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Weather has been awful here, so I've been painting a lot. That includes finishing the first box of 40 halflings. The last batch consisted of pikes and halberds.  The box comes with arms very lowered or holding the weapons upright, so I'll probably convert some arms with weapons at 45 degrees to make several ranks in the big blocks. The halberders got a regimental chef, armed with skillet and sausages.   These guys all got a scheme of green and white, but with some reds in there to keep it more interesting. Some of these have sculpted heads of varying quality, but it's a good way to keep track of my progress at sculpting. Don't throw all your mistakes in the trash!     The pikemen will form the main blocks of troops, so I'll probably focus on bulking these out first when I get more boxes. The guys in the front rank got some extra armour to be able to stand the push of pikes better. And here's the last batch in a group shot:  Finally, the whole force altogether at current strength:  I'm pretty stoked with how they turned out. This is a solid foundation that let me try out converting several unit types. Next step will be to first bulk out the units, and then expand the horizon with new unit types. We still have no artillery or cavalry, though I have some things brewing on my work desk already. I'd also like to dive deeper into the early Italian renaissance and see what different things I can turn into half-sized versions. War wagons? Petards? Gendarmes? Who knows where this will end. 
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Dec 30, 2020 21:19
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Tias posted:If I was to use a 1:48 Ilyushin-2 for my Bolt Action game, what brand would be best - assuming that I want something that looks good on a gaming table and not a collector's kit with ridiculously complicated assembly? I’ve seen dudes selling stl files for 3D printed planes. I’d probably just do that if you have access to a printer.
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Dec 30, 2020 22:24
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Love them little halflings. Which ruleset are you planning to use?
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Dec 30, 2020 23:11
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Wowshawk posted:Love them little halflings. Which ruleset are you planning to use? At first I was planning to just make a unit or two to fight in my clubmate’s Empire army for oldschool WHFB. But then I decided to make them cover a Saga force, as that is gaining momentum locally. When the army gets bigger we plan to fight a combination of historical and fantasy style battles set in the Italian Wars, where we can choose wether or not to allow fantasy stuff. So we’re doing both historical and fantasy stuff for it. We’ll probably try Pike & Shotte first for this, as it seems quite easy to mod in fantasy units. We’re already painting up various forces for this, ranging from Spanish to undead, Germans to landsorcs.
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Dec 30, 2020 23:31
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Your FLGS scene continues to loving own
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Dec 31, 2020 19:28
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Srsly. This is just super fun weird stuff.
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Dec 31, 2020 20:46
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Thanks! Can’t wait for this pandemic to be over so we can get actual games in, not just painting stuff. And it’s going to get far weirder than this if I can help it.
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Dec 31, 2020 21:44
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lilljonas posted:And it’s going to get far weirder than this if I can help it. PERHAPS SOME DEMON-POSSESSED NAZIS?
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Jan 1, 2021 15:05
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lilljonas posted:And it’s going to get far weirder than this if I can help it. 
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Jan 1, 2021 15:24
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Class Warcraft posted:I’ve seen dudes selling stl files for 3D printed planes. I’d probably just do that if you have access to a printer. Can you pass me in their direction, and recommend a trusty one?
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Jan 1, 2021 18:05
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Speaking of 3D printed minis, I finally got around to doing some more of these dudes. Decided on longbowmen so I could test loose order basing, happy with the contrast vs the packed pike block. I found the trick with gluing them down was to use a super tiny amount of super glue, the contact patch is so small it just needs to be barely a drop. Now that we're past the holidays I should be able to turn out more bases, hope to have something to game with by April or so (1 base a week, roughly). Still trying to figure out a good balance with the wash tho, I feel like this was too little this time.   I may also print some tanks to play with, but I wanna get somewhere on this project before I paint them.
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Jan 2, 2021 02:21
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hot cocoa on the couch posted:Speaking of 3D printed minis, I finally got around to doing some more of these dudes. Decided on longbowmen so I could test loose order basing, happy with the contrast vs the packed pike block. I found the trick with gluing them down was to use a super tiny amount of super glue, the contact patch is so small it just needs to be barely a drop. Now that we're past the holidays I should be able to turn out more bases, hope to have something to game with by April or so (1 base a week, roughly). Still trying to figure out a good balance with the wash tho, I feel like this was too little this time. Those look really good, especially the pike block. Some days I wish I had the space for a 3D printer at home.
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Jan 2, 2021 09:07
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Thanks! Yeah 3D printing was the thing that drew me back in. Paying like 1 or 2 cents per new figure makes the barrier to entry pretty low, now the biggest burden is just painting them. If I get bored of it I don't feel guilty about hundreds of dollars of pewter piling up like I used to though 
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Jan 2, 2021 18:39
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Those pike dudes are great, what are they, 10mm?
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Jan 2, 2021 19:27
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Yeah, they were modelled for 6mm, but I scaled them to 10mm "truescale". In reality they're somewhere between Baccus 6mm and Pendraken 10mm, if these were commercial they'd probably be called 8mm lol.
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Jan 2, 2021 20:35
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I thought I'd be using the start of the year to finish off some leftovers and clear up the paint queue for 2021. First off I had some Fallschirmjägers that I bought in 2020 to fill in some gaps in the support list. Now I won't have to feel the rivet-counting sting of fielding *shudder* DAK light mortars and AT-rifles in my FJ platoon. The support set from Perry also included a sniper team, so now I have a more dedicated mini for that too. I also got a LG 40 recoilless gun which in game-play turn is far from necessary (it's just the same as the le. IG 18), but it's very archetypical for FJ and looks great with its tiny pull cart, so I could not resist. It also means that we can double up on IG guns if we play big CoC. Finally, Zach heard my whining about the lack of LGM ammo crew, and kit-bashed a few extra DAK guys for me.     (as if we're ever going to need TWO 2.8 cm schwere Panzerbüchse 41on the table at the same time...)   By coincidence I stumbled upon a better combination of ochre on the helmet/trousers and grey in the Splittermuster camo... on the batch after the main what, 60-70 dudes. But I'm happy to finally getting close to what I wanted to when I initially started out with the tropical FJ. More pics on the blog as usual: https://krigetkommer.weebly.com/mediterranean-theater/fallschirmjager-support
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Jan 4, 2021 10:32
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If anyone is into 3D printing, the March to Hell: ROME kickstarter has ten days left and it's already a staggeringly good deal on ancients STL files. My friend scaled down the test prints to 10mm for me, and they came out fantastic, so it may finally be time to get into Warmaster Ancients.
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Jan 7, 2021 15:50
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moths posted:If anyone is into 3D printing, the March to Hell: ROME kickstarter has ten days left and it's already a staggeringly good deal on ancients STL files. Can you share what they look like at 10mm? I don't really like the hobbit proportions but I'm guessing at that size you really can't tell.
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Jan 7, 2021 18:13
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hot cocoa on the couch posted:Yeah, they were modelled for 6mm, but I scaled them to 10mm "truescale". In reality they're somewhere between Baccus 6mm and Pendraken 10mm, if these were commercial they'd probably be called 8mm lol. Want to share the file, or where you bought it? Thanks.
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Jan 8, 2021 14:07
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I got it here. This pack is a bundle of all the medieval stuff he has, but he has smaller sub-packs as well for cheaper if you only want, say, the infantry. 8-10 poses for each of the 7 unit types, plus there's the ruins, walls/fences, siege weapons and tents and stuff. He's also working on some viking/barbarian types to go along with this line as well (I chatted with him and he also said he's considering Italian Wars too, which I pushed for because I'd prefer that!). Apparently casualty figures are on the consideration list also, there are actually some already present in some of the ruined houses. He also does some cool sci-fi stuff too but I'm not really into that. Honestly I'm kinda considering picking up some 3D modelling software and taking a crack at making some Italian Wars stuff myself. I already use parametric CAD at work and have used Blender to do some modelling for Mount and Blade mods in the past. I already have too many hobbies but I'm considering it.
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Jan 8, 2021 16:33
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Finished my (technically) first fully painted Napoleonics figure today, which was just done as a basing process test (testing out chip board + mod podge + joint filler as a base). A 15mm British fusilier. I have about 100+ of these in a bag, so it wasn't any skin off my back to waste one. This is from the huge grab bag of lead that I got a few months back - I'm not sure if it's because they've been banging around in a bag with 100+ other guys for months, but holy moly these sculpts are bad. There's basically no detail on the chest so I had no idea where the straps and such were. I kind of just winged it for most of the model. I've painted other 15mm models that were way more detailed than this, so who knows. But eh, I have like 5 pounds of 15mm Napoleonics so I guess I'll paint them as best I can! Hopefully from a 3 foot distance they're readable as British infantry.  edit-- Now that I'm looking at the photo, I'm seeing chest details I didn't notice before 
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Jan 8, 2021 17:45
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lilljonas posted:
I love this. What recipe do you use on the Splittermuster camo? I would like to steal it for my Fallschirmjägers in Normandy and pass it off as my own. Thanks!
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Jan 8, 2021 19:29
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Luftwaffles posted:I love this. What recipe do you use on the Splittermuster camo? I would like to steal it for my Fallschirmjägers in Normandy and pass it off as my own. Thanks, it's a recipe that's partly borrowed from others, and partly adjusted. Step 1: I start out by painting the entire smock light grey. Previously I used Vallejo's Deck Tan (which is a super useful paint that I use tons and tons of), but this time I used Vallejo's 70.338, German Tank Crew Highlights I, which is just a bit more blue. Basically you want a light grey, if you don't have that specific colour. Step 2: wash the entire smock with a dark wash. I used Nuln Oil. Step 3: re-apply the grey, leave some shadows. Step 4: lighten up the colour and make a highlight on all raised areas. For this I used Deck Tan. Step 5: apply the brown parts of the camo. This is the part that makes or breaks your camo. It is much easier on metal minis with lots of folds than on plastic minis with large, flat areas. But the basic ide is that you want to make strings of sharp patterns, but you don't want them to cover too much of the surfaces, and you always want to leave unbroken strings of the grey colour. If you look careful at the pattern, you'll see that the grey parts are never completely cut off:  It doesn't matter if you get everything right, but if you leave a relatively large area of grey untouched, it'll look fine. I paint the brown with Vallejo's German Camo Medium Brown, but any medium brown should do. The less you focus on making the exakt pattern, and the more you focus on getting the idea of the pattern across, the better it will look at 28mm scale or smaller. It's hard to explain, but after some trials you'll get it. I can only describe it as scrawling lines of brown scribbles, like badly written Z's, N's and X's, but not crossing these lines. Step 6: highlight the brown parts along ridges etc, using a lighter shade of brown (like Vallejo's Beige Brown or just mixing in some beige in your previous brown). Step 7: add some spots of green. Again, the green should connect areas of brown, but not cut off grey areas. Just putting in some splotches in the middle of some brown fields works great. I use Vallejo's Luftwaffe Camo Green. Step 8: highlight the greens just like the browns, either with a lighter green or just adding some light grey or beige to the Luftwaffe Camo Green. At this point you might be tempted to do the green "raindrops" on the camo. I've done that before, but I've also tried not doing it. Frankly, I think not doing it often looks better. Now, if you have minis with large flat areas, you'll need to follow that recipe more carefully. But like the ones in my example, with lots and lots of folds on the mini, you get very far just stabbing those colours down. Just doing those three colours in the right order helps immensely. This gives me an excuse for a silly halfling update, right? In the Italian Wars a lot of armies on all sides outsourced their light cavalry to stradioti, a type of mercenaries. Hailing from the Balkans, primarily of Albanian birth, the stradiots had some distinctive traits such as their beards, high hats, shields and flowing robes.  Hmm... beards, pointy hats and robes, you say? That sounds almost suspiciously gnomish to me! It only makes sense then, for my Italian hobbits, to recruit some of the infamous stradigoats to fill the role of light cavalry. TTCombat makes these halfling goat riders, with magnificiently cute goats. To make stradigoats out of them I'll simply need to build up the hats, turn the Van Dykes into bushy beards, add the distinct shields and maybe also build up the shirts into bigger, billowing coats. First up is a sorcerer. While a bit out of place in the more historical games, he'll serve well as a test run and when they're used in more high fantasy type games. And he already came with a conical hat!  Liking the look, I set out to convert more stradigoats. These have only received hats, but there are shields of green stuff curing for them, and then I'll work on their beards and clothes.  On a more serious note, stradioti makes a great addition to any wargamer who dabbles into late medieval or renaissance gaming. They fought as far north as in England's armies against the Scots, to the armies in almost everyone south of that (Spain, France, most Italian states, Germany etc). They were cutting edge for light cavalry when they emerged, so they stayed relevant from the 15th to the 18th century, basically with a distinct look that means that your minis will look ok no matter which century. Except if you make them gnomes, I guess. lilljonas fucked around with this message at 22:08 on Jan 9, 2021 |
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Jan 9, 2021 22:06
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lilljonas posted:This gives me an excuse for a silly halfling update, right? These look great - really enjoying the project so far. Funnily enough, I've been working myself on some (human) stradioti myself as well as some hussars, though for a slightly earlier period (c. 1500). I've been working with the Perry stradioti metal models, but I've also taken the dive into converting some more diverse and historically accurate models myself using Perry plastics and a healthy amount of sculpting. In the case of the distinctive stradiot/hussar shields, I've had the most success with cutting down and filing plastic Roman shields to the right shape. The ones from the great Agema miniatures kit (https://www.northstarfigures.com/prod.php?prod=5378) are just the right curvature, and are also tall enough to be able to produce the distinctive wing shape that became so prominent in the course of the 16th c. I'm planning on making a couple of big posts with all my late medieval stuff soon, so I'll post some pics of my WIP conversions then. MeinPanzer fucked around with this message at 01:40 on Jan 10, 2021 |
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Jan 10, 2021 01:32
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Class Warcraft posted:Can you share what they look like at 10mm? I don't really like the hobbit proportions but I'm guessing at that size you really can't tell. Sure, sorry I've been off- forums working on some things:  These next two were done by a different friend, also in 10mm:   The chunky proportions look much better at this scale IMO.
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Jan 11, 2021 14:42
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I'll probably never field an 88, but I'm having a great time making this one. 
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Jan 12, 2021 19:16
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Zuul the Cat posted:I'll probably never field an 88, but I'm having a great time making this one. They are indeed fun to build and paint. I've made one this far, and it hasn't even been on the table as an objective.
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Jan 12, 2021 22:23
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 I was a history major in college so seeing a 8.8 in the window of a game store was what got me on the long, dark path of wargaming a couple decades ago.
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Jan 12, 2021 23:04
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Ok so I'm painting Americans for the first time, and I thought I'd try something new as these guys will be part of the unfortunate formations who thought they were far from the active front when all hell broke loose in the Ardennes. To depict this, they're going to be in mostly summer uniforms with whatever rag-tag scarfs, mittens and other improvised winter gear they can get their hands on (added with green stuff on the Perry plastic set). I also tried to make skin look cold for the first time, adding some Sunset Red (it's more of a pink) mixed with the skin tone on the tips of the noses and cheeks. I think it turned out pretty ok. The secret was to get a decent grading effect, any clear lines made them look very much like clowns. 
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Jan 15, 2021 21:50
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Looking great! I found using a mix of extremely thin glazes (fleshtone, ochre, and pinks) work great when going for the 'cold' effect without looking like a clown. Nice job.
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Jan 15, 2021 23:17
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An indepth battle report for my first battle at the League of Ancients FOGN 2021 Tournament. My Anglo-Portuguese vs Richard Stubbs (who is a somewhat known Australian comedian) and one of the top ranked FOGN players world wide) Russian Grenadier army as he attacks the Line of Torres Vedras. https://comstarshistoricalwargames.blogspot.com/2021/01/league-of-ancients-janurary-2021-field.html Will the British infantry be able to hold the reverse slope as a Russian horde comes over the crest? Can a single British Cavalry brigade hold a bridge vs an entire infantry division? Will the line hold? Check out the blog battle report to find out. Part of the battle pics:   
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Jan 16, 2021 14:17
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Comstar posted:An indepth battle report for my first battle at the League of Ancients FOGN 2021 Tournament. My Anglo-Portuguese vs Richard Stubbs (who is a somewhat known Australian comedian) and one of the top ranked FOGN players world wide) Russian Grenadier army as he attacks the Line of Torres Vedras. Congrats on your first “win”! I really enjoy your battle reports so please keep on posting them. But I must say that maneuver with the 95th looked pretty risky from the get go.
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Jan 16, 2021 16:00
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Over the weekend I wrapped up my 33rd Waffen-SS "Charlemagne" division to play some late war, Battle of Berlin games with my buddy. After I took the photos I noticed a couple things: I missed some mold lines, I need to dirty 5 of the French badges and I want to touch up two of the eye bandages.    And here they are sitting on the German shelf in my display cabinet 
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Jan 18, 2021 18:49
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Battle report: League of Ancients January 2021 Field of Glory Napoleonic tournament. Battle #2 Following his first failed attempt to breach the first line of TORRES VEDRAS in SOUTHERN PORTUGAL before nightfall, EMPEROR NAPOLEON has sent one of his Marshall's forward with a large AUSTRIAN CORPS of infantry, cavalry and artillery to attack elsewhere on the line. The VISCOUNT LORD WELLINGTON has placed his defenses on top of two hills and entrenched his troops to defend a road that leads towards LISBON. Will the huge mass of Austrian infantry overwhelm the thin red line on the ridge, or can the British IMPETUOUS HUSSAR LIGHT BRIGADE lead a charge to GLORY or be a charge to their armies DOOM.... Check out the battle report on my blog to find out for my pics and the battle report and result.    Would people prefer I put the entire battle report here, just link it, or link it with a few pictures, like I did in this case? Comstar fucked around with this message at 14:35 on Jan 19, 2021 |
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Jan 19, 2021 14:25
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zokie posted:Congrats on your first “win”! I really enjoy your battle reports so please keep on posting them. But I must say that maneuver with the 95th looked pretty risky from the get go. Lure the enemy off the hill defence and strike with cavalry. Classic Napoleon strategy I think. I walked into that like it was the Battle of Endor. The next battle was against someone less experienced than I am...
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Jan 19, 2021 14:33
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Comstar posted:Would people prefer I put the entire battle report here, just link it, or link it with a few pictures, like I did in this case? I generally like 'em in thread.
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Jan 19, 2021 15:21
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JcDent posted:I generally like 'em in thread. They're...really long though. With a lot of pictures. I don't want to overwhelm the thread. If no one minds (check the blog to see the length of it) and someone else asks for it, I'll post it here. Comstar fucked around with this message at 15:30 on Jan 19, 2021 |
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Jan 19, 2021 15:28
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Comstar posted:They're...really long though. With a lot of pictures. I don't want to overwhelm the thread. If no one minds (check the blog to see the length of it) and someone else asks for it, I'll post it here. It's not too long, definitely post it
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Jan 19, 2021 17:03
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Comstar posted:They're...really long though. With a lot of pictures. I don't want to overwhelm the thread. If no one minds (check the blog to see the length of it) and someone else asks for it, I'll post it here. Post em here! And congrats on your win
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Jan 19, 2021 18:49
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Comstar posted:They're...really long though. With a lot of pictures. I don't want to overwhelm the thread. If no one minds (check the blog to see the length of it) and someone else asks for it, I'll post it here. I don't think this thread is in any danger of being overwhelmed.
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Jan 19, 2021 19:16
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