A recent build

In the middle of working on the office building for Harpers Ferry, I suddenly felt the urge to produce something simple and quick. I stumbled upon a triangular PVC board base whose edges I'd previously rounded and chamfered so it made sense to stick something on it.

A cardboard carton that had contained something like cotton buds was an obvious start to a sci-fi storage tank. I added some plating from cut-up business cards. It could have had some kind of heavy weapon emplacement on the top but instead I just decided to portray a disused storage tank that some waste-dweller had converted into a dwelling.

I cut a crude hole in the tank as a doorway and then used the same fine corrugated card I've used for the Harpers Ferry tin roofs to define the edges of the entrance path. I then built up piles of windblown sand around the tank and the pathway using offcuts of foamcore covered with quick-drying Polyfilla. A coat of PVA and a scattering of sand completed the build.

Having painted the whole thing with Modpodge to seal it, I undercoated everything in the traditional Bitter Chocolate exterior masonry paint.

The base was then dry-brushed in progressively paler colours ending with a pale grey to pick out the larger stones in my coarse sand mix.

The tank got a base coat of various rusty oranges and browns and then a light dry brush in gunmetal before I added a partial coat of mid-blue and some watered-down orange rust streaks. 

Apart from drying time I reckon the whole thing was done in a couple of hours. Now I just need to find space for it in one of my sci-fi terrain storage boxes!

Progress on Harpers Ferry

The last couple of days I've gone back to building work on the Harpers Ferry armoury. 

Researching the buildings isn't easy. All but the engine house (aka John Brown's Fort) were burned to the ground during the Civil War and the entire landform of the armoury grounds was later altered to make way for a revised alignment of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad. I'm having to rely on a few contemporary photographs and drawings that inevitably concentrate on the storming of the engine house.

I previously finished the water tower that stood just inside the main gate of the armoury

and then went on to build the next building on the right-hand side of the area I'm modelling, which I believe to be a warehouse:

Now I'm on the penultimate building. This is variously described as the "guard house" and the "paymaster's office". I'm assuming that it has both functions. 

In the photograph below (taken during the Civil War) it's the building to the right of the arch-windowed engine house. Other pictures give us some idea of the taller section that's off-camera to the right of this photograph.

I've been building the structure in two phases. The lower section on the left was built first followed by the taller and deeper end with, as far as I can determine, the only door.

I'm doing all of the buildings with basic interior detail as it's likely fighting will take place within at least some of them. I'm planning on detailing the spaces (from left to right in the picture above) as follows:

The space with the bricked up windows as a sleeping area and inner office for the Paymaster (complete with 3D printed safe). The central area as an outer office for the Paymaster and his clerk, where the workers come to collect their wages. And the larger space as the guardroom (though there was only a single nightwatchman at the time).

Access to the interiors requires removable roofs. These are made initially from thin cardboard attached to supports made from offcuts of foamcore. In the photo below that were put in place while the PVA dried.

I've spent most of today tiling the taller half with Warbases laser-cut tiles.

It's a pig of a job but I know it'll be worth it in the end. 

Next steps are to make the currently black chimney somewhat taller - it doesn't quite work as it is - and then roof that part of the building. I don't have enough of the Warbases tiles left so I'm going to use the same material I used on the warehouse to create a corrugated iron roof for this too.

When this building is finished, I'll make a start on the engine house while contemplating how to build the front gates and, big challenge, the B&O railroad trestle along the river side of the board.

Another clear-out

I thought it would be a big emotional wrench but when I came to it the decision to sell off my 20mm Napoleonics was surprisingly easy. I far prefer the look of 28mm for Sharp Practice games and if I ever do big battle Napoleonics it'll almost certainly be in 6mm.

Yesterday I dug out the French to photograph them prior to putting them on eBay.

They are a from mixture of plastic manufacturers with a few old metals thrown in too. The main body is made up of six groups of eight infantry (one of them grenadiers) with accompanying officers, NCOs and drummers.

Then we have a unit of eight hussars, again with a leader, one of M. Larrey's ambulances, and some senior officers. I have some dragoons somewhere too. I need to dig them out and add them to the pile.

There are also three groups of six light infantry chasseurs with officer, NCO and drummer, three units of Nassauers (one of them grenadiers) with officer, musician and casualties, and two French gun batteries.

As I said, these are to go on eBay but I thought I'd give you guys the chance to make an offer on them first. I don't have a price in mind at present but I thought I might put them on eBay with a minimum bid of £50.

Joy of Six "report"

Last weekend was the Joy of Six show in Sheffield. As regulars here will know, I was part of the Cold War Commanders team running two "Prague Summer 1948" games. This isn't much of a "report" as I was too busy to see much of the event.

I ended up umpiring the TacWWII game for Andy C and Ian and for a number of punters who stepped in to try the rules. Andy T and Neil played the CWC game, again making places available for punters to try out.

View of the two battlefields from
the "CWC" end

The situation across the two games was that a Soviet column was advancing from Wroclaw to Prague via Hradec Kralowe (the hometown of Škoda as it happens). Along the route they would pass through a chokepoint at Česke Skalice, where Andy and Neil's scenario saw Czechoslovak troops making a firm stand between hills and lakeside.

Further back up the road from Wroclaw, a collapsed bridge in the village of Kleny had caused a long traffic jam of Soviet supply vehicles and artillery. This was just the target for a Czechoslovak counterattack (shades of the Russians in Ukraine more recently).

View from the Soviet entry edge -
Kleny in the distance.

I was so busy running the game that I saw very little of Andy and Ian's game but fortunately Andy has an excellent report here.

The TacWWII game was a little slow at first. This was for a couple of reasons. Firstly Ian had never played the rules before and Andy only once many years ago. Secondly, the amount of space available to set up the game rather hypnotised me and I ended up spreading things out too much and starting the two armies off further apart then they needed to be. 

The Soviet force consisted of a motor rifle battalion (in trucks with an attached company of T-44 tanks), a self-propelled gun regiment (realistically a small battalion-sized formation), and an artillery battalion. As a command challenge for Andy the last formation was part of the stalled column on the road and would only be released to Andy's command if requested via the proper (slow) channels or if the Czechoslovaks got too close.

The locals had a reduced-strength tank battalion in Cromwell IVs, a motor rifle battalion in OPp3Ns (you may know them as SdKfz 251/1s), an off-table artillery battalion, and some recce and light AA assets.

Soviet infantry advance on Vysokov, passing burning trucks
destroyed in an earlier action

Both sides had a low chance of getting air support. I should have increased the probability of aircraft appearing given the effort I'd put into acquiring suitable models!

A flight of Soviet Pe-2s attacks the Cromwells

Both sides' motor rifle battalions took casualties and I think both lost a company to bad morale test results after combat. In the end the two battalions ended up retreating from each other! I think I'm calling it an honourable draw.

The TacWWII rules worked well enough that Andy and Ian plan to play some more at the Elton club and all the people who tried out the rules for a few die rolls went away with the link to skirmishcampaigns.com, where the rules will hopefully soon be hosted.

I didn't get to see much of the other games at the show and I came away not having bought anything from the traders (sorry guys). The day was not without cost, however, I got a £25 parking charge because I misread the small-print on the parking ticket dispenser at Sidney Street. Grrr!

No Saturday Afternoon Wargames for a while!

Those of you who are familiar with Stately Counterpane Manor will be surprised to see the current state of our usual Saturday Afternoon Wargames venue:

The kitchen floor has shown signs of movement (tiles cracking) for a while. We're having the previous arrangement, half suspended floor and half solid, replaced with a solid floor throughout and with underfloor heating. In the meantime it's sandwiches and instant noodles I guess.

Harpers Ferry Characters

My game for Steel Lard this year will be a What a Cowboy exploration of the events at Harpers Ferry in 1859, when John Brown and his men seized the Federal armoury in an attempt to trigger a slave uprising throughout Virginia.

I've started photographing the figures so I can produce illustrated character sheets and a dedicated game deck. This will make it easy to see which figure needs to be activated next. Here are a few of the characters who'll be represented in the game, starting with the more prominent abolitionists:

John Brown

John Brown was a long-term leader of abolitionists who had previously been involved in bloody violence in Bleeding Kansas. At Harpers Ferry he seems to have had no clear plan to recruit large numbers of revolting slaves. It seemed as though he had set out to become a martyr for his cause, and so he proved.

Aaron Stephens

Stephens was Brown's military deputy at Harpers Ferry. 

Stevens is in the same cell with Brown. I have frequent talks with him. He's in a most pitiable condition physically, his wounds being of the most painful and dangerous character. He has now four balls in his body, two of these being about the head and neck. He bears his sufferings with grim and silent fortitude, never complaining and absolutely without hope. He is a splendid looking young fellow. Such black and penetrating eyes! Such an expansive brow! Such a grand chest and limbs! He was the best, and in fact the only man Brown had who was a good soldier besides being reliable otherwise.

"Emperor" Shields Green

Shields Green was an escaped former slave from Charleston, South Carolina. He had been a follower of Frederick Douglass. When Douglass refused to join Brown's expedition (believing it suicidal), Green declared, "I believe I'll go wid de ole man".

Dangerfield Newby

Newby was another former slave. His wife was still in slavery and Newby aspired to either free her by force or to gain enough money to buy the freedom of her and their children.

Edwin Coppoc

Edwin Coppoc was born to Quaker parents in Ohio. At Harpers Ferry he shot and killed former mayor Fontaine Beckham.

In addition we have some Harpers Ferry locals, some of whom will be available as player characters:

Thomas Boerley

Thomas Boerly was an Irish immigrant who had lived in Harpers Ferry for many years. Armed with a shotgun, he approached the gates of the armoury and was shot by one of the insurgents (probably Shields Green).

Fontaine Beckham

Fontaine Beckham was 71 years old at the time of Brown's insurrection. He was the local agent of the Baltimore and Ohio Rail Road company and a former mayor of the town. He was shot dead whilst trying too peer round the side of the watertower to catch a glimpse of the insurrectionists holed up in the armoury's engine house.

Colonel Lewis Washington

Lewis was the great grandnephew of Revolutionary War general and first President George Washington. Brown's men roused him from his bed and took him as a hostage, also taking a pair of pistols allegedly present to the president by the Marquis de Lafayette and a sword gifted by Frederick the Great.

John Allstadt

Allstadt was another local land-owner and slave-holder taken as a hostage. He was eventually freed when U S Marines stormed the engine house.

Lt Col R E Lee

Robert E Lee was in Washington when news of the Harpers Ferry insurrection arrived. President Buchanan order him to proceed there and take charge of the situation, empowered to declare martial law if necessary. Lee didn't even have time to change into uniform. He would go on to become the pre-eminent Confederate general of the Civil War.

That'll do for now. More characters to follow as I get them painted and photographed.

Latest 3D printing

As I continue to get the hang of the 3D printer I'm trying a variety of different subjects.  Just finished this morning are these 1/300th scale vehicles, some of which might find a use in the Prague Summer 1948 game.

They are all by New Zealand-based Thingiverse user M_Bergman. They were originally uploaded in 1/200th scale but they've worked OK printed at 1/300th with a 0.15mm layer height.

First up are some JS-IIs:

Half a dozen M3 scout cars should be useful for WW2 US and Soviet forces and perhaps in 1948 as well.

Finally, you can never have too many trucks. These are GMCs ...