Day: April 4, 2017

When we bought into the Reaper CAV Kickstarter to get a bunch of N-scale tanks and infantry, we also received some aircraft for close air support.  They had been languishing in my to-be-painted pile for some time.  I had to subject them to steam to bend them back into shape.  Then I sprayed them either black or brown, depending on the color scheme I was going to paint them.  The Rusotleum camouflage brown did not cause the Bones material to get sticky, but the Krylon matte black did.  Usually I can fix this with a coat of Army Painter anti-shine matte finish, but my local hobby store has been out for over a month.  I usually try to support my local store, but after four trips, I ordered three cans directly from Army painter, and they were cheaper!

I haven’t decide if these will be units that get placed on the table or whether they will be merely close air support like in the WWII set.  I suspect the speed and range of these will be such that it is impractical to place them on the table.  Until I decide, I haven’t based them.

I painted them in pairs by camouflage pattern.  Ideally each commander who gets close air support might get two with a distinguishing camouflage pattern to keep them straight on the table.

As I have not back story or specific theater of operations in mind, the camouflage schemes are all over the map.  I even did a couple in solid olive and solid brown.

While I still have a lot of Combat Patrol(TM) projects to work, I have begun to think about the Near Future and Science Fiction variant of Look, Sarge, No Charts.  While Combat Patrol(TM) has been well received, it still hasn’t achieve the status of “cool rules.”  Still, I have been promising folks to start on the science fiction version for several years, and I suppose it is time to start.  All my battalions are painted up and ready to play.

There are some who really appreciate the placement of the labels on the bases for LSNC so that all the information you need is right where you need it for both players to see.  Others don’t like the labels on the bases.  While I understand the up-front effort of building, printing, and gluing the labels on the bases, I have never quite understood the aesthetic argument.  If you print the labels on khaki paper, I think they quickly blend into the table after a turn or two.  I really don’t like the look of big chart cards on the table.  Even with Combat Patrol(TM) and GASLIGHT, where we get everything a player needs onto an index card, they tend to get scattered across the table and spoil the look of the game more than the base labels.  But, to each his own.  For those who don’t like the labels, I have provided downloadable rosters that players can use instead.

When I posted the news that the WWI supplement had been released for download, someone of course felt compelled to point out that he doesn’t like the labels.  Another person responded that he thought it would be good if the labels were printed with a dark background.  So early this morning, I decided to see what that looked like.  Below is the traditional white background so that you can print the labels on a neutral colored paper.

This is what the label would look like if I changed the background to a dark olive color.

I twill be easy enough to provide both sets of labels for the game.

What do you think?  Which do you like better?