Old MacDonald...

A couple of bargain flatpack MDF kits from Salute.  A £3 pigsty to go with my pigs:

And an amazing Chicken Shed kit from Two Fat Lardies at half-price cost of only 150 pennies:

I made a small base for it:

Painted and based:

Temizuya

Another building for the Japan project - a temizuya from TTCombat.  A temizuya is a Shinto water ablution pavilion for a ceremonial purification rite known as temizu, where worshippers wash their left hands, right hands, mouth and finally the handle of the water ladle to purify themselves before approaching the main Shinto shrine.

The kit is 3mm MDF and cardboard.

After construction, I masked over the floor and used my airbrush to spray the wood the typical bright red colour.

The water-filled basin, called chōzubachi, come with a set of water ladles:

With removable roof in place:

In addition, I constructed a pair of standing lanterns from Blotz.  So many pieces for such a tiny pair of items:

And they complement the temizuya well:

Gloomhaven Scenario 13 - 'Temple of the Seer' - 25 April

In pursuit of the Necromancer, the party demanded answers from the Seer in his mountaintop lair. Having defeated the Stone Golem guards, their (entirely reasonable) demands were met by enforced confrontation with a horde of summoned monsters.

Stu's Spellweaver charged alone into the inner sanctum in a brave and successful attempt to loot the treasure chest. James' Brute held the door against a horde of Cave Bears, Spitting Drakes and Living Spirits whilst the Cragheart and Tinkerer healed him up and launched ranged attacks. The party was victorious and remain on the Necromancer's trail.  Great fun.

Salute 2018

Another pilgrimage to another games show.  Salute really is a huge event and worth the effort to get there.  Usual wide mix of folks, with increasing numbers of stormtroopers, steampunkers and other costumes.  Best outfit though was a pink T-shirt worn by a little girl reading "This army needs more unicorns!"

My purchases were a few extras for my Japan project and some more MDF buildings, as I've decided to start converting my 13 years old cardboard Wild West city to something more robust.

We bumped into Jonathan, and Eric and his gaming partner - still playing ancients and complaining about dice rolls ;-)

Usual excellent selection of demonstration and participation games - here are some highlights:

Gloomhaven - Inox Encampment and City Warehouse (Scenarios 3 and 8), March 2018

Belated write ups of 2 Gloomhaven sessions from March.  Opting to obey the law and generally be good rather than bad, having done the merchant Jekserah's further bidding by razing an Inox encampment to the ground, second thoughts prevailed and the party confronted her in a city warehouse.  Exposed as a necromancer, she fled but not before the party had despatched some of her living corpses and defeated her hulking bodyguards.

Two more excellent Gloomhaven sessions last month, the game play ensuring finely balanced and tense adventures with minimal down time.  This is such a quality game.

Aircraft for BKC

I found a Russian manufacturer of plastic aircraft called Zvezda.  The kits also include armour and infantry and have a supporting game system called Art of Tactic.  I wanted to get an early war fighter and bomber to supplement the British army group that Andy recently gave me, as well as a pair for Andy for his German army group.

The fighters are 1/144 scale, like the tanks, but the bombers are 1/200 scale so the models are roughly the same size as the fighters (about a 3 inch wingspan).  Since they are representing a larger number of planes, I think this is fine for the wargaming table.

The kits are very well moulded in grey plastic and snap together, requiring no glue.  They come with a set of decals and a stand.

For my British, I have the superbly-named Fairey Battle as a Ground Attack Unit:

And a Bristol Blenheim Mk IV bomber:

Andy has a Messerschmitt Bf-109 (Me-109) as a Ground Attack Unit:

And a Junkers JU-88 as his bomber unit:

Japanese House and Shrine

Adrian got me a couple of great buildings for Christmas from Blotz, who have an extensive range of MDF buildings and accessories.  The first is a Japanese house with removable roof.  These kits go together really well and have a lot of detail.  I added some greaseproof paper to the sliding doors to make them look like proper Japanese shōji doors.

The second is a small Shinto shrine to which I added some thread to represent the Shimenawa, lengths of laid rice straw or hemp rope used for ritual purification in the Shinto religion.