Tally Ho! Crusaders

I finished my Crusaders for a MW Light Armoured Squadron a while back.  Two platoons and a HQ with the option to field the CS variants. I did get to use them on the table at my FLGS EW Operation Crusader Campaign even though the camo is more MW than EW, I believe.  Digging out infantry was quite the challenge.  More deck-turrets? (Doesn't quite work for my MW Crusaders, though) The campaign was great but I was unable to attend as much as I wanted due to work commitments.  Great bunch of guys and I had a blast!

Army Display Tray Review

I was in the process of investigating what to do regarding an army display tray for tournaments when I stumbled upon the perfect solution for me: USChris on the WWPD site had posted pictures of his scratch built army display tray / organizer--it had me at hello.  And, as it turned out, he was selling some!  A short time later it was at my door. Fortunately for me it arrived on July 3rd, giving me a four day weekend to work on it.

Here it is with the core of my Hermann Goring division force displayed:

North Africa Motor Platoon and 37mm Bofors Portees

I have recently made some progress with my Crusader Armoured Squadron, having completed a Motor platoon and four 37mm Bofors Portee's.  

For the first time in a while the weekend didn't have anything social planned, so I made good use of the time by declaring the weekend an official hobby weekend.  All I had to do was take my wife out to lunch on Saturday, stare at her all googly eyed, and then take her to our favorite coffee shop, Dripp, and I had just enough frequent flyer miles accrued for a round trip ticket to FOW paradise.   I happily cashed in all my points.

I have been especially motivated by a couple of things:  first, I'm reading Steven Pressfield's Killing Rommel and I'm thoroughly enjoying it, which is putting me in the desert mood.  Second, Ben on one of my favorite blogs, Breakthrough Assault, is posting about EW North Africa and is working on an Operation Crusader Firestorm campaign--very cool.  I have to admit, Hellfire and Back! is my favorite FOW book.

Next in the painting queue are 10 Crusaders, two of which are the CS variant for the HQ.  They are assembled and ready for primer and are my July project--we'll see.

As an added bonus, I found myself at my FLGS, GMI Games, purchasing the new D-Day books; some hobby weekend icing on the cake.

Motor Platoon:

BA-64 Soviet Reenactor Pictures

I can't believe another year has gone by and that it was time for the local Planes of Fame airshow again.  How time does really fly by, especially at an air show.  I've found over the years that my focus has been less on the planes and more on the reenactors at the event.  I spent quite a bit of time talking to Jerry in the LRDG camp, covering mostly the Humphrey Bogart movie, Sahara, and its remake among other things.  A great guy.

I did a double take, though, when I saw in the corner of my eye something I would never expect to see, a BA-64!  Awesome.

Civil War Reenactment

I've been looking forward to seeing this Civil War reenactment for quite some time now.  Sponsored by the  Southern California Civil War Association (SCCWA), the event was also supported by Scout Troop 202 , the city of Chino, and the surrounding communities of which I'm proud to be a part of.  So luckily for me, the event was just five minutes away.  As an added bonus my son drove out from Los Angeles to attend, his new stomping grounds.  The weather was perfect for this type of event and we timed it just perfect when a couple of P-38s took off over us as we passed Chino Airport on the way to the park.  The Planes of Fame had an event I skipped to see the reenactment.

The battle was a reenactment of the Battle of Gettysburg but I'm not sure how accurately the battle was depicted. Not that it really mattered that much to me.  I was pleasantly surprised by the scale of the battle and the event.  There was also quite a few children involved and you could tell this was a family hobby for many of the participants.  Very cool.

The event included mounted cavalry, infantry and artillery.  One of the highlights was the cannons being hooked up (I'm sure there is an official term for this) to the horses and then pulled on to the battlefield.  The authenticity of it all enhanced by the soldiers in charge barking orders.  There was also a war correspondent with what seemed to be a branch hanging out of his bag and I'm wondering what the branch is. I didn't get a chance to talk to him and ask.

We had a great time and I'm finding the reenactments are something I have been enjoying very much when I get the chance to see them.  Hopefully, there will be a bunch of WWII reenactors like last year in the local Air Show in early May.  I have quite a few picture of these on my blog and hope to add more.

On a side note, I seem to be having an internal, OCD struggle with re-enactment versus reenactment.  It appears both are correct and it is common to see a hyphen between two vowels?

Here are some pictures I took in no particular order:

The World's Most Provocative Piece of Terrain

After pushing the literary boundaries of the blogosphere with my previous  Hunter S. Thompson inspired post, it was only a matter of time until I would reveal a terrain masterpiece from my past to turn the gaming and art worlds upside down...literally.

I bring you The World's Most Provocative Piece of Terrain (capitalized on purpose):

Gonzo Journalism FOW Update

I surfed a wave of prolific gluing and painting, crashing headfirst and hard onto my Omaha beach of life.  I've been spitting out it's sand since my last post.  I'd happily eat the the tabletop sands of 1942 North Africa, if only the dug in, artillery barrage feel of everyday work hadn't somehow x32'd me into March, 2013...a rich and hypnotic newsreel grainy black and white into dull, boring high definition color of an 8:00 am until done work life. Now, faint echoes of Olivier's narration in my head, followed by a blunt realization tonight of trenched paced accomplished on the FOW front.  I'm pinned.  Gom jabbar pinned.

Not even a post.  Send me your boats across the Channel becuzzz I long for my own Dunkirk.  I write this post.  What would Patton do?  A Dirty Jon podcast voice from the past..."reinforce success": 1.5 year old grandson, Conner, said, "Papa".  Some good sand...Jeeping in Calico, Odessa Canyon with my Band of Brothers.  A great FOW deal on eBay.  An un-nested family I hobby love.  A rationed few nights of accelerator taste in my mouth, followed by morning drive teeth scraping super glue off nails.  Grants already done but added to, with 3 Lee turrets for North Africa Sandworm spice.  Honey dripped with sherm...man. Newsreel grey driving into my blue-eyed 1080p:

DAK Pioniers

I finished basing my DAK Pioniers over the last month, with enough bases to run a Pionierkompanie if needed:  16 Pioneer Rifle/MG teams. 6 Flame-thrower teams and Command options.  There are few extra Rifle/Mg teams due to the new DAK Pionier blister being released with new figures during the build.  But looking to the future, I'll have enough Pionier Rifle teams to run a Lietche Pionier platoon from Hellfire and Back!, grabbing a rifle team from a Schutzen platoon if I'm not running Flame-throwers.  EW North Africa is probably in the far future, though.

Rifle/MG Teams

Flame-throwers