Unloaded Markers for Sharp Practice

Hello World. Long time, no post.

Recently my son and I played a game of Too Fat Lardies’ (TFL) Sharp Practice (SP), a set of wargaming rules for skirmishes in the black powder era. I had forgotten how much fun the game is, and it has motivated me to work on some SP projects.

Years ago, a fellow Lard American introduced me to FlashingBlinkingLights. He was using some of the earrings clipped to fiberfill for broadside markers for Kiss me Hardy, the TFL age of sail rules. Always thinking this was a great idea, I picked up some of these to try and make some unloaded markers for SP.

I had some 25mm x 100mm bases that seemed like a good place to start. The length was about right for a frontage of four figures in a formation base.

Base

I had the bases and the lights but needed a way to bring them all together. I knew that I would need some way to get to the lights to turn them on/off and replace the batteries, but also wanted something that wouldn’t come apart when picked up.

I decided to work in Tinkercad and design a “cage” to support the fiberfill and attach magnetically to the light bases. After a few draft prints and adjustments, this is what I produced:

Design

Print

After drilling out the bases and attaching magnets to both parts, I used the cages to space out the lights and then superglued them in place. Then I hot glued fiberfill to the upper parts.

Lights!

The Hottest Glue

The combination of weak magnets and some misalignment on part led to me switching to hook and loop (Velcro) strips to keep the parts together. Ended up working great and I should have done this from the start.

Velcro

Velcro

After affixing the fiberfill and correcting the magnet problem, I sprayed down the “smoke” with water followed by Scenic Cement. Once dry I trimmed any “wild hairs” and then airbrushed a bit of Vallejo Smoke in spots.

Pre-soak

Slight Tinting

Here is the final product in action:

Overall, I’m pleased with the results. If given a second chance I may have made the cages a bit sturdier, but I think they’ll work fine.

Cheers!

(First Annual?) Lard Luau

For Father’s Day this year my wife gifted me a “Day of Lard”. We rented the clubhouse in our community and several friends and myself played some Too Fat Lardies games, ate great chow and drank great beer. We then headed to our house for dinner and some late evening What a Tanker.

Overall I think is was a huge success, and there are other smaller regional “Lard Days” being planned. Hopefully others felt the same and we’ll do it again next year.

Here are a few pictures of the “Hell’s Highway” CoC game and Ed B’s excellent AWI Sharp Practice game. Next time we’ll document it better.

 

Critter Roundup

In preparing for my Sharp Practice games I’ll be running at Historicon, I finished off some animals that I had stashed. Being a sucker for adding small details to my gaming boards, many of these will fit the bill. There’s a hodgepodge of manufacturers here: Reaper, Warbases, Iron Wind Metals, Pulp Figures and the highly recommended farm animal set from Pegasus.

 

Sloop du Jour

A tired joke for sure but hey, it’s early in the week.

A friend of mine graciously donated this Old Glory ship to me when he moved back to the West Coast. I hung on to it as I have a scenario for the French and Indian War involving a docked French ship, and as Sharp Practice has rekindled my interest in the period, I decided to slap some paint on her. I do have the ship’s cannon, but as they aren’t needed for the scenario I put them away for the time being.

The Moose is Loose

Total impulse buy at Historicon, but when I saw this thing from Pulp Figures I “had” to have it. It’s already been put to use as a moveable deployment point in Sharp Practice. It’s a great sculpt. Everyone should have one, even if you don’t have a use for it.