Last Stand for Historicon!

Historicon is next week. The boatyard has had so many disruptions I am surprised I got this much done.  In fact, I am blogging you from Tokyo on business which again is delaying a lot of my production schedule.  Counting about 10 converted steam launches I should have  about 25 to 30 boats available along with rules, guns and shirts.  I return this weekend in time to finish off these last boats and possibly put a couple of kits together to take with me on Monday.  I always look forward to our conventions and as I get closer to retirement I will definitely attend more.  The next convention after this one is one of my favorites, Hurricon in September.  If I don't catch you in Lancaster, then hopefully in Orlando!

Here are few shots of the mess I have in my "Dan-cave."  At Historicon I am bringing a few 15mm boats that will go into production.  I will have three stern-wheel double deckers and a couple of large dhows.  I will add some single masted dhows once I get back.  I make the prototypes then have to draw them up so I can duplicate the builds. Fun stuff. 

I will also have close to a dozen of those steam launches ready. These are from Firelock games (https://www.firelockgames.com/) and with a few modifications make great launches for your landings.

Well, let me share a few pictures of what is on the table and what I have to finish this weekend. Time is not on my side, lol. 

Thanks for all of your support out there!  Dan

Big Boatyard mess!

Some 28mm Dhows getting some work done.  

28mm F Class boats getting their side paddle assemblies.

Moving them down the production line.

Just have to add the pilot house roof.

My intent is to have the boats ready to be put right into action
on your tables.  No assembly required and hopefully you enjoy the color schemes.
If not you can always change the paint job no problem.

Adding the roof structure.

I will be cutting a lot of sail this weekend!

These are the new 15mm R type gunboats.

Here are some 15mm guns for scale purposes.

Keeping in mind that everyone's bases are slightly different
I try to keep the deck plans open to make it easier.
"Boats made by a gamer for a gamer!"

The paddle assemblies being added and the hole for the stack will also be added

The large 28mm Dhows waiting on some sail cloth

Here is a good picture of the 28mm Dhows mixed in with the 15mm dhows.

Hmm, needs something. I thought the wire looked fine at first. 

Okay figured it out.  After some very precise drilling into the
end of a very small dowel this is what the tiller looks like.

Steam Launch (Firelock games long boats)
With those beautifully assembled and painted boilers from
my good friend Doug Wildfong here they are glued down. 
They are glued to a basswood insert that provides a level surface to place miniatures.
I did put together a couple of horizontally mounted boilers for a different look.
You can tightly load up 13 figures mounted on 7/8' bases on the vertical mounts. 
On the horiz. mounts you can place around 10 to 11 models.  

Redoubt Colonial Boat Model (Build)

Many moons ago I remember seeing this article with a couple of pictures of this very nice boat.  Another motivator to game the Sudan.  A few months ago a fellow Wargamer ask me to build this model for him, I said, "Sure no problem."  He sent it out to me and after a few weeks I finally got it started.  As you all know I work with wood for the most part, basswood to be specific.  First I didn't know it was this particular model so I was very excited to see it and dug out my old Wargamer magazine from 1993.  A lot of you will remember that battle report.  I tend to hold on to anything with  Colonial pictures on the cover.  That old magazine really help me during the build.  I think this model was released in 1985?

So I thought, okay Resin cast it should be easy.  Nope. The resin casting was not as sharp as I would have liked.  There was some warping at the stern wall, the upper deck detail was not cast too well, etc.  Small items like that but you can see the model is very beautiful overall.

So after sanding and cutting in various places, replacing the paddle assembly with my own version I think it came out pretty good and my my friend Jon will be pleased when he sees it at Historicon in a couple of weeks.

I didn't get a chance to annotate the pictures like I usually do.  Once I get back stateside I will work on the pictures showing the modifications and will re-post in case you are interested.

Enjoy the pictures.  As soon as I get home this weekend its time to pack and hit the road for Lancaster on Monday.

Come by and and say hello at my dealer table I am sharing with Bud's Blast Markers! (https://www.budsblastmarkers.com/)

Last Stand Dan
(https://www.laststanddan.com/)

Sorry for the scribble, asking Jon if he liked this color scheme.

Priming the resin

You will see in the pictures below.  I used a Yellow Oak color with some minwax stain.  

This Tension Wire (String) was to sit on top of these metal struts/beams.
I added eyelets in lieu of just gluing them to the struts.

You can see the rough casting on the edge of upper deck. 
I ended up covering this with wood trim shown below.

These vertical struts are very soft metal that protrude through the upper deck.
They have small holes in them to run a wire safety line through.
I replaced that wire with scale rope.

The model comes with a lot of sandbags and cotton bales.
Painted up a few for this model and glued them to upper deck.

That back wall at the paddle assembly was the toughest part of the model.
It was slightly warped so after a lot of sanding I got it as close as I could.
To cover a small gap at the connection to upper deck I used some wood to cover it.

Just a view of the bow.  Again very nice model. You get a good view of the upper deck trim piece.
I modeled it for pictures with a Pulp figures deck gun, Askari French Naval Gun crews and a Reviersco Gatling gun.

If you read the instructions (yes I did!) it mentions that the forward tension wire
actually went through the deck.  They don't tell you to do this but I went ahead
and drilled into the lower deck to glue the "wire" into the deck forward of that vertical strut.

It said to secure that "wire" to the paddle piston rod. I cleaned this up.
Made a smaller tighter bowline, turned the knot to the inside and glued in place.
You might also notice that I mounted a trim piece over that detail mentioned above.
I thought it made it look cleaner and also strengthened those 4 tension wire struts in place along the sides. 

If you look close upper deck aft at the safety line I had to add a wood strut.
There was nowhere to support the line after threading through the 4 vertical metal struts.
So just took some basswood, drilled a hole and glued in place. Worked out great.
I also replace the soft metal paddle assembly with an LSD version using stained basswood for the paddles
and modified plastic wagon wheels from Pegasus Hobbies.  

Gunboat & Dhow! (New Gunboat Rules)

Gunboat & Dhow! 

(1^st Edition)

Fast Play Rules for conducting River Combat (A TSATF Variant)

By Dan Gurule and Jeff Baumal

It has been a few years since we started modifying some rules that worked a little more smoothly with our favorite set of Colonial rules The Sword and The Flame by Larry Brom.  The main purpose of these rules was to keep them fast moving and play as close as possible to TSATF so that players picked them up quickly.  Another big influence was to retain the flavor of the period as much as we could keeping those basic principles in mind.  

This 1^st Edition of Gunboat & Dhow! (G&D!) will be followed by a booklet which will include scenarios with some new and advanced rules.  When we say advanced rules, we don’t mean more complex because we never want to bog down your games with too much detail.  There are  some very good rule sets out there that can give you a little more complexity to satisfy your own gaming styles.

The 1^st Edition has 22 pages which include rules, game play examples and a Quick Reference Sheet.  You will also see some familiar pictures from various battles. They are meant to cover river actions which would include units of Gunboats, Dhows and shore batteries or amphibious operations which include actions with both river and troop units. 

As an example of game play mechanics, as in normal TSATF when you fire you use d20’s to hit, then draw cards for casualties.  In G&D! it works the same way.  Depending on the gun you are firing you still use d20’s.  For damage, you still draw cards but in this case damage values are dealt out and face cards do various critical damage to your boat(s) or shore battery.  Gunfire on ground units is worked out using the normal TSATF charts and rules.

Boat Data Sheets are available digitally.  They provide everything you need to maneuver and fight your boat.  There are so many types of boats that including them in a hardcopy of the rules uses way too much paper.  Once purchased, you simply send an email to the Authors Dan or Jeff, and we will send them right out to you.  These boat sheets are pre-filled using boat data from the line of boats available from the Last Stand Boatyard.  These of course are provided in a format that you can modify to fit your own flotillas.  Plenty of Boat Data tables again based on these boats will provide you a baseline for your own boats. 

 They are available in hard copy or PDF.  Please take a look at LastStandDan.com for a copy.  

If you have any questions or comments please send them to Sgt. Guinness or myself.  If there is enough interest we will start a group to further enhance or explain any rules, a place to provide your After Acton Reports, Scenario ideas, etc. 

We hope you enjoy the rules and that they possibly help fill a gap in your current battles.  Thanks and Remember to “Always Send a Gunboat!”

Daniel Gurule (Last Stand Dan) Last Stand Boatyard dagurule@me.com Rules and Boat website: laststanddan.com Blog: http://laststanddan.blogspot.com/

Jeff Baumal (Sgt. Guinness) Last Stand Boatyard sgtguninness@yahoo.com Rules and Boat website: laststanddan.com Blog:  http://sgtguinness.blogspot.com/

Gunboat & Dhow! (G&D!) - Hurricon 2018

So here was the second battle I put on Saturday morning at Hurricon.  Another great time gaming.

Within this blog you will see us using a new gunboat rules set called Gunboat & Dhow! by Jeff Baumal and myself.  We have a few things we need to do to officially publish them and we are getting close to having that done.  I already have many requests for this basic 1st Edition.  There will be more to follow and we will announce as soon as we get what we need to get done. You might have already played earlier versions at Colonial Barracks, Recon, Hurricon, South Florida Gamers or at the Colorado Military Historian club.  So thank you so much for your interest and I think you will enjoy them.  This AAR has a few explanations on what is going on in the battle as it relates to the rules.  So bear with me.

Scenario Brief
This is of course a fictional battle that is related to the Ginnis battle I previously blogged.  The premise was that the dervish were trying to cut off or at least delay the British support of the Ginnis evacuation.  As you know the Mahdi has been dead many months before December 1885 and the British were going home.  They kept many strategic strong points along the Nile and the battle at Ginnis was part of the last of these strong points being vacated.  So I created this scenario for a very powerful British flotilla to fight its way up the Nile.

If you read my other scenarios I use the Egyptians as traitors, or just going with the Mahdist movement to provide the dervish forces a little more punch.  This gives them some trained gun crews, guns, captured boats of all types, etc. This makes the scenario's more interesting and not completely unreasonable if you have read about how messy things were during this period.

As we all know,  on the tabletop things don't always work out the way they "should" now do they?  Like that last battle of Ginnis we played.  So with that said this battle should work out for the British without too much trouble but things can always get out of hand!  Let's hope the British Captains know what they are doing.  Enjoy the battle.

Last Stand Dan

Note: All the boats used in this scenario can be found at laststanddan.com.  I wanted to mention that various guns, hatches, doors, fire markers, terrain and figures used in my scenarios come from: TVAG, Reviersco, Eureka, Perry, Old Glory, Bud's blast markers, Bills Gamers Garage and Askari.