The Budget Model Railways Challenge: My border fortress is finished

Before painting my border fortress I gave it two coats of PVA to seal the wood. Once that was done (and the PVA had dried), I undercoated the model using two thin coats of matt Black acrylic craft paint (made by Crelando).

I then dry-brushed the planked area with matt Burnt Sienna acrylic craft paint (made by Crawford & Black).

Once the brown paint had dried, I gave the rest of the model two thin coats of matt Medium Grey acrylic craft paint (made by Reeves).

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I tend use cheap acrylic craft paint from a variety of different suppliers, including THE WORKS and LIDL for projects like this. I see no point in using expensive acrylic paints unless there is a particular colour that I want to use that isn’t easily reproduced by mixing my cheaper paints.

The Budget Model Railway Challenge: Some trees and a backscene

On Saturday, Sue and I went to Faversham in Kent, and whilst I was there, I visited THE MODEL SHOP in Preston Steer, Faversham.

I was able to buy two items that I need for my floating shelf model railway, a bag of Busch pine trees …

… and a rural back scene.

The former will get some additional foliage, and the latter will be fitted to a 3mm plywood board.

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I have since bought two more bags of Hornby trees via Amazon and now have more than enough trees for my current floating shelf model railway project … and several more!

Imaginary Brazilian ironclads

I’ve been creating a YouTube video about Imperial Brazil’s ironclads, and during a break I decided to ask ChatGPT to create two imaginary Brazilian ironclads.

The first is the casemate ironclad Imperatriz Maria da Glória.

• Type: Central battery casemate ironclad (riverine and coastal operations)
• Displacement: 1,400 tons
• Dimensions: Length: 60 m (197 ft); Beam: 13 m (43 ft); Draught: 2.5 m (8 ft 2 in)
• Propulsion: Coal-fired boilers providing steam to two horizontal steam engines, each driving a propeller
• Speed: 12 knots
• Complement: 140 officers and men
• Armour: Casemate:102 mm (4 in) iron on 600 mm (24 in) wood backing; Deck: 25 mm (1 in) iron; Conning tower: 76 mm (3 in) iron; Belt: 76 mm (3 in) iron amidships tapering to 51 mm (2 in) at bow/stern
• Armament: 2 × 70-pounder Whitworth rifled muzzle-loading guns; 2 × 68-pounder smoothbore muzzle-loading guns; 2 × 32-pounder muzzle-loading carronades; Bow-mounted retractable spar torpedo boom
• Design Features:
• Low profile, turtleback casemate
• Curved raked bow with reinforced ram
• Retractable spar torpedo boom
• Shallow draft hull
• Colour Scheme: Charcoal grey-black
• Historical Context (Fictionalised): The Imperatriz Maria da Glória was commissioned in 1867, following heavy fighting at the Passage of Humaitá. Built in Rio de Janeiro using imported British engines and domestic iron plating, she served as a flagship in the final campaigns upriver against Paraguayan strongholds. Though slightly slower than her predecessors, her heavier guns and more complete armour made her a formidable presence in shallow and fortified waters.

The second is the single-turret monitor Cabral

• Type: Riverine turreted monitor (low-freeboard armoured vessel)
• Displacement: 800 tons
• Dimensions: Length: 45 meters (148 ft); Beam: 11 meters (36 ft); Draught: 2.1 meters (6 ft 11 in)
• Propulsion: Coal-fired boilers providing steam to two horizontal steam engines, each driving a propeller
• Max speed: 9 knots
• Complement: 85 officers and men
• Armour: Turret: 152 mm (6 in) iron; Deck: 25 mm (1 in) iron; Belt: 76 mm (3 in) amidships, 51 mm (2 in) forward and aft; Pilothouse: 76 mm (3 in) iron
• Armament: 2 x 120-pounder Whitworth rifled muzzle-loading guns mounted in a manually rotated or steam-powered turret with a 300° field of fire; 2 × 24-pounder muzzle-loading howitzers; Bow-mounted retractable spar torpedo boom
• Design Features:
• Single large central turret
• Low freeboard hull
• Pilot tower on the top of the turret with limited visibility slits
• Heavy iron ram fitted to reinforced bow
• Stern winch for warping the ship forward during riverine manoeuvrers or in difficult river currents
• Ventilation cowls and light canvas awnings to reduce heat stress in tropical climes
• Colour Scheme: Charcoal grey-black 
• Historical Context (Fictionalised): Commissioned in 1868, the Cabral was designed in response to the narrow river actions and strong Paraguayan forts that neutralized broadside ironclads. Designed by a team of French engineers under contract in Rio de Janeiro, she was the first Brazilian vessel to use a fully traversing turret and famously took part in the second passage of Humaitá, exchanging fire with fort guns while taking minimal return fire due to her low silhouette.

The AI-created images of these two ironclads are not quite consistent ... but they certainly look feasible. I particularly like the layout of the main armament of the Imperatriz Maria da Glória - which seems to be concentrated forward so that she could fire at an enemy ship as she approaches at ramming speed - and the turtle-back hull of the Cabral.

This was an interesting exercise and produced two ship designs that would be ideal for an nineteenth century imagi-nation's navy.

The Budget Model Railways Challenge: My border fortress

I have managed to convert my toy wooden castle into a border fortress for my floating shelf model railway layout ... and it looks like this:

The as-yet-unpainted border fortress with a garrison of 15mm Essex Miniatures Colonial figures from my Belle Époque collection.

I still have quite a few bits of the original wooden castle left ...

... and I intend to use them as the basis of other buildings for my layout.

My car is back and my new shower room will be installed soon!

During yesterday morning the surveyor from the shower installation company visited us, and spent nearly two hours measuring up the space and calculating what work need to be done to instal a new accessible shower in the shower room on our house's second floor. Now that has been done, the work can begin in about four weeks time ... and as soon as it has been completed, I'll be able to enjoy having a shower for the first time in well over a year. (I have had showers whilst on cruises, but I've been unable to safely get into and out of our current shower since I developed axonal polyneuropathy.)

I was also able to collect my car from the body shop yesterday afternoon ... and in meant that I was able to go to my local gaming club – Dice on the Hill – that evening.

Whilst waiting for the surveyor to do his work, I managed to re-fight the Battle of Tamai using the DOMINION OF THE SPEAR AND BAYONET rules, and I hope to write a blog post – and possibly create a YouTube video – about it over the coming weekend.

A busy few days ahead

I have a busy few days ahead, and my usual rather relaxed way of life is going to have to be put aside … at least until Wednesday!

Today I had to take my car to Dartford to have some repairs done to its bodywork. Someone drove into the back of my car whilst it was parked in a supermarket car park and put a rather nasty dent into the middle of the rear bumper and valance. Needless to say, they did not leave a note of any kind and there were no witnesses … so I will have to pay for the repairs myself. (I did think of claiming on my car insurance, but by the time I had paid the policy excess and knowing that the premiums would rise if I made a claim, I worked out that it would be cheaper to pay for the repairs myself.)

On Wednesday a surveyor is paying us a visit prior to us having a new walk-in shower fitted in our current shower room. The occupational therapist recommended that we have a wet room installed, but in the end we decided on a walk-in shower with a folding seat and handrails that had a tray that was almost flush with our existing floor. Hopefully that will be fitted within a month, and then I can begin showering as often as I like.

So, for the next few days I will be carless, although I can drive Sue’s car which is also an automatic and will have to stay in on Wednesday until the surveyor has been. With a bit of luck, I might be able to do some work on my floating shelf model railway and fight the battles of Tamai and Omdurman. I’ve been hoping to do the latter for some time, but the opportunity to do so has not presented itself … until now!

Watching YouTube

When I was confined to my bed for several months last year, I became an avid watcher of YouTube ... and I thought that I would share a list of some of the channels I subscribe to with my regular blog readers.

History of Wargaming Project: As a longtime supporter of John Curry's project to publish as many of the 'lost' wargame books as possible and publishing new works about Matrix Games, Cyber warfare, and professional wargaming, it would have been very remiss of me not to subscribe to this channel!

Miniature Adventure: As Big Lee's states on his channel introduction, his videos 'are designed for the busy wargamer who enjoys long-form videos but doesn't always have the time to watch them. So if you want short, interesting battle reports, hobby conversations, rules reviews and show reports, this channel is for you.' They certainly are as described, and I thoroughly recommend that all wargamers should subscribe to his channel!

Phil Sabin: Phil's occasional series of videos include battle reports and explanations of his rules.

Big Wargames: Ken Hanning's channel covers the Rapid Fire wargames he stages in his superb  purpose-build wargame room in Perthshire, Scotland.

Doug C: Doug describes his channel as a 'channel for vintage, Gilderesque wargaming 'In the Grand Manner''. In particular, it is the only place on the internet where I have found videos of the episodes of BATTLEGROUND, the Tyne Tees TV series about wargaming that was hosted by Edward Woodward. These include the battles of Chalons, Edgehill, Waterloo, and Gettysburg.

Budget Model Railways: My 'go to' model railway YouTube channel! Lots of ideas and inspiration, with regular updates.

Michael Chartres: I have only recently discovered this channel, but I find listening to and watching Michael renovate his 00-gauge model railway both interesting and inspiring. Like me, he is no spring chicken, but some of the methods he has used certainly made me sit up and say to myself 'why didn't I think of that!'

Jago Hazzard: Jago specialises in railways-related topics, especially those operated by TfL (Transport for London). He also has several model railway videos on his channel ... and they are well worth watching.

Sam's Trains: Sam's regular reviews of model railway locomotives and rolling stock are a must for anyone with an interest in the hobby.

WW2 Pod: We have ways of Making You Talk: This is Al Murray and James Holland's official YouTube channel about the Second World War. The banter between these two is fun, informative, and thought-provoking. What's not to like?

Lets Tab 59: This channel's owner is an ex-British Army NCO and besides doing lots of 'tabs' (Tactical Advance into Battle ... or countryside walks, during which he talks about all sorts of military topics), he also raises money for charity.

Shrewsbury House: This is a very new channel, but I subscribe because it is our local community centre and its where I go for my weekly gaming session with Dice on the Hill.

The Budget Model Railways Challenge: Inspiration for my choice of layout

As regular blog readers will know, I've always hankered after having some sort of indoor equivalent of John Ruddle's garden wargames setup.

John's setup included a garden railway, and it was looking at several of the photographs that included railway track that inspired me to think about modelling a border fortress that is served by a spur from a major railway line.

The only problem was that I didn't have a model fortress to use on my layout ... and then I remembered that back in 2023 I bought a plywood model castle from the English heritage shop at Deal Castle. Luckily, I had not put it into storage and after a quick search of my toy/wargame room, I found it.

The pieces just push together, and when fully assembled, it looks like this:

I assembled mine ... and realised that it was far too large for the layout BUT that its parts could be adapted so that I could build a small fortress and have plenty of parts over that I could use to build other buildings. For example, the two towers could be used as the basis of a church or cathedral.

My next task is to build my small border fortress ... and I hope to do that over the next week.

Henry Hyde's Battlechat 117 with Professor Gary Sheffield

In his latest podcast on his BATTLECHAT channel, Henry Hyde interviews Professor Gary Sheffield ... who happens to be both an old friend of mine and my occasional online wargaming opponent.

On his website, Henry describes their discussion as follows:

Battlechat 117 with Professor Gary Sheffield ... in which we discuss all things warfighting, and our thoughts about how some aspects of our discussion can be incorporated into our wargames.

Well, what a discussion! This is a real meant-and-potatoes chat about some of the nitty-gritty aspects of warfare, deep diving into some of the visceral aspects of battle, such as SLA Marshall's theories about how many men actually used their weapons and the brutal realities of bayonet fighting. Gary also has a lot to say about the concept of 'Big Men', those individuals who, in a critical moment of battle, can suddenly make all the difference between success and failure.

We also look into some of the psychology around training, battle and loss of key men, and jut what it takes to turn well-mannered civilians into soldiers capable of killing not just at a distance with firearms or artillery, but also quite literally at 'the sharp end'.

In all of this, Gary (who last appeared on the show in Episode 99) references the very latest research he is doing for his next book, and it's a real insight into the kind of background reading that an academic military historian needs to do in creating a piece of work that brings something new to the academic table, sometimes overturning old theories with new evidence, and sometimes being inspired by the latest trends in military history, all of which seem to be paying much more attention to modern work around psychology and sociology as well as classic references about strategy and tactics.

I hope you enjoy this chat – one of the longest battlechats of recent times – as much as I did, and find something of value and thought-provoking enough to make you reconsider some aspects of your own games.

I was able to listen to this discussion before it was released to the general public (I am one of Henry's Patreon supporters), and it was one of the best podcasts that I have heard in a long time.

Nugget 372

I will be collecting the latest issue of THE NUGGET from the printer (Macaulay Scott Printing Company of Welling, Kent) later this morning, and I will posted it out to members as soon as I can.

I will also send the PDF copy to the webmaster as soon as I can so that members can read this issue of THE NUGGET online.

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IMPORTANT: Please note that this is the ninth issue of THE NUGGET to be published for the 2024-2025 subscription year.

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