Great War naval, the return

 The naval project, hinted at in my previous post, is indeed Great War naval in 1/2400.  This marks a return to one of my original historical projects, as I first dabbled with these dreadnoughts in the mid 1990's using the fine miniatures from CinC.  Another attempt in this century was made with 1/3000 ships and again with 1/1800, but nothing really stuck and many of these ships were accidentally discarded.

But, the world turns and so does my attention, and here we are back with 1/2400, this time with GHQ ships.  I am trying to guide this project along a few lines:  one, as a solo project I am going to try and not get too carried away with purchases (we'll see!); two, also along the lines of a solo project I am going to try and purchase these ships as they come on sale from GHQ or other sources; three, limiting the theatre of operations to the Baltic (and maybe the Black Sea); and lastly to not be too concerned with historical squadrons and just get a game on.

First up are some Russians:

GHQ lists them as BB-class, but in reality they are pre-dreadnoughts.  Slava and Tsessarevitch are survivors of the Russo-Japanese War, and Imperator Pavel is only slightly more recent.

A mixed bag of cruisers:

And a few German heavy units:

The shift away from purely historical encounters starts straight away with these selections.  SEYDLITZ, as far as I know, did not engage in any combat missions in the Baltic during the Great War, but I certainly will put her in harm's way.  And SEYDLITZ will not be the only one, as I intend to get the Russian Gangut-class battleships in action as well, eventually.

Next item on the list is rules.  I have some in mind already, old ones and newer ones to try out.

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Galleys & Galleons, part 3

Now that I have some ships together (see previous post), my thoughts have turned to getting them painted.  First, primer.  I have found that my usual primer, Reaper Master Series Brush-On Primer, has seen better days and has mostly settled out in the dropper, even after much shaking:

The two on the right were 'primed' with my remaining Reaper primer - you almost can not tell that there was anything there.  The pair in the middle were coated with Vallejo Surface Primer.  While the coverage is good, this stuff has a bit of a stench to it, and I do not think that I will try it again.  On the left pair, I used a 1:1 mix of white gesso and grey gesso.



The gesso seems to be working OK.  I have used gesso before, but mostly on 28mm figures and I am concerned about covering in details on these small ships.  The gesso is not fully cured, though, so we will see...

New blog, with a painting tutorial

A new blog (not mine  :) ) has sprouted up - The Great War at Sea by Grant.  He has posted a two-part painting tutorial, with Part 1 here and Part 2 there.



He has some beautifully painted 1/2400 GHQ miniatures - take a look!

Galleys & Galleons, part 2

After a multitude of delays, from holidays to a pronounced avoidance of the painting table, a small measure of progress has been made.  Here is a pic:

This is the assembled Figurehead small English squadron for the Armada period, in 1/2400 scale.  These vessels are not very large - those bases are 40mm long and 20mm wide!  But, for small miniatures they are very nice.



Here are some close-ups:

The largest ships are these:  FR30 Race built galleons, based on Ark Royal.  One can see that there is a good amount of detail, including flags from each mast.  These miniatures are three-piece kits, with the fore and main masts being separate from the hull.

The other two large galleons are:  FR31, based on Revenge.  These are also three piece miniatures.

Here are three of the six small galleons (FR32).  This pic only shows three, as I had misplaced the other pack until just before the squadron pic was taken.  In contrast to the larger galleons, these smaller galleons are one piece castings, making assembly just a matter of removing a small amount of flash and making sure the bottom of the hull is flat.







Last but not least:

This is pack FR34, showing a large pinnace (left) and a galleass (right).  One piece castings, these small ships still have a lot of detail.





Unfortunately, my slow pace of assembly/painting means that the next game of Galleys & Galleons will use the counters again...

Galleys & Galleons, part 1

Last weekend, my lovely wife and I sat down to give Galleys & Galleons, the renaissance-era naval rules now in playtest, a go.  You will need to forgive the pics, as I do not have miniatures painted up, and I forgot to get my blue felt out for an appropriate backdrop!

This pic was taken after the full first turn.  The table is roughly 3 feet square, and we are using counters out of the Close Action game by Clash of Arms.  We kept details simple for this first game - 3 galleons each, with equal stats.  My wife is closing fast, as she rolled very aggressively (and well) throughout the game.  At this point, two of my ships are in irons - i.e. pointed into the wind.  It is an omen of things to come!

A few more turns in, and I am trying to shake my squadron back into a line.  My ships are taking damage, and Little Miss Horatio Nelson is about to break my line!

Even though one of her ships is out of contact, things are not looking good for me.  Yes, that ship of mine got raked and will strike its colors in the next turn, and the one on the right side is about to get raked, catch fire, and explode (!) in the next turn.

Here is the next to last turn - my last ship is trying to get off the board. She agreed that if my last ship could sail off the table, that it would escape as my wife's ships would need to return and claim the surrendered vessel.  Fortunately for me, my last vessel escaped...





So far, the verdict on the rules is quite favorable.  Even my lovely wife enjoys them, and she is a hard sell on sailing ship games.



As I would rather play with miniatures than counters:

Here is the start of a fleet of Figurehead 1/2400 ships on the workbench.  The bases are just temporary until I can order some better ones.

Part Two!

I had intended to continue the wall of text approach with my decision of a genre to pursue more closely.  But, I think it makes more sense to just cut to the chase and get going.  WW2 naval it is, specifically The Med as a starting point.



Now, does this mean that I am taking the narrow historical account?  Nope.  The collection will start with some hypothetical French/Italian actions, maybe even as early as 1939.  It is my intent to collect the proper forces to do historical battles, but I do not want to be limited to only that approach.



Slowly, this will include the British and Americans as well.  Plan Rubber has not been forgotten, but I will not be working on it to a large extent for a year or more.



The task has started already:

The pic above shows what is left of my WW2 naval collection, being re-organized.  These are all miniatures from GHQ.  Over years past, I sold off all of my completed ships, including a large Italian contingent.  Now, I am starting with two battleships, a Littorio class and another BB which I have yet to identify - probably Cesare.  One French ship is there - Dunkerque.  Two US ships were spared, Arkansas and Texas.  Four British ships are waiting - King George V, Hood, Rodney, and Barham.  And, a lone German ship - Graf Spee.  I have a large quantity of bits from past work, and one can see that they are being organized into a more sensible system.



It is a start, yes, but much more needs to be done.  Basing, rules, paints, and more are still to be determined...  Clear for action!!!

Austrian ironclads, part 3

Not really an ironclad, this is an unarmored wooden steam vessel from the 1/2400 Figurehead line:

I intend to use it as the Austrian frigate Novara.



Building this one will be a bit different from the previous ironclads, as it appears that the fore and main masts are carried over from the Figurehead sailing ship lines.  The ironclads from Figurehead have the mast as an integral part of the hull, with the sails being separate, and the sailing vessels have the masts+sails as separate pieces.  Cutting the sails from the masts would be a delicate task; it will be easier to make a new set of masts.

Looking at a WW2 naval project...

After a little bit of digging I was able to find a good quantity of GHQ WW2 naval vessels in various states of disrepair.  Many of them look like this:

The top pic shows, from the left:  a King George V class battleship, a Caio Duilio class battleship, a Littorio class battleship, and a Strasbourg class battlecruiser.  The second pic shows, clockwise from the top left:  Hood battlecruiser, Texas class battleship, Arkansas battleship, and a Graf Spee class pocket battleship.



Quite a disparate bunch.  Unfortunately, Littorio and Strasbourg have various amounts of paint, which would need to be stripped as I am certain that I no longer have those hues in my collection.  The others pictured above, along with Rodney and Barham, are bare or in primer.



The ships I have lean somewhat towards the Mediterranean campaign, but another idea struck me while digging for these miniatures.  I found this magazine during the search:

Inside, there is an interesting article:

The article details the planning that occurred in 1941 when policy-makers in Washington DC thought that Brazil might become pro-Axis.  While it seems to be a stretch of the imagination today, the population of Brazil contains a number of German emigrants and some of the Brazilian army officers were thought to side with the Germans.



The map above is perfect for the task, detailing airstrips of various sizes and the capacity of the ports.  The real task is assembling the miniatures for the campaign.  GHQ makes most of the US ships - including Texas and Arkansas which I have in my possession.  Panzerschiffe makes the Brazilian dreadnoughts Sao Paulo and Minas Gereas.



There is a lot of room for adding more forces to this what-if scenario.  Some of them are mild, such as adding German aircraft squadrons and U-boats.  Some are wild - adding Graf Spee and Prinz Eugen to the Brazilian fleet.  And there is the truly fanciful, with Bismarck and French ships making their appearance.  But I have to admit that the strangeness adds to the appeal, for me at least.

Austrian ironclads, part 2

After a long delay, I decided to get the shipyards going again.  Here is a brief glimpse:

Drache

Kaiser Max

A couple of Austrian ironclads to get the ball rolling again.  I am cutting the masts down somewhat, as I understand the Austrians ships, at Lissa, had reduced their rigging in advance of the engagement.  It will help differentiate the Austrians from the Italians, although the hull paint will cover that!

Projects

It has been a little quiet here at this mini-shipyard, so as an aid to get back into gear I'm listing the current naval projects:

1. 1/2400 Armada - The discovery of some long-lost Hallmark ships was a pleasant surprise, but I have not done anything else to them since. The two small squadron packs contain plenty of ships for now, but I am thinking of spicing them up a bit. I discovered just the trick for that - Tiny Tin Troops has a set of flags for Armada-era ships, so that has been placed on the To-Buy list. After that, just some paint and a set of rules then I'm set!

2. 1/2400 Ironclads - Ten Italian ironclads have been mostly finished, and there are 8 Austrian ships - 5 armored, 3 unarmored - waiting. I'm hoping to try a variant of DBSA to start once some Austrians are done.

3. 1/3000 WW1 - Still work to be done on these Baltic squadrons. Rurik and Novik are still not finished, and most of the German ships are only partially complete. These, however, have been stashed away since my recent move, but just a smidge of work would get this project afloat. DBSA will be the starter rules for this project as well.


And now for the 'other' naval projects I have been puttering around with lately:

4. 1/600 Tékumel naval - Fantasy gaming in the world of M.A.R. Barker - follow this link for a little bit of info.

5. 1/1200 Half-Continent naval - Also known as Monster Blood Tattoo or The Foundling's Tale, this set of novels details a blend of the fantastic with alchemy and the 18th-century. More information on my take of the story here.


Apologies for the lack of pics, and thanks for all the votes and comments on the previous post!

Back on track, with a surprise...

Far too slowly, but it is finally done - the hobby table is set up for business:

And, it is immediately besieged with projects and a few surprises as well if you look closely!

Here is the first one:

1/2400 Figurehead English 16th century squadron

1/2400 Figurehead Spanish 16th century squadron

I thought that these packs were sold off long ago, but they look intact and almost completely untouched. Looks like two to three ships per pack - plenty to start off. I really do not know much about the period - any rules suggestions? Since these minis received the official 'thumbs up' from the missus, they are keepers...

The missus and I are still debating the fate of all of those 1/6000 ships, scattered on the work table in the first pic; I am still sorting them out! Looks like British, German, Turkish (!), US, and Brazilian (?) ships, in a mix of WW1 and WW2 eras.

Austrian ironclads, part 1

Just to show that I had not forgotten the ironclads, here is a pic for you:

Erzherzog Ferdinand Max

No other progress however! I am a bit puzzled by the lack of sails for the mini - typically Figurehead ships come with enough sail pieces for each mast that needs them, but this one only has one. I will need to check with some pics of the actual ship to confirm but I am pretty certain that there should be sails on the fore and main masts.

Work-in-progress

These projects are slowly taking shape. My order from The Last Square arrived - mostly steel bases and one Austrian ironclad, Drache - and the bases have already been put to use.


I'm using 40mm x 80mm bases for my WW1 ships. The trio on the right are the German torpedo boats... they are a dark grey with a darker grey deck, maybe too dark! I will wait until I have the bases painted but the small boys might get another, slightly lighter coat of dark grey paint for their hulls and superstructure. In the middle you can see the backbone of the Russian cruiser force - Admiral Makarov, Bogatyr, Oleg, and Bayan. And finally, still on the painting rack: Rurik and Novik for the Russians; minelayer Albatross, light cruiser Lubeck, and armored cruisers Prinz Adalbert, Roon, and Prinz Heinrich for the Germans.


The ironclads have not been forgotten:


All of my current squadron of Italian ironclads are assembled and on bases, with varying degrees of completeness. The stack of minis on the right includes five Austrian ironclads and five generic wooden steam ships. These bases are 30mm x 60mm.

Some naval calculations

As I worked on a naval gaming project at one of my other blogs, I found myself a bit distracted with thinking about the ships of the Half-Continent. As none of these ships are available commercially, I will need to scratch-build the entirely. First, I needed some rough dimensions.

At one of DM Cornish's web sites - daviddraws - there are a series of drawings, some of which involve the Half-Continent. Specifically, this page has line drawings of some of the various naval units. This is the start of the scratch-build project (although I am using the version of this same drawing found in my US copy of Foundling - it is just slightly different.)

There is a scale on the bottom of the pic, and I am using this as a base for all other miniature dimensions. By my rough calculations, a main sovereign ram could be 850' in length. That is a rather long ship. For comparison, HMS Victory, Nelson's flagship at Trafalgar, is only 227' long and USS Iowa (battleship 61) is 887' in length!

This, of course, needs to be scaled down for the table-top. A typical miniature scale for the table-top, commonly used for sailing ships and ancient galleys, is 1/1200. 1" (on the table-top) = 1200" (actual) or 100'. Our main sovereign, in 1/1200 scale, would be 8.5" long. Now, if one has a large table this would be fine - the mini would be beautiful with lots of detail. Unfortunately, I do not have that sort of luxury so a different scale is needed. Another common naval scale, used for many types of steam-powered ships, is 1/2400. Using this scale, our main sovereign would be 4.25" in length. This is a size that I can accept comfortably - still large enough for detail but not cumbersome in gaming.

Here is a rough listing of the different ships types, and their approximate lengths in 1/2400:

Main Sovereign - 4.25"
Main Ram - 3.25"
Iron Dought - 2.75"
Drag Mauler - 2.5"
Frigate - 1.75"
Gun Drudge - 1.25"

(For those who are wondering how long Hogshead, Poundinch's ship from Foundling, would be in 1/2400 - a paltry ½" long!)



These numbers give a rough start on the ships - beam measurements are next!

Italian ironclads, part 2

Again with the slow progress...

Just a pair of work-in-progress pics:

Principe de Carignano

Palestro, with Re de Portugallo

I only have a few more Italian ironclads after these; Austrians are next then some of the unarmored ships. I have yet to finalize a shopping list for the Lissa engagement - I know that I am short several ships especially Austrians. But the handful that are in place already will give me enough to start testing some rules. I'm looking forward to trying the ironclad version of DBSA. I also have a copy of David Manley's Iron & Fire, and his Lissa supplement.

Italian ironclads, part 1

I sat down at the hobby table to try out an idea for the Figurehead ironclads. Almost all of these ships come with spars and sails set as a separate piece from the masts. Steam-driven ships would not normally have their sails set especially in a battle so it does look odd for the ships to be equipped this way. So, I have tried an experiment to make a ship look better:


Here is Re d'Italia with new spars added to replace the sails.


I used the original sail pieces to get the length of each spar. The new spar is a piece of thin plastic rod. Then, I notched the mast with a sharp knife at the location I wanted a spar, to maximise the surface area for the glue. Add a bit of super-glue, and the spar goes on. After it dried I added another small drop of super-glue to the join to coat over the entire area, hopefully to strengthen it.

What do you think? To me it looks good; I don't think that I will try to add furled sails to the spars. I am worried that they will break from handling during game-play, but hopefully the players will listen when I tell them to handle the ships by their base! I am also going to leave the jib and stay sails on the ship; that might be a bit too much...

Slow progress

Just a brief update:


Regina Maria Pia with a little bit of paint applied, and





Affondatore.

Progress has been slow through the previous month due to a really odd work schedule which should be resolved now. These Figurehead ships do seem to paint up nicely so that helps.


And the WW1 fleet has not been forgotten:



Before I set off to the balmy shores of the Med for WW1, I am going to finish off the ships for my Götland scenario. Painting is helping with my strange urge to purchase those 'lovely' French pre-dreadnoughts - I really do find the French designs to be strangely attractive!

A brief update

A snippet or two of activity here:


The mini in the foreground is Affondatore, with Regina Maria Pia to starboard, mounted on thin steel bases - 30mm x 60mm - and primed. The bases are much larger than any I have used in the past, but I rather like them as there will be plenty of space for labeling and splash markers - many thanks to SteelOnSand for the tip!

But, I feel that in my haste to get them mounted I have made a slight error. The bases are very thin steel, which will probably lead to players, in the heat of gaming, to grab the mini instead of the base for movement. So, I imagine that I will add a layer or two to the bottom of those steel bases to give some needed thickness.

Also on the workbench:


Here is Re d'Italia in her packaging.




And the contents. You will notice that the fore and main sails and yards are separate pieces. I am thinking that I could just leave the sails off the mini, and add some yards. The staysails would require much more work to remove; they look OK to me as they are.



Now, all of this work on minis for Lissa has, of course, got me to thinking... Compared to the Baltic, there is a lot more naval action in the Adriatic: Greek triremes, Roman quinqueremes, Venetian and Ottoman galleys, all the way up to WW1 and beyond. Maybe I should be looking at the Adriatic more than the Baltic as a focus for my naval activity?

Notes on Figurehead ironclads

Just a couple of observations on the fine ironclads from Figurehead...


The first point is minor: all of the Figurehead ironclads, all of them steam-powered, have sails set. I could probably live with that point; it does not seem to detract from the models at all. But, if one wanted a bit more realism, the sails would need to go. On Regina Maria Pia and her sisters, it would be easier than others as the sails of the fore and main masts are actually separate from the mast itself. Others in the Figurehead line have the sails cast as part of the masts, making replacement of the entire piece necessary. For me, more thinking is required before getting my clippers ready.

The second point is more important, at least to me: the base is too small. I would like to put some labeling on the base itself and the included base, although sculpted with a nice wave effect, has no room for labels.


Here is Regina Maria Pia resting upon a 1" x 2" metal base. I think that a centimeter or some would be enough at the stern for the labels .


Is 1" too wide? Or maybe I should apply the label along the broadside edge of the base???

Old projects, part 1 - Figurehead ships

I have been slowly sifting through boxes of hobby stuff, and some surprises have been uncovered. There are some pics of some items over at my other blog, but the discoveries have not been of a naval variety, until now:




I was quite shocked to find these! These are a nice set of Figurehead Ships ironclads in 1/2400 scale. I purchased these 9 or 10 years ago, I think, at a convention in British Columbia. The dealer had them at 50% off and I bought what he had left. Figurehead's selection is based on the Battle of Lissa, 1866, at the end of the Seven Weeks War. Now, I'm not sure but it seems that I have a good selection of Italian ships, but only 4 Austrians; not nearly enough for the actual battle. There are also some 'generic' steam ships, which I think I bought with the intention of using them as Turkish ships. Figurehead minis were originally cast in England, but they are now available from Noble Miniatures in the USA.

I assembled one of these fine minis, long ago:


Regina maria Pia, one assembled and one still in the bag. The mini is in four parts: hull w/masts, 2 sails, and a base. On the assembled ship, the base is augmented by a piece of magnetic strip trimmed to the size of the original base.


Not quite 1½ inches long including the base. The mini is very nicely detailed, with individual gunports and some deckwork.


The sails are well detailed also. In all, a fine looking mini!

This looks to be a significant addition to my list of naval projects. Although I am rather short on Austrian ships, there are enough to start working on learning some rules and then building up to the full Lissa fleet rosters.