Like all of you, I’m doing my best to figure out novel ways of squeaking in some gaming. I’ve done some Zoom RPG gaming with a group of friends on Thursday nights. I’ve played a few one on one board games, a few one on one miniatures games. Aside from the Dave Schueler Summer Series outdoors under a canopy, gaming has been pretty thin. My guess is that for many of you it’s been similar.

As our summer program began to wind down I started to get antsy. With the interest in pre-dreadnought ships I began to get the idea playing David Manley’s Splendid Little War campaign game might be fun if we could substitute Fire When Ready for the tabletop battles. John Gee was willing to be the Spanish player, Dave was happy to referee and I was delighted to play the Americans.

We immediately began setting up our forces and making plans for turn one. It goes without saying that on turn one the Americans attack the Spanish fleet at Manila Bay. George Dewey did it and by god if it was good enough for the commodore it was good enough for me.

The challenge was getting everyone together to do the Manila game on the tabletop. Let’s start with the basics. I offered to host at my house, and I live about as far away from everyone as I can. Dave Schueler lives in West Seattle, so a cool hour plus away. John lives in Bellingham, which may as well be in Auckland. David Sullivan agreed to play and he lives in Lynnwood, at least an hour and half from my happy South Hill, WA home.

There really wasn’t another place to play. I recently did a serious cleaning of my garage with my wonderful wife. We shucked a lot of stuff. I’d reorganized, and really hoped that eventually the garage could be a place to play a few games.

But there was this pandemic thing. The campaign started at the end of October, but by the beginning of November infection rates in Pierce County had tripled. We had a date set, but concern over safety led to cancellation. Further negotiations reset the game day for December 12th. We would be masked. The garage door would be open to the elements. I’d put some space heaters in the garage and hope for the best. In the week leading up to the game I set up the tables, laid out the sea mat, the shoreline and Cavite peninsula.

John came down on Friday night and stayed at our local Holiday Inn Express. I picked him and traveled back to Chez Smyth for dinner. It was an enjoyable evening as we chatted about a million different things. Lorri and the Aussies hung out with us and I took him back to the hotel.

I got up early the next morning to be sure things were okay. The difficulty started there. At 8:30 I went out to my car to run out to Fred Meyers to pick up ice for the ice chest. 29 degrees. No clouds. Ice everywhere. I picked up ice, but also grabbed some Via instant coffee and as soon as I got back plugged in an instant pot of water. I knew John drank tea, so I found a bit of that.

John called at 9:30 as he pulled into the driveway. We set up the rest of the table. Geez it was cold. That was with space heaters plugged in and garage door closed.

David Sullivan pulled into the driveway twenty minutes later and we opened the garage door. Dave Schueler drove in just before ten. The crew was present.

David joined John as a Spanish commander. Admiral Gee already decided he was not going fight quite as humanely as Admiral Montojo. Montojo moored his ships close to the shore so if they were sunk his sailors could easily swim to shore. No fire from supporting gun batteries for fear the Americans would respond by bombarding the city. Instead John’s plan was to take full advantage of the supporting gun batteries. His ships would move as quickly as possible (but quite slowly,) and come out to meet the Yanquis hoping for some good shooting from the shore defenses. John ran the bulk of the unprotected Spanish cruisers, while David controlled most of the batteries and a few little Spanish gunboats.

Dave and I had the Americans which divided into a fast division and a slow division. I took the faster ships which included the cruisers Olympia, Baltimore, Raleigh and the gunboat Concord. Dave followed with the remaining slower vessels the cruiser Boston, gunboat Petrel and Coast Guard cutter McCullough.

With everything in place the game began, each of us masked while trying not to fog our glasses in the cold air.

First turn began much as many of the succeeding turns. The Americans rolled initiative requiring the Spanish to move first, and the Americans firing first. Olympia hit Castilla with her eight inch mains and five inch secondaries, forcing her to check morale and withdraw from the action. The second turn the Reina Cristina was set afire and would sink soon after. The Spaniards fired back mostly in vain.

However the shore batteries had more success. On turn three, Olympia was struck on the bridge, temporarily disabling Dewey. Later Raleigh suffered a steering critical that forced her to drop out of line and veer crazily through the formation.

American fire was devastating when it hit. It was the hitting part that was challenging. Fire was focused on the Spanish ships unless the batteries were the only available target. It was tough to damage, and the loss of Montojo’s squadron would leave the city pretty undefended. As the American ships counter-marched back toward the Spanish squadron, one by one the little colonial cruisers Isla de Luzon and Isla de Ulloa were hit and sunk. The gunboats suffered a similar fate. Only Castilla escaped destruction.

Though the Spanish squadron was destroyed, they claimed a bit of payback when two critical hits to Concord turned into a raging fire and broken steam line. Her crew was taken off and the ship was abandoned. The American fleet withdrew from thetable to regroup.

The game ended at 1:00. By then I was really cold. My fingers were tingling and my feet were freezing. The temperature never reached above 40 degrees for the day. Usually after a game we hang out and yak. David left soon after the game ended. John brought all the ships–his delightful collection of Houston’s Ships in their delightfully overlarge 1/1000 scale. We helped him pack and he was off on his long drive home. Dave did hang out and we chatted over a Bodhizafa as we always do and that was great.

It was a fun game. The company was the best. The weather just sucked. If it had been April, 50 degrees and rainy, it would have been fine. In fact it was 50 and rainy later in the week. The garage showed itself to be a usable venue. But honestly, despite all the precautions we took, I’m not sure I’m in a hurry to try again until the weather improves, and the level of infection improves too. It may be my last game for a while.

Most of the photos were taken by David Sullivan.

I’ve made a determined effort to work on my Japanese planes as part of my 50 plane paint schedule toward the end of the year. I have already shared pictures of my bunch o’ floatplanes. The Japanese established a fair number of seaplane bases to aid in scouting in the Solomons and elsewhere and I thought there must be a game in that somewhere.

For example, Japanese forces invaded Tulagi in the Solomons in May 3 1942. They planned to establish a seaplane base in the harbor. The following day, with the bay cluttered with two destroyers and many support vessels, Yorktown’s TBD torpedo bombers, SBD dive bombers and F4F fighters struck the invasion fleet as they were unloading. A second strike later in the day struck ships trying to escape the harbor. Among the victims of the USN attack were four seaplanes sent to support the invaders, and intended to form part of the seaplane force based there. Ta-da!!! Scenario made.

There were lots of different floatplanes stationed at Tulagi before the Marine invasion of the island in August of 1942. Jakes, Rufes, and not really large numbers. There were also two of the really large Kawanishi H6K Mavis flying boats. I needed to add those to my stash. Scotia makes these models and last spring I picked up a couple of them. This week, they were my painting priority

The miniatures are quite large and come in several pieces. Separate fuselage, tail section, and wings. In addition there are struts for the unique wing structure as well as supporting struts underneath. The large wing pontoons complete the picture.

The miniature all goes together pretty well. The most challenging aspects are setting the massive wing on the two struts that sit on top of the fuselage. They have to align properly, the struts have to sit comfortably in the two large holes in the wing, and achieve a modicum of balance while the glue dries. It was easier than I thought. The other challenge is to set the large wing struts that fit on the fuselage and wing. I really had to do some cutting and trimming to make this work. On one side of the fuselage there were nifty slots for the ends to glue into, on the other side there weren’t. Oh well, it all turned out okay.

Painting likewise posed some challenges. I wanted to paint the planes with Vallejo IJN Black-Green. It’s a great color, but very thin. When I used this color on other planes, I’ve first painted with a couple of coats of Vallejo Light Gull Grey. Didn’t do that with the Mavii, and that was a mistake. I white prime, and the very then airbrush-thin paint just didn’t make a dent in covering the primer. It just looked like a big smear. So I pulled out Vallejo Deep Green from the Model range and it covered nicely. Then I was able to get the color I wanted with one coat of the IJN Black-Green.

From there, it was a some dry brushing with the Light Gull-Grey. I didn’t get the effect I wanted-mostly because I’m terrible at dry brushing. So another coat of IJN Black Green gave me a nice weathered appearance.

Canopy and windows were painted Ceramcoat Light Ivory. Lower surfaces are Light Gull Grey. The overall paint scheme is pretty simple. However, because the planes are so big and require a fair amount of handling, I sprayed dullcote on it several times just to allow me to touch it without rubbing off all my hard work. It’s a really good model and I’d recommend it to those who are doing something interesting that requires long-range scouts, or just to line up on the table and be shot by attackers! (Now that is mean. Sorry.)

How’s the Plan?

You might recall I had a painting plan for wrapping up the rest of 2020. I have gotten a lot done this year, given that I can’t get out much or game at all. So here is the update.

28mm figures

I’ve met the goal and then some for 2020. I said 60 figures. I got very wrapped up in painting my unpainted Wayne’s Legion figures for the America Rampant project. I’ve stuck to that and am in the middle of basing the last of these twelve figure units for Rebels and Patriots. The challenge with these guys is that they were originally mounted for 10 figure units and they’ve got to be filled out to twelve figures. After reviewing the Americans and the Spanish I need a few more of the latter to equal out the units I really want. Some time after the first of the year I’ll send out an order to Dayton Painting Service to get more Spanish infantry.

Year to Date 72/60 figures–goal exceeded.

1/300 airplanes

I finished four Nakajima B5N Kate torpedo bombers and four Nakajima B6N Jill torpedo bombers to add to the two Mavii, for a total of ten so far for December. That leaves me at 37/50 Hoping to meet the goal. The planes usually paint up fairly fast, so we’ll just have to see. I have piles of Aichi Val dive bombers, twin engine Nicks and Dinahs, and some single-engine Tojo fighters in a queue to be painted. We’ll have to see if I get there. This should be a solid painting week.

Year to date 37/50 planes–still working

1/1250 scale ships

This has been the most maddening of the goals. I’d painted everything I had at the end of November, and I haven’t yet added to that total. Why? No ships!!! They were ordered from Brown Water Navy and War Times Journal, but production issues slowed everything down. I had, at one point, five separate orders waiting to be filled. Last week everything began arriving. I’ve got things under way, but nothing completed. There are ships totalling my forty figure goal ordered or in my possession, but it’s hard to know if I’ll complete everything before December 31st.

Year to date 10/40 ships–my fingers are crossed.

Just back from Cannon Beach for a long-planned vacation. As vacations go, it was fine, though we traveled in the face of a coronavirus shutdown in both Oregon and Washington. It put a bit of a damper on things as restaurants and bars closed. It also got more of my attention, and I’m pretty much hunkering down at home under a self quarantine for the next couple of weeks.

COVID isn’t doing a lot for my gaming activities, as this promises to be a long, quiet winter. My fingers are crossed for an early vaccine that might get us gaming again in the spring, but certainly no guarantees.

I haven’t stopped painting. That’s one of my favorite things to do. It’s relaxing, and as long as I can see (something that often seems in doubt, ask my wife,) I’ll keep working away. I’ve been able to continue progressing in three areas, as planned–1) 1/1250 scale ships for the Spanish-American War era 2) 1/300 scale planes of whatever suits me. I have lots. 3) 28mm figures from a variety of projects that just need to get finished.

One of my recent pleasures is working on some Spanish ships from Brown Water Navy on Shapeways. This is Matthew Lawson’s work. I’ve written about him before. I’ve recently painted some of his Spanish ships in 1/1250 scale. They include the two U.K.-built Velasco class unprotected cruisers and the French-built gunboat Marques del Duero. These are really small models cast in smooth fine plastic.

The Marques del Duero is a tiny ship, a wooden gunboat of about 470 tons. It was part of the disaster in Manila Bay on that August 13th morning when Commodore George Dewey made short work of the combined Spanish fleet under the gentlemanly Contraalmirante Patricio Montojo. Del Duero is far from the most important ship in that fleet, but as models go it’s really quite impressive.

First, take note of the size of the model. The guns and deck detail are clearly depicted. Matthew always does a great job of included the boats and davits. Check out the swivel rings for each of the guns on the deck. I was able to rake the masts a bit and drybrush some Neutral Grey over the black hull. Nice model, and I feel like I executed it reasonably well.

BWN does a very nice job of sharing the two different versions of the unprotected cruisers in the Velasco class. There were eight of these 1,100 ton wooden-hulled ships built over eight years (1881-1889.) In this period of naval development, with the rapid changes in technology and naval construction capability, these ships were quite outdated by the Spanish American War. Velasco, Don Juan de Austria and Don Antonio de Ulloa, were all at Manila Bay and each met the same fate: sunk in shallow water so crewmen could easily escape to shore.

The first two ships in the class, Velasco and Gravina, were built in British yards and differ slightly from their six sisters. These were all built in various Spanish shipyards. The Spanish ships are somewhat better armed and have a more prominent bridge and superstructure.

At the present time, I only have the two British built ships, though the Spanish hulls are on order. They have the same nice quality of detail of Marques del Duero.

They were a bit more of a challenge, however. These models came with poles for masts. My first experience with them. I planned to remove them and replace them with my own masts, but they were handy for locating them properly. Went to remove them, sliced through them shattering a couple of ships boats. Made of the smooth fine detail plastic, this stuff is brittle and snaps easily. Not a bad thing, but good to know. In the future I’ll snip those off with a pair of nail clippers.

I continue painting my three-headed monster of ships, planes and 28mm figures.

For the latter, I completed my mounted archers I had going in October. I moved on to some Front Rank 28mm British light infantry from the American Revolution. They were leftovers from the Retreat From Concord game, and fills out a couple of my six man units to twelve man units. When I finished with those I began painting some more leftovers. I have 36 Wayne’s Legion figures for my America Rampant project. I’ll be converting these over to Rebels and Patriots, so a few will fill out existing 10-man units, and others will become standard 12 figure units. When they’re finished I’ll paint up Woodland Indians for the same project.

My pledge was 60 28mm figures by the end of the year. My current count is 48/60

I’ve also been working on some planes. I started off November with six A6M3 Hamps finished, pegged and in their box. I’ve stuck with my box o’ Japanese planes, and for sure I’ll paint them through. George passed some planes along to me and I had a sizable stack, so I’m not lacking for subjects. I painted more Zeroes (a collection of A6M2’s, 3’s an 5’s) for a total of nine. then it was on to a tiny handful of bombers, a pair of Mitsubishi G3M Nells, and a single Ki-67 Peggy. Last spring I accumulated a bunch of floatplanes with the objective of doing an attack on a seaplane base. Two Raiden Petes, three Jakes and four Rufes by Scotia got wrapped up too. I’ve assembled two big Mavis flying boats and but am currently working on four each of Nakajima’s Kates and Jills. Not quite done, but soon.

I pledged 50 planes done by the end of the year. I am currently at 27/50

Finally, I promised to get a bunch of ships done. Since my last post I’ve finished the two Velascos and the Marques del Duero. I also completed the WTJ Oregon (as Indiana in navy gray) and a pair of their little Isla de Luzon class cruisers. I’ve ordered 22 ships from War Times Journal and Brown Water Navy, but things have bottlenecked with production problems, but things may be freeing up soon. Even so I’m still some ships short, and I’d call my goal definitely in doubt. Maybe I’ll make up the difference elsewhere.

I pledged 40 ships by the end of the year. I am currently at 10/40.

October is ending with a sigh and a whimper. It has been a poor month for gaming. I’m managed to sneak in a game Chain of Command game in George’s basement, but that’s about it. A little board gaming with Dave and that’s all.

I have painted. Painting kind of saves me from me. I’m dieting again. Still. I’ve had some success. Lorri and I are on the NOOM diet, which is just kind of sensible reduced calorie stuff. Painting keeps me away from food. I’ve lost about 25+ pounds since retirement, and hope to lose more.

In my last entry I set some goals. I’ve pretty much stuck to those.

I finished October with seven ships painted. The firsts of these are two American ships, the armed yachts Vixen and Gloucester. The US Navy acquired a number of fancy-schmancy yachts from rich Americans at the start of the Spanish-American War, painted them in gray and gave them mostly light armament-revolving Hotchkiss quick firing guns to deal with small Spanish vessels during the war. These two vessels engaged the Spanish destroyers Pluton and Furor as they came out of Santiago, drove one ashore in wrecked condition and blew up the other. Not bad for a couple of fancy pants ships. The two models are by War Times Journal and join my Hai model of the Scorpion for the upper crust arm of my American fleet.

The rest of the ships are Spanish. First up are ships from Brown Water Navy. I’ve already mentioned the destroyers Furor and Pluton and these are they. Trapped with the pile of Spanish armored cruisers at Santiago, they trailed the bigger ships by about 1,200 yards and were fairly easy pickings when they emerged into open waters. They were chased down by the yachts and their ending was not pretty. Nice miniatures. I continue to be impressed by Matt Lawson’s work. The other BWN ship is the cruiser Numancia. By 1898, despite a recent modernization, Numancia is a relic of the Ironclad Age, with iron armor. I decided to show her in Spanish American War decor, with her three masts replaced by two armored masts. It was fun to build and paint.

The last two vessels are from War Times Journal. They are the cruisers Lepanto and Reina Cristina. The former actually survived the war with the US, but her two sisters were not quite so fortunate. Lepanto has, according to my Shipbucket illustration, raked masts and funnels, but I couldn’t quite get those right. Poor unarmored Reina Cristina looks cool with her three masts but was no match for Dewey’s fleet at Manila Bay. Both are nice models, though not quite as nice as some of the other ships I have from this range.

My goal was to paint 40 ships by year’s end. I have many on order, but I would suggest this is the one that is most in danger of being unfulfilled.

I am nearly done with twelve Old Glory mounted archers from their Hundred Years range. I’ve finished one unit this month and this is the last. My objective is to have a completed mounted retinue for Lion Rampant–which would make them ridiculously expensive points-wise. The figures are quite serviceable and I’ve had them crying softly for paint in a drawer for many years. I’m thrilled to have them done. The two units give me 24 figures toward my goal of 60 figures. I am confident in achieving this goal.

I also stated a goal of painting 50 planes by the end of the year. I’ve been hard at work to decide what planes to focus on. Early in the month I painted some Raiden Japanese fighters-A6M2 Zekes and A6M3 Hamps, both versions of the famous agile Mitsubishi fighters. I made a little swap with George ten days ago and got a bunch more. I dug through all my bunch of planes and pulled out all the Japanese WWII miniatures I could locate. They’re going to be my prime focus to finish before the year is out. They’ll help me meet my goal.

I’ve wrapped up the Hamps, here

I’ve also painted all the A6M2’s, A6M3’s and A6M5’s George donated to the cause. I’m waiting for markings for them from Flight Deck Decals. These are all Raiden planes.

Next on the docket is a pile of Japanese seaplanes I bought for a raid on a seaplane base–I was thinking Tulagi 1942. Could be something else. I have about a dozen, including Rufes, Jakes, Petes and a couple of the big Mavis flying boats. My biggest challenge is figuring out how to stick a peg in those little pontoons.

November includes Thanksgiving and a vacation, but I plan to stick with my goals. I’ll keep painting Spanish and American ships as they arrive. Japanese planes of all kinds, and with the mounted archers pretty much done, I’ll switch over to wrapping up the leftover British grenadiers and light infantry I purchased for the Retreat From Concord project. This is my current status according to my goals. It doesn’t look super, but the archers and Zeroes are thiiisss close.

1/1250 ships: 7/40

1/300 planes: 6/50

28mm figures: 12/60

It’s hard to believe October is half over and we’re staring the end of 2020 right in the eye. Not that it’s a bad thing. 2020 has been horrendous and it can’t go soon enough for me. You may feel differently–but I doubt it.

One thing that will end with 2020 is my retirement. Sort of. In an unofficial way. No, I’m not going back in the classroom. I’m doing something different, something sort of entrepreneurial. I’ve applied to become a licensed notary and hope to earn some money as a signing agent. Lots of home refinance going on, and increasingly the signing of those refi agreements are happening with mobile notaries. That’s me.

Why, you might ask, when retirement was going so well? It’s a long story, but honestly, my wife is working her butt off from home, and I feel like I need to be doing more. So that’s the plan. I can work as much or as little as I want, so not a standard 9 to 5. There’s some getting ready and I’m working on it.

So 2021 will likely be different. But until then, I’ll be painting away, and trying to sneak in some games too. I continue to meet Dave Demick for my weekly board game. But with the cold weather, Dave Schueler’s excellent “day on the lawn” series will come to an end. I’ve made some tremendous changes in our garage, ordered some LED lights to brighten things up, and I’m searching for the right space heater or two for gaming in my garage (a first ever.)

Time to set some painting goals for the rest of the year. The only thing driving my purchases are Spanish and American ships of the Spanish American War era. There are lots available from War Times Journal and Brown Water Navy. I really like their work and enjoy painting them. My goal is to finish 40 ships for this project by the end of the year. I have a bunch in the pipeline, and I’ll acquire more as the year goes on.

I’m also dipping into my big ol’ pile of planes. Right now I’m interested in painting planes for the WWII in the Pacific, both sides (of course.) No need to buy a lot, I already have plenty that need paint. Once I get going, they paint pretty fast. My goal is to paint 50 by the time the calendar is exchanged for a new one.

Finally, there is my bread and butter, 28mm figures. I have a bunch of little bits I’d like to wrap up, beginning with some mounted archers for Lion Rampant. I have 24 of those guys, and I hope to have them all finished by the end of the month. After that, I’ll focus on some AWI Brits that were unfinished for our Retreat From Concord game a couple of years ago. Those need to get done. After that? Not sure, but I have plenty to work on. My goal is to finish 60 figures by year’s end.

So:

40 1/1250 scale ships

50 1/300 planes

60 28mm figures.

Lots to do, and I plan to enjoy every minute of it.

I have written plenty about my wedding to the Tiny Ships project. I’ve really enjoyed collecting the mostly Navis and Hai ships, but they are quite expensive and honestly they aren’t very available right now due to restrictions on postal services because of the Covid crisis.

While I initially balked at the idea of building and painting ships, I’ve purchased, painted and assembled ships both from War Times Journal and Brown Water Navy (Shapeways) and really enjoyed the experience.

I’ve been pretty good at sticking with my Americans, with just a few minor treks down the side roads of the Chileans and Germans. But I’ve avoided any full-scale excursions into the Great War or major hypothetical conflicts between the U.S. and European powers.

But I confess, the Spanish have a lure. There is that whole Spanish- American conflict thing. I’ve finished my Philippine project and that’s just an outgrowth of that conflict. It’s a hard one to ignore.

Because none of my fellow members of the The Order of the Tiny Ships has claimed them, I am going to step up and do so. There are some 25 or so Spanish vessels of this era available in 1/1250th scale and I intend to get all of them, hopefully by the end of the year. To put a point on this, it doesn’t seem that there are many of these Spanish ships available in metal, so I’ll be doing that modeling I rejected a few months ago. Works fine for me.

Now mind you, there are plenty of versions of the Tiny Ships out there. There are Richard Houston’s lamented and forever passed away 1/1000 scale versions that form the Pretty Darn Small Chapter of the order. Then there are the 1/2400 scale versions that are the Itty Bitty Chapter. Then there are any 1/3000 and 1/6000 minis that form the Microscopic Chapter of the Order of Tiny Ships. All have their virtues, but I can only stick with one scale. Sorry.

As motivation Dave Schueler, John Gee and are going to play David Manley’s Splendid Little War mini-campaign. We’ll stick with Fire When Ready to do the combat resolution, but I’m hoping I may acquire enough Spaniards to make it all interesting.

I’ve gotten to the point where I’ve become almost exclusively a user of Vallejo paint and its eye dropper bottle. I really do like ’em. They have a lot of pigment, and they almost never dry up. I swear I’ve had some bottles for fifteen years.

But that doesn’t make ’em perfect. That unique shape sometimes encourage all that pigment to settle to the bottom of the bottle and it can be really hard to improve its consistency.

I’ve tried lots of things. The most basic of those is shaking which is usually good enough–unless it’s not. I’ve tried a couple of other things too.

One can remove the dropper from the bottle and stick a paintbrush handle down there and swoosh things around. Of course then you have a paintbrush handle full of pigment you’ve got to wipe on a paper towel or rag and you’ve lost all that good paint. I was never sure this was the best solution.

Another suggestion was to drop a couple of BB’s into the bottle and when shaking the BB’s would bang around and bust loose all that stubborn pigment. I tried that with a few bottles, but it never really seemed to work very well.

Mind you, this is not a problem that occurred very often. Again, I really think Vallejo is a great paint and I rarely have problems with it-aside from clearing the dropper and that’s a whole other blog post.

However, the last few years I’ve used a lot of the Vallejo Model Air colors for painting planes. Mostly these are only available in themed sets. They offer a few challenges. These paints are designed to be used in air brushes and are usually pretty thin. Often they require two or three coats to really cover something, but I also think they’re just hard to keep stirred properly.

This weekend I decided to paint some of the Japanese planes I acquired in 2019. Just some A6M2 Zeroes from Raiden. Nice and easy. I also had the set of Air Model paints for the Japanese from Vallejo. Try as I might, and I made many efforts. all I could get out of the IJN Medium Grey bottle was runny yuck. I finally opened the dropper bottle and here was pigment stacked from the bottom of the bottle to the tip of the dropper. I got out the toothpick, the paintbrush handle, I shook it, I cursed at it, and though I now got pigment chunks to go with the runny yuck, it was still pretty hopeless.

There has to be a better way.

I resorted to the internet, looking for solutions. There are shakers for nail polish. There are shakers for craft and model paint. Both those possibilities had lots of negative reviews for two reasons–they were underpowered and burned out quickly. The rubber bands fixing the bottles to the shakers were inadequate and broke quickly and easily. Not what I was after

However after googling electric paint shaker I ran across this article reviewing various methods for getting your paint well mixed. I pondered the possibilities and decided that as much as I painted, perhaps it was worth looking into a vortex mixer.

Of course I went to Amazon which has a pile of vortex mixers. These little dudes were made for mixing chemicals in a lab, and have heavy duty motors. They can cost hundreds of dollars. But there are some cheaper ones too. They work by rotating at the bottom at about 3,000 rpm. In most cases they could have my paint mixed in a few seconds.

I decided that because painting was such an important part of my daily life, I would opt for the Joanlab mixer. It wasn’t the cheapest model, but at about 70 bucks it was far from the most pricey. I’ve used it several times and I like what it does. Unfortunately it couldn’t save my IJN Medium Grey

For all that August was about accomplishment and closure, September has been mostly about confusion and deciding what to do next. I’ve thought about lots of things. Worked on a few more. But I really accomplished little in the painting world.

One thing I did complete was the remaining 15 ships for the Cod Wars. Now I just need to play. These little 1/1250 ships were designed by Decapod of Shapeways. They are resin cast. For small ships they have some nifty details. The Cod Wars rules are by David Manley and are available very inexpensively through Wargames Vault. The game pits the British fishing fleet and their Royal Navy protectors against the Iceland Coast Guard enforcing its self-proclaimed territorial limits. The Iceland player can cut finishing nets, while the Royal Navy tries to ram those ships. Not your typical shoot ’em up in the age of over the horizon anti-ship missiles. I ordered some special counters from Litko. Can’t wait to give ’em a try.

One of the things I’ve thought seriously about is my Tiny Ships project. As with all projects, it’s gone from tiny to pretty dang large. I think when I began all of this I had the following:

1. Delphin model of USS Lexington as a battlecruiser (don’t get me started on what a cool miniature this is or how it came to be in my possession.)
2. Five Navis American pre-dreadnoughts in white and buff: Oregon, Iowa, Kentucky, Alabama and Virginia
3. The light cruiser Chester–1909. Falls outside the range of this project, really
4. Two Navis American pre-dreadnoughts after their 1909-1911 refits. In gray with cage masts. Alabama and Idaho. See Chester
5. Three Hai models of Bainbridge class destroyers. One Navis Preston, a Smith-class destroyer from 1909

So I began with a stash of ships, a total of 12 in all.

My collection has become larger and more diverse. Not only that but I’ve crossed a line I set in the beginning have added War Times Journal and Brown Water Navy miniatures that require some painting and modeling. It has reduced the cost, but more than that, I’ve really enjoyed the building and painting. I’ve also tried to buy used miniatures wherever possible. I even bought a pair of damaged American battleships, repaired and repainted them.

Americans-I added 26 ships to the American fleet including two battleships, four armored cruisers, two armored ships (Maine and Texas,) nine protected cruisers, a monitor, four gunboats, an armed yacht, a destroyer and two torpedo boats. Some were of the spendy metal variety by Navis, Hai, HL Miniatures and Saratoga Model Shipyards. But increasingly I’ve turned to War Times Journal and Brown Water Navy to fill things out.

Chile-Four ships, including three protected cruisers and a central battery ironclad

Germans-Two battleships, three amored cruisers, one light cruiser and two gunboats

Miscellaneous ships–five mostly Swedish including monitors, torpedo boats and a gunboat.

Spanish–The battleship Pelayo–but more coming.

So, I’ve added a passel of ships to the collection-from 12 to 56 . Let’s just say this project has my attention. I need to add a few more Americans, but I’ll be shifting my attention to the Spanish. The Pelayo is a Hai model, but all the rest will be in plastic or resin. I’m looking at the Spanish American War as well as a hypothetical clash off Morocco in 1904.

Honestly, I finished a grand total of 23 miniatures, all ships this month. That’s not much after some really productive months.

I started working on a couple more things too. I got a good start on 12 Dave Allsop-era Old Glory Civil War figures. I’m going to slowly paint up some figures for Rebels and Patriots. God knows, I have plenty of figures to paint. I’ve also started working on some 1/300 scale Raiden A6M2 Zeroes. I’m having some paint issues I plan to report on soon. Some time this first full week of October they’ll both be done.

I don’t know how seven months of COVID restrictions have affected your gaming life, but mine has changed a great deal. Definitely a different way of doing things from pre-COVID and not all for the worse.

I have a role-playing group that meets every Thursday night from 7-10 on Zoom. I’d guess we’ve missed two meetings since we began in June. I like it; it’s been fun. We could never have pulled it off in-person.

I’ve played a few games in Steilacoom with George and Michael at both of their homes. Again, I’ve had a great time. I sense there will be more to come soon.

However, the highlight has been the Summer Series in Dave Schueler’s front yard. Masked and under a pop-up a tent, Dave, David Sullivan, John Gee, Bill Stewart and Michael Koznarsky have included me in a variety of naval games using ACW Ironclads, ancient galleys and pre-Dreadnaughts in a glorious summer-long series of naval games.

However, with the receding smokey skies replaced with the onset of rain and wind, it was apparent that our Schueler pop-up series was likely nearing an end. A couple weeks ago I offered to host my Enfilade Philippines game on the 19th, and it has, thankfully happened.

The game featured about two-thirds of my figures for the period and had everything I wanted to see. Americans attacking Philippine Republicans while the latter piece together a crazy defense. Mad attacks by fearsome-bolo armed troops. An amphibious assault by sailors and marines. Some fun play, and as John said anus-clenching moments for all.

The scenario was entirely fictional but took place in the Batangas Bay with Republican forces retreating, but caught between advancing American forces. Their goal was to withdraw as many troops and supplies as possible. There were two commands of Republican troop, three units each. They were bolstered by local tribal militia with a fiery commander.

They faced a force of Washington State Volunteers to the north, U.S. Regulars to the east and a force of Marines and sailors about to land in the rear to the west.

The game began with the David’s Volunteers using a machine gun and gunfire to inflict a dose of reality on Bill’s Republicans. The Philippine troops, being poor shots, did less, but when the Centralia Company of the Volunteers failed a pin check, things slowed down a little bit.

On the east side, John’ irregulars advanced against Eric’s Republicans, hunkered down in some rice paddies. Despite an effective opening volley, the American response sent the poorly led Republicans reeling. Things were not looking good.

I commanded the tribal infantry in the center and I busied myself trying to collect supplies with two my units. These were supplies we could carry off the south edge of the board to earn victory points. I left one unit with commander in the woods to back up Bill’s Republicans facing the Volunteers.

Meanwhile, Dave’s amphib group headed for the beaches, still a turn or so away from being in the fight.

Bill and Eric’s Republican forces fought gamely, but mostly on the losing end of exchanges with the Americans. I successfully gathered supplies from one of the caches, while a second unit headed toward another about the time Dave disembarked the Marines from their steam launches.

I turned my unit on the Marines and launched a vicious attack that inflicted 50% casualties. But with their excellent leader present, my celebration was short-lived. The Marines recovered. The bolos took fire, and, far from their leader, were immediately pinned. They were a non-factor for the rest of the game.

Bill’s Republicans fell back through the woods, and were at least able to escape fire from the Volunteers, but knew a good push would finish him. Eric surrendered the paddies to the regulars and took shelter in some buildings, only to begin taking fire from Dave’s Marines.

I moved my tribal infantry at the double, out of my safe woods zone down to help Eric’s troops, pounced on one of John’s regular units and destroyed it. But the inevitable gunfire replies killed the tribal leader, and devoid of command, they quickly became pinned and unable to move.

The Philippine army was doomed. We called it good.

I had fun. I hope others did too.

We used the Men Who Would Be King rules by Daniel Mersey. They were quite fun, but each set of his rule are a little different so there were things I would have done differently. I made the Republicans bad shots, but in return I could have given them fieldcraft which would have allowed them to Go to Ground as a tribal unit and let them avoid terrain costs. I also could have given the Republicans the initiative in each turn, so they would always have the option of moving ahead of the American gunfire, so the game would have become a lot more like the running gunfight I wanted.