Thursday, February 21, 2008

Col Campbell's Shipyard Is Open for Business

Besides having land based forces (see ColCampbell's Barracks ), I also dabble in naval forces as well. This blog will intermittently showcase my forays into brown and blue water war gaming.


For our Green Nile Colonial campaign run several years ago, I built a British gunboat and two steam launches. The gunboat was entirely scratchbuilt out of balsa wood, card stock, and folder stock. The stack is a large black drinking straw liberated from a fast-food establishment. It is armed with a medium caliber quick-firing gun forward and a Gatling Gun aft. It can carry a small crew and and half-platoon of naval infantry. The two steam launches began as craft row boats from Michael's with the fancy-smancy interiors removed. The steam boilers were constructed of a section of a dried-up magic marker, a section of a lip balm tube, and a piece of drinking straw, all glued together and painted black. Each is armed with a Gardner gun and carry a small crew and about 5 naval infantry. Their initial action was in the defense of the fortified camp at Wadi Zoum-Zoum (www.angelfire.com/games3/jacksongamer/grn_nile2.htm).

These ships were easy to build, especially the steam launches, and have been fun to use. They have seen use on the rivers of Darkest Africa and in the Back of Beyond in China.

4 comments:

ColCampbell50 said...

And if you are interested in the Wadi Zoum-Zoum terrain, including the water effect, please take a peek here:

www.angelfire.com/games3/jacksongames02/con_jim.htm

abdul666 said...

Your modeels lok very great (as does your magnificient terrain, of course: very inspirational).
Now, what about a few oar-propelled rawboats, gunboats... to use in your Lace Wars setting on the major rivers (and lakes?) of Mitteland?
No galleys or gondolas as on the Great Lakes during the AWI, or the landing ships of Bonaparte's flotilla; no, and perhaps even nothing as ambitious as Jefferson gunboats, but maybe whaleboats for minpr amphibious operations, river patrols...?

Compliments,
Jean-Louis

Paul O'G said...

Any chance we could see some further close-ups of the steam laucnhes and gunboat? I need to get my chaps upriver to quell a small uprising and need to build them some transport!

Yours in a white wine sauce!
Tas

Paul O'G said...

Also, I love the terrain and the tutorial on how you built it. I have added some links to it in my blog here:
http://pauljamesog.blogspot.com/2009/01/desert-terrain-tutorial.html

toodle-pip!