Landing at Kip's Bay

As a prelude to the write-up for my Battle of Harlem Heights scenario I wrote, I've staged a scene of the Landing at  Kip's Bay.

September 15, 1776, in the wake of the disastrous (for the Continental Army, anyway) battle of Long Island, saw Crown Forces land in strength at Kip's Bay, north of the city of New York, to cut off and capture the large metropolitan area. Under a heavy naval bombardment, the rebel militia forces faltered and broke, leaving the British troops to land almost unopposed.

The Yankees fled northward up the narrow island of Manhattan, pursued by the British Regulars, who would attempt again to trap and capture the army, putting an end to the Rebellion once and for all.

Arming the HMS Sophie part 1

Having come across a good deal on a set of six turned brass cannon barrels at a local hobby shop, I am finally able to start properly arming my ship models. However, since they did not come with laser-cut wood parts, this means building my own naval gun carriages from scratch.

HMS Sophie Part 6 - Aft Cabin Renovation

Finally jumping back into my 28mm Royal Navy Brig project, it is time to revise the windows for the aft cabin. I feel my current version detracts from the rest of the model, so I am removing the part, and adding windows based on examples of 18th C. warships, and simplifying them to fit the look and scale of the ship.

Don't forget your Old Shipmate (Navy basing part 1)

Having completed painting the uniforms of my Royal Navy Landing Party, it is time to give some attention to their bases.

Two if by Sea, or The Doctor is In

I recently had the pleasure of exercising my AWI figures in a game with Lord Z.E. Whitlow. We set up an amphibious landing scenario on my kitchen table. Not exactly a standard game table size, we had a playing field of about 3 x 7 feet, including about a foot and a half as water, featuring the HMS Sophie as transport, and a beached Dred Hawk

 We used a slight variation on the Alamo rules by Warhammer Historical, to account for the range difference between muskets and rifles.
For the scenario, the Crown Forces were to begin on their transport ships and/or beach, and attempt to sieze a munitions supply in a nearby coastal town.

To oppose them, the local militia is called up, and aided with support from the Continental Army and French allied regulars. The British used the Texas Army list from Alamo, while the Continental force ran as a version of the Mexican army list, as it allowed for more of a militia presence.

In addition to the battle, we also ran a game within a game, since Mr Whitlow has an impressive Dr Who miniature collection. The Doctor would randomly land within the game, and pursue a creature though the battlefield, attempting to bring it back to the TARDIS.

Abhorring violence, the Dr tries to convince the men he's landed in to stop killing each other.

...but to no avail.

...while the Navy watched the battle, aloof on the harbor.

Naval Crew, Part II

These men were seen crewing the deck of the Dred Hawk, but I wanted to give you a closer look. Again, these models are Foundry Swashbuckers with Boarding Pikes (sans pike). This leaves their hands in the best positions I could find to be handling lines and actually sailing their ship.

These were a lot of fun to paint up; I have always enjoyed painting Foundry faces. The crew was painted in a limited pallet to look a bit more like a naval crew rather than pirates (though I dare say they could be serviceable as the latter).

This is by far my favorite model of the set. I love the short jacket, common among sailors until the introduction of the Pea Coat in the 19th century. As in all the bases, his is done with deck planking courtesy of my local Starbucks. The coffee stirs were glued to the base, then trimmed and sanded to fit the round edges. The coil of line on the deck in front of him is hemp twine that i untwined and then twisted into a rope of the proper scale, and glued to the deck. The metal base that extends between his feet was carefully trimmed off, and the completed, painted figure was then pinned to the finished decking with a cut-down sewing pin (the type that comes in men's shirts at Christmas time...) from underneath.

This one was fairly straightforward, with the same finishing as the above figure. I don't think this photo does justice to the subtlety, but his shirt is painted closer to a stark white, to look like a linen work shirt, while I gave his slops a more yellowish tinge to look more like cotton sail cloth.

This one really needs a swab, either for a gun or for the deck. This particular scuplt reminds me of a friend of mine from the San Diego Maritime Museum.

The last man of the group, with grey slops, and a straw hat. I painted it flat black, as a tarred sailor's hat.
I have always liked painting nautical figures, and hope to add more to my crew soon. These men will also crew my HMS Sophie until I am able to acquire some Napolonic British Sailors, likely also Foundry, unless I discover something I like more.

HMS Sophie Part 5

As I was working with a hand auger, and not a power drill, my mast holes are not exactly the size I was hoping for when I drilled them.

Uneven Hole

To compensate for this, I have wrapped paper around the base of my masts until they plug in snugly.

A completed Mast section

On the test fit, they now stay in place quite nicely, yet are still removable for storage.

There's still much to be done, but i'm pleased at how this is coming together.

HMS Sophie Part 4: Hull details

Bowsprit and fo'c's'le

The bowsprit is nested and glued into a hole i drilled at an angle into the solid hull (another perk of doing the hull as one piece). I've attached the upper part using my craft twine, and you can faintly make out two wire loops. These will attach the removable rigging (forestay and fore topmast stay).

Deck detailing courtesy of Starbucks

The actual deck is made of carefully selected coffee stirs gleaned with permission from local Starbucks. I cut them to size with side cutters, then filed the raw edges smooth on an emery board. They are held down with superglue, as I found that Elmers doesn't hold fast enough to keep them from springing back up. One all glued in place, it is sanded lightly, and i drilled holes at the edges of the planks with a pin vise.

Functional Deck Ladder

The gunwales have ladders integrated onto the sides (as does the HMS Surprise on which I've based much of this). These are spaced to hold figures based with more coffee stirs. My officer of Artillery shows functionality of the ladder, and also serves to give some sense of scale here.

Sophie's aft cabin and rudder

Here we have the aft cabin of HMS Sophie, as well as the top of her rudder. I am not entirely satisfied with how this portion came out, and may revise it in the future. The intent was to make a faux leaded glass window using window screen painted as the lead over a dark blue plastic card underneath. This technique has looked good on some scenery buildings in the past, but does not seem to quite do it here.

HMS Sophie Part 3

Continuing on with the construction of my 18th-19th century Sloop of War, here are some Hull shots of HMS Sophie.

Hull of my HMS Sophie, already afloat in the waters she'll be sailing.

Again, the hull is a solid plank of 2x6 left over from a musket stock project, shaped with planes and rasp files. One gunport was built out of small planks and some plastic card for the iron. I made a greenstuff mold, and copied the port for the rest of the ship.

Close–up of the gun ports and ladder up to the deck

HMS Sophie, WIP Part 2

The next phase in the construction was further work aloft in the rigging. Ive attached the spars to the masts using a system that compromises strength and playability against nautical accuracy. The yards hang from small blocks I made in a similar fashion to the deadeyes of the standing rigging, though with a trench around their perimeter. These are hung via twisted florist wire that will be painted to resemble rope that is wrapped around and through a small hole drilled in the mast. The finished assembly is decorated with actual miniature line to cover my "seams."

The spars themselves are made from square dowels that i shaped down using planes to resemble the shape seen aloft on classic sailing ships.

HMS Sophie, WIP Part 1

[Dusts off blog]

This will be the first in my series of WIP posts to detail the progress on my HMS Sophie project.
I am working on a (roughly) 28mm tabletop Royal Navy Sloop. The model is scratchbuilt, mostly from scrap material about the apartment. Unfortunately, i have lost the camera with the earliest stages of construction on it.
The hull is built at the waterline for gaming convenience, and is cut and shaped from one piece of wood. I used a 2 x 6 from the local Home Depot (left over from my blank drill musket). I rough cut the shape using hand saws, then honed it in using a rasp file. The deck and gunwales were smoothed and shaped further with planes and a chisel.
The forcastle and quarterdeck have been built up using Basswood panels, and I have built gunports cast in green stuff from an original in wood and plasticard.

Moving on to something a bit more visual, i have begun the phase of constructing my masts and spars. The images below show the progression as i've been working on the fore topmast. I started with two dowels of progressively smaller diameter and filed the joining parts to be a bit square. I then added some supports for the fighting tops (i lose sailor points for not knowing their names), cut from basswood. On top of this is placed the tops.



Also important for the rigging, I have been constructing my own blocks, cut from dowel. They are notched around, drilled, and soaked in C-A glue for strength.











So far i have made 32 of these for the shrouds.

More on rigging and some pictures of the hull in the next post.