Back on the Blogging Trail

And back at the hobby work bench too!  I've been largely dormant blog-wise for the summer, but with the Labour Day weekend behind us and first day of classes dead ahead it was time to get back at it.


Last night I hauled out my WW2 1:2400 ships and got some the unpainted ones clear of flash, assembled (where required) and based for painting.  There's two battleships (HMS Warspite and a Cavour class), two    AA cruisers (ex-WWI "C" classes) and 12 destroyers (3 each of "J/K", Hunt, Ciclone and Turbine classes).  I'm now at the point where I'll be repeating ship models in different scales  (I have a WW1 Warspite in 1:3000, and C class cruisers as well).  At least the ships were modified extensively between wars so that it's not complete deja vu all over again.


On the home front, the house and occupants survived the basement work.  This involved jackhammers in the basement so as to allow the steel bracing to be anchored into the floor, more jackhammers on the driveway and and yet more jackhammering to remove the concrete front steps.  We were feeling very much like Quasimodo (the bells the bells,..) by the end of it.  Plus we entertained the neighbour hood kids (and seniors) with the bobcat and mini-excavator used to dig the out foundations down to the footing.  It was looking like plates from Chris Duffy's "Fire and Stone" and some points - complete with drawbridge over the ditch to allow exit/entry via a sally port (ok the back door).


Having spent vast amounts of money to make the place look much, much worse than it used to, we're cleaning up the basement and hoping the grass seed we sowed takes before prairie winds low it away or winter hits.  Right now the "lawn" looks rather much like Passchendale.  The local Regina clay has amazing cling and clump properties (a local gardening expert describes it as having the consistency of frozen creamed cheese) and a walk across it leaves the soles of one's shoes with mud platforms that remind me of Elton John's Pinball wizard footwear.

Traveling Days

So far in July I've been in 5 provinces and 1 US state (kind of) - Ontario, Quebec, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Alberta and North Dakota.

This last week I was in Calgary on business and stopped into two favourite stores.

Sentry Box  They have a really good selection of SF/fantasy reading and a very good miniatures store (yes with good historical ranges on site).  I restrained myself to the second volume of the Romanicus series that my family enjoys but is hard to get, and 12 mixed Italian and British destroyers from GHQ.

Livingstone and Cavell (unfortunately the site is very limited).  They stock a treasure trove of old style toys - Mamod and Wilseco steam engines, Marklin trains and lovely tin wind up German toys.  Best in store category goes to this wind up HMS Dreadnought.  When I win the lottery....

Span Am War- Foreign Intervention part II

BlueBearJeff asked me to finish off this train of thought so here goes.


Austria-Hungary
The Hapsburg empire had the closest ties to Spain (the Queen Regent was a Hapsburg Princess) and therefore was the most likely to back Spain for diplomatic reasons.  However, in naval terms they basically had diddly-squat (to use a precise term) of use to Spain - old ironclads, coast defense ships and cruisers- and its difficult to see any of these having any impact on the war.  The Austrian cruiser Maria Theresa did accidentally appear at the tail end of the battle of Santiago, and was nearly set upon by the US Navy before she was correctly identified.  However, there might be the possibility of the Hapsburgs applying diplomatic ties to other European powers (e.g. Germany) especially if the US did fire on their ships.




Germany
Along with the French, the Germans represent the two best options for foreign intervention - both in real terms and game terms.  Unlike other powers, the main interest for Germany would be acquiring an empire.  Therefore it's likely that a Hispano-German alliance would be based on transfer of Spanish overseas possessions to German control.


Germany provides a useful battle fleet that could give the US a run for its money, with supporting cruisers and torpedo craft (but no U-boats yet).  They would be involved on both the Caribbean and Philippine theatres, Admiral Dewey famously threatening to fire on a German cruiser flying the flag of a Crown Prince in Manila Bay.

The challenge for Germany would be to get their fleet into the Caribbean to provide active support.  I suspect that this would involve transferring the fleet first to the Canaries and then across to Puerto Rico or Havana.  However, it is also possible that they would pressure the Danes or Dutch to allow use of the Virgin Islands or Dutch Antilles respectively.  However, this gives a very good campaign option sure to challenge both the US and German commands.


Japan 
It's early days for a US-Japan naval rivalry, but the Japanese fleet was among the best in the world and hot off an overwhelming victory over China.  Obviously Caribbean intervention is not practical but intervention in the Philippines was certainly possible.  The Japanese couldn't match the US battle fleet but their cruisers could overwhelm Dewey's force and give the US a nasty shock.   Also they had a very good torpedo arm.  Now the US is faced with sending a large expedition across the Pacific to save face.


Russia
Oddly similar to the Japanese in this case - might intervene in Asia but not in the Caribbean. Again they couldn't math the whole fleet but could give a shock locally.

Naval Warfare Blog

I'll give a shout out to the navalwarfare blog for today's post on the USS Brooklyn (the pre-dreadnought CA-3, although the next Brooklyn also had history of note).  The Brooklyn played a key role in the Span-Am war, and looked cool to boot.  I have modeled the base hull for her (dating back 10 years ago) and while I got the tumblehome about right I'm still not sure how to mount the wing turrets on her.

Lots of cool pictures c1898 at the blog, both of the ship from a distance plus on board activities.  Past entries cover ships (mostly of the USN) over the last 100+ years.   Well worth a look.

Just Back From Ottawa

I've been off line for a while, mostly due to a week long business/holiday trip to Ottawa.  The CIA (the Canadian Institute of Actuaries, not the other one) scheduled it's annual meeting for June 29-30th in Ottawa (the 2 days before Canada day for non Canucks), so we combined my trip with family holidays.


Say the royals, didn't quite get to Parliament Hill on July 1st (300k people did which made it difficult), but did other Canada Day stuff including the fireworks.  We also did the National Gallery and the Museum of Civilization.  Good times all around.

Saved by a Dropcloth

I had a near disaster tonight at the painting table.  I used my normal set up - in front of the TV using two small folding tables to hold my work and tools.  On returning from a trip to the bathroom, I nudged one table and jiggled the paint pallet off.  Murphy's law held true and it fell paint side down depositing a lovely blob of blue paint (being used as the sea). 


Luckily I listen to my wife (at least in this case) and use a drop cloth saving both the floor and my butt!

Actual Painted Miniatures

OK, still works in progress for the most part, but it's been too long since something came off the workbench.  Here are some shots of my WW2 Med RN ships.  The photos are not as clear as I would like, but I'm still learning how to use the new camera.  We don't have a fancy one so this may be as good as it gets.  In which case I have successfully reproduced a hazy day at sea!  Ships were primed white by spray-bomb then painted with artist/craft acrylics including washes and highlighting.  Name labels, pennant numbers and possibly full smoke to come.

HMS Arethusa escorted by 6 destroyers 3 tribals and 3 H class.  The Arethusas were worked hard in the Med and lost 2 of their number.  They were smaller than other cruisers and lightly armed with only 6*6" guns.  Given treaty limitations on total tonnage, the RN decided that more small hulls would be more useful than fewer larger hulls.  It all had to do with patrolling the world's sea lanes of course. 

Close up show of the Arethusa with the troublesome floatplane.  It turns out that GHQ had it right  and the class landed their catapults Walruses (Walrii?) in 1940-1 before arriving in the Med.  However, the crane remained and GHQ supplied the sprue with sea planes and cranes (common to many GHQ packs).  Having glued the plane on and painted reasonable looking roundels, I am considering a Walrus-ectomy.  The DDs in behind are the ubiquitous tribals. 

And a trio of H class DDs, standard pre-war journeymen vessels.  The camouflaged model was based on a picture of the ORP Garland (lend-lease to the Poles), but her stint in the Med was brief.  Similar patterns appeared on many RN ships.

Next time, the Regina Marina.