Weekend Care Packages

To say that this past weekend was a rough one would be a serious understatement and I'm just going to leave it at that. Upon finally getting home today, I had not one but two packages waiting for me. Now one of these was expected the other was totally unexpected.

The bigger package was from Warlord Games US. I need bases for the Red Devils and they had a lipped small profile base. Looked good for my purposes so I bought a variety of sizes. The 60mm round bases are probably a bit to big for my purposes although I could easily place three minis with a support weapon on it. The 40mm round bases may be usable, it would provide a quick identification for NCOs and Officers (senior and junior leaders for Chain of Command purposes). Then there are the standard 25mm round bases that most of the minis will be mounted on. I had hoped that the lip would be high enough to cover that cast on base, but its not quite high enough. Still should be quite usable since they are low profile. I might start using these for western minis for Calamity as well.

The second package was quite interesting. It contained a 12" 1/56th scale ruler from Rules of the World. He sent it to me in thanks for my last post about receiving the 6" rulers. Now that's service! And if you are in need of a scale ruler you definitely need to check out Rulers-of-the-World.

The Unexpected Package

How many handwritten notes do we receive anymore.

And the ruler!

The package from Warlord Games US

A bag of basing goodness and a few extras

25mm lipped rounds

60mm lipped bases

A little of everything. Another sprue of 25mm rounds, 60mm rounds this also includes 40mm rounds and 25x50mm ovals.

Contents of the bag

They tossed in a Bolt Action Quick Reference Sheet and a pair of dice! Can't have two many dice!

The low profile 25mm round. I had hoped that the lip would go all the way up to the top edge of the cast on base. I can either cut it off or file it down. Either way I'm likely to mess up my paint job.

The 25mm x 50mm ovals, I think its about perfect for the prone Red Devils

The other option I have are these bases from Reaper. A bit thicker than I like.

Warlord Games on the left, Reaper on the right

You can do this! Turn the Reaper base upside down. This lip gets a lot closer to the height of the cast on base. But it gives me a much higher base than I was hoping for.

The base lip is almost the perfect height. Just makes the base more obvious than I like.

Warlord Games 60mm base

Reaper 50mm base

There is that high profile again.

Up Scaling Calamity - Scale Ruler

A scale ruler in 1/56th scale would make working on scale buildings a lot easier, I find certainly find them invaluable when working on my model railroad projects. A number of times I have found myself on the website for Rulers-of-the-World but they didn't have the 1/56th ruler that I wanted so I would just pass on by as it was just a passing fancy. This time though I knew that a scale ruler would make working on buildings for Calamity a whole lot easier. So the next time I was on the site I decided to go for a custom ruler in 1/56th scale. The minimum order consists of 5 rulers and the whole order with shipping ran $25 for five 6" rulers.

I forgot when I actually made the order but they contacted me last week to tell me the rulers were ready and I sent payment through paypal. They arrived today and I'm quite pleased with them. My only regret at this point is that I didn't order the 12" rulers instead. But quite frankly I was a bit skeptical. I may order 12" rulers anyway at this point. I'll have to ask if this would still be a custom job since they have done it once already, although 5 rulers means I'm unlikely to lose all of them!

With scale rulers and foamed PVC in hand, I may take a stab at building one of the concept buildings I have been working on for the Calamity model (I know, I know, a model of a model).

This was almost a surprise package. It rained all day today and the envelope got wet and the ink from the inkjet printer was starting to run.

5 rulers clearly marked out with the chosen scale. Covers 28 scale feet in 6 inches which is bang on for 1/56th scale. You only hit an even foot measurement every one and a half inches in this scale. So 1 1/2" = 7', 3" = 14' etc.

I did two checks. Six inches is 28' which I hit bang on . Then I reversed and since the ruler is marked off in 5' inches I check that. In this case its just a shade over 1 1/16' inches which is just about dead on for 5'.

I measured my Red Devils from Warlord Games and they are coming up at about 5'3" - 5'6" tall in this scale. So they are probably closer to 1/53 which is one of the scales that came up as the proper scale or 28mm minis. My Artizan Design US Paratroopers are 5'7" - 5'9" tall so definitely closer to 1/56. I'm still happy with my choice as 1/56th for Calamity especially since I'm using minis from a lot of manufacturers so the buildings will be a little larger than life than most of them, with Reaper and Black Scorpion being the closest matches to the chosen scale.