'Nautical' from MarkO - 'Artillerie de la Marine'

Marine artillery infantry formations were an important part of the French army at Leipzig. Created from previously sedentary naval artillery formations, they fought hard and suffered more losses than just about any other units of the French army. At the start of the campaign they numbered 17,338 men, and at the end just 3,661 were still fit for duty, plus 1700 who had been transferred to other units like the Guard Artillery. At Leipzig their dark blue uniforms and great coats caused the Prussians to mistake them for the Imperial Guard.

In the Order of Battle I have planned for Leipzig, these four regiments will represent the 4 Brigades of the 20th and 21st Division of Marmont's Corp, which were composed predominantly of these troops.

The figures are Victrix Middle Guard figures (with converted plumes as detailed at bottom of this post).

Uniforms were painted with Vallejo Prussian Dark Blue, highlighted with Vallejo Dark Blue.

Here's a picture without the flash, to show the colour of the uniforms in more natural light!

There are lots of grey areas about details of these troops uniform. Possibly they had a mix of Shakos and Bicornes but I left the Bicornes for the officers for my regiments, as I had few spare. Apparently one distinctive feature was that the Shako featured a carrot shaped plume, as shown in the pictures below. 

I decided to do a simple conversion to get the carrot shaped plume, so out came the craft knife and putty. I chopped down the top tassel of the pom pom to make a spike, and then used some Tamiya Putty to make the overall piece into a rough carrot shape. Didn't take too long!

96 figures = 480 points. That should help the points along! I'll reset my points target for 1500.

'Nautical' from MartinC - 'Divers and the Red Octopus'

The divers knew that the search for the treasure of the Santa Marta would be difficult but really this was too much.

The divers are Foundry that I picked up from Col Bills at the Durham show. The stones from my garden except the flat one which is a piece of crinoidal limestone  (Crinoids are tulip like corals from the permian (250 million years ago but are still around today as Sea Lillies.). The sand from the local beach, just to keep the marine them going. The sand is not glues in place, I tried this but it looked wrong.

The Octopus was found at Tynemouth  market after a couple of months of searching. It is soft plastic and was tricky to repaint. It's a little shiny but I'm pleased with the effect. To be honest the whole scene looks like I've  just photographed an aquarium

'Nautical' form MichaelA - 'Unleash the Clocktopus'

The penultimate bonus round of the 'VI Annual Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge’, ushers in ‘Nautical’ as its theme and I have to say that I have been really looking forward to this one. What could be more impressive than a Spanish Man O’ War in full sail, the fearsome iron clad monitors of the American Civil War or perhaps the silent threat of an Akula-class submarine? All potentially wonderful entries and none of which I possess! Fear naught, for having checked the definition of nautical in my Oxford English Dictionary, it would appear that I can unleash the Clocktopus in the certainty that it will, at least, be slightly less tenuous a link than a zombie killing tribute act or a Victorian gypsy!

But what, I hear you cry, is a Clocktopus? Simply put, it is the stuff of myth and fantasy dreamt up by the incredibly charming Kawe Weissi-Zadeh of ‘Westfalia Miniatures’ as part of their Steampunk Menagerie Kickstarter. Comprised of multiple parts, I cannot praise the quality of the casting enough; I have rarely, if at all, seen better. Given the sheer number of composite parts and possible weapon options I was a little apprehensive about the construction. Having selected my desired weapons, I pinned each of the tentacles to the body, giving them a little more strength. How and where you apply the tentacles seems to be left to the individual’s discretion and I was able to give a couple of the pre-formed appendages a gentle bend to allow this waterborne beastie to sit more securely – although I would be careful not to bend them too far and they might snap!

When it came to painting the Clocktopus, and for that matter the Steam Crab another of the menagerie’s bizarre frequenters, both were initially sprayed with Vallejo Glorious Gold followed by numerous washes and the picking out of details using different metallic colours before both pieces were matted down to take away the glare.

Bizarre Steampunk contraptions aside, (Could they be classed as Pulp possibly? I could certainly do with the points in the side duel.) I felt I wanted to keep some consistency with my bonus rounds posts and started to consider the possibility of a scenic base, sadly on this occasion my imagination was held in check by the grim realisation that time was already against me, that said I was keen to throw a couple more ingredients into the mix and happened upon a pack of ‘Foundry’ deep sea divers – a tale of derring-do beneath the waves started to unfold!

Not wanting to capitulate completely to the constraints of the clock I decided to re-appropriate another past creation – the gladiatorial arena from my ‘I am Gladiator’ entry in the 'IV Annual Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge’. This was already sand-like in colour and the ruined column could easily be suggestive of a long forgotten civilisation.

Resolved to breathe new life into an old vignette, I needed some additional paraphernalia and the addition of some urns, an anchor and a ship’s cannon (a crewed weapon perhaps?) started to allude to the depths of some uncharted sea.

At this point, I imagined that the piece was finished, but a chance reading of Blog post about ‘Warm Acre Games’ led to one more addition – a shark! I just couldn’t resist and as luck would have it, this formidable fish arrived just in time for me to slap on some colour before it took its place menacingly circling above the action. 

Given that this was a round that I felt that I had nothing to offer, I have to say that I am rather pleased with what I managed to cobble together. I am thoroughly enjoying this year’s challenge, particularly the dreaming up and execution of bonus round entries - a testament to the mutual appreciation and encouragement of my fellow challengers – thank you all.

'Nautical' from MilesR - '28mm USS Wasp'

 I humbly present to you what will be the centerpiece of my Historicon game this summer and my Nautical Bonus round entry - the US Navy Frigate Wasp in 28mm scale.  This is an all wood model that is half kit and half scratch built - I heavily modified the Laser Dreamworks kit.  The ship is shown next to the two gunboats that were  finished earlier for this year's challenge to give you a sense of scale of this beast - the gunboats are 12 and 18 inches long.

A close up of the deck - when building models for wargaming there's always a tradeoff between delicate detail and durability (the tabletop can be a rough place).  This model is intended to fight on the tabletop (it might be joined by similar sized British frigate one day) so I've gone with a light tough on the rigging and kept the deck fairly open to allow for figures to be moved about.  It's no fun trying to repel boarders and getting all tangled up in the rigging.

 The commissioning pennant.  All the flags are scratch made by yours truly in powerpoint.  I hate powerpoint, by the way.

A shot looking down the bow of the USS Wasp.

 A very brave British gunboat approaching the USS wasp in an apparent attempt to board her.  Will those dastardly redcoats be successful?  We'll have to wait and see this July at Historicon.

 Naval captains in the age of sail were very crafty and often operated under false flags and names.  Mostly this was to fool unsuspecting merchants but sometimes the renaming was out of respect for a lost ship or honorable challenger.  It seems today is that latter case as the USS Wasp has donned the name "Seis Grandes" in honor of this years challenge.  I've also heard the cook was serving the crew their hardtack with "genuine Canadian" maple syrup and back bacon.  Even more shocking is the fact that Molson's has been substituted for the daily grog ration.  High praise, indeed or should I say Ehhhh?.

 A shot down the starboard side of the Wasp.  She's armed with 16, 32 pound carronades and 2 12 pounder long guns.  The long guns are located near the bow and could be aimed either through a side gunport or a forward facing gunport.

 A close up of the bow.  The ship is flying the "Jack" flag which is flown when  ship is in port at the bow.  The 1814 version of the navy jack was a simple blue field with 15 stars for the 15 states at the time.  The modern USS navy has adapted the "Don't tread on me" snake flag as it's current jack and still flies them at the bow when in port.  The anchors are scratch built by me but are of a spanish design

 The nameplate for the Wasp - I attach these with double sided tape to make them easier to change out depending on the scenario at hand.

 A close up of the foremast and rigging.

 A similar shot of the mainmast - there's plenty of room in the tops to place marines with muskets.

 A finally a shot of the mizzen mast and US national Flag.  So just how big is this model - well lets go to the tape - literally.

 In terms of length, she's 37 inches long and....

 The main mast is 29 inches high - it's a pretty big model.  Both storing it and then moving it to a con game will prove challenging.  The wife's already inquired about the former and then, very helpfully, gave a long list of places where it can't go.  She also helpfully provided one suggestion for a location to place the model but decorum and human physiology make that suggestion untenable.

 The foretops are manned and ready to try and pick off those pesky British commanders - all we need is one good shot at that blackhearted British Admirals Cockburn and Cochrane and maybe the Chesapeake "terror campaign of 1814" can finally be ended....

 Looking down her bow...

A gun boat moves up to help the repel the Brits.

Here's an image of the flags I made in power point.  Despite my hatred of the program it was actually kind of fun and is a nice addition to my modelers tool kit.

The first USS Wasp has a short but interesting career- during her first cruise of the war she headed straight at a British convey  of 14 ships and entered into combat with the escorting brig, the HMS Frolic.  The Frolic also sported 18 guns so if was a "fair fight" (pictured to the left).  The fighting was brutal and both ships were heavily damaged but the Wasp's crew gunnery skills proved superior to the British and they were able to take the ship.  While trying to make repairs a much larger British third rate (74 guns), the HMS Poicteres came upon the scene and captured the helpless Wasp.  The Wasp was renamed the HMS Peacock and was put into British service until lost in a storm in 1814.

Ok in terms of points, I'll leave it up to you and your impeccable sense of artistic style, justice and fair play. She was a lot of fun to build and reconfigure.  I do know there are 18 28mm scaled cannons on the ship so that's a start for pointing.  All of the figures shown in the pictures were completed earlier in the Challenge so there should be no incremental points for figure with this score.  Ummm, you did notice she's named after the challenge - not trying to curry any special favor or anything but the naming of a ship after the challenge is probably a bit better than even naming a child after you.  I also got several splinters during the build process so fully expect sympathy points....

:)

'Nautical' from Millsy - 'Jennifer Dee, Steamy Tramp'

"Jennifer Dee", Steamy Tramp

 Type: Coal burning tramp steamer
Length: 20"
Beam: 5"
Weight: 750 deadweight grams
Max Speed: 10 knots

The "Jennifer Dee" is a 1:56 turn-of-the-20th-century tramp steamer. She's very much an  interpretation of the marque and not a true scale model. She's designed for use in Pulp and VBCW games  and as such has some accomodations to allow for gaming i.e. very small bridge to maximise space for miniatures outside.

From a design point of view she owes a great deal to Eric the Shed's wonderful rendition and also a  number of similar efforts from the Lead Adventure forum. For all that she's very much my own creation and from about the time the hull proper was complete took on a life of her own. Many of my wargaming models and terrain pieces are like this, evolving as they go with me tweaking things to add character or simply what seems right as the model develops.

Most of her is put scratch built using a range of materials, most notably blue insulation foam,  various thicknesses of card and foamcore, timber and plasticard. The only commercial components are the  anchors, bollards, life preservers and ventilators. These are all difficult to model quickly because of  the compound curves so I elected to spend my time elsewhere because I knew she'd be a bit effort anyway.

 The hardest part was the hull, which was laid down by hot wire cutting blue insulation foam sandwiched  between card templates to ensure a smooth shape. Three layers of laminated card were followed by a run of  plastic-coated garden wire and masking tape along the top edge, before a final internal and external layer of plates for  further solidity and some visual interest.

All up she took something like 20 hours, split into 5 for the hull, 10 for the superstructure and  fittings and another 5 for painting and decoration. Possibly a few more but who's counting?

The boom crane and superstructure are removable for transport and storage. The cargo hold cover is also removable, however this is to allow for different cargoes (i.e. coal carrier) or a solid deck with weaponry.

The Jennifer Dee is named after my lovely, exoitc wife and *yes* I did ask before naming a "tramp" after  her. I'm neither mad nor suicidal (don't start Docherty!) so it seemed the sensible thing to do. Speaking  of Mr Docherty, I very much suspect there might be a squeaky cabin boy namesake sailing on her maiden voyage.

NB. The crew are not part of the entry, they are just to show scale. There'll be some lovely Bob Murch  / Pulp Figures tramp steamer crew and weaponry appearing sooner rather than later.

I hope you like her. She's a workhorse no doubt but she has some lovely lines and will never let you down, not  unlike her namesake. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a little light reading to do...

Cheers,
Millsy