Red Actions White Infantry

New WW1 Russian figures - very nice!

I've been slow to get started on the Red Actions! project this month, mainly due to finishing off the pre-dreadnoughts but also because I have been mulling over which figures to use. I have enough of the old WW1 Russian infantry to cover the bases I need but only just. As a result, I'm going to use only the new figures and leave the old ones for either early Red infantry or Baltic nationalist forces, either as allies or enemies of the Freikorps. This means I can now get started on the basing up stage of the Red Actions! project, ready for some serious painting next month.

Peruvian Scout Cruiser Conversion

I've been off work the last couple of days with the habitual vertigo and nausea as a result of Meniere's Syndrome, which I suffer from on an irregular basis. This is a right pain in the *** as it means I have to stay horizontal for most of the time and get very, very bored, in addition to feeling like crap. 

It also means I'm having to miss a game of Strength and Honour run by Mark Backhouse at the club which I organised and was really looking forward to. It would have been great to actually try out the rules with the author umpiring the game but, luckily, there are enough people to step in for the game to still run in my absence. Thanks Gary.

On a mildly positive note, the two Sentinel class models arrived from Tumbling Dice that I'm going to convert into the Almirante Grau class scout cruisers for the Peruvian navy. This looks like it will be a simple job of drilling new holes for the funnels and filling in the old ones. I've decided, as a result, that I may do just that and also base some of the merchant shipping I planned to do, rather than start on the big Red Actions! or Royal Navy pre-dreadnought projects, bar some simple basing up if I have some time.

The Easter holidays are in a few week's time, so the plan is to have enough models ready for some pre-dreadnought wargaming set in a fictional war between Chile and Peru, in which the Argentinians intervene on the Peruvian side. It may also feature the US navy in some capacity, probably getting in-between the belligerents or siding with the Peruvians, while the Royal Navy may also stick her oar in, either to observe or to support the Chileans once the Argentinians show their colours.

Argentinian and Chilean Pre-dreadnoughts Finished

Chilean Battleship and Protected Cruiser

Argentinian Protected Cruiser

Argentinian Armoured Cruisers 

Argentinian Squadron 

Chilean Squadron 

I've now completed my first project for the year, more or less, with the Argentinian squadron now finished alongside the Chilean squadron, which has a couple of new pre-dreadnought warships as well. I could add the 'What If?' extras and some torpedo boat destroyers but this is all I need to try out some rules for a few games, so I'm calling it job done! I'm now thinking of changing focus and, instead of tackling the Royal Navy pre-dreadnought project, starting the Red Actions! 15mm AFSR army earlier than planned, just for a bit of something completely different.

Patagonian Pre-Dreadnought Update

 

Despite being a bit under the weather this weekend, I've now almost finished the Argentinian and Chilean pre-dreadnoughts, with the highlighting, bases and matt varnish coat all done. I just need to gloss varnish the bases, add the labels and a magnetic strip underneath and they will be ready for action! 

Sandbox Skirmish Low Stakes

This is a project that I have been tinkering with for a couple of years but which never seems to get shifted in a forward direction, for whatever reason that may be, one of which is my lack of bullet biting when it comes to painting 15mm figures. 

I haven't painted anything in 15mm for years, so I'm sitting on a fence when it comes to how to do it. In the past, I've painted in layers over a black undercoat, which works well but nowadays a lot of people seem to go for a block, wash and highlight approach, which works when you have a lot of figures to wade through but is perhaps lacking when you only have a dozen or so for skirmish games.

I desperately need some practice in advance of the Red Actions! project, so I'm going to have a go painting a squad or two of 15mm modern figures for the Sandbox Skirmish project, possibly not the British platoon I've undercoated in Citadel Death Guard green but instead some US or Israeli figures. 

This will allow me to get things wrong as well as right, with a low-stakes outcome but a useful result, if it goes according to plan. 

War and Peace

HMS Majestic Wartime Grey

HMS Majestic Peacetime Scheme

I'm thinking of painting the Royal Navy pre-dreadnoughts in a wartime grey scheme, as it is probably a faster option and has the advantage of allowing me to use them for WW1 in the Med. The downside is that it's a bit dull and not half as splendid as the Edwardian black, white and buff. Here we have HMS Majestic in the two schemes and the difference is very evident. Swings and roundabouts!

Royal Navy Pre-Dreadnought Project

 

Ten Battleships and Six Protected Cruisers

This weekend I'm going to wrap up the South American dreadnought project, leaving the optional extra bits to a later date, so that I can get cracking with my main project for this month, a Royal Navy Mediterranean squadron for a 'What If?' Fashoda Incident spin-off war with the French c1898. I've sorted out all of the models I need to assemble, base and paint, so I'm ready to go once the Chilean and Argentinian ships are finished. I'm now debating whether to go for the classic black, white and buff peacetime paint scheme or a quick-to-paint wartime grey on the Royal Navy ships, the latter allowing me to re-use them for WW1?  

The Tides of March c1898

The Channel Fleet 1898

 

I've been really enjoying painting the Chilean and Argentinian pre-dreadnoughts and, despite snail-like progress this week, I'm expecting to finish them by the end of the weekend. They are very much a test run for larger fleets, developing an approach to painting that gets results without too much farting about, so I've decided to dedicate the rest of the month to more pre-dreadnought production. 

This will initially include some extras for the South American project but will go on to produce two opposing fleets for either the Royal Navy and French in the Mediterranean c1898 or the US Navy and the Spanish, the latter for the Span Am War of 1898. I've chosen these combinations as, in both cases, I have one of the two fleets already based and undercoated, making it a paint one, base one, paint the other one project, which should speed things up no end. 

Here's what I already devised for a 'What If?" Anglo French clash over the Fashoda Incident, to set the mood music:

http://jimswargamesworkbench.blogspot.com/2022/05/royal-navy-mediterranean-squadron-1898.html?m=1

There are a lot of ships to get through, however, so a production line approach is clearly the order of the day! The aim is to complete all of this by the end of the month, take a bit of a break over the Easter holidays, then start afresh on the Red Actions! Russian Civil War project in April, the latter being my big project for the Summer. 

TBD Flotillas

I'm trying to make up my mind about how to base the four Corrientes class torpedo boat destroyers for the Argentinian squadron. The options are to individually base, as I've done with the larger Chilean boats, or group together on a larger square base with two boats representing a flotilla. 

At the moment this looks like a 40mm x 40mm base but might be a little bigger to give them more space. In Fire When Ready this would be a 50mm x 50mm base which, in theory at least, might accommodate all four (or three) of the models, the Santa Fe having been lost in 1897.

This could represent the whole squadron of boats or I could do it 1:1 and have two flotillas of two boats each. Given the small number of destroyers involved I'm leaning toward single basing but may end up doing both, just to cover the bases, so to speak. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Peruvian Scout Cruisers

Almirante Grau

Colonel Bolognese

HMS Apollo

I'm adding the Peruvian navy to my South American pre-dreadnought project, which primarily consisted of two British-built scout cruisers, the rest of the fleet being totally obsolete. These two cruisers, the Almirante Grau and Colonel Bolognese, were similar to the Sentinel class but with two stacks rather than three, so I have ordered a couple from Tumbling Dice to see if I can convert them. 

Almirante Grau

Apollo

Sentinel

One alternative would be the use two Apollo class cruiser models, which I already have in the box, as they look very similar even though they were considerably shorter in length. I'll make up my mind when the Sentinels arrive and either do some surgery in those or take the easy option and use the Apollo models off the shelf, with cut-down funnels to match the Peruvian cruiser profile.