World War 2

Well,
Here is the post I tried to get up a few weeks ago, so here you go.

Well I have been busy building 1/48th scale Tamiya kits for my WW2 gaming in 28mm. I took the plunge into 1/48th scale kits for a couple of reasons. First, it is allot easier to get these kits here in the states as opposed to getting the many 1/56th scale resin kits that are made in the UK. Secondly, the price. Since the US dollar is weak against the British Pound, it is cheaper to spend $20 - $30 dollars for theses Tamyia kits than the $40 - $50 UK kits. Thirdly, I am a modeler and the resin kits still seem to be lacking something. There are a ton of nice resin kits out there from folks like Bolt Action Miniatures, but they still seem to be missing the detail that the Tamiya kits have.So here are a few shots I took today, the first model I bought was this Crusader II kit.

I have lined this up with a AGN Matilda for size comparison.

The second kit I bought was the First production Tiger for North Africa. Man this is a sweet model!

Here are a few shots with Artizan figures next to them.

I also picked up a few of the Walmart Die Cast tanks that folks were talking about on the net. I have to admit, I bought about 8 of these kits and at $5.00 each I should have bought more! I repainted these for my North Africa units only thing I hate is the German cross's I hand painted. Will be decalling these in the future, but for now these work.

Here is a size comparison with the Walmart tank and the Tamiya Tiger.

Here are just a few more shots I took.

Here is also a shot of my new game table I got built as well with the first game to be played on it, LotOW.




Notice how the cats have taken over! This table was built with the Simpson shelf kit you get at Home Depot. After seeing how Rob Brightwells tables & shelves were built I knew I had to have this. So there you go, just a little update, I will be more diligent with posts...TK

Legends of the High Seas Delayed

Well,

It seems that Legends of the High Seas may be delayed until Christmas. Rob Broom at Warhammer Historical is trying his best to get the book out, but he is after all a one man show. So I eagerly await just like everyone else the release of the book.

I also learned that Pete Borlace who did the layout work for the LotOW & LotHS book will be coming to Phoenix. I will be trying to meet up with the man who made my book come alive and make it top notch.

Any how not much been going on, have not felt like painting and with the last two weeks (see previous post) I have not felt like doing much. But we need to press on. Did play some BFG (Battle Fleet Gothic) and have been assembling ships for Mike. In fact I was able to throw some paint on a couple of ships last night. Will try and get pictures up soon.

Oh, I was going to do an update of some pics I took of my 1/48th scale armour I did, but Blogger was acting up and wouldn't upload any pictures. Will try in the next few days.

TK

October 29, 2007 A sad day!

Sorry for not posting in a while, been busy with life, but on Monday life came to screeching halt for me and some close friends.

The friends are Robert & Kathy Brightwell and their daughter Emily passed away due to heart complications. You see Emily was only 18 and had been living with a new heart for the past 25 months. She was diagnosed with a heart problem about 3 years ago and had to have a heart transplant which she had been living with for the past 25 months.

Unfortunately, about a week ago she had to go into the hospital because she was have a round of rejections. The rejection was so bad, that she had to be hospitalized all week and she lost her fight on Monday.

Funeral services will be this coming Saturday, and Rob & Kathy have asked me to speak at the funeral. This will be the hardest thing for me to do in my life, but I will honor Emily and her family by speaking.

Emily was only 18 when she lost her fight, but she had the wisdom beyond her years. Something that I noticed when she was in the hospital 3 years ago was that she always was the most upbeat person in the room. She had something special about her, and she was able to impact so many people with her positive personality. I can only wish that I could be impact full as her and she is a shining example of how a person and their attitude can change peoples thinking.

I found this song and it reminds me of Emily and what she would want us to do, We live we love
We forgive and never give up Cuz the days we are given are gifts from above Today we remember to live and to love

The song is listed below by Christian group Superchick - We Live From the album Beauty From Pain

There’s a cross on the side of the road
Where a mother lost a son
How could she know that morning he left
Would be the last time she’d trade with him for a little more time
So she could say she loved him one more time
And hold him tight
But with life we never know
When we’re coming to the end of the road
So what do we do then
With tragedy around the bend?

Chorus: (2 x’s)We live we love
We forgive and never give up
Cuz the days we are given are gifts from above
Today we remember to live and to love

There is a man who waits for the tests
To see if the cancer has spread yet
And now he asks, “so why did I wait to live till it was time to die?
If I could have the time back how I’d live
Life is such a gift
So how does this story end?
Well this is your story and it all depends So don’t let it become true
Get out and do what we were meant to do

Chorus: (2 x’s)We live we love
We forgive and never give up
Cuz the days we are given are gifts from above
Today we remember to live and to love

Waking up to another dark morning
People are mourning
The weather in life outside is storming
But what would it take for the clouds to break
For us to realize each day is a gift somehow someway
So get our heads up out of the darkness
And spark this new mindset and start to live life cuz it ain’t gone yet
And tragedy is a reminder to take off the blinders
And wake up and live the life we’re supposed to take up
Moving forward with all our heads up cuz life is worth living

Chorus: (3 x’s)We live we love
We forgive and never give up
Cuz the days we are given are gifts from above
Today we remember to live and to love

TK

Legends of the High Seas Yahoo group

Well,

Just a quick post, I have started a Legends of the High Seas Yahoo Group to discuss LotHS, this will be the official group for the book. There isn't much now, but once the book comes out I'm sure there will be a lot to talk about. So here is the address,http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/LotHighSeas/ I will be happy to answer any questions about LotHS over there, but will still be active here with whatever comes to mind or new modeling projects.

Been busy painting my home, it seems that my wife has decided that white walls are boring now after 5 years in our house. So since I paint figures, I get to paint rooms now, How Fun!

Here are a few pictures I took awhile ago while at Disneyland. Below the Mighty Sailing Ship Columbia, the first American ship to carry the Stars & Strips around the globe.

Here I am with all the money I will get after LotHS comes out! Yeah right!

TK

Proof Reading

Well,

As the release date for Legends of the High Seas approaches, I have been doing proof reading of my manuscript into book format. I just recently received a update manuscript from Rob Broom over at Warhammer historical and the book is shaping up very well. I only received a black & white copy, but the pictures look awesome and the layout looks very clean.

Now proof reading may sound like fun, but it's not really. I have to go through every line in the book to find errors. Thankfully a few folks are also helping out with this (Dave Smith and Guy Bowers as well as Rob Broom). Obviously the goal is to have a top notch book when it comes out & there is a few things that will change. As Rob pointed out to me, English is not every ones first language and that means it will be translated into other languages (probably French, German and God knows what other language). I have to say it is work to do this, I thought it would be pretty easy, but I have to keep going back to my main manuscript to make sure it is all in there.

So it looks like I have some work to still do before the book sails onto shelves. I will be very happy once the book finally comes out, that way I concentrate on other games that I'm working on. A friend that does not game asked me if it was worth writing the book and I had to tell him I had mixed emotions about it. On one hand, it is very rewarding seeing something that I spent so long on finally come out. And what gamer doesn't dream about having his own set of rules out there? But on the other hand, writing did take away a lot of time with my family and friends. That's one thing that I never realized would happen, the time spent in front of the computer. I know my wife was a bit upset at times with me being on the computer writing rules. (Really I think she hated me play testing & rolling dice by myself at weird hours of the night). It also took time away from friends since I had to focus only on Pirates & for those folks that know me, I am the sort of person that loves to do something new every week. So staying focused was at times very hard.

So if Legends of the High Seas does well, there could be another chance to write a second book for the series, not saying that will happen, but anything is possible. Will I do it if the opportunity is given? Yeah I will in a heart beat. Will it drive my wife crazy? Yes I'm sure it will. Will I have the same feelings like this first one, yep I'm sure I will feel the same. Why will I do it? Because it has always been a dream of mine, and when dreams get to happen, you have to go with them!

So now back to proof reading!

TK

So what has been going on?

Well I have been slacking on posting, so here is an update.

In the beginning of the month, we took our son to college in the Manhattan Kansas, where he will attend Manhattan Christian College (MCC) to become a youth pastor. We drove from Phoenix to Manhattan and back crossing 5 states (New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas & Colorado). Here are a few pictures of our trip.

We dropped our son of & after many goodbyes & allot of tears we headed home. We did make a side trip to the Grand Canyon since my wife had never been there. here are a few more pictures from what was one of the Seventh wonders of the World.

So the trip to Kansas took about a week and when we arrived back here in Phoenix we started changing the house around. You see, with my son off in college, we now had a free room. So I asked the wife if she would allow me to use our son's room as my new game room. Well she gave me the okay & we started moving things around. With that I had to convert our computer room into a spare bedroom & I had to paint the room. So after having a garage sale, boxing up our sons stuff, he didn't take with him, I had space for a game room. Here are a few pictures of what it looks like. The only thing that I will be adding is a 4'x6' game table, and in the pictures you can see blue tape on the floor showing where the table will be.

So there you have it, that's what I have been up to, now to get painting and gaming...

TK

A Contest to build a Ship

Well,

I frequent the Lead Adventures Forum http://forum.backofbeyond.de/ and an interesting subject came up. While discussing Pulp stuff, a thread was started about Tramp Steamers. Well Richard Johnson of Rattrap Productions http://www.rattrap-productions.com/ and Pulp .45 fame thought it would be a neat idea to have a Tramp Steamer model building contest.

Here are the guidelines for the contest:

1.) Steamer must be at least 12" and can be no more than 24" (60cm) in length.

2.) Participants must chronicle the steps in its construction.

3.) Hull and cabin must be scratch-built, though detail pieces can be purchased.

4.) The members of Lead Adventures will vote on a winner and I'll come up with some prize for it (though I will also build one so I may get to give a prize to myself).
5.) Deadline September 15th
6.) Primed only

We will be documenting the event on the TLA and I will also document mine here on Cursed Treasures. So with that in mind I started looking for good Tramp steamers to model, i think I have narrowed it down to 3 ships I will try & model or just use as inspiration. Those ships would be,

SS. Venture from King Kong

The Bantu Wind from Indiana Jones

Or the Tramp Steamer from The Mummy, but having a hard time finding pictures of that. So I guess tonight I will be watching a few movies for better pictures of said ships.

I also plan on building the ship either out of Wood (3/8" MDF and thin Plywood) or I will build the ship out of PVC plastic and regular styrene, will have to see what I have more of. So now I'm off to build me a boat!

TK

Its a Small World after all...

No,

I'm not going to be talking about the famous Disneyland attraction, but I just realized that the Web makes this planet very small. Last night I was talking with a friend of mine, Rob, and we were discussing our hobby of war gaming. Now as a few folks know, I wrote the soon to be released Warhammer Historical book, Legends of the High Seas. What were discussing last night is how are hobby is such a small global community, because of the web.

I never really thought about it until today when I was doing my usual Google search for topics on LotHS. I came across many forum hits (in a few different languages) discussing the soon to be released book and it dawned on me, that even this little spot in cyber-space is getting read in different parts of the globe. It also dawned on me that when the book comes out people all over the globe will be playing this game! Wow!

I guess I really never thought about it until now. I remember back in the day when I used to go to Brookhurst Hobbies http://www.brookhursthobbies.com/ and I would marvel at the different GW games that I never had heard about. Now there is a buzz all over the globe for a game that has not come out yet due to the Internet.

I also realized that I now have friends all over the globe not just here in my town. Because of this LotHS, I now communicate with folks in Germany, UK, France, Australia, New Zealand and all over the USA. I never would have thought about that before I started writing this book. I have also been in contact from a rather large gaming convention in the east to come out & demo the game (as well as play in some tournaments). Also I have been in contact with many figure manufactures that produce the figures I buy.

All this because of the web & the Internet. It truly is a Small World...

TK

Legends of What?

My pirate project (LotHS) is moving along well, I'm going to be sending 15 figures across the pound for photos over at GW Headquarters. It will be nice to see my stuff featured in the book that I wrote. Now I have to give credit to Brandon Forrey for painting 10 out of the 15 figures that I put together for this project. Also the book is still on track for a late October release so lets keep our fingers crossed.

So now that the Pirate project has run its course, I've started thinking of what I would like to do next. I have been searching for a good set of rules to cover the "Pulp Era" (1930's - 1940's). I have played or have read many of the current rules that are out there and none seem to do anything for me. Perhaps my good friend Rob is right, I'm turning into a Beardy Old Guy" that only wants to play his own rules. Although I would disagree with that statement, I think writing my own rules is in my blood since I did just do LotHS.So what do I want in a set of rules that I can't find anywhere else?

Well I want a simple streamline set of rules that can be learned rather quickly, but take some time to master. This set of rules must also be something that can be played within a hour or two. It must also be something that characters can advance in experience or get worse due to injuries. It must also be something that is story line driven and allow games to be linked together into a cohesive storyline.

So after looking at these requirements, it looks like I will be heading back to where the Pirates game came from, Lord of the Rings. This set of rules seems to cover every option on my list as well as a few other folks I have talked too. So do I think this set of rules will make it to GW as a new Legends of the book, probably not. Will I have a set of rules that my friends & I like to play, I think so. Now I must get to writing and start becoming that "Beardy Old Guy"...
TK

Back from Camp!

Well,

We survived another Jr. high Camp this year. You see my family and I volunteer at our church (Christ Church of the Valley http://www.ccvonline.com/ ) in the Jr High ministry. My wife, Son & myself are all leaders and once a year we take a few Jr. Highers to camp. This year we had 306 kids & 50 leaders that went up to UCYC (United Christian Youth Camp).

Since the kids are Jr High age (12-13) you can imagine what sort of fun this is. You basically have very little sleep & run yourself ragged all week long. But the payoff is that we baptized 45 kids this year which is the whole reason we go.

Here is a group photo of our camp, see if you can find me in the picture!

TK

Black Cats & the Police

Well, As the title states I have a few things to write about tonight. First off would be these guys,

My wife happened to surprise me with an awesome Fathers day present of getting tickets to the Police show at the US Airways Arena on Monday June 18, 2007. She got the tickets from a guy in our church that was selling the tickets for just over $4.00 over face value. So we spent $97.00 or each ticket, which was allot better than some of the prices I saw on the Internet. So how good were the tickets, well we were in the second deck & could see the stage very clearly and we could tell there were people on stage, but thankfully they had three huge screens above the stage that showed close ups of Sting, Stewart & Andy.

So how was the concert you ask, well it was AWESOME!!!!!! It has been 25 years since the Police last performed and it sounded just like they never stopped. They played all there hits and the show lasted for about 2 and half hours! It was well worth waiting 20+ years to see them and I only hope they continue to make records together. I'm glad that I got the chance to see them play, it made my Fathers day great!

Another Fathers day present I got a week early was this cabinet for all my painted figures. I have been looking for something like this for years.

We found this at Ikea for a nice amount of $59.99. I added a light to it for an additional $9.99 and this now resides in the computer room while I wait for my "Game Room". Here are a few pictures of some of the figures in the cabinet. First shot is of my Pirates that I painted. I have a bunch more but was being picky as to which ones I have in there.

The next shot is a mix of Cowboys that I use for Legends of the Old West (One the Left) and on the right is my slowly growing Pulp figures that I have painted. You also see some o my Sisters of Battle in there since most of the army is over at a friends house right now.

Also today I received a box from across the pound from Black Cat bases ww.blackcatbases.com Here is what was inside the box:

I have been in contact with Jo over at Black Cat for awhile now about getting some of there stuff in the LotHS book (which they will be). So as thanks they sent me a few figures. I was surprised that they sent me so many, I was only thinking I would get two or three, not 14 figures plus some of there bases as well. Upon looking at the figures they are a tad bigger than Foundry & Old Glory Figures, but as many folks have mentioned, it is not that noticeable. In fact I like varying sizes on my models, real people are all different sizes so why do all figures need to be the same?

The figures have very little flash (if any) and are nicely sculpted. They will all fit in nicely with my collection and I can't wait to get started on painting them. I would highly recommend them to folks and I can't wait to see what else they come out with. Also these figures will mix in well with Black Scorpions figures as well as GW's militia figures that I used for my own Pirate Crew. Go out and buy these, they are worth every penny.

TK

Some Pulp

Here are a few Pulp figures I finished up the other night...

TK