Mini Ship Gaming

Some progress:



Here are the contents of the Haitian rebel ship package - hulls, masts, bowsprits, funnels, and deck guns!  Fortunately, there are good pics of the assembled models on the FB page, and line drawings in the Salnave's War book.  Phil (of Spithead Miniatures) also sent a helpful e-mail detailing some of the differences he decided for the models, and suggested painting guides.




After a bit of sorting, the models are ready for assembly.  I need to review my basing plan before going much further.




Last but not least, the government squadron is sorted.

I am trying to get my wargaming 'sea legs' back!

A new arrival has piqued my interest:


These are 1/1200 ship models from Spithead Miniatures for the Haitian Revolution (Salnave's War) of 1867.  Also pictured above is an ACW 90-day gunboat and USS Benton.

To accompany these wonderful models, I picked up a copy of this:


This slender book is a concise source of information for the vessels and battles at sea during the revolution, including maps and drawings of all the ships present.

With my recent order to Waterloo Minis, I added a sampling of the Langton War of 1812 ships:




Here we have a pair of schooners that could be used for either faction on the Great Lakes.  Each model is comprised of five cast pieces - hull and masts - and a set of photo-etch sails.  Beautifully cast in the Langton manner, and oh my, are they small.  Each square on the grid in the pics is ¼" (6.35mm) - the hulls are less than 1" (25mm) in length.

The second pair of miniatures for my Anglo-Dutch naval project recently arrived.  These ships are Langton, and they were purchased through Waterloo Minis:



This is Langton AD8, a British 4th Rate vessel, 48-56 guns.  13 pieces total.  I decided to try cast sails for this batch, just to see how much difference there will be in assembly compared to the photo-etch variety, plus they were a bit less expensive.  Beautifully detailed, as one would expect from Langton.






This is Langton AD14, a Dutch 4th Rate of 46 guns.  Again, 13 pieces make up this model, and again beautifully detailed.  It is interesting to note the size difference between the two 4th rates - the British ships are a fair amount larger than their Dutch counterparts.


The easy part is now complete!  Next is to figure out basing and rigging essentials, as I want to have all of the supplies present before I start any assembly.

Along with the Anglo-Dutch ships, I purchased a few miniatures for an era that I once played extensively - ACW naval:


These ships are part of a new series of ships from Thoroughbred Models.  Thoroughbred is well-known for their line of 1/600 ACW ships, and I once had quite a few.  They were sold years ago to make ends meet, but now I am ready to return to the genre except that my new collection will be in 1/1200 scale.


First up is CSS Arkansas:


Just 43mm or so in length, this model is a bit small but the detail is very nice.  This is a one-piece cast, although there is a flagstaff and flag included with the kit.

Here is a port bow shot:




Next is a Union 90-day gunboat:




This model is more complicated, with masts, bowsprit, foredeck, and a pair of separately-cast guns.


Following these is another Union vessel.  This one is an armed ferry:



Not a big ship at 37mm in length, but there is a lot of detail including a very nice 'walking beam' assembly for the engines.


Honestly, I find this project to be much less intimidating than the Anglo-Dutch ships, simply due to the greatly reduced amount of rigging needed per ship.  Some of these will required little to none.  Of course, once I get to USS Hartford, things will change!

This is the start of my newest naval project; just a pair of ships but I find it to be very daunting.  The rigging of these ships will be the hard part for me to overcome!


Here is the first step - a pair of lovely 3rd rates in 1/1200 scale from Langton.  (Edit:  purchased from Waterloo Miniatures)  (and the ratlines are sold separately!).

Inside the box one will find:


Above are the parts for the Dutch 3rd rate (Langton AD19).  The hull is three pieces, while the masts and sails comprise a total of 15 pieces.  All of the wonderful details that one expects from a Langton miniature are here.





The parts of the English kit (Langton AD9) are similar.

Please note that these miniatures are not very large.  The pics above are on a ¼" (6.35 mm) grid.  The hulls are less than 2" (51mm) long overall.

After reading the books I received about ancient Egyptian ships, I was able to piece together a list of common building materials for the Pharaoh's navy:

Acacia
Sycamore
Cedar (red and white)

Also used, but much less often:

Cypress
Pine


Cedar, of course, would be imported from the Levant and was often used for funerary barges for the high-ranking citizens and royalty.  I intend to paint up only a few ships in red cedar, and the rest in a more tan color.  Masts, as another nifty detail, were often made of the same material as the hull.

Here are some closer looks at the recent purchase:










I am still digging into some research on the fleets, but the fleet lists from Naumachiae list several types of ships for both the Egyptians and Sea Peoples.  It would be interesting to get a mix of ships, especially for the Sea Peoples, as they were a loose confederation of tribes their ships should be different also.  It is interesting to note that this Sea Peoples vessel was modeled without oar banks.  How hard might it be to add some?

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.

But, it occurred to me that they could be used for historical purposes also.  I could paint them up in historical schemes, and they would still fit in with the fantasy scheme.  Some sea battles circa 1200 BC might be fun, and it would not be hard to expand the collection, especially if some of the other Langton ships fit in time-wise, maybe the 20-oar galley or pentecontors to represent Mycenaean or Trojan ships  :)

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...

Over on one of my other blogs, I have been slowly working on a system to create a fantasy naval collection based on Tékumel, which can be seen here.  Unfortunately, I have found that I really do not like the Xyston ships that I had originally purchased, and my source of very inexpensive Xyston ships dried up, so I am investigating a different scale.  And, recently I found these:






No actual ships though, which is a bit disappointing!  (These are bases for Langton ships)



I do have a selection of Langton ancient ships on order, and some Valiant ships as well.  I will be posting pics and info here and the other blog, so apologies in advance if you are one of the few that will getting multiple posts on the same subject matter...