Mining the Mountain of Shame, or The Elephant in the Room

        In my quest to paint every single figure in my Indian army collection I put on my miner's helmet and grabbed a powerful torch and entered The Vault with the intention to gather together all of my elephants so that I could begin painting them. As in all things in Life, it wasn't as easy to do as it was to say. The sea of (often mislabeled) brown cardboard cartons cast up flotsam and jetsam that distracted me from my mission (how did I end up with four 1/72 Airfix HS-129s that aren't in my records?) but eventually I located the box marked "25mm Ancients". This forty-plus pound box was carefully maneuvered out of The Vault and deposited on the small gaming table. Opening one of these boxes is always an adventure as they belong to the Pre-Record-Keeping era so I'm never really sure what's inside. Internal organization consists of how many cards of minis I could cram in rather than any sort of organizing by period or nation, see below:

 

some of these date back to the mid 1970s,

 I felt like Indiana Jones entering an ancient tomb

Mission Messerschmitt Me109 Completed

        It took a bit of grind but I got he  whole half-dozen done this morning. Three BF-109b/c models and three BF-109e. I painted them in a mix of schemes between the Spanish Civil War and the 1940 campaign in France. This is a particularly bothersome period to paint for as the Luftwaffe was experimenting with many different ideas regarding camouflage and often left the final scheme up to the ground crews. I did the best that I could while keeping in mind that I am building toys for wargaming not a model for an IPMS grand championship. As usual I build these straight out of the box with no alteration of the models aside from leaving off some fragile bits that would just get broken off during play. Here is the whole crowd together:

 

back to front , right to left; 

three Heller BF-109b, leftmost painted for Spain, the center and right for Poland 1939 

two Airfix/MPC BF-109e, rightmost Heller BF-109e all painted for France 1940

Pro Or Con 2024 5OCT24

        The Metro Detroit Convention Season opens with Pro Or Con this coming 5th of October. This is a fun local convention and provides a chance to meet old friends and make new ones. The usual free Flea Market will be supplemented by I-94 Enterprises, Firelands Games,  Golden Rhino Games,  and RIW Hobbies; so you can sell your old stuff and buy new stuff at the same time!

 

       I will be running an ACW naval action  using these rules, they are easy to learn and play very quickly.

       Festivities start at 8am and run through 11pm with three gaming session separated by generous breaks between to shop, eat (and drink, there is a license on the property!) or chat with friends. The Elk's Lodge is located at 31117 Plymouth Road, Livonia MI. You can get the latest up-to-the-moment information at TableTop Events. The link will take you to the Pro Or Con page. Definitely not to be missed!

Never Forget, Never Forgive

 

 

the enemies of civilization are relentless, 

we must be eternally on guard 

The Anton Ryzbak branch of the Bayerische Flugzeugwerke

an old one but a good one, most Heller kits appeared in the 1960's through the very early 80's

the raised panel lines and rivets give away their age, but they still build up into good looking models

        Pleased I was with the quick addition of strength to my Polish air force by the "group build". In light of that I decided to take it to the next step and build ALL of my BF-109 kits at the same time (there are only six, so it wasn't that much of a tall order). Four of the kits were from Heller, three were BF-109 B/C and one was a E model. The other two kits were the old Airfix mold, one packaged by Airfix the other under the MPC brand. With a fresh No.11 blade in my X-Acto knife and a bottle of Testor's liquid cement at my elbow I dove into the task.

The Last of the Indian Archers

 

the simplicity of the uniform greatly speeds painting

        Between model airplanes I am still grinding away at the unpainted 25mm Indian minis. Here are the last of the infantry archers. Now all that remains is the slingers and all of the foot will be completed. Remaining items are three more chariots and a bunch of elephants.

 

I am quite happy to have finally gotten these lads painted

 

I now have more archers than are allowed under the WRG lists

this makes me happy for some reason

 

 

years ago I had a friend that put far more work into painting the backs of his troops than he applied to their front, his reasoning was that he hoped to spend more time with them facing the enemy than running toward him, it makes sense when you think about it

The Polish Air Force, so far

        I have been plugging away at my Polish Air Force between bouts of painting Ancient Indians. The balance between model airplanes and painting minis helps keep things fresh and keeps the creaking wheel of enthusiasm turning. Having just completed three PZL 11c (Poland's main fighter aircraft in 1939) I thought that I might just get out the entire crowd and take a "family photo".

 

front row; the PZL-23 from Ruch and another from Heller 

second row; PZW72 kit of a PZL P-7, a Mistercraft kit of a PZL P-11c, 

another Ruch PZL-23 and a Heller PZL-11c

third row; Revell PZL P-11c, another by Mistercraft, and lastly another Revell P-11c

Emergency Testing A Scenario, I find myself unprepared for the Convention season; ACW naval at 1/600th scale

        An offhand comment when I was last talking with Zhodani Commando brought to my attention that I have not prepared an unusual and interesting game to present this convention season. Oh The Shame! Frankly four weeks will not provided enough time to produce an entirely new game so I am forced to fall back on a previous offering, it truly is a shame. My first thought was to dust off the Siege of Castillo San Marcos as it has been a few years since anybody has seen that set-up. Then it occurred to me that it would be easier to run a naval game (terrain is SO much easier) and it had been a dog's age since I ran my ACW naval game. In light of that thought I worked out a scenario of subtle complexity that might just satisfy. Of course I made the Saturday night guys playtest it!

 

the impatient Confederates come out to play

 

the Union Navy had other plans and a lucky shot hit Fort Gaines magazine,

 the explosion was thunderous

 

both navies felt it necessary to fight in the narrows, 

there was much contact but little actual damage from the collisions 

 

       This scenario might just do the job but I miss the spectacle of a lavish game! Ideas? Should I revive the Castillo game?

 

 

        Awaiting input

Yet More Hinchliffe Indian Soldiers

        I'm sort of getting into painting these minis, the ultra-simple uniform combined with the straightforward sculpting makes painting them a breeze. I rounded up every last spearman that I owned and got them all painted in one afternoon. That is breakneck pacing for me. Is helped by the fact that the uniform is a white cloth wrapped around the soldier and covers him waist to ankles. I don't think there are eight colors on these minis.....

 

I'm willing to bet that the shields were not left blank

All-in on the PZL11c

        Having built one I figured "What the heck, I'll build the rest of them!" So I dug around in The Vault and found the two remaining ones and stuck them together (one was from Mistercraft, the other a venerable Heller kit). I didn't take any "in progress" shots as the breakdown of the kits in nearly identical to the Revell kit. The Mistercraft kit had some assembly issues and if you are  looking for a 1/72 PZL P-11c I would recommend the Heller kit. 

 

the Mistercraft kit has superb decals and included Polish markings as well