Kickstarter - Gunfighter's Ball Ends Today

This particular Kickstarter from Knuckleduster Miniatures has done very well and hit enough stretch goals that I'm seriously thinking of getting in on it. I'm a bit concerned that they have over extended so I'll keep a close eye on this one if I pull the trigger on it today. It ends today so its time to take a look!

Gunfighter's Ball

Acquisition - Seth Thomas Vintage Clock

There was an estate sale right around the corner from the house on Thursday. I have never been to one so my wife and I looked through the pictures and spotted some stuff that we were at least interested in. I know that you needed to go early but I was not prepared for the ensuing pandemonium! There were no browsers in the group, these people all had specific objectives and they went right after them. Fortunately my wife got to the back of the house first and scored the clock while down in the basement I found that they wanted way to much money for the Lionel train equipment. So my wife scored big on the clock and I found an interesting pamphlet on the sixth Mercury space mission so we both walked away happy.

We are having a hard time identifying the clock though. Seth Thomas was a major manufacturer of clocks in the US dating back to 1810 or so and the company remained in business (albeit as a subsidiary of other companies, a great grandson sold the company in 1932) until 1980. I think 170 years of continuous operation is pretty impressive!  This clock resembles (and is almost identical to) the College Series New York clock. The only major difference I see is the design on the glass front is completely different from the New York. There are six clocks in the College Series; Harvard, Yale, Cornell, Cambridge, New York and Oxford. So instead of something relatively easy to track down we have managed to acquire some kind of variation of the New York or the glass has been replaced. Either way its a pretty cool clock, it has a nice spot in the kitchen until we can get it in for repair.

If any of you out there happen to know anything about clocks and recognize this Seth Thomas clock let me know!

23" high and 13" wide

A better shot of the glass

Painting Practice - The Dinosaurs

When I picked up the Presidential busts from Safari Ltd I also grabbed these dinosaur skulls, just to make the shipping charge a little more bearable. Unlike the presidents though I'm going to have to strip these down. It looks like they went through the commercial version of the dip method and its pretty thick. I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do with these, but they might make nice additions to dioramas

Here is the dino skull lineup:

Dilophosaurus, Carnotaurus, Triceratops

Parasaurolophus, Dracorex, Diplodocus

T-rex, Nigersaurus, Brachiosaurus

Brachiosaurus Front, Velociraptor, Oviraptor
I was looking online to identify the first one in this lineup and every picture of the set only shows 11 skulls and then I realized that I managed to work the Brachiosaurus into two shots.

C&N Railroad Project - The 2-8-0 conversion project - acquisition

I just acquired a Bachmann Spectrum Baldwin 2-8-0 Consolidation in HO scale off of eBay. Now don't panic I'm not switching scales again. The C&N will remain firmly grounded in O scale while the LA Warehouse district will be HO scale. This 2-8-0 is hopefully going to serve as the basis for a C&N 2-8-0 in O scale. Basically I just need the drive mechanism and the rest will be discarded. The drivers scale out to 60" in HO which is just about right for the 37" drivers I need in O. I just need to dis-assemble it and mount a boiler closer to the right size, add an O scale cab and see if I can find a new tender or modify this one. I picked this one up for $50 so its not going to be cheap by any means but it will allow me to acquire parts at a more comfortable pace.

Painting Practice - The Busts

I have been toying around with the idea of painting busts, there are plenty of really nice ones out there but I still have an ungrounded fear of painting in scales larger than 28mm. So someone mentioned on the Reaper Forums that Safari Ltd had a tub of presidential busts (part of their Toob line) that would be a good to practice on. Twelve dollars nets you eight presidents so its definitely a worth while investment. From the looks of them all I really need to do is wash them really quick and they will be ready for the airbrush. Of course this reminded me that I have a bunch of Lord of the Rings busts in the same scale. Those, however, need to be stripped of all their paint before I can commence work on them. The presidents though will be ready whenever I am!

The line up in order.

Washington, Adams and Jefferson. With all the revolutionary history reading I have been doing my respect for Adams has really grown and my respect for Jefferson has really fallen off. 

Jackson, Lincoln and Theodore (Teddy) Roosevelt. Jackson is not one of my favorites but I'm a big fan of Lincoln and Roosevelt.

In the more modern bent, Franklin Roosevelt and Kennedy. Two more of my favorites. Franklin is part of the Manhattan Roosevelts while Teddy was part of the Oyster Bay Roosevelts.

C&N Railroad Project - The Ore Cars

These kits actually arrived last Friday but the weekend, once again, was so busy I didn't really have a chance to look at these until late on Sunday. We had to put down my oldest son's cat, she was only six but had developed a tumor that was taking over her stomach, she was a sweet thing and will be greatly missed. A lot of time was spent at the Vet's office this weekend, definitely not high on my places to visit.

These are old Taurus Product Ore Cars and have been out of production for some time. I had built a number of these in HO scale so I knew they were just about perfect to represent the fleet of ore cars on the C&N. I have been looking for these online for a couple of months now and this batch just showed up on eBay. The price was a little hefty though, about $25 a kit and I really only wanted one. However, I don't know when they might show up again so I bit the bullet on this one and bought the lot. The HO version had enough material for two cars but the O version only has enough for one.

Eventually I would like about 20 of these for the layout but six is a good starting point. Since there is a very nice parts list in the box I shouldn't have any problem building the rest from scratch. This is definitely not a shake the box kit and I'm looking forward to diving in and working on the ore car fleet.

Everything you need in handy sticker marked bags. I don't see a problem finding the components to scratch build the rest of the fleet but those etched parts could be a problem. The kit is definitely showing its age with all the paper products starting to brown with age. There was a little NMRA "coupon" (on the left) to join the organization included in the bottom of the box.

These are definitely showing their age both with the browning of the paper and the typeset.

The last page of the instructions, the all important parts list! If anything is missing I don't think I'll be able to use that coupon though.

The diagram, also very important for future iterations of the fleet.

#2 in importance right after the parts list, the templates! I'll be sure to make some good copies of these for future use.

World War II Project - Brigade Games American Infantry III

I managed to get a little more work down on the US Inafantry from the Brigade Games Disposable Heroes Infantry Kickstarter. At this point I have moved into the Heavy Weapons; US009, US010 and US014. I'm hoping to get the rest cleaned up over the weekend.

US009 US Infantry .50 cal HMG with 3 crew

US010 US Infantry 60mm Mortar with 3 crew

US014 US Infantry Engineers

World War II Project - Brigade Games American Infantry II

Another day of meetings allowed me so find some time to continue prepping the American infantry from the Brigade Games WWII Disposable Heroes Miniatures Kickstarter. So today I was able to prep US002 (a second bag of 6), 004, 005, 006, 007 and 008. I have two each of US004 and 008 to make sure I had enough miniatures for possible unit variations and a little extra MG support. I'm finding some of the sculpting a bit uneven on these. Some are really good especially US005 and some are kind of just average. I'm still of the opinion that with the advances in digital sculpting, which Brigade Games has used that he would have been better served in going that direction with these miniatures. Although the real test will be getting some paint on these guys and seeing how they turn out in the end.

Again, I'm not doing any assembly at this point so the heads will remain loose for now. Here are the pictures from today (minus the US002 NCOs which is already pictured in the first American Infantry post):

US004 US Infantry Rifles A - Advancing 

US005 US Infantry Rifles B - Advancing

US006 US Infantry Rifles C - Firing

US007 US Infantry Rifles D - Firing

US008 US Infantry .30 cal MMG with 3 crew.

Baltimore MD Trip

This week I'm in Baltimore MD while my wife attends a conference for her work. Unfortunately, once again, all the things we would like to see close at 4:30 before she is even out of the conference. We took a walk last night to at least see what was in walking distance. Here is a few pictures, not particularly good ones, but pictures none the less.

The Constellation at dock in the Baltimore Inner Harbor. This was the last fully rigged sailing ship built by the US Navy in 1854. The first time I visited this ship back 1991 they had just discovered that this was not the original Constellation which was built in 1797. This discovery occurred during a renovation when ship they were working on did not match the plans they had for the vessel. That's when a search of the US Navy records revealed that the original Constellation had been broken up the year before the second Constellation was built, so there was no significant gap in the records for the two ships. 

There is a World Trade Center on the Baltimore Harbor (something I did not know) and they have a memorial out front to the NY World Trade Center. That's a piece of steel from NY on a marble base that shows a timeline and the list of people, that I assume, were from MD.

Blocks from the Pentagon

And the memorial to flight 93 that went down before it could strike its target due to the actions of its passengers and crew.

USS Torsk (SS-423), the last US Submarine to launch torpedoes and sink a warship in WWII for the US Navy. She is a Tench Class submarine and served in the fleet till 1968. She was decommissioned in 1972.

A statue to Babe Ruth at Camden Yards. He never played for the Orioles but he grow up in Baltimore apparently.

The retired number for one of my favorite players, Cal Ripkin

An overview of Camden yards, just around the corner from the hotel we are staying in.

A cool building next to Camden Yards, I have no idea what it is or what its for.

The Bromo Seltzer clock tower, they are doing a little restoration on the top.

World War II Project - Brigade Games American Infantry I

I am in Baltimore this week and I remembered to at least throw something in the bag to work on. That happened to be the bag of American Infantry from the Brigade Games Disposable Heroes Miniatures Kickstarter. I managed to clean up US001 US infantry platoon command, US002 US infantry NCOs and US003 US infantry BAR teams.

Here is the results. note that I won't glue heads on till I get home.

US 001 Infantry Platoon Command

US 002 US Infantry NCOs

US 003 US Infantry BAR teams

Kickstarter: Gunfighter's Ball Wild West Miniatures Game

I would be remiss if I did not point out this wild west Kickstarter from Knuckleduster Miniatures.
I do wish there was a level somewhere between $35 and $135 dollars though. If I participate I would join in at the lower level and just pick out stuff from the add ons. I really want the bar though, but just the bar not the whole building that goes along with it. I will attest to the quality of the miniatures though. I have the Faro set and the Poker Table set and they are fabulous. I now feel the need to pull these out and get some paint on them.

Check it out here:
Gunfighter's Ball Wild West Miniatures Game

Some seriously fabulous miniatures and painting