Turkish Delight

I've been chatting with Paul at Tumbling Dice about adding some Turkish Pre-dreadnoughts to the Age of Battleships range over the last week or so. The good news is that he's looking into it and has made positive noises but the bad news is that deck plans and profiles are not exactly easy to track down. 

In the interim, I'm going to try to convert the ABB 21 HMS Eclipse light cruiser model into the Hamidiye and Mesudiye, which are similar enough to be feasible. This would require remodeling the foredeck to make it flush, adding a plastic card strip along the centreline with three funnels, then removing the gun mounts after and replacing them with a single mount. 

I think I can pull this off with a bit of luck, having some previous experience with scratch building and converting ironclads. I just need to find some time to give it a go!

Get the Goeben! - Alez Les Bleus

The Tumbling Dice French ships arrived  yesterday, which was really quick. I now have all of the Triple Entente naval forces for the Get the Goeben! solo naval campaign project. The best of the bunch is the Courbet, an absolutely splendid model, although the Danton class battleships are also really nifty. I've decided to take these with me on holiday to assemble and base, possibly with the Austro Hungarian models if they arrive in time for the trip?

Whirlwind No263 Squadron Scenarios

Now that I'm committed to the Get the Goeben! WW1 naval campaign project, I've decided to postpone the Arctic Eagles Bag the Hun scenario writing project. Instead, I'm going to write up a small selection of scenarios that I've already researched, focussed on No263 Squadron and the Westland Whirlwind. I'll dig out my notes and see what I can pull together over the summer, with the aim being to submit an article for the 2025 Lard Magazine.

Spanish Age of Sail Summer Sorted

I have now sorted out the 1/2400th Tumbling Dice Spanish fleet for the holidays, which I'll assemble and base while I'm away in Brittany, neatly rounding off my big project this year ( give or take a few extra ships for the Americans, British and French).

The fleet consists of:

130 Santissima Trinidad (flag)

112 Principe de Asturias

112 Santa Ana

100 Rato

80 Neptuno

80 Argonauta

74 San Augustine

74 Bahamas

74 San Ildefonso

74 Montanes 

74 Algeciras 

74 San Justo

64 America 

64 Espana

34 Sabrina

34 Asuncion 

32 Santa Magdalena 

Get the Goeben! - La Royale

I'm a bit short in the old pocket money department at the moment, so couldn't order all of the 1/2400th scale models from Tumbling Dice that I need for the Get the Goeben! project. Instead I've just picked out the French battleships, armoured cruisers and destroyers and a couple of Royal Navy light cruisers, leaving the Austro Hungarian warships and the additional merchant shipping to a later date. If I'm lucky the postie will smuggle this lot through domestic security in time for the holidays next weekend.

Zulus!....thousands of 'em

Well, not exactly thousands but enough scrounged from eBay to kick start a Death in the Dark Continent army over the summer holidays. I'll be taking this lot to France with me, together with the requisite bases, glue and tools, so that I can start to assemble a small army with which to try out the rules. I've also got a box of the British infantry but that may have to wait until later in the year, as I have other plans to screw up first!

Get the Goeben!

Righto. The Plan B for my WW1 naval project this year is to set up and run a solo mini-campaign based on the Catch the Goeben campaign in the Victory at Sea: Age of Dreadnought Far Flung Seas supplement. As I already have the two German warships assembled and ready to paint, I thought it would be a shame not to use them for another one of my solo campaigns.

By happen chance, I also have most of the Royal Navy warships required for the campaign, give or take, as a result of acquiring a bundle of Tumbling Dice models a while back. I will need to splash out on the French and Austro Hungarian warships, however, but these are in reasonable numbers so not too much of a hit on the pocket money. 

I think this will be a lot of fun and with good replay value, especially if I use a range of different rules for variety. There's obviously the Age of Dreadnought rules to start with but this campaign would also be perfect for Si Vis Pacem, for example. The plan now is to order the models in time for the holidays, during which I can assemble, base and paint them, ready for a kick off in the autumn.

Change of Plan...not the first, won't be the last!

After preparing the Turkish warships for the WW1 Black Sea project I have realised that I don't really have enough to cover what I need. As a result, I'm going to reinvent the project as a Chase of the Goeben mini-campaign, using my stash of Tumbling Dice models and some additional ships that I'll order at the weekend.

In the meantime, I'm going to use the time I have left to paint the Chilean and Argentinian ships left over from my South American 'What If?' naval project, along with some merchant shipping for convoy scenarios. This will be a good use of what time I can muster before I head off to France in a couple of weeks.

Spanish Napoleonic Fleet in a Box.

Whatever happens, I'm going to be packing my Spanish 1/2400th scale models to assemble and potentially paint while on holiday in Brittany. I've got a pretty fool proof method for painting these Tumbling Dice models and they don't require a massive selection of paint shades or washes, so it shouldn't be too much of a job to get at least some of the fleet built, based and brushed up. There are a few extra French ships included in the mix and I might even have a go at some American ones too for the Quasi War of 1800. 

Back of Beyond Ragged Russians

Another option for my holiday project is to clean and base up the extra units I need to build a ragged White Russian army for the Back of Beyond. I gathered the figures, guns and vehicles for this earlier this year, to add to my existing painted White Russian units. This would be a simple and enjoyable little project for a week or so and would give me the nucleus of a third army to use alongside my Bolsheviks and Expedition forces. Good plan!