Alamo - a scenario everyone knows

The Alamo.  Everyone has heard of it.  Famous enough that Tom Hanks in "Saving Private Ryan" can say it and the movie makers didn't even feel compelled to explain its meaning.  Modern Texans, and indeed all Americans flock to its remnants with the feeling it was a significant victory.  It was not...well for the Texicans anyway.  And when you are to enjoy playing the game and become the defenders, you know what the expected end will be.  

Nate's very nice and practical home-made model in 15mm.

I took a road trip to Vancouver Island and had a great Alamo game hosted by NateS.  DavidB who graciously provided my room and board, was my fellow Texican. Nate's very nice model of the Alamo made from solid wood and foamcore in 15mm scale formed the excellent backdrop to the thinly distributed defenders. 

Mexicans over the wall!

The rules were nice and 'convention' simple but did allow the Texicans to shoot better but allowed the Mexicans better melee factor - when they finally could come to grips.  The superior numbers of the Mexicans finally pushed the Texicans off the walls and into the compound which sealed their fate. DavidB and I could claim a 'moral victory' by eliminating 2/3 the Mexican assault force, at approximately a 2:1 ratio.  Wargaming is one of those activities that, when even losing, you can have great fun and enjoyment...but still cursing the dice, of course!

"Well, gal' dern it!"  The last of the Texicans.

Inspired by La Haie Sainte

 Inspired by the famous farmhouse in the Battle of Waterloo, and with a brick imprinting roller purchased by happenstance from the local hobby store, I set about to create my version of a Belgian farmhouse from pieces of foamcore, card, and sheets cut from those styrofoam meat trays from the supermarket - served both in black and white.  These give you a cheap means of thin walls of brick to work with although the 'gate tower' used a one thick piece insolation pink foam which makes a better/deeper impressed pattern (softer material undoubtedly).

For good or bad I tend not to use precise measurements and simply suggest "it's close enough"  (my wife states it is "The Tao of Doug"). Well, what's 1 or 2mm off, going to make a difference.... Obviously no real planning and certainly missteps in the design and execution.   I probably should fill in some of the corners and such but I tend to get too excited or impatient or dis-inspired to bother.  When the rest comes together I regret the negligence. The tao-ism it must be said.   However, it is the old-timey way and inexpensive, and it may be said in a sadistic way, fun part of the hobby. 

                                                                Early construction views:

  

Initial painting:

 

                                                                 Final result:                                                   

French dismounted dragoons (Perry plastics) advancing upon the farm defended by Brunswicker lights in the courtyard (converted Perry British Napoleonics) and Brunswicker Jagers in light grey (converted from Perry early ACW plastics). The farm will undoubtedly form the centerpiece for many of my Waterloo campaign games.

 

Dice Fields

 

My newly painted 103rd Foot for the War of 1812.  It participated in the Niagara Region in 1814.  Old Glory 28mm.  I have now some 15 units of redcoats for that war and have painted over 500 figures of 28mm Napoleonic era British Infantry for my various collections....oh dear that is a lot of scarlet and lace....

Inspired by a gamer-friend's idea, I recently created nice terrain pieces but also very utilitarian to keep dice together and not hurling across the table when rolled by some of the more 'energetic' players.  These are for North America c.18th and 19th C.  I will be building others for the other various topography to blend into the terrain work.

The newly built "dice fields" in my quest to have 'visual continuity' for the table-top. I subsequently added more 'shrubbery' under the fences to make them a bit more 'organic'. Made from coffee-stir sticks.  But ready-made plastic fences could be employed;  as can walls of various constructions.

the Tower still stands

The first game of the year was a small medieval ‘Lion Rampant’ game with WillB and his young son going against each other defending or attacking the siege cannon firing against my newly painted Tower.  (see my previous post link for its construction)  Hey, I just painted it so OF COURSE it has to be part of the scenario!

I addition to the painting, I added a separate rocky base of insulation foam sheet 

Quickly inventing some quick rules for the guns damage firing at the tower, I thought I had cleverly hidden a small unit of foot knights under the roof but WillB, noticing the slight tilt in the roof ( he is a civil engineer and I never claim to be a precise builder!) adjusted the model only to discover my ruse.  Luckily I made my several activations to have the knights climb down the ladder, over the rocks, and into action but only to have them fail their courage after only one combat and run off into the distance!  

The enemy had already retreated away and then I careless rolled this for their courage!

One of the medieval siege cannon firing on my new tower.  This is a scratch-built affair made from a plastic tube, balsa wood, and brackets of strips of paper.  The barrel, wheel-barrow and chest form the rest of the 6-man crew!

Archers form the main component of my Battle of Crecy era collection

The Dunkurque knights chop into one of the English archer units. A rather unequal affair.

However, Arthur’s steady arrow barrages wore down the Dunkurque Militia of his father and the final cannon’s crew were slaughtered by Arthur’s men-at-arms before the tower could be felled by the cannon shot. 

new WW2 tanks

Not a lot of wargaming of note lately for me.  Always piddling about on this project or that, but nothing write home blog about.

Did do up a couple of Waffenkammer resin tanks included for me in an order by WillB [link to company].  I added a late war T-34 to go against any German Kitties (Panthers or Tigers) others might have for a game of 'What a Tanker', or to be hunted by my German panzerfaust-armed lads.  

T-34/85 with a 'Bad Squiddo' female driver (used as more 1:48 scale to the Warlord plastic infantry than the provided driver) She seems to be shaking her fist in defiance . 

But of course one just MUST do all the rust and weathering!  Mind you I really don't think tanks lasted long enough to acquire such wear in reality.

The other, a rather smaller R-35 in Italian employ for support of my Italian Camicie Nere/ Blackshirt militia contingent.  A famous ‘charge’ of 12 of these caused consternation for the Americans at Gera in Sicily… for several minutes….. 

The two man crewed R-35 with the supplied commander/gunloader/gunner having a seat outside ("unbuttoned") .  He is attached by a magnet in his knee...

...to the internal magnet which allows me to remove him and....

...manually close the hatch.  I managed to drill a very small hole through the hatch's hinge to allow a thin piece of plastic rod - the type which is used to attach price tags to clothing - to be fed through and squeezed at both ends so gluing was not required.     While not partial to resin, I do like the effect of it to portray the historically rough casting of the metal turret.

This R-35 was inspired by the following images of the tanks engaged at Geta:

Just 'spruesing' around

 Inspired by videos on clever uses of left-over, ready for the rubbish bin, throw away plastic sprue frames after removing all the possible useful bits, I gave it a quick thought and came up with using sections as iron beams in construction of a bridge. 

My newly made “iron” bridge.  Scratch built (obviously!!) 

All the girders?, joists?, umm, the ah?…well, the iron bits anyway…. are cut from discarded plastic sprue frames and the bolts/nuts are thin sections of unused plastic medieval spears.  Note the use of “discarded”, “unused”.  While I might say it is to see what creative uses can be made from scrap, one could also say that I be just too cheap to get a good model.  But then, I can say that I had good fun for only a few pennies of cost.

The photos show some of the construction.  The length of the bridge was limited by the longest frame available.  I was not willing to try to shave down all the nobbly-nibbly bits  (see his YouTube vids for more ideas: youtube link   )  as this would compromise their widths and thus construction - and frankly a real pain in the *blank* to do!  So only certain lengths could be used.  Also, only half way through the cutting did I notice that the outer frame and inner connecting sprues could be different widths.  Hmm. 

The construction was done for effect and certainly not to any engineering specification.  It is sort of a cross between Bailey Bridge, a Tress Construction, and an Iron Girder form.  Civil engineers might have a chuckle but it does bear the weight of a tank, so it can’t be that poor a design! 

the napkin might be there to soak up any blood from cuts. Went unused ...this time.

Like the news anchor who is all suit-and-tie above the desk, but out of sight of the television camera is wearing comfortable sweatpants beneath, I don’t usually bother about painting that which is not normally seen.  But the following photo does show my use of discarded sprues.

I hesitated about using the rather glossy and very non-military green plastic primer but managed to cover with a dry brush of a lighter matt color then matt varnished (twice!).

The deck was made by using wooden coffee stir sticks on a card backing.  I used PVA/white  glue down the middle and a slow settling epoxy along the edges;  an idea to limit warping.  While it worked, I used too much PVA which, once touching the top surface of the wood would not take any staining, and the epoxy seeped through to the surface creating a yellowish stain.  Well, darn.   So I just used some earth-coloured paint and covered up the stains and dry-brushed some tread wear on the surface.  Quick and easy and looks OK-ish.  I think of it as a newly built bridge so not much wear on it yet.

The width of the model is about 7.5cm or 3 inches, wide enough anyway to take a 1:56 tank

Armoured vehicle "prototype"

The development of the DSM-720 AFV.....

"Here are some parts", says WillB as he presented me with the remnants of his model building of 1:56 vehicles.  "Tracks of a half-track option I didn't use, some miscellanous bits and pieces, and the double turret of the Russian early war t-26.  Have fun and lets see what you come up with....."

No particular engineering plan.  Rivet-counters might cringe...

I did buy a package of various thicknesses of styrene sheets and had some thin 'L' angle.  The latter I indented with a sharp tool so to look like the existing rivets in seen on the turrets.   The rest is just what I could get off the sprues except for the 'engine top' which is a chunk of 'supports' I kept from the 3D models awhile back.  

While I did suggest no particular engineering plan I did think of some of the ergonomics of the design.  The machine gunners would be standing,  all the better to be able to spin around,  and with the driver seated tightly between for example.  As the two turrets are directly from the historical t-26 I need not justify that arrangement. 😏

The angled 'iron' plates at the front were added as "initial tests showed additional armour was required from direct rifle fire and the angle of the armour plates increased protection. The angled plates also will assist with incline maneuvering." { actually I thought the model looked kinda like silly box....so I altered the look of it }

 The 'report' further states "the weight of the added frontal armour is countered by the attached cooking stove having three separate lids for each of the crew to boil meals at the same time using the heat of recent engine heat."  { Don't have a clue what the original part was but explains this bit of addition }

As usual I made this fictional AFV  just for the creative exercise. 

Wading ashore

"I truly hope that puddle on the floor is from the ocean and not from your crotch, Kowalski!" intoned the tank commander to his loader.  But even he couldn't wait to get to the beach before thoughts of sinking entombed in this hunk of metal overcame him......

WillB, made his beautiful WW2 Sherman tank with a Rubicon kit which offers MANY variations. (link: Will's build )

Of course this leaves some extra bits left over.  Two of which were a hull (top only) and turret with a spare gun.  "Perhaps you might model a dug-in tank or something" he said as he offered the parts to me - he knows I enjoy the creative thought process of how to 'justify' any of it on the tabletop.   I thought about it for sometime and finally watched some video of the tanks in action and expert modellers employing some techniques to make it look convincing:  the tank in water, perhaps wading in on shore on a Pacific island beach.  Do I have a US Pacific War army? No.  Not even planning to have one which will be surprising to people who know me ....

While I did watch the various expert modellers display their talents, they make it look so easy.  All I have to say is don't stare too long or hard at MY model!

P.S.  Photographed on my new "Island" neoprene mat.  And yes, from personal experience, tropical waters can be that colour!
P.S.S  This makes two recent posts where only the top half of 'submerged' models.  Hmm. But I do stick my head in the water while I swim nevertheless.....

French Napoleonic Engineers

One of the scenarios from the "Rebels and Patriots" rules requires two engineer units of 6 figures each.  So I have one unit which is the process of preparing a river crossing while defending from enemy forces, and the other crossing the river to work on the other side of the waterway.

The clothed figures I believe are Black Hussar (nee Westphalian Miniatures).  The bare-chested lads are plastic ex-Warlord Celt torsos added to by the author.  A different headdress would change them to any era or army you wish.

Medieval artillery

The ballpoint pen ran out of ink.  Of course I did not throw it away but I looked at it, took it apart and used the parts.  Hey, it is still part of the recycle, reuse, repurpose phrase is it not?  :)

The main "chassis" on this particular pen is quite thick and the inner dimension of the tube not so large.  Medieval casting of a cannon sized actually, and needing a cannon for my crew I set to work cutting the plastic tube after removing the inner ink tube (that to be used to allow me to envelope with a flag thus allowing it to be slipped over an existing standard-bearer wire pole to have different flags for the same unit).

The cut tube was placed within a balsa wood frame, itself reinforced by additional bits to handle the cannon's recoil.  Metal straps were of paper softened by a water and PVA(white glue) mixture.  The whole was then primed and painted.  A very quick, easy project which I "needed" to do.

While that is the medieval 'modern' version of artillery, they still had the old-fashioned weapon very much still in vogue (at least for a couple more years) in the shape of the catapult.  Here is one I came across in the fantasy section.  It comes already primed.  While the wood is probably a bit rough and weathered for realism,  I will be using it for objective purposes for scenarios (I don't have any figures suitable as crew at present).

Just piddling away at the many diverse projects I have on the go....

Monitor and Merrimack

ACW naval - modeller madness, part 1

A long time ago I built “The Monitor” the famous American Civil War ironclad warship. Now I am not a particularly fastidious model maker and I like the task of creating a “reasonable” likeness out of cheap materials at hand.  No $28 anchor chains for me.  I choose materials like foam core, bits of cardboard and whatever is lying about.  For example this Monitor is of a foamcore hull and a plastic hairspray lid if I am not mistaken.

I happened to open up the box containing said model which had a self-written note stating “DO NOT make another model as you have lots in 1:1200 scale already!”  Oh man, I have to write that to myself?!  But I did a Minion “pfft” sound and shrug and, seemingly without conscious thought, went about making the companion “Merrimac”

[editorial note:  While purists, Confederate sympathizers, or legalists might take offensive and state the ship was christened “CSS Virginia”,  I am going with the ‘usual’ Merrimac name]

The Merrimac is a difficult ship to make as it has long sloped sides connected by rounded and sloped ends.  To work with card or plastic would be thus tricky to get the shapes correct.  I thus decided on an available block of dense blue styrofoam.  Still very tricky to shape with a long straight but angled cuts with corresponding ends rounded.  With help of a jury-rigged matt cutting device (and a couple of failed tries!) I managed to get the side cuts done.  The angle of the slope is not quite correct which should be at 35 degrees but it was the best I could do and is sloped.  The ends proved easier than anticipated as trimming with a knife brought down the sloped curves close to the mark and the styrofoam was surprisingly easy to sand (never having done such before)

Not small (approx.  very approximately 1:200)  Note the rather poorly rendered grating of the 'old' Monitor.

I am doing the waterline version which does not show the oft illustrated version of the full hull - even the beautiful Thoroughbred Models 1:600 version shows the full length which was submerged.  Probably done for any ramming or collision events in a game.  I must look into that.  However, the basic shape was done.  The gunports were simply carved into the insulating material and bamboo skewers were embedded and cut off at the same length.  After starting to cover the pivot gun ports at either end corners (as these were not so skillfully completed!) I read that the historic ship went to battle without this protection.  I left the ones done but did not now need to do the others.

[editoral note: Found on Wikipedia "these six bow and stern gun ports had exterior iron shutters installed to protect their cannon. There were four gun ports on each broadside; their protective iron shutters remained uninstalled during both days of the Battle of Hampton Roads."]
 So I got lucky then in my haphazard research and construction!

my Merrimac 

The deck details on the top are old railroad window forms.  The smaller intake chimneys on the top deck are cut out corners of round plastic sprues and the large stack itself an old cardboard tampon applicator - hey, it was the perfect dimensions for the 8 foot diameter chimney….

The full hull illustration found.  The end, bottom portion of the casement and hull all were submerged.

The odd shaped pilot house pyramid is a bit of green stuff; and the false bow - to keep the water from piling up against the front casement - are pieces of card painted as the wood timber construction.  The small rowboats to each side are 3D prints made to my specification generously by ChrisP, a wargame buddy, with my davits plastic packaging material cut into shape and inserted into the hull.

With flag at half-mast and a boat along side are we witnessing a surrender?  Na, just my (wrong) flag was not permanently attached.  It was the first Confederate National Flag that the ship flew.

ACW naval - modeller madness, part 2

Played a few games using the two ships as I am developing rules for the ironclad fight based on “What a Tanker” .  Fun, two-player game, but with the same circling maneuvering, firing with little effect, as the historical engagement!

The Merrimack and Monitor (MkI) in game action in muddy waters

Having played this naval game with DennisC at the club the previous night,  I noticed some damage to my Monitor’s turret, no doubt caused by moving around the gun directional marker required for this glued down cardboard part.  The top grating was represented merely by rather poorly painted lines (I did not say I was a good model builder!), so I was willing to remove to repaint and replace.
   As I built the vessel a long time ago, I discovered I had simply glued two metal gun barrels on the bottom.  If I paint the interior black I could use an open grate as did the historical ship.  It would look good.  As I was looking for appropriate ‘grating’ I discovered some other bits I had collected for making of other ships including various caps for monitor style turrets.  Among these were liquor bottle stoppers. As in the back of my mind the Monitor’s turret, especially now, seemed a bit off.  Too large.   So curiously, I checked the dimensions:

Monitor’s turret was 20ft diameter by about 10ft high.  So to my 1:200 scale it’s diameter should be calculated as 20 feet x 12 inches = 240 inches divided by 200 (scale) = 1.2 inches (19/16) or 1 and 3/16 inches.

….checking the wooden cap to my booze bottle stopper… 1 and 3/16”  !!!

The height is perfect also!  With the attached cork trimmed this would allow me to give the model a moving turret.  No more required marker.

Well then, a change was in order and Monitor Mk II was begun.  After a failed first attempt at drilling gunports into the solid wood (luckily I had several of these stoppers….)  I was happy with the holes created (drilling was ideal as the ports had rounded ends).  The muzzle ends of 25mm scaled barrels were cut short and glued in and the turret painted black.

the Merrimac along side Monitor MkII...now better in scale....

The hull is cut from black foamcore from a template scaled to a top-down view of the ship.  The smoke stack of the older model was not replaced as historically this was not installed and in any event, I had this in a wrong design anyway!.  The overall shape and details are more historical accurate but Iron plates were again indicated by lead pencil lines and rivets by dots. Lots of dots, but done while watching sports so not so tedious to do and surprisingly effective.

Anyway, not an award winner by any means, but looks ok to be pushed around on the table top.

an artists impression of the Battle of Hampton Roads and the two famous ships

[The “decommissioned” older model is now going to help my 15mm armies with offshore support]