Proof of Life

For the loyal eight or so folks that keep an eye on this blog, I humbly apologize for the quiet spell.  I've pretty reliably filled time and space here with batreps, gaming background matter, and pics of figs/terrain, but the past couple weeks have seen a deluge of 'real life' encroach upon my gaming.  Having said that, it hasn't been a total loss, as I've snatched a moment here and a minute there to finish up all the buildings I own, I rebased mid-war 10mm Germans and Russians (in a previous post), and I put some flock on my set of coconut trees.  Here's some pics:

 Here's an overview of all the buildings I have.  After years of playing with khaki colored buildings, I finally decided to put in a little work on the upgrade.  They are still no one's idea of a masterpiece, but they're 100 times better than they were and they're good enough for me!

 Some JR Miniatures 'dragon's teeth.'  Though I play in 10mm, almost all my terrain is 15mm, and I find it works well.

 Some bombed out houses.  Sorry, I don't recall the manufacturer.  I picked them up about eight months ago from Greathall Minis in Austin, TX.

 Two larger bombed-out houses, same (unknown) manufacturer as above pic, also gotten at Greathall Minis.

 A 15mm JR Minis building.

 These are both JR Minis.  They came in full sections that you then cut/broke into pieces to make them look bombed out.

 More JR Minis.

 Ditto.  I'd love to put which model each building is, but frankly, I don't recall anymore.

 JR Minis.  If this one if familiar, it's because this is one of the two buildings I finished a couple months ago and have been using in my 'All Americans' battles.

 Backside of same building.

 Here's the other one I had already finished.

 And the backside.

 Here's the newly finished counterpart.

 And the backside.

 This, and the photo below, are also JR Minis, but they are not made of plastic.  I don't know, maybe resin?  It feels like concrete.  I like them, but they are definitely smaller than the other 15mm stuff.

 Again, I like them, but definitely on the smaller side.

 I have no idea who makes this, another one gotten from Greathall Minis.  It has the distinction of being the only building I own that is not bombed out...

 My new collection of 36 coconut trees gotten rather cheaply off E-bay.  Now, as any wargamer knows, you can never have enough trees, but this is a decent start.

 I put some static grass on the bases and gave them a matte sealant.  Ready for war.

A closer up shot of the bases.  Perhaps not the most beautiful/accurate, but good enough to serve me on the wargames table.  I'll definitely be going to some South/Central Pacific circa 1941-1944 with these, probably some southern-delta Vietnam, definitely some Cuba (YES! Cuba Libre is not dead!).  Maybe some Africa, both colonial and modern?

With the long weekend (due to Veteran's Day), I intend on getting in at least two fights this weekend, and if I can do that and get them written up, I just might call it a day on All Americans in Sicily.  Then I'll look to get into something else for a bit (before returning for AA in Salerno).  Where I shall go exactly is anyone's guess.  Here are some things I'm kicking around (in no particular order):
-1/600 Air USN vs IJA/IJN (have)
-1/600 Air Flying Tigers vs IJA (have)
-1/600 Air Battle of Britain (have)
-1/1850 Naval USN vs IJN task-force level (have the minis but need rules)
-1/600 Coastal USN vs IJN (have a set of rules from the kindly Mr. Legan, and need to order minis from the kindly Mr. Gregory, then paint and base them)
-10mm Ground WWII mid-war German vs Soviet (have minis, need to put company-level CoC on paper)
-10mm Ground WWII late-war Germans vs US and Brit Paras (need to rebase all three, need to repaint most of the US)
-10mm Ground Modern Cuba Libre (at least the first phase, liberation-have the minis and rules)
-6mm Ground Napoleonic.  I'm years from being done with the minis (seemingly), then I need to settle on some rules, probably some version of Black Powder.  But if I quit playing everything else and just work on the painting/basing, I could get there a lot faster...
-1/600 Air Vietnam (got the minis, need to finish painting them, need to work on "Thud Ridge" rules to see if I can make them doable for solo games).
-10mm Ground WWII-got a bunch of Brit 8th Army figures that need to get based, could use them for North Africa, Sicily, Italy, Burma, India, even Aussies for New Guinea?
-10mm Ground WWII USMC and IJA that need to be finished up.  Like to meld them into a campaign of ground, air, coastal, and naval; probably just a pipedream.
-I've got 10mm Napoleonics for Song of Drums and Shakos painted up and just taking up space, and 10mm Romano-Brits for Song of Arthur and Merlin that need to be finished painting and basing.
-I've got more 10mm Modern stuff than I know what to do with, and I need to figure out what to do with it and get it on the table.
-I received my order of 10mm French and Vietminh, Vietnam Aussies, and more Vietnam NVA and VC.  They're all cleaned up and primed, but I need to get all of that painted and based (once I figure out what rules I'm going to use for the various elements).
-I've got a bunch of WWII US and Germans in 6mm sitting around, not doing anything, and I keep having irrational desires to buy more.  What really scares me is having an impulse buy in 6mm of stuff I already have in 10mm...  For example, I keep looking at GHQ Warsaw Pact stuff, and wanting to do some sort of quasi-Imagination war between former Soviet Republics with T-80s, BMPs, and BTRs.  Of course I already have T-72s, BMPs, and BTRs in 10mm, but dammit, I keep finding myself on the GHQ site.  I keep thinking of the Republic of Prussia blog and wanting to do that as he does, in 6mm, but I already have 10mm.  What's wrong with me???

Also, I have this crazy idea.  I was a Marine, and we have/had the MEU, or Marine Expeditionary Unit concept for rapid response worldwide.  I keep dreaming of using this concept, except it's Royal Marines in the 1880s to early 1900s.  Get some Pendraken colonial Brit riflemen and put them ashore throughout the Empire in order to show the flag, quell the violence/keep the peace, protect British interests, etc...  Get some Zulus, some Egyptian regulars, some Middle Eastern tribal types, some contemporary colonial rifles to serve as dastardly competing empires (Germans, Japanese, Russians?), and proxy them all over the world.  Pretty crazy, no?

In any case, sorry for the rambling, just trying to get some thoughts 'on paper,' so to speak, as to where to go after my AA Sicily campaign is finished.  Too many projects, too little time...

V/R,
Jack