Current Gaming Projects

Friday, August 7, 2015

What a strange trip it has been...new gaming projects

OK, before I get to the topic that is in the title of this post, just a couple of things...

1) I am on the road again (Like a band of gypsies we go down the highway...Stop that, Willie!)  I am working out of town this week and next and of course, working weird and long hours.  So, I probably will not get up any info on the guerrilla war in Missouri this weekend.

2) I am plugging away on inventorying my 28mm figures to keep or sell.  I am got a lot sorted out already, but I still have more to go through, but probably less than 25% of all that I have that is unpainted (which is almost all of my 28mm's!)  I am hoping to have this completed by the end of the month.  A lot of stuff is going to go.  But I also realized after I started to inventorying what I plan to keep and start boxing them for storage as if they where finished miniatures (i.e., actually painted and based vs. just throwing a bunch of unpainted figures in a box) I am realizing that I will have to trim down some more of what I am going to keep to make sure that I have enough room for storage.  I am going to start looking at my 15mm next and downsizing those by tons as that scale makes up probably 80% of all my miniatures.  So, probably by the end of the month I will be sending out my list of 28mm to go to the local gamers in St Louis first (so I don't have to mail stuff) and then I will be posting on this blog probably around late Sept or Oct you my readers. 

3) I sent my first round of figures to be painted off already.  These are all 15mm, mostly Sci-Fi stuff for THW's 5150 Urban Renewal or The Department solo/co-op games.  The next batch will most like be 15mm Fenian Raids miniatures and either Triple Alliance War miniatures or French Indian War miniatures.  The third wave will be which ever group that I didn't send off in the last batch and probably the first of 28mm figures.  

4) I have listen to quite a few radio plays and I think a couple of audio books since listening to Border War, so I am going to try to get caught up on my list on the 2015 commitment tracker page.  As for books, I really have not been reading anything other some Amazon Kindle samples for various books that you can download for free to see if you want to order that book.  After I get caught back up on my notes for the guerrilla war in Missouri, I plan to finish that book off and get into the final book of the series.

So, back to the title of this entry...in an odd full circle of things, I am going to start not one but probably two new 28mm projects.  There is an odd connection on how these two projects are related to each other on why I want to do them, which I will explain later.  First, the one project that I will do is the 1910-20's Banana Wars.  I actually have a head start on this project to my surprise as I was sorting through my 28mm to sell.  When I found that I had several USMC figures in Montana hats from Pulp Figures and Brigade Games, I was confused as I couldn't remember why I had them since while at one time I was interested in doing the Banana Wars, I really was not interested in doing Marines (ah, yes, that US Army-USMC Inter-service rivalry does run deep in me).  Later, I remember that I bought them to do National Guard troops for 1920's-30's gangster games.  But the idea of doing Banana Wars had take root again in me, even if they were USMC :)

So I am going to order some more figures to do a platoon level skirmish game for this and looking to re-read With the Old Corps in Nicaragua by George B Clark (yes, I really did read this book years ago).  So, why the interest in doing the Banana Wars?  Many moons ago, back in the dark ages, yours truly, got a full paid for vacation to Honduras by my Uncle Sam, not once, but twice!  Plus he gave me another trip to Panama too!  As I have fond memories of Honduras of being shot at and held up (I even got to camp on an old abandon United Fruits plantation in Honduras!) , I have always had an interest in Central America for military actions.  So that is where my interest in doing the Banana Wars in 28mm's.  But what is this other project?  Why it is the US intervention in Northern Russia during the Russian Revolution!

How does that relate to my Banana Wars project?  Well, when I was in Honduras the first time, I brought one book with me to read and it was The Ignorant Armies by E. M. Halliday, about the US intervention into Northern Russia.  I was quite taken with the book and always wanted to do this a game since way back when, but never found figures that worked for me.  While I saw that there were greatcoat Russians out for long time, I never saw US troops until recently from Tiger Miniatures.  I don't know how long that they have been available, but there you go.

So as I wade through 28mm figures to get rid of, I am starting to buy 28mm figures to replace them...and the wheel keeps on turning...

Cheers,

Joe

3 comments:

Simon Quinton said...

Sounds like an interesting period to play. I am doing the same removing stuff I have no terrain for and replacing it with stuff that can all crossover properly.

Pete. said...

Nice ideas for projects- should have some great skirmish games from them.

A case of out with the old and in with the new....

Cheers,

Pete.

sapperjoe said...

@Simon: I was trying to do that too, but I don't think banana trees grow in Northern Russia! Oh well...

@Pete: Yeah, but I was getting rid of stuff to stay gone and not replace it!

Cheers!

Sapper