I was gone most of the weekend, but my daughter helped finish these jousting barriers while I was gone.
I got a copy of the jousting rules used by Brian De Witt to run his jousting game in the HAWKs Battle in a Box contest. I finished printing and cutting up the cards and lining out the board (not used in these pictures). I plan to bring this game to Barrage in case we have an overflow of people.
Buck
This was a rare weekend at home in which I was able to play games AND paint figures. Given the amount of travel I have had to do for work, it was fun to focus a fair amount of the weekend to my hobby. I have had a pack of figures from Eureka that are Italian Renaissance duelists and assorted bystanders. I like the figures, but frankly, the sheer riot of color for the Italian Renaissance had me continue to push this project deeper and deeper into the queue. I didn’t want to start this project and then have it languish on the painting table for weeks or months.
The figures had enough relief on them that they were easy to paint.
These were fun to paint, because I was completely unconstrained on which colors I could use.
I will use these with Blood and Swash. It will essentially be the same as my pirate tavern games, but with different figures.
I was involved with the Albedo Miniatures Kickstarter. I adapted Combat Patrol for the Albedo universe. I also bought into the Kickstarter to get some of the figures and vehicles. The figures are really nice and will work by themselves or mixed in with other science fiction figures and games. I am working short days this week, so yesterday afternoon I painted two vehicles and an aircraft that I had prepped and partially assembled two days ago.
The fires support vehicle comes with a more traditional gun, but somehow during prep, I accidentally threw out the barrel, and it was trash day, so by the time I realized it, my barrel was on the way to the landfill. So, I replaced it with a “Tesla gun” from Company B miniatures. I am going to have to order another couple of packs of those barrels. They have come in hand recently.
I really like this aircraft. In fact, I have ordered two more of the kit with more optional variants. I had a little trouble figuring out how to attach all the various weapons, and had to refer to pictures online, but I love this kit! I plan to use this both for Albedo and for other science fiction games.
At Historicon I purchased a giant gorilla from Eureka Miniatures. Two weeks ago, when I opened up the packaging, I discovered that the gorilla’s left arm was missing. Rob put one in the mail right away, and it arrived before I returned from my long business trip. So, I painted it while I was painting my Hawaiians.
Several years ago, Eureka Miniatures had a line of Polynesian (Hawaiian) figures. I have been kicking myself for years for not ordering them, because they went out of production. Recently a new line came into production, and I ordered two sets of them. (I also ordered four canoes [which are still out of production], but that is for another post.) Having returned from ten days on the road and a lot of long days for work recently, I decide that I would knock these out.
We returned from a recent vacation in Hawaii, and I was in the mood. I REALLY like these figures. My plan is to run a small skirmish game involving angry Hawaiian’s and Captain Cooke’s men during his second landing on Hawaii, when he was killed. As can be send in the picture (above), my plan is to use my Old Glory French and Indian War British for Captain Cooke’s troops.
They are very nice figures, with nearly no filing needed. I like the way they turned out. Being predominantly skin, after base spraying them brown and hitting them with Agrax Earthshade, they were nearly complete. I just had to paint in the details.
I know the popular myth is that the natives were happy and peaceful until Europeans arrived — whether we are talking about North America, Hawaii, or South America. The truth is that these were violent cultures at war with each other for dominance. (I highly recommend Mayflower, if you haven’t read it, and the truth about King Philip’s War.) On the plane to Hawaii, my wife read some stories to me about ancient Hawaii, and the violence and barbarity is amazing. The infighting didn’t really stop until, armed with European-provided muskets and gunpowder, King Kamehameha, conquered the islands under threat of extermination for those who didn’t pledge allegiance to him. So, I think it is also fair to have a skirmish game in which Polynesians are fighting each other.
I don’t know when they will get on the table, but they are painted, boxed, and ready for action.
I was gone for work the past two weekends. in fact by the time I returned on Sunday night, I had already worked over 80 hours this two week pay period — and still had five days left. I did manage, two weeks ago, however, to get a few things painted. I had the Conquistador figure (above) painted for quite some time, but I was looking for just the right mount. I found this spiky turtle creature in a bin at Historicon last month, and it called to me.
Several weeks ago, I scored some old Archive space dwarves on Ebay, and I had a chance to paint them up.
I had piggy backed on an order by Chris for Reaper Bones MCMDXLII for some snake men, a giant alligator, and a few other odds and end. I managed to paint the alligator before disappearing for ten days.
Finally, many months ago, when I ordered some Warlord bren carriers to get the crews (see previous post on this topic), they came with a kit to make some smoke markers. Mark’s recent post about making smoke markers for What a Tanker reminded me that I had this in the to-do box. While watching on TV with CINC domicile, I put them together.
Someone sent me a shortened version of this video recently. I found the longer version on YouTube. I think this is worth watching.
The HAWKs recently received an Email from John Spiess about his daughter and the Armies for Kids project. With his permission, I am sharing the letter:
Hi guys,
I know you are probably getting busy planning for Barrage, so I wanted to send you a quick note to say thanks for all you do for our Hobby. Please see the two photos below. The first one was taken at Historicon 2011 which I believe was the first year the “Armies for Kids” project took place. Notice the little nine year old girl on the far left.
Fast forward eight years to Historicon 2019, just held in downtown Lancaster. The same girl, now seventeen, just won the Best in Show Award for her Saturday “Siege of Paris” game.
If you haven’t figured it out just yet, her name is Erin Spiess, my daughter. I remember her first convention was spent entirely in the HAWKS room, and she has been completely hooked since then, thanks to all your efforts. So give yourselves a nice pat on the back.
I’ll also share some details on her game. First, I ran the same game on Friday. I had six slots, but let 15 people play (I don’t like turning people away, so I always bring extra figures). Erin ran the game on Saturday and let 19 play, nine of which were kids from our education program. When I tried to help she just said, “Get lost dad, I got this”.
Anyway, it turns out that one of the kids was also a special needs student. He showed up late and just expected to be turned away. Not only did she give him a warm welcome, but the way she handled the game mechanics to keep him and the other young kids involved, while making sure everyone was having a good time was pretty inspiring. Guess what, she learned a lot of that from the HAWK gamemasters. The young man actually went to the Awards desk afterwards and told them that he had the best time of his life.
So thanks again and good luck with Barrage. Hopefully, I’ll see you both at Fall-In.
Being a “cowboy” has become a disparaging term in our upside down society where common sense got on a boat years ago and sailed for terra incognita. Still as a kid, I remember that my heroes were cowboys. Men like John Wayne, Jimmy Steward, Randolph Scott, Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, and Hopalong Cassiday were the folks on the silver screen to whom I looked for inspiration. For those who think being a cowboy is a bad thing, this is what Gene Autry said about being a cowboy. I’m sure that these ideas will seem trite to many and offensive to others, but this is my blog. 🙂
I wish those domestic enemies of the Constitution in D.C. — on both sides of the aisle — would abide by these simple ideals.
At Historicon 2019, the Harford Area Weekly Kriegspielsers hosted another Armies for Kids game. This year’s GM was Chris Johnson.
I think this is the eighth or ninth year we have done this. We paint six sets of armies, one for each “side.” We package those along with rules (Milk and Cookies Rules from Big Battles for Little Hands), rulers, dice, paper terrain, and other goodies. The game is a participation game for kids under ten years old. When the game is over, each of the kids gets to take home a full set of painted figures and all the accessories.
The idea is that hopefully these kids go home and start playing games with their buddies. The kids at the convention come with their parents, so in many ways we are preaching to the converted; however, we hope that these kids go home and introduce their little buddies to wargaming.
We only had five kids this year, but we were prepared for six. Do these kids look happy to you? A couple of recent years we’ve had trouble getting enough kids for this project. Maybe we’ll need to put it away for a while.
We began day seven by visiting the various volcanos, steam vents, and lava fields in Volcano National Park. We got a late-ish start but got out the door early enough to see all we wanted to see in the park. Kilauea is the least active it has been for 35+ years, so there were no active lava fields or flowing lava.
Near the visitor’s center there are a number of active steam vents where hot gasses from the most recent eruption are visible. We took a couple mile hike into the Kilauea caldera. Until recently this was an active lava lake until last year’s major eruptions. There are two major types of lava in Hawai’i: ‘a’ā and pāhoehoe. ‘A’ā is rough and chunky, while pāhoehoe is smooth and ropy. They may vary in color from shiny black to dull brown. Both types have the same chemical composition, but pāhoehoe is hotter when it erupts and is more fluid than ‘a’ā.
After this hike we drove the Chain of Craters road stopping at sites along the way to see different types of lava flows, craters, etc.
On the way back up the Chain of Craters road to the visitor’s center we stopped at an area with 23,000 petroglyphs engraved into the lava flow. Since they were engraved in the lava rather than painted on a cave or canyon wall, they were much more visible that normal.
It was a bit disappointing that there were no explanations of what scholars think some of the symbols might mean.
After this night of hiking and walking we had dinner in the cafeteria at Kilauea Military Camp, which is much like a military-style mess hall. The food was good, but no frills. We then went back to our cabin to watch Moana and have dessert.
We started the next day by walking along the trail past the sulphur vents around the visitor center. These are similar to the steam vents on the opposite side of the road, but the escaping gasses have more minerals, particularly sulphur, and they stain the rocks bright colors.
Then we drove the eastern side of the island, stopping to see various overlooks, beaches, and sites along the way.
As we stopped at these beaches — all beaches in Hawaii are public — in most cases we were surprised how few people were on them.
Then we kept driving.
These falls were impressive but were only a fifth as tall as Angel Falls in South America.
The next morning we bade farewell to our cabin and took a short detour to see the interior of the Volcano House lodge in the national park.
Our plan was to drive up the coast (mostly) from Volcano National Park to Kailua-Kona where we were would stay the last two nights in Hawaii.
Along the way we stopped at a place known as the “refuge.” The punishment for nearly all crimes in ancient Hawaii seems to have been death. A marked person could flee, and if he made it to this place and spent some time with the priest here, he could be absolved of his crimes and return home.
We arrived in Kailua-Kona (mostly known just as Kona) in time to check into the Royal Kona Resort and get the lay of the land before our scheduled luau. We had time to put on our swimsuits and play in the hotel’s private lagoon and then in the pool before showering up for the luau.
This was some of the best kalua pork we had on the trip.
At the luau we had excellent food and all-you-can-drink mai tais. Candy drank mai tai’s like a fish. Depending on who you ask the number was between four and six!
The luau lasted until after sunset.
As with all luaus, the highlight was the fire guy.
The next morning, we slept in and then went to the pool for a couple of hours.
This evening we planned to take a tour to Mauna Kea to see the stars. We have seen the brilliant star fields at Bryce Canyon, and Mauna Kea is supposed to be better. We met the van at 1430 and got part way up the mountain for an early dinner when the National Weather Service close the road to the observatories due to rain and flash flooding. We were very disappointed, but we made it back down to our hotel in time to watch the fireworks in the harbor, since it was the 4th of July.
The next day was really a travel day. Our flight left Kona at 2000, but we got a somewhat late checkout and planned to enjoy the day. We started at the pool again and then went to visit the Vanillerie. This is a small farm where the local businessman is trying to make a go of farming vanilla. After the tour, I have a much greater respect for vanilla. It is a HARD and LONG process. This is why you have probably never actually had vanilla, but imitation vanilla which is much more easily harvested from the bark of some type of pine tree.
At the end of the tour we got a small sample of ice cream made with his real vanilla, and there was a definite taste difference.
The flights home were uneventful but painfully long at the end of a ten-day vacation. I don’t know when we’ll all be able to take this much time together for a vacation.