IPMS nationals (part 2) Mutli- engines

Multi engines all scales.  

EP-3E  Love these aircraft.  Why Because I was a Flight engineer on them.

Excellent model with a natural metal finish

another P-3C.

Always liked the C-119 in Canadian markings.

B-26 is another well made model.

2015 IPMS nationals Columbus Ohio (Part 1)

The national at Columbus was great again.  Many models on the table.   As I was leaving many more model were going in for the contest.   Interesting to see a couple of the plane from Region 4 there that had won at Wright Con earlier in the year.   Hope they will do well at the national.   \

Lighting in the hall again was poor again.  The quality of picture are not the better.  It seemed to me the table stood lower this year.   One had to kneel to get good picture.   It was a killer on this ancient back and knees.   Now for pictures.

Awesome scratch built ship diorama

Aircraft boneyard at Davis Monthan AFB, Az

Another well done diorama of a crash Soviet helicoper

FW-190D from Hell

For the past month or so I have been trying to build a FW-190D for the IPMS nationals next week. It is an Eduard kit.   In the box it is a beautiful looking kit.  Well that is where the pretty spot.  It is a breast to put together.   At one point the kit was all assembly except for the machine cowl above the engine.   ARRRGH the cowl wouldn't fit. No matter how hard I tried to make it fit.  The only fix was to tear the fuselage apart.   Sand the bulkheads on the edge down and put it together.   In the process I lost the tail wheel. Broke off an exhaust stub for the hobby room monster the dwells there. The under wing shell chute was completely reworked between the wheels.  The correct type was gotten from a Tamiya FW-190A8.   Will post more pictures tomorrow.  It is Miller time right now ;)


  Another battle has been reshaping the propeller.  To make the propeller look like one that the FW-190D used...   Now pictures of the Beast.

X-wing miniature

Last night I got to play my first X-wing miniatures games.   I bought the game over a year ago to play with my grandson. But as things go I never got the game.   My good friend Anton invited me to come by to try the game out.   The mission was the run on the Death Star.  Kris one of the group in the group set the game up.   The main battle took place on the main gaming table.  As the attack on the reactor was on a small table to represent the bombing run in the trench.

I was duly put on the Empire side..  Otherwise known as the meat in the sandwich so to speak.   After the first two turn the Tie arrived.   As my normal luck I came in against Luke.   My pilot skill were a 3 and 4.    My valiant effort to defend the death lasted three for the skill 3 pilot and 5 turns for the skill 4 pilot.   Lesson learned don't dogfight Luke.  He can fly circles around a low level Tie fighter pilot.   As the Tie fighters dropped to half strength the game master roll for three more Tie fighters to enter the broad.     These poor fellows became the desert for the Rebel aces.  But I got one to follow in the Y-fighters into the trench.  Got a a few lucky hits along with Vader to knock out a fighter.  As the Empire flew out of the trench the rebels ace dove in.   The turrets got a couple.  But wedge knocked out the reactor.   As the badly beaten Empire was trying to race back to the trench entrance.  Eight Tie-fighter against a pile of the Rebel Aces (6) and to skilled y-fighters turned out to be no match for the Luke and the force.

 Today I watched the you tube video on the X-wing miniatures. Wished I had seen this yesterday.  My Tie Pilot might have last a couple turns longer.    May the force be with you.


X-wing game Tutorial

Confederate Flag

Lord all the crazy hysteria  over the Confederate is nuts.  The flag is the battle flag of Tennessee.  Soon they will be no history only a PC view of the world.  Sadly most of the people complaining know little about history sadly.  I'm posting a image below.   Confederate Battle Flags.

Stuff

Sorry that I have not posted anything in a while.   Looks like I'm going back to work in a month. My daughter need some surgery.  The night before the operation Blue Cross refused to pay. Being Dad I paid for the procedure.  What we were told as to the cost turned out to be a much high cost. This far I have put out 5,000 dollars and the bills are still coming in.  The surgery was an 1/2 hour long.  Now I need to recover the money out of my retirement funds. The only way to do that is go back to work.
 As one can imagine this has take away desire to paint miniature for the time being.  Only item I have been working on is FW-190 for the IPMS nationals.  The kit is an Eduard model.  The model has become a nightmare.  The assembly process is a mess.  This has caused me to fit the parts that turned out to be oversized.  Maybe I will post pictures later.  Life goes on.  As I was told early on "Life keeps on moving.  It does stop for you if you have problems. So buck up, get on with your life"

Live fire with civil war carbines

This video is from the N-SSA spring nationals.   These members are shooting original or replica civil war carbines.   That would be Sharps, Smith and Maynards plus muzzle loading carbines.

The firing line to close to a half mile long. 

Ellsworth Gun history

Ellsworth gun History

The 20 guns ordered by Lincoln were manufactured by the firm of Goddard, Rice & Co. and sent to Washington D.C. in November 1861. The guns that they sent were four feet long, six inches in diameter at the breech and three and a half inches at the muzzle. It had a one and a half-inch rifled bore with fifteen lands and grooves. Opposing wedges, operated by handle went through the breech of the gun holding the breech - block in place. A truncated cone on the front of the breech-block forces against two tapered rings, to create the gas seal for the breech. (Much like the rings on a piston in an engine.) A handle on the back of the breech–block pulls the block back to break the rings free.

Hits at 600yds with Parrot gun target

People wonder just how accurate civil war artillery was.  Here are some picture of target at 600yd.   10lb parrot gun and ellsworth breech load cannon.   There are 4 shots in the black. With a cluster of three in the center. Total 10 shots fired.

10lb Parrot rifle the round sideways where short shots the bounced in

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Ellsworth gun 600yds. Target 4 X 8 plywood

200yard with 10lb Parrot gun

Ellsworth gun

200yd target fired by Ellsworth gun.  This is my good friend who build the replica. Brian pasted away a year ago.

Iron Druid series of books by Kevin Hearne.

If you like Druids and fantasy this series of books are kick ass.  Nothing like 2000 year old Druid living in Arizona who has werewolf and a vampire for lawyers. Once you stating reading the book you can't put it down.  So grab Hounded and start reading.


Iron Druid

More from the N-SSA national

Hope you enjoy the video.  Lots of live fire of civil war weapons.

Civil war artillery

Looking down the bore of a James Rifle. This photo was taken at the start of the live fire artillery match at the N-SSA spring nationals.

Check out the drone view of the Fort

Added CAG19 blog to list Airwar of Vietnam

This is a great blog.  The main article is about the GMT game called Downtown.  The game is about the airwar of North Vietnam.  Unfortunately the game is currently out of print.  Simon Tyler is the blog owner.  He has a done outstanding job on creating terrain for the game.  Plus instead of using the counter Simon is using 1/600 scale aircraft.    Check the link out: I promise not to start any new wargaming project

This is an campaign that Simon has been playing for a long period of time.  Check the blog out. You just might be buying some new games....