Friday 24 February 2012

Last thing before bed.

Ive had a rotten day so the last thing I thought Id do before settling down to bed was pop up the little progress that I made tonight painting wise.

I have defrosted my two walkers and Gatling gun after the earlier spray varnish fiasco using gloss varnish. Worked well - about 80% of the whiteness is gone but they are now glossy as hell - so I'll have to apply (with a brush!) two or three coats of matt varnish over the top to dull it down.

Painting wise I have finally got around to painting the US War Rocket 'Ajax'.

Hope you like it.

 MM

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ARRRRRGRGRGRGRGRGRGRGRGRGRGRGRGGRRGrggrgrgrgrgrgrggrgrrgrggrrgrgrgrgrgrgrgrgrgrg………………….!

I had a great game at my local club in Wells last night – introduced two new players and had a great time. 

I took my camera with me BUT forgot to put the SD card in before I left.

Then, today, went out and varnished today’s blog posts subjects – and they have frosted over all nasty like. It was a nice day out. Did everything the same as I always do (never had a failure like this before.) 

Not happy at all.

My order from America is still trapped in customs until I pay the Royal Mails exorbitant charges for the privilege of paying the pittance of VAT that I owe Her Majesty.

BAD DAY

MM

Tuesday 21 February 2012

Better Dead then Red

Just thought Id update with what I painted this evening - Two as yet unnamed commie-crushing robot mech things. They are Battletech Wraith mechs that I had left over. I thought they looked suitably retro-futuristic to use in my fallout inspired American army of the 50/60's.

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Ive added a number and Air Force decal to the top of their heads/cowls.

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Here they are with the rest of the force so far.

I'll varnish them in the morning and then finish the basing - then these are done and dusted - then onto the War Rocket.

MM

Saturday 11 February 2012

The Second Battle for Callao

A nice little friendly game of Ironclads using the ‘Ironclads and Either Flyers’ rules from the other afternoon. 

The game was a semi-historical scenario based on the Chilean naval attack on the Peruvian port of Callao – the most major changes being the ships being used. To make the game less one sided, Peru retained the use of both of her Ironclads and Chile still had the Esmeralda.

The Chilean objective was to bombard the forts on the cost, whilst the Peruvians had to prevent them from doing this.

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A photograph of how things were at the outset of the battle. The Chilean fleet approaches from the bottom of the photograph, counting two armoured ships and three wooden corvettes. To the upper right of the photograph the Peruvian harbour defence ships can be seen rushing to engage, three monitors….

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Whilst, in harbour, the rest of the Peruvian fleet hurry’s to make steam so that they may engage their attackers. They count two ironclads and two wooden ships. 

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The Chilean fleet makes its way forward towards the cost at full speed. The monitor squadron slowly continues to meet them head on. Much to the surprise of both players, the Ironclad Huascar raises steam and makes water in almost no time at all. Some fire is exchanged, but little damage is taken by either side. 

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The Chileans keep rushing forward, their cannons ringing out as they do. The Ironclad Independence raises steam and comes out of port alongside the Huascar – both of them taking some damage but nothing all too critical. The monitors start to open up on the Chilean ironclads, but to little effect. The Chilean wooden ships begin to turn engade the Peruvian ironclads. 

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The Chilean fleet speeds on hoping to outrun the Peruvian ironclads – encoring considerable damage as they do. A large fire broke out on the lead Chilean ironclad Blanco, started by a shell from one of the monitors. Lower down the aged Chilean corvette Esmeralda takes considerable damage and falls behind the rest of the attacking fleet. The Ironclad Huascar takes some important damage – both with a small fire starting on deck and the rudder becoming jammed.

 
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The Chileans start their bombardment of the costal forts – smashing them down – and also sinking the monitor Victoria. Huascar, repairing her rudder turns and rams the corvette Esmeralda causing massive damage and making her flood uncontrollably. The rear surviving Chilean corvette, O’Higgins, also ends her roll in the battle, encoring too many crew casualties – dropping her anchor and raising the white flag. 

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The battle ends with the Chilean ironclads finishing their bombardment of the first fort, but having to break away before they could make any real impact on the second. Outnumbered and outgunned, the Chileans had failed to achieve their objective and had encored terrible casualties.




Friday 10 February 2012

First Khivians

I poped up some pre-undercoat shots the other day and have now got round to painting the things. They are only quick painted to a 'gaming standard'.

Hope you like them.

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Sunday 5 February 2012

Couple of Khivians

Ive been having a bash at knocking together some models to represent the armed forces of the Khanate of Khiva today. A good friend of mine gave me a nice little heap of left over Egyptians from his own Anglo-Egyptian colonial project, and all I have done is sculpted some big fuzzy hats out of Milliput over the top of their fezzes. 6 down - 60+ to go.

Do tell me what you think

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Friday 3 February 2012

1/2400th SS Grear Eastern

Third post tonight......


I’ve also based the SS Great Eastern, Brunel’s enormous trans-Atlantic steamer. Adding the base has given this model a really ‘chunky’ feeling when you pick it up. I really want to try out a commerce raiding scenario at some point in the near future centering around this model. 

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Just to show that the Eastern is 2+1/2 normal ships long. 

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1/2400th US Ironclads

Just a few US Ironclads that I have painted up and posted before, but now on little bases.

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Left to right, USS Dictator, USS Dunderburg and USS Puritan.

1/2400th Chilean Navy Circa 1879


I finished painting up all of my Chilean ships about a foughtnight ago but was out of bases – I ordered some and they turned up this morning. I’ve spent the evening sat on the floor painting them and cutting out and gluing on little flags. I was sat on the floor as the only place to sit I have is on my sofa-bed, which has jammed, meaning I have spent all day sat on the floor.

Anyway, here are the Chilean forces to face off against my Peruvians in the Battle of the Pacific.

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The two powerful Ironclad Corvettes - Almirante Cochrane and Blanco Encalada.

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The wooden Sloops and Corvettes - O’Higgins, Chacabuco and Esmeralda.

Wednesday 1 February 2012

1/2400th Peruvian Navy Circa 1879

Last week I finished my second set of models of the Peruvian navy circa the War of the Pacific (1879-1882), this time in 1/2400th scale. All the models are from tumbling dice, a wonderful little company that makes a great and very reasonably priced range of 2400th ships from the age of steam and iron – Including all the ships needed to wargame the War of the Pacific.

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The Fleet all together.

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From furthest to closest – the Sloop Pilcomayo, The Turret ship Huáscar and the Corvette Unión.

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Whilst Tumbling Dice make a very nice model of the Huáscar, I took it upon myself to adjust it slightly to capture the character of the original ship, I did a very simple conversion, removing the masts and bow section and replacing them with a narrow flag pole out of brass wire and resulting the bow out of miliput. I’m really rather chuffed with how it turned out.

I have also painted up the Chilean fleet and will post some photos of it once the bases for them have turned up and they can be finished.


Oh, I also pained up some Brigade Models Airships for use with my Russian Fleet.
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Tell me what you think

Marx