Allies and Enemies of Zinqagur

Finished a few more 1/2000 scale scratchbuilt ships - most of these are ReReRe, which means repaired, repainted and rebased older ones.

First, the remainder of the Asansmati sea-going force, the ships which survived the defeat by the Klagimir fleet at the Battle of Tunova Atoll. Three USN pre-dreadnought battleships, one armored cruiser and a large-ish TBD force. These are all old models.

Asansmat is going the way of least resistance and would try to overcome the Zinqaguri squadron on the eastern seaboard of the Cape.

The Royal Zinqaguri Navy in 1/2000

I might have mentioned earlier that I switched over from 1000 to 1/2000 scale for my 'Trashy Fleets' project. The decision was based on space and time constraints, in order to get a few games played over a short period.

By this time I managed to complete my imaginary Zinqaguri navy's two battle squadrons, one for the country's east and one for the west coast. They have different paint jobs because why not? 

Also each squadron has a TBD detachment, but being deployed on separate stations and not very likely to operate together, I only completed one base of TBDs in total.

Flossian Union Foot Battalions

The lesson of this post is that the most important thing about painting miniatures is not to stress oneself out over the matter. It is a leisure activity after all, and the great majority of us don't paint for a living. 

I found out that I still had more than five hundred(!) 1/72 eighteenth century figures from various produce, and since I sort of hit a painter's block with my TYW/ECW collection, these came in handy for a change. Some were painted and needed touching up only, some were primed and some just bare plastic. 

I did not really have a plan for them, until I made the mental connection with my Schultze-Böhnstadt Imagi-Nations setting, so here they are, three dozen figures in three battalions of the Flossian Union: a regular fusilier, a mercenary Glambrian and a local militia unit.

Welcome to the Future

The beginnings of an 18th century naval campaign are currently on my mind. The basic premises are that it is centered around an Ottoman force running the blockade at the Pirate Bay, and then trying to capture as many merchantmen as possible.

For this, harbor defenses for creative use were necessary, and I began constructing a medium-sized ship "in ordinary". However, scratchbuilding such things, while cost-effective, is very time-consuming. I started looking for alternatives, and thought that even with the worst possible results, a 3D print of an old semi-derelict vessel of war could be a good start.

While I don't own a 3D printer myself, by the suggestion of my wife, I found an on demand 3D printing service nearby. You just upload the .stl file to the website, scale it up or down, get a quote and in a few days you receive the final product by courier.

It was kind of hit or miss, but worth a try. I downloaded a free .stl template of a 1/700 scale large frigate from Wargaming3D, blew up the model to a 150% scale (to better match my own fleet of 1/500-ish ships), and made an order worth about 7 Euros including p&p for the pair.

You can see the results above. I went over the models with a lighter to remove most of the fine threads sticking out, but overall I think they look pretty fine, and there is not a lot more prep work to do on them than on some old injection-moulded stuff. Some filling and sanding required here and there. One will be the Böhnstadt flagship SMS Jagdhund, and the other an Ottoman/Tekirdag razée of 40 guns, without masts or sails, ready to be towed to battle (or not).

 

Arca d'Imperatrice Schiavona

 

This is the flagship of the private war fleet belonging to the House of Schiavona. It's a 1/600 scale model of the galeon La Couronne, which I believe is no longer in production - I found it in a modeling thrift store-like business.

The ship herself is quite old, but the name is new - all of her hull has been repaired and modified, resulting in a fighting ship of 74 cannon. The name signifies the imperial ambitions of the leader of Quattro Formaggi, Beatrice Schiavona. The Formaggians do not customarily name kings and queens - emperors and empresses, however, are a different business. With rebellion raging in the North and the Kingdom of Glambria already claiming much of Western Formaggia, something needs to happen that changes the game. Refurbishing an old galeon and naming it in such a way might just be that thing.

I've built this same model before, turning it into a modest Protestant warship. Now I went over the top with the decorations - the dark green and golden yellow are a matching pair, I think. All the plastic masts and sails had been replaced, and a semblance of rigging was introduced.

SRKS Tajni Möjem

 

This is the Sjelle Regal Krigskjeppet Tajni Möjem. Sjelle is an independent territory of the Kingdom of Gluteborg-Varangia in my Schultze-Böhnstadt imaginary universe. She sports both the Royal Varangian and the Independent Sjelle ensigns. 

Tajni Möjem is a 26-gun single-deck warship, which might be called a corvette or a ship-rigged sloop of war. She has a shallow draft to traverse the many rocky channels and inlets of the Sjelle Islands. 

The ship's hull is way back from this post; compared to the other ships I have been building, it would simply have been too small for a full-sized frigate of war. But navies need smaller vessels, too, so I made her with an open gundeck. The hull is slim but rather simplistic: it lacks the usual ornamentation of 18th century warships. The sails are made from table cloth, I think, while the ensigns are satin. Every bit is scratchbuilt, including the cannon and the wheel.

The Royal Insolencian Flagship

This is the Royal Insolencian Navy's flagship, the Nuestra Senora Santa Maria de Concepcion Immaculata e Bendecida por San Felipe e San Antonio de Habana. It is a large and cumbersome three-decker, made in the waning colonies of the West Indies, mostly from red mahogany wood. She is currently stationed in the Mediterranean, overseeing the activities of the international anti-piracy squadron around the Pirate Bay of the northern Barfrican Coast.

The Böhnstadt Royal Frigate Dachshund sets sail

After a failed attempt, I managed to produce the first of the small scale Schultze-Böhnstadt Navy frigates, the famed Dachshund. There is no fixed scale, I just made her to a slightly smaller size than comparable 1/450 and 1/600 scale models like the Heller Le Superbe, La Couronne, and the Revell Spanish Galeon, all of which I'm using as contemporary warships. 

The Dachshund was completed to protect Schultze-Böhnstadt overseas interest, guard trading routes and present the flag around the globe. There are whispers that an Albionic-led anti-piracy squadron is due to assemble at the northern Barfrican coast, near the famed Pirate Bay, and she might be needed there.

The Klagimir Republican Navy

This is the fledgling, and honestly quite underpaid Klagimir Republican Navy at the beginning of the Mesr Wars.

This is a semi-historical project, basically I allocate a yearly budget to the navy, and they can purchase and develop things from there. It is partly based on the WW1 Ottoman Navy, but more in spirit (e.g. purchasing semi-obsolete units from world powers) than historical ships. Similarly, some ships you can see below are historical, while others are complete fiction. Some names are derived from the Turk language, some are not.

1/2000 Sailing Ships

Something a little bit different from WW1-era ships, these are small scratchbuilt vessels that I intend to use for my Schultze-Böhnstadt ImagiNations. On the above image a Tekirdagian pirate fleet comprised of a xibec, three galleys and two galiots.

And this is the allied anti-piracy squadron made up of the Böhnstadt frigates Jagdhund and Schweinhund, and the Armagnac 74-gun ships of the line Piété and Humilité.

The hulls are a balsa composite of 1mm and 2mm sheets, the sails are paper and bamboo, the rigging is made of brush bristles. At 1/2000, these medium-sized ships of the line reach a bit over 2cm, and most of them are based on 15mm by 40mm bases. They are very simple to assemble and paint, look great from a distance, and are a lot cheaper than 1/2400 metal models.

I left enough space on the base so that small markers could fit. I have three rule sets that I will be able to use with them: Kiss Me Hardy, Fighting Sail and Galleys&Galleons, and I think all of them use some sort of marker or another.

Colonial Power

Here's the first unit of Revell Austrians painted in SYW/GNW Russian uniform color. They look quite nice once painted. 

Also, the 30 palm trees from the venerable Asian vendor had arrived. I cut them to different heights, then placed a few of them on bases, and drybrushed then with light brown and green to look less like toys.

Native troops

Just a quick update showing the first of the Revell SYW figures painted up as somewhat dark-skinned natives in service of any colonial army. The skintone is acutally a bit brighter than is shown. I coated the bods in woodglue as the paint was suspiciously flaking off. 

In the following episodes, you shall be able to learn how I spent a ton of money on 28mm figures. Stay tuned!

Dragoons

These are the Italeri British light dragoons. Nice and slim figures and a joy to paint after all the ugly Strelets ones. They have received hat conversions so they can be part of any European army.

The Old and the Even Older

So I stripped these Airfix British Grenadiers for the 3rd time or so and painted them real nice. 

I've come to like them and thought, hey, if I can get them cheap/in bulk, they and their counterpart (Washington's Army) would be a good addition to the collection. But of course, being Out of Production, they come at horrendous prices, especially if one considers their aesthetic value.

Nova Hungaria: The Iron Road

I think these images were made at the end of November, but I've never quite got to post them. After reading Winstons Churchill's 'The River War', I've had the desire for some colonial action. 

As the Nova Hungaria railroad expands towards the southern outposts, the hill tribes become very agitated by its prospects, and 'agitated' usually means ready to fight in hill tribe language.

The activation sequence was borrowed from 'Easy tricorne', a less sophisticated but faster resolution, and we've used the combat rules from VEW. 

Baccus Goodness

Another two hundred or so 6mm figures join the collection (I honestly don't know how many is there in total). The Baccus packs are the following: WSS line infantry (much superior to the GNW sets, I'll probably replace them at some point), WSS dismounted dragoons (to be used both as mounted and foot Freikorps), and SYW 'Hungarian' grenadiers, for everything bearskin related.

Formaggian Honor Guard

Some fresh and some older figures in this post: the last GNW figures from the big Strelets box, and a group of Zvezda SYW Prussians in very bright uniforms, rebased as a part of the bigger project.

The MDF army marches to battle.

I have finally completed the Commission Figurines MDF lot with these three units of foot and horse. I've also painted up a bunch of scratchbuilt cannon with Heroics and Ros gunners.

More tricorne

Quite a handful of 18th century figures are the topic of this post. They had waited for a long time, primed and hanging out on one of my temporary storage trays. Four Strelets personality figures on the left from the Court of Peter I set, a mounted officer (perhaps the Tsar himself) and a trumpeter from the same, then the thirteen remaining figures from the Accurate AWI militia, and some others below in the post!

First MDF troopers

I thought the next 6mm army should be cost-effective so I ordered some infantry and cavalry in bicorne hats from Commission Figurines. This has been planned for a long time, and I can safely say I don't regret purchasing them.

These would be ImagiNation figures suitable for games with other 6mm armies or proxies for SYW/GNW Russians.