“The best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago. The second best time is now.”

― Chinese proverb

“One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.”

” Thou shall never vanquished be, until Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane hill shall come against him.”

— William Shakespeare

Forests in his plays seem to enjoy a symbolic role as places of refuge and escape – even perhaps of freedom. Often touched with magic, and associated with warm summer nights, they may also connote love, romance and fertility – though they may at times have somewhat more sinister associations too.

“There is no Wi-Fi in the forest, but I promise you will find a better connection.” 

— Ralph Smart

“If we lose the forests, we lose our only teachers.”

— Bill Mollison

“Nature is not a place to visit, it is home.” 

— Gary Snyder

“In a forest of a hundred thousand trees, no two leaves are alike. And no two journeys along the same path are alike.”

— Paolo Coelho

“Trees are sanctuaries. Whoever knows how to speak to them, whoever knows how to listen to them, can learn the truth.”

― Herman Hesse

“Anyone who thinks fallen leaves are dead has never watched them dancing on a windy day.”

― Shira Tamir

These trees were picked up from Spotlight on sale. The were purchased to suit my 54mm figures.

They also fit quite nicely with 28mm figures. I use them especially for jungle and Japanese Samurai games.

Jungle Village

Japanese scene

“Never say there is nothing beautiful in the world anymore. There is always something to make you wonder in the shape of a tree, the trembling of a leaf.”

― Albert Schweitzer

A small walled area for Test of Honour

I think the mdf kit was from Knights of Dice.

At least I now have a few things completed for Dave Stone’s “Season of Scenery” even it is a little late. Some more tomorrow.

Lamp

Repaired Lampholder

Broken lampholder repurposed as a crystal generator

The only things I needed to add were the crystal and the base.

Add on a splash of paint and Bob’s your crazy nuclear scientist

A crystal that size costs a small fortune.

A very small one!

Guru is either a “genies ass” or just plain crazy!

Well it was all planned Drew was going to supply the figures , I would supply terrain , venue and sustenance and Wayne and Liam were going to be our loyal Robin’s.

As Helmuth von Moltke said, “No Battle Plan Survives Contact with the Enemy”.

Drew called in sick, so down one player and two armies, and at the last minute Liam couldn’t make it. A quick call to Wayne and we decided to go ahead with just the two of us. After all more nibbles and amber fluid for us – hardly a bad thing!

So the pics of the terrain which because it was set-up for ACW, the plan was to turn the clock back one hundred years to the French Indian Wars.

Yep that was the plan.

Nice terrain.

Plenty of Figures for Wayne to choose his list from.

Wayne duly arrived at 7.30 and stayed to well after midnight…….and NO he wasn’t bound and gagged – I didn’t have a gag big enough!

We decided to have a drink first.

Have some nibbles

Talk S#@t for a while

Drink some more – I debated saying that it was no alcoholic wine but you wouldn’t believe it anyway!

Talk some more s#@t

No game but we had a great time.

When I sat down at the painting desk today I just couldn’t be bothered painting. After a while just staring at minis and paints I found staring back at me a separate but linked project to what I have been doing recently.

With all of the Marvel Crisis Protocol box sets I have acquired a lot of scatter terrain, a few vehicles and some buildings, so I decided to glue these together and undercoat them.

Construction vehicles

Four vehicles already completed but included anyway!

Destroyed money exchange booth

Destroyed Vehicles

Taco Van

Taco’s on the move

Daily Bugle news-stand

Dumpsters

Assorted scatter terrain

Jersey Barriers

Lamp-posts

Traffic Lights

Most of this terrain is a bit large for anything else with the lamp-posts and traffic lights a bit lon the small side. Some of the scatter terrain is OK but most is likely to be sold or sit where they are for a very long time.

I think Marvel will get to play in my “Gotham City” instead which is more than a little ironical!

Inspired by fellow blogger, Mr White from Wyrd Stones and Tackle Zones I decided to pick up Ronin Samurai rules from the Osprey Wargames series.

Although the book is the standard 64 pages the rules only extend for 17 of those pages. The rest covers eight different Buntai or factions. These include Bushi (standard Samurai force), Ikko Ikki, Sohei monks, Ronin, Koryu or military schools, Bandits, Koreans and Ming Chinese. For players of Test of Honour there is not much which cannot directly translate. Unfortunately there is no Ninja Buntai but a single Ninja can be included as a “Soldier for Hire” in most Buntai lists.

The inclusion of Ming and Koreans is a great idea, allowing you to fight the Imjin wars of 1537 – 1598. Also, the background to each force is a good as it provides those not familiar with the period some insight into the history of each Buntai.

The rules and mechanics are straightforward and similar to other sets, with one key difference: the combat pool. Each model has a combat pool ranging from 1 to 5, with regular warriors having at least 2. During a fight, both players secretly allocate points from their combat pool for attack or defence.

After both reveal their allocations, initiative is rolled to determine which model attacks first. Players can use markers to enhance their model’s attack or defence, resulting in bonus dice to roll. The defender then gets a chance to attack if they survive, and this process repeats until one side is defeated or both run out of attack counters.

This works extremely well giving players lots of tactical choices. I really like this mechanism.

I wasn’t sure what to expect as the Osprey Wargame series can be quite hit or miss. Not sure that it will replace Test of Honour for me, but nevertheless they look like a great set of rules.

A very bust day with first a visit to the doctors and then lunch with our son and daughter in-law, and then some shopping for essential household items below!

I only went in for the Tamiya TS3 but quickly found I “needed” so much more.

I did get a few things started. Firstly some plastic marvel Crisis Protocol vehicles assembled and undercoated. I have some really nice metal 1/42 scale die cast vehicles so the plan is these will be dirtied up.

I also assembled and undercoated four Hydra Figures from the Crisis Protocol Earth’s Mightiest Core Set.

I did get some painting started on “Punisher”, “Winter Soldier” and the base painted for “Spider Woman”, “Taskmaster”, and “Red Skull Master of Hydra”.

Technically Winter Soldier is not an Agent of Hydra, but is affiliated with S.H.I.E.L.D., with “Winter Soldier, Operative” the Hydra Affiliated miniature. Splitting hairs but the newer version of Bucky has some big differences to his other self: His builder has 5 dice but no rapid fire and more importantly he now has Stealth and hit and run. He also isn’t a Rogue Agent this time around. The previous version was much more crunchy IMHO.

This means I still have nine more figures to complete my Hydra team. although this will include 3 versions of Red Skull, and two of Winter Soldier, Baron Zemo, as well as both Versions of Crossbones. I have to say I do like the action poses of many of the Marvel miniatures.

Hopefully some finished tomorrow.

HYDRA cannot ever truly be destroyed, for “If one head is cut off, two more shall take its place.” The troopers of Hydra are the epitome of this.

Last week we had Maree’s fully adjustable bed arrive.

My jealousy at having to put up with my old bed quickly changed to glee when I found that they had included a gift for me!

The installers were just about to throw away all of the packaging when I noticed these 1/56th scale bridge supports included just for me!

I already have a freeway overpass for Gotham City (see Last stand at on-ramp 223), but I think I can make a more than passable railway bridge out of these.

I am not sure which way I will stand them as both ends work.

Although the underpass looks great it seems a bit to flimsy to support the structure.

I may even be able to widen the bridge at the centre for a station and elevator – ideas a plenty.

BTW I still wish I had a nice brand new comfy bed!

As a child, Ophelia Sarkissian was taken by Hydra and raised by Daniel Whitehall, the mysterious agent known as Kraken.

For over two decades, she trained to become one of the organization’s most proficient soldiers.

Later in life, she abandoned Hydra to become the leader of the Serpent Squad mercenaries, where she used her peak physical conditioning, cunning, and ruthlessness to secure her place as a deadly viper in the global underworld.