque.  Any troops assaulting this mosque are in for quite a fight.

Modern 15mm Hotel 'Olympia' on comission.

A fellow gamer wanted a 15mm Hotel built for his upcoming Mogadishu game, so I built one.  There weren't a lot of references to go by, so I did take some artistic license in building it. I tried a new technique whereas I left the street side of the muli-story building intact, but built each floor individually so they fit right into place.  This way, you could have floor by floor fighting, without destroying the look of the building from the street-side. (Notice the two-story lobby space, continuous elevator shaft, and stairs to the roof in both corners.) The sign on the roof is removable (sign is built on a metal base and their is a small magnet on the roof) and I made additional signs for him to use.  Also, the palm tree 'oasis' in the courtyard is removable, giving him more flexibility there as well.

Modern African Shanties: A commission project

A fellow gamer wanted some 15mm Shanty structures for an upcoming African/Somali/Mogadishu miniatures game. I game 20mm moderns, so building in 15mm would be a little change of pace. I also had some spare vehicle bits in 15mm that I'd never use, so I made a couple of additional scenery pieces. Here are some pictures of the project, from beginning to end. It did give me some needed practice, and I plan to make some in 20mm for myself.