Tin Soldier Guy

 I went hobby shopping for making wargame terrain this week. I decided I'd work on forest terrain. I found two sets of terrain at HobbyTown. They have Woodland Scenics deciduous and pine trees, ready made to go. There are 33 pine trees and 23 deciduous trees in a pack. More than enough to make good forest terrain.. I next got foam board at the local Kroger (grocery store). Man I wish I would have thought of this earlier. Foam board is very easy to cut with an exacto knife. I can use foam board to make buildings, figure bases, and more. It seems better than balsa wood but I won't rule out balsa wood for other projects just yet. Perhaps you know of best uses for both? I cut out various shapes/patterns to make forest bases and tree lines from the foam board. I then painted them with a base of brown then a layer of green spray paint. I followed after while the paint was still wet with some grassy flock (I don't think I'll flock any future bases I make. for terrain. I find t

 I tried to make a video of my first game of FOW. It came out very sloppy and not at all what I like. Also, the Youtube takes forever to load. I found a video how to fix it but perhaps next week.  I did get all my components to play the game. I got the artillery and salvo template. This has a square within a square. I think that salvos have a wider template then artillery. I also got American and German Game Playsets. These have all the markers I need to start. I was surprised. I was expecting cardboard markers but these are laminated with a felt, textured surface on the back. They are really nice.

 I was a member of the the Texas State Guard from June 2020 until June 2023. It was a three year enlistment. The Texas State Guard is not an armed military force and is not federal. We serve the state of Texas under the governor of Texas (Greg Abbott).  Our mission is to help Texans in need. We help the Texas Department of Emergency Management in helping evacuees and/or refugees from natural disasters and the border crisis. We help search and rescue operations and we work in disaster distribution of materials to our neighbors. Since serving in the TXSG I have been on two deployments. My first was Hurricane Laura and the second was the 2021 Winter Storm. It was rewarding to help in both incidents. I'm leaving feeling good about my service and the people I got to serve with. Why am I leaving? Why not reenlist? It was a hard decision but I can see events happening in my life in the near future that would probably force me to leave anyways. I hate to leave in the middle of a commitment

I got some mail deliveries this week that allowed me to move forward with my FOW game. My decals came for my American and German tanks so I got those finished up. I also got a 6' x 4' grass/desert mat to play on.  Here is the mat: The American tanks were my favorite to decal. They have far more character than the German tanks in that I can individually name them. Here they are: All American tanks here are M4 Shermans. Their fronts have a yellow circle with a 30 in it meaning the tank weighs 30 tons. That's important to know when crossing a pontoon bridge or some other weak structure. All of them are 4th Armored Division noted by a 4 "triangle", the 37th Battalion noted by a 37 "triangle" and the letter for the tank company and number for tank number on the same label. Each tank has an red, yellow, blue armored division symbol with a red lightning bolt in it, The tank name, serial number and stats label. I also put an American flag on the left, rear tail

 Not much new the hobby for me this week. I got some decals for my tanks finally being delivered and I'm waiting for a 6'x4' neoprene game mat to be delivered to (but that's not sent yet). What I'm really happy about is my Father's Day gift. It's a book for painting WWII figures called Colours of War. It has painiting instructions for all the tanks, infantry, and equipment of all the major armies that fought during WWII. I'm already learning how the decal's I'm getting will go as they are described in the book. This is very helpful.

  I finished painting miniatures from my Hit the Beach starter army set. Here they are: German tanks: I have a tank platoon of three panzer IV tanks, an anti-tank platoon of two 7.5cm AT guns, and a V-2 rocket which is strictly for decoration. However, it makes a good objective for the allies to take. German Infantry: I have a panzergrenadier company. It consists of two panzergrenadier platoons with panzerschrecks and a panzergrenadier HQ. Now for the Americans: I have a single parachute rifle platoon. It includes a bazooka and a mortar team as well. I also made a mistake in making the models in that I didn't make a tank company HQ. Instead I made two 4 tank platoons.. I should have made a 2 tank HQ  and then two 3 tank platoons, oh well, excuse to buy more thanks :).