Gunboat Diplomacy

 I had not planned to do any more ship building or any other hobby activities for that matter for the rest of the year. Friday, we leave for our annual and probably last trip up to Chicagoland for Christmas holidays. I have been trying to get a million things done to prepare for the trip. Yesterday, a bunch of mishaps happened to my son, some in part to his ADHD. Long story short, he forgot his art project he's been working on to school and its due tomorrow. So, after getting all his other homework done, he started rebuilding his sculpture from ground zero. To speed up the process, I helped cut out some of the corrugated cardboard pieces while he glued it together with the glue gun. As I was wait to cut more things out, I spotted a small rectangle of scrap styrene board on my workbench that would be perfect for a ship base. *light bulb goes off*

I've been reading over the various David Manley pre-Dreadnought rules. I now own all the various campaigns.  Splendid Little War lists all the various warships for both the Spanish and Americans and were they were based. I noticed there were a whole lot of gunboats on both sides. I counted 14 American and 8 Spanish gunboats. I always envisioned gunboats as these stocky little ships with small caliber guns like the fictional USS San Pablo from the movie The Sand Pebbles (1966).

From: https://www.thesandpebbles.com/

But its seems like they were all over the place in terms of what they looked like and their armament. A lot of American ones were more like micro-cruisers.

So as I awaited carboard cutting jobs and encouraging my son to work carefully and not rush things, I ended up making a very generic one.

It took me all of about three hours to build. Two hours last night, and an hour this morning. I gave him two large guns (5.5" to 6") and two smaller guns (3.5" to 4.5"). The most complicated part was the darn ship's boats. They always look cool to add them, but for some reason, they are a pain. Plus, no cranes to handle them. 

I have not decided which navy to assign it to. I will probably paint it a rather generic color of a mid-gray hull and a white superstructure. 

Update on the Fleets

 I've been chugging away both building ships and expanding the size of the hex board. My plan is to initially use the portable naval rules for battles but I do have a shiny blue plastic tarp that I can use with David Manley's many rules. As I build them, they seem to improve in detail as I incorporate new techniques. As you can see, I got a little more fancy with the masts. This is practice for when I attempt to make sailing masts for some of the more older ironclad ships. 

The Commonwealth of  Avalonia finally got some more battleships:

These are based on the Royal Sovereign class battleships. I unintentionally exaggerated the size of the main guns, but I justify their size because they are 13.5" guns rather than the 12" guns that many battleships of the time had. The one thing I could not cram into the models were cranes for the lifeboats. One of them has its own steam pinnace:

Must be an admiral on board!

Laramidia got another cruiser. This protected cruiser was built off of the casts I made of the hulls. Again, I made the guns, this time the gun shields, way out of proportion to the ship. 

Here is a side-by-side comparison with a sort of sister ship I had made earlier using the same hull.

I have have two more of these hulls left, including the original master hull out of wood.

I completed two out of four small torpedo boats but have not assigned them to a particular navy.

I used Green Stuff epoxy putty to make the turtleback forecastles. I am happy with the way they turned out, but I want to try to make the next two with a bow torpedo tube sticking out. The two silver footballs on the side of the funnel are supposed to be Whitehead torpedoes. From what I can tell, they were not painted and the early torpedo boats launched them by dropping them off the side of the ship. I made my crude versions of them by soaking tissue paper in glue and rolling them between my fingers. Some came out a little fuzzy.

Last but not least is a a little steam pinnace. She was originally intended to be an added piece to a larger ship model, but it fit well in some impromptu dioramas I make on my workbench. So, I made a base for her and painted her up. Like the tugboat I presented in the previous post, she can be part of a harbor scene. 

Little Toot's Tiny Brother

 My son loved having the book Little Toot by  Bernhard August "Hardie" Gramatky, Jr.

Running across the beloved book on my son's old bookshelf, I knew I needed a generic tugboat to service the harbors of the various nations. So, I built one:

It pre-dreadnought days, the tugs did not have old tires for bumpers (technically, they are called "fenders"). Instead, they used braided ropes that they draped across front and sides of the boat. 

It did need a little lifeboat to complete the picture, but I couldn't squeeze it in. 

I tend to get sidetracked on projects, so back to building battleships.

Battleships work in progress

 Finally, the big guns of the Avalonian fleet are starting to take shape. And by big guns, I mean big guns. I am building my impression of the Royal Sovereign-class battleships. They have 12" exposed guns on barbettes. Unfortunately, I used a way too thick 16 gauge floral wire. I should have used the 18 gauge that would have make them less exaggerated. 

The back story is that these are older ships, though not as old as the central battery ships. 

Artistical shot of two Avalonian battleships.
A modern frigate having nothing to do with
this pre-dread university is in the background.

Pre-dread Progress

 The various shipyards across the planet Nauticar Prime are ramping up ship building, though in a rather random unplanned way. Its as if it is the whim of some unseen hand that is guiding the construction of various vessels with no strategic plan. 

The old central battery ironclad Turkanesque and her sister-ship Djinn get upgrades. Sadly obsolete compared to other nations' warships, it is a stopgap until the Sultanate of Metamora can receive the battleships it purchased from Krackovia to defend itself from the Zordanian Empire.

The Turkanesque getting rebuilt in
the chaotic shipyards of Krackovia

The Djinn on patrol at sea

Flush with patriotic fervor from its surprising victory over the Commonwealth of Avalonia, Krackovia begins a major expansion of its navy, starting with several battleships. 

An unnamed Krackovian coastal battleship in the lead
of two other unnamed Krackovian battleships. 

Meanwhile, fiery debates rage on in the Avalonian parliament over the loss of two battleships and several freighters to the Krackovians in what is now known as the Hob-Slobia Incident. Some MPs refuse to fund any new naval projects until there is complete accountability for the incident. Others counter that this is an example to expand the fleet and build more modern battleships to counter both Krackovia and Laramidia.

The Cantankerous along with her sister ship the
Curmudgeon represent the aging and increasingly
obsolescent warships of the once mighty Avalonian navy

Secret interference by Avalonia convinced enough members of the small, but scrappy Republic of Cerviche's government to nix any leasing deal with Laramidia for guano mines. So, Cerviche was not able to procure the armored cruiser Arkandelphia. Cerviche settled for several, overpriced seagoing monitors, one of which is shown below.   

The monitor Cebolla steaming behind the light
cruiser Chupacabra. Both built in Laramidia

 Avalonian diplomatic corps scored another diplomatic victory by transfering several obsolete warship to Cerviche's rival, Escalona. In return they get rights to build a naval refueling base on Escalona's southwest coast obstensively for Escalonia's navy. 

Ex-Avalonian monitor Hobnob now Escalonian  Areias de Cascais

Pre-dread Cruisers

 The fleets are continuing to be built. Completed two ships last night. The lead ship is LNS (Federal Union of Laramidia naval ship) Arkandelphia, boasting 4--8' guns and 12--6" guns, followed by the light, protected cruiser the CRN Chupacabra with 6--6" guns. The Chupacabra is the first modern warship of the small but scrappy Republic of Ceviche. 

The Chupacabra is a fearsome yet noble beast that still roams the hinterlands of Ceviche. It is prominent on the republic's flag. Though a peace-loving nation, Ceviche has been forced to build up its military due to the threats by its increasingly aggressive neighbor Escalona. Ceviche and Laramidia are in talks to transfer the Arkandelphia to Ceviche. Laramidia would gain the rights pterosaur guano mining concessions. 

The two ships are involved in training exercises commanded by Captain Kurtas K. Kampka shown below in his tropical uniform.

Game of Team Yankee

 Friday, I got in a game of Team Yankee at Will's gaming store. I'm not sure why, but I enjoyed it more than the Fames of War game I played two weeks ago. Will ended up winning, but I enjoyed blowing up his Soviet tanks with my M1 Abrams. Surprisingly, ATGMs on both sides were not all that effective.  Here are some pics of the game. 

I also finished up another pre-dread warship. This is an one off, test ship.

I used layers of corrugated cardboard for the hull and used styrene plastic tubing for the gun casemates. I also experimented with using different materials for the main turrets. Not all that happy about it, but it helped me figure out what worked. It is very loosely based on the USS Olympia, which I didn't know was rated a protected cruiser.