Time to hit the slopes!

I like being out-of-doors, but not so much in winter-time. While I generally just dislike the cold, I also don't have any winter hobbies that one would normally do outside. I don't ski or snowboard and I don't want to pay for the equipment. I can't skate. And with that, there's only one affordable conventional winter sport left that I can pull myself into the cold air for.

We went sledding last week near my parents' place. Dad has a small wooden sled and a crazy carpet. They worked great. The little kids each got to hit a little jump at the bottom in the little wooden sled. We also had our little foam sled that you need to push all the way down the hill. I needed to push the foamy one all the way down the hill.

None of these sleds had steering. I like steering on a sled. It got me thinking again about building sleds and stuff. So, the last few days I've been looking at sleds and other hill-descent contraptions and came across something that I had the necessary parts for.

Today, I had the itch to make something, so make I did! I have a scooter with no wheels that I picked up at the dump. I also picked up some old skis someone was throwing away. In fact, I think just about everything I used on this project was from the dump.

I made a ski-scoot! Or whatever it can be called. A scooter with skis instead of wheels.

It's my ski-scoot.

It was a rush to get it done before I lost daylight, but I did. Excited to try it out soon.

Heroclix Modification No. 2

I cracked open some paints again and went to work on one of my Heroclix figures. I should maybe start with saying that I de-based a few Heroclix figures: the ones that I thought generic-looking enough to be used in non-superhero themed games.

But on with the painting. One of the de-based heroes that needed painting. It was called Martinex. I had never heard of Martinex and had to look him up to know anything about him. Should have taken a before picture, but I didn't. The sculpt wasn't really going to lend itself to conversion to a regular-looking person very well, what with a number of not-very-natural-looking angular features all over his body like all-sticky-outy and square-shaped abs and pecs and rather pointy knees. I considered taking a knife to the sculpt to round out the angular parts, but I couldn't bring myself to do it like I did to thin down Mr. Hyde, So, having been eyeing some futuristic minis lately, I decided that I could make Martinex into a guy with some futuristic body armour on so that I wouldn't have to cut anything away. One attribute I took away from looking up the info about Martinex character was he was of African descent, so I painted him accordingly to keep that connection between his former life as Martinex and his new life as an as yet unnamed man sporting body armour.

It was a couple of hours painting, but I think it turned out rather well. The light green undercoat - supposed to be his beneath-the-armour suit - doesn't show up too well in the picture, but if one squints and holds their tongue the right way...but that's okay.

Anyone interested in the 'before' can Google "Martinex Heroclix" and you'll get a number of images.

(Almost) Quarter Mile Championship: Section 1

Lawrence and I started the grand tournament today. I listed off all the cars we could find for the big showdown. Of course, there are more that will have to be added as they are found or, if we finish racing the bulk of the racing, they can challenge the winner.

The first section consisted of Pixar cars, which do not fit on a Hot Wheels track, by the way. The winners in each race were quite apparent, so we only did one race per pairing.

The racing was very exciting for Lawrence. Of course he was cheering for Lightning McQueen. We have a number of Lightning cars, but could only find the one with the World Grand Prix kit from Cars 2. Also challenging were Francesco, Doc Hudson, Sheriff, Mater, Mack, Red, Sarge, Chick Hicks, the Leak Less car (52), one of Chick's pit crew, Guido, Tex, Ramone, and the Official Piston Cup Pace Car. Also racing were Chug, Mayday, and two of the smoke-jumpers from Planes 2. Since that only added up to 19, we added a road grader by ERTL to round out the group.

There were a couple of surprising upsets, the big one being Lightning losing his first race to the great green fuel truck, Chug! A minor upset was the Pace Car beating out Francesco, who Lawrence was rooting for after Lightning was eliminated.

And the results?

Third place went to Chick Hicks. Will he ever win anything? At least he went further than McQueen this time!

A solid effort by Leak Less (52) earned him second place.

The big winner? The Official Piston Cup Pace Car! I guess the race cars are all too used to always staying behind him!

The Pace car will now wait for the winners of the rest of the sections, when we will run a contest of section winners. The next line-up, chosen at random by Lawrence, consists of 26 Hot Wheels cars, 5 Matchbox cars, and 1 Motor Max car.

Second thoughts:
I think I might just keep reporting to this post as I've realized that unless one is showing video of these races, it just isn't that grand. Maybe, if we do actually find out, I'll post on the fastest car in the house. I'll even include a picture of it. Besides, in a couple or three weeks, I'll hopefully have something more exciting than Hot Wheels races to post about!

Quarter-mile quest

Hey hey! I found a post that didn't get finished and posted! So without any further delay, from some time in the past:

I've been planning and thinking about it ever since I took delivery of my BluTrack (recall: a dual-lane Hot Wheels track alternative) and now I've built it. A portable and relatively easy-to-store ramp with built-in starting gate.

BluTrack comes with a plastic plate at one end which has a hole in it for hooking onto things. There is also a big suction cup that fits into the hook-hole to suction it to a window or other smooth surface. There is also an adhesive on the plate in case one buys a second track and wants them connected permanently, but I don't think I'll be taking that route as I want to turn my attention back to games if I can, plus the 18' starter track is only a couple feet short of a quarter-mile at Hot Wheels scale (20.6') and that's fine by me.

The suction cup method is what we have been using 'til now. But there were a couple of issues that just bugged me. One issue was that the suction cup didn't stay stuck to some of the surfaces we were using - desktop, metal fire place - the cup would lose suction and after a few runs the track would slide forward and sag. When we used the suction cup on a window, it stayed stuck, but the second problem was still present; without a support underneath it, the flexible track would hang down as vertical as is could get and since the window we used was right over the couch, the track followed the contours of the couch on the way down. Because the track followed the contours of the couch, the cars would go flying off at the seat, rarely landing back on the track.

I needed a solution. Some kind of ramp that I could set up anywhere, that would hold the track up so it didn't slide forward or cause cars to leave the track nine times out of 10, would be high enough that most Hot Wheels/Matchbox type cars would actually run the entire length of the track, and easy to store in the house or shed.

As I was thinking on this problem and surveying my dump-run finds, I hit upon an idea. A section of old crib railing would be my medium! I used the top and bottom rails and four of the twelve or so vertical bars. I now have a completely portable starting ramp custom made for the BluTrack. And a plus, it's light-weight and folds up for easy storage! 

Simple, no?

But I couldn't stop there! I have a two-lane track. That means racing! That means I need a way to start cars evenly with each other. So a piece of plexiglass and a length of dowelling later I had a simple starting gate to ensure one car isn't slightly ahead of the other at the start. This is important if the kids are cheering on different cars.

1962 Corvette (Matchbox) and a 1955 Alfa Romeo BAT (Hot Wheels) waiting on the green light.

Now I'm ready to race all of our Hot Wheels/Matchbox/etc. to see which is the fastest in the house! That should give me something to blog about for a little while, eh! Of course, I could have finishes that are too close to call... hmm. How to build a finish line that will accurately indicate the winner...

Since the move, we now have space long enough to set up 18 feet of track without being in the way of much. Also, shortly after the move, we found a 4-lane Hot Wheels race ramp with a finish-line indicator! I'm very sure I can rig up some way to merge the two so that close-enough-to-quarter-mile races can be had and a clear winner chosen every time. I haven't found the fastest car in the house, but one of these days, the kids and I will hold a race day. I look forward to reporting on the excitement!

They're off!

Move Over!

We've moved! We sold our house bought a little bit bigger house a few blocks away. We are getting used to the larger space. Still unpacking, but the games are all squared away in the very large shelving area in the basement.

I'd like to have a dedicated game table, though I am not yet sure about placement. What I am sure about is that I want to build one (they cost so darn much to buy!). The features I'm considering are a vault with leaves to cover/protect a game-in-progress, attachable trays for extra player space for writing or personal boards. I've seen cup-holders on some tables, but I'm thinking I'll stay away from that.

Last week, when less stuff had been unpacked, I pulled down the game Siege (aka: Weapons and Warriors) to play with the kids. It was an immediate hit, if only for the little catapults, cannon, and ballista that shoot little marbles. Hey, it was the main reason I bought the game in the first place. Sorry, no pictures, haven't found the camera yet.

I was also talking with one of our residents at the RV park. He loves to play Backgammon and I asked if he'd play me so I could learn how. I've often thought it would be a good game to know how to play.

Until more unpacking happens, I don't think I'll be seeing much time for games, and even less for making anything.

In the meantime, I wanted to post some more about my Pirates of the Spanish Main and Wooden Ships & Iron Men mash-up. Here is an image of the conversions for the ships in the collection I have.

While I didn't employ them this time, I have also noted adjustments based on each ship's special ability in PotSM that can be applied to further add variety when using the WS&IM rules. Looks like I missed doing the Spanish ships, but that's okay since the specials may be something I never use.

Post-game report: Wooden Ships & Iron Men (modified for solo play)

Sailing ships in space! Set a course for Treasure Planet!

Jenni took the kids to Edmonton to see our newest niece. I couldn't go, so I tried to compensate with some games.

The Set-Up
On the night they left, I took the hex map out of my copy of Leviathan, the jar of bits I saved from Anti-Monopoly, the Pirates of the Spanish Main (PotSM) ships I got in April, and copy of the rules for Wooden Ships & Iron Men (WS&IM) I printed from the all-finding Internet. I chose the five British ships from the set and randomly selected five pirates of the same size. Then I prepped my packing tape-laminated log sheets with a dry-erase marker. That's as far as I got Friday, but I was ready for my solo trial of WS&IM.

Well, in case someone reading this actually knows WS&IM, I just want to clear up that this wasn't exactly WS&IM and here's why...

In my nerdiness, I used an Excel spreadsheet, which I can talk about in another post, to develop a way to generate the ship data required to fill out a WS&IM log sheet using the number of masts and the number of guns visible on each of the PotSM models. I figured this would make things a little more interesting as the ships of the same class don't all come out exactly the same, as it seems they would in a normal game of WS&IM (or so I gather from the rules and pictures of ship counters I've seen).  I also had to drop the secret movement planning rule as I knew my opponent would be constantly looking at my moves as I wrote them. Instead, I went with assigning each ship a coloured (British: red, Pirates: yellow) and numbered chip. Chips went in a cup and were drawn for play order. For firing, I used a white die to decide firing at hull or rigging (evens=hull, odds=rigging) and a red die for the firing result.

I was going to play on Saturday, and I did start the game, but I realized I wanted to take pictures as I played. Couldn't find a camera (except the one on my work phone that's a flip phone and I wanted better quality than that). So I looked up and watched the live-action Space Battleship Yamato 2199 in Japanese with sub-titles.

The Intermission

On Sunday, I invited myself over to a family that, on an earlier occasion, seemed interested my Klondike game. We played Survive: Escape from Atlantis, 2 games of Klondike, and finished off the visit with Risk. I won 0 out of 4 games and had a great time. When I got home, I may have taken another turn with the ships, but I still wanted to get a camera. Then I had a thought: I could borrow one from work.

So Monday I brought a smart-phone with no plan home from work to use the camera on it. Then, while the phone was on the charger, I mowed the lawn until I got rained out. Or maybe rained in? Made a late supper and took a couple or three turns before bed.

The family came home Tuesday, so I had to get this game played out, which I did. I at least got to bed before 1 am!

The Game
Preamble: A British force of five ships, tasked with ridding the seas of pirates sights a ship beating into the wind. When their signals go unanswered and no flag is visible, they pursue. Was it a trap? Or was it just dumb luck that this ship led them to a whole mess of pirates?

Roster [ship name (number of masts)]
British: Lord Algermon (5), Guy Fawkes (3), Birkenhead (3), Gallowglass Black (2), Gallowglass Red (2)
Pirates: Harbinger (5), Longshanks(3), Nancy Nox (3), Charles (2), Royal Fortune (2)
The pirates seemed disorganized and unprepared to meet the task force, but with the advantage of the wind with them, the pirates turned to the attack...

Fast forward a bunch of turns to where I finally had a camera available and through a couple of lucky shots by the Brits a couple of turns ago, the pirate Longshanks is already sinking.

I got smart and started placing the chips beside their corresponding ships so a person can at least sort out the pirates from the Brits. We see the big pirate ship, Harbinger, get into position to rake the Lord Algermon. On the west, the pirate ship Charles and the Gallowglass Black exchange shots. Nancy Nox takes her life into her hands as she slides along Lord Algermon at close range.

Harbinger's big gamble. Cutting down into the fray, she had raking shots on both the Lord Algermon and Gallowglass Black. It was devastating for the much smaller boat, but not enough to count her out, and merely pebble in the larger Brit's proverbial shoe. As Lord Algermon reloads the port cannons, Nancy Nox takes a licking from Guy Fawkes and is unable to return as much damage as she receives. To the southwest, Royal Fortune takes a raking shot into Guy Fawkes' nose as she sneaks around the edge of the battle.

A more dramatic shot of the previous action.

Nancy Nox survives the gauntlet and a parting broadside from Lord Algermon and starts a turn to catch up to Royal Fortune. Charles moves to join them, hoping to force the British ships they are heading off into a position to receive raking fire from her or her fellows to the east. Harbinger has to reload both sides, but is out of range to all but Gallowglass Black's guns, which do little to slow her down. Gallowglass Black, by now, was only one hull point away from sinking and would do her best from this point on to stay out of the line of fire.

Gallowglass Red had not fired a shot as yet, struggling to catch up, then to get into any position, but now fires a raking broadside into Harbinger. It is as an astounding hit for a ship so small at such a range and while it wasn't much for the bigger ship to absorb, it was only the beginning as all British ships started to concentrate their fire on Harbinger whenever possible.

The other pirates tried to offer support, but were too spread out and too off on their aim with only middling to low damage rolls.

Harbinger and Charles (bottom left) were the only ships able to fire this round, doing so with poor results.

Harbinger was finally brought down after taking broadsides from Gallowglass Red on her starboard and then Birkenhead on the forward port-side. Charles and Royal Treasure knew the gig was up and broke south to escape capture. The Nancy Nox also turned south, but with the condition she was in, probably would not get away fast enough if some of the British ships decided to give chase.

Run away! Those poor swabs 'r' gonna be slapped in chains and carted off to prison to await their fate.

Post-action thoughts

These are just some great little models! I really enjoy using them as they just brought this game to life. I guess, to add to the look of the game, I could have started removing masts for those ships that had lost a section of sail, but then I'd just have to put them back together in the end.

The tweaking I did to the rules in order to play the game solo took away some of the possibilities that would be present in a 2+ player game, like fouling, but I still had a good time with it. Despite the long rule-book, it really seemed quite easy to play as well. I would, of course, like to try the game with another person because I'd like to get a sense of the hidden movements and the havoc they could play. But that will probably have to wait until we are moved and settled into the new house (I might post about that...).

As for my picture-taking, I realize now for documenting a game like this that a better form of showing firing and such would be helpful. Something for a later installment.

Happy gaming!

The cheap and easy mini

As those familiar with my doings will know, I have been carving miniatures for use as game pieces. I have been focused on bi-planes for Wings of Glory and space ships for Full Thrust. I may have even mentioned, though not posted pictures for, the planes from Crimson Skies that I have been working on.

Another game I came across and have been wanting to try for a while is Pulp Alley.

I have been building an assortment of paper "minis". I do it with the promise to my eldest that we will one day play a game with them. I found this website* with all these different character sheets for anyone to use. So I took the ones I thought I might use, printed them and started mounting them (along with the Pulp Alley deck, free for download here) on unused Trivial Pursuit cards left over from thrifting multiple copies to build a board for Canvas Eagles**. I'll post something if I ever get it together enough to actually try the game.

My stuff and my wife's stuff battled it out for table space!

*This is the site: www.seven-wonders.co.uk, currently giving me an error "509: bandwidth limit exceeded". Hopefully it's back up later.
** My Canvas Eagles board was a flop. I applied Mod Podge to try and seal the pages which were glued to the boards with Elmer's spray adhesive. The Mod Podge stayed tacky so that every time I unfolded a board it would stick together and I was in danger of ripping the prints. Finally they were stuck bad enough that they did rip and I threw it away (pretty sure I did anyway). A few weeks later, I was in Fabric Land with Jenni and they had felt on sale, so I bought some green. Haven't used it yet, but maybe soon.