Yes, it’s been a while since I updated you on the project – a month! It often seems like either everything is going on at the same time, or we are waiting and nothing is happening , and November 2021 was such a month.
Lots of external and internal issues happened. I had Historicon, surgery, Thanksgiving, and weather to deal with, plus a broken dishwasher and some old school Vikings minis to paint that I just posted about. So, where are we? Like I wrote, some days it was like crazy-town with activity, and others like crickets as we waited for inspections or materials. We are further along but winter is coming – so I’ll give you the progress time line in pictures.
As a reminder – as of November 6th – the project looked like this:
Week 17 – November 7th to 13th
November 9
Evandro’s guys excavated the gas line (by hand) into the fire pit area.The windows were prepped for installation.Finally – after a long supply chain delay, windows and siding arrived and were moved onto the job site.
November 10
Early Wednesday morning shows the front window getting installed, Don Millette putting the gas line in the trench, and the Victors supervising.
Gas line in trenchGas Line hookup in fire pitGas line installation.The transom windows and door frame.
Frame going in!
Bathroom window, 2nd floorGarage back windowOther windows went in too.
Back side of the building showing installed windows.
Then, a minor supply-chain-related crisis. Evandro (our masonry guy) found out that the paving stones that we wanted were not available. We would need to scramble. I told Evandro that for this project I was function (what works), and my wife Lynn was form (i.e. she picks colors and similar choices – what looks good). At the time Lynn was at work, and Evandro had a book of stone examples but no physical samples. As it’s a major decision, we asked to see some, and Evandro came back later in the evening (after dark) with probably a dozen full-size paving stones as samples (each weighing maybe 30 pounds). We thought the samples would be, well, small! Anyways, by flashlight we were able to make a choice so Evandro could keep going. The choices are less bluish, but still a nice mixed gray hue.
Original choice – not in stockNext choiceThe paving stone issue.
The next day I was off to Historicon, returning Sunday the 14th.
Week 18 – November 14th to 20th
November 14
When the sun came up, this was the progress while I was away. You can see progress on the patio and the doors and windows.
Sunday morning November 14th showed me this!
However, Evandro was still at work that Sunday trying to take advantage of the good weather.
Lots of paving stones.
Paving stones going in on smoothed sandReverse angle
The other progress was nice as well on doors and windows.
Deck doorwaySmall garage door
While I was away, our dishwasher decided to shed its mortal coil – or at least to begin to leak. This was not part of the project, but needed attention as we also discovered that we needed new valves under the kitchen sink. Luckily we got a plumber to replace the valves and found a dishwasher model locally for delivery later in the week.
November 15
The patio made significant progress on the 15th getting under the stairs.
November 16
On the 16th, Evandro was well into prepping the fire pit for paving stones – but the gas line needed inspection before we could go further.
Gas line passed inspectionThe artistic corner cut by the garage.
November 17
The morning of the 17th there was a heavy frost – yes, my roof is not normally white. Jonny Victor was early and got going on the siding installation.
Siding going up.
November 18
The weather warmed up significantly on the 18th, which made it an ideal day to replace our front door. It had been previously ordered to be installed in the summer, but the retailer screwed up and sent a door with no stain on it. That was sent back, and finally the new one arrived.
The old front door with the storm door over it. The storm door had trapped sunlight (and heat) and delaminated our front door, so it needed replacement.
The old door and side panes are removed.The new door is carried in.
Inside showing the new door, unfortunately it’s defective!
The door width was 1/8″ wider in the middle than at the top! So, it sticks, and will need to be redone – unfortunately – but as it’s a manufacturing defect we should be ok with a replacement. Timing in November is not good, and it only gets colder. At least the old one is gone now.
Evandro progressed on paving the fire pit.
And on the same day, the dishwasher was delivered for installation – so yeah, busy.
Out with the old……in with the new.New dishwasher installation happening in the midst of the front door installation.
November 19
Early morning Friday the 19th showing siding and patio progress around the fire pit. All pavers are cut to shape.
Electrical work connecting the power in the house to the garage went on – plus a fluorescent light was replacement in the cellar with a safer LED.
November 20
On Saturday, Evandro’s crew kept going – this time attacking the overburden pile of dirt they had previously excavated for the patio and gas line by hand. This was needed as we expected to get the driveway paved with a base course of asphalt within a week.
Moving the overburden by hand.
And it’s gone!
Progress at the end of a very busy week.
Week 19 – November 21st to 27th
November 22
On the 22nd, I was scheduled for minor surgery at noon – and I checked out the project. Siding work continued.
Siding work continuing by the deck door.
The surgery went ok, but I was pretty much out the rest of the day! Anesthesia and I do not work well together…
November 23
This was a part of the construction project that I really wanted to see close up – Bill Keyes Asphalt doing the paving! However, I was in no shape physically to do much more than poke my head out of the door or through a window to take pictures.
Gravel base materialPaving equipment arrivesGarvel was spread.Gravel leveledGravel compactedAshpalt arrivesSpreading the asphalt by the paving stones.Asphalt operationsAsphalt set and curing (like I was trying to do at the same time in the house).
November 24
The next day, the siders came back and installed the shutters and repaired the siding by the house deck that had to be replaced as a result of the new deck.
Shutters going in – these are for aesthetics only! I know Pat in Australia had asked me about shutters here – just for looks unless your house is 200 years old.
Repairing the siding by the house deck.
November 25
This was Thanksgiving – so no work happened of course. But the project looked like this below – and its getting colder.
Shaping up nicely and we even are parked in the driveway – for now anyways. Yes, that pond is freezing up too.
November 26
This date was our wedding anniversary – normally a day to hit the casino and have fun – but I was still recovering in the house. Of course, this being New England, we got snow anyways.
Well this sucks…
It did not last but it’s still been pretty cold.
Week 20 – November 28th to December 4th
With all the cold and needed inspections, and the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, the progress slowed to a halt. We did pass all of our inspections, and did get a dumpster dropped off to help with all of the rubbish and construction debris that had piled up – especially from the siding.
Hopefully, the upcoming week will show gutter installation, insulation, and more. As of now, it looks like this as of Saturday, December 4th.
Latest progress shot – and it’s getting colder and darker every day.
I was originally enticed into the hobby by way of 25mm metal figures from Ral Partha, Grenadier, and Minifigs back in the 1980’s. Some of you of course are remarking to yourselves at this point that you have no idea of those days!
Well, no internet existed such that one could go out and find whatever one wanted with a click. You either ordered from a catalog or got lucky at a hobby store with whatever existed in the shop (insert bad joke here).
Some of the figures were pretty simplistic, others were (and are still) marvels of art. Most readers of this blog will recognize that until recently, I have been very much involved with painting and building figures and terrain for my Civilizations Collide project (Aztecs, Conquistadores, etc. for Feudal Patrol. So, you ask, Mark, what the f**k you doing with old school Vikings?
Well, this is related to my recent trip to Historicon (which I wrote about here). Several of the scenarios that I am developing for the Spanish Conquest require Aztec (and Tlaxcalan) war canoes, which were involved in many of the battles, both along the causeways out of Tenochtitlan and in naval combat with Spanish brigantines on Lake Texcoco. At Historicon, I searched high and low in the vendors area and in the flea market for reasonably priced war canoes. All I found were a Blood and Plunder model for $20 (not reasonable) from a vendor’s booth and a single $3 scratch-built balsa-wood version from the flea market.
I got both as options for considering how to design and scratch-build my own. As I estimate that I need 4-6 war canoes for each of the 4 brigantines that I have in queue. That’s 16-24 canoes – and I am not going to pay $20 per canoe! Shortly after the convention, Greg Priebe (who was with me at Historicon) suggested that he could 3D print canoes for me! I was elated, and I asked him what I could offer in trade. Greg kindly said don’t worry about it. But, I thought that’s unfair, and I could paint some figures for him as a fair exchange.
Greg is the author of the Vikings Feudal Patrol supplement (which you can download for free here), so I offered him Vikings. He agreed, and when I got home I went into my unpainted stash to see what I had available.
My supply of unpainted lead includes many figures from the ’80’s. I got a lot of them when I returned to the hobby but have not painted a lot of the 25mm ancient stuff. We conferred, and Greg agreed that he would like ones from three blister’s of 25mm figures and a single 28mm berserker. They all work for skirmish games.
One was a six-figure blister of Ral Partha Imports “Viking Berserkers with Axes” (#DA45) – circa 1982. The second was a six-figure Minifigs “Viking Command” blister pack probably from around 1980-1982. The third was a six-figure pack of Ral Partha “Saxon Huscarle” (#1117) from their “1200 A.D.” line – circa 1982. The last was a single figure from RAFM, “Berserker” from their “Adventurers” line circa 1989. This adds up to 19 figures, and Greg is making me 20 or so canoes. So, the following will describe how I proceeded to paint all of these up.
Ral Partha Imports “Viking Berserkers with Axes“
These were likely made by Citadel and marketed by Ral Partha – a common commercial practice back then. The bases had “1982” and DA45 on them. As my process was modified batch-painting, I’ll include some of the steps I took on all of the models here and spare you a repeat later. There were three poses among the six figures, which was a lot back then (most packs of six had just one pose). But, I needed on all of these to make them different enough for easy identification and for fun on the tabletop.
The blister pack of DA45. Opened after 40+ years,
The figures had substantial mold lines, which was common back then. That issue was easily remedied. Their axe shafts were also a bit bendy (common as well) – and I gave them all a light coat of Gorilla Glue – to stiffen up the shafts (insert bad joke here).
Mold lines seen here. Also bendy axes.
I then mounted all the figures on 1″ steel washers, and put them on poster tack on specimen containers for ease of painting. I primed them all white with my airbrush and after they dried, I washed with “Heavy Body Black” from Secret Weapon Washes (all of the paints that I used will be listed at the end of this post for those interested).
Mounted for paintingAfter prime and HBB washEarlybase coat
Close up of the HBB wash on the Berserkers. It helps me to see details and preshades the models – both very helpful steps with 25mm.
I numbered the six figures by the three poses (1A, 1B, 2A, 2B, 3A, and 3B) so that I could plan differences in painting. At least these had no shields…for the rest that did I needed a plan as well. Yes, I used Excel!
Pose 1Pose 2Pose 3Here all of the 19 figures are ready for varnish, but I did need to work on the shields. More on that in a bit.
On all of these, in terms of painting, I aimed for a good tabletop standard. While I do not think these are badly painted at all, I have done better work – but these reminded me of how much easier painting modern figures is now, especially 28mm. Another challenge was effectively painting blonde hair. I don’t think I’ve done that in 40 years. Anyways, I toned down yellow (very Sailor Moon) with “Snakebite Leather” contrast paint and Seraphim Sepia” wash and worked ok. The ginger hair was easier. I also added differently colored tufts to the bases for ease of identification as well.
Now, let’s see the models from this blister all completed.
The first pose had no helmets.The second pose had caps.The third pose was more of a classic Viking berserker one with no shirts and helmets.The group. I tried to give the eyes a “mascara” look like the show “Vikings” did. At 25mm, this was hard to do, but you can let me know if it worked or not to your eye (pun intended).
Minifigs Viking Command
I remember painting a number of fantasy Minifig miniatures back in the day. They had square bases and the details were rather plain. These were the same as those. My guess is dating from the early ’80’s or possibly even the late ’70’s.
Unfortunately, these had a severe coating of oxide or something black and crusty on them. I don’t think it was lead rot, but I did clean them up with baking soda just in case. Their spears and banner shafts were even more bendy than the others – which was very much a common issue for this manufacturer back then. I added a second stiffening coat of Gorilla Glue to these bendy shafts, and then proceeded as discussed previously.
There were three poses here. Two with a horn, two with spears and axes, and two with either a banner or a long-shafted axe. For the last group, I gave one an axe and one a banner. They all had shields (unattached) so I did need to get some references for free-hand painting them.
The old blister – $3.98 for six figures!You can see the dark oxidation (if that’s what it was) on all the figures – which needed filing, cleaning, and fixing of the more-bendy shafts.Close-up shot showing issues.
Each of the three poses had a different number on the bases. Pose 1 (with horn) was DA97, pose two (with axe and spear) had only partially DA4-something, and the last one was DA42. I’m assuming DA stood for “Dark Ages”.
DA97DA4?DA42
Second pose after HBB wash.
I tried to give different looks to these as well – again, a painting plan in Excel helped. As for the shields – they were fun the most enjoyable to paint – and different than the Aztec shields to be sure. I chose 6 designs that I thought would work with the colors. Instead of thinner, I used Vallejo Flow Improver with the black on a Newton & Windsor 0000 brush – and that worked (thanks to The Imperfect Modeler for that suggestion).
I would sketch lightly with a .5mm pencil, then line with black paint thinned with flow improver.Painted shields.
After I painted the shields, I gave them a brush of satin varnish. Once they dried, I mounted them to the figures.
Pose 1Pose 2Pose 3
Then after drying time, they were off to varnishing and flocking (similar to the previous group). Below are the finished models.
The first pose with the horns. It was easier to give their capes details than it was for their faces.Pose two with the axes and spears. Pose two with the axes and spears.Pose three had the banner or the long axe.The Viking Command Group together.
Ral Partha Saxon Huscarle
While housecarles in English is proper, the blister said “Huscarle”, so…
The old blister from the 1200 A.D. line.
The sculpts were pretty nice – especially the chain mail. However, these were in all the same pose (as was common back when these were launched in 1982). Therefore, differentiation was more needed.
All the same!RAL 1982
I followed the same process as discussed above with priming and the initial wash application. Another nice thing about these was that the shields were already attached – that and the eyes would not need special attention.
After the priming and the HBB wash application. I could have used Nuln Oil but I thought I’d use the HBB before it became useless.
For shields, I looked up some images for Saxon ones and chose six.
Saxon shield painting.
The final six look as follows:
The first and the second Saxon figures.The third and the fourth Saxons.The fifth and the sixth Saxons.The Saxon Huscarle group.
RAFM Berserker
The last figure was a single one – and he looks to be 28mm hero-scale. That makes him a bit off of the others, but maybe he’s like the Mountain from GoT?
Anyways, he looks pretty Viking-like, and Greg wanted him, so he’s in!
In his 1989 blister.Just out of the blister.After priming and wash.
This figure was so much easier to paint as it had virtually no mold lines and was well-sculpted. I only wish his axe was reasonably-sized.
Painted RAFM Berserker.
That’s the last of the 19. Here’s a group shot of them finished.
Group Shot. All in the mail to Greg in Maryland now!
I originally wanted to paint them all up as part of Roger’s (over at Rantings Under the Wargame Table) “Mo’vember Challenge”, but between surgery in November, Historicon, Thanksgiving, and my garage +build, it did not happen. Still, check out Roger’s cool roundup – I did get in Cortes…
As you may imagine, making all these figures different took a hell of a lot of paint! The list is at the end, but here’s a shot:
That’s a lot of paint!
I hope that this was enjoyable – and a change of pace was nice for me. Not sure what’s next, probably brigantines, but I do want to post a belated garage+ update by the end of this weekend. Thanks for looking and sharing any thoughts.
PAINTS, INKS, GLAZES, SHADES, WASHES, PIGMENTS, FLOCKING, GLUES AND MORE THAT I USED ON THESE VIKING FIGURES:
Below is a blog post from borderguy190 that some of you may not have seen – I am reblogging it with his permission. I (Mark) met him (Harry) at Historicon and he was a player in my Aztec/Conquistador game. I think he did a nice player review of my game as well as a superb review of the convention. His blog site is here – and I highly recommend you take a look! Now, here is his Historicon post:
One of the biggest joys of my year is getting to attend Fall In!, or as in the case this year, Historicon. Last year was a complete bust for conventions, and here in Michigan, the small local cons got called off for C19 earlier this year. Fall In! was my last hope. At some point […]
This post will cover my wargaming over the extended Veteran’s Day weekend – hopefully you will enjoy the discussion and the photos of the games here. Hell, grab a beer or a wine or whatever! Some cool pics and links to be sure.
I had been planning to attend the last Historicon – but it got moved (I think there was a pandemic or something, I (try) to forget). The event was then rescheduled for November. As Historicon and the other HMGS events have been on my bucket list, I wanted to go as a GM anyways and player too.
Also, as followers of this blog know – I have been deep into building out a series of games for the Spanish Conquest over the last year-and-a-half. This has involved many aspects – writing a rules supplement, painting figures, and building a series of games and battlefields much more for the for Feudal Patrol™ games for the period of the Spanish Conquest in Mesoamerica 500 years ago. I also recently rewrote my supplement Civilizations Collide – which will be a free download (as will a scenario booklet with multiple historic scenarios that I am working on now). So, I was very much looking forward to Historicon 2021.
Therefore, I signed up to run two games – both of which are scenarios on my in-progress booklet. I planned on running both my “Surprise Aztec Raid on the Spanish Outpost” and “Cortes’ Causeway Escape Attempt” games on Thursday night and Saturday morning respectively.
My friend Craig Hogan, myself, and Dave Wood back at USMA – probably Ring Weekend in the Fall of 1983. Craig sadly was killed a few years ago now in a private plan crash.Thanksgiving 1987 in Hagenbach, Rhineland-Pfalz, West Germany, Buck, myself, and my daughter Ellen (who is 34 now). We got together for gaming and the holiday. Buck came up from Vicenza, Italy where he was stationed to my place with a buddy, and we gamed and we had fun.
Through Dave and Buck, I have been lucky to make new friends with others of the H.A.W.K.’s, like Greg Priebe, Chris Palmer, and Duncan Adams (and many more too – like Zeb, Don, Eric and others – please don’t feel left out if I did not mention you). Due to my ongoing garage+ build (of which there are a number of updates that are listed here), I missed BARRAGE in September. So, I was pretty stoked about the opportunity to get together with friends (and make new ones) and push lead around the tabletop.
However, as fate would have it, some folks would not be able to attend Historicon due to personal reasons. As seeing and gaming with friends are as much a draw for me as the convention itself, I needed to make a change in plans. We had a Zoom call, and collectively arrived at a new plan. I would drive down from Massachusetts and meet Dave in Maryland for a gaming afternoon on the 11th at my hotel room. Then on Friday morning I would run my “Surprise Aztec Raid on the Spanish Outpost” game in Chris Palmer’s gaming room in Maryland, and then play in an Ozz game afterwards until I needed to leave for Historicon (about 90 minutes away). Friday night I would drive up to Valley Forge, Pennsylvania to set up my “Cortes’ Causeway Escape Attempt” game for Saturday morning play.
So, on a 28-degree morning in Massachusetts, I defrosted my loaded car (12 boxes of terrain, plus 2 mats, a wagon, plus a suitcase) and headed to Maryland – arriving around mid-day – where it was 4o degrees warmer. Ah, New England!
Frosty morning departure.
Axis & Allies
Dave and I have now gamed since 1982 – so coming up on 40 years. We have played Avalon Hill’s “Victory in the Pacific” (as well as other titles) dozens of times over the years. On Thursday, after I arrived, we decided to be different and try Milton Bradley’s “Axis & Allies” this time – a board game with plastic miniatures that we have discussed many times but never played before. I got this game back in the mid-80’s. At one point there was an on-line version but we never got around to playing that either. For this game, we picked sides at random, and Dave played the Axis, and I the Allies. It was Veteran’s Day, and as we are obviously both vets, it was a nice add.
The game went back and forth. A lot. I managed to keep Russia in the game – and built an industrial complex in India for the British. This allowed me to build 3 units per turn there in an attempt to keep the Japanese off the Russian’s back.
After the first turn, I had consolidated a nice position in Mother Russia to try to thwart Dave. And yes, the shirt says what I am impressed with – Dave has run dozens of marathons and many runs up to 50 miles and maybe more in distance.We had a back and forth fight over the Karelia territory that had a factory I did not want to lose. Eventually, I did.
Meanwhile, my Indian gambit attracted a lot of Japanese attention – maybe too much. Dave hammered away at it and while the Japanese were unsuccessful he did attrite my forces and that prevented me from exploiting my force buildup.
Dave made multiple attacks on India supported by carrier-based fighters and land-based bombers. I had sent the American-supported Chinese infantry in to help defend. Meanwhile, Russia fell.
Dave kept hammering away at India, and eventually had his Germans violate Afghan neutrality – hitting India for the decisive blow. Yes, the Germans took India by blitzing panzers through Afghanistan…
I built India up and flew in American air support, but the next turn it fell.
I did desperately roll for Weapon’s Development for both the Americans and the British – with only the British succeeding in getting 3 – Rockets, Super Subs, and Strategic Bombers. My rocket and strategic bomber attacks slowed the German’s production, but it was too late…congrats to Dave!
Christoricon – Surprise Aztec Raid on the Spanish Outpost
Originally I was supposed to run my one of my games at Historicon on Thursday night – that being a rural one where Aztecs are making a surprise raid on a Tlaxcalan village (acting as a Conquistador supply depot) – only to see that there were indeed some Spanish there. Instead, we went to Chris Palmer’s house and I ran the game on early Friday morning. We joked and called it “Christoricon”. I hosted and there were 5 players – Buck, Duncan Adams, and Dave for the Aztecs, and Chris and Greg Priebe for the Spanish/Tlaxcalans. The defending Spanish/Tlaxcalans had one Warband of three Elements – 23 figures worth 41 points. The attacking Aztecs had two Warbands of 3 Elements each – 53 figures worth 78.25 points. Buck has already written a great post about this game and the others that day on his blog here – and his write-up and pics are great. I took some photos that you see below, but for me, simultaneously being a GM and a photographer is not easy – so I do recommend you take a look. Meanwhile, here are my pics.
The game is ready to begin. Chris and Greg elected to place the Conquistador Element armed with arquebuses further away from their leader in their secret deployment in lieu of their Element of Sword & Buckler men. This meant that they were “pinned” with their black powder weapons only activating at best on half of the turns. They could have “unpinned” but as luck would have it the dice did not let that happen. Note also that Franco the unlucky Conquistador made the trip!
Chris chose to send out his war dogs towards Dave’s Aztecs as a screen, and they promptly took atlatl damage. Dave, Duncan and Buck moved up quickly, while Greg took up a position in the maize field with his dangerous Tlaxcalan bowmen.
Dave moves up his “twinned” Elements of veteran/novice warriors towards a wounded war dog.
The Spanish then had their Catholic Priest take possession of the gold (possession of the gold was one of the game objectives) and drag it to a more secure location while they contested the Noble House (another objective) – (insert joke here).
Battle starting at the Noble House – the war dogs are already going down here. Their priest has already dragged away the gold to a safer location.
Buck’s advancing Elite Cuahchicque (“Shorn Ones”) took the full volley of arquebus fire from the less-activating pinned Spanish. Despite these Elite Aztecs taking a lot of damage and having a ton of Morale checks to overcome, Buck was able to rally his troops successfully against the odds twice. Meanwhile Duncan moved his Jaguar and Eagle Warriors against Greg’s Tlaxcalan bowmen in the cornfield – hoping to best them in melee.
Dave and Buck confer while surveying Duncan’s advance – and their chances at victory – with concern. This shows the second volley that Buck’s Elite Shorn Ones took and the blue beads are Morale checks he needed to pass. He did. Twice.
Slowly, the tide of battle started turning in the Aztecs’ favor. Dave’s attack on the Aztec right was making headway, and they were gaining control of the objectives.
Priest still dragging the gold away here.Lots of carnage on the tabletop.
Eventually, the Spanish and Tlaxcalans were overwhelmed.
The final break through.
The game ended as a resounding Aztec win, as they had control of three objectives, as well as dragging off 9 pour souls for sacrifice, killing 2 more, and making one run away. The Spanish had only the gold, but did dispatch 15 Aztecs and capture one more. The final score was 86-40 as you see below. I think the players had a good game. Congrats to Dave, Buck, and Duncan!
Greater PumpkinheadsI had a Winkie medium cannon……and 2 Winkie RegimentsMy Winkie and Pumpkinhead troops ready to contest control of the Yellow Brick Road.
I love the Ozz figures!
I then drove to Historicon, and set up for Saturday morning’s game.
Historicon – Cortes’ Causeway Escape Attempt
The drive up to Valley Forge Resort Casino was uneventful – though finding the H.A.W.K.’s room was a challenge. The gaming was not located in one location at the resort. Unfortunately, it was also a Friday night at a casino and all the close parking was gone. Luckily, I have a little collapsible wagon and was able to get into the room with my stuff in a few trips and set up the terrain and the troops for Saturday morning’s game, Cortes’ Causeway Escape Attempt.
It’s a BIG battle. The Spanish/Tlaxcalans have three Warbands of three Elements (2 Spanish, 1 Tlaxcalan) plus support – 77 figures (including the 4 war wagons) worth 161.75 points. The Aztecs have five Warbands of 2-3 Elements each – 109 figures worth 154.25 points. 186 figures in total. This battle is Cortes’ second attempt to escape. He would do a second on the following day, and three days later a third – La Noche Triste. Originally, on the Historicon listings, the game was supposed to be La Noche Triste – which again happened three days later (and of which I will have that scenario written soon) – but I needed war canoes for that one. Those I don’t have yet, and will be mentioned here in a bit.
Back to the game set up. As I was setting up, I had a number of people come by to remark positively on the game visuals – terrain and figures. They had seen my posts on different forums (or fora both are ok!). To all of you, thank you so much for your kind words and interest.
Besides all of the cityscape – and it’s a lot I know – but with everything predeployed I just needed to put players on their troops and let them know what they needed to do on their part of the battlefield.
As I mentioned before, I had previously needed to cancel my Thursday game – and I got a comment from one of our blog community – Harry (aka borderguy190)- that he was disappointed as he had signed up for the game. I apologized, as I wish I could have ran that too at Historicon as well. But the good news was that he would be playing in this game!
He joined 7 other players. They seemed to grasp the concepts of the game quickly – and I did get some help from Greg Priebe and Buck Surdu in the early turns before they had to help run an Ozz game.
The game set up.Troops deployed and dashboards out. My undermagnets and game markers really have proven their worth – especially in big melee scrums.
In this game, the Conquistadores are surrounded, and need to fight their way out from the Palace of Axayacatl where they were holed up with their hostage/puppet Montezuma II. They have war wagons, and while these are helpful in providing cover against missile weapons, they are also rickety and slow – and prone to breaking. In fact, all of them broke during the game and were unable to move afterwards. The Aztecs are trying to get to the Conquistadores and avenge the massacre that the Spanish perpetrated at the Festival of Toxcatl. Their Tlaxcalan allies are mostly on the other end of the tabletop and trying to break into Tenochtitlan to help their Spanish allies escape.
There were ups and downs for both sides all over the table. The Conquistadores breakout went slowly, but they did take out a lot of Aztecs. On the other end where the Tlaxcalans were trying to help, the two sides traded missile fire and got into a scrum but were unable to change the status quo.
Lots of action! Harry (in red) ponders his next move.Aztecs swarm the war wagons and wound the crossbowmen and arquebusiers inside.Thinks get more contested in Tenochtitlan.
One of the aspects of the game is the importance of The Banner of Cortes. It provides inspiration to the Conquistadores and helps them to reduce negative Morale effects. However, I also made its capture (as well as incapacitating Cortes and dragging him off for sacrifice) game objectives. The Aztecs took some heavy losses BUT were able to take out the bannerman and seize the banner. This lead to the Spanish having to try to satisfy Honor and retake the banner. However, this did not happen before the game’s end. As it was worth 50 points (see below), it was decisive.
The Banner of Cortes is taken!Aztecs won 78-35. The 50 points for the capture of The Banner of Cortes made all the difference!
Thanks so much to all who played! I did not win any awards for the game – though many said I should have. Anyways, the best reward is happy gamers afterwards – and I got that in abundance!!
The gamers! Very cool group – thanks to all!
After the game, I got a lot of positive feedback, and learned of some areas to help make the play easier. Those suggestions have already have already been acted upon when I got home (mainly on the dashboards such as linking the undermagnet colors to the dashboards).
After the game, I then went with Greg and Buck to the vendors and the Flea Market. It was nice to go to the Badger Games booth and actually be remembered! Also, I was looking for canoes to use as war canoes, but only found one from Firelock Games that was $20. That is way too expensive when you need as many as do. I also found one in the Flea Market – a balsa wood scratch-built one from an estate sale- for $3. I am going to use both for gaming and as ideas on how to make my own. Of importance, Greg is a big lover of his 3D printer – and in exchange for me painting up some Viking figures for him, he will make me a good number of canoes! Win-win! So, my next job will be to paint those up.
I look forward to returning to the gaming and convention scene as a GM and a gamer. I hope you found this interesting – thanks for looking.
For all of my previous posts on games, units, and other projects for my 16th Century Spanish Conquest supplement for Feudal Patrol™ – “Civilizations Collide” – please see this page.
Yes indeed folks, I am yet again combining a couple weeks into a single post. This update will cover Weeks 15 & 16 – which comprises October 24th to November 6th. The main reasons are the same – slow progress due to weather and shortages that have been the bane of the projects’ ability to progress.
It’s been very wet, cold, and windy, followed by now heavy morning frost. Anyone in Massachusetts knows that this month can be very variable indeed. I guess we’re lucky no accumulating snow has happened yet (but we have seen the first few flakes flying).
The work here still in these two weeks is focused on the patio – but I thought that first I’d share a picture of the deck at night with the solar caps all lit – my neighbor claims aircraft will be coming in to land!
The deck at night – I had a tough time getting a photo but you get the idea.
One of the wind-driven rain storms came in from the normal front of the house and hit from the back – where all the trees are. It was a mess, but I cleaned up early before Evandro’s guys came to pull off the forms.
Leaves everywhere – and more to come.Pulling the fire pit wall forms.
Then, they added a screed on the walls and let that set.
Walls with screed,
At the end of the day on October 28th, this was where we were with long shadows hitting the yard.
End of the day – and note I did get the leaves up.
No work continued until November 1st. And then it moved onto coloring the walls with releasing agent (a first step anyways) and digging (by hand) the gas line.
Gas line being dug and walls being colored.Digging the gas line.
Meanwhile, Evandro began his color applications and shaping.
Evandro working on the back wall.After shaping it, he applied a releasing agent.The releasing agent.
He did the same with the fire pit wall.
Evandro at work.Here you see him literally throwing the dusty agent on the wall.
After this, the weather was lousy the rest of the week. And then it got cold before it got rainy again.
Yes, that is frost everywhere – the temperature was down in the 20’s.
So, not much to show for two weeks. The good news is that this week will hopefully start going a bit gangbusters – there were window and door deliveries, gas line materials are here, and Evandro should finish up soon outside the garage. Stay tuned and I hope that there is more to share at week’s end.
And, for you hobbyists followers out there, I should have a few more posts to share on some small projects I have done in preparation for gaming this weekend with friends in Maryland and at Historicon. There have been some changes in plans – I’ll share soon.
The work shifted this week (October 17-23) to the patio and fire pit – and that meant Evandro and his crew were front and center as Ready Installs awaits window and door deliveries – all delayed by COVID.
We had decided that we needed to upgrade our plan to include paving stone patios, walkways, a wall, and a gas fire pit. This post will focus primarily on those aspects. Evandro had previously roughly marked out where these new parts would go and link in with the new garage and the new house deck.
On Monday, Evandro verified his lines and excavation began.
Lines set and digging begins.Monday progress.
There was q lot of digging – and please note that this was done all by hand – no equipment other than hand tools.
Lots of digging by hand.Tuesday’s progress at seen at dawn on Wednesday.
On Wednesday, it rained. Thursday things picked up again. Subbase compaction began – some by hand and some by machine depending on the leach field presence underneath. Then crushed stone started being brought in and spread.
Thursday work in progress.End of Thursday progress.
Friday saw a continuation of Thursday’s efforts.
Friday work.
However, it became obvious that Evandro wanted to catch up for Wednesday, so work proceeded on Saturday as well. The work was focused on building concrete forms for the back wall and the fire pit, and lastly placement of hand-mixed concrete. Evandro had an amazing drone that he used to take some photos and videos that will eventually show his work start to finish – and I hope to share a link for that when its available. The drone was able to self-stabilize in the wind and could reach heights of 500 feet!
Evandro and his drone ( you can see it just above the midpoint of the two reddish bird windmills).
The back wall was formed and placed.
Back wall of patio under the deck.
The fire pit wall was started.
Building the forms.
Staking the forms and bending and inserting the steel.
Steel in!
The crew worked past sunset on Saturday, and got good progress – though I had to wait until Sunday to have enough light to take a picture.
Week’s progress as seen at dawn on Sunday the 24th.
As I write this in week 15, it has been rainy and this is as far as we have gotten progress-wise. However, I bet Evandro hits the ground running when it dries up.
I hope this was enjoyable and thanks for taking a look. I may even do a hobby post shortly!
Lucky week 13 was October 10-16 on the project. Some really beautiful progress – though the delay in windows and doors has kept interior work from progressing. Therefore, for this post I have mostly deck updates plus a few hobby tidbits at the end for my dedicated hobby crowd.
On Monday, deck proceeded on the deck stairs and fascia.
Cutting up and moving up PVC fascia for the garage deck. Decking being enthusiastically installed over the Trex rain gutter system you saw last week.Monday progress at the end of the day.
On Monday, our new Weber gas grill was delivered from Home Depot. It’s for natural gas so we can avoid the hassle of propane tanks in the future (though Lynn wants to use both). This is to be mounted on the new gas line on the back deck. We also got a nice drip mat and a cover for it. On Tuesday, Lynn and I put it together with the help of the manual and the Weber app. The process took us just under 4 hours (Weber says it should take 90 minutes – no way), and we worked well together to get it done. That means we are still happily married and no murders occurred or were even contemplated – which can be side effects of joint assembly! Of course, we can’t use it until the gas line is put in for it from the house.
Happy wife, happy life – and the new grill.
The rest of Tuesday saw work on the stairs to the garage deck and the deck itself.
Deck and stair work on Tuesday.End of day progress on Tuesday.
Wednesday saw more of the same.
Morning work Wednesday.Now we had stairs all the way up on Wednesday!
Thursday saw a couple of things happen. First, Jonny Victor got a boom truck in and all the blue board got delivered – though work on it can’t start until – yes – windows and doors are in. At least this saves time climbing the new stairs.
Boom truck delivery of blue board upstairs. Some went below as well.
The deck and stairs just got more attractive as the week went on.
Work began on the columns sheathing.Different angle view, Thursday mid-day.View from the back mid-day Thursday.
It was too dark to get a good shot of the total work – but Friday came and the fog, but it looked like this below.
Happy Friday morning showing fog and Thursday progress.
National Grid showed up and added loam and seed to the gas line excavation of last week.
National Grid repairing over the gas line excavation to the garage.
Our plumber was prepping to do some work, and asked about a vanity size. We also needed another solar cap for the deck posts (they are solar and are really cool at night – no pic yet as we needed 1 more). So, off to Home Depot for both and some more shelving for the cellar.
Before we left for Home Depot, this was the progress. You can also see the new grill on its new home.
More Home Depot shopping – last of the solar caps and the small vanity for the upstairs bathroom.
On Saturday, I got to get a shot of the completed work. Not only is it amazing, but the views from it are as well. The deck height is higher than our home’s second story windows.
Week end progress!
Now, I mentioned I would add a couple of hobby items. Well, I have a few – three to be exact.
First, I was able to finish writing the update to my Civilizations Collide supplement for Feudal PatrolTM. This is a way to wargame the Spanish Conquest and do it quite historically. I am working on a book of scenarios for that too. When either is available for download, I’ll share that.
Second, as I was working on the supplement, it became clear that I needed to have a way of tracking damage on Cortes’ war wagons, as after enough Aztec slings and arrows and more have hit them, they would disintegrate into scrap lumber. I saw these nice Litko markers and got 4 for my war wagons.
Just in case you missed what a war wagon is!These markers count down from (or up to) 20 – which is the amount of damage each war wagon has before they got into combat in one game scenario.
Lastly, I mentioned that we also have gotten shelving from Home Depot and have been assembling them and redoing storage in the cellar. We have put together 3 of these, 1 of these, and 1 of these. The last one replaced an old particle board printer stand that had been used for laundry soap, bleach, etc. It was messed up, and had a storage area under it. In the storage area were a couple of yearbooks from junior high I had not seen in a while, plus under the stand was a big lint-encrusted pewter figure of Marshal Michel Ney, the Bravest of the Brave, that I bought in France in the 1980’s! I was always fascinated by his story. However, I had zero idea how he ended up there.
Come, see how a Marshal of France can gather lint and dust!
Buck suggested that he would be a cool giant for a Wars of Ozz game, and Chris Palmer suggested that he could be a moss giant. I thought maybe a lint monster…but no, I’ll clean him up and put on a shelf as is.
Anyways, next week should have even more progress on the project – so thanks for looking and hope you found this interesting. Now I have blogs to read! (likely yours).
Week 12 saw work being done on both decks, and well as connection to the National Grid gas line. We also had Evandro Rodrigues from E&V Masonry (who works with Ready Installs) come out to lay out the paving stone areas and the proposed gas fire pit. They also placed the concrete floor in last week.
It’s a bit difficult to see, but the spray-painted orange lines designate the plan for paving stones. These patio stones will go under the garage deck and stairs, then connect to the house deck. The gas fireplace will be the round circle here.
Work continued on the house deck as you can see below.
The house deck in progress.
The garage stairs were stabilized and set up for decking.
The stairs being braced and supports added.Close up of previous shot.
On the garage deck, the Trex rain gutter system was installed. This will keep the patio underneath dry. It will feed into a gutter under the downspouts.
The downspouts fit between the joists (with some help).Jon and Will prep the downspouts for Josh.Josh Victor stapling in the downspouts.
After the downspouts were in, the membrane that will carry the water to them is installed with the proper slope and sealed.
You can see the membrane here (and Will’s head).Top view of the deck.Underneath view.
Friday was a very active day, as National Grid came in to excavate and place the gas line. We also had deliveries for the finishing of the garage deck and stairs.
National Grid begins cutting the street and sidewalk to excavate for the new gas line.Cut that asphalt!There’s a gas main here somewhere……found it!
The line went from the street to the back of the garage along the driveway. This will be a second line we will have, and will provide gas for the heating of the garage as well as the future fire pit. Below you’ll see some shots of the trenching, connecting, and the asphalt repair.
At the beginning of all this, Home Depot and Jonny Victor delivered a lot of the materials for the following week’s work – mainly for the garage deck and stairs.
Deck materials for week 13!
As a side note of interest (well I found it cute), I’ll add the following. My daughter works in a hospital as a radiation therapist with cancer patients – and has early hours two weeks a month. I help, as she drops my granddaughter Tabitha off with me at 6 AM (which for a 4 year old is pretty early). I get her breakfast and generally have good quality time with her before I bring her to preschool. While waiting to get dropped off at 8 AM, the following happened – watch my granddaughter here enthralled with her “sparkly pants”. I admit, she makes a good case for them…
Anyways, back to the project! There is still a lot of work to go, but this was a busy week indeed. Hopefully, I’ll be able to share an even more active week on my next update. Thanks for looking and feel free to throw in your two cents (or whatever the equivalent is in your currency) in the comments section.
And I hope you enjoy your fashion choices as much as Tabitha does!
The project continues! Although I was so late with Week 10 that I decided to combine weeks 10 and 11. As you will see from this post – a lot went on from September 19-October 2, 2021. Some of it involved construction, some not – as you will see. I’ll do my level best to make this interesting by including not only some construction photos, some other stuff, to include golf and a bit of hobbies!
There are a lot of pictures here – click on any of them for a bigger view.
Let’s start with electrical work and some progress around the cellar. Wait, the cellar? Why there? Aren’t you building a new garage and house deck Mark? All valid questions that I am presupposing that you may be asking! So let me attempt clarification.
To power the new building, I needed to get the service upgraded from 100 amps to 200 amps. Our electrical service meter and box was in the back of the house over the old (now removed) house deck. Previously, electrical power came from the National Grid pole out front on the street to the house then went along the soffit and into the cellar at the back right-hand corner of the house if you will. The plan was to make this bigger and better by moving the meter and building a new box for it at the front left corner of the house. A new hole had to be drilled for the new power cable, and that needed to be run to a new replacement distribution box in the basement. This work occurred on September 21st.
Here you see he old distribution box mounted on whatever lumber the previous homeowner had available – back in the 50’s? 60’s? – to include a piece of trim! We had a series of shelves built by the previous owner long ago (probably 40+ years) along this wall. We had put an old bureau (left over from my childhood actually) under the shelf planking that was attached to the monstrosity that the distribution box was mounted on. The dryer vent snakes up to the wall as you see.Here you see the electricians (Mike and Paul) trying to determine the sill height to drill for the power cable by using the window as a reference for outside. The actual hole would be far to the left. The other end of the old shelving/cabinet that I referred to above is seen here on the wall under the cassette cases (future yard sale items).
Drilling the new sill access.
Heavy duty cable!
Drilling through the old sill was a bitch. The sill was quite thick – 13″ – and made of solid oak. The hole drilling destroyed two hole saw bits.
The view through the sill access hole from inside. This was 13″ of solid oak. Mike Astrella (electrician) can be seen here peering through the other side.
Outside, work went on the new meter box and running the cable and hooking it up to the power grid.
First the box was mounted and secured.
Power cable being pulled through.
Completed. The box on the left is an old Verizon landline box (now removed) and the one on the right is our Spectrum cable line.
Back in the cellar, the old distribution box mounting monstrosity was removed and a new sheet of plywood and some lumber from the garage build was used to build a suitable mount. The new configuration is bigger and we will need to move the dryer to the wall to the left of the distribution box so that the vent hose is not right next to it. But, as we were using the old the shelves I never got around to paint it as you can see – and it looked like hell.
New box.
New distribution box opened.
The inside electrical work . You can see how ugly the flaking paint was.
Also, I need to back up a bit. It had been necessary for me to clear a lane along the wall for the electricians to run the power cable prior to their starting work. After I did that, I got a good chance to look at the wall and the crappy homemade shelving/cabinet. I noticed a lot of old paint flaking on the wall near the dryer vent and some puckering where I had painted the corner in the front left of the house. The puckering was due to efflorescence, not water leaking, even with the excessive rain we have had this summer. An old dry well that I had built over a decade ago in the front left corner of the house was no longer doing its job, so the rain water outside the basement wall was not properly draining – leading to the efflorescence bubbling up behind the paint. We decided that the shelving cabinet needed to go and the wall repainted.
Before I did that, I rebuilt the drywell. When I originally built it, I had dug down about 3 feet and hit sand, so I had then assumed that the soil was free-draining. When I dug this time, I went a bit deeper, and to my surprise I found that there was yet another soil layer under the sand. This one was a loamy clay – that does not drain well. So, I dug down another 3 feet and backfilled it all with sand from the excavations in the backyard. I replaced the downspout extensions and doubled the length. The we covered the area with a filter fabric and then covered that with river stones.
Dry well excavation (would have been a good infantry fighting position)
Repaired dry well.
Dry well repair
I then spent the time to take down the shelving/cabinet with my wife. She was able to recycle the doors as shelving in another section of the cellar. I scraped off any flaking paint and exposing any efflorescence. Then, I used a mildly acidic product, Drylok Etch, across the wall to clean and prep for painting with bright white Drylok Extreme (both from Home Depot). This took a while, but came out well. We are taking the opportunity to clear out some stuff and have a yard sale this weekend to get some new homes for some good stuff we don’t need anymore. Plus, I can’t do any hobbies as you can see below!
Wall done
Opposite angle on wall
Yard sale needed to get to my hobby bench!
Back in the garage, the septic line was stubbed up in the floor with a cleanout.
A very exciting septic line beginning…
On the 24th, it was time to place the concrete floor in the garage. I say “place” and not “pour” because that was drilled into me in the US Army Corps of Engineers as the appropriate terminology – and that stuck.
Prepping the garage door entrance for concrete.
Steel!
The crew arrived early and was ready to go.
Installing the vapor barrier (ok a sheet of plastic over the compacted sand).
The plastic is secured, and the steel is wired together.
Placing steel on vapor barrier.…the concrete truck chute cannot extend far enough into the garage.
Evandro cuts a slot.
And on the other side..
…et voila, access!
Getting access for the concrete truck.
This was no problem as this plywood will be removed eventually when the door is installed.
Concrete truck delivering.
Working the concrete.
Then the sky opened up…
…necessitating a temporary rain cover.
Final finishing.
Concrete work.
Because of the many rain days, Andy Cormier arranged to get help to finish off the septic line installation.
Finding the tank!
Line ready for backfill
View towards the tank.
Septic line work.
Ready for backfill.
Having the septic line in the ground and attached to the septic tank allowed for its backfilling as well as work to proceed on the driveway excavation.
On Monday, September 27th, Lynn and I participated in the annual West Point Society of New England’s annual charity golf tournament, along with our friends, Lisa and Jim Kularski. This year, the beneficiary was Homes for our Troops. It was a nice break while construction work continued.
Me, Lynn, Lisa, and Jim. The sign is a hole sponsorship I did for the charity event.
When we returned home, there was a lot of dirt moved around. It turned out that the soil under the driveway had the same layering issue that I found in my dry well excavation – so a lot had to go, and be replaced with clean fill.
Excavation showing the soil cross sectionBetter view of the soil layers.
Most of the septic line was backfilled.
Of course, Tuesday the 28th brought yet more downpouring rain. Therefore, earthwork and any other work could not happen. We only got a delivery of deck material for the house deck.
Deck lumber delivery.
On Wednesday the 29th, the skies cleared and work could proceed. The driveway was excavated and brought to grade. Old asphalt, and interfering roots and stumps (including a 4-5 ton maple tree stump) were removed in this process.
Asphalt removal
Massive stump!
This was a huge stump with a lot of roots under the old driveway. Andy had to bring in a bigger machine to take care of it.
At the end of the day, the driveway was filled, and all the holes were filled in.
Driveway base in.Top view.No more stump.
The next work skipped a day (rain), and that involved the framing of the replacement house deck. This was October 1st. Jonny also got ready to install the rain gutter system for the garage deck.
Jonny prepping for the under-deck rain system installation.
House deck framing begins.
Deck framing on October 1st.
To make up lost time to rain, work continued on the deck on Saturday the 2nd. This weekend I had not one but two competitive golf tournaments. The first was on Saturday which was the Finals of the Tour of the Brookfields. If you are on Facebook, the group link is here. I am a member of the committee. My team was in the lowest division, but we did not come in the top three. Still, congrats to the winners!
Better luck next year.
After the tournament, I returned to see progress on the house deck.
Saturday progressDifferent angle view.
So, a lot of progress was made over the two weeks!
(Lastly, I previously mentioned a couple things that I need to circle back to – the first being the Sunday Founder’s tournament at Quail Hollow Golf and Country Club (where I am a member). This was an individual event and I played better, but not well enough to be the winner (only one male and one female winner out of dozens of players so no big deal). However, back during the annual club championship (a two-day 36-hole tournament of individual medal play from the back tees) on July 31-August 1st – I was able to play my best golf of the year (98/88 for a net 2 over par for the event) and win the D flight against 11 others. So Sunday, I got my reward.
In my office!
What you see here left to right is a comic statue that belonged to my grandfather Marcus (a WWII vet who gave me a love of golf), my unlucky conquistador “Franco”, my trophy, and as it’s October, my Halloween mini-diorama with Ral Partha 25mm figures of classic monsters from the 30’s Universal Studios movies.
Ah, but I digress – week 12 is well underway and I will have much more to share. I hope that you enjoyed this and thanks for looking!
Last week (September 12-18, 2021) was unfortunately the slowest progress week to date. Gravel was spread under the new house deck location and some more asphalt was removed there as well. We also got our first plumber visit and a lot of action is happening that is not actual construction.
For example, we were able to get a visit from Door Systems of Worcester so that we could evaluate options and order a garage door. The bad news is that that door will take 3 months to arrive. COVID-19-related delays are a factor beyond anyone’s control.
The Victors measure for the gravel.The gravel is placed.
This week should prove to be more active – Andy Cormier is back from vacation, so digging will recommence on the sewer line and the driveway. And much electrical work will be happening, with our service upgrade (needed for the new building demands and more) as well as some plumbing too.
Thanks for staying with me. I turned 59 this week, so I still believe that this project will get done before I turn 60!
Tabitha got me some practice foam golf balls – her favorite color – purple. Well, she also likes pink, but I’m glad she didn’t go down that route!
Mark A. Morin 