April Roundup

After a couple good gaming weekends in March, things slowed down in April. In amongst other things I had to take care of, I was able to paint up some ships and play a game of Saga.

Since this blog is named Naval Gazing, it seems best to start with the ships. I finally got back to working ships for the planned Battle of Lissa games (early playtest photos here). I have five ships I'm working on: Re Di Portogallo (that's the big one in the middle below), Ancona, San Martino (both Regina Maris Pia ironclads), Varese, and Palestro (the smaller ships). All the ships are 1/600 scale from Bay Area Yards. Here they are after the initial paint work. 

Lissa ships ready for fitting out

After the paint work, I started putting together masts for the ships. They didn't come with any, so I had to make my own out of plastic rod. Here are a couple of photo with masts.

All masted up

Grouped a little closer, so you can see the masts a little better

As far as I can tell, the ships were all jackass-barque rigged. Meaning they were partially fore-aft rigged and partially square-rigged. With the masts in place, the next step is adding ratlines and rigging. 

In the middle of the month, one of my gaming group said that they were putting together a Saga army. All of the sudden several others chimed in that they already had armies and it was off to a new project. The base rules of the game are pretty easy, the real meat of the game comes from the faction battle boards. The battle boards give each faction their own advantages and actions. Players roll Saga dice and place them on their battle board to activate units and gain advantages in movement and combat. Most of the group already had armies for the Viking era, so I decided to get in with a Norman army. I chose the Normans because there was only one other person in group with Normans and I thought they could always double as Crusaders. While my army was on order, I had a chance to play my first game with a borrowed army. We started with 4-player game with two Viking armies up against an Anglo-Saxon army and Norse Gael army. I was one of the Vikings and faced off against the Anglo-Saxons.

The setup from the Anglo-Saxon view

I had some archers, a couple warrior groups, and a couple Hearthguards (aka Hirdmen). I was the least experienced player and was just trying to figure out how everything worked together. I did start off with some good early shooting dice for my archers. 

My borrowed Vikings looking for some leadership

One thing I didn't appreciate when we started was how different the battle boards are. The Vikings are a pretty basic melee army. The Anglo-Saxons are more of a big unit, sit and wait type army (I'm sure more experienced players will tell me I'm wrong, but that was how this battle went). After my initial success with shooting, I moved in for melee and my dice went cold. I threw my forces against the Anglo-Saxon shieldwall and bounced back. I know I made some mistakes in my attacks (they were too spread out) and my poor understanding of my opponent's capabilities compounded my mistakes.

Now there are a lot fewer Vikings looking for a leader

It was good to try out the rules, but I'm glad I didn't get a Viking army. The Normans have more shooters and charge/melee options, which I think will better suit how I play games.

On a personal note, April was a little more challenging. I had some test results that concerned my oncologist, so I went in for a CT scan and bone scan. The scans showed that my cancer was growing again. My oncologist recommended we start a new chemotherapy series as soon as possible (I had my first series last summer after my initial cancer diagnosis). So, I'm back in treatment and it will last until late July. This series will use some more powerful chemicals. In addition to the normal fatigue side-effects, it will really affect my immune system. That means I'll have to avoid large groups of people (especially if they are a little sick) until August. So, I won't be able to attend the Enfilade gaming convention in May. I had been hoping to attend for the first time in 2 years (technically, the 2020 convention was cancelled), but no dice this year. I was planning to help out with the Lissa game and the group decided to post-pone it until I can be there to help out. Needless to say, my gaming will be somewhat limited until August. But I still plan on painting and getting in a few small game sessions.

Playtest and Model Show

On Saturday a few of the guys came over to walkthrough and test out some ideas for a Battle of Lissa (1866) game that they want to run at Enfilade 2022. So we set up parts of the Italian and Austrian lines and went through a few rounds of gunfire and ramming for a couple sets of rules. They will use 1/600 scale ships from the old Bay Area Yards line. Not all the ships are complete yet, but tings are starting to look good.

Austrian Ironclads moving toward the Italian line

Italian lead group

We got a good idea of how the different rules played and settled on which set they will use for the game.

Ramming Re D'Italia

I also spent a little time at the Museum of Flight looking through some scale models from the Northwest Scale Modelers group. There were a lot of models to be seen, but unsurprisingly the show was dominated by aircraft models. It is always fun to look at all the models they have. I enjoy looking at the models and know that if I hadn't found miniature gaming I would be putting models together for shows like this. But it is much more fun (and acceptable) to play with the stuff I put together and paint up. Here are a few photos from the show.

Bf-109F Tropical

1/2000 scale USS Yorktown in pre-WWII colors

A scene from Dr. Strangelove

A nice Kasserine Pass diorama

Rockets!

1/72nd scale USS Scorpion

A rarely seen Vultee Vengence

An RAF Baltimore bomber

I haven't been getting out much, so it was nice to go to the museum and see some of my favorite aircraft, like the Sopwith Triplane. 

A reproduction Sopwith Triplane painted up as the Black Prince

It also gave me the chance to look at the military ramp near the museum. Where I just happened to see a batch of P-8 Poseidon aircraft being prepared for the Royal Norwegian Air Force. You can even see the squadron insignia on the tail (the lower photo has a closer view). It turns out these aircraft are destined to join 333 Squadron of the Royal Norwegian Air Force. The squadron has an interesting history and the Saint emblem is a newish logo.

P-8 Poseidon

A better view of The Saint

Overall a good weekend.

Some quick thoughts on ARA San Juan

As a former U.S. Navy submariner and general naval enthusiast, I try to keep up with naval events around the world, but I reserve a special place for submarines. This past week I’ve been following the news (and lack of news) on the Argentinean submarine San Juan.

ARA San Juan, a TR-1700 class submarine

For those you that haven’t been following the story, The Argentinean Navy lost contact with the submarine last week. Information about the sub’s last contact and other details have been trickling out all week. Reports of possible satellite contact, flares, life rafts, and underwater noises have raised hope that the crew was trying to contact rescuers. But it has been more than a week since there was confirmed contact and with reports coming out today about an explosion near the sub’s last know position, hope that the sub and crew are okay has diminished.

This latest incident, along with the news coming out of the U.S. Seventh Fleet this past year, is just another reminder of how dangerous being in the military and going to sea (and in particular going to sea in submarines) is, not that we really need that reminder.

I know that submariners are a particularly crafty and innovative bunch, so I still hold out hope that the crew of San Juan (including Argentina’s first woman submariner) will be found safe. But the realist in me knows that time for the search and rescue operation is running out and I expect that it will turn into a search and recovery operation soon.

Work in Progress and more

I've been getting together the miniatures I need for my Enfilade 2017 games. I'm starting off with the Figurehead 1/6000 scale ships for the Cold War naval game. I've got almost all the ships I need for the game (the rest are on order) and I thought I would start with some Soviet ships.

I decided to start with the bigger ships and picked out the Kiev class carriers (or heavy aviation cruisers) and Kirov class nuclear-powered cruisers. The Figurehead packs for these come with four ships in each pack and I decided to do them all, so that I don't have unpainted ships hanging around. I've got the basic colors for all the ships done, now I just need to do some touch-up work and do a light wash to bring out some details.

Four Kiev class, with the modified Baku (later Adm Gorshkov) in front

I think the decks on the Kiev class turned out okay. The lines aren't perfectly straight and there are places where the deck brown gets onto stuff that should be grey, but overall they should work. Especially considering each ship is only about 1 3/4" in length. You should be able to make out some of the aircraft on the deck too. Stuff like this makes me wish I was a little better at painted details, but my friends tell me that no one will be able to see (or notice) the details anyway.

Kirov class large cruisers

The Kirov class ships are much less interesting colorwise. They are just a basic medium grey with a deck brown deck. The miniatures are really well detailed though and you can make out the different missile hatches for on the forward launchers, which should really pop out after the wash.

Kiev and Kirov class for size comparison

Most of the remaining Soviet ships will be pretty boring from a visual aspect. But I have the other Soviet carriers to finish too, which will be a little more interesting to look at.

Over the weekend I stopped by the annual model show at the Museum of Flight. They usually have a good turnout and I always enjoy looking at the completed models that show up there. There is a fair share of aircraft, armored vehicles and cars, but there are usually a few ships and other interesting models. I grabbed some photos while I was there (none of these models are mine).

1/72 scale Gato Class submarine

A close-up view of the bridge

A P-8 Poseidon ASW plane with a target

A nice diorama of Tigercat converted for firefighting

A Kilo class sub

A nicely done model of the starship Enterprise with real lights

An interesting model of Robbie the Robot from the Forbidden Planet movie

I'm hoping to get into more of a flow with painting the 1/6000 scale ships, so I should be posting photos more regularly.

Visit to the USS Midway Museum

I was recently in San Diego for my brother's wedding and had a chance to visit the USS Midway museum on the San Diego waterfront. 

Entrance to the Midway Museum

They have done a nice job keep the carrier in good shape for the public and there were a lot of people going aboard when I was there.

We entered through the hanger deck (none of the photos from the hanger deck turned out) and from there it was a short walk up to the flight deck. We decided to take a tour of the island before the line got too long.

A view of the island from the flight deck

From the island we got a good look at the flight deck with a preview of the aircraft we would see later.

The aft end of the flight deck

The central part of the flight deck

And the forward end

There was a guided tour of the island, but after that we were free to wander through some belowdeck areas where the Admiral and Captain would hang out. The museum has some nice displays in these areas.

One of the radar displays in the Admiral's area

Midway's communication center

Then it was back up to the flight deck to look at the aircraft. The museum has some interesting aircraft. Some are common and some are a little more rare.

An F4F-3 Wildcat (the 4-gun version)

An EKA-3 Skywarrior

An A-1 Skyraider

An A-7 Corsair II

An F-4N Phantom showing the Vietnam MiG kills by Midway fighters

An F-8 Crusader

My nephew wanted a little closer look at the plane

A C-1 Trader

An E-2 Hawkeye

An RF-5 Vigilante

Nose-on with an S-3 Viking

A CH-46

A Huey UH-1 gunship

An HUP vertical replenishment helicopter

An H-34 Seabat (powered by a radial engine, not a turbine)

An SH-3 with markings for picking up Apollo capsules

My nephew helping launch some planes

We could see USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70) docked at the Naval Air Station across the channel

And PCF-816 a Vietnam era river patrol boat from the San Diego Maritime Museum

Always good advice to follow

We had to leave in the early afternoon and didn't get through the whole ship (I would have like to see the engineering spaces), but it was worth the time to visit.



Summer is usually a slow time for my hobby work, since I'm typically outside doing yardwork for my wife. But I'm going to try to get some projects going.