Back in Business

Well, back at RMC following a long summer out on the west coast training. Once things settle into rhythm here, I'll be returning to work on the Connie. The rest of the ships are currently in the Wargames Room, which has been locked for a month in light of construction and other politics. Once that blockade is cleared, I'll be finishing the rigging on the Napoleonics, and working on some of the spaceships, as well!

1:1200 Update

Earlier this week I effectively finished the standing rigging on the British ships. I still have the Bellona and the French ships to do, but I've figured out a pretty good process to streamline the rigging, so I think I'll be able to get it all done in a couple hours of work... which no doubt I'll accomplish once the excess of essays is out of the way for the semester.

No progress with the Constitution, either, as I've been inundated with work for school. On the plus side, I've picked up some gold leaf and copper leaf for the detailing and hull respectively. I've never played around with those before, so it'll be an interesting experience. Pictures will be forthcoming once progress is made.

1:1200 Napoleonic-era Ships

Here are the Napoleonics to date

The two completed fleets. Standing rigging already applied to the HMS Speedy (18 guns).

L'Achille (74 guns) with completed base, but no label.

All told, the fleet is thus far comprised of the following:

British

 HMS Bellona (74)

HMS Cleopatra (32)

HMS Speedy (18)

HMS Raccoon (18)

French

L'Achille (74)

La Vengeance (40)

L'Acheron (20)

La Loupe (20)

Despite the numerical superiority of their guns, gameplay tests to date have seemed fairly balanced. I'm still working on tweaking the stats (using the Victory at Sea - General Chase ruleset). A few more games (hopefully soon!) will sort that out, I trust.

Projects to Date

So, after much contemplation, I've decided to post a blog. Following the trend of my colleague Mike Hoyt (A Mere Matter of Painting), I'm going to be posting my projects and games for those of you who can't be here to view them in-person.

To date, the following naval projects are on the table/completed:

1. 1:1200-scale Napoleonic fleets (British and French, with merchant vessels)
{This project is effectively done, save for some detailing and whatnot. The two fleets are painted, based, and battle-ready, but the merchant vessels still need to be done. I also intend to eventually fix standing rigging to all of the ships, to add a bit more detail.}

2.1:96 USS Constitution
{This will be the main subject of my blogs for the next little bit, as I work on actually getting the Connie up and looking like a half-decent model.}

I'm anticipating some more projects to come around in the future, albeit a couple non-naval ones (6mm Napoleonic land war, for example, and spaceships).