Spartacon Tomorrow

I don't get to many real gaming cons. OK, I usually only get to one a year. There are a few others reasonably close, but something always seems to conflict with them. But not Spartacon. Early/mid-January is always a rare dead time for everything else, so it is a perfect time for a "me" day!

It's about an hour and a half drive, mostly through some rural back roads, so I have to get up at o-dark-thirty and get going to get there on time. Most years it's either bitter cold, snowing, blowing, or a combination of all that and worse. This year, the expected high temp tomorrow is 57! Thank you, global warming. Should make for a more pleasant drive, without all the white knuckles.

I have my shopping list prepared, mostly CY6 stuff. Though if any WW2 figs or Dark Age stuff catches my eye, well, you know. It happens. It looks like a pretty good list of games, too. I definitely want to get at least one CY6 game in. There is one listed in each session, so that should be doable. I'm also taking some of my CY6 game in case a pick-up game is necessary.

Now I just need to make it through today somehow!

Report to follow...

First Finished in 2013: CY6 Aircraft

Actually, I started these way back in 2012, but just finished them up. The intent here is to play out some Sino-Japanese air war scenario, going as early as 1937. Biplanes! Not quite WW1, which is still on the "to-do" list, but this will do for now.

The Japanese planes are Nakajima Ki-10 Perrys, which saw extensive use in the early war years against China, but were pretty much obsolete by Pearl Harbor. The Chinese have a mix of American and Russian aircraft (and pilots, but shhhh). The biplanes here are Curtiss Hawk IIs. I'd like to get some Hawk IIIs, available from PT Dockyard in 1/300. But if I order from him, I just know I'll want to order some of those lovely looking small craft (read: PT boats). And I do NOT need another period right now! But they do look nice... Both the Perrys and Hawk IIs are from Heroics & Ros.

And of course the other aircraft shown here are Russian I-16s in Chinese markings. These are Scotia minis. I have a few more to paint that might be given Russian markings, allowing for some early skirmishes against the Japanese, or for an expansion to eastern front action, and Finland...

So How Did I Do?

I thought it might be interesting to go back and review my 2012 goals, and see how I did:

• Finish the Mustang. This is a hard and fast goal. A priority. I need to follow up with the body man to see how that's going. I've kind of stalled on reassembling the engine, what with the cold and dark weather, the holidays, etc. I have a bad feeling a lot of that is just going to sit there until spring. Bah! Hah! Hah! Anyone who has followed this knows this didn't come close to happening. What PITA cluster that turned into last spring. But the new guy is making progress, and insists he will return the body to me in February. Then I just have to put it together. Maybe this summer....
• Finish a few model cars. I've had the Foyt Olds and Foyt '64 Watson on the bench a long time, and honestly it shouldn't take much to finish either. Oh, for a quiet Saturday afternoon. After that, I would like to do the '78 Unser Indy winner and the '55 Sweikert Indy winner, at least. Despite all of my many hobbies, Indy remains my true passion, and I really would like to devote more time to this aspect of my hobbies. I did finish the Olds and Watson, but not the '78 or '55. I also made good progress on the '57 winner, but it's not done either. I need to get back to these.
• On the game front:
• With a colleague, we have unofficially set a goal of putting on an AWI game at Spartacon 2013. All these years of participating, it's probably time to put one on ourselves. This gives us a year to prepare. The Weitzel's Mill game we did last spring is a possibility. AWI has long been one of my favorites, and while I still have figs to paint, I have my eye on some Perry minis and some Eurekas that could be in the budget in 2012. Not going to happen again in 2013. Sigh. One of these years. I did pick up a few Eureka minis in 2012, though. This still remains the period I am best equipped to put on a quality game.
• Continue collecting and painting aircraft for CY6. I'm really enjoying these. I might start getting some WW1. While I didn't get any WW1, I have continued to build the WW2 forces. And even played a few games! I'll call this one a success. I really like this game.
• WW2 skirmish: Had an enjoyable game just last week, so this is top of mind at the moment. Russo-Finnish is basically done, with the exception of some odds and ends. I debate about getting vehicles. Maybe. I also hope to continue early war Germans and British, and may consider purchasing French. This is an area I wish I had a regular opponent willing to do a side. Man, did this fall off the radar. I picked up a few more figs, but virtually no painting done.
• WW1: This is something that's recently perked back to the top. I have a lot of 15s, and am considering rebasing for skirmish. We'll see. Not really a priority, but an intriguing possibility. Also fell back into the pile. I still have my eye on CDIV Test of Battle.
• ACW: I have a bunch to paint. Always would like to buy more, but I really need to get that pile down! I don't think I bought any more in 2012. Still would like to keep this one going.
• Liberators: Started in the fall, haven't made much progress. I'd like to revisit as time permits. This might be long-term. Yup, definitely long-term.
• Age of Sail: A recent endeavor, but an interesting one. I have a list of ships I'd like to get... This actually picked up steam in 2012, no pun intended. I've finished one, and have another mostly done. Hopefully soon I will be able to have a sample game with them. And I ordered a few more. Verrrry interesting.
• WW2 naval: Honestly, this wouldn't take much to "finish." I have some British I did many years ago, and should just spring for the Germans (i.e., Bismarck) and call it good. A quick and easy game, too, which is appealing. I did it! I ordered some more from C-in-C and actually painted them, and even played a sample game! Chalk this up as a success.
• Dark Ages: Still languishing in the box, perhaps awaiting someone to get one of the exciting new rules out? No plans to expand or do much of anything in 2012, but I hate to get rid of them. Not much happened in 2012, but 2013 is off to a roaring start as I just took advantage of Black Tree's 50% sale to order some more, including Normans. I am verrrrry intrigued by Saga. Haven't bought it yet, but tempted.
• Pirates: Why do I keep these? Why indeed. Didn't touch them in 2012, and no plans in 2013.
• Wild West: Likewise. No plans to do much with them at the moment. And nothing happened. And no plans at the moment.
• Aztecs: Again, no plans. Pretty, though. Hate to sell these as well. Not only did I keep them, I bought a few more from Eureka. I am intrigued by their potential adaptation to Saga, so I will keep these for now.
• Ancient Greeks: A few Xystons still languishing in a box. Probably still not a priority in 2012, though you never know where inspiration will come from. And they still languish, though I did pick up a handful of ancient ships, so you never know.

All in all, not bad, I suppose. There's never as much time as one would like, of course. 2013 could potentially be the year of the Mustang. I will be very glad to get that done. So will my wife, I'm sure. That has been a time and financial drain. Money and time that could be spent on model cars and gaming!

New Year's CY6 Dogfight

First off, apologies for no photos as I forgot my camera, but I did get a CY6 game in as part of the New Year's Eve festivities. The family was invited over to a neighbor's for some eats and some boardgames. I took the opportunity to introduce said neighbor to historical gaming. He's an avid D&D and Magic player, but had never tried historicals.

So I started him out with my simple Dogfight at Kaneohe CY6 scenario. He took the two American P-36s, and I took the three Japanese Zeroes. Each of us had one +1 pilot, the others were all 0. We started at TAL 5, speed four, him about 12 hexes at my 4 o'clock. We closed quickly and got off some deflection shots to no avail, then my +1 got on the tail of his 0. It took me a couple turns (after some bad rolling after scoring a hit) to shoot him down. I actually got him with airframe damage, then he attempted a split s, but we forgot to do the crew check!

I got his other plane on a head on shot where I rolled well, and he rolled badly on his robustness roll. So I shot both Americans down, with the only "damage" to me being one aircraft out of ammo!

It had been months since I played a game, so I kept the rulebook close at hand. Still, he picked up the movement concepts pretty much immediately, and though he didn't get much firing in, seemed to "get" the firing mechanism easily, too. The wives thought it was a long game, but he agreed it was short, probably about an hour and a half, which included a crash course in learnng the game. It looks like he is going to be attending a con with me in a couple weeks, so that's good too. Fun times!

And Happy New Year, everyone!

Finally, A Foe for the Royal Navy

The pride of Der Kreigsmarine, the Bismarck

After being listed as a dead in the water project on this blog a while back, I resurrected the 1/4800 scale WW2 naval project with (drum roll), some Germans!

OK, and some more British, too. I ordered three additional sets of the 1/4800 minis from C-in-C. I had always liked the ones I had, I just never got around to ordering more. So now at long last, the Hood has the Prince of Wales, and it has someone to fight.

So, of course, the first thing to paint up was the Bismarck and Prinz Eugen, followed shortly thereafter by a refight (sort of) of the Battle of Denmark Strait.



Bismarck and Prinz Eugen

I used the venerable Avalon Hill Bismarck rules, and set it up on my coffee table for a solitaire session. Both sides opened at long range, with nothing but misses. As the ranges closed, some bad rolls still resulted in misses. So far, not terribly exciting. Finally, though, Bismarck got the range on Prince of Wales, and started to pummel away, with one turret taken out and several hull boxes.

Then fate intervened, and Hurricane Kate struck! That's her, the other twin, playing with mom's iPad. Until she got bored with that, and decided to move dad's boats around. With that, game over. I'd call it a minor German victory. The British were not able to score any hits of any significance, and it didn't look like they were going to. Still, I'd like to play it again.



The pride of the Royal Navy, Hood and Prince of Wales

I've been painting up some of the other ships, including things like Graf Spee, Ajax, etc., so I'd like to do a Battle of the River Plate. I've also noticed Shapeways offers additional ships in this scale, even Americans and Japanese, so perhaps I will try some Pacific surface actions. I'd kind of like to stick with the Avalon Hill rules, cumbersome though they may be, just because that's what I'm used to and they do give interesting results. I don't think I would try them with more than four ships on a side, though, unless I had plenty of other players who knew the rules.

Closing the range and starting the pummeling.

The calm before the storm - Kate.

In the interim, I am open to suggestions on other rules suitable for this, if you have any!

Putting Painting Skills to the Test

It's a Christmas miracle! An Up the Creek post for the first time in a month!

Yeah, sorry about that. No excuses. Believe it or not, there have been hobby related activities taking place, including an actual test game of WW2 naval, and progress on the Napoleonic naval front.

But for today, Christmas Day, I'd like to share a photo from some "painting" I did yesterday in preparation for a visit to my parents' home for Christmas Eve. That's Miss Claire (Miss Kate insisted, no photos, please), showing off dad's newfound finger nail painting skills. Yes, I painted my daughters' finger nails. Now that's a first for me. But they asked, mom was busy, and I figured, "Heck, I paint eyeballs on figures no more than inch tall, how tough can it be?"

Thankfully they were very patient, held their hands very still, and we completed the task without mishap. And all was well. Now, back to the bench!

Anyway, I hope all out there have enjoyed a great holiday, whether restful or not. I'm back to work tomorrow, off Thursday, work Friday, then another four-day weekend. I'm looking forward to that!

Make a Miniature You

Would you like that in 28 mm or 15 mm? Something else entirely?

Technology amazes me sometimes.