Need a new Stone Wall?

Reaper Miniatures has a nice tutorial on how to create a great looking stonewall from foam. On the left hand side of the page you can click on the "craft" link to find more "how-to" things, like making windows with glass, and miniature pumpkins out of acorns. Rock on Reaper.

Conte... Rev War Plastic

Here's an interesting one for ya. Just saw this on Ebay. Only got about three hours left.

Meebo Me!

Man, I just had to add this little feature. You can now instant message me while on my site. So, if you ever see me actually online, feel free to shoot me an IM. What will they think of next? So yea, I'm not sure how much I will actually be online, but yea, it's cool.

Spooky Town Stuff

I made a trip to my local Michael's Hobby store a couple days ago and found some of the new Spooky Town stuff. I got a "hill" sort of thing and a wooden fence that is part of their Christmas Village line. I also got a some piles of skulls that are pretty cool (see on right hand side of picture). Here are some pictures of them in my latest set-up.
The fences in the above picture are actually made of wood and are fairly fragile. All my other Christmas Village wood fences have actually been made of the hard ceramic, which is much more durable and easy to store. Makes these kind of a pain, but they look so good, I'll forgive them.

As for the hill piece, it is simply rockin', made of the same foam type material that FormTech uses, and is painted up nicely. There is another add on piece to the hill that is a bit taller and has stairs on it. I plan on getting it before the holiday season is over. They do have a hill like this for their christmas village as well which would come in handy. I can already see a confederate artillery battery on top of it with the TSSD winter dress Federals charging up it...

New Spooky Town

One of my favorite things about the approach of Halloween is the Spooky Town Collection from Lemax. This year's offerings look pretty good, as they are going to give us a bit of Pirate flavoring. They have a nice cannon piece, an anchor, piles of skulls, several pirates, a few neat scenes including pirates playing cards and men being tortured in a dungeon, and some barrels that would look good with most any set-up. Aside from these are the wonderful trees they come out with every year. The Mulberry trees look especially nice. You can usually find them at Menards, and they always seem to be on sale for 50% off. You know, I have no idea if Menards is a national store or not. It's a home improvement store... kind of like a mix between Home Depot and Wal-Mart.

HaT's Innovation, 300 DVD, and Harry.

I have to applaud the people running HaT. On their website they have set up the HaTwiki. You all know Wikipedia probably. But you might not have known that it is becoming easier and easier to set up your own wiki, which is exactly what HaT has done. It is a collection of links that users might find interesting. Granted, it is more to the interest of wargamers and painters, but still, seeing a company do something like this is satisfying. I'd like to see more of the companies use the Internet to get their products out there, to show them off a bit more, and to allow interaction with their customers. Forums, interactive photo galleries, pages that use flash technology, wikis... heck, set up a myspace page.

I sat down and watched 300 on DVD today (our library got a copy a bit earlier than the release date). It's as good as I remember it, though watching it for the second time, I was able to resist the uncontrollable urge to stand up and pump my fist in the air. Also, I want the soundtrack. There is a fine line between macho goofiness and supercool. And there are those that I know will disagree, but this movie definitely falls in the supercool category, and it's the music that gets it there.

I went and saw the 5th Harry Potter movie last night. well.... meh. I don't know. Sure, it was, you know, good. But after reading the 7th book, revelling in the Harry Potter mythology, the detail, the magic of the printed word, letting the author take my imagination on a vivid and elaborate ride, the movie felt... empty. A bit hollow. Kind of like reading the 2 paragraph summary of the American War for Independence that was in my 7th grade history textbook. Not to say that the actors weren't good. I think the actors used have been perfect. Harry, Hermione, and Ron all fit exactly what I had in mind when I read the books. My favorite has to be Alan Rickman as Snape. Perfect inflection of the voice, and he really gets the character. I loved him in Galaxy Quest too, and he rocked in Die Hard... but I'm getting off the point. When I need a Harry Potter fix, I will read the books, not watch the movies.

New Packaging Configuration from TSSD

TSSD is repackaging their civil war figures into different groups. There are some firing line groupings, charging groupings, ect. It's a good idea for collectors trying to make HUGE scenes where you will need every figure you can get to create 100 man companies and the like. I ain't got a big enough table for something like that... well, it might hold that many. Sounds like something fun to try out. But not for awhile...

I'm heading on Vacation starting tomorrow. Stephanie and I are going down to a lake cabin in Tenneessee. It's gonna be great. I'm just gonna sit around, eat cookies, and read Harry Potter #7, if I can find it for sell somewhere between here and Tenneessee. So yea, not need to check this page till Friday of next week.

New WWI Weston Tank

Mr. Weston is showing off some pictures of his upcoming WWI German Tank. Looks like he's hitting a market that has been ignored for the most part. WWI just doesn't get much attention. Anyway, to view the pictures, go to his site, then go to regular stock, and then go to World War One. Looks good. I didn't get his World War I British tank, but I'll be looking for it at the Chicago show.

Test Your History Knowledge...

To test your knowledge of history, look at this picture of Civil War soldiers and pick out the person that doesn't belong.

Actually this is my Civil War Reenacting Unit, the 49th Indiana, at the 4th of July Parade in Carmel, IN. Miss Indiana paid us a visit. I'm the guy with the drum.

New Prussians from Waterloo 1815

Whoo diddley Doo!! Look at these fancy new figures from Waterloo!! We got ourselves some Prussian Infantry on the way. You can see a picture over at TSSD's Coming Attraction page. I like the mounted figure. The sculpting looks really awesome and precise. It makes no mention of what color they will be in.