The Pewter-Pixel Wars

 The naval project, hinted at in my previous post, is indeed Great War naval in 1/2400.  This marks a return to one of my original historical projects, as I first dabbled with these dreadnoughts in the mid 1990's using the fine miniatures from CinC.  Another attempt in this century was made with 1/3000 ships and again with 1/1800, but nothing really stuck and many of these ships were accidentally discarded.

But, the world turns and so does my attention, and here we are back with 1/2400, this time with GHQ ships.  I am trying to guide this project along a few lines:  one, as a solo project I am going to try and not get too carried away with purchases (we'll see!); two, also along the lines of a solo project I am going to try and purchase these ships as they come on sale from GHQ or other sources; three, limiting the theatre of operations to the Baltic (and maybe the Black Sea); and lastly to not be too concerned with historical squadrons and just get a game on.

First up are some Russians:

GHQ lists them as BB-class, but in reality they are pre-dreadnoughts.  Slava and Tsessarevitch are survivors of the Russo-Japanese War, and Imperator Pavel is only slightly more recent.

A mixed bag of cruisers:

And a few German heavy units:

The shift away from purely historical encounters starts straight away with these selections.  SEYDLITZ, as far as I know, did not engage in any combat missions in the Baltic during the Great War, but I certainly will put her in harm's way.  And SEYDLITZ will not be the only one, as I intend to get the Russian Gangut-class battleships in action as well, eventually.

Next item on the list is rules.  I have some in mind already, old ones and newer ones to try out.

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Another 'for posterity's sake' pic, to remind me of exactly what sort of damage I did to a miniature (!):


This is the Langton Octeres, just prior to having the bow hacked and slashed.  This ship will be receiving the goblin's head, and a new ram...


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I recently became the proud owner of some new ship miniatures:



More Langton ships, all the way from Down Under courtesy of Ian (who has a fine blog at Thomo's Hole!)  The package included ten Bronze Age Egyptian and ten Sea Peoples ships along with bases.  Of course, what to do with them...  The first course will be to integrate them into my Tékumel fantasy naval project, where, due to their older appearance and small size, they will be representing minor powers (the Tsoléi Islands among others) or perhaps pirates.

And, here are some more detailed pics of the recent purchase:




These miniatures are somewhat smaller than the triremes and such that I have featured earlier.  They might be small enough to be classed as srügánta or even séscha.  These will fit in well with the rest of the collection...



Speaking of the rest, I have been messing about with the Langton Deceres, which I have decided will be a Mu'ugalavyáni zírunel:



I have decided not to graft the goblin's head onto the prow of this vessel, which will grace the Tsolyáni version instead.  The big alteration here, and one that might be extended onto all Red Hat ships, is the replacement of the standard Langton towers, which are shaped more like a cube, with cylindrical alternatives.  The original mast, of white metal, has been replaced with a piece of brass wire with a small bead topping it for a crow's nest.

None of this is glued up yet.  I have yet to decide if this is suitable.  With the similarities of the designs of the miniatures, I am striving to have some differences in the fleets of the various empires beyond the painted finish.  But, are the towers a bit too much???

#Tekumel
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Before I start to abuse more miniatures, maybe it would be nice to post some pics of the subjects before undergoing the knife:


This is a Langton deceres, which is destined to become a zírunel. 




Two pics of a goblin miniature, 15mm in size, that will supply the basis of a new prow for the zírunel.  At first glance, it does look a little large for a 1/1200 ship, but I intend to blend the head into the ship structure somewhat.  Hopefully the conversion will look something close to OK once the knife is set down!

Also up for consideration are a few more add-ons, such as towers, and a decision on nationality - is this a Tsolyáni vessel, or is it Mu'ugalavyáni?  Blue, or red?


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Not much in the mood for painting lately, but I am finding something to occupy myself:



I am in the process of coming up with a plan for my 1/1200 ship miniatures, and the few modifications that I think would be needed to give them a bit of Tékumel flavoring.  If you look at this excellent post at Pagálnikèlikh gàQadóshumashumámrakoi, you will see some artwork that I find very interesting and I intend to shamelessly steal the inspiration for my own!

So, I am digging through some old miniatures, looking for heads and other bitz that I can use.  In the pic, above, you will see several different types of 15mm miniatures, fantasy and historical, that might be useful.  There are some 10mm figures around here as well.  Then, I will need to come up with a plan...


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And now, a closer look at the Langton ships:

The first flotilla of Langton Miniatures (ordered through Waterloo Minis) has arrived:



They are looking good so far; I just need to sort them out by size to match their Tékumel counterparts.  I think that I will need a few more samples as the smallest ships types might not be covered...


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I'm trying to decide if I should set a different course on this project, due to several factors.  My source of very inexpensive Xyston ships has dried up; table space for a game is at a premium, and I still have nagging doubts about the Xyston ships themselves - they just do not look right.  So, I have taken the opportunity to order a small sampling of other ships - 1/900 Valiant ships, and 1/1200 from Langton.

The first set of ships has arrived - from Valiant:



A trio of Heptares.  Although a length for the miniature is given on the Valiant web site, I was still surprised at them.

Here is a closer look:



Looks like assembly will be straightforward, although I seem to have too many starboard-side oar banks (see the bottom ship in the above pic).  I will send off an e-mail about that.

No matter what scale I finally choose, and I can see using a combo of 1/900 (for larger ships) and 1/1200 (for the rest especially cargo ships), I intend to use some of the ideas found here.


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... after a long absence!  

I have not picked up a paintbrush, however, in about five months, so I have little in the way of tangible progress.  I have done a bit of thinking about my biggest problem - mass-battle rules! - and have come to some conclusions but all of that will wait until I get my order of shiny new Ahoggyá along with a few other miniatures.

In the meantime, I am trying to work on two other issues for my Tékumel gaming.  One - terrain.  I have some old projects that will be dusted off and a few new ones to start.  Hopefully I will have some pics to post soonish.

Number two - naval.  My Xyston ships have been sat in a box for quite some time, but thanks to some inspiration - from Hetairoi's post here, and a post by Artorius here, I feel the need to get cracking on my Tsolyanú squadrons again.


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One of the projects collecting dust (but not forgotten!) on my hobby desk is this little guy:




No, I have not made any actual 'progress' on the Qél, mostly because something was bothering me about it.  Something just did not look right.  Actually, it is several things...  First, the 'castle' as seen in the mid-deck seems very small - it could hold two maybe three marines at most.  Second, the steering oars near the stern of the vessel do not seem to be as prominent in the drawings of Tékumeli vessels in Qadárdàlikoi.  Third, the masts seem a bit close together.  But, that is just a symptom of another issue - the Xyston miniature is not quite the right length:




The piece of balsa is the average length of a Qél according to Qadárdàlikoi.  


So, what to do?


Despite the issues, I like the Xyston ships, but future builds might be slightly modified.  I'm thinking of omitting the steering oars and the foremast from the Qéls built after this one.  The Qél above will be kept in this configuration, and will be an archaic design kept around because it was some Tsolyanú admiral's first command.




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With just a bit of effort, I was able to take the plastic masts off the iron dought, and replace them with brass:


These are much taller than the previous masts, so there will be enough room at the top for spandarions.  I still need to add the bracing but it is close, finally, for paint.

A little bit of progress here with my first Tékumel-style naval vessel:




The original mini is a Xyston Hellenistic Quinquireme, which can be seen in its original form here.  In its Tékumel form, it shall be a Tsolyáni Qél.  I have changed around the deck somewhat as compared to the original, and readers of long standing will also notice that yet again I have changed my mind about the masts!!!    The base is a piece of 3mm thick plywood, 80mm by 40mm, from Litko.  


It is not quite completely assembled, as evidenced by the parts alongside the base, but it is really coming together this time and I am satisfied with my plan for the ultimate form.




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Apologies for the long delay - it is high time to sort things out here!

I have to admit that I hit a mental wall of sorts with this project, mostly because my budget for hobby materials collapsed somewhat.  I have been concentrating on the Tékumel minis more, but it is time to get going here as well.  However, the quartos and baskets will need to wait a while longer; I have yet to get any suitable minis for the skirmish games.  So, I am going to try and get the slipways going again for the ship project with a critical eye turned out towards making the ships faster and of course nicer.

The first ship still does not look quite right to me - the masts are too short and off-kilter especially.  I have yet to decide if I should tear it apart for another go or just leave it for now and replace it later when my skill level increases.  She is a nifty little vessel, if you squint a bit!

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With a little bit of free time at the table recently, I turned to making my first scratch-built Tékumel ship, a srügánta (comparable to a Greek bireme):


Plastic and balsa together for the hull. Oh boy, is it a chunky ship! Just goes to show that simply measuring things does not make a nice mini. The srügánta drawing in Qadárdàlikoi is much more sleek, although it does have an interesting sternwalk. Also, when I realized that my ship was not coming along, I made a very simple mistake and did not test-fit the aft superstructure piece before gluing it down; if you could see the mini from a top view it would be obvious, and too wide.

With the above in mind, I tried to draw some designs for more suitable ships:


The versions of srügánta here are still fairly chunky compared to the original, so I need to work with that. The zírunel, however, should be properly large and imposing and the drawing tries to be. I am also experimenting with slightly different architecture styles for the different nations plying the seas. I would like the ships of Tsolyánu flotillas to not only be a different color but a subtly different shape from their Mu'ugalavyáni counterparts.


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My copy of Qadárdàlikoi arrived very recently, and although it is a book that mainly deals with land battles on Tékumel, it has some nice information of the naval side of things. And, accordingly, it presents myself with a dilemma.

In the section on naval warfare, there are stats and line drawings on six of the most common vessels used. These vessels are, for the most part, not very similar to the Xyston ships I have just purchased! So, a decision needs to be made [actually I have already made up my mind but I am dragging it out for you the reader ;) ]: use the Xyston ships and go a more 'faux' Tékumel look; or scratchbuild new ships based on the line drawings?

Now, I can not really foresee giving up entirely on the Xyston ships. In fact, the Xyston merchant vessel is rather similar to a Tnék, except it lacks a lateen foresail. The weapon and sail kits will be handy, and I might use the oar banks from the Xyston ships I already have on the scratchbuilt ships. So the Xyston purchase is not a complete bust!


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More bits and pieces have been added to the first iron dought in my shipyard:


The ship is pretty close to being at the end of the build phase now. I have yet to decide on whether to add the gunports or to decorate the stern. For the sake of simplicity the rigging will not be added. The masts need some adjusting - when the supports were glued in they appear to have pulled the masts a bit when the glue dried. A gentle application to a knife should fix that as the crooked masts just do not look right. Then it is off to be painted!

One more pic:


I think a different background is needed for these pics!

Another brief update:


I have added the rostrum and some more superstructure bits. The metal pieces are some 1/2400 scale ship's boats that I have hoarded for a long time. They are produced by CinC ( website ). 1/2400 might seem too small for this 1/1200 ship, but they match the original drawing almost perfectly; I suspect they are a bit too large for 1/2400 in the first place. But they look the part!

More and more small steps on the way toward launch:


On my other blog, I wrote about purchasing some Xyston 1/600 ancient ships. Along with the ships, I bought some extra ship-board artillery, and after they arrived, I thought that some of them might make good lambasts for Half Continent ships.


Here is the basic hull and a sprue of ballista. They are a little large, but should work just fine. Also in this photo, one can just make out the deck planking - it will be much more apparent when painted.




And this is the hull with some extra parts for the deck fittings alongside. After looking again at the original artwork for this ship, I have made my mini with a greatly exaggerated vertical measurement - the hull is much taller than the scale. It is OK though, it does not look too bad and I like it! Even the piece with the hole drilled off-center...