3mm WW2 Tiny and Really Fun

 Last night at the club, Tom put on a fantastic WW2 game using his newly painted 3mm Americans and Germans.  It's very good that Tom did not waste his quarantine time on binge watching Netflix.

I've never experienced a 3mm game (each base was a company) and was both impressed with the look and playability.  We ere using some draft rules that worked pretty well. 

Ed and I played the American while Tony and Josh were the Germans - it was a very close game but I think the edge went to the US but it was very close.  As usual, Ed did all the hard fighting while I just roamed around in my tanks taking pot shots at Stugs and running away (maybe fleeing) from Panthers.

While the club is now re-opened, we still practiced social distancing.  Here you can see Ed modeling his very dapper mask - if only the rest of us mere mortals could be as debonaire as Ed while strutting around in such a stylish mask.

Ed, Tony and I have embarked upon a secret project over the next few months - you'll see hints about it in various posts.   In fact you already have......

3D Printer Tool Caddy

 I was cleaning out my workshop and stumbled across a test box I had put together when making my son's Christmas present.  Rather than toss it out, I deicded to make a tool caddy for all the small tools and spare parts I have for my Prusa 3D printer.  It's a bit of a tight fir but the box holds everything.  There's a hanging rack on the front side for hand tools like clippers or needle nosed pliers.

 On the other side are holes that hold the Allen wrenches and small screw drivers.  Inside the box are replacement parts like extra print nozzles and tubing.

I just added a few pieces of scrap wood for the tool rack and some simple handles.  Now, at least, I'll know where all my 3D printer tools are. 

Lockdown Haircut

It had to be done.  OK, it only had to be done because my wife decreed it so.  Since she out ranks me, my only course was to follow orders.  That's right, I got a home hair cut after four months.

I'm sure that last statement disappoints a lot of my blog readers as you were are were all anticipating the debut of my silver haired man-bun.  Please direct your outrage at this artistic denial to executive management.

After procuring some hair clippers (DAMN YOU AMAZON!) and watching a you-tube video, my surgeon wife declared herself a barber and set about her task of shoring me like a sheep. 

Before we go any further, I should point out that I have developed superb hair coloring skills as I've done my wife's hair twice.  I may open a salon post lockdown, that's how good I am.

So how did it go?  Well, first off, it is very unnerving when a surgeon is cutting your hair and wondering out loud about how long it would take to suture an ear back on.  As for the haircut.  Well lets just say I have a lot of hats.....

Barstool Project Edging Closer to Complete

 I was able to spend a couple hours in the garage workshop and managed to finish the seats tops and attach them to the frames.  There will be another round of sanding and then the barstools will be ready for finish.  It looks like I will make my self imposed deadline of Monday's club re-opening.

 The first task of the day was to glue up the fourth seat top.  I had to use narrow cut-offs from the leg / apron pieces but had just enough the get a 14 inch square seat out of those scraps.  Sometimes it is better to be lucky than smart.

While the fourth seat was setting up, I got out my router and a round-over bit to take the edge off the seats - I think they came out nicely.  I'll hand sand the top flush and buff out the sharp edge on the corner.

Once I finished rounding over the three previously made seats, the fourth had set up and was also rounded over.

Attaching the seats to the frames was done with glue and some hidden cross sections tacked in place with brad nails.  Once the glue dries the seats will be very firmly in place.

The final task of the day was going over and covering all the brad nails with wood putty.  I've got about 3-4 hours of sanding to do and these stools will be pretty much done.

Barstools for the Club

 With social distancing rules beginning to ease, there have been rumblings of re-opening our club for gaming.  Normally this news would be greeted with joy but I need to get some barstools built to make good on a promise.  I cut all the wood and lap joints a few weeks ago so should get these built this week - well that's the plan at least.  So far 2020 has done a pretty good job screwing up my plans

First up is assembling the leg frames - these are being built for strength and durability not style.  I am cheating a bit as I'm using a brad nailer to tack the pieces in place while the glue dries.

A few hours of workshop time and all for frames are built.  Two stools will be 29 inches high and two will be 24 as that's what we have in the club now.  These frames are super sturdy and should survive high impact gamer usage for years to come.

With the frames built, the next step is to glue up the panels for the seats.  The seat tops will be 14 inches square so I'm glueing up 15 inch square panels (3, 15x5 inch sections).  When glueing up panels, it's really important that the edges faces are square and well sanded.  Also don't put too much pressure on the clamps or the wood will bow.

It was at this stage of the project, I was reminded that I was, indeed, a moron.  I've only got enough poplar wood prepared for three seats not 4!  I could plane up some more from scraps or make the 4th seat out of (shudder) plywood.  I am in a bit of a ethical quandary here.

While the panels are setting up, I made some test pieces with different finishes.  I really like Danish Oil as a finish - it's looks good and is very easy to apply.  After looking at this picture I've realized that my color palette for wood finishing is somewhat narrow - I might need to try some darker finishes.

Before attaching the seats to the frames all of the outer edges will get rounded over and there will be sanding - oh there will be a lot of sanding on this project.

I should get these finished this week and have them up in the club by Monday.  Hopefully you'll see them in a supporting role in a future Little Wars TV episode.  Get it, "supporting role" - he,he - I should have been a stand up comic 'cause I slay me......

When Animals Attack!: Eastern Shore Version

The first weekend of June 2020, promised to be perfect - a strong breeze, temperatures in the high 70's / low 80's and sunny.  A well needed respite during these troubling times.  However, mother nature had other ideas.

Dun, Dun, Daaahhhhh.....

First I awoke Saturday to find this lovely lady Diamondback Terrapin laying her eggs in front of my garden gate.  The gravel of our driveway seems to be the perfect material for turtle nurseries as this happens a lot.

These turtles are on the EPA's "Threatened List" as some idiots used to like to eat them in soup.  I find them fascinating and a really neat neighbor to have.  Maybe having the Perry brothers as neighbors might be cooler (maybe).  Anyway, with the nest in place we've now roped off the main gate to the garden so have to use the side gate.  Score 1 for you mother nature,

 On Sunday, I decided to go for a bike ride with the Dr/Mrs (woe be unto the fool who uses the term Mrs/Dr).  In fact we had just been on one Friday - Friday as in two days ago.  I went to get my helmet and discovered that a local bird had claimed said helmet as a homestead.  Now this nest building took less than 24 hours as we had the garage open all Saturday while I was painting the patio furniture on the driveway.  We never saw the bird(s) in question.  I'm pretty sure whatever the species they have evolved to use some form of "Amish Barn Raising" process to build their nests.

Who knew birds were such fast engineers?  You know if the British XXX Corps had birds as bridge engineers in Sep of 1944, they would have been in Arnhem within 2 days.  Just saying.

Score Mother Nature 2, me 0

After surviving two very dangerous animal encounters and a raft of home improvement projects, I finally settled down to pursue my study of nature - for scenery making purposes of course.  It's a scientifical fact-like statement that the study of nature, both textures and colors,  is best done in a hammock.  After 10 minutes of so of concentrated cogitations on the form and function of ground foam, I entered a trance-like state.  I'm sure I learned a lot about terrain making while doing so.  Because the knowledge I gained was so deep, I'll likely need to take a refresher course next weekend.

Old School Tactical

 My fellow club members are a very bad influence on me.  Well that's what I tell my lovely yet fierce wife when packages arrive at the homestead.  Sorry to throw you guys under the bus, but one must survive the quarantine somehow.

The latest addition to the game inventory is Mark Walker's "Old School Tactical" (OST) series of WW2 squad level combat games published by Flying Pig Games.  Ages ago, I used to play a lot of Squad Leader - note that's Squad Leader and not Advanced Squad Leader, so that may give you a time frame of how long ago.  I really liked the game but the complexity wore on me.

After seeing some very complementary youtube videos on OST.  I decided to give it a whirl and well, mistakes were made.....

The games showed up last week and I must say the components are beautiful - a very large set of mounted map boards - really nice, large sized counters and a crisply written rulebook.  One difference from Squad Leader is the board comes as one big board rather than a set of small geomorphic boards.  Most scenarios only use a section of the game map but it does take a little getting used to.

 This morning I played my first game using Scenario 1 from the book.  I will not go into to any details as Im sure I messed a lot of rules.  I did enjoy the mechanics and found the game very intuitive and fast to play.  I think it will also translate very well to the tabletop.

There area lot of really unique features to the game that I'll go into during future posts but one fun is the concept  of "Luck Cards".  Each player draws a single luck card right after setup.  These are kept secret until played.

Some are pretty good - like this "Artillery Strike" card the germans drew.  Of course when played I failed the accuracy role (5 or 6 on a D6) and the artillery went way off map!

Others are more limited in value like the double time card the Russians had - still in a close game having this right at the end might allow you to grab an objective marker that your opponent thinks you cant get to.  Luck cards impact all aspects of the game but aren't really super strong.  Some effect vehicles only which in a scenario where you don't have any can be a bit problematic.  The rules cover this occurrence by indicating that if you draw a card you cant use  then your luck is just bad (and it's what you get).

Once I know the rules a little better, I'll do another turn by turn game report and will also do some hard thinking about bringing this game to the tabletop.  If only I had a way to make hex terrain......

Russo-Japanese War Fleets

I finally got a little painting mojo back and started to paint up the ships I got from War Times Journal for the Russo-Japanese War.  First up are the Russian fleets based in Port Arthur (upper left) and Vladivostok (lower right).  These will have the following paint scheme (all Vallejo paints)

Hull: Olive Drab
Deck: Deck Tan
Superstructure: Khaki Grey
Funnels: Ochre Brown
Life Boats: White

The ships will get a very thin black ink wash and then get based up.

The second picture shows the rest of the ships, well I picked up models for every ship involved in the conflict - On the right side is the Russian Baltic fleets that came over to reinforce their Pacific forces in the form of the 3rd and 4th Pacific Fleets.  These fleets will have a paint scheme of:

Hull: Black Grey
Deck: Deck Tan
Superstructure: Medium Grey
Funnels: Ochre Brown
Life Boats: White

Of course, if one has Russians, one also needs a Japanese opponent, which you can see on the left side of the second picture.  These have just been primed grey and had their decks painted (Iraqi Sand).  I used a different deck color form the Russians to make it easier for players to identify the two sides.  The Japanese paint scheme will be a medium grey for both the hulls and superstructures and white for the life boats.

In addition to the Japanese Warships, I purchased 8 freighters/transports which can be seen at the bottom of the line of Japanese ships.

These models are 1/2400 scale and are resin prints.  They are superb and paint up really well.  I highly recommend War Times Journal - these little ships are fantastic.

The WTJ line is extensive for this period and I have a model for every capital ship in the War.  I also have models for all the Destroyers and Torpedo Boats but those are still in their bags and will get painted when the bases arrive.

At 1/2400 scale, each capital ship is 2 - 2.75 inches long.  The destroyers and torpedo boats are .75 - 1.0 inches long and still have a lot of detail.

Once these fleets are done, I'll need to finish up the land armies - I'm a little over halfway there. 

My goal is to put on a Russo-Japanese War convention game with both land and naval engagements.  The next big convention here in the US is Fall In, which is scheduled to for October 22-25 of this year.  I've got hotel reservations set for the con but think it's a 50/50 chance it can be held.  I actually need two things to be true (1) The Convention can be held and (2) My lovely, yet fierce Dr Wife grants me the OK to attend for health reasons.  If Fall In isn't viable there's always Cold Wars in March'21.  The main point is I have a lot of time to both get ready and procrastinate.  I  wonder which one will be in the majority?

Holland'44: Turns 10 -13

The see-saw struggle continues

Turn 10:

 30 Corps continues to reinforce the assault on Nijmegen.  They also get an engineering unit along the bank the Waal river allowing the 82nd airborne to cross and support an attack with the poles that cuts-off Nijmegen.  The attack on Nijmegen wears down the garrison but it is still holding out.  With their access to reinforcements effectively cutoff, their days are numbered.  At Arnhem, the Germans continue attacking the same 2 points but roll 1's - their dice luck has been atrocious this turn in the North.

With the Panzer Brigade's attack in the south stymied, the Germans FJ's launch a desperate final attack and succeed brilliantly - the cut the highway again, which means all of 30 corps to the north is out of supply and attacks at half strength.


Turn 11:

 Despite being out of supply, 30 corps renews its attack on Njimegen and the worn down garrison succumbs - 30 Corps is across the Waal River in strength.  Two battalions of tanks are detailed to beat back the southern German attack, which they do.

At Arnhem, knowing the rail bridge is really the only bridge the germans can recapture, fresh, full strength troops are moved into the line, including one of the Polish battalions to replace the worn down paratroopers.

The Germans attempt to attack the now stronger British/Polish garrison at the rail bridge and fail to dislodge them.

The most recent incursion into the Highway is beaten back with severe losses to the Germans.  It's doubtful they can be of any major threat in this sector.


Turn 12:

30 Corps continues the advance towards Arnhem and the not one but two bridges held by the Brit and Polish paratroopers.  They have reached the banks of the Rhine.

One last attempt is made to retake the railway bridge but it fails as the results is an exchange.


Turn 13:

30 Corps has moved 5 battalions across the Rhine and is moving up artillery to support the enlargement of their bridgehead.  A quick check of the games victory conditions indicates the allies have achieved their needed 10 VP's and the germans concede.

Market Garden was a resounding success (at least in this game).

Well that was fun (for me).  I'll do a full review of Holland'44 in a few days but I really like the game and look forward to trying it against a real opponent over vassal or even, one day, in person.

Playing this game was very nostalgic for me and I'll likely do another one (maybe Paths to Glory?).  After really not looking at board wargames for 30 years, I am amazed at the selection and quality of titles are available.  I guess my assumption that wargaming died when SPI went under was a bit off-the-mark.

Thanks Woodworkers Source!

Woodworkers Source is a small Arizona based retailer of hardwoods and other supplies for woodworking.  They are my "goto" source for any wood I buy.  Once you've played around with a little woodworking is that the big boxes (Home Depot / Lowes) are great for basic supplies but really bad and expensive for any wood other than construction grade pine.

I stumbled across this company via a woodworking you tube video and pretty much will not buy hardwood from anyone else - even though they have to ship to me all the way from Arizona! 

Like all businesses they are struggling with operating under social distancing rules.  There was a minor issue on my most recent order, which was resolved without a problem.  My interactions with the customer service rep were great.  What socked me was they sent me the above hardwood cuts offs and a hat for simply "not being a jerk".  These cutoffs are very high quality and will likely be used for this years Christmas present projects.  It was a very nice gesture and greatly appreciated.

It also caused me to ponder something.  I think it's kind of sad that being polite warranted an award - theres really no excuse for bad manners when trying to resolve an issue.  Just about every business I know is really struggling now and mistakes are inevitable, as customers we can only choose how to comport ourselves when those mistakes happen.  Take a deep breath, don't vent your frustrations in life on the poor customer service rep and maybe you'll get a cool hat too.  It's also just the right thing to do so don't be an ass. 

Thanks Woodworkers Source - you have a very loyal customer.