Quick mid-day update

Yay!  All of my Jomsvikings are now assembled and primed.  I can start painting on them tonight.  I plan on getting my three Guild Ball brewers assembled tonight or tomorrow, so that I can work on them this weekend as well.  And I have a terrain project in the works, which fortunately should not take much time to set up.

Curse you, real life!

Real life had to take priority for quite a bit there.  School has started, which means usual craziness that happens for September and October before everything really settles down.

I have been painting - in fact, I have finished 17 Risen since my last post, which is something.  (Heck, it's about as many models as I finished last year, but that is beside the point.)

(It's a lousy cell phone pic, but they are done, sealed and based.  I need to go back an add arc markings, but that's a rainy afternoon kind of project - the sort of thing I do right before AdeptiCon or something.)

I don't have a pic, but I recently replaced my airbrush (cheap learning model), and have been doing quick base colors on a bunch of Mantic Elves.  I backed Kings of War earlier this year, and part 1 of my pledge has arrived.  Sadly, most of it was for other people in my FLGS - my real army does not arrive until late this year, so until then, it's elves and proxy basing.

I've also been working on some Infinity models (USAriadna), and since I have joined a Malifaux league, I need to start painting my Ten Thunders as well.  Most of them are primed, so its really just a matter of actually starting them to get me going. 

Plus, I have some more terrain pieces in the works.  I am in the process of building the master copy, so I can make a mold, and then churn some of them out.  I am also working on a board for a Breast Cancer Brawl event, and an Infinity board for a special event.  The latter two are still in the planning stages, but the BCB board needs to be done by this time next month or so, so I should be starting it next week.

So much for a resolution

Been way too busy lately - a wedding, the 4th of July, and family in town have kept me away from any sort of hobby time.  Finally, things are mostly settling down, and tomorrow, I am expecting my starter box of Planetfall to show up on my doorstep.  I have also been building terrain, and, in fact, rather than post anything else here, I am going to go and actually work on my various hobbies.  I have an FSA event I can enter in a bit more than a week, and I think I might want to have some things painted for it.

In under the wire

It's still shy of midnight, so yes, I am making an update post for the day.  I was going to make it earlier, but got sucked into a movie, etc, etc.  Not much painting today, and I did not assemble any miniatures (and it was too damp to prime, for the most part), but I did work on the next set of terrain that will get the resin treatment.

So, this is still a WIP, but I like the way it is coming along:

And from the side:

It's 4" x 3", and once, this is done, I will be making a 90 degree corner.  Then, I can make the molds for those two, and start work on some 15mm and 28mm sheet metal walls (and corners for the same).  Those may actually be ready for a mold by the weekend as well.

I'm behind in my painting, but I felt like making some terrain, so I did that instead.  It was better than no hobby time.  Tomorrow, I may well be inspired, depending on the USPS.

Progress report

I'm not painting nearly as much as I would like  Part of that is life getting in the way, part of that is because I decided to help out the FLGS.  Today, they are having a 40k tourney.  It's apparently going to be kind of a big deal - they are hoping to have people coming from several hours away (though the foot of snow expected over the course of the day will probably lessen attendance some).  Anyway, the FLGS does not have nearly enough terrain for this.  They have the table space, they have table toppers (to get them to 4' x 6'), but the tables would have been pretty spare.

So, the store reached out to the local gaming club, which, ideally, would have said something like "You betcha!  We're not really using it that day, and we'd love to see lots of 40k games being played in the area, even if they aren't at our preferred store.  What time and format is the tourney, anyway, because we would love to play!"

That didn't happen.

So, I looked at what I had in the basement earlier this week, sent a quick message to the store telling them that I could probably scrounge up some terrain for them to use, and got to work.  This is the result:



(For scale purposes - the green area rug is 5' x 8')

The final tally is more impressive.  I managed another seven or eight linear feet of walls, maybe more.  I had a large box of hills that aren't pictured here.  There are pieces on the right that got cut out of the photo.

Now, I have been painting.  I got a couple of things finished - and I'll post pics in the next day or so.  But, I have also been working toward the next big thing for my FLGS.  They're doing a miniature gaming demo day.  So, we plan on running demos of Warmachine and Hordes, another local is going to run Malifaux demos, and we'll have space set up to demo and play Firestorm Armada, Relic Knights, and Robotech Tactics.  We'll also demo PP games like Zombies Keep Out and High Command.

So I have also been building Robotech figs.  And some Malifaux. And painting FSA stuff, in addition to WM models.  And, this afternoon, while the snow falls, I am going to be spending some quality time in the basement, assembling veritech fighters and battlepods, while watching a bad movie or two, and periodically going out to fight a losing battle against the white stuff falling from the sky.

Busy doing something. . . .

. . .  while  I wait for stuff to get here.  Getting back into the habit of painting again, and, as I said, I have been pouring out some plaster in Hirst molds.  As proof that I am doing something, instead of playing facebook games all day, I offer some photographic evidence:



When I have more done and painted (the terrain, since the minis aren't even fully base-coated yet), I will post a better pic.

Filling my time

Since I am waiting on various and sundry games, I need to do something to fill my time.  I am painting, but right now, it's mainly a make sure that all 40 small based Convergence infantry are fully primed black before starting on their base coat.  Not too thrilling there.

But I have also started pouring plaster in my Hirst Arts molds again.  I hope to have Space Hulk, Descent, and Star Wars boards done in a week or so - and then they are bound for Bartertown on eBay, because I want an airbrush and a compressor.

For all of those sets though, the pouring is the easy part - it is the assembly that takes all of the time.  I really need to find a way to speed that up.

The plagarism post

OKay, it's not plagarism.  I just didn't write it myself.  Over on the PP forums, Snitchy posted an updated terrain "diatribe".  (I think it lacks sufficient vitriol to be labelled a diatribe, but that's semantics.)  Here is it:

Terrain Theory:

Terrain should not remove excessive space from the tabletop:
Unusable space on the table is to be avoided at all costs.

For buildings you have two options. Option one is for buildings that do not have an interior. Build them at a slightly reduced scale so they do not occupy too much table space. Option two is to build the building with interior space. The whole building becomes usable space. Adding a second stories will expand the play area.

For other terrain features make sure that any ridges (such as the banks of rivers) are flat on top and have enough space to stabilize a large base. The sides of stepped hills also need to be able to stabilize a large base. You never know where a random player will end their movement.

A note on rivers: They tend to eat up space on the board and limit game play. If you are going to use a river, ensure that there are plenty of crossings so a single bridge will not become the inadvertent focal point of the game. A single bridge will end up in game terms as a meat grinder.

If the building or terrain feature can be entered, exited, or climbed upon make multiple entrances, exits and access points:
If there is only one access point, players will not use it. The feature becomes a dead end and is an unintentional waste of space.

For appearances sake:
When making modular terrain, try to make sure that edges and height of terrain features match up. Also try to hide the seams and vary lengths between different sections of terrain so the individual components cannot be used as an improvised ruler. Some game systems do not require players to “guestimate” their moves or shots but there is no reason to limit your terrain to one system.

Try to use forced perspective when building terrain:
Forced perspective is a modeling trick to imply that an object is larger or more intricate than it actually is. In the traditional modeling world this is accomplished by building smaller features further away from the viewer to give the illusion of distance. For war gaming it means building features at a reduced depth or height to imply that the feature is there without taking up the required space.

An easy example is when detailing a building interior such as a house, factory or mill. If you add the room partitions, furniture, clutter or complete mechanics there will be no room to place individual model bases let alone entire units. Generally for buildings I build all details within the interiors within a ½ inch of the wall so there is room to have models in play while giving the lived in illusion. For exterior features or details try to build them as close to unusable terrain as possible. If you are building a feature such as a blacksmiths forge, try to contain the total space to within one inch of a wall.

Reinforce the terrain piece as much as possible:
When gluing a terrain piece together, make sure that you have multiple materials overlapping each other with layers of glue laminated in between.

Another way to reinforce terrain is to glaze your finished unpainted piece with superglue. This done by dropping liquid superglue on the part to be glazed and either blowing the superglue or used a can of compressed air to blow the superglue into a thin film coating the material. Future floor polish applied prior to painting will do the same thing. Spray or paint on sealers are also invaluable as the last layer on your terrain so the feature does not chip.

Ensure that your terrain will not damage another piece of terrain that it is set on:
Adding felt to the underside of the base of your terrain features will protect the surface it is placed on.

If your terrain travels, try to have a dedicated box to carry it in, and use foam or bubble wrap to protect the terrain components:
A dedicated carry case will protect your work, help you store the terrain and retrieve what you need in an economical fashion.

Make the terrain visual interesting:
Make features look lived in. One way you can do this is to hide "Easter eggs" on the piece. Add little details that people might overlook initially. Add animals to the bases of your trees. Add a cat sitting on the roof. Add a cup of coffee sitting on a shelf or stove. Papers on the floor, or clothing hanging on a hook add that extra bit of realism that makes individual terrain features “pop”. Any little real life detail added will increase the overall effect.

Be consistent:
Use the same color paints, the same basing materials, the same color ground cover etc. etc. Making your terrain fit together is the key. Nothing is worse visually than having a beautiful desert board with a building with a snowy base sat in the middle.

Most linear obstacles should be of average height:
This means to the waist of a man-sized model. Larger obstacles block line of sight. A long wall that is too tall will limit game play. The same goes for windows that are too high for an average model to see out of. Troops cannot realistically use them.

If a terrain feature removes space from the board try to add space with another feature:
If you have a terrain feature that does not allow models to move over the entire feature (like a train engine), try to make up the space with a multi-story building, or scaffolding that can be accessed.

Continue with a concept:
If you have a chimney or vent on a building exterior, make it lead to something inside if you can (some things cannot be properly represented on the interior such as factory machinery).

If you have machine as a terrain piece ensure that is has a visible function. If you have a steam engine, what is it for? What is it attached to? If you have scaffolding what is its purpose? People do not build machines or scaffolding without a purpose.

Allow no ambiguity in your terrain:
Is the feature rough terrain or clear? Is it deep or shallow water? If necessary you can write the terrain condition on the bottom of the piece to stop any arguments during game play.

Base everything on something hard:
How many hills have you seen that were chipped to the foam on the edges? Basing the bottom of terrain gives you two advantages. First it makes it sturdier and second it will stop most dings from other terrain or rough handling.

Try to make terrain that is not specific to only one scenario:
Scenario specific terrain is great, but once used it will most likely sit in a box or on a shelf. It is a waste of time and money.

Paint everything:
Unpainted or untreated materials will show through no mater what you do.

Use durable materials:
If you find terrain that you like (say trees). Is there a company that makes them harder? Is there a way to make them stand up to more abuse? Always think durable. A diorama can use dry flowers and they will not be touched. This is a war game and materials are going to be handled.

Kit bashing:
When kit bashing ensure that the original model is not readily identifiable. If you have to do major modifications to make it your own, go ahead. Tinker with it.

Horde things:
My wife hates me for this. Almost anything can and will be useful for terrain at some point. Horde small components and details as much as possible. Buy in bulk if you can.

Keep a scrapbook:
Try to sketch all angles of your piece. If a building with an interior, try to sketch the whole thing, every wall, inside and out. It does not have to be fancy. It does not have to be original art. It only has to keep you focused on the task at hand so you remember the details that you want to add.

Try to work on only one project at a time:
It will help you from getting overwhelmed, and keep you focused on the task at hand. If you get burned out by all means do a quick smaller project but get back to the big one as soon as possible. Keeping task oriented will save you money, time and space in the long run.

Scatter terrain:
Scatter terrain is useful to give the field that cluttered real life look. Crates, crops, woodpiles and the like not only make interesting features but also add to the game play.

When building scatter terrain try not to have many small pieces that have to be stacked or arranged. They will invariably fall over during play. Try to have major scatter components that are built as one piece such as piles of crates, stacks of pallets, woodpiles with wood cutting tools or coal piles with shovels. The larger components can be arranged as needed.

These are the rules that I personally try to follow. I hope that they help you keep focused and build better terrain. 

For the most part, I agree with it.  The only one that I really take issue with is the "one project at a time" bit, but that is because I am usually working on 2-4 projects at once.  I pour plaster into Hirst molds for project #1, then cut foam for project #2 while the plaster sets.  Then, once I scrape the excess plaster, I glue something for project #3.  Remove the bricks, pour again, and do something for project #4.  Once I have scraped the plaster again, I cut more foam. 

A lot of that has to do with either ventilation (burning foam stinks, and is technically toxic) or the drying time of paint and/or glue.  But I could certainly see working on only one building at a time, or something like that, where you are working on interior detail and the like.

Demo board done (for now)

I want to build another, better, bridge.  This one was borrowed from the box of stuff that has been waiting for me to build the benchwork for a new train layout.  But other than that, I am reasonably happy with this, though I probably would have done the water a bit differently. 

Now, back to painting full-time.

Demo table update.

No pics of any figs lately, because they have not progressed in some huge way in the last week.  The Kraken is not yet assembled, and I haven't worked on the jacks in some time.  But, the demo table is progressing, and I have pics to prove it.

I need to make a couple more trees, finish up the snow, seal the board edges, and pour the water.  All before Saturday.  Plenty of time, actually.  I hope to have almost everything other than the water done by tomorrow night, and the water then can be poured on Wednesday.

Hammer time!

I need to take pics of it, but not until tomorrow. This morning, I spent some time with a miter box and some wood.  At the end of it, I have a 2' x 2' demo board that has nice walls to stop dice from spilling out.

I plan on making more than one - I have the wood and foam to make a second one, and my current plan is to make one that has more of a Warmachine feel to it, and one that is more Hordes.  I just have to decide just what I mean by that, however.  I have about a month to get both of them done - I am doing a road trip to the other side of the state for a days worth of demos, and I thought that taking a nice board or two would help.  Plus, once they are built, I can use them for demos at the FLGS or at local cons.

Any thoughts from the peanut gallery about what I should do for the boards?  I might make a dockside, a la Fire Fingers, for the Warmachine board, although that might be a little much, since I also have stuff to paint for AdeptiCon - some 70 figures, if my count is correct.  I could probably get by with less, and just not have much flexibility in my lists, but I am trying to be a little ambitious here.

A random thought on terrain

About this time last year, I posted about some mountains that I had built.  I got some nice comments on it, and at least one was along the lines of "I don't think I could do that."

And, today, I was reading through a thread on a zeppelin docking tower on the forums. It's a truly impressive piece, and obviously took a lot of time, but what struck me was the number of comments along the line (again) of "I could never build that."

theproffet (who built it) said in one of his posts, "Im trying to encourge people to build there own stuff, not just quit and feel sorry for them self. this defenetly isn't my first building and the only way you learn i by doing."

The reason this really jumped out at me is because, just the other day, I picked up a copy of "Great Model Railroads, 2013."  My son really loves trains, and I am currently in the process of getting ready to tear down his existing layout (a simple 4' x 8') and make a new, considerably bigger one.  So, it's mainly an ideas book, looking through to see what other people have done.  At the very end, on the last page, is a quick viewpoint article.

It's titled "You, too, can build a great model railroad," and the main thrust of the article is exactly this defeatist attitude that I have been seeing.  The author states that it's not rooted in the belief that the speaker does not currently possess the skills, but rather, that they never will. 

I build (and have built) a lot of terrain over the years.  What stops me from building things like the zeppelin tower is primarily a lack of desire and time.  I am reasonably confident that, if I wanted to build something like that, I could do so.  But it would not be my first try at building something, and frankly, I don't think my first attempt at houses were exceptional; except perhaps in the sense that, with a small amount of effort, they were easily reclassed as "ruins".  Or possibly, "garbage."

My first attempts at painting were bad.  Very bad.  Random blobs of red and blue and yellow and orange and purple, all on the same miniature bad.  I have improved somewhat since then.  Not as much as I would like, but enough that I am no longer ashamed to have my stuff on the table.  Now I just need to work on my speed, and see if I can work on the backlog before I pick up a bunch of stuff come spring.

Quick morning post

Just a quick one this morning, though I hope to have a longer one sometime this afternoon or evening.  Anyway, as a reward, yesterday my so nand I went to a train show - model trains, where people have set up layouts, and are selling old (ie, used, sometimes abused) stuff.  The son is really into model trains, and I like working on layouts, which are basically wargaming terrain that never actually suffers the abuse of being played with.

Anyway, for some time, I have been looking for a cheap, O-scale steam locomotive.  (Warmahordes players know why.)  To date, I have had no luck.  Or rather, I have found plenty that would work, but I just did not want to pay $40 or $50 for something that I would have to convert and would only see play in a fairly small group of scenarios.

But yesterday I found a nice O-scale loco and tender for only $12.  So I snapped it up, and tonight I plan on making some sketches and working out how I can fit it into the Iron Kingdoms milieu.  I have the loco, I have the plasticard, and I have the superglue.  I can rebuild it, better than it was before. Better, faster, stronger.  Or something like that.

Motivation, but almost no painting

I have been spending a lot of time in the basement lately, working on stuff, but very little of it has been painting.  While I have worked on a couple of models, I haven't actually finished anything.  Instead, I have been pouring the plaster for one of the starship corridor sets from Hirst Arts.  And one of the Star Wars sets.  And parts of two more Star Wars sets.  Plus about four other molds.

Or, put another way - I have been pouring something to the tune of 16 to 18 molds, twice per day.  Or more.  I've pretty much lost count at this point.  But, the starship corridor set (aka Space Hulk board) is almost done - I want to have it done by Friday morning, so that it can get out of the house.  (It's trade for one of the new 40k box sets.)  Then I start work in earnest on assembling the Star Wars sets - they are actually harder than the Space Hulk one.

And yes, I am going to get something painted for this month, though it won't be much.  Bubba probably won't be done until the middle of next month.  But, soccer is winding down, as are some other activities - so I will have Saturdays free once more, and can start losing with my various armies again.

Been quiet for a few days

That's because I was sick.  Stupid sinuses - I hate this time of year.

Anyway - my Chronopia figs are gone.  If I have anything left from that system still in the house, it is only because I failed to find it.  Don't misunderstand - I really enjoyed the system, and certainly played it quite a bit, over several editions.  (And the same goes for Warzone, the SF counterpart.)  But, I frankly need to prune systems, if I am not going to actually prune miniatures from my collections.  So, Chronopia had to go.

I'm getting a bunch of Malifaux starters - they should be arriving on or about Thursday.  I still haven't played a single game, but there is a demo on the 29th that I am hoping to get to.  Getting to the demo looks doable - it'll come down to logistics.

On the WM/Hordes front - Bubba progresses slowly.  I really need to take a new pic of him though - he's starting to look like something I would not be ashamed to place on the table.  But I haven't done much painting in the last few days.  Hopefully, I get some painting time tonight.

I also have two new terrain projects - I will be making a Space Hulk board for the local FLGS (I'll get one of the Limited Edition 40k sets in trade - that way, I have a current copy of the rules, just in case I need them, to help in my outreach efforts.)  I also am going to be building a couple of boards for Wiz War - one for me, and one to sell or trade.

I think I will also be making an asteroid field for X-Wing.  I really need to get another copy of the core rules and a bunch of ships.  I want to have two or three dozens ships zipping along the asteriods, on a star mat, by Christmas.  Totally doable.

Not much painting tonight

Blah.  I only managed to paint for about 45 minutes or so tonight, but (1) that's better than nothing; and (2) I should be getting some stuff done in the next day or two because of it.  All of my gatorman posse models are now primed - the three that were being stripped were cleaned up, reassembled, and primed today.  The others all got some work done tonight - I plan on concentrating on two of them tomorrow, and finishing them (for a completed unit), and working on all the others.  The two need detail work and basing, basically, so as long as I get some time tomorrow, it's going to happen.

I also worked a little on the swamp goblins tonight, plus some terrain.  I need to start working on raising cash for GenCon - either selling off terrain, or whole armies that I no longer use.  I have a theoretical budget, but I know from experience that I need to set aside an extra $50 or $100 for random, kewl boardgames, deeply discounted OOP figs, random "wow, that's a nice sculpt!" purchases, and so forth.

(I also have an idea of how much I want to spend at the PP booth, the DP9 booth, etc.  It won't be cheap.  Too bad eBay won't let me sell hobo kidneys and the like.)

This leads to a mild rant/vent.  I have some things up on Bartertown.  I am not expecting full value - I think I have a fairly reasonable expectation of what I can get for a Tau army, and some of the terrain currently up there is basically a "I want it out of the basement" situation, not a "I want to make some serious cash" situation.  But I am getting some weird emails - it's not people wanting to split the lot, but people wanting to split the lot, if I make the right offer.  OKay. . . I have a group of Tau, which I do not want to part out just yet, and people telling me that they will take some of the choicer items off my hands, if I am willing to make the right offer.  Suuuuure.

The hills are alive. . . .

. . . . thanks to my green flocking.  Sorry.  Anyway, last month, Felix over at Pokeminiatures had a post (the final in a series of them, actually) about hills.  I meant to answer it at the the time, but, sadly, I had no finished hills.

This was actually kind of shocking.  Normally I have a box of the things sitting in the basement. And not a small box - it's ranged anywhere from one of the ones you get when you buy 10 reams of paper, all the way up to moving boxes (as in, 3' x 3' x 2', full of finished hills).

So, I figured I ought to churn out some hills before I wrote anything about it, even though I probably have dozens of pics of hills on the computer already.  Plus, I was going to be running a tourney in early April, so it was a good excuse to spend some evenings working on terrain.

But then, real life happened, and I wound up running my first tourney with mostly unfinished terrain.  (Boo!  Hiss!  Bad Pressganger!)  In fact, I haven't put up the pics yet in part because all that bare pink foam is kind of embarrassing. 

Anyway.  I don't have WIP pics.  I don't bother to take them with my hills, because it is generally not worth it.  They are basically cut pink insulation foam, typically 1" thick (although I have also used 1/2" and 3/4", which look better for 1:160 and 15mm scale, respectively), with either straight sides or a slight bevel.  The bevel is a compromise - the straight sides are great when it comes to gaming - a model is either on the hill or off it, and you don't have the "Argh!!  My Devastator just rolled down the hill and took out pSorscha and some Widowmakers!" problem.  But the straight sides just look wrong.  And slopes either don't work (ie, rolling jacks), or are fragile unless you base them on something a little more sturdy.  But bevels work okay, more or less.

So, my finished hills generally look something like this:

These work fairly well, are reasonably sturdy, and I can churn out a bunch of them in an afternoon.  Actually, that's not true - while it's not as though each hill is a finely made, bespoke craft item, they do take some time.  But a lot of it is waiting for paint or glue to dry.  I can cut a bunch of them in an hour or so, and flocking them does not take much time.  Heck, each layer of paint is pretty quick - but the paint just has to dry before the next layer.  So I will generally paint up a couple dozen of them at a time, and let them dry.  When I have a bunch of them fully painted, I flock four or five a day until I start running low on painted hills, at which point I just go and cut a bunch more foam with my hot wire cutter.

And, while the pic above is of the straight-sided hills, they all stack fairly well, provided that I remember to cut hills beyond a fairly narrow range of dimensions.

So, that's how I make my hills.  And yes, right now, that paper ream box is mostly full again.  (I trade off terrain from time to time, which is one of the ways I make a dent in my omnibus wishlist.  I am thinking of taking a bunch of stuff to GenCon to dump in one of the auctions - it's unlikely that I can make the trip pay for itself or anything, but selling a vanload of terrain would let me buy more minis.)

No terrain work last night.

Originally, I was going to work on terrain last night, but instead, I spent the evening cutting templates for the various controls zones used by the scenarios. I'm not done with them yet, but only because I ran out of the materials I am using to make them - a quick trip to the fabric store tomorrow will let me finish them up tomorrow afternoon, I hope.

After Scouts tonight, I want to work on all the various terrain items made out of pink foam - I may not get them done, but I should be able to at least cover up all the fields of pink.

I think that I will follow the lead of Felix, and take stuff to paint for when I am sitting at the tourney. I haven't run one for PP yet, so I don't know how much time I will actually have to work on things, but a few minutes of painting here and there is probably possible.

Terrain update

Well, the good news is that it looks like I will have enough terrain for each table - I capped the event at 16 people, so 8 tables. Each table will have the same items and same general setup (eg, each will have two hills, or two patches of rough terrain, etc), and will be roughly symmetrical. And, as an added bonus, I will be able to change the terrain around a little bit after each round.

The downside is that I won't have everything finished and painted, so there will be a lot of pink foam or bare plaster, etc. But that's for this tourney - I am looking to events for the next couple of months, and by the next tourney, this stuff will be painted. And that's not idle boasting - I can make and paint terrain a lot faster than I can paint a miniature.

And no - I am not taking pics. I don't know who reads this, but I don't want to give away any hints before Saturday. I will take pics and post them then, however.

Yikes! Less than a week!

So, it just hit me - I am running a small tourney in just under a week (16 player max, 25pt MM/T&C), and while the game store has some terrain, I should do some work to make sure that there will be enough for each of the 8 tables to have a decent setup.

I will be doing all the setting up, of course, and yes, it will change some from round to round. But I need to go down to the basement and take stock of what terrain I have already made, and make some of the stuff that I am missing. It won't be painted for this tourney, but if I can get it made by Saturday, then I should be able to have it painted for another tourney sometime in May, right?

The good news is that the hills and walls should either be done, or nearly done, so I can concentrate on some of the other things.