Ship Ahoy!

So far I have managed to get 5 ships painted, and intend to paint another 5 this afternoon. Here are a couple of snaps of them on the partially finished boards. These ships are 2400th scale, a smaller scale than most people use for this era. However this compact and bijou ness allows me to hide the fact that I know NOTHING about the rigging of ships. yes I know it involves ropes and block and tackles and knots and things like that, but if you asked me to rig a model ship I would be stumped. So this smaller scale lets me avoid the issue. Yippeee!

These ships are about done, bar so tweaking and no doubt some repairs when they go to the club tomorrow. I look forward to being proven wrong. I have tried to keep to what I believe are the correct colours of the period. I tend to think of the ships being a mixture of Yellow and Black. The yellow seems to have been any and all shades of yellow from a light "lemon" to a dark "Ochre, while the Black could actually be a dark grey. I am told that the captain of the ship was responsible for paying for the paint so no universal colour scheme or pattern was established. However I am also informed that the Royal Navy would supply yellow and black paint free of charge, which is why we tend to think of the Nelson Checked wooded walls. That being the case I have one red ship and the others are is different yellows and blacks. As such They look alright. And I'm definitely not going to be too concerned about the colours selected while sticking to what I have been told.

So this afternoon I will have to paint 6 more ships, read the rules make a wind direction counter. (This can be static). In most battles of this period the wind direction and intensity did not change so once set for the battle so it will stay as set.
As you can see in this last Photograph the ships are quite small and given that the effective range of there guns is a mere 6" perhaps I can get away with a smaller board.

That's it for today, thanks for looking have a great weekend (in the sleet snow and rain....and that's just so far this morning). All the best Clint

More WIP BBIB Boards

 As you can see a little more done on the land boards for BBIB show game for Broadside. All I have really done since last time is neaten them up and add some colour. Which is a very English understated way of saying repainted everything completely.
Starting with the beaches I dry brushed two lighter shades of the sand colour, lightening with white and a very small touch of yellow each time. The yellow is powerful so really be very gentle with it. I then dry brushed the cliffs with the same tomes to make it match in. The green for the grass was straight from a tube of acrylic from "the works" discount book shop (2 for £5 so very good value for money). Again this was dry bushed to simulate a texture. I was a bit heavy handed in places but I have more to do on the land so any mistakes will be rectified in subsequent treatments. Again I used both white and Yellow, but now with considerably more yellow than white to hi-light the texture of the builders sand.
I did drop some paint onto the land section of a different colour (beach colour as it happens). But this is a happy accident as I have painted it into a more "regular" shape than the splatter and the area will grow into a field on the finished headland. It is important for me to take this sort of approach and not try to make it look perfect. Accidents happen to us all and it's sometimes best to just roll with them.



Together as a river mouth



Together as a peninsular

I also thought to show you the two sea shore boards together so that it was clear that they would look ok next to each other either as an estuary or cove or inlet or as a headland or peninsular. being able to move them around is important to me as it gives a far greater use from the boards than just one set up. The estuary is particularly of use as it allows for blockade running scenarios where the ships have either to leave the river moth or to enter it which give a strong reason for a battle. Of which there are a number of historical examples.

 Overall I am very happy with the result so far. Obviously there is more to do so it is just another WIP post today but I thought it was worth showing the progress. Thanks for following my progress and I hope to have more to show on Saturday, maybe even some ships!!!! (I know how to tease you!). Have a good couple of days all the best Clint.

Land ahoy

 

These two pictures show the next step in creating the boards, adding texture. Still a long way to go, but they are coming along at a pace I am happy with. Let me be blunt and say none of the colours or textures you will see on any pictures will be how the boards are finished. But later I hope there will be a "Rolf Harris" moment when it all comes together at the end. (Well let's hope so!) All the texture is, is "builders sand" (the cheapest sand I can buy) applied through a sieve onto all the areas that I want to add some form of ground texture. The sand is attached using a combination of Resin W (PVA wood glue) water and paint (a mix of ready mixed poster from a toy shop and acrylic for the book discount store "the Works". Using just poster paint would have been easier but the colour would then "bleed" through onto other colours applied over the top. Needless to say wait a few days for it to dry. In this instance I painted it first thing Saturday morning before going to Reject Central for the game.

The next stage (once dry) is to seal the texture. At this stage I have started to add the first indications of colour. This is only an under-painting colour and will not be the finished layer. It does serve to indicate to me where any painting problems will occur further down the line but is so roughly applied that it is just to make sure that the sand used to texture the boards will not shake loose.

As a couple of people wanted me to put a ship in for scale I have done so,. This ship is a 50 gun 3rd Rate Ship of the Line. The smallest Ship of the line I possess It was randomly selected from the selection on my painting table that are primed and that I will start to paint later today ready for a game on Sunday. I hope to have them done in time as It will be the first time most if not all the club players will get to try the rules I like out.  These ships at 1/2400th scale are small the base size is 20mm x 40mm which does make them look insignificant on the boards (see final picture) I have mixed feelings about that. Bigger ships would look more impressive, but is it all about trying to impress people, or showing them what they could do themselves. Alan Abbey of the Milton Hundred Wargames club and author of the rules started playing with those cardboard "Pirate ships" that you had to pop out and assemble. (Yes I have some as well.) But has now managed to acquire some 1/700th scale ships which when painted and rigged will no doubt look fabulous, and is definitely a step forward from the cardboard ones but I quite like the look of the smaller ships, it makes the sea seem more in scale.

That's my news for today.
 Thanks for reading have a great day and I'll blog again in 2 days time.

Best wishes Clint.

Nine big chaps in one Big shed!

AS regular readers will know I had a day out yesterday visiting the "Posties Rejects" in order to play a game. Before turning up I knew it was Napoleonic and a follow on from their previous game and was advised to read the AAR on various Reject blogs. Being honest, I looked at the pictures and read about 1/2 of it as who really enjoys the homework side of the hobby? Anyway Postie had sorted out the sides and I was given 2 units of cavalry and one of horse artillery, already set up in position on the table. Not complaining and to be honest quite happy with what I got, even If I would have deployed it differently. Still you get what you get and you don't get upset. I will only talk in this AAR about my very slim section of the battlefield as there were 5 bloggers present. Brian ( His Blog Here), Ray (His Blog here) myself and Surgit (Possibly spelt wrong sorry mate) comprised the Allied forces about 3-5 miles from Brussels. While Fran (It's all lies) Smiffy, Big Lee (A possibly less jaundiced view from the nasty French side here, but it's still all lies) and Ian made up the wretched French forces of the despicable dictator. (feel free to Boo and Hiss them each time they are mentioned for they are the enemy). Both Brian and myself were the newbies not really knowing the people or the rules at all but that's Ok we trust Ray and Postie. While it was clear to some of the players that my lack of starting forces would mean I would have some reinforcements I had no way of knowing that so I assumed that what I started with was what I would have all day. Anyway I was under orders to hold my position, so I did not move or manoeuvre at all for the first few turns.  This second Pic shows the centre of the board and therefore my left flank, commanded by Ray (our glorious leader).
So as mentioned I held my position while Surgit with much elan sent his cavalry forward and managed to get a couple of charges in. But everything He charged ran away which did leave hiom exposed and vulnerable, but it did slow the French advance. As he was exposed I moved my horse out ready to charge any French (boo hiss Boo!) Cavalry who would have charged them. Being honest I was a turn to late but still the thought was there. My horse returned to my start line the following turn as Surgit's cavalry were dispatched. Not an easy task it would appear for the close infantry firing into their rear and Flank as Ian rolled the dice and the gods favoured Surgit.

As the nasty garlic eaters approached I was fortunate to get a few good shots in with the horse artillery. Only one shot of this unit failed to cause a casualty the whole game so definitely worth having on the field of battle. While it did not do a huge amount of damage I would imagine the opponents were discouraged by it at the very least..... If only they'd shown it! After a few turns my reinforcements turned up. As mentioned above I did not know they were coming. It did take them 4 turns to get into position but still beggars can't be choosers.

Here is the obligatory and contractual picture of the opponents on the day, everyone a Reject! Yes that's a lot of troops they have all formed up and aiming at Ray, Brian Surgit and myself, but mostly at Ray whom they seemed to want to target.

As no one had at this stage their name on the wall of Shame Fran gave me that dubious honour. For which I am very pleased as at least I know I left my mark. Should I visit them again I will attempt to get it written up as many times in a day as I possibly can and try to set some kind of record! Rejects you have been warned!

Surgit's reinforcements arrived directly behind my troops. The French guard Cavalry also turned up on the opposite corner ready to do unpleasant things to me, you could smell them coming for miles the dirty so and so's (booo!) so I moved my troops to the right and Surgit took my position and rushed to support Ray in the centre. Big lee used his horse artillery on my skirmishes to no effect so I returned the favour and my rifle armed skirmishers wiped his artillery out. (Ner! to you Lee.). Ian took exception and took my horse artillery down to half strength and then killed a stand of my skirmish line. (The only real losses I suffered in the game.) My light foot artillery (having just got into position) took a lucky shot at Big Lee's Cavalry managed to inflict a luck casualty and as his divisional commander was attached lee then rolled a 1 on the d20 and forever that little bit of Belgium will be forever French to a depth of 6 feet!

Despite a valiant defence of the town by Ray's Dutch militia, as the last picture will show, Check those dice scores! Smiffy fired his guns into the town and falling masonry killed Rays supreme commander and our centre collapsed in a rout.

As mentioned at the very beginning this AAR is only concerned with my very small section of the battle field. I would strongly recommend reading the other bloggers reports for a more accurate and less partisan view of what actually happened. But please take everything typed with an Irish accent with a large pinch of salt. I say that having not read it but in anticipation!

Conclusion: Well the observant will have noted the Rejects Logo on the right of the page as ray has given both me and Brian permission to use it on our blogs. You may take this to mean that I did enjoy the day. There are a number of game innovations that I will be introducing to the Rainham club. (Rainham club please be aware of this). Dice rolling throughout the day slightly favoured the Allies but when it mattered it deserted us completely so I can't even blame the dice this time although I no doubt will at a later date. I have been invited back and would choose to go if the time is right. I also hope to see the Rejects come down for a quick game at the Rainham club.  They've had that offer for over a year so I am no longer holding my breathe.

Very finally Postie very kindly gave me a gift which I will no doubt photograph and post on the blog later this week

Thanks for reading this AAR. Please check the other bloggers (listed above) to get their view of the day or if you have come from their blogs I hope you enjoyed this and will post another blog on Tuesday.

Best wishes Clint