Thomo’s Wargaming and Travel Tales
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 thomo the lost posted this in  Technology on  March 12th, 2010
 Sometimes I get a bit absent-minded. We all do. We go to send something to someone and so we write an email and then send it forgetting to attach the item we were going to send.
Google’s GMail is kind of nice in that regards. It checks the email that you are sending and if it sees the phrase “is attached” it makes the basic assumption that you are about to attach something to the email. If you have no attachments when you click “Send” GMail then pops up the warning you can see here.
Of course, if you want to tell your mother that the receipt for the payment you just made for her “is attached to the letter you sent”, then you will also get the warning popping up. Still, its nice to know someone is checking.
thomo the lost posted this in Napoleonic, Wargaming on March 7th, 2010
I decided tonight – the other side, at least for the time being – will be Prussians. So, it will, initially, be a German theme.
Figures for this? I was tempted to look at Baccus 6mm and I will likely use Baccus for other forces. However, for the project I decided to do the Prussians in Heroics and Ros figures and the Confederation of the Rhine in Adler Miniatures. I believe, however, that Adler and Baccus will mix so some Baccus may slip into the Confederation of the Rhine.
The orders went out tonight – enough Prussians from Heroics and Ros to provide a brigade from around 1813 of 3 battalions of Regulars, 3 reserve battalions, 3 Landwehr battalions, a battery or two of foot artillery and two regiments of cavalry.
For the Confederation of the Rhine side there is enough to provide 6 battalions of infantry, 2 regiments of Chasseurs and a couple of batteries.
Now, back to painting 1/6000 ships and World War 2 6mm Italians whilst I wait for the postman to knock!
thomo the lost posted this in Napoleonic, Wargaming on March 6th, 2010
 The Confederation of the Rhine in 1812 - map is from from Wikipedia Source Image: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Rheinbund_1812.png I’m painting ships for an acquaintance in the US and Armoured Fight Vehicles and Infantry for me (for Cold War, Future War and Blitzkrieg Commander from Specialist Military Publishing). I have the modern Danes finished and the modern Norwegians or Greeks planned. I’ve painted and used the futuristic PacFed and have half planned some European opposition (or futuristic Brits) for them. I am only at the point of starting the preparation of the World War 2 Italians for paint – I’ll have them prepped when I finish the 1/6000 Italian World War 1 ships. I’m also planning some World War 2 Russians (both early and late) to allow me to wargame parts of the Winter War as well as Khalkin-gol so I will need to add some early Japanese and Finns. The late war Russians are just because they are interesting.
Why then am I talking about the Confederation of the Rhine? I was looking at Doug’s English Civil War figures that he had painted in 6mm and was tempted. I still am tempted with the English Civil War. I was also looking around for wargame rules to read for inspiration and picked up a copy of Napoleon. The pictures in there were inspiring. A copy of Black Powder followed (OMG – what can I say about the pictures in there – there are not enough superlatives available in English to adequately describe them). I had sorted of decided then to do a 15mm Napoleonic army at some point in the future – possible two – and commenced some research to determine how to base, what armies, organisations etc.
I then came across some pictures of 6mm figures painted and based for Baccus’ Polemos wargame rules. Initially they were American Civil War figures but I just so liked the look of them that I was hooked. 6mm Napoleonic it would be.
What army to work on was the next question. Instead of considering the British or Austrians or French or Russians I thought German. My initial thought was Prussians, which tied in nicely with an article on the organisation of the later Prussian Army in Napoleonic times in Wargames Illustrated issue 268. Simple really. I then had visions of ranks of Prussian soldiers, all uniform in their uniforms and thought “all uniform in their uniforms … hmmm!”
I needed variety. Everything I have been painting lately is uniform and short of painting a horde of rampaging Celts from ancient times, I could not see any irregularity popping up. I was reading the Dictionary of the Napoleonic Wars and a reference pooped up to the lancers of Cleve-Berg and a distant memory of the colour of their uniform popped up. The next reference was to the Westphalia’s troops and the words “Confederation of the Rhine” popped into mind.
The Confederation of the Rhine was a collection of German states supporting Napoleon in the early and middle stages of the Napoleonic Wars. It was formed in 1806 when 16 of the minor German states to support Napoleon Bonaparte and ally themselves with France. A further 19 states joined later.
What I liked so much about this as an army was the fact that there were many states contributing only a battalion or two and the uniforms were quite varied across all the states. They would also provide an interesting opponent to the Prussians if I decide to do those later.
So, the decision has been made. Next project after the Italians are painted will be some 6mm Confederation of the Rhine. The research begins and I will, of course, update Thomo’s Hole on progress in the future.
thomo the lost posted this in General on March 2nd, 2010
It was this time last year that I started to use Clustr Maps to display where the visitors to Thomo’s Hole were coming from. Every year the map is archived and a fresh one starts. This is about to happen here now so I though I would take this opportunity to record and save the details at this time.
Firstly the map. If you click on the image to the left a larger size map will be seen which will allow you to see more clearly the location of the visitors. I note that I have had visitors from almost everywhere, including the far north of Alaska (Nuiqsut perhaps), the Pacific, Indian and Atlantic Ocean Islands as well as the usual places.
Even though I am Australian, most of the visitors to the Hole come from the US and the UK. In fact, I have had visitors from 161 countries around the world – I have not had visitors from some of the African and Caribbean countries as well as North Korea.
In the year from 1 March 2009 and 2 March 2010 there have been 36,402 visits to Thomo’s Hole. If I add in the three months from January 2009, the total is 41,248 visitors.
I have other statistics from Google Analytics amongst other places but these are the easiest to see and to share. I am quite pleased with the regular visitors that arrive here, read, comment and enjoy the Hole.
You’ll see a new map in the sidebar in a day or so with the map reset to empty so we can see where folks visit from in the coming year.
thomo the lost posted this in General, Technology on March 1st, 2010
Apple admits using child labour.
That’s terrible.
It also means that they are way overcharging for their product too! 
thomo the lost posted this in Wargaming on February 27th, 2010
I finished painting these a couple of weeks ago and took them to Canberra a week ago where they lost their first game (see PacFed vs SAC). Today I spent some time photographing them a little better that I have done in the past and have put them into a slide show.
The models are all from Brigade Models and are painted with the colours inspired by the Australian Twenty-20 team. I really enjoyed painting these and are very happy with the way they look. Have a look at them.
thomo the lost posted this in Wargaming on February 23rd, 2010
 The battle took place last Sunday morning. Figures were from Brigade Models, rules were the Future War Commander Rules from Specialist Military Publishing, the forces of goodness and niceness, the Pacific Federation (PacFed) under the command of yours truly and the forces of ev-vil and not-niceness, the South African Confederation (SAC) under the ev-vil grand master of badness, Doug.
My forces, PacFed, had a slight numerical superiority over SAC. My forces were also faster, although a little lighter. I tried to pin the SAC in the centre and move around his left flank. Alas, it was to no avail as the heavy SAC AFVs steadily took a toll on the PacFed armour.
 Even simple tasks seemed too much for PacFed as the second picture shows. Here an Ocelot light grav-tank of the PacFed attempts to overrun a reconnaissance unit of the SAC … unsuccessfully as it turned out.
Oh well, back to the military college for some more training before taking on SAC again in three weeks time or so.These vehicles to the left here not so large, the yellow PacFed vehicle is about 25mm long. The camouflaged SAC reconnaissance vehicle smaller, about 20mm long.
thomo the lost posted this in Wargaming on February 22nd, 2010
 The photo to the left is the PacFed Science Fiction army I had painted to use with the Future War Commander Wargame rules. I added magnetic strips to the bases of the figures and cut some galvanised iron sheet which I glued to the bottom of the box allowing the figures to stick to the bottom of the box and keep them protected whilst being transported.
Of course, when I packed the box, everything fitted perfectly, so perfectly in fact, that there was just not quite enough space for one base.
 I went to Canberra, I played a game and took most of the figures out of the box. Just before leaving to return to Sydney I repacked the box. Of course, now I could not remember how I packed it the first time. This time, however, I ended up with space in the box after packing everything. Initially I thought I had forgotten to pack something so spent about 15 minutes trying to see what was missing. Nothing was. Strangely, by packing another way, I had more space.
I think I’ll take an aspirin and have a good lie down now 
thomo the lost posted this in Asia Pacific, Australia, Canberra on February 21st, 2010
 I went to Canberra this weekend to see the kids and play a wargame. Driving from Sydney to Canberra you have to drive past Lake George. Lake George is one of those lakes that sometimes spends many years dry, then spends many years full of water. It has been dry for around 10 years or so now, but before the last drying the lake’s water lapped the edge of the Federal Highway running into Canberra.
Recent heavy rain over parts of NSW have see some water collect in the basin of the lake. This photo was taken about a week after the last heavy rainfall. I look forward to the day sometime in the next 5 years I guess when the lake finally fills up again. I wonder if someone will restock it with Murray Cod again?
thomo the lost posted this in Wargaming on February 19th, 2010
 All the 6mm Science Fiction figures of the army of goodness and rightness, the PacFed, are now painted, based, flocked and varnished. They’re ready for the wargame this weekend against Doug’s ev-vil SAC forces. The photo left is some of them in varying states of being painted. I’ll photograph them all next week and add those photos to one of my albums somewhere.
Next on the painting queue is more 1/6000th scale ships. This time it is the Italian Navy of World War 1 for John in the US. I hope to get those knocked over fairly quickly as I also have some 1/300th (6mm) World War 2 Italian ground forces to paint, then more 1/6000th ships.
Mind you, I do think that the final versions of the PacFed look good – here’s a base of infantry just as a teaser for the full photographs next week. These are about one and a half to two times life size – the actual figures stand at 6mm in height.
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Sometimes I get a bit absent-minded. We all do. We go to send something to someone and so we write an email and then send it forgetting to attach the item we were going to send.
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