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........

Soldiers through the Ages

This past weekend I participated in one of my favorite events. Every Memorial Day there is a Soldiers through the Ages timeline at Old Fort Niagara in Youngstown NY. There are reenactors portraying soldiers from the French and Indian war up to and including WW2. There is a representative display for each era of soldier stationed at the fort at one time or another. Throughout the day we have interactive demonstrations as well as question and answer sessions.

For us its a relaxing time, seeing old friends and making new. The downside is I don't get to take any photos, as I am usually talking with the public. I am sure some of the guy in my unit have taken some and as I see them I'll throw them on here.

Apparently the local news was there filming us as well. Though I didn't get to see the report.

Next up is the Buffalo Naval Park.

Shameless plug....

The story.... If you have read my profile you would have seen that I co-wrote a set of rules called Arena Games. Back when the movie gladiator came out my buddies wanted to get into the gladiator craze that was going on.

We played a number of rules sets out there but couldn't find a fun set of rules that gave us what we wanted. There were rules that were very technically challenging, and some that only went so far. Many of the games we play are based on a "feel" of what we are doing. If I'm playing a pirate game, I want it to feel like the old Errol Flynn pirate movie. Swinging from the rigging, etc. Same goes with the gladiators. So one night I show up for a game and my buddies Mike and Jim are banging their head over a set of rules. In the time it took them to play one turn, we hashed out the basics of what we wanted.

Anyway, we wrote the rules for ourselves and moved on. We had played them a number of times with our local group and it became a regular event. One day our friend Walt shows up with a huge box. He opens it and inside was this........

The Colosseum. Over 300 painted figures that have nothing to do with the game. Thank god hes retired..... So we start taking the game to conventions for a pick up game, and to our amazement it becomes a hit. It was awarded "Best New Ancients Game" at Historicon, along with a battle streamer for a "Game for young players". People started asking where they could get the rules. Hence we began publishing them for sale. Here we are presenting the award to Walt for his amazing work.


Now for the plug.......

Recently we updated out website which you can find here. Also recently they have been offered for sale at Wargames Vault. If your looking for a fun, fast game, give it a shot. I think you'll like it.

15mm Quar.

I have to say, ever since the Quar came out I have been itching to paint up some. They remind me of characters from underground comics from the 60's. Primarily those by Vaughn Bode.

However my gaming space has shrunk, so I am forced to look at smaller scales. So when Zombiesmith announced they were releasing the Quar in 15mm, I had to jump on them. I am waiting for the rulebook and some more figures. But, I painted up my first batch. Here are some pics of what I've done.


The first batch I have painted up into 2 different sections. One in a khaki uniform and the other in a feldgrau. I haven't worked on fluff for them yet. But once I read the rulebook I can figure that out.

Here are the rest of the pics....





These have been a blast to paint, and I cant wait for the rest to show.

See ya.