Sherman III

I recently purchased a Sherman III tank from Warlord Games. One of the theaters that my friend Jack and I have focused on for Bolt Action is the Mediterranean, from the Western Desert Campaign to Sicily and Italy:  essentially everything covered by the Duel in the Sun supplement.

Jack's Desert Rats so I decided to do up a Sherman to add to his forces. I decided on painting a Sherman III from the 3rd County of London Yeomanry (Sharpshooters).

Tiger Tank, Part 3

I don't have all that much experience with weathering. For most of the model vehicles I've done, the weathering consisted of slapping one some mud colored paint, and if I was feeling particularly ambitious, making some paint chips, smoke marks, and rust streaks. Doing it the "right" way, or at least, more in depth than that, seemed pretty daunting.

Swatches

I have an unhealthy obsession with getting the "right" color for my miniatures. In trying to figure out the color I need for a particular project, picking the right color by its depiction on a store's website is impossible. They never match. Looking at a paint pot or bottle doesn't work either, because sometimes the paint is unmixed, and wet paint is usually a slightly different shade than what it is when dried.

So I make swatches.

It's pretty simple: I just cut out a lot of 2-inch squares of posterboard, and then painted them with each of my colors. Now I know just what the color looks like when dry.  Whenever I'm dithering over which color to pick, I grab some of the swatches and do a comparison until I make my decision.  A 2-inch square is also good in case I need to go to Home Depot and buy a pint of paint for larger projects.

Unboxing: Dungeon Saga: The Dwarf King's Quest

As I've gotten older and had less time to play large scale wargames, I've had more and more thoughts of a smaller game that could be played that was also more accessible to non-gamer geeks.  I even did a post about it, hoping for a return Warhammer Quest. That hasn't happened, but Mantic Games has answered the call with Dungeon Saga: the Dwarf King's Quest.

Tough Ruck 2016

April 16, 2016
After my 2015 Obstacle Course Race season, I knew that I had a lot of work to do. I felt that in spite my finishing seven OCRs in 2015, and improving a little bit over the journey, I still had a long way to go. By no means did I feel "in shape," so I was determined to do 2016 better. On Veteran's Day 2015, I saw an announcement for Tough Ruck 2016, which was a charity event to raise money for families of Fallen Servicemembers and First Responders. In addition to raising money for a great cause, it would be good motivation for me to train.