Fresh From The Shipyards: Escort Vessels For Torpedoes and Tides

Hello friends:

In my last post, "Convoy Chaos", I had some photos of some shamefully underpainted German vessels and even black primed targets (I mean, merchant ships).   Since then I've been working on getting them finished for their next encounter.

Here is the 3D printed Raumboote or R Boat.  The German term literally means "clearance boat" and they were wooden hulled, fast vessels that could serve a number of roles: minesweeping, air-sea rescue, and convoy escort.  Over 400 were produced and served in all theatres.   Later versions were upgunned and some had torpedo tubes added.

I found this model on Thingverse.  If you search for "Cruel Seas" you'll find a number of nice models from the various countries' coastal forces.   It painted up well.  I added a copper wire mast and some Skytrex crew.

This beast is a Skytrex resin and metal model M Class minelayer.   In German they were called Minensuchboot and I gather that, like the R Boats, they were versatile ships that could play a variety of roles.

The Skytrex model includes crewed weapons and I added some figures to the bridge.

The two- models side by side to give a sense of how big the M class ship is.  In 1/600 scale it’s a bit of a beast.

And another perspective shot with the Skytrex Bangor class minesweeper.

Finally here’s the latest model from the 3D printer shipyards, an armed trawler to beef up my RN escorts.   I have some spare weapons in my Skytrex bit box including a crewed 3” gun.  Again it’s a Thingverse model so not sure how accurate it is but it’s a sizeable ship and should give the E-boats pause for thought.

Cheers and blessings to your boats.

MP+

Convoy Chaos! A Torpedoes and Tides Battle Report

I've now played a full solitaire game of Torpedoes and Tides, using the Campaign Rules.   I used all my Fairmille models to give me a flotilla of three MTBs and two MGBs.   The lead character was Lt. "Rocky" Rhodes but he didn't do so well so another boat commander ended up being my main character.  

I gave all the dogboats Q3, so the flotilla isn't green, but it's fairly new to the war, so just barely Competent  I rolled a Convoy Attack mission. We pick up the action in front of the Senior Naval Officer.

***

Lt John Miller, RCNVR, "Dusty" to his friends, stood uneasily in front of the desk of Commander Jennings, referred to soto voce in the flotilla as "The Dragon".    Jennings had been a year from retirement when the war began, and although he had been a dashing torpedo boat skipper in the last war, his approach was by the book and he did not like undisciplined Canadians.

Jennings put down the after action report and pointed his pipe stem at Miller.  "Well, you did well, at least, but it was a damned poor show all around."

Miller, still short of sleep, struggled to recall the events of last night.   The convoy had been there on its reported route, and had first been spotted by Lt Harry "The Hammer" Fields in his MGB.  "It's hammering time!" Fields had shouted over the radio as his guns unleashed on a small German escort, an R-boat at close range.   

The Canadian flotilla approaches in darkness under blinds.  The white cotton depicts a fog bank.  Harry's MGB is close enough to the Raum-botte and a freighter behind it that they come off blinds.   Harry fires, but to no effect.

"I don't know what Rhodes was thinking, having you all charging in pell-mell like that.   Officer cadet heroics have no place here!" 

"We were all eager, sir, it was our first show."  Miller recalled their flotilla skipper, Peter "Rocky" Rhodes, ordering them to "get stuck in, full throttle" and Miller suddenly finding himself within spitting distance of the small escort, its tracers flying overhead and chewing up his Fairmille's woodwork.

Miller's boat takes a point of damage and is now operating on one red dice.   Because the German now has initiative, and the R-boat must move at least a short move forward before turning, it bashes into the MTB of Lt Rouleau.   Both the British and German boats take damage.

The German R-boat skipper is undergunned but gamely hangs in, happy to play bumper boats and spoil the British attack.  Meanwhile, the other MGB in the flotilla, under Bruce "Fairway" McGregor, lights up the German freighter but doesn't do any real damage.  The red chits are for the optional muzzle flash rules, meaning that a boat that fires is easier to hit.

"There's a difference between eager and stupid," Jennings growled.  "I'd say getting your boat cut in half is just plain stupid."

Rhodes is too close to the oncoming German minesweeper, the large escort.   It was a hard way to learn the collision rules, especially as the British lost the initiative at this point and the Large German ship cuts through the MTB like a knife through butter.

"Yes, sir.  I hope my report made it clear that Lt. McGregor was able to rescue Rhodes and his crew while under fire."

Miller recalled glancing at the minesweeper, her secondary armament lashing the water as McGregor's men cooly plucked their mates from the sea.

"That was a good show, McGregor showed guts.  Good sort of man to have in a gunboat."

Jennings allowed himself a flinty smile.  "And you managed to redeem this dog's breakfast of a show."

"It was hard to miss at that range, sir.   Got the last freighter amidships and she broke in two.   We were able to get out in the confusion."

Miller fires two fish at close range, if he was any closer there wouldn't have been enough time for the torpedoes to arm.  He's rewarded with one hit, which does catastrophic damage to the freighter.

Jennings sat back in his seat and relit his pipe before looking up at Miller from under his bushy eyebrows.  "The MO is looking over Rhodes and his lot.  I can't produce dog boats from thin air, so you're down a boat and I'm giving you the flotilla.  Do better than Rhodes and you might keep it.  Go get some rest, you'll need it.  Dismissed."

***

At the dockyard, the base chief engineer says he's busy and shorthanded.  I roll a 5 on 2d6, and since I have one boat with two damage (Rouleau's MTB) and two boats with 1 damage (McGregor's MGB and Miller's MTB), I decide to fix one point on Rouleau's boat and one on Miller's.   The MTB's take precedence.  

All the crews in the flotilla get an experience point for being in a battle.  McGregor's crew gets an experience point for rescuing Rhodes and his crew.   Miller's crew gets three points for sinking an enemy freighter.

Rhode's reputation is not enhanced by losing his boat and two of his MTBs not firing any fish.   Rhodes' reputation goes down by 1 and is now -1.   

I now check for an event and Miller is awakened the next day to the unwelcome news that the base is getting a surprise visit from an Admiral.   There's enough time to make and mend and clear away last night's empty gin bottles.  The flotilla makes a good showing and the Admiral is pleased with his fighting Canadians.

I now need a personality for Lt Miller so I roll up the following stats for him:

Stamina: 3; Charisma: 3; Tactics: 4

We'll see if Dusty Miller has what it takes to keep the flotilla and do better than poor Rhodes.   

A note about the ship models:

The R-boat is a 3D print of a file from Thingverse (do a search there under Cruel Seas and you'll find all manner of helpful files).  The minesweeper and the three merchant ships are from Skytrex, and may get properly painted before their next outing.

Cheers and blessings to your die rolls!

MP+

First Time At Sea With Torpedoes and Tides

 It took me a while but I finally put some boats on the table and took these rules by Thomas Brandsetter for a spin, and they were a lot of fun!

I started modestly, two British Fairmile MGBs (aka "Dog Boats" going up against two Kriegsmarine E-boats or S (for Schnell) Boats in the English Channel.  It was night, but rolling for the environment gave me two fog banks, a full moon on the south edge of the table, and one section of coastline.    Here the Germans, still on blinds, spot the first of the two Dog Boats, outside of gun range (torpedoes against such small craft would be pointless so it's all gun combat).

I was using earlier war stats for the S Boats, when they aren't equipped with bow guns, so the Germans turned broadside on as the British approached.   There was much inconclusive shooting.  The gunfire mechanics basically mean both boats roll a die, with apporpriate modifiers, and the side with the higher value either inflicts suppression or damage, or successfully defends.   I had forgotten to add the Combat Value of the ships (3 in both cases) to the results of the die rolls.   In T&T all ships have Traits or characteristics, and the S Boats have the Hard to Hit Trait, which means that sixes become ones.   This trait proved handy as the Germans, who were undergunned compared to the Fairmiles, evaded damage and both sides came away unscathed.

My 3D printed Fairmilles and the Skytrex German S-boats blaze away in the darkness.  The playing mat is by Geek Villain.

Having learned the basics of the spotting, moving, and combat rules, I ran out of time.  The undergunned Kriegsmarine ships raced off into the darkness.  

Most of what I've read of these coastal forces encounters was that they were quick and often bloody, but in this case everyone gets back to base with inflated stories of glory.

 

Next time I'll add some more boats and use the later war S Boat stats to make it a fairer fight vs the Fairmiles.   I have some larger ships in the dockyards so hopefully I'll put some fish in the water.

A fun and positive introduction to an interesting set of rules.

Blessings to your die rolls!

MP+

Saturday Painting Bench: Lots of 6mm Napoleonics

Hello and welcome to April!   The temperature has dropped about 12C today so sitting beside the gas fire writing this post sees like a splendid use of time.

Almost finished today on the painting bench are these four strips of 6mm Napoleonic Polish Uhlans, who will soon I hope be crossing lances with Russian Cossacks in one of the opening battles of the 1812 invasion.

The figures are from MC Miniatures, the brainchild of Marco Campagna of Genoa, Italy.  Marco’s 6mm strips are ideal for mass-producing units, and is my go-to for my current rules interest, LaSalle2, which requires four bases for each unit.  They have just enough detail to satisfy, but are simple enough to paint en masse.  I printed these on an Elegoo Mars 2 machine.   Hopefully done before I go to bed, and then they can report to the Basing Depot.

 Also recently hot off the Mars printer are these strips of Austrian grenadiers, also MC Minis prints.  These fellows will be getting blue trousers, just because the blue and white Hungarian uniform is such a classic look and should pop on the table.  It may be another week before these chaps are finished.

 

What’s on your painting desk?

Cheers and blessings to your brushes,

MP+

Austrian Napoleonic Dragoons in 6mm from Henry Turner

 Good day friends and welcome to the weekend.  I had fully intended to post this yesterday as one of this blog’s semi-habitual Napoleonic Thursday post, but my computer had some issues and no matter, here they are today.

While I have some Austrian cuirassiers in my collection, I didn’t have any Austrian dragoons (though in 6mm it’s hard to tell the difference between the two) so I easily rectified that by printing myself a mass of 6mm figures thanks to Henry Turner’s Europe Asunder Napoleonic Kickstarter that I’d backed last year.

The figures are based as per my usual standard for 6mm Napoleonics, giving me either a division’s worth for a grand scale game like Blucher, or a full regiment of four stands (1 command stand and three rank and file bases) for Sam Mustafa’s LaSalle 2.  I have a separate post planned for basing units for LaSalle, coming soon.

The flags were purchased from Stone Mountain Miniatures.  To their credit, they have a good selection of 6mm flags, though it took me a very long time to receive them.   I always want to cut self-employed hobby business owners a lot of slack.  Who knows what’s going on in their personal lives? 

A quick word on Henry Turner’s figures.   I printed these on an Elegoo Mars 2 resin printer.   The results were quite satisfactory, the figures have a decent amount of detail, though some have told me the horses don’t look convincing.    I wouldn’t print his figures at any scale larger than 10mm, but for 6 they satisfy and mix nicely with my Baccus collection.  I’m a fan.

I have a lot of 6mm Napoleonic stuff currently on the painting desk - a substantial mass of Austrian grenadiers and some Polish Uhlans, and after that lot is done it’s back to the big scales for a while.

Cheers and thanks for looking.  Blessings to your brushes!

MP+

A Kindness From a Friend I've Yet to Meet

A small parcel arrived in the post late last week, sent entirely out of kindness by one of those beloved wargamer friends that we haven’t yet met.  

In this case, the friend is Dai, one of the regular readers of this blog,  Dai is a fellow blogger, who does interesting and lovely projects in WW2, among other stuff.   We’ve exchanged emails and messages for years and encouraged one another in our lives’ ups and downs, but I’ve never met him, and I earnestly hope to do so if I can make it to California some day.

Dai knows that I am fond of Tolkien and have quite a few of the GW figures for my LOTR gaming, with an especial fondness for the Rohirrim, so he sent me these figures from his stash, thinking I could make better use of them then he can

Well, I hope he’s right.  These are lovely figures, and while I can break the GW horses off their bases just by looking at them the wrong way, they have great potential for painting and I can’t wait to get at them.

Thank you Dai!   You are too kind, and a fine example of what young Conrad Kinch likes to call “The Freemasonry of the Hobby”.

Speaking of Rohirim, recently I got one of those “You may like these …” from Kickstarte, and my eye was caught by a project called Riders of the Plains,  a set of STL files for figures that looked suspiciously like these, only slightly different.   I suppose a lawyer might have said they were just generic Gothic dark ages cavalry, but what appears to have killed the project was that the creators called themselves The Hobbit Hole.  That was too much for Warner Bros, which now apparently owns the Tolkien IP universe, and they killed the project faster than a Nazgul can screech something fell in it’s fell voice.    Had the project called itself something else, like “Small Cute Things Living Below Ground”,  they might have gotten away with it.  Anyway, my backing evaporated along with the project, but at least I have these fellows (and, to be honest, many more like them) to paint.

Cheers and blessings to your brushes,

MP+

Things I Did in 2022 - Tiny Prussians

I don’t think I’m going to do a full year in review blog post, but I will do a few posts to highlight some projects and directions that seemed fruitful to me.  3D printing was definitely the big thing of 2022 for me, and while it was often enormously frustrating, it also opened some doors, including the possibility of doing SYW battles in a big way.

In 2022 I agreed to help Henry Turner by printing and painting some figures from his recent 6mm/15mm Seven Years War Kickstarter, in return for a discount on the range of STL files.    Henry sent me some files, including these Prussian musketeers, which you see here.

 The figures print in strips of four, including one strip of musicians (seen above in the front left of the second base) and below on the far left, and a command strip.  I would say that the detailing is comparable to Baccus, and while these figures look lumpish and squat when scaled up, at 6mm they look fine.   Fairly easy to paint and they look good when based, using the same size bases I use for my 6mm Napoleonics and with my scenery.  There’s definitely a large battle project here if I want to pursue it.

 

If there’s any downside to 3D printing, it’s simply the time cost of cranking out figures - a print run of this size, assuming it all goes smoothly, is a day to set up and print, and another to clean and cure the figures.    It may be easier to just order some starter packs from Baccus, and then flesh them out with prints as I choose to.   At any rate, this project was a successful proof of concept.

Blessings to your printers and brushes!

MP+

 

Resisting (?) The Allure of Big Napoleonics

Hello and Happy New Year.

One of the last two games of 2022 for me was a game of Sharp Practice with my friend and podcast partner James at his place.   Besides the pleasure of spending time with an old friend, there was the thrill of playing with James’ 28mm kit, which he has been assiduously assembling and painting for the last two years along with our mutual friend Scott.   While Scott has been focusing on the French, James has done Bavarians, Russians, and is now working on Austrians and Prussians.

Here is the force of invading Bavarians that we assembled for this skirmish on the steppes of Russia.  The figures are a mix of metal (including Front Rank) and various plastics including HAT.

And the defending Russians, which I took.

It’s hard not to be tempted by how attractive these units are. James is a decent, workmanlike painter who has a knack for turning out figures that are wargaming standard, in large numbers, and in fairly short time.   When he wants to he can kick it up a notch, as with the Russian officer in the centre, on his prancing horse waving his expensive hat.  The overall effect is very impressive.

On the tabletop, these figures are paired with some fine scenery.   As with the figures, James aims for a wargaming standard with his scenics, but the overall effect, as with these Russian houses, is quite pleasant.   

 

Likewise this MDF church (Our Lady of Cabbages) is nicely presented with a scratch built fence, and the unfortunate billiard ball dome will be replaced by a nice 3D printed spire for future battles.

Here’s one shot of the battle, which went badly for me.   We advanced from the long ends of the table, and spilt the village, where my light infantry was slowly evicted by the better fire of the Bavarian rifle-armed jaegers.   I foolishly led with my weakest infantry formation (bottom left) which were ripped apart by James’ grenadiers.   James has an intuitive grasp of Sharp Practice and used the order cards to best effect, seizing several extra moves/volleys for his grenadiers.  The only real success I had was a cavalry victory as our light horse basically cancelled each other’s out of the game.

As readers of this blog now, I made the decision a decade ago to do Napoleonics in 6mm and I have not regretted that decision.  However, all this is building up to the confession that this period in 25/28mm is hopelessly infectious.  The figures are just so much more dramatic in the larger scales, which reward painting and uniform details in ways that 6mm can’t.  It’s like comparing an impressionist painting (6mm) with a romantic but realist painting such as Lady Butler (28mm).  The big scale wins in the close ups.    That being said, I am firmly convinced that 28mm for Napoleonics works best with larger skirmish games.    For battles of a brigade on up, I’ll take 6mm any day.   

But, I still feel the need to paint a force in 28mm!    So here’s the likely solution.   Piano Wargames, a very clever fellow named Lucas, has been labouring away for some years now on the troops of minor German states, and has just wrapped up a very successful Kickstarter focusing on the Tyrolean Revolt, which will feature rebels, Bavarians, and Austrians.   The KS offers .STL files as well as metal figures, and I’ve decided that it will be a good opportunity to use my limited 3D printing prowess to do some of these rarer figures for James (and I get to play with them from time to time, so win win).  

Since my experience with printing 28mm figures is minor, I thought I’d practice by ordering some of Lucas’ files already on his webstore, in this case, six light infantry figures from the Duchy of Wurttemberg, which would themselves be the basis of a nice little Sharp Practice force, since they can fight as French against Russians or Austrians until, as invariably happened, they turn coats and fight against the French towards the end of the Napoleonic period.

I had a devil of a time getting the pre-supported files to print, for some reason known only to my Elegoo Mars2 printer, but when I decided to print the unsupported figures, I was fairly successful, though there are some minor flaws in some prints.   Still, I now have enough to print and to see if 28mm is as seductive as it appears to be.  Wish me luck.

#Terrain Tuesday: Visiting Old Russia

I saw this photo recently on Twitter, courtesy of one @nickfshort, and found it slightly haunting as a glimpse of a lost world, though the houses aren’t much different from some of the humble buildings seen on the front lines of the current Ukraine war.  

The caption reads:

"The village of Pokrovskoe in Siberia. An original colour photograph from, astonishingly, 1912. When Nicholas II was on the throne, and one year before the Romanov tercentenary.” Pokrovskoe was the birthplace of Rasputin, which is cool, but what interests me most here is the white painted church.

I’m wondering if it should be a guide for this lovely little 6mm model, which I bought as an .STL file from a German published called 3D Print Terrain. I have to say that this gave me fits, and it took multiple attempts on my Elegoo Mars printer before I had a successful print. Much trial and error with angling the building, adding supports, cursing and praying.

A Google search, “Rural Russian churches”, produced varying results, such as this one. 

 I suppose I could paint it a heavily weathered brown if it was some tiny village on the way to Borodino, with perhaps a bronze onion dome, but it could also be a white one if it’s a more impressive and prosperous town.   Hmmm, good thing I printed two.

Finally, on the terrain and scenery front, tonight I finished the three tree stands featured in last week’s post.  Two for 28mm gaming and one for 6mm.

Blessings to your hobby endeavours!

M+ 

Another Year, Another Painting Challenge Done and Dusted

On 21 March, the first day of spring, Curt Campbell (aka The Snowlord) called Time on this year’s Painting Challenge.   I’ve taken part in these efforts off and on over the last decade.   The AHPC has become an international hobby community with painters of all different skill levels and interests.  It’s a fascinating snapshot of the miniature hobby landscape.

Here's the happy builder and painter with his total output for this year's Challenge.

This year I focused mostly on 6mm historicals, but thanks to the special theme rounds or mini-challenges I was inspired to paint this set, The Triumph of Frankenstein, sculpted by Bob Murch of Pulp Figures.

It was also an opportunity to play with my new 3D printer and try make some scenery for a mini diorama:

My post for the Challenge, with more pictures and some “How I Made This” details, is here.   

Taking a break to paint these figures was a welcome rest and an enjoyable diversion.  Sometimes I think we get too focused on our big projects in painting and wargaming, and we forget the pleasure of just doing something for fun.  

Cheers and blessings to your brushes,

MP+

 

Tak

More 6mm Napoleonics: Baccus French

On the heels of my last post about 3D printed 6mm figures, here are some “old school” (do we call them that now?) cast metal 6mm Napoleonic French from Baccus that marched off the painting desk just before New Years.

 

The figures are Baccus code NFR02 French Elite Infantry 1806-1812.   I’ve painted them all with red hat plumes, cords, and epaulettes to make them easily distinguishable on the table top as an elite or veteran unit.  Flags are likewise from Baccus.

This is my standard base for 6mm foot or horse figures, and is the Base Width that I use for measuring if using Sam Mustafa’s LaSalle or Blucher rules.

I have a considerable stash of Baccus figures yet to paint - Bavarians as well as Revolutionary era French in bicornes, so I have lots to work on while I get the teething issues with my Elegoo Mars 3 printer sorted out.  Elegoo thinks the machine shipped with a defective LCD panel, which means the light came out everywhere and the print pattern was impossible.   They’re sending me a replacement part from China, so I may order a second machine to play with while I wait.

Cheers, and blessings you your brushes,

MP

 

6mm Napoleonics 3D Print Update

Happy New Year friends:

I hope that the year is off to a good start for you and yours.   Joy and I had plans for NYE which had to be sadly but prudently cancelled.  Here in Ontario the spread of Omicron is so rapid that the provincial health authority has given up on testing and contact tracing for the general public.   While we both have our three doses of vaccine, we decided to cocoon at home and have a low key start to the year, which meant that I got some figure painting done.

Several weeks ago I described here getting some 3D print 6mm Napoleonics from V, the owner of the local gaming store.   V really wants people to play LaSalle in 6mm with him, and while I have a large collection of old school metal 6mm Naps, I was intrigued to see how these figures would paint up.

They didn’t paint up badly at all.   Since these figures all have bicornes I painted them as Spanish.   As a painting guide, I used the Spanish 8th Regt. de Soria from The Wargaming Company’s Campaign Guide, To Assure My Dynasty: 1808 in Iberia, which is an excellent resource to b featured in another post. The 8th’s Fusilier uniforms are white, though there is some purple facing on the cuffs and tunics, but I doubt anyone will notice that on the table top.   

Front:

Back:

They are very well equipped and uniform for a Spanish army, but again, the 3’ rule applies, and is especially true of 6mm.  If one wants historically accurate and ragged individuals, 28mm is the place to go for that.

I’m rather proud of the handpainted flag.  As you can see from the rear stand below, the second rank of figures in each stand has very little detail on the front face, so other than the two figures at either end, I contented myself with painting the muskets, red hat cockades, and flesh for the faces.   Otherwise only the rear of the back rank figures required painting.

Just for fun, here’s a comparison shot of these two stands facing off against two stands of recently painted metal Baccus French figures.

If you didn’t know better, you might think that just from this shot, these two forces were from the same manufacturer.   Because the Baccus figures are cast in strips of four, they have 360 degree detail and can be painted individually, but again, looking down at the table while standing, I think the differences are minimal.

While I’m not sure that I would want a whole army of these particular printed troops, there are definitely producers out there who are doing 6mm 3D files in luscious detail.  I have my eye firmly on Turner Miniatures, for example, and hope to get some of their sample figures printed as soon as I get the teething issues with my new machine sorted.  That’s another post, so for now I’ll wish once again wish you a happy, and happier, new year.

May God bless and keep us all in what lies ahead, and give us good gaming and friendship.

Cheers,  MP