WIP - Gunboat, Part 1

Last night I started on my small gunboat flotilla for my Capitania General de Florida mini-campaign.  The next battle will feature some naval action as well as land action.  This gunboat, and her two sisters, will be the Asturian (AKA Spanish) naval force that will be engaging a Britannian naval force.  This resin boat is an Old Glory Shipyard rowboat (GG-001) [link] with an added slide gun and four swivel guns.  I bought them on eBay several years ago, about the same time as the row-galley featured in the last two posts.

As usual, please click (or double-click) on the pictures for larger images.

I only mounted eight of the ten thole pins, four per side.  I drilled through the center of each thole pin and into the gunwhale of the boat, attached a piece of steel wire into the hole with superglue, and glued the thole pin onto the wire with superglue.  I was going to make the thole pins removable but decided against that.  The slide gun is also mounted on a piece of steel wire superglued into the foredeck.  It will probably be left loose so I can either show damage to it or remove it for a more lightly armed boat.  The swivel guns are placed into holes drilled into the gunwhales at each corner of the main deck.  They may also be left loose.

The oars are long (really more like sweeps) and will be shortened slightly.  The mast will eventually have a yard with a brailled up square sail on it.  I may shorten the mast.  Currently it is 6" long and is mounted into a hole drilled completely through the deck of the boat.  It will remain removable, as will the yard.  I will mount the boat on a plastic base that will be 10" (~25 cm) long and 7" (~18 cm) wide.  The sweeps will be glued into the thole pins and onto the base.  The base will be covered with a sea effects picture that I've used before on my 1:2400 pre-dreadnought ships and then textured with a wake and swirls left by the sweeps.

Stay tuned for additional WIP pictures.

WIP - Row Galley, Part 2

Last night was spent working out the rigging of the masts and lateen yards for the row galley.  The kit came with two masts and four yard pieces.  Last week I fished the yards together using some dark brown thread appropriated from my wife's sewing basket.  The masts will initially be loosely mounted in the holes in the deck provided for them while the yards will be hung on the masts so that they can be removed.  I bought a roll of 24 gauge (~0.5mm) copper wire from my local Ace Hardware store on the way home from work.  After several hours and a couple of false starts, this was the result:

If you double click on the picture you can get a close-up of my rigging technique.  I drilled a hole through the top of each mast and threaded the wire through it.  I had filed a groove around the mast where the hole was and wrapped and super-glued the wire to the mast, leaving enough to form into a loop.  This simulates the rigging "falls" that hold the yard.  I did the same to each yard but formed the wire into a hook that would fit into the loop piece on the mast.  By careful measuring (and some trimming of one end) I ensured that each yard would hang at a slant since this type of row galley used a lateen rig.  Now all I have to do is paint the masts and yards, make the sails, and get them attached to the yards.  There will not be any other rigging as this will be a wargaming "model" and I don't want to have to worry about rigging getting fouled with fingers and vice versa.

You will also notice that the galley has been completed painted.  The outer hull is charcoal and antique gold (ochre) while the interior is red (to hide the blood splatter).  The deck is painted a desert tan color to simulate "holy-stoned" wood planking.  The quarterdeck is a separate piece to which I've glued pins that fit into holes on the main deck sides.  The tiller bar still requires painting (in progress) and mounting.  The crewmen are being painted as well.  The artillery is still unpainted.

I plan on using this same rigging technique for the smaller vessel and the three gunboats that I have.  The smaller vessel will get a fore-and-aft rig on a single mast while the gunboats will have a single square main sail.

Now all I have to do is come up with a suitable name for a Britannian colonial ship from the southern colonies.  Any suggestions?

WIP - Row Galley, Part 1

Some time ago I acquired an 18th Century American row galley (the Old Glory Shipyard GG9, Washington, from Benedict Arnold's flotilla on Lake Champlain).  I've finally begun painting her for an upcoming Capitania General de Florida game where she'll play a role as a Britannian ship in the naval part of the battle.  I've primed the galley and have painted both of the sides.  This might not have been anything close to what the Washington was actually painted, but it suits me (he says with a big grin!).   [As usual, please click on the pictures for a larger version.]

The row galley Washington with a few older MiniFig crewman aboard for perspective.  The lower part of the hull is red while the upper sides are charcoal and yellow ochre.  I think that the quarterdeck railings will also be yellow ochre, while the deck will be a light wood color (to represent holystoned decking) and the interior of the sides may be red.

And here is an overhead view.  She came with two masts (the two crewmen happen to be standing over the holes in the deck) and yards.  Her rig on Lake Champlain was lateen sails on both masts.  I am going to try that arrangement.  The yards are each in two pieces so I'll have to "fish" them together.  I have a clamp device that my nephew gave me several Christmases ago which will come in handy to hold the two halves while I wrap glue soaked thread around them.  I have a good drawing of the galley in a book on American Revolution navies that shows how they would have been attached and hung on the mast.

More pictures later as work on her progresses.

Color Tests for Russian Pre-Dreadnoughts

After doing some reading of various interpretations of the war time paint scheme for the Russian 1st Pacific Squadron in 1904, I decided it was time to try out actually painting some ships.  These four are all Panzerschiffe models, 2 battleships and 2 cruisers.  I'm still not certain that these will be the color schemes that I will end up using - your comments will help.  As usual, please click on the pictures for a larger version.

The first two test ships are battleships from the Port Arthur based 1st Pacific Squadron.

The battleship Tsesarevitch was the flagship of the Russian squadron during the Battlle of the Yellow Sea.  Here he (to use the Russian/Soviet pronoun) is painted with a dark cinnamon hull, khaki superstructure, and ochre funnels with black band around the tops.  The base is not finished.

The Pobieda was one of the three Peresviet class battleships assigned to the Far East.  He is also in the same color scheme.

The next two ships are cruisers based out of Vladivostok.  Both were present at the Battle of Ulsan, where the Rurik was sunk.

The armored cruiser Rossiya was the flagship of the Vladivostok cruiser squadron.  Here he is with an olive drab hull, khaki superstructure, and ochre funnels.  These colors are, in my opinion, just not dark enough.

And this is the unfortunate armored cruiser Rurik.  With her compound armor and slow speed, she was obsolete by the time of the Russo-Japanese War and paid the ultimate price for it.

OK, what do y'all think?  Please give me your unbiased opinions - wrong colors, too light, too dark??  My ultimate goal is to have a distinctive color scheme for the original Pacific based ships to distinguish them from the elements of the Baltic Fleet that made up the doomed 2nd and 3rd Pacific Squadrons.  At the same time, I don't want a monotone black or gray that would make these little models nothing more than dark blobs on the gaming table.

And finally, a second test Japanese ship, this time the battleship Yashima.  She missed the Battle of the Yellow Sea because she had earlier sailed into a Russian minefield and didn't survive the encounter.

Here she is with her grey hull and superstructure and tannish decks.  The only thing lacking is the wake which I will add once I have enough ships completed to justify mixing up the texture compound.

The Yashima has been joined by the armored cruiser Yakuma which was featured in a previous post.

Basing Scheme for Pre-Dreadnought Ships

My last post was a look at a selection of the 1:2400 scale Japanese and Russian ships that I have.  I'm now scheduled to run two games (Nov & Dec) for our group using the ships.  But as you will recall from the previous post, most of them were still on the cardboard bases from the previous owner.  Now I have done some experimenting and have decided on a basing scheme for the ships.

Note:  All ships pictured here are from Panzerschiffe Miniatures and the numbers in parentheses are their stock numbers.  Also, please click on the pictures for a larger image.

By war gaming buddy, Lord Sterling, has already based his American and Spanish 1:2400 ships so I will follow his base dimensions since I will be using the same rules as he did for his "Remember the Maine and to Hell with Spain" game back in July (battle report of play test).

An example of Lord Sterling's basing, here with the USS Iowa (L-304)

The dimensions are 60mm x 30mm for battleships and cruisers and 40mm x 15mm for destroyers and torpedo boats.  Last weekend I cut up a plastic sign into bases of the two sizes.  I went ahead and spray painted several of the bases with a blue semi-matte spray paint that I had and several with Krylon Fusion black spray paint for plastic, which is really glossy.

But I continued my search for an effective way of representing the ocean and its waves and discovered a tutorial on the web for developing a water effects "picture."  This is what it looks like:

And the link to the tutorial is:
http://www.permadi.com/tutorial/sea/index.html

I copied this image and imported it into a Word Table scheme with 60x30mm and 40x15mm (or as close as I could get using inches) cells.  I will cut the cells apart and glue them to the plastic bases.

But before I did all that, I tried a couple of ships on the standard blue bases:

This is a Russian Revy-class torpedo boat destroyer (D-311)

This is a German Brandenburg-class battleship (L-134) with a generic ship label.

As you can see, the bases, even without any wake painted on, look rather blah.  So I then experimented with the "sea effects" base:

Here is a Revy-class TBD on the enhanced "sea effects" base.  Looks much better!

I tried a larger ship by using the Japanese armored cruiser Yakumo (L-332).

Here is the Yakumo in the dark grey painting scheme of the previous owner.

The ship identification label was also made using Word Table with the addition of a Japanese naval ensign.

But I thought that was too dark even though it may have been the accurate war-time paint scheme.  So I repainted her with lighter grey hull, superstructure, and turrets and a "sandstone" color for the decks.

This is, to my eye, much better and allows one to see the various turrets and the superstructure of the ship.

Then I added a wake using "antique white" mixed with a texture base to give the wake some added dimension.

I still have a little touch-up to do (especially around the bow).  I will also apply a matte glaze to provide protection for the paint job.

As you can see, I think the addition of the "sea effects" layer to the base dramatically improves the overall look of the ships.  These ships are small.  The Yakuma is less than 2" long.  I had to use my magnifying glass built into one of my painting area lamps and a 10/0 brush to apply the colors.  Over the coming weeks and months leading up to my first game (Nov. 6) I will be basing and repainting the Russian and Japanese ships involved in the Battle of the Yellow Sea, Aug 10, 1905.

Panzerschiffe Pre-Dreadnought Ships

Bluebear Jeff had asked some time ago for some pictures of some of my small collection of Panzerschiffe pre-dreadnought ships.  I am finally able to oblige him (and others).  These ships were purchased from another gamer who had the Russian and Japanese fleets for the Tsu-Shima Campaign as well as a number of others.  These pictures are just a sample of the two fleets.  The paint jobs are by the previous owner.  I re-mounted a few of the ships onto metal bases but left almost all on the original cardstock bases.  To a few I've added identification labels, depending on the previous owner's identification data on the bottom of the bases.

Panzerschiffe is an American company that has 1:2400 ships.  Their web site is:  www.panzerschiffe.com/

Please click on the pictures for a larger image.

The first ship is the Russian battleship Pobieda (others in class are Peresviet and Oslyabya).

Number A301 in the Panzerschiffe catalog.

The Russian light/protected cruiser Bogatyr, A303 (others in class are: Oleg, Kagoul, and Merkooria).

Russian light/protected cruiser Pallada, A304 (others in class are Diana and Aurora)

Russian battleship Tsarevitch, L322

Russian battleship Petropavlovsk, L329 (others in class are: Sevastopol and Poltava)

These Russian ships were based either in Vladivostok (Bogatyr) or Port Arthur.

Japanese battleship Mikasa, L323 (sister is: Asahi)

Japanese armored cruiser Nisshin, L325 (sister is: Kasuga)

Japanese armored cruiser Tokiwa, L331 (sister is: Asama)

This Japanese light/protected cruiser is a little mystery.  The previous owner labeled the bottom of the base Otowa. L337.  But according to the Panzerschiffe catalog, the Otowa is L369, while L337 are the Tsushima and Niitaka.  I looked up pictures of both on the Internet but couldn't really tell which was which.  Anyway, this is an example of a Japanese light or protected cruiser.

Japanese light/protected cruiser Kasagi, L339 (sisters are: Chitose and Takasago)

These Japanese ships were all in Admiral Togo's fleet at Tsu-Shima.

The Chinese battleship Chen-Yuan, L360.  She was captured in the Sino-Japanese War and taken into Japanese service, being renamed Chin-Yen (which is the Japanese equivalent of her Chinese name).

A couple of "little boys."  The rather crudely written labels on the bottom of each ship indicate the larger (gray) one may be the Spanish Furor class destroyer, D307, while the smaller (white) one may be the American Ericcson class torpedo boat, D302.  But that identification is not certain.  They are however examples of torpedo boat destroyers and torpedo boats of the period.

Finally a merchant ship, painted as the Russian hospital ship Orel which accompanied the Russian Baltic Fleet on its long cruise to oblivion in 1905.  Actually she is the American cargo ship Zafiro, L313, from the Spanish American War, but serves as an example of Panzerschiffe's merchant ships.

You can see examples of these and other Panzerschiffe ships in actual wargames at the following links.  The ships belong to either me or my wargaming buddy, Lord Sterling.

Remember the Maine and to He** with Spain!

Play Test of Sides of Steel Rules

Renaissance Galley Game

Today I treated our wargames group to a naval game in the Mediterranean in the 1500s. A small fleet of Christian galleys engaged a small fleet of Moslem galleys. We used the WizKids Pirates of the Barbary Coast "snap together" galleys, suitably painted and marked to differentiate the two sides.

This first picture shows the initial clash between the two Genoan squadrons and an Algerian squadron supported by an Ottoman squadron.




The second picture shows the action a little, with the Algerian command galley sunk and the Genoan fleet command galley on fire.


The rules we used are called Barbarossa and can be found under the Renaissance section on the Free Wargame Rules web site ( www.freewargamesrules.co.uk ).