Homestead Analysis & 3-Wide Design Theory

On Sunday the 2014 NASCAR championship race was held at Homestead-Miami Speedway. As the race unfolded, the four drivers with championship hopes were all running in the top five positions. But the defining moment of the race was the caution period with 20 laps to go. When the yellow flag was displayed, Harvick was in 3rd, Hamlin was 4th, Newman 5th and Logano was in 6th place. The four pit crew chiefs then made some very interesting choices that ultimately decided the outcome of the race and the season championship.

The race leader, Jeff Gordon stayed out on the track, and in a gutsy call, Hamlin’s crew chief Darian Grubb also decided to not make a pit stop. This put Hamlin in second place with older tires. Kevin Harvick’s crew chief made the standard call for four fresh tires. Ryan Newman’s team opted to change only the two right side tires thus having a quicker pit stop than Harvick. Meanwhile disaster befell Joey Logano when his car slipped off of the jack in the pit stall. By the time his team struggled to get the car back up on the jack, 49 seconds had ticked away, and his championship hopes had also expired.

When the cars lined up for the restart with 15 laps to go, Gordon was 1st, followed by Hamlin in 2nd, both of them on older tires. Newman lined up 3rd with two fresh tires, and Harvick was in 12th with four fresh tires. The race was at this moment a question of whether Hamlin could hold off Newman for the remaining laps, and if there was enough time for Harvick to advance from 12th on his new tires. As it worked out, two more caution flags doomed Hamlin’s chances, and gave Harvick the opportunity to advance to the lead. Newman, with his two fresh tires, never had quite enough speed to seriously challenge Harvick for first place.

In my opinion, the pit strategy calls on the lap 20 caution were fascinating, and this is precisely what I have tried to capture in designing 3-Wide. Most racing boardgames focus on the tactical aspect of racing – gear selection, cornering, and overtaking. 3-Wide covers the tactical actions through card play, you can play cards for your drivers to allow them to make a pass, draft with the pack, bump and run under your rivals, and other tactics. But I wanted the design to also reflect the decisions that the crew chief makes. When do you pit? Do you want four tires? two tires? fuel only? Should I take the time to try to fix damage on the car, or do I just try to gut it out with an ill-handling race car? These are the strategic decisions that are every bit as important as the tactical maneuvers. Maybe even more important.

An big part of 3-Wide is the ‘racing’ phase. During the racing phase cars roll custom dice based on their current level of tire wear. Each tire can be black, green, yellow or red – black is a new tire, and red is extremely worn. So if a car has two black, one green and one yellow tire, the car will roll two black, one green and one yellow die. The results will determine how far the car is moved on the track, and whether or not the car is risking a blown tire incident. (There is also the possibility of choosing a slower die result and saving fuel.)
So in summary, this tire/racing mechanic determines how fast you go, and is a result of your pit stop choices. I thought that yesterdays NASCAR finale was a thrilling race, and I felt that it confirmed my design decisions in making 3-Wide.

And what about Joey Logano? He had some horrible luck when his car fell off the jack in the pits. In the design of 3-Wide I’ve chosen to avoid hitting players with this kind of random-bad-luck event. You can’t have a pit stop disaster like Logano did yesterday. And although you can find yourself caught up in an accident through no real fault of your own, all 3-Wide racing incidents are a result of someone, somewhere, pushing the limit of their car and their luck. I think this is the right choice for a racing game.

3-Wide print and play

I've decided to release my stock car racing game, 3-Wide, as a print and play offering.  To that end I've posted a couple of web pages which are linked on the right hand side of this page under the heading "Games".  I also just recently had the racetracks and the card deck printed professionally by The Printer's Studio.  The cards look amazing.  The tracks are nice also - no more scotch tape seams to contend with when playing the game.  I am still in the process of getting all of the game content uploaded and linked to the web page. 

Chickens...

The 'Game Table' is located in the 'Game Studio' - see here.  But recently the game studio has been dual purposed.  We have been raising chickens in a chick brooder inside of the game studio.  At first I was glad to share my space with them and I was happily painting Russian soldiers while listening to chicks peep merrily in the background.  But as they got bigger, they started to kick up a lot of dust...and smell.  The dust eventually got so thick that I could no longer work on my miniatures in there.  Thus the delay in my series on WWII Russians.  But now all of the chickens are out in the hen house in the pasture.  Everything in the game studio however is covered in a thick layer of stinky chicken dust.  I will need to take everything out of the room, clean everything, and then move it all back in.  This is going to be a big job but when it is done I will get back to finishing my little Soviets!

WWII Soviets: Highlighting

Highlighting

Now that the figures have been washed, it's time to put on a little bit of highlighting.  Bear in mind that these are figures for gaming.  They are not top shelf fantasy figures painted to "ridiculous detail standard".  So after a single dirt wash, I dry brush all of the boots with some charcoal paint.  Next I dry brushed all of the uniforms and blanket rolls with khaki.  Finally I dry brushed the helmets with a little bit of the same green that they were base coated with - just to take the sheen off of them.  So here are a couple of photos of the figures at this step.

Next Time: Finishing

WWII Soviets: Dirt Wash

Easter & Dirt Wash

Yesterday it rained all day, and so I had a little extra time away from yard and house chores to apply dirt wash to my Russians.  Late on Good Friday afternoon the rain began to fall, steady and cold.  Today, Easter Sunday morning dawned a beautiful clear  and warm sunny day.  All of the dirt and dust had been washed away and everything looked fresh and clean.  I could not help but notice the Spiritual implications of the weather this weekend.  By the grace of God and the blood of Jesus, all of my dirt and sin has been washed away, and He has made me a new creation, holy and righteous.  But instead of washing away the dirt, this post will be all about applying dirt and grime to miniature soldiers.

Making Dirt Wash

A long time ago I used to use a wash that consisted of black paint thinned with water.  This method would more often than not make my figures look like they had been in a fire.  They had black splotches all over their clothes, not just in the recesses of the model.  Straight up ink was my next attempt at a wash, but it was often too vibrant, not subtle enough for what I was trying to achieve.  Finally I found some acrylic matte medium at a craft store.  Matte medium is essentially acrylic paint without any pigment.  (Gloss medium is the same thing but shiny)  By mixing a small amount of ink with some matte medium I could get a less vibrant color than straight ink, at a thinner consistency than paint, that would still adhere to the recesses of the model!  Eureka!

dirt wash ingredients

In the picture above you can see my WW2 dirt wash bottle along with the ingredients I used to make it.  Truth be told, I have no clue what is really in my WW2 dirt wash - when it gets low I just add more matte medium and some ink to get a nice brownish, blackish, slightly greenish hue.

Applying Dirt Wash

I am always tempted to use a big brush and just slap this stuff on all of my figures.  Resist this temptation!  Use a small brush and apply it carefully all over the model with the possible exception of the flesh.  I put a lot of it into recesses around the model's gear and then spread it out onto the uniform and clothing areas.  By using a small brush I can make sure that no bubbles are left on the model because bubbles can dry in weird and ugly ways.  A small brush will also allow you to build up the dirt thicker in some places and thinner in others.
Here are some comparison shots of models with, and without dirt wash applied.

With, without, with, and without.

Dirt wash on top right and bottom left

German camo orange ochre - without and with dirt wash.

Finally, here are all of the figures in this batch with dirt wash on them.

Next Time: Highlights

WWII Soviets: Weapons and Helmets

Weapons

There are three different weapons in this group of figures; the Mosin-Nagant 91/30 rifle, The PPSh-41 submachine gun, and the DP-28 light machine gun.  Weapons are perhaps the most important part of a WWII miniature.  Some game rules, like Bolt Action for example, differentiate figures by the weapon they carry.  So it is important to glance at a figure and be able to identify the weapon the figure is carrying.  Therefore it is important to paint the weapon correctly.  Get a picture of the weapon you are painting and get it as close to correct as you can.

Riflemen (Mosin-Nagant)

I decided to paint all of the Mosin-Nagants a nice wood-brown color.  Later, I will wash this with a dirt color, and then pick out the hardware with a metallic paint.

PPSh-41 SMG

The PPSh-41 is largely metal with a wooden stock.  So I painted the barrel and hardware black and the stock the same brown color as the rifles.  After this I painted the black parts with a pseudo dry-brush of gun metal.  This weapon has an air-cooled barrel and I wanted to be able to see the sculpted texture of it.

Group photo (DP-28 prone on the right)

The DP-28 is almost entirely metal except for a small stock.  So once again it gets a brown wood stock, and black everything else, followed by a generous dry-brush of gun metal metallic paint.

Metallic painted weapons

Helmets and Headgear

These russians have three different types of headgear.  The pilotkas were painted the same color as the uniforms.  The helmets I painted with Vallejo 70823.  The winter hats (woolly chapkas?) I painted two colors.  The inside of the hat I painted black and the outside I used Ceramcoat Storm Grey.  So these will be the grey variety of winter hat.  You can also use a brown/buff color as well.

Helmets

Woolly Chapkas

At this point, every bit of the figure has a covering of color!  So the next step is one of my favorites...

Next Time: Dirt Wash

WWII Soviets: Gear and Boots

Boots

Now we start to get to the part of the job where things can get tedious, but keep plugging away at it!
I paint all of the boots on these soldiers black.  The Vallejo black has just enough gloss to look right without being too shiny.  So here are 16 pairs of boots.

Gear

It really helps to know what you are painting when it comes to painting all of the ammo pouches, backpacks, blankets, shovels, and so on.  Reenactor sites like this one are really handy for this kind of thing.  So I have painted all of my soldier's gear in a variety of greens, khakis and browns.  When I can I try to provide some slight contrast and variations.  In other words don't paint all of a soldiers gear the same color as his uniform.
Some details will look nice during this step.  For example, paint the shovel handles a nice wood color, then paint the metal parts of the shovel black.  When the black is dry paint the metal parts with a dark gun metal color, because metallic paints always look better on top of a black base coat.  Finally paint the shovel (or e-tool) cover a nice green or khaki color.
Other details to consider are a different color strap holding the ends of their blanket rolls together.  Paint the straps on the rucksacks and grenade pouches a contrasting color to the rest of the bag.  Contrast and variety is good.  Here are my Soviets after this stage of painting.

Next time: Weapons and Helmets