I have sent an initial copy of the ACW book to the author of Dawn of Iron to review. I am also slowly building up all of the needed models. There are the newest elements of the fleet.
I still need some standins for the following US Ships:
| Ship | Image |
|---|---|
| USS Isaac N Seymour | |
| USS Ceres |  |
| USS General Putnam |  |
| USS John L Lockwood | No Image Found |
| USS Henry Brinker | No Image Found |
| USS Underwriter |  |
| USS Stars and Stripes |  |
| USS Philadelphia |  |
| USS Southfield |  |
While waiting for a print to finish, I looked through my lead pile. Apparently, I have found another stash of Roman Cavalry miniatures. This was an exciting discovery. These are all spear armed and have been mounted on painting sticks and basecoated in black. I will respray the horses in white. I also received my order from Old Glory 15s. This was less than exciting. It turns out that only four of the miniatures were spear armed. The other five are armed with a gladius. Making them not as useful to me. They also came with a round plume of somekind on top of their helmets. That part at least is easily fixed. They will still be painted up. I will probably only use two of the sword armed versions. Between the found miniatures and the purchased ones, I should have three full groups (Infamy, Infamy wise) of cavalry.
In addition, I found a nifty senator figure. This would be a good objective for the Celts to try to grab during a raid.
I have yet to make any progress on the Mansio or Villa. I cut a template for the main roof of the mansio to cut tiles for. I hope to get the roof done today.
At this point, I have workable models for most of the Mosquito Fleet. Some of these vessels are speculative as no images have been found for them.
For the scenarios, I need a better model for the Savannah and for the Perry. Both are sailing ships and I have stand ins that I can use from my AWI collections. I have the models for the matchup of the Beaufort against the Albatross. They are printed and painted too.
For the action where the Fanny was captured by the Raliegh, Curlew and Junaluska, I need to print the models for the Curlew and Junaluska still. By the way, the model for the Curlew is a modified model from Long Face Games. I reached out and he did the custom model for me. I am very happy with it but yet to have printed it. The Junaluska I can either use a generic tug or use the model I received for the Forrest as it too was a canal tug.
The bigger action will be that of Hatteras Inlet. This one I am trying to source the models for still. There are existing modesl for several of the vessels. Harriet Lane is availaible from Long Face Games and the Minnesota, Susquehanna and Cumberland are available from East Coast Iron Clads. (LFG may have versions of these but i already had the ECIC ones). What is missing is the Monticello, the Wabash and the Pawnee. I have modified a vessel to use for the Monticello. In working with ECIC, they recommended upsizing the Minnesota model by 115% to make the Wabash. But the Pawnee is still a missing vessel in this order of battle.
I would like to do this battle as a combined arms battle and have the landed troops attacking the forts and masked batteries on Hatteras Island. If I can figure this out, I will move on to the Battle for Roanoke Island. This had a ship battle as well as the bombardment of the forts and landings.
Right now, the only thing slowing me down is my printer.
I can make some claim that the schooner would still be useful for the ACW as they were still around. But the next step away from this is I am searching for STL files for some ACW infantry to match my 1/600th scale ships. The thought would be to model some naval landings. I found some Thingiverse items from Simon Mann that look possible. The first one to look at is the battle of the Hatteras Inlet batteries.
Since my ACW Naval rules of the moment are Dawn of Iron, I saw that the author had started work on some land rules but as far as I can tell, they are unpublished. This leaves me to wonder if I could use something like Sharp Practice and twist it. The landings are much larger than what Sharp Practice was designed for but that never stopped me before.
The Confederate Forces for the battle are rather small. There are two forts (Clark and Hatteras)and a masked battery on Cape Hatteras. These were manned by the 17th North Carolina infantry Regiment, the Hatteras island garrison and some Naval volunteers. The total was around 900 men.
Besides the much larger Warships, the Union force contained elements of two regiments: the 9th New York infantry (220 men) and the 20th New York Infantry (500 men). There were other detachments including the 99th New York Volunteer Infantry Regiments (100 men), 2nd US Artillery Regiment (60 men) and some sailors and marines from the fleet.This would mean printing out some landing craft and some infantry. I have looked at Henry Turner's 6mm miniatures for this as well as Pico Armor. I may go with the Project Wargaming miniatures in the end. I am unsure if I would scale them up to 3mm figures or leave them at 2mm.
I went so far as to download the figures from Thingiverse that Simon Mann made and purchased the Project Wargaming ones. Just looking at the Project Wargaming minis, I will likely leave them at 2mm. Some test prints are in order. The Project Wargaming are set up to look like a company in formation.
Anyway, I am balancing a few things in my head and trying to figure out how to accomplish them.
I started on the Confederate Fleet first. In total, there are eleven vessels in the Mosuito Fleet. Their job was to protect the North Carolina Sounds and supply the forts on the barrier islands. In order to get this done, i have been searching Wargames Vault and Wargaming3D for suitable models. I think I have much of it figured out. Maybe.....
| Ship Name | Image | Possible Model | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sea Bird | None | LFG CSS Toscarora | Flagship |
| Beaufort | None | ECIC Generic Tugboat Set | Also part of Hampton Roads set. |
| Fanny |  | ECIC Generic Tugboat Set | |
| Appomattox |  | TRM Union or Confederate Transport Modified | Original model is a stern wheeler while this is a screw steamer. |
| Ellis |  | ECIC Generic Tugboat Set (Modified) | |
| Black Warrior | None | Hagen Miniatures Schooner | |
| Forrest | None | ???? | Described as a former canal steamer. |
| Junaluska |  | ECIC Generic Tugboat Set | |
| Curlew |  | LFG CSS Samson | A decent match but the main deck under the bridge needs to be closed in. |
| Raliegh |  | ECIC Generic Tugboat Set | Also part of Hampton Roads set. |
| Winslow | None | LFG Samson | Described as a sidewheeler tug. |
The images above are taken from the Wikipedia articles for the vessel or from https://underbothflags.ncdcr.gov/ for the Appomattox.
Several models need modification in order to match the vessel more closely. The Ellis needs a cut down supertructure to match. These modifications may be what I go with to model the Forrest. The Black Warrior is a sailing schooner and the only vessel that is not a steam ship of the fleet. The Hagen Miniatures model is the only physical model in the above list. The rest are all STL files.At this point, I have built and painted only the Beaufort and the Raliegh. I have purchased the miniatures for the Sea Bird, Fanny, Appomattox, Junaluska, Curlew, and Winslow. I will buy the Schooner from Hagen at somepoint as I really like their miniatures. I have several for my Age of Sail games.
I will update based on any new findings. I did pick up a great book on the Curlew by Christopher Olson. He has drawings of the Curlew that makes the Sampson a good match for a model. The differences are minor enough that I should be able to modify it in TinkerCad, provided the model creator gives me permission.
A Big shout out to Thomas at The Raft Miniatures who did give permission to modify his model to make the Appomattox. I have purchased the model and now need to play with it in Tinkercad. Thank You!
I have a big thank you to give to East Coast Ironclads when it comes time to work on the Union Order of Battle.
The Albatross did not have an existing model available to purchase that I could find. Wikipedia offers some basic information about the vessel and includes the following image drawn by a crew member.
The other ones could be useful scatter terain in any naval game taking place close to the shore.
I have some painted Prussian Jagers that I purchased off of Ebay. They are all in firing poses. They have the advantage of being painted and based. They are based in blocks of 4 figures, two accross and two deep. I prefer single based figures. The figures are kneeling and stanging firing figures. The figures are likely from Old Glory 15s. While my other purchased (but not yet painted) miniatures are either Eureka (Prussians) or Blue Moon (Austrians).
The Grenzers from Blue Moon look good in variety and in poses. I had purchased the skirmishing pack and the command pack. These just arrived recently and have not been base coated yet. My Prussian musketeers are from Eureka and are all marching poses. Which is probably fine for regulars. These are base coated but no other paint has reached the miniatures.
I have been looking at the miniatures from Henry Turner. These are STL files and could be promising. In the off chance that I get a 3d printer for Christmas, I was told that he has just released some Austrian skirmishers on his patreaon that will go to other sites in January. If that is the case, that may sort out some Croat/Pandour troops out for the Austrians. Wunsch's Prussians encountered a large number of "Croats" upon crossing the border in their advance.
The other troop type that I need are Hungarian troops. Among them were the troops from the Arch Bishop of Mainz's regiment Kurmainz Infantry. I will probably go with Blue Moon for these.
One terrain item that I need is a powder magazine. At this point, I have not been able to identify where the powder magazine in Peterswalde would have been. I am attempting to make one similar to one I found that was in a fort from the period. It is across the country from Peterswalde but it should do in a pinch.
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Please swing by and see if there is anything you are interested in.
So I have been exploring Dawn of Iron rules. These are interesting. They do have an IGOUGO type of turn resolution but that can easily be changed out. I am looking to try out their Hampton Roads game a few times before I go off on my own for some games.
As this is pretty much a new project, I need miniatures. I settled on 1/600th scale minis that I have purchased on Wargaming3d. They have miniature packs that match with the scenario books produced by Dawn of Iron wich is very convienient. The set I bought was for the Hampton Roads supplement and contained 8 ships (both based and unbased versions) and a shore battery for $20. The CSS Virginia and the USS Monitor would work with a filament printer but the others would benefit from a resin printer. The Dawn of Iron has a print and play set that gives you some flat paper minis that you can use. That will likely be the first attempt as I am waiting on my 3d printer to be fixed.
I also found some splash markers on Wargaming3d! I have wanted some of these for naval games. The one I found was free. It was a circle with three splashes on it. I pulled it into TinkerCad and make three separate markers out of it. I mainly intend to use this for Coastal Patrol but I can see using it with this as well.
The company behind Dawn of Iron is Scary Biscuits Studios. They have some fantastic tutorials on their website to really spruce up your naval games. I plan on using some of these in my games in the future. The Water Hazards tutorial looks really interesting. Their method of making woods from 3d printing sprues is just perfect. These would be great for To Covet Glory or Coastal Patrol. Being close to shore makes for more interesting games.
On the painting table is currently trees. Many, many trees. I also want to make some stands of undergrowth. I have bought some plants from Game Craft Miniatures that look pretty good. I am basing these on old large FOW bases. I hope to get some work in on them and move on to my To Covet Glory ships. I need to finish the Galleys for the War of Jenkin's Ear supplement. That should get me close to having everything needed to finish the book.