Preparing for MAG-Con II

MAG-Con II is a convention in North Houston, TX and it is occurring 4-5 Dec, 2010. "MAG" stands for "Mad About Gaming", which normally does not describe me, but considering it is just over 1,000 miles away (each way) from my home, some would say I am mad to go that far for two days of gaming.

My original plan was to drive, which would have been about 18 hours each way, so fours days of driving. But, in the end, I did not have enough time to prep the car (change oil, check filters and tires, etc.) so I decided to fly at the last minute.

Having been a road warrior once upon a time I had enough miles to fly free (first class!) and to have a free hotel stay. Unfortunately, I have never been good with the rental car programs, so I had to pay for that, but I found a deal for 2/3rds off with Expedia.

So, why is this in Wooden Warriors? Well, I decided to try to put on a demonstration game of Song of Drums and Shako using my Wooden Warriors and see how it went over. The problem: although I have 29 French painted and ready to go, I had two British and one Russian as opposition. So, it is time to buckle down and finish some more British.

As it so happens I have five British Line infantry with basic assembly and paint done, and the uniform printed out (the tutorial was an earlier blog entry). I just needed to do for the five what I did for the one shown in that tutorial.

I got a little ambitious and tried to do too much. Not only was I trying to finish these five, but I felt like I was woefully lacking in terrain for 42mm figures, so I wanted to build some fences and walls, and mount some trees and shrubs to bases. I was also trying an experiment using yarn for a bush (that will be a separate, future blog entry). I was just too much. I finished the bush, and 10 shrubs, but the eight fences ended up built but not painted, so they stayed home. That also burned precious time, so my British Line ended up on the plane with me without the muskets being glued, and faceless. (I would end up gluing the muskets and drawing the faces in drafting pen in the hotel the morning of the game.)

All in all, a respectable figure, I think. I am happy with the printing process and the level of detail. I could paint that level of detail on a 42mm figure, but never five of them in two days.

Off to the convention with wooden warriors in hand, ready to make their debut.