The night before CAMERONE DAY +150 years...

2 days and counting...

Nick Stern drove down from Northern California today and arrived with a HARDY HANDFUL OF "COMPANY DANJOU" LEGIONNAIRES and a METRIC TON OF MEXICANS -- as well as full-size 1860s era French Army Captain's Kepi...

Sgt. Morzycki up on the hacienda roof:

The aforementioned headgear:

Tomorrow the last preparations must be completed, and then it's on to the Legion's mission along the Convoy Road...

Closing in...

Well, I'm getting there... almost.

Done with the 2'x2' terrain board.

More than halfway done with one long overlay to cover one of the 3 nullahs.  A second nullah will serve as the "cactus-filled ditch" from the early stages of the battle, during the running fight while the 3rd of the 2nd fell back to the hacienda compound while pursued by Mexican cavalry, and the third and final nullah is the shallowest of the three, and will simply play the part of some uneven ground to the West of the compound's dual gates, from which the Mexicans will be able to launch their ongoing attacks on those same gates.

Still need to finish the overlay, which has been cut and assembled into 2 large pieces which fit together to cover close to 6' worth of deep trench.  In a difficult intersection of events, my youngest child's annual elementary school fair is this coming Sunday, and as has been the case for about half-a-dozen years, I am in charge of all the games, which means I will be working at school all day Saturday and Sunday, cutting deeply into time I would have loved to have spent prepping for this coming Tuesday.  But with Nick Stern arriving to help me out, I'm sure we'll get everything that needs doing done in time... right, Nick...???

GOES WITHOUT SAYING: OF COURSE WE WILL!!!

Wish I had time to load up another ton of pics, showing the progress I've made, but just can't do it now.  Need to crash and get a little sleep so I don't collapse at the school job-site tomorrow!

Please wish me luck again, and I hope to be back on Monday with a nicely illustrated update...

Prepping for Camerone Day +150...

A week from today -- on Tuesday, April 30, 2013 -- myself and a dozen or so fellow "Cameronistas" shall find ourselves engaged in an epic struggle, of 28m miniature proportions, refighting the greatest battle of la Legion Etrangere.  

However, I still have a few things on my Camerone Day "TO-DO" list:

(1)    base & terrain and paint the new bases for a bunch of very nice PALM TREES I bought a month or two ago;

(2)    build a short-end 2'x2' sq. terrain board so we will be able to fit the abandoned dam onto the layout in its historical position without the table being overly cramped;

(3)     repair 3 damaged corners on my pre-existing Maiwand Day terrain boards;

(4)    effect modest repairs to spots spread across the Maiwand Day boards which have sustained wear-&-tear damage over the past year-and-a-half or so;

(5)    build some overlays to put atop one or two of the nullahs on my Maiwand boards, so they can better play the part as flat ground-cover -- if I manage to pull this off in a decent-looking & useable fashion, it will come in very handy for future games requiring flat ground more than 4' x 6', which is the largest clear flat ground I can arrange using my terrain boards right now;

(6)    clean up and clean out my office-turned-"Camerone Day"-game-room so there's enough space for the dozen or so players I expect to put in a showing on April 30th;

(7)    ...exhale and try hard not to collapse while doing so!!!

Stay turned for some visual updates as and when I can manage them -- and please wish me LUCK, 'cause I'm definitely gonna' need it...

***Here's a first batch of pics.  I've managed to get the palm trees done, as well as a handful of other trees I had sitting around meant for Afghanistan, which will fit well in Mexico as well, plus I've gotten about a third of the way through the additional little terrain board:

Then the box with the T-shirts arrived...

Now back to the table...

Prepping the 2'x2' expansion board...