Singling Book - ACW Book

Playtesting is progressing. I have started the wrapping up of the images for the game. I have a few more playtests to go. Too many things going on to be able to finish this out lately. I hope to have this ready for release by month's end. I am very close.

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.

This is 3 prints of the USS Commodore Perry to represent the Commodore Perry, Hunchback and Morse. Then two prints of the CSS Jeff M Thompson to stand in for the USS Commodore Barney and USS Shawsheen. Then a print of the USS Harriet Lane and a print of the CSS Tuscarora (to stand in for the CSS Seabird).

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

Search for Models - 1/600 ACW Naval

I am looking for suitable models for several ships for my ACW naval supplement. I have 9 vessels that I have not found a suitable stand in model for or an actual model for. I have reached out to two manufacturers of STLs for the period and am waiting to hear back. HEre is what I am missing:

Ship Name	Dimensions	Notes
USS Ceres	108'4"x22'4"	Sidewheeler
USS General Putnam	103'x22'	former tug
USS Henry Brinker	82'x26'7"	screw steamer
USS Isaac N Seymour	100'x19'8"	sidewheel tug
USS John Lockwood	114'x24'	sidewheeler
USS Philadelphia	200'x30'	sidewheeler
USS Southfield	200'x34'	double ended sidewheeler
USS Stars and Stripes	124'3"x34'6"	screw steamer
USS Underwriter	170'x23'7"	sidewheeler

I am currently having some models printed that I own but have not been able to print. The Jamestown is one I had not only printed but had fully painted. Then I dropped it and it shattered. I also am having a Wabash done (upscaled USS Minnessota) and a model of the Forrest. I have the models to play most of the scenarios that I have written. Some of the larger ones are missing a few ships that I outlined above. I hope to start playtesting these soon.

North Carolina Sounds - 1862 - Dawn of Iron Scenarios

I have done some more work on the my Mosquito Fleet book. I think I have all of the scenarios fleshed out. There are at least seven scenarios in the book. With the help of the rules author, I have managed to get ship stats on most of the vessels. I have finished with all of the maps. I still haven't found suitable models for all of the ships that are in the scenarios. I have narrowed them down a bit recently. I have reached the point where I can start playtesting the scenarios that I have for them.

I am really looking forward to trying these out. I may change the activation for my games to be card driven similar to Kiss Me Hardy with each ship having a move and fire card. Then use the rest of the Dawn of Iron rules as is.

Union Fleet off North Carolina 1861 to 1862

I did the Confederate fleet (NC Mosquito Fleet) already. I started on the Union as well. I have the fleet divided into three sections. The first is before the Burnside Expedition through 1861. Mostly they are vessels featured in actions. The second is the vessels participating on the Battle of Hatteras Inlet batteries. Then the next section covers the battles of Roanoke Island and Elizabeth City in 1862. A number of these vessels were also part of the Battle of Hampton Roads.

1861

Ship Name	Image	Model	Notes
USS Perry		Saturnalia Studios Brig	Sail Brig.
CSS Savannah		Hagen miniatures schooner	Sail Schooner
USS Albatross		ECIC	Custom miniature
USS Fanny		ECIC Tug boat	Same as the CSS Fanny. Captured Union ship.

Hatteras Inlet Batteries

Ship Name	Image	Model	Notes
Monticello
Harriet Lane		LFG Harriet Lane
Wabash			Use the Minnesota upscaled to 115%.
Minnesota		ECIC Minnesota
Susquehanna
Cumberland		ECIC Cumberland
Pawnee

This is still a work in progress. I will still need to update this as I go and will revisit this. I am interested in seeing if I can make this a combined arms game and include the infantry landings.

Battles of Roanoke Island and Elizabeth City

Ship Name	Image	Model	Notes
US Army Gunboats
Pickett			Smallest ship in the fleet. Flagship of Burnside's Expedition.
Vidette
Hussar
Lancer
Ranger
Chasseur
Pioneer
Sentinel
Zouave
US Navy Fleet
Philadelphia			Flagship
Southfield
Delaware *
Stars and Stripes
Louisiana *
Hetzel *
Underwriter *
Commodore Perry *		LFG Commodore Perry
Hunchback
Morse *
Valley City *
Commodore Barney
Whitehead *
John L Lockwood *
Henry Brinker *
Isaac N Seymour *
Ceres *
General Putnam
Shawsheen *
Granite

* - Vessels in the fleet for Battle of Elizabeth City.

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.

Painting Time

I managed to get some time to paint. I am working on the Galleys and Galliot I need for the War of Jenkin's Ear supplement. I have completed a hull for one of the Galleys and am currently fitting it with Yards. I am following the modeling instructions that I will be including in the WOJE appendix. The hulls are the ones that I have on the PayHip site. I believe that I will ignore the sails for now. But I may address that at somepoint later. I completed another Galley earlier. I left the masts bare and didn't inclue yards.

I have a base coat on the deck of five of the Galliots. I am struggling on what to paint the hulls. I have gone with a brown for the moment. I may paint some black. I have also thought about doing the upper portion of at least one in white. I haven't seen any historical description of what the various rowed vessels of the Spanish fleet looked like. Oglethorpe barely mentions the type let alone any more detailed information. Other sources are equally unclear, including the Spanish ones that I have found.

I have also begun the repiar work on a Brig that dropped during transfer. So far I have repaired the sails on the main and mizzen mast. I still have the bowspirit and the jib sails to repair. I am gluing one part per day and leaving it clamped together for a day for the glue to dry. I should have it finished in two more days.

Lastly for WOJE, I found some more piragua prints. This should get me to the numbers that I need. They still lack sails and masts. I may just finish these with bare masts. The 3d printed ones look so much better than my original paper attempts using thick cardstock. I will use the card ones as I am sure not all of the piraguas were uniformly built nor particularly handsome vessels.

This should put me in good shape to finish out the playtesting of the rest of the naval battles. I'll take some more pictures when I have them sorted out.

I also managed to sneak some of my 1/600 scale ACW prints into the painting queue. These are all models from Wargaming3d made by East Coast Iron Clads. They have an excellent line of files. A friend at work printed them for me in resin. While he only used Draft details, they came out well.

I started with the tugs and gunboats for the Battle of Hampton Roads. These small ships each are interesting in their own right. I think they would make for a great game just using them. I have them with their cards needed for the Dawn of Iron rules above. The generic tug set includes 3 diffferent tug models. The Teaser is my favorite as it has the lifeboat modeled on it. I may pick up some prints from Shapeways as they have a few small boats on their site as does Peter Pig in their range just to have more variety. I have worked on moding a few designs in Tinkercad to try and make some additional models as well. But nothing this small yet.

I also have prints of the USS Monitor and CSS Virginia. The Monitor did get a coat of paint. But there really isn't much there to paint for it. The first two prints that I had of the Virginia were not what I was looking for as they had a large base around the model. I did get a replacement without a base yesterday that will makes it way there soonish. The Virginia will need a bit more details than the Monitor did.

Naval Games

I am relooking at To Covet Glory again. It is a fun game and I have really enjoyed playing it. But I have wanted to play an ACW naval game. The issue is, I know nothing about the naval war during the ACW except the small things taught in High School history class.

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.