Passing Another Age Milestone: 70

I turned age 70 on December 18th. Age years that end in zero are a milestone of sorts in which one can look back on the decade just concluded and look ahead to what lies ahead in the next decade. Now I am in pretty good health with no issues, I walk a lot to keep fit, and I work out with a personal trainer twice a week. I have gone from barely being able to do 10 pushups up to 25 fairly easily. My goal is to reach 30 consecutive push ups without gasing out. My mother's side of the family has pretty good genes, with many of them living into their mid 90s. On my father's side, well, not so good. I suspect that I will be around a bit longer based on my genes.

Downsizing.

I have reached the stage of my life where I now have to consider down sizing my house and all of my "stuff", particularly my wargame stuff. I have too much of it. With respect to the house, it comes down to an economic decision on how to save money, reduce expenses and have enough coin to live a decent and comfortable retirement lifestyle. 

I live in The People's Republic of Illinois where the property taxes are sky high and the cost of living is an arrow pointing upwards. My property tax on my house exceeds my annual mortgage payments which is absolutely crazy. People are fleeing Illinois in droves and moving to more tax friendly states. I would like to join them. Probably somewhere in Florida. I figure that I could save $15,000 per year just by moving out of my state. Think about it, that's a savings of $150,000 over the next decade. And I get to live where its warm year around.

The idea is to buy a smaller, less expensive house and either pay off our mortgage or take out a chunk of the home equity that we have built up over the years. However, a less expensive home likely means a much smaller home, maybe without an area to set up as my wargame room. That kind of sucks, doesn't it? That also implies less storage space for figures and terrain. The obvious solution is to reduce the wargame collection quite a bit. I will have to take stock of what I have and what I am likely to want to play over the next decade.

In terms of culling down the herd, here are some likely candidates for sale:

1. 1) Late Romans and Barbarians in 28mm
2. 2) Big Battalion SYW Austrians and Prussians
3. 3) Maybe 28mm AWI, but keeping the skirmish level figures.

The keepers would include the following:

1. 28mm SYW Austrians, French and Prussians
2. 54mm Sudan
3. 54mm Ancients

And then there is the big one: selling off the Fife and Drum and Minden Miniatures figure business. I started this venture in 2012 and after ten years I am ready to get out of the business side of the hobby and just enjoy playing some wargames. I have enjoyed running the business, increasing the size of the ranges, and meeting lots of people from all over the world. But I am getting tired and I don't have the energy that I used to have. The inventory shelves in my basement take up a lot of space and if I were to downsize the square footage of my house by 50% then there wouldn't be any room to hold the stock for the business. Decisions, decisions.

This is all speculation at this point as I have no firm plans. My daughter wants to go to college in Florida and to make that her permanent home as soon as 2024. That's her life's dream and so we want to do everything that we can to help her reach her dream. We would probably want to live somewhere in Florida where we are far enough away from our daughter to not be pests, but close enough to be there for her in case she needs some help.

Well there you have it. This is what is on my mind as I look ahead to the next decade of my life.

Picture of the Day: Daughter & Dad

 

Today's picture shows Lady Emma Cuddlestone-Smythe and I leading the Prussian army to victory over the Russians (boo! hiss! boo!) at Gross Jagersdorf circa 2017. My dice rolling was notoriously bad until Lady Emma took over and rolled the dice for me. That wise tactical decision by der Alte Fritz proved to be the game winner.

Fife & Drum and Minden Going on Vacay.

 

The Fife and Drum Miniatures and Minden Miniatures "staff" will be going on vacation tomorrow December 29, 2022 and will be back on January 15, 2023. During this short period we will not be shipping any orders. Business will return to normal on January 16, 2023.

While the web store remains open, allowing orders to be placed, we recommend holding off on placing orders until our shipping department staff returns.

We thank all of our customers for their support in 2022 and want you to know that your business is much appreciated. You make it possible for us to continuing adding to and expanding both product ranges.

Cheers,

der Alte Fritz (Himself)

Belated Happy Holidays (and all that)

 

I would like to extend a belated Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and Seasons' Greetings to one and all who spend a bit of their time gazing upon my blog. Your continued interest and support is much appreciated here in Hesse Seewald.

This year's Christmas tree in the Library Room.
Bella the Golden Retriever seems to fit right in.

Bella and me enjoying a bonding moment.

Christmas Eve

Mrs. Fritz and I went to the 5PM Christmas Eve service at the local Episcopalian church (Church of England, or "Roman Catholic Lite" as I call it). The church is very beautiful and is designed in the shape a cross, with the alter at the center of the four wings of the "cross". The ceiling is supported by massive oak beams to remind me of many a church that I've seen in England during my travels. There were lots of holiday decorations inside including a forest of red poinsettias and garlands of greenery hanging from the rafters. All of this can't help but get one into the Christmas spirit what with the decorations, the ceremony and the singing of Christmas carols. 

The only off-putting part for me was the opening ceremonial procession of candle bearers, a Bible bearer and a carrier of a Chi-Rho vexillum. The minister and his staff bowed and crossed themselves whenever they passed by the front of the alter. The minister wore some magnificent looking robes and all that seemed to be missing was a miter cap. This is the Roman Catholic Lite part that makes me chuckle a bit to myself. I can't help myself thinking of a Dave Allen comedy sketch whenever I see this processional. Mrs. Fritz is a church member. I'm a sometimes Presbyterian.

All that said, this church really is a sight to behold and the Christmas ceremony is second to none. The Anglicans know how to put on a good show.

After everyone snuggled into their beds for a long Winter's nap, I turned on the television to watch some of the choirs singing on some of the PBS network shows. I like the St. Olaf's Choir (from Minnesota) the best. I was going to retire for the night, but at the last second I started scrolling through the channel guide and stumbled up a playing of the movie Die Hard. I just had to watch it! I stayed up until about 2:30AM watching Die Hard and I made myself turn it off, missing the ending. I know how the movie ends so I wasn't missing anything, but I still would have liked to have watched the movie to its end. Alan Rickman and Bruce Willis are hard to beat. LOL! Over the years I have learned that going to sleep after 3AM is a fool's errand. If I stay up that late then I go into a restless sleep that makes me no good for the rest of the day. 2AM is my cut off point if I want to get some good sleep and be at my best the next day.

Christmas Day

Santa decided that I probably had enough wargame toys so there was nothing under the tree or in my stocking that was hobby related. Mrs. Fritz and I decided that this year we would try to keep the number of presents to one another at two or less, making an exception for the small stocking stuffers that show up every year. 

As is often the case, the best present is being able to be around family and celebrating with a Christmas Day dinner at Schloss Seewald. We had 14 guests for dinner this year, including some relatives that we hadn't seen for a couple of years due to that Covid thing that has been going on. We prepared two legs of lamb (14 pounds of lamb in total) and an assortment of side dishes including stuffing, mashed potatoes, mashed yams, French cut green beans and a spinach and pear salad. Our guests brought the desserts for the party and there was much to choose from an assortment that included pumpkin pie, a Yule Log cake (or Buch de Noel), lemon squares and lots and lots of cookies.

Before dinner, I conducted a tour of my war game room at the request of some of the guests. I guess that I am always a little bit surprised at how interested "civilians" are in our little hobby. If someone shows a keener interest in the Little Men then I often give them a painted figure to take home. I sometimes worry that "civilians" will think that (1) I am a lunatic war monger; or (2) a little boy who is still playing with his toy soldiers. I am not the first, but I confess to still having some of the second in me. Always have and always will.  I'd say that 99% of visitors to the war game room are fascinated by our hobby and they ask lots of good questions. So my fears are not justified for the most part.

After dinner, four of use settled onto the Living Room floor and played a game of Euchre, something that I hadn't played since my college days. It took me a hand or two to remember how to play the game, but it came back to me quickly enough. Now we have a card game to play at future family events!

Later that evening I had to drive Lady Emma Cuddlestone-Smythe back to her home and that proved to be the opening that the guests were seeking to bug out of there (just kidding). Usually once the first couple leaves, the other guests go home shortly thereafter. Afterwords, Mrs. Fritz and I did a partial clean up of the kitchen and then we settled in to watch the final two episodes of "Wednesday" on Netflix. The eight episode series focuses on the Adams Family teen daughter, Wednesday, and her life at boarding school. It's a brilliant concept and I highly recommend it if you are looking for a new series to binge watch.

It seems like every Christmas, Mrs. Fritz and I decide that this year was the best Christmas EVER and I suppose that it is, at least until it comes around again next year. Then next year's Christmas will be the best ever.

Picture of the Day

 

Here’s a group of guys looking like they are having a lot of fun. Nice uniforms. Nice game room.

Scenic Dividers Part II

 

The new end cap terrain pieces on one table edge.

The original terrain end cap pieces

Yesterday I put the final touches on a second set of scenic dividers for the other table edge. So now my 6 feet wide table has terrain pieces covering the width of each end of the table.

The complete table layout with end cap terrain pieces on each table end.
And no, I am not going to make pieces for the side

I also made two dice trays placed inside two of the terrain pieces. This is a nice way to store the dice used in the game or to have a surface on which to roll one's dice during the game. If the dice are not rolled in the tray, then they don't count. Maybe. In any event, I like that the dice are now hidden and that the holders can do double duty as terrain end cap pieces.

Two of the new end cap pieces are actually dice holding trays.

Close up view of one of the dice trays

Here are some pictures showing the grand view of the game room:

View of the game room.

A view of the table edge with the end caps.

Ground level view showing the effect of having terrain end caps or scenic dividers on the table edges.

I am almost finished with making the terrain for my Khartoum! game at Historicon 2023. I will need to make two more dice holders so that I have one for each corner of the table. I might make a couple more small terrain pieces to scatter around the table for the visual effect. I probably have enough buildings and walls for my Khartoum city, but there is always the possibility of the city growing larger. After all, you know how I roll: bigger and larger is better than small. Always!

With company coming to our house for Christmas Day dinner, I will probably leave all of the terrain up so that my visitors can take a look at it. After Christmas, if I have the time, I might remove the river and push the city onto the middle table. My thought is that the players defending the town can have the city walls and the Dervish attackers in front of them while the rest of the city, the houses and other buildings, are behind them. Once the Dervish climb over the walls (and they will), then the fighting can go house to house and there will be more space for the players to maneuver inside the city.

FYI - Please Note

The Fife and Drum Miniatures staff will be going on a vacation for a couple of weeks in warmer climate. They tell me that they need a well deserved rest. So we probably won't be able to ship any orders during the first three weeks of January 2023. After that, the staff will be well rested and raring to go back to work, roll up their sleeves, and ship out lots and lots of miniatures. 

On the beach in Sarasota

I plan to post several more blog posts before I (ahem, we) head out on Vacay, but in case I do not, I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Merry Christmas

TTFN and cheers!

Tutorial: Making Scenic Dividers for the Game Table

 

Scenic divider placed on the vertical axis of the game table

Today's fox is a tutorial on how I make mountain or hill terrain pieces for my game table. I know that everyone says this, but making these terrain pieces is easy and does not require much model making skill. It just requires taking the initiative to try it out.

Making Scenic Dividers for my Game Table

As part of the terrain that I have been building for my 54mm Sudan Project, I decided to make some "end caps" of terrain to place on the ends of my game table. These were made for several reasons:

1. to provide a background for taking better photos of my games

2. to get rid of that "end of the world" feeling where the table edges just drop off

3. the pieces can also be used in the middle of the table to divide the table into two parts so that separate games can be played on each side of the scenic divider. This is a concept that I have borrowed from the model railroad hobby.

4. the pieces can be used on any part of the table in the event that you don't want to use them at the edge of the table.

My original terrain pieces were the parts of a two-piece mountain connected by a stone bridge. I had seen this in the Wargaming With Silver Whistle blog and really liked the idea so I built my own version of it.

Stone bridge made from 1/2-inch thick black foam core board
connects the two hills.

Another view of the original two-piece terrain model

After awhile though I decided that the terrain pieces needed to be 6 feet wide in order to cover the width of my 6 feet wide game table. So I built two more terrain sections.

The new modules extend the entire end cap of terrain across the full width of my table .

The original model featured a road leading up to the bridge that crossed a ravine.
I decided that the modules needed a second exit or access to the mountain top,
so I built a stone staircase on one of the new terrain pieces.

Having built one 6 foot length of scenic dividers, it made sense to make another side for the other table edge, so I have been working on some new pieces these past couple of days.

How to do it

For the base, I use cork place mats purchased from Target Stores and these measure approximately 16-inches long by 12-inches wide. These provide a sturdy base for the hill module.

Next, I glue pieces of 2-inch thick pink insulation foam board that I purchased at Home Depot. These come in 8 feet by 4 feet sheets. I recommend bringing some kind of knife to cut the sheet into smaller sections so that they will fit inside your car. I used a standard box cutter knife, make a cut, and then put one foot on one side of the cut and pull the other piece upwards so that the foam board snaps into two pieces.

Work in progress photo showing the various stages of construction.

Various types of "grab it glue" that are used to glue the foam board to the cork mat and to
glue the tree bark to the sides of the foam board. The middle tube of Loctite "Power Grab" 
is the best option because you can squirt a more precise amount of adhesive to the material.
It does not require a caulk gun. I also found that it had the best "stickiness" of
all of the different grab adhesives, making it easier to glue pieces together.
The other options shown require a caulk gun to push the adhesive out of the nozzle.

Cork placemats used for the base. Place the smooth decorative side face down on the bottom
so that the rough cork side is face up. I bought these at Target Stores.

Large bark nuggets used to make the rocks on the mountains.
I purchased this at a local home and garden store.

Gluing pieces of the foam board together. I used common white Elmer's Glue for
this task. Place smaller dots of glue on the board rather than smearing the glue
over the entire surface. Otherwise, the pieces will slip around after you press the halves
together and result in a lesser bond than if you use dots of glue.

Let the glue set overnight. Weight the pieces down with something heavy such
as a gallon of white glue or some books.

This picture shows the pieces of tree bark glued to the sides of the foam board.
You can also see the cork mat base for the terrain piece.

I wanted to have a stone bridge connecting the two terrain pieces. So I cut notches into each piece and measured and sized the bridge pieces to fit between the pieces. I also cut out a piece of cork mat to make a small terrain piece base to cover the gap between the two pieces. The bridge is made from pieces of 1/2-inch black foam core board.

The bridge connecting the two halves of the terrain model was made
from 1/2-inch thick black foam core board, purchase at Blick's artists' supply store.

The pieces of the bridge are hot glued together and reinforced by sewing pins that are pushed through the foam core board for added bonding strength. The I take a pen or a wood barbecue skewer stick and score the lines of the rocks that make up the bridge. The bridge will be painted a dark color, brown or grey, and then highlighted using the dry brush method of painting.

A picture of the two parts connected by the foam core bridge.
Next step is to mix some paint into a pot of wall board paste. I like the Red Devil
Pre-mixed Spackle Compound brand of wall board paste. Mix in the color
 of paint rather than painting over the surface otherwise, if pieces chip off then
the exposed spackle is the color of the paint, rather than white

I trowel the wall board paste over the roadway and the top flat surfaces of the two hills. While the paste is still wet, sprinkle in some medium grade Woodlands Scenics railroad ballast (use sparingly). Once everything has dried over night, I then use a dark brown color and paint over the surface of everything. After the paint has dried, then I dry brush a light cream color over the surface to bring out the highlights of the tree bark, which now takes on the appearance of rock. Grey paint might be a better option color pallet to use for most climates such as Norther Europe or the Eastern U.S. I wanted a desert look so I use the cream color for the highlights.

Refer to the pictures at the top of this blog thread to see how the finished terrain modules look after the dry brushing. I also added some bits of course green flock on the base and between some of the rocks. Use the green flock or grass sparingly. Just a little bit of green gives the needed visual "pop!".

Making a Mountain Dice Holder

Getting back to my second set of scenic dividers, I thought it might be a good idea to turn some of the mountain pieces into dice holders. I bought clear plastic boxes at The Container Store or Bed, Bath & Beyond. Place the boxes atop the foam board, upside down, and then use a Sharpie or Magic Market pen to outline the box onto the foam. Then use a hot knife foam cutter to cut the center of the shape out of the foam board.

Cautionary note: on the first piece I used a box cutter, but the blade is only one inch long, so I had to finish cutting out the center using a small hack saw blade. This is not very efficient plus it results in a jagged cut inside the foam. It is better to use your hot knife foam cutter for this job. I used the first method and was gnashing my teeth over the difficulty of cutting the center piece out of the foam. Then I realized that my foam cutter tool could do the job in a few minutes and make a nice smooth cutting surface. Doh!

Finish the mountain dice tray holder in the same manner as you would for the other terrain pieces. The pictures below show the dice tray painted and dry brushed, but I intend to add some tree bark pieces around the base of the module.

Work in progress picture of my dice holder hill.

The second dice holder is three  pieces of foam board high or six inches in total height. 
The other dice holder used two pieces of two-inch foam board or four inches of height.
I think that the four inch height looks better.

The dice holder terrain piece can be used to store dice that will be used in the game, thereby reducing the amount of clutter on the table top. Or it can be used as a place to actually roll your dice. In other words, the die roll doesn't count unless it is made inside the dice holder.

I think that I will make a total of four dice holder mountains so that I can place one in each corner of my game table.

Gordon Arrives In Cairo

 

General Gordon at the docks in Cairo, where he prepares to meet the local authorities.
Figures are largely from Trophy of Wales and Tradition of London.

Major General Charles Gordon has arrived in Cairo from London where he will be gathering up a few supplies and get the latest intelligence on the situation in Khartoum.

The Illustrated London News correspondent Melton Prior is standing on the dock scribbling down some quick sketches of the event, which will be sent back to London on the return route of the boat. There, artists will turn the sketches into full drawings that will be published in the ILN newspaper.

Major Harry Flashman is seen standing behind Gordon (That Gordon was a complete nutter, says old Flashy). How did Flashman find himself in Egypt in time to accompany Gordon to Khartoum? It's a long story best told at another time.

Watch for the news of Gordon's trip to Khartoum on this blog over the next several days.

Roman Playmobile Galley Conversion

Converted Playmobile ship, adding the artillery tower and corvus.

I have a bee in my bonnet to do an Ancients naval game with my 54mm Republican Romans and Carthaginians. To that end, I have been collecting an assortment of Playmobile Roman and Greek galley boats for this game.

The Greek boats are okay "as is", but I plan on painting them myself, rather than play with them in their original plastic colors. The Roman boats need a "Corvus" which is a boarding ramp that they developed for ship to ship and hand to hand melees. The corvus looks like a long bridge with a large spike at the front underside. As the Roman boat would draw near to the Carthaginian boat, the Romans would lower the corvus with a winch and the iron spike would embed itself into the deck of the enemy ship. Then the Roman legionaries would cross over the corvus bridge and engage the enemy in hand to hand combat.

Conversion (left) and Original (right)
The corvus has been lowered from the ship on the left onto the ship on the right.

In theory, the Carthaginians were better sailors than the Romans and so the Romans invented the corvus so that they could take advantage of their superior skills in hand to hand combat, on the deck of the ships. In practice though, the Roman navy was very skilled and they often got the better of the Carthaginian ships in naval battles. Furthermore, the Romans' advantage in financial wherewithal meant that they could crank out hundreds of new warships to replace and outnumber the Carthaginian fleet.

So for my Roman galleys I needed to add a corvus to the deck. I would also need to add a wooden tower onto the deck from which to fire their "artillery" (large bolts of flaming arrows).

Here are some pictures of my new Roman galley. As always, click on the picture to enlarge the view.

The tower is made from Balsa wood, painted light grey, and the stones were painted onto the surface.
These towers were made from wood and  painted to look like stone. There would be archers stationed in the tower
where they would have a good line of sight on the opposing ship.

Comparison of the converted model (left) with the original model (right).

The corvus has been lowered onto the ship on the right.
The plank has to be wide enough to accommodate my 40mm round bases.

The corvus is made from a 3/8-diameter dowel rod which I fit through a hole in the deck. Below deck, there is a plastic bottle cap with a hole in it into which sits the dowel rod. This allows the dowel rod to pivot on the deck.  Another bottle cap is placed on the deck to provide stability to the corvus, which can get fairly top heavy so it needs some sort of support.

The plank portion of the corvus is sized long enough to reach the other vessel. It also had to be wide enough to hold my individual figures that I mount on 40mm round bases. If you look at the first picture above, you can see that I made a cut out on the plank so that it fits around the dowel rod. I then drilled holes through the dowel and through the plank and inserted a piece of brass rod. This allows the plank to swivel up and down. A piece of chain connects from the dowel rod to the end of the plank so that the plank can be raised or lowered as needed.

Once I figured out how to engineer the manufacturing of the corvus, the construction and assembly was relatively easy. Now that I know how to do this, the other three Roman galleys should be easier to build. Even if one were hesitant to do this extra conversion work, the simple matter of painting the ship with your own paints makes a world of difference in the appearance of the galley. Thus, all of my ships will be primed and painted.

I had briefly considered adding some balsa wood planking to the deck, but this would have added a level of complexity that I was not ready to take on. Besides, the deck looks fine with a dry brushing of the plastic planks. In several areas, I had to cut off and file down the round plastic pegs on the deck that are used to support the Playmobile figures. This was not a big deal.

I probably won't use any of the decals that come with the galley because they don't look right with the painting and conversion work. I still have to paint an "eye" on each side of the bow and maybe do some red highlighting on the hull before I consider the model finished.

Man's Best Friend

 

Our family Golden Retriever, Bella, allowed me to take a selfie of the two of us. I don't know how I managed to get her to sit still long enough to take the picture, but she seems ready to ham it up in front of the camera. 

Bella is two years old and keeps our black Lab, Augie, on his toes at all times. We call Bella "The Brain" and Augie is "The Brawn". She is the instigator of all trouble in the house and Augie gladly does her bidding.

The smart one, on the left.

The saying, "A house is not a home without a Golden Retriever" is so true.

Bella (left) and Augie (right)

Sprucing up the den for Christmas

Bella staking out her territory in the Library

This  year we set up our Christmas tree in the den (or should I call it The Library) so that the dogs don’t knock it over. The Library has pocket doors that we can close to keep the hounds out, although we allow them in the room when we are there too.

The other side of the Library room.

I must say, though, that nothing makes a room look better than to have it graced by a Golden Retriever.

Leuthen Day Once Again

 

Prussian cavalry of the right wing at the start of the battle.

December 5th is the 265th anniversary of the battle fought by Frederick the Great's Prussians and the Austrian army of Charles of Lorraine on December 5, 1757. Leuthen was Frederick's signature battle in which his oblique order tactics were executed with near perfection and allowed his army of 35,000 men to overwhelm the 65,000 Austrians.

I direct your attention to Colin Ashton's fine blog: Carryings On Up The Dale where he presents a very good after action report of the game that he always plays on the anniversary of Leuthen Carryings On Up The Dale Blog . Colin's pictures of his game are simply awesome. Apparently the Austrians continued their long winning streak and defeated the Prussians once again. Ouch! LOL!

Last year I refought the opening battle on the Austrian left wing which was anchored on the village of Sagschutz. Leuthen is a huge battle so it is a good idea to break it down into its subcomponent action. I had never fought the opening attack and it seemed like a good time to do so because I wanted to play test some changes to my cavalry rules. Since this part of the battle involved a large amount of cavalry on both sides, this scenario fit the bill for me.

Following pictures, below, were taken during my battle scenario in December 2021. The Prussians overwhelmed the Wurttemburgers in Sagschutz and Ziethen's Prussian cavalry go the better of Nadasdy's Austrian and Saxon cavalry.

Nadasdy and his Saxon and Austrian cavalry prepare to cross swords
with Ziethen's Prussian cavalry on the Prussian right wing.

The elite Prussian Garde du Corps and a lot of cuirassiers lead the attack.

Wurttemburg soldiers defending Sagschutz wonder where all of those Prussians on their flank came from.

An overhead view of the troop deployment for the Prussian opening
attack on the Austrian left flank at the village of Sagschutz.

Wedel's advance guard infantry prepare to attack Sagschutz.

The Prussians deploy their battalions en echelon
so as to outflank the Wurttemburgers in Sagschutz.

A special thank you goes out to all of the people who took advantage of the Fife and Drum Miniatures Black Friday Week sale. You helped me to clean out some of the inventory that had been building up in my stock shelves. Since the funds from sales go back into the business in the form of new sculpts there should be some interesting new items added to the Minden SYW and the F&D AWI figure ranges.

Der Alte Fritz and family will be taking a much needed break by invading some of the southern climes at the end of December 2022 and into the first part of January 2023. So he will not be able to ship any orders after December 27th through January 15th of 2023. Unless you want to wait until February, get those last minute figure orders in before we close for vacation over the holidays.