Few Tears Before the Mast….Part 1

A Confederate commerce raiding sloop. I have a pair of these but have on the modelling tray a further example to build which will be virtually the same as the above except having two funnels. This will be the C.S.S. Florida. The pictures show the completed masts and spars etc whilst part two of this post will show the actual construction.

A chance comment from the renowned gamer and all round gentleman, John Armatys, whilst I was busy liberating Arnhem at The Other Partizan has been directly responsible for this post! The subject is masts - or rather how I make them for my models. It is hugely relevant at present for me as I shall be undertaking the building of a veritable forest of the things for the ironclads required for the Anglo Turkish War of 1880. Whilst waiting for the industrial quantities of MDF to arrive from Warbases to build the new collection I realised that I still had another ACW sloop to build so I decided that sharing this element of the build would be useful for readers that may want to have a go themselves.

Building a Mast

Using this building technique is pretty straightforward but one does need to be both careful and methodical. The following are some further views of the above model showing the masts and spars to better effect.

The side profile. This shows the ‘stepping’ of the masts and their relative heights. For scale the hull is 5” long

The view looking head on. The spars are quite modest in terms of size but this gives you a good idea of how they should look when finished

The bowsprit.

The first thing I should point out is that during this period the subject of masts and spars could fill several books in their own right! The variety of sailing rigs and what was used and when is a hugely complex subject - certainly well beyond my powers of concentration! As my models are fairly loose in terms of scale and detail I have adopted the simple expedient of using what looks about right and leaving it there. The models are after all, purely representational or ‘Hollywood-esque’.

I am fairly comfortable with the overall look of the masts in my collection and to be honest, if it looks right then it generally is in my opinion - the purist would undoubtedly argue otherwise though!

The Build Itself

One of the most important things you can do when building the masts for a models ship is quite simply to make sure you have sufficient material to do so in the first place! In other words remember the seven ‘Ps’ - Proper Prior Preparation Prevents Piss Poor Performance! 

The tools and materials ready to use

Looking at the picture above you can see what tools I use and the building material itself. Starting from the left we have the old model making standby of super glue. I use this one because although it is not the cheapest it works really well and I have never had any problems with it when building masts. A surgical scalpel or modelling knife - ideally with a new blade - for cutting along with something to file the cut ends with. In this case I use a relatively fine grade Emery board. The pencil and ruler are of course for measuring the sections required.

The masts themselves are fashioned using bamboo barbecue skewers which are usually 3mm thick. Spars and flagstaffs are made from wooden cocktail sticks. In each case (particularly the latter for some reason) ensure that you are using the straightest lengths. It is worth pointing out that keeping any offcuts from the cocktail sticks is a good idea as these are useful for making cannon barrels - I use 10mm and 7mm lengths.

Everything thus far is probably within the modelling supplies of most gamers but there is one other essential ingredient - the fighting tops. The five that you see are of two sizes with the larger being used for the first step of the main and foremast whilst the smaller are for the second. These are 3mm thick MDF and were custom cut from Warbases to a design from me at the start of the ACW project. Again, the purist might take offence at the shape of these - rectangular versions would be easy enough to design and order if required - but it does not matter a jot. They look imposing and provide an extremely important part of the construction process - and this will feature in the second part of this post.

Beyond Steamer Wars

HMS Fifi (top) and Mimi and Toutou. I have around half a dozen other models to build for this collection, including the Belgians. That will be it then until after the ironclads and DTPIW is finished and then it wil be on with the expanded version of Steamer Wars: Hexed

As written, Steamer Wars was designed for use with gunboats and similar. They work extremely well for this and indeed, there is more than sufficient historical material to play any amount of interesting actions - as evidenced by the supplements that David Manley has published. The system is detailed enough to add that skirmish level feel but still manages to maintain a fast play kind of vibe. In short, they suit me down to the ground - which is probably why I persuaded Mr Manley to let me produce the hexed version! 

My planned WW1 project will be taking the system to the next level in that ships of up to dreadnought size will feature although these will be very much in the minority. The ‘meat and potatoes’ of the project will of course be the cruisers - purpose built and auxiliaries.

I am happy to use my hexed version of Steamer Wars for this but it will need to be expanded to include larger and more varied ships and weapon types, varying degrees of armour protection and generally higher speeds. I have a few ideas about all of these areas and so my thinking is currently moving along these lines.

1. Guns larger than 4”. I will be looking at weapons of up to 12” calibre although for the most part it will be around less than that. I will also need to think about torpedoes although rules for these are covered in River Wars and War on the Great Rivers.

2. Armour - protection in general. Steamer Wars has provision for Light Armour whilst War on the Great Rivers features rules for Very Heavy Armour. I am thinking of adding in Medium and Heavy Armour and changing the original Light Armour classification to Protected. This will give me five relative classes of protection - Protected (used in Steamer Wars), Light, Medium, Heavy and Very Heavy. Protected will represent things like improvised protection or gun shields etc. I shall have a play around with this and see how it can be extended across the range of ships being represented. I am happy to leave the damage etc as is - armour effects can be factored in as required. Following on from The Portable Ironclads Wargame my feeling is to assign a notional armour class to the ship in question depending on their historical specifications. It is an effective system and removes the need for detailed armour location rules etc.

3. Speeds. This is quite straightforward and for me is dictated by my available playing area of 6ft by 4ft. In the hexed version of Steamer Wars a hex equals around 4 knots. This is fine for ships with a top speed of around 16 knots (i.e. 4 hexes) but for the faster warships I will need to use a different nominal scale. My thinking at present is that a hex equals seven or eight knots meaning that a 24 knot cruiser will move 3 hexes. Still very much in the planning stages though.

We are where we are….

The expanded version of Steamer Wars: Hexed will happen but not until DTPIW is finished so will not be until at least the middle of next year. But happen it will, for sure!

More on the Mediterranean in WW2

The Mediterranean naval library. 

Following on from my previous post and in the interests of completeness I thought it would be useful to show the modest selection of books in my WW2 naval library for the Mediterranean. Aside from a copy of the 1922 to 1946 Conways Fighting Ships I also own the above.

More than enough to be going on with for my needs methinks….

WW2 in the Mediterranean - Afloat!

Oh dear - here we go again…..

The back of the box

In truth I did not see this coming and as an aside I reckon that avoiding eBay would be a good idea - at least for a while anyway!

It is probably not a surprise to learn that I have fought actions in the Mediterranean but not for some time and even then it was using the 1:1800th scale models produced for the Axis and Allies: War at Sea game. The esteemed Mr Fox still has the Italians I believe but my own collection has long since gone. 

Anyways, it is fascinating period to game with plenty of surface stuff to get one’s teeth into along with the ever present aerial threat - certainly the Axis powers made full use of land based air assets to plague the Royal Navy throughout.

The operational maps - note the use of offset squares. 

I have little enthusiasm for raining model fleets for the period and in truth the same would apply to the Pacific. In the latter case I have the oft-mentioned Flat Top and CV to cover the fighting and indeed, the late S.Craig Taylor Jr, designer of these two games, had planned to use the system for a similar game based on the Mediterranean. I have no idea how far along the design of this he had got and with his passing I suspect that will it see the light of day. I believe that the Flat Top system would work really well for the Mediterranean but we will never know unless someone picks up the idea and develops it.

I have no experience of the Avalanche Press Second World War at Sea system although it uses much in the way of game mechanics as the Great War at Sea. Did I need to acquire this? Well, I have a smattering of titles in the library covering the war at sea in the Mediterranean so it has always been lurking there or thereabouts so I guess the answer is a yes, albeit needing to be fitted into my expanding project list!

The attraction of this system for me is that one has both the strategic and the tactical elements to consider along with a selection of mission types to undertake as well as plentiful scenarios - both historical and ‘what if’.

There is a whole pile of additional material available in respect of supplements etc for the SWWAS system  but to be honest I do not feel the need to avail myself of any of this - the coverage contained within the game is more than sufficient for my needs.

Send no wargamer ever…… ;-)

Filling up the edges

By dint of several tactical disposals over recent weeks I have been able to address a few holes in the collection - some of which I have already detailed on the blog - and so am now at the stage whereby I can call a halt, at least until something else heaves over the horizon!

Aside from the assorted books acquired to support the ironclads - the latest of which feature later in this post - there has been one single large purchase.

Two boxes of Hexon blue goodness along with twenty single hexes - enough to cover 6ft by 4ft with 4” hexes. The colour is possibly a little dark for aerial games but that will not stop me using it!

I have (re)invested in some blue Hexon tiles for use with both naval and aerial games. 

There is, inevitably really, a bit of a back story to this in that I have owned a similar quantity of the blue tiles in the past but moved them on some years ago as I wanted to use a cloth instead. I have been on the lookout for a cloth for ages but have yet to find one that is suitable and so I finally decided to revisit Hexon. I prefer a plain blue rather than ‘seascaped’ as it suits my models better and of course, it means that I can avail myself of the Hexon terrain range for islands and shorelines etc.

I had a long chat with Mr Kallistra at The Other Partizan (which is where Mr Barnes spotted me!) and found out a lot of useful stuff about how to produce your own bespoke designs using the plain tiles.

Another couple of titles have found their way into my collection of naval books - one new and one secondhand, the latter I have Joppy of Steam, Steel and Torpedoes fame to thank for bringing it to my attentions - and of course there is the small matter of my Other Partizan loot.

A great doorstop of a tome and very ‘Brassey’s Naval Annual’ like. As soon as I knew of this books existence I simply had to get a copy!

Everything you wanted to know about RN Victorian cruisers but were afraid to ask - a great companion to the author’s title on battleships of the same era.

A surprisingly modest selection of loot from the Other Partizan. The two crusades titles will support a long distance project I have in mind, as will the Viking title. The MDF bases will naturally be used for ship building….

My Victorian naval project for DTPIW now has pretty much all the research material I am likely to need so I can park that for now. The plans are with Warbases for the ships and so work on the masts can commence in advance of the arrival of industrial quantities of MDF.

It is a great feeling knowing that for at least one project - DTPIW - I have everything that I need to complete it.

It is now at the serious part and I cannot wait to plunge into it!

Once again many thanks to Joppy and I promise I will get the errata tackled asap!

The Other Partizan

For the first time ever I made the 140 mile trip via the A127, M25, M11and the A1 to Newark for the Other Partizan. The five hour round trip for a little over two hours of gaming goodness was absolutely worth it! It was busy, crowded and hard on the feet but I was able to get everything done that I wanted to - apart from meeting a couple of people (sorry Mr Barnes!). 

The first port of call was to transact some business with Dave Lanchester which was, as ever, an ongoing pleasure (and I managed to reinvest some of the proceeds in some items that will feature in the next post) and one that I have no doubt will repeated!

The rest of this post will be largely a photo dump with some commentary - it has been rather a long day after all!

 

Look closely at the Sherman on the bridge at Arnhem - I managed to relieve 1st Airborne in 15 turns out of 20. This was a feat I also managed on my visit to COW a few years back. It is a tale I will tell my grandchildren - and mightily bored they’ll be….

John Armatys - overseer of Operation Market Garden, Wargames Development aficionado and all round good chap - who has persuaded me to pen a blog post about mast building!

Mr Flanagan - roller of legendary dice - thinking about his nest move against the esteemed Mr Evans (he moved at a critical moment and so you can only see part of his head!). I was very much taken by this game - properly researched history, attractive terrain and figures and an organiser passionate about the subject matter!

 

One half of Ken “Yarkshire Gamer” Reilly’s excellent Italian Wars bash.

The other half - Ken is sporting the blue tee shirt!

The whole thing - beautifully executed and with pike blocks that looked like they meant business

WW1 in East Africa in 28mm

The view from the landward side

The accompanying naval support

The view from the sea looking inland

More of the naval support including some old friends….

A-Fez of state….Just like that!

For a number of reasons my favourite game of the day - I will let the pictures do the talking

Native bearers

The view down the table

The all important back story and beautifully executed. I suspect that Eric would have been delighted to see this.

All of the pictures were taken on my phone so apologies for the quality but trust me, there are plenty of better quality ones around!

It was a very quick visit for me - around two hours - but I could have happily spent a full day and then some yanking time to take it all in. These games were the standouts for me but there was sufficient variety of games, large and small to cater for all tastes and all of a high quality.

My show haul was modest, three books and three bags of MDF bases but the shopping was never the main  reason for going. 

All that atmosphere - well done to all that made it such a special day.

Under Starter’s Orders

A real bargain of a new addition - £22 as opposed to £50 - and worth every penny! A more ‘modern’ read compared to Parkes but with a slightly better coverage of foreign competition in the battleship stakes.

Double sized pictures of actual plans and….

….this quite magnificent double sized double sized centrefold!

I finally competed the ten pages of ironclad designs for Warbases and these have been duly sent (and acknowledged) to Martin. I will be making a point of seeing him on Sunday at the Other Partizan show in Newark - a two and a half hour drive from me so I do not plan to make this a regular trip! I hope to catch up with as many people as I can whilst I am there as well as getting some pictures.

Whilst Martin at Warbases is working his magic I will be making a start on making masts as every ship in this project has at least two. Mast building is very satisfying and easy to do but one does need to take care when gluing. You cannot rush it.

Next steps

Another really useful supplement from the pen of Mr. David Manley

Aside from the masts I need to convert the specifications of my chosen ships into DTPIW terms. For the Turks this will be straightforward as many of the ships feature in David Manley’s Russo Turkish War supplement but the Royal Navy I will need to do from scratch.

I will get the modelling tray cleared for action so the San Pablo will need finishing, along with the Belgians for Lake Tanganyika.

I have all the flags I need and will check the paint situation prior to setting off on Sunday - I will need a lot of Vallejo Black for sure!

Let the games commence!