Sunday, February 20, 2022

Playtest and Model Show

On Saturday a few of the guys came over to walkthrough and test out some ideas for a Battle of Lissa (1866) game that they want to run at Enfilade 2022. So we set up parts of the Italian and Austrian lines and went through a few rounds of gunfire and ramming for a couple sets of rules. They will use 1/600 scale ships from the old Bay Area Yards line. Not all the ships are complete yet, but tings are starting to look good.

Austrian Ironclads moving toward the Italian line


Italian lead group

We got a good idea of how the different rules played and settled on which set they will use for the game.

Ramming Re D'Italia

I also spent a little time at the Museum of Flight looking through some scale models from the Northwest Scale Modelers group. There were a lot of models to be seen, but unsurprisingly the show was dominated by aircraft models. It is always fun to look at all the models they have. I enjoy looking at the models and know that if I hadn't found miniature gaming I would be putting models together for shows like this. But it is much more fun (and acceptable) to play with the stuff I put together and paint up. Here are a few photos from the show.

Bf-109F Tropical

1/2000 scale USS Yorktown in pre-WWII colors

A scene from Dr. Strangelove

A nice Kasserine Pass diorama

Rockets!

1/72nd scale USS Scorpion

A rarely seen Vultee Vengence

An RAF Baltimore bomber

I haven't been getting out much, so it was nice to go to the museum and see some of my favorite aircraft, like the Sopwith Triplane. 

A reproduction Sopwith Triplane painted up as the Black Prince
It also gave me the chance to look at the military ramp near the museum. Where I just happened to see a batch of P-8 Poseidon aircraft being prepared for the Royal Norwegian Air Force. You can even see the squadron insignia on the tail (the lower photo has a closer view). It turns out these aircraft are destined to join 333 Squadron of the Royal Norwegian Air Force. The squadron has an interesting history and the Saint emblem is a newish logo.

P-8 Poseidon

A better view of The Saint
Overall a good weekend.