The Pain in Painting

Something I enjoyed painting from way back in 2016. The model is from Panzerschiffe - 1:2400th scale cast in resin - and the splash markers are from Litko. The ‘sea’ is of course Hexon. I have a soft spot for S.M.S. Seydlitz and the paint technique employed was ahem, borrowed from Tim Gow. Basically a black undercoat with the grey dry brushed on and highlighted. The decks and ship’s boats were then blocked in. The base is card with the name label prepared in Word and the ensign courtesy of Brigade Models. 

I have mentioned on numerous occasions that I am a reluctant painter. More specifically, I am a reluctant figure painter. I am quite happy applying the brushwork to anything that is non-organic so ships, tanks, spaceships, aircraft, power armoured infantry and mechs are all fair game but I really struggle with figures. In fact, the last complete army I painted was a DBA Numidian force made from Essex 15mm figures and sporting all the options. I was quite pleased with how it turned out and the army saw a modest amount of action when the club was going through a DBA phase some years and several locations ago.

Recently I have been thinking long and hard about painting and of figures in general. I doubt very much if I shall ever paint armies again, at least in the traditional ‘24 figure infantry units, 12 figure cavalry and guns with 4 crew’ sense, mainly because I would definitely lack the staying power to see it through. I am at a loss to explain why this is and the only thing I can think of is the idea of painting umpteen similarly posed and uniformed figures requires a level of discipline and commitment that frankly, I am not sure if I could be bothered with. DBA/HOTT or the various Portable Wargame versions would probably be about my limit. Having said that, I rather like the idea of skirmish level set ups because the variety would be there and the numbers involved would be modest. 

My figure painting technique has not evolved greatly since the 1970s - white undercoat, enamel topcoat and a varnish with a small drop of black in it is about as artistically sophisticated as I can get. I have used acrylics but never speed or contrast paints. Shading and highlighting I have never really bothered with overmuch - the black in the varnish helps with that although care should be taken as to the amount of black involved. Whilst thinking about this post I tried to recall the last figures I painted and it actually was the 15mm DBA Numidians and near as I can recall that would have been at least twenty years ago! The funny thing is it has not stopped me from buying figures with the best of intentions about painting them - except I never seem to do so. I could not bring myself to use unpainted figures though - Memoir ‘44 and Battle Cry excepted but even then I have occasional bouts of wanting to paint them!

One of the best things I ever achieved in my wargaming journey was producing the copious amount of block armies from the ‘not Jenga, Jenga blocks’. Using these gave me the opportunity to fight battles from many periods without the need to paint umpteen figure based armies. They are an excellent substitute and as I have shown time and time again, work very nicely with 3D terrain for a real Kriegspiel type feel. The block armies themselves could use a modest revamp - I was never completely satisfied with the mechanised version - and I also have in mind a naval version, prompted in part, by the recent flirtation with the Jutland blocks.

Whilst my planned figure painting is currently limited to the 15mm Mike’s Models Colonial collection I would not be averse to tackling something in a larger scale and skirmish based but as yet I have nothing definite in mind. That is David Crook speak for ‘that is a rabbit hole I am trying desperately to avoid as I have far more pressing things to tackle!’ 

To those that collect armies of figures and enjoy the artistic aspect of producing wonderfully painted forces from whatever period of history takes their fancy I have every admiration for. It is just not for me though but having said that, it does not make me any less of a wargamer!

A Little Part of Jutland

The printed Jutland counters mounted on 3/4 sized Jenga Blocks. 

Tomorrow is the 110th anniversary of the Battle of Jutland. Back in 2016 I had planned to tackle a refight using 1:2400th scale models and indeed, I managed to get the capital ships from both sides completed using a combination of Stonewall Miniatures cast in metal and Panzerschiffe cast in resin, but was unable to push on to complete the cruisers and destroyers. The collection has long since moved on. Ken Reilly, of Yarkshire Gamer fame, did manage to fight the battle using GHQ 1:2400th models and very impressive it looked as well. As an aside is a great advocate for the humongous, Cecil B. DeMille style wargame and everything he does is in the grandest of manners!

British dreadnoughts from Panzerschiffe apart from H.M.S. Revenge and Marlborough which are Stonewall Miniatures

More British dreadnoughts - this time a mixture of Stonewall and Panzerschiffe

Panzerschiffe British battlecruisers

H.M.S. Tiger and the the three ‘splendid cats’ are from Stonewall whilst H.M.S. New Zealand and Indefatigable are from Panzerschiffe

5th Battle Squadron courtesy of Stonewall Miniatures

The first batch of German Dreadnoughts - all of these are Stonewall Miniatures

The earlier German dreadnoughts

The German pre-dreadnoughts - sadly I cannot remember where these came from. I have a feeling they may well have been Panzerschiffe. 

The German battlecruisers. The two Derfflinger class are metal whilst the remainder are resin.

Anyways, I was determined not to miss out marking the occasion this time and so have persuaded the two amigos, Messrs Fox and Huband to tackle an old favourite of mine - Avalon Hill’s Jutland or as I like to think of it, a board game without a board.

It would be nice to tackle the full Jutland operation - perhaps that will one for another day - but due to time restraints we are looking to tackle the opening phase of the battle involving the battlecruisers. The rules will be as written in the Jutland rule book but with a minor change. I do not have a physical copy of the game but I do have a series of PDFs that contain just about everything written about the game in the old Avalon Hill General magazine, along with scans of all the game components from each of the two editions of the game that were produced. The minor change I mentioned is that I have substituted inches for all the movement and firing ranges as the associated devices used in the game are unavailable.

Aside from playing the game itself, there is another reason I am keen to do this. I want to remind myself about the gunnery and damage system used and how this may help with the rules for the new book. So the game will be a bit of a test bed to an extent. 

I settled on the battlecruiser action as it is fairly compact in terms of the number of ships with the added bonus, at least for the Royal Navy that is, of the arrival of the 5th Battle squadron at some point….

Sabre Rattling Migs

I think that the technical term for this is “KABOOM!!” Or “Read ‘em and weep!” The D6 rolls above equal 7 successes which equals the target Vital Armour meaning an instant kill. 

Yesterday evening saw your truly taking to the skies against Mr Fox, using Mr Huband’s quite lovely looking Warlord Games Blood Red Skies 1:200th scale Sabres and Mig15s. We were also using Mr Huband’s Korean War variant for Axis and Allies: Angels 20 - so he was wearing his umpiring hat for the occasion - along with Mr Fox’s rather lovely gaming mat.

We each had a pair of aircraft - Mr Fox was driving the Migs while I took the Sabres. We rolled for pilot quality with the result that Mr Fox had a veteran and a rookie whilst my two were both plain vanilla, beige and average. As is usual for this type of action - the aerial equivalent of a ‘meeting engagment’, it was, after all, a bit of a try out - we set up on opposite sides of the board, rolled for altitude (Migs at 6 and the Sabres at 5), rolled for initiative and set about the serious business of trying to shoot each out of the sky.

I am unable to give a turn by turn account of the action but suffice to say it was at high speed and largely fought more or less ‘on the flat’ - no great ‘boom and zoom’ climbing and diving - so plenty of turning was the order of the day. One of the Sabres took a point of damage, as did the veteran Mig but the rookie Mig pilot’s day was ended in no uncertain terms by virtue of a pretty emphatic set of dice rolls. To be honest, Mr Fox was singularly unfortunate throughout the action - he maintains that his dice hate him - in that aside from the point of damage he inflicted on one of the Sabres, he was on the wrong end of the initiative rolls throughout. In any type of aerial game having the initiative can be a crucial advantage - ever was it thus as far as the Sabres were concerned! 

At the end of the action the remaining Mig ‘bugged out’, leaving the skies to the Sabres.

It was great fun to play and the scale of the models used seemed more appropriate for the jets rather than the larger 1:100th models from the Angels 20 base game. It is certainly a period I would be keen to revisit but for now I cannot see myself building up a Korean War collection - too many other aerial things on the go! Mention of which leads me nicely into one of the aerial projects I am looking to tackle - the Battle of Britain.

A new book for the collection, courtesy of the fantastic Mr. Fox and with my grateful thanks! 

Mr Fox was having a sort out at Maison Renaud when he came across a duplicate copy of the title you see above. He very generously passed this over to me and as this is my first Osprey Air Campaign title I was delighted to welcome it to the library. It has opened a bit of a rabbit hole as a quick look at the other titles in the series (how on earth did I miss these?) has thrown up several that would be of interest….

The Nakajima Ki-44 “Tojo” fighter/interceptor. 

It was no all one way traffic in that I presented Mr Fox with a Japanese ‘Tojo’ fighter - if you recall he passed over a surplus P51B/C so it was the least I could do to return the favour. He now has a brace of these and I am quite sure we may be seeing them in action at some point. I also confidently predict that Mr Fox will gain a measure of revenge in due course, when we next take to the air!

My thanks to Mr Fox for his generosity and for supplying the mat and a cheeky beer (to be repaid soonest) and to Mr Huband for his inspired set up and those rather lovely aircraft - methinks that other models may well follow into his collection for this period but of course, he couldn’t possibly comment….

Game Number 80….Missenhitti, I’ll Remember You….*

 *With apologies to the Pussycats from 1976….

The initial positions. The U.S.S. Admonisher is at the bottom of the picture whilst the C.S.S. Missenhitti approaches from the top. 

I can do no better than to quote, verbatim, the words used by Bob Cordery to describe the background to this action, taken from his book Gridded Naval Wargames.

U.S.S. Admonisher

“For some months the Union government’s spy system had known that the Confederates had been building a Casemate Ironclad at Pratt’s Landing on the Missenhitti River. To ensure that this threat to Union army transport ships using the lower reaches of the river negated, the Union had stationed the newly-built Turreted Monitor - the U.S.S. Admonisher - on the Missenhitti. She had been patrolling the area for some weeks and expected to be in action as soon as the Casemate Ironclad appeared.

C.S.S. Missenhitti

Unknown to the Union forces, the C.S.S. Missenhitti had already been launched and her crew of sailors, riverboat men, and transferred artilleryman had been getting her ready for her maiden voyage down the Missenhitti River. One cold and misty morning she set sail downriver….”

Turn 1. The Confederate ship won the initiative (3-1) and as the range between the two ships was still some 13 hexes, opted to move first. Both ships moved at a speed of two and so moved a single hex forward and turned towards each other before moving a further hex.

End of Turn 1. Both vessels decided to move into midstream so as to have some room to manoeuvre.

Turn 2. Again the Confederate ship won the initiative (6-4) and again, as the ships were out of range opted to move first. The C.S.S. Missenhitti continued on her new heading so as to ensure that she could bring as much of artillery to bear as possible - she would be able to bring two heavy rifles into action against the two smoothbores the Union ship carried. The U.S.S. Admonisher turned directly towards her adversary, no doubt to close the range as quickly as possible, thus helping to negate the range advantage possessed by the Confederates. 

End of Turn 2. No firing as yet but you can be sure that the Confederate ship is ready to do so by virtue of her longer ranged artillery.

Turn 3. Yet again the Confederates win the initiative (5-4)! This time though, they allow the Union to move first. The Union ship slows down and turns to face the opposite bank of the river whilst the Confederate maintains her speed and course, mindful of keeping her guns facing towards the enemy. At a range of four hexes, both ships open fire. The C.S.S. Missenhitti is able to roll 1D6 with a plus 1 due to her weight of artillery (heavy rifle) against the medium armour of the U.S.S. Admonisher. She rolls a 5 which goes to 6 which inflicts a single flotation point and either a secondary or tertiary gun. Since she has neither the hit is classed as another flotation point making two in all. The U.S.S. Admonisher fires back at the same chance - overall plus 1 to the single D6 roll - and rolls a miserable 2 meaning she has missed the target.

End of Turn 3. Fortune thus far favours the South as the C.S.S. Missenhitti scores two hits on the Union ship. The return fire was ineffective, presumably due to range being at the maximum distance for her smoothbore artillery.

Turn 4. Finally the Union win the initiative (5-2)! Given the relative closeness of the Confederate ship the Union allow them to move first. Conscious of the fast approaching river bank the Confederate ship maintains her speed but turns hard to starboard so she is now facing the Union monitors. Unfortunately, her turn did not allow for the slow moving Union ship and so she now is unable to fire as her forward gun has insufficient traverse to reach. Not so the Union ship and so maximum range she opens fire again. She rolls a 4 which, with the plus 1 for the gun/armour modifier makes 5 - a flotation point.

End of Turn 4. Both ships have sustained minor damage with the Union ship getting the worst of the exchange. The Confederate ship now faces a tactical dilemma. Does she try to get the Union ship within a firing arc, thereby exposing herself to more fire, or does she go ‘hell for leather’ and attempts to position herself for a ram attack? The next initiative roll will be crucial.

Turn 5. The Confederates resume their winning ways with a 6-1 initiative roll victory! The Union ship moves first. The U.S.S. Admonisher moves forward one hex and turns to starboard, thereby ensuring that her turret is able to fire (she cannot fire directly ahead). The C.S.S Missenhitti surges forward and turns to face the Union ship and is able to make use of her forward firing artillery. The Confederate ship opens fire and rolls an abysmal 1!. The U.S.S. Admonisher is able to fire with both her heavy guns, each at plus 1. She rolls a 4 and a 1. The 4 goes to five so the C.S.S. Missenhitti suffers another flotation point of damage.

End of Turn 5. Both ships have suffered the same amount of damage - 2 flotation points - and from the perspective of the C.S.S. Missenhitti the next initiative roll will be crucial. Has the U.S.S. Admonisher made an error in keeping her speed down and occupying the centre of the river?

Turn 6. The Union win the initiative 6-2! Seeing the imminent threat of a ram attack the Union monitor accelerates and crosses the bows of the fast approaching Confederate Ironclad.At the last second she throws her helm over hard to starboard. The C.S.S. Missenhitti follows the Union ship and by cutting the corner comes up on her aft starboard quarter - close enough to fire but not for a ram attack! The U.S.S. Admonisher opens fire at a range of one hex with both her heavy smoothbores. She rolls 2D6 each with a plus 1 gun/armour modifier. She rolls a 4 and 5 which go to 5 and 6. The C.S.S. Missenhitti suffers another flotation point for the 5 and another for the 6, along with a further flotation point as she does not have any secondary or tertiary guns, making three in total. This is sufficient to require a Critical Hit roll which comes up as a 6! The Confederate ship now has a fire to deal with, as well as losing a gun factor - in this case her forward heavy rifle. As damage is considered to be simultaneous she is still able to fire this turn. For the final shot from her forward rifle the C.S.S. Missenhitti replies with a roll of 3 that goes to 4, thus giving the Union ship a further point of flotation damage.

End of Turn 6. With a devastating point blank salvo the U.S.S. Admonisher batters the onrushing C.S.S. Missenhitti and is rewarded by seeing great gouts of flame pouring out of her forward gunport. The Union ship did not escape the return fire though and sustained a further point of flotation damage.

Turn 7. The C.S.S. Missenhitti rolls a D6 to determine the state of the fire. She rolls a 4 which means that it still blazes and so a further flotation point of damage is sustained. To add to the chagrin of her captain, the initiative roll goes against them with the Union winning handsomely, 6-1! The Union ship moves first, hoping to shake off the blazing Confederate ship. Not so, as the C.S.S. Missenhitti continues to doggedly follow the Union vessel. Only the U.S.S. Admonisher can fire as the Confederate ship has lost her forward artillery. The range is one hex and she rolls 2D6, again with each being at plus 1. A majestic 5 and 6 are rolled! The 5 goes to 6 and the 6 to 7. In total this equals a further four flotation points and a Critical Hit roll. The Critical hit roll is a 5 which is flood. Straightaway a further flotation point is lost meaning that the Confederate ship has suffered 6 in total this turn - one from the fire, four from shooting and one from the flood. As this is a further multiple of her hull size of 3 this requires a further Critical Hit roll. This roll is a 2 which is hull/armour. The C.S.S. Missenhitti opts to take a further 2 flotation points rather than weakening her hull or armour. She is in a bad way and needs to think about getting away.

End of Turn 7. With her hull leaking like a sieve and the fire continuing to blaze, the C.S.S. Missenhitti must seriously think about breaking off the action if she can. She is positioned nicely to ram the Union monitor assuming she can win the initiative but will this be enough to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat?

Turn 8. The C.S.S. Missenhitti fails both her recovery rolls scoring a 3 and 4 which in turn means two more points of flotation damage. More importantly she has now passed her critical point having sustained 16 points of damage out of 18. Reaching the Critical point also triggers a further Critical Hit roll and this comes up as a 6 - another fire (and a further flotation point of damage)! The Union win the initiative 5-2 and opt to move first. The U.S.S. Admonisher pulls away at best speed from the blazing and sinking Confederate ironclad that appears to be attempting to get away. Not wishing to risk his own ship the captain of the Union vessel is content to fire a final broadside at point blank range rolling a 5 and a 2 which go to 6 and 3. The resulting two floatation points inflicted on the battered C.S.S. Missenhitti are enough to sink her.

End of Turn 8. With a flood, two fires and more point blank battering from the Union monitor, the C.S.S. Missenhitti settles by the bow and sinks slowly in the shallows.

Overview

Now that was a lot of fun and no mistake! The rules worked very smoothly with no major issues to tell of. The damage levels felt suitably paced and with sufficient impact. I am quite pleased with how this is now working.

How should the ram equipped C.S.S. Missenhitti fought this action? Well, the mistake was in not pursuing either a standoff at range shooting or going full tilt for a ram attack. She appeared to have chopped and changed her mind during the action and crucially was often at a disadvantage in terms of gunnery - mainly due to not having a usable firing arc. Losing her forward heavy rifle was definitely a handicap as every time she was able to get in close she was unable to ‘shoot her way in’. All the U.S.S Admonisher needed to do was to stay out of way and make sure that she could get her turret to bear. The rolls of the dice during the game swayed first one way and then the other which I have no problem with as it all evened out. Early in the action I really thought that the Confederates had the measure of the Union ship but it soon went the other way.

It was tremendous fun to refight a wargaming classic action - once again thanks to Bob for the inspiration - and even though the outcome was different to the original it should not take away from the fact that it is possible to have a rewarding and entertaining game with but a single ship on each side.

Loved it!

Back to the Missenhitti (Again!)

One of my favourite books on naval wargames

The Missenhitti River is of course the fictional waterway used by Bob Cordery in his excellent book, Gridded Naval Wargames, and that I then ‘borrowed’ to use in The Portable Ironclads Wargame and then Developing the Portable Ironclads Wargame: The American Civil War. 

Although I have been less than productive on the writing front for the new book over recent weeks - aerial shenanigans have been the order of the day - I have been getting slowly back into the groove with it. So much so that I plan to fight an ACW action tomorrow. 

The Peter Pig Hammerin’ Iron gaming mat - as used for an earlier action

The game will be limited in scope - one ship a side - and so I thought it would be nice to refight the action from Bob’s book using my scratch built ships and the Hammerin’ Iron gaming mat. I will even use the same ship names - the monitor U.S.S. Admonisher and the casemate ironclad the C.S.S. Missenhitti.

I shall be using the definitive version of the firing arcs and at this stage the only decision I need to make is what actual ships to base the two protagonists on. Methinks a quick dive into my ACW library will be in order - I can think of worse ways to spend an couple of hours!

On Repeat - Bot’s Goin’ On?

4,000,000? Really? I would be delighted if that was the case but suspect that something else has a Bot to do with it…..;-)

So the page views for the blog have busted the four million mark! It cannot possibly be real - bots gotta bot and all that - but I will extend a qualified thank you to all those that continue to read my posts and comment as the mood takes. 

I will also extend a thank you to the Bots - wherever they are coming from…..

As a thought it would good to be able to isolate Bot views in some way so you actually see what is real but such a thing would be beyond my technical ability!

Aerial Reinforcements

A pair of FW190As - near as I can tell the model has been used for the A2 and the A4 variant. The latter had the option of a methanol boost for a surge of speed when needed. I now have six of these and the plan is to repaint a pair for use on the Eastern Front.

A Japanese “Oscar” on the left and a “Tony” on the right. The “Oscar” was incredibly manoeuvrable, more so than the famous Zero, but it came at a cost as it was very lightly built. The “Tony” was a tougher proposition. I now have a brace of “Oscars” and four of the “Tony”

Another P51 B/C (they are the same aircraft) to add to the other three I own. Along with the brace of P38Js already in situ, my USAAF collection just needs a couple of P47D Razorbacks to be complete. These will have to be sourced from elsewhere though, as the Axis and Allies range does not include the ‘Jug”.

By virtue of some selective Google-Fu and a dash of ducking and diving, I have been able to add to my Axis and Allies Angels 20/Bandits High collection. The aircraft you see in the pictures will round out their  respective formations - I prefer to operate in twos or ideally fours - and are most welcome additions.

15mm or 1:100th if you prefer, looks really great on the tabletop but would not really work for massed dogfights as they are on the large side. Once you start including multi-engined types, bombers especially, the playing area can get a little congested, not to mention the problem of models overhanging hexes by quite a margin.

1:200th and smaller would be better for large actions involving lots of aircraft, but for straight up dogfights, the 15mm models look really good.

I still have a few holes in the collection from the Axis and Allies range and suspect that I may need to use alternatives for some of the rarer types. Certainly something to think about but for now I shall press on with the ‘official’ models and some selective repaints.

For now….