Buffalo Naval Park

Hey Everyone,

Well after a long week of work I finally get to sit down for a minute. Last weekend my reenacting group had our annual display at the Buffalo Naval Park. We had a great display this year. We had three tables set up with our standard US GI equipment and weapons. But this year we also had a set of tables with both Marine and Navy equipment as well.

We were also booked with about 300 boy scouts as well for Saturday night. It was a bit cramped on the boats, but we pulled through. Actually after the kids settled in for the night, some of the parents came up on the fantail and hung out with us. It was a good time.

So heres a couple pics of what we did.

Standard GI weapons and equipment for the Big Red 1.



US Marine Display

My meager US Navy Pilot display. I've been slowly adding to this over the last year.


And finally Rich's Navy display. Everything in the next few photos (minus a couple oddball things) has a very cool story to them.



The story goes.... These items belonged to a Mr. Alex Pennella. He was an Aviation Machinestmate during WW2 on the Carrier Tulagi. What you see on the table was packed into the canvas seabag under the holster in the picture above. The bag was packed in 1946 and sat in an attic or cellar until last year. Mr. Pennella and his son didn't get along. And when Mr. Pennella passed away his son was going to toss everything out. Mr. Pennellas niece knew Rich collected these things, and rescued the bag from the garbage. The first time these items saw the light of day in 64 years was last December when she gave these items to Rich, and he pulled them out of the bag.

If you ever are in Buffalo, I would encourage you to stop buy the park. It is an amazing place.

DBA.............

This last Saturday I participated in my friend Daves annual DBA tournament. Every June about 15 of my wargaming pals get together for a day of food and fun.

Now I will admit, DBA is not my cup of tea, and I have missed a number of events over the past few years. But I do have to say this Saturday was a blast. Where else can you hang out with friends, play a bunch of games and have hot dogs with Dave's famous hot sauce.

Jay from Renaissance Ink stopped out, whom I purchased some flocking gel and bases from. Our friend Travis from Millenium Games sent a ton of prizes for the tourney as well. And we had the annual bring and buy with the guys. I picked up a couple trucks to be converted for my Quar as well as five different cans of Flames of War Spray Primer.

And true to fashion, I won the "Good Sportsmens Award". In other words I had the lowest score in the tourney..... But hey, at least the games were close....... I actually killed some units this time.......

Ah well, I think their renaming the award after me...... Dave is supposed to be sending some photos of the day. When he does I'll put them up. Well maybe not the one of me and my award.......

See ya.

Trash to something......

As gamers we are always looking for things we can turn into tabletop terrain. It just so happened I found some at work. As I was leaving, my friend Tom picked up some clear plastic forms that were laying in the trash. And as our usual response said "we can make something out of that...."

Tom recently picked up some 15mm Hammers Slammers from Old Crow and GZG. So we have been talking about ideas for terrain. So yesterday I grabbed one and threw some paint on it.

Here is the plastic form as we found it.
I trimmed away the extra crap around the edge and cut off a area that had the plastic rating symbol pressed into it. I sprayed the whole thing black with a can of Krylon Fusion and let dry. I have a bunch of vinyl lying for my vinyl cutter, so I cut thin strips to be used as windows. Painters tape or masking tape would work as well.

I placed them around the form where I thought windows would be. I then sprayed the whole thing with Krylon Stone Texture paint. Just a note, we are used to spraying from 8 to 12" from the target. It works much better if you are 12 to 16" with the stone paint. Once dry I pulled the vinyl off, and the black paint showed through. Here is the finished product.


I finished with some flock and static grass. I then took some pastel chalks I have lying around and did a hard highlite on the edges of the building. I also used some to darkened the ground that shows through the flock. It was quick and dirty, but I think it looks cool. On the next one I will use a bunch of greeblies. Probably a radar dish or something.

Hope you like it.

Bangalors up.........

Well, the event at the fort was fantastic. We had a great turnout from the unit, and everyone was on their top game with the public. The only downside is it was hot. I mean real hot.... Normally there is a nice breeze off of Lake Ontario, but this weekend there was nothing.

Anyway I broke out a new display piece this weekend. And the crowd was very interested. Alot of what we use we have to make ourselves, so off to Lowes and walla.......

The Bangalore.

Nothing overly special, but they make for interesting talk. They are 1 1/2" PVC with the ends capped. Sanded, primed and sprayed. The original Bangalores are 2" inches in diameter by 5' long. These are only 1 7/8" in diameter so are a little small. It also makes it hard to find connectors between them. I plan on getting 2" exhaust pipe to remake them, as well as get exhaust connectors for them.

I cut quick stencils for the lettering and applied them with yellow spray paint. On the caps I made the hole where the blasting cap would fit. As well as made a blasting fuse.


The blasting fuse and cap was fairly easy to make. The cap itself is just a piece of 1/4" steel rod, and the fuse itself is just paper that I glued in a tube. The fuse itself is just string dyed black.

Overall its a good example of a Bangalore for display.

Now clear the shingles........