I "Like" Facebook Groups

Over the past few years, I've seen increasing criticism of The Miniatures Page as a forum for discussing miniatures and gaming. I've been a member since 2002, so I've seen it change over the years. I would largely agree with many of the criticisms, particularly pertaining to its use as a political soapbox for certain more vocal members. I've also seen more and more of a "snotty" attitude by posters when responding to a question posted by others. There are some other general miniature wargaming news sites, but they seem either not-so-general as in they focus on the more popular games (as opposed to covering different genres) that the cool kids are playing, or they are nothing more than advertisements for products.

Additionally, I've lost a lot of interest in Yahoo! Groups. I cannot pinpoint exactly why, but I rarely visit any of the Yahoo! groups I belong to anymore. Same goes with the groups in Google+. Many of these groups have become nothing more than free ads for certain miniature companies. I guess you can argue that no one posts, then at least it is something to look at.

Recently, I joined the 6mm Wargaming and Terrain group on Facebook. So far, I have been very happy with it. It has successfully avoided the problems with those groups I have mentioned above. Same goes with the Naval Wargaming group.  Hopefully, these issues will not pop up in the future.

If you are on Facebook, you might want to check them out.

Early Attempt at Making Microarmor

Along with the wooden buildings, I also found this little guy:

It's a German 20mm Flak 38 AA gun. I think it predates my wooden buildings. Back when I started gaming, there weren't a lot of microarmor weaponry out there. Maybe GHQ made a Flak 38, but if they did, the only gaming store in Chicago didn’t have it in stock.  So, I tried making one, which you see above. It's made from wire, cardboard and small wooden dowels for the wheels.  I  wasn't happy with it, but it often wound up in games.

In hindsight,  I  think I should have stuck with it in trying to make my own figures. I also tried sculpting my own 25mm fantasy figures in plasticine clay, of all things.  There were no tutorials that I could find at the library. After a while I got frustrated and gave up. That is the one aspect of my hobby tenure I regret.

Early Buildings for Microarmor

I was digging through some old storage bins and found these buildings that I  made back in the 70s for WWII games. They were cut out of blocks of scrap wood. Crude and not all to scale, but did the job back then.

I Want One of These Machines...Now!