Trying to make turrets ... again!

I came home today feeling slightly less tired than yesterday, and tried to make another turret for my Turreted Ironclad ... but with no better luck!

I have had lots of useful suggestions as to how to overcome the problems I am having, and I hope to give one or two of them a try over the coming weekend. In the meantime, I have put that particular project on 'hold' whilst I do something else ... but more of that later ...

Trying to make turrets ...

I have just spent a rather frustrating time trying to make a turret for my prototype Turreted Ironclad ... and failing!

I was trying to use a section of 1-inch diameter wooden dowel as the basis for the turret. The first problem I tried to overcome was drilling two holes in the dowel so that the smaller diameter wooden dowel that I was going to use to represent the turret's armament could fit into them. I just could not get the holes drilled so that they were level ... and when I did finally manage it, the gun barrels were not parallel!

The second problem was trying to saw the wooden dowel into the correct lengths for the turrets. This sounds easy ... but for some reason none of the tops and bottoms of the 'turrets' were parallel with each other after I had cut them off the dowel ... and this was in spite of me using a proper cutting block with a fixed saw that is supposed to cut wood at an angle of ninety degrees!

I have now given up for the evening. Perhaps I will have more luck tomorrow, when I am not quite so tired. If I cannot solve the problem, however, I will have to find another solution.

'Little Wars': The current state of discussions

Having had some lengthy discussions with several interested parties, the conclusions we have come to with regard to the centenary game (or games) we will stage using H G Wells' LITTLE WARS wargames rules are that:

• We shall use 54mm plastic figures, with basic details painted onto them (e.g. faces, hands, boots, weapons, distinguishing facings).
• We shall use spring-powered cannons, firing wooden or plastic ‘rounds’, to simulate gun and rifle fire.
• We shall use simple representative terrain features (e.g. cardboard buildings, possibly weighed down with wooden blocks or bricks).

The rules will be based on the more complex ones featured in the Appendix to LITTLE WARS, which H G Wells proposed should become the basis for a more realistic Kriegsspiel.

We have yet to decide on the size of units that participants will use, but it is likely that artillery batteries will have one gun and at least four gunners, whilst infantry battalions will have twenty to twenty five men, and cavalry twelve to fifteen men.

A day of wargaming

Today was the monthly informal wargames gathering that I try to go to whenever I can. As usual, it was held in Central London in the offices of one of the members of Wargame Developments.

Today could best be described as being a 'Richard Borg' day; in the morning we played the epic version of COMMAND AND COLORS: ANCIENTS (the Battle of Cannae, which the Carthaginians won ... just!) and in the afternoon we managed two games using MEMOIR '44.

The Battle of Cannae is underway. The Romans have their backs to the camera, and are facing their Carthaginian enemies, who are sitting across the table from them.

It was generally felt that MEMOIR '44 was not as good a game as COMMAND AND COLORS: ANCIENTS, but that had we been playing the larger, multi-player version of the former, it might have been more enjoyable.

Two for the price of one ...

One of my regular blog readers sent me a very interesting link to a website that has the text of a book entitled CARPENTRY AND MECHANICS FOR BOYS by A Neely Hall. The book was written in 1918, and has some very, very useful chapters for wargamers who like to do a bit of modelling.

Part II of the book is called WAR TOYS AND MECHANICAL TOYS, and the first two chapters are devoted to the modelling of a 'A Toy SuperDreadNought BattleShip' which looks like this:

There are further chapters about how to build a working model submarine, followed by a chapter that has the intriguing title 'A Fleet of Toy BattleShips'. This explains how to manufacture a fleet of model warships that are mounted on wheels so that they can be manoeuvred of the toy room floor. Again, there are diagrams that show how to make the necessary models.

These look remarkably like the sort of models I have been making ... but without the wheels!

It is the next three chapters that are the real 'find' as they deal with 'Toy Artillery And Miniature Warfare'. They contain plans for firing toy artillery, both large field ...

... and siege guns.

It even has chapters on how to build a machine gun and a drill rifle!

This is a link that is well worth looking at, even if you are not a wargaming modeller ... and it has certainly spurred me on with both my wooden warship modelling and LITTLE WARS projects.

A trip to Hobbycraft ...

Last week I visited my local branch of Hobbycraft (in Crayford, Kent) in the hope of being able to buy some more wooden spools (for model ship funnels/smoke stacks) and some wooden cotton reels (for model ship turrets). Unfortunately they did not have any on sale, so today I travelled a bit farther afield, and visited the branch in Maidstone. After a very thorough search of the store, I could not find either of these items on sale, and a member of staff confirmed that the branch no longer carried them in stock.

I can just about cope with making funnels/smoke stacks for my model ships from wooden dowel, but the turrets are a different matter. I was faced with the prospect of either having to cut, carve, and shape them from blocks of wood or find thick enough dowel that I could trim to length. In the end I opted for the latter, and bought an expensive three-foot long piece of 1-inch diameter wooden dowel. I hope that this will be the answer to my problems ... but if it is not, I have wasted quite a lot of money on something for which I do not have another use.

Hey, ho! Halcyon days!

More model warships: Torpedo Boat Destroyer prototype

Earlier this week I decided to see if I could build a model warship that fitted within the limit of 10cm length, but which was not a basic Ironclad. Taking the pictures of John Ruddle's ships as a source of inspiration, I sketched out a design for a Torpedo Boat Destroyer ... and began work on building a prototype. The resulting model is as yet unpainted, but I am reasonably happy with the result.

I have taken a few liberties with the design. It is shorter and fatter than the original TBDs, and only has two torpedo tubes and a single gun mounted forward on a bandstand on top of the conning position ... but I think that it captures the essence of the original, which is what I had hoped to do. I am now thinking about building other models of generic warships from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, all with a maximum length of 10cm.

It will certainly be an interesting challenge!

2013: The Centenary of 'Little Wars': A very positive response

The response to yesterday's blog entry about commemorating the hundredth anniversary of the publication of H G Wells' LITTLE WARS has been very encouraging ... and it looks like it is going to happen.

There are quite a few things to be decided. Firstly, are we going to actually fire things at the 'toy' soldiers (which would be in keeping with the original game) or are we going to find an alternative? Secondly, are we going to use the rules in the main body of the book, or those in the appendix? Thirdly, are we going to use metal figures (beautiful when painted but very prone to 'battle damage') or plastic figures (cheaper, but more difficult to keep undamaged as a result of combat)? Finally, what scale figure will be used? The original game was played using 54mm or 42mm figures, but the rules in the appendix talk about using 1-inch (or 25mm) figures.

This is quite an agenda to sort out, but once it has been, progress can begin to be made.

2013: The Centenary of 'Little Wars'

Today has been another of those days when 'synchronicity' seems to have had a major part to play in events.

Over the past two days I have written blog entries about John Ruddle's Garden Wargame, and it set me off on a nostalgic reverie about the wargames I played in my youth. I used assorted and ill-matched plastic and metal 54mm figures in my garden wargames, and the memory of those sunny, carefree days filled me with the desire to recreate that sort of wargame again at some time in the future.

Today I was talking to an old wargaming friend, and he mentioned that 2013 marked the centenary of the publication of H G Wells' LITTLE WARS and that he thought that it would be a good idea to refight the ‘Battle of Hook’s Farm’ (or a similar action) as a tribute to the anniversary. Coming as it did after my musings about wargaming in the garden, I jumped at the thought of doing what he suggested.

The discussion went on for some considerable time, and after due consideration we came to the conclusion that we may have to forgo a garden venue (too much chance of losing what might be expensive figures) and move the event indoors. A quick reference to LITTLE WARS reminded us that the rules were originally designed to be played on a nursery floor, so an indoor game would be in keeping with spirit and the letter of the book. We also talked about the figure scale that we should use, and after a lot of toing and froing (and a further reference to the book) we have opted for 42mm figures. Sets of suitable figures are sold by Irregular Miniatures for prices that will not make the project prohibitively costly, and the ‘war’ will be set somewhere in the Balkans (perhaps Laurania vs. Maldacia?).

We have plenty of time to prepare the figures, test the rules, and plan the event … so watch this space for news as things (hopefully) develop over the coming months.

More about John Ruddle and the Garden Wargame

I spend some time this evening reading through the two magazine articles that featured John Ruddle's garden wargames ... and they are still as inspiring as they were when I first read them.

John's garden was laid out to represent six countries: Austria, France, Germany, Great Britain, India, and Turkey, and areas that include Flanders, Africa, Arabia, and Northern Italy are regularly fought over. The actual layout was in no way geographically accurate, with the lawn acting as the 'sea', the paths as 'rivers', and the various flowerbeds and rockeries as the countries.

His British infantry regiments were made up of sixteen men and two officers (except for the Gurkhas, who had eighteen men and two officers) whilst the German infantry regiments had fourteen men and one officer. All cavalry regiments had sixteen troopers and two officers. Each of the officers was named, and a proper record of deaths, promotions, and retirements was kept.

Besides an army, each country had a navy. The British had two battleships, two cruisers, eight destroyers, and six torpedo gunboats, and facing them was a German force of one battleship, four cruisers, six destroyers and four torpedo boats. The French was unique in that their navy had a pocket battleship.

The following pictures show some of the model ships John Ruddle made and used.

The first picture shows a naval dockyard. In the centre is one of the larger warships, and elsewhere in the harbour are two motor torpedo boats and a merchant ship. The picture also shows some of John's cast concrete buildings.

The second picture shows the main French naval base, with their pocket battleship – Richelieu – alongside. Also in port are a destroyer, two motor torpedo boats, and a small merchant ship.

Although these pictures only give a flavour of what John's garden wargames must have been like, I hope that they make it easier to see why I found them (and still find them) to be inspiring.