Busy Weekend

 This was a busy Father's Day weekend with trains, games, and model building.

John running a passenger train through Winchester 

Wooden fruit boxes under Winchester 

On Friday, Paul Dolkos rode with me to operate on John King's B&O railroad centered around  Winchester, VA. John's layout is wonderful to operate. It hits many of my hot buttons including Time Table and Train Order, Steam, and lots of switching. Paul and I operated the Winchester town switcher. That was a great job with many industries to switch. Winchester was a very busy railroad town with several cold storage facilities for the fruit industry. 

John's track is beautifully laid. He never got around to doing much scenery of structures but he does have lots of interesting mock-ups for the structures in Winchester.  In addition, he has dozens of wooden fruit boxes from orchards and storage houses in Winchester under the Winchester part of his layout. 

B&O Bulletin Book

John has a lot of interesting railroadania. One item that was really neat was a B&O Bulletin book that he uses to have his operators sign. 

On Saturday I participated in a game at Mike Kelly's. He set up a south Pacific scenario involving Japanese infantry guarding American prisoners, a US Navy shore patrol to the rescue, angry local villagers, and man eating animals.   

The game combined elements of role playing and war gaming. He used hidden movement and lots of surprises for both sided.  It turned out our 11-man Japanese squad had to deal with the 25-man shore patrol and 20 unruly prisoners lead by a lone nurse who managed to hide a scalpel on her person. Even the giant crocodile allied with the US Navy. In the end only one Japanese soldier survived to report the outcome to his commander. 

I continued to work on the High Road to Rome diorama too.  It is almost done. Here is a photo showing a vignette from the diorama. A jeep with a wounded soldier is trying to get past the dozer and tanks on the narrow mountain road. This incident is based on Eric Sevareid's report of the actual battle. 

Behind the Scenes at Mark's Game Room

Players and video crew getting ready for the video session

I helped host a skirmish wargame at Mark Fastoso's Game Room today. Mark is setting up a new youtube channel devoted to military history and wargaming. His channel will feature wargame play throughs, historical vignettes, game reviews and other gaming related content. His premiere will be June 6, 2023. The theme will be D-Day. He plans to feature several videos mostly related to paratroopers fighting on D-Day. He has a lot of interesting content associated with that including some rare never-seen footage of actual band-of-brother survivors. 

In case you don't know, Mark is an Emmy winning video documentary producer.  Here is a link to one of his documentaries.  https://www.pbs.org/video/alabama-public-television-documentaries-jeremiah  He has also designed some miniature wargames such as Fire Ball Forward.

Mark operating his video mixer. He can control multiple
cameras in real time

To prepare for producing high quality videos for the youtube channel, he has converted his basement game room into a rather sophisticated video gaming studio.  There are overhead cameras, lights, multiple microphones, etc.  He has a video mixer that can control multiple cameras in real time. The device creates a Davinci Project file with all the cameras on separate channels, so he can go straight to editing. It is an impressive set-up.

When Mark learned that I had designed a scenario and built a terrain board for the La Fiere battle, he asked if I would be willing to run it for his youtube channel. It would fit perfectly with his D-Day theme. He suggested we try a new game called One Hour Skirmish Rules. I was willing to try it and I'm glad I did. It is a relatively simple game system that plays quickly yet captures the weaponry, tactics, and chaos of small unit combat. To prepare for the video recording session, I built a new terrain board that was slightly smaller and portable to fit his game table. Then I had some of my regular gamers playtest the game in my basement to check for issues and play balance.

Germans preparing to run the gauntlet into dug-in American
paratroopers. Will they succeed?

Today we ran the game three times in about 5 hours with a break for lunch and set-up. I won't get into the details of the games, you'll have to wait for the video to see that. But it went really well. The guys seemed to enjoy it. The outcome was in doubt right to the very end- you know you have a good scenario when both sides feel like they are losing.  

I am planing on building another scenario for his gaming channel. This one will likely be an American Civil War engagement where one side is trying to destroy the other's railroad.  Stay tuned for that.

Another look at the Gaming the Battle of La Fiere

A view of a German Beutepanzer (captured French) tank on the bridge at La Fiere (not from this scenario but a cool picture)

There is still much to do onto Aquia Line. But given that it is operational and presentable with regard to scenery, I have starting to mix in other hobbies in my spare time. This include wildlife (mostly birds) photography, model building, figure painting and some wargaming.

A friend of mine is starting a Youtube channel for wargaming. He asked me to run a scenario for his channel. It will be a simplified version of the flight for the bridge at La Fiere. I made a new terrain board for the game. Last weekend John Drye, Mark Franke, and Marty McGuirk helped me play test the scenario using a set of rules that were new to us. They were called One Hour Skirmish Rules.  

Notes from play testing a La Fiere Scenario 1 using One Hour Skirmish Rules

We had 4 players. All were new to the game and 3 had not read the rules before the game. It took about 30-40 minutes of example play and explanations to learn the rules. They started to get the hang of it. By the end of the game, we had it sorted out.  Everyone had a blast.

The forces involved in this scenario represent elements of the US 82nd Airborne Division (and some 101st Airborne that were scattered in this area) versus the German 91st Air Landing Division, specifically the 1057th Infantry Battalion and the 100th Panzer Replacement and Training Battalion. The latter was equipped with outdated German and captured French tanks. The battle occurs during the morning hours on June 6th, 1944, D-Day.

The bridge crossing the Merderet at La Fière is of critical importance to both the German and US operations in this area of Normandy. The struggle for the La Fière bridge began with the 82nd Airborne Division’s nighttime drop as part of Operation Neptune. The paratroopers reached the bridge and after intense close combat secured both ends of the causeway over the inundated land. This is the part of the action we are playing today.

Soon, however, a heavy German counterattack with armor support pushed across the causeway and back to the bridge. Two armored assaults were attempted, but both were repulsed, with the bridge never leaving American control. Later on with the arrival of infantry and tanks from Utah Beach the La Fière crossing was fully secured by the Allies. 

This scenario represents the first US attack to capture the farm and bridge early in the morning. The farm at La Fière dominates the bridge and must be cleared of German troops. The farm is a typical ancient stone complex of hedges, stone walls and sheds. But it is dominated by the 4 story Manoir (manor house).

The scenario required the American paratroopers to clear the farm complex of Germans. The US players had one ad hoc platoon of paratroopers from the 82nd and 101st Airborne division with 2 squads of 9 men plus a 2-man LMG team, a bazooka team, a 60mm mortar and two leaders (+3 and a +2)

The Germans had 2 squads of 7 men and a 2-man LMG team, a 2-man HMG, and a platoon leader (+2).

German motivation was 2 and Paratroopers was 3.

The Americans deployed 6 inches from the North edge, though they had the option of also deploying on the east edge. The Americans won the initiative  moved first. First squad moved along either side of the small trail parallel to the Merderet River. Second squad advanced behind the wood shed and toward the hedge paralleling the road.

Germans spread out to defend the farm

The Germans were surprised and were not prepared for the attack. Thus must deploy within 6 inches any door of the Manior. Their first squad went west to defend the front gate. The second squad sent a fire team east to cover the road, while the other fire team stayed in the manoir. The HMG was deployed between two buildings and covered the open field to the north

The Americans established a good base of fire and starting attritting the German defenders that were taking cover in and behind stone walls and buildings. Though out gunned, the Germans killed a few paratroopers including 1st Squad’s LMG team that was firing from across the road junction.

Both American squads got in an good assault position on the north side of the trail. From their assault position, American marksmanship caused heavy losses on the German fire team on the east side of the map deployed in the woods. The Germans were able to kill a few paratroopers in the process. With the German fire team that was defending the road now ineffective, they advanced across the main road. There were several hand to hand combats. The turning point occurred when an over eager paratrooper from American 2nd squad accidentally jumped a hedge, closed assaulted, and killed his own squad leader. A German took advantage of the situation and killed the confused American attacker.

American player trying to advance with some
semblance of order given the chaotic rules

Mean while on the western side, a German LMG behind the stone wall managed to survive a hail of incoming rifle and grenade fire and killed a few Americans as they advanced toward towards the front gate. Other Germans put up a good fight from behind the stone buildings but they suffered more casualties including the platoon leader. In the face of massive incoming American fire, the Germans retreated back into the courtyard and into various buildings around the perimeter. They set up interlocking fields of fire covering the courtyard to prepare for the final defense. It should be noted that this is an ancient French farm complex built for defense. As such, it very few outward facing windows. So it is difficult to find outward facing firing positions to cover the far approaches.

The Bruiser - Jane

Back on the east side, US second squad sent in their bruiser, Jane, also known as Toughie the airborne soldier, who promptly killed that lone German left defending that side. (BTW the Jane figure was a female soldier armed with a coke bottle, teddy bear, and a Thompson SMG. Turns out she is a martial arts and knife fighting expert. She is from the Hot and Dangerous figure collection from Wargames company). She then close-assaulted the German HMG after a few grenades softened them up. She was getting ready to take out more Germans when the joker popped up.

Things were looking bad for the Germans as they lost their leader and had 6 casualties. But the paratroopers had 9 casualties and lost their morale roll. (Actually, we screwed up all the morale rolls as we forget to draw multiple cards if leaders were present.)  So the game was over with a narrow German win.

Overall, we enjoyed the game. One player thought it was too simplified, but all thought it was fun. 

3D Printed Wooden Trucks

3D printed trucks

The expansion of the layout has resulted in a need for me to have more freight cars on the railroad. I haven't built any new cars for the layout for several years. I probably need to make some new flat cars, but I would also like to try some new styles of box cars. Regardless of what I build, I will need some new trucks. I decided to make them using my 3D printer.

I started by just drawing one quarter of the truck since it is symmetrical about the longitudinal and lateral axes. Once I had the quarter section fully fleshed out in the drawing, I used the mirror feature in Fusions 360 to complete the truck.

These trucks are designed to accept NWSL 8248-4,  O scale Wheelsets 33"/145,1/8"x1.730" shouldered axles. I have 5 sets of these on hand. Plus I have a few of my cast metal trucks that I plan to replace. I don't know if I can still get these wheelsets. If I cannot, I have a lot of Intermountain O scale wheel sets on hand. I would have to adjust the drawing to accept those wheelsets.  However, I prefer the NMSL wheelsets as they have thinner treads.

I had to design the truck in parts that must be assembled. The printed resin is too stiff to allow assembly by flexing the truck like you can do with N or HO scale plastic trucks. To ease assembly, I printed the bolster and one truck frame as single piece. Thus each truck has only 4 parts. Once the wheelsets are inserted in the holes on the truck frame, and the second side frame attached, the truck aligns itself. I apply some CAA and use a small clamp to hold the parts. While the glue is setting I insert the brake beams. On trucks without brakes, I glue those beams in place. But for trucks with brakes the beams are not glued. 

You can see how the brakes beams can pivot

I made the brake beams on pins so that they can rotate. That allows me the option to make the brakes work using my photo etched parts if desired.

I designed the bolster and brake beams to fit in slots or holes in the truck side frame. I learned that if you want to do this, you have to make the slots or holes larger than the corresponding pins by a fair amount. In this case I had to enlarge the 0.065 inch holes for the brake beams by about 25%. I had to reduce the bolster locating pin by about 50% to make them fit. I am not sure why, but holes and slots in materials print smaller than the design dimension by significant amounts. 

I was very pleasantly surprised to see how smoothly these trucks roll. They have a lot less friction than my earlier versions.  Printing 3D trucks will simplify my freight car construction as in the past it took me about 4 hours to build a set of trucks using my laser cut parts. These trucks also have more realistic detail, particularly in the journal cover area. 

This weekend I also worked on a wargame project with John Drye. I helped him build a map for a game he plans to run at Fall In 2022.  The maps depicts the area near Eindhoven and Son during the 1944 Operation Market Garden. The map is a 6' by 6' piece of felt that we painted and flocked. The graphics are designed especially for the new game called Breakthrough that Frank Chadwick is developing, and John is play testing. However, the map could be used for other game systems with a little modification. It was a fun project that came out better than we expected.

We used aerial photos as a guide but the terrain is stylized to suit the game system. I painted all of the fields, canals, and roads with spray can colors using soft masks. Then we embellished the edges of the fields with acrylic paints to show tree breaks. 

John is painting some details to help delineate the fields and roads.  

Daily Double

 

Today must be my lucky day as I received copies of two publications that have articles that I wrote.

The first was the cover story in the April-June 2022 issue of Military Miniature. The article is a scenario for a war game based on the fight at Dead Man's Corner in Normandy and D-Day plus 1.  The article did not include all the graphics I sent them including the situation map, which I am enclosing here. This might help if you read the article to understand where the various locations are in relation to each other. 

They also did not use all the photos I sent, So I enclosed one above.

The second piece was the lead chapter for Eric White's new book, ”Building What’s In a Photo” by Kalmbach Media. I like how they did the two page spread to start off the book. If you ever wondered who was probably the first ever railfan photographer you should read this chapter.

On Thursday, Jack Thompson visited the Aquia Line. Jack is a dedicated civil war historian, re-enactor, and model railroader.  Jack was an extra actor and historical consultant to the Gettysburg series of films.  He was also in the movie "Glory." 

He was a US Marine in real life. He is also an accomplished model builder. He builds1/22.3 scale model railroad equipment that he runs on a friend's outdoor layout. 

Here he is posing with the Union staff from the Gettysburg movie. Jack is on the right, Ken Burns is the on his right and in front. The other actors from the movie are also in the image. 

The next shot is a screen grab of him in the movie.

It was fun to share the railroad with a guy as knowledgable as Jack, especially when it comes to civil war era drill. 

Jack pointed out a mistake in how my squad is marching into Brooke. They normally marched in column four abreast, but I have my squad marching only in 3 abreast. Jack graciously volunteered to paint the figures that would be needed to make the scene more accurate.  So I gave him the figures to paint and he took them home with him.

A Tale of Two Weeks

I just finished a busy two-week period with trips to Valley Forge, PA  for the 2021 Historicon wargaming convention and a trip to New Jersey for the Northeast Interchange 2021 for operating sessions on three layouts in New Jersey.

Historicon 2021 was a good convention despite the requirement for all wargaming participants to wear masks. The event was held at the Casino Resort in Valley Forge. The venue has a vast number of rooms for games, clinics and presentations, but the rooms are spread about a large area. That made it hard to wander around and get in pick up games or find your friends. 

My terrain board for the games I hosted. The scenario was
a battle between US airborne and German infantry near the
la Fière farm on the morning of D-Day

I ran two games of Chain of Command, played in two more Chain of Command games and some others.  I also watched a few games to see how other game systems worked. 

The scenario I hosted was called "Seize and Secure." The forces involved elements of the US  82nd Airborne Division (and some 101st Airborne that were scattered in this area) versus the German 91st Air Landing Division, specifically the 1057th Infantry Battalion.  The battle occurred during the morning hours on June 6th, 1944, D-Day.

The bridge crossing the Merderet at La Fière was of critical importance to both the German and US operations in this area of Normandy.  

The US players attack along the Merderet River in the second
iteration of my game.

The struggle for the La Fière bridge began with the 82nd Airborne Division’s nighttime drop as part of Operation Neptune as part of D Day, June 6, 1944. The paratroopers reached the bridge and after intense close combat secured both ends of the causeway over the inundated land. 

Soon, however, a heavy German counterattack with armor support pushed across the causeway and back to the bridge. Two armored assaults were attempted, but both were repulsed, with the bridge never leaving American control. Later on with the arrival of infantry and tanks from Utah Beach the La Fière crossing was fully secured. The Allies soon after began the advance up the Cotentin Peninsula and deeper south into France.  

This scenario represented the first US attack to capture the farm and bridge. The farm at La Fière dominates the bridge and must be cleared of German troops. To win the battle, the American must capture the Manoir House (no Germans inside) and hold it until the Germans withdraw or are forced to withdraw due to loss of force morale. 

In the first game, a 86 year old grandfather and friend led the US paratroopers against his adult grandson and a new player. The Germans were able to stop the Americans and inflict heavy losses.  The next morning 4 different players tried the scenario and the US attack succeeded in driving off the Germans, but it was a close run thing.

An impressive urban combat board depicting the US attack on
Aachen, 1944

There were some interesting miniature battlefields created by the game masters.  Wargame scenery design is a tricky compromise between playability, portability, and appearance. Some folks are content with very basic terrain, while others like to make very detailed and elaborate game boards. I lean more to the latter and I try to make my games look as realistic as possible.

When I returned home, I was not feeling well for a couple days, so I took it easy. Then I tried to finish up a project that I started before the museum model project, but had to shelve (pun intended). This was a custom display case for my small collection of Porsche racing cars in 1/43rd scale. I never intended to collect those cars. At first I just wanted to get some models of cars I saw racing when I lived in Germany. I also got models of Porsche cars that I owned. As many of you know, I am a Porsche fan boy.  These models are preassembled and painted, and are very finely detailed. I liked the models so much that I bought a few more as souvenirs of my interest in Can-Am and Le Mans racing from my youth. The collection then gradually grew over the years to become a documentation in model form of Porsche's glorious racing history.  

The models come in acrylic boxes which really don't do them justice when you want to view them. They also took up a lot of display space. So I designed a custom display cabinet using tempered glass doors and poplar wood for a case.  I drew the plan in Fusion 360 and made 2D drawings for the glass parts.  I subcontracted the glass doors and shelves cutting and drilling to Del Ray glass.  I used hinge hardware to create frameless, flush closing doors. The glass is tempered for durability and strength. The glass parts were quite expensive.  After doing some tests with an internal light, I decided against including one. I lined the back wall with a piece of felt to provide a nice matte finish.

Testing if the display case should have internal lighting. I decided
against including a light.

I finished building the display case and began installing the cars in chronological sequence. The collection is mostly Porsches with one Lancia Beta Scorpion with a Fruit of the Loom sponsor that raced in the early 1980s in Germany and an Audi LMP1 car from the late 1990s.

 Next,  I want to make labels for each car in a consistent style. It is difficult to get a good picture of the display case in its final position due to the narrow hallway where it is mounted. Thanks to Scott Wahl for helping me install it.

Finished display case mounted on the wall in the short hallway between the front layout room and the crew lounge. The models look so much better behind the glass doors.

I will continue the story about the NE Interchange in a subsequent post. 

All Quiet on the Eastern Front

There has been a lot going on here with regard to modeling and my hobbies, but not much to report on the Aquia Line.  I received some excellent 3D stl files from Gerry Dykstra to print some ACW era battery wagons and forges. I haven't had a chance to print them yet.

Right about when I hurt my back, I had a set of florescent lights in the front train room burn out. I ordered new LEDs to replace them, but haven't had a chance to install them.  Other than that, I haven't worked on the Aquia Line. 

I have been catching up on some writing projects that are or were due. Hopefully you will be seeing the Aquia Line in the MR press within a year or so. I am also working on a new book project. It is a track plan book, but I can't say much more about it at this point. 

Speaking of track plans, the Hostlers in Odgen, Utah liked my basic track plan, but had some modifications to it that they desired. So I made an updated copy for them. I am waiting to hear back before I do their final track plan.

One of my major distractions has been wargaming. It is interesting that several of my wargaming friends also are model railroaders. There is a lot of overlap in the hobbies. So I have been learning new game systems including a new WW2 skirmish level game. I  helped Mike Kelly with some of his 3D printing.  He hosts local game meets at his house. I am also working with Bruce Weigle to produce forts for his upcoming wargame on the planned but cancelled Nazi invasion of Malta. Malta is covered with stone forts. Bruce is world famous for his intricate, bespoke terrain boards.  I will be laser cutting the forts to use on his new terrain board. 

An example of one of Bruce's bespoke terrain boards

Alkem Scale models is also keeping me busy. I have a new batch of DODX cars for sale. In addition I have 4 models for clients in various stages of production. One of those is a model for Alexandria's new Museum of Freedom. This will depict the 1840's appearance of the slave jail that was on Duke Street. More on that project later.

AMTRAK near the former RO Cabin on the RF&P just
northof Crystal City. The new Amazon HQ will be
 close to this site.

My back is getting better, but I am still not 100%. I have been doing a lot more exercise recently, including riding a new bike. I call my new bike "the tank" because compared to my old carbon fiber road bike, the new bike is "indestructible." I am riding for fitness, so I am more concerned with durability and safety versus speed. The bike has an upright riding position and chunky 700 by 45 tires. I am lucky in that we have lots of trails near my house including some that parallel the old RF&P so I can railfan while I ride. 

Finally, we installed a new bird feeder in our back yard. We have been enjoying it immensely. I never knew how many different species of birds frequent our yard. 

Not Again

We spent last week in Birmingham Alabama helping my daughter and son-in-law with home remodeling projects. They bought a 103-year old house. It is in a good shape in a great neighborhood. The home has a view of the city sky line to the west, including Sloss Works. In fact, the original builder of the home was a owner of a coke by-products factory.  The trip was a lot of fun, and we got several home projects complete. I made a short video showing some of the fun including some trains

. 

We were home for a few days, when once again we suffered an intense rain storm. I don't think I have ever witnessed a lightning and thunder storm as long and sustained as this. In the midst of that, our air conditioner failed. Luckily that was a simple fix as it needed a new starter capacitor. But around midnight, our sump pump again was overwhelmed. I woke up in the morning to puddles and silty clay residue from about 1 inch of water in the basement.  

Fortunately, the ceramic tile was unaffected. and no expensive stuff was destroyed, just a few old pictures that were inadvertently stored on the floor in a closet. The restoration crews have installed dryers and fans. Tomorrow, we will find out if they need to replace any sheet rock or moldings.  On Saturday I have a contractor coming in to discuss how to reengineer the basement to prevent this from reoccurring. Obviously, the measures we took last fall were insufficient. 

Meanwhile, I starting hosting a play by email game for eight for my friends and family. The game is a conversion I  did of Johnny Reb III from miniatures to hex board game. Yes, I was inspired by the Gettysburg game that I am still playing. I actually started this project over 20 years ago while my friend John Hill, the designer of Johnny Reb I, II, II and IV,  was still alive, but never got it finished. Now John is gone, but his game lives on. My version of the game is tactical and based on the Battle of Brice's Crossroads in Mississippi. It was a decisive victory for the rebels, but was actually much harder fought than the result indicated. We will see how it goes in our replay. 

One really cool aspect of it is that my friend Don Ball converted my graphics to a VASSAL module. That means we can play the game using a map and counter on our screen versus using paper and pencil. Don has lots of experience with VASSAL and he did the conversion in a very sort time. He is also playing one of the Union commanders.

If we like this game, it would not be hard to develop other scenarios.

Example of what a portion of a typical game might look like.

Serendipity - more tools!

I was reading through the Official Records of the War of Rebellion, or just called the OR. I was looking for examples of Corps level movement orders. Why you might ask?

A few weeks ago, one of my friends, who is a former colleague at IDA and a serious war gamer, invited me to participate in a multiplayer, play by email wargame. The subject of the game is Lee's invasion of Pennsylvania during the Gettysburg Campaign. The game is at operational level, so that units are brigades and divisions and each turn is one day. He is loosely basing the game on a commercial board game called "Long Roads to Gettysburg," which is a highly detailed simulation of the campaign. The photo below shows the starting positions.  But, he is running the game more like a traditional Kriegspiel, where he is is the umpire and the players represent individual commanders on both sides. We submit all our orders to him in writing.  He then forwards the orders to the appropriate commanders, delaying them if necessary or even losing them on occasion.



The game includes the usual movement and combat, but it also includes rail and sea borne movement, supply, force marching, fortifications, troop fatigue, terrain effects. All of those are standard fare in most wargames. The coolest thing about this game is that he is simulating the fog of war via a double blind system. That is, not only do the friendly players not know where the enemy is, you also don't know where your own units are, unless your units can see them or they are less than five miles away, which simulates runners going back and forth with information. There are opportunities for scouting, spies, telegraph lines, and balloon observations to add to the mix. In addition, we can detach sub units to picket a line or do raids. The game master/umpire is also taking communication delays into account. For example, reports from cavalry unit a long distance from the nearest telegraph line might not arrive at HQ until a day later.

The game has just really gotten started as we are in turn three. Approximately 25 players, most are in the local Washington DC area, but some as far away as United Kingdom, are playing along. I am playing General Winfield Hancock, II Corps commander. I have three infantry divisions and an artillery brigade under my command. I have 6 aide de camps that I can use for scouting and sending messages.

I am also playing the role of Herman Haupt, the USMRR superintendent.   This role is mostly for color  as the railroads are not active players, but they do factor in the game. In fact, many of the games victory conditions involved destruction of railroad facilities. Whether we abandon Aquia Landing during the game, like the Union did in the actual campaign,  remains to be seen.

The main victory  condition is the capture of Washington. If the rebels capture the capital, they automatically win. If we hold Washington, then victory will go to the side that causes the most damage to the other. There is a complex list of ways to accrue points for damage. Losing a major battle is one of the best ways to lose the game, but not the only way. It is possible that we never fight a major battle in the game.

So far, I have to say that this is the most "realistic" wargame I've played. Using multiple players and very limited intelligence of the situation, really captures the feel of civil war maneuver. The game includes some mechanics that make coordinated attacks very difficult, which was also a feature of civil war combat. I don't know if he will randomly make our units get lost, another event that happened all too frequently. Anyway, I will let my readers know what happens as the game progresses.

But back to serendipity and my opening line, In the OR I found a message from Herman Haupt to General Burnside that I don't recall ever seeing before. It is also included in Haupt's Reminiscences on page 166. Here it is,

November 17, 1862-11 a.m.
Major-General BURNSIDE:
I have just returned from Aquia Creek. Some stores were on transports yesterday afternoon, ready to be landed at Belle Plain. Several companies of the Engineer Brigade on transports are probably now ashore.
The wharf at Aquia is not entirely burned, but is worse where the track was laid. I have ordered the track to be moved over, and reconstructed on the side least damaged. Cars and engines will be loaded immediately, and sent to Aquia to be unloaded as soon as the track will bear their weight. Eight small cars will be sent to-day, landed by lighters, loaded with tents, tools, and rations, pushed by hand to the broken bridge, and accompanied by carpenters with escort of engineer troops, to have bridges repaired, if possible, by the time cars and engines are landed and put on track. As soon as bridges are repaired, and even five or six cars landed, we will begin to run in supplies to Falmouth, to relieve wagons to that extent, and increase daily. The construction of a floating wharf, or new pike wharf, at Aquia is not a question for present consideration, when time is so much of an object. No new construction could be made in double the time required for repairs of former structure.
A machine-shop will be extemporized at Aquia by sending lathes, planer, portable, small tools, and shafting. Army forges will furnish smith-shops.
HAUPT.

The last line is what caught my attention. Haupt describes a machine shop at Aquia Landing. This may have later been moved to Fredericksburg. But, I will assume it is back in Aquia Landing in the time I model. This means that I can build a nice machine shop scene with all those cool tools that are available as O scale castings. There are several sources for these kind of parts.  For example, these from Wild West Models. The key will be to have belt driven machines powered by steam, vice electrical machines that would be anachronistic. If you know of any other sources of these parts, please let me know.

I have an engine house inside the wye at Aquia Landing. Now I need to figure out a way to add a machine shop extension and fill it with tools. As a tool junkie, this excites me no end!

Aquia Line Quarantine News

Scene on one of my 1/56th (28mm) scale game boards

So far, we are staying healthy and trying to follow all the guidelines the CDC and governments have established. I hope you all are safe too.

I've been catching up on various projects the past week, mostly related to models for clients and some war gaming projects. My do list is getting worked down. I thought about hosting a remote op session on the layout, but haven't decided on the best way to do that. However, I hosted two wargames remotely using Facebook live for the first one and then FaceTime.  Those were fun, but actually a lot of work. I do plan to get working on my layout next, so I will be disassembling the game table to prep for layout expansion work.  The photo above is a shot I took on the game table showcasing some of the new K-Ration boxes I made.

Today, I received a delivery of 3 sheets of 4x8 feet plywood from Home Depot. I will process these into lumber to start the benchwork for my layout.  My plan is to start with the curve in the closet and proceed into the crew lounge.

But before I start that, I have more do list items need to wrap up. There doesn't seem to be any hurry, as we will be confined to quarters for at least another month.

Monopoly Buildings

I worked on an unusual project this week for a friend, John Drye. He is planning on hosting a large wargame event this summer at the Historicon, the largest historical miniatures war-game convention in the world. To put this in perspective, it's like the NMRA National Convention, though Historicon typically gets about twice as many registrants as the NMRA National.  I used to attend Historicon regularly in the 1990s. John Hill, Dean West and I used to host massive Johnny Reb games at this event. The largest game we hosted involved 60 players over two days. If you think about it, that's one game with about half the participation of a typical Prorail event. There are hundreds of such events, though most not as big as that one, at Historicon.

Several of my friends are or were affiliated with Historicon management.  This year, I am planning on going to Historicon, but not the NMRA National. I am helping my friend prepare his scenery for the game since I really enjoy doing scenery. I am also doing some play testing for his scenario, which is based on Operation Market Garden. He plans to cover the whole campaign including the airdrops and the British 30 Corps race to the Rhine at Arnhem. This is the famous, "Bridge too Far" battle.

Unit counters are 2 inches square

His game system he plans to use is called "Breakthrough." It was written by Frank Chadwick, a very well known, prolific game designer. John is one of the official play testers for the game system. The game is very high level. Each counter or stand in the game represents a battalion or about 1,000 men or 50 armored fighting vehicles. Each inch of game ground equals 500 yards of actual terrain. The stands have 1/285 scale miniatures mounted on them, but not in a  one for one ratio of actual vehicles. For example, the 559th Schwere Jagerpanzer Abtielung, (559th Heavy Tank Destroyer Battalion), which had about 40 assault guns, has two vehicles mounted on a two inch base. See the photo at the right. The game plays very much like a typical board game but with miniature figures and scenery.

Nijmegan with 15mm (1/100scale) Miniatures

The game includes combat in Built-Up areas, i.e. towns and cities. These areas are depicted in the game with 3 inch square templates that are gray colored. Buildings might be scattered about the gray templates, but they need to be removable so that the 2 inch square unit counters can fit inside. The photo at the right shows how they were doing this with larger miniatures, but still using the 2 inch bases.  This was a game that I helped play test.

This way of modeling towns in a miniatures game was  off-putting to me. One of the fun aspects of a miniatures wargaming is the spectacle of seeing models on terrain. Some folks could care less and play mostly for the games sake. They use a simple green cloth and put the models on them without hesitation. In model railroading, we have folks like that too. But I prefer the terrain to look as good as the figures the play on them.

So I tried to develop a way to model the city of Nijmegan that will be playable in this game system and still look  like a European city in WW2.  The requirements were - develop a model of the city of Nijmegan on a 3 inch grid, and decorate it with model buildings in such a way that 2 inch unit counters could fit.

First, I got copies 1/25000 scale maps of the area during WW2 from the US Library of Congress. One thing that is obvious in comparing  these maps to satellite images from Google earth is how much more urbanized Holland and Belguim are now compared to then. Of course the same is true of the US. I adapted the topo maps to the grid that game uses. In consulting with John and using the maps for reference, we decided that Nijmegan should be one grid of dense urban and six adjacent grids of suburban terrain.

Town grid and a typical unit for comparison 

I made a drawing of the street grid that is a much simplified version of the actual road network. The scale is somewhere between the actual ground scale and the scale of the miniatures used in the game. Thus buildings are about 0.25 wide  by 0.5 inches long. They look like the little buildings from the Monopoly game, with a little more detail. Each three inch grid has a removable 2 inch insert. When the town is unoccupied by units, it looks like a model town. When units occupy the town, the unit counters replace the inserts. There are now less buildings in the town, but it still looks like an urban area.

When units move out, the town inserts are placed back in the town grid.

This gives you an idea of the overall size of the models

There were two important bridges in Nijmegan, the highway bridge and the railroad bridge. These are also modeled in a representative way. They can be removed if they are destroyed during game progress.  Though the city grid shows rail lines, they don't have impact on play except at the bridges.

It remains to be seen if this concept for representing cities works out. If it does, then I will make additional cities for Arnhem, Eindhoven and Veghel. If not, we can have some neat games of Monopoly.

Playing Catch Up

This week has been catch up week for me. Both my mom and I recovered from colds, though hers was much more serious than mine. So it was time for me to get my do-list whittled down.

The laser cut parts arrayed on my work bench

The first task was to laser cut the parts for a large, intricate HO scale building for a client. It almost looks like a cathedral in appearance. The client did the artwork, as he is an architect.  Still it took me a few hours to prepare the drawings for my laser. Then another 8 actual hours to engrave and cut the parts. He will do the assembly and painting. We have more buildings to do for this client, so we are looking at other ways to depict the bricks other than engraving them one by one.

The mailbox project from start to finish

Next, I had to so some household chores. The first was to build a new mailbox that would match the new front door and have capacity to hold small packages. This was an opportunity for me learn some new skills and give my woodworking tools some exercise. The new door has leaded glass detailing. So the mailbox should have a matching glass insert. I never built a leaded glass piece before, so I went to Youtube and got the basics.  My experience in soldering brass kits came in handy, and I was able to make an acceptable diamond shaped leaded glass insert for the mailbox using pre-cut beveled glass sections and lead came. With an acceptable glass insert in hand,  I built a box with an opening to house the leaded glass piece.

With that done, I moved on to fixing the chair rail molding in the dining room. This was a residual task from the flood repairs. The contractor claimed it was a custom molding profile. So I took a sample to the local mill shop and low and behold, this molding was not custom, but available in stock. With $60 of molding in hand, it was a relatively simple matter to install the molding using my Kapex miter saw.

Rob's 1/72nd scale diorama

Then my brother visited for a few days. He wanted some instruction on painting and weathering an armored model. It was a M48 tank that he assembled at home. Over the next two days we painted, weathered,  and then built a small diorama to display it. This project was a lot of fun and my brother said he learned a lot. We used dry brushing, washes, chalk, and texture mud. The texture mud was helpful un hiding some of the flaws in the tracks.

On Saturday, I hosted a WW2 war game at my house. It was a scenario set in Holland during the Market Garden campaign. I enjoy hosting games. It reminds me a lot of setting up an op session. The game went well, though the Germans were able to cut the highway and were able to withstand the Allied attempt to clear it, though they took heavy casualties.

Hopefully, next week I can continue to catch up on the remaining do-list items.

British armor wrecks litter the battle field

Open House for the Rockville Model Railroad Society

Members of the Rockville Model Railroad Society stopped by to see the USMRR Aquia Line today. They included  Tom Matty, Greg Cassidy, Deane Mellander, Jim Novaco, Roger Andes, Ben Sullivan, Kelly Regan, Fritz Fahlin and Joe Ney. I had not run the layout in quite some time, so I was pleased to see that it operated without problems during their visit.  It was a fun time. Ben Sullivan mentioned that he has a blog on the layout he is building. His layout is based on the Georgetown Branch of the B&O.  The Georgetown waterfront scene has always been a favorite of mine.   After seeing my layout, the group headed to Paul Dolkos's house to see his layout.

The visitors seemed as interested in the wargame board I am building as they were in the layout. A few of them said that they too did wargames.   This game board is going to be used in the Northern Virginia Gamers Group (NOVAG) Game Day in Chantilly, VA on 26 January. John Drye and Mark Franke are helping me host the game.



I am presenting a talk on Civil War Railroading on 16 January at 1000AM at the Model Railroad Club at the Hollin Hall Senior Center.   Please stop by if you get a chance to see the talk and check out their layout.