Wisdom tooth and New England Outline

OK, first with the really bad news, I have an wisdom tooth infection right now and I am in a lot of pain!  I spoke to my dentist at his emergency phone number and got a prescription of antibiotics, but they are not lasting their full length of time and I just took another waiting for the pain to subside some so I can get some sleep (couldn't sleep at all yesterday.)  I will not be able to see him until Tuesday and I might have to miss work today if I can't sleep again.  I am definitely having both of my wisdom teeth pulled as soon as possible after this!  

Anyways, I was typing up my New England trip outline for myself to get the pictures in order, but since I can't sleep because of my tooth right now, I might as well post it here with a few pics for now.  Below is a listing of the locations I visited during my New England trip.  For an idea on how much ground that I really covered, I had a rental car that I picked up in New York City and in sixteen days drove over 4000 miles (6400 km), including walking an average of five miles (8 km) every day.  

My companion for sixteen days with the adeptly name, Jeep Patriot

Now for the other bad news shoe to drop...I discovered that I lost one of my camera’s memory cards, so I lost about 1/3 of my pictures from my trip…sigh.  

I have some general notes also behind some of the locations for significance or general information.

NY: 
NYC Spent most of my day with a college friend of mine who lives in Manhattan, so the locations for NYC was visited with him
NYC Stanton Island Ferry and took photos of Ellis Island & Statue of Liberty
NYC Wall Street - The Bull Statue, Federal Hall National Memorial, and dined at Fraunce’s Tavern

 NYC Village – Visited the Slaughter Lamb Tavern but took no pictures
Sleepy Hollow - Missing most of my pictures, but visited the Headless Horseman Bridge, Old Dutch Church, and Washington Irving’s grave
Stony Point AWI Battlefield - Missing most of my pictures
Fort William Henry F&I Battlefield - Missing all of my pictures
Saratoga AWI Battlefield - Missing all of my pictures
Fort Ticonderoga F&IW & AWI Battlefield

CT:
Groton US Submarine Museum & the USS Nautilus

Hartford State Capitol
Hartford Old State House
Hartford State History Museum
Hartford Soldiers Memorial

RI:
Providence H.P. Lovecraft’s tour of College Hill (many of the buildings that mentioned in his stories) and his gravesite

 Newport Old Stone Mill & Touro Park

VT:
Bennington AWI Memorial - Missing all of my pictures
Townshend Post Office - From HP Lovecraft’s story, “Whisperer in the Darkness”
Townshend Cover Bridge - Missing all of my pictures
Brattleboro Railroad Station - From HP Lovecraft’s story, “Whisperer in the Darkness”
Brattleboro Cover Bridge - Missing all of my pictures
Brattleboro Dark Mountain – From HP Lovecraft’s story, “Whisperer in the Darkness”
St Albans – Site of Confederate raid during the US Civil War

 Sheldon – No pictures due to not being able to safely get to the road side markers, but site of a Confederate raid during the US Civil War

MA:
Whately Schoolhouse, Post Office, & Town Hall – Possible location of HP Lovecraft’s Dunwich, from the story “The Dunwich Horror”
Stockbridge/Great Barrington: Arlo Guthrie’s Alice’s Restaurant Tour and a speculated location of the scene of the crime!
Fall River Battleship Cove - Missing all of my pictures
Fall River Historical Society Museum – No pictures allowed, but site of many Lizzie Borden artifacts
Fall River Lizzie Borden’s Bed & Breakfast
Provincetown Pilgrim Monument / Museum & Pilgrim’s First Landing spot - Missing almost all of my pictures
Cape Cod – Missing all of my pictures
Salem Shipyards
Salem House of the Seven Gables & Nathaniel Hawthorne’s house
Salem National Guard Armory
Salem The Witch House
Salem Charter Street Old Burial Ground & the Pickman’s House and the white house which was inspired in HP Lovecraft’s story, “The Unnamable” and Nathaniel Hawthorne’s story “Dr Grimshawe”
Salem Bewitched Monument
Salem Witch Trial’s Monument
Salem Clue House – the house used in the US version of Clue
Salem Yellow House – From HP Lovecraft’s story, “The Thing at the Door”,
Salem Night Tour

 Salem St Paul’s
Salem Town Hall – Used in the movie, “Hocus Pocus”
Salem Witch Museum
Danvers Witch Trials Monument
Danvers Rebecca Nurse Home – No pictures allowed
Rowley Town Hall – From HP Lovecraft’s story, “The Shadow Over Innmouth”
Ispwich Town Hall – From HP Lovecraft’s story, “The Shadow Over Innmouth”
Lexington & Concord Minute Man Park and Lexington Battle Green

 Boston Bunker Hill Monument
Boston USS Constitution
Glouscester American Legion Hall – From HP Lovecraft’s story, “The Shadow Over Innmouth”
Haverhill Bedford University – From HP Lovecraft’s vision for what Miskatonic University would look like

ME:
Fort McClary

NH:
North Salem American Stonehenge – The circle of stones that HP Lovecraft vision in his story, “The Dunwich Horror”

Canada:
Eccles Hill – Location of the 1870 Fenian Raid
Battle of the Windmill Battlefield
Fort Wellington
Ridgeway Conference & Tour of the battlefield – A literary society conference for the 150th anniversary for the Battle of Ridgeway, including many noted speakers

Derrick Warfield & the Young Wolfe Tones Concert – Part of the Ridgeway conference
Ridgeway 150th Ceremonies 

Be seeing you
Sapper

New England, War Plan Crimson, and Spray Paint, oh my!

This is what is going on with me lately.

New England

I am just back from my first vacation in many years.  I flew into New York City to visit a college friend that I had not seen in 12 or more years then got in a rental car and begin a two-week road trip through Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Ontario, with a minor stop in Quebec.  I have now been to 49 of the 50 states of our Union! (Alaska, you’re the last one.) This trip was mainly a historical tour, but I did do some culture things as well.  When I get so time to sort through my pictures, I will post some of them up.

War Plan Crimson

Tiny Battles Publishing has just released a board game about War Plan Crimson (the US planned invasion of Canada in 1920s-30s), with the same title.  I thought this is rather cool since this covers the same gaming project that I am working on. The links to the buy a PDF version is here, or a hard copy here. 

Spray Paint

Just before I left for vacation, I got to spray paint a prime coat on my 28mm vehicles for War Plan Crimson too! (This was actually before I found out about the new board game).  In the picture, is the bulk of my Interwar US vehicles, plus a couple extra vehicles for other things.  Starting at the top of the picture (and to the left) is five Mack AC Bulldog trucks.  This was the main truck for the US Army after WW1 and up to the mid-1930s.  These truck were used to carry the M1917 light tanks up to the jump off point for combat since the tanks were so slow and had a very short operational range for fuel. 

Directly across from the trucks are five M1917 light tanks which are based off of the FT-17 tanks.  A US light tank platoon at this time had three tanks armed with machine guns and two tanks armed with 37mm guns.  That is the ratio that I have, plus I have one extra M1917 tank (not in this picture) that I am hoping to convert to radio tank. 

Next to the bottom M1917 tank is a US T16 light tank or also known as the Marmon-Herrington CTLS-4TAY tank.  This is not for my War Plan Crimson project, but just for display.  These tanks were designed for the Dutch East Indies armed forces prior to WW2, but as the Japanese attacked before they were delivered, they were transferred to the Missouri Army National Guard’s 138^th Infantry Regiment and were used during their deployment in Alaska.  Since I served in a unit with lineage to the 138^th, I had to get one. 

The large tank next to it is a Mark VIII Liberty heavy tank with the US Army used during the 1920’s and early 1930s.  I doubt that this tank would have been involved in War Plan Crimson due to the mechanical failures of this tank.  If anything they would have been placed on reserve to counter possible invasion beach heads on the coast.  But I went ahead and bought one for completeness sake, even if it is expensive as all get out.

The other large looking tank in the corner of the box is the US pre-WW1 Best Tracklayer Model 75 tank, A.K.A., the Bison.  Again, this is not for War Plan Crimson but more for display.  However, I am planning to start up the US Banana Wars project next year.  While I am planning to concentrate on Nicaragua and Haiti in the 1920s, the lure of pre-WW1 Mexico is there and maybe the California National Guard decided to deploy a Bison to the border with Mexico in response to the Zimmermann Telegram.

Just in front of the Bison is the Ford 3-ton M1918 tank. The US Army made a contract for 15,000 of these with Ford Motor Company during WW1, but over time the US Army felt that the tank could not live up to requirements in Europe and with the end of the war, the contract was voided with only 15 tanks built.  In my War Plan Crimson some of these may still be around.  I only got one, but might pick up four more to outfit a full platoon.

Finally, in the very bottom corner largely cut out of the picture is the Venezuelan Tortuga armored car.  While this is a Venezuelan vehicle built in 1934 (seven in total), it is much in the vain for a Banana War’s “tank” for the insurrectionists.  This will make the US Marines a bit more humbled in a game.

Final Notes

I actually got some reading/listening done for several books since my last entry.  I am updating my 2016 updates with them, but I am going to list them here as well:

WW1 & Interwar

Setting the East Ablaze: Lenin’s Dream of an Empire in Asia, by Peter Hopkirk

The Zimmermann Telegram, by Barbara Tuchman

The Fate of Admiral Kolchak, by Peter Flemming

Fiction

Kolchak: The Nightstalker: The Black and Evil Truth, by CJ Henderson

The Assistant Murder, by Dashiell Hammett

Red Wind, by Raymond Chandler

Until later, be seeing you

Sapper

This week's whimsie

There are two things that don't belong in this picture.  May the Force be with you!

Wednesday's Whimsie

Elvis & Nixon

I am SO going to see this movie!  Long live the king, baby!

Allied Intervention in Russia 1918 - 1920 Project (with pictures!)

I got my package from Fernando Painting a few weeks back, but with everything going on with our dog I was spending more time with him instead of opening my package.  So, I am just now getting around to opening the box and posting pictures of the miniatures. 

I am pretty happy with Fernando's services.  As you will see in the pictures, I sent a variety of 28mm this time to be painted.  This was the first batch of 28mm's that I had sent.  The figures were all painted to the 'Collectors' quality, which is not their best level, but sort of their middle level.  They are a lot better than what I could have painted.  This was also the first time that I had them base and flock the figures. There was a mistake with the Red's machine guns, but I will explain what happen later with the picture.

This batch was 178 figures (including the machine guns), plus two artillery pieces.  The turn around time from when they received my package, until I got it back was four months.  With the 'Collectors' quality painting, basing/flocking, assembling the machine guns and artillery pieces, a 10% discount for over $300 painting services, and finally the shipping cost (I forgot to write down my shipping cost to them, but I am guessing no more than $0.50 per figure), the average price per figure is about $3.15 for the services.  Excellent deal in my own opinion. Only the shipping cost is the hardest to swallow as it is 1/3 of the overall cost, but if you figure it out as an average cost per figure, it is not bad at all.

This project is mostly done with this batch of painted figures.  There are still some more things I want to add to this project.  Mainly, I need to add the other half of the Siberian Rifles platoon, a Soviet armored car, and a second U.S. Army platoon.  Possible future expansion might include a White Russian platoon, plus a machine gun team; a platoon of Czech Legion (and MG team); a mounted Cossack half platoon, and possibly a British tank.  I really wish to add a Japanese infantry platoon with winter clothing for the Siberian Expedition, but there are no miniatures that will work for them.

Since the Soviets have the home field advantage, they will be the first group of pictures.  First is the Soviet Command Group with a mounted overall commander, a flag bearer, a commissar, and a heroine which could be a spy, nurse, or some brave girl, and finally two sentries.  The figures are Copplestone Castings, except the sentries which are Footsore Miniatures. (Remember to click on the pictures for a larger version!)

Next is the Soviet support of two machine gun teams.  These miniatures are from Old Glory.

OK, notice the wheels are not on MG carriage.  That was my fault for forgetting to be very specific, and use simple directions on my instructions when dealing with foreign language barriers.  They placed them exactly where I had them laying in my picture to them for the placement of the soldiers.  I will have to fix this later, but it is a lesson learn for clarification in my instructions to them.

Now is the first Soviet platoon of one officer and four squads of ten riflemen.  I wanted a non-uniformed look to them to represent the collection of non-military troops or poorly supplied peasants that made up the Soviets initially.  The bulk of the figures are Copplestone Castings, but eight of them are Footsore Miniatures.

Finally is the second Soviet platoon at half strength with one officer and two squads of Siberian Rifles.  They are to represent the veteran, ex-Tsarist army troops that served in the Soviet army.  I accidentally didn't order enough of these guys to have gone out with this batch to be painted, but the second half will be in the next batch.  All of this figures are Copplestone Castings.

The Canadians are the next group of pictures.  Only the Canadian artillery was in the North Russia Expedition and the Canadian infantry were part of the Siberian Expedition.  First picture is of the Canadian Command Group.  While I only really need one or two officers for the platoon, I went ahead and had all of the figures in the pack painted up.  All of the Canadian figures are from Tiger Miniatures.

Next is the Canadian Support Group with a machine gun and a 18 pdr gun.

Finally is a weak platoon of infantry of an officer, a platoon sergeant, and four squads of eight.

The final group of pictures are the U.S. Army forces.  The 339th Infantry Regiment 'Polar Bears' served in the North Russia Expedition and the 27th and the 31st Infantry Regiments served as part of the Siberian Expedition.  I am more familiar with the North Russia Expedition over the Siberian Expedition, but I plan to read up more on it soon. In both cases, there were no U.S. artillery with the expeditions, except were part of an infantry regiment at the time, but I went ahead and got one artillery piece for my War Plan Crimson project.  In the first picture is the American Command Group from Tiger Miniatures and sentries from Brigade Games.

Next is the American Support Group with a machine gun and 75mm gun.  These figures are from Tiger Miniatures.

The camo pattern for the 75mm is an actual pattern for the US Army in the winter at this time.

This picture is of a weak U.S. infantry platoon of four squads of eight.  The specific platoon has a BAR squad which would have part of the Siberian Expedition.  All figures are from Tiger Miniatures.

Finally, this Lewis gun squad is to replace the BAR squad from the infantry platoon for the North Russia Expedition as the 339th Infantry were issued with Lewis guns and not BARs.  The figures are from Brigade Games.

So there you go.  Unfortunately, April is totally busy for me to game and I will be traveling for vacation for about half of May.  So, I am hoping do a game of of this project in July.  I am getting my next order to Fernando ready to go and hope to have it sent off by the end of April.  This will have the second half of the Siberian Rifles platoon for this project.  The rest will be more Arctic winter theme figures for War Plan Crimson with a second U.S. infantry platoon plus more BAR gunners for the TO/E change to have one in every squad, some more Canadian Lewis Gunners for the same reason, RCMP, trappers, Inuits, dogs, and explorers.

Grab some pemmican, a Mosin-Nagant rifle and setting in for a cold, freezing night,

Sapper

RIP - Scott McCoy

We will miss your bantering at our lunch groups and at the gaming store & table.

The Empty Chair
Eulogy for a Gamer

There is an empty chair,

at the table this day.
A hallowed place where,
a friend once played.
The roll of his dice,
my ears long to hear.
 
Or perhaps it would suffice,
if he should suddenly appear.
With character sheet in hand,
and a bag of Cheeze-doodles to share.
All his friends would stand,
as he sat in the empty chair.
I hear his voice a-callin’,  
and it ties my heart in a knot.
 
For he cries, “Though a comrade has fallen,
You must play for those who cannot.”
We conquered worlds on the run,
he and I in the name of fun.
And as others may come and go,
I make both both friend and foe.
But what I long for most,
is our past now long a ghost.

RIP - Indy

Miss you, little guy.

You know that you're a gamer when you buy one of these....

Seriously, I want one of these but I just can't bring myself to pay the price tag. 

Mammoth Ivory D20s

For a small price of $248.00 USD, you too can own a (yes, only one) d20 die made from a tusk of an extinct Woolly Mammoth and a nice cedar and black walnut box.  They will make a die for any "Land of the Lost" or Caveman games! 
 
Here is where you can buy them (Link)

Thank goodness that they don't come in a d6 form or I would have to buy a pair for playing Tusk!

Cheers,
Sapper