War of the Pacific Base Bosh - Chileans

I finished repainting and relabelling the bases on my 1/2400th scale Chilean fleet for the War of the Pacific at the weekend, so that's another thing on the 'to do' list ticked off. I have a few slots left empty in the storage box which I'm planning to fill with transports and armed merchant ships but I'm having trouble locating suitable models, either to convert or to use as proxies. I can also add more torpedo boats for both sides and perhaps even a submarine, the Toro, but for the moment it's job done and dusted! 

June Project - Napoleonic Naval Box Fillers

The project for this month is to fill up the gaps in my French and British 1/2400th Napoleonic fleets, which is something I've been meaning to sort out for a while. As previously mentioned, this involves assembling and painting three additional ships of the line for the Royal Navy and three for La Royalle, along with a couple of frigate for the latter. Not too much to do but enough to keep me busy. If I get them finished, I can then have a go at painting the American ships that I have assembled to fill in one of  the compartments at the front of the storage box. 

Unfinished 2mm ECW Project Potential

The box of based units ready to go

The Cornish Royalist Army 1643

The three test bases 

I hage been sifting through the unfinished projects from the last couple of years in order to short list some things to finish off in June and July, rather than starting anything new. One thing I have been considering that is not a naval project is the 2mm English Civil War project for 1643 in the South West. I dropped this after buggering up the bases of the Cornish Royalist army but managed to salvage some of the units, as well as the three bases that I completed as a test run. I quite fancy finishing off the Royalists using the bases I didn't screw up and perhaps even go on to complete the Parliamentarian forces too. It's another option at the very least and a nice change from air and naval stuff. 

War of the Pacific Base Bosh - Peru

I'm now focused on some old projects that either need finishing off or just tweaking a bit to give them a refresh. First up are my Chilean and Peruvian fleets for the War of the Pacific, which I've always wanted to bring into line with my other naval projects by repainting the bases. The Peruvian fleet has now been refurbished and the slightly larger Chilean fleet with follow tomorrow, given a bit of free time to sort them out. 

Half Term Fleet in a Week - Mothballed

Almirante Latorre 

With the half term holiday over I've had to admit defeat in completing the interwar Chilean fleet, so I've decided to mothball the project and save it until another time. I have assembled, based and undercoated all of the ships required, however, so it's not a complete wash out. I now have just over a month or so in which to tinker about with before the summer holidays, so I'm not thinking of starting anything new, but will instead aim to finish off a few loose ends in existing projects when I can find the time. It's not been a very productive year so far, that's for sure! 

Plastic Fantastic Gladiators

The plastic figures 

Some of my metal gladiator figures

 I was in town this morning and spotted the latest edition of Wargames Illustrated with a free sprue of 28mm plastic gladiators. These looked rather good so I bought a copy, which comes with a spliced down set of hex based rules called Blood on the Sands. The rules look decent but I already have about half a dozen to pick from and prefer a non-hex based system, so will probably just be stashed away. The figures on the other hand look like they would be a good match for my existing gladiatorial collection, giving me an excuse to dust them off and run some games with the sprog. I also have a very nice Sarissa Precision arena that I haven't built yet, so that might even get glued together when I find the time. Happy Days! 

Digger Dogfight

Digger Dogfight in Action

I've set up an Algy game at the local club for June 16th as a refresher before I take it to the Sarisbury Green club later on. This will be the Digger Dogfight scenario from the Lard Mag Jasta 18 collection but, much as I like my 1/600th scale aircraft, I'm thinking of painting some 1/300th scale 3D printed models for the game. These will add a bit more visual punch and are also easier to distinguish when working out which aircraft is being flown by which pilot. I have a couple of weeks to get them sorted but can always fall back on the Tumbling Dice models if I don't pull it off. Tally Ho! 

Half Term Fleet in a Week - Air Power

You'll just have to imagine the Chilean roundels! 

It's been a bit of a sluggish couple of days at the work bench, partly due to the heat but also as a result of being way laid by other 'spur of the moment' distractions. One thing I have resolved is the exact format of the Chilean air wing for the carrier Almirante Cochrane AKA HMS Eagle. By the time frame of my project c1937-1938, Chilean naval aviation had been absorbed into the Chilean Air Force but, as this is a 'What If?' project, I'm going to keep it independent. After a bit of thinking I'm going to equip the carrier with four flights of Hawker Osprey reconnaissance / fighter bombers and four flights of Hawker Nimrod fighters, the total being the number of flights allocated to HMS Eagle in Find, Fix and Strike. This also conveniently equates to a 1/600th scale pack of each from Tumbling Dice, which I just happen to already have, so no need to order anything new. The Fleet Air Arm was actually in the process of replacing these aircraft with more modern equipment at the time, so they would have been navy surplus and just the sort of thing the Chileans might have been sold, if they really had a carrier of course. 

Tiddly Fiddly Firepower

I bought some 0.3mm brass rod by mistake a couple of weeks ago, intended for 1/3000th scale warship masts but too thin for the job. Instead, I thought I'd try to use it for observer's Lewis guns on 1/600th First World War two seater aircraft. I had a go with a Tumbling Dice Breguet XIV model and I think it turned out looking not too shabby. It wasn't particularly tricky to do either, especially as superglue goes off at the speed of light in his hot weather. I might go back and add some guns to my painted models but I will definitely be using the brass rod on any new aircraft I assemble in the future. 

Jutland Battlecruiser Action Club Game

A rare trip up to the club yesterday for a big multiplayer game of the battlecruiser race to the South using the old Sea Wars Fleet Actions rules. I was given command of the Royal Navy 5th Battle Squadron right at the back, so didn't see much action but it was a very enjoyable game and good to catch up with other club players. Next week it's the actual battle so I'm hoping to actually roll some dice and sink some of the High Seas Fleet!