On Thursday night I had the pleasure of playing a game of ACW V&B that had been organized by Robin - from over at
Wargamingnz - and his friend Adrian. I got to use some of Robin's very nice 15mm Union forces, and get drubbed by Adrian using Robin's equally nice 15mm Confederate forces. It was a very enjoyable and fun game which I learnt a great deal about the finer points of V&B. I also saw the way Robin had made some of his BUAs for B&V - and I was very impressed - so impressed that I decided to steal the idea!
 |
| Brand New V&B supplement - 20 years old and still has the new book smell. |
Earlier this week I also had my order from
Old Glory Miniatures arrive. They still have in stock a number of issues of the 'Command Post Quarterly" and quite a good range of the various supplements for V&B. Their shipping system to non US destinations is to charge a flat US$50 rate at the point of sale, and then charge, or refund, the difference between the flat rate and the actual rate. It is an interesting system, which does have the merit of eventually charging the actual cost of shipping. The downside is that after making the sale, they are not proactive in giving out information compared to other companies - I had to email them after two weeks to find out if the package had been mailed, had a tracking number, and to find out if the refund on my credit card was just for shipping, or that one of the CPQs that I had ordered was out of stock (which would be reasonable given that they have been out of print for around 20 years now) On the upside, the books were in perfect condition, were well packaged in a sturdy box, and arrived within a reasonable time frame. I will most likely buy from them again as despite not being proactive in communications they did answer my queries quickly and promptly.
What impressed me about Robin's ACW terrain was that it was designed to have a removable section that once removed allowed the placement of a 3" by 3" Brigade stand - the maximum capacity for a single BUA under the rules.
 |
| A log cabin and a schoolhouse. |
Now I had some small period cardstock buildings - from the back of Billy V packets of 1/72 scale figures- plus a small number of BUM old west buildings, that I could use to make my own BUA with detachable buildings.
 |
| Lewis and Clark's wooden house makes a functional storage building. |
 |
| The 3" by 3" gap was made by carving and gouging out a space in the upper part of two glued together scrap 3mm MDF board pieces. |
 |
| The Saloon (sans roof) and the hotel are glued onto the removable section. |
 |
| Katherine came up with the idea of using two buildings back to back. I think it looks much better than using a single building. |
So I just have to paint and wash the BUM buildings, and then flock the BUA and I will have finished my first purpose made V&B BUA! I have already planned out the next two - one will use the cardstock school house and the BUM church/chapel, while the other one will make use of the BUM railway office and some spare track and some other HO bits.
