Hi Everyone,

I can't believe that it's been nearly a year since I last posted... Life really has a way f happening when it does. Wjat have I been up to? ...mostly buying a house, taking care of a home, having my heart broken, dating again, and all of the rigors of life... That and my camera has been on the fritz...

I continued gaming, mostly board games, and I've discovered Facebook, which is much easier than blogging. The local miniatures club, MWSS, continues to host monthly games, my monthly D&D group is still going strong in Eberron, and Mark Steinberg's Friday meets are still great...

Unfortunately, my friend Tony Mark, recently passed away... May he rest in peace. He was a great guy, had equal disdain for all gaming clubs, which I always enjoyed back in the great gaming club schism of the past. He will be missed. Gary, at Great Escape Games, one of our local brick and mortar gaming shops hosted a big gaming get together a few weekends back for him...

And, it was only yesterday that I got my work bench fully reestablished and started working on 28mm samurai again... I had been previously working on a variety of mini projects at my buddy George's house. Thanks, George, for lending me your space! With any luck, I'll get a digital camera going again and share some photos... Until then...


Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.

Notes regarding photos / pictures / videos: These are not all my images and videos. I am using various images and videos from around the web, mostly from public sources and/or private sources used with permission. I have tried to include only images and videos under public domain, creative commons, or fair use. If I have inadvertently violated any copyrights, please inform me and I will remove your image/s (...if it is indeed an infringement).

Hi Reader,

I’ve come along to an important decision for the future of this blog that has been a long time in the making: I’m going to switch the content of this blog over entirely to hobby-related or soft content. When I originally became a blogger, I wanted to write a blog that encompassed the entirety of who I was, but over time, I’ve come to realize that my key enjoyment of writing 6mm-Minis has been related to the hobby-related or soft content: pictures of minis, reports of gaming sessions, light-hearted jokes, etc. While I enjoyed the journal-like aspects of the blog and found them useful (I’ve actually kept the vast majority of my hobby-related New Years Resolutions for a number of years running now), I think that a healthy separation of the two is a good idea.

• So, in that light, I plan to split the blog into two pieces:
  1. 6mm-Minis will become a blog entirely devoted to hobby-related and soft content.
  2. A separate blog will be created in the future to discuss everything else.

And in personal news, I’m just about to achieve one of my big life goals: to become a home-owner. I wanted to become a home-owner many years ago in the 1990s but circumstances conspired against me and my life goal never became feasible. Now it has. It took a lot of hard work, but soon I will have a pad of my own. With any luck, I will be moving into a home within the next two weeks and be fully settled in before the end of December.

And that means that my long-term goal of being the guy to host the big games will soon come to fruition. For years, I’ve always been the guy who faithfully attended the games that other folks hosted. I tried hosting games at my tiny apartment for a period of about 10 months in 2006 and 2007, but always found the lack of space confining. And at one point, I hosted at a local library in a community room but again found the limitations… well, too limiting. Well, for years I’ve been admiring all of those gentlemen gamers out there who could have a dedicated gaming room, a place to regularly set up and host games. And soon that will be me!

The new place I’m about to close on has a large well-lit garage with plenty of work space for projects and a large two-car garage worth of open area in which to set up tables and host games. It also has built-in shelves along one wall and extensive additional lighting overhead. I’m planning on turning it into a dedicated project area / gaming room. For a first step, I plan to paint the area and populate it with a few fold up tables over a carpet. I try to keep my initial goals modest.

And I’m planning to have a housewarming event for as many of my local gaming friends as possible sometime in January or February 2009. So, here’s hoping to great success!

A brief break down of the local November gaming meet:

Sunday November 16th
MWS Meeting

1. Game Rules: AK47
Genre: Modern 20th Century Conflict - Fiction
Mini Scale: 15mm
# of Players: 6 players, 1 referee
Opponents: 3 African dictators
Brief Game synopsis: Looked like fun. Seeing all the 60s
Soviet kit running around a shanty town was a blast.

2. Game Rules: FWC (Future War Commander)
Genre: Science Fiction
Mini Scale: 6mm
# of Players: 5 players, 1 referee
Opponents: 3 Space Marine sides, 1 Eldar side, 1 Tyranid side
Game synopsis: This was the lcub's first playtest of FWC and we liked it. Some of us had played one of the rule set's predecessors BKC so we had an inkling of what was going to happen. The game, despite having five sides broke down into two fights nd went well. We all learned something about the game and had a good time. It also gave me the excuse to pull out my massive Epic collection and get the lead moving. Good fun for all.

Shabbat Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.

Notes regarding photos / pictures / videos: These are not all my images and videos. I am using various images and videos from around the web, mostly from public sources and/or private sources used with permission. I have tried to include only images and videos under public domain, creative commons, or fair use. If I have inadvertently violated any copyrights, please inform me and I will remove your image/s (...if it is indeed an infringement).

Hi Everyone,

I've missed posting, but my camera has been on the fritz and the Jewish holidays hit so I've been rather occupied. I haven't given up on gaming and attended a 1920s Bootlegger Gangster game last week as well as the September MWS meet in which I played a zombie game.

Dick wrote this about the September 2008 MWS meet:

Maks and Joe R. killed my zombie horde. Mostly with a flare gun, pistol, and a chainsaw. Maks's farm girl was the Lara Croft of the cornfield and Joe's Sheriff was unusually accurate for a small town lawman. Nice change of pace game.

And Mark wrote this about last week's Bootlegger Gangster game:

The Gangster game was well attended. We had the kids (Dave and Pete), George, Mike McGraw, Mike O., Roger M., Maksim, and John all play. Not bad for a first time out. The gangsters rules will need a little more work and the scenario as well. Still, it was fun and got a lot of attention as being unique.

And he wrote us this snippet beforehand:

So I will run the Gangster game this Friday. I have the trucks, figures, some buildings and 6 cobblestone sheets to be the streets. This is more a trial run of a game to be done again later.

I actually have figures for 7 gangs if we get that many players. Two gangs will be made up of former cowboy figures that work, i.e., my Pinkertons, and the figures in long coats that hide their holsters, or that are only armed with a shotgun. The actual gangster figures are the Sepia gang, the Dorians (Primarily Grey), the Cat Litter gang, (Base flocking material), My Cops (Boys in Blue), and "Fat Guys and Dolls" (6 armed women with 4 fat guys, painted by my daughter Carly).

Be there about 6 to start. Rules are a simple modification of Legends of the Old West, with Tommy guns added, melee simplified, movement and shooting order randomized and hopefully lots of prohibition gun play.

The game turned out well for a playtest session and there was plenty of rumbl'in on the streets of our berg.

My workbench has a couple of projects on it right now:

1. 28mm Samurai
(…Jones'ing to do some Oriental Adventures again, played a game early this year and loved it. Might want to try a Clan Wars themed game…)

2. 28mm Crusaders
(Also Jones'ing to do a Crusades game or a medieval siege with my Saracens. Hattin might be fun…)

3. 28mm Pirates
(Been enjoying these guys for some time now… have played several historical games and am ready for fantasy pirates games next… building up undead and orc pirate crews)

4. 28mm Barbarians AKA Picts AKA Celts AKA Gauls Etc.
(Bought a nice second-hand Minifigs army that needs to be re-based. I'd like to play WAB with it.)

I've been mostly working on the Barbarians. I think I've watched Gladiator too many times now.

Top: Barbarians; They don't look like much...
...until a zillion of 'em swarm you!

And, of course, like every gamer out there, I have half a dozen other projects, but they are all in storage waiting for attention. I can't wait to do some more 6mm or 10mm sci-fi and AIW microarmor. Amazingly, I've kept some project discipline and have been cranking out minis this year. Monsterpocalypse also makes me want to break out the kaiju… LOL ;o)


Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.

Notes regarding photos / pictures / videos: These are not all my images and videos. I am using various images and videos from around the web, mostly from public sources and/or private sources used with permission. I have tried to include only images and videos under public domain, creative commons, or fair use. If I have inadvertently violated any copyrights, please inform me and I will remove your image/s (...if it is indeed an infringement).

Hi Everyone,

I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone and especially my Jewish readers a: happy, safe and prosperous New Year!

The Jewish New Year began at sundown yesterday, Monday, 29 September 2008.

The Jewish year is 5769 ...(Counting the years since the creation of Adam and Eve).

The proper greeting in Hebrew for the Jewish New Year is Shana Tova: Shana means "year" and Tova means "good."

My friend Yehuda always has a a great way of expressing the right thoughts for the holiday:
http://jergames.blogspot.com/2008/09/happy-new-year.html

Let's all have a happy and healthy new year. This year, let's make peace with those with whom we've been meaning to make peace. This year, let's forgive those who don't deserve it, but against whom holding a grudge is doing more harm to us than to them. This year, let's start and finish at least one of those things we've been meaning to: a game, a story, a trip, a proposal, a business, a move, a routine.

This year make the world better. Start with yourself. Then your family. Then your block. Then your community. Then your country. Then your planet.

And my friend Treppenwitz AKA David puts it even shorter, but just as sweet:
http://bogieworks.blogs.com/treppenwitz/2008/09/a-simple-wish.html

... that this year should be a sweet one filled with health, happiness and prosperity.

Here’s a little Rosh Hashanah primer for all of my non-Jewish friends and readers who don’t know the difference between Rosh Hashanah and Riki Tiki Tavi, but would like to...
— (from Wikipedia):
And lastly, I want wish a special Shana Tova to two local gamers, Hal L. and George G., who are both incredibly positive people, and have been bringing joy to my life every time we get a chance to game together.

Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.

Notes regarding photos / pictures / videos: These are not all my images and videos. I am using various images and videos from around the web, mostly from public sources and/or private sources used with permission. I have tried to include only images and videos under public domain, creative commons, or fair use. If I have inadvertently violated any copyrights, please inform me and I will remove your image/s (if it is indeed an infringement).