Happy Seppuku Base Stamps

Back in April of last year I did a quick tutorial showing how I made my cobblestone bases using putty and a home made stamp. The tutorial can be found here. Several people asked me where could they get a stamp? Well, now I know just where to go to get one happyseppuku.com. This little company is producing durable silicon rubber stamps in all sorts of textures and they are large enough to allow you to stamp several bases at once. I made my stamp too small for mass base stamping I can only fit 2 bases on it at a time which is an irritating time drag. You'll find downloadable PDF instructions on using their stamps on their site and links to their 2 youtube videos under "videos" on their website. Normally I would insert them here on the blog post but blogger isn't recognizing the youtube videos. This issue is becoming a regular problem with blogger these days.

 I managed to upload the video from my computer.

Most Imperssive Victorian Building Near Me

This is a belated reply to Solo Wargaming's challenge (the challenge can be found here, and Legatus' reply can be found here.) to show the most impressive Victorian building near you. I have chosen my favorite museum the Metropolitan Museum of Art known to locals as "the Met". The Met is the largest art museum in American and the 10th largest in the world.

From the balcony in the main entrance foyer. 

The sculpture garden, this is a latter edition to the building you can see the original buildings exterior wall on the left.

 Part of the main exhibit hall at night despite the picture the museum is well lit at night it loses at 10pm 6 days a week.

The Arms & Armor wing holds the largest collection of medieval arms in America and the largest collection of samurai swords of anywhere in the world outside of Japan.

American works of art like this gold inlay-ed colt revolver from 1857 are well represented in the Met's collecion.

A Pirate Life For Me.

Lunatic R has taken the plunge into the 18th Century with Black Scorpion's pirate skirmish game Cutlass. This isn't just any old pirate skirmish game its a fantasy pirate skirmish game! 

We used to play Games Workshop's Legend of the High Seas a few years ago but the Lunatic has always been partial to fantasy gaming. He is one of those people who's afraid of historical gaming though he did enjoy fantasy free Legends of the High Seas.

 What I like about Cutlass is the action point system which I'm told is very much like Blood Bowl, I've never played Blood Bowl so I couldn't say but I love the reaction system where the members of the inactive crew get to take an action in re-action to members of the active crew. For example if a crew member of the active gang shoots at a member of the opposite crew any of that crew's mates within 6" of him can return fire at the shooter if they can see him. I think that's great. The old GW I go/you go system was my main issue with LOTHS. I like the way in which this system works out the fantasy elements in this game, it's mostly done with skills. All crew members have a level 1 to 20 and the starting stats for each race is the same. Its the racial skills and some special abilities which differentiate the races. I'm hoping this will make for a balanced campaign. There are human pirate, privateer and royal navy factions so you can play this system as a "historical" game too.

Like LOTHS this game is all about the campaign system. I hope to have a report on that in a few weeks once I've played a few games.

11,000 Views!

Fiends in Waistcoats has over 11,000 views! When I first began this on a whim I never though it would last but here we are at the first of hopefully may milestones to come. I must thank everyone who has commented on the blog you are the reason this blog exists without your input I suspect I would have abandoned this long ago. For that I thank you.

Pulp Egypt a Gallery in the Making part 3- Richard Garretson

Welcome to the 3rd and final part of my profile of the amazing hobbyist Richard Garretson here we will get a sneak peak at his latest gallery in the making Pulp Egypt 28mm. So what is the concept behind this gallery and what influences, movies, books etc... did you draw from?

"The idea is that my archeological group has found an Egyptian site that has previously gone undiscovered. The concept that something as large as this could have gone undiscovered until the first half of 20th century despite the fact that it is within driving distance of modern civilization hinges on the vast emptiness of the desert. In the years following WWI it seems reasonable to me that a plane flying over the desert could accidentally happen upon an unknown ancient Egyptian complex that had gone unnoticed simply because there had been no modern reason for traveling into that part of the desert, but from an airplane that which was unknown to those bound to the earth could be seen by those with the freedom to fly. A year ago I watched a cable show that centered on an archeologist whose area of interest was anceint Egypt but whose tool was satellite imagery of the areas of the desert that had not been previously investigated. She was able to find topographical evidence of many previously undiscovered ancient grave sites despite the fact that they are only a short distance from the Nile.
The Mummy with Brendan Fraser is probably the film that had the greatest influence on this project I love the look of that film. I'm sure that movies like Indiana Jones (Lost Ark and Crusade), The English Patient, and Legend of the Lost also had some influence though less direct in nature."

So what will this gallery consist of?
"The gallery will be set on two 5ft x 7ft tables this will be the first time I've used two tables for a gallery. One table will have an Egyptian town (about 22 buildings) and my Nile. That table is really about the fact that I love buildings, boats and people going about their daily lives. The other table will have a large temple complex (2 ft x 4ft) and two Playmobil pyramids (each pyramid is 20" at the base and 15" tall). That table will also house the archeological encampment and will be the home of most of the action.

"I plan to have a number of interior layouts most of which will be based upon five PetCo fish tank decor pieces I picked up during a going-out-of-business sale at one of their stores. Each of those rooms are 7"W x 8"L x 9"T and have a very ancient Egyptian ruins look to them. I've modified then so that two can be put together to form one larger room. They will form the tomb room, treasure room and one other room where a mummy vs. archeologist adventurers  battle will ensue."

Original Playmobile pyramid sides.

Modified Playmobile pyramid.

"In putting the together the two Playmobil pyramids, I added a fourth side wall to both, the toy comes with only three walls so that the kids can play inside through the open fourth side. I left one of the pyramids with the look that Playmobil gave it, which despite it's non-traditional appearance will paint up great and add to the overall look to the table. The second I significantly modified to give it a more traditional pyramid look. That was a little risky for me because it's an expensive piece and I wasn't sure how it would turn out. I'm very please with the finished product. I added to the second pyramid a removable section that gives the appearance of an opening into the pyramid complete with scaffolding.

Front

Back

The above images are of some of the buildings he has painted up for the Egyptian village which will appear on the first table of the gallery. The are from Kobblestone Miniatures.

Portrait of an Artist Richard Garretson part 2

Before

After

German Sternwheeler
"A couple weeks before Christmas I picked up a damaged Lemax sternwheeler at the swap meet.  Except for the stern wheel, bow gangway and trim items on the boat which are plastic, the boat itself is of a ceramic composition and was made to be part of a Christmas display.  Someone had probably dropped it because part of the stern wheel was broken (one of its paddles and a supporting brace) and the two smoke stacks were missing (broken away).  Despite the problems, it looked like it had potential for being turned into a tired colonial riverboat.  Another important factor was that it had minimal Christmas decoration and that could be hidden rather easily.  Lastly it was only $10."

Welcome to part 2 of my portrait of Richard Garretson. Who is Richard Garretson? Richard is a retired teacher from Sunny California, he lives right by Disneyland.
"Most of the people I worked with thought I would go nuts when I retired because I had been so passionate about my work. The thing that has made retirement so wonderful for me is this crazy hobby. You'd think that after more than 30 years I'd be getting bored, but the truth is I'm having more fun with it today than ever before. Probably an indication of a simple mind, but if that's the case, I thank god for being simple minded."

"I understand that your daughter takes the photographs for your galleries what does your wife think about them? "My wife has always been okay with my hobby it made me happy and kept me of the streets. But when I began putting the galleries together she began to see what had been so interesting for me all those years. It wasn't until she saw the pictures, saw that what I was doing wasn't random I had a plan, that she could enjoy it. She has really come to enjoy my crazy stuff which makes it even more fun for me."

Woman in a Shoe

 "I go to my local swap meet every weekend looking for rare items, which is to say junk, that I can use with my miniatures collections. Every once in awhile I find a toy that has no practical purpose for any of my hobby projects, but it is perfect scale for 28mm or 15mm and so nicely crafted that I can't resist buying it just for the joy of repairing & repainting it. That was the case with the "shoe". It cost me $2 and I got more than my money's worth from the pleasure of working on it. I did some small modifications using Milliput to create climbing shrubs to hide a missing window, seams & hinges then repainted it. The figures are by Wyrd and are part of my 28mm Victorian collection."

Snake Oil

"I was really taken by this Lemax Halloween decoration snake oil wagon. It is resign reasonably priced and despite the large wheels it goes well with 28mm as can be seen by the size of the door. The only real modification I made to it other than a new paint job was to add a few pieces of plastic to each step to reduce the height of each step level. I really liked the wagon's sign so I kept it as it was. The figure is from Horrorclix I rebased and repainted him. The two trees are resin but I have no idea who manufactured them. I picked them up at the swap meet for $2 each.

Richard's galleries can be found here. Next Sunday I'll preview Richard's last gallery Pulp Egypt!