Gunboats A Go Go

Now that I've upscaled and upcycled my old ACW river terrain modules for 1/600th wargaming, I have no real need for my scratch built and converted 1/2400th scale ironclad, tinclad and cottonclad gunboat models. Rather than bung then on to eBay, I thought I'd send them off to Nick Jones, author of the Bloody Betancourt blog, who has limited space to set up his naval wargames. 

I think he might find a use for them and, as I put it to him the other day, I'd rather they went to a good home rather than ending up being resold. If he finds a use for them that would be brilliant but if not I'm just pleased that they will be looked after by a fellow small scale enthusiast. Anyway, at least they're not gathering dust on a shelf any more!

ACW River Terrain Chop Shop

I dug out the jigsaw today and chopped off the river bank pieces from my old scratch built modular terrain. These need to be refurbished but, as it stands, there are nine 12" straight pieces, two 12" by 12" river bends, three end pieces and a small promontory, together with a small island made from a skirmish movement tray. I'll give these a tidy up and repaint then, eventually, use them for 1/600th scale ACW and WW1 riverine actions.

ACW River Terrain Module Upcycling

I tried out my idea to recycle some redundant 1/2400th scale modular river terrain boards into river bank sections for 1/600th scale ACW and WW1 wargaming today. This involved cutting off a river bank length, filing it down, filling and texturing the edge, repainting it and adding some more clump foliage to upscale the vegetation. It's not quite right yet, but as a prototype it's not bad and was quite straightforward to do. I now have about ten more boards to convert, which is going to take me quite a lot of time!

Messing about on the Mississippi

I'm planning ahead for my autumn projects, which will kick off at the start of next month, including a 1/600th American Civil War riverine or coastal naval project. I am going to have to pick one or the other, so a bit of background brushing up on the options is a good idea. At the moment, it's looking like the riverine option is the contender, as I have some really nice 3D printed models from Long Face Games, some fantastic Thoroughbred Miniatures metal models and lots of Peter Pig tinclad gunboats, rams and river monitors, albeit a bit more chunky and crude.

1/600th ACW Ironclads River Terrain

A few years ago I scratch built about a seven foot length of modular river terrain for an ACW ironclads project, using converted and scratch built 1/2400th scale models. In the end, after playing a few games, I realised that the 30cm wide boards were too narrow for this to work, as the turning circles of some of the larger boats was too wide. The games were good fun, using the  Dahlgren and Columbiad rules, but I packed up the boards and haven't done anything else with them since.

I'm now thinking of adapting them to use as modular river back sections for 1/600th scale ACW ironclad games. This would involve using a jigsaw to carefully cut off the river banks with about an inch of the river surface, then filing down the edges and repainting then as mud flats, giving me two 30cm / 12" river bank lengths from each board. It would also give me some river bends and islands, so a good selection of modular pieces with which to edge a table, with a terrain cloth underneath for the actual river channel. 

This would save a lot of bother making new terrain and help kickstart a 1/600th scale ACW ironclad project this year, something I've been meaning to do for ages. Not only that, I have stockpiled plenty of metal and resin models in 1/600th scale over the years, so the outlay would be absolutely minimal. I'll give this some more thought but I reckon I might be going down another naval project rabbit hole again, rather than a land based one, which is much more my cup of tea in the first place!

USS Choctaw

            

I was lucky enough to win a bid on a 1/600 scale Thoroughbred Miniatures model of the ginormous river ironclad, USS Choctaw. This is a fantastic model and one of the best in this excellent range, really capturing the extraordinary look of the actual ironclad. It's got me thinking about having another crack at ACW riverine warfare, once again using Dahlgren and Columbiad or Iron and Fire but this time in the much larger 1/600 scale instead of 1/2400th scale. It's not as though I have a shortage of models to build and paint, having accumulated loads over the last twenty years or so. 

Yet Another Cunning Plan!

I woke up this morning with yet another 'cunning plan', which popped into my head from out of the blue. I've had a copy of Neil Thomas' book One Hour Wargames for a few months but haven't done anything with it. It's ideal for a quick weekend project and thereafter for pick-up games requiring very little preparation, the numerous scenarios providing plenty of inspiration and the terrain being a basic 3' x 3' with a few features plonked on top. 

The plan is also very simple. 

Using the cheap and cheerful Warlord Epic ACW sprues, one of each for the Union and Confederates, together with my very under-utilised hexon terrain tiles and a selection of easily scratch-built terrain and MDF  buildings, I can have a One Hour Wargames American Civil War set up in no time at all on a very tight budget. I already have the hexon and have ordered some figure sprues from an eBay seller for £20 for four, which is more than enough for two armies. I will have four guns, plenty of infantry bases for six units and skirmishers using one figure strip per base. 

I can order some snake rail fencing from Pendraken or Blotz and I'm on the lookout for some inexpensive mdf or resin buildings. Some stone walled fields can easily be made using mdf terrain templates and I can also scratch-build some woodland using the same DIY approach. I can even have a railroad using some N gauge track that I already have somewhere in the shed. Not only will the terrain look good, assuming I spend a bit of time on it, but it will also be portable and flexible enough to be adapted to the scenarios in the book.

....all I need now is a long weekend with no other projects on the workbench!

Muddying the Waters

 

I scratch built and converted these 1/2400th scale ACW river gunboats, rams and ironclads last year, but screwed up the colour of the bases. I, for some inexplicable reason, chose a shade of brown that looked more like the Mekong than the Mississippi, so they've been relegated to a storage box waiting for a repaint since then. On a whim today, I dug them out and quickly repainted the bases in Flames of War Flat Earth, followed by a GW Agrax Earthshade wash and a varnish. I think they much look better now and more like the appearance I was originally aiming for, so that was a couple of hours we'll spent. 

Syborg 3D Long Face Games ACW 1/600th Boats

Armed Riverboat 3a

I bought half a dozen or so of the 3D printed ACW boats from Syborg 3D at Colours yesterday and I'm very pleased with them. These are from Long Face Games and available as STL files on Wargame Vault but, as I don't have a printer, it's great to be able to buy them as models. 

They are nicely detailed and well printed, although a couple will need some minor straightening of funnels and a little tidying up. I bought a couple of transports, a couple of armed transports and an armed riverboat, which will fit very well with my existing lead pile of Peter Pig models.  Not cheap but not expensive either, so worth a look. 

In fact, I can see myself ordering a whole load more of the Confederate rams, transports and river boats, as they really fill some gaps. This opens up the prospect of a 1/600th ACW riverine project at some point later in the year, or more likely in 2023, which is something I've been meaning to do for ages.

https://www.syborg3dprinting.co.uk/3d-model-store/1-600-acw-gunships-and-steamers

Boxing Day Bargain

It's that time of year again when the sales are in full swing and you end up buying yet more stuff that will probably get no where near a paintbrush or wargaming table. I've resisted any temptation this time round apart from the Wargame Vault sale in which I have bought the Dawn of Iron rules and supplements for ACW naval and riverine games, which have recently been published by Scary Biscuit Studios.

The whole lot cost just under twenty quid, so a bit of a bargain even when you factor in the printing that has to be done, especially as you only need to print out what you need. The rules use data cards for each ship, much like the ones in Flames of War, which is no surprise as the author wrote both systems. I'm now thinking of bumping this onto my naval project for 2022, using card counters to start with then 1/600th scale models once I've learnt the rules.

One Hour Wargames on a Budget

One of the Facebook groups that I've joined is for Neil Thomas' One Hour Wargames rules, which I've always thought would make a great solo wargaming on a budget project. The rules themselves don't look like much, being only a couple of pages long, but they are deliberately simplified for fast play and minimal complication. The secret of the rules is in the extensive range of scenarios, which can be used with all of the rules variants in one shape or form, and also in the small size of the armies and space required. 

The author also encourages the use of cheap plastic and paper armies, which is a nice change from the usual highly commercialised sets of rules these days. I have a tentative plan to try out the ECW rules variant with the Billy Bones paper armies that are available on Wargames Vault. I have had this set for years, originally downloaded for use as a teaching aid but otherwise not usefully employed, so I could print off two whole armies at minimal cost for this project. 

The other option would be the ACW variant, again using the Billy Bones paper counters, which I've experimented with before for Longstreet but didn't get beyond gluing together one regiment. I particularly like the look of the ACW units as they are very much in the style of contemporary glass plate sepia photographs and look very atmospheric. It's another project for a rainy weekend but it should be well worth the cost of a printer cartridge or two!

(as this is a print and play project, I'll post any updates on the other blog: Tea and a Wad Wargaming)

2020 Review

That was definitely a year to forget. However, I did manage to make it a less than 'a little bit crap' year for the hobby, both from a project and wargaming point of view. I'm not going to go through everything I've done this year but just pick out some of the positives rather than the negatives, which seems like a good thing to do and a great way to finish off the year.

In terms of games played this year, I only managed to get to the club on a very few occasions, where I ran Broadside and Ram and What A Tanker introductory sessions as well as taking part in Cruel Seas and Kiss Me Hardy games, which I really enjoyed. As usual, I set up and umpired another spectacular AK47 game, which is a club crowd pleaser. I also ran a very successful Bag the Hun game at the Lard Day in March, which seemed to be a hit with most if not all of the players.

At home, however, I was able to play more games than ever before, both with the sprogs during lock down but also solo, which is something I often do even when things are normal. These games included an excellent AK47 bash and a Back of Beyond game with my eldest son, a whole series of Target Locked On games with my daughter and several brilliant Fistful of Lead games with all three of the kids. 

I also played half a dozen games of Broadside and Ram and Dahlgren and Columbiad, including a mini-campaign of linked 'What If?' scenarios with the former which were really good fun. The INWARD game this year was a semi-historical Dahlgren and Columbiad scenario, which was a great way to learn the rules, and I finally got round to re-enacting the 1864 Battle of Jasmund with Broadside and Ram, albeit with card counters not proper metal warships.

In terms of projects, I went a bit 'off piste' this year, although in the same ball park as my initial project planning at the start of the year. I started with a 1/2400th scale ACW painting commission which distracted me a bit, but I soon got back on track by completing two squadrons of 1/285th scale Spitfires, Fw190's and Bf109's of the RAF and Luftwaffe for the Come and Have a Go If You Think You're Lard Enough 2 day. 

I also finished off some 1/2400th scale broadside ironclads for my French and British fleets, then added a whole squadron of US ironclads and warships as well, which subsequently appeared in my mini-campaign. I even squeezed in some Danish ships for 1864 but half of these are now re-purposed as Chilean or Peruvian warships, with the rest of my 1/2400th scale War of the Pacific ironclads added in to complete that unplanned but enjoyable project. 

The things I hadn't planned at all came along as a direct result of lockdown and quarantine. These were the 28mm Beja army for The Men Who Would Be Kings, which I completed up to a point, as I'd like to re-do the bases when I get the time. I was happy with the figures, all ninety eight of them, but the bases are definitely up for improvement, being a bit rushed and not quite the right look. I also need to paint a matching British or Egyptian army so they actually get to see some action!

The enforced two week quarantine after our holiday, also gave me the time to scratch build some modular river terrain and two flotillas of river gunboats in 1/2400th scale, which is something that appeared out of nowhere but was actually really good fun. I'm still pondering the shade of brown that I used on the river sections, however, and may well go back and repaint them in a less red oxide shade. I particularly enjoyed scratch building and converting the model gunboats for this project.

There were a few more side lines and dead ends this year, with one or two projects still not finished, or even started in some cases, but overall it's been a fairly productive year all things considered. I've got some things to carry over into 2021, the 1/2400th scale pre-dreadnoughts and 1/3000th scale modern naval projects for starters, but also some new ideas for interesting projects that I'm definitely looking forward too....more about those in 2021!

Happy New Year!

1/2400th ACW Riverine Project Finished

I wrapped up my 1/2400th scale ACW riverine project yesterday by speed painting the rest of the gunboats and a single casemate ironclad, giving me enough models for a decent set of games. I didn't spend much time on these so they're a bit messy but I think they'll do. I decided to label two of them as generic Union gunboats and the rest as Confederate, with the only historical model being the scratch built CSS Louisiana. I now have twelve models in total, so enough for a decent range of scenarios using Dahlgren and Columbiad or the Noddy Fast Play rules and my home made river terrain modules. 

Job done!

Yazoo River Scenario

As a follow on from my Battle of Baton Rouge game yesterday, I thought I'd have a go at a scenario from Iron and Fire, which I can adapt for Dahlgren and Columbiad. This involves about half a dozen ironclads and gunboats which I will use substitutes for, apart from the CSS Arkansas of which I have a scratch built 1/2400th scale model. 

The plan will be to have the USS Benton and a fictitious sidewheel gunboat, the USS Robinson, as the Union flotilla, accompanied by another generic gunboat acting as the transport. The Confederate flotilla will use my two other hypothetical gunboats, the double ender CSS Starling and the sidewheel paddler CSS Thornton. This will keep the scenario within it's original parameters.

The terrain is the easy bit as I have all the river modules required to lay out the bend and the tributary for the CSS Arkansas to hide in. I just need to paint a model to represent the Union transport, write up the record sheets for the various gunboats then set it all out ready to go. I'll aim to run the game tomorrow if I can find the time, although I suspect I'll have other less interesting things to do?.

The Battle of Baton Rouge 1862

The Set Up

CSS Arkansas

USS Essex

Opening Shots

Another Broadside

Scraping Past

Ouch!

Stuck Fast

I played the modified Dahlgren and Columbiad INWARD 2020 scenario with the lad this morning, with his command being the CSS Arkansas and mine the USS Essex. I'd re-jigged the scenario briefing to convert it into centimetre measurements for 1/2400th scale, to adjust the play area to the modular river terrain boards and to clarify the objectives for each side, but other than that it was identical. The CSS Arkansas had to escape down river while the USS Essex had to stop her. Simple, or so it seemed?

In the game, which we both really enjoyed, the CSS Arkansas managed to slip past the USS Essex despite having an engine breakdown in Turn Three which left her drifting down river toward the blockading Union fleet. This was exactly what happened in the actual engagement, so pretty accurate in historical terms: 

''On the morning of 6 August, Essex came in sight, and Arkansas moved into the stream to meet her. Just at this time, crank pins on both engines failed almost simultaneously, and Arkansas drifted helplessly to the shore''

She did suffer some light damage to her steering and some hull damage from the USS Essex's broadsides as they passed, but this was balanced by the Union ironclad's light damage from the aft 6.4'' Brooke rifles of the CSS Arkansas. The CSS Arkansas had also managed to point her bows directly downstream so had no worries about running into the shallows or going aground.

The crunch point came when the USS Essex attempted to turn in the river channel and promptly ran aground in the shallows, despite almost scraping through. She did manage to unstick herself but then proceeded to do it all over again on the opposite side of the river. The problem she faced was her low manoeuvre rating rather than the width of the river channel, which meant she could only turn in 30 degree increments. A double ender or sidewheeler would have had no problem, so the terrain did work despite my worries that it might be too restrictive.

The outcome of the battle was a clear Minor Victory for the CSS Arkansas, which was now adrift and floating downstream toward the rest of the Union river fleet. I'm pretty sure that Lieutenant Stevens would have decided to abandon ship and rig the CSS Arkansas for destruction, just as he did in the actual engagement, sending her drifting into the midst of the Union fleet where she promptly blew up in a spectacular explosion!