Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Getting Ready For the SYWA Convention


Crusader Austrian Dragoon Regiment De Ligne on the right, and Josef Esterhazy battalion on the left. Hungarians painted by Dennis Smail, dragoons painted by Der Alte Fritz.

I have been away since Good Friday basking in the warm climat of Turks & Caicos in the Caribbean. I just returned this evening, sans suitcases, which were left behind in Miami by those wonderfully efficient people at American Airlines. It's a long story, and an even longer day, but in the end, the suitcases were found and delivered to my home at 12:30 AM on Thursday morning. Now that I no longer have to stew over lost luggage, I can turn my attention to the Seven Years War Association Convention this coming Friday and Saturday in South Bend, Indiana.

The picture above features a squadron of the De Lign dragoons in the Austrian service. I will have to cut out some foam core movement trays in the morning and affix the magnetic sheet to the foam core. Since I use metal bases for the figures, they adhere to the foam core movement trays quite nicely. If I want to change the size of the unit for different sets of rules, then it is a simple matter of cutting out a new foam core base. I started using foam core as a temporary expedient during one of our early BAR games. It seemed to work nicely, so I have stayed with the method. It's not the prettiest looking movement tray, but it works. Eventually, I plan to convert everything over to brown hard board (MFD, MFA or something like that - I forget the acronym). I am tired and must get off to bed, but I wanted to give everyone a brief update and to explain why the blog has been silent over the past week.

4 comments:

  1. Jim
    I trust you had a good trip apart from the luggage incident. I am sure the convention will be a post luggage incident tonic for you. Do you intend to write the convention up for us unfortunates who are just too far away to attend ?
    best wishes
    Alan
    p.s who do I write to to rejoin sywa - I have meant to do so for ages but have not got round to it I am afraid - a matterI must remedy very soon!

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  2. Jim,

    I particularly like the looks of those Hungarians.

    Have fun at the Con . . . and don't forget to take lots of photos.


    -- Jeff

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  3. I plan to take lots of convention pictures and post them on Sunday evening, so stay tuned to the Alte Fritz Journal for updates.

    Alan, with the passing of Jim Mitchell it doesn't look like we will have a "journal" to publish and distribute to members. No one else has been willing to take on this complicated and time consuming task. However, we will continue to have our annual convention in the US. I believe that Phil Mackie in the UK will continue to have association events in the UK. Check out the yahoo group "sywa" for more information.

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