A Batch of Boats

It's curious that, for a relatively modern major military operation along one of the great rivers of the world, little is known about the Nile gunboats used during the 1885 campaign. Some thirty or so steamboats were employed. Even the Mahdists had a few, either captured from the ill-fated Gordon's flotilla or commandeered from civilian operators. One of the former is mentioned as being armed with 'a brass howitzer,' which must've been an antique even then.

What few illustrations there are show gunboats armoured by a rather gimcrack arrangement of wooden beams and planks battened onto the sides and superstructure to give the crew some cover.

They bear little resemblance to the spiffy Nile gunboats used by General Kitchener eleven years later...

Nile gunboat Melik. She and her sisters Sheikh and Sultan were built in 1896 by the Thorneycroft yards at Chiswick, London and transported to Egypt in sections.

I already have a British gunboat, not too far removed from the Melik to look at...

...but now I need a couple of steamboats for troop transports and a Mahdist gunboat and riverboats to provide some opposition. I have the beginnings of three steamboats.

The riverboats will look something like these modern craft since the design hasn't changed for centuries.

Red sails in the sunset...

Along with these I need to make a load of palm trees since these are a feature of the Nile banks, so it'll be a while before I resume the campaign.

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.

Gunboat - Finished!

Yes, after several weeks the gunboat has finally rolled down the slipway into African waters.

I applied an overall wash of sepia and black ink to weather her, then followed it up with a rough strip of darker green ink around the waterline to represent times when the gunboat pushes through more stagnant waters. The ink I diluted with water and Future polish for durability.

Once the wash had dried it did appear a bit too dark, but on the other hand these were the days before pollution control and smokeless coal. I'm sure the average Victorian-era steamboat looked a lot dirtier!

So here she is, a hard-working and hopefully hard-fighting vessel of the Scotch class, the epitome of Victorian engineering and Colonial Might.

Now I need to work out some rules for gaming with her...

Gunboat - Final touches

Another wet afternoon, and I took the opportunity to put the final touches to the gunboat.

At the moment she looks a bit too clean, so I might well weather her down with ink washes. The only thing to add now is a mounting tube for a flagpole on the rear deck so the nationality can be swapped with ease, and perhaps a pennant or two from the halyards.

During construction I idly mused on appropriate names for her. The Natural Environment Research Council's search for a name for their new survey ship generated a farce when Boaty McBoatface came out top of the online poll. It has subsequently been named RRS Sir David Attenborough, and quite right too!

I really didn't want to think in terms of Gunboaty McGunboatface, but that 'Mc' part of the name sprang an idea. Why not name the class for Highland Single Malt whisky? Although I'm no drinker, it's hard not to like names such as Dalwhinnie, Deanston, and Edradour, for instance. Perhaps the chap in charge of such things at the Admiralty has a 'whisky throat?'

Gunboat - on the home straight

After weeks without rain, the heavens opened early yesterday afternoon and we had a veritable deluge. It trailed off into steady rain that fell all afternoon and into the early evening. Since all outdoor activity was out of the question I happily settled to working on the gunboat.

The mast is now stepped, along with the smokestack. I reused the wheelhouse from the earlier gunboat with a few modifications. The glass panes looked far too large for the Victorian period (and would be dangerous when shot at!), so I divided them up with vertical bars. Shiny black iron bolts (Puffy Paint) decorate where the planks join the frame. A steam whistle (a length of dowel painted copper and the brass bit from an old ballpoint pen) rises from the roof to a good height. At the moment I'm not sure if I want the roof to be removable or not. There's a certain appeal to having figures inside, so the helmsman's face shows white through the wheelhouse windows.*

*Spike Milligan reference there. A Brownie Point to whomever knows which book of his memoirs it comes from.

Whilst everything was drying, I followed Paul's advice and set to work on a Hotchkiss 57mm revolving cannon. It's what I call a serious 'sod-off' weapon, although for simplicity's sake I made this version with three barrels and not the conventional five. It's a stubby little brute and should look effective once painted up.

Hotchkiss & Nordenfeldt, two weapons of Empire.

The barrels are short lengths of brass tubing glued together and set into a 1/4 inch long piece of drinking straw. Like most straws the plastic is quite shiny and slick, and I sanded it down so it'll take paint. I pushed a blob of Milliput into one end of the straw and embedded the ends of the barrels in it. The ammo feed is a rectangle of wood. The side bars are thin card glued in place then reinforced by a length of cotton thread wound about the breach. The mounting is a wooden bead to which I glued a small washer so it'll stick to the deck magnets.

The last steps for the upper deck are coming up. I need to rig the mast and fit two ventilators either side of the smokestack. I'm thinking of making a small skylight for the center of the deck. With luck and a following wind I should finish it all this week!
  

Gunboat - upper deck works

Its a hot and humid day, and I'm staying indoors in the cool, working on the gunboat a bit more.

So far the upper deck breastworks are finished. I opted for a green exterior with black iron bolts to give it that Victorian railway look. The bolts are again made by small dabs of black gloss Puffy Paint.

Upper deck before the bolts were applied.

This is a quick and easy method of making bolts.

I decided to use a couple of magnets to hold the upper deck in place. One is already serving as the base for the after upper deck gun. The other is fixed in place within the superstructure, and will hold the two small washers fixed to the underside of the deck.

A bit crude, but it'll do the job.

Next up will be the pilot house, smokestack, ventilators and mast.

Gunboat - a little more progress

Progress on the gunboat has been sporadic these past few weeks for one reason or another, but I've pressed on. So far I've added the decorative touches to the paddle-boxes. The paddle-wheel hubs are now in position ready for the paddles themselves.

I haven't yet decided whether to make the top deck removable or not. I'd prefer it to be so I can place figures along the lower deck and for ease of storage/transport. It's showing a slight but annoying tendency to warp in the odd dry summer we're having in this part of the world. Stiff wood sides should cure the warping. The gun-mount magnet is in place. I might use other magnets to hold the deck in place. 

Not much else is happening at the moment. I am being tempted by the recent flurry of Indian Mutiny articles and blog posts, and find myself looking through the Dixon Miniatures 15mm range, which looks quite nice and affordable. The scale of actions during the campaigns make the period ideal for Sharp Practice skirmish level games. We'll see if it's just another wargamer's passing fancy.

Gunboat - upper deck

A little more progress on the new gunboat... These last few days it's been slow in the making. Too much real life and the high daytime temperatures get in the way sometimes.

This is a dry run, the top deck isn't fixed in place yet. I intend to put all the detail on before doing so. The next step will be to embed the magnet to hold the after deck gun then construct the wheelhouse and smokestack. At the moment I'm thinking of scratch-building a couple of Gatling or Nordenfeldt guns to place on the wings above the paddle-boxes where they'll be able to bear almost directly ahead and astern. I already have a 5-barrel Nordenfeldt for the aft position on the upper deck. The lower deck will feature either the Nordenfeldt or a scratch-built Hotchkiss 57mm revolving cannon, which can be swapped as needed.

This is a beamy little boat, wider than my previous version so it can carry a number of figures. Looking at the photo I think it might benefit from a little more detail on the paddle-boxes, maybe in the form of a fan made up of elongated kite-shape pieces. We'll see.

In any case progress will come to a halt for another week as I'll be joining the press pack around the DNC conference in Philadelphia. It promises to be an historical event. Let's hope it is for all the right reasons.

Gunboat decking

It's a hot and humid evening. Since an afternoon storm watered the plants for me and it's way too uncomfortable to do any gardening, it was with a clear conscience that I made a bit more progress with the gunboat.

I laid the main deck planking, cutting sections from tongue depressor sticks. The black rectangles are the ceramic magnets I bought to mount the guns and hold them firmly to the deck. They're set tight into the foamcore and glued in place to it and the planking. Hopefully they'll be firm enough to hold in place without lifting when I swap out the guns. The planking will make the deck more durable and resistant to wear and tear from figures being stood upon it.

The superstructure and paddle-wheel wings have been covered with card. I've not glued the superstructure in place yet, as I want to add detail which will be difficult to do if it's fixed down. This'll be done next, and I'll sand the edges of the planking to make them a smoother fit within the hull plating. Progress is being made.

Gunboat under construction

It was our anniversary this past weekend so my wife and I were out and about celebrating. One place we visited was the fascinating Marblehead Lighthouse on the Lake Erie shore.

As you can see from the throng on the gallery the place was heaving, it being a holiday weekend. Since we both have trouble with heights we opted to stroll through the park and visit the reconstructed USLSS station instead.

They were brave men who set out to save lives in what was little more than a rowboat.

Continuing the nautical theme, the gunboat is now back on the construction schedule...

The shell of the superstructure is made of foamcore. It's shown slotted in place to test the fit before I add detail and glue it in place. The wing is the base for the paddle wheels, which I made by cutting a plastic jar lid in half and plating it with card. Walkways will run between the paddles and the superstructure. I'll lay the deck next, with planking made from wooden craft splints.

I'm toying with the idea of adding protective wooden planking around the hull and superstructure so it looks something like the original Nile gunboats that served under Gordon and Wolseley. We'll see.