Refurbishing an ironclad/battleship

 

Having previously put this in the 'failure but might use in future' category, I thought: Why not look at it now.

So, couple of minor repairs and new paint scheme, including painted portholes..

Also gave it 'new' decking.

Overall result acceptable and useable rather than good. Might stick some QF guns at the corners of the 'bridge' - but that is very much 'might'.

So a potentially useful addition - certainly looks better than it did!

And... cruiser finished.

 

I've given it a 25mm crew for the photos - fits well to this model.I haven't added any Nordenfelts. Thinking about it, should probably have put the wheelhouse a bit further back.  Overall, very happy with the final product.

 

The sails are card - tougher than paper - and really more representative than realistic! One problem with masts is that there is just a single point of contact between the mast and spar - adding sails strengthens the structure. Having said that, the sails are just plugged in for easy storage - so easy enough to make a second set of masts later!

 

Masts are quite simple to make. Lie the spars flat, put the mast on top and drip superglue where they contact each other! The black marks are markers - for example, the one at the bottom of the mast tells me how deep the mast fits into the deck. I painted the masts yellow ochre rather than tan - just think it looks better.

Sunday late morning

 Sort of an interim post of where it stands as I've now put on the sides of the cruiser and wheelhouse - so looking very shiplike.

This how it currently stands. First major decision - 3 masts or 2? Should be 3 - 1 in front of the wheelhouse, 1 between the guns in midships, 1 behind second funnel.Not sure if that would make everything a bit too crowded. Also, how do I do the masts? The thicker the dowel I use, the more crowded. Likewise, how do I do the sails? Furled or not? What's the best way to represent sails on this size model? Likewise, what colour will I finally decide to paint the funnels? Comments welcome!

On the idea that I could add a couple of Nordenfelts, I plced a couple of guns on the wings of the wheelhouse. Conclusion? Yes, very practical. I think I've got a couple of 20mm Jacklex guns lying around somewhere, just don't know where. Or could use 28mm Reviresco guns. Or make my own. Decisions, decisions.

Slightly irritating ones - the card on the sides of the hull have dried a bit wavy but not really noticeable when the ship is fully assembled. I cheated with this - A4 card is too short to cover one side so I bought some A3. Everything else I've used on this model I already had. Second issue... the glue has changed the colour of most of the ink on the decking to a greenish colour! Hasn't happened to this extent before! Possibly too much glue has caused some of the colour to preferentially migrate under the paper?

So this post is more of a 'this is where I am at' rather than 'this is what I've done' - seemed better than putting all this in one post together with the masking part.

Cruiser daily update...

 Should be finished in a couple more sessions!

Gun mounts finished. Considering how rough they are, I have to admit I'm rather pleased how these turned out.

Wheelhouse just needs a rail around it. I'll just do a solid rail from card in the same way as the rail around the hull.

Decking added to hull.

Very rough layout -still not sure whether I can fit in 3 masts or just make do with 2.

As it stands, so far I think it's looking quite effective.

More on the cruiser

 Just to keep everyone up to date?

I've just tacked the card on the hull with a Pritt Stick to have an idea how well it fits. Adding the sides makes a big difference to the look of the ship. Overall looking good but not sure it will take 3 masts...

Central battery looks good - think I'll stick with 4 guns rather than go up to 6.Have to do some sails with full rigging before I decide if the ship can take it - not sure if a sail here would be too much, or possibly stick a ship's boat in the middle?

Gun shields look good even if they are very crudely done. I've taken the shields to the floor for stability!

Main things still to think about - 2 masts or 3, black hull or white hull?

A possible layout

 Didn't get to do any work on the cruiser today (went out to a nearby safari park...) but took a photo to show one possible layout - just to give an idea. 

At the moment, number of guns, number and positions of masts, and size, number and positions of funnels are all provisional!

Starting a cruiser

 Seemed like a logical extension. I think this one will take longer - I'll try a few different options re armament, wheelhouses, masts, etc, - before putting the final thing together.

Possible rough outline - possibly 8 guns, 2 funnels, 3 masts ? But really there will be a lot of changes before anything is decided. As you can see, quite a bit bigger than the gun boat so might need more 'detailing', for example ship's boats and ventilaors.

As a cruiser will need a lot of guns I thought I might as well quickly make a few rather than use my supply of bought guns. Rough edges will be hidden a bit by gun shields. Not sure if I should have made 10 guns...

Very much experimental, it should be interesting to see how this one works out.

Looking at a gunboat

  Continuing with balsa boats, thought I'd make my first attempt in this series at a gunboat.

Rough balsa model. The guns are Amati guns bought from Cornwall Model Boats.

As initially finished. Pointy prow - didn't really work so cut square after I'd photographed everything. White card hull - though I had always intended the hull to be black. Hull on this is too big for a single sheet of card to do for one side of the hull- needed a fillet.

Final product - apart from the prow - looking probably a bit TOO 'clean'! After making it, I found that I should have put the guns on a pedestal or something - they are a bit too low. OK for wargames purposes though.

Made it bigger than the Arkham Princess and this turned out to be a good move - 25mm figures don't look out of place on it.

25mm crew and shown against one of the card patrol boats.

Size comparison against the Sgt's Mess tramp steamer SS Lovecraft.

Personal assessment?

Minor tweaks needed but works. Looks like a good size hull and good basis for a cruiser. To be fair, I really felt like giving it 2 funnels to start with - but then, felt same about Arkham Princess. No name for it yet, still thinking about that and future models. I've ordered a few more guns from Cornwall Model Boats, including a couple of AA guns for inter war use. As these are meant as cheap and quick wargames items I haven't bothered with buying (or using what I've got) any detailing accessories but might consider, for example, a few ventilators - they seem to be quite a visible feature that is missing on these.Of course I could also consider boats,anchors, doors, portholes, lifebelts...

At time of writing this (3pm), I went out and checked the temperature of my wargames shed. 100 degrees F!

Prototypes, experiments and dead ends (failures!)

 When I post things like these ships there is a tendency to think they arrived fully formed with no background history. The simple fact is that they are the result of years of playing around - for example, my Tealight Ironclads article appeared in Miniature Wargames in 2013, and was itself the culmination of quite a few experiments!

So I thought it was about time to post something about the background to my various shipbuilding attempts over the years.

Originally I wasn't even thinking about 20/25mm - my first attempts were to start a small but reasonably'accurate' representations of battleships - they are a bit over 9" long balsa.

I also tried small scale ACW ironclads plus carving something that might represent a 20/25mm torpedo boat!

The definitive Tealight Ironclad was heavily based on the Chile/Peruvian war 1879-1884 ship the Huascar As part of that (I intended doing a load of Rose figures for the war) I decided to do a card and balsa gunboat. Not brilliant, but certainly useable and helped form up a lot of ideas re techniques, etc. One being 'forget the rust, you're not very good at it.'

So getting close to the tealights. This early one was pre-decking! It just doesn't really look right but has, surprisingly, survived intact!

Another early attempt. Actually, it's very basic but I can see myself using it!

This lot didn't quite make it. What they do demonstrate is the flexibility of the basic tealight ironclad hull - and if I want a fleet quick I can churn out half a dozen over a couple of evenings - and that's only because they are best half made and glue allowed to dry before finishing!

The definitive Tealight Ironclad. 'Production' models are simplified - I don't go for the whole sail, except for HMS Warrior types - they look good but I don't have any in one piece at the moment!. Having said that, using the article method the sails are pretty quick and easy to do.

The basic hull is very versatile. Quick, throwaway models they are viable for single use. I've made Greek triremes and thought about Medieval cobs - the cob uses the 2 rounded bows option. Just a matter of sorting the card superstructure - once sorted and on the PC you can print as many as you want.

However, before going down the card line I bought a Reviresco fast patrol boat kit. Instead of building it as intended I used the bits on a card and balsa contraption of my own. Here it is taking part in 'The Terror'

And of course I'm quite happy to use other people's kits - SS Lovecraft by Sgt's Mess

So that's most of it up to the current balsa attempts. Experimentation will continue and I'm sure there will be a lot more successes (and failures!)

Arkham Princess

 That's a placeholder name, just seems to be the best one I've thought of so far....

20mm steam yacht to complement the fishing fleet.

On this one I built the parts in sections and incorporated the deck sheet from my Tealight ironclad card model. 20mm crew from Langley (bought mine unpainted!). The skin around the ship's hull is simply unpainted card. Using a 'solid' rail around the deck has two advantages. Firstly, it makes it look as though the boat has a reasonable freeboard. Secondly, it 'hides' the bottom half of the superstructure making it look better as far as proportions go.

Comparison with 25mm figures - a 20mm figure included to give an idea of the difference. Again, 25mm is just a bit too big to work well on this vessel.

This one gives 20mm adventurers/expeditions a suitable form of transport. It generally looks good though longer and wider would be a lot more accurate - looking at that superstructure the cabins must be very small! I might also look at making a scaled up version for 25/28mm.

Overall, this looks like a much 'cleaner' model than the fishing boats and would lend itself well to further detailing. I like it.

The completed fishing fleet

3 lobster/crab boats and 2 steam drifters. 20mm figures fit in quite well.

For future models I'll make the wheelhouse about half as long - it tends to over dominate at the moment.

The steam trawler looks good. If I ever decided to make a more detailed model I would have to make it a bit longer to fit a crane in front of the wheelhouse, other than that it looks fine.

This picture shows two of the boats with 25mm crews - as can be seen they don't really do the job - 20mm or smaller is their limit.

 One thing about this is little project is that it demonstrates the differences between just going ahead and making things without planning and actually thinking things through. Differences between these and future models:

I'll make and paint them in modular form rather than make them in one. Examples would be for painting superstructures, for instance.

For some reason I forgot about the decking I'd made up for the tealight ironclads - the decking sheets would be ideal for these.

Possibly put card facings on the superstructures? - the balsa I'm using is generally quite coarse and doesn't file/sandpaper down well. It tends to just fray!

Overall assessment? The boats are quick and easy to make. They fill a gap well and have proved well worth the effort.

Steven's Panzergrenadier company

Latest from Steven:

'I know it has been a while since I sent you anything from my painting desk. I’ve been holding off so I can show you the entire SS panzergrenadier company I’ve been working on. Here they are! 90 figures all based up (the thought occurs you can do a full DBA army with less).

The figures are a mix of Battlefront, Forged in Battle and Peter Pig. The three manufacturer’s figures are compatible – there are differences if you know what you are looking for, but the overall effect is fine – which gives a real variety in the poses.  The uniforms are about two-thirds summer (green) oak leaf camo to one-third autumn (orange) oak leaf camo, so there are very few figures the same. I painted some Peter Pig Afrika Korps figures as SS – the peaked caps instead of helmets provide more variety.

I also spent a lot more time and effort doing the bases. Baueda do a nice range of scenic bases, as well as individual crates, barrels etc. There are some tree stumps and fallen logs I modelled from green stuff too. I took a lot of inspiration from an excellent Fallschirmjaeger army I have seen online. I really like this guy’s stuff.

Some pictures below. As ever, photography has been a struggle. There are lots of details such as the SS collar insignia, and markings on some of the headgear, which just don’t show clearly.'

Figure 1 The whole company arranged into three platoons plus HQ.

 

Figure 2 A more ground level view

 

Figure 3 Figures on the Baueda scenic bases. The far-right (political views aside) figure is a Peter Pig DAK painted as SS

 

Figure 4 The middle base is another scenic base, whilst the other two have individual crates etc added.

 

Figure 5 Another closer view. The middle base has a bomb crater modelled with green stuff (although the SMG-wielding sergeant partially obscures it).

 

Figure 6 Close-up of the HQ (front).

 

Figure 7 Close-up of the HQ (rear). The company commander and the sergeant with the raised hand are each wearing a watch which I modelled with green stuff. They are tiny!

 

Figure 8 The figure kneeling to fire doesn't have a camo cover on his helmet (this is a Forged in Battle figure, and a number of them have camo-less helmets), so I painted the SS decal on the side. Again, it is tiny. I made good use the “psycho” paintbrush for these details. From my research, I think these decals were only on the right side of the helmets.

 

Figure 9 The same base from the other side. The prone LMG team are Peter Pig DAK. This shows the insignia on the Einheitsfeldmutze cap. The standing figure is Battlefront, so this base has miniatures from three manufacturers. I think the mix works well.

 

Figure 10 Close-up of the Lieutenant and his team, showing the SS collar insignia.

 

Figure 11 The tree stump was scratch-made from a lump of green stuff. I have also made use of ready-made flowers throughout the company to give the bases more variety and colour.