Mid Victorian Royal Navy Channel Fleet c1870

I finally finished off the re-basing and extra 1/2400th scale Tumbling Dice warships for the Royal Navy Channel Squadron today, having originally started to assemble them way back in 2010! They are destined for a 'What If?' blockading action to bottle up the French in Brest, which is exactly what they would have been up to if it had all kicked off in 1860 something.

I re-based the ships that I had assembled on laser cut mdf to match the bases that I have used on the French, Danish, Prussians and Austrians. I also glued together a few more broadside and turret ironclads including HMS Monarch, HMS Prince Albert, HMS Caledonia and HMS Ocean, together with the steam frigate HMS Aurora for the Battle of Heligoland. 

I now need to undercoat the whole lot with matt black primer, ready to be painted up over the holidays, which are starting at the end of the week. I doubt I'll get even half of them painted to be honest, so my priority will be to complete the Prussian and Danish ships for the Battle of Jasmund in 1864. These mainly consist of gunboats, sloops and frigates, so nothing too complicated (I hope!).

I don't like wendyball but....

Mid Victorian French Channel Fleet c1870

I re-based some of my Tumbling Dice British ironclads the other day, so decided to do the same with the French ships that I had assembled years ago, as they've been sitting in a box gathering dust since then. I also added a handful of new models to the squadron including some ironclad rams (thanks for the model Colin). I chose an arbitrary cut-off point of 1870 for the French fleet, which means that I could also do the post Franco-Prussian War reconstructed fleet of the 1880's at a later date. I may well add one or two more ships by the end of the weekend but I'm now off to the garage to base up the matching Royal Navy squadron, so that I can take all of them off to France to paint up over the holidays.

1864 Austrian North Sea Squadron

I had a bit of time this afternoon, having been a taxi driver for most of the morning, so decided to glue together the three Austrian ships for the Battle of Heligoland in May 1864. These are the steam frigates SMS Radetzky and SMS Schwarzenberg, with the gunboat SMS Seehund as an optional extra. The Seehund broke down on the way and did not turn up in time for the battle but I had a spare model so thought I'd add it to the line up. These are all Tumbling Dice 1/2400th scale models that I've used as proxy versions of the Austrian ships, with only a minimal bit of conversion required to remove one of the funnels from the Schwarzenberg, along with the substitution of spars made from staples rather than the sails supplied with the kits.

No Way Out

I'm not a fan of this sort of thing but, having listened to a good review on Radio 4, I thought it would be an interesting diversion. I found a second hand hardback copy today in the local charity shop after work, so for two quid I now have a book to read over the weekend. It's not too long and printed in relatively large type, no doubt for those who don't like too many words, so I should be able to polish it off in a couple of days. I prefer more 'historical' military history, if that makes sense, but I'm prepared to try out something more contemporary for a change, even if the strapline makes me slightly cringe. Who knows, it might even inspire some modern skirmishing in 15mm?

1864 Prussian Fleet Rebased

I have now re-based most of the Prussian warships for the 1864 Second Schleswig War on longer 20mm wide laser cut bases, leaving space to attach an identification label at the stern. I left the tiny 2nd class gunboats on 15mm wide bases, as these were already large enough to fit a label on, but the larger sloops, corvettes and frigates needed about 5mm more in length. They will all be spray undercoated in matt black next, ready to be painted over the holidays.

1864 Danish Fleet Complete

I'm off work today, as I wasn't needed, so have spent the morning finishing off the last three warships for the Danish fleet. These are the two steam frigates, Jylland and Niels Juel, and the screw corvette Dagmar. I had forgotten just how fiddly a job it is to glue the spars onto the masts, having cut them to length from staples, but I got there in the end after quite a bit of colourful language. I also based up the turret ship HMS Royal Sovereign, which I'll add to the Royal Navy flotilla because it's just cool. 

The Danish fleet for the 1864 Second Schleswig War is now pretty much complete, at least the useful bits of it that actually did things, although I did think of converting a model into the ironclad Danmark, which was fitting out at the time but didn't quite make it into action. I'd also like to find a replacement for the Hallmark Rolf Krake model, which just doesn't look right next to the Tumbling Dice ships? Perhaps I could scratch build it out of plastic card and bits, or even persuade Paul to do one for me?

Naval Command v3.0

Rory Crabb has just updated and republished his Naval Command modern naval rules, which are now in their third and possibly final edition. This is good news as it shows that the rules are being fully supported and developed but bad news in that I may well have to re-print the whole 90+ pages of the rulebook, assuming I want to try out the latest version. A bit of Cold War era naval gaming is one of my projects for later in the year, specifically the Indonesian Confrontation and other things 'East of Suez' in the 1960's, so I am looking forward to using Naval Command as one of my potential systems, the other being Shipwreck! Luckily for me, having bought the original rules way back when they were first published, I get a free copy of the latest version to download from Wargames Vault. There's a link to Rory's webpage here:

https://rorycrabb.wordpress.com/2018/07/11/naval-command-new-edition/

Steam and Sail Ship Basing

I've based all of my Tumbling Dice 1/2400th scale models on 20mm or 15mm wide laser cut mdf bases to give me a consistent way of measuring for range and angles of fire. The models come with cast white metal sea bases, which look very nice and cut out all the messy base texturing, but which are all sorts of shapes and sizes making measuring a bit contentious. 

The extra mdf edge protects the bowsprits and sticky outy bits as well, making it less likely that things will bend or snap off in the heat of action. I did wonder about using wider 30mm bases like ones I used for my Victory at Sea French fleet but I don't think it would be worth it. They look nice but only if the whole base is textured to match, as you can see in the photo below:

One downside of the narrower bases is the lack of space for a label to identify the individual warships on most of the bases but I think I can label the base edge instead, which will be more discrete and less of a visual eyesore. I have just ordered some new 20mm wide bases for another project, so I may re-base some of the smaller models on longer sections to allow me to add some proper name labels. 

If not, I can always use numbers or just label the underside of the bases, which is less convenient but just as effective. I'll also have to paint the bare mdf areas with the same base colour that I'll use on the textured bases, so everything blends in rather than adding extra texturing to cover it all up. I should be able to get all of the basing done pretty quickly as a result.

What's on the Workbench This Week?

I'm changing tack this week, with some Tumbling Dice 1/2400th scale re-enforcements for the Danish and British squadrons in the Second Schleswig War of 1864. I have enough Prussian vessels already but I'm a bit light on Danish warships, so will be assembling the screw frigates Niels Juel and Jylland, using the frigate HMS Phoebe (ASV5) as a proxy. 

I'm also adding a couple of extras to the Royal Navy flotilla, in the shape of the screw frigate HMS Aurora (using ASV6) and the early turret ironclad HMS Royal Sovereign (ASV30), which should add a bit of 'what if?' firepower to the proceedings. The Royal Navy played a minimal role in the conflict but could have been more involved, so why not?

The additional Danish warships and HMS Aurora will allow me to do the Battle of Heligoland, so I will fill things out with the Austrian screw frigates SMS Schwarzenberg (ASV9) and SMS Radetzky (ASV7), together with the absent gunboat SMS Seehund (ASV15), with the rest of the Danish and Austrian ships already ready for painting. 

These are all additions to my set up for the Second Schleswig War of 1864 using David Manley's Broadside and Ram fast play rules, with a few extra bits pinched from his ACW rules Dahlgren and Columbiad. I need to do a bit of re-basing and some undercoating before I can get started on the painting but, in all other respects, this is the Summer Project ready to go.