I managed to find four more 1/1200th-scale ironclads on sale on eBay ... and could not resist buying them!
I am now the proud owner of models of HMS Belleisle, ...
... HMS Rupert, ...
... HMS Nile, ...
... and HMS Collingwood.
This brings the size of my collection to eight models ... and I suspect that it will continue to grow.
As I am over seventy-five-years-old, I would automatically qualify to have an NHS influenza vaccination, but because my immune system is compromised as a result of the chemotherapy and radiotherapy I had to to combat my prostate cancer, I have been having this every year for several years. Normally, I have the injection, feel a bit under the weather for a few days, and then everything returns to normal. However, this year I have really not had an easy time since I had my injection.
In fact, I first realised that my body was reacting to the vaccination within a few hours. I felt very hot and began sweating profusely, and by evening I was exhibiting the following symptoms of influenza, namely:
This lasted two days, after which I began to feel a lot better ... and then the symptoms returned. I checked with the NHS Helpline, and they advised me to stay indoors, take painkillers, and keep hydrated. I was also told that if the symptoms persist for more that two days, I should contact my doctor.
That two days have now passed ... and I an certainly better than I was. I still feel rather weary and my joints ache ... but the painkillers seem to be working and I am at least able to go out again.
According to the NHS ...
How flu vaccines work
The period between 1860 and 1900 saw massive developments in warship designs. Iron and then steel replaced wood, sail was replaced by steam-power, and the calibre of guns grew as the numbers of guns carried aboard a warship diminished. Things developed so fast at times that ships could be designed, built, and then be obsolete by the time they entered service.
In the UK, the old enemy France was first an ally (during the Crimean War), then a threat (in the run up to the Franco-German War), and then a colonial rival. At the same time, the power of Imperial Russia waxed and waned and the new German Empire began to emerge as a serious rival.
It is against this background that HMVS Cerberus and HMAS Glatton were built.
HMVS Cerberus
By the middle of the 1860s, Russia was expanding its influence in the Pacific and this was perceived as a threat to the British colonies in Australia. As a result, the government of the Victoria ordered a ship to supplement the existing coastal defences at Port Philip Bay. The ship was a breastwork monitor and was named HMVS Cerberus.
She and her sistership HMS Magdala (which was built by Thames Iron Works, Blackwall) were designed by designed by Edward James Reed, Chief Constructor to the Royal Navy and was constructed by Palmers Shipbuilding at their Jarrow-on-Tyne shipyard. (HMS Magdala was ordered by the India Office for the Bombay Marine and was based at Bombay, now Mumbai.)
HMVS Cerberus was laid down on 1st August 1867, launched on 2nd December 1868, and completed in August 1870. The British Admiralty paid 80% of the cost (£117,556) on the understanding that if she required to perform any role other than the defence of Victoria, she would come under Admiralty control.
Her characteristics were as follows:
In 1887, HMVS Cerberus was fitted with torpedo nets, but soon afterwards she was reclassified as a storeship. When the Federation of Australia was created in 1901, she became part of the Commonwealth Naval Force. When the Commonwealth Naval Force became the Royal Australian Navy in 1911, she became HMAS Cerberus.
During the Great War she served as a guard ship and storeship even though her main armament was no longer operable. Her low freeboard made her an ideal candidate to act as a submarine tender when six J-class submarines were transferred to the Royal Australian Navy, and she was re-named HMAS Platypus II on 1st April 1921. She kept this name until she was sold for scrapping on 23rd April 1924.
After all the salvageable material had been removed, the remains of her hull was sold to Sandringham Council who scuttled her on 26th September 1926 at Half Moon Bay to serve as a breakwater for the Black Rock Yacht Club ... and her hull still remains in situ.
HMS Glatton
Whereas HMVS Cerberus was designed with the threat of the Imperial Russian Navy in mind, HMS Glatton's expected opponent was the French Navy. Like HMVS Cerberus, HMS Glatton was designed by Edward Reed ... but her task in time of war was to defend Britain's coast and to maintain a close blockage on enemy (i.e. French) ports. As a result, her design was quite different from that of HMVS Cerberus. For example, she had a deeper draught so that she could operate in deeper water and a higher top speed.
HMS Glatton was laid down at Chatham Dockyard on 10th August 1868, launched on 8th March 1871 and completed on 24th February 1872. She was immediately commissioned into the Dockyard reserve and served as a tender to the school of naval gunnery, HMS Excellent.
Her characteristics were as follows:
HMS Glatton joined the Particular Service Squadron in 1873 and was fired at during a live firing exercise. In 1881 she was fitted with the equipment needed to launch 14-inch (360mm) torpedoes as well as three 6 pounder Hotchkiss quick-firing guns and 4 machine guns. She was then returned to the reserve.
Six years later HMS Glatton was fully commissioned so that she could take part in that year's fleet manoeuvres, and 'defended' the Thames estuary alongside HMS Prince Albert. She then became part of the fleet's second class reserve, where she remained until she was sold in for scrap in July1903 as part of Admiral Fisher's pruning of the reserve fleet.
The History of Wargaming Project is a wargame publishing house that was started in 2008 by John Curry to preserve, reprint, and expand classic and professional wargaming materials. By 2015 it had published sixty books and by 2015 this number had reached over a hundred ... and the total continues to grow.
The latest publication is FORGING THE FIRST FANTASY WARGAME: A COMPANION TO TONY BATH'S HYBORIAN CAMPAIGN, and it is probably the ultimate compilation of articles and documents that relate to Tony Bath's famous Hyboria campaign ... which was taking place as the earliest iteration of DUNGEON & DRAGONS was emerging.
The book is also a follow-on to TONY BATH'S ANCIENT WARGAMING: INCLUDING SETTING UP A WARGAMES CAMPAIGN AND THE HYBORIA CAMPAIGN, which included:
It has taken John Curry many years to search for and acquire copies of Tony Bath's numerous articles, maps, and other documents and meld them into a highly readable book that will fascinate anyone who has even a passing interested in this famous fantasy wargaming campaign.
The book has 246 pages and the following chapters and appendices:
The map of Hyboria that was included in the Second Portable Wargame Compendium.
Reading this book filled in a lot of the holes in my knowledge and understanding of the famous Hyboria Campaign and it now occupies a prominent position on my bookshelf of important wargame books ... and I suspect that a lot of other wargamers will enjoy reading and be inspired by this book.
FORGING THE FIRST FANTASY WARGAME: A COMPANION TO TONY BATH'S HYBORIAN CAMPAIGN was written by Tony Bath, compiled by John Curry, and published in 2026 by The History of Wargaming Project (ISBN: 979 8 1747 6787 4 [Paperback]; ISBN: 979 8 1709 7398 9 [Hardback]).
I have just uploaded a new YouTube video to the Wargaming Miscellany YouTube channel about the Russian protected cruiser Aurora.
It lasts approximately seven and three-quarter minutes.
The video can be found here on the Wargaming Miscellany YouTube channel.
I have always liked the look of the British mid-nineteenth century coastal defence ironclads ... so when 1/1200th-scale models of a couple of them came on sale on eBay, I could not resist putting in some (successful) bids!
I am now the proud owner of models of HMVS (later HMAS) Cerberus ...
... and HMS Glatton.
In due course, I will write longer blog posts about these two ships, but it is worth mentioning that the hull of HMAS Cerberus is still extant!
She was sunk as a breakwater in Half Moon Bay in September 1926, and despite the ravages of time and tide, the hull and the remains of her turrets and funnel still remain. In 2001, the Friends of the Cerberus was formed, with the goal of preserving her, and since then they have raised funds to remove her guns for preservation and to combat corrosion in order to stabilize the wreck. This remains ongoing.
One aspect of the Spanish Civil War that rarely features in the military histories of that conflict is the naval war that was fought by the two sides. Recently, Professor David Manley has published an excellent set of rules for the war entitled A FLEET TORN ASUNDER, and this has sparked considerable interest in the naval aspects of the war.
But where can the interested reader find out more about the Nationalist and Republican navies, how they evolved after the outbreak of the war, what ships they operated, and what naval operations did they mount? One place is Leonard R Heinz's THE FLEET THAT FOUGHT ITSELF: THE SPANISH NAVY AND THE CIVIL WAR 1936-39.
The book has eleven chapters and six appendices:
Chapters
Appendices
The book has thirty monochrome photographs and six very useful maps that cover:
This book fills an important gap in the military histories of the Spanish Civil War and will no doubt be of great interest to anyone who shares my interest in the Spanish Civil War.
THE FLEET THAT FOUGHT ITSELF: THE SPANISH NAVY AND THE CIVIL WAR 1936-39 was written by Leonard R Heinz and published by Seaforth Publishing in 2025 (ISBN 978 1 0361 1398 8).
For any reader who wants to find out more about the naval aspects of the Spanish Civil War, I would recommend:
I have just uploaded a new YouTube video to the Wargaming Miscellany YouTube channel about my visit to the Operation Dynamo Museum in Dunkirk.
It lasts just under five and a half minutes.
The video can be found here on the Wargaming Miscellany YouTube channel.
I collected the latest issue of THE NUGGET from the printer (Macaulay Scott Printing Company of Welling, Kent) yesterday and I intend to post it out to members of Wargame Developments as soon as possible.
I will send the PDF copy to the webmaster as soon as I can so that members can read this issue of THE NUGGET online.
IMPORTANT: Please note that this is the SECOND issue of THE NUGGET to be published for the 2026-2027 subscription year.
If you have not yet subscribed for the 2026-2027 subscription year, please request a PayPal invoice from the Treasurer or follow the instructions on how to pay by bank transfer using the information on the relevant page of the website.
Just under three years ago (it was 16th February 2024), I set up the Wargaming Miscellany YouTube channel as an adjunct to this blog. Since then I have uploaded over fifty videos, some of which covered topics that had appeared as blog posts and others that did not.
I decided to look at which of these videos had attracted over a thousand viewers ... and the results were very interesting.
The channel currently has just under nine hundred subscribers and has been viewed approximately forty-six thousand times. Of these views, approximately ten thousand were from the United States and just under eight thousand from the United Kingdom.
