Thomo’s Wargaming and Travel Tales
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 thomo the lost posted this in  General on  February 1st, 2010
The Hobart Mercury on Friday 2 February 1917 ran the following piece, as an obituary for Admiral Sir Henry Kane, the Captain of HMS Calliope of the Hurricane at Apia, Samoa fame mentioned elsewhere here in Thomo’s Hole.
LONDON, February 1
The death took place to-day of Admiral Sir Henry Kane, the hero of the great storm at Samoa, in 1880. Admiral Kane was, born in 1843, his father being Sir Robert Kane, F.R.S. He chose the Navy as a career, and in 1863 was promoted to a sub-lieutenancy. After being naval attaché to the Maritime Courts from 1883 to 1887 he was appointed to command the cruiser Calliope, and in 1889, an international dispute having arisen as to the rights of Britain, the United States, and Germany in Samoa, she was sent out to the Pacific to represent British interests. The Calliope with three German and three American warships, and a number of merchantmen, was lying at anchor at Apia on March 16, when a terrific hurricane swept the island One by one the ships began to drag their anchors and go ashore. The American ship Trenton was dismasted and thrown on her side on the beach, while of the German cruisers only the Elbe was afterwards found to be sound enough to make salvage operations worth while. Seeing that delay would inevitably result in the loss of his ship, Admiral Kane-then captain-decided on the bold course of trying to steam out through the narrow, rock-bound entrance in the teeth of the hurricane. For some time it seemed that the Calliope’s engines were not strong enough to take her out against the gale, but she gradually gathered way, and, to the accompaniment of cheering from the crews of the Trenton and other American vessels, steamed out to the open ocean and safety. All the other vessels were driven on the rocky shore, and many sailors were drowned in, the surf in spite of the particularly gallant efforts of the natives to effect rescues. Admiral Kane was appointed a Director of Naval Ordnance in 1894, and this post he held until his retirement in 1897. His services at Samoa brought him promotion to the rank of admiral and a knighthood.
The other pieces in the Hole here are:
Still such stirring stuff.
thomo the lost posted this in History, Naval on January 29th, 2010
 Jessica wrote to me again recently. She’s been to Washington and whilst there, she went to the Arlington Cemetery where many of the USA’s war dead and ex-servicemen are buried. She was looking for the grave of Captain Emery Rice of the USS Mongolia fame.
I’ve written about the USS Mongolia before, in particular see USS Mongolia, More on the USS Mongolia and also about Capt Emery Rice, see for example USS Mongolia and Captain Emery Rice.
Anyway, Jessica went to Arlington and tracked down Emery’s grave. If anyone is passing and want to see it for themselves, to remember old sea captain and from what I can gather from what I have read so far, an interesting character as well, then his grave can be found in the cemetery section 3 and the grave number 4177.
It took a while for Jessica to find it so you might have to persist. The grave stone gives his rank as Lt Commander.
I am not an expert on US Navy rank, especially that during World War 1, but all references I have seen to Rice refer to him as Captain Rice, rather than Lt Commander Rice. Am I missing s0mething simple here?
thomo the lost posted this in Technology on January 29th, 2010
 It happened. A couple of days ago in Singapore I was given an iPod Shuffle. One of the new ones that tells you the track that is playing. It is my first Apple product. Really. I’ve never had an Apple anything before although those around me all have.
I have to be honest now and say after using it for a week now, I will be retiring my old mp3 player when I get back to Oz. The iPod is just a joy to use, easy, intuitive and the sound quality through the ear bud speakers provided is excellent as well. Best of all, they don’t drop out of my ears like others do.
Whilst I can honestly say I won’t be racing out to buy an iPad yet, I can see myself thinking very strongly of a MacBook or iPod Touch in the not too distant future. Thanks to the office for the music!
thomo the lost posted this in Asia Pacific, Singapore, travel on January 27th, 2010
 I had to take a business trip to Singapore recently. I can’t recall having written much about Singapore in the past although that could be because I have not had so many trips there over the past few years.
The trip started early and to make my flight I got to watch sunrise over the Charles Kingsford Smith Airport in Sydney before boarding the flight and heading to Singapore. The one advantage of a flight so early was that I arrived in Singapore early enough to stumble around the city and find my way from the hotel I was staying at to the office. This I managed to do without maps, relying instead on the bush craft all Aussies have to find my way in a strange city. Oh, don’t believe it? OK, I know the office was about a ten minute walk away so I wandered down the river until I recognised a bridge and walked in from there. This gave me a chance to pass on the box of Tim Tams I had bought for the office staff to share. Memo to self, bring two boxes of Tim Tam’s next time.
The hotel I stayed at – the Park Hotel on Unity Street (they call it Clarke Quay but it is next to a hotel called the Robinson Quay hotel – and that hotel is between the Park Hotel and the River) is a reasonably new hotel. The food there was OK – nothing special. The service was generally quite good and the rooms whilst not large were comfortable and well tended.
Of course, being a new hotel, the rooms were built to look more spacious by having a glass wall between the bathroom and bedroom. This does, of course, open everything up and give you something to do in the morning when having a shower – watch the TV.
I do like these internal glass walls I must admit, except for one small matter. When one is contemplating the universe whilst seated in the throne room, this is the view. Of course, I figure if I can see the end of the pool, then the end of the pool can see me. Not a sight to consider when turning in the pool whilst doing your laps.
The plus side, however, was each morning taking a stroll along the river to the location of the daily training sessions. At this time of year, the wet season for this part of Asia, the morning temperatures are warm but not too hot so it is a good time for a stroll.
I had two days of training in Singapore, followed by a couple of days of meetings. I also managed to catch up with an old buddy or two (and consumed quite a few Tiger’s to boot). After Singapore I’m off to Bangkok for a few days R&R before returning to Oz. Whilst in Bangkok I’ll be looking at tigers of a different variety.
The other thing I did in Singapore was attend the company Dinner and Games Day. The Singapore office has this each year and it coincided with the trip to Singapore. The day was held on Sentosa, based around the Megazip. More on that later when I get the photos.
In the meantime, thanks to the folks in Singapore for their kindness, as well as the prizes at the party – I am sitting by the pool here reading one of those prizes 
Thanks also to C&W for the iPod shuffle – it has been a great addition to my travelling kit and I must admit, it is my first Apple product … sigh … now I guess resistance is futile – soon it’ll be an iPhone then an iBook.
thomo the lost posted this in General on January 26th, 2010
I have a few days off and so I slipped over to Bangkok. After living in a Radisson Hotel in Jeddah for two years, I had so many points from their frequent stayer program that I could book a room here on points only. Add in cheap flights on Tiger Airways(()) and an inexpensive holiday ensued.
So, what is Thomo reading whilst sitting around the pool with the tall drinks in the umbrella glasses? Steig Larsson’s “The Girl Who Played With Fire”. This series of books, starting with “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo” has to undoubtedly be the most frustrating books I have ever read. Just when you think the hero is starting to get on, you discover that the story is more about the heroine. Just when things look like they can’t possible get worse for her, they do. Just when you think you can put the book down to pick up your glass, you just have to turn the page one more time. So friustrating – I love it.
The Swedish story is so well crafted and more importantly, the English translation does not suffer from the issues normally found with translation – the beauty of Larsson’s prose comes through, along with the smells, tastes and sounds of Stockholm.
Highly recommended books – and yes, I will be getting the final and third volume in the series as I expect that at the end of volume 2, I will be even more frustrated than I am now!
thomo the lost posted this in travel on January 17th, 2010
Yep, its been over a year since I travelled internationally but I’m off again. I have a business trip to Singapore next week. This will be followed by a few days sitting on a beach somewhere with those umbrella dressed drinks that arrive in the smooth end of a pineapple. I’m not sure of the beach yet but will post to the Hole when I get there.
I am also hopeful of getting some writing done whilst away.
In any case, normal transmissions will resume in about two weeks time.
thomo the lost posted this in Wargaming on January 13th, 2010
 I had painted the first Napoleonic Danish ship in 1/2400th scale. I covered the painting of these in two previous posts here, Danish Napoleonic Ships – the First 74 – part 1 and Danish Napoleonic Ships – the First 74 – part 2. These described the assembly and painting of a single vessel – my prototype.
Previous to the painting though, I started to lay out my thoughts in Danish Napoleonic Naval Questions. I had decided on the Danes as they were a little different to the run of the mill British/French/Spaniards and besides, I had just finished phase one of my modern NATO Danes.
In that last mentioned blog post I did note
If anyone has the answers to these burning questions:
- Statistics to use for Danish vessels in the Trafalgar Naval Wargame Rules
- Colours of the strakes especially and vessels generally for vessels in the Danish fleet – were they uniform or varied as well
- Names and rate of the vessels that made up the Danish fleet of the time
Please feel free to comment here with answers. As and when I find answers to these questions I will post them here to the Hole as well.
Well, I didn’t get any answers but I have been searching myself for the information.
On a point by point basis,
- I don’t have statistics for the Danish vessels in the Trafalgar Naval Wargames Rules format yet … still. However, this may be academic as I purchased a copy of Langton Miniatures fast play naval rules, Signal Close Action – Fast Play. I also purchased a copy of the regular Signal Close Action Rules as well.
- With regards to the colours of the strakes and such, I searched the Internet and even sent emails to a couple of Danish Naval Museums (the Aalborg Søfarts- og Marinemuseum in particular) but could not find anything out. In the end, I wrote to Rod Langton of Langton Miniatures and asked him. Langton has some information on his website and its been there since 2001 celebrating the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Copenhagen. This information was not easy for me to find on the site so Rod patiently explained where the link was. The link is under Napoleonic Ships, look for the Danish hulls. However, Rod kindly gave me the following information:
- The Orlogsmuseet (Royal Danish Maritime Museum) noted that the Nelson colour schemes were not adopted until after the war, in part due to the expense of the paint.
- Danish vessels were therefore left in unpainted wood. Some areas were painted such as the gunports, parts of the superstructure (bulwarks?) and the decoration
- The colours most often used for decoration were green, blue and red. Langton suggests using a buff or basic wood colour for the sides of vessels. I am taking this to assume that the cross spars were also plain wood.
- The names of the vessels and their rate have been fairly easy to determine. There is a good list of the vessels in involved in the Wikipedia article on the Battle of Copenhagen. Worthy of a view as well is the Danish Military History website.
 OK, so, where does that leave me now. I could argue that I have a perfectly good English 64 painted up (although I will need to change the ensign flying from the mizzen). In any case, I shall now be able to ensure that future vessels as they are painted are closer to the way they appear to have been historically. Naturally, I will photograph them and place them here in the Hole in the future.
I would also like to thank Rod Langton for sharing the information. Langton makes absolutely the best, bar none, 1/1200th scale sailing vessels. Have a look at some of the eye candy at Langton Miniatures. I know I will be using Langton’s 1/1200 Mediterranean galleys when I get around to building my Renaissance naval collection.
thomo the lost posted this in Wargaming on January 12th, 2010
As I mentioned the other day, I have the next batch of ships to paint. They will be done over the next month. I’m away for a couple of weeks which will slow the process down a little and for the 1/6000th Italian World War 1 ships, I need to do some more research (which will, of course, be shared here later). This may result in a repaint to some of my 1/3000th ships. 
In the meantime, I have been finishing off phase 1 of the 1/300th scale (6mm) Modern NATO Danes. These are built for the Cold War Commander wargame rules, a game I have been playing a lot of recently. The Phase 1 aircraft (a Draken and a Super Sabre) were finished today. The phase 2 aircraft (Phantom) will be painted when I finish the extra forces purchased for this Battlegroup.
Somewhere in the air are the remaining painting projects for the next few months. On the way is a PacFed Future War Commander army in 6mm, an early North African Italian World War 2 army in 1/300th (6mm) as well as a Russian Aeronef fleet for the Peshawar Victorian Science Fiction campaign. I also need to do some more writing for Peshawar. I hope to get to that in the last week of January as I have a few days holiday where I hope to sit on a beach, play some golf and catch up on some reading and writing. More on that later too.
And now, time to spray varnish the aircraft (this is always the nervous part of the painting process for me as I wonder whether the varnish will discolour the paint job).
thomo the lost posted this in Wargaming on January 5th, 2010
 I have just received my next batch of 1/6000th scale ships for painting. This batch is the Italian World War 1 fleet as well as four markers for sinking ships (these will be very interesting to paint) as well as some colliers.
These ships mark a slight departure from the work I have done before for John in that some of the Italian ships were in dazzle schemes and camouflage. This will be the first time that I will try and paint those patterns in 1/6000th so I am looking forward to the challenge.
John also included some information and scans of old pictures of some Italian ships to be going on with.
With this batch as well I am thinking of adopting a different approach to the labels on the bases. Instead of the usual DD01 as the code for, say, the Vincenzo Giordano Orsini, I will look at using the codes used by the Regia Marina so the Orsini would then be represented by the code of ‘OR’.
As I painted my Italian World War 1 fleet (Navwar ships) in basic grey already, after researching more as a result of John’s request, I can see I will need to go back and do some additional painting.
Recently I have been in a Danish mood with a modern Danish NATO force and Danish Napoleonic Sailing Ships. I guess I am moving into an Italian period now as well as I just made a purchase of 6mm (1/300th) scale vehicles and troops for Italian forces circa 1940 from the new owners of Heroics and Ros (H&R). H&R has recently been split from Navwar after a bazillion years and sold off to another owner. I’ll let you know how their mail order is vis-à-vis the service from Navwar, One area where they are ahead of Navwar is that they have an email address and Andy (the new owner) seems happy to answer emails.
More on the Italian 1/300 scale later.
thomo the lost posted this in General on December 24th, 2009
It’s Christmas Eve here in the Land of Oz (and hot). I’m away at Mum’s at the moment, preparing to burn the Christmas Lunch tomorrow. Also on the plans, apart from a lot of gardening for mum and some furniture moving, is to finish sorting through my stock of unpainted figures and magazines, bringing anything naval back to Sydney and deciding what the next projects will be, after the Future War Commander, Aeronefs, Blitzkrieg Commander, Danish Napoleonic Sailing vessels and Danish Modern Army. Posting to the blog will be infrequent over the coming week or so.
So, let me take this opportunity to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a safe and prosperous New Year.
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