Friday 18 November 2022

The Final, final additions….


The C.S.S. Tennessee - note the shape of the casemate and the integral pilot house.


To paraphrase the eminent archaeologist Dr. Indiana Jones - “Octagons, why’d it have to be octagons….!”

I think it is fair to say that the ACW project has very much been a good example of project creep! I shall be drawing a line under it once the final batch of models have been completed but, inevitably, there has been a minor twist in the tale. The batch of 15 models that I have been working towards completing has now morphed into 17, simply because I have decided to add two copies of the C.S.S. Tennessee to the collection. Why two models? Well, after she was captured at Mobile Bay the Union repaired and recommissioned her so having two models, one under each flag, makes sense (at least to me anyway!). This will take the collection to 72 scratch built models - and there are still holes in the respective fleets!

There is a certain irony in this as when I originally embarked on this project - we are now in the third autumn of its duration - the plan was to build around a dozen models that were designed to be generic and with the option to swap flags as required. So here we now are - building duplicates of models instead of swapping flags to allow for captures and with a collection six times the size of the original plan!

Meanwhile the other four ironclads have been varnished prior to final assembly and flags (and painting funnel bands for the City class) and so will be making their appearance shortly.

Stay tuned, as they say….


8 comments:

Simon said...

... and how are the rules going?

Simon

David Crook said...

Hi Simon,

The rules are currently being edited with the plan being to have then published in time for Christmas. I am running a battle this weekend that will be included in the book and there will be a modicum of editing to attend to but overall it is in pretty good shape.

Needless to say I am very excited!

All the best,

DC

AnotherNobodyOnline said...

David,

I noticed an earlier post on your other blog about R.B. Nelson's ancient wargaming rules and the cut down version for Salamis. I'm dying to get my hands on those rules as I've already secured permission from WRG to use some other older material for republication via a rewrite. Anyway, wondering if you are willing to share a scan of them? I'm going down the path of doing a set of medieval naval wargaming rules and since I already have a great deal of familiarity with the 1970s-80s WRG system for land warfare, I'm hoping the naval rules might be very compatible.

R. Hampton

David Crook said...

Hello there Mr Hampton,

Sadly all of my Salamis material has long gone although the book by Richard Nelson is fairly easy to come by - check out eBay or any of the second hand military book sellers - Dave Lanchester or Caliver Books for example.You can usually pick it up for around a tenner or so.

The book also donations the outline of a land based campaign to tie in with the naval side so I am sure you would find it a good investment!

All the best,

DC

AnotherNobodyOnline said...

Fair, thank you DC!

Aly Morrison said...

Nothing is ever really finished David… 😁

All the best. Aly

David Crook said...

Hello there Mr Hampton,

Np problem old chap - best of luck with the project!

All the best,

DC

David Crook said...

Hi there Aly,

You are quite right! There are certainly some other ships that will get built in due course but for now I feel like I am due a change!

All the best,

DC