The HMGS/PSW is gearing up for our first ever “Winter Campaign”. This convention will find us back at the “tried and true” Boy Scout hall in Glendale for the 27^th, 28^th, and 29^th of January 2012. Please come celebrate the New Year with some great gaming and cool thing to see at our first con of the year! We also will have elections and much to discuss at the general membership meeting. Info on the convention as well as downloadable flyers and event registration forms are to be found by “clicking” the convention tab on the top menu bar of the HMGS/PSW home page (your on it). The Preliminary Events List is being worked on and will be up shortly. Please get your events in as soon as possible as a full PEL will attract more attendees! You can call me before you do the actual submission to Dave and I will list it to speed up the online PEL.

Speaking of elections those of you who are interested in serving the chapter please step up and let us know! You can post here yourself or write up a campaign and we will put it up for you.

Positions are (current incumbents listed for them as well)

President…Bill Witthans

Vice President….Harmon Ward

Secretary/Treasurer….Matt Denny

Convention Manager….Dave Dandridge

As far as I know all the incumbents are interested in serving at least one more term but please don’t let that stop you from running and voicing your opinions!

Would you trust people like this to run the chapter? Come and cast your vote!

Yours in Gaming,

Bill Witthans

President HMGS/PSW

https://www.facebook.com/battlebook

On this site, you’ll see the pics of the great Khartoum siege put on in front of hundreds of people at the Anaheim Muzeo during their recent Victorian Era exhibit.

Also, you’ll see some of the pics from the battle of Tarawa that was done to commemorate the Pacific war.

Most recently, you’ll see the pics of a battle “somewhere in Poland in 1944″ where the Russians attempted to take a critical rail junction from the Germans before their reinforcements arrive.

If you appreciate the pics and love to follow more of St, Crispin’s and Battlebook’s activities, feel free to like the page so you can see further content as it becomes available.

Here they are for your perusal:

This first one is Dragon’s 1/72 scale US Marine AAV7R recovery vehicle. I did it in 3-tone camo, and used some extra decals from another AAV kit to give it something extra. That makes this inaccurate, but hey; it’s mine and it looks good!

This next one is another 1/72 scale Dragon AAV. I made this one in Italian markings for my Italian Army:

Now on to some more trucks I built. I’ve been building all these trucks because I found a whole mess of them in my stash; at least 25 or so of various makes, models and countries. I decided it was time to get them built. So, here is the first one I got completed in this last week. This is my 1/72 scale IBG Bedford QLT Troop Transport:

These next two are from Revell of Germany. These are two 1/72 scale modern German General Purpose transport trucks. This first one is the MAN 7-ton GP truck:

This last one is the MAN 10-ton GP truck:

As you can see from the two pics, the crane does rise and lower. I also added the black thread to simulate cable too.

So, those are my latest models finished so far. I think now I’m going to go back and see what I started at the beginning of the year and haven’t finished yet and get them all done. It’s time to start clearing the bench for the coming New Year….

Meanwhile, thanks all for looking in, comments are always welcome.

I am very pleased to report that the Strategicon was an excellent convention in terms of breath of miniature games, attendance, and fun.

The Sidi Bou Zid-well, most of them

Our group started with the weekend off with our traditional “Friday Night Flames of War Battle Royale.” It was co-hosted by none other then the Great American General Keith Alexander and myself.

Sidi Bou Zid

We fought the action at Sidi Bou Zid, which was the 1st engagement of Kasserine. We played on a 6×11 foot table

and had as many 12 players throughout the course of the game. The DAK used their top of line equipment, sent straight from the Russian front, to maul the

hapless Americans. Tons of fun and an excellent start to great con. We had some new and young players that were hooked after that and wanted to join HMGS as a result.

Jeff MacArthur's 15mm ACW games using his just published rules, his simple but great looking and effective terrain was a hit at both conventions!

Saturday was a bonanza of miniatures. Jeff MacArthur started it off with his Battle of Bull Run brigade scale 15mm game which attracted at least 6 players who played from 10am until 3ish. I recognized several HMGS players as well as other usual miniatures suspects. The game looked fun and the board was

certainly a nice one. Well Done! (side note: Jeff was one of several HMGS/PSW members who attended BOTH conventions that weekend! Way to go guys; the editor)

Frank Vassallo, aka Frank Vas, aka the Vassinator, or just Vas, ran the spectacle

of spectacles in his War Machine game. He had 2 full castles with walls, towers, keeps, etc in a massive struggle with beautifully painted figures. One of them he made by scratch. Frank ran it from 10am until around 6ish–WHAT A MATCH!! He really took the cake with his show. Frank is going to have a tough time matching that one the future. I believe he had 6 or players on a 6×10 table.

I ran a 28mm ancients battle with the new rules “Hail Caesar” The Imperial Romans were attacking Herman the German in an attempt to recover Varus’ lost standards.

Despite having more troops, defensible terrain, and bashing the Roman center, Artimeus could not stop Harold’s Romans from winning a narrow victory. We had 6 players on a 4×7 foot table. It was fun and fluid game with light rules.

Steve Phenow ran his anniversary of Bull Run game in 15mm with his published rule set “Mr Lincoln’s War.” He ran the battle on what appeared to be a 6×8 foot table with top quality terrain and figures. It was a splendid looking board and it seemed to last about 4 hours.

Hail Caesar

John Flecther ran his “Latin American Wars of Independence” game in 15mm.

The board was top quality complete with a sharp water hazard that looked something out of Pebble Beach. He was able to rally 6+ players for his game on a 5×8 foot table. Everyone seemed engaged and was having fun playing it.

Mike Tan ran his World War 2 “Pocket Armies” in 10mm on a 5×10 foot hex map. His card based-histrocial miniature is good mix of fun playability with solid historical accuracy. The battle consisted of a 1943 eastern front attack by the Wehrmacht’s brand new Tigers into densely defended heavy woods. Mike

attracted 6 players and ran it Saturday and Sunday.

John Paiva from the Hong Kong Cavaliers (His group 16 games at the con, 1/2 of a dozen or so were miniatures games) ran his ‘Double Blind Midway’ battle which attracted 8 players . His ships were top quality kits mounted on bases.

Larry Stehle ran an excellent Lord of the Rings battle on Sat night featuring orc thugs, wolf-riders, and giant trolls trying to maul the Wood Elves. The figures were very well painted and his class terrain was highlighted by the watchtower in the middle of the board. The orcs got stopped cold by the skill and cunning of the elves. A fun and exciting game with a good group. Larry’s game had 7 players on a 4×6 board.

The Saturday Night Classic was in full swing with The Hong Kong Cavaliers running the historical miniatures classic : THE CHARIOT RACES. I thought I watching the Raiders in the Coliseum with the wild crowd screaming for their players (riders). FLIP FLIP FLIP roared throughout the mins hall by 25+ screaming players. That was a spectacle indeed!

Frank Vassallo ran a second game on Saturday being a late night Battletech rumble. Frank had six players on his brand new hex boards. It looked sweet!

Harold Hilderbrand pushing lead...plastic? WarHammer Ancients

Sunday saw no shortage of quality gaming and participation with Harold Hildebrand and Ilan Mitchell-Smith running the WarHammer Ancients (WAB) mini campaign and tournament. It was a Dark Ages campaign featuring 8 players running Vikings, Saxons, Britions-Welsh, and of course the Normans.

The figures were finely painted and the campaign featured the usual WAB players with a mixture of crossover newcomers from WHFB and 40k. It was well run and very fun series of battles with prize support with the victors. Chris Mazurik and Frank Vassallo ran the Flames of War Infantry Aces mini tournament with prize support as spoils. Frank’s first class terrain was on display as 8 players with only 500pts of infantry battled it out for several rounds of combat to become the ACE. Frank became the Ace with Sam Wallis a close second.

All in all, it was a super fun weekend of gaming and a success for HMGS/PSW in terms the quality of games, player participation, and potential for recruiting new members. Thank you to everyone who came and played. Thank you to everyone who took the time to run games and represent the hobby and chapter.

Adam Hammer

EDITOR’S NOTE; Thanks to Adam for stepping up to the plate and posting his first “Post”, Great effort Adam! I would also like to thank Adam for his great behind the scenes work with HMGS/PSW and for promoting Historical gaming in general. Adam is one of those members who is tirelessly working in the background to make gaming better for all of us in the Pacific Southwest, Members come to attention and doff hats! I would also like to thank Frank Vassalo and all the HMGS/PSW members who attended, ran games, and generally waved the flag at Strategicon’s Gateway convention! Insert 21 gun Salute here!

One last note, ok really 2 notes,

Adam was one of those posters who had a few bumps in doing his first post, we talked, I helped, waa laa it’s up! and a great post it is! Its not hard guys, just take a bit of effort. I learn new things about this site everyday! It is however the FACE of HMGS/PSW and our best way to show the world who we are and encourage others to become interested and get involved in this hobby. It will also become a powerful advertising tool when people think about attending one of our conventions. They will come here and see write ups on past events, be impressed, and attend.

Ok last but not least. As the “chief cook and bottle washer” here at HMGS/PSW I am pretty much the Webmaster and editor of the site. Adam’s article was the first that I have done some editing and comment inserting into. I was very apprehensive in doing this as I can remember some past problems with this. I did this for two reasons and on two levels. One on a purely structural level to make the article fit into and look better in Word press format. As we all learn to better use the program this will become less of an issue.

The next was a more direct editing where I put in extra wording or comments directly into the text and picture comments. I did this only where I felt it was of direct benefit to the readers of Adam’s article. In the future I will submit revised articles to the author’s for their approval before hitting the publish button or not do any editing (other than “”structural”) if that is their request!

Also remember you can always ad too, update or even ad more photos to any article you have posted.

Bill Witthans (editor)

These are my five latest small scale armor models all completed. This brings me up to 574 completed armor models. Four of these five were started and worked on during St. Crispin’s Monday Hobby Days
and some work was even done during Saturday Hobby Day.

This first one is my 1/72 scale IBG Canadian Chevy 15CWT troop truck:

Next up is one of my three ACE kits. This is the 1/72 scale Marine Corps LAV AD Air Defense variant of the LAV-25:

The wheels all rotate, and the front suspension also turns on these LAV’s. It was tricky, but I got them all to work.

Here’s the second ACE kit: The 1/72 scale LAV M Mortar Carrier:

[img]http://www.the-lem.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10036/US_Marines_LAV_M_Mortar_Carrier_I.JPG[/img]

The one headlight assembly disappeared, so this one was damaged in combat. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. The mortar inside rotates as well on this one. I really like this model.

If I ever find the headlight Ill put it back on, but for now, I’m calling this one done.

This next model is the Trumpeter 1/72 scale M-113 A3 APC. Now I have the whole line of them from A-nothing to A-3 as well as several variants:

[img]http://www.the-lem.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10036/US_ARMY_M_113_A3_II.JPG[/img]

Finally, this last one is the third ACE kit. This is a cool little 1/72 scale model of the GAZ M-1 Russian Army Staff Car:

[img]http://www.the-lem.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10036/Russian_GAZ_M1_Staff_Car_IIJPG.jpg[/img]

This model is only about an inch and three-quarters long. No, it is not still wet. This is supposed to be a shiny car so I shot it with Gloss Black. It took a bit of filling and sanding to get it to look this solid, but I’m pleased with the results.

Okay, that’s all my latest models finished, feel free to leave comments. Meanwhile, thanks all for looking in!

Well last Hobby Day in Anaheim after a hugely successful “Catalyst Event” I was able to play a really fun game with Tim,Harmon and Mark D.

The game rules seemed really simple and for me that’s a good thing. Also it was nice to just play something other then a company game thing. I love history and this was by far the easiest game so far I’ve played.  I loved it and it was based a draw a card system. Forgive me Tim if I was vague on some details. For me it was just plain fun. It was also nice to have something historical at Hobby Day in the Night time. As usually never get to play much Historicals.  Mostly because they play in the daytime. Then when my obligated events are over the history mini’s have left for the night. So for me this was an awesome treat and I jumped in to play. Thank you so much Harmon and Tim and Mark it was a blast.

It was by far one of the most fun historicals I’ve played in. I look forward to another romp through the plains .

Both the Labor Day cons have come and gone. The great HMGS/PSW expedition to “Smackdown” in orange county California has gone, saw, conquered, and returned safely.

“How was it?” well that depends on who you ask. I saw the con through my eyes as both a “Game Master” and the President of HMGS/PSW, so my report will reflect that.

First the drive! Going there was quite a chore on a Friday at 5pm just before the last four day holiday of summer but it was expected and the 70 mile drive from my house to Anaheim was accomplished in just over two hours, not too bad all things considered.

I arrived at the Marriott and had been told that I could load in directly to the ballroom from a loading dock just steps away from my table. Yep, no problem! Despite the fact that I had brought four complete terrain intensive games I found a cart, ramps, and quick smooth access. Henry Trembly and Adam Rosenblaum had assured me that we had 10 big tables (more if needed) in the “pole” position were everyone entering or exiting the convention would be sure to see us and our games, again great tables no problem. (basically as large as the area we currently use at the Boy Scout hall)

Adam and Henry man the registration desk.

Smackdown is held in one very large ballroom with everyone from the main crowd of Sci Fi “tournament” (Warmachine, Warhammer, etc) gamers, to board gamers, RPG gamers, Historical games, and the dealers inside. Despite this mix you did not feel crowded and noise for the most part was not a problem. When I say for the most part there was a “Casino night” held Saturday night in the same ballroom to benefit “make a Wish” foundation and when the DJ cranked up at 6pm the noise level became a problem for many of the gamers (us) close to them. I have been assured that next year this little problem won’t be such an issue. Once again Henry and Adam made every effort to address any problems, request, or suggestions we had.

For me and most “miniature” gamers I know “lighting” is a number one issue since ours is a visual hobby, we all work really hard on our miniatures, terrain, and want good lighting to let others see and appreciate our efforts. The lighting in the ballroom could not have been better! All across the room a nice bright, mellow light showed off the hard work put into all the games and let some of us older guys even read the charts without squinting! There were plenty of tables and chairs, HMGS/PSW and the Historical Games section had ten 6’x8’ tables and access to several more if the need arose.

The hotel itself is very nice and right next to Disneyland with lots of shopping, food, and things to do besides “gaming” based on this for the first time in 20 years my wife decided to accompany me to a convention! She had a great time walking around the area, reading in the great lounging spots dotted around the hotel and relaxing in the well appointed room. Our room had a big screen TV, internet, refrigerator, microwave, and was clean, quite, with very comfortable beds. The Hotel staff was very polite and attentive.

Kevin Rousanville and Ralph Patino lead the Chinese to victory in the popular "Boxer Rebellion"

So I have given you my official report now I suppose I owe you all my personal feelings about this convention. Here goes….

For HMGS/PSW this was a must show convention a chance to get down into the southern area covered by the chapter and put on some great games….at this we were very successful. The “Dogs of War”, the “Bengal Club”, the “We don’t need no Stinkin badges” group, Tim Knapp with the “Flames of War” group as well as other members of HMGS/PSW like Jeff McArthur and Chris Lundgren all put on great games and some of these groups put on several over the course of the weekend.

When I say it was “a must show” con I mean that for years HMGS/PSW has been under pressure from members in the south that feel HMGS/PSW is a northern based organization and does not care to support the gamers further south. HMGS/PSW officers have spent a lot of time trying to dispel this perception and show that it is not intentional but just a case of having our cons in a location that fits the budget as well as the demographics of the current membership. This pairing with “Smackdown” allowed us to put on a great show in the southern area (Orange County) at little cost to ourselves.

While the turnout for the convention was good especially for the “tournament” Sci fi players it was by no means great. There was a distinct lack of participants for the Historical games HMGS/PSW members brought. Once again it appeared few of the complainers showed up. There was also a distinct lack of “rank and file” HMGS/PSW members who normally play in these games. I know that people have other commitments but many of us put some of the same commitments aside to help put on a good show and felt let down.

The cause of this “lack of participants” can be attributed to several things in my opinion. First there was the fact that this convention is new, not known for its historical gaming, and the lack of historical games last year my have caused people to not chance it this year. There is also the fact that we now have two conventions within the same geographic area and no one can deny that this hurts us. I know of people that because they had friends going to different conventions could not decide which one they would attend and ended up not attending either convention.

I will also say that for this convention as well as others HMGS/PSW attends, including our own conventions we need to get games listed much earlier so we can get a good strong preliminary events list for people to see. I cannot stress this enough! This is what gets folks excited and talking about upcoming conventions. Friends call friends and get them on board to attend cons as a group. It is what makes people decide whether or not to even attend a convention. We have been trying to get out the word on our conventions but that does not do any good if people then checkout the Preliminary events List (PEL) only to find little of interest there.

"Dogs of War" step up to the plate and deliver a home run with their "Last Tango in Tanga 1914" game

As usual the “backbone” of HMGS/PSW, the “Dogs of War” (group based up around the San Fernando valley but also having members in as far away as the OC and Ventura) came in like gangbusters with a totally new event “Tanga 1914” and based on Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck’s defense of the port town of Tanga in German East Afrika. The “Dogs” once again took home a “Centurion” award for their efforts. There game was marvelous on all levels, concept, execution, speed of play, involvement of all players, and most of all the splendid terrain!

A heroic charge by the Japanese light cavalry dispatch a Chinese gun crew!

The “Bengal Club” (also a San Fernando / Santa Clarita valley group) brought in two games previously shown at other conventions but new to the Orange county area. The ever popular “Boxer rebellion” hosted by Bill Witthans (me) with Doug Kendrick also picking up a Centurion award for terrain, playability, and popularity. Yours truly built the terrain for the Boxer Rebellion and it always gets “wow’s” when seen by newcomers. Our position in the room was such that participants after leaving the registration desk and entering the ballroom were presented with all three games! This had many of them circling and taking pictures of all the HMGS/PSW games, great for us! John and Matt Denny of the Bengal club ran the “Stalag 9” WWII skirmish game where 6 players, Germans and Allies fight it out in a German prison camp to posses “German secret wonder weapons” it’s a bit of a “tongue and cheek” game and always fun!

Unfortunately the Japanese Cavalry hung around a bit to long and got mobbed by angry “Boxer’s”! Well that's “Bushido” for you!

As I mentioned earlier there were other Historical games there by other HMGS/PSW members but I had only a visual on the so I’ll leave that reporting to them, but Tim Knapp picked up a “Centurion” award for his running of the 50’ long “Flames of War” tournament and his commitment to historical gaming!

Some of the characters you find in the "Stalag 9" game. "Hans" and "Der Professor"

Attendance at the con is a bit up for grabs, I have heard the figure of 700+ from convention sources but if that is total for the con or total counting attendance each day I don’t know. I do not think there where more than 3-4 hundred people in the hall at any given time. Now this may seem low when compared to other cons but these are ALL miniature players and that is solid. If we could get that number at one of our cons what a force we would be!

The Dealers room was disappointing, basically Brookhurst Hobbies and Pair a Dice Games with 2 or three Sci Fi game manufactures thrown in. Nothing new there. I will say thought that the people at Brookhurst were very friendly and gave HMGS/PSW discounts on what ever we purchased!

We had no “Official” meeting at the con despite the fact that all the officers were there and ready. We talked about issues and topics in small groups during the day but by the time Saturday afternoon came around we were all to tired to bother and the consensus was to just cancel it until “all” the HMGS/PSW members were once again in the same spot for a con. We hope to do this at a small con probably at the Boy scouts in late January.

Unofficial "captain" of the Dogs team, Tim Daun's face reflects the effort put into these games!

So the bottom line is that most of us enjoyed the change of pace and a bit different experience, we were treated very well by the convention, and for those who for whatever reason want to stay close to their area it is a choice. The fact though still remains that the two conventions on the same weekend IS A PROBLEM and needs to be addressed. The solution would be for the two groups to meet and work out a solution to this. Will that happen? Who knows, it could, it should, there is no reason not to come up with a solution that works and creates a stronger less divisive gaming scene in the pacific southwest!

The pieces of the largest best West Coast gaming convention lie at our feet! Are we too wrapped up in our petty differences to pick them up and put them together to achieve our goals! If Strategicon, Smackdown, and HMGS/PSW all got together and worked it out we would have that, and the power to attract double the attendance we have as separate groups, and yes I’m suggesting a combining of the two conventions….it’s OK to dream…isn’t it?

Yours in Gaming,

Bill Witthans

President HMGS/PSW

vonkluge@ca.rr.com

Back in May a friend and I were manning the IPMS booth at the Chino Air Show. Further down the flightline was sitting a Piasecki H-21 Flying Banana that we both thought was an unflyable static display. Well, as we were packing up after the airshow, we heard an interesting sound and looked up to see the Piasecki sitting on the taxiway firing up it’s engines. We stopped what we were doing and watched as it fired up, taxi’d out and did a rolling takeoff. What a sight!

As soon as I got home I dug through my stash to find this Hobbycraft kit and got started.

Now, a couple weeks later, here it is all completed:

The Duke's 1/72 scale US Army Piasecki H-21 Flying Banana

I added the extra large insignia and “ARMY” on the side from my spare decals to make it look more like the one that was at the airshow. Other than that, it’s built OOB. I hand painted the canopy rails too.

I am working on several more trucks and modern armored vehicles at St. Crispin’s on Mondays as well. I am able to get alot of work done on these models before taking them home to finish up.

Thanks all for looking in. Comments are always welcome.