2019 NHMGS Game Day at the Museum of Flight

On Saturday, November 23, the Northwest Historical Miniature Gaming Society (NHMGS) joined the Northwest Scale Modelers and Lake Sawyer Hawks Radio Control Club at the Museum of Flight for the annual Hobby Day.

A view from the NHMGS gaming tables at the museum

The event was well attended and many museum goers stopped off to look at the displays and ask questions. We even had several that joined in some of our games during the day.

The Northwest Scale Modelers had tables under the SR-71.

One of the Northwest Scale Modeler tables

The Radio Control Club was in the side gallery, mainly due to the size of their planes.

A radio-controlled P-40 and Spitfire

Our information tables were set up in front of the gaming tables, with figures, rules, and reference materials.

One of the NHMGS information tables

We four gaming tables and two gaming sessions. The morning session had a 6mm Vietnam War game with the Vietnamese trying to take out an American helicopter LZ, a Star Wars X-Wing Fighter game, World War I naval - prelude to Jutland game, and a British attack on an Italian convoy.

The American LZ in the center of the table

X-Wing fighters on the attack

Cruisers getting into action before Jutland

Since Kevin and I were running the convoy attack game, I have more photos and a better description of the action. We used David Manley's unpublished Air War 1940 rules for the game. We had 4 British players (flying Blenheims IVs, Beauforts, and Swordfish out of Malta) up against 4 Italians (flying CANT 1007 patrol bombers, CR.42s, and MC200s). The Italians had a lot of ships and area to cover, but the British didn't have a lot of weapons (bombs and torpedoes) to take out the ships.

View before the British entered the map

Beauforts on the starboard side of the convoy taking on the CANT bombers and heading for the ships

Blenheim IVs attacking the front of the convoy

Beauforts on the port side of the convoy make it to the ship before the CR.42s can attack, but their bombs missed

The Blenheims from the front both hit the lead merchant and sink it

The Beaufort coming from the starboard side gets lucky with a bomb hit that takes out another merchant

The Swordfish were able to drop their torpedoes just before the MC.200s reached them, sinking another merchant

The British sank three merchants with only one plane lost and several damaged. Overall a victory for the British.

The afternoon session had a Black Seas game, a Wings of Glory WWI game, and repeats of the Jutland and Convoy games.

Black Seas game in progress

Wings of Glory fighters make a pass

The afternoon convoy game was joined by a few museum visitors (2 British and 1 Italian). None of them had every played this type of game before. But after a couple turns, they were flying and fighting on their own without any troubles (at least from the rules). Which is a good testament to how easy David Manley's rules are to pick up.

Second Convoy game in action (the Sopwith Camel wasn't part of the game, but a kit that museum goers could purchase and put together with some modeler assistance)

Blenheims only do minor damage as the CANT blasts away at them

The Swordfish get a tanker, but the MC.200s tailing them knock down both torpedo bombers

The British didn't do as well in the afternoon game, losing 3 aircraft while sinking a tanker and damaging two other merchants.

Overall, everyone seemed to have an enjoyable time and we were able to get some information about gaming out to the general public. The annual event is (almost) always a good time and it is fun to share the hobby with people that have never seen miniatures.

The museum had a space-animal themed Christmas tree at the entrance