Ship ahoy!

Um, sorry, no.  Just some photos of the most recently completed terrain - the pieces that will allow a four foot wide by nineteen foot long island to appear in the game.  Won't be the only island, just the biggest.

The first few photos show the terrain with only the first green - though all four browns - applied.  In the first photo is one of the small items already completed for the games first outing.  You can't see all the pieces in this shot, some are out of view.  But you can see some figures if you look real careful, in 15 mm of course.

 These next two shots show all the new pieces laid out with only the last two greens to go.

 Above, the two closest on the left, are not for this game and will be staying home but the other six large pieces will go, as will the four smaller ones seen below mixed in with...

The shot immediately above shows all fifteen of the "wedding cake" hills in this batch.  The other thirty lurk quietly in a storage closet in a nice chocolate brown coating.

The closest items to furthest left and furthest right are the peninsula and 'non'-peninsula extensions and then there is Longy Island and Surprise Island - but don't be surprised if they are called something different in the game.

Now, for those of you who like a challenge - can you count all fifteen of the wedding cake hills in that last photo?  Yes, all fifteen are there.  And, yes, this shot is of the finished pieces, all eight colors applied - not counting the sand under the paint.

Do you need a hint, do ya, hunh, do ya?

Nope, ain't givin' ya one.  Least ways, not one ya ain't already got.

I made a Discovery!

I found out how to create invisible computer screen ink!

Or, drats, problems with getting the maps to load - again.

Take your pick.

Or grab a shovel and dig for treasure.

Aaargghhh!!!

The above map, not to be relied upon for accuracy - the map maker was several sheets to the wind and surrounded by empty rum flagons, purports to point the way towards large and spectacular treasures.  Well, if you can discern the formula to reveal the invisible ink - and do it without destroying the parchment it be drawn on.

What you see on the left is the large Isle de Carob.  To the top right is Turtle Island and the two lesser Shipwreck Reefs.  To the lower right is Gilderakatoa and the Rocks of Runes and Ruins.  And in the center is the larger Little Boucane and the long and narrow Komo Do and the smaller Surprise Island.

All of these will appear in the game at Pacificon but two weekends away.  Just to give a sense of scale, Isle de Carob is about four feet wide, though that varies with bays and inlets and peninsulas, and nineteen feet long.  The other islands are not strictly to scale but are approximations of what will be seen.

Much of these are made and some are under construction.  Here are a few photographs to wet your appetites:

 Are your eyes good enough to count the twelve different pieces seen above?

 This view shows the peninsula in place and the bay and inlet pieces on the other side.  And further back are the paired 'corner' sets.

 Here is the same as above but with the "non" peninsula piece in place.  In the middle ground between the corner sets are a couple of new stand alone islands.

 No, that is not winter scenery but wedding cake hills covered in sand as it dries in place.

 I worked on fifteen of the forty-five pieces of wedding cakes hills I am moving towards completion - they will be painted to match the pirate terrain, though little if any of these will be used in the pirate game.

 Here is some of the new pieces with the first brown coat done.

And a quick shot of the others drying in the sun beside the pool.  No, I don't test the islands in the pool to see if they float!

Now back to scenario design.

Wedding cakes and dressing 27...Whoa! What?

Yo, no, say it ain't so; you ain't done gone and fallen into the sticky chicky flicky world have you, Curmudgeon-in-Chief, now have you?

Well, of course not, perish the thought.  What those scary words refer to is wedding cake hills and working on twenty-seven pieces of terrain today, set 'dressing' if you will.  Yes, there are photos in the camera but after twelve hours in the August heat I'm heading for the showers and taking some rest tonight.  And, by the by, not all of the twenty-seven pieces worked on today were wedding cake hills.  I made progress on fifteen of those (well, more but all I did was spray coat them so I'm not counting those) and the twelve additional pieces of pirate specific terrain.  I cut out and glued down the textures and then spread more than a gallon of glue and about thirty pounds of sand on top of that.

Tomorrow is all about base coat of paint.  If all goes well, by Saturday morning I will be ready for the dancing paint brush routine - if I don't get started on that sooner.

Two weeks from today and the pirate game is on.  Aieeeee!  Panic, run around willy nilly bouncing into walls.  Oh, wait.  This isn't a cartoon, maintain your calm decorum and drive forward.

Yeah, right.

Land mo!

As in more, land that is.  I have twelve pieces of terrain hurtling towards completion.  Okay, not quite that fast but they are now ready for glue and sand prior to painting.  We'll see if I can get enough of them done to be ready for Pacificon with less than twenty days before load up and go day.

Pictures to follow when (if?) I get a chance.

It's Green! But why is it green?

WEARING OUT MIKE

Mike and I spent the day this past Saturday painting that tarp you see at our feet - 5' wide and not quite 29' long.

We got lucky because it wasn't 100 degrees Fahrenheit - heck, we even got sprinkled on towards the end of the day.  In August!  In Sacramento - never recorded on that date of the year ever before.

 Yes, that is the same Mike of the many painted buildings for the pirate game.  And I will be building an artesian river and ridge line to go atop this mat.

And the burning question - how does this fit into the pirate game?

Well, it doesn't.  Unless I borrow it which might happen but probably not.  There will be more land in the pirate game - but not that much; not yet.  Not yet?  Stay tuned.

I figured you worthy souls needed something visual.  And, oh, by the way, this is a hint at the club's featured game in preparation for 2013.  But it's not my place to steal Mike's thunder.