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Post by jdesmond on Sept 7, 2016 6:09:08 GMT
Salutations!
Picked up some new paints recently.
DecoArt Americana (www.decoart.com) "Flesh Tone" - # DA078 - is about as good a paint for bog-standard 'untanned Caucasian flesh' as one could want. Possibly a bit short on covering power if you're applying it over black primer, otherwise recommended.
OTOH, their "Natural Buff" - # DA311 - is a pinkish-white, poor covering power. Could use it for Celts, with red hair and freckles, but by the end of the battle they'd've turned a bright sunburned red.
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Post by jdesmond on Aug 24, 2016 5:59:53 GMT
Salutations, gentlefolk ! Was in a group of enthusiastic ACW gamers a few years back - we did the 'Round Tops' scenario in _Fire and Fury_ at the Civil War Museum in Philadelphia for four years running, Fourth of July weekend. Wrote up a quick ref sheet, available at: boardgamegeek.com/filepage/61005/fire-fury-quick-referenceF&F is brigade-level, designed for 'Gettysburg in "real time" (ie, 1 hour of the battle takes 1 hour at the game table), with a reasonably sized space and about 1 player per Union corps or Confederate division'. Problem is, there weren't that many ACW battles - Shiloh, Antietam, Chicamauga, for example - that are both big enough for the scope of the ruleset - smaller actions may come down to a lucky die roll, balanced, and not 'charging fortifications' Johnny Reb III is regimental level, about 1 player per brigade, covers a lot of the 'minutiae' - F&F has 'artillery', with the Feds getting a +1 DRM for better ammo supply, JRIII has gun types for each battery If you're painting up a late-war Union army (everybody wants to paint up early-war units in fancy militia units or Rebels in all shades of gray and butternut), note that: every dye house and woolen mill from Milwaukee to Milan was making cloth for the Union (most re-enactors clothes are from the same 'dye lot' (there not being much demand these days for heavyweight wool cloth in dull light blue)), so the colors won't be strictly uniform. Indigo is an organic dye, and if you try to overboil the vat to get more color out of the dyestuffs, the resulting cloth will have a greenish hue. After a month or two of campaigning and 'field maintainance', the uniforms will be even less uniform. In other words, pick up every variety of blue / dull blue / greenish blue / bluish gray in the store, and have an army of veteran Yanks. Yours, John (don't make me dig up all the stuf I posted on rec.games.miniatures.historical :-( )
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Post by jdesmond on Aug 17, 2016 5:40:17 GMT
OK, let's see if 'add attachment' works here.
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Post by jdesmond on Aug 17, 2016 5:39:12 GMT
Salutations, gentlefolk ! Have made up a spreadsheet list for some armies I'm painting or thinking of acquiring, with the book, number, home terrain, aggression, start and end dates (Sometime may type in the armies' OOB, but past my bedtime tonight) for those armies and their potential enemies and allies. Was thunking of posting to Wikia, but .xls or .zip files not allowed there. Suggestions ? Hope y'all are keeping cool. Was 96F here Sunday. Been estivating, myself. Yours, John Desmond
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Post by jdesmond on Aug 16, 2016 6:52:00 GMT
Well, I got my copy from On Military Matters - onmilitarymatters.com - at their booth at NJCon back in June, and would recommend their establishment.
Indeed, should I ever win the Powerball, OMM would be one of my first stops.
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Post by jdesmond on Aug 13, 2016 6:27:19 GMT
Salutations !
Unfortunately, some of us, in our 'senior moments', have forgotten the meanings of some acronyms.
Might I ask you to expand 'PAWS', and say where the venue in question is located ?
Thanks, very much!
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Post by jdesmond on Aug 11, 2016 6:33:45 GMT
Good to know. Have a half-dozen of the Museum Miniatures (?) 'naked guys running with scythes' sitting waiting to be painted. They have found a purpose in life.
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Post by jdesmond on Aug 4, 2016 4:55:49 GMT
Salutations, gentlefolk! OK, ran through the Google, found the advice I wrote up back in '99, possibly slightly different from what I posted to Wikia, at: www.fanaticus.org/discussion/showthread.php?t=1248 and boardgamegeek.com/thread/766867/painting-tipsAt some point in near future, will edit and update them (is already past my bedtime tonight). Seems that nowadays the Delta, FolkArt, Apple Barrel, and Martha Stewart brands of craft paint are all made by Plaid Enterprises, www.plaidonline.com/Yours, John
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Post by jdesmond on Jul 23, 2016 10:55:55 GMT
Salutations, gentlefolk, Have some of these antiques - Early Imp Roman, 20 infantry, 6 cavalry, 3 command. More photos available. Zap me a private message if you're interested
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Post by jdesmond on Jul 22, 2016 19:26:11 GMT
Salutations, gentlefolk ! Those of you interested in the old HO scale figure sets - Airfix, Atlantic, etc - may wish to check the summer sale at www.toysoldierco.com/Yours, John (and maybe a Forum section for vendor reviews, sale notices, etc might be in order ?)
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Post by jdesmond on Jul 20, 2016 22:49:22 GMT
What I have learned today:
1 - You need to register and log in seperately for the Forum and the Wikia.
2 - Wikia already has a 'jdesmond' in their files. If that is me, the username is attached to an Email address I have no access to now.
3 - So 'jdesmond' on the Forum is 'JAFD' on the Wikia.
4 - To get to a Table of Contents for the Fanaticus Wikia, go to the bottom of the Welcome Page, and click on 'Categories'
OK, so if you click on Categories, should be a page 'Reference Sheets and Epitomes', which holds, now, two PDF files which you are invited to comment on.
Yours, John
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Post by jdesmond on Jul 20, 2016 20:49:40 GMT
Salutations, gentlefolk !
The GELIDIS (Greater East Lansdowne Invitational DBA Instructional Seminar) DBA rules - Why I Did This, What the Heck, some Infrequently Asked Questions, and other thoughts
Mr. Barker, in the introduction to DBA 3.0 says "The best way to learn to play is from a kindly experienced opponent". I would say that is like fighting warbands, "knight's work, if you can get it".
This may well be a transatlantic difference - British rule writers often assume that the guys from the club in West Ham will visit the club in East Ham, and The Word Of Mouth on How To Play will thus spread from Lands End ta John O'Groats.
American rules writers envision three friends from way out in the boondocks who acquire a rules booklet at Historicon, and play it among themselves, and no one else, until next Historicon. Having them enter the tourney, and finding they've been misinterpreting a crucial clause all year, is Not A Good Outcome.
In his Design Philosophy, Mr. Barker advises players to think "of elements as bodies of troops rather than playing pieces". A few years back I had some good friends living in East Lansdowne, Pennsylvania (1), and I lived about 50 yards across the Upper Darby border (thus 'Greater'). They were avid gamers - 1830, Power Grid, Puerto Rico... - but adamantly resistant to battling with miniatures.
So, one hot August day (thus the strained acronym meaning 'cold water' in Latin), I thought, "If I get the terrain set up, the Alans and the Franks ready to move onto the board when Alan and Frank arrive, and pare the rules down to "What You Need To Play The Game, Only What You Need To Play The Game, and Everything Repeated In All The Places They'd Look For It", maybe they'd give it a try.
Also, I thought, that using typography, white space, line breaks and indentation might make Mr. Barker's long sentences and multilayer subordinate clauses more understandable (2).
It ended up being in two parts, one on 'How to Play', the second on the 'rock paper scissors' interactions of the various troop types.
So I shall try to upload the PDF files (3) to our Wiki, and you, I hope, will peruse them and post here your opinion of them.
Yours, John Desmond
(1) East Lansdowne, Pennsylvania, is a borough of about 2500 inhabitants, and 1/2 a square kilometer in area. It's about 5 miles WSW of downtown Philadelphia, along Baltimore Avenue, and another 5 miles of 'urbanized area' before you reach 'countryside'... 'Greater East Lansdowne' is an oxymoron . (2) With thanks to the Sisters who taught me sentence diagramming, back in 5th and 6th grades - 'twould have been useful to have been able to have called for their advice here...
(3) These date from 2009 or so. If anyone needs .doc files of them, let me know. Hope to have a 3.0 version Real Soon Now.
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Post by jdesmond on Jul 20, 2016 20:40:53 GMT
Hi, Mike,
Am living in Newark, between downtown and Exit 14.
Drop me a message, hope we can set up get-together soon!
Yours, John
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Post by jdesmond on Jul 20, 2016 20:29:06 GMT
Salutations, Bob, and gentlefolk,
I have, not from malice but from ignorance, caused a problem. I'm sorry.
The page is fanaticus-dba.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Painting_tips,_advice,_etc
and if you type or copypaste that whole line into your browser it _should_ work (it did when I just tried it).
The best solution is probably to rename the Wikia page, and if I knew how to do that... If The Person In Charge Of Our Wikia would do that for me, I would be grateful.
My apologies for causing you this inconvenience.
Yours, John Desmond
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Post by jdesmond on Jul 12, 2016 15:58:39 GMT
Any students or alumni from Newark ? One project I'm thinking of is a public DBA game between the Highlanders of New Jersey Inst of Technology and the Scarlet Raiders (Vikings?) of Rutgers-Newark. (The campuses are on opposite sides of Martin Luther King Blvd.)
Target date, maybe next summer???
Yours, John
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