About 18 months ago I began planning for a podcast about gaming the Pacific Northwest. My view was there was lots of great stuff happening here, and that it would be great if others knew about it. I’d listened to some podcasts, but not a lot, and I thought I had some things worth saying, and that others would enjoy listening to. I was working with my son Patrick, a veteran podcaster, and preparing for something starting in the spring of 2025.

Almost exactly a year ago my friend David Sullivan died and I spent more than a month cleaning out his game stuff with others. It derailed my plans and really sent me to just kind of a dark place. I didn’t have the energy or the confidence to take on something this new or this unfamiliar. So my super spiff microphone sat in a box in my den alone and ignored.

I was at a game day in November when Steve Abarr expressed his interest in doing a podcast for exactly the same purpose–a Pacific Northwest focused podcast that featured local gatherings, game designers, business owners and other topics that would inform local gamers and the larger game community what we do out here. I asked if I could tag along and he seemed happy to have the company. Though my roots in local game history are older, Steve is better connected and his reach is broader than mine. We compliment each other. I offered to participate and he agreed. We’ve been recording the Tanks and Tomahawks podcast for the last couple of months. We’ve completed five episodes so far, but only the first three are available. We’re trying to keep it a monthly offering. We are both going to have a busy summer, and we’re trying to get some additional episodes in the can and release them in a deliberate manner.

Doing the episodes is fun. We’ve started with a script that we stick to less and less with experience. Each episode we have a guest and the pod is focused on them. We’ve had a blast. Steve is doing all the hard work of editing and posting the work, and he’s doing a super job. Still a few things we’re trying to get right, but we feel like it’s coming along.

The Repulse in all of its gray and black glory. The model is quite long, and I love it’s lean battlecruiser appearance. The photo also caught an amazingly large fingerprint in the middle of the black camouflage block I’ve had to go back and repaint. Nice.

Today, I’ll complete the HMS Repulse and the Force Z project will be nearly done. Let’s just say that building the Trumpeter Repulse has been a humbling experience. It was an order of magnitude more difficult than the Prince of Wales, which was another order more difficult than any previous modeling experience. It felt like the Trumpeter kit was needlessly more difficult with more assembly of structures that had to be properly fit, while similar pieces of superstructure were cast complete in the Tamiya kit. And honestly, I just couldn’t make it all fit. I’m sure a more experienced and capable modeler than I would have been just fine, but it was definitely more difficult for me. The good news is the paint scheme is far simpler than the PoW.

I’ve been marching Force Z toward completion. I’m creating some player aids. So far there are torpedo hit markers and some torpedoes in the water markers. I need to create some damage markers from bombs, but those should be an easy evening’s work, and honestly I don’t need too many of them. I finally wrapped up the torpedo damage charts. The good news is Saturday March 14th is the day of the first playtest, so I’m anxious to see how it turns out.

Finishing up this project will leave me free to do other things. I have piles of other things to do. In some ways I’m just looking forward to doing something different and if that leaves me wandering a bit that’s okay. A couple of the guys from our Wednesday group have expressed an interest in doing some MESBG, and it just so happens I have a bunch of Lord of the Rings figures that need painting. The American Revolution and the Hundred Years War are my Forever Projects, that I’d like to make progress on as well. Plus there is all the stuff on behind my painting area that are just piles of goodies I need to take care of. It should be done. Maybe from now until Enfilade it’s just The Big Cleanup. At this point I’ll do anything

Whatever it is I work on, the good news is the Repulse will be done by tonight and I will have finished my first figure of the month.