USS Albatross - East Coast Iron Clads

I am working on some ACW naval scenarios that take place before the Battle of Hampton Roads. This includes several vessels that fought in Hampton Roads and focuses on the North Carolina coast. Once action was an interesting one between the USS Albatross and the CSS Beaufort. While not a conclusive fight, it took place on either side of one of the North Carolina barrier islands. Both vessels lobbed shells at one another across the island until breaking off contact.

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.

While looking for something similar, I reached out to East Coast Ironclads who sell on Wargeming3d. They replied back and sent me the STL file! I was so excited. I managed to get the file printed. I need to replace the FEP on the printer and had some issues. The masts that came with the vessel failed to print. I made some out of small dowels and added them to the vessel. I am not a very good painter but I really like how this came out.

The model makers for 3D printing ships have proved over and over to be very approachable and helpful. I can't thank East Coast Ironclads enough. This was quite a treat.

Two if by Sea has launched

I have released Two if by Sea on my PayHip store. Two if by Sea is a set of scenarios to be used with the TwoFatLardies rules Kiss Me Hardy using the changes for ships under the rate from To Covet Glory. The book contains ship stats for a large number of vessels from large Ship Sloops to the smallest cutters and Bermuda Sloops used by the Royal Navy and the American Continental Navy and State Navies (Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia).

The scenarios include twelve scenario sets. Each scenario set is one or more unique historical or fictional scenario from the American Revolution. The first scenario details the British Schooner Halifax in 1769 in an incident before the war started. The scenarios continue through July of 1781. There is also a guide on setting up convoy escorts or raids on the Atlantic, Caribbean, or Far East trade routes.

There are 59 pages of scenarios and 121 pages of ship lists. There is also a section noting the types of merchant vessels that were likely to be encountered on the waters of the Americas during the war. Lastly, there are notes on the available models in both 1/300 scale and 1/700th including links to the manufactures.

I will be releasing this on Wargame Vault as well and including it in the To Covet Glory bundle as well. I hope you will take a look.

New Product

I have uploaded some 1/700th flat boats to my PayHip store. https://payhip.com/b/c4jzL Flatboats were a common sight from the founding of the United States through the ACW. There are four variants. One is armed. Two have cargo loads and another has a tent. This represents many of the types that could be encountered from the South Carolina rivers in 1780 or along the Mississippi in 1862.

These were made to support a scenario for the Two if by Sea supplement for the AWI that I am getting ready to release. The scenario features the last vestiges of the Georgia State Navy coming across some loyalist shore batteries supported by an armed flat boat.

The other ones could be useful scatter terain in any naval game taking place close to the shore.

Finished! Well Mostly

The AWi Supplement is finally done. There are eleven battles, some with multiple scenarios, and a scenario generator for convoy raids across North American, Carribean and Far East Waters. Also included are 121 pages of ship stats for Ship sloops to cutters of the Royal Navy and the Continental and State Navies of the American Revolution. The book spans most of the war where small vessels made their presence known. The commerce raiding, attacks against Nova Scotia fisheries and privateers are represented within.

I am hoping to have a final review completed this week and publish it. I also included some notes on where to get some miniatures for the game. With the wide variety of 3D printed items available, the oportunities of some unique vessels for your table are nearly limitless.

Below is the current cover that I am working with. This still could change.

Progress At Last: ACW and AWI Naval

It was a good weekend for getting stuff done. I managed to paint a few ships for the ACW. I am only missing two vessels for the Battle of Hampton Roads. I need to print and paint the Jamestown for the Confederacy and the St Lawrence for the Union. As has been my norm lately, I had a painted version of the Jamestown and managed to completely smash it to bits by setting the cover of my 3d printer down on it accidentallty. Anyway, I did get a number of models painted up.

I still have to paint the shore batteries. I started on this task but the primer started coming off the models as I tried to paint them. I did something wrong with priming them. I will have to readdress this.

AWI Supplement

As to my To Covet Glory supplement, it made significant progress over the weekend. I was able to get in a number of games. I played with both 1/300th and 1/700th miniatures. They both worked well. There are eight more scenarios to work through. I am really happy with the progress that was made this weekend. If I can get any more time to work on it, I should be able to wrap it up in November. As soon as it is complete, I will be getting it uploaded to the PayHip site first and then to Wargame Vault. It will become part of the To Covet Glory bundle on both.