Random Terrain part II "Forest Bases & Hills"

         Again a time crunch preventing these from getting done in February. I had hoped for a quick finish as the river board is next. Maybe with luck both will get done in March. I have nothing on the schedule for work and only Cold Wars. No AdeptiCon this year. So...... Maybe

I was able to complete 5 forest bases and one hill.

The hill to the right is the original. To the left is the attempt to match.

What is left to complete.

Crumb Snatchers

       

         This month has been a dead month. Little to nothing has gotten done. The Crumb Snatchers were in full effect. First the Wifi got sick. Then her parents came for the month. Next we all went for a cruise. Now I am sick, XX amber or Modelo virus.
         
     Finally the Crumb Snatchers have left. I got 2 days to get something done before the end of the month. A lot was started while everyone was here. For the most part they ignore me. That is until I start doing something or find something to do. Then the carrion start circling.
        3 units Numidian Cavalry were completed.

Strange how there were only 2 command units in the pack? I was short a flag dude.

         All the others started and never finished. Mostly final highlights and detail work. All only need a few hours for focused work. Hopefully the starter units will give me a bumper month for March.

    Some chaos cav and doom engines. Both are side projects. The warmaster chaos was a purchased army that needs a few units and very little love. The current World Eaters (40K) will be an army I plan to paint to sell towards the end of the year. It is low on the list.

Finally a last minute Command stand

 and look what arrived. I had only 1 left on hold for Eric. Brad wanted 2 more. So there will be 20ish available at Cold Wars. A 5er each.

Disney Cruise tips

Disney Cruise

Disney Cruise App.      Down load the App before leaving. Wifi onboard the ship for use within the App is free. The App allows you to chat with people within your stateroom or group. You can see the days events and schedule the event to alarm. You will never miss anything. Also whenever your kid checks in or out of the club you will get a message.

Drive to the port.      You can drive it for about a 3rd of airline tickets. We were 18.5 hours from New Orleans. We spent 220ish bucks in gas (big SUV 21mpg) and 265 for hotels to go back and forth. Parking at the port was 140 for the week. If the 3 of us flew, it would have been 1200-1500.
         I know some of you would fly Southwest or Jetblue. Don't know about Jetblue. But I will not fly Southwest. They have a systemic maintenance problem.

Park with Disney.  The port parking offered by Disney is where you want to be. It maybe more expensive, but worth the extra 40 bucks.
         We shipped out of New Orleans. The parking was right next to the ship. It was gated and patrolled. Best part, porters were waiting to take the bags from trunk to stateroom.

Porters.      Use them. They are Jonny on the spot when you pull up in the car. They will unload the bags from the car if you want them to. Then they are sniffed by the dogs. (you have to wait for that) And your free! The bags go straight to the ship.
         On the way out, find your bags and find a porter. The porter fast tracks you thru Customs. Then takes you straight to the car. Everyone else is stuck in line for Customs. Best 20 bucks ever!

Beach Towels.      At every port the crew will be there to issue you as many towels as you can carry. Don't bring them.

Water.      The water onboard is drinkable. I saw people carrying cases of water onboard. This is retarded. The ship loads portable water. Every drop that you have access to, is drinkable! Don't be retarded.

Internet, Wifi.     On board is massively expensive. Don't get hooked with the free 50mb deal. Just don't! It is a pleasure from long ago not to be connected to the outside.

Food and Meal times.      Rotational dining cycles you thru each of the 3 places. The food is outstanding. You can eat whatever you like as much as you like.
         There are two time to chose from a 5ish and 8ish service. The 5ish service will free you up for more of the late night activities. The downside is there are unbehaved, over tired, and generally bad parented kids running and screaming at the 5ish service. The 8ish is exactly the same, but has very few, to no kids. The downside is you will finish near 10. Which will cause you to miss some later scheduled events. This was our scheduled time and we would head for a night cap and bed after eating.
         The main shows are run twice. Those you will not miss due to rotational dining time.

Tips, tipping.     The Disney recommended tipping is pre set up. If you don't ask guest services to change the amount, each guest is charged 13.40 per day. We did 7 days. It was 95ish per person for the week. That money is than broken down between the 2 servers, the stateroom guy, and the head server. We give the servers and stateroom guy a little extra cash beyond the Disney amount. They were exceptional!
          Any time you order room service, from a bar, or a pool boy 15% is tacked on. A beer at the pool is 8.05 with the tip.

Kids clubs.     3 different clubs for different age groups. All of which is free baby sitting and entertainment. You can see your kid or not see your kid during the day. If you have a baby, you pay and you must schedule the care time before leaving.
         Every kid gets an RF ID bracelet. You can select weather the child can check themselves in and out. Or they are deposited and withdrawal like a bank. If they can check in and out, the App alerts and room phone alerts to their status.
         The kids can even eat there if you wish.

Pool deck.      The ship has an enforced Adult only pool section. When kids were there they were asked to leave. The bar in this section has 4 bar tenders as opposed to two at the others. There are 3 pool boys servicing the area around.
        There are two kids pools. One for non swimmers and one for swimmers. The swimmer pool plays movies all day and has two hot tubs.

Palo, the upgraded restaurant.      You can book two meals there per cruise. It is a waste. You will drop 165 to 215 easy for a meal available in regular dining.
           The meal my wife chose was terrible. The waiter knew it and ordered a different meal for her. Both arrived at the same time. Her chose looked like dog food, over cooked. He told her the meal she picked was shit, try the one he ordered.

*Each person booked is 40 bucks.
*The entire menu is available in rotational dining.
*There is a no kid policy but your kids can dine in the club if you want an adult night.
*The 7 course wine paired meal is an additional 65 per person. The wine is a 7 dollar bottle at best.
*The service in rotational dining is better.

Drinking

Bar & Pool side service; Everything get 15% added as a tip. Just sign the paper and move on.

Alcohol Policy.      There is no liquor or soda package with Disney. Every adult can bring 6 regular sized beers on board per port. (none of the half liter german beer bottles)

                                I don't drink wine or enough wine to be able to give an opinion. But, Wine can also be carried on board, but there is a fee to open it at dinner.

Lesson Learned; Every room has a mini refrigerator. You can get 12 in there easy. So bring at least a 6er on at every port. You will save yourself 48 bucks per 6er.

Disney beer mug.      Get one! The mug gets you 1.5 beers for the price of one. It pays for itself after two beers. That glass mug in your room, turn it in at the closest bar for a mug card/token. Now your not carrying a mug around just a card.

Lesson Learned;  Those tokens are the same for every ship and have not changed. You can use it on the next cruise. Also if you tell the pool boy he failed to give your wife the token, he will give you another. I got 2 extra this way.

Realm of Battle board "Custom Rivers"

         Another GW board I owned is getting a redo. I have 4 extra tiles from all the projects over the years. I want custom hill tiles and a river. The river is first. With a sharpie I draw out where it needs to meet up tile to tile. Some packing foam was used to create the banks. Dews and coke cans weighted down the foam as it dried.

Straight section

         Then a home depot knife to shape the river and angle the foam to ground level. Woodland scenics for rocks and detail along the banks. I got brown tile grout, med and fine gravel to form the river bed and harden the foam.

         The dark brown on the left has been set and measured for one of the bridges. The spot on the right set as a fording place.

         Next I will harden a the form with tile grout. This has to happen. Bill built form boards and people leaning on them left hand prints. Once the grout is down they will be harder than 14 year old's dick.

       Again a bridge embankment and a fording place.

         The 6 original tiles. They only saw 2 Cons after purchase. The flock and paint is coming off way too easy. I bought them as is. No idea what was used to under coat them or if them were even washed. Never had a problem with paint sticking. Abuse was the cause for any loss of flock or paint.
I am going to gamble and not strip and wash them.

        The skulls, dam the dude that put skulls on these boards. I would love to meet him one day. The tile would be near perfect. (Well 45 bucks a spare is a little much. If it was 30, they would sell them faster than ass at fleet week.) I have filled in every skull pit on every board. This time I used premixed tile grout.

       The grout is every warmers new duck tape. Its cheap, sold in bulk, widely available, and dries Egyptian stone hard. One bag will last a lifetime. I used chocolate brown and cream.

        Once the river sections are finished. Everything will get painted and flocked to match.

More Lead

         Thats right the first lead purchase of the year. Did I need more? Not exactly.....but I need more of one unit or Nationality to fill out an army. I have just bought more than I painted this year. This month is shot out as family Vacation does not include painting soldiers!

         This is the first time I did not buy on a sale. Kind of stupid. Newline is very cheap when they run a sale. Plus you get free shipping. They are very slow to ship on a non big sale deal. My crackhead self took over and I could not wait or didn't think about waiting. Anyways 146 more dudes.
20mm
14 Anglo Egyptian dudes. 12 artillery crew, 2 personalities
10mm
60 INF Numidians
60 INF Thracians
12 dead counters

         The 2nd order was not my fault. I only had enough Macedonian star transfers for 1.5 units. I needed more. And I only have 3 units of Phalangites. And they have them with spears attached. And the spear are at different angles. And I would be paying for shipping for just transfers.
10mm
10 transfer sheets
270 Phalangites
60 Numidian Cavalry

I also bought some GW discount terrain from Eric, but I sold him a hill. So does it count?

Random terrain part I

        There have been a number of half finished projects kicking around. Everyone has them. You start the bloody thing and stop or like me become distracted. Then it sits, gets buried, forgotten. One day it floats back to the surface. Maybe you do a little or bury it again.

        Like a body sunk in a river or lake, these floated again. Not enough rocks in the rib cage! I need the space they occupy. Finish them and store them away!

First up the hills. I used tile grout to establish the paths on and off the rocks. The whole thing was sprayed otter brown. The rocks were dry brushed desert tan, followed by white. Then flocked with woodland scenics fine brown. I used white glue and IPA to lock it down.

        It is a waiting game with these. Every step takes hours to dry. Every step makes a complete mess. Hopefully I will be done by Sunday. Locked in and sealed.

HMGS Cold Wars Registration is open.

Register early, pay less, get into the games you want.

         I will be playing in The Epic tourney Saturday. Friday skipping Warmaster for Con gaming. Thursday night open gaming. I will be in the tourney hall.

ITINERARY

Session(s) Registered For	Start	End
F09:145: Doing the Work of Death: White Sulphur Springs, 26 August 1863: Theme	3/13/2020 9:00:00 AM	3/13/2020 1:00:00 PM
F15:163: The Battle of Ipsus: Waves and Waves of Elephants: Theme	3/13/2020 3:00:00 PM	3/13/2020 6:00:00 PM
S19:452: Shiloh Surprise	3/14/2020 7:00:00 PM	3/14/2020 11:00:00 PM

Warmaster on Friday. Contact Dave

Epic on Saturday. Contact Kal.

        Tourney spots are limited. Don't get left out.