The Fleet Is Launched!

After much delay and faffing, the first ships of the Raglan Fleet take to the skies! These are the latest shots of their flight trials;

The Exeter and Rawalpindi class cruisers

The Exeter, the current flagship of the Raglan Fleet.

The Exeter again.

The Rawalpindi, companion to the Exeter.

The Rawalpindi coloured by the morning light.

The ships are based on Litko Aero bases, which I discovered after seeing them mentioned on a modelling forum. They are incredibly reasonably priced, and the customer service I received was again of the highest standard. The bases are their standard 1.5″ hexagons (flat to flat) and the pegs the cruisers are sat on are the standard 1.5″ high ones from the pack of 25. I also purchased some 2″ and 3″ pegs for other classes of ship, for two reasons. One is that altitude plays no part in Aeronef, so the height a model sits above the table doesn’t matter in terms of game play, but, and this is the second reason, some variation in basing height does add visual interest to a game or a display.

The ensigns are those supplied with the British vs French Starter Kit, and rather than fold them round the masts I opted to drive myself potty and attach them to thread instead! I think it works though. The models were all washed with Magic Wash as detailed here on the Brigade site, and then given a coat of GW Purity Seal varnish, with a satin finish. I have yet to add nameplates, indicator pegs or smoke plumes, but rest assured I will post pictures when I do! Now, on with the fleet so far;

A brace of Arethusa destroyers.

The destroyers again.

The fleet assembled.

An overhead shot of the fleet trials.

Tremble at the might of the RNAS, all ye who would defy the Empire!

 

Employment Assured At The Raglan Yards

Despite the current economic climate, the Raglan Shipyards continue to be busy, taking orders from all nations as they outdo even Harland & Wolfe for productivity! With a brace of Arethusa class destroyers reaching their final stages, the yard has moved up the scale to cruisers. First, an Exeter class in its undercoat;

This is my favourite RNAS vessel at the moment, this model just looks like a warship! Also undergoing fitting out is a Rawalpindi class Colonial cruiser;

Another fine model from the boys at Brigade, this to me captures the feel of a Colonial cruiser, ready to sweep pirates from the skies above the Yellow Sea, or apply a bit of gunboat diplomacy to an errant Rajah! These two vessels both come in the British vs. French Starter Kit.

In other news, the yard has just received delivery of the hulls for another Rawalpindi and a third Arethusa, and in a fine display of economic neutrality, an order from the L’Armee de L’Aeronef for a mighty Charlemagne battlecruiser has also been accepted. The workers can now look forward to a busy time running up to the holiday season (if they get one!) and beyond!

 

A Progress Report

For those of you who have been waiting to see how the painting is going, a progress report;

The first Arethusa is almost done, with the second close behind!

The fixed focal length on my point-and-shoot does not make it the best for these shots, but hopefully you can see enough detail – and not too many of the mistakes!

The colour scheme used is one favoured by most if not all Aeronef players, and is a very close approximation to the historical colour scheme used by the Royal Navy during Victorian times. Brigade Models give a handy list of national colour schemes on their web site here. The decks are Citadel Vomit Brown (gotta love the names GW gives to its paints!), with the masts and funnels done in Iyanden Darksun from the Citadel Foundation range. Turrets and super-structure are basic Skull White, with a dab of Bolt Gun Metal on the ends of the barrels. The Royal Navy of the day were unique amonst nations in having coloured gun barrels as opposed to bare metal, something to do with Imperial arrogance and wanting ships to look review standard at all times! Another useful article on the colour scheme can be found here.

The tail flashes are Ultramarine Blue -  Skull White – Blood Red, after the early Royal Air Force, again something adopted by a lot of Aeroneffers. The windows have been painted as per this very useful article on the Brigade Models site. All that remains to be done now is a wash – I will try this technique, again from the chaps at Brigade – and a protective coat of matt varnish, then the addition of an ensign, possibly rigging and maybe even smoke from the stacks! Then they can be based and brought into action on the gaming table!

One has to be very circumspect about perfection when painting models at this scale. You can end up going round in circles trying to cover every mistake! Close up shots will show every flaw, and I am not going to win any awards with these, but they look very nice from 3 or 4 feet away, which is the desired result, and for a first attempt I am very pleased with these as gaming pieces. More shots to follow as I move through the RNAS!

 

The Fleets Expand

As I mentioned in my last post, my British vs French Starter Kit arrived a couple of days ago, and as promised there follow some snaps of the contents. I cannot wait to get on to painting these beauties!

First sighting of the new vessels!

The dice and the cd copy of the rules.

Very nicely produced, you get a disc containing the basic Aeronef rules set, and a disc holding data sheets for the majority of vessels in the world, not just the two nations in the Starter Kit. I had already purchased the download version of both the rules and the Captains Handbook from Wargames Vault, but it is always nice to have a hard copy back up. Hats off to whoever did the work on the data sheets too, they are very well put together. Just in case you don’t have Adobe Acrobat Reader – the files on the discs are in .pdf format -  a copy is included on the cds as well. Nothing is left out in this set, another example of perfect service. You also get plenty of flying stands too.

Ensigns for the fleets. Adhesive backed, these flags can be put on the masts of your vessels to show their nationality, I think I will try using thin wire or thread to mount mine.

The fleets themselves. You get 8 vessels for each side – here the L’Armee de l’Aeronef on the left, RNAS on the right – consisting of two cruisers each, and 3 each of two escort marques per nation. The quality of casting and lack of flash is as superb as with my previous purchase. I shall post more photos of the individual ships here as I work through painting them, but I hope this little taster has maybe inspired you to put an Aeronef Starter Kit on your Christmas list!

 

How Lucky Am I!

With my working hours and the general business of running a household, my painting time is restricted mainly to weekends, so there will be a small hiatus for a few days as regards progress on that front. However I must draw your attention to the awesome new header my wife has made for this blog! Created in Photoshop using royalty free textures and images, I think she has captured perfectly the moments before battle, as two fleets draw up their lines under a brooding sky. Challenges will be issued between individual captains, and much speechifying taking place as the admirals whip their crews into a frenzy of moral certitude in their respective causes! I am just so happy to have such a talented and supportive lady in my life!

Another reason for delay in painting my existing vessels is the arrival of my British vs French Starter Pack from Brigade Models! Another gift from my beloved! Pictures and a description of the contents will follow, but take it from me this is an awesome set, containing both the rules and plenty of ships to start your own campaign of aerial combat in a more elegant age that never was!

 

Initial Stages

Generally speaking, all models need an undercoat to enable the succeeding layers of paint to key to, and for this I use a spray can of Citadel Colour Skull White. A light layer is all that is needed, you dont want to fill in any fine detail! This key coat will also make said fine detail more visible, as in this shot of an Arethusa;

It will also show up any areas that you missed during the preparation! Even at this early stage, the models start to look less like lumps of metal and more like aerial warships in miniature. That is the joy of painting, watching a minature take on an identity, as its form is slowly revealed through the successive stages.

After undercoating, the next stage is to paint the hulls black, one of the larger areas of colour to go on. Again I use acrylic paint from the Citadel Colour range, this time Chaos Black, applied with a Citadel Standard brush. This is not a large brush at all, but will be the largest I use on these miniatures!

Now these models are really starting to take shape! Again, apologies for the quality of the photos, I am learning about the art of shooting miniatures as I go along, and also trying to find areas of the room where I won’t be revealing too much domestic mess! It is almost inevitable that you will make the odd mistake at this stage of the painting process, but any blobs in the wrong place can be dealt with when applying the next layer. As well to bear in mind also that acrylic paint contracts as it dries, so you may need to touch up areas here and there. One thing I try to bear in mind is the scale of these vessels, at 1/1200 there is not much detail that will be visible from any distance greater than about 12″, and considering the average view of a gaming table is from some 4 feet overhead, one shouldn’t lose too much sleep if perfection isn’t achieved! That said, everyone has their own comfort levels regarding quality of finish, so as long as you are happy with how they come out, that is all that matters. Painting miniatures is a very relaxing activity, and time spent is always rewarded.

With the hulls blacked, the colour schemes of the two nations diverge, so I will cover them in turn, starting with the gallant ships of the Royal Naval Aeronef Service.

 

Laying Down The Keels

Before painting, even the best quality castings will need a little tidying up. Mould seams may have to be filed away, and flash clipped from extremities. A selection of tools used in the Raglan Shipyards;

I like to drill out the funnels with a 1mm bit, it’s not exactly necessary on models of this scale but adding superfluous detail is one way I feel I am making up for not being the best of painters:) The larger drill – a 3mm bit – is for making the holes to accept the plastic rod I use to hold the models when painting, and also the pegs of the flying bases. Brigade Models do sell their own flying stands – and supply them with the Starter Kits – but I have found some others I shall be using. 3mm is quite a diameter of hole to drill into hulls of this scale, for the smaller gun boats I may end up using peg toppers instead. I always try to drill the holes in the bases before I attach the superstructure, less chance of bending and snapping delicate masts and aerials that way!

The British ships have a much shallower profile than the French, so extra care must be taken when drilling into the base. The models are tacked onto the rods with the merest hint of superglue, enough to stop them falling off but not so much as the rod is impossible to remove! And so on to the paint shop!

 

The First Vessels Are Commisioned

In order to play a game of Aeronef, you need to have model vessels representing at least two opposing forces. For my first fleets I have decided on the British and the French. This fits in nicely with the alternate history time line contained in the Aeronef rule set, and what red-blooded Englishman doesn’t see the appeal in giving those damned Frenchies a good thrashing? I therefore placed a small order with Brigade Models, a UK company consisting of 3 chaps who cast superlative 1/1200 scale aeronefs in their spare time. So far I have had dealings with Steve and Tony, and can only say good things about them – I am sure Phil is also a superb fellow! For a company run out of a shed once a week, their customer service knocks any others into a cocked hat, and their models are of an incredibly high quality, both in terms of detail and the lack of flash.

I ordered 4 vessels, two destroyers of the Arethusa class for the forces of Empire, and one each of the  Formidabile and Regnault marques for the Armee de L’Aeronef. The hulls were delivered to the Raglan Shipyards a few days ago. A tip when ordering from Brigade Models – place your order toward the end of a week, as they meet on Monday evenings to assemble and despatch orders, and to cast up any stock that may be needed. Smaller orders are likely to be turned around quickly, but you will have to wait no more than a week or two should they be out of stock of anything. The Paypal shopping cart is a breeze to use, and will let you know when your order is despatched too.

First sight!

The contents arrayed.

The Formidable.

The Regnault.

An Arethusa.

I apologise for the quality of these shots, but even so one can see the quality of these castings. The flash is minimal, and the detail such as deck planking and  windows is readily apparent. Little to do in the way of assembly too, no bad thing when you have all the dexterity of a plate of sausages! This little boy was very happy indeed, and set about preparing the vessels for painting.

 

Cry Havoc, And Let Slip The Blogs Of War!

Greetings, fellow bloodletters! Welcome to my humble gaming blog. It will serve as somewhere to recount my experiences of the game of Aeronef, a miniature wargame of aerial combat set in an alternate 19th century. I hope to cover both the gaming and collecting side of this, my latest foray into white metal mayhem.

I have been “playing with toy soldiers”  now for some 30 years, which I guess means I am beyond hope of redemption! I have led my forces to both victory and defeat across a variety of worlds and time periods, from historical to dark age fantasy to far flung dystopian future. I have enjoyed fighting using different media too, from actual miniatures to boardgames to online GUIs, both real time and pbem. In short I am an incorrigible warmonger!

Before anyone out there bursts something in a fit of outraged apoplexy, I must stress that I find real war to be one of the saddest of all human failings, and do not seek to glamorise it at all. I shall keep my own personal opinions and thoughts on its efficacy out of these pages. However, wargaming is an absorbing – some would say obsessive – hobby, something I find great fun to indulge in, and I enjoy adopting a “gaming persona” as a way of adding to that fun. That persona is known as Bludengutz, and he is a somewhat bombastic individual in the style of the Late Victorian period, who thinks little of sending his troops to their deaths – in vast numbers if need be – in order to secure another victory. He is not always successful in the latter, but eminently accomplished at the former! He is best summed up in this quote from Marshal Ferdinand Foch at the First Battle of the Marne;

“Hard pressed on my right. My centre is yielding. Impossible to manoeuvre. Situation excellent. I attack!”

There may be times therefore when the language used here does not sit well with modern sensibilities regarding the sphere of human conflict, I will apologise now for any offence I may cause, and ask you to remember this is just escapism, a game played for relaxation in a fantasy setting.

I have decided on this particular game and milieu because it is fantastical, and allows a great deal of latitude when it comes to the background for a battle, and to the forces used. Ever since I read The Warlord Of The Air by Michael Moorcock, at the age of 12, and its companion volumes The Land Leviathan and The Steel Tsar, I have sought a playable game of airship combat, and have at last found it in Aeronef, from Wessex Games. The rules are simple to take in, open to expansion (indeed this is encouraged by the authors) and make for a fast and enjoyable game. The models are inexpensive, certainly in comparison with other manufacturers of miniatures, and you don’t need hundreds of them in order to field an effective fighting force. The game also lends itself well to solo play, which is my main way of gaming, as adult opponents can be hard to find, and as a 40 year old male I am very aware of the modern paranoia about paedophiles. Hanging around branches of Games Workshop is not something I am keen to be seen doing at my age anyway! Though I do wholeheartedly recommend their range of paints and modelling accessories, I have been using them for a couple of decades now and have always been pleased with the quality of product and the results produced.

Please bear with me as this blog is still under construction, my wife (much more talented than I in the creation of graphics) is working on a more appropriate header, and the link lists are still rather empty. But enough of the jaw jaw! On with the war war, pictures to come in the next post!