Warp Speed into 2025

 The last year has been quite challenging. I suffered a stroke in November 2023 and have spent the last year or so in recovery. I'm not there yet, but doing well. This blog was one of the casualties of that but I'm aiming to get this up and running again as wargaming development and 3D modelling has been a handy therapy. I completed a number of projects in the last 12 months, including a solitaire game covering the Yangtse Incident,  rules and models for gunboat battles on Lake Garda in 1866, and several 1/600 ACW ironclad and gunboat STLs (the last one being the CSS Virginia).

Getting back into this blog is thanks to one of my regular readers who prompted me about it the other day. They said they missed it and hoped it would be back soon. I took that as a metaphorical kick up the backside and so here I am again. No firm "plan" for 2025, I'll take things as they come, but a few highlights will be:

• developing a modern naval primer board game for Fight Club International 
• doing something similar with a couple of serious board games for seabed operations and critical undersea infrastructure (I've been working on this for 3 years or so now but its getting some serious attention now), and a "fleet level" naval primer game
• developing my "bumper boats" ancient galley skirmish rules and WW2/modern quick play set that I last looked at in 1998!

There's probably a whole load of other things that I inwardly said I needed to do but those are good for starters. And another prompt is the restarting of F2F wargames at the Tudor Arms - the Berkeley Vale club rises again!  

Happy New Year

Hi everyone, normally I would be posting my "review of the year" today and my plan for 2024 tomorrow. 

But as some of you may know I'm poorly in hospital at the moment. I will post my review and plan in a few weeks when I'm back home.

In the meantime, happy new year everybody :)

Trents Reach, INWarD 23

My game for INWarD 23 was a refight of the battle of Trent's Reach in 1865. i've played this one out quite a few times, and this time was the first attempt at it with my "Man o War" variant rules (which are intended for not entirely serious play but as it turned out went down pretty well) All warships and gun batteries were 3D prints that I had designed and made (and if they aren't on Wargames VAult already then they will be soon. The game was a blast and attracted a lot of attention.

The Confederate forces made a good job of penetrating the river obstructions (I had simplified these to a line of scuttled ships and log pilings - I didn't include the mines/torpedoes as that would have slowed things down a lot), but by the time they had punched a hole the Onondaga had arrived on scene and started shooting up the Confederate ironclads to great effect. Hunchback went town to a spar torpedo from one of the Confederate Squibs, Virginia was sunk in quick order by four concentrated shots from Onondaga which caused flooding criticals, Fredericksburg was also shot up and sunk. 

Richmond looked to be getting past the Union fleet but a shot damaged her engines and she was slowed up (and had suffered heavy damage to her armament) and it was obvious that Onondaga would overhaul her and sink her quickly, so we called the game. A Union victory but it could have gone either way. 

Thanks to Stuart and Nigel for running the Union and Confederates respectively (with occasional help from passers by), and to Helen and Nick for popping in. A fun day for all I think

INWarD 2023

 Its that time of year again - the 7th International Naval Wargames Day, celebrating the birth of the father of naval wargaming, Fred T Jane, takes place on 6th August. Its an opportunity for naval wargamers around the world to play games with each other F2F, online, or solitaire and then discuss their experiences. Or just share ideas and experiences on wargaming forums, websites etc. nd, as always, we aren't that fussed about the date, consider it a week of celebrations either side of Fred's birthday :)

For my part, INWarD coincides with the Thornbury IMPS and wargaming show, where I will be running a participation game covering the American Civil War battle of Trent's reach. All in 1/600 featuring 3D printed models that I've created, printed and painted. Hopefully a fun day for all! 

Not a Great Day at Legionary 2023

 I had a strange experience at the Legionary show in Exeter yesterday. During the week I decided to "weed" my 1/600 ACW collection and sell of some of the duplicate models that I have acquired. I was helping to run the "Wings of Glory" game at Legionary and thought it would be good to put the models on the Bring and Buy.

I had 20 ships in total. Each one individually recorded on the two record sheets that I was given by the staff. Each model was individually labelled with a reference number and a price, and they were in a box that was marked "£10 each". So all seemed OK.

Around lunchtime I noticed the box and models wasn't on the B&B any more, and around abut 2pm I  asked the staff how the sales had gone. at that point I was told "one sold". So where were the others? Turns out they had sold ALL of them in a single lot for £10. Nice. So despite them being individually recorded they'd sold the lot for the price of one model. At this point I'm quite adamant that they owe me £200 so they then discover that they know who the models were sold to. The call him and the guy says "but they were in a box marked "£10", and there were no labels, they must have fallen off". SO I explained that it said "£10 each" but the guy was adamant that wasn't the case. Anyway, he then admits there must have been a "mistake" and says "I'll post them back to you". No way that's happening, so I ask him to return them. Long story short, he's at a pub 20 miles away so off I went to collect them. And lo and behold, all the ships have labels, and the box very clearly says "£10 each".

Every model labelled as thus, with their own code number.....

...and this written in the box which clearly means have everything in it for a tenner (if you are an idiot, or just happened to be holding your thumb over the word, by accident of course.....) 

Now I'm obviously not saying there was anything dodgy going on (although some of my friends were convinced it was deliberate), but you have to be some kind of special stupid (or something else not right-minded) to think that it was £10 for the lot. And you have to be some kind of incompetent B&B staffer to not follow the VERY SIMPLE process they had in place to record sales. Especially as there were plenty of other boxes of multiple items, individually recorded, on the tables. 

The good news is that the senior guy on the B&B did manage to find out who had my models and was VERY apologetic for the obvious errors. I'm sure the club would have been very happy as well since it saved them £200 of expense.

I was happy to get my models back unscathed, but decidedly not impressed that this had happened. It was the first time I'd put things on a B&B for some time after previous bad experiences (notably when I'd had stuff stolen off the B&B at a show, and then when all the items I put on a B&B at a show in the West Country got immediately sold to a dealer mate of the organisers for the "deal" price I'd listed, before they'd even got on the tables), and nothing yesterday convinced me that I will want to risk it again in the future. It also ruined what was up until that time a veery enjoyable day. They say that the last 5% of an activity is the bit you'll remember for ever. My lasting memory of Legionary will therefore not be a good one.

In happier news though, I had a table at the Lincombe Barn Tabletop sale today, sold a pile of stuff, bought a few nice things and caught up with many old friends. A much nicer day :)

Black Hawk

 Its a wet and rainy Bank Holiday weekend here in the UK, so naturally (after the Coronation fun and games had died down) I've been 3D modelling. My main "work" on this over the last week or so has been the Confederate squadron on Lake Ponchartrain (more of them in a later post), but I've also been working on an old favourite, the Union flagship Black Hawk. This is a beast of a model in 1/600 and should look suitably imposing when I get a chance to print her out :)

ACW 1/600 Torpedo Boats

I've had some fun modelling this trio of ACW era torpedo boats. They are now up as a "pay what you want" download on Wargame Vault, so you can have them for free if you like :)

The subjects are the Union picket boat (Picket Boat No. 1 being notable as the craft used by Cushing to sink the Albemarle), and the Confederate "David" and "Squib" class vessels. The models are intended for printing at 1/600 but may work well in 1/1200 with resin printers. The picket boat and Squib are probably useful for eras other than the ACW. 

Enjoy :)

More 3D Ironclads

 Just a quick update, I've been busy creating more 3D STL files of ACW ironclads and riverboats. In the last few days I've modelled the US Navy's first four ironclads, the Monitor, New Ironside, Galena and Keokuk. All being well these will be up on Wargame Vault soon.

Back in the Saddle

 So after a rather muted start to the year I've got back in the saddle with some more 3D modelling (which I'm finding works quite well as therapy). I've actually put together around ten new 1/600 models in the last few weeks, but here are a few of the more unusual ones.

Mike Haught has released the "War of the Pacific" battlepack that Rolf Grein has been working on. When I met Rolf in Oz in November he was adamant that I should model HMS Shah and Amethyst as their battle with Husacar was included in the pack. Both were fun to model and Shah  proved to be the biggest model I've printed on my Elegoo Mars so far. Pictured here with an ACW ferryboat gunboat which I also worked up over Christmas.

In a similar vein I've modelled the Peruvian ironclads Victoria and Loa

and a chance discussion on one of the naval wargaming Facebook groups got me interested in some of the proposed and uncompleted Confederate ironclads (a good counter to all the monitors I've been working on recently - more on those in a later post)

All good fun to work with, and now I'm looking at a range of less well known Confederate ironclads to model over the next few weeks.

Dave Schueler, Rest in Peace

 I've just heard the very sad news that Dave Scheuler passed away on New Year's Day. He had been poorly for some time but even so the news of his passing has left me in shock. Dave was a very good friend although we were separated by nearly 5000 miles and never got to meet in person, something that I shall always regret. Dave was a former submariner and a legend in the naval wargaming community. His DANG games (Dave's Annual Naval Game) and the write-ups on his blog were things I always looked forward to, and he was kind enough to use some of my rules and campaigns some years. Dave will be very sorely missed and I offer my most sincere condolences to Lynn and all his friends. 

Dave, I will miss you 

"The Plan" for 2023

 Six days in and I'm still formulating my plan for the year. So I thought it would be helpful in concentrating my mind if I actually got on and put pen to paper or finger to keyboard|) to crystallise my thoughts. So here goes.

1) 3D models - I have a whole host of models on my "to do" list, mainly ACW and 1860s/1870s ironclads.  So I'll aim to get those done, and for those where I think there will be an interest, I'll get them up on Wargame Vault. (To be honest I already have a handful that are either done or nearly ready to go, but I'll set myself a target of ten new models. Simples :) I'll also aim to learn a more complicated 3D modelling package as there are a few craft with more complex hullforms that are giving me trouble.

2) Rules and Campaigns - I have a few "LFG" projects that I need to progress, so in no particular order I will issue at least one data book update for Narrow Seas and Dahlgren and Columbiad, I will finish off the Venezuelan Crisis campaign pack for Broadside and Salvo (also for Fire When Ready), I'll at least start - and aim to finish - the long-promised Sino-Japanese War campaign pack, and probably include the French campaign in there as well. And also the Narrow Seas campaign pack - the basic rules and at least one campaign/area specific module.

3) Paint up all of my Paraguayan War 1/600 models in time for the Naval Wargames Weekend

4) I have a host of things for some of my other naval rules to sort out. These include damage/morale markers for "Mare Nostrum", various markers for "Bumper Boats", etc. I'll aim to select at least four rule sets/eras and spruce up the required bits and pieces for each.

5) Talking of "Bumper Boats" - I'll get the remaining fleets finished and the rules sorted out, again in time for the Naval Wargames Weekend.

As usual I expect many things will get in the way and tear these plans asunder, but thats the whole point of a plan, isn't it? :)

2022 In Review

As has become customary in blogland I hereby present my review of the year. First off I'd like to apologise to my "regular readers" for the lack of content over the year, particularly in the second half. Whilst I've been busy with wargaming and other fun stuff my blogging mojo has been notable by its absence, hence not much here. I'll try to do better next year. 

So, first off - how did I do against "the plan" - 

Narrow Seas - I will get the campaign system finished along with modules for the North Sea and the Channel. I will also aim to get at least one update of the Data Annex issued

Nope, didn't get very far with this. I have an update for the data annex just about ready to go. It will probably appear early in 2023 as there's a few other things I'd like to add. Getting on with the campaign system is a "must" though.

Dahlgren and Columbiad – I will finish the Triple Alliance scenario pack, as well as an update to the ship data tables for the ACW (I’ve already added about 20 new ships but have others to stat up). I’ll also work up some more ACW ironclad and gunboat 3D models now that I have a decent system to do that.

This was my "big push" of the year. The "Triple Alliance" turned into my first all-in-one project with the rules (D&C and Iron & Fire for more detailed actions, and my ACW variant of "Man o War" for parti games), the campaign pack and five packs of 3D models for printing(of which I have sold the princely sum of two sets :) I'm extremely pleased with since its pretty unique - I've not come across anything similar in 1/600 and there was only really the OOP "Spithead Miniatures" line in 1/1200 (the 3D model sets I've created of course will print at 1/1200 if I'm careful with the masts so they will also fill out my 1/1200 collection). I premiered the models with MOW at the Naval Wargames Weekend in Yeovilton in October and they seemed quite popular. Getting the complete collection painted will be a big job - perhaps I'll have them all ready to do Riachuelo at the NWW next October :). 

On the ACW front I caught the 3D modelling bug big time, with nearly 40 new models created. This is definitely an area that I will continue with into 2023, with a small series of European monitors on the drawing board at the moment. But also some other fun stuff for the ACW (watch this space).

“Bumper Boats” – a fun set of rules for ancient galley games to use with my 1/300(ish) galley models. This will just be a private project I think and not entirely serious.

The rules are written but at the present time I haven't progressed the fleets much past the Greek and Persian ships I had done this time last year. I have Roman and Carthaginian ships printed, just need time (ha!) to paint them up and then gibe the rules a run out.

In other wargaming news I knocked up a few 1/100 models for my AK47 armies, and a Matilda Hedgehog for my 15mm "Burma Skirmish" collection, and I printed & painted up the 1/700 models i needed to run my hex-and-miniatures version of "Swarming Boats", Nick Bradbeer's UCK game that we use to teach students about close quarter naval combat. On the more serious side I attended the Connections wargaming conference in Washington DC, umpired and then ran the Falklands 82 game for the Royal Marines amphibious warfare course, visited Damen Naval Shipyards in Vlissingen for some teambuilding/educational wargaming and of course got engaged in wargaming with my students at UCL.

Other fun stuff this year:

• A couple of weeks working in Australia in November where I also managed to catch up with a great many wargaming and work friends

• Taking part in a SINKEX off the Outer Hebrides in September (where I won the sweepstake on which stage of the exercise would see the target being sunk)

• Creating and a lovely 1930s air racing game based on "Wings of Glory" with some cute 3d printed aircraft and then running the game at the Wings of Glory Weekend in Doncaster (abd being asked to bring it again in 2023)

 

• Heading out to Red Sands Fort on the paddle steamer "Waverley" for a day

• The arrival of Magnus, our new kitten

and may more things besides. There's been other, less happy stuff, but I'm not dwelling on that and just remembering the good things.

So, as 2022 draws to an end I'd like to wish everyone a very happy New Year and I'll see you all, either here or in person (hopefully) in 2023. Look out for details of "The Plan, 2023" in a day or three :)

Its the Naval Wargames Weekend this Weekend :)

 Hi all, I've been away from blogging for a long while - life has been an absolute blur (and shows no sign of slowing down), but here's a quick post to let everyone know that its the Naval Wargames Weekend at the Fleet Air Arm Museum, Yeovilton, this coming weekend. I'll be there with "CQB", a modern naval game that pits a patrol ship against a swarm of armed speedboats, and possibly with my new Brazilian and Paraguayan ironclads in a variant of GW's old (and much loved) "Man o War". I say possibly as I still need to sort out the ship data sheets and finish off a few of the models, and I'm in London all day tomorrow.

Anyway, I hope to see some of you there. I promise a BATREP next week :)

Pansarbil 405

 Last week a kind person posted a picture of a Swedish-built Pansarbil 405 armoured car on the "AK47" Facebook group. Its an unusual looking vehicle and I decided I needed something like that for my AK47 armies but there didn't seem to be any 15mm models of STL files around, so I made my own :)

The original

The 15mm version 

It was a fun model to create. I'm thinking of putting it up on my Wargaming3D page when I'm completely happy with it.

INWarD 2022 - 6th August

This year the International Naval Wargames Day falls on Saturday 6th August. If you've not been around for an INWarD before, this is a day where naval wargamers around the world play a naval game at home, at the club etc. and then we all throw in our experiences on social media, wargaming websites etc. to promote the naval side of the hobby. Have fun and sink a battleship or two!

Waterbird

This week I've been up to something a little different. I've been with the Waterbird Project on Lake Windermere, a replica of Britain's first seaplane which flew for the first time on Windermere in 1911. The last couple of days have been the culmination of over ten years work on the part of the project team, which led to a successful first flight (several short "hops") of the replica yesterday, and then a much more successful and longer flight over the lake today. Well done to everybody involved!!

Medieval Cogs and Galleys

 Thanks to a comment by Jim Jackaman on Facebook I have already succumbed to my fierst distraction that isn't in "the plan". I've created a set of 1/2400 STL files covering medievalcogs and galleys on 30mm square bases for use with my "Lord of the Sea" medieval rules. I've put these up as a free download on Wargame Vault for anyone who is interested. There are ten different bases covering small, medium and large cogs, and galleys.

You can find the models here:

Medieval Cogs and Galleys 1/2400 - Long Face Games | Wargame Vault

The Plan for 2022

 

The Plan for 2022

Hi everyone, and welcome to 2022! I hope its going to be a better year for everyone than the last two. This year I’m going to try to be a bot more realistic in my planning, so this is going to be a shorter list and in previous years.

Narrow Seas -  I will get the campaign system finished along with modules for the North Sea and the Channel. I will also aim to get at least one update of the Data Annex issued

Dahlgren and Columbiad – I will finish the Triple Alliance scenario pack, as well as an update to the ship data tables for the ACW (I’ve already added about 20 new ships but have others to stat up). I’ll also work up some more ACW ironclad and gunboat 3D models now that I have a decent system to do that.

“Bumper Boats” – a fun set of rules for ancient galley games to use with my 1/300(ish) galley models. This will just be a private project I think and not entirely serious.

 

And, at this stage, that is it.

I fully expect that unplanned stuff will crash in to the programme (as I start i'm setting up prints for a 1/100 Bedford portee for my hypothetical "British Intervention Field Force" - see much earlier posts, and  an Australian Centurion AVRE for Vietnam.....)_ , and may even become the main programme. I’ll also be putting together various scenarios and other bits and pieces for my existing rules, and I’m sure my 1/1200 Chinese ships will feature in there somewhere as MT’s models are released. So maybe some more medieval Asian naval action.

Oh, a couple more things. I seem to have become the lead Admin for the Naval Wargames (Historical) group on Facebook (I guess in these days of social media its a kind of successor to the Naval Wargames Society), which should be a fun "job". And I really want to get back into playing F2F games. I really don't like playing "miniatures" games using software. Hopefully covid will allow this to happen. I also have a small project for the 2022 Doncaster "Wings of Glory" weekend in September to finish - model aeroplanes are done so I need to finish the "terrain" and the rules variant for the game.  

2021 in Review

 

The Plan, 2021

With the end of 2021 comes the traditional review of “The Plan”. So how did I do this year?

 

UN Dutch APCs for AK47. Not on the plan!

Phoenecian galleys in 1/2400 to fill out my "Mare Nostrum" fleets for Salamis

Japanese warships in 1/2400 for "Those Who Seek Death"

MT Miniatures' lovely 1/1200 Imjin War models for "At The Height of Battle"

Models:

My 15mm Burma collection got a load of new vehicles as did my Winter Skirmish collection (including a whole new Finnish “army”, but I didn’t even start on the figures. Tweaking the Vietnam rules worked a lot better than I expected though.

I also completely failed to get Mike’s old AK47 armies sorted. BUT I did paint up my entire backlog of AK47 and 15mm Vietnam figures (mainly the ARVN) as well as add quite a few new vehicles to my AK47 collection thanks to the 3D printer.

10mm Vietnam – also a complete non-started

Sci Fi subs – again, I got nothin’

My modelling time did get side-tracked a LOT though, and those side tracks became my mainstream. The biggest add was an absolute horde of 1/1200 and 1/2400 Korean, Japanese and Chinese medieval and Imjin War ships that supported my Asian naval rules sets, “At The Height of Battle” and “Those Who Seek Death”. More on these later. In the last month of the year I also started work on a series of 1/300(Ish) ancient galleys which are going to be aimed at more “fun” style games than serious.

I also worked on a  load of 3D models of my own design, most prominently a series of 1/600 and 1/1200 ACW ironclads and gunboats. And before that some more hypothetical 1/1200 Victorian ers battleships and gunboats. The ACW sets I am particularly pleased with and I’m very happy to see them appearing on playing tables around the world 😊

 

Rules

“Far Distant Ships” hit the shelves early in the year, I didn’t get to work on the Crimean aspects though. Maybe in 2022.

“Project X” was the big thing though. This was the release of MT Miniatures novel line of 1/1200 Korean and Japanese ships for the Imjin War, a first in this scale, and my accompanying rules At The Height of Battle”, again another first. These have done well and Matt at MT is soon to release the next fleets for the game covering Chinese ships of the 12^th-14^th centuries, as well as additional Japanese and Korean ships based on some of my 3D models. I also completed “Those Who Seek Death”, a fleet action set using 1/2400 models.  

The Narrow Seas campaign system stalled again, although I have a generic system just about sorted. I need to work up the first one or two theatre-specific sets of tables and other material, then the rest should flow. I also didn’t manage to get far with the Triple Alliance campaign but that’s coming  on now. Sci Fi subs is on hold for the moment but may accelerate as a subject game for the 2022 Naval Wargames Weekend.

Something i've been working on since lockdown started getting on for 2 years ago is a solo board game covering ASW escorts on the North Atlantic convoys in WW2. Somethong aking to "B17 Queen of the Skies" but in a Flower Class corvette. This must have sparked soem ideas since, having announced the plan and sending out some early drafts I've found there is another "Print and Play" game on a similar theme thats just come out and a major board gme company publishing ANOTHER game on the same theme in 2023. So a boat that I've missed, but I'm still working on my game as its a fun project. Watch out for more on this in '22

Summary

Not a great performance against “The Plan”, but a successful year nonetheless, and I was really pleased to get the Asian naval rules and models out there. I guess I had too many things planned in, and not enough time as a job change affected many things from April onwards. Nex year I think I’ll focus on just a few targets – but will look forward all the same to having the pkan diverted by things that fly in from left field 😊 Look out for “The Plan for 2022” soon. Oh, and a very Happy New Year to all my readers.

End of Year Modelling

 The last few weeks at home and at Uni have been quite hectic so I've not had time to update the blog, but I have been busy on the modelling front. Here's a summary of some of the things I've been working on.....

An old edition of Airfix Magazine featured the various converted "erzatz M10" Panthers and StugIIIs used in the Battle of the Bulge. I'd always fancied a few if these, and so when suitable 3d models appeared on Thingiverse I was naturally going to print off a set for my 15mm Winter Skirmish collection.

The prolific Mike Bergmann upissued his 1/100 WW2 collection and added a Valentine bridgelayer. This one will join my 15mm Burma/Pacific collection. I printed a second which is in Russian markings and now sits in the Winter Skirmish collection.

Another new model from Mike is the venerable Austin K2 ambulance. This one is heading for Burma as well. I should probably have made the red crosses and circles a bit bigger.

Finally in 15mm, Mike also added a lovely model of an "X Craft" mini submarine. I printed out a few examples in waterline configuration in 1/300 and 1/600.

For my own paert I've been working on a load of ACW ironclads in my various 3D modelling packages. This is the twin turreted river monitor USS Winnebago. I have a coiple of these printed that are in the final stages of painting just now.

A diversion from my regular modelling - Rob Heath (Twylite Games on Wargame Vault) posted a nice set of alarge ancient galley models - Greek, Phoenecian, Roman and Carthaginian. I've printed some squadrons for each of these with the Greeks and Phoenecians the first to be finished. These models are around 3" long and I'm planning to use them with a fast and fun set of rules that I'm working on. 

Some terrain for my 1/1200 (or if I'm feeling epic, my 1/2400) ancient galleys, this is the lighthouse at Alexandria. 

Finally for now, I've caught up on "The Mandalorian" (I discovered that we have a Disney+ subscription - surprise!)  so I printed off a 1/270 model of the Razor Crest (or is it the Laser Quest? :) to use with X Wing. I need to work on the paint scheme for this, its a bit "flat" so I'll be painting in panels in various shades and other details as I work out what needs doing.

This isn't everything that I've been working on over the last couple of months - watch out for another update soon, maybe combined with my assessment against "The Plan" for 2021 (which I don't think will make pleasant reading!)