Earlier this week my old friend Nick Huband sent me a couple of documents that were extremely helpful.
One contained an article from the June 1976 issue of BATTLE magazine about 'Wargaming for Beginners'. It was written by Tony Bath and included several photographs of Joseph Morschauser wargaming on his gridded tabletop with 54mm and 25mm figures.
The second was a copy of an article from the August 2018 issue of MODEL BOATS magazine. The article described how Ashley Needham had constructed a model pre-dreadnought battleship based on the tinplate one manufactured between 1928 and 1981 by Sutcliffe Pressings Limited. It was named Valiant and is exactly the sort of model warship that I need for my Belle Époque project.
Ashley Needham's model of the tinplate battleship Valiant sailing at high speed.
Now that I have a photograph on which to base my own models on, I hope to start work on building several as soon as I have completed work on my simple naval wargame rules and play testing Joseph Morschauser's FRONTIER wargame rules.
Nice little model Bob, you'll be making sure your Union flags are not upside down.
ReplyDeleteJim
Jim Duncan,
DeleteI hadn’t noticed that! I’m sure that the model’s builder will be mortified if he ever finds out!
All the best,
Bob
Now that model I really like!
ReplyDeleteRob Young,
DeleteI only wish that I could afford to buy an original one!
All the best,
Bob
Prices vary online but you should be able to get one for under £200 :) . There seem to be a lot of 8" tinplate battleships of Spanish origin out there for under £25, though with really weird turrets.
ReplyDeleteAnthony Climpson,
Delete£200.00 is quite a reasonable price. I’ve seen some sold online and by auction houses for at least £300.00.
I didn’t know about the existence of Spanish tinplate battleships. It’s something I must look into.
All the best,
Bob
Bob,
Deletehttps://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/1706531107/tin-plate-battleship
Not promoting it but a good clear image.
Anthony Clipsom,,
DeleteThanks for the link. It’s certainly given me something to think about.
All the best,
Bob
I have seen this model and would love to build one. I think it would be an easy built using Glynn Guest's building system.
ReplyDeleteJhnptrqn,
DeleteIt’s certainly a design that I’d like to copy … and thanks for pointing me towards Glyn Guest’s approach to model ship building.
All the best,
Bob
Great looking ship. Looking forward to seeing a fleet of these. That Battle article sounds like a good read. Sadly for me it is just before I started collecting them.
ReplyDeleteWEK 3,
DeleteIt looks very reminiscent of the ships built by John Ruddle for his garden wargames. I’ll certainly be trying to build something similar for my own Belle Époque project.
I used to have a full collection of the BATTLE FOR WARGAMERS magazines, but I ‘lost’ them somewhere along the way. It was - in my opinion - a better magazine than our current crop of wargane glossies.
All the best,
Bob
Bob -
ReplyDeleteThat tin-plate battleship looks the business all right! I believe something could be done with the Spanish examples as well.
I had a bit of a google at the 'Valiant'. One on offer for L300, but one went recently for L90 (failing to meet the auctioneer's estimate of L100-150). I discover the 'Valiant' is not a waterline model - it really does float!
Cheers,
Ion
Archduke Piccolo (Ion),
DeleteThe tinplate models are inspirational … but are way too expensive for my meagre resources! I’ll just use them a sort of template for my waterline models.
All the best,
Bob