Author Archives: kgsmyth55

Shufflin’ off to Buffalo, er Wazzu

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A chunk of my growing buffalo herd. Monday Knight Production buffalo in the foreground, being trailed by a more diminutive Dixon bison.

Taking a week away to attend my final student journalism camp.  It’s been five or so years in Bellingham at Western Washington Universtiy, about two and half hours away from home.  This year, due to construction in Bellingham, and the sweet deal offered by the Murrow School, camp has moved to Pullman in the opposite corner of the state, about five hours from home.  Today is mostly a travel day, tomorrow a work and preparation day, and then journo kids from Wednesday until about noon Saturday when things wrap up and I return home.

I’ve enjoyed my 13 summer camps, but this is last unless there is some awfully strong persuasion to convince me otherwise. Time for me to move on.

One of the projects I won’t be able to work on is my Buffalo Hunt game. I’ve been pretty steadily painting figures for this project.  Chiefly, i”m working on buffalo.

Now, I know what you’re thinking, “Smyth, a buffalo, is a buffalo, is a buffalo, get on with it already.”

And, of course, you’re right, sorta.  But they really aren’t and I’d like to offer my observations and recommendations. I’ve ordered the beasts in 28mm from five different manufactures, and here you go.

WestWind

These are perfectly usable miniatures.  They come five to a pack for $15, which is a perfectly reasonable price compared to other manufacturers.  Available as part of Old Glory’s Cowboy range, they are cheaper if you have an Old Glory Army membership.  They are well-cast, with some, but not an unreasonable amount of flash.  There is a variety of types, including what looks to be a calf.  I found them quite easy to paint.  Highly recommended.

Dixon

I gave two British manufactures a try.  Dixon was very easy to work with.  They have two varieties of buffalo.  I ordered four of each.  With the exchange, they were about four bucks each, plus shipping.  They are clean, well-cast, and easy to paint.  I found them to be a little small, but not ridiculously so.  Might work best with true 25mm figures or as part of herd, or just with other Dixons.  Not bad figures at all, but not my favorite.

Monday Knight Productions

These figures are old school, and part of the true 25mm Desperado range.  They are clean, and I like their size.  They come two to a pack for eight bucks, and I bought four packs.  They lack the detail of other figures, and aren’t super animated.  But I really like ’em.  They were easy to paint, and I like their proportions, though they do seem a tish flat. A little past their prime.  They come with their own large base, which makes them unique.  But I like ’em.

Acheson Creations

These large resin miniatures are from Acheson’s Primaeval Designs of Prehistoric Mammals.  They are called Steppe Bison and at seven bucks a throw, they are the most expensive of my buffalo miniatures. I need 36 buffalo for my project, and I certainly wouldn’t use 36 of these babies. But they are terrific castings–well cast with loads of detail and animation.  I use them as the leaders of each obstinacy (yes that’s what a group of buffalo is called) of six buffalo.  They do require some care.  They do have a little bit of flash, and require some soaking in soap and water to get that release agent off.  If you don’t do the latter, your figures will shed paint. After that, they are much fun to paint.  The absolute best of the lot, if you can afford them.

Foundry Figures

I should just leave this space blank because I don’t have them.  Ordered figures on June 17th, confirmed by e-mail on June 18th.  They are clearly coming by container ship through the Malacca Straits, Hong Kong, and Guam. This service is unacceptably slow by any important manufacturer, but especially one of such importance as Foundry.  Patooey.

This project still has some work to finish.  I thought I had enough Comanche figures, but decided to add another dozen foot figures from Warlord Games.  I still have almost all the Achesons to paint and one more pack of WestWind’s, but I find them fun and easy to do, so no biggie.  The Comanches are another story as they are special orders.  So we’ll see.

State Volunteers in the Philippines

I’ve switched my priorities for the Philippines to painting some Americans.  I’ve been focusing on Old Glory Americans.  Coming 30 to a bag, I can squeeze two units out of each pack.  I only buy OG figure types I can’t get from 1898 Miniaturas.  These include state volunteers, Marines, sailors and some mounted cavalry.

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Old Glory Volunteers. Though the angles and crevices created by the angles of the rifles can pose some challenges, they are still quite good figures.

The Old Glory figures lack the elegance of the Spanish miniatures, but they are sturdy and representative of the period.  They aren’t as nice as 1898 Miniaturas, but much better in proportion and casting quality than Tiger Miniatures. I also seem to still have an Old Glory Army membership, so when I get logged in they are very inexpensive.

The Philippine-American War is separate from, but very related to outcome of the Spanish American War.  That war, and the subsequent conflict in Asia found the U.S. Army woefully unprepared for the conflict, depending as they did on a small frontier army, dispersed in small units across the country to keep the peace on the borders, near recently pacified native populations.

As the army did during the Civil War, it depended on states to supply volunteer troops as war broke out against a more modern, better-equipped European power with outposts flung, literally, around the world.  We remember Theodore Roosevelt’s Rough Riders as the chief non-regular army unit in Cuba.  But there were others from New York, Massachusetts, and Illinois that served in Cuba from the action Las Guasimas to the siege of Santiago.

With most of the regular army tied down in the Caribbean, and a budding rebellion to quell in the newly acquired U.S. colony in the Philippines, the army turned to the states to supply the bulk of troops.   13,000 of the 15,000 troops deployed to take over Manila from the Spanish were volunteers from California, Idaho, Wyoming, North Dakota, Kansas, Montana, Pennsylvania, Colorado and Washington.

Volunteer troops in the Philippines looked similar to US regulars with the dark blue serge shirt, light blue pants, with light brown drab hats and leggings.  State volunteers were mustered back to the US after the first year of the war in favor of federalized US volunteers, so they tended not to have the later brown khaki shirts and pants of troops that appeared after ’99.

A critical difference between volunteers and regulars was in their arms.  US regular infantry and cavalry in the Philippines were armed with the Krag-Jorgensen .30-.40 magazine rifle or carbine that fired smokeless powder cartridges. There were not sufficient Krags to arm the volunteers, so they were given the venerable 1873 model “trap-door” Springfield rifles. These single-shot weapons fired a black-powder cartridge, which left their owners in a more revealing position when fighting Mauser-armed Spanish and Philippine republic troops, though the equal of those with the rolling block Remingtons also widely used.

Volunteer units performed well in the Philippines.  They participated in the campaigns around Manila, assaulted Philippine trenches and blockhouses, and despite their outdated firearms, usually out-shot and out-fought their often better-armed opponents.

Painting the Old Glory figures require persistence.  Many of the rifles are at unfortunate angles and it is critical to remember to get a brush in those hard to reach places with primer (because your spray won’t get there) as well as your paint colors.  I went with Vallejo Dark Prussian Blue for the basic shirt color, and then dry brushed with a mix of DPB and Vallejo Light Gray.  The blue is very thick, so thinning is advised. The pants are painted Vallejo Light Blue-Grey, and the hat and leggings are painted Vallejo Beige-Brown and highlighted. I’ve gone to using Vallejo Neutral Grey for the metal parts of rifles, rather than gunmetal or something else.  I think that works best for late 19th century firearms.

I’ve also acquired additional figures from OG that 1898 Miniaturas show no signs of producing.  These include U.S. Marines, sailors and mounted cavalry.  I’ve finished two of units of Marines.  Not surprisingly, they very much resemble the volunteer figures.  That’s kind of a OG model for completing their ranges.  Honestly there aren’t a lot of differences–the cap replaces the broad-brimmed campaign hat, the shirts are wrong, I think.  The sleeves would have been longer, though the figures do have a higher collar.  Rifles are correct on the model as the Marines carried the unique bolt-action Lee Straight Pull Rifle.

Marines 2

Updates

I have tried to stick to my pledge of twelve figures per week and if you average things out, I”ve sort of done that.

July 8th–12 OG Marines plus 8 buffalo of various manufactures.  Remounted one unit of AWI for Rebels and Patriots (which doesn’t really count toward a painting goal.)

July 15th–Finished 5 West Wind buffalo-didn’t quite wrap up those twelve Marines I was working on.  Did remount four American units and one British unit for Rebels and Patriots.

July 22nd–Finished 12 Marines and 8 buffalo from Monday Knight Productions.

So, 45 figures over three weeks, plus some remounting projects.  I’ll take it.  I’ve also started working on William Washington’s 3rd Continental Dragoons for Rebels and Patriots as well as the next round of volunteers for the Philippines.

Status of the Philippine American War project–Five completed American units, six completed Philippine units. About 35% of project complete not including terrain making.

If you’re on Facebook-and I know many of you are not.

I get it if you’re not as more Facebook stupid stuff is revealed every day.  But there are some interesting miniature gaming groups on Facebook, including a Naval Miniatures group, an Air Miniatures group, and a Northwest Historical Miniature Gaming group.

This week David Sullivan created a Vintage Miniature Wargaming Rules Group that has just been hilarious to watch.  All the rules that posters have shared.  It’s been great.  Only a couple of rules sets have been trashed and most are simply haloed by fond memories.  Great job David. Here are some that I have shared. (Yes, I do actually own them, and lament the passing of many sets I once owned but no longer have.)

 

Painting On My Own Time

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Old Glory Marines about 60% completed (right) with some Perry AWI figures remounting for Rebels and Patriots

Tuesday the June 24th was the end, period, it’s over.  I am an official free agent.  My time is my own.  Life is very good.

I always envisioned retirement as a mix of days when I would get together with Dave Demick, we’d hang out at his place playing White Bear, Red Moon (Chaosium Game, ca 1976), go out for awesomely bad pub grub, and the rest of the time I’d paint little men.

I’m not saying this isn’t what’s going to happen, it’s way too early to tell.  In fact a certain amount of it is already happening.  Dave, Tim Barela and I played some board games, ate terrible (meaning it really tastes good) pub food at Terry’s Office Tavern in the Proctor District, and had a generally good time.

I’m sure there are many more such occasions in my future, with far fewer obstacles to navigate around, and I’m truly looking forward to them.  I’m hoping to become involved with Tuesday night gaming with the Olympia guys, Truant games with the guys in Steilacoom, and of course my regular group of friends.

I’m truly not sure what my future offers in terms of long-term commitments.  However, I’m really sure that in the short term it’s gaming, but three other areas will take my time.  One of those is pretty household related, and that is minimizing our (Lorri and my) collections of needless crap.  Another area is of personal interest and that is fully organizing and cataloging my record collection.  That includes a full cleaning of all 1,500ish LP’s.  Last, and probably most important from a passion standpoint is painting.

I laid out some of my painting plans in my last post. But I also think it’s worthwhile to set out short term painting objectives too.  I am a routine-driven person.  Ask my wife.  I’m also an early-to-bed-early to rise guy.  I plan to take care of my missus in the morning, as I fondly wave good-bye to her as she departs for the hell that is her commute, and then I’ll get some painting done, an hour or so, until eight to nine o-clock, when I’ll troop out to work in the backyard, at least until the weather turns and we enter the “great darkness” of the Northwest winter.

I’ve always tried to set goals for myself.  I usually do something new every year, though I think those days may be over. In years past my goal is to paint an average of a single figure per day.  (Just for the sake of ease of understanding, a figure is a 28mm figure, a plane, a ship, a whatever model of whatever.) That’s seven figures per week, or 365 figures per year. I’m going to change that to 12 figures per week.

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This is the current state of my painting table. Though I have a great space about 48″ X 30″, it is utterly cluttered with paint, brushes, and stuff, leaving me about 6 square inches to work. Does everybody else have this problem?

And to be truthful, I know I can do more than that, and still have lots of time leftover for other things–like remounting all those figures for Rebels and Patriots, or building terrain for the Philippines. Or writing the rules for the Buffalo Hunt. It’s all doable.

Week of July 8th goals–Finish 12 Old Glory U.S. Marines for the Philippines.  Paint eight Dixon buffalo.  Remount one unit of Continentals for R and P and one six figure unit of riflemen. Hope to have five total units for our game on July 20th.  Longer term goal is to get all the buffalo finished for August.  Want to run Buffalo Hunt at Gene Anderson’s game gig on the 24th, but it will need a play test before that.

What am I listening to–Hope to include this in more frequent posts.  I am not a huge country music fan, but as I get older, I’m more willing to listen to a broader range of stuff.  An artist I’ve come to appreciate more is Johnny Cash.  I really like the honesty of his songs, and nowhere is this clear than in the recordings he did with producer Rick Rubin at the end of his life. Entitled American Recordings, vols I-VI, they typically feature Cash and a guitar and very spare production.  Artists sit in with him, including Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.  Cash mostly performs covers–some really well known, like “Solitary Man”  by Neil Diamond and “Bird on A Wire” by Leonard Cohen.  But sometimes he throws in a surprise, such as Soundgarden’s “Rusty Cage.”  Always interesting, and never a disappointment.  Worth a listen.

Plans and more plans

I can’t tell you how many folks ask the question, “What will you do when you retire?”  I feel foolish with the response, “I have no idea at all.”  I feel like I should have long lists, or maybe I’m supposed to fire up my resume and think of a new career.  But I dunno.  I rarely lack for things to do.

One thing I will spend time is gaming projects.  It’s what I am really all about, and I have a list as long as your arm. These are the goodies that will have my attention in no particular order.

The Philippine American War.

My attention to this project was diverted by the Concord game.  I’m not complaining because it was a super scenario, but I do want to leap back in full time, and prepare a scenario for Enfilade.  I went through my collection of toys last weekend.  Here’s where I am:

Philippine Army: I have painted one unit of Spanish, four units of Philippine republican troops, with one more on the painting table and one unit of milita bolo-men.  It’s a good start. I have four more units of republican troops and three more units of bolo-men to go, plus a home-made latanka cannon.  The unit on the table is the last of the headache-inducing rayadillo uniforms and the rest will be a mix of white, browns, a little red and a little blue. Love these guys.  I have enough for now, but there may be more in the future. I’m thinking when the whole show is done I’d like to have 16 units and three cannon.

American forces:  I have a lot of American figures, not because I want to field a large American force, but because I want a variety of figures. The only figures I have currently painted are two units of volunteer infantry by Old Glory, and a unit of Philippine Constabulary by Tiger Miniatures.  But I have quite a few unpainted figures including regular infantry and dismounted cavalry by 1898 Miniaturas, some sailors, marines and cavalry by Old Glory, and some guns by a variety of manufacturers.  13 units in all

The real challenge with this conflict is to produce some attractive, but practical terrain for the Philippines which varies from jungle, mountainous, village, and trenches with blockhouses. Not my long-suit, but definitely on my radar.

 

The Buffalo Hunt

On Sunday at Enfilade a familiar face grabbed me and asked if I had any plains Indians. Herbie Fairbanks, a longtime Tacoma gamer was excited about a mammoth-hunting game he’d seen at the convention, and was interested in taking the Tusk rules and modifying them for a buffalo hunting game. I was intrigued because I have some forty or so Conquest Comanches that would be perfect for just such a game.

I’ve downloaded the Tusk rules from Wargame Vault (a mere $3.50 for the .pdf version) and have begun converting them over from the stone age to a mixed version of 17th century Plains technology including mounted and dismounted natives.  It should be fun.  I’ll provide updates as they become available. I’ve also ordered almost 40 buffalo from five different manufactures, including Westwind (Old Glory,) Dixon, Acheson, Monday Knight Productions and Wargames Foundry.

I’ve begun working on the Westwind figures-because they arrived first, but I see myself supplementing my regularly scheduled painting with buffalo, and replacing some of the arms on my Comanches with traditional weapons.  Looking forward to a run-through of the rules and and Enfilade game in May.

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Kinda murky, poorly lit photo of Westwind buffalo in progress. I’m sure I’ll use a variety of different painting strategies, but these start with a base of Vallejo burnt sienna and some highlights and washes, followed by desert yellow drybrushing over the furry bits. They were fast.

Planes and Ships

Painting planes and ships are just a part of who I am.  They give me a ton of pleasure.  Just grabbing some planes from my box of buckets of planes is something I just find fun.  That said, I have something specific things I need to accomplish for the coming year.  In May I bought Phil Bardsley’s beautiful painted B-24D’s for the Ploesti strike he did some years ago.  Dave Schueler and I are committed to hosting  Ploesti for our early spring event at Drumbeat.   It will mean painting another six or so planes, and then we’ll be good to go. Dave and I will also be working with George Kettler to put together a Downtown/Linebacker bunch of planes for the Vietnam War.  Can never paint enough planes.

I’m also planning to paint more merchant ships as well as a couple of destroyers as escorts.   We’re looking at doing some linked scenarios with another gamer at Enfilade in 2020, some of which could include convoy air attacks, so we gotta get those targets done.

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Dragged kicking and screaming from my box of planes, these Barracudas and Fireflies have been drafted into the Fleet Air Arm fighting in the South East Asia. They get special markings and everything.

Rebels and Patriots

Enfilade featured our Concord game, which I honestly find one of the best group projects and games I’ve ever been involved in.  Like all Daniel Mersey game systems, I find Rebels and Patriots to be fun, easy to play, and open to customize according to the scenario’s needs. I have a lot of figures for this period including the Ohio Indian Wars (remember America Rampant,) the American Revolution, American Civil War and Maxmillian in Mexico. I have lots of figures to rebase and lots to paint.  I’ll focus on AWI because that’s what my friends are doing right now, but lots to keep me busy.

In any case, I will lack for nothing in the way of things to paint and do as I enter that phase of my life in which I’m searching for things to occupy my time.  I have this vision of what a painting routine could look like in retirement.  We’ll see how that plays out in July.

 

 

Friday at Enfilade

 

Fridays at Enfilade are always exciting.  There are buddies to greet, treasures to find at the B and B, and then there is the early set-up.

I have a routine I like to follow: arrive by 11:00, check into my room, grab lunch in the restaurant with my friends, and decide if I want to play in a game during the first period.  As more of game registration becomes electronic, the latter gets more difficult.  But I knew I could race hydroplanes in Thunderboats!! Should I . . .?

I decided against it, and let Al Rivers run the game.  I knew he’d be great and I could check in as the period went on to be sure it went well.  That meant I could wander, take photos and catch up with friends as they rolled in. Oh, and keep track of the B and B of course. Here’s what I saw in the early period.

Chris Craft’s excellent Guilford Courthouse games using the Black Powder rules.

Nobody knows Lyn Bodin’s Imperialism rules like Bill Vanderpool does.  Friday afternoon Bill ran Isandlwana, a full game with excited participants.  Bill holds me responsible for his obsession with miniatures.  I don’t think he needs me as an excuse for his good work.

Spencer Fisher’s Isola Della Bella game using the Lion Rampant rules

Colin Wilson prepares players for his spectacular Omaha Beach game.

Siege of Vicksburg using All Quiet on the Martian Front rules

Dean Motoyama’s lovely Winning Toulouse scenario, using the Black Powder rules

Gary Griess’ Winter on the English Channel using the Cruel Seas rules.  (Stop staring Kevin, you can’t have them.)

Bruce Smith’s Battle of El Obeid game using a variant of the Rampant rules.

These are one-off photos of games deserving far more attention.  From the upper left, Kevin Burke’s Auerstadt using the Shako rules; M.D. Preston’s Blownaparte’s Battalions game; Will Thompson’s Assault on Pacifica-12 using Galactic Knights;  Mike Clinton’s Two-page Tanks scenario; Henry Thompson preparing for Wooden Oaths using Saga 2; Pete Fry’s Weitzel’s Mill using Rebels and Patriots; Al Rivers hydroplane racing, using Dave Schueler’s Thunderboats! rules; The Battle for Ravenna using Lion Rampant.

More about my Friday doings in the next post.

An Enfilade 2019 Overview

400 people crowded into a relatively confined space.  They sought out their friends, and gathered together in their designated spaces.  They became animated, told tales of what happened over the past year, their voices rose to barely below a shout.  It was a very good day.

No it wasn’t the first day of school, it was the first day of Enfilade. The participants weren’t 16 year-old boys, they were 40, 50, 60 and 70 year olds, with a growing smattering of women and young folks.  But, most, like me, were a bit stouter, a little less hair on top, and  maybe a little creakier than 2018.

There was a pile of great-looking games.  Most were historical, but also some great sci-fi and fantasy to meet the 2019 theme of Winter War theme popped up.  Some I have pictures of, but others I don’ t.  I’ll follow up in subsequent posts with reports and those photos.

But for this post I simply want to make the point that the most important part of Enfilade, for me, is seeing old friends, gaming with buddies, catching a beer or a meal with guys I admire, but only get to see once or twice a year.

Maybe as I near my 64th birthday and retirement, I’ve just gotten soft.  Many of my wargaming buddies I’ve pushed figures with for 25, 30, 35 years and more.  Some of them are like family and our relationship extends well beyond the game table. It is not an accident that I ran four games with David Sullivan and Dave Schueler, ate in the bar with them three times, even though I spent each of the previous two weekends with them.  They are two of my dearest friends.

So, this weekend, which included hundreds of games, beverages with friends, and a purchase or two (or more)  made in the B and B, they were made that much more poignant with the three estate sales hosted by friends and families of those we lost, the most concrete example of the passage of time and the graying of our hobby.

Not to seem too maudlin, Enfilade 2019 was a great convention, with lots of terrific games.  It was a convention without major problems.  It was a little like an annual class reunion.  And to that end, for this entry, I’m sharing pictures just of the guys, doing what they love, playing games on Friday night.  To all those pictured, and those who aren’t, I look forward to seeing you in 2020.

Friday Peeps 5

Thomas Moore navigates Gary Greer’s First Newbury game featuring Armati 2 rules.

Friday Peeps 4

Matt Rocco makes his plans for Knights and Lords, while GM M.D. Preston offers his insights.

Friday Peeps 3

Two young gamers prepare their impis to assault a thin red line in Bill Vanderpool’s Isandlwana.

Friday Peeps 2

Sometimes game turns take too long. Hurry it up guys!! Siege of Vicksburg game.

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The Order of the Fez makes its appearance at Bruce Smith’s Battle of Obeid. Bruce, Bryan Shein and Damond Crump are all fezzed, while Dale Mickel wonders why he didn’t get the word.

Friday Peeps

Sorting out the where’s and whys of Spencer Fisher’s Isola Della Scalla scenario from Lion Rampant.

Friday Peeps 6

This collection of ne’er do wells played in our Skulking Way of War game. I’m the goob with the Mariners cap.

The Heroics and Ros Merchants

After a year of assembling planes for Malta, Dave Schueler and I determined we needed a variety of targets.  We’ve done that using the Tinywargames Malta mat.  I’ve put together my own airfield felt mat and added a wide variety of buildings.

But something was missing.  A huge part of the Malta story was the siege that settled over the island as convoy after convoy brining precious supplies was attacked by the Luftwaffe and Regia Aeronautica.  The converse side of this is that aircraft stationed out of Malta mounted relentless attacks on German and Italian ships headed with supplies for North Africa.

The two of us have acquired some of the merchant vessels offered by Ros and Heroics.  These were originally Skytrex castings, produced in pewter.  They aren’t cheap at six to nine quid a throw, plus the spendy shipping from Great Britain.  I was prepared to be disappointed when I ordered my first four models, and four more later.

I’ve had a love/hate relationship with H and R.  Love them because they carry the Skytrex range, which is unique and combines so well with David Gregory’s great range of WWII coastal vessels from PT Dockyard.  The range of sea walls, jetties, and fortifications can’t be matched.  But they’ve been challenging to order from the states.  Everything from missing molds, to slow service, and that shipping charge certainly makes things more costly.

I made my first order for ships in September. All merchants including the big tanker and British merchant at nine pounds each.  Service didn’t disappoint-four weeks from the order to receiving the product.  But, the real surprise was in the casting.  Three of the four miniatures had newly molded resin hulls.  They were nicely cast, no bubbles, mold marks on the seven inch models were extreme and easily sanded.  All the additional details-superstructure, masts and booms, the odd deck gun, were nicely cast in metal. If there was a problem with the minis it was that the portholes-nicely formed-were probably big enough to accommodate a bus. Small potatoes in the world of miniature making.

Merchant 1

German 5,500 ton cargo ship. Yes, it can definitely double as some other nation’s cargo vessel; I won’t tell.

I waited to make a second order, mostly because the H and R website was under renovation.  When I did order in January it was like a night and day difference.  Owner Andy sent me a prompt e-mail to let me know my order was received and another in a few days to let me know the order was on its way.  I had the ships within two weeks from the U.K. The e-mail contacts were refreshing and should be an industry standard.  The quick delivery was stupendous.

Merchant 2

A none-too-friendly look at all four ships together. The Nikon tends to focus on a particular target and blurs everything else. You’re looking at the 4,000 ton tankner

But the miniatures are also great.  Again, the crisp casting of the resin hulls was really good.  This batch had a bit of light flash, but nothing that couldn’t be easily removed.  Light mold marks at the bottom of the hull, easily removed with light sanding and extra fine sand paper. My only complaint was my Flower class corvette did not come with its four-inch gun turret.  I replaced it with a gun turret from the Tamiya Japanese Auxiliaries kit.

Flower class 1

Flower Class 2

Two views of the nifty little Flower class corvette. My favorite of the four models, it is a little small for for the 8″ base.

These miniatures are sizable at 1/600.  The smallest are about four inches long, and the largest are pushing eight inches. So the question is always to mount them on bases or not? In a conversation with Dave, he said he preferred bases because it’s just easier to move the ships. But basing material is always a challenge.  Plus, arriving at a consistent color with the mat is always a challenge.  Dave suggested a clear base with wakes painted in white.

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3,000 ton tramp steamer was a pleasure to put together.

Tanker 1

One more look at the tanker by H and R.

Easier said than done. My first thought was 8” X 1.5” bases on clear acrylic by Litko.  Hey, they’d be straight and at 1/8” thickness they’d be strong enough for the largest ships.  Plugged it into their custom base maker and it came back as sixty bucks for ten bases.  Too much. I needed a Plan B.

I ordered a 12” square piece of acrylic from Amazon.  Intended for a picture frame, I thought maybe I could scribe it with a sharp Ex-Acto knife and break it off as I’ve done with sheet styrene.  I’m sure somebody could, but it just didn’t work for me.  I made too many additional marks on the acrylic and simply could not get the scribing lines deep enough.  That was a ten-dollar failure.

Went back to Litko, and looked at the same dimensions but at 1/16” thickness.  Half the price.  I hit the buy button and had my bases within a couple of weeks. They look great. Litko has also improved their service and made their shipping more affordable.  Highly recommended.

Although it may not be clearly evident from my glare-ridden, somewhat blurry photos, the Litko bases definitely served their purpose.  I’m not struggling to match my bases, let alone lining them up against the mat.  The ships, the bases, and I haven’t even mentioned my tinywargames mat, all work together to look different.  Even I can’t screw that up.

 

Last of the Gunfighters

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With the Concord grenadiers, I was able to get some time to do something–anything- different.  My go to is always some planes, so I reached in my box of many-unpainted-winged-objects and pulled out some F-8 Crusaders from Raiden.

These planes were given to me by George Kettler last year, and I really wanted to paint them for several reasons.  First they are are a sign of good faith to George that I truly appreciate his generosity.  There are many more to come, including some A-4F’s that are probably next on my agenda.

The Crusaders are also a down payment on my promise to paint planes for a Vietnam project.  I’ve changed my original intent to focus on just planes for Rolling Thunder (1965-68) to something more inclusive that will also include planes for the first Linebacker missions  (1972). What does that mean?  It means I can paint a wider variety of plane types for the both the Navy and the Air Force.  Of course that means painting more planes. Imagine that.

I already painted a handful of F-8’s for an earlier project-13 Days Goes Hot. The seven planes I painted this month were those I had.  I’d like to add one more to make an even eight.  I also decided I wanted to paint planes from the air wing of the U.S.S. Forrestal.  The late senator John McCain flew his A-4E from the deck of the Forrestal, and he was almost miraculously saved when he was caught in the middle of the infamous fire on that ship in 1967 that killed over 150 crewmen.

The Raiden Crusaders are among my favorite miniatures.  They are straight and very properly proportioned.  They do come with an annoying mold mark on the nose that must be filed or scraped off. But once that’s done, they are quite nice.

If I have a criticism of the model, it is that the canopy seems just a little too bubbly. Or, at least when I paint it, the canopy seems a a little too bubble shaped-not in a cartoonish way-instead of the sleek, nearly flat design I see in pictures.

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I painted my planes in the standard navy dress of the mid-1960’s. The overall upper surfaces were painted with Testor’s acrylic Gull Gray.  I used two coats, well-stirred, to get it to largely eliminated brush strokes. I tried to use Testor’s acrylic gloss white on the control surfaces and underside, and I just couldn’t get a decent cover, even with multiple coats.  I decided, after two coats of each to spray with Dullcote, and went back over the white surfaces with your basic Ceramcoat white, and re-painted with Vallejo gloss varnish.

I painted the canopy Ceramcoat ivory.  No, not some form of light blue.  Sorry that’s who I am. If you see planes on a board with ivory colored canopies, you’ll know it’s my junk. Nose and canopy bindings are basic cheap-ass craft black.

I chose to do the VF-103 Sluggers, assigned to the Forrestal from 1960-65.  I chose it primarily because the arrow markings on the tail were angular and paint-able, though I still managed to mess it up on some of the models.  I used Vallejo Deep Yellow for the main color, and followed up with black edging.  The AJ is also hand-painted, again, with mixed success.  In 1965, the Crusaders were joined in VF-103 with F-4B Phantoms, so I have a template for painting them, down the road.

U.S. national markings, and Navy markings are by Beacon publications,manufactured and sold by I-94 Enterprises.

Unfortunately, my planned Forrestal template is a little haywire because CV-59 was assigned to the Mediterranean from 1960-65, and switched to the USS Saratoga the same year.  Oh, well.

Overall, however, I’m pretty happy with how the little minis turned out.

 

Grenadiers, ick

Grenadiers 4

Ack!  Enough already.  I think everyone paints something that makes them crazy and for me it’s British grenadiers of the American Revolution.  Red coats, bearskins and their front plates.  Straps on straps on straps, lace, facing colors brass buttons or silver. Spare me.

I have 36 figures to finish, ideally before March 23rd when we do our first Concord run through.  I have twelve figures about 85 percent complete.  I’m ready to slit my wrists. I’d rather paint an army of Philippine soldiers in rayadillo.

Maybe it is the deadline element.  Maybe it’s just that there are so many bits that need attention—like the musicians, I forgot to mention the musicians.  Gah!! Maybe it’s remembering how great the late Phil Bardsley’s grenadiers looked when we did our Guilford Courthouse project back at Enfilade II in 1992.  Great figures and mine . . . not so much.

Grenadiers 3

In any case, I’d almost rather be painting anything else.  Some F-8 Crusaders need my loving attention.  I have a dozen Philippine infantry all picked out-in rayadillo, of course.  It’s almost time to start painting some adversaries for the Philiippine Republic and I have those too.

One thing that I have learned from all this.  When I finish the 36 grenadiers, that will follow 36 light infantry and 72 militia figures, all for the Concord game.  I started working on these in Octoberish, and I think this is the last time I’ll paint for an Enfilade project.  Rather, I’ll continue painting troops for Daniel Mersey’s games, or Airwar C 21 or Regimental Fire and Fury, but the game will have to find what I have at hand, and we’ll call it good.

Insurrectos with Bolos

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The Great Puget Sound Snowpocalypse of 2019 played havoc with the school schedule, but it did contribute to progress on Smyth’s painting table.  I wrapped up the light infantry and militia for the Concord project.  I also began work on the grenadiers for the same battle.

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My three painted Philippine units. I have plenty more to do, and probably a fair number more to buy. All Miniaturas 1898, all fun to paint, if a bit of a challenge

But I took some time out to work on a different unit for my Philippine-American War project.  I decided to do one of the Tagalog tribal units.  These unit were pretty ubiquitous, particularly on the islands other than Luzon where firearms could be a bit less plentiful.  In The Men Who Would Be Kings, these are 18-figure units.  No rayadillo to worry about.  Most of the figures would be wearing white.

Miniaturas 1898 has some very nice figures for Tagalog insurrectos, as opposed to the troops in the Republican army.  They have figures armed with just bolos, the long machete-like knives the tribal troops became infamous for.  There is also a pack of fighters armed with mixed melee and missile troops, including bamboo spears, bows and arrows and even a crossbow. I added these troops together with six rifle armed figures to give me the kind of mixed shooter and melee troops I was looking for. I gave them one of the “special” Antonio Bonifacio figures as a leader and standard bearer.

Hard to see the rayadillo in the photos, much easier to see with your eye.  It’s hard to paint, but very satisfying when finished.

The unit was pretty easy to paint.  Most have a first coat of Vallejo Grey-White.  Then I highlight with white and go back and paint the creases with a mix of Grey-White and Vallejo Light Grey.  It provides a decent contrast with the light base color without the starkness of just Light Grey alone.  I also used Vallejo Tan Earth, lightened for highlight, as well as Vallejo Flat Red.  The latter I highlighted with Scarlet, and then lightened for a second highlight.

All this highlighting and drybrushing is kind of new to me, so I’m learning a lot with this project.  But it’s fun and hasn’t turned out badly. I’ve also changed my rifle-painting for this project.  Instead of using metal, I’ve gone to Vallejo Neutral Gray for the barrels and gun furniture, It’s still a darkish color without the sheen of a metal color.  The Philippine troops would have used Remington Rifles with a few of the modern Mausers thrown in.  The Americans would have used Krag-Jorgensen rifles and carbines, with volunteer troops and the Philippine Scouts using old trapdoor Springfields.

I did make a purchase this month.  I picked up a pack of Old Glory U.S. Cavalry from their Spanish American War range.  There isn’t a rush to do them.  I’m sure I’ll stick to the Philippine figures until what I have is done or nearly so. I also picked up their bag of U.S. volunteers.

Originally the Volunteers were drawn from the states, and they served generally quite effectively in the campaign outside of Manila.  They are replaced by regulars and U.S. Volunteers as the battle shifts north and south away from capital.  The difference is the weapons the state volunteers begin the campaign with 1873 “trapdoor” Springfield.  They use it fairly effectively, but it is not a repeating rifle, just a breech-loader, and it fires black powder cartridges. There is a battalion of Washington State Volunteers on Luzon, together with a battery of artillery, and homer that I am, you can imagine what I’ll be painting.

Looking at the Old Glory range, they have a couple more desirable packs.  I’m sure that at some point I will also order a bag each of sailors and Marines.  These troops played a valuable role in the amphibious operations that were necessary in all parts of the archipelago.

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With all the snow, we had to postpone our big Concord walk-through all the way to March 23rd.  I’ll have all the troops I need to paint completed by then.  I’m anxious to finish the 36 grenadiers I have left so I can paint–anything I bloody well please.  Got lots I’d like to mess around with.