Home Made Sea

Being a) quite keen on naval wargaming and b) a bit of a cheapskate, I've been admiring the excellent sea mats made by Terrainmat, but thought I could maybe make one myself.  So I have.

Otranto

My inspiration came from the tutorial for terrain mats on Tobi's Paint Pot blog.  Here's what I started with.

Basically, I used a decorator's dust sheet from Amazon and some tubes of acrylic sealant from B&Q.  I didn't use the whole sheet but cut it in half to end up with a panel about 200cm by 140cm.  Here is the section with a 1:3000 scale Navwar warship (HMS Inflexible) on it for reference.

I made a spreader from some hardboard with the intention of getting the acrylic as thin as possible, but with some 'wave' textures on it.  I used one of those 'sealant guns' that look like a stripped down Sten gun (and probably just as accurate) to dispense the acrylic.

Once the acrylic had dried (I'd left this for about 12 months between application and painting: it doesn't need that long, a couple of hours should do it, but it just turned out that way) I painted it with some gloss blue paint.  I ended up using expensive Hammerite Garage Paint because I couldn't find any gloss paint I thought was right.  Although this was the desired colour for me ("Oxford Blue") it was a bit of a pain because it took over four hours to dry (and needed white spirit to clean the brush).

Anyway, once it was ready I dry-brushed the sheet with some white emulsion.  If I'd been more patient I would have eradicated all fold lines before I'd started to put the acrylic on (using an iron?), but the whole thing was a sort of experiment anyway, so I'll know what to do next time.  And here are some posed shots of it in action.

These are Navwar WW1 battlecruisers HMS Inflexible & Inflexible with light cruiser HMS Glasgow on the move (somewhere in the vicinity of the Falklands, no doubt).

SMS Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, with Leipzig and Nurnberg in the background.  For my ship bases I'd dry-brushed on some sea-green to tone down the blue before adding the white highlights.  I was too lazy to do that for the sheet (also I didn't have enough of the right green anyway) but may revisit it at some point if I think it is necessary.

And here is the Emden, posing by one sinking freighter and about to go after another.  Anyway, hopefully we will be seeing more of my new sea terrain and even these models in action before long.

Sturdee's Squadron

This idea for an early WW1 naval campaign based on the exploits of the German East Asia Squadron commanded by von Spee, using Navwar 1/3000 scale ships and the free and versatile Berthier Campaign Manager software, keeps going round in my head (inspired by Geoffrey Bennett's excellent Naval Battles of the First World War).  I've already painted up the first two forces required and have now finished off von Spee's nemesis at the Battle of the Falklands, Sturdee's Squadron.

After having destroyed Craddock's forces at the Battle of Coronel on the west coast of South America (bar the Otranto and HMS Glasgow), the British despatched a much stronger force under Sturdee to the South Atlantic to deal with von Spee once and for all.

HMS Defence

This included the armoured cruiser HMS Defence (1908), which Craddock had been expecting before he set off to fairly certain death against von Spee at Coronel.  However, HMS Defence had been diverted away from Craddock on orders from the Admiralty, though they didn't bother to tell him that.  If HMS Defence had been there it might have made a significant difference at Coronel, with its four 9.2" main guns and ten 7.5" secondary armament.

Sturdee's force also included HMS Cornwall (1904) and HMS Kent (1903), the sister ships of HMS Monmouth (1903) that had been lost at Coronel.  When refighting the Battle of the Falklands the ill-fated HMS Monmouth can stand in for HMS Kent.

HMS Cornwall / HMS Kent

Other ships in the squadron included the fast but unarmoured light cruiser HMS Glasgow (1911) and her sister ship HMS Bristol (1911), as well as HMS Carnarvon (1904), which appears a sturdy looking vessel, if you pardon the pun.

HMS Carnarvon

However, the main feature of Sturdee's squadron were the two fast, modern and heavily armed Dreadnought battlecruisers, HMS Inflexible (1908) and HMS Invincible (1909), each equipped with eight massive 16" guns.

HMS Inflexible and HMS Invincible

These had been released from the Grand Fleet and their unexpected presence in the South Atlantic resulted in the destruction of the East Asia Squadron, partly because von Spee could not believe the reports that two tripod masted warships were anchored in Port William until it was too late.

Anyway, all in all, I've now got plenty of ships for covering all of the actions in the Pacific and South Atlantic and I intend to use the random 'army plans' feature of Berthier to allow some different scenarios to be played out, for example allowing Craddock to actually have HMS Defence at Coronel (or even HMS Canopus, which missed out on the destruction because of engine trouble).

Other scenarios could involve von Spee taking his captains' advice and deciding not to try to attack the Falkland Islands, but rather to continue up the eastern South American coast picking off allied merhantmen, or perhaps cross to the eastern Atlantic to try to elude the Allies and eventually get back to Germany.  Hopefully more on that in subsequent posts.

Lost at Sea

Well, this is my first post this year, and in fact the first one since September.  Basically I've been away a lot, starting with Montenegro in September, followed by a week in Uganda and then another long week in Uzbekistan in January.

I've also been working on a project in Ukraine so it seems that I am the go-to person in my company for countries brought to you by the letter U.  And in fact with three out of a possible four in the bag (USA, UK and UAE don't count) I was thinking that perhaps Montenegro was an adminstrative error and it should have been Montevideo instead, thus completing the set.

But I haven't stopped thinking about wargaming all the while and in fact I took my copies of the naval rules General Quarters 1 and 2 with me all the way to Karakalpakstan in western Uzbekistan for some light reading and a reminder of normality (particularly as my luggage never made it further than Tashkent for the week).

German wrecks

Anyway, here are a few things I have been working on should I ever have time to get some naval wargaming done.  Yes, scratch built sinking ships in 1/3000 scale to go with my small (yet growing) fleet of Navwar WW1 ships, not to mention the splash markers that I prepared earlier.

Bottoms up

I made these from some spare bits of balsa sanded to shape, polystyrene off-cuts and pin heads for the turrets (where visible).

British wrecks

They have yet to be used in battle but I have plans...which no doubt I'll get around to once I get back from Uganda and/or Uzbekistan, which ever one I have to go to first.

Freighters and Drifters

A major issue for naval squadrons operating during wartime far from home base, and with the risk of internment if they lingered too long in port anywhere, was the continual problem of coaling and resupply.

As I've blogged earlier I'm thinking of some sort of WW1 early war campaign using the Berthier Campaign Manager based on the attempt of von Spee's East Asia Squadron to get out of the Pacific, into the Atlantic and possibly even make it back to Germany (or internment in Montevideo or similar).

SS Titania

One of the support ships that von Spee relied on was the Titania, completed in 1897 in Newcastle upon Tyne for the Finnish Merchant Navy.  It was subsequently converted to a supply ship in 1914 and was sunk at Mas a Fuera on 19 November 1914.

SS Titania - Navwar 1/3000

This is the Navwar version - not quite the same colour scheme as the one I found on the photoship website - so I may redo it in a more tropical guise.  One of the scenarios I was thinking about, particularly for an SMS Emden campaign, was the difficulties of warships and supply ships trying to meet up without being detected and this is where the Titania would come in.

SMS Emden

In addition, there are options for ships such as the Emden preying on merchant ships as it did successfully in the Indian Ocean and elsewhere.  Navwar do various cargo ships but I thought that something called the A/B Standard ship would fit the bill.  Here is the War Brahmin, listed as a freighter of this type.

A/B Standard Ship - War Brahmin

According to the Navwar website these ships date from 1917 and many operated into WW2 so, although a bit late for the Emden era, it will do and can also be used for WW2 actions, should I ever get around to them.  Here is the Navwar version of this class of ship.

I was a bit closer to the mark with the colour scheme with this one as you can see.

Craddock's Squadron

First post of the year here - it's been a bit of a slow start this year, wargaming-wise.  This is mainly because I've been away on business - twice - to Istanbul, and it's not even February yet.

However, having managed to get the German East Asia Squadron sorted out here are some pics of their heroic and ill-fated opponents - the ships of Admiral Kit Craddock's squadron.  As before these are Navwar 1/3000 scale vessels.

HMS Good Hope

Craddock's flagship, HMS Good Hope (1902) - so outdated that the broadside batteries could not be used in rough seas - which was naturally a significant factor in her loss at the Battle of Coronel (1 November 1914).

HMS Monmouth

HMS Monmouth - an obsolete armoured cruiser (1903) that was just as useless in bad weather as HMS Good Hope.  Also lost at Coronel.

HMS Glasgow

HMS Glasgow (1911) - by far the fastest of Craddock's ships (she looks it) but unarmoured and armed only wth two 6" and ten 4" guns.  However, she was fast enough (at 25 kts) to evade destruction at Coronel and later to take part in the Battle of the Falklands where revenge was exacted, lucky for Captain Luce.

Otranto

The Otranto, a relatively slow and unarmoured 12,000 liner fitted with eight 4.7" guns and not really fit to form part of a light-cruiser hunting squadron.  I thought I'd paint this in cruise liner colours, just for a change.

HMS Canopus

HMS Canpus is the big old battleship (1900) that got left behind at the Falkland Islands, that may, or may not, have made a difference at the Battle of Coronel.

Having finished these, I'm ordering a few more ships from Navwar to try to work though a planned mini campaign (using the Berthier Campaign Manager) recreating (sort of) the voyage of the German East Asia Squadon from the Pacific into the Atlantic.  It's all written down on paper - I just need time to put it into action....

Making a Splash

A key aspect of naval warfare involves very large ships lobbing very large shells at each other - and more often that not missing and hitting the water instead.

Here is the Scharnhorst taking a pasting with some shell splashes I made this week.  And this is what I started out with - two dozen random screws from the spares jar stuck to some 1p coins with PVA (my glue of choice).

I then coated them with some Ronseal wood filler - this happens to be walnut flavour.  It's pretty good stuff as it dries hard and can be quite finely textured. Note that I generally tried to make them as narrow as possible at the bottom, widening out as they went up.

After undercoating them in matt black, more to seal them than anything else, I painted the bases Lufthansa Blue (which is a bit glossy) and the water spouts in matt blue-grey.

The bases were then dry-brushed with matt Seegrün and then with matt white to pick out the wave tops.  The spouts were just painted white with the grey layer showing through in places.

They are probably a bit big for 1/3000 scale models but I couldn't make them any smaller really (I wasn't going to buy really small screws specially for this exercise, although I may do so now that I think they've worked out OK) and anyway, I think they look fine.

They are all different of course and I quite like the way the glossy blue with green and then white dry-brushed over it gives the base of the spout a glassy effect.

German East Asia Squadron

I keep thinking about some sort of solo campaign using the Berthier Campaign Manager (now on version 8.0) and it seems to me that a fairly simple naval campaign would be ideal.  In fact I've long thought about the adventures of the Emden and/or von Spee's German East Asia Squadron early in WW1.

SMS Emden

These are some shots of my 1/3000 scale East Asia Squadron that (so far) have only seen action once.

SMS Gneisenau

The models are by Navwar and they are based on card with textured woodflex on them.  I painted the ships before mounting them

SMS Scharnhorst

Waves generally run parallel to each other (perpendicular to wind direction) so that was the first level of texturing.  This was followed by creating the bow wave and the 'residual bow waves' down each side of the ship and finally the wake.

SMS Dresden

I then painted the bases in "silk-matt" (i.e. slightly glossy) Revell acrylic "Lufthansa-Blau", which is actually quite a deep blue colour. When I painted them I had not long come back from a long sojourn in the South Atlantic and a week at sea certainly gives you an idea of what colour the open ocean can be.

SMS Nurnberg

The bases were then given quite a heavy dry brush using matt Revell acrylic Seegrün.

SMS Leipzig

Finally, the bases were finished off with some dry brushing with basic white to pick out the wave tops, the bow wave and the wake.

Now to come up with a campaign.  As I said I was thinking to start with the Emden's course to and through the Indian Ocean, with the merchantmen she hunted and forces hunting her programmed in to Berthier.  On the other hand, it could be run from the Allied side with the movements of the Emden programmed and everyone else looking for her.  Battles will be fought with General Quarters 2, when the time comes.  Needs a bit of preparation I think and I'll post about that when it looks like I'll be up and running.

Dreadnought and Castles of Steel

Not much activity of late, other than to to say that, what with my various travels and what not, I have finally had time to finish both volumes of the really rather splendid two-parter - Robert K Massie's twin tomes: Dreadnought and Castles of Steel.

The first deals with the origins of the naval rivalry between the British and German Empires and certainly doesn't portray the Germans/Prussians in a very good light.  As you would imagine, there's also some good stuff on the naval side of the Russo-Japanese War.

What I did find fascinating was the very real concern about Germany's ambitions expressed in Britain and the anticipation that there would be a war eventually.  This to me was interesting as it tied in very nicely with Esrkine Childers' The Riddle of the Sands, which deals with exactly the issue of a supposed build up of German naval forces in the waters around the German islands off East Friesland, poised to invade England.... in 1902.  A fantastic book if you're into sailing, by the way.

The next installment, Castles of Steel, covering the consequence of the development of HMS Dreadnought, Churchill, Jackie Fisher, Tirpitz, U-boats and the whole naval history of the lead up to and progress of the First World War, is great and certainly provides the definitive account of those naval actions.

I am particularly interested in the early action including the Emden, Coronel and the Battle of the Falklands and there is plenty of information on that in this book.

Anyway, both books are a darn good read and I'd also highly recommend The Riddle of the Sands as a ripping yarn in the mould of John Buchan or Rider Haggard (except with much more stuff about the technicalities of sailing without modern instruments).

Attack on Pola No.2

I described the scenario and reproduced the briefings for this fictional engagement in an earlier post and so here is the battle report for the Attack on Pola.

Russian forces comprised five ironclads plus two blockships, which they would try to sink at the entrance to Pola Harbour (just the blockships, that is).  The Austrians also had five ships, plus three shore batteries at their disposal.  The map below (done in MappingBoard) shows the playing area, which is supposed to be located on the Croatian coast in the Adriatic.  Not a lot of detail really, but then it is mostly sea.

The Russians entered at the southwestern corner of the board keeping well away from the coastline in order to avoid alerting the shore batteries.  Despite this, the Russians' first act was to fire on the shore batteries, thus alerting them.  This also had the effect of setting the clock running for when the Austrian ships would appear, which they duly did.

Getting closer to the harbour mouth the Russians started to turn towards the objective and the Austrians also turned to starboard in order to try to cross the Russians' T and bring all turrets to bear.  The Austrian ships and shore batteries were starting to get the range and quickly put Captainski's (i.e. HMS Captain's) after turret out of action (if you have Paul Hague's Sea Battles in Miniature you'll know that the Russians seem to get hold of British Admiralty blue-prints rather readily....), whilst the Russians kept firing, and missing.

A few turns further on and the Russians managed to destroy a shore battery but Captainski was still suffering damage and sank by a deck, thus losing headway.  The Austrian ship Edelweiss (the one with all its washing still up) crossed the Russians' T and poured more fire into Captainski, whilst the rest of the Austrians sailed southwards and parallel to the Russians with the intention of getting full broadsides in (not entirely successfully).  Meanwhile, the other Austrian squadron, which had been sitting with steam up in Pola Harbour, appeared on the table behind the headland.

Nevertheless, despite the Captainski falling out of line to starboard, shadowed by the now damaged Edelweiss, the Russian van continued its inexorable progress toward its objective (destroying another shore battery in the process) whilst the Austrians continued to sail past them the wrong way!  Turn round dammit!

A move later and the badly damaged Edelweiss finally sank the Captainski!  At last, a result for the Austrians (me), although with the rest of the fleet either heading the wrong way or not yet clear of the headland things were perhaps not going that well.

Meanwhile at the mouth of the harbour the situation was getting awkward with the Russians trying to get in and the Austrians trying to stop them.  With enough speed now gained, the Austrian battleship Liszt rammed and sank the blockship Spirit of Dunoon.  However, the other blockship (Frieda) and the Russian box-battery Carolinski managed to slip into the bay between the headland and the otherwise occupied Liszt.

As if this wasn't bad enough, the Russian box-battery Polanski got a direct hit on the Edelweiss and finally, after a very long run of dud die throws, the Russians managed to ignite her magazine and she blew up

Always slow burners, the Russians were now getting into their stride and, despite taking some last minute damage, opened the sea cocks on the Frieda and sank her right across the entrance to Pola, exactly where the scenario required.  To add insult to injury the Austrian breastwork monitor Silesia was sunk close to the headland as she raced back towards the harbour mouth, too late to do anything about it anyway.

Totting up the scenario victory points the Russians had got one blockship in position, sunk two battleships and destroyed two shore batteries, earning 60 points overall.  In contrast, despite getting first blood, the Austrians only managed 15 points by sinking a battleship and a blockship before it could get into position.

Overall, it was a successful game - from the point of view that we had a scenario that was interesting (I think, anyway), had a clear objective and was worth fighting for - and also from Geoff's point of view specifically because he won the battle so emphatically.  Furthermore, the simplified version of  Paul Hague's ironclad rules allowed us to finish the game in one evening even though there was a bit of re-familarisation to be done.

Finally, the ships fought well, including the old cardboard ships (some now 30 years old, such as Caroline, above) as well as the newer vessels made especially for the occasion. So, look out for further clashes in this era, although perhaps it's time to get back onto dry land after all this naval stuff and get some toy soldiers out again for our next outing.