It is the Fort that counts….Part 4

Despite a bout of the dreaded ‘white varnish on a newly painted model’ syndrome, I have finished the large coastal fort for my American Civil War collection! It has been the most ambitious scratch build I have undertaken within the context of the project and I really enjoyed the process - even the angles.

The model is not based on anything in particular, it is more like a ‘Coastal Forts of America during the 19th century’ greatest hits kind of idea - so based upon and purely representational it is then! The pictures will do (most of) the talking.

The landward side of the fort with the Confederate flag - the seaward side features the early war naval ensign.

The view from the seaward side

Looking across one of the seaward angles….

….and from one of the landward.

The model used six and a quarter Jenga blocks, eight cocktail sticks and a copious amount of cardboard squares and rectangles. The angles were packed out with balsa wood wedges and then covered with filler. The battlements were fashioned from 5mm square wooden strips, cut to size. I used Vallejo Iraqi Sand for the walkways, Vallejo Sea Grey for the walls, Humbrol Matt 29 enamel for the doors and gates, a mixed Sea Grey and White (equal parts) for the gun carriages and Black for the gun barrels and flagstaffs.

I now have a pair of floating batteries to build and that will be it for the time being - I have a game to plan for and guess what? The fort will certainly be featuring!

Cleanse and Burn in the name of the Emperor!

That well known indefatigable painter of miniatures and all round good guy, Lee Gramson, has been a busier beaver than usual and has made a humongous amount of progress on my 1st edition Space Hulk and Advanced Space Crusade collection. If you recall, this came about as a kind of a swap deal in that a copy of the ACW boardgame Battle Cry and a complete set of the Time Life ACW books went from me to him in exchange for the 60 odd figures he is painting. Lee is currently two thirds of the way through the collection and so he sent me a selection of photos and a video from his YouTube channel which can be found here:

https://www.youtube.com/@legrambo

Both his blog and his YouTube channel are worth a visit if you need some inspiration as his painting covers a wide range of historical periods and scales. His work is quite simple, stunning!

I had opted for an old school look to the Genestealers and as for the terminator marines I chose green as the base colour - mainly as it looks a little more military rather than the usual GW schemes. I fully intend using the collection for other games beyond Space Hulk and the first of these will probably be Xenos Rampant or possibly Grimdark, maybe even the Portable Science Fiction Wargame if that is even a thing! Anyways, enough of the waffle and onto to the pictures 

Marine Command group, a power sword wielding Captain and a pair of Librarians

Chainfist equipped Sergeants

Assault Cannons - the only way to be sure! The two Sergeants, the Assault Cannons and the Captain were conversions I made from the base figure.

Ready to face the alien horde

24 Genestealers and the first two of the 6 Tyrannids

Bio weapons to the fore!

“Bugs Mr Rico, Zillions of ‘em - I’m ‘a Burning them down!”

I am really pleased with these and Lee has done a superb job. As it stands all that are left are a further four marines, four Tyrannids (one more with the bio weapon and three with bio swords) and fifteen scout marines.

All being well I shall be collecting the whole lot a little later in the year and am looking forward to getting them into action.

Lee has done a superb job on these and I am absolutely delighted!

The Boshin War - The Penultimate Samurai

Despite being chock full of historical clangers, there is no denying that the Tom Cruise file: The Last Samurai is a splendid piece of entertainment. Although the film technically covers the later Satsuma rebellion it does serve as a great scene setter for the events of the period as Japan grappled her way into the modern world. Besides, any film that has given me a memorable quote will always get my vote!

A few ships, a simple campaign system suitable to fight to a conclusion potentially in a few hours and mental images of Samurai fighting modern troops means that this is probably a no brainer for me! The reality of the conflict is somewhat different though, but no less interesting for all that.

The Boshin War  was fought between 1868 and 1869 and is the subject of a supplement available from David Manley’s Longface Games label on the Wargames Vault. 

I rather fancy cobbling up the forces required for the naval side of this - I reckon I could probably do so from stock - and in any event, I am due to remodel the former Confederate ironclad the CSS Stonewall that became the Japanese Kotetsu. The Portable Ironclads Wargame would cater for the ships involved readily enough and for the land side I am thinking along the lines of Dominion of the Spear and Bayonet for speedy resolution on any actions or perhaps the Portable Colonial Wargame for greater depth. I do not possess any figures for the period BUT, I know a man that does - and he has, ahem, volunteered to take part in this Oriental flight of fancy.

Covering the later Satsuma Rebellion but very useful for the earlier period as well.

The later and final rebellion, that of the Satsuma, is the one that is depicted in a stylised, Hollywood interpretation of the events in the Tom Cruise film: The Last Samurai. It also features in the supplement to the Dan Mersey “The MenWho Would Be Kings” rules and is chock full of information and scenario ideas. I also splashed out £3.98 on a copy of the book by Mark Ravina about Saigo Takamori - who also featured in the earlier rebellion and is today revered in Japan. The Samurai leader Katsumoto is based on Saigo Takamori.

I feel a quote coming on:

“The perfect blossom is a rare thing. You could spend your life looking for one, and it would not be a wasted life.”

I am not sure if Takamori said this but I like to think that he did!

It is the Fort that counts….Part 3

The two internal buildings are still not fixed in place but that is where they will finish up. Everything you see that is currently white will be grey - including the gun carriages. Vallejo Iraqi Sand for the walkways and Humbrol Matt 29 enamel for the doors and hatches etc. Gun barrels and flagstaffs will be black.

I had a couple of hours spare today so I set to work with making a start on painting the fort. The colour scheme will be the same as used for the earlier, rectangular version which means grey for the stonework, sand coloured walkways and brown for doors and hatches. I plan to completely paint and varnish the fort before I add the gun barrels and flagstaffs - mainly for protection purposes as it will get a lot of handling whilst its ‘teeth’ are being put into place.

Once this is finished it is them on to the floating batteries.

It is the Fort that counts….Part 2

 The next fiddly phase has been completed and so the model has now been sealed prior to undercoating and painting. The final fiddly phase will of course, adding the ‘teeth’ - the gun barrels.

Students of military architecture should look away methinks….

The two interior buildings are not fixed in place yet. This stage was adding the gates, doors and shutters - all from laser cut grey card. As the interior is rather more expansive that on the earlier model I also had to do the same with the inside as you can see.

A clearer view of the interior and the two internal buildings. The larger of the two will be glued against the flat front wall on the inside. This will give a more secure join to the two blocks that are currently only glued at the ends.

The model has been sealed prior to undercoating and painting so my next step will be the former. I will also need to jig up the enquired number of cocktail sticks for the gun barrels and flagstaffs. I will also need to drill a few holes and also address the rather embarrassing lack of entrance points to the gun deck….

It is definitely getting there though and I am pretty pleased with the progress so far.

It is the Fort that counts….

 When I first started the project that eventually morphed into The Portable Ironclads Wargame I had always planned to build forts, shore and floating batteries. Aside from the two Jenga block blockhouse style buildings I had built sometime ago I had not, up until now, really made any further progress. Anyways, for reasons that will become obvious in due course, I needed to build something rather more ambitious than my earlier models.

This is still a work in progress but I am rather taken with how it is coming along. So without further ado, here is what will eventually be Fort Squaragon.

Made from two full sized ‘not Jenga blocks’, six three quarter length and a single quarter length (a full sized block is 63mm long, 12mm high and 21mm wide), 10mm by 5mm grey card pieces for the gun carriages and 3mm square wood strips for the battlements. I have yet to add the window shutters, doors and gates, gun barrels and flagstaffs although the latter two will be added last, after the painting.

An unusually tidy work station with the earlier fort alongside the newer and larger version.

To give an idea of the size of this the hexes you see above are four inches across the flat sides. The two interior buildings have yet to fixed in place but I plan to paint these first.

Alongside the fort I am also building a couple of floating batteries so Fort Squaragon (named after a local Native American chieftain) will be well protected from any Union naval activity. That and the torpedo barrage…

In Other News….

Laurel and I headed out to our local boot sale today and whilst for the most part it was fairly low key I was able to score the book you see below for the princely sum of £1.

A nice addition to the Battle of Britain part of my library which has also given me something of dilemma with a part of my collection!

All in all then, not a bad way to spend part of Sunday - and with a roast leg of lamb to look forward to for dinner!

Pictures Telling Stories

Just a brief post for today as a lot is going on. Just three pictures of some of the ACW naval collection, posed for the camera, but why?

A menacing looking Confederate squadron.

A rather more menacing looking Union squadron.

A rather less menacing Union Squadron

A tease? Maybe, but for now that is all there is….

Till the next time that is!