Saved by a Dropcloth

I had a near disaster tonight at the painting table.  I used my normal set up - in front of the TV using two small folding tables to hold my work and tools.  On returning from a trip to the bathroom, I nudged one table and jiggled the paint pallet off.  Murphy's law held true and it fell paint side down depositing a lovely blob of blue paint (being used as the sea). 


Luckily I listen to my wife (at least in this case) and use a drop cloth saving both the floor and my butt!

Actual Painted Miniatures

OK, still works in progress for the most part, but it's been too long since something came off the workbench.  Here are some shots of my WW2 Med RN ships.  The photos are not as clear as I would like, but I'm still learning how to use the new camera.  We don't have a fancy one so this may be as good as it gets.  In which case I have successfully reproduced a hazy day at sea!  Ships were primed white by spray-bomb then painted with artist/craft acrylics including washes and highlighting.  Name labels, pennant numbers and possibly full smoke to come.

HMS Arethusa escorted by 6 destroyers 3 tribals and 3 H class.  The Arethusas were worked hard in the Med and lost 2 of their number.  They were smaller than other cruisers and lightly armed with only 6*6" guns.  Given treaty limitations on total tonnage, the RN decided that more small hulls would be more useful than fewer larger hulls.  It all had to do with patrolling the world's sea lanes of course. 

Close up show of the Arethusa with the troublesome floatplane.  It turns out that GHQ had it right  and the class landed their catapults Walruses (Walrii?) in 1940-1 before arriving in the Med.  However, the crane remained and GHQ supplied the sprue with sea planes and cranes (common to many GHQ packs).  Having glued the plane on and painted reasonable looking roundels, I am considering a Walrus-ectomy.  The DDs in behind are the ubiquitous tribals. 

And a trio of H class DDs, standard pre-war journeymen vessels.  The camouflaged model was based on a picture of the ORP Garland (lend-lease to the Poles), but her stint in the Med was brief.  Similar patterns appeared on many RN ships.

Next time, the Regina Marina.

School Music Concerts and Teachers' Strikes

I planned to bring my WW1 Navals to the monthly games night on Saturday, but was caught out by a very busy week and bailed on the event because I needed an evening of down time (and was falling asleep).  My 15 year old is heavily into music (2 school band, 2 school choirs and a youth orchestra) and there were 4 concerts planned for the last 2 weeks of May.  What made it even more hectic was that the teacher's federation instituted job action in the midst of it all (for very good reason and I fully support the teachers).


So 2 jazz concerts concerts were moved and combined into one on the Friday to avoid strike days, and we got involved tracking down and phoning band and choir parents and then donors for the silent auction fund raiser attached to the event.  The concert went off well, my daughter player a great sax solo and the silent auction ran well (and raised good funds) but it was after midnight when we got home.   

 Sunday we had the final school choir concert, good and not needing re-scheduling but long. 

Monday was spent with 5 hours of driving to and from the Oboe doctor in Saskatoon.  Luckily we stopped at the book store (McNally-Robinson) and I picked up a copy of Neptune's Inferno

No I'm not venturing into the South Pacific, but it looks good so far and scenario ideas travel well -don't they?

Signs of the Apocalypse

Well it looks like the Reverend Camping's predictions were wrong (BBC News), and we're still here.  This story seems to have got more media and social media play in the New World compared to the Old World.  While it makes for entertainment, there's some sad elements to the story of his believers.  At least all anybody lost was money and time on this one.


But wait, last night I actually worked on new models - after so long from the workbench it felt like a sign of "the end".  I have a the following works in progress: half-dozen each of RN and Italian destroyer, a Condottierri class cruiser, an Arethusa class cruiser and the carrier HMS Eagle.  I am impressed with the GHQ castings which were largely flash-free and crisp and cleanly cast.  The detail was clear and well-executed (a huge improvement over some of my 1:3000 Navwar WWI models).  On the larger ships, turrets and superstructure were cast separately and had to be added manually, which went well for the most part once I hit up the female members of the family for tweezers.    


Once I get a break of sunny weather (good luck on the May long weekend), the bulk of these are ready to be spray-primed for painting.  The Arethusa and possibly the Eagle need pole masts added to get the feel right.  So expect the pin vice to be making an appearance soon.


I had a few nits to pick with GHQ, all on the Arethusa.


There were two tiny castings that were to be added to the superstructure, I expect that these are tubs of AA weapons.  It was tough to work out which end was up, the location point wasn't clearly located on the diagram and the were a devil to manipulate even with a pair of looted tweezers. 


The model included a sea-plane and crane for operating this, but no catapult to launch the plane. I opted to include the crane and plane (placing the latter atop a boat which was in the right spot). It turns out that of the 4 ships in the class, HMS Aurora was completed with no plane and the others lost theirs in late 1940 or 1941.  Ah well, it looks like I've got an early war model!  I'd rip the plane off but it was a bugger to plant in the first place and I don't want to risk taking out the crane.  I've since checked the GHQ site and their completed model includes the crane but no plane - presumably the crane was used to load boats and equipment.

On the subject of aeroplanes, I'd been waffling between various ways of representing these on table.  Having seen the GHQ 1:2400 planes up close, that option has been taken off the table.  They are fine models, but one needs a magnifying glass to spot the differences between types.  I'm don't care if you can't identify the exact model fighter from a distance, but you should be able to distinguish a Swordfish from a Hurricane or a Sunderland.  Based on what I see on line, the best bet may be the CAP Aero 1:1200 range.  These are out of scale, but this works given the sea-gull's eye perspective to most naval games.  My WW1 games used 1:3000 ships and 1:144 airplanes.

Back From the Left Coast

I returned last night from 3 days in the land of the lotus eaters (that's Vancouver BC, to non-Canucks) for a conference.  Luckily it's a short diversion on the Sky-train to Imperial Hobbies where I picked up

1. A copy of Black Powder having been curious for a while and I regretted NOT getting it last June.
2. A 1:2400 scale model of a  Leander class cruiser for WW2.
3. Angus K's Osprey on the QE and R class battleships in WW2
4. Another Osprey on the Fleet Air Arm in WW2
5. A sheet of decals which I was intending to use for pennant numbers on my WW2 destroyers, but seem to have left in my hotel room instead.

Moments that Make Parenthood Worth While

The other day while I was posting, my 15 year old daughter was curious to know what I was doing and peeked over my shoulder.


"You have have a Blog?!?! You have followers?!?!?"


Yes Katie there are other grown men who play with toy soldiers and model boats.

The Basement

Before the interim fix.  My daughter noted the resemblance to Amy Pond's wall.

After the literal stop gap repair.