New Team Member, upcoming reviews

Thank you gentle reader for tuning in for another post of "It's 500 Miles to the German Border".

Jason has asked that I join the team to present some articles/reviews on modelling and I look forward to the challenge and hope to share my insights, techniques, whats worked and what hasn't with various 1/72 scale models (20mm).

Fortunately I was in between jobs and housing at the time so it worked out. (At left the EvS workshop/mobile home)

The models I make are for my own Twilight 2000 group of family and friends and started out innocently enough now its become a festering disease of combing through bargain bins looking at other die-cast models that are close to same scale and hitting pretty well every hobby store within 100km (60 miles), not to mention recruiting others to do my evil bidding and having minions combing through garage sales looking for models, parts or anything that might "mad max" up models and die casts. Countless hours searching for deals , begging on the street corner for sprue...... well enough about that.

Nobody starts off awesome in doing models but anyone can get good enough in quick order. Ill even show a few of the ugly models with the good ones. I don't use airbrushes or use anything super expensive, trying to keep it "beer can budget". Having said that I do sometimes buy a fancy paint but nothing outside of the budget or reality for the majority of gamers out there.

Some example model builds/mods I will be covering are all for the purpose of using in  our Twilight 2000 game sessions.

1/72 scale LAV-25 (Trumpeter)

Variety of AFV's , including APCS,  IFVs, Tanks, etc.

Also covered will be models from Revell, ICM, ACE (the bane of my existence but willing to give another shot), Academy, ERTL, ESCI, etc

1/72 scale 2.5 "Deuce" Truck (Academy)

Lots of other cargo vehicles, jeeps, etc

Modified Die Cast Cars

 Matchbox, Hotwheels, Corgy or whatever I cant get my hands on.

Making Cam nets and other scratch build items

Its time to dust off those "arts and crafts" skills, using whatever the hell we can find in the junk drawer, the neighbors junk drawer (you just have to move quicker than them and their dogs!) or wherever you can find "odds and sods".


Thanks again for tuning in and I thank Jason for bringing me to his team. 

Sincerely, EvS! 

Good Luck, You're Not On Your Own! - An Introduction!

So what is this page about?

It's about two gaming loves of mine. Twilight 2000 and Miniature Wargaming, and how I want the two to finally meet on the tabletop.

I have loved that old GDW RPG since I first read a review of it in the pages of Analog Magazine in 1984. I got my copy the next year for my 11th birthday.

I wasn't much of a fantasy person at the time, as my gaming up until then had been a steady diet of Avalon Hill wargames influenced by my grandfather's stories about WWII. The whole magic, sword and sandals thing never really took for me. Add in a love of sci-fi and a budding interest in the post-apocalypse (influenced by my babysitter's father, and growing up in the 1980s as a Navy brat) it was kind of natural I would gravitate to Twilight 2000.

A cover that has influenced my gaming ever since. The stark nature of the subjects, as well as the imagery made an impact that no game art has made on me, before, or since.

So, what am I trying to do here? Well, I am trying to a) put some focus in my blogging (aka, have one be updated more than once a month or so) b) show a meta-project from beginning to end, and c) blend two loves of mine into something fun and cool to show off on the tabletop, and d) show these kids we knew grimdark in the 80s a lot better then they did. (OK, slightly kidding on the last bit) and e) reminisce about some of my best times gaming in my teens (We played the hell out of Twilight 2000, 2300AD and FASA Star Trek).

Twilight 2000 has always had a miniatures side to it. Seriously, look at a number of things that were released by GDW during the first run of the game. First, there was the miniatures line, as produced by Grenadier. Sadly, this line is long OOP, I managed to get a bunch in the 00s, and you can still find them for sale now and then at conventions.

Then there was a whole section on miniatures in the venerable US Army Vehicle Guide for the First Edition, the stuff is pretty dated now, especially the Roco conversion ideas, but much of the advice is still good.

One of the smarter RPG supplements I have ever seen put together, division statuses, breakdowns of the units as they were organized down to the battalion level, color plates, this thing was an Osprey for Twilight 2000!

Then there was this article written for issue 25 of GDW's house magazine, Challenge, entitled "Twilight Miniatures Rules: Draft Edition". (It was very reminiscent of what would later become Command Decision, in my opinion, but it was a first attempt).

There has been a lot on the internet in one-off projects as well as some other ideas about putting Twilight 2000 on the tabletop, I even ran something based on the climax of this module:

My first module for Twilight 2000, and it had the wargamer in me hooked!

So what does this all mean for this blog? Lots. First, I want to be a repository for folks looking to game in miniature, the Twilight:2000 version of the Third World War. I don't care if you game First or Second Edition or even 2013 (Love the 1st Ed timeline, but probably would use GURPS rules if I ran it today as an RPG), this is meant to help you get armies on the tabletop, including mine.

My preferred scale is 20mm, been in that scale since I was 13, when I got serious about the miniatures side of the hobby, and pretty much left board wargaming behind for a while (I have since come back to it from time to time, but am a hard core miniaturist now).

What will you see on this page? Discussions of paint schemes, uniforms, equipment you might see in a Twilight War scenario, how to adapt your favorite rules set and reviews of products out there that your average Twilight loving miniatures gamer might find useful. I won't be discussing the normal "Sunday Drive to the Rhine - Cold War Gone Hot" scenario as it is outside the context of this page. Plus, there are some blogs here and here that do a far better job than yours truly. I highly recommend them both.

So, what are we waiting for. Let's get started!

And remember, Good Luck, You're NOT on your own!