Archive for February, 2011

DBA Terni 2011

I’m falling asleep… And almost without voice, too much loud chatting with friends. I’m just returned from Terni for the latest DBA tournament. Terni is very near to Rome, only 1 hour or something more, but there was traffic along the way.
The result was not so great but usual: two won, two lost. A draft. Here you can view the fight for the first position.

New location, always outside the centre. A place for the meeting of elder people, very large, and with the worst bar around (it is equipped with only 1 snack and 3 crisps packets, you can starve at death). A little sad, but this time there were around people with little lead people. The weather was frosty too. But there were a lot of friends, so we had a happy party. Under there is the social dinner.

And here there is the Ganesha Games counter with our friend Andrea back from Ukraina. You can see his iphone and ipad, while he is working on new rules during the tournament. I picked up a couple of new rule sets that I cannot have before.

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TB Line headquarter

How to disrupt a serious business? Starting a new one about miniatures. The famous man from Bologna, the master of hexagons, the artist of polystyrene, portrayed his office warehouse. Here you can see shelves with the TB Line 10mm production, all divided for type. All the TB Line’s little men coming from this place. An army ready to fight.

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Happy model feb. 2011 edition

We are here again!

Every two months there is this event in Rome for train collectors. This time we are at full force: Renato who looking around for scratched trains to rebuilt them for Japan, Paolo who wants more for his 1:144 city, me for some pieces for Flyton, and Franci to put some feminine elegance among us.

A lot of people around, and this time seems that is the best to find something. I leave a lot of pieces on the counters. Maybe another time I will pick those things.

I would like to put some lights on my scenario. However I found these tunnels and they are great, made of hard resin and very cheap!

I decided that in Flyton there is a side with a face blocked by a cliff. And this is the tunnel under the hill. Here is with bricks at the end, but that piece will be used to the sides of the tunnel door.

Here the same scene from the top. In Flyton I will put something on the upper part to hide the structure. I have this idea because in games there are always the forbidden parts of the terrain where your minis cannot go, the extremes of the world. Well, this time one extreme is really closed, but with a hole where troops can escape.

I saw this resin piece with metal rubbish so I bought it to put it in a part of Flyton, in a yard near the viaduct I think. There will be necessary a paintwork to have a more varied look of this piece.

The best of show this time was a HO junkyard all in rust colours, with a huge amount of little pieces, ruined wagons, abandoned cars, military surpluses. And among the stuff, little orange men are working to recycle this mess. Wow, I like the romantic feeling of rust!

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Dadi & Piombo 44

The new issue is out! I was waiting this one in particular because there are interviews to Italian wargame champions about the past year, so there is an interview to me too, like the Anticamente championship winner. These are standard questions and each one answer about a championship. Here we go:

Have long have you been wargaming and what other games do you play, or have you played, in tournaments?
I played with toy soldiers as a child, and still do as a grown-up, albeit in a different way. My first three-dimensional wargaming was with WH40k, but I didn’t like the rules or the tournament circuit and almost stopped playing. Then I discovered another wargamer, DBA and historical wargaming. I also play boardgames.

How many tournaments did you play in 2010?
I have played too many: DBA, SDS and Anticamente. The problem is the preparation and travelling, and three rules-sets become difficult to do. And you have so little time to play anything else.

Which army gave you most this year?
Teutonic Knights, also from an aesthetic point of view. They are very heavy and force you to play an aggressive game. I also used them to win the decisive game in the Championship against my opponent who used the Mongols.

What advice would you give to people who are thinking about plaling in tournaments, especially those who play “your” rules?
Anticamente is a recent set of rules and all of its tactical possibilities haven’t been found yet, especially with the use of light troops, so it’ll be fun to explore it more. And the organisers make it even easier by lending you armies that you can try before you buy.

So, until here there is my intervention, and on the magazine you can find other 6 people who speak about their championship. But you can find articles and photos on this bilingual Italian magazine about wargames. There is a scenario for Song of Drums and Shakos too. Look here to know more. Buy it now at only 8 euros, p&p incl. On the next issue there will be another thing wrote by me…

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TB Line blog

Do you remember Anticamente? Well, I infected with blog-mania the famous man from Bologna who is behind the “viaduct project” too. So you can have more news and things from Anticamente surfing at https://www.tridentebologna.it/blog-english

This is only an image. If you can’t read well the small characters, is best to read the blog in full format… 😉

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Cups

I was thinking in these days about the cups I have got on the upper shelf of one bookcases of mine. I have got other prizes for my miniature battles but the cups are 5. And 4 of these are from Bologna. A very strange thing! The best cup of my life was this one from 3/4 years ago, my first cup. I cannot forget that moment.

I found I’m the seventh on the standing of the 2010 Italian wargamers league! It is a league organized by FIW (Italian Wargame Federation). You can find more here about this thing, even if every circuit works alone and it isn’t organized by this federation. And on the next issue of Dadi & Piombo magazine there will be a mini interview about me like wargamer.

Well, I’m number 7 of all tournament men of Italy, and this one was my worst year… The events of life sometime are very strange…

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Pots

It’s time to cook! Oh, no, it’s time to put some weight on the arches to straighten them. You can see the result here.

Too much weight and the arches could open wide. Beware of this!

Here you can see three pieces of the viaduct with the printed surface on the upper part. This can strengthen the polystyrene brick.

And here the first piece with the printed sides. The work goes on…

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Cleft on the arches

It’s time to attach some paper with bricks pictured! The first pieces are those under the arches. On the pictures you cannot say the differences between the printed bricks and the coloured edges. I think it is almost the same at strict distance.

The horror, the horror! The arches are warped! The glue and the paper deformed the form of the arches!

You can see the arch without the paper attached (with the straight pillars) and the arch with the paper (with a cleft).

But our master of polystyrene found the solution! He put a thickness made of polystyrene, with the regular distance between the pillars, under the arches, so the fold of the pillar is pushed at the right form. After he attached the paper with bricks on the point of contact of the sections of the viaduct. The surface stress of this paper and glue, combined with the thickness, put the pillars in the right position. You have to wait the stabilization of the piece and after you have the job done.

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