Decision at Deadman's Gulch

Family affairs are taking up a lot of my time here in England, but I also had the chance to catch up with old friends. One of them is Ash Dyer, with whom I've had many a wargame with over the years. We met at The Games Table in Norwich, owned by the affable Keiran Meenaghan, and played out a short game in Ash's Western town of Deadman's Gulch using a set of Western skirmish rules produced by Newbury Rules back in 1980. Table were provided by Keiran, scenery and figures by Ash.

The bullet-riddled sign shows all is not well in town.

A few folks moving on Main Street

Tumbleweed rolls along.

Town undertaker Dedrick Bodey leaves the doctor's consulting room. Below, saloon piano player Charlie Bowles leaves another kind of establishment.

Both head for Main Street. Word is their deadly enemies Frank Garber and Sam 'Snake' Foley are in town somewhere.

And there they are across the street. Up on the hotel balcony Snake Foley saw Charlie coming down the alley and makes ready to give him a warm welcome.

Bodey spots Garber, but Bowles gets first shot off with his rifle - and misses.

Garber doesn't miss Bodey. A pistol shot cracks out and Bowles measures his length on Main Street.

Infuritated by his friend's death Bowles opened up again on Garber and put him down for the count. Cool as a cucumber, Bowles stood and took his shot in spite of the lead from Garber and Foley flying around him. Although Foley laid down on the balcony Bowles' final shot wounded Foley in the left forearm, making him drop his rifle into the street below. Thinking Foley done for, Bowles strolled casually across the street, intending to make an end of his enemy. He didn't reckon on Foley regaining his wits so soon - or for him having a shotgun. The last thing Bowles saw when he glanced up were the huge open barrels of the weapon, followed by a flash of light...

The end of the affair. Just another day in Deadman's Gulch, population 54.

Being in all respects ready for sea...

The Monitor is finished. The chocks were knocked away and she slid down the slipway into the river as easy as you please.

The vessel offshore from some islands (using the hill pieces I made a couple of years ago). The river is a blue plastic tablecloth.

She has the 'fierce face' aspect so beloved of French naval architects of this period. If a ship looks fierce, it'll have a dampening effect on the morale of her enemies - assuming they'll see it at big gun range through the mist, spray and smoke of battle.

The business end.

Moving slowly upriver, seen against a dusty sky. What adventures lie before her?

I may make another one to sell on eBay if the interest is there. In the meantime I've finished a small side project - more on that later - and have plans for a couple of other bits and pieces to dress the scene in future games. I have a scenario in mind for the vessel's first outing, but for now, I'm trying to think of a name for her. Any suggestions?

Monitor - almost there

Real life got in the way a bit this past week, but I managed to make a little more progress on the Monitor. First up, I made a coffer out of scrap wood to hold the deck house in place and painted the guns and turret gun ports flat black.

Seen head-on the guns have given it a menacing aspect, like it's looking for trouble. The only other bits and pieces I've done to date are the navigation lanterns - port, starboard and masthead. These are plaster components from the Hirst Arts inn accessories mold. I did hope my inks would turn up, but no joy, so I used Testors enamels to make the coloured glass for the lanterns. I also fitted a short length of tubing to take the flag.

I'm going to work on a Congo Free State flag to fly from the upper deck then give the mast some rigging. Once that's all done I'll take some photos of the finished vessel.

Monitor - slow but steady

A busy weekend for me and my Better Half, but I found some time to work on the monitor. The bulk of construction is now done and dusted. All that's left are the twiddly bits for the upper deck - smokestack, mast and skylight.

For the railings I use the plastic mesh found in craft shops. I think it's used for embroidery. It's cheap, easy to cut, and works well for modelling purposes. It is quite flexible and in my experience doesn't take ordinary acrylic paints well, so in this case I sprayed it with Krylon flat white which works nicely. Six lengths of mini-dowel make the posts. The only other addition to the deck house so far is to paint the conning tower vision slot black.

The railings are now glued on with E6000 adhesive, again because it works with this kind of plastic. The currently empty stretch of deck either side of the conning tower will mount navigation lights once I get around to casting them.

Bits to be sprayed white - The bamboo kebab skewer and mini-dowel mast, component parts of the skylight, and the smokestack. I lightly sanded the exterior of the smokestack to prep it for the spray paint, and painted the inside sooty black. The skylight is more plastic mesh, with wood filler spread across it to fill the square holes leaving the mesh surface proud.

Once the paint dried on the skylight, I painted the piece light blue to represent glass then went over the raised grid work with white for the window frames. Once dry I gave the glass a coat of gloss varnish I think it came out okay.

Next I'll rig the mast and glue a short length of tube to the stern railing on the upper deck to take an interchangeable flagpole. That way I can swap out the vessel's nationality when needed. At the moment I'm debating whether to make the whole deck house assembly removable for ease of storage/transport. I have a couple of small bar magnets left, or I can make a rectangular coffer for the deck house to sit over. We'll see.

More Monitor

Having a few minutes to spare these last couple of days I worked on the Ozark-style Monitor model. Joppy's idea of running a bolt through the turret to mount it on the hull is good, and I like the idea of using the bolt-head for a director cupola on top of the turret. Trouble is, I don't currently have a drill bit capable of boring through the metal plate serving as the turret trunk. An experiment on a spare lid aimed at piercing a hole using a hammer and nail was hurriedly abandoned when the plate began to buckle with no appreciable sign of a hole forming.

So, back to Plan A: a magnet.

This turned out to be easy enough to make. A couple of wooden pieces glued either side to support the cross truss, a small bar magnet, and Bob's your uncle. I positioned the truss so the magnet is almost touching the base plate. That way it reduces friction and so avoids the magnet becoming detached from the truss. It's easy to turn the turret yet it has still got plenty of magnetic adhesion to hold it in place.

Moving on, I painted the deck with the first undercoat, aiming at the kind of bleached wood effect seen on old sailing ships. I'm going to mix a little Spackle/Tetrion filler into the next coat to fill the gaps in the planking which are a bit too obvious for this scale.

Now a trial run to see how everything fits together.

I'm not 100% happy with the decking on top of the deck house, and may yet cover the lot with thin card scored to resemble planking. For convenience I'll fit a single smokestack abaft the conning tower instead of the prototype Ozark's twin stacks as it'll take up a bit less space. I'm thinking of putting a skylight in the centre of the upper deck just for looks. The philosophy behind the model is that it's a gunboat, pure and simple, here to carry big guns to a place where they can do a lot of damage and not act as a personnel carrier. It won't carry more than six or so figures, tops. 

So, next steps will be to apply the final coat of paint to the main deck, and work out what to do with the upper deck. More to follow.

A Ram in the making

It's baking hot outside so no fun and frolics gardening today. Instead I made progress on the Mighty Monitor, featuring the installation of that curiousity of Victorian naval architecture - the ram.

Back in the 1870's naval architects read accounts of the historical sea battles of Salamis and Lepanto, and came over all unnecessary at the thought of what a good, solid ram - especially one backed up by steam power - could do to enemy ships. As a belt-and-braces weapon it came cheap, didn't require ammunition, didn't do that much to affect handling at sea, and would always provide an option for the more aggressive captains to use in battle. Since my hypothetical Ozark-class Monitor would see service slap in the middle of this period, I thought my equally-hypothetical Stanley would see to it she had a ram fitted.

In this case I fitted a wedge-shaped Hirst Arts component to the bows, reinforcing it with coffee stirrer decking on top and bottom. These coffee stirrers are some of the nastiest bits of wood I've come across, inclined to warp, split and splinter. I wouldn't want them anywhere near my beverage, but they work just fine for cheap decking installed over armour plating in some colonial shipyard.

With the ram in place I worked on the sides around the after half of the hull. The taller pieces amidships will carry part of the upper deck.
 

A bit of wood filler spread around the turret mounting filled gaps and smoothed everything off. The turret sits on the mounting to check it rotates freely.

Time to work on the turret itself. First, I used a sophisticated method of ensuring the turret breeches are lined up parallel to each other...

One final check on the exterior appearance of the mighty cannon.

The Dahlgren gun was an important piece of naval artillery during the Civil War, but advances in gun design made it obsolete within a few years. One type of upgrade came from the US Navy fitting a rifled sleeve within the barrel of 11-inch guns to convert the pieces to 8-inch calibre muzzle-loaders. I've decided Stanley followed a similar route and had the Dahlgrens converted to 9.2-inch rifled breechloaders, as these were coming into use on battleships at that time.

Whilst the glue holding the guns dried, I continued work on the deck house/conning tower combination. Tongue depressors make up the deck which will shade and shelter the walkways on the main deck beneath. I sanded the edges for neatness, but will probably need to work on the surface since it's a bit uneven. I do need to add a narrow bit of decking to the conning tower end. Once that's done I'll score the wood to represent planking.

A stage further, and it's time for the first coat of paint. My initial choice was for light grey, but the spray can refused to work. The fallback was battleship-grey Rustoleum - appropriate, I thought.

At this stage the hull and turret are essentially complete, although I have an idea in mind for giving the turret a better hold on the hull mounting. It might prove frightfully clever, or just frightful. We'll see.

The Shipyard - The Monitor Begins

Having a spot of spare time at the moment I made a start on the USS Ozark project. As there's a lot of interest in it I'll post photos as the build progresses.

First up, I have a couple of these...

Snuff. It fits the general Victorian theme of the build, I suppose. I don't use the stuff, but I got hold of two empty containers from somewhere back when we lived in Missouri. Just goes to show, never throw anything out - you never know when it'll come in handy. This pot will make the classic Erikson-type turret. The label was stuck on with an exceptionally sticky glue, but I managed to scrape it off and remove most of the glue residue using a drop of vinegar mixed with dish detergent. Some still remains, but since the whole thing is going to be clad in card it's not a problem.

Next up, the hull. A piece of half-inch thick foamcore, cut to ship-shape using a card template. The overall length is 9 1/2 inches by three inches wide. Any longer than this and it becomes problematic to maneuver the model around the table. The turret to be is shown below, with the metal base it'll rotate on. This base is the bottom of a frozen orange juice container, and is the perfect size for the snuff can to fit into.

A test run to see where the turret will work best. The original Ozark's turret was sited further back along her hull, but the constraints of scale modelling means this one will have to sit here.

Ozark had a distinctive armoured conning tower situated on top of her turret. Quite how it worked in action I don't know. The location combined with the concussion of two massive Dahlgren guns going off under their feet must have made it difficult for the captain and officers to do their work and communicate with the rest of the ship. I'm going to say for the sake of the narrative the rebuild saw the tower relocated almost in the centre of the hull. A length of thick-walled cardboard tube makes the basis for the tower. More on this later. The white tube below the hull is a plastic candy/lollipop stick, one of a batch from the hoard of stuff left behind by the previous occupant of our house. It'll make up the mighty guns for the turret. Waste not, want not...

Ozark's deck house offered better accommodation than the conventional Monitor class. Of course, it went to the officers, but it must have offered more comfort in the sweaty climes of the Mississippi and Red Rivers. I've made a basic deck house out of 3/16th inch foamcore.

Next to be done is the planking. I found a packet of coffee stirrers in a Goodwill store a while back, and now they're getting used to plank the deck. All together now, Deck the hull with coffee stirrers, fala lala laaa...

The circle shows where the turret mounting will go. I'm cutting the stirrers to make a rough opening for it. That long spell in storage turned my Aileen's glue into a kind of thick paste, but it actually works better that way when it comes to sticking down the deck planking.

The black rectangle aft is a small bar magnet on which a gun will be mounted. The magnet allows the gun model to point in any direction, and it can be swapped out for another type of weapon if needed. Once the deck planking is thoroughly stuck in place, I'll Dremel the bejasus out of the circle so the mounting plate will fit.


That's it for now - more to come.

Monitor Oddity

Way back in the day I scratch-built a model of an American Civil War oddity - USS Ozark. A hybrid between the turreted Monitor-class ironclad and a conventional Mississippi steamboat, this odd duck was commissioned in 1864 and served in campaigns and actions along the Mississippi and Red Rivers.

Rather under-powered, Ozark often had to be taken in tow by other vessels when the river currents were stronger than her own engines could cope with. Even so, she packed a heck of a wallop. Her turret mounted two 11-inch Dahlgren guns, with a 10-inch Dahlgren aft chaser and three 9-inch Dahlgrens covering her beams. The turret itself sported six inches of armour plating, and more armour covered the first forty feet of her hull and the deck.

Ozark was sold after the end of the war, but she was still in service and based in New Orleans as late as 1874 when she took part in a police action against white supremacists. Her subsequent fate isn't known - which is where my alternate history idea comes in...

A European power wishing to expand operations in the Hidden Continent (my version of Darkest Africa) purchased the Ozark and refitted her for operations on the mighty rivers and lakes of that world. Such a 'ship of force' would be something to contend with, and would make even the mighty Royal Navy squint thoughtfully.

My original model is back in the UK, along with a lot of other gaming stuff I hope to retrieve some day. In the meantime I have the materials at hand to build a new version. When I have a bit of time I'll break out the hot glue gun and commence building it. Photos to follow when I do.

A few more Frostgrave pieces.

Ongoing computer problems have plagued me this past week but hopefully they should be resolved soon. Meanwhile, I've pressed on with a few more Frostgrave terrain pieces.

A jail frontage, shrine, treasure chest and barrel - and an undead guardian...

An adventurer encounters the unhappy spirit.

Showdown over the treasure chest - or are the contents of the barrel the real prize?

These are for sale, so if you're interested contact me off list.

Action in the Jam'aah Valley - conclusion

The air filled with the buzz and whine of bullets. A man fell dead in front of Captain Pike. He glared at the tower, its sides disappearing in a cloud of greasy yellow gun smoke and shouted to the bugler. "Blow Skirmish order!"

Bates moistened his lips and the call echoed in the valley. Pike followed up with the order "Action left! Fire at will!"

The Men of Barsetshire immediately began to spread out and seek what cover they could, all the while laying a fusillade of rifle fire against the ancient embrasures and firing ports of the old fortification. Up on the hills CSM Harrington and Sergeant Rutledge deployed their remaining men and added fire to the onslaught. Havildar Shukla deployed the screw gun and soon the regular thump of seven-pounder shells impacting the tower sides added to the din.

The company deploys by the ford in the stream.

(Unknown to the Red Soldiers, one of the first bullets fired had badly wounded the ra'if in command of the tower. His underlings tried their best to take over, and for a while got their men up to the embrasures and firing slits where they traded shots with the enemy. Their abilities did not match their initial enthusiasm. As men fell back dead or wounded, the interior of the tower began to fill with choking smoke through which bullets and shell splinters slashed cruel paths. Slaver morale plummeted and, eventually, broke...)

Down in the valley Pike wiped sweat from his brow. The return fire had been hot, other men had fallen. He knew his men, he knew how much they could stick it out in action, but he also knew their tolerance would not hold forever.

At that moment figures appeared on the hill below the tower. Pike stiffened and stared, thinking an assault was forming up. He knew his men excelled in musketry, but close-combat was another matter when going up against the vicious slavers with their swords and spears.

To his immense relief the figures grew into a crowd that streamed away down the track to splash across the river before the town. Fire from the tower slackened then died away to nothing. "Cease fire!" Pike called, and Bates added the bugle call to reinforce the message. For a moment Pike debated with himself whether to pursue the fugitives with fire, but decided against. A beaten man was a beaten man. To shoot him in the back, even a slaver, was simply Not Done.

Meanwhile the survivors from the warband routed by the askaris had found safety within the town walls. Ra'id Hakim drew breath, no easy task given the pain in his ribs, and exhorted his men to stand their ground and recover their courage. "The infidel are few, we are many, and we shall destroy them!" he shouted. The racket of gunfire filled the air. "Listen to how our brothers shoot them down like dogs!" He pointed to where the enigmatic figure of the Wali could be seen gazing down at them from the roof of his house. "Come, my men! To the ramparts! Will you shame yourself before our beneficent leader, peace and blessings be upon him?"

The men looked shamefaced, but with smiles and nods of encouragement Hakim persuaded them to line the ramparts either side of the gate. Hakim glanced up at the Wali, who nodded and raised his hand to him in benediction. Pleased to have gained the notice of the great man, Hakim took his place to the left of the line on the ramparts and looked out at the valley. He fully expected to see the slaughter of the Red Soldiers enacted by his brethren in the tower. Instead he saw the long line of fugitives streaming from that ancient edifice. His heart sank, but he found a residue of resolve. "Courage!" he shouted again. "We will hold them here or die trying!"

Down the valley Captain Pike reordered his men into line and continued the advance. On the right flank Harrington and his men occupied the hilltop overlooking the town. 

 
Over on the left, Sergeant Rutledge responded to a bugle call to advance. A shouted order from the Captain told him to take and occupy the tower. "You've earned the right, lad!" Pike had called.

Pike halted his men adjacent to the height where Harrington stood. The slaver band occupying the ramparts let fly with an ineffective volley. The British responded to greater effect, and the ramparts began to empty. On the hill, Harrington noted the presence of a leader among the enemy ranks. "Marksman Lewis, front-centre!" he ordered.

Lewis trotted up. "Yes, Sarge?"

Harrington pointed. "That lad there, the one in the bloodstained blue robe. Can you get him from here?" Lewis squinted at the distant figure and nodded. Harrington stood back a pace. "Good. In your own time, Jack."

Lewis stood, licked his thumb and smeared the spit on the back-sight of his rifle, then took aim. The section's fire died off as the men watched the marksman at work. Lewis took aim, his finger tightened on the trigger...

Ra'ik Hakim felt a smashing impact in his chest which hurled him to the floor - then everything went black. 

Hakim's fall proved enough for his men. Wali or not, they refused to stand against the deadly marksmanship of the Red Soldiers. They fell back from the ramparts, some finding enough courage to cover their fellows' retreat as they streamed away through the streets of the town.

As resistance ceased, Captain Pike ordered the advance. On reaching the gate he half-expected they would need to be forced. Instead, they swung wide open at a push. Suspecting a potential ambush, he ordered the men into skirmish order. Two covered the opening as two others observed what lay beyond.

"Nobody there, sir!" one called, relief evident in his voice.

Pike turned to address Harrington. "Sergeant? What can you see from up there?"

"The enemy's retreating through the town, sir. They're heading for a line of dhows drawn up on the waterfront."

"Waterfront?" Pike gazed mystified at the CSM.

"Yes, sir." Amusement and amazement vied in Harrington's reply. "I can see what must be a bloody great lake from up here!"

The End.

* * * *

So there we have it, a game fought on-and-off over the course of three days - one of the blessings from having a permanent table! I hope everyone enjoyed it. With the lads from Barsetshire safely ensconced in Jam'aah, I'll write a few thoughts on the turn of events, the Sharp Practice (I) rules and house modifications in a day or so.

Action in the Jam'aah Valley - 2

CSM Harrington watched with satisfaction and no small degree of relief as the screw gun shell exploded on the brow of the hill. Shrapnel and fragments of rock flew everywhere, knocking down some of the slavers. The brisk rifle fire from the main force kicked up more splinters of stone and found a mark or two in human flesh. The slavers began to waver then stream back over the hill and away from the galling musketry.

Harrington nodded. "Right lads, forwards with me." The men stepped out, sparing sorrowful glances at their two fallen comrades. Harrington silently thanked the steady discipline of the British soldier, for they'd lost men but stayed at their posts, firing steadily at the enemy. They reached the slope to the top of the hill, and found the going tougher than it looked.

"When you're first under fire and wishful to duck, don't look nor pay heed to the man that is struck. Be thankful you're living and trust to your luck, and march to your front like a soldier."

In the valley Captain Pike turned his attention to the left flank. To his pleasure the askaris were holding firm, kneeling amidst the scrub and trading shot for shot with the slavers on the hill. Soon the steady crash of Martini-Henry volleys added their din to the firing, punctuated by the regular thump of the screw gun.

Over at the town gate the fleeing slavers pushed through their tribal allies and into the town, causing confusion in their wake. Chief Ngutyana watched them go, sneered in derision and considered his options.

The regular beat of gunfire and rising clouds of rifle smoke down the valley decided him. Instead of going to meet the Red Soldiers head-on, he would lead his men on a flanking march around the hills and fall upon the intruders before they could react. His mind made up, Ngutyana led his men across the stream, the waters feeling pleasantly cool on their legs as they waded.

Down the valley the hand of death touched many and spared others. Ra'id Hakim, leader of the slaver warband, staggered and fell as a shard of stone thrown up by a shell burst hit him in the chest. He rolled to his side and knelt on all fours, watching with bemusement as blood seeped through the breast of his robe to drip upon the dusty ground. Groggily he looked around and saw how many of his brothers had fallen to the infidel weapons. The survivors were starting to draw back, to find shelter from the musketry. As more men fell the backward motion turned into a rout. Hakim got to his feet and followed, holding his side and wincing at the pain lancing through him from his broken ribs.

Having disposed of the first slaver threats encountered, Captain Pike ordered Bugler Bates to sound the advance. On the hill to the right, Harrington led his men warily through the bodies and rocky ground. Movement on the next hill caught his eye. "Look sharp, lads," he called. "Enemy front."

Marksman Lewis drew a bead on the movement then lowered his rifle with an incredulous laugh. "Bloody 'ell, Sarge! It's a vulture." He squinted. "Crikey! I've seen smaller ostriches."

To the right the askaris clambered up the slopes of the hill, unaware of what approached them from the direction of the tower...

The alarm soon went up as excitable askaris shouted to Rutledge and pointed down the hill to the massed natives sweeping by below. Rutledge swore, formed his men as best he could in the press of the moment and opened fire. A man fell from the warband but it deigned not to notice, instead storming on toward the unsuspecting British column.

As his men manhandled the screw gun to keep pace with the main body, Havildar Shukla glanced over toward the hill where renewed firing had broken out. A few moments later he gaped at the mass of men bursting out from behind the cover of the hill, and knew in an instant he was in a pretty pickle. There was only one viable option to chose. "Leave the gun! Cross the river, juldi, jao!"

His men took to their heels, Shukla leading the way, splashing through the stream toward the front of the British column and safety.

Captain Pike saw the threat in time. "Well, dash it," he said mildly. "Column, halt! Left face! Make ready, preee-sent, fire!"

Martini-Henry bullets slashed into the advancing warband, the slaughter added to by Remington rifle fire from the askaris' Remington on the hill. The warband staggered, convulsed, then fell back.

The immediate threat dispersed, Bugler Bates once again blew the advance and the column continued up the valley, flanked by the covering force.

The column passed the ford and drew closer to the tower frowning upon its height. Suddenly every embrasure spouted dun-colored smoke!

Bullets from muskets and a few obsolete rifles rained down upon the Men of Barsetshire, causing them to stagger in shock. Over on the hill the askaris were subjected to a similar deadly fire...

* * * *

I'll post the third and final installment of Action in the Jam'aah Valley sometime this weekend.