New ACW ships on the blog

[Brian Weathersby]

A request from a reader made me realize that I was very far behind when it came to photographing my painted Civil War ships. That problem has now been rectified! Please drop by and take a look. One thing to note: They are not on the main page; instead, they are on the page entitled “American Civil War ships”

https://mymodelsailingships.blogspot.com/p/american-civil-war-ships.html

BWW

I'm lucky to be here
With someone I like
Who maketh my spirit to shine
--Warren Zevon

[Deleted User]

Excellent, Brian. I love the “Heath Robinson” look of your ironclads. It would be nice to have a series of linked battles featuring first the military & then the naval side of the ACW, I think. …..another one for the backburner.

 

donald

[Brian Weathersby]

Thanks Donald.  I must admit that I had to look up “Heath Robinson,” only to discover that he was the equivalent of our Rube Goldberg here in the US.  Consequently, I can’t take credit for their appearances; must credit the original designers instead!

There’s a good set of Mississippi River campaign rules called Anaconda on Wargame Vault.  The author has written other campaign rules as well, covering the eastern coast and Red River campaigns.  I think there are land rules, but if so they are very basic.

I'm lucky to be here
With someone I like
Who maketh my spirit to shine
--Warren Zevon

[Steve Johnson]

Very nice work and perfect timing as my Gridded Naval Wargames books should land anytime soon.

[Deleted User]

Brian Weathersby wrote:

Thanks Donald. I must admit that I had to look up “Heath Robinson,” only to discover that he was the equivalent of our Rube Goldberg here in the US. Consequently, I can’t take credit for their appearances; must credit the original designers instead! .

I did mean that: otherwise my remarks sound insulting. The opposite of what I meant, I can assure you!

There is always something appealing about early marques. The first motor cars. WW1 tanks. The first ironclads. As my little group has just begun the ACW period (there’s a recent battle report here), & two of them are fanatical about the period, I won’t rule out being dragged into a campaign, also involving boats. I promise not to protest too vehemently.

 

donald

[Autodidact-O-Saurus]

“exact color schemes for these ships can be debated all day”

Ain’t that the truth! Many years ago, on my honeymoon actually, we travelled through Vicksburg MI. My wife still says, “We have more photographs of THAT DAMN BOAT on our honeymoon that we have of us!” (The USS Cairo.) In Vicksburg there was a little store-front museum focused on the river vessels. There was a listing of the colors used when painting stack bands on the Eads boats on the Mississippi. I jotted them down and treasured that information for years. Now, of course, with the Interweb all that stuff is easy to find–though no more historically accurate. But at the time, oh, I was thrilled!

Self taught, persistently behind the times, never up to date. AKA ~ jeff
More verbosity: http://petiteguerre.blogspot.com/

[Brian Weathersby]

Steve,

Gridded naval wargames book?  Interesting, go on. . . .

Donald,

In no way would I take it as an insult; indeed, I know exactly what you mean.  I’m always amazed at the engineers who went, “Ya know, if we take a riverboat, and bolt this to it, and then some of this (oh, and more of that first thing), and add some guns, I think we can make a warship out of all these bits and pieces.”  I called them “grubby little boats” in an early blog post, but that’s just my sailing ship bias slipping though.

Jeff,

Oh, heavens yes!  In some ways, I think the Internet has made this hobby a bit harder than in the past.  There is now so much information out there that, if you’re not careful, you can wind up with ‘analysis paralysis.’  If I just look a little more, I can find that ONE SOURCE online that will confirm <fill in the blank> once and for all.  Back in the day, you finally just picked a source and went with it.  The Eads boats are a perfect example; the only thing everyone seems to agree on are the colors of those stack bands.  For the rest, I’ve got 3 or 4 different sources that all differ about what colors  the ships themselves were painted.

I'm lucky to be here
With someone I like
Who maketh my spirit to shine
--Warren Zevon

[Deleted User]

Brian Weathersby wrote:

. I’m always amazed at the engineers who went, “Ya know, if we take a riverboat, and bolt this to it, and then some of this (oh, and more of that first thing), and add some guns, I think we can make a warship out of all these bits and pieces.” I called them “grubby little boats” in an early blog post, but that’s just my sailing ship bias slipping though.

I’ve always been amazed how they found crews for them. The Union, in particular, are churning out these innovative craft by the dozen and they must have been temperamental beasts as well as unwieldy in riverine environments. And yet they could find sailors &, more importantly, captains & engineers who could manage them. The Yankees certainly were (still are, I’d imagine) an innovative people.

I think thanks to hobbyists like you, it is inevitable I’ll take up naval war gaming some time. My preference lies towards AoS, too but the building & storage problems of sailing ships mean I’ll probably go the ACW or, more likely, something like Cruel Seas & WW2 small craft.

 

donald

[Steve Johnson]

@ Brian. See link below for Bob Cordery’s book:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Gridded-Naval-Wargames-Bob-Cordery/dp/0244388547

[Volunteer]

Very nice Brian! You make them look good.

"Research is what I’m doing when I don’t know what I’m doing"
Wernher von Braun

[Brian Weathersby]

donald,

Yes, calling them temperamental is putting it mildly!  I was doing some looking around online due to this conversation, and found an interesting statistic.  Between 1816 and 1852, there were 7,000 deaths on steamboats in the US.  About 1/2 of those were due to boiler explosions. So, 3,500 deaths in about 36 years, roughly 1 every three days or thereabouts.  Apparently the steamboat industry was the first one that Congress passed safety regulations on.

Steve,

Thanks, and I will have to take a look at that.  I don’t normally like gridded games, but it never hurts to look, right?

Vol,

Apparently the secret to making them look good is to make them look rusty, dirty and crappy!  Hopefully I’ll be using them sometime soon.  So many projects, so few gaming opportunities….

I'm lucky to be here
With someone I like
Who maketh my spirit to shine
--Warren Zevon

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